October Quotes

Rylan:
(October 5, 2011)
I bought him some little train toys but warned him that he would have to earn them before he could play with them. He'd been whining about it for several days but wouldn't do anything I suggested for him to earn the toys. Finally he accepted the offer to wash down the walls in the kitchen and dining are. Once he was finished I told him he could open his toys. Once he got them out he exclaimed "Mom, I'm so happy at you!"
I wonder why we don't say that more often? I mean, we say "I'm so mad at you" and it sounds normal, so why don't people say "I'm so happy at you"?

(October 13, 2011)
We were looking at a Christmas book that had shepherd's holding a staff (or crook I guess). Ry asked what they were for and I told him it was in case a sheep started to get away they could use the hook to pull it back in. To this Rylan replied, "I want one of those for Asher"!!

(October 15, 2011)
Ry: "I wish I had beaver teeth."
Later...
Ry: "Mom, do you wish we had a sheep so you could make string if we ran out of the string we have?"

(October 20, 2011)
Rylan often asks Kevin if he brought him something home from work. Sometimes Kev will bring fruit snacks or vitamins or random office items that the kids turn into toys. Today Kev actually stopped at Walmart and bought a T-ball stand. So when Ry asked if he brought something home Kevin said "Actually, I did!" and he left to get it from the car. While he was gone Rylan said "I hope it's my own computer so I can play it all day long!"
Keep dreaming buddy!!

(October 25, 2011)
Ry: "Look Christian, I found two wish flowers" (dandelions! I've never heard him call them 'wish flowers'!)
Then I see Ry holding and staring at his wish flower with pure concentration on his face and he said "I wish there was such thing as punching poops."
WHAT? That's his wish?! What is the deal with my boys and 'poops'?

(October 31, 2011)
While dressed up as a detective for Halloween...
Ry: "When I grow up, I want to be a detective. And somebody's daddy."

Asher:
(October 5, 2011)
He'd been playing with his little animals (that came in the tube). We were talking about his birthday coming up and I asked him if he wanted to put his animals on his birthday cake. Shocked that I would even suggest it he said "No! They get dirty. On their feet."
What was I thinking?? :)

(October 14, 2011)
Asher: "Brooklyn and Gavin are my best friends. For ever ever."

(October 15, 2011)
Asher has a thing for the word "poops". I don't think he's saying it for what it really means. Several times in the past he has called me "poops"..."Night poops" or "thanks poops". Or the boys run around the house with their swords yelling "Watch out, the poops are coming." I usually try to discourage the use of the word (I don't know why because it hasn't stopped him from saying it...ever) but it sure is funny in instances such as this:
Kev: "Say bye to Uncle Mark."
Asher: "Bye poops."
Laughter by all!
Ha ha ha...at least he was calling somebody else poops instead of me :)

(October 27, 2011)
Sarah to Tyce: "You look comfy."
Asher: "Him not comfy, him baby Tyce"

Trunk or Treat

Tyce was obviously not happy at this moment. I was feeling the same way but I kept my emotions in check.

Our ward trunk or treat was tonight. I'm really not a fan of trunk or treat but that's okay. The boys were excited to get candy! We took some friends with us as well so Ry and Asher had even more fun. Rylan wanted to be a detective for Halloween this year. I found a pattern for this cape on Martha Stewart's website and it looked fairly simple. Of course it was even more simple since my mom did most of it!! Martha Stewart of course had a detective hat, too. But Ry likes to wear this hat around to play and so I thought it worked well enough. I have some flaps I'll sew on before Halloween to make it look better. And Asher has been saying he wants to be a horse for Halloween. As luck would have it some friends of ours have a horse costume they loaned us. (You know those costumes wear Asher's legs look like the horse's legs and then it looks like Asher is riding the horse?!) The legs are just a bit long so I was going to pin them up. But true to my fashion I haven't done it yet (along with Ry's hat...AND I forgot Tyce's bear costume I borrowed from a friend. I should be fired as a mom!) So tonight Asher was just a cowboy. But a mighty cute cowboy!!

