Halloween At Our House...in lots of pictures and few words.

Dixon Halloween 2010

It started with the carving party.

We're grateful for extra dental gloves. 

Pumpkin guts are gross.

Yes, we are "that family"-  we hand out pretzels.

B-O-R-I-N-G...but healthy

(We handed out candy too.  Costco was out of pretzels.)

 After carving, we got ready for some serious Trick or Treating.

Halloween is scary, as was Colby.

The whole gang.

Harry

Ron

The Brooms- Compliments of Steve  

If the dental thing doesn't work out, it's good he has another skill to fall back on.

 Colby and Dead Dumb

(Don't ask me why the kids named him this, but they did...and Dead Dumb is now an official Dixon Halloween tradition)

What?  No pictures of Saylor?

She had her first almost one year old owie that none of us really want to talk about.

She was not up for pictures.

Setting up for the four ward Trunk or Treat.

(Notice Dead Dumb in the stroller and Colby's favorite red socks...it's so us.)

We gave away almost four hundred pieces of candy and or pretzels.

It was insane and very fun.

Tomorrow...the aftermath pictures.

Credit Where Credit is Due

I was lazy tonight and we made the kiddos grilled cheese.

We then ordered take out for us adults from Buffalo Wild Wings.

I'm partial to their grilled chicken wrap...hold the mayo.

When we got our order home, Steve realized they got my order wrong.  This wasn't the first time.

Yes, the breaded fried chicken WOULD taste better, but I choose not to partake.

Steve called and very politely asked to talk to the manager.

(He's like that...always on his best polite behavior.  It's a Dixon Man thing.  Oh how I love him so.)

Thirty minutes later, the manager showed up at our DOOR STEP with my corrected order.  

He was also carrying an extra side of fries, one of each of the desserts on the menu...and a $25 gift certificate.

"Please try us again," he replied.

I'm often one to complain when things go wrong so I believe I need to also GIVE KUDOS when things are corrected to the umpteenth degree.

Moral of the story???

"If you are going to Buffalo Wild Wings, pray they get your order wrong."

On another note...

I was going through pictures last night and I realized I do not have very many pictures of me with my little girl.  I'm the picture taker...and the picture taker tends to not be in pictures.

So this morning before heading out for our first diabetes run, the 'too young for school' crew gathered around for a classic Mom holds the camera picture.

It worked.

I also captured Saylor blowing kisses.   

-almost as good as bottling her up in a jar and saving her for later.

And this little man does my heart good.

He's a trooper, and the perfect day time companion.

I'm going to miss him when he starts school next year--sigh.

Good Sunday

It was one of those sweet Sundays.

We made it to church on time.

I got a two hour nap.

There was practically no fighting between the boys.

It was heaven on earth.

My little girl had her first experience with a curling iron today.

Those of you gasping...don't worry, it was brush curling iron.

(JaNae...wink wink...you know I love you!)

You can't see it in the picture, but her hair was curled in the back and adorable.

She doesn't know it, but Saylor just graduated to a new level of high maintenance.

Sunday dinner at it's finest- stuffed baked potatoes and vegetables.

Yes...Colby is eating bread, butter and cheese.  We decided to have a peaceful dinner and not care if he didn't eat what the rest of were eating.  I'm giving up on the food battle.  Hopefully he will not just be eating bread and cheese when he a grown up.

(Please note Saylor grabbing the butter bowl in the background.  There were Saylor prints left in the butter.)

Pies.

Somewhere deep in my soul has been eating me alive over my lack of pie making skills.

It's as if I can't be a complete woman if I can't make pies.

...at least not a Walker woman.

I had pie lessons from my mother a few weeks ago.

They were really good lessons.

She is the master.

These apple pies are not perfect by any means, but leaps and bounds from what I have made in the past.

Just the fact that I didn't end up in tears and throw a crust across the kitchen is a vast improvement.

I told Steve today that he should expect a lot of pies in the next month.

I'm going to perfect this skill if it KILLS ME...that or until I gain twenty pounds from the dang pie.

Carter Dean is Seven

My Carter Dean turned seven yesterday.

He wanted a pumpkin cake.

I tried it...it failed...I'm saving myself the humiliation by not posting the pictures.

So I whipped up these cupcakes instead.  Thank goodness Carter is happy with anything.

Happy Birthday Little Man!

His favorite...asked if I bought it everyday for a month before his birthday...gift.

-Opening his Harry Potter Legos. 

Thank you to both awesome sets of grandparents for making his birthday wishes come true.

(Steve and I have vowed to not buy anymore Legos.  We have bought enough.)

"OH YEAH"

Carter, I love you.  

I'm sad your getting so big so fast.

Thank you for always being happy- except for mornings...you are NOT a morning person.

Thank you for being so tough.

Thank you for just being you.

This morning...

I'm finally feeling better after two weeks of sickness.

I can't believe how EASY things seem when I'm not sick.

