pumpkin patch and halloween

We had a lot of fun at the Pumpkin patch out in Puyallup. We went with our friends and watched their little girl intentionally walk in every muddy spot & puddle. We took our own hot chocolate and enjoyed it along with the farm's caramel popcorn. It was fun to see their little farm animals, but my favorite part was the duck racing. When we first arrived, a woman was telling us the features of the place, and she mentioned duck racing. At first I thought how sweet that was that they raced ducks. What I saw was completely different than what I had in mind. They had gutter pipes set up to race rubber ducks. Ok, so maybe what I imagined in my head was a little far fetched? The duck racing turned out to be my favorite feature of the farm though.

Halloween was interesting. I didn't realize that by doing my make-up to look like a cat, Carly would be scared of me. She didn't seem to recognize me and didn't really like me. Sad day. Morgan was a zoo keeper, and Carly was his little zebra pet :) The last picture was us going trick-or-treating with some friends. Yes, she even got some candy. No, she didn't get to eat it. Yes, her momma ate it for her. 

Morgan

 We found a sweet beach near Cabella's. Tons of silver dollars everywhere.

 A live sand dollar. I don't think I've ever seen a live sand dollar before. It's basically black and has these little hairs that move. Kind of creepy.

 Pumpkins. Carly wasn't a fan. We couldn't get her to crack a smile, but we she did start crying.

 Point defiance. Don't step on those slugs.

 Puget sound. We've seen seals out there.

 Carly's first slide ride with Daddy.

Just out of the Ape Caves. Carly was so tired toward the end, of course she waited until right before we got out to finally fall asleep. 

 Blurry. She was giggling as Daddy was lifting her up high.

 Owen Beach at Point Defiance.

 Grandma & Grandpa Jorgenson came to visit.

 Brushing teeth with Daddy.

This post is all about Morgan. I don't want to misrepresent my blog, especially since it is called Chelsey N Morgan. Evan, this one's for you :)

So life in the working world is very different from being a student. Morgan spends a lot of time at work and has been learning a ton. It's weird to think of him as a business owner. He loves it and always has lots of stories to share. This week he came home with some gifts from some very grateful patients. As I think about it now, it's kind of funny that they would bring their dentist candy & cookies. Hey, I'm not complaining, keep it coming. Just kind of funny, right?

On Morgan's days off, he likes to go hiking, shooting, mountain biking, hunting, etc. His favorite store is Cabella's, he could spend hours and hours in that store. Of course he likes to relax, check up on politics, cars for sale, etc. We like to go on family runs and an occasional walk. My most favorite thing is just when he plays with Carly. He can get her to laugh & giggle so loud :)

11 months!

So on October 9th, Carly turned 11 months. Within the past week she has started scooting forward (as opposed to backwards, which was all she could do up to this point). Just little scoots until last night, we put it to the test with some baby puffs. I think I've got a long distance scooter on my hands. Babies beware! lol We've been having lots of fun with lots of new movement & new noises and squeals. Carly has 4 teeth, 2 on top & 2 on bottom. The top ones are just starting to show a little more now. We are now in the "put every little thing in your mouth" stage. She got a sticker from music class yesterday, which she didn't seem to notice so I left it, and later while I was driving she threw up and kept gagging until the sticker came out. I pulled over right away, confused at first why she threw up. No more stickers for Carly.

Funny moments over the past month:

• Food thief. I went out to dinner with my friend Kathryn & ordered a veggie pizza. Apparently my pizza looked funner than her snacks, she started picking off toppings & eating them before I could stop her - onions & red bell peppers. Another time was at our ward social, Morgan was working that night, and Carly did not want to be set down. I managed to get dinner ok, but once I got my dessert plate, she got a finger full of pumpkin pie and ate it really quick. This girl cracks me up.
• Hiding. I've started hiding from her. I like to put her on my bed and then hide on the side. This is how I can get her to move. She wants to find me and cracks up every time I just peek my eyes up to see her. She can now get to the edge of the bed to peer over and see me.
• Chasing. Anytime Morgan and I play a game where one of us holds her up to walk and the other one chases, she giggles, kicks her legs around and tries to get away. 
• Choir practice. Carly loves going to choir practice. She sings/yells along and really enjoys being there.
• Music class. We go to a little music class at the YMCA. Carly is the exact opposite of how she is during our church choir practice. She is super shy and just stares.
• Books. Carly will sit on the floor and just page through her books. She loves her touch & feel book and loves petting the rabbits and puppies. Last night, she was licking the puppy page over and over. I didn't see her licking the "fur" off the puppies, just the page around it. So I was surprised to pick up the book afterward and find the puppy "fur" soaking wet. It made me laugh. 
• Noses. Carly loves to stick her fingers up peoples noses. Surprisingly, it doesn't get old...
• Pics/Videos. Whenever I show her pics or videos of herself, she smiles and giggles/squeals (especially if she's giggling or squealing in the video). She will smile at the picture of daddy that shows on my phone when I'm calling him.

Wow. Where has the time gone? Can't believe we're just one month away from having a 1 yr old.

Fall and Food

Oh how I have missed Fall. The leaves falling, the many different colors of leaves, and different textures. Yes let's talk about texture. Why do I love crunchy leaves? I don't know, but I love to step on leaves and hear them crunch. As I have been training for a half marathon, that has been my enjoyment during my runs now that Fall has come. Weird, I know, but it's the truth.

