Jace...

Asleep standing up


Too much effort to get out of this one


Crawled in there after he went to the bathroom


Nice and cozy at the AF Football game

If Jace is tired and he finds a position that he deems comfortable, the child will be out like a light. Yesterday I sent him up to his room (caught under the table with a cookie...again), and after about 20 minutes I began to wonder what was wrong because he was very quiet. As many of you with 2-year-olds know, a quiet 2-year-old is not a good thing! I recruited Shane and we searched everywhere in the house. He was nowhere to be found. Both the front and back doors were locked so I knew that he hadn't escaped. I searched in all his favorite hiding spots and still he didn't answer any of our calls. Shane looked up at me and said, "There is one place we haven't looked yet." He ran into the bathroom and opened the cabinet door. Sure enough there was Jace naked from the waist down because he apparently thought it a funny thing to crawl in there after he used the bathroom. After almost dying of laughter, I got a picture and then woke him up.


At the AF Football game he crawled down between the rows layed his head on the backpack and fell asleep. We found him standing on the side of his bed one night stuck between the guard and his bed. The other is a picture one that I took when he was particularly tired and he just fell asleep standing up. He cracks me up! What is it called--narcolepsy--where they just fall asleep whenever? :)

Shane's Allergic Reaction

The above pictures are after he had a ton of stuff at the emergency room (it was worse when they left). He was not impressed with us taking the picture as you can see. We are still not sure what caused it but within 30 minutes he went from "not feeling well" to having trouble breathing and his eyes almost swollen shut. I wish that we knew what it was so that it wouldn't happen again, but they "weren't sure."

I wanted Travis to give him a blessing before he went to the emergency room and Shane was SO not himself. He totally freaked me out when he looked up at me with the nastiest look on his face and said, "I DON'T BELIEVE!" Yikes! That is so not Shane.

After it all happened and Trav and I were talking about it, we think that Shane may have had an evil spirit in him...and that just freaks us out! But with the way he acted, the way he looked at us, the way he was feeling so sick, and the way a 4-yr-old (who usually reminds us that we need to read the Book of Mormon and say our prayers) yelled, "I DON'T BELIEVE!" when we told him we wanted to give him a blessing sure makes us think that that's what happened. We sure just hope that it never happens again! I was really glad to get the Halloween holiday behind us.

The bottom picture is what he looked like the next morning.

Halloween Party and Trick or Treating

Our co-op preschool hosted a Halloween party for the ward (70 kids showed up). There was a cupcake walk, all sorts of crafts, eating a donut from a string, and relay races. The kids had a great time. Trick-or-treating was another story though. Shane had some freak allergic reaction to a cold medicine that I game him (we think) and he spent Halloween night at the emergency room with Travis. Our friends Jake and Jenny were real life savers taking Jace around Trick-or-Treating. (We had an extra bag for Shane so he could get his fair share of the sugar rush).

P.S. Jace was a spider (one of his legs had a button that you could push to make scary noises), Shane was a skeleton, and Brett was a lion.

Pumpkin Carving

We had some great pumpkins this year. Our friend Jake Jensen and his friend Jenny came up from the AF Academy and spent the weekend with us. There were a lot of pumpkin guts! :)

I think they turned out great and we had so much fun doing them. Yes, we are definite cheaters and use the patterns. :)

From left to right(third row): Shane's, Troy's, Kaia's, Jace's
(fourth row): Allie's, Trav's, Jake's, Jenny's

The funny thing was that once we ran out of candy, we put the bowl on our front porch with a note inside it saying that our candy was all gone, but we still had several people ring our doorbell just to tell us how much they loved our pumpkins! It was sure fun! :)

Boo at the Zoo

We got the kids dressed up and went to the "Boo at the Zoo" this year. Basically it is a lot of the employees and certain vendors dressed up handing out candy. I guess just another way for your kids to collect the coveted candy. (There were also alot of dentists there handing out free tooth brushes). For some reason we really didn't get any pictures of the other kids in their costumes but Brett sure was a trooper. He was the only one thus far out of our kids that did not cry the entire time he had the costume on. In fact he laughed when I first put it on him. The zoo was PACKED, but I think the kids had a good time.

I had to include the picture of the hippo because they were doing some serious fighting (playing :)).

Pumpkin Patch

Every year a local garden center has a pumpkin patch as well as a couple of mazes, a jumping house, and a wagon ride for the kids around Halloween. It was a great day and the kids had alot of fun running around. One maze was a little creepy though. The top picture shows Shane inside the wagon that you had to go through at the end. As soon as you enter the wagon the skeletons start making scary noises, and the chains start rattling. Jace went through it once and I have never seen that kid run so fast. When I asked him if he wanted to go again he politely answered, "No thank you!"

