Helping Jen Get Settled In Her New Home!

Saturday and Sunday we spent helping Jen get settled into her new condo! It's absolutely perfect for her and Daniel! We started up in Clearfield she came up and dropped Daniel off with my mom and we left our kids with her as well(she had the toughest job....by FAR! Especially because Devin was having a really off day!!) My dad, Tony, Jen and I went over to where our and my parent's storage units are, then got furniture we're not using anymore to help furnish her home. Tony and I had a dining set, and a bed frame, and a cabinet we use as part of our pantry unit.  My parents' let her use their toddler bed and mattress, their play kitchen and kids table and chairs. After we got all loaded up we went down to Jen's condo and unloaded stuff. Jen and I moved and went through boxes with the guys help of getting them where they needed to go. Tony was very helpful down in the crawl space getting the things she didn't need put down there. Once everything was put together and moved around, Tony and my dad went to get Jen's new mattress while she and I tackled boxes in her room. The first DI the guys went to didn't have the foundation she wanted, so Tony came with us while my dad went up to the Layton DI were he had more success. Tony Jen and I did a few more things around her condo then we picked up some lunch at McDonalds on our way back to the storage units where my dad met us and we picked up a small couch we had been holding onto that Tony's brother was getting rid of, but had no real need of as we plan on just using the larger couch in our future basement playroom. And it just so happens that the little couch fits perfectly in her condo and it's the perfect color too! We also picked up the kiddie table and a couple chairs to put in Daniel's room, then drove back down to Jen's condo in pouring rain(of course it only rained when we were doing things outside, it seemed to stop whenever we were inside for a while). We got her mattress on her bed frame, got the couch moved in, oh and my parents' had a little TV for her to use as well, so they got that mounted on the wall, and that place really started to feel homey! My dad then left to get another job done he needed to for my aunt and uncle, and Tony, Jen and I went to Walmart to get some things she needed for her home, then swung by her parents' house to get her and Daniels hung up clothes then made a last stop at her condo to unload it all. We stopped by Lowes up by our place to get a couple things we couldn't find at Walmart. Then went and relieved my mom from our kids.  Jen treated us all to dinner at Cracker Barrel which was delicious and very kind of her to do and she truly didn't have to!
Sunday we had a slow start but got down to Jen's place around 11, and Tony put together a bunch of stuff, a cabinet to go with the one we had and the shoe rack we had to give her and with those three she has a very nice pantry! He put together her over the toilet cabinet, the cube storage for Daniel's room and a little bookshelf for Jen's room. He tacked the TV cords to the wall and gathered them up with a zip tie so they were out of the way and looking alot nicer. He started getting the baby gate put up at the top of the stairs but his drill battery died so my dad's going to stop by on his way home from work today and get that finished up for her! Elizabeth had been complaining about not feeling well Saturday and had a mild fever that night that we gave her some medicine for, and Sunday morning she seemed alright except she was loosing her voice, but after lunch she started crashing, her fever went up, her voice went away and by the time Tony was finishing up she was having trouble breathing. So we took her to the good Insta Care in Bountiful where she was easily diagnosed with a bad case of Croup. :( They gave her(and Devin) a otter pop (to help her breath, cold opens up the airways with Croup) as her pulse ox was only 91. They gave her the steroid medication and sent us on our way. Both kids fell asleep as we started heading home so Tony took the side roads to give them time to rest, especially Elizabeth. We came home had dinner and called it a day!

Jen's moving boxes had a plethora of used for the kids....they made fun cars and a train, a table to eat their lunch on, and a nook to play their Kindles in while Daniel napped!

 
The kids LOVED helping daddy put the shelves together....especially Devin, he even helped with the hammering!

A Lazy Eye, A Colonoscopy, A Primary Program and More!