It was Kevin's trial night with part of his costume. A lot was learned...like don't put on your bull's head when the foam is still wet :)

Kevin ended up having to cut all that out. Nice.

There was also a chili cook off and I ate some super super yummy green chili chicken soup. I wanted seconds but taking care of kids took priority. It's a good thing I know who made that chili--I'll be getting her recipe! :)

Halloween Fun

I tried cleaning the oreos out of Ry's teeth but it took a toothbrush to get it all out :)

I saw these fun snacks on Pinterest and I was so excited to make them for the boys. I saw some "Mixchief" color changing pudding at the store and snatched it. It's vanilla pudding that is colored green and it was perfect for these little monsters!
The boys loved them. Well, they loved the oreos on top and enjoyed one or two bites of the pudding. I knew the cups were about 3 serving sizes too large but now I know my boys aren't that into pudding. Oh well, it was fun anyway! :)

This little boy kills me. I love every single moment I have with him. People often comment on what a good baby he is. And he really is an incredibly good little thing. I saw something the other day that said "How is it possible that out of all the little boys in the whole world...we got the best ones?" I really did get the best one and I love all three of them to pieces!

Just after Tyce was born Kevin was super motivated to get some things done. He ordered wood chips, sand for the sandbox, and some pea gravel to put in the crawl space. He distributed the wood chips and filled up the sand box. He used some of the pea gravel in the crawl space but we were left with a pile of it on our driveway.


It's been there for 5 months now. The boys loved to play in it and any kid that came over found it to be quite fun as well. There was a period when either Kevin or I had to sweep the driveway every day, putting all those little tiny rocks back into a pile. And they were always in our house, too. One day I voiced my dislike of the pile and the mess it makes and Kevin got to work. It took a few days but with help from the boys, they got the job done. Wahoo!


The boys would scoop it up and fill up the buckets and then Kevin would take the buckets and dump them into a pile in the crawl space. It's good for these boys to do some manual labor with their daddy!

Happenings

A couple weeks ago my grandpa went to the hospital because he couldn't get out of bed and he was having a hard time breathing. After several tests he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Boo. He has several large masses and it's taking him pretty quick because just on Tuesday the doctors said he only has a few weeks to live. That could be 2 weeks or 6 weeks, who knows. He was having alcohol withdrawals after first being admitted in the hospital and my dad said he looks better since that has passed. He was moved to a rehabilitation center yesterday and if he gets well enough to be able to get out of bed on his own then they will allow him to go home. But really no one expects him to be released from the rehab center. It breaks my heart. My grandpa was a big part of my life growing up so I'm happy to have good memories with him. He loved making popcorn and he had some special wooden popcorn bowls he'd serve to us. He was a silly singer--he'd make up songs about anything. He loves his Westerns. Still today he can usually be found watching a Western on tv. He was a very fun grandpa. My greatest memory of him is his smile. That's what I think of when I think of my grandpa--his smile. I can just picture going to his house and there he would be, sitting on the edge of his recliner (with a Western on tv of course), with a little smile on his face, ready to give hugs. I can hear his little laugh when I'd jump up on his lap. I never doubted my grandparents were happy to see us!
My grandma is of course trying to be strong but she admitted that she's falling apart on the inside. I'm not sure how my dad is feeling. On Tuesday he sounded sad but matter of fact about it all. I know it's been hard for him and my mom living apart but I'm sure this time with my grandpa is a blessing for my dad. He's been able to take him around to see their old buddies, golf partners and oil field friends. My dad and all his siblings are in Farmington right now. I'm going down tomorrow with Kacy (and Tyce!). Kev's gonna stay home with Ry and Asher. My mom and Deborah are going down, too.


