Halloween Day

This year the two boys went Trick or Treating together with me around our neighborhood.

We went through several ideas before Liam decided to be a mad scientist. He didn't want to go with any of my details (white powder on his face and dark circles under his eyes), so this is what we ended up with.

Gavin was a car and wore the costume OK this time.

And the side view.....

We have SO MUCH CANDY. The bad thing about it is that they are "small" candies. You eat one and feel like it's nothing because it's "small". But by the time you eat 3 small candy bars you might as well have eaten a regular sized one. Oh, it's that time of year again isn't it??

Trick or Treating at Jim's office

Talk about a load of candy!!!

After 3 floors of cubicles, the kids had more than enough candy....to share with their parents.

Carving Pumpkins

Oh pumpkin carving, it's a tradition you just have to do but one that is always such a mess. I HATE the slime and my hands end up all red, but I love Halloween and I love my kids so we do it every year.

Lately Gavin has decided that he is a cat. He meows all the time and crawls around brushing up against things. So, he got to have a cat pumpkin this year.

Luckily, Liam is finally old enough to do most of his carving all on his own. He did a great job!

Gavin really wanted to be helpful and wanted to get in there and do it, but we all know that a 2 year olds "help" isn't always so helpful. He did do a lot of hole poking though.

Here are the finished pumpkins. Mine is the "New Moon" pumpkin, in honor of the movie soon to be released!! (Not that I'm Team Jacob, I'll always be Team Edward)

Scary!!

Liam's Last Elementary School Halloween Parade and Party

Liam is in 6th grade so this is his last elementary school

Halloween class party and parade.

Liam dressed up like a crazy snake and spider person (or something like that - it's hard to get him into a costume at all).

I was able to go and help run games at his class party. He got to try to eat a donut off of a string. Very funny to watch.

My aunt Peggy was even in the parade!

Gavin and I had a long, long wait for the parade to start. I tell myself every year not to go on time because it always takes forever. Well, I didn't want to chance it so we waited for about 30 minutes before Liam came through. Oh well, it's good exercise chasing him around.

This is Liam's class walking through for the parade.

Liam's attempt at the donut.

Our Ward Halloween Party 2009

Liam preparing to enter the church Spook Alley!! I'm sure it was very scary. The young men got to run this activity. Liam hopes our new ward will do this too so that he can help run it next year.

Liam with his friends at the party.

Gavin had fun checking out the pumpkins. Most of the games were too hard for him to play. He did have fun playing the fishing pole game though.

This is the first time we could get Gavin to put on his costume. Neither of my kids like to dress up. It's a nightmare to force them. Gavin finally gave in once we got to the party. We'll see how trick or treating goes. I'm guessing that he'll do it to get the candy.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Thanks again to Melissa and Ryan for another fun Pumpkin Patch/Trevan's birthday event!

Jim and Gavin shooting the corn gun. That thing is loud and shoots really far!

Trying out the little maze before entering the real one.

Taking a ride on the awesome tractor train.

More train fun.

Here are a couple of animals.

And here are some real animals. Gavin had fun going in to pet them.

Little farmer Gavin.

Checking out the rabbits.

It was really fun, but pretty cold. I love October!!

Our Tree/Fall Leaves

We have a beautiful tree in our yard. I love it, until it's time to lose the leaves anyway. And, let me say that trying to rake leaves with a 2 year old around is pointless. I would rake and he would run through the pile and destroy it. I'm glad he had fun, but we had to figure out how to get the leaves cleaned up without his help.

Hospital Complaints

So, I went in for surgery on Sept 29th. I admit that I was not a great patient when I got there, but I am amazed at the stupidity of some nurses. I just have to complain.

#1 If a patient is freaked out that they are going to feel their surgery or wake up but be unable to tell anyone they are awake (I know, irrational fear on my part) DO NOT reinforce it by telling them that it happens. Don't tell them that you have had c-sections that you could feel. All this does is freak them out even more.

#2 Don't go with the first vein you find. I have TWO fabulous veins that nobody has ever missed, until this event. It's like they don't even try to be careful.

#3 Too many patients, too few nurses. I realize there is a nursing shortage, but seriously - when you have to ask 3 people to ask your nurse for your meds and they finally show up 3 or 4 hours later it's ridiculous. And I have to add that the person that ended up pulling through for me was the cleaning lady!!

I picked this hospital because they are the best in the area. But, even though it wasn't that busy I felt like some nurses were just over worked. It sucked. I did have one male PCT that usually didn't even work on that floor that was wonderful! He was checking on my constantly. I should have written a little note about him to pin on the "star" board in their hall.

Labor Day 2009

We wanted to get out of our house and do something on Labor Day. We decided to go to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. It turned out pretty well. Really cheap and not too crowded.

Admission even includes a ride on their horse drawn wagon. Gavin loved it. He's never been pulled around by a horse before.

Watch out for the dangerous horns, and Liam's look (not happy to be in pictures anymore)

Checking out some goats (goats, right??)

The evil horse with the red eyes (OK they were only red in the picture)

Everyone's looking a little crazy. It was fun.

Maybe we'll plan ahead next year and do something even more fun!

Gavin in the hospital

We had a lot of fun at Seven Peaks this year. We went usually twice a week and had few problems. Until the last time we went that is....

Gavin and I decided to try Cave-In! He got out of the pool and started to run to go again. I was a little slower getting out of the pool and didn't catch him before he ran right into the handrail leading out of the pool. He cried really hard, but I thought he recovered OK. He and his cousin played in the kid pool for a while. Then he threw up (not in the pool), so we went home. I didn't think much of that either because he does that for no reason sometimes. Then as the day progressed he kept getting sicker and sicker. He was laying around and looking so pale. I took him into the doctor, where Jim joined us.

They were really worried so they sent us over to get a CT scan. Luckily they didn't find anything really bad, but were still worried enough about his behavior that they decided to admit him into the hospital for observation.

He was very dehydrated so he had to have on IV. He was doing much better the next morning once he was rehydrated!! Liam and Jim brought him a doughnut, the first thing he had eaten in almost a day.

He went to the pediatric playroom to see if he was acting "normal" and he was. And no, they don't allow contagious kids in there.

Liam was good to come and visit, but got a little bored after a while.

Gavin was finally released and got to ride to the car in a wagon.

I forgot to take a bruise picture sooner, but this was a few days later. All he has left is a big ugly bruise. When he saw it in the mirror he was a little bugged by it. Funny kid.

Summer Slip N Slide

We didn't take any trips this summer so the kids got to find things to do around the house. We did spend a lot of time at Seven Peaks again, but you don't want to go there every single day.

Gavin has decided he loves guns and Liam is happy to spray him with one.

Liam's friend, Ben, spent a lot of time at our house this summer. It was nice to see them doing something other than playing video games or watching TV.

Gavin had fun until he really slipped and it freaked him out. It's sad to see summer ending.

4th of July Events of 2009

Jim and Liam started their day with the 5K Freedom Run in Provo. They did a great job. Maybe next year I'll be up to pushing a jogging stroller, but not this year. My sisters, Melissa & Andrea, did the 10 K. I stayed home to bring Gavin and Trevan to the parade.

We all went to the 4th of July parade in Provo. Things didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped. We reserved a spot the night before and Melissa and Andrea dropped off chairs are 6:30 that morning before their race. By the time Jim and Liam had finished the race and got there someone had moved our stuff! The people weren't there so Jim and Liam moved their stuff and put ours back. They felt dumb and gave me a Diet Coke so all it forgiven. Gavin did NOT love the sirens, but warmed up to the parade after a while. And, it rained on us (good thing we had a tarp to put over our heads) and then the sun came out and baked us.


After the parade we got ready and headed out to the Tea Party in Orem. We missed the main speaker (Mark Shurtleff), but heard some great messages. It was a great thing to do on Independence Day. We take a lot for granted and some people just sit by as our freedoms are being taken. It reminded us of our responsibilities to keep this country free.


After nap time we headed up to Hobble Creek Canyon to have a picnic with our families. Jim's family was very nice and invited my family up to eat. It was a beautiful SHADED spot. We ate a lot and enjoyed the afternoon. The kids played games and we tried really hard to keep Gavin occupied and within view. He's a little difficult.

We ended our day by attending "Cul De Sac of Fire". Some of our neighbors drive up to Wyoming and get the "good" fireworks and put on a great show in the street between our houses. They play patriotic music and passed out cupcakes. It was great. Plus, it turned out that some of their guests that sat on our lawn were very good friends of mine that I hadn't seen in YEARS. I grew up with them and spent a lot of my childhood at their house. It was a nice night. Gavin even survived the noisy fireworks, although I had to keep his ears covered the whole time. What a fun day!

Zoo Trip

Melissa and I took our kids to the zoo today. We all had a great time - nice weather and not too crowded. We got to see the bird show and ride the train. Gavin was even willing to wear his "backpack" with a tail, although it wasn't really his friend. Some of the animals seemed to be missing though. And, there was a big monkey fight that scared us to death (me & Gavin anyway). Melissa, Liam, and Trevan went running back in to see if they could see the fight, but it was over. It sounded like they were going to kill someone.

Clear Creek

Liam was able to go to Clear Creek the first week of June. It's a fun camp that our school district owns. His friend David was able to go the same week and they ended up in groups that were together most of the time. He really liked it.

Camp teachers/leaders

Catching animals in their traps

Liam with his trap. He had a camo trap and caught 2 animals,

a squirrel and a potgut.

Staff VS campers volleyball game

Liam's cabin

Stop at a museum (Liam doesn't remember which one).
It had a huge train set.

Stop at a dinosaur museum

At the Scofield Mine

Air Show at Hill AFB

Jim, Liam, Gavin and I picked up Eric and headed to the air show at Hill AFB on Saturday. It was great, but the traffic was not. It took us over 3 1/2 hours to get there. Poor kids. At least we brought DVDs to watch. The weather was great and we had a really fun day.

The Thunderbirds show was great. Gavin had a bit of a problem when one flew right over us and scared him to death. Other than that, and the fact that he was so tired, I think he liked it.