Help Arrives

On October 23, the troops arrived.  Cam, Jill, Kamber and Mom made the trip to Upton to help out with the boys when the baby came.  We were super excited to see family and they truly were awesome help. 

The boys were really excited to see family.  Almost immediately after they arrived, Dash and Colt took Kamber outside to play in the leaves we were supposed to have bagged and thrown out days ago.

On Sunday we we all went for a walk to the park.  I was still hoping to put myself into labor, but no matter what the distraction was nice (for me and the kids).

Colt's 2nd Birthday!

Colt is officially into the terrible twos.  I wouldn't say he waited for his birthday to start being destructive, but it has seemed to intensify since then.  Even as I write this he is emptying cupboards and I believe he may be writing on the walls.  Oh well, it will buy me some time...

October 20th was a beautiful day and so the boys spent most of the morning outdoors "raking" leaves, digging in the dirt, and hauling rocks; all Colt's favorite activites.  In the meantime, I was in the kitchen making a puppy birthday cake.  That night we had our friends, Randy and Tia Bensen and their two children over for dinner and cake.  The Bensen kids are a little older than the boys, but they all played together hard enough to work up a sweat so I would say, overall, Colt had a good day.

October 20th - The boys spent the morning raking and then scattering the leaves.

Colt opening his birthday presents with a little help from Dash.

Colt's puppy birthday cake.

Daddy ended Colt's special day by reading the boys stories.

More of the Same

Well, bad news.  Dash is learning some unfortunate stereotypes. So the other day he tells me, "I'm wanna be a daddy or a grandpa because they're the ones that do work."  Of course, I tell him that mommas and grandmas work too. His reply, "Well, yeah, like clean and stuff." Yikes!  I mean, I'm happy with being a stay-at-home mom, but really.....

Anyway, outside of the high testosterone levels in our home, things are pretty much the same.  By this I mean I still haven't had the baby.  We are still staying busy though, you know, I have all that cleaning to do :).  On Monday, the boys and I went to Rapid City for my doctor's appointment and then on Tuesday we went to Gillette to watch Brand's last football game.  Colt has especially taken to football.  In fact, he thinks coaching is all Brand does.  Throughout the day Colt will ask, "Where's daddy?".  And then he answers himself, "Oh, football."  Actually the way Colt says it makes it seem like Brand is a soccer coach in another country.  Its more like. "Oh, futbal."

Finally yesterday we went back into Rapid City with Jared and Kerri Ivie.  The Ivies wanted to see a bone exhibit that was at the Rushmore Mall so we were really talking it up to the boys about how we were going to go see these bones and Dash got excited because he thought we were going to a museum.  Anyway, when we got there, we decided that the exhibit wasn't worth the admission price, so instead we went to Cabela's and Dash thought all the dead stuffed animals were part of the best museum ever.  In addition to that we stopped by a park and the boys got to eat chicken nuggets and ice cream, so all in all, we had a good day.

Colt at the park in Rapid City.  Colt loves swinging from things and has some surprising upper body strength.

Dash and Abby Ivie at the park in Rapid City.  The boys love playing with Abby and since she is already a head taller than Dash, we feel pretty confident that they'll always be "just friends".

Another week and still waiting

Although I am a little disappointed that I'm not yet reporting the birth of our new baby (I know, I know, patience), we have still kept pretty busy.

Last weekend, we went to Brandan's school to watch conference.  On Sunday, Jared and Kari Ivie and their daughter met us there.  They have just moved to Newcastle to take over an optometrist office there.  Weird how Firth seems to pop up everywhere, huh?  The boys loved playing with Abby and it was fun to chat with the Ivies.  We maybe did a little too much chatting...we are now rewatching conference on our phones. 

This is Brand's classroom where we watched conference.  Check out the big screen!

On Monday I had a doctor's appointment in Rapid City.  We were in a hurry so Dash was getting himself ready.  He loves overalls, or belly pants as he calls them, but he hasn't fit in any for a couple of years.  This doesn't stop him from trying them on, however.  He was rummaging through Colt's drawers and found some overalls and tried to convince me to let him wear them to the doctor's.  It took some talking, but I finally got him to change, but not until after I took a picture.  I figured I'd draw enough attention with two boys in a gynecology office, I didn't need one of the boys looking like Billy Bob Jones. 

Here is Dash wearing Colt's overalls.  He doesn't seem to mind the wedgie.

And our final news: Brand's football team tied in overtime on Tuesday.  It's not technically a win, but it's not a loss either, so we'll take it.

Dash's Drawings

Dash has really been into writing and drawing lately.  He loves practicing his letters and numbers and has gotten pretty good at drawing realistic pictures of his family as you will see from the picture below. 

This is a picture of the family standing next to the pumpkin he wants to carve for Halloween.  Look how happy we are!

Brownies

Anyone who knows me knows how much I like my veggies, especially when they are baked into a dessert.  So many of you won't be surprised to know that I recently made some extra zucchini into brownies.  It could be the pregnancy talking, but I think these were some of the best brownies I've ever tasted.   I'm not stingy so I thought I'd put up a link to the recipe.  If you read the comments, they mention that the batter is really dry at first.  This is true, but they turn out fantastic.  But you don't have to take my word for it...check out Colt enjoying his dessert.

Click here for the zucchini brownie recipe.  Its worth it!

Colt is eating brownie and saying cheese.

Just another week

Nothing too exciting happened last week, but I want to make sure I keep everything current and if I wait for something exciting I might never post.  The boys and I drove into Gillette on Tuesday to watch Brand coach and then we drove to Rapid City on Thursday to go to my doctor's appointment where I convinced my doctor to write me a prescription for a daily back massage from my husband.  (I have yet to get that filled. I might have to get a new pharmacist if I don't see some improvement in the service.)  On Saturday, Brand drove into Spearfish (are you seeing the pattern here) where he worked as a volunteer at the Wildlife Sanctuary.  Brand is supposedly friends with the sanctuary owner, Micheal, but Micheal had him stand in front of the deranged tiger cage all day so I'm not sure what the status of their friendship really is.  This poor tiger was raised with little blonde kids until she got too dangerous and now the old girl can't see little toe-headed kids walk by without play stalking them.  And then when she can't get at them, she gets all riled up and frustrated.  There were a few thousand people at the sanctuary on Saturday and a ton of kids, so Brand said the tiger got a little creepy until she finally got exhausted and just sat there.  If I can get the picture of the tiger off his phone I'll post it later.

This is a typical evening for the family. We go to Brand's school so he can do some work and the short walk usually takes three times as long as it should because the boys have to drive their trucks and Colt insists on picking up every rock and leaf.