Cinco de Mayo

My poor little Tyce woke up with a 101 degree fever yesterday morning. After his nap it was up to 103. I spent the day holding him and cuddling with him as he dozed in and out. And I loved it. Well, I didn't love that he was sick but I did love that I could hold him all day.
On Thursday Kevin got out of the shower and told me we had no hot water. Many of our neighbors have had to replace their water heaters in the last few years so I wasn't too surprised. I, too, took a freezing cold shower after my workout but didn't wash my greasy hair and declared it a day to stay home and go nowhere (well, plus Kev had that car, so that was easy!) I called our neighbor, Rob Winget, who is a plumber and who has replaced many water heaters in our neighborhood. He was with his family on their way home from Disneyland but he said he'd come by when he got in. He showed up after 10:00pm while Kev and I were watching American Idol and making his pinata for work. After his inspection he said yes, we did need a new water heater. He had one at his house we set a time for him to come on Friday morning to replace it. It sure saves a lot of stress when he know and trust someone who can do the work!
Rylan brought home his Scholastic book order from school so we read for quite awhile while waiting for Bro Winget to do his thing. Once he was finished (yea for hot water!!) I took the boys to McDonald's for lunch. Rylan got some McDonald's money at his music class recital so it gave us a reason to go. Tyce mostly slept in his car seat or let me hold him while he was awake. Ry and Asher played and ate and played and ate. We got ice cream cones on our way out!
I held Tyce the rest of the day until he would fall asleep. Then I'd put him in his bed so he could sleep better.
He woke up this morning and still had a fever. It would go down with each dose of ibuprofen and then he could play a little bit. He still wanted to be held. Hopefully by the weekend's end this fever will pass. During one of his naps I made enchiladas for the McShinsky's annual Cinco de Mayo party. We also filled up Kev's pinata (which won 3rd place at his work party!!).

We walked over to the McS's and I realized it was a bit chilly so I sent Kev home to get us all jackets. We talked and had fun. The kids loved the pinata's. Jessica's had candy and toys which was awesome. I missed it while talking, by Bro Keller told me that when Asher got up to bat the pinata was up high in the trees so he just threw the bat up at it! Funny!!

This was the whack that split the pinata in half!!

I wrapped Tyce up and he fell asleep so it was hard for me to eat my food but what I did eat was tasty :) Of course I love Mexican food! I love that the McShinsky's do this every year--I always look forward to it!

Christmas Caroling

We were invited by the McQuarries to go Bad Caroling with them and the Hacketts.
Kevin's description: "Bad caroling is just like standard caroling but instead of trying to sound beautiful and inspiring, you just sing however you want. It sounded terrible and we looked silly and we had a great time. We hit specific families in the ward that would enjoy a terrible song."
Kev had made a top hat out of some poster board we had and then he cut a fabulous mustache out of some furry cloth. Always being creative and fun--perfect touch!


I'm pretty sure we enjoyed it more than the recipients, but boy did we get some good laughs at ourselves! The kids played in the snow at and between each house and paid no attention to their crazy parents. We had just had a wonderful snow storm which left us with at least 16" of snow and un plowed roads. We had all that whiteness around us along with that quietness that comes with snow. We ruined the stillness of the night with our out of tune singing but it truly was a wonderful Christmas celebration for me. Watching Kevin pull Rylan, Asher, Evan, and Carson in the sled while wearing his top hat and mustache was a definite highlight!

Asher wanted a turn to pull the sled. Rylan and Evan didn't think that was much fun!

And here are some pictures from that morning:

Our poor little tree is getting buried! Will it hold up through winter? But look how pretty all that snow is!

Halloween Fun

This is really the first year the boys have been able to wear their Halloween costumes multiple times. And it was so fun! We had our ward Trunk or Treat on Wednesday night (which was a learning trial run for Kevin's costume), Rylan had his preschool party on Friday, and then we went Trick or Treating on Saturday!
Last year we thought about getting Ry a fireman costume but we couldn't find one we liked in the few times we looked. So this year we bought one as soon as we saw it...and he loved it! Repeatedly he said "this is the coolest costume" or how so and so thought he was the best fireman. He was also very excited about his fire helmet that has the smoke protector. Very cool!

