What November Brings

November has been an interesting month. Our little Caleb has been sick with colds and vomiting since September. He had a chronic cough and was vomiting once a day. I took him to the doctor and he was very concerned. You see Caleb's head circumference is in the 99th percentile for size and a big head and vomiting could be a sign that there is something wrong with his head. Like a tumor or hydrocephalus or something else, anything wrong with the brain is pretty scary. So we went to see a pediatric neurologist and he ordered an MRI of his brain. We were scared of course that there could be something wrong with him but encouraged that he wasn't having any other symptoms besides the vomiting and frequent night waking. He has met all of his major milestones and acts like a perfectly normal kid. So on Monday the 23rd I took him to Saint Luke's for the MRI. He was a really good little boy and everything went pretty well except for starting the IV. It took 3 nurses and 6 tries before they got the IV started. That was a traumatic experience. After that the MRI went smoothly. He had no problems with the sedation, he woke up quickly and within a 15 minutes he was a normal kid again. Two days later we got the results, and it was perfectly normal. There was nothing abnormal seen. So the kid just has a big fat head. And ironically the vomiting has just stopped as sudden as it began. I think that he just has an active gag reflex and the coughing has made him vomit. So anyways we did this really expensive test to tell us that his head is big and he has an active gag reflex. oh well at least now we know that there is nothing wrong with his head.
The rest of the month was good. We had a quiet Thanksgiving with just our family. Bryce didn't have anytime off with his new job. We still had a big Thanksgiving feast and enjoyed our day together.
Some funny things the kids have done this month is one day Caleb discovered the paper shredder. I was doing dishes and could hear Caleb and Kent laughing and running around. I though oh they are playing so nicely together. I went to go check on them and discovered tiny little pieces of paper all over the carpet. They had a wonderful time playing with "snow" in the house.
I have to preface this next story a little bit. Have you ever heard of the kids cartoon Dora and Diego. It is a cartoon with two Hispanic kids and they explore the wild and save animals in trouble. They teach about the animals and use Spanish and English words. Well one day I took the boys grocery shopping. Grant saw a Hispanic boy sitting a a cart we were passing. Grant said excitedly," Look Mom it is Diego." I couldn't help but laugh at that one. Thank goodness he said it quietly. Kids say the funniest things.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween. Halloween is the best with little kids. We went to our Ward Party for a chili feed, Trunk or treat and family Dance. What a fun time. The boys are so cute in there costumes. Caleb was the cutest dinosaur ever. Of course they loved all of the candy and we got enough to last a long time. I have stashed most of it away for now. The trunk or treat was on Friday night so we also went out trick or treating on Halloween day. It is fun to take the kids around to our neighbors. It was funny, the first house we went to was a little old couple. He put a few nickels in each of the boys bags. Grant looked at him and frowned and said "but mom were is the treat". I told him the say thank you and we moved on the the next house. He was not happy at first but then he got plenty of treats to fill his bag and all was well. I hope everyone had a fun Halloween.

Fall Fun

So much had happened in the last two months. To start out with Bryce lost his job at Lowe's in September. Even though this was very difficult and frustrating it has turned out to be a blessing. Bryce was unemployed for 2 1/2 weeks and got a job at T-mobile. So far things are going really well and he is happy working there and I am thrilled about there awesome benefits package.
Our family is doing well. Caleb is one and is into everything. He started walking at 11 months and is now climbing onto everything. I have to pull him off the table 15 times a day. He also goes out to the trampoline and climbs up the ladder by himself. He keeps me on my toes right now. But I love the age he is at. 12-18 months in such a sweet age. He is more independent but still my baby.
Grant started going to Sunshine Preschool. He is doing really well. It is amazing to see how much they change when they start school he is all grown up. Grant is writing his name and knows all of his letters. He has become a little artist too.
Kent is still out little bundle of energy. He desperately wants to go to preschool with his brother, but he is not old enough. He and Grant are best buddies, they do everything together.
A couple of weeks ago Grandma and Grandpa Belnap came to visit. They brought up a wood stove and Bryce and Dad got it installed for us. It looks great and is so much more efficient than the open fire place. We got to go with Grants preschool to the Pumpkin patch. They had lots of fun things for the kids to do. The only bad thing is the pony in the petting zoo tried to eat Grants glove. He ripped a hole right in it. I guess it is better the glove than little boys fingers. We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa thanks for coming to visit.

