Trunk or Treat

Here we are at the ward trunk-or-treat Saturday night.



Mother-daughter witch team!



That is one cute devil! The broom is turned around the wrong way. He was carrying it because it says "dirt devil" on it. Heh.



The Halloween costume Rae was most afraid of? Spiderman (it was the full head-covering mask that really bothered her)





Helping himself to some of the loot.

Festivities leading up to Halloween

Here are some of the things we did "Halloween week"



Picking out a pumpkin at "Grandpa's Barn" (We didn't end up buying one because the line was really really long.)



Rae pointing out a rotten one.



Blaise thinks he's pretty strong.



This was the best we could get of them together.



Rae brushing a horse.



Rae's favorite part of "Grandpa's Barn"...the hay pyramid.




Practicing for Halloween. We play dress up on a daily basis around here. Check out his eyes - this was when he still had pink eye.

Long time no post

Things are going pretty good here. We are all relatively healthy and happy. We had fun at the trunk-or-treat Saturday night and I will post pictures later today. Rae doesn't like her witch costume very much, so I think she'll be wearing her cowgirl costume from last year for the rest of the Halloween festivities. And my witch costume is a bit warm, so I'll be dressing up like a pirate. Today there is a party in the apartment complex that should be a lot of fun. And then tomorrow we will wear our costumes to Music Makers and from there go to a nearby "amusement park" that is offering free rides if you wear a costume. And then we'll go trick-or-treating after dinner (just to a few apartments) I think I am going to dye my hair today...haven't decided yet. I bought the hair dye yesterday. Hmmm. That's all for now I guess.

Past Halloweens

Last year








2005 - She had two costumes



2004

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uISuvTiTYJA

Very sweet. Really sums it up.

Pink eye update

So, apparently Rae didn't have pink eye. Her eye discharge cleared up without any medicine, and her eyes never got pink or itchy. Blaise's eyes got worse though, and after finally getting the antibiotics Monday night we gave him his first dose, and in the morning we could see that his eyes were significantly better. Now they are pretty much completely better, and I don't think he's contagious anymore. My theory is that both of them had bacteria in their eyes (the greenish stuff) but only Blaise's eyes actually had a bacterial infection. I don't know if that is medically correct, but it makes sense to me. So, you don't necessarily have to worry if you were exposed to Rae.

And that's all the time I have for now.

Counting blessings

Now I'm a little more sick. I've got a bit of the stomach bug that the kids and Roy had. Nothing too bad though. But as I headed for the bathroom I thought to myself "are you kidding me, what else is going to go wrong around here!?". I went to pick up the prescription for the kids and there were problems with their insurance, so no medicine yet. I have to call the insurance in the morning and figure out what the problem is. But they are both acting happy and "un-sick", so I'm not too worried about it. Maybe this way is better, because maybe they can actually be seen by a doctor before starting the antibiotics.

Anyway, I started feeling like I was complaining too much. Things really aren't that bad around here. The house was a wreck today, but I was able to get it all cleaned up while Roy bathed the kids. Now there's just one more (huge) load of dishes to be done and things will be pretty much back to normal. And it is hard to keep the kids away from other kids, but we can go for walks and I have a couple of "rainy day" projects tucked away that we can do tomorrow. And I am definitely grateful for all the great stuff we have to do when the kids aren't sick. And I'm grateful that Roy has a pretty flexible schedule (ahh! what am I going to do when he's not a student anymore?) and can help out so much. I'm very blessed and actually have it pretty easy compared to a lot of people.

I don't know if any of you have heard some of the criticism going around about Sister Beck's talks from the General RS Broadcast and then from General Conference. If you hadn't heard any of it, sorry I brought it up. But I had, and was pretty bothered by it all. Well, I finally got a chance tonight to sit down and listen/read to both talks, and I found them really humbling and inspiring. I really, really enjoyed them and have this renewed energy and confidence in my capabilities and I just want to do better and really be the best that I can be. I really felt the spirit and really needed to hear those words tonight.

And now I am going to go to bed. Ahhhh, being in bed by 8:30 is delightful. Goodnight.

The dreaded "pink eye"

Late yesterday afternoon I began to suspect that the kids had pink eye (one word or two?). They woke up Friday morning with colds and lots of discharge from their eyes. Saturday it became apparent that their eyes were actually getting pinkish. This morning it's for certain that Blaise has it but I'm still not completley sure about Rae. She has had soooo much green discharge from her eyes but they aren't nearly as pink as Blaise's. I just spoke with a doctor and they are going to call in a prescription for both kids. Blaise is pretty cranky but doesn't seem like he's in that much pain and Rae hasn't complained of any eye pain. But I'm going to go ahead and do the drops today and the doctor said if they aren't showing any improvement by tomorrow then it may not be pin keye and I need to take them in to see their doctor. Now I have to start making the call that no one ever likes to make... "hey, sorry, your kid was exposed to pink eye".

