So totally random

Over the past few days I have been enjoying playing with my kids.  Let's be honest, my housework has been neglected, and there may have been a burned dinner incident, but it's ok.  The time playing was worth it.  I'll have to go back to reality on Monday, but today, I'm going to enjoy my growing boys a little bit more.

I love how Logans arm is over Dallin.  They've got such a strong bond already.

Is he pooping or smiling?  Let's just hope it's the latter.

Dallin looks a little bit like an army dude with the face paint on.  I think this was hot chocolate.

But he sure cleans up nice!!

(how is he so BIG???)

My mom comes over every once in a while to entertain the boys while I do this'n'that around the house.  What a good grandma!

Boys have tea parties too...they just don't call it that

For the past few weeks, Bryson has been organizing parties for him and his brothers.  He makes sure there is some sort of snack (today was chips, carrots and ranch, and a cup of water).  He spends about an hour gathering supplies (today was napkins and a newspaper) and putting together his little party.

...now if only I could get him to spend that much energy cleaning up after his party.  :) 

Boys are so fun!!!

The Manslater

Dear Shelisa

Dear Isha,

These are for you.

This is little Dallin after getting his stitches out.  It was a traumatizing experience for him, but once they brought him the popcicle, 2 bags of teddy grahams, stuffed cow, and turned on the TV, he was ok.  

Logan 5 months and so adorable in his hoodie.



...And a cowboy needs a rope, needs a rope, needs a rope.  And a pair of boots, fancy boots, fancy boots, if he wants to keep ridin', ridin' along...

...the song forgot about the shorts, camo shorts, camo shorts...

Cory helps almost every morning with breakfast.  He stirs the eggs, he'll flip pancakes, mix the protein shakes.  He's awesome.  AND he loves doing it.  We may have a chef on our hands. 

Dallin waiting on Thanksgiving day for the pie.  He didn't let that thing out of his site the entire time.

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas decorations.  I just couldn't wait anymore, I got way too excited.  We invited Jacob over for the special occassion.  This year the boys were able to rearrange the furniture so we could put up the Christmas tree.  I would just yell, "I NEED MUSCLES" and they would all come running to see what needed to be moved.  I LOVE HAVING BOYS!

Then they helped assemble the Christmas tree. 

Logan with his adorable little santa hat. 

Dallin loving on his brother, although it looks like he's giving him the heimlich.  :)

They were just so cute in their grubby faces. 

Logan has decided he loves his bouncer. 

You know in the movie Thumbelina when the leaves all fall and he says something along the lines of "Oh.  It's fall"  Well, that's what happened the other day for us in SV.  One morning we woke up and all the leaves had fallen off our tree.  The kids enjoyed playing in them. 

Little Logan just turned 6 months, and has learned how to sit up.  Awww, ain't he cute?!?!

And seriously, ladies, who wouldn't kill for those eye lashes?

And here's a blackmail shot.  Sorry Logan.  I just couldn't resist. 

This is better.

Gratitude Tree

Wouldya look at that!  I made a craft with my boys...AND it turned out totally cute! 

I got this idea from a friend of mine and HAD to try it.  The boys went hunting for the perfect "tree" (stick), then Cory and I drew, cut out, and colored the leaves, then we all sat down and wrote down the things we are thankful for. 

There were some very cute things the kids were thankful for...

Cory:  "School, friends, my teacher", "Jesus, church, temple", "My family", "Sun and dark", "Mom"

Bryson:  "Logan", "My pumpkin painting", "Everyone, except the bad guys",

Dallin:  "Dad, food, money", "Heaven, Jesus, Heavenly Father", "Friends and toys", "Nanny, food, Heavenly Father, and treats"

hee hee hee

...and as a side note, I had so much fun doing this with the kids.  House clean.  Christmas music on.  Dinner eaten.  Dishes done.  Baths out of the way.  Just me and the kids working on a fun project.  It was perfect.  Why don't I do this more often?!?

Teeth a-comin' and a-goin'

The first teeth to come in on your baby are so exciting!  As is the first tooth to fall out!  We've had both this last month.  It just reminds me how precious motherhood is - and how precious my special boys are.  :)

Bryson came home from school today looking a little different than usual...one less tooth in his mouth...yay!!!

And Logan finally got his 2nd tooth.  For the longest time he had one lonely little tooth, but the 2nd one finally came in, so everything is evened out again.  Good job, buddy, I know you've been working on that. 

My little cuties.

The Macarena

Had way too much fun dancing the macarena with my Cory tonight.  Yes, I'm a dork.  I know.

Initiation to Boyhood

Dallin had his initiation to boyhood last night. 

Poor kid ran into a dresser (at least that's what I can gather).  The three boys were in their room "cleaning" when Cory and Bryson ran out screaming "Something REALLY BAD happened!  Dallin has lots of blood".  Eeek.  I was on the couch nursing Logan and I see Dallin come out just covered in blood from the mouth down and so upset he couldn't even breathe.   

So, I practially drop poor Logan and scoop up my little boy who looks like he is about to hurl, so I run to the bathroom and he makes it to the toilet before he starts that process.  I was just praying that the chunks I was seeing weren't pieces of his teeth.  John was at school about to take a math test, and I called him and told him there was blood everywhere, I couldn't tell what was wrong, and I needed him to come home.  He rushed home, and by the time he got home I could see a decent sized cut on his lip.  The bleeding had stopped, but the cut was so wide that I figured he needed stitches.  So, we went to the ER, covered in blood and puke.  (Nice mental image, huh?  I just didn't want to pull a shirt over Dallin's head and risk making his lip worse, and I figured I'd get more blood on me before the night was over and I didn't want to ruin TWO shirts) 

We got in fast and the woman in charge of Dallin happened to be Bryson's best friend's mom!  Yay for a familiar face!  I had the option of rolling him in a blanket like a burrito and going at him with the stitches or sedating him.  Um.  Duh!  Knock the kid out!  So they did, and I almost fainted in the middle of the whole thing.  I felt so stupid, had to sit down and put my head between my legs.  You'd think all that Grey's Anatomy would have me more desensitized!  Since it was about 4 hours in the ER, my mom came and brought Logan, along with some stuff for Dallin to play with and some food for me.  (Thanks, ma!)  Then my dad came in and visited with Dallin for a bit too. 

