Rolls for Thanksgiving

Pillsbury dough kids

lot's of flour

2 rolling pins

bread dough

2 very active children

and 1 frazzled mother

add a little procrastination, and bake for 10 minutes at 350

and you get delicious home made rolls

rachel ray doesn't got anything on Jenna

Bobby flay better just stick to the gril. Payton's got baking down.

I hope that everyone had a great thanksgiving. We ate dinner at my mom's house on thursday. Dinner at my g-ma's house on friday. A baptism, and a b-day party on saturday. A dinner, and family good byes on sunday. It was so nice to see everyone that we saw this weekend. We saw family that we haven't seen in way to long, and our kids got to play with cousins that they don't know very well, but we wish they did. I hope that everyone had as much fun as we did.

Fun in Puyallup

We went to a big indoor playland. Think Burger King but much bigger. The kids got to run and play, and burn al sorts of energy, and Payton never got stuck. (meaning he never got scared, and I never had to climb in and find him.)

Look who was doing a little fall shopping. Cinderella was in the mall, and Jenna got to give her a big hug, and get her picture taken with her. We had one very happy little girl on our hands.

HEADS OR TAILS

The kids have a tag game that has animal tails attached to belts. The kids run around and if they get there tail stolen than they're frozen. The one with all the tails in the end wins. Well Payton put his tail on and ran around screaming, "I have a tail, I have a tail." It was pretty cute, no one told him his tail was backward.

HALLOWEEN

Here we are carving pumpkins, Payton and daddy posing for the picture.

Jenna wasn't crazy about the pumpkin guts, but she did help a little.Our pumpkin picture came out a little blury. Payton's pumpkin was a goblin, and Jenna's pumpkin was the headless horse man.

This year the kids rode horses for halloween. Payton's was a very wild brown and white paint, and Jenna's was a unicorn pegasus, that was a little on the stubborn side. Here we are at grandma's office before we hit the down town for some trick or treating. We then went to the trunk or treat, and the tri ward carnival. Then we went to some friends of ours to hang out for a little while. It was a fun night, and the kids should have plenty of candy for awhile.

HUNTING, Not for the weak stomach!!

My very talented hubby, shot himself a deer this year. It was a 4 by 3 point whatever that means. It was big though and I was proud of him. He went out in the wee morning hours so he would be in posistion when day broke. He had his Deer shot, gutted, and back to work by 1130 that morning. Then on with apple harvest he went. now Payton pretends he is hunting with his toy guns, and he guts his deer, with his knife when he is done. (his knife is actually a sock, what an imagination my little boy has.)

Ready for church

My beautiful babies!!! All ready for church.

Soccer Star!!

Jenna played soccer this spring. She is starting to get the hang of it. However, our team was not good. We lost every game by a ton. I don't know what the coaches were thinking, oh wait my sister and I were the coaches. Oh well there is always next season.

She had to be number 8. Aaron was always number 3, and I was always number 6, but she would have nothing to do with those numbers. Funny girl likes number 8!!

COPY CAT!!!!

A friend did this on her blog, and I loved it. So, I'm going to copy her and blog my own. The best form of flattery is imitation right.

I'm going to compare how I treated my children from pregnancy until now.

Jenna: When I was pregnant with Jenna I was so sick that I had to get shots 3 times a week. There was an oral medication that was too expensive for us to buy, and it wasn't covered under our insurance. Those of you who know me know that I am not a big girl. However, pucking your way to a size 2 at 6 months pregnant is not a diet plan that I ever want again.
Payton: I was still very sick, but no shots. We ponied up the cash and bought the drug. 24 dollars a pill. I would wait to take it until after I pucked, and only take half at a time so if i did puke it up I didn't lose the entire pill. Eventually my Dr. won his appeal with the insurance and they paid for part of this medication. I managed to gain 30 lbs with this pregnancy.
Update this medication is called Zofran, or Ondansetron is the generic name. It was so expensive because they weren't selling the generic form yet. Now they are, and it is a 10 dollar co pay for most insurance companies. trust me it works, and it is worth it.

Jenna: when i was in labor with Jenna they said she had meconium. Didn't know what they were talking about, didn't care. I wasn't a baby nurse at this time.
Payton: When I was in labor with him they said he was a meconium baby, and i instantly started to worry. Meconium before delivery is a bad thing!!!

