I'm in denial

I was visiting my mom at my old house that they are staying in( long story) in which all my stuff is still stored in the garage even though she's living there. Confused yet?  Me too. Anyways, we were getting stuff out of said garage and Mom got down the play saucer thing. You know, the ones you sit the baby in and they twirl themselves around banging stuff so it can make obnoxious music that makes you want to blow your brains out?

She said" oh I guess you'll need that huh? " I thought " Why? Am I watching someone else's child? My baby is not nearly big enough for that yet! Plus it cant be time to hear that music again that haunts my nightmares!"  Mom saw my look of skepticism/ incredulity and ignored it. She got it down and promptly placed my dear newborn in it.

Apparently Mr too big for his britches is no longer my sweet little newborn blob but a big boy who sit himself up and likes the lights and music when he hits the keys. My life is over....

Apple Annie's

Saturday was a crazy day. My friend Marquette's baby shower was in Thatcher which is an hour and a half away. My parents and brother wanted to take the kids to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch in Willcox, which is 45 minutes away, but on the way to Thatcher. I, of course had the brilliant plan to multitask and go to the orchard in the morning, then head to Thatcher for the shower. I know my brilliant plans rarely work, but I think this one was a success....as long as you don't take into effect that the adults all looked like Zombies by the end of the day.

We went in 2 cars so the boys( ie dad, Mitch, and Kendall) could come home after the orchard because apparently they didn't want to sit around Thatcher waiting for us at the shower. Can't imagine how that wouldn't be fun for them at Kendall's nap time... Long story short, I got to drive up with just my brother adn the sleeping baby, WINNING!!

We hit teh orchard first adn Kendall immediately started collecting every stick he could find and putting them in with our apples. Or he would pick up all the rotten apples off the ground and chuck them into the bucket with the good ones and yell "SCORE!!" Apperently Kendall does not appreciate having nice non-bruised apples. I think he thought we were lame when we told him that wasn't how it worked. Alianna was a pro and got really good with the picker thing up in the trees. I think the only downside to the orchard was our time constraint. We wanted to get over to the pumpkin patch before the shower. If we had let them, I think those kiddos would have stayed for hours picking the orchard clean.

I;m pretty sure the kids favorite part of the pumpkin patch was riding in the wheelbarrows. We will probably go back during fall break with ArJay to get carving pumpkins and do the corn maze.

Here's a stick mom!

Dirt holes are way better than apple trees

So excited to pick an apple

pure amazement

Uncle Mitch helping out

Pull SOO hard

SCORE!!

She insisted on pulling the cart

Silly Grandpa decided to climb the tree

But the best apples are up here

Yeah that's not going to end badly...

Grandpa being brave enough to get within 10 feet of Kendall and his stick of doom

You can barely see is his but it is pure excitement

Alianna's turn

Total pro like she's been doing it her whole life

Kendall gave up on us when we told him to stop throwing the apples and decided to just sit in the cart and eat them instead

Should have put Bryson in the other hole but he was strapped to me in a carrier

Can they be any cuter???

"Alianna why are you closing your eyes?" "So I can be an apple"

Cheeser!

Such a ham

In the fields

Their favorite part

Yes I''ll take two thanks, do you charge by the pound?

My version of the Hospital Survival kit

My really good friend is having a baby. Marquette was in my freshman English class in college with ArJay and ArJay and Cameron are basically in a bro-mance. ArJay nearly cried when they moved away from us just so he could finish school. Lame excuse if you ask me. They have been married as long as we have and this is their first baby or as she says they are "finally joining the cool club".

Needless to say, I really wanted to give her something awesome. Having just birthed a baby myself recently, I thought about all the little things you need at the hospital that a first timer wouldn't think of.  So I made a Hospital Survival Kit. 

Here is the list of explanations I attached with it: 

Hospital Survival Kit

1 Flip Flops: You will be living here for a couple days, so you should probably shower.  But people give birth here, who knows what is on that funk nasty floor.

2 Socks: Most hospitals think the room temperature should be just below freezing.

3 Headbands: your hair will get gross, from labor or because you do not take aforementioned shower because you are too blasted tired from pushing a baby out. Either way, keep it back and looking like you styled it this way on purpose.

4 Chapstick: All that labor breathing makes for chapped lips

5 Games and puzzles: Hospital rooms get boring, especially in the hours waiting to get released home when no family is visiting. Also, if you are freaking out about the new tiny human you are in charge of, it distracts you.

6 Sanitizer: Because when your loved ones come to visit and hold your progeny, you don’t want them smearing the gross outside germs on him.

7 Treats: you just birthed a human, you deserve it.

8 Change: Cameron can go buy his own snacks from the vending machine so you don’t have to share your hard earned chocolate.

9 Size 1 diapers: In case you birth a baby whale and those newborn “diapers” that are smaller than Cameron’s attention span in Hand and foot don’t even last as long as the hospital stay.

10 Car seat blanket/changing pad/ nursing cover: Because you learn real quick that you don’t need some fancy schmancy changing pad for every diaper change. And if you forget the cover, you can grab the blanket instead of a towel to cover up. Plus you can tie it onto the car seat and he can’t kick it off. It’s all about multitasking and outwitting the baby!  

I also made a diaper tractor cake. We love them to death, but they are kinda hicks so when I saw the idea on pinterest, I knew it was meant for them!

