Pumpkins

This year my grandma grew several pumpkins in her garden. She gave us three little ones to take home. For family night one night, we decided to paint them. I planned on sharing with the girls but Joel wanted to paint his own pumpkin. He went and got a butternut squash and painted it. Annalyn absolutely loved painting those pumpkins. Really she just likes to paint. Good thing she had a painting shirt on because she got paint everywhere. Every time we weren't looking, she would paint her hand. I painted a nice face on my pumpkin but Annalyn painted over it. 

After we were done painting, I pulled out my camera but Brynlee wouldn't let me take a picture of her in the painting shirt she was wearing. She ran and got Annalyn's Halloween costume and put it on. We all had fun painting our pumpkins. 

The Sunday before Halloween Grandma Hirtle had her grandkids pick out some of the pumpkins from her garden to carve. Brynlee picked out a white squash. She just wanted to cut off the top and call it a ghost. 

On Monday night we carved some more pumpkins with my family. Brynlee wanted a cat on hers. She didn't like getting yucky from the pumpkin so she let her dad do most of the work. Annalyn was a pumpkin gutting queen. She didn't want any help. She used a spoon the whole time and she spent a long time scooping out all of those seeds. She was really only getting one seed at a time. When Annalyn was done, Joel had fun carving an intricate face in the pumpkin. 

I loves spending these times making memories with my family. 

Canadian Thanksgiving

In Canada they celebrate their Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October. This usually falls right around Joel's birthday. Usually we don't do anything for it but this year Joel's sister Jenny and her family came down from Canada to visit. Joel's sister Joy also came with all of her kids from Washington. They were here during Joel's birthday but Joel spent his birthday in Utah building a house for work. The kids and I had fun playing with cousins and hanging out at Grandma Hirtle's house on Joel's birthday. Brynlee got to ride a horse and both of the girls had fun playing on Aunt Joanna's swings. Then we went swimming, ate pizza and french fries, and we snacked on Canadian candy and slushies. I made Brynlee wear a life jacket while we were at the pool and she was not happy about that but she kept it on. It was still a challenge to watch both of my girls in the pool by myself. Annalyn is a little dare devil around the water.

 Joel didn't come home that night until late. After a quick breakfast of cake and ice cream, we headed over to grandma Hirlte's house to help get ready for the Thanksgiving meal. We went ahead and celebrated a little before the official Thanksgiving date since no one here in the USA actually gets Monday off of school or work. Joel gave all of the kids a ride on the train and all of the big kids were driving go karts until it was time to eat. We had lots of good food, some more cake, and pies. While I was helping out in the kitchen Annalyn helped herself to one of the lemon meringue pies. She ate all of the meringue off of the top. Grandma had to just put cool whip on top instead. Aunt Janeen discovered Anna in the act of eating the pie and Annalyn just smiled and scooped up as much as she could before I made her get down.

After lunch all of the kids went outside and had a huge watermelon smash in the front yard. They took care of all of grandma and grandpa's extra produce. After that we took a walk down at this neat little park that they have in Melba. The kids settled down for the night with a movie and then we went home.

It was a really fun weekend. It is great to take the time to reflect on what we are thankful for more than once a year and it was really fun to spend so much time with Joel's family. We went back over to grandma Hirtle's house on Sunday after church for leftovers and some more fun times with family. Joel's sisters had to leave the next day but it sure was fun to spend the weekend with them.

All About Joel

Joel turned 28 this month. Oh how I love him. He is such a hard worker and I am so glad I get to spend forever with him and that he is the father of my girls. Joel was in Utah on his actual birthday so we didn't get to celebrate with him until the next day. He was supposed to come home on the afternoon of his birthday but he didn't get home until midnight that night. Brynlee was really disappointed that we didn't get to have cake and ice cream with him that night so first thing the next morning she was ready for cake. Joel thought that was a great idea so we all had cake and ice cream for breakfast that morning and Joel got to unwrap his gifts. It was a fun little family celebration. After that we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with Joel's family. His niece Tara and his sister in law Rachel have birthdays right about the same time as Joel so we had another cake for them that night at Joel's parent's house.

Since I am always doing updates about the girls, I figured it was time to write a little about the father in our family. Joel isn't perfect but we sure do love him. Here are 25 random things about Joel.

