St. Luke's Woman's Celebration

I love participating in the St. Luke's Woman's Celebration.  In years past I have ran, walked, and have had Allie walk with me when she was just a few weeks old.  Considering my state of being 33+ weeks pregnant, I would not be running this year.  I was meeting up with some girls from work and decided that Allie was at an age that she could attempt to walk the race. I pumped it up weeks before, all the way up until the morning of, just so Allie was excited for the big race.  

Blake was out of town for boy scouts, so we turned the weekend into a girls weekend for Allie and I.  We went out to dinner on Friday night to the new McDonald's that opened up on the corner by our house.  I'm not a big fan of McDonald's, but Allie had been dying to check it out since it had just opened.  It was quite the McDonald's experience; we were unaware that it was the big opening night. We were greeted at the door by "Ronald," handed a balloon, and whined and dined with free smoothies throughout our night.  This was a dream come true for Allie and she has not stopped talking about how she met Ronald since this night.  After dinner, we enjoyed a night out shopping for baby sister and got to bed early to prepare for the big race.

My cute girl ready for the race.  She ended up doing AWESOME!!!  I was impressed that Allie did so well. We got to about mile 2.5 and Allie started to drag and get slightly whiny.  I carried her for just a minute and put her down where we overlooked the park below us where the finish line was.  She ended up walking the rest of the way and did great.  I was expecting many more instances like this throughout the race, but Allie proved me wrong for her first 5K

Allie wanted to keep her shirt on the rest of the day, she was so proud of herself.  We spent the rest of the day making our first batch of salsa for the season which Allie is proudly sitting by.  We were very excited to surprise dad when he came home because we have been out of homemade salsa for a few months and he has been dying for our tomatoes to come on so we get to making more. 

Routine and Change

Well, with our new little one on the way and school season upon us, I decided we needed to implement some routine and change around our house to get ready for the baby to arrive.  First things first was to create some "down time" in the afternoon for mom.  Since Allie has not been taking naps for around a year now, it's hard to have a "mom break" in the day and take a breath.  Allie will go play in her room and do an activity but then she'll be back at my feet in 5 minutes.  So I had a talk with Allie about our new "quiet time."  She was to play in her room and not emerge until the timer beeped (I brought up my kitchen timer and set it right outside her room).  We talked about all the activities she could quietly do in her room (read books, color, play Lego's, etc.)  during this time.

I thought this would be more tricky and I would get a lot of resistance to this change in our routine, but I was shocked by Allie's reaction on our first day.   After about 20 minutes, Allie was calling me into her room telling me that she was done.  I reminded her the timer hadn't gone off and that she needed to finish her time so mom could have hers (I quickly thought she would be calling for me again soon).  Well about 5 minutes later I didn't hear any more chatting going on in Allie's room.  I went into check on her and started to cry (pregnancy hormones I guess).  I was shocked that this little child of mine would put herself to sleep for a nap, tucking herself in and all.  I was so grateful to Heavenly Father for the obedient little child that had been placed in my home and for the outpouring of love that I had for her.  I was a changed mommy after day one of "quiet time."  Since then, Allie has done super with her quiet time.  She now remains in her room, I get a breather, and occasionally she will get some extra rest time in too.  I am a firm believer in establishing some routine quiet time in the house!

Day 1 of "quiet time"- Allie fast asleep

The next thing that we've been working on over the entire month of September has been our night time routine.  Allie crawls into our bed a majority of the nights and snuggles right up next to me. I am the one closest to the door and I am a very sound sleeper, so I literally don't notice that she enters into our room and crawls into our bed.  To my knowledge I was sleeping fine with her next to me but we wanted to get Allie staying in her own bed for when the little miss comes and is in our bed for night time feeds etc.  So we set up a three week chart one night and thought of the rewards that could gradually get bigger and better to motivate Allie to stay in her bed.  One of her rewards, after two weeks of sleeping in her own bed all night, was a trip to Wahooz to play some games and ride the go-karts with dad.  Allie has definitely struggled at being consistent at earning her daily stars but she finally got 14 stars and earned her trip to Wahooz.

Allie got to enjoy a few rides and a few games before her big go kart ride with dad.  Here she is riding with "Spidey" as she calls him

Playing a few games with the assistance of mom....I grew up going to Po Jo's and love games.  I know, big waste of money, but fun in the process

Spending some time with dad watching the other riders, building up the experience

In line with dad waiting for their turn

Allie speeding around the track with dad; she really did enjoy her ride.  All of the action shots I got of them were blurry.  Blake actually stopped for two seconds on the track so I could grab this picture of the them which show a non-enthusiastic Allie.  I'm so proud of you Allie girl and all of the progress and change you are able to make.  We love you!

Peaches and Pies-Oh My!

