Halloween Plus More!

Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year. The kids had a great time with their costumes. McKay was a "bad witch", Kaci was a cuddly chicken, Oakley was a black cat and Colton was a motorcycle rider who got in an accident and turned into vampire! His favorite part of his costume was his glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth.

Josh was in charge of the annual "Valley Ward Spook Alley" It turned out great! All three Baker wards were invited and almost everyone brought a friend. Josh and someone else from the ward made a maze out of straw bales. Then Josh and about ten other people from the ward dressed up and hid in the dark corners of the maze. I am not sure what was the scarriest; the man chasing them into a dead-end with the chainsaw, the witch hiding in a corner with real chickens, the crazy guy (Josh) hanging upside-down behind a tarp that they had to crawl under, the worms falling from the sky (really just spaghetti), the dead-end that had walls that closed in on them and then had chainsaws blasting on all sides, or the cute little motorcycle vampire with glow-in-the-dark teeth! Well, I don't know what scared them the worst, but they say it is pretty funny to watch those 16-year-old football players be scared to death!

Of course Josh can't go for too long without an injury. The same day as the spook alley Josh broke his thumb playing basketball during his lunch break! He went for a week before he finally x-rayed it at work and saw that it was definitely broken. He took his x-rays into the doctor, saved us a few hundred dollars, and now has a cast for the next three weeks. And one of his legs still has a numb spot from hanging upside-down in a swing for a whole hour!


Oakley burned her hand really bad on Grandma Stephens stove, so she has her hand all wrapped up! Kaci tripped in the yard and fell on a rock and bloodied up her chin, again, but no stitches this time! People are going to start wondering what I do to my family!

McKay now prefers to go by Kayletta! She loves the name which is just a combination of McKay Verletta. When she was younger she couldn't say her first name and her last name it was too much of a mouth full, so what came out was Kayletta, and it stuck. Too bad we didn't think of it first!

Colton is doing great in school. We had parent teacher conference last week. He is in second grade this year, but he does reading and spelling with the advanced 4th grade reading group and math with the third graders and of course getting A's in everything. His teachers are really cracking down on his handwriting which is good. His mind thinks so much faster than his hand can move that his handwriting is horrific. His teacher gave him a 6th reading test. He got a 99% in accuracy, he read 165 words per minute, retold the whole story to her and got 100% on the comprehension part. She said, unfortunately she doesn't have a harder test to give him! He has definitely read more books than Josh and I put together. We hardly ever read. We aren't quite sure where he came from.

A 4th of July to Remember

On the night of the 2nd of July Josh and the kids decided to go camping. So Josh set out a tent and slept outside with the kids. They had a great time, but when McKay woke up the next morning she had a little bite under her right eye. It was already starting to swell, and with our history I wasn't taking any chances, so I took her right to the doctor. It was getting larger by the hour, and of course the only doctor I could get in to see was the one I haven't had good experiences with. Luckily this is her last month here because she has been unable to pass her board exams!!! (She told us that herself!) Her sole purpose in life seems to be to prove to the parents that they are wrong! GRRRRR! So of course she said it was just a bite an to give her some benadryl. Throughout the day it just kept getting bigger, so I called the Dr. back and they said they were swamped and that I would have to go to the ER. Well we were on our way to the swim park, so we decided to see if the cool water would help any, then take to the ER. By the time we made it back into the ER she looked deformed, her whole face was swollen and her eye was almost swollen shut. Poor McKay.




The DR at the ER gave her some good drugs to help with the swelling and started her on some good antibiotics. It still continued to get worse and by the morning of the 4th her eye was swollen shut. It was until that evening before we could notice that it was getting better.









While we were in the ER waiting for the Dr. Josh was asking McKay all kinds of questions. One question he asked, " If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go!" McKay was quiet for a while and then sadly said, "To my Kaci!" (Who had gone to the hotel with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson.)

Colton's Bike Path

We decided to make a sandbox for the kids. When Josh does something you can be sure it is well thought out, and well-done. He borrowed my mom's little tractor and dug a big hole in the ground and put poles around the outside to keep the dirt from falling in.



Then he went and got a truck load of sand, from my Uncles pond that he had just dug. He also put in a plastic tub that was from a decorative pond from some previous renter and put it in the sandbox. So now they have a wading pool in there sand box. They love it! Now, what do you do with all that dirt that came out of the hole? Well, little did I know he had a plan for that too! A bike path for Colton! Boy was Colton EXCITED!!!

Josh took all the dirt and made jumps all along our lane. Everyone that comes over has to try it too.

Happy Birthday Oakley

Oakley is a precious little girl. She is adored by all of us, even Colton, McKay and Kaci. They take very good care of her. She is growing up way to fast. She is now walking everywhere and is very proud of herself. She can sign "please" and "all done" and uses them a lot. She always says "Hi DAD" as soon as she sees Josh. She doesn't like to play with toys all she wants to do is go outside and play with rocks and dirt. She also likes to pull grass and weeds, and be on the trampoline with her brother and sisters. She is always ready to go. We have a six-month-old puppy, Soda. That she also loves, and he loves her. He will come right over and lay beside her. He is always kind and gentle with her and is always close to her if she is sitting in the grass. Oakley will be one on Sunday. My how time flies. We have lived in three different places since she was born!!!

Oakley Marie

Oakley is almost one and we haven't even posted any good pictures of her. I don't know what is wrong with us. We had professional pictures taken of Colton at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. The girls got pictures at 6 and 12 months. Here are some good pictures of Oakley at 12 months. They aren't professional, but they are cute! If any of you want a picture let me know what pose and what size you would like and I will order a bunch of them.