Halloween 2010

First of all we carved pumpkins. We invited Shan over since carving pumpkins is on her top 10 most favorite things to do list. Ruby's is the cat, Shan carved the monster and Maddy (like you were surprised) made the "Peace Dude" one.

I can't like carving pumpkins so I had my own activity which I didn't take a picture of. It was my Halloween costume, Shan's idea. I wore a black t-shirt with a baby skeleton printed on my tummy. It was pretty cute and got RAVE reviews from all.

Maddy's costume. An 80's person. I don't' recall making such goofy faces in the 80's but who knows. She wanted to Trick or Treat with her friends and not her little sister and Dad. Once again Ru got lots more candy than Mads did. When will she ever learn?

And Ruby the Gypsy. The only thing I bought for this costume was her skirt from the Thrift store, which I would have bought anyway - since it was so stinking cute.

Halloween night (on Saturday the 30th) was a bit iffy this year. It rained and rained all day long. Maddy was a mopey puppy cause of the weather. Just before dinner I asked her (half kidding) if she had said a prayer? She said "yup" and about 30 minutes later the sky cleared up, the sun came out and VOILA! Prayer works. I'm not sure if that's naughty to say or not, so I'm pleading stupidity.

And that was the end of Halloween 2010. Only Maddy was talking about what she wants to be for Halloween NEXT year ---2 days before Halloween THIS year.

Soccer......that ended in September

Mads started her first year of soccer this year. She was on the same team as her BEST FRIEND BAILEY. It was not an accident. I pestered everyone (soccer involved) so they could be sure to be on the same team.

I told Mads that she had to do it again next year, even if she hated it, since it cost so much to get her started. (we even went to the Thrift Store for cleats and shorts) Good thing she didn't hate it.

It was so fun to see her out playing and the confidence she got (around the time the last game rolled around) while playing. Bailey was a soccer ROCK STAR at every game. We love both those girls.

Their coach was super fun and reminded them that winning wasn't the most important part. (They did win about half their games) Max was a total soccer Dad. He would cheer for ALL the kids, he even learned their names. I think some of the kids thought he was Coo Coo.

This was the best team picture we could get. The kid next to Maddy kills me. He REFUSED to smile or even look remotely happy to be there. It was a bummer, cause some of the players weren't there for the pictures. And, I didn't choose to buy any.

The LION guy is the mascot for the REAL Salt Lake soccer team.


And that's all I have to say about Soccer.

Just another boring old weekend.......

I thought the highlight of our weekend would be cutting Maddy's hair all off. Although it was fun, it was also sad sense she and I had PROMISED not to cut (except trims--and mullets) our hair until she was 11. She couldn't wait any longer. I have yet to cave----but I'm close.

The before, I had a normal picture of her face but I just like this one---it shows her TRUE personality.

And the after. Prolly she should style it a bit more. PS it also looks super cute straight.

Then on Sunday evening Shan appeared on our doorstep with this deliciousness:

It's a DIAPER CAKE. You would think THIS would be the highlight of our weekend. I should have been, we always LOVE Shan to come over, especially with presents. She made us a "diaper cake" with a SOCK cake topper and a body wash/baby lotion center. And cute Binky's too. Her friend asked her what kind of "Binky's" I liked and she said "the cute kind" She is correct. It's safe to say Shan is as excited for this baby as we are. It's true, ask her.

The REAL exciting part of our weekend started with this little monster ^. At 9:35 pm ONE hour and 35 minutes AFTER bedtime, Mads opened their door (PS they are sharing a room now ---you wouldn't know that since I never blog) and Ru was SCREAMING at the top of her lungs.

It seems that our precious 5 year old child had stuck a LEGO up her nose! Curses!

The paranoid parents that we are, looked and looked for it up her nose, couldn't see it, made sure she could breathe and sent her to bed. We did call the after hours DR. He said to take her to Instacare or the E.R. What does he know anyway? We sent her to bed.......

And then to school the next morning. hehe

That night, after Ru had calmed down a bit and could laugh about sticking a LEGO up her nose, she asked if Mads had ever done that when she was little. Max said "no, that really wasn't her forte." Then Ru smiled and said, "yeah, it's my speciality."

The LEGO was this small - - only grey. Don't worry, I took her to the regular Dr after school and he got it out. He dug up her nose with a long skinny plastic digger. She was extremely brave.

So instead of a HUGIE E.R. BILL we'll have a smallish $80 Dr bill instead. (gotta love personal insurance) We'll make up for all our Dr bill savings IN 3.5 WEEKS when our baby comes.

Ru was so brave we went to McDonalds for an ice cream sundae for her and a burger for me. Mostly because I was starving...I mean cause she was so brave.

Also this weekend, we --meaning Max ... did lots of baby chores in the house. It involved MANY holes in the walls. And lots of extra furniture to the basement. Not his favorite thing. He was a VERY good sport.

The end.

The best thing I ever taught Maddy.....

Maddy's next lesson...... Beard trimming. It's hands down my least favorite hair to cut.

Pregnancy business.......arghhh

As you can see, I'm in my final WEEKS (not months) before my little ball of estrogen arrives. (my Tiffany friend said that and I thought it was pretty funny)

Pregnancy started out just fine (as it always does....for me) I was pretty tired and (Max would say) moody, but what does he know, anyway? I vaguely remember bawling for half my birthday in Jackson Hole but I usually cry a little on my birthday so why does that mean I'm pregnant moody?

Then, the snoggy nose business started in. OH BOY! What a bad couple of months that was. Afrin addicted and still stuffed up. It was the pits. Around then, I started to doubt my even being pregnant. Yeah I know, I had had an ultrasound and heard heart beat and even felt some tiny movements but I doubted. I doubted because my cheep Wal-mart preg test "your pregnant" line had disappeared. Gone! I had a tiny freak out. Why did I keep it, you may ask. Just for that very reason, duh. I told my Dr, and he said to pee on it again, PS It didn't work.

