Never a dull moment.

I'm just sitting at the computer downloading the photos from the past few days, and wondering why we haven't had any trick-or-treaters at all! In previous years, we've taken our kids to do their trick-or-treating, then come home around 8pm to hand out candy. We've always had quite a few kids come to the door, so I don't get where everyone is this year. Well, I guess I'll just write this post while I wait...
On Thursday the kids had their Halloween parties and parade at school. Chris was on his day off, so we planned to go to the school around 2 to help them get into their costumes and watch the parade. But at around noon, the phone rang, the school calling to tell us that Sophie had fallen going up the stairs on the slide, knocked out a tooth, and she was all bloody. So Chris went over there to check on her, and he ended up bringing her home so we could attempt to clean her up for the parade. She was wearing a pink, sparkly sweatsuit that was the base of her kitty costume, and she was extremely upset about the fact that both her sleeves and the front were covered with blood from her knocked out tooth. On top of that, she had basically hit her face onto the steel slide right on her mouth, so she also had a cut and swollen upper lip. She cried for over an hour while I worked at getting the blood out and washing and drying her jacket so she could wear it again. Then I had to try to convince her that her mouth didn't look that bad and no one would notice. Ugh. Finally we were off to the school and enjoyed seeing all the school kids show off their costumes in the parade. Nicolas even got to prance around in his puppy costume, for which he received a lot of attention! He was fully into character, panting, barking, and doing tricks for treats. :)
Yesterday, the boys had scouts in the morning, but after that, since I knew the kids would be going crazy with anticipation for Halloween, I decided to surprise them by taking them to the movies, a rare treat for our kids. Chris was working all day, so we met him for lunch at McDonalds, then I took the kids and drove to the theater. It was so funny to listen to them speculating from the backseat where we were going: Wal-Mart, they wondered? No. The mall? Nope. A hah! The theater! But what movie would we see? Chris met me in the movie theater parking lot in his patrol car, just so he could see their faces when they found out we were going to be seeing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, in 3D!! They jumped, they yelped, and I got lots of hugs. It was awesome. I actually don't think I've ever taken them to the movies by myself, so it was pretty fun. And since it was a Friday in the middle of the day, and most of the other schools are on a regular schedule (not the four day week like us), we almost had the whole place to ourselves. It was pretty cool, and the 3D part made it a much more entertaining movie than it would have been otherwise.Then, of course, today was the big event: trick-or-treating! It was a long day of waiting, for the kids. We have some of Chris' family staying with us, a nephew here last night, and the rest of that family tonight and tomorrow (10 people total). So I stayed busy most of the day cleaning up to get ready, with the hopes of reducing the Sunday morning stress when we're all trying to get ready for church. Anyway, when Chris got home from work this afternoon, we dressed the kids up in their costumes and headed into town where we ate dinner at a 50's diner type place, then went out to hit the suburbs. Of course, the evening wasn't without incident. Sophie ate some at dinner, though not her usual self. As we were driving from dinner to find our stomping grounds, she started complaining of a stomach ache. Chris drove to a neighborhood where one of his co-workers lives so we could stop by his house. Luckily I had a (vomit) bag in my purse, and Sophie made use of it. Then she said she felt better, and didn't want to miss out on the fun and candy, so we started herding them out of the car, only to find Sophie had forgotten to bring her pink candy bucket! She started sobbing as we went up to the first door. We told her we would just put her candy in one of the boys buckets, and when we went to Chris' friends house, we would see if they had a bag she could use. Well, when the lady at the first house saw Sophie crying, and we told her that we just realized she had forgotten her candy bucket, the nice woman ran back in her house and came back out with an orange Halloween bucket that she said Sophie could keep. Then she gave Sophie a hug! It was so nice! Things were better after that, as we went house to house, Nicolas just took off running in his cute little puppy outfit, the whole night being made worth it for me and Chris just to hear him say "Twick o Tweet!" and "Thank You!" in his cute little voice. After one cul-de-sac and a couple of streets, we moved the car to another corner. We did a few more houses then Nick said: "Mom, I have enough candy. Let's go home now." So Nick and I sat in the car while Chris finished the street with the older kids. Then we came home, the boys chowed down on candy, and poor little Sophie - well let's just say, she's not having a good week. :( Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow, but it looks like she and I will be staying home from church.
Hope everyone out there had a safe and fun Halloween!

It must be close to Halloween.

