Halloween!

I'm tired and don't want to spend too much time with commentary so here's the spawn:
This was about a week before Halloween. The kids were getting ready to head to the annual trick or treat at Justin's clinic.

 Josie's really into making faces lately.

 The boys have been watching the old school Super Mario Bros TV show lately (remember, from the 90's - thanks Netflix) and decided that they wanted to be Mario and Luigi. Clayton needed to be Luigi because, you know, Luigi's the taller one.

 "I'm mah mah Mah-rio!"

 Ready to get Gumbahs

 I made them do this. It's funny. You know it.

Josie got it in her head this year that the three of us (myself, her, and Sammie) needed to be the Powerpuff Girls (another older cartoon). She was adamant about it. I looked online for Powerpuff Girl costumes but they were T.R.A.S.H.Y. So I decided to make them. I am NOT a seamstress of any sort and these costumes gave me a fair amount of grief but in the end I think they turned out pretty great (mistakes and all). Besides, how insanely adorable is my little Buttercup!?!

 And her sister Blossom!

We also had a great time carving pumpkins. Clayton wanted a Pikachu pumpkin.

 Josie wanted a flower (if you can't already tell, we're not a fancy pumpkin carving family).

 Noah wanted this guy. I can't remember his name, but he's also some sort of Pokemon.

 Here they are all lit up. I love how Pikachu looks.

 Poor wilted flower. I freehanded this guy and he didn't fair so well.

 Ghost Pokemon. I wish this picture would have been better. This pumpkin looked super cool!

Halloween night. Here are the Powerpuff Girls:

I was Bubbles, Josie was Buttercup, and Sammie was Blossom (Josie decided who wore what costume). We wore our costumes to Josie's preschool party that morning where no one had any idea who we were and when Josie went out trick or treating without us (Sam and I stayed back and passed out candy) only one person recognized her - which was one more person that we thought would recognize her! Apparently a lot of people thought she was Dora (what?).

 Love Sammie's face here.

 Ready to take on Mojo Dojo!

 Mario and Luigi (this time with mustaches). Love Clayton's intense stare?

 Their big fake bellies make me laugh.

My cute costume clad clan! I love that, even though they all chose their own costumes (well, except Sammie) they all chose costumes that sort of coordinated. Themey. I like it.

 The kids went out with Justin and Jared.

Josie, Levi, Tori, and Ella came back first with Kerstin. It was getting dark, wet (although fortunately not actively raining), and chilly. Noah and Landon came back a while later with Jared and Clayton outlasted everyone! He and Justin stayed out until Justin made him come home. My oldest boy apparently has this trick or treat thing down!

Sammie obviously didn't like being left behind. She was not a happy camper to be at home passing out candy with me. On the upside, with her screaming and the Disco's constant barking at every doorbell, our house sounded like we were playing a haunted house CD!

It was a great Halloween. My kids really cleaned up this year (read: Justin and I have been eating a lot of candy - a LOT). I love this holiday (my waistline, not so much)!

No Halloween Pictures...

...yet. I have a ton of pictures of my adorable spawn in their costumes and I am eager to share them, but then yesterday something happened that trumped pictures of cute kids in costume. Behold:

Did you catch that? Here it is again:

Your eyes do not deceive you. That is my 14 month old baby. Walking! As you can see she's really shaky and four wobbly steps in a row is the most she's done but she's doing it. She still doesn't stand up on her own and she's a very unsteady and floppy walker but she's getting there. She was making us laugh - you can see on her face when she gets excited and wants to get somewhere really badly, she wants to run but she can barely walk. The result is a massive face plant. It doesn't hurt her it's just kind of funny to see her try so hard to get somewhere so fast and her body just won't move as quickly as she'd like. She'll get there. In the meantime, she's a championship crawler and cruiser. My goal is to have her walking fluidly by Christmas. Our physical therapist is certain that this is going to be the case. Hooray Sammie! We're so proud of you!

