Happy Halloween!

We took the boys to a trunk or treat at the church. Harry had his usual before a big event meltdown and Evan was not thrilled with the costume parade, he just wanted to go get the candy. Enjoy the pictures!

Harry the Garden Gnome. I ruined a lot of good felt trying to get that hat right and ended up making an emergency craft store run for a pattern and some more fabric.

Evan the skeleton. The top was bought by Auntie Pompom at Target and I did the leg bones myself with glow in the dark fabric paint. I thought I did a pretty accurate rendition of the leg bones if I do say so myself. There was no pale face makeup because I knew Evan would smear it (I learned my lesson from last years whiskers debacle).

Awesome Mom as a Scottish Lass. This was supposed to be my costume last year. The bodice ended up being too small and I am not skilled enough to fix that on my own so I just skipped it. I need to get stronger elastic in the skit and hem it. I kept walking over it all evening and almost lost it a few times (good thing I was wearing a long slip under it).

Product Review

My car is not so new any more. Two kids (one of whom was a puker as an infant) and have a way of wiping out that new car smell. I was thrilled to have a chance to try out the Febreze To Go Fabric Refresher(after out trip to Utah the car was getting downright funky). It comes in a cute 2.8 travel size.

I have used Febreze in the past. I accidentally bought something off of eBay that was from the home of a smoker. I needed to get the stink out of the item and fast. It worked great but the scent of the bottle that I had grabbed was overwhelming. We still had to air out the room after spraying it on. The To Go formula claimed to only leave behind a "light, freshing scent". Upon using it in the car I still found the scent to be overwhelming especially in such a small space. The scent lingered for days.

Once the scent dissipated (after a few days) the car funk was gone. I would use this again but sparingly, the scent is just a wee bit too strong to endure frequently but I do love the funk free car. I am going to be keeping this handy in my car. Here is a link to a way to get a $2 off coupon.

Sunday cuteness

This is a picture of Harry doing his fish lips. I never taught him to do it, he just started doing it one day all on his own.

When Harry was not busy driving me insane hopping up and down off my lap in Sacrament meeting today in church he was chock full of cuteness. I stuck his thumb in my mouth just for a bit of fun and Harry decided that he could indeed share his thumb with mommy. He kept putting it in my mouth even after the cuteness of the act had worn off for me.

Since the boys have been infants we have been helping them "lead" the church hymns. They thought it was funny and it got a smile out of the people sitting near us. Now Harry is able to do it on his own but he still insists that a parent hold his hand to "lead" the hymns. He takes your hand and puts it on his.


Here is a video of Evan at my parent's house. He is "taking a nap" while playing with an alarm clock that was in my parent's living room.

And the winner is.....

Jessica! Thanks everyone for playing along. The ninja pumpkin (number one) was designed by my husband and I designed the second one.

If you enjoyed this contest and are into knitting there is a great blog called WiKnit that features knitting related contests.

Go dye!

Don't forget to enter my contest.

I have officially taken another step into knitting madness, I have dyed my own yarn. It was a lot less scary than I thought it would be. I took the plunge because I was getting tired of the limited selection of wool colors that I was finding at the craft store. I am an artist at heart and love to work with varied and beautiful colors. I used Kool-aid and it was so simple to do, there are a lot of websites out there with instructions but I found this one to be the easiest to follow.

I picked orange for my first attempt. Here it is stewing away on the stove top.

This is the yarn after the first time around. I decided it was not dark enough so I did another round with more orange. The second orange left the yarn darker but I felt a little something else was needed.


This is the yarn after I added some red to it. It is now a nice deep orange, more pumpkiny. I can't wait to knit with it!

A contest

I thought it would be fun to have another contest to liven things up a bit. This one will be simple and quick. Guess which pumpkin I designed and with one was designed by my husband. Leave a comment by midnight Friday and you can win four hand knit dish rags. I was trying out some different patterns for a blanket I am knitting so I made a smaller version first. I will draw a random winner from all the correct answers. Good luck!

Pumpkin number one

Pumpkin number two

The prize!

No whine please

Ok seriously I think that I will explode if I hear any more whining from Evan. I am tired of the sobbing and crying because he is not getting exactly what he wants. I am tired of the repeated demands for things that he does not need to demand. He does not need to ask me if he can lay on the couch, just go and lay on the freaking couch already. I am tired of him seeing Harry with a toy and having him demand that I give him the toy "back". No I will not take it from him and give it to you. Get over it and stop the weeping.

