Disneyland Adventure

We took a trip to California for my little brother's wedding. While we were there we decided to take the boys to Disneyland for their first time-what a blast! My little brother Zach went with us and we had such a good time. Before I went I reminded myself that this day was for the boys and that I probably wouldn't get to ride any rollercoasters; this definately helped because we barely had time to go see all the stuff for the boys. Unfortunately, we missed the Nemo submarine ride because we didn't get to it until late and it had an one hour wait...next time. But, we had so much fun riding Pirates, the jungle boat ride, the circus train, a Small World, and a lot of other rides. The boys seemed a bit dazed the whole day and a little worried (we did Pirates first and I forgot that it had a couple of drops in it, oops) that we would take them on some crazy rides-but overall they loved it!

Tarzan's treehouse.

The zoo animal train with Uncle Zach.

Swallowed by Moby Dick (or was it the whale in Pinocchio?).

It's a Small World.

Toon town.

Pirates of the Caribbean (the before picture-sorry no after picture that would be cruel).

Trick-or-treating

I have never been a huge fan of Halloween-I don't really like candy (or I should say I don't really want to like candy) and I definately don't like to dress up in some ridiculous outfit to be cute or funny or whatever, but...Halloween is fun with little kids because I DO like to dress them up in ridiculous outfits

Ridiculous outfit #1

Ridiculous outfit #2

and I DO love to see them so happy and excited but I still don't like the candy bit. Anyways, Jon, Josh (dressed up as a Man U fan)

Ridiculous outfit #3

and I took the boys trick-or-treating around our little neighborhood. Clay and Eph were dressed up as geeks or nerds and Kai was dressed up as a lobster (he was so miserable in that costume-it was too small and the legs were stuck together in the tail so he couldn't really move around).

Incredibly cute but ridiculous outfit #4

Doesn't Kai look thrilled to be a crustacean?

The boys were so dang excited they were running to each door which was absolutely hilarious since they were both wearing pants WAY to small for them (all part of the costume).

Clay was a little tenative about the spooky houses especially ones with fake moving spiders. The boys were over it about 10-15 houses in so we didn't have to battle them to go home which was great. They ate some candy and after they went to sleep I gave Jon and Josh all of the candy except about 5 pieces for each boy. This morning when they looked at their candy buckets, they didn't even notice! Overall, we had a pretty great Halloween...maybe next year I won't be able to chuck the candy so easily.

This little lobster is all tuckered out!

On our way home.

After the boys were down Kai wanted to try their nerd glasses on...so cute!

Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza

Sunday, the entire family was sick so we vegged out at home all day, feeling lousy and lazy. That night Josh came over and we carved up some pumpkin fun! I made homemade pumpkin stew (traditional in my family) and while it cooked we first hollowed out the boys pumpkins then helped them "hammer" in these clear colored pegs to make designs on their pumpkins. When lit, the pegs glowed to show the design; way cool. I thought these kits were much easier for my boys since they can't really carve with knives. After the boys were done, the big boys (and girl) carved their pumpkins. I carved the biggest pumpkin I have ever carved in my life; the knife wouldn't even reach all the way through! It was a lot of fun even with the sniffles. The boys were so excited about their pumpkins they kept running out the front door to look at them...which made me constantly paranoid they would run into the street. Ahh the perils of toddlerhood!

Muddy fun at the pumpkin patch

The boys and I met up with the ward playgroup at Craven Farms pumpkin patch on an absolutely beautiful and randomly warm day.

The boys had fun playing on all the little props (boats, teepees, tractor, and pumpkins) they had strewn about. But they had the most fun splashing in the big puddles of mud and slipping a sliding their way through the pumpkin grove?field?crop? to find the perfect pumpkin.

We picked out three ginormous pumpkins for only $35; guess they really can't do anything will all those extra pumpkins after Halloween anyway. The only thing I was bummed about was that the hay ride only runs on the weekends so we didn't get to do that. But other then that we had a blast!

Family Portraits

We got some new family portraits taken a month ago since Kai was feeling left out (see above). It was not the most pleasant experience but some of the pictures turned out great so I guess its all worth it, right? My boys are the cutest (including my big boy)! BTW, if anyone is interested in copies of any of the pictures please let me know soon because my photographer is moving out of town next month.

Here are some of my favorites~

Is he a picky eater or is he just stubborn?

Kai wants to do everything all by himself, which would be great if he could actually do anything on his own-but alas, he is only 7 months old! He is determined to feed himself which is sort of a problem because everything that he can hold is a choking hazard. So I have two options; (1) I either force feed him (i.e. shove food in his mouth when he is either laughing (preferable) or crying (suitable when necessary) or blow in his face to get him to open his mouth ( this is rather effective until he figures out what I'm doing then I guess he just doesn't breath)). He did allow Jon to feed him some mooshed up food a few nights and when I made some gourmet baby chicken casserole he allowed me to feed him but its not often and its getting less...luckily he has two teeth in and a couple more on the way (plus, he is getting pretty good with his gums). Last night Jon said Kai wouldn't let him feed him but he would let Ephraim do it so Jon handed over the spoon and here is the result...





Why a toddler who can't keep himself clean generally should not be the first pick for feeding an infant.