Thanksgiving 2013

Wow, writing on here is so much harder than it used to be. Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is upon us. We spent thanksgiving with my parents, my brother Ben and his family, and my sisters. I was in charge of pies this year. I made 1 pumpkin, 1 banana cream, my 1st pecan pie, and 2 s'mores pies (Matt's fav, thus I made 2). Good food and company were had by all. Beckett and Anabelle had the whole week off of school so we were able to see other family members and friends over the holiday as well. We had a great time. Thanksgiving is easily one of my most favorite holidays. It is all about family and focusing on love and togetherness and gratitude, not to mention all the amazing food. Love it!

This month has been a rather busy month (when is November not busy). We went to our friend's  Pie Night for the 1st time. Yes, a whole night dedicated to pie. It was heavenly. We also went to see Ender's Game. It was pretty good. Matt read the books, but I had not. I could tell they left out details, but I was able to follow the story just fine and enjoyed it a lot. I can see why it is such a popular series. I also was able to participate in an amazing fundraiser for a sister in our stake that has cancer. Last year in the evening session of stake conference, this sister gave an incredible talk on faith (I want to share it on here sometime, but don't hold your breath). She was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. She has children ranging from 1st grade to Jr high. It was so touching to see people come and do whatever they could to help this family out. People are amazing.

Something that wasn't so happy that happened last month was that August got croup. It literally happened over night. I got home from zumba and put him to bed. He sounded like he was getting stuffed up, but nothing more than what comes from teething. When he woke up in the night around 2, he was much more congested. He was struggling to breath through his nose. In the morning, his voice sounded horse, I could hear each breath, and he had a horrible sounding cough. I could tell this was bad to come on so suddenly like that. I got him in to see the Dr as soon as I could that morning. My sister had had para-influenza a couple weeks earlier, so I thought it might be that. When I got there, I told them he had been exposed to para-influenza and they said that is what causes croup in babies, so he had croup. I have never had a baby with croup before and I never want one to have it again. It was so scary sounding. They gave him some medicine to help his swollen larynx and some advice to help with the coughing and congestion and we left. By night he was doing much better. The next day it seemed like a bad cold and kept getting better from there. I am glad I got him in right away. It was so scary to hear his breathing.

August has been my sick kid. He had RSV when he was a month old. That one freaked me out too. Beckett and Anabelle never really got sick much as babies, (but then they weren't born in the winter) so this has been hard for me to handle. I will say this, Heavenly Father has inspired me with both illnesses to get into the Dr early. The RSV didn't even test as RSV in the quick version. It came back positive in the longer test they do. "Luckily" the Dr got us one of those nose sucker-outer machines (the reversed air compressor) before we even knew it was RSV. If I had taken him in later when he was really bad, I would have been a wreak. Heavenly Father showed me some major tender mercies both times.

So anyways, November was a good month and despite some bad health, we had fun and lots of good food.

Pake Lowell

But most people like to refer to as Lake Powell. The kids and I went to Lake Powell with my family and had a great time. I was pretty scared to go all by myself on a trip without Matt to tag-team it with me, but I had so many people there to help out, especially young girls that live to play and take care of little kids. So actually, it was a wonderful trip and I had to do hardly anything, except handle the meltdowns that come with riding on a speedboat, not being allowed to eat candy for dinner or after brushing teeth before going to bed, and peeing in a toilet that isn't allowed to be flushed unless someone goes #2. That last one was a really hard concept for the kids to grasp, which is a good thing I guess. Also, sorry if that disgusts you, but that's how we roll on the ol' Humpherys' Houseboat.

We started the 5+ hour drive at about 8:30 in the morning. Beckett freaked out every time the boat, which was pulled by my brother's truck, would disappear from view or even get more than 20 ft from the car we were in. It was an unpleasant first couple of hours. We put a movie on in hopes of distracting him, which worked to keep him from crying about it, but my dad caught him in the rear view mirror the rest of the way checking on the boat every few minutes or so. At least we know that we will never lose anybody on a road trip with Beckett around.

Other than that, the trip down was rather painless. I guess that is one of the blessings of having older siblings with all of their kids older than mine. I had 2 babysitters in the car, plus my sister and her friend. It was very nice to sit in the front seat and let them handle everything.

Once we got there, we loaded the speedboat with as much luggage, food, and children as we could without sinking it, and headed to the houseboat. It took two trips, but once luggage and persons were all accounted for, we set off into open waters.

Anabelle loved every minute of being on the boat and being with the big kids. In fact, I hardly saw her all week. Even when we were both on the speedboat at the same time, I didn't see her much because she was always up front with the other kids having a great time bouncing on the waves. She is such a dare devil and teenage-wanna-be.

Beckett was nervous about riding on both boats. He was freaking out the whole mile long trip from Bullfrog Marina to the houseboat. Then he was a little uncertain about the houseboat moving. He had to have the doors shut so he couldn't hear the wind (another one of those Asperger things), and for a while, I had to sit with him and help him adjust to the new experience. After about 15 or 20 minutes, Beckett noticed this:

Look at my brave girl, front and center

 
He realized he was missing out on some fun, so he manned up, braved the wind, and ...

I was so proud of him! He rode up there the rest of the 2 hour drive to where we parked the boat.

The next day was a big day. Beckett caught his first fish ever. I don't know if anybody remembers the "Monster Fish" episode we had last year at the cabin, but I was afraid we were never going to get Beckett near another fishing pole even if it meant he wouldn't starve. But he did it. He was really excited about it too, as long as it didn't touch him.

Since we came home from the trip, Beckett has watched this video over and over again. I think he still is pretty excited about it. He actually caught two fish that morning. I guess he realized there are no such things as Monster Fish. :)

Belle and I went on a boat trip with half of the group later that day, and when we got back, this is what we saw:

He surprised me so many times on this trip. Belle did too, but I will get into that later. I am a chronological thinker.

