Pumpkin Carving

Last night was pumpkin carving night! It had been a long day at the corn maze, but the kids were still hyper for pumpkins! Davin refused to touch the pumpkin guts at all. Weston helped pull a few seeds out, but said he already touched the inside of a pumpkin at preschool, so he didn't really need to do it again. :) Once it was cleaned out we sketched out a face. Weston called the shots with that. I think it turned out pretty good. He wanted a scary mouth. Ian had to do a little research and designing before he carved his pumpkin, but I was impressed with his Transformer symbol. So was Weston.
This morning the kids wanted pictures with our whole family of pumpkins. They are such goofs. We missed having the Severinsen's over to carve pumpkins with us, but I guess we managed on our own. We did have donuts off the cat too, but somehow I didn't get any pictures of it! We might have to stage it today with the leftover donuts. Anyway, we are all set for Halloween. Now I'm just hoping the rain will wait until we are done trick or treating tonight. Happy Halloween!

Cornbelly's

Ok, before I get to our fun day at the corn maze, I have to post a picture of the baby girl bedding that I put on last night! Thanks Ian for raising the crib mattress! I know it's a pain, but I'm getting so excited about the baby's nursery now that the crib is so cute and put together! Don't even ask about the rest of the room though. It's a mess.
The plan for today was to take the kids to the Barnyard Boo at Farm Country, but then when I looked up the times it was only from 4-8pm. Well there's no way I was going to drive down or back in traffic, so I was trying to come up with a backup plan. I looked up the hours and pricing for Wheeler Farm's kid corn maze and it was going to be almost the same price as just going to the big Cornbelly's corn maze at Thanksgiving Point. I had never taken the kids and hadn't been myself in a few years. It has definitely grown in the last 3 years! There was SO much to do. Food vendors, rides, playground areas, the pumpkin patch, and, of course, the corn maze.

I actually don't love the corn maze. My feet get tired and I don't like trying to figure out which way to go. I wasn't really looking forward to wandering/chasing the kiddos in there, but the Kiddie Maze was perfect. It only took us about 10 minutes and it's pretty tough to get lost.
Even though there were lots of school/day care/scouting groups the place didn't seem all that crowded. I had expected there to be so many people. It's the Friday before Halloween and we had perfect sunny 65 degree weather, but luckily we didn't run into many lines or crowds. The kids loved the cow train and rode it at least 5 times. Weston loved the jumping pillow. They kept one designated just for little ones, so that made it more fun too. Davin loved the bouncy ride animals by the jumping pillow, which worked out perfectly.

Can you tell my kids like to shove their faces in those cut-out photo op things? They do. There were several of these around the property and I think I have about 6 photos of them in each one.
We saw the pig races, played with the pumpkin tetherball games, got snow cones, rode trikes, played with the water pump duck races (huge hit with my kids), saw an old school fire truck, played in the wooden train, and even braved going through the giant blow up dinosaur maze.
It was seriously a very fun day. Exhausting, but fun. We ended up not eating lunch until after we left. Somehow the kids weren't whining about being hungry even though we didn't leave until almost 2pm. I will definitely take them again next year and we'll be sure to bring Daddy. It's a little pricey, but Davin was still free and with our Thanksgiving Point membership we get a little discount. Mostly though, it's just worth the money! Hooray for a successful day at the corn maze. Up next . . . carving pumpkins and donuts off the cat!

Are You Getting Ready?

Christmas is going to sneak up on you just as fast as it (and baby girl) are sneaking up on me! I have noticed some great sales lately on stocking stuffer items. I keep sending Ian on his lunch breaks to buy Star Wars action figures at Target or Cars guys at Toys R Us. It works out because he feels a little more involved in the boys Christmas, I don't have to try to sneak stuff into my cart while hauling kids through toy sections, and there is a bigger selection than there ever is in December. Seriously, when action figures go on sale for $5 in December don't count on getting any if you don't go the morning the sale starts.

