The Deadwood Saloon

Nathan has been dying to throw another Murder Mystery party with his friends from school. Last October I was pregnant in my first trimester which equals tired, nauseous, and unmotivated. So this year I gave in and we put something together within a couple weeks! It's always a lot of work but it's so fun because both Nathan and I get pretty into it and in the end our marriage is still intact! I consider that some successful party planning :). Everyone that came did so great with their costumes and with playing their parts. I also divided up all the food assignments this time which helped out a ton! It was super fun in the end and we all had such a great time! (And I have to give a HUGE thanks to Kristie and Wes for watching Sawyer for us that night...it was so nice of you guys and so great not to have him in our hair during the last few hours before the party) So here are some pictures of our night.

We made saloon doors in the front! Welcome to the Deadwood Saloon!

Our guests!  Aren't their costumes awesome?!  Nate did a great job with photoshop here too...

Banana Bread for party favors

When everyone arrived they received an envelope with a name tag, money, and their 'objectives for the evening

Nate's Grandpa Larson in Mesa lent us this horse saddle. Sawyer thought that thing was so stinkin cool!

We made a little 'back porch' scene out of our sun room. We had a fake fire pit and all the food out there.

We pretty much rearranged all of our furniture for the event!

Nathan made the Wanted Signs. Those are the actual people that came to the party as the 'outlaws'. He did a little photoshop magic on a picture of them...I thought they turned out fantastic!

The 'bar'

Everyone drank out of mason jars or IBC root beer bottles. One of the characters was a bartender and he did a fabulous job playing his role in the kitchen all night!

We all ate out of pie tins

Nathan's firepit creation

The poker table

The Outhouse

Right after the murder took place. That's the Marshall taping the body outline! Hilarious...He and the Sheriff then drug his body to the couch!

Most of the boys that were there that night! (A few had to leave before we took this picture)

And here are most of the girls. I was just so pleased with all of the costumes!!!

Kristie did my hair!  She did a fantastic job, as usual.

Just my cute kids...

Every now and then I manage to get the camera out and just snap a few pictures. I don't do it often enough but when I do I'm so glad! Here are a few from the other day...

Love those EYES!

My little Aunt Jemima in her headband...hair would help but oh well, still cute :)

This is so funny because I caught Sawyer one morning laying on the floor with this old camera we have, acting like some professional photographer taking pictures of his sister. I HAD to capture that moment...it was so stinkin cute

And here's Sawyer reading to his sister...he needs to learn how to show her the pictures...

I guess she didn't mind...

Wild West Festival

We had a groupon to go to the Wild West Festival in Glendale the other weekend so we packed up the kids and headed over there. What we hadn't planned on when we bought the groupon was that it would be 98 DEGREES outside still! Ya...not super fun. Sawyer's favorite part was getting to ride on the choo choo train. We could have done that in the mall in the air conditioning! Oh well...it was nice to get out and hang out with some friends.

Playing tag :)

It was too hot...so I got Talmage to chase him around for a bit

Six Months

My baby girl turned 6 months a couple of weeks ago! I just finished looking back on Sawyer's 6 month post and it hit me that with each kid the time seriously goes by faster and faster. It was funny to read about how I felt with Sawyer at that age...everything was so new to me and each little milestone was so exciting! Of course we are still excited this time around, but it's just a different feeling because you've got so much more going on and you are more familiar with the way things work with babies. It made me realize that I really want to treasure each moment and recognize each stage with all of my kids! I love them both so much and feel so blessed to be able to spend my days with them...regardless of how stressful they can be at times. Violet has been such a sweetheart from the moment she entered our lives. She really is a happy baby 95% of the time. The sleeping thing has been slightly more challenging with her, but not too bad really (most of the time--when she's not teething-- she sleeps from about 7 to 5 am, eats, then goes back to sleep till 7). And so far she is keeping up with her big brother as far as development goes. Everything has been about the same this time around. Although she did beat him in the dental department. She just cut her second tooth last week! (Sawyer was almost 9 months before he got his first!) On her 6 month mark she got up on all fours and started crawling! I don't know how I feel about this yet. She's still nice and slow so that's good :). But I'd like her to take a little longer before she gets super mobile. Sawyer was just TOO mobile WAY too fast! She's such a funny girl...laughs a ton and especially loves her daddy (and Sawyer too...they are just 2 peas in a pod...both crazy and animated). Any time Nathan is in the room her eyes lock on him and follow him wherever he goes! If she's in the middle of eating and she hears his voice it's all over...such a distracted eater now! And anything and everything goes straight to the mouth. I just LOVE this age because she is still cuddly but she's starting to become her own little person. So much fun. I love her so much and while these past 6 months have flown by it seems like she's always been a part of our family!

