Gratitude #3 & #4

I remembered as I was in bed trying to get to sleep that I forgot to post day 3 of my month of gratitude.  So here I am bright and early Sunday morning sharing a couple more blessings.  We ended Daylight savings this morning, but we're all still on our old schedule and up early.  We will need to work on these kids sleeping in later (especially Megan who was up at 5:30 am).

#3 - My parents and siblings.  I really do enjoy having such a big family.  We have a good time together and love being silly.  My sister Julie and I have a special "understanding" of each others sense of humor and enjoy laughing at our selves.  We have a lot of fun memories growing up since we are closest in age.  I am lucky to have four sisters and one brother.  I enjoy talking to and spending time with all my siblings and even my parents.  I used to go to my parents house at least two times a week when Tyler went to preschool in Murray and it was so nice to see my parents and hang out as friends.  Now I only see them a couple times on month and I miss seeing them more.  I know that if I need anything that my family will come and help.  I am so blessed to have most my family live close and I love when we all get together.

#4 - My in-laws.  I really do love Tony's family.  They have been pretty accepting of me from day one.  They don't always get my sense of humor, but I am used to that.  We have a good time together and my kids just LOVE their cousins.  I really love seeing them on Sundays and it is an extra special treat when everyone can get together since it doesn't happen very often.  Tony's parents have taken us on some pretty awesome vacations as a family and they have been so fun.  Tony's parents genuinely enjoy spending time with their grand kids and it is so fun to see them enjoy being grandparents.  Tony's parents are very supportive and are willing to help out when needed.  Tony's dad has come over and helped us with our house anytime Tony has asked.  I love that Tony has learned so much from his dad about building and fixing things.  Tony's mom has taught Tony to be financially frugal and to do his research before he makes purchases and that is a great skill to have.  Tony's parents really make us all feel special on our birthdays and other days of year with their thoughtfulness.  They have taught us many things and we are very grateful to them.   

The Month of Gratitude

November is the month to be thankful.  Some of my friends are doing a list of all the things they are grateful for each day this month and I think that is a good idea.  I am already a day behind.  I really have been so blessed in my life and I am excited to chart some of these blessings each day until Thanksgiving.

#1 - Tony.  Tony is a great husband and dad.  He is so good to me.  I am so needy and Tony is so good to take care of me and the kids.  I love having him home and I am pretty selfish with his time.  He really seems to enjoy being home and spending time with the family.  He doesn't go out with buddies and ditch his family to do "more fun things" - he is home with his wife and kids (and likes it).  He is willing to help me, our neighbors, our family members or anyone who is in need of help (you just have to ask).
He is a super fun dad, the kids all love him and love to play all over him.  He gets down and plays with his kids, and I love that.  He loves all kids, not just his.  He is the fun uncle who takes the time to play with all the nieces and nephews.
Tony is a hard worker.  He has goals and he will make those goals.  He gets compliments often at work about what a good worker he is and how impressed people are with him.  Tony has a real talents for machines and computers and can take a new piece of equipment and learn it faster then anyone else.  He is a good provider.
Tony has a strong testimony of the church and is a great priesthood holder.  He is always willing to give blessings when needed and knows a lot about the church and the scriptures.  If I every have a question about the scriptures or the church I know that Tony will know the answer.
Tony is also very handy.  He has made our home look so nice with all the updates he's done.  He can do pluming, painting, electrical, work on our cars, and much much more.  He is amazing!  I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband. 

#2 - My kids.  I am so blessed to have three super cute and good kids.  They drive me crazy sometimes and make me yell way too much, but I sure do love them.  Tyler is such a sweet heart.  He asks me for hugs and kisses like twenty times a day.  He is so good with Megan and can be such a good helper.  Josh is so funny.  He has started giving me more hugs and kisses just like Tyler.  He loves to ride his bike and be totally active at everything.  Megan is such a go getter.  She gets so proud of her self when she crawls around the house and pulls up on things.  I feel like I should also mention Koda Dog.  He is like one of our kids.  He really is a good dog and I am so glad that we have him in our lives.  He is such a good protector of our family and is a good companion.  They are such a great bunch of kids and I am so lucky and blessed to have them in my life.

Halloween

Megan after our trip to Grandma's

Today is Halloween and boy was it a fun one.  It started with taking Tyler to school and staying for the parade of costumes.  After we dropped him off we headed to the cafeteria to get seats for the parade.  We got seats close to some friends and Tony's mom met us there.  Tyler was one of the first ones to come out behind his teacher (he loves being the leader).  So we saw him for a couple seconds and then had to wait for the rest of kids to go by.  It was pretty fun since I knew a lot of the kids through the primary at church.

Josh (cowboy) saying "Ye Haw" and Tyler our Knight

Tony with our baby bumble bee

Megan woke up extra early this morning so she was pretty tired and fussy most of the time.  She fell asleep right when it was all over.  So then we walked home and put her to bed.  Lucky for me she stayed asleep for another hour.  Tyler got out early today so I had to have a neighbor come sit at my house while I walked to the school to get Tyler.
Earlier this afternoon I took the kids to go trick-or-treating at Grandma's house.  We hung out at my parents for a while and then we stopped at Grandma Margie's.  Then we headed back home to get ready for the evening.  I got a take-n-bake pizza from Costco and so I just had to cook it and we had us some easy yummy dinner.

Our cute trick-or-treaters

Then it was time to get the kids dressed and start the trick-or-treating.  Megan was going to just go to a couple of our neighbors houses to show off how cute she is, but since the weather was so nice she got to go with the boys to the truck-or-treat.  She feel asleep at the truck-or-treat and so Tony just kept her with him while they did more trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.  They came back about two hours after they started.  Tyler said he was done and his hands hurt (not really sure why, holding his bag I guess) and then Josh was done too until he saw the neighbor girl out and then he wanted to go more with his friend.  So Tony took Josh to a couple more houses but then Josh got tired and was done.
Both Josh and Tyler LOVED handing out candy.  They would fight over who would get to give out the treats to the kids.  I had to have them take turns to solve that problem.  We let them stay up and pass out candy until about 8:00 and then we turned out our lights and put all the kids to bed.  Megan was more then ready for bed.
Last night we carved our pumpkin.  Tyler named him Jack.  Tyler wanted him to be winking, so I did the best I could.  Tyler helped me take out the seeds and the icky stuff.  He was really into it this year and it was fun to do that with him.  Josh sort of watched, but wasn't very interested.  Tony feed Megan while we did the pumpkin.

Tyler showing us his seeds

Speaking of Megan...that poor baby.  Still has the runs and today threw up all over me and my moms floor this afternoon.  I did give her some chocolate - that probably wasn't the best idea since she already had a fussy tummy.  I did take Megan into the doctor on Monday and she told me that Megan just has a bug and since she is so small it just takes her longer to get over illnesses.  So that pretty much sucks.  I thought maybe she was getting a little better, but now I am not so sure.  She did seem to be more happy today, not as fussy as she was.  I just hope that she gets better soon.

Our finished pumpkin "Jack"

We did decide to just move her into her crib in the boys room.  Since she can kneel and pull her self up, we had to take off the bassinet of the pack-n-play and put her at the bottom.  She didn't seem to like that at all.  So we moved her in the crib and she seems to do better in the crib.  We can still hear her when she wakes up in the night and she hasn't woken up the boys yet, so that is really good.  Sad to say, but I am so glad to have her out of our room now.  I love my baby, but I need sleep.

Comings and Goings

Our poor little Megan has been sick for a week and a half now.  It all started with the fever that didn't break for three days and then it was just cold issues, like runny/stuffy nose and a small cough.  Then Friday afternoon is when the diarrhea started.  With diarrhea comes many other problems...diaper rash, tummy hurting, and the worst is that she hasn't been eating very well.  She did eat some baby cereal with bananas twice today, but she only had maybe 15 ounces of formula all day.  If she still has it tomorrow I am going to call the doctor.  Megan definitely doesn't have any weight to be loosing by not eating.  We really need our baby to get healthy again - we could really use a good night sleep too.
I have been having a hard time with my memory these days.  I don't forget my keys or the kids, but peoples names and things that I have been asked to do (like for my calling) and it isn't fun.  I feel like people are going to think that I am irresponsible or not reliable, but my brain is just mush.  I think it is my lack of sleep.  My most important responsibility is my family and so I only remember stuff for them...oh I don't know.  I am nuts. I really need to start getting better sleep soon (I am sure that Tony could use better sleep too).

We had our first fire of the season on Monday.  It was really cold and the fire was really nice.  We also got our new foam cover for the fire place.  It isn't as nice as we thought it was going to be, but it works to protect Megan from hurting her self.  So now we just have to hope that Tyler, Josh, and/or Koda doesn't destroy it.
We had our Primary Program today.  I was told by many people that they thought it was really good.  We did less speaking parts and more songs and I think that it turned out pretty good.  Tyler didn't have a speaking part, but he did pretty good singing the songs.  He got to sit right in front where the Bishop normally sits.  Tony's dad came and supported us by coming to our sacrament.  He stayed for the rest of church and then joined us for dinner.  It was nice spending time with Grandpa and having him spend the afternoon at our house.
We all went in the front yard and watched Tyler and Josh ride their bikes.  They both ride really good on their bikes.  Josh wanted Tony to take off his training wheels on Saturday, so Tony did.  Josh had a hard time, but didn't try for very long.  Tony put back on the training wheels, but thought that if Josh would have tried another five minutes he might have learn to ride without training wheels.  Maybe he'll try again if the weather holds, otherwise it might have to wait until next Spring.
Halloween is on Wednesday.  The boys are really excited.  Tyler will get to do the school parade that morning and then have a class party, so that should be super fun.  Josh's preschool isn't going to dress up or do a party - bummer for them.  I guess the preschool doesn't celebrate holidays specifically.  His teacher said that they will do fun "autumn" activities, but nothing Halloween specific.  Our ward is doing Truck-or-Treat on Halloween night.  It starts pretty early at 5:30 so I am happy about that.  I would like my kids to start when it's light so that they aren't out when it is so cold and dark.  Should be a fun day - gotta love Halloween.

Megan is crawling

It was official earlier this week.  She has been so close for a couple of weeks now.  She would roll around and almost get up to the sitting position by her self (just had the one arm down holding her up) and then get on all fours and rock.  She would then move one hand forward and then thrust her body forward.  Then she would move get a couple more arm steps in and then thrust.  But then she slowly figured out how to have her arms and legs work together.  Now she is crawling all over.
Megan technically was able to sit up on her own before she crawled.  Tony and I were taking bets on which she would do first.  Last week she started lifting up her arm while seated and was able to balance her self.  Now I can put her down on the floor seated and she can go from there.  With this new movement we are super concerned about her hurting her self on our fire place.  So we are going to get a foam cover for it to keep her safe.  That would just break my heart if she hit her head on that thing.

We are no strangers to babies who are quick movers.  Tyler crawled at 6 months and walked at 9 months.  Josh was more average and crawled at 9 months and walked by his first birthday.  So Megan crawling this early was not that surprising for us.  I didn't really want her that mobile already, but what can you do?  She has a mind of her own and is a baby on a mission.  She also loves to stand up.  She can't stand up on her own, but she can stand on her own for a like 10 seconds or so.  She likes to stand on her tippy toes and she looks like a ballerina.  It is fun to see her hit these milestones - but I would be okay if she took a while before walking.
Megan and Josh currently have colds.  Megan got a fever on Thursday and it has come and gone everyday since.  I have had to give her meds everyday and I hate having to do that.  It did help her fever and I think (hope and pray) that she is on the getting better end of this cold.  Josh has just been stuffy, so I hope that it doesn't get any worse.

