What is the difference???

So is there really a difference between a waffle and a pancake? I didn't think so, especially since I use the same homemade reciepem but according to my Ashlyn there is. She requested pancakes for lunch yesterday so I thought I'd obliger her. I whipped up the batter but then decided to use the waffle maker. She let me know fast that they weren't the same and she really wanted a pancake so Josh got out the flat pan and made her one. It's funny sometimes how technical she can get.

Updated Pics of my girls

Updated pictures of Jacob

Can't get enough of this little guy and his chunkiness. He's grown so much and I love his rolls.

(this one was taken in September after one of his baths)

Trick-O-Treating 2012

So this year we weren't even sure if we'd be taking the kiddos out because Ashlyn started in with a fever shortly after getting home from the ward Halloween party. We continued to give her tylenol, fluids, and encourage solids all day. Anyone who knows her knows that if she has a fever you'd never really be able to tell unless you touch her because she acts perfectly normal (last year when she had pneumonia we didn't even know it til we took her in on day 4 of her fever because as long as she had the medicine she was acting like her normal active self). We really wanted to go out to Ririe for the holiday but felt that with how cold it's been and how long we were out 2 years ago with her it would be best to stay home and take them to a few houses in our subdivision.

After we got her to eat some of dinner we had several trick-o-treaters stop in and that got her excited to go. So I got the girls ready and back into their outfits from the night before and found their buckets and we headed out the door. There weren't a lot of people home so that made it easy but Kaylee was being very independent and wouldn't let me hold her hand so it took longer than I planned. We went to 11 diffrerent houses and 3 of those weren't home or didn't have any candy. The girls still came back with a decent amount and this year I'm definitely making them pace themselves so that they don't get sick and so it's not all gone by tomorrow. Josh and Jacob stayed home to pass out candy and watch a competition on tv dealing with carving pumpkins.

When we got home we let the girls have a little bit of candy and got them in their pj's and then sat down and watched Madagascar 3. It was a great way to end the day. Here are the girls in their outfits. This was all I could get since Ashlyn was so excited to go and Kaylee never sits or stands long enough to get good pictures lately, enjoy!

Riverside 1st Ward Halloween Carnival 2012

Here are the girls excited to head out to the ward halloween carnival. Ashlyn has been talking about it non-stop for the last week. She orignially was going to go as a fairy, but then decided to go as a witch. She didn't want to wear a shirt under her costume that was too big so she finally settled on being a pirate princess with a hat from the witch costume she wanted to wear. Kaylee went as a ballerina. Jacob was our little tiger.

Kaylee kept trying to get the butter or escaping to find candy while we waited for the dinner to start. They served several types of soups, rolls, water, and witches brew for dinner before the parade of costumes and the carnival began.

Ashlyn did all the rooms. In the 1st picture she was doing the fish pond, and the other 3 are of her getting a heart painted on her cheek. She was super excited about it. She didn't really talk about the fear factor room or other rooms just about her goodies. Josh was a good sport to take her around. I was feeding Jacob and keeping an eye on Kaylee who didn't want to go into any of the rooms really. A little before 8pm we all met back in the gym for the awards ceremony for the parade of costumes

In this last picture she was showing her award to our friends the Wilcox's. She won the Best Overall Costume and got a big twix bar with her award. She was so happy! Her award was the last one to be called out for the junior primary age group and she was so excited she didn't know which way to go to get it without help from us and other ward members. It was definitely worth it to go to the Carnival to see how excited she was about everything. She definitely grasps the concept of holidays and I'm sure Kaylee will catch on soon enough.

First family trip since Jacob arrived

So in in August my sister called us up to see if Josh was interested in going to the Boise State vs. BYU football game in Boise. Josh was all for it, he'd never been to a college football game before. I jumped at the chance to see my sister and her 3 girls, especially since I hadn't seen the twins yet in person. The game was scheduled for Sept. 20th and we figured that'd be fine to go since Jacob would at least be almost 3 weeks old.

