carving pumpkins!

Well this month has been an insane month for me, and I have been a little off my normal motherly duties. Usually we do pumpkin carving/painting halfway through the month, but with zach in the hospital earlier, I haven't even bought pumpkins. So we found a pumpkin patch, saturday morning, and went to pick out our pumpkins, then we brought them home and got to work, I figured we ought to have them done before halloween was over! So here is the hard work....... Alli .....
Jason working so hard....

Abby figuring out what to do......

joey concentrating like crazy..........

And Zach enjoying it way too much.We really had a good time.

happy halloween

school parade! joey dressed up as a marine! heading down the hallway.

And his friend, They sure had a great time. They had a really great class party after doing the minute to win it games. This is the kindergarten class. Jason and Abby are down on the front row looking adorable! Ready for their class party.
Miss alli ready for the parade too. She loves to wear any costume that she can wear a wig. She is always so adorable.


Close up of Abby in her spidergirl costume right before the trunk or treat.


and a close up of jason, aka optimus prime!

you have a minute to win it!!

Thank you grandma and grandpa Carroll!!! We got these way cool bugs in the mail from grandma and grandpa that you put in water and they grow. This is a pic of jason watching them grow ( he didn't realize they take 72 hours. ) we will post pics of them when they are fully grown. they are going to be sooo cool! Zach and jason just hanging out!
Ok we were watching funny home videos the other night, and Brian got the brilliant idea to have the kiddos try and have the kids get the cookie from their forehead to their mouth with no hands!! SO FUNNY! we were laughing so hard. You all have to try this. this is the best thing ever.

They were wiggling their faces, and mouths, and krinkling their noses. LAUGHING like crazy. Joey and Abby trying it, joey almost had it, but..... no go.

Jason fresh from the tub no less, sorry about the towel shot, love the crazy faces!!!

And little allicat, she was the closest, she almost had it a couple of times! This was so much fun, the kids have been wanting to do it every night since!

Cheer camp and Zach makes it home

Alli wanted to sign up for sign up for cheer camp this weekend. She has wanted to me a cheerleader since she could walk! We started her in dance to get her ready because we knew thats what she would be when she grew up. So when the opportunity to do a cheer camp, with a chance to cheer at the high school football game half time that same night she was all over that one. And loved every second of it. Here she is practicing, and because he is such a lightweight, she was what they call a flyer. The one on the top of the pyrimid.
What a cutie!! She had so much fun, she is already talking about doing the cheer camp for basketball!!

And here is my little Zachman on the day we got to bring him home from the hospital. It was such a LONG week in the hospital I thought it would never end. The driving back and forth, the nasty hospital food, the kids at home needing me, the me needing them, zach melting away into nothing, (we really need to fatten him up now) The whole thing was aweful. But we are on the mend, Zach is getting lots of rest, I finally got the laundry caught up, my mom got my meals planned for the next week, Things are so looking up. I am starting to feel a little more in control of my life. I am so grateful for my neighbors, for stepping in to help me with my kids, and meals, my parents, my PIL (parentinlaws) SIL (sister in law) who is totally awesome anyway, who drove up and dragging her cute son and hubby, the kids teachers who are keeping them from falling behind. Everybody has been wonderful THANK YOU!!!! I am sure I left someone out and I am sorry I am sure I will think of you after I post this but thank you anyway!

day # 267

.... or so it feels like it. We are actually more like day 5. But for those of you who have been in the hospital with loved ones it feels like forever. I have figured out that since Thursday when Brian and I have been taking turns going back and forth to be with Zach we have driven just over 1000 miles! Crazy huh! But I do believe there is an end in sight. Zach did really well today. (don't ask him, he will tell you he was miserable) but from a medical stand point he did great. He got up and walked twice, He was able to get the NG tube out (the one down his nose and throat) That made him happy. and he drank two cups of juice!!! So we are on the road to recovery!! yea for us. They switched him off the morphine so he won't sleep so much now he is on lortab. so he is able to talk to us a little more. Makes me feel a whole lot better being able to communicate with him instead of just watch moniters and tubes and things beeping and pumping. Now I am just looking forward to getting him home and working on a little bit of normalcy, what ever that may be. I need all my chicks under the same roof!! But I do want to thank everybody for helping out, and the many offers to help out, I have no idea what I need right now, I am still just going day by day, sometimes hour by hour! but thanks for everything! I believe my calgon is going to take me away now so I will keep you all updated as I can......

so not getting mother of the year!!!

