The Year of the Pumpkins

We let our garden be taken over by pumpkins and all the jungle that comes with it.  It was fun seeing blossoms turn into little pumpkins, which turned into bigger and bigger pumpkins and then turned from green to orange.  We considered it a bounteous harvest.  We got to take these…

…add some elbow grease and rubber gloves…

It's disgusting even with rubber gloves on!

 

You want me to put you hand in there?!

 And the results were wonderfully frightening!

The kids, I mean, SuPER GiRL and Sock Monkey BOY had fun trick or treating, and enjoying the spoils afterward.

We hope you all had a happy Halloween!

Already a Winner

Tonight Montana had a fortune cookie tell her “You have a the makings of a winner”.  Of course, I already thought that, but this week especially I’ve been thinking of my sweet, darling daughter and how much joy she brings to my life.  Asher being Asher gets a lot of attention and we talk a lot about Asher.  But there’s a lot of Asher that wouldn’t be if he didn’t have Montana as his sister.  So this posting is all to celebrate her.

It can be a little bit hard for Montana to let go of, well, little bits of junk. I have a whole string of photos of items that she worked herself up to part with – but wanted to preserve an image of. We started this when she wouldn’t through things out because she was “afraid I would forget it.” A picture worked for most things but at one point it was because she was afraid she would “forget what it felt and smelt like.” I resorted to a video capturing her descriptions of beloved items. And now we are a few grocery bags lighter in her room.

As a sister, she is the most doting, supportive, nurturing soul to her little brother, sometimes smothering him (no brother was harmed while taking this photo). She one day mentioned she was like another mother to Asher and she certainly is. I’m touched that she would compare her kindness, patience and playfulness to mine.

Another tender moment with my kids. Asher adores her as much as she does him. Nearly every morning neither one of them come alive until they are together. We often wake to Montana in Asher’s crib snuggling and playing together. They nearly always have a hug and smile for each other – in the morning, greetings coming home from school, after dinner, whenever.

She loves animals, although it took her a little time to get over her love/hate relationship with them being close to her. We’re sad we no longer have a dog, but Montana has not gone without pets. She has captured and kept lady bugs – fed them aphids and gave them water, and then let them go before they could die. She really loves taking care of animals – even if they are only stuffed and fluffy ones sometimes.

Pink, pink and more girly pink. As most all of you know, this was certainly a case of nature vs. nurture. She has taught me to enjoy pink (most shades anyway, but still not in combination with purple). She loves being able to have color on her nails and can’t wait for color to be able to on her face!

She loves to laugh and seems to sense when her body/mind is need of a good hearty belly laugh. She’ll asked to be tickled until she’s got her fill, taking breaks for breathing of course. But she is so quick to laugh in life and at herself and I love her sense of humor.

Montana is free with her friendship and has a high social need. She loves playing with her cousins and friends and there isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t mention one of them by name . She wonders what they are doing and when she’ll be able to play with them again. However, for being so social-needy, she does a good job independently playing and can entertain herself with a wonderful imagination.

Conquering mountains – she is very driven to get to the top of any inclined rock surface. She can scamper well – fast and with agile feet and works hard to reach her goal. We see this trait come out in other things she sets her mind to.

She’s a good judge of true beauty. She longs to be outside, especially in fantastic scenery – desert, mountains, beaches and is always asking when we can go back. This picture captures so much about her: wading right into the adventure (and she can’t stand wearing shoes and socks! The transition from summer to fall has been torture. We finally had to throw away her flip flops so she would stop coming down for school in them.), she takes it all in before jumping right in, and then is up for the fun the opportunity has to offer. Moments after this picture she had her hands full of rocks to ‘skip’ and then spent time chasing a frog.

Her birthday is coming and it is hard to believe that yet another year has flown by.  She is learning and growing, sometimes at such an alarming rate that we are floored.  We had parent-teacher conferences this week and her teacher let us know that Montana reaches out and makes friends easily. And that she helps keep some roudy boys at her table in check.  And scholastically she’s doing great.  We’re amazed at how quickly she has picked up reading and getting better each day.  We’ve been really suprised how quickly she matured in class – sitting and paying attention.  She is such a focused watcher of people that she can sometimes forget that she should be listening or working, but she’s done a good job of tuning it down during class.