We're home now, Dallin is in good spirits (and really has been this whole time, except for his initial reaction to the injury and when he had to get the two shots that put him under).  The nurse in triage asked him to pick which smiley face he felt like (there were 5 faces that either looked happy, sad, or anywhere in between) and he chose the happiest face.  :)  My sweet Dallin. 

As you can see from the pics, he's back to his rascally self - you know - the little boy who jumps off furniture, wrestles his brothers, and attempts to run around the house with his eyes closed.  Sheesh, I can foresee a few more trips like this to the hopsital in the future for this kiddo.  But I'm glad we both made it through your initiation.

He's now got 5 stitches holding his lip together, three in front, and two behind his lip.  He's on a soft-food diet for a week, and then we'll go back to the hospital and have the same mom-friend take out the stitches.

Logan 5 month stats

Logan went to the doc a few days before he turned 5 months. 

Here are his stats:  15lbs 3 oz, 26 1/2 inches

He got his first tooth a couple of weeks ago, and the second one is right there, but refuses to make its appearance. 

He can roll over as of about a week ago (which is a little late compared to most babies, but compared to my little ones, it's actually a little early).  He doesn't like apples or bananas, but he likes sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash. 

He just learned to enjoy standing, which again is a little late compared to most other kids, but sooner than my other kiddos.

And...since my 5 months post delivery stats are still +15lbs, I've decided to enter a 5K race.  I'm totally excited/nervous to do it, but what the heck, I've got nothing to loose, except this weight!  :)

Halloween 2010

This year we had 2 Spidermans, an Iron Man and a tiger. 

Cory wanted to be Hulk, but I couldn't find a Hulk costume in SV (apparently that is Sooo last year), so I actually made one for him, per his request, but Halloween night he decided he wanted to wear an old costume.  Dallin was quite proud of his muscles.

Our little tiger...

We spent Halloween at my parent's house with Jason, Alissa, and Kali.  Logan and Kali were quite curious about eachother.

Here they are keeping track of Grandpa.  :)

Jason spent some time teaching Cory how to tie knots, then unleashed Cory to do his worst to him. 

Nanny Goates and Tiger Logan

All in all, a very fun evening.  Kids got way too much candy, which is most of the way gone now.  Love my crew!

Paid in Full

We did it!!!

As most of you know, Bryson had a leg injury three years ago.  We were not on insurance at the time (long story short, our insurance coverage was to start on Oct 1st, and the accident happened on Sept 10th).  So, we have been making monthly payments to the individual doctors/hospitals, etc.  The largest amount owed was to the surgeon who operated on Bryson's leg.  We paid $1000 down and have been making monthly payments of $80 for the last three years.  Quite a chunk of change, especially as we have had some...uh...fun financial challenges.    . 

Well, we did it.  Yes, we finally did it.  I have mailed our last surgeon payment.  Huge sigh of relief. 

I asked Bryson if he wanted to make a note to the doctor who made his leg better and this is what he wrote on the back of the envelope:


We are so very very VERY grateful to Dr. Vincent and the excellent work he did on Bryson's leg.  He took his time and reconnected everything and he now he has no residual pain, and has regained full function of his leg.  We consider him a miracle worker.  It was worth every cent.  Thank you, Dr. Vincent.

My little pumpkins

With the changes to blogger, I just don't have the time right now to put all the pics in order, so here are my October pictures, in no particular order...at all.

We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends and had a blast.

After the pumpkin patch we were all hot and hungry, so we stopped at McDonalds for lunch and ice cream.  I wouldn't let them eat the ice cream in the car...any ideas why??

I guess mostly because I'm a mean mom.  

Even little Logan had a fun time.

I gave the boys a choice between each choosing their own small-ish pumpkin, or we could all get one big giant pumpkin.  Being boys, they wanted the big one.  Here's their first look inside.

Ewwwwwww....

The finished product.

Mom giving Loggie Bear some love.  He's such a fun little baby!

And look who found his feet. 

And look what we found in our front yard.  This thing is huge, probably a good four inches.  Elckk! 

Logan has started to use his saucer.  I love his little feet in this picture.  :)

For my mom's birthday, we had a little party over at our house for her.  It was fun.  After cake she read to her grandsons.  What a good grandma.

Logan in his camo.

Brothers!  This is Dallin and Logan while the older two are at school

More pumpkin patch pictures.  (See, I told you the order was off.)  The girl is Hannah and the other little boy is Jethro.  Cory and Bryson really liked Hannah, they kept fighting over who was her best friend. 

The little ones in the stroller.  Logan is in front, and Jonah is in back.

Picking the perfect pumpkin is serious business.

Hay bale maze.  What a good time.  The kids all got lots of exercise running back and forth in this thing.

Dallin pulling Hannah and Jonah in the wagon.

And last, but not least, our darling little elf.  :)

Yeah, I know, it's not even Halloween yet, but I was looking through baby clothes, and I found this, and he's almost grown out of it, so I wanted him to wear this cute little outfit at least once.  He's got the sweetest smile in the world.  I could stare at it all day.