Halloween 2013

We weren't the best parents this Halloween. We were kind of scrooge-y. We didn't have Elliott go out and trick and treat. And we didn't put on our light for Halloween night. In our defense, last year, 2 people came to our house and we had all of this leftover candy. We did not need a lot of candy hanging around! This year, Elliott had so many Halloween parties and events, that he just did not need more candy! BUT...to celebrate Halloween...we did get a pumpkin carved!

Patrick and Elliott had a lot of fun cutting the pumpkin open. I stood by snapping pictures, and Emily hung out in the doorway.

Elliott 5 Years and Emily 15 Months Well Check Appointment

How fun was it that I got both of these kiddos in to see the doctor on the same day!

Emily Stats:

Weight: 21 lb 12.8 oz (57%)

Height: 31" (62%)

Head Circ: 18.5" (82%)

Elliott Stats:

Weight: 41 lb (53%)

Height: 3' 7.5" (63%)

I think it's funny that both of them are in the 50s for weight and 60s for height. Emily was in the 30s for height 3 months ago...so she definitely had a growth spurt.

Both kids behaved really well for the doctor. Before she left, she told me that I have really good kids. I told her thank you, then she looked at me and said, "No really, you have really good kids." So sweet. I think I have good kids too and I'm grateful for that.

All went well at the doctor's appointment. Or so I thought. Their appointment was at 8 am. And a few min ago at 3 pm, their doctor calls me. Panic! But they didn't have blood tests to tell me they have a weird illness...so why would their doctor be calling me instead of a nurse!?!  Then she tells me that there was something wrong with one of Emily's vaccine, she got something else instead of what she's suppose to have. PANIC!! I mean...what??? Did this really just happen?? But she said there was no harm in it. She got the DTaP instead of the Hib. The Hib is in the DTaP, so she got it. She just got an extra does of the other 2 that are in the DTaP (dtp and polio maybe?). She might be extra sore and increase chance of fever. Doctor also said the person that made the mistake has been dealt with. Doctor wasn't even in the office and called me straight from her cell at home to let me know. She said if I had any concerns I can always call her back on her cell. I really do love their doctor...so sweet. She said she told the office manager that she was upset this happened to our family because we are a sweet family and she said I was such a sweet mom to my kids. (That felt so good to hear!!) And I'm grateful that this wasn't a more serious situation than it could have been. And even with the mix up, I would never go without vaccines with my kids. Way too scary!

Mom's Club Halloween Party

It was fun to get the kids out and go to our Mom's Club Halloween Party. It was a beautiful day and the kids had tons of fun playing!

This year Elliott is Mario!

And Emily is a cute little ghost.

Emily had so much fun playing on the swings at the park...I had a lot of fun snapping some pics of her. These were a "few" of my favorite. When I reached down to get her out...she didn't want anything to do with that and insisted on staying in the swing.

And here's our attempt at a group shot of all the dressed up kiddos that came out to the party.

 Emily cried the entire time during the picture. I just let her be. Then when I went to pick her up...she had 3 huge scratches across her face. Apparently, a kid next her (not in pic) scratched her and that was why she was crying. I had no idea....and I felt so bad. I thought she was just being cranky...poor thing. I would have gone to her asap if I knew she was hurt!

Elliott is 5!!

How is it possible that my little guy is already 5! He is just getting so big. I'm so proud of how much he's grown and learn in the past year. He attends speech once a week for 1 hour and goes to preschool 3 times all week for most of the day. He loves school and I'm so excited how much fun he is having.

He has been more sensitive lately. If I raise my voice at him (but not yell!), he runs to his room and pouts and when he comes out he says, "Mommy, you don't love me anymore?" Oh such a sweet boy.

Elliott loves to play wii. Mario Party 8 and Mario Kart are his faves. We have to put a time limit or he'll play all day long...really, he will. He loves to read. I love that he loves books. Oh and he absolutely LOVES to play games with us. Any game...he loves it. Sadly, after 5, 6, 7 rounds of a game...and I just can't take another round, he'll play by himself. He is such a good big brother and is always taking care of Emily. If he accidentally hurts her, he get so so upset and takes himself up to his room.

We had such a fun day today! I was so excited to celebrate with him.

LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY!!!

I dropped Elliott off at school at 8:30 then went home to get ready for the day. I asked Elliott before school if he wanted me to come to school. He said no. So I didn't tell him I was coming up. I brought cupcakes for all the kids. It was fun to see him finally notice I was in his classroom...and he was pretty excited and wanted me to stay for the rest of the day. I didn't...I was there for 1 hour. It was fun to chat with his teacher and see how he interacts with the other kids.

