Bring on the candy and pumpkins!

I LOVE this time of year! From the 1st of October to just after New Years is the best time of year, in my opinion, and the best holiday in that time is Halloween. So I go ALL out! Here are some pictures of the fun we've had this past week.

On Monday we got some pumpkins to carve with the kids. Rosalee was very excited to get naked and dig in the goo. Zeke was excited to sit and watch us and wasn't too excited to get in the goo. Oh well, I guess he'll learn that his mom believes in sensory time eventually. We also learned that Rosalee enjoys eating raw pumpkin seeds. When I asked her if she wanted me to cook them she said, "no thank you, I'm fine". She cracks us up!

Rosalee didn't waste any time getting right into the pumpkin. She would watch, and wait, for Jesse to loosen the sides with an ice cream scooper and then as soon as he would sit back she'd be right back in the mess.

Zeke was very amused by us and kept smiling and talking every time I'd look at him.

I love how she was up to her armpit digging out the seeds.

My fabulous cyclops pumpkin!

Poor kid wasn't too sure about sitting in cold pumpkin goo. We thought about letting him go fully naked but with Rosalee eating the seeds we realized that wouldn't be very sanitary.

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On Wednesday we had a play group at the church for the toddlers and preschool aged kids. At first Rosalee was nervous and acting shy around the kids. She'd talk to all of the adults but then she'd stare at the floor if a kid approached her. Thankfully one boy (the one in the Captain America outfit) came up to her and starting talking to her. Then when the music starting playing he grabbed her by the hand and took her over to where the kids were dancing. Then he held both of her hands and said, "we have to hold hands like they do on Dancing With the Stars". I about DIED with laughter! Then they started dancing to the music and Rosalee had the BIGGEST grin on her face! She ran up to me and said, "the boy he dance with me mama!" and went back to dancing. After that we had no problems with her playing with the other kids. Sadly her wings had a malfunction (iron on Velcro sucks!) and I didn't have Zeke's hat finished so I'll have to post full costume pictures after this weekend.

The first one was Rosalee posing "scary"... I think she looks more confused than anything. The second one is of her dancing with a little girl. She was more interested in watching the sequins on her dress than dancing.

Here is Zeke as Peter Pan. I made his shirt, shorts, and belt. I found the tights at Once Upon a Child for a dollar so I couldn't resist buying them. Plus I think they'll help keep his legs warm.

Nothing makes Rosalee happier than a cup filled with Cheetos. (The Halloween ones are orange and then dye your mouth black... GROSS, but she didn't seem to care.)

Here are all the kids in their costumes. I think I missed a few who were being shy, but oh well.
Today we're off to Utah to spend Halloween with two of Jesse's siblings and parents. I think Rosalee will enjoy trick-or-treating with her cousins and Zeke will enjoy being around people. Rosalee is excited to go see "the kids, my cousins" and keeps asking me to "go get in the car Mama."

Can't you tell he's excited for the weekend?

PAINFULLY honest

Rosalee doesn't lie. She doesn't understand the concept and for that I am thankful... even when it leads us to the hospital. Here's how it all came around.
Last night she was in bed, about to go to sleep, and then she started hollering that she needed to go to the bathroom. I ignored her for a few minutes and then decided that she probably really did need to use the bathroom. When Jesse got her he informed me that she pulled her earrings out and that he wanted me to look for them while he took her to the bathroom. I looked for the earrings but I could only find one back. When Jesse came in he helped me look and he found another back and one earring. Not expecting a response I said out loud, "Rosalee where is the second earring?"
"I ate it."

"What!??!"

"I ate it."

Jesse is trying not to burst out laughing and I'm dumbfounded staring at her.

"Rosalee, where is the second earring?"

"I ate it Mama."

"Rosalee we DON'T eat our earrings! You could get sick sweetheart."

Jesse pipes in, "You might have to go to the doctor now."

Worried that she'll have to go to the doctor she says, "I help you find it" and jumps into her crib from my arms. She digs in her blankets and moves her pillow around but didn't find the earring.

"Rosalee did you really eat your earring?" (I know she already told me she had but I seriously couldn't believe that she'd do something like that.)

"No. Yes. No, I not eat it. It in my belly."
"What!?!"

"It in my belly."

Not sure what to say, Jesse asks, "Did it taste good?"
"No."

