Halloween!

This year we were the Apple Family. Jon- Steve Jobs, scary resemblance really. Tara- iPad. Ethan- iTouch. Corryn- Shuffle, complete with headphones. Yes, I made the costumes and yes, I drew everything. People wouldn't believe that I did not print these. Afterall, I did go to four years of university just for projects like this.... tee hee hee. :)

Post #2... Jon's birthday

 Jon turned 28! He requested his mom's lumberjack cake, which was DELICIOUS!

That night we went to Jon's favorite restaurant (they serve Canadian food) and was surprised with a big plate of poutine with a candle in it. (I called in before hand, sneaky sneaky me.)

 On Saturday night we took a Mommy/Daddy date to Disneyland. It was the last time we could use our annual passes. Sad.

 Jon's birthday was a blast... can't wait for another birthday celebration!

Tuesdays and Fridays are special days

 It's garbage truck day!! Over our year of living in this apartment we've come to know our garbage man, Juan. Ethan watches him from the window right above the alley and Juan honks and waves to him every time.

 Every once in a while (if I'm dressed) we'll run down and stand in the alley for a better view. The last couple of times Juan has stopped the truck and let Ethan sit in the seat. We brought him a big slice of Jon's birthday cake as a thank-you. Juan rocks!

 Ethan was in heaven, he still talks about it everyday.

 We love garbage trucks!!

Our visit to Boise

Sorry this post isn't very witty or funny, I'm just trying to spit it out fast. We've been sick lately. ;( Bleh.
The flights there and back were.... torturous. But I don't want to blog about that. I want to blog about what great adventures we had in my home town.

 We visited my Grandma Sharon (my mom's mom) TWICE. She gave us suckers and played us songs on my great grandma's piano. We sure do love Gma Sharon.

 We also went to the park a couple of times. What?!?! Ethan's old enough to climb on scary things all by himself??!?! Ah, where did my baby go?

 We also strolled the Women's Fitness Celebration with my mom and cousin Amanda and her baby girl (4 days older than Corryn) Charlotte.

 There was a lot of playing in our backyard, eating popsicles and flirting with the sprinkler. Ethan kept trying to blow it out like it was a candle or something.

 When we weren't out and about, we were hanging out around the house.

So this is post 1 of 3. Next is Corryn and Charlotte's birthday party and then all the fun we had at my Dad's.

My pretty pretty princess is ONE!

Since she was born I've whispered "pretty pretty princess" in her ears daily, and it's worked... First of all, is she ever pretty. I get comments daily from strangers. Second, is she ever a princess. She's fierce, demanding, and always cute. I can't believe she's one. Let's start at the beginning:
She came four weeks early. Just like Ethan, I awoke in the middle of the night to my water breaking but no pain. Steadily the pain came and after ONE PUSH she was out!

She was tiny, her face was perfect (some babies can look pretty weird in the first weeks, but not Corryn) and her hair had highlights. She was an AWESOME eater, but very sleepy. The weather was HOT and with no AC she slept a lot. Two days after coming home from the hosp we went right back and stayed a couple days for jaundice treatment.

From then on she's been a perfectly healthy little girl. Six months she stopped nursing, 9 months she started crawling, and 11 months she was walking. She's still small, which I'm perfectly fine with, it just makes her that much cuter. At one year she can say Mama, Dada, ball, ba ba (bottle), baaaa ba (baaath time), nigh nigh (goodnight), and boo (moon). STILL NO TEETH, can you believe it?

Happy Birthday Corryn Rachel Evans! (On Sep 25th)

Hell is repetition.

I can count on one hand how many good hours of sleep I get a night. The moment I start drifting away I'm jolted away by Corryn screaming, followed by Ethan moaning in tiredness. Sometimes it's a dream and other times it's real. It got so bad that last night at 2:30am, having yet to fall asleep, I curled up in the fetal position and cried while I let my one year old scream bloody murder for 30 min until she fell asleep. I wish I could say that was the end of that night, but no, it just goes on and on. We REALLY need to do cry therapy on her, she hasn't slept through the night since she was an infant. The problem is, where can she sleep? Poor Ethan needs to sleep too so she can't be in the kids room and there is NO WAY we're letting her sleep in our room anymore. I'm thinking it's going to have to be the living room, but this means that we're stranded in our bedroom from 8pm on every night.