Sunday err Monday cuteness

When we got back from the pumpkin patch and washed all the shoes and pumpkins off webrought the pumpkins in for the boys to look at. This is the very first thing that Evan did with his. He was saying "Pumpkin drive"

Harry is a hardcore thumbsucker. He has calluses on both thumbs and has sucked so hard he has caused blisters on his thumbs. One even got a small infection after a blister burst so I had to tape a sock over his hand to keep him from sucking that thumb. He has taken his thumb sucking to a new level. The other day I saw him trying to suck both thumbs at once!

Pumpkin patch

We are a bit later than normal but we finally made our trek to one of the many wonderful pumpkin patches in the area (one perk of living in a semi rural area). Evan is starting to realize that something exciting will be happening soon although since I doubt that he remembers anything from last year he is not totally sure what will happen. I have told him all about trick or treating and he is excited about the candy. Harry is in love with pumpkins and calls them puh-kins. We have plastic pumpkins with handles on them that the boys fight over (even though we have two). They love to carry them around. Enjoy the pictures, they are a bit blurry because I forgot to clean the lens off after Evan stuck his finger on it while I was trying to get a video of him doing something cute.

Harry was quite impressed with the farm animals. He had never seen a cow so close up before. He kept trying to feed the animals the bits of muddy straw that were around the pens. When we went to the zoo on our vacation in Utah he was the most interested in lingering to look at the animals. I think he may have inherited my interest in animals.

A naughty passerby found a bale of hay and started tossing handfuls in to the horses pen (I am always reluctant to feed another person's animal willy nilly like that since I know too much about feeding farm animals to ruin their diet with my ignorance). I did not allow the boys to do that, but they did watch with great interest.

A small portion of the pumpkin patch. It was massive! The ad said that they had about 30 acres of pumpkins. I liked it a lot better than the one that we went to for the last few years. There was more stuff going on for the kids. Sadly the field was super muddy thanks to a couple days of rain. We had to scrub the sticky muddy clay off of our shoes when we got home.

Harry and his pumpkin. When going to a pumpkin patch I always try and steer the kids to the pumpkins that are actually grown in the patch. Sometimes they will ship them in which I feel is cheating. Evan is not in as many of the pictures this time around because he spent a lot of the time in the field whining to my husband. He didn't like having to walk in the mud at all.

Bitten hard

Now I know that I have been bitten hard by the knitting bug. I have been up for hours past my bedtime because I am reworking the side seams on the soakers I have knit. The pattern was knit flat instead of in the round like most soaker patterns. I liked the ease of using the pattern but was not liking the awful side seams that I was making. I got to poking around an awesome knitting website and found an awesome way to make strongr and more invisible seams. I just had to go back and rework all the soakers. I can't see straight right now and I need to get to bed. You have to check that website out if you are the least bit interested in knitting because it has videos of how to do different things which helps so much more than just looking at pictures.

Knitting fool

If I have seemed to be different with my blogging it is because I have been on a knitting spree. I got tired of waiting for wool soakers to fall into my lap and was too poor to buy them. I got to it and started knitting up a storm. I know have a nice pile of diaper covers but the bug has bitten me hard and I am now tinkering with the patterns. I wish there was a way to knit and blog at the same time, heck I would take being able to knit and read a book at the same time. Sadly all I can do is watch TV and knit at the same time. I am catching up on a great tv show called Heros thanks to the Watch It Now feature on Netflix.

Here is an action shot of one of the soakers. This was made from the wool that I bought in Utah. It is a super neat color, each strand is a different color and then it is twisted into one big strand to knit with. It looks like there is a lot of green but the big strand is actually only made with one strand of green, the rest is differing shades of blue. I loved the yarn because it reminded me of the ocean.

Family

My mom encouraged me to write this post. She has a blog too but no one else reads it and she wants the internets to know what a jerk my Grandfather and my Uncle are. They did not give my sister a wedding gift and yet the night before the wedding spent three hundred dollars each on new shoes. She wanted a me to burn them with words and howl in indignation.

Honestly I could not muster up more than a bit of sympathy for my sister for being cheated out of a much needed household item. You see both my Uncle and my Grandfather are essentially strangers to me. Before the wedding I had not seen my Uncle in over 15 years (maybe longer since I can't remember the last time I did see him) and my Grandfather in 10 years. Even when they were in my life they were never really in my life.

