HALLOWEEN

Since things have been a little crazy and with Chad being out of town, we didn't get around to carving pumpkins until about one hour before we went out trick-or-treating. Everything was a little rushed and Mckenna didn't do well with our rushing to get ready and taking pictures, that she had a melt down. So bad that we threatened her to miss some trick-or-treating time, which just made things worse. I was tempted to tell her that she wouldn't go at all, but I couldn't be that mean. She was so emotional, she ended up telling us she didn't want to go at all. I took the boys out down the street and came back for Mckenna but she just walked with me and refused to go get any candy. I guess that was her way of showing us who was in control! The boys went down the other side of our street and when they passed our house again, they ran in to show dad their candy and they said they were done. I think this was the first year we came home without buckets full of sugar. It's probably best, since Chad and I are the ones to steal most of it away. Mileys favorite part was sitting by the door playing with the bowl full of candy. She litterally played with candy bowl most of the night. She didn't get anything open, so she didn't know what she was missing out on.

Mckenna Saves the Night

While on our little vacation in St. George, Grandma and Grandpa S. were nice enough to let Chad and I go see Les Miserables at the Tuachauan (which I can't spell) It is a beautiful outdoor theater. It turned out to be a very cold night, into the
40's but who's complaining when you can wrap up in blankets and snuggle. Well the play was wonderful but the best thing was to get back to Grandmas house and find out how the night went. I knew Miley would not like us leaving her and I knew she would cry, I was just hoping it wouldn't be for the whole 3 plus hours. So when we came home, Yvonne told us how Miley was histerical for at least 30-40 min. She wouldn't calm down for anyone. Our aunt Pat was there too with her husband and none of the adults could calm her down. Finally Yvonne said to Mckenna that she had to take over. Mckenna took her into the other room, watched an Einstien movie and I guess they were in there laughing and playing. So after a while, Mckenna layed her down, sang her songs and came out to all the adults and said, "she's asleep now." Needless to say, they were all very thankful. Aunt Pat gave her a dollar and grandpa said he would buy her a razor scooter the next day. The boys got scooters too of course. Grandma said the boys were so easy, they came out after their movie and Caden said, "what time is it?" Grandma told him it was 8:30 and he said, "I gotta go to bed, come on Coleman," and off they went and put themselves to bed.
I think Ken and Yvonne may be up to watching the kids the next time we see them.

Going on TRACKS to the Mall

It was a beautiful day to go on tracks and shop around at the gateway. My sisters girls are older so they can all fend for themselves and enjoy shopping. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time just being with everyone, eating lunch and watching then run through the fountain. But the shopping part was, well I guess you could say didn't happen. I waited outside each store with boys while they played with my camera and ran into the nice people walking around. Chad was happy that I came home without spending a dime!

Grandpas Football Game

The kids had a two week fall break from school, so we thought we would go see one of Grandpas football games, Just in case retirement comes soon and we wouldn't have a chance to see another. It was a lot cooler than normal but we survived, well at least the girls survived until half time then we went to put the baby down to nap.
Caden and Chad lasted until the end they even WON! When I asked Caden how the game was, he said it was great and the best part was going to grandpas office after and getting candy!

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

While we were at the Gateway with Grandma K. and our cousins, Mckenna and her cousin Natalee really wanted to get a build-a-bear. The mean mom that I am said no and I didn't want to spend that much money on a stuffed animal. So after some whining and tears, guess who jumps in and says they'll get it for her?... thats right, GRANDMA!!
Aren't they the best! The tricky thing is, there are a lot of grandkids there, so we have to convice the others to not want a build a bear, so Grandma only has to buy one for Mckenna and her cousin Natalee.
One perk of having an autistic child, is that he really doesn't care about a lot of things like buying toys or stuff. He doesn't understand the excitment of picking and stuffing your own stuffed animal. He just sat by the computers there and played on the keyboard.
So when I asked Caden what he would want, he said, "oh mom, I know exactly what I want, it's down by the gumball machines!!" I asked if he would rather have that or a build-a-bear, and he said he wanted to use his OWN quarter to get this toy by the gumballs. Well that was easy enough. I just love the simplicity of boys. The littlest things make Caden happy. Thanks Grandma for saving the day!

continuation of pics from the summer

It's a sad thing when my legs are as white as Mileys legs.

Miley had a special place for Maddie. When mom wasn't around and no one could calm her down, Maddie could.

Coleman is usually terrified of moving cars and other fast things, but when my dad got the scooter out, all he wanted to do was to race it and to be as close as possible to the thing. He wouldn't actully get on it, but he thought he could beat it on his tricycle

pictures of the summer

I'm going a little backwards on this blog thing, but I wanted to post some pictures of everything we did over the summer. I don't think there is enough blog space for writing about everything, so hopefully a picture will be worth a thousand words. Thanks again to both Grandmas and Grandpas for putting up with all of us for so many weeks.