Grandma B. Comes to Visit!

Grandma B. flew out to visit us from October 28 - November 2. She came to see Sydney for her (almost) 2nd birthday. We hadn't seen her for over a year, so she was surprised to see how big Sydney is!

We picked her up at the airport, then stopped for dinner at Chipotle in Steelyard Commons.

Yummy! Sydney wasn't shy about mooching all of Grandma B.'s rice.

That night, Barbara hung out at our house while Sydney slept so Spencer and I could play in our church volleyball league. A few members of our team couldn't make it, so it was just me, Spencer, and Garn against a team rotating in 8 people. We still totally won!!

Barbara and Sydney got to spend lots of time together since Spencer had school and I had work for most of the days she was visiting. I got frequent picture texts at work like this:

I'm pretty sure she was in heaven with all the attention.

On Friday night we went shopping, and Sydney had fun crawling around under the clothes.

After shopping, we went down to Case to watch Spencer's dodge ball tournament. He played on another team last winter, and he was so disappointed that they didn't get very far. This time it was way more fun to watch because they ended up winning it all!

Dodgeball Tournament Champions

Back Row: Adam, Spencer, Art, Jason

Front Row: Doug, Trent, Brad Geoff, Alex, Chuck

Spencer told me their team name was "The Buccinators," which made me laugh out loud because nothing says "intimidating" like a chewing muscle. Love the dental student nerdiness in that.

Spencer, Barbara, Me, Sydney

On Saturday morning, we drove out to Patterson's to show Grandma B. our favorite fall hangout. Unfortunately, we were ill prepared for the FREEZING weather! Although the peak of fall colors had past, there were still enough leaves on the trees that we could enjoy the pretty scenery.

Our loot: apples, kettlecorn, and donuts.

Eating a pumpkin donut by the pumpkins.

We also drove over to the Family Fun Fest to play outside for a while. We only lasted for a few hours, but we had a great time.

Sydney was really excited to wear her gloves.

Sydney got to go on her first pony ride on this miniature horse named Cracker.

I was surprised at how brave she was when we started walking. We just did one lap, and by the end she was definitely ready to be done. But she sure loved sitting on that little saddle.

Spencer took Barbara for a spin on this scooter. I think they're kind of hard to control since you steer with your feet, but she was a natural.

Later that night, we did Trunk-or-Treating in the church parking lot.

Sydney dressed up as Cinderella, but she refused to wear her crown.

Thank goodness for Sundays! After church, we took naps, talked, and watched several episodes of "The Apprentice" online. We'd never really watched it before, but Barbara got us hooked.

Monday was Barbara's last full day with us, so we planned to do a pre-birthday celebration with her then. She and Sydney made some cute Halloween cupcakes, which we used as her birthday cake that night.

Sydney had fun putting the baking cups in the muffin pan.

She does smile in pictures... just not for her Mama!

We started celebrating with a yummy dinner at CPK. After we were done eating, Sydney was being quite the ham and making lots of silly faces.

First she showed Grandma how she can close her eyes. I ask her to do this all the time because I think it's hilarious.

Then she showed us her "happy face."

And then her sad face. So silly.

After dinner we went to Chuck-E-Cheese for some rides and games. This was Sydney's first time going there, and she loved it.

"What can I do next?"

She was a big fan of the carousel.

And she got to go cruisin' with Mr. Cheese himself.

Playing a bouncing ball game with Grandma B.

Spencer and I rocked out on Guitar Hero, after which we quickly sanitized our hands because those guitars were grea-sy. Sick.

We did cupcakes and presents when we got home. Sydney loves singing Happy Birthday to You, so I knew she would be excited for it.

Two candles!!

She blew them out all by herself :)

Then it was presents,

presents,

presents.

Thanks for spoiling us so much Grandma B.! It was so fun to have you with us!

Halloween

We got to attend several Halloween celebrations. The first was the CADA carnival, where we got to play lots of games and win fun prizes. Sydney's favorites were the punch balloons (always a hit with kids) and a pumpkin pushes down then springs back up. I had found some pirate costume stuff for Spencer on sale at Jo-Ann's, and when I saw this adorable little get-up at Walmart, I decided Sydney would be a pirate too.

She didn't want to put on her costume that morning, but Spencer was eventually able to coax her into everything but the hat. He was also in charge of putting on her shoes, and it wasn't until we were almost ready to leave the carnival that I realized she was wearing 2 different black shoes, and one of them was on the wrong foot!

Later in the week we went to John Carroll for their alumni trick-or-treating. Our old neighbors went to school there, so we've had several friends who have gone for the past few years and said it was really fun. Unfortunately this year was kind of a bust because hardly any students in the dorms were passing out candy. I think Sydney got about 10 pieces (lame!).

Last, we did trunk-or-treating at the church on the 30th. It was kind of informally put together, so we were surprised to pull into the parking lot and see like 30 cars there! Sydney got to wear her Cinderella dress from Grandma B., who came to visit for her birthday. She refused to put on her crown... too bad, cause it was really cute!

She did pretty good at asking for candy, but whenever someone put candy in her bucket, she took it out and said, "I want open it." I didn't cave until she started screaming, which was quickly resolved with a sucker (the perfect choice since they last long). How's that for good parenting?

Princesses, Cookouts, & Pigtails

Over the past few months, Sydney has come to love princesses and often time requests that we "Watch a princess movie." Whenever she finds this tutu skirt from Aunt Nonnie in her drawer, she insists on wearing it around the house.

Princess Sydney resting on the floor.

