First FAMILY Halloween

Our ward has a tradition that we got to participate in this year! And have decided that we want to make it OUR family tradition even af

ter we move out of the ward.

We met at the church to carpool and follow each other to the farm.

While we waited we enjoyed:

Hanging out...

Talking to friends...

(The Hunsakers, Melissa, David, and Baby Emily)

Angela had fun walking with mommy...

talking to Emily...

playing peek-a-boo around a light pole...

and riding on daddy's shoulders!

The tradition is going to The Big Red Barn Pumpkin Patch, in Santaquin Utah.

Taking a hayride to the pumpkin patch! :-)

We picked out our own little $2 pumpkin! :-)

(It was actually a pretty good size pumpkin!)

Right off the vine!!

Daddy being goofy

There was a cute little maze!

We made it through!! YAY!

(Sorry it's little blurry.) Emily and Anna sizing up their pumpkin

Rachel, Tommy, Shawn, Courtney-friends picking theirs.

It was so much fun picking out a pumpkin!:-) I am SOOOO excited to carve it! We got 2 pumpkin carving sets from a freecycler. Hooray for having something planned in advance for FHE!! :-)

(for those of you who don't know, the specifics are at www.freecycle.org...but it is a website where people post things they want to give away-all free. Its actually a rule of the site. The goal is to keep stuff out of the landfills )

I AM SO EXCITED FOR OUR FIRST THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS WITH ANGELA!

Iatrophobia-Fear of Going to the Doctor

Does it count if I'm afraid of the chiropractor?? They are doctors right?

I took Jim on an emergency trip to the chiropractor the other day, because he was hurting REALLY bad. 70+ dollars later, we get home and Jim is feeling worse :-( At one point he got up to help me with something in the kitchen and got stuck in the doorway to it and I had to help him back to the couch. He said that he thinks it bruised on the first time around and that is why it hurt so bad.

Tell me something...if that happened to you...wouldn't you NOT want to go to a chiropractor??

Well, thanks to this experience, although I think I may NEED the visit...I do not intend on making that appointment any time soon. :-P

Yes, Jim is doing MUCH better now...but the chiropractor wants to see him again 3 times next week...too bad they can't get it finished on the first pop ;-) It would save us a WHOLE lot of moneys...Sometimes being an adult is not real fun. Lame.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! {}>

Our friends, the Gillespie family came over last night for ice cream. We had YUMMY chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream with nuts and sprinkles all over a healthy banana :-) like I said...YUMMY!

About the time they were getting ready to leave their youngest Esteia decides that she wants to wear my rubber boots. :-) They went clear up to her hips! haha!

As you can probably imagine for such tiny feet...they were a little tricky to walk in, but she was a sport and jumped right back up laughed and tried to get back into them!

It is great to spend time with friends!

BINGE BLOGGER

Jim says that I am a "binge blogger" HAHA! He is kind of right...(I wish there was a less weird way of saying it.)

I usually write a bunch of posts on the same day. And it is usually a while before I do it again! HAHA! But it is mainly because that is the day that I have the time to actually write in the blog. So I catch everyone up :-)

So I'm going to try to be more consistent with my posting. Wish me luck! :-)

Hard night, sweet morning

Angela hasn't been sleeping very well at all. I mean waking up at least 3-5 times a night. And then won't go back to sleep and just screams unless mommy or daddy is holding her. Last night was a particularly hard night, and Jim's back has been hurting him so I let him sleep. (He slept on the couch because he can't get comfortable in bed.) Waking up every hour does not suit me. :-(

Anyways, Jim woke up about 6:30am and went and got her up, changed her and brought her to me to feed then put her back to bed and she slept for another 3 hours. (*Why she mainly only does that for daddy is beyond me!) Then he came and laid with me in bed and asked if there was anything he could do for me since I'd had such a hard night. I told him I was really hungry. He offered to get some toast but we're out of bread, so he offered to get me a bowl of cereal. That sounded great but I was so tired I didn't want to get out of bed. He said he would get it for me when I woke up.

I was a little confused seeing as when I woke up he would be at school but it was sweet so I went back to sleep and he went to school. I woke up a few minutes before Angela did at 9. Then I saw this:

...a bowl of cereal and a note that said how much he loves and appreciates me...

...and a cup of milk already poured was in the fridge ready for my breakfast...

I actually teared up, it was so sweet! That's not all...when I opened the computer, "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Callait was pulled up. ***That's our song :-)***

Have I mentioned that I love him???? Because I REALLY do!

After I ate my cereal, I needed to feed Angela. It turned out to be a chore...not because she wouldn't latch on but because she would eat for a few seconds then do this....

With hard nights and sweet mornings, I love being a momma!

DATE!!

Jim and I went on a date, on Friday, to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

AMAZING!

