Been BUSY

Well, yay for harvest time! It's fall and I'm LOVING it! I love the color of the leaves, the crisp crunch of fall, the smells, and breaking out the sweaters! Each new season is SO much fun with kids. Yes, we've been through Halloween and fall with the boys before. But each consecutive year is MORE wonderful because they're understanding so much more and with that comes more excitement! I realize I need to ENJOY this feeling though because once they start hitting early tweens and teens it will be "leave me alone Mom" time so I'm trying to soak in the MAGIC of each season now when they're in this season of life and loving it :).

A new tradition starting this year for us is HARVESTING! Our new home we moved into in March of this year has 2 MASSIVE apple trees. We had an apricot tree at our old house but never really did anything with them when we should have. I cannot fully explain how many apples we have got from our two trees. I'll show you a picture (that amount times 5.5!) but it just doesn't do justice. We've been very blessed with lots of fruit. So, now our falls will consist of PICKING, PICKING, PICKING, SMELLING LIKE COOKING APPLES ALL THE TIME (YUMMMM!!!! What better fall scent?!), giving away lots of apples to friends, family and neighbors, canning, juicing, fruit leathering, fruit dehydrating and cooking!

First picture of one of our apple trees, second picture our first picking but litterally that amount times 5.5 is how many we've had!


It's been a LOT of work but very fulfilling! Here's what we've got SO FAR:
Juice: 22 Quarts
Applesauce: 40 pints, 8 quarts
Canned apple pie filling: 11 quarts, 2 pints
Apple Chips: 4 gallon ziplocs ful
Fruit Leather: 8 pans worth
Salsa (our AWESOME neighbor has given us a ton of tomatoes): 7 pints, 2 quarts

To come...PEARS (our wonderful in laws have generously given us a bunch of pears from their trees and I'm eager to can them)

Parker loves to help me out and Darrin has been a big help too:


We also had the opportunity to go to the circus with my Pops and 2 nephews. My parents were going to take the three cousins but my mom got sick (blah :(!) so I got to go in her place! It was INCREDIBLE and we loved it! THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM AND DAD FOR TAKING US TO THE CIRCUS! Had a great time and Parker was in AWE.


I also hosted a PINSPIRED night and had some friends over to do 2 crafts and we all made pinspired food which was oh so good! I feel like it's been forever since I got my craft on. Here's the twig wreath I was in charge of (pictures aren't great-sorry):


And my friend Liberty showed us a glitter craft with mod podge and I'm super lame and was too lazy to get a picture uploaded after I thought I had one taken :(. BUT it's super cool. You mix equal parts of mod podge and glitter and can glitter anything. I chose to do some glitter pumpkins, a nativity scene and a reindeer. You cut out of freezer paper a sillouette and iron onto material, then paint the mod podge glitter mix onto it and peel off the freezer paper stencil. Easy and super cute. Then I framed my glittered material for holiday decorations :).

BUT, I've been decorating for fall and also made this Halloween wreath with my sister in laws :)


So ya I've been busy but having fun in trying to make the most out of fall :). Can't wait to carve pumpkins, put together costumes, go to a pumpkin farm and hopefully a corn maze!

ON ANOTHER COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NOTE Parker had a little surgery today. He was diagnosed with what's called Meatle Stetotis. In plain english it means he didn't pee straight. He peed waaay up and to the left in fact :). We didn't realize until we did potty training but it was really obvious when we went camping and saw him "go" in the great outdoors. When potty training we trained him to sit and I knew we had to point waaay down for it not to go everywhere but didn't really know what was normal.

The interesting thing is that he wasn't born with it. Apparently at some point he got a diaper rash as a baby and that caused the tip of his urethra to close up except for a pin prick hole. The doctor said there's nothing I could have done, but it just happens to some boys. Just like a hose covered by your thumb, this causes the pressure to make your pee kinda go skiwampous. Am I making sense?

ANYWAYS, he got what's called a Meatotomy today to fix this little problem so that someday he can stand when going. (My rule is that's not happening until he's tall enough to reach though :)).

Here's how today went. We woke up and all he could have until 9:30am was clear liquids, then after 9:30am nothing at all. I explained this to him the day before but the first thing he wanted when he woke up was milk and cereal. Of course! When he found out that wasn't happening because of his surgery he got these big ol' crocodile tears that broke my heart! He made it through though. Our check in time wasn't until 11:45am. My sweet mother in law watched Spencer and my sweet Mother went with me for emotional support since Darrin couldn't make it.

