Pumpkin Patch

Everyone who knows me, knows I love Halloween and Fall in general.  This last Saturday we took Jace to his first ever Pumpkin Patch.  We decided not to go out into the actual patch since it was a little muddy.  We instead just stayed in the area with a straw maze and pre-picked pumpkins and let him wander through all the pumpkins looking at them.  Jace thought the pumpkins were balls and tried to pick them up to throw and kicked a few!  The cutest thing he did was think one pumpkin had a "belly button" and then showed me his belly button.  We took a wagon ride and picked out a couple pumpkins to carve sometime this week!

After we went to the pumpkin patch, Ben and I headed up to Boise to hang out with friends.  We got up there a little late so we missed out on the pumpkin carving, but we did go to Haunted World's in Nampa where I managed to get the bejesus scared out of me a few times!  It was also great to catch up with some good friends who I haven't seen in awhile.  I just have to say I love this time of year and this is just the beginning to all the fun we'll have in the next week!

Well That's Fantastic

I'm not really sure why I can't get my crap together to blog more than once every few months....It could be because Jace is 18 months and as busy as every. I can't turn my back on him for a second or all of the sudden he morphs into a terrorist and is plotting ways to torture me! He even manages to put his evil plots into effect sometimes.....for example while writing the first sentenced of this blog I had to stop to go clean up the shards of glass from him throwing a mug at my rock hearth of our pellet stove!

So once again I'm doing a catch up blog to try to get back on track! Although it will be Sans pictures because I am too lazy to go through them, then up load them etc etc etc! Summer brought us lots of hanging out with Jace while he played in the yard and his pool. He is running and starting to jump and talk up a storm. He says a lot different words and is even starting to put some together in small sentences.

We celebrated 4th of July with good friends and family. We went to CSI to have a picnic and watch fireworks. I think I was more excited about the fireworks than Jace was, but at the very least he didn't freak out at the loud noises. He did instead run around so I did more baby chasing than firework watching, but such is life when you have a toddler! He did like the poppers you throw on the ground and got a kick out of throwing them at his mom from dad's shoulders. It was a fun family time.

Also in July, Ben and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary with a trip to Vegas. I had never been so it was a lot of fun catching all the famous sites. My mom was gracious enough to watch Jace for 5 days. Ben and I really had a nice time and it was great to be able to spend some adult time together. We gambled some and took in a Burlesque show and walked and walked and walked some more! I can't wait to go back. I didn't get ride anything on the stratosphere which was on my to do list due to lightening the night we went!

August was really uneventful. We have still been struggling to get Ben's pain under control and have been working to get him healed with physical therapy. I am really hoping that things get better for him. He hasn't been working and I think that is frustrating both of us. We'll see and I guess only time will tell.

September brought changes with work. I am still up on Labor and Delivery as a charge nurse. I also decided to get my certification for my field in Inpatient Obstetrics. My offical title now is Andrea McCarron RNC, BSN! Lot's of letters make me sound cool and of course way more professional! One of my best friends also left our hospital to move closer to her family. While it was a good move for her, it is a definite loss for me personally and for my department. She is a great nurse to work along side of and she will be missed dearly by all of us. I love your face Jamie!

October has been pretty normal so far. We are decorated for Halloween and still trying to decide on costumes! I'm leaning towards a Viking Couple for Ben and I and a dragon for Jace! We'll post pics of Celebrations. I also just got back from a nursing leadership conference for work, and it was wonderful. I now find myself starting to consider in which direction I would like my nursing career to move in. I have lots of thoughts running through my head on this subject that I hope to blog about in the future.

Lastly, it took me 2 hours to write this because of my little terrorist~ He managed to break my bracelet, rip 3 pages out of one book, pull the movies out several times and even give me a hug and kiss and make my entire night! I missed that little guy while I was gone.

Until next time!

Memorial picnic 2011

Every year my side of the family gets together for a picnic in the South Hills on or near the anniversary of my Grandma Bobbie's death to celebrate her life. This year marked the 6th year of our tradition. We got to celebrate on the actual day this year making it even more special. June 11th marked 6 years since Grams has passed. For those of those who don't know, my grandma was a HUGE part of my life and I miss her all the time. She was such a great listener, advice giver, impartial judge, inspiration in sobriety and life, and the best grandma a girl could ask for. I miss her a lot and wish she were around to see Jace. I know she would think he is the coolest kid ever! Part of our tradition is to write on balloons to our loved ones and send them up to heaven. I don't know if they get there or not, but I like to think, no matter where those balloons end up the messages get to their intended recipients.

