Sunny Days

The last week or so has been absolutely perfect. The sun is shining and we can wear a jacket if we want to...in November! We are LOVING it! We have been going on as many bike rides and walks as humanly possible. Yesterday we said "goodbye" to the house and played outside ALL day! We went to the library to pick out some new books and then ran around the trails behind the building and watched the ducks and geese. There is a great tunnel that runs under the busy street and the boys echoed their way back and forth beneath the big trucks.

When we got home, the boys ran up and down our sidewalk for the longest time to check the mailbox and to balance on the curb next to the grass. They just couldn't eat lunch inside...so we had a picnic on a blanket under the swing set. Justin loved his swinging picnic and Tyler held his sandwich dancing and singing to "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam." Then they played and played and played in the backyard. By the time it was Tyler's naptime, he was doing sand angels in the sandbox. He was completely covered with sand. After their bath, there was a layer of sand on the bottom of the tub. While Tyler napped, Justin went back outside to explore. It felt like a spring day. We loved every minute of it!

Today, Travis took the day off and we went to IKEA. I love that place! Lunch was great and I always see a million things that I think I need (o.k., want.) It was fun to do a little Christmas shopping. We got home just in the knick of time to meet Justin at the bus stop. Travis is running errands and I need to go make dinner and wake up Tyler from his nap. It has been a good day!

7th Anniversary Week

Here are some highlights from our fun week:

A week ago Thursday, Travis came home from work for a long lunch while I went to get my hair cut. I love him! Then he kept working from home for the afternoon and watched the kids while I went to the church for Activity Day. I love him more! I am one of the Activity Day leaders for the 8-11 year-old girls in our primary organization at church. We usually have 12-14 girls at the activities every other Thursday afternoon. For this activity we decorated pumpkins. I brought out all sorts of craft supplies for the girls to use. They had a fun time with their creations. On Friday, we had dinner from Chiles to celebrate our anniversary (afterall, it is an anniversary weekend!). Then put the kids to bed and enjoyed a movie night.

Saturday Justin and I went to a primary program practice at the church all afternoon. I teach the Valiant 9 class with the other Activity Day leader. We have 11 kids in our class. Justin did a great job with his line for the Sunday sacrament meeting program: "My family can follow Jesus Christ in faith." Saturday night was our ward's Halloween Party.



The kids had a great time at the "Trunk or Treat" in the pouring rain. After dinner, the Young Men and Young Women put on carnival games and a Spook Alley. Justin really wanted to go through the spook alley with Travis. I wasn't sure he'd make it through. He didn't. He came out after the first little section and he was almost in tears. I felt bad that he was so scared, but now he reminds me when he sees Halloween ghosts, etc., that they are just pretend. Tyler was scared of all the kids in different costumes. Maybe we'd better just stick with decorating pumpkins this Halloween. :)

Our 7th anniversary was on Sunday. We were married on October 21, 2000 in American Fork, Utah, at the Mt. Timpanogas LDS Temple. We watched our wedding video and it was fun to feel all those emotions again. What a good day! The last 7 years with Travis have been wonderful! He is an amazing father and husband. I am so blessed to have him in my life. We are so happy to be together and look forward to many more years of memories.

I added music playlists to our blog. You can listen to them anytime. The boys like to dance to the Kids Mix, but I didn't realize they would get so exicted about it. They both beg to listen to "their" music on the computer and then run at full speed around the circle of the kitchen, down the hall, through the living room and play room and back through the kitchen. They run even faster for the songs they love the most. On several days, Justin has done this for 1 1/2 hours or longer. So, it turns out that it makes great workout music, too!

Well, the other day, Justin had been running and dancing to the music when Tyler woke up from his nap. He joined in, too, and they started chasing each other around our circle. After a while, they stopped for a rest next to me in the kitchen while I was cleaning up after dinner. Tyler's favorite song started and he did this little hop and skip to start off running fast. Well, his foot caught my foot and he tripped and fell right on his face. He got up screaming and blood was dripping from his mouth. He bit his lower lip pretty badly. He started yelling for a bandaid. Justin raced upstairs and brought all our first-aid supplies downstairs.

