Catch-Up!

 This past weekend some friends from high school and I got together to suprise our good friend Emily who just back from her mission to Brazil. We dinner at Inca's and had her mom and sister tell her they were taking her to dinner. When she walked in, we were all sitting there! Katie and Lacey flew in from North Carolina, Callie came from Utah, and Crystal, Danny and I all lived nearby so it wasn't too much of a trek. She was very suprised and it was great to have us all together again. We had a weekend full of festivities and catching up with each other.

 We went bowling and took great pictures of all of our shoes. It was the black light bowling so we all look a little funny and have random white streaks on ourselves.

These girls were my best friends in high school and I have them to thank for my turning out pretty decent during my adolescence. They were such a great example and always there to do stuff with, they kept me out of trouble!  I love we can not hardly see each other for years but when we're together it takes no time for us to catch right back up! And thanks to everyone's husbands for taking the kids so we could all get together!

We plan to do this again in a few years only at somewhere a little more exotic..hopefully it will become a tradition and we can always stay apart of each other's lives!

Lucy and I made a cotton ball ghost the other morning. She had a lot of fun dipping all the cotton balls in the glue and had the idea to also glue marshmallows to the paper, mainly because I think she wanted to eat them. She was very proud and we hung it up in the living room, she keeps telling me, "look mom, its so spooky!"

Edyn stood up in the laundry basket the other day. She also has started to kind of crawl. She is also getting number 8 tooth. Seriously?? 8 teeth! She has been so cranky lately and eating her hands again. They have wounds all over them. I love her but oh my, I am ready for her to be bigger sometimes! She turned 9 months last week. She eats pretty much anything, she had spaghetti tonight and loved it and also really likes bananas. She thinks Isak and Lucy are the funniest people ever and they can make her laugh harder than anyone. She really loves her mommy and is attached at my hip.

 Our Halloween carnival at the church was tonight. The kids had a blast and loved the cake walk because they each got a cupcake. I got lots of comments on Lucy's costume...I gave her some eggs to "hatch" and she has her "braak brawk!" down really well. Isak was Captain America and Edyn was a skunk. I love these sweet kids of mine. Some days are definitely harder than others and it seems Edyn wants to be held all the time and Lucy is refusing to do anything for herself and I think I'm going to go nuts. But then Lucy will have me put on her angry bird socks that go up her waist and instruct me to rub her feet and I just have to laugh. So grateful I get to be their mom and try to raise them right in this nutty world. I've had to work a lot this month for a variety of reasons and its been difficult being away from them. While I love my job, I am so glad that I don't have to be there full time. These kids need their mom, even if it means we have cruddy carpet for a while longer!

Pumpkins and Soccer

 Lucy went to the pumpkin patch last week with her preschool class. She was SO EXCITED and kept asking me, "we go to the pumpkin patch mommy?" like everyday.

 When we got there, Lucy ran to the pumpkins yelling, "Its the pumpkins! We're here!" she was very excited. And then she was quickly overwhelmed with the task of finding the perfect pumpkin. She wanted a little one but kept telling me or rather yelling, "its not perfect!" over and over. So yes. Finally I just got her to take one after changing her mind 15 times. The pumpkin patch turned out to be more drama than I expected. Hopefully Isak's field trip there next week is less eventful.

 Isak's soccer season is done for the fall and we are all relieved. Apparently he likes it though and wants to do it again in the spring. We will see. Lucy really wants to play and would often end up on the field at the end of game kicking the ball. Kevin coached for the 3rd time in a row and has sworn never again...

Isak has improved though since last spring. It will be fun to see him next spring if we decide to do it again.!

Conference Weekend

 The first weekend of October we had the opportunity to listen to General Conference. I was lucky to not have to work and just got to stay home be with our family which was awesome. To help the kids listen a little better this time, I found a game where I assigned a bunch of different words to various bowls of treats. When they  heard the word, they got to take a treat out of that bowl. Isak totally got this and enjoyed it, Lucy just started grabbing treats out of whatever bowl she wanted and in turn Isak would start yelling at her that she was doing it wrong. My intent was great....I think Lucy just needs to be a few years older...Anyway, I think Isak did listen better with it. We also made paper doll chains out of all the apostles and did some coloring. It was fun.

 And Lucy pulled out her wagon and spent most of conference giving her animals rides and lounging in it as best she could.

Edyn hung out and was her usual cute self, sans pants. Like how dirty my floor is? I am replacing that carpet this fall. White carpet is never, ever a good idea people. I don't know what they were thinking when they put that in!

Saturday morning we also did  5k that supported the fight against melanoma. Our friends were involved in putting on the event so I entered it and Isak also ran some of it as well. He did really great and was so excited for his race. He really wanted there to be obstacles and said, "I hope there isn't an arctic enema, mom!". That kid hears everything and forgets nothing. My dad was nice enough to walk with him as Isak started out sprinting the first 50 meters but needed some prompting to finish.

