Yep...Loving It

Does a new table get much better than 3 boys sharing Pop Tarts in their jammies?

Table Talk

This is our old table. This was such a great table for the last nearly 11 years of Mike and I living together. It was one of the only pieces of nice furniture we had when we moved into our tiny apartment so many years ago. There have been so many good times and memories made at this table that I am kinda sad to see it go. Mike and I have been talking about buying a new table for a while since with the addition of the twins, we have outgrown this one. So I have had to put my nostalgia aside and move ahead.
We have looked here and there and have liked a few things but price-wise we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. While surfing the web on Sunday I decided mostly on a whim (like normal) to check the KSL listings and low and behold here it is! I contacted the seller right away and got my friend Scott to help us out with a truck tonight for a pick up. It seats 6 instead of 4. And as an added bonus there's 2 new bar stools that match. It's in absolutely perfect condition. I have looked it over tonight and can't find a single scratch on it. So are you ready for the Price? We found it hard to believe and you might too. $200 bought this whole 8 piece set! That's a STEAL in my book.



So who wants to be the first to help us have some new good times and create some new good memories at our new table? Any takers?

P.S. I have listed our old table on KSL to sell it. If you know of any small families or young couples looking for a decent well-used set for cheap, send them my way. :)

99 cent Monster

Yesterday during a quick trip to Michaels, Caleb asked me for this wooden monster to color. It was only 99 cents so who could resist? He came home and colored the little guy up. He used lots of colors so it would be a funny monster and not a scary one. :) And the monster theme worked out well as we picked up our copy of Monsters vs. Aliens this morning and all three boys are enjoying it downstairs.

Hellooooo Halloween

Halloween has sprung at the Ouren household. We spent some time yesterday and a little more tonight getting out the decor. We are getting excited and looking for project ideas. Our costumes are ordered and we are anxiously awaiting the events of October.

What activities and/or projects do you have planned this October?

Just as Good

One of the ladies in the office next to ours brought these balloons into me last night before I left and told me to take them home to my kids. I did, but by the time I got home, the boys were ready for bed. So they didn't get to play with them while inflated. But this morning they showed me that it didn't matter, they were just as good on the floor as they are in the air. These things have been carried all over the house today by all 3 boys. I love free entertainment.

Time for Fall

Fall is and always has been my favorite time of the year, but so far this year I wasn't really getting in the mood for it. I don't know why, but I was having a hard time letting go of summer. That was until a late evening grocery shopping trip last night anyway. Caleb's little eyes lit up when he saw bags of candy corn and he ran to them and threw them in the cart pretty much without even asking. And so starts the fall Goodies. As you can see I picked up a couple of our other fall favorites. Caleb and I will be making some caramel apples next week since he'll be off track for 3 weeks and we'll be eating our other goodies and getting out the Halloween decor in the mean time. I also have this major urge to make some peanut butter cookies. Hooray for fall! I'm glad my heart finally caught up to it.

Scarce

I have come to my blog several times in the last week and keep finding that it seems like I don't have a lot to talk about. It's not that we haven't been busy, we have. I must admit that I have been pretty bad about taking pictures though. I think part of the problem or scarcity of my posts is because with Caleb in school our lives have been pretty routine. Our weekdays go like this: Get Caleb up and ready for school, take him to school, put babies down for a nap, mom finishes getting herself ready for the day, talks to a few people on AIM, babies wake up and it's snack time, then off to pick up Caleb. After that we make lunch ,play for a bit then it's time to go to the babysitters house so Mom can go to work. Once Mom gets home from work, she rustles up some dinner and then it's time to put the boys to bed and spend some time with Dad before we wake up and do it again the next day. Pretty Boring right? Our excitement level has dropped a notch the last few weeks for sure. The babies don't mind though and have really been excited about the fact that the more we are home the more they can find to get into. They can now open cupboards and drawers and have been getting into things everywhere. This is the wax paper Zaric got out of a kitchen drawer last week while Mom was fixing her hair. They were having a good time so I just tore off the piece that was on the floor anyway and let them have at it.

We have also had plenty of dog water spills. juice spills and an entire bag of Epsom salt dumped on the floor ready for immediate clean up from these two. I'd say we are for sure into the toddler stage of curiosity. It's fun but also so much work with two of them running in opposite directions and getting into things I feel like all I do while home during the week days is put out baby fires.