I'm obsessed with some new recipes that I've tried. First of all, stuffed peppers. Yum! And that's really all I have to say about that. Not sure I'm a huge basil fan, but I reduced it just a bit and LOVE it in the stuffed peppers, as well as, this salmon recipe. The combo was to die for. Ok, I really love salmon too. The other new recipe I've tried recently is this Asian Beef with Snow Peas. Honestly, I didn't have snow peas so I used broccoli. Note to self: cook the veggies separate (not with the sauce). The sauce is great on the beef, not so much on the veggies. Basically, I love allrecipes.com. I type in what I'm looking for and then sort it based on popularity. I tend to get really great recipes that way.

Disclaimer - first thing in the morning picture. I had to post this because it was HILARIOUS. It was a little bit chilly, so I thought I would stick Carly in my robe. She thought it was funny and was smiling and laughing a bit. I stood in front of the mirror so she could see, and she thought it was hilarious.

Little Miss Carly May turns 11 months on the 9th of this month. Wow, I can't believe how time has just flown by. She is just starting to scoot a tiny bit lol. Someday she will crawl... someday. She had her first ear infection this last week. Really sad. But, after just a few doses of amoxicillin, she was a totally different girl. Sleeping and eating much better. More about her on her 11 month post to come!

health insurance headache

ok so i have to vent. i have been super annoyed with trying to get health insurance in washington state. they have 2 open enrollment periods during the year, in which you don't have to do the standard health questionnaire. otherwise, you have to qualify under an exception (but that only applies for children under the age of 19). and of course that's who we care about the most for getting our health insurance. i'm not sure if it was just assurant, or if any insurance provider would have been this much work. i started the application in mid july and have just recently finished the process and have my family covered. after requesting documents from my previous insurance to show that, we are still covered and they wouldn't provide coverage if we moved to washington (meanwhile, hoping they wouldn't ask me if i had moved to washington already, and terminate me), it took 2 weeks to finally get them and i immediately forwarded them to assurant. at the end of the week, i saw that my application had expired. this was confusing, because i had been in contact with them and had just turned in all the documents they needed. i got them to resubmit my app to the underwriter. they realized they were looking at the wrong exception, and i should qualify and be covered. but then they wanted me to keep my effective date because they had to follow "state regulations" (which had already passed, it was less than a week away from the new month, and no, i didn't want to pay for 2 different health insurances for that month). i asked if they could look into it and i was told that i could either take the 8/1/12 effective date, or i could re-apply for coverage. are you kidding? all that work and effort just to re-apply? heck, if i'm going to start from scratch, maybe i should go with a different company. or just shoot for open enrollment. so why did i bother to get all the right documents in the first place? luckily, i have a dad that knows all the tricks from all his years of selling health insurance. he told me to call the washington office of insurance commissioner. i did. the lady i spoke with said that if they re-opened my app because of their error, they technically could change the effective date as well. ok, so it's not "state regulation" that i have to keep my original effective date? hmmm... she told me i should file a complaint. she also said i could ask them to review the decision. so i emailed the lady i had been corresponding with at assurant. i told her i just got off the phone with the commissioner's office and that i was told that change could be made. i said, i was encouraged to file a complaint but thought i would ask for a review of the decision first. the response i got was that my effective date had been changed to 9/1/12. wow. well, problem solved. not sure if i'll stay with assurant very long, but that's the coverage we have for now. can't beat paying $230/mo for a family policy that let's us do a copay for office visits. i really miss having benefits through the hospital or school and not have to worry about all this hassle. i guess we can only be disappointed in government regulation and the way healthcare is headed in our country. i kind of wish medical care was more like dental care, or anything that is do-able by being self-pay. i think someday i want to become a nurse practitioner and have my own clinic that just sees self-pay patients, with affordable prices.

10 months!

I cannot believe I am posting about little miss Carly being 10 months! Didn't she just turn 9 months? Well, she is 10 months as of today and I can't say that too much has changed. She has always been a good baby and just likes to chill. The hardest thing is that she likes her bed so much that she won't really nap in her carseat anymore. This makes church a long 3 hours. I have been amazed at how much she loves music. She's always like music & especially those baby einstein movies. Her favorite is Baby Mozart. The last 2 weeks we've taken her to choir practice at church and she has a great time. She's all smiles. So here's the new stuff. She is bouncing & moving around a lot more. She will lean so far forward that she's on her knees and even will end up on her stomach when she sees something she wants. She loves to grab glasses off of people's faces. She is very good at turning the pages of her books. It's fun to watch her with her animal touch & feel books. She now tries to pull the fur off the dog and rabbit on the pages :) She does have new noises she makes, and I love every one.

 She loves those veggie straws/chips. Daddy was blowing on her hair and she was smiling. 

 Reading her book, all by herself. 

 Her new toothbrush.

 She loves sweet potato & chicken baby food. 

 This is a toy from my childhood. She actually loves it. It has a little rattle inside and she loves the little hair on top of its head. 

 Who doesn't love yogurt? This baby LOVES yogurt. Speaking of which, I need to go grocery shopping and get some more...

 Walking on the beach in her backpack. Happy girl. 

 She was so peaceful in her sleep. I didn't expect the flash & sound to go off (because my phone was on silent), hence the movement. She loves her bed and loves to snuggle with her eeyore. 

 This is what she does when she find something she really wants. Unfortunately, sometimes she can't get past this position. She actually started crying here because her legs were stuck. She really wanted that movie though. Yes we still watch VHS movies lol. 

Looking cool with her sunglasses.