Halloween Party at the Church

We couldn't get Quinn to dress up again...no big surprise!  Instead, we just painted our faces.  Quinn wouldn't get his face painted without us getting it painted too.  I had a skeleton shirt already for them so I just had them wear that.  I think it turned out pretty well.

 Paxton was kind of dressed up as two things.  When he didn't have his jacket on he was a zombie skeleton like the rest of us.  When it was on he was a skunk. 

I was hoping his paint would like it was on purpose for the skunk.  Since trunk or treating was outside he was a skunk during that time.

Halloween Party at Grandma Karen's house

Quinn is really funny about Halloween.  He says he wants to be Spiderman or Thomas the Train but when it's time to actually get dressed into his costume he doesn't want to wear it.  In a way, it's kind of frustrating.  How am I supposed to help a child when he himself doesn't even know what he wants?

We had a Halloween Party over at Grandma Karen's.  The plan was to be Thomas the Train but at the last minute he changed his mind and wanted to be Spiderman.  I couldn't get him to put it on.  I wasn't about to fight him over it.  It just wasn't worth.  I just brought them with us.  He put it on for about 2 seconds.

Karen had lots of games planned for the kids.  They had a ball with all of them.  They played fishing, the doughnut hole game, and frosting cookies.  I think there were more games but my mind is failing me now.

You have to know that during this time the boys were super sick.  I took them to the doctor and they were diagnosed with walking pneumonia.  I was so glad to have a diagnosis because looking at them they didn't seem that sick.  They would just run around like there was nothing wrong.  They would work themselves up and then just cough and cough.  Night time was the worst.  I was worried to take them out.  I didn't want to expose them to anything else while there immune system was down.  Uncle Wyatt and his Kirsten came to visit during this week.  I figured our house and Grandma's house was okay.

This was the week that Mike also had to student teach.  It was a busy busy week.  The week before and the week after wasn't all that bad.  Mike wasn't supposed to student teach until the next week.  That would have worked better for us since Wyatt wouldn't have been in town.  Hopefully by then the boys would feel better too. 

I remember staying up late so Mike could bounce ideas off of me for his lessons or so that he could practice.  A lot of times we wouldn't get home until way late.  I wanted him to do the best that he could.  We really want this.

 This is basically how they treated Wyatt the whole time he was here; as their personal punching bag.  Wyatt was really patient with them and seemed to enjoy playing with them.  These little boys are so full of energy so it was so nice to have Wyatt there to help them get it out.

The Train Show

 

Quinn absolutely loves trains.  Of course, we had to go to the train show.  I told Quinn about it and he kept track of when it was on his own.  He would look at the calendar every day in anticipation.  The morning of the train show he woke me at 5:00 saying it was time to go.  I told him to go back to bed since it didn't even open until 9:00.  He waited outside my door until I got out of bed.  He called this our date.  He would say, "Mom, do you want to go on a date with me?" 

I wanted to take Quinn alone without Paxton.  I knew Quinn could stay all day if I let him.  Paxton would tire and get bored easily.  Grandma Karen met us there.  She took Paxton and Quinn and I was able to stay till a little past nap time.  He agreed to not have stories read to him so he could stay a little longer.  It was a good thing I packed us a lunch or else we would have been starving.

Last year he just loved watching the trains go round and around.  He would run with them to keep up with them.  He was so cute about his excitement.  He had a few people engrossed in watching him because of his enthusiasm.  This year was a little bit different.  He thought the trains were cool and enjoyed looking at them.  He didn't have near the energy that he had last year.  He found a table where they sold electric trains.  They had one set up and they let kids try them out.  Once he learned of this and figured out how to run it; he was in love.  He would not move from that station no matter what.  He spent hours there.  Of course there were other kids that were interested in it too.  They would come and go.  I told him when there were other people he had to move and let them try it and then he could go right back to it.  He was very good and obedient about it.  It was a good thing I made friends with those at the booth.  They had a bench so I sat there with him and waited.  I knew he loved it so much that I didn't mind sitting there.  The whole day was for him anyways.

To get Quinn out the door I told him he could go ride the train.  He was super ecstatic about that.  I put Paxton in and he was okay with it until the train started to move.  He cried the whole time.  I didn't dare take him out just in case something would happen.  I don't think they wanted me to anyways.  He had to endure the ride.  Paxton went home right after this.  Quinn was a lucky duck and they let him ride the train twice.