The reason I feel like I'm in hell is because I also have no relief during the day. Meet teething Corryn. She follows me around crying to be picked up and then screams in my ear when I do. About 50% of the day she is like this, the other 50% she is eating or sleeping. In fact, as I type this she is banging on the bedroom door crying her guts out. The one relief I have is getting out of the house. For some reason my kids have always liked going out and so we'll take walks every day, guaranteed silence from the kids.

I'm going to try to end on a positive note. Ethan, although tired from Corryn's horridness at night, has had some cute moments lately. Yesterday he took Jon's guitar off it's stand and then was using the stand like a podium at church and saying his prayers into it. This was done without any coaxing from me and it actually took me a minute to realize what he was doing. It was so cute.

That takes the cake!

It started with some ingredients on a Friday afternoon.

Friday and midnight, it was baked, layered and crumbed.

By Saturday afternoon my kitchen was COVERED in powdered sugar and raspberry icing. And it was good. So good it won first place! Wahoo! Buttermilk white cake with raspberry filling, raspberry icing and marshmallow fondant. And of course some edible pearls and fresh strawberry to snazz it up.

Jon's out of town this whole next week which means that I get access to a car all day every day. The possibilities are endless. After he gets back we're planning an adult day at Six Flags, then days after that the kids and I leave for Boise for a week, then days after that we're spending a night in Anaheim with Aunt Ranee for lots of Disney time. It's going to be an action pack couple of weeks!

Labor Day Weekend

We didn't stray far from home this weekend. Friday we went to the beach in the morning, while it was still cloudy. (I have increasingly sensitive eyes and headaches.) Still got a headache... but it was fun anyway. Corryn loves putting HANDFULS of sand in her mouth... and we're still seeing it out the other end, heh heh. Ethan is a digger, always working intently, so cute.

Sunday night we saw a pink haze on the porch and were surprised to see a beautiful rainbow and a spectacular sunset. There's not a lot of interesting weather here, rarely a drop of rain let alone a rainbow. That's one thing I miss about Idaho and Utah, storms. I miss feeling the electricity in the air and the thunder shake you to the core.

Lately Ethan has been reaching for the moon. Literally. The other night he spotted it, was jumping and saying "It's hard!" He then went running into the house, searching every room for his stool, brought out to the porch and stood on top of it thinking it would help him reach the moon. Tonight he spotted the moon and said "Seat, seat." He grabbed his plush Elmo chair and set it up on the porch and had a seat. Just wanted to watch the moon. He's so cute, I don't want him to change. I took him to the park tonight and he wanted to sit in the bog boy swing. Ah, he's growing up so FAST!

We've recently put the kids in the same room at night.... it's been rough. Really rough. They take turns getting up at night. One night they got up at 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Each time they get up it only takes me 3-5 minutes until I put them back into bed, but then it takes me 30-45 mins to fall back asleep. I'm thinking I'm just going to have to let them cry themselves to sleep, which honestly I would have done earlier but we share walls with other people's bedrooms. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Corryn is WALKING!

I can't believe that in less than a month my little baby is going to be 1! She's walking now... and still has no teeth, seems kind of backwards to me.

 Yup, she can stand...

 And walk...

 And still melt your heart. Like her crazy hair?

Ethan's outfit of choice today.

By the way, we found Corryn in her crib this morning with her diaper off and poop smeared everywhere... at least she wasn't eating it... I know friends who have had that happen.

Yumm... food. And other things.

Lately, I've been making some pretty good meals. Sometimes I get in a funk when I just can't seem to think of something new to make with old ingredients... you feel me? But recently I've been on a good creative kick. Last night- Stuffed bell peppers and oatmeal choco chip cookies (coolest recipe ever- no eggs, no milk, no butter). Tonight- Hawaiian haystacks and gelato and raspberries in homemade sugar cones. Tomorrow- Pot roast and roasted squash and mushrooms.

One thing I love about the place were we live is the proximity to a grocery store. Not just any grocery store, Sprouts. It's essentially a farmers market in a store. The kids and I walk there at least once a week. I love that you can walk out with 4 full bags of produce for under $20. We all sport our sunglasses and Ethan always chooses a honey stick to suck on.

My dearest friend is getting ready to have her baby any day now. I made these geometric paper lantern thingies to put up in her baby's room. Black, white, light blue, and red... what a awesome and unique color combo for a girl.