Well, it was a busy start to the month of September.  It had been two years since I had canned peaches and with only a few quarts left on my shelf and an extra mouth to soon feed I knew I'd better get to restocking our pantry.  My sister-in-law Katie and I decided we would hit up an orchard that our church runs because it was 1/2 the price of the fruit stands.  The only criteria for the orchard was that you had to volunteer and pick for the orchard the same amount of hours you pick for yourself.  Seemed easy enough, so we gave it a try.  It was a little mayhem and chaotic when we first arrived, experiencing the disorganization of the church orchards for the first time, but now that we've been and know what it's like, we could do it again.  

So back home we came with peaches out of our ears.  I think their baskets of 1/2 bushel are a little skewed because we ended up with 8 1/2 bushels of peaches or 4 bushels and WOW peaches!!!!  We got 70 some quarts apiece canned away for the years to come and then got to work freezing peaches and a first for me....pie filling.  I made some pie filling and then some "pie in a jar."  It was all quite fun over the week that my kitchen got turned upside down and into a sticky mess.  Here are a few pictures of my finished products.  I am not posting any pictures of my poor peaches. Between my sister-in-law and I who both suffer from "pregnancy brain" we ended up processing our jars to long, which led to them spewing out sticky water after they were removed, which gave me ugly looking peach jars with a few inches of water missing from the tops of my jars :(

Here are the "pie in a jars."  They were fun putting them together and make great little gifts

We had to try out one of our pie fillings just to make sure it was good.  I also experimented and made my first pie crust.  It got two thumbs up for all who enjoyed my taste test.  

First Day of Preschool

Well I can't believe it's school time already. I love this time of year. I love the order and routine that school brings into the house and love the feeling of fall that is creeping in on us.  Allie is starting preschool at Mrs. Janis's this year and is very excited.  We might end up sending her again next year, it's up for debate at our house.  Allie's birthday will fall days before the cut off next year, so she would be the youngest in her class.  We'll see what this year of school brings.

Our family tradition of getting a Schultute for the first morning back to school.  Allie was so excited to go to school that she woke up at 7 am ready to go.  She came into my room so excited and said, "Mom the leprechaun came."  Very confused I asked Allie "What?"  She then asks me, "Does the leprechaun come on the first day of school?"  Well I did not plan to put all green things in Allie's Schultute, I just put in what I had on hand, and it all happened to be green.  I explained that what she had waiting for her was a little treat from mom and dad to wish her good luck back to school.

Allie on her first day back (Don't ask about the side pony.  I know they are in, but I don't really like the do)

After school Allie took a special trip with Dad to the Lollipop Stop to get a treat.  It just so happens that Allie choose a lollipop for her treat. Happy First Day of School Miss Allie:)

Boise State Verses Virginia Teach

We are getting geared up for the BIG Game tonight.  Boise State Verses Virginia Tech.  

Allie is sporting her new PINK Boise State Jersey.  We are a little scared of what might happen to our Broncos tonight......

But know they will pull through and we'll end up with a smile on our face.  GO BRONCOS!!!

What happened Allie???

What did you do Allie?????

Can you make a face for mom like you are in trouble

Whose hair is this lying around????

Well, you guessed it, Allie cut her hair.  I guess every kid does it right?  I think I am the instigator of this one too.  Yesterday, I decided to trim off a few inches of Allie's hair. It was getting a little scraggly on the ends, so I wet her hair down and just cut a straight line across the bottom.  Nothing to fancy, but it sure made a difference.  In the process of doing this I talked with Allie about how mom's and hairdressers are the only ones who get to cut hair.  I guess it sounded intriguing for a 4 year old because a day later, she took matters into her own hands.  She decided she wanted her cut a little bit shorter.  At least she was smart about it and was symmetrical with her cuts and took pieces from the back of her head.  I do have to say I am a little worried because I'm not sure if her hair will pull into a pony tail, but I guess it's hair and from first hand experience I know that it will grow back.

Spirit of Boise Balloon Festival

We ventured out to the Spirit of Boise Balloon Festival with some friends to enjoy our last summer day in Boise.  The last time that I remember getting to see all of the hot air balloons downtown was when we had the Boise River Festival years ago.  The kids had a great time getting to see the balloons get blown up and light up as the dusk hours drew on.  Next time, I think I am going to have to wake the family up early to watch them take off at 7 am because I just love seeing them fill up the sky.  Hopefully one day I can also cross off "riding in a hot air balloon" off my bucket list; Blake knows this is on there and tells me that I have to wait till I'm old to enjoy this ride. 

Allie hanging out waiting for the action to begin

The first balloon to get blown up was M-I-C-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E

Allie so excited because they started to turn Mickey around so we could see his face

Getting closer.........and she can hardly stand it 

Mickey!!!  He came all the way from Disneyland to make an appearance at our balloon festival.  Great promoting on their part:)

I loved this one with the trees on it; it seemed appropriate for The city of Trees

Along with the balloons we were able to hang with some good friends

And daddy

To get ready for the balloons to light up the evening sky. We hope they bring the balloons back next year because we had a great time.