It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

INSIDE...

and OUTSIDE...

I sure love this time of year.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Happy Halloween...

We really had a blast trick or treating with Landon this year. That boy knows how it's done! He didn't waste any time running from door to door and by the time we were on our way back he was so tired he wanted to be carried. He stopped and handed me his pumpkin full of candy and said, "Here Mama, you can hold. You can say 'trick or treat'." Poor kid wore himself out! He got to go out with a bunch of his cousins and it was really fun watching them have such a good time together. My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures.

Although, as you can see, Landon doesn't cooperate well when it comes to having his picture taken. SO... I had to take what I could get!

Landon and his cousin Aaron were buddies the whole night!

We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

I won!

So a few months ago I entered a giveaway for a photo session and cd with an award winning Utah photographer...and I won! We actually weren't planning to do family pictures this year, with me being preggers and all large and in charge, but we weren't going to pass up this opportunity. And let me tell you, Melissa Papaj is fantastic! From the first conversation we had over the phone you would have thought we were already friends. She is so friendly and outgoing, and she took so much time asking questions and trying to get a feel for what kind of pictures we wanted and what type of scenery we were looking for, so we could find the right location. We decided on Antelope Island because of it's variations of scenery, and she spent 3 HOURS taking our pictures.(which was more than I expected considering she was volunteering her time) She was so patient with Landon, who was less than cooperative, and we went all over finding different places to shoot. We are still waiting while she finishes up the editing on all the pictures, but she did send me a sneak peak of a few that she already had done.For all of you folks in the Davis County area, she is right in your neck of the woods! I would absolutely recommend her to anyone and I can't wait to use her again!

Amen...

The other night as we sat down to eat dinner, Landon wanted to say the prayer..


"Heavenly Father,

Thank you Granny, Papa, kitties and cousins.

Thank you food.

(Throws hands in the air)

AMEN!!"


It was so sweet....and entertaining!

Baby Roller #2...

It's a...

BOY!!

We don't have much in the way of names yet, so suggestions are welcome!

Landon and Duncan...

Landon and Duncan are definitely the best of "frenemies". One minute they are cuddling and playing around, and the next minute one of them is driving the other crazy. But Landon sure loves his little dog and wants to take him everywhere he goes!

THE END.

Baby on Board...

That's right, folks! We are expecting baby #2 in late February! At my first appointment I had an ultrasound where we got our first glimpse at our little lima bean. Here is baby Roller at 8 weeks.

On September 15th we will find out the gender of the baby and we are dying to find out. Neither one of us really cares either way, it will just be nice to know so I can get shopping! So cast your vote on what you think it will be!

Independence Day...

It's about time! My blogging skills are really just going down the drain these days. I had intentions of posting these pictures the very next day, and that clearly did not happen. Sigh. Oh well! Regardless, we had a very fun 4th of July this year. We barbequed with our good friends The Halvorsens then headed over to Riverton Park for the festivities. Landon loved the fireworks this year and is having a hard time comprehending that he can't see more until next year. It was fun watching his reactions to all the bright lights and loud sounds.

Here are some pictures from the park.

Landon, clearly having a grand ol' time.

Our cute friends Jon and Kelly

One of Duncan for good measure.

Landon looking fierce with his awesome glow-in-the-dark sword and remnants of his black eye.

Our whole family. It is rare that you see us all in once picture.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th!

I hope he never remembers these days...

All in all, Landon's surgery went really well. He has had no complications or problems healing and in just a couple of days he was back to his old self. The first two days were rough. I felt so bad for my little man. You could tell he was in a lot of pain and really uncomfortable, and it broke my heart that I couldn't do anything to make him feel better. However, being a Primary Children's made me so grateful that Landon has never had any serious illness. Sitting in the waiting room and walking through recovery we saw so many children there who were there for major surgeries or suffering from much more critical situations than we were there for. It was heart wrenching. Although Landon seems to catch every cold and flu within a mile radius and has his fair share of getting hurt, he has never had anything life threatening. And we are so very grateful for that. My heart goes out to all those families!

