Hanging out with the Family

Since Manda and Jon were here the whole weekend we all thought we'd take advantage and do something together. So Friday night we all went to dinner (Dad had to work darn it) at Mikado.

 It was cool because we got to be in our own little private Tatami Room. Cy thought it was so great since he didn't have to be strapped into a highchair. He was walking around the bench going from person to person.

 I have recently discovered that I like Sushi. Not all of it. Baby steps. I struggle with the seaweed, so I just order it with Soy paper and I like it like that. I should have taken a picture of the plate BEFORE we ate it all. But it was so good I didn't think about it till afterwards.

 After dinner we all headed to the Jazz game. Mom was so dear and took all three boys back to our house and put them to bed. Thanks Mom!

Our seats were TERRIBLE. Third from the back. I had the hardest time concentrating on the game. I sound like a brat, but we were so high up that I felt totally disconnected from the game. Jesse and I have been spoiled by getting awesome seats in the lower bowl from my client.

 Jesse was such a trooper walking all the way from the parking lot to the third to last row all with his boot and crutches. We almost got lower seats when the Usher saw our tickets and Jesse's situation. But she said only Jesse and I would be able to bump us down. We didn't want to ditch our family so we ventured up to the Nose-Bleed section.

The Jazz were loosing most of the game. So it made it that much harder to not be bored. But half way through he 4th quarter they started to make a come back to where they actually won! So that was exciting. Well worth the seats to see them pull out a win!

The Start of a Fun Christmas

I find that the day after Thanksgiving is the perfect day t0 put up the Chirstmas Tree. This year was extra fun for me because I had two little helpers. I usually put it up alone since Jesse isn't interested in that part and Ryker hasn't cared. So I enjoyed having the extra help.

 

Cy was making me laugh so hard. I actually took a video of him putting ornaments on the tree. He'd walk over to the couch and grab an ornament (most of the time it was a handful) then dash over to the tree and stick his whole hand (sometimes up to his elbow) inside the tree and let go. He wasn't always successful to have the ornament(s) stay on the tree. But he didn't care he'd just pick them back up and try again.

 

Then there is Ryker. He's trying to be all neat and put each ornament on carefully. He kept telling Cy

"No! One at a time!"

"Come on Cy! No buddy! One at a time!"

"Look! Cyrus look at me.  Look! One at a time goes like this, not like that!" (as he is showing him how to put them on gently).

"No Cy, please stop doing that!"

 

Haha... I was so proud of Ryker for being patient with Cy. He was frustrated but not really got mad at him.

 

Once the boys were done hanging the ornaments, I found that they were all in the same little section. In the front and close to the bottom. I decided to leave it. Usually the OCD in myself wouldn't allow it. I've grown up knowing that the ornaments needed to be spread throughout the tree evenly. But I couldn't rearrange them because it would probably hurt the boys feelings. So I admire our awkwardly, uneven, decorated Christmas Tree!

 

 

 By Monday I finally got around to Ryker's room. The plan was to go through all his toys and get rid of the old ones so that Santa could bring new ones. Ryker didn't like the idea at first. But once I reminded him that we needed to make room for new toys he cheered up.

Once his whole room was cleaned, de-junked and organized I put up a little tree in his room. I had this tree when I was in high school. My sister, Manda and I shared it in our room. We loved it. I like that I've been able to hand that down to Ryker for him to enjoy!

 The Christmas spirit is in our home and the boys are super excited....especially Ryker. I think just about every day since we put the tree up "Is it going to be Christmas day tomorrow?"

The poor thing has a long month of waiting ahead of him.

 Cy loves all the Christmas Decorations, but honestly doesn't really know that Christmas is coming. If my memory serves me right...this is the first year that Ryker is anticipating Christmas. Last year he understood Christmas but didn't get that it was a day that we wait for.

Ryker's enthusiasm about Christmas, the music, Santa, Baby Jesus and the Decorations makes more excited about it. I bought a few of the old Christmas movies that I remember watching when I was a kid. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is coming to town, and my favorite A Year Without a Santa Claus.

