Pumpkin Patch & Rawhide

On Friday October 17th Jacob and I had a very fun Halloween activity filled day. We woke up and I told Jacob I was going to take the kiddos down to the Pumpkin Patch before we went to Rawhide that night. Jacob informed me I could not go to the Pumpkin Patch with out him. Jacob rushed to the office got all his work done then hurried home so he could go with us. While Jacob was at work I recieved a call from my cousin Brett and he was wondering if we could watch his two youngest children that afternoon. I of course said yes...I love every minute with those Brewer babies. Once Jacob got home from work I informed him that instead of 4 children we would have 6 today. As we loaded up the car I looked back and I said to Jacob (who wants 6 children) this is our future and today is our test. So off to the Pumpkin Patch we went.

We started off with a little photo session with the pumpkins

Aly and Ethan

Austin, Aly and Ethan

The Ash Family

When I was about a year old there is a picture of me sitting on a pumpkin I of course had to get one of Eli. (he is such a chunky monkey in this picture I love it)

Laney and Jesse

**Editor's note Laney and Jessee did not get their pictures taken with the pumpkins because Jesse did not want to and they were in strollers so we were not going to fight them about it.**

After our little photo session we went into the park and played on the toys which included a jumping gym, some blocks and a play house. We also picked out tiny pumpkins and each child decorated them There was a petting zoo, which for me was really gross because everything seemed so gross and dirty. I guess the dirt does not bother the animals so I guess it can't be that bad. After the dirty stinky animals we went on a hay ride. Since Eli was asleep ever since we started decorating the pumpkins and Layne was afarid of the tractor, Eli, Layne & I stayed back and did not go on the hayride.

Here are the kiddos and Jacob getting ready to go.

Here they are all finished with their fun ride.

After the hayride it was off to the maze. Aly was very serious about this part. They did get through very quickly, but there was also a time when they seemed lost for a second or two.

After the maze we thought we had enough of the heat and dirt and it was time to head home. I must say it was nice to go and have fun, bu this place is really for really small children. As for Jacob and I with all 6 children we did great and Jacob still thinks 6 is the magic number for us, I think the jury is still out.

Rawhide

After the pumpkin patch we met up with the rest of the Gilmore's (minus Chase) & the Navarro's (including Aunt Cyndi Porter) at my parents house and headed off to the western adventure that is Rawhide. Stephanie said that I-10 was really bad because of an accident and was closed in some places. We figured the 202 would take us around this problem. The 202 worked great except it started to catch up with the bad traffic from the I-10. since I was familar with this area (I coached out here) I told them to drive forward. That seemed to work great only for a short while because other people seemed to have the same great idea as me. Then I noticed that middle wall on the freeway was down and we could easily change directions and get on the I-10 with no waiting. So we did it!!

Once we got to Rawhide right way we started to enjoy everything that we saw. I was excited to see the headless horseman so we took a picture of him. Immeditally I noticed all these little spots or orbs around him. During Halloween last year John Jay and Rich had people send in pictures of these scary orb things saying they were ghosts. After looking at my picture and thinking of this it totally freaked me out!!

This is our scary orby picture. We thought it was our camera at first so we took another one.

2nd Scary orby picture. I then thought no maybe there is something wrong with my Camera so I took a picture of my sister Stephanie.

Hmmm no orby scary things...so then I thought it was just my camera and we went back for another picture.

Ok now I am sold there are crazy ghosts at Rawhide. Look at me in this picture I look a little scared. Now at this point we are all wondering if there are scary orbs around us. So Tobi asked me to take a picture or her.

Nope no crazy things. Oh wait is that one in the corner? Jacob sees this and wants to make sure nothing is floating around him. So of course a picture of Eli and Jacob was taken next.

I don't really see as many as before but there is one in the top right...yikes

Now for Jerel and Ethan. Oh my goodness!

After we were finished with a fun pictures with scary creepy orbs we decided to go see what else Rawhide has to offer. We bought passes for everything and we were off. We started the night with some Donkey riding.

Austin's Burro was named Bert. So whenever we would get seperated we would call one another. Most the time the person would say, "We are over riding Bert."

I am not really sure what Ethan is doing in this picture, but it is still funny none the less.