Below are some pictures from while Landon was being prepped for surgery.



This was the tiniest blood pressure cuff I had ever seen.


Checking vitals.


Rockin' his hospital pajamas. Yes, even the child sized ones open in the back...but at least they get bottoms to go with them!



His little I.D. bracelet


He has no idea what's coming here.

And now here he is trying to recover from a hard day. I am sure he was not amused at my picture taking.






To make matters worse, two days later he fell while walking out to the car and got a massive raspberry on his noggin. Though he got over it fairly quickly.






And if THAT wasn't bad enough, he fell head first out of a shopping cart and got a serious knock to the head and black eye. I honestly felt like the worst parent on the planet. Still do. I'm not sure who was traumatized more...him or ME. I'm pretty sure it was me.







Poor kid can't catch a break. We love you, Landon!

6 a.m...

That's what time we will be checking into Primary Children's tomorrow morning for Landon's surgery. They said to plan to be there most of the day. The surgery itself only takes about an hour, but they won't release him until they have watched him for a while and he has eaten something and kept it down. Already my nervous mother worries are kicking in with the "what ifs." I really don't like the thought of Landon being put under. My Mom hated whenever any of us had to be put under anesthesia, and a story she told me when I scheduled my appointment to have my wisdom teeth taken out will probably haunt me until I die. For the sake of not haunting any of YOU, I won't tell it. :) I remember thinking that she was worrying way too much, and feeling glad that I wouldn't be awake to feel a thing. Little did I know that ten years later I would be in her position, thinking about the very same story. THANKS MOM!!

I have a feeling the hardest part about tomorrow will be actually getting up early enough to make it to the hospital by 6:00. Landon inherited my love for sleeping in and we are rarely out of bed before 9:00 - so it's not going to be pretty! But Chris is going to give him a blessing and hopefully we will all be able to get some good sleep tonight.

Keep little Landon in your prayers. Hopefully he will have a speedy recovery. We will keep everyone updated on how everything goes.

Meet Duncan...

This week we welcomed a 3 month old, 1.5 pound puppy chihuahua to the family! His name is Duncan and he is so much fun. For those of you that remember Randal, we loved him dearly. But he became a little jealous and out of control after we had Landon. He was a really hyper dog and needed lots of attention, which was fine until we had a new baby and Landon became our attention. Eventually we had to give in and we gave him to a good family about a year and half ago, but we have never stopped wanting a dog. Now that Landon is older and loves dogs, we decided to give it another try with a young dog, who will be raised around kids and never know the difference of being "the baby"and having it's roll filled by a really baby. To be honest, on the drive home after getting him, anxiety set in because let's face it, I will be the one home with him all the time. And right now, Landon is full force in his "terrible two's" and alone is hard to deal with some days. But Chris gave me his solemn promise that anytime he is home the dog will be his responsibility, and he will take him out every morning before he leaves for school and work, and will be "extra nice" and help out as much as he can. Well I'm holding him to it! But so far, Duncan has been amazingly mellow and loving, and is learning really fast. He hasn't had any accidents in the house and is really just happy to be around people. We haven't heard his bark yet, and I'm really hoping to keep it that way. For the most part he really just loves having something to cuddle up to, and is happy to just follow us around all day. He is so sweet and cuddly and we just love having in our little family!

This is his preferred sleeping situation if we aren't next to him on the couch.

A Day Out With Thomas...

As promised, here are some pictures from our day in Heber riding Thomas the Tank Engine. We had a really fun time! The weather was perfect and since we went on a weekday it wasn't overly crowded. The only trouble Landon had was every time Thomas would leave to take all the passengers for a ride, he had a hard time understanding that he would be back and then he could stand next to him again. Other than that, it was really fun and I think Landon could have spent the entire day there if we would let him!

We took like three hundred pictures, but here are just some of the fun ones...