Cooking, Halloween, and GIVEAWAYS!

Have you checked out my cooking blog lately? My Kitchen To Yours is better than ever! I've been posting some FUN Halloween recipes. And doing some food investigating. And best of all some GIVEAWAYS! I signed up with MyBlogSpark, and they send me products, recipes, and goodies to try, for FREE! I try them out, write a review about it on my blog, and they will give one of my readers the same package! It is so fun, and I am so excited for you to win these fun things too! I have my blog linked in this post and on my sidebar. Check it out! Tell your friends and family and leave me LOTS of comments. Thanks!

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Clone Wars

As you know... My Boys (all four of them) LOVE Star Wars. The new Clone Wars is really neat for them too. Cartoon Network has a Clone Wars series. The boys made it a tradition, every Friday night, they sit down and watch these half hour cartoons. We were so excited for the second season of Clone Wars. We had a "Clone Wars" party! We ate Naboo Nuggets, Palpatine Pizzas, Ventress Vegetables, Yoda Soda, and Jabba Jell-o. Check out more at My Kitchen To Yours

The Spread

Aryk eyeing the food, waiting so patiently for dad to bring him his naboo nuggets.

AJ unsure he wants to eat anything with the name Jabba.

The boys (plus AJ's friend Zach) watching Clone Wars. An hour long season premiere! Too Cool! It really was a fun night, and I always loving playing food!

CeLeBraTe!

The last weekend of September was The St. Luke's Women's Celebration. This is my second year participating. You may remember... This year was GREAT!

I went to The Women's Show. Aryk tagged along in his stroller. We got lots of FREEBIES! Loved it. Aryk even got his face painted.

Saturday was the walk. Nicole and Crystal joined me. It was fun! We walked the 3.1 miles in One Hour!! We didn't have rain or strollers. But there were a lot more women, this year. We had to wind through a lot of slow pokes. Next year we think we will try for the running wave. It was fun and a nice break.

Last year I didn't post the overhead finish line cam of myself, because they cut me out. This year we were waving our arms and jumping up and down the whole way through the finish line so that we could find ourselves on the overhead cam. But... there was no overhead cam. It was after the finish line off to the left. So... you can barely see our arms waving and a little bit of my tall head and Crystal's hat. BUMMER!!! Next year we are going to have to make a bigger deal, and actually know where the finish line camera is set up! See you next year!

TEAMWORK

AJ won the "Teamwork" award at school in September. He was invited to an awards breakfast (with his WHOLE family), and received this certificate and a FREE kids meal to TGI Fridays.



His teacher said that he is very helpful in class. And He always waits for the other kids to have their turn. He is never pushy or bossy, and works well with his classmates.

Way to go Little Dude! We are so excited for this year of Kindergarten and how much He will learn!
AJ got homework on his first week of Kindergarten! It was to write a book about himself (more like fill in the blanks and add pictures). So we took some pictures of AJ and I just wanted to share them, since we are talking about AJ and how wonderful he is!

Bedtime

Aryk loves to cuddle with his Daddy at bedtime. Unfortunately, bedtime keeps getting later and later and later. I have finally starting taking him away from Jeff and just putting him to bed. His nap times have been shortened too. But I know they enjoy their cuddle time, without the big brothers interrupting.

Gardening?

We have started pulling out our garden. I received a Cabbage starter at Relief Society in the Spring. I've never grown cabbage. We don't really eat cabbage. But I figured "why not?". So I planted it, it grew, it got holes in it, I wondered what parts were good to eat.



When we pulled it out and started taking layers off, we found slugs and Roley-pollies. GROSS! AJ thought it was cool, and actually wanted pictures of insects for a project at school, so we took some pictures. The pictures actually turned out cool, even if they are slugs and insects. Needless to say, the whole thing ended up in the garbage, and we will never know how our cabbage tasted!

While outside digging up vegetables and huddling over slugs, Aryk was wandering the yard, chasing the dogs, and playing in the water.

Summer Swimming

We spent almost EVERYDAY this summer, in the pool, but I never bothered to take pictures. So... on the last warm weekend of this year, we went swimming and took pictures. Unfortunately, because it was starting to get cold at night, the water didn't stay warm, and it didn't warm up as fast. So this time the boys barely got in, and it was only for a little while.



Here we are swimming, floating, and sitting on the side. I think Jeff only got in the pool once this whole summer!

Nicole didn't have a "mommy n' me" class this year, so I just did stuff with Aryk on my own. It worked out. At the beginning of the summer he would scream in the shower, tub, and the pool. But here he is, playing games and going under the water. Not one tear. Now... he enjoys bath time too!

Here's AJ jumping in the pool, being brave! He did GREAT this summer with lessons. He can swim from the shallow end, to the deep end. He is jumping off the diving board. And diving to the bottom of the shallow end. All WITHOUT a floaty! Yeah!! Aunt Nicole is a GREAT swim teacher. And the boys LOVE the pool! Now that the weather has cooled off... I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL NEXT SUMMER!

Aryk's Spots

After everyone left from the Baptism visit, we took the day to just rest. We didn't go anywhere, we didn't plan anything. That night as we were getting ready for bed, we noticed red spots/bumps on the back of Aryk's neck. It looked like a bug had a REALLY nice feast!





Then, as we were changing his clothes and diaper, we noticed these same red spots on his stomach, arms, back, legs, etc.



Because of allergies that some of my nieces and nephew have, we panicked that Aryk was having an allergic reaction. But after examining his food intake for the day and weekend, we weren't sure what the allergy would be. Or maybe he had gotten into some bushes while outside playing that day. He had been playing with a dirty rope earlier that evening. So many questions and thoughts.

We gave him a dose of Benadryl and put him in the sink for a bath. We washed him up real good, put on his jammies and put him to bed. The red bumps didn't seem to be itching him, and he didn't seem irritated in any way. If anything, the Benadryl helped him sleep.

The next morning, I could still see faint spots, but they weren't raised bumps anymore. Then, that evening as we were changing into PJs, there were more bumps! What?! We were sure they were hives. They had all the character traits of hives. He hadn't played with the rope that day! And his diet didn't raise any red flags. What else could it be? More Benadryl and another bath. Then off to bed.

The next day- Wednesday, more bumps. It was a little hard for me. I made some phone calls to my sister, who deals with allergies daily. And a phone call to a nurse. I also went onto the Pediatricians website.

The information we got, Aryk had a cold (his nose was runny too). His body was creating this "rash" as a symptom to this cold. I don't know... I guess it was just his body's way of releasing the virus. Allergens were filling the air, which could have caused these symptoms too. Within two days, his runny nose and the red bumps were gone. And we hope to NEVER see them again! I guess only time, allergy season, and another cold will tell.