The next day, all 20 of us piled into the speedboat and went to Rainbow Bridge. My dad's boat says it's max capacity is 18, but we figured that the three youngest people put together equaled one whole person, so we were good. Going into Rainbow Bridge it was smooth sailing. There was hardly anyone there and a park volunteer helped us dock our boat. As he saw all of the people in this one boat, he told us that we better be careful, we can get a citation for having more than the recommended amount of people in the boat. Freaked me out a little bit. We then proceeded to hike up to the Bridge.

If you have never had the opportunity to go to this amazing world wonder (no really, we have one of the 7 natural world wonders in our state, how cool is that?!), you really need to go. It is incredible. You can no longer hike up underneath it, because it is a sacred place for the Native Americans, but you can get close enough that you realize how freaking tall that thing is and that nature is incredible. There was another park volunteer at the bridge that told us about the history of the place and how it was discovered and the legend the Native Americans have of how it was made. They are neat stories, but I wont bore you by posting them on here. You can just go there and find out for yourself (incentive).

When all piled back into the boat, there were more people that had shown up to see the Bridge. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but we forgot about this one spot in the canyon that Rainbow Bridge is located in that is super narrow and can only fit one boat at a time. The problem with us being so full is that if there were big waves (which are really big if there are tour boats going through that spot, which isn't a rare occurrence.  Those things are massive, I've seen speedboats catch air off those waves), there was a real possibility of water coming up over the front of the boat, which would be so very bad. We were all holding our breath as we went through, much like in 7 Brides for 7 Brothers when they are going through the pass during the winter and don't want to start an avalanche. Obviously we made it through, but I have to put some kind of thrill factor into my story.

After Rainbow Bridge, you have to go get ice cream at Dangling Rope and make the fish smoke (aka - feed the fish ice cream and it comes out there gills and it looks like they are smoking). Beckett thought that was just the best thing ever. First, the carps there are huge, so that was pretty exciting for him. Second, he thought it was hilarious to watch the fish fight over the food and to listen to the sucking sounds they make in the process. Anabelle loved it too. In fact, I think there was one point where I was afraid she was going to fall in, she was so engrossed in watching those fish eat. Kids make everything seem new and exciting.

Afterwards, we stopped in a canyon half way to the houseboat and went swimming. We had a blast. Beckett didn't last long in the water, but he did get in (a success in my book). There was a small sand dune, and that is where he spent most of the time during the pool party.

Belle did a little of both. In the sand, in the water, you know, typical kid stuff. She had so much fun with her cousins. All of my nieces and nephews are older than my kids, most of them by at least 5 years, so Anabelle just loved having them play with her and getting to act like one of the older girls.

After the swimming party, everyone was all tuckered out.

You will notice that Beckett is riding in the front. I was absolutely floored that he rode up there. I had to force him onto the boat. I tried to trick him into getting on, but he saw right through it, so I had to just drag him on (that was one of the more difficult moments of the trip, I wanted to give up and just stay on the houseboat, but luckily everyone was super supportive and we made it onto the boat). He was crying and really hated the loud sound of the boat. I had to hold his head against me the whole 2 1/2 hour drive to Rainbow Bridge. For him to ride up front, that he decided on his own, was amazing and I just couldn't believe it. I was, and still am, so proud of him.

The next day was a chill day, full of games and water fun, especially for Anabelle, the Thrill Seeker.

Can you believe that?! Those are two different times that she got on that. Granted the boat went slower than molasses, but she did it. She is braver than her mom. I wouldn't even do it. I am blown away by this girl and how adventurous she is. I am so proud of my little Thrill Junkie.

The next day was Escalante day, my personal favorite. Escalante Canyon is the most beautiful of all the canyons in my opinion. Case in point:

My brother and his wife offered to stay on the houseboat and watch Beckett for me. So Belle and I went and had a great time in one of my most favorite places on earth. We saw Cathedral in the Desert and La Gorce Arch (pictured above). We also did a little exploring trying to find some Native American ruins in the canyon and discovered some beautiful arms in the canyon we had never seen before. I wish we could have explored more. I do need to show you some silly pictures from our trip. Here is Belle's ensemble for our trip that day:

I love when kids do that. Too cute! And now I have to put one of me because it is only fair:

My head was hot and I did not want it to burn, and then it got out of control from there. This is one of the more normal pictures we took.

When we got back to the houseboat, my brother that had stayed with Beckett told me that Beckett was playing on the inner tubes tied on the back and fell in the water (life jacket on, no worries) and that my brother quickly got him out and told him that he floated because he had on his life jacket. Apparently that was all that needed to be said to him because Beckett just kept on playing on the tubes. In fact later that night he played with Anabelle and some cousins, and they all had a blast.

He wasn't even phased by that fall either. I panicked and made you all sea-sick for nothing. He got right back on the inner tube and kept on pushing his cousins off into the water. Belle had tons of fun playing on there too. She would jump from the houseboat to the tube and was so cute. I wanted to post a video of Belle being super cute on the inner tube, but it is a little long and this post is long enough as it is. Oh well. If you really want to see the rest of the videos, you are welcome to come over. Beckett will be more than happy to put them on. He loves to watch them. He even has them memorized.

One more thing about them playing on the inner tube. I am so sad I didn't catch it on the camera. Beckett had pushed Jessica (the older cousin in the video) and she was going to climb back on the tube, but first she said to Beckett teasingly, "Now you aren't going to push me off, are you?" Beckett said, "No." So she climbs on and he says, "SURPRISE!" and then pushes her in. I still laugh hard every time I think about it. Who knew Beckett could be so witty.