"Good, I hope you learned your lesson."

So this morning I called the doctor and they ordered a x-ray for Rosalee. We had a Halloween party at church for the little kids in the morning so I decided to take her to that first. (The damage was done, so why not let her have a little fun before seeing the doctor.) We went, we had fun, and a VERY nice lady volunteered to watch Zeke for me. I'll post the pictures later when I find my camera. (Yet another odd small story from today.)
At the hospital the lady in the admission office insisted that Rosalee wear a partical mask. She said everyone under 18 had to wear one to protect themselves from the swine flu. I rolled my eyes, but tied the thing around Rosalee's neck. Did she put it on her face? No, but she did chew on it a few times.
In the x-ray waiting room Rosalee told three people, "I ate my earring and now I get a picture of my belly". We didn't wait long at all before being taken back to the imaging room. I had Rosalee lie down on the table and she was great! She stayed still and they were able to get the image they needed with only one take. The funny part was the amount of glitter left behind on the pillow...

The technician asked me, "Are we looking for one earring or two?"

"One, why?"

"I only found one and just wanted to make sure we didn't need to keep looking."

She showed me the bright shiny spot on her intestine and said that she should pass it by Friday.

What now?

Jesse and I get to search her poop for the lost earring. NOT because I want to use it again, but to make sure that it comes out.

Rosalee gets to eat a high fiber diet and drink plenty of water until it passes.

We all get to laugh at the random, weird things toddlers do.

My sleep in day

It isn't a big secret that I require more sleep than the average person my age. Most people my age can stay up to 2 am and then get up for work the next day (same day technically) at 5 am and be able to function fully. I need my 6-8 hours and I quite enjoy spending my nights sleeping. So my wonderful husband tends to let me sleep in on Saturdays to help make up for my lack of sleep the rest of the week. Even though he works during the week and would love to sleep in as well he knows that Rosalee won't take care of herself. So today, like most Saturdays, when Rosalee starting calling out for us at 7 am (which is odd because she normally sleeps until 8-8:30) he got out of bed and brought her back into our room. Apparently she asked me for breakfast and I told her, "five more minutes" so Jesse took her upstairs. By the time I woke up at 9:30 to a hungry Zeke, Rosalee was fed and ready to go for the day. I love that he loves me enough to give me a few quiet hours every week in bed.
After waking up and getting Zeke ready we drove to Idaho Falls to run some errands. Halloween is in one week and I had a list of everything that I need to do to finish our costumes. So my patient family agreed to go with me to four different places to get everything we need.
(Back story- when we were in Idaho Falls getting the tire changed the other day I told Jesse that I wanted to take the kids to the temple and greenbelt to take pictures of them. I absolutely LOVE autumn and wanted to get some pictures of the pretty leaves and have yet another excuse to photograph my family.) After we left the first store Jesse asked if I wanted him to go back toward the freeway. When I asked why (all of the stores are located in the other direction) he said, "so you can get those pictures you wanted to take the other day."

What a man!

So we took the kids to the temple and got a few pictures of them with the leaves. It was windy and we weren't exactly dressed for an outdoor photo session so we kept it short. I was just glad that I got some pictures before too many of the leaves fell off the trees.

This is the face Rosalee made when I told her we were going to buy her Tinkerbell wings and glitter make-up today.

Thankfully there were some people nearby so we grabbed one and asked them to take our picture.

LOOK AT THOSE EYES! I just love love love how this turned out! I thought the leaves were pretty but I didn't realize how great the contrast between the blue and red would be.

Rosalee was in heaven playing with all the leaves. She kept running around grabbing hand fulls of them and then would pick one or two to keep. She carried two of the leaves with her the rest of the day, showing them to people at the stores.

Jesse with the kids. He was trying to look tough in the second picture but I think Zeke wins...

I just love my Rosalee! She kept asking for hugs and kisses all today which made be ecstatic. I'll take overly affectionate ANY day over toddler meltdowns, thank you.

So after going to Deseret Industries (a second hand store), the Halloween store at the mall, Once Upon a Child (a consignment store for kid stuff), JoAnn's Fabrics, and back to Deseret Industries for the coat I wanted Jesse to get, we are good to go for Halloween (minus Jesse's hook). I'm making Zeke's entire outfit and Rosalee's wings so I'll take some pictures of those once I finish. Stay tuned!

