Fall Fun

Not feeling very "Fall"-ish at the moment here with our 80 degree weather! We didn't make it to a pumpkin patch this year, so I decided to set up our own pumpkins and get a few shots of the kids in our courtyard area. I've decided that Brooklyn is very photogenic! She is a great poser and I always seem to have the most pictures of her that turn out well. Blake's eyes are hardly ever looking at the camera and Gavin was just plain grumpy today! I guess he didn't like the fact that I plopped him in front of some pumpkins right after I got him up from his nap! LOL! I bribed him with some Smarties and I was able to get a few.

Little Miss Brooklyn

Sweet girl

I love this one!!

Love this one too!! Mr. Blue Eyes!!

Have you hugged a pumpkin today?

Serious Blakey

Cute twins!

This pumpkin must have done something to offend him!!!

Happy now with his candy!

This was cute. I'd ask Gavin to pick up the pumpkin and he'd say, "Hebee!" (heavy)

Let the Festivities Begin!!

Today was the kickoff of our Halloween celebrations!

Every year, down at Matt's school, the staff invite all the students and their children to come trick-or-treating at the school. So we get the kids all dressed up and the faculty and staff just fawn ALL over them in their costumes! It's fun for the kids to see where Daddy has spent his life for the past 3+ years and they get lots of great treats!

Tonight, we had our ward party as well. I'm on the activity committee so we set up most everything last night. Like last year, we had a chili cook off and corn dogs for the kids. I've never thought of myself as much of a chili person, but both years, I just happened to pick chili that was REALLY good! There were a few carnival games- fish pond (which I put together), ring the pumpkin and a cupcake walk. Brooklyn and Blake each came back with two cupcakes, silly kids! The main event of the Halloween party is the Trunk-or-Treat. People decorate their trunk/back of their car and hand out candy to the kids, who go from car to car trick-or-treating. Such and cute and fun idea!

Of course between these two activities today, all three kids had major candy overload today. Gavin's new favorite word is "candy!" LOL! Of course I scrubbed their teeth lots and lots before sending them to bed! Surprisingly, there was no resistance at bedtime tonight. I was worried they'd be on sugar highs, but I think the busyness of the day just plain wore them out!

Costumes this year- I decided to let go of some of my OCD-ness and let Brooklyn and Blake pick what they wanted to be for Halloween. Honestly, if I told them they were going to be something, they'd go with it! We have loads of dress-ups, so they each chose from their boxes. I have enjoyed dressing them in coordinating, matchy-matchy costumes for the past 4 years, but it was a joy to see them excited about dressing up as what they wanted to be! I still had a say in what Gavin wore, though! :)

Pictures from the day~

I think this just might be a miracle! ALL seven kids looking in the right direction!!! And no, there was no Photoshop involved in this picture!

Fourth year kids, L to R - Ambree, Macey, Cade, Brooklyn, Blake, Sydney, Gavin

Brooklyn shows us how to pose like a princess

Pretty Cinderella!

Spider-Blakey and his new spider pal

Muscles!!!Cute monkey boy!Have you ever seen a monkey sucking it's thumb?!What are we?? MOVING!!! We had bubble wrap on our legs. And no, these weren't comfortable!! Matt's idea.

I think this was Gavin's third or fourth sucker for the day, can't you tell?!?

There WILL be more pictures to come, I assure you! We still have to have our "Fall" photo shoot! ;)

Blake's allergy test results

For a long time, I've been suspicious that Blake has had some sort of food allergy. The kid is soooooooo skinny (only 33 lbs at almost 5 years old), which makes me think that he's not absorbing some sort of nutrient that he needs, he has purple "allergy shiners" under his eyes, plus (too much information here) his bowel movements are rarely solid. It's hard not to compare Blake to his twin sister, who is 5 pounds heavier and 3 inches taller than him. I know that they are fraternal twins, which means they are no different than any other two siblings, but it's still hard when they are SO different from each other! I almost wanted something to be wrong with him so we could FIX the problem and Blake would thrive and grow. I knew he already had environmental allergies, which isn't surprising since I do as well. He seems to respond well to OTC Claritin if he's having a "sneezy day" Blake calls it! ;)

We had his blood drawn this past Friday and the pediatrician call me with the partial results yesterday. Blake is allergic to mold, sycamore, oak, and CORN. He also tested positive on one of two tests for celiac disease. We'll get the rest of the results soon, I hope.

