What we've been up to......

Well once again I am playing blog catch up, so sorry if you hate reading about 2 months of what has been happening, but here goes.

TALAN TURNED 1 YEAR OLD ON OCTOBER 24:
I know, I can not believe it either. This past year flew by. He is so fun, and still is a good baby (or little boy). He is definitely our "mild" child----and Rilee is the "Wild" child. Payton has a little bit of both in him. He started taking a few steps a couple days before he was one. He prefers crawling because it is so much faster, but hopefully he learns. He says a few words/sounds like "mama", "dada", "baba"(bottle),and "kiki"(I think this is kitty cause he points the the garage where the kitty is.) We had a party for him with both mine and Cody's family. We went out to dinner---mainly because I was too lazy to want to cook for 25 or so people. Dinner was great, Talan slept the entire time, and the best....No dishes for me to do afterward. These pictures are of his party. I made a cake...it is supposed to be a monkey (look careful and you can see the tail), I made him his own little cake that I let him dive in to..and he did. I have done this on all my kids and he was the only one that would really touch it without help. The other two kids just stared at me like "what should I do with this". And then of course presents....he did not get to open a lot of them cause the other kids opened them first. It was a fun night, and I am so luck to have such a sweet, happy, baby boy!!

RILEE HAD HER FIRST DANCE PERFORMANCE:
OK, so it was just at the Gunnison Health fair, but she thought it was pretty neat. They don't even have their costumes yet, but she was still thrilled. Plus a lot of family were down for Talan's birthday, so a lot of people were there watching her. She did a cute job and I look forward to many more dance perfomances.


CARVING PUMPKINS:
Last year we decided to start a tradition of carving pumpkins the weekend of Talan's birthday. Last year I was scheduled to have Talan by c-section on October 27th, but I went to my doctors appointment on the 23rd and I was dilated to a 3/4. My doctor did not think I would last 4 more days so he said, "can you come in tommorrow morning for your c-section." Of course I was excited to have him, but I was overwhelmed trying to get last minute things done in one night. Of those last minute things were carving pumpkins---. We decided to have a "baby's coming" party to fire up the kids for Talan's birthday. We ordered pizza, went to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins, and then came home and carved them.----that is how or tradition got started. Now the kids know that when it is almost Talan's birthday, it is also time for pumpkins!!! Here is our pumpkins this year. I was the washer of pumpkins, and the one who cleaned up the constant pumpkin guts on the floor. Cody helped Payton care his, my mom helped Talan, and my sister in law Emily helped Rilee. You will notice in most of the pictures Rilee is tying to pull the same face as the pumpkin she carved...what a character.

HALLOWEEN---YEAH!!
This year's Halloween was pretty fun. We started off Halloween day by me going to Payton's class to help with his Halloween party....I am his room mother. He was so excited to see me there. He ran up and gave me a big hug and a kiss. What a great kid!! We did some fun activities and all the kindergartners had fun. After school I took all my kids to day care so I could go set up for the Gunnison Halloween carnival. It is nothing very exciting. A few cake walks, a fish pond game and some other games with little prizes, but it is "The Thing" in Gunnison. The kids all dress up and love going there to see their friends, and best of all it is a cheap activity. After the carnival Cody took Talan to his mom's and I took Payton and Rilee trick or treating up her street until we got to her house. The kid's loved T or Treating and it was so cute to listen to them say it at each house. After we got back to Annette's (cody's moms) we were all pretty tired, so we had some caramel apples that Grandma had made and some pop. Then---it was time to go home and attempt to get the kids to go to sleep after all that candy!!! Payton was a bronco's football player, Rilee was a cheerleader (AGAIN). Good thing she is not growing very fast and could wear her last years costume. Talan was supposed to be a football player also, but when I got his costume from the mail it didn't fit him and was already coming unstitched. I sent it back, but did not have time for a new costume to get here, so we dug in to the old costumes and found this little puppy costume. Payton and Rilee wanted him to be the puppy because they said it was like the Gunnison's puppy (bulldog) mascot. They all looked so cute and loved every minute of Halloween......all but when I made them eat their dinner and bedtime!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

