Boxing Day

So all day on boxing day Kyle was acting a little weird about eating, we figured it was just too many sweets and candies. But at dinner he started to cry with every bite he took... so I looked in his mouth and it looked like someone has shoved a pea up under his gums by one of his top teeth. We called our dentist, who as luck would have it had just gotten back into town that afternoon, he told me to meet him at his office in 20 minutes. I took Kyle over there and he looked at it told me that he thought it was an abscessed tooth but that he'd take an x-ray to be sure. We did the x-ray and sure enough it was an abscess up behind a tooth that had a filling that evidently didn't fill in the entire decayed spot in it and as the decay had grown behind the filling it'd caused the nerve to die and the infection (abscess) to start and to grow. So he numbed up Kyle's face (as you can see in the following post procedure photos) and popped the tooth out. The transformation in Kyles demeanor was nearly instantaneous, he went from lethargic and whiny to happy and bouncy, made Carmen and I feel like inattentive parents for not noticing earlier...


I'm not smirking... honest...


Full face smile needed some assistance.


Happy as a lark in our new Christmas jammies, even if we can only get the right side of our mouth to smile...

Christmas

Christmas morning. We did make the kids wait until it was 6am before they could go downstairs to see what Santa had left for them. I know we are SOOOO MEAN to them. It's OK they'll work it out in therapy when they're older.

Putting up the Christmas Tree

Last year at an after Christmas clearance sale we picked up a prelit tree, it was regularly like 200 and we got it for like 50. Anyway the weekend after Thanksgiving here (at least on our street) is the official starting gun for getting out the Christmas stuff. Not to be out done our boys made sure we got ours up and decorated.









Carmen needs to take a photo of the finished decorating and post it. It's pretty clear there was a favored spot for ordainment placement... unless she's already redistributed them...

Tying my own tie

It was stake conference, and for a variety of reasons James hadn't tied Kyle’s tie before we left the house, Kyle asked him how to do it as we drove there in the car. So this is the result of his first effort at tying his tie while following instructions from dad who wasn't even looking at him!


Not to shabby...

Fine Dinning

Tarwater has a day called "fine dinning". It's a lunch event where they sit at tables and the 6th graders bring around serving platters and they eat a "family" style meal. It's an opportunity for them to work on etiquette and I think it's great! They asked the kid to dress up of the event. Kyle wanted to wear his suit to school today. But I didn't think that was the best idea because he had PE that day and the kids would still be going out to resees. James and I were able to talk with him about wearing nice pants and a button down shirt. So both Kyle and Ryan wore tan pants and button down shirts. The cafeteria was changed to look like a restaurant. There were even table cloths, center pieces, light music playing in the background, and nice looking paper plates on the tables. The food was served to the table and was passed around family style. I was able to be there with Kyle’s class.




Now a few years back when the boys were shopping with Nana for their dad for Christmas, and she suggested they get him something to wear to work, they told her that he had to wear tan pants and a blue shirt, that it was his uniform for work. Anyway, when I looked at Kyle and Ryan I knew I had to get a picture of them with their dad... for the obvious reason that they’re all wearing the same outfit! They just have different colored shirts on.



Oh and as you can see in the photo the "rules" on James' uniform have loosened up a bit, I think he may even have some red shirts for work now too...

Soccer

Ryan and Kyle are both playing soccer again this season. Ryan is playing on a team the has moved up to the age group of 6-7 years old even though most of the kids on the team are about Ryan's age I think 2 or 3 might already be 6... Kyle is playing a team with the 8-9 year olds. They are both playing good and learning a lot. Ryan still really likes to play goalie, which is good because he's now not only playing kids who are on average much bigger than him but now they're older too.
Here's a photo of Kyle playing his position and watching where the ball is, he's at that age where they're really starting to get how to play this as a team, how to play your position and watch the ball. A lot less swarming around the ball like angry bees... That week Kyle's team, which has black jerseys, played another team with black jerseys. Luckily the coach had gotten a heads up from the league about that possibly happening so they all wore white t-shirts under their jerseys.

In this photo Ryan diving for the save. He really gives it his all when he plays goalie.

Halloween

The boys each carved their own pumpkins. Kyle and Ryan did theirs at school for the "fall festival" at Tarwater on Friday the 30th. Tylor carved his on Halloween in the afternoon (all by himself!).


Here are the kids in their costumes on Halloween. One of the things we've done is hold onto costumes year over year, anyone need a size 2T Tigger costume? Anyway it's made it so that when one of the boys decides they don't want to be what they said they wanted to be, or even what they were at say a Halloween party THE DAY BEFORE! they can pick something out of the costume box. So originally both Kyle and Ryan were "white ninjas" from GI-Joe or something I don't know we haven't seen it but they tell us that's where it's from -because it's tribal knowledge at school evidently... Anyway for the ward trunk or treat on the 30th both Ryan and Kyle were white ninjas... But then at like 4pm when we were starting to get ready to go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood (as if we didn't get enough candy at the trunk-or-treat) Ryan decided to be something different... So he was a soldier instead.

(Trunk-or-Treating Costumes)


(Trick-or-Treating Costumes)