Tyler Loves Halloween

I was in the middle of putting away the Halloween decorations when Tyler wandered upstairs. He immediately burst into tears. 

 He was so sad that I was putting it all away. In his own words, "I love them so much. I will miss them so much". 

 Is he his father's son or what? We finally came to an agreement, since I wasn't open to leaving the directions up all year. 

 We took pictures with his favorite things. Now he can enjoy Halloween all year long.

Halloween was Out of this World!

We had a Space theme for Halloween this year. Ken and I actually had a really good time spending our evenings together working on the costumes. 

 Our wonderful neighbors, the Crooks, came to the Trunk or Treat with us. I could just eat that baby alive, he's so cute.

 Rex found this barbell and was totally fascinated with it. He would have carried it around all night.

 Chili and cornbread dinner!

 This cute little boy picked up trunk or treating immediately. He clutched that bag so tightly and held it out for anyone and everyone to fill up for him.

 Halloween night was a few days later. We suited the boys up again to head out. Tyler the robot.

 Abraham the astronaut.

Rex the NASA commander. 

 The cutest boys around. 

 Ken and I decided that once as aliens was enough for us and took the boys out trick or treating, sans costumes.

Happy, Happy Halloween. Let the planning for next year begin!

Abraham turns 5!!

Abraham celebrated his 5th birthday on October 27th. He came into our room first thing in the morning and said, "Its my birthday, do I get to go to kindergarten today?". 

 He was so thrilled to open his presents. 

 Since we had the Ward Trunk or Treat that night, he got breakfast at Golden Corral to celebrate!

 For months now, Abraham has told me he wanted a Plants Vs Zombies birthday. So we started with brain cupcakes.

 Ken put his artistic abilities to use with some marshmallow fondant and created an awesome cake.

 If you don't know the game, you won't understand the cake. 

 The plants...

 The zombies...

 Abraham didn't see the cake until we brought it out with candles burning. His reaction was awesome. He totally loved it. 

 I tried to get a picture with all the kids eating their cake and smiling, but Maddie was my only model. She was happy and smiling in every picture. Everyone else was, um, inconsistent. 

 I couldn't resist posting this cute picture of cute Rex. 

 Happy birthday Abraham! Oh how we love you. 

Swimming Lessons

Abraham has always had a fear of having water on his head. Let me tell you how fun that makes washing his hair, but I digress. We decided to enroll him in swimming lessons, to hopefully help his confidence in water. 

 Our good friend Ethan enrolled from the same class, which was great. We would carpool and one mom would stay home with the younger boys while the other took the big boys to lessons. 

 I think we need to work on Abraham's crazy face. 

One Year Later

About one year after Rex's first eye surgery, he was back having his 3rd surgery. This time it was for his ears though, and not his eyes. He got tubes placed. 

 There's never been a cuter patient! The nurses were just eating him up. The anesthesiologist and nurse actually fought over who got to carry him back!

 The surgery went perfectly and we are hoping for an ear infection free winter.

 Heading home.

Honestly, I can't believe how much has happened in one year. I remember being SO scared when we first learned that Rex had a cataract in his eye. We didn't know what to expect and weren't have much luck finding answers. Luckily we ended up at the Duke Eye Center with an amazing ophthalmologist. We suffered through the contact and made it out alive. We got his implant and his glasses. I will always remember the first time he passed an eye exam with his right eye. They probably thought I was crazy because I started crying. I was so happy to know that Rex would be able to see and see basically normal. We still patch everyday, and the older he gets the harder it is to keep that patch on him, but really he does pretty well with it. He keeps his glasses on for the most part and I'll admit, as silly as I thought they were, they are a part of him now. We're grateful for all the support we've had, we're grateful for our doctors, our health insurance, and modern medicine, we're grateful for Gracie sharing her frames :-) and we are more than grateful for our sweet little boy. Here's to another year and the ability to clearly look to the future.

The Tuckers came to Town!

We were thrilled beyond belief when we found out that Barlow and Andrea were coming to visit. Abraham talked all the time about his "October" cousins. Their visit did not disappoint, except that it was really much, much too short!

Of course we had to take them to Marbles!

Don't you think that Jace and Tyler could be brothers?

One night, after the kids were asleep we got some delicious North Carolina BBQ and stuffed ourselves silly. 

We had some Tampico tasting.

We also hit up Pullen Park. I love this picture because Addie was upset and screaming, until she saw the camera, and then she posed!

The boys on the train. They had so much fum playing together.

All the kids. Thanks to Maddie and Addie for wrangling the babies!

Super spies.

Andrea wins best picture of the trip with this one! I love it! 

We also went to Chuck E Cheese, Ritas, and had a great time just being together. Thanks SO much for coming to see us Barlow and Andrea! We had so much fun.

Happy Independence Day Brazil!

Since Brazil's Independence Day landed on a Friday this year, Ken and I decided to celebrate. We figured out who in our ward had served missions in Brazil and invited them all over to celebrate. 

I didn't take tons of pictures, but it was a fun night with delicious, authentic food, and fantastic company. 

We used a coconut in our decorations and that Monday for FHE Ken and the big boys broke into it and ate it.