Crazy Carvin'

It's Halloween!!! I love this time of year because the leaves are gorgeous and falling, everyone is decorating all spooky like, and we get to carve pumpkins and dress up all crazy! Who wouldn't love all of that? Well Monday the 27th my family decided it was time to get out the knives and carve pumpkins. Everyone (My dad, mom, Miranda, Kenzie, and I) choose their pumpkins and we went to town, even little Rylin got into it! While we were scraping out the inside goo my mom decided to make it interesting and said that since Ryan couldn't be here to participate that we would make it a contest and whomevers pumpkin Ryan choose as the best would get 10 bucks! Game On! Miranda and Kenzie decided that getting into a pumpkin goo war sounded more fun, so though theirs were still in the running they didn't spend as much time on theirs.

Even Rylin wanted to carve a pumpkin. She seems to be really good at it. She may even enter contests in a few years, but for now we just want to give her a normal childhood.

After we were done we sat them on the porch and lit them up. I was quite impressed with our work. My dad got a little "help" online, but everyonelses were original ideas. Don't they look good?

Here is my pumpkin that I carved! Isn't she cute?! You have to special order these kinds of pumpkins, but they are soooo worth it.

Left to Right: Rylin, Mom, Kenzie (on pot holder)

Left to Right: Dad, Kenzie #2, Miranda

When Ryan and special guest judge Dave Toone got home the pumpkins were presented and the winner was.......RYLIN! Honestly it was not rigged.

Witches Night Out

I don't know what is is about me but I never know about the fun events that are constantly going on around me. This year I was privileged enough to be invited with the Tadje girls to go to Witches Night Out at Gardner's Village. I guess that this little tradition has been going on for years unbenounced to me. The dealeo is that everyone dresses up as witches and walks around the little shops getting all sorts of Halloween discounts while a witch band and performance is going on in the main hub. It is awesome because there are seriously thousands of witches with the most bizarre and creative outfits/hats dancing, shopping, and eating. Some men were brave or stupid enough to accompany their wives which was funny to watch them try and stay out of any sort of spotlight.

Jennifer, Angie, and I all got into the spirit and dressed up as witches and little Rylin was my black cat. Note to anyone who wants to go...Don't bring a baby with a stroller! You won't get to shop. There were a lot of really cute crafty items that we liked, but we all came out empty handed. Afterward Jennifer had to go home and Angie and I decided to take advantage of the girls night out and treated ourselves to Olive Garden. It was delicious. We talked about all sorts of random things and plans on working out, shopping, and craft days; now it is a matter of actually doing it and not just talking about it. All together I thought it was a great night and hope to do it again next year.

Party with the Jazz

Last Thursday night I finally got a break from my regular little routine and took all my girls out to the Jazz game. It was so much fun!!! Though a few of our crew couldn't make it we still had a great turn out. The Jazz played the Portland Trail Blazers, but to tell you the truth I didn't watch more than 5 minutes of it. Jess brought her little girl Kenzi and I brought Rylin and instantly they were the best of friends. It was fun to have other kids around Rylin. We fortunately got to sit by some real cookoo drunk guys that kept talking about Kensi and Rylin, which was weird but the even weirder thing was that the next day one of those drunk guys was at my parents house fixing their gate. I totally called him out and I think he felt a little stupid. Serves him right for getting drunk and not remember what happens with his life. I think that all the girls had a fun time giggling and snapping shots and I hope that we can do something fun like this again. I have to apologize to everyone though for not being as "thoughtful" about getting pictures with the players. We had an opportunity to take a picture with AK47 and because it is so routine to see the players to me I didn't even think about my friends thinking that would be fun. Maybe next time girls and it will be worth the wait because it will be D-Will instead of AK.

Rylin loved the game and the noise didn't bother her like I thought it would. I knew she was born to be a jazz fan!

Oh by the way...the Jazz won!

