Halloween Weekend

Well, we are doing great here is sunny Arizona. We just had a record high today of 96°. That is why it is okay for Aaron to occasionally crawl around in his diaper (see below). Nick has been working for a couple of months now as an attorney, but as you can see from the last post, he was just sworn in this past Thursday. He works a lot, but is enjoying what he is doing. Aaron and I are enjoying our time together at home. We have his nine-month check up on Friday so I will update you on all his stats then. He is currently eating anything I hand him. He crawls about a million miles a minute and is also cruising along the furniture. He can wave bye bye (see video), give kisses and dance. He also knows exactly what to do to melt my heart.

Last Wednesday Nick had a couple softball games that Aaron and I enjoyed watching. Well, this particular night it was somewhere around 40°. It was freezing! Especially when we are used to temperatures consistently in the 70s and 80s. Poor Nick had to play in basketball shorts and a t-shirt because we figured when we moved to Arizona we wouldn't need our winter clothes. Hopefully this weekend we can get a few things out of storage. Aaron, on the other hand, was bundled up in blankets.

For our ward party, we dressed Aaron up as a bat, Nick was a vampire, and I was a witch. Because Aaron takes after his parents, his hood with bat ears wouln't fit his head. He still looked very cute!



On the afternoon of Halloween we went to Nick's work party at the zoo. We had a fun time. They had a stingray exhibit that Ben and Nick enjoyed. I didn't really care to touch the stingrays. I just watched and took pictures.

Aaron was a trooper. He only had a short nap before we left. He held in there while we had lunch and walked around the zoo.

Near the cheetah exhibit there was a radar gun. So Nick had some fun running past it. It reminded me of The Office, when Michael and Dwight compete to see who runs faster. Michael claims he ran 31 mph, when the radar really just registered a passing car. It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Nick just posing for the camera.


Aaron thought the flamingos were interesting. He was very sweet to let me take his picture.

We were beat by the end. We knew we still had a long day ahead of us. We had to find a garage to fix our car (it wouldn't start) and get ready for Halloween!


Later that evening we sat outside and handed out candy. I guess they do that here because the weather's so nice. Tons of people were outside handing out candy and having block parties. Scott came down and hung out with us. I tried to hand out all our candy as fast as possible because we wanted to watch the World Series and go to Cafe Rio. It was so worth it! I love that place.

Nick was really good at guessing all the costumes. He was very sweet to compliment them as well.

I carved the pumpkin on the left and Nick did the one on the right for his company pumpkin carving contest. Nick also made lots of gravestones for our ward party. They turned out great, so we displayed them around the yard with some candles in front of them. He is very creative. It looked very spooky.
Just for fun, here is a picture of Aaron from this morning. Just laughing!


Aaron gets a little video camera shy. He just stops whatever he is doing when I turn on the camera. At the very beginning he waves bye bye and the rest of it he just fake laughs.

A Great Day!

Aaron and I headed up to the court house today to see Nick sworn in as an attorney. We are so proud of him and his accomplishments. He worked so hard through law school, then studied diligently for the bar exam and now continues to work very long hours at his new job. What a great guy! We are so lucky to have him in our family!

Say Cheese!

This is what Aaron did when I said, "Say Cheese!"

He loved the balloons I got for Nick passing the bar.

Scott and Andrea got Aaron this cute Halloween top. I love it.

Aaron is getting bigger, so we got him a new car seat. I think he likes it. It is really comfortable.

I was trying to get him to smile in this next picture, but he just wanted to stick out his little tongue.

He liked crawling in the box and hiding. Who knew all I needed to do is buy boxes for him to play with.

7 Month Old Update

Grandma and Grandpa Bender sent Aaron these cute P.J.'s. They glow in the dark -- which puzzeled me a little at 6 A.M. They are so cute!

We had to lower the mattress in Aaron's crib a few weeks ago because we were afraid he would start standing up after his naps. These next two pictures are so cute! The first one he is tired and it was still dark in his room. The second one he is more awake because I had been talking and singing to him.

Aaron began crawling at the end of August. He now crawls everywhere! He is so fast -- he really keeps me on my toes.

Aaron has also started standing next to furniture and walking along it. However, he has not mastered the art of getting down. He just falls on his bottom. Thank heavens for padding! In this picture you can see a little bruise on his thigh.

Nick put Aaron in the laundry basket. He didn't care to stay in there very long. He would rather crawl around and explore.

