5 Years Today...

and couldn't be happier!

Meet Buzz, Woody.......and Jack

Halloween this year was a lot of fun!

We started out with doing a little pumpkin carving,

got dressed up as the coolest duo around, Buzz and Woody,






went Trick-or-Treating in the rain with all the cousins,


stayed entertained in the rain while the kids stocked up on candy,

and got a puppy!! What little boy could ask for a better Halloween?!

Jack, our little chocolate lab. aka: Tatton and Lincoln's best buddy!

It's That Time of Year

Well it's officially October so the fall and halloween decor are finally up! I LOVE this time of year. I love the colors, the cool weather, the sweaters and coats, the leaves, the decorations, high school football games, pumpkins and canning. So here are a few things we've done this fall to celebrate the season so far...

My Mom found these little masks, unfortunately I missed the picture of my her wearing it, but Tatton thought they were pretty cool.

Lincoln trying on my cat ears from last year
We should have waited a year for Tatton to be Nacho, he willingly wore the wig around finally.
Seems like someone always has to get sick this time of year. It was Lincoln this go around, with a combination of cutting his first tooth. I love snuggling with this little guy.
The Circus, need I say more...
Camping up in the Uintah's, the leaves were gorgoeus, just you wait for the next picture.
This was the scene of our hike while camping, pretty huh.
Us on the hike. Might I mention that we went on a weekday with the fam so Aaron wasn't able to get off work, hence the look of a single Mom.
Me and my 2 favorite little guys.

Tatton being a cute big brother.

The canning extravaganza. It's been harder to can this year with the little guys. So Aaron and I usuallly wait until they are asleep, and then we end up canning into the wee hours of the night to get them done. It's been a lot of fun. The salsa night with our friends Natalie and Sheldon has been by far the most entertaining. We were up til about 4am and you should not can when you are that drowsy, somehow the salsa did turn out.

Milk for Trade

Last Friday night Aaron and I went to the football game and left the kiddos with my Mom. Lincoln is pretty stubborn when it comes to eating from a bottle, but when he's finally hungry enough he'll do it. So Aaron and I came back from the game and were in the kitchen saying hi to Tatton, and talking with my Mom, my sister Kristin and my sister-in-law Lauren, Lincoln was asleep in bed. They were all making pies and cinnamon rolls for a Thanksgiving dinner we were having the next day while Royce and Lauren were visiting from Connecticut. Amidst all this I hear...
mom "did you confess yet?"
kristin "kathy!"
me "confess what? what are you guys talking about?"
kristin "nothing"
i go and pick up George, my nephew, Kristin's baby.
mom "oh look, see now you guys can trade, a little tit for tat"
me "what?"
kristin "kathy!"
mom "Lincoln was just screaming and would not take his bottle"
me "he wouldn't drink any of it? did you finally just feed him some food like bananas?"
mom "well he was so hungry and wouldn't take anything, and he was just screaming"
kristin "so i said just give him to me and i'll feed him"
mom "and it was like instant relief, it was just what he wanted"
kristin "he looked at me for a second, like you're not my mom, but he ate"
me "you nursed Lincoln?!"
kristin "yup, he tanked up and went right to bed, and he's still asleep"
me "oh my goodness, poor kid. he's got a little kristin in him now!"
mom "see so you should go feed george now, do some milk trading."

Needless to say I did NOT feed George. I have a strict my kids only policy... I don't know how Kristin did it. I don't think I could feed anyone else's child. I'm grateful because she calmed down my child and fed him, but I don't know, it still baffles me.