This was Jace's first picnic he could participate in and his first trip up to the Hills in the summer time. He had a great time looking at the creek, stomping on the grass and of course eating his first S'more. I look forward to enjoying many more picnics with my family and many more S'mores with Jace! Such a good day spent with family!

Graduation!!!!

Wahooo! I'm done with school....for awhile anyways! My friend Jamie and I graduated with our Bachelor's of Science in Nursing on Saturday from BSU! It was with mixed emotions that I walked down that aisle! Sheer happiness of being done with school, but a little bit of indifference because I'm a Vandal at heart and it felt a little weird to be graduating from my Rival school! Good news for me though....I got to wear Vandal Colors and did not have to wear ugly blue and orange! We spent the weekend in Boise among good friends and had a great time including Jace and Ben's first trip to Chuck E. Cheese!



What's next for this graduate....taking few years off to to be a wife and a mom and work! It will be nice to have some free time to spend with my family....and maybe even blogging more!

The Bug Turns 1!

Holy Beans! I'm the mother of a toddler! Jace turned 1 on March 21st. We celebrated in style! I think it was honestly the best party I have ever thrown! Since Jace was a few days old I have called him Bug so in the spirit of his nick name we had a bug party! Ben and I made a sweet caterpillar cake (5 cake mixes, 8 cans of frosting, 3 hours of baking, and 2 hours of frosting)! It was totally worth it though! We had a bug hunt, and bumble bee pinata, and all the kids got party favors with bug themes including bug nets, magnifying glasses, bug stickers and of course bugs!!! We had an awesome turn out and Jace got entirely too spoiled.



Jace's Birthday also marked the 5th anniversary of my brother RJ's death, so it was kind of a bitter sweet day. I wondered how I was going to feel when his birthday got here because he shares it with RJ's day. On his actual birthday, we went out to Uncle RJ's grave and put a peeps sucker out there and then enjoyed a birthday dinner with cousin's and grandma. Jace must have known that Grandma needed extra love that day because he wanted to stay by her side and gave her lots of loves.

It also hit me that I no longer have a baby, but I'm the mom of a toddler! He is walking, talking and growing bigger everyday! I think he may even finally be getting some teeth! Both of his bottom ones feel like they are coming in! It has been so fun watching him grow, but sometimes I want to put on the brakes and have little Bug pause for a bit!

Catching up on my crazy life!!!!

Normally I would start off a blog like this by apologizing that I haven't posted in a long time and blah blah blah, but I'm not going to do that because this is my blog and my life is really busy and I don't have a lot of time to post between work, school, Jace, Ben, and life in general. So....in the spirit of that, I'm going to do a quick catch up and hopefully do a little better about staying on top of things! NO promises though :)

Okay here goes! Thanksgiving came and went pretty uneventfully! We ate, we napped, we visited, I worked, the boys ate some more and went to bed! Oh I also went to see "the fat doctor" to help me start loosing weight the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and have since lost 14 lbs at last count (but that is a story for another time!).

In December Aaron and his wife Ryan came down and stayed for about 3 weeks! It was good catching up with family. Jace's first Christmas was pretty cool. He had a good time opening presents and playing with the paper. Santa brought him a personalized toy box to put all of his goodies in! Santa did an awesome job and I'm sure Jace will enjoy if for years to come! Jace also decided to start crawling like a big boy and sitting himself up on Christmas! It was pretty cool, but also a little overwhelming. Seeing your baby gain 2 big skills in one day is a little nuts!

A few days later he started pulling himself up on everything and cruising around anything stationary in the house! January brought us the beginning of my last semester in school! Thank Buddha I graduate in May! It also brought us a fun vacation to McCall with friends from work to take part in the Winter Carnival! This is our second year doing it! We all rent a cabin and split meals and go into town to look at ice sculptures the people of McCall make. There are fireworks and a parade and lots of fun things to see and do. I'm definitely looking forward to next year!

Oh and while we were in McCall Jace took his first unassisted steps. He is now standing alone for longer periods of time but still only taking a couple steps at a time. It is crazy to think my baby is almost not a baby anymore! Instead he is almost a toddler!

This month I'm looking forward to start my training as a charge nurse, Valentine's Day (because I really am a sucker for Romance), and my 27th Birthday! Oh and of course posting to my blog more!