Playing in the Snow

This morning the kids helped me shovel the snow and they had a great time. They didn't exactly play with the snow as much as they enjoyed just walking through it. Nolan would follow Rylee wherever she walked and they had a great time looking at the tracks they would make in the snow. The two of them were doing great and having fun until Nolan's glove fell off. Once his glove fell off and he touched the snow with his bare hand he was ready to go inside. It was fun to watch the two of them play and I have a feeling we will be playing in the snow a lot more this winter.

The Party Has Begun

Sunday morning we left for Dallas for a week of lots of fun, family, and food. Last night these four were extremely excited for Granna and Double G to get to Grandma's house, so they sat on the front steps and waited for them to pull around the corner. All day Rylee kept asking Grandma how much longer until Double G got here, and Grandma would call and check and let Rylee know how long it was going to be. Well, luckily they got here soon after Megan and Connor, because everyone was VERY excited to see them.

Rylee's Pizza

This month at Rylee's preschool they are doing a nutrition unit and every day at school they make something. So far this month they have had scones, sandwiches, and then yesterday they made pizza and got to bring it home for lunch. As you can see our pizza did not make it home for lunch, it was eaten between preschool and our house, but I am not complaining it was one less meal I had to make yesterday! Rylee's loves her school this year and her teacher, and I am extremely happy too. I am excited to see what she makes tomorrow.

Scary Mr. Potato Head

A couple weeks ago Daddy went to the World Series in Texas, and when he came home he brought everyone some presents. However, he was most excited about the Dallas Cowboys Mr. Potato Head he found, and it was really cute. He gave it to Nolan, and I took it and put it on a shelf in his room, because we are doing his room in a Texas sports theme. So, Saturday night Nolan woke up at 4am screaming and I went in to calm him down and get him back to sleep, and I didn't think anything of it. Then again during nap time Sunday he woke up earlier then normal just screaming, so Daddy got him up and they napped on the couch. I still wasn't thinking anything was weird, until Sunday when I went to put Nolan to bed. When we walked in his bed he started clinging really tight to my arm and saying, "No, no, no, no errrrrrr!" At first I had no idea what he meant, and then he started pointing and saying it at the Mr. Potato Head. I asked him if he thought it was scary and he said "yes!" So, I took the potato off the shelf and set it on the changing table where he could not see him, but that was not enough. He started pointing and yelling at the Mr. Potato Head and telling me, "Mama, errrrr, bye bye!" I think "errrrr" is like his monster noise, and that is what Mr. Potato Head was to him. I took Mr. Potato head to our room, and he will still check at nap time and bed time to make sure the Mr. Potato head is not back in his room.

What Do You Want For Christmas?

The other day we were checking out at our favorite store, Costco, when the lady behind us asked Rylee what she wanted for Christmas. We have talked about it and typically she tells us she wants new babies or a new scooter. After the lady asked her she thought about it for a minute and told very excitedly to the lady, "I am getting new hearing aids!" The lady looked at me like, really?? So, I quickly explained she is getting hearing aids next week, and I promised she was really getting Christmas presents, not just her hearing aids.

I am glad that she is excited for them though, and we are very anxious to see how she adjust, one more week!!

My Beautiful Children

The kids were upstairs this morning playing in the toy room, and I was downstairs cleaning up and unloading the dishwasher. When I finished with the things I was doing, the two of them were no longer in the toy room and I could here cabinets opening and closing in my bathroom. So, before I went upstairs I grabbed the camera because I knew they were definitely up to something. I came in the bathroom to discover these BEAUTIFUL children, don't they look amazing. Rylee did both of their make up and it looks like the blush was her favorite. Sadly, my make up brushes do not look as good as the kids do, but I have them soaking in cleaner and hoping they survive the party.

Hearing Aids and Soft Palate Surgery

Yesterday we had an appointment to evaluate the progress of Rylee's soft palate. She has a condition called Velopharyngeal Insufficiency. What it means is that the soft palate does not work efficiently. It is completely there and is working, just not all the way. So, we did 12 weeks of speech therapy to help strengthen the soft palate and then yesterday we had an appointment with her surgeon to re-evaluate the soft palate. After the therapy she is speaking and pronouncing words better, but the soft palate is still not functioning fully. Because of this air escapes out of her nose and gives her nasally speech and makes it so she cannot say certain words. The surgery for this will be on December 14.

While we were there her doctor, Dr. Muntz, had Rylee do her hearing test to see how the surgery went. Unfortunately the surgery was not as successful as we would have hoped. She did show improvements in 4 different pitches but none of the improvement was enough to not need hearing aids. Since the surgery did not improve the right ear enough we have elected to not do the left ear and we will go the route of hearing aids. However, we hope that these are only temporary for the next few years. When she gets older we hope to do another surgery where Dr. Muntz will completely replace the third hearing bone that is causing the problems. The trick is that post surgery she has to be nearly completely still for close to a week post surgery, so she has to be at an age to understand the importance of laying still.