There was also a hunted train ride, a mechanical bull and a stage coach ride. I did not get pictures of the train but here is Noah, Cyndi and Eli on the stage coach.

We went in the two haunted houses they have there and we had a blast. In the first one there are all these black curtains you had to walk through and all the sudden these light black clothed people would jump out at you. One of them figured out my name (curtisy of Jacob) and it was so creepy because the whole time each one would keep saying my name. In the 2nd house I accidently said Jacob's name so in the 2nd house they kept saying his name. Oh yeah and the 2nd house was super creepy because there were these clowns. My sister for sure didn't like that so she tried to get away from them but the scary clown on stilts chased after her. Also at the end of each haunted house there was a chainsaw. We knew they were there so we all were confident that we would not be scared by either one of them...NOPE we were wrong. Each haunted house we came out running very quickly. It was so much fun!!!

**Editors note Ethan at the small age of 5 went in the 1st scary house, and Aly at only 10 went in both.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Today was my birthday and I can honestly say I had a WONDERFUL day. It started off with Jacob trying his hardest to hold Eli off from his morning feeding so that I could sleep in. He did a really good job except for the fact that he forgot about the monitor so I woke up any way. It was all about the effort for me though. Then after feeding Eli I walked out into the living room to see this....

In Jacob's family they always would put up signs like this all around the house for some one's birthday. Jacob loves the memories associated with this so it is something we do in our house now too. I must say I get why he loves it because it is always fun for me to walk around the room seeing all the signs and what he wrote down on them.

Jacob offered to take me out to breakfast but for some reason I just wanted to eat at home so we stayed home and watched John Adam's (a new HBO series) and ate cereal. After that we got ready and headed to Target to get a few Halloween decorations to finish our front yard. Then off to my parents house to drop off Eli and go to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. I love Chicken Piccta so I am in love with that place right now. After lunch Jacob took me over to my favorite store in the whole wide world Anthropolgie. I shopped there for a little while. I was sad because all of their stuff was too short for me, but I did get this purse I wanted from my mom and sister from that store. Her is my new bag isn't it too cute???

After shopping Jacob took me and spoiled me with a fabulous pedicure. (obviously Jacob knows the direct path to my heart Food, clothes and pedicures!) When we were done relaxing we headed back to my parents house to dinner and fun with my family.

We had Pai Wei and and Oreo ice cream cake...YUMMY!

Here is Chase enjoying some of the food. Normally we would delete pictures like this but Chase threw such a fit we thought a perfect spot for this picture would be the blog!

Lee and Austin. I know Austin is growing up so fast. He turned 9 yesterday.

Mom, Dad, Deb and my boys! Eli was hungry so I guess he wanted to eat his fist!

The Gilmore's. Ethan was not too excited about the picture, but he did such a cute pose any way.

My hubby and me.

Memories:

• Any one who knows our family knows that Lee can be aggressive at times. A lot of my childhood and teenage years were spent in a headlock...my 25th birthday was no different.

• Lee also had another funny moment with my dad that night. Some how the topic of gas came up and my dad was talking about how cheap it used to be. Lee looks at my dad and says to him, "Inflation is a Bizo." Then he continued to wrestle one of the children on the floor. For some reason I thought this was a classic Kartchner moment.
• Jacob and I were in Anthropolgie looking for the purse that I wanted. I couldn't find it so Jacob went and asked the girls at the front for help. He said that he walked up to them and said my wife is looking for this purse. The girl said your wife, "Stacy?" Jacob then said yes and was surprised she knew my name. (I am sure at first he thought I spent way to much time in this store for them to know my name) She then told him she went to high school with me and that I played volleyball there. She continued to say how she was younger than me and that she looked up to me. When Jacob told me this story it made my day because I was feeling old and frumpy and this girl was excited to see me made me feel special!
• Another present I received was some money from Cecil and Linda as well as Jacob. Since nothing really worked out at Anthropolgie I decided to use the money for 3 more months of my trainer....Yippee
• Best story of my birthday was...Jerel decided he was ready to go home so he grabbed Aly and Ethan and they headed out to the car. Ethan forgot one of his toys so Jerel sent Aly and Ethan inside to find the toy. He told them to ride home with Stephanie. Aly and Ethan ran downstairs to look for the toy and when the came up they saw Stephanie's car drive away. They started running down the street chasing after Stephanie, but Chase had the radio up to load for her to hear them. So the two youngest Gilmore babies were left and forgotten. The story gets better when Jacob and I ran to Sam's Club and we saw Stephanie and Chase there. They still didn't know that the two other kids were at my parents and of course we didn't tell themb because we both thought it was too funny. Stephanie and Jerel did notice that they both didn't have the children the second they walked in the door at their house. Aly said that was 32 minutes later...good times.