Anyway, you all know of my Type A issues. I like having Christmas done early every year, but with baby on the way I am especially motivated to be ready early this year. I am super duper excited about all the fun things that I ordered from Amazon for the boys. We are doing puppets for them this year. I got a tabletop puppet theater, the cutest ever make your own monster Melissa & Doug puppets, another random fire fighter Melissa & Doug puppet, and a set of animal hand puppets. All for about $100 on amazon. I would link to them all, but Weston likes to look at our blog and I would hate for him to accidentally figure out what he's getting for Christmas.

I have also picked up a few things in the past couple months that will mostly round out their Christmas. A cool set of magnetic shapes, matching Superman shirts, movies, books, etc. I am waiting until they see Santa to see what they ask for before I get them each one toy. I am feeling like I have the season in hand. I have ideas of what to get for the other people on my list, and just need to make some purchases.

My goal this year is to have all of the Christmas gifts purchased (not necessarily wrapped), the house decorated, the book advent wrapped, and the tree up before December 1st. I figure if I give myself a deadline then odds are baby girl will come early to throw a wrench in my plans, but I'm fine with that. And if not, then I will be all set for her arrival sometime in December. I cannot believe that next week is November already. Are you ready?

Morning?

Last night was so bizarre. Davin has been waking up right before we go to bed/in the middle of the night off and on since he was sick a couple weeks ago. It's annoying, but he will usually go back to sleep without too much of a fight. Also, it never wakes up Weston, so it hasn't been a huge problem. I'm hoping he will settle into a better routine when Daylight Savings starts and it's a little lighter and more "morning-like" in the morning.

Anyway, last night at 3:30am I heard the boys' bedroom door open. I assumed it was Davin, but just waited for him to come in and wake me up. In a few seconds I hear his little whisper "Mom, have chocat milk? Watch movie?" Then I hear Weston's voice too "Mom, we just wanted to have chocolate milk and watch a show." What?!? It's 3:30am! I look at them and tell them its the middle of the night. Not even close to morning time. Weston immediately starts apologizing "Oh sorry Mom. We thought it was morning." Everyone got a drink and got back in bed.

I went back to bed too, but couldn't fall back asleep because my stomach was starving. Finally around 4 I got up to eat a bowl of cereal. I turned on the lamp in the den so I could have a little light. I was trying to be super quiet since I didn't know if the boys were all the way back asleep or not. When I finished my cereal (about 4:15) I was about to turn off the light and go back to bed when Weston comes into the den with his blanket and loveys and asks to watch a show again. He said "I just wanted to try to get up at the same time as Dav so I could watch shows before school too." :) Davin always wakes up earlier than Weston and watches TV until Weston gets up and we all get ready for the day. I told him it still wasn't morning and that there was nothing on right now. He said he was having trouble going back to sleep. I told him he had to try because it just wasn't time to be up. He was good about it and climbed back into bed. In their defense it was pretty bright outside since there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground. Everyone managed to sleep until 6:30 after that. Whew!

We did get a lot of snow last night. I would guess there were about 4 inches on our cars. It's slowly melting right now, but without the sun and with the temps only in the mid-30's I doubt it will all melt by tonight. We'll see what that means for our trick or treating attempts this weekend.

We have been staying in a little more than usual with the snow and cold weather this week. Yesterday neither of the kids would nap, so we had a long afternoon. They were pretty good, but by the time Ian got home the house was a wreck. We put together the Halloween treat bags for Weston's class. He thought that was exciting. I got all my packages from Amazon, which was fun and broke up the monotony of the afternoon. Plus it gave the kids something to do. They popped the packing materials and played in the boxes. Weston even decorated his and wrote "speed racer" on the side. He ate breakfast in it this morning in front of the tv. It was cute.
Davin and I went to Target yesterday after my doctor's appointment. I love just wandering Target and browsing the clearance. There was a bunch of dollar spot stuff on sale for 50% off, so I got 2 plush animal masks for 50 cents each. Weston loves his. Davin doesn't wear his as much, but when he's pretending to be a cat he sure likes the mask. I also bought a coat for after baby. It's so cute. Red cotton corduroy pea coat. On clearance for $20. Not bad. The only downside to all my finds is that I really only needed to buy storage bins to pack away baby boy clothes in. I found them on clearance too randomly, so that was good, but instead of spending the $15 I needed to I spent $45. Whoops. Target does that to me. I have to stay away when I have no money.

