Thanksgiving 2008 in pictures

Sawyer woke me up bright and early so I got the cinnamon rolls started

our pretty table

twin turkeys

my martha stewart stuffing....LOVED it!

ryan's cherry pie

we made a gratitude turkey
cute turkey

cute cousins

Dad's turkey bowl tshirt that he first wore in high school

our family's favorite...relish tray!!

feeding the ducks...

the weather was cooler than we thought it was

we had so much fun all together and the day went by really fast. hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

I finally figured this out....

I was having a hard time uploading pictures and then finding them on my mom's computer...but I finally figured it out. More to come, Ryan! I promise!

are we ready?

Ryan's ready




I'm almost ready



Kate's ready....to not have a stressed out Momma


{me cleaning the bathroom}: "Kate, don't get that rag soaking wet! You're making a big mess!"


{Kate}: "Mommy, may you go away please?"

Doesn't she have nice manners? I've worked hard on that!

Pumpkin cranberry bread

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15 ounce) can 100% Pure Pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (I used Craisins)



DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

***I LOVE the tartness it has when you use fresh cranberries!****

I'm dwirty

let me preface this by saying, Kate rarely gets herself into trouble when she's playing on her own.

Lately Kate has been asking to wear makeup when I'm putting it on in the morning and I always tell her no...though I must admit, she has some several good arguements.

me: "No Kate, makeup is for big girls"
Kate: "I am a big girl!"

me: "No Kate, not until you're 26 like mama!"
Kate: "I am 26!"

Today I was sitting on the couch with Sawyer and I hadn't heard from Kate in a while. I called out, "Kate, where are you?! Are you doing okay?" I heard her from the back of the apartment and didn't think anything else of it. Then I heard the water start to run in her bathroom. She has a step stool in there and she likes to wash her hands frequently...and she has just started getting her comb wet and combing the front of her hair down flat by herself.

She then walked in and said "I'm dwirty." Yup, she had gotten into my makeup and then tried to wash it off herself...I guess she doesn't know the secrets of waterproof mascara yet!

It was too cute. I walked the line of bursting out in giggles and kissing her cute little face (and of course, taking pictures!) and trying to teach her not to get in mama's makeup!

Papa's little girl

Tonight, after I had put both kids to bed and settled in for some TV/crocheting, Kate walked out of her room and came and sat by me.


Me: Why are you having a hard time going to sleep?

Kate: There is a noise.

Me: Okay, let's go find it.

Me (as a lay Kate back in bed): Where is the noise coming from.

Kate: {points to the fan}


The fan was making an ever so slight creak as it ran. Apparently she has super sensitive night hearing like her Papa. Next thing I know she'll be needing ear plugs to sleep!

We love you Papa!

Waiting for Tucson....

I had a hard time getting Kate to sit still and smile at the same time when I was taking this picture. For a long time now Kate has been saying she wants to go to Grammie's house and I would say "in November." Now its November and she's all confused. So I had to make a chain and I told her when they were gone we would go to Grammie's house. I love that she's understanding the concept. We've been pulling a link of the chain every night before she goes to bed and it gets us both really excited. The other day I was talking to Ryan on the phone and she said "I want to tell Dada about my chain." Then I heard her say, "when my chain is all gone we'll go to Tucson in November!"

Only 8 more days!

In the Christmas spirit

Isn't it a little too early for Christmas, you might ask? Maybe. But who can pass up a personal photo shoot with the big guy?!? He's only at the Picture People from now until Thanksgiving (things get a little busy for him after that!)



Although I must confess I have been listening to Christmas music already! I'm just too EXCITED!



You may also be asking, why is Kate not cool enough to be in a blog header picture? This just might be the answer:

The fact that she was not only not smiling but crying hystarically made me so frustrated...but now it just makes me giggle.

For the record, she was talking non stop before we went about how cool and nice and funny Santa is and she talked about him all the way home.

The Apostle Song

I found this on my friend's blog and I think its so funny! Kate and I have been playing it over and over. Its a little advanced for her to learn, but she did say "Is that the Monson?" when the prophet's picture came up first.
D Todd Christofferson is really hard to say!

home-sick

Today both of my kids woke up at about 5:30 with stuffy/runny noses. That meant I couldn't go to the gym which means we are all 3 in for a rough day.

Also, recently Kate has been randomly saying "I want to go home" when we are already home. Sometimes I'll say, "Kate, you are already at home!" and she'll say, "silly Kate!" but then other times she just keeps saying it. I'm not sure if she means her Tucson home or if she is just confused

Its over!!

Today was our Primary Program. I was in charge of it so I had to write it and then we've been working on it the past few weeks. It was difficult because Hurricane Ike made us a week late passing out the parts and then the stake moved it up a week from Nov 16th to the 9th. So we scrambled. It all came together in the end and now its over!
I'm grateful to work in primary with these beautiful (and wild and crazy and tiring) kids. I learned a lot. Not just in the symantics of pulling off a successful primary program but also from their sweet testimonies! I am very grateful for the "I am a child of God" theme that they learned about this year. As always with children, the spirit is strong when they speak and sing about the gospel and I know that it is true. We sang the song "I am a Child of God" last and I was able to sit back with relief and look out at everyone as we sang. I saw my beautiful Kate looking up at me with her smile and I'm grateful she is mine. I love to hear her sing that song (and its her favorite so we hear it often!)
Life is great. The program is over! Only 12 days until we leave for Tucson!!
Can you tell I'm happy?

I consider myself an organized person...

...let me explain.

