Thanksgiving Dinner Vs. Picture with my wife

By the look on his face, I think he may have taken the picture but really would have rather been eating. We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We celebrated with my parents, my sister and her family, and a close family friend Karen. It's so nice being close to family, it's never a dull moment. I made the best chocolate pumkin cheesecake this year, at least all the women thought so. My sister is a real trooper to host the party only two weeks after baby Rick was born.

Nysa's Update

Nysa just had a birthday and she's six going on thirty. We decided the other day that she might be the most responsible person in our family. Everyone that knows Dave, knows he was out of the running years ago but Nysa may have finally passed me up. She is all about the rules. We can count on her to come home from school and tell us exactly what she needs to be doing and what we need to be doing too. She had her Christmas Concert last night and as we were getting ready to go (she has had her outfit picked out for the past month), Dave asked her if she was going to find us in the crowd and wave. She got this look on her face that said "are you kidding me?" She said, " No way Dad, Mrs. so and so.. would never let us do that. She is watching us all the time. That is not allowed!" We had so much fun teasing her, saying that we were going to yell and shout for her and wave. She was so mad at us. She takes everything so serious, but is an awesome kid. She did eventually give us a half wave and then looked right back at her teacher while the rest of the kids in the program waved, yelled etc. at their parents. She is a great big sister too, always so helpful with Peyton but I can tell if maybe I have had a long day and used the parent tone more often than not. I will here her in the other room telling her sister something that I had said earlier in exactly the same tone and have to go in and gently remind her that she is her sister and not her mother. She also tries to use that tone with me and the way she is growing she may be taller than me by about the fourth grade, so I better watch out.
She is enjoying gymnastics and got a guitar for her birthday. She wants to take lessons so we will probably start next spring. She loves anything girly and would bedazzle anything in site if we let her. She is really into making jewelry but is also asking Santa for a new four wheeler, so maybe there is hope after all.

Peyton is turning 2!!!

Miss Peyton...... is turning 2 tomorrow. I can't believe that she is two already, it seems like just yesterday I was about to have a baby when Dave said I think we should put our house up for sale and move to Idaho. It sounded like a great plan since it was taking on average 6+ months to sell a house at the time. It took less than two weeks and before we even had a chance to make it to our six week checkups we were driving the moving truck to Idaho.... So much has happened in the past two years but it has just been a blur. We are still waiting to fill settled and calm but are slowly coming to the realization that maybe, just maybe this is it. This is what our lives will be like forever or at least for a while. We just need to get use to crazy and we will feel settled. Peyton is so fun. She has such a wild personality. We just moved her to her new big girl bed and she thinks she's pretty hot stuff. We have caught her up on Nysa's top bunk a few times and she has come in our room a couple of times but she is doing pretty good. She is starting to really talk a lot. She has a few pretty funny sayings. when I tell her to do something that she doesn't want to do she turns, sulks and says " oooh Maaan!!!" It's so cute. She is pretty sneaky too. Defiantly a girl that takes after my own heart.

Five Years of Pure Bliss

Sooo Dave and I just celebrated our five year anniversary. Wow!!! We made it. :) We went away for a little weekend without the kids to McCall and had a great time. We went on a 4 hour zip line adventure. It was pretty sweet, we highly recommend. We decided that we would give it a shot for another five years so we will have to keep you posted. Some of the people in the group asked us what we were going to do for our ten year anniversary, who knows..... ski diving, scuba diving, any suggestions?

School Saga

So school is going well, at least for Nysa. Dave and I have decided after only a few short weeks of 6 am craziness that it's for the birds. I'm sure every one of you that already has or has had school aged children thinks we should just suck it up and join the club, but seriously it's killing us. We have tried everything besides making her sleep in her school clothes to get off to a better start. If we manage to get her outside on time it's a whole other challenge for the bus driver to pull over. The bus driver didn't stop without being waved down for the first week and then the whole changing buses in kindergarten thing really stressed me out, I guess they are just preparing them for their adult, city lives at age 5. She seemed to manage just well and we have stopped following the bus to school now. She enjoys it but the hour and a half, five mile ride home may be wearing on her. She has realized if she is going to Aunt Krystal's house she gets dropped off first and keeps asking me if she can just ride bus 1 everyday. I am a huge sucker and pick her up on most of my days off, I guess I'm okay with it for now. I'm sure some day she will rather ride with anyone or on any bus than with her mom.

