Halloween 2011

This year, like every year, we spent Halloween at our church's Fall Festival. We had a great turn out and my kids had a TON of fun!! Claire ran around with her friends all night squealing and playing. They played so hard and had so much fun!! Here is our night in pictures - with a few comments here and there!

Jessie and Yoda

Our trunk - Yoda's cave

Sleepy Yoda

Claire LOVED the obstacle courses and she was very good at them!

Ice skating

Claire and Maci

Maci, Claire, and Layla - Rapunzel, Jessie, and Fiona

Claire and Emma

Family Photo - Michael was Dan-o from Hawaii 5-0

Claire and Mallory

Some observations

So the month of October has 5 Sundays. Out of those 5 Sundays I missed 3 of them due to sick children. On those Sundays I accomplished a LOT. I was able to do the things that slipped through the cracks during the week, grade papers, get lesson plans done, and various other things. But here's what I really noticed - I have been so lonely this month. I have been quicker to get angry, upset, and frustrated with everyone. It has been very easy for me to fall out of my quiet time - which I believe makes the above symptoms worse! I told Michael the other day that something felt "off" and I couldn't put my finger on what it was. When I was in church last week again something felt "off" and I felt uneasy and weird on the inside and out.
So today, as I am sitting at home once again with a sick child, I prayed. I asked God why I was feeling like this. Here is what I feel like He is telling my heart. We are made for fellowship and friendships. We are made to come together and corporately worship Him together. When we are not doing this we are not living to our full potential as Christians. I also realized that satan uses this. Last week when I felt "off" at church, it was because I had been disconnected from the body. I have to wonder if this is how a lot of people feel when they have missed for several weeks (for whatever reason) and come back. Is this why people can fall out of church so easily? Is this why it is easier to find a new church and jump in than try to reconnect with your church after being gone for weeks? Is this how satan is using our busy lives and schedules to kill the church?
Here is what I do know. God wants us in church. God wants us worshiping with other believers. God also wants us to welcome those who have been away like they haven't. My best friend and I live 2 hours from each other. We don't see each other often, but, when we get together we are able to pick up right where we left off. What a novel concept for the body. Yes, we should be concerned about where they have been - but we should not make them feel guilty about being gone. How we do this? I'm not sure. I am praying through this.
I love when God teaches you something in unexpected ways. I cannot wait to be back worshiping with my Bear Creek family!!!

Croup

Well...Cole's not so sick acting has turned into being full blown sick! He has croup. I have never dealt with croup and thankfully Claire has never had croup so it was pretty scary when we first started hearing this horrible cough come from our sweet little boy. After posting a question about it on facebook and getting a TON of messages - some scary - we called the on call nurse! She told us that as long as he is not running a fever we just have to let it run its course. She did give us a "croup treatment plan" that involved a humidifier, putting his head in the freezer (luckily it was cold outside last night and we just went outside), honey, warm milk, Motrin, vicks, and inclined sleeping! What this "croup treatment plan" did not include was sleep!! I went to work today on less than 4 hours of sleep - and if you know me well, you know I need at least 7 to function! But, today was our 1st grade Fairy Tale Ball and I could not miss this HUGE day. Cole is doing good, but he is not sleeping very well. They say that croup gets worse at nap time and bedtime and that is what we are really seeing. Hoping that tonight we can get some rest - or at least some naps tomorrow!

On a funnier note - I was so tired that I had an entire conversation with a mom at our Fairy Tale Ball about how much her son looked just like Flynn Rider from Tangled. I went on and on about how she needs to take a picture of him and put it next to her son and that I was so impressed that they made everything look so realistic...WELL, that wasn't her son!!! She didn't even say anything because she had no idea who Flynn Rider was and she didn't want to look silly!! As I was driving home from work today it hit me that I had said all of this to the wrong mom and I was mortified!!! I sent her an email telling her that I did know who her son was and that I was going on very little sleep! I. MUST. GET. SLEEP!

Beautiful Fall Days

The weather has been BEAUTIFUL around here!! We have really enjoyed spending a lot of time outside. The kids are now both able to play pretty much unassisted. Cole loves the sand table and will play for a long time. Claire just runs all over the yard, swings, climbs, plays in the sand, rides her tricycle and just likes being outside!!
OH! By the way - these are some seriously adorable pictures of my kids! They are TOO cute!

Two "sick" kiddos

On Monday night we hired a babysitter so Michael could speak at FCA and I could go to yoga. We had given Bailey directions for Cole and how to put him to bed because we would be cutting it close to his bedtime. But we also knew Claire would not want to go to bed with a fun sitter there. But when we got home Cole was running around and Bailey told us that Claire had asked to go to bed?!?! She hadn't fallen asleep yep and so we did our normal bedtime routine with her after Bailey left. When I went to give her a hug I realized that she was burning up! Checking her temp we realized it was well over 100. The next day she stayed home with Michael and even though she laid in bed all day she never acted sick. She wasn't whiney or clingy or grumpy. She was a perfect patient! Today she was fever free all day and is back to herself 100%. When I went to pick up Cole from Joy's we discovered that HE was now running fever! But he is acting totally normal as well! I guess if my kids have to be sick this is the type of illness you want!

Boo at the Zoo

On Saturday we went with my parents to Boo at the Zoo. We had never been before and although it was a fun experience to have with the kids I don't think we will be doing it any more. I was glad that we did it to say that we have done it but the $3 a person to get candy that my kids can't or won't eat was not worth it. But, we did have some fun and we got to enjoy the zoo on a beautiful day!!

Claire wore her costume to the zoo. It was super cute that all the little kids in costumes would point to each other and say "look mommy there's Jessie!" Claire was more excited to see the other kids dressed up than the animals and games!

Yee-Haw!

Fishing

Cole threw a ball in the hippos mouth!

Claire's decorated pumpkin

Claire and her BB

The orangutan was playing peek-a-boo with us!

Timon!

Claire as Jessie on the baby elephant!

One of 2 of the new sloth bears! They are pretty funny and cute!

One of Claire's favorite thing to do is feed the birds. Since it was close to the end of the day they were all pretty full but we found one bird that humored her and ate off her stick!

Claire inside a tortoise shell!

A happy ending to a great day!