Kaden Tidbits

My Kadenbug is so funny. He has a bunch of things that he really likes right now, that are all kind of random. I always forget to blog about these, but I always seem to have pictures on my phone of all these random things, so I figured I'd throw them all into one post for the memory.

Kaden loves to do everything possible "by self." He is very into dressing himself, choosing his shirt, picking out his shoes, and putting them on "by self." If Kaden had his way, everyday would consist of pajamas all day, flip flops (even though it's getting cold) and a backpack. When I ask Kaden what he wants to do, most days he says, "Kaden watch TV all day." Right... So this picture pretty well says it all- his desired approach to life most days.

He loves to "help" with everything and he really likes to make popcorn and eat it.  He loves to help with cooking and is constantly insisting he needs to help "dump it in." (Any ingredient that can be dumped, that is.) He also loves to "help" me wash dishes, which usually means he's just standing on one of his tiny chairs at the sink forever, getting soaked.

What toddler doesn't love stickers? Kaden is certainly no exception.

Kaden loves to feed the ducks. He always tells me "bread for ducks, Mommy, not Kaden." (He's not a huge fan of bread for some strange reason.)

Kaden has learned to open the fridge and I often find surprises in it: dirty dishes, his phone, pumpkins...

Oh the endless messes. One of his favorite pastimes as of late...

Some days Kaden prefers virtually no clothing at all. But he always likes to wear my shoes. With or without clothing.

He loves to hide. Especially if he's in trouble because he knows I can't reach him very well in this silly space between the fridge and the cabinet.  He really enjoys hide and seek and is getting pretty good at counting and actually hiding, though he still likes finding better.

I love this little boy! He makes me laugh. 

Halloween Happenings

We had such a fun Halloween season. (We did a lot of Halloween things spread throughout October.) We had our Halloween dinner with the Fairbourns, which is always a fun tradition.

Bones and blood soup

Pumpkin Patch (aka Rice Krispie Treats). Can I just say I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with these? They needed to be Jackson-safe (aka no eggs and no dairy) and it's mighty tricky to find a dessert that doesn't need either of those things, or that has acceptable substitutes.

 Mummy Meatloaf

 Halloweenies

 Mashed Potato Ghosts

Our ward Halloween party was a week before Halloween.  They had dinner and trick or treating in the church. Some of my favorite costumes were Zach and Elise Page- the bugs and the fly swatter and Sarah Nitta's girls, Jade and Ruby, the old ladies. So cute!

Kaden could not get enough of these girls' walkers. He kept stealing them and running down the hall. So funny!

The MacLeans came to our ward party, since their ward didn't have one. (There's practically no kids in their ward.) They were the Dr. Seuss Clan- Cat in the Hat, the Lorax, Fox in Socks and Horton the Elephant. I wish I would've gotten a picture of their whole family, but I spaced it.

Kaden is really obsessed with pirates right now because he has a pirate bathroom. We thought it would be fun if we all dressed up like pirates together.

We had fun painting pumpkins as a family, since I don't enjoy carving them.  Also if we paint, Kaden is able to participate more, so it's win-win. I don't have to stick my hand in a grimy pumpkin and Kaden gets to be very colorful. There might have been more paint on his body and our toes/arms than on his actual pumpkin, but he had a blast, so it doesn't matter.

My pirate ghost pumpkin that looks like it was painted by a child... and Kaden's masterpiece

Curtis' awesome skull and crossbones pumpkin

 Curtis taught Kaden a bunch of pirate phrases: argh, ahoy matey's, walk the plank, shiver me timbers and swab the poopdeck! Ha ha! He was quite the hit at all the Halloween parties. 

Halloween morning, I took Kaden to Tracy Aviary for the Halloween Hoot. We went with Miranda and Evie and Rose and the kids had a blast playing in the hay maze and meeting the giant bird creature. You got half off admission if you wore your costumes, so of course Miranda and I were one of only 3 adults in the whole place dressed up- lame. 

We got Halloween kid's meals at Wendy's and then of course somewhere in all the madness, Kaden lost his pirate hat. Boo! Right before trick or treating. At least we got a picture at our ward party with his hat on. We couldn't find his sword to go trick or treating either, but we found it behind the entertainment center a few days later. Who knows? Maybe, there's still hope for the hat.

Halloween night we just went trick or treating around our neighborhood. Almost no one was home, which was kind of lame, so we ended up going over to Country Springs, a retirement community in our ward.  Kaden loved getting candy and couldn't wait to eat it until we got home, so after every few houses he'd put a candy in his mouth and start gnawing through the wrapper until we helped him open it. He loved saying "Trick or Treat" and was very polite and said "thank you" at all the doors.  He liked wishing "happy Halloween everybody," regardless of whether there was only one person on the porch or multiple. My favorite though was that so many of the people in Country Springs gave Kaden two candies, that when someone only gave him one he'd reach up into their buckets and grab another and say, "Just one more, okay?" Ha ha. Bad manners, but it was hilarious!

The day after Halloween Curtis took me to see Thriller. This is some awesome zombie girl that decided to sit next to me...

Fall Family Pictures

I've been pretty busy doing pictures for others and as a result I haven't gotten around to editing my own family's pictures that we took for fall until now.  I refuse to spend big bucks to hire another photographer when Kaden typically smiles better for my tripod/remote/"blinky light", than for a random stranger behind a camera.  Maybe when he's older and will cooperate more, but for now,  I do my own family pictures.  

We took our pictures at Mueller Park Canyon, just a 10 minute drive from our house in Bountiful! It's really beautiful. Apparently it was a popular location for pictures, because there were literally about 20 other photographers there at the same time as us.  I'm really happy with how the pictures turned out. I love my little family!

I love his silly faces! 

Ah! His eyes!!! Love.

This just had to make it in here because I rarely, if ever, get a picture of me kissing Kaden where he's not pulling a face... This is of course no exception.

We took these ones back in September, in Logan Canyon. We were hoping for fall colors, but everything was still green, so we waited a month and tried again in Bountiful.

This picture makes me laugh. A lot of times to get Kaden to look at my camera I'll put silly things on my head to get his attention.  I brought along one of his dinosaurs for just that purpose and he wanted to put it on my head.  He didn't set it down very gently, and it got stuck in my curls, but I love this candid Curtis captured!