That's personal!

After a few crazy things on my blog I've decided to make this a private party. I really don't know who reads this regularly mostly because I don't post regularly but if you would like to keep up on our comings and goings and you don't have an invite leave a comment with your email. I won't post the comments but will send an email invite.

Thanks and keep in touch!
Marielle

Happy Halloween!

We had a great month with Halloween and it seemed like there was always something going on and by last night I was just about Halloween-ed out. But we still had a great night trick-or-treating with the boys.

Caleb dressed up as a dinosaur, of course. What else would he be? He totally loved it and wanted to wear his costume around the house almost everyday. I should say he loved it up until about an hour before going trick-or-treating when he watched Go Diego's Halloween adventure in which Diego is dressed as a bat and then he wanted to be a bat. We said no. He was still a dinosaur.


Ian obviously had to be something to "match" his brother so he was a caveman. I have to say, once we got the costume on him it was SO FITTING! I mean, toddlers are basically little neanderthals anyway. He fit the part a little too well. Our ward Halloween party was in a member's back yard and they have a little fountain. Ian stood there in costume just yelling at the water and waving his arms in excitement. He was so excited you'd think he had just discovered fire. If we tried to take him away he screamed. It was hilarious. Well, the screaming was a little embarrassing.


Here's the boys on their way to go trick-or-treating! This is the best picture we could get since it is impossible to get Caleb to look at the camera when he is holding a glow-stick and Ian will not stop moving.


We met up with Caleb's friend and walked around with them all night. We had a lot of fun I know Caleb had more fun with him than he would have with just us. They learned quickly how it all works. They got super brave about knocking the door and saying trick-or-treat and they were both really good about saying thank you and Happy Halloween as they left. These boys made a haul! Caleb's bag got a little heavy for him but undaunted he switched his for Ian's empty bag and just kept going.

Ian wouldn't let anyone hold him and wouldn't ride in the stroller. So Scott walked around with him until he got tired. Then he relented to the stroller for a while. Then he was done. All around we had a very fun Halloween.

P.S. The picture at the top is the pumpkin Scott carved this year. Here in the desert they don't last more than a day usually and he carved it 6 days before Halloween. So every night we stuck it in the sink full of water. Each morning it would look good as new and then would wilt during the day. But it did survive until Halloween!

I'm a winner

I would like to clear up any rumors that I have fallen off the face of the earth. I have taken a break from blogging due to a busy summer. This is long so I apologize in advance to you people he who hate when people put really long blog posts (jessica :)

Here were some highlights:
Caleb turned 3! (Previously documented) He's such a smart boy. He has started Pre-school and is doing really well. He loves to go play with the kids and is excited to show me what they made each day. He is still addicted to baseball and his latest love is the Mr. Potatohead toys that Ian got for his birthday, go figure. He still loves Super Why and also loves Dinosaur Train. We made the mistake of getting a Go Diego Go video from the library so now he always tells me he's go Diego, an animal rescuer. He's really into dinosaurs and his favorite book is Tadpole Rex. He makes us laugh everyday. If I call Scott dad he says, "No, you call him Scott."

We had a great trip to Utah for the fourth (previously documented).

Scott's sisters moved to Arizona! We are so happy they are near by. It's so fun to have them there.

A great trip to Idaho for my Grandpa's 90th birthday. We had a great time. It was so fun to see all my cousins. I sure love my family and when I'm around them I feel proud to be counted among them.

Two weeks later the boys and I were back in Idaho for my other grandpa's funeral. It was a sad occasion. I took comfort in that he did live a long good life. It was neat to be there and to hear the stories from his youth and all the things he loved. I learned a lot about them then. My uncle told a funny story about him. He had started to talk to my grandpa about things he was involved in during his youth and my grandpa said he was on the debate team and something else I don't remember. THen he told my uncle, "I was a winner." My uncle said, "Oh, yeah? What did you win? Did you go to regional or state?" "No, but I was a winner." Totally my grandpa. We are winners. It's in our blood.

Then next weekend we Scott and I went to Pinetop for his 29th birthday (the first of many). WITHOUT KIDS! Oh, what a treat that was. I love my kids but it was SOOOO nice to sleep in and go mountain biking and sit in a hot tub without worrying about kids and eat dinner while it was still warm and go out to dinner without screaming kids. We even went to Antique stores and I didn't have to worry about leaving with lots of broken vases we didn't want. Oh the simple pleasures. It was nice to come home and see their smiling faces. Caleb wasn't so happy when we showed up. He had a great time but once he was in my arms he wouldn't let me put him down all evening. Welcome home, mom!