What a day!

Today started in a good way. Jesse woke up and got Rosalee out of her crib and brought her into bed for some snuggle time. We watched Dora while Zeke slept and Jesse got ready for the day. Both Jesse and I had a great feeling that something exceptionally good was going to happen today. Jesse took the day off of work because we planned on going up to Rexburg for the job fair at BYU-Idaho. Jesse looked online and found several companies that would be at the job fair and are in his job field. So we bathed and dressed the children, printed out a few resumes, and got in the car.
The kids were great on the trip up to Rexburg- Zeke slept and Rosalee looked at her books. We got to Jesse's grandparents' house and Rosalee squealed with delight as she ran for the door. I ate lunch with Rosalee, Zeke again slept, and Jesse went to the school to attend the career fair. Jesse didn't come back right away so I assumed he was busy talking with people. I put on a movie for Rosalee and started to relax when the door opened and Jesse came inside. He told me that EVERY one of the jobs for his field DIDN'T show up! They all skipped the event but he still talked with a few places just for the heck of it. I was discouraged but tried to stay positive. We got to see his grandparents, I ate some delicious potato salad and barbecue ribs, and Rosalee was happy to see GG (her great grandmother).
Jesse had physical therapy for his shoulder (he had surgery on it a few weeks back) at 4pm so we left his grandparents' house around nap time. Within minutes of leaving, both kids were asleep in the car. I thought to myself, "I wish Jesse didn't have therapy today so the kids would be able to sleep longer and I could have the whole day with him." NOTE TO SELF- STOP, I repeat STOP wishing for more time with your husband! The past few times you have done so something bad/annoying has happened allowing you more time with him! On our way to the gas station we heard a weird noise coming from under the car. Jesse looked around but couldn't see anything at the gas station so we decided to try and ignore it and head home. Further down the highway the noise got worse and we started to worry. Then a LOUD noise (like a rock hitting our windshield) shot off and the driver side front tire started making weird sound. Jesse unrolled the window and guessed that the tire had gone flat so we pulled off the road. While the children continued to nap Jesse, in his nice interview outfit, changed the tire and I called the therapy office to cancel his appointment. Then I called the tire company I bought four new tires at in July and asked if my tire could be fixed. They told me to take the car into the store in Idaho Falls and they should be able to help me at little to no cost.

After driving 50 on the highway with our spare donut tire we FiNaLlY made it to Big O Tire in Idaho Falls. They took our car in the back and we went into the small waiting room. I turned on Dora (we seem to watch that a lot lately...) for Rosalee and Jesse and I just stared at each other. "What next?" I asked him. "I have no idea," was his answer.

Feeling dejected I looked at the pictures on the wall and apparently so did Jesse because he said, "I find it weird when people hang pictures of pheasants on the wall to show off wildlife. Pheasants aren't from here, they come from China." This was news to me and helped distract me from the current situation for a few minutes. Then a little girl came in the waiting room and started talking to Rosalee in mostly Spanish with a few English words. Rosalee just smiled and sat down next to her. I watched the two of them talk to each other, share the girl's doll, and laugh. It was so sweet to see her making a friend even though they didn't speak the same language. Then the father handed the little girl two cups filled partially with skittles and the girl handed one to Rosalee. So I got a quarter and bought some M&Ms for the girls to share. Next a man came in the waiting room and some how we started talking about Jackson, Wyoming. He told me how he's met Harrison Ford and Dick Cheney there and now lives in Idaho. I asked what do people do in Wyoming and he said, "hunt or fish in the summer and ski in the winter. The funniest thing is they all want to hunt pheasant and they aren't even from here, they're from China!" What the!? Is that an Idaho known fact? So I told the man, "that's funny you say that because just a few minutes ago I learned from my husband that pheasants are from China. Is that an Idaho thing?" He said, "maybe, but it helps that I do wildlife surveys for a living." So then Jesse piped in with how he went to school for wildlife, has a degree, has done wildlife surveys, etc. By the end of the conversation the man handed Jesse a paper with four different companies to contact about doing some wildlife sampling and surveys for. One, the company he works for, he wrote down the name of his boss and the phone number to reach him at!

Job fair- 0

Big O Tire- 4

Weird!

