Five on Friday

1. We carved our pumpkins this week. Or rather I carved them while Peyton sucked on a toy, Corbyn watched Garfield's Halloween, and Rog did the dishes. Peyton's is Tinkerbell on the left and Corbyn's is the smiling jack-o-lantern on the right. I was going to try to do Buzz, but it just looked too hard and I thought I'd probably ruin it. So I went with easy and Corbyn likes it all the same.



2. Our Spanish Fork Costco opened yesterday! We went this morning and enjoyed all the samples they had. We are extremely excited to have a Costco so close - especially Rog because now he won't have to do my Costco runs for me on his lunch break.



3. Tonight we had our ward Halloween party. It was a chili/dessert cook off. I made Peanut Butter Bars and won an award for Best Tasting in the dessert category. Kids could wear their costumes, so I worked frantically all week to get the kids' costumes ready in time. Corbyn is Peter Pan and Peyton is Tinkerbell. We didn't get a picture of Corbyn in his (We will get some on Halloween, I promise!), but here is our little Tink. It was past her bedtime and she was so tired that she fell asleep while I was handing out candy during the trunk-or-treat!



4. I saw this "I'm a Mom for Mitt" decal online and I just couldn't resist buying it even though I already had a perfectly good decal. This is how much I want Mitt to win! Too bad I don't live in one of the battle states where my vote could actually make a difference!



5. Corbyn has become very possessive of Peyton this week. Whenever we're in a store and someone comments about Peyton being cute or something, he grabs her legs and says, "My Peyton." Who can blame him though? She is pretty dang cute! I'm glad he doesn't want anyone to take her from us.

Football and a Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday BYU played Notre Dame. We actually had the station the game was on, so we were able to watch it at our house.



Bill and Mariah came over and we made the most gourmet nachos we could imagine - complete with Cafe Rio pork, guacamole, queso, and restaurant style salsa.



We weren't expecting to win because Notre Dame is ranked #5 in the polls, but we were actually winning for a good portion of the game. Of course we couldn't finish it and ended up losing 14-17. Story of this season - so many games we could have won, but we didn't.

After the game we went to the Red Barn in Santaquin to get our pumpkins.

We've been going there practically every year since we got married and every year it seems to get a little better. This year they had a new slide that was a big hit.



They had this maze last year, but it was much improved this year. Corbyn was our fearless leader. When we had to decide which way to go, he would pick a path and confidently say, "This way."



We also got some fun pictures...

 

Picked out a few good pumpkins (I think this was Corbyn's favorite part - he loves pumpkins this year and will say pumpkin in a very excited voice whenever he sees one!)...

 And lucked out with this family picture - the best one we've gotten since Peyton was born!

And the night didn't end there. After putting the kids to bed, we watched The Avengers (rented from Redbox). Rog has been dying to see it and I was able to finish this pumpkin from Wood Connection, so we both won.

It was a fun way to spend our Saturday!

Five on Friday

1. I was released from my calling as Compassionate Service Leader in our ward and called to be a Visiting Teaching District Leader. After having a more demanding calling, I feel a little like, that's all you want me to do? I only have 4 companionships I'm over (1 being my own and 1 being the companionship that visits me). I was in Compassionate Service for over 2 years (almost the entire time we've been in the ward), so I guess it was time for a change.

2. This week Corbyn has almost completely refused to take his naps.

On Monday he fell asleep on my run. I didn't think I'd be able to get him to take a nap later, so I left him in the stroller in the garage until he woke up.



On Tuesday he refused to take a nap when I put him in his crib at his regular time. I decided we'd go to the library, but before we even got halfway there I turned around and saw that he had already fallen asleep. So I drove home and moved him to his crib.



On Wednesday he was so exhausted that he actually took a nap in his crib at his normal nap time.



On Thursday he fell asleep on the way up to Orem to do some errands after refusing to take a nap when I put him down. And today he also refused. I turned on Toy Story and had him lay on the couch hoping he'd fall asleep, but I had no such luck.

