A Mishmash* of Stuff

I know, I know, all three of you have been waiting, pleading with the cosmos, checking daily for an update. I don't know how so much time has gone by.

First, here are the pumpkin carving pictures I promised a long time ago:
Scoopin' out the GUTS!

Dane designed the "face" himself.



Because Dane has shown little interest in potty-training, we decided to go ahead a buy a little potty chair (instead of the toilet seat thing that I preferred so I wouldn't have to wipe poo out of a container). He did really well with number one, but he simply would not do number two. He'd wait until we put on a diaper at night and then let loose. To be continued...

We've also had lots of snow:


Following one particularly enjoyable snow outing, Dane told us he needed to go potty:


Soon, it became apparent that he was not just going potty...

He pooped! Hooray!
Dane could finally take down the Henry engine that has been hanging in our bathroom as poop incentive for probably five months.

Then we celebrated at Chick-fil-A! What a big boy!
We've had very few problems since then. I realize that every kid is different, and that the fact that Dane is still an only child makes a difference, but I think being patient and just waiting until Dane was willing (even if he's a little older than average) made the process quite easy. Hooray for Dane!

We had a great Thanksgiving with my aunt and uncle/cousins, my grandpa, and Joel's mom. The food was delicious, the company was fun, and we almost had enough pies for every adult to have one all to themselves.
The next day, Joel's mom took us to Chick-fil-A again! It is our favorite place.

And, we saw Santa!

I was also really excited to discover that a grown up Ginny Weasley was eating lunch in the next booth:


The following day was Joel's birthday. If I were a better wife, I would have had some profound, hilarious tribute to him on the special day...but I'm not, so here's what I got:
He is so excited about this present (he asked for it, I promise)

Dane loved singing to Daddy and helping him open his presents.

Yes, Joel is wearing a tweed jacket with leather patches.
Mom also took us out to the Braza Grill, a Brazilian Churrascaria, which was a big treat. We ate a lot.

We were also able to get a Four Generations of Hoods picture:

It's not a totally direct line of four generations, since Becky had to sit in for my Dad, but it is nice nonetheless. We're glad we got to spend time with Grand Pa again; Dane hasn't seen him since he was 9 months old!



And just today, this very day, (see, now I'm all caught up), we converted Dane's crib into a toddler "big boy" bed. He is almost 39 months old. Again, not having another child who needs a crib allowed us to keep him in a bed from which he could not escape. But now that he's getting up at night to go to the bathroom, we decided it was time for him to gain some independence.

There are a lot of cuter bedding sets out there, but how could I pass up the opportunity to fill Dane with joy with the assurance of sleeping with his best toy buds every night?


He has already noiselessly come out, used the bathroom, and returned to bed once tonight.
'sigh' He is so grown up.

Finally, I want to give you even more evidence of how cute Dane is:
I was practicing my violin, and Dane figured out how he could practice violin, too.

That is a ukulele and a tube for extra violin strings. Heehee.

*There is a family in our ward named Mismash. Also, a family named Bollwinkel.

Halloween 2010!

Happy Halloween!!

We had many Halloween festivities this year, starting off with our ward Trunk-or-Treat.
Dane appeared as Dashiell Parr, a.k.a. Dash Incredible! He was a little camera shy:

Observe the treat bag I made last year but had no success selling on my Etsy shop.
Anyway.
With the help of Mr. Incredible, Dash made it to the church parking lot, where they showed off their muscles and speed:


Along with getting a bunch of candy, we saw Buzz and Jessie, angels and demons, Harry Potter (whom I coerced into saying "expecto patronum!"), a garden gnome (minus hat) and toadstool, and Mario and Luigi.



If Mario and Luigi's costumes look familiar, it's because they borrowed our costumes from two years ago.
Things were going along just swimmingly until Mr. Incredible's arch nemesis, Superman, showed up. The parking lot wasn't big enough for the both of them and frightened townsfolk looked on as they duelled.


I can't remember who won. It depends on the criteria you use.

Anyway, then we tried to pose for a family shot, but Dash wanted a donut more than he wanted to pose:

On our way home, Edna Mode (the creator of the super suits) decided she wanted a box from a dumpster, and Mr. Incredible was happy to oblige.

Dash looked on anxiously.

Here, he shows off how he's chewing--but NOT swallowing--his gum. And you can see how it was hard for Edna to design and create his mask while the little superhero had the hiccups.

