An Indian, Pumpkins, Spiderman & Being Thankful

In other words: November Highlights!  Ug, I can't believe I am reduced to one post to wrap up the whole month and posting it 3 months late!  Really wish I could slow time down!  Anyway, here is a look at some of our memorable moments from November...

 Pierce's 5th Grade did a Thanksgiving feast and they were each assigned to a family and had to wear a costume and bring something for the meal.  He was pretty happy to be an Indian and I was very happy for an easy paper bag costume that satisfied him.

 While we were snapping a picture of the Indian, we had to get one of Madi out in front of our fall leaves.  We don't get a lot of them, but these colors were so beautiful I was really loving them!  I only wish they would last longer. 

 My girl still loves her Hello Kitty hat.  She wore it to school every day for about 6 weeks.

Oh and we couldn't forget Madi's Halloween pumpkins.  She had really enjoyed making these for a Halloween decoration, she was disappointed I said we couldn't keep them so I promised her we'd take a picture before we took them down.  She is so funny, she loves to "craft" things and does not want anyone's help, just loves to do what she thinks of with what she's got.  I surely enjoyed these little pumpkins smiling at me everyday. 

This boy is growing up way too fast and is so funny, he really keeps us laughing!  I wanted to buy him a new pair of warm pajamas when the weather was getting colder, I was at Costco, with him in the cart, looking at my favorite Carter's footie pajamas and I asked him if he liked the snowman ones.  He said to me, "I don't want snowmans!  I want Pider-mans!"  And pointed directly across from the table of Carters things I was looking at to the Super Hero pajamas he had spotted!  What?  I could not believe he was telling me what he wanted to wear already!  I bought him the pajamas and he very nearly did not take them off for over a month.  He wanted to wear them day and night.  I would try to convince him to get dressed in the morning so we could keep Spiderman clean for night night, but he wouldn't have it.  He would wear them for about 3 days straight and then I would finally convince him to let me wash them.  He would be completely aware of when they were in the washer and dryer and one day he even went and pulled them out of the dryer and already had the pants back on before I even saw him.  He would always insist on putting the pants on by himself and then let me help him with the top and always say "fix the tag", to make sure I tucked the tag down.  He was pretty much either in these pajamas or "maked" every day for weeks.  He loves to be "maked", more on that later.  I am so completely in love with the fun, adorable stage that he is in.  He is stubborn as can be, but makes me laugh everyday, I really wish I could keep him 2 for a long, long time. 

Thanksgiving 

Thanksgiving was great this year!  It was our big Robison year and the kids were so excited to see all their cousins, every one was here but Steve and Katie (Uncle Steve is in Dental School in Chicago).  It has become tradition to have dinner at our church since we are such a big crowd, and it works out great!  I made my traditional yummy rolls (Thanks to Aunt Val for sharing her recipe with me, it's our family favorite now) and my to-die-for Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake.  Just thinking about it now makes me excited for next Thanksgiving.  Ryan was on potato duty this year and well,  it was a fantastic feast for sure!  I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few favorites...

This boy loved his pie!  And I just love this face!

Madi was excited to wear her "Thanksgiving sweater" (she wore this on Thanksgiving before and since then it has been her Thanksgiving sweater) and I was glad she could still wear it!  She was also very excited to wear her Turkey hat that she had made at school.  She was so proud of it and wore it all night. 

Cute Kelton made these mustaches on straws fore everyone to use, too cute!

Pretty good for being forced by mom to sit together for a picture!

The rest of the weekend was busy and fun filled with cousins!  I had photo shoots on Friday and Saturday (this was my busiest week ever with a shoot on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday!  Wow, it was busy but awesome!) and the kids were lucky to go with Grandma and cousins to see the movie Frozen.  We all met at the temple Friday night to see the Christmas lights and then had leftovers for dinner at Crystal's.  Love Thanksgiving leftovers, love the Temple, love our family. 

Here's the crew!  Well most of us anyway.

Gracie, Madi and Lily.  Cute cousins.

Great month, great Holiday, great family!  I am so grateful for all that we are so blessed to enjoy and to be a part of such a strong and loving family.  I married good. 

