Pumpkin Fun?

Last night we carved our pumpkins. I think I can safely speak for both Trav and I in that we don't really look forward to stuff like this. Part of me wants to, but in all reality, it is so much work! I think it could've been fun and a bit easier if we had just stuck with the traditional triangle eyes and big grin, but I complicated matters by introducing a pumpkin carving kit with very elaborate designs that you conveniently transfer on to your pumpkin by punching a thousand holes along the pattern. It took forever!

The kids jumped in with the scooping. Props to Payton for willing to get her hands dirty. She's super squeamish about slippery, icky stuff.

Davey does his best work in his underwear. He tried to come out in less, but we have to set some boundaries with him.

Once you're already committed you have to keep going. Trav and I each produced an amazing cat and spider pumpkin respectively.

By the time we got to Jonah's pumpkin Trav looked at the holes I punched for his pattern and laughed. He carved two triangle eyes and a big mouth in five minutes and Jonah was thrilled. Lesson learned. Keep it simple.

We'll show you the fruits of our labors when we light 'em up for tomorrow night!

Sweet Times

I've been in this weird place the last few months now that Jonah's in school all day with Payton. Davey has pre-school three mornings a week and I feel like every day all I can think about is they will all three be in school full time in just a few years! I'm a huge planner, I get really frustrated when I don't know what's coming, what to expect, and therefore can't prepare for it. I feel like I SHOULD have a plan. Will I work, go back to school, run the PTA, join the gym and become one of those moms that constantly lives in their workout gear, I haven't a clue! I want to have coffee with every mom that has gone before me on this sudden change of mothering and find out their process.

But today, Davey and I met with my friend Jackie for coffee and then came home to get the house and food ready for dinner tonight. We're having the worship team for Simpson over and the kids are thrilled to be hosting. They think anyone that comes over is purely here for their enjoyment and benefit. So Davey, who is a faithful helper put on his apron and joined me in making brownies, chopping nuts (it's a safe chopper:), sweeping up the house, and pulling out the extra chairs.

I was so grateful for these quiet moments together with him and the companionsip we shared in our preparations. We had a gentle rhythm to our day today. It made me realize I need to let go of what will happen until God chooses to reveal it to me and just enjoy the present more. As much as there have been challenging moments, I'm SO thankful to have been a stay at home mom with my babies. I just have these two years left with little Davey, I don't want to waste them worrying about what's next.

Thanks Oral B

For giving me the opportunity to wipe down my sink twice a day after the kids brush their teeth.

We lose more toothepaste to the countertops than to the kids' teeth

it's already begun

Halloween is in two days and Davey's already brought home a bag-o-chocolate from a candy hunt yesterday. I can power through chocolate like nobody's business. I've done serious damage in the last 24 hours and it's about to get interesting when the kids bring home their booty Friday night.

I'm only a little embarrassed to admit that I often keep a dark chocolate stash ready available to me when the stress levels get high. I have on more than one occasion, left the kids screaming and fighting amongst themselves to go eat chocolate, feel better, and then go back to handle the situation. If I ever choose to fast, it's usually obstaining from chocolate and tea, my two vices.

Stowaway

Last night Davey found his way into our bed and took it over. I'm super hyper about my sleep. I'm a terrible sleeper, wake up easily, don't fall back asleep very well, and I have never once had a decent night's sleep sharing our bed together with one of our children. I seriously had an eight inch space with which to lay on my side and try not to fall off the bed most of the night. Davey is SO heavy I could barely shove him over to the middle to give me more space.

Of course Trav is asleep the moment his head hits the pillow and is completely unaffected no matter how many little people have climbed in with us. The rest of the night was shot and I kept thinking I should just get up and go sleep in Davey's bed, but I was so tired. And I don't know if any other married folk have experienced this, but I am completely cold when I sleep alone. I'm so used to having Trav next to me that I cannot warm up when I sleep by myself. I always have one of the kids sleep with me when he's gone otherwise I can't sleep.

I should be grateful we're back in our queen bed after a year and a half of sleeping on a double sized futon. Davey still found a way to sleep with us in that bed, and it was miserable. But when I look at this picture I think, "how much longer until none of our kids climb in bed with us?" What sweet times. Even now as I write this Payton is nestled up next to me in bed b/c she needed some cuddle time. I want it all, I want the snuggles, and I want my sleep.

