Pumpkins and Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!! 

Hope you had a Happy and safe time Trick-or-Treating!  We sure did!  This was Jayce's First time out, and he did a great job (and came away with a pretty hefty bounty)!  He went all the way around the block with Daddy and Riley, then got dropped off at home while they conquered some more of the neighborhood.  Riley came home with quite a bit too! 

Riley also had his first school party!  He got to take and dress up in his costume (minus light saber - it's considered a weapon-lol) which he thought was the coolest thing!  And of course it is!  And Mommy learned a very important lesson today - Get to the school early for pick-up on Party days - WHAT A MAD HOUSE!!! 

Earlier this week we carved our huge pumpkins from Anderson's.  That was a lot of fun, and a lot of work for Mommy and Daddy.  Riley did very little of the de-gutting.  And only with a spoon.  He refused to get messy yet again.  Jayce was interested in it, the seeds especially, but only after they were loose from the "guts".  He wasn't too fond of touching the stuff either.  lol 

In other news, Daddy has finally found some time to get started on the bunk beds.  He hasn't gotten far though, so you'll have to wait on pictures of those a little longer.  The basement is pretty much done, so I'll try and get some pictures of that this week.  We took a trip to IKEA this weekend and got a desk for my craft stuff, some stuff for the girl's room, and a few Christmas presents (really trying not to get too far behind on that!  And this weekend Mommy is taking a trip up to Frisco with some friends for a "Girl's Weekend".  She is so excited!!  Some much needed rest and relaxation (and adult conversation!) 

Not much else going on right now.  Things are slowing down at my store, and I'm kinda liking it that way.  I haven't been pushing much, and I'm planning on stopping orders in a few weeks anyways.  I have one more show I'm doing the Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Outlet Mall in Loveland, but I'm not planning on taking any orders from that - just selling in-stock inventory.  It will be a nice break.  I've managed to break even this year, and make a small profit as of now, so we'll see if I can keep my spending to a minimum so I stay in the black.  I always hear the jokes about how people sell their knit and crochet items to support their yarn buying habits, but it really is true!  I can't get out of Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Joann's or even WalMart! without a couple balls of yarn.  It's crazy!  There's always something I see I like, or something that's a good deal, or a new color, etc.  I should take a picture of my yarn shelves to show you all - they are completely full!!  I started working on a few things for this little girl, and I'm really excited to finish them. 

I think we've finally decided on a First Name for our little girl.  Now we just have to get our list of ideas to Grandpa Louie so he can help us out with a Middle Name (ah-hem, Cameron!).  But it's nice to be at least halfway there.  Well, that's about it for now.  November is another full month for us.  Birthday Parties, a baby shower, the new Twilight Movie coming out!!!, Thanksgiving, and lots more!  I'll try to keep you updated with everything in a timely fashion!  Have a good rest of the week everyone!

Fall Fun Back at home

Saturday was our first day back at home after Yellowstone, and it was a beautiful warm fall day.  So we took full advantage!  After working on some basic errands that morning, laundry, grocery, etc. we headed out to our favorite local pumpkin patch to get our Halloween Pumpkins!  The pumpkins this year were HUGE!!!  We usually get appropriately sized pumpkins for each person (smallest for Jayce, Medium for Riley, Little bigger for Mommy and a Huge one for Daddy), but this year finding smaller ones for the boys was proving to be difficult!  Even so, with 5 good sized pumpkins (two of them nearly the size of Jayce!) we only paid $10!!  I love Anderson’s Patchwork Pumpkins!!!  After our excursion to the patch, we make a basic, staple dinner of Spaghetti (it’s all we wanted after a week of eating out at barbeque and fast food restaurants), and then built a fire in our new firepit to roast some marshmallows!  It was a great way to end our vacation!  

Hayride out to the patches

Jayce's Pumpkin

Riley's Pumpkin

Mommy's got enough Pumpkin to carry around!

All these for $10

 

I know I’ve gotten way behind on my Monthly Photo Albums since the beginning of the year.  Kodak Gallery (where I used to hold all my photos) shut down and transferred to Shutterfly.  So I’ve had to learn a new system, and wait for everything to be transferred over, and frankly, I just haven’t had the time.  Until now!  I spent the weekend getting caught up!!  YAY!!  I now have all the monthly albums made up through September, and October’s should be completed on time just after the end of the month (here in a few days!).  I can still email them to you if you would like – just let me know, otherwise you can see them all on my “sharingpage”.  