Halloween 2013

Halloween was especially fun at our house this year, thanks to a certain 2 year old.  Jens was so funny, he was totally into Halloween and knew exactly what was going on.  He had been watching a Little Einsteins Halloween episode and he was into it!  First up, pumpkin carving...

There was no hesitation here! He loved helping Dad carve his pumpkin! You can see his lovely artwork that he enjoyed before the carving began.  He may have had some help from Sissy.

The big night!  Here's Pierce, the Ninja!

Madi was a lovely Dorthy this year, and she was beautiful!  She had wanted me to buy her these red sparkly shoes early in the year and I told her I would buy them only if she would wear them for Halloween and be Dorthy.  She liked that idea and that is how Ryan and I became the Scarecrow and Elfeba.  We had tried going for the whole matching family thing again this year, but Pierce was not going for that.  We were lucky to have our wonderful neighbors, the Hancocks, bring their cute puppy, Jersey (who we all adore!) over for some pictures with Madi.  Jersey is a perfect little Toto!

Jens was so funny about his costumes this year.  He was very excited when I first got out Madi's old Rocket costume for him, he loved it!  But after wearing it for about 2 minutes he was done, I think he didn't like being slowed down.  I had just enough time to snap one picture and he took it off.  I told him he could not go Trick or Treating with out a costume, so he decided on the puppy.  Madi was happy about that since Jersey couldn't go Trick or Treating with her, now she still had a Toto! 

Madi & Annie 

After a fun night of Trick or Treating we come home and enjoyed our traditional Halloween sugar cookies.  Here's Pierce with his goods and his angry cookie.

And here's Miss Madi, too busy organizing her candy to look at Mom, and very pleased with her happy face pumpkin cookie.

A very happy Halloween! 

Couples Halloween Party 2013

Ryan and I hosted our 6th Annual Couples Halloween Costume Party, and it did not disappoint!  I say this every year, but we have the funnest friends!  I had not laughed so hard for a long time, I definitely needed it! The costumes just keep getting better, here they are...

 Meyers - from "Breaking Bad" - 1st Place Best Couple Costume!   Some were also sure that Shane needed an award for the best "Look Alike", I haven't seen Laura's weird shows, so I don't know, but apparently Shane looks just like the guy!

Archibalds - very good looking Flinstones

Monsons - Very outstanding Frankenstein and His Bride - 1st Place Scariest, 2nd Place Best Couple Costume!

 Hancocks  - Medusa and her statue - First Place Tie Most Creative! 

 No Explanation Needed, at least if you live near Colorado City, Angie joined as a Jr. wife  with Schofields & Woodburys - 1st Place FUNNIEST!

 Binghams - Flo and that other guy

The Esplins -Andrea outdid herself again, Dia de la Muerta - 1st Place Most Outstanding!  First Place Tie Most Creative!  2nd Place Scariest!

 Bergesons - The Nerds

 Poultons - they really enjoyed their cruise this year, apparently they met Dr. Sam and he had quite an impact on them

 Ryan & Me, scary I know, The Scarcrow and Elfeba

 Pratts - The Black Widow and the Exterminator - 2nd Place Most Creative!

 All the girls, well mostly, sorta

 These guys had us laughing all night long!  Brother Dustin seemed a little to comfortable with his roll!

This year for our games we did the guys vs. girls and each couple faced each other in their game.

 April schooled Jon in getting the Oreo from forehead to mouth, and one of Dustin's wives tried to keep up with him stuffing marshmallows in their mouths.

Terra and Curtis were neck and neck keeping balloons in the air with no hands, and Ryan and Chels were heating things up with their Vaseline and cotton ball routine!  I hate to admit that they guys beat us by one point, but we had some great laughs and that was what made my night.

 I had to include this shot because Greg Poulton just makes me laugh.

And this was probably the gem of the evening!  Long night Dustin? 

Great Friends, Great Costumes, Great Food, Great Laughs, Great Night!  

Tonsil-less Madi

What a year this girl has had.  We have been blessed to have very healthy kids and I have always felt lucky that my kids never struggled with ear infections (Pierson has never had one, Madi only had 2 and didn't even get one until she was 2 years old) and besides a stomach flu each year and things like that they have been very healthy.  But in the last year Madi has seemed to get every weird thing in the book!

It started with head lice last October.  By far the most disgusting thing I have ever dealt with as a parent, I would take vomit and diarrhea clean up over lice any day!  I was so disgusted I wanted to just burn the house down!  Ok, not really, but I was pretty freaked out about it, imagine finding grown lice bugs crawling on your daughter's scalp, not once but 3 times.  SO GROSS!  The first time I found one I didn't know what it was and just thought she had gotten a bug in her hair from outside, when I found one again I knew it was not from outside and I called the school and had them check her for lice.  I was so upset because they checked her and said they didn't see anything, well then I found them again and did my own research and as soon as I saw a picture on line I knew they were indeed lice!  I was pretty ticked at the school for not catching it when I had them check, I had no clue what it looked like, and everyone said to look for the eggs, well I never even saw the eggs until I treated her hair, after finding adult bugs 3 times!  I think she actually had it for about a month and went through 3 cycles of eggs in her hair before I got it.  See why  I was thinking about burning the house down?  SO DISGUSTING!  I'm shuttering just thinking about it.

Next she had an "irritated bladder".  Fun.  Think, 6 year old girl having to go pee every 10 minutes, literally.  We had to do "bladder training" over Christmas break and time her and make her wait 5 minutes longer each day before she could go.  Ya, that was fun.

Oh and we can't forget the croup she came down with on Christmas Eve.  

Next she had Molluscum.  I'd never ever heard of it!  Think small warts, dozens and dozens all over!  Poor girl had them on the back of her knees, her thighs and her bum.  We opted to do injections to treat them since it is the most effective.  4 trips to the Dermatologist for a shot in her thigh.  Even more fun.  Especially for a drama queen.  Bless Dr. Ben, he was so sweet and patient with us and all the kicking and screaming.  Literal kicking and screaming.  Glad that's over.  Hope it never comes back.

Easter brought the worst flu virus we've ever seen and our first trip to the ER.  

Next was the start of the Strep throat, which was really the reason for this post.  Madi got strep in May, and 2 days after finishing the antibiotics got it again.  Nice.  I was thinking tonsils out for sure with 2 times in a row.  Our pediatrician, (who I love!) wanted to wait until she had gotten it 3 times so that we weren't jumping into surgery.  Ok, that sounded good.  Except for the fact that she was then strep free all summer (of course, away from school and all the nasty germs!), and then what happened?  School started on Wednesday, by Monday we were back at the pediatrician's office with strep again.  Now think about this girl getting her throat swabbed for strep.  Drama queen doesn't even really cover my Madi.  Picture me, the Dr. and the nurse holding her down just to swab her throat while she is kicking and screaming and then bit the swab in half!  Like I said, I love my pediatrician.  Bless that man.  It was a little funny when I warned him that she would freak out and he said, "oh it's not big deal, we do this all day."  Afterwards he said, "wow!  She is a fighter!  I've never had one do that before. I'd like to see that when she's dating."  Exactly.  Wish us luck.  Anyway, by the 3rd time she needed to be swabbed, Dr. Marsden in his brilliance and kindness let Madi swab her own throat.  She barley got it back there far enough, but it worked.  Seriously, love him.  So, on with the story, after her 3rd round of strep we got the green light for surgery, only now I was ticked because school had just started.  Of course.  Of course it couldn't have been easy breezy during the summer.  We scheduled surgery for the week of Fall break, hoping to miss the least amount of school possible, this put surgery 2 months out, so what happened?  Of course she got strep again.  This time we were closer to the surgery date and so we kept her on antibiotics up until the night before surgery.  Being the dramatic, intense little thing she is I was so worried about her anxiety for her surgery, but she surprised us.  She was so tired of having a sore throat that she could not wait to get those pesky tonsils out!  She mad a countdown to surgery calendar and hung it in the kitchen and marked off the days until Surgery Day, October 16th.   She did get a little nervous the few days leading up to it, but she amazed us and did awesome.  The night before she wrote a note to her class, since she was going to miss them and miss school.

