Love For a Mother

Do you know what this is?
It is a dandelion but more importantly it is the love a little boy has for his mother.

Daddy brings me flowers occasionally. Just because.

Ian brings me dandelions. Everyone single one he can find, just because he loves me.

It melts my heart.

Just like it does to see him playing so well with Sage.
I figured there would be a period of time after school started when he would really miss Noah and the time they spent playing. To a small extent this did happen but in the last couple of months, Sage has gotten bigger and understands better and their play time has increased in quality and quantity.
Sage is very much a girl. She totally loved the purse and wallet section. Everyone heard her mourn when we had to leave.
Daddy remains her favorite person of all time.

Although, she has been known to find a substitute when he is absent and she feels in need of comfort.
All her teeth are in (minus the two year molars, but we are really hoping to wait until she is two to get them!). Good thing she loves a toothbrush!
That and rocking.
and rocking.
A friend did her hair (sorry for the pitiful picture) one day. She didn't seem to mind at first and it was a nice change but after an hour or so it started to hurt her head in that my-hair-has-never-been-made-to-go-this-way-before way.
Her stats are in from her 18 month check up. She is 22 lbs and 10 oz (that is the 20% for weight) and is 33 1/4 inches tall (80% for height). Tallish and skinny, our girl is.

She does things that, in my experience (read in comparison to the brothers), seem "early." She climbs on things. I didn't have to worry about that kind of thing before.

She knows what the remote is for and enjoys finding out what mayhem she can cause with it. Sage's first word is pretty much "uh-oh" although she will nod "yes" and "no" to things you ask.

She will put clothes down the laundry shoot if you ask. Or if you don't. Even if it's clean.

She always wants to be in mix of things.
Sometimes the boys want to be with me too.

All of my kids are daddy's kids. I really don't mind this. But it does make the times the kids show their love for me all the sweeter.

Case in point: A few weeks ago, I fell down the stairs and hurt my foot. Like really bad. I almost cried. The boys rushed around trying all they could to make it feel better. All things soft and cushy were instantly provided-pillows, favorite blankets.
And when the idea of icing it came up, one of them ran right up to get me a similac ice pack thingie to put on it.

They took good care of me. Because they love me.

In return I brought back some x-ray pictures that were also kind of pitiful.

I think this post was more for me than you, but I hope you see what I see: Love, for this mother, is her children.

Falling Leaves

As part of the services purchased by our seeming astronomical taxes there are leaf pick-ups. People rake their leaves out the the street and pile them up.


This year we took full advantage and made our piles just the everyone else.

Chris had some helpers. Sometimes.
Some times more than he would like but other times it was a definitely an extra pair of hands.


And then, of course, one must enjoy the piles of leaves!



We still had to bag some leaves because the last pick up was before one of our trees decided to shed it's last leaves. But we enjoyed the indian summer that bled into a pleasant fall with lots of leaves.

Happy Halloween! (And yes, I know we just had Thanksgiving!)

Getting ready to go to the Trunk or Treat.



We enjoyed a great night at the ward Chili Night and Trunk or Treat on the Saturday before Halloween. Noah even won a prize for the scariest jack-o-lantern! (See above.)We passed out candy to trick or treaters on Sunday because in Greendale they do weird things like designate the Sunday before Halloween as the day for trick or treating. The even set the hours. Our first year here it was 1-4. This year they moved to 4-7 so kids could be out at dusk.

We went with friends to a nearby town who actually trick or treat on Halloween and had a grand time.
The kids were tired to start out.
The both fell asleep on the way to our selected neighborhood but perked up (after the pictures) and went from house to house gleefully.
Afterwards the kids enjoyed their loot.
And put "skeleton-ee" to bed.
Is doesn't get much sweeter than this!

Pumpkin Patch FHE

The Monday before Halloween we decided a bit last minute to hit a pumpkin patch. Our opportunities tend to be limited by Chris' evening schedule so we snatched our chance even though we were late getting out the door and the dark comes on quick.
(I finally had one of those "enjoy the journey" attitudes, rather than being upset at the lateness of our start. I was so proud of myself:)
It wasn't a U-pick which was a little sad to me but the other parts of the place made up for it in spades. It was free admission so for gas and $9 in pumkins, gourds and indian corn we had a BALL!

They all loved the wagons.
The sunset was gorgeous!
I sacrificed my Aldi quarters to feed the llamas.
The donkeys won me over.
And just in case you need to make a pit stop...
Sage loves slides!
The goat run was pretty fun to watch too.


Not pictured was the straw tunnel and the straw pyramid, although here is Ian and Noah as conquerors.
We got our pumpkins and had one of our most successful family outings ever! Mission accomplished.

Richly Blessed

Date night was cancelled the second to last week of September and we opted to do a Family Movie Night with a camp-in for the boys afterwards.
It was a total hit! I felt like I was really going out on a limb when I picked the old Swiss Family Robinson for our movie. The boys looked at the cover and promptly told me that they hated that and didn't want to watch it. I pretty much told them tough cookies but then explained it was about a family that was shipwrecked and found lots of animals, built a tree house and had to fight pirates! What little boy can refuse pirates?

There was a bit of a slow part in the middle but the pirate (and tiger!) part made up for it. My heart melted when Noah covered his eyes in order to not see the tiger get the baby elephant. (Which he doesn't!) Family Movie Night is now an oft requested activity but I haven't found another movie that quite does the job that the Robinson Family did!

***

The last week of September was rough. Chris came home from church and bishoping complaining about not feeling well. By the next morning his symptoms had reached a critical point. That evening a friends watched our kids while we went to urgent care.
He was really bad off. His blood pressure was really low, he was dehydrated and had other really not good symptoms of an infection. In retrospect we should have gone (or been sent!) to the ER.

Live and learn we told ourselves.

He got an a couple of antibiotics and was sent home with orders to drink as much as possible to rehydrate. The next couple of days did not go as I had hoped. I was to fly off for a mommy vacation on Wednesday and ended up not going because Chris continued to have issues with his symptoms and drugs. Finally, by Saturday he was feeling more the thing.

After one week of feeling well, Chris came home from church and bishoping complaining about not feeling well. Monday evening his infection symptoms returned. He made an appointment to get in to see the doctor on Tuesday. They fit him in after hearing about his symptoms. Upon arrival he scared them all to death by almost passing out and having really low blood pressure once again and they called an ambulance to take him to the ER.

Apparently, I wasn't moving fast enough.

I got there as quick as I could and picked him up. We then got some lunch for the kids and took them to my dear, sweet friend's house before taking Chris to ER. He was evaluated in the triage room-all vitals normal. Then sat for a bit longer. I left to pick up and drop off Noah, take care of a church errand for Chris and then went back to the ER. He had been seen by the doctor and they took some blood for tests and agreed that there was definitely signs of infection and they wanted to admit him until they could tell what the infection was, thus allowing them to prescribe the correct antibiotic.

It took two days to get the culture results back.

In the meantime I finally picked up the kids and got them home to bed. Passed off some contact solution and Chris' glasses to another friend who ran them over to the hospital for me. Slept badly with my better half absent. Got Noah and Ian off to school the next morning and took Sage to visit daddy. Got there just in time to hear the doctor tell Chris that he would have to stay another night. Joy.
After picking Noah up from school that afternoon we picked up pizza and headed to the hospital to do dinner and movie with daddy. It was kinda a circus but the kids were reassured to see Chris looking and feeling well-even if he was wearing funny clothes and had a needle in his arm.
The results finally came back and he got sent home with orders to take his meds for 3 weeks!

It was rough but even as it was happening I could see the answered prayers and tender mercies.
For instance, on Monday night, Chris asked specifically in our prayer that his condition would not worsen in the night and that he would be able to make it to his appointment at the doctor's office. And he did. Just.

And really, the greatest blessing was our friends-helping with the kids, running to the hospital, bringing us dinner. The Lord does frequently answer prayers through the angels around you, and such it was with us.