Today was interesting, to say the least. This is how I found Nicolas early this morning, next to our bed, after spending most of the night vomiting. Poor little thing. He seemed to do much better as the day went on, but he was definitely feeling tired and a little lethargic.
Anyway, Chris had the day off, so we decided it would be a good day to winterize our camp trailer. This required taking the trailer into town so we could empty the tanks and pick up some antifreeze. While we were in town, we decided to stop at Fred Meyer to pick up a few things we needed. When we left there and headed to the State Trailer Supply store, I was starting to get a bad headache. So I pulled out the little bottle of "meds" I keep in my purse. I usually just keep Tylenol and Motrin in there, but one of the last times I was at the store, I grabbed a little bottle of Aleve that was on clearance and thought it was the perfect travel size to keep in my purse. So I took two Aleve and we went on to the store and bought antifreeze. When we got back in the car to drive home, I said to Chris: "Hmmm, my tongue feels itchy all of a sudden. Weird." He keeps driving and we're now on the freeway headed the 10 miles to home. Suddenly my hands and the bottoms of my feet start itching, like crazy, mad, burning, itching. I turned to Chris and said that I was thinking I might be allergic to the Aleve?! Things sort of spiralled out of control after that; I started having pain and tightness in my chest and neck, my ears felt full of air, I started vomiting, and then a pain came in my lower abdomen like nothing I've ever felt before. It hurt so bad, it was shooting down my legs. Chris was panicking a bit at this point, he kept asking me if I wanted to go to the doctor, but I just said "Get me home!" But instead, he was so worried about what was happening, as I was apparently turning bright pink and rashy on my face, he pulled off on the side of the freeway and called 911 for an ambulance. What happened after that was sort of a blur to me. I was put in the ambulance and taken to the hospital, while Chris took Nicolas and ran home to unhook the trailer from the car and come back to meet me at the hospital. Once I was there, they took some blood, started an IV, and gave me some Benadryl, Steroids, Zofran (for vomiting) and Morphine. As fast as word travels, I was greeted by Chris' ISP Captain and two of the sargents before Chris was even back there to be with me! It was kind of embarrassing, actually, as I was sobbing and shaking from the pain in what felt like my uterus. It was the strangest thing, almost like having contractions, only I'm not pregnant. Once the meds started helping, and I was feeling some relief, they took me for an ultrasound to make sure there was nothing else going on. That test came back normal, thank goodness. In the end, the doctors decided it was most likely a severe allergic reaction, and I was prescribed a three day stint of steroids, and given a prescription for an EpiPen that the doc said I should keep with me at all times.

I just wanted to say 'thanks' to Holly and Jared for taking the kids home from school on such short notice and keeping them happy until we could get them back. You guys are lifesavers! Now I should probably go try to get some rest, since the Morphine, still running through my system, is making me feel loopy. I hope this blog post even makes sense!

Fun at the park.

After school today we took the kids to the park to enjoy the nice fall weather. Sammy was given this cool, green motor scooter for his birthday by his Grandma and Grandpa Blanch. Now that he has the hang of it, he zooms around the track like it's nothing!




This is a picture I took from across the park as the two older boys were on the other side of the track.

Special Day.

Congratulations to my sweet little Sam and his decision to get baptized. He was grinning from ear to ear today as he and his dad prepared for the big event. It was a very special moment for our family, especially when Chris shared his testimony, the spirit was very strong. I'm so grateful for my worthy husband and for our eternal family.

Isn't it great to be 8?!

Today was Sam's first day of cub scouts. He was super excited. Tomorrow he will be getting baptized, and he is very anxious about that event, as well. He is such a sweet boy and we love him so much!

A Great Fall Trip!

I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this before, but for my newest readers, here's a brief explanation of what has become a tradition for our family. Almost 5 years ago when we moved to Idaho, Chris was still in school and we wanted to take a little weekend trip to break up the middle of the semester, and see the best of the fall colors. We came up with the idea of going to Jackson Hole, because it is only about 2 - 3 hours drive, and October is the off-season, so we were able to find a deal on a hotel room. We enjoyed that first trip so much, that we decided we would try to do it every fall, if possible. Since then, and with each subsequent trip to that area, we've had the opportunity to explore lots of different places, including Moose and Moran, WY, Grand Teton and Yellowstone Nat'l. Parks. Chris and I both also enjoy photography, so we try to capture as many beautiful images as we can while we're there. Last year, Chris was able to take a spectacular photo of a bull moose, which we've had blown up and is hanging now on our living room wall.This year we got extremely lucky, as far as spotting some excellent wildlife and landscape moments. The weather in the Tetons can be very unpredictable this time of year, and we usually encounter some clouds, snow and cold. This year, we enjoyed a lot of sun, though cold temperatures. It was gorgeous. The kids are anxious to go to school tomorrow so they can tell their friends and teachers that we saw: antelope, elk, bison, coyotes, a wolf pack, deer (including some great bucks), moose, and two different black bears. We feel so blessed to live where there is such beauty all around us. Here are all the photos from our trip:

Jackson Hole Trip Oct. 2009

We're celebrating!

Happy birthday today to our Sam, who turns 8 years old! It's completely ridiculous how fast the time has gone. Four years ago when we moved to our current home we started a tradition of going to Jackson, WY to see the fall foliage in early October. So, since it usually coincides with Sam's birthday, he's gotten accustomed to celebrating his special day together while on our trip. That's why the photos of him opening his gifts were taken in the cabin we're staying in. This year his main present from us was a t-shirt we had made with a picture of Zipper on the front, and he LOVED it! I wasn't surprised, I knew he would. He was such a cutie, and seemed to have a very happy day.
(In the days to come I will post more about our trip.)