I know he still needs a nap because he keeps falling asleep in the stroller and the car when he usually is able to stay awake with no problem. I'm completely at a loss as to what I should do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

3. Little Miss Peyton has started getting up in the crawling position. She isn't even 6 months old yet! Someone tell her to stop growing up so fast!



4. Yesterday Rog had a meeting up at the U about applying to the MBA/MHA program. It's hard to believe it's already time for that. When he graduated from BYU, it seemed like it'd be a long time before he would go back to get his MBA, but now it's almost here!

5. Tonight we had some of my friends from high school (Nate and Ann Edwards) over for dinner. Nate is at BYU getting a Masters in Engineering. They have a 3 year old and a 1 year old, so it  was kind of crazy with 3 kids running around. But it was great to catch up with them!

Video Dump

I have a lot of videos from the past month that I've been meaning to post.

First up, Peyton loving her jumper. Now that she's gotten really comfortable with sitting up on her own, she doesn't spend as much time in her jumper, but she used to spend hours in this thing!

And here's the video proof of her rolling over.

Corbyn has started singing along and doing actions to songs...

The Wheels on the Bus

If You're Happy and You Know It

And finally the whole family ganging up tickling Peyton.  

I swear these two just get cuter by the day and moments like these make being a mom totally worth it!

Homecoming Weekend

Last weekend was Homecoming at BYU - it was such a fun weekend!

Saturday morning was the Cougar Run.

First was Corby's race. We signed him up not knowing if he would do it, but we figured it was only $5, so why not?! He wasn't going to let me put his race number on him, but at the last minute I told him it was a football number and he was all over it. (He's obsessed with all things football, Cosmo, and BYU right now. Gotta train them young!)

His race was the boys 200 meter (ages 1-4). I ran with him and he ended up loving it.



All the kids got a ribbon and a shirt with Cosmo on it.



He kept wanting to do it again, so we took turns running on the track with him in between the other races.



Then it was my turn. My goal was to finish the 5K in under 25 minutes. I thought I could do it, but I knew it would be close. When I turned the corner, I saw the clock was at 24:40. I sprinted in and crossed the finish line at 24:59!



That would have been enough to make me happy, but when I got the paper with my results I saw that I finished 3rd place in my age group! I was ecstatic!

While we were waiting around for the award ceremony, we enjoyed blue pancakes. It's my 8th year attending BYU Homecoming events, but this is the first year I've gotten blue pancakes. They always have them during the Cougar Run, so I've always missed them. This year instead of the bananas, bagels, and regular post-race food, they had blue pancakes. Somehow Cougar blue pancakes taste better than regular pancakes. Or maybe it was the taste of victory I was enjoying!



It was fun to get to stand on the podium and get a medal! The sad thing is I could have gotten 2nd place if I finished 10 seconds faster. (The girl who got 2nd finished in 24:51.)



Rog has been having problems with his achilles tendons, so he wasn't able to run this year. Next year we'll all have to do it and make it a family event! But this year these two were great cheerleaders!



By the time we got home, I only had time for a quick shower and then we were back at BYU for our tailgate party.

Peyton had great timing with a massive blowout.



We didn't have a change of clothes for her, so she got to go topless for the rest of the tailgate and the ride home. (Love those rolls!)



We bundled her up in a blanket and Grandma Lori's sweater.



Grandma took the kids home for naps while we went to the football game. It was a blackout as BYU was wearing black uniforms (designed by Nike) for the first time. I wasn't too excited about wearing black, but it actually was pretty cool to see the whole stadium in black.

We played Oregon State and even though we ended up losing (24-42), it was the best game we've had all year. We were able to stick with them for the first 3 quarters which was much more than we expected.



After the game we met up at Red Robin for dinner. Peyton sat in a high chair (at a restaurant) for the first time.



On Sunday my parents stopped at our house for dinner on their way back down to St. George. They brought back some fun stuff for the kids from their cruise (a Disney one with the Hobbs). Peyton was super cute in her Mickey Mouse Pirates of the Caribbean bandana.



And we got to have some of my mom's pie to celebrate Jared only having 3/8 of his mission to go.