 I think you have to be invited to view the sharing page from Shutterfly, so just send me your email address if you want to “be invited” and I’ll make sure you have access to it.  Also, just a heads up – I may be Phasing Out this blog and moving everything to the sharing page permanently.  After all the issues with uploading photos here, and now I’m getting NUMEROUS spam comments almost daily, I was considering making the blog private come the beginning of the new year (you have to be approved to view and sign in with your email to see).  But After working this weekend on Shutterfly I’ve learned that their “Sharing Site” has a journal section where I can blog about my photos, which is really all I do anyways.  And, there is a calendar so you can see what all we are up to, and a ton more cool stuff – AND IT’S FREE!!!  So if it’s really as easy to use as it looks, I may just stop using this blog (it will still be accessible) and start putting my updates, pictures, etc. all in one spot.  I’ll let you know for sure and give you all the links to make sure no one gets left out.  

That seems to be about it for now.  Mommy is getting more and more uncomfortable every day, and we are one step closer to deciding on a name for this baby girl!  Hopefully soon!!  More updates coming after Halloween!  The boys are going to look great in their coordinating costumes!! ;)

Grand Tetons and Yellowstone

Oh, what fun we had!!  This was such a great vacation!  I’m so glad we finally got to do it!  Cameron and I have been trying to take this trip since . . . well, we moved to Colorado!!  Of course we’ll have to go back and see more than just the “tourist stops” that we did with our limited time-frame and lack of mobility on my part.  But surprisingly we saw almost all of the roadside stops, which thankfully there are more of in Yellowstone and Tetons than in Rocky Mountain.  We were never at a loss for something to see! 

The boys did really great too.  Jayce was cranky about being in his carseat so much, but that was to be expected.  We took lots of toys, coloring things, books, and snacks, and it was only the last leg of the trip home (after dinner and before bedtime) that I had to climb into the backseat to entertain them.  

The first day in Grand Tetons was absolutely gorgeous!  The weather was a perfect cool, fall day, and we got some great pictures.  Even enjoyed Lunch outside on a picnic table.  We stayed in a cozy little “cabin” at the “Cowboy Village Resort”.  I loved it – it was perfect.  2 rooms: a bedroom with 2 beds for everyone, and a sitting/kitchenette area.  Plenty of space for us.  Riley especially liked having the beds so close together and by the first morning there he had discovered he could flip from one bed onto the other.  Crazy Boys!!!  The second day was colder and windy.  So we did some shopping around Jackson Hole, and then headed up to Yellowstone.  Our drive took us around the west side of the park (we stayed in West Yellowstone), and the drive was such a different landscape compared to the eastern side of the Tetons!  So cool!

That afternoon we stopped at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone.  I really enjoyed this place!  It has a zoo-like feel to it, but it’s more of a sanctuary for bears, wolves, and birds of prey that can no longer survive in the wild.  Most of the Grizzlies they have had become habituated to people and relocating them proved unsuccessful.  So instead of putting them down, they get to live out their lives teaching others about bear safety and testing “bear-proof” containers!  We got to see the bears at feeding time (more like snack-time I’m sure).  They rotate the bears out of the viewing pen, and in between rotations they let older kids go in and hide snacks all over the pen for the bears to hunt for.  It was really neat to watch the bears flip rocks and dig around to get all the goodies.  

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all spent in the park driving around to see all the stops.  We got around all but one section of the two loops, the Tower-Canyon Village section had already closed for the season.  And did some of the “legs” too.  We saw lots of wildlife, Bighorn, Elk, Deer, Bison, and all sorts of birds, hawks, and ravens (Riley enjoyed pointing out the millions of ravens!)  No Moose, bears, or wolves, but that was ok – considering we stuck to the roads!  Riley’s favorite (and Jayce’s too) were the bison!  Jayce would squeal and mumble (like only he can do!) every time he saw them on the roadside.  It was so cute.  Riley also liked the geysers and steam vents.  Which makes this Mommy very happy!  Such a cool act of nature and I loved that he thought it was cool too.  Yellowstone did a great job of adding kid-friendly signs at some of the bigger locations (and a whole kid section in the Old Faithful Visitor Center) to get kids interested and explain how the heating and cooling processes work. 