Jenna spit up everything she ate, and screamed like a banchie until she was three months old. Didn't know that spitting up all the time is not a normal baby thing to do. It is a sign of reflux and there is medication to help make it stop.
Payton: I knew this, we skipped all the low end crappy meds and went straight to the specialist and got the prevacid. God Bless Prevacid!!!

Jenna's binki hit the floor i washed it with soap and water before i would give it back.
Payton's hit the floor and aaron popped it in his mouth to clean it, and then we gave it back to him.

I rocked both my babies to sleep for naps and bedtime every day until they were about 2. Payton now goes to bed on his own, in his own bed everynight at 8 pm, and so does Jenna.

Jenna got a fever, stuffy nose, and a cough we went to the doctor.
Payton has to have a high fever, a cough and stuffy nose for a day or so before we go.

Jenna always sings, dances, and plays with dolls.
Payton runs over the dolls with his truck, break dances, and loves to play football where he gets to tackle everyone esp his sister.

Things that I will not own for fear of my childrens safety.
Big trampolines. Not even a consideration way to dangerous i have seen way to many injuries on that bad boy to even list.
Two story home. one story with a basement is more my style, and the kids can't fall out of the window.
Swimming Pool That is just an ulcer waiting to happen. kids drown every day.
an infant under 1 years of age sharing a room with a sibling under 5. Even then it makes me cringe at the thought. Why you ask, because the older well intentioned child can climb into the crib and sit or lay on the baby. Can attempt to get infant out of crib and hurting baby. and several other things that my mind can for see. my husband call me a pessimist. I say I'm a realist, and i'm just preventing bad things. I drive him crazy!!!

Disclaimer: just because i'm scared of these things does not mean that I don't know of people how do them, have them, or whatever, and feel that they are safe. I know that I am over paranoid, if you worked with critically ill children you would be paranoid too.

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA

This last week I had the opportunity to go to a National Neonatal Nursing Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. My Work sent me, and they picked up the bill, so it was extra nice!!! I flew into florida on wednesday the 24 of sept. and I flew home on sunday the 28 of sept. Short and sweet, but fun filled. I was able to attend several classes, and talk with nurses from all over the country who work with severly premature, and sick infants. It was an experience I won't forget.

This is me with my friend Molly. I worked with Molly when we lived in New Mexico, and Molly pretty much taught me what I know about neonatal nursing.

We usually always had the same schedule, and we lived about 5 minutes from each other so we car pooled along with another nurse. The three of us always had a good time on the way home, and managed to keep each other awake for the drive. This picture was taken in front of a fountain by the convention center where the convention was held.

This is taken in front of the beautiful Atlantic. The tide was coming in, and there was record tides the entire time we were there because of a hurricane hitting the carolinas. Notice the overcast sky, yup it stayed that way, and rained a little bit too. However, it was still hot, and very humid. The ocean was warm too. It was even warmer than the pool at the hotel. I swam out past the breakers, and that was my favorite part of the trip. I loved swimming in the ocean.

We walked down the beach and looked at all the shore front stores, and restaurants. We ate at Bubba Gump shrimp company. It was pretty good shrimp. In true tourist fashion I took a picture of the store sign.

This is the beach, I promised Jenna that I would take pictures of the palm trees. It was beautiful!!

This is looking out into the atlantic, there was a big tanker ship out at sea.

We also made it out to the Everglades!! We went on a swamp boat ride, and got real up close and personal with same alligators.
At one point there were 6 alligators all around our boat. The guide kept saying to watch for fights, because of how territorial alligators are, and how many were in such a small place. However, we did not see an alligator fights.
We also went to the Hard Rock cafe, which was actually in Hollywood, Florida. This Hard Rock is one of the few restaurants that is actually part of a casino. My friend Molly won 20 bucks, and then quickly cashed out her winnings.
I had a blast in Florida, and I loved getting to see Molly. It was a perfect girls weekend away!!! It is always good to get home to your family though. In the end there is no substitute for your own bed, and family. We were both anxious to get home in the end.

Baby Grace

We had a new edition in our family. Aaron's sister had a beautiful baby girl. Here are the proud big bro and sis, along with the proud cousins. We miss Lydia and Carter!!

W

An APPLE a day keeps the doctor away!

Beautiful organic Gala apples!!!

