Pumpkin Walk and Craft Fair

On Friday morning, Mom, LaNita and I took the boys to the Pumpkin Walk and craft fair.  The boys both got a tatoo and then proceeded to be very active while we women slowly browsed the neat crafts.  I love the earrings I got for Witches' Night Out, little spiders made by the same lady that made Mom's jewelry.  (The super-cool jewelry I didn't get a picture of, drats!)

Dallas also got his face painted with one of the neatest spider I've ever seen.  Carson loved looking a the pictures of other face paint art, but I knew he'd never sit still.  We stopped and had a snack and wandered through the pumpkin walk, where all the pumpkins were decorated as Dr. Seuss books or characters or things like that.  There was a little hay maze that the boys loved, where they spent most of their time.

I left Carson with Mom for a little bit and wandered around taking pictures of the historic grist mill where the event was held.  I loved all the wheels against buildings, tools sitting around, and the buildings themselves were just neat in their own way.  The purse was one I'd love to have had, from the craft fair portion.  I just thought it was gorgeous!

Playing and Going Out

Just a few highlights from Thursday.

The boys discovered the place where Grandma is going to be making her garden.  With some help from Grandpa and Uncle Josh, they dug up quite a plot!  They were so very dirty at the end of the day!

I went to the Provo mall and wandered around with Carson for a little while.  He enjoyed the small play area and riding up and down the escalator, but the thing that captivated him the best was this little train.  It would've been three dollars to ride, so we didn't, but he loved wandering around it and making train noises.

I met up with my friend from my Washington days, Elena.  She lives near enough to Salt Lake that we decided to meet up.  It was a little crazy, what with our getting times mixed up and both having tired kids, but I'm glad we made the effort to visit a bit.

On the way home from visiting, I stopped along I-80 after the airport and took a picture of the Salt Lake.  I've meant to just about every time I've visited Mom, but this time I happened to have the camera with me, no kids fussing at me and on my own time.  It's not the greatest shot, but I wanted to remember the lake, the mountains, the uniquely-pretty landscape.  I miss seeing those all the time.

Getting to Utah

This topic deserved a post all it's own.  Just getting to my parents' house in Utah was such an...adventure.

It started out fine, really.  I stuffed my two carry-ons (well, carry on and diaper bag, which was as big as a small carry on) to the max.  I really didn't want to pay that extra $25 just to get things there.  Aaron and Lizzie accompanied me and Carson to the airport.  As I got out and got Carson all situated beside me, Lizzie realized I was going away.  Big tears started rolling down her face as she said defiantly, "But Mommy, I don't want to miss you!"  I was torn.  But I gave her a long hug and a kiss and said I'd call her and see her in only four days and turned to get to the lines.

The first line was pretty easy, where I got my boarding pass and just hurried up to the gate.  The next was fairly quick as well, with the only hiccup being that I forgot to put my wallet into the little bucket and the beeper went off.  I was impressed with Carson doing so well, since I had the diaper bag sitting on the small rolling suitcase and he was walking decently beside or right in front of me.  Having arrived early, we had a bit of a wait, but I pulled out some snacks and a cars and he entertained himself, driving the cars along the almost-empty waiting seats, dropping it in the space between the backs and crawling under.  After a bit, another young child came and Carson made friends with a little girl who'd be sharing our flight.  When I say 'made friends' I mean, he indulged in her toys but made a stink every time she wanted to touch one of his cars.

We boarded the plane after a quick last potty stop (and stinky diaper stop).  As we stepped on, Carson veered off to the cockpit.  The captain and his partner chuckled and let him wander the tiny space, looking at buttons and fingering buttons, but actually doing nothing.  The flight attendants smiled at him.  We made it to our seats and I was pleasantly surprised to find that because the flight wasn't filled up, we had a seat extra in our row for him to sit in.  I took the aisle and settled Carson in the middle, with a kind Spanish man at the window.  I know he was kind because when the captain announced that Minneapolis was having a ground stop (no flights in or out) and we sat on the tarmac for an hour, this kind man let Carson sit on his lap to lift and lower the window shade.  The whole hour.   When we did get into the air, Carson decided not to sit nicely in his seat, so I, realized it was naptime anyway, pulled him into my lap where he slept and I dozed for most of the flight.

The last five minutes on the plane were ugly.  Carson doesn't wake well anywhere, and in a confined space full of strangers where Mom won't let him go, it was awful.  Add to that, the reality that my layover in Minneapolis was only supposed to BE an hour and I was frantic and frustrated and on the verge of tears that I might not make it to my parents'.  A man behind me checked on his phone and informed me that even with the ground stop before, the flight to Salt Lake was scheduled on time.  Eek!  On time meant I had ten minutes to get across the airport!  I pulled a struggling Carson down the aisle, pausing only to ask a desk clerk where the gate was that I needed.  It had a different letter, and in Minneapolis, this meant several moving sidewalks, the central terminal and more corridors.  Carson wailed and tried to squirm from my arms.  I closed my eyes and said a little prayer that I might make the flight while I let some tears gather.

