DINNER at a Vineyard

I went on a date with my husband last night. No, really we did. I mean a full fledged, drop the kids off at a babysitters, all alone

In reviewing my memory, the last date we went on was back in July when we got a sitter and went to Harry Potter for Jared's birthday. I remember that because that was the last movie we've been to together since December 9th, 2006. (I remember the exact date because it was two days before Easton was born. My parents rushed up to be with us since my doctor told me she didn't think I'd make it through the weekend before I went into labor...well, I did. I was pregnant ALL weekend long and since we had a sitter, we went to the movie.)

Anyway, back to our date night. We just joined up in a babysitting Friday night exchange with some friends. Tonight was the trial run and I think it worked out just fine (of course I can say that because I wasn't the one left with 7 kids!) We were just going to go to a local bar for some greasy food and happy atmosphere:) but then we decided to be crazy and drive 20 miles to a local vineyard that has a restaurant.

The food was great, I got some HUGE tiger shrimp and Jared got a steak. Yummo! They served this delicious mini loaf bread and we ate two of them. We enjoyed every bite and definately got our moneys worth.

The vineyard is in a tiny, tiny town. It's one of those towns that as you drive through it, you know that the people who live there have been there for generations and that they know each other and depend on each other. Before we lived in our tiny town I wouldn't think I could do it but with access to on-line everything and a bigger city just an hour away, I think I could. (okay I really couldn't but hats off to those people who can. Such a simple way of life in so many ways.)

I mean really, you can tell it's a fine establishment because it's got that blaring neon OPEN sign hanging in front, right??

The food was good, the scenery was beautiful but the best part was hanging out with my man. Sadly enough we missed the boys but we enjoyed a nice dinner without food on the floor, spilled water or having to cut things into bite sized portions.

I'm going to look forward to our Friday night dates, just me and my man.

Went to the Danger Zone with the YM

Wednesday nights I meets with the young men of our ward. It can sometimes be difficult to come up with good activities in our neck of the tumbleweeds, but I am proud of the YM in our ward, most of them show up to our activities a lot more than I ever did growing up. Thanks to a (Pilot) Captain Johnson, we got access to the F-15E jets. Capt Johnson did an awesome job telling us all about the F-15E's muscle, and showed us some wickedly cool video of bombs being dropped, missiles being guided through windows, and some very big targets being annihilated. It was a fun night.

Our next activity is a night at the dental clinic... J/k. We may have to wait on that one for a while, it may take the YM a few weeks to come down from the "Those Jets are so cool!" statements, before I knock their socks off by showing them how to cast a gold crown. :)

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

Hi my name is Sydney and I love TV

I am so giddy... I am extra excited for the boys to go to bed this week...I am a total dork...

Ah, it's premier week....I made sure that there was plenty of hours of recording time left on the DVR's and I've made a list of shows that I certainly don't want to miss.

We already ran into a problem last night. You see, we have two DVR's so we can record two shows at a time, yet last night there was three shows on at the same time that I wanted to watch. Ugh, I hate that! So, I had to let one go and now I have to watch it via the computer.

Tonight, I'm running into the same problem. Come on networks. Surely you can space things out a little bit more. Because I know Thursday I'll be running into the same stinkin problem.

So please fellow bloggers, tell me I'm not the only one who watches TV and who's been anticipating this week all summer. What are you watching??

**Disclaimer, I do read... I'm in two book clubs and I read at least two books a month. My TV is also not on during the day. My dishes get done every night and I make my bed everyday...now, am I justified in watching so much TV at night when my boys are asleep???

Oh no he didn't....

Learn how to climb stairs.

It was very quiet.....I thought Easton might have gone into the bathroom to play but as I rounded the corner to the bathroom and found he wasn't in there I got a little panicked. Then, I heard some heavy breathing and this is what I found.

I don't know who taught him how to climb stairs but I'm just not ready. Of course I pulled him down but then I had to see what he'd do and he wasn't about to give up- look at this picture. I can just imagine the thought process in his little head "can I make it to the top?" "how long will it take me" " is she going to watch me the entire time?"
"Mom, don't be mad. Look how cute I am"

So now my house is sporting some great new attractive decorations....a baby gate at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom. Gotta love it!

FIRST Day of Preschool

Gibson started preschool yesterday. Jared and I have been in a great debate about whether or not to start him in preschool this year- I think he needs the socialization of other kids and a chance to get away from me and Jared thinks he's too young and will be influenced by the older kids in a negative way. We decided that we'd give it a few months and see how he does. If we find him acting negative we'll pull him out but if we find he thrives then two days a week, he'll be a preschool student!