KITTY ATTACK:
Well we got a kitty last year that we named "Whiskers". It was a pretty good cat, and had great "mousing" potential. As it grew from a kitty to a big cat, it started getting kind of mean. It would always scratch my kids and other neighbor kids. My kids sometimes would not dare to go outside cause they were afraid of it. It especially did not like Rilee. I think she would swing it by it's tail when it was little...but it would always hiss at her and act like it was ready to pounce. Well one Saturday I was in my house visiting with my friend, and Rilee and her little girl were outside playing. All of the sudden Kennedi (my friends daughter) came in the house and said the kitty got Rilee and she is bleeding, I went outside and there she was her face was covered in blood. It really freaked me out, but after cleaning her up I realized it looked worse then it was. There were a few deep cuts. It scratched her face chest and legs. Needless to say, the minute Cody got home, I had him take the cat to the farm to fend for himself. We did however get another kitty ( I have to for mouse reasons because I have fields all around me). This one is cute with bright blue eyes. The kids named it snowball. It has been a great cat this past month, but went missing 2 days ago, so I will keep you posted on that. Here are the attack pics of Rilee. It was very sad, and her huge tears and the frightened look on her face broke my heart.





TALAN FINALLY GOT EAR TUBES:
After about an ear infection every month and a whole lot of different antibiotics, we finally opted for ear tubes. He got them on November 20th. It was such a fast procedure. (I knew it would be since I am in the OR when they do a lot of them, but you always worry when it is your own kid). We got to the hospital at 8:15 am and were home at 10:00. He did really good, and slept a lot of the day after he got them. I am sure that this is mainly due to him not sleeping at all the night before. He couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight the night before the ear tubes, so when he woke up and wanted his bottle in the night he just cried...and cried.... and cried. We both got no sleep. He is doing real good, and his 2 week check up they were both doing well. He also has found a little balance. I think the ear infections were affecting his balance, cause a few days after the ear tubes he was walking so much better. Yeah!! Hopefully we stay ear infection free from here on out.

THANKSGIVING:
Thanksgiving was nice, but I forgot to charge my camera battery so no pics. The Saturday before Thanksgiving we headed to Logan for my mom's side of the family Thanksgiving. It was a long dive from Gunnison, but the food was good and it was good to see everyone. Everyone that was there that is. Most of the cousins my age were either at the big Utah vs BYU football game, or stayed home to watch it. my brother, Cody and a few of my uncles, went to COdy's cousins house in Logan just as soon as they got there food. Atleast we did not have to listen to them complain about missing the game. Left at the dinner were mostly my mom and her siblings and the mom's with their kids!! All in all it was nice and fun to see everyone. On Thanksgiving day we went to Annette's (Cody's mom's). I was on call, so I had to stay in Gunnison. We had a nice Thankgiving, a lot of great food and overall a very relaxing time. Thanks to Annette and Sam (my sister in law) for doing most of the food preparation. It was fun to see everyone--including Cody's 2nd or 3rd cousin cousin and his family from St. George.

SANTA VISITS GUNNISON:
Every day after Thankgiving, those that are not shopping at black Friday take there kids to the City Hall to see Santa. My kids were so excited to see him. They wrote there letters telling them what they wanted. Payton asked for a scooter and star wars stuff. He made sure to tell Santa that he had been very good. Rilee asked for a scooter and dora and princess stuff. She told Santa she would leave him some cookies and some carrots for his reindeer. I think she was kissing butt cause she was a little worried about being on the naughty list. I decided not to wake Talan up from his nap since he would get to see Santa at the ward party. Once we got there we waited in line. After some doughnuts and visiting with friends Payton turn was finally here-- he went right to Santa's lap. Rilee was not so daring. She was scared to death and said "nevermind, let's just go home." Grandpa Dyreng (Cody's grandpa) was there because the Lions club (a community service group)was in charge of the santa visit. Grandpa could tell that Rilee was scared so he came up and talked to her. He told her how nice Santa was and all and he said, "Don't worry Rilee Santa is my friend, I went to highschool with him." Rilee said "really" and just like that she was no longer scared. Thank goodness for grandparents, they make everything better. She would sit on Santa's lap but Payton had to stay nearby. After the Santa thing, they got treats, put their letters to Santa in his mailbox, and we went home. That afternoon Cody and his uncles and cousins went to cut Christmas trees. I was on call so I could not go, but Payton went with him. Rilee and I decided to go see a matinee at the theater of Mr. magoriums Wonder emporium. We both fell asleep but it was still fun. I love Christmas time because my kids are always so excited. And because there is no worse threat then when I tell my kids, "Do I need to call Santa and tell him you are on the naughty list?" Boy do they shape up fast!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

