Snow much fun.

Today Officer was brave enough to get out and put up Christmas lights.  The previous 2 years we just haven't put them up, so I was really grateful that he was willing and able to this year.  He and Miss Peanut also made a snowman, and I followed around this little bundle.  Seriously - kids in snow pants are just adorable!  He loved being out in the snow and cried when I finally brought him in.  I don't have boots little enough for him and his poor little feet were so cold - I'll have to go find some, but I didn't think he'd love it quite this much enough to go get them.  

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Baby Girl.

Today is Miss Peanut's Birthday,  she's 3, already?  How it happened so fast, I can hardly believe.  We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends yesterday and since Officer is working all day today we had we did Birthday cake last night and presents this morning snuggled in our bed.  I sure love this girl - for the last month she has been telling everyone that her mommy was going to make her a Jessie cake for her birthday.  Jessie from Toy Story is one of her favorites and so  I attempted a cake that resembles (slightly) Jessie's hat.  I am very novice when it comes to cake makin skills, but when she saw the finished product she said exclaimed with sparkles in her eyes, "you made a beautiful cake...for me?!"  I love the vision of a child; to her it was beautiful and just what she wanted.

Been on the road again...

We have been traveling fools this past month and it has taken me a few days to recover.  Total, the kids and I have spent 21 days and way more than 50 hours in the car on "Great Adventures."  I'm so grateful that our kids are good travelers.  First week of October I took the kids (by myself - I'm was feeling pretty brave) and went to California to be with all of Officer's family.  It was a very last minute trip and unfortunately there was no way officer could get off work, but the kids and I had a really great time.  

While we were there we got all 21 grandchildren together for a picture, went to a sticker factory, the Jelly Belly Factory, Apple Hill, and really great pumpkin patch (I can't remember the name right now), celebrated birthdays, ate lots of yummy food, and played around with all the turkeys, deer, lizards, fish and anything else that the cousins could catch.  

We went home for a week and packed our bags for Arizona to see Officer's brother's family.  It was another "great adventure" in the car and to break up the trip we stayed one night in LasVegas. 

 

  

Officer and I had never been so it was kind of fun.  We got there early evening and left the next morning so we didn't see all the sights.  We stayed in "the castle"  we told miss peanut and then walked part of "The Strip,"  went to the M&M store and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  The next morning we were able to drive over the Hoover Dam and then drive back and go over the new bridge that bypasses it.  It was pretty impressive to see from below, but driving across we were hoping to have a cool view of Hoover Dam, but unless you stop and hike a little (which we weren't to thrilled about because it was windy cold and with two small kids; one of whom was throwing up that morning.) its just like any other boring old freeway.

    

Once we got there we were able to enjoy lots of time with cousins and lots of Halloween parties.  We had pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin pinatas, even magic pumpkins, trunk or treats, bounce houses, BBQ, costume contests...and the parties just kept going - so did the sugar rush. Seriously I can't believe how much candy we had and really we only had one trick-or-treater.  The weather really was beautiful and we got to spend lots of time outside for the parties and at the parks and at our nephew's football game. My sister and brother in law took us to this fun little place called POP the soda shop, where it is literally just all different types of sodas from all over the world even.  We brought quite a few home and it's been fun to try them.

   

We also celebrated our twin nephews birthdays.  My sister in law was so sweet to make miss Peanut a cake too because her birthday is coming up this month.  2 out of their 3 birthdays we've been there to celebrate, so it was cute to watch all 3 of them sing and blow out candles.  Officer and I got the chance to go to the Mesa Temple one day and I was also able to meet up with 2 of my college roommates that live in the area for lunch one afternoon. It was so fun to catch up;  we ate at this cute little restaurant and then stopped at Sprinkles Bakery for cupcakes afterward.  It was such a treat to see them again...and the cupcakes were sooo yummy too! 

 

We made our way home driving through beautiful Southern Utah and stopping in Salt Lake overnight to visit Grandma-great and all of our other family there.  I must say I'm glad to be home for a little while, I was really missing the fall weather.

How are you going to be celebrating Cinco de Mayo 2011?

