Romantic Getaway

Don't worry, I'll leave out the romantic parts!  Jerel's mom agreed to watch the kids so we could spend some time together.  Jerel found the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City.  It was gorgeous!  The only other time I stayed in a 5-star hotel was when I was in Egypt as a student, and I have to say they must have smaller stars there or something because this was MUCH nicer!  We were greeted by three people (all of whom had foreign accents)--one who drove our car away to park it, one who carried our bags, and a third to open the door.  Then two people to check us in.  Then Brantley showed up to escort us to our room.  I'm pretty sure he had a British accent and will make a fine butler someday.  Actually he didn't, but he seemed like he should.

The room was great with a hot tub and a jetted tub.  AND a bathroom scale that weighed me four pounds lighter than I actually am!  Definitely a highlight of the trip for me!

For dinner we went to Talisker on Main.  Jerel pretty much won't blow his nose until he's done research on the best brand of tissue, so you can imagine a fair amount of thought and work went into selecting our dinner choice.  The restaurant was really good.  I had rabbit and Jerel had, um, something.  Ski season hasn't really started yet so there were only a couple of other people in the restaurant and the waiters would stand around just waiting for you to need something so they could have something to do.  They even brought us a complimentary dessert, which I think was due solely to their boredom.  It was super good--a carmel flan, a chocolatey fudgy moussey thing, and then carmel ice cream with carmel popcorn (which sounds weird but was fabulous).  One of Jerel's favorite parts was that the cold I had made me lose my voice for the whole day so he had to do all the talking, which is a little bit opposite of how it usually is.  Although I do want to mention that earlier that morning when he needed to return a thermometer to WalMart, he made me do it even though I could only whisper.  He's a wimp about returning things.

For breakfast we went to The Eating Establishment.  I had taken the day before off my diet but decided to take that morning off too once I saw that they had biscuits and gravy.  Nothing ever measures up to my grandma's, but I still like to try it everywhere I go.  It was a good casual restaurant.  After that we went to the outlet stores up there.  Jerel was less than thrilled, but I really wanted to.  We found lots of pants for Eliza (she's coming to the end of her baby shower gifts, so once she grows out of what she's in now we'll have to start buying.  So I plan ahead and buy them when they're on sale).  We looked for pants for Zay but didn't find any.  Jerel also picked out a few outfits for Eliza so she has a few more cold-weather things to wear.  Then of course Jerel wanted to go to the Levi's store.  Ugh.  He should know better than to buy things for himself when Christmas is less than a month away.  I've already had to return two things this year! 

After that we headed home.  It was fun to see Eliza get so excited and kick her legs and laugh when she saw us.  Grandma said they behaved well for her and Zay only cried once when he missed us, so that's good.  Maybe we'll make a yearly tradition of it.  Jerel says next time he wants to try a bed and breakfast instead, he wasn't all that impressed with the five-star lodge.

Chef Zay

Here he is with his latest creation:  Mac n Crispix.  He said he wanted Mac n Cheese for lunch and Crispix.  Then he explained he wanted them in the same bowl.  Yuck.  But he ate it...

Kitty's Birthday

Zay Zay loves to show his sister how to do things.  "Do like this Lizey" he says all the time.  (He has been calling her Lize-y lately.  For a while it was E-yi-za, now it's Lize-y).  He was really excited to show her how to open her birthday presents.  He was also disappointed that it wasn't his birthday.  She mostly wasn't interested in ripping the paper off, which was good, because we couldn't keep him away from it.  She had fun watching and trying to eat the wrapping paper after it came off.

Here's Zay on his way to find another present to "show Lizey how open."  Eliza's playing with her new puzzle while Grandma Atkinson looks on.  (yes, all of her presents were wrapped in Christmas paper--it was all I had).  Kitty also got four new sippy cups, some forks, and two books:  The Lion and the Mouse, which was the Caldecott award winner for the year she was born, and Are You My Mother, which is one of my favorites.

Here she is in her new outfit from G&GA.  I love her in striped pants; it's a style you can only wear for a few short years of your life so I am taking advantage of it as much as I can.  She'll thank me later I'm sure.

Here's a cute one of Eliza with daddy glowing in the background.

We'd just had cupcakes a few days ago for another cousin's birthday, so we decided to do cheesecake (for the grownups, the kids still got cupcakes).  It was fun to have the whole extended family there.

Grandpa tried to get Kitty to eat some of her cupcake. Then mom tried.  Then dad.  None of us had much success.  Which I'm not disappointed about.  My side of the family doesn't have great genes, so it's just as well they don't develop a taste for sweets too early.

What Liza lacks in cupcake enthusiasm, Zay makes up for--and then some. 

