Happy Halloween!

We have had a lot of fun with Halloween this year. It's much different with Easton being old enough to have fun! We got to go to both grandparents' trunk-or-treats and had a great time at each! We were supposed to have a party with friends Friday night, but it was cancelled which allowed us to go to my parents' truck-or-treat. So we took the veggies and dip we were going to bring to the party up to Sandy.

Picasso Pumpkin

Sick!

We went out of our way to find a pumpkin patch where you could pick your own pumpkin off the vine. When we got there the lady said, "Well they're pretty picked over. We have a few left over here." And she pointed to some terrible looking pumpkins on the side of the road! But I can't tell people "no" so we just picked out our pumpkins and pretended to be happy with them:) Now I'm wondering if the huge sign that said, "Pick your own" meant "choose" your own... hmm...

We carved them Sunday after naps. I wanted to use an idea I saw on Pinterest and carve lines of little holes down the lines of the pumpkins with a drill. Easton was all over that. But he wasn't about to touch all the yucky stuff inside!

After that we made carmel apples.

For Halloween dinner we had a yummy mummy chicken braid. I also played a Halloween trick on the boys by turning the rice and cheese sauce green with food coloring. (They were supposed to be purple and orange, but I didn't have red food coloring for some reason!) Tyson had a hard time eating it:) But it tasted great!

Here's the Halloween cuties before we went trick or treating. The green pumpkins are the ones that grew in our backyard thanks to our neighbor's vine that grew under our fence. I think they're so cute!

Callan wishing he could eat up Easton's loot.

Callan in his "My First Halloween" jammies.

Easton wasn't all that in to the trick or treating. He just wanted to go home and veg. So we had hot chocolate with marshmallows and watched "Scared Shrekless" which was really sick and weird.

Tyson took a picture of our glowing pumpkins for me:)

Easton wasn't quite ready for bed (sugar high) so he and Tyson are watching Snow White and the Three Stooges. I think I got it for a white elephant last year and it's kinda fun!

Here's the Halloween pictures we took a while ago off of our photo blog in case you missed them.

Cal Cal the Cow Cow

Cousin Crew Dogg in a pumpkin. Cal got in the pumpkin too, but it didn't go well...

Cosmo Crew Dogg

Happy Halloween!

It's Now or Never!

I've been waiting and waiting for a better day to take pictures of the house for everyone to see... but I've come to the realization that it's never going to get any cleaner and there will always be another project. In October I get a little stressed about blogging because my yearly blog books end in October so if I don't do it now, it'll have to wait till next year's book. So here's our house!

Warning: these pictures were taken by me, not Tyson. Yes, I used a flash. The walls are gray, not purple or yellow, or whatever color they look...

Master Bath

Downstairs Bath

Living Room

TV... Area?

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Easton's Bedroom

Had to copy these rain gutter book shelves from my cute cousin... :)

Callan's Room

By the way, I uploaded ALL these pictures onto our photo blog on accident first. It took forever!

Cornbelly's

Let me tell you it has not been the best week at our house. I just hate sickness! Nothing gives me more anxiety than hearing my kids cough the same cough that is on that whooping cough commercial. You know-the one on TLC. Easton is getting over the croup. He can breathe easily now, but still has that nasty lingering cough. I spent the first few nights of the week sleeping (or not sleeping) with Callan on the couch. He SCREAMED all night long for most of those nights. He had a really snotty nose, but it didn't seem like croup. I finally took him in to the doctor to get his ears checked. But no. I don't think any of my kids will ever have an ear infection. I'm not that lucky. The doctor said it must be his teeth. I kinda figured since I can see two coming in, but man - the kid is a sensitive teether!

Well, the next half of the week didn't get much better. I spent those nights on the couch with Callan as well, but this time with croup! The poor kid. I don't think it's gotten him as bad as it got Easton, but in combination with the teething it's kind of been a beast. Tyson had a test yesterday so he wasn't too much help this week. Wait, I shouldn't say that - he was a LOT of help - just not as much as he would have been had he not had a test. Don't worry he passed. It's such a relief to get that phone call at noon every other Friday and know that we have an entire three days to spend together!

