Happy Mika

Happy Mika is so much fun! She is giggling, giving kisses (open mouth slobbery ones) grabbing, smacking, biting (no teeth), spitting, gurgling and grunting. Ah all the pretty sounds! I love this picture, it shows her sparkling eyes... We were at the park today and she was so happy. I had to take a picture of Daddy's Little Ghoul...

Girl Time

Yep, she's lost another tooth! The little neighbor tooth fell out at school. We saw that it was really loose and tried to get it out before she went off to school, but she was sure it wouldn't fall out till later that evening....Well she came running off the bus yelling, "Mama look what I got! You've never seen this! You won't believe it!" In a little baggy she pulls out a necklace with a plastic tooth holding her baby tooth. She was so excited. And guess what happened that night?? Yep, that rich ol' tooth fairy came while she was sleeping and gave her another quarter! She's rackin it up! The next morning she said, "I was so excited I kept waking up to see if the tooth fairy came, but she knew I was awake so I went back to sleep..." This time there is a definate hole... Daddy and Ethan went to help our friend Jeff frame an office in his house. So we had GIRL TIME! Kaylin and I made sugar cookies in the shapes of pumpkins and cats! She was a great messy helper.

We also had some fun taking pictures. She thought this was so funny. I was holding the camera and she'd tell me what face or pose to make. We had fun--she's such a sweet, happy, fun girlie. (the white thing in the pictures is that tooth shaped case that her tooth was in)

And Aidrian was watching us make cookies in her bumbo. She's very content in that thing because she can see everything. She wants to sit up so bad and she does quite well but topples over often.

Trunk Or Treat!

So our church every year does a Trunk or Treat--usually starts off as a Chili Cook off, then the Bishop and his counselors pick the best one...there are 2 categories Soups and Chili--I talked Mom in to making a homemade Chicken Noodle Soup for those non-chili lovers- like myself and she ended up winning the soup contest!! But the stinker told them it was mine, so everyone all night kept congratulating me on my win! :) So as the ward photographer, I had a little picture booth set up. I just had to dress up! Not too extreme, but I still had fun. I found the striped tights and had to wear them and be a witch this year. No hat...it kept falling off. So this is Travis (a bah-humbugger) and his little Witch! ;)

There are other fun games and booths and the kids were so ecstatic that they won something at every one! My parents came down to join in the fun! Mom was a 50's gal (cute as ever) and my dad was a cowboy--(I have a great picture of them, but I wanted her to put it on her blog!) So here we are, The Witch, The Fairy Princess, The Butterfly Blob, The SWAT team, and The 50's gal....

We had a great night! The kids were now skilled in this Trick or Treating thing and Kaylin didn't even wait for us to come around with her to all the cars...they had such a fun time.

carving, carving and more carving...

So the more kids you have, the more pumpkins need to be carved by....Me. :)
Ethan is a free spirited artist when it comes to pumpkins. He picks what he wants, (you know those pictures from the carving books) but then he precedes to carve his own face. He actually did make a square and somewhat of a circle in his, before Travis helped him make Iron Man. This is his cute concentrating face... Kaylin would make tiny punctures and groan each time the knife wouldn't come back out of the pumpkin. So I helped her do the rest. She picked the cat. On the back we carved out her name too.

Here's the finished pumpkins! Kaylin's shining Ethan's SWAT team flashlight in her cat, then Aidrian's is a swirly happy guy--I mean "baby", mine is a witch, and Ethan's Iron Man. Little story about my witch--I'm telling Travis how I've never been much of a pumpkin carver, just not that good and I'm going on carving my witch's face and cut around her whole face cutting it completely out of the pumpkin! So it looks like a funny oblong shape missing from my pumpkin. Whoops. Now we have toothpicks holding her face in. :)

Here's the masterpiece in the making...Travis was so concetrated he heard or saw nothing else that night....It's funny now....but he does have quite the skill in this area!

WOW! Isn't that cool?? He always tries to do some kind of Maori Warrior...

Goooey Oooey Pumpkin Guts

Today was a fun day for Ethan. His little class got to pick out their own pumpkins and he was determined to carve his own. I helped a little with the main face, but he did the rest...goo and all. I don't have a picture of it now, but it's plastered with scars and slits all over and has a new nose. :) This is his Playschool class-minus one. And the two on the end are siblings. This is at a little neighorhood patch, called Adam's Farm. I love these guys, we get our Christmas trees here. Anyway it was a cute place for a photo of these happy little monsters. I have no idea what Ethan is doing in the picture, but all the other ones are even scarier.
Ethan Chase, Garrett, Ethan Bake, Emily and Kate. The two sibs are Dylan and Lily.

