Carlos carved his pumpkin the other night. The boys were kind-of interested, but not as much as I thought they would be. I personally have no desire to carve a pumpkin. I wanted to paint mine and have the boys paint theirs. I don't know if I'll get around to it though.
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Saturday night was the Halloween party for the Intermountain Spina Bifida Foundation. It was at Primary Children's. I decided to go but Carlos had to work and I didn't want to go by myself. Mom and Dad were going to be out working in Grandma Wilkey's yard so Mom was able to go with me that night. I think the boys had fun and there were a lot of cute activities for the kids even though we didn't get to do everything.
Afterwards we went to Amber's and they saw us in costume. They were carving some cool pumpkins. A very dirty Dad met Mom there and we all went our separate ways.
On a scale of 1-10, 1 being not impressed and 10 being very impressed, they kid's reactions are as follows:
I would say Jaiden's reaction was a 9, things were pretty cool. He even got a pirate painted on his face!
Austin was about a 2. Not really impressed. Except for when he dumped his popcorn out onto the carpeted floor (and then tried to eat it off the floor), he was just like, whatever.
Zach was probably a 5. He didn't really care either way and was his usual pleasant self.
I was maybe a 7. I wish they would have had some activities more often so that Jaiden could have participated in all of them. I was disappointed that I really didn't get to meet the other parents like I was hoping to. But it was still fun.
After the Spina Bifida Clinic last Friday, we took the boys to the Zoo. The timing just worked out right for us to go then. We had to be in Salt Lake later that day and it was easier to just find something fun to do as a family in the in-between-time.
So we have been putting off going to the Zoo all summer for two main reasons 1) go when it was cooler, 2) avoid the crowds. Albeit the nice, reasonably cool weather, there was one major problem. I forgot it was UEA weekend. Insanity would be a nice way to put it. I really am a crowd-a-phobic and was freaking out as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. It was okay in the end, we survived, and the boys had a lot of fun.
All Jaiden wanted to see were the lions. Couldn't find 'em. Anywhere. Maybe we were just being dumb. We distracted him with lots of other animals though and he seemed pretty content by the time we left. I can definitely understand why they want to Renew the Zoo-- in the five years since we were last there, it seems that there were a lot fewer animals and it just wasn't in as great of shape.
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I don't know if anyone has seen this before and it can apply to so many of life's situations but I just saw it again and I like what it says. One of the moms on the BabyCenter Spina Bifida Board posted it for a woman who just found out one of her twins has spina bifida.
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
I like the way it expresses well the way one feels.
I feel so blessed to have Zachary in our lives. I feel that he is exactly the way Heavenly Father wants him to be and that he has so much to teach us. Jaiden and Austin love him (Austin also loves to bite him) and he is such a happy, calm baby.
There are two other new posts after this one....
We had a major breakthrough today. Jaiden was really excited when we got back from the hospital (see Zach's post). He and Austin had stayed home with my Carlos' mom. She told us Jaiden had some really good news for us and told him to show us. So he showed us the potty and that he had gone in it. YEAH. He has refused to even sit on it before and only recently has kind-of done that. I still have no idea how she did it but I'm really excited.
I know it's totally blurry, but it still shows Jaiden's cute smile and personality.
Austin is still such a sweet boy but he is definitely getting more curious and determined and has a little attitude. He follows Jaiden everywhere and does everything he does. He loves to sing and has several songs in his repertoire. He loves to eat and though he does have a hard time sitting still because there is so much to see and do, he is really good about eating and gets upset if he's hungry and the food isn't ready. Funny that he's still in the 1 percentile for weight for his age. He was 20 lbs 3 oz at his appt. a couple of weeks ago and Zach was 16 lbs 5 oz last week!
We had an appointment at the hospital today to check Zach's hips. His dr thought that the left might be dislocated so he sent us for and ultrasound. The mostly do ultrasounds on newborns and because he's four months and has lots of extra padding, it was hard to get a good picture so they also sent us to x-ray. I don't know anything about reading them but I thought his hips looked okay. His doc should have the results by 10:00 am tomorrow. We have an appointment at the Spina Bifida Clinic on Friday at Primary Children's and if his hips are dislocated, we'll have to talk to the orthopedic surgeon while we're there. For now, we mainly just have to see the nuero-surgeon to check on his shunt. It's actually doing really well.
Look at that chin dangling down! 
Watch out for that drool! 
I'm so cute!
I'm finally getting around to this tag...
