Patients and Patience

This week we have been dealing with two sick kids. Colby just got over some sort of stomach flu, and Ethan is still dealing with croup. Since they have both been feeling sick, and have been contagious, we have spent the last 4 days couped up in our house. No church, no preschool, no playdates. You find out really quickly how much patience you have when you have two kids that are sick, bored, and wanting attention at all times, especially when one of those kids has not yet learned how to tell you what he wants. Colby is at the tough stage of toddlerhood when he knows what he wants, but he does not yet know how to tell me. Needless to say, it is not so fun for him, or for me. Anyway, I found that I do not have enough of this much needed patience! Hopefully they will be feeling better soon, and we can all get back to the normal routine.

Trick-or-Treat!

We had so much fun trick-or-treating last night! We had two of my sisters and their kids, my mom, and our friends Mike and Carrie and their kids all join us. We got the whole crew dressed and ready and set out like a mob looking for our candy. Colby did not like being in his elephant costume or in his stroller, and he was screaming and crying because I would not let him play with all the neighbors Halloween decorations. He only lasted for a few houses, and then I had to take him home, but the rest of the kids did great and had a lot of fun. A lot of our neighbors go all out with the decorations and the music and all. There was even one house that turned the whole garage into a haunted maze for the kids to walk through. I missed that one, but I hear it was pretty scary. Ethan just keeps talking about it! I love celebrating holidays with kids! It is so fun!
Here is Ethan in his Ninja Turtle costume. The plan was to go homemade, but he was too picky, and the Walmart version was cheaper, so that's what he got! He looked awesome.
Here's my neice Madison, and nephew Wyatt as scary skeletons. My sister does homemade costumes every year and they always turn out so cute!!
Here is my nephew Jackson as such a cute monster.
Here is my niece Olivia as a unicorn. She couldn't wait for me to take the picture before putting the next piece of candy in her mouth!

Like I said, Colby did not like being in a costume, so I did not get any pictures of him, but he was so cute as an elephant.

Happy Halloween everyone. Hope you all had a fun night too!

Jack-o-lanterns

Here are the jack-o-lanterns we carved at the last minute so we could have them done before halloween. The kids were no help at all. They did not even seem interested until it was time to light them! Ethan did have some say in what his face looked like, but he would not stick around long enough to watch me carve it. Anyway, Zak did the cool spider one, which took him a long time to get just right. While he worked on his, I cleaned out and carved the other three! Mine was the polka-dotted one (or the swiss cheese one as my brother-in-law called it). I used Zak's drill with a big bit to make the holes. He was thrilled, especially when he saw the pumpkin guts all over the drill! Ethan's is the green one (of course) and Colby's is the happy little one. I think they turned out pretty good. Here they are all lit up.

Road Trip!

We drove up to Pleasant Grove, Utah for Grandma Ruby's funeral last weekend. It was a long drive, and Colby did not have so much fun being strapped in a car seat for that long. Ethan did pretty well as long as he could watch movies the whole time! It was good to get up there and visit with so much family and some friends, but we are hoping to not have to do that drive any time again too soon!
Along the drive, we went through Flagstaff and drove by our old duplex, and our old apartments, and through campus. It was fun to see everything and to remember some of the fun times back in our college days (doesn't that make us sound old!). We could not believe how much NAU has changed over the last few years!

Grandma Ruby

Last week my Grandma Ruby passed away. Her 98th birthday would have been this week, so she lived a long, happy, healthy, and productive life. She had 6 children, 31 grandchildren, 63 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great-grandchild, so a total of 101 descendants, and she was sharp enough to be able to name everyone of them. She has always been a good example to me and everyone else and she will be greatly missed. We love you Grandma!