We are pretty sure she likes recess better than school but what kid doesn't. Maybe she will change her tune when it's negative five. She is pretty awesome at the monkey bars and has finally agreed that wearing dresses isn't all that great if you have to act like a lady. Now I know why my mom finally gave up and just made me wear pants under my dresses. I used to think how could you let me walk out of the house that way, now I know. It's pretty funny what you realize as and adult and a mother. My grandma has a few key saying she uses more often than not when she is with us and I find myself now telling my own girls, " Remember, we are ladies" and Nysa's favorite when I am combing her hair, " Sometimes it's painful to be beautiful. " I'm sure my Grandma has had her doubts that I would ever reach this point but to her dismay it has happened.

Peyton still hasn't gotten used to Nysa not being here when she wakes up, we have mastered the art of getting Nysa out of bed without waking up Peyton. It's pretty cute, when Peyton first wakes up she walks up and down the hallway saying "Nysie.....nysiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee......" and then goes to the front windows and says in the saddest little voice,"bus". She was soooo sad for the first couple of days and now after the first few minutes of sulking she realizes that she is ruling the roost and goes nuts.

Stay posted.......................but for now this is it...................
Etta

I can't believe summer is over!!!!

This summer has been amazing but has come and gone so fast. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to come visit or experience the wonderful world of Idaho you won't completely understand or appreciate what I am saying. For starters, summer really starts in June. Spending the majority of my life in Arizona I used to think it's February, time for shorts. Now I think hmm it's June and maybe shorts but I better bring a sweatshirt, just in case. The spring and summer here are so beautiful but there just isn't enough time to do or see everything. It is August and I can say fall is well on it's way. The mornings are getting pretty brisk and the days are getting shorter.

We happened to be home this weekend with nothing planned. YEAH!!! This has only occurred because I am on-call for work. We sat down and realized that our lives are so busy that we can hardly take advantage of all the things we should do and see right here in our own backyard. Dave and I were sitting on the front porch last night looking up at the stars for the first time this summer. He leans over and says, this is really great we need to do this more often. I took it like we need to spend more time like this together even though I am sure he was talking about how amazing the night was. From our front porch you can see a couple of mountain ranges and because we live up in the mountains it's almost like you can just reach up and catch the shooting the stars. They are so bright and the night was so clear. It's night and moments like this that I can really say I love this place.

This summer has been go..go..go. I have been labeled at work as the vacation queen. We do vacation a lot, but most are mini, of course. We live so close to both of our families now that we do tend to visit one or both of our parents each month. We have gone camping a couple of times, made our way to Tahoe, Sacramento for a family reunion and then spent a couple of days with Dave's entire family on the Oregon coast. Road Trip!!! We had so much fun. We have taken a couple of road trips around here too. We went to these water fall hot springs in June that were pretty neat. The scenery here is unheard of.

The kids have really enjoyed this summer too. They love to play outside. Nysa played t-ball this year. She was so excited to start. She kept telling us how much fun she was going to have and that she was going to make so many new little girls friends. She thought they were all going to love her new pick glove. She didn't take it quite as well as we would have liked when she found out she happened to be the only girls on her team. We made it through and have decided as a group that maybe we would try ballet or gymnastics this fall. We also take long walks and bike rides pretty often. Nysa is pretty amazing on her little bike. Peyton loves to do anything Nysa can do, but the only problem with it is that she simply can't. She honestly does not think she is a little kids, she thinks she is big. The other day at the little water park two little girls under two but older than Peyton were playing next to her. I tried to encourage her to socialize with them and she defiantly gave me the look like " umm mom they are babies, can't you see I am playing with the big kids." I don't know what I am going to do with her. She is really starting to talk too. Her new favorite saying is, "mom I no like it". She tells me this about almost anything. She also learned to say, beat it, but she says " bean it mom" She is quite the little character.

Dave has started to embrace the sport of fly fishing. I guess it's a gimme living here, but I really think he is enjoying it. At times you can catch fish every time the line touches the water. It's great. He has been so busy with work this summer that at times I feel like I have to force him into just taking a break and having a little fun. Hopefully by next summer things will just come a little easier. His business is expanding, after hiring and firing several guys, he has finally found someone capable. So far so good. Let's everyone just keep our fingers crossed for now.

I was suckered into playing coed softball this summer again. It was fun, but I think I have come to the conclusion that I just don't have time for everything. Might have to pass next summer and probably until the kids are old enough to come and watch. They wanted both of us to play but we figured there was no way.

School starts Monday so I guess this is the end of most of our vacations :( and our summer. I think I am going to need to find a mom's support group. I am not taking this whole thing very well. Will keep you posted....
Etta