Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween from our Toy Story Family!

From the cowpokes

and the Spacemen,

we hope you had a fun one! (If not, we may just have to send Zurg over to your house... and he's pretty scary, don't you think?)

Pumpkin Carving at the Devereaux House

Friday evening we decided it was time to carve our pumpkins. Jacob has been so excited to make a jack-o-lantern this year that I couldn't say no. So we got out the knives, spoons and carving tools and got busy!

After I cut the lid off Jacob was not so sure about scooping out the pumpkin guts. Just look at his face!
Then I gave him a spoon with a long handle and showed him that it wasn't so bad. Then he dug right in, but still tried not to get any goop on his hands.

Ephraim wanted to help too. I was kind of surprised that he didn't want to just stick his hands right in the pumpkin either!

While I gutted our second pumkin, Daddy helped Jacob with the carving on his pumkin. What a team!

Jacob was absolutely in love with his pumkin! He kept on saying, "Ooh! My pumpkin is so cute! Look, it's happy!". So even though it was a bit goopy and not necessarily my favorite thing to do, it was totally worth it!

Joe helped me take some really awesome pictures of our pumkins all lit up. What do you think? Here is Ephraim's/ Mommy's pumkin:

And here is Jacob's happy pumpkin:

Jacob loved his pumpkin so much that he wanted to take it in his room so it could sleep there with him! What a cutie! I told him that the pumpkin would feel better if we left it outside!

Happy Halloween From Buzz and Woody

Thursday we went to Wee Read at the Library, and of course the boys got to dress up. I figured since I was getting them all ready, I would run up to the amphitheater and take their pictures in the leaves. It was a balmy 37 degrees or so, but the boys did great. We got some wonderful pictures in less than 20 minutes!

We started with Ephraim because he is the most difficult to photograph right now. It's just hard to get him to stand still. I absolutely love these pictures, and I even got a couple other good ones besides!
Here is Jacob as Buzz Lightyear. You will notice that in this picture he now has wings, unlike yesterday. While out shopping for parts for Joe's costume I found this set of inflatable wings for about $5... and I couldn't pass them up! Jacob just loves them!

To infinity... and beyond!

I even managed to get a nice picture of both of the boys together. How cute is this picture?!

Playgroup Halloween Party

On Wednesday this week Jacob got to go to a Halloween party at Kyle's house for playgroup. He was so excited to go! All morning he kept asking me if he could put on his costume yet, and if it was time to go.

When it was finally time to go I got Jacob dressed and he was jumping up and down excited! He loves being Buzz Lightyear and he had a great time at the party. Here is a picture of Jacob and all his playgroup friends. Aren't they cute?

From Left: Kyle Willes, Stephen Soderberg, Shaylynn Willes, Alyssa Smith, Jacob Devereaux.

The Halloween Preshow

Who said kids only wear their Halloween costumes once?

It seems like this week we get to wear costumes to all of our regularly scheduled activities, including Music Makers, Story Time, and Playgroup. I actually have more than one set of costumes for the boys, so I convinced Jacob on Monday that we could save Buzz and Woody for later and wear our other costumes to Music Makers.

The boys had a great time in their costumes. Jacob dressed up in the Monkey costume that Grandma Devereaux sent, and Ephraim got to wear the giraffe costume that Jacob wore two years ago.

After Music Makers we went out and played in the leaves behind the church. Of course I brought my camera because the boys were just SO cute! So here is Halloween: Round 1!

Isn't Jacob a cute little monkey?

He was just loving all the leaves! He would pick them up and drop them or throw them in the air!

Of course it was hard to get Ephraim to stand still so I could take his picture, but I did manage to get this one, which I think is pretty darn good!

Can you believe that Jacob wore this same costume? For comparison, here is a picture of Jacob in the same costume two years ago.

Cute, huh?

Jacob and Ephraim had a great time in the leaves! I forgot to mention that we also brought Alyssa to Music Makers with us, since her mommy is not feeling well. She and Jacob were running through the leaves and then asked me to bury them a little bit.

The kids also had fun picking up huge armfuls of leaves. I think Jacob would have brought some home if I would have let him!

The only way I could get Ephraim to even hold still or look at me was to throw leaves at him... but that's o.k. because it was fun for both of us.

It was so fun to go play with the boys in the leaves. I know that the leaves make a big mess in the fall, but it's nice to take a moment to remember how much fun leaves are for our kids. I've always liked walking through big piles of leaves and hearing the sound that they make. It's one of the reasons that I love Fall!

What a Weekend! (aka Ephraim and the Lotion Adventure)

We sure had a busy weekend!

