October 2012

It was around mid October when I stopped blogging because things got busy and then Ethan arrived. And, I just really haven't had a moment to sit down and blog about life until now. I didn't want to skip over some great experiences from the rest of 2012 so here they are.

OUR 4 YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY 

 

The picture is dark because we were sitting in the front row seats in the Paramount getting ready to watch WICKED! That's right folks! Wicked had a lottery that would allow anyone who arrive 2 hours before the show to put their name in the lottery. They would draw names and those people would get front row tickets to see wicked that night for only $25 / PERSON. Guess whose name got drawn first....Oh yeah! I have a technique that I learned from a friend that guarantees your name to be drawn almost every time. This isn't the first time it's worked. Had a lovely evening together. We walked the Seattle streets, got a nice Italian dinner, and watched a fantastic show. There is nothing more thrilling then being so close you can see every detail. We LOVED it!

BIG*PREGNANT*AFTERNOON WADDLES

This gorgeous greenbelt path in the woods used to be close to our old Condo. Kyan and I loved taking walks along here. I decided to take Samuel here one day in late October to get some fresh air. We both had a wonderful time.

 PCC PUMPKIN DECORATING

I had seen a flyer that said PCC, a local organic grocery store, was hosting a free pumpkin decorating event for kids. So, we decided to go check it out. It turned out to be a lot of fun. They provided the small pumpkins, the paints, glue, stickers, and lots of yummy snacks and juice for the kids to enjoy. Samuel treasured that pumpkin for a long time. 

CHURCH HALLOWEEN TRUNK OR TREAT

"I am a Robot". We trained Samuel to tell people that when they would asked what he was for Halloween. 

This is a cute video of Samuel taken the morning of October 28th. The same day Ethan decided to come. Samuel is such a joyful child. Yay for a fun and eventful October 2012. 

The Guts of a Mixer On Our Anniversary

Have you ever sat down and wondered what the guts of your mixer looked like? I never have until our mixer started making this AWFUL noise. 

So much so, that we knew that if we continued to use it we could possibly break the entire mixer. So, my awesome husband took it upon himself to figure out the problem. 

* He watched a few YouTube videos

* Learned about the moving parts of our machine

* Cleaned out the gears (which were covered in nasty globs of grease)

* Figured out which parts looked like they needed replaced

* Not only ordered those specific parts but found the best deals (Saved us $20 bucks!)

* Spent an entire evening turning this machine back to new.

Impressive...Right!

However....

After replacing a few parts, the noise was still present.

YIKES!

Not a good discovery after all that hard work. But, Kyan persisted and discovered the problem. It stemmed from this little itsy bitsy teeny weeny piece of metal that had gotten into the gears that caused the gear to get caught and create that awful noise we were hearing. How my husband discovered that tiny little fleck of metal is beyond me but he did and it fixed the problem.

After all his determination, our mixer runs and sounds like new. My husband is AWESOME! 

And....

This all happened to take place on the evening of October 18th, our 4th wedding anniversary!

(No worries, we have something more exciting planned for the weekend. 

Thanks to my parents who are so willing to watch Samuel!)

But it's a sweet reminder of why I love my husband so much. He is a man of MANY kind deeds. He loves me to no end. Even if it means fixing a mixer for his wife without even her asking him to do so because he knows how much she would appreciate it. This is the same guy who will randomly bring home flowers to say he love me. It doesn't take a day like valentines day for him to remember to express his love. 

This man is the reason we have had such a wonderful 4 years of marriage. I love you Kyan! May we continue to enjoy the MANY years to come! Happy Anniversary!

Trinity Farm Pumpkin Patch

In the middle of last week, Kyan and I were looking at the weather forecast only to realize that this gorgeous October weather was about to make an exit. The rain was going to fill the skies for awhile beginning Friday. So, in order to have a decent pumpkin patch experience we would have to go on Thursday. Unfortunately, all the pumpkin patches I found that were open during the week closed by 5pm. With Kyan being swamped at work, Samuel and I decided to venture out on our own to find the perfect pumpkin. 

Part of the criteria for a perfect pumpkin for Samuel was whether he was able to pick it up and carry it. Very important to a 2 year old. I think we found the smallest pumpkin in the entire patch. But, it was PERFECT. Believe it or not the pumpkin this the picture bellow was too heavy. The one we ended up with was even smaller then that one. 

Part of the fun was riding in the wheel barrow on our way back to pay for the pumpkin.

We HAD to ride the train. My train obsessed child would not have forgiven me if we had skipped out on this part of the adventure. I agree, it was quite the exciting ride.

We were also able to check out this old fire engine that was parked on the farm. 

Later that night, we all spent the evening carving pumpkins. I bought our pumpkins at Fred Meyer because they were only 18 cents per pound versus 55 cents per pound at the patch. Basically, Samuel's little pumpkin costed the same amount as one of our large pumpkins. 

Kyan helped Samuel hollow out and carve his pumpkin.

Samuel would go between helping with his pumpkin and my own. We all had a great time together allowing our creativity go wild while listening to Halloween music.

This was my pumpkin lit up in the dark. You can't see them in the dark but my pumpkin has two ears sticking out from the sides.

This was Samuel's pumpkin. He INSISTED on having a happy face carved into his.

