Mini-Golf With Grandma and Grandpa

We got a call from Grandma today asking us to go mini-golfing. Every time we drive past Mulligans, Dawson asks me when we are going to go mini-golfing again. The last time we went, I was carrying baby Lincoln in a Baby Bjorn carrier. So it was time. We decided to do the Haunted House course, being 2 days before Halloween and all.

Lincoln was interested in golfing for about 2 holes. They gave him his own little putter and he mostly wanted to hit people and/or things with it. He loved running up and down the hills on the different holes. Luckily, we were pretty much the only ones there, so he could run free and not bug anyone. I am not sure why he was crawling here.

Dawson is a great golfer! He would tell us on each hole if we got a par, birdie, etc. We didn't see many hole in ones!

Grandma and grandpa had to show us all the correct form and golf etiquette. I am pretty sure we failed at the etiquette part. Grandma and Grandpa were thrown off a bit with the little putters. They are both excellent golfers and they are used to the real putters and so me and Dawson had the advantage. We have only practiced with the mini golf ones! :) (well recently anyways) It's a good thing we weren't keeping score or else we might have made them feel bad. That might fall into the "grandparent abuse" category and we all know how serious those consequences are!!!

I was a PERFECT autumn day and great for mini-golf. We all enjoyed being outside in the beautiful weather and spending time doing something fun with grandma and grandpa! It was A LOT better than Stink-e-cheese!!!

Stink-e-cheese

Dawson has been off track now for a few weeks and he is officially BORED! Yesterday he said he wanted to do something fun and could we go to Chuck-e-cheese. I was in a nice-mom mood and told him we could. I made sure we stopped somewhere on the way to get me some lunch so I didn't have to eat their nasty pizza.

Dawson's favorite game is the snowmobile ride/game. He is really good at it too!

Only one was working, but that didn't stop Linc from sitting on the broken one and playing like it was really working.

Linc loved EVERYTHING! He has a hard time moving from one thing to the next- he has a tendency to want to do the same thing over and over and over.

Linc's favorite thing was this Monster Truck ride. He kept coming over to get more tokens and getting in it and starting it over and over. I don't think he remembered ever going there before so everything was new and fun! He liked the big singing characters, but wanted to keep his distance. Heck, I think they are a little freaky and I am 32 years old! All in all, we had a good time with few melt-downs. Check Stink-e-cheese off our list for at least another few months. :)

Family Pictures

These are the outcome of family pictures that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I have a girl named Kami Snarr, who owns Salted Paper Photography who has taken the boys pictures a couple of times. I absolutely LOVE her and her work. She is so talented! The one above just turned out so perfect with the colors from the sunset and everything.

We went out to the Great Salt Lake, of all places, to have these taken. Besides the pungent smell of brine in the air, it was actually a really beautiful, pleasant evening out there. Dawson kept saying how stinky it was out threre, but Lincoln didn't seem to mind.

Linc was in HEAVEN! Anywhere he can get wet, muddy, or both- can't be a bad place at all!

This is one of my favorites! He was actually looking at some birds.

I love this one of Linc and Daddy

We took Sturgis with us so that he could be in some of the pictures. We had to keep him close though because in this place, there was a lot of broken glass that we didn't want him to step on.

Awwwwww! what a handsome boy!

Classic Sturgis and Linc....

She took this one of Dawson and Sturgis' footprints in the sand. Linc was a mile down the beach at this point and was not coming back anytime soon.

So I think they turned out good. I love the fact that they are so natural and how they capture the boys' real actions and personalities instead of a fake, cheesy smile.

Since I don't feel like doing my laundry, I will participate...

8 TV shows that I watch (in no particular order)

1. The Office
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Gossip Girl
4. NIP/Tuck - hasn't started yet
5. The Hills
6. SpongeBob
7. Survivor
8. Dirt- also hasn't started yet

8 Things I did yesterday (this is a stretch because I had a pretty lazy day)

1. Woke up
2. Read the paper
3. Took a shower
4. Ate YUMMY Chile Verde and Taco Soup
5. Ate a piece of a caramel apple
6. Took some pictures
7. Watch people carve pumpkins
8. Went to my mom and dads for dinner