Rae is very sad that we are missing church today. Especially since Roy had to go and prepare the sacrament and Rae is like "can I go to church". Poor gal. Roy is going to come home after sacrament meeting so we can go get the prescription (well, and mainly because I don't want to be alone with the kids for 3 hours while he's at church) I'm feeling pretty sick too. No pink eye (yet) but I had a bad headache and a cough that hurts my chest. :( I just want to cuddle up in bed and watch all of the conference talks that I missed. But Roy has to finish grading midterms by tomorrow (he has to go today and trade stacks with another TA) so I think we will have a pretty boring, tiring, patience-trying day. Sorry if you are reading this and were exposed to Rae on Friday or Saturday! :(

Pictures

We received these beautiful flowers from Baerbel and Dale last week. Thank you so much!



Did you know these exist? It's Mr.Potato Head pieces for your pumpkin. Turned out pretty cute, huh?





The kiddos being cute this morning with a cheerio snack. Blaise was amused that he got to sit on the couch with his sister.

SO SICK OF BEING SICK!

Well, no, not ME being sick...the kids. I did have a cold for a couple of days, but nothing too bad. (I'm exhausted enough every night that nothing can keep me from being able to sleep peacefully - except Blaise)

But this has just been a month of illness! First in September the kids had bad colds. Then we got a break for a couple of weeks and then we had the nice barf, fever, diarrhea fest. Then Roy got it. And then I got a cold and now the kids have it. But it's not the nice kind of illness where they just want to lie around all day - they are just sick enough to sleep badly and then whine all day. AND, since they are sick I can't just send them over to a friend's house so I can have a break. Ah! It's times like this that I wish we lived a little closer to a grandma! :(

The good news - I've managed to keep the house pretty darn clean. Last night I went to bed at 7:30 with the house completely trashed. But when I woke up this morning I was able to get it cleaned up really fast. Now I just need to do dishes and laundry - and since we'll all be stuck inside today that should be pretty easy to do. Oh, and another bad thing...when the kids are sick we don't really have anywhere to play because other moms don't really appreciate you bringing your sick kid to the playground. Having our own backyard will be nice.

Oh, today is the anniversary of Roy and me meeting in person. Six years ago today he made that first trek to Blythe to come and meet me, and we began to fall in love. I had planned to do something special for him since a friend said she would babysit for us - but now since they are sick I guess he'll just spend the day grading quizzes. Fun. I've got some cute pictures to post, but I'll have to do that later when I can use the other computer. Maybe I'll have something more upbeat to say too :)

Things I keep forgetting to mention

Blaise recently went through an obsession with the phone, and anytime I used it he would want a turn. Well, the other day I gave him a turn (so I could get some computer time) and he called 911! What the heck!! I didn't notice, so I just hung up and then of course they called me asking if everything was okay. Good thing Rae wasn't throwing a tantrum in the background or something! Needless to say, he doesn't get any turns with the phone anymore.

Roy found my first gray hair a couple of months ago. And then a few days later I found another. Well, yesterday I found one more. I don't know why, but I'm already struggling with the idea of getting into my "mid-twenties" and adding gray hairs to the mix doesn't help at all!

Blaise claps and waves all the time now. And he babbles a lot, especially first thing in the morning when I'm begging him to go back to sleep. Notice that it's 6am as I write this. He woke up at 4:30 and has pretty much been awake since then. I'm about to go wake Roy up so I can get a few more minutes of rest. Oh, and Blaise loves to stack blocks (that's what he's doing right now.) It's so cute. He makes up for his grumpy moments by being so expressive and entertaining when he is happy.

Rae is a crack up as always. She's always doing something to try and get Blaise to laugh. She's constantly talking and is now using some of my favorite phrases against me ("don't aruge with me", "can you just not talk to me right now", "don't say that to me", "say you're welcome".) Fun stuff. And she's awake now, so I better go.

Check it out

Go to this blog and enter the "freebie of the month". I've won twice. They give away really cool stuff.

Cleaning

I love to clean. Well, I don't actually like the cleaning part, but I love the way I feel afterwards. I just my microwave super clean. I don't know how long it had been since I had cleaned it, but I think maybe my mom was the last to clean it back in Feb or maybe even in December when Blaise was born. Sorry to anyone who has used my microwave since then - that's pretty disgusting. But I read somewhere I really great tip for easy cleaning. Put some water and lemon juice in a mug and microwave it for a few minutes. Everything will wipe right off. After getting that done I looked around and decided I need to clean my cupboard doors. It's nice when the rest of the house is clean enough that you can do some of the deep down cleaning. I'm amazed at how much I can get done lately. Blaise entertains himself pretty well. It's really nice - and life is pretty stress-free (at least today) :) I'm no longer feeling so antsy about going somewhere. We'll be pretty busy around here and I'm going to keep finding little projects to do. Anyway, I got on the computer to look up a recipe and got distracted so I better go tend to the kiddos.