And this is Kyan's pumpkin. Can you guess what it's suppose to be?

 (Pst....I'll give you a hint: It's suppose to be an impersonation of Elvis) 

Of course you can.

Baby Oh Baby...

Have you heard of all the things you can do to help naturally induce labor? Oh man, there is quite a list of things people have tried to get there babies to come. This is just one of the many lists that I have found.


1. Walking (Kyan and I have been hiking but no success...)

2. Galloping (Does running count? I have tried running twice. Once last week and once yesterday. It didn't seem to do much but make me have to pee. Bummer...)

3. Acupuncture

4. Pressure points

5. Spicy foods (I'm seriously considering taking a spoonful of Cayenne to see if this works. Skip the extra calories and just get down to business. This used to be a form of punishment when growing up if I had ever had a potty mouth or talked back to my parents. I've done it several times before, why not one last time for memories sake? Maybe it will help with getting this baby out of me!) 

6. Sex and orgasms (Do I need to comment?)

7. Nipple stimulation

8. Pineapple (Um...how much pineapple does someone need to eat? I think it would eat your mouth up before it did anything else.)

9. Dancing

10. Squatting (Tried it...but why would this work over running or hiking?)

11. Relaxing (Do afternoon naps count?)

12. Meditation and/or visualization

13. Evening primrose oil

14. Red raspberry leaf tea

15. Castor oil (Yup, I tried this two days ago. I mixed it with a juice and chugged it down. The contractions kicked in about 3-1/2 to 4 hours later but they didn't last. Bummer.)

16. Herbs (such as black and blue cohosh)

17. Massage (My husband gives great foot massages. Perhaps I should have him give me another one and claim that it might help with inducing labor. :)

18. Glass of wine (Consult your doctor!) (So...can anyone tell me how this would induce labor? Some of these suggestions seem so silly. I don't drink anyway so I guess I won't be testing this theory out.)

19. Stripping the membranes (Ouch! I hear this hurts. Not planning on having my doctor perform this on me. I just hope my water breaks before I ever have to try something like this.)

20. Marching up stairs (I do this like 20 times a day. Not sure how this would do anything unless you don't have stairs in your house and your not used to running up and down them constantly throughout the day.)

21. Rent a sad movie and cry like crazy (Really? Are you serious?)

22. A really bumpy car ride (Running on trails can be pretty bumpy...)

23. Bouncing and stretching on a birth or exercise ball

24. Swimming

25. Mowing lawn or picking weeds (If this is the case, I would have had this baby months ago. Some of these things are funny suggestions.)

26. Jump on a swing and start swinging

27. Talk to your baby and tell him/her it’s OK to come out now (We do this everyday but I think he's wanting to grow into a 10 lb baby before coming out.)

28. Watch a really funny movie and laugh until you pee (Is it the funny movie or the peeing that helps? Or, is it the combination that magically makes that baby decide to come? Strange ideas.)

29. Get down on all fours and shake that booty (This would be a funny one to witness. Perhaps I should try it just to make myself laugh and perhaps I would laugh so hard that I would pee my pants and I wouldn't even have to watch the funny movie to get the desired results...which would be what again? More laundry? A good laugh? A chance to shake my booty? Hmmm....)

Sadly, at the end of the day, after trying a few of these things the baby has been reluctant to come.

The house is clean, the laundry is caught up, the baby room is complete, my freezer is chuck full of dinners (Thanks to Costco and the BEST MOM AND SISTER I could ever ask for), random projects are complete, the bathrooms have been recently cleaned, the sheets are fresh and clean (as of two days ago), The floors have been vacuumed and swept, the guest room has been cleaned up and organized, the house has been dusted, the baby clothes have been washed and neatly folded and put away, diapers have been bought, curtains have been sewn, canning jelly has been completed, but the only thing that has not been done is mopping the main wood floors. But besides that, we are ready for our little boy to join us.

I'll keep you updated if anything happens.

Random Things of Fun

We have been doing a lot of random fun things lately. 

As for one, I decided to make a baby mobile for the baby room. I actually made this a few weeks ago and the picture shows it hanging from the window curtain rod. But we finally hung it over the crib two days ago. I haven't taken pictures of the baby room but I might get around to it in the future. 

Nap times have been a new experience lately. I am quickly learning that I can't put Samuel to bed any earlier then 1:00 pm because he wont fall asleep. Instead he will find creative things to do in his room while waiting for mom to come get him. One nap time I heard a lot of drawers opening and closing and other strange noises. I finally popped my head in to find all the wipes scattered on the floor along with other things. He insisted that he had needed to wash his hands. And, apparently, it took ALL the wipes to clean them. He also felt like he needed to use the ENTIRE bottle of anti-bacterial gel on his arms and hands. 

A day ago, we started out the day by going to story time at the library. Afterward, we walked over to the Fish Hatchery in Issaquah. It happened to be spawning day so we were able to watch the process. It was pretty neat. Samuel had a good time checking out all the fish. 

Later in the day, after Kyan got home from work, we decided to go hiking. We have been trying to get out and enjoy the gorgeous weather while it has lasted. So, hikes and parks have been a regular in our family lately. However, on this day, there happened to be this huge digger parked next to the trail head. We couldn't miss out on the opportunity of taking a picture next to one of these cool looking pieces of machinery.