Fall Flies By

The first big adventure of this month was that mom got to go to Orlando Florida on a "girls trip". The express purpose of the trip was to visit Harry Potter World in Universal studios. (Yes, I really am that much of a Harry Potter geek, I mean fan. ) We did hit up a few other stops while we were there as well. Outside of travel the trip consisted of three days. The first day was spent recovering from our red-eye flight. What better way to do this than the beach?!! We visited ___________ beach and the weather was perfect and the water warm. After playing in the waves we all fell asleep on the beach for a nice long nap. I got terribly sunburned but it was all worth it. Seriously amazing. After cleaning up we visited Downtown Disney for a little shopping and Cuban Cuisine. I was so excited to find a stuffed Mickey for baby boy that was almost as big as he is! I had to "lighten my luggage" (aka: dump a few things) to get him on the plane home, but it was so worth it. Day 1:

The second day was dedicated mainly to Harry Potter world and exploration of Harry Potter world was dedicated mainly to eating, shopping, and nerding out. I fulfilled such dreams as walking through platform 9 3/4, eating at the 3 Broomsticks, sampling pumpkin juice and butterbeer, purchasing a wand at the famous Ollivanders, getting my first Chocolate Frog and other goodies, and absolutely soaking up all the nice little touches the creators of universal studios added to create an epic Harry Potter experience. It was, as said, epic. And yes, we did completely forget our age, nerd out, and pretend to cast spells and duel with our new wands throughout the day. (oh, and as a little side note we did ride a couple other rides at the Universal studios parks, but who cares when compared with Harry Potter World! Am I right?!) Day 2:

The last day we spent the first half at Disney's Animal Kingdom and Epcot. This obviously included some fun rides and shows. I loved how Animal Kingdom is just a large zoo done Disney style. Lovely. The best part for me at Epcot was that they were doing the annual food and wine festival. I cannot even express to you what a heavenly experience this is for wannabe foodies like me. It is definitely now at the top of my bucket-list for visiting someday with my hubby. I am already SO EXCITED!!!! Day 3: picture to come.... After a fun-filled trip I came home tired and ever-so-ready to hug my baby and my hubby. I have never been so homesick on a trip as I was on this one. A baby and awesome husband will do that I guess. I think I missed baby more than he missed me though, as he had so much fun with Grandma S. and Daddy. What an amazing family I have! Here he is hangin' at the farm while I was gone: Another highlight of October was a weekend in Utah we took just for us three. The weekend was fun-filled and it was nice to spend time together after a few days apart. Sweet P on the moon and mars! (at the SLC Planetarium):

Playing in the leaves at Thanksgiving Point:

Eating at Dairy Keen for the first time (an old family tradition) and getting our first kids meal toy!:

We also visited the aquarium and Ikea for a little Christmas shopping. Family vacations are the best, especially when your baby is a good sleeper in the hotel! (Primarily because you have to face everyone at the continental breakfast and random fire alarm episodes that evacuate the building......) And last, but not least, October means HALOWEEN!!! It was Sweet P's second Halloween and he was Mike W. this year from Monsters Inc. we started our festivities the night before Halloween where the glorious tradition of cooking a ginormous pot of gumbo ensued! YUM!!!! The next morning we decorated pumpkins, kid style, which means we finger painted them with edible flour finger paint. We thought baby boy would love this, but he didn't really care for putting his fingers in the paint. With guidance from dad it turned out pretty good though. That night we got all dressed up in our coordinating costumes. Me: Sully from Monsters Inc. Baby: Mike from Monsters Inc. Dad: a human "extra" from Monsters Inc. Then it was off to trunk-or-treating at the church. Sweet P. didn't seem to interested in the fact he was collecting candy, he was more interested in checking out the costumes of the other kids and loved it when one went to play with him in the leaves. When it was time to go he was stripped of his new friend, all his candy, and the small choking hazard toy his new friend gave him. Life as a toddler can be so hard. He wasn't too happy til we made it to Boo at the Zoo which he absolutely loved. I was impressed with all the lights and décor they put out. The hubby and I decided that it is now a must for our Halloween celebrations until our kids outgrow it. Then, we will probabloy have to wait until we are old and wrinkly to continue the new tradition. Yes, we loved it that much. On the way home we stopped by Grandma S to trick or treat. We love grandmas and grandpas! Baby boy was off to bed when we got home and mom and dad enjoyed his candy and our traditional Hotel Transylvania movie. (by-the-way, we are not completely horrible, baby boy is getting large amounts of his candy that he can eat. No children were sugar deprived in the making of this Halloween. :) )

Wild and Free

(belated august post) When I was teaching elementary school and it was time for recess I would tell my children "Go be wild and free!" with much gusto. I believe children need the opportunity to be "wild and free"....frequently....especially if they have lots of pent up energy. (like a certain little boy I know ) :) Seriously though, if I had a student misbehaving because they were hyper/energetic the LAST consequence I wanted to give them was taking away recess. Heck, if it was possible and wouldn't be seen as reinforcement I would have tripled their recess time. Anyway...in a babies life there are lots of restrictions and lots of no's as my precious Sweet Potato is quickly discovering. He is surrounded by a world with so many lovely things he cannot touch and so many intriguing avenues he cannot venture into unless he is holding my hand. That is why we love the park. The park is where I get to let him loose to run wild and free. I can casually stroll behind him and enjoy watching him discover. Of course, this casualness is interrupted intermittently by my momma ninja skills of grabbing him before he tumbles and snatching small objects headed to his mouth at lightning speeds. Really, it is quite amazing! Suffice it to say, again, that we love the park.

