Halloween Festivities

The first event on our Halloween agenda was David's preschool party. We have a few little preschool groups in our neighborhood organized by age. All the groups got together for our Halloween party. It was so much fun! We rotated through four different stations; Face painting, stories, pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern and cookie decorating. David had a great time. He decided to wear our power ranger costume from the dress up box instead of his clown costume for the party.

The eyeball:

Showing off his muscles:


His Class: (yes, he's the only boy and he doesn't mind at all. He loves all of his preschool friends)
After the party I had some errands to run. Every time we pass Chuck E Cheese while we're running errands David asks if we can go in. Normally my answer is no, but this day I was feeling generous and we went on a date to Chuck E Cheese (with Brigham in tow-it still counts, right?). I was reminded again how important quality one on one time is. He was beaming. We shared a mini pizza and salad bar and I gave him two dollars for tokens. Chuck E Cheese is much more affordable with one child.

That evening was Trunk or Treat. It was FREEZING, but always a good time. Here is one of my favorite trunks. This one came in second place. I never did make it down to see the first place trunk, but it must have been amazing.

If there would have been a "come as you are" category, our trunk would have won.

Our Clan in front of our closed trunk. Jail Bird Sean, Vampire Warren (his hair was much more slicked back and much more black earlier in the evening. The wind was blowing really hard.), Nurse Olivia, Pea Pod Brigham and clown David:

Darin and I dressed up as a couple in love (Nothing says "I love you" like twinner haircuts)

Tiffany was an amazing photographer. She even chose the paneling back drop. She insisted on some glamour shots. I was really happy with the way this one turned out:

On Halloween night we decided to go trick or treating with my brother and his kids in my parents' neighborhood. We left Darin home (he had been sick for the majority of the week. He finally went to the doctor the Monday after Halloween and found out he had pneumonia. It hasn't been a fun illness for him).

Ally wasn't feeling well (poor kid) so she couldn't come. Princess Erin and Tiger McKay joined our family down the street to Renae's house, then we went our separate ways.

(If you look closely, you can see that David decided to do his own red makeup. It was awesome)

This was one of our favorite houses. When you walked toward the driveway to the stairs, this is what you saw:

Then, as you passed, these guys popped out:
Warren and David were done a little bit before Sean and Liv, so we called Renae to ask if the three little boys could stay with her while we finished. She graciously agreed to let them stay and Liv, Sean and I went for another half hour or so. We made a quick stop at Grandma and Grandpa's house to share some of our loot with Ally, then headed down to Renae's to meet up with the boys and do the ceremonial treat sorting. I had such a fun night. My kids and I shared some great laughs. Olivia still teases me about one house. Since we were in the neighborhood where I grew up, I knew a lot of people so I chatted briefly with several of them. By the end of our journey my mouth was cold and I was apparently tired because I tried to say "Happy Halloween" and "I hope you have a good evening" all at the same time and it came out something like "I hope you hap a havvy Hallowevening". Those are the moments that bring us closer together. We went home exhausted and grateful for the extra hour of sleep we got that night (Thank you, Daylight Savings!)

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery?

Just this morning David said to Darin,

"For Halloween I'm going to be a witch just like momma."

I REALLY hope he's referring to my costume last year.


p.s. I have no idea what any of my kids are going to end up wearing for costumes. They all have several ideas. It will be interesting to see what happens. Is it really this week?

Sick of Sick

We are now going on one straight month of sick. At least one member of our household has been sick in some form or another for 4 weeks now. I know this because I missed taking Brig's 3 month photo with the bear because he was sick, and he is now 4 months old. We have had everything from coughs, sniffles, croup, eye infections, ear infections, sinus infections, and now fevers. I know that in a home with 7 people (3 of whom bring lots of extra germs from school) it increases our chances of being sick, but this year has been ridiculous! We are normally not very sickly people. I don't think my kids missed any school last year for illness, and our only doctor visits were well child checks. This year Warren has already missed a day (and he will be staying home again today), Sean woke up with an eye infection, and we have been to the doctor (mostly after hours of course) 4 times. Our first trip to the doctor was an after hours visit for Brig. He had been extra fussy and not sleeping well for a couple of days. He didn't have a fever, but I knew something had to be wrong. I went and joined the masses at the doctor's office and began to doubt my decision to be there. Everyone there sounded and looked awful. Brig was relatively happy and didn't look sick, and I thought that maybe I had been imagining or over-exaggerating his crankiness. When the doctor came in I said, "I really hope I'm not wasting your time. I'm just here on mother's intuition." She was very kind and replied that mother's intuition is right more often than not. Sure enough. An ear infection and the beginning of an eye infection. I dropped Brig off with Darin while I headed to the pharmacy (we're becoming good friends, the pharmacy and I) to pick up his medicine. When I got home I found them like this:

I'm so glad to have Darin on my team. I don't know how I could have done this month without him. He is always on the scene with the middle of the night episodes. In fact, one night I was so tired from being up so much with Brig that I didn't even know that David and Warren had been awake with fevers. I'm so grateful to be married to a helping husband.

