Balloon Bag End

Normally I save this kind of stuff for facebook, but this is a special circumstance.
My awesome and talented cousin made Bag End out of balloons and made this video about it. I'd say its gone viral. As of this minute he's approaching 200,000 views. He's had several websites feature it as well. A handful are:

JRR Tolkien fanpage TheOneRing.net
Komo News
BuzzFeed
Huffington Post
Yahoo!
MSN
KSL
Imgur
Wired

Or you could just do what my other cousin (Balloon Guy's brother-in-law) did and Google it. You'll be amazed.

October in a Nutshell

October felt crazy-busy for some reason. I don't know why. I'm home all day. But I didn't even manage to get my Halloween decorations out this year. Sadness! Anyways, here's the highlights (and lowlights) of October. Does it sound crazy to you too?

*Conference Weekend complete with a ride on the Heber Creeper and visiting my family to celebrate October birthdays
*My birthday, complete with a call to the fire dept
*A trip to Wyoming for Trace's Baptism
*Josh gone on a business trip for two nights
*Halloween Celebrations

And, of course, while Josh was on said business trip and the kids were in bed on Halloween, I went downstairs and something smelled funny. I discovered water in the laundry room and carpet in the family room. Awesome. I whined about it on FB and quickly had people jumping in to help. Turns out our water heater was leaking and we ended up replacing that as well. Luckily we have a plumber in our ward and he went above and beyond coming over 3 times to make sure that thing was installed properly and helped us out with other little misc things. Have I mentioned I love our ward? And also I need a vacation?

Boo at the Zoo & Halloween

Josh ended up having another business trip over Halloween, so we decided to take advantage of our zoo pass and go trick or treating at the zoo the Saturday before so he could be there, then Granny and Papa came and helped me out at Trunk or Treat at the church on Halloween. (Thanks again!!!)

The zoo was packed. We had to drive around for awhile before being in the right place at the right time finding someone headed back to their car at the back entrance. People were polite though, and overall I think it was a good experience.

Nick was Buzz

 Tristan was Woody, and did not want to hold still for the camera

 

Joey was a "cute witch"

We ended up inviting Ben to come with us last minute, then he came and helped us winterize our swamp cooler afterward. (Thanks Ben!)

We found some bucket heads while we waited. :)

Don't they look thrilled? Haha

 

New baby giraffe! So cute! The boys are into giraffes right now and were pretty excited to see it up close because we usually see them from a distance outside.

When we got home I checked out their loot to see if there was anything worth stealing. As I stirred the bucket some towards the bottom felt a little slimy. Turns out all the sucking on wrappers the boys did paid off. Tristan got all the way to the center of this tootsie roll pop on one side. Ew!

Joey was pretty excited about her glowstick bracelet from Trunk or Treat :)

I didn't want a repeat of the tootsie roll pop, so I let the boys have a dumdum at Trunk or Treat when they were almost done. Where did Nick's stick go? :) Tristan was just enjoying his. Goofy kid!

Eight is Great!

Cory's birthday is only 5 days after mine, and this year it was extra special. It was also the day he got to baptize his oldest son, Trace! There had been some storms the day before, so we got some more awesome cloud/mountain shots on the way up. Complete with fall colors. I just love this time of year!

Echo Reservoir was to pathetically empty we were kinda freaking out!

The dam. On the other side was some construction equipment/vehicles, so they must have emptied it to do some work, but it was nuts!

Back to Trace: He is one of the coolest, most mature eight-year-olds I've ever seen, and I'm not just bragging because he's my nephew. Almost immediately when his confirmation began the Sprit was overwhelming. Afterwards his bishop got up and talked for a few minutes, and mentioned the cool thing about getting to stand in those circles is he can feel what they were feeling. I hope Trace was influenced as much as I was. This kid is going places! Doesn't hurt that he's got some pretty amazing parents...

Picture time! I had to get one with him, too. He tolerated it well, even if I am just the crazy aunt! :) I babysat him part-time in the mornings for several months after he was born. I still can't believe that was 8 years ago! Love ya buddy! Thanks for letting us share your special day with you!

Starting 27 Off With a Bang!

I believe everything happens for a reason. Here is a very good example of that truth.

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. :) Friday both my mom and Josh took the day off work. Early Friday morning we dropped off the kids at my mom's house so I could go renew my driver's license. It was much quicker and less painful than I expected. And if my temporary is an indication, my picture looks pretty decent... Go me! Then we picked up the kids so my mom could get some things done, then took them back around lunch time. Enter birthday celebrations. First we went to Olive Garden for lunch. Mmmm. I was weak and got both Zeppoli (Italian version of Beignets), which we often get as a to-go dessert there, and the limited-time Pumpkin Cheesecake with Carmel Sauce and Gingerbread crumb topping. Yeah....YUM!! After lunch we went to JCPenney to try on dresses. It was nice to do some shopping for me without kids freaking out the second we step foot in the women's section. Then we brought the kids home and my mom was able to be there when Cory & family came into town. Yay for grandkid days, right? That evening after putting the kids to bed we watched Avengers and enjoyed our treats. Best date night ever!!

Saturday we went to Heber and rode the train, which I already blogged about, so I'm gonna skip over it. :)

Sunday we went and had lunch with my family (minus Kaela and Brayden). Its always fun to get together, plus we had funeral potatoes, so really, how can you go wrong?

 

My birthday gifts. Newsies on Bluray and baking stuff. Score!!

Monday, my actual birthday was pretty much an average day at first. We were struggling to get Joey to eat, so she was in her room and having a rough night. Josh and the kids had gotten me Newsies, so we wanted to put the kids to bed at their earlier bedtime so Josh and I could watch it and still get to bed at a decent hour ourselves. Well, because Joey was having a rough night, that ended up being 15 mins later than planned. Josh and I debated whether he should shower then watch the movie, movie then shower, or me start the movie while he was in the shower. We decided on the first option.

Part of the way through the movie I asked him if he wanted one of the Pumpkin Cookies I'd made Sunday night. He said he was debating on that or icecream. We kept watching, and I decided I wanted my cookie, so I jumped up to get it. He paused the movie and got himself some icecream. When the movie was over he went into the kitchen to put his bowl in the dishwasher. He said to me there was a problem and to come here, while headed into the bedroom. I thought maybe he'd found evidence of a new mouse or something. I caught up with him in the bedroom and he was putting on his running shoes, and he told me to look out the back window. I went and opened the blinds to the sliding glass door, and there was our backyard neighbors' yard and deck on FIRE!! I quickly dialed 911 as he ran out the door. 

I stood on the deck on the phone with dispatch. They asked the address, and since I wasn't sure, I told them the road of their house, then gave them my address. They said not to try to fight it myself. Shortly after I saw Josh dragging their hose around to attempt that, so I told him not to. It was pretty dark, but I could see cars, so I wasn't sure whether anyone was home. Josh came home and said their door was wide open and no one was home. That sounds odd... He left again. Next thing I know they are opening the sliding glass door and attempting to fight the fire. There was one little bit of fire from the deck right at the door. I swear they were using drinking glasses. I could hear the splashes of water, and it wasn't much. Then they'd go in, and come back out. One time they used a bucket to dump water over the side to the yard below. Everytime I would yell at them to just get out of there, the fire dept was on its way. I could hear Josh at their front door yelling at them too. They just weren't listening. FRUSTRATING!! The dispatcher kept me on the line so I could tell her if anyone got injured because they were doing this. I heard a police officer enter our house asking if anyone was home. I came inside and said I was here and it was the house behind us. He left. Dispatch let me go at this point. My phone gave me the 10% battery warning. Talk about cutting it close! I decided to check and see if the kids were still asleep from all the flashing lights, sirens, and yelling. I think I woke Tristan up, so I got him and he and I stood on the deck and watched them put out the fire. I saw the police officer back there before the fire dept and he started fighting the section up against the house on the deck with the hose. He was back there so quick he must have jumped the fence. His squad car was still in our circle. The neighbor went back with a shovel and started trying to fight the stuff on the ground, despite the police officer telling him to go to the front of the house. He finally stopped.  It didn't even occur to me to take any pictures of all this, sorry. I was able to put Tristan back to bed after most of it was out, and put on shoes and a jacket. I'd been shaking while holding Tristan. Probably part because of the situation, and part because I was out there in short sleeves. I had to pee, too, but I didn't care. I had to watch. After Josh came back home we talked about it a bit. He pointed out how if he'd had a cookie instead of icecream he wouldn't have seen it. Other neighbors on their street had seen smoke and even possibly the glow, but we saw the actual fire, and were the ones to call it in. The interior only suffered smoke damage, but they said just a few more minutes and the inside probably would have been damaged by the fire as well. What if Joey hadn't prolonged bedtime 15 minutes? Would the fire have been started at that point? It was really pretty small, considering both their and our backyards are just dry weeds. Or if we'd started the movie earlier if I'd started it while Josh was in the shower or we'd watched it before his shower. Any of those things would have changed when our movie ended, and things could have gone alot differently if that had been the case. The daughter at the house had come home from work and locked the door, but it swung open when Josh was pounding on it. He'd rung the doorbell several times. They were all asleep, and may not have woken up had the door not opened. Josh had to switch out his hoodie to wear to work this morning because the other one smelled like smoke. He had to wear Superman. Oh the irony. If only he'd worn that one last night. :) 

I went out back this afternoon and tried to get a few pictures on my phone of the damage. I cropped them so hopefully you can get an idea without losing too much detail.