So I've been terrible at taking pictures the past couple weeks so this is going to be just a written update, but we have had a few things going on. So going back to Monday Nov. 10 It was a typical homeschool morning but that afternoon Elizabeth had some tummy troubles and wasn't feeling well so we skipped her theater class and just took it easy.  Tuesday was a crazy morning! We dropped Devin off at preschool then I took Elizabeth to her eye appointment to follow up on her lazy eye situation. And sadly the doctor discovered that despite the tweaking of her prescription, her left eye is still very lazy. When he checked her vision with her glasses on her right eye is about 20/25 but her left eye is 20/-30! :/ not good! And it didn't change from 3 months ago so he said it's come time to patch her right eye! Finding super cute patches on Amazon definitely helped her want to wear one, the hardest part is taking it off each night as it's like a big band-aid, but she's surviving. She goes back in another 3 months and if there is enough improvement then we'll continue to patch it until it's where it should be.....if not we're looking at doing surgery on that eye as well. After her appointment we picked up Devin from preschool and went home and I got the kids lunch and put Devin down for his nap then I took Shadow down the street to be groomed came home had my lunch and picked Shadow up about an hour later. The afternoon was typical. Wednesday was a typical school and Bravo classes day, as was Thursday. Friday however was NOT typical! You see Tony has been having pretty severe tummy troubles for quite a while so he finally went to see a GI and he had him set up a colonoscopy to check things out internally. And Friday was the day. My mom watched our kiddos and we drove to LDS hospital and got checked in. As it always seems to go at those places they were running behind schedule so Tony didn't get taken back for his 11:00 procedure until after 12. I waited for a little bit in the waiting room, then started feeling an anxiety attack coming on as all I could think about was how Eric worked there for a long time and how he had been there with me in post-op after one of my knee surgeries looking after me personally, and after just a few minutes the emotions became too much and I got up and decided to walk around instead of sit there and let my mind wander. Luckily after just going down the hall I ran into my good friend Kim who was there getting an EEG as part of a research study, so we stood in the hall and chatted which was truly a miracle for me! I don't know that I'd have held up without her there! We had a great visit until they called and said Tony was done and I went back with him for a few minutes until he felt ready to get dressed and go. He was seriously a trooper! He did great! I drove us to Wok Lins where he requested we get lunch, we got it to go then I drove us home, where Tony fully enjoyed eating food again and took it easy the rest of the day. Saturday was a SUPER crazy day!! We started by doing some of the grocery shopping needed then after quickly unloading and putting away the necessities, we went over to our church for the primary program rehearsal, which Devin did not do well for, so Tony dealt with him most of the time, while I got our class through. Then after we managed to survive that we finished our grocery shopping and got home and put everything away. We got lunch for the kids on the way to Ketty's house and when we got there the kids were thrilled to see that their cousins Melina and Carson were there too! Ketty watched the kids for us while we went to Desert Star for the Christmas show. When we got back to Ketty's after the show Russ and Alicia were there with their new to them van(as their car had been totaled when it was backed into). We chatted for a bit but couldn't stay long as we had to get to my grandparent's house for a birthday party. We had a good time visiting and catching up while the kids enjoyed playing. Then we came home and put the kids to bed. What a day!! Sunday was the primary program and it went very well. Elizabeth was adorable! This ward's primary is so big that they can't give out individual lines, or the program would last all day! So each class says it's own part. When Elizabeth's class went up she immediately went right up to the microphone and her teacher had to pull her back to make room for the rest of her class. ;) She's had the part memorized for a month so she had no problem saying it and she for once actually was't too loud! In the rehearsal the day before all you could hear was Elizabeth so her teacher and I talked about using a regular speaking voice so everyone in her class could be heard and she remembered! YAY!! She sang all the songs and could definitely be heard even though she was on the back row! Our class did great as well, they all said our scripture nice and loud and even all together! Success!! And the biggest surprise to us was that Devin handled the hand off to my parents without a fit AND made it through the whole meeting! In class we played a church game and had some treats, Elizabeth had a rough transition though and it took me over ten minutes to get her into primary, where she struggled the rest of the time. They kept having to bring her to us. It's amazing the affect stress, even good stress has on Elizabeth, she has a very low tolerance before she's just spent. That afternoon after church we met with our home teachers, and the rest of the day was just relaxing.
Monday the 17th was a typical day, school and Elizabeth's theater class, Tuesday was school/preschool, Wednesday was school and Bravo classes Thursday was school/preschool and my visiting teacher was supposed to come in the afternoon but there must have been a miscommunication as we missed each other, but she left a card and candle that my parents found on the doorstep for me. Friday Elizabeth and I finished up school before her week off(I've learned over the years that the week of big holidays are not conducive to learning with Elizabeth, so I planned to take the week of Thanksgiving off since we'd only have done school three days anyway) She finished reading her Thanks to Lucy chapter book and started reading her Magic Treehouse Thanksgiving on Thursday book. Then after lunch was nap for Devin and Play for Elizabeth since she helped immensely with cleaning the house Mon-Wed, She put her clothes in the washer and washed them, without any help from me! She folded towels, cleaned the toilet, mopped the floor in the bathroom and hallway, picked up an explosion of a mess in the school room and helped put away dishes from the dishwasher. Oh how I love my little helper!! Friday afternoon Tony had his follow up for his procedure where they came back to IBS or Irritable Bowl Syndrome gave him a prescription that should help, told him one of the pollups they removed from his procedure was "pre-cancerous" so he'll have to have colonoscopies every few years from now on. But the best part was that he got done sooner than he thought he would so we had time to take the kids to see Big Hero 6 that evening. While Tony was on his way home my mom came down and visited with me for a bit. She got a couple of "Angel Tree" type things from her work who helps military families who have a parent gone over the holidays...which alone just breaks my heart, and to add the fact that many of these families struggle financially too, just isn't right. My mom told Elizabeth she needed her help getting the gifts, one was for a 6 year old girl, and Elizabeth knew just what to get her! The singing Elsa doll!! She's seen commercials for it and thinks it's awesome but has told me that she already has an Elsa doll...she doesn't sing or anything, but I can sing for her so it's just as good! Elizabeth has such a kind, understanding and giving spirit, it often humbles me. My mom also needs her to help her get an easy reader book, to which Elizabeth exclaimed we can get a Lucy book!! I had to explain to her that the Lucy books are chapter books and most 6 year olds can't read them yet, what she needed to look for was a step into reading book, ya know like the ones you would read two years ago.....Love that girl! Once Tony got home we went to the theater and saw Big Hero 6, which was a really good movie! The kids loved it and so did Tony and I! We picked up a Hot and Ready pizza and some crazy bread on the way home for dinner and called it a super fun Friday!

I found some pictures I took off my phone to use!

Devin eating a waffle with Nutella!! I told him it's like chocolate bread...it worked! He only ate three pieces and hasn't eaten anymore since but I take what I can get!

    
Adorable Elizabeth! Patch and all!! Oh and I totally forgot to mention that last Sunday(not yesterday)she lost another tooth! (bottom your right) She's only six and two months and has lost 5 teeth!! and two more are loose....crazy!!!

My super cute little elves at the movie theater!

Bravo Parent Night and a Crazy Week!

Ok so going back a couple Mondays ago(Nov. 3rd), Tony went to California for business VERY early that morning, so I was going to be on my own with the kids until Wednesday evening. So Monday I decided to do some fun things with the kids to keep their minds off missing daddy. We started by going to Toys R Us where Elizabeth had her eye on a Puppy Surprise she's been saving her money for and finally had enough! She originally wanted the dalmatian but we found out they are hard to find as there aren't as many made, so she gladly settled on a very cute pink and white one...not before wandering pretty much the entire store to make sure there wasn't anything she wanted more(which of course there wasn't). She bought her Puppy Surprise and I opened it the best I could in the car where she discovered there were three very cute girl puppies inside...surprise! ;) As I buckled Devin in I asked him where his stuffed Marshall dog(from Paw Patrol)was and we realized he'd lost it in the store somewhere. :( So we got out again and wandered all over the store but could not find Marshall we asked at the front if it had been turned in but no such luck.  Devin was sad but realized it was his own fault for bringing it in and putting it down and leaving it...hard lesson learned! We then went to Chuck E Cheese to use up the 100+ tokens we had leftover from Elizabeth's birthday party, we also got a meal deal with pizza drinks and some more tokens. The kids had an absolute blast! It wasn't too busy either which was nice! They played for nearly 4 hours! Then we cashed in their tickets, got some fun prizes and went home for a bit until it was time to take Elizabeth to her theater class. Then we came home and I cooked dinner and the kids had fun playing until bedtime. Tuesday morning I took the kids to their dentist appointment. It should NOT be so hard....but for us it is a HUGE  ordeal! Devin didn't like them putting the thing in his mouth for the x-rays, but Elizabeth did it like a champ! Elizabeth would not let the hygienist clean her teeth...not even with her new toothbrush! She said she couldn't handle the taste and texture of the "special toothpaste". It took two hygienists, the dentist and me holding her down for the dentist to get her teeth cleaned and checked, while she freaked out. Devin looked pained and terrified the entire time his teeth got cleaned but he let her do it, though she told me she felt horrible about it  whenever she saw the look on his face. In the end both kids managed to get their teeth cleaned and neither had any cavities, although Devin did have two "pre-cavities" on his back teeth the dentist going to keep an eye on. After that we went to Barnes and Noble and I let the kids look at books for a while, Elizabeth read to Devin and another little girl who was there, about five or six books, then they each picked out a Thanksgiving book to add to our collection.  Then we went home to have lunch, and had another just laid back day. Wednesday was a typical day, we started getting caught up on the school as we missed the previous couple days. That evening was the kids Bravo classes and it was Parent night as well! So I brought the camera and took some pictures of Devin in his tumbling class, then Tony came(boy was I glad to see him!!) and he watched Devin while I went and watched Elizabeth in her piano class. They played a couple fun songs with bells! To celebrate Tony coming home and how great the kids did in their classes we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner which was fun! Thursday Devin had preschool and Elizabeth and I got caught up with her school. That afternoon we drove to Cookie Cutters to get Devin's haircut, then after we stopped by my grandparent's house and visited with them for a while, which was as it always is so great! Friday was a hard day for Devin. He melted down over EVERYTHING! He even spent almost an hour in his room lamenting the fact that when he is six years old he won't be a girl and he really really wanted to be a girl!! He also didn't want to get dressed, or eat or play with anything....ugh it was a long hard morning! Finally about one I got him calmed down enough in his room that he fell asleep! My mom graciously got me some lunch while she was out running errands and picking lunch up for herself. We ate while Elizabeth watched her Spanish lesson video and my mom and I chatted. That evening we were going to go to our ward's fall party but Devin had such a long hard day and was still very much on edge(and I was beyond exhausted!) that we decided to just stay home and play it safe with him. Saturday Tony got a lot if things done in the morning with the kids while I had some much needed very much appreciated alone time! The afternoon we just took it easy. It was so nice to not have a marathon Saturday for once! Sunday was church and that evening Jen and Daniel joined us for a little Thanksgiving dinner, cooked by Tony, which was delicious and a great time spent chatting while the kiddos played.  And that was our week!

One of Devin's favorite games, he racks up the tickets like crazy!

Elizabeth loves making silly faces for her pictures, they're too cute!

They even played so well together at the air hockey table!

Devin stretching in his Bravo tumbling class.

He is super good at doing "rock and rolls" where you roll onto your back and up again.

Running like a cheetah, I love seeing how happy he is!

Doing giraffe kicks

Doing a perfect bunny hop!

He still needs a little help with his forward rolls, but he's getting better!

Doing his table top....not the best one, but it's the best picture.

Elizabeth is the lone girl in her piano team class. They're ready to play the bells!

Check out the concentration on her face! She didn't miss a single note!