1. Joel was born and raised in Canada.
2. He is number 7 of eight kids. He has 4 older sister, 2 older brothers, and one younger sister. 
3. In High School Joel was voted as the most likely to succeed and the best eyes. He also won a strongman competition. 
4. Joel loves sweets. He likes to bake cookies and they never last long. He can eat a whole batch in one night. 
5. Joel can fix just about anything. With the right tools and the right parts there is nothing he can't fix.
6. Joel laughs every time he hurts himself and he sometimes laughs if someone else gets hurt too. 
7. Joel cuts his own hair and he is much better at doing it himself than I am of doing it for him. I am glad he does it himself but he seems to always cut his hair right after I clean the bathroom and he gets hair all over the place. 
8. Joel loves to play with Kinexs and to build things with blocks. He is very creative. I am always amazed at the things he creates.  
9. Joel loves to watch YouTube videos of car crashes and of people making all of these crazy machines. 
10. Joel also likes to look on craigslist for good deals. 
11. He really likes garage sales too. He just can't pass up on a good deal. 
12. If Joel sees a truck or something that he wants sitting in someones yard, he is not afraid to knock on the door and ask the owner if they would want to sell it. I am always embarrassed when he does it but he has gotten several good deals this way. In fact, a few weeks ago Joel went and talked to someone about this trailer he found. Joel said the guy just started laughing when he asked about it. It turns out the guy was just getting ready to list it on craigslist. Joel ended up with a good deal. 
13. Joel loves being a dad and he does a great job at it. He will often read to the kids, give them a horsey ride to bed, sing them a song, and tuck them in bed at night. We all love this. 
14. Joel doesn't mind going to the grocery store for me. He would much rather go than watch the girls. He usually comes home with a dozen donuts and he eats half on the way home but I am always grateful when he goes. Joel tends to buy the cheapest brand of everything he can find so I am finally learning how to make really specific lists so that he gets what I want and it works out great for both of us. 
15. During the summer Joel faithfully mowed the grass with the push mower at least once a week. I think he really likes to do that job. 
16. Joel loves doing service and helping other people. He just has a hard time finding the time. When we were first married it seemed like Joel was constantly stopping to help someone with car problems. 
17. Joel will not read my blog. He said he already lived all this stuff so he doesn't need to read about it. I keep threatening to write embarrassing stories about him on here but that hasn't seemed to scare him into reading it. 
18. Joel likes to watch TV in the evening and he has no problem watching a show that is already half over. This drives me crazy. 
19. He is not that crazy about presents or about birthdays. They are just not that big of a deal to him. 
20. He is a hard worker. 
21. He will eat pretty much anything. He doesn't care for olives or anything with cream cheese or Alfredo sauce, but he will will eat it. 
22. Joel likes to sleep in and he will sleep all morning if he is given the chance. Joel can also sleep through just about anything. 
23. He can operate any machine with ease. He is even better with the sewing machine than I am. 
24. Joel doesn't understand my obsession with pictures and he complains about the amount I take but he tries to be supportive and he lets me take his picture every once in a while. He will even wield the camera with minimal complaining, on the rare occasion when I want a picture taken of me. 
25. Joel is my best friend and a great husband. I love late nigh conversations with him and any chance we get to snuggle. 

Happy Birthday Joel!

September Fun

September was a quite and simple month for us. I started taking the girls to the library for a music and movement class and for story time. They are both loving it. Brynlee has also had several play dates and we have tried to do lots of crafts together. We went on several bike rides at the beginning of the month but now that harvest has started, the roads are too busy. We took advantage of the warm weather and played outside as much as possible. It it starting to get colder and it has been wet and rainy so we have had to spend several days inside. Our house has been covered with flies and they are driving us all crazy.

Brynlee got ready for church all by herself. For some reason she didn't want me to take a picture of her.

We seem to find lots to do in the house when it is cold outside. Brynlee is really good at playing with her dolls and keeping herself entertained. Brynlee did make the mistake of taking her barbies swimming the last time she played with them and she put them away all by herself. The next time we got them out they were covered in mold. We had to wash everything, cut some hair, and throw some clothes away but most of the things were salvageable. It was just really gross.

At the beginning of the month Brynlee got some weird bumps on her stomach. The next day she had about 10-12 bumps on her arms, face and stomach and they looked a lot like the chicken pox. I was convinced that she had them, even though she has had the vaccine. The next day they looked a lot better and they were completely gone in just a few days. I still don't know if it was the chicken pox or not but we kept her home from church just in case. Here is Brynlee throwing a birthday party for her horse.

Joel is enjoying his new job and working hard. He did have to make a quick trip to the doctor to get something out of his eye. He doesn't know what he got in it this time. This was the fourth time this has happened. Life is good and we are enjoying our time in Idaho. 

18 Months - Annalyn

Little Anna is officially 18 months old and her personality is definitely starting to show through. This girl has figured out what she wants and how to get it and she is getting into all kinds of mischief lately. If she wants something, she just grabs my hands (or anyone who is close by) and pulls and point to what she wants. She is still a serious mama's girl but if I am not around she will go to other people. She still goes to nursery without even crying. Although, she cries when we pick her up and make her leave the giant baby that she packs around in there. Here are some more facts about Annalyn.

