7th Anniversary Week

Here are some highlights from our fun week:

A week ago Thursday, Travis came home from work for a long lunch while I went to get my hair cut. I love him! Then he kept working from home for the afternoon and watched the kids while I went to the church for Activity Day. I love him more! I am one of the Activity Day leaders for the 8-11 year-old girls in our primary organization at church. We usually have 12-14 girls at the activities every other Thursday afternoon. For this activity we decorated pumpkins. I brought out all sorts of craft supplies for the girls to use. They had a fun time with their creations. On Friday, we had dinner from Chiles to celebrate our anniversary (afterall, it is an anniversary weekend!). Then put the kids to bed and enjoyed a movie night.

Saturday Justin and I went to a primary program practice at the church all afternoon. I teach the Valiant 9 class with the other Activity Day leader. We have 11 kids in our class. Justin did a great job with his line for the Sunday sacrament meeting program: "My family can follow Jesus Christ in faith." Saturday night was our ward's Halloween Party.



The kids had a great time at the "Trunk or Treat" in the pouring rain. After dinner, the Young Men and Young Women put on carnival games and a Spook Alley. Justin really wanted to go through the spook alley with Travis. I wasn't sure he'd make it through. He didn't. He came out after the first little section and he was almost in tears. I felt bad that he was so scared, but now he reminds me when he sees Halloween ghosts, etc., that they are just pretend. Tyler was scared of all the kids in different costumes. Maybe we'd better just stick with decorating pumpkins this Halloween. :)

Our 7th anniversary was on Sunday. We were married on October 21, 2000 in American Fork, Utah, at the Mt. Timpanogas LDS Temple. We watched our wedding video and it was fun to feel all those emotions again. What a good day! The last 7 years with Travis have been wonderful! He is an amazing father and husband. I am so blessed to have him in my life. We are so happy to be together and look forward to many more years of memories.

I added music playlists to our blog. You can listen to them anytime. The boys like to dance to the Kids Mix, but I didn't realize they would get so exicted about it. They both beg to listen to "their" music on the computer and then run at full speed around the circle of the kitchen, down the hall, through the living room and play room and back through the kitchen. They run even faster for the songs they love the most. On several days, Justin has done this for 1 1/2 hours or longer. So, it turns out that it makes great workout music, too!

Well, the other day, Justin had been running and dancing to the music when Tyler woke up from his nap. He joined in, too, and they started chasing each other around our circle. After a while, they stopped for a rest next to me in the kitchen while I was cleaning up after dinner. Tyler's favorite song started and he did this little hop and skip to start off running fast. Well, his foot caught my foot and he tripped and fell right on his face. He got up screaming and blood was dripping from his mouth. He bit his lower lip pretty badly. He started yelling for a bandaid. Justin raced upstairs and brought all our first-aid supplies downstairs.

As I was trying to stop the bleeding, Justin got out a Curious George bandaid and put medicine on it. I was trying to explain to him that he couldn't put a bandaid in his mouth, but Tyler kept screaming like I was nuts to not let him have a bandaid if he was bleeding. So, I put a bandaid on his chin and the crying immediately stopped. Thank goodness for magic bandaids! I thought Ty might need stitches. Luckily, Travis was on a conference call for work upstairs. He was a good sport about being interrupted. After a call to the doctor, we decided he would probably be fine. So far, his lip looks like it really hurts, but I think it is healing up nicely. Luckily, neither of the boys have had a broken bone or stitches. (Knock on wood...I'm hoping to avoid the emergency room thing...forever!)

Two cute things:

Yesterday, I gave Tyler a drink of milk. He took one sip and said, "Mmmm...needs salt!" Where does he get this?

Today I was talking on the phone in the other room. When I walked into the bathroom, Justin and Tyler were covered from head to toe with bubbles. Justin had made a mountain of soap bubbles in the sink and Tyler was helping him to spread them EVERYWHERE! I laughed and grabbed the camera.



