Halloween

Everyday I would ask McKay what he wanted to be for Halloween this year and his answer was always, "Ima be a cat." So I thought I would suggest some other ideas to see what he would say and he would respond with, "No, Ima be a cat." I even tried to dress him up in a really cute costume with balloons and he fought it. So we got out my eye liner and black construction paper and vuala! We were a family of cats!

We took McKay trick-or-treating on a street here that really goes all out for Halloween. I wish we would have taken better pictures of the houses (and the crowd) but it was hard to capture it. They block off 2 blocks starting at 4pm and let the kids got door to door. We had to take these over and over because there were people walking in front of us the whole time. ps-McKay will not take off his new monkey leash. Tonight I had to take it off after he fell asleep. I sure hope that lasts when we're walking the streets!

On our way to 78th street we started trick-or-treating in the stores and this spider was in front of a restaurant. McKay was fascinated but wouldn't get close to it until I picked him up . This was after he warmed up a bit.

Of course we could miss out on carving pumpkins and couldn't resist putting our little pumpkin inside for some shots.

McKay drew the face (at least the one incredibly large eye) and Noah carved it out.

Kiddos

This post is for you Sherry! Here they are, up to date. 

McKay turns 3  "esember fif."

Lyla 3 months

Loving My Day Job

Today was a great day. Days like today make days like the last one I wrote about so worth it. I have a kazillion things I want to write about tonight but I first need to give a follow up. I have to laugh thinking about how dramatic I can get. Not all of these pictures are of when Noah was gone but I thought I'd share them to give an idea what it was like.

Lyla is really into projectile vomiting right now! Once while Noah was gone, Lyla threw up on me, down the wall and all over the floor while I was holding her. So while I was dripping all over the place, trying to keep her head up and keep her from choking, keeping the dinner from flooding the stove, grabbing a rag to clean the messes, and trying to clam McKay's hungry and tired demands, McKay slipped in Lyla's throw up and nailed his head on the ground! That was only a few short hours after he tried to keep his little feet gripped to the kitchen stool while reaching for the soap (that I told him over and over not to play with) on the counter. He slipped and landed mouth first onto the hard wood floor causing his two front teeth to be jammed into his gums and cut up his upper lip (He now has two gray teeth!).

This picture doesn't do justice to the damage she can do!

By instinct I was trying to keep it from coming out and it hit her in the face instead.

Her head wasn't quite big enough yet to hold her headbands in place.
She was sleeping like this for a while before we noticed.

McKay was doing this for a while before we noticed too! (the wall not the nose) To make it even better, this is at our friends house in VA. Sorry Stin and Scott!

This little guy was having a melt down so I put him in his room to cool down. He finally stopped screaming and lightly knocked on the door. I opened the door and sat next to him on the couch to let him explain what was going on. With big tears in his eyes he just said, "Mommy's da best!" I couldn't help but wrap my arms around him. It melted my heart.

Lately out of nowhere he'll say, "Mommy/Daddy, I love you!"

I wouldn't give up any of the "dramatic" moments if it means I get to hang around these two everyday. Well, maybe some of them!

I Surrender

I don't usually vent on the blog. I save it for poor Noah, but poor, poor, poor Noah is not here right now. In fact he hasn't been here all week. He is away at scout camp where he conveniently doesn't have phone reception so my not venting to anyone has built up long enough! It really hasn't been that bad and I know if he thought I really felt this way he would come home but I feel like the more dramatic I tell it the more interesting it sounds! I feel like I am just now, after 2.5 years of it, finally being introduced to motherhood. While at our family reunion, Noah's mom gave me a copy of an article titled "Surrendering to Motherhood" and she must have seen it coming for me because sometimes I feel like I need to do just that; throw my arms up and surrender. I read it last week. If my life were a book I might think that, that was foreshadowing this week!

Since Lyla's birth everything has gone beautifully until Noah had to go back to work, my mom dad and sister had to go home, we had to come home from vacation, Noah left for scout camp, and I was left alone all week with our precious new born and our adorable 2 yr old. I had to face my responsibilities (I know that if my mom were to read this, this would be the part where she would say, "and you want how many kids Kristi?"). I must say that I am IN LOVE with Lyla and I am IN LOVE with McKay and I am IN LOVE with the sweet tender moments they both give me. So in love that I didn't think it was possible to feel this deeply for my kids. It's all the rubbish in between those moments that I need to learn to love and to surrender to.
Let me just share some highlights from my day today.

Wait what am I talking about. I'm actually going to save that for another day. I finally got the kids to bed and I am ready to hit the pillow myself!

Bear Lake Reunion

Oh man, we had so much fun with Noah's family at the Lake. This is the group shot this year. McKay fell asleep about 30 seconds before we started taking pictures!
(FYI- a lot of these pictures are from Noah's sisters, Shawni and Saydi).

So we tried to wake him up and this is what happened!

This is at Bloomington Lake near Bear Lake where we went on a
small hike with everyone. It is absolutely gorgeous there.

Noah doing a back flip off the rope swing!

Noah and his brothers buzzed their hair but first
wore their hair like this for the day.

After

At the beach McKay wanted to go play in the car and
I went to check on him and found him like this.

Feeding the horses

You wouldn't believe how many grandkids can fit in this truck!

For Pioneer day we played pioneer games on the beach and Charity(the cardboard cut out- Noah's sister on a mission) even joined in!
We played some mean tennis and McKay loved it!
This is our new born soaking up the sun.
Don't worry guys. We kept her in the shade all day!

When we were driving away from the lake to catch our flight to NY Noah said, "Soak this in because in the morning when we wake up in NY this will seem like a dream." Now looking at all these pictures he is right on. Thanks for such a fun time Rick and Linda and to Saren and Jared for planning this year.

Blessings

Boy howdy, have I got a lot to catchup on! Story of my life. One of the highlights in the past month was that we got to bless Lyla while we were at Bear Lake for the Eyre reunion. It was so neat to be surrounded by so many family members for the blessing. I couldn't help but think of when we blessed McKay 2 1/2 years ago in Houston at my parent's house. Wow, time really does fly. Noah gave her a beautiful blessing. It was a special experience for me and I feel like I got a better glimpse of the way God sees this little bundle of Joy and what she is going to be like. During the blessing I peeked to see how McKay was behaving and watched him walk right in the middle and stop underneath his little sister with his head raised and stared in awe. He probably understands this better than I know. I can't stand how much I love these two kids we've been given. Being a mom of two is the best thing in the world. I feel so blessed!

Introducing Lyla Joy Eyre

Born June 30, 2008. 7lbs 8oz. 20 inches long. 7:19AM

Here she is! Absolutely magnificent.
This is my favorite picture of my girls. I am a lucky man!

Look at this shot Josh took!

Can you believe she gave birth about 5 minutes before this was taken!

Look at that newborn chunk!

A family of 4!!

McKay was very sweet with his little sister. Totally soft and very gentle. He was just quietly in awe of her. We'll see how long that lasts!

Lyla's reaction to her older brother:

Tal snapped this shot of McKay counting her toes (he counted them over and over.. pretty cute)