Not that the surgery/procedure was a big deal, it's supposed to be really fast and easy, but due to the nature of the surgery, they had to put him under general anathesiology. This was scary for me just because it was his first time under and you just never know how they'll react. All morning I kept thinking, "what if's..." you know... just because I couldn't help it! I just couldn't bear the thought of life without Parker. BUT everything went very smoothly and I'm so grateful! We were in WONDERFUL hands at PCMC (Primary Childrens)!

They took his vitals, gave him his special bracelet, showed him his mask and let him choose his "flavor" to smell with the special gas. He chose strawberry over root beer and cotton candy. Then they showed him pictures of what it would all look like. The bed he'd be one, the pillow he'd "sleep" on, etc. Such awesome nurses there!

When the time came, with monkey in arm, my little boy fearlessly laid on the table and I held his arm. They put the mask on and he just started to giggle and laugh. HAHA! Then he got pretty sleepy and his breathing got really strange and he was twitching (this was SCARY to watch but they all assured me it's completely normal). I was then asked to leave the room. It only took about 8 minutes and then I was able to come back in and get instructions on how to take care of it. Then I had to leave again until he was awake and vitals were taken.

They said he woke right up but I wasn't able to see him for about 15 minutes after. The first thing he said was, "I stayed so still!" WHAT A CHAMP! Seriously, he was so brave, so friendly to everyone and just perked right back up. AND HE WAS SO EXCITED TO FINALLY EAT! They gave him root beer slushy and chips right away :). Then we went to Wendy's for a kids meal after. They told me he'd be really tired and need to rest the rest of the day. It was quite the opposite though. He was super high energy ever since just bouncing off the walls :). I guess it was a bit of the opposite effect on him.

He's doing great still. It really hurts him to urinate but other than that he shows no signs of it bothering him. I need to put vasaline on it all through the day, but other than that he's good :).

I'm so sad it doesn't look like the video is working :( Who knows how to properly upload a video?? I don't see the video icon so I just tried uploading with the image icon and this is how it turned out!

Vacation?

Just got back from our awaited vacation yesterday! I'll try and break it down day by day:

Wednesday: Finished packing and left for airport. Flight was good! Parker was so excited about being on an airplane and was SO good the entire time!! Spencer was pretty good but didn't nap. He liked to walk around a bit. Luckily our second flight was pretty empty so it didn't matter. Probably 2 minutes total of crying for 6.5 hours of flying though! Champs! Didn't get to sleep until past 2am Orlando time and had to wake up at 7:45am for sea world.


Thursday: Sea world! Spencer loved the dolphins! Parker rode on his first rollercoaster-shamu which he LOVED. The kids behaved so well and we all really enjoyed watching the shows and seeing all the sea life. It seemed like they were all SO active! The Manta coaster was insane and super fun for us adults. Spencer finally fell asleep in the stroller at 3pm.


Friday: Disney's Magic Kingdom. So magical! We got to see the opening welcome party (which I've never seen), we got to meet stitch, woody, Jesse, aerial, bolt, Pluto. The first big roller coaster for Parker was big thunder mountain railroad and he loved it! The kids were SO good! Parker took a 5 Min nap in the tiki room but that's it and Spencer only got a 35 minute nap in the stroller for all day. We were just amazed at how well they did! They loved it! In the evening there was a k-9 dance party with dogs which was so much fun. Fireworks were incredible as always! Parker was FLIPPING OUT for the fireworks. Just made it all worth it. And the lines were no longer than 15 minutes which was sweet! It rained for a couple hours at the end but didn't put too much of a damper on things. We rode/did everything we wanted to. Had to wait forever for our hotel shuttle but and didn't get home until 11:30 but the kids were still champs!


Saturday : checked out of hotel, drove 1 hour to port Canaveral. So many tolls! Returned rental car and waited over an hour in the hot sun to get the shuttle to take us to the ships port. Got to ship but had to wait in line for hours to get on ship which was really frustrating, long and tiring. Line after line and Spencer was having a really rough time!! So not fun. I was so done and ready to cry. We finally made it on the ship and ate lunch first thing. Then the kids and I took a nap while Darrin explored the ship. When we woke up we were out in the ocean blue! The kids loved our ocean view window! Then we did the kids orientation and dinner. Then the pool with movie and hot tub while it rained part of the time which was fun.


