Logan, Ethan's Birthday, and Dinosnorzz

(Just a note: this was mostly written November 22nd.)

We are still packing our weekends with fun activities! I guess life never slows down. We spent the first weekend of November in Logan. The kids had fun playing and watching daddy use a jack hammer to pound up cement in his friend's basement. At first they refused to come downstairs to see him because the noise scared them. I made them, because I wanted them to see Jay working. They loved it after they got over their initial fears. I must admit it was kind of cool seeing him using it so skillfully. He occasionally curses the day he chose this profession, but I am so proud of him for all he has grown and learned over these last four years.

Ethan's birthday was the next wednesday, so we celebrated on Tuesday to make it possible for Jay to be at his Young men's activity.  Ethan wanted to "go eat something and watch a movie"  so that's what we did.  We went to KFC so they could get "pop shakes"  and chicken nuggets and biscuits.  Then we watched "Where the Wild Things Are".  The boys liked it because it had monsters and they loved the dirt fight; but I wished it had been a little more light hearted.  It was pretty depressing through the whole thing.

The weekend after Ethan's birthday we went to dinosnorzz!  We waited three months for this since they cancelled the last two months, so we were REALLY eager to finally get to go.  And it was WELL worth the wait.  We dropped Kayleigh off to spend the night with Aunt Laura, and headed down to Thanksgiving point.  After we piled our sleeping bags in the corner, they loaded us up with candy, popcorn and drinks and sent us in to watch their 3D dinosaur movie.  Then they split us into groups to take a tour of the museum.  Jayden is really interested in dinosaurs and likes to ask me "How did the dinosaurs die?"  (I have attempted to answer this question at least 100 times :)  Or he'll announce to others, family and strangers alike "the dinosaurs are dead."  His interest made us excited for this experience, but our boys were younger than most of the other kids there.  I hoped they weren't too young to be able to participate.  The tour starts with a dark hallway full of stars.  Jayden refused to enter the hallway and seemed on the verge of a tantrum, and I feared that was the beginning of the end of our fun there.  I was afraid of the embarrassment of a tantrum so I threatened that we would leave.  That was enough to help him gather his courage and make it through, he even begged to go back through the hall later.  We saw tons of fossils, learned lots of new facts, and had an amazing time.  Both boys were fascinated by all of the amazing dinosaurs we saw and they had other activities on the tour to keep them involved as well.  We hunted for knomes who protect the museum.   Jay and the boys crawled through a little cave.  They played with water and sand on their erosion table, made rubbings of different fossils and made a pretend dinosaur by putting arms and legs on a dinosaur model with magnetic pieces.  (Jayden put on all of the different kinds of pieces and he ended up with about 8 legs).  They also got to take brushes and uncover fossils in a little sandy digging area and watch "modern day dinosaurs"  eating their goldfish dinner.

 
Jay loved spending time as a family, and seeing how excited both of our boys were.  He loved how Jayden would jump every time a big dinosaur would show up on the 3D movie.  He said Jayden would lower his glasses for a minute to look at it and then put them back on.  My favorite fossils were the biggest turtle I've ever seen, the shark that makes a modern day great white shark look miniscule in comparison to size, and the cute baby mammoth fossil.  Ethan was so afraid of the shark and Jay thought it was so funny.  He pretended to throw him and Jayden into its mouth.(I wish I thought to get pictures of that!)  I just asked Jayden his favorite thing so it might not be as accurate as that day.   He said it was the stegosaurus and the t rex, as well as the water table.  Ethan said he liked the water table too.
After all of that, they had a scavenger hunt and everyone got a little dinosaur glider when they solved the last clue at the brachiosaurus.  Then we all laid out our sleeping bags under the dinosaurs and got ready for bed.

We slept in the corner behind this "utah raptor".

Sitting by the brachiosaurus foot.

This is the view we had from the floor :).

I have to admit, it wasn't the best sleep for me.  (I wished I brought two mats :)  But the experience for my boys made it SO worth it.  In the morning they woke us with sounds of birds and dinosaurs.  My FAVORITE memory of Ethan was when he woke up in the morning.  I think when he went to sleep, he imagined he'd find himself back in his own bed by morning.  He woke up completely amazed that the dinosaurs were still there.  He was running around our little area and exclaiming in an excited voice "look at the dinosaurs!"  He seemed almost overwhelmed with joy, pointing out each new one he saw to me.  I thought my heart would burst it was so adorable! 