Ryker has been singing the songs from them all through the house. It brings such a smile to my face.

What joy these boys bring to me. I have a feeling this Christmas is going to be very fun in dead.

One Memorable Thanksgiving

Tuesday morning Manda and Jon surprised us by telling us all that they were headed our way a whole day earlier than their original plans. I'm always so excited when she comes into town, so the thought of getting one more day with her was fantastic.

 

Her and Chantel came into the salon on Wed and I did their hair while we had some much needed sister time. Alot of laughing and goofing off. Good times! That'll always be my favorite part of doing hair is to spend that time with my sisters.

 

Thanksgiving Morning I talked Manda into coming to the gym with me and my friend Harmoni. We wanted to burn some extra calories before our big meal that day.

 

After we got home Jesse rushed off to our Ward's Turkey Bowl. I was then home with the boys and thought it would be fun to go over to the parentals and make breakfast. So the boys and I headed over there. I made omelets with our fresh chicken eggs (one of my favorite breakfasts). We hung around there for several hours until I heard from Jesse. Once he called and said he was home then the boys and I headed that way.

 

Around 1, I headed down to my Grandma Schrader's house to help her cook/prep the Thanksgiving Feast. And to make it that much more fun Manda and Chantel joined us. Once again I was grateful for my sister time. Gotta soak it up while I can.

 

I could only stay few a few hours because I myself had to prep and cook some bread. It was tricky since I have one oven and I was making three loaves. Only two can fit on the baking stone at once, so I had to take one of them to my mom's (days like this I wish SO bad I had a second oven). Driving back and forth from my house to hers was kinda hectic. But it all worked out.

 

Few hours go by and we all meet back at Grandma's by 4:30pm. My Uncle Russ, his wife Rose and her kids (Amanda, Shauna and Sami) were all there. Along with my whole family (minus Craig and Alexa who were out of town with Craig's family).

 

We ate so much and it was all so yummy. I honestly LOVE Thanksgiving dinner. It's all so delicious. I think I finished my plate before others were half way through theirs. I was acting like I hadn't eaten in days. haha

 

Once we had all eaten came the dreaded clean up. That's the only down fall of it all. SOOO many dishes, chairs, tables...etc. Thankfully we had many hands to make lite work.

 

Then we got to lounge. Ahhhh. Let the Turkey coma settle in!

 

Ryker and Cy were thrilled to see their cousin, Max again. Especially since Max has grown so much since the time we saw him in September. He's a cute little chunker with no hair and I want to eat him up.

 I am so very thankful to these peeps (even though Alexa isn't in the picture she too is included). They are the glue in my life. I can't help but laugh and enjoy myself when I am around them. I LOVE my siblings!!!!

 And to these boys...(Cy wouldn't sit and take a picture with us, so imagine him in there haha). I am SO Thankful to Jesse! I can't sum it all up in one sentence how amazing he is. There is nothing he can't do! I'm so thankful for our strong marriage and friendship. I Love you!

I am very grateful to have 2 busy, happy, handsome boys. I love that I am a mom of boys. There is something special about it that I can't quite put my finger on. I feel so protected. They are the Best!

 I am Thankful that Manda and Jon would go to the major effort to drive all the way from Eugene, OR just to spend a few days with us. I am thankful to have Maxwell as my first blood nephew. I am excited to watch him grow up.

 I am Thankful to Grandma and Grandpa Schrader for hosting this amazing Thanksgiving get together. (I didn't get a picture of grandma because her and my mom rushed off to Black Friday Shopping as soon as things were cleaned up. Those two are brave and a little crazy to venture out on that night. Something that I won't understand, I like to online shop way to much. Fighting crowds is not my thing).

Cy loves Grandpa's mustache. It's cute whenever he sees Grandpa, Cy will wiggle his mouth and nose to mimic Grandpa tickling Cy's cheek.

