Pumpkin Carving 2008

We finally got around to carving our pumpkin this year.  Last year, we carved more than one, but this year, one was about all we could do.  The kids liked it though and it was a fun thing for Daniel to do with them.  So, without further adieu, here are the pumpkin carving pictures:

Elise was ready to carve and jumped right in!  She liked getting into the mess, but she is kind of a clean girl so she had to go wash her hands three or four times during the process and then gave up all together.

This is where Owen has been glued since last Thursday... to my leg.  Quick note:  He is doing better, sleeping slightly better, but still not well and still can't eat anything though he seems to have more playful energy today.  He can't really swallow so he drools a lot and ends up getting it all over my shirts... it's gross.

Maggie enjoyed watching from her exersaucer.  She has mastered this saucer as of lately, grabbing onto all the toys and putting all of them right into her mouth.

Finally, Owen was convinced to check out what was going on with the pumpkin.

Ellie getting the "goo" out.

Owen, Dad, and Ellie carving up the pumpkin.

Mags decided she wanted in on the pumpkin action, too, so we brought her up to the table.  Look at her little hand on the pumpkin... She is so cute!!  Mr. Weber ain't so bad either...

I had to include a picture of Owen and Maggie together.  It doesn't happen very often, but once in awhile Owen will acknowledge that Maggie exists and will go over to her and get her to smile.  It is very sweet.  Just today Owen was jumping on our bed (yeah, it's like that at our house) and Mags was just watching him and just laughing like crazy.  She loves her big brother.

Maggie posing with the finished pumpkin.  Being so focused on Owen this past week, we kind of let Halloween get away from us a bit.  Usually I am much more on top of it and we get a little bit more into the holiday and into carving the pumpkins.  Perhaps next year...  Stay tuned--- I am planning on a pretty rockin' Thanksgiving celebration!

Mmmm... Doughnuts!

Conversations that Need Documentation

Here is what happened when Daniel called home yesterday:

Me- "Hey love, what are 3 things I can do for you to make your day better?"
Dan- "What? What are you talking about?"
Me- "I want to make your day easier, what can I do to help?"
Dan- "I don't get it.  What do you want from this?"
Me- "Nothing, I just love you and want to do something nice for you."
Dan- "Did you get this from Oprah?"
Me- "No!  I just want to do some nice things for my husband!"
Dan- "I don't understand."
Me- "NEVERMIND!  Geez!"

Here is a conversation I had with Ellie at church:

Ellie- "Mom, where's the bishop?"
Me- "In his chair up on the podium."
Ellie-"Where!?"
Me- pointing, "Up there."
Ellie- "Oh I see, the bishop is sitting in his sleeping chair."

Another Ellie conversation:

Me- "Ellie, go put some clothes on.  Why do you have to take everything off to go to the bathroom?"
Ellie- "Ok mom! I'm going!"
Me- "Ellie, if you don't go into your room and get some clothes on, then you can't see your friends today"
Ellie-"Ok, cause my friends don't want to see my butt."
Me- "You're right about that!"

It's all in a Tuesday

We had quite the Tuesday yesterday, so I thought I would share about our day.  First off, yesterday was "Orange Day" at preschool.  So, all the kids dress up in orange.  Well, my daughter didn't have anything orange in her wardrobe so was off to Walmart to buy an orange shirt.  They didn't have anything orange except for Halloween shirts, so we got an orange Halloween shirt.  Of course, I can't get Ellie a shirt without getting the boy a shirt too.  After all, these shirts were light up shirts!  Here are some pictures of the shirts:

Owen wasn't feeling so hot.

Maggie is now using her high chair.  I haven't fed her anything in it yet, but she sits in it during dinner and I usually wheel it into the bathroom while I shower.  She likes to suck on the tray.

Ok, so as you can see in the pictures above, Owen wasn't looking so good yesterday.  Actually, he wasn't feeling hot at all and hadn't been for a couple days.  It really started to worry me when he was drooling a lot and he wasn't eating or drinking anything plus not sleeping for more than 30 minute stretches.  So, after a call to the doctor, we were back to the hospital ER.  They gave him another IV to get some fluids in him and gave him some anti swelling meds as well as a better pain reliever.  We were sent home 5 hours later with a new prescription and a boy that was pretty tired.

While we were at the ER, our ward's Trunk or Treat was happening.  So Super Dad (aka Daniel) dressed up his daughters in their costumes, got them dinner and went to the grocery store to get candy and then took them to trunk or treat AND put them to bed all before I got home.  Anyway, they apparently had fun at trunk or treat and here is a peek at their costumes.  Super Dad isn't really super at doing girl hair, but we will forgive him for that :). 

Sleeping Beauty:

These shoes light up (so does the wand), they are pretty cool and Ellie feels like such a princess in them.

Minnie Mouse:

Not the happiest camper during picture time, but boy was she cute.  My favorite is her shoes!

Now, Owen was not there, but this is a picture taken last week when he tried on his costume.  He is Buzz Lightyear... obviously.

I really tried to do a theme with the kids this year.  Last year, we had a theme that I liked.  But Elise was pretty insistent on Sleeping Beauty (or Sleeping Booty as she calls it--- is every 3 year old obsessed with princesses and how many years are we going to be a princess for Halloween!?!).  I guess we do have a Disney theme, so that is something.  Next year, we will have to do an ocean theme since Mags will wear Ellie's old costume... afterall, Ellie can always be Ariel, she's a princess.

