Layton City Lights

I wish I knew how to take pictures in the dark.... Needless to say I don't.

Layton City fills their park with lighted animals and other fictional characters each year - they have Christmas music playing and you can drive around the park or walk through the grounds. It was nice not being too cold this year, and very little snow on the ground was a major plus!

I asked the kids what their favorite animal was and they both said dinosaur, but now Grace says the mermaid. Its so nice that there are free activities all around us to keep us busy during Christmas time ;).

Grace had to wear my scarf...which ended up caked in mud, of course... Good thing for washing machines!

Trick-or-Treating in the rain

Aren't these the cutest kids around? We had such a busy Halloween and it feels like we haven't stopped! I had to work so Mike picked me up at 4pm and then we ran to Hyrum. The kids got to Trick-or-Treat with their cousins for an hour, 1/2 of it in the rain and they didn't care at all!

Actually Max was content after he got a few pieces of candy and wanted to sit down and eat his suckers.

Then we went to my moms and had a bowl of chili. It's a tradition that I hope we will always do, what could be more warming than a hot bowl of chili after freezing your butt off?

Then we drove to Kaysville and Trick-or-Treated with Mikes family for about an hour, and then we finished off in Layton to a few people in the ward. The kids could have kept going and Grace was a girl after my own heart, "Just one more house mom!" "but we have to go there mom!"

We love that our families are close enough we can do fun things with them!

Max's 2nd surgery

A few weeks ago Max started screaming hysterically in the middle of the night. I knew right away he had an ear infection, and a trip to wee care confirmed it. The doctor said he could see the tube from May 2009 sitting in the canal, but it had fallen out of place and with Max's ear infection history he recommended taking him to an ENT to have new tubes placed in his ears. Then he checked his tonsils and said they were huge and red.

I made an appointment with a doctor a lady I work with took her kids too, and when I got there I was surprised - he was so old, and his exam room looked like something from the 60's or 70's. He started by saying he didn't take tonsils on a 2 year old because they were too hard to convince to drink and then he checked and said he'd get us in the next day. Max's tonsils were so big he wasn't sure how he was breathing.

It all happened so fast, and I was nervous- I wasn't nervous when he had his first surgery, but the doctor freaked me out. My sister said she was home within 2-3 hours with each of her kids so that's what we were hoping for- but Max didn't come out of surgery so good. He screamed and flailed around for 2 1/2 hours and we ended up being there for almost 9 hours. The doctor also told us that the left ear's hole from previous tube hadn't resealed itself and was too big to put in a new tube, but the hole was acting like a vent so he felt Max wouldn't have too much trouble and when he's older he'll need surgery to close off the hole.

The night we brought him home we had a meeting scheduled with the bishop, when I opened the door I was obviously exhausted- the bishop asked if I forgot he was coming and I said no, but be fast. Max didn't move from Mike's lap until after the prayer and then he perked up a little bit- He did pretty good overall all, mostly just wanting to be held. He didn't want Popsicles or ice cream but loved chicken noodle soup and mashed potato's.

I'm so glad to have it over with, and even more happy he's back to his cute, happy, mischievous self!

Halloween Costumes

I wanted to get a few good pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes so we headed to the park one warm fall day. (Remember when we had warm, fall days?)

Grace was a dalmatian and Max was a lion.

I'm sure the Kaysville parks and rec department wanted to shoot me for letting my kids play in their recently raked leaves... but they sure did have fun!

Carving Pumpkins

Pumpkin carving night is one we always look forward too at our house. The kids always want to help more than mom and dad want them too, I always end up with orange pumpkin guts all over the place and we always listen to the Nightmare before Christmas soundtrack.I should have blogged about this sooner, maybe I would be able to remember why my kids had such dirty faces!

Dirty yes indeed, but oh so happy!

I asked Mike which one of my double chins I could photo shop out, he told me none - what a booger. ;)

And, the finished product! Not to shabby if I do say so myself, and I do.

Ice Cream Cone Goodness

My kids love ice cream cones, really who doesn't?
Grace's whole goal is to make as big of a mess as possible when she eats hers.

I think from now on we will have shirtless, possible pant less ice cream days, the mess is so much easier when I can just throw them in the tub afterwards! Max makes the "What about Bob" noise when he eats his ice cream - mmmm.mmmm.mmm.

on the road again...

Seriously? I never posted Halloween pics? I didn't think I was THAT behind... thats my goal this week, prepare for 7 new posts!