random halloween

-We carved pumpkins on Tuesday and even though it was late and super rushed it was a lot of fun. Jocelyn and Cecily got their own pumpkins to carve and Chris, Ash, and I shared one (Chris carved it and it turned out the best!)

-Don't ever assume something is unimportant to your child. If any assumptions are to be made, assume it means the world to them. Lesson learned. Really this wasn't that big of a deal but I'm a person who feels everyone's pain around me. Jocelyn's school was having a fund raiser at Red Robin last night and she really really really wanted to go. The girl was relentless. Chris works late on Thursdays so I dismissed it. Had I known it was important to Jocelyn I would have had Chris rearrange his schedule. I felt terrible and really wanted to make it work. Oh well?

-Chris informed me that when I say something that I feel is a little racist I will scratch my right eye. In my defense, it wasn't racist, and my eye really did have an itch.

-I had a dream last night I had another baby and I named her Scarlett. I was all worried this meant there's another baby coming but then I remembered Chris and I had a convo last night about how I really was ok that I don't have a child named Laura. I think this was my subconscious confirming that even if I had another baby girl I wouldn't name her Laura. It was healing.

-I was running late getting the girls to school on Tuesday. I always have Fiona in her bumbo while everyone eats and I do hair and make lunches. I got everyone in the car but decided the girls should have their snow jackets cause it was SOOOOOOO windy. I run inside and see Fiona sitting in her chair all happy to see me. I almost left her on the counter while I ran the kids to school!!!!

-This coming week is Cecily's spotlight week at school. This week she brought home "froggy" to take pictures with him and write in his journal. She was SO EXCITED to do this and can't stop talking about her spotlight week.

-Today was Tiny Tots trick-or-treating in downtown. All the store owners come out with candy and parents walk around with their tiny tots and collect candy. It's crazy busy awesome. UOP sets up a booth so Chris has to work it but it was fun dropping by to see him with Ash and Fiona and get a hot dog.

For some random fun here's some photos of Halloween's past...

Happy 5 months Fiona!

I can't believe it's been 5 months already. She's scooting on the ground a bit more, she really enjoys licking toys, and she loves her siblings. Fiona has the most unsettled stomach out of all my kids. She always does little spit ups, and especially when Chris plays with her. He was airplaning her after I fed her and she totally puked on Chris's eye! I was laughing so hard and Chris's natural instincts kicked in. He threw her to me, nearly off the bed and ran to clean up his eye. I yelled for him to wait 5 seconds while I grabbed the camera but he had already cleaned off his eye. Good one Fiona!

We got her costume on Monday and let me tell you. She's one freak adorable bumble bee!

Girl weekend vs. boy weekend

Thursday night I drove Chris to Denver to catch a flight to Mesa for his little brother Andrew's eagle scout shin-dig. I was going to stay with all four kids but Chris convinced me that the price of Asher's ticket is worth it so I could have a fun weekend with just the girls. I agreed and in the end I think it was totally worth it. Asher got the man-time he really craves with all his uncles and cousins.

Nana Richie sent us a girls only box and the girls couldn't wait and wouldn't let Asher even look in the box.

Friday night I took the girls to Olive Garden (their pick) and we ate lots of food and got fancy desserts. Then we went home and had popcorn and cuddled while watching How To Tame Your Dragon. (Chris took my camera with him and took 5 photos with it so I was stuck with my ipod to take photos. I apologize for low quality of these photos).

Saturday we went shopping, a plate full of cookies and milk, painted nails (only one foot for Fiona) and burnt popcorn. Each night they slept in my room with me, which I really needed. (I'm the biggest wuss. I would lock my bedroom door every night and take two tylenol pm so I didn't have to be awake long in bed).

 Fiona has not been sleeping awesome lately and I think it's because she's hungry now and ready for baby food. So with my crappy ipod camera I documented her first food. It didn't go so well. She didn't hate it but it's always a pain trying to get them to swallow it. The girls enjoyed it a lot though.

 Sunday the girls had their primary program. In my rush to get to church on time I forgot to feed Fiona so I didn't miss the program. I ended up missing Cecily saying her line but I got to see Jocelyn. Then during closing prayer I remembered I needed to sub Chris's primary class. Thank goodness it's only 6 year olds and they are content leaf hunting, coloring, and hang man. They did tell me I should be a cat or a piece of toast for Halloween. Both good suggestions.

