Fall Fun

I know, fall is over at this point of the year, but I still have to post some of our fun fall activities.  Tate came home from preschool last month with a cute, leaf-stamped "thank you" card for his daddy and a turkey made from an apple and candy (which I had to talk him out of eating long enough to take a picture of his work).  The "thank you" card read, "Dad, Thank you for letting me play games.  Thanks for letting me play soccer with you!  Thank you for letting me play on the computer.  I like when you and mommy tickle me! (heart) Tate"  

We actually had quite a bit of fall/Thanksgiving decorations made by the kids this year.  Behind Tate's head you can see the bottom of our Thankful Tree we had on our wall throughout the month of November.  Each leaf had something that we were thankful for written on it (Legos, mommy's cooking, the free market economy, etc).  Tate liked to sneak extra leaves on the trunk of the tree when we weren't around to help him get them on the branches.

Grant's kindergarten class went on their first field trip of the year to a pumpkin patch.  Tate and I tagged along and had a fun morning with them.  There were all the fun activities that make a pumpkin patch awesome: hayride, corn maze, hay maze, farm animals, big slide and, of course, they each got to pick out their very own pumpkin.

 

Grant and Tate ran around most of the time with Grant's best bud at school, Jared (they kind of look alike).

 Isn't Buddy (Grant) such a cute boy?

 All of the pumpkins were pretty small, but Tate picked out the biggest of the small pumpkins and carried it all by himself.

Another fall activity enjoyed by all was the continuous consumption of Halloween candy.  Grant agreed with me that the candy "blood" that came with the vampire teeth was gross, but we got a few good pictures out of it anyway.

And, just because it's cute... Lukey man and Ran enjoying dinner.  Please note that Luke's legs are rigid with excitement.  I'm surrounded by such sweet boys! 

Happy Halloween

When I was growing up, Halloween had officially arrived when my parents brought down the Halloween box from the attic.  It was an extra large cardboard box filled with Halloween costumes and decorations that we could keep out for the whole month of October.  It was always fun to try on old costumes and play dress up with what we could find.  I remember it had a distinct smell, a good smell that reminded me of a craft store.  It must have been stored near a good smelling candle up in the attic.  

I have since made a Halloween box for our family and the boys were very excited when I pulled it out.  We actually keep most of their old costumes in a box in their room.  They get it down almost every single day to dress up and fight bad guys.  So this Halloween box doesn't have many costumes, just decorations, pumpkin carving supplies, etc.  The boys enjoyed helping me set up the decorations and insisted on using their Halloween plates and cups at almost every meal.

The Monday before the big day we had our Halloween Family Home Evening, with a spooky themed dinner and pumpkin carving.  The boys did a pretty good job cleaning out their pumpkins and Ryan used his sweet hand skills to carve some pretty cool faces.

 Grant wanted a Wolverine pumpkin just like his costume.  As a side note, Grant and Tate have both taken to going shirtless as often as possible. 

 We were not short on the treats this year.  The Ward had a trunk or treat at the church on Tuesday and then we did some trick or treating in our neighborhood on Wed.  Above, Ryan went as an orthodontist vampire (he got home from work with only enough time to put on his cape and get in the car).   Below, you can see the real vampire outfit he wore to work (along with the fierce scream and red eyes).

 Here is our mismatched, but scary, super-strong, cute family.

 

 Those are my bat wings on my head.  Really creative, I know.  But Luke makes a pretty darling skunk, doesn't he?

 Our loving vampire and adorable skunk.

I had to include this so you could see the skunk tail in it's full glory.  With each kid sporting the skunk costume for their first Halloween, that has to be the best costume we have ever purchased.

Tough Mudder!!

