Ryan's Third Birthday!

Nothing much to talk about from last week. I got a free table from someone that I'm working on and I'm hoping it turns out cute. I'm also working on a jean quilt and some baby shower gifts. Along with the usual demands with the kids and household. Ryan is not doing great with potty training. I am tempted to put him back in diapers. I just might. We will see. Speaking of the little devil, I mean Ryan, he turned three yesterday! I can't believe it. We are loving the freedom of not having a baby around after almost 9 straight years. We carved pumpkins yesterday and went to Pojos. 

Some things about Ryan. He is LOUD, really loud. He likes to talk in a really drawn out low tones, Paapaa... He likes to read books. He loves to play in the dirt. He will go out to my flower beds and grab fistfuls of dirt and throw it around and all over himself. He's a stubborn cuss. He's a cute little guy, we just love him to pieces.  

Gabby lost her front tooth, she cashed in extra because she lost two teeth on location and the tooth fairy missed it! I'm hoping that she loses the other front tooth by Christmas!

C is for crab.

Gabby came home from school and busted out this owl for her teacher who loves owls. What I should have taken a picture of was the giant mess she left behind. Ha. 

I painted this table for a friend.

1st grade picture.

3rd grade picture.

Newest project. 

Spider treats. A friend invited us over for a little Halloween play date.

Carving Pumpkins

Pojos!

Blow out the candles.

Pumpkins!

Halloween Party

I have been potty training Ryan this past week. He's doing pretty good and I haven't done much. Since this is the third attempt he already knows how to pee in the toilet so I didn't have to do much there. The first few days I was just having him pee regularly because I didn't want to deal with accidents but then I decided I needed to see if he actually understood the urges and would act on them. I bought some juice and pumped him full and then waited to see if he would tell me. Miraculously he did! I did that for a few more days and he's got that part down. He will come and tell me when he needs to pee. Music to my ears! Finally! He still poops in his underwear everyday. I'm hoping he will figure that out soon. He is very resistant to do it on the toilet (as most kids tend to be) so we still have to jump that hurdle. He wakes up wet every morning as well. I think he is trying his best to keep my humble. Ha. My other kids were trained day and night at 2 1/2 and Ryan is 3 this week and may have to do the pull up. Oh well!

The kids had Thursday and Friday off of school. That can make for some LONG days. We went to Camelback park on Friday. The weather was beautiful and Corbin, Gabby, and I did a little hike while Scott watched the other kids play at the park.

Yesterday we went to a Halloween party. My friend went ALL out. They had a bounce house, face painting, pumpkin hunt, and pumpkin painting. The food was yummy too. It was someone from my book club that invited us so we didn't know most of the people there so that was kind of awkward but it was still fun and the kids didn't seem to mind. It was a good time and the weather was beautiful and my friend has an amazing backyard so it was all good.

View from our hike. I love the red leaves!

I'm running away from the headless horseman. Ha. Or not. I'm the worst! 

There's a sneaky ninja behind me.

Sooo cute!

Scott Goes to China

Scott is on his way home from China right now. He quit his job with Ameriben about a month ago. It wasn't a good fit for him. He was/is trying to figure out what to do now and found out about these guys that buy things in bulk from China and then sell it on Amazon through Amazon. Scott went into research mode as he is prone to do and decided he wanted to try it. The dudes teach people how to do it and organize the trip you just have to pay for it. Scott left on Monday and has been with the group in China since. Our communication has been limited as China is 14 hours ahead and the internet is spotty. He downloaded wechat that is an app that basically sends text through the internet and you can also make phone calls with it as well. Scott would call for a few minutes at the craziest time of my night: dinner, dishes, homework, reading, clean up messes, bedtime but we would chat for a bit. It will be interesting to hear all about his adventures and how/if this new venture will work out. I certainly hope it does of course as does he.

I've survived the week really well actually. It helps a lot that my "baby" is almost three. I'm not nearly as swamped as I've felt in the past with all the little chillins. It's been especially pretty easy since Gabby and Corbin are in school all day and Piper and Ryan are easy. Like I mentioned above the night was my craziest time but it wasn't too bad. I'm ready for Scott to be home though that's for sure.

I decided to try for the third time to potty train Ryan. I've been putting it off forever because I've already failed twice and because potty training is the devil. I was running out of diapers and just decided to suck it up and do it rather than buy more. I started yesterday. He's doing pretty good. We'll see how it goes...