Tattonisms

Tatton is talking really good, we think, for a 2 1/2 year old. But of course there are some little things he says that aren't quite right but they are just too cute to correct right now. A few that I want to remember are:

"Fik-its"= Fix it

"I wanna hold you"= I want you to hold me

"To finity yond"= To Infinity and Beyond (Buzz Lightyear)

"Yestertime"= A hybrid of yesterday and last time

"Remembertime"= A hybrid of remember and last time

"Happy Birfday Time"= Happy Birthday

"back-da-boos"= caboose

"skoo mees"= excuse me

And lately he's been using Kara or Aaron instead of Mom or Dad. It completely throws me off and just makes me laugh. For some reason to hear it from Tatton's little voice is just so funny. He is learning songs in nursery now and it's completely taken me by suprise how fast he'll learn them. Out of nowhere he has learned I Am a Child of God, Book of Mormon Stories, Follow the Prophet and a Turtle Song. I just can't believe how big he's getting.

A House of Order

Everyday it seems like there is so much I want to get done, and I think I only accomplish half of it, on a good day. I can't believe how much time Aaron and I had before kids, holy cow that was a luxury. I thought we were busy then, boy was I wrong. When Tatton came along I felt like I had no time, I was constantly carrying around and taking care of a baby all day. I look back now and realize how spoiled he was. My goodness did I use my time unwisely then. Now with Tatton and Lincoln, I say I hardly have time to get anything done which is more true than it has been now but I know I can do more if I become more organized. And I have to become better with my time because I'm pretty sure that we'll be even busier the older our kids get and the more we have which is a little frightening! ah! So I'm saying so long to the days of still being in jammies at lunch time, no more waiting until I don't have clean underoos to do laundry, no more going to bed with dirty dishes still in the sink, no more scattered and cluttered craft room, no more Tatton finding a dead bug on the floor and telling me that I need to vacuum!! I'm sure you guys think I'm gross, it's really not that bad all the time, some days are just worse than others. I've seen so many crafty cute ways to be organized, which unfortunately involves a lot of time (that I don't have) to sit down and make all those crafty things first, and then go through the house to organize it. But alas, that's my goal. My house is getting a complete makeover and I'm going to schedule and plan out my days and hopefully feel good at the end of the day knowing that I did everything that I needed and wanted to. "A house of order" really is important and I've slowling been learning what that means to me. Being organized and being able to stay on top of the cleaning/laundry and start each day clean means I don't have to spend most of the morning cleaning up from the night before which means I have more time to devote to actually playing with my kids and at nap time I can have some me time to scrapbook, blog, sew, create things and not feel guilty, instead of using that time to do laundry or mop the floor or something that I don't look forward to. Anyway, that's my rant about that. I wish there were more hours in the day, less sleep time and more awake time to just do everything, and more sleeptime for kids would be nice. But since that's not going to happen I'm going to make the best of the time I do have... starting tomorrow, since I've used the boys' naptime to blog and search out some crafty organizational things today...

Summer Pictures cont. Yellowstone Style

So this was our little trip to Yellowstone this year. We were really excited to take the boys; it was Lincoln's first visit, and Tatton was old enough to be excited to see the animals. We had a lot of fun, here are some pictures. Again, I'm sorry there are a lot but it's nothing compared to what was on my camera so you really are getting the short version I promise!

All of us at the Bear and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone which is a LOT of FUN!

Again, at the Bear and Wolf place.

Swimming in the Firehole River in Yellowstone.

Classic Old Faithful...

Lincoln showing off his new Yellowstone shirt.

The boys playing in the tent with their cute little Yellowstone jammies on.

It got pretty chilly in the night but Lincoln stayed warm all snuggled up and slept really well.

Happy Birthday to me!

I think Tatton liked the cake more than me.

Boy Scout skills at work...

The kiddos enjoying some good old fashion ice cream.

Elk

Yellowstone Lake

Tatton and I on our romantic walk on the beach.

Tatton reflecting on life...

These back-packs are one of THE greatest inventions. The cargo is pretty cute too!

Lincoln turned 4 months just before our trip so this is his first go around with rice cereal. Most of it came right back out.