Gibson's teacher is Mrs. Pippin which is very confusing to Gibson... you see, when you meet Gibson he introduces himself as Pippin Tayer Condie. So to have a teacher's who's "real" name is Pippin, he gets really upset and says "NO, I'M PIPPIN TAYER CONDIE". It was very confusing the first day Gibson met his teacher and they went back and forth telling them their names....oh, good thing I was there to translate!

A few weeks ago we went to the mall. I was in Baby Gap browsing the sale racks and Jared was entertaining the boys on the escalator. At the bottom of the escalator Gibson ran, he turned the corner and what happened to be there...the DISNEY store! (Even Boise has a Disney store, come on UTAH). He ran in and stumbled across this backpack. Needless to say, we now own it along with an adorable lunchbox that clips right on. (plus it was on sale, good find buddy) Gibson loves this backpack so much that he insisted wearing it throughout the first day of preschool.

We go again tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. The biggest challenge will be getting him up, fed, dressed and out the door before 9!

The Wedding.
My sister Chana is seven years younger than I am. To me, she's still 9 and stealing my clothes, coming downstairs when I have friends over and annoying me by asking me to drive her places when all I want to do is talk on the phone.

Yet, in reality she's 22, a college graduate, one of my dearest friends whom I speak with via email/text message or phone almost every day and now, a married woman.

Her wedding was this past weekend and it was beautiful. She was beautiful. He was handsome. They both were glowing.

Jared took the week off of work and we headed down to Utah a week early. I was able to spend some quality time with Chana and we enjoyed some shopping, eating, lounging, talking, eating, shopping and a pedicure together. Thank you to my awesome MIL who watched the kids for me and for an awesome husband who took kid duty more than his share so that I could make some memories with my little sis.

Chana decided not to have a reception. Instead she got married in the afternoon and had a intimate dinner with 150 of her closest friends and family:) Here are the happy couple entering the dinner. Isn't she beautiful?

Don't tell Fred that Gibson stole a kiss from the newly married bride.
Even Easton stole a moment with the bride.

This is my cute niece Addison. She loves to roll and gets every where she wants to be by rolling, turning and rolling some more. She had to be untangled from her dress every so often since her turning made it bunch up around her shoulders!

The wedding cake. (make sure you read the post about Gibson's Birthday Bash to find out what this wedding cake became)!

This was the hit of the dinner! Chana's colors were pink, orange and lime green. She wanted a variety of candy in her wedding colors in glass jars so her guests could make their own wedding favors. She had clear cellophane bags with a message about "making their day so sweet" on them and guests could fill their bag with candy. She had bubble gum balls, orange slices, M&M's, laffy taffy, good and plenty & tootsie rolls. The guests loved this!

Two of our cousins who live out of state came in for the occasion. Mandy lives in Texas and Lori (with her husband Craig) came in from Alabama. Lori hasn't been in town since my wedding 7 1/2 years ago so it was great seeing them. (Also pictures my twin brothers Chris and Carey and my little sister Erin.)

Long night.....need another drink

Double Trouble... Kaydan is 6 weeks older than Gibson and Gibson's best friend. These two love each other and play so well and so hard when they are together. Gibson prays for Kaydan each night and it's so much fun to watch them when they are together.

This is the view from her dinner. Not too shabby huh?

Who's kid is that? Yes, that would be mine... I read on someone's blog not to brag about your kids because eventually they'll make a liar out of you. Gibson has made that statement true! I think I said in one post that he was 95% potty trained. Well I'm going to change those numbers a bit. He's 100% potty trained and 0% the other...if you know what I mean. Knowing this, I brought an extra pair of pants with me but left them in the car.

Gibson had a small accident just as Chana was going to cut the cake (so the event was practically over.) I figured I had two options. 1) Walk from the 9th floor where the dinner was, down to the underground parking to get the pants that I left in the car-- in my high heels--missing the cake cutting, bouquet throwing, garter removal or 2) Allow Gibson to wander wearing only a pull-up for the remainder of the dinner which I had estimated to be about 20 minutes.

As you can see by the picture. I opted for option #2. However, I did hear "who's kid is that" about a dozen times. (Which I quickly said "his" and pointed to Jared.)

Having missed his afternoon nap, Easton was exhausted. By the end of the evening he was letting us know!

It's still odd to me that my little sister is married. I'm excited for her to begin a new chapter in her life. Congrats Chana, thanks for letting us be a part of your special day. We love you and wish you and Fred all the happiness in the world!!

GIBSON'S Birthday Bash

I remember last year talking to my friend Laurie about her daughters 3rd birthday. She was stressing about the invites, the activities, the cake and everything else that goes into planning a birthday bash. I remember telling her to make it stress free, not to make invites but phone calls, order pizza and make cupcakes.

This year, I found myself stressing over Gibson's 3rd birthday. We were going to be out of town- so should I have it before we leave, have it when we get back, have it in Utah, not have one at all??? Finally I decided that I too needed to make it stress free. We decided to have a last minute bash at a local park in Utah. We invited cousins and his friend Nate, ordered pizza, had cake and ice cream and that was it! No invites, no games, no stress. It was great!

