October Happening and Fun

In October we started to feed Tanner solid foods.  At about 5 months, right around when Tyler got his tonsils out he started to try to eat everything off of our plates.   We held him off for a few weeks while we were handling the tonsil situation, but then started once I felt like I could handle more than just that!  He loved it and still does.  He eats anything you give him, we have not found a food he has turned down yet!  The kids loved watching him eat and discover food.

We went miniature golfing at Cherry Hill, Scary Hill.  The kids always look forward to this every year and Tyler especially loved it this year!

I was on a committee in charge of a mother-daughter Witches dinner at our church.  Sadie helped me make 150 little witch hat cookies and decorate for the party.  We had a really fun time together, it was fun to have an activity that I planned that Sadie could come to.

A fun tea party on a rainy cold afternoon, we have been having a lot of these lately and it has been fun.

We went to Cornbelly's, a fun fall carnival place.  We had a lot of fun jumping on the big trampolines, racing ducks, going down the big slides, riding trains, etc.

The moment Tyler saw this huge lizard he wanted to go inside of it!  It was suppose to be scary and haunted, we tried to explain it to him, but he was insistent that he wanted to go in.  My dad took him in and he came out, so excited, saying he loved it and that he wanted to do it again!  We were shocked and even more shocking is that Sadie went with them the 2nd time.  She is afraid of a lot, so we could not believe she decided to do it.  So much fun and so funny that it was his favorite part of Cornbelly's.



The Pumpkin Patch

We love going to the pumpkin patch every October to pick out our pumpkins!  This year Sadie and Tyler were both excited about it.  We met up with my family and found some really fun pumpkins to carve and for our front porch.

Tylers Tonsils

Doesn't this picture just break your heart!  Our poor Tyler had to get his tonsils and adenoids out in September 2013.  While we were on a summer trip and I was sleeping closer to him I realized his snoring had gotten worse.  It actually wasn't even snoring, he sounded like Darth Vader, he was just breathing out of his mouth and not out of his nose at all when he was asleep.  He also started to wake up more in the night, so I decided to call our pediatrician.  He suggested we take him to a ENT specialist to see if he needed to have his tonsils removed.  A week later we had an appointment at the ENT office.  Before he even examined Tyler he noticed his voice and said, "do you hear how his voice is muffled?"  I just thought that was his voice!  The he examined him and said that he had huge tonsils and a large adenoid pad and that both needed to be removed ASAP.  He pretty much had child sleep apnea, his tonsils and adenoids were so large that they were cutting off his air supply when he slept, so he was waking more at night because he couldn't breath.  If you know Tyler, then you know he is pretty much the friendliest kid around, the doctor was shocked that he was so friendly.  He said usually kids with this severe a case are so grumpy and tired all the time because they never get REM sleep because they are always awakened when they can't breath.  Tyler did take a 3 hour nap every afternoon, so I think that was helping! :)  The doctor said he usually observes kids for a few years and watches how they progress, but Tyler was so severe that it needed to happen now.  Since he was only 2 1/2 we went to Primary Children's Hospital.  They said there was a good chance he would have to sleepover after the surgery, so they could monitor his breathing, but he did great and we ended up not having too.  On the day of the surgery my mom came with me, Devin stayed home with Sadie and Tanner and then came up later.  He had to fast for 12 hours before hand and that was hard to explain to a 2 year old!  Luckily we had to be there at 8 AM.  When we arrived we had prep work things to do, his actually surgery wasn't until 10 AM.  I was nervous he would be stressed to go back with the surgeon and not with me, but by the time his surgery time came around he wanted apple juice so bad that when the anesthesiologist asked him if he was ready to go he said, "Let's do this" and went running down the hall with him!  It cracked us up, such a Tyler thing to do!  His surgery was about an hour long and everything went well.  The ENT said his adenoid pad was the largest he has ever removed from a child.  When he woke up he was in a lot of pain and was crying, it was really sad, but after they got his pain medication under control he did well.  We got to go home that night and luckily my mom came and stayed with us for a few days, everything is always better when grandma is there!  It was a really rough 2 weeks of recovery; he had a lot of pain, he woke up 6 to 7 times a night for almost 12 days.  So many people love our little Tyler, so he was showered with gifts and visitors, so that really helped!  When Devin and I were in the middle of it we were wondering why we did this, but now months later with it all behind us we can say it was totally worth it.  He sleeps so much better, does not snore at all, he eats a lot of new things that he didn't like to eat before because it hurt to swallow them.  It has been a really good thing for him and were really glad that we caught it as early as we did!  Hopefully Tyler won't remember any of it and Devin and I are just hoping we don't have to go through it again with any of our other kids!

