Saaaantaaaaaaahhh!

Free Santa picture from the Bass Pro Shop in Iowa! (Sorry about the big glare)

As we were waiting in line, David says to me, "I'll give you $10 if you pull an Elf scene when we get to Santa."

Don't you love that movie?

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went to Denver, CO for Thanksgiving--my mother has 2 siblings that live there with their families, and my parents and two brothers came, as well as my grandma, so we had quite a lot of family there, which was great! Denver was a lot of fun--some of my favorite things we did there was go to the theaters and see "Tangled"--GREAT movie, went to a Nuggets VS Bulls game, went shopping, went to an art museum, celebrated my grandma's birthday, saw the lights in downtown Denver, and of course Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks Mark & Jill family for the great time!

David and I did a top 10 things we are grateful for for FHE last week before Thanksgiving--we alternated our top favorites, starting with David, then me, then David, etc. To the best of my memory, here they were:

1. Heather
2. Mason
3. School
4. David
5. family
6. the gospel
7. Oreos
8. America
9. Oreos
10. Good friends and neighbors

Halloween Costumes!

Sheriff Woody: complete with sheriff's badge, boots, hat and pull-string.
Bo-Peep: complete with diaper bag sheep, homemade bonnet, and shepherd's crook.
Buzz Lightyear: complete with purple trick-or-treat bag.

Yates family lately (I finally found my camera cord!)

Visiting Wenninghoffs pumpkin patch.

Going on the hayride at Wenninghoffs

Going through a corn maze (Wenninghoffs).
Mason was kind of done at this point.Cooking s'mores and hotdogs at Lake Manawa, right across the river.

We visited a park that had a frisbee golf course. It was awesome.

I had no idea some people were so amazing at frisbee!
Cloth diapers! I like 'em.
Bowling. I bowled my best game--150-something--woohoo!

Some friends we went to Kansas City with

Visiting the dinosaur museum in Kansas City.

Me and my friend Melanie at the Kansas City half marathon.
She rocked!! She really helped push me along.

Slink the Dog and Buzz Lightyear at the Lauritzen Gardens' trick-or-treat for Village Greeners

Dental Dave, Jesse the Cowgirl, and Buzz Lightyear at the kid's parade at the dental school.

Carving pumpkins :)
Our spooky Halloween dinner.

Featuring dead man burgers, mummy O's, strawberry ghosts, Frankenstein eyeballs, witch fingers, and a tigers blood drink.

Mason in the tub

this video was from a while ago. Imagine more mobile, plus twice as splashy = now.

Mason Lately

To infinity . . .

finishing his first jar. Sweet potatoes. Way-to-go I-da-ho!

Here comes Halloween!!

Golly we've been doing a lot lately! For the past few weeks, we've

• painted our kitchen, living room, and bedroom
• got sinus infections
• survived midterms
• enjoyed fall break, which included:

1. Visiting Vala's pumpkin patch (3 haunted houses, 2 cornmazes, 1 storybook attraction that could fit in at Disneyland, a few racecar tracks, a pumpkin cannon and apple slingshots, a pumpkin-eating dragon, graveyards, yummy foods, pig racing, a train, a hayride, and of course a pumpkin patch)
2. playing frisbee golf
3. getting family pictures taken, hopefully we can send out Christmas cards :)
4. watching movies (Karate Kid, thumbs up and Ironman 2, thumbs up)

• purchased plane tickets for Christmas, woohoo!!
• watched LDS General Conference at home
• went bowling
• getting costumes ready for Halloween . . .

Mason is getting bigger and faster, weighing 19.5 pounds as of today and is able to sit by himself and is pulling himself up on all fours.

High Chair Adventures

Don't worry it's hardboiled.

On the move

Mason blowing bubbles

Family pics

We took family pictures during the break; Mason's were my favorite :) Looking back I really wish I would have been on top of pics from the beginning and gotten professional NB, and 3 mo. too. He is about 6 mo. in these. My sister Marissa did some in ID, and our friend Tracie did some in UT.

Our Big Trip

We just got back from a 4-week vacation to UT and ID during David's break from school. David also studied for and took the first part of the national boards exam and found out a few days ago that he passed! Hooray! Here's a few other highlights from our trip:

Making the long long trek from Omaha to Salt Lake:

Running the 10K during Pioneer Day in SLC with Brooke:Celebrating family birthdays; he was intrigued by these balloons for Grandma Yates' bday...

Going on boat rides

Car rides.Making delicious food from a yummy new Lion House cookbook I got

Playing on his tummy. He does a great roll to his back now. But he can't remember how to get from his back to his belly.

I wish we would have gotten a picture with Mason and Zuri, Michelle's kitty.
He LOOOVED Zuri.Going on stroller rides.

Riding in the car.

Going swimming.

Spending a day at Steadman's Sod Farm with a zip-line and super slip n' slide.

Devin's wedding:David went to Zions National Park with our friends:

More Riding in the Car.


Good news: we went in for Mason's 6 month well-check visit with the doctor and new results are in. He gained 7 pounds in 2 months! Yay! He is now in the 46% for weight (17.3 pounds), 93% for height (28 inches), and 72% for head circumference (44 1/2 cm). The doctor actually asked the nurse to take a second reading on his head circumference because it jumped so much. You can imagine David and I are realllly really relieved and happy for him.
Thank you everyone for your prayers and concern . . . .

Back home again!