THE FLOOR! IT'S DONE!

This was a few weeks ago but I am finally getting to posting this. When we first moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago, one of the first things I saw that I wasn't a fan of was the hardwood floor. Not necessarily the floor, but the color. It looked like a basketball court. Well, we finally got around to refinishing it. We thought to ourselves, "This will only take a couple days, right?" Well, 3 turned into 8. It was a lot of work, but we are really happy with the results.

We had to rent a giant sander, and then a smaller one for the edges. The floor took 3 coats of stain and 3 coats of poly. And then we had to wait 72 hours before we could even walk on it.

Here are the before pictures, which were taken when we first moved in and started painting.

And here are the after!

Halloween!

Halloween week is always pretty crazy, but it's the first year I had to help with 2 different Halloween parties at the boys' schools. I decided to do Cruise's class party on Thursday since they had so much going on for Halloween. I asked one of the moms to do the craft and another to do some small snacks. I took care of an activity that was very 'Cruise' inspired. We did some "spooky science" instead of a game since last year the games didn't work out too well. With so many different functioning levels in the class, it's hard to plan activities and crafts that everyone can do. So for mine, the kids just had to watch. First I did what is pretty much the erupting volcano experiment, but in a jack-o-lantern. The kids all got a kick out of that. Then we blew up ghost balloons. We put vinegar in an empty water bottle, put about a tablespoon of baking soda in the balloon, attached it to the mouth of the bottle, and then poured the baking soda into the vinegar, which blew up the balloon. Everyone loved it, especially when I took the balloon off to fly around the room. 

On Halloween morning, Dave took Jett to go fishing at Deer Creek and came home with 5 fish!

I then got Jett ready for school and then headed off to Cruise's school to hear he and his classmates sing and then watch the school Halloween parade. Dave dropped Jett off at school and met me with Miles at Cruise's school. 

From there, Cruise went home with Dave and I ran to Jett's school to help with his Halloween party. On the way, I called Tenney's Pizza and pre-ordered dinner. I got to Jett's school to help out; I was in charge of the craft, so I had the kids make jack-o-lantern tamborines. I wanted to be sure they had something to annoy their parents with. Jett really liked having his mom come help in his class. It was pretty fun helping out and meeting all his friends. 

After school got out, we went home and met my parents who had come into town. My mom had prepared some experiments for the kids to do with her. 

We then cleaned up and I ran to get the pizzas for dinner. After eating, we got the kids ready (again) and took them trick-or-treating while my parents handed out candy. Cruise was Bumblebee, Jett was Optimus Prime, and Miles was Winnie the Pooh. Miles had no idea how this all worked, but he eventually figured out the routine and wanted to be up there on the porch with his brothers. He realized that you knock, someone opens the door, they give you candy, and then you move on to the next house. You could see his disappointment when we would get to a house that didn't answer the door. After three blocks, Cruise & Jett took over the wagon, so I walked home with Miles and we hung out with Grandma & Papa. The boys came home with their buckets full of loot! They even got a full sized Symphony from one of our neighbors. 

Halloween Day is fun, but I am glad it doesn't come again for another year. Whew!  

My 29th

 Well, I am onto my last year in my twenties, which is weird since I have no idea where the rest of them went. I'm pretty sure the kids ran off with them. It's no secret I hate my birthday. I love celebrating other people's birthdays, but when it comes to mine, I just wish it would not come. Ever. But this year was actually a pretty good birthday weekend.

On the Friday before my birthday, Dave's parents watched the kids while we got to go out. We ate dinner at Red Lobster and then checked out the movies at the dollar in Provo. We got tickets to The Giver, but had a couple hours to kill, so we went to Target to get a few things we needed at home. We really enjoyed the movie and had a great time having a few hours without the kids.

On Sunday, we went to the Ybarra's for dinner and to carve pumpkins. They were so nice to celebrate my birthday and I received quite a few wonderful gifts from the family.

On my birthday as I was getting ready, the boys each handed me something they made. Cruise made a paper airplane with a picture of him flying the plane and the letters H.B. on it, which of course stand for Happy Birthday. Jett drew me a cute picture of he and I with some hearts around it. I love their gifts. Before leaving in the morning, I found a card in my car from Dave wishing me a Happy Birthday which was so much fun to find. 

I had a therapy appointment after dropping Cruise off at school. On my way to my appointment, I realized I hadn't eaten breakfast so I stopped by Sonic for a breakfast burrito and a hot chocolate. After ordering, I pulled up to the window to pay only to find out their credit card machine wasn't working. I was about to just drive away without my breakfast when the employee said, "Oh, I'll just give it to you free." I almost cried and said, "Thank you! It's my birthday!" It was pretty awesome. Then I went to my therapy session to discuss why I hate my birthday...ha ha ha! But as always, it was a very successful session. 

