The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

From September to January these beauties are in season, they start readily appearing in late October and by mid-November I am investing ALOT of time in eating them. They are a challenge but sooo worth it. If you haven't had one (yes, I actually met a GROWN man who had never had one about a week ago) do yourself a favor and get one before they are gone. Delicious. That's all I have to say!

Sizing up the competition

If you follow my blog you will recall the yearly Halloween costume contest at the office. The first year I won, clean. Edward Scissorhands, no competition. Second year, a mime, ROBBED, I only won second place because Katie wore a corset all day (like that should count for extra points). The part about these contests that I have never mentioned...despite the $100 first place prize, and cash prizes for the second and third place winners, there are never many people out of the almost 30 employees that compete. SO the odds of winning have always been good. UNTIL this year when Dr. Hamilton decided to make the contest mandatory. Well since I don't work at the office that much anymore, and Halloween was not on a day when I was schedule to be in, I technically didn't have to compete. And I knew that if I was going to bother it had to be go big or go home. So here is the competition....

Red Riding Hood



Cop

Army Chick

Mail Order Bride From Russia

Witch

Pocahontas

Ice Witch

Renaissance Chick

Ghost

Identity Thief

Pirate

Brandon (Her Husband and patients fully thought that she was actually a man!)

Fat Bastard

Cher

A Baker

(I got a really bad picture because Mindy was watching Ryan so that I could take all of these pictures....Thanks Mindy!)

And so you are wondering what could I have been to beat out all of these costumes (there were actually more that I didn't get pics of...)

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

The Wardrobe is actual wood, with actual handles. So therefore it was actually awesome! And we totally won first place.

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch. It wasn't the real patch that we have been to in years past, but it was pretty good and WAY closer, which meant very little time spent in the car. They had a little hay ride out to the patch where they were growing small pumpkins and gourds. Then they had a bunch of big pumpkin that they probably bought at Publix (I don't know that for a fact, but I think it is a safe assumption :) Ryan had the time of his life because there was a ton of space to run around. That kid has no fear about anything. He was trying to pet a turkey and was super annoyed when we kept pulling him back.

Later on that evening we went to the Trunk-Or-Treat for our ward. It was pretty fun but definitely for kids a little bit older. People decorate their trunks up and Ryan was trying to climb in the back of people's cars towards their light displays.

A Plea for Help!!

Okay, my friend Tami and I are in need of serious help from the blog community. I know that I have Canadian readers and we need something that you have. Specifically, CHIPS.

Okay, we somehow have managed to get Ketchup and Taco chips over the years but we haven't had any for a really long time. And we need some BAD. We went online to order some and I KID YOU NOT, they were going to charge us 75 dollars for shipping for the 60 dollars of chips that we wanted (they were already super over priced) which would have meant over 130 for some chips.

Here is the thing, some people don't know what I am referring to when I say ARRIBA TACO CHIPS. They come in an orange bag.....Please tell me you know them. We need some Ketchup, Taco and Bacon chips, OBVIOUSLY Old Dutch.

Let me know who is willing to take on this challenge, we will make it worth your while.

Thank you.

***UPDATE***
There is a guy from Calgary on EBay that sells all kinds of chips and chocolate bars. We bought some from him because he consolidates shipping and we were able to get them for a SOMEWHAT reasonable price. Dude is certainly making a substantial profit so for those looking for a business idea....

Tis the Season?

Well, this week Christmas preparations began. My good friend emailed me the link to make an appointment to see Santa...appointments had opened that day and were rapidly filling up. So quickly I made an appointment for Ryan to see Santa at the same time as his friend Anna so that we could enjoy this experience all together. This is funny for a few reasons....Ryan's Halloween costume hasn't arrived yet (stay posted to see what he is being this year), the appointments were gone by the end of the day except for a few random Tuesdays, and the best of all at the bottom of the web site "if you are found to be selling or bartering your appointment time" it will be cancelled immediately. I guess these spots are a hot commodity item. Also, the web site is set up to "make your holiday season less stressful." Well it certainly will be less stressful when November rolls around and people who didn't make appointments to see Santa won't be able to see him!! Crazy, crazy! This is for one particular Santa in Atlanta (hmmm that rhymes) and you can see him at other malls without an appointment. If I am honest, I don't know what is so special about this particular Santa but I will let you all know when we go see him.

I will soon be posting a picture of Ryan's new haircut, but as it is, I am too lazy to go and get my camera right now since it is in the car!

News...

Not too much to report on, except that I have had the same blog up for a very long time. I find this annoying when other people do it, yet I am one of the worst offenders. Things at our house seem very busy as of late. Especially for me, I don't know if I mentioned that Matt got a promotion with UPS. He now works in the finance department doing something that sounds painfully boring to me, but he loves it! This would be why I didn't major in finance....Anyways, because of that, he no longer watches Ryan in the days anymore as he is working a normal job. Which means that I have scaled back my work to one day a week and a couple from home. It is A LOT of work taking care of Ryan and trying the handle an almost full-time job. I never thought that staying home would be easy but it has proved more challenging than I anticipated. Between my job and my calling at church I feel as though I live on the computer.

In other news, I am now being treated for my psoriasis. Perhaps many of my readers were unaware of this nasty autoimmune condition that I have had forever (really I thought everyone knew but somehow people are always surprised) The medication that I am on is pretty potent and therefore you can't be on it when you are pregnant or nursing, so I just got started about 2 weeks ago. Another wonderful side effect is CONSTANT nausea. I am hoping to get used to it but so far I feel like I am pregnant all over again which has made me consider whether I really want to ever be pregnant again....jury is still out on that one! I can't imagine feeling sick for 10 months and chasing after Ryan....The nausea has also made me consider whether I really want to treat my psoriasis, so far I am sticking with it but we shall see.

