Happy Thanksgiving

My parents came to visit us this year for Thanksgiving. They got here on Wednesday night and we've been having a really great time. We had our Thanksgiving around 1:00 pm on Thursday and played games the rest of the day. On Friday, we went to see the first showing of the movie "Bolt", then my parent's treated us to lunch at "BD's Mongolian BBQ". Afterwards, we did a little Christmas shopping. In the evening, the adults went to see "Four Christmases". My parents are huge movie buffs like myself, maybe even more. I think tonight we'll probably go see the movie "Australia" too. All day today we plan on playing games with the kids and eating Thanksgiving leftovers. They are here until Monday and we'll be sad to see them go. We've had a fun holiday so far. Hope everyone else is as well!

Logan's Rash

I'm home from work today to stay home with Logan because he has strep throat. I took him to the doctor after school yesterday, but the weird thing is that he wasn't even complaining about a sore throat, or had a loss of appetite, or loss of energy, or any of the usual symptoms. The nurse took his temperature at the doctor and he had a fever too -- I didn't even know! He was acting totally fine all day at school. What I was concerned about was a rash on his face, specifically around his eyes. His right eye was beginning to swell even. I thought it might be pink eye or something, although the whites of his eyes weren't pink. It was only pink around the eye and it was swollen, which was my main concern. The doctor told us that a rare symptom of strep is a rash that appears on the face. She actually thought it was an impetigo rash at first until she looked into his throat and the culture came back positive for strep. I was asking all kinds of teachers and parents at school yesterday what they thought the rash on his face was, and no one knew! Anyway, he's on medication and will be able to go back to school tomorrow. I guess we both will. I'm going to take advantage of my day off and get lots done around the house today.

It looks better today, but you can still see his swollen right eye and the redness around both eyes. He had a rash around his mouth too, which you can also see in this picture. He said it was itchy and was rubbing his eyes a lot yesterday. Poor little guy. I'm glad we got it figured out though.

Halloween Activities 2008

Sorry that it's been awhile since I've blogged on our family website! My job and keeping up with the house & kids have been my main priority. Not to mention my calling at church as the primary chorister. That keeps me on my toes as well! I knew in August when I accepted a position at the kid's school that it would take some adjusting to my new situation, and that things would become a little more arduous than ever before, but I really didn't anticipate how hectic my life would actually become! Everything has become a balancing act. I've had to prioritize a little bit better and improve my organization skills a little more. It has been several months of learning and growing. I'm hoping it only takes a little more time until I don't feel so out of control!

I've tried my best to keep things as normal for the kids as possible, although they've had to pitch in with a little more housework. So has Josh, but he's been amazing at helping and supporting me. We've also been trying to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. The temperature has been up and down, as usual, and the fall colors were amazing. We still have some fall leaves on the trees, although the peak season is over.

Our October has been FULL of Halloween activities! I was asked by Jessica and Logan's teachers to be the room mother for their holiday parties this year. Their teachers know me really well, and although I was hesitant at first to help with both classes, I decided to take the plunge. (My mom advised me that in the future I should learn to say "NO". Sometimes that's hard for me... especially with people I don't want to disappoint.) So I ended up using my free time (what free time!?!) the week before the Halloween parties to get the food and many different crafts ready, and also find parent volunteers to help out. On the day of the parties, Joshua took work off to come help in Logan's class. He painted pictures on the children's faces. Then he went into Jessica's classroom and recited a funny Halloween poem.

On Halloween evening, we had a family Halloween party. We made some "Jack-O-Lantern" english muffin pizzas, and had lots of other fun Halloween-themed foods for the evening. Then Spencer went to a friend's house for a Halloween party, and I took the rest of our kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. We came home and watched some kid-friendly Halloween movies. It was a fun evening!

Here are pictures of a few of our Halloween festivities this year ---

Logan trying to eat a "donut-on-a-string" at our church Halloween party

Alex at the church Halloween party

Jessica in the Halloween parade at school. She wanted to be a pirate.
(Her last year in elementary school... sniff, sniff)

Logan's Halloween party at school
(Notice the face paintings on each kid, courtesy of Josh)

Logan was "Black Spiderman" (He wanted a spiderweb painted on his face)

Alex and Logan making "Jack-O-Lantern" pizzas

Both boys wanted to be "Black Spiderman" this year. The costumes are reversible -- Red Spiderman is on the other side. They'll have fun playing in them during the rest of the year.

Jessica read a Halloween story to the boys before we went trick-or-treating

One Pirate and two Black Spidermans

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a local pumpkin patch on a very chilly Saturday morning to pick out our pumpkins a few weeks ago. Even though it was windy and cold, we had fun anyway. Here are some pictures we took. That evening, we had a family pumpkin carving party. The boys carved a pirate flag into their pumpkin. And Jessica and I carved a cat and the moon into the "girl" pumpkin. We roasted pumpkin seeds and had apple cider. It was a fun day.