Pumpkin Patch Morning

Friday, I took Elise and Owen to the pumpkin patch.  Daniel was kind enough to do his work at home that day so he could watch Maggie for me.  I'd planned this for our ward a few weeks ago and I think we had a pretty good turn out.  Last year, our little preschool group was the only group there, but this year there were a lot of people there.  It didn't really make too much of a difference in our fun, but it was a little crazier.  Unfortunately, these pictures I took are not really great and I didn't try to get a whole lot, but it is what it is.

Elise trying to get Owen to stand for a picture with her.

Ellie showing me her pumpkin.  Instead of painting them there, we decided to take our pumpkins home to carve them later on.

Elise helping Owen pick out pumpkins.

Owen discovered what pumpkins were a few weeks ago and is now REALLY excited whenever he sees them, so he was in heaven with all of these pumpkins all over the place.

Ellie posing for mom.

Owen posing for mom.

Owen and I on the hay ride.  It was a little cramped but we managed to take a picture of ourselves.

Here is Ellie on the hayride.  She had so much fun.  She especially loved that several of her preschool friends from last year came to the pumpkin patch.  She still misses those kids and talks about them all the time.

All and all, we enjoyed the pumpkin patch.  It was definitely more entertaining the first year and we look forward to trying a new place next year.  We will still buy our regular pumpkins at one of the local churches since they're a little pricey at the patch!

Here's what Maggie was up to while we spent our morning at the pumpkin patch:

We got out the jumperoo last week and she seems to like it a little more each time we put her in it.  Though at times it terrifies her because her big brother comes up, grabs onto that blue bar in front of her and whips it up and down causing her to whip with it.  She still loves to jump and jumps more like Ellie did than did Owen... looking a bit like Lord of the Dance.

Tonsilectomy and Adenoidectomy

Owen is scheduled for surgery for October 23rd. He will be having both his tonsils and his adenoids removed. The specialist was concerned about the size of each of these plus concerned about the apnea getting worse. Of course, we are scared because he is so young and also because he will be in pain and no parent wants to see their child in pain. But, on the bright side of things, Owen has a high tolerance for pain and has always seemed to bounce back from pain fairly easily. Hopefully that will ring true with this surgery as well. He will be admitted on that Thursday and will stay in overnight to make sure that he is taking in fluids and then if he is, he will be able to come home and recover. Recovery takes about a week or two. The apnea should be resolved after this procedure. Neither Daniel nor I have ever had our tonsils removed or know anyone who has had them removed so young. If anyone has any pointers, let us know!

Weekly Update

It's been kind of a boring week for us so far I guess. I feel like more has been going on but as I sit to write this blog, I realize hardly anything of importance has happened. So, I will just give you some updates.

Elise has been so fun lately. She has started coming up with these words and phrases that I find to be pretty amazing for a 3-year-old. The other day I was just staring at her and it made me realize that she isn't a baby anymore. She has really lost most of the babyness and now looks like a little girl. Ellie really loves preschool. She wants to go every day and often talks about the fun things she gets to do there.

We continue to try new things with Ellie's hair. Gives me something to do and it gets the hair out of her face (which drives me nuts), so we like it. She is even into it. She tells me things like, "I don't want swirls today, maybe like (holding up both her fists) two things like this instead". Translation: I don't want braids, I want two pig tails. I suppose half of the 'excitement' of doing Ellie's hair is translating what she says she wants done.

Here are the puppets that the kids made the other day. They are pretty cute and they have actually had a lot of fun playing with them. Elise has always been really into doing crafts and different projects. Speaking of projects, I taught her how to dust with furniture polish this weekend. She was pretty good at it. I also taught her how to disinfect all of the door handles, light switches and other handles around the house. This is something I try to do frequently to keep the germs and colds at bay.

Now Owen, he has an actual update. So, this last week I have gotten about 2 hours of sleep each night. Owen has had a cold, but on top of that he has had some problems breathing at night for a long time. I think that allergies have exacerbated the problem. Anyways, sometimes he will stop breathing for a time and then gasp for air in his sleep. It was never really too bad (meaning he only did it occasionally and when he was a baby which is normal for babies who breathe in strange patterns anyway) so I never took him to the doctor, but the past couple months it has gotten bad.

Not only was he waking up frequently, very frequently, but the snoring has gotten worse and his disposition has even been different. The last couple weeks I have noticed him not being himself. Either being kind of a zombie or really irritable, plus he has lost a bit of weight from not eating. He hasn't been his happy, independent self that he usually is. What I realized is that he has sleep apnea.

Anyway, to make a long story shorter, I took him to the pediatrician who gave him some allergy medicine to at least help while we go to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. We see the specialist today who will let us know if he either needs more tests or needs his tonsils and adenoids removed (which fixes sleep apnea in 90% of the cases). So, I will have to update when we get back from the doctor today.

I bought the kids footed pajamas, but they turned out to be a hassle. Owen's feet were too big for the foot part (I know, usually the foot part is totally oversized... the boy has huge feet). Plus they were too much pajama for my kids.

Owen and Elise doing some preschool books together.

