A visit from the cousins

Saturday, we got a very rare visit from my cousin's Monica and Molly. We see them every once in a while, but it is very rare that they visit us because they are super wussy and hate driving this far. Anyways, we are glad they came and they brought their kids (Dylan and new baby Allison for Monica, and Cameron for Molly) plus Monica's husband Donnie. Both Dylan and Cameron are close to Peyton's age (within two months) so it is always fun to get them together. When we lived there, the boys saw each other all the time, but now you can definitely tell Peyton is the outsider. It makes me sad when I see stuff like that, then I really miss living in Spokane, it was going to be awesome for Peyton to have boys his age to play with and be close to. I missed out on all that close extended family stuff living on this side of the state, but back to the real story. So they were taking a mini vacay to the Great Wolf Lodge and squeezed us in. We threw some burgers and chicken on the barbeque and just ate and chat with them while the boys played. Peyton pretty instantly attacked them, but he was in his element. The other boys, especially Dylan, took a little longer to warmp up, once they found the toys though, they were better. I was happy to get to see Allison, I was afraid I wouldn't see her until she was one or something. I swear she is the prettiest baby, none of the baby acne or anything, even my own child didn't look that good and I'm biased! It was a great evening.
Oh, yeah! The best part was they brought me my chocolate, 25lbs worth. I better get to making if I ever want to get done,Peyton is definitely not going to make it easy!

Pumpkin Carving (Round 2)

Jesse again came away from the night the pumpkin champ. On our second trip down pumpkin carving lane Erica, Nate, Melia, Spencer, Jesse, and I all carved pumpkins, not everyone finished, but we all started. The evening began with make your own pizzas, yum!, and some Christmas planning, weird I know. Then we got things set up for the carving. Dad and Mom played with the kids and watched as we gutted and scraped, poked, and cut. Most of us tried following a pattern, but Spencer informed us that was not using our creativity and he hand sketched a design and carved it out. He then reminded us several times he was better than us. I took the longest, but I did finish, it isn't as good as Jesse's and I hate that! Erica quit and Jesse ended finishing hers. Nate finished and threw his own flair into the design. Melia didn't quit, she would like to point out, but she didn't finish, we will see if she does later. Spencer obviously did and his is unique. Then there's Jesse. Mr. Perfect. How he is so good at this I will never know. This is the first year we have carved together, so he hasn't had a lot of practice. However, it is kind of addicting and now we want to do more. I wonder if we can do Christmas pumpkins?

Nate with his Vampire skull and cross bones...Spencers Jack O Lantern Creation

Finished pumpkins from left to right-Erica/Jesse's pumpkin (Melia's should look the same), mine, and Jesse's (good he knows)




Peyton digging around, it's what everyone else was doing

A close up of Jesse's newest Masterpiece

Oatmeal Angels

So, when Melia and I were watching a movie, Peyton's absence started to get suspicious and then I knew he was in the kitchen. Lately, he's been getting in the bottom cabinet and, well, when we went in there this is what we found. We figured the mess had been made so we might as well let him play and get some pictures! He made some oatmeal angels with Melia and even ate a big mouthful. Guess we better put a better lock on that.
First caught in the act!He really enjoyed throwing the stuffEating the oatmeal

Saltine Challenge

When the Dahlins were over this Friday for our Office viewing we somehow got talking about the saltine challenge. Jason didn't understand what the big deal was, six saltines in a minute, sounds easy. Yes! We had a contestant. Nate joined next, then Stacie, and finally Erica. I've tried and came nowhere close so decided I would document it. Jesse is the only person I've ever seen successfully do it, so he was the timer. Everyone went at the same time, we lined them all up six saltines, informed them no drinking and your mouth must be empty by the end of the minute. They agreed to the terms and the challenge began. Some, especially the girls, knew this was a feat they could not accomplish, but they courageously pushed through. The men, however, had glimmers of hope in their eyes and tried pushing themselves for that saltine success. Needless to say, neither was very close. Jason was probably the closest and he had one in front and about two in his mouth. Nate probably had enough crumbs to make an entire cracker in front of him. It was really funny to watch, though, and we've decided it would make a great ward social activity (hint, hint!)