My other favorite thing Ethan did is say the dinosaur names.  He actually knew what a triceratops and brachiosaurus were even before they told him (thank you, dinosaur train!)  I also was amazed how well he said them, he enunciated almost perfectly.  He is a good talker but still so little, so it was surprising and cute to hear him say brachiosaurus almost correctly.  Jayden was fun because he was so involved in all we did.  He had so many questions and wanted to know what everything was and  try everything.  There were a bunch of exhibits you could touch, and they let you know by putting a hand signal on them.  He figured that out quickly and would say "It's a hand one, you can touch it."  This is a funny story that happened after we got home and he was talking to his cousin Dalton.  Dalton: If I were there I would touch the dinosaurs.  Jayden: You can't touch them!  Unless they have a hand on them.  (They argued back and forth and Jay finally told Jayden that Dalton was just pretending.)  Jayden said this: "That's wonderful Dalton, that would be wonderful if you could, but you can't. "
After we got dressed and they made us breakfast, we thought it was time to go home.  But they had three more classes.  We got to talk to a paleontologist, make a wooden dinosaur 3d puzzle, and make a plaster cast of a fossil, and use a tool real paleontologists use to uncover and outline a fish fossil.  It was such a memorable experience and worth every penny.

Last week seemed equally busy, but I got a fun break on Thursday.  Jay graciously offered to babysit all of the kids overnight on new moon's opening night.  I was so worried as thursday night approached.  Jay had been sick all week and then EVERYTHING went wrong Thursday afternoon.
Kayleigh had bad diaper rash that I had tried in several ways to get rid of and Wednesday she had thrown up and started developing a fever.  I thought it was related to the diaper rash so I called for an appointment.  Thursday afternoon I loaded up the kids and was going to see the doctor quickly and then pick up Jay.  Sounds pretty simple right??  So we get to the doctors office and Ethan had fallen asleep.  I wake him and start to unhook his seat belt when he coughs and something disgusting flew out of his mouth and landed on his leg.  The smell immediately makes clear that he has just shot a ball of vomit onto himself...  In panic, I reach for the only cloth I can find, a new pair of pants that his grandpa gave him for his birthday.  As I am sopping up the puke with the pants it occurs to me that it might have been smarter to use the miracle new clean outfit in the car to change into rather than wiping up stinky throw up so that now I have two stinky pairs of pants.  Yeah...unfortunately, my good ideas often come too late.  So I wiped the spot with baby wipes in a futile attempt to remove the smellyness, and hauled my kids out of the car.  I had been giving Kayleigh tylenol for the uncomfortable rash as well as her fever, but decided to leave her off it so they could get a more accurate view of her symptoms.  I intended to give her some immediately after they took her temperature, but of course forgot to bring it.  So the doctor diagnosed the rash and gave me a prescription, but said the fever was something else and they needed to find out what.  He thought after looking at her that it was probably a urinary tract infection and they had to catheterize her.  It was SO awful.  She had already been pretty unhappy, but this sent her completely out of control.  I could barely keep back the tears as I held her down.  They left me alone to comfort her while they looked at her urine sample.  I finally calmed her enough to lay on my chest and listen to me sing after several minutes.  I thought the worst was over until I felt her body heave.  I ran toward the sink with her but the second heave came too quickly and I found myself and her COVERED in...you guessed it...throw up.  Luckily, she was already naked down to a diaper so her clean up was pretty fast, in spite of the fact that she was in NO mood for a bath.  I had tried to prevent any from hitting the floor, and there were only a couple of tiny splatters to clean up.  Then, I turned my attention to the endless sea of reeking white slime that flooded over my chest.  My shirt was all wet and I still couldn't get it off.  Not to mention, Kayleigh was laying awkwardly in my free arm, crying pathetically. She wanted to be cuddled, so I gave up. I clutched her to my chest the entire remainder of the visit.  It was actually nice to have her there to cover it for me:).  The boys were very well behaved through all of this and that made it much better for me.  Finally they gave me another prescription and sent us on our way. 
I was so uncertain what to do.  Kayleigh had drifted to sleep the second we got into the car, but Jay was clearly still sick and I feared it would be a long night without me there.  But I REALLY needed a night off and I had been looking forward to it for some time.  Jay assured me they would be fine, and after I called and found out that everyone was happy and having fun, I was able to relax and enjoy my evening, I even forgot about my stinky shirt! :)

I went with four of my sisters and a cousin to a twilight convention.  We had waited too long to get tickets to the theater we wanted to go to and had to buy the convention ticket to get good assigned seats.  I figured it would be dumb, but was excited to spend the whole evening with my sisters.  It ended up being the perfect evening!  We took pictures in a photo booth and looked at all of the exhibits, and I found a dress for Kayleigh that I just couldn't leave on the rack :)  It was too cute.

