dinner

I love reuben sandwiches, but I have never attempted to make one. It's usually something I order in restaurants, but when I stumbled across a recipe for reubens in one of my crock pot cook books I couldn't resist trying it. I put about five ingredients in the pot just after breakfast, and come dinner time all I do is add cheese, a little 1000 island dressing, and bread? Um, yes please! Ok, so I also added homemade sweet potato fries to round out the meal, but those are super-easy too. Anyway, the sandwiches turned out so good! I was very pleased with myself. I wolfed mine down, and looked over at Tyson across the table with a big, proud grin on my face. I mean, really, these things were better than I've had in many restaurants. I asked, "Did you like the sandwich?" To which he replies over his half-eaten sandwich, "Eh. I don't really like reubens." GASP! Of course I took it as a total insult to my cooking ability, which is not how he meant it at all, but still. At least he came up later and told me how he loves it that I try new things with my cooking. Don't you hate it when someone totally bursts your bubble like that?

Happy Halloween!

I know it's a little late, but Happy Halloween! We celebrated by doing a bit of trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and my in-laws' neighborhood, and Landon definitely got more than enough candy. At first he wasn't so sure about the whole wear-a-costume-and-knock-on-doors thing, but then he realized that he got candy when he did it and there was no turning back. It helped that a slightly older friend of his trick-or-treated through our neighborhood with us, and she REALLY understood how the whole thing worked. Coleson had no idea why in the world we had him dressed in an annoying thing with a tight hood and walked around outside in the cold, but it made for cute pictures at least. Overall, it was fun and Landon has yet to gorge himself on candy so it was a success!

A knight and his loyal puppy, heading out to get some candy. (Yes, Coleson can stand on his own and is walking a bit, but that's another post.)

Tuckered out at the end of the night, taking a break on Grammy and Papa's steps.

I hope your Halloween was just as fun!

it was that kind of night

Last night was one of those nights. You know, the one where one kid wakes up, and as soon as he's settled, the other one is up, and pretty soon they are both up at the same time and neither one of them will go back to sleep? And then you get to repeat it again about an hour after everyone is finally settled back to sleep? Yup, one of those nights. Luckily they don't happen around here too often, which in a way makes them even worse because we're not used to them. Anyway, it wasn't much fun. Luckily they both went down easy for bed tonight and we are hoping they are too tired to wake up much tonight.

Earlier this evening Tyson and I left the boys with my in-laws and went out for a nice dinner. We even had cocktails before dinner and dessert afterward. I got to eat dinner and chat with my husband without anyone trying to sit in my lap, and no one called me "mama" for about two hours. It was wonderful. I'm thinking we need to do that a little more often.

Tomorrow Landon gets the second of three cavities filled at the dentist. He is usually really great at the dentist, but I am worried that all this work on his teeth will lead to him being one of those people who hates going to the dentist, even for a little cleaning. Hopefully after this we will not have to deal with any more cavities, as we are being super-vigilant about brushing and taking really good care of his teeth. Ugh, I think it might stress me out more than it does him.

In hopes of getting to bed early, I am going to go finish a cute knit vest for Coleson and relax. Aaahhh.

it's been a while

I have been busy knitting lately, too busy knitting to update my blog. It has just seemed like the season for knitting and all my spare time has been used up by that hobby. I also started reading a book, which I haven't done in a long time. So I guess you could say I have been focusing more on my other interests.

However, I read other people's blogs on a daily basis and enjoy it very much so I finally figured that I should pay a bit more attention to my own. And by attention, I mean adding a bunch of pictures from our last few weeks in hopes that my adorable children will make up for my lack of words. The pictures are a bit Coleson-heavy. This is mostly because Landon hates having his picture taken lately and will either not look at the camera or stick his finger in his nose (cute, I know). Plus, Coleson is a huge ham for the camera and starts smiling as soon as we get it out.

Our days over the past six weeks or so have consisted of . . .

. . . riding bikes with neighborhood friends.

. . . crashing the bike (happened last night - poor guy!).

. . . getting new matching outfits made by Gram.

. . . taking baths with Dad.

. . . helping with laundry. He loves to watch the front-load washer through the little window.