It's amazing.

Even the morning routine today seemed simple and ...did I really think this...fun?

I took a few pictures to document how things went around here this morning.

The poster child for dental health.

(Have a mentioned he spits in the toilet because he can't reach the counter height sink...and the step stool has been hidden away by a sneaky Colby brother?)

Andrew and I talk frequently about his obnoxious factor.  I tell him often that he needs to dial it down to zero.  As you can tell it was set around a seven this morning.

...and his evil minions are following suit.

Here is Colby on this morning throne of sorts.

Bag of cereal?  check

Size 24 month pjs he won't get rid of?  check

Disney channel?  check

Blurry mouth because he is chewing?  check

The Princess in all her morning glory.

Yes...those are skeleton pjs.  

And they glow in the dark.

And they double as her Halloween costume too.

I'm too cheap to buy a frilly costume she will hate and only wear for ten minutes.

I'm saving that until next year.

And have I mentioned The Princess is eleven months today?

Say What?  It's killing me.

She's waving, blowing kisses, and doing hand movements to patty cake and itsy bitsy spider.

I think I can officially say her first word is "Da Da."  She screams it every morning looking for Steve.

She stands by herself and is walking along all the furniture...and is getting into EVERYTHING.

I'm getting nothing done.

Really.

And for those of you who don't know... these are called "Princess Fiona's"

Love Them.

11 days out

I think this picture describes how we are coping around here with the "master of the house" being under the weather and really really grumpy.

 

1. It's not quite in focus...as are we.

2. No body is getting their hair combed and at least one half of us are still in pj's at lunch time.

3.  Older children are "faking" sick and being able to stay home from school because their mother is too tired to fight them on it. (this WILL NOT be happening again)

4. Children are getting away with drinking soda for lunch.  Hello?  Where is the parental supervision?

5. Counters are dirty, closets are left open...in fact, the entire house is in one big state of disarray.

I think it has been established that I can complain.

(if I ever write another resume, I think complaining should be on my lists of true talents)

So for a change of pace, I'm going to instead write what I have been grateful for in the last 11 day of sickness.

-Antibiotics.  Started them almost 48 hours ago and am finally starting to feel a little better.

- Tylenol and Ibuprofen...alternated every four hours.

-My liver and it's ability to process the massive amounts of Tylenol and Ibuprofen I have ingested.

-Hot showers.  The only thing that could stop my coughing- especially at 4am.

-Earplugs and the fact my husband is not afraid to use them.

- The Disney channel.  Colby has watched it non stop for the past 11 day.  ..and I don't care.

-Diet Dr. Pepper paired with oatmeal cookie dough.  (its a coping mechanism)

-The reheatable rice bag my mother made.  It's the only thing that kept me from shoving a pencil in my ear last night to stop the pain from what I'm guessing has to an ear infection.  

-A husband who cares enough about me to come home and take over with the kids...so I can be by myself.

-A husband who also cares little about the state of our home or how I have looked for the past week and a half.  

It hasn't been pretty.

Lazy Parenting

Today I am a bad mother.

I put my own selfish needs over the betterment of my child.

But let me preface this with the fact that I have a whopper of a cold.

It started early last week and took my voice for three days.  It has since moved into my sinus cavity and is reeking havoc on my nose and throat.

I feel crappy.

I look crappy.

I'm coughing up crappy.

This morning, Carter came into my room and with the best "I'm sick" faker face he could muster.

He does have a cold and doesn't feel great, but he's not sick enough to stay home from school.

 He told me his throat hurts.

I told him he could stay home from school

As far as I'm concerned, he is staying home because I am too worn out to do the "diabetes routine be at the school three time today" thing.

I'm staying in my pj's and making cookies...or a cake.  It IS Steve's birthday today.

Carter is downstairs watching cartoons with the biggest smile on his face EVER.

He even tries to hide his face with his hands when I look at him because his jubilation is overpowering his fake cough.

I made Andrew go to school today.  

He feels worse than Carter for sure.  

...but fifth grade absences are much harder to make up than first grade ones.

Steve bribed Andrew by putting brown sugar frosting cake in his lunch.

(The kind of cake I won't touch but I made for Steve yesterday because I love him.  I will make a chocolate kind for the rest of us tonight.)

the train

Rewind ten years ago.  

Steve and I were expecting our first child- a boy.

We were thrilled.

And we bought him a wooden toy train.

Because trains are manly and cool...and because my dad collects toy trains and we thought maybe if we sucked up enough we could inherit a few of those bad-boys one day.

(love ya Dad)

When this little bundle of joy was eight months old we had his picture taken with the toy train.

(because ten years ago it was trendy and stuff to dress up your kids and get their picture taken with random props and hud)

Fast forward four years from then.

Another little boy and his picture with the toy train.

Fast forward 2 1/2 years from that date and boy number three gets his picture taken with the train too.

  Now recalibrate your thinking and go back to about a year and a half ago.

