Halloween 2016

Halloween 2016 is in the books and it couldn't have been any better if we tried!

Tyke got to dress up for preschool and they had a fun Halloween party!  They all exchanged treats and had a great time!  Isn't he the cutest little firefighter?! 

After picking Tyke up from school we headed straight down to Main Street where the local businesses put on some trick or treating fun for all of us.  The boys had so much fun!  We walked a few blocks before calling it quits and heading home for a few minutes.

When we got home Aunt Jenny met us with treats for the boys.  They got spoiled with treats, play-doh, cookies, sunny-d, and light up bracelets to wear trick or treating!  We visited the neighbors for some trick or treating before loading up and heading to Mona to visit the grandparents.

We had a good long visit at Grams and Gramps house!  Cousins Kayson, Matlyn, Swasey and Brigston were all there too.  The kids had fun playing!  Bampa Terry gave the boys big handfuls of treats! 

After leaving the hill we went back to Nephi to Nebo Heights for some good, easy trick or treating.  The boys did great and did most of the work on their own.  Luke was hilarious to watch!  He would growl at people and their "scary" decorations.  He would blow out the candles of the jack-o-lanterns, naughty boy!  And he helped himself to more candy than was offered to him.  One man gave him a handful of treats and Luke looked at him seriously, looked into his bucket, then back at the guys big bowl of candy.  Luke grabbed one more handful of treats, tossed them in his bucket, and ran off screaming "thank you!"  Tyke met two fellow firefighters, Wren and Teagon (we camp with them for Easter and Labor Day, so they're good little buddies) and we had to take pictures of them.  After hitting a few houses we realized that we had forgotten to visit Aunt Tiffy while in Mona!  We did two streets in Nebo Heights and then quickly headed back to Mona for one more quick stop.  The boys were excited to see their "Tee-Tee"!  On the drive back to Nephi we put all of the candy in the trunk of the car, out of sight, because the boys had eaten too much!  Luke had even eaten the wrappers of a few treats too!  Both boys were unhappy with this decision and Luke threw a mega tantrum the entire way back to Nephi!  It was then that we realized it was past dinner time, oops!  So we called in an order to Reed's for dinner.  We grabbed our food and went to Nanna's house to eat and trick or treat.  The boys devoured their grilled cheese sandwiches!  I have never seen them eat like that before!  Poor kiddos were starved.  Nanna gave them both a bag full of treats, play-doh and free frosty booklets to Wendy's!  They also go a chocolate cupcake with a ghost ring on top!  They were spoiled for sure there!  Thanks Nanna!  We had one more stop to make, Uncle Brent's, to see Great Grandma Jean.  Unfortunately we were too late and she had already gone home.  So our one stop turned into two!  The boys got a can of pop and a big bag of M&M's from Uncle Brent and Aunt Tammy.  Grandma Jean gave them each a $2 bill!  We visited with her for a few minutes before calling it quits and taking the boys home for bed.  They made a good haul and ended up with so many treats and prizes!  They were sad when we bathed them and sent them to bed without letting them have anymore candy.  They had definitely had enough to last a week!  Halloween was so much fun this year and we couldn't have asked for a better night!  Happy Halloween 2016!

 

Update 11-1-16: Luke was up, tossing and turning and moaning and crying for about two hours in the middle of the night.  I'm pretty sure he had a tummy ache from all of the junk and wrappers he ate yesterday, dang it!

Airport

Today the boys got to visit the Salt Lake International airport for the first time.  We took Grandma Cheryl to the airport.  She's going to Oregon for a week to visit the Robertson's.  The boys thought it was so neat at the airport and loved watching the big planes take off!