One of my other most favorite thing about Lake Powell is the stars. They are incredible. You can see the Milky Way and at least one shooting star. I loved to just lay on the top deck and watch them until I would fall asleep. It didn't happen much on this trip. I kind of had to go to bed when the kids did. Lame. But I did attempt to take a photo to show you blog followers.

Beautiful aren't they? You can see all of the stars.

Early the next morning, Belle decided to throw up. As most of you know, Matt and I have a deal, I change poopy diapers, and he takes care of throw up. He does not like poop but isn't bothered by throw up, I gag at the sound and smells of someone puking but have no problem with stinky diapers. Everybody wins. Unfortunately, I had to deal with this all by myself. It was not fun. Also, it was my last chance to go fishing. I had bought a fishing license (not cheap) and had not caught a single fish. The mornings that we had gone, there were boils all around, but I got nada. (Boils are when striped bass "corral" small fish at the surface of the water and then just start attacking them, with the fish jumping out of the water giving the appearance of boiling water) Most of the other guys had caught at least one. I really wanted to get one that morning. I couldn't leave Belle alone, and I didn't feel right about waking someone else up to take care of my sick child. She was acting better, so I took her with. She did fine. She only threw up once or twice while we were out, which is actually pretty good considering we were on a boat, stopping, going, turning lots, chasing those boils. Typing this out makes me feel guilty. Oh well. I think she had a good time. I don't think she was sick sick, I think something was just upsetting her tummy, so it was fine. And I did catch a fish. Only one, but mission accomplished. So it was all worth it. Right?

After we got back and had breakfast, we packed up to go home. Then we all loaded up in the speedboat and headed back to Bullfrog Marina. 

I told you we loaded up the boat. There was no leg room. We were all crammed in there with all of our bags and stuff. Tons of fun! No really. It really was one of the better trips to Lake Powell I've had. I wish Matt could have come, but maybe next time. 

Out with the old, and in with the new.

Merry New Year! It sounds like everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I guess that is one of the advantages of doing my Christmas post this late, I have already read all of yours, and now I will try to outshine you all.
Christmas started with Matt's work party at the beginning of the month. Santa showed up and "surprised" us. He gave Matt his Christmas gift from the company ($50 gift cert. to Chili's - I kind of felt like Micheal Scott picked it just for us - and some chocolates). Then, all the kids were invited to go up and sit on Santa's lap. Belle was hesitant, but she still did it. Beckett was placed on Santa's lap and would only remain there as long as Matt was next to him. Oh, and as long as Beckett didn't have to look at Santa either. See what I mean.

Belle on the other hand, couldn't stop staring, possibly out of fright.

Our next encounter with the jolly red guy was at WSU's bookstore. Santa came to visit and brought his reindeer and a lot of student elves, to help the kids make some Christmasy crafts. We made a picture frame for our pictures with Santa to go in and Beckett won an ornament craft to take home and do later. Pretty cool. Then we stood in line for the Big Guy. We waited probably close to an hour. I was able to get the kids sit in the stroller almost the whole time. I was surprised how well they did. As we got close to Santa and could easily see him, I held each of them up so they could get a good look. Belle got to see the crying, frightened children when she looked, so as we got closer, the more she wanted to run away. When it was our turn, it was all I could do to keep her from crawling over the top of me and running down the aisles of the bookstore. I tried to convince her to just sit in the stroller while brother saw Santa, but she kept trying to climb our and run away. I quickly got her to the other side of Santa, so Beckett could get his picture taken (which they still haven't sent me - grr). I was afraid Beckett was going to freak out having to go up all by himself, but he marched right up there, sat on Santa's lap, told him what he wanted (a train toy), and gave a wonderful smile for the camera. I was amazed. Santa then gave us our candy canes and I quickly got out of there so as not to traumatize my daughter any longer.

Outside of the school's bookstore, they had set up a Grinch Stole Christmas photo shoot thing. The kids loved it.

After our photo session, we went outside to see Santa's reindeer. I think this was Anabelle's favorite part. She does love a good craft though.

You can just barely see that she is smiling really big

We were able to get together with Matt's roommates the week before Christmas. It was wonderful, full of good food, lots of laughing, and of course, "School of Rock", their movie from when the boys lived together. We ended up staying the night because we were just having too good of a time and couldn't leave. Thanks Sam and Jenny for having the party and letting us crash there, and thanks Caleb and Jessica for coming back from Omaha so we could see you guys. We had a wonderful time and Matt is now boxer-puppy hungry.
The last Holiday thing we did before the big day was go to the Christmas Village in downtown Ogden. If you haven't been there, you should go. They have some really cute displays. Dress super warm though. I can't believe how cold it was. I was surprised the kids wanted to go through the whole thing and didn't complain once of freezing. I for sure complained, especially when the Coffee shop taunted us with their fire barrels that you can't use unless you bought something. How Christmasy is that?! It was fun though.

We spent Christmas Eve with Matt's sister, Analisa and her family. We had a wonderful time. We ate delicious glazed ham and my yummy new gourmet mac and cheese. It was quite the feast. Then the kids painted ornaments. Beckett had a Santa Claus and Belle an angel. In the end, they were unrecognizable because they just mixed all the paints together and so they turned out a funky brown-grey. They had a blast though. I was just glad it was at Ana's house and not mine, especially when she said she loves to let her daughter paint and get messy.

After that, we did the Jacob family tradition of busting open a pinata. Not your standard Christmas tradition, I know, but it is super fun. After the candy all fell out, Beckett quickly grabbed a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and immediately started to chow down on it, as if that was how he was going to keep all of his candy. Matt had to explain that he needed to pick up the candy and put it in his sack, then he could eat it afterwards. Lucky for him, the only other children there were Anabelle and their cousin Ally, who is a month younger than Belle, so there wasn't much competition to worry about.