Also I forgot about my friendship bread start in the fridge and just barely added the ingredients 2 days late. Do you think it will still be ready to bake in 2 days or should I give it the full 4 extra days to sit? I hope I didn't ruin it. I love friendship bread. So yummy.

Anyway, there's the mid-week update. Not too exciting. I hope that I will have some fun Halloween festivities to report by Sunday. :)

33ish Weeks

It's amazing to me how quickly this pregnancy has gone by. Especially since summer. Summer always goes quickly, but Fall is just ridiculous. It's already gone, really. I woke up to snow this morning. It still hasn't all melted. I'm sure it will since it's supposed to be sunny and back in the mid-60's later this week, but still. It mean that the coats and boots are out for the next 8 months. Sigh.
I am taking advantage of the cold outside to get some things done in my house. I really need to get working on the nursery. I haven't cleaned out the baby boy clothes yet, which means there is no room for the baby girl stuff! I also need to just take everything out of the closet and figure out if we need it or not. That closet has been a collecting place for random stuff. The crib bedding should be here this week, so I'm really excited to see how the room looks with pink in it! I still think it's going to be super weird for awhile. The nursery has basically looked the same for the past almost 5 years.

Today my plan is to get the laundry done and the house cleaned up. That way I can spend the rest of the week working on the nursery and celebrating Halloween!

Halloween Happenings

I have been feeling kind of blah about Halloween this year. It's on a Sunday. Our ward isn't doing anything for it, so no party or trunk or treat or anything. Weston's class isn't doing a Halloween party. I've just been feeling like there's nothing fun going on to celebrate. Finally I decided I better quit moping about it and plan something fun for Halloween weekend!

We kicked off the festivities this week with the pumpkin patch. On Friday we went to the aquarium as our outing. When we got home the kids were mellowing and watching the end of Sesame Street before naps. I hopped on the computer to see if any of our holds were available at the library. I noticed that their calendar had a Halloween Carnival on it. I called to see if it was for little kids and they said yes, so I decided to accept the consequences of no naps and took the kids to the Halloween Carnival. They were super excited about wearing their costumes and going to a party. The carnival was pretty crowded, which is surprising for our library branch. They had a few games, face painting, and a craft. We didn't bother trying to get near the craft table, but the boys played all the games. They especially liked the bean bag toss into a jack o' lantern and getting candy after they played.
We didn't stay too long, but Weston didn't want to leave because he wasn't done wearing his costume. :) I told him he could wear it again for trick or treating. It was kind of a long afternoon after that because the kiddos were so tired, but I still vote that getting to one Halloween party dressed up was worth it.
Today Ian went to the BYU football game with his boss, so I thought I would take the boys to the dinosaur museum for their Spooky Saturday. It's basically just that the workers dress up and they have crafts and face painting in the lobby of the museum. We also went through the museum. Weston really wanted to get the Transformer symbol painted on his face, so we brought a little print out of what it looked like. I thought the guy did a pretty good job with it. Davin all of a sudden was acting scared of the paintbrush when it was our turn, so he just got a tiny spider on his hand, but he was more than happy with it, so there you go. A few kids were in costume, so Weston was a little bummed he didn't get to wear his Bumblebee costume again. Other than that it was a good Halloween-y outing.
I have a couple other plans for Halloween outings for next week too, so I'm glad that the holiday will not be a completely lame one. It's the last big kid holiday before the baby comes. We have to make the most of it! Speaking of baby, she is sneaking up on me! I am getting big and uncomfortable. I don't sleep well at all and usually end up on the couch for a few hours every night just for a change of position and for some back support. The nursery is still a disaster. I still don't have half the girl stuff I need, but I do have some. I ordered the crib bedding this week and it has already shipped! I can't wait to get that in and make it feel more like a girl's room. We still don't have a name, but our list is pretty set, so now we just need to make a final decision. I also placed a big Christmas order on amazon, so when that arrives I will have the kids' Christmas about 75% done. Just need to see what they actually ask Santa for and pick up a few stocking stuffers. Whew! So much to get done and so little time and energy to work with.
Random side note . . . Davin has been really into doing puzzles lately. We have this one Melissa and Doug puzzle that is a circle and has only about 12 pieces. He has learned how to do it all by himself. He thinks he can do all the puzzles in the closet now, but he really can't. This week he got out the Monsters Inc. puzzle. Luckily Weston can help him with that one. Aren't my little puzzlers cute? :)

