Angel Baby

Last night Linkin did the cutest thing ever! He climbed up onto one of our kitchen chairs (with 2 forks in hand as always) and sat down on his bottom. He put his two forks on the table and folded his arms and said, "I wanna pray." Cutest moment ever!!!! I had to call Doug asap and tell him the cute story! It was one of those things that give you the fuzzies as a parent. I love you Linkin you amazing little boy you!
(ok, he might have said I wanna play, but I'm going with pray cuz of the whole arms folded thing!:)

Daddy!

We love you Doug and we miss you! Come back super fast from Boston, k! Enjoy your trip babe!

2nd Annual Adult Halloween Party

We had our 2nd Annual Halloween Part on Saturday night. It was sooo much fun! I guess anytime you get together with your friends and no kiddos you have no choice but to have a good time! Enjoy the pictures of our party below!

I did not put Doug up to this I swear! He did this all on his own. I did my angel costume though. Don't you think it's fitting? haha

Here is a picture of the girlies at the party. Mrs. Candy Land, me the angel, Alfaba, and 2 fairies. Ashure (the baby) is an adorable unicorn!

Here are our men! haha- Doug as the pink panther, wolverine, a sumo wrestler, andes mint, and a goblin. I can't believe our guys actually dressed up! Yeah!!!! :)


Here is Megan the beautiful scuba diver and baby Abby as Nemo.

Erin and James were shepherds and cute little Grace was a sheep! Soo cute!

Thanks everyone who came and dressed up we had way to much fun! Thanks Dani and Seth for letting us all crash your house! See you all again next year for our 3rd annual..... (love calling it that. haha. doesn't it make it sound all important!)

Time Out For Women

Two weekends ago I had the chance to go to Time Out For Women. It was so amazing! I am totally lame for not posting about it sooner, but I wanted to make sure I had enough time when I wrote about it. If anybody has the chance to go they should definitely do it. It was so uplifting and inspiring. It was one of those things that made you a better mom and women for going. I did not leave thinking I sucked as a mom but rather thinking I learned so many things to make me better. I wanted to share a few things I learned that day.
1. They started by asking us to write things that we for sure KNEW were true. It could be anything we wanted. They had us do this through out the conference. I thought this was a very powerful thing to do. I know we always stand up and say our testimonies, but it really is amazing to make a list and look at the things you KNOW are true. I would recommend doing this if you have never done it before.
2. Emily Watts was the first speaker and I loved her. She talked a lot about parenting and motherhood. Her talk made me want to raise my son in a way that he would inspire the young women around him to behave appropriately. She also talked about calling on the Lord for help while we were in our "battles" not after we try first to "clean them up." She talked of parenting as the result of what we become after we parent and endure our hardships. It isn't also about the kids learning, but about how we endure as the parent. I thought this was a great concept. I so often think of parenting as all about my kid but it actually has to do with what I become because of the parent that I am.
3. Emily Freeman talked about Abundance. She had 3 principles: What do I have to offer and how can I make the most of it, Give all, and Learn to be content. She had many examples from the Saviors life to show how he did these things so well. This talk made me want to give more service to others around me.
4. Wendy Ulrich talked about Sin vs. Weakness. This was a very interesting talk. We learned that sin is of the Devil and our weaknesses come from the Lord. It was a very interesting perspective.
5. Kris Belcher was my absolute favorite!!!! She shared her experiences of loosing her eye site and what all she went through because of her rare form of eye cancer. She shared how true healing can come through Jesus Christ. She also learned to have humor in all things. I learned in her talk that I don't have enough strength to go through my trials alone but that is why I have my Savior and with him I can do anything.

This day was such an amazing day and if anyone missed it they should try and go next year! It really will strengthen your testimony and make you a better wife, mother, and person!

Here are some links if you want to read more:
Time Out For Women
Emily Watts
Emily Freeman
Kris Belcher

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to a pumpkin patch out in Mesa. It was actually more like a farm that had pumpkins. We went with a group of our friends and had a great time! This post is going picture overboard because lately I haven't posted many pictures. Enjoy!

I wanted to get a cute picture of him in the pumpkins, but he was getting poked in the bum by the hay. Poor kiddo!

Linkin and his buddy Jake make the cutest scare crows I've ever seen! They couldn't scare anything away with those adorable faces!

They had the cutest little hay maze there for the little ones to go through. This is Linkin and his friend Haygan playing in the maze. I LOVE the look on Linkin's face in this picture. Doesn't it look like they are telling funny secrets?

Linkin thought he was pretty cute doing these "put your head in" pictures. He was totally hamming it up. My camera ran out of memory at this point and I missed the cutest picture when he put his whole head all the way through!!! I do love this picture of him too though!