You can't actually see the bear from this unzoomed picture but there is a ginormous grizzlie at the top of the hill about to walk into the tree line to the left. On the other side of those trees are some picnic tables that we were eating dinner at. Luckily Aaron and I felt extremely uncomfortable and had an uneasy feeling while eating. We hurried and packed up and got in the car, drove about ten feet to the other side of the trees and saw the grizzlie. If we would have been there for 5 more minutes, we would have made friends with a bear.

A momma bear and her 2 cubs up by Dunraven Pass.

We went on a stage coach ride up in Roosevelt. Tatton had a blast.

A blurry picture of us on the stage coach ride.

Tatton actually got car sick and puked on our way to the stage coach ride and our bags were at camp so we had to hurry and go buy him some clothes at the gift shop before our ride, hence his awesome way too big lovely shirt.

We got to see some rangers pelting this black bear that was eating on the side of the road. The rangers wanted to scare it away from the road, and make it afraid of humans. We were just happy to see a black bear, and have front row seats from the car to see it all.

Deer

Buffalo

We always stop at this museum on the north end of town in Jackson Hole before driving the last stretch into the Tetons and Yellowstone. Good times

Tatton out stretching his legs at the museum, it was a long drive.

Summer Pictures

Honestly it was hard to narrow it down to just these pictures. Ugh I'm so behind with our summer. But anywho I'll make a short comment with the photos to make this as painless as possible. We've had a lot of fun this summer and it's still not over!

A visit to Grandpa Creamer's house.

Memorial Weekend up in Park City. My whole family went up to the Chateux Hotel up in Deer Valley to spend the night and swim. It was a lot of fun, crowded, but fun!

Of course we hit up the Outlets the next day in Park City. We had two of my nieces Kelsi and Rylee with us and we HAD to buy these sweet shoes for Rylee because they were only 3 dollars, Mom and Dad were not as excited.

Aaron and I at the Chateux again actually, rooms in the off season were only 80 bucks so surprise to me I thought we were just going to dinner in Park City, but no. He arranged the whole thing with my parents to watch the kids and somehow packed and snuck my bag into the car with everything I needed... including my pump for Lincoln, thank heavens he was a thinker!!

Just your typical bath time but Tatton got more than he bargained for poking Lincoln's belly button.

Tatton's sweet scooter. The helmet and elbow pads were completely necessary.

He loves his helmet and wears it around the house constantly which has been beneficial.

My working conditions... no wonder dinner is so very difficult to make!

Little Lincoln is slowling growing out of his straight jacket and wedges. This is what he looks like in the morning. I think he might be ready to move one without them.

Our Fourth of July Festivities. We had Aaron's family over for a bbq, and Aaron couldn't resist putting fireworks in the cake. The kids thought it was pretty cool.

Lincoln is just growing up! It seems like it's going by so much faster since my time is juggled between taking care of and managing Tatton, and trying to play and spend time with Lincoln. I'm so glad he's just a happy baby that goes along with his silly big brother!

Tatton and Lincoln's Sunday Fourth of July outfits. I thought they were pretty cute, Aaron thinks they are girly vests, oh well. Either way they're still cute boys.

This was on Saturday July 3rd. We went to Morgan's Freedom Celebration instead of the traditional Liberty Days. It's hard to break a tradition but since we live in Morgan, we figured we might as well start participating in Morgan activities. We went to the breakfast, Tatton played games and climbed in a big air castle, and went to the booths and watched the parade! Good times

My cute little Mom and Dad

I knew it was going to happen eventually. Tatton is feeding his baby just like Mommy...

Lincoln is finally sitting up a lot better in his Bumbo chair, although this picture doesn't do him justice.

All of us at a Raptors Game with Natalie and Sheldon. We had a lot of fun at the old ball game.

As previously mentioned, our friends Natalie and Sheldon.

This is one of our nephews Christian who had a sleepover with Tatton. Tatton was in heaven to have someone more his age just play with him and jump in the pool with!

Me and Lincoln, watching Christian and Tatton play... comfortably in the shade.

Tatton's favorite thing to do at Fat Cats: take a ride on Nemo.