Picking out Pumpkins

Even though we already went to the pumpkin patch this year, we went downtown to the "pumpkin patch" to pick out some cheaper pumpkins for everyone.  It is the same place we went last year.  The kids always have fun picking out their pumpkins.  This year we got one for every member of our family.  However, that is a lot of pumpkins so I bet we just carve Dad's big pumpkin. We'll see.

Here we are trying to get a decent family picture.  TRYING.

Owen perusing the pumpkin selection.

Ellie getting in a quick cheese.

Owen searching all over for "the one".

Maggie enjoyed the pumpkins too!

Owen looking around.

Ellie thinks she has found hers.

Running to get Owen.

Not sure they're supposed to be climbed on, but how else is a two year old supposed to test a pumpkin?

 Finally, Owen finds the one he wants.

Don't fret... many Halloween pictures are yet to come.  Ellie is going to a Halloween party this morning (this is the party that I was planning for the kids and had to cancel because of Owen's surgery and another mom was nice enough to take over), Ellie also has a party at school this week, we have trunk or treat AND we still have Halloween.  So, lots of pictures to come!

Maiden Voyage

 Choo choo!!!  We received our choo choo wagon a week or so ago and we had been so busy that we didn't have time to try it out.  One day last week we finally took the kids out to try it out and they loved it!  Maggie was pretty impressive because she just enjoyed being outdoors and the Ellie and Owen just thought it was pretty dang cool.

Here is mom pulling the wagon.  It was pretty easy though our neighborhood has hills and it was definitely a bit of a work out pulling 70+ pounds of kids up a hill, but really it wasn't so bad.  It was mostly just fun!

 We were able to squeeze in Maggie's car seat so it wouldn't budge and she could just ride in that.  For some reason she isn't sitting up on her own yet :).  This was fun and I imagine you will see many more choo choo wagon adventures to come!

Owen's Hospital Stay

After Owen got out of the recovery room, we were wheeled up to his room.  He was pretty grouchy, but mostly still pretty groggy from surgery.  Most kids zonk out for the whole day after anesthesia, but we got the kid that barely slept at all for the next 2 days.  Of course.  After a couple hours, he started being a bit more himself, though pretty sore.  We decided to bring out a couple new toys that we bought him for after the surgery to keep him busy.

Dell Children's Hospital is the nicest hospital that I have been to and I was pretty impressed with the facility.  They have fun/interactive art displays in the halls, play rooms on every floor and toys & dvds galore for the kids to play with.  I was happy that they were smart enough to put in Owen's IV after he was put to sleep so while he was annoyed it was on him, wasn't' constantly messing with it like I thought he would be.

This is Owen's only nap that day and it was after they gave him some morphine.  He was not looking good here, he had a fever and I was a little worried about infection at this point, but after a couple hours he was better and looking normal again.

That evening I took him to the floors' playroom but he was only there for about 5 minutes before he started not feeling well, so we went back to his room.  By the next morning though, he was up and busy playing and eager to get out of bed.  As you can see in this picture, his left arm is pretty much dead to him because it has the IV in it.  That was a little hard for him since he is left handed.  At 10:30 that next morning they were going to bring around the hospital dogs for the kids to play with, but we were sprung before that point.

Since we have been home, Owen has gone from being completely happily himself to really being in some serious discomfort.  Basically the hour before he is able to get the medicine to make him feel better and the half hour or so afterwards is tough.  Last night he was up most of the night.  He DOES NOT like to take his medicine and spits it out even after we are holding him down to get the meds in him.  Oh well, I guess that is what you get with a two-year-old.

We plan on laying low for the next week or so and are hopeful that he will be up for Halloween festivities, but we will see.  Thanks for everyone thinking about him and praying for him.  Really, it has been as good as we could expect thus far and expect slow improvements over the next few days.

Owen's Portrait Session

As mentioned in the girls' picture posts, I am posting Owen's portrait session.  As you will see, he can cheese it up like the other two can as well. 

Pretty handsome, huh?!  ** I will be posting a blog about the rest of the hospital stay as well as about Owen's recovery either later tonight or tomorrow sometime, but just to ease your minds, he is doing great!

Under the Knife

Owen has no tonsils or adenoids.  It went pretty smoothly, I guess.  No problems with the surgery, though he does seem to be in some pain now.

There were some toys to play with in the waiting room...

 

 

and fish to look at.  Then it was time to get ready for surgery with

purple scrubs.

He really didn't like the hospital bracelet that they made him wear, but other than that he was fine.

There were toys and bubbles and TV to keep him distracted while the anesthesiologist and the doctor talked to us.  They also brought a mask in to get him familiar with it so theoretically it wouldn't be as scary when they put him to sleep.  Not being there, I don't know if it worked or not.  Owen didn't seem too into it at the time.

The leaving him with the doctors and nurses part didn't go as badly as I thought it would.  They did a pretty good job of distracting him with promises of stickers and balloons.  Erin and I managed to keep it together, though it was difficult.  Erin read her book and I checked some email and then it was done.  We were actually surprised when they called us back to see him so quickly. 

Here he is post-op.  His throat looks swollen and he seems to be in some pain, but they've given him some extra meds that should start working soon.  He'll stay here overnight and assuming he can keep down fluids, he'll go home tomorrow morning.  Right now he's lying on the bed with Mom watching the Disney Channel.  Thanks to all of you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.  We appreciate it.