Our kids

The Halloween Book

My first Halloween with child was just 4 years ago. I have since had two more children. I sit down and try to say what each child was in what year can just make my head spin! This year I put together a book of my kids in their Halloween costumes for every year. I had this idea in my head for a few years. I made sure to get a good picture of my children to put together in this book. I have fianlly made this photo album that I have set out so anyone can see how my children have grown on Halloween. On the back of each picture, I have written a little something about that Halloween adventure.

I bought this photo albulm at Hobby Lobby. The vinyl is from uppercase living http://katidiane.upercaseliving.net

This is Raelyn's first Halloween. She was an Angel. This is me and her and my tiny baby bump with Maelee inside.

This is Maelee's first Halloween. Raelyn is Snow white and Maelee is Tinkerbelle.

The little witch and the little Angel. Althought, the Angel didnt want to smile for the camera.

This is Tyson's first Halloween, He is a Garden Gnome.  Raelyn is a bumble bee and Maelee is a fairy. Noticed the last 3 Halloweens were all on the stairs. This was our last year at that house.

This is for this year. I took a picture, but haven't printed it up quite yet. Raelyn was a Go Go Girl. Maelee was Rapunzel. Tyson was a tacky tourist.

I will contine with this tradition until my kids are too old to be dressing up for Halloween. I am now working on a Thanksgiving Photo Album and then Christmas.

Disneyland

Monday the 17th of October we left for Disneyland.  Our first family vacation since Raelyn was 6 months old.  The six hour car drive was a dream if your definition of a dream is three screaming children.  Raelyn and Maelee seemed to do everything contrary to the other just to make the other mad.  I am sure I never did that as a child.  Some peace was found when they each played with their leapsters.  Of coures we only purchased two games and they always wanted the game the other had.  Go figure.  Though 30 minutes after arriving to our hotel Tyson decided to go all Michaelangelo and nunchuck Raelyn's leapster into a table leg.  Busted the screen and rendered the Leapster worthless. . . good thing we are at the happiest place on earth.

The first day at Disneyland was a blast.  First stop was the tea cups.  I pull the camera out only to find out that I left the battery charging in the hotel.  Of course our camera only takes the special Sony battery, so no pictures of the morning of Day 1.  Tyson loved the tea cups and carousel.  Raelyn loved all the rides, except the Matterhorn, and Maelee enjoyed Dumbo and the carousel.  After three and a half hours we breaked for lunch, Tyson and Maelee were beat and ready for a nap.  

In our three days at Disneyland we did meet Tiana, Ariel, Belle, Snow White, and Rapunzel.  It was so fun to watch Maelee interact with them.  I often forget how real these things are to the kids.  The two nights we watched Mickey's parade at the end of the day, Maelee could not stop waiving to all the princess'.  Even on the Ariel ride Maelee was waving to Ariel and Eric in every scene.

  

Raelyn loved all the rides, except of course Matterhorn.  Our first stop the first day was the tea cups, followed by Alice in Wonderland.  After that, Raelyn told me she wanted to ride a real rollorcoaster.  So we went on the Matterhorn.  I rode in the back of the car holding on to Mae, and Rae was all by herself in the front of the car (Kati stayed behind with Ty).  By the end of the ride Raelyn was laying down completely flat in car.  She did not ask to ride another real rollercoaster again and every time we passed the Matterhorn I had to hear both Rae and Mae say, "Daddy, I don't like the Matterhorn."  

Tyson absolutely loved the tea cups, Finding Nemo, and Buzzlightyear rides.  If you have ever been on the Nemo ride, you know between scenes bubbles blow up by the windows to block your view.  When the bubbles would block Tyson's view, he would lean over to look out Raelyn's window to the right, then Kati's window to the left just to make sure he was not missing anything.  He had a lot of fun on the Buzz Lightyear ride trying to shoot the evil emperor Zerg.  Not a bad shot for a little guy.  

The Ward Campout

We went to the ward camp out this weekend. It was in a beautiful spot just north of Strawberry. Tom and the kids love to camp, so it was nice to get-a-way for the weekend. It rained, which I thought was nice, and it was cold at night. We left 60 degree weather to come back to the dreaded 100 degrees. bleh.

