"See the big man cry mamma!"

This kid has some seriously good taste in music!  He has been singing Charlie Louvin's "See the big man cry mamma" for the past few weeks.  He started singing it again this morning and after hearing it on YouTube, here is his reaction.

And for your listening pleasure, I present the non-Skyler singing version.  :)

Happy Birthday Mommy!

We love you!  Thank you for working so hard to provide for us. :)

Completely normal.

Skyler decided to empty a toy bin and drag it out to the couch, sit inside of it, and watch an episode of "Curious George" yesterday.  I see nothing wrong with that logic.

Today, we're attempting to clean the house in preparation for Mommy's birthday tomorrow.  Let's hope he can refill this bin with all the toys.  :)

Charlie Brown Christmas.

I downloaded the App "A Charlie Brown Christmas" for Skyler on Monday.  He hasn't stopped playing with it since.  It's very interactive and engaging.  It follows the story with all kinds of extras like Schroeder's piano.  Or "pianiaio" as Skyler calls it.

The piano keys have colored dots that move after each note is played.  He's playing Jingle Bells here. 

Throwback Tuesday.

This picture came up at my Farm Bureau meeting last week.  It's a pic of the West Jordan sugar factory, part of the Utah-Idaho sugar company now defunct and demolished.

Not sure of the date, most likely 1950's.

The tree.

We went and bought our Christmas tree Saturday.  Not a big deal?  It is for Skyler!  This is his first full sized tree.  We've been buying the tiny 3 footers the past 3 years so he wouldn't pull them over.  This tree may get pulled over, he won't leave it alone!

Someone was really excited to help load...

Riding & running the parkway.

Skyler did the riding, we did the running.

Swimming.

Skyler's swim lessons are really starting to pay off!

"I'm just going to sit here and eat my crackers."

In the front yard!

This was after swimming a couple of weeks ago.

Mowing at Grandpa's.

Skyler loves going to see Grandpa every Wednesday.  One of the many reasons is there are so many different things to do there compared to our house.  One of which is playing with the toy lawnmower!

Running!

Mowing so fast!

Carefully trimming the edge.

"Mowing the lawn, mowing the lawn!"  Set to the tune of Judas Priest's "Breaking the law." Yes, really.  He does it all the time up here at our house when he rides on the tractor mower.

Perfect logic.

It's a dark, and stormy morning here in Utah.  Skyler got up and grabbed the flashlight from under the sink and used it to "look" around.  Pretty smart!

Looking around. 

Waving it all over including in my eyes!

He wanted a fire so he could be "cozy".  Note that both the dog and the cat have beds in front of the fire.

Le Tour de Basement

I've been on the stationary bike a few times already this cold season.  I can see myself thinking of doing something similar...  Can you say boring?!  Trainer rides aren't near as fun as real rides.  :)

Hopefully to be repeated sometime soon.

I'm hoping that Skyler and I can re-create this in a few years.  The kid in the video is in the 4th grade!  The 24" Fat Bike is $1200!  Let's hope someone other than Specialized can build a more affordable fatty!

More farming fun.

Skyler wanted to see Ken plowing yesterday so I took him over around noon.  We were there for at least 2 hours!  He even got to ride and steer the JD 2640.  Such a lucky little boy...

"We're going to plow!"

The vintage Caterpillar collection next to the farm.  These belonged to a former CAT engineer.  This is just a small sample.

We had to visit and sit on the vintage D9.

Pretending to steer.

Pretty big blade.

Time to drive the tractor!

All done plowing and driving back.

Thank you Ken.  Skyler sure loves to come visit.

Caterpillar power!

Wednesday,  I got to go over to Ken's farm and play with the vintage D6 pulling a 5 shank ripper.  I've never been around CAT's much, they're quite impressive and extremely powerful!  For something that's 60+ years old, it can still hold its own against modern machinery.

Working the heavy river bottom ground.  This was all fill material and leftover from the reverse osmosis water plant directly to the North.

No smoke!

Notice the water temp, for pulling well over 100% of rated load, the engine isn't even hot!

The view from on board.  Blue roof building is the water plant.

I had to get off (because my knees were killing me) and to go pick up Skyler from Grandma & Grandpa's.  Bye Ken!

Post Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving was pretty great at our house this year.  Lots of good food, great people, an animated movie to entertain, and good times all around were had.  Thank you to my family for helping and attending.  I'm thankful that I've had another 13 years of Thanksgivings since my near death car accident in 2001.  Skyler was "on" the entire day and even after running all over the dog park, he was still going late last night.

We got in a pretty good "turkey ride" before dinner yesterday.

Altair made the cute place setting pumpkin turkeys.

Waiting for everyone to arrive.

Right in the middle of dinner, he had to go outside.

Post indulgence.

The view from the dog park.

Even Grandma & Grandpa came along to the dog park.  Yesterday was probably the warmest Thanksgiving I can remember.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Listen to the entire audio track here.

Almost there...

Meaning almost time for Thanksgiving!  Skyler helped Mommy mix up the pumpkin pies last night.  He mostly "helped" by tasting everything.  Here he is finishing off the cream in the measuring cup.

"Mmm, mm, good!"

Groovy!!!

I turned on my Lava Lamp last night so Skyler could see it.  He waited the 2 hours for the wax to melt and then was mesmerized by the magic.

Oooh!

Ahh!

Boiling away.

So happy!

More art.

Skyler wanted to watercolor sometime last week.  And wear a "slop".  He meant a "smock".  :)

Ready...

Got to dip first...

Ta da!