Brig has now finished his antibiotics, but is still fussy and not sleeping well. I went back to the doctor Saturday to see if the ear infection was a stubborn one. Nope. Both ears look great. Is this just how he is now? The doctor thinks it might be acid reflux. So...the good news is that for the next two weeks I will be on a strict elimination diet so we can see what it is that I am eating that is causing him to be fussy. I have been praying for motivation to eat better. Be careful what you pray for! Just when I thought we had the green light to go back to living our lives as normal, David and Warren both woke up in the middle of the night with high fevers. It is becoming physically and emotionally draining. I am beginning to wonder if I will ever sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. Brig thinks I am a rock star and wants me to hold him at all times. He goes to other people just fine, but when he sees me he pleads with me (with his eyes and arms) to hold him. It is equal parts adorable and exhausting. My days are filled with giving medicine (and plenty of natural remedies), reminders to wash hands and cover coughs, disinfecting, washing bedding to kill the sick germs, trying to keep up with dishes and laundry (I have mastered many things one handed--baby in arms--but dishes and laundry aren't on the list yet), and trying to give enough TLC to all. Even with the challenges that come from having a big family of small kids, this is what I have always wanted to do and I am grateful to have this be my life. I just hope that we can go back to healthy very soon.

Strewshens

Early yesterday morning there was a knock at the door. I wasn't expecting anyone, and was still in bed. The kids opened the door before I could tell them to wait for me, and I heard a male voice ask for their mom. I rolled out of bed and got dressed in one swift move and headed downstairs, still wondering who it could be. I remembered halfway down the stairs that this was the day our vinyl fence posts were going to be installed. I went to the door (still half asleep) and saw three workers. One served as spokesman, and here's how the conversation went:

(Polite greeting by both of us)

Worker: Do you have any strewshens?
Me: What was that?
Worker: Do you have any strewshens?
Me: Can you repeat that?
Worker: Do you have strewshens for the fence?

At this point they were all looking at me like I was up in the night; which, in their defense, I have been up in the night...a LOT...with sick kids, and I'm very tired. My brain doesn't function at 100%, so I was still thinking it was more of a me problem rather than a language barrier. I didn't know how to ask him to repeat it a fourth time without being offensive, so I decided to repeat it back to him to make sure I was hearing him properly.

Me: Strewshens?
Worker: Yes
(uh-oh. I heard him right. I had no idea where to go from here)
Me: I don't know what strewshens are.
Worker: We take down old fence?
Me: No. You can just put the vinyl fence in front of the other fence. The other fence will be taken down by UTA.
Worker: (Smiling) Thank you.

I guessed he had what he needed because they walked away. I shut the door and started laughing. It wasn't until I took a minute to spell it out in my mind (strutions) that I realized he was asking if I had INSTRUCTIONS.

The fence posts were installed correctly and beautifully. I guess I did have strewshens after all.

All He Wants For Christmas...

...is a Nintendo DS.

Fete Day 2009

In case you need a refresher course, here are the basics of this made-up holiday. (You can read all about the founder here.)

1) Choose a color

2) Everyone wears the color and exchanges inexpensive gifts of the color

3) Official food is Ice Cream Cake

4) Do an activity (any activity)

5) Celebrate on or around August 16th

Our activity this year included a few outdoor games. We had a human spelling bee (I don't know if that's what it's called, but that's what I'm calling it). We split into teams, each team member wore a letter on his/her front and one on his/her back. The "caller" would yell a word, use it in a sentence (a certain fellow with a mustache on my team missed that crucial instruction), and the team had to get in the right order to spell the word. Our team lost, but I bet we laughed the most. We also played Barnyard Tag and Ladder Golf--both very fun as well. Our activity could have been "Where's (Waldo) Kelsey?". See if you can spot her in the following photos:

Throughout the post, please see evidence pointing to the fact that we will likely never have a successful family photograph without the aid of photoshop.

Exhibit A: Olivia

Here are more shots of the party-goers (I think I took plenty of pictures.)
Exhibits B & C: Darin and Sean
The parents:

A special, heartfelt Fete Day ballad from Jared to Jodi:

Exhibits D, E, F, G, H, I: (actually, I promised them that we could do this photo if they would just smile for one photo. That's my best impression of Sean's photo face. How did I do?)

Two Months

My tall boy:

Pondering...

Happiness is:

Olivia kept our hairnets and insisted on this photo (Brig didn't seem to mind!)