D.C.

The last week of September Micah and I were able to go visit Washington, D.C. We had a great time! We were able to see Micah's parents who are serving a mission and also his sister Shanna who lives in Arlington. It was super to get away just the two of us and we had a ton of fun. Many thanks to the Becksteads and Aunt Bekah for taking care of the kids.

The Stratton kids. Love Love Love them!

The view from Mt. Vernon

White House. I just know our dinner invitation was lost in the mail.

Hope Diamond. It is on my Christmas list and I have a good feeling about it!

Washington Monument

Closed due to the earthquake that happened a few weeks before we went

The Capitol

I don't want to bore you with all the photos and details but we really had the best time. There was so much to see, I don't think we even did half of it. I hope we get a chance to go back and finish the things on my list. We loved seeing Nyle and JoAnn and Shanna and her family. Thanks for the hospitality!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween, the kids had fun parties at school and the weather was fairly decent for trick or treating. Cade went around the neighborhood with friends this year, sniff sniff. He had lots of fun. He loved his Lego costume (thank you pinterest) but it kept getting in his way. The box was so long he couldn't run very fast. He ended up taking a little tumble and that was the end of the Lego costume. He came home for glasses and called himself a rock star. Annie was Ariel for her school party and then decided to be Giselle from Enchanted at the last minute. She hung with Molly for this first hour and then went with one of her friends. Molly the strawberry had the time of her life! She loved going door to door and she loved her loot! She was frozen by the time it was over with! It was a great day!

Molly is 3!

I don't know how it happened! Three years went way to fast, in my mind this is how the kids all still look.......

Baby Molly

Happy to be 3!

What a change in just 3 short years!

Really, I can't imagine that my baby is no longer a baby! Molly was so excited to be three. She had been talking about her birthday for weeks! She wanted to have a Dora party and told me numerous times she needed to have Dora party hats. It was a Dora day for sure, party hats included! She had some of her little friends over for a birthday breakfast. I have no photos, not sure what I was doing! She was so happy to blow out her candles and open presents. She loved her Dora scooter and her own little indoor sandbox. The next day she wanted to know if she could have a party again, but this time a Minnie Mouse party. Molly is our little spit-fire and we adore her!

Heritage Park

Hands down the most favorite thing about our trip to Canada was visiting Heritage Park. A huge park that makes you feel like you have stepped back in time. All sorts of great history and fabulous people to tell you all about it. We ended up buying seasons passes and went 3 times. Seriously. Taylors haven't been back since we left so we pretty much wore them out!

My favorite pic! Sitting outside the first Jewish synagogue in Calgary

Making a project at the lumber yard

Outside the schoolhouse

At the train depot

With the projects from the lumber yard. Doesn't Molly look thrilled!

Part 2

Our vacation continued with a trip to Waterton, famous for the many bears roaming free. Guess how many we saw? None. That's right, not a bear in sight! We still made good memories hiking with the kids and swimming at the hotel. It is a fun little town, think Menan, Idaho as a resort town. We loved it! We did see lots and lots of deer. They must have scared the bears off. The Taylor's went back 3 weeks later and saw 11 of them. Not fair, guess we will have to go back!

Meadow where bears "usually" are

hiking

the one and only bear we saw, nice of him to stand still for the photo

Oh Canada! Part 1

We had a fantastic summer and were able to do lots of fun things but the highlight was our trip to Canada to visit the Taylor's. We left Boise on a Thursday after work and were able to spend the night with Grandpa and Grandma Randall. They left the next week to start their mission at the Washington DC temple so it was our last visit with them for a whole year! On Friday we left bright and early for our long day of driving. The kids did very well in the car, it wasn't pure torture like we all thought it would be!

Saturday morning the Calgary Stampede was still in full swing so we had a fun breakfast in Okatoks and the kids enjoyed lots of free cotton candy, face painting, fishing pond and meeting a real live Canadian Mountie. We spent that afternoon at the Heritage Isle neighborhood lake. It became a favorite spot! Sunday morning we headed to Banff National Park. It was so beautiful! We enjoyed a 5 star breakfast at the Banff Springs Hotel and then toured the hotel grounds.

Cala and Cade

Chelsea and Annie

Connor and Molly

Cousins

Living it up at the lake.

Cala and Cade's sandcastle creation

*note the ribs on that kid

The Graduate

I realize I am about 4 months behind but, better late than never! Annie had a fantastic year in kindergarten with Mrs. DeForest. Out of 21 students only 4 were girls! She reached a huge milestone and learned to read, and hasn't stopped since! Love you Annie!

