Awww!

I hope that everyone had a safe and fun Halloween. They boys had a blast and the night was positively balmy. I was walking around the neighborhood in a short sleeved shirt and did not feel the least bit chilly.

We did three streets in our neighborhood which took two hours thanks to short little legs. At one house we got there just as the kids and mom were getting back from their trick or treating. Evan saw them going into the house and thought that from then on that he could go into the different houses too.

The boys got a lot of extra candy due to the cuteness factor of little kids. There were not a lot of kids that went around our neighborhood so we have a ton of candy left over thanks to me over buying. Anyone want some Smarties? I will mail them to you!

The boys all decked out in their finery. See those pumpkins down there? They were a nightmare to carve. The warty ones were so tough that we had to get out my husband's power drill to carve them. We are so not getting those kinds of pumpkins again.

Evan and Harry trying to put on their own costumes. They were very eager to get out and get some candy.


Here are the boys at the ward Trunk Or Treat that we attended Wednesday. Evan was ready to go home once we hit all the cars and was miffed when I told him we had to stay until every one had a chance to get some candy.

Neuro

Evan had his first visit with a Neurologist in years. His primary car doctor wanted one so I went along with it even though I did not really thing that it would be helpful.

The doctor made us wait a long time but he did spend a lot of time with us when it was our turn. In the end he did not really have anything to add that I was not already aware of. He was a lot more realistic about Evan's long term prognosis than the Neurologist was that initially saw Evan after the stroke. The first neurologist said that with in a year all signs of stroke would be gone. The new one was clear that there would be likely some effect for the rest of his life. We have to watch out for learning issues which is something that is pretty common for any kid that has gone through as much as Evan has. There is a mild vision deficit on his left side so when he goes to school he should sit in the center of the class room or to the right of the teacher so that he does not loose interest in what is going on because he is not seeing everything that is going on. Sometimes kids with left hemiparesis have troubles with interpersonal relationships but Evan seems to be very adept at flirting his way into getting what he wants, so I am not too worried about that.

I think the best part was that the neurologist did not really see a reason to keep following up with Evan unless something new popped up. There is not much that he could really do since Evan has been neurotically stable for some time now. That is one less specialist on our rather long list.

As far as doctor's appointments for me go, I have officially come down with a bad case of pregnancy brain. My sister is in town for a visit and that threw me so off kilter that I spaced my womanly parts exam (not that I was really all that eager in the first place). I was so mad and frustrated but managed to reschedule it. I am a bit annoyed with the lack of ease in scheduling appointments with this practice. My previous OB seemed a lot more flexible in that regards.

Sunday Cuteness: Church

Today was the Primary program. For those not in the know once a year the children aged 3-11 take over the sermon portion of church and do a special program. It was always a Sunday of torture for me since generally the program runs way longer than the allotted time and the program was never all that exciting in the first place. Every child has a part even the youngest and this year was Evan's first time up there.

It was not quite the disaster that I had feared. Evan did not stay in his seat very well but he also did not make a break for it and try and leave the stage. He was heard to loudly ask when his turn would be and tried to go up a couple of time with another class. He was not the only Sunbeam goofing off though. One little girl kept standing up and waving to her mother and the others were quite restless. When it finally came time for Evan to say his line he spoke loudly (but not too loudly) but mumbled his line. He was supposed to say that one thing he was thankful for was his toys (they let the kids write the lines).

Harry was a bit bereft with out his brother. He kept wanting to stand on the pew so that he could see where Evan was sitting. He would then loudly exclaim "Dere is Eban, I see him!" I can hardly believe that next year Harry will be in Evan's spot.

All in all they made the time rather amusing and the program did not seem quite so long.

Boo At The Zoo

Our local zoo held a Halloween event today and we thought it would be fun to take the boys. They had a lot of fun and got quite a bit of candy. It was strange seeing our normally quiet zoo packed with visitors. I think that someone coughHarrycough touched my lens so the pictures are a bit smeary.