Well as most of you already know, our little trip to the E.R. for Abbys stitches just kicked off our week of misery! Well technically the it started two weeks before with me having kidney stones which to this very day, I have still been unable to pass, but that is another story for another day, Zach had been sick for about a week and a half throwing up. me being the great mom that I am, thought it was his acid reflux. I gave him about a week before I started getting too concerned. Then I called the Dr. which leads to a whole new set of problems. We just changed family dr.s and it was kind of hard to get him in. It took a couple of days to get him in. so, after 9 days of puking his guts out, we finally got him to a dr. and the dr. sent us straight to the E.R. so we rushed over there, and after a couple of tests they determined that his appendix had already ruptured! They rushed him up for immediate surgery. Which was so stressful. We were told 1 1/2 hours about and it ended up being 2 1/2 hours because there was so much infection, and lesions that they had to clean out! It was so horrible! That was thursday,and now that surgery is over he is just sleeping a lot, and healing. He has a drain tube in the insision site, and an NG tube down his throat to drain his stomach so he is so not happy right now! but the morphine is helping, I just wish the could slip mom a little once in a while, but oh well I guess I can tough it out. . It looks like he will end up staying in the hospital till about wednesday. It is so hard to juggle trying to stay with him, and keeping the 4 kids happy at home. It seems that my break down time is on the drive home every night. I have been taking the day shift, and brian has been taking the night shift with zach. so far so good. We are just looking forward to him coming home. There is not much time to sleep when I get home at 11:00 at night and have to do the laundry and dishes and cleaning, then get up and get to the hospital first thing in the morning. I can't wait to get my little buddy home. The dr.s are saying that the road to recovery is a long one, he will probably be home from school for the next 2-4 weeks depending on how quick his energy gets back. then he can start back doing half days. so we will see. I will try to keep you updated, don't mind the emotional crazy posts till I get a little sleep!!!!

Ouch!!!

Well this has been a very crazy week, and this was just one day in the crazy week. We were at dance, and miss Abby tripped and did a head plant into the metal door frame. So off to the E.R. we drove and 3 and a half hours later we were heading home with 7 stitches. I thought that with 3 boys they would keep me busy in and out of the e.r. but this little one has me rethinking. Here she is enjoying her shake for dinner that her dance teacher brought her.
And the final look! She will have a little scar, but its a good thing that she has bangs! and she was quite a trooper. She even was up and ready to go to school the next morning! Nothing slows her down!

fort in the front yard!!

Jason wanted me to build him a fort in the front yard yesterday, well, Alli and her friends built them all one yesterday, but it was almost bed time so they only got to play in it for a little while. But they had so much fun!! Peek-a- boo.
The three muskateers.

Then today after school he was begging me to rebuild the fort, so voila.... we re did the fort!

And look at that smile!

They absolutley loved it!! And have been playing in it all afternoon!

fun family game!

Well, my kids think its a form of child abuse, but I just thought it was TOTALLY FUNNY!

If you are looking for a great family game, this is a good one. I know you can find it online, but I also saw it in that new candy store by costco in pocatello for my fellow downey friends. We played it for family night the other night. Well not the 2 little kids, cause that would just be mean, but the 3 older kids played and Brian did, and I laughed till my belly hurt! You spin the little spinner thing, and whatever color you land on, you pick out of those jelly beans, but some of those are good,and some are nasty, like the juicy pear or a booger, peach or barf, which one will you pick???

