Little sister decided to try running on the cross country team. Since that was Daddy's sport in high school, we were excited for her to try it out. She's not the fastest, and not the slowest. She did pretty darn good, especially considering that she's brand new to this running thing! She never quit, even when the races were hard, and her times improved with every race she ran. We were grateful that Grandma was always willing to cheer her on when we couldn't be there. She loved being on the team and getting to know new people. She's pretty awesome, this little sister of ours!
Towards the beginning of October, our ward held their annual fall festival. We just do dinner and some fun games for kids. Since Husband is in the bishopric we got there early to help set up. Big brother and little brother were running around outside with some other boys from the neighborhood. Apparently, big brother had ignored my instructions to please put on socks and shoes and had grabbed flip flops. Since those aren't great for running in, he had removed them and was barefoot. So when he climbed up the outside of the stair railing at the back of the church, and then jumped to the ground below, he landed flat on his bare feet on the concrete. It's probably around a 5 foot drop. I was looking all over for the boys since they hadn't actually asked permission to leave the building. When I found them out back, the other boys were trying to help big brother limp up the stairs. We stayed for another 10 minutes, but big brother was getting more and more vocal about how much pain he was in. So instead of eating dinner, I left husband there with the other 3 and I took big brother home to get some ibuprofen. He couldn't bear any weight at all on his leg. Big brother has a pretty high tolerance for pain, so I was getting really concerned. If he was hurting that bad, he must have broken something. After a video consultation with Aunt Shaye, and a short phone call with Dad, we decided to take him to the ER. Since he couldn't walk, I got to carry all 70+ pounds of him. Fortunately someone saw me coming and came to greet me at the door with a wheelchair. It was good I thought to grab the kindle so he could watch movies while we waited, 'cuz it was a bit of a wait. They x-rayed him, and then examined him. He pointed out a bruise near his knee so we did two x-rays because there was concern about him having fractured something from his foot to his knee. Later, he told me the bruise happened at school that day. Oy vey. This kid! So glad we paid for an x-ray on a bruise that had nothing to do with this injury! Unfortunately, the x-rays didn't show much. They told us it still could be fractured but we'd have to see an orthopedic doctor after the swelling went down to know for sure. They told us to keep him off of it as much as possible. The next day we missed school because he literally coudln't walk. A friend loaned us a walking boot their daughter used when she had the same injury, so he could at least walk enough to go to school.
Big sister joined the choir at the high school. We enjoyed going to her first concert and hearing her perform!
For fall break we decided to head down to coral pink sand dunes with wife's family. Since we were getting there a couple days before everyone else, we planned a day trip into Zion's. We were so glad we did. Zion's was just beautiful! It was a little on the cold side, but better cold than hot! We brought our coats and layered up and it was perfect!
Of course, taking big brother around Zions with a broken foot was a bit of a conundrum. I put out a plea on Facebook for a big jogging stroller and my friend said she had a double one we could borrow. So Big brother rode the whole time and occasionally little brother rode, as well. Since big brother is our least enthusiastic hiker, he was pretty happy with the arrangement. We got lots of looks and comments, pushing this big stroller around the hiking trails and having to haul the stroller on and off the buses. But it worked out pretty well, all things considered!
The Coral Pink Sand Dunes were awesome, as usual! The kids loved riding on the four wheelers and playing around the camp site. Our niece Tiffany came up for an evening with her husband Alex and their baby Jack, and we did scones. It was a nice relaxing week, a very much needed break!
Since big brother was supposed to stay off his foot as much as possible, he got to hang out in the trailer watching movies and coloring a lot.
He usually ended up with a few extra people in the trailer with him because he had a screen. :)
We were so glad Trip and Cullen joined us, the kids have so much fun when they're around!
Big brother did venture outside sometimes, and enjoyed playing in the dirt.
After we got back from our trip, we were able to get into the orthopedic clinic to have his foot re-examined. Unfortuately, the spot where it's most likely he's injured is a spot that is almost impossible to get an image of. But after examining him, the doctor determined that he needed a walking boot for a few weeks. She said it was either bruised really bad or had a tiny fracture, and either way it needed to be cushioned well for a while so it could heel. He was okay with this for few days, but quickly tired of wearing the boot. I felt bad, but he did kinda learn his lesson about wearing shoes when mom asks you to. Sometimes we have to learn things the hard way! He wore the boot for a few weeks, and then we went back to see how he was healing. The doctor declared his foot all healed up and big brother happily removed the boot before we even made it out to the car.
