Cute Cookies and More

 My Mom gifted me a Halloween Craft book a few years ago... I was hesitant to keep it, knowing it would be a few years before my children would even be old enough to complete any of the crafty projects, so I tucked it away in one of our many Halloween boxes in the garage.  Well, when I was decorating our house for the upcoming holiday Caitlyn found the book and she picked out this cookie project.  The book was geared for children and had illustrations of what the cookies might look like in the end... and I kid you not... she decorated all of the above cookies. (okay, I decorated one of the cookies... but she did the rest). She took her time looked at the example pictures and copied them perfectly.  I might have adjusted an eye or two just to straighten them out... but she is quite the little cookie decorator.  I couldn't help but take a picture of each and every one of them.  Afterwards, we carved out our pumpkins, sorted through to gather seeds, cleaned and baked them.  Although it was my weekend to work, we accomplished a lot.  Sunday, we packaged up our cookies and delivered them to our neighbors before we headed to Sunday dinner.

***

You might be asking yourself... where are the pictures of Ashton decorating cookies and carving the pumpkins?!?! Well, he actually chose not to participate in this fun filled family event as he chose to simply run around diaper less in and out of the bathroom... where he went number one and number two!  I almost hate to brag because I know we're FAR from being potty trained ( I know this because I am overhead paged EVERY SINGLE TIME I try to go to the gym because he has poopy pants{yep, they don't change diapers in the kids zone}), but he has gone potty at least once in the tiny toilet each day since he started and he's pooped 2 and 1/3 times (the first time he went 1/3 of it made it into the toilet, 1/3 of it on the seat, and 1/3 of it on the ground beside the toilet... so it totally still makes the count). 

Enough toilet talk from me today... Ashton will LOVE me for this post... I KNOW it!  I should inform you that the above picture is just a re-enactment, usually he sits the other way. Another quick update on our family... both my children are teething. Yes, faithful blog followers you read that correctly, Caitlyn is also getting her last two 2-year molars at age 38 months.  I thought that maybe we were through the thick of it and skipped the ibuprofen after baths last night and at about 1230am Caitlyn entered our bed and then at 1am Ashton joined us for a short hour.  It was the first time we had four of us in the bed since Ashton was a couple months and was still nursing. 

Needless to say... Ash has gotta be tired at work today cause I know I am!

Tired or not... we have an eventful next couple of days. 

Coffee is a MUST right now and probably will be throughout this weekend.

Today Caitlyn has her Halloween party at preschool, the kids get to meet their new per diem babysitter, and we have dinner planned (and more Halloween activities) with the Johnson's.  Tomorrow, we have the Halloween carnival at church where Caitlyn and Ashton's mom has volunteered at one of the booths, Saturday Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl will be making an appearance at a Halloween party, and Sunday... dinner and trick or treating with the Newgards!

Rocktober ending with a bang!

1 and a half!

Sweet Son.

You truly are sweet.

You melt my heart each and every time you say my name, 'Mumma'.  You can say more words than I can count and are still signing. Your baby voice is like music to my ears.  You love waffles and spaghetti and yogurt, and well... this list could go on and on.  You love to climb, I actually took a short break from typing this post cause your Dad asked me to come and check you out... You were standing on his head trying to pull yourself up to a window.  In just the past 3 weeks you've gotten 3 molars and 1 front tooth (for a total tooth count of 10).

You love to dance, your style is with your hands in the air with your feet moving as fast as they can go... usually while your sister twirls around and around you.  You are precious when you are sleepy: You drag around a blanket and when you're super sleepy you have one in each hand (picture Linus from the Peanuts characters).  You know almost all of your body parts.  The way you make your eyes smile when you say cheese is so darn cute too.  You love your sister and she tells me about 30 times a day that you are her best friend. The below picture is compliments of her... she loves to take your picture as much as you love to say cheese.  Once again 18 months have come and gone so incredibly fast.