Remodel Gone Wild

As everyone knows we are remodeling our house and it is quite the process. In most of the rooms there was nasty wall paper that we had to tear down and now I can officially curse ANYONE who puts wallpaper up in their house. My grandparents didn't just place wallpaper on primed and painted walls, they slapped it on sheet rock, on top of other wallpaper, on painted walls, primed wall, you name it they put it on. So long story short we spent an eternity aka 2 months or more trying to get wall paper down and eventually knocking down walls and tearing up sheet rock to make things look decent. Ryan with mucho help from the whole Toone fam especially Dave and Dave and some help from the Rigby clan too are doing all the remodeling themselves. This includes relocating cabinets, wiring, destroying walls and rebuilding them, plumbing, and soon to come spackling and painting. They seem to be working 24/7 which I am SOO appreciative of because as of right now we are living with my parents (thanks forever mom and dad) while the heat is turned off. Ryan comes home most nights at around 10 or 11 covered in dust or insulation to finally get to sit down for 5 minutes and eat dinner then shower and before I can say "I love you" for the night he is out cold. It will be really nice when it is all done so I just want to say thanks for everyone who has helped make this possible!

Here is my adorable nephew Drew helping us take down the wall paper and wash the walls. He loves water and bubbles, but what kids doesn't?

This is the hall way upstairs after Ryan ripped out the carpet. DANGER ZONE!

One Saturday morning the Toone family came over to help with the house and this is what the kitchen looked like before and while I was downstairs doing who knows what, all the boys decided (without asking me) that it would be fun to tear down the wall between the kitchen and the dinning room. So to my surprise when I walked upstairs to see what the noise was all about I had no wall and loose wires everywhere. Boys will be boys.

My kitchen with no wall, loose wires and a fridge that didn't work. Don't mind my huge prego belly on the right.

Den with partial wall. As you can see we are tearing out this wall to make two rooms our master bedroom. below is another look.

First Solid Food

Another milestone for my baby girl! Rylin ate her first solid food which was rice cereal on October 17th. My baby is growing up!!! I was expecting her to spit it out every where, but like always she surprised me and was smiling the whole time. I'm not saying that it wasn't messy at all, but I think she quite liked it.



As you can see she was very excited to try it out and even wanted to feed it to herself.

I actually found myself telling her to open up wide but she always listens to her mom which made it a bit nicer. Ryan, my mom, and my dad were standing around trying to convince her that rice cereal is yummy and to keep it in her mouth. It was a lot of fun. She didn't eat very much and whoever said that babies sleep better after they eat solids needs to speak to me. I was hoping to get a good nights rest, but she woke up 4 times that night. Hopefully that part will come later.

The next step will be to get Ryan to feed her! Then I just might have time to cook meals for ourselves and actually get to eat them while they are still warm.

A Day At The Zoo

Trivia Question: How long is the largest Alligator in the world?

Last week we had the ultimate privilege of having Nathan and Carrie's cute little family come into town! Boy has Caroline and Rexy grown. On Thursday Carrie invite Rylin, Grammy, and I to join her mom, Jill and her kids, and her little family to Utah's Hogle Zoo. What a day. We got to see the elephants and rhinos first. Rylin of course couldn't stop talking to all the animals, she is such a jabber mouth these days. Rexy was content as can be smiling at everything or anybody that would look at him. But Caroline and her cousins were the most enthralled with the animals. They were making animal sounds and giggling the whole time.

Next we ventured over to the carousel. Everyone but Grammy Rigby and Rexy joined us. Rylin and I sat with Lila in the Peacock while the others jumped on lions, giraffes, and who knows what else. The kids sure loved it which meant that the adults loved it even more because we got to see the kids excitement.



After the carousel Rylin got to get a snapshot with the penguins because she loves to see them waddle and slide on their bellies. Who doesn't like penguins? They really are cool looking birds plus I watched an episode on the history channel and found out the the male penguins are the ones that keep the eggs warm until they hatch and they all gather around one another to keep themselves warm during the coldest part of winter. Now that is what I'm talking about!! Why can't human men have the chance of warming our baby eggs since we are the ones that have to go though delivery? Probably because it makes us love our kids more! he he he

I really wanted picture with the giraffes, lions, tigers, zebras and monkeys but unfortunately the kids got hungry and tired so our day at the zoo had to terminate a bit earlier than I was hoping. We did get to enjoy the ducks and playground for a while while Rylin and Rex took their little cat naps. Caroline needed to exert so serious energy.

I guess that the next time I go to the zoo will probably be in a couple years when Rylin can really understand and enjoy the animals, but it was a fun first time experience anywhoo. Thanks Carrie for putting it all together!

Trivia Answer: 19 feet 2 inches