November Recap

Yikes....where did November go? Or the beginning of December for that matter? I don't know about you but I am nowhere near being done with my Christmas shopping but surprisingly, I am not stressing about it. Well at least not too much.

 

November was not very kind to our family in the health department. The beginning of the month Elliott came down with a virus of some sort. She had a fever for about 4 days (which means sleepless nights for the both of us) but finally was able to bounce back. About the same time Maverick started coughing but that was all for him. I felt a little off but my guess was it was just lack of sleep and stress....I really don't like fevers! We finally were back to our healthy ways when the stomach flu hit us.....hard. Baron woke up throwing up in his bed on a Saturday night. There was late night washing of his bedding and, eventually, ours. He and I ended up spending the night on the couch where he finally got some sleep around 5 am (when the vomiting stopped). Elliott then came down with it on a Tuesday night and it was the same exact scenario but she only threw up 3x. Maverick woke up sick on Wednesday morning and by 10 Grant was home sick as well. Thankfully Elliott bounced back after 8-10 hours so I was able to focus on Mav. This is one of the times where I am extremely grateful for his feeding tube. Because of the RSS, Mav can't fast or it could potentially cause him to go hypoglycemic and we don't want that. I was able to set the pump extremely low and get pedialite & then his milk into him without making him sick. Needless to say, the washing machine was going non-stop for 4 days and almost every surface of the house had to be sanitized. I feel extremely lucky that I did not get the bug because I needed to be able to take care of my sick little family! 

Baron was a champ with the bowl but the twins hated it. Maybe they thought that is why they were throwing up?!

 



 

 

We were all healthy by the week of Thanksgiving. We hosted Thanksgiving at our house and had a wonderful dinner with Trav/Katie/Brady, Tara/Bailey, Dave/Nancy and Grandpa Bobby. No black Friday shopping for me and we had our second Thanksgiving at the Websters on Saturday. This included us with Dave/Nancy and Joel/Shannon, Grace, Ava, Finn and Hudson. Grace and I made a two volleyball blankets while we waited for dinner and all the cousins played. Another wonderful time spent as a family!

 



Baron also brought home some incredibly awesome school projects. I just can't seem to part with any of it. I need to buy a scrap book (or 3) to keep everything in :)

StoryTime

Maverick's early intervention program (speech/physical therapy) has storytime 1 or 2 times per month. They invite the whole family to come and play in the fun, toy stocked gym and then listen to stories. Today Maverick, Elliott and I went (Baron had a special day at school) and they seemed to really enjoy their time there. They even sat and listened to most of the stories, which is a pretty big deal when there are so many new things to tempt them. I believe this is a great opportunity for them to learn to listen, share, play, interact and be kind to others.

 

Baby Flashbacks

It seems like they go from this:

To this in no time:

The One and Only Perk.....

The only perk of having a sick child.....great cuddle time!

 

 

Leaves Are Everywhere!

A massive oak tree resides in our front yard which provides much needed shade in the summer and a good amount of work in the fall. This is after the tree dumped most, but not all, of the leaves. Thank goodness we have leaf pickup provided by the garbage company this time of the year. Could you imagine how long this would take to pick up by hand?? Yeah, me neither ;)

 

 

The first two pictures are prior to the leaves you see below. Combined, the pile was about as tall as Maverick and the full length of our front yard.

 

 

Halloween 2013

Happy Halloween from Thomas, Mickey and Dumbo!

 

October 31st was a busy day! We started the day out with a little time with Brady in the morning and then headed out to drop Baron at school for a Halloween party.  We got to visit with my cousin Emily when she came to pick up Brady Boy, then they left and it was off to pick up Baron again. We squeezed lunch & a nap in before we were out of bed and into our costumes and off to see Aunt Tia at work and Nana at home. We then hustled home to meet Grant who picked up candy to hand out on the way home (I couldn't/wouldn't buy earlier because it would have been eaten prior to Halloween) and then off to pick up pizza. Honey and the Medford Family joined us for pizza and then we were out the door to our trick-or-treating adventure. Honey stayed at our house to hand out candy (Thank You Honey!) and it worked out great because three houses in and Elliott told me she was scared of the masks. She ended up home with Honey and was happy as could be. Maverick and Baron had a blast trick-or-treating with the big kids and after 2 hours, the adults finally called it a night.

 

 

Teeth/lips are courtesy of school goodies and the awesome candy cauldron is from Aunt Shannon!

 

 

October Family Zoo Trip

One of my fondest memories growing up was/is our annual trip to the zoo with my dad. This was something I loved to do and so did my dad (and still seems to). We make it a point to go when the weather is nice enough the animals are out but not so hot that it is no longer enjoyable. This year the trip was pushed back to Oct due to just general busyness but the day ended up great. Cold & overcast in the morning but it burned off to be a warm day. We even got Grant to go this year (he is not a big fan of the zoo) and the kids loved it. They walked everywhere (although the stroller did accompany us....I know my kids afterall ;) and loved the ability to view the animals with Nana and Papa. Baron's favorite were the monkeys & sea lions, Elliott the lions and Maverick the monkeys but really loved everything! Only bummer of the day was the train ride was shut down but we will hit that up next time we go and I wish I would have taken more pics. I was too busy enjoying myself watching my kids enjoy themselves with daddy, nana and papa.

 

On our way (*note the fish cracker he put on his foot)