Annual Pumpkin Hat Day

Grandma Sharolee has been keeping us hooked up with Pumpkin hats. We now have enough for the whole family...which now makes me wonder why Max and I didn't get in on these photos. Oh well, there's always next year! Anyway, October 1st was the day we bust them all out and I force my kids to get a photo together. Luckily, they're usually okay with it.

Okay, Charlie and Edwin were a bit tough to crack at first! Miles was being his charming self!

A precious brotherly moment.

And there you have it!

Pogo-ing

Once upon a time, many years ago I had made a wishlist and put Pogo stick on the list, Toys r Us had a really cool purple one and I dreamed of having it. It never made its way under our Christmas and somehow I've continued to survive to adulthood. A couple months ago, when we were participating in Questival we ended the evening without sleeping for 36+ hours and apparently I had mentioned my longing for a pogo stick to my new best friend, Heather. I don't remember this at all because we were delirious! So then I'm at Heathers house a week before my birthday and just as I'm about to leave she creepily tells me she has something for me in the trunk of her car...she leads me to the car and tells me to open it. I finally open it after being a little freaked out and Lo and Behold there is a shiny red industrial pogo stick! She then had to remind me that I mentioned I had always wanted a pogo stick which I really hadn't remembered telling her. I was SO surprised that I couldn't stop laughing, and I was so honored that she thought of me when she saw this pogo stick! Thank you Heather!

So naturally Max and I were pogo-ing for hours on end and had to take photos...

It also happened to be General Conference Weekend (pajama church) thus the pajamas and the increased amount of time at home during the weekend)

 Most thoughtful gift ever! And I will probably make a separate post for my birthday coming soon....

Old Man Max

Way back in September Max celebrated his 31st birthday! He had to work a whole bunch so while he was busy working...The boys and I worked hard on his requested apple pie. He always requests an apple pie but we've tried to make it special each year...This year we did cinnamon roll roses which turned out great and delicious.

 When Max got home from work we went right out to eat, which was fun since I didn't have to do dishes and our children did exceptionally well! We made our way back and ate some apple pie. Then we did a gift hunt. Charlie created a new tradition where we hide one's gifts and we have to play the hot or cold game for the birthday person to find them. He is very persistent about doing this and we have since done it on all our birthdays.

And before we knew it, it was super late on a school night so we sent the kids to bed. and enjoyed the rest of the night together.

 It was a simple celebration for a super amazing man (It doesn't help that I'm super late writing this, I'm sure I'm forgetting some details) We are constantly overwhelmed with the way he pushes through stress and continues to work hard to support his family. He is an honest and loving man and every single day, I feel so privileged to be his wife and that we get to raise our children together!

Edwin's Eyes

Edwin was 1 month old and I verbally told a handful of people that I predict Edwin would need glasses. This was mostly based on Mother's intuition. We knew Charlie needed glasses when his eyes crossed when he was two years old. Edwin's eyes crossed occasionally but that is completely normal and expected in newborns. I just felt that I would need to keep tabs on his eyes and get them examined as soon as the doctor would allow. Here is Charlie's Story if you care to know, because it is somewhat different than Edwin's. I was told by Charlie's doctors that sometimes you can spot an eye problem in photos before you see it in person, so when I had gone through Charlie's baby photos, I could notice his lazy eye as early as six months. I knew I wanted to catch any issues with Edwin's eyes earlier so he would have the chance of improving his vision. So here are some photos where I thought we could see some wandering in the left eye.

To get my kids a thorough optometrist appointment, I had to meet with my pediatrician and then be referred to the optometrist. The pediatrician still seemed a little skeptical just like with Charlie but since I am persistent and there is an obvious family history of glasses wearing, they took me a lot more seriously. Yet we still had to wait a couple months before he would be seen.
So then the day of the appointment arrived. I showed the doctors Edwin's cross-eyed photos. They examined his eyes with all this fancy technology and it was determined that he is quite farsighted (far sightedeness is normal for babies) He was more farsighted than they see in babies and his eyes were quite different in their prescription. (they could determine this with all their fancy tools! Technology is amazing.) The problem with having 2 very different prescriptions in your eyes is that you would start to favor one eye and the weaker one become lazy. At the time of his appointment (Edwin was 6 months) he was still using both his eyes equally but that would not be likely to continue if left untreated. He glasses would help him use both eyes equally thus decreasing the chance of him having a lazy eye and hopefully save some of his depth perception. Since he is still so young, his eyes could still be somewhat unpredictable so there is a chance that he may not need glasses in the future or that he could still develop a lazy eye. There is a good chance that his vision will improve. We dont know but we will be prepared to take care of his vision as problems or victories arise. On the day I got to pick up his glasses it was one of the first days both my big boys were in school so I got to go with Edwin but Max had requested to be there when Edwin put on his glasses the first time so we arranged that and met him at a property he was working on. We made this video just in case Edwin was going to have one of those drastic reactions when seeing his mom for the first time...haha...see for yourself!

 Despite him being super grabby in the video, he actually keeps his glasses on quite well and he does seem to enjoying seeing the world around him.

 And seriously though, aren't babies in glasses the cutest?

We are seriously so grateful for this modern technology!

7 months

Still living life 3 months behind but life has slowed down a bit so maybe I'll catch up. here is when Edwin turned 7 months and the air was orange and smoky for his photos...We went to play at Marshall Park with cousin Emmett on the last day of Summer before school started. So, this is what Edwin looked like at 7 months, shortly before he got his glasses. This is also around the time he started to crawl!

Emmett checking out his baby cousin..

 Swinging with Daddy