What a difference a year can make

I have been thinking a lot this week about where we were this time last year and how much has changed for us.  For one thing, this baby has grown up a ton!  In this pic he was 3 months old and we were still in our little apartment.  We (I especially) were running out of hope that we would ever find a house to rent. Our time to give notice of moving out of our apartment was days away and we had been to look at pretty much every rental home in Liberty Lake to no avail.  None of them felt right and I was really discouraged.  

Look at this boy now!  He is 15 months and as busy as ever.  Into everything and wanting to be big like his sister and brother.  During the first week of November we got a call from Garrett's cousin's husband telling us about his friend and how he wanted to find a family with young kids to rent his house.  I did not allow myself to get excited or my hopes up because I had been dissapointed so many times.  So Garrett gave the guy a call and when he got off the phone and told me about the house I almost didn't believe him.  We got in the car and drove by the house that minute and again I was completely floored that this possibility had come our way.  Still I didn't want to get my hopes up too high.  

The next night we went to this house and walked through with the owner.  He told us to pray about it and I responded that we had been for over six months and that this was the answer to our prayers.  The next day we worked out the details of the lease and moved in a couple weeks later over Thanksgiving weekend.  

These babies were such troopers through those six months of Hell for their parents.  Between studying for the Bar all day, looking for jobs in the spare moments, me being pregnant and wondering if we would ever live in a house or if I would be able to have a VBAC we were two very stressed and discouraged people.  But it was as the scriptures say, "our trials were only but a moment" ( I can see that now in hind sight) and our Delivery was better than anything we could have hoped for.

November 4th marked one year that Garrett's firm has been open.  The fact that we were able to open a business and keep it open for a whole year in this economy is nothing short of miraculous and we don't have a day go by without acknowledging that.  We could never have done this on our own and never have.  There were so many moments when business would start to slow down and we would start to worry about the coming month and then the next day two new clients would walk through the door.  I have seen the Lord's hand each day in our lives this past year and it is so fitting for the one year anniversary of our deliverance to coincide with Thanksgiving.  I can never express enough thanks for the trials and miracles of the past 18 months of our lives.  We are so blessed.  It just so happens that the woman that lived in our house had a scripture in lettering over the sink in our kitchen and it is one of my favorite scriptures: "Be still and know that I am God."  I have looked at that scripture every day this year and remembered that I need to be still and trust in Him and that He has never and will never leave me alone.

Random events in October

Garrett got to go fishing a few weeks ago with some friends up in Nothern Idaho.  It was a little like reliving his childhood for him since he grew up steelhead fishing in AK.  Idaho isn't quite the same as AK or so Garrett has told me, but he had a great time none the less and brought home this beauty for dinner.

As an avid "Chopped" watcher I thought filleting a fish would be a piece of cake.  Well I was wrong and the fish was way slimier and slipperier than I expected.  This one turned out okay but the other side was a pretty bad hack job.  Oh well they still tasted good.

Garrett thought it was funny to take the head and make the fish head talk to the kids.  Actually the kids thought it was pretty funny too.  I was a little grossed out myself.

Proudly holding his prize.  We have pictures of him as a little kid holding up steelheads three times this big so Garrett wasn't overly impressed, but I personally thought it was huge compared to the tiny things I used to catch up at my Grandparent's cabin.

In other random news, we got Ollie neutered this week and he was pretty sore for a couple days.  Rylynn and Carter was so sweet with him while he recovered.  This was the first night and Rylynn tucked him into her soft pink blankey for the night.  He loved it.

My two babies in the grass.

I love this face.  Obviously these pics are outdated since he is walking now, but I still thought they were cute.  

my kids make me laugh

In sharing time on Sunday, we were talking about being grateful.  They then talked about giving food to the scouts for the food drive this month as well as how tithing goes to providing food for people at the bishop's store house if they can't afford to buy food.  Well Rylynn apparently was listening very closely because this morning we found a bag on our front door for the scouts food drive.  Carter asked what it was for and I was explaining it when Rylynn chimed in and said, "Oh that's the food that goes to the Prophet's Light house!"

So cute!

Happy October

This month has flown by!!  I have much blogging to do to catch us up to November!  I can't even believe it is already November.  Anyway, a few weeks ago we had a family pumpkin carving night for FHE.  It was lots of fun and we ended up with some really cute pumpkins.  In the past, the kids have just painted their pumpkins, but we decided that this year they were old enough to do it the real way.  Well kind of.  They dug out all the goop inside and then they drew the faces they wanted on the pumpkins with pen and Garrett and I carved the faces.  