On a side note, we made a quick stop at Cabela's on the way home from the airport.  Daddy needed to return some hiking boots that had fallen apart.  He was going to look for a new pair to replace them but didn't find any he liked.  Tyke did though.  Tyke has been wanting a pair of awesome hiking boots since all of the hunts started.  Well now the hunts are over and we debated on even buying him a pair but his cuteness won and he got some.  I wasn't sure what size to get him and had him try on a couple different sizes.  Each time though I couldn't find where his toes ended because the toe area of the shoes were so hard I couldn't press down very good.  I said to Tyke, "Buddy I can't find your toes!" To which he replied sarcastically, "Day are in da shoes, duh mom!" True that Tyke!  Smart little man!

Today...

Today Teagen killed a monster buck!  We weren't with him when he did but we met him out at Mark & Jamie's house to see it (cousin Mike is going to be doing the taxidermy on it).  We spent a good two hours out there watching Mike skin Teagen's deer and get it ready for mounting.  It's an impressive buck and we're so proud of Teagen!  Way to go!

Today was also cousin McKenna's 3rd birthday.  She had a fun Halloween party with pizza, homemade rootbeer, cake and ice cream, and pumpkin carving!  The boys mostly just ate, drank and ran around playing with all of the other kids.  Tyke put in his request for a t-rex pumpkin.  I carved his and Daddy carved Luke's.  Both boys were happy with their finished product.  Maybe next year they will care enough (and be big enough) to carve their own!  It was a great day!

Little Artist

Daddy and I are both blown away with how good Tyke is with his art work!  We've been slacker parents and haven't really done much in the arts and crafts department with our boys.  So when Tyke brings home work like this and claims he did it himself we have really questioned it.  His teacher finally confirmed to me that Tyke really does color and paint his projects all by himself!  Wow!  Good job Roni!  We're so proud of you and the good work you do bud!

Log Canyon

We have been having so much fun this week tagging along on the deer hunt with Bampa Terry and cousin Teagen!  Tonight we ventured up Log Canyon over in Sanpete county.  We had so much fun but dang it was cold!  By the time we turned the side by sides around to head back out of the mountains Tyke and Luke were crying and shivering.  It was so sad!  I had plenty of warm clothes and gloves for the stubborn little stinkers but they refused to keep them on until they were absolutely frozen and miserable!  It was a good, fun night spent in the mountains with family and wouldn't have had it any other way!

Buddy

I can't believe I never posted anything about Tyke's cow Buddy!  I need to document this because it's been a very important time in Tyke's life.  He loves doing chores with Bampa and created a special bond over the summer with Buddy.  He loves this cow so much even though he is long gone.  Grams and Gramps sent him away along with all of the other cows to be fed out and then, you know...  Tyke is convinced that Buddy just ran away and that Bampa Terry needs to fix his fences so the cows can't get out.  Tyke talks about Buddy nearly every day and is always on the lookout for him.  He has even told me a few times before that he wishes we could build a fence with a big gate and have Buddy live at our  house so he can pet him whenever he wants.  It's been so sad and slightly entertaining to hear all of Tyke's stories about his cow.  We miss Buddy but not as much as Tyke does!

Deer Hunt 2016

We don't have a deer tag this year (only Chad drew the sheep tag, other than no hunting for us) but we have sure had fun tagging along with everyone on their hunts! Bampa Terry has a deer tag and we have had fun tagging along with him this weekend.  Tyke thought he was pretty awesome getting to go with the boys early this  morning.  It has been weird "letting" him go and do things without me tagging along.  He's getting big and loving it!  Tonight the rest of our little crew tagged along on the night hunt and we had so much fun!  I'm glad we get to do these kind of things with those that we love most!  We have yet to get a deer but we have a whole week ahead of us to find one!

Jaker's

Tyke had his first field trip today and we all got to tag along.  We had so much fun roaming around the Jaker's pumpkin patch in Springville, Utah!  The boys had a blast climbing the huge bales of hay, running through the hay mazes and chasing the black birds gathered around.  Luke was NOT a fan of the slide but Tyke sure enjoyed it and went down at least a dozen times!  We went on a hay ride through the pumpkin patch and corn field and then finished off our visit with letting the boys each buy a pumpkin.  It was so much fun and we can't wait to go back to Jaker's!  Thank you Mrs. Josalyn for a fun morning out!

Nephi Fire Station Visit

Tonight the Nephi Fire Station held an open house and invited the entire community to come and visit.  I think they do this yearly but this is the first time we took the time to go and I'm glad we did!  It was so much fun and very informative.  Tyke was a grump the entire time thanks to being woken up early from a nap (it was time for him to wake up anyway, he just chose to wake up a grouch!).  Luke was very curious and all smiles the entire time.  He loved looking at the lights on the fire trucks and trying to push buttons and pull levers.  Uncle Brent gave us the grand tour of the trucks and even let Luke sit in the drivers seat of one!  Tyke refused to and just hid behind me and pouted.  Luke met Smokey the Bear and gave him knucks and got his picture taken with him.  We gathered the boys some treats and then went and watched a demonstration on how to use a fire extinguisher.  After that we found  Uncle Corey and he showed us the fire gear he has to wear.  That stuff is heavy and hot!  We had fun and look forward to going to this even again in the future!  Thank you Nephi Fire Crew!

Daddy's Hunt

Daddy finally got his ram!  He was quick to do it this weekend and we are so happy for him!  He worked hard for this and it paid off big time!  It's a nice desert bighorn and scored 146!  Way to go Daddy!

(A special thank you to all of our family and friends who helped out along the way and who came to visit and see this amazing sheep.)

Spike Elk Hunting with Bampa

Chad and I got back home late Saturday from our San Rafael adventure.  Jenny offered to keep the boys for one more night and we took her up on it.  We missed them terribly but we were exhausted and it was after 11 p.m. by the time we walked into the house.  It all worked out perfect in the long run.  We picked the boys up the next morning before their church started and then headed up to Bampa Terry's house to see if we would be elk hunting or not.  Of course we went!  We all loaded up in the viking and headed up Mona Pole.  We never saw a single elk but we saw a few deer and the boys had a blast playing in the dirt and mud.  They also really enjoyed learning how to cut the tall grass with their Cabela's model gerber.  It was adorable to watch them both concentrate and work so hard.  My boys are growing up fast!  Days like Sunday are what it's all about!  Family fun in the mountains and we absolutely love it!

2 Year Well Check

Luke had his two year well check today with Dr. Fullmer and everything checked out great!  Our baby is growing great and is almost at the top of the charts in all measurements.  Luke did so good and never cried, except for when Daddy had to leave the room for a few minutes (Tyke needed the potty) and when he got his flu shot in the leg.  

Luke thought he was so big and neat climbing up onto the scale to get weighed.  He cooperated well with our nurse at getting his height taken and his bp monitored.  It was so cute watching him be so big and brave for her.  We could tell that he was nervous and a little hesitant but at the same time he liked showing off for us all.  He's a character for sure!

We had to fill out a questionnaire on Luke to access where he stands for being two year old.  There are a few things we need to start working on better (speech, drawing, etc) but he passed with flying colors.  Chad and I feel bad that we don't do more with the boys (reading books, drawing, crafts, etc) but they get lots of love and attention and are happy and to me that means a lot!   

Dr. Fullmer looked Luke over really well and the only abnormal thing he found was a little bit of fluid on Luke's right ear.  He said it was clear and not infected so nothing to worry about, yet.  We discussed lots of thing with Dr. Fullmer about Luke.  Potty training was brought up a couple of times.  I'm in no way ready for that yet but Dr. Fullmer told us that now is the time to start encouraging it so we will (we do a little anyway but I guess we'll start doing more).  We are going to try really, really, really hard to get rid of Luke's bad milk habits at bedtime and in the middle of the night.  We should have done this months ago but Luke is more stubborn than us and has won each time.  Now it's time for us to get mean and only give him water.  I can only imagine the fits that is going to cause.  There are two white spots on Luke's body that we need to keep an eye one.  One right above his belly button and the other is on the back of his neck.  To me they look like vitiligo (which I have) and that's why I mentioned it to Dr. Fullmer.  He doesn't seem to think it's vitiligo but told us to watch them and if they happen to grow at all in size we'll have to check them out.  We also discussed Luke's patches of eczema.  I hate that stuff!  Luckily it's under control as long as we keep up with the lotion, which Luke absolutely hates.  His poor little legs have it the worst.  It doesn't seem to bother him at all but it bothers me how rough his skin feels some days if we skip lotion.  

