Thursday, October 27th, I had a very important baby shower to give. A good friend finally had a baby boy after 3 older sisters. So, we went with an “Heir the the throne” theme. Since it was only 2 days after getting home from a 2 week trip, I enlisted another friend to help with the food. So, invitations went out…

The poem read:

The clock struck midnight, the spell did not break

An heir to the throne, finally, for Pete’s sake!

But with three little princesses, what’s a prince to do?

Throughout the whole castle, not one boy hue.

So throughout the kingdom, was sent a request,

Please join us for the Prince’s shower, please be our guest.

The food spread was delicious. We had mini tacos, stuffed mushrooms, toasted bread with a spread, cheese ball and crackers, vegetable tray, and cookies. (Waters were held in a baby bath.)

For dessert, we had white and milk chocolate plus lots of treats to dip.

We also had a place to write a note for baby Slade. These were taken from a friend’s baby shower, but were such a good idea, I had to borrow it. The cards said things like, “Always remember,” “I hope you,” “I hope you become…” I had a little book for her to put the cards in later.

I had a list of questions about Slade as a little quiz. He was about 6 weeks old when we had the shower.

(This was a lady from the ward holding him. Not related by any means.)

As everyone was leaving, they could get a chocolate covered pretzel. There were mint chocolate pretzels and white chocolate covered pretzels. I think everyone had a good time, and she received lots of blue to counter the pink in her house.

As I was getting ready for our young women/ young men halloween party, Jameson found the wig I was going to wear. I was laughing so hard. He was trying to look at the jewel on his forehead, and instead, looked like he was a little slow. Made me laugh.

This weekend, October 21st, Erin and Jeff came to visit! How do I know them? Well Jeff was in the first grade class next to mine. (His twin brother was in my class.) And Erin, I met a few weeks after college started when she started dating Jeff. Erin and I became roommates until Kevin kind of replaced her as my roommate.

I picked them up Friday at noon, and we headed over to Pike’s Market. The kids did pretty well as we perused, and Ella even did well for not having a nap. I took them to get grilled cheese from the best place around. We sat and people watched as the kids ate their lunch and we had mac n cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches. After the market, we headed back home to meet Kevin.

We decided to take them to XXX Burger. The food is good, maybe not worth the hype, but the rootbeer is delicious. Everyone loves their floats, including Ella.

Ella took a dive off the couch earlier while trying to wrestle with Dad and Jameson. This explains the big rug burn on her forehead.

Erin and Jeff loved all the decor, along with their food. I think they froze, though.

Jameson was happy to hang out with Uncle Jeremy who was visiting, also.

Ella devoured Kevin’s rootbeer float.

Saturday morning, I took Jeff to Kerry Park to get a picture of the Seattle sky line. Unfortunately, it was a true Seattle day with rain and clouds, and you couldn’t see the Space needle. After trying to take some pictures, we went to check out the Troll. I hadn’t ever gone to see him, but he wasn’t too hard to find. I guess 4 artist carved this. See the VW Bug he’s holding? And the hubcap for an eye? Kind of creepy.

The street is even named after him. I would hate to be the houses living across from this, though.

After the troll, I took them to see the Ballard Locks. The leaves were gorgeous, and the train tracks were raised. Not sure why. I never saw a boat that big where they would need to be raised to pass under it.

After watching a few boats go through the locks, we found these stairs. I’m not sure why they lead into the water, but it made it easy to test the water. I didn’t head on down, but Jeff and Erin went to see how cold it was.

Ella just hung out in the stroller. She loves to ride, but not be strapped in.

On the way home, we found the glass pumpkin patch. I was a little concerned taking the kids in, but it turned out ok. All the pumpkins are glass blown by local artist. I think even the small ones were still at least $30.

After a busy day, we headed home for some dinner. We picked up a baby-sitter got the kids settled, and headed out to Maple Valley. They do a spooky forest that Erin wanted to go to. You walk a trail through the woods, and walk in and out of themed huts. It was lots of fun, and I did jump. It was even funnier with Erin screaming and jerking my jacket every time. The forest was creepy anyway, because it was slightly raining. This left a fog over the forest. We had lots of fun, didn’t get too wet, and made it home to get warm all in one piece.

Sunday morning while we went to church, Erin and Jeff borrowed the Golden Dragon (Kevin’s car) and checked out downtown Kirkland. I was surprised they found their way back. Learning roads here is a nightmare. Once we got home, they packed up and we headed to the airport.

It was a fun visit, and I’m glad we were able to fit so much in to just a few days.

After 6 months, and lots of hard work, Mater took his first drive. I had to snap quick, before Kevin took off. There was no missing him, though, since he was headed to the muffler shop. You can guess that since he was heading to the shop, this meant his truck was very loud. I’m sure some of the neighbors were not too excited about how loud his truck was, but it came back almost as quiet as newer car. Jameson couldn’t wait to take a ride with Dad. It would still be another week or so before Jameson’s dream came true, but eventually, he got a ride.

As soon as we got home, we got right back into it.Wednesday mornings we participate in a preschool group with 3 other boys. We each take a turn teaching once a month, and occasionally throw in a field trip.  Each of our boys miss the deadline for kindergarten so we have 2 years before they start public school. This week, (Oct. 26th) we took the kids to a pumpkin patch for a field trip. We got there in time to see them bottle feed the calves. Jameson loved it, Ella was not so sure. The calves kept trying to eat more, though, so Jameson was trying to be sneaky and feed them grass.