Even better was the fact that we got a brand new tire for free and it is a better quality tire than we had because that brand is on back order! So when we finally left I called my mom and told her the craziness of our day. Now you need to know that my mom isn't the most religious person. In fact she's really more spiritual than anything. But this is what she said, rather seriously I might add, "God put the nail in your tire." I responded with, "Um, what? Hahaha." Then she said, "The Lord works in mysterious ways." I had no choice but to agree.

After stopping at Subway for dinner we headed home confused at how the day had turned out. Then out of curiosity I went online and looked up the company that the man (whose name I didn't catch) from the tire store told us he worked for. Under the open job postings there were 6 jobs that Jesse would be both qualified and interested in doing! So tomorrow he plans on calling the boss of the company and talking to him. So we'll see if this turns out to be anything for us or if it just ends in another dead end.

Either way, it makes for a great story.

Too many to choose from...

Today was one of those days that I could blog from many angles about several topics. I easily could have titled this blog Self Pity 180, POP Goes the Knee, or Pants Optional. So I guess I'll write about all three and let you know a little bit more about the craziness of my day to day life.

Self Pity 180

Ah Calvin, how I love you.
Sunday and today were those type of days when I just felt crappy. Any specific reason? Not really. A lot of little things here and there married with a nasty headache make for a grumpy sour Marie. I was just feeling sorry for myself for not having a "perfect" life. It was bothering me that no matter how hard my husband has tried he has yet to find a full time job and that as much as I try not to I get easily frustrated by my beautiful almost two year old. So there I was feeling so down about life when honestly I had nothing too major going on. I've come to the realization that I will never have perfection if I keep looking beyond my nose. I need to look at what is right in front of me and be insanely blessed for what I have now. I was reading some blogs and I can across one that many women seem to read. The author of it was in an almost fatal plane crash and is a mother of four, her story was even on Oprah recently. I read some of her posts and thought to myself, "Why are you even upset? You could haveit SO much worse than you have it. Shut up and start enjoying life." So that's what I did. I took the kids, we went downstairs and proceeded to laugh (all three of us) and just spend time together. People joke that the only guarantees in life are taxes and death and sadly that is true. I'll never know how long I'll have to be with my family so I should life every day to the fullest. I don't want to get sick years from now and be mad at myself for wasting so much time. Even if I don't get sick and I die in a blaze of glory at 107 in a motorcycle stunt I still don't want to be in my house, alone, wishing I had spent more time with the kids and Jesse while they still were around 100 percent of the time. So here is what I decided while snuggling in bed with the kids, I guess they could be considered resolutions of sorts-
1. Take a bazillion pictures. Even of stupid things like the muffins I make for Sunday dinner with the kids.
2. Make things as memorable as possible. The paparazzi style photographing of my family will help with this, but I want to do things with them. I'm not saying we'll fly to France every July (although that might be nice) but I want to make traditions and be known as a mom who was involved with my family. I will be the mom who takes impromptu picnics and has random family parties just for the sake of celebrating. The following quote hopefully should sum up the message I'm trying to convey.
"Find joy in your children. Don't over schedule them or yourself. You may not be able to take them on exotic vacations. It doesn't matter. When the day dawns bright and sunny, take an excursion to the canyon or the park. When it's cloudy and wet, read a book together or make something good to eat. Give them time to explore and learn about the feel of grass, and the wiggliness of worms." --Marjorie Hinckley
3. Except that as a mom "me time" is usually going to include at least one other member of my family. Be happy that they like being around me because it may not always be that way or be able to be that way.
So there you have it. Look forward to seeing more random blog posts because I hope to use this as more of a daily (or at least 2 or 3 times a week) journal for my family and me to enjoy.
POP Goes the Knee
For the past few days I've heard an odd sound when Zeke kicks his legs. At first I just thought it was him passing gas (he does that A LOT and quite loud at times) and I thought nothing of it. Then I realized it was happening more often or was it that know I was listening for it to happen, I'm not quite sure. So I asked four different people what they thought and all of them told me to take Zeke into the doctor. I was convinced that it was his hip and I was afraid that it was dislocated. I was reading some medical journals about babies who are born in the breech position (which is what Zeke finally came out in) and how they are more susceptible to having dislocated hips. Then I thought back to how rough his delivery was and how this shoulder (on the same side as the popping sound) was dislocated. His doctor doesn't work on Mondays so I took him into his partner because I didn't want to wait a day. The doctor looked at him, did several stress tests on his hips, and told me that he was fine. Then Zeke started kicking and the pop sounds happened. (It didn't happen at all and I started thinking I was overreacting to nothing.) The doctor touched his knee, went "hmmm", and then told me that the popping sound is from his knee. He explained that if it were coming from his hip he'd be worried but since it's "just his knee, he's fine". Really!? But he went on to explain how tiny babies have more cartilage in their knees than bones and that 1 in 25 babies just make that sound when they move. He said that if he screams out in pain I should be worried but if not I shouldn't be concerned. The doctor said it should go away when he starts crawling and his knee cap strengthens, so we'll see!
So the baby is okay but at the yearly check up for the dog I learned she has a heart murmur. Oh life... so we could either put her on heart pills for the rest of her life (5+ years) or just let her be. Since she acts just fine I chose the latter.
Pants Optional
So after having my pity party, finding out the dog has a weird heart, the baby is okay, and then resolving to be happier, I took the kids downstairs for some snuggle time before naps. I changed Zeke's diaper and Rosalee told me, "Mama I don't want my pants on too!" so I left Zeke's pants off and proceeded to take her pants off. Then the kids starting laughing, smiling, and being beyond cute. So I grabbed the camera and started my new commitment to loving my life all the more.
The first picture is my FAVORITE and will be printed out and then hung on the wall. After I took off Rosalee's pants she crawled over to Zeke and they both started laughing like they had some big secret or conned me. This photo is just too precious not to end up on the wall!


