Catch Up Randomness

I ran out of room on our camera's memory card so I figured it was time to catch up with my posting and share a few stories behind some cute pictures.

Laundry Basket Dreams

About a year ago Hiram and I gave up trying to make sure the boys went to sleep right away when we put them to bed.  Most nights they are pretty good and stay in bed but some nights I think they stay up and play for hours.  We don't stress it too much.  Since we have turned to a free range night time we have found them asleep in some pretty funny places.  Most often it is in their laundry basket when its full.  I am pretty sure they try to use it as a step stool.  When Joey falls asleep he is usually in his bed or right in front of the door. (More of that to come) Before we go to bed ourselves we check to make sure their light is off and they made it to their beds.  It makes for some sweet and funny evenings to walk in there to find out where they lost steam and dropped for the night.

 

New to Them Jungle Gym

A family in our ward came up to us a few weeks ago and told us that they had a big swing set their kids had outgrown and they wanted to give it to us so our kids could play on it.  We were super excited and after a couple weeks of planning and recruiting Hiram took it down and hauled it over to our house.  It was an immediate success and they boys are in love.  For the last few weeks before that they hadn't been as interested in going in the backyard as they were during the summer. I think they were getting bored back there and they didn't have as many bugs to hunt.  Ever since I put up the Jungle Gym I haven't been able to keep them out of there!  Every time we walk outside to get in the car I have to be very careful to make sure they go right for the car otherwise I spend at least 5 minutes trying to get them down from the tree house or retrieve them from the monkey bars. (Joey can traverse the expanse and it freaks me out every time!)  Hiram has grand plans to make the slide into a water slide complete with a waterfall next summer.  We will have a good time making it.  I just hope we have the water pressure to pull it off. All in all we love it and it is Heaven sent!  Thank you Markham family!  What a gift!

 

 Halloween

This year for Halloween Joey was Elmo and James was a dinosaur which after a few days he decided was actually a dragon and therefore much more fun to wear.  They went trick or treating 3 times: at the ward Halloween party, at the law school, and then Halloween night with Tyler and Austin Humes in their neighborhood where Aunt Ginny also lives.  The ward Halloween party was also the chili cook off.  We entered as many contests as we could because we are so competitive and to be honest I was VERY surprised I didn't place in the chili cook off. However there is still next year and our ward now has a plaque where they engrave the winner from each year that sits on the wall next to the Bishop's office. The law school had their inaugural Halloween trick or treating throughout the law school.  Not surprisingly the library was the spookiest place.  Librarians are some of the most creative people I know.  I hope the boys won't think all libraries are that spooky.  The spookiest place of all our Halloween activites was a house in Bizzy's (my sister) neighborhood.  It had spiderwebs from roof to lawn with 5 ft spiders, smoky mist permeating the entire house and even a scary guy on the roof.  It was scary enough to keep Joey from wanting the candy at that house.  James kept saying "Whoa mommy its spooky!" and he had to examine all the decorations on each persons lawn. We had a lot of fun and the boys really had a fun Halloween.  I had fun too.  I am even still having fun eating their snickers bars!  After the ward party we took home some cupcakes that were left over and had fun eating them for the next few days.  They had black icing that made it even more fun. I think James will look handsome someday with a mustache like Papa Josh. The sole patch it a nice touch too.