braces and water polo

 

Monday morning last week Carter went to his Uncle Dixon's office and got braces.

Can I say how lucky (and kind of bratty) I feel because we are fortunate to have an uncle straightening my kids' teeth.  Talk about a HUGE blessing that I DO NOT take for granted.  Thanks Spencer!!

 

 

It was also our first snowfall of the year which made for a cold and exciting morning.

Carter has been a trooper even though I know his mouth has been killing him this last week.

Sore teeth are not fun.

He's been told if he wears his rubber bands he could have them off in 18 month.  Braces done before high school...awesome!

What else is awesome?  -my mom and her mad sewing skills.  She is currently working on my nieces baptism quilt.  It is fantastic and is keeping mom really busy.

I've been working on a few projects of my own that involve some really awesome photographs.

 

Pictures like this are priceless.  Maybe that is why I work so hard at getting family pictures all the time.

One day my kids with LOVE them.

 

Among other projects, it was that time of year again last weekend.

Andrew competed at State swimming with a water polo tournament afterwards.

 

In honor of State, Andrew decided to shave his legs to cut down on drag.

(If you could see my face you would know I was laughing my head off just typing that last sentence.)

 Please note the cute pink razor in his hand.  Pink is the only color I had to give him.

 

This is the face I got when I told him I was going to post this picture on Instagram.

...I didn't but thought long and hard about it.

 

Steve took Andrew to Boise Friday morning and then kept me posted on Andrews results.

This is the scoreboard after his 100 breaststroke.  Andrew (lane 3) won his heat,  took three seconds of his best time, and went from being 36 in rank to 23.  Not bad for a Friday afternoon!!  He also took 6 seconds off his 500 breast stroke.  Rightfully so, Andrew was THRILLED with his results.

Andrew didn't make times to swim in the finals on Saturday, but had a water polo tournament Saturday afternoon.  It is crazy stressful for me to watch Andrew play.  Its fast and violent...but he loves it.

Andrew made the A team this year and was excited.   He told me he wouldn't play much in the game, but did his best when he was put in.  He played at least a quarter both games in the tournament.  They won their first match against BK, but lost to Mountain View.

State water polo is coming up the first week in December.  I'll have to grow my nails long so I'll have something to bite during his games.

 

 Barrett Humble, Michael Ashby, Andrew and Aidan Humble.

These boys are all in our ward and make up 2/3 of our Canyon Ridge boys swim team.

While Steve and I attended Andrew's matches, my sister JaNae graciously watched the rest of my crew.  They weren't bored to say the least. 

 

JaNae sent me this picture...hilarious.

 

And this picture too.

My kids always have a spectacular time at Aunt JaNaes!

  

In house news, we spent some time looking for appliances.  We found a fridge at Lowes that we really liked and luckily it was the floor model, so we got it on sale.  Whew.  Refrigerators are really expensive.!

I was a little disturbed by the Kohler BIG Deal advertising that was all over the plumbing department.  I feel it was an unfortunate use of words...that or I've lived with questionable plumbing for the past four months and am sensitive to such things. 

Halloween

Halloween day Andrew and I spent our time at the pool here in Twin for Andrew's district meet.  We came home tired and sick of the humidity.  Andrew did great and improved his times.  He has state swimming this next weekend in Boise.

But I digress…Halloween.

After the meet, I got busy and got kids ready for trick or treating.

Saylor and Colby truly loved their vampire costumes and played the part well.

Colby especially loved being bad.

I had an adorable black bat cape for Grady, but he would only wear it for about 2 minutes while I took pictures.  Silly boy.

                         

Carter was all about the Darth Vader costume this year.  My mom provided the most amazing cape along with arm bands and boot covers.

The crew minus Andrew.

This is as festive as Andrew got this year.

Being 15 takes all the fun out of Halloween!

Grady was an adorable bat even if it was only for a few minutes.

Saylor practiced her "hiss" all day.

Im mad I didn't get more pictures of the back of the costumes.

Carter's cape was fantastic, was the perfect length and billowed just like the real Darth Vader's.

Saylors costume had the most adorable back to it.  It had layers and layers and she loved to hold it up like a (scary vampire) princess. Best $20 I've spent at Costco in a while.

The best part of Colby's costume was his teeth.

At the last minute, Steve took Colby to the office and shaped some fangs out of composite.

Colby was in heaven. (But sadly, he couldn't eat anything as the fangs kept his other teeth from touching.  He didn't eat one piece of candy!)

He wouldn't even try to gum the garlic bread at the Bulkley's Halloween dinner.

He played the vampire role very seriously.