Zeke was in SUCH a great mood that he smiled and cooed the whole time!

Rosalee was less than enthuased that I wanted to be taking her picture instead of letting her watch Dora before her nap.

Grandma Terry

Or as Rosalee would call her- Gram TayWEEEEE!!
My mom drove to Idaho to meet Zeke, see Rosalee, and I guess see us (kidding, slightly...) for a few weeks. After spending time with Rosalee she wasn't quite ready to say goodbye so I took the kids and drove back to Washington with her for a week. Then my mom and I flew to Phoenix and from there my mom went right back to Washington (Crazy, yes. Worth my sanity, yes.) and the kids and I flew to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Some of the things we did while she was here are already posted, like Zeke's blessing, but here are the rest of the photos from the time we spent with my mom. (I need to apologize for the hazy weird pictures but Rosalee had fun putting fingerprints all over the camera... poor Mommy didn't notice until the end of the trip.)

We went to a pumpkin patch and Rosalee kept herself entertained by trying roll and carry the pumpkins.

Zeke kept himself entertained by sleeping.

After serious debate she settled on a green pumpkin and wouldn't get up until I promised that we would get it for her.

After getting our pumpkins we walked around the farm and Rosalee had fun singing/talking to the baby pigs.

Grandpa Jerry and Rosalee were playing the piano together

My mom bought some Halloween pajamas for the kids. Zeke was acting the part of a dragon hence my mom trying to sooth him. Rosalee is, well, Rosalee!

We spent the last night in Renton with my aunt, uncle, cousin, and my cousin's daughter. The girls LOVED the brownies that my aunt made for dessert!

Next we let them get messy on the porch playing with one of the pumpkins we bought at the patch. Neither girl really dug in, but they still enjoyed themselves.

The girls went straight from the porch to the bathtub! Being the WoNdErFuL mother that I am I just HAD to take some embarrassing bath shots.

The tiny dragon at rest

I wanted to take a picture of Rosalee on the airplane to show how good she was being and this is the face she gave me! We all (including Rosalee) call it the rascal face. Five minutes before we landed in Salt Lake, Rosalee passed out asleep. We were the last people off the plane because she refused to wake up and I couldn't carry her, Zeke, and our bags.

While my mom was here she made my sister-in-law Jenny her Halloween costume. This year Jenny is going as Betty Boop.

We tried to get a picture with all of the great grandkids (this is all of them minus the 3 in Ohio) and the pictures below are the best of what I got. (I find it funny that John tried to hide in some of the pictures.) I also thought it'd be fun to get a picture of Zeke, Sydney, and Drew because they're so close in age.

Rosalee had fun sitting on my lap and taking pictures of her cousins playing. These turned out surprisingly well!

As soon as I took the camera back she found a toy camera and started taking my picture. The dopey grin on her face tells you that she was enjoying herself quite a bit!