Zay has started this thing lately where he likes to eat with just his face--no silverware, no hands, just face.  This morning he dropped part of a cheese stick on the floor and when Jerel asked him to pick it up, he leaned all the way over and picked it up with his mouth.  It reminds me of my brother, who used to pick up everything with his feet.  You'd say "Can you hand me the remote?" and he'd pick it up with his toes and give it to you.  (Of course then you didn't want it anymore).  Anyway, I think it's safe to say that Zay enjoyed Liza's birthday more than she did, but that's okay.  First birthdays are not for the birthday kid anyway.

Up in the sky, ever so high...

When I was a kid I played a piano song that was about swinging and that's how it started.  Not the most creative blog title ever, but I feel like it would be boring if they were all called "the kids playing."  Anyway, we spent the afternoon over at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Nicole's house.  Both of our kids LOVE to swing!  Isaiah likes to slide too.  It was pretty cold so Eliza didn't last long (notice her neglectful parents didn't even put socks on her) but Zay had plenty of fun.  I think he only ended up coming inside because the dog was outside and Zay is super scared of dogs.  The best part about Jeff's play structure is that their neighbor GAVE it to them, Jeff just had to haul it over to his yard.  So I'm just putting it out there that if anyone has a play structure they want to give me, I'm willing to haul it away!

Isn't this a darling photo of Eliza?  I'm not skilled photographer, but once in a while I get a little bit of luck.

A little bit of the Beehive State

This year is the Atkinson side for Thanksgiving.  We came down a bit early so our kids could have more time with their cousins.

While we were here, Eliza (finally) got her first tooth!  We were at Ryan & Amy's house on the 23rd talking about how our almost one-year-old is pretty much like a 6-month-old:  no walking, no talking, no teeth, etc.  Just a few minutes later Aunt Amy came over and showed us the tooth!  Her bottom right.  Of course you can't see it in the picture, but it seemed like a photo-worthy moment anyway.  Eliza's starting to look like a big baby.  She's getting taller, wearing 12-month size, her hair's getting thicker, and she stands up really well now when she's holding on to things.

Aunt Nicole made gingerbread girls & boys for the kids to decorate.  Most of the kids had a fun time decorating.  Isaiah had a fun time eating "m's" (what he calls m&m's).  

Jerel and I met up with an old friend at Temple Square.  I thought it would be so fun for Isaiah to see the lights.  There were a few flaws in my planning.  First, the night I picked was the night of the official Lights-On ceremony so it was super crowded.  Second, it was super windy.  And third, it was not so fun for Isaiah to see the lights.  He's only smiling in the photo because we promised we were about to go home.  I get so frustrated when I plan things that I think will be so fun for the kids and then they end up hating it.  Oh well.

This is me with our old friend Stephanie.  Jerel and I both knew her and her roommate Kim really well.  A few years ago they both moved to Salt Lake so I planned a reunion.  Kim was out of town, so it was Stephanie and her husband, uh, Jake I think and twin 9-month-olds Caleb and Zachary.  It was fun to see her as a mom and to see her so happy with her husband!  By the end of our little excursion her boys were crying as much as Isaiah, so we shouted our goodbyes over the screams and headed for home.

Halloween

Here's our family pumpkin, courtesy of the chicken lady.  Zay and Eliza had a fun time watching my amazing carving skills...I was actually pretty suprised that Zay didn't cry more because I wouldn't let him use the knife!  We definitely need to get us a carving kit because the kitchen knives just don't allow for the fine craftsmanship I had in mind.  Isaiah was excited when we put it outside and put a candle in it.  I put it on the porch but turned it to face inside because he kept going over to the window to peek out and see it.  I'm glad he has such happy memories because the day after Halloween, Daddy put our pumpkin in the trash, which Isaiah still talks about.  "Daddy throw 'way pumpkin."

For Zay's first Halloween I spent hours (and about $30) making a cute little elephant costume for him.  He refused to wear it.  A few days later I saw some glow-in-the-dark skeleton pajamas and bought them for him to wear as his costume the next year.  But for his second Halloween, he slept right through the ward party and didn't care about trick-or-treating, so he never really knew Halloween happened that year.  This year I saw a bunch of animal costumes at Costco for $12.99.  Since I still haven't forgiven Zay for not wearing the elephant, I told him to pick one since I wasn't going to make one for him.  I thought he'd pick the monkey because he LOVES to watch (and read) Curious George.  But he picked the tiger instead.  He was much more cooperative this year and even kept is hood up despite the fact that he hates hoods.

