Enjoying the Scenery

It's a beautiful fall day.  The sun is shining, the weather is warm, Ryan is done with his homework early, and it is a great day for a walk.  Let's go enjoy the scenery...

"Hi.  My name is Emma.  I have an addiction."

More About Bed Time

Tonight the girls are having a "sleep over," which is actually all of the girls in the twins' room together.  After a half hour of giggles and playing, I went upstairs to remind them that this was actually to SLEEP together, not play all night.  I told them if I heard anymore noise, I would come up stairs and separate them.

Three minutes later, they were back to their old giggly tricks.

I stood at the bottom of the stair case, and said very loudly to Ryan, "I'm hearing voices, Dad.  Should I do something about it?"

Ryan gave me a funny look, and said, "Uh oh, you're hearing voices?  That's not good."

Thanks a lot, honey.  Way to back me up.

Now that it's almost 10 pm, the voices are quiet.  Maybe Ryan won't have to worry about me after all.

Piano

We've had our piano a couple of years now, and tonight, we finally got it tuned.  The kids thought it was pretty interesting for the first 5 or so minutes, and then went their various ways.  Except for Elizabeth.  

This is the first time someone has showed up to our house to fix something wearing a suit and tie.  He was quite a good pianist, and would take a break from the regular tuning to play music for us.

Home Buying

Just as an upfront side note- we are not looking to buy another house.  Possibly ever again.

Ryan's mom and dad had their first real estate fall-through experience.  The short-sale was rejected by the bank because they decided the property wasn't short-sale material after all.  (After they had ok-ed it....  Nice work, folks.)  So while Rick is working in the new town, he went house hunting and found one he liked.  Kim is still working at her old job, and hasn't actually seen the place that they've made an offer on.  

But no worries, we met up with Caitlin and her girls, and got a tour of the house today.

 We gave it a thumbs up.  It'll be really nice to be able to make an afternoon trip to see Grandma and Grandpa, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that this one works out.

Kim gets to see it sometime next week.

Double Seater

This isn't the first time this has happened.

Bed Time

Last night, there was an unusual amount of activity upstairs after we put the kids to bed.  Doors opening and closing, giggles, and murmurs floated down to us as we sat mostly comatose on the couch after a long day, and watching an episode of Castle.  At about 9:30 Ryan got up the energy to march up the stairs and see what the commotion was about.  Annie and Maddie had their bedroom light on and were playing with dolls.  Ryan told the girls to get back in bed, and unscrewed the light bulbs from their bedroom light fixture.  There was crying and screaming about Daddy ruining the light, and saying how it was too scary to go to bed in the dark.  But rules are rules, and that was the consequence of turning the light on after bedtime.

Tonight Annie and Maddie were still a bit tired from staying up so late the night before.  The light bulbs are still unscrewed, so there was only the light from the hall as we said prayers and tucked the kids in bed.  There was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth as we tried to get them settled into their bed for the night.  If they could just stay in bed tonight, Dad would fix the light tomorrow.

After Ryan and I came downstairs, Maddie started hollering (but stayed in her room), "I neeeeeEEEEeeed the light, Daddy."

"Tell you what.  Once you are asleep, I will fix the light," was Daddy's concession.

There was a pause.  Then we heard, "But I am asleep.  I'm sleep talking."

::Quiet snickering of the parents::

"I'll be up in a little while to fix the light, then."

College Student

I think this year is a tiring one.  Doing a masters degree in one year sounds like a good idea, but then reality hits.  We haven't set an alarm on Sunday since Ryan was released from his calling teaching a Sunday School class and he no longer spends his morning preparing his lesson.  An alarm isn't really necessary, since we are awake in enough time to get ready.  

This morning when we decided to open our eyes and check out the time, it was already after 9 am.  We'd heard the kids downstairs, but as they were quiet and undemanding, we pulled the comforter up higher and rolled over for another few minutes.  Ryan looked at me, and I looked back, and we decided we were not making it to Sacrament Meeting.  Well, it might have been possible, but not without yelling and screaming, and that didn't sound like a great way to start a Sunday.

Well, now it is after church, and Ryan is back to sleep:

Being a college student, dad, husband, community member, and teacher (and part-time farmer) is wearing the poor guy out.

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Another story about Ryan:

Yesterday Ryan had to stop by a house belonging to an older couple on the verge of retirement to pick something up that had been borrowed.  They are downsizing considerably, and we'd heard about their upcoming estate sale before they leave permanently in November.  I suggested to Ryan to see if they would consider doing a "preview" sale of a dresser or maybe a larger dining room table while he was there.

A half hour later, as I was in the process of making dinner, I got a call from Ryan.  We can't do early sales of the furniture, BUT there's this rototiller that we can get for a great deal ("only $350") and is that ok?

Oh sure.  Why not.  It will be so much more useful than a dresser with drawers that actually close for Emma, or a table with enough matching chairs for the family.

Farming

Back in the spring of this year, we put in irrigation in the front of our property.  All summer, Ryan has watered and killed the weeds, watered and killed the weeds.  He decided the puncture vine problem was contained well enough about two months ago, and planted pasture grass. 

Today he mowed for the 3rd time.  The grass has grown incredibly fast, and has been about knee high each time he's mowed.

And this is just one of our turkeys.  They've grown quite a lot.  Ryan had to check how the drumsticks were coming along.  If only we can keep the neighbor dogs out of our yard- we are down to two turkeys now.

Also, we counted the pumpkins in our pumpkin patch.  If we haven't double counted too many, we have somewhere in the vicinity of 60 pumpkins.

Camping

Over Labor Day weekend, we took a one night camping trip to Camp Zarahemla.  The day before our intended trip, we mentioned in passing to our friends that we were going camping, and would they like to come too?  Kyle thought it sounded like a good time, and said he would talk it over with his wife, Suzanne.

Well, at 3:30 Friday afternoon, they arrived without warning on our doorstep, ready to go.  Emma and Elizabeth weren't even done with school, and I was still in full on packing mode.  There were piles of stuff ready to be stashed into the minivan, bags partially packed, food being prepared and packed, and I was not ready for company.  

We sent them on ahead with printed directions, and we followed an hour later.  We arrived in enough time to set up our tent in the daylight hours, and get ready for the long night ahead.  We chickened out, and got fast food on the road, rather than try and cook something when we got there for dinner late.  We were able to cook s'mores, and the kids were happy about that.  

It was a long, cold night in our Great and Spacious Tent.

We did cook our breakfast on the fire in the morning, and fed some other roaming kids too.

Then it was play time.

Elizabeth made a friend.  (And I don't remember her name...)  But they thought they would be GREAT friends, since they both wear glasses.

Emma and Luci went out in a paddle boat by themselves.  5th and 6th graders are much too cool to hang out with their moms and dads.

 Annie, Maddie, and Elizabeth snuck a ride on a paddle boat with Brittney, Jane and Joe.

 Family canoe ride (minus Emma, she was still out with Luci).

 Kyle and Suzanne.

If you look at the bottom left corner of the picture above, you can see the baggie that I had around my cell phone.  I am paranoid of falling in when I am out on the water.

Then it was time to come home.  Either all the fun in the outdoors, or the lack of adequate sleep, caused three of the four kids to crash on the drive.

WSWW

Someone thought with the weather cooling down, it must be Christmas time already:

 I mostly just snapped this picture to show Maddie wearing one of her many all purple outfits.  She will be very thorough in her purple outfits, even putting on purple underwear.