Saturday morning Joe and I had the privilege of attending my friend Alyssa's sealing in the Draper Temple. Aly and her sister Tami were my roommates in college, and I have been lucky enough to go to both of their weddings.

So we got ready and left the boys with a babysitter for the first time ever. We had the Stuart girls come and watch the boys. Originally it was just going to be Jill, but she brought her younger sister with her. We were gone to the sealing for about three hours and the boys did just fine while we were gone!

The ceremony was wonderful, and it was nice for Joe and I to be in the temple together and remember the day we got married. I remember how blissfully happy we both were that day, and the great thing is that we are still very much in love and so happy together.

We would have stayed for the luncheon following the sealing ceremony, but somehow I got my dates confused and had signed up to substitute at the library. So I had to be to work at 1 p.m.

So when we got home I hurried to get everyone lunch. Then I went to work while Joe watched the boys. I figured it wouldn't be too bad, since Ephraim would be asleep most of the time I was gone. Unfortunately it seems I underestimated Ephraim's knack for getting into trouble!

Around 4 p.m. I got a call at the library from Joe. He was a bit frustrated... but understandably so. It seems that Ephraim woke up from his nap and was bored in his room waiting to be rescued (Joe was working on a project in the garage for a minute). So Ephraim somehow climbed to the top of his dresser, which is about 4 feet tall, and proceeded to get the lotion bottle that was on top. You can probably guess what happened then....

Ephraim got lotion all over himself, the floor, and the clothes that he got out of his drawers. Joe also told me that he poured some down his heater vent. Needless to say, Daddy was not pleased about any of this and Ephraim was in trouble! The only good thing is that now Ephraim's room smells a bit like baby powder!

The boys all managed to survive until I got home. After I ate dinner, I got to make cookies for my primary class, give the boys a bath, and work on my Halloween costume. Actually, Joe was the one who cooked most of the cookies because I was busy with the boys. Thanks honey!

Then Sunday was the primary program. I got to be with my class for 3 hours... boy was that fun. Then Joe had to go to Ward Counsel meeting and home teaching. He got home just in time for dinner. At least we got to spend the evening together, right?

Barnyard Boo

Don't you just love it when you get to do fun stuff for free? Friday evening we went to Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point because I won some tickets from a blog giveaway.

Jacob was excited all day to go and see the animals. Ephraim didn't really understand what we were going to go do, but he was excited to see all the different animals at Farm Country.

With our tickets we got punch cards for various activities and games at Barnyard Boo. One of the activities was the pony rides, and we knew that the boys would want to do that one! They both loved riding the horses. Jacob went all by himself and did just fine!

Ephraim got an assist from Daddy, but he thought the horses were pretty fun too.

The best part was that it wasn't crowded, so we didn't even have to wait in line! We just walked right up and got to put the boys on their horses.

After the pony rides we all went on a wagon ride together. We basically just rode the wagon around the block while a team of Clydesdales pulled the wagon. It was fun though, and the boys had a good time.
There were also other things to see and do. We got to go through a mini maze, decorate cookies, and check out the other exhibits. Jacob and Ephraim just loved the little tractors in this building!

Too bad the tractors didn't move around, huh?

They had some fun decorations too, so I got Joe to take a picture of me with the boys.

We were walking around after doing a few activities and Ephraim started to walk away. I bet you could guess where he was going:

It seems that Ephraim wanted to take another spin on the horses! This time Mommy got to go around with him while Jacob rode the "littlest pony", just like he wanted to.

It was starting to get dark, so we headed for Walmart and then home. The boys sure had a great time at Barnyard Boo!

Ephraim and the New Potty

This week it was our turn to have Jacob's playgroup/preschool at our house. I had prepared the printouts the night before, but was still busy getting everything else ready yesterday morning.

As I was cleaning up the kitchen table, I realized that I didn't know what Ephraim was doing. At the same moment I realized that I probably had left the bathroom door open. Ever since we had to replace our toilet (and found Joe's contacts in the sandbox), I have been trying to keep the bathroom door shut. It seems that certain small people get in less trouble when there is no access to the bathroom.

So I quickly headed toward the bathroom saying, "Ephraim! Where are you?". Sure enough, Ephraim walks out of the bathroom. I guess he decided to take this opportunity to check out the new potty.

How do I know he was checking out the potty? Well, his hands and his hair were both wet. Do you think he was trying to give himself a swirly?

Or do you think he really just wanted mommy to give him a bath that morning? :o)

Fall (in Love) with the Devereaux Boys

This past weekend my main goal was to get our family pictures done. We had some technical difficulties with the camera settings and whatnot, so we ended up doing some retakes on Sunday afternoon.