 And just another reason to be Thankful for and to make me smile is this picture...

Around 7:30ish we all started to head home. Tyson had invited Jon and Jesse to go play basketball with his ward. So they went home to get ready for that. I put the boys in bed and was super tired and crashed around 9 (Turkey Coma did me in).

When Jesse got home from basketball he came downstairs and asked if I got his text message. And because I was so dead tired I didn't even hear it even though my phone was right by my head.

Anyway he went onto say that he needed to go to InstaCare. Mind you I'm still half asleep (and it's about 10:45pm), so when he said this.... it was as if someone electrocuted me. My heart was pounding. I asked him what happened... he goes on to tell me that he stepped on a guys foot and he rolled his ankle and he heard something POP. Eek (This is not a good way to wake up)! Jesse always seems to have some type of injury from work, but most of the time he mends it himself. So if he is saying that he needs to go have this looked at... it's serious!

So he hobbles back upstairs and drives himself to the nearest InstaCare to find they are closed. Darn it! He didn't want to go to the ER because it would cost too much. His foot was going to have to wait until morning.

After a long night of him and I not sleeping very well, we get up and get ready for the day. I was making breakfast and poor Jesse was crawling up the stairs like a child. Ryker was so sad to see his dad in so much pain.

InstaCare opened at 9 and Jesse wanted to be the first one there, but 6 others beet him to it. He was there for over and hour and a half. They took an xray of his foot and sure enough it was broken. He only saw a digital version of the xray so this is the best I can do....

He fractured the tip of his 5th Metatarsal bone. The doctor gave Jesse a boot to wear and told him to stay off his foot as much as possible. It would be about 4 to 6 weeks for it to heal.

So this is terrible timing. All because of Jesse's firefighter career. Which this could lead me into his most recent update.

A few weeks ago SSL called him and asked if he'd be interested in a part time position. Of course Jesse said Yes. Then they went onto schedule a Chief's interview on Nov 14.

Jesse called me after the interview and said it went really well. The Chief was super nice and told Jesse at the end that he had done really well. He went onto tell Jesse and they had hired someone full time already and they were looking to hire 5-6 part time positions. Well with Jesse being #7 on their list this was sounding very promising.

The next day, Jesse received a phone call from SSL asking if he'd be willing to fill out a background check. Well of course he said yes once again (trying not to get too excited).

We don't know how long the background check will take...so we wait! From what we hear is that the background check is pretty much the last step. So he pretty much has the job, unless he doesn't pass. Haha which is kind of been the joke in our family. That he has some felony that he's been keeping a secret from us all these years.

Also Jesse put in an application for West Valley Fire Department and their written test is this coming Wed. Soon there after he'll be doing the physical test.

So back to timing of this whole foot breaking thing. We are hoping that SSL will be understanding of him breaking his foot. Also we are hoping that his foot will be feeling better by the time West Valley's physical test!

Oh the stress of it all. We feel like this is terrible timing. But we know that it's all on the Lord's time. Everything happens for a reason! In due time we will know why. We are all trying to stay positive.

I'm thankful that they break wasn't worse than what it was. He could have had surgery and then really be down for awhile. So that's a good thing.

Now every year on Thanksgiving we will always remember that Jesse broke his very first bone. Memories!

Birthday Boy!

Also in the past week Jesse had a birthday! I won't say that he turned 32... oops! Yes my man is 32. Jesse says he's old, but I beg to differ. He doesn't look a day over 25.

 

On his birthday (Fri Oct 26) I made him a nice yummy dinner at home. Then that Sunday (Oct 28th) we had family over for another yummy dinner and dessert.

 

Then I took him up to Park City Friday night (Nov 2) for a one night stay at The Chateaux at Silver Lake Hotel (thank you hotwire.com for the awesome deal). It was just the two of us and it was Heaven! Thanks to Mike and Heidi for watching the boys for us!.

We had such a good time. Sleeping in was so nice, we ate a several yummy restaurants, saw a movie on Saturday and just simply relaxed. I loved having the chance to spend that time with Jesse. It was simply perfect!