And so Eliza got to wear the famous elephant costume.  I was pleasantly surprised by how cooperative she was.  I pointed it out to Jerel and wondered what was wrong with Isaiah that made him hate it to much.  But Jerel pointed out Zay was only 3 months old when he wore it, and Eliza is 11 months old.  Okay, okay, so maybe it's a matter of maturity and not actually a character flaw in my then 3-month-old!  She was a cute little elephant.  We went to the ward Halloween party this year.  It started with a trunk-or-treat, which Zay really liked.  He wouldn't talk, he'd just walk up to people and hold out his bucket, but I think that's okay when you're two.  Some people tried to give me candy for Eliza, but I explained that we have a strict rule at our house--if you don't have any teeth, you don't get any candy!  Seriously, when is she gonna get some teeth?!  After the trunk-or-treat we went inside where they had some games and a spook alley.  It turns out the fog machines were a little overactive, so the fire alarm went off and we all went outside and watched the fire trucks come.  It took the firemen about 40 minutes to get everything cleared and figure out how to turn off the alarm, but by that time we'd already given up and gone home to put our little trick-or-treaters to bed.  Zay and I did go trick-or-treating again on Halloween night, but he still didn't talk.  He'd just knock and hold out his little bucket.  Then after they gave him candy, he'd still stand there holding out his little bucket.  Not a bad tactic, he got many a second piece as people tried to figure out what to do with the awkwardness!  I told him to say "thank you" when he got candy, and at every house I would say "Did you say thank you?" and he would say "Not this time.  Maybe next time."



Fall leaves

The truth is out

After all these posts about trips to the zoo, football games, pumpkin patches, etc. I thought I should do a post about what life is really like at our house...

A bunch of crazy animals

And I'm not just talking about the wildlife at the zoo...

Zay's friend Emma has a zoo membership and she's taken us a few times now.  This time I had our neighbor friend Esther with me too while her mom was at an appointment.  We had two double strollers with 3 two-year-olds plus Eliza, and we didn't even lose any of them while we were there!  Esther likes to run away, Zay likes to whine, and Emma hides behind her mom if I try to talk to her, but we all survived.  It's fun to see the kids get excited about the animals.  And it's funny to watch them copy each other and just generally act silly.  We're lucky to have many good friends for Zay to play with--it makes the terrible twos a little less terrible!

The Pumpkin Patch

While Jerel and I were at the football game, our awesomest babysitter ever took the kids to the pumpkin patch!  Some moms might be annoyed with someone who took their kids for their first pumpkin patch experience, but not me!  Pumpkin patches are one of those things I think my kids should experience, but I don't really enjoy doing myself.  So now it's all taken care of and I didn't have to get muddy!  They even came home with a pumpkin for us to carve! 

 Isaiah was very excited that his coat matched the pumpkins.  For a while afterwards, whenever we asked him which coat he wanted to wear "red one, brown one, or orange one?"  he would pick orange because it was the pumpkin coat.  Then he would tell us all about how it matched the color of the pumpkins at the pumpkin patch with the chicken lady.  The chicken lady?  Sometimes Zay forgets the name of the babysitter, but he knows they have chickens at their house, so the house is the chicken house and the baysitter is the chicken lady!  We're so grateful to have the chicken lady.  She is always willing to watch the kids, in fact she's the one who watched Zay while I was having Eliza.  Nap time, crying time, crazy time, she's done them all with my little ones! 

BYU Football Game

So Jerel and I are both BYU grads and decided to head down for the BYU/Oregon State game.  It was super fun!  We saw a few people from our ward, Jerel saw a few people he knew from when he grew up in Utah, and we got to watch the Cougars win.  I wasn't surprised at the win because they've NEVER lost a game I've attended.  (This is the second one I've gone to...)  We even went to a CougarTown tailgate party beforehand.  We left our kids with a friend (an AMAZING friend to watch our kids for ten whole hours!  She even took them to a pumpkin patch.)  but we saw lots of people there with babies and toddlers.  For a minute I felt guilty for leaving my kids at home, but then I remembered how they would've just cried the whole time and then I felt fine.

Our unappreciative little girl...

Sometimes I put her in the most darling little outfits and she just doesn't seem all that grateful!  I made her this little skirt, which I think turned out pretty cute, plus the fabric only cost me $1.98.  How thrifty is that?!  (Of course when we got to church Jerel asked me if I had purposely made it so short it didn't cover her little bum, or if that was a mistake; perhaps I should've used a bit more fabric). 

Eliza is more and more fun every day.  She army crawls really well now, can pull herself up on a few things, switched from bottle to sippy cup (except when Daddy feeds her at night), and loves trying table foods.  If only some of that love for new foods would rub off on Isaiah "Mac-n-Cheese" Atkinson...

Octomom (for a few hours anyway)

Some girls in our ward started a "Temple Swap."  Every two weeks one or two of us stays home to watch all the kids while the others go to the temple.  This time Carolyn and I were on babysitting duty for these EIGHT little cuties!  You can see here that snack time was very popular!  Carolyn moved in down the street from us this summer and it's been so handy having a good friend so close by--last minute babysitting, a grocery item needed on Sunday, etc.  Her girls are 23 months and 3 months so she knows all about 2 under 2 just like me!