 

The fire was basically the deck and in front of it and the carport. There were cars parked in the carport and that dirt patch next to it. There was also a lawn mower under the deck the fire dept just kinda chucked out towards our fence. Its still sitting there.

The gutter on carport melted. You can see it hanging off. I watched that before the police officer even showed up.

You can see the white and black marks on the deck where the fire was touching it, but never caught. The part of the deck on fire was there at the bottom left corner of the sliding glass door. You can kinda see where the siding is discolored.

View from our deck. A little easier to see the burned patch of ground and debris.

Hard to tell, but I think there's a hole in the deck in front of the door. That's probably where the wood on the ground came from.

What a day, eh?

All Aboard!

We had our Coffey Christmas today, and it was a blast! Check out my kids and their adorable engineer hats! First we went to Dairy Keen in Heber for lunch where they have a train that circles the ceiling. The kids thought it was awesome! Then we went and rode the Heber Creeper! All the kids were in heaven! It was fun! We even got held up by a couple of train robbers. :) the longer they were there the more scared Joey got. Funny, they gave Nick a gold coin candy. I didn't see anyone else get one. After they left we were explaining to her it was just pretend and she just looked like she was about to burst into tears! She said she thought she was going to have to go to jail! I had her come sit in my lap for a few minutes then her cousins started being fun enough she forgot about it. She never did cry, brave Joey! I wondered if she'd have an issue with it. She's so tender hearted when she's not working on her 'tude! ;)

We got to enjoy popcorn and candy for a treat, and really just enjoyed the ride! The twins were glued to the windows most of the way out, but they were a little more wiggly on the return trip. Nothing a little popcorn couldn't cure, they loved it! Thanks for another great Christmas Granny and Papa!!

Nickolas Coffey: Boy Genius?

So last night we were at my parents' house celebrating my dad's birthday, and my mom was helping Joey with this alphabet puzzle. Nick was kinda watching then started naming the letters with my mom once Joey moved on to a new puzzle. When he brought it to me this is all he would let me video, because my phone is always more exciting than whatever I'm trying to capture them doing. But he also was doing A, C, B and D were B, sometimes E, G was SHOW for some reason -haha, sometimes K,sometimes T, sometimes F, sometimes S, maybe a few others. He was really kinda freaking me out (in a good way)!

Joey's Reward

As I've mentioned before, getting Joey to eat feels like an uphill battle on a regular basis. The pediatrician told us to set a timer for 30 minutes and just let her be, no coaxing her to take bites or negotiating or anything of that nature. If she doesn't finish, no snacks. We've been doing this since our camping trip, and some days are better than others, but we still hadn't gotten her to eat all 3 meals in one day. We started offering rewards one day if she could do it, and today was finally that day!

It just happened to be grocery shopping night, so we told her she could pick a treat at the store. When we got there just inside the door they had the single serving size bags of chips for $.50. Seeing as how eating Cheetos has been good motivation to finish one meal, I thought she'd enjoy it. I suggested it and she was thrilled.

We let her have them in the car and told her she could choose whether or not to share with her brothers. Apparently puppy dog eyes work well on her because it wasn't long before she changed her mind and decided to share. I thought she'd give them one each, but she kept on passing them out. When we told her what a nice sister she was being her humility really shined, let me tell ya! Haha

After we got home Tristan was following her all over the house saying thank you, expecting more. Silly boy. I hope she can keep it up!

Brigham City Temple Open House

Yesterday we got the kids up early (well, got Joey up early... The boys do it on their own) and we took them to the Brigham City Temple Open House.
Joey thought the bus ride from the parking lot to the temple was cool, and Josh said Tristan was glued to the window. We're riding the Heber Creeper in a month and I think there gonna LOVE IT! But I digress...

Joey was really good about being reverent and whispering. I gave her a sentence or two of explanation in a few of the first rooms, and when I didn't in the chapel she asked me what it was. It made me so happy that she was so anxious to learn about it. I'm hoping she was feeling the spirit. I had Nick and Joey with me, and Josh had Tristan. We carried the boys on the stairs, but other than that they mostly held our hands up until the end. And I was dragging Joey upstairs behind me, and I was wearing wedges. I got my workout! :) Tristan got a little bored at the very end and started cheerfully testing acoustics in the halls, but other than that I was very pleased with their behavior. When Nick saw the cookies in the reception area I couldn't get it to him fast enough. We meant for the boys to split one, but by the time we found a place to sit he was already going to town and Tristan was stealing Josh's so Josh had to go hunt down another one for himself. :) Once we were done with our cookies we went outside to check out the grounds and take a few pictures. The sun was in the kids' eyes, so that's why they aren't the greatest.
Joey keeps talking about the next time kids go in the temple what she's going to do, wear, etc. I had to tell her the next time she's at a temple will probably be Aunt Kaela's wedding. Better hurry Kaela, she's ready to go back! ;)

Random Pictures in August

I'm trying to be better about my blogging with Sam and Jess living so far away, so here are a few random favorite pictures from August. Alot are from our camping trip. September will be more detailed, I'm determined!