 

While we are focused on Jesse I thought I'd give an update about the fire fighter situation.

Alright, the last thing a mentioned he was going to be taking the Murray written test. He went in and right off the bat they tell the whole group that is about to test that the department isn't even hiring at the moment. Just a list is being put together. So instantly Jesse's high hopes for this department were smashed.

Does't it seem silly to go to all that effort to put together a hiring list (and get alot of men/women's hopes up) if you aren't even hiring?

Saturday Oct 20th we get home from taking family pictures with Jesse's family and there was a letter in the mail from Murray with his results from the test. He scored 88.84% Not exactly what he was hoping for, but he had still done better than his buddies from academy who too had taken the test. He later found out from Kevin that he had scored the best out of everyone. But because he doesn't have his paramedic it didn't get those preference points which put about 40 other guys over him. Gosh dang it!

Anyway, about ten minutes after Jesse opens his letter I get a phone call from Lynette (she's the girl I work with). She was calling for her boyfriend, Greg (he works at Murray), who wanted to talk to Jesse. Greg wanted to know what Jesse scored and if he was invited to take the physical test (which he was). Greg then went onto giving Jesse really good advice and tips for the test. Also offered for Jesse to join him for a ride along. Jesse was feeling so grateful to Greg because Greg hasn't ever met Jesse and was doing all this nice stuff for him.

When Jesse went on the ride along he said that everyone at the department was super nice to him. They all were giving him tips and talking with him like they were good friends. Jesse loved every minute of it. He was able to go on one call to a car crash. They all live for stuff like that. It's kind of a funny thing that they all get so excited over things like that where on the other side of the story that person or persons isnt' so happy.

That Saturday (Oct 27) Jesse took the physical test. The cutoff time was 5 minutes and Jesse did it in 3:02. He killed it! So proud of him!

The following week Lynette asked me at work what Jesse thought about the ride along and I told her what Jesse had told me. Then she told me that Greg was very impressed with him and Greg feels like Jesse would be great for the job.

So we know that when the time comes Greg will put a good word in for Jesse. Just gotta wait for someone to retire so that can become a possibility.

Jesse received his ranking number in the mail yesterday from Murray and he's #41. From what we understand all the ones above him all have paramedic preference points.

I'm not good at explaining these things, but from what I understand Murray is a separate entity. I guess that means they pretty much can hire anyone they want. So we hope that even with Jesse ranked at 41 that he can have more of an edge on it with Keven and Greg saying Jesse is good for the job. Who knows. Only time will tell.

On another good note. Jesse got a phone call from South Salt Lake Department asking him to go in for a Chief's Interview for a paid part time job on Nov 14. I guess Kevin knows the Chief really well there too. So we hope that this can be a good way to get his foot in the door.

And we continue to wait. I'll update more when things happen. Until then.

This is Halloween

On Halloween we went out to Heidi's house so we could go to her ward's trunk or treat. I guess you could say it's become sort of a tradition. And besides it was nice to get the double use out of the costumes. 

 Emily and Sterling also came out. (Andrew and Mike unfortunately had to work). Sterling was dressed up as a penguin, but I guess at the last minute Em couldn't find his hat to go with it. But he still looked like a cute little penguin. It kinda went along with our Batman theme.

 When we first got to the party they weren't doing trick or treating yet. Everyone was playing games. But Cy was not having that. He saw adults sitting in their chairs holding their bowl of candy. So he'd walk right up and just take one. Haha. He caught on fast from the night before. Then he'd wonder around the gym and take a peek in his bag to see his collection.

When the trick or treating finally started the boys were really excited. Heidi's ward doesn't hold their trunk or treating outside, they do theirs inside the gym with everyone lined up in chairs. 

 Once the trick or treating was done with I couldn't take up the photo opportunity of these two Super Heroes. Are they not the cutest?

 Gotta get the whole family in there as well.