As I was trying to stop the bleeding, Justin got out a Curious George bandaid and put medicine on it. I was trying to explain to him that he couldn't put a bandaid in his mouth, but Tyler kept screaming like I was nuts to not let him have a bandaid if he was bleeding. So, I put a bandaid on his chin and the crying immediately stopped. Thank goodness for magic bandaids! I thought Ty might need stitches. Luckily, Travis was on a conference call for work upstairs. He was a good sport about being interrupted. After a call to the doctor, we decided he would probably be fine. So far, his lip looks like it really hurts, but I think it is healing up nicely. Luckily, neither of the boys have had a broken bone or stitches. (Knock on wood...I'm hoping to avoid the emergency room thing...forever!)

Two cute things:

Yesterday, I gave Tyler a drink of milk. He took one sip and said, "Mmmm...needs salt!" Where does he get this?

Today I was talking on the phone in the other room. When I walked into the bathroom, Justin and Tyler were covered from head to toe with bubbles. Justin had made a mountain of soap bubbles in the sink and Tyler was helping him to spread them EVERYWHERE! I laughed and grabbed the camera.



Then plopped them both into the bathtub for a play bath. It felt like one of those church commercials when the kids get covered with flour and the mom takes a picture and then joins in with all the fun. Well, my boys didn't get into trouble. I guess you could say they were rewarded with their favorite thing...more bubbles.

Tonight we are going to Justin's school for a family sing-a-long concert with Tom Hunter. Justin is counting down the minutes until we go....

Patch

We took a trip to the Lake View Farms pumpkin patch last weekend. After visiting the petting farm, the boys had a fabulous time riding on a little train out to the patch. The hay bale maze was a hit!




There were practically a million pumpkins to choose from...we plucked our favorites!







We took our pumpkins on their very first (and last) boat ride back to the barn. During the ride, a dragon popped out of the water at one point and then a shark poked its head out and sprayed a mist of water. Tyler was terrified. Justin LOVED this part and stayed on the dock after we were finished with our ride to watch it all happen again. We had to hurry off to Justin's friend Ian's birthday party, so we ran out of time for a pony ride, caterpillar train ride and corn maze. We'll save those for another visit.




Here are our happy pumpkins!

Big

Tyler is growing up so fast! He is just about 2 1/2 and he has decided he is really a "Big Boy". Two weeks ago we took down his crib and moved him into his big bed. He LOVES this bed! The truck bedding helps, but he is really happy to cozy in with his blankets and pillow. He likes to snuggle in for a while here and there throughout the day. Today he wanted to dress up like a train engineer all day. At Fred Meyer, the lady at the check-out line asked him if he was a train engineer. He opened his eyes so wide and gave her a big "she knows I'm an engineer" smile. :) He went down for his nap with his hat on. He ended up cuddling with it.



Ty has deemed himself too big for his booster seat at the kitchen table and too big for his bibs and too big for his diapers. He tried to ban the car seat, but I held my ground. We are into potty training, but he really just wants to hop on and off and flush the toilet 20 times. He is talking up a storm (I love this!) and he loves to sing the ABC's.

Tyler has to be just like his big brother. He wears his Lightening McQueen backpack to see Justin on/off the school bus. He likes to run errands with me during the day and cries when we drive home. Ty loves to "Help, too!" when I'm making dinner. He's getting really good at setting the table, too, by color-coordinating the dishes. He says, "Let go of me" and "Mom do it" one hundred times a day. I don't know whether to help him or not. :)

I am happy to see him excited about trying new things. I love that he says, "Thanks Mom" and "Big Hug". This afternoon when I was tucking him in bed for his nap, he said, "I'm thinkin' 'bout song." He started singing "Jingle Bells". I didn't know he knew this song. Later I found out that Travis sings it to him all the time to put him to bed. It was a cute little surprise to hear him singing away! I love this boy!