Caleb's Birthday

Our Baby Boy turned one September 18th. It is hard to believe that a year has already gone by. We had a fun family party. Caleb had a great time smashing up his giant cupcake. He is a sweet little boy with tons of personality. Happy birthday Caleb.

August camping and other Fun

For the weekend of Bryce's Birthday we like to go camping. This year was interesting because of the weather. We had invited 3 other families to come with us and everyone was packed and ready to go when we checked the weather report. It called for rain, hail, thunder and lightening storms and of all things a tornado warning. I thought that didn't sound like to fun so we postponed for one night. Some of the other families couldn't go the next day so our friends the Condie's came up with us. We went to Silver Creek plunge again because it was supposed to rain and we figured we could at least swim in the hot springs. So that is what we did. The first day it rained all day. This gives a whole new meaning to dirt/mud camping. We spent a lot of time in the pool and changed the boys clothes a lot. The kids didn't care though they still had a blast. We went fishing and actually had a lot of luck. We had plenty of fish for dinner. Thanks to the condie family for coming with us we really had a great time.
Our camp stayed nice and dry due to Bryce's tarp contraption. We had a couple of people drive by our camp and smile and say, "it looks like you were expecting rain." See the picture and you will understand what I mean. We also were able to borrow a quad from Bryce's friend. We had a great time riding around on it. Grant and Kent loved to go for rides with dad. And then we discovered that Caleb is quite the adventurer and he got to go on several rides with dad. Now Bryce is not the only one drooling over quads on craiglist. Now he has got all three little boys wanting one too. The only day that it rained was the first day and the next two were warm and sunny. I took the boys over to the little playground one afternoon while Bryce went for a ride with some people he had meet. Over all it was a great camping trip.
Last weekend we got invited to go to a free carnival with some friends. The carnival was so much fun. They had free hot dogs and drinks, cotton candy, snow cones and popcorn. The boys loved the bounce houses and slides. They rode on the barrel train and played all of the games. We played on the bouncy slides until they had to deflat them. It was a great time and thanks to the Cummings family for inviting us.
More fun this week the boys slept on the trampoline with Dad. The boys slept fine, unfortunately Bryce wasn't so lucky. He slept in the middle and ended up with two little boys snuggled right up next to him. Oh well it was a fun experience anyways. Well that is all for this month.

Swim lessons

Grant and Kent were in swim lessons for the past two weeks. It has been so good for them both. Grant is so much more comfortable in the water and the last couple of days he was actually starting to swim on his own. He is so proud of himself. Kent is a little water boy and has no fear. Most the other kids in his class wouldn't put there heads in the water, but not our Kent. He goes underwater so much that he actually got swimmers ear. That is why he is wearing the earplugs in these pictures. It was a good experience overall. We will look forward to it again next summer.

Camping 7/7/09 to 7/8/09

We had a great time camping on this Tuesday and Wednesday. We went up to Silver Creek Plunge here in Idaho (a natural hot spring). We had a great time, especially since the fish were biting every other cast. We also saw a doe deer twice, a skunk came into our camp (no one got sprayed), and we saw a hawk or eagle dive into the stream and carry off a fish. We also had a chipmunk get in our van and fun getting him out. We figure it was after some food the boys had dropped in the car on the way up (like apple). Enjoy the pictures.

The Past Week

Well, we got a cord of wood and you can see the wonderful time we had stacking it. The boys were more than willing to help and Kent was the funniest. He disappeared into the house and put on his snow gloves and snow cap. He worked in the hot sun with it on and he through a fit if you tried to take it off. Caleb has discovered the back door and mud. Don't leave the slider cracked or you will find him outside. Tonight, 7/20/09 we bought a trampoline and as you can see the boys are having a wonderful time on it. It is used but in great shape and we expect to have hours of fun on it. The boys have been having fun on the blow up waterslide and Grant always says, "call friends" when he goes to play on it. In the future will be a playset and sand box. Make sure your having family fun and let us know about it.