Pumpkins!

Carving time is here once more and this year we were lucky enough to have two nights of it. We had planned to do carving as a combined FHE with my whole family, but John was in trial that day and didn't end up getting home until after 8:00. So we carved one for FHE and then we did another one last night. I know, 2 pumpkins, pretty wimpy of us! Last year we did four, and I decided this year 2 would be enough. And sure enough, it was! Ains wasn't too excited about cleaning out the pumpkin, I learned that John stinks at this as well. When he was done carving there were still seeds and tons of gook (is gook a word, I was shocked spell check allowed it?)in his pumpkin that I then had to clean out...do you think he did that on purpose??? Owen got his little poker and joined in the fun. So after only carving 2 pumpkins, we are all carved out for this year.


I just had to get a picture of the cookie Ains decorated after she was done with her pumpkin, I think she used a full bottle of sprinkles!
Ours is the pumpkin on the far left. Maybe I shouldn't have written that and just let everyone think that ours was one of the more cooler looking ones!

Dance!

I was trying to catch some of Owen's smooth dance moves on video and I ended up getting this. What do you think...does Ains love to be the star of the show or what?

Believe it or not, Owen spinning in circles is his dancing, with the occasional foot sway and head bob.

Trunk or Treat

Tonight we had our ward/neighborhood Trunk or Treat. I think that trunk or treat is a crazy phenomenon. Mostly because what it boils down to is an additional night of trick or treating where the stops are cleverly close together so that children are able to acquire an incredible amount of candy in an incredibly short amount of time. What happened to working for your treats?!? I must say that it was still loads of fun though.

We tricked Ains into thinking that she wanted to be Snow White this year so that I didn't have to buy her a costume (she was given this one fore her birthday) and Owen was originally supposed to be a chicken (Ainsley's old costume) but we realized that Owen is not a fan of dressing up. He refused to wear his chicken costume and since it was velcro he could get it off. So we rummaged this costume out of my mom's costume bin (I think Michael must have used this costume when he was little). He didn't like the bat costume any better but it tied and so he couldn't get it off. Plus it glowed in the dark...AWESOME! (Even more awesome is the fact that I only spent 34 cents on Halloween costumes this year!)

We got to eat hot dogs and the kids did their parade of costumes and then the candy hording began. Ains soon caught on and hit every trunk. Owen moved at a much slower pace since he had to stop and inspect every piece of candy that was placed in his bucket. He made it to about 10 cars and then got to hang out in our car with Dad. And now we are all sufficiently sugared up and ready for the real event on Wednesday. I guess we could say tonight was just our trial run.
I caught Owen in the back of the car taking candy out of Ainsley's bag and stuffing it in to his. Clever boy!
This next series of pictures I just thought was funny, Owen ducked his head down and gave us that crazy face every time we tried to get a picture. It was just too funny!

A new play place.

Owen has discovered the small sliver of space beneath his crib and has deemed it a new place to play. The drawer under his crib needs a little fixing so we just took it off for the time being, little did we know we were opening the doors to a new world of fun.

I finally have a pantry...

granted my pantry is located in my garage, but I'll take it! From the time John and I got married I have always had to deal with storage issues, particularly with food. I swore that when we got a house I would buy one with a large pantry to solve all of my food storage issues. Well, that sure didn't happen since my pantry is the size of a big cupboard. So this weekend John put together my "outdoor pantry." For the first time ever I have room to spare. I even put my massive amounts of food storage in my new pantry, and there's still room to spare! I love that I've been to Costco, and to the grocery store, and all of my families food is enclosed in some sort of cupboard...Awesome!

Pumpkin Patch

Today Owen and I joined Ainsley on her school's field trip to the pumpkin patch. It started out a little rough. I forgot my camera, our ride woke up late and so therefore I was waiting and late, and then when we got there Owen threw up on me as soon as I took him out of the car. Twice. Thank heavens he didn't throw up in the car! (I honestly think he was car sick). So after we got that cleaned up with wet wipes ,and there was only a hint of nasty throw up smell on us we were off!