   At the end of September we participated in the long awaited Tough Mudder race in Seattle (~11.3 miles long).  We had been training throughout the summer and were excited and slightly nervous to participate.  The nervousness for me came mostly because I came down with a random ear infection a few days before the race.  I developed a pretty decent cold the week before the race and then one night, all of a sudden I got extremely nauseous and dizzy.  I called a member of our ward who is an ENT and he sent in an antibiotic and steroid (to help with the dizziness) prescription (figuring it was an ear infection).  I started the antibiotics and started to feel better (no more dizzy spells), but still felt a little feverish and tired the day before the race.  Luckily, I felt okay enough to run on race day and only got a few strange looks from people as I had the occasional coughing spell during the race.

 

 We ran the race with Rick (one of Ryan's coworkers), two of Rick's brothers, and another friend from our ward.  Niki (Rick's wife) took a few pictures of us during the race so we are glad to have a few action shots. 

 These two pictures are from the ring obstacle.  Ryan and I both fell in the water on this one.  I actually didn't mind falling in this water because it helped wash some of the mud off.  In the distant background of this picture you can see runners climbing up a big, steep hill in another part of the race.  There were tons of places on the course where you climbed up and down muddy hills and crevices.  Most of the down hills were so steep I would just slid down them.  They were really more like drop-offs than down-hills.  Another obstacle similar to these rings was a set of monkey bars that was about 30 rungs long, 15 going slightly uphill, then 15 going downhill to get across a big pool of water.  The general sense of fun is heightened by the fact that the rungs spin freely in your hands and some of the bars are also greased.  It not only takes a ton of upper body strength to do but some pretty serious grip strength to keep the rungs from spinning out of your hands.  I just fell in the water again after a bar or two but Ryan made all the way across! The nice part was that, again, I got some of the mud cleaned off as I swam to the other side.

Me on the course looking relatively clean.  Those two extra muddy guys next to me are Rick's brothers. 

 

 This is the Mount Everest obstacle.  I was somewhat nervous about this one.  It was the second to last in the race and I was pretty spent by that time.  You have to run up a greased half-pipe and jump as hard as you can in hopes that your teammates can grab your hands and pull you over.  Most of the fellows made it up in one try but it took me three.  I was really glad to have a bunch of strong guys on my team to help me get over some of the obstacles.

 Still smiling after the race.  The last obstacle was one of the craziest for me.  It's called Electroshock Therapy.  Basically, it's a big framework of 2x4's that has wires hanging from it about every 6 inches and some of the wires are live with electricity.  The framework is over the top of a big mud pit (maybe 80 feet long?) that has a row of hay bales in the middle.  You have to run through the electrical wire-covered mud pit, jump over the row of hay bales, and get to the other side.  If you can make it through that obstacle without falling down, like Ryan did,  you'll only get shocked a few times.  Being a true maverick, I decided to not follow protocol but tripped over the hay bales in the middle of the obstacle.  Once you are down and getting shocked, it's pretty difficult to get back up.  I think I got shocked about 10 times (up to 10,000 volts is not fun, let me tell you)!  Once we finished I felt like I had electricity flowing through me (I'm sure it was mental).  

Check out the two videos on my Facebook page (I couldn't figure out how to put them here).  The first is the official Tough Mudder video of the Seattle race.  You can see Ryan at around 22 seconds in the video coming out of the obstacle called Arctic Enema (a 4 foot deep ice-bath in which you have to dive underwater to go under a wall to get to the other side of the obstacle).  The second video is of the Electroshock Therapy.  One of Rick's brothers got the worst of the shocks, falling down and getting knocked out cold several times.  If you like things that are truly unsettling, it's worth a watch.

With the team post-race, just missing one.  The shirtless gentleman has that haunted look in his eyes that comes from having just danced with Death in the Electroshock Therapy obstacle.  He was not nearly as amused as the rest of the team by his performance in that obstacle.  If you haven't watched the video yet, you should.

They had cold outdoor showers we could clean off in after the race, but I was already freezing and didn't shower off too well.  But I was proud to wear my headband for the ride back to the hotel.

Ryan, looking particularly tough, earned that headband.  He took an extensive shower in the cold open-air showers after the race so he's more Tough than Mudder in this photo.