8 Places that I love to eat

1. Tepanyaki
2. Cafe Rio
3. Texas Road House
4. Ruth's Chris
5. Steak Pit
6. Porcupine
7. Rafaels
8. Melting Pot

8 Things I am looking forward to

1. November 5th - will it ever end?
2. Thanksgiving- grammy's rolls!! YUM!
3. Week in Hawaii with Jeff :)
4. Replacing my nasty carpet
5. Christmas Parties
6. California Trip - if i can talk Jeff into it :) He thinks once a year is enough- HELLO?
7. Spring
8. 4th of july 2009

8 Things on my wish list

1. My friends and family to be happy and healthy
2. Lincoln to be potty trained
3. more patience
4. 1/2 of Lincoln's energy
5. A Live in Maid
6. The back seat of my car to not be dirty all of the time
7. New carpet
8. Lincoln to keep his pants and/or diaper on for more than 2 minutes

Tag 8

1. BreeAnn
2. Moo
3. Jen Y
4. Holly
5. mom
6. dad
7. Leslie
8. Tam

Fun Weekend

This past weekend Jeff was out of town and we needed someone to entertain us, so we invited my best friend Jaime to come hang out with us. Her little girl Rylee and Linc are just a couple months apart and they LOVE to play together. We have already told them that they are getting married and so far, they are all for it! Jaime also brought her niece, Shelby, with her to sleep over on Friday so we had a HUGE, messy party with the kids. Really we just ordered dinner from Chili's, the kids had a bath, and watched a movie, then went to bed. But the messy part was true!

These pictures are from yesterday when we went over to Jaime's dad's (papa Deano) house to have our annual Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza. Papa Deano is one of the best grandpa's that I know. (There is some very strict competition in this group, so that is saying a lot) He always puts on a full spread of food- this year was homemade taco soup and chile verde burritos. YUM! He also had stuff for the kids to make caramel apples- with all the toppings you could imagine! The kids loved it! Then we carved our pumpkins. Ours didn't get finished, so I will post some pics when they are all done!

All the kids playing in papa Dean's back yard.

Dawson and Shelby with their m & M covered caramel apples.

This was the highlight of evening on Friday. I made sure there were no "parts" showing. Look for this picture in Dawson and Shelby's and Lincoln and Rylee's wedding videos!

Election

Nationalized Health Care: Truth or Consequences

Even though I donate a good portion of my time and money towards an organization that is political in nature, I have hesitated to blog about it. However, I wanted to share this video with everyone in case any of you thought that Universal healthcare sounds like a good option for our country. If you have followed the election at all, you know that Barack Obama has a plan that he wants to introduce, should he win the election, that would basically be a single payer healthcare system, with the government being that single payer. The association that I belong to is called NAHU, National Assoc. of Health Underwriters. It is basically an organization of health insurance agents and insurance carriers. It's probably pretty boring stuff to the average person, but they put together the video above that is a true story of one of our members, and contradicts the documentary SICKO (by Michael Moore) by providing the actual facts and figures and not just a bunch of political rhetoric. I first saw it when I went to the annual convention in San Diego this past June. I thought it was very interesting and confirmed what I had believed all along about Single Payer systems. Anyways, your vote for president may or may not matter, living in Utah, but who we send to Washington as our Congressmen and Senators DOES MATTER!!!! They are the actual law makers and they need to represent OUR views and positions to the rest of Washington. If the link above doesn't work, go on youtube and type in Truth or Consequences. It is worth your time!

Happy Birthday Evan & Jones

Happy Birthday to 2 of my favorite people!!!! My cousin Jones' birthday is today!! He was just like our other brother growing up. He was always around and got the brunt of my frustrations of being the middle child most of the time. He claims that I beat him up relentlessly. Unfortunately for me, we actually have video of this, so I can't deny it. :) There was the time that he bit himself hard and said I did it. My saving grace was that the bite marks were obviously HIS! I do have to give him credit for letting me dress him up like a girl and put make up on him and curl his hair. He was a good sport. That was just last week. ha ha ha! Not really. Now we are great friends and there is very little biting or tripping between us. He is truly ONE OF A KIND and I love him dearly!
Little E, Eman, or Evan James Crane as some people refer to him turned the big ONE yesterday. I can't believe he is already a year old!! He has always been such a handsome boy and is such a little character!! He has started to walk and thinks he is so cool! He is quite the novelty in our family and puts up with a lot of mauling from the other cousins. :) Linc tried to push him out of the way the other day at grandma's and Evan pushed him right back!! Go EVAN. Linc needs someone to push him back every now and then! :) I have a feeling they will be great friends as Evan gets older and can play with the big kids more. We love Evan and can't imagine our family without him!!! Happy Birthday buddy!