Luke's 2 year stats:

Weight: 32.8 pounds (96%)

Height: 35.75 inches (83%)

Head: 19.5 inches (82%)

After Dr. Fullmer got done visiting with us the nurses came in and gave all four of us a flu shot.  Both boys were unhappy about that!  It's nice to have that done and out of the way though.  We're so glad that Luke once again got a clean bill of health and that he is growing and thriving and doing the things that he should be.  We are so in love with his fun, stubborn, goofy little attitude!  Our baby is a big boy now, and even though it's a little bittersweet I'm loving watching him grow.  We love you Bubba!

Bwe-member? (Remember)

School has done wonders for Tyke!  He is learning so much and always repeating new facts to us.  When we ask where did he learn that he always replies, "I just learned it mom!"  Besides learning new things we are happy to report that Tyke is actually starting to get adventurous with his eating habits and trying new things.  I completely give Mrs. Josalyn credit for this because he has only gotten brave in the eating department since starting school.  Mrs. Josalyn has been able to convince him to try and like animal crackers and fruit loops.  Silly, right?  But he has raved about how good those treats were.  And so I tried to take advantage of this and told him he should always try new things because he'll never know if he likes them or not without trying.  He is still very timid about eating "new" foods and I have to cut them down to the most minuscule portion for him to try it and like and then eat more and more.

Tonight we had chicken legs and yummy potatoes for dinner.  I was able to convince him to try 1/8 of an inch of potato that he actually liked but refused to eat any more.  I also somehow convinced him to eat the chicken that I had pulled off of the leg for him.  He ate it well and then ate more chicken off of the leg I offered him as long as I held it.  I was so excited and so was Daddy!  After dinner was finished Tyke asked for a slice of bread with jam on it.  I don't recall him ever having that before.  We were dumbfounded and took advantage of Tyke's request.  Chad fixed him a slice of bread with strawberry jam and Tyke devoured it!  Chad asked Tyke, "Oh my gosh, who are you?!"  To which Tyke looked at him funny and replied, "I Tyke, don't you bwe-member?!"  LOL

San Rafael Swell

We had a little overnight getaway!  Chad's desert bighorn sheep hunt is still going (until November actually) and Jenny and Cody offered to take the boys overnight so that I could go with for a couple of days.  It was hard for me to leave those little stinkers but they had so much fun at Aunt Jenny's and we had so much fun playing down south!  We left early afternoon on Friday.  We parked the trucks and loaded up the side by sides with all of our gear and drove ten miles in to where we would camp.  The guys (Chad, my dad, and Chris) hurried and put up our tent and we unloaded everything that we didn't need for the hunt, and then we headed on out to look for some sheep! The scenery was amazing and pictures DO NOT do it justice!  I'm so glad I got to go and experience it.  We saw a few sheep that night.  Chad even took a shot at one that he happened to walk upon.  He was walking along a ledge and just stopped to look over and a giant sheep was lying on the cliff ledge 135 feet below him.  He backed up, dropped his gear, loaded the gun and went for it.  He missed but enjoyed the fun that it was.  Looking back now we're all glad that he didn't get it because it would have been near impossible to get the sheep out of that deep canyon.  We stayed out until dark and then headed back to camp.  We cooked up some hamburgers and brats for dinner which totally hit the spot.  Then we all sat around the lantern and talked.  It was cold and we didn't have a fire so the heat from the lantern had to do.  We killed two scorpions and a black widow near our tent!  I thought it would be a long miserable night (cold and poisonous critters!) but we all actually slept really well, other than the hard ground we had to sleep on.