 Thank-you, son, for being just one more light in my life.

I love you to pieces and always will.

1st Field Trip

Caitlyn experienced her first field trip to the Thomasson Family Farm.  It was so exciting being able to chaperone her and all the other preschoolers and pre-k kiddos.  Gram and Auntie also came along which made my job that much easier. I was really able to enjoy watching as Caitlyn played. I learned that Caitlyn is actually quite the little listener at school.   

Caitlyn played in a hay maze, sat at a long table and ate an icecream treat, played in a lot of corn kernels, went down a ton of slides, blew many bubbles, pet a miniature horse, a 26 year old donkey, and a rabbit, milked a pretend cow, took a hay ride, picked out her perfect pumpkin, and obviously had a wonderful time.

Thanks Gram and Auntie for coming along!

Spaghetti

One of his faves.

Oh, I just couldn't pass up the cute photo op.

A Fall Fave

 I had the weekend off and the weather was too perfect,

so we ventured to the pumpkin patch. 

 Caitlyn loved showing off for the camera.

She picked out her pumpkin all by herself this year. If it were up to her she would have picked them all.  To my surprise, she picked up some of the largest pumpkins there... In her attempt to pick up them all, she broke the stems off of a few too many pumpkins (which also meant she was breaking rule #6 at the pumpkin patch: no breaking off the stems).

Ashton enjoyed running up and down the rows of pumpkins. And to keep to our theme... he also enjoyed climbing up and over and on and around the pumpkins: breaking rule #4 at the pumkin patch: no climbing on the pumpkins.

79 pounds of pumpkin later,

we all headed home for a nap.

I have so missed our weekends together as a family.

September Recap

What would better recap the month of September...

 than a bunch of photos...

I worked full time this month

(including my weekends)

and on top of that I had something to do almost every single night for

the Rychlinski & Thompson Wedding.

Therefore, my Mom spent many days with my children...
(I didn't have a recent pic of my Mom with my kids,
but this one of her and Dad is so stinkin' cute)

and Ash spent many nights & weekends being a single parent.

I got to spend lots of time with my sisters...

as the wedding neared...

we got a few pedicures... 

I also spent time with my brother...

... and Caitlyn enjoyed dancing with her brother...

... and with Gram at sunset...

 ... She also danced with one of her besties

as they practiced for their future 'lighted box' debut...

... and I spent a tiny bit of time celebrating one of my besties big 3-0.

♥

Caitlyn experienced some wild hair days...

(seriously this pic makes me laugh,

if only you could've seen how darn cute she was walking down the hallway that morning...

she is so tiny with such big hair... LOVE her!)

 ...and we cut off most of Ashton's curls.
(I hope they grow back... LOVE him too!)

All in all,

it was a month to remember.

Although busy and stressful at times,

I truly enjoyed all the time spent with all of my favorite people. 

A huge thanks to my Mom for helping out with my family

and to my hubby for being the best hubby out there.

I am so blessed.

Ksavera & Jason's Preview

Here's just a preview of the pictures to come.

These were taken by Tasha Owen Photography.

Who I might add... Did a FANTASTIC job!

Bacchelorette Party

The last fling before her ring.

Hooray for Sadie, Hooray for Sadie.

Friday night we celebrated in style. 

We painted T-town red in our huge party bus.

Twenty-some girls got together to celebrate

Ksavera and her engagement to Jason.

We stopped by a few of her old favorite hot spots.

Few pictures were taken in the beginning of the evening.

Enjoy.

Grandparents Day

In honor of Grandparent's Day (September 12, 2010),

Caitlyn got to take her grandparent's to school.

Everyone was able to make it (Pappy met them at the school).

She is so incredibly LOVED!

Out of Towners

One of my favorite friends came to visit from Idaho. We used to work together... and by work together... I mean we used to carpool, pass meds, break, check blood sugars, go on candy runs, break, work doubles, train new emplyees, wander in the courtyard, and take breaks together.