It turned out to be a fun morning. We got to go on a hayride through all of the pumpkin fields. Then the kids got to go and color a pumpkin picture. We then ventured out into the field to pick our own pumpkin. By this point my arms were burning from lugging Owen around. We found our pumpkins, and them my arms really started to burn due to the added weight. Then all of the little preschoolers got to go into a maze made from bales of hay (a hay bale maze?). It was really cute to see all of their little heads bouncing above the bales of hay. I think Ainsley figured out the maze and then went through it a good three or four more times. Then they passed out a snack for all of the kids. It was a lot of fun. Since I forgot to bring my camera I got a picture of the kids by their pumpkins when we got home. I wonder if Owen's little foot is curled because the ground was freezing???

****I forgot a funny story. A friend that I went to high school with (Carol Mortensen (Stringham) has a little boy in Ainsley's class. She told me today that the other day in his prayers Dallin prayed for Ainsley. I'm not sure in what context. He could have been thankful for her, or just glad that she's alive, either way I thought it was cute!

Some thoughts.....

From the time that John and I were married we have never lived in a ward where I felt comfortable and at home. Our first ward in Provo was completely weird. There were lots of crazy newlyweds and the "real" members of the ward were really into this one "leader" family. There were like 10 kids in this family and their views were completely messed up in my opinion. One of the sons was our home teacher. When he couldn't make it one month he sent his father in his place. At first we were glad because on his previous visit we had a LECTURE for over and hour and were asked to bear our testimonies at the end of the lecture. It was all strange and awkward....and boring! I was very disappointed when his fathers visit was more annoying because he lectured ME, yep, just me, and informed me that if my family wasn't having family prayer and family home evening then this was completely my fault. Apparently he felt that what happened in a home didn't depend on a father and a mother, just the mother! I'm not sure that I would have let him back in my home after that first meeting.

On to ward number two. Our ward in Salt Lake was better in the fact that it was somewhat normal. And when I say normal I mean completely abnormal. We lived in an apartment complex that was annexed into a ward with some FILTHY rich people. Carl Malone lived in the neighborhood that was apart of our ward. Now, most of the people in this ward were very friendly and John loved that the lessons were more intellectual. But I dreaded going to RS because I knew I would most likely sit by myself. I was on the enrichment committee and I left one enrichment activity in tears. At another enrichment activity I had a woman mad at me because I hadn't cut the carrots I brought to the activity cut julienne (I didn't even know what that meant at the time), and because at one point during the evening I sat down with a couple of "apartment girls" to talk instead of serving food. After that I think I carried a complex with me for a while. I was always nervous to go to enrichment or any ward activity and I always worried that I wouldn't have anyone to talk to.

Ward number three. This was the ward we went to for a few months while we lived with John's parents. No one ever did anything in that ward to make me feel uncomfortable, they just didn't do much to make me feel welcome. We were viewed as temporary and treated accordingly. There actually were 2 girls in that ward that did reach out and try to include me, but that's hard to do when you know someone will be leaving soon.

And onto ward number four. This was the ward we lived in when we first moved into our apartment here. And I really can't complain about this ward. I felt welcome and needed but I think this time I had the attitude that this was only temporary. We were looking for a house and ready to get out of there. We lived by 3 other families in our complex that were in the same situation as us and we just kind of stuck together and had our short term friendships while they lasted. So I guess I felt comfortable in this ward I just never felt at home.

And that brings us up to our current ward. Where I finally feel at HOME! It has taken about a year (which I think can be expected when anyone moves to a new ward) to get to know people, feel comfortable, feel like we have friends, and know enough people that if someone mentions a name I know who they are talking about. I love that I finally feel settled. I'm not nervous to go to enrichment. There are people I would feel comfortable calling if I needed a favor or a babysitter. We have a social life with the people we go to church with and I love it.

Now, this might be a little crazy, but all of this thinking was brought about last night after we went on a group date with some people in our ward. We went with 2 other couples to dinner and then met up with some more people at a comedy club here. The comedy was awful (clean but a little painful to watch) but the company was great so it was still a lot of fun. So it might be weird that a night out brought these thoughts to my mind, but I had spent most of my day doing one thing or another with people from my ward so I guess they were on my mind. And I'm really grateful that I finally have a true ward family for my family.

