It's official! Jason and Kristen are engaged to be married some time next summer. Wahoo! Peter and I were the first ones in the family to meet her, around the time of Katy's surgery. Luckily she didn't turn and run the other way! She's a teacher, and so are Hillary and Karli, and then Mom pointed out to me that Kathy used to be one, too. I guess that fam just loves teaching!

Speaking of fam, I'm so excited about the next few days. We are going to be flooded with some good, old fashioned family time. Always interesting! Mark and Stephanie et. al. are already in town so tonight we went to a volleyball game (Katy loved it) and then grabbed some ice cream at the Stone Cold Creamery. Grammy & Papa babysat Allen, but he held out and wouldn't go to sleep. It sounds like he had fun playing with the Barrel of Monkeys game, though.

I'm sure I'll have a lot of pics to post in the next few days, so here are some recent "isms" from our busy household.

Recent Katy-isms:
*She can sing the entire Caillou intro song
*She requests to eat “somefing” healthy, then asks for Cheetos
*Sofa = fofa
*Living room = big girl room (She thinks that’s what we’re saying)
*She carefully licks her fingers to turn pages now (learned from Peter)
*“I have a fever on my ankle”
*Last night she told a story to her giraffe in her high-pitched pretend voice, then told Peter it was a “bo” (boy) and his name was Spotty

Allen-isms:
*Says “ho ho ho” when he sees Santa
*Wore one of Katy’s eye patches for 15 minutes just because she made it look cool
*Rubs a soft blanket on his face when he’s laying down to go to sleep
*Walks into his bedroom and stands at the crib once you hand him his bottle – so cute!
*Can officially jump and it cracks us up
*Climbed up on Peter’s lap while a football game was on, grabbed a Dorito and yelled out “Football!”

It has been a pretty rough week for me. The kids have each demolished thousands of dollars worth of my material possessions. I’m just trying to keep things in perspective. Allen started things out with a blue permanent marker on my favorite piece of furniture – my sofa. Yep. Katy came running into the office yelling, “Allen’s drawing on himself!” and this is what I found, plus more not pictured. I’m working on it tomorrow and hopefully the Sharpie website knows what they’re talking about with their chemical recommendations. I thanked my little tattle-tale profusely.

Later Katy was having a fit and she yanked some cords at the computer desk, pulling my 500 gig external hard drive down to a fatally plunging fall. It was one of the best gifts Peter had ever bought for me. It backed up my years of digital photos. It was also the only storage for my 2+ years of digital scrapbook collection. I am pretty sick over it. Peter took my poor, broken baby to his IT guys and they confirmed that I’ll need to dish out major money to even hope to collect my files from it. Sick!

So, that being said, I am really glad that every place I look I see things reminding me to give thanks. And luckily my nuggets are my MOST valuable possessions, or they might have felt my wrath. Here they are from the Sunday before last. I asked Peter to snap their pics while they were still dressed from church but Katy had already danced out of her shoes.

We also had our first annual family camping trip that weekend. It started out a little rocky with Peter putting up the tent in the dark, while trying to start a fire for his starving family at the same time. And Allen loved the freedom of no boundaries so he hiked all around in the dark, falling every other step. The kids both went to sleep just fine, but Juicy woke up in the middle of the night and stomped all over everyone in the tent. He was wide awake with the full moon shining into the tent. I wrestled him for almost two hours before he finally knocked out again, only to wake up at 6:45am. Other than sleep deprivation, it was a great adventure! The best for me was the early morning “leaf hunt” where Peter chased Allen down a sunlit trail, with Katy and I dragging behind, picking up the perfect leaves for her school art project. We tried to fly a kite since it was 45 degrees and windy, but apparently you need experience to do it successfully. Katy’s favorite part was adding leaves to the fire. She was showing off her plumber’s smile every time she bent over to scoop some up. I don’t know about Peter’s favorite part, but his least favorite was the nail he found in the tire that resulted in two new replacement$. We topped off our stay with a 5 minute ride in the pedal boat, straining with all our muscles against the wind-blown, river-fed lake waters. The staff advised against it but they were willing to let us get in the boat for a bit so Katy and Allen could have their promised boat ride.

One other adventure from last week was driving Mom to the Sam’s Club an hour away to pick up her new recliner. It’s the perfect chair for her and we had fun helping her pick it out. Then we were treated to lunch at Black Eyed Pea – yum!

We also lunched with Ruth and Helen somewhere in there. Their table manners are atrocious, of course! Katy taught them how to properly throw the Sweet ‘n Low packets and Allen showed them how to make the floor look like a plate of food. He’s also terrible about double-dipping his chip into the green sauce…or triple or quadruple dipping. Gross!!

And finally, there are rumors circulating about a certain couple but I can neither confirm nor deny.

Guess who finally brought home her school picture? She told me on picture day that a man came with a camera and pretended to make some animal fall off of it. She said it made her laugh. I could eat her up!

Life Lesson # 289: When a husband cancels all his plans for the evening to take care of the kids so his sickly wife can soak in the tub, a wise woman will not complain about the pizza cutter being used on her best non-stick cookie sheet. A wise woman will quietly blog it, and then try to forget.

Allen had his 18 month check-up yesterday and the doc fell in love with him, all over again! Katy was in school so there were no distractions. Dr. M just sat and chatted with us like we were her only appointment for the day. She raved about his verbal skills, and then started pop quizzing him on body parts, which he pointed at and named on command. Can I just say that I love hearing people say good things about the kids? Love it. I guess every parent does. And hearing the official pediatrician say it is even sweeter! She laughed when Allen demonstrated his magnificent climbing skills and presented him with a board book about fire trucks. He LOVES anything with wheels and he named it as a truck right away, which earned him more praise. Both nurses were surprised that he only cried for 2 seconds after his THREE mean shots. I had told them that Allen was tough, but I guess they had to see it to believe it. He weighs 26 pounds 6 ounces and is 32-1/4 inches tall. That noggin is 46.7 fabulous centimeters in diameter.

After that we drove to Katy's school to pick her up. We were early and Katy's class was out playing on the playground. Usually that happens in the morning but they were rained out. It was fun watching Katy interact with other kids, laughing and having fun. I am so proud of both of my kids!

Today is my Big Juicy Boy’s 18 month birthday! To celebrate his big day, I’m posting his Calvin Klein jean ad layout. Calvin doesn’t know about his future male model, but we’re just getting ahead of the game. Isn’t he gorgeous? I didn’t even ask him to pose – he was just hamming it up for the camera. He is all boy! One thing I love that he started doing a while ago is snuggling up to a soft blanket, rubbing it against his face when he’s tired. It’s so sweet!

Amy and Calvin came to town for long enough to take us to dinner a while back. I never feel like I see my sisters enough, so I’m probably going to drive my kids absolutely crazy with demands for visitation privileges – at least once a week. Especially once the grandkids come into the picture.

Lately Katy and Allen have had lots of playdates with me trading out babysitting. One day we had three kids over, two of which are Katy’s best friends and one closer to Allen’s age. It was crazy but fun! We still had the tent up in the backyard from when Katy and I camped out to “test” it one cold night. The kids and I played all morning and then we had a McPicnic in the tent, and then bounced on the air mattress. I’m still glad to have most of my sitting done by our three grandparents who live in town! We also chopped up the Toy’s R Us catalog and put together some Christmas wish lists – fun! Katy wants Biscuit the Dog ($160+) and a talking dinosaur ($170+). Go figure.

We’re trying to teach Katy to go to sleep by herself (nap and bedtime) so this past week Sage came over for a slumber party as a reward. Next weekend we’re using a real camping trip as her reward. So far, so good but she still climbs into our bed around 3am every night. This is Katy helping Peter get the new tent out of the box. It was his Father’s Day present even though camping isn’t his favorite activity. Ha!

Here is a random Katy shot from church a couple Sundays ago. She looks like such a career woman.

Here is Allen after he climbed up into my van’s driver seat and tried to drive away. His feet are far enough from the pedals that I’m not too worried yet, but he is already curious about driving and I’m not sure that’s good. Next year I might see my van lodged in the front window of the house across the street. All I can say is that I called it first. And I’ll be sure to blog the pics when it happens.

Peter and I went to see an OPAS production a few days before October ended. We saw Sweeney Todd, which wouldn’t have been my ideal pick but it was still pretty good. I didn’t know much about it but I was surprised to see a five-year old girl sitting two rows ahead of us. Sure enough, she stayed the entire time and probably had some questions for her mom when it was over. The main character murders people and his lady love turns them into meat pies. The girl was wearing a princess tiara. I don’t think she was ready for Sweeney Todd. It was a nice night out for Peter and me, though. A rushed dinner at Arby’s and then the show ran late, but our sitters were in two shifts: Juan & Kourtney, then Karli, so we weren’t worried. In fact, Kourtney even texted Karli so that she knew to bring more milk. Peter and I didn’t even have to make a last minute run to the store that night. YAY!!

And finally, here was our Halloween day. This is Katy walking in the door at school on the day of her Halloween party. She doesn’t look pleased but that’s because I forced her to take a photo when she just wanted to run off and play. The kids were so cute! Peter’s sister Karen was in town for that week and I didn’t even get a picture with her. Bummer! Peter had to work late that night for his annual inventory, which was an even bigger bummer! So the kids and I picked up Mookie (it’s a tradition) for her to join us at the Trunk or Treat, and then Warren, Marjean and Karen joined us there. We walked around with Sage’s family for most of the time and had tons of fun. There was a haunted house that the kids could run through, and everything! After that we dropped Mom off at home and then headed out to Jerry & Kathy’s house to party until 9pm. Karli was there in her costume and I couldn’t stop laughing enough to take a decent picture.

This is an “out-take” photo from our costume shoot. Peter captured the equivalent of a roll of film with these two unlikely friends rolling all over each other. Yao Ming versus Pippy Longstocking.

Last weekend we went over to Jerry & Kathy's while Karen was still in town. I had a photo shoot and Peter was doing church stuff so the kids just hung out there for a while, playing with the possum, the baby squirrel and Rico. Then Katy joined Kathy and Karli in feeding the horses. Fun, fun, fun!

And finally, this past Friday Mom took Katy to see the Madagascar 2 movie at the “movie-ater”. They had a blast but I know that Mom watches Katy more than she watches the movie. Allen and I joined Peter for lunch while they were out and I think Big Juice had fun with his “one on one” time with Daddy. He is also a huge flirt with all the folks at other tables!

I think I’m caught up for now. Nothing much going on. I’m enjoying the cooler, wet weather when I know that I don’t need to leave the house. Tomorrow Allen has his 18 month doctor appointment so we’ll have to leave the house, then. Oh, well. Right now the kids are actually getting along and I love listening to them laugh and play! Juicy just brought me the van keys so maybe he’s getting cabin fever, after all. I’ll just finish up with some Katy-isms:

* brachiosaurus = broccoli-saurus

* “I want to be a spicy worm for Halloween!”

* promise? = promist?

* possum = pwossum

* camera = cwamwra

* “You’re fancy, little cat” when talking to Orange Kitty, our neighbor’s cat

* “Squitos are eating me all around! We don’t eat people!” when talking to mosquitos outside

I haven't even LOOKED at our Halloween pics but we sure did have fun last night! Instead, here is a photo collage of some costume fun. No participants were harmed in the process. hahahahaha!