We woke up early Saturday morning and met up with Corey and KaBree.  We got to watch the sun rise as we headed back out to hunt.  The San Rafael is insanely huge and full of huge, deep canyons.  We would be driving along on flat desert ground and then bam, it would open up into thousand foot drops into these huge canyons.  I took so many pictures and video but it all is nothing compared to experiencing it yourself!  We hiked and drove and hiked some more.  Chad got a shot at a ram that was on the run but he missed.  Those things are too fast!  We eventually made our way back to Chimney Canyon and went on a little hike there too.  It was getting dark and we lucked out and saw four rams walking along the steep hillside across the canyon from us.  The shot would have been perfect but once again, impossible to get to the sheep if we got him.  It was neat to watch them work their way along the hillside.  Heck, it was neat just to see them period!  All of the others I had seen had only been a blur up until this point.  Once the sheep rounded the hillside and were out of site we spent a little longer hiking and glassing for more before heading back to our rides going back to camp.  We hurried and took the tent down and loaded up and headed back to the trucks to go home.  We made a quick stop in Salina for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then we headed home.  We figure that in the two days we were down there we saw nearly thirteen sheep!  That to me is pretty impressive considering the amount of land we covered and seen.  It was so much fun and I'm glad I got to go!

2nd Birthday Party!

Oh boy did we ever have fun celebrating Luke's second birthday!  We had a farm themed party and it couldn't have gone any better (well, we could have had more people come celebrate with us but the dang flu bug was making the rounds so it was a fairly small party, we hope everyone gets feeling well soon!).

I had seen a pig cake that I wanted to make for Luke's birthday so bad.  It was the cutest thing ever and the entire party theme started to revolve around it but then things changed quite drastically.  Work for me got super busy and I was putting in lots of hours and stressing about how I was going to get everything done that needed to be done.  Daddy offered to just buy a cake to relieve some stress but I would have felt bad about that.  I love being able to say that I have made all of my boys birthday cakes so far.  I have fun with it and enjoy it even though I do stress a little (OK, a lot) about it.  So the pig cake idea went out the window about two days before the party and a tractor cake came to mind.  I really slacked off on getting the cake baked and decorated (I usually like to do this a day or so before the party) but I pulled it off thanks to the help of all of my boys!  Frosting the cake was quite the feat with two little helpers and Daddy trying to sneak tastes of frosting.  

We partied yesterday on Luke's birthday.  I don't think he really knew what was going on but he loved running around and playing with his cousins and Tyke.  We had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner along with some yummy smoked baked beans (Daddy's is an awesome cook!), and potato salad.  It was just a typical barbecue.  Luke devoured THREE hot dogs!  Mostly just the meat but still that just blew me away how much food he put away.  The kid can eat, that's for sure!  After dinner we sang happy birthday to Luke and he blew his candles out all by himself!  Gosh I love this kid!

After cake and ice cream (ice cream for Luke, I'm noticing he's not much of a cake fan right now) we opened gifts.  Luke got spoiled in the truck department and ended up with a ton of new trucks!  He especially liked the trucks that Nana and Great Grandma Jean gave him because, of course, they had lights and drove by themselves.  

Luke's loot:

Mom & Dad: new bike and a set of emergency crew vehicles

Tyke: Thomas the Train set and a giant bag of sixlets

Grandma Cheryl & Grandpa Terry: $30

Nana: truck that makes noise and lights up

Grandma Jean: Chevy truck and $10

Uncle Alex, Aunt Jo, Uncle David & Aunt Tiffy: two bags of M&M's and $15

Uncle Seth & Aunt Steph: remote control bulldozer

Uncle Corey & Aunt Stephanie: construction truck set

Robert Bruce (Bampa Terry's friend): $5

Uncle Chris & Aunt Danielle: two "Blaze & the Monster Machines" trucks

A great big thank you to everyone that helped make our little Lu's big day so special.  We love Luke so much and are so thankful for him!  Happy Birthday Bubba!