Halloween 2011

Ward Trunk or Treat!!!

Our ward usually does a primary program practice right before the ward trunk or treat and the program the following Sunday. Well due to the freak snow storm, that happened only that day, things were moved inside, no problem that is what we did last year and had a great time. 

When we went to drop Izaac off at the church for his practice and noticed it was unusually dark... yep the power was out in the church... problem #1. I walked down the hallway and saw an unusual group huddled around the closed kitchen door with a bunch of tools... someone had "fixed" our slightly broken door and not given anyone, including Bishop, the key. So all the food that had been bought for the party is now stuck, not that they could have cooked it anyway with the power out... Problem #2.

The rest of us braved the snow covered streets with no stoplights and went to the mall before coming back to the ever darkening church.

They had ordered Pizza and we all ate happily in the dark gym as the kids, who knows which kids were which, ran excitedly. We all got in a line and went from door to door of the church classrooms that people had decorated and handed out candy. The halls getting darker every minute and by the end we all just took the same amount of kids that we brought and hoped they were the right ones. if not church was the next day:)

Our M&M, thankfully, was easy to find due to to her leg, our little popcorn bag was doing the candy rounds time and time again and got quite the haul:)

Taking a picture into the dark and seeing what the flash uncovered

Checking out the treats!

 Izaac's Preschool Halloween party

 Face painting

 Hay Ride

 Sneaking candy in the classroom

 Class mates:)

Broken

Coming home from picking up Izaac from school Cora was getting out of the van and fell. :( Even standing right there I'm still not sure exactly how it happened. It looked like she had bonked her knee. She cried a lot and I held her for awhile before putting her in front of a movie so I could get the groceries from the car and straighten the house a bit before some friends came over for lunch. I knew there was a problem when she wouldn't put any weight on it when I was having her come to the table for lunch. I held her for awhile icing her knee/leg before laying her on the couch to get some more ice. I wanted to take her in but she had fallen asleep on the couch and Izaac was in a crazy hyper/angry mood and I knew I couldn't deal with that at the ER as well. Seconds after I put him in his room he had fallen asleep so I let them both sleep until Justice came home around 5:30. He convinced me to take her to the Urgent care instead of the ER... BAD IDEA!! We got to the Urgent care at 6:15 and waited and waited for the doctor. Cora was thankfully in a really good and playful mood as long as no one touched or looked at her leg.

We finally see a PA(Cora really mad when she is checking her leg) who sends us down for an xray around 8... after waiting for the tech she finally comes out and tells me that I can't hold her because I am pregnant and we can come back if we want to when we have someone who can hold her... I call Justice who has to come all the way down there with Izaac where they finally take the xray(Cora Screaming through the entire thing) and we go back upstairs to wait some more for them to see us again... Her leg is definitely broken and they want to send her in an ambulance to the ER, because their xray wasn't very good and the ER could treat her better... Seriously!!! That was my first choice and we probably could have been home from there by now... They splinted her leg almost up to her knee (Cora Screamed through) and told us to wait. Really wanting to get out of there as fast as we could, and thinking that a ambulance ride where she was strapped to a bed would traumatize her even more. We wanted to just take her in the van but they convinced us that this would be the safest bet... the ambulance finally arrived 20 min or so later and they asked us if we would like to hold her in the back because the bed would probably scare her.... seriously?? how is that any different then us taking her safely in her car seat in the van... again could have been there by now!!!

Justice holds her (Cora really not happy but not as hysterical as before)while I take Izaac in the van to a friends house and meet them at the hospital. going in to the ER I ask around for my daughter... they take me to a few places but cant find her... ask a nurse who says she is still in the waiting room... um no she isn't, try again... so the security guard and I wander around some more before coming across them siting on chairs in a corner of the hallway. Apparently the helpful ambulance guys had left them there with Cora on Justices lap so he couldn't move without hurting her and no one knew where they were... oh so helpful ambulance guys... once I know where they are I stop a nurse and make sure they know where we are. "oh yes the little girl with the broken leg, she's in room 6" she tells me... "um, no, actually we are sitting here in the hallway with nowhere to go" I reply. Thankfully she quickly finds us a room.

After a lot more waiting, and more xrays, a new splint because the one they put on at urgent care was way too low and not actually doing much (Cora screaming more and more through each of these things) we finally left the ER at 1am... about 8h after we had arrived at the urgent care... we were all EXHAUSTED!!! especially my little Cora who was so tired she was falling asleep while crying about me having to move her to take her home. 

We have had a TON of love and support through this and many people have come to drop off some fun things for Cora to do while hauled up in her room for a few days. My neighbor Kim dropped off a painting set, among other things, which we talked about doing later at the table then I went down stairs to do a few things... only to return to this:) My silly girl with paint all over her splint, herself and the bed... at least it added a bit of colour to her dreary splint :)
We had friends come and visit and keep Cora company and take Izaac to the park so he didn't have to be cooped up as well. We really feel blessed, and so thankful for all the help that we have received this past week. It is hard to be so far from family but it is so much easier when friends so easily fill that role while we are here!