He was so handsome in this pic I had to post it. He is growing like crazy right now--literally right out of all his pants, shirts and shoes. What a big boy...He loves this skeleton shirt and begs for him to wear it everyday.

Healthy little babes

So we finally made it in for her 4 month shots--even though she's 5 months plus! Oh well at least we made it. I took pics of Mika after cuz she was just so stinkin happy! (after a long nap...) So her statistics: She weighs 13.5 lbs, and is 25 inches. Her head is 25% tile.
She had 3 shots in her leg and then one vaccine in her mouth. She was blowing spit bubbles, talking and smiling up until that first shot. She furrowed her little brow and did her mad little talking thing she does to scold Ethan. Then the 2nd and 3rd shots she screamed and her face was bright red. After the nurse left and she calmed down, Ethan said, "Mom, that scared me. I didn't like that." He loves that little babes so much! He can't wait to play with her every time she's awake...

Here are some pics I was taking of her--just for fun.

I love how she grabs everything-- faces, her feet, hair...

I wish I could post a million more, they all turned out really beautiful...but this'll do for the blog.

My Owie Tooth

Disclaimer: This picture is for Angie--and those other lucky people who don't get to see me...but I couldn't smile because it hurts to and it looks much worse. This is also the 2nd day of taking a new antibiotic and with the dead nerve out...so I am getting better...my family can laugh because they know all my "dentist stories" are similar to this one. I tired to make it funny but found it hard to as I'm sitting here in pain............

Speaking of the tooth fairy--wish I could get some money for this pain in my mouth! Nope, instead I have to pay an arm and a leg to get this fixed! So...Friday night I'm eating popcorn and my tooth just in front of my smaller molar starts to bug. I think there's a popcorn thingy stuck in it so I floss and listerine it to death. Next morning I'm in humungous pain! Apparently the infection came back (same one when I was preggie) with no warning at all. I call my mom's friend who supplied my with antibiotics-pennicillin (which made me itch like crazy!)and loratab for the pain(which would make me dizzy and have freaky dreams at night). Taking 2 of those would just take the edge off. It was miserable. I prayed with all my might for the swelling to stop and that I'd be okay for Sunday...I was singing in a quartet in church for the Young Women's program and also 2 songs in the choir. Oh gosh. Sunday morning did not look good--I started throwing up from 4 am to 2pm. It was horrible. Did I already say that? So I call my little quartet and tell them there is no way I can start the first line of the song as a solo, then go the duet, then all 4 join in because my face looks like Quazimoto and I'm puking every time I sit up. Bummer. Travis takes the 2 older kids, thinking I'll be able to manage Mika. Um....she's freaking out, crying for her morning cereal..I run to the bathroom, puke, then crawl around the kitchen trying to make her oatmeal as fast as I can, feed it to her, then run to the bathroom and puke again. I lay down and she cries...mommy why won't you just hold me??? I couldn't even sit up. So I call Travis, he has his phone on vibrate at the church and he comes home to save the day. I only saw Aidrian to nurse otherwise I was laying down with a throbbing jaw, getting bigger and bigger. My mom comes Monday to save me--literally. Takes me to the dentist where I'm given two choices...One: I can pull the tooth out. Granted I already have my back molar out and a wisdom tooth grew in that spot, but is crooked, OR Two: Get a root canal and save the tooth. Which was in good shape...but for about the price of another baby... I get it worked on--yes to save it, he starts on the root canal and of course it's trickier than a regualr one because something about the end of the root is curved and it was a very long root (maybe that's why I could feel it in my chin?) and it was difficult to numb me because of my swelling and infection. So I get 4 shots of that numbing crap that makes my eyes water every time. Luckily they had a massage chair that laid over the dentist chair and the lady turned on so high it made me itch so bad! Most of the time I was concentrating on the itch on my nose that I couldn't itch! Drugged and dizzy my mom brings me home with more medication, Darvacet which actually doesn't do a thing but make me tired. So today is the 4th day...my swelling HAS in fact gone down some and I'm forced to be in public doing all the things I still need to do and everyone ever so graciously says, WOW you are swollen...yes thank you and to add to my beautiful appearance, I think I'm getting a cold sore. Now where's the fairness in that?? I have a busy packed week and then teach Ethan's class next week--hope I can pull it together by then! I just love going to the dentist, don't you???

the greatest invention

Okay maybe it's not THE greatest invention, but you've gotta love these things. This is hanging in the bathroom doorway...now that she's grown out of her spot in the sink while I get ready, we've found the perfect place for her! We also put her in my room doorway which then opens to the playroom and she's very entertained for a while watching the kids play. Cute bright eyed smile. She's such a goo. I just adore her!

