Fall Fun

So I realize that this post is long overdue, but I figure better late than never. Here are some of the fun things we did leading up to Halloween...

The boys got to practice Trick-or-Treating by going to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat. I think they hit every car at least 3 times!

After church one Sunday Nathan decided to put his glasses on Max and see how they looked. The poor guy- his eyes were cross eyed trying to focus with those glasses on!

I bought this little gingerbread haunted house kit at JoAnn's. I was pretty excited about it, but it ended up being a huge mess. The orange icing was too runny so it made for a pretty gross looking final product! The boys had fun making it so that made it all worth it!

In keeping with tradition, we made and decorated Halloween sugar cookies!

Jon's work had a pumpkin decorating contest where the patients were the judges. Jon sold his soul and created this pumpkin (free hand) thinking that he would get lots of votes from Laker fans. He ended up getting 4th place. I don't think he realized that most male patients probably don't care to participate in the 'Cutest Pumpkin' contest!

The night before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. The boys each wanted the first letter of their name carved into their pumpkins instead of a Jack-o-lantern face. I think Jon did a great job!

We decorated the outside of our house with pumpkin lights, ghost lights and orange icycle lights. The boys were pretty excited about it!

This is the best picture I could get of the 3 boys in their Halloween shirts! Unfortunately they were only able to wear these shirts once since it has been so hot here. Next year I'll have to remember to buy short sleeved shirts!

And now that Halloween is over you know what that means... IT'S TIME TO START DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

Happy Halloween!

I love Men in Uniform!

Max=Soldier

Nathan=Swat Officer

Jake=Fireman

The boys are really into making funny faces right now- at least they are looking at the camera! Poor Max's costume was a bunting and was way too small for him. He couldn't straighten his legs the entire time he was in it. He was such a good sport- gotta go along with the theme!

We headed out to my mom's house around 5:00 and had dinner and let the cousins all run around and see each other's costumes. All of the cousins were there except for Norah. I love all of their cute costumes- Halloween is so fun!

We then Trick-or-Treated around my mom's neighborhood and the boys loved running from house to house getting a ton of candy.

After my mom's we came home and my friend, Cortney, her sister, Kim, and their families all came over. We took the kids around our neighborhood for round 2 of Trick-or-Treating. Surprisingly they weren't getting burned out of it!

We finally called it a night and came back to our house for some yummy dessert- Radioactive Brownies and Pumpkin Sheet Cake. The kids had fun going through all of the candy and eating as much as they could get into their little tummies.

Jake's pumpkin was full to the top and was so heavy. What are we going to do with all of this candy?!

I hope that everyone had a happy and safe Halloween! I can't wait to see pictures of all of your kids in their costumes.

I have a lot more pictures to post about all of the Fall fun we have been having, but I'm way too tired right now so I will have to post them later.

He Did It!

Last year at about this time I was so excited for Jake to be in his first Primary Sacrament Meeting Program as a little Sunbeam. I bought him a new sweater vest and tie and practiced his part with him. The day came and we sat in the back of the Cultural Hall thinking that if Jake saw us he would want to sit by us so we tried to hide. Jake went up and after about 2 songs he saw us in the back and started to cry. His teacher ended up bringing him back to us where he remained for the rest of the program. He wanted nothing to do with going back up there.

So you can imagine why I have been so nervous about this year's Primary program. I called one of the counselor's in the Primary presidency last night and asked if she thought I should sit up there with him during the program and if we should even let him try to say his part since there was no way he was actually going to say it. She told me that he said his part during the practice and that I should just send him up there and see how he does and if he starts to cry then I can come up and sit by him. So after the Sacrament I took him up there and returned back to my seat. This year we sat in the very front so that Jake could see us the whole time and realize that we were close by in case he needed us. I was so nervous about what he was going to do.

He did so well. He stood up for every song, sat down when he was supposed to and Jon and I both think his mouth moved a little to "I Am A Child of God" making it seem like he was actually singing along! He started looking like he was going to fall asleep and I was getting really worried that he was going to fall over mid-song and cause a big scene. I prayed that he would be able to stay awake and again I prayed that he would be able to say his part. A little over half way through it was finally his turn. He walked right up to the microphone, stood there and ACTUALLY SAID HIS PART! I couldn't believe it. The lady helping him gave him phrases to say at a time and so Jake would just say the last word of each phrase, but still, I was so proud of him. I was of course crying and even Jon admitted that he teared up a little.

When the program was over I went over to tell Jake what a great job he did. He saw me as he was trying to get through the crowd of kids and exclaimed with a huge smile on his face, "Mom, I did it!" Definitely a moment I will never forget. I'm grateful for answers to my prayers and I'm grateful for this little kid. I'm so proud of him!

Our best attempt at getting a picture of the boys in their matching vests after church!

The Happiest Place on Earth...or not

We went to Disneyland today and renewed our annual passports so that we can enjoy another year of magical fun! It was so fun to see all of the Halloween decorations and to ride the rides that we have missed for the past 6 months. It was pretty hot and crowded, but thankfully we get a pass to go to the front of every line because of Jake's special needs and the fact that it's hard for him to wait in long lines.

This was the first time Max was able to ride some of the rides and he loved it! He even got to ride his own horse on the Merry-Go-Round.

The tea cups continue to be the boys favorite ride. I think they smiled the entire time!

Max and I rode Dumbo together. I'm not sure if he liked it as much as the Merry-Go-Round, but he still smiled quite a bit.