Mabey's Pumpkin Patch

For the past 3 years we have gone to Mabey's Pumpkin Patch to pick out our Halloween pumpkins. It's a big field next to a big home and the family runs it. It's just the right size without all the bounce houses, carnival rides, and petting zoos you see at the pumpkin patches in California. Seriously, it's out of control down there. Plus, the pumpkins at Mabey's are super affordable. This year we paid $10 for our 2 big carving pumpkins and the kids' little painting pumpkins.
We went a little earlier in the month than we have in the past, so there were more non-rotten pumpkins out in the field. Luckily we went before dinner too so it didn't really fill up with the FHE crowds until we were leaving. I like going when the sun is still out. The boys loved running around and trying to pick up all the pumpkins. They weren't great at being soft when they put them down, but I don't think we cracked any. It was another successful year at Mabey's!
***Update: Davin was fine all day Monday and hasn't thrown up since Sunday night. He is eating more normally today though, so we'll see how he does tonight, but I think he's probably good to go. I hope so anyway because I have places to be every night this week. Also, I am sick of doing non-stop laundry!

2am

Being up at 2am is not fun. Especially when you're awake because you're cleaning up puke. Sigh. I heard Davin coughing last night in his bed and decided to go in and give him a sip of water so he could get back to sleep and not wake up Weston, but when I got into his room with the water he was sitting up in bed and there was nasty throw up all over his bed. Luckily he didn't get it on himself, so he didn't need a middle of the night bath. I just wiped him down a little and changed his jammies. The rest of his bed was a loss. I started laundry, but couldn't even get close to the actual vomit without my stomach churning. Lucky for me I have an amazing husband (I may have mentioned this last post) who does the clean up for me without complaint. I got Davin tucked in on the couch on top of a towel and under a spare fleece blanket. He was conked back out before we got all the way back into bed.

I laid awake in bed tossing and turning. Worrying that Davin would fall off the couch and get hurt. Worrying that he would throw up again. Worrying that it was all my fault he threw up again at all. I was the one who let him eat normal foods yesterday, including cheese (his favorite), which apparently his stomach just can't handle right now. I was the one who forgot to give him his inhalers last night before bed (I was putting the kids to bed in the middle of a temple prep class going on in my living room and was trying to get them down quickly and quietly). I was the one who took him to get a flu shot. There was plenty of worry and guilt swirling around my brain that it took me an hour and a half to get back to sleep.

Turns out that Davin slept solidly on the couch until almost 7 this morning. He came in to wake me up and asked for breakfast. I gave him a half cup of water/juice and 2 saltines. No weak, giving-in-to-cheese-pleas mommy today. I got him back tucked in with his "breakfast" and Toy Story 2 (have I mentioned he has watched Toy Story 1, 2, and the Buzz Lightyear movies all at least 3 times this weekend?). Weston slept in until 8am without his brother in there to wake him up. He also slept through the entire commotion at 2am. That kid amazes me. So far Davin hasn't thrown up again and it's 9am. Here's hoping he's better. I will still hold off on the cheese for at least a day or two.

Perks to Davin throwing up at 2am . . .
-his sheets probably needed to be washed anyway
-we pulled out his bed to strip it and found both his Lightning McQueen cars and his Chick Hicks that had been missing for weeks!
-Weston got to sleep in, which I think he has missed since having Davin move in with him.
-I will be fully justified if I take a nap today.

That's about all the positivity I can eek out right now. Weston is at school and I need a shower. Hope your week is starting off better than mine.