Rylynn was very good about separating the seeds from the goop for us.  We told her that they are a yummy treat and she was on the job!

Carter was mildly helpful with the cleaning but he did draw a really impressive face!  I was kind of worried we were just going to get a bunch of scribbles and we were going to have to somehow turn that into a face.

He decided his top made a pretty sweet hat.

The kids were so excited to light the candles inside to turn them into jack-o-lanterns!

Garrett's is the one with the crazy teeth.  He took his pumpkin and turned him into a stuffed man on our porch for Halloween.  It was pretty cool.  We don't have any pictures to prove it though.  Too bad.  We weren't counting on the weather being so warm so these pumpkins got all moldy about a week before Halloween, but it was okay because our neighborhood had a pumpkin carving party a week before Halloween and we carved some new ones:)  We live in the coolest neighborhood!

Carter had his first preschool party for Halloween and he loved it!  He asked me everyday for weeks if it was his party yet.  He got to play games, do some crafts, and eat lots of sugary treats.  Cupcakes, cookies, and candy.  

He was one happy little spider man.  He didn't want to wear his mask though because it was itchy.

Beckett got to come too, but he pretty much just tried to steal everything that Carter was eating the whole time.  I turned my back on him for one minute and he had swiped a little girl's sugar cookie and had it stuffed in his mouth.  That kid loves sugar!

See how mad he is that he doesn't have a sucker like his big brother!  And yet, you can still see the crumbs from the cookie on his lips.

It was okay though because we came home and put on his pumpkin costume which he LOVED and he did a little posing for the camera:)

Oops, I caught him on his drink break!  Seriously how cute is that costume?!  I bought it last year on clearance for 2 dollars.  Gotta love after Halloween sales.

On Saturday night we got to go trick or treating to a ton of members in our ward and neighborhood.  We coordinated all the houses that wanted to participate and made a list so the kids could have some actual trick or treating instead of just trunk or treat.  It was really fun.  Carter was loving his mustache and beard.  He kept looking in the mirror and laughing.  Rylynn was our little cat and she loved her pink nose and wiskers.  Ollie kept trying to eat her tail which she didn't love, but we managed to keep him away for the most part.

I love this picture sequence.  The first one the kids are being silly while I try to position Beckett in the picture.

This is the "hurry Daddy and take the picture before Beckett starts walking away" picture.

And this is the "okay I am going to put his hat on so hurry and snap one before he rips it off" picture.  It's so ridiculous trying to coordinate three children for pictures.  At least with my children.

Beckett was NOT into wearing his hat at all!  He had fun trick or treating though.

He even scored some candy of his own and that made him very happy!

After Trick or treating, we headed over to the church for trunk or treat.

By that time the kids were kind of sick of being outside.  Can you tell by their fake annoyed smiles:)  It was a tiny bit rainy and kind of cold.  After we went to about 10 cars Rylynn turned to me and asked, "Aren't we going inside the church?  Is this all it is you just get candy from different cars?!!"  She was so annoyed.  Haha.  I'm so with her on this one though.  I miss the Halloween carnivals of my day when the whole church was decked out and it was one huge party.  I personally think trunk or treats are a bit lame.  But what do you do when Halloween's on Sunday.  Oh well.

Now there are two little boys who didn't care what the night consisted of as long as they got to stuff their mouth's with candy!!  And they did.  For the actual Halloween night we had three families over of our friends for dinner in a pumpkin and salad and homemade rolls.  I also made a spider pinata for the kids.  My friends brought amazing apple pie, carmel pumpkin cheesecake, some yummy hors d' vours, and hand squeezed grape cider.  It was a very tasty event!  Unfortunately, our camera ran out of batteries at the trunk or treat so I made sure to charge our battery for the party the next day and then forgot about it, so we don't have any pictures of our party.  We had 15 kids and 8 adults and the kids played great together so the parents actually got to talk and enjoy themselves.  It was a lot of fun.  All in all, we had a great month!  Time to start gearing up for Turkey Day.

