Fall Perfection

Alright, I'm giving myself 30 minutes to just crank out a post.  On my mark, get set, GO!  {Seriously, I just set a 30 minute timer on Alexa.}

{The house may look all nice and October-y right now, but I planted 160 bulbs in the front yard yesterday and I'm already excited for Spring to see them all bloom.}

Okay.  So, October is winding down and with it goes my favoritest month of the year.  Although, to be honest, it feels a little cliche to say that because EVERYONE seems to love October.  To be fair, I didn't love EVERYTHING about the month, but the past couple of weeks were such perfect fall perfection that I got my fill for the season.


What I didn't love this month...

Well, that would be the fact that Scott was out of town every week for most of the month.  So that was not fun.  Although, I guess a silver lining would be that I got really used to doing the bedtime routine on my own.  So used to it, in fact, that even though Scott has been home now for a couple weeks, I'm still startled and pleasantly surprised every night when bedtime rolls around and I realize that I have help on my hands.  Hahahaha.

Also not loving? The fact that we're going from perfect fall weather to outright freezing weather in the course of 24 hours.  I'm feeling really good about the fact that I've forced the kids outside almost every day the last couple of weeks to make them really soak in all the gloriousness of 60 degree weather and sunshine.  Because that's gonna have to hold us all over the course of the next several months.  I'm afraid the cold weather is here to stay.  BOOOOOOO!

Things that had me jumping for joy this month...

First up?  That would be the fact that I hired someone to get all the painting done and our house is finally finished!!!  This makes me happy for many reasons, but mostly because I cringe every time I look at pictures from our old house (with all the unfinished walls and paint samples on the walls) and kick myself for becoming so used to seeing it all like that, that I didn't see it at all anymore.  It's so glaringly present in pretty much any picture that was taken in our old family room that it makes me want to smack my head.

Next up?  A brand new washer and dryer sparked joy for ALL of us last week after our old ones bit the dust.  I've never seen some of the kids so eager to do laundry in their whole lives.  Hahahaha.  To be honest, being so excited about a new appliance had me feeling so decidedly middle-aged that it almost made me LOL.  Hahahahaha.

{Inside scoop -- these two were the most excited.}

And everything else that has happened and hasn't been covered over the course of this month...

• Sophie got to walk in the high school homecoming parade -- which I think may have been mentioned in another post, but this time I have the picture to back it up.  ;)

Full Dance Team -- 7th and 8th Grade

• Alex got to take home the "class pet" for the weekend -- and I was thrilled that it was actually a stuffed animal and not a real one.  Hahaha.  "Slush" was the guest of honor the same weekend as Grace's "baby," so you can imagine just how exciting that weekend was.  :)  Even though we didn't go out and do anything big, Alex was happy enough with a movie night, game day, and trampoline fun that it didn't seem to matter that we didn't leave the house.  

• STEAM Extreme took place at the middle school and Jane was ECSTATIC about the opportunity to show off her ukulele skills.  I have to admit, I think it's really cool that they're learning how to play an instrument like that in music class!  And it's really impressive to see it in action.  :)  Alex and Isaac were with me for the evening, and they thoroughly enjoyed all the other STEAM activities as well.  Isaac in particular was enamored with a paper plate maze we created for marbles (or "narbles" as he calls them) to run through. 

• Halloween activities OBVIOUSLY had to play a part in our month as well, and the kids were super excited a few days ago to be "BOOed" by someone in our neighborhood.  They also enjoyed decorating a "Halloween Village" kit that I snagged at the grocery store.  I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised that they were all so into it considering they all enjoy decorating a good gingerbread house at Christmas time.  :)   Tonight we have our ward Trunk-or-Treat and tomorrow is the actual day, so you'll have to stay tuned to see what everyone is going to be this year!  {Although, I'll give a little sneak peak of Isaac's because it's too hilarious not to.}

• And finally, our next door neighbors put up their Christmas decorations two Sundays ago.  It's such a baller move and I love it.  Hahahahahaha.

And that pretty much sums up the month!  Happy Fall, y'all!  

{In case anyone is wondering, the timer went off 6 minutes ago.}

Allergy Season

Ladies and gentleman, it is a new dawn and a new day!  Just this last we week, we FINALLY wrapped up four children's worth of allergy testing out our new allergist in our "new" (even though we've been here a year and a half) city.  Don't even get me started on how much torture it was for ME to have to sit through 8 hours worth of appointments between the 4 children, followed up with two separate trips to LabCorp for blood work to be drawn.  As it was, it was plenty torturous for them as well.