8 TV Shows I Love:
1. I Love Lucy
2. Andy Griffith Show
3. Everybody Loves Raymond
4. That's about it
5. No, wait...Rick Steve's Europe
6. Europe with Rudy Maxa
7. Travels to the Edge with Burt Wolfe
8. Globe Trotter
Yes, all but one of these are on PBS and I watch lots of kids shows on PBS, but except for maybe Curios George, I don't really love any of them. And most of Amber's PBS fav's are the ones I like the least. Hmmm
8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Olive Garden
2. Cheesecake Factory
3. Olive Garden
4. Cheesecake Factory
5. Mexican Restaurants
6. Taco Time
7. Wendy's
8. Fazolis
We don't go out to eat at an actual restaurant very often. We do eat lots of fast food though. Oh, wait, I really liked Mimi's Cafe, even though I've only been there once. Oh, and can't forget Pizza Hut. I think my blog should be titled Crazy 8's plus a few here and there. But seriously, Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory have to be listed twice (or more...)
8 Things that Happened Yesterday
1. Was awoken by my MIL at 8:15 and church started at 9:00
2. Got to church a few minutes late (but we actually got a bench, that was a miracle-- it's so much fun to sit on the chairs with our oh-so-reverent boys!)
3. Shortly after the sacrament realized someone had a dirty diaper and then found out my wipes weren't in the bag like they should be so I had to miss the rest of the meeting to go home and get the wipes. We live extremely close but I had to take 2 of the 3 with me.
4. Enjoyed Relief Society. The lesson actually gave me some hope that maybe I can make it.
5. Took a long nap after eating the lunch prepared by my MIL :)
6. The Relief Society President and another sister visited me and they brought me fresh homemade bread.
7. I went to Trent's Eagle Court of Honor
8. Mom and Dad stayed the night and played with the boys.
8 Things that I'm Looking Forward to:
1. Learning more about photography and getting better at it
2. Having a routine again
3. Christmas
4. Halloween- to a point
5. Carlos finishing school
6. Jaiden going to bed on time in his own bed
7. All of my kid's sleeping through the night
8. When all of my kids are in school
8 Things on My Wish List:
1. Go to Europe. More than once.
2. A cedar chest
3. To feel like I can do everything I need to do and be who I need to be.
4. Have an orderly, organized, peaceful home.
5. To travel the world.
6. To become an amazing photographer.
7. To get my end-of-mission body back with a little less up top because believe me girls, it's not all that it's made out to be!
8. To be able to buy my children anything they need whenever they need it and to be able to buy non-clearance-rack things for myself without feeling guilty!
I tag anyone who wants to do this!
This is a cool slide show with some pictures of Colómbia. It's all in spanish, but the names of the places are in the bottom right corner.
We always have a yummy barbeque when we go out during summer months. Dad has made such a nice area out back. He always grills some steak and tilapia (a kind of fish). Carlos is very grateful for the fish because that's one of the few times he gets to ingest the not-so-lovely-in-my-book creatures. Add some of Mom's yummy salads, maybe some grilled squash and presto!, a great summer BBQ.
I think you can click on these to see them bigger.....
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Dad had me take a picture of this lovely creature. I can't believe I got as close as I did. Even zooming in, I still had to get close, especially because I just had my shorter lens. Yuck. I actually start to get grossed out just thinking about it. There were two of these close together between the same tomato plants. I guess they are actually called garden spiders and are the "good" (seriously, does that word apply to spiders?) kind.
Therefore they lived.
I know they're not that great of pictures, but EWWWW.
Zachary is 4 months old today!
He loves to laugh and watch his brothers and is
getting so big and strong.
He is very patient and loves his mommy too!
And it's a really good excuse to take lots of pictures!
We went to Mom and Dad's this last weekend for the 2nd Annual Grandkid (and parents) Pumpkin Picking Party. We went out on Friday and the kids loved playing in the tree house mansion. Sorry I didn't get pics this time, I was a little tire and stressed. Saturday we had a BBQ and pumpkin-picking fest. It was fun to see the kids picking out the perfect pumpkin!
This is the cake I made, all Fall Festiv-ey
We celebrated while we were out at Mom and Dad's. It was fun to have so many of us there (we missed you Ryan & Jenna and David & Kelly!)
We have a tradition in our house (I grew up with it and so did Carlos-- so it works out great!) to take a bite of the cake. He actually just bit a leaf off and then shared the fun with Jaiden.
Happy Birthday mi cielo!