I came home to a clean kitchen and the smell of chocolate cake. Dave was busy cooking and cleaning, and pretty much being his awesome self. The rest of the day was pretty normal, and then we had cake after Dave got home from work. 

I got a few cards in the mail from my parents and my grandma with some moolah that we used for my birthday date. My sisters, Char & Ruth, called me to wish me a Happy Birthday, and my sister Abby made me a delicious pumpkin cheesecake as well. 

So as birthdays go, this one was pretty good. Thanks everyone for making my birthday special!

P.S. Earlier in the month, Dave gave me my birthday present early. It's kind of hard to hide an 80lb. heavy bag.

Miles: 13 Months

Just thought I'd do a little update on Mr. Miles.

Miles has found his cute voice and says a few things. Along with the usual "Mama", "Dada", and "baba", he will say "ah dah" along with the sign for "all done". He also will say "uh huh" for yes, and shakes his cute little noggin profusely, while it shakes his whole body along with it, to say "no". He babbles a lot and points at everything. Especially when he sees other babies.

He still isn't walking, but can crawl faster than you'd believe! He enjoys walking while holding our hands, but gets frustrated that he can't walk on his own. He is really good at getting up and down the stairs without any problems, as well as getting off the couch safely. He has also become more and more of a sensory seeker. He enjoys playing in water, especially cups of water that he originally was using to drink out of. He loves to swing on the trapeze bar, jump on the trampoline with us or his brothers, and swing in the baby swing outside.

Miles loves Daddy the most, and NEEDS his attention. I guess he likes me too, especially when I've been away for a bit. But no one can compare to Daddy.

Miles loves playing with his brothers, and even will sit and play by himself for a bit. He loves Sesame Street and Curious George, he loves eating meat and fruit, he loves music and likes to dance when I put on his Pandora station. Miles loves taking things out and putting things in to various containers and drawers, as well as taking things like phones, remotes, etc. and stashing them in random places we would never know to look.

He is getting into such a fun stage where he finds so many things funny and loves to be silly, and he loves to play "Where's Miles?" Which is essentially Peek-a-Boo. 

We love this kid.

Garden Goods, Fishing & Fall Festivities

I haven't been very good at posting about our garden this year. We got a ridiculous amount of peaches off our tree this year as well as apples. Lots of strawberries, not many tomatoes, a bunch of green onions, some deformed cucumbers, and a few zucchinis and banana squash. Banana squash has got to be one of the best things to grow since you don't have to do much to keep it going and it is great to use all winter as long as it's stored properly. Plus, it tastes great with some butter and salt & pepper.

Dave has been doing more fishing lately but sadly has only caught one fish. He has taken out the boys a few times as well as his brothers, each trying some different type of bait: worms, power bait, spinners, and mice with homemade life jackets (seriously). He really enjoys it, but would really like to catch something. I told him he should take up spear fishing. 

And finally...

FALL FESTIVITIES!!!

If anyone knows me really well, you know that I LOVE the fall. It is my favorite time of the year. The smell of the air, the sweater weather, the cold mornings and perfect afternoons, and all the fun that happens in the month of October. 

Last Friday we decided to go to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. It's a little pricey but Cruise begged us to go, so I took the two older boys while Dave took Miles to Farm Country & the Dinosaur Museum. 

 We all met up for dinner at the deli afterwards.

Tonight we all drove up to Heber to ride the Heber Creeper. We got Groupon tickets that saved us about $30, so we decided that would be a fun activity for the boys since they've always wanted to go on a real train (sorry Disneyland, you just don't count). They also had a stationary "haunted train car" that wasn't very scary, however, Jett wouldn't go in. He really wanted to see inside, but he just couldn't get past the werewolf at the beginning. They had the Pumpkin Festival going on so the boys got to pick out a pumpkin after the train ride. It was a short ride, about 40 minutes, which doesn't take you into parts of the area that are very fun to look at, but the kids seemed to enjoy it a lot. Miles fussed on and off, as he has been particularly fussy lately due to quite a few sensory needs. But he survived the ride and enjoyed looking out the window. The boys all got pumpkin chocolate chip cookies as we rode the train and even got to get up and dance to Thriller at one point. 

Cruise trying to convince Jett to get on the "Haunted Train Car" 

After we left the train station, we drove a block to Granny's for some burgers, onion rings and shakes. It's always nice to have a full tummy driving to Lehi from Heber. 

The end.