Weekend Top 7

General Conference Weekend was really nice. We enjoyed:

1. Jackson Elementary School's Fall Festival Friday night. Justin was so excited that I was volunteering to help with one of the carnival games. He would come up to me every so often and give me a big hug and kiss. I'm enjoying it now while he still thinks I'm cool! :)

2. Inspiring counsel from church leaders. I was touched to hear the explaination that our neighborhoods don't experience more tragedy than other neighborhoods. As close-knit member communities, we are just more aware of what is going on in our neighbors lives because we are giving service to help each other during hard times.

3. Couch-pillow pyramids. The boys were trying to entertain themselves during conference (and no one got hurt!).

4. Elders Quorum potluck at the park between sessions. I actually got to visit with other adults this time since I didn't have to follow Tyler like a hawk to make sure he didn't fall off the "Big Kid" playground. There are definitely some benefits to growing up.

5. Priesthood session moms and kids get-together at the Bowden's home.

6. Newly discovered favorite treat: Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butter on vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm...just like pumpkin pie!

7. Justin learned how to do a word search and decifer a secret code in the Primary Conference Packet. He is really having fun now that he is learning to read.

I love it!

Travis went back to work on Sept. 27th. I miss him like crazy now that he is gone all day! It was like heaven to have him with us every day for 9 fabulous weeks! We definitely took advantage of every single day and did some fun things together. By the last week, we decided to slow down and quit doing something big every non-school day. So, we enjoyed some lazy days around the house. I think Travis went back to work feeling recharged and (sort of)ready to go. :) We took a ton of pictures during our vacation and I am always remember how happy we are together! I love it!

We could science that!

I was husking corn on the cob the other day and low and behold, there was the cutest little caterpillar! I called Justin and Ty over to see it and Justin exclaims, "We could science that!" He suggested that we keep it and give it some food and then wait to find out if it would become a butterfly..."but it might not happen, Mom!" We gave it a nice chunk of the corn the little guy had already munched on and set him out in the garage in a container (with air holes, of course!). That was a week ago and Justin hasn't mentioned him since. I keep forgetting to check on it. Travis just told me the caterpillar is still alive....

Justin's little friend game him a "Science Experiments for Kids" book for his birthday back in May. Justin loves this book and likes to look through it and mark the pages with projects he'd like to try one of these days. He begs me to do science experiments with him. I think they are pretty cool, too, but I always try to pick out the easiest and quickest experiments to do with him. Well, yesterday, Justin asked Travis to help him with one. He had picked out the one called "Fly a Hot-Air Balloon". Justin collected all the supplies before bed last night and was ready to go for it first thing in the morning. We were planning to go to the zoo, so we told him he'd have to wait until we got home. Right after we arrived home, Justin pulled Travis over to the "science lab" and 2 hours later, whoa-la, a hot-air balloon! And it flew, too! Travis got the best payment for his hard work when Justin said, "This is the best experiment EVER, Dad!"

Who stole who's purse? That is the question!

Tawnya came to Portland for a business trip and took a day off so we could play for the weekend. On my way to pick her up on Thursday night I VERY narrowly missed a huge accident. A big truck screamed past my right side while I was in the slow lane and cut me off so closely I could feel the van shake. I cried. What a blessing there was no accident. We all arrived home safely that night and happy to have Tawnya stay with us. Friday morning we all went to OMSI (Oregon's Science Museum)and had a great time!





That evening, Tawnya and I had a girls night out to dinner, shopping and a movie. Saturday morning we all went to the Oregon Zoo.



We had a picnic lunch during a birds of prey show.



Huge eagles and vultures were swooping over everyone. Tyler thought they were out to get him.

Later, Tawnya and I took off to go shopping again. First of all, we have identical black leather purses. When we'd set them down a couple of times we'd pick up the wrong one and then have to switch back. Well, at Kohl's we were shopping away and picking out sweaters and looking for sizes. She put her purse on a clothing rack hook and I looked over thinking, "That's a good idea"...and I did the same. Off we went to go look at jackets and then shoes. As I'm trying on the cutest brown leather heels, I gasped, "My purse is gone!"