Weekend at the Cabin

After a quick trip up north a few weeks ago everyone in my family was dying to get up to our cabin for a nice, fun and relaxing weekend trip. Jerel always takes off work when the kiddos have breaks so he sent an e-mail out to see if everyone wanted to go to the cabin during October break. Jacob didn't get to go up to Showlow with us so he was very excited and of course we were in.

Jacob, Eli and I left on Friday around 1 o'clock. Eli was a little angel and slept the whole way up. He did wake up for a little bit and he just talked to his elephant friend on his car seat. We got to the cabin in the early evening. My dad was in Heber for work so we were the only ones there until around 5 O'clock. When my dad got home we decided to go for a walk and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Here are my two boys all ready to go!

This is what Eli looked like in his Stroller all nice and bundled up!

I was worried about the wind giving Eli an ear ache so this is what he looked like on the walk.

After the walk we went to Creekside and ate dinner. Then back to the cabin to wait for everyone else. As I was unpacking we were visiting and Papa (my dad) was holding Eli.I looked over and this is what I saw. I thought it was the cutest thing ever!!

Everyone else got there around eight. Of course the card games started right away and we were busy ever since. Here are some pictures from our fun trip to the cabin....

Eli and Buddie hanging out with Uncle Jerel.

I was getting ready and when I was done I came out to see Eli like this with Debbie.

He was 1/2 asleep in her arms and half on the table. All spread out...hilarious!

We love food so on Saturday we spent 1/2 the day in Payson getting food for our meals. I found this little monkey and Eli loved it. I tried talking Jacob into buying it and he said no we are not going to spoil our baby.... I was sad but Jacob was right.

When we got back to Payson the Cyndi, Tobi, Sadie, Noah and Aly got there and we all decided to go for another walk. I love this picture because of Noah running backwards and Ethan sprinting ahead. (Jacob was behind the camera so he isn't pictured)

Here is another walk picture. Austin and Buddie leading the pack.

The next day we went to the lake to let the kiddos fish.

It was so cold down by the lake. Here are most of the girls trying to stay warm. Eli HATED how cold it was so he didn't stay very long. We went home and took a nap (best nap I have had in the past 2 1/2 months!!)

Eli giggles here and there. Here is one of my attempts at catching him in the act. I think he knows what I am up to and he always stops when I pull out the camera.

That nigh we went on another walk. Eli wanted to be held so I enjoyed the cuddle time.

Buddie always tries to find the highest spot in the house to lay down. He just loved the stack of blankets. It was nice and comfy with a good view of what the kids we up to outside.

Buddie noticed I was taking pictures so then he decided to strike a pose for me.

I guess after a while Jerel looked more comfortable then the blankets.

Moments not pictured...

• On one of our walks we came up to a large mountain and my Aunt Cyndi and Tobi dared everyone to climb it. Little did they know we would all take them up on it. Jacob led the pack and we all followed. It was so fun seeing the little kids beat all the adults up the mountain. I was behind Austin and one point and looked up to see his past half way past his bottom! After passing Austin I was behind Ethan. Ethan looked back and me and said, " See ya Stacy!" Then he took off running up the mountain. On the way down Ethan stayed with his mom and they went down the mountain on their bottoms.
• My dad is a funny man. He doesn't just sit around telling jokes but he does say the funniest things at the perfect moments. For example Jacob and I had bought some milk and poked a hole in the jug. We poured the rest of the milk into a pitcher and put it in the fridge. My dad came home from work looked in the fridge and said, 'Stacy how much milk have you been pumping!!" He was totally serious. We thought this was too classic so whenever one else got up there we told them that it was breast milk and not to drink it. They believed us...well for a short while.
• Another moment that my dad said something fun was the 2nd night we watch Ironman. Jerel went downstairs to get some speakers so it would be nice and loud for everyone. While he was gone the TV kept playing the part on the DVD just before you hit play. My dad looks at it and says, "Man they sure are taking a long time with this part of the movie." It was hilarious because he thought that was part of the movie!
• We played lots of card games and scatagories. Aly and Sadie teamed up on scatagories and beat the adults most of the time. Jacob and my mom played Skip Bo I think currently they are tied and will have to play another hand to determine who the ultimate winner is.

