::trunk or treat 2013::

Last weekend was the ward trunk or treat--always a fun chance for the kids to dress up and have people ooh and aah over their costumes.

Sandy had the idea months ago that he wanted to be Mike Wazowski, and he wanted Max to be Sulley. Well, to tell the truth, for a long time he couldn't decide which monster he really wanted to be. I finally got him to commit to Mike, and when the costume arrived in his size he was sold.

Max's costume was really hard to find. Lots of Sully costumes exist for kids under 7 and big men that are very large, but not much in between. Nancy helped me find these funny japanese PJs that are also a costume--they didn't look to promising in the online photo, but in person the costume was great, fit well, and
Max loved it because it was soooooo fuzzy on the inside.


They're a pretty cute pair. I will have a full photo of them later. I forgot my real camera of course, and so somebody else did me a favor and took a few.

Max enjoyed the little costume parade, but Sandy did not. He was crabby because he wanted to explore the gym, and after he closed himself in a classroom and had us all frantic that he was lost, was not allowed exploring freedom anymore.



(It even has a hood that looks like Sulley's face!!)

And a cute tail.

Sandy decided he wanted to be Peter Pan instead of Mike for a while and stripped off the Mike tummy.

The trunk or treating was fun and fast as always and then we got to go home, which is one of my favorite parts. I never used to like trunk or treats--not even the idea of them. But now that we live far away from all the other ward members and there's very little trick or treating that goes on, I appreciate the event much more.

::messy::

This funny little guy used to be so fastidious about staying clean. When we gave him a big slice of cake for his first birthday, he insisted on using a fork to eat it, although he couldn't even really get any cake on the fork.
He was the neatest eater I had ever seen back then.
But then, everything changed. He's now almost three and everything's a little bit different.

You really can't get the full effect here because it was a little bit dark, but he's got cookie frosting and paint all over his shirt.
His face--up to and including his nose is all crusty with old yogurt because he tried to drink his little yogurt tub instead of taking spoonfuls.

Nowadays I have to threaten to take away drinks because he's too busy splashing in them to drink, and anything that can be spread on the table can turn into an off-road track for toy cars.

He's just messy now, that's all there is to it. Maybe someday he'll come back into his original tidiness, but maybe not. We'll see. In the meantime he's cute.

::old photo shoot::

This summer Kris and I were out in San Diego for our anniversary. A surf store there was having a wetsuit giveaway which involving posting a picture on facebook of somebody cute wearing on of their shirts. So of course we bought a kid sized shirt and went home to try our best. And since we don't have a beach or much water or anyplace where a surfboard could be stood upon without it being ruined, we did our best.

We tried to get some iconic Santa Fe scenes in the background.








The one we finally ended up submitting:

Of course we didn't win because they changed the contest from the best photo to the one with the most likes at the last minutes. We couldn't compete with the cute little teenage girl that won, but we put up a good fight, thanks to nice friends on Facebook and parents who asked for extra likes. But anyway, it really doesn't matter. We just had fun taking the photos. They're cute boys.

::vacation shenanigans::

When we were in San Diego last week for our big family vacation we stayed at this really cute little house. One of the biggest perks of the house as far as the boys were concerned was the fenced backyard--with GRASS!

They were rolling in it and playing in it and just generally glorying in it.







They were inspired to many goofy activities and spent lots of time out there, which was great. All the screaming and the running stayed outside, which was also great.

Time for massages. Max says, in all seriousness, "Sandy gives the best massages!!"


He certainly gives FUNNY massages.




Hilarious massages actually.




Fun stuff.

::flood part 2::

Seriously? I'm finally writing part 2? I'm finally writing something--anything at all? Mind blowing I know. Anyway, let's just pretend this post was prompt and move on. The view of the flood from my bedroom window--or shall we just call it our river?

Note the other river in the background. The other side of the arroyo's river just wasn't nearly as robust and interesting as ours. Sandy was disturbed by the whole thing. Things like this just aren't supposed to happen in his book.



Max, on the other hand, was psyched out of his mind. He couldn't believe we suddenly had our own river in our backyard. He was really truly hoping it was here to stay. He kept making Sandy so nervous by roaming too far. "MAX!!! COME BAAAAAACK!!!"

This is just right behind the house--down at the bottom of the driveway.


The little waterfall under that tree was especially cool. It was fun to hear the roaring of the river from inside the house.

Sandy's concerned hollering finally convinces Max to return to the fold.

The backside of our front yard. After checking out the driveway river we headed around back to the road to see how that was going.

View of the street from the living room window. Can you even tell that was ever a road?!

This was after it had dried out a bit. This was mid afternoon when this all went down, and by about 6PM the road was dry of all but just a small snake of water. The lakes on either side stayed for a few days.

Sandy came to terms with it all and cheered up a bit.
And last picture--poor dumb Sultan is not smart enough to stay under the myriad awnings, patio covers and porches that we have, and was soaked through. I mean, SOAKED. So he had to stay out until the road was about dry. He hates it when that happens.

I wish I had an audio picture of that night. Kris and I were in bed when suddenly we started hearing these strange noises that we totally couldn't place. Turned out they were toads! There is this special kind of desert toad that lives in the mud, hibernating forever or until it gets wet enough for them to spawn. They quickly spawn and the tadpoles turn into frogs quick quick I guess and they are suddenly there! They were only out there for about 3 nights and then were all buried back in the mud again until next time. It was all kind of miraculous. Like being a personal witness to a nature show phenomenon. Our own little desert miracle! And since our house stayed dry we could really appreciate it. There you go. Finally.

::intermission::

As a quick intermission before part two of the flood, I have the following:

This guy, on the way to the grocery store yesterday, informed me that his friend was coming along. This friend is imaginary. I was told he is two years old and that his name is Scrutty-Scrut-Scrut. That certainly caught me by surprise to say the least. Scrutty hasn't been around a lot since, but he's come up in conversation several times today.

Today I was poking him in the tummy with my finger and singing a little song. He said, "Am I a piano??" He's a joy to have around. I don't ever want to forget his cuteness.

::flood part 1::

We see this sign every time we drive down out street--so usually multiple times a day. Every time we actually notice it we scoff a little bit--like there would EVER be water on our road. Well, the other day I took the kids to a movie and when we got out there was a pretty big rainstorm in town. We headed home and the rain had stopped by the time we reached our neighborhood. Max and I were talking about how we always wish for more rain, and it seems like we never get enough at our house. He said "It would be awesome if there were water in our dip! I hope it'll happen!" We drove up our street and then suddenly I saw cars parked by the side of the road. Oh dear, uh oh, we thought. And sure enough, there was water in our dip. And boy was there ever water. It was wide, fast and deep--probably about three feet.




We couldn't get across to our house. We could see our house--we could see it, and we could see it wasn't flooded, so that was good. WE couldn't get to it though. Max and I both thought it was pretty exciting. So crazy and unusual. Sandy, however, was very distraught by the whole situation. It was cold and windy and the river was loud and he just didn't want to be washed away in the flood. He just really wanted to go home and take a nap. (Hilarious, he never wants to take a nap). We decided we'd go back to the office and wait it out until evening, but on our way out of the neighborhood, Max and I were smart enough to decide to try a back way--one of the other streets has a bit of a bridge instead of a dip. It worked--barely. We made it home. So we have more pictures from later in the afternoon--from the other side of the rushing river. That will be part 2. And they're much nicer pictures too. See you then.