The first day in the park was cool and rainy, a great day to see wildlife, and hardly any people.  The views were a little obscured at some points, but overall a good day to sightsee.  The second day was COLD and windy.  This wasn’t our favorite day.  Jayce didn’t like walking around in the cold and Cam had to carry him a lot of the time, but the sun was shining and the skies were blue – great for pictures!  The third day was another gorgeous day.  Sunny and warmer, we got some more great pictures and the boys enjoyed getting out and seeing things a little more.  It sounds like we had perfect timing for our trip – the week following our departure they were forecasting a bunch of snow for the park.  So I’m glad we got in there and saw what we could before everything closed up and became accessible only by snowmobile.  Not that it’s a bad thing – I would love to (one day) see the park by snowmobile . . . just not while I’m 7 ½ months pregnant!!  Lol  Well, not much else to tell about the trip – So I’ll share a few of my favorite pictures with you all!  Enjoy!  And if you haven’t been to Yellowstone – YOU SHOULD!!!  It’s a must see for sure!!

Grand Teton

Mammoth Hot Springs

Old Faithful!

Lower Falls and Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Pre-Vacation Updates

Well the dresser is complete!  It was certainly a pain in the butt, but it’s all done now!  Here’s a picture of the finished product (yes I know it’s missing a knob, we had to exchange it for the right one and I was too impatient to wait another day to get a picture.)

October is also the month of birthdays around here!  We have a couple of very close friends, with very close birthdays!  Greg turned 5 and Ryder turned 2 this year.  Ironically, both had their parties at Jumpin’ – the indoor bounce place, Just a day apart!  Lol, so Riley and Jayce got to go Bounce 2 nights in a row!  It was crazy fun!  They both had a blast playing with their friends, and Mommy and Daddy were glad to get out some pent up energy. 

However, not too long after our fabulous excusions, we all got sick.  Cam seems to think it came from Jumpin’ and all the germs floating around (quite possible), but considering Riley (the first to get sick) threw up only hours after leaving Jumpin’ the first time, I doubt it worked that quickly.  Riley got sick first, In Cam’s Car (I’ll tell the ER story in a few).  Then a couple days later Jayce came down with it, then Mommy and Daddy at the same time.  It was a quick illness for the boys, throw up once before bed, sleep through the night and by the next morning they are all better, eating normally, and back to themselves.  Mommy and Daddy weren’t so lucky.  Daddy just spent a good day and a half feeling really crummy . . . Mommy is the one who spent the majority of the two and a half days she was sick in the bathroom.  It definitely took a toll on me!  I don’t know if it was so much harsher because I am pregnant, or I had just gotten a flu shot and my immune system was lacking already or what.  But this one was a doosey for me.  I’m just thankful that we all got it out of our system before vacation. 

Oh yeah, we did have to make a trip to the ER though.  The night that Riley got sick, Jayce had gone shopping with Daddy while I took Riley to the Birthday Party.  He was swinging him by his arms to keep him entertained, and apparently dislocated his elbow.  From the sound of it it’s fairly common in children his age, and was a quick fix, but at 9:00 at night the only dr. available to pop it back in was the ER Doc.  Yuck!  So I loaded him up and headed out (after we had loaded everyone in Daddy’s new car and Riley puked all over the back seat!)  But we were home in about an hour and a half.  The fastest ER visit I have ever had!!!  Like a said, a quick fix. 

The only Other thing to share before I get into Vacation is our new firepit!  It is so nice!  We had a Cabela’s gift card hanging around, and just have never gotten around to using it, so we got a firepit that we’ve had our eyes on for a while.  Everyone loves it!  We’ve used it twice already in the last few weeks, and it’s been great.  Roasting Marshmallows, warming up outside on a cool night!  So fun!  The boys love it, Cam loves playing in the fire (must be where Riley gets it from!!), and I love just spending time with them all!  Here’s a few pics from our first Mallow-Roast: