Getting ready for Halloween

We have been very busy this month getting ready for Halloween. This is Caden's first Halloween and Kayla's first time somewhat "understanding" what is going on. We have been practicing knocking on doors and saying "Trick or Treat". I guess we'll see how it goes tonight when we take the kids trick-or-treating. 

To help us get ready for Halloween we did a lot of fun things. First we took the kids to "Little Haunts" at This is the Place Heritage Park. We dressed them up in their outfits. Kayla was a bumble bee and Caden was Scooby Doo

We started off by doing a craft. Kayla got to color a ghost

Then we went on a pony ride. Makayla was scared at first, but after it started to go she was having a blast.

We got to look at the animals at the petting zoo.

Caden was pretty tired and slept most of the time. 

We went on a train ride and got to see Brigham Young's house.

They also had a story time (which Makayla LOVED), a candy cannon ball, and trick or treating. I thought it was so cute, so we'll probably end up taking our kids there again next year.

We also went to Gardner Village to look at all the witches. We picked the wrong day though. It was a Saturday and so crowded, so we were only there for an hour at the most. We did get a few cute pictures with the witches.

And the pumpkins

Daddy and the kids posed for a picture on the hay.

Later that night we went to a Halloween/Birthday party at Tammy and Bruce's house. Kayla was a little freaked out by Carson's costume. She doesn't like it when people put on masks.

Here's my crazy family all dressed up! Tyler the banana, Kristen the miner, Kayla the bumble bee, and Caden the Scooby Doo. (P.S. I hate dressing up for Halloween, but Tyler told me I had to, so he got some of his mining attire and I dressed up as that).

The Chippendales showed up at the party.

The Jones family was very festive. Jeremy was a baseball player, Tracy was a trap shooter, Carson was a Power Ranger, and Colton was the Hulk (also the Sulk... he was a little ornery at the party)

Terry was Oriental and Craig was a tourist

Tammy and Bruce were soccer players

And I think these three dressed up as old people? :)

Then last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. The kids got to pretend to drive the tractor

Grandpa Craig took the kids on rides in the wheel barrow

Kayla picked out her own pumpkin. It was a little heavy so Daddy had to help her.

We helped Caden pick out his pumpkin. It is almost as big as he is!!

We eventually picked out a pumpkin that was more "Caden-size"

Kayla got buried in all the pumpkins

Tracy picked out her odd looking pumpkin

They also had a cute corn maze for the kids that we could go through. 

Then we had to pose for pictures.

Later that night we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's to carve our pumpkins. Grandpa had all the leaves raked up and he let the kids play in them. Makayla didn't know what to think at first, but then she started to have fun.

Can you find Grandpa's head? Kayla did.

It was hard to tell who was having more fun... Kayla or Grandpa

We put Caden in the leaves, but he didn't like them and started screaming.

After playing in the leaves we got to carve our pumpkins. Kayla was the best helper.

She liked to scoop all the guts out of the pumpkin. 

Then she helped us carve them. 

Carson and Jeremy worked on their pumpkin as well. 

And Caden got lots of squishes from Grandma and Tracy

Here's our scary pumpkins!

Later Makayla helped me make Halloween treats to take out to our family.

And today the kids got to dress up for Halloween at day care. They got to have monster pancakes and a fun Halloween party.

Well I think we are ready for Halloween!!! Bring on the trick-or-treating and the candy!!!

Makayla's First Colored Picture

The other day at the store I bought Makayla a coloring book. It was a Halloween themed Sesame Street book. Considering Makayla loves Sesame Street, I thought she might like it. Well I had no idea how much she would love coloring!

She immediately started coloring all the pictures and pointing out all the characters she knew: "Elmo," "Groger" (Grover), "Ernie" (Ernie), "Ernie" (Burt... she calls them both Ernie), and "One, Ha ha ha" (Count).

