Kate's new song

Kate has never heard this song before (that I know of) but I heard them play it at the gym when I came to pick her up and I started singing it as we walked out. I thought it was so cute when Kate joined right in and sang along.

Sawyer's first tooth

I've been blaming the crankiness on this tooth for a while, and here it finally is!
(yes, this shot is of him crying....but thats the best way to see the tooth! I didn't pinch him to make him cry, I promise! he just happened to be crying, I saw the tooth and snapped a picture. sheesh....people get really upset when they think "his head is about to explode!")

pumpkins, caramel apples and cold

last night we carved pumpkins and had a fun fall family home evening. the pumpkin kate got at the pumpkin patch was a little small for carving so I thought she might enjoy painting it more. we went to target after the gym and bought the paint and afterwards she talked about it constantly. I told her she had to wait until daddy got home and she kept saying "when daddy comes home, I'm going to paint my pumpkin!" here she is in her painting glory

she had fun and I think she's a pretty good artist. after the millionth time of her asking me to wash her paintbrush so she could switch colors, I got her a cup of water to wash them out herself (pictured in lower right corner). I went to work on carving mine and I heard ryan say "kate, is that drinking water?" she totally chugged down quite a bit of paint water. they're crayola...non toxic...right?

sawyer had fun eating his first baby food

not-so-pureed pumpkin guts. he loved it and ryan thought it was hilarious. kate found it all quite disgusting and I could tell she was glad to be just painting hers. we were going to put sawyer inside like we did with kate but ryan had cut the hole on the top a little small.

kate thought ryan's pumpkin was really funny and kept trying to imitate the face it was making. after I cleaned up dinner, helped kate and made the treat, I didn't have much time to carve mine. but I saw the hole punch effect on someone's blog and thought it would be fun.

to make it feel even more like fall we made caramel apples. I think I did a really good job making them thick enough that they didn't drip...too much.

It was a fun night. then this morning I woke up to a cold bedroom. anyone not in houston...or tucson for that matter....might think this isn't so weird. but it was the first time I've actually felt cold and it was nice. it was the perfect morning to just lay in bed relaxing for a while....but no one told my kids that. sawyer woke up at 6:00, crying and not being easily comforted. I finally got him to sleep and snuggled in bed just as kate woke up and came in my room. sigh.

but I had fun dressing them up in some cold weather clothes. I've been dying to have kate wear this sweater ever since I got it from hilary!

and here is sawyer as I attempt to have him sit up so I can take a picture. he prefers laying on the ground....as evidenced by the fact that he kept flopping down (intentionally and happily) as soon as I sat him up.

its fun seeing them in some winter clothes! now I need to go take a warm shower and cuddle up on the couch!

Dewberry Farm

On Saturday we went to Dewberry Farm for a little bit of autumn fun. 80 degree autumn fun. It had SO much stuff to do and we had a great time. Here are some picture of the fun swings and slides and hay pavillions and jumping pillows and wildflowers.

Sawyer got to ride in the backpack for the first time and he liked it....for a little while. Once he got tired he wasn't liking it as much.
Kate impressed me by actually feeding the goats herself! The first time we bought some food she was too afraid but then we did it again and she walked right up and fed them! AMAZING!

Kate LOVED the big roller slide. She would have done it oever and over again.

And we rode the train 4 times.

The last thing we did was a hayride to the pumpkin patch. Sawyer was hungry by then and I hadn't brought my nursing cover or a blanket so here I am nursing Sawyer with our backpack sunshade.

There were lots of pumpkins to choose from, but most were HUGE. It was hard to find a Kate-sized one.

And here we are on the hayride home. Sawyer was fed and happy and Kate was happy to play with him
More happy Sawyer

We were all really tired by the time it was over, but it was really fun. It kind of made me wish we lived somewhere where it FELT like fall...but we have some fun pumpkins to carve tomorrow night!

my two pumpkins

we had a fun Saturday! more pictures to come!

haunted houses!

Kate LOVED this fun project! I need to do fun things like this more often!

happiness...

I like it when things turn out like I wanted. we're off to a halloween party, more pictures to come!

