Grandma's Visit

In mid October we had the wonderful opportunity to have Tyson’s mom, Grandma Harris (AKA: Kathy), stay with us. We had so much fun and we always love company. Especially Lilly, she becomes fast friends with EVERYONE and will talk about you for months after you leave.

When Kathy was here we had a really fun time taking her around town. Tyson started the trip with taking her and Lilly to Chicago. At that time Bennett was only 6 weeks old and having a break from two kids was extremely helpful and enjoyable for me. It is funny how once you have 2 kids doing something with only 1 of them feels like a break.

While in Chicago the group visited Willis Tower, the ‘bean’, and went shopping on Michigan Ave.

It was such a perfect time for Kathy to come out. We were able to bless Bennett on the first Sunday she was here. It was so nice to have an extended family member be there since it was our first baby blessing away from home. The blessing went well. Tyson did a good job and there was no crying or squawking from Bennett during the prayer. Bennett was a little big for his blessing outfit though and his little legs hung out but he was still adorable.

We took Kathy to LeClaire to see the American Pickers store ‘Antique Archeology’. We also tried to take her to a restaurant in LeClaire but they ended up being closed on Mondays – way to go Iowa.  

Tyson took her on the exciting John Deere tour.

I took Kathy around downtown Davenport. The downtown area is interesting. It is an old town with cool old buildings and has old houses along the river that are beautiful. It was cold so the tour was really us driving around. I got lost a couple of times but Kathy was a good sport.

Davenport has a skybridge that goes over the riverfront road, with views of the Mississippi River. They call it the “bridge to nowhere” since it ends in a parking lot. I have wanted to go through the bridge since we moved here but haven’t found the time. So I was excited to finally go. We went through the bridge and then down to the river and walked along the path. It was cold so we didn’t last long outside. We were able to do all sorts of fun new things with Kathy.

We took Kathy to a little city in Illinois called, Galena.  Galena is an old lead mining town and was the home town of Ulysses S. Grant. It has become a large tourist town with a very attractive main street. It reminds me a lot of Park City, UT. We had lunch at a small café and then went shopping in all the cute stores. Tyson had class that night so we didn’t get to stay very long. There was a lot more I would have liked to have done but I am sure we will be back.

 

I am very lucky that Kathy was here when she was. I got very sick one day and could not function. Kathy jumped right in and watched the kids while I slept and went to the doctors. If Kathy wasn’t here I would have had to have Tyson come home from work to take care of the kids.  Thank you Kathy!!

Kathy was here for our wards trunk-or-treating and we visited our local museum, the Putnam Museum. The museum was actually pretty neat for being in such a small area. They had a travelling exhibit about Princess Diana, an interactive kids section, a Mississippi River local exhibit, a river animal exhibit, etc.

We really enjoyed Kathy coming. It was nice having another adult to talk to all day and she was so much help. The kids miss her like crazy!!

Halloween 2013

Lilly was obsessed with Halloween this year. I think way more than normal 2 and 3 year olds usually are. I had to hear about Halloween daily for all of October. It didn’t get frustrating until November came and I still have to hear about it daily.

Lilly told me she wanted to be a witch and she stuck with it so we got her a witch costume. We also looked for a little broom but did not have any luck so Tyson made her one. It turned out really cute and made a good addition to her outfit. We wanted to go simple with Bennett so we got him some skeleton PJ’s and the cutest skeleton hat. I think the hat made the outfit.

Trunk-or-treating was the Saturday before Halloween at our church and we were lucky because Grandma Harris got to come with us. This is the second time we have had her at our trunk-or-treating and we told her it is now a tradition and she needs to come every year.

Our ward did a good job with trunk or treating. They had yummy food, fun games, and a lot of candy. The best part was watching Lilly stop at a car with a big spider that would jump out every couple of minutes. She got scared with the first jump and ran away. Then she wanted to sit and watch and laugh at everyone else getting scared. Yes, she likes to laugh at other people’s terror.    

 

 

Tyson had a busy end of month at work and school so we didn’t have time to carve pumpkins until Halloween Day. Trick-or-treating starts promptly at 5:00pm here and we didn’t get all of our pumpkins done. I do not like carving pumpkins so I wasn’t much help. I did get the kids ready though. I let Lilly go crazy with the markers on her pumpkin but she was WAY too excited about trick-or-treating to spend much time on that.

We were able to get out of the house around 5:15. We left a bowl of candy on the porch and headed down the street. It was a rainy and cold Halloween which decreased the number of trick-or-treaters. It also decreased the number of houses we went to. I went down and back up the street with Tyson and Lilly before returning to the house with Bennett (he was snug and warm in his carrier). Tyson and Lilly made it probably another 15 minutes before she got cold and wanted to come home.

I know this is blurry but it is a good one of Lilly running from one house to the next

Bennett pooped out after trick-or-treating

We did run out of candy but we purposely didn’t open up one of our big bags because I had plans to return it. There weren’t enough people at the end to use the whole bag. So instead we handed out some of the candy Lilly wouldn’t eat. When we ran out around 6:45 we turned off the light. Lilly did not like this though and she would sneak over and turn it back on; which means we had people ringing our doorbell when we didn’t have candy – we just ignored it. Trick-or-treating ended at 7:00 pm and we spent the rest of the night hanging out at home, eating candy, and keeping warm. I love trick-or-treating in this area and how it is all scheduled out by the city.

 

Happy Halloween

Weekend Warriors

I have been feeling bad for Lilly because our lives have gotten quite a bit less active since having the baby. So I have been trying to make the most out of the weekends while Tyson is home and do a lot of family activities. Here are some of the fun things we have done.

Tyson’s office moved buildings recently so they had a work party to introduce the new building to the families of the employees. It was a fun little party with balloon animals, face painting, bouncy house, door prizes, shaved ice, and dinner. Lilly got a dolphin painted on her arm and a cat balloon. They even made Tyson a scary zombie balloon. We won two John Deere toys and got to see Tyson’s desk. Lilly was excited to play on his phone and computer.

 

Like last year, a garden store up the street from us sales pumpkins and has some fun Halloween things. We went a little early this year so they didn’t have as much stuff set up but we were still able to pick out pumpkins and bounce in the bouncy house. We will probably go up there again in the next week or two to do the rest of the Halloween things they set up like the hay maze and another bouncy house.

To stick with the bouncy house theme we went to our local Monkey Joe’s. Monkey Joe’s is an indoor facility with multiple bouncy houses. Most cities have something similar to Monkey Joe’s just with different names. Lilly is really good at climbing and can do all of the houses on her own now. In the past she has needed a lot of help so it is fun seeing her progress.

I was looking for a little kid scary corn maze in the area (surprisingly, they don’t have a lot of corn mazes around here even though the whole state is a big corn field) and I came across a local pumpkin patch and family farm called Pride of the Wapsi. While we were there Lilly got to feed the goats, take a pony ride, play in the corn box, ride the barrel train, and take a tractor out to the pumpkin patch. Lilly did refuse to feed the goats though. She was still a little scared from being bitten by the swan at the zoo. I was proud of her for getting on the pony. I thought she was going to refuse to get on. I asked her what her pony’s name was and she named him Horsy. Lilly is very practical when she gives things names. If she has a dog she names it dog. If she has two dogs one is named big dog and the other small dog.

 

The most recent thing that Lilly and I got to do together was going to the Disney Junior Live: Princess and Pirate Adventure Show. We had a Mommy and Lilly date. Tyson bought us 3rd row seats. Lilly was so excited and asked about it for about 2 weeks before we went. When we got there she wanted to go to her seat so badly that she didn't even want to stop for snacks. I had to convenience her to go back and get cotton candy (that is my favorite) after we found our spots. Lilly was really cute during the whole show. She only got a little antsy about 15 minutes before it was over. At the end of the pirate show they shot gold coins out of a cannon. She wanted one so bad I let her go up to the very front at the end and grab one. It was a piece of tissue paper cut in a circle but Lilly carries it around like it is a real coin.

One of the funniest things that Lilly does now is try to convince me of things "Today is Halloween" or "Maci is coming over today". Then when I try to correct her she simply tells me no I am wrong and it is really Halloween today. She was doing this while we were waiting for the show to start:

Lilly: The curtain is going up now.
Me: No, we still have 5 minutes before it starts.
Lilly Nope, it is starting now.

 

Lilly wanted a picture with the girl pirate so bad. We went up to her and Lilly was being so sweet and lightly touching her leg waiting for her turn but the girl was not paying attention to us and ended up walking away so I brought her over to this guy who was much more accommodating.