When we moved in I was really overwhelmed. I had my mom to help, but it was very exhausting. {Fortunately} I have a nice, big walk in closet in this apartment. {Unfortunately}, everything just kept getting shoved in there. Then my lack of organization led to chaos. To make matters worse, it started getting cooler outside so I opened up my box of winter clothes and started rummaging through there...and then it spread. The result is a very embarrassing, messy closet. (don't you just love how my hanging *organizer* is hanging with a single pair of shorts in it!) I have put off the massive cleaning of the closet for forever....and for some reason I chose a Saturday afternoon/evening after a stressful morning of Primary Program practice and in the middle of baking 5 dozen chocolate chip cookies to celebrate the program being over. (I guess its hard to resist the clean-out-your-closet bug when it finally hits you!)

a husbandless Saturday evening well spent

Bottle success!

He finally took the bottle and he's loving it! Its only a matter of time until those pounds start packing on!

6 months (and Halloween)

I was a little behind in getting Sawyer's 6 month pictures taken because after Halloween he had a gynormous mosquito bite on the middle of his forehead. It took this long for the swelling to go down. But we finally made it and it was fun. He is such a happy baby that you don't have to do silly noises and funny faces until you're sweating like a pig like I had to do with Kate. (like I still have to do with kate....)

I realized I have one free sheet on my club card that had to be used this month so I decided to get their halloween costumes on one last time and get a picture. They both had really cute individual shots....but I only wanted one so I was stuck with this

I still love them...

President Obama

I found this article from the LA times very interesting.

I really don't like to talk (or argue about) politics

6 months old!

I realized that I totally forgot Sawyer's birthday on Sunday....so we put on his 6 month shirt yesterday and took some pictures. I need to work on my photography skills...especially with a baby. Or maybe I just need to work on patience. Either way, I was annoyed with all the dog poop around my apartment's grass.



lovely...



Here are the best I got in the 5 minutes I tried





Look at all that hair on his head!

trying so hard to balance...and a little concerned after already falling over a few times

Sun in his eyes

Here are his 6 month stats from our Dr visit yesterday:

Weight: 14 lbs 12 oz (10th percentile)

Height: (50th percentile)

Head: (50th percentile)

Sawyer's favorites at 6 months:

smiling and everyone and everything
laughing at mommy all the time (she is SO funny!)
laughing at his sister...when she isn't right in his face or hitting him "accidently"
"crawling" in a circle
rolling over
talking ("guh" and "ba")
drooling on everything
holding things in his hands and chewing on them
kicking his legs in his bouncy seat and the bathtub


We got the go ahead to feed him some baby foods so we started out with carrots

I don't think he was crazy about it. He liked it okay, but he wasn't in love.

I also talked to the Dr and we decided to start supplementing some formula for my skinny baby. Despite the fact that he is so very happy most of the time, there were some signs of being hungry. I was excited to try it. I thought I would make up a bottle of formula, and once he got a taste he would down it like "where has this been?!?!"....but nope, he took a few chugs and then was done. And so were my hopes that he would then sleep through the night. sigh.

But we'll keep trying!

Rock on, dude!

As Kate approached her 2nd birthday, we started trying to teach her to put 2 fingers up to indicate how old she was. This has eventually evoloved into 3's, 4s, 5s and (thanks to a Compound W commercial that comes on GSN a lot) a W. A while back I showed her this finger formation and said it was "rock on, dude!" She struggled with putting the fingers the right way and I would have to help her.

Then one morning I walked into her room and as soon as she heard the door open, she popped up and held out her hand and said "rock on, dude!" It was a perfect rock on formation! It was like she had woken up and started practicing in her bed and she was so excited to show me when she woke up.

Basically I think she's the cutest thing ever.

Rock on, dude!

Next year...

Ryan- "Come look, I found Sawyer's Halloween costume for next year!"

Kristen- "Aww, what a cute little surgeon!"

Ryan (completely insulted)- "NO, he's a little nurse anesthestist!

my bad!

Halloween

I felt like we've already used our costumes a lot, but we doned them once again for the BIG NIGHT! First we had fun making "ghostes". Kate LOVED it and I think they are absolutely delicious (big white chocolate fan!)

then we went over to the neighbors and ate some chili and hung out. There were lots of really fun costumes. Can you tell what Ryan is?

Here is our family. I chose this one over the one with Kate's finger up her nose. (I was really hoping she would never learn that!)

Kate looks pretty comfortable, eh?

Some of the kids. The only way we could get Kate in the picture was telling her to hold Summer's hand. She's finally getting used to being around kids!

These are Summer's parents. Very cute theme! (and thats Melissa that I talk about all the time, by the way!)

Cute twin pirates, Conner and Jace

Sarah Palin stopped by

Palin/McCain

just kidding. Actually I think this is officially Kate's first crush! When Ronald walked out, a few kids cried...but Kate couldn't stop talking about him. After we ate we headed to the church and Kate kept talking about "McDonald" the whole way there.

At the church we did a little trunk or treating. Kate was really shy but finally got the hang of it. Anytime a person let them choose, she chose a sucker. She sure loves suckers!

After we were done making the rounds we were walking around and Kate was asking where her McDonald was. We kept having to go find him. Here she is, longing for the love of her life

And the family meeting finally meeting him
After the church fun we followed McDonald to a few streets for some actual trick or treating. okay, that sounds like we stalked him...we were really invited! But the whole way there Kate was talking about him. "He wears make up like me" "He has funny red shoes" "He's a BIG boy!" on and on. I was laughing so hard!

Kate liked going door to door and kept saying "I want to go to another one!"

Eventually we headed home and we had 2 very tired kids!

It was a very fun Halloween!