**ranch pumpkin cheeseball recipe***

2 packages cream cheese

1 cup shredded cheese (any kind)

1 package ranch flavor

mix, form, roll in crushed cheese crackers and add green pepper stem!

bad day

today nothing is going right for me. I have a ton of projects in the works and none of them are going well. ryan's halloween costume is a disaster. I don't have an ingredient I thought I had for the dinner I was planning on making tonight. sawyer is fussy/sick and I have a headache. I would rather be down the street rocking out to weezer.

I'm ready for ryan to come home

preventing applique envy

**he isn't mad!! he's singing a really intense song!**

rock on, dude!

pumpkins and spiders

we were coloring for FHE tonight and I was really impressed by kate's drawings. this is the first time she has ever followed my verbal directions to draw something other than squiggles. not that I don't enjoy her squiggles...I was just really impressed!

she's got pumpkins and spiders down!

kateisms

mommy: "Kate, quit being so bossy!"

kate: "I'm not bossy, I'm KATE!"

*

kate (putting on a hilary hand-me-down): "mmmm....this smells good, like ella!"

*

kate: "I want to go to grammie's house"

mommy: "not today"

kate: "in november"

*

kate (running around the house after a bath): "I'm make-ed!"

*

kate (to charlie her horse): "giddy gup giddy gup giddy gup..."

*

mommy (in a sad voice): "I wish we still lived at grammie's house"

kate (mimicking mommy's voice): "with her kitchen"

*

just this morning...when ryan let me sleep in and went to school later than normal: "I woke up and saw daddy!"

*

kate: "I need some medicine. my back hurts."

my not*so*secret project

HOORAY FOR APPLIQUE!

I got side tracked from my secret project and found applique. My friend, Melissa, inspired me. Kate doesn't really need clothes (thanks hilary!) but its fun to make her some! I hope to play with it some more. Here are some pictures I took of Kate. I thought she looked pretty cute today.


and some of Sawyer just to make it even!

I wuv you!

this post is kinda random...

thanks to everyone for all your birthday wishes! (and for ryan for the oh so funny birthday post!) I had a great day. anytime I remembered it was my birthday, I would sing "happy birthday to..." and kate would say "MOMMY!" It was pretty cute. we went to playgroup and it started sprinkling first thing. the kids still had fun going down the "water" slides and things. kate kept asking to go swing but I didn't want her to get that wet. eventually the sprinkle turned into a downpour and we ran for the car. when I tried to put kate in the car she was throwing a fit because she still wanted to swing! it was a DOWNPOUR! anyways, it was a fun adventure!
I have spent a lot of my time recently on a secret project. it kills me to keep a secret (especially when I LOVE it and want to blog about it!) but I'm doing my best. thats really the main reason why I don't have anything fun to post. because all my time has been spent on it. but yesterday I did stop what I was doing and take a moment to enjoy my kids loving each other! there really isn't anything more fun!

and here is a video of kate enjoying her computer game. grammie got this for her a long time ago and she's always just pretended to play on it. the other day she had unknowingly started a counting game. I was sitting on the computer and she was next to me on the floor and it was saying "how many triangles are there?" and she was shouting at the screen "2!!! I'm 2!!!" too funny. so I decided to try and teach her how to play and she caught on really fast. here she is showing her daddy what she has learned.

sorry this blog was so random. I really have felt out of it as far as blogging goes. when I am in the middle of a project I kind of have tunnel vision (as evidenced by how my dirty laundry baskets are overflowing!)

A few things I learned about Kristen this year...

hey, what goes around comes around!!! happy birthday kristen!

over the past year i have learned a few things about kristen.


1. she loves me even when my hair gets long, shaggy, and out of control. don't worry kristen, i won't let it happen too often!







2. i never realize how big of an OU fan she is until they lose... this weekend was a little rough.
hook 'em horns!



3. kristen is actually quite frugal and thrifty. this is the first time we have actually experienced being poor as a married couple and family. now that we are poor starving college students again i have been amazed at kristen's ability to spend so little money. she is actually better at this than i am and i have always prided myself in being cheap. this is from when kristen dressed us all up as cows so we could get free meals at chick filet or whatever it is called.