Here are the boys all gussied up standing with our beautiful and warty pumpkins.

The boys in front of the elephant exhibit. I am not sure what the elephant was doing in the background, it looks like she is making out with the rocks.

I tried to get a picture of both the boys with Darth Vader but Harry heard his creepy breathing and was having none of that. He would not even let my husband hold him even remotely close to Darth Vader. Evan was very obviously fascinated.

Evan was in heaven when he saw this display. His loves PT Cruisers and these cars were from a car club that likes to trick out their PT cruisers. There was one there that had a cat face painted on it and it meowed. There was a Hummer further down and Evan did not even look at it twice, but it was hard to pull him away from the PT Cruisers.

"Look there is a spider on this PT Cruiser."

Adding one more picture in: This one was taken by a photographer from the local newspaper. There is a whole gallery of pictures from the event. Evan was very obviously fascinated by the camera. Harry was kind of like "yeah whatever".

Why?

Why do spammers think that I need a new job? Why do they think I need male enhancement or ED drugs? Do they know something that I don't?

Pregnancy update

Today I had my first appointment at my OB's office. I saw a nurse and it was a basic risk assessment history gathering session. I did get to pee in a cup and have my blood drawn. I think the person that drew my blood hit a nerve or something because my arm is sore when I move it.

I love the massive pile of literature that you get every time you have a kid. It seriously doubled the weight of the diaper bad I was carrying. Another amusing thing is that I got my very own urine sample cup to bring with me every time I have an appointment. I am supposed to bring it with me filled, fun huh? You really learn to not be embarrassed by things when you get pregnant. Hopefully I will be able to learn to be casual about carrying around a cup with my own pee in it.

Next week I get my really fun and very personal examination with a NP who will be scrutinizing my womanly parts. Luckily my sister will be in town so I have babysitting already lined up and won't have to drop them off anywhere.

A Very Sincere Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual pumpkin patch trip today. I love going to these kinds of places with the kids because everything is so darn exciting to them. The weather has been rather wet all week so it was a rather muddy trip but we managed to make it through with out loosing any shoes. The weather started out foggy and chilly but once the sun came out it got very nice.

Checking out some carved pumpkins.

"Wook kikens!" said Harry

We were not supposed to take the wheel barrows into the patch. *blushes* We did not notice the signs about that until we were leaving. Harry had a lot of fun pushing it though.

The boys with their spoils. We actually got three pumpkins (my husband wanted one too) but the third one is too short to see.

Evan is this tall.

Harry is this tall.

What happens when you give a kid a camera

I was feeling silly this afternoon and I let Evan play a bit with my camera. Don't worry I made sure he stayed in sight and made sure that he understood to be careful with it. He took some very amusing and random pictures.

A flower pen and a jug of vinegar.

Our salt shaker and Harry's hand.

The not very clean carpet with some little toes peeking into the frame.

A close up of Harry's hand with the refrigerator in the background.

Evan's bum.

A blurry shot of some of our chairs and the dining room table.

A shot of two silly boys.

An Awesome night out

The famed (among knitters any way) author Stephanie Pearl-McPhee came to Kansas City on Monday night and I was able to go see her speak. It was a very fun evening out! I went with some gals from my knitting group, it was nice to be able to chat with them after being MIA from meetings for so long (they meet on the same night that my husband has Scouts so I get to stay home with the kiddos). My queasy body even behaved for the day and I was able to get some knitting in. It was kind of cool being at an event where knitting in pubic was accepted and encouraged.

She mentioned that she was nervous that we might see a water stain on her pants since there were so many knitting bloggers out there. For the record I really truly could not see any water on her pants at all. She did a great job with her speech and was a very amusing speaker. She is also very nice in person and was very good about making sure that everyone got some time with her while they were getting the books signed. All in all it was great to get out with out kids and get some adult conversation in.

Sunday Cuteness- Evan edition

This is Zipper butt Evan. He insists on putting on his pants backwards even though he knows how to put them on correctly.