Our weekends have been a little more fun. Last weekend, I got to go to the scrapbook expo on Friday night with the girls. We had fun and got some great deals. On Saturday we got up early and went to the SLMOT super-sale. We scored a new glider to rock the boys for $15. It's much nicer than ours which has gotten pretty worn out between Caleb and the twins. We scored a few other treasures, then it was off to Caleb's soccer game (and we all know how that went). After his game, I had an appointment to go to so I went and then ran some errands afterwards. After that I got to go hang out with my good friend Wes. We went to dinner and then to a Real Salt Lake game. It was a good time. Mike was so awesome to watch the boys both nights for me, what a guy! Sunday was spent attempting to do some stuff around the house and watching football.

This weekend I was more than happy to just stay home on Friday and finally get a bunch of housework done. It felt so good that I was beginning to wonder what was wrong with me. We also snuck in a movie on Friday night here at the house (thanks to Netflix) and it was nice just to be home. Yesterday Mike finally got to have some time away from us after being the best husband ever and watching the boys so I could go play so much lately. We met our friends Scott and Holly for lunch and then Mike and Scott went golfing. Holly, me and the kids came back to the house and broke out the Cricut. I got my Halloween cards well under way and she got a couple projects of her own done. After they got back and left we just hung out here at the house some more with the boys and I snuck in another movie (again thanks to Netflix). Today has been a totally home day doing laundry and watching football. And that's right where I want to be. I am loving that fall and football is here. Go Cowboys!

Well that's the last couple of weeks in a nutshell. I am hoping to be better this week with updates and sharing, but no promises!

Following Through

Well I mentioned after Caleb's first soccer game this year that Mom and Dad were pretty disappointed at his behavior during it. We have a good talk about it and the next week went and once again the behavior was still there. He was diving on the ground, rolling around intentionally running into people and knocking them down. So we had talk #2.
With the holiday weekend, he got a week off of soccer and we thought this would be a good thing. I took him to the 3rd game yesterday. The babies had fallen asleep in the car so I stayed in the car with them to let them sleep while they warmed up and got ready and there it was again. Every time the did their stretches or tried to run the field, he would intentionally throw himself on the ground. Then I saw him pushing another player. We have no idea where it comes from. He doesn't normally act like this, or at least didn't in baseball or at school. Between warm ups and the game I called him over to talk again and I told him several times and made sure he understood that he wasn't going to play any more if this was how he was going to behave. It's not only just inappropriate and embarrassing but it's also not safe for the other kids to have him diving on the ground and running around and into them like a wild child.
The game came and sure enough, not a word I said sank in. So I told him on the way home that I was glad he had fun because that would be his last game :(. He cried of course. And then tried to convince me otherwise. He even built a tower out of legos when he got home and told me that he loved soccer for as tall as the tower was. It broke my heart a little.
Mike and I talked it over and are agreed on this decision. But I think it's going to be one of the harder ones for me to follow through with. I need to be strong and I know it. But he melts my heart now every time he tells me how much he loves it or asks if we'll let him try again next year.
To add a little comic relief to this bummer blog post. On the way home in the midst of him crying and whining about not playing anymore, he also got serious and told me "Mom, sometimes when you speak to me, my brain just turns off." It was hard not to laugh and stay firm on my soccer stance at the same time. Man I love that kid, even when we have such rotten days.

My Seattle Trip

The best husband in the world sent me on a Mommy-cation by myself to visit my friend Shannon in Seattle over the long weekend. I had so much fun and so many picture to share so beware of a very long post. So much to talk about that I am just going to jump right in:
I arrived on Friday evening and after her fiance picked me up at the airport we went to a little lake side restaurant for some drinks and appetizers where Shannon met us. After that we headed over to the city center to check out the Space Needle. Bummer! It was closed for some sort of private event :(. So we just walked around the City Center and got some fudge in the Space Needle gift shop. And enjoyed it by the fountain.

They were getting ready for a big celebration called Bumber Shoot the next day so there were street performers doing their thing.

After that we went to the house where a couple of their friends came over to say hello and visit for a while. Then it was off to bed.