4. kristen is kind of a hypochondriac. right now she thinks she has glaucoma. (she's fine). she is pretty good at self diagnosing herself with webmd. she used to have a rare form of lower back tumor and that is why she is wearing a bandana (kate's is for sympathy). it's ok, she made a miraculous recovery. we are very thankful.



5. kristen makes a pretty darn attractive pregnant girl. this picture below is of her the day she gave birth to sawyer. i also found out she thinks labor is fun. and being pregnant. she would consider being a surrogate mom if i let her, that's how fun she thinks it is.



6. this was supposed to go up by the OU thing. she is not opposed to cheering for a losing team. my team (fearless loser washington state) has not been skilled in the art of football the past few years, but kristen is not afraid to don the crimson and grey and cheer til utter destruction. go cougs!



7. she is also braver than i thought. last fall we went to mexico and literally swam with WILD sea lions. only with shady mexican snorkeling outfitters can you do this. but pregnant kristen bravely jumped and shimmied up within spitting distance of these ferocious creatures! way to go! next, swimming with gators! who is that fat guy in the picture?



9. apparantly kristen has always wanted to live in NYC or boston. what? who knew. we had the opportunity to move to new york this year for school but kristen was a fantastic sport and allowed me to attend baylor instead (my choice). she still talks about new york on a daily basis, like everytime she sees a car, or a person, or a tree, it reminds her of new york. yeah, me too.

10. i am outta time. not that i didn't already know this, but kristen makes a pretty amazing mother. i always thought i was the most patient of us, but i have learned differently since number 2 was born. i don't know how she does it. by herself she is able to cart these two around houston and still have fun doing it. and then, she always has dinner ready when i get home. i don't expect this from her, but it is always so.

So to you my lovely aging wife. Happy Birthday!!! I love you!

love them!

I'm in a semi blogging slump.



if it was hit by a semi, it would be a blogging slump (that was for you, Dad)



I think I forgot how fast time flies when I was on vacation and I'm trying to get everything balanced again. Never enough time in the day.


I was going through pictures, lamenting the fact that I don't have enough of Sawyer, and I found this:



I sure love my blue eyed babies!

Huntsville State Park

This weekend we were able to go camping and it was SO much fun! It was so nice to enjoy the outdoors with a stress free daddy and have fun as a family and with friends! Here is a little recap of our adventures.

Because Ryan had the day off we got there earlier than all the other families. This left us the responsibility of picking out a campsite and we felt a lot of pressure to pick a good one. I think we did a pretty good job, though. It was right on a lake and it made for a really pretty background. Our first priority (after lunch) was setting our tent so Sawyer could take a nap. We started off "cleaning" by picking up pinecones...but Kate eventually thought the dirt was just too dirty so she switched to sweeping


We filled up her camelback and she never stopped drinking the entire time she had it on! We were dreading multiple nighttime bathroom runs....but she actually never had to get up once!


Sawyer's favorite thing (and his parent's salvation) was his bouncer! We were SO glad we brought it and he loved hanging out in it while we were busying ourselves with other things.


Eventually some friends came and we started fires and getting ready for dinner. The first picture here is Myles cooking the steaks! We ate in style and it was SO yummy! Kate also really liked roasting marshmallows....until hers caught on fire. After that she was a little cautious. I LOVED the homemade graham crackers that I made. Seriously, smores may have just become my favorite dessert!
Eventually it was time to get the kids to bed. Kate and Sawyer actually both did very well. Kate was SO excited to sleep in her bed ever since we had set it up during the day and she was so cute when she I left her laying in bed. She only called out for us once and it was because she had fallen out of her blankets. I tucked her back in and we were able to enjoy a fun night talking around the camp fire. Kate only woke up once in the middle of the night and she just switched to daddy's side and was fine. Sawyer woke up his usual amount. So we all woke up a little stiff and fairly rested.

Almost everyone brought bikes, so the next morning the guys all went out on a trail ride. The kids also went on a ride to the park. Since Kate doesn't really have the pedal thing down I had to push her basically the whole way. She had a lot of fun, though.
All the kids were great and I think Kate really got used to being around them. She kept talking about Denny the whole way home. (thats the only other boy besides Sawyer who was there!)
Here she is with Brinley, showing off their pine needle bracelets.









It was so much fun, the weather was perfect, and we sure hope we have many more Texas camping adventures!