Trick or Treat town

Just wanted to share some pictures of the boys at Trick or Treat town this year. Both boys were dressed as dinosaurs, well, dragons, but Xavier insisted they were dinosaur costumes. We also let Xavier decide what we would be for Halloween, which was interesting. We were willing to be dinosaurs too, but he wanted Scott to be a pig and me to be a butterfly. I have no idea where he gets these ideas, but at least he didn't want Scott to be the butterfly, right?


Xavier had a lot of fun there and of course, Toby slept the whole time. And every day since then, Xavier has been asking to go trick or treating again. Oh, and trying to get to his pumpkin on the counter. It's amazing the things he will say or do to get to the candy. The other day I caught him on his stool next to the counter, and when I walked into the kitchen, he pretended he was trying to "fix" the dishwasher. Ridiculous I tell you. That and persistent.

Tomorrow we plan to go to "Howl-o-ween" where dogs are dressed up in costume. It's free and we think Xavier will get a kick out of all the dogs in costume. I picked up a little shark costume from Target for Atillah. I'm sure it's not his favorite thing in the world, but he doesn't seem to mind too much. He'll probably only be wearing it for pictures and then we'll take it off. I wish I could have found a dinosaur one, but I didn't want to spend more than a couple bucks on a dog costume. Tomorrow night, we just plan to go trick or treating to a couple houses here in our cul-de-sac and then stay in to hand out candy to the neighbor kids.


Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and posts lots of pics of their little cuties in costumes!

Xavier cleaning out his pumpkin before Scott carved it.
Our little pumpkin Toby

Following up on some of the comments left from Yvonne's post,...Even though my husband thinks so, I wasn't trying to be mean,...just realistic. Only trying to say to enjoy two and don't stress, cuase it only gets trickier with more--regardless of how independent they are. :)I guess that's just one of the many joys of being a parent, especially a mom!

But I want you to all know that Nathan is an awesome Mr. Mom! I had several people compliment on how well the kids were dressed and how cute the girl's hair was,...with braids even! I wish he would have taken a picutre. That's twice now in the past couple months that I have "abandoned" my family. The first time was to visit my grandma (dad's mom) in Panama at the end of September. And then just last week I flew to Hawaii to attend one of my other grandma's (mom's mom) funeral.
Although I know how amazing he is,..I too was impressed to come home to the front porch lined with 4 beautiful pumpkins they carved for FHE.

Boks, books, books

I forgot to ask. When I was in Utah it was easy to identify books that were clean and not to explicit because they were marked as LDS and christian books. Now I am having a harder time finding things to read. Any author or book suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Thanks!!!

OK, so I amfinally getting with it and getting going on here. Sorry I am a big slacker. Honestly, there does not seem to be much to report though. Here is the rundown of our family.
Ryan is busy as can be with work and school. He gets pretty tired doing fulltime work and school but he is managing pretty well as far as we can tell. One of his teachers recently reported to his mother (yes, to his mother, they are neighbors) that he is an excellent writer and is doing well in her class. So, besides having to tolerate doing projects with crazy old women, he is doing well.
Jonathan is ever reporting on his friends from school. He likes to complain when his friends don't do their homework and have to miss recess. Then he gets frustrated when I make him do his homework. Someday the connection will click, right?!?!?! His claim to fame for the past month was losing his first tooth. The silly thing was just hanging there so I pulled it out. Robert promptly decided he did not want to lose a tooth until the next morning when he learned about the tooth fairy. Since then, he frequently tells me that he wants to lose a tooth. Jonathan, like Shannon's kids, has a Teacher conference this week so that should be interesting. His real teacher has only been there for the last month and I still don't feel like she is 100% there but such is the way sometimes.
Robert is generally spending his time missing his brother but is starting to enjoy getting to go to storytime and do projects and stuff by himself. He tends to be shy and quiet (as you all know from the reunion) but he is warming up to being involved. His newest interest is counting everything and he wants to start writing his name. We have to take him to the eye doctor probably next week or the week after so we will see what adventures that will bring.
Katelyn finally got into the doctor for her 12 month check up (2 months late). She is doing great and in the 90th percentile for her height and 75th percentile for her weight. She didn't even cry when she got her two shots, not a single sound. It was crazy but nice. Our new doctor is a bit of a loon but tolerable because he seems to know his stuff. Katelyn's new favorite activities are making her brothers scream, climbing on everything and jumping (kid jumping where they don't actually leave the ground). Since the doctor's she developed a cold so we are not sleeping much but life will go on.
Me, I am mom. I think that about sums it up. I just try to keep up with all that needs to get done and keep the house livable. Tomorrow is pumpkin carving day for us so I will update next week for halloween.
Love you guys.
Megan