Eighteen Years Later

I never dress up for Halloween to the dismay of my children each year. After dressing up three kids who has the time or creativity to do it for themselves? This year, thanks to Bethany's inspiration, I busted out the ol' high school cheerleading uniform. As competitive as I am, I have always lacked the cooridnation and athletic ability to actually play sports. So I settled for the sparkly pom-poms and drama of cheerleading. I love that the skirt rides about one inch below my belly button. I seriously don't know if it's b/c of my hips or b/c that's how it was actually made to fit. We wore everything a lot higher way back then.

After seeing me, Trav was also inspired to rummage through and pull out his old high school baseball uniform for Halloween. He hasn't tried it on yet, but how tight are them pants gonna be?:) Watch out ladies, he's spoken for.

Are kids may never ask us to dress up ever again for Halloween

Jonah

My boy who cried and felt sick to his stomach the first time he got his card changed from green to yellow in kindergarten is now proudly announcing his card changes to to anyone who will listen! He got not one but TWO yesterday and he happily told his piano teacher and any one he met at Payton's play performance last night at school. It seriously was like, "Hi, I'm Jonah. I got my card changed twice today at school."

Apparently the second card change (to red) means they have to leave the classroom, which he didn't end up having to do but still! What happened to his heart breaking over upsetting his teacher? And where did this exuberance of sharing his shortcomings come in?

Today we were all about "Hey Jonah, what color are you going to keep your card today?", high fiving and whooping it up about keeping it green. As he ran off to class today I yelled, "Keep it green Jonah!!" We can only hope.

Excalibur

The bed of all beds.

I waged a loosing battle with Payton for months over what kind of bed we should get her when she got her new big girl room. She was pulling for a canopy bed that I just simply could not live with, and in a few years, I don't think she could've either. She dug her heels in with the loft bed, I hesitated b/c they're just so tall, but finally gave in b/c I just wanted it decided already. Now we have a bed with about a two foot clearance from the ceiling, and no sane person would want to sleep in it. Lucky for us Payton finds this very attractive and is totally pleased with her sleeping arrangements. After noting the heating vent was going to be blowing directly on her face come winter we decided to slide the bed a bit away from the window. Trav's considering sawing off the legs of the bed down a few inches. It could be trouble.

How Davey Unwinds

After a hard day at preschool Davey heads straight to his bed for white bankey and his thumb. After ten to fifteen minutes he's recharged and good to go!

SNL is so hot right now

This video gets me every time. Amy Poehler is genius.

Happy 60th Dad!

We traveled out to my sister Mary's for the weekend to celebrate my Dad with hiking, napping, good food, and avoiding bear scat. The only thing missing was our dear Sara and Christian who are far away in the shortening days of Sweden. Miss you guys!


The highlight for the kids and my dad was hiking around my sister's house and climbing on all their huge boulders. I admired my kids' free spirits when they were exploring. They were so in the moment, completely unencumbered by any thoughts of responsibility or big decisions looming in their futures. They were filthy, cold, and happy. It made me wishing I was more like them. Still responsible of course, but maybe a little more willing to get dirty and be in the moment. I did end up scrambling a rock with my daughter who invited me with, "Come on Mom, you've got to EXPERIENCE it!!"

A picture speaks a thousand words

We road tripped with my family to my sister's house in Janesville for my dad's birthday a few weekends back. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive. We scored on the drive. It was just me, Trav, and my sister Vicki partaking in adult conversation and listening to music of our own choosing the whole way. My parents scored 2 1/2 hours of uninterrupted time in their car with my three lovely children demanding their music and letting crys of "I'm hungry" fly every five minutes. The drive reached its peak when we rolled into Susanville with promises of a McDonald's playplace only to find it was outdoors. It was 6:30pm and 30 degrees outside. The picture below captures Davey's reaction at hearing we WEREN'T staying at the playplace.

It was utter chaos, the boys had unbuckled themselves and were thrashing about wildly in their distress. Two and a half hours in a car, hungry, no playplace after all, they were ticked. We pulled up alongside their car and tried to shout condolences to the kids and pump them up for a different restaurant but to no avail. So all I could do was take pictures.

I love this picture of my dad b/c he always put on this crazy smile and went to his happy place whenever mayhem broke out amongst me and my sisters growing up. I love that he pulled it out for dealing with my own children:). I also love that I wasn't in their car. I mean, I felt bad, but secretly happy at the same time.

Celebrating Jonah

The last of our Fall birthdays is now complete! We kicked off Jonah's big day by sending him out to breakfast with Trav at the Simpson Cafeteria. The kids are easy to please at this point so we like to keep it that way. Jonah indulged in Cocoa krispys, peaches, and chased it down with a rootbeer. Jonah loves one on one time, it's his love language, and Trav delivered.