. . . learning to play in the big kid toys. This has been coupled with learning to stand and trying to walk. Coleson wants so desperately to be able to play with the big kids!

. . . helping with dishes.

. . . LOTS of eating. Let me tell you, this boy LOVES food. Plus he has two new teeth (one top and one bottom), all the better to chew it with!

So, that's it in a nutshell. A lot has happened over the past six weeks or so since I updated, but it would take forever to type it all out. Let's just go forward from here, shall we?

wedding pictures

I promised pictures the other day, and here they are. We took some really great ones at Allison's wedding, but there were too many to share them all. We had such a good time at their wedding - it was quite the party!

The gorgeous bride. (Her dress and flowers were so, so pretty.)

Landon in his summer tux. All the groomsmen were jealous that he got to wear shorts and they didn't.

Another picture of Landon in his tux, because can you really have too many? Plus, in this one you get to see his cute little boutonniere (I sure hope that's spelled correctly).

Now, on to Coleson. He is doing so many new things these days. He started eating solid food, doing some baby signs, sitting, scooting, and crawling. He is also fond of the idea of pulling himself up to stand, but isn't quite strong enough yet. He is also showing the makings of quite the temper. He is really easy going most of the time, but every once in a while he can really let you know that he is not happy. Cole still has a big grin on his face for almost everyone he meets, and we often get greeted by wild flapping of arms and legs, a huge smile, and some shrieks. He is quite a charmer!

Coleson enjoying chewing on a corn cob at dinner.

Yep, it won't be long before he is terrorizing the house. I am equal parts dreading him being able to crawl well and being excited that he will be able to get around on his own.

Last, I went to my long-time friend Sarah's wedding a few weekends ago. We had such a good time seeing lots of people that I grew up with and their parents. It's so fun to be able to get together once in a while. Here we are at Sarah's reception.

These are the ladies I grew up with, and they are still some of my best friends. I think it's so great that we have been friends since we were ten and we still talk and hang out when we get the chance. I wish I had a photo on my computer of us as kids to compare. Then again, we looked pretty dorky in some, I'm not sure I really want them on the internet for all to see!

Anyway, those are my pictures from all the festivities of the last month or so. It's been a busy summer for us, and now we are starting to move into focusing on preparing for the fall and winter. We are doing some repairs around the house and working in the yard to get everything ready for cold weather and snow. Hopefully not as much snow as we had last year. We still have about a month left of good, warm weather though. Ok, off to go knit in peace while the baby naps and Landon is at the neighbor's house.

you could win!

Check this out! Each of us could get one of these for free. How cool would that be?

I still have yet to download pictures from the weddings and such. I will this weekend though. Promise.

weddings and funky days

We have been so busy the last few weeks, so no updating has taken place. Sorry. Here's a run-down of what has been happening with us.

About a month ago we traveled to Olympia to visit old friends and attend a friend's wedding. We were there for a week and had a great time just hanging out with our old buddies. It was ridiculously hot while we were there, though, but we just spent a lot of time playing in the cold water and we even took a day trip to the ocean. The boys did great in the car both there and back. I was so impressed with them.

The weekend after we got back from visiting Olympia, Tyson's sister got married. I took some really nice pictures, which I will have to share in another post. Landon was the ring bearer and even wore a cute little tux. A lot of family was in town for the wedding and we spent about six days just visiting with everyone and enjoying having company.

Last weekend a friend of mine from childhood got married, so off we went to another wedding. I got to see a lot of my friends from grade school/middle school/high school, so that was a lot of fun. We didn't get to stay too long, because Cole was really tired and couldn't stay asleep with the loud music, but at least we got to enjoy seeing people.

Then this week, and a little of last week, have basically been spent recovering from all the activity. We have been trying to settle back into a routine which I hope will carry us into the fall. Landon has been having some major melt-downs and I have been very short on patience. It's been a bit of a rough transition back to real life for us the past couple weeks. Today, Landon sobbed and screamed for at least an hour for a toy he saw at the store with my mom that he wanted me to drive back and get for him. When he finally stopped crying about it, he fell asleep, took a nap for an hour and a half, and then woke up and started crying about the darn toy again. I just keeping hoping tomorrow will be better.

I will try to be back here again soon with pictures from our adventures.