Our Week Back Home

Re-adjusting to life after a vacation is always a little rough. It was a little extra rough this week because Davin was sick. Not so much sick sick, but his baby asthma (aka, reactive airway disease, they won't officially diagnose asthma in kids under 4) was back. He coughed almost the whole way home in the car, all day Monday, and most of Tuesday. We went to the doctor Tuesday afternoon where the boys both got their flu vaccines (Weston opted for the nasal spray one) and I got prescriptions for Davin's long term inhaler, Flovent, his quick acting inhaler, Albuterol, and his oral steroid medication. It was a productive doctor's appointment, but it meant we spent a lot of time this week with a crying/coughing Davin trying to get him to take all his meds.

We were also almost late to Weston's last night of tee ball because traffic was so bad on the way home from the doctor's office. They had a little pizza party before the game and handed out certificates and trophies. Weston was so excited about this. When I told him about the awards pizza party he said "I hope I get the most medals!" What a goof. He was plenty happy with his cute trophy. Then his team played their last game of the season. It was a little chilly and it got dark before the game was all the way over, but I think he had a lot of fun with tee ball and might choose to do it again in the Spring. We'll see.
Wednesday was a short day at preschool. It was also his last day for the week since this weekend was the school district's Fall UEA Break. Right after school we went and met up with my friend, Tara, and her kids to see the witches at Gardner Village. We have been going together for several years now. When we started the tradition we each had one little baby. Now there are 5 kids between us with one more on the way. It was still fun, just a little more chaotic. The kids love all the fun witches on display, trying on the fun hats, and our visit to Sweet Afton's candy shop. Davin couldn't get over all the pumpkins on display. He will love the pumpkin patch this year.
Wednesday night I had my first mutual night back in Young Womens. That's right, I have been called back into Young Women's. This time as Young Women's president. Yikes! I have known about it for about a month now, so I've had some time to wrap my head around the idea and get excited. We were trying to get home on Sunday for the change to happen, but we didn't make it. They sustained me and my presidency anyway. I am hoping to feel a little more in control of the situation after this next Sunday's first official presidency meeting. Mutual went fine and we had 7 girls! That's quite a few for our ward. It just made for a long day.

Thursday we went to the library for story time and to get some new books and movies. The kids made a cute bear craft too. That afternoon I made everyone miss naps so we could drive down to Herriman and pick out Halloween costumes. Weston is going to be Bumblebee, the transformer, and Davin picked Woody. They tried on their costumes when we got home and were so bummed when I told them Halloween was still 2 weeks away. :)

Friday I had no idea what we would do. I didn't want to try to do any of our normal outings because with everyone off of school I knew it would be busy everywhere, so instead we gathered up the random items needing to go to DI and made a DI run. The kids were driving me crazy. Weston couldn't decide on any of the little toys to get and I was running out of patience. It was kind of a rough day for me already. After lunch we babysat my neighbor's girls. That was fine. The boys loved having friends over and they all played pretty well together.

When the girls left I got both my boys down for naps. Hooray! I decided to have a nap too. Davin woke up about 20 minutes into my nap, so I got him settled in the den with a movie and went back to sleep on the couch. He came in 20 minutes later and asked for a drink of water and I noticed some gunk on his shirt. I asked him what he had been eating, then realized he smelled like throw up. Sure enough when I went in the den there was throw up on the couch and the floor. Miraculously, he didn't spread it anywhere else. So I got all that nastiness cleaned up and Davin settled back on the couch with half a cup of water. Half an hour later he threw up again into the bowl I gave him while he was sitting at the computer watching Weston play Disney games. He was very sad. I decided this time he needed a bath.

By the time I got him clean and cleaned out the bowl and the computer chair I was barely holding it together. It smelled gross and my stomach was not feeling very happy. I texted Ian to hurry home. Right after he got home Davin threw up again. Mostly just water, but still. Poor kid. Back into the bath. Luckily I have the best husband in the world. No, really. I don't mean to brag, but Thursday night he brought me flowers because he knew the kids hadn't napped and had been pretty rotten all afternoon for me. At this point he sent me and Weston off to find some dinner. I needed to get out and away from all the pukiness, so Weston and I went to Chick Fil A and had dinner. Weston played while I talked to my sister. He got a book in his kid's meal, so we read it a couple times and had a nice little outing. When we got in the car Ian texted me to say that Davin had thrown up again. Poor kid. We let him stay up late, then decided to put him to bed and see if he would sleep deep enough to not throw up. He did. Hallelujah. I was all prepped for a long night up with him and my washing machine, but I didn't hear him once.