Little Daredevil

Carter already thinks he is 5 like all the rest of his friends in the neighborhood, so we weren't surprised at all a couple weeks ago when Carter decided he was ready to ride his bike without training wheels.  He is 3 1/2, NOT 5 like Rylynn and all her friends were when they started riding sans training wheels.  This didn't phase him for a second though.  Two weekends ago, he begged Garrett to take them off.

 

After a few tries he was staying up and riding just fine, he just couldn't start by himself and his turning was a little shaky.  He was determined not to give up so easily though.  On Monday I went out with him to practice and realized that the only reason he couldn't start on his own was because his seat was too high.  So one quick adjustment and he was a new man!  

The next day he was hot doggin it and standing up while riding, only holding on with one hand, and riding up and down the curbs in the neighborhood with no problems.  He seriously has no fear when it comes to physical abilities.  

I have to say it was really fun for me to watch Carter pick this up so fast and so young because I vividly remember the day that my older brother just decided I was ready to ride my bike without training wheels when I was 3!  He taught me in one day.  As a parent I have second guessed that memory thinking there is no way a three year old could do that, but now watching Carter, I have no doubts.  Keeping up with older siblings is a very motivating force!

Fall Update

Carter's preschool class had a trip to the pumpkin farm a couple weeks ago.  I got to go with him and have a mom and Carter date which was so fun!  Unfortunately, it was rainy and cool.  It was the only yucky day so far this fall so that was unfortunate timing.  

He didn't seem to mind though!  We got to walk through the corn maze.

He did such a great job of finding his way through the maze.  The orange rope helped:)

Then each child got to pick two ears of corn and dry it so it would turn into popping corn.

Carter's favorite part of the trip was the tractor ride!  He loves tractors, cars, trucks, basically anything that has an engine and moves.

The tractor drove us out to the pumpkin patch where the kids got to pick two mini pumpkins, two gourds, and one medium pumpkin!  He was so excited about his choices.

He LOVED his first fieldtrip!  Carter is doing so well in Preschool.  The first week we were a little worried he wasn't going to love it because he had a hard time saying goodbye when we would drop him off.  But everytime we picked him up he would tell us how much fun he had so we stuck with it and now he loves it and he has no problem saying goodbye.  His teachers always tell us how helpful he is and what a great builder he is.  He is always building marble ramps and tunnels and block bridges.  Carter has loved building train tracks and bridges since he was 18 months old.  His teacher commented the other day that he was going to be an engineer when he grew up.  It was funny that she said that because Garrett and I have always joked that he would be an engineer.  We shall see, but no matter what we love our sweet darling Carter!  He has really grown up the last couple months.  He is so good at doing his chores and helping me around the house.  He is a great big brother and he is really great with Ollie too.  He thinks that he is 5 and can't understand why Rylynn and all her friends get to go to Kindergarten and he doesn't since they are all his friends too.  

Our second baby boy is growing up before our eyes!  He can walk now but he much prefers to crawl still.  He's just so much faster when he crawls and like his mother, he is quite impatient, so the walking is usually put on the back burner.  This picture is of Beckett eating his first bowl of ice cream!

I think it's safe to say that he LOVED it!  He is such a fun little boy with a huge personality.  He loves footballs these days and he still loves to cuddle with his mama.  When he sees birds, or any animal for that matter, he points his little finger and squeals at the top of his lungs.  It is so cute.  Well not really in church, but everywhere else it's cute:)  Speaking of church, we are officially on the nursery countdown.  Only 3 1/2 months to go.  I swear nursery should start at 12 months old!

He also loves reading books these days.  Rylynn is such a great helper with little Beckett.  He loves when she reads to him.  Beckett's favorite words these days are "Dat" for that, mama, dada, uh-oh, dant um for thank you, ink for drink, and ba ball for football.  

And then there is our little kindergartner.  Rylynn is loving Kindergarten and she is also in a dance class that she loves.  This was Rylynn on her picture day for school last week.  We did her hair very fancy and Carter came in and exclaimed, "Rylynn!  You look like a princess!"  It was so cute.  She is loving reading and math and has made lots of great friends at school.  She loves riding the bus to the Kindergarten Center.  (I don't let her ride the big bus with the elementary kids)  This week they have started sending homework home with the kindergartners and Rylynn loves it.  She started reading this summer, but I can't believe how much she has improved since school started.  Rylynn's class got to go on the fieldtrip to the pumpkin farm too, the day after Carter's preschool went, but I wasn't able to go with her so we don't have any pictures.  She loves her pumpkins though and has decorated her room so cute for fall with her gourds and pumpkins.  Rylynn's dance class is with all of her friends at church.  It is so fun to have them all in the same class.  It is a ballet, tap, and tumbling class which is perfect for her because she really wanted to do dance and gymnastics.  We are loving watching these cute kids grow up!  

