Drip, Drip, Drop

While we were out at the park taking Marilee and Jacob's photos, Lauralynn used the opportunity to teach Ryker the purpose of an umbrella.  What better place to do it than Washington!

It was so fun to watch him realize what an umbrella was used for.  It amazes me how smart kids are and their ability to learn everything!

On our way back to the car Ryker saw a squirrel and wanted to chase it.  Needless to say this squirrel was used to being fed by little children so ran up this stump and then started chasing Ryker, so freaky!

Dinky's New Best Friend

My family has an annual Halloween Party, one in Idaho Falls and recently one in Everett.  Since we were finally close enough to attend the one in Everett we were more than happy to welcome them into our home and enjoy their company this past weekend, unfortunately I forget to have them take a picture of Oley and I in our costumes so will have to get it once they all get home, dang it!  Dinky thought having a little kid in the house was the greatest thing ever and wouldn't leave Ryker's side. 

Oden's first taste of rice cereal.  He loved it!

The beginning of the Ryker - Dinky friendship.

Ryker was showing Uncle Jacob and Cousin Oden the kissing bees.

Best of all Oley's new glasses came in.  Goodness I love this boy!

Dinky and Ryker having bath time together.

Ryker wanted me to sit and watch him take his bath.  Silly kid.

Dinky inspecting the bath tub once Ryker was out.

Dinky was so sad Ryker had to leave. Never seems like there are enough hours in the day when family is around to do everything you hope to get done, maybe next time!

Trick-or-Treat

We knew we were in for A LOT of trick-or-treaters this year when the neighbor gave us the following tip:  "Go to the store and buy more candy than you think you could ever hand out, and then buy three times that amount."  I thought she was joking but oh no, we had more trick-or-treaters than I could have ever imagined!  The sad part about this is we got home from work late and missed all the monsters from 5-6:15ish.  I hadn't ran that morning and so I went running after work, and Oley had to run errands on his way home so unfortunately we missed all the little kids in the light hours, but the two hours we were home we had well over 100 trick-or-treaters. Oh the joys of being a child! 
The dogs did so good about greeting all the little kids and then coming right back into the house once they were gone.  Oley was so cute when he would answer the door and comment on all the children's costumes, and then nicely say, "oh it's okay, you can have two pieces your just a little guy."  I love my husband and his love for children. 

Oley passing out candy to some of the little goblins.

Lily on Halloween.

The second best part about Halloween this year was that at the beginning of the month I made a deal with my sisters that we were not going to eat any sugar throughout the month of October until Halloween.  I had been looking forward to gorging myself with all the chocolate I had been missing out on all month long.  It's all I could think about during my run.  But once I sat down to decide what my first piece of chocolate was going to be, I had a hard time convincing myself I wanted to break my sugar free spell. 

It didn't last long though I made the decision. . . a Milky Way, and oh how delicious that chocolate tasted.   But boy was I sick the next morning!

Four Eyes!

Now that we have outstanding health insurance I convinced Oley it was probably about time he take a trip to the eye doctor.  Having never been to the eye doctor he continued to reassure me his eyes were perfect and he didn't need glasses.  Since we have been married I was positive he needed some sort of glasses, he squints A LOT, but seeing how we didn't have the greatest insurance I let him reassure me he was fine.  So yesterday we got in the car and went for Oley's first eye exam.  As we drove I let him know exactly what they would do and that it was painless, besides the little bit of yellow eye drop they put in your eye you won't even have a problem.
Boy was I wrong!  I have never been to an eye doctor that puts these drop in your eyes that make you feel like your eyes are on fire.  They are meant to dilate the eye, and boy was it painful.  Worst part was your eyes remain dilated for up to 3-4 hours, making it extremely hard to see anything up close. 
Oley's exam went well and he came out with the big news that my Mr. Perfect will now need to wear glasses.  I asked if he wanted to do contacts instead and he was certain there was no way he wanted to wear contacts, so while I was in the exam room he tried on some frames. 

Oley's extremely dilated eyes.

The first of three pairs he liked.

The second

And the third.

After much deliberation it came down to the first or second pair.  I liked the second pair because they were much more minimalistic, although Oley was a fan of the first pair.  We went with the second pair, and then he will go back and get the other pair later if he still thinks he wants them.  He is super nervous, anxious to wear have to wear glasses.  He thinks he is not the glasses wearing type and it makes him look like a computer software geek, I on the other hand think it makes him look extremely sophisticated and hot! 
For some reason my eyes just took a VERY long time to go back to normal.  This morning while getting ready for church my left pupil was still extremely dilated.  I was freaking out that something was wrong with it. 

Okay so after looking at these now with full vision I think he should get these ones.

My pupils before church, left one is huge!  Right one normal.

I am happy to say that my pupils finally corrected themselves and I didn't have to look like some weirdo while teaching today, thank goodness!  I have never had that burning eye drop nonsense put in my eyes in all the years I have been going to the eye doctor, and after this past experience I will never let them do that again. 

How to Keep a Thought

This is the first time that I have had a calling where I am responsible for sharing the Gospel with people over the age of four.  So it used to be that I was glad if I was able to get at least a 5 minute lesson in and find a coloring sheet that they could take home and share with their parents.  Now that I am in the Laurels that has all changed.  First off, the youth of our church are so smart it's incredible to me!  So I have been trying to figure out a way that I can help them throughout the week rather than just on Sunday. 
As I was talking with the other leaders we were discussing how we wished we would have kept all the thoughts and handouts our YW leaders gave us growing up.  This sparked an idea and with Oley's help, it turned out AWESOME!
So first, that's right my husband never ceases to amaze me, I brought my idea to Oley.  I wanted to make something like those daily flip calendars, but one that I could add a thought to take home and add to every week.  I had an extremely complex idea in which I had no idea how it would work.  Oley on the other hand put my idea to work and created a masterpiece. 

First Oley cut all the wood.

He's a perfectionist, so he then chiseled it so it was perfect.

After they were cut and fit together properly.

Of course Dinky had to help his Daddy too!

We then sanded and stained the wood.

While that was drying I put together the thought I gave the girls today.

Ta-duh!  The finished product.

 The best part was the girls loved it!  Now I just have to keep up on the handouts every week! 

Brrr. . .

After seeing all the posts about snow back home, I am so so so grateful that we no longer live in Idaho!  Oley misses the snow but as for me I will take rainy days over below freezing days any day of the week.  Don't get me wrong it has been cold here as well.  Oley even let us turn on the heat this past week and Lily was in LOVE with the fireplace.

 Every day when we let them out of their nice warm sanctuary, we leave them in while we are gone, she runs straight to the fireplace to see if it's on.  Okay okay, this makes it sound like it's an ice-box in our house, but really Lily is the dog who would lie on the back patio until she was panting and could no longer stand it when we lived in Spokane, so it's not that cold she just LOVES to be warm.
With all of that out of the way I am so grateful we have a nice warm home that we are able to be together as a little family in every night.

We were warming up under the blankets and Oley went to take a picture but his flash on his phone was SUPER bright and every time he went to take it I closed my eyes.  This was after like 3 tries I was able to kind of keep my eyes open but as you can see it was killing my eyes even to look away from the phone.  Guess you had to be there, but super funny!

Best Husband Ever

I may be a little biased but I have the best husband ever!  I have no idea where I would be without him.  He is always so good about helping around the house, waking up with the dogs in the middle of the night for a potty break, and most of all just being my best friend!   Some days I wonder how I got to be so lucky to be loved by him! 

 The flowers I can home to last week.  Yup he is the best! 

Most of all he is the best cause he is ALWAYS letting me take his picture!