The pictures turned out pretty well, but I am still working on getting the editing just right. I plan on getting prints made for everyone for Christmas, but I will post the pictures before then!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the boys that I took on Friday morning. I went to scope out our photo location and let the boys play in the park. We decided to practice taking pictures, and I think the boys did a great job. Aren't they so cute?!

Here is my favorite picture of Ephraim. Just check out that smile!

This one is not too bad either... though I couldn't get Ephraim to smile at me. I think sometimes he is a bit puzzled about why mommy is pointing that big black camera thing at him.

I think this is my favorite one of Jacob. He is turning into such a handsome boy!

Jacob is getting much better about smiling for the camera, and I really like these next two pictures too.


I tried to get a nice one of the two of them together, but that was a little harder. Either they weren't both looking:

Or they were being silly! Ah well, at least they are cute, right?

The Bathroom Ban

So have I told you the story of our toilet trouble? All of the sudden our potty was not flushing like it should. The bowl would fill with water just to the point where you thought it would overflow- and then the water level would s-l-o-w-l-y sink back down.

Needless to say, not everything was going down like it should either... ah-hem. We plungered and plungered... all to no avail. We were starting to get suspicious that the potty may have ingested something it shouldn't have.

So finally Joe had no other recourse but to take the toilet apart to see what ailed it. So Tuesday evening Joe got to work on the toilet. Unfortunately in the course of dissasembling the potty, the porcelain cracked. Drat! So Joe took the toilet out and we spent the next day with only one toilet. We definitely got more exercise going downstairs anytime we needed to use the bathroom!

So then we got to go out and buy a new potty and Joe got the pleasure of installing it in our bathroom. He did a really great job getting the toilet installed and it flushes like a dream! When we went out and bought the toilet on Wednesday night we specifically chose one that had the highest flush rating.

In case you were wondering, we did find a toy wedged in the potty. It was a tub toy that was a square block with a hole in it. It was wedged in there pretty good! We are pretty certain Ephraim put it in there and flushed it down.

Then Thursday afternoon (one day after installing the toilet) I was on the back porch cutting Joe's hair. Joe had already cut the boys' hair and I was finishing up just as it was getting dark. Jacob walked up to us and said, "Daddy, look what I found buried in the sandbox!" It was Daddy's contact lens case, covered with sand... inside and out. Boy, was a certain little boy in trouble!

Needless to say, now the bathroom door stays shut, and Ephraim's bathroom privileges have been revoked... for now. Good thing he's still in diapers, huh?

Ephraim's new bed

Over the weekend we finally had time to go buy Ephraim his new bed. Instead of getting a toddler bed, we move right up into the big leagues and get our kids a twin bed. I figure they might as well get used to it now, and it saves me money in the end, right?

We already had a bed frame, since we bought a bunk bed frame when Jacob got his big boy bed. So all we had to do was go get a mattress and get everything put together.

Getting the mattress was an adventure, since we don't own a pickup truck. Good thing Joe is good with ropes! Yep... that was us you saw driving down the street with a mattress tied to the roof of our car!

Joe thought it would be funny to put Ephraim on top of his mattress on the car so I could take a picture. Doesn't he look like he's having fun?

Daddy spent the better part of an Saturday evening getting the beds all put together. He actually took apart Jacob's bed and put it in Ephraim's room, since that is the top bunk frame and it already has a railing. Then he put the bottom bunk frame together in Jacob's room.

I'm glad Daddy's thinking ahead because when the boys share a room later on, all we will have to do is move Ephraim's bed and put it on top of Jacob's bed. Of course then they will end up switching beds again... but whatever!

So while Joe got the beds together it was my job to keep the boys amused. So I put them in some of their favorite pajamas and we played around.

Jacob has been learning how to do somersaults, so he had to show me how he could do it. I thought it was fun to take some pictures of him in action.

He had a hard time figuring out how to get his legs to go over at first, but now he is getting pretty good at it!

Aren't these two boys so cute?! They just love their new pajamas. Jacob always wants to be Buzz Lightyear, and if he's Buzz then he doesn't want Ephraim to be Buzz too. But as you can see he also doesn't mind being Woody sometimes.

Daddy got the bed done and Ephraim thought his new bed was pretty cool! He loved the ladder.

He actually has adapted to his big boy bed beautifully. I guess even though 19 months old seems a bit young to me, Ephraim was ready for it. I don't know if I was really ready for it though... he still looks so little when he is on that big bed!

Official Heber Century Photos

My Dad was kind enough to order some great photos of us from our Heber Century ride last month. There was a professional photographer there taking pictures of all the riders, and they got some nice pictures of us. Here are my favorites.

This first one is of my Dad riding his 50 miles. Doesn't he look great?!


And here is a photo of Joe and me. I think this picture turned out really well. I am going to get it printed and put up on our wall.