Eli's 2 month check up.

Today was Eli's two month check up and lets just say I dreamed it would have gone so much better!! Let's start with the night before. My little man is normally a great sleeper, but the last two nights he has been a little restless in his sleep. Last night he woke up crying at 4 he didn't cry the whole time but did not go back to sleep until around 6:30. I woke up at 9 am and started getting ready for his appointment that was set for 10:30. In the middle of me getting dressed Eli woke up and was hungry so needless to say I was running a little late getting out the door. I left my wallet at my parents house last night so I asked Jacob for his credit card so I could pay for it and then ran out the door. On my way there I realized I forgot A LOT of things. First off I forgot his new Insurance card (we had problems with his old one so I just got a new plan for Eli and Jacob) The second thing I forgot was immunization chart. I am not comfortable with giving Eli a lot of shots at once so we are following another schedule. Obviously these two things were very important so I had to bug Jacob and get them to fax them over to the Dr.'s office ASAP!

After all these bad things I thought what else could possibly go wrong. I felt confident that I would be able to handle the remainder of his check up. BOY WAS I WRONG. I was so proud of my little guy when they measured and weighted him, he did not pee or even cry. I thought the worst of it was over because on his first two visits those were the hardest things...WRONG again. The doctor came in an immediately started talking about his vaccinations. I said "Sorry I am not following that schedule I will be following this one."to which I received a look like you are some insane hippie mom that isn't taking care of your baby. I was scared by her look but I stood firm on my belief. Then she checked Eli and pointed out his cradle cap yippee strike number two for me as a mom. She again acted like I was dumb for not already having the whole thing gone. I informed her I had been working on it and it already looked a lot better. I thought this was as bad as it was going to get but NOPE again I was wrong...the worst news was yet to come. She started to check his mouth and the dreaded words came out of her mouth, "your baby has Thrush." It was like the second she said it a light clicked in my head. Duh no wonder Eli cried two times last night he never cries. Duh no wonder when I nursed him last night it was painful...Nursing has never been painful for me actually it has always felt like a relief. I then started to wonder how did he get this I personally never had a problem with yeast...grrr does this mean I don't clean him well enough? Does this mean I don't clean my hands enough? Oh no has my baby been in awful pain and I did nothing to help him? I started to ask her these questions...at least her answers didn't make me feel so bad FINALLY!! She said it is very common she said it can happen from any number of reasons and most likely he was not in a lot of pain because it was a very small amount. I caught it early and that the Thrush should be gone in less than a week. She also informed me that it had moved to his diaper. (I am positive he didn't get that until last night because I started to notice the bumps that night and then the next morning they got a little worse.) She gave me medicine sent me on my merry way or should I say not so merry.

I shouldn't be so upset about this and I know that everything will be ok. I am trying to be more positive about it and think of things like: I am so grateful that my old insurance was crappy so that my appointment got moved back a week. Since it was moved back we caught it more quickly. I should look on the bright side that Thrush is the only thing he has and other then that he is a perfectly healthy happy baby boy. I should be happy that she was impressed with his weight gain (at least as a mom I give him good milk). I choose to think of those things instead of the bad thing. Well ok I did think of the bad things for a least a few hours! Now I choose to think of all the good.

Eli's current stats are:
Weight 14 lbs 4 oz - 90%
Height 23 1/2 in. -55%
Head: 38.5 cm-10% (seriously I can't believe this one)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the past couple of weeks with my little man.

Aly playing mommy.

The big man and the little man.

My two favorite boys in the whole world!

Ok Seriously!! Love that bottom!

Here is a little video of Eli making this funny noise. If you sit out and talk to him or if he sees some thing he really likes he makes this funny noise. I love it becase first off it is a really cute noise, and seconly my mom said that I made the same exact noise when I was little. Yipee everyday more and more he does thinks like his mommy! I love that he is so much like his daddy but I do want him to be a little bit like me too!