We decided to go to Cornbelly's Friday night. It was really last minute since the boys are sick, but we just can't stay cooped up in the house any longer! I figured an outdoor place would be ok.

I think Easton's favorite part was jumping around on the hay bales. We should have planned ahead better - he could have used a buddy! I guess mom and dad just aren't that much fun!

We waited in line for the cow train forever. When it was almost our turn Easton said, "I didn't really want to go on it. I was just kidding." Well, tough! We waited way too long to turn back now! He looked pretty bored for the whole ride.

I think my favorite part of the night was sitting on the bench waiting for Easton on the cow train. We forgot the strollers, but we had the baby carrier in the back of the car. My shoulders were killing me by the end of the night!

Callan's such a sweetie. He's so miserable yet still so pleasant.

And here are the little buggers that have been giving us so much trouble all week! Teeth numbers 5 and 6! They better come through soon!

And one more thing. I've discovered a miracle this week! It's this CD my grandma gave me a little while ago:

We've been having a lot of trouble with Easton and his naps. When he doesn't nap he is SO DANG NAUGHTY. I mean really bad. So I told him that mom and dad really want him to start taking good naps on his bed so he can start making better choices. I got him some gold fish crackers and told him he could read on his bed, but not to come out or else I would have to lock the door. I put in this CD and he was out like a light! AND it worked again today.

MIRACLE!

Need I say more?

An Apple A Day Does NOT Keep the Dr Away.

On Wednesday at noon Easton was running around like his crazy happy self. Around 2 or 3 he started losing his voice. At 8 we put him to bed with a croupy cough and a vaporizer just in case. At 10:30 he woke up in a total panic. Couldn't breathe and was totally freaked out by the fact that he couldn't breathe so he was screaming in between attempted breaths. I took him downstairs so he wouldn't wake Cal and out on the porch to breathe the night air like I remember my parents doing for croup. He settled down slightly - enough to stop screaming and get a little air in. But after 30 minutes of trying unsuccessfully to get his breathing back to normal - I felt like he needed to be seen.

I put him in the car and googled Instacare on my phone. I drove frantically to 2 different Instacares (one clear out in Saratoga) and they were both closed! I thought they were supposed to be 24 hour things! Easton had fallen asleep at this point, but I didn't feel comfortable taking him home and having it happen again. I decided to take him to the ER (which made me realize how far away we are from an ER in the event of a true emergency...) and we waited and waited and waited. If anyone has any ER experience and can tell me what all the doctors and nurses are doing in their little computer cubicle while the patients sit there - please explain. They gave him a dose of dexamethasone and we finally got home at 2 AM.

A male nurse (who obviously didn't have children) heard Easton coughing, walked out to the waiting room and handed me this mask, and without saying anything turned around and walked back to his computer. Ticked me off just a little. But Easton kinda liked the mask. He's holding his hospital bracelet and his toy car they gave him when he was all done.

Thursday I had to work, but was able to get someone to work for me the second half of the day. Thank heavens cuz I was exhausted! Easton seems to be doing ok...hasn't had anymore panic attacks, but is still wheezing really bad and breathing way too fast. Kinda freaks me out.

I've been trying to fill the time at home with fun stuff - although let's face it - Easton doesn't really care about crafts. Maybe someday I'll have a girl who will:) We made these cute Hershey bar mummies and sucker spiders. Did you know that boys are actually programmed from birth to not care AT ALL about the presentation of their food? He just wanted the candy!

