Halloween and the Primary Program

Jeff dressed the storm trooper up and the kids thought it was hilarious. 

Max adjusting the storm troopers diaper.  

I was impressed with Ryan's puzzle skills at the library since he didn't even know what the picture looked like. But he figured it out no problem. 

At the park, Ryan, and even Max, had no problem claiming this rock wall. Although I did stay close to Max just in case.  

Ryan wanted a chance to be a photographer, and he took a nice shot! 

Max loves jumping off things lately, he feels so proud. His other accomplishment is jumping down two stairs when he's going downstairs at our house. 

Just two cute brothers. 

We got this from someone in the ward and Ryan loves it. When I asked him to smile, he said  no. I think it's because Batman doesn't smile, since he was quick to smile before and after the photo was taken. 

Lily's cute school picture!

Party in the crib. 

We carved pumpkins this year. The kids were happy they had watched an "Agent Oso" episode about carving pumpkins so they could learn all about it. But when it came time to do it, they weren't so thrilled about cleaning out the pumpkins. They each drew their picture on it, and Lily did curly hair. Jeff did a good job figuring out how to carve curly hair. Max seemed to like the pumkin guts though. I think I'm more of a paint the pumpkin person myself. They sure have a nice dad though who worked hard for them. And they had fun in the process and seeing their handiwork at the end. They loved bringing them to the front porch to display them.

Ryan had a Halloween party at Blake's house during the week with his Sunbeam class and he was so excited! He was counting down the days until he got to go. It was so cute, and when I went to pick him up he said, "I had the best time!" He mentioned that a few times later in the day. I'm grateful for fun moms who do fun things with their kids and invite mine to come along.

I was so impressed with Lily's drawing of this picture. She used a book that teaches how to draw, but she improvised a little. She did a castle, a princess, a knight, and a dragon. But she made a balcony with a door for the princess to stand on.

Lily had to use her amazing word "naughty" in a sentence. This was the one she came up with. 

Lily had her friend Kalissa over to play and they both are in Let's Play Music together. They had fun practicing some songs during their play date. Lily loves playing and was taught two chords in class. She found some blue circle stickers and put them on the piano for the fingerings of the third chord. She looked in her book how to play it and taught herself. She wanted to be able to play every song in the book. And now she can! I'm so amazed with her initiative to learn and the practice she puts in it.

One morning Jeff went to play basketball, but Ryan was up so Jeff told him to play quietly while I was still sleeping. I heard some commotion, but wasn't exactly sure what it was. It turned out Ryan had pushed the ottoman to Max's crib and was trying to teach him how to get out. When I came in and said that was dangerous and we can't do that, Ryan said, "but Max was working so hard!"

Max loves playing basketball and often he has to shoot some vigorous baskets before he is ready to get out of his crib. One time he wanted some water, but he is so independent with certain things that when I just gave it directly to him, he refused it. I had to put it on the dresser next to his bed, where he then picked it up and then put it back when he was done. Another time I gave  him a bag of raisins, but he got upset and put them back in the diaper bag so that he could get them out of the diaper bag himself. He's a funny boy.

I had to get my one hour glucose test at the doctor's office. I had tried to go while Jeff was home, but it didn't work out so I decided to just take the kids. I brought books and they just read the whole time. Max mostly looked for goldbug in our Richard Scarry book, and Ryan either looked at pictures in his books, or Lily read to him. She is so helpful to me, I'm just very grateful! In one of the books it talked about resisting the dark side. Lily asked what that meant and I explained, and then added it's kind of like choosing to follow Jesus rather than Satan, so it's like the gospel. She then told me, "well it's a good thing we're reading this!"

We also went to a doctor for Lily because she has a baker's cyst behind her right knee. It doesn't hurt, so the doctor said it's best to just let it resolve, though it could take months or even years to do so. But draining it it often comes back, so we will let it be for now.

Before Saturday's Halloween activities, Ryan was in a bit of a bad mood. Jeff said he needed some time alone and gave him the Toys R Us magazine and told him to circle everything he wanted. Basically the whole magazine is circled, but it did include things that Lily and Max would like too, so that was nice. It kept him busy for quite awhile and when I mentioned that he said, "it's a lot of hard work circling everything."

We haven't really had a hard time with permanent markers in our house, but two days in a row, Ryan had a little too much fun with them. The first was him writing his name on the kitchen drawer. All of a sudden he started wailing. I came out to see what had happened and he told me he wrote on the drawer. I was confused why all of a sudden it hit him that this was wrong, when he obviously felt fine about doing it when he wrote his name. But Lily saw it and told him he wasn't supposed to do that, so he felt really bad. Jeff looked up how to get rid of it and toothpaste was the key. Lily and Ryan had fun cleaning it up with Jeff's help. At least he was willing to help, though he did seem a little too happy about it. He did mention to me that he loves cleaning up. Then the next day he wrote names on everyone's pumpkin bucket for trick or treating. It was a very nice gesture, but Lily wanted to write her own name and in a different place. So Jeff read about that and put dry erase marker over the permanent, then got an eraser and was able to get it mostly off. Jeff said, "I wonder what I'm going to have to learn about cleaning tomorrow."