There are a bunch of other photos at
http://www2.brightroom.com/email/101664/44823/150343574
and
http://www2.brightroom.com/email/101664/44817/150343569

They were taken by Tough Mudder photographers so we were unable to paste them onto our post. 

Good times!!

Fair and Family

 At the end of September we went to the Central WA State Fair held right here in Yakima.  In the last three states we have lived in, we have been near the State Fair grounds so we've made it a yearly tradition.  After having gone to the Central WA State Fair, I'm not sure if we will be continuing that tradition here in Yakima.  It wasn't that the fair was very bad, it just wasn't very good.  Plus, it cost much more than any of the other fairs we've gone to in NC and OH.  The combo of high price and low quality helped us decide that it was definitely not worth the price, but the kids did enjoy themselves while we were there.

 We were pretty darn cheap and let the kids each pick one ride to go on.  Tate picked the pony ride and rode that tired little pony right into the mulch it was walking on. 

 Luke's only ride was in the BOB stroller, but he seemed pretty content with that.

 We kind of wished Grant had picked the pony ride as well, so we could have headed on home after that but Grant had other plans in mind. 

 He wanted to race around a tight curve in a little blue corvette.  Unfortunately, only the back seat was available, but at least he could steer with two steering wheels!  He was in heaven!

 We have been fortunate to be able to spend some time with family over the past few months.  Here, my mom got to read her lucky grandchildren a fun Halloween book.  My mom was at Christine and Sam's house while Ryan and I ran the Tough Mudder (post to come), so we were glad the kids could spend some time with her and their cousins!

I love this picture of Luke and Nana

 In early September, we headed down to Utah for Ryan's family reunion.  We also visited Nana for a few days, which is always a nice time.  Nana will be 90 next March and is still living on her own and getting around well (and always attempts to make sure I don't do the dishes at her house so I can rest--don't worry, I sneak and do the dishes anyway :). 

 I was a bad photographer at the Wood family reunion and only got pictures of the cookie decorating contest put together by Wendy.  It was so fun to be with the family and the kids had an absolute blast with their cousins.

The family rented a huge cabin in Heber complete with game room, movie room,  bunk bed room for the kids, hot tub and tons and tons of space for playing.  The boys ran around with their cousins all day long (and well into the night) and the adults enjoyed catching up.  I actually spent a good portion of each day following Luke up and down the three flights of stairs.  Ryan and I are in charge of finding the rental home for next year and we are hoping to head to the beach.  We'll see if we can find a good deal! 

My baby is one!

 We celebrated a birthday in this house on September 20th.  Our little Lukey-Man turned one!  If there is one word to describe Luke it is happy.  He is just such a happy little guy.  The most frequent comments I receive about him (besides how beautiful and blue his eyes are), are how happy he is and that he has such a great smile.  His smile really does light up his face, and the whole room for that matter!

 I made a two layer cake in separate layers so Luke could have a whole cake to destroy.  We actually ended up taking the cake away after a few minutes because we didn't want him to get sick with all that sugar.  When the third shiver ran through his body we figured the sugar rush was sufficient and we better not add anymore fuel to the fire. He did thoroughly enjoy his cake though and made a proper mess of himself.

Enjoy these adorable pictures of our sweet little Lukey while I share what he is up to these days:

 He is in the beginning stages of walking.  I think he could walk if he wanted to, but he gets along so quickly crawling he's not quite ready to give it up.

His most used words are na-na (banana), da-da, ma-ma, and ga-ga (cracker)

Those also happen to be among his favorite things.

 Luke has taken after Grant with his early love of books.  Ryan and I remember how when Grant was still crawling, he would sit quietly for several minutes and look through his books.  Luke does the same.  We have a "reading area" set up in Luke's room (an over-sized pillow sitting next to a box of books), and Luke loves to sit himself comfortably on the pillow and grab book after book out of the box and "read" them.

Luke continues to be a great fan of baths.  All I have to say is "bath time" and he gets excited and starts racing to the bathroom.  In fact, when we were at Christine's house last week, Luke was so excited about his bath that he decided to jump right back in during Grant's bath, after he was already cleaned and pajama-ed.  That boy is quick!