Chris and Asher took the 6:30am flight home Monday morning. I was so happy to see them again! I convinced Chris to take one more day off work so I could be with him. (plus he was dead tired) We walked ran to pick up Cecily from class. It was soooooooooo windy and cold! I LOVE IT!

Asher missed Fiona a lot too. He asked to hold her and he did for probably 10 minutes.

I'm so glad my man and boy are home again!

Lonely Mee

I'm missing these two guys hardcore. 

The girl weekend has been a ton of fun! But I could sure use some testosterone to balance out all the girl-drama we've got goin' on here. 

12 more hours.

ps: This is another photo from our second photo shoot. Lindsay rocks my world!

Friday Friday

-Chris had to do the color test for a training at work. Since it's free he had me take it too. It's a bit different than the one we've all taken before. Chris is a equal mix of red/blue/yellow and I'm mostly blue and white. It was interesting and always a little creepy when it nails you on the head.

-I dropped Chris off at the airport and Fiona cried the WHOLE WAY HOME! Yep. 60 blissful minutes of I-can't-do-anything-for-you-while-I-am-driving kind of cry.

-Chris edited this photo on his ipod.

-I had to drop my HR class cause I got so sick and too far behind to bring up two failing grades. So graduation for me is delayed to March. I'm still in my marketing class and doing better. Plus now I will be able to help Chris with his school. He's going strong!

- When dropping Cecily off at school yesterday she said "I don't want daddy to leave, I like how we're a family." too freakin' sweet!

-Once a child is 2, it CANNOT be a lap child. No matter what the nice lady at Southwest tells you.

- The couch I bought last Friday is officially up for sale on craigslist. I found a slip cover that barely works on the long part of my red couch so I won't see it's disgustingness anymore. You know your life is good when your biggest trial is that your couch won't fit in your basement. (these rental curtains are coming down!)

-I haven't weighed in for 2 weeks and to my surprise I have lost almost 7 pounds since I left to AZ! Thank you chronic stomach flu!

-My friend was complaining on facebook that there is going to be a Cars 2. I flipped out with him cause, Hello! Cars 1 was LAAAAMMMMEeeeE! And someone said Monsters, Inc 2 is in development!!! I am speechless. This is just too awesome. I take back all the bad things I ever said about you, John Lasseter.

-Last weekend Chris and I made steak and some yummy butternut squash and walnut salad. Soooo super yummy! Also, to stay in the autumn mood I made THESE pumpkin pancakes with an apple-pecan saute. It was very tasty and almost like a dessert, Martha knows what she's doing!

-After nearly 8 years I have retired my mouse. My amazing logitech mouse! It's still going strong but it's scrolly thing was just too loud. Chris found me a cheap mighty mouse and let me tell you. It's pretty sweet.

Have a great weekend! I know I will, I'm hanging out with my girls and they get to pick everything we do. Chris has my camera so he better use it!

Mesa, Arizona, Mesa, Arizona not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York, or Rome, but...

Mesa, Arizonaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

                                                                       (I'll give whoever can guess this song, or what it's from, a box full of fall leaves).

I flew home to Mesa on Thursday night (Oct 7th). I had a wonderful facetime chat with Chris with our new iPods at the airport and Fiona was a freakin' doll the whole time. I was so nervous she would scream and cry the whole flight but she didn't. She giggled and cooed at all the people around me and then shortly after take off, fell asleep. I played chuzzle and listened to my new book World Without End (sounds like a James Bond movie title but it's the sequal to Pillars of the Earth).

Friday I spent the day with my mom and sister with breakfast at the Good Egg, pedicures and a trip to the Apple store. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry that I started to feel sick Thursday night. By the time I got back to my moms house that afternoon I was just wanting to relax on the couch. I decided I should keep moving and headed over to Molly's house to play for a bit before sushi. At this point sushi did not sound good at all but I wanted it so bad cause I never get good sushi! I told Molly my secret and she suggested canceling but I stomped my foot like a little kid and said NO! I want to play! Bad choice. I got fever chills, I was achy, miserable. Trying to keep a happy face on was very difficult. I had two pieces of sushi then whispered to Molly I was going to die. I got home, asked my mom for a fluffy blanket, and went to bed. I died that night.
(Picture of me with all the sister in laws with Sandy... sigh... didn't get one!)