Ian turned 1!!! How fast time goes. He is such a happy boy and we are so glad he's in our family. He loves his brother wrestling him and playing with him. He is walking and basically follows Caleb around all day. He loves to music and loves to dance. He "sings" himself to sleep everynight and has started singing along with his toys that play music. It is so cute. He is so busy and is always into everything. He can climb the stairs before i even notice he's gone. He eats his dinner and usually finishes Caleb's as well. But with how busy he is he needs all the fuel he can get. He can say "mama" and "duck" thanks to the endless games of duck duck goose we play everyweek at FHE. We sure love our little Ian-pants!

Scott's parents came down for his birthday. It was so fun to have them visit and celebrate with us. We had a Curious George cake. Ian LOVES Curious George and before he was walking he'd crawl like a monkey on his hands and feet trying to keep up with Caleb or escape his mom. We had a great party. Caleb loved the new toys and Ian loved the wrapping paper. It was a success all around.

Scott's been busy working and being an awesome husband and daddy. I'm busy babysitting during the day and my latest obsession is Goodreads.com. I love getting updates on what my friends are reading and getting a chance to share my opinions on the books I am reading. It's great fun.

Well, if you stuck with me thorough all of that you are a good friend! Thanks for caring.

"Surprise!"

We decided to go to Utah for the 4th this year. I think this was the first year since 2000 I was in Utah for the 4th. It was so nice to get away from the heat and we were lucky enough to be there for a perfect weekend. Though it was too short we had a great time visiting our families. It was especially nice to do things you can't do for the 4th in AZ such as, go to parades, run in a 5k, eat outside, light sparklers...pretty much everything.

We got to go to the Oquirrah Temple open house with my family and that was so neat. It was a bit of a challenge with C and his cousins. They tend to be a little rambunctious when they first see eachother but for the most part they all behaved really well in the temple for which I was grateful.


Our little family


The obligatory and impossible grandchild shot. We've completely given up even trying to get all of them to look at the camera at the same time. This one's not too bad except Caleb.

My family knew we were coming but Scott's didn't so that was really fun. Friday evening we dropped Caleb and Ian on the doorstep and rang the door bell. It was so fun to hear everyone's surprised shrieks when they saw them sitting there. We caused a bit of a problem and had to kick Scott's aunt and uncle out of their room for the night but it all worked out, for us anyway.

We knew they had signed up to run the Freedom Festival 5k so we signed up and had started "training" which means we kept talking about how we needed to go out and run and actually did it three or four times. So when the day came we started at the back with the kids in the stroller. They were such troopers and had a lot of fun until we got the the finish line and Ian realized how hungry he was (so glad he waited till then). We finished just 16 seconds behind Scott's mom and aunt who have really been training...ha ha ha... suckers. Ah, it's great to be young. I know, my day will come.
Here we are before the race: Scott's mom, Scott, me, Ian and Caleb. Unphotographed: my mother-in-law's shorts. I promise they were there...
And here we are after the race. Excited we did it! Caleb is being silly and Ian is protesting because he was so hungry. I'm not sure what LaShon was doing.

That's better.

We went to the parade and Caleb loved it. Thanks to my sistas-in-law we had great seats in the shade. And Ian feel asleep which was nothing short of miraculous.
Caleb and his...I dunno... second cousin? first cousin once removed? Whatever. Notice the red hair. Now please never ask me again where he gets his red hair from.

We spent the rest of the day eating, playing the wii, and hanging out with family. We ended it with the annual "Driveway of fire" which is Scott's neighbor's lawn where you can watch the Stadium of Fire show. We had a great time with everyone.

We were also very lucky to be there that weekend because Scott's really good friend since forever had been baptized on Tuesday and we were able to be to his confirmation that Sunday. It was so great for Scott to see him and be up there with all his friends. It was a really special day. I was sad we didn't make it to the baptism but I'm so glad we were able to be there for the confirmation.

We drove home Monday and the kids did great! I am amazed at how cheerful they can be during such a long car ride but they do great. We had a great visit! Driving home we just talked about how grateful we are for such a wonderful family! We are so blessed.

The big 3!!!

Wow! I can't believe that my Caleb is 3! I actually feel like he must be older than that because he has been with us for only three short years and yet I can't imagine life without him. I hardly remember what it was like not to have kids. He's such a fun boy and brings such joy to our home. He is always doing and saying funny things. He's so good with Ian (...usually...) and is so independent.

We had a great time celebrating all weekend and were lucky enough to have Scott's mom and sisters here for the festivities. It 's always more fun when there are more people to celebrate with. I'm so glad they came.


