Pumpkin Patch!

We found this cute little pumpkin patch down the street and decided the get our pumpkins there this year. Robbie and I love to carve pumpkins and this year we get to carve an extra one for McKinley (we don't think she's quite old enough to do it on her own). Of course we took some pictures! Robbie trying to show McKinley the art of picking a pumpkin, I don't think she's paying attention though.

In these pictures you can see that McKinley is trying to really study the pumpkins to pick the perfect one. She ended up just letting mom decide.

As you can see, all three of us went (we made sure not to do it on a school night)!

Doesn't she look stoked to in this wheel barrow? I think she just figured out how cool pumpkins are!

Of course you can't leave the pumpkin patch without a picture on the tractor.

Seriously, have you ever seen cuter cheeks? I know I haven't.

Road Trip!

Well, we took our first road trip with McKinley last weekend. We decided to start small, so we went up and back to Pocatello, ID in one day! It's a 2.5 hour drive each way and the kiddo was great!

We headed up because my Grandma and Grandpa Marler just came home from serving a mission in the Canary Islands of Spain and were reporting in church. Here she is in the awesome bib that GiGi (that is what we call Great Grandma, haven't decided on what to call Great Grandpa yet) brought home for her!

McKinley had met them when they came through SLC, but had not yet met my Grandma and Grandpa Thomas. Here is McKinley with GiGi Thomas

Here she is with Great Grandpa Thomas. Grandpa is 97 and McKinley is 6 months, quite the age difference.

McKinley LOVED seeing her great grandparents and was a great little traveler. Though, I must say she really knows when she is home. Her cute little talkative personality came out even more when we got home that night! Who knew little kids could tell where home is?

The Newest Member of Our Band

We decided to try McKinley out at Rockband the other day, she's pretty good. The only problem is, she is great at every instrument!

She has skills on the drums....

But look at the way she takes command of the microphone!

And who can resist playing the guitar....although, I admit this one is a little big for her!

Halloween Outfits

My entire life I have had a deep seeded desire to find deals on clothes, food, going out dinner....everything! Some may say I'm cheap, I like to call it thrifty. I always head straight for the clearance rack when I'm shopping and constantly am on the look out for coupons or discounts. There is one particular store I like to frequent, but the prices are more than I like to pay, it's called Layers and about twice a year they have a HUGE sale. I like the deals so much that when McKinley was three months old or so and I was sporting my fancy walker with the awesome tennis balls I braved one of these HUGE sales. I'm talking nearly day after Thanksgiving kind of crowds, it's craziness, but it's all worth it. I digress....
I was out shopping the other day, picking up the essentials....formula, milk and food and I happened to be at the Walmart. Well, Walmart is pretty smart and I think they really know how to cash in on parents, that's why they put the formula back in the baby section of the store and not with the food. So, on your way to the formula you pass all of the baby clothes. I am a sucker for baby clothes. Well, I found a deal, $3 for an awesome onsie for McKinley, so of course I bought, she needs some Halloween clothes right?

Did I mention that it even glows in the dark?

Have you ever wondered what your child might look like if you turn off all of the lights to try to get a glow in the dark picture and accidentally leave the flash on?

Well, Robbie apparently has the same "SUCKER" stamped across his forhead that I do. I mentioned in a previous post that he went up to the outlets to buy McKinley some clothes. Well, while he was there, he too fell captive to the oh so cute Halloween clothes.

The Elipses Tag

I just noticed my friend Kirsten tagged me, so here I go:
I am...a mom, an employee, a sister, a wife and a friend.
I miss... going to bed at 2 am and sleeping in past 9!
I think...life is what you make of it.
I know...families are forever.
I want... to eat chocolate donuts everyday and not reap the benefits of a growing waist line.
I have...a crazy need for things to be clean.
I search...for ways to win millions of dollars (notice I said win not earn!).
I wish...I had some more new clothes.
I hate...mean people.
I am...excited about McKinley's Halloween costume.
I fear...not reaching my potential.
I always...laugh when someone gets hurt (only if it's not too bad and it's terrible I know).
I love...drinking hot chocolate and watching the snow fall.
I feel...content.
I hear...the hum of my computer.
I smell...the hamburgers we had for dinner.
I don't...enjoy the sound of cardboard rubbing on cardboard.
I wonder...when McKinley is going to decide that rolling over is fun and not just something random she can do.
I care...about dusting my ceiling fan at least once a month.
I regret...not sleeping more when I had the chance.
I am...hoping everyone gets out to vote.
I believe...that people are good.
I dance...less often than I used to.
I sing...in the car at the top of my lungs.
I write...down the things I always want to remember.
I win...at stratego, but only when I cheat.
I lose...at stratego if I follow the rules.
I never...like confrontation.
I listen...to all kinds of music, but try to keep it to soothing stuff when I'm frustrated.
I can...walk 2 miles!

I tag Leslie, Jenni and Kathleen.

