Halloween 2012

Jon as The Hulk

Nate the Tiger

Wesley as Captain America

The whole family as The Avengers plus a tiger

Captain America, The Hulk and Shayne as Superman



The Hulk and Captain America

 
The boys this year really wanted to do a themed Halloween.  They were both going to be superheroes from the Avengers so they felt everyone else should also be part of the Avengers.  Nate  already had his outfit though so he could not comply.  Nate was a tiger this year.  It was a nice warm costume and he looked very cute.  He was not overly impressed by the hood, but otherwise it went really well.  Wesley went as Captain America.  It actually makes me laugh that Wesley prefers Captain America over any of the other Avengers.  It must be something about being the bossy person.  Anyway, we already had his costume since we have a trunk full of superhero costumes that he got for Christmas last year.  We tried to convince Jon to use one of those costumes also, but he had his heart set on being the Hulk.  So we got online and ordered him a Hulk costume with muscles.  He was so excited.  Early on the boys informed their mother that she was going to be Thor.  I hate to break it to them, but Thor is a boy not a girl.  Oh well!  I complied however since my other choice had to be Black Widow and I did not really want to be her.  So I went out and found a Thor girl costume.  They also informed Kyle that he was going to be Nick Fury.  So Kyle got and eye patch and went as the leader of SHIELD.  Poppa then borrowed the boys' Iron Man heart and mask and joined us a IronMan.  Aunt Jenn dressed up as a gypsie, but Wes and Jon insisted that she was Black Widow in disguise.  Shayne, Aunt Elisa, Aunt Caitlin and Catherine also joined us this year for trick or treating.  The boys loved having their cousins join them.  Kyle stayed at home and handed out candy while I took the boys out trick or treating.  We had two vehicles since there were so many of us this year.  Caitlin followed me to our regular haunts, but got tired and headed back to Grandma's before us.  However, after one more house I got called in to make something at the hospital and had to drop the boys off at Grandma's for games with the cousins and have Kyle come pick them up.  Overall, it was a fun night.

Primary Program 2012

This is Wesley's first year in primary and hence his first year for the primary program.  He was so excited when they gave him his part.  He had a small line about Jesus creating the earth for us.  He was given his part at the end of September and had it completely memorized by General Conference.  This did pose a problem for us though since anything Wesley does Jon wants to do also.  By the time we went to church in October was begging for a part in the primary program.  He even memorized Wesley part so he could do it too.  He was so cute.  The day of the program arrived and Wes could hardly hold still.  In fact, he could hardly hold still during the program either.  He was the third part of the entire program and could not wait to say his line.  He said it right into the microphone as quickly as he could get it out.  This did make him a little harder to understand, but he did a great job remember his line and saying it without any help from the primary president.  He sang every song and you could hear his little voice over some of the older primary children.  He had such a fun time doing it and was very proud of himself. 

Boise Temple Open House

The Boise Temple has been closed for about a year for updating.  It will be rededicated in November.  Right now there is an open house to go walk through the temple.  We went with Kyle's family this Saturday (the first day of the open house).  It was beautiful.  I took my endowments out in the Boise Temple and this is the first time I have seen it since that night almost 8 years ago.  It was a lot brighter than my memory.  There were some beautiful portraits and stained glass murals.  It was amazing.  They were doing "silent" tours since they had so many turn out for the first day.  I did not realize this, but the Boise Temple was dedicated the month before I was born.  So I told Jonathen that the temple was built the same year I was born.  Jonathen responded with, " When Daddy was born we built a ladder."  Apparently we got a temple when I was born and a ladder when Daddy was born.  He cracks me up.  After the tour we asked Wesley what his favorite part was and he told us that it was when his cousin Sage put his hand in the water in the fountain outside the temple.  He is so silly.  After some prompting he told us that his favorite part of the temple was the oxen with the water (the baptismal font).  We went out to Chuck-A-Rama with Kyle's family afterwards.  Sage and Wesley really wanted to sit by each other so we had a booth with 2 kids and 1 adult on each side and Nate sat in a high chair at the end.  It was one crowded booth.  It was a quick trip to Boise, but great to see the temple and Kyle's family.

BSU Football!