It sucks that things are the way they are. I would love to have a much closer extended family. It would be nice for my kids to have a closer relationship with a great grandparent, like they can on my husband's side of the family, but they made choices that destroyed that. They chose to value things of the world over family. My Uncle made his priorities clear when he stated, in my presence, that he feels that if you are married and have three kids before you are 30 you have ruined your life. I guess because I am only 28 and have a mere two kids I should consider my life not quite ruined just yet.

I guess it is easy when you don't believe in any sort of life after death to try and make the most of this life, but even then I feel that they have lived rather empty lives. My grandfather will leave behind some kids (some of whom managed to have happy marriages despite his example) who will possibly miss him a tiny bit but my Uncle will not leave behind much at all except some debt and a large house that he hardly uses. They have lived such hollow lives.

It was strange meeting them again after so long. I felt so different because I was now an adult. I could see them with different eyes. I am no longer an adoring grandchild. I don't have to fear the harsh words spoken in annoyance because I was being a child and that annoyed them. I am a confident woman who pities them. My kids will know me. My grandchildren will be spoiled by me. My family will know who I am and will not regard me as a stranger. I hope that my loving example will be passed on through the generations like the examples of my parents, who are shaping how I raise the boys even now.

Time zone fun

The shape of the Earth is a great thing, a round planet is a planet that makes sense and is great to live on. The funny thing about the fact that the planet is round is that the sun does not hit all of the Earth all at once. There are parts of it where it is dark right now. Man has artifically created a thing called the time zone to help keep people on track and on time. Most people seem to get this concept and are able to easily incorporate it into their daily life.

Some people, however, are not as aware of the concept of time zones. I got a call from one such person this morning at 6:30. The company that provides Evan with his INR testing strips was calling to see if we needed a refill. I give them points for being proactive and calling me but the timing really sucked. They are located in Florida so there is a three hour time difference between them and me. They thought they were calling at a perfectly reasonable 9:30. The gal apologized and put a note in the file to be more aware of the time difference. I should have asked for some free test strips but I was half asleep and not very coherent.

The hair

I hope you people realize how annoying you are. The nerve of you, harassing me to post a picture of my new hair cut. Who do you think you are?

This is not a super clear picture of myself, but it is the best I have right now. It is normally a bit more curly but for the wedding it was blown straight, which showed off my gray hairs quite nicely.

Spam!

And I am not talking about the vile lunch "meat". Somehow my family and friends email address has gotten out (I have one that I give out on forms and the like so that my other addresses can remain spam freeish) and in the last few days I have had a deluge of spam sent to that address. The filter catches the majority of it, but more than I really like are slipping through. It is frustrating that people are emailing junk like this and even more frustrating that people are stupid enough to fall for it which only encourages the spammers. Do people really think that the junk they are trying to sell is really legit? What is this world coming to?

Boo hoo!

While I was away on vacation I got my hair cut. I have a hard time remembering to schedule hair appointments so I often let my hair get longer than I really like. The last time I had my hair cut was when we were in Utah for out last visit almost two years ago. I decided to chop my hair off because I was getting tired of the wads of shed hair that were appearing in odd places. I got six inches of hair cut off and this Sunday none of my friends even seemed to notice it! I am heartbroken and depressed. I think I am going to become a hermit and shun the fickle company of my so called friends (I am so just kidding!).

I am loving my new short hair and like every time I get it cut I am vowing to keep the shortness up. It is nice to not have to use handfuls of shampoo and conditioner. It dries curly if I wash it at night and let it air dry. I love that my head feels so much lighter.

The down side is that I can't put my hair into a pony tail when I am having a bad hair day. They boys also love to play with my hair and I would drape it over the arm of the couch while I lay down and read so that they could tug on it as they wished. It is also a lot harder to shake it onto their faces to tickle them. Over all though the cons are not enough to out weigh the pros.

Home again, home again, lickety split

We made it home safely with no puking and no speeding tickets (my husband drove the whole way home just to be sure). It is pouring down rain which is a nice change and I am enjoying the moist air. Utah really dries a person out. We just stocked up at Costco and we now have food in the house again.

Here are some more pictures from the trip.

Here are the boys at the Tracy Aviary. We did not get to see too many of the birds but we did get to see some pink flamingos.

Here is the bride getting her hair touched up. The woman doing her hair is a long time family friend that also did my wedding hair. Every time I go to Utah I have her cut my hair.

Auntie Pompom making a funny face for the camera.