 Her first choice picture to color was Elmo, because Makayla LOVES Elmo. She was so proud of her picture.

 And here it is... Makayla's first colored picture.

We hung it up on the refrigerator and daily Makayla goes up to it, points, dances and says "picture" or "ELMO!!!" We don't know for sure, but we think Makayla will be good at coloring when she grows up! :)

4 Generations of William Evans

It took six months, but I finally got a four generation picture of all the William Evans

I know I've mentioned this before, but Caden is the 6th William Evans. Caden's great, great grandpa (Willaim Occie) and great, great, great grandpa (William Erastus) have passed, but we are lucky enough to have four generations all together.

William Reid, Willaim Craig, William Tyler, and William Caden

Don't they all look so handsome dressed up?
Love this picture!!!

Caden's Blessing Day with a trip to the ER

October 21 was a special day for Caden. It was his blessing day! However, the morning of his blessing day didn't turn out the way we thought...

We woke up early on Sunday and started breakfast. Tyler put Makayla in the high chair and Caden in the bouncer/rocker seat on the counter. Yes we know that is not the smartest place to put a baby, but up until that day Caden had always done fine in the seat. He was getting to the point where he could sit up in it and rock back and forth, but we always kept a good eye on him while he was up there. Well I was making eggs for Makayla when I heard a loud bang. I looked down and saw Caden lying face down on the tile floor. I screamed and Tyler came to pick him up, still in the chair. At that point Caden finally started to cry but it wasn't a hard enough cry for the fall he had. I kept telling Tyler that he wasn't okay. We got Caden calmed down, I fed him and he fell asleep for a min in my arms. He seemed to be okay, but I wasn't positive. A big goose egg started to appear right by his ear. After looking on the Internet about infant concussions we decided to call our pediatrician and talk to the on call doctor. The doctor told us we should take him to the ER just to be safe. Tyler ended up talking him in because let's face it, I was a wreck!! Plus we needed to get dinner ready for the 30 people who were coming over for Caden's blessing.

Here's Caden in the hospital room.

 Just looking at him in this picture makes me want to cry!

 The doctor said that it was a tough case because normally with a fall they would order a CT scan to check for bleeding in the brain, but in an infant they hesitate to subject a small baby to radiation. He said it was up to us. We decided we didn't want to risk the CT and opted to observe him for a few hours to see how he was doing. They kept Caden in the hospital for 3 hours observing him and with each hour he seemed to be getting back to normal. He was playing and eating just fine. His only injury was a small bruise to his ear. After three hours my little trooper came home.

 After the stress of that morning, we had to get our little Cader-Tot ready for his special day. Doesn't he look so cute in his shirt and tie? I could just squish him!!

 My dad was able to give Caden a very beautiful and humbling blessing during church. He blessed Caden with a strong body and mind, and gave him a special blessing that he would fully recover from his fall. It was such a special moment to hear a blessing that was especially for our little man. Here's my dad and Caden after the blessing.

After the blessing we had everyone over for a dinner. We are so lucky to have such a great family on both sides who are so supportive. Everyone showed up and we had over 30 people at our house.

We didn't get pictures with everyone but here's a few of my favorites.

Me with my boys!! Tyler and I feel so lucky to have Caden in our family!! He is the sweetest, cuddliest little boy and we can't imagine our life without him! He has been the perfect addition to our family.

We complain about having two under two sometimes, but we feel so blessed to have two happy, healthy kids to raise.

Here's my mom and dad with their 11th grand baby.

 And the four generations of William Evans

 #3 holding #6

 Four generations on Tyler's mom's side.

 And all of us together.

Caden got spoiled on his blessing day; everyone wanted to hold him. I snapped this picture of Caden sucking his thumb. So cute!! He looks a little tired. After the busy day he had, I don't blame him.

Caden, you are the sweetest little boy and we love you so much!! We are so lucky to have you in our family and feel so blessed that we get the honor of being your parents.