After the party we all headed back to Heidi's house for Soup and Cornbread. But in the car Ryker was acting sad because he didn't want to take his costume off. So I dropped Him and Jesse off at the top of Heidi's street to go door to door trick or treating so it would allow Ryker get a little more time in his costume.

We had such a fun Halloween this year. This best yet! I think it'll only get better each year.

Now what to do with all this candy?

Trunk or Treating

It's been too long since I have made a post. But it's for a good reason. The past month I have spent every spare minute working on our Halloween Costumes. The past three years Heidi has been so dear to help me out with our costumes. But this year I didn't want to burden her with it for the fourth time. I took on the sewing challenge. I don't have my own sewing machine so my mom let me borrow hers.

 

I sewed Ryker's cape, hood, underwear, and boots. The grey shirt and pants were found in the little girls section at Target. The symbol on his chest I cut out of felt and glued on. I found his mask on amazon.com for $3.90 and the spray painted it to match his hood and cape. His belt started out as a woman's belt (found at the DI) that had holes all the way around it, so I could cut it to fit him. Then I wrapped it in yellow duct tape along with crayon boxes. The symbol on the front of the belt was also made from duct tape.

The gloves were the hardest part. I originally started out with white princess gloves that I planned on dying them navy blue with RIT dye. But after dying them 2 times I learned that the material would not grab the dye. So plan B went into action. I found fabric spray paint thinking that would hopefully do the trick. NOPE! They went all spotty and weird. Plan C...sew my own gloves from the left over fabric from the cape. After watching a youtube video I had the confidence that they would be easy to make. HA! I was wrong. After several hours I felt all was lost...until Jesse came home from his ride along with the Murray Fire Department. He went on amazon.com and found these gloves for $7. If only he had come home hours before that I could have saved myself alot of time and energy.

When they arrived in the mail a few days later I found that they were really big, so I turned them inside out and sewed the fingers down shorter and the arm holes skinner. They were still a little baggy, but hey at this point I didn't care.

All in all he looked AWESOME! Oct 30th was our ward's trunk or treat and it was the first time I put the whole outfit together. I admit I got quite giddy about how great it turned out.

Cy's Robin costume was much easier. I sewed his cape with a collar attached and the boots sewn out of felt to cover his shoes. The red vest was a shirt I found at the DI. I turned it inside out, cut the sleeves off, and stitched yellow yarn down the middle and glued his Robin symbol out of felt. His tights were originally white and then dyed tan. His green shirt was a white long sleeved onsie that I had extra and dyed it green. His mask and gloves (that he didn't like to wear) were sewn from felt. The belt had the same concept as Ryker's Batman belt. Cut it down and duct taped it.

 Cat Woman costume was super easy. I bought the leggings at Charlotte Russe and the leather jacket at Target. I made the mask and ears from glittery felt and wrapped an old belt (that Chantel gave to me) in gold duct tape. And WaLaa!

 Jesse's Joker costume was probably the easiest. He had a light blue suit that I bought at the DI two years ago for an 80's themed party for his 30th birthday. I simply put it in the washer 2 times with purple RIT dye and TaDaa! Easy as that. I also bought his green shirt at the DI along with the blue paisley vest (found in the ladies section). I sewed him a pocket square and tie from the left over material from Robin's cape. His hair was sprayed from the hair spray paint and then I painted his face.

He was such a good sport for wearing all that makeup. But doesn't he look just great?

If you haven't noticed we went with the old school style of Batman and Robin. So to go along with our theme we decorated our trunk with all the words that flash on the screen from the fight scene in the movie. My brother Tyson was so Awesome to design them for us. He's so great with all the graphic designing on his computer so it took him no time at all. Where if I were to do it I would have had to start that a month ago.

 See he didn't really like his mask all that much...but it's darn cute on him.

 Ryker got SOOO into being Batman. He made this years Halloween ALOT of fun for us. The whole month of Oct he would say in his prayers that he was so thankful for trick or treating. He made the count down till Halloween just Exciting!