2x2.2

On their special day we went to the zoo, sporting their new super hero garb. I think it was probably the most I've seen the boys show interest in the animals thus far, and we didn't completely melt, so I'm calling it a success!

The day before was cousin Jax's birthday, so afterwards we went to my parents to enjoy cupcakes and hang out. It was a good birthday weekend!

A few weeks later we went to the doctor to see how they were growing. I knew they were still tiny, but was hoping for 20 lbs. HA!

Tristan's stats:
Height: 31.5" <3%, adjusted for preemie 3%
Weight: 18 lbs 9 oz <3%
Head: 64%, adjusted for preemie 69%
BMI: 13.2 <3%

Nick's stats:
Height: 30.3" <3%
Weight: 18 lbs 2 oz <3%
Head: 44%, adjusted for preemie 50%
BMI: 14 <3%

So doubling their height at 2 will make Tristan 5'3" (my height) and Nick 5'1/2" as adults. I hope that's not true! Lol

Because Nick's growth slowed, our pediatrician went ahead and pulled their percentages for them being 33 weekers to see where they were at there. Unfortunately 2 is the last time thy do that, so not next time! She was thrilled that put Tristan on the chart for height. Both of them have slowed their eating quite a bit over the summer. I pray it's just because of the awful heat, but that means being August babies we're going to be battling that every visit. Nick has been worse about it, and it's harder to convince him to drink fluids in the heat of the day. Sooo glad it's finally cooling down a bit! She asked about their eating and I told her I try giving them a variety, but all 3 of them are picky, but honestly Joey is the one it's usually the worst battle to get to eat. So she gave us guidelines of laying down the rules. It's helped sometimes, but she has yet to finish all 3 meals in one day. There are time she will choose to just sit there until her time is up rather than even make an attempt. Those days are the most frustrating. But back to the boys! Although they're tiny, she didn't seem to have any problems with their development. When she asked if they could say 20 words Josh wasn't so sure, so I started rattling them off. The list was long enough for her satisfaction, but I thought I'd make a list here just to see, plus it'll be fun to go back and look someday. :)

Mom
Dad
Nick (Tristan only)
Cracker (also means Cooper and sometimes cookie)
Cookie (usually means pancake)
Breakfast
Lunch
Milk
Drink
Cheese
Show
Car
Nigh night
Bed
Hi
Bye
Toodles (from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse)
Blue's Clues
Dog (also bark when they see them)
Uh oh
Oh no
Shoe
Wow
Please
Thank you
Down

I think that's more than 20 and I'm sure I've forgotten some!

Their favorite activities are watching shows, destroying the movies, climbing, playing with cars, and wrestling with Daddy. I love my sweet boys!

2x2

My babies are 2!! Still having a hard time wrapping my head round that one.
Friday night we had family over to celebrate. We did a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme because they love the show so much. They say some of the words from that better than each other's names. :)

 The invites I made. I got the idea off Pinterest and found a little bit of the wording online, but most of the poem I made up myself.

Mickey Mouse Cupcakes. Idea also from Pinterest.

Tristan got caught trying to sample some mouse ears before the guests arrived.

First we ate "Hot-Diggity-Dogs" and some yummy sides, then we opened presents! Superheroes and cars seemed to be the theme, which is perfect for our house.

Uncle Ben got them this Cars 2 book that had little models of the characters in it, along with some Matchbox cars. Both are a big hit.

We got some Little People Superheroes. I had a hard time getting a picture because Tristan wanted my phone. Annie volunteered to take pictures after that. Thanks!

I take full advantage of birthdays and holidays to get them stuff they need, especially when they're little like this. Lucky for me one of the favorite words is "Shoe!"

Granny and Papa brought Book of Mormon action figures. Once Tristan had Alma he was done opening presents. :)

Batman race track.

 It took a little time, but eventually they got the hang of opening their presents.

 

Some Chuck truck toys. One is a race car ramp that makes noises, and another is a playmat for cars. Don't forget the M&M's. :)

Nick and the Batman Car

 

Tristan checking out his Superman action figure

 

Playing cars on the Batman track with cousin Mason

Singing Happy Birthday. We need to work on getting their names better in the future. :)

Nick is done with his cupcake. He hasn't been eating too well lately.

Tristan enjoyed his all over.