Along with Eric and I, Asher’s uniquenesses are shaping who she is.  She’s starting to understand more and more that Asher is not like a lot of other little brothers.  There are a lot of challenges she faces (and we face as her parents) to try and balance out the attention, recognition, flat-out gushing that Asher receives while she is standing there seemingly invisible (picture Halloween night at nearly every door where they are standing side by side and he almost always got an extra candy “for being soo cute”) I really can’t describe the rushing, gushing people approaching Asher while we are in the grocery store, at the mall, at Church, park, anywhere.  It’s a lot for a sibling to handle and I admire her strength of character to not break down and throw a fit to get attention or show any resentment towards him.  There is no doubt she is an angel’s sister, and an undoubtedly an angel herself.

What a difference a day makes

Wow.  Trevor’s first day back to work after being gone almost a week was a bit of a different one than we expected.  I was feeding Sidney and Eliot was at Brinley’s when Trevor came home from work two hours early and asked, “How do you feel about moving to Houston?”  Wh-wh-wh-WH-WHAT??!  I’ll admit that it definitely caught me off guard, and I’m still not certain that the reality has fully registered now that it’s a full twenty-four hours later, but things are moving fast.

Here’s the specifics: The department he works in is no longer going to be located in this office of the company.  About 90% of the department will be transferred to Houston to be closer to the clients for which the department does work; others may go to South Carolina, Colorado, Washington, or Canada.  The final statement was, “We’d like to hear of your preferences, and we’ll do our best to find a position for each of you” but that didn’t give us the security we’d like.  He was told there would not be any new information for a couple of days, but that these changes would take place by mid-November.  Because of the slim possibility of being laid off, Trevor has applied for many jobs in this area as well as other areas in which we’d prefer to live.  We know that if he continues with the same company, we will not be living here so just tonight a realtor came to list the house to be sold.  After her suggestions to get it “showable” we realize we’ve got a lot of work to do, and she wants to be able to list it this weekend.  Wow.  Our life is about to change, and kind of drastically, we think.  I think the hardest part now is just waiting until something is definite, oh yeah, and all the work we have to do at home .

Four weeks!??!

How does time pass so quickly?  Just last weekend I was asking Trevor date and was shocked when he brought it to my attention that we are half-way through October.  What?!  Our new son Sidney is already four weeks old!  I had high goals to have a birth announcement out before now, but just finished it today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the last minute trip we took to Utah last week also added to my losing track of time.  Trevor’s paternal grandfather passed suddenly on October 10, and we drove with Kevin’s family to make it to the funeral.  The drive was a full two days one way, but I’m glad we went.  All four of us were able to go, despite the concern of how Sidney would travel.  He did AMAZING, as did Eliot and her cousins Danielle, Emily, and Kylie.  We had every seat filled in Kevin’s van and were anticipating a frustrating trip in such small quarters, but I think we’ll all admit there were even times of enjoyment.  A highlight for me was eating a Dion’s (my favorite NM restaurant) -TWICE- on the way home.  We had pizza with green chile and their wonderful chef’s salad for lunch, and I bought a sub sandwich to take with me and I enjoyed that for dinner .  There’s so much I miss about Albuquerque.

The funeral and surrounding events were somewhat bittersweet.  I was glad to spend time with Trevor’s family and get to know them; many of which I met for the first time, after seven and a half years of marriage.  I was impressed to see Eliot handle herself at the viewing and funeral.  She asked to go see Grandpa’s body several times and did just fine to look and walk away.

Luckily, we were able to sneak some time in to see my family.  We were able to go to dinner at Glenna’s on Friday night and see cousins and siblings, and then also spend the night at my parents before leaving town the next day.  It was somewhat of a whirlwind trip, but one I was glad to be able to take.

Sisterly Love

As far as business trips go, my recent one to Texas had more delight in the mixture than usual.  What a treat to be able to have to work in a city near where my sister lives and to visit her such an exciting time.  I had known that her friends had been working on a surprise shower for her and I didn’t want to spoil it so I just wrapped up my arrival into the surprise.  What a treat to be able to surprise Monica - the one who often starts her visits home with an element of surprise but can’t quite pull off keeping the secret.