These are the faces of the nasty ones! And of course the ones that made me laugh the hardest!

eww is that dog food???

Hmnmm skunk spray or black licorice? I'm thinking you got the skunk spray!

Do I have to eat it???

Yea it was pretty funny!

I know, I am so backwards again!!! Will I ever get it right!!! Oh well We actually rode the train first, then went to park city to go on the alpine slide!! It was soooo much fun. The kids LOVED IT, well most of them, Abby was very aprehensive about it, riding the ski lift, and going down the great big huge slide! But she did it! Here she is with dad and Jason on the ski lift heading up to the top! Everytime the ski lift got stopped she would scream! I am thinking she has a big fear of heights!
And right behind us were the 3 stooges, they were so funny to watch, they had a lot of fun, but I think they were pretty nervous too.

And we are off!! Zach, daddy and Abby getting ready to go down, down, down!! I so wish I was in front of them, because Abbys face was priceless,and I wanted a picture of it so bad. when I say she was scared, it is an understatement! She was terrified, she had a deathgrip on brians arm! But once the ride started she changed her mind, she did have a great time! But I am bummed I couldn't get a pic of her face! It was pretty good!

And if front of me, were grandpa,( I mean Joey,) and alli. Alli caught up with joey pretty quick, and me and Jason caught up with alli real quick, it was so funny, I was cheering them on trying to get them to hurry up!

And here are me and JJ. ready to go!

Daddy, Abby, and Zach walking from the ski lift to the top of the slide!

The kids had so much fun the first time that they actually talked daddy into a second ride (like that was hard to do) so dad took JJ the second time, and I got to take Abby, so here are dad and JJ ready to go!

The boys went down the slower side so I didn't get a pic of them on the second run (big chickens)

But at least they had a good time and that is what matters right!!

But my allicat was ready to go down the fastest side! she loved it! she is my rollercoaster, fast ride baby! show no fear!! thats my alli!

So that was our labor day weekend!

whew, no wonder I am so tired!

So we decided to take the kids to Heber to ride the Heber Creeper. We had a blast, the kids, I am not so sure, they were a little bored, but I think the thought it was ok.
This is Jason at the very end of the 3 hour ride!

This is the train we were riding on. And some of the scenery. It was beautiful that day!

labor day weekend

Here are my joey and alli, miss Alli is still eating her lunch! We had to ride in the closed car on the way up the mountain, but on the way down, we were able to go in the open car. And here are daddy and Alli! Lovin the ride.

Zach and Abby checking things out, this was the open car on the way down. It was a lot more fun, because you could hang out more and it felt so good!

and last but not least me and JJ.

Here are the kids if front of the train when they first found out exactly what we were doing. They were pretty excited.

I however was a little bummed. When we first bought the tickets, we were told that on this particular ride that the "fun" part of it was that it was an authentic "train robbery" ride, that cowboys would acutally rob the train while we were on it. However come to find out they stopped the train robberies 2 days earlier, so we just got the scenic tour, thats why the kids were a little bored! Oh well, you know the saying... the best layed plans..... thats the story of my life!

But we had fun anyway!

Well, I knew it would happen one day, and it will continue to happen, but I don't have to like it. My baby boy had a birthday! It seems like just yesterday we were coming to terms with the fact that our life plans were changing, and that our little family of 5 was going to be a family of 6, we were so stunned, and so excited! And now we couldn't imagine life without our JJ.

But now, he is 5, and in school, growing up so big, becoming so independant! I am not ready to let go, but enough of me boobing! On to the birthday celebrations! Not the best picture, but he really was excited to open the presents from aunt Kami and grandpa roy and grandma sally.
Trying to show that he likes to open cards!

Here is my little man, hanging out, trying to chill before opening all his presents!

This kid has the most infectious smile. It makes my day, every day!

and oh yea, its was almost all transformer stuff ( I so don't understand transformer stuff!) But he loves it.