It was a great weekend full of Cougar and family fun!

Last Week

I didn't blog last Friday like I usually try to do. If I had, it would have gone something like this...

*My kids think I don't need any sleep. Between Peyton waking up and screaming her head off from 12-1 for a few nights straight and Corbyn waking up before 7 most mornings, I felt like a zombie mom!

*Rog had his last softball game of the season on Thursday night. It was a little late, but I decided to take the kids and we had a great time.









*Rog had volunteered me to make cupcakes for a garage/bake sale KLAS was doing on Saturday. He didn't tell me until Thursday that he needed to take them to work Friday morning, so we were up late Thursday night making cupcakes. It was all worth it when one of the guys at KLAS said my cupcakes were a 9 on a scale of 1-9. (KLAS uses a 9-point scale rather than the regular 10-point scale.)

*Friday was the first really rainy day this fall. I pulled out some of Peyton's 6-9 month clothes because none of her 3-6 month clothes are very warm. The 6-9 month clothes are a little big on her, but she's still the cutest thing ever!



*After coming in from a chilly walk Friday afternoon, I made some hot chocolate to warm us up. Corbyn took one drink and spit it all out (all over me). It was his first time having hot chocolate and I had made sure it wasn't too hot, but I guess it just surprised him.

Rest of Conference Weekend

Mariah's baby shower was the main event of conference weekend. The rest of the weekend we:

*Had a stay-at-home tailgate party before the BYU vs. Utah State game on Friday night. Then Rog, Bill, and Mariah went to the game. I stayed home with the kids and prepped food for the shower while listening to the game on the radio. (My parents were on a cruise, so we didn't have our usual babysitter.) It was kind of a boring game (final score: 6-3), but it was a win, so we'll take it!

*Got Cafe Rio for dinner with Bill and Mariah Saturday night before Priesthood.

*Took care of a sick Corbyn. After about a month of being healthy (a world record for Corbyn), he had a pretty awful cold that was just short of being croup (breathing difficulty, but no seal bark). He wanted to be held at all times by either me or Rog which made Priesthood really fun for me! Mariah stayed to help me and while both kids only wanted to be held by me, her moral support was the only thing that got me through!

*Spent Sunday in our pajamas (except Peyton, she got changed into a onesie). Rog and Corbyn had an Oswald marathon via Amazon Prime pretty much the whole day other than when we were watching conference. We all feasted on Puffed French Toast for brunch. I cleaned the whole house - swept, mopped, dusted, cleaned the mirrors, and wiped down the bathroom counters (all the stuff that doesn't get done all the time).

*Had a good laugh while Peyton sat up and blew spit bubbles for at least 15 minutes straight!





It was a different conference weekend than we usually have - no family and no Ririe Waffle Breakfast, but it was a good one nonetheless (other than Corbyn being sick of course).

Mariah's Baby Shower

Last Saturday between sessions of general conference, I threw a baby shower for Mariah (with help from her friend, Emily Morgan, who I know through our dinner group).

We did a little pumpkin theme.

I found a ton of cute ideas on Pinterest for decorations, but because my week was so crazy, I only had time to make one of them. I pulled out my November decorations and used some of those for the rest of my decorations.

{Funny story: Bill saw these pumpkins on Friday night and thought we were announcing to them that we are having another baby - thank heavens we are NOT, that would be way too soon!}

We feasted on some of my favorite autumn food - Baked Potato Soup, Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup, World's Best Dinner Rolls, Texas Roadhouse Cinnamon Butter (1 cube butter, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/3 cup powdered sugar - beat until smooth).



Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars, Pumpkin Bars, Caramel Toffee Dip with green apples, and cranberry punch (Could someone please direct me to a good recipe for this? - I love it when I have it at parties, but I can never seem to make a good one myself!).



We played a Lil' Pumpkin Trivia game and wrote down our best motherly advice for Mariah. And of course showered her with lots of fun stuff for her little girl!



It was a fun shower to celebrate Mariah's little pumpkin - due to arrive the beginning of December!