Year of Tate: Day 347

We visited the Stringtown Polar Express today and it pretty much made Tate's life.

We even got to visit Santa's workshop and Tate told Santa that he wanted a "choo-choo."

St. George with the Family

We decided to take a quick trip down to St. George to have a little family time before the baby joins us in October.

I did not expect it to be over 100 degrees every day we were there when I planned this trip in early May.  Ugh.  I'm not a fan of hot weather, especially when I'm pregnant.

We left Friday afternoon and got to St. George at about 5pm.  We decided to have dinner then swim in the pool at the hotel.  Luckily, swimming wears out children and Tate fell asleep pretty easily.

On Saturday we woke up and ate breakfast then headed out to the St. George temple.  We walked around the grounds and went through the visitor's center.  After that we went to the St. George Children's Museum.  It was really fun and Tate loved the farm/house room.  Some of the rooms were too advanced for Tate but we had a good time anyway. 

 

Next door to the museum is a little splash pad.  It was already so hot that we decided to let Tate run through it in his clothes for a while.  He loved it!

We stopped at the Bear Paw Cafe for lunch.  It was very yummy.  Tate tried some of Husband's Italian soda.

He's not really a fan of any sort of carbonation.

After a nice family nap we went to the outlets (which are not very awesome, btw).  Tate looked like a hot mess.  Apparently I did too (because I forgot to bring a brush and my hair was all kinds of crazy) but I didn't get any pictures of myself.

After the outlets, we went to Wingers for dinner.  In case you were wondering, this was Tate's 4th meal that consisted of only fries and dip...we're on vacation, the only necessary vegetable is ketchup.

Sunday we went to church and headed home.  We stopped at a rest stop in Scipio (I think) that had a petting zoo with all kinds of animals.  We saw a camel, zebra, geese, goats, horses and donkeys.  It was pretty cool, especially for free. We got home at about 5pm.  For an almost 2 year old, Tate handled the trip very well. We need to take more family vacations, preferably ones that don't involve more than 5 hours of driving.

Halloween 2013

We went all out for Halloween this year.  By "all out" I mean Husband and I dressed up...and I didn't even have a classroom Halloween party to dress up for.

Baby H. and I went to Husbands work for their party.  Baby H. doesn't get Halloween yet.  He was just happy to be walking around and seeing other people.

After the party, we headed to my mom's to show off our costumes and eat some soup.  By the time we finally thought about getting a picture, Baby H. was not in the mood.

I have about 45 like this one but this is the only one that was mostly in focus.

Picking up Baby H. resulted in only slightly better photos.

Anyway, Happy Halloween from Mary Poppins, one of the penguins from Jolly Holiday and Bert.

Fall Family Photos

My sister-in-law, Rachel, and her husband, Michael, took our family photos a few weeks ago.  I may be weird but I really like getting family photos.  I like picking outfits, trying to make myself as pretty as possible without looking like I tried too hard.  But mostly I like having the photos and capturing that one moment in time.

Here are a few of my favorites.

All photos by Farner Photography.

Fall Leaves

Baby H. and I went to my mom's and played in the leaves today.  Baby H. doesn't really know what you're supposed to do with leaves.  He spent most of his time just walking around the yard and completely ignoring me and the fun I was having with the leaves.  Geesh! Maybe next fall we'll have a little more fun.

This is the only picture that looks like he knows he's supposed to play and have fun in leaves.  He didn't really.  This picture is a fluke.

Putting him in the leaves caused a bit of a melt down.

Pumpkin Patchin'

We went to a pumpkin patch today.  Baby H. was more excited about the helicopters that kept flying over the field.

When did my baby grow up?

Once we got in the car though, he was very excited to hold the pumpkin in his lap.

And, pretty unrelated, these pajamas were mine almost 30 years ago.

Somebody's Drunk in the Kitchen

 No...no one was drunk in the kitchen.  I just prefer pie to cake.

