Pumpkins!!!!!

Since there is less than a week before Halloween, we got our pumpkins and got to carving. Sean told Rob what shapes he wanted on his pumpkin. Kaelin helped to carve hers. Then, all the kids colored their pumpkins with magic markers. Savanna had her pumpkin taken away after we realized she was licking the marker off of it.

You might have an assumption about what Savanna is doing with that spoon






And you would be right. She ate A LOT of pumpkin pulp.



Kaelin had issues with getting messy, we told her it was all part of pumpkin carving.





left-right
Sean's with different shapes, Kaelin's with a bat stencil, Rob's optometry pumpkin, my tree, and Savanna's colored one. I need to taken one when they are all a glow, so you can see them a bit better.

Our new digs

We are temporarily living with my sister. Here are a few pictures of our area.

We are down in her basement. This is the kids room, smaller than in Memphis, but here they only have their beds, so it's not bad.
Savanna was following me around while I was taking the pictures.



This room is our living/computer/toy room/bedroom. It actually works quite nicely the kids would always take their toys to wherever we were anyway, so now it's already there and we can clean up easier, awake or asleep
Kaelin was making her own bed, just for fun. Since our bed is also our couch, she wanted to use this little bench for her own.
That closet has some storage and the kids' toys. We didn't bring too many but the amount we have seems just right. I'm very tempted to go through and throw out a lot of their toys that are still packed in Memphis. BTW that dark thing over in the corner is a huge bean bag that belongs to my sister Jayme, the kids will lay on it in the morning or while we read books. So I guess you could count that as a couch.





Also, I have a few more to add to my list from the previous post.

• When you spill your food, it actually falls in your lap.
• While sitting in a vibrating, massage chair the only things that jiggle are your shoulders.

these also came from personal experience from this weekend.

Parental Advisory

rated PG-13
may contain light-hearted humor about breasts.






Jeff Foxworthy is well-known for a skit entitled "You Might Be a Redneck..." In this comedic skit he lists actions and occurrences that might indicate that one is a "redneck"





You know you've finished nursing...

• if you could easily dress up as a 12 year old boy for Halloween

• if you can raise your arms above your head and your bra slides right up to your chin

• if both your 5 year old and your 3 year old keep asking why you keep getting smaller

• if you wonder if it's physically possible for you to get a mammagram
  

• if you could go a whole day without a bra and no one could notice

• if you have given away or gotten rid of many shirts because they look too empty and baggy

• if your husband accidentally gropes you and and you have to be the one to tell him, since he didn't realize

I found a candid picture Kaelin took today and thought it would give a good "after" picture. The "before" picture can be seen in the column to the right where I'm holding a fish.


Now I know there are more of you out there in the same or a similar boat. Maybe like me you have had major downsizing or maybe or perky rosebuds are now more like hanging baskets. Either way I would LOVE for you to add to my list. If you prefer you can make your comment anonymous.

test run

Ever since Kaelin was a little girl she has LOVED dogs. She even had a dog birthday party for her second birthday. Which included dog invitations, dog cake, dog bed clothes for her new big girl bed and plenty of dog themed clothes. We had to compromise with her about getting a real dog. The deal was that we had to wait until we had enough money. BUT, as soon as she found any kind of coin she would race to us and ask if we could buy a dog. We therefore changed the deal to, 1. Enough money 2. Daddy graduates. We thought we were in the clear, until we went to Daddy's graduation from the U, where she promptly reminded us of our deal, but how do you explain to a 2 1/2 year old that Daddy still has more school and she needs to wait for a different graduation. We tried explaining anyway, and then we added another requirement. 1. Enough money 2. Daddy graduates from Optometry school. 3. We have a fence. We thought we were in the clear, until we bought a baby gate to keep Sean out of the kitchen. Baby gate=fence=dog. Luckily, Kaelin was now old enough to understand better after we explained the requirements a little further and the reasons we had them.
Anyway, for the next couple months we are living with my sister and her two Boxers. I tell the kids that this is a test to see how well they can help with dogs and be nice to them. Kaelin of course wants to walk, feed, hug, play, and sleep with these dogs. Sean needed a couple days to warm up to them. I worried that Savanna would get knocked over, startled, or more realistically, try pinching the dogs. Savanna probably loves the dogs just as much as Kaelin would have at her age.







if you look REALLY close Kaelin is in the cage too!

First days and birthdays

Sean's first day of school. Sean goes to a pre-school up the street and loves it. He is ready to go everyday even though he only goes twice a week. His first day he was all decked out in his Lightning gear.

He was too thrilled about his shirt to look up long enough for a picture.