Then we let the kids play downstairs (not with their candy), while the grownups played games upstairs. It was great. Finally, we read about the Christmas Story and our little family headed home. This was our first Christmas night spent on our own. It was really nice. The kids fell asleep on the way home and went straight to bed. Santa came and put out all the presents and Mom and Dad got a wonderful night's rest. It was awesome. I know this wont last for long, but we definitely enjoyed it this year.

Anabelle's gift from Santa

Beckett's gift from Santa

 Our living room is typically set up with the couches against the wall. Santa decided it might be nice to have them surround the tree and make a nice little nook for us all to be close and enjoy Christmas together. Unfortunately, I think it kind of upset Beckett because when he woke up and came out of his room Christmas morning, he said, "Oh no, what happened to my room?" He repeated it a couple more times until I could jump out of bed and go tell him that Santa had come. Then we grabbed Belle and Matt and proceeded with the festivities.

Belle got her art easel, chalk and crayons for the easel, Candyland (which she loved and we played that morning), and play food.

The children enjoying their toys after all of the unwrapping was done

Beckett got a Gordon train, a car for his Dinosaur train that came with a dinosaur, cars (for his road rug), a Sponge Bob Memory game, and a big model train that let off steam from one of his uncles that just couldn't help himself. The model train was his favorite. He played with that all morning. It went too fast around the track for him to really watch the wheels go or keep it's cars attached to it, so he took it off the tracks and held it in place while he watched the wheels go around. Unfortunately this broke it. It no longer goes. It still gives off steam, but doesn't move. I felt bad when it happened, but honestly, what do you expect from a 4 year old. Besides, he has more fun making it move himself while it is making noise and puffing steam.

This was Christmas night

I got a beautiful new Thomas Kinkade 1000 piece puzzle (which I will never get to do until I no longer have children, believe me, I tried) and some new puzzle books. Matt also ordered me a kitchen tips book (totally awesome) and a vegan recipe book. I actually wanted a vegetarian cook book, but he gets an A for effort. I can't decide if I want to exchange it or keep it. I am trying to incorporate more veggie dishes in our home and try to have a little less meat, so I need recipes to help me with that venture. The vegan book has some tasty looking recipes in it (especially the soups), but it is a little extreme (they don't even let you use honey or sugar!). Plus they look super complicated. I want recipes that I can just run to the Stop and Shop down the street and get what I need (which, by the way, does not carry Asiago cheese. They hadn't even heard of it! What is wrong with those people! So maybe it will be Smiths that I run to)

Funny story, Matt and I both ordered each other books from Amazon, and all of them did not arrive in time for Christmas. Luckily, I had a brilliant idea. I got two empty boxes and printed off the pictures of the two book I got him. I cut them out and placed them in the boxes. I was going to just wrap them like that, but then I thought, he will get suspicious if they are both lite as a feather, so I went and grabbed our clothes iron and placed it in one of the boxes, on top of the picture. Then I wrapped it up. I put the other picture in an empty Quaker oats bucket and wrapped that up. He had no idea and was mad that my gifts had arrived before his, especially since I ordered mine the day after his. His face was so confused when he opened the one with the iron in it. I was laughing so hard. I told him to move the iron and then he saw the picture. It was some pretty smart thinking on my part. In case you are wondering, I got him books written by his favorite TV show, Top Gear, the British one (which is much better than the American one). He also got Bananagrams, which is one of our new favorite games. We also bought each other Lindt chocolates for each other's stockings, his milk chocolate and mine hazelnut. We are too much a like sometimes it is borderline cheesy.

We spent the rest of the weekend with family and had a wonderful time. Possibly one of the best Christmases so far.

I cut my hair during the week after Christmas, but you have already seen those pictures, so no need to put them on here again.

Matt had to work New Years Eve - Lame. But we did get to spend the night with my family playing games and making a cornucopia of delicious foods - fondue cheese, shrimp, clam chowder (I would not have ordered this dish), salmon, and I made brushetta for the first time (which was awesome, I am so going to make that again). We also watched the fireworks going off all over the Bountiful valley. It was wonderful and made up for the fact that Matt had to work that day.

On to the new year. I was able to visit with my roommates again on New Years Day and see some of them that weren't able to make it to the last one we had in November. It was great. I love those ladies. They all have super cute kids too.

Things have been pretty quiet so far, which in my opinion, is a good sign. My counselor has gotten mad at me for not doing my assignments lately, so I am starting the year off with making those my goals for the new year. One of those is making sure Matt and I have a date once a week (one of those can be one where we stay home and after the kids go to bed, we have a datish night, playing games and watching movies). Last weekend, we went bowling up at WSU. It was fun, but you could tell we were out of practice, both at bowling and dating. We acted so normal, not at all like the flirty couple we used to be. I think it might be because most of the dates we have been on since having kids have been to the temple, and you can't really flirt much there. I am positive this will improve as we go on more dates that don't involve the temple, not that we aren't going keep up the temple dates, just have other ones too. :)

My reason for bringing up the dating thing is because of this picture:

My little sister came up and watched the kids for us while we went on our date. When we got home, they all wanted to sleep together in the pull-out bed in Beckett's room. This is the results. Precious!

Remember our friend that was in the Doritos Xbox contest? Well he got 2nd place, but because the games did much better than the companies expected, both finalists were given the 1st price winnings. So everybody won. And now his cute wife has quit her job so she can be home with their cute little boys, who I have been watching for her two times a week (which has been nice to add a little extra income to the budget). This week was her last week. Their oldest is a couple months older than Anabelle. We joke with our friends that they are betrothed. This picture was taken on Tuesday, as they were leaving.