Today we went and met with her audiologist about getting her hearing aids. Her audiologist talked about a few different brands, but we have decided on the one pictured below. We let Rylee pick the color of the hearing aid and she wanted the light pink. She will get her hearing aids on the 19th of this month and wear them all waking hours of the day. She will not wear them when she sleeps, swim, takes a bath, and even when we come her hair. We are anxious for how she will adjust to them and to see the changes in our sweet little girl.

Dinosaur Museum

Thanksgiving Point has an amazing Dinosaur Museum, so we took the kids over to check things out. The Museum is amazing, I think Uncle Jason and I may have enjoyed it a little bit more than the kids even. There are a lot of hands on exhibits, so it makes it great for kids of all ages. We had a blast, and here are some picture to prove it:

Temple Square Trip

Before Uncle Jason and kids went back home we decided we should take a quick trip to Temple Square. The weather was absolutely amazing. It was November 3 and it was 68 degrees, I am absolutely loving it right now. The kids had a great time exploring all the buildings, but really they just wanted to run and run outside! It was a fantastic way to end the trip, and we all miss them so much already.

Kami and her new best friend

The group walking together

Kami and Nolan again

Rylee and Wyatt running all their energy out

The group sitting in the meeting hall

Rylee and Nolan on top of the Conference Center

Rylee's Soccer Party

Rylee's soccer team had an end of the year party the other night at Incredible's Pizza, it is a fancier Chuck E Cheese's. The kids were so exited to get to pick out there own dinner at the Buffet and of course they both picked mac-n-cheese. After the kids ate the coach gave each kid their trophy. She was SO excited about getting her first trophy. The season was a lot of fun and it was fun to see her learn and grow as her season went on. She finally started to get the meaning of the game, but really she just loved running around with her friends. She has asked to play again in the Spring, so we are excited to sign her up in a few months.

Getting her trophy from Coach Kent

So excited about her trophy

(her lip was close to better from where she fell in the driveway last week)

Halloween

We were SO lucky this year to have special visitors on Halloween. Uncle Jason, Kami and Wyatt came in town on Saturday and we had a blast with them while they were here. We thought it would be cute to have twin cousin monkeys for Halloween, and they were cute but they did not want their picture taken. Saturday night, when we went trick-or-treating, was pouring rain and freezing cold. We watched for the weather to break a little and then headed out for about the only 50 minutes all evening that was dry. The kids had a fantastic time getting treats and hanging out together. Kami was with her Dad for trick-or-treating, but we managed a good time without her. We went to a bunch of houses and the kids go a good amount of treats and then it started to rain again, and we were all freezing so we headed home. The kids spent the rest of the evening racing to the door to see who got to hand out the next handful of candy.

Two Monkeys

Poor Rylee trying to get the boys to take a picture

Trick-or-Treating at Daddy's Office

Every year Daddy's office lets the kids come around and trick-or-treat. It is something we look forward to and so does Daddy. The kids love the people Daddy works with and have a great time going around in their costumes. To give you an idea of how popular this event is, they think there were close to 700 kids that came through the office last Friday.

This year we had an Ariel and a Monkey. Rylee is at the age where we let her decide what she wants to be, and she chose Ariel. It sort of caught us off guard because she does not really watch The Little Mermaid, but it is what she wanted. Nolan, we decided a monkey costume was extremely fitting because he is a literally a monkey! The kid can climb anything and he loved being a monkey. He ran around making monkey noises while he was wearing his costume.

I always try to get there right on time to trick-or-treat the office, because if you are a little late it gets extremely crowded. So, the kids and I trick-or-treated and then Rylee and Nolan went to help Daddy hand out more candy. We had a great time and we will be back next year.

Ariel and the Monkey on our way to Daddy's office

Too excited to get started to even look at the camera

Halloween Party at Preschool

Last Thursday Rylee got to dress up in her Halloween costume for Preschool and they had a party. It was cold when we got to school, so I snapped a quick picture of her in the car prior to her going in to the party. I think her exact words when she got in the car after school were, "Mom, I had a donut, a sugar cookie, and some candy," I would say that is a successful party! Along with the party they had a Halloween Parade. The teacher had taught the two classes a Halloween song about a ghost that they sang for us, and then they marched around her yard and got some more candy. Nolan followed Rylee around every minute from the time the classes started singing until we got in the car to go home.

Our Little Ariel

Nolan going to find Rylee

(I lost that cute beanie later that day, and I am still sad)

Standing in line with her friends

The two classes singing their song

Sugar Cookies

When Grandma Michelle was in town we made her delicious sugar cookies and let the kids frost one each. Rylee had a fantastic time eating all the frosting, sprinkles and M&M's, but never really took a bite of the cookie. Nolan had a fabulous time licking his knife and bowl that had the frosting in it. He, unlike his sister, greatly enjoyed every bite of his cookie and would have preferred a lot more, if we would have let him.

Babysitting

Our friends were moving into a new house a few weeks ago and we babysat their little girl while they unpacked. Both the kids had so much fun helping the baby. Rylee was a great mother, and went to get every toy she could think of that was not too little for the baby. Nolan was helpful to play with the little girl and show her how each toy worked. The kids had so much fun and totally entertained each other.