Disneyland

We went to Disneyland with my brother, sister-in-law and their kids in mid-November. I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the adults. Seriously, we love it that much. The Christmas decorations were beautiful, the lines were short, everyone was healthy, and the weather was in the high 60s. Perfect vacation. The parades were Taylor's favorite, only because he has rhythm in his soul and would dance around the entire time. Now that Dallin is exactly 40 inches tall (with the help of his spiky hair) he was able to experience more rides such as: Space Mountain (hated it), the Matterhorn (loved it and went on it again and again), and Soaring Over California (another favorite). We loved spending time with my brother and his family and soaked up every minute of it. At the end of each day, the boys would pass into a small coma as we wheeled them in the stroller back to the hotel. Unfortunately, their comas wore off around 5:30 each morning. Besides the lack of sleep and the throbbing feet (am I really that old?), we had an amazing time and I loved seeing everyone have so much fun.
Below you will see Taylor, Dallin (under Taylor) and Megan passed out after an especially long day. We kept them up for the firework show, which was amazing, and they barely made it to the end before they fell asleep. Michael was holding Taylor and we decided to plop all three into the stroller (because, let's be honest, Taylor is a little heavy). Dallin didn't budge when we laid his brother right on top of him and wheeled home. It was hilarious.

ASU Football Game

We had a great time at the game. Taylor especially got into the game and would clap at everything from a fumble to touchdown. We made it to half-time thanks to entertainment from the fireworks, the band, and the section of empty benches that the boys were able to play on.

Halloween

We started off the evening at our friend's Halloween party. So much fun. Great food, great friends, and a bounce house for the kids. A perfect combo.


We then headed out to trick-or-treat. Taylor preferred sitting at the foot of the stroller so that he could easily hop off and make his way to each house (he would sometimes start jumping off before the stroller even stopped). He really got into the whole people-give-out-candy-for-free-and-my-mom-actually-lets-me-eat-it thing.






I have to admit that the highlight of my evening was watching Taylor, after eating candy for the past hour, run full speed for 2 blocks back to our house with all of us trying to keep up. His little body was so overloaded with sugar all he could do was run.

Trunk-or-Treat

Our little pirate and army man getting ready for the ward trunk-or-treat. Taylor loved growling in his costume (he didn't quite get the pirate "argh!" down) and Dallin loved that he got to wear a grenade. Pretty tough boys, huh. I shouldn't tell you, then, that when we go to toy stores the first thing they find are the doll strollers and begin pushing them around the store.







Notice that Dallin is holding out two buckets, his and Taylor's, to collect treats. I thought this was so sweet until I saw him dumping all of Taylor's candy into his bucket at the end of the night. Smart kid.

Pumpkin Patch

On the hayride

Decorating their pumpkins


In the maze. Dallin loved the maze and ran through it over and over.

The maze made Taylor angry because he couldn't figure how to get out. In his frustration, he began knocking over the haystacks in order to get out.

It's that time again. . .

Dallin is back on the field where he is happiest. This kid wakes up at 6am, while it is still dark out, comes into our room and wakes up Michael to go play baseball. Well, this father of the year gets out of bed and goes across the street to the park to play baseball with Dallin before he gets ready for work. These pictures are from Dallin's first game last Saturday.


Michael is proud of his form but I just think he looks so darn cute in his uniform.




He slides into home plate every time - it is hilarious.

We love it when Missy comes to town. . .

We took Missy to one of our favorite spots, the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. The boys love it and could ride the train the entire day.


We then went to Grimaldi's Pizza, a new favorite. Taylor was super hungry so he started to chow on the dough that they bring out for the kids to play with. You can imagine how excited he was when they brought out the cooked stuff. Thanks for coming, Missy!!!

4th of July

It may be a month an a half after the fact, but here are some pictures of our Fourth of July in Utah. We arrived Thursday night, woke up the next morning at 5:30 and headed down to the hot air balloon launch. The boys loved it except for the fact that we were FREEZING. I think we were the only ones there wearing jackets and sweatshirts- no, I take that back. We saw some friends from Phoenix who also had on jackets.

The next morning I get up at 5 to go get a spot for the parade. Madness. Pure madness. It is tradition for 98% of Provo to camp out the night before to get spots for the Parade. The place was packed when I got down there but I happened to find a cozy spot on the street under a huge tree- perfect. I plopped my blanket down, asked a nice couple to watch them, and drove home and went back to bed for two hours. The parade was great but it was much more entertaining watching the boys. They loved it and actually sat still and watched the entire 2 hour parade. We also spent time with family, went to a BBQ, ate lots and lots, watched fireworks and collapsed at the end of the day.

Sure, they look innocent. . .

The other night I overheard Dallin telling Missy "I'm going to eat you and it will make me so happy."

Last night Taylor was angry with me because I brought him inside to give him a bath. So he runs to the toilet, sticks his hands in the water and turns around giving me a look of, "In your face, mom".

Then the other day Missy was holding him and asked him to point to her eyes. He slowly started to point to her face but half-way there wound up his hand and quickly slapped her face instead. Poor Missy, she totally got sucker-slapped. I was watching this and it caught me by such surprise that I just laughed, which DOES NOT reinforce that slapping is a bad thing. I don't know where he learns this aggressive behavior- maybe it's a survival skill necessary with having an older brother.