Halloween 2012

You Know You Have a Big Sister When...

October

Oh my...what. a. month. this has been.  

So, I went and got myself a job.  Actually, the perfect job came up and we decided we just couldn't let it pass by.  I'm working in the recovery room of our local hospital.  I was a recovery nurse for the four years we were in Dallas, and I loved it.  I will just be taking prn (as needed) call, which means I stay at home with my phone on, and just go into work for a couple of hours at night if they call with an emergency surgery.  The kids won't even know I'm gone.  But, this month has been orientation.  Mostly full time orientation.  I haven't taken care of an adult patient since nursing school, so there are a good handful of surgeries that I'm not familiar with.  I've also had to take several classes and do some testing and certifications for advanced life support.  And...we've been to Logan 3 times in the last 4 weeks for a follow-up appointment for Benson and some additional classwork for me.

We're nearing the end of it all, and we're all looking forward to the end of October.  Certainly the food being served around here will improve.  I actually fed my children boxed macaroni and cheese with a can of chef boyardee mixed in it for dinner last week.  It tasted as awesome as it sounds.  I've been reminded of what a fabulous husband I have - he stays home with the kids while I'm gone and I come home to a clean house and happy kids every day.  Amazing.  

But, lets not forget the most important part of October.  The whole reason October even exists, according to Madeline.  It's really her very favorite holiday.  I've been reminded over and over that we must not forget about making decorations, jack-o-lanterns, and costumes.  So, decorations (minimal decorations) have been made and put up, and a pumpkin has been carved.  And costumes?  Don't even ask.  My mind isn't ready to go there yet.

Madeline chose out and designed her jack-o-lantern herself this year.  But, what she is most proud of is the fact that she got to clean the seeds and pulp out herself. 

His Unfortunate Little Mouth

 In jail on post-op day 2 while cousin Hailey looks on

My sister and her cute children are staying with my parents for a month.  Madeline, Benson, and I went down to visit for a week.  We had the best time.  It was a week full of family, shopping, talking, sewing, and not having to deal with our 2 oldest because they playing together ALL DAY LONG, everyday.  It was seriously the best week.  Until the 6th day.

Benson was was having a good ole' time looking a the library books stacked on the ceramic tile hearth after breakfast on Tuesday morning.  He slipped on a book on the floor with his pajamaed foot, and his mouth hit the edge of the hearth.  Hard.  Hard enough that we could hear it.  I ran to him and saw that he had bitten his lower lip.  Then I saw blood on a book on the floor.  He was hysterical.  I looked in his mouth and saw that his top teeth were pushed back in his mouth, and his top gum was, I don't know, all messed up.  And lots of blood.  You might think a nurse would be all calm and collected in this type of situation.  You would be wrong.  I panicked.  I couldn't think straight, and didn't have a clue what to do or where to go.  Everything is different when it's your own child.  My sister called my dad and got the location of the nearest urgent care facility.  I gave Benson some tylenol, put on some necessary underwear, found some shoes, and ran out the door.  My heart nearly broke putting him in his car seat.  Those things are the worst sometimes.

We were triaged well at the urgent care, and didn't have to wait but a few minutes.  The doctor took one look in his mouth, and immediately left to call a surgeon.  There was an oral maxillo-facial surgeon just down the road, and we were told to head over there right away.  The surgeon came out into the waiting room to look at Benson.  He told me that his maxilla was broken and he would need to set the bone, suture his gums, reset his teeth, and put a brace over his teeth.  He could start the procedure in five minutes.  I guess teeth injuries are time sensitive in order to preserve them, and it's still possible he won't keep them.  He gave him a shot of ketamine and versed in the waiting room to sedate him.  Benson was asleep within a couple of minutes.

We took him right back and started the procedure.  The doctor allowed me to stay in the room and watch because of my professional background.  And he felt it necessary to announce to the staff in the room that I'm a recovery room nurse.  Like, be one your best behavior - she's watching.  I chose to sit.  Everything is different with your own child.  He was able to just use local to numb the area instead of giving him IV sedation.  They finished in about 15-20 minutes and put him right in my arms.  He woke up and we headed back to my parents' house.  I was so impressed by how we were treated by the staff and both facilities, and how quickly everything went that morning.