"Pie can’t compete with cake. Put candles in a cake, it’s a birthday cake. Put candles in a pie, and somebody’s drunk in the kitchen." ~ Jim Gaffigan

Tiffany's Shower

I went to a bridal shower for my sister-in-law, Tiffany, today.

It was a typical shower...games, talking and food.

My favorite game was the make a dress out of toilet paper and napkins game.

My team's dress is on the right.

A Text Conversation

After discussing where we're going to dinner for Court's birthday:
Me: "What do you want for your birthday?"
Court: "I don't even know what I want. Ahhhhh."
Me: "Whit if I have a little black and white picture? :)"
Court: "What?"
Me: "I hoped you would have known what I was talking about.  I guess you'll just have to wait."
Court: "Of Justin Bieber?"
Me: "Nope.  Because you couldn't guess I'm not giving it to you."
Court: "Frack. I hate the waiting game."
Court: "Wait! What? Ultrasound.  You're lying to me."
Me: ":)"

This conversation lead to this:

Yep, my family bought 3 clearance Halloween costumes.  And they're in many sizes so whenever fiction baby is born we will be set.

 P.S. I'm not really pregnant.  Karma's a jerk, right ladies?

Pizza Play Here We Go!

Husband and I took his nephews, R and Baby S, to Planet Play today for R's birthday. 

The entire time we were driving to Planet Play R kept saying, "Pizza Play, here we go!"  If I ever referred to it as Planet Play, he'd say, "No! It's Pizza Play, silly."  R was super excited.  Look at the excitement on his face.

The excitement even rubbed off on Baby S:

That's Baby S excitement...promise.

We ate first.  The pizza was actually decent.  I was expecting so sort of cross breed between Chuck E. Cheese and 5 Buck pizza.  Also, not a bad price for all you can eat.  P.S. if you're 60 or older...go Monday-Friday for $5 all you can eat pizza, salad, pasta and dessert buffet.  That's a good deal.  Plus! The restaurant is separated from the games. 

To get the boys to keep sitting while Husband I and finished eating dinner we gave them ice cream cones.  Not so sure if Baby S knows how ice cream cones work.

Use your hands like a spoon?

Let it melt and drink it?

R was a pro though.  "Take a picture of ONLY my ice cream cone.  I'll hide my face."

"Take a picture of my mustache."

After we ate ice cream we went to wash up in the bathroom.  Turns out these hand dryers are terrifying.

Who knew?

We played and played and forgot to take many pictures. 

It was a fun, exhausting day.

Happy (late) birthday, R!

Dictionary Fun

Dev: (Opening the dictionary) I'll tell you the definition, you tell me the word...

We played this game for at least 20 minutes.  By the way...we need some practice.

All By Myself...

Husband was asked to go on a business trip to Washington, D.C.  And he didn't take me. 

He left at 1 this afternoon.  I was a big girl and went to his sister's house for a birthday party all by myself (these are big steps in the life of Ash H). 

As much as I enjoy alone time...I'm kinda over it now (yes, it's only been 7 hours).

Hopefully I'll be really productive over these next few days and the house will sparkle and I'll be well rested and all the school things will be done and we'll have a nice day together when he gets back.

Father's Day Was Smashing

After all the Father's Day shindigs, I took Court and Dev home.

Court had made millions of cupcakes.

Court: Anthony, can I smash a cupcake in your face for a dollar?
Husband: Sure.

Husband obviously doesn't really care what is about to happen to him.

Court was way too nice but she enjoyed herself.

Ash: Can I smash a cupcake in your face for a dollar?Husband: I'll foot that bill.Court: Sure.

I was not as nice as Court was...I also had to hold her up so she didn't fall over from the force of my cupcake smashing.

That face?  All from the force of my cupcake to face smashing.

Best dollar ever spent...or given back.

This gave me an idea.  Remember how we have 6th grade markets?  Well, we're having one last store and I'm going to sell cupcakes for students to smash in my face.  I think they'll be stoked.  But don't worry, it will cost them a pretty penny to get this privilege.