A whole bunch of firsts for the boys...

Mike's brother Bryant and his family came down for a visit from Mesa, AZ.  These are some of the activities that we did while they were here.

Rigby Lake was a perfect place to take the kids.  The water was shallow enough the Quinn could still play without me worrying too much.  The only problem was that there was not any shade.  Sand and water are the perfect combination for kids.

Rigby Lake 7/10/2013

 These are actually sleds..for the snow.  They worked great at the lake.

 I was surprised at how independent and fearless he was with the water.

 

 Paxton was content to sit in the sand and just play.  He liked the water too to a point.  He thought it was too cold.  He would prefer to play in the sand though.

 He liked his feet just barely dipped into the water.  I would slowly get him wet, up to his waist, so he wouldn't over heat.  He looked so hot.

 

At the drive-in. 7/10/2013

 

We watched Despicable Me too.  I haven't seen the first one.  Even though...it was still cute.  I only got to see a little bit of it between wrestling the boys and taking Quinn to the bathroom.  The boys loved it and that's what matters.



 All comfortable in the back of the van.

 

I-Jump 7/11/2013

 

We went to I-Jump.  Quinn LOVED this.  In one area they had balls.  We played dodge ball or Quinn's version of dodge ball.  He threw them the best he could.  He did great.

 



 Quinn loved climbing up to the top of the trampoline and slide down.

 

 In the foam pit-well my picture got deleted and my time for blogging is running out.  Basically, we didn't pay for Paxton to jump.  I let him jump with us anyways.  They didn't say anything.  I think it was because he is so little they didn't really care.  It's not like he's going to do a lot anyways.  He had fun.  I'm glad he was able to jump.  It helped since we were there for so long.
 

 

Other activities that we participated in but didn't get pictures of...Laser Tag and Pizza & Shooting Guns.

 

These are just some random pictures.



 Borrowing Quinn's superman cape

He thought he was some hot stuff wearing this cape.  It was only allowed to happen because Quinn was napping at this time.  He kept making loops to the kitchen and living room strutting his stuff.

 Quinn loves his dinosaur

It seems like Quinn usually chooses something to go to sleep with each night.  It happened to be the dinosaur this time.  Whatever it is, he wraps it up.

Doing fireworks

I thought this picture was cute since it has all 3 of my boys. 

We let the boys throw some pop rocks.  They thoroughly enjoyed that.  We had a couple of sparklers left that they enjoyed as well.

Family Visiting 2012

Sunday, July 29
We first saw everyone at the baby blessing.  We were so excited to have family in town (see previous post).  We had a luncheon at my parents house in Ririe.  We thought that would be the best location.  Our house is too small to fit that many people although it does have a nice shaded backyard.  Gene and Karen's doesn't have any shade.  It is structured different that it is hard to fit a lot of people in their house as well.  So, thank you Mom and Dad for the use of your house.

Monday, July 30
We decided this would be the best day to go boating because then Joy could join us.  She had to work the rest of the week.

Gene took us on the boat and almost everyone tubed.  Mike was the only one that tried knee boarding.
Quinn decided he did not want to go in the water.  He only wanted to walk around playing in the dirt and looking for sticks.  He got brave a couple of times and sat in a tube.  But...he was sitting in the tube on the dirt.  Maybe the poor kid got tired.  It was sure hot outside too.

Paxton did well considering.  He was on the dock with us starting out and then got sleepy.  I fed him and then put him to sleep on a blanket.  He slept for about an hour and then woke.  Shortly after we left because he would not go back to sleep.  Quinn was getting tired.  The day before Quinn didn't get a nap because of the baby blessing.  Paxton got little sleep too.

We tried putting Quinn down for a nap but he had a hard time going to sleep.  He probably got about an hour worth of sleep.  We went to dinner at Gene and Karen's but came back early to put Quinn to bed.

Tues, July 31
We stayed the night in a cabin in Island Park.  We borrowed it from Mike's Aunt and Uncle.  We didn't go up till evening since we wanted to stay home and get Quinn a nap.  He actually napped this day.

We arrived just in time for dinner; tin foil dinners. We had a campfire and had to rast marshmellows.  We didn't have any grahams so we used fudge striped cookies and chocolate chip cookies.  They were really good.