Tooth Fairy

I know, I don't believe it either, but Kaylin lost her first tooth!! The tooth fairy left her a note that said "You've been visited by the tooth fairy...Thank you for your tooth!" (isn't that the cutest fairy silouette?)When it was loose, another tooth was already coming in behind it, so she doens't have the typical hole in her mouth...if you can see in the pic, the new tooth growing in is just a little farther back than the rest...This is her showing off her money. She's been learning about coins at school and asked if the tooth fairy could give her a quarter because it was the most. We sound totally cheap, but we were like,"Sure you can have a quarter!" (this is the best pic showing the tooth...) Because I was taking pictures she asked if she could take one by her pumpkin. Every day after school she reminds me that we have to carve them before Halloween...
Ethan wanted to join in too. I'm not so lucky to have him sleep in. Nope, most days he's up before Kaylin and I! (and I wake up at 6:45...)

Wicked!

My mom and I went with 2 of her friends last night to Wicked! It's a fabulous show! If anyone doesn't know it's like a Prequel to The Wizard of Oz. My mom and I went not knowing much about it, just heard a few songs from mini performances from the Sharp Family! ;) But I loved it this way! Didn't know what to expect--has many twists and surprises! The pictures are all really dark with a boom of light from the flash--yes my mom and were glowing but not that much! We still had to prove we were there!!! This picture is the opening screen before ths show started. See how close we were??? 6th row!! I'm trying to show how close we were, but you can't really see anything else...it was so amazing! Some songs it was like they were looking right at you...one time Glinda came up to the far end of the stage and furrowed her brow at me-I was dead center in the middle, it was CRAZY!!
My mom and I at the entrance of the Fox Theater. We were so excited!! The last show we went to together was when I was a newly wed and getting ready to move to St. George! This adventure was much overdue! :)
This is mom (kind of) and behind her is the dragon above the stage. So cool......

Wanna talk?

She gets in these "talking" moods. I love it...

Aidrian is 3 days shy of 5 months!! She's doing so much now...with her hands, eating her feet, rolling over, eating cereal and baby food, slapping her hand on her legs (that's a cute one) laughing at the kids, getting picky about who holds her....

I love seeing her grow, but I'm sad too! I want her to stay tiny forever!!

I AM...

Post a picture of yourself!

I am....... a wife, mother, little sister, friend, aunt, photographer

I want........ to go to Hawaii

I have....... a sore back from wrestling with the kids yesterday

I wish........ I could get more sleep!

I know......... I am losing my mind

I hate........ when people think they are better than you

I fear.......... losing my husband or anyone in my family

I hear........... Aidrian snoring :)

I crave............a big bowl of peanut butter panic ice cream!

I search.......... for black closed toe shoes for winter

I always......... am up for an episode of prison break!

I usually......... only get a shower every other day

I am not.......... excited about packing up the house

I miss........... all my family and friends that live out of state

I love......... it when Travis is home

I never.......... want to move again!

I rarely........ go out on a hot date with my hubby :(

I cry............ when I've had enough

I am not always........ on time anymore (have I ever been?) oh well

I lose........... my patience with my 3yr old more than I'd like to

I am confused........ exactly how a male brain works

I need.............. more sleep and one on one time with my kids

I should.......... be more patient

I worry............that I'm not doing my best at everything

I dream.......... of having a cleaning lady to clean my house!

I tag....... Meagan, Mom, Angie, Em, Tam and Sarean--oh yeah you better do it!!! Brittany B., Linny Loo Hoo, Mandee, Elena, Maddie and Melanie!

The Rock Ranch

Saturday we spent all day in Barnesville at the Rock Ranch with Angie, Andrew and Lily, and Mom and Dad! It was such a fun day! The kids loved it!!! I swear this place had thought of everything! Sorry my pics aren't in order, just added the cutest ones of the favortie things they did!
Here we are at the petting zoo, the kids are petting the Donkey... They have a little locomotive train that goes around most of the ranch. At this point it's raining, so it was nice to be undercover although my seat got a lot of the rain blown in!
We started at the Giant Jumping Pillow. The kids loved this!! They both got some great air! Here Ethan's chasing Kaylin. At the bottom of the pullow there's sand so even if the kids fall they got some padding. :)
Angie, me and Lily taking a break to eat some funnel cakes and Chick Fil-A icecream! Yum!