Forgot to post this one

I guess it can get cuter than that last picture!!

Videos for your enjoyment

Sometimes Blaise makes messes....




Sometimes he cleans them up....




He has been so much fun lately. He's really learning a lot and is beginning to communicate in his own little way. And he understands a lot more of what we are saying. He definitely knows what "no" means, but it just makes him crack up and try to be faster at whatever naughtiness he is trying to commit.

Rae is doing a great job with potty-training (we went a few steps backwards when she was sick). She's always trying to get Blaise to play games with her and can rarely get him to cooperate. It'll be so much fun when they can really interact (and a lot of trouble too).

Anyway, things are good. I'm antsy (very antsy) for a change of pace (IE: a trip to Blythe) but I haven't figured out a way for that to work, so I'll try to just stay busy around here and come up with things for us to do. Any ideas? :)

More pics

Do I look bored?











Rae "helping" Blaise down the hill.

The rest of the pictures

Okay, seriously, does it get any cuter than this? I don't think so!
Hmm, maybe he should be a fireman for Halloween!






Just hanging out with some heads.

Argh, more "errors" and Blaise is awake. I'll post a couple more later.

Quick update

Rae is still sick. No more puking, but lots from the other end. I'll tell ya, it is the worse smell I have ever smelled. She pooped sometime while she was sleeping. Roy checked on her around 5am and was stopped in his tracks by the smell. So I got to get up and change her and her sheets. We've been doing a LOT of laundry the past few days. I think I have earned my badge of motherhood! Enough already! :) The hardest part is not being able to hang out with other kids and moms and stuff. It was nice to just be home the first couple of days, but now it's getting boring. And I know we won't be able to go to Music Makers tomorrow...and I really wanted to go to the petting zoo/pumpkin patch this week too! At least she'll be healthy for Halloween festivities.

Anyway, just wanted to give everyone a quick update while Blaise is still napping. Here are a couple of new pictures for your enjoyment!


She was talking about her hand for some reason.
(By the way, anyone wanna get us a new couch?!
Nah, it doesn't always look like that - we usually have a sheet covering it)



ARGH - won't let me load anymore - it's having some sort of problem. I'll try again later.

Gross

Warning: The following post will contain graphic details :>)

The kiddos are sick. Wednesday night we realized Blaise had a fever. We gave him some Tylenol and he slept okay. Thursday he was pretty cranky all day and had a bit of diarrhea. Green bean, up the back stuff. Really really gross. Thursday night he had a little more trouble sleeping, but still okay. Rae struggled all day with his neediness and unwillingness to play with her. This morning he woke up even grumpier and would really only be happy if I was nursing him. Rae woke up and immediately pooped in her diaper - really runny, really disgusting poop all the way up to her belly button. She also seemed a little sick. By the afternoon we realized she also had a low-grade fever and a couple of times said she had to throw up. But around 3 in the afternoon both of the kids seemed pretty happy and un-sick, so I took them to Walmart (needed to get some Lanolin
because Blaise's constant desire to nurse made things raw) In Walmart Rae complained that she needed to throw up, so we made a mad dash to the bathroom. Of course, she didn't throw up. She again said she needed to throw up, so again we dashed. No barf this time either. I was tempted to go get a bowl from the kitchen section and carry it around, but I thought I better just hurry up and get done. Turns out that I should have bought a bowl - or at least given Rae a plastic bag for the ride home, because she puked just shortly after starting our drive home. She had a ton of mandarin oranges for lunch...really, really gross. She looked so sad to have that puke all over her. I decided that pulling over to clean her up wouldn't help much because I didn't really have anything to use...so I just sped home and called Roy to meet me in the parking lot to get Blaise and groceries. Poor, poor Rae. But she seemed like she felt much better. She took a nice bath and got all ready for bed and then asked for a tortilla for dinner....which she barfed up just minutes after finishing. (this time we had a bowl ready) At that point I said no more food and took her to bed - she fell asleep by 6:15. I hope she feels better in the morning. Blaise seems to be a lot better - almost normal temp and no more diarrhea. Sick kids are only nice when their sickness makes them sleep a lot. Other than that they are gross and whiny. Luckily Roy and I are healthy! (Knock on wood!!)

I'm off to go sit in my friend's house while her kids sleep. They are gonna do the same for us next week - Roy and I are already discussing what we are gonna do with our free time!) I'm taking along a movie tonight and might even take a nap :)

Wal-Mart pics

From a while back.