'Round Here

Things around here lately are a little hectic and different. A few months ago I had some tests done on my thyroid. I have known for a few years that I have a large goiter in my neck. I had it biopsied a few months after Josie was born and it tested benign. Well, after they tested it a few months ago a very nice nurse (insert sarcasm and eye roll) called me and told me that it didn't test as benign but didn't test as malignant either. Basically she told me that I might have cancer but she wasn't sure. I didn't have another appointment with my endocronologist for a whole month. Needless to say, I was adamant about getting in sooner. They got me in later that week and the doctor told me basically the same thing (although she was infinitely more compassionate about it). Because the goiter was such a wild card, she wanted to be very aggressive with it and treat it like it was cancerous. This meant a dose of radioactive iodine.

After discussing it with the endocrinologist, I met with the nuclear medicine doctor. He told me what dose of radiation they were going to be giving me. It surprised me how high the dose was but he said that their goal was to be very aggressive. One of the rules about this radiation is that I had to be incomplete isolation for 2 days and then I had to stay away from small children for another 9. As a mother who has small children, this seemed impossible...until I learned that Justin had booked me a hotel room in Michigan for the first two days and then had a plan for me to stay in the basement with all the comforts of a four star hotel room (complete with room service) for the additional nine days. He's amazing and I'm really lucky to have him.

So on the 19th of this month I took my little (or big, because it was kind of like a horse pill) radioactive pill and headed off for my mini vacation in Michigan. It. Was. Amazing. So relaxing. I had a really nice room in a really nice hotel and spent a glorious two days watching movies, reading books, and relaxing. Things haven't changed much since I've been home either, I am still watching movies, reading books, relaxing, and having the best room service ever! I feel so decadent and luxurious and can't believe I still have 6 more days of this.

Side effects? Extreme dry mouth. Seriously, my tounge feels like a cotton ball. It's pretty bad but having lots of sucking candy on hand has helped out. Nausea. It hasn't been too bad, but it's been present. I haven't wanted to eat a whole lot so that's been kind of a bummer - especially since Justin is an amazing cook who has been making really yummy meals. But the biggest side effect - not being able to hug or kiss or snuggle my babies. Justin and I decided it would be for the best if Sammie didn't know I was here so I haven't even really seen her in about five days. I ache for that squishy little body. As fun as it's been to relax and have a little vacation I really want to hug and kiss my kids.

I go back to the endocrinologist at the end of November and we'll know then if the radiation treatment worked. If not, I'll have another dose. If it still doesn't work, I'll have surgery to remove my thyroid completely. Hopefully it won't come to that but I feel pretty confident that this round of radiation worked. Because I miss this:

 and this:

 and this:

 and this:

I will admit though, Justin has been an amazing Mr. Mom. He even went on Josie's field trip yesterday. He's a great husband and father and I'm so glad he's mine. Thanks babe, you're the best. I'm very grateful for everything you've done and everything you're going to continue to do this week. We're getting through this. Life is good.

Fun and Fitness

**Lots of pictures. Not a lot of narration. You're welcome.**

It happened again. The annual fundraiser for the boy's school. This year they did things a little bit differently. Instead of running a track for the full time, they had stations that the kids completed. There was a track running station, a tug of war station, a freeze dance station, an obsticle course station, and a jumping rope station.

The third graders went first. Josie, Sammie, and I went to support Clayton. It was the cutest ever. Clayton is such a wonderful big brother. He made sure that Josie was involved in every station and that she was given a popsicle when everything was over. Like I said, cutest big brother ever.

Tug of war. The kids LOVED this. (This was the one activity I wouldn't let Josie participate in.) There was lots of competition and LOTS of laughter.

 Clayton thought it was the funniest thing.

Freeze dance. Clayton and Josie danced together the whole time. I love the way she's looking at him in this picture. Truth is, she ADORES Clayton. Another truth: I can't blame her. I adore him myself!

 He's so good to her. I love what a kind and considerate brother he is.

 Obsticle course. I love this action shot. Clayton looks like he's skiing.

 Running.

 After a few laps, Clayton and Josie started running together.

 Jumping rope.

 Josie had no idea how to do this, but it didn't stop her from giving it her all.

 Popsicles!

 Love these two!