If anyone doubted that the shower was successfully a surprise, that was immediately dismissed when we opened the door and saw her standing there.  The sweet thing had obviously just jumped out of the shower and dressed for a lounge-around day.  Now, it would not be surprising to see me with no make-up and in comfy clothes with my hair still dripping, but Monica has evolved from that state and would not have knowingly shown up for a party looking like that.  What a reward to those who worked so hard to surprise her!  (you can read about her reaction to the surprise on her post from last month)  It was very touching to be there with her, surrounded by so many sisters in the gospel and friendship that cared for her.  There were a number of the sisters that I wished I lived closer to and be able to get to know better.  Great women and great fun.

We spent some treasured time one evening in the Dallas temple to do some temple work for two women from my Dad’s ancestral line.  What a trooper she was to be 8+ months pregnant, suffering with a nasal/head cold and go and sit in a chair, while yes is padded, is still a stadium-like chair, and in a sacred, reverent environment for two hours needing to blow your nose, cough and just stand and move to offset the discomfort of her tailbone, hips, etc. from the weight of that sweet baby she was carrying.  Her sacrifice did not go unnoticed nor unappreciated.  It was a special experience for me and I was thrilled to be sharing it with her.

It was emotional to be there (if you read my last post it will make more sense for me to say that this time my emotions were in synch with the calendar) since the last time I was there was for Morgen’s funeral and so there were often flashbacks to that time.  To add to it, we pulled out the presser boards full of flowers from his funeral sprays and floral arrangements we had put together while I was there last February.  But it felt so rewarding to be able to arrange them and have them available for display as a beautiful reminder  of his memory and how delicate this life on earth is.

Here are some pictures from my visit there.  I missed not having my family with me, but I loved having the opportunity to be a sister and an aunt.  We stayed up late laughing, crying, cooking, playing.  I love my sister and I love her family.  I was glad to have had the time together with them and look forward to the next time.

School-bound

During the summer I anticipated the approach of fall with trepedation this year.  And it is my favorite time of year!  But this year the excitement for the change in season, the beautiful fallscape, the new crispness to the air, the urge to feel fabric between my fingers, and the craving for delightful pumpkin recipes, all were overwhelmed by the sense of foreboding loss – loss of my children’s innocence as they both ventured into a bigger, wider world upon entering school, the loss of freedom having to be tied to a school calendar, so I guess the loss of control in so many ways.

But now that we are starting to settle into a routine, it’s not so bad.  And I didn’t factor in the positive changes school would bring about in my children.  Montana is reading – heartily and amazingly.  She has made new friends, even a best friend that she talks about and draws pictures of to hang in her room and a fiance or two, apparently Ben R from pre-school will always be her boyfriend but there have been a couple of boys declaring they are going to marry her and getting sent to the back table for trying to hug her.  And Asher has taken a big leap in his communication using more signs/word sounds to ask for things (we won’t dwell on how his second pair of glasses were broken during recess – duct tape seems to be keeping the lens in there so why complain?!).  Both kids seem to be enjoying the increased sense of independence and why wouldn’t I look forward to that?!  It is fun to see them grow.  Here are some pictures from their first days and then Asher’s bus rides.

Surprisingly, Montana is about the same in height as most of her class.  There are a few outliers both taller and shorter, but the majority are around her height.  I don’t anticipate that lasting long…

Asher, on the other hand, doesn’t stand a chance…

On that first day, he wasn’t too sure about riding the bus.

But once he was strapped in he was better.  And the next day when the bus stopped he was tripping to get out the door, dragging us behind as we tried to get his coat and backpack on.  Montana is very sad she’s not riding the bus and Asher is.  Maybe one day soon.

I hope school/academic endeavors are going well for everyone else too!