Miss Magdalyn ready to leave. She isn't much of a car seat baby, but dad was entertaining her in this picture. Maggie continues to be a pretty easy baby. She does have a bit of a cold right now and loves to be held, but what kid doesn't?

Here is Maggie sad that mom isn't holding her. She has recently just become enamored with me. She follows me with her eyes wherever I go and just smiles at me the whole time I hold her. She is too sweet!

Our Saturday

It has been kind of a lazy, but fun Saturday so far today.  Daniel and I (and Maggie) are going out on a date later tonight, so that should be fun.  Here is what we have been up to so far today...

The kids love to read.  I read to them quite a bit each day but my favorite is how they will actually go off and read by themselves for like an hour at a time!  It is so great, for many reasons (including giving mom a much needed break), but in particular because I can tell they just really love books.

Ellie likes to show Owen the fun things she sees in her books and Owen is always there and eager to learn from her.

Maggie, she likes to sleep during the quiet book-reading time.  She always sleeps with her face planted straight down.  We aren't sure how she breathes, but she seems to manage.

When Ike hit, I bought a bunch of crafts for the kids to do in case the electricity went out, plus I figured it would be fun to do them together.  The electricity never went out, in fact, we never even got a drop of rain, so now we get to use our fun crafts on Saturdays.

Owen built a Rocket ship mobile.

And Elise made a butterfly mobile almost entirely herself.

Elise and Maggie showing off Owen's mobile because...

Owen fell asleep on the floor.

Not really sure where we should put these mobiles, but for now they are hanging above our trash can.  I figure they'll end up there anyway sooner or later!

Maggie sporting a glitter sticker from Ellie's craft.

Ellie playing with her (pantsless) dolly.

Righteous child.

Magdalyn having fun in her exersaucer.  She likes it a lot more now than she used to, but always manages to fuss right as we are putting her in just to make her point that she would rather be held.

Not pictured are Daniel and I who spent much of the morning organizing closets, pantries and other needed areas.  We had hoped to work on the garage but it is getting put off again.  Is it just me or is everyone's garage like their "dirty little secret"?  It is such a mess.

Park Day

After Daniel got home from school today, we decided we were going to go to the park. The weather has been nice and though it was on the hotter side today, it was breezy and it will be getting colder soon. So, we are trying to take advantage of the days where we can go to the park and also ride bikes with the kids. We packed up the bikes and headed to the park. This particular park has some good trails for the kids to ride on. I took tons of pictures, so here we go...

I really love this picture of Ellie.

This one of Owen isn't too shabby either.

We go to this particular park all the time but this play area is on the other side of the park so they got to enjoy a new area today.

Most the time I chase Owen around desperately trying to get a good picture of him.  He is usually not facing me or looking at me, but I managed to get a couple where we can see his eyes and even a smile!

All of our kids love being outside.  This is kind of unfortunate for us since both of us don't really care for the outdoors, but Maggie has followed suit after her siblings and really loves being outside as well.

None of our children have really enjoyed the swings at the park, but after about 10 minutes they started to enjoy it a little more.

Miss Magdalyn having fun being held by dad.  It was pretty warm out so she was even a little sweaty!

Why is my son so scary?

Yes, I was there too.  I am usually the photographer so I manage to slip past most of the picture taking of myself, but I went ahead and posed for one with Elise.

Mags catching some rays.  She is smiling 90% of the time, but she gets a little confused when she sees the camera in front of my face so she always has this blank look on her face.  But she is still cute!

Owen posing for the camera.

Excuse the disgusting face.  Owen biffed it more than once so has dirt caked onto his face.  This is a picture of Owen hanging from the money bars which are like 7 or 8 feet off of the ground.  Like I said, SCARY.

Ellie is getting really good at pedaling and does it all on her own most the time.  She has a little trouble when there is a hill, but who doesn't?

Owen like riding his bike as well.  He is usually saying to me all day "bike ride, bike ride!".  He now moves his legs along with the pedals... it's an improvement!

Maggie had stroller time while the kids biked.  This is the first time we put her in the stroller sitting up like this and she really enjoyed it.

The afternoon in the sun was enough to wear out our little Magdalyn. She enjoyed her nap while the kids played on the playground.

After an afternoon of playing, the kids drank lots of liquids!

We had so much fun and are so fortunate that we live so close to so many parks and outdoor activities.  There is always some place fun to go.

Weekend in Dallas

Last weekend we went to Dallas to celebrate my niece Kyra's birthday. She turned 3 and we had so much fun celebrating with her. We went to a really fun place called, "Bonkers" where the kids could climb up these huge jungle-gym type play gyms. The following are some of the pictures from our trip.

These are all of my parents' grandchildren. From left to right- Kyra (3), Maggie (4 mos), Elise (3), Addy (1) and Owen (almost 2). We did a photo shoot at JCP as well for the kids and my parents. It was a little WILD, but I think there was a shot that worked.

Ellie and Kyra. They love each other so much!

Maggie and Papa. Looking alike in their hairdos.

Owen showing off the sun glasses that Kyra got for her birthday.

We are so lucky to live so close to all of my family and so close to Daniel's parents (when they aren't out of the country!). We really love to see both of our families and always look forward to our times together.