Saturday I was supposed to make crepes with Bethany, go out to lunch with Amy, attend Chelsea's baby shower, and have a girl night with my mom and sisters. I had to bail on everything and barely made it to the dinner with my mom and sisters. The most I could do was rotate so I could feed Fiona. Poor thing spent most of the day in bed with me. And whenever she protested I called my mom and she came and played with her.
(picture of me with my mom, sisters, and sister in laws... sigh... didn't get on!)

Sunday I woke up feeling a little normal. With my massive head ache gone I could actually function. I attended my little neice Rebecca's baby blessing and breakfast then I headed over to my in-laws to catch the VERY tail end of my nephew's baby blessing breakfast. (Seriously, what are the odds Jesse and Beth would both have 8am church?!)

 I didn't get a picture of Fiona with Oakley! Totally bummed about that one! I spent the afternoon at my in-laws and had dinner with my family. Monday was a crazy day of trying to pack everything in that I didn't get to do yet. I got to see Amy, go out to lunch with my mom and sister, a reflexology appointment, it was a nice last day and I couldn't wait to get home to see Chris and the kids again. We decided 4 days is the max we can be without each other then it just gets crippling.

While I was in Mesa, Andrew came up to play with Chris. They did a lot of boy movie watching, eating, and playing. Here are some photos...

Random plus weekend

Guess what, I got sick AGAIN, awesome I know... so I wasn't feeling up to blogging plus the guilt of not doing school was too much for me. This post is my random Friday plus our weekend. I'll blog about my trip to AZ sometime...

-Tuesday Chris stayed home from work and it was so nice to spend the day with him after being gone all weekend. We walked together to pick up Jocelyn from school. I knew there was no school Thursday or Friday for parent/teacher conferences but I wasn't for sure about Wednesday. I asked Jocelyn and she said she had school. Wednesday morning we were running late cause the girls didn't want to get out of bed. I got to school right when the kids are usually lining up to go to class. I didn't see anyone and told the girls to haul it to their classes. They ended up going to the office cause they were tardy. By this time I'm walking in my door and hear my phone ringing. Cottonwood. Turns out there was no school and I needed to come and get them. I call this a mom's walk of shame because they were waiting in the front office and I was in Chris's red flannel pjs, asher wasn't wearing anything but his underwear and my hair was CRAZY! I was able to laugh about it, and so did the girls but it was still humbling.

-When Asher got his teeth cleaned they took a photo of him. Then this past week they sent a letter to him with his photo explaining how important it is to brush his teeth. He carried this around with him the rest of the night he thought it was "awesome" in his words.

-The girls got their school photos back. On the morning of the school pictures was Chris's late day so I decided to get up early and get the oil changed and tires rotated and he got the kids off to school. I remembered at 9am that it was picture day. Chris is pretty good at pony tails but these girls have such frizzy hair like me.

We have been looking forward to the pumpkin patch all year. We get to look through the field and pick our own pumpkin, they have animals you can feed and pet (which is Asher's favorite) they have a playground of hay bales, and a corn maze (which was surprisingly expensive!) We had a blast. I was pregnant last year when we went and Asher was crazy. Let me tell you how awesome life is now that I'm not pregnant and Asher has calmed down a little bit.

-Friday I bought a couch off craigslist took two trips in my van to bring it home. It was such a steal and it's pretty much brand new! My vision was to put the red sectional in the basement 1/2 of the new couch in the family room and the smaller half up in my room. Well, we can't get the larger part of the red couch into the basement. It's impossible unless I chop it in half. It was SO disappointing! The new couch isn't as wide to sit on nor comfy. I got such a steal on it I know if I re-list it I could probably make money on it. The problem is it took us a lot of work to get the whole red couch up in our room that I don't know if I want to bring it downstairs again. It's such a tuff decision! Plus I now that I actually have a neutral colored couch I feel as though someone took away my curly hair. Weird analogy I know but I don't know what to do. I like not being ashamed of the disgustingness of the red couch but it's so comfy and red and perfect. Waaahhhhh!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!