Halloween!!

Ok so the week leading up to Halloween was filled with fun things! Monday night Elizabeth's theater class had a super fun Halloween party, Elizabeth came out of it just brimming with excitement and happiness! She couldn't stop saying how much fun she had, made me so happy for her!! Tuesday was typical, Wednesday evening Devin got a turn to wear his Batman Halloween costume to his tumbling class and they played some fun Halloween movement games and did Halloween dancing and such, he really enjoyed himself! Elizabeth got brownie points for not only knowing that his teacher was dressed up as Dorothy(even though she's never seen the movie) but for knowing all about her! When his teacher asked her how she knew all that Elizabeth told her that she read the book last month....man I love the looks on peoples faces when she says it as if it's nothing! :) I also was greatly comforted in knowing that her reading comprehension is most definitely NOT a concern(even if I didn't make her prove it by burping up a book report about it after reading it!) Elizabeth is doing really great in her new piano class, her teacher snagged me and told me that and I quote "Elizabeth is amazing!" He told me he gave her a harder piece of music for the Christmas recital after it was clear the first song he gave her was obviously too easy for her! And she reports loving piano so much more now it's not so boring! He's definitely pushing her though as she has to really practice her music now, and he gives her two songs to work on a week....what's amazing is her determination! I rarely have to remind her to practice, she wants to work on the songs until they're easy to play and she can say, "I can play it without even having to look at my hands!" Love it!! Thursday at preschool a police officer visited Devin's class and he was super excited about seeing his cool car and hearing his siren! Friday was of course the big day they'd been waiting for....Halloween!! We didn't do school but we did have a very fun Halloween party! With games and crafts and books and shows and tons of fun! After a fun filled morning they had a "picnic lunch" while watching Spooky Buddies then in the afternoon they took turns playing Halloween games on the ipad. Elizabeth had special Halloween cereal for breakfast and a Halloween microwave meal for dinner! Tony came home a little early and then we got the kids in their costumes and took them trick or treating around the neighborhood. It started off a slow(lots of houses not participating) but when we got past that part of the neighborhood it picked up quite a bit and the kids had a blast! We didn't even scratch the surface of the neighborhood before Devin was begging to be done and go home and Elizabeth consented that she had more treats than she'd ever be able to eat. We kindly agreed to help her with that. ;) Our last trick or treat spot was Nana and Papa's door then we visited with them and handed out treats for a while then came downstairs and called it a huge success! Saturday morning we took down all the Halloween decorations and boxed them up and took them to our storage unit and got out the Fall/Thanksgiving box. Then we went to the movie theater to see "The Book of Life" which is based on Dia de Los Muertos or Day of the Dead as is celebrated in Mexico around Halloween. Elizabeth and I spent a few days learning about it, and Devin seemed enthralled by the trailer(as he watched it over and over!) so we thought it would be a good one to see with them! It was Devin's first time at a movie theater and he was truly just in awe of the giant screen! It was really nice that there were only a couple other people there. It was such a great movie! We all highly recommend it! After the movie we did our grocery shopping, then that evening we went to Tony's parents house for a fall family dinner where everyone brought a soup, it was good! And that was the week!

Halloween breakfast, Devin's is not very exciting ;)

The spider web game!

Devin hit 100 all by himself!!

So happy she at least got the spider ON the web....cause there was a lot of the spiders on the wall! ;)

So happy she hit 100!

Coloring and stickers!

The spider ring toss game

Sometimes Devin found it easier just to drop the ring on the spider leg

Another fun sticker craft

The bean bag toss game and watching Curious George Boofest!

Painting!

Pin the hat on the witch, Elizabeth did really good, she didn't even peek...Devin looked under the mask. ;)

And another craft!

Halloween mini golf! This is a favorite!!

Water painting, Halloween bingo and yet another sticker craft!

Bobbing for apples, another favorite!

All ready to go trick or treating...their first time door to door!(we decided we prefer trunk or treating!)