H-A-double-L-O-W-double-E-N

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It is my favorite holiday today!  We didn't get to put up all our tons of decorations due to the uncertainty with the new house, but we had fun.

The festivities started by getting to hand out candy at work.  They had trick-or-treat at Sunrise Village from 4-6 and I got to be the candy girl from 4-5.  There were so many little cuties walking around, I LOVED it!

I got home and snapped some pics of Sawyer in the yard in his 2 costumes while it was still light out.

We headed across meridian to my parents' house to spend the evening with my dad.  First thing I did was carve the little ghost pumpkin.  Sawyer tried to help by eating it.

My dad made us thanksgiving (yep, cooked a turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing) so we ate that.

After dinner, my dad and I took Sawyer trick-or-treating to some of the neighbors I grew up knowing.  He made me hold him at most of them because he would knock on the door then run away.  We didn't have a candy bucket so I made one out of a milk jug really quick haha!  It was fun though, and he got a little bit of loot....not that he needed more- he already had 2 reese's cups, some m&ms and a crunch. He was so good and held his bucket the whole time.

It was a fun night, we handed out more candy, and my old next-door neighbor came by and we are pretty good friends still (even though she moved when she was 5 and I was 8 we have kept in touch) but I haven't seen her in over a year!  I already can't wait for next year in our new house.  Sawyer will be older, there will be more neighborhood kids, and we can get our decorations out!

Productive

While we didn't pack as much as I'd wanted this weekend (pretty much just got through my clothes- like 10 hefty bags of them haha) we had a pretty productive Saturday.

First, Andy went to get the oil changed at Bucky's in the morning.  We went there because walmart screwed the cap on too tight last time and couldn't get it off this time.  We remembered we liked Bucky's better anyway because when another place said we need a whole new muffler system, they told us it was just one cheap piece and it has worked!  Anyway, it was going to be a long wait so I had to get Beans and get him.

We decided to eat at Pita Pit since we hadn't been there forever.  They were nice and gave Beans some vegetables on the side!  I love Pita Pit and normally get the "chicken caesar"  which is just bacon and chicken and you can fill them up with whatever you want (lettuce, mushrooms, ranch, cheese for me).

Some pineapple, olives, and mushrooms for Sawyer

Andy decided to get the truck done too (change the oil and fix the belts) so he dropped me off at JCPenny's and went to swap the car for the truck.  I went in to get undies (lol) but really wanted a plain gray shirt like my purple one.  I got to the shirts and they were clearance for $3.50!!! I got my purple one on sale for $5 so I expected more than that!  I got a yellow one too since they were so cheap.  The only problem is they only had small and x-small so it is a size smaller than I wanted but luckily they are stretchy.  My undies were on sale too b1g1 50% off. What luck.  I paid for my stuff and the girl printed out an extra $10!  She said I could use it right then and if I got anything for $10 it would be free- no catch.  I found a really cute shirt in the clearance section originally $40....and I got it for $2! This was a very successful trip

Andy ran (yes, ran) down to Bucky's later and brought the truck home.  I forgot to mention that when I was at JCP I saw a little girl in a cupcake outfit from Old Navy and I decided to run across the mall to check if they had more $5 costumes.  I had really wanted Sawyer to be a hamburger, but they only had the monkeys (still cute) at the Tac Mall store.  I went to the spot and there were all monkeys....and ONE hamburger!  What luck!  I wanted another costume for that night because we had a Halloween party to attend and they had the one I wanted originally.  It was size 6-12 months but it totally fit him.  We went to the party and he was a HIT!

I'm glad we got him 2 because he got spaghetti sauce on the hamburger and eventually dirt. There were a couple other kids at the party and he wanted to play outside with them.  I'm glad he had the big puffy costume to keep him warm!  We had a lot of fun at the party at Leslie and Krissy's house.  Believe it or not, the main entertainment turned out to be....JENGA LOL.  It got pretty intense. Very fun though and a lot of my rugby team was there.

Krissy (and nephew), Nofo, Brandi, and Andy played cards one round....then it went back to jenga!

We probably aren't carving our pumpkins this year...we just haven't had much time :( I think we will go hang out with my dad tomorrow for halloween and take Sawyer to a couple houses for candy. Maybe we can get him to say "trick-or-treat".

Before I forget, I wanted to post something cute Sawyer has been doing (as usual).  He picks up one of his 5 phones (our old cell phones) and puts it to his ear and says "hello?" or "hi"  and then has a little conversation in babble before he goes "BYE!" and pushes the button to 'hang up'.  LOL it is so cute.

Relax? Nah.

I feel like we have been living in fast forward we have been so busy lately!  I think things might be settling down a bit.

First of all, rugby is over until February.  That frees up 3 hours each Tuesday and Thursday and most Saturdays.  I am trying to find a way to stay fit though.  I don't want to pay for a gym, and I know I won't use it (i hate going between 4-8 because it is SO packed at that time).  I don't know where I will run though because there aren't really good areas without driving to a park....maybe I will do that. BUT I have exercise-induced asthma that only comes out when it is cold....yeah I had been wondering about that and finally researched that it is pretty common....and it will be COLD here soon. My coach wants to keep fitness practices going on weekends though so maybe that will help.

Next, I finally finished editing the wedding pictures from a few weeks ago.  Please remind me never to be a wedding photographer.  That took forever...and it was a tiny wedding. They are going to pay me though so I am glad I did it.  I'm glad that stress is over though. Here is one of the pictures...I really like this one for some reason.