Here is our first slide ride:

Being loved to death. (These expressions crack me up everytime.)

Harvest, what a small word for such a big thing....

The grain turns golden, a classic sign of harvest.

After sundown to a while after sunup, those have been the Mr. busiest hours this past week. The hay has been cut and he has been busy at work baling it up. I don't know how he makes it on such little sleep. But, the second hay harvest is almost finished up and then he will join in on the grain harvest. I am excited for that one becuase he will come home earlier at night. However much I miss seeing him during harvest, I do enjoy different aspects of this time of year myself. I was only able to make it out to the farm once so far this week but my usual spot sitting on the cooler in the tractor was waiting for me. I love the smell of cut hay, watching the baler (especially when the plastic "lolly pops" pop up to indicate a new bale has been tied up), and spotting the antelope out in the fields. Also this last time I went up we got to play with a blow torch. What fun!! Next week orientation starts for teaching and I only have a few more shifts at wal-mart left. I am anticipating that so much. I cannot believe how fast summer has flown by. I feel like I have only just started enjoying its warmth and now it is all but over. It's funny how time is, I wonder if I shall ever figure it out. It is a mystery how it speeds up and slows down though the ticking of the clock sounds consitant. And my biggest frustration: I can't control times speed however much I may wish to speed it up or slow it down at different points in my life. Harvest is one of those inevitable changes time brings. I guess to sum it up, harvest to me is a wonderful time of year when: -hardworking men who take so much pride in thier work come together to finish up what they began in the spring -when they reap the rewards of thier labor -when things speed up to full throttle before they slow down almost instantly to a crawl -when a farmers stress is relieved because thier crops are all grown and finally tucked away safe and secure from mother nature and, of course, -when I get to spend time riding in farm equipment with my hubby and enjoy being with him while he is "in his element" :) Of course, this is just my first harvest, so I am still learning a lot about it all and there is still so much harvesting left to do, but I look forward to experiencing more of it and can't wait to get on a Combine!!

Small in Stature, Mighty in Adventure

When I think of my curious little explorer, those are the words that come to my mind. They so perfectly wrap up his inquisitive nature in one perfect phrase. And, as mentioned in the last post, our favorite place to explore is the park. August was full of many trips to the park and so was September (the month that I am finally highlighting) However, the last entry failed to mention our favorite game at the park while we are enacting our "wild and free" rights. That game is what I call a baby's version of "Bigger and Better". I shall attempt to explain how it works by narrating one of my explorer's perfect execution of the game on September 24th, 2014. Baby's version of Bigger and Better game: find an amazing stick, trade it in for a leaf, trade the leaf for a smashed pinecone, with much deliberation trade the pinecone in for a birthday candle, trade that in for another leaf, find the jackpot of all rocks and spend a lengthy time searching for the perfect one to trade with. Here is a picture of the wining, best-of-the-best, treasure item:

That is pretty much how it goes every single time we explore at the park. Love this fellah! Also, one of our trips this oncoming fall included his first time eating dirt. He had found a soft moist patch of dirt amongst all the grass and started to squish it between his fingers with glee. Well, I wasn't about to disrupt this male primeval instinct so I sat by him to watch. Then, to my horror, he put some in his mouth! I franticly employed my afore mentioned momma-ninja skills and swiped (I hope) all of it out before swallowing ensued. He wasn't too happy that I took his new favorite snack away. This picture was taken immediately after. I call it his "My mom won't let me eat dirt!!!" face.

Antoher game that we play at the park (and everywhere else for that matter) is "I'm Gonna Getcha. I was trying to take some cute pictures on our visit, but my little explorer wouldn't sit or stand still for more than a few seconds. So....I gave in and decided to take a "photographing wildlife approach" which is what one must do in these situations. Now, when photographing wildlife you really only have two approach options. The more sophisticated approach is to spend hours letting the animal acclimate itself to your presence, perhaps crouched in a nearby bush. Then attempting to slowly creep up on it to take a picture. Now while this approach is eloquent in concept, it takes a great deal of patience. I am a mom. A happy but tired mom. I choose the less eloquent approach, even the savage approach. That is rushing at the wildlife and chasing it with great speed while attempting to get a decent shot at a high shutter-speed on your camera. This is where the game "I'm Gonna Getcha" comes in handy. I literally took this sequence of pictures while running after him exclaiming that I was, indeed, going to get him. The last shot is when I experienced success.

