Happy Halloween!!!

It Snowed

Can you see it?

Okay, so it flurried for about 10 minutes...but Owen got to enjoy the brief minute of the magic.

(Please ignore the fact that Owen is blurry, I forgot the rules when setting the camera, and the moment was over before I figured it out...just pretend that I took an amazing shot!)

Just for fun:

Owen quotes as of late....

After John pointed out that Owen's feet were big, John asked Owen if he was going to grow tall. Owen's response, "That why I three!"
A lot of Owen's answers begin with "that why."

When trying to get people to stop talking and listen to him he can be heard yelling, "Hear this! Hear this!"

Owen's most popular catch phrase is, "I tols nu" (I told you). He uses it all the time...but what is funny is when he uses it wrong. Like when he was struggling getting on his feetie pj's by himself so I jumped in and showed him how and then he told me, "See, I tols nu!" To which I replied, "No, I told you!" But he would have none of that. I now know that disputations with a 3 year old are fruitless.

WE'VE GOT SWINE FLU PEOPLE!

Ainsley's fever had gotten better and then came back worse tonight. I freaked out, due to the fact that I had been told, and had read on the government website that this was something to watch for and take kids to the emergency room for. I felt like a terrible mother, like I should have noticed her 102 degree fever sooner. We ended up taking her to an after hours doctor (and the only reason they would even see her was because I was pregnant, otherwise they would have instructed us to let it run it's course, do you think the medical world could get their stories straight?????).

They swabbed her nose and the test was positive for the flu. Although they don't specifically test for swine flu, they said that over 95% of positive flu tests right now are swine flu. We were perscribed tamiflu and I was instructed to contact my doctor to see if they want me to take it as well. I just want this to work through the family so we are all healthy when the baby is born....I'm contemplating just holding the baby in until flu season is over!

(*Allow my rant for a moment...tamiflu came with the price tag of a $40 COPAY....what do people pay that have crummy or no insurance? I called my pharmacist friend and she explained the nonsensical reasons for the outrageous price. She would have compounded Ainsley's prescription had she been at work, and you can bet your buttons that I'll be calling her to get me my pills if I have to get them tomorrow! Can we say,"Corprate America taking advantage of the general public! What some people won't do to make a buck! Rant over.*)

I guess I got what I asked for, last night I was talking with some women after a meeting and made the comment that I wish we would just get the flu so we could be done with it...and sure enough...it came.

On a side note, I love the exceptions that are made for women about to give birth. I had to change my Dr. appointment this week. The receptionist told me that the week was full and that we needed to look at next week. I told her I was due on Friday. She said, "Oh, okay, when would you like to come in?" So not only did it get Ains into the doctor, it apparently has the power to free up a doctors full schedule. I'm going to start claiming 9 months pregnant when scheduling all future appointments!

Proud Moment

I got an email a while ago that Ains would be getting an award today for demonstrating confidence. Her school will be focusing on different skills every month and then kids will be selected at each month to receive and award for demonstrating those skills. I can't think of a better skill for Ains to be awarded with than confidence...she oozes it!

(***Warning...this next paragraph is nothing more than shameless bragging about my child...***)

She is the one that will get called on in primary opening exercises to hop up and fill in if anyone is missing or unwilling to give their part, I've yet to see her get stage fright. She performed in the primary talent show a few weeks ago (she sang "Leavin' on a Jet Plane while I accompanied her on the guitar) and she didn't miss a beat. I think I was more nervous than her...she stole the show! She is one of the few readers in her class and I know that her teacher uses her to demonstrate things and read for the rest of the class. Along with her confidence comes her independence, she has a field trip tomorrow that she informed me she wanted to go on by herself. I guess I'm not needed already! Soooo, to get to the point...Ains is one of the most confident people I know and totally deserved this little award.
So today, despite being sick, John took her over to the school for the award ceremony and a little breakfast before she came home to crash on the couch. I stayed home with Owen. At the time we thought we would like awful parents if we took two coughing kids to the school. But John said the room was so packed that no one would have even noticed, so now I'm bummed I didn't go!

Taken by Surprise

Despite my best efforts of becoming the germ and hand washing Nazi, the flu has settled upon our home (I'm pretty sure it's not H1N1 but who knows). I was caught off guard though because it struck the wrong child! I have been watching Owen like a hawk because he has had a cough for almost a week now, I've been waiting for it to turn into something else and it just hasn't...he hasn't slowed down one bit!

And then yesterday Ains woke up with a cough. I assumed that she had the same cough Owen has had and sent her to school (my bad...another moment that might win me mother of the year) she came home, plopped down on the couch and stayed there all day. By last night she had a fever and went to bed by 7:00. She was up during the night and even threw up, poor girl. She's pretty miserable.

I'm just hoping this passes quickly, and that the rest of us don't get it. I'm usually not so uptight about illness but I really don't want to have a newborn and the flu in the same house if I can help it. So I figure we have a week to clear this out of our house, hopefully sooner so the kids Halloween isn't ruined!

Halloween Carnival

We have some friends that like to party, which works out nicely for us, because then we get to go to lots of parties without planning them! This year they decided to do a Halloween carnival. The plan was to get a bunch of people together for a chili dinner and then for every family to plan some sort of a Halloween activity/booth for the kids. There were probably 20-30 families that ended up coming and the kids had a blast.


Our booth was sugar cookie decorating, which we did because it sounded easy, until I panicked when I was told there would be about 70 kids and made a billion cookies. Suddenly baking sugar cookies and making frosting was a huge chore. I thought it turned out cute though. I had the kids frost the cookies white and then we drew black frosting circles and dragged a toothpick through it to make it look like a spider web and then the kids got to choose a spider ring to put on top.

There were a ton of fun booths. The mad scientist, coloring contest, face painting, plinko, fishing, ghost bowling, bean bag toss, balloon animals, ghost suckers, feeling creepy things, making skeleton hands out of popcorn, and the list goes on. I was really impressed, everyone went above and beyond and the kids loved it!

When we were in the car headed home Owen's only words were, "That was fun!" Which doesn't always happen after our little outings. So the evening was a success!

Direct Quote

Ainsley (whining): "Owen gets to do everything!"

Me (sarcastically): "Really? What does Owen get to do?"

Ainsley (still whining): "He gets to be threeeeee!"

I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean...