Pumpkin Patch and Trunk or Treat

A couple weekends ago the boys and I went to Cincinnati while Dave stayed home and studied for a test. One of my best friends lives there. We met when we moved in above them at the University Student Apartments 5 1/2 years ago. Anyway, we got to go to a pumpkin patch that is also a farm. The boys had a great time feeding the goats, petting the cows, riding on the hay out to the pumpkin patch and of course spending time with great friends.

Last night there was a tri-ward trunk or treat at our church. It had been raining most of the day so they moved it inside. It was a little crowded but the boys still had a great time. This year the boys told me what they wanted to be, without any help from me (or Dave). Taylor and Austin both wanted to be a "light saber guy" I found a great deal on a Anakin costume for one of them and thanks to a friend that had one from a couple years ago all I had to buy was light sabers. Caden wanted to be a cowboy. I made him some chaps out of felt and a belt buckle and borrowed some cowboy gear form the same friend that gave us the other costume. I thought he looked pretty cute. Hopefully we can get some better pictures on Halloween.

I'm your best friend?

So recently Caden has started saying to me, "I won't be your best friend" if you don't or if you won't something or an other. At first I was a little hurt, how could such a sweet boy say something so un-sweet? Then after hearing it a few times I got to thinking, he thinks of me as his best friend. How great is that? How long will this last? He still loves to cuddle, he sporadically tells me that he loves me, he will be walking away and say "oops I verygot (forgot) something" and come back to where I am and give me a kiss. I look at him every day and sometimes find myself staring at him in amazement. Where has the time gone? When did my baby turn into such a big boy.

Look What I Did!!

Last Thursday a friend and I and our kids who weren't in school went to a local orchard and picked red raspberries. They charge $2 a pound and you can eat as many as you want while you are picking. I was having such a fun time picking that I went home with 5 1/2 pounds. After eating A LOT of them with cream and sugar I made jam. I have never made jam by myself and I am quite pleased with the results. It is so yummy!

Time, I have plans for you!

Today Caden started pre-school at a little church down the street from our house. He has been so excited to go. We have driven by it as often as I would allow, just to see the playground all summer. I was telling Caden yesterday that he was going to get to go to pre-school tomorrow. He got really excited. I told him I was going to miss him while he was gone. He looked at me and smiled and then said, "I will miss you too momma, but I will come back." I thought it was pretty funny that a 4 year old was doing the comforting.

Caden is going to be in a class with 20 other little kids, three of which are his friends from our ward/neighborhood. He was really excited about that. There was no hesitation from him going into his classroom this morning. I'm sure all the puzzles and toys had something to do with that. It made it easier for me too.

This is what happens when you have 4 moms trying to take a group picture at the same time. Can you tell where everyone's mom was?

Caden getting right into it.

Rise and Shout the Cougars are out!!

So this post is a little backwards. I am just way too excited to get to say that college football has started. Not just college football, but BYU football. Those of you who know me well, know that I have been going to BYU football games since I was 4 years old. I absolutely LOVE them. I love being in the crowd, I love wearing the blue and white, and I LOVE the game of football. I love to hear the pads hit together, I love to watch a long drive, I love...well I think you probably get the fact that I LOVE BYU FOOTBALL. This was something I got to share with my dad, who also was a huge fan, it is fun to have memories of him every time I get to see a game. Now the sad report. Comcast does not carry the MTN. here in Indiana, I guess not a lot of people out here are interested in the Mountain West conference. We will get a few of the games, so I guess I should be happy with that. I have also already told Dave that when we are done with school I would like us to be season ticket holders, he is a fan too so I think we will make sure that happens! OK, so that is probably enough of my ranting, I just really love it!! GO COUGARS!!

Last Thursday Dave and I (and some friends) got to go to a Colts pre-season game is the new Lucas Oil Stadium. I know it is not the biggest stadium, but it is the biggest I have ever been in. It was amazing. Because of Dave's injury we were able to exchange our tickets for some that were in the disabled area, they were really good seats too. No one in front of us, the snack bar right behind us and no stairs for Dave to have to climb. We had a great time!

Now a little report on Dave's Achilles. He had surgery on the 22nd. It was a much bigger deal then either of us thought it would be. Dave was intibated and the surgery lasted about 3 hours. They gave him a nerve block in his leg to help with the pain. Apparently, according to the surgeon, this is the most painful of orthopaedic surgeries to recover from. This proved to be true on Saturday. Now, Dave is a tough guy, he doesn't complain and whine when he is hurt. I don't think anyone knew what really happened when it did because he just walked off the court. Saturday, was horrible, I was bawling watching him be in so much pain, and knowing there was nothing I could do to make it better. The catheter they put in for the nerve block was turned up as high as it could go and was not working and he was taking as much pain meds as he was allowed. By Sunday afternoon his pain seemed to be under control, thank goodness! He has gone back to school and has a follow up appointment on Thursday. We have been told that he could be in a cast for the next 6-12 weeks. Yikes!! We are both hopeful that some of that time will at least be a walking cast so he can get around school/lab a little better. I wanted to say thank you to those of you who have called and wished Dave well. Also those of you who have watched our boys during the last couple weeks, thank you to the two great friends who came and gave Dave a wonderful blessing, and of course all of your prayers on his behalf. Your kindness and generosity are greatly appreciated. We recognize the hand of the Lord in all things and are grateful for His help during all of this.

Our exciting week!!

Last week was quite an eventful week at our house. The most exciting was that Austin and Taylor started first grade. They had a great week and both love their teachers (they are in different classes this year).

Dave had his first monthly exam last Monday, so after everyone got home we all went to the Indiana State Fair, and oh what a fair it is. We rode rides, saw a circus show, played on a little farm, saw a lot of stinky farm animals, and or course ate yummy fair food. Dave's favorite is the big turkey leg. It is pretty yummy, but I feel a little barbaric eating it. He also decided that this was the year to try fried Pepsi. Yup, you heard right, the fry everything you can imagine. Snickers, oreos, brownies, cookie dough, peanut butter cups. For the fried Pepsi they make a batter using Pepsi instead of water, fry it, then they drizzle Pepsi syrup and powdered sugar on top. We were little disappointed, but it was still fun to try.

And last but certainly not least...Dave was at the church playing ball with a bunch of the dental guys, he pushed up to jump for a rebound and fell down instead. Wanna know what happened? He ruptured his Achilles tendon. He is in a cast for now, and has an appointment with a sports medicine Dr. on Thursday. The first Dr's he saw told him that surgery is almost inevitable. He can't put ANY weight on it and has to use crutches. This is panning out to be a hard thing to do when he is in lab trying to carry a tray. Go figure!! The thing is, I think I am taking it harder than he is. We are looking forward to Thursday to hopefully get some more definite answers.

Happy Birthday to You!!

Well, my baby turned four today. I can't believe it. Four years have come and gone so quickly. After our situation with Austin and Taylor I was a little hesitant to want to have any more kids. Dave and I felt that it was the right thing to do however and we had Caden. Caden was and is such a blessing to me. He is the one who helped me break the nurse shell and be able to really come out and feel like a mother. He has always been a sweet, patient little boy. He still loves to snuggle with me (which I love) and he is very kind to his brothers. Caden is a talker, if you will listen he will talk to you. Caden loves to play pretend and is so funny when he makes up stories. Caden we love you. You hold a very special place in our family. Happy Birthday! First thing, and I mean 7:00am we all got up before Dave had to go to school and opened prizes. He was thrilled with everything. I wasn't going to do anything like a party for him this year because he really didn't ask for one or seem to care about it. However, when Dave told me is was going to have to be in lab until 6:00pm I started feeling bad that he wasn't going to have a good b-day. I called a bunch of little friends and invited them to Chuck E. Cheeses for a get together. I got a yummy Costco cake and bought a ton of tokens. Everyone I called ended up coming. 19 kids (including babies) plus their mommies. 28 in all I think. Caden thought it was fantastic. Thanks to all of you who came and helped make his day so great. It was a little crazy, but I appreciate all of you. When we got home Caden got to talk to Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Bob on the phone and open his gift from them. Remember the burned monkey story from an earlier post? Well, Grandma made him a replacement. You will see by the picture how excited he was to have it. When Dave came home and per Caden's request we went to a McDonald's play place for dinner. It was a great day.

The final instalment of our summer break...the part with Dave anyway.

After we got home we still had a lot of time to fill. We had a fun BBQ with the other LDS grad families that were still in town. Caden got to hold baby Max, his first real baby, and we went to the zoo (a few times). The boys got to touch a Gator, an Elephant and goats. They love to play in the splash area.

Our good friends gave us their little boy's old bike. Dave got some new training wheels for it and we put Caden on to try it out. He loves it!! His mom on the other hand is still trying to get used to the idea that he is going to go fast and yes, he will probably fall, a lot. Yes, he usually does wear a helmet, this was just a trial run.

Next up was no small thing. Austin and Taylor turned 7. I wanted to share their story a little but realised that it would take entirely too long. Lets just say we are so blessed to have these little boys as part of our family. Congratulations Austin and Taylor for overcoming so much and working so hard to improve your quality of life. Mom and Dad love you more than you will probably ever know. Thanks for taking a chance on us and deciding to stay with us in this life. So, for their birthday they got new bikes. Taylor's is your typical bike. Austin's however is a specially made adaptive bike so that he can ride a bike like little boys should. They both love their bikes. Austin kept riding by me saying, "I love this bike, I love my bike!" It was so fun to see both of them doing something they were never supposed to be able to do. Austin doesn't really care for cake so I made them a fruity pebbles crispy treat "cake." We also had Grandma in on the festivities through the computer. That was way fun for the boys to show her how they ride their bikes and to sing while they blew out their candles.

So you have heard me talk about Del Taco, right? Well if not it is probably Dave's favorite place to eat. He found out that there is one up in South Bend. So with a last minute decision we drove up to Michigan City, Indiana, played on the beach for a while and went to Del Taco for dinner. The beach is awesome, you can go really far out before it gets too deep to stand. We had a great time. Oh ya, Del Taco was good too.

We have some great friends from when we lived in student housing at the U. They live in Cincinnati. We have visited a couple times and they come down here but this time we took a couple pictures. The first is on the Purple People Bridge, you can walk from Kentucky to Ohio. The big Ice cream cone looking thing is just that, it is a very yummy ice cream stand called The Cone. They have hundreds of things to choose from. Yummy!!

Are you still with me? Two more pictures left. Our buddy Russ (another 2nd year dental student) went home to Utah and got married during summer break. The first day back to school we had a BBQ as kind of a congratulations get together. These are the first pictures we have of all the guys, and girls for that matter together. We were only missing one of the guys and two of the wives.

Well there you have it. I think now we are caught up to date. See you soon!!

WE INTERUPT YOUR PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED POST FOR THIS EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I just wanted to take a quick minute and tell everyone why I am the luckiest girl in the world to have been married to such a wonderful guy for the last 10 years. Yes, 10 years. Where has the time gone? Sometimes it feels like yesterday that we were going to the Salt Lake temple to be married and sealed for all eternity. I love saying those words. I am so blessed that I get to be with my best friend for ever and ever. Dave is the most patient, kind, loving, understanding, helpful, caring husband I could ever ask for. He has a great sense of humor and people can't help but feel comfortable around him. He is the perfect dad to our little boys who in turn adore him immensely. Dave, I love you. Happy 10th Anniversary!!

Part 3 of 4

After our time in Utah we drove down to Newport Beach, CA to spend some time relaxing with just our little family. The boys absolutely loved the beach.

When we go to Cali we stay at Quality Suites. Dave's family stayed there when they would go down and we have stayed there every year we go too. They have a yummy cooked to order breakfast, and a great pool that is almost always empty. This trip Taylor and Austin learned to jump into the pool by themselves.

Newport pier always has tons of fisherman on it. The boys love to go walk the pier and see the "dead fish." On Sunday we went up to the Newport temple.

We checked out of Quality and headed south to San Diego so we could go to Sea World. Austin and Taylor were tall enough to ride Atlantis with a parent. They didn't love it, but were brave and went on it with us. Sea World has a new Sesame Street area. They boys don't watch Sesame Street but they had a great time on the rides. WARNING!! The last picture in the set is Austin looking like he is flipping you off, in reality he had just hurt his finger and was showing us where it hurt. We thought is was funny, is that bad?

When Dave was little he remembers going to stay at a beach house in Mission Bay. We were able to find the exact beach house (sorry no pictures of it) Then we went over to a carnival type place that Dave had fun memories of. The boys played at the arcade, rode a couple rides and ate cotton candy. After that fun we went to Gina's pizza, which is arguably the best pizza out there. Then it was time to head home. What a fabulous vacation and fun family time.

Even though our "vacation" has come to an end we still had 2 1/2 weeks of break, so stay tuned for the rest of our adventures (probably in the next day or two).