Sunday : We had breakfast and a nice family devotional with everyone about missionary work with those around us. Then parker went to the kids club for the first time while we played mini golf. He had a great time in kids club with Claire but a kid was hitting both he and Claire in the heads with a truck and had to be sent back home to his parents. It was formal dinner night. On the way to dinner Parker got his fingers stuck in the elevator! We finally got them out and they were pretty swollen and skin had been broken in 3 spots. Poor guy! We then went to a murder mystery / flash mob rehearsal which was fun.


Monday : first stop! To Cozumel Mexico today! We took a 14 passenger van to paradise beach. There was a gorgeous beach with lots of fun water toys in the ocean like inflated slides and rock climbing walls. Parker loved it! Spencer didn't last too long in the ocean. Then we moved to the pool where the water was quite nice! Then came the rain. Los and lots and lots!!! We stayed under a canopy hoping it would pass soon but waited over an hour before it started to clear up. Then we swam a bit more before heading back to the ship. Total cost was $44/ family. Then showered and dinner. Then a comedian show which was clean and funny and then a circus sideshow which was well done! Then back to the room for room service.


Tuesday: Belize. Everyone else had plans to go cave tubing but we couldn't because our kids. So we slept in, had breakfast, went into Belize and shopped around a bit but didn't buy anything. It was exactly like Mexico. Then we took the tender boat back to the ship (about 15 minute ride). We went swimming and did waterslides. We figured out a way to do a monitor with the kids club cell and room phone. Went to an awesome show called dancing in the streets after dinner while kids slept. I started to loose my voice.


Wednesday: Roatan, Honduras stop. I woke up feeling sick! I just got over a cold! I was aches, didn't have much energy, no voice and coughing. :(. I didn't feel like going on our planned excursion but really wanted to and so I did because I knew I'd regret it if i didn't. We did a tour through a company. They showed us all around the island and interesting facts. We saw the Jackson home and Johnny Depp's home. Then they brought us to a monkey zoo. It was $10 for our family and im so glad we did it! We saw several different animals in cages and then they let us go in the monkey cage. Right when we went in a monkey jumped on me and his tail curled around my arm! I was holding Spencer at the time and he wasn't so sure about it. Darrin and Parker got to hold them too :). We also got to hold and feed birds. Then the tour took us to the beach where we had to pay $20 to be able to use restrooms, and have a chair with an umbrella. Darrin was pretty ticked about that. But it was such a beautiful beach! White sands, blue sea, gorgeous day! It was hard for me to get in the ocean being so aches but I did. Darrin went snorkeling and didn't see much. Then mom and dad offered to watch the kids while we went snorkeling together. I was really hesitant being sick but knew it could be my only opportunity this trip so i decided to try. We were told snorkeling was really good about a 15 minute walk to some huge rocks. So we did that. It was hard to snorkel being sock and hurt my back to breath but im so glad I went! The water was so clear and we saw tons of jellyfish, a variety of fish and a mana ray that was huge! There was an area right by shore that had tons of big fish that I wanted to show the boys. So we went and got them to show them. They thought it was pretty awesome! It was suggested we feed them crushed cereal which made them go wild! Bajaa. It was hillarous to watch that with the kids. After a bit more swimming it was time to head back. We got back to the ship, showered and went to dinner even though I really didn't feel like it. After dinner I was just so sick and asked Darrin for a blessing. He didn't have oil but gave me one anyways. It gave me comfort and reminded me that everything happens for a reason and we're given trials we can handle. Ibuprofen and decongestant weren't covering it! At 2am my temp was 102.5. I slept in 20 minutes increments and was having chills and hot flashes all night. Darrin was a huge help with getting me cold towels and helping with the waking kids.


Thursday: Costa Maya stop. I was SO super sick! Darrin took the kids off the ship for a bit and did some shopping bit didnt buy anything. Temp got down to 99.5 once but the rest of the entire day was mid 101's. Darrin was so good to me and the kids! I could not have survived without him! I felt like my sinuses were going to explode, like my body was either ice or fire, I couldn't walk unless I had to pee, super aches, coughing, sore throat, ear pain in right ear, and then i got nauseous and had intense lower back pain. Darrin took the kids to Formal dinner night and had help from the family. My temp got back up to 102.3 and the whole family came to the rescue. It turns out everyone forgot oil but dad and Darrin gave me another blessing, mom had muscle patches for my lower back, Patti had a kidney infection test and offered loritab, Melissa was bringing me drinks and brought tylenol to take with ibuprofen, Mom and dad helped so much with the kids at dinner and taking them to a show after dinner. I threw up which was releaving and then finally got to sleep and slept fairly well but still whoke up needing meds.