Annalyn still loves to eat. She still out eats Brynlee for most meals. When she is done with her food, she then climbs over to Brynlee's plate and eats all the good stuff that Brynlee left. She likes to sit in the booster chair at the big table but she also likes to climb out of it and play with all of the food on the table.

I can finally put a little pony tail in Anna's hair. It looks a little funny since the hair on the top of her head is so uneven thanks to the haircut Brynlee gave her but she still looks so cute. She also has some cute curls in the back of hear hair that I love. She has so many teeth it is crazy to me. I think almost all of them are in except for her two year old molars.

Annalyn can say lots of words and she is starting to repeat lots of things lately. She still prefers to point and holler but she is learning that it works better when she uses words. Her first phrase was "wan chees" (want cheese). The phrase she says the most often is "where go?" Which is always said while she holds up her hands and shrugs her shoulders. She says "no" and "my" (mine) all of the time. Here are a few more of the words she can say. "BeeLee" (Brynlee), "hot," "bu bow" (bubble), "baby," "pop" (popsicle), "tae tou" (thank you), "peas" (please), "pad" (i-pad), "uh-oh," "ki - ee"(kitty), "ba" (bath), "bow," "shoe," "for" (fork), "pur" (purse), and "Juice" (drink).

Annalyn loves babies. Real ones and fakes one. We went and played with some friends and they have a baby that is about 8 months old. Annalyn wanted that baby so bad and she was thrilled when she got to "hold" her on her lap. She hollered every time the baby tried to move and she cried and threw herself dramatically on the ground crying when we took the baby back.

At the library the other day she found a baby that was just as tall as her but twice as big and Annalyn kept pointing and calling out "baby." Eventually she ran over to that baby and tried to pull him on her lap. She kind of attacked him. The main problem is that he was so much bigger than her that he kind of squished her. The poor little baby was crying while Annalyn had this kind of an expression that just said "hmm, I didn't realize this baby was so big. Help me mom. I think I am stuck." I couldn't help but laugh as I rescued that poor baby. After that Annalyn just wanted to pull his shirt and give him hugs. Every time she sees another baby she tries to give hugs. And her hugs are rough. She has made kids much bigger than her cry with one of her hugs.

Annalyn knows how to get in trouble. She got ahold of a permanent marker out of my room and wrote on her face one day. When I tried to take it away from her she wrote on my pants. I think they are ruined. Just the other day she found some fingernail polish that Brynlee hid in a purse and she painted her feet and her hands. I spent the next few hours scrubbing my carpet trying to get the red fingernail polish out. Luckily it doesn't look too bad. sigh.

We took Annalyn to the dollar store a few weeks ago and we told both girls they could pick out one things. Annalyn found this creepy looking squeaky rat in with the halloween stuff and she fell in love. We tried to trade for something else but she had already found the thing she wanted. She packed that thing around all day and she even insisted on sleeping with it. What a toy for a little girl. She still loves this thing and she wont let Brynlee play with it at all.

Annalyn loves to play "peek a boo" and she will often come an grab my hand and make them cover my eyes so that I will play with her. She love music time at the library and singing at home. She especially loves "Ring Around the Rosies" and "Going on a Bear Hunt." She is obsessed with purses and loves to carry them around. Joel and I had a lot of fun watching her try to put on Joel's shoe while she was holding her purse at the same time.

Annalyn still has the best little laugh and she brings so much joy and excitement into our family. She loves to be outside and she is so fun. She loves to play with Brynlee but she gets really jealous when I try to hold her or snuggle with her. We sure do love this little girl. Happy half birthday little Anna.

Turtle

A few weeks ago we were enjoying a nice and relaxing sunday dinner at my grandma's house when all of the dogs started barking outside. We went to go investigate what all the commotion was about and we discovered a huge turtle in the front yard. The dogs were barking at it like crazy but the turtle wasn't fazed at all. This is not something we typically see in Idaho so we were all entranced. We have no idea where this turtle came from but we had fun playing with it in the front yard. It was actually quite fast and very heavy. Brynlee and Annalyn loved that thing but I think my sister Alesha was the most in love with it. She followed it all the way down the street to make sure it safely made it to wherever it was going. What a cool summertime find.

August

We started off the month of August with a visit from my great grandpa Jonny. My aunt Lisa and her girls left on the 3rd of the month and we were all sad to see them go. Joel went camping with the scouts for the last week of July and into the first few days of August. He surprised me and came home a day early! I was so excited to see him again. It helped that he sat right down and helped me fold the laundry I was working on. That is the first time he has ever done that. He had a lot of fun camping and hiking with the boys.