Can't get enough of those big blue eyes

Up on all fours!

...it's hard work

A Zoo-Venture!

A few weeks ago we had a fluke weather week in the 70s and 80s. It was heaven! October is always my least favorite month here in AZ because you are just SOO ready for fall weather and it just takes FOREVER to cool down. So Kristie and I decided to take advantage and head down to the zoo. We renewed our memberships so I'm sure we will be having many more zoo-ventures in the coming months! It was a beautiful day and the boys loved every minute of it. In true Jessica fashion, I wore jeans and a cardigan thinking that 75 degrees was warm clothing weather! I never seem to learn my lesson because I do it every single year. I guess I just can't wait to get those winter clothes back out! So instead of enjoying the cooler air in my shorts and t-shirt...I sweated it out under the warm sun in my long layers. Sheesh...at least it was super comfortable in the shade!

The boys were pretty excited to take a picture in front of the 'RIO' bird

MY personal favorite...the giraffes

This was the first time that Sawyer actually enjoyed the carousel...in fact he LOVED it! This time he cried when it was over because he wanted to go again.

There's a little someone peeking out from that top window!

This just makes me laugh. Why do I have to grasp the back of my child's shirt to keep him from hurling himself over the railing and down 20 feet into the water? You'd think he'd recognize the danger there...

Ready to Pop!!

I had the opportunity to throw Jen another baby shower last night! That's right...Baby Simpson #2 is about ready to make her arrival! This time, I got to collaborate with 2 of Jen's sister-in-laws and another friend. It was so nice not to have to worry about ALL the details. I was in charge of the decoration, Missy did the invites, and Sadie & Melissa did the food. It all came together so well and we had a great turn out! Our theme was 'Jen's Ready to Pop'. I'm sure you've seen this idea before...but I had such a fun time putting my own little spin on it.

I took some pictures before the food got there...sad thing is the lighting was a lot better in the before pictures, but they still turned out ok!

A full view of the table right before we got started...and then another one before the food arrived

Jen scored some great gifts that night!

This was the funniest one...haha

Love you Jen! So excited for the arrival of your little girl! Thanks for letting me be a part of this!

(Oh and a special thanks to Nathan for being the best dad ever and taking Sawyer out for 3 hours last night so I could host in peace...they went to Peter Piper Pizza then he took him to see Cars 2! Sawyer had such a fun night with his daddy!)

Potty Training & Such

Well it's pretty obvious from the title and this picture what I'm about to tell you all. We are now the proud owners of a potty-trained 2 1/2 yr old little boy! I'd been going back and forth about potty-training Sawyer for a few months now. I obviously realized that it was unrealistic with a newborn in the house. But as Violet started getting easier and nursing became a little less frequent and we finished up with the last of our summer vacations, I got serious about it. Frankly, I was just done having 2 in diapers. And Sawyer had been spending a lot of time with cousins his age who were potty-trained so he was definitely 'interested'. I knew there were definite advantages to waiting until he was older and more 'ready'...but I decided I would just try it out and not be too psycho about it and if it didn't work, then oh well...I could try again in six months or so. I went out and bought the undies and made a potty-chart with Sawyer. Then as I was debating which day to start, Sawyer took off his diaper with stinkies in it and ran around the house! That was the last straw for me! And so began our first experience with potty-training. So I sort of followed the '3 day method', and then I sort of went with my own instincts. It worked out pretty well for us! We put him in pull-ups the first 3 or 4 nights just because we were scared and hadn't bought vinyl sheets yet. But I realized each morning that his pull-ups were dry and decided to go for it with night time training too. And so we did! And 3 weeks later he hasn't wet the bed once! He still has accidents during the day here and there (mostly because he doesn't want to take the time to go)...but overall I'm very happy with everything and so proud of my little guy! He's really growing up!

Cheering for his pee pee on the potty! So proud of us big boy undies...

Caught in the act! Eating sprinkles!

One of our 'stuck at home potty training activities'...homemade play dough (no I did not put sprinkles in my play dough. they were in the bag along with the cookie cutters we were using)

I don't even remember why he had blue all over his face that day. An otter pop maybe?

And this little girl wanted to get in on the naked action that week too! She was such a trooper...I had to leave her crying on the floor several times in order to avoid a potty disaster.

Side note: Violet cut her first tooth yesterday at only 5 1/2 months old!

Sawyer loves to cook and bake with me. Also I can't for the life of me keep him from getting up on all the counter tops. That kid is seriously such a monkey! Here he is 'cooking' his fruit snacks. Good thing he hasn't figured out how to turn it on...