Sleeping In

I just wanted to report that we did not make any progress with Linc sleeping in, but my 6 year old took it apon himself to take care of Linc so I could sleep in. They were just watching TV in my room, so I was snoozing a bit. I woke up and realized they were now watching TV in the family room so I went to check it out. Dawson had turned on a show for Linc, poured them both a bowl of cereal and they were just chillin. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. I don't think I am going to let Dawson go back to school ever. :) hahaha! He is my little helper and LOVES to do anything I ask. Anytime I ask him to help me with something, he almost gets excited to help. He hardly ever complains. He is my angel and i don't know what I would do without him!

Halloween Party

I am happy to report that Dawson's class party was a success. The bad news is that I was so busy with everything that I didn't get any pictures to put on here. :( We ended up doing 2 games- halloween pictionary (one of the mom's had a really cute game already made up where you pull a bubble out of a witches pot and then you draw whatever object is written on the bubble. We also did the mummy wrap game- after a technical malfunction with ghost bowling that I was trying to put together. The kids LOVED it! Dawson was the one in his group who got to be the mummy and I wish i would have gotten a picture. Oh well! We also did a craft where they glued different shaped noodles onto a black paper to make a skeleton. They turned out super cute and the kids thought they were cool. Then we had cupcakes and witches brew. We put apple cider in a pot with dry ice and they thought that was awesome!! No one wanted to actually drink the apple cider though- they all poured it out. Ha, ha! :) Then, I read a story called Halloween Night that I had bought at Barnes and Noble. It is a really cute story- it reads like Twas the Night before Xmas, but obviously with Halloween things instead. Anyways, I am relieved to have that checked off my list. Today is Dawson's last day before he is off track. We are all excited to sleep in for a few weeks! He has been having a hard time getting up lately. He needs his sleep like his mama. Lincoln gets up at 7 at the latest even if he goes to bed before 8. We are going to try to change this in the next few weeks! :)

Toddler Bed and Potty Training time?

Oh how boring would my life be without my sweet little Lincoln? The other night when i went to check on him before i went to bed, this is the scene that I found.... Light on, room totally trashed, and Lincoln crashed out on the floor! Well, Jeff and I thought it was so ADORABLE! Then, last night, this is what Jeff found....

Light off this time, room not as trashed, PANTS and DIAPER OFF, crashed in the rocking chair! This was equally as adorable. However, this morning when Jeff went in to get Lincoln, he was standing at the door, with no pants, no diaper and he had POOPED! Not so adorable! Especially since Jeff did not realize he had pooped until after he picked him up. So, my question is this.....do I really have to switch him to the toddler bed like his pediatrician has been telling me to do for over a year since he started to climb out? And.... does the diaper situation mean he is ready for potty training? We got the little potty out a while ago and just put it in the bathroom, but he doesn't really seem that interested in it or going on the big potty either. As far as the bed is concerned, I have been trying to let him stay in his crib as long as humanly possible for 2 main reasons. Number 1- so that he would have a place where he would be confined so that he would keep taking naps and go to sleep good at night, Number 2- because he is my last kid and I want him to be a baby forever. But it is pretty clear that it's time to get the old toddler bed out. I am hoping he will think it is cool and want to sleep in a big boy bed. We'll see how it goes. As far as the potty training is concerned, considering the indendependent little soul that Linc is, I think I am in for a battle. Any tips or suggestions?

Fun times with friends

So in honor of my upcoming birthday, Jeffrey invited our friends over for a party in the "man-cave". It was so fun to have all of our friends together and to hang out for a night. Our friends are the best!!! Jeff really surprised me with how well he planned things and how it all came together for a fun night. He got me a yummy Costco chocolate cake, my favorite!! He made some yummy hot wings and other snacks. My friend Candice went all out and decorated it all so cute. It would have been a little much to ask for Jeff to decorate. That is not on his list of special talents. :) This picture is of most of my girls. What a gorgeous group! :)

Baby Girls!!!!

