This was Dad's idea

Dad thought that since we didn't have to go to church for two weeks that it would be a fun time to give the boys mohawks.  They look like Mr. T if you ask me.

 Personally, I think it looks better at a point.  This was after a bath, but I haven't put any gel in it to make it stay.

 Then they got the great idea to dye it.  Although Jo wasn't up to it.

 What is my family coming to?  Next it's going to be earrings and tattoos.

Well...it lasted a week

The doctor warned us that the stint could fall out before the 3 months were up, but a week?  Unfortnately it doesn't exactly fall all the way out.  We were told to tape it to his nose until we could get into the office for her to carefully remove it the rest of the way.  Our best guess is that Sam was rubbing it in his sleep.  So now the question is - has it done the job well enough?  I don't particularly want to do the surgery again.  Of course this happens Saturday morning, so Sam gets to wear it until at least Monday when we can even call the doctor.  Doesn't it look like that would bother you?

Labor Day hike

We decided to take a short hike and picnic for a labor day activity.  We unfortunately weren't able to make it out in the cooler morning like we had hoped, so the sun caused a few complaints.  Although Jo has walked on much longer hikes, he saw that we had this backpack and couldn't resist trying it out.  He enjoyed it tremendously, getting a free ride and being in the shade.

 The kids say they enjoyed the hike, even Taylor who trailed behind complaining of her rubber legs the majority of the way.  This little creek was the kids favorite area and they wanted to stay and play for awhile.

Weekend with the cousins

Our Utah cousins came up for a visit this weekend, so we've been playing long and hard with them for the past two days.  The kids love to ride the power wheels all over Grandma and Papa's yard.  The most fun was apparantly ramming in to each other.

They spent a lot of time in a train following each other and trying to get the other to stop.

 Aunt Terri brought a fun Halloween craft for the kids to make.  They loved the painting part, but after they were good and messy the boys went and found more adventurous things to do.

 The girls were a little more fascinated with the project.

 The moms ended up completing most of the work, however.

 Here are the finished products.  Thanks Aunt Terri!

 Hanging out with Papa.  He doesn't look worn out at all.  And we made a true Bronco fan out of cousin Trevor!

Our trooper

It seems like ages ago when we posted about Sam's plugged tear ducts.  Three years later and the tears often streaming down Sam's face remain.  We decided it bothered him enough to finally do something about it.  Sam did amazingly well with the whole hospital experience.  Instead of anxiety he showed more excitement.  He looked forward to getting to wear the "firefighter mask."  This picture shows his smile before going into surgery.  He let the nurses and doctors do everything they needed, including taking him back with no parents and no real tears.

I was nervous about him waking up from anesthesia, but he came out real well and bounced back pretty quickly after getting his popsicle.  He has just loved all the attention he's been getting.

 If you look real closely in the left corner of his eye, you can see a loop.  This stint should stay in about 3 months and then the doctor should easily pull it out.  She said the duct was pretty packed and she wasn't able to put in as big of a stint as she had hoped, but that helped us to realize we had done the right thing.