Incredible Incredibles

So, this morning I woke from a dream where I was in a pool, waist high that was a really cool community-like pool with a current workout area and I was really excited to try it out.  But this guy, who was cast as my trainer in the dream, just kept showing me kids toys and how they worked, or it was like he was using them to test me on something.  And I kept tettering between patient indulgence and frustration at him holding me back from being able to be all-out swimming.  I mentioned the idea of this dream to my brother-in-law and he suggested my brain was trying to tell me something.  I responded that it was the same thing that my pants have been telling me for the past couple of weeks but I’m not listening.  And I’m also ignoring the role that my nightly rich-real-stuff cup of cocoa, my buttery-popcorn fingers and the container of buttercream frosting in my fridge have been on the problem as well (there are moments when I wish Kasi had not shared that frosting recipe - when I think of what is in it (yuck), and when I eat one more spoonful wishing for a full bucket! I know, it’s disgusting).

Anyway, September was crazy busy…even more than crazy busy because I think I live my life just on the verge of crazy all the rest of the time.  I have really enjoyed the change of pace so far in October.  This weekend was really low-key and admitedly it could be argued that I didn’t get out of pajamas until after 4:00 on both Saturday and Sunday.   But I was comfortably listening to the messages shared in various conference talks, and one message particular that came up from at least three different speakers that touched me was how one should strive to do the important things, not the “thousands of unimportants”, it’s not about the doing as it is in the undoing to avoid the menial details that take up time, resources but do not amount to the true purposes, etc.  So, I’ve been contemplating that and evaluating how I spend my time and decided this will be my last blog post…just kidding, everyone who reads this knows I don’t spend much time posting.  But for sure I am not creating a Facebook account anytime soon.  Truly, though, it has given credence to some of my own thoughts the last few weeks and I’ll be looking for ways to clearly establish what are the important things in my life and making sure that I do not get caught up in irrelevant things that take away from doing those important things.

And so, to bring this lengthy post to a close, I’ll do a quick wrap up to tie into the title of the post (I know, finally getting to the point).  As I mentioned, September was crazy and so I’m breaking it up a bit and am focusing on the end first.  We had such a great time at the Buddy Walk/Asher’s birthday party that last Saturday of the month.  Yes, the event could have been run a little better but it didn’t prevent me from thoroughly enjoying it – but maybe I was able to ignore it because I was on a high from being touched by those who attended to support Asher and help raise awareness of Down syndrome.  (I know there were more of you who would have been there, but couldn’t.)  For all the ups, the accomplishments, the happiness and joy that is Asher, his uniquenesses are sometimes hard.  And it helps to have this circle of support that love him as much as we do, that see his differences but celebrate his successes.  Who will be there with outstetched, stengthening arms to raise him when he needs it.  Or to raise me when I need it to, too (believe me…the nights I have laid awake trying to strengthen my tenderheart to prepare for the cruelties that await him/us as his sphere enlarges with his age…ugh).  Boy, I have gotten very emotional putting into words how I felt that day, yet according to the calendar I shouldn’t be acting so emotional for another couple of weeks.  I must be coming down with something.  Anyway, it was a lovely event that I left feeling so pumped up. Wait, maybe  I was just feeling accomplished for our team to have won the “Most Creative Team” award – a prize of a $200 in-house catered dinner from the Wasatch Whisks sponsor!  Go team - the Incredible Asher’s Dashers!

Love to you all and hope you are staying healthy!  Oh, and here are some pictures from the event (sorry there aren’t more or better ones.  On our way there I thought I saw my camera battery was nearly depleted so I was VERY selective about shooting at the beginning and wish I had taken more)

(No, the walk was not all that strenuous for me.  But I was injured and limping my way around took its toll on all parts of my foot and ankle that I was trying to soothe.  Asher was all too happy to join me!  What a way to end the day…)

A DEFINITE surprise…

…to be going to the hospital last Wednesday morning.  I sure made some mistakes about some early labor decisions -now really, why sit at the hospital for hours when you can RACE to the hospital during morning rush hour and deliver a new baby about 30 minutes after being admitted?- but we’re glad our son’s here and safe.

Here’s the blue paper Eliot had been looking forward to when visiting the hospital.  Because we didn’t know the gender ahead of time, she continued to tell me that she would find out what the baby’s name would be by looking for a pink or blue paper in the basinet.  Blue!  Then the baby’s name is Sidney Morgen.