Wheeler Farm

Tony had the day off yesterday so after Tyler's school and lunch we decided to head to Wheeler Farm and checked our their corn maze and the animals. 
We found out that the maze was expensive (like $30 for our little family to do the little maze) so we decided to just look at the animals and then let the kids play on the playground.  The weather turned out really nice and warm and it was the perfect day to go. 

Tyler was being a pill at first and only wanted to see certain animals and then he just wanted to play, but Josh and Megan did really good.  Josh just LOVES animals and loves to pet them.  He tried to pet the ducks, but they just waddled away from him.  So he would waddle too and say, "waddle waddle waddle."  It was pretty funny. 

They have a pretty fun and big play ground that the kids really enjoyed playing in.  Tony got right in and helped all the kids getting up all the steps.  Tyler was especially photo hungry yesterday so I figured if he was posing I was shooting.  Josh on the other hand, I was lucky I got the one picture that I did.  I am glad that we went and enjoyed the nice weather while we had it.  It was super cold today and suppose to be for a couple more days.  It is definitely fall in Utah.

Halloween Birthday Party

Tyler and Josh were invited to a birthday party that was Halloween themed on Saturday.  So Tyler dressed up in his new Halloween costume as a knight and Josh was a construction worker.  I plan on Josh being a cow boy for Halloween but I need to fix the costume first (guess I better get on that soon).  They both had a fun time and love dressing up.

Tyler the Hero

In Tyler's kindergarten class they have each kid be the "Hero" for the day.  When you are chosen to be the hero your mom and/or dad comes and reads a story to the class.  The hero gets to sit by their parent at the front of the room and all the kids give them a high five.  The hero also gets a medal to keep from the teacher after the class sings the hero song.
Tyler's teacher asked me a couple weeks ago to do this for Tyler.  Lucky for us all Tony had that day off from work so he was able to do the reading.  At first Tyler only wanted Tony to take him to school and do the Hero stuff, but then he "let" the rest of us come.  Josh loved going into Tyler's class room and has asked to do it multiple time since that day.
Tyler felt very special being the Hero and loved being the leader all day.  He loves having the attention on him and being number one.  We love our Tyler and think he is an amazing Hero in our home too.  

Our boring lives...

Nothing too crazy has been going on around here.  We watched General Conference this past weekend.  From what I actually heard, it was very good.  Very uplifting and insightful.  It was kind of nice to just hand out at home for the weekend.  We thought about going up to the cabin but the weather was so cold that we didn't want to go up and freeze.
Tyler and Josh are both still really enjoying school.  I am not really sure what Josh does in his preschool because he can't really tell me and the teacher doesn't give much information.  I guess I could ask, but by the time the class is over I have to run to get Tyler from Kindergarten and that doesn't leave me time to chat.
My friend from the neighborhood, Rachel, came over today with her three kids and we had lunch and let the kids play.  Her kids are about the same age as my kids, so it is fun to get together.  We had a good time hanging out.
I went to the doctors yesterday because I thought that I had a sinus infection.  I did...and I do.  So I am on an antibiotic.  It seems to be helping so that is good.  I am still getting some pretty intense headaches, but that should go soon - I hope.
So all this seems kind of boring, but I am so glad that we are boring.  I will take boring until the next big thing comes up.

Josh's 1st day of Preschool

Josh started preschool on Tuesday.  He is going to a young three preschool at an elementary school that is about 5-7 minutes away from our house.  The elementary school that Tyler goes to and that is right by our house doesn't offer an early three class so that is why Josh has to go to a different elementary.
Lucky for us he gets to go for free because of his speech problems.  A speech therapist will come into the class room and work with Josh.  The class is only an hour and a half two days a week...so perfect for Josh.  
Josh really likes having "Josh school."  He has watched Tyler go to preschool for two years and now kindergarten, so he was so ready to go to his own school.
He did really good with me just taking him to class and leaving.  His teacher said that he did really good as well.  I am glad that he is getting help with his speech and having fun in the class room.  I say it is a win-win for everyone.