Tough Mudder

 Kevin mentioned a while ago about wanting to run a Tough Mudder. It is a 10-12 mile obstacle course with lots of mud, water, and stuff to climb. I really didn't have any desire to do one but since Kevin wanted too I agreed and we had some friends who wanted to do it too. We formed a team and before I knew it we were in Seattle at this crazy event with some guy writing my race number with permanent marker on my forehead and leg.

This was us before the race. Very clean. And dry. I guess I should emphasize that this wasn't a "race", but more of an adventure with the goal being just to finish. We had to climb a wall to get to the starting line and the guy starting us did some crazy dance and had everyone join in. It was pretty overcast and in the 50's when we started. One of the first obstacles was the "artctic enema" which consists of a large vat of ice water with a board in the middle. You have to go under the board, about 3-4 feet under the water and come out the other side. The water is kept at 34-36 degrees and it is extremely cold. I didn't know how long the board was when I initially went under and it scared me so I came back up. Kevin was waiting for me on the other side and I told him there was no way. The scary marine guy was yelling and I didn't see a way out so I dove under and pushed up the otherside through the ice. I was numb for a mile after coming out of that. It was the worst obstacle, I can see why they put it first. There were lots of very steep mud hills, holes of water, walls, monkey bars and the terrain was very rocky and had stumps all over. We crawled under barbwire with electric wires carrying shocking volts hanging down, through pipes, over rocks covered in icy river water and jumped off a plank 15 feet into cold water. The shocks were my next least favorite. My knees and elbows were pretty scraped up and bruised and I think next time I would wear capris and a long sleeve shirt. I wore football gloves and they were amazing and saved my hands. There were just over 25 obstacles at a little over 11 miles. I am so glad we had boys with us to help us get over walls and up some muddly hills, there was no way I could've done this alone. The other really fun part was the people watching. I saw a guy doing it in a suit, a team in onesie super hero costumes, several crocheted bunny hats, tutus and lots of other very interesting get-ups. Overall we had a great time. I did have a hard time accepting that we weren't racing and that it was okay people sometimes walked at times. I think we would all do it again!

 Wendy and I after the race, she was smart and brought a towel. Yes, they provided "showers" when we were done....they were hoses hanging from pallets with sprayers containing cold water on the ends. Very cold. So we drove home from Seattle very dirty. My parents were awesome enough to come up with us the day before and watch Edyn for me duing the race. She looks so clean compared to us!

September Travels

 We spent Friday and Saturday in Rexburg catching up with family. My brother and his wife Jennifer live there so we got to visit them as well as Kevin's sisters and his brother who was also visiting. I was so excietd to go to Jamba Juice there (living in this tiny town is sometimes quite depreciating) and they even gave us a baby size one for Edyn. Isak drew them a great picture of battling robots to hang on the wall.

                                         I

I got to visit with some of my sister-in-laws and my kids loved playing at Aunt Whitney's house with their cousins. Check out this slide, what's not to love? We also checked out the DI while we were there and picked up this $1 iCarly microphone that played some awesome songs. Naomi and Lucy loved this thing and by the end of the visit knew all the lyrics, quite loudly.

 Edyn really liked the racing car chasing her and would laugh hysterically everytime it came her way.

 The girls helped us make some cookies that didn't turn out so fantastic. Then in true family love fashion, we all got sick in the few days after we got home. And conveniently, Kevin was in Colorado and gone while all that happened. Nothing like puking kids and being sick yourself with no husband! Thank goodness for my great in-laws who let me sleep at their house and didn't complain when my kids puked on 2 of their beds. It was a great trip and we got to see a ton of family. I should've taken more pictures as usual but we had a great time. Thanks to everyone who let us crash at their house and torment their pets!

Boise State Game

Kevin and I traveled to Boise the end of September to attend the BSU vs BYU football game. I bought Kevin tickets for his birthday this summer and we have been dying to go back to a game. We haven't had a chance to go since we moved away three years ago. My brother and his wife were nice enough to take Isak and Lucy for the game and I elected to keep Edyn as she doesn't like anyone and take her to the game. Earlier that day I got to meet up with my friend Kim and her kids and it was so nice to be able to catch up! It made me miss living there and all the great people I knew. That combined with walking into the stadium surrounded by tons of orange and blue made me nostalgic for Boise!

 Edyn was pretty scared of the noise at first.. I should've brought her headphones but it never occured to me. She clung to Kevin or I and laid her head on us while I covered her ear against me. The first few times she cried then she started to do a lot better.

 By the second half, the noise wasn't phasing her too much and she was all smiles. She even let the very nice older gentleman we were sitting next too hold her without crying.

The game itself was ridiculous. Boise won but it was by far one of the ugliest games I have ever seen. Our offense wasn't even present and our kicker apparently was no longer useable after the first missed field goal. It was a tad frustrating to say the least but we pulled off the win, no matter how undeserved it was. Kevin and I had a ton of fun and I love the atmostphere of the stadium there. And the hand dipped corn dogs and mini doughnuts. Delicious.