THE WARD PARTY:
On Dec 3rd (I think) we had our ward party. It was a nice time. The kids did a cute nativity thing. Of course mine and the other little kids were animals. Rilee was a pig and Payton a racoon. From what I heard of raccoons it is kind of scary to picture a raccoon by the manger. No I am just kidding, I am sure the Young women were just finding as many costume masks as possible so everyone could have one. It was really cute. And the best part for the kids was Santa came again. Talan really liked Santa as you can tell by his face in these pics. Rilee was not too scared of Santa---more excited to get the bag of treats though. Payton said " why do I need to tell Santa what I want again?" I said "cause sometimes Santa forgets cause there are a lot of kids to remember." He said, "It sucks to get old huh mom...." How funny.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Well I say this every time, but I will try to do better and keeping up to date on my posts....I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!!!

"My PUNKINS" in the Pumpkin Patch

MIA

I am still recovering from having no husband during the hunting/football season, but I decided it was way past time that I give my blog a facelift. It took me forever to do, and after I finished I was checking out some of my friends blogs and I could not believe it.....I had picked the same background as Kera. I changed it, but I will apologize in advance if anyone has the same one as I do now. (I am not changing again for a while). While I was here I decided I better post a little about what I have been up to, so here goes.......


1) I actually did some canning this year. Cody's mom gave me some canning stuff for Christmas, and since my kids absolutely love peaches and pears, I gave it a try. It went pretty well. Thanks to my mom for taking a day off work to come and show me the secrets to canning. It was a lot of fun and all together I did about 65 bottles of peaches and 40 bottles of pears...Yum I think we are set. Also, I planted a vegetable garden this year and surprisingly grew something other than weeds. I was surprised because I had never done a garden before, so last minute I tilled up a spot, made some furrows, and put down a few seeds and plants. I got a lot of tomatoes (which I canned)...go me, a lot of squash--which we ate and got sick of, zucchini which I made bread with, jalepenos and green peppers which I used for fajitas and salsa, and a few green beans. Overall it was pretty good for my first attempt. I did learn a few things....A) You should follow the guideline of planting your squash the recommended feet apart. My squash plants were taking over my garden. B)plant the bigger items in back. My tomatoes did great because they got all the water, but when they got too big, the back of the garden could not get hit by the water---hence very few green beans. C)Know what you plant where. I had no idea what I planted or where I planted it since I threw it all down last minute. It did make it exciting because I never knew what I would find.





2)Rilee did a little mini G-Gettes camp (mini drill team). I thought she would do awesome because she is always dancing around the house, but the first 2 practice days she would not get off my lap. Finally, by the 3rd day she would dance and actually did very cute. On the performance day I was worried that she would not go out, so I asked a little neighbor girl that is older if she would help get her out. Allie, the neighbor was so nice and made sure she got out.....and then Rilee stood right behind her the entire time. I think she was dancing, but could not really see, so after words I made her pose for these pics. How cute is she!!!!!!






3)I have been dealing with a teething baby. He go his 2 bottom teeth the middle of September,and then at the end of September all 4 top front teeth started coming in at once. He finally found his way of coping with the pain. He would bite on the bottle nipple and pull it out fast. He felt better, but milk was everywhere. I can not believe he is 1 year old tommorrow. Time flies!




4) Busy with a kindergartner. Payton loves to do his reading and homework. He gets excited over the littlest things, and he absolutely loves "being a boy". I am not a bug/frog/spider person, bit I had to act excited because he really wanted me to take a picture of him holding his frog. Did I mention he loves being a boy.....10 minutes later him and a neighbor boy had squished the frog.......Yuck!!




5) Rilee started dance.... and she absolutely is loving it. She is so cute to watch. She could not get her feet to turn out for pliea' (or how ever you spell it), so she figured out she could sit down, turn out her feet to first position then stand up and she was ready. It did take a lot of time, and if/when she lost her balance she had to start all over. I think she is getting better now. She actually has a little performance this Saturday!!




6) Cody's sister Mandi got married on October 11th, and I made her wedding video. I had done a few videos before, but they were always just for myself. It was a lot more stressful when I knew other people would see it. It turned out well though, and I think Mandi was happy. Mandi married Chad Barton, they are such a cute couple. We are excited for them.

7) Other than these things, I have been going to football games (Cody is still coaching), being a patient wife while he hunts, cooking, cleaning, playing with kids and working at the hospital. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, my brother Dave is living with us for a while...hopefully while he gets ready for a mission. He has been a big help and my kids and all the neighbor kids just love him!!!!

Once in a lifetime...or so I am told.

Anyone that has been to my house has seen this elk hanging on my wall.....
Well, good news.....he has a friend.

After 15 years of putting in for the big bull elk hunt, Cody finally drew out. I was excited for him, because as he keeps saying, "it is once in a lifetime". He has spent a few hours the last month up scouting for the elk, but most of his scouting has been done the last 2 weeks. He has gone up looking and every time he would come home and say "I did not see anything". I was worried, but I am sure, not as worried as he. Saturday was the opening day of the hunt, so at 4:30 am him and many, many family and friends headed up the mountain to help him get his elk (or whatever you do when you hunt). He came home that night empty handed.... He did see a few ,but nothing big enough to shoot on opening morning. He headed back up Sunday, and still no luck. He took off this whole week of work, so Monday morning it was back up the mountain for him. I did not hear from him, but around 10:00 pm his buddy called to tell me that he got one. I am no elk expert, but from the picture it looked pretty good. Cody says that it is not as big (wide as his dad's)-----oh yeah that is the one on our wall now, because his parents did not have big enough ceilings for it. Cody d says that he is happy with it, so as long as he is happy, I am happy. After all.....it WAS "Once in a lifetime."

I think I was a pretty good sport about letting him come and go as he needed to to get his elk, but I am glad that he is back and I do not have to feel like a single wife/ mother anymore. I am glad that he had a great experience. Thanks to all of his friends and family for helping him with this. Especially to Casey for spending so much time scouting and finding the elk (and to his sweet wife Sam for letting him come down and take off work). This will be something that COdy always remembers, and I think that I will too. After all, I agreed to let Cody hang it in our bedroom..... I know weird, but hey, it is his house too (and I don't want to pay $1000 or whatever it costs for a garage decoration.) Glad you had fun Cod, you deserve it!!!

Thanks family

Well, on Saturday morning, my brother called to see if the kids (Payton and Rilee)could go up camping with my family at Payson Lakes on Sat-Sunday. I had a bridal shower that I needed to go to, so I could not go. Glen (my bro) dates a girl from Gunnison and her and her daughter were going to be driving up to Payson to go camping also and so they took my kids. It was so nice of them. Cody was actually gone Saturday and most of Sunday looking for his elk (yes he has a big bull elk tag). I was alone with just Talan. We had some great one on one. We cuddled without being malled by the other 2 kids. He got in some great naps (which usually does not happen because he is always getting woke up), and I got my house cleaned. I keep being told that I should have done something FUN on me sort of free day, but we (Talan and I) still had fun. I am so lucky that he is so happy and healthy. He always has a little sparkle in his big brown eyes----even though he is teething right now he is very happy. I am so grateful for everything that my family does for me and my kids. They are always so willing to help out and I am so lucky to have them all. My kids had an absolute blast camping..fishing....riding scooter...fires....DIRT, DIRT and more DIRT!! Thanks to you all for allowing me a little rest weekend....you are all awesome!! Here are some pics of Talan and his cheesy little grins, along with his chewing on his tongue as he is teething.

3 years going on 18---it's preschool time!!

Yes, Rilee finally started preschool, and she is absolutely loving it. She started on September 8th, and was so excited. She got a new Dora backpack which she thinks is pretty neat (even though it is as big as her). She has some good friends in preschool with her and an amazing teacher. She is ready for school... it was very hard for her to sit home when Payton went to school. It is weird to think that 2 kids are in school (kind of), but I think it is good for her. I think it will also help with the little teasing that has been going on a lot lately between Payton and Rilee. Payton is at school from 7:45-11:15. Then Rilee is at preschool (3 times a week) from 12:30- 2:30. By the time the 2 kids are together they have missed each other and are a little nicer. I was worried about how Rilee would behave in school..she tends to be quiet the fire ball (full of energy). But I called her teacher for a behavior report and her teacher (Ms. alice) said she is being just wonderful....yeah!! Every day she comes home and tells me how good she was! She also is loving to feel so big. She think that now that she is in preschool she is so grown up and all that. She thinks that she can use knifes, read, just about anything she wants. She will always reply, "I can cause I am in preschool and I am big...huh". Well I am very proud of Rilee. She is my little princess. She brings a joy to our family that I can not even describe. I love her so much and am so blessed to be her mom.