Broken

On Friday afternoon I was trying to put Elizabeth down for a nap before her brothers got home from school. (I love that they will ride their scooters almost every day and I don't have to go pick them up!) Every Friday is an early-out day, and if I don't get her settled before they come in, she usually won't fall asleep.

I was reading to her when I heard the door open downstairs. I heard Joshua come in, yelling, "Mom! Nathan says I broke his arm!" I attributed this to normal brotherly fighting and I continued reading to Elizabeth until Joshua came in her room, repeating his previous complaint. I still didn't think much of it.

Nathan came in a minute or two later, and I could hear him crying downstairs. Again, I just assumed that he had gotten hurt and was mad at Joshua. I was stubbornly still trying to finish Elizabeth's book so I could get her in bed. Joshua decided to call Ryan at work and tell him that Nathan might have broken his arm. That's when I realized that maybe the whole situation was more serious than I first realized!

So I went downstairs and saw that Nathan was just laying on the couch, crying, still with his backpack on and everything. He told me that as he and Joshua were coming home (Benjamin was still at school for Ceramics club), Joshua was trying to go straight to a friend's house instead of coming home first. Nathan was trying to be a good big brother, and started chasing Joshua to get him to turn around and come home. (Joshua was on his scooter and Nathan was on roller blades.)  As Nathan was doing so, his backpack caused him to get off-balance and he fell backwards, trying to catch himself with his hands. He thought he broke his wrist and was begging to go to the hospital, so I investigated. It didn't look swollen, the bones didn't feel unusual, and I didn't even see any signs of bruising.

So once again, I chalked it up to an over-reaction on Nathan's part. I told him I needed to finish Elizabeth's book with her, and if it was still hurting by the time I was done, then we would go to Urgent Care. When I came back downstairs after her book, Nathan was still crying and I could tell that he really was in pain. So we all got our coats on and went down to the Urgent Care. They took some x-rays and told us that Nathan had a "buckle" fracture.

This is our first broken bone. Not bad for 3 boys and eleven years!

They put him in a splint and told us to set up a doctor's appointment for the cast after the weekend. When I asked why they don't put the cast on right away, they said it is because they have to wait for swelling to go down. I felt so much better when the doctor then added, "but this one really isn't that swollen." Whew! I'm glad that I didn't miss something obvious!

Today Nathan got his cast on. I think he enjoyed all of the extra attention he got at school, and he loved letting everyone sign it! Unfortunately, he broke his right wrist and he is right-handed! Fortunately, he only has a week and a half of school before Christmas break. And he only has to have it on for 3 weeks, so he is scheduled to get it off the day he goes back to school in January!

What a sight!

When I am at the desk working on the computer, Elizabeth loves to come to the other spot at the desk and find something to do. Usually she will draw on paper. Sometimes she will ask for the kid scissors so she can cut up what she drew.

Today while I was busy, she asked for the scissors and I gave them to her and was only kind of paying attention to what she was doing. A minute later I looked over to check on her, and I just laughed at the sight I saw!

Yes, she is standing on the desk! Elizabeth rarely looks prim and proper, but she sure is a cutie!

Our Dancing Darling

Today was a "Parents Day" for Elizabeth's dance class. It was so fun to see her in action! Although, I was a little surprised to see that she is the "wild child" of the class. (I knew she wouldn't be the quietest or best-behaved, but I did not expect her to be the one that the teacher had to call her name the most!) Elizabeth would often start dancing while Miss Miriam was still giving instructions, or she would talk when she wasn't supposed to. I do think she was acting a little differently today with parents there and with it being the last day of class before Christmas break. I talked with Miss Miriam at the end of class, and she was so sweet to say that she loves Elizabeth's outgoing spirit, and that she's doing just fine! And Elizabeth is learning so much about movement and loves dance class, and when you're 3 years old that's what is important!

 Elizabeth is having fun!

