Halloween

My Babies

Our attempt at a family picture tonight was a total bust.  We got all ready and up in the trees with the amazing colors, and the camera battery died.  Kind of disappointing.  It takes serious effort to get 3 children and myself ready...especially when I don't hage a thing to wear.  Seriously, it looks like I'm playing dress up in my maternity wear, but my regular clothes are obsene.  Anyway, we thought we shouldn't waste an opportunity when the kids are looking clean, at least, so we came home and took a few pictures in the yard. 

 Mighty good lookin' kids, if you ask me! 

Ian's job was to keep Reese out of the creek, as this rock is about a foot and half from the edge.

 Tyler says she looks like an 80's chic with her denim and pearls. 

I think she's just the cutest thing I've ever seen.

 Why is it a rule that you can't have a nice picture of any 3 year old?

Finally got a decent one, but only after he was instructed to say "stinky".

Pumpkin Crop 2011

Everything in our garden may not have flourished this year, but the pumpkins sure did.  We had nearly 30 this year.  It was so fun watching them grow!  We have a lot to learn about growing pumpkins, but we think it turned out pretty well.  Since we couldn't possibly use 30 pumpkins, I told Ian he could sell them to fund his halloween costume.  It's worked out pretty well in light of the pumpkin shortage caused by hurricane irene.  Ian has now sold more than half of them.  What to do with the rest?  Hollow one out and fill it up with soup?  I'll just be sure not to choose a 35 pounder for that.

Ian and Cam wash the pumkins with bleach water to prevent fungus.

I'm quite sure we don't have the growing season for this, but wouldn't it be fun to grow one of those 1,000 pounders??

At Last! Grass!

After an entire spring & summer full of work on our dirt patch, we at last saw the fruits of our labors!

 After the first tilling.  This was when we hauled in our biggest crop of rocks.

 I tilled again before we put the sprinklers in.  That was a mistake.  Had I known that

I'd have to till again anyway, I never would have done it the second time. 

 It took two Saturdays to get the sprinkler system in.  We felt trapped in our house

because we had to hop over trenches and piles of dirt all week. 

 But, sprinklers are the best thing we did, because can you imagine watering all this with two hoses?

 Finally finished!  Sprinklers in, trenches backfilled, tilled, raked and rocks hauled off....

except for the ones I just raked off to the side because I was sooooooo tired of hauling rocks. I thought surely October is a better month to haul rocks than August!

 I'm not sure how many rocks we hauled off, but I finally discovered how you get what I call "basketball arms" without actually playing basketball.  Just 4 months of raking and hauling rocks.
I think I finished raking the day before or maybe the day Tyler went to get the first load of sod.

Nobody seemed interested in delivering sod to us.  So, Tyler had to drive to Burley three times to pick it up.  Thanks to the Sharps for letting us borrow their gooseneck trailer!  The middle of August isn't exactly the best time to leave things around here, but Tyler endured a few late nights.  And, we learned not to try to unload the sod at midnight.  Just leads to disaster.  We dropped two pallets and decided to never do that again.  There was so much waste the first day from all the pieces that were torn in the fall.

So here it is....Livingstone Field.  Awaiting its first game. 

The last load of sod was really dry.  They must have cut it well in advance of us picking it up.  Anyway, as of today's date, it has made a lot of progress and greened up nicely.

 

 

Getting grass was a lot of work.  It required major time sacrifices from all of us.  But, it has changed our lives.  Our kids will actually leave the house and play outside on their own.  We've played more catch and frisbee and tag in the last three weeks than we have in the last 2 1/2 years. 

And, our dog actually comes home on his own from time to time.  We love it!

It's been a great three weeks - not having to rake or haul rocks, but now I guess we're going to have to actually accept the responsibility of grass and actually mow it. 

My Favorite Picture All Time

Cleaning up after playing in the creek.

I Know I'm Biased.....

But I think she is the cutest thing ever.

Even when she gives me this look.  I couldn't believe she could make this face without crying. 



Love her, love her, love her.

Happy Mustache May!

Kids

As I don't do anything except take care of kids and work at the shop, sometimes I feel like I don't really have anything important to say. But, I have been working harder to take pictures so we don't miss this stage in any of the kid's development.