Well as we all know Jacob decided to come in August so when we went down he was 6 weeks old. It was so fun to see Jess and Neil and their girls. The trip wasn't too bad, especially since we had a dvd player in the back for the girls. Neither of them slept much on the way there or back.

Ellie has gotten so big and has such long thick hair. The twins are just solids blocks that I absolutely fell in love with. The only way I could tell them apart was if I helped Jess dress them. I just loved their rolls. The thing that surprised me the most was that they eat as much as Jacob eats (6-7 oz) and they are 5 1/2 months older. Jacob looked so tiny compared to them. Jessica also helped me by giving Jacob his 1st hair cut on Thursday (20th). He now just looks like a little man.

Well when we got to Jess's on Thursday we had hot dogs, a veggie plate, chips, kool-aid, and a peanut butter ball w/graham crackers before we sent the guys off to the game. The guys had pretty good seats and if I can get Josh to put his pictures on his phone from the game I'll add them on here.

Jess and I worked on a Christmas block project while we were there and went to the craft store. When I finally finish my blocks I'll take a picture and post it. We got the idea off of pintrest but couldn't remember the exact layout of the blocks so both of ours are different in the sense of block shapes as the one posted on pintrest.

We had to cut our trip a little bit short because I ended up getting a migraine Saturday night that made me throw up. Grateful that they understood that we needed to go home but felt bad that we had to cut it short. We were going to have a movie night with goodies while the girls had a movie slumber party upstairs. Next time we come Ellie, we'll do it on the first night :) She was so looking forward to it.

Overall it was a really fun trip. Jess and Neil, looking forward to seeing you again.

Umbilical Hernia

So many of my family and friends have heard about Jacob's hernia but haven't seen it so I thought I'd document it. This is how big it is as of now (Oct. 31). It has shrunk quite a bit. Wish I had a picture of what it looked like even a week or two ago because it was enormous, but I couldn't find my camera charger.

He has had this since he was born but it really got big and ugly looking (tight, shiny, and purplish) around September when we went to Boise. It had gotten so big in such a short amount of time and he was crying a lot so we took him in to the doctor. After an ultrasound confirmed that there was part of a bowel loop in it we have had to monitor it to make sure that it doesn't close up and pinch that part. This has in turn made it difficult for him to have regular bowel movements. Thankfully as it has been closing we are still able to push down all the way and now he is starting to have more frequent movements without the aid of Karo syrup or suppositories. He's such a little champ with it all. We still have a ways to go but I know that the doctor will be pleased with the improvement when we see him at his next appointment.

A few milestones for Jacob

Rolled over for the first time (and only time) Oct. 2nd

Gave mom his first real smile on October 24th (it also snowed for the first time this year)

His hernia is closing up more and more.

Hunting 2012

I'd definitely say that this year's hunting trip was a great success. Josh and my brother-in-law, John, put in on controlled hunt and got it. My dad and brothers, Sam and Brandon, went up with them to hunt and I think they all had a great time. John and Josh went up on Friday October 10th to scout out area and came back Saturday night. Then all the guys left on Sunday the 12th after church. John and Brandon got their bucks earlier in the week and Josh shot his elk on Thursday morning. Was pretty impressed that Josh was able to get this 6-point. It was really fun to hear about his experience and to hear the exicetment. I told him to bring something home and he definitely delivered. Way to go babe!

This little beauty was borrowed from my brother and his wife. We absolutely loved packaging our meat with the foodsaver. We decided that eventually we want to get one of our own. It's nice to know all of our elk meat is packaged nicely, labeled, and I don't have to worry about re-packaging like I did last year. It took us 2 days to cut up and package which isn't too shabby seeing that it was really only Josh and I doing it with 3 little ones needing our help. Our neighbor came over and helped Josh finish up the last hindquarter. Now our freezer is happy and so are we.