Mid November update

It is officially winter in Idaho Falls!! We occasionally still have a day when it's bearable to be outside for 10 minutes but most days it's so windy and cold that Sam can't stand to be outside. If the wind blows in his face he says "Hold me!" and buries his head into my shoulder as deep as he can and clenches onto me with his legs as he says, "Brr... windy." Some days we struggle finding enough fun things for Sam to do. It's easy for me to get too "tasky" and expect Sam to just entertain himself. Most of the time he does, but I've found we are both so much happier if we have one fun morning activity and one fun afternoon activity, planned just for him. We've gone to arctic circle twice to play on the playground which he loves. He can do it all by himself (up the stairs, down the slide, etc.) now which is so fun to watch. I can't believe he's old enough to do that! I made play-doh for the first time and he loves making worms, footballs, basketballs, smiley/sad faces, and poking them all with a toothpick. He is really into hide and seek now which is so fun. He NEVER gets sick of it! We babysat Matthew and Emily (Lindsay's kids -- friends down the street who are moving out) a couple days this week and he loved playing it with them too. He loves patting my tummy and saying, "Baby, tummy." Around the time when I'm making dinner he can usually be found "stirring" and pouring from one container to another something such as wheat, oats, rice, beans, etc. The clean up isn't bad considering how much he loves it!
Sam burned his hand on the fireplace Saturday morning. I was at the temple and Caleb decided to turn the fire on just for a few minutes. Well he looked away for two seconds literally and Sam touched the glass. Lesson hopefully learned, for both of them! :) He had a pretty good blister on his palm but with some TLC it's healing up nicely.
We had a game night with the Ocampos (new couple in our ward) last Friday. We played this banana scrabble game that was so fun we want to buy it. This week is "City of Enoch Week" for our ward so last night we went to the New Beginnings care center in town just like we did last year and had so much fun. The people there are mentally challenged and they are just so loving and fun and friendly and anxious to be involved. I love being around people like that.
Caleb got a membership to the Melaleuca gym so he's been going about 3 days a week before work to workout. It's free if he goes at least 10 times a month which is nice. We're convinced that working out more will help us stay healthier this winter than we did last winter!
We've been spending more time than we'd like working on Unit D's washer and dryer. There's a sewer smell coming into the laundry room when she does laundry. Still haven't figured it out but hopefully tomorrow's the day. Hopefully it won't take our whole day. When we have repairs to do on our rentals we're reminded how grateful we are that they are few and far between.
We are SO excited to have the Westons come on Sunday and then to head to Utah to see more family on Wednesday!! Holidays are the best.
November 14th marked 3 years since mine and Caleb's first date!! Who would've thought so much could change in such a short amount of time, and that life could get so good. So glad he made the long walk next door to ask me out!!