Eliot has been all smiles and continues to tell us how happy she is that the baby’s here.  She loves to hold him, and has been so helpful; not the over-the-top helpful that I anticipated .

*Photos courtesy of Marsha, because we didn’t take our camera.  Are we not new parents, or what?

No suprise

… to E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E else, but to me – it was a HUGE surprise!

I was under the impression that I would be spending the previous Saturday at my friend Marsha’s house to get help with a quilting project while Trevor helped her husband Seth make a nic-nac shelf for their kids’ room.  Therefore, I decided to wear very comfortable clothing -basically pajamas!- and had just been out of the shower about two minutes before leaving our home.  However, as I was welcomed into Marsha’s house the entire entryway was filled with friends and someone who looked amazingly identical to LEAH!!!  I was immediately embarrassed to realize how I looked for such an audience, and even regretful to think of how I had not surrendered to Trevor attempts at convincing me to wear my comfortable Sunday dress that day (because he was fully knowing of what I would be walking into).  It turned out to be an amazing day, full of pumpkins and plenty of rain!

Everyone had gathered for a surprise baby shower to celebrate our “Li’l Pumpkin” set to arrive next month.  The more I talk to people and hear the full story, this party has been in the works and planning for months – crazy.  I was able to visit with friends from church, our previous neighborhood, and family that I haven’t seen for months.  Everyone was very generous with their gifts and preparations, despite the slack Trevor and I have received because we’re told “how can I buy a gift if I don’t know the gender??!”  We received some wonderful items, and some larger items I have been concerned about going without.

I think the best part was the DVD-answering questionnaire that was prepared by my family.  I understand Marsha sent them a list of questions [upon arrival we each got a list of the questions and were to match our answers to what we'd see on the DVD] about me and my baby/childhood and Leah filmed my family answering them; however, I will set the record straight that some of the answers were COMPLETELY made up because they didn’t know.  It sure made for an entertaining show, complete with outtakes!

My friends definitely went to a lot of work for this secret production and pulled it off smoothly.  Marsha invited Eliot for a sleepover the night before, and Leah arrived that night and joined the sleepover.  Truthfully, Leah was in town on business, but the timing worked well enough to come a few days early to join in the fun – and IT WAS FUN!  The more I talk/hear about what went on “behind the scenes” it amazes me to realize the time and expense that went into this, and I’m very grateful.

My Excuse For Not Posting: There is no Log-in option, so I can’t right….?

I couldn’t post until Monica told me how to remedy the problem….. j/k.  

Ok.  So, Here are a few pictures that will tell our summer story.

 

My Mom’s Baby got Married!!!  Tandee looked gorgeous!  First picture is showing Tandee (after finishing her bridal shoot), my wonderful sister, Shonda, and newest neice, Kaitlyn Suzette (named after my Mother).  The middle picture is Tandee and my Father.  The third picture shows all of my neices and nephews that were in Bountiful to celebrate the wedding.  Tandee’s wedding exhausted me.  We made skirts for all the sisters/ neices that were going to attend, Teralyn (sister) and I planned quite the bridal shower, plus preparing decorations, accomadations, planning, organizing, etc.  I wished I took a picture of the quilt I made her.  I was excited how well it turned out.   I wish them well in the exciting days to come….

After the wedding, the boys and I buckled down to began our canning season.  We canned the pickle beets earlier this month, than did spaghetti sauce and freezer jam last week.  I am awaiting more tomatoes to rippen to can tomato soup. 

 

                                                                                      Tracer & Keaton sneaking ding dongs instead of taking turns running the blender….

We have gone to Grandpa’s daily working with my horse, Koda, sometimes for upto 3 hours.  We made great progress this week.  She is smart, but slow to trust.  Last visit, she taught me a good lesson.  Unfortuately it came at the cost of this bruise….  I was pushing, and asking more of her than I should of….. she kept warning me to stop….long story short, she nipped and ran.

I was called to oversee the sewing group of our ward.  Our first project is making pillowcases.  I found some cute a ideas, and will post pictures when they are made ….

The kids are hungry…Justin is working late…  tonight we are having movie night with Scooby Doo, popcorn and peanut M&Ms.