Happy Birthday Sean!!!
On August 29 Sean Colby turned 3. His morning started by waking up to his very own big boy bike, which just happened to be a Lightning McQueen bike. Which he has ridden EVERY day since that blessed day. He can now ride his bike better than Kaelin can ride hers.





He asked for a volcano cake, with Lightning McQueen driving, and rocket (from Little Einsteins) flying around the top. Yikes! As you can see, it was a sorry, slumping sight by the time we added the lava. It was hiding in a fridge until "eruption" and survived through the singing.


But Sean was excited for it, so I was happy.
He got presents that he loved. My camera does weird things in normal light settings (odd, I know) so these are the few that look alright. Lightning McQueen book and gear, he hasn't even watched the movie all the way through.

A cool race car track and of course a talking/singing rocket with all the character, bought months ago on clearance. Thank you very much.


It wouldn't be Sean if he didn't have a musical instrument. He loved it and so does Savanna.



All in all we had a very happy birthday boy!









Kaelin's first day of Kindergarten


She was so excited to get a Tinker Bell backpack. The thing is massive!


Posing for me. That's right, tie-dye socks, rainbow laces, rainbow polka-dot dress (I convinced her not to wear a tie-dye shirt) and a giant flower in her hair.


That's her school down at the end of the road. The field next to us is a neighbor's garden across the street from where we live. We live on one corner and the school is just a straight shot down the street. Her school is REALLY close.


Kaelin standing outside her door. Oh, and you must be thinking that's her teacher welcoming her in? No! Rob tried taking her picture four times and either a kid or some random person would stand there and smile. Just odd! Another child walking into a picture is a little understandable but their were two different adults that stood near-by smiling.

She really likes school but it's only 2 1/2 hours so what's not too like. She only complains that she has to right her name on everything and her hand is starting to hurt. BTW I taught Kaelin to spell her name KAELIN because I thought it would be easier, straight lines and all, but that's the first thing they teach is, Kaelin, first capitol the rest lower case. Kaelin was getting so frustrated that she would write her name and then have to change it. Make it easy for them and teach it the "proper" way. Apparently, I did it wrong.

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The internet

Of all the things we would encounter on our move I never thought getting the internet would be one of the hardest. So many providers don't even offer wireless service in the area of town that we live. Of the few that do, only a small amount offered only internet without having to sign up for cable or phone also. Finally we found a company that worked. The worker was even able to come out within the week! He gets here and mentions how many trees were in our neighborhood. He said he would have climb on the roof to see if he could spot the tower or if it was blocked by trees. TREES!!! Oh all the things that would cause a problem here in the desert that is called Utah. No go on the internet due to tree blockage. My sister did some more research and found a local cable company had an offer for non-cable users. Free model and wireless router. No contract and low rates. The worker could come out the very next day even. Sound too good to be true? Well, the worker comes and starts the installation. He says he'll be outside for a while so I lock up and run Sean up to his school, a block away. In the meantime the "professional" has ripped out all of my sister's cable wires. He assumed that she was getting cable as well as the internet. After I inform him that "No" she was keeping her cable service he says he'll "try" to hook her back up. It works. He hooks up our internet and doesn't need to drill a new hole like we thought. All seems good, until I realize that the TV downstairs doesn't work. My sister calls a bunch of customer service numbers and gets someone to come out from her cable company to fix things up and the other company is willing the foot the bill. The cable tech comes out sees what the other guy did and fixes everything. Done and done. They didn't even charge us a thing and he was out at our house for over two hours. We finally have a working internet connection. Now I just need to get back into a blogging routine. I have Sean's birthday, Kaelin and Sean's first day of school pictures, pictures from our hike up to the Grotto, Savanna's interest in the dogs and a couple others. Hopefully they are soon to come. Here's a question, do you prefer them to be in order or whatever I get to whenever?

Alright so this totally stinks. We were supposed to get a phone call on Monday to set up an appointment to get our internet set up. A week later and no call. Our ward is really friendly, but extremely small. Sean is in nursery with two other kids! It's a bit on the stressful side, because it feels like my kids are the only ones making any noise. And its all backwards, primary and R.S. first then Sacrament Meeting at the end. The kids are totally riled up by the end. Sean is still doing good with potty training. Going "stinky"(Sean's words) is still an issue. The problem I'm having is how to get him to go on his own without me telling him, but I'm sure that just comes with time. And when he does get wet from and accident it doesn't seem to bother him one bit. Wheter he's in a pull-up or regular underwear. I'm taking it really relaxed though, since he is such an emotional kid. The kids have really warmed up to Captain and Morgan (my sister's boxer puppies). So, things are settling down a bit and soon I'm going to find a Zumba class, although no one with be as good as my previous instructor, Micaela. Well, sorry again for no pictures hopefully, soon!