We had pizza later for dinner and the kids each got their own bottled rootbeer which is a huge treat. We never let them have soda. They couldn't believe their good fortune.
We ended up at Chuck E Cheese for games after a failed attempt at going bowling (which Jonah loves). I totally dropped the ball on not researching it better and there were leagues going on. It was sketchy for a few seconds, Jonah was not happy about leaving without bowling, but thankfully he rallied.

Lucky for us, Jonah was thrilled to discover this ride and hung out on it all night. Bowling totally forgotten! Anything with numbers gets him, he was totally pleased with himself.

Davey took me for a crazy four wheel drive which ended in some kid coming up and telling me I was too big for this ride. I was looking around thinking, "Am I about to be approached by an employee here?" That was my last ride for the evening.

We closed down the evening with cupcakes and presents. Feeding the kids sugar right before bed time is always a good idea:). We had a great time, and of course, the kids are already making plans for NEXT years birthdays. I'm going to have to get used to saying I have an 8, 6, and 4 year old now, where does the time go...

Memory Triggers

I've been volunteering at my kids' school and whenever I go to the bathroom, there is a super strong cleaning smell that takes me back to my childhood. It's kind of a weird, sweet smell. It was driving me crazy b/c I couldn't think specifically what it was reminding me of!
Last night I was telling my kids their bed time stories. They've started this tradition that Trav or I need to tell three stories from our lives before bed, 1-Where we got hurt, 1-we got injured, and lastly, 1-that is funny. It is getting increasingly difficult to come up with stories that fit these categories, especially since Trav got in trouble a total of maybe 3x in his life, and I'm not joking! He makes me look like the poster child for a troubled kid in comparison.
Anyhoo, I told them the story of when I was in third grade and I felt like I was going to throw up at school. I ran to the bathroom only to find it locked so I puked all over the ground right in front of the door. Humiliating for an eight year old. And then it hit me, the smell I was remembering is that crazy powder stuff they would sprinkle on messes at school! I distinctly remember my fresh pile of ickiness being covered with the smelly cleaner.

I know this is sort of a gross story, but I'm just so stoked I figured out my memory puzzle! I can go forward with my day now.

Letting Go

After being greeted with "why are you here? I just want to ride the bus!!" everytime I picked up Jonah from kindergarten, I finally caved and P&J are now riding the bus home in the afternoons from school. Of course I talked with the principal and their teachers first before I made the decision. I was super paranoid and had visions of bullies cornering my kids on the bus and no one but a distracted bus driver to intervene. I was reassured and talked down from my worries and so far it's been good, our first few weeks have gone well, until yesterday.
Payton came home saying there's a boy on the bus who likes to hurt girls with a "sharp plastic thing" on the bus. He told her he's coming after her today b/c she was warning the girls he was coming under their seats, to which Jonah quickly stepped up and said, "I'll just punch him in the face!!" Where does he get this stuff? Although it was a very gallant, protective gesture we told Jonah there were other ways to solve things. We actually told them that if the boy started to bother them they should just bust out in a funky dance and then everyone will laugh and it will all be all right. I'm cracking myself up even now as I type, I can't believe this is the advice we were offering our poor children. Perhaps we use humor way too much in our parenting.
We actually did get serious about it. Issues like this are tricky b/c of course no one wants to tattle. Payton said she did not want to tell the bus driver which I can understand, I'd feel the same way. So I asked her if she wanted me to mention it to the bus driver when she got dropped off today since it's almost the last stop on the route and not a lot of kids would be around. Payton was visibly relieved by this solution.
It's so crazy, I feel like we just successfully resolved the Jupiter/Stupider problem and then the very next day there's a bully on the bus. My first response to her telling me about it was, "I knew it, the bus is terrible, they're totally not going to ride it anymore." And then right away I felt like God's voice reminded me my job was not to remove my kids from the world, but to teach them to live in it with wisdom and love. Such a tall order! I'm only at the beginning of our school years, there is so many more issues and teachable moments to come! I just hope we're ready for them, and maybe our funky dance suggestion might just come into play one time and work.

