Mary

Andi played Mary in one of the performances of the Nativity story at preschool. She was very impressed with Mary when we went to One Night in Bethlehem a couple weeks ago. So when she was offered the part at preschool she OWNED it. And was devastated when she had to give another girl a turn in the role.

I gave a talk in Church yesterday. The topic was "Protecting our Families", specifically our children. Went well. I always enjoy the opportunity to speak. I usually learn a lot and this time was no exception. There was a lot that I wanted to talk about but, despite having wonderful paragraphs on a topic, I scrapped a lot and went with what I really felt Heavenly Father wanted me to say. So truly wasn't my talk. Emailed it to a few people who asked for it, I hope it helps them. I can't talk about the object lesson because it is a Christmas present for family. Maybe I'll mention it later. Remind me. ;)

Moving forward with the house hunt. We submitted an application for a house, waiting to get the final word on how that went down. In the mean time I finished my daycare website, am getting fingerprinted tomorrow, and going for my TB test ASAP. So many steps to getting licensed! Glad it will be worth it.

The difference a nap makes

Andi has not taken naps since she was 18 months old. She has still needed them, but for the past two years getting that girl to nap has been a nightmare (napmare?). Unfortunately, the need for the nap and the lack of the nap has often led to horrific moments like this:

She actually woke up crying on Tuesday. And she didn't stop crying. all. day. We went to dance, her favorite place to be, and she was a wreck. We left early. It was actually her dance recital practice, too! I was really afraid that she was going to be a mess for the recital. So we on the drive home I formulated a plan: she wouldn't be in trouble, she was just going to take a nap. So I gave her a snack, calmly told her she had to sleep, tucked her into my bed, and took David and Peter with me to look at a house. I then made her favorite meal: pigs in a blanket, smackeroni (macaroni, that's how she says it), salad, and strawberries, with "strawberry juice". Jonathan went up and woke Andi up, we fed her, I washed her hair, I put make up on her, and then got her into her costume. Crossing our fingers and hoping for the best, we hauled the whole family down to the school for her recital. And wouldn't you know, the nap made all the difference:

She smiled and danced the best she could, and she was happy the whole time we were at the recital. Her teacher, Miss Cindy, was amazed! (Pathetic, right? She wanted to know who'd we'd switched Andi with... Ha!)

When all was said and done, I was more happy about the end of ballet than anyone! I've decided that extracurriculars like that will have to wait for an older age. Andi needed dance for a while, I have no doubt about that, but I believe it has served its purpose and we are done. So after David's shenanigans in martial arts, and Andi's antics in ballet the last three months, we have decided that sports and activities will wait until the kids are at least eight. And I couldn't be happier about that!

Break

November sucked. The end.

December is looking great!

Jonathan got a real job (WAHOO!!!!!).

We survived puke-ageddon and pink eye in ONE weekend (Thanksgiving weekend).

Jonathan starts his real job soon (WAHOO!!!!!!).

Chandler is coming to visit!!!

Emma is coming to visit!!!

Christmas!!!

Yes, there is also a lot of work to be done. The biggest one is that of acquiring a new place to live. Our landlady's mother is retiring and needs the townhome. We have to be out by March 1st. Not really a problem because Jonathan's new job (WAHOO!!!!!!!) is about an hour away. We figure we can commute to school now, and live near the job (WAHOO!!!!!!). After we move I am also opening an in-home daycare. Something I can do to help us out while still being home with my littles.

We've got plans so we don't feel so stuck anymore. Hopefully "Well, crap." won't be such a common phrase around here anymore. ha!

Tooth update

Halloween candy

Dentist Candy Buy-Back. It is the greatest thing ever.

Before, with five pounds of candy each:

After, with $5 each:

The deal is I match what they get for their candy.

So here is what Andi bought with her $9 ($1 for tithing):

And what David bought with his $9 (and a JoAnns coupon):

David used the extra dollar and bought plain pens from the dollar store for his decorated pen business.

Halloween

 We carved pumpkins on Halloween. We weren't sure we were even going to go out so we did this just in case.

Andi's pumpkin, to her specifications:

Mine is the middle pumpkin with the square teeth. David's on the right. He designed that himself. Drew the eyes very specifically and was a rather hard-nosed supervisor.

We ended up going out. We went to a friend's neighborhood. Perfect loop. Done in an hour and half. Didn't get too wet.

Came home to this:

Halloween Costumes

Cider Mill

We went to a cider mill the second weekend of October. My midwife was having a midwifery reunion potluck-picnic and we I wanted to go. Lots of fun stuff for the kids to do:

Zipline

Corn Pit

Play castle and long slides

Hayride and pumpkin patch

Cider donuts for all

UPDATE FOR CLARIFICATION: I am NOT pregnant. NOT. At all. This was just a chance for Kate to catch up with all of the families for whom she has been a midwife. Our family is not growing by two feet any time soon.

Sickos

Andi developed a slight cough last Thursday. It was a really wet cough that I really hoped wouldn't turn into anything huge. But by Friday morning she wasn't breathing very well at all. Lots of wheezing, retraction, and a low-grade fever warranted an office visit. Sadly, I had been to that office Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday already. *sigh* She got a breathing treatment, x-ray on her lungs, and CBC run. After that she was pooped. We got home and she crashed.