Las Vegas, New Mexico

At the end of October, Travis had a business trip to the booming metropolis of Las Vegas, New Mexico and asked if we would like to come along. He has a project at an old military outpost/depot on the Sante Fe Trail called Fort Union which is about 20 minutes north of Las Vegas. He had been there once before and since we really didn't have anything going on we decided it was a great opportunity to see some different country on his work's dime. It is only a 5 hour drive so that really wasn't all that bad. The kids were so excited to go on an "adventure".

On Thursday Travis had meetings in the morning with some of the people from Fort Union so the kids and I were able to wonder around Las Vegas for a couple of hours. I wish we had more time! Las Vegas was a major hub in the railroad boom and there were many HUGE and gorgeous houses in "old town Las Vegas." Talking to the visitor's center guide she said at the peak of activity there were up to 100 trains going through Las Vegas on a given day. Now there are only 2 but they maintain the old railway depot and it was a lot of fun to look at all the pictures of the old trains in the lobby. The guide also said that there were 100 buildings that were on the registry of historic buildings. It was a lot of fun to just walk around. Jace kept asking if the houses that we were walking by were Cinderella's castle.

After we picked up Travis from his meeting we headed to Montezuma. It is a tiny town just outside of Las Vegas. There is a University there that hosts one of the World's Colleges at a place the locals call Montezuma's Castle. Apparently this is a school for foreign high school-age students. They come and learn about all sorts of things from conflict resolution to math and biology. Montezuma's Castle started out as a swank place where the railroad tycoons could stay, but over the years it turned into a Jesuit monastery and then was finally bought by the people who run the World's Colleges. The security was so tight at this place. They only allow tours a couple of times a year so we could only get as far as the soccer fields (and the security guard watched us the entire time).

Just outside the college there are some hot springs which are very HOT. Over the years people have built a series of pools going from the hottest (118 degrees, but in the summer up in the 120s!) the kiddie pool (around 108 degrees). If we had known about them earlier we definitely would've gone there. The water was so crystal clear and it was hard keeping the boys out of it.

We then went to see Fort Union on our way back up to Denver. At one time the Fort was a major crossing for the Sante Fe trail and it is crazy that you can still see the ruts in the ground where the wagons once went. Over the years with the elements and the locals taking whatever they could, the Fort has deteriorated. It was really awesome to walk around and get a feeling what it would've been like to have lived during that time. I am thankful for my modern conveniences and my comfortable lifestyle. I really don't think I would've lasted as a pioneer.

All in all it was a great trip and I think that everyone had a great time. Thanks for including us Trav!

Offically a Slacker!

I didn't realize how much of a blogging slacker I was until I actually looked at my own blog and noticed that I hadn't posted since the beginning of November. Even then I didn't put anything about Halloween etc. Well....just a warning. There will be an overload here in the coming days. I would just suggest to skim and look at pictures.

Daylight savings time ends

What follows is the conversation that we had at dinner tonight.

Shane: I can't even see the trees outside.
Mom: Yep, it is getting dark alot earlier now isn't it?
Shane: The sun goes to bed so that the moon can come out and play.
Mom: You are right.
Shane: And after the sun goes to bed, his mommy and daddy can watch their shows.

That totally cracked me up. I guess he has the system down. There is no pulling the wool over this kids eyes!

Taking candy from strangers

Last night for FHE we decided to discuss the topic of taking candy from strangers. Being Halloween we were concerned that the boys would take candy from anyone giving it out. We talked about making sure that mom and dad were around whenever they were offered any.

Travis gave Shane a couple of scenarios where the he gave correct answers. He then turned to Jace.

Travis: "If you are in the front yard and someone drives up and says,"Little boy you are so cute, here is some candy", what would you tell them?"
Jace: (smiling) Thank you!

We had to laugh because that is so Jace. We won't be letting that child out of our sight.

Fall Pictures

A couple of weeks ago our friend Jill (THANKS AGAIN) took some pictures of our family. They turned out great and our kids were semi-photogenic (amazing). Maybe they were trying to impress the cute girls (Cambri and Kate). Thanks Jill!

First day of school

Here are pictures of the boys' first day of school. They were both excited about wearing their new shirts. They have both enjoyed having school twice a week. Shane is going to a preschool where his cousins went before they entered kindergarden, and we are doing a co-op preschool with some other moms in the ward for Jace. They are both always so excited to go every Monday and Wednesday.

My garden

This is the pictures of my garden. I can't believe how big it got. I really didn't expect much because the soil wasn't all that great. Hopefully it will be even better next year.

rainbow

Can you believe these pictures? This was after a rainstorm (obviously), but the rainbow was so vibrant. You can just make out the double rainbow.

The boys!

I love these pictures. This was back in August but since I haven't had access to our computer I will post them now. I love my handsome guys.

First Haircut

Back in August Brett's hair was getting out of control. Not so much that it was long, but that he had that crazy, whispy old man hair in the back. He wasn't sure about it all, but he really didn't mind. He is almost ready for his 2nd one.