This was too funny! They had a fake cow that you could pretend to milk. Linkin of course had to go and investigate the situation. He had to jump in and get his hands dirty too! He's always gotta be doing what the big boys do now.

This picture totally cracks me up because it definitely defines the lives we have as moms. This is the glamorous life of changing diapers wherever you possibly can! Megan and Brittany make it look so easy don't they!? Good going girls!

We had a fun time with everyone today at the farm! Thanks everyone who came it made it a total blast! I know Linkin had a good time!

Wednesday to Saturday

(The reward for good behavior!)

This week has been absolutely out of control. Linkin went in for his much needed well check on Wednesday. He was behind on some of his vaccinations (I know I suck as a mom :) so he had to get quite a few. They had to break them up in a few visits because I guess you can't mix some of them. He had to get four at that check up and come back later for more along with his flu shot and swine flu vaccine. The sad thing was the four shots he needed couldn't be put into one syringe so he had to get four separate pokes. It was the saddest thing ever!!! I had to hold him down while the nurse gave him the shots and he looked up at me with these tear filled eyes and just screamed at me to make it stop. He had this look that said, "why would you of all people let this lady hurt me?" It really made me wanna cry. After the shots the nurse put his bandaids on but he was so mad that he started ripping his bandaids off of his legs and throwing them on the floor. (temper much?) If it wasn't the saddest thing it would have been hilarious to watch him throw them on the floor. I finally got him settled down with some organic Cheetos (like that makes them any healthier, right?) and we headed off to get him a reward. We went to Barnes and Nobles across the street because he has been eyeing this Yo Gabba Gabba book for some time now. I finally broke down and decided this was the day to reward the kid with the Gabba book. All seemed well until the next day...

(Poor kiddo after shots)

Thursday was kinda crazy. He woke up at 4 o'clock that morning and was having a rough day already. He had a temperature of 101 degrees. I gave him some Motrin and his temperature went down and he started playing like normal. By this I mean he got his shoes, went to the door, and said, "outside!" He than got me my shoes and tried it again. I swear he is genius sometimes! We laid low on Thursday just to make sure he would be okay and he was through out the day. He only had a one hour nap, but nothing was to out of the ordinary until that night. Thursday night he was up every hour and a half or so and he was out of control. He woke up in this hysterical screaming fit and wouldn't let Doug or I touch him. I of course being a mother so I am naturally guilt ridden think he is upset with me and wont let me touch him because of the shot situation. It was the saddest thing ever. We finally had to take him in the car because he had to have woken up all of our neighbors. He was screaming so loud and nothing made him stop. He seemed to be hurting in some way. He was grabbing his mouth and wouldn't take a sippie or binkie because it looked like they hurt whatever it was that was bothering him. That night got so bad we called the doctor on call and he said to make it through the night and go in to the office the next day.

Friday we went to the doctor and Linkin had a new symptom to add to the list. He has this weird splotchy rash all over his body. Linkin and rashes is not a new thing but this one was different from his usually rash. They swabbed him for strep but it came back negative. They thought it could be hand, foot, and mouth, but decided it wasn't. They finally decided it was a viral infection and told me to watch him and bring him back if anything changed or got worse. I hate those answers! I want an answer like, "this is what it is, take this medicine and he will be better." That isn't what we got though. Friday night was a little bit better but Doug was a huge help taking Linkin for me almost the whole night! Doug is amazing to help me like that when I am in desperate need. This whole thing has been really scary to go through. I don't know what is wrong with Link and I don't know how to make it better. I spent all of Thursday night and day sleeping with him in his rocking chair. (by that I mean him sleeping me staring at him) I hope he gets better soon and we will be back to "normal".

He has been really good today so far. He slept 5 hours for Doug while he was watching him. We will see how tonight goes! I hope I will be able to report good news! (Doug was watching Link today so I could go see Time Out For Women. I will post about that later but I will say now that it was AMAZING!!!)

I know where he gets it!

(Linkin is only 10 months in this picture and they're already plotting against me!)

I do not know why I have not put this together before, but I now know why Linkin does the things he does and who he gets it from!!! Linkin likes to do certain things he know he shouldn't do and than stare at me and watch what I am going to do. Sometimes he will smack me in the face, other times he will play with something he know he shouldn't, bottom line is he knows he is doing something bad. When he does this "naughty thing" he's not suppose to do he just looks up and stares at me. It isn't a challenge it's just more of a facial expression that says, "okay now what happens?" Just today Doug walked by me and started picking on me and than gave me the EXACT SAME LOOK THAT LINKIN DOES! It was absolutely hilarious! I could not help myself I just started laughing at Doug and I said, "that is where Linkin gets it from!!!" I don't think Linkin has seen Doug do it, I just think it was something in Doug's DNA that passed onto Linkin that his objective was to always give me a hard time. Gotta love my boys! =)