Third, we finally did that fairy shoot (see yesterday's blog).  We had been thinking about that forever, and though it didn't really take a lot of time, it was nagging in the back of my mind.

Last, I think the house stuff is getting settled.  USDA had to shut down for something, and got completely backed up, so we are just waiting in line for our loan now.  Our closing date (of today) got pushed back to the 10th of November, but hopefully is earlier.  I will be glad when it is done and the BEST NEWS EVER- there is no house payment until January 15th! Yep, 2 months free!  What a relief!  I was stressing on how to pay the duplex and first month's mortgage, but no worries now!

It feels good to have nothing really going on...but of course now we have to pack up the house to move!  We can never get a break lol.

Today is our day to relax though.  Since it is payday and we don't have to pay the full rent (and Andy has his raise) we got Sawyer a costume (old navy had their cute ones for $5 originally $25 for closeout!)  ...AND I got to go to Buckle and pick out some jeans that actually fit!  All my other jeans are falling off because I got them when I was larger from Sawyer (they fit for over half the pregnancy) and I've lost the weight.  I was excited to fit back in my lucky jeans that were 29 waist and now I'm 27. Woot!  That is really good for me considering my build.  Now we are about to watch a movie.  We can pack the rest of the weekend ;)

Fairy Tale

One of my favorite photographers did a shoot with girls in a forest that kind of looked like pixies.  I showed a friend at work, and she wanted to do it with her daughters! Obviously it wouldn't be as cute as the one the pro did, but we had fun.

First, I made the head pieces.

There's a green flower under her hair at the bottom

Natalie made the girls' tutus.  We met up at the park and started shooting.   Sawyer took pictures too, and they argued over who got to push him.

There were so many cute ones, but I will not post them all....though I WILL post a lot :) They were cute little fairies.

Sacramento for Rugby

We finally made it home and settled from our quick trip down to Sacramento.

We left Thursday night after my practice.  We wanted to go overnight so we'd have an extra day and so that Sawyer would sleep the whole way.  Andy drove most of the way, but I drove 4 of the 12 hours down for once.

We finally arrived in Sacramento at around 11am.  We went to take a nap while Sawyer played with Grandma and the dogs.  Jasper liked him ok, but Alice was terrified of him.

Sawyer would laugh so hard when Andy shot this at him

After the nap we had dinner and walked around in the sun.  It was 80 degrees there and it was nice to bust out our summer clothes again.

After dinner Andy's step sister Tami and family came over and we visited for a little bit while they dropped Sawyer's cousin Claudia off.  She had fun with Sawyer all night. They played puppets and her and grandma were teaching him tricks like lifting his legs up high and saying ready, set, go and running to the fridge, and jumping on the trampoline (which gave me heart attacks but he loved it).

The next morning was my rugby game.  It was against the "Amazons" which is an all-tongan team.  They were big. They were mean.  I got a concussion in the first 20 minutes and had to sit out most of the game.  They were throwing punches, choking, and diving off their feet into rucks.  They didn't need to cheat because they were stronger than us, but their attitude just made them look like jerks.  I ended up injured because the big girl running at me hit me in the head with he forearm as she ran at me (illegal) and it got hit a second time on the ground (also knocking the wind out of me). Their crowd was yelling things like "yeah! that's how we do it down here!" which was so infuriating because they were doing completely illegal things to a respectful team that was a first-year team that they didn't even need to act that way towards. UGH.  I hope we never have to play them again. We did, however, score on them, which i guess we are the first team the whole season to do that.  No wonder they were so mad at us.  They were tackling people that didn't even have the ball! (illegal again).

After showering, we went to a restaurant Sam knows the owner of, El Novillero.  We love the flour chips!  Sawyer was at a table next to a pretty girl baby and he was blowing kisses at her and waving, it was so cute.

After we went to Sammie and Rico's (another of Andy's step sisters) to meet their new baby Corbin.  He is only like 2 weeks old!  He was so tiny and cute.  I wanted one....but then he cried and I changed my mind.  He was fun to hold though :)

We woke up the next morning and I was DIZZY.  As in I couldn't even sit up without vertigo and using the bathroom was a task. Sawyer swept the floor. Somehow I made it to the car, and we all loaded up.  Andy's mom was coming back with us.  I felt better as the day went on, and Sawyer was an ANGEL in the car the whole way.  The only time he fussed we went to the next rest area (one mile away) and found he just had a dirty diaper.  He was just cute and making funny noises and faces the whole way.  It had us worried because we drove ALL DAY (11am to 11pm) but he wasn't difficult at all.

  The trip was pretty fun apart from the awful game.  I wish we could have stayed longer, but neither of us could really be away from work for long.

Pumpkins

We took Sawyer to the pumpkin patch on Sunday at Spooner Farms.  It is probably the best free one, so it was packed (being a weekend and all).  We let Sawyer run around, and we each got a pumpkin (pictures when we carve them closer to Halloween).  It was pretty fun. Here are a ton of pictures...

OH before I forget, I wanted to write Sawyer's latest favorite thing to say. "Dog! Woof woof woof!" he said it all the way to the patch in the car.  He did it today again pointing at a cat.  I was like "no, kitty meow meow" and he just laughed at me :-/

Sawyer loved the wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man scarecrow

Andy told Sawyer to knock on the pumpkins to tell if they're good

Erik came with us

We didn't do the corn maze...maybe when he's older