A couple of hours later after he got a nice nap and a little bit to eat, Benson decided to get up and walk.  He fell right on his face and his mouth filled up with blood.  Again.  The bleeding stopped, but one of his front teeth was pushed down a bit.  I'm still just sick about it.

So, he can't walk unless we're holding his hand, he can't have his beloved bottle, he has to eat a soft diet (so basically he's back to baby food), and he is MA-AD about it.  All of his best tricks are off limits for now, like climbing up the slide in the backyard, and diving off the couch head first.  We just carry him around most of the day, or put him in the playpen with toys.  He's always been able to drink well from a cup, but he's been boycotting them for the most part this week.  And he's decided baby food is completely lame.  Two more weeks of this, and then we have his follow-up appointment where he'll get his little braces off and hopefully get the ok to get our lives back to normal.

Here's the question of the day:  Why do kids do all kinds of crazy things and not get hurt, and then one day get really hurt not doing anything crazy at all?

Post-op day three.  No pics of the first day - we weren't at all in the mood.  The swelling had already gone down a ton.

He Walks!

He's a walker!

We've let him take his time with all of this walking business.  He's been taking steps for a month and a half, but just this weekend he broke through his barrier of 5 or 6 steps.  In a period of just a couple of days he's now pretty much only walking.  He's loving it.  He also has a face full of bruises to show for the stumbling that comes with his new bravery.

Let's contrast this all to his older sister, just for fun.  For my fun.  Her little well-balanced, mobile self REFUSED to walk.  She would buckle her knees when we would hold her hand.  She push her walker on her knees.  Until the day I baby sat one of her little baby friends.  This little girl was already walking, and that very day Madeline stood up and walked - like a pro, no wobbling or anything  Nothing like a little peer pressure at 12 months.

All of a sudden I feel like Benson isn't a baby anymore.  I'll miss his baby-ness.

The First Day

Boy, was this girl ready to go to her first day of preschool!  She was so exited, and I was so exited for her.  She loved everything about her first day.  We heard snippets about it for the rest of the afternoon.  Her teacher has a bunny.  Her teacher has rules.  Her teacher is a mommy of three big boys.  Her teacher has brown or black hair, etc, etc, etc.  We're now on the countdown to the next preschool day.

Benson and I, however, didn't know what to do that first day.  I hadn't made any plans.  We came home and  sat on the couch together and said, "Now what?".  He went to the closet and started dragging each of her jackets over to me, whining.  He's not been without her very often, and he was out of sorts.  He sure loves his sister.

Tomorrow we've got big plans for the second day of preschool.  Grocery shopping with only one child kind of big plans.  I can't wait.

Back to School Dinner

We've decided to start (actually, copy without qualms) a tradition a la Nie style and celebrate the beginning of the school year for our children.  I've loved this idea for years, and think it's important to celebrate education.  As the daughter of a teacher, I'm passionate about having a love for learning.

We kept it low-key and just had a special Madeline-friendly dinner of pretzel-wrapped hot dogs (hot dogs are near the top of her list of favorite foods - she loves to go to Grandma Roper's house where she is actually served these), her favorite kind of salad (broccoli), and a little Sangria Senorial.  Funny story about that - Scott took Madeline to a taco stand last year.  He came home and told me they'd gotten sangria to drink.  I was horrified, "You fed our three year old fruity wine?!!!"  After a little research it was determined that Sangria Senorial is in fact non-alcoholic.  Husband saved.

We followed Nie's suit and came up with a family theme for the school year.  "If you want to be happy, be good".  Miss Madeline questions our rules ALL the time, which isn't necessarily bad, but I want her to learn that our rules and the things we teach her are to keep her safe and happy.  In fact, for a while she thought our rule about not crossing the street by herself was just plain crazy because she was positive she could out-run a car.  We finally had to have a little race with her running on the sidewalk and Scott driving along side her in the car.  Now she knows.

We ended the night with a father's blessing  to bring her comfort and peace in this new adventure- a tradition from both of our families.

We're all so ready for our very first school year, well, really, pre-school year.

Special Delivery

Why is it that empty boxes make the very best toys?

We went through BOXES of boy clothes passed down to us from my sister-in-law this week.  The kids hid in them, climbed in them, asked me to carry them around the house in them, and wrapped toys up in them as pretend presents.

When I was a kid, we had a refrigerator box in our basement for what seemed like weeks, but was really probably only days.  Skewed childhood memories.  I remember playing in that thing for hours and hours.  We also had an old mattress and box springs for jumping on.  Cheap thrills for us Ropers.