He takes his meals seriously and will usually start eating before anyone else and still be eating after we are all finished.  It is sometimes hard for us to keep his plate full enough for his satisfaction.  He has found the best way to make sure we do not delay with the food is to scream at extremely high frequencies and volumes until the food is on his tray.  He has actually employed this method for several months now, so we are prepared with ear plugs and ear protectors at a strategic spot in the kitchen.  

 Luke is becoming increasingly curious and that curiosity is taking him to places he shouldn't be.  There are many places in the house that I figured he could never get to; until I later come into a room and find him in that spot.  

Some of the unlikely places I have found Luke: 

on my bed (when there was no easy way to climb on),

in a window sill, 

in the kitchen drawers, 

on a bench that is way too high for him and not close to anything to climb on, 

on top of the book shelf in the boy's room,

in my shower (he figured how to slide open those doors quite awhile ago),

and in the shoe box.

 We keep this drawer in the kitchen filled with the plastic ware the boys use.  Now, Luke is just tall enough to be able to reach inside and pull out the contents.  It is one of his favorite activities to see how many plates, bowls and cups he can throw across the kitchen floor before he is removed from the kitchen.

 Luke loves to cuddle...anyone.  I think it started with his love of hair.  He is a hair grabber, so if you have long hair and pick him up, he goes straight for it, while squeezing tightly around your neck.  It seems like he's giving you a big hug.  Thankfully, his desire to rip hair out of heads has decreased slightly; but, he still gives great big hugs to basically anyone who picks him up.

 Luke adds so much to our family and we are so grateful he is apart of it.  He is such a sweetheart.  It's hard not to have a smile on your face after spending some time with this little guy.  We love him so much!

Happy Birthday Luke!!

Backyard campout

 We had been planning on going camping at least once this summer.  However, as the summer came closer to an end we thought more about the logistics of camping with three young boys (mainly an 11 month old), we decided a nice back yard campout would be just the ticket.  That way, the 11 month old (and the lucky mom) could sleep inside while the other boys spent the night in the great backyard-outdoors.

 It had actually already started cooling off pretty significantly at night (down to the 50s), but there was no turning back once the tent was up.  All three boys thoroughly enjoyed playing in the tent throughout the day and slept pretty well at night.  I think I slept less than everyone because I was trying to keep my ears open for Tate in case he woke up scared or needed to pee (as he does at least twice a week).

 Since camping is not camping without s'mores, we fired up the grill and made plenty.  We made little s'mores and wrapped them in foil and cooked them on the grill until they were melted and gooey.  They were delicious!  The grill keeps the crackers crispy and lends a smokey flavor, yum!

 I love the s'more faces.

 The boys played a few rounds of Uno before laying down and listening to some stories before bed.  They were begging for scary stories but I kept it pretty mild because things can seem extra scary when it's dark and you are outside.  I'm not sure how scary the stories Ryan told them were, but no one came screaming into the house.

 We kept the camping chairs and tent up for the rest of the weekend so the kids could continue the fun.  I may have even slipped into the tent one afternoon and "rested my eyes" for a few minutes, but of course was caught and jumped upon as that seems to be the common way of greeting a sleeping person in this house.

1st Day of School

So school may have started over a month ago but I couldn't skip over posting about it.  Grant started kindergarten at the end of August and is in Ms. Rowlands' class.  He catches the bus in the morning and then I get to pick him up at 11:35.  We actually have just started to carpool with one of our friend's from the ward which is really nice.  Grant loves school although it's hard to find out specifics about what happens there.  Today I asked him if he had a good day at school.  He replied, "um...I don't know."  Come on, that's a much easier question that "what did you do at school today".  When I asked him why he didn't know if he had a good day or not, he said "oh, I did!"  I'm realizing we are coming to the time when I am not going to know everything that happens in his life, which is probably a good thing.

 He's such a handsome young lad.

On another note, Luke enjoys having two older brother to drive him around.