 After dinner, Jeff Bulkley loaded up his trailer and the kids went out to beg for candy.

This is my kids' favorite tradition!!    They get pulled all over our neighborhood and some surrounding neighborhoods and come home with oodles of candy.

We live (or will again in three months) in the best neighborhood!

Grady wanted nothing to do with Halloween and demanded to sit in the back of the Land Cruiser and drive behind the trailer with Steve.

I stayed at the Bulkley house and hung out with the other moms.  Best Halloween tradition ever hands down.

The spoils were great.

The sugar was fantastic.

My kids are getting an awesome childhood experience.

I love where we live and LOVE the people we are friends with.

It wouldn't be a post without a house update.

The siding was finished up last week.

I can't wait to see it painted.

My house is cute…and I'm going to love it!

My tub came last week too.

Its bigger than I thought!  

This last week

If anyone wants to know what my life is full of lately…its this.

High school swimming is nuts.  So nuts.

I'm learning to take over to help run the Canyon Ridge swim team for the next few years.

I'm shaking in my boots, but excited to learn new crazy things.

My latest accomplishment (however silly and insignificant) was ordering new swim caps for the team.

Andrew wanted the new logo on them instead of what was on the previous caps.

I was excited when they turned out well and they look pretty slick in the water.

Happiness is here again as Steve sent me this picture last week.

Our beloved taco truck had opened a store front and then recently closed it.

We were so so sad about losing our favorite place to eat.  But Steve saw the truck and totally stalked it until it opened.  Hurray for us!  Our lunches will once again be happy and be full of deliciousness!

After Andrew's swim meet in Sun Valley last weekend; Susan, Megan and I stayed in Sun Valley for a short girls weekend.

We ate, shopped, hiked and laughed a ton.

I'm grateful to have these women as my closest friends.

Love them.

It wouldn't be a blog post without a house update these days.

Last week the HVAC and plumbing was installed.

The only thing missing is my master tub.

The wrong one was delivered and then the one I originally chose was deemed unavailable.  So I quickly found a replacement tub that I hope will look good in the space.  It's a square tub that looks pretty modern.  I really hope it goes with everything else I've chosen.  It should be installed on Tuesday.

This coming week electrical should be installed along with my exterior siding going up.

If we are really lucky we might even get the roof finished!

Apparently…Grady finds running errands with me exhausting.

I'm happy to have my buddy on my weekly shopping trips, but I'm not sure if Grady feels the same.

Grady did have an exciting week other than shopping.  His crib was converted to a toddler bed after he climbed out and landed right on his head.  He is loving his new found morning freedom.  I'm grateful for the transition because at the new house Grady will be sleeping in a bunk bed with Colby.  There isn't any room for his crib in his room along with dressers and bunk beds.  He's growing up and growing up fast!

Saylor Kate has been tinkering on the piano.  Grandma taught her a little tune that may or may not include "pull down your underwear" in the lyrics.

My mom just laughed and told me maybe I shouldn't trust her to babysit anymore.  Ha Ha Mom…nice try!

In addition to her song teaching skills, my mom has some serious serious sewing skills.

In one morning my mom whipped out an amazing cape and arm bands for Carter's Darth Vader costume.

She. Is. Amazing.  

End of Story.

Steve is also amazing as he brought me this delicious drink home from Sips.

Dirty Diet Coke is the bomb.

Saturday we all drove to Boise to try desperately to pick our granite.  Really…the granite choice is getting old and I'm totally done mentally.  

After we went to the granite place, we visited RC Willey to check out furniture options.

We didn't buy anything, but Steve and the boys enjoyed testing out the massage chairs.

We also got free pumpkins just for stepping into the store.

Some of us were more excited than others.

This has nothing to do with anything except that I love getting messages like this for Andrew.

He added Steve's picture to this Star Wars app.

Hahahahahahahah.

Today to finish off our week we had family pictures down at centennial park

I took a few shots of the kids rolling in the leaves with Steve.

I LOVE family pictures and I can't wait to see them!

JaNae's family was here getting pics too and I loved getting random shots of some of the cousins.

 When did these two get so big???

Because you know…they used to look like this!

And can I say how cute the relationship Grady and my sister JaNae have??

He loves her so much…and the soda and donuts she regularly provides!

 I must write down that I do have another child and his name is Colby.  But where are the picture of Colby you might ask??

I don't know???  I'm thinking he always moves so blasted fast I never get to get a picture of him.

He does exist and I do indeed love him.  Let's work on that this week shall we Colby?  You slow down…and I'll try to get a picture of you!