Tis the Season

What a busy time of year...here's what's been keeping me up til all hours of the night :)

Weekend 1-

It started on the 4th with a lovely work party. Yummy Someburros and other treats and a nice time with friends.

Then came the ward party on the 5th. A hayride where on the way we pass wise men and shepherds and Mary and Joseph and end out in a stable. Very nice (we had done the same last year with just the relief society but with the combining wards and the rest of the family it was still new and beautiful).

Weekend 2 -

On the 12th we started the morning with a Pancake Breakfast at school. I was there by 6:45 to set up and start cooking. Keaton came later but didn't want to eat and cried for Santa. ( I think he was feeling sick)

Sorry for the bad pics girls, I'm blaming the cafeteria lighting!

Later that night,I went to a co-workers house for a boat parade. They live on a lake and most people decorated the back of their house and they also decorated their boats. It was a nice ride around the lake and fun to see all the festivities. Wish I had remembered my camera, or not been too lazy to go get it out of my car. It was so beautiful.

Weekend 3 -

This was the last week of school. So finishing projects, buying gifts for co-workers, planning for the class party etc was a bit crazy. Then came a busy weekend again. I was invited to two parties my friend Liz from softball was having a girls night white elephant party. It was nice and relaxing I won a small prize for being able to write the names of Santa's reindeer the fastest. Then during the white elephant I a round brush, nail polish, a headband, and a few other small cosmetic things. I had to leave that party early to head to the next. My next party was forever far (Crismon and McKellips) at my friend Vicki's house from work. Met a lot of nice people and enjoyed being out by the fire. While there I got the call about Keaton's latest accident...Josh wasn't too worried about it so I didn't rush home but I did pick Keaton up just to check on him and made the executive decision to go to urgent care. I call it "Stitches 3.2" (3 years old, 2nd set of stitches).

A late night at urgent care was followed by my ward Christmas program on Sunday. I am the choir director and our normal chorister was gone so I also led all the other hymns...standing up in front of people 6 times is not my idea of fun. But the program turned out well thanks to help from all my choir member, a friend who played the viola and the people who red the narration so wonderfully. Boy am I glad that is in the past.

Well that leads me to this week. Hooray for time off. A trip to the zoo (Keaton and 12 girls..3 not pictured)

Gingerbread houses which he stops being interested in 5 minutes and I have to finish.

Fun with cousins

Shopping

Baking (I only made the peanut butter blossoms with refrigerated dough, the others my mom did)

and more.

I am excited for my sisters family to come into town on Christmas day and for the boys to play with each other. Despite all the craziness that sometimes comes with this season of the year, I am also in remembrance of the reason for the season and thankful to my Heavenly Father for the gift of his Son Jesus Christ my savior and redeemer. I am also very thankful for my family. The bond we share and the way we strive to help one another. I look forward to a wonderful Christmas day with them.

Oh Christmas Tree...

My mom loves the smell of a fresh tree. So every year it's a big ordeal to pick out just the right tree. My dad likes Noble Fir...kind of expensive for a tall one. Mom likes her trees to be really full so we usually end up with a Douglas Fir. They take lots of time unwrapping and shaking out trees, looking to make sure the trunks are straight, etc. They often go to 2 or 3 places just to find a nice one. This year Keaton had an opinion too. Of course he wanted a little one, just the same as him :) The process can be a little long, but it's all worth while when you come home with a lovely Christmas Tree.


First we tried our luck at a nursery.

Then we tried a tree lot.

Finally made it home with a nice tree

Finished product...scarce on ornaments for some reason this year.

Thanksgiving Preparation

Lots of things going on to get ready for Thanksgiving. At school we made little turkeys out of nuts, yes that is a walnut and a peanut cute huh? Keaton finger painted this cup turkey centerpiece for us.

One night last week we made food treats. First we made some apple turkeys. A yummy snack, though we made three and I'm not sure we even ate one.

Also we made this Harvest Blessing Mix we gave it to his teachers (6) at school and my V.T. people. This is the mix pre-label. I made a little label to fold over the top of the bags. Here is the basics of the mix, though I worded it better on the tag.


The Bugels represent a cornucopia-horn of plenty
Pretzels-arms folded in prayers of thanks
Dried Fruits - The fruits of the harvest.
Sunflower seeds - the promise of a bountiful harvest next year,
Candy corn - reminder of faith of pilgrims, when they each had 5 kernels per day to eat.

Last Sunday I subbed in singing time at church. I made this turkey and hid the feathers with songs for junior primary and had senior think of a blessing and a song to go with it to write on their feathers. Keaton wanted to have the big turkey so we turned it into FHE the next day. These are some of the many things our family is grateful for.