We were expecting our fourth child and a very early ultrasound predicted boy number four.

I was excited!

His name was going to be Beck Walker Dixon and he too was going to have his picture at eight months taken in the same overalls and toy train.

But as fate had it, that baby was indeed NOT a boy and Saylor Kate Dixon came into the world.

What was an overall owning mother to do?

A girl can NOT wear boy overalls to get her picture taken.

Luckily my super Aunt Char came to the rescue and found Saylor her very own PINK set of overalls.

Super Aunts are just like that you know.

And Saylor got her picture taken with the train, just like her three older brothers.

(But she is actually a month older that the boys were in the pictures.  I have four children and the fact I got these pictures taken is all is a miracle.)

SO BEHOLD- the train pictures.

(for those of you who have children that are all under the age of six- no mocking I mean it. There were NOT digital pictures WAY back when- and the boys' pictures are just scans of the prints.

Prints you might ask...what are those?  Well, back in the stone age of parenting, you actually got a picture to take home in your hot little hand after you dressed up your child and spent an hour sweating trying to get that kid to smile for just the right shot.  No CD, no digital image, no editing, no nothing.)

Can you guess which child is which?

Hint:  Saylor is the one in the pink holding the train ever so girly as if to say, "What in the heck am I supposed to do with this?"

So Dad...can I pick out my inheritance now?

Saylor at 9 1/2 months

My Saylor Girl at 9 1/2 months.

 She's cute...

She's clean...

And she reads at a 2nd grade level.

Ok, not really. 

However...

She's adorable...

Even when she's standing in a blue bucket for no particular reason. 

(But really, who else could made a blue bucket look this good?)

This shot is my favorite.

I get this look from Saylor almost every day.

She's my girl and she is up to something!

I love you Say Say...ruler smile and all!

Thanks once again to my favorite photographer.  

Kerrianne, you are the bestest!

And just to warn you, I have plans for her 12 month shots...and they involve frosting.

Apparently...

she considers this being helpful.

The dishwasher is her new favorite place to play.

When it is clean, no problem.

When it is dirty...gag me.

Question however,

How many pounds is a dishwasher door designed to hold?

*^%$@! Pie

I tried again tonight.

After a year of abstaining from pie baking I figured I had better try again.

I thought I would go easy with a pumpkin pie...that way I wouldn't have to put a crust on top.

It's my grandmother's recipe.

It's amazing, as is my grandmother.

For heaven's sake, I can shop like this woman, why can't I make pies like this woman?

Apparently shopping and pie baking are two entirely different entities.

I had to make two batches of crust.

My first one wouldn't roll out without splitting.

GRRR.

My second batch turned out better.

It actually made it into the pie pan.

I carefully mixed the filling and added it oh so carefully not to spill any on the crust.

It looks prettier this way.

It cooked for almost an hour and a half.

It looked pretty good for my standards.

BUT...

when cut into, the bottom crust was as soggy as the day is long and there was a definite- oh you can taste it- eggy layer that had separated from the filling.

Now I'm just mad.

I just spent a hour looking up pie recipes on the internet.

I'm sorry Grandma really I am.

I'm going to try out Paula Dean's recipe instead with Alton Brown's crust.

Please forgive me.

1st grade field trip

Yesterday, Carter's first grade class was invited to Giltners' Dairy for an afternoon field trip.

...and because I'm the only one that can run an insulin pump; Saylor, Colby and I were invited too.

(we'll take all the diabetes perks we can get.)

And as we were riding the hot, noisy, first grader filled bus to the dairy, Colby turned to me with the biggest smile on his face and said, "Mom, aren't we having the best time?"

(we don't get out much...can 'ya tell?)

Here Carter's class is learning all about how the "cow temperature" milk gets cooled super quick into chilly 38 degree "fridge temperature" milk.

Most of the speech went WAY over the six year olds' heads.  Their faces tell the whole story.

I laughed inside.

...like a six year old really understands the Fahrenheit scale and microbial growth.

Here Carter is feeding a hungry calf.

(I was carrying a heavy diaper bag and and even heavier Saylor in 90 degree weather.  Walking around to the other side to get a good picture -all the while with Colby clinging to my legs because the "cows are scary"- was obviously too much work.  I'm hoping his teacher's pictures turn out better.)

 Now having guilt because I moved over when it was Colby's turn.

(The calves were starving and none of the kids knew to lift the bottle up.  I hope they fed the calves for real after we left.)

 What do you feed kids after they see how cows are milked for real?

Cookies and Milk of course!

(But after seeing it all first hand...I'm not sure I want to drink milk for a while.  

Please pass the Crystal Light.)

White Milk:  15 carbs.

Loft House Frosted Cookie:  29 carbs.

(please kill me)

 Real stinky cows.

 A real non-stinky Saylor.

A really tired Colby sleeping on the bus.

(There was actually slobber.)

Cows make you tired.