We are getting excited for the holidays as the fall weather is FINALLY coming (I guess not really as it is in the 80s all week, but the leaves are changing color) We are excited to see a lot of family when we come out to Utah. I am a little nervous though as Ryan wakes up WITHOUT FAIL at 5:30 every morning. That is early, but it is even earlier in the Mountain time zone. If anyone has ANY tips to make this kid sleep in later please pass them on. I swear I put him to bed later and he wakes up EARLIER. Not kidding. And then he is super crabby. So I don't know how to get him to sleep later, but I am willing to try ANYTHING.

365 DAYS

Well, Ryan is a year old now. It seems that time has past so quickly but at the same time, he seems to have become such a part of our lives that he has been around for much longer. He also seems to act much older at times, exerting such a huge personality for such a tiny body! We are so happy to have little Ryan in our family. On his birthday we had a party with family and friends to celebrate the occasion. It was really fun and even though I am certain Ryan had no idea what was going on, he seemed to have a great time. We were so excited to have so many of his friends celebrate with us.

Funny, the entire time, Ryan had a baseball balloon tied to his belt loop because he kept getting frustrated when the balloon would get away from him. If you look in the pictures, in some of them you can see the balloon floating above his head. And we still have all of the balloons at home, he has been playing with them while they slowly deflate!

This picture is for Sara. This is the banner that I found online. The party was a baseball theme.

Ryan opening his presents with Mom and Dad. It was a little challenging to keep him interested....he wanted to look at everything except the presents!

Ryan in his cutie baseball shirt!

The cake! I made it with my friend Tami, when she went with me to order it and they said it would be over $200, we decided we could make it ourselves...I mean hello, I have seen like a million Ace of Cakes episodes. It turned out pretty good. The balls and the bat are made of chocolate!

Ryan enjoying a chocolate baseball....it was his birthday after all.


I can't believe he is already a year. Time has flown by too fast. We love you Ryan!!

A Quarter of Century

Well, my 25th birthday came and went. To make it seem like a bigger deal, I have been referring to myself as a quarter of a century. It makes me sound older, or maybe just ridiculous. The day was fun, we went to the Cheesecake Factory...and like my friend Chris says, when you have 10 pages of "specialities" are they really that special? I think not. I was given a telephoto lens for my birthday which was totally awesome!


Other than that, we recently got back from the beach. Which was really awesome...except for Hurricane Gustav being there are the same time as us. The first day was beautiful and really warm. The second day was nice but kind of windy. By the third day, the beach was gone and the Gulf had swollen all the way up to the condo we were staying in. Luckily, we were only there for the long weekend so we were heading home anyway. We were excited because our friends Ginny and Shawn came with us and of course brought their little girl Charlotte.


While we were there, we put Ryan in this trampoline bungee thing and I have the best video ever, so stay tuned, but I will post a picture of it right now. The thing is, he was the smallest kid there, (obviously as he barely met the 20 lbs requirement) and people all over were watching him. Some of them thought he would pop right out the top and I'm sure they thought I was a bad parent for putting him it but he LOVED it. And he cried when we took him out. The beach was pretty low key and we had a good time just getting away. Enjoy the pics!!

Ryan hanging out on the balcony. He loved it out there. This is also one a MILLION crackers that he ate while we were there. It seemed to be his food of choice.

The view from the balcony.

Ryan getting started on the bungee trampoline!

He was squealing and flapping his arms the whole time, it was hysterical!!

They had this kidzone area, which had like sprayers and stuff. Ryan liked it, Charlotte did not! The huge bucket of splashing water freaked her out! I don't know if Ginny knows I took that picture :)

Mom and Ryan in the lazy river. This would have been a lot more fun if I had a tube myself, but since I was keeping up with Ryan I just walked around with his little floatie.

That is Matt body surfing in the double red flag waves. Ginny, Shawn and I were laughing so hard. It was awesome.

You have until August 31st

To win this most fabulous prize

My cousin is a Scentsy consultant, she is giving away this prize to celebrate her 100th blog....I just realized I only have 45 which seems like pittance compared to 100. Moving on, go to her blog http://www.sumtinfishy.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment. Then you are entered into the drawing....SOO easy.

PS I have a bunch of great pictures, and we are headed to the beach for the weekend so we will have more, I will post a ton when I get back, BUT for your enjoyment until then....

This is before church but they brush their teeth together every morning, funny huh?

The Boy Can Walk!

Well, Ryan has decided that it is time to walk! He has made a lot of progress in the past week and I have made several attempts to catch them on video. I may have to put together all the clips, but seriously it is over 10 times of trying. Every time I got out the camera he either got so close to me and wouldn't walk away that I couldn't get him, or he became interested in something on the floor or just thought I was being funny so he would just sit and laugh. Finally I decided that I needed reinforcements and made Matt hold the camera so that I get Ryan far enough away to actually capture his mad skills.

You can enjoy this video here!

To mark this auspicious occasion, I bought Ryan some new shoes and sandals. Madi says that I mark every occasion with a shoe purchase, but lets be honest, girls have the market cornered on cute clothes. Shoes is all boys have. So check out these awesome ones. They are still soft sole like Robeez and Pedipeds but they have rubber traction at the toe and heel so they are a little more substantial for outside use. Also, I believe they are completely adorable. These people also make some of the cuter girl shoes I have ever seen, for those of you in the market.

We haven't been up to anything to exciting as of late. We have been spending time at the pool to keep away from the heat. We also enjoyed going to the zoo with Lindy and Anya. It was really fun and Lindy had my expectations set fairly low so I really enjoyed myself! I will post some pictures from that later, they are still on my camera.