On his birthday we went to a baseball game. He had a great time and kept telling me that what was happening. His aunts bought him a big foam hand and he either had that or Scott's mitt on the entire game. Scott made a sign that said Hit one here, It's my birthday and Caleb was holding a little one that said I'm three today. We tried and tried to get on the big screen but to no avail. By the 8th inning (yes, we made it through the whole game with a three year old and two infants.) the group of people behind us started yelling, "Come on! It's his birthday!" Then they sang happy birthday to him. It was really nice. They had fireworks after so we told Caleb it was for his birthday. He covered his ears since it was so loud but loved the fire works. He still talks about having fireworks on his birthday.


On Saturday we had a party for him and a few of his friends. They played games and had cupcakes. The highlight was a pinata. It was a pull-string pinata so instead of blindfolding three year-olds and letting them loose with a bat they just each picked a string and pulled it and one string opened a trapdoor and dropped the candy. It just so happened that the very last string pulled was the "magic" string so all the kids got a couple of tries. They loved it. He got lots of fun presents and had a really good time.


He was totally spoiled once again. Every Christmas and birthday I tell him not to get used to this and then every holiday he is spoiled all over again. But this birthday he was spoiled more than usual. He got clothes which he was not the least bit interested in, books, cars, sand toys, a work bench with tools, a digital camera, and a motorcycle...yes, a power wheels Harley Davidson Motorcycle (yea for grandmas and aunts!). He LOVED everything. He loves the camera and takes pictures all the time. He also loves the motorcycle, as you can imagine. When he got it rode it around a little and then we said it was too hot and went inside. All day long he kept saying, "It's not hot anymore?"

We had a great time. Thanks to everyone for making it such a fun day for my little boy! He was so sad when we took down the party decorations and said, "It's not my birthday anymore? Oh, that's sad."

"Well that's one way to pull a tooth"

I don't even know how to start this post so I'll just post this (I don't know why this is underlined and I don't know how to stop it):


Here's C's new look. Sunday night we were eating dinner and he was standing on a chair and it tipped and he went tooth first into the counter. He started screaming and I grabbed him and took him to the bathroom because he had started bleeding. When I was washing off the blood I saw that his tooth was gone and I freaked out. I started screaming for Scott and that his tooth was gone. I realize that is not the best way to handle it but I was kind of in shock. We got the bleeding under control and grabbed the tooth and the kids and ran to the urgent care. After a LONG wait they said there was nothing they could do because with baby teeth they don't recommend trying to put it back in.

He was such a trooper. We didn't give him anything for the pain before we left because we were in such a hurry. When we got home I asked him if his head hurt and he kept saying no. By the end of the night he acted as if nothing had happened. I cut my finger and whined about it for days. He knocks a tooth out and is fine! He was so sweet too. When we were coming home he could tell that I was really upset (I guess the constant crying was kind of a give away) and he kept saying, "Daddy, I'm happy." "Mommy's sad. I'm happy."

We took him the to dentist the next day and the good news is he really knocked it right out. They did an x-ray and there was nothing left where the tooth had been. His other teeth are all okay and he's healing really well. We could see his adult teeth in the x-ray which was pretty cool to see. He was GREAT for the dentist!

So we had our first visit from the tooth fairy Monday night. He was a little confused because Tuesday morning he came and told me that a bunny had been in our house and left him a present. I had to keep telling him it wasn't the Easter bunny it was the tooth fairy. He got some little toys and fruit snacks but has been WAY more excited about the bouncy ball and baseball he got from the dentist.

He is doing great. He's such a resilient kid and so brave! I'm the one suffering! On Monday every time he smiled I wanted to cry. Scott was able to come to the dentist with us and I was SO glad he was there! I'm still kind of freaking out. I keep hoping that I'll wake up and it will be a dream. But all in all, it could be much worse. They asked us at the urgent care if he lost consciousness and checked for a concussion and none of that happened. Since the whole tooth came out they don't have to do surgery to get broken bits out, it didn't do any damage to his other teeth or adult teeth.

As if we weren't overprotective enough this has REALLY made us nervous. Every time C climbs on something, even a pillow we freak out. If he runs I kind of freak out because he might trip. We were saying last night that we just need to wrap him in foam from head to toe and make him wear a football helmet all the time just to keep us sane!

This has fueled a debate at our house, what will C before Halloween. Honestly, we talk about this all year. With his red hair it's fun to think of different costumes to show it off. Now Scott wants him to be a boxer or a hockey player. Even with his tooth gone I'm still holding out for Buddy the elf. You can weigh in on that if you want. We always take suggestions.

Ian got his first tooth. So, one in and one out. I just hope they don't keep up with that little trend.

Here he is!

This video was shot last week when we were at the Children's Museum.

He has only gotten faster.