The bear is wearing a bib that says " I only cry when ugly people hold me"  I know, I'm so classy.

Bryson's blessing

Let's just gloss over the fact that I am getting this up nearly a month late. And also that I have approximately 2 pictures from the blessing day. We were just having too much fun to take pictures.

Bryson was blessed on September 1st. In our church, we give babies blessings in which they state the name that they will be known on the records of the church and a personal blessing for their lives. Any worthy priesthood holder that we invite can stand in the circle to bless him. Basically it's a welcome to the world  and have a happy life blessing. Plus there's usually a gathering after at the parents house with food. ArJay did a beautiful job giving Bryson a name and blessing, even though he was nervous. I am constantly amazed at the strength and righteousness that ArJay leads our family with. I couldn't ask for a kinder, more considerate and fun father for my children and husband.

We had a large crew with us. Both sets of grandparents my great grandparents and my Aunt, my brother, both ArJay's sisters and their families, and the 2 family friends that are like family to the Gamble's( the Beam's and Greenwood's). The reason for the lack of pictures is that obviously a lot of ruckus and fun was had by all when that many people got together. It was a blast and we couldn't be happier to celebrate this sweet little baby to our family and are so glad so many of our family and friends could celebrate with us.

HE's wearing ArJay's blessing outfit. Kendall wore it too, both boys were MUCH bigger than baby ArJay, but whatever it's sentimental

Always giving the loves. Yes she is wearing different clothes. This may or may not have been a couple days later because we didn't actually get a shot on the blessing day. Don't judge me

So HAppy for the blessing boy!

My grandparents with the blessing boy

This is a sweet candid on blessing day, love that face!

The day after, sending grandma, grandpa and Aunt Jodi off with lunch at Fuddruckers. Kendall is saying prayer with my brother

Aunt Jodi and the chunk

We're super classy in this family

Forget heels, get me new running shoes

If you've ever seen my shoe collection, you'll notice I love a cute and sassy pair of high heels. But with my newest love of running, I think I love some sweet running shoes better. Gasp!

Big 5 sporting goods was having a monster sale for labor day. My dad called me and said there were gel Asics that are regularly $140 on sale for $40. Needless to say I quickly made my way over to the store. Luckily they had one pair left in my size:

ArJay says they look like a rainbow trout outta water, but as the song says "I DON'T CARE, I Love it!"

They also had some boring black ones, but these were calling my name. I was soo excited about my new shoes, I signed up for a bunch of races.

I am running a breast cancer pink ribbon 7k in October with a bunch of ladies from my ward. There is a lady in our ward who has breast cancer so we are doing it in support of her.

Then there is a triathlon/duathlon in casa grande on November 2nd. I'm still trying to decide about that one, as I might drown in the swim leg so I think I will be safe and do the duathlon instead. Again it's with ladies in the ward.

Then there is a Christmas 5k at Arjay's old high school on December 14th. I'm really excited about that one because I also signed up the kids for the kids race. They have to give up time with me( I know, a real sacrifice) while I run and Alianna always asks if she can run with me. This will be fun to be her own race.

These are all in preparation for the big one I signed up for a couple of weeks ago, the Phoenix half marathon on March 1st. It actually has a full marathon that I had visions of grandeur that I would run...until I actually started running again after having Bryson. Now I'm concerned about finishing the half, I've never run that far! Luckily my mother in law ( who is running her second full marathon in a couple of weeks) is running it with me. My father in law, sister in law, and nephew are all running the 10k and I signed up all three of my kiddos for the free kids race so it should truly be a fun family event..as long as I don't die.

Yikes, the more I look at that list, the more I think that it looks like a ticket to crazy town. Good thing my new shoes are comfy, but maybe I should have skipped the races and got new high heels instead.

Labor Day with the biggest kid of them all

The kids spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's so I woke up late, (7:30 I know "back up now!" but with my kids that's like noon for normal people) and went for a run. It was gorgeous and overcast. Then we went in and meet my grandparents, Aunt Jodi, my parents, Mitch, and the kids at Fuddruckers for lunch before Grandma and grandpa and Jodi had to leave town. It was lots of fun and we all went over to Mom's thrift store to see it. From there Grandma, grandpa, and Jodi went home, mom stayed for work, and Mitch took off. We decided that we had to kidnap my dad for the afternoon.

The kids sure love grandpa and we had an awesome, fun and relaxing afternoon.

We got out the best 3 dollars I spent again, aka the slip and slide:

grandpa launching him down the slide, I wonder why they love him so?

Alianna's launch time

WAAASUUUPPP

Best action shot ever

why do both of my children have their tongues out all the time

Grandpa couldn't resist

Attacking him after his turn

feel the love

We also got out the hammock and relaxed

the view from the hammock

Geez, She is the prettiest little girl ever

We also got out the bikes

please note that grandpa is wearing Kendall's shark towel on his head

Alianna's had a flat tire so Grandpa got out the compressor and they played bike shop.

Kendall "fixing it"

Grandpa setting it up

The compressor is very loud as evidenced by Kendall's face of terror, and stinky as evidenced by Alianna

What was Bryson doing the whole time you ask?

just chilling on the baseball blanket I made under the trees

 ON our way to take dad home we stopped at Savers for their monster labor day sale. They had their halloween out including this sign that they had to get a picture in.

 

one guess whose idea this was..

My dad is the biggest kid I know, which is why we have so much fun with him.