This is my twilight dress :)

My updo :)

They also had a beauty college there giving updos and manicures.  That was my favorite part!  I felt so pampered!  And it was fun to be silly and laugh at myself a little bit.  I haven't done that in a really long time.  We went to burger king between the convention and the movie and got twilight crowns and took funny pictures.  Then we wore the crowns to the movie.  So I showed up at the theater with a flashy updo and a burger king crown.  I'm sure I looked like an idiot, but I didn't care.  It was a carefree, silly, immature evening, and I loved every minute of it.  The movie was great if I don't analyze it too deeply, but the night with my sisters was priceless.  Thanks Jay!

Finally, this weekend we found an open time for Ethan's birthday party.  He wanted a tractor cake.  In fact, when people would ask him what he wanted for a present, all he would say is that he wants a tractor cake.  So I made my usual feeble attempt and he was really excited.  Kids make every effort so worthwhile.  They are so sweet and grateful.  Ethan is particularly cute about gifts and things.  He learned at a very young age to show excitement I guess.  As early as last Christmas he was doing this, but Saturday was no different.  He would open a new thing and even if it was a shirt or something, he would be like "Wow!  Awesome!  Or some other courteous response.  He got lots of cute clothes and toys and we had a great time with all of our family who came.

He shot someone in the head with his nerf dart :) (I think it was his aunt Ginger, but I am not positive.)

Someone took the eyes off the cake and put them in this halloween mask. :)

Awesome October

Happy Halloween everyone!!  We had a really busy month with lots of activities, and unfortunately several sick days.  In spite of those we enjoyed our pumpkin carving, decorating halloween cookies, and halloween parties.  Also, Jayden went on his first field trip this month.  He and daddy went to Wheeler farm with his class.  They toured the farm and had a hay ride.

The first week in October we carved a pumpkin.  Daddy did most of the work, but the kids had fun watching him glow.  Unfortunately, I kept him in the house and he didn't make it anywhere close to halloween.  Thanks to Sid the science kid, Jayden was able to tell me that he was rotten :).  Unfortunately, HE had to tell me that our Jack-o-lantern was rotten.  (Thanks to two consecutive sicknesses, I spent one week waking in the middle of the night to bathe my puke covered children.  I spent my days cleaning up throw up, and washing all of the laundry from it.  Then shortly after a cold hit so I slept and cuddled my croupy toddler and finally my 10 month old.  Needless to say my house looks like a tornado hit it, and poor jack o lantern rotted away unnoticed on my messy table.)  Last week we replaced him. (we did at least mourn a couple of days for him!!)  Jayden and Ethan got pumpkins from a primary party and we made them into a pig and a bear/dog with pieces that looked a lot like they belong in a mr potato head.  They turned out so cute, but we didn't take a pic.  And they were easy too!
So, as I said, our parties started last Saturday with the Primary party.  Daddy took them around to a bunch of activities while I made cotton candy.  Then Sunday, we did our annual sugar cookie decorating party with grandma Milligan.  It was so fun, because they are finally getting old enough to want to participate.  They made lots of cute cookies, but again, I fell down on the job and didn't take pics.
Monday night we made jack o lantern pizzas for family home evening, then wednesday Jayden went to his school party. 
Thursday was Jay's birthday and we had the most wonderful date!  Thank heaven Rachel watched my boys and my still croupy daughter.  We have rarely gotten out in the past couple of years and it was so nice to get away.  We went to dinner and then to a Halloween store and a haunted house.  I think it was our best date since our kids were born!  The haunted house provided a much better opportunity than our typical dinner and movie night.  Standing in the cold in the long line gave us a chance to cuddle for warmth and lots of time to talk.  And we got to chuckle at the group of  cute little high school girls in front of us, doing what high school girls do.  Then of course, I had to cling to him in the haunted house for my own peace of mind.  It was fun for me the couple of times that he got startled and super fun for him when I got scared or surprised.  He so rarely gets that experience anymore since I refuse to watch scary movies. This was a good compromise.  I was scared, but it didn't stick with me like when I see horror movies.  Now I just have to wait a year till the haunted houses open up again!! :)
We got home late Thursday, and I stayed up to make Jello worms for our two family halloween parties.  Friday came all too soon.  From then to now all seems like a blur since our days were full of getting ready and going places.  But it was all so fun, it was definitely worth a little craziness.  Friday we went to Abuelita Turpin's work party at Cyprus Credit Union.  The kids got a treat bag, ate pizza, and went fishing for Halloween treats.  I saw a friend I worked with there five years ago and had fun catching up with her.  Jayden spent most of his play time making shadows on the wall.  They had a halloween picture projected on the wall and he made good use of the light.