We dug through our shopping bag and realizing the purse had really vanished, we hurried through the store backtracking our shopping spree and laughing so I wouldn't cry. I remembered hanging my purse on that silly hook, so we raced over to get it. Not there...shoot. (And it had been left in the Juniors section, too!) I started to really worry having visions of a stolen car because I have the button-punch key chain. Tawnya asked a clerk if they had a purse turned in. She said, "Oh yes, it's at the Customer Service desk." I thought, "Bless you," and as we entered the back office, the clerk was talking on the phone saying, "it looks like Kayelynn Guptill?" I thankfully retrieved my precious purse and we walked away laughing. After dinner, we headed home. When we walked into the house, Travis smiled and asked, "Why was Kohl's calling me?" "Oh, nothing!" :) What a blessing...

Still on Kohl's...I bought a new dark green leather purse. This morning I took the boys with me to drop Tawnya off at work. We said "Goodbye!" When we got home and were coming inside, I picked up Tyler and my new purse at the same time. His eyes opened really wide and asked, "Tawnya?" I explained that it wasn't Tawnya's purse, but mine. That didn't sink in.

Later, at the library, he asked me the same question about the purse. Same answer...same blank look. When we got home, I put it down on the floor. Tyler said, "Tawnya!" I told him Tawnya would be back tonight. I'm sure he thinks I took Tawnya's purse and she's gone now and he's the only one who noticed. I hope you'll survive without the green purse, Tawnya, I kind of like it....

Silly

Justin was changing into his p.j.'s and Travis flicked him on his bottom. Justin squealed and said, "Daddy don't sting me!" Travis told him it was called a "flick". Travis was sitting on the floor and Tyler was standing right next to him. Justin giggled and said, "Then don't flick me, Dad!" Tyler immediately walked over to Travis and gave him the biggest lollipop lick on the cheek. We all burst into a laughing fit! Then we tried to explain to Tyler the difference between a "flick" and a "lick". (Justin was still giggling!) We had to try to dodge licks from both boys while Justin was singing a little ditty about "flicks" and "licks". Silly boys!

Tyler sings "The ABC's" and while I was rocking him to sleep (he has a NEW big boy bed and it was a little too exciting the other day!), I said, "You look so sleepy" He cut me off at sleepy and added "-f,g,h,i,j,k, etc.". Cute little rhyming guy.

I was telling Justin some random information he needed to know. When I was finished, he simply said, "Truck you, Mom."
Me: "Excuse me? What does that mean?"
Justin: "You know, Truck You. At the end of the Panda Express drive-in window, it says 'Truck You'. Mom, I've seen 100 Truck You's in Oregon."
Me: "Oh, you mean Thank You.(phew!) That sign you saw says 'Thank You'!"

Tyler being rocked...again...this time pointing at me and describing his monster mommy:
1,2,3...3 heads.
1..1 elbow.
1,2,3,4,5...5 eyes.
1,2,3...3 skin.
1,2,3,4...4 eyebrows.
1,2...2 hairs.
1,2,3,4,5,6...6 arms.
Wow! Thanks, Ty! :)

I was wearing my "World's Softest Socks" from Costco and Tyler kept following me around the house saying, "Cozy Sock" and laying his head on top of my feet.




Justin hasn't told us much about his days in kindergarten. We know he loves school and is having a lot of fun, but we only hear about what he is learning through the songs he has picked up in class. He sings about counting money, writing numbers, and nuts. Every day on the bus is as exciting as the first. He waves and waves as the bus is driving him away. Then, when he gets off the bus at the end of school, he runs to us while tossing his backpack and lunch bag. Then we get a huge hug. :)

Flying High

On Saturday, we went to visit the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. We can't go wrong with all those airplanes and helicopters! The boys had a great time!



We were able to ride up an elevator and step inside of the famous "Spruce Goose" airplane.



The boys were happy to practice up for our next trip!



The kids enjoyed the play area. Lots of great hands-on activities for them to explore.