Saturday we got up early and headed back to the City Center to go on the "Ride The Ducks" tour. This tour takes you on an amphibious WWII vehicle that's both land and water capable around the city and into Lake Union. This was our hilarious driver and tour guide of the day.

A shot of our "duck"

This is an old coal-gas plant that burned down and what is left of it. This shot was from on board the duck in Lake Union.

A couple shots of the city from the duck.

After we got back. We ventured back across the street to have a little lunch then to the Space Needle again.

And some city shots from inside the needle.

After the needle we ran to make a quick stop at a birthday party for one of their friends and met up with her fiance to take a little ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island. Here we are waiting for our ferry to arrive.

Here it is :)

Some gorgeous views of the city from the deck of the ferry.

And me enjoying the ferry ride.

Bainbridge Island...straight ahead.

We made it.

We stopped at this little place for a little treat and I had some Mile-High Chocolate Mousse Cake. It was sooooooo good. And it was here that we started scheming about a little spontaneous road trip. (More to come on that)

Caleb requested 2 things before I left: A new toy airplane and sea shells, so we headed to a beach on the Island to collect shells. And found this little guy.

And this jellyfish was floating dangerously close to shore.

A pic of the beach.

After returning from the island it was time for some dinner and drinks....and of course, Karaoke! Shannon and I sang 2 songs together. The first one was a little shaky (I Kissed a Girl). But we rocked it out to Material girl by Madonna later. Then it was off to bed.

Sunday morning came early. Shannon and I headed to walk around the waterfront and go to all the little shops to pick up some souvenirs.

We also hit the farmers market or Pike Place and walked around. This is the pic of the original Starbucks that resides there.

A pic of the market sign.

Some views of stuff inside the market.

of course as you see in this picture, it was raining on us . hmm Rain in Seattle? Unheard of :)

If you look close in these pics you can see them tossing a fish back and forth over this guys head.

After the market we went back to the house to pack our bags for the road trip.......are you ready for this? We took a road trip to all the places in the Twilight book. I couldn't resist. It was a long drive but so worth it. After Brian got home that afternoon we headed out. Here some pics of me and their puppy Aubry entertaining ourselves in the back seat along the drive.

Are we there yet?

Nope not there. Let's take another pic.

First stop. Port Angeles! As Twilight fans know. This is the site of Edward and Bella's first date and where Edward rescues her from certain danger for the 2nd time.

Even found the little Italian restraunt they ate at. Sadly they were booked up with reservations for the night so we had to eat at another Italian place. I didn't take a pic but there is seriously a dress shop right across the street.

A couple views in Port Angeles

I so wanted to go in this store but they were already closed for the night. There were also 2 of these stores in Forks. That's right 2! All closed.

Port Angeles from our hotel room. We planned to stay in forks but every hotel was booked solid :( so after diving all the way there we had to turn around and drive back to Port Angeles.

The drive between Port Angeles and Forks is absolutely stunning. I was in awe of it's beauty. That in itself was worth the drive. I didn't get any pics unfortunately though. But here we are pulling into Forks at night time. It's very scary at night....well with all the vampires and all ;).

All of the motel signs had something "Twilight" on them but this one cracked me up.

Forks High School. Whoo Hoo!

Since we couldn't get a room for the night and visit the ocean in the morning like we planned we took a night trip into La Push. It was still gorgeous at night but it didn't do much for my picture taking abilities.

We walked a little far out to touch the water and when the tide came in our shoes and pants got soaked. :)

Me and some iconic driftwood at La Push.

We also picked a few blackberries that grow along the beach on the way back to the car. Yum

We got back to Port Angeles around midnight and just hit the sack. Then after some breakfast, we were back on the road. Since we were running ahead of schedule we took a little detour into Port Townsend. Was a lovely little port town. We wondered around down by the water a bit and stopped at this little sea-side cafe for coffee and Pepsi for me.

Star fish hanging out with a rock just below the dock.

But alas it was time to head back to Seattle and straight to the airport to catch my plane home. Thanks again Shannon and Brian for such an awesome time. I miss Seattle already! But I'll see you soon and am already looking forward to coming back to Seattle for the wedding.

Thank you Mike for sending me! You are seriously, the best!