Back to School and A Few Fun Pictures

Sadie started her second year of Preschool, the fall of 2013.  She was so excited to go back to school again and to be going with her little friend Mylie.  She looked so cute on her first day of school!  (Funny side story; Devin started his 2nd year of his masters program at BYU this fall and Sadie was really mad that I didn't have a sign for him to hold on his first day of school!)

Sadie has also started to love taking pictures, here are a few cute ones she captured of Tanner in September!

Our St. George Trip

In August of 2013 our little family went on a trip down to St. George, UT.  The kids were in heaven!  We rented out a condo and swam several times a day, we hiked around the beautiful red rock, Sadie and I went to Tuachan (an outdoor theatre in the canyon) to see Mulan, we went out to eat, had picnics, went to the St. George Temple, to the parks, went to the movies to see Planes.  Pretty much we had a wonderful time!  It was really relaxing and fun to just be together the 5 of us.  The kids are always asking us when we can go back to St. George.  It was a first of many fun family trips together.

 Sadie at Tuachan before Mulan started, she looks so beautiful!

 Our girls night!

 Can you tell she is excited?!

 Looking cute at the Temple

 It was beautiful, so many amazing views in all directions.

 The kids LOVED hiking. We had only planned 2 hikes during the trip, but they loved it so much that we added a couple more.  They loved exploring the rocks, the little caverns and looking for animals.  The most exciting animal we saw was a jack rabbit and it ran right past us super fast.  The kids got so excited and from then on were on the look-out for jack rabbits at all times. 

What a fun trip we had!

Summer 2013 Fun with Cousins

We had a lot of good cousin time this summer, here are a few pictures!

 Just a cute picture of Tyler in his favorite dinosaur shirt!

 Landon, Tyler and Peter feeding the ducks at the park

 The cute Smith cousins at the park, Emilee and I tried really hard to get them all to look, but this was the best we could get! 

 Sadie and Benson playing at the park

 

 Emilee, Peter and Benson came and stayed with us for a few days.  The kids had so much fun together, here is a cute one of Peter and Tyler coloring. 

 Tanner and Charlotte.  Devin's twin brother David and his wife Jocelyn had Charlotte a few weeks after Tanner was born.  This was their first meeting, they both look a little scared, but I am sure they will be the best of friends later in life!

 A cute one of Tanner because look how cute he is!

 Sadie and Brynnley in their beautiful dresses for Great Grandpa Hubbard's wedding. They looked so pretty and they loved matching!

Cute Carson and Tyler waiting for the wedding to start.  This was Tyler's kind of wedding; snacks and drinks while you are waiting!

Tanners First Smiles

Here are a few pictures of Tanners first smiles, isn't he a cute baby!

Tanner's Baby Blessing

The first Sunday in July 2013 we blessed our sweet little Tanner.  He was so content and happy during his blessing and Devin gave him a special blessing.  He is a peacemaker and that clearly came through in his blessing.  On his blessing day 3 other babies were blessed as well in our ward, all boys.  I think we only had about 15 minutes for testimonies.  Lucky Tanner will have a lot of boys to play with in our neighborhood as he gets older.  It was a special church meeting to have so many new little spirits entering the world.  We were lucky to have our families there and friends.  We truly feel blessed to have Tanner join our family and it was a wonderful day to celebrate him!

 

Our Family of 5

Catching Up! Summer Fun - Fourth of July 2013

We had a lot of fun in the summer!  For the fourth of July we went to the Kaysville parade, which never disappoints!  Bands, candy, popsicles; for me it is what a 4th of July parade should be.  We had both our parents there, so the kids were happy to have both grandma and grandpas there! We also had Devin's sister and their family there and Devin's aunt and uncle and their family.  We had a fun group and had a fun time. 

After the parade we came home and then went to go see Monsters University with my parents and my brother and his family.  The kids loved it!  We then came back to our house for a bbq and fireworks!  It was a fun, full day.

Tyler and Grandpa waiting for the fireworks to begin!  I wish I had a picture of the kids with there glow sticks, we didn't even need to go to fireworks, they were so happy to just have glow sticks!  But once the show started they got excited about that too!