The boys love watching football with their dad.  I only join them if it is a team I care about.  So we watch BSU football together.  Jonathen gets really into (a lot like his dad) and yells at the TV.  Wesley watches a little more sedately.  Since they love watching BSU so much we decided to go to a game this year.  We went to BSU vs. Miami of Ohio on September 15, 2012.  We got tickets in the north end zone.  It actually turned out to be a great spot since most of the touchdowns happened in our end zone that game.  It was great watching the game.  They ask different sections to wear different colors and we were assigned orange.  Wesley was not terribly happy about that, but was okay since his bronco was blue.  Jon, on the other hand, absolutely loved that we all had to wear orange.  It was very hot that day.  It was in the 90's in Boise and with reflective metal and turf it was quite hot in the bleachers.  We drank lots of water and put on lots of sunscreen.  We left during the 3rd quarter because Jon laid his head down on the bleacher in front of us and tried to take a nap.  Jon loved yelling first down whenever the Broncos got a first down.  Wesley's favorite part was the Bronco mascot.  Which is funny since he had the opportunity to get his picture taken with it and he was too scared.  Oh well.  It was a great game and a wonderful family outing.

Coming along now.

Yet another update on our home.  The stucco is done and the siding is going up now.  The rock for the front of the house will be done Monday.  The inside is insulated, drywalled, and textured.  The trim will be done next week and then on to painting.  I will be meeting with the trim guy next Tuesday to go over how I wante things.  It is all coming together so fast right now.  We are so excited to see everything happening.

Oh, to live in the mind of a 4 year old.

Wesley yesterday informed his father that the kid in the mirror kept saying the same things as him, moving the same way at the same time, and was even wearing the same clothes.  Kyle reminded Wesley (who already knows this) that the "kid" in the mirror is really Wesley.  Wesley then walked back over to the mirror and said, "Hey good looking." He then proceeded to have a conversation with his mirror self.  He is so funny sometimes.  Kyle texted me about this and I spent a good 30 minutes cracking up.  It made my day.

6 months

Nathaniel is now 6 months old.  While it feels like just yesterday he was born, it also seems he has always been a part of our family.  He is growing up so fast.  He is sitting up by himself and has two teeth.  He loves to smile and laugh.  He knows his name and thinks it is funny when people say it too often.  He just went to the doctor for his 6 month checkup.  He is growing and progressing really well.  He is 28 inches long (90th percentile) and 14 lbs 7 oz (10th percentile).  Yet another tall skinny boy.  It always suprises my doctor when he checks my children's mouth and he finds teeth.  All of my boys got their teeth before 6 months.  Although children, on average, get their first tooth around 8 months.  He is eating second foods now and loving it.  Wesley and Jon also really love to give him things to eat.  We have to watch them though; they are not too picky about what they try to give him.  We love Nathaniel with all our hearts and are so happy to have him in our family.

House update!

 We met with James (our contractor) last week and did an electrical walk through.  This means we walked around the house telling them where we would like ceiling fans, TV's, and other major electrical items.  This way our electrical system is configured to our exact specifications.  We also talked with our plumber regarding the shower head and water in the master bathroom.  We also changed the layout of the stairs since there was an issue with head clearance.  The stairs are now more open at the bottom than the original plan.  I happen to like it better.  Right now the electrical is done, most of the plumbing is done, the framing is finished, and the roof is on.  They should be getting started on the exterior of the home soon.  More updates to come.

Great Room Fireplace

Looking down the stairs into the great room

Looking into the great room from the dining room

The stairs (improved design)

More house pics

We stopped by our new house and walked around a little bit.  Here are a few pictures.  We have met with Victoria Ray (our builders wife) and chosen cabinets and paint colors and counter tops.  We have an appointment tomorrow to pick out our granite countertops for the kitchen.  We will choose a sink and lighting and things as we get more information.  Our builder is upset with the framer who is framing our house.  He is one of the best around and was asking for work so James hired him, but now the framer is not working as quickly as James would like him to.  Things are coming along on the house just not as fast and James would prefer.