Two tiny Atkinsons

Once again when I was taking Eliza's monthly pictures, Isaiah insisted on getting in the action.  Lately he loves to show how he's bigger than her.  They often have crawling races and Zay gets so excited when he wins (which is every time because Eliza doesn't crawl yet).   He also will come running to me in the other room, breathing hard like he barely escaped, "Eliza try to get me, mommy!" 

The cool part in this picture is that you can see his front teeth are starting to come back down.  Phew!

Oh, and the reason for the post title is that when I mentioned to Zay the other day that his name was Isaiah Atkinson, he was very upset.  "Me not at-y-son.  Me Zay-a."  And again this morning when I called Eliza "Liza Mae" he said "Gaga not Mae.  Gaga Gaga."  Just wait until he finds out he has FOUR names!

Refashioning

So I went to a clothing swap a couple weeks ago.  It was mostly kids' clothing, but I found this cute cotton shirt for me.  I was disappointed when I got it home to see that it has a tear in it, so I couldn't wear it after all.

So I thought back to all those cute websites I see where moms who should be too busy to brush their hair somehow manage to "refashion" old things into new things and I decided to give it a go. And so, with no pattern in hand, I took a stab at turning my torn shirt into a cute little shirt for cute little Eliza.

As you can see, it did in fact turn out to be a pretty cute little shirt.  Sadly, it was a little too little for Eliza.  I made her tough it out for the evening so I could admire my handiwork, and then sent it along to our littler neighbor Rocky to enjoy.  (I am an, well, uh, whatever you call an Indian Giver these days now that I'm sure that term is politically incorrect.  I've successfully switched from telling kids to sit "Indian style" to "criss cross" or "cross-legged" but I haven't yet heard the new term for Indian Givers.  It seems Native American Givers would be just as bad.  Anyway, I am one of those, so I told Carolyn (Rocky's mom) that if I ever have another girl I want to borrow this shirt back when she's tiny so I can admire my work some more).

She's related to her photo-hating father.

Another cute shot of Liza.

Zay wanted to take a photo of me & Eliza, so I let him give it a try.  He got one and a half of us at least!

"Grrrr...I-ZAY-uuuuuuhhhh, what are you doing!?!" --Mom

"Me reading, Mommy."  --Isaiah

Our cute girl

No exciting post here, just a cute picture of our smiley girl!

Holey Bread

This is for those of you who read my previous post about how my loaves of bread never turn out quite right--I wanted to present photgraphic evidence lest you think I was just being humble (which I rarely am). 

The Beach

While my niece Elise was visiting we convinced Jerel to join us for a day trip to the beach.  Here he is heading down to the water with Isaiah and Eliza.  When mom's too tired to haul them around, dad always steps in to help them have fun.

Here's Eliza in her cute little sun tent.  You don't really need sun protection in rainy Oregon, but it's always windy at the coast and this works great to protect her a bit.  She is (usually) so content to sit and watch her brother play.

Isn't he cute?  I made him this sunhat last year and sadly for him it still fits.  I guess next year I ought to buy (or make) him one that's a bit more boyish.

My oldest niece Elise came and stayed with us for a week.  What a handy helper she was with the kids!  She even tolerated sharing a room with Eliza, who has a habit of not sleeping through the night.  It was fun to have her here!

A few random pictures

I decided to stop eating sugar for the month of August and that included cutting out as many white flour items as I could.  We have some whole wheat flour Jerel's dad ground for us so Zay and I have been making bread about once a week.  Zay loves to make his own tiny loaf, which he kneads, shapes, and places in the tiny bread pan.  My loaves keep falling and having other problems; Zay's always turn out perfectly!

Isaiah loves loves loves trains, so we took the light rail to the zoo last month.  He thought it was pretty fun riding a train--I think mostly because he could stand up rather than be strapped in a carseat.

Here's Zay with a giraffe.  Our friend Emma has a family zoo pass that allows one guest to come.  Since Zay & Emma & Eliza are all still free, we use the pass for me.  Heidi & I are in the primary presidency together so we always have lots to chat about.

 I know this isn't a fine example of my limited photography skills, but I really like this picture.  It captures one of the first times when Zay & Liza were actually "playing" together.  Zay likes to show Liza how to crawl and roll and such.  He also tattles on her already "GaGa not listening."  As if I don't already know that...He also growls at her if she doesn't cooperate with him, which I am ashamed to admit is something he learned from me.  I didn't want to be one of those moms who yells all the time.  Instead I'm a growler.  Not really any better.

And here's sweet Eliza.  She's getting so big lately!  I definitely prefer older babies to the newborn stage, so for me she's getting to be more and more fun.  She laughs & giggles, is super ticklish, and even likes to cuddle sometimes.