All the cool kids wear their pants this way.

I have a new name. Evan started out by calling me mommy which recently changed to mom. He delighted in yelling "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!" when ever he needed (or thought he needed) my help. Now I have a new name. Evan has started calling me Mom Ourlastname. It is rather amusing even though I am not sure what caused the change.

Nemesis

Being a relatively newly pregnant woman food has become my nemesis. I am lucky that I am not a puking pregnant woman but being constantly queasy also wears on you. There are times when I just want to stick my finger down my throat and get it over with already. The thing that stops me is that I know the feeling would not be any better after throwing up and I also really hate throwing up.

Eating food regularly is really great for controlling my queasy symptoms. the thing that makes this solution hard to keep up with is that I am also a busy mom. Before I know it I realize that I should have eaten something hours ago because I am feeling really yucky. At that point I have to force myself to eat something. Snacking in front of kids is problematic any way. They can hear the rustle of a food package opening from miles around and when they hear it they are suddenly starving and must have some of what you are having. A lot of times mom is the one that hardly eats any of the snack because any time I try and take a bit my kids act like I am robbing them of precious food.

Dinner and the evening are the hardest for me. My queasiness always goes up a notch or two and I have to prepare a dinner while feeling that way. A lot of times I feel so gross by the time I am done that I sneak other food while the kids are not looking and I end up having a separate dinner. The biggest tragedy of the evening being the worst for me (so much for morning sickness) is that I have not been able to do much knitting. I will pick up a project and knit a few rows only to start feeling queasy so I stop. I am trying hard to not associate knitting with the sick feeling. I learned that lesson after I was playing Bejewled online when I was pregnant with Harry. I got so sick that I ended up throwing up and now I can't even look that game with out getting queasy. I am so looking forward to the end of the queasies even if it means that I am merely transitioning to really bad heart burn.

Knocked up

This time it is for real! No April Fool's Joke.

I am feeling queasy but no puking (knock on wood). I run to the bathroom every five seconds and my girls are very tender (which when you have two boys that love to crawl on you means that you get to feel a lot of pain). I am due at the end of April, only a few weeks after my 30th birthday.

By the way I stole this picture from Karen's blog. It really captured me and I am excited that I found an excuse to use it.

Ahh that's better

This weekend is Conference weekend. Every six months we get a chance to hear from the General Authorities, The 12 Apostles and from the First Presidency. There are tons of timely messages and I always end up feeling refreshed.

One of the most exciting things about this weekend was that a temple was announced in my area. I am so excited!!! I hope that we get to stick around long enough to see it being built. I would love to take the boys to the open house and for my husband and I to attend the dedication. Some of my favorite memories from when I was a kid was watching the Portland Temple being built. One of my uncles lived only a few blocks from the building site. Even though we were not super fond of my uncle we would frequently visit him so we could take a look at how things were progressing. I was thrilled that I was just barely old enough to attend the dedication. There are many good memories and feelings that I would love to share with my kids.

Such is life

Sorry I have been so silent. Life has just been crazy of late. We still have no idea if we will be moving yet again this summer or not. We keep hearing conflicting reports on whether we will or not and of course since he has not officially been promoted just yet we are "safe" for now, but it is just a matter of time.

National politics is also frustrating me greatly. I am having a hard time making myself register to vote. I am not fond of either candidate and hate that it will probably be yet another case of the slightly lesser of two evils.

I am also frustrated over the whole credit crisis. People got greedy plain and simple and now that they are in trouble they run to the government with hands out expecting to be saved. People like me who are careful with their money and don't get into excessive debt are the ones that will end up paying for everyone's excess.

My final blah moment for the morning is that my mom left yesterday. Poor Harry did not realize that she was gone until we got back home from the air port. I guess he was too into the Cars movie he was watching in the car to notice that she was gone. He was quite upset when he saw that she was not getting out of the car too. We all miss grandma!