At the petting zoo--these gotas had little wood path and sheds, almost like they were mountain goats or something. Anyway, this one ventured out to the edge. Right after we walked away it jumped out!
This was by far Ethan's favorite place. He was in heaven. I'm proud to say he was the best 3 yr old driver out there!! -Actually probably the best driver out there--it was 4 and under but Kaylin went...THAT was funny...we should have brought the video camera for that one! Lily rode with Ethan the first time, the batteries were dying so it was a nice slow ride and she absolutely loved it!!
At the carousel...
Aidrian went too!
Other things we enjoyed were the cow train, the pumpkin launcher, the corn guns, the pony rides, the jump houses, and the playground. We wrapped it up around 6pm when we realized the rain wasn't going to stop--were wet and tired, so it was a good time to end the great day! On our way out we all picked out pumpkins! Happy Fall!

Firestation!

Today we went with Ethan's little class to the firestation. It was pretty cool-they even had a firepole! The firemen were awesome, we had a great time. Of course the kids were all shy and would hardly say a peep. One of the guys put his whole get-up on and another was saying, "Now remember this is only a mask, not the boogedy man..." But still when it was all on, only one boy would go up and shake his hand. He was telling them to get on the floor and started crawling and Ethan started sliding back away from him--I guess I never thought about how it would look like to a kid when the firefighters come rescue you...so we kept saying, "They are the heroes and will save you!" But I don't think they believed us...
Here's the group...minus a few who were late. I love this pic--Ethan's face. It's torture to get that kid to smile if he doesn't want to take a picture--so you get what you get. :) He was super shy, but has not stopped talking about how his Uncle Dave is a firefighter and was bummed they didn't do the sirens. (too many little ones)
Aidrian wearing a firehat--it was cute, she'd tried to look up at it. It was a cooler day and she loved the breeze blowing in her face, despite the cold she's been fighting.

It was a rainy, yucky day...but it was nice to get out. Ethan thought it would be fun to jump in the puddles on the way to car, so he was drenched. We all were wet by the time we got home. (Sure glad my power is ON today!--See post below)

--oh yeah and he wants to go back to the firestation tomorrow too.

NO POWER!

So...our lights would kinda flash every now and then. I'd think "did I just blink?" Nope, it was the lights shorting...then on Sat everything went off. I think Travis called it, the switch tripped? Oh I don't know...but I DO know that I was trying to head out to my mom's so I go to turn the switch back on outside in our power box and it smells like something is burning...Hmmm. I call Travis (he's busy at his boy's day out) He says shut off all the power and then go, we'll call the Power Company. So Sunday we are watching Conference and after the 2nd session we go out to check on it with our friends and it's popping and smoking! We turn it off, call our Power Company, they come out and tell us we need an Electrician and to keep it OFF! Oh no, how do I make dinner? How do I assure the kids it's safe to sleep in our house--with no nightlights...we get all our flashlights, eat sandwiches and head off to bed in the dark. Bummer. Next day...still no power. The annoyances go on and on, Electrician comes out, needs to replace the whole box, needs approval before he can do anything, doesn't come back till the afternoon, never tells me he's fixed it so I can call the Power Company to come back and tunr the transformer on, finally call them at 4, they don't show till 7...BUT the good news is I had an awesome friend Britt bring us dinner that night (and I also showered and got ready that morning) and we do have our power on now and boy I am ever grateful for the invention!!!

Yummy Treat

She's devoured her Oatmeal with bananas, so I thought I'd try some flavor in her diet. She didn't quite know how she felt about applesauce, but I had to get a picture with baby food all over her face. Oatmeal is quite messy, but she was so unsure about applesauce that she would just pucker her little lips while she ate. Oh well!
She cocks her head to the side since she was tiny...I just love it. Oh what a yummy bite!!
I guess I better clarify--Aidrian is 4 1/2 months in these pics...she'll be 5 months on Oct 16th!!!

Mika and Daddy

Okay, Mika Moo loves her daddy too. :) Didn't have to prove it, but she was so cute, babbling to him--almost like she's was telling him about her day... I'm snorting (oh yes) and playing peek-a-boo...what a cute little face, or should I say faces....

Boys Day Out

Travis, Ethan and Paka went to the Petit LeMans Race at Road Atlanta all day Saturday. Below is one of the Acura prototypes that raced. (Ethan told me later, he loved the blue car) This is the corvette prototype...
It was so loud you have to wear ear plugs! This year he kept them in! The cars went so fast and were so loud, they would vibrate your body. Ethan said, "Dad, I feel the cars in my heart!"
Ethan was so cute leaning up on the fence watching the cars race by.
I'd have to say--although I wasn't there, that this is a dream day for all these boys--they enjoyed thoroughly and Travis was smiling for days...