After the feeding, we headed over to the patch. They had really funny scarecrows set up, or should I say down. The kids thought the legs sticking out of the ground were hilarious.

Ella just loved to get in the dirt. She tried to pick out a pumpkin almost as big as her, but couldn’t carry it. So I finally coaxed her into picking some small pumpkins.

We tried to get some group shots of the kids on these hay bail pumpkins, but they were not quite so cooperative. Ella just wanted to be on top of them, but not smile.

These are his “classsmates.” There’s Jameson, Michael, and Evan.

Ella and Jaxson. This is Evan’s little brother.

See, they wanted to be on the pumpkin, but were in no mood to smile.

Evan and Jameson are about 6 weeks apart. Evan was in our previous ward, but we still get to see him lots. He’s the quiet but bossy one, and Jameson is rambunctious, but follows his orders usually.

Jameson couldn’t wait to help load the pumpkins. He was so excited to push the wheelbarrow. Unfortunately, once it was loaded, it was too heavy and uneven for him to push. So, Mom had to help out.

We got all our pumpkins, plus some decorations for the ward party. (Somehow I managed to get myself put in charge of the ward Halloween party this year. More on that to come.) It was a fun morning with our preschool friends, and feeding the cows was talked about the rest of the day.

It’s streets lined like this that make living in the constant rain bearable. Fall is not an obvious season in Nevada. Depends on if you have trees other than pine trees or palm trees. Reno was better, but nothing compares to the leaves here. It’s weird how green it remains while being colorful. It’s beautiful.

As we were waiting for our plane to be vacated, I saw this lovely sight and started laughing. I know there’s always a few from every flight who need wheelchair assistants, but this plane had about 6-8. At the point I took a picture, there was only 4 or 5, but more were added. Then, they lined them all up and the people had to wait. It looked really funny as the workers came and tried to grab two at a time and wheel them off. I thought it was pretty funny. I think next time I’m going to try and get a ride, too.

Jameson was so tired, he crashed on take off. I don’t even think the plane had evened out yet. He slept until the wheels touched ground, which was awesome.

My next objective was this girl.

Luckily, the plane was only half full, so we had lots of room. About half way through the flight, she fell asleep too. It was awesome. I actually got a little nap on the plane, something that hasn’t happened since I first traveled with kids. Ella even slept as we got off the plane. I had to wake Jameson up. She woke up when I put her in the stroller. The girl a few rows back asked how I did it. So, I didn’t lie. I may have given my children something for motion sickness which may cause drowsiness. It also helped that it was a 3 pm flight and my kids were under a lack of sleep. The girl said she tried to give her child some Tylenol, which didn’t work. I was just thankful the kids actually fell asleep and made other people jealous rather than hating my kids for a flight.

We made it home, and the kids were so excited to see Dad.

Monday morning, Jameson went in the backyard and found new pets. These poor frogs were just not fast enough or smart enough to hop away. Grandma poked holes in the lid for them. I was not so fond of this. I think I cleaned up 3 broken jars while there. Children, glass jars, and tile do not mix.

Jameson was so excited for his frogs, though. I tried to talk him into giving them away, but that was not happening.

Since we hadn’t really done anything together during our visit, Mom and I went out that night for pedicures. We did feel bad leaving all the kids with my step-sister, though, so Ella came with us. We had about a 30 minute wait before getting in, so we walked over to TJ Max. Ella found the doll section, and was not going to leave with out one. My mom asked what I brought for her to do while we get pedicures and my response was, “Cookies.” I thought it was a good plan, but Mom caved and bought her the doll. She did carry it through the whole store, so I guess she earned it.

After pedicures, we took Ella home, made sure all kids got to bed, and then put to use those tickets I was given when Ella wouldn’t sit through The Smurfs. We went and saw Footloose, which I highly recommend. It was fun, and cute, and stuck to the original. It actually added some parts in that helped where the original just told the story. Anyway, we did get one night of girl time, and the next day we were ready to head home. Thanks for having us!

After church on Sunday, Oct. 16th, we headed to Carson City to visit with the rest of the family.  Unfortunately, I did not get out my camera. We did get to visit with Bepe’ and Paka (Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma McCulley), along with Aunt Sharon, Aunt Rhonda, Uncle Ben, Jeanae, Uncle Bill, his wife and daughter. It was a party. I didn’t see Jameson till we went to leave. Ella was attached on the other hand, but did ham it up enough for everyone to see how cute she really is. After a few hours of enjoying our visit, we headed back to Sacramento for the remainder of our trip.

When we go to visit Grammy, Jameson’s favorite thing to do is play with the farm. He sets everything up, and even has the horses ride on roads.

Jameson even lucked out and got to play with Uncle Jeremy. He showed him the “ropes” and how to swing like a man.

After some play time, Grammy took the kids for some ice cream. Ella slept the whole time since she hadn’t had a nap, and Jameson dug into ice cream that Mom had no control over. But it’s ok, Jameson loved Grammy that much more for the extra ice cream and candy on top.

After a long day, and lots of fun, we headed back for some sleep.