Woe is me...

I've always had a hard time deciding what my favorite season is. It used to be between spring and fall. I love spring because of all the new growth. The weather starts to get warmer and the flowers start blooming and the colors all look so bright and cheery. I love fall because the weather gets a little cooler and the leaves look so vibrant and beautiful. I love going to the cider mill and carving pumpkins and trick or treating with the kids. However, if you asked me this year if I liked fall I would say no, absolutely not, N-O! Why? Because this fall has been nothing but illness after illness after illness.

It all started in October. The kids all got the sniffles but nothing serious. It was gone within a couple of days. Then we went to Michigan and caught a seriously nasty bug from my nephew Kenny. I was planning on staying in Michigan for a whole week and ended up leaving a couple days early to come home because both Noah and Eli had fevers. Once we got home I caught it and Sarah caught it. First it was a fever then a cough. Of course Eli had the worst of it since it turned into a cough and he does really bad with coughs, but they all seemed to be feeling pretty good towards the end of October. That's when we went to the ward Halloween party and Eli ended up puking for half of the night.

We all finally started feeling better in our house when Deb came down with a cold. Sure enough my kids all end up sick again a week into November. Sarah ended up having a fever that lasted for 3 days so I finally took her into the clinic (Nov 17th) and she was diagnosed with her first ear infection. A few days later Eli is not getting any better and his cough is getting worse and worse. On top of all that I woke up on Friday (18th) with a funky stomach ache. The next day it was really bad; my stomach just hurt and was really crampy for 2 more days. Eli spiked a fever Sunday night (Nov 20th) of 104 so to the ER we went. A chest x-ray ruled out pneumonia and he didn't have strep so after a breathing treatment and a dose of steroids we were sent home.

The next morning Eli seemed to be feeling a little better and the fever had broke. Although now Aaron had the mysterious stomach ache. Then Tuesday (22nd) comes. Eli woke up complaining of a tummy ache and the diarrhea began. He had diarrhea all morning long and one round of vomiting. He barely ate or drank all day but seemed a little better in the evening. Wednesday morning he woke up and again with the tummy ache and diarrhea and fever so back to the doctor we went. Again the verdict was no pneumonia and that it is common for GI symptoms to accompany upper respiratory infections. I had them draw some blood to check his kidney function which all came back normal.

Over the next couple days Eli started feeling better and then Saturday night (26th) Noah says his ear hurts. On Sunday I decide to keep the kids home from church. After Aaron left with the van I realized Noah was running a fever and he was complaining again of his ears. I had to call Aaron and have him bring home the van so I could take the kids into the clinic (I sent Sarah with Aaron back to church so I didn't have all 3). Just as I suspected, Noah had an ear infection. In addition to prescribing antibiotics he was given an ointment for an odd rash that had developed around his nose and mouth, probably from snot and drool.

The next day I had to take Sarah in for her 9 month check up and a follow up for Eli. It was news to me when Eli had a fever (again). Pneumonia was ruled out for a 3rd time and his ears and throat looked fine. I'm not one to do this but I essentially begged the resident to give us an antibiotic. I don't think the resident had to do much explaining to convince our pediatrician that Eli needed an antibiotic. They think he probably got bronchitis or some sort of bacterial infection on top of a viral infection. It is now 3 days into a z-pak for Eli and 4 days of amoxicillin for Noah and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sarah's 9 month stats:

16 lbs 5.5 oz (10th percentile)

28 inches long (between 50th & 75th percentile)

Christmas came early

We aren't going to be home for Christmas this year. We're actually going to be in Washington for 10 days (excited!). We leave on the 22nd or something like that and come home New Years day. I've struggled with figuring out what to get the boys for Christmas and when I should give them their presents because I don't want to have to travel with them. This last weekend the weather was so nice I decided I was going to get them something that Aaron and I have been eyeing at Sam's Club for some time now. We set it up during their nap and explained to them that Santa was going to come early this year. When they woke up we told them Santa had come during their nap. They are a little bit groggy in this video since they just woke up (actually I woke them up because I was excited). They do like it though and I think it will get a lot of use come summer time.

Christmas Cards

I just ordered my Christmas cards from Shutterfly. They always have such great deals. I had a $10 off coupon that I used, plus a coupon for 10 free cards, plus they had an addition 40% off cards, plus free shipping. I seriously love that they make it so easy to buy cute photo cards at such an affordable price. I still have a $10 off coupon plus free shipping for a friend, so the first person to comment on this post that wants it, it's yours. Just leave me your email address and I'll send you the code.

This is the card that I ordered (FYI: For posting this on my blog I get $10 off my next order!).

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Friday night ramblings

I know I haven't posted in over a week (gasp!). My fans are probably rioting in the streets :) Honestly we just haven't been doing anything. The kids and I went to Michigan in October, came home sick and remained sick for several weeks, we were all healthy for about a week, and this week Eli and Sarah are sick again. Poor baby girl has an ear infection and has just been miserable. Two nights ago Aaron and I switched on and off trying to get her to go back to sleep from 2:30am until 5:30am when I finally got her to sleep. Needless to say, I was tired yesterday.

Noah and Eli are still going to speech therapy at UK once a week. They love it and ask me almost every day if we are going to go play with Meg and Ellen (their therapists). They are talking so much more now and are starting to make a lot of speech sounds that they never used to (f, s, and k). It is really nice that we can finally understand what they are saying (for the most part) and have conversations with them. Eli still loves Spiderman and his new favorite is Iron Man. Every morning when they wake up they ask me to turn on the TV and Eli asks to watch Spiderman and Noah asks for Go Diego.

Aaron has had a really busy semester, taking 14 credits and working on a huge research project for his qualifying exams. After this big project he will move on to his dissertation. After this semester he only has a handful of classes left to take. He can't wait to get them done.

We are getting really excited for Christmas. We are going to be spending the holidays in Washington with Aaron's mom and family. His family owns a house on the beach on Hood Canal and we will be spending the majority of our time there. We're going to be at Aaron's grandparent's house for Christmas Eve and morning I think. We are also really excited to finally meet Josie, Aaron's sister's baby girl that was born just 20 days before Sarah. I am a little nervous to be flying with 3 kids but we'll have Deb to help so we should survive.

Pixie

I set a goal this year to cut my hair short. I've always wanted to get a pixie, but I always chicken out and go with a bob. Well it's November so my time was running out. I started watching that show Once Upon a Time and the character that plays Snow White motivated me to finally take the plunge. I think she is adorable.

My friend Tressa squeezed me in Tuesday night so I could get it cut before changing my mind. I have always wanted to donate my hair but have never been brave enough to cut off enough for a donation. Unfortunately, most places won't accept hair that has been dyed or bleached. A few months ago I got highlights and some red put in my hair so I thought I wouldn't be able to donate it, which was a major bummer. My sister-in-law gave me a brilliant idea to just donate the underneath part of my hair that doesn't have any color in it. So that is exactly what I did. We divided my hair unto two parts and Tressa cut out a big pony tail from the bottom part of my hair.

I'd say it's about 10 1/2 inches when straightened. Tressa cut off an even bigger pony tail that went straight into the trash can since it had been dyed.

I was super nervous as it all came off. Deb just sat there watching with a goofy smile on her face which made me even more nervous. I was pretty skeptical at first while it was still wet and unstyled. But when it was finally done, it actually looked pretty cute. Aaron just keeps telling me how much he likes it. He seriously says it almost every time he sees me. I don't know if it will stay short forever, but it's definitely fun and sassy for now and I like it!

How about you? Do you like it?

Just like Mommy

I know I've posted this picture before but Sarah definitely resembles her mommy.