Keaton wanted to write too, so I told him the letters and he wrote them. Not bad for a kid who's not even 3 and a half yet! In case you can't tell it says trees and clothes. The "s" looks like a 3, we'll have to work on that. And in clothes the 'H' is on top of the 'T' so it's hard to see all the letters but what do you expect from those little hands especially using a big marker and not sitting at the table.

I am thankful to have so much fun with my little boy although sometimes it's more fun for me and forced fun for him! I am also very thankful for his health and how smart the little stinker is :)

Veteran's Day

Nice to have a day off in the middle of the week. To spend time being silly together. Also, we went to Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

Thanks to all those who have served and continue to serve our coutries and who fight for the freedoms I enjoy every day.

Stitches Updated

Stitches were in about 8 days. Keaton did pretty good. Started to use his hand a bit more after the 4th day. Even went to some birthday parties. Swung a bat at pinatas and dug in the sand. When they came out it looked pretty nasty and the top skin all dried up and peeled off but now it's just a big pink spot and I'm sure years down the road a scar on his palm will be no big deal :)



Waiting for the nurse.

Right before they were removed

Right after they were removed.

Birthday Day

Last weekend ago we had a whole day of partying. Keaton loved to play of course. Matthew's party was at Carraige Lane park. It was a construciton theme they each got the Home Depot aprons with the hat to decorate and the hammer also crayons to work on the castle. Keaton loved every minute of it especially playing in the sand.

Earlier that morning we had been at Kamryn's party. This was a princess tea party. The girls made fancy princess hats and the boys made crowns. She had some dress up clothes for the kids, Keaton had a tie on at one point. Then the wind and the rain came. We quickly packed up the cars and headed back to their house. We finished up with some games and cake.

Diary of a Stitches Professional - Age 3

5:45 pm Sunday - Mom and Dad are visiting a sick friend. I am making dinner and Keaton is setting the table. Keaton is taking cups to the table..or I should say glasses. He trips and falls with a glass in his hand. Blood everywhere! I run to the bathroom to wash it off but of course water makes it look really bloody. Apply a paper towel, call mom.
6:00 - Mom leaves dad and rushes home, we decide to go to the ER in case it needs stitches so we swing by to pick dad back up.
6:15 Check in to Carden Children's Hospital at Banner Desert. They put gauze and wrap his hand. They instruct us to go to the waiting room, no food or water. Waiting room full of very sick kids...we don't want the flu so we wait in main lobby. Keaton enjoys trains. We wait and wait.
9:30 - Finally got into a room. Nurse comes by to take vitals.
10:30- Doctor stops by, wants an x-ray to make sure no glass is inside. I ask the nurse, can he eat? She brings peanut butter and crackers, poptarts and OJ, Keaton eats it all, poor kids been starving since 2 pm when he had a snack.
11:30 - Xray people bring portable machine. Take x-ray and assure us it's digital and the doctor will see it immediately.
12:30 am Monday - Doctor comes back. No glass, ready to stitch. Now comes the fun. Strap Keaton to a papoose board. Lots of screaming while they clean wound. Almost passing out screaming when they give him the shot right in his cut, to numb the area. Doctor pulls back wound to show me that there aren't any tendons cut. They clean some more then they stitch. 9 stitches and they aren't very close together.
1:15 We head home from the hospital.
1:30 Keaton falls asleep
2:30 Keaton wakes up screaming. Cries for nearly and hour. Get him to sleep again by taking him outside.
3:30 Deanna goes back to sleep.
6:00 Deanna gets up to go to school and make sub plans.
7:30 Deanna comes home. Keaton's been away off and on but is now sleeping on the couch. this pattern holds until 11 am. Keaton and Deanna both sleep off and on.

This is what he looked like after the hospital visit. We affectionately called it the "snowman hand" We weren't allowed to remove this for 24 hours. So he went to sleep with it on Monday night.

After that 24 hours they told us it needed some air and we were supposed to leave it uncovered so we unbandaged it and this is what it looked like. NICE!

Well I didn't really want to leave it uncovered for school so we cleaned up the dry blood added some polysporin and put a band aide over it, plus a little tape so it didn't fall off. This is what he looked like headed to school Tuesday morning.

All in all, he's doing well. He plays and eats and sleeps, just one handed. Luckily he tends to do most things right handed and this is his left. But let's not forget this is his third set of stitches. The snowglobe incident happened in Dec. 07 and the eye surgery happened July 08. He's a little trooper.

Halloween...plus

Well I still haven't found my camera, the one I just got for Christmas last year. But I did find the memory card to my 6 year old camera, and it worked out for the most part. The screen doesn't always work and it doesn't fit in my pocket but we managed.

Halloween was a busy time. Keaton's Halloween started off really early Friday morning at school. The kids got dressed and went trick or treating around Dobson High during first hour. They had teachers who were interested sign up. Then they came back to the classroom and had a special chocolate chip pancake breakfast which included purple Gatorade with some dry ice for the spooky effect. After breakfast they went trick or treating to another set of teachers during 2nd hour. Keaton made a killing. Many teachers had given them treat bags with lots of thing. He also got several pencils, stickers, a little football, a lanyard, notepads etc. The bags they had decorated were over flowing and so each kids went home with their bag plus an extra.

While I'm on the topic of school, I just took this pic of some of his recent projects. The stop light was during safety week (he also has a cute fireman pic. on the other camera) during the week about staying healthy they made prints with fruits and vegetables, then there is some simple fall stuff. He brings home tons daily.

Ok back to Halloween - First stop the party at the Caza's. Erin does a really good job setting up little carnival games. She invited everyone from the ward between 2-4 (her kids ages) we ate pizza and got some treats. And of course the grand finale....the fishing pond, where you catch a real fish. He's safely home and in the tank 24 hours with our other large goldfish and he seems to be surviving.

Next stop - Ward Party - again more carnival games. I ate a Navajo taco, Keaton wouldn't try it.

We decided to skip the trunk-or-treat because a 3 year old just doesn't need that much candy.

Third stop - Neighborhood trick or treating. Keaton loved this of course, he ran around for the first half and was still very excited at the end. He got a few good scares and almost went into tears once. On the way back to the house he decided to take a ride.

Off to the next house with Dad and Aunt Jenn

Keaton and Daddy by a "kind of scary" ghost.

Back home at the end of the night. You would think that I torture this kid regularly.

Today - Sunday we celebrated Coopers birthday, my baby brother is 24. He requested "Levi Tacos" and cherry cheesecake. And even though it was Cooper birthday I got myself a little present too. The Brown's in our ward are moving to Utah and decided not to take the piano with them so I bought it. Since Cooper and Houston were both around they were able to bring it home for me. I'm so excited. Hopefully I'll have a home soon enough to put it in. Dumb short sales...60+days and waiting.

I think that's our news for now. Everyone is well and we are loving the cooler weather. Happy Fall!

LOST!

My camera :( Last time I remember having it I was taking a little video of Keaton dancing. I was sitting on the couch, but don't know what I did with it....went to the zoo, went to the dinosaur museum, went to a halloween carnival...no camera. Hope I can find it before this weekend.

FALL FUN!

We have been enjoying the cool weather and starting to get into the Halloween season. Here are a few fun things we've done.

First we made a little sign Keaton helped glue the papers together then he did all the stamping and stickering himself. (kept him busy for maybe 20 minutes of conference Sunday) We decided to hang it on the bedroom door.

Well that didn't take long enough so we went on to his pumpkin. He was very proud of its face and super excited to put in on the table and spread the leaves.

Then the next day for FHE treats we made orange jello that we cut into small cubes and put inside these cute little jack-o-lantern oranges. Mine aren't as cute as the picture I saw on the Internet but you get the idea. We made 5 and Keaton told me each time what the shape for the eyes and nose should be and if it was sad, happy or scary. He loved passing these out to everyone that night.

My next project... I need to scrapbook the last two years of Halloween before this one comes!!!!

Official Members

I recently took Keaton to the zoo. It was only his 2nd time and once again he loved it. It was $25 for both of us to go. No train ride, no stingray bay etc. Last year I got this zoo membership coupon. $108 for two adults and up to 4 kids...I decided to go for it but the new coupon won't be out until late October. So I just paid for the day and decided to wait. When I was leaving they told me I saw a sign that said I could apply that days admission toward the membership. So that's what we did. I now have an adult pass for myself and for "guest" plus four children. Do people actually say they only have 1 child? Anyway we had lots of fun and now that the weather is getting nicer maybe we'll make a few more visits.


Just for comparison, this was Keaton last October at the zoo, a little shorter and a little more baby face.

Then this year, last week of September. He has actually grown quite a bit and lost some roundness to his face, although he still has chubby cheeks.

The reptiles and amphibians were one of this favorite things.

He was actually a little scared with this Javelina (Collared Peccary) started walking toward him, it was hard to get this pic.

We watched a lion tear apart a box with some sort of bird inside that he and the female later shared. After that he definitely wanted to be the lion on the Carousel later that morning.

When it was time for a break we decided to go into the monkey village before we had food etc. It is pretty fun to watch those things scurry around. The man was telling us all about how the Alpha Male recently got out and he's always trying to escape because he gets picked on. The zoo had taken out the previous Alpha because he was getting old. None of the females like the new one because he didn't "prove himself" to get his position. Apparently he has still fathered many children but the women gang up and beat him frequently.

This is not him, he was in "time out" because of his recent attempts to run.

The slash pad is really conveniently placed half way around the long walk. This is where we took our break, there is a nice place to get food and sit by the lake.

Bye animals, see you soon! Maybe even over fall break!