After the breathing treatment her lungs had sounded better, still rattly, but better. But after she got up from her nap things got way worse. She couldn't breathe, had pain in her belly, and wouldn't touch food. After another call to the pediatrician we were sent to the ER.

They gave us another breathing treatment, commented on how nasty her lungs sounded despite the treatment, but said that her x-ray had only shown a couple of places of possible pneumonia. So they gave us the Rx for albuteral and sent us home.

 That next morning she was doing much better. Yay! Breathing was better, cough was getting better, and she seemed on the mend.

So it was David's turn.

After we'd determined that Andi was not going to need to be admitted to the hospital, David and I went Saturday morning and ran a 5K we've all been training for (Jonathan stayed home with Pete and Sicko 1).

 David won the kids' costume contest! Yay!

We faired at about middle of the pack. David had a lot of fun and we agreed that it is something we'd like to do again.

But by that evening David was really sick. He threw up his dinner, and his stomach was killing him. I told him to drink more water and he went to bed without complaint. Sunday morning he was feeling fine, so he and Jonathan went off to church while I stayed home with Pete and Andi. Jonathan and David had lunch when they got home, and things quickly started to go downhill again. David felt sick, his stomach started to hurt worse and worse, and he sat up on his bed in pain most of the afternoon. We just kept giving him water and hoping it would go away. But he started throwing up again, and this time it lasted longer and was worse.

Monday morning he woke up feeling much better. He had breakfast, did his school work, went to his class, came home.... had a bite of lunch... And once again his stomach was hurting him. No amount of water helped, and we finally realized he might be constipated. Called the nurse at our pediatrician and she said to give him prune juice.

We gave him the prune juice.

An hour later he was throwing up everything and was in worse pain that ever before. Another call to the on-call doc sent us to the ER. Again.

 They ran the gamut of tests... X-rays, CBC, urine test, ultrasound, CT when the ultrasound couldn't rule out appendicitis... They gave him an IV and pumped him full of fluids (that IV really freaked him out, he did NOT like the idea of something being left still inside of him). They gave him zofran... He watched Nightmare Before Christmas on TV then fell asleep around midnight.

An hour later I had to wake him up to give him 12 oz of juice and contrast liquid. 12!!! That was a lot of liquids. And all at once was crazy. But he did it, though he doesn't remember drinking anything at all that night. I'd believe that, because he was so out of it he kept taking sips and trying to lie down and agreeing to what I was saying but doing the exact opposite. He was really out of it, poor kid.

They finally got him to his CT scan around 2:45. We got back to our room at 3:00. By 3:30 they'd ruled out appendicitis and bowel obstructions and told us he probably had the flu and would be throwing up for the next two weeks. They gave us a Rx for zofran and sent us home.

1) SOOOOOO glad it was not something surgical.
2) Flu?? Whatever.

We got home around 4:00, I got to bed (after feeding Peter) at 4:30. Tuesday was lost. We spent the day in Pjs and watched movies all day. I spent more time organizing things, but it was an unproductive day. David didn't throw up, though he spent a LOT of time in the bathroom finally clearing things out. yay.

Andi still has a nasty cough. Still very wet. Peter is getting it now too. Both are spending some time everyday with the nebulizer.

David went two days without throwing up and his healthy appetite has returned. Though he is now coughing, too.

As tomorrow there is a 100% chance of rain for our trick-or-treating time I am really not sure it will even be worth it. The kids will be sad to miss it, but really... why take the risk? I've spent enough time with doctors and hospitals to last me a good year now, maybe two. We'll see how they are tomorrow.

Peter's birthday

I can hardly believe it, but a year has flown by and my baby is officially a year old. Sad moment, happy moment. Many moments rolled into one! I'm so glad to have him in my life. Our family is a happier place with him in it.

To celebrate we took a trip into Detroit and visited Belle Isle, a place happily situated on the Detroit river. Canada has never been closer! It was a fun visit. We first had a picnic at the fountain, then set about scouting out good places for our yearly photos.

I was afraid that our pictures would all be a bust. It was very windy and the kids were not very cooperative, especially the birthday boy himself. We took a break and played on one of the many playgrounds...

After playing for a while we managed to get a few more photos. We never did manage to get a decent family photo, but just as we were packing up the wind stalled just long enough for us to get the perfect shot of Peter. Yay! We decided to not press our luck and take what we'd gotten and head home.

 It became abundantly clear why we'd had such a hard time getting photos as soon as we headed out... Sleepy kids! Ha!

Traffic out of Detroit was miserable. But we eventually made our way to a cider mill near our home and had yummy pizza and fabulous donuts and cider.

Peter knew just where to find the good stuff!

So we didn't sing Happy Birthday, but we still had yummy little cakes. And Peter enjoyed them. :)

Nom! Nom! Nom!

So by the end of the day we had a few decent shots, and I sat back and admired my pretty kids. :) Not sure when they got so big on me, though...

 Try as we might we could NOT get all three kids looking at the camera in some decent pose. Oh well, more character. Truer character. Ha!

And the golden shot of the day:

I love my little birthday boy! We finally managed to capture his jovial spirit in that picture.

And now three fun little pictures are waiting to go on our wall, showing us their smiling faces so when they have their grumpy moments we can all remember how happy they can be. ;)