Happy Halloween

Halloween was so fun this year. I luckily had the day off so the boys and I played tricks and got treats all day long. The boys showed off their costumes at my work, Grandma and Grandpa Squires, and Sonora's. Haydn was a race car driver and Taite is an elephant. Although Haydn thought he was a butterfly. Later Haydn carved a pumpkin with Dad and we were off for Trick-or-Treating. We had practiced during the day what Haydn is supposed to say, so he had his lines down. What we forgot to mention is that you don't go inside every house you come to. He definitely is not a shy boy. Four houses later we were back home and passing out candy.

Back to Work

Well I went back to work this week. Last weekend I was so sad I had decided to stay at home in my pajamas under my little black rain cloud and pout. Luckily, Riley had other plans. He got me out of the house and we went to Zion and hiked the Emerald Pools. It was beautiful! We had a wonderful time as a family.



I survived my first week back at work. It was quite the tornado of emotions. Sad to leave my boys. Nervous to work on patients again after being gone for three months. Forgetful of where everything is at work. Tired after long 15 hour days of work and mommy time. After crying the whole way to work on Monday, I was greeted by a returning patient who was happy to see me back. It was nice to see a familiar face and hear her tell me how much I had helped her before. That is really the ONLY reason I can leave my boys in the hands of someone else, knowing that I have been given a gift to help people and I would be selfish not to use it.


This weekend we went to check out the Staheli Farm. Haydn had a good time petting the animals and going down the corn slide. Mom and Haydn had fun jumping on the red neck trampoline. Luckily we got a picture of him on the animal train before the ride afterwards he was not so happy. The 14 y/o kid driving thought going as fast as you can and then playing whip the chain was fun for little kids?! Taite as always was happy to ride along.

News from Lake Wobegon

We spent a long weekend with my family in Minnesota. We survived the Las Vegas airport with our two children, two suitcases, two car seats and a double stroller. When checking in the ticket lady responded to us saying we both had lap children with, "Oh you have twins?" Somehow everything made it on the plane. After the numerous looks and snickers of the crazy couple flying with their two children under two we made it to Minnesota. The rest of the trip was wonderful until we had to get back on the plane. Haydn was completely spoiled by Grandma Sherl and Grandpa Ron. My mom bought Haydn a little cot so he didn't have to sleep on the floor and his own Car's sleeping bag. Taite got lots of kisses and hugs from grandma and grandpa, Aunt Shanna and Uncle Taylor. We also got to spend time with both of my grandparents. Minnesota is really pretty in the fall especially in contrast to St. George. There were so many trees starting to change colors and the grass was so green. We also got to see lots of pumpkin patches. Not the bin of pumpkins at the grocery store, but actual pumpkins growing out of the ground. We also went to an Octoberfest in New Ulm. We got to eat some yummy bratwurst, sauerkraut, and german potato salad. Then we got to see the glockenspiel clock ring its bells. The picture of the couple doing the polka in their traditional german clothes made us think of Riley's brother Garrett in his lederhosen at Christmas. So funny. We had a nice trip and were glad to see family.

As in true Garrison Keillor fashion, this is the news from Lake Wobegon where the women are strong, the men are good looking and the children are above average.

2 month check-up

Taite had his 2 month check-up today. He now weighs 11lbs 3oz (32 percentile) and is 24 inches long (82 percentile). He looks like he is following in the footsteps of his big brother, tall and skinny. I told the doctor about his tummy troubles and the fact that he has been really congested lately. Being the beginning of cold season and all. He said that he has something called silent reflux. It is when the gastric juices come up to the esophagus but not all the way out. Just enough to be painful. And nasal congestion is a side effect. So we started him on some medicine and it has started to work immediately. It is amazing to see the difference in this child now that he doesn't have around the clock heart burn. He is smiling and cooing, almost like he is saying thank-you. We ran errands this morning and he hasn't cried once. Thank-you Dr. Marsden!!

General Conference

We headed up to Salt Lake this past weekend for General Conference. Elder Steven E. Snow newly appointed member of the presidency of the seventy, otherwise known as Riley's dad, spoke in the Sunday afternoon session. He did the family proud. You can read his talk on service by clicking HERE.

