Seeing Santa

Tonight was our 11 year anniversary. To celebrate we went to dinner (with all the kids). Not very romantic, I know, but eh, we didn't mind. The kids were well behaved at the restaurant and I was happy I am feeling like I might not die this week. (I've had strep throat and today there are only 1000 knives cutting my throat each time I swallow-versus the 10,000 earlier this week. Antibiotics work wonders...) Anyway, at the restaurant, there was an elderly gentleman eating his dinner. He had a white beard and a Santa hat on. I told the kids, "Look! Santa's having dinner here too!" The kids had to jump out of their seats and look. Hannah was sure it was Santa. Garrett was pretty skeptical.
After dinner, we drove around town to look at the Christmas lights. We went past a house that was extremely lit up-lights were flashing, music playing, lots of movement. There were also people lined up in front of the house. We soon found out why-Santa and Mrs. Claus were there! So, we stopped and got in line. Tonight was a windless, mild evening with the temperature around 28 degrees. Quite pleasant by Idaho in December standards. Anyway-Hannah was so excited to "tell Santa what he is going to bring me." She heard him "Ho Ho Ho-ing" and said to me, "He is so happy!" She wasn't afraid at all. She got right up on his lap and told him all the princess things he would bring her. He gave her a big hug and a candy cane and then shook hands with Blaine and I and told us that Hannah just made his evening. Garrett and Ryan were less excited about Santa. (I think Garrett was but just wanted to be "big". Ryan wasn't so sure about the whole thing but did like the lights and music).
I haven't had much of the Christmas spirit lately but tonight kinda got me back in the mood for Christmas. The kids are so excited and are trying to be so good. Guess we'll just wait and see what Santa brings. Only 7 days to go!
Merry Christmas!!
p.s. Sorry no pictures of Hannah with Santa. It was just way to dark for my poor phone camera tonight!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Birthday Ryan!

I can't believe its been a year already since Ryan was born! He turned one yesterday, November 24th.
Here is a picture of my little man the day after we brought him home (Thanksgiving 2008):


He sure liked to be snuggled up and warm!

Now that he is a year old, I'm going to borrow an idea from my friend. Her daughter turned one yesterday as well! She listed things about her daughter and I think its such a good idea. You forget quickly. Thanks Natalie!

Here are a list of things about Ryan:
Stats:
Height: 29 1/2 inches (just under the 50th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs 4 oz (15th percentile)
Head Circumference: (drum roll please) 48 cm-which is just under the 95th percentile! ;)

Foods: He likes most anything. He especially likes to feed himself. No baby spoons for him, please. He loves green beans and potatoes, muffins, mac & cheese, noodles of any kind, and water. He loves his sippy cup full of water. He doesn't care too much for really sweet things or juice.

Activity: Ryan started walking the night before his birthday. He is getting faster and before we know it, he'll be running. He is my climber. He will climb into or on anything he can. He likes to climb on to the lower mantle by our fireplace. He really thinks he's big stuff there. He likes to play with a ball and loves to be chased by his brother and sister.

Temperment: He is a pretty happy, easy-going kid. He is going into a shy phase and will lay his head on your shoulder and cuddle a little. I love it! None of my kids have been cuddlers as a baby and Ryan is no exception. He is too busy looking around and doing things to sit and cuddle. He loves have songs sung to him. He is also a tease. Loves to tease Hannah. Gives you a huge, cheesy grin as he is doing something he knows he shouldn't.

Words he says: He says mama, dada, and Hannah pretty consistently. The rest is jibberish to me but he puts infelections into what he says, so you know he must be telling you something important. He follows directions pretty well unless he is in a mood to tease. He points to things he wants or places he wants to go. He makes it very clear when he doesn't want something-he bats it away or throws it off his tray. (The last trick we are working to have him not do).



Ryan has more hair than any of my kids. He has huge brown eyes and long lashes. He has 4 teeth with 2 more on the way. I call him my little man. Happy Birthday, my little man!


Here is his first long-distance walk. Look how excited he is!

Bye-Bye Work Car

We are unimaginative. Some people name their cars. Our little white stratus is called the "Work Car." The kids called it that. Probably because they never get to ride in it because it is always at work with one of us. Well, its time to say goodbye to the work car. I'll tell you why:

Last Tuesday, Blaine was driving home from picking up Garrett from piano lessons. He was driving into an intersection and someone turned left in front of them. Well, he hit the brakes but they still crashed into each other. So as you can see, the work car is totaled. Bye Bye work car!

Curious George

Here is Ryan. My little Curious George. My little climber. The monkey costume at Halloween was very appropriate.

If you open the fridge, there he is is. If you open a door, he is crawling at full speed to get through. If you try to unload the dishwasher, he sneaks up behind you and tries to help.

And when you are not looking, he'll just climb right in and have a look around. I seriously did not see him climb up there until I looked down through the top rack and saw him. He's a mischievious little fella!