He hasn't thrown up all day today either. My guess is that he was having a reaction to either the flu shot or one of his new meds, but my money is on the flu shot. I seem to recall him doing this last year too. Anyway, he seems to be done with it now. His cough is much better, so we're down to just the 2 inhalers. Having a sickie is never fun though. We did manage to make it to the park late this afternoon and Davin seemed to enjoy the fresh air. We also got a lot done around the house. Ian did some yard work and got some stuff from the house moved into the garage for me too. I baked cookies. I also did laundry, dishes, and tidied up the baby room. It was a pretty good day.

Tomorrow is going to be our first crazy Sunday. We will have a babysitter in the morning so we can both be at ward council, then there's choir and church, then I will have a presidency meeting after church, then we'll all eat a quick dinner, and finally, we are hosting the temple prep class tomorrow evening. Whew. So much for a day of rest, huh? :) Anyway, I am glad to be back home, but hopefully next week will feel more settled.

The Orange County Great Park?

Let's just say it's less than great. I wanted to get together with some old friends, so I tried to plan a fun picnic at a park for Thursday evening. I was looking for a location somewhat in the middle of us all and came up with the OC Great Park. I had no idea it was not much of a park. We drove around and around what looked like a municipal airport until we finally found an entrance that would lead us to the finished part of the park, which was not much. There was a small play area with some tables and some grass, but that's about it. We ended up taking our party to a restaurant for dinner rather than picnicking at the lame, starting-to-get-dark, chilly park. Sorry for the not as well-planned as I thought evening. It ended up being a fun visit with Pam and Amanda though. The kids all got along well and Ian was a good sport about being the only man around.
The whole park area had all these signs about why it was (or would eventually be) an awesome, eco-friendly park. Ian said it reminded him of Arrested Development with the one model home and then nothing for miles around. :) It seemed like it was just a giant PR scam to me. I'll be interested to see if it ever develops into what it's planned to be.
Davin and Piper. Too cute two year olds!
All the kiddos. Weston, James, Piper, and Davin. They had a lot of fun playing together.
Weston in front of the giant orange tethered helium balloon that you can ride in. Sometimes. When it's not too windy.
Pam (with baby boy coming in February), Amanda, and me. We had a great time visiting and catching up. Miss you ladies!
It was our last night at my parent's house, so we went home and had Golden Spoon and watched a movie while I sorted through all the baby girl clothes Joy had sent home with me.

Friday morning we got ready, packed up the car, and drove down to San Diego. We met up with Ian's parent's and Aly and Ryan for lunch after checking into our hotel. Later that afternoon we swam in the pool then got dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Old Town. It was fun to wander around all the Old Town shops and listen to the live music playing.
Saturday morning was the big wedding! Garrett and Erin had a beautiful wedding. It was all at the hotel. The ceremony (which was super short and sweet) was outside in the courtyard near the pool, then the reception was in one of the ballrooms. While we were getting ready that morning, Ian's parents convinced us to stay an extra night at the hotel so we wouldn't have to rush off after the wedding. It was nice not worrying about the time and just enjoying the reception and visiting with all the family. We saw a lot of people we hadn't seen since Mike and Jenn's wedding back in 2004, so that was nice. Davin was more than ready for a nap by the time they cut the cake around 3pm, so I went and rested with him in our room while Ian and Weston watched the BYU game with his parents in their room. Later we all ended up eating at In N Out and saying our good-byes.
We drove straight home Sunday. It took us about 12 hours from San Diego. We made it with only 3 stops again, but we were all much more tired and less enthusiastic than on the way to CA. :) This was the first time that Weston requested we move to California after a trip there. I can't argue . . . it would be fun.