At first, I was thinking, no big deal, corn isn't in THAT many things, right?? WRONG!! Corn is in things you wouldn't even imagine!!!! I started to get overwhelmed just reading the first webpage that came up on Google after my corn allergy search. There are so many things we eat that have corn syrup/high fructose corn syrup in them. I know that is something that we should try to stay away from anyway, but just in going through my pantry, I found loads of things that will now be OFF LIMITS to Blake - of course any sort of fruit snack, canned fruit, Teddy Grahams, Jello, NutriGrain bars, granola bars, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, salad dressings, baking powder. These are just the obvious things!! In reading more about corn allergies, there are so many ingredients in things that you'd never know that were corn based! I guess I'm going to have to become an expert label reader now with my handy dandy cheat sheet of no-no ingredients. It'll change my perspective about foods that we eat in restaurants and at other people's houses.

I don't know how much of a sensitivity to corn Blake has, but I guess it's going to be trial and error. We may have to make a major overhaul on products we buy and eat, but to me, it's worth it for the health of my Blakey! This makes me very glad that he's such a good eater of fresh fruits and veggies!! Now let's just pray that the other celiac test comes back negative!!!

SoCal Fires

This is what it currently looks like outside at 11:00am. There are several fires raging in Southern California at the moment. We're safe distance from all of them, just so nobody worries about us. The closest fire is about 20 minutes away, in Irvine. There is also, of course, the huge fire up in Malibu and then another big one down near San Diego. The winds have been crazy the past few days, which does nothing to help the fire fighting efforts. There is a burning smell in the air (and in our house) and my allergies are going nuts!!! I just pray that they can get things under control soon.

Matt's Turn > Fun With Photoshop

Three years ago I invited a friend over for dinner and he introduced me to Photoshop. Since having kids, Lindsay and I have enjoyed taking pictures. We have taken about 20,000 pictures since getting our first digital camera 5 years ago. Photoshop has come in handy in touching up a few pictures, but I have had a little fun with my imagination as well.

Thankful Thursday

What am I thankful for today??

GREAT FRIENDS.

Our time here in California is drawing to a close (only two more weeks!) and it's starting to become more real to me every single day. These past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to spend lots of time with my close friends and I am seriously going to miss them- BADLY. Every time I think about it, I try to squelch my emotions, but I know one day (soon!), they are just going to come flooding out!

Every year, I've watched the 4th year optometry wives as they say their goodbyes to friends that they may or may not ever see again, friends that have led lives parallel to their own for the past 3+ years. I've watched them cry in church and scoffed, 'Why are they crying?!? Why is it such a big deal?' Well now I'M that 4th year wife and I'M the one that's going to be bawling my eyes out when I have to leave MY friends that I may or may not ever see again, MY friends that have lived lives parallel to my own for the past 3+ years, and it's a BIG deal!!! We've laughed, cried, vented to each other, and celebrated major holidays with each other. These have been the people that I've leaned on most for support in the past few years. We've been each others' "family" away from our own individual families. Some of you can be credited with saving my sanity, numerous times!!

And not only are these MY friends, but their kids are my kids' friends too. They've grown up together, been in nursery together, played together and made their own little friendships. I don't think that Brooklyn and Blake will forget their little friends from California.

I'm so grateful that I've met each and every one of you. I thank Heavenly Father for bringing us together for this time in our lives. Some I've known only for a short time, others from the very beginning. You've made a profound impact on my life. You better believe that we're going to keep in touch with each other through the years, as our hubbies become rich and successful doctors!! :) I love you all!

***Edited to add: This isn't solely about our optometry friends. We've made lots of awesome friends in the ward too! :)

MatieKay template users

If your template is no longer working, check here for the reason. I guess she can't use a certain company's papers anymore for templates so she had to erase them, hence my template change! I know a lot of you got blog templates from her, so I thought I'd let you know!

Hundred Acre Wood gone BAD!

I stepped off my elliptical machine and this is what I see!! LOL! And you thought these characters were so innocent, didn't you??!? The joys of having boys!

Impromptu photo session

Last Wednesday, I decided to take the kids outside and have fun taking some pictures. The Barney girls were included since I babysat them that day. Can I just say I love my camera?!?? Here are a bunch of my favorites-
(Jennie, I hope you don't mind me sharing some of your girls too!)

First, SydneyThen, Miss Macey, quite serious after just waking from her nap!

BrooklynBlakey, fully playing the part in his "army man" ensemble
And last, but not least, sweet Gavin!A few extras

My favorite part of the day

I was just thinking last night about how my favorite part of the day is checking on my kids before Matt & I head off to bed. Maybe it's because when I look at each of my kids' peaceful sleeping faces, I forget about the chaos of the day and just for a sec, and am reminded how blessed I am to have these sweet spirits in my care for this life. I love you, Brooklyn, Blake and Gavin!!