We're thinking a little Mexican food and maybe having a baby? Yep, it's true, baby #3 is on the way, my official due day is May 4.  Usually we've tried to keep it quiet a little longer...everything is looking great and I'm just starting to feel not so barfy and completely exhausted, so we thought we would share.  It's kind of funny really - I was working really hard and training for a half-marathon when I found out.  I told Officer I wanted to run a half-marathon and then I didn't care when #3 came.  I know there are "real" women out there that can push it and run while they're pregnant - I'm just not that girl.  Gotta admit that I'm a little bummed that I didn't run my half (it was last weekend), but there will be plenty of time for that when kids are grown and gone and it really is such a great blessing to be able to have another little one.  We're excited for this new adventure!


 

Happy Birthday Handsome!

 I can hardly believe that this little guy is already a year old.  How did that happen so fast? Monday Oct 4th was  his birthday and since Officer had to work we decided to celebrate Handsome's birthday in shifts this year.  So we started with a birthday breakfast and presents on his birthday and then On Tuesday, we got to go to the farmstead, corn maze pumpkin patch and had lots of fun and then had some friends over for birthday cake and pumpkin pie.  


 

This little guy has just been so much fun to have in our family.  His smile and constant giggles always make my day!  Happy Birthday - love you!    

Family Photo Shoot

I asked my dad if he would help us try to get a family picture.  My kids were more than he bargained for!  He got a great new lens for his camera and was learning how to use it and by early evening time my kids are just typical - tired and uncooperative at least at directing attention to a camera or whatever. We got a handful of shots that turned out, but most of them look like this.

Here's some of the others:  So give us a vote on the last four!

 

#1

#2

#3

#4

Sleepless...

 My family have been troopers this past month - I can't believe it's almost October . Officer's parents were able to come up for a quick visit at the beginning of the month and it was great to spend time with them.  We also took some friends and their boys up to our family cabin.  They took lots of pictures so I'll have to post some when I get them from them, but we had a really fun week.  Officer is still working weekend swings, which means he often has overtime and even later nights turn into early mornings.  Peanut has complained of leg pains for quite some time now (that's a whole other post on it's own, but to sum it up - she regularly wakes up screaming/crying/sweating inconsolably from them.) and Handsome has been teething, so sleeping hasn't been the greatest right now in our house and some days it has been feeling like all we do is trade off who gets to sneak in a nap.  Although tired, we're getting by and trying to enjoy the wonderful fall weather before it gets too cold to play outside.             

Miss Peanut is suddenly all princess - she has been found in my shoes twirling and dancing often lately!  She had never seen Beauty and the Beast until this week (I know I'm kind of picky - some things are still kind of scary), but has been insisting for weeks that she be princess Belle for Halloween. 

One of the watermelons from our garden - we had quite a few - but they didn't all get ripe - I think because of all the crazy weather changes here.

Peanut and I made cupcakes to share when Officer's parent were here.  It was Handsome's first cupcake and he loved it so much that he started licking the tray for any stray crumbs he couldn't get into his hands.  Watch out 1st birthday cake!

Helping me with the laundry - Handsome just got a haircut again - it grows so fast and little miss Peanut - she plays way too much for her hair to stay cute - that's the way it's supposed to be right?

Miss Peanut

I realize that I don't have a lot of pictures of me with the kids because I'm often the one taking the picture.  I got thinking about it and I decided it was something important, so anyway I've made an effort to take more of us together and this afternoon while Handsome slept we went and enjoyed the beautiful weather outside and got a little goofy with the camera.  She was pretty silly and it was really hard to hold the camera steady because we were laughing!  She also had to have her arm around my neck - I kept trying to move it and she'd put it right back.  I love this girl!

First White Shirt and Tie

I kept thinking I needed to get this little man some real church clothes.  When I started looking everywhere was telling me that they only carry stuff like that around Christmas and Easter.  Sad.  But then I remembered Burlington Coat Factory - they always have stuff like this, Thanks!  He was just adorable today - don't you think so?

The grass was a little cold - hence the face.

We found an kiddie swing for our swing set. He loves to swing! 

Love this face!

Corn from our garden

First time shucking corn - she was amazed!  Then we ate it for dinner - so yummy!

My cute babies!

Can't believe he's almost 1!?  How did that happen?

Would barley sit still long enough to take this, so cute and so busy!