Kyle walking up the driveway

Kyle looking out the living room window

Part of garage and storage area

Other side of the garage looking into the kitchen and dining room

Mini Vacation

 Since I used most of my time off for maternity leave I did not have a lot of vacation time this summer.  We decided to go on a mini vacation instead.  Last Sunday(the 5th) we took off after church and headed down to Utah.  We had a night booked at Wolf Creek outside of Ogden.  When we got to the condo we got changed and headed down to the pool.  The boys really wanted to go swimming.  We got down there and got into the pool.  Earlier this summer we bought some arm floaties for the two older boys to help them stay afloat.  Last time we went swimming they were very clingy/needy and we thought these my help.  Jonathen quickly found out that his arm floaties helped him stay above the water and that he could go out farther into the water than he could before.  Wesley took some convincing.  By the time we finally got out of the water Jonathen would float on his back and swim forward and Wesley had even gone down the water slide. The slide was for ages 3-13 so Jon couldn't go down the slide.  Nate even started "swimming".  He would reach out with his arms and bring them back to his body like I was trying to get his older brothers to do.  The next morning we got up and packed up.  We then headed to the dinosaur park in Ogden.  They have fossils inside, a robotic dinosaur display and many dinosaur statues around the park. We walked around the park and showed the boys the dinosaurs and told them about those dinosaurs.  After the dinosaur park we went and got lunch and then headed to The Treehouse Museum.  The Treehouse Museum is built around a tree and has different exhibits and projects that the kids get to do.  There was a farm with horses for the boys.  Wesley watched me show Jon how to get on his horse using the stirrups and got up on his horse all by himself.  He is growing up so fast.  There was an oval office with different facts about all of the past and present U.S. presidents.  There was a superhero station and even a castle with knights and a sword in the stone.  Wesley especially loved that section of the museum.  After the museum we got back in the car and headed home.  It wasn't a big vacation, but we did get to do some really fun things.

Update

These are the latest pictures of our home.  These were taken 7/20/12 at 1:30pm.  They are working on the upstairs of our home now.

Teeth

Nate has been teething for over a month now and all that hard work has finally paid off.  Yesterday morning we noticed that his bottom front tooth finally broke through.  He is now the proud owner of one little tooth.  He has quickly discovered that he can bite people and they will yell.  I couldn't get a picture of his tooth since he won't open his mouth for me to see, but here is a picture of the happy little guy.  He has also started reading stories with his brothers before bed.  He gets to read with us when we are doing small stories, but as you can tell in the last picture; he absolutely loves it.  He is such a fun addition to our family.  We love him so much.

Building!!!

 For those of you who are not aware yet, we are building our dream home.  We got started on the whole project at the end of April beginning of May.  Our builder is James Ray Construction and the house is being built over in the Heyburn area.  It is still in the country, but closer to town then we are now.  We will have 2.1 acres of land.  Here are the first pictures we have taken.  They have poured the concrete, built the sub floor and have started framing.

From the garage view.

Storage room and kitchen

Family room

Office

Front view

1st Annual Reddington Family Reunion

As a family we decided to start our own reunion this year.  My sister Crystal's inlaws do a service project/family reunion every year so we kind of copied them.  It was decided to roof my parents house for our service project and then go to Dierkies Lake for the family reunion the next day.  On June 29th my sisters all drove to Rupert to start work on my parents roof.  I had to work that day so I did not join them until 5:30 pm.  They started work at 1pm and were still hard at work at 6pm.  They did come down for dinner and then got back up to work until it was too dark to work anymore.  I took my boys home at 8 pm, but left Kyle over there working.  The next morning we got up and headed over to Grandma and Poppa's house for breakfast.  After breakfast I joined my family up on the roof to finish up.  We got a system going and fell into a rhythm.  I came down at 10 to feed Nate and they finished up before I had a chance to go back up.  Afterwards we packed up and headed to Dierkies Lake, outside of Twin Falls, for swimming and a picnic.  It was a fun day with family.  The boys really enjoyed playing with their cousins.  However, my parents discovered that babysitting three 2 year olds is like having triplets with different mothers.  Jon, Shayne, and Carter our nine months apart in age and all two.  Just wait until they are teenagers together and really drive us crazy.  Oh well.  It was great to hang out with my family and hopefully we can continue getting together every year.

Nate at Dierkies Lake

Wesley, Grandma, Jon, and Shayne at the picnic

Catherine, Hallie, and Carter at the picnic.

Kyle fell asleep with Nate.

Wesley sitting on Poppa. (Good thing my dad is such a good sport.)

