Just in Time for Halloween

Yesterday Tyler woke up with a gnarly looking eye ball.  This, my friends, is called a subconjuctival hemorrhage.  A fancy way of saying he poked/rubbed his eye too hard and popped a blood vessel.  Just in time for Halloween!  Too bad his costume doesn't call for a blood shot eye.    

In other news, Tyler loves getting the camera out and taking pictures.  I've had a good time looking at things from his perspective, although a lot of the shots are generally of a blurry leg or something.  Anyway, he took this picture of Clara.  Pretty cute!  Don't worry that her clothes are soaking - she's quite the drooler.  

Faux Photo Shoot

Last night we were getting the kids ready for bed and they both ended up in just their diapers at the same time and I thought it was so cute, so Mark set up a little photo shoot for us.

Seriously, could they be any cuter?

Death by cuteness!

Candid moments with Clara and Tyler

My heart can't handle this!  I LOVE THEM!!

Brotherly/Sisterly love!

Pretty girl

Apple Valley Air Show

Tyler loves modes of transportation of all kinds.  However, he has a special love for planes and helicopters or "fwanes" and "dockers."  This past weekend was the Apple Valley Air Show and we decided to take Tyler.  There were stunt pilots and fly overs, but the best part for Tyler was seeing all the planes and helicopters up close!  

The CHP helicopter up close and personal

Some cool airplanes

Remote control airplanes

General Conference

The first weekend in October is General Conference for our church where we can listen to messages from our prophet and other leaders. Mark decided that for this conference he would set up our tent in the family room.  It reminded me of the scripture in Mosiah: "And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which King Benjamin should speak unto them;"  I love the imagery of keeping our homes and families facing the temple and listening to our prophet.  I think we will make this a General Conference tradition!

The Hesperia Zoo

Recently Tyler has become quite interested in animals, especially animals of the wild sort.  We threw around the idea of going to the LA or San Diego Zoo, but decided a practice round at the local Hesperia Zoo would be a good idea.  It's not much to look at, and frankly I think PETA would have something to say about their enclosures, but there were some cool animals and we had a good time!

 The camel - he was a mean chap!  We had to stay like 5 feet away from his cage at all times or risk being bitten!

 The tiger and probably the best animal/exhibit at the whole zoo.  

This guy was our tour guide.  The thing about the Hesperia Zoo is you have to go on the tour, you can't just walk around yourself.  Good if you want to hang out at each cage for 10 minutes, bad if you're 22 months and want to run around.

The things from Madagascar, the movie.

Mommy and Tyler with the Baboon.  See him in the bottom corner there?

Go Mark Go!

This rockin' dude completed the Apple Valley Reverse Triathlon last month and didn't do too shabby either!  Go Mark!  

It started bright and early on a Saturday morning with the running portion, followed by the biking, and ending with the swim.  The kids and I got there just as the first biker was coming in so I knew we would be able to catch Mark.  We stood on the corner watching bike after bike after bike come through, but no Mark.  I finally started to wonder....did I miss him?  He couldn't have been that far back.  I turned around only to spot Mark getting his things together.  I had missed it!  He had passed me on the bike, completed the swim, and run through the finish line all while I was standing there on that corner waiting!  I felt so bad!  Since the race, I've decided that he must have passed me the one time I wasn't watching - when some random guy was playing with my kids and I was trying to nicely get him to leave me alone!  Oh well, at least I caught him after it was all over and was able to get this picture.  Way to go Mark!  What a stud muffin!    

It's Official . . .

Clara is a thumb sucker.  It's been a month now (yes this picture was taken a month ago) and she's still going strong.  Pretty much any time she isn't eating or playing it's in her mouth.  

I have mixed feelings about this new development.  I like that she is able to self-soothe, but I am already not looking forward to trying to stop the habit.

Especially since we are in the process of taking this away:

It is no picnic and I can actually hide it.  What am I going do when it's attached to her body?  Not to mention the loads of germs her thumb will pack once she starts scooting and crawling....*shudder*  Oh well, it is cute and sure lets me get things done from time to time.  :)