Some things never change. Ian is still obsessed with dinosaurs, and is using his amazing persuasive influence to get his friends to help him clear all the dinosaur books from the bookmobile every two weeks. He also loves Mario Kart. He beats me every time, and beats Tyler about half the time. We took him to a SCHS play the other day (The Good, The Bad and The Pirates), and he has been busily planning his own production. This isn't a great picture of Cameron, but it does tell you a lot about his life. He has to constantly beware of attack...by dinosaur or brother. He will be 3 in a week, and is growing up fast. A year ago he could barely talk, and now he's busting out words like 'giganotosaurus' and 'fantastic!!'. I helped him pull up his pants the other day, and when we were done, he said "Fantastic Mom!" and ran off to play. He also loves dinos and is addicted to toast....much like his mother. He says he's going to be a cowboy when he grows up.

I love it when they start dressing themselves!

I marvel at their ability to put every article of clothing on backward or on the wrong foot!

Reese met her new cousin, Ruby a few weeks ago. First of all, we had to restrain her hand so she wouldn't clothesline Ruby. Second, this just goes to show you how much babies grow in just a few short months!

You were wondering how she figured out how to sleep 12 hours/night? Here's your answer.

Exercise

Anyone who has known me since I graduated from college knows that I can be sort of a fanatic about exercise. I ran all kinds of races: adventure races, 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons, a marathon and many triathlons. Things have necessarily changed since we started our family, but the problem is, I'm still the same inside. I still think I should be in good enough shape to go out and run a half marathon any old weekend. That's why it's so frustrating to have to start from '0' after each child. Don't get me wrong, the children are tottaly worth it, it's just really frustrating.

So, it's been a month since the baby has been sleeping through the night reliably (it is a dream come true to finally have a baby that will do it all my herself). I've had a month to mend my sleep deficite. I have come to accept the fact that 15-20 minutes a day isn't doing anything for the last of my pregnancy weight. At least 75% of my pants still don't fit. So, Sunday night I told Tyler it was time for me to get back on "the program".

I don't know why I have to announce these things out in public. Because in the back of little minds, unconscious plans to sabotage are born. All the sudden, husbands want to stay up late and talk, and children do their best to ensure that you don't sleep enough to want to drag yourself out of bed in the morning while it's still dark.

11:00 pm - finally setttle in to sleep

3:00 am - alarm clock rings. what the heck? my watch alarm hadn't rung, which is what i usually use to get up in the mornings. i didn't know it wasn't actually 6:30 am until I stumbled into the bathroom and saw that my watch said 3 am. someone changed the time and turned on the alarm.

4:00 am - falling back asleep...at last! now i hear the baby crying. argh! what in the world? she wants to socialize tonight.

5:00 am - climb back into bed....and the coughing starts. poor tyler is getting over some dread disease.

5:55 am - watch alarm rings. UGH. oh well, i was already awake.

I'd like to say that I had the best time exercising. But I didn't. It's pretty dark still at 6 am and it's a little disorienting. And, the first time back is always painful. I can feel parts of my body giggle that I'd rather not. I can feel my shrunken muscles struggle through the unbelievably slow jog from marker to marker until I decide I have to walk. It'll be a month or maybe two before I can run the 5 or 6 miles I like to run. I know it will get easier every time, but it's a hard road to travel.

If you're trying to get in shape too, I hope it helps to know that someone else is suffering too!

2 days down!!

Time Flies

3 months old!

Reese's Blessing

We blessed our little Reese on Sunday. I'm not normally one to care about dresses and hair pieces (I obviously don't even know how to use them), but my sister offered to let me borrow her dress that her little one was blessed in a few months ago. Although a little too big, it was gorgeous, and Reese apparently enjoyed some attention.
I did have to warn Tyler before he took her to bless her that the dress made her very slippery. I could just imagine her slipping out of his arms while he was fraught with emotion during the blessing. After the blessing, she was asleep on her cousin's lap, and all you could see was her face and an arm sticking out of the skirt that was up around her head by that time.

Isn't she cute?