Here's some more pictures from our Utah trip.

Ryan looks like such a big boy in this picture to me. He's growing up!

Some of the late night Lagooners

Greta and Gabby tattoos

I love this picture

Sweet hair pic!

We got up early to take Scott to the airport Monday morning and Ryan was tuckered out later. So cute.

Early morning snuggies and selfies.

Corbin had Ryan feed Lizzie because he didn't want to touch the meal worms. I will admit when I fed Lizzie yesterday I did the same thing. Ryan doesn't seem to mind picking up the meal worm and having them squirm in his fingers. Usually Scott feeds Lizzie but I had to make sure we kept her alive this week. Lucky for Lizzie the kids reminded me to feed her. I don't even think about her because we never interact with her. Spot had a damaged eye so he would never move and the kids played with him constantly. Gabby would just color while Spot sat on her shoulder. She came in sobbing to Scott the other day because she missed Spot so much. So cute and sad. 

Piper snitching some chocolate chips, just like me! Ha.

Hey I actually did a pre-school activity with Piper! Ha. I'm going to try to do more stuff with her this year, I'm glad I have another year with her.

Corbin wanted to earn some money badly so he raked leaves for a long time yesterday. At one point he got Gabby and Piper to join him. They were all outside raking and having a good time. Such a rare and precious moment. Ha.

Ryan even jumped in. I love how snug Ryan's underwear is with his padunkadunk. Hilarious. I had to sew all my other kids underwear to fit them and they were still too big, granted Ryan is older than my other kids were during potty training but still they certainly fit him snug the first two times I tried as well.

Utah Trip

Every year the first week in October the teachers have in service or something so we like to go to Utah during the break. We usually try to celebrate our Anniversary at the same time since it's usually during that break as well. We didn't do anything for our Anniversary this year because we counted that as our trip to Seattle in August. 

We pulled the kids out of school early on Wednesday and drove down. The kids seemed to be EXTRA excited to got to Nana and Papa's and were more hyper than usual on the drive down. That drives seems to last forever. We arrived and were met with yummy dinner and then presents and cake for Ryan and Hannah's early birthday celebrations. 

On Thursday the kids hung around and played at the house. Scott and I went over and visited with Amanda at her house for awhile and then Scott and I went and got some lunch together. That evening we went to Corn Belly's at Thanksgiving Point with the kids and Carole and her kids and Nana. After Corn Belly's we came home and put the kids to bed and went and visited with our friends Walker and Liz. I don't think we have hung out with them since Corbin was a baby. It was fun to visit and catch up with them.

 

On Friday we hung around the house and that evening we went to Lagoon. It was crowded and extra cold this year it felt like. The last two years we've gone and I've gotten nauseous from the rides. This year we had to wait in line forever for each ride so I didn't get nauseous. I guess that was the upside to it being crowded. We mostly watched/helped the kids on their rides for a few hours and then Nana and Papa took the kids home and some of the adults and Corbin stayed until it closed. It was a freezing, crowded good time.

The weather was beautiful while we were down there. On Saturday morning we picked the pumpkins on the hill and then went to lunch at Hires. The Boise Cannons headed home after that. On the drive home the kids barely made a peep. It was wonderful! I think they got really tuckered out at Nana and Papa's house. 

Gabby made me a pillow while I was gone one day. She said she worked on it for hours! 

Gabby jungle picture with water colors. From left to right: tiger, monkey, frog, bird, (black blob Gabby said was supposed to be a snake but it got a little out of hand) eagle. 

Looks like Bubba wants a snack.

Scott took a picture of a mess in the kids room. Maybe someday we won't remember how messy it was. Ha.

I have to be careful with Ryan because he will open the front door and go outside and play. He loves playing in the front and opening the door to strangers. Ha.

We had an early combined birthday party for Ryan and Hannah. So many presents!

We went to Corn Belly's at Thanksgiving point. So many things for the kids to do.

You can see Gabby right in the middle in a pink jacket and Piper is off to her left in a turquoise jacket.

Ryan petting a bearded dragon.

And a giant bunny.

Dress up and story time.

I didn't think Ryan would like any rides at Lagoon but he did.

Rustin and Papa took kids for rides in the ATV/lawn mower.

I was relaxing while the pumpkins were getting picked.

Pumpkins grown on the hill. I think there were at least 17 pumpkins but I can't remember and may be way off on that.