Because Aaron is crawling and getting into everything we bought a baby corral for him. It does help, but he is only really content when we sit in it with him -- defeating the purpose. But, it is nice that he can't get into anything he shouldn't.

Such BIG beautiful eyes!

"Please, please, please..."

"Help, I can't get out!"

Aaron just showing off his skills. I love those chunky thighs!

Aaron's First Baseball Game

Two weeks ago we went to an Arizona Diamondbacks game. We had really good seats, but Aaron wasn't too excited about sitting still. So, we sat in some seats a little farther back and enjoyed the game. The stadium is air conditioned, making the evening very comfortable. It felt like it was 20 degrees cooler.

For some reason Aaron looks disgusted in this next picture.

Daddy and son spending some time together.

A sweet member of the staff heard me say that it was Aaron's first game, so she handed me this cute little button that said, "My First Game." He liked to suck on it.

As we were leaving the game, we couldn't get to our car because fireworks were being set off on the top level of the car garage. So, we hung around and waited for them. While we were waiting Nick and Aaron visited with an officer on horseback Aaron really liked the horse.

I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure how Aaron would react to the fireworks, but he didn't seem to mind. He didn't quite know what to think about the finale, but no crying.

Do you really expect me to eat this stuff?

At the request of Grandma and Grandpa Bender I post this next video. Aaron started eating vegetables last Saturday. He has tried carrots, sweet potatoes and now green beans. For some reason, he made some funny faces this time when he was eating. We have since given him green beans again and he liked them.

Enjoy!

Joys of Parenthood...

...tormenting your child.

Frequent Fliers

Aaron and I have been to Utah twice so far this summer. We have one more trip scheduled in September for my brother's wedding. Our first trip was back in June. We had lots of fun. We had a family reunion, we went to the zoo and we also had Aaron's blessing.

The reunion was lots of fun and we got to meet a lot of family members that we hadn't met yet. It was at a park in Draper. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of everyone because we were so cold. It was freezing -- we were all bundled up! Later that night some of us met up and spent the evening together. We had a great time and it is always fun to catch up!

The zoo was far from freezing. It was just the opposite -- we went mid-morning because we knew it was going to be a very hot day. This was Aaron's first trip to the zoo. I don't really think he cared that much, but the rest of us had a great time!

Aaron fell asleep as we were leaving. It was so cute! He really knows how to party hard!

Nick flew up for the weekend so he could attend the reunion and so we could do Aaron's blessing.

Here are a few pictures of Peyton and Aaron. The first picture was taken when Peyton was 11 1/2months old and Aaron was three weeks old. This is Peyton at 15 months old and Aaron at 4 months old.

This picture was taken on the way home from the airport. It takes Peyton a few minutes to warm up to the competition. I am so excited for when they can interact and play together!

So CUTE!

I just thought this was a cute picture. We went to Cafe Rio then went shopping. Kyle came with us and helped us with the boys. He is a great babysitter.

When Aaron and I went to Utah for the second trip it was because Nick was prepping to take the bar exam. It just so happened that most of my family was headed to Wyoming to go camping. So, I spent some time with my mom (even though she isn't in one picture -- I don't know how that happened). I was also able to visit some friends and family that I don't normally get to see.

We took a walk down the Lagoon Trail. I hadn't ever done that before so I enjoyed it very much! Meg and Will rode their bikes and my mom and I walked and pushed Aaron in the stroller.

Meg really wanted a picture with Aaron. She is such a good aunt. She loves to hold him and play with him.

Mom and I were trying out different settings on our camera's. Will patiently sat there and waited -- it was very helpful.
We went to the pool with my mom. It was our first time at a public pool -- we had to protect the kids with our life. Aaron had fun and loved splashing and loved it when Meg and Will would pop out of the water. He would laugh and splash more.

My friend Tiffany and her son Bridger came to visit Aaron and me. It was fun to be able to spend a little time catching up with her.

It just so happens that Heather was in Utah the same time I was. It was so fun to be able to meet up with her and go to lunch. We had such a great time talking and eating our burgers, cheese fries and Dr. Pepper. Yum!

We took a family picture while we were there. From left to right: Mistee (the dog), Mom, Sam, Grandpa Jensen, Grandma Jensen, Will (in front), Meg (in front), Adrianna, Aaron, Marianne, Peyton, Jessica, Andrea and Scott.