For weeks I kept asking Gibson what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. He went from Diego to Little Einsteins to Beyond (Buzz Lightyear) and then he went back to and stayed with Little Einsteins.

I had no idea that Utah does not have a Disney store. My intentions were to get some little figurines, plop them on a cake and call it good. I called everywhere and finally decided that a Little Einstein DVD would be good enough. Plus, I thought it was pretty practical since we'll get years of use out of the DVD and the figurines would have only lasted a few months!!

So, there's a story behind the cake which I have to tell. You see, my twin brothers birthday is on Sept. 13th. We enjoyed a delicious chocolate cake. My sister got married on Sept. 14th where she had a 3 layer cake which she DID NOT serve. So, the wedding cake was just going to get thrown away or picked at as it sat in my parents kitchen. Gibson's birthday party was Sept. 15th. As we all know it's customary to have cake at a birthday party---so, wedding cake today...birthday cake tomorrow!!

If you look behind the #3 you'll see a hole where my sister cut her cake. If you were to look under the DVD you'd find 4 holes where pillars once stood and if you look on the sides you'll find a pretty pattern which we all know I never would have done in frosting for a 3 year olds birthday cake!! Plus it's rolled fondant, um, yeah, never would I have made it that smooth!

I added M&M's to the sides, some writing on top (I was aiming for red frosting but it turned out pink- oh, well) and tada! Gibson's birthday cake!

We ordered pizza, ate it on paper plates while sitting on the grass. Yummy!

We told everyone NO GIFTS since it was a last minute and low key. As you can see, everyone listened! Thank you everyone, he's LOVING his new toys.

I love this picture of Gibson. He received 4 new cars, 2 of which were Buzz Lightyear. He raced them around and around this basketball court and even took a small spill as he went faster than the cars! He has a nice goose egg on his forehead and two scabs on his nose.

We got home from Utah last night and I couldn't let our birthday boy not have something special for his actual birthday so we stuck a candle in a cookie, sang to him and lit the candle 3 times for him to blow out.

Happy Birthday Gibson, we sure love you!

hapPy bIrThdAy GibSon!!




We can't believe our baby boy is 3 today! We'll post more pictures of his birthday party and of course a birthday slideshow tomorrow.

We just got home after 9 days of being in Utah and the car needs to be unloaded and the boys fed, bathed and to bed so I'm not sure how much bloggin I'll get in tonight but I'll post about my sisters wedding and some other fun events we've had over the past week.

Prayers

As many of you know Camille Cleverely was a BYU student who after 10 days of being missing was found today. She fell from a cliff to her death.

When I first heard about this story, my heart ached. After all, BYU is my neck of the woods, it's my stomping ground and I consider it "home". I have been bike riding up at Bridal Veil Falls, I've hiked and hung out in that area.

Then I found out that Camille is the sister of one of my friends in my little town. I work with Laura in YW's in our church, her husband is in our bishopric, I attend book group with Laura and she held my non surprise birthday party at her house.

We are completely heart broken for Laura and her family. Please pray for this family during this most difficult time. I can't even imagine the grief they are going through and I know they can use all the prayers they can get.

So I totally stole this post from Leslie....thanks Leslie, taking this quiz made me all giddy so I had to post it on my blog!

As I have posted before, I love the books Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer and here's a quick quiz you can take to find out which character you are most like. Click here for the quiz. I am most like Alice which I totally love. She's the sweetest vampire I know:) If you haven't read these books, you REALLY need to read them.

So which character are you most like?

Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow??

AWESOME if you were to judge it by the watermelons! Yep, we planted watermelons purely out of curiosity. We truly didn't think they would actually grow and we thought that if they did grow, they wouldn't be any good. Well, we were wrong.

Jared and I were craving a little Sunday night snack and since I haven't been to the grocery store in weeks, our fridge is a tad bit bare. Jared then remembered that we have watermelons in our garden so out he went and to our utter surprise and delight, the watermelon was ripe, juicy and had the perfect crispness to it.

I think it is written somewhere that to be a Condie you must love watermelon and corn on the cob. Those two items are found constantly in the summer time at Jared's parents house. I think Marylou keeps Harward Farms and Green River Watermelons in business with her weekly purchases!! (Or maybe it's just when we're all there and she's buying 6 dozen corn.) I know she must be pretty proud of her baby boy right now for raising himself a watermelon.
Doesn't it look delicious??

I must say that we have had good luck with our non weeded, not attended, forget to water garden. We've grown some large zucchini's, some sugar snap peas, some cherry tomatoes, red, yellow and green peppers! You wouldn't know it by looking at it but we've been pretty lucky with our garden the size of a postage stamp!