Cookies, Crafts & Laughter

While the cat's away, the mice will play, right?  Well, not really.  But we will have fun!  Jon had to go on a trip for work, so my friend, Heather thought it would be fun to bake cookies.  She needed to make them for Thanksgiving anyway.  So, she drug all of her supplies over to my house and made cookies with Abby and Luke.  (I opted to stay off of my feet and just watch.)

Luke really loved helping, for a little while, anyway.  Abby loved it!

Could these two little bakers be any cuter?!?!

It was a process with MANY steps!

Oh. My. Goodness! 

These have to be the cutest cookies EVER!!

This is what I worked on while Heather and the kids were making cookies.  Isn't he adorable?! My sweet friend, Kasi, gave me the idea and most off the supplies.  I love him!  We are heading to Texas to meet Jon's family for Thanksgiving and I'm pretty sure this little guy is going to go along with us and decorate our hotel room!

We had a super fun day laughing, baking, laughing, crafting, laughing...you get the idea. (:

Freezer Meals

Like most women, I have been completely sucked in to Pinterest! It is one of my favorite things these days!  Thankfully I have had to spend a lot of time off of my feet, so I haven't felt quite as guilty about spending so much time browsing.  One of my favorite things about Pinterest is that I can use it to make my weekly dinner menus.  I recently discovered and had to try some freezer meal  planning.  I found these recipes and couldn't wait to get started!

I spent about an hour and a half in the kitchen preparing, packing and cleaning the kitchen.  It truly doesn't get much better than that!

I am excited to have five meals ready to go into the crockpot!  I can't wait to give all of these meals a try!

Foot Update

I know, I know...I said I wouldn't do these very often anymore.  However, it has been six weeks and I am thrilled with how my scar is healing!

Isn't it beautiful?!

I know...it's just me.  I am pleased with how it is looking, though.  My doctor says that in 4-6 months you won't even be able to see it.  Pretty amazing!

I would love to say that I am pain free and doing great, but that just isn't the case.  The healing and recovery continue...Physical therapy has begun, so hopefully things will start to improve. Here's hoping!

Marching Band Banquet

Along with the end of marching band season came the band banquet.  It was fun to see all of the kids dressed up for a fun night of reflection and recognition.

The fearless leaders!  Mr. Claussen and Ms. Benford.  Amazing people!!

Ben received a special award from "his senior" and section leader, Michael.  I don't know what Ben is going do without Michael next year!  He will be greatly missed!

We are all sad that marching band is over, however, now the real countdown to Ireland begins!

Fall Fun

Abby took the camera and chased her adorable little subject around and captured some cute pictures.  (And some cool ones too!)

Veteran's Day

Ben marched in the Veteran's Day parade.  Abby, Luke and I went to watch.

Abby and Luke enjoyed hanging out with Deborah's baby, Ty.  (Deborah, Jay and Emma were there too, but I don't think they made it into a picture.  Sorry!!)

Luke loved waving at all of the Veteran's!  I think they liked him and his American flag shirt!  He ended up with lots of candy!

The marching band was asked to perform the Star Spangled Banner at a Veteran's Day ceremony at Golden Corral.  It was pretty neat seeing all of those proud men who fought for our country at one time or another.

This 94 year old man spoke about his time in Pearl Harbor.  He was there during the bombing.  Listening to him speak about his experience was heart stirring!  Made me teary.  

I am so thankful for all of the men and women that have served and fought for our country!

Tubes: Round 2

I should have known that I would have a child with ear issues.  As a little girl, I had chronic ear infections.  My mom tells me that I had so many ear infections that the doctor said that if I had one more, that I was going to have to get tubes.  The funny thing is I didn't have another one until I was about 27!  At that point...I wasn't getting tubes.  But it makes sense that at least one of my three children would have issues like I did.  Unfortunately, Luke's ear infections didn't stop with the threat of tubes.  I wasn't thrilled about the thought of my baby having surgery, especially at the age of 22 months, but I was happy with the thought of some relief for him.  (And me!)  You can read about Luke's first round of tubes here. 

Thankfully, Luke's first set of tubes lasted two and a half years!  We never anticipate that they would last that long!  However, we went to the doctor regularly to have them checked and to have hearing tests to make sure everything looked good and was in good working order.  And they were.  Up until mid-September.  I took Luke in for his normal check up and hearing test.  While sitting in the room with him for his hearing test, I knew things weren't going great.  I could see the lady administering the hearing test looking at Luke for a response and he wasn't giving her one.  After the test, she informed me that he didn't do so hot, that there could be some fluid in there making him not hear so well.  After talking to the doctor,  he confirmed that Luke failed his hearing test and had fluid in both ears and that one of the tubes was completely non-functional.  It then made sense why Luke wouldn't let me touch his ears and why he was always talking so loud.  Instead of waiting 3 months to go back, the doctor wanted to see him back in 6 weeks.  I knew something was definitely going to have to happen.

In the next 6 weeks, Luke ended up losing one of his tubes.  That was fine since 1. it was the non-functional one.  And 2.  he had an appointment in a few days.  When we went to see the doctor after 6 weeks, he discovered that the remaining tube was no longer functional.  It was time to remove the one and put in a new set.  Great...

Jon and I didn't make a big deal to Luke about having surgery.  We just told him we were going to see Dr. Sawyer to get some new tubes in his ears.  I'm not sure what Luke thought.  He was fine up until the point that we had to go into a room with a bed and he had to change into a special gown. Then, to make matters worse, he had to take medicine (goofy juice (:)!  This boy does NOT like to take medicine!

He did, finally, chill out.  It helped that Disney Junior was on!

He even let us put him on the bed to be rolled away to surgery without a single tear!
I wonder how I could get some of that "goofy juice" at my house!

Luke did a great job!  Surgery went well.  Dr. Sawyer also cauterized some spots in Luke's nose so that he wouldn't get bloody noses like he has been.  It took a long time for Luke to wake up, but once he did he was ready to go!  No dilly-dallying for this boy!

Luke has some super special friends that brought surprises over!

Miss Emily brought over an Angry Birds game.  Luke loves to play on her phone, plus she has little brothers, so she knew Luke would love it.

And he did!

Miss Heather came over later that night to bring Luke some awesome Corvette Hotwheels!

She may have stolen a smooch or two too!  :)

I was looking forward to a day of Luke being sleepy and chilled out.  HA!  That didn't happen!  Once he woke up at the hospital he was raring to go!  He didn't even take a nap that day!  That's ok, I'm just happy that everything went well and that he was able to bounce back without any issues.  I am so thankful that the Lord has given people the knowledge to make things to make life better.  Ear infections are NO fun!  Now we are just praying that the tubes work well and for a long time!

HaLlOwEeN 2012

Luke couldn't wait for Halloween this year!  Abby made him a chain to count down the days when there still 40 something days to go.  It was a long wait for the little guy!

Knowing that I was due to have foot surgery at the beginning of October, I knew that all of the kids had to be something fairly simple. I wasn't planning on doing any sewing this year.  Luke's costume was a no-brainer.  Back when Ben was in preschool he was Woody.  Of course, I saved the costume and hoped that it would fit Luke.  It was perfect and Luke was thrilled!  Abby took it upon herself to call Grammy and ask her to make a Raggedy Ann costume.  Thankfully Grammy said yes!  Ben knew that he wanted to be Captain Hammer (I have no idea who that is!) and assured me that he would take care of it.  Perfect!

As it Luke wasn't excited enough about Halloween, he found out, at school, that he would get to wear his costume to school on Halloween.  I can't even tell you how excited he was to tell me this big news!  Halloween just couldn't get here fast enough for this boy!

The day finally arrived and Luke couldn't wait to get his costume on and head to school!

It was so cute to see all of the kids (and teachers) in their costumes!

Party time!!

Me and my cowboy!

I was so proud to see my anti-crafts boy doing something crafty!

The kids even got to go trick or treating at the church offices at school!

Apparently this is what Captain Hammer looks like.  ???  It worked for me since all I had to do what the shirt.  Simple enough!  Ben was pleased with it and that's all that really matters! 

Ben had very different plans this year.  He was asked to go to a Halloween party at a friend's house. Jon and I were both a little bit leery, but after asking lots and lots of questions and thinking about it for a long time we decided that it would be ok.    A party at the home of one of his band friends with other band kids where the parents were going to be home, no girls and not out roaming the streets...It sounded legitimate.  I'm so glad we let him go!  It sounded like he had a great time!  My baby is definitely growing up...

Abby's costume turned out perfect!  Grammy did a SUPER job!

How cute are these two?!?!

This is Miss Emily Jessie.  She is the children's ministry director at our church.  She and Luke are good buddies!  Luke kept telling her that she should be Jessie for Halloween.  I love it so much that she actually went with it!  These two were absolutely adorable together!

This year our church put on a Trunk or Treat event.  Ben and Abby weren't really thrilled with the idea, but I figured that if they wanted to go out with a (responsible!) friend, they could do that.  I knew this kind of thing would be perfect for me, since I couldn't walk, and perfect for Luke since it would be much simpler that going from house to house.  It was great! Abby came for a while and then headed out with some friends later.  Luke LOVED it!

Luke came in second place in the costume contest!  His prize...TEN Rice Krispie Treats!  Oh boy...

Abby, Anna and Elizabeth enjoyed Trunk or Treat for a little while before hitting a neighborhood together.

These kids are just growing up way too fast!

Luke inherited this great pair of bat glasses sometime during all of the Halloween festivities.  I wish I had taken a picture of his in the dark.  There are glow sticks that make it look super cool in the dark!  Luke was a big fan of these glasses!

This is probably my very most favorite picture of the night!  We got home after a long night of Halloween fun and Luke dumped his candy on the floor and just laid there in front of it.  This picture was not staged!  That is just one adorable boy with one huge pile of candy!  I think we are going to have candy around here for a very long time!

Everyone had a very fun night in all of our various locations. It was strange to not all be together, but I guess that's what happens when kids grow up...