Walking in somebody else's shoes

Jesse and I are playing a game and glance up. Peyton is in the shoe corner pulling out Grandpa's sandals (nothing new), but this time he is lining them up correctly and attempts to step in. He does. What! Then he starts doing the cutest old man shuffle across the floor.
"He's never done that before!" I say to Jesse, "Get the camera."
He leaps up.
"Wait, the battery isn't in the camera!" I remember.
"Where's the battery?"
"You'll never find it in time! I'll get the battery you make sure he doesn't stop doing that!"
I sprint down the hall, grab the battery, and bound back with it just in time to see Peyton stepping out of the shoes. Jesse shrugs. "What happened, get him to do it again." After a few "words" of encouragement, Peyton steps back in the shoes, and picks up his walk again. I capture the magic moment and it all ends well. Actually, it ends with Peyton falling because he stepped down into the family room with the shoes on and landed on a hanger, whoops!

Ellipses Day

Ok, I guess since I got "tagged" twice I will do this, and I never do these. We'll see if I can actually answer them seriously, probably not, I am not very good at opening up and "sharing my feelings" but hope you enjoy anyways!

I am… watching an episode of Jon & Kate plus 8 with Erica
I miss… my old jeans : (
I think… I might get to see Allison, my cousin Monica's baby, this weekend
I know… I am starting to come out of my shell, but I am not there yet
I want… to have more crazy moments
I have… to kiss my son everyday
I search… online to find new recipes, and clothes
I wish… food didn't make you fat
I hate… that I sometimes feel left out
I am… dreading the pile of clothes I have to fold
I fear… people that "tag" you, they are crazy
I always… have something sweet to eat everyday
I love… Christmas, its that time
I feel… kind of tired, but know I have stuff to do
I hear… Peyton kicking in his crib (maybe I should get him up...)
I smell… eww, Madison
I don’t… know how long I will be living at my parent's house
I wonder… how many people will read all the way through this
I care… what others think, a lot
I regret… not being more outgoing around people I don't well
I am… thinking about decorating for Christmas next weekend
I believe… I will never be like most other women and therefore won't fit in, I just don't feel girly and emotional enough
I dance… in the car, kitchen, living room, with Peyton, anytime a great song comes on
I sing… really, really badly, but when I do it is loud and energetically
I write… nothing but my blog anymore
I win… when I let go and don't try to win, I am a bit competitive
I lose… my mind when all the babies cry at the same time
I never… run
I listen… to The Office when I clean the kitchen
I read… Parenting and random stuff
I can… try way too hard to control stuff
I am… an imperfectionist (he, he, he) who is trying to take care of her family while living with two others

Pumpkin Carving (Round 1)

Sunday night we did our first round of pumpkin carving, a trial run if you will. Only Jesse, Erica, Nate, and I actually carved one. Melia was taking care of Spencer who was sick and Dad was working on fixing the dishwasher (boy does it suck not having that!) Jesse is the only one who was able to do a fancy one this time, the other two pumpkins were too small, but his turned out really well, and he knows it. I haven't carved a pumpkin in a while and I sorta forgot how tedious and gross the whole cleaning and scraping process is, next time I think I will hire out that part, probably to Jesse, he actually likes it. It was a lot of fun and now we are planning our next round, this time everyone will do it and we'll see if I can do an intricate one too.

Peyton Helping w/ the dishwasher

The finsished products, and yes, Jesse is howling!

Jesse's Masterpiece

Corn Maze

Getting lost with your family amongst a field of produce is one of my new favorite pastimes. I've only done one corn maze before, and Jesse and I just haven't found the time to go to one for a few years, but we are glad we did this year. We, along with Melia, Spencer, Erica, Nate, and Madison, went up to Tumwater to Rutledge Farms and mazed it up. To make it even, each person got two turns getting us to a checkpoint, some were better than others, but to make it interesting we let Peyton run free at the beginning to get us to our "starting" checkpoint. Next year I think we will go an hour earlier than everyone else so he can just run around without us feeling like we are holding people up because boy howdy did he love it! It was interesting that some of us used the map, and some, like Spencer, let their inner compass guide them. There were a few spills (poor Melia) and those dang teenage kids running around (I sound like such an old lady!) but otherwise it went very smoothly. Because of the time of night we went we had to pay the higher price to get into the haunted maze even if we didn't want to go it. Oh my gosh Melia was so worried we were going to go. Luckily it was so close to Halloween that the line was super, super long and we did not want to wait. We were there when it was dark, though, so we got to use our flashlights, that made it kind of spooky. By the end of the night we had found all the checkpoints so we turned in our punch tickets, maybe we'll some prizes!

Melia punching her ticket at a checkpoint

Peyton leading the group

The girls on top of a bridge (can you spot Peyton?)

Spooky!

Peyton with Jesse riding in style

Melia and I consulting the map

Fun Friday

Does it every seem like once you start writing about your life, you suddenly become busier? It has sure felt that way for me these past couple weeks, and not in a bad way, just like we have more going on then usual.