Some Wow insight from Payton

I love this picture of Payton from our camping trip last summer. Monday night she came out and plopped herself down on the couch with me, Trav, and my sister Vicki and tearfully told us of a joke gone wrong amongst some friends at school. It involved the old saying, "Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider and girls go to Mars to get more candy bars." She and her girlfriend and three boys were switching the planets each sex was supposed to go to until it got ugly and it ended with her calling the boys "freaks":). She was so sad and upset and said she wanted to move back to her old school.
We talked it out and how she could make it right again by apologizing and then she said something so profound about the boys accepting an apology, "I think in their hearts they would want to be nice, but when they are with each other they don't act that way." It was such a wow moment for us! She's only eight and she's already starting to get the inner workings of how people think and react and how their friends influence it. It was so great to be able to talk so indepthly with her on how to solve the problem.
We prayed her up, prepped her up, and sent her off to school Tuesday ready to approach the boys. We were all anxious to hear how it went! Thankfully, she came home with a good report that the boys were all very nice and everything is back to normal. I asked her how it felt when she was apologizing b/c she said it was going to be so embarrassing and she said, "It felt great!" I'm so proud of how she handled herself, but I know this will just be one of many more teachable moments for her.
Jonah brought home his own "moment" Tuesday afternoon as he proudly announced he got his card changed from green to yellow as a warning at school. I asked him how he felt and he said with a big smile, "Fine!". What happened to the tears and heartbreak over getting in trouble with his teacher? He assured me with, "Don't worry mom, tomorrow my card's green again and I won't get it changed!" We'll see if that was true when he gets home today.

The View from our backyard

The horses and cattle weren't out this morning, but in the distance you can see Shasta all big and snowy! The clouds parted today, and there she was. It was super rainy all day Friday (which was awesome!) and our mountains were cold enough to get snow. This is the best time of the year. I drank five cups of tea Friday, big ones. Even though it's not raining today, I'm on my fourth cup of tea and it's only noon. I can't help myself.

Visit from Nana

Trav's mom came to visit last week! We had the best time, and the kids ate up their time with her. Payton got to "host" her in her room and she was thrilled to have this honor. Jonah even got to crash on the floor of Payton's room one night to be by Nana. Each of the kids got a special afternoon out alone with Nana, and I even got a walk and a coffee date alone with her too! Before I had the kids, Sharon and I used to meet for lunch and movie dates all the time. I think this was our first outing alone together in eight years!:)
We look forward to next time!

Pics from Davey's B-day

We celebrated Davey's big day last Monday. Four years old! I was just carrying him today and he's so heavy. I told him I wouldn't be able to carry him soon b/c he's so big and he answered, "Maybe when I'm five." He already weighs like 85 lbs. He is totally my baby and I probably will carry him till he's at least five and then start my visits to the chiropractor to repair my back!
It was great to finally have his party after weeks of fielding several questions a day about when he could open his presents. We had the Lances and Trav's mom over and it was great! Every party should be so easy and laid back.

Here's a few fun pictures:
Zeke has the best laugh and smile! Anything that's fun seems 10x as fun when you watch Zeke enjoy it.


It turned out to be a "safety first" party by accident. All helmets, all the time. It seriously worked out for the best with the pinata!

How cute are these girls?

Of course you never take pictures of yourself, you're so busy trying to "capture" all the moments and make sure things are running smoothly. So we took pajama pictures with Nana Sharon and then with us at bedtime and we'll include them with the party pictures. In years to come, Davey will know that really, we were at his party.


Jonah's been going crazy waiting for his birthday to come after all the hoopla for his bro and sister. Only two more days!

The trouble with electronics

This is our alarm clock radio/cd player that works perfectly fine except for the latch that's supposed to hold the lid down. We have to weigh the lid down to play anything. Our mug of pens and borrowed season three copy of the office comes in handy here, but we've also lost the pens sliding off a few times. I hate it when something still functions but an important piece breaks, and of course it would cost more to fix probably than to buy a new one, but that makes me more upset. Throwing it in a landfill before it's time and getting a new one just seems wrong.
We had a toaster that we bought and within two weeks, one of our kids brought it crashing to the floor accidentally and the lever wouldn't hold the toast down anymore. But it was only two weeks old! So we tied it down every time we made toast and set the fire alarm off more times than I can remember. My mother-in-law visited, took pity, and got us a shiny new toaster that works properly. But who can you give a broken toaster too? I think I threw it in a garage sale pile anyway to make myself feel better, that maybe it wouldn't end up in the trash yet. Sadly,deep down I know it's sitting in a dump somewhere.

What Davey's Learning About

"Dirty old downright disgusting germs, the kind that make you throw up!" He delivered this information in his amazingly cute lisp that I'm starting to wonder if he'll ever outgrow and if it will be as cute when he's 16.