Our next party was at Laura's house for my family.  We went early to make soup and jello worms.  It was such a fun night just visiting while Jay and Randall watched the Jazz game.  The kids made creepy cupcakes while eating slimy worms.  Jay made Jayden try one, and he gagged, but managed to eat it without any mishaps.  He did note, however, that it was disgusting :).  Its funny how much the look of things can effect other senses.  They are basically just raspberry jello and cream with some extra food coloring.

Another late night home last night and I was up early again this morning, finishing a couple things for our two baptisms we had today.  (How cool to be baptized on Halloween, huh?)  There was such a wonderful spirit there today.  (I always am amazed at how strong I feel the spirit at every baptism.  I just particularly enjoyed it today.)  Our ward was assigned to do the talks and one of my young women spoke on baptism.  She is such an amazing girl.  I am always so happy to see how strong and mature and beautiful they are becoming.  I think the challenges teenagers face are greater every year, and it awes me to see them making good choices, in spite of all of the temptation before them.  It was a wonderful morning, and then I came home and started getting ready for Halloween. 

Jayden and Ethan had hot dog octupus and fish for lunch.  They really liked looking at them, but again, the whole what it looks like thing got in the way, and they didn't want to eat them :)

I felt like I had tons of time, and would be able to do so much, but everything went wrong with my costume, and I still found myself running late for our visit with Jay's dad.  I totally lost my cool at one point.  It is so funny that on days that are supposed to be so fun, I ruin it by stressing out.  Luckily I came to my senses quickly and we got out the door.  It didn't end up mattering that we were late, because they weren't home yet, so my stressing was for nothing anyway. :)  So we headed over to the trunk-r-treat.  I LOVED IT!  It is probably my favorite part of halloween.  I love giving out the candy, and seeing all the cute costumes, and all the little kids I know and love, and just getting the chance to have a bunch of positive interactions with friends and strangers alike.  I mean, who is unhappy when candy is being passed out right?
Jay took the kids around.  He said Ethan wanted to stop and talk to all of the monsters.  He talked to Jay all afternoon about how they were both monsters (I think he was REALLY happy to be a monster like daddy)  He was saying that he was a blue monster and Jay was a zombie monster.  And he said, "I say Grrrr! and you say, Grrrraaaaaapes, I want Grapes!"  So as they were going around he would go up to the monsters and say, "Hi monster, I'm a scary blue monster.  What are you?"  Both Jayden and Ethan chose what they wanted to be and were so happy to be able to wear their costumes.  When I'd forget to put Jayden's foot covers on his costume he said "I need my waddling feet"  He chose penguins, but was hoping he could be in snow if he was a penguin.  Luckily, the first day he wore it, there was some snow on the ground.  He was so excited and had fun waddling around in it.  At the trunk-r-treat, Jayden saw a kid dressed as a toilet and said "Can I poop in you?"
After the candy was gone, we headed over to Grandpa and Abuelita Turpin's.  Grandpa got a new ghost with blinking eyes and waving arms taller than Ethan.  He did okay when we first came in, but then he wandered back over to the entry way (I assume in search of the candy bowl)  He was over there by himself when he set off the motion sensor.  He totally flipped out until grandpa and I went over to rescue him.  He was too afraid to walk past the ghost :).  And he said, "I'm super scared!"

We usually try to do themes, at least for Jay and I, but we all went our own way this year.  I can't do the Zombie thing :).  So we have a zombie, cotton candy, a penguin, a monster, and tinkerbell.

Finally we went to Grandma Milligan's party at Crystal's house.  We enjoyed her delicious chili and pigs in a blanket and Jay and the kids had fun trick-r-treating.  Then we watched a couple halloween movies and came home.  What a wonderful time!  I Love holidays, even with all of their craziness.

Here are all of Jay's "Zombie meal time" pics

These are some random October pics I liked.

I am amazed how big he is getting!  Look at those long legs :)