Little brother is in the stage of life where he is losing baby teeth. He ended up losing a few at school this year. He liked that since the school gives them a tiny plastic treasure box to put their tooth in for safe keeping. One particular day, he got hit in the face with a ball at recess. It knocked out his tooth. Since he was playing on the grass, the tooth was quite literally lost. He wrote a letter to the tooth fairy so he would still get "saptheeg" (something).
That is one cute toothless grin!
Halloween is always fun around our house! We tend towards the more cute Halloween stuff than the scary. This year, the only one participating in the elementary parade was little brother. Big brother gets too overwhelmed, so we take him with us to watch the parade, but then we take him to get pancakes. He did decide that he wanted to do the party, which he hasn't really wanted to in the past. So we enjoyed the parade, got some breakfast at village inn, and then took big brother back to school. Just as we were dropping him off, I saw the Jr high principal leaving the elementary. He was dressed like a Michael Jackson from Thriller. As soon as I saw that I knew that little sister was having a not so great day. She doesn't love Halloween as it is, and barely tolerated the parades in the past because she didn't appreciate the scary music they play as the elementary kids walk through the junior high and high school. The song Thriller, however, is an entirely different level of scary to her. She is terrified of it. TERRIFIED. Never seen the music video, but just the song is enough to make her cry. When I saw the jr high principal dressed for Thriller, I knew they'd done something with that for the students and that little sister wasn't ok. I went home and checked the Jr High facebook page, which confirmed my suspicions. The principal and staff had put together a routine for Thriller. Now, stepping out of mom mode, let me just say that they did an amazing job. The dancing was fantastic. The principal has some moves! The entire student body (minus my kid) absolutely loved it. The staff clearly worked really hard on this. They had the Thriller music video playing on a big screen set up on the stage. As I showed Husband the video, we were scanning the audience for our baby girl. The lights moved at one point and there she was. Sitting near the front, hands clapped firmly over her ears. This whole routine was a little over 7 minutes and it was probably the longest 7 minutes of her life! I texted her to see if she was ok, and she said she was. But she needed a lot of cuddles when she got home from school! Oh, my sweet sensitive little sister!
Big sister was a good sport and went trick-or-treating with her younger siblings. Big sister was a witch, little sister was a unicorn, big brother was The Flash, and little brother was a ninja. Oh, and Mom was Minnie Mouse. It was fun to go out all together as a family!
When Husband got put into the bishopric, Wife was released from Young Women's. It was sad, I don't want to talk about it. Anyway. Husband went to a service auction that the young women had planned. They were supposed to offer a service. It put husband on the spot, he hadn't gone prepared for this. So he offered to make cinnamon rolls and cookies. Both of these items went to a couple of leaders, and the leaders were insistent that HE had to be the one to make them. They all knew I could do it, but they wanted him to do it. So on one of his days off, we got to work. He made chocolate chip cookies and caramel apple cinnamon rolls. He did a pretty good job, and I didn't have to cook dinner 'cuz there was enough cinnamon rolls leftover for us. Bonus!
Finished products, ready to be delivered
He also cleaned the whole kitchen when he was done. Wouldn't let me help with that part at all! Seriously. I am one spoiled wife!
Husband wanted to wait until we had a lot of leaves on the ground before he raked. The kids wanted a big pile so they could jump in. So one afternoon after school he and the younger three got to work and raked up a big pile. They all took turns jumping in and then building the pile back up before they took the leaves to be used as compost in the garden.
Little brother
little sister
Big brother
Sunday nights mean visits to ghre grandparents. At wife's parents house, this also means a game or three of pool. Daddy is so patient in helping the boys learn how to play and they love it!
We took advantage of a sunny day in November and got our Christmas lights up. The kids were thrilled to climb onto the roof with Dad and help him
We had Thanksgiving with wife's family this year. During which I took exactly zero pictures. We had ALMOST everyone! One niece's daughter got sick the night before so she couldn't make it, but everyone else was there and it was AWESOME! We ate our hearts out, and then had pie-till-we-die. I think I cooked the biggest turkey I ever have, along with the most potatoes and gravy and rolls I've ever done. Yummy food and family, it's a good combination!