Binky Update

Owen has gone for 3 days now without a binky. Well, I guess I should say he's been almost binky free because one night he walked out of his room with a binky in his mouth and 2 in his hands (our guess is that they were hidden discreetly under his crib). John was good though and took them away. Owen was very sad but soon got over it after a little distraction. Owen has actually been happier during the days, goes to sleep at night just fine, but naps are still a struggle. He doesn't scream like he did the first day when I put him down, he just plays and then moans and yells and gets very little sleep. Maybe I should take this opportunity to take him down to one nap a day as well? Then we only notice the loss of the binky once a day. Good idea? No?

What have I done???

I'm feeling pretty bad for Ainlsey right now. Which is funny because she isn't feeling bad for herself. I'm just feeling guilty for putting her in a bad situation. So here's what I did....

One Sunday at the beginning of September I was talking with a mom in my ward who has a daughter Ainsley's age, we'll calle her B. Ainlsey and B had played together a little bit and they seemed like cute little friends. We even went to the water park with them over the summer. I got a glimpse of B's personality that day at the park but thought that overall she was still a sweet girl. During this conversation with B's mother we started talking about preschool and by the next day B had signed up to be in Ainsley's class. I thought this was great because now Ains had a friend at school and we had someone to carpool with!

After spending some time in the car with these two I realized that things weren't going so great for Ains. B would argue with her for arguments sake. For example when Ainsley announced to B that we were going to ride in her car for a field trip (which we were) B's immediate reply was, "No you're not! My mom said you couldn't!" I later heard from Ainsley that B was calling her names like "whiner baby" and telling her that her pictures she was coloring in preschool were ugly. B is also in Ainlsey's dance class and during dance B won't let Ainsley play or stand by her other friend Kiley. At ward parties B is always sure to find a friend and then "uninvite" Ainsley to play with them. I have watched these little social interactions and am pretty sure that these little girls would rather play with Ainsley, they just do what they're told out of fear.

Now I know Ainsley isn't perfect and has plenty of flaws, but I have never seen her be deliberately mean or say cruel things to another person. I feel awful about this situation because I put Ainsley in it. If I hadn't told this mother about preschool then they wouldn't even be in the same dance class. And now I don't know what to do. I've tried to talk to Ainsley about what makes a good friend and that if someone is saying mean things to you then it's okay to not play with that person and to go find new friends. I'm just not sure it's soaking in. Ains is such an upbeat little kid that these put downs don't seem to be bothering her too much....yet. I just don't think that at the age of three you should have to be told that you are a whiner, can't color pretty, and that you can't play with your friends. I'm not sure what else to do. So what do you think? Am I over reacting, is this just a part of life? Do I step in and do something? I'm welcome to all suggestions at this point!

The end of and era???

Last night as we laid Owen down for bed we realized that we couldn't find any pacifiers. He laid in bed fussy for a minute while we searched and then he eventually fell asleep. We never found a pacifier. I guess that's because Owen is at the age where he likes to carry around several pacifiers and stash them in random places that for some reason make sense to him but make it virtually impossible for anyone to find them later. I know for a fact that there are currently 4 pacifiers hid in random nooks and crannies throughout the house.

This is very unfortunate for Owen. He didn't understand that going to sleep without a pacifier, in combination with hiding all remaining pacifiers, gave mom and dad the thumbs up for weaning from the binky. It has been a sad day for Owen. He is currently crying in his crib waiting for a pacifier that isn't coming. The fact that I don't have any to give him makes it easier not to cave. I'm wishing I would have gotten rid of them when he turned one. He wasn't nearly as addicted to them then as he is now. So as for now, Owen will probably have a rough couple of days. I refuse to give in though, why bother starting something if you're not going to finish? And he's only a few weeks younger than Ainsley was when her pacifier habit was licked. I'm just hoping he doesn't come across the lost pacifiers before I do!

Fun Saturday!

We had a really fun day on Saturday. It was Karalenn's birthday and since she was in town we went with her family and friends to Harnival. What is Harnival? It's a party invented by Ainsley's nursery teacher that's a harvest celebration and a carnival. He did it as a party for his business, and since his company fixed our computer a while ago we were invited. It was a lot of fun. There was a DJ, face painting, cotton candy, lunch, balloon animals, a kids jump house, hay rides, popcorn, farm animals, and a few vendors with other games for the kids. We all had a lot of fun! Thanks to Karalenn and her family there was a lot of dancing going on and Ains got to learn the chicken dance too.