Welcome Home Grandma & Grandpa Meyers

Kyle's parents have been in Sri Lanka for the last 18 months on a mission.  On June 25th they traveled back to Idaho.  I had the day off so we headed to Boise to meet them at the airport.  Their flight did not arrive in Boise until 7 in the evening.  We went earlier and did a little comparision pricing.  Then we spent a little bit of time at Kyle's brother's house in Star, ID.  At 6:30 pm we left Jason's house to go to the Boise airport.  Kyle's sister, Mandy, made a large banner that said, "Welcome Home" for the grandkids to hide behind and then run out from behind to give Grandma and Grandpa Meyers hugs.  The kids seemed pretty excited to do this.  Wesley and Jon did not really understand it, but their cousins enthusiasm was contagious.  Once they saw Grandma and Grandpa Meyers they ran to them and gave them a group hug.  After we picked up their bags we went out to eat at Applebees.  Afterward we headed home, since I had to work the next day.  It was a long day and we did not get home until after 11pm.  We are happy Kyle's parents are back home.

Waiting at the airport.



Hiding behind the sign (you can see their little feet at the bottom)

Running to hug Grandma and Grandpa Meyers

4 months old

Nathaniel is now four months old.  He is getting so big and growing up so fast.  He loves to smile and laugh.  He does not always laugh out loud though.  He tends to laugh silently unless he thinks you are hysterical.  He loves people to talk to him and thinks kisses are funny.  He tries to sit up by himself and sometime succeeds.  Nate just started rice cereal this weekend.  The first night he was very unsure of the whole process, however last night he loved it and was upset when I didn't have anymore.  He had a doctor's appointment today.  So I took Nate and Jon to the doctors office.  Kyle asked the boys if either one of them wanted to accompany me and Nate and Jon said he did.  I did not understand why Jon would want to go until we got to the doctors office.  When the nurse called us back, the first thing Jon said was, "Nate gets shots and I get a sucker."  Ding-ding-ding!!!  Jon wanted a sucker.  Nate is now 26 inches long (90th percentile) and 12 lbs 8 ounces (25th percentile).  So still long and skinny.  He is doing really well and got two shots and an oral immunization.  Jon did get his sucker after the doctor saw Nate. 

Wesley's Talk

Wesley is now in primary and as part of primary he gets to participate in opening exercises.  The second week of January he gave the scripture. The third week of March he gave the prayer.  May 20th he got to give the talk.  We are not even halfway through the year yet and Wesley has already done every part of opening exercises.  He was so excited to give his talk.  His topic was baptism so he talked about flying to Virginia to see his cousin Stephen get baptized.  He did an amazing job considering I wrote the talk and am not very good at using small words.  Poppa, Dad and Grandma all got to come listen to Wesley's talk.  Poppa thought it was funny when Wesley would use words such as righteousness.  I guess my children have no choice but to use big words with me as their mom.  I am very proud of my son for being able to do all of these things in Primary without any meltdowns or jibberish.  He speaks clearly for everyone to hear him and doesn't mind being in front of the group.  I love my little boy.

Easter

Easter this year was just us and my parents.  In the past one or two of my sisters and their families joined us, but not this year.  So we colored eggs on Saturday evening at our house instead of Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Prior to coloring eggs the Easter Bunny came to visit the boys.  One of our neighbors dresses up as the Easter Bunny each year and stops by to give the boys a bag of jelly beans.  The boys enjoy it even though I think said neighbor is crazy.  The boys were super excited to color eggs and each got to color a few eggs.  That night I went over to hide eggs at Grandma and Poppa's house so it would be ready for after church.  On Sunday morning the boys got up and Wes and Jon got clothes for Easter.  Nate didn't get any clothes because he has more than enough already.  Then we went to church.  The boys really enjoyed learning about Easter.  Wesley came home telling us how he learned that Jesus loves us and is alive again.  I really felt like he felt the meaning of Easter.  We changed and headed to Grandma and Poppa's house.  The boys went straight downstairs and found their eggs.  They both got a lot of candy and a few dollars.  We then had Easter dinner consisting of turkey and mashed potatoes.  Instead of Kyle's choice of ham and funeral potatoes.  I am not a fan of ham.  It was a fun day with the boys.