We then went and had his party at Chuck E Cheese! He loved it! He had 2 friends from church come, and Patrick's side of the family. It did cost money...but I loved seeing him get so much attention and having such a good time for his birthday. My camera battery decided to die on me half way through...ugh. So I had to resort to cell phone pics.

I went easy on his "cake" this year. We had Mario Kart cupcakes. I ordered these edible cake toppers all with different mario kart images. I didn't think to take a pic of them all....hopefully Patrick has some pics on his cell phone...so here's 1 of the cupcakes.

All ready to start this party!

The crew.

 The 3 of us...Emily is off sitting in a high chair somewhere.

Oh the ticket blaster. Everyone had already gone home and we still needed to do the ticket blaster. He was terrified of it. Patrick had to go in there with him. He was okay once it turned on..and wanted to do it again. But yeah...the only kid in history to be terrified of the ticket blaster.

Emily was a trooper. 2 1/2 hours past her bedtime...so I let her eat cake.

Steps

Emily has finally decided it was time to take some steps. I was shocked actually. She can do 4-5 at a time...while walking to me...no where else. She is now 15 months and 4 days. Silly girl. We tried to get a video...but wasn't very successful at it. Maybe one day we can get more pics/videos. So proud of her!

Emily 15 Months

My sweet is Em is 15 months today!

I look at her and can't believe how big this girl is...that first year sure does go by way too fast.

She is still such a sweetie.

She has 6 teeth now. That 6th tooth sure was a booger. She went through fevers and runny noses to get that one to cut through.

She is so sensitive. One morning, she stuck her hand in her oatmeal when I was trying to feed her, I said, "Emily..." in an exasperated voice...not sternly. And she bursted into tears. If you cry, she cries. I could make her cry on demand by just making a sad voice.

She is quite attached. She HATES it when you walk away from her.

She is still being stubborn walking. She has the ability...just extra cautious. Sometimes she'll hold one hand and walk...but it doesn't last long because she likes to hold both hands.

I have just started putting shoes on her....not that she needs them...but maybe she can get used to them by the time she starts walking.

She is a picky one with her food. But she does like to eat still. She is ALWAYS buckled in her high chair...that wiggly girl.

She loves her Daddy!! She's probably the most excited when Patrick gets home. She can't sit till and has the biggest grin and she's antsy until he gives her a hug. It really is just so adorable. One day I heard the garage door open, I told her, "Daddy is home, go give him a hug." She crawled out of the living room, into the kitchen, and down the hall where the door to the garage is and was in the hallway when Patrick got home.

She still sleeps like a champ (unless she's teething!) And she's making the transition to 1 nap a day. I really do like the 1 long nap compared to 2 short naps.

She goes in to the doctor next week for her 15 month checkup...and shots of course.

Only a few pictures today. This was right after stake conference and before her naptime.

Here's Elliott sharing and helping her play on the ipad.

TOFW--Saturday

We started out early today. But what an amazing day!!!

Chris Williams--amazing! Tear jerker! He lost his wife and 2 kids to a teenage drunk driver. He talked about how he was able to let it go and forgive this young man. He tells us there is a 3 step process when faced with grief: 1. Let it go and have faith to be healed. 2. Buck up--all is not lost and to have hope. 3. Move forward--get busy serving others. Confront evil with goodness.

Sandra Turley was one of our performers. She's a singer and amazing. She's beautiful and appears to be perfect. Her story was also a tear jerker for me. She had gone through years and years of infertility. When she finally came to terms and accepted it, they decided to adopt. They got a 5 lb baby girl, and almost 45 days later, the birth mom wanted her back. So heart wrenching to go through this I'm sure. When they got over that loss, they decided to start over at square one and went back to the doctor. The doctor informed them she was already pregnant. At this point she tells us she'd like to show us her family....a picture pops up and she has 4 kids!!!! Amazing! Major tear jerker for me at that point. She goes on to tell us that Heavenly Father is thinking of us all the time.

Those 2 were probably my favorite.

John Hilton was next. We need to discover who we really are and look beyond the daily routine of life. (Exactly what I've been struggling with.) We need to tap into the vision of what God has in store for us. When there is no vision, people perish. And the mundane can be miraculous.

We brought our lunch and took a walk to find a place to eat it. It was nice.

Merrilee Boyak was dynamic. She has so much passion for what she believes in and stands for. We are sent here in these latter days when the Lord needs us. The battle of good vs evil is all around us. The adversary puts reluctance in our heart. We need to have more courage to speak up. She told a story of her mother. Her mother was really meek. And she attended a mormon bashing event with 4,000 people. After an hour of the pastor saying lies about the church. She stood up and denounced everything he said and invited all to ask her questions about our church afterwards in the foyer. What an amazing  and bold woman. We need to catch a glimpse of who we really are and what we are capable of. We are all sent here to defend the family now. We need to stand together as women to protect our family against Satan. Share what we know and believe and support each other. The most dangerous things in our home come from a plug. Eliminate all evil from our home and protect our children!! (This was one of the most important things I got from this...we need to protect our children.)