Paintaholic

I am a self proclaimed paintaholic. I am always amazed how a fresh coat of paint can make a garage sale find look new again. And if you have been to our house you know that Riley and I have spent a little time painting it. The first month we moved in we painted two bedrooms, the family room, and dining room. After that Riley said no more! So my addiction went into remission, and I did really well until I got pregnant with Taite. There is something about being pregnant that gives me a surge of creative energy. I still did pretty good. All we did is paint a blue stripe in his nursery. But the week before Taite's blessing I had a complete relapse. We painted the kitchen, two bookcases, and patio furniture. Riley kept saying, Erika just because you can paint it doesn't mean you have to. I promised him I would join a support group and there will be no more painting for at least a while. Here are a few pictures to enjoy. Sorry I don't have before shots, but the kitchen was white, the book cases were veneer oak, and the patio furniture was white.

Taite's Special Day

Taite's blessing was so wonderful. He wore the same cute little outfit that Haydn wore. I still can't believe that under 2 years ago we were doing this same thing for him. Riley gave him such a beautiful blessing and he was a perfect angel through the whole thing. We had a lot of family and friends come to support us. Haydn had fun playing with his cousins and friends Brejden and Sonora.

The best news was Uncle Clu and Aunt Megan announcing that they are going to have a baby!! Hooray for more cousins!

For those of you that couldn't make it here is a picture to make you drool at the yummy food you missed.

It's begining to feel like fall

Now that the weather has dropped below 100 degrees in the shade we have been spending more time outside. Here are some pictures of Haydn doing his favorite things outside - playing with trucks, collecting rocks, and playing in the dirt.

We went to the Dixie Roundup parade this past weekend. Haydn loves parades. This one was quite impressive, several bands, lots of horses and as always the mountain men shooting their guns and the grand finale of fire truck sirens.








I love fall for two reasons. Fall foliage and football! You don't get much foliage in St. George so I emphasize the football season. If you look closely on Taite's little onsie you will see he is also excited about football season.

First Day

Today is a day of firsts for Riley. It is the first day at his new job and the start of the paralegal class he is team teaching at Dixie. For those of you who don't know Riley was offered a position with a solo practioner doing water law. He has been trying to get water law into his prior firm, but had not been able to. He had actually switched to doing more litigation and giving up the idea of becoming the next great water law attorney. Then he had a lunch meeting with a water law attorney in Hurricane and the next thing I know he is giving his two weeks notice. He is really excited about this new opportunity. He will miss a lot of the people at his old firm, but getting to do the work that you always wanted to is worth the switch.

I also wanted to give an update on Taite. He is now 5 weeks old! I know I can't believe it either. He is growing so fast and has already changed a lot. I still can't believe how much he looks like Haydn. He has started smiling and cooing, which is ADORABLE. He can lift his head up when on his tummy and has even rolled over from his stomach to his back. Haydn didn't do this forever. He would just lay there and cry until someone came to his rescue. Way to go Taite!

He has been having tummy troubles the past couple of weeks. It is so sad. His entire stomach contracts and becomes rock hard and he arches his back and screams in extreme pain. Laying down on his back makes it worse, so sleeping outside of someones arms has not been his favorite thing. In the past week we discovered that he does much better when laying on his stomach. I have been so hesitant about the whole thing since it is engraned into new mothers that if there child sleeps on its stomach it will develop SIDS, but everyone I talk to says how important it is to let him have sleep and anyone over the age of 20 survived sleeping on their stomach. So at least until his digestion system matures a little more we will have a stomach sleeper.

Labor Day Fun

For Labor Day we took our first big outing with two kids. We took a day trip to Las Vegas! After packing up two children with enough snacks, diapers, change of clothes, stroller, infant carrier, toys, sippie cup and any other necessity we were off. Our first stop was lunch at P. F. Changs for Riley. We then took Haydn to Ceasers Palace for a visit to FAO Shwartz. As you can see it was a hit. We had a great time and were all very tired at the end of the day.