Roper Family Reunion 2012

I could've posted about this earlier if I hadn't been such a picture-taking slacker, as I often am.  The only picture I took at the reunion was the one in the previous post, which could be the most important of all.  But, really, I had to wait for others to share their pics.  Thanks dad and Maren!

Every other summer my dad's side of the family throws a big family reunion bash.  This year we went camping in Heber, Utah.  Aside from the fact that my children don't sleep while camping, we had a great time.

We started the weekend off with a high ropes course and zip line.  You can't see the ground in this picture, but trust me that we were REALLY high off the ground.  I guess life is full of leaps of faith.

All three of my brothers joined in on the fun, but no sisters.  These are three really great guys.  And my kids love them.  Really, really love them.

The matriarch of the family, Grandma Roper.  She's the one who makes these reunions possible, and we're grateful to her.  Did you know she also lived with us for many months when the triplets were born?  It's true. She's such a giving person.

We spent the evening eating J Dawgs, sampling Rice Krispy treats of all varieties, catching up with one another, and putting my children back to bed over and over again.

There was boating at the beach the next morning, which Benson and I opted to nap through most of.

We finished the trip with a nice, long hike, more chatting, more food, and promises of another cook-off in two more years.

I love this family and I appreciate the happiness and stability they have given me throughout my life.  I'm also impressed by the lack of drama.  It seems to me that we all get along and enjoy being together.

In It To Win It

See those pretty Rice Krispy treats on the far right, of the cinnamon roll variety?  They won me...

ETERNAL FAME AND GLORY!!!

And bragging rights.

Well, at least for the next two years.

See the full story here.

We're thinking about a brownie contest next time around.  Or muffins.  Or jello.  Any ideas?

Anniversary

We celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary on Saturday.  We don't usually celebrate in high style.  I actually tried to for our first anniversary and it was a total bust which involved crying through our dinner at the Long John Silver/ A&W combo restaurant (we couldn't find our planned restaurant, among other traumatic happenings).  Oh, I was so silly.  I really do think marriage is one of the most important things to celebrate, and we really wanted to do something special this year.

We left the kids with my parents on Saturday morning and took off for Salt Lake, just the two of us.  We spent the day shopping, wandering, talking, eating, and reminiscing.  Our courtship and the first nine months of our marriage were spent in downtown Salt Lake.  We drove through our old stomping grounds.  We remembered a simpler, easier time that for some reason didn't feel simple or easy.  Why is that?  Will I feel the same way about our life now in another seven years?

We spent a highly romantic evening watching the olympics.  Then we both woke up at 6:30am and couldn't sleep any longer.

The end.

We're officially old.

Hunger Games 3

Recipe number 3 is based off of a recipe sent to me by my friend, Janae.  I combined it with some flavors I had wanted to try out together.  I loved the shape of this little treat.  I call it...

Sweet and Salty and Nutella-y Rice Krispy Treat Rolls, or something like that. 

It's starts out as a basic Rice Krispy recipe, but I browned the butter first because I just can't get enough of browned butter.  Then I substituted crushed pretzel bits for 1/3 of the cereal.  You spread it out on some oiled wax paper in a thin layer.  Then I topped it with 1 1/2 c. melted chocolate chips and 1/2 c. nutella.  After letting it  sit for 20 minutes or so to let the topping harden up a bit, you roll it up and then cut it into slices. 

Let me just tell you that these were good.  Like maybe better than the cinnamon roll treats.  But only maybe...

At one

Here's the low-down on our little one year old:

Wt: 21.5 lbs.  My little fatty patty has turned into a bit of a skinny minnie.  Just following in his sister's footsteps I guess.