Then out he goes! Headfirst. Just like he does everything else. He is very brave. Or just doesn't know any better. I think he knows better. We are constantly telling him to turn around. He knows that that means. He just grins at us and does it his way.

Here's how he goes down the stairs in our sunken living room. He figures there are only 2 steps and he can make it. And- even if he crashes, it wasn't that far to fall. Again, we tell him to turn around. See how well he listens? And he's not even 1 year old yet!

Small crash at the bottom. No harm done.

"See! I can do it MY way!"

Now off to more important things...like maybe getting a haircut!

Halloween

Ok. I know its the day after Halloween, but I just had to post pictures of my kiddos in their costumes. We had a busy week before Halloween. Garrett had his class party, we were in the spook alley for the school carnival, we did the trunk-or-treat dinner and my kids had their usual trick or treating and Halloween traditions with my family.

I made black and orange cupcakes for Garrett's class party this week. They decorated them in class. They were delicious, if I do say so myself. I got the recipe for them here.


Blaine was a mad scientist at the spook alley. I'm told he was the scariest thing in the whole spook alley. He had a live patient and there were some closet doors behind him that said "Corpse storage." There was another person under the table kicking the doors and yelling "Let me out!" That really creeped the kids out. Hehehe! (evil laugh). Thats the whole point of a spook alley, right?

This is Garrett. He was a mummy with an incredibly creepy mask on. He is in a coffin and then when people came to look at him, they weren't sure if he was real or not. Until he moved and creeped them out! I was also in the spook alley. I was a witch, of course!


It wouldn't be Halloween without some pumpkin carving. We had been so busy this week that we had time to do it on Halloween. The pumpkins were cleaned out (thanks to the mom) and then dad set to work carving the faces. I usually like to use the pumpkin carving books and carve something elaborate. There was no time for that this year, so we got traditional jack-o-lanterns. I loved them!


Here's the happy kids with the happy jacks!


All dressed up to go trick or treating! Hannah was a princess, Garrett was the mummy monster, Ryan was a monkey, I was a witch and Blaine was a Rastafarian.

Blaine and I had to go to the church to do the trunk or treat dinner so my kids went to Grandma's house and went trick or treating with Grandpa! Then the Brownies came while the kids were gone and left new pajamas and treats! The brownie tradition started with my great-grandmother. The brownies watch you all October and leave little treats for good deeds done. Then, on Halloween, they leave you presents, (i.e. toys, candy, games). My great grandma didn't like her kids to trick or treat-she looked at it as begging- so they had parties with all their cousins and the brownies would leave presents. This is one of my favorite family traditions! I'm sad to have missed it this year. My kids had a blast, though!

Witches Night Out

For the last few years, I have been going to a Halloween get-together called Witches Night Out. It was started by my friend and her mother and sisters as something fun for themselves and their friends to do around Halloween. So around Halloween, they host a Witches Night Out. Everyone dresses up like witches, we meet at the designated spot and usually have a scavenger hunt of some sort and then go have dinner together. Everyone brings a gift to exchange (less than $5.00) and we play one of those "left" "right" games to exchange the presents. It is so much fun!

This year we all got on the "Witches Bus" and traveled to a grocery store in Rigby. (Last year we me in the broom aisle in Walmart!) The witches bus was an actual school bus, decorated in Halloween fashion, and driven by an actual school bus driver. It was great! At the store we had a scavenger hunt and then walked around cackling at the customers. After we had made a nuisance of ourselves, we got back on the bus and went to Krupp Scout Hollow. We had to walk on a road, through the woods, in the dark to the building that had our potluck dinner. It was kinda spooky but very fitting. We played games and exchanged our presents and had a great time!


Getting ready to go!


I'm really glad I had the cloak. It was cold outside! The bus was a little chilly too!

Its fun to see people stare, especially the little kids. One year 2 little girls came up to us and asked, "Are you real witches?" We just looked at each other and cackled!

Hannah really wanted to come with. She kept telling me I was a pretty princess!



Love these socks!

Witch in training!

Cartoons

My kids love to watch cartoons. What kid doesn't? I still like cartoons like Looney Toons, Tom & Jerry, and the classic Disney with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Chip & Dale.

My kids like the new cartoons, but they are learning to love the old ones too. Tonight, I sat down with them and we watched some classic Mickey & Donald. My kids were laughing so hard. I was too, to tell the truth. I just love spending time with my kids and they loved this.

The old cartoons say things that you just can't get away with anymore, like:
Daffy Duck: "I can see where this moron is gonna give me trouble."

I know its not nice but that like made me laugh. I have somewhat of a twisted sense of humor. But, back to the classics. Does anyone remember Humphrey the Bear, Ferdinand the Bull and Lambert the Sheepish Lion? My parents even used to watch them. Ahhh...the good old days. And so, for your viewing pleasure here is
In the bag.