Mr. Incredible successfully obtained the box, and father and son walked home after a successful afternoon of crimefighting, candy getting, and do-gooding.


Then we took a nap.

Then, it was off to the Fourth Annual Frost/Parker Halloween Extravaganza!
Mr. Incredible humored us with a display of his focus-jarring strength and flair for footwear:


The trick-or-treating lasted all of five minutes because it was freezing outside. I can't adequately describe the bone-chilling frigidity we experienced. But Dash teamed up with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia for the few minutes they (read: the parents) could stand it.



We went back to Yoda and Han Solo's house (who knew they lived together?) for a family picture:

And the whole, happy crew (minus Megan, who took the picture and insisted she didn't want a photograph):

Thanks, Yoda and Han, for hosting us for yet another amazing Halloween night!

On actual Halloween, Dane's nursery leader complained that not a single nursery child came to her house to trick or treat. So Dash donned his super suit again (minus the mask and one boot that we could not find) and went over to make her happy.

So that's it. Another successful Halloween. I have some pumpkin carving pictures I'll post here in the near future.

I was going for spooky in that first family picture, but here's a color version for the full effect:

The Incredibles!
(cue music)

Fallishness

To start things off, I'd like to submit a query out to the universe (you).
On Sunday, I have a meeting before church, so I usually leave before Joel or Dane are dressed, so Joel takes responsibility for all that. I typically lay out an outfit for Dane before I go, but I obviously trust Joel to dress himself.
This Sunday, when Joel walked into church, I could not keep from laughing at him. He could not understand why.
I insisted his outfit was terrible. He insisted he took great pains to coordinate.
We could not agree. I maintain that he did not coordinate. Joel maintains he did.
So. I leave it to you. Does his outfit work or not?
Make sure you consider jacket, tie, pants, belt, and shoes. It's hard to tell in the photo, but his pants have pinstripes, too.

He'll probably kill me for posting this, but just to drive home his disapproval of my disapproval, he farted right when I took that second photo. Nice.
But I do think I have a handsome husband, regardless of his inability to dress himself.
Anyway, then Dane wanted in on the action. He posed himself:

Isn't he handsome, too? He is looking so big and grown up.

On to fall:
Dane was invited to a Halloween party, and they made these foam jack-o-lanterns. They were given pieces and then were able to get creative on the faces.
This is how a typical, prosaic person might have made theirs:

This is how Dane made his:

He said, "It's Daddy!"
Note the eyebrows.
Hilarious.

Traditions:
We have a fall tradition of going to a farmer's market or orchard between sessions of October conference. This year, we bought peaches and apples from a farm with George and Melanee.
These are the apples:

Which turned into over 12 pints of applesauce. And our peaches became a pie and three pints of peach butter.

They are delicious and exciting to have in our pantry.
For those of you who are in the know, that on the left is a 1.8 liter bottle of Bulldog sauce. I already know you are jealous. For those of you who are not in the know, you should still be jealous.

Another fall tradition is to go down to Provo for BYU Homecoming!
No, we don't go to the game (come on, you should know me better than that), we go and get the alumni 2 for 1 lunch at the Cannon Center!!
Dane enjoyed green Jell-O and BYU Creamery chocolate milk, Utah Mormon staples.

I, of course, needed chocolate milk, too.

And Joel and Dane finished things off with rice krispie treats.

It was a good day. The Cannon Center was remodeled a couple of years ago, and it looks quite nice. Freshmen are looking younger and younger these days, by the way.

Birthday Videos

Here are a whole bunch of videos (12, to be exact) of Dane's birthday. This is probably not interesting to most of you, but I'm posting it so the grandparents and other faraway family members can see the joy they brought to Dane on his special day.

Birthday Good Morning:


Making eggs and toast in the new kitchen:

Opening the dishes (from Rika):

Discovering felt food:

Opening the bouncy ball (from Grandma):


Opening the baking set (from Rika):


Unwrapping new cell phone (from Jiichan & Baachan):


Communicating with Buzz Lightyear:


Swedish breakfast (from Rika) and ensuing explosion:


Jessie, the Yodeling Cowgirl (from Jiichan & Baachan)


Playing with Jessie and opening the airplane (from Grandma):


My very own camera (from Jiichan and Baachan):


Thanks to everyone for being so generous for Dane's birthday! He loves all his presents and loves you all so much!