"Dear Mrs. M's Class,
I miss you so much, I can't wait to see you guys next week.  I hope everyone has a fun fall break, better than mine, I'm getting my tonsils out at 7:45 this morning.  I  am going to school next Monday (maybe) but I hope I can be back at school by Monday it depends on how I'm feeling. 
Love, Tonsil-less Madi "

I decided I needed to make the most of it and do all that I could to make her feel loved and special, she was thrilled with the new Raggedy Ann doll and Hello Kitty blanket I gave her the morning of surgery.  We were grateful for Grandma coming over early in the morning to stay with Pierce and Jens and get Pierce off to school while we headed to the hospital while it was still dark.  Madi was in great spirits and surprised us by being completely calm and happy.  The staff was all so sweet with her and she asked a million questions as they were getting her ready.  Ryan gave her a blessing right before they wheeled her away and she went with a smile on her face.  Not a single kick or scream, miracles do happen. 

 Love this face.  She was excited to get to take Raggedy Ann with her.

 She was a little sad after surgery, but still did great.  I had to get this shot, I thought it was so adorable that they put a  mask on Raggedy for surgery.  Thankful for kind Doctors.

 We were pleasantly surprised how quickly we were out of the hospital, surgery went great and only took about 30 minutes.  We were in and out in less than 4 hours!

Her teacher was so sweet to have the class return her note and each classmate wrote her a get well note, Brother brought them home from school after surgery and she loved them!  She read them over and over and kept them by her bed.

She loved the get well balloons Daddy got her, here she is after a day of popsicles, ready for bed. 

Recovery went pretty well over all.  She did miss more school that I was hoping and missed almost a full week.  She was pretty comfortable the first few days and I had to keep reminding her that she needed to take it easy, but day 7 and 8 were pretty rough on her.  She thoroughly enjoyed all the popsicles and extra attention she got, she especially loved a special visit from Annie who brought her a new book and movie that she loved.  Deli was also a hit finding her some Baby Sitters Little Sister books at DI (score!), she loves them, and Great-Grandma Harrop surprised her with a cute Hello Kitty in the mail!  She also loved not having to do any chores for 10 days, it was a bit of a rough patch getting her back into routine.  She is doing great now, we are so glad to have it behind us and happy to have a happier, healthier Madi Girl! 

Back to School!

The First Day of school came so quickly!  I guess that's because Madi was so excited to start 2nd Grade that for the last few weeks of summer in her bedtime prayers each night she would say, "and please bless the first day of school to come quickly." Pierce was not as thrilled and would continually say, "I am not saying Amen to that prayer!" Gotta love them! The summer flew by and the first day was here before we knew it. Both kids had a great first day, here they are, even cooperating with Mom for pictures!

Madi my  beautiful 2nd grader!   She loved her new Hello Kitty backpack and also loved her new skirt she chose to wear for the first day. 

My big 5th Grade boy!  So grown up, too big for a character backpack, this one should last him through high school.  I could not believe how much his feet had grown when we went shoe shopping!  And I can't believe he's in his last year of Elementary School!

Todd Bench, we miss you buddy!

Madi and Annie, so excited to be in the same class again this year! 

Love these girls.  So glad Madi has Annie, she is such a sweet friend. 

Jensen was so funny about the kids going back to school.  As we drove away after dropping them off the first day he cried, "I go school, I go school".  He wants to be just like them, do everything they do.  The 2nd day, Julianne picked them up in the morning, look who was ready with his "packpack" when it was time to go...

He was so sweet, it just broke his heart that he couldn't go to school with them.   He didn't give up too easily, here he is the next week...

Shoes and backpacks, that's what we need! 

 

This boy just melts my heart.  "I go school, I go school" he wanted to go with them so bad!  After several days the kids started telling him, "Jens when you get bigger you can go to Kindergarten!"  So pretty soon he started telling me, "I get bigger I go Kindergarten!"  Then they furthered their instruction and told him when  he gets bigger he can go to preschool, now he is content with that and often reminds me, "I get bigger I go preschool!"  He can't wait to be bigger and I just wish he'd stay little.  If I could keep him at 2 for a few years I would.  I adore my 2 year old boy, he brings me so much joy and brings so much laughter and sweetness to our home.  Please stay little for just awhile Jens.  A few weeks ago he was also feeling left out now that Madi has started piano lessons, so he added that to the list and now also reminds me, "I get bigger I go 'plano' lessons"!  Yes you will baby boy, you'll go to school and piano lessons all too soon.