A Little Serious I Guess

I don’t usually put things like this on my blog, but I thought this time I would. This weekend we had our Stake Conference meetings for church. To be quite honest I sometimes dread the adult session on Saturday night. I’m not sure why, I always enjoy it, but getting there can be tough. This time I was exhausted and didn’t want to go try and keep McKinley happy on my lap for 2 hours. But, I did it anyway and I was really glad I went.
I thoroughly enjoyed the speakers and as usual, they opened my eyes to some things I should work on. One of the speakers talked about a man who had undergone 3 heart surgeries, all of which were last minute and either slightly extended (to make it to the next surgery) or saved his life. After the third surgery was successful, he was finally being discharged. The day before he was discharged a friend found him sitting on the edge of his bed at breakfast time, looking very upset. Thinking that something was terribly wrong the friend asked if he was ok. His response was the oatmeal isn’t warm and the milk isn’t cold.
The speaker went on to talk about how this man had used up all of his “coping coupons” during this ordeal and now he couldn’t quite cope with cold oatmeal and warm milk. Is it ok that I feel like I can understand where this poor guy is coming from? Really, after you’ve gone through something hard is it too much to ask to for a little warm oatmeal? I know that I didn’t die and in fact nothing all that tragic happened to me. Here I am 5 ½ moths later and basically some day with continued hard work, I will be the same as I once was with only a few things that will remain and cause discomforts. But I often find myself “out of coupons” (even though Robbie is so great and incredibly patient with me). I spend so much energy trying to physically heal and take care of every day life, that I find myself exhausted and I can tell you right now, I would not be thrilled if I had cold oatmeal and warm milk. I don’t think I’ve been a terrible person through this ordeal, but I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s time to move on. I still have to work hard and try to get better every day, but it’s time; it’s time to get my patience back and be thrilled that I have oatmeal at all!

Speaking of Cold Weather

As we've been getting McKinley dressed the last few days we realized her supply of warm clothes was not very big, so Robbie went shopping! He happened to be going to Park City for work, so he stopped at the outlets to get her some clothes. McKinley is now the proud owner of her (first of many I'm sure) very own Columbia, purple fleece jacket! Robbie also bought her this jacket thing that clips into the car seat, so she can stay warm in her car seat. Long story short, we ended up returning the car seat jacket and are going to get her something different, but when we tried it on her, we couldn't help but take some cute pictures. Her little arms only went half way up the sleeves!

Cold Weather

Well, it's official, the cold weather is coming. In fact, this morning at my house it even snowed a little. I use the term snowed very lightly, because it didn't even stick. I'm sure many of you know this, but for the last 5 years during winter I have given in to Robbie's need for the house to be cold and have spent them FREEZING. His arguement was it's easier to put something on when your cold than to take stuff off becaue you're hot. So, I've have spent my winters inside the house in a lot of different ways. The first two years were spent wrapped in a down comforter (thanks ot Marla for giving me that much needed gift!) huddled next to the vent that blows out the hot air or under my coat sitting on the LoveSac.

The third year I spent wearing my coat inside, wrapped in a blanket. Our fourth winter was better because we spent it living with my parents while our was house was being finished, it was nice and warm. Last winter was our first winter here, but I was pregnant, so in general I was warmer, though I always had on my slippers and sweat shirt. So, here we are in our sixth winter, I guess the last two haven't been bad, but I was preparing myself for the cold again this year. We got home from work and daycare yesterday and the house was 61 degrees and McKinley was COLD. I put warm clothes on her, wrapped her in a blanket and expected her to quietly endure the cold as I have so many times, but maybe this time we could help each other out with a little body heat from cuddling. Well, that didn't happen! Robbie saw her all wrapped up, snuggled up against me and he felt her little hands and they were cold. Right then, he flipped the HEATER on! Our house is a lovely and comfortable 69 degrees, yay! One more reason to LOVE McKinley; Robbie can't stand it if she looks a little cold!

Who Wants To Win a Handbag?!

I found this through my sister-in-laws blog. You can win a free handbag by going here , they all look so cute! Have fun!

Five Months

The last 5 months can seem so long and so short all at the same time. They have easily been some of the best and hardest months of my life, though I will say the good has definitely outweighed the difficult.
I can't believe my tiny little girl is already 5 months old. She's growing so quickly, I know everyone says that about their kids, but I don't think you ever appreciate how true it is until it's your own little one. Here she is at about a week old, it's one of my favorites with her little squished up face and she absolutely loved having her hands next to her face all the time!

Here she is today, isn't she just so big! She rolls over all the time (of course not when I ask her too), she giggles and she loves to be hung upside down!

She is easily the one of the best thing that has happened to me in the last 5 months!
Hopefully all of the hard stuff is all going to be a distant memory soon. I'm working really hard every day and I feel like I'm doing so much better. I feel like a regular mom now, I can finally take care of McKinley all by myself, there is no more of us both having to be babysat when Robbie can't be around! It's going to be a long process to get back to where I was, but a little hard work never hurt anybody and the results will certainly be worth it!

Working

A long, hard, busy and frustrating week of work has left me very excited for the weekend. And what better way to kick off a Friday than evacuating the building for a fire. Funny enough the fire was outside, so evacuating the building actually put us closer to the flames.

It's kind of a funny story. We looked out the window and a garbage truck was on fire....or at least the garbage inside of it was! The garbage truck driver dumped the burning garbage in the parking lot, so his truck wouldn't start on fire. Then the fire trucks arrived, I'm not going to lie, having a fire was kind of a nice distraction for a little while today. Here are some pictures from a cell phone: