Keeping Up With the Joneses

Nothing warms my heart more than seeing my kids "reading" to one another. This can go on for a long time and they just love it.

We had a fun weekend. Saturday we went to a local grocery store for some shopping and trick-or-treating. Later we carved pumpkins until some of the cousins came over for dinner and trick-or-treating. That's right, in Utah they trick-or-treat on Saturday when Halloween falls on a Sunday. The crew on their way out to trick or treat. The first time. About 5 minutes later it started pouring rain and we had to wait another hour. Myles was a pirate for some other parties, but the tiger costume was warmer and he was happy to wear it. Myles getting his pumpkin ready. Friday I found this cute monkey costume at Old Navy for $5! Much warmer than his pirate costume. Unfortunately by the time the rain stopped he was ready for bed. One more picture of my cute monkey-boy. Mason with his pumpkin. Mason never changed his mind this year! He was a pirate all week!

Grandpa Goates was here this weekend and we had a great time with a movie night, swimming, and just hanging out. On Saturday when there was a break in the rain, the boys drove their dump truck across the street to buy pumpkins. Max is no longer content to ride in the back and insists on driving himself.

Here are pictures from Halloween Party #1 (of 6). Yes, Halloween is busier than Christmas! After much discussion, all three boys decided to be pirates. Mason was pretty set, but Myles changes his mind between pirate, captain hook, tinkerbell, and a tiger. Max doesn't really have a choice, but Mason begged and pleaded for me to dress Max up like a parrot and let him ride on Mason's shoulder but I had to talk him out of that. Mason and I made a fishing pond and Mason had a blast being in charge of it. Myles enjoyed decorating cookies. Okay, maybe he just enjoyed eating the icing. And Max was a great helper and was content to drag the broom around.

Thank goodness for grandparents is all I have to say. On Wednesday after Mason recovered from his MRI under sedation, Deb took the three boys to meet their cousins at the Red Barn in Santaquin for a hay ride and to pick out a pumpkin. They had a great time. She came up with a new rule this year which I think was genius given the number of kids. . .you can only pick out a pumpkin you can carry! So much better than the moms carrying huge pumpkins for the kids. After the pumpkin patch, Deb took the boys to Delta because Marshall was in San Antonio on business and I was leaving the next morning for Denver for a conference. Sometime over the weekend poor Mason and Max contracted a stomach flu and had a pretty rough time. Grandma, of course, took it all in stride. The kids were a lot better by the time I saw them Sunday morning (Marshall spent Saturday with them in Delta until they were recovered enough to travel). Seriously, what would we do without grandma Delta?

Mason had a follow-up MRI of his brain this morning and it started out great. We got there and found out he didn't need an IV! Instead they had him drink some medicine that the nurse guaranteed would knock him out within 20 minutes. He said he would only drink it if it was mixed in dirt and the nurse called him on his bluff by bringing him a cup full of crushed oreos. Well, an hour after drinking the medicine he was no where close to asleep. . .but he was pretty high! He was running around the room crying "I'm flying. . .I don't want to fly. . .help me land." Then he got mad at me saying that I keep waking him up. After about 2 hours they brought the IV in but before hooking it up thankfully checked with the pharmacist who said they couldn't to the versid (sp?) because it would interact with what they already gave him. So they gave him another dose of the medicine and within seconds he was knocked out. Fortunately they were able to fit him back into the MRI s...

We had a really busy weekend but had a great time. Friday night was our Ward Camp Out . We decided not to stay over night and just head up for dinner, and after a few hours up there were happy with our decision. Mason and Myles were having a great time, but Max did NOT want to be held and every time we put him down he ran right towards the fire. We finally had to leave before they started roasting marshmallows, and Mason and Myles were very upset. We pacified them by letting them roast marshmallows on the BBQ. They seemed happy with that. Then Saturday morning Marshall had to work so I took the three kids to the BYU Homecoming Parade where they had a fantastic time. The people next to us had blue hair spray and were happy to share. I think the kids got a lot more candy because they were "true blue" fans. Here is Myles doing push-ups on the road. Yes, that deserved an explanation. The ROTC people in the parade were giving candy to people who did push-ups. We all know Myl...

We are having a cousin sleepover tonight. Out of 8 bedrooms, 4500 square feet, all five of them chose to sleep. . . In the itsy - bitsy storage space under the stairs. Sweet dream kids!