Finally, I just want to put in a little plug for my awesome sister.  This is her newest book from Deseret Book and it is soooo good!  Seriously, I am not just saying that because she is my sister.  If you liked the Work and the Glory series, you will love this book.  It is a historical fiction about one of my ancestors who came across from England as a non-member with her member mother.  I just finished reading it and I can't wait for the next one to come out.  I highly recommend it!  

Happy Fall!

Summer Catch UP

I have been going through my picture files lately and I realized that there are tons of cute summer pictures that never made it to the blog.  So here are some fun moments from summer 2010!

Beckett consumed way too much sand!  He never seemed to mind it though.  

This was on a fun picnic with some friends at Hayden Lake.

This was Rylynn's favorite pose of the summer.  Don't ask me why she had the broken neck look going on.  Aren't the mountains in the backgroud beautiful?  Hayden Lake is my favorite of all the lakes we visited this summer.

The kids loved the recycling bin in the backyard this summer for some reason.  It was left in the back because we used it for dirt removal when we made the garden.  The kids loved using the dirt for many "projects".  Mom and Dad didn't appreciate the "projects" so much.  

Another favorite summer activity was the slip n' slide in the backyard.  It was sooo worth all $9 that it cost and it got a lot of use from the neighborhood.  We have a big slope in our back yard which I don't like, but it makes slip n' sliding really fun! 

Carter was definitely the biggest fan though.  He still begs me everyday to do slip n' slide!

Cute kids excited for their brother's birthday party.  We still can't believe that Beckett turned one over the summer.  That year flew by!

This was at our neighbor Kate's birthday party.  It was at a water park and the kids had so much fun!

Rylynn and Carter LOVE their friend Kate.  She cracks me up because she has three older brothers so she wants to be a boy.  She had a spiderman cake:)

Grandma and Aunt Andrea and baby Lauren came to visit for two weeks and we had so much fun!  We really didn't take any pictures to prove it sadly.  I'm not sure why.  This is one of the only ones.  Grandma is pushing Beckett in our produce basket for the week.  He loved it!

We have some friends that are renting a house right on Liberty Lake and they invited us to come play one day.  They have sail boats, and kayaks and even paddle boats.  It was so much fun.

Carter was loving the Dora vest:)

The paddle boat was really fun for the whole family.  Even Ollie got to come for a ride. 

Speaking of Ollie, he has been the life of the neighborhood!  All the kids love him and love to play with him.  This is Kate with Ollie.

A couple of days ago Carter got a little grumpy about how much the neighborhood has played with his dog and he said, "I'm sick of sharing Ollie with the whole neighborhood!  He's our dog!"  He has sharing issues.

Rylynn is a little sad that she is not Ollie's favorite so she tries so hard everyday to move to the #1 position.

You could find this scene on pretty much any day this summer in our home.  Carter LOVES setting up all his cars and then telling anyone who will listen each of their names.  He usually watches utube videos at the same time.  The utube videos are of other kids doing the same thing:) 

Yes, we realize he is obsessed.

There is a nice family in our ward that has a great pool and awesome backyard and since there isn't a public outdoor pool here, they opened it up every Tuesday and Thursday to anyone in the ward to use.  The kids loved going to their house to swim each week.

They have this awesome rope swing that goes so far.

It was great because the kids could take a break from the pool and go play on the swings or the trampoline and then go back to the pool.

The only problem with that is that Carter would take off his swimming vest to play in the yard and a couple of times he would forget to put it back on before jumping in the pool.  There were a couple of times I had to jump in with all my clothes on.  Luckily they don't live too far away!

Beckett loved the swing and playing on the steps of the pool.  Usually he loves to float around in his little froggy, but I didn't want to go in everytime we went so he would just splash around.

And finally, we learned this summer that Carter+skateboards+tall curb=road rash!  He had no shirt on either so his shoulder was all scratched up too.  Oh well, it could have been worse.  

You mean summer's over?!