After Harnival we came home for a rest and then headed off to our ward's elders quorum party. I didn't take the camera but I wish I would have to get a picture of John playing flag football! The guys looked like they had a lot of fun playing, although it didn't get too intense because they let a few younger kids play too. We had a lot of fun hanging out with people and Ainsley had so much fun playing with her friends that there were more than a few tears shed when it was time to leave (and we were even one of the last to leave so there weren't that many friends left). It was so fun to see her at an age where she could run and play with kids on her own. That left Owen with me who's favorite spot was the drinking fountain...ew! I'm still hoping he hasn't contracted some weird disease. Fun day though!

Ains with her ladybug on a flower.
Not sure what dance Karalenn and Sunny are doing but looks like fun eh?!?

Ainsley's lovely lady bug....well worth the LONG wait!
Owen and his beloved rock!I made him trade in the rock for a puppy balloon, although the puppy was gone by the time we got home.

Get Together!

Karalenn is in town because her parents just returned from their mission, so that meant that we got to see her as well. Maria and Karalenn (and their kids) came over today for lunch. It was a lot of fun. I always like to get together with people that know that much about your past, it makes for good times. Especially since Karalenn remembers more of my past than I do. It's always fun to hear about things you did in middle school and high school that you have completely blocked from your memory. Unfortunately the only picture that got taken was this one of Kendyl stuck in the swing. Poor Kendyl. But at least we got a good laugh out of it!

Food Storage

Last night I went to the cannery and started our food storage. I've never had room or money for extra food (okay, I still don't) but I decided to go ahead and get started. I must admit that my first purchase was very meager. There was a bit of poking fun made at my major purchase of 4 cans of wheat. Yes, I only got 4. And that is my total order pictured. 19 cans of stuff. So now my family won't starve (for 3 days) because we'll have oats, rice, flour, hot chocolate, and wheat. That's all you need to live right? Because I learned that you can sprout the wheat and use it for a vegetable??? So buying wheat is like buying a can of vegetables...I like to inform as well as entertain!

My Turn

Today it was my turn to do some service. I was inspired by what I read here and thus here. So Ains and I made some yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies while Owen played with an empty box of butter (the things that amuse one year olds???), and then we headed out in the rain to drop off our little packages. I had a few people in mind before I left, some of which I didn't know very well. I was surprised that it took a bit of courage for me to go give a treat to people I didn't know very well. I did it though! If the person I was originally taking it to wasn't home I tried to think of someone else. So we dropped off three and I have one still sitting on my counter that I need to give away. I wonder who it will go to???

Decorating

Today I finally got some decorating done despite a sick husband. Yes, John now has the dreaded stomach flu that has insisted on lingering in our home. I figure we've all had it now so we should be done right!? Anyways, I digress.

Seeing as how this is my first Halloween in a house, and I now have a porch, I decorated for Halloween for the first time of my married life. I think it turned out cute.

I also finally got something hung on Owen's walls. Granted it's only one thing, but it's a start! Now I just need to get a few more things hanging in his room and maybe there won't be an echo in there anymore.
I also got my Tai Pan find hung. I got this cute plate hanger while we were in Salt Lake. As weird as it sounds I have wanted a plate hanger for a long time now. Ever since I saw one on Susie McAllister's wall. And now I have one...nice!

Weekend Away!!!

This past weekend I went with my mom, sisters, and Merel to Salt Lake. It was a ton of fun...so much fun that I only pulled out my camera twice, once while we were touring temple square and then in the car on the way home. Luckily for me I got the best shot of Syd and Merel ever!!! They will also not be speaking to me for the next little while for posting the lovely shot of them. I'll have to get some more pictures from Merel because she took a ton.

We left Thursday night and were worried when Merel's stomach started hurting. I was worried she was getting the bug that is currently circulating my family. But by the time we got to Salt Lake she was fine and the fun began. We got up Friday morning and hit temple square. Merel is getting thrown into Mormonism so we thought a visit would be good for her, plus our hotel was right down the street. It was nice to walk around and take a look at things I hadn't seen in a while. After we were done there we headed up to Park City to shop! We shopped for what seemed like 500 hours. My feet have never been more sore from shopping. I found some great bargains, and even though I was hoping to find a lot more (Christmas is coming you know) I'll still consider it a trip well worth it. When we were exhausted and hungry we headed back to Salt Lake for dinner.

It was after 8:00 so we thought we would head to Olive Garden assuming that there wouldn't be a wait that late. Boy were we wrong. There was a 40 minute wait! We stuck it out though and after we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves we headed to Nelson's frozen custard for something sweet and delicious. We pulled up to Nelson's 10 minutes before they closed and as luck would have it we encountered another huge wait. This time the cause of our wait was a youth group from the ward then neighbors my parents. We were thoroughly depressed when halfway though serving the group before us the workers announced that they were all out of custard! There were a few tears shed but we managed to survive the night.

We headed back to the hotel, relaxed in the hot tub for a while, and then went to bed exhausted. We got up early and headed out of town so that we would make it back in time for our husbands to go to the priesthood session. We did make one minor detour at Tai Pan on our way home where we all found some cute things. By we all, I mean my mom, Kort, and I. I think Merel and Syd have demonstrated by their picture how tired we were but we had tons of fun. Maybe this will have to be a yearly get away!

I'm a Genius!

Today while attempting to run my dishwasher I distractedly put dish soap into the soap dispenser instead of dishwasher soap. I noticed my mistake before I ran the dishwasher... I just didn't make great efforts to clean all of the soap out of the dispenser. I didn't think a small amount of left over soap would do that much damage. Apparently I buy the super power dish soap with bubbles that just don't stop, because I had to rid my dishwasher of bubbles and then run the dishwasher 3 times before the bubbles were gone. My sink was full of frothy bubbles that I took from the dishwasher and dumped in the sink.

I could blame my brilliant mistake on the fact that I had been up until about 4:00 in the morning with Owen taking his turn at being sick and throwing up repeatedly (it was so sad to watch him so sick and almost confused by it all) and I was hurriedly trying to get my wreck of a house cleaned up and somewhat sanitized before I leave for the weekend. That's right...I'm leaving for a couple of days. Child free shopping for a day and a half! I've earned it after a week like this one! Good thing Owen is feeling better so I don't feel bad leaving John with a sick baby!

Salsa and the rug doctor...

So, maybe you are thinking that the reason we currently have this Rug Doctor unit in our home has some tie to the fact that I have spent the past 2 days canning salsa. You would be wrong. On Saturday I spent the day getting myself prepared to complete my final batch of salsa. I bought my tomatoes and other ingredients and borrowed my mom's canning supplies so I was ready to go. On Monday morning when I woke up I realized that it would not be physically possible for me to make salsa that day due to the severe cramping in my stomach that was making it impossible for me to stand in an upright position for more that 1-2 minutes at a time. With 50 tomatoes in my garage that were about to go mushy I called my mom and she saved the day. She came over and chopped everything for me, prepared my tomatoes, and got my salsa cooking. It took a good chunk of her day and I was so grateful she was able and willing to drop everything to come and help me out.

By last night I was feeling weak but a bit better. This was a very good thing because Ainsley woke up at 10:00 and threw up. It was a disaster area in her room. Her mattress, hair, pillow, comforter, wall, toys, toy baskets, shelves, box spring, bed frame, and carpet were all covered. It was very pleasant. "Mom mode" kicked in and I no longer had time to lounge about trying to recover from my own illness. John and I both started cleaning Ains and her room. The mess was so bad that I made John call Walmart last night to make sure we could rent a carpet cleaner that late. We had until 11:00 to pick it up, so John was out the door while I continued cleaning, sanitizing, and throwing all manner of things in the washer.

At about midnight last night John and I were cleaning a bed and carpet with our beloved Rug Doctor. What a perfect time for cleaning carpets! At least Owen wasn't awake! Ainsley proceeded to throw up about every hour all night long. John blames it on the strong salsa smell that permeated our home due to the salsa that had been on the stove for hours.

So this morning after a great deal of cleaning, laundry, and another visit from my mother to drop off pedialite and sprite, I was finally able to get my salsa bottled and sealed (hopefully sealed). It sure is nice how things always happen in three's.

FYI: I would not recommend this strategy for canning again. Wait until the morning you are ready to can, make sure everyone is healthy, and then go get your supplies!