Unrelated to the post, but it IS a picture of all four of them.

It's been at least 3 years since they've done any testing and -- since we were getting ourselves established as new patients with the doctor here -- we thought it was time to check things out and see where we're at.  And SURPRISE guys!!!!!!  Sophie has actually outgrown some allergies!  Hahaha.  Quite shocking, I know.  Turns out allergy girl had no reaction to dairy on her skin prick test, and her  IgE levels were less than 1 for both dairy AND egg whites!  I legitimately did not think this day would ever come.

The doctor said we could set up appointments for an in-office food challenge whenever we were ready, but Grace and Sophie had other plans.  On Saturday, while Scott and I were gone all day with the younger three (and Ethan was at work) the girls obviously had to come up with SOMETHING fun to do while we were all gone.  {That was heavy with sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell.}  That something fun turned out to be their own version of a food challenge.  I tell you, teenagers do the dumbest things.  Over the course of their experimentation, Sophie tried ice cream, cheese, and real butter on popcorn.  She thought the cheese was gross, but the other two seemed to hit the spot.  They stopped short of trying her on anything with eggs in it, though, and for that I was grateful.  As it was, I was plenty mad at them for attempting something like that while there was neither a parent nor a doctor present.  Grace assured me that they would have had it covered, though, because the epipen and Benadryl were both at the ready.  {Insert eye roll.}

All's well that ends well, I guess, so it's kind of exciting to announce that Sophie is no longer allergic to milk!  I think I'll have them hold off with the egg challenge until we make it to the doctor's office, but it's kind of surreal to think that she has two new food categories to draw from.  She IS still allergic to peanuts and tree nuts (along with coconut and sunflower seeds), but that's relatively easy to manage and avoid.

(That ginormous one on the bottom right is her reaction to pistachio.)

As for the other three, peanuts are still a no go -- and tree nuts for Alex and Isaac are as well -- but Jane has been elated to finally try Nutella after her skin prick test showed no reaction to hazelnuts and the doctor gave her the go-ahead.  We're still waiting on her lab results to come back {for some reason, when I took the four of them for their blood work, they only tested her for macadamia nuts and not for anything else, so I had to bring her back in several days later}, so we'll see how the other tree nuts will fare for her.

 Jane tested positive for a bunch of environmental allergens as well.  So much so, in fact, that we're going to start her on allergy shots.  With her asthma so heavily affected by seasonal allergies, I really hope the shots will lessen the severity.  Hashtag fingers crossed.

 Alex has a ton of seasonal allergies as well, but they don't seem to incapacitate him as much as Jane.

Meanwhile, as of right now, Isaac has NO seasonal allergies!

All in all, this has been one exciting round of allergy testing!  Hahahaha.  Although, the record should also note that they all absolutely hated every second of it.  Especially Isaac.  The poor little lamb was traumatized first with the full panels of skin prick testing and then with having his blood drawn.  I think he'll be happy to know that he probably won't have to do this again for a very long time.  :)

It's a Boy!

I don't think I've ever laughed harder than I have this weekend as I watched Grace take care of her "baby" for her Child Development class.  Hahahahahahaha.  Hahahaha.  The big weekend has been marked on our calendar for over a month now, and Grace has been super excited at the prospect of taking her baby home.  Adding to the entertainment of the whole weekend was the fact that Grace's "baby" was "born" the same day as my oldest niece's real life baby boy!  The first text I got from Grace after she picked up "Tommy" in class was a picture of the two boys and an exclamation over them being twins.  Hahahahaha.  Oh Grace.  What would we do without her sense of humor???

Tommy and baby Jack.

Everyone was pretty excited to meet Tommy and Isaac in particular was enamored.  The whole experiment was so realistic that I think every teen should be required to take a turn at seeing what it's like to take care of a baby.  Grace almost missed out on her first opportunity to tend to his needs on Friday night when she fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up to him crying right next to her in his carseat on the floor.  Luckily, I was in the other room and DID hear him, and after quite a bit of shaking {Grace -- not the baby} she was up and ready to see if he needed to be fed, or diapered, or held, or burped.