Of course, we went to bed way too late.  Quinn kept us entertained by going around and have people fake drink from a toy cup.  Derrick fake burped after he did it and then Quinn expected everyone to do it.  It made him laugh so hard and the other kids also laughed.

Each couple had their own room.  The girls shared a room with G-ma in the bunk bed room.  The boys slept out on the floor in the living room.  We let Quinn sleep out there too.  Mike had to lay with him for him to fall asleep.  Sometime during the night, Quinn woke and walked around to other boys trying to wake them up.  Luckily, he wasn't successful.  Mike caught him in time though.

Paxton fell asleep around 9:30 and was out for the night except for the couple of time he woke in the night.  Other stated they didn't hear him.  That was good.

Wed, Aug 1
We woke kind of late and had breakfast.  We were slow getting started.  Some went down to Buffalo River to fish and the goal was to float later.  Mike was tired so he went back to sleep.  A few of us went on walk.

Karen and Kari help watch Quinn and Paxton while Mike and I floated.  It was a 30 minute float so we weren't too worried about leaving the boys.  Mike had made an agreement with his nieces and nephews that if they ate a bug he would pay them $5.  While we were floating, Bryant caught a dragon fly.  Without any thought, Madi ate it.  She left no reaction; nothing.  She's my hero.  How cool is that?

Max didn't want to float so he was on/around the dock looking for his dragon fly.  He never did catch one.

Someone, assuming it was Bryant, caught a fish and he was cooked for lunch.  We also had hotdogs as an option too.

Some floated down the river again but we decided to head home.  Paxton had just fallen asleep and it was time for Quinn's nap.  Quinn immediately fell asleep and even stayed asleep when we stopped for construction.  I had to go to the bathroom and Mike wanted ice cream.  Getting ice cream was a memory he had when he was a kid and they would float the river so he wanted some for old times sake.  Quinn woke during that stop and didn't go back to sleep either.  He went to bed early that night.

We didn't realize this would be the last time we saw Gina, Derrick, and the kids.  I don't think we officially ever told them bye.  Oops!

Thurs, Aug 2
The whole reason why Bryant and Kari chose this week to visit was for the War Bonnet Rodeo.  This was the only event scheduled for the day.  Quinn was able to get his nap and we were able to rest.  To be honest, I missed a lot of the rodeo because of Paxton.  I went to the car to feed him and had to walk around with him too.  It was way loud and don't think Paxton appreciated the noise.  I don't blame him.  I put him in his car seat and it was actually quite a bit quieter.  That helped a lot.

I guess this was a cool part of the rodeo and this was when I was in the car with Paxton.  This is the only picture taken from the rodeo so I thought I would include it.  I guess these Buffalo were really well trained.  They put on a good show!  Too bad I missed it.

Fri, Aug 3
Late afternoon we went shooting with Bryant, Kari, and their kids and G-ma Karen.  It was not ideal taking the kids but it ended up working out anyways.  Poor Paxton was so tired that once again I was in the car with him.  It was so hot that it was hard getting him to sleep.  Next time, Paxton and Quinn will not join us.

Mike was fair and helped out.  He wanted to make sure I got my fair share of shooting.  He really wanted to make sure I was happy and also having fun.  Thank you Mike!

We went out to dinner with Bryant and Kari to Wingers.  We had a nice meal and talked for a bit.  Then we decided to head back to the house to play games.  We played Hit the Deck and Golf.

We said our goodbyes since the plan their plan was to leave in the morning.  :(  We had a great visit with them and can't wait to see them again.

Santa

Quinn does not like Santa...

Don't look too closely at his horrible hair cut.  Considering he's an 18 month old and won't stop moving, I didn't do too bad of a job.  Of course, it's in the front where I messed up. Hopefully, it will grow fast so no one can tell.

With Quinn's third time seeing Santa, I'd thought he'd warm up to the guy.  Nope!  Maybe next year...

I'm half way there!

I had my ultrasound today. We were able to find out the gender. Any guesses?

The baby is measuring right on schedule.  That makes my due date correct...March 22, 2012. 

The baby kept having the hands by the mouth.  It looked like it was sucking it's thumb.  There were times it would be waving. We saw it opening and closing it's mouth.

It's kind of freaky looking.  She said it looks this way because of the angel she was taking the picture.

Sorry, she didn't give us any gender pictures.

It's a....

BOY!!!