Kindergarten took their turn on the field at the end of the day. The girls and I went back to support Noah.

The kindergartner's had no previous experience with Tug of War. It was hilarious watching them figure this game out. The first round was full of confusion, kids falling down on top of each other, and lots of laughter. Slowly but surely they figured it out.

While it never reached the competitive level that the third grader's did, it was still pretty intense once they figured it out. When the day was over both boys were unanimous in saying that Tug of War was their favorite activity of the day.

 Freeze dance time. Noah wasn't as inclusive of Josie as Clayton had been (2 and 3 have a very different relationship than 1 and 3), but he was pretty good about introducing her to his classmates and he was very tolerant of her participation.

 Noah's dance moves were killing me!

 Obsticle course.

 Running the track.

 This was not Josie's favorite event. At one point she sat down on the track and pouted. Fun.

 Jump rope. Look at the air Noah's getting!

From the front. Maybe it's not as impressive on camera as it was in person, but he was getting some serious height!

 Red faced and ready for a popsicle!

 Lucky girl got two popsicles!

It was a day of fun for me and the kids and (I believe) the school raised about $15,000! I love that this is their only fundraiser. I fully support sponsoring something like this as opposed to buying overpriced wrapping paper or chocolates that I definitely do not need. The kids had been looking forward to it and no one walked away disappointed!

Handsome

Justin and the boys went and got haircuts the other weekend and, once in the chair, Clayton asked for a mohawk. Fortunately, the stylist looked to Justin before buzzing the sides of my baby's head. Of course Justin said that, no, Clayton could not have a mohawk. He was probably a little sad (I assume, but I wasn't there) but the stylist suggested that she could give him a fohawk when they were all done. This got Justin's seal of approval and made Clayton happy. When they came home I couldn't get over how handsome my guy looked so I had to snap a few photos:

I love when he smiles and you can see his big ol' adult teeth. I don't love the braces that I know are going to be in our future, but this smile just kills me!

 Be still my heart!

 GQ! Classic Clayton pose!

 "ROCK AND ROLL!"

 Ah, those green eyes...I could just get lost in them!

This kid is growing up so fast that sometimes I can't stand it. He's becoming a really great young man. He's been asking me to style his fohawk on Sundays and I've been complying (I don't bother fixing the boys' hair for school - especially now that hat weather is almost upon us). I love it.

 

Side story: the other day he was cleaning up the shoe closet and picked up my Toms. He went to put them in our entryway closet (where guests put their shoes) because he swore they were Landon's (we do have similar Toms). When I told him they were mine he didn't believe me. I had to physically put them on to convince him. When I took them off, Clayton put them on and told me that they fit him. They were just a little bit big, but close. I predict he and I will be in the same size shoe in a year!

 

Love you Clayton! You're a great kid and devistatingly handsome!

Josie's first fieldtrip!

Josie has been on fieldtrips before, but never with a class of her own. Her class went on the traditional apple orchard field trip and she was SO excited! She LOVES school and had been talking about her field trip for days. The day of the trip she was ready in record time. We dropped Sammie off with a friend (stroller + apple orchard = no bueno) and headed off.

Josie jumped right in and got to picking! Because of all the drought issues that the farmers had this year, the apples were pretty little not particularly appetizing, but she was still determined to fill her bag!

 Josie and her friend Ruby. It's hard to get a picture of preschoolers.

Once our bags were nice and full, we met back up with the class for a delicious snack of crackers and apple cider! Yum!

 This one's blurry, but I love the look on her face. Soooo Josie.

Just for fun: Here is what Josie looked like the last time we went apple picking (we skipped last year because Sammie was so tiny):

And this year (she's growing up too fast):

Each child had to give two of their apples to Mrs. Halliday so that they could make applesauce for snack the next day. Josie loved doing that (which is good, because it's what we're going to do with the apples that she brought home too)! I loved being able to go with her on her very first field trip. I love that all my kids are still young enough to be really excited when I show up at their school or when I can go on field trips with them. I know they'll loose it at some point, but hopefully we've still got a few years before that starts happening!