So everything was going great until we rode the Jungle Cruise. We got off of the ride and the boys wanted to look at the stuffed animals across the way. I decided to go wait in line to get Pineapple Dole Whips from the Tiki Room and so I walked away. Jon turned to get the boys and realized that Nathan was gone. He found me in line hoping that Nathan had followed me, but I didn't have him. Then the real panic set in. We split up and started looking everywhere for him. After five minutes or so he was still no where to be found. Seriously freaking out at this point. It was so crowded and he could be anywhere. Jon told me to go tell the store clerk where we last saw him that we had lost our child. So I told her and she immediately picked up the phone and reported that there was a lost child. She asked me how old he was and what his name was and within 30 seconds she told me that he was at the entrance of Pirates of the Carribean and that a worker was with him. So I rushed down there and Nathan came running up to me as soon as he saw me. I was so relieved.

The worker said that she saw him crying and went up to him and he told her that he couldn't find his mommy and daddy. So I guess she reported it right away and that is how the store clerk knew where he was. Let me just say that I was very impressed. I'm sure that they have several lost kids a day and so they have the system down to a science. I was just so glad that the worker found him before some psycho decided to kidnap him (when your child is lost all sorts of things run through your head).

Anyway, we then decided to get our Dole Whips after all and then we left the park. On the way to the car both Jake and Nathan pretty much had melt downs and I seriously was ready to return our passports and be done for the year. Now that I've had time to think it through I think we'll try it again and hope that we have a better experience. Either that or Jon and I will just use them for date nights and actually get to ride the big rides!!!

Six Months Old

I really can't believe that Max is already half a year old. He continues to be such a good baby. He had his 6 month check-up last week and weighed in at a hefty 21 lbs. 10 oz. and is 29 inches tall. That's our boy! He still sleeps 11 to 14 hours a night and is a good napper when we are actually home for him to lay down and take a nap. He is good natured and despite the fact that his brothers still beat up on him all of the time, he seems to really like them! We just started feeding him baby food this week and he loves it. He didn't make any weird faces when we first gave it to him- he just kept lunging forward wanting more! Again, that's our boy!!! He is getting close to sitting up on his own and is getting more interested in playing with toys. He loves watching TV (again, our boy!) and smiles at everyone who looks at him. We just love our Maxi Max!!!

He grabbed the spoon and decided to take matters into his own hands!

Today we went to Trevor's baby blessing. We took a picture of the 4 boy cousins all born within 5 months! From left to right (oldest to youngest): Max, Will (Christy's son), Trevor (Holly's son) and Scotty (Rob's son). It's going to be so fun to see these boys all grow up together!

We tried to get a picture of all of the boy cousins and this was the best we could get! The boys have almost caught up to the girls- there are now 10 girls and 9 boys!

Missing Shoe

After school today I went to put Nathan's shoes away and could only find one. I asked Nathan where the other one was and he said that he didn't know. We continued to look for a while and then just gave up and figured it would show up sometime. Later tonight we were cleaning up and Jon asked why there was a shoe on the ceiling fan! I was so excited that we found it! The boys thought it was hilarious and decided to see if they could get more shoes to land on the fan. Um, I don't think so, boys!

I'm pretty sure that Jake was the culprit in this situation since he loves to throw things- and he's pretty strong!

Finally a Diagnosis

So for the past three months my eyes have been red and I've been trying to figure out why. I went to my family care doctor in July and he said that it was pink eye and gave me some eye drops. I did the eye drops faithfully and it cleared up for a week or so and then came back. I called my opthamologist that specializes it retinal diseases and they said that they don't take care of diseases in the front of the eye. So I went to the optometrist and he said that they just look dry and gave me some drops for dry eyes. This didn't work either. So I went back to the family care doctor and this time he thought it was allergies. I started taking allergy medication, but that didn't help at all. So fed up and not knowing where else to turn, I bought some Visine drops at Target that get the red out. This would help for about 10 minutes and then the red would just come back. At this point I was so frustrated. I woke up Wednesday morning and looked in the mirror and not only were my eyes red, but my right eye lid was swollen and my eye sight was getting more and more blurry. So I called my opthamologist back and asked if there was any way they could see me. They said again that they don't deal with stuff like this, but that a NORMAL opthamologist does. Excuse me, a normal opthamologist? I had no idea that they were specialists or I would have called another opthamologist 3 months ago. Anyway, they referred me to one and I called and made an appoinment for 2:40 that afternoon in San Clemente which is about 25 minutes away.

I dropped the kids off with my mom and headed down to San Clemente for my appointment. At lunch Jon had showed me on a map how to get there so it seemed simple enough. I realized that my cell phone was dead on the way there, but again felt confident that I knew where I was going so didn't think that would be a problem. So I headed South on the 5 freeway and was looking for my exit. I was sure that each time I saw another sign listing the exits that mine would be on it, but alas, it never showed up. As soon as I realized that my exit didn't exist it was too late. I was now past San Clemente and apparently there isn't another exit until Camp Pedleton which was 15 minutes down the freeway. I was now stuck on the freeway and was near tears I was so frustrated. I finally got off the first exit that I could and turned around and headed 15 minutes back up the freeway. I got off at the first San Clemente exit and pulled into a 7-Eleven to use the pay phone. I looked next to me and there was a scary looking guy so I pulled out and found another pay phone. I called the doctor's office and explained what had happened and they were really nice about it. They gave me directions and told me to still come in. So at 3:30 I finally walked into the office and was able to see the doctor.

He looked in my eyes and right away said that I have MGD (Meibomian Gland Dysfunction) which is some sort of dry eye disease that is common in fair skinned blondes. The treatment is to do hot compresses on my eyes several times a day to unclog the oil ducts, to use lubricating drops and to take an antibiotic eye drop. He said that I may have to repeat this every month for a while until it gets better, but that it will get better. I can already tell a difference and am just really hoping that this is the right diagnosis and that I can finally have white eyes again!

Tonight I was sitting on the couch with a warm wash cloth on my eyes and Nathan saw me and wanted to have one on his eyes! It was pretty funny!