Bedtime Shenanigins!

To say that my two little hooligans love their bath time would be an understatement...

...that is, until the comb enters into the situation.

But after the trauma of brushing his hair wears off he could sit in the bath until the water is frigid cold and his fingertips are all pruned out.

Smarty pants. He knows if he puts the bowl on his head we can't comb his hair anymore.

This little chub loves to kick his legs and splash with his arms. I usually look as if I went for a dip myself after I'm done bathing them. Not to mention the floor outside of the tub resembles a swimming pool because of all the splashing.

There's nothing like the night time sillies that emerge from Miles after his bath.

He's a one man show and it's entertaining enough I think I could start charging a fee for those that want to watch.

After the silliness is all wiggled out of him we attempt to calm things down with a book and prayer.

Tired boy-- getting ready to go to bed.

But not until after a snuggle with his older brother.

Night times are a riot at our house-- but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Back in Utah!

Dinosaur Museum @ Thanksgiving Point

The perks of Tim's new job afforded us to spend two and half weeks back in Utah over the Thanksgiving break. While back in Utah we played with lots of friends and visited the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum (of which I have no photos-- it was an impromptu visit) and the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. I wasn't sure how Miles would react to the large statuesque bones, but as you can see in the photos below he was rather enthralled with the museum.

They have this great erosion table with water, sand and miniature plastic dinosaurs and I believe had we left the kids in that room by themselves they would have been entertained for hours upon hours.

Side note: the day after we arrived in Utah Tim and some friends went to the Bouncing Souls concert and he came home with matching t-shirts for the boys. As seen in the photos above and below.

Graham loves snugglin' with his aunt Meggy and Nana!

Another area the kids kept entertained in was the sand pit where they could dig and dust away dirt to discover bones hidden below.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this lady and her darling family.

The ever growing chubbalicious cheeks!

Sledding after "the great blizzard"

The night before this day of sledding it was believed to be one of the biggest blizzards in years. The University of Utah and a bunch of other businesses shut down early due to the warnings, but it ended up being just another typical Utah snow storm.

We left Graham inside with Nana to stay warm while we kicked around and threw snowballs at each other. Snow that sticks on the ground and stays there is not common in NM so this was a real treat for us.

1st time skiing

This day ranks up there with the birth of my two kids. Seriously the funnest day of skiing I've ever had-- and I didn't even ski-- I just watched.

Miles is a natural born skier-- there's no other way to put it! He LOVED every minute of it and still talks about it today-- 4 days later.

Happy as can be-- he never stopped smiling, talking and giggling.

This kid can rip and he's just about 22 month old. By far the littlest tike on the hill.

Mimi & Boppo!

Grandma & Grandpa Vigil (Mimi & Boppo) visited us in NM and met Graham for the first time. Even though they were only here for couple of days we tried to cram in as much snuggle and play time as possible.

Those cheeks are definitely kissable. Graham's aren't all that bad either ;)

My boys snugglin'

Miles getting a push from Boppo and showing off his mad bicycle skills. Speaking of bikes, we went to the REI garage sale today and Miles spotted a skuut from across the store and immediately went to it. I'm seriously amazed at the coordination he has on bikes at such a young age. Santa is most likely bringing a bike this year. And a helmet. And knee pads. And wrist guards... you can never be too cautious with "MAD MILES".

After Grandma & Grandpa left Miles cried and thrashed about the house, but we're glad we got to spend a couple of lazy days with them.

Nope... still no trim! The afro is starting to grow on me.

Tales of a dragon and a little ducky

Sandia Peak

Last weekend we took a drive up to the top of Sandia Peak with hopes to hike around, but once we reached the summit we quickly discovered that a quick jaunt would be all our kids could handle. It was FREEZING. And we really weren't equipped for winter hiking. I was wearing flip flops and we didn't have a coat for Graham.

So we bundled as much as we could and took a short walk up to the peak. The fog was beautiful. We will be returning with warmer clothing and better pictures-- our camera lens has been acting up so some of our pictures are from our phone and some are from the camera. Darn electronics.

Carving Pumpkins

Miles liked the idea of playing with pumpkins until Daddy starting butchering and de-gutting it, then he was terrified. The picture below was taking just before the terror began. I then had to put down the camera and save my child from Tim. He thought it was hilarious to scare him by holding pumpkin goop above his head. Awful.

Ward Halloween Party & Cupcakes

So I volunteered to bring cupcakes to our ward Halloween party and I may have gotten a bit ambitious with my baking. About half way through I was ready to be done, but with a good portion of the cakes not "dressed" for the occasion I had to plow through. I thought they turned out darling and would do it again. I've got some super cute ideas for Thanksgiving cupcakes. We'll have to see if I muster up the energy to do those as well.

Our ward went all out for Halloween. I've never been in a ward before that celebrates EVERY holiday. Maybe it's because most of us are New Mexico transplants and the ward is basically our family while here. :)

LOVE the tights. I know they're girly, but I don't care. He's too cute.

We have so many children in our ward and I underestimated how much candy we would need at the trunk or treat. We ran out in about 10 minutes. Next year we'll be more prepared.

Later that night Miles was playing with our trick-or-treat bowl and being the lax parents we sometimes are we let him. Then he decided he just needed to throw it and it shattered into a million shards. Smart. Real smart on our part. We win parent of the year award.

Such a smart and sweet brother Miles is. Graham was hating life in his costume and I really wanted to get a picture of the two of them together. This is the best we could manage. Miles apparently has seen mommy put her finger into Graham's mouth on occasion to calm him down so he decided to give mom a hand (or should I say, "finger?") in helping Graham calm down. Really sweet of him.

Historic Old Town

Fall Halloween Festival

The day after our trunk-or-treat gig at the church we met up with some of Tim's co-workers/friends at the Historic old town plaza. They had some fun activities for children, music and trick-or-treating at the shops all around. Miles spent the evening dancing to the bluegrass music and chasing the many dogs around. Fun night.

My sweet little duck.

My ferocious dragon.

And now I will leave you with a shaggalicious picture of my "dog the bounty hunter" child in the making. Seriously folks-- we have to do something about this hair. I feel I've been selfish long enough. The kid hates having his hair washed and combed. Furthermore, we have to use almost a palmful of conditioner to get through his snarls set in by food. It might be time to give it a trim. I said, "might". I'm not sure yet.