Because she was taking the baby home over the weekend, and not just for a single school night, the doll was allegedly programmed to an easier setting.  Even with it on "easy," however, he still gave her a very realistic peek into the world of newborns.  For instance, true to real life with an infant (or at least MY infants), he didn't really start waking up and crying until around 10:30 on the first night, right when Grace was getting ready to go to bed.  Hahahahahaha.  {It was at that point that I started laughing so hard I was almost crying.}  Each time she swiped her sensor and then took care of him, it seemed like only minutes went by before he was crying again.  Hahaha.  I know, I know.  I'm horrible.

I woke up the next morning to see a text from her that was time stamped at midnight, and when I came downstairs around 7:30 she was already up for the day with Tommy.  Apparently he was up at midnight, 4 AM, 6 AM, and then up for good at 7 AM.  A fairly realistic night if you ask me!  Hahahahaha.

 This was the scene I came down to on Saturday morning.

She knew that her weekend with Tommy also coincided with a stake youth activity followed by a quad stake dance, so she had procured my babysitting services well in advance, and seemed convinced that I was chomping at the bit to watch my "grandson."  Hahaha.  Oh Grace.  It's a good thing I've taken care of a baby or two in my lifetime.  ;)

The second night went by much like the first, and even though she acted like she was so embarrassed to have to bring the baby with her to church on Sunday, I know that girl and I'm positive that she was secretly pleased with all the attention it brought.  Everyone else certainly seemed to get as big a kick out of it as I did.  Hahaha.

All in all, it was a weekend to remember!  And even though it's still far in the future, I have to say that I'm quite looking forward to being a grandma.  ;)  Hahahahahahaha.

Phone Dump

I now present a random assortment of photos and anecdotes, courtesy of all the extra pictures I still have floating around in my phone.  Enjoy...

• School is still going strong.

I saw this hanging on the wall outside of Alex's classroom when I went for curriculum night.  I thought it was pretty cute.  :)  

 Jane enjoyed our mother-daughter outing a few weeks ago to her school "Stampede."  It was made even more fun by having one of her besties come along with us for the ride.  :)

 Jane and Annie.

• I am officially in the running {see what I did there?} to complete my 3 race goals for my 40 Before 40!  The end of August saw me running the 5K, I'm currently in training for the half marathon in the middle of November, and I'm hoping to find a 10K somewhere around here before February 28th.  (And on a side note, the temperature outside is just now starting to cool off to where it's actually quite pleasant to run outside and I'm very excited about that.)   :)

• Isaac is still living his best life.  Hahahaha.  This kid cracks us up on the daily.  He says the FUNNIEST things and I have no idea where he comes up with half of it.   

His first day of preschool -- apparently I never documented his big day.

"Patterns" the dog was his sidekick for a good week or two until he lost him.  They went on many adventures together.

• I got LASIK.  

 Before the operation...

And after.  I had no idea what I was in for.  I'm pretty sure if I would have prepared myself beforehand with a full knowledge and understanding of what would be taking place, I would have chickened out and not gone through with it.  It was rough.  BUT, four weeks out and with perfect vision and no lasting side effects, I can say it was totally and completely worth it!

The day after the surgery, my eyes looked super creepy thanks to some broken blood vessels.

• Maxwell turned 1!  I'm sure many of our readers have forgotten we even have a dog, but here he is.  I love him, I really do.  But he is is one high anxiety/high stress dog and we don't exactly need more of that up in this household, if you know what I mean.  I'm currently working with a personal dog trainer to help with some of his issues (fear aggression, stress, and separation anxiety) and he's also on Prozac.  So, there you go.  I'd like to say it's all helping, but I don't really know if it's doing much.  He's such a sweet dog with US, but we basically can't take him anywhere or have anyone come over to the house without him freaking out/barking/growling/lunging/looking like he's about to attack.  Basically, he's a stress case whenever unfamiliar people or places are involved.  Doggie Daycare has come to our rescue on a regular basis.

 {I'm pretty much his favorite person in the world.}

And that's all, folks!  This felt like a lengthier and weightier post in my mind before sitting down here and getting to work, but now that it's all typed out, I can see that it's rather wimpy.  Hahaha.  (Insert shoulder shrug emoji.)  Oh well -- I promise to make the next post more inspiring.  ;)