Wont that just be so cute if they do get married? I mean, how cute will that picture be at their wedding reception.

One more thing, Matt has started up school again this semester. Hopefully he can be done next year in the spring (fingers crossed).
Well, we are all caught up now, and hopefully I can keep it that way. Happy New Year to you all and I hope this year brings you all much joy and happiness.

And now for October





So October was a big month. The most exciting thing that happened was that I finally decided it was time to potty train Beckett whether he liked it or not and it is done. I am calling it official. He made it through church last Sunday in his underwear without an accident, so I am calling it. We are still having a problem with poop, but that will come with time (I hope). How it happened was this - one day I was at the grocery store all by myself and I saw all this Halloween candy. I was looking at and thought that they would make great potty treats, so I bought a few bags and went home. The next day, I told the kids that if they sat on the potty for 2 whole minutes (with a timer going) they could have a potty treat. Anabelle was all over that idea. She already loved to sit on the potty, so the treats made it all the more sweeter (literally). Beckett was much more willing to sit on the potty, but he wasn't too thrilled with the rule that he had to do it sans diaper, but he got over it real fast when he saw the Nerds packages. I did that for about 4 or 5 days, with zero accidental pees or poops in the potty.  I was about to give up on my plan, when I talked with my counselor about it, and she told me that really it was me that had to be "potty trained". She said it is really the parents getting so tired of changing diaprers that they finally buckle down and get serious about potty training. I thought about what she had said and it made sense, but I was still a little affraid of the accidents that I knew would follow after I made that decision.

As it turned out, a few days after that conversation with my counselor, we were about to be completely out of diapers for Beckett and I was on the fence about going to buy more. Matt basically replied, "Nope. Let's just do this." With hesitation coming from me, we went forward and just put him in underwear after we changed his last diaper. Beckett wasn't too thrilled, but he got used it, probably because they were Thomas underwear. Matt gave him lots of juice and then promtly left to do something at a friends house (what a guy), taking Anabelle with him (thank goodness). Beckett was playing on the computer (big surprise) with a towel underneith him (I believe in being prepared for these kinds of things) and of course, he started peeing. He kind of freaked out and quickly stopped. I put him in the bath to clean him up. Of course, he thought this meant that he was free to pee as much as he liked. He did have enough smarts to try to get his feet out of the water as he did this. Oi! Naturally I promptly took him out of the tub and put him in clean underwear and sent him back to the computer with a fresh towel under him. Not too long after that he started to pee again. This time I got wise. I immediately took him to the potty and set him on there. He was okay with it, until he accidentally started peeing again, and this time he had no control of stopping it. He didn't know what he was doing and it kind of got on his foot, which really freaked him out. This experience really didn't seem encouraging to me because he seemed really upset about the whole experience. We told him we would go get a toy for peeing in the potty. After he picked out his new toy (a dinosaur train, his new favorite show) he started to see that this might actually be an okay thing to do.

We did the sticker thing for him to earn his next toy, a motorized Thomas. Unfortunately after he got his toy, he stopped going potty. That is mostly my fault because I put him in Pullups instead of underwear. So on Monday I hit the potty training hard and he has been doing ever since, with of course an accident or two. Now I need to start thinking about when I am going to potty train Anabelle. I think I will wait till next year. Give myself a little break before I start the whole process all over again.

Beckett modeling his new underwear

Now on to the rest of the month.  We had a sleepover with some cousins. My sister-in-law Marcey and her girls came over for a visit one Friday afternoon and they ended up staying the night. We had a blast. I think we should have people sleepover more often.

L-R: Julia, Jessica, Beckett, Anabelle, Josie

 My sister and I were making a red velvet cake one day and Anabelle wanted to like the bowl (she is just like her mother).  



I bet you didn't know Anabelle was a vampire



Another big thing that happened in October is Matt turned 30. We celebrating by going on a date to a murder mystery party. It was a disco themed one and it was extremely unpredictable. I was a hussy that slept with a lot of guys and would kill them when I was done with them. I was also a martial arts expert and a member of Chuck's Angels (reference to Charlie's Angels). Matt's name was hilarious - Knight Feva. He was a bar tender and a gigolo. He also turned out to be the bionic man because he had a run-in with a shark. I couldn't believe all of the twists they fit into that storyline. They all gave us some really good laughs. Thanks Shana and Sharice for putting it together. I think Matt really enjoyed his birthday. I am kind of mad I didn't take pictures. Oh well. Maybe we can recreate them and take a picture.

The next morning we went out to breakfast with my parents to the Segolily Cafe in Bountiful. The only way to describe their food is good old home cooked food, done gourmet style. They make all of their food and sauces there. We wanted to have their sweet ricotta cheese spread so that is why we went for breakfast. It is so good. I had their cashew french toast. Unbelievably good. I don't remember what Matt had, but I know he enjoyed it. I highly recommend that place. The place itself is really cool too. It is an old victorian home redone to make it a restaurant. I love it.

One present from my Dad was to come up and help Matt do some handyman stuff around the house on the 30th. I guess this gift was more for me than Matt. Matt's friend Kevin came over also and helped them work on our furnace and ducts. I really appreciated both Kevin and my dad coming and helping out. I know Matt couldn't have done all that work all by himself.

Later that day, I got the kids all ready for Trick-or-Treating that night. My little sister helped with Anabelle's makeup.