Suddenly, a man beside me was asking if he'd heard me needing to get to Salt Lake.  He'd been on my flight as well,  and pointed out that there was one of those airport cars unloading some older people right in front of us.  In desperation, I gathered my two bags as he kindly took a sad Carson and we hurried to the cart.  The driver looked glum when we told him what gate we needed.  "Don't you realize that's a little over a mile away?  You better get on here and we'll hurry."  The Salt-Lake-bound man gave Carson back to me in the middle row and took the front seat while the driver loaded our little carry-ons to the back.  I didn't know these little carts could go so fast.  The man with us leaned forward in his seat, calling out, "Please move" and "We're really in a hurry" and "Sorry, we can't stop right now" as the driver zoomed over that mile.  A little over five minutes later, we pulled up to the gate where the gate people were just getting ready to close the doors.  I mean, they actually had to re-open the door for us.  Relieved, I hugged and thanked the driver and got myself and Carson onto the plane.  Happily, the cart ride had mollified him, so he was a pleasant little boy the entire next flight where, also happily, the middle seat was empty once again.

Once in Salt Lake, I found and thanked the man who'd helped us to the cart and had given me that little hope I needed to get there.  I called my mom and said we were ready to be picked up and not long after that, we were on our way to her house and some waiting Mexican chicken soup.  Greeting my little sister, eating, visiting, and staying up forever commenced.  That night, in family prayer, Mom thanked Heavenly Father for all the people who answered my prayers and helped me in any way on my trip.  I was so grateful too!

Looky what I Made!!

I know, it's no masterpiece.  But I already love it.  And I'm going to HAVE to make another.  Because this one, well, it's not for me.  I got the idea at Mom's last week, came home and found a make-do one until she sends her pattern for the really cute one she did.  Love this one, and can't WAIT to get the next done!  If you want to do this same towel, I got the tutorial from Calamity Kim

Jim's Pumpkin Farm

Today, Lizzie's school group went to the pumpkin farm!  With siblings, extra parents and a couple of friends, our little group of four kids grew pretty quickly!  Here all all the kids present (minus two infant siblings): Charles, Lizzie, Carson, Aden, Eli, Camryn, Connor, Kylie and (hiding at the very end between slats) Tiffany.

The farm has grown a lot since we were there two years ago.  There were lots more photo setups and a huge barn to watch the video in, instead of the little shed they used to use.

I love how grown up Lizzie looks!  She's started this new thing; the face she's got in the two that you can see her face best in, that's her new 'smile, sweetie!' face.  Don't know where it came from.  Silly girl.

Carson, true to form, was a very busy boy.  It's a good thing Lizzie's not quite as prone as she used to be to wandering, because I had my excercize chasing that little man all over.

I just really loved this.  Carson was wandering through the 'graveyard', studying each 'headstone'.  Very intent.

Boring Week Behind, Busy Week Ahead!

In accordance with my goal to write at least weekly, here is our blah week.

I took no pictures this week.

Lizzie had a solid week of having NO accidents.  (This is big because she has a tendency to wait until the last possible second before she remembers she has a flight of stairs to go up or down.)  Yay for her!!

Evie had her pumpkin trip and came home less than talkative, except that her pumpkin got left at school.  Luckily, I was a room helper the next day, so brought it home with me.  She loved that I was helping in her class - just super proud.

I made feeble attempts to get the house clean, with the best effort happening on Saturday.  Saturday morning, we babysat Aaron's neice, J who is six months, for a few hours.  Reality check into having four kids - YIKES!  I'm praying for a super, super mellow baby!

Saturday evening, we drove down into Illinois for Aaron's aunt's reception.  We are so very happy for Aunt B and our new Uncle D.  The reception was beautiful and we were happy to be able to celebrate with her and many other family members.  It ended up being a long drive both ways for a fairly short visit, but we'd do it again in a heartbeat!  The funniest part was when the dance music was on and the DJ put on the Chicken Dance.  Teaching my girls the chicken dance was SO FUNNY!  And Carson got in on some of the wiggle action, too, though he didn't hit all the moves right on.

Tomorrow start really busy-ness for us.  I get to take the two younger kids to a pumpkin farm for Lizzie's play group. I'm excited to get out with the other moms!

And THEN!  Wednesday Carson and I leave on a short trip to visit my parents and a brother and sister.  We tried to get all the sibs there, but it just wasn't happening.  I'll take what visiting I can get!  We're going to visit and play and work on costumes and crafts, I'm going to visit a friend, then my family and I get to go to Witches' Night Out - super excited!!  I hope to come home with lots and lots and LOTS of pictures of family...and because I plan on it, I'll probably forget my battery or the whole camera or something. :)  Look for a far more interesting post next week!!

