Happy Halloween! Thought we'd bring you up-to-speed on our Halloween fun thus far (we still have tonight to go!)
October 17th we met up with a bunch of Jack's buddies at Gardner Village. They do a witch-theme every October and had fun witchy things all over the shopping village. The kids' favorite part? Going to McDonald's playland afterwards. The didn't want to leave McD's! I spent the week before working frantically on Jack and Sheridan's costumes, but didn't get all of Jack's details finished in time (probably because I decided to use a different material the day before and started over on Thursday!).
On Monday the 27th, we went to the Halloween Party at the Bean Museum on BYU campus. The kids LOVE all the animals there and had a great time dressing up. I worked on Jack's costume during the day, since I hadn't touched it except to move it since the 17th! Still wasn't 100% finished, but people knew what he was! As a note, Sheridan's costume was WAY easier. I don't know why the boy wanted to be the Tin Man, but who REALLY understands the mind of a nearly-four-year-old?
Wednesday the 29th we had a cousin party up in Sandy. Unfortunately, the AF cousins couldn't come, but we had SO MUCH FUN with those who were there. I think it may have to become an annual event. I don't have a pict of all the cousins together in their costumes, but they looked ADORABLE! Tyler's Grampa Larry and Gramma Diane were able to come and they had the funkiest masks--they are so much fun! Gramma Di made an eyeball cake that had strawberry puree injected into the white cake...eeewwww! It was a ton of fun for everybody!
Last night we carved pumpkins (or, in Sheridan's case, colored them). The kids had so much fun.
Tonight we're planning on trick-or-treating and other Halloween fun! We'll update you...soon!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
You can call him MASTER TYLER!
Tyler was completely surprised and touched. One of the few times he's gotten misty-eyed in recent years.
Posted by Tyler V at 3:27 PM 5 comments
Labels: graduation, school, tyler
Mission: Door
Well, in September (you know, before the cold weather), we started sanding down the door to put on a fresh coat of bubble-free paint. Sanding wasn't very effective. We tried paint stripper (unfortunately, I bought eco-friendly stuff that even a pregnant woman could use, since I didn't want Tyler to have to do my dirty work). Not very effective, either, although it did get the rest of the nasty tan texture off. We ended up using a heat gun, which allowed us to scrape off the other layers of white primer and green paint (but Jack really really wanted us to keep the green paint--it's his favorite). Lest you think this was a one day project, the various sanding, stripping, and scraping activities lasted until 2 weekends ago! Part of the problem was lousy weather over several weekends, the other part was a frustration with the project in general. I was really annoyed at the beginning of the month when our door was bare metal in some places and peeling green and white in others. One lady from church got so confused when she was coming to my house but saw the horrible door that she wandered around the neighborhood, looking for my house. She knew that the horrible door wasn't mine!
Hooray, Halellujah, Rejoice!
The paint sprayer was the perfect tool, although it did take MANY coats to get complete coverage. In the end, while the door is not perfect, the texture is relatively smooth and even. It's my favorite color, too, which doesn't hurt!
And now, behold, our door in all its glory!
Posted by Tyler V at 2:29 PM 3 comments
Labels: homework
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Mercy Me!
Or should I say...MRSA Jack?
Last week, we discovered that what looked like an infected bug bite under Jack's arm was really MRSA (pronounced like "mercy", but with an "Uh" ending). AHHHHH! My son was infected by a virulent strain of Staph which is resistant to all but 3 antibiotics. It was a little scary. We watched a dime-sized, slightly red sore turn into what looked like a 3rd nipple. A large one. Perhaps that's not the most polite thing to say, but seriously...Ugh. Fortunately, we caught it before it had even developed a pustule, so it wasn't very advanced. It didn't spread to his blood or anywhere else, which is VERY good news--MRSA is deadly. The doc recognized it immediately and started him on the antibiotic right away (the culture came back 2 days later and confirmed diagnosis).
So, I guess I just wanted y'all to be aware! I had no idea MRSA was so fast-acting and prevelant. If you or your kid has a sore that is getting larger instead of healing, check it out (but don't try to drain it yourself, cuz apparently that can get the infection into the blood very easily--fortunately I learned that, too!). It's crazy how potent this little germ is, so the faster it gets treated, the better!
Posted by Tyler V at 9:25 PM 4 comments
Sunday, October 19, 2008
I'm IT, twice!
Posted by Tyler V at 8:49 PM 3 comments
Labels: tags
Saturday, October 4, 2008
In search of the Zucchini
Posted by tyler and ali at 6:38 PM 4 comments
Labels: gardening
It's a ZOO!!
Ok, so we went to the zoo recently. There we met our good friends Dani, Cameron, and Mayes...and they had found our other friends, Alicia, Xavier, and Quinn! One of those things where Alicia had come to hang out with her sister in law, but she just couldn't pass up hanging out with our rad selves. Yeah, we're that rad.
Here's Cameron, Xavi, and Jack (who, I guess, was really proud of his cool New Zealand hat and wanted to show that off instead of his face!).
Ok, so the kids' favorite thing was the giant ball/sculpture in front with water around it. Sure, those animals are cool enough, but, COME ON!!! They have a giant ball with WATER! Oh Joy, Oh Bliss! They did also enjoy jumping and climbing on some rocks (I'm sure this little area has a real name but I don't know it, so I'll call it the rocky climby place). Sheridan was really proud of herself for climbing up the big rock.
This picture is like Where's Waldo, try to find one of our 6 kids in it. I'm sure there's at least one in there :)Posted by tyler and ali at 6:23 PM 3 comments