Anabelle is a ladybug. That costume was worn by my little sister when she was about the same age. Her nickname was Bug and so the costume was perfect. It was kind of surreal to have Anabelle wear it 15 years after my little sister did and she looks just as cute, maybe more, but don't tell Sara I said that. Here is proof:


Here is Sara in the costume

  Beckett is a Jack-O-Lantern in that picture. Right after that picture was taken, Beckett immediately stripped down to his underwear so I couldn't get a full shot of him. He wouldn't put it back on and then wanted to be a lion. I didn't get a picture of him in that because as soon as we got to my brother's house to go Trick-or-Treating with cousins, he freaked out when one of his cousins came in dressed as a clown, face painted and all. That did it for him. He refused to go out and just stayed downstairs playing with the train set. So just Matt and Anabelle went out. She didn't last long. Matt said she just stood their with her bucket and wouldn't say anything. She would say it when he practiced with her, but I guess she had stage fright when it came time to perform. Also she came back with only like 10 or 12 candies. Beckett promptly took half of it. Oi!

After the kids had been back for a while, they were all downstairs playing. They sounded like they were having tons of fun. Suddenly, Matt came upstairs with Anabelle in his arms and her head was bleeding. She had fallen off of a chair playing with one of those basketball, arcade games. She somehow gashed her head open. Luckily it stopped bleeding quickly, which surprised me, because head wounds are known for bleeding terribly. Once it was all cleaned up, you could see how wide and deep the gash was. Another lucky things was that we were at my brother's house, who is a doctor. He looked at and said it wasn't bad enough to go to the ER, thank goodness. He had some small butterfly bandages (I highly recommend you have a stash at your house) and got it on. Then we iced the goose egg. I couldn't believe how brave Belle was the whole time. She was obviously crying when Matt brought her up, she stopped while we were cleaning it up and that was it. She totally let me put the ice on her wound and didn't fight Matt pushing the wound together to put on the butterfly bandage. (That is how they work by the way. I have never used one and didn't know what they did, but they work to pull the wound back together and leave a minimal scar on deep wounds. You do have to give it some help though by squeezing the skin together and then putting the bandage on. Kind of a cool thing.) She was such a trooper.

Well, I think that about wraps it up for October. I am all caught up now and hopefully stay current on here from now on.

More catching up to do

Beckett is a budding photographer

I mostly caught you all up last time on what happened in July. Now for August. Not a whole lot happened during that month except that Beckett had 6 root canals and 2 cavities filled; we put our house up for sale; Matt almost was out of work, but then wasn't; I started counseling; and my sister's dog was diagnosed with cancer and had to have her tail cut off. Wow, I guess that was a pretty packed month.

Yes, Beckett had 6 root canals done plus 2 cavities filled. Zero fun (except for my wonderful Aunt Karen coming to help me out with the whole ordeal. She is always a barrel of fun). At the end of June, Beckett started to complain about one of his molars hurting him. I thought it was just one tooth that need a little bit of drilling and filling. I was so wrong. We went to the dentist in July (yes, it took an entire month to get him into the dentists, this is my only complaint with the office though). First off, Beckett wouldn't sit in the chair. Then the dentist had him sit on my lap, facing me with his legs wrapped around me. Then we leaned him back and had his head resting on the dentist's lap while the dentist tried to look in his mouth as best he could. The report was bad. He told me Beckett would have to have 1 tooth removed and 1 root canal and a couple of cavities filled, but they weren't sure how bad it was until they had him under anesthesia and could get a really good look and some X-rays. Can I just say I felt like the worst mom ever just then. Felt like the biggest failure of a mother.

Anyways, we came back the first week of August for the work to be done. He wasn't allowed to eat for 6 hours prior to the procedure. Lucky for me, it was a Tuesday which meant we would go to the library in the middle of those six hours and that would eat up 2 hours of that time (pun intended) and Beckett wouldn't even think of eating during that time. Then I knew we had a half hour drive to my brother's house to drop off Belle, and then another 45 min. drive to the dentists. It was not easy towards the end. He really wanted something to eat and drink, but thank goodness it wasn't too difficult to distract him.

As stated before, my wonderful Aunt came down from Idaho Falls to help me with Beckett's procedure. She is an Oral Surgeon Assistant and knows how handle stuff like that. I also wanted her there to help me handle seeing Beckett unconscious. I was very worried about that. Especially because Matt wouldn't be able to get off work to be with me. I kept imagining him with a mask over his little mouth and nose, seeing the panic on his face, screaming and fighting to get it off until he would finally relax and just go to sleep (it also didn't help that I knew of someone that died while under anesthesia). Luckily for me, that isn't how it went down at all. The anesthesiologist came out and told me they were going to have him sit on my lap while they distracted him, so he could give him a shot, and then they could take him back to work on his mouth. It really wasn't too bad. They did exactly that and I was very impressed. They brought out a treasure box and had Beckett look through it for a prize and while he was looking, the anesthesiologist pinched his arm and very cleverly concealed the shot in his other hand so Beckett couldn't see it. Then he just stuck him and Beckett gave a little cry, but then he quickly started to slow down. I held him and rocked and told him to relax and in like 3 minutes, he was out, totally catatonic with his eyes wide open. I'm not going to lie, it was very creepy. Then they came and took him away.

We were in there for about an hour when they came out and told me how bad his mouth was and what all they needed to do (6 root canals and 2 cavities in case you forgot). Man, did I feel even worse than before. Not that the dentists ever said anything to make me feel that way, I just did it to myself. They were awesome dentists. I highly recommend them. Then I had to sit for another 1/2 hour, guilt-tripping myself, while they finished up. When it was over, they had my aunt and I go into the back where they had a room just for patients to sleep off the anesthesia. Beckett was out cold on a giant love sac with a nice warm blanket on him and his finger hooked up to a monitor. They had a nice couch for us to sit on and Nemo was playing on the TV in the room as well. My first thought was, "Why couldn't we have sat in here the whole time? This would have made the waiting so much easier then on those hard, crappy chairs in the waiting room." Then I thought how sad my little guy looked.