Harry sniffing his candle. He snagged it while his Aunties were walking them around the reception hall while I was getting my hair touched up. He loves that silly thing and is still carrying it around.

This may look like snow but it is actually salt. We stopped at the Salt Flats rest stop to let the boys run around for a bit. You have to wash off your shoes after or you take home nasty dirty salt in your car.

Review of the big day

I am so exhausted right now but I know that if I don't write this I will be blogging in my head all night. Here are some of my impressions for the day.

• The ceremony was everything it should have been. It was very beautiful and it made me cry good tears. Good thing I wore waterproof mascera.
• If I ever hint that I want to wear high heels again someone come over and knock me to my senses. My feet are killing me!!!
• My 80 something grandpa still has an eye for the young pretty women. It was very amusing seeing him trying to hit on girls that had no idea what this old geezer was doing even talking to them.
• My uncle may be a bit of a jerk but he makes an amusing dinner companion.
• We had meltdown city with the boys. There are going to be some funny pictures in the wedding album thanks to Harry and his temper tanturms at the temple.
• If you are going to have a big fancy reception it is very handy to have it in a park with a play structure a few feet away. It made the reception a lot nicer for us and the boys.
• Glitter is a very evil substance. It got everywhere!!! I am covered in it right now.
• I am so very tired that I can hadrdly think straight. We have a long drive tomorrow.

Whee!

A trip to a yarn store soothed my crankies away. I could have spent hours there just looking at and touching the yarn. I got some yummy super soft cotton yarn that I am planning on knitting into a baby blanket. Who I will give the blanket to I am not sure, but I just could not resist it. I also bought some really fun wool for some diaper covers for the boys. The yarn has been a saving grace now that more of the crazy relatives have come into town for the wedding. It lets me bliss out while the world goes crazy around me.

Tomorrow is the big day and people are sill running last second errands for my sister, after all why do things ahead of time when you can run around like a crazy person the day before. The bride's maid's dresses are still not completely done. It makes me glad that my wedding was a heck of a lot simpler and that it was six years ago.

Yargh!

This weekend was General Conference for my church. I had been anticipating the chance to watch it on TV (one of the perks of being in Utah for conference). I had hoped to enjoy a spiritual weekend and also get a lot of knitting done. Sadly this was not what ended up happening.

The boys went nuts!!! It was so frustrating to have to listen to Evan whining because he wanted to be anywhere else. It was not like I expected all that much out of them. I just wanted them to be in the same room and to be somewhat quiet. By the end I was ready to scream in frustration.

I have a feeling that Evan is trying to make it look like we beat him up. Since we have been here he has scraped his chin two separate times. He has also fallen down the stairs even though he was not actually walking on the stairs. He was just walking past them and then randomly took a tumble. Yesterday while we were eating dinner at my husband's sister's house he bonked his lip and ended up with a nasty fat lip. I saw the entire thing and no one bumped or touched him at all. It is a good thing we are leaving in a few days, if we stay much longer Evan will be unrecognizable.

Fun times

It has been so much fun visiting my parents. The boys are finally old enough that they can appreciate more of the many fun activities that this area has to offer. We have been going places every day.

Our first stop was Temple Square. Evan was delighted that we rode the Trax train up. Harry was not as impressed and I had a hard time keeping him in his seat. He wanted to wander around the train.

The next day we went to Liberty Park and afterwords visited Auntie Pom pom at her new house. She has rats which were a huge hit with the boys. Evan kept trying to feed them grass because in his mind all animals eat grass.

Today we went to the zoo. Harry was more into the animals but both boys went wild in the small animal and reptile display. Evan loved the snakes the best and would hiss at them. They are building some new displays at the zoo and the digging machines drew a very big crowd too.

We are here!

We made it safe and sound after getting a speeding ticket ( I am a speed demon on the freeways and totally got busted even though everyone else around me was speeding) and Evan puking in the car all before we even left California.

Fun stuff

We are on the road again and I will be a tad busy with driving and road tripping so I thought you might enjoy some fun links. Try not to trash my blog while I am gone. No parties or anything like that!

• If you are worried that you could be attacked by bandits while you are sleeping here is the perfect nightstand for you.
• There are some fun and creative artists out there
• Do you know everything there is to know about my favorite hair style of all time?
  
• These are adorable and a lot less fattening than the real thing.
• Have you wondered how to use your light saber when you are not in battle?
• A little something for the ladies *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*
• A very amusing comic. I laughed my head off (not really but it is still very funny).