 Look at these kids! They couldn't be happier! The just love to go camping. Seriously, the absolutely love it! That is our camping trailer in the back. We bought it a year ago, and it was the best purchase ever. I am all about camping if I don't have to sleep in a tent. It is a pop-up, so it is small to store and roomy to camp in.

Here are some pics of the kids having fun...

 It is so hard to get Tyson to look at the camera when I am taking a picture. He kept turning his head. He also won't hold still so I get a lot of pictures of him walking

 This log was the kids' favorite part! They kept asking to go play on the the log. The could play here for hours! We didn't want to stay for too long since it was far from the campsite and Tom and I are afraid of bears. (He brought his 9mm to protect us :0))

 I was trying to get a few cute shots. This is Maelee sniffing a flower

 This is me. I hardly ever have pictures of me. I try to make sure to at least get one pic of me. Seriously, this is the only one we took while we were there. I wish we had taken a more flattering pic. But, hey it's camping hair, right???

 Tom is all about camping wearing his cameo.

 Tyson's turn to smell the flowers.

 Tyson is so adorable! Tom put on his bandanna on Ty. He loves his only little boy. (Ignore the ASU shirt, since clearly Tom graduated from University of Phoenix and I am enrolled in NAU. It was a hand-me-down)

 The log

 It was so nice that there are so many small children in the ward for our kids to play with. We hardly had to entertain them. Tyson just loved being outside. He, like most boys, loves to get dirty. He loves exploring. He loves trying to act like a big kids with the big kids.

I love ward camp outs. They are always short and sweet. It is so much fun to camp with the ward members and get to know them better. It is also nice that it is only on night.

August 19-20, 2011

The Bunion

I have had these hideous bunion since I was 14 yrs old! Most people do not develop them at such a young age. Most people get them as they are older. I am just lucky I guess. So I decided it was time to get something done about this! I went to a Podiatrist and scheduled a surgery. The surgery is quick and was only 1hr long. The recovery, on the other hand, is 8 weeks!

What is a bunion? Well, it is your big toe joint that gets pushed out when your toe gets pushed in. High heels and tight shoes can overtime cause a bunion to form. In my case, genetics played a role. Not exactly sure how, it just sorta did it on its own.

Here is my before pic. This was taken just hours before my surgery.

This is my first follow up appt 4 days later.

(Caution: if you are faint of heart)

This is what it looks like today! It has been just over a month since my surgery. I still have 3 more weeks left wearing my boot. The swelling will go down in 6 months or so. I am feeling great and can't wait until the boot comes off and the cute shoes come one!

(Yeah, I know need to paint the nails. Gonna get a pedicure once the boot is off )

Poopdate

As most of you know, my children have chronic constipation. It is an uphill battle with the girls to keep them regular. They receive a stool softener daily and without it they will get backed up. We are in the process of weening them from it. Tyson, no surprise, also gets constipated. However, we found as long as we keep prunes in his diet he will stay regular. Thank Heavens! No more anal fissure for him. I hope someday, they will all poop.

We literally log all of our children's BMs. It's the topic of our conversions around the dinner table. We talk about poop all day long. When I give Tom a call at work, without a doubt we will converse with one another about our kid's poop. I am sure the guys at his work that listen to recorded conversation giggle out our conversations because it always involves poop. We even describe the type of BM because they need 'mashed potatoes' and not 'play dough' poop. Seriously, we talk about poop ALL THE TIME!

So with all this poop talk, we coined the phrase "poopdate" It's an contraction of "poop update" or a pun for "update". We give each other poopdates through out the week so we know how our kids are doing.

So yes, know that you all learned this new awesome word, you can now use it in your daily conversations. So the next time you need to tell someone about your poop, just think "poopdate"

Raelyn's First Day of Pre-School

Raelyn starts pre-school today! She was so excited! Last Friday we went and met her teacher and had so much fun. I think she will do well because she wants to play with friends all the time. We went and bought her new school shoes and a folder. She picked out a Disney Princess folder.

I asked Raelyn if she needed a little snack before she left to school. Of all the things, she wanted a carrot! Here is a picture of Maelee and Raelyn chopping down on their carrots, their most favorite vegatable.