Laurel Christensen Day talked about letting go of our fears. Do not stop asking what we want the most. We fought for the plan to make choices, that is more important to Heavenly Father than our happiness. There is peace on the other side of brave. God loves us, we need to trust him.

And that was the end of the conference. I'm looking forward to when we can go back again. Amazing!

We then met up with Dad and went out to eat. We went back to the hotel and watched Ephraim's Rescue. And that video just added more fuel to my fire.

I started this weekend out by taking Katy through the temple...what a great start! And then to also feel the Spirit this weekend. It was just an amazing weekend...so grateful to our husbands for letting this happen!

Time out for Women--Friday

A year ago, I asked my sister and mom if they would like to have a girls only weekend and go to Time Out for Women together. Believe it or not, it all worked out. Miriam and I left our kids with our husbands, and we all met up Thursday night after Katy's temple session. It was such a good weekend. I missed my kids and Patrick, but it was exactly what I needed spiritually.

The conference didn't start until Friday evening, so we had all day to hang out on Friday. We went shopping at Jo-Anns. And then we just hung out.

Here we are waiting for it to start.

Brad Wilcox was suppose to be a speaker, but his mother passed away, so we were fortunate to hear from John Bytheway. Great speaker! Here are some highlights: He talked about how we are all part of this test here on earth. Our ultimate goal is eternal life. And we can't expect to get there WITHOUT going through grief, pain, or trials. God works through other people. So when other people are praying for a miracle in their lives...we need to be in tune enough to be that miracle for that person. Any pain or suffering we go through in this life is not wasted. He recited a poem for us by Neal A. Maxwell...it was an analogy of a needlework. And how the underside is so ugly, and sometimes that is all we see of our lives, but Heavenly Father sees the upper side and how beautiful it is. He then stressed that Heavenly Father LOVES his daughters.

Sherri Dew was our next speaker. I didn't realize that she doesn't come to all of the TOFW conferences, so we were fortunate to have her there. Her highlights: We are sisters in Zion and God sent us here at this time. This time is hard because the Adversary is very experienced. Heavenly Father doesn't explain to us in the middle of our trial, but we do realize it afterwards. Because of what we know, we are in a position to deal with our challenges we face. God expects us to learn how to receive revelation. We are endowed with priesthood power and knowledge in endowment.

Jenny Oaks Baker was the performer for this session. She's a violinist and she was amazing. She is the daughter of Elder Oaks.

The Temple

I felt so honored that Katy asked me to be her escort through the temple for today. I loved being able to share in her big day! We love Katy and we are so excited for her to join our family.

1st Day of Preschool

I am so super excited for Elliott today!

It's his 1st day of preschool...and I just know he's going to love it like crazy!!!

Yes, it'll be nice for me to spend time with Emily. But I'm mostly excited for my little guy! He loves school!

How cute is this little guy?!?!

Love him!!

Sick Baby

This poor little girl isn't feeling well today. She's fever-ish (her max is 100.0) Little rosy cheeks...glassy eyes...yucky runny nose. She can't sleep more than 45 min at a time....she's been crying non-stop. Makes me so grateful that she wasn't colicky. That would be really hard. I pulled out my phone to take a pic of my little sickie...and she smiled so big!! We are hoping she is just teething...since she hasn't gone over 100.0...we are thinking so. Love you little girl.

Cell Phone

She already knows how to unlock the cell phone. She thinks it's hers really. Here's her playing with it....she even chose to lay down to play with it...oh boy. She's not even 15 months old yet!!! 

Mold/Grain Mites

I gave Emily a bath the other day and saw "dirt" in the tub. No big deal, right? Then as I got her out, I noticed "dirt" in the sink! I immediately called Patrick up...and he says oh so casually, "oh yeah, I think they are bugs." What?!?! That night we got out the bleach and we bleached the kids' bathroom...they were thousands of bugs! The fumes killed us...but we got that bathroom cleaned and we poured the bleach down the drains. And then they came back. I researched and I thought we had springtails. But nope. We decided to check the closet right next to the bathroom where we keep most of our food storage. They were everywhere! We believe, and are now certain, the source were some bags of beans and wheat that Patrick's parents gave us. And we believe these are mold mites....they are teeny tiny...just specks.We threw the bags out and instead of thousands and thousands like we found the 1st few days. We are now down to less than 50 per day. So we bleached the bathroom, fogged it, vinegared it, and sprayed household insecticide. 2 weeks of battling these annoying mold mites!!

I should have taken a picture of the sink covered in these things...it was pretty bad.