Complete Adoration

Growing up with 3 sisters (and the most amazing brother whom I will tribute later) I always hoped that I would get to have some little girls. I could imagine them playing together for hours, creating fun games with each other. A few of our childhood favorites were playing our version of The Boxcar Children, dogs......I was princess and Rich was prince. (should have been the other way around but that's a different post entirely) Thanks to Alison we had some killer middle of the night monopoly sessions. Kristen aka Friday Allen was a hoot to play school with and we had our very own "special walk". I can still see Friday as a helicopter hair do skunk outfit wearing 4 year old! Erika was the ring leader of most of the creative play, she was the inventor of us playing The Mandrell Sisters. (I was Erlene, the drummer) Even today I count the three of them as my best friends and wish at least one of them lived by me. Life would then be perfection! Annie and Molly have a special bond. Annie is a calming influence to Molly's spitfire! I hope as they grow they will continue to love each other and watch out for one another. There is nothing quite like a sister!

"I could never love anyone as I love my sisters"

L.M. Alcott, Little Women

Back by popular demand

Not that anybody is demanding an update or necessarily wants to hear one but here it is none-the-less. First, as per the previous post, thank you Alison for coming to rescue us during yet another fantastic getaway. And by getaway I mean the lovely accommodations at St. Lukes Regional Medical Center. We enjoyed a unforgettable 3 day stay with Annie in the PICU. Those rooms are much bigger than out on the regular floor and you get much more one on one attention from the nursing staff. However, be very prepared to pay extra for it! Seriously though, I absolutely can't say enough good about all the respiratory therapists, nurses and doctors who worked with us. It is a wonderful hospital and I highly recommend it should a need ever arise. We actually started out in the emergency room at the Meridian branch and got a first class ride in an ambulance downtown. Good times. We did however finally discover that Annie has asthma. She is on daily medication and is doing great! Two weeks after Annie's stay we were there once again with Molly. She had her tonsils removed and had a fairly major sinus surgery. She was also lucky enough to be booked in the PICU. I swear the staff thinks that I have Munchhausen by proxy. Google it. It was a very rough recovery for poor Molly, but Ali stepped in and took Cade and Annie for the week so that we could focus on the pops. (Molly) She actually did great drinking but refused food for several weeks. Poor thing weighs 23 lbs. As Erika pointed out I pretty much need to put my almost 3 year old in a rear facing infant seat! She feels so much better and just the other day Micah and I were talking about how much happier she seems. It's true, she has mellowed a TON!!! We also discovered that she too has asthma. We are 3 for 3. (I am blaming this on the Randall genes, we Byram's are a "hearty" bunch) During all this Cade was keeping busy with soccer, piano and scouts. He loved soccer this season, his last 2 games were Saturday and he scored 4 goals in the first game! He had his first piano recital a few weeks ago and did fantastic. He and I played a duet and it was a big moment for me to realize just how fast he is growing up! He is a wonderful big brother and showed lots of concern while the girls were sick. Photos to follow.

(ir)REPLACEABLE

Attention! As this is my first official post...Alison is blogging... I will need a shout out from all those in the blogger world. Funny how I am posting about Andrea's children and not my own. But whatever. You would all think me insanely hilarious and that's all Erika and Kristen have going for them. Therefore, I will leave it be.

Annie, again, was summoned to the hospital. It is now renamed St. Randall in lue of MLR's generous quarterly donation. I became the nanny. Here's what I learned.

1. Andrea talks to her children as if they were adolescents. Even I put myself in time out.

2. Molly is a highly intelligent 2 year old. Whenever I answer a question correctly she replies, "Yes it is". It's like playing reverse Jeopardy.

3. Cade liked my cinnamon muffins. Thanks Betty Crocker.

4. My kids have too many socks.

5. Without the proper supervision, Molly is likely to become an exotic dancer. Nothing like watching tv naked.

6. Annie is a pro at hospitals. She tells the orderly what size needle to use and what meds work best in her nebulizer. A career in pediatric pulmonology would be appropriate for her.

7. Words with Friends is my new hobby....no wonder Ange gets nothing done.

8. I cook better for my sister's family than I do my own. Minus the one burnt batch of cookies.

9. Texting sisters late at night is wet your pants funny...which I didnt't Kristen.

10. At any time, I can assume the identity of Andrea Randall as per my Costco visit and phone conversations with friends. I even withdrew money from her bank account.

All in all, it was a great visit and glad to be able to help. See you at St Luke's in a few months!

Big News.

After almost two weeks of work, it is official. Molly has accomplished a very big goal, thanks in part to diet A&W root beer and gumballs, she is potty trained!!!!!!! Way to go Molly!

I thought about taking photos to document the big occassion but then remembered a John & Kate plus 8 episode and reconsidered. However, she looks totally adorable in her big girl panties.