To say Max loves candy is an understatement, he lives for candy. So Halloween is pretty much the best holiday ever for this boy. At the ward trunk or treat he had a great time making baskets in the dark (with a strobe light), and he made a lot of them in a hoop that was taller than his one at home. And then when we got to go get candy from car to car, that was awesome for him. Lily went around by herself as many times as she could, and I went around with Max. He was very good at saying "trick or treat" and thank you. His candy of choice is nerds, or anything that is bad for his teeth. Ryan did not want to go around, he wanted to hand out candy with Jeff. Jeff said he was very chatty with everyone and would say things like, "there ya go Kylo Ren." Or if they didn't say thank you, he'd just look at them and say, "don't forget to say thank you!" Jeff said he felt like it was a bishop who is just talking to everyone and making them feel good. And one boy had a Darth Vader bucket, a ninja turtle costume, and his name is Tyson. So Ryan said, "here you go Darth Vader Ninja Turtle Tyson!" He made sure to cover all his bases. Near the end Lily helped hand out candy as well, and the two of them were a good team, telling people to come over and get candy from them. But then Ryan decided he did want to go trunk or treating, so he and Jeff went around. I didn't think Max would want to dress up, but he was SO excited about wearing Ryan's old Captain America costume. And Ryan wanted to wear his batman costume, so poor Iron Man, who was purchased for Halloween, never made an appearance this year.

Ryan and Blake

Lily and Aubrey

Donald and Hillary. Shawn and Kari Murray dressed up like this and Jeff thought it was the best Halloween costume ever.  

Lily and Kalissa...and Casen in the back. 

Bobbing for donuts.  

Kaitlynn and Ryan

Spreading all the nerds on the floor and eating them. 

We also went to a Halloween party at Ryan's preschool, which was a lot of fun. Nothing like going from Halloween party to Halloween party, all before Halloween.

Max and Ryan didn't want any help. 

Trying to match his graham cracker face. 

Ryan's scarecrow is on the bottom left.

The primary program was Sunday and the kids did such a great job. They had learned their parts ("My name is Ryan Baer. My favorite person in the scriptures is Moroni because he's on the temples." And Lily said, "I can follow God's plan of salvation by teaching others how they can live with Heavenly Father and Jesus again."). We practiced it many times, and before church they went and told Sister Thurgood that she didn't need to help them. When it came time for them to say their parts, Ryan whispered to her one more time that he didn't need help. He said it loud and clear and was the cutest little Sunbeam. Everyone in Lily's class was getting help with their parts, so I thought Lily would get scared and ask for help too, but she just stood up and said it. I was in the stand, but Jeff said that Ryan waved to him or gave him the thumbs up every 10 seconds or so.

Paige, Kalissa, and Lily

Before church started it was a big deal about who was wearing what. Ryan couldn't decide what he wanted, and Max was wearing one of Ryan's dress shirts so he was upset. In the end, Ryan wanted his black suit he wore on the cruise (which he did not like wearing on the cruise). He also wanted the black shoes, which were too small (and he also didn't want to wear on the cruise), but he said they worked just fine. Lily asked if he wanted a different color tie because no one really wears black ties. But he also wanted the black tie. Lily got a new Christmas dress from Costco and wanted to wear it. All the kids looked so darling. We had a really rough morning, but after they were dressed Ryan went out and read his sight word books to Lily and Max, and then when Jeff practiced his hymns for church they started what looked like ballroom dancing. All of a sudden we were a pictures perfect family rather than the group of crazies we were ten minutes prior.

After church and we had naps, the kids danced some more and then Lily, as always, got out our family home evening activity.

Lily is getting the pictures together for the story of Nephi and the brass plates, Max is eating nerds on the couch, and Ryan is jumping onto the couch. 

On Halloween Max was excited all day about getting to wear his Captain America suit again and get more candy. They boys played at Amy Brown's while I visit taught LaWana Marss (which was SO nice to not be interrupted when we chatted) and then we got Lily and took Ryan to school. Lily got to have a parade around the school and was excited to see some kids from church in the different classrooms. 

We went out trick or treating while it was still a little early, so Lily was shy to knock on doors, but the boys didn't care. After awhile Lily took off without us when Ryan and Max were tired and couldn't walk as much. Max got a glow stick from someone and Ryan was so upset. We saw the man late in the evening and Ryan identified him. Jeff offered to pay him for it, but he just gave it to Jeff. Ryan was thrilled, but at that point Max was eating his nerds and walking, so he couldn't even hold his bucket and glow stick anymore. But once we got home they were happy to both have one, so I hope that man felt blessed for his kind gesture.

Lily's friend Maecee from school. She said they pretty much had to be friends since Lily has a cousin named Macy. 

After dumping out all the goods, and the nerds were spread out all over the floor, the kids were happy to have some trick or treaters. They were all so excited to get the door and would tell people, "you can have 3, or 2, or 1, whatever you want! Happy Halloween! Don't forget to say thank you!" And then they sat out on the porch watching for people. If anyone was walking by, they'd yell, "we've got candy!" so they would come over. I asked Ryan if next year we should skip going out and just stay home to give away candy and he agreed that was a good idea. Ryan will sure be a good grandpa someday.

Jeff put on a black wig and witch's hat and scared the boys. Then he stood right by Lily, waiting for her to look up. When she finally did, she screamed in horror and went under the table crying. I went to comfort her and through the tears she said, "I didn't know who that was. It was like it was from a nightmare." 

I was eating a peppermint patty and Max wanted some. I said he could have a bite. He grabbed it from me, took a bite, and wouldn't give it back. Jeff kept telling him it was mommy's, but he kept taking bites and then shoved it in his mouth. Then he took out a piece from his mouth and offered it to me. Jeff and I were dying with laughter, it was one of the funnier sequences of events we have ever seen. 

Getting kids to bed was so hard, especially Max because he was crazy with candy. Ryan just sleeps on the couch most nights because Max keeps him up by talking too much. Bedtime with him is a trial right now, he just can't go down. I'm wondering if he needs to phase out of his naps, but he seems to still need them, and I definitely still need him to take them for my sake, but in any case, I either suffer at nap time or bed time I suppose.