Whenever they needed to have a partner, Elizabeth and Izzy of course always found each other!

That's Miss Miriam in the black outfit. She is so cute with those 3-year-olds!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, filled with lots of food, family, and fun!

A family from the ward joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a mom and her 3 teenage boys, who we did not know very well, so I was a little nervous at first. But I was glad that we were able to provide a place for them to go for Thanksgiving. It ended up being a great afternoon! It was wonderful to get to know their family better, and the teenagers were so sweet to our kids! As usual, I didn't get any pictures of Thanksgiving dinner, but I did manage to take a picture of the turkey treats we made. Everyone got one at their place for dinner.

The rest of the weekend included some relaxing, kids playing with friends, a little Christmas shopping, and a lot of Christmas decorating! Fortunately, the weather was great and Ryan was able to hang the Christmas lights. For the first time, ALL three boys got to be on the roof to help!

Nathan and Joshua

Benjamin got to do the tricky corners while Ryan held the ladder

Everyone helped assemble the tree. We have a really great system where Ryan unloads the box in the basement, the kids are the runners to bring branches up a few at a time, and I put the branches in the tree with some help from the kids! When it was time to hang the ornaments, we first opened up our new ornaments from Grandma-ma and Grandpa-pa this year.

Elizabeth loves her new Rapunzel ornament!

Benjamin posing with his baseball-playing penguin!

Joshua wrote his full name on his penguin's bat

You know Nathan is happy when he doesn't scowl for a picture!

decorating the tree

Ryan likes to joke that the whole reason I wanted a fireplace installed was to have a place to hang the stockings at Christmas. I have to admit that he is mostly right! So I wanted to make sure I got a picture of our first Christmas mantel! I still have work to do on the bookshelves, but I love the mantel!

Disney On Ice

Today we took the kids to Disney On Ice!! They come every November, and I always want to go, but we have never gone before. But since Ryan and I are trying hard to do more family activities lately, we made the effort to go this year. I'm so glad we did -- it was a fun day!

Waiting for the show to start!

It was a great show! They covered a lot of the Disney characters and stories. The only disappointment (at least for Elizabeth and me) was that Rapunzel was not in the show at all. I think the favorites in our family were the sections on Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, and The Incredibles. Our seats were amazing -- 4th row -- so we had a great view of the whole show!

After the show we went to the Gateway mall across the street for lunch. We wandered the mall a little and spent some time playing at Blickenstaff's Toy Store before heading home. It was a fun and successful family day!

Cutie Pie

We took some fun pictures of Elizabeth this week:

She has a new dress, and we wanted to make sure that Grandma gets to see how cute she is in it!

We had our first big snowstorm of the year, and Elizabeth was so excited to go out and build a snowman. I don't like being out in the cold, and so I put her off at first. Luckily, the snow was still around the next day and we had fun building a snowman together!

Birthday Bash

Today we went to Nickel City for Nathan's birthday party. Nathan has been begging to go there for several years, but we have never gone until now. I just assumed it was a hole-in-the-wall arcade, and so I had avoided going there. When I looked into it while planning his party, I discovered that I was wrong! And after going there today I am very impressed -- it is like a Chuck-E-Cheese but with more arcade games for older kids, laser tag, a nicer atmosphere, and much better pizza!

Two of Nathan's friends were able to come to the party with us. Everyone except Elizabeth and I enjoyed a game of laser tag while we waited for our pizza. Then we did pizza, cheesecake, and presents. Nathan also got to spin the Nickel City prize wheel since he is the birthday boy -- he got 400 extra tickets!

 The pizza was delicious -- I was quite impressed!

More Legos -- his friends know him well!

He won 200 tickets on the wheel, but when they brought his voucher out a few minutes later, they had upgraded it to 400!

Everyone was able to find plenty of games to spend their nickels on. And of course they picked out some small prizes with their tickets before we went home. A good time was had by all, and I am sure that we will be going back to Nickel City in the near future!