Since Joel was home home earlier than expected we got to go to "Kuna Days" together. We went to the parade and then we all got a sno cone. It was so fun. Annalyn was going crazy during the parade trying to get all of the candy while Brynlee preferred to just sit and only get the candy that was close. Annalyn went crazy eating that sno cone too. She even ate the part that spilled on her shirt. She loved it.

We spent another Saturday this month at the Idaho State Fair. We spent a long time looking at the animals and we looked at all of the vegetables. Joel's parents submitted some vegetables into the fair and they got first place on several things. They even had the biggest watermelon. The girls loved the part where they got to pet all the animals the most. Then we let Brynlee go on two rides. She went on the little boat ride first. The ride was about to start so Joel hurried and put her into a boat right next to another little girl Bryn didn't know and that obviously made Brynlee mad. She kept looking at us and pouting or else she would put her head down and would only look at the floor of the boat. She didn't want to go on any rides after that. Finally we found a little slide thing that Brynlee wanted to go on but she couldn't go by herself. Luckily the attendant was nice and let Joel go with her for free. We played two game so that each girl got a small stuffed animal and then we went home. It was a fun day and by the end of it both girls were worn out. They were both asleep by the time we got home.

We went to a ward party this month and for the main activity they had mud volleyball. I don't think anyone actually played volleyball, it just turned into a huge mud fight. I think our girls were some of the only kids that were even recognizable at the end of the night. Most of the youth and the kids were completely covered in mud. They brought out a big water truck and hosed everyone off. Brynlee was pretty much terrified that she would get dirty and stayed far away from all of the mud but Annalyn would have been out there if I would have let her. Instead we spent most of the party riding on the hay ride.

My mom and dad both started working at the school again. My dad is driving school bus and he is also working on the framing crew with Joel for his new job. My sister Alesha got a little kitten and my girls are both in love with it. Alesha tried to give it to us but for now we are just going to stick with chickens.

So far Joel is really liking his new job. He has been working there for a little over a week. Most of the people he is working with are very inexperienced so he has had to do a lot of teaching. Right now the house where he is working is even a closer drive than the farm. He gets to have labor day off which is the first time this has happened since we have been married. He is not sure what to do with his day off. Joel surprised me today and he found a nice couch and love seat on craigslist that he bought for our living room. It makes our house look so much nicer. We are loving it.

Brynlee is still just as fun and busy as ever. Her favorite things lately are dressing up, playing with her kitchen stuff, and playing with her barbies. She loves to run around in her swimming and she thinks she is really sneaky and will often try to put her swimming suit on under her clothes. We set up a tent one day this week and we watched a movie and had popcorn in there. Brynlee spent that whole next day playing in it and she even spent the night in it. She has been super bossy lately. She likes to tell everyone what to do. We did a few play dates with one of her friends and she had so much fun and she did great until it was time for me to take her home. She didn't want to go and she threw a terrible temper tantrum. I eventually had to haul her out the door. Annalyn didn't help things either because she wanted to play with the kitten. Both of my kids were crying as I hauled them both out to my car. Brynlee cried the whole way home and the whole time she sat in time out. She wrote and apology note to her friend's mom and she has been begging to play over there again but I am not sure I want to deal with that again.

Annalyn got to start going to nursery at church this month. They split the nursery into two classes so now Brynlee is in the older class. My mom got a calling and could no longer take Annalyn with her to relief society; so the primary president and the nursery leaders let Anna come in a few months early. As long as she doesn't cry. So far she has done great. My sister Alesha stayed in there with her most of the time but even when she didn't, Annalyn had no problems. They told me she is one tough kid and she already found a little boy in there that she really likes and they keep loving on each other. Annalyn also decided that she wanted to start using the potty chair like Brynlee does. She tells me when she has to "poop" and she goes about half of the time when I put her on there. I don't want to push her too much since she is still so little but I am really glad that she likes to use the potty.

As for me, I have been trying to learn more about canning and gardening this month. I even ventured out and froze some corn and canned some green beans all on my own. Our garden finally got overrun with those puncture vines and the squash bugs have been really bad. Next year I have got to do better. It is not fun to walk in our garden anymore. I also went on several bike rides with the girls. I was trying to make it a weekly thing and I was doing really good until my tire popped. Hopefully I can get it fixed and start riding my bike again. I have still been going to Zumba at the church, although we switched buildings where we do it so I have to drive further to get there. Overall, I am really enjoying life and this stage where my family is at.