Lloyd and LeAndra came over to watch Angela for us. (Thanks again!) It was a lot of fun going out by ourselves. It has been a long time since we've done that. :-) We went to the BYU Varsity Theater, because it was only a dollar per person! I had made some cinnamon roll sugar cookies earlier so I put them in a baggie and filled a bottle up with root beer and we had those as a sweet treat during the movie. (*yummy!) We also got a smoothie from Jamba Juice. Love that place! MmMmMmMm! Aloha Pineapple! YUMMY! We forgot to eat dinner before the movie and I wasn't about to last through it. :-)

It was such a cute movie!! It was funny, had plenty of action, romantic in a very cute way :-) and an all around good feeling movie. I highly recommend it! Ah! I loved it!

Then we come home and poor LeAndra and Lloyd, Angela had been screaming for about an hour unless they were shoveling in food ;-) haha yes, I am aware that our sweet daughter LOVES her food.

They were so sweet about it! I felt terrible though. It is pretty much my worst fear as a mom: that my child will be inconsolable for the babysitter. At first I was set to never go out again. Really, REALLY considered it. But then I decided that I can tell the babysitter things that usually help as well. And hopefully the more she has, the better she'll be. :-) Also.....I can put her down to bed before they get there. ;-) That will probably make a huge difference! and it is usually what I do.

Anyways, that was our bitter-sweet date night. :-)

???

Angela keeps pulling herself up onto the couch and trying to bite my leg! haha! Funniest part is I haven't shaved in a while so when she gets it, she pulls back like "what just happened??"

Walk it off!

I've been trying to walk every day, and I was doing REALLY well for 3 weeks! I was so proud of myself...I'd walk for at least half an hour everyday. Usually I walked with Jim to school or work and it worked really well! I could feel such a difference in my days!!

Then, the curse of Eve. For a week I felt like crap...and cramped...thus making it so I didn't want to walk. I noticed a significant difference in my days. I felt so lazy. Tired ALL the time! I got frustrated easily with Jim or Angela. It felt unsatisfied with my life and what I felt didn't matter to anyone. (Though, logically, I know that neither of those are true...if anything the opposite is true!)

I told Jim what I was feeling...and together we connected the dots:

exercise = happy Karisa and no exercise = sad Karisa.

Since then I've walked everyday! and I am back to LOVING my life! I think it is a safe assumption that I am probably going to have to battle my depression for the rest of my life. But with such a supportive husband, we will win :-)

Isn't it interesting how it takes 3+ weeks to MAKE a habit...and only 1 day to BREAK it?? I wish that wasn't true...but it is :-P

Anyways, just thought I'd share that I'm back to walking! And trying to figure out what to do when winter comes...its already too cold to walk in the mornings with Angela...Any ideas? I'd love to hear them!

hmmm...I wonder...?

While I was in the kitchen, Jim was being the awesome husband that he is and was watching Angela and he was holding her upside down and patting her belly...then the following conversation transpired...

Jim: "Can babies poop upside down? Cause I think she just did"

me: "I don't know, can you poop upside down?"

Jim: "I don't know, I've never tried"

....SILENCE....

me: "I think I'd like to keep it that way..."

Haha. :-) just thought I'd share that with you.

Dying Tomato Juice...

This picture has nothing to do with the post but I thought it was pretty cool.

(TJ=Tomato Juice...Our car is red...I think that is why Jim named it that)

TJ (our mazda protege) has just about had it I think. It is kind of a bitter-sweet situation, really.

We were deciding between driving or flying to Texas for Thanksgiving. Jim was leaning more towards flying, I was more on driving. We were confused, seeing as how we usually line up on issues like that. So we decided to wait a while and see how we feel later.

After about a week, we decided on driving but still kept a look out for good ticket prices. A couple days later we found out that the Lord has provided us with an opportunity to get a new car. (new for us) Initially we thought that it was a nice thought, however, after recieving the offer, a week or so after we decided that we needed to drive to Texas for Thanksgiving, TJ decided to let us know that he is kind of giving up. (Either that or he does not approve of this.)

He has a really hard time getting going. Not sure why, but no matter what the gas/clutch ratio he jerks until you switch to 2nd gear. Its quite frustrating and forces the driver to be very safe...so pray you aren't in a hurry or don't need to get out of the way fast....might end in disaster.

This has led us to believe that it was not a coincidence that this opportunity came about, but rather our Heavenly Father looking out for us, through inspiring others to update their vehicles ;-)

*SWEET PART- we are getting a new, air conditioned car :-) BITTER PART- TJ is dying. :-(

Random Morning Surprise!

On our way out this morning, Jim opens the door and exclaims, "RANDOM"

I look and there is this cardboard cut out of Princess Leia pointing a gun at our door. So I join him in saying "RANDOM!" Quite an interesting morning surprise. haha

And of course I left it outside the door. Later, I hear the grounds crew blowing the walkway. They seemed to linger outside our door for a while longer than they normally do. I also heard them laughing! Haha...If I were them, I would have laughed too!