While we were waiting for him to wake up, my aunt noticed his oxygen levels going down, so she started to rub his leg to rouse him enough to take a good, deep breath. Unfortunately it roused him too much and he woke up, totally disoriented and completely confused as to why his mouth felt so funny. He was crying and I couldn't console him. He just wasn't with it enough to understand where he was and that I was holding him and he was okay. We tried to give him an otter pop to make sure his stomach was good, but he refused to eat it. The dentists told us we were good to go after about 10 min. of his screaming. I'm sure it was for the benefit of his other patients that they wanted us to leave. I was hoping he would fall back asleep in the car, but he didn't. He just cried the whole way to my brother's house to pick up Anabelle. On our way home, we stopped at a Smith's and got him some jello squares that he promptly devoured. After that he was good. He was a little cranky, but nothing too out of the ordinary given the situation.

Yes, our house is up for sale officially. We had it listed "For Sale by Owner" for a few months, but the only people that called us were real estate people wanting us to use them as our agent, so we decided it was about time we actually take one of them up on their offer since no one else wanted to look at our home. We have shown the house two times and one of them sounds really interested. Matt is really excited to sell the house and hopefully rent until we can get rid of some of our debt. I want that too, but I really don't want to leave our house. I love our house. I might not love our neighborhood, but I love our house. I know I am going to cry when we sell it and move out. But, this is part of life isn't it?

The whole thing with Matt's job is really complicated. I have already made this post long enough, so I will try to sum it up best I can. When Matt went out to Omaha at the beginning of July for a job interview, he pretty much told his bosses that he was leaving as soon as he found a job out in Nebraska. They had a replacement found for him in two weeks. Matt trained him for about a month and then he would be done by the end of August. I was a little worried, but then two employees, including Matt's replacement quit, so they almost begged Matt to stay through September. So it all worked out, and I was able to breath a sigh of relief. It has continued to work out good in that they gave Matt a raise in September and he is planning to stay until the end of the year, possibly longer, depending on employment situations out in Omaha. So the next year is a little blurry, but that is okay. We have a general idea of what we want to have happen, but it is constantly changing. Don't be surprised if we get on here and tell you something completely different.

I am still working on getting my depression under control. I started counseling in August and I love my counselor. She is awesome. I have learned a lot and am forced to take time for myself each week. It is hard for me to ask someone to watch my kids while I go and just do something fun, but I am trying to do it. It does make a big difference when I do manage to steal away. I highly recommend it to any mom that isn't already doing it. I don't recommend going to a store. I spent way too much at Shopko last week. Retail therapy is not the way to go.





 

Finally we come to my sister's dog. My sister's dog's name is Satin. She is a black lab that was born about two months before Matt and I got married, so she is 6 years old. She is such a good dog. She just loves kids (especially mine ;-)) and is so good with them. She lets Anabelle just lay on her all the time. We have always had to tell Belle to be soft with the dog, not the other way around. Anyways, half way through August, my sister discovered a lump on Satin's tail. She took her into the vet and found out she had cancer and that they would have to remove her tail, and there was a good chance she might die. We all love Satin and so it was hard on everybody. She is like one of the family. Luckily it hadn't spread, and they were able to remove all the cancer with her tail. She looked pretty sad with a little nub  coming off her shaved rear-end, but now that her hair has grown in, it looks like those dogs that have their tails cut off on purpose, only a little bit shorter. Beckett and Anabelle were kind of affected by seeing Satin with no tail and stitches. Beckett started pretending he was a dog before it happened, and after he saw her tail, when he was pretending to be a dog, he would turn around and say, "Look. My tail is gone. It got cut off." It was cute and sad at the same time. There is still a chance that more cancer will show up later, but we are hoping that it isn't until she is much older.

That is August and I will work on September soon and get you all caught up to speed.

A Birthday and the cabin

June was a busy month too. We went to my parent's cabin with just my parent's. We had so much fun. We got in the hot tub, except for Beckett. Last time he got in, he lost his balance and he went underwater and hasn't gotten in for at least a year. But he was happy to go watch Green Eggs and Ham and play with the trains that are kept at the cabin, while we relaxed in the hot tub. Belle loved it. She loved the bubbles that kept coming up. Plus I think she thought it was very fun to take a bath with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa all at the same time.

We went to the cabin the second weekend in June, which was when we were still getting lots of rain and it snowed up at the cabin while we were there. We were all content to stay inside where it was nice and warm and play games and do puzzles (one of my dad's and my favorite things to do). But Beckett really wanted to go outside and go fishing. I had been talking up fishing with him for a few days before we went up and he was really excited to go. Finally it stopped blowing freezing air and bundled Beckett up as best we could. Here he is all ready to go catch a fish.

Well, when they got out the lake, Matt said to Beckett, "We're going to go catch a monster fish." For those of us seasoned fisher people, we know that that means we're going to catch a huge fish. I don't think that is what came to Beckett's mind though. Let me finish the story and you will see why. My dad got Beckett all set up with his pole, red and white bobber, worm on the hook, the works. Beckett was having a great time holding his pole. Not long after he was handed his pole, Matt cast his fly pole out into the water and caught a fish almost instantly. Matt reeled it in and as my dad was scooping up the flopping fish into the net, Beckett through down his pole and said, "No fish!" and turned and ran for the cabin without slowing down or stopping until he came in the door. When he got inside, he said to me and my mom, "Monster fish." We had no idea what he was talking about until Matt told us what he said. We all had a good laugh.

I am going to toot my own horn here for a little bit. I caught a nice fish of my own. It was a tiger trout and weighed about 5lbs. Not bad. Normally my parent's have a catch and release policy with their ponds, but the fish was bleeding when we got it out, so we had to keep it. It tasted so good.