Then plopped them both into the bathtub for a play bath. It felt like one of those church commercials when the kids get covered with flour and the mom takes a picture and then joins in with all the fun. Well, my boys didn't get into trouble. I guess you could say they were rewarded with their favorite thing...more bubbles.

Tonight we are going to Justin's school for a family sing-a-long concert with Tom Hunter. Justin is counting down the minutes until we go....

Patch

We took a trip to the Lake View Farms pumpkin patch last weekend. After visiting the petting farm, the boys had a fabulous time riding on a little train out to the patch. The hay bale maze was a hit!




There were practically a million pumpkins to choose from...we plucked our favorites!







We took our pumpkins on their very first (and last) boat ride back to the barn. During the ride, a dragon popped out of the water at one point and then a shark poked its head out and sprayed a mist of water. Tyler was terrified. Justin LOVED this part and stayed on the dock after we were finished with our ride to watch it all happen again. We had to hurry off to Justin's friend Ian's birthday party, so we ran out of time for a pony ride, caterpillar train ride and corn maze. We'll save those for another visit.




Here are our happy pumpkins!

Big

Tyler is growing up so fast! He is just about 2 1/2 and he has decided he is really a "Big Boy". Two weeks ago we took down his crib and moved him into his big bed. He LOVES this bed! The truck bedding helps, but he is really happy to cozy in with his blankets and pillow. He likes to snuggle in for a while here and there throughout the day. Today he wanted to dress up like a train engineer all day. At Fred Meyer, the lady at the check-out line asked him if he was a train engineer. He opened his eyes so wide and gave her a big "she knows I'm an engineer" smile. :) He went down for his nap with his hat on. He ended up cuddling with it.



Ty has deemed himself too big for his booster seat at the kitchen table and too big for his bibs and too big for his diapers. He tried to ban the car seat, but I held my ground. We are into potty training, but he really just wants to hop on and off and flush the toilet 20 times. He is talking up a storm (I love this!) and he loves to sing the ABC's.

Tyler has to be just like his big brother. He wears his Lightening McQueen backpack to see Justin on/off the school bus. He likes to run errands with me during the day and cries when we drive home. Ty loves to "Help, too!" when I'm making dinner. He's getting really good at setting the table, too, by color-coordinating the dishes. He says, "Let go of me" and "Mom do it" one hundred times a day. I don't know whether to help him or not. :)

I am happy to see him excited about trying new things. I love that he says, "Thanks Mom" and "Big Hug". This afternoon when I was tucking him in bed for his nap, he said, "I'm thinkin' 'bout song." He started singing "Jingle Bells". I didn't know he knew this song. Later I found out that Travis sings it to him all the time to put him to bed. It was a cute little surprise to hear him singing away! I love this boy!

Weekend Top 7

General Conference Weekend was really nice. We enjoyed:

1. Jackson Elementary School's Fall Festival Friday night. Justin was so excited that I was volunteering to help with one of the carnival games. He would come up to me every so often and give me a big hug and kiss. I'm enjoying it now while he still thinks I'm cool! :)

2. Inspiring counsel from church leaders. I was touched to hear the explaination that our neighborhoods don't experience more tragedy than other neighborhoods. As close-knit member communities, we are just more aware of what is going on in our neighbors lives because we are giving service to help each other during hard times.

3. Couch-pillow pyramids. The boys were trying to entertain themselves during conference (and no one got hurt!).

4. Elders Quorum potluck at the park between sessions. I actually got to visit with other adults this time since I didn't have to follow Tyler like a hawk to make sure he didn't fall off the "Big Kid" playground. There are definitely some benefits to growing up.

5. Priesthood session moms and kids get-together at the Bowden's home.

6. Newly discovered favorite treat: Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butter on vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm...just like pumpkin pie!

7. Justin learned how to do a word search and decifer a secret code in the Primary Conference Packet. He is really having fun now that he is learning to read.