She came in from Idaho and our other old work friend came in from Hawaii.  We all met up and spent an entire day together at the zoo, then at cold stone, then at the Tai Bistro.  It was so super nice to see an old friend.

Click on the pic of Caitlyn's hair as she slid down the slide... Priceless.

1st Day of Preschool

Caitlyn Leigh's 1st day of Preschool.

She attends a Lutheran school

2 days a week (Tuesday and Thursday)

She's in a class of 9 children.

Her and Audrey are the only girls,

3 out of the 7 boys are named Elijah.

Sept 30th-I'm in charge of snacks.

We took over a hundred pictures of her on her 1st day.

I will post only 5 so I don't bore you.  

Above is a picture of the proud parents and brother of a preschooler.

This one was taken in the parking lot when we arrived, I'm pretty sure she was giving me two thumbs up... reassuring me that everything would be alright.

I had to get one more right before she entered the classroom.

The night before, I felt a little anxiety as I realized that other children and teachers would influence her life now.  I felt a sudden need to remind her of how to behave... I reminded her to say please and thank-you, and to share her toys, and to be nice to all the other children.  The conversation ended with her telling me,

'Mommy, Me do yat... me do all of yat.'

That's when I knew she was ready.

When we picked her up, all the parents stood in the lobby and the teacher would call downstairs to the teacher's assistant who's parent's had arrived to pick up the children. It felt like graduation...

The teacher called Caitlyn's name and she climbed the stairs along with the other children all of them with their oversized back packs, carrying her lovely art work.

I was SO PROUD!

♥

Ash took this picture and I absolutely had to put it on the blog.

It reminded me of line from one of Mine and Caitlyn's FAVORITE books,

Someday.

Someday I will stand on this porch and watch your arms waving to me 

until I no longer see you.

Lake Trask 2010

Labor day was spent with Ash's family at their lake property.

Lots of fun and laughter... and spiders!

The kiddos LOVE it there!

Meet & Greet

We met with Caitlyn's preschool teacher and all her tiny preschool friends.

I cried twice... Ash and I were holding hands watching Caitlyn run and play with her new friends, he looked at me, squeezed my hand, and asked if I was ok. I nodded because I knew if I tried to speak, I'd cry.  I watched her as she played on a merry-go round type toy and she waved to me and asked, 'Mommy, you go bye bye now?' It took everything I had to tell her (without crying) that I was staying for this night and next time I'd leave her all alone... without my supervision... under the influence of all the other preschoolers and teacher Julie where she'd just begin her preschool years which, I know, will help her grow and develop into a beautiful young woman who will- with just a blink of an eye- be heading off to college soon. 

Sweet Summer's Eve

I'm not positive, but this might be the last day of nice weather this summer.  So we spent it with tons of friends at the sprayground, came home and took a really long nap, then headed back to the park for a picnic dinner. 

These two melt my heart.

Kite Festival 2010

The Kite Festival has come and gone and we had so much fun.

I am a little embarrassed to admit...

I didn't even get my camera out until the second to the last day.

Therefore very few pics were taken...

Caitlyn is a 'camping queen'...

which is just one more thing she did NOT get from me.

Ashton was also a great camper... until it came time to sleep.

He wasn't sure how to fall asleep without his crib.

The beach was a tad bit too cold for my littles, they were not interested in the sand or the waves. In fact the only thing they were interested in was being held by me, so we napped in the sand and then headed back to the camper before the kites were even in the air.

I might not have been voted the 'camping comedian' or even nominated for the 'gummi bear award'... but I'll tell you what!!!

I for sure won the most stylish camper with this smoking hot, vintage red sweatshirt, gifted to me from my mom (est.~1985).

Here's the whole camping gang after our tournament of champions.

(Caitlyn was super happy to be included in the pic.)

This year was probably one of my favorite years at the kite festival, and although I don't really have the pictures to prove it... my kids and everyone else loved it too.