In addition to some "wild prey" shots I also managed to get just a couple "normal shots". Here are a few:

Another adventure highlight we had this month was the EASTERN IDAHO STATE FAIR!!! Forigive me for typing that in all caps, but I simply had too. You see, the fair is my absolute favorite day of the year with the only exception being Christmas. Even then, if it weren't for the "Christmas season" attatched to "Christmas day" the fair would totally win out. Anyway, this was baby boy's second time at the fair, but was so much more wonderful for two big reasons. 1- I wasn't nursing anymore and 2- I wasn't nursing anymore. Serously, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a semi-private place to throw on a nursing cover and take care of your baby?! Not to mention the overall dustiness and dirtiness of it all, or the restraints on your time. Don't get me wrong, nursing is totally worth it, it's just that the state fair is not the ideal place to do it. I think baby boy enjoyed the change this year as well because he even got to try some fair food. The bread and jam and Bread Barn proved an instant favorite. In retrospect I really wish I took a picture of his sticky messy jam face. Oh well, here are his cleaned up photos:

We also had fun hanging out with dad:

Baby Boy's two favorite parts of the night were hilariously obvious. Visiting the animals came in at a solid number 2. For some reason watching new animals move around, petting them, and hearing their funny noises pulls a peal of delighted giggles from him. We enjoy it too, simply because he is so fun to watch. And, coming in at number 1 would be clapping and cheering with the crowds. We stopped to see a short magic show at the fair and everytime the performer did something even slightly astounding everyone in the crowd would clap and cheer. This resulted in baby boy getting SO SO SO excited as he joined in not only with the clapping but the cheering as well! To top it off, everytime the noise died down, there was my son still hollering and clapping until he was absolutely certain that the fun was over. Then when it all started again he would erupt in the joyful celebration once more. This happened over and over again. It was seriously the happiest I have ever seen him. The Mr. and I got a huge kick out of it. We had so much fun that the Mr. and I went back again for a date night (without baby boy) to try more food and enjoy the deomolition derby.

Then it was goodbye fair until next year.

Welcome Baby Case.

Breaking the News When your dad and I decided it was time that our family became a threesome we couldn't be more excited! We found out that you were coming just before Thanksgiving and I was happier than a kid chasing an ice-cream truck. To break the news to your dad I put some baby shoes that I had bought weeks ago (specifically for this cause) on his pillow. When he found them he was instantly thrilled. We were so excited that we couldn't wait to tell our families. The Davis' were called and when the Schwieders got together for Thanksgiving dinner grandma had arranged for some small gift giving. We wrapped-up the baby shoes in a cute little box and put Scotts name on. When he opened it he joyfully exclaimed "Baby Shoes?! Are you trying to tell me something?!" Within seconds he had the attention of everyone in the room and we were soon swamped with exclamations of excitement and congratulations. We happily announced that you were due to come July 24th.

Pregnant Days It was such a miracle to know that you were getting ready to join our family. Two of my favorite moments were the ultrasounds where we got a glimpse of you for the first times. You were so wiggly and cute. I liked how the ultrasound technician kept calling you "little turkey". We couldn't be happier when we discovered that a baby boy would be starting off our little family. The moment we found out, you were named Case. Case is a name we had picked out for you over a year ago while Scott and I were riding a Case combine together for the harvest. "Case", we decided, "would be a really good name for a baby boy". It stuck. We considered Casey and Cason, but preferred simply that you be called Case. I loved it when I could start feeling you wiggle and kick inside of me. You loved "penthouse parties" and we joked that you were so happy in there that you would never want to come out. One time when I went in for a doctor visit and they heard your fast heartbeat and movements the nurse said that you were "a man with a mission". To your fathers pleasure the number one food I craved when pregnant with you was steak (what a carnivore you were!). Close follow-ups were peaches and cinnamon rolls. I loved to sing "Come Thou Fount" to you in German and you seemed to fancy country music (especially Taylor Swift) which we got a real kick out of.

Birth Story Once pregnancy neared toward the end Scott, the Doctor and I had made the decision for multiple reasons that if you didn't come on your own before July 24th that you would be induced. As the date neared it still seemed like you had no intention of giving up your "penthouse parties". On Tuesday, July 23rd I woke up feeling very ill and even threw-up. We were concerned that something might be wrong so Scott stayed home from work to rest with me while we waited for the Doctor to respond to our phone calls. Finally, later that afternoon we were instructed to go get checked-out at the hospital. Things looked fine and it turns out that I had been in labor for over a day! However, things (you) still weren't really moving along. That is when, along with the doctor, we decided to stay at the hospital and use medication to help things progress. After twelve hours of labor, with only "half" an epidural, and your daddy trying to stay awake through the wee hours, you were born at 4:39 in the morning on July 24th. A pioneer baby. You had the cord around your neck when you came, but it didn't cause any problems and you were born nice and healthy. 7 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches long. Perfect. I was so excited for you to come that I hardly minded the pain when it came time to push and was so incredibly elated at the prospect of meeting you. After you were cleaned up a bit your daddy got to hold you and then it was my turn. It was love at first sight, or rather even before. We were already crazy about you. What a miracle and what a blessing you were/are to us. We knew in that moment that our lives would never be the same, and we couldn't be happier.