Last weekend we got to roast hot dogs and marshmallows at Sulfur Springs with the Heatons. It was a perfect night to enjoy by a fire (which took us like 45 minutes to get going... haha).

I was excited to use my roasting sticks for the first time. I made them about 3 years ago at a Relief Society Fabulous Friday craft night, and they've just been sitting in our garage just waiting to be used.

Jack was really excited to light sticks on fire.

Spencer entertained cutie pie Anderson, who I can't believe is big enough to almost be walking.

And, as a random note, I found one of Sydney's dresses in my closet that I'd never had her wear before and absolutely had to take her picture in it before she grows out of it. It was a hand-me-down from Wendy's girls, but it's extra special because it was one of the dresses I bought for her girls to wear at our wedding. Now my own little girl is big enough to wear it!

Spencer loves it when her hair is in pigtails. I think they're pretty darn cute too.

Progress

Work on my treasure chest has been painfully slow. I have successfully worn through about 3485793485 pieces of sand paper and about 2 pieces of steel wool just trying to get the rust off of this thing. I have also been stabbed by a sharp piece of metal during said sanding (it was minor), but luckily no lock jaw has set in yet. Despite using face masks to keep the rust at bay, I still usually have rust dust on (and up!) my nose when I take the mask off. And the words "I think I'm getting the orange lung, Pop," frequently run through my head when I see that dust flying around.

So just to jog everyone's memory, here's what my trunk looked like when I got it:

Rust.

And more rust.

Here's what it looks like now, after being sanded 3 times:

Less rusty, but still rusty and dirty.

Top view before.

Top view after.

I never took a "before" picture of the inside, but here's a small peek at the kind of paper that was lining the trunk (plus there were a few ugly lithographs in the lid):

It was lined with brown, stinky, rotten paper.

Now that's all been cleaned out.

Whenever I'm in the basement sanding away, I dream of having a Dremel to help me with my dirty work. Spencer had to buy one a while ago for school, but the battery charger doesn't work anymore. I think we are going to order a new one soon so we can both get some good use out of it! I still have a long way to go with this project, but I'm excited that it at least looks a little better than it did when I got it.

Fall Heaven

Today was the start of pick-your-own apples at Patterson's, so we made the trek out there for apples and the Family Fun Fest. It was SO much more fun this year with Sydney since she was actually big enough to enjoy everything.

Family Photo

Sydney had fun helping us pick apples :)

We picked about 10 lbs.- I'm sure they'll be gone in like a week.

After we finished picking, we walked over to the Apple Barn to get tickets for the Family Fun Fest. I was trying to get Sydney to model by the pumpkins, but she was too distracted by the tractor to ever look at me.

Thank goodness we actually got to ride on the tractor, or she would have been devastated! The first thing we did when we got back there was the corn maze (which is more like a trail through the corn rather than an actual maze).

Sydney had fun walking through it for about 2 minutes.

Then she kept saying, "I want hold you Mommy!" over and over, so I carried her for most of it. It's not easy carrying an extra 27 lbs. around in your arms! She is getting heavy!

Every now and then Spencer would run ahead and hide, then try to scare us as we walked by. I was keeping my eye out for him, then turned to look behind us, and he was crouched down like this. Sydney thought it was pretty funny.

Farmer Suzy taking my little pumpkin for a ride.

Sydney liked riding this car, but it was a little tricky to push her on it because you steer with your feet, and she was obviously to small to do that. Spencer held her on his lap and I pushed them, and then we switched. I turned the wheels a little too sharply, and Sydney and I totally fell off!! How embarrassing! Spencer and I were both laughing pretty hard.

The highlight (at least for me) was this super long slide in the woods. It was the perfect speed for Sydney to go down by herself, but fast enough that it was still fun for me and Spencer to go down too. He stopped going down with her after some guy sarcastically said to him, "I think someone is having a little too much fun," so then I took the reigns and went with her about a hundred times (and enjoyed every minute of it!). And if other parents thought I was a weirdo for being the only parent up there, oh well. After all, Sydney was free and I was the one that had to pay $6 to get in. Might as well get my money's worth, right?

I think the highlight for Sydney was riding the big tire swing. She could have been in this all day and been a happy camper.

She didn't quite know what to make of the hay, though.

My & my Sydney.

Spencer wowed us with his skills on the stilts. He walked pretty far!

He cracked me up when he climbed in this tractor with Sydney. He couldn't even sit up straight, so he totally looked like a giant in it.

After all that, we drove to their market and got donuts. And what do you know, they had swings over there too. I think eating a donut while swinging must be the kind of thing this kid dreams about :)

Craft & Cutie Pie

Now that I painted my kitchen, the complete lack of color left it feeling a little drab. I bought some new dish towels (white with plaid stitching in red, blue, yellow, and green) and came up with a little art project to brighten up the room a bit.

So I took a sign that I already had, turned it over and painted it all white. With the design I wanted to put on it in mind (birds on tree branches), I put painter's tape in various places. I freehanded the tree branches, traced on the birds, then used a razor to cut out my pattern.

Painter's tape over the white background.

I painted over the whole thing in blue, then took the tape off the birds, painted them green and red, then peeled off the rest of the tape.

Voila: The finished project.

I'm going to hang it above the sink. I want to make another one with a yellow bird on it to hang above the doorway to the dining room.

I can't help but add these darling pictures of my Syd playing with Spencer's new phone last week.

Just chillin'.

I love love love her face (and slight double chin) in this picture.

And for the record, sometimes when I call her "cutie pie," she points to herself and says, "I cue pie!"