• He does the bear crawl now and prefers to be on his feet instead of his knees.  He's gotten really fast. He stands from a sit without holding onto anything.  No steps yet.
• His mop of hair is starting to curl at the crown.  Scott's hair went curly at a year.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a whole head of curls.  
• He sleeps through the night!!!  And it was so easy.  All we did was wean (due to our 3rd round of thrush and an unresolved biting issue), which was also so easy, and he decided there was nothing worth getting up for anymore.  
• He has a bird mouth when I feed him.  He opens it larger than you would think a person could.  And he eats SO much better than he used to.  It all started with a horrible ear infection that wouldn't go away for a month with all kinds of antibiotic and other treatments.  We even had an appointment scheduled with an ENT to discuss tubes, which our physician felt he would need.  Our last ditch effort was a diet change.  Scott read that certain foods can cause or exacerbate ear infections.  So we took the plunge and cut out wheat, dairy, sugar, eggs, and dried fruit.  Pretty much everything he liked.  But, just a few days later his ears were free and clear.  Was it the diet change that actually worked?  I don't know, but we decided to leave him on the diet for a few months in hopes that we could stave off any more infections.  He hasn't had one since.  This whole thing helped me realize that kids (at least this kid) will eat what you give them, over time.  When no option for bread, yogurt, jam, cheese, was given, he slowly started to like other things.  He still has things he really doesn't like, but he eats so much more and so much better than he used to.  What do we feed him?  Beans, rice, meat, oatmeal, fruits, and vegetables.  Now we're slowly starting to reintroduce the foods we had cut out.
• He's a very friendly little guy and will hold his arms out for anyone to hold him.  Even if I'm just talking to a random person in the hall at church, he wants to go to them.  Anyone remember Miss M at this age?  Ha ha.
• He force fake cries when I tell him "no" about something.
• He's decided he loves bottles and binkies now.  He also has a special blanket.  This is for another post, but I'm all about comfort objects this time around.
• He says mama, dada, and once bye bye.  He shakes his head "no" and adds in a forcefully swaying arm if he really means it.  He waves hello and goodbye.  
• He's turning into a little monkey and can climb onto Madeline's bed and a chair in our living room which he uses as leverage to climb on top of our computer desk.  He can also climb up our slide in the backyard to the top.
• He's so easy to take care of, and for the most part just entertains himself.  He has the sweetest spirit.  He snuggles.  He laughs at everything.  We just really can't imagine our family without him.

Light

This little house we are living in was dark.  Really, really dark.  We love pretty much everything about it except for it's darkness.  The builders painted the walls with flat tan paint, the doors and trim are chocolate brown, the cabinetry is cherry, and the kitchen floor is dark brown.  The walls we knew we could change pretty easily, and it's been in the plans since it was purchased.  We decided to paint the ceiling white and the walls a cream color with the same tones as the tan, because it really was a pretty color.

Last weekend the dead was done.  It was a pretty big job.  My parents came to head up the whole project.  

We are so, so happy with the results.  When I woke up the next morning I told Scott it felt like how I feel when winter lets up and the airy lightness and freedom of spring and summer begins.  Everything just feels lighter.  Well, it IS lighter, but you know what I mean?

Now I'm itching to do the rest of the house.

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

Hunger Games 2

Here's my second trial recipe for our rice krispy treat death match coming up in a month.  Recipe here.  It's supposedly a knockoff of the avalanche bars you can get at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  The candy apples always call my name there, so I haven't tried these so-called avalanche bars.  What intrigued me about this recipe is that the base is melted white chocolate and peanut butter.  You can't go wrong there, huh?  Well, actually melted white chocolate can go very, very wrong as I learned with Scott during our first fall as a married couple trying to make the aforementioned candied apples.  I wondered why the white chocolate was so chunky, so I just kept putting it back in the microwave.  And, as you can imagine, it just got worse and worse.  We've learned that lesson, so I was very gentle with my white chocolate melting this time around.

These were really good, but a little too sweet for my tastes.  I couldn't even finish my helping.  I don't mind not being able to finish something because it's so richly chocolaty that I just can't take another bite, but not because it's too sickeningly sweet.  That doesn't mean that I haven't stolen little chunks off of the pan in the fridge.  They really are good, just in small doses I think.

Our Fourth

This is the first 4th of July that our little family has really celebrated.  Last year I was sick with a 9 day old baby, and I really don't remember what we did during our years in Texas.  Madeline was so, so exited, which made it fun for all of us.  

We started the day off with a nice, big breakfast at church.  We went home for am naps and some yard work.  We got a little over-zealous with the yard work and almost missed the beginning of the parade.  This is one great perk about living in this quaint place - the parades are fun and really doable.  Even with our late start we found parking a couple blocks away and seats right on the street.  The kids love, love, loved the parade!  Madeline looted handfuls of candy, and one of the floats handed out pints of ice cream.  

The rest of the day was spent with family for a bbