little sis is 20 months...

and smiling from ear to ear about it!
and here's that same beautiful smile (minus all those teeth!) one year ago today...

Miss Maddie's back...

Our Maddie is back after spending the last couple of weeks under the weather. For about a week and a half, we couldn't figure out what it was. She was really blue, had a lack of appetite, was so tired, and was a super needy girl. When she began running a fever with no other visible symptoms, I took her in. She had a thorough exam, a urine cath, Dr. Milnes started her on Tamiflu just as a precaution, and she also had blood work done which was pointing to something viral. But what? We were stumped, her sats were low, the fever kept hanging on and she just felt crappy. After 5 days of fever, it finally ceased and a rash covered her belly and back. Voila, it was Roseola! The boys both had this at around her age and I hadn't even tripped to her symptoms being this. I tend to panic and think it has to be something with her heart instead of focusing on the normal illnesses. She's now rash free and back to her normal self. Since we're still a little stumped to what's causing her increased blueness and low sats, we've bumped up her next cardiology appointment and head over to see Dr. Vernon in just a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we're happy to have the little girl back who loves to...

shake her little booty!!!

halloween hullaballoo

We enjoyed lots of Halloween festivities, starting with Caden's preschool party. Halloween doesn't take place on one day anymore...it DRAGS on and I find myself up late a few nights during the Halloween week making goodies, filling treat bags, and finishing final touches on costumes. Anyway, Cade showed some talent by eating a sucker + singing to the crowd of parents during the preschool's performance of spooky songs and he made a super cute Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, the red one named Rafael, of course. He has some great ninja moves too...didn't get those on camera though. Next was Jace's Kindergarten Harvest Festival...here he is enjoying the classic "donut on a rope" game. Again, takes some talent. I had fun volunteering and meeting MANY Kindergartners. It's a huge class for Royal, over 150 of them!!!The Halloween party in Room 111 was a hit, everyone totally out did themselves with treat bags, cookies, goodies, and fun...and so did I with Jace's face paint that morning! Yikes! He only made it to lunch then wanted Mrs. Stewart to wash it off. This rookie mom has now learned...#1 paint your kid's face just "minutes" before the party and not 7 hours before it starts #2 buy the paint that dries and is not shiny, oily or wet #3 go for a more "subtle" child skeleton look, instead of Gene Simmons from Kiss... On Saturday, we enjoyed a fun afternoon at Pa and Grandma's for Papa's birthday party. Great food + great company= great fun. Here's a few of the cousins posing with Pa before heading out to trick-or-treat.

Maddie, our witch in a tutu, posing with cousin Kylie who was the cutest, cuddliest teddy bear ever! We all enjoyed a break at Nany and Ba's after trick-or-treating. We made it to 6 houses in 3 hours...more visiting than treating goes on in our neck of the woods. It's a great time to catch up with family and friends :)
And finally, our three little spooks... Happy Halloween!!!

Pumpkin Patch Pals!

We've enjoyed a few trips to the pumpkin patch this fall...first with Maddie's heart bff Teagan, her big brother Gavin and mommy Susie to The Country Mercantile. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! There was tons to do there and when you're with great friends like the Maxwell's, it makes it even more enjoyable. The kids kept us busy chasing after them in a straw bale maze, corn maze, barn full of farm animals, corn pyramid, and the pumpkin patch of course.





We also enjoyed a pumpkin carving party last weekend at the Schonewald's. This picture should include all of the kids at the party...crazy thing is Bryan and I grew up with at least one or both of all their parents! It's so unique that now all of our kids are growing up together and making fun memories like this! What can we say, we can't leave our quaint town of Royal. Should start a colony here...(our 3 kiddos are on the left side of the photo)
And our third and final trip to find that "great pumpkin" was with the preschool class on Tuesday. The highlight of this trip was driving Cade's entire preschool class, teacher and a couple of mom friend's in our farm's bus :) Good times!

H1N1 Vaccine

Yesterday Maddie was able to get her swine flu shot! Phew. Our family doc, Dr. Allred (uncle), called and only recieved 10 shots for his clinic...Maddie was lucky to recieve one being she's in the high-risk category and in 30 days will recieve the rest of the dose. The boys were also able to get the H1N1 flu-mist so a big SIGH of relief for us, hopefully we're covered now! We've had our Flu shots, H1N1, and Miss Maddie now waits for her VERY EXPENSIVE, monthly, super ouchie, 2 pokes each time Synagis shots regime to begin. Poor thing.

baby blues

The biology lesson I remember most was learning how to create the Punnett Square. It was a way of working out what the possible offspring traits of two parents would be by recording the dominant and recessive genes. It's funny thinking back to that same high school biology class that my future husband sat just a row away. We were great friends, who knew we'd eventually fall in love and marry? So what are the results of our square you may ask? We have one of each, how I love variety. Our calico kid's eye colors are as different as their personalities. It's been fun guessing whether the blue eyes these three were born with would change in time or not. But it looks like Maddie's baby blues are here to stay! Here's our little darlings, all at the same age, 18 months...

Maddie with her blue eyes, inherited from my side of the family...
Cade has the darkest eyes of the bunch...brown. He also has the LONGEST lashes too, maybe this darkens them up a bit more from the hazel color they used to be?!? And yes, those lashes have grown back after his trimming :) Jace has his daddy's green eyes that tend to change with what he's wearing...he's our chamelion

soccer fun

It's been so fun watching Jace play soccer this fall! This has been his first organized activity to participate in and it's been great watching him progress. He even scored a goal this season! Bryan coached his team and he and Derek have done a wonderful job with the kids. Before the season began, Bryan and I laughed that he may feel like Will Ferrell in the movie, "Kicking and Screaming" but this blue team was impressive. I do really wish I could have found Bryan that tiger striped blue sweatsuit to coach in though :) They've improved all season long and the smiles on the players faces prove that they've enjoyed it as much as the parents have! Way to go blue!!!