Hi to All - I have been thoroughly enjoying all your pictures and posts. It is so great to hear what is happening in each of your lives. I am looking forward to seeing the pictures that get put on the snapfish site that Amber has set up for reunion pictures. Dad has been assigned the job of adding what we have so hopefully that will happen soon. I am taking most of next week off work ( have to work Friday) and my plan is to get a bunch of projects done in the garage. If you have any absolutely must have scrollsaw type item ideas now is the time to tell me. I plan to complete bunches of things in those 4 days. Maybe a quarter of it will actually get done.
The weather here is still pretty nice. We haven't seen a sign of snow down here yet and even the snow in the mountains has melted quite a bit - at least on Lazy. Uncle Chick went back to Mayo and got a pretty clean bill of health. The cancer isn't gone but is in remission so he doesn't need any further treatments for now. He goes back in June. I can't imagine him with no hair except for eyebrows. I imagine it is growing back now.
Grandma sounds like she is doing pretty well. She has been up for some walks down the halls lately ( with one of the aides) so she is happy about that. They hadn't had her up much since she fell. Thanks again for sharing your family news.
Love You All!
Mom

Our new addition

This week we got a new addition to our home...

Meet Betsy. HE (yes he) is Elijah's new fish. We were studying letter F for preschool this week

and I decided it would be fun to get a fish.

I pushed for Betas over goldfish, but the boys were determined that they were getting goldfish. The boys each chose a gold fish and off we went. Christian named his fish Goldy, then changed it to goldilocks. Each night, I tell the kids a Goldilocks and Betsy story at bedtime, so that is how Elijah decided his fish should be Betsy. On our way home, we decided to stop by Mark's school during lunch to show him our fish. When we pulled up the bag to show him, Goldilocks was already belly up! Christian assured us that as soon as we fed him, he would be fine, but by the time we got home, there were still no signs of life and Christian was asleep so Elijah and I set up Betsy's new home and flushed Goldilocks. The boys were suprisingly not upset about the whole thing. Elijah told me that it was okay, because, as his babysitter Camilla told him, the toilet water comes up through the sprinklers, so Goldilocks would squirt out in the yard one day. I assured him that will not happen! The good thing about Goldilocks short life span is that now each time Elijah checks on Betsy, he tells us how amazing it is that he is still alive and that Betsy is a survivor fish!

In other news, Caleb had his two month check up this week and weighed in at 8 lbs 7 oz. He is gaining an average of an oz a day, which the doctor is very happy with. He is smiling now, but only at me and when no one else is around, so Mark is not convin

ced. He'll flash one at daddy soon and melt his heart, just like he does mine each time he does it. You can almost see his smile in this picture, but he was just finishing smiling at me.

Mark and Elijah flew up to Utah this weekend for the BYU game for Mark's birthday present. They went to ESPN college game day and we worked hard to spot them on TV and thought we caught a glimpse of a red headed boy, then Mark told me that Elijah was wearing a hat, so I guess we didn't see him after all! They had fun in spite of the game not going so well. Several of Mark's siblings and his mom met them there. I told him that meant for my birthday in April, I get to go somewhere with my sisters and mom, so where should it be?!

Aubrey is standing next to me, correcting my spelling and grammar. She says her news is that she is going to Isaac's party this week. She is doing great in school and gets all A's in conduct. Report cards come out this week and we have parent teacher conferences. So, stay tuned for news on that...

Courtney has been busy, busy, busy. With going to GATE one day a week, she has to get all her regular class work done and her GATE work. She has a field trip down to the ocean this week for GATE and is very excited for that. She is hoping for straight A's on her report card, but nervous about her math grade.

straw maze

Our local grocery store set up a little straw maze in the edge of their parking lot, so last night we went over there to take some fall pics of the kids. Turns out Ayana is kind of a wimp and is scared of almost all the halloween decorations, but that is okay. She seemed to think it was pretty cool anyway and it was a fun little activity. We also got some family pictures taken yesterday, but both kids were pretty fussy, so we will see if they turn out. Luckily we found a photographer who charges only $5 so even if they don't turn out we won't be out much. I should have them back in about a week and will post any good pics when I get them. I also got a new haircut this week, I like it, but think that in a month or two I will go back and get it shorter. It was kind of an ordeal, first I went to the beauty school and hated the haircut they gave me, so after 2 days of trying to convince myself that it was alright I finally gave up and went to a different salon. She didn't really cut it how I wanted either, but it is much, much better and she gave me some nice highlights. I am sure when I get the family pics back you will be able to see the cut better. Here are some pics of our straw maze adventure!