In other goings on...I've had extra kids this week. Well, Mon-Wed. Christian is Rylan's friend. His dad is in the military and is deployed for a two week training. It was last minute notice so his mom called and asked if I could watch her boys while she's at work. She drops off her two oldest at school and brings Justin here. Then I pick up Ry and Christian from school and her oldest rides his bike here after he gets out. She gets off work between 4:00 and 5:00 and picks them up. Next week I'll have them Mon/Tues 9-5 then Thurs/Fri 1-6. They're good kids so it's been fun for my boys to have friends over every day! Rylan and Christian have spent the majority of the time in the sandbox. This weather is PERFECT! Asher and Justin are in and out all day going between the sandbox, inside for snacks, upstairs for toys and back outside.
Like I said, this weather is perfect. Every day it makes me happy. I need the sunshine and I love when it's not too hot for the boys to play outside. We all get a bit crabby when we're inside all day so we're enjoying these temperatures while we can.

Asher has stopped taking naps. A few weeks ago I started having to stay in his room with him until he fell asleep. But I found that most days I'd fall asleep in Rylan's bed and when I woke up 20 or 30 minutes later, Asher was still laying in his bed wide awake talking to himself. The naps were nice for me! I've tried to stick with the quiet time but he doesn't go with it most days. Especially when other kids are here playing!

Tyce's schedule is changing, too. Earlier this week I decided that his night wakings were just habit. So instead of feeding him I'll just give him his pacifier. He goes right back to sleep so maybe hopefully soon I won't have to get up with him during the night at all! His naps during the day are shorter, too. I still hold him a lot but I can't seem to get enough of him. I'd love to spend my day holding him, sitting in the sunshine! He still doesn't roll over and even though I hold him a lot, I still try to give him tummy time. He hates it. He lasts about 3 minutes then he's screaming.

Look at this kid--so sweet!

Baseball!

Rylan recently started showing interest in baseball. As soon as Kev gets home from work Ry will ask him to go outside and hit some balls. And he's improving! I love when Ry gets excited about something, so here are a few pictures.

Posed and Ready...

Reeeeach!!

Swing!

Look at that determination...or is it fear?!

Kevin was trying to teach Ry how to know his right from his left. He showed him the little hand trick, how your left hand makes an 'L'. When I came outside Kevin told Ry to show me that he knew his right from his left. He ran over to the rock pile and then held up his left hand. Yeah! But wait, why was he at the rock pile? He had drawn an 'L' in the rocks and he'd hold up his hands to see which one matched the 'L'. And then he knew which was his left hand! Sneaky little boy.

Can you faintly see the L?! And yes, I can see that he needs his fingernails cut :)

These Boys...

Oh these two--they just crack me up sometimes! They pulled these hats out of the Halloween bin and they've been wearing them around. Today they were outside playing dragons or dinosaurs or bad guys, it changes throughout the game!

Rylan was dancing around, singing a song.

Asher found a stick and said he was going fishing!

Such great imaginations!!

On Saturday I bought Rylan and Asher each a little tube of toys. Rylan chose trains, Asher chose zoo animals. When I bought them I told them they would have to earn them before they could open and play with them. Today Asher asked if he could play with his and I told him first he had to earn some points. I told him he could pick up all the crayons for a point. No, he wasn't interested. I later told him he could clean up the toys and again, he wasn't interested. He asked again if he could play and immediately said "If I clean?" He's not much of a cleaner so I was super surprised when he came to me awhile later and said he had cleaned up and he was all done. What? I followed him upstairs and to my surprise he had put away all the toys in the loft!! Well, most of them. I had to point out a few balls and then show him the toys in the hallway that were still out. But still, I was impressed! And I want to add that he had the biggest grin and seemed so proud of himself. I was proud, too :)
So he got to open up his tube of toys and he carried them around the rest of the night! There is a chimpanzee which is very cute to hear him say!
He was just super cute today. I smiled when I saw him twirling in circles with a sucker in his mouth. Okay, maybe not the safest thing, but such a kid thing! He put on a hat and it was so low he had to lift his chin way up to be able to see. So funny! I asked him what his favorite song is and he told me "The Elephant Song". I wasn't sure what that was so I asked him to sing it for me and he proceeded to make up a song that had nothing to do with elephants! He sang it later for Kevin. Of course it was a different version...maybe the second verse :)