Apple Picking Time!

So, I know I haven't been blogging much lately, but in my defense its been pretty darn busy around here.

As you can see, Jay had a very successful antelope hunt. He's officially hooked and I couldn't be more proud! :) Having him loving this sport makes it all the more likely that I can get back out there eventually. I miss fall in MN desperately, especially the grouse hunting!

We headed out apple picking last weekend... We just love Greenbluff in the fall!! :)

Harry picking

Emma "helping"- she did a Great job at picking the rotten apples off the ground and throwing them

They each got to eat an apple too- Emma picked one almost as big as her head!

Little sibling love by the pumpkins!

and that would be some strange man we saw at the farm....

Playing in the straw pit

Love this :) They're SO big!!

I spent the last week making apple pies, apple crunches, and apple cakes. Now that we have a wonderful deep freezer, I'm trying to fill it up. Jay did his part by adding some delicious antelope meat, so now I figure we can get some baked goods hoarded up as well. :)

Jay heads out tomorrow for another 2 week stint in Wass Baggies (that's what Harry used to call it!), so I'd like to promise more frequent posting, but we all know that probably won't happen...

Emma's Birthday List

I figured I'd post Emma's birthday list. If you ask her, the only thing she'll tell you she wants is Strawberry Shortcake and a Puppy, but there are some other things she's had her eye on in the last while. :) Jay and I got her a super super cool bike, so pictures of that to come! :) She's also VERY into butterflies and farm animals right now. As far as clothes go, she has tons, but really likes things that are super super soft, and is wearing a size 3T.

1. Hokey-pokey Elmo

2. Bed and stroller for her dolls

3. Strawberry Shortcake stuff- bedsheets maybe?? movies, books, etc

4. Snow White DVD and accessories- they have a super cute set of the doll with the dwarves at Walmart

5. Hen and Chicks from Pottery Barn Kids- SO cute!

6. Light-up shoes, size 7.5 or 8. She doesn't really do much as far as specific characters go, except for Dora, of course! She also really likes boots, she could probably use a pair of cute brown ones for fall, probably 7 or 7.5.

7. A puppy. :)

8. Crazy Fort: These are super super cool and are sold on Amazon and I believe some other local places.

Gift cards to: Baby Gap, Toys R Us, Build A Bear, Coldstone, Barnes and Noble, Gymboree

Fun at the Fair!!!

Last night at the Spokane Fair was free admission for military and their families. So, of course we headed out to take advantage! It was pretty hot when we got there, so we roamed the animal barns first. We saw lots of animals pooping and lots and lots of chickens, bunnies, cows, pigs, pigeons, and cattle (steer?) plus some monstrous fruits and vegetables. Harry decided that we should get Emma a bunny for her birthday and he wants a homing pigeon for his birthday. Uhhh, no.

But then we had some dinner- love fair food!- and headed over to the rides, which were a big hit. I was concerned that Ems wouldn't be tall enough to ride some of them, but she's apparently grown AGAIN and is now 37" which was a full inch over the height requirement. At this rate, she'll end up taller than Jay!! hehe...

Harry and Anna by the giant pumpkins

Emma driving the cars

Harry and Ems on the motorcycles

LOVING the teacup ride- their squeals and shrieks were probably the loudest of anybody that has ever ridden it, they just kept feeding off each other and spinning faster and faster!! Jay and I laughed SO hard from the sidelines. :)

Jay and Doodle on the swings- she thought it was SO cool that she could ride with Daddy. :) Harry and I rode together, but of course, Jay didn't think to take any pictures. :(

Picture updates!

I keep hoping that fall is finally coming to Spokane, but apparently not. We had a few GREAT 60-70 degree days last weekend, but its supposed to be back up to 90 again by this weekend. Pull out the shorts again!! :) School is going well, Harry loves it. Emma does NOT. The kids have little tables they sit at next to their nametags when they get there and they have quiet time playing with an activity while they wait for everybody to get there. Emma happened to notice that one of the girls in Harry's class was named Emma (she was even at his table!) and sat down at her chair and said, "I Emma. I STAY school today. I be with Harry." BIG meltdown when it was leaving time. :( I ended up taking her for an apple juice and a blueberry muffin at Starbucks on Tuesday after we dropped off Harry, but she wailed the whole time. She kept saying "I miss Harry, I school today." After we FINALLY picked him up (2 1/2 hrs later!), we got in the car and she says, "okay, I happy now. Harry's here." I'm still looking for an activity for her to do while he's at school, I was thinking a mommy and me gymnastics or swimming or something, but nothing seems to be working out. Although, there is a lot of stuff on Wednesdays, not that it helps us out at all. :(

Anyways, more pictures to keep you remembering how beautiful these small children are:

Harry on the way home from Pig Out in the Park.

Giggle girl riding bike with Daddy

Wheelie!!

Day #2 of school- notice how Emma is clinging to him!!?? :)

Emma peed on the potty again! I'm still not ready to train her, I feel like we just got done training Harry (its only been 6 months!). Plus, we really pushed him and I feel like that was part of why it took him so long. So, we're going to encourage and support her when she wants to go, but not push her. At least not yet. She's been sneaking into the bathroom when somebody (ahem, Jay) leaves the door open, takes her diaper off, and uses the potty. Clever girl!!

First Day of School!!

Harry started preschool today! My big boy was headed out for his first day at the "big boy school." I took endless pictures at home and at school when he first go there until he told me "mom, I'm not smiling for any more of your pictures!" (I probably took too many, but I have tons of first day pictures from my childhood and wanted to do the same!)

All dressed and ready- he's had his clothes picked out for a week now!

By his cubby

By his table spot

Emma was VERY VERY upset. Like big alligator tears. I really expected to cry myself, but was so busy taking care of her that I didn't get a chance! I did cry when he got home and told me about his day. Apparently, they read two stories (one about an owl who went to school without his mom- "just like US!") and one about Buzz Lightyear; talked about airplanes; and he made a friend with a boy who had numbers on his shirt. We're really working with him about learning people's names, he generally calls people "Hey Red Shirt" and expects that to suffice. Emma howled the whole way to a coffee playdate with a few other "one-child-gone" moms until I told her she was going to be able to see Rhenda (who is her favorite person on earth, besides Jay!) and then she calmed down. It probably didn't help that we dropped off Jay right after Harry and she felt a little lonely. :( When it was FINALLY time to pick him up, she ran up to him at the school screaming "MY Harry, MY HARRY!!" His teachers were laughing so hard, it was adorable.

My little dumplings :)

Ten on Tuesday

It probably makes me a dork, but I really enjoy these. It forces me to come up with updates for the kids that I assume "everybody" knows, but in reality, nobody does because most of the people who read this live 1000's of miles away... like in separate parts of the country and far enough away that they can't hear Emma's temper tantrums... I wonder if any of you would like me for a houseguest?? LOL

Anywho's:

1. Harry got into Morning Preschool! This is HUGE for me/us. He'll go Tues/Thursday for 2.5 hrs in the morning. Had he gotten into the Afternoon class, Emma would have had to make do with a short nap two days a week. Which would've caused everybody in a 10 mile radius to pay with their eardrums for about 24 hours afterwards. NOT an ideal situation. Thank the LORD that this worked out for us.

2. Emma tells everybody that she sees that she's getting a "puppy for her boobday." We've told her over and over (okay, only Jay has broken this to her, since I"m all for the puppy!), but she just says, "No, Daddy, I get puppy. MY boobday. MY puppy." We'll see how it goes when there isn't a puppy waiting for her on her boobday.

3. I'm completely addicted to making these amigurami. I got a pattern for a puppy today, so maybe that will tide a small pigtailed child over for awhile? I also am 80% finished with my purple hippo, so pictures later!

4. Emma's vocabulary has probably tripled. She now uses sentences like "I go there right now with Daddy" and anything involving butterflies or airplanes. Most days she also refuses to leave her clothes on unless she's wearing something with a butterfly on it. I can't count the number of times in the last week she's crawled under her bed, taken off her clothes, and thrown them back out at me, yelling "I wear Budda-FWY!" Or, she just runs out to the backyard and takes them off there skipping the tantrum part, but throwing in the diaper removal as well. Really, these are mostly her only tantrums (besides when we're leaving somewhere fun), so it sounds worse than it is, and I suppose she could pick worse battles to fight.

5. My moms group just started up our book club again and I"m THRILLED. I hope they don't mind that I have enough books picked out to discuss to probably get us through the next year or so... LOL

6. Harry's behaviour is getting better. It's slowly happening, but we've been stressing the "make good decisions" mantra and it works most days. Granted there are the times that he's so far agitated and worked up that it doesn't matter if we dangled cookies in front of him, he's too far gone to change his behaviour. Those are the times at home that Jay and I really struggle with. He screams, throws things at his door, etc and we're forced to deal with him for every single action because we both believe that each action deserves to be dealt with and not ignored just because he's mad. However, it gets to the point that all his privileges until he's 38 have been taken away, he's lost his lovey and his blankets (and his pillows!) off his bed, and had a few spankings. What exactly do we do at that point? Usually, that's when we swap off and one of us tries to play good cop while the other cools off, but we're running out of ideas, plus I don't really believe in good cop when he's acting that way.

Any suggestions??

7. It's hot here. And its now September, I'm all done with the 90's, please!!! I'm dying to let my kids play outside and have to tell them, "don't forget your sweatshirts!!"

8. We need a babysitter. We have numbers for a few people, but the planning ahead portion is really hard for Jay right now with work. However, I'm needing some breaks and some out of the house time, so I think its time to get on that horse and call somebody.

9. We got Ems a bike for her birthday. Its a surprise, but its SO cool I can't wait to give it to her. It's all shiny dark pink with silver fenders- totally retro style, but with pompoms and a honker too! I was planning to wait until next summer or even later to get her a bike, but she's been pedaling around on Harry's and doing REALLY well (must be that second child "I can do anything you can do, better!" syndrome), and we didn't have a clue what to get her for her birthday. So, instead of buying her some toy she won't play with, we got the bike. It's SO cool! (Did I already say that??!!)

10. We still haven't gotten her anything else for her birthday... Any suggestions??? You'd think she'd be easier to buy for, but we're out of ideas. She doesn't really do most of the girly things like dress-up; she likes Harry's toys, but its hard to find them in a girly style so that they're clearly for her and not his (keeps the fighting to a dull roar that way). Besides a puppy of course, we're drawing blanks!!