Hopefully he'll get better soon. The morning that this all started Easton and Callan shared a pudding. I had the spoon and just kept alternating mouths cuz I'm a genius like that. So I'm just waiting for Callan to come down with it. I spend my spare time cleaning everything with Lysol spray and Clorox wipes. I've been giving the kids baths morning and night - partly for germ control and partly so that they're contained in one space for more than 5 minutes. I've got a jumbo bottle of Germ-X that is living on the counter, I dug out the adult multi-vitamins, kids vitamin gummy bears, and nasty infant vitamin drops that have been collecting dust in the medicine cupboard, the fridge is stocked with OJ and chicken noodle soup, and I have vaporizers on in each room. Do I have issues? Maybe. Would I have a lot more issues if Callan ended up in the hospital and I didn't do everything I could to prevent it? Oh yeah. We need to avoid that at all costs:)

Tyson is working late again tonight. He's such a hard worker. And I'm going to bed to prepare for a busy day tomorrow. I would like to have a word with the person who decided that the elder's quorum flag football game, primary program practice, and relief society super saturday should all overlap.

Another Fun-Filled Weekend

Tyson passed another test on Friday - yay! He is doing so well and we love it because when he passes he has the whole weekend plus Monday to spend with us! It is so great. Friday we went to Sushi Ya with Seth, Rachel, and Cody. I can't say the food was great (of course) but it was fun to see them again! After that Tyson worked until 10 and we went to hang out with my Idaho cousins who came down for the weekend. Easton was so excited to play with them! I can't believe I didn't get any pictures!

Saturday we went to the zoo with cousins. It sprinkled pretty much the whole time we were there but it was way better than the last time we went to the zoo in 108 degree weather!

Tell me that's not the cutest little cuddle bug you've ever seen.

After the zoo we drove straight out to Tooele to watch my sister Kelsey jump out of a plane. She sold her wedding dress and decided to use the money to sky dive. She's crazy.

Then we drove straight from Tooele to the BYU game! We had a lot of fun but it was sure a later night than we are used to!

Today's Eastonisms:

We've been playing "store" a lot lately. He gathers up his toys and brings them to me and I ring him out. He pays me some fake money and I say, "Have a nice day!" He always says, "I will! You make sure you give that money to someone who doesn't have any dollars!"

Yesterday at Kohl's he was asking me, "How much is this? How much is this? ..." We were in a big hurry so I kept saying, "Too much. Too much..." After a while he stopped and said, "Mom! This one is NOT too much! It's one much!"

Eating McDonald's in the car - "Easton did you just sneeze out a fry?"

"Ya. I had an issue."

Deal or No Deal

"Dealing" with Easton is really pretty fun. I'm not sure where he learned his negotiating skills but he has become quite the deal maker. For example the other day he had taken off all the couch cushions and I asked him to clean them up. He said, "No! Here's the deal: I'm going to jump on this cushion for ten minutes and then I will clean it up. That's the deal." Every once in a while he'll give me a choice by asking, "is that a good deal mom?" And I usually say yes just because I'm proud of him for making a compromise. I probably let him get away with too much, but I think his reasoning skills are so funny!

Other stuff lately...

Caught Easton sucking his stomach with the ShopVac. Later that day caught him sucking Callan's stomach with the ZipLoc Vacuum.

There's been lots of wrestling going on. Callan's being initiated pretty early.

Easton has been asking me to turn up the radio when he hears his favorite songs:

"Country Girl Shake It For Me" by Luke Bryan

"Crazy Girl" by Eli Young Band... the best is when he sings the line, "silly woman, come here let me hold you..."

and "I got the moves like Jagger" by Maroon 5.

He knows a good song when he hears one. I love it.

We had an FHE about bodies and spirits in preparation for Grama Manning's funeral. We did that thing that everyone does where you have a glove for the body and your spirit is the hand and the body can't move without the spirit inside... you know. Well Easton decided he was going to use the gloves to help the men dig the hole in the ground at the cemetery. So not the point. It didn't go very well.

Callan is making a lot of progress with crawling. It won't be long until he's everywhere. Sometimes when he gets really close to reaching what he's after, Easton sits on him. I get mad at him of course, but secretly... I don't mind if he slows down the progress a little:)

Callan's top teeth finally came in. There's a pretty good space in between them so he'll probably have "hippo teeth" like his brother did for a little while. So cute.