Halloween

Can you guess what Leo is going to be for Halloween?

(No guessing if you already know, Tami!)

Here's a hint:

Ty supports his costume wholeheartedly even though he did not support me taking this picture.

In fact, he accused me of scarring Leo for life, not only for dressing him this way but also by documenting it for posterity.

Here's another hint:

(The blue part is the newly dyed leotard and tights.)

Several weeks ago Leo decided that it would be a good idea to climb into the fire place. And, of course, he did it right after getting a bath. I'm almost positive that there has never been a fire lit in the fireplace in the 10+ years that my parents have lived here. However, that apparently didn't mean that there were no ashes in there. Leo was covered. In fact, he was almost completely cleaned up by the time I took these. I'm only putting them on here because when I took them I though to myself, "Having a blog sure has saved my kids lives on numerous occasions." And the reason for that is when something happens and I feel like I want to kill them I often say, "Well, at least it will make a good blog post." And I grab the camera instead of their little necks.

Sleeping

I have about 500,000 pictures of my kids sleeping.

There are several reasons for this.

1. My kids are not very good sleepers. (So being asleep is seen as something rare and special.)

2. They often fall asleep in strange places or positions.

3. Sleeping children are quiet and do not cause disasters for me to clean up, therefore I love them best when they are in this state.

Here's a few of the one's I've taken lately:

The Family Reunion

We had a family reunion a few weeks ago. Leo fell asleep in the middle of the deck like this two days in a row. He tends to play until he drops.

And Jay took several very sweaty naps.

(It wasn't nearly as cool in the mountains as we were hoping it would be.)

The Pool Floaties

If you're considering buying your child a new mattress or bed: might I suggest pool rings?

Apparently they are very comfortable.

(This didn't even happen on the same day.)

Sleeping With Grandpa

Always a classic.

Brothers

Trying to put these boys to sleep in the same bed is somewhat of a nightmare. They cannot be touching (or even in range of touching) or else they spend all night fighting instead of sleeping. Once they fall asleep though, they often end up like this:

Living on the Edge

Lately Jay Alvin has started sleeping as close as he possibly can to the edge of the bed.

He falls off a lot.

Saved by the Chair

I went in to the boys room one night and saw Leo like this. I'm pretty sure he rolled off the end of the bed and just happened to land on the chair. He's pretty adaptable though, and didn't let it interrupt his sleep.

I'm Back!

We just went on an amazing family vacation.

Seriously, we had so much fun.

The weird part?

We just went to Utah.

You know, the place we've been living for most of the last four years.

The one that I hate.

Whatever.

It was fun.

Here's some highlights:

(*"some highlights" is actually going to be a bunch of pictures from the state fair and two from Cabella's. Apparently I didn't take as many pictures as I thought with the camera and I'm too retarded to get the ones off of my phone. I'll try and make Ty figure it out later.)

State Fair

We were really bummed that we were going to miss the Utah State Fair this year. We've gone every year since we got married and we love it. When we got to Utah and realized that it was still going we were super excited.

The Dairy Farmer's Association has this little exhibit set up to teach kids about being a farmer. It's super cute. They get to go from building to building doing farm things, then to the market to "sell" their stuff, then to the store to buy something with their profits. 

Here's Leo harvesting grain:

The boys walking from one building to the next:

and Jay getting his apple:

We also saw all the animals that were still there.

(Since it was the last day of the fair a lot of them had gone home already.)

The yearly sheep picture:

Jay was fascinated by the sheep:

Here's the boys with an 800+ pound pumpkin:

Jay decided to chill on the table during lunch.

And both boys thought it would be funny if we paid a ridiculous amount of money for them to get a meal and then they only ate the bag of chips. (Approx retail value: $0.50)

And, of course, they passed out before we even got out of the parking lot.

Other Fun Things We Did

*Attended the Military Intelligence Ball

(Without kids.)

It was awesome!

Did I mention we didn't take the kids?

It was really fun.

(Don't worry. Aunt Krystal and Uncle Dan kept them entertained while we were gone.)

And John Schmidt was the entertainment.

If you haven't heard him play you should probably stop reading right now and visit YouTube.

It's worth your time.

*Went to family day at Fort Williams.

They had a parade and a bunch of activities for Governor's Day.

(I'm pretty sure that's not a real thing, but who am I to judge the military for celebrating made-up holidays?)

They had a bounce house that I couldn't tear Leo away from.

He only got off of it long enough to ride the mechanical bull for approximately .33 seconds.

*Went to Krystal and Dan's open house and then watched them open all of their wedding presents.

*Hung out with some old friends.

*Went to Cabella's and saw the huge fish:

And other, assorted dead things:

*And just had a good time hanging out with each other.

We'll have to do it again some time.