(No picture due to no possible good pictures could be taken from bed :))

Friday: woke up without a fever finally! Still super weak, congested, and nauseated. But the room needed to be cleaned badly so we got swimming suits on, went to breakfast, couldn't eat hardly anything, then went to the hot tub and relaxed for a while. Rested in the room and naps. Room service. Very nauseated still and my right ear hurts. Went to the kids club dance performance. When they called up the 2-5 year olds Parker said he wanted to go on stage even though he only went to kids club once for an hour and didn't know the dance. He went up there and sort of danced with everyone but mostly stared at fun ship Freddie. Haha. Then they told everyone to go sit back down And Parker just stayed up there. I finally had to get him :). Back to the room and I took dramamine. Helped but not before dinner so Darrin had to take Parker to the last dinner while I stayed behind with Spencer :(. Darrin is coughing and feels crappy now! Kids are coughing some:(. Terrified for packing and flight tomorrow! ! I pray we'll have heavenly help!

(Again, no pictures due to a lot of the day spent in bed :()

Saturday (MY BIRTHDAY): Almost deserves it's own post but I'll sum it up as best I can. Last night my right ear started to be in intense pain. I was just in tears it hurt so bad. I was so worried that it would rupture in our flight the next day or something. Well, I got about an hour or two of sleep due to the pain. My eardrum DID rupture in the night and I cannot explain how painful it was. It was cracking and popping all night until finally some clear liquid began leaking but the pain didn't stop :(. The next day we went through the de-embarkation from the ship and I was staying on top of pain meds for my ear and it was better than the night before but still painful. Then we had to wait forever for transportation to the airport. Fell asleep on the way to the airport but when I woke up was in imense pain again-I forgot to take something for the pain to stay on top of it. I took something right away. Later I my sister in law and I asked a Southwest employee if they had any sort of first aid kit with one of those poping heat packs for my ear. She said if they had one it'd be the EMT's that'd have it so she had them come. They didn't have any but some Southwest Rep came over and told me that they wouldn't allow me to fly if I was having any ear issues. But that I could cause the whole plane to land because of pain. He said I needed a doctors note to clear me. WHAT?!? all because I was asking for a heat pack. So, my kids had to fly home on our scheduled flight with my in laws, Darrin and I had to go rent a car, go see a doctor (my ear drum did indeed rupture, I was cleared to fly, given antibiotics), had to fill the prescriptions, and try and catch the last flight of the day. We BARELY made it on a flight to Denver that had a connecting flight to Salt Lake. It was a hard flight. But then we ran to catch our connecting flight and MISSED IT by 20 minutes! There were 6 of us who missed it. We met these really nice guys from Salt Lake that saw how miserable we were and they PAID FOR A HOTEL FOR US! They were on business and would normally get two rooms but shared a room and got us a room. TALK ABOUT GOOD SAMARITANS! Such nice guys who were around our age. The next morning we woke up at 6:30am for our flight.

TALK ABOUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, RIGHT?! :)


My AMAZING in laws kept the kids for an extra day so we could rest and recover more. I slept 14 hours straight right when we got home. It really helped. I'm now just DIZZY/DISORIENTED from being deaf on the right side and still have a cold/nasty cough. It takes 1-2 months to regain hearing so I'm just praying it's sooner than later! I'm still leaking fluid from that ear with on/off pain and a constant buzzing. :(. I hope no one reading this ever has to go through this.

P.S. Darrin says my birthday has been rescheduled to a later-feel better date thank goodness so stay posted for a birthday post-hopefully a great one :)

It was a super big bummer to end our vacation so badly but the beginning really was great! We made so many fun memories with our kids and each other. And although I spent the last half so sick, I certainly felt love from my amazing husband and family and opportunities for togetherness are always good :)

General Notes:
-dinners were so fun and yummy! We always ordered WAY too much food :). Parker loved having shrimp most nights, any and all food he wanted :), Spencer was a pain most nights at dinner usually because it took over two hours for all the courses but he still got to try fun foods. The boys at lobster, shrimp, shark, aligator, frog legs and more :)
-I had to miss the last two nights of dinner die to being sick including a formal night which was a huge bummer :(
-Parker loved coming back to our room after dinner and seeing a towel animal with chocolates!
-Parker had a lot more accidents at night-I think that's due to so much juice and an unfamiliar bathroom
-both kids were great at taking naps!
-sleeping at nights was OK-waking up a few times at night but going back to sleep pretty good usually
-The kids loved looking out our ocean view window! They would watch out for dolphins for me :) although they never spotted any
-We were SO glad we brought the double stroller! It was a lifesaver!