After 4 days of being in her room (she didn't want me to move her anywhere) she was looking a little homely, all that painting, treats and playing was starting to show despite my best efforts to keep her wiped down I finally decided that I would attempt a bath for her. So I broke out the baby tub and gave her an official scrub down. She looked much better in the end:)

I finally convinced her to come down stairs by bribing her with cookies!

I took her to the Orthopedist on Wednesday where they put on an actual cast. She can now move around by herself without too much strain on her leg. She still isn't aloud to walk but can scoot around where ever she wants to go. She will often tell me; "I'll do it mom", "Don't help me", or brake down crying because I brought something to her and say "I was coming!!!"

She is amazing to watch how she can accommodate herself and how she can happily adapt to this new trial. She will tell you "I just can't walk, because I broke my leg". Cora is a doll and we are so sad to see her hurt but so grateful that she is doing so well:)

Wishing Bone

So after Sunday dinner, I had made a whole chicken, Izaac was getting a little cranky and restless. So in an attempt to distract him I dug through the chicken to find the "wish bone".  I may have gone a little overboard explaining to him that when the bone dries out , two people put their pinkies on either side of the bone and make a wish. The one who pulls off the bottom part will have their wish come true.

I was successful in distracting Izaac so the rest of us could finish dinner. We talked about what things we could wish, yes you are probably smarter then me and would have explained to your four yr old that the good things to wish for are intangible, like world peace, or having a good day, or seeing a squirrel the next day.... I was not so clever in pointing out this important detail.

The next morning the first thing Izaac wants to do is the wishing bone... how could you wait?? Well he and I wrapped our pinkies around that bone and pulled... I got the bigger part... Izaac looked around the room, and proceeded to search all the other rooms in our house before coming back totally chest fallen stating that he couldn't find his toy. I started a lame explanation that I had gotten the bigger part so technically my wish was the one that was supposed to come true. But how do you stay on that when looking into the sad, disappointed eyes of a little boy who has just had his hopes and dreams crushed?

"Well maybe it just needs time to work" was my lame attempt at making him feel better.

He went to school, and Cora and I hit a toy clearance sale at k-mart and the wishing bone magically worked after all!

I love Magic:)

Simply Perfect

Justice took his first board exam the end of August and then we had 6 days of bliss! Where there was no studying, no going to classes and no thinking about NYU!!

We decided to go camping for one night and Justice found a place online that we typed the address into the GPS and followed it to somewhere, still not even sure exactly where we were in NY but somewhere near the Massachusetts border because we crossed it on a hike to see some falls.

It is moments like this when life just can't get any better. 

It was so peaceful there and we had a wonderful time collecting bugs, swimming, finding mushrooms and tearing them apart, hiking, enjoying the fire and being together.

 Watching Daddy light the fire! the one match attempt was quickly thwarted but he still managed an amazing fire!

 The perfectly cooked tinfoil dinners made by  yours truely!! I was so pleased myself that all four dinners were perfect!!! Seriously how awesome am I that none of them were burnt or undercooked?? 

We were pretty excited about all our camping food and even had three deserts... yep we are that cool, popcorn over the fire, dutch oven cobbler, and S'mores!

All for our one night:)

 Yummy, thanks for sharing Cora:)

 Caterpillars!!!

 Worms

 Heading back to our tent

 Another caterpillar friend

 Going hiking

 checking out the mushrooms

 So excited to find a PINK mushroom!!

The mother load

 Happy 6th Anniversary to us!!

 I am so grateful for my little family and these perfect moments that make all the sacrifices worth while.

This last year of Dental school has been challenging for us. Justice has been working so hard at school and home studying every spare moment he has. He will leave for school before 8 and comes home by 8:30 on the best nights. He had two late nights a week where classes caused him to miss the x5 bus (which stops running at 8) and to come home another way resulting in him being home between 10 and 12 those nights. because the kids go to bed by 8 they would often go for days without seeing their dad. I thankfully got to say hi to him most evenings before he went back to his office for more studying... 

It is hard to be alone with kids ALL the time but I get into a rhythm of life and routine. I am grateful for friends here that make life not so monotinous, and are always willing to help when needed.

I am grateful for many things here that take our attention and make life fun. 

Some of our favorite things to do are:

Going to Chuck-e-cheese with our friends

Playing in water sprayers

Going to the childrens Museum

Going to the Zoo's and aquarium

Visiting at friends houses

Target and then Panera

Riding bikes

There are so many grate things that the kids and I get to do but, we always miss Daddy and wish he could be there with us experiencing some of these things with us.

 It is hard not to feel guilty for every moment we do steal away to be together because we know that it is time that probably should have been used to study. That is why weekends like this (when we are in between semesters and there are no tests) are so special and rare. We just float in complete BLISS experiencing things together as a family and enjoying moments.

We are thankful for the oppertunity to be in school right now and to be preparing for a better future for our family.