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!!