The Harvest

Its getting to be that time - and we love it!  I've done a small garden for the past several years - I usually only pick a few things to grow because we only have a small garden space.  Next year maybe we'll do a grow box....I'm hoping anyway.  This year we had tomatoes, romaine lettuce, pumpkins, corn, raspberries, and my cucumbers and peppers and green onions just didn't make it, which was actually good because this year we also tried growing watermelons. We had some strong wind storms the last few weeks and my tomato cage broke and fell over with the weight of the tomatoes...or so I thought. I looked closed to find that I had twin watermelons growing up inside the tomato cage. They have pretty much taken over the rest of the garden! 

I also tried a small planter for herbs, but Miss Peanut decided that it looked like a good place to dig, so we're trying those inside for now. Anyway we have had fun nearly everyday going out to see what is ready to pick - and there is so much more to come! We've already got lots of tomatoes and we just ate our first corn on the cob tonight and the last several days we've been able to pick a big bowl of raspberries! 

One man's trash = my treasure

I've really been ridiculous with garage sales/craigslist this summer - ask my husband - he'll tell you, I'm sure.  I'm been trying to find a swingset for not much because as much as I like going to the park - sometimes I don't like having to pack up both kids in car or bike trailer especially when it's getting close to dinner time.    Anywho - we didn't want anything that would take up our whole backyard, so we picked this up on Saturday and by Saturday night we had up with a few small improvements.  It's actually quite sturdy, so I've been thrilled with it.  And the best part is that Miss Peanut has been out swinging or sliding all day!

Before

After

Swimming Lesson

This summer was Miss Peanut's first swimming lesson.  For being 2, I think she has done so great - she'll blow bubbles and kick and she even went off the diving board with some help.  She loved having goggles to keep the water out of her eyes, and she was brave enough to put her face in the water so she could see.

Dinosaurs and Peter B. Concert

Officer was so good to go along with it, when I suggested that we try to be a little spontaneous (as spontaneous as you can be with kids) and make a quick trip to Salt Lake City for a concert.  We were able to visit "grandma-great," and lots of family. Gratefully, My Aunt and her family were willing to watch our little ones for a few hours so we could go to the concert.  While we were there Grandma took us swimming at their neighborhood pool and Miss Peanut and Handsome had so much fun - of course I didn't bring my camera to the pool and it was Handsome's first time swimming, but he was so good in the water.  Handsome also met a new friend Lukey (my cousins little guy)- they were so funny barking and laughing at each other.

 We shopped a little, but mostly we had made plans to take the kids to the Dinosaur museum.  

Handsome slept through most of it in the stroller and Miss Peanut was all over the place  - so glad many of the exhibits we hands on.

After all of the dinosaurs we came to this guy and Miss Peanut's face cracks me up - Daddy tried to take a silly picture with Miss Peanut in the Sharks mouth - she didn't think it was very funny.

Peter B Concert

Friday night we went to see Peter Brienholt at the Sandy Amphitheater. I was first introduced to his music in college.  I had several of his CDs and not too long after officer and I were married our car was broken into and all my CD's were stolen.  Just the CDs were in the car, so I still had the signed cases and I came across them a few months ago and  I looked into buying some of his music again.  I found out about the concert and decided that if I was going to buy them again I might as well make a trip/date out of it and go to the concert.  We really did have fun and although officer doesn't really admit it he knows Peter B's music - he sang along to just as many songs as I did.  It was a beautiful night and a fun concert/date.  They opened with the winner of the "Draper Idol" contest, I think her name was Allie Duke - cute name and she was just darling.  She's only 14 and write and composes her own music.  Officer was impressed and insisted that he get a picture with her after the concert.  I waited to have Peter B autograph my CDs and talking with him I told him about my CDs getting stolen.  He was so nice and said if I had come all way to the concert and buy his music again he told me that I should go talk with so-and-so and they gave me another CD that I didn't have.  It made my night - I still really like his music and it was fun to see him again live.

Here's a clip of the darling Allie Duke (I hope I'm getting her name right.)

And here's a little blip or two of Peter B.

Miss Peanut's New Helmet

Some of you may remember when Miss Peanut had to wear this helmet. 

There were a lot of reasons that we chose to get the helmet, one of the little things most people don't really think about was that if we hadn't she may not have been able to wear a regular bicycle helmet.  A few weeks ago we got her a new helmet - and it fit!