We also had a few birthdays in the month of June. One of the children's friends had her second birthday party the first weekend of the month. The kids had so much fun with her presents. Here they all are in the wadding pool that she got. We had to tell them to pretend to have water in there because they kept asking to have water put in the pool.

I show you this simple because it totally influenced Beckett's birthday presents. He loved that pool so much that I got him one of his own. He loved it. He has had so much fun with it. Unfortunately I am a lame mom and haven't gotten any pictures of him playing in the pool. But it was easily his favorite present.

He loved all the rest of his presents that he got too. He got some yard games from my parents, a Crockett set and a horseshoes game.

They loved playing with them. My parent's also gave Beckett a computer game that he can hook up to the TV. The mouse makes him frustrated sometimes, but other than that, he loves to play it.

Here he is opening some more presents. He had to wait a long time to open his presents. He has been so excited to open presents that for the last three months he has been trying to help everyone else open their presents, even without their permission.

Here is his cake. I made it. In case you can't tell what it is, it is a train. The engine is supposed to be Thomas. I made the shapes of the engine and cars, but my sister decorated it. She did such a good job. I am not that creative or good at doing it. She is amazing though and has creativity come out of her ear, so I was more than happy to turn the decorating job over to her.

It was a great party. He had such a great time. He loved his Thomas cake. Beckett had been asking for a Thomas Birthday party for like 5 months. We had a Thomas balloon and he wore his Thomas shirt. It was awesome.

One other thing that happened during June was that we came to a firm decision on moving to Omaha. I guess I should say I came to a firm decision on moving to Omaha. I have been excited about doing it, but I have gone back and forth about it, until one day I just made the decision that we were going to do it. Since then I have just felt good about it. I guess Heavenly Father just wanted me to make a decision and then go forward with it. If it isn't right, he will let me know. So far, we haven't gotten any kind of a no, so we are moving to Omaha. Scared or not, it is happening as soon as Matt gets a job and we sell our home. Stay tuned for the update on July.

"Up to?" What do you mean "Up to?"

Since I am way behind on updating on here, I am going to do a month at a time. Starting with May. May was similar to April, filled with silly moments. One day in church, during the sacrament, Beckett was asking to get his belly scratched (his favorite quiet church activity). He pulled up his shirt and looked at his belly button and then declared, not too quietly, "Eww, gross. That's gross!" for all the ward to hear. I had a hard time holding in the laugh that was dying to come out. Not one of my most spiritual sacrement experiences.

Another time, the kids wanted to watch a movie upstairs. I was all for it, since they play up there for about an hour or so and I can get a lot done. As I was starting to go down the stairs, I noticed a black permanent marker sitting out from a previous day of repacking boxes and labeling them. A little voice inside said, "You better take that with you. They will get into it." I mocked the voice and said back, "Naw, they don't even know what it is or how to use it," and went on my merry way, down the stairs. Later, Belle came down and it was time for her nap, so I put her down and felt kind of sleepy myself. Matt had called and told me that he was going to be home soon, so I decided to lay down and catch some Z's. Matt came home and went to check on Beckett watching his movie, then came down and asked me if I had been upstairs since I put on the movie for the kids. I said no and then he said, "Well, you better not go up until after your nap." I asked him if they had made a mess and he didn't really answer me. I decided to take his advice and take my nap first.

After I woke up, I went upstairs. As I am sure you have all guessed, someone (my bets are on Anabelle) had drawn all over the island thing in the middle of the room. It was quite the mural. I wanted to take a picture of it, to post on here, but I took too long to do it because I didn't want you all to see how messy that room is, and then Matt surprised me by painting over it one night while I was at Relief Society. I really appreciated him doing that (and thanks for Kevin for helping him), but a little part of me is sad I didn't get that picture before it was painted over. Oh well, I'm sure Belle will do something similar again. She has already drawn on the walls with crayon in a few places, so I am sure I will get a picture of her art skills another time.

Belle actually let me do her hair in two pigtails in May, and she kept it in for more than an hour, but not much longer. She looked pretty stinkin cute, too. Unfortunately that was it. She does let me put in barrets now, but she fights pony/pigtails when ever I try to put them in. At least she has cute curls in the back, so she doesn't look like a boy without cute things in her hair.

Another day, Beckett and I were playing with his ball and I felt silly and stuck the ball in his pants. He thought it was hilarious! He laughed and laughed. Of course I had to take pictures.

Something fun that we did was go to the "Day out with Thomas" event at the Heber Creeper. This was our second time and we had so much fun. My brother and his girlfriend took us. Beckett loved playing with the train sets they had setup to temp parents to buy them for their children.

We rode the train for about 25min. Beckett freaked out once we were on the train. He started crying and saying something about the stroller being left behind. After we started moving, he started to calm down. This picture was soon after we got on the train.

Here he is after we were going for a while. (This was one of the photos that didn't get restored completely, but at least their faces made it and they are cute)

We also saw Sir Topham Hat, but that picture didn't get restored, unfortunately. The kids got tattoos on their arms and Belle got one on her face. They loved them and were so proud of them. (bytheway, Mary Kay's eye makeup remover gets that off like a dream) They had miniture golf and the kids loved it. I think Matt and I will have to take them again sometime. Another first for the children was eating cotton candy. I had avoided that sweet as long as I could, but caved this time. They loved it except Beckett hated getting sticky. Then we played with the bubbles and each kid got a free toy. That is what Beckett is preoccupied with in the pictures. It was one of those cameras that have pictures inside when you look through the eye hole, and then they change when you click the button. He loved it. Belle didn't quite get how they worked but was happy as can be pretending to take pictures. I love my kids.

Come back later this week to hear about June and Beckett's birthday.