Say WHAT?!

That's right; it's been a whole month and I'm FINALLY posting again!

We'll start with some things from earlier in the summer, which I neglected to post as they happened:

Dad B, Aaron, and David all helped to trim up the willow tree in back.  See it connected; see it just barely missed taking out a section of the deck; see the proud workers.  The tree may look a little lopsided now, but it's safer than it would otherwise have been.  With the large branch having broken off in the back (to the right of the largest picture), we needed to take off a large branch off the front to make sure it wouldn't take the whole tree over in the next windstorm.  It'll look a lot better in a couple years, after it recovers from this trim-up.

The ward picnic was late in August, just before our Dells trip.  The kids' favorite thing (even over the food, which was excellent!) was the massive hill that they all climbed.  Carson was really funny, refusing to walk back down, opting instead for the safer backward-crawl so he didn't have to see how far he had to go.

I mentioned on facebook that one Saturday in September, Aaron and I cleaned out the garage.  Here's proof.  It may be no organizer's dream, but we can park the car and find anything we need with much less digging!

Just last week, we watched a family of wild turkeys trek from our front lawn across the driveway on the side, down the hill behind the house and into a neighbor's property.  There were three more than this, but this was the largest group I got all together.

That same day, MomB came over and fulfilled the beginning of her promise to the girls to paint their room how they wanted.  The girls asked for a 'green and pink room with puppies and kitties'.  So we (and by we, I mean David and Linnea) painted the room a soft green.  Then Mom came over and started on her part: the puppies and kitties.  She's painting what she knows; these are all her own pets.  The kitten sitting in the tree is Josie, the sitting puppy is Pumpkin (their current dog, no longer a puppy), and the playing puppy is Uno (renamed Bruno by his current owner).  I love the whimsical tree, and that it swirls up into the slant of the ceiling.  These are also not all together; the tree and the sitting puppy happen to be beside one another, but the playing puppy is across the room, under the window.  Also, over the window is another kitten, Tilly, but I will wait to picture her, since she's not done yet.

This was my craft for Conference weekend.  Guesses?  Ha!  Y'all won't know until after Christmas cuz one of my avid readers is the recipient.

Also during Conference was my note-taking method.  I figured this out for myself last session.  I give myself topics, then jot notes from each speaker and assign it a topic.  I leave these up about a month to remind myself what I heard and loved during Conference.

If you're still here, it's because you survived the pictures and are also interested in the current events of our family.

Evie is still loving school.  She loves the schedule and reminds me all the time, "Mom, tomorrow is a library day...an art day...a field trip"  She is especailly excited about the field trip.  She gets to take a special lunch (yes, she gets hot lunch, but I also let her pick special things for this lunch) and go to a pumpkin farm.  I'd love to join her as a chaperone, but Aaron's work schedule is just off my availability.  Oh, well.  I've joined the PTO at her school and am currently involved in bi-monthly help in the library (which I already love) and bi-monthly help in her classroom at the literary station.  Volunteering this way makes me feel better when I realize that I can't contribute monetarily very much.  I hope I can be a part of the younger kids' school groups as much as I am with hers!

Lizzie also adores her school group!  It's a weekly thing, similar to Joy School, bouncing houses and such.  Next week is her 'class' field trip to a pumpkin farm.  I use class loosely, because we've invited several other moms and kids who are not in the teaching group.  Lizzie is as precocious as ever, scoring her fourth black eye (involving her bed frame) in just less than three years.  I'm amazed at how she's growing; very suddenly, she's wearing clothes that Evie was wearing just last year!  The pants are a bit long, but otherwise, the shirts and waists and dresses fit her perfectly.

Carson.  Oh, Carson.  His word list recently grew really fast!  He FINALLY started saying 'Dad' instead of referring to every adult around him as 'Mom'.  Aaron's thrilled.  If he knows I'm getting grouchy at him for something, he comes up and puts his hand on my shoulder and lightly pats, saying, in the cutest tone and with the sweetest face, "Mom".  I can't describe it as cute as he does it, but I melt every. single. time.  Carson is also my one child I can count on to clear his plate every meal - as well as anyone else's left-behind food.  I'm looking forward to his 2nd birthday in a little over a month - wow!  they grow so fast!

As for us adults, I'm fine; the baby's fine.  (name that movie!)  I've started really getting my lists and crafts started for gift-giving during the holidays.  I go through bursts of energy, often getting a craft started and leaving the house disastrous.  But I'm loving it anyway.  Aaron's doing well at work, but is looking for a position elsewhere within the bank.  If it all goes as planned, he'll go through a two year training program and get a higher pay.  Who minds that? :) 

My goal from here on out is to post at least once a week, so my posts (and readers) don't get overwhelmed with pictures and information.  Wish me luck!