I am happy to report that I have checked one big thing off my "list". The baby shower for my friend Brenda was a success! It turned out really well and she got the CUTEST little girl stuff. The last time I saw that much pink stuff in one place, there was a Barbie Corvette and Barbie Dreamhouse involved and I was fighting with my sister over who got to be Barbie. :) Anyways, I have always just been able to admire baby girl stuff from afar. It started with when my niece, Hannah, was born 11 1/2 years ago and has continued as random friends and family have had girls. I am so excited when I go to the store and get to go to the "pink" racks instead of the "blue" ones. I look through all of the pink bows, ruffles, ribbons, lace, and wonder how in the world I am going to be able to pick just one (or 2 or 3) out of the racks and racks of ADORABLE girl stuff!!! Then, after I have narrowed it down to the outfits that the mom-to-be can't possibly live without, I make my way past the "blue" racks and glance over to see if there's perhaps a clearance sale I need to check out. Because I know, sadly, on the "blue" racks there will be no outfits so cute that I want to buy one in every size and color like I just saw on the "pink" racks. But back to the shower.... one of our friends, Holly, just had a baby about 8 weeks ago and I was so happy that she brought baby Alexis for all of us to meet and ooo and ahh over. She was dressed from head to toe in pink and just had that perfect baby look and smell. It's a smell that I can't really explain and probably didn't appreciate until I had one of my own. (Even the "blue" ones smell good for those of you that don't have any) As soon as she came in, all shower activities came to a screetching halt and everyone swarmed around her. She got passed around and even Rylee (who his Linc's best friend and same age) wanted to get on in the baby holding action. It seems like everyone who is pregnant or had a baby recently is having a girl. My sister said she wished she would have liked to have known about that 9 months ago so she could have gotten in on the action. Her last 2 have been boys like me. If that was even possible, I don't know if I would have or not. Of course I would love to have a daughter and be able to surround myself in pink until I couldn't see straight. But I always pictured myself with 2 boys even before Dawson was even thought of. I think not having girls is a gift to me so that I can so thoroughly enjoy spoiling other people's girls and the pure joy and excitment I experience when I get to walk past the "blue" racks and shop in the "pink" ones instead. :)

Say Backpack.... say backpack

Lincoln has officially become a Dora the Explorer fan. He loves to watch the show and repeats all the words they tell him to. Dawson used to watch it but he would never repeat the words and he would get mad if I did for some reason. Now, Dawson has no use for Dora the Explorer, but it is one of Linc's favorites. He dressed himself in this nice "get-up" while I was working this morning. You can't really see it, but he is wearing his "monkey backpack". It is really a leash so I can take him out in public every now and then and not lose him in the first 5 minutes. But he likes wearing it and today he pulled out his boots, which complete the ensemble. I don't know why he was on top of the counter. ???
Since my blogs have been so boring lately, I thought I would post some pictures of Sturgis on here. You really can't tell how giant he is until he sits on the couch and dwarfs it. :)
I had to take him to the vet last week for some shots and he was the biggest baby! He knew what was coming and when the Dr came in, he jumped up on the bench with me and tried to hide behind me. It had to look completely ridiculous. She was laughing and said the big dogs are always the biggest babies!!!

Procrastination

So I have about 10 million things I should be doing right now. I am at a point where I don't even know where to start, so..... I decided to ignore it all and just read blogs for a minute. My sister was just explaining her crazy morning in her blog and although my day has been quite a bit calmer than that, it just seems like i go a couple days without a lot to do and then all of a sudden, everything is happening at the same time. I am the head room mother in Dawson's class- which I love because I get to spend time at school and get to know the teacher really well. Plus, even though he doesn't like to admit it, Dawson likes to have his mom there sometimes. :) So right now, I am organizing a banner for Red Ribbon week( I need to go use the diecut machine at school to do some lettering) and planning the class Halloween party, which is on the 14th because they go off track on the 15th. I am also having a baby shower for my good friend Brenda at my house for about 40 people this Saturday. I am also making her a quilt that I would like to have the front of done for the shower. We are doing family pictures on Tuesday- i need to go get some shirts for the boys, I have our Chapter Luncheon/Meeting for UAHU (Utah Assoc. of Health Underwriters) that I am on the board of and so I have to make sure the meeting goes as planned, there is lunch for everyone, etc. Oh did I mention that we are planning on about 150 people for that one? That is on Wednesday. Plus, I REALLY need to go to the grocery store, do laundry, and call some clients back. So needless to say, I am making a BIG list that encompasses all of the "activities" and what I still need to do for each one. When I see it down on paper and can start crossing things off, it makes me feel better about being overwhelmed. :)