Pre-Halloween

I was going to wait to post pictures of my kid's costumes until after Halloween, but we've had so much fun the last couple weeks and I needed a reason to post :)

This is our neighborhood Halloween party. A family in our ward has it at their home and had games, food and prizes for the kids. This was our first year going and I can't believe how much effort they put into it! Several people were there to help and the kids had such a good time!

The kids costumes weren't quite finished... But Grace is a witch and Max is a vampire.


For family night we carved our first pumpkin. I'll be honest - I'm not a pumpkin carving queen. It took me forever to just get the guts cleaned out, but lucky for us Mike and the kids loved carving it! We carved a Jack Skelington face. Max and Grace kept eating the raw pumpkin seeds. We had homemade beef stew for dinner and then put Grace in the tub because she was covered in orange. I was cleaning up and walked in the bathroom and Max had climbed in the tub with Grace. Shoes and all - I asked Grace why she didn't tell me Max was being naughty or getting in the tub and she just giggled and said Max got in the bath with his shoes! (not to mention how much fun it is to peel away Levi's and a really soggy diaper... :)

During the pumpkin carving I asked Grace if she was having fun. She said yes and I asked her if Jesus would want us to be a happy family and have fun. She said no he wants us to be naughty. I said no, he wants us to be nice and be happy. She just rolled her eyes at me.

Mikes family has a big Halloween party every year. All the grand kids get to dress up, they do a couple pinatas and dinner. Witch's are in this year, I think there were at least 10 of them running around!

Caitlin brings new meaning to the phrase "stealing candy from a baby".... and Mike's aunt Liz looked awesome with her piercings and tattoos.

Here's to hoping for a warm 31st, or at least not a bitter cold snowy one!

Year #4

A year ago Mike and I decided to go to Las Vegas for our anniversary. I don't think either of us actually thought we would go, but I found a really good deal on airfare and a really good deal on a hotel room.

4 1/2 years ago I stayed in St. George, but spent a day in Vegas with some friends, 4 years ago Mike and I went for our honeymoon and stayed off the strip in a very nice hotel. 3 years ago we stayed at the Stratosphere for a night passing through to California. Well, I don't ever remember going to Vegas and feeling so dark and dirty. This time we couldn't get away from the cigarette smoke. Everywhere we went, walking, sitting - waiting for the shuttle. I don't remember being unable to get away from it before.

Don't get me wrong, I loved being with my husband, and just getting away was exactly what we needed. We stayed at the Sahara - and it was dark. The casino was dark, the halls were dark, our room was dark. I love light and windows and seeing my food clearly when I eat... we went through several other hotels, and shops and non of them them seemed to be as dark. We were in the cave! We aren't big gamblers at the Tyler home, something about me not being able to stand losing or something like that so we walked quite a bit. We splurged on chocolates at the Godiva store - I didn't know it was possible to buy 2 pieces of chocolate for $7, but it was so good! We ate at California Pizza Kitchen and at Margaritaville. And we spent time together.

We are together a lot - but sometimes it doesn't seem like we're together. We are chasing kids, watching TV, playing on the computer, paying bills, planning to do's, and so many other things. It was just really nice to not worry about cleaning the house and just be together. We held hands everywhere we went, we haven't done that since Max was born - at least not with each other!

Mike says we've become "those parents". Everywhere we went we started looking for Grace and Max prizes. "How cute would that be?" "Oh Grace would love that!" And we'd start laughing. 2 days was plenty to be away, by day 3 I was more than ready to come home to my kiddos.

I also forgot my camera - so no pictures from our trip to the smokey cave.... We did decide that we probably won't go back to Vegas again. Park City is closer, cheaper and cleaner!

It's funny how much can change in 4 years - different jobs, 2 kids, moved twice... wonder what the next four years will bring?

Fall Fun Days

I love the fall. I love the colors, I love the cooler weather, I like sweatshirts and breezy days. Some how this year seemed to go from summer to bitter cold winter over night. Luckily it "warmed" back up a bit.... In effort to not waste any available "outside" time before it gets "too" cold again we have had some fun adventures the past week.

Mike and I took the kids to Cherry Hill for a round of miniature golf. We invited Aunt Caya to come along. They had transformed it into Scary Hill and nearly every hole was redone for Halloween. They put a lot of work into the course and the kids had so much fun. They gave each kid a little club and ball and for the first few holes they were pretty good about playing. Then Grace threw her 1st ball into the water, and Max wanted to pick up everyone eles's ball, but what else would you expect taking a 1 & 2 year old golfing?

It's so nice to see the kids outside having fun. They loved the Frankensteins mouth, and there were big black cats up in one of the trees. Grace also decided to keep score and sat at each hole making marks on the card. Max just loved being out of the stroller and walking around. We were glad Caitlin came with us - cause G&M are a lot of work!

We had to have Halloween jammies....

On Wednesday we went with some friends to Black Island Farms for a Pumpkin Patch hayride. It was fun, and cold! They had a courtyard with piglet races and slides and a corn maze, but it just was too cold for the little ones to do very much. They loved the Haystack slides and Grace could have spent all day watching the animals.

We went on the hayride through a gigantic pumpkin patch and watched the last part of the sunset. The driver of the tractor may have had something to drink to keep him warm.... We stopped and picked two gigantic pumpkins in the dark. (Side story.... Mike got hurt at work 3 weeks ago, his back is still really sore and he walks quite a bit slower. He's getting better - but imagine us now trying to get two children and two huge pumpkins off the hay wagon... Our friends Brooke and Ben had their own two little ones and three huge pumpkins of their own... It was a sight I'm sure!) We learned two things - next year we are going to go earlier in the day and children under two are free so my kids can't get any older.