Don't worry I think I'm pregnant still, either that or I have an Karate chopping alien that has taken over my body. Which ever it may be, there is DEFINITELY something in there.

I got my nose business taken care of (except for it's been bad again this last week) and then I started the great hip pains and ankle swelling. MY poor cute shoes are getting quite dusty on my shoe shelves. I do still have the cutest toenails that ever lived.

Then came the ultrasound, where we went to CONFIRM what we already knew (by about 147%) that we were having a boy...... Named Miles Reed....... (but only in my heart since Max despised the name Miles) Only too bad for us cause it wasn't a boy at all. SURPRISE! That was a whoa-is-me day (or 3) for me. But then I got over it and now I am pretty excited for my little pink bundle to arrive. Which even in the whoa is me days I still knew I would be excited for a girl. I just had been SO sure of the boy that it messed me up. Probably don't ask me to pick your lottery numbers or anything. I'm not a very good guesser.

I've had loads of people give me girl/baby stuff. Since I gave all my girl clothes to needy friends telling them "oh no, I don't need them back. I'm done having girls" Funny Funny me. I am set for the first 3 months for sure on clothes. I've even bought some diapers and wipes (what... had a coupon) the other day.

And now my newest pregnant fun is that I seem to have developed Gestational Diabetes. It's good times around here, I tell you. I had a whole day of sadness when I found out, then I got over it and started eating better. I went to the Diabetes clinic (thank you Jessie for watching Ru for a million hours that day) and learned all sorts of good eating ways. I have to poke my finger to test my blood sugar 6 times a day (at a dollar a test strip--thanks to my lame insurance) and eat 6 times a day. That means I'm eating a snack at 9:30 at night! 9:30 at night is sleepy time, not eating time. The protein has been the hardest for me to do, there isn't many choices that I like to eat. The good news is I don't feel as tired as I did and I'm not as thirsty either. The good news is also (as Tierney pointed out) that I'll be done before the holidays and can eat some yummy goodies. Plus I get a baby that may be smaller than 11 pounds! Here's hoping.

That's all. I have to go eat a snack. The end

Garden pests....

Every year that we've lived in this WINDY city, we've had major struggles with our garden. This year was no exception. One year we had hoards of Grasshoppers, the next year it was squash bugs, then shield bugs, they suck all the moisture out of your plants so they just wither up and die before you even know whats going on. And of course, the wind. There is always the wind. Curse the wind.

As we all know, Max is garden obsessed. For reals. He doesn't like ANY help in the garden (unless it's pulling weeds). You could go as far to say he's downright anal about his garden. He babies the garden like crazy. He checks on it before work and after work every day. If he comes home DURING work he'll check on it again. We should have stock in bamboo skewers and Velcro tape for the amount he uses to stake his vines so the wind doesn't devastate them. His anal-ness usually pays off. This year NOTHING grew well but his tomatos and onions. His tomatos and onions were beautiful.

Which brings me to this year's pests..... CHILDREN---boys to be exact. First we had one little boy pull ALL our onions out of the soil and leave them by the garden box. Max about cried. That same little boy picked a bunch of tomatos (before they were ripe) off the vine and chucked them all over our yard. He did this a few times before Max had a talk with his Mom. Needless to say, he's not allowed over here anymore. We though the destruction was over.......We were so WRONG.

Last weekend we get a knock on our back door. It was 2 boys, and their parents coming to apologize. It seems the boys were having some tomato fun and had pulled ALL of Max's biggest tomatos off the vine and destroyed them. These weren't your average tomatos, these suckers were the size of a mans hand. I'm serious, Max had measured. He was waiting for them to be ABSOLUTELY perfect before he picked them. He was too late. Now they're gone.

What's worse is the mom of one of the boys told me that Max needed to "suck it up" and asked if we were REALLY going to eat all those tomatos (does it matter, and YES). She doesn't like tomatos and I think she thinks all tomatos are the same. She's wrong. Garden tomatos are HEAVEN. I tried to explain to her how he had been taking such careful good care of these particular tomatos and how he was so excited every day he checked on them, that none of them had cracked and how important they had been to his garden happiness etc etc. She didn't get it. Tomatos aren't her thing.

That night Maddy said "can we get an electric fence?" She's funny, and may be on to something.

Shan-tastic....

My friend Shan sent me a picture text not too long ago. It was a picture of 3 white tee's (one being a tiny baby onsie) and a tie dye kit. Her text said: "Prolly, I'm the most favorite." Prolly, she is. Shan likes to come over and do "activities" with the girls, Shan has lots of friends and has been super busy this summer, the girls have had Shan-withdrawls. I think they forgot about they're neglected-ness once she walked through our door.

Getting started. Maddy was bouncing off the walls with excitement.

Ruby's a blur of excitement, making a shirt for Max with the extra dye.

Maddy would have liked to tie dye our whole house, she settled for a pair of her undies, and a pair of mine, I won't show you mine since that would be embarrassing. Maddy brought it on herself by INSISTING on tie dying my undies, I'm fine embarrassing her....times 10.

The finished undies. They are, pretty much-hands down, the cutest undies on the face of the earth.

Ruby, deep in concentration, mostly she squirted the dye straight out over the shirt and onto the plastic. She's got super squirty skills. Ruby was dressed all in black, so the dye wouldn't show up if it got on her clothes. I thought she looked like a Sprocket from Saturday Night Live. You should YOUtube "Sprocket SNL" if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about.

Shan, thanks for coming over and playing with the girls. We like you A-lot.

You really are Shan-tastic.

The end.