We have learned this summer that Payton loves fruit!! He would be perfectly happy to live off fruit and chicken. He has loved harvest, and getting to "Help" dad!
Jenna went to school on the first day of harvest and came home to find the apple bins full of apples, she also loves to help "direct" dad on the fork lift and be daddy's special helper!
After enough apple bins are filled a huge truck comes, then aaron loads the truck with the fork lift, and off the packing plant the apples go. Payton loves big trucks, so he really gets a kick out of this part.
Payton and Jenna help collect tickets, and level bins "with a lot of adult suppervision" here they are taking a break. they love being farm kids!

DOMESTICATION at it's finest!!

Those of you who know me well, know that I am not "DOMESTIC." The big joke in our family is that Aaron knew of my homemaking skills before he married me!! However, I have attempted to learn some new things this summer. Canning, jamming, and gardening in general have led to many new experiences that I swore as a child I would never do!!! for three days straight I have canned Peaches and pears. This pic is of my very messy kitchen in the process of canning!! And of my very nice g-ma that came to help!

More pic's of my kitchen to help you truly understand the mess I was dealing with. On this day we canned 2 big boxes of peaches, and one big box of pears.
Jenna was sick, and home from school in these photos, she had a long day in learning how to can! In three day we canned 63 jars of Peaches and 48 jars of pears, and we still have 2 peach trees to pick, and 2 boxes of pears to can. We have made a lot of strawberry, raspberry, and apricot jam. frozen corn, green beans, raspberries, and boysenberries. And I don't think I will ever be the same.

KINDERGARTEN IS HERE!!!

The day that has been anxiously awaited all summer has finally arrived, and boy was Jenna excited!!! I even let her have her own alarm clock to wake her up this morning. (although she woke up before it even went off ) Aaron and I took her to school this morning, and then waited in line to take her picture in front of the school sign. Apparently I was not the only parent with this idea!

Then all of the kindergarten kids go to the gym to put their backpacks in the line with their teachers name on it, and then play in the gym till class starts. I guess the kindergarteners don't get to play outside till school starts.

When the bell rings the kids line up and head for the classroom. This is Jenna getting in line to start her day.

It was hard to watch our baby start kindergarten, it seems like yesterday she was born. However, I think it was the hardest for Payton. As we walked out of the school Payton kept saying "I don't have my Jenna."

The Bald Boyz

I came home from work last week to find my little porcupine with all of his quills shaved off. We usually spike Payton's hair up and call him a poky porcupine. Aaron has been shaving his head for quite awhile now, and payton saw him do it, and monkey see monkey want. Need I say more. Their heads are nice to rub this way though.

Crashed out

Our busy boy crashed out. Aaron actually placed the x-box gear on him, but he does love to play bx-box as he calls it with dad.

Here comes the fall

All summer we have told Jenna that she gets to go to Kindergarten in the fall, and she has continued to ask when the fall was going to come. Well 1st thru 12th grade started today (kindergarten starts on the 2nd), But we got to go meet her teacher and see her classroom today. Sense she got to go to her new school she got to wear some of her new school clothes. Holy cow is this child a poser. Pull out a camera and the girl works it. I see some interesting teenage years approaching.

the leg is up and everyting, and no I don't tell her how to stand. She just does it on her own.

Cousin Fun!!!

One of the best things about moving back to washington is that our kids have gotten to know their cousins!! My sister and her girls, and my brother and his boys came to play this last weekend, and my kids had a blast. Payton was so excited to play with Caleb and Isaac, and the three of them played football all weekend. Jenna, and Alexis always have a blast together too. And little Olivia is quickly becoming one of the big kids herself.

It is nearly impossible to get a group of small children to sit together and hold still for a picture. And still I try, don't ask me why.

Our neighbor was nice enough to let us borrow a couple of his horses for the kids to ride. The all brown one is Rowdy, and the white and brown one is Jazzy. Jenna has no fear, while Alexis is holding on tight.

A day on the lake

Some friends of ours bought a really nice boat, and they have been gracious enough to take us out to the lake a couple of times this year. The kids love it, and we love being on the water too.
Payton wasn't quite so sure about his tube ride, he cried through it as a matter of fact, but Jenna loved it. Aaron jumped off toward the end, and told her that he fell off and that she was so strong that she still held on.
A blurry picture of Jenna tubing by herself
It's hard work but somebody has to do it!!