The ninja and the fire fighter before the ward Trunk or Treat

Kevin needed the car on Friday which upset Rylan because he had his preschool Halloween party and he thought it was going to be too cold outside to ride his bike. He was whining and sad so I said "Rylan, you're not riding your bike to preschool, you have to drive your fire truck." He raced to school on his 'fire truck' with his sirens blaring the whole way!

Rylan with Thomas, his preschool friend

On Saturday, Kevin's parents stopped by for a surprise visit and while they were here we suddenly had a crazy downpour. That was pretty close to 5:00 which was the time we set for Trick or Treating! That was okay though because it gave us more time to visit!
Both boys did so well Trick or Treating. Charlie and fam came over after the rain settled down and, along with the rest of the neighborhood, we set out to fill the jack-o-lanterns with candy. Megan, Camryn, and Rylan raced ahead with Charlie and Kevin on their stilts following close behind. Amy and I had Gavin and Asher who were a bit slower going up and down the steps and moving from house to house. Gavin was hilarious walking into each house and taking multiple candies. Both boys were super cute and I smiled each time Asher said "thank you, bye bye". This year Rylan stayed out Trick or treating for quite some time before wanting to head home. He really must have liked showing off his costume!!


After about a half hour Amy and I came back home with our little ones. I had left a bowl of candy on the doorstep and when we came back there was one piece of candy left--good timing! We were able to answer the door for the other trick or treaters and see all the dressed up kids. I had decided I was going to eat some candy. I haven't really had candy since December of 2008!! And let me tell you, I went crazy! Saturday and Sunday I seriously had so much candy that I wanted to go another 2 years without eating it again. Blah!

It really was a super fun Halloween. The boys looked great in their costumes, Kevin's costume was a hit, and we were all happy :)

Which Came First...The Bird or the Egg?

The evolution of One Ginormous Bird

And the final result ...

Victory .... in the XANGO Costume Competition: 1st Place!

Pumpkin Time!

Last Monday we visited the Red Barn to pick out some pumpkins. It was colder and darker than anticipated but we still had fun!


Our "hay ride" over to the pumpkin patch was not really on hay, but the ride back we did get to sit on hay bales. We sang as many Halloween songs we could think of--2 whole songs! Once we got to the pumpkin patch the boys started out playing in the maze. Rylan had been there the week prior on a field trip with his preschool class but was still excited to play around again. He raced through the maze with the rest of us following to each dead end and turn around.

"How do we get out of here??!!"

The boys ran around for a bit, played on the tractor, and then we realized it was dark and gonna be hard to choose our pumpkins! Off to the patch we went. We weren't the only ones using the lights from our cell phone to pick our pumpkin. That added to some of the fun!

So last night we had our annual family Halloween/pumpkin carving party at the Holman's. We had a yummy dinner and then got busy carving pumpkins. Kevin carves ours every year while I'm busy with other stuff. This year I brought dessert so I got the cupcake decorating stuff out for the kids.

Rylan drew his own jack o lantern face on his pumpkin. Kevin carved it just how Ry drew it and it turned out so cute!

Kevin also carved his own pumpkin--spooooky!

Kevin's jack-o-lantern is on the top step. And there's Rylan's jack-o-lantern, right there by Abbi.

I made a Chocolate Lasagna for dessert because Amy really likes it and our pumpkin carving party was on her birthday! We sang to her, Kirra, and Asher. Asher will get another chance at blowing out candles on Friday!!

Garren had made some Rootbeer and Asher asked several times to drink some. So I poured a bit in a cup and gave him a sip. His eyes watered up, he backed away, pointed at the rootbeer and said "yuck yuck". Then he walked towards me with his mouth wide open ready for some more! We tried to get it on camera but only got a few chances because after a couple more sips he was done and opted for water. Good boy :)

"Yuck Yuck!"

As always, fun times!

Egg Hunt

We had a pretty low key Easter this year. We didn't dye Easter eggs and the Easter bunny didn't even come. Good thing that's not what Easter is about, right?

Spanish Fork has an "egg hunt" every year at the Sports Park near our house. They divide up the age groups onto different fields and just spread out eggs for the kids to run and grab. We've never been there early enough to enjoy the anticipation. We always arrive as they are counting down so we just find the nearest field and GO! We could have split up Ry and Asher this year and Asher may have had more fun, but he didn't really know what was going on so that's okay.Some eggs have really cool prizes inside (tickets for gift cards or even new bikes!) but all our eggs only had candy and tattoos. The boys were happy with that, though!

It was rainy and fun!