Yep, There's Monsters...

Ammon is incredibly smart and creative. He gets really into things and usually obsesses about it for long periods at a time. Recently his free time has been spent creating monsters. I’m not sure if Halloween started this or the movie that we watched together “Monsters vs. Aliens.” He draws them (eyes, mouth, legs, arms, horns, and feet) and then asks for me to cut them out for him. He is adamant that we cut it a certain way. He envisions it looking a specific way and when it doesn’t turn out as he expects he can get a little frustrated. Honestly, I am the same way at times and this is why I seldom do crafts.

Ammon names each monster and interacts with it as if it were a real person. He is very compassionate towards his monsters as well. No matter how many times I tell him that he needs to feed himself and not his monsters, he still insists that they are hungry too. He even attempted to take one with him into bath, but was very upset when the ink washed off the paper and it to fall apart.

The other day, I threw out some of his monsters. Some of them had food on it and were starting to look a little yucky. We seriously had about 50-75 of them in the kitchen drawer and I was running out of space. Surely, he wouldn't miss some of these, right? Well, the next morning Ammon was frantic. He was running around in a daze, screaming about his Monsters. It took me awhile to realize that he knew exactly which ones were missing and described them to me. I felt awful. Unfortunately at this point, the trash had been picked up and digging through the trashcan wasn't an option. I was absolutely amazed that he could describe them all to me, the one with thirteen eyes and blue and black legs, the one with red and orange dots all over its body, etc.

I felt awful about the situation not realizing that he was attached to each and everyone one of these monsters. Luckily, Ammon finally calmed down and we created new monsters together. Today I took pictures of his daily creations. Enjoy!

Each Monster is given a name. This is Blue.

Ammon brings us a lot of joy. Isn't he just the cutest little boy?

Our Little Princess

Maddie Sue is such a joy to our family. She is always smiling and laughing. She loves to run and chase Ammon, enjoys playing peek-a-boo, and has an amazing sense of humor. She loves to wrestle with her big brother and is fearless when it comes to climbing up objects. She has managed to climb onto a chair at our kitchen table and then proceeded to get onto the table. It scared me to death the first time I saw her do this. The chair legs are higher than she is, but she somehow manages to pull herself up onto them. Dinner preparation can be a challenge to say the least.

She seems to be a bit of a tomboy and kind of reminds me of my niece Kaili when she was Maddie Sue’s age. At the same time, she loves her baby doll and insists on wearing the necklaces that daddy brought home for her awhile back. I never thought having a little girl in our home could ever be this much fun!

Maddie is one tough little girl!She makes the funniest facial expressions.

She has four teeth now... and knows how to use them!

A Visit from the Collins...

Bryan, Carol, Ben, Will & Zach Collins came to visit from Ohio this weekend. It was wonderful having them here. The weather wasn’t too accommodating having rained the entire time, but we still had a great time together. We visited the Lutz Children’s Museum on Saturday and then watched the Ohio State football game.

Happy Halloween from Cowboy Ammon & Maddie Sue our Indian Princess…

This year we went to Trunk-or-Treat with Ben and Jan and then they joined us for our wards Fall Festival and Trunk-or-Treat the following week. It has been wonderful having them so close!

Maddie's First Birthday... And More

Where's Waldo... I mean Nathan. Hint: He's wearing a hat.
The older that I get, the quicker the time seems to fly by. I don’t know where the last three months have gone.

Nathan ran his first marathon this month. He did really well despite his legs cramping up. We are so proud of him for sticking with it. He still has blood blisters on his feet and was a great sport about us not being able to cheer him on. Ammon was back at the hotel throwing up and had awful diarrhea. Maddie also fell off the bed and has a huge goose egg on her forehead. I was relived that it popped out, because she had a huge indentation in her forehead when I initially picked her up. She had fallen asleep in the morning and I laid her down to tend to Ammon. Next thing I know she is screaming and evidently hit her head on the corner of the bedstand. What a day in Hartford... We hope Nathan's next marathon goes much smoother.

The downside of living so far from family is that our families generally miss out on seeing our children during most holidays and special occasions. The upside to this is that when we are together, these times are very special. Maddie Sue absolutely loves her Grandpa King and Uncle Matt and clung to them pretty quickly. It took her awhile longer to get used to Grandma though. For some reason Maddie is more partial to men, but she loved Grandma as long as mom was totally out of sight. Ammon kind of preferred this though, because he and Grandma were able to have lots of one on one time without having to share her as much. Anyone that knows Kathy knows that she is the Craft Queen. She and Ammon made foam Christmas crafts; and somehow missed capturing pictures of them doing these.

Maddie Sue turned one year old on October 21st. Since Grandpa & Grandma King and Uncle Matt visited us for a few days in October, we thought this would be the perfect time to celebrate her birthday. Here are some pictures from Maddie Sue’s party:

Thank you to everyone who made this event so special!

We met with the doctor from Brown University and the Hasbro Children's Hospital. The first appointment seemed to go very well. Grandma King helped with Maddie Sue and Ammon while we met with the doctor. Thank you so much Kathy! The second appointment was a bit of a frustration. After a phone conversation with the doctor, I felt a little better about the direction that he wants to take with Ammon though. He feels that Ammon suffers from asperger's syndrome. I think time with truly tell whether or not this is just his disposition or if there are other underlying issues. We're not focused on a diagnosis as much as we just want to find ways to help him with some of the challenges he's experiencing.

A Busy Weekend

There is an orchard not far from the house that we love to visit every year. We pick our own apples and sample their homemade products. They give free hayrides and freshly squeezed apple cider. This is a beautiful time to be in New England.

Maddie got to pick her first apple. It's too bad she was more interested in picking up rocks and putting them in her mouth.

I love this face.

Ammon in front of all of the autumn gourds.

Daddy loves his little girl!



I ran my first marathon on Oct 10 in Hartford. I got a little too excited and thought I could hang at a pace that I wasn't ready for, so I hit the wall pretty hard. At mile 21, my right leg completely cramped up and went rigid. I hobbled to the side and was worried that I may not be able to finish the race. I sat on the grass and stretched my leg. A marathon worker pushed down on my back to help me stretch it out. I was able to continue, but legs felt dead. I just had to will myself for the last five miles. My goal was 3:30 for the 26.2 miles, but I ended up finishing at 3:41. Despite not reaching the goal, I was happy with the result. I didn't give up and I learned some lessons for future marathons. Thanks to Lona for dealing with a horrible night's sleep at a noisy hotel, a sick child, and closed roads... Ammon was back at the hotel throwing up & had horrible diarrhea. The ride home was quite an adventure to say the least.

Lona took the kids to a children's museum. The kids had a blast and we hope to get out there again when they will have more time to explore.

Maddie Rocks

This is a very special chair. It was given to Lona by her great grandmother. Maddie loves it as much as we do!