Well, I guess I'm just feeling nostaligic tonight but I think everyone should enjoy some quality time with your kids...doing things that help you remember the "Good old days!"

Got Corn?

We do. Boy, do we ever!

Friday my dad called and told me they were going to pick corn. We headed over to the McGary's house (they are long time family friends) to pick corn. My dad was going to be swathing it under, so we picked all we could. Then the plan was for everybody to go back to my house and start doing corn (freezer corn).
My dad had all of his pipemovers there to help. At one time there was my dad, Brent, me, Kara, the pipemovers and Garrett, Jayson, & Hannah out there picking corn. The snowmobile trailer was hooked to the 4-wheeler and we just kept picking and loading it up! We quit counting but I think we figured we had about 150 dozen ears!

Hannah is standing on the trailer with the corn. She loved being on the trailer! The weather was so nice but it was hot out there in the corn!

Here is Hannah, Jayson & Garrett on the trailer with the corn. We just drove right down the middle of the cornfield. The kids would jump off and play and then when we moved the trailer forward, they would run after it and jump on. I'm sure if the saftey Nazi's could see this they'd put a stop to it for sure. We did this kind of stuff all the time when I was growing up.

Its hard to see here (click on the picture for a better view) but the kids are riding on the trailer as it drives away. They rode it down the road back to Beckie's house. My dad looked at that and said, "Now thats what kids should do. Ride on farm implements all day!" My kids loved it.

They were waving all down the road like they were in a corn parade.

Since it is getting dark earlier now, we were doing corn in the dark. This is Friday. We did 86 quart bags that night. This is my parents outside, cutting corn. Sorry about the bad picture. Still don't have a camera. All of the pictures in this post were taken from mine & Blaine's phones.


Here's Brent and Terresa. They were on the deck where there was more light. He's still using his head lamp, though!

Saturday morning we started bright and early! Even my grandma came over to help. By the end of the whole thing, every one in my family had been there to help. Thats really the only way to do canning, in my opinion.


Grandma hates having her picture taken. She said, "What are you going to do with that? Put it on your blog or something?" Why yes, grandma. I am.

We had quite a system going. After husking enough corn for people to start cutting it, I started cooking the corn. We added butter and a little sugar and water to the cut corn and then boiled it for 5 min. It had to cool a little and then we could bag it.


I don't care what anyone says. Doing corn is a very sticky ordeal. In the end we got 263 quart size bags full of corn (about 3 cups in each bag). Thats a lot of corn! Thanks everyone for helping. We split it up amongst ourselves and now, sometime this winter when we can even think about eating corn again, we will enjoy it!

Here is the recipe we used:

8 cups corn

1 1/2 cups water

3 Tbsp sugar

1/4 cube butter

Boil together for 5 minutes.

Cool & bag. Freeze.

Batch can be doubled

P.S. My dishwasher wouldn't drain last night. The drain tube was clogged with............corn!

Ryan's 9 month check up

Ryan had his 9 month check up last week. He is a happy healthy baby! Here are his stats:
Height: 27.75 inches (30th percentile)
Weight: 19 lbs 7.5 oz (30th percentile)
Head circumference: 47.5 cm (95th percentile!)
His head growth has actually slowed a bit but its still huge. Oh well, Garrett's head was big too.
The doctor told us big heads usually run in families.

Anyway, since my camera is out of commission, here are some pics of Ryan from the latest set of photos we had taken. Enjoy!

Fishin' in the dark

Well, it wasn't actually dark. But, it was becoming that way quickly.
We took the kids fishing to my dad's pond last night. When we got there it was still pretty light but the sun was going down. Blaine got the kids' poles ready and cast them out. Garrett's line kept trying to tangle every time we cast. I guess thats because its a new line and not stretched out yet.

Here's the pond. It looks a lot darker in this picture than it actually was.

Here we are, just before we left to go home. It was pretty dark by then.

Hannah was so excited to go. She's been asking to go fishing every day. (Either that or swimming). She kept calling the pond "the fishing pool."

Here's the great fisher-boy, Garrett. He had a great time even though we didn't catch anything. The fish weren't biting last night. They weren't even jumping. Oh well. We'll be back!

Here's the fish my dad caught this weekend. We cooked it up and ate it right away. My kids LOVE fish and couldn't get enough.

First Haircut

Ryan got his first haircut on Saturday. He did good but doesn't like having to hold still-or being made to hold still! Ryan has great hair, though. No cowlicks. Poor Garrett has 3 of them.

My awesome friend and hairdresser-Renee- cut his hair.

Here is a before picture. Look at that happy, shaggy-haired baby!

Getting ready! Blaine held him for the whole thing.

Ryan is still doing good...doesn't know whats coming yet.

Now we've gotten to the point where he has to hold still.

As you can see, he hates it. Oh well, just gotta keep going.



But look at the finished product! Such a little man.

I didn't think he could get any cuter but just look at him!

Oooh! I just love this face!