Thursday was crazy for me because I got stuck, I mean the privilege, of watching all three babies in the morning. Some people probably think I am wuss for getting stressed about it, but is seems harder when they aren't your babies because you feel like you can't let them cry at all. I have also started to discover that I am not the biggest baby person. They are fun and all. I like to cuddle with them and make them giggle, but they also cry, poop, and yak all over you. Trade offs I don't always love. OK, I don't hate babies, I am just not one of those people that will come steal your baby the minute you walk into the room, so a morning with two babies and one little terror (Peyton) does not excite me. Plus I could never get them to nap, Isabell peed out and I had to bath her while poor Madison was crying, Peyton was constantly trying to sit on whichever one I wasn't feeding and then he was writing all over my couch. It was a blast, but could have been much worse.

Friday was much calmer and a lot more fun. It started with a girls shopping trip for Melia and I, that ended with neither of us actually purchasing anything for ourselves, except some earrings (they always fit right and never make you look fat) but of course we got clothes for the kids. We tried out the new Aeropostale store but it was too cold for Melia to actually try anything on so we were in and out of there. Bass however was having 40% off of everything in the store on top of the sale prices so I got Peyton some excellent snow boots that were $50 for $25 with tax. After a nice little Wendy's spread we did a little grocery shopping and then were going to try out this little bakery we've seen that Melia has wanted to stop by. Now if you have ever seen Gilmore Girls, she kinda envisioned it as Fran's Bakery, nice old lady, good treats. This was not the case. Cranky old lady, bad selection, NOT good treats. She told us tomorrow was her last day. We weren't surprised.

Later that evening, our friends Stacie and Jason and their two daughters came over for the evening. They have been TV deprived lately and we record a few shows so we thought we could share in the wealth. We decided to expose them to The Office becuase we have been telling them about it, and have been really wanting to get someone else into it. It worked, I think we got them hooked. Stacie really seemed to enjoy it. After that we played Catchphrase for a bit, we'll turn them into gamers yet, and then just hung out and chatted until it got pretty late and the yawns were coming to quickly to be ignored. It was a fun evening. We do stuff at our house, but we never knew who to invite over, maybe now we have someone.

Today Jesse is headed on the youth Temple trip and then Spencer, Melia, Erica, Nate, Madison, Peyton, and I will meet him in Olympia on his way back to go to a corn maze. Hopefully Peyton enjoys the running space and the weather isn't too bad! We'll see. As long as we don't let the boys have the map for too long I am sure we will be just fine.

Another cute Peyton moment!

Peyton has discovered a new way to eat his cereal. Apparently it is most effective when you stick your whole face in the bowl and then wipe the contents that stick to your face into your mouth! He is so creative...or something like that.

Pass, set, hit! Sort of...

Saturday night was the first event I have planned since moving back to Onalaska, a volleyball night. Yeah I don't plan a lot of stuff because what if people don't show up or don't have fun. It's so much pressure! Anyways, Jesse and I invited some couples from our ward, plus our family members, up to the gym for some relaxed volleyball. That wasn't all we had to do that day, though. First, we had a birthday party to go to. My friend Heidi's son, Sawyer, turned 3, so we went over there for cake and ice cream and watched him open gifts. The girls chitchatted in the kitchen while the boys talked shop in the garage, boy was Jesse bored! Oh, but just while in the garage, when everyone was hanging out he had a good time, he is just not that into cars and motors. Then we came back home and set up a few things before running over to the football field to watch Jesse's nephew play for a few minutes. It was little kid football, not a lot of action, but not as bad as Jesse thought it was going to be. Then we finally headed to gym to warm up for the volleyball spectacular.

Like expected, it took a while for everyone to get there, so we just played and had people fill in as they showed up. Every body's skill level was different so it wasn't too competitive, but it was a lot of fun. (We were pretty excited any time there was a rally.) All the kids were there so there was craziness everywhere with kids running onto the court (uh, Peyton) and playing around, but there weren't too many incidents ( although I do remember a bucket being thrown from upstairs barely missing some little kids...)

Poor Mom got stuck watching all the little kids. It was a night of feeding and wrangling for her, all while trying to take pictures. Afterwards we headed back to our house to eat some goodies I had baked and visit a little bit. I think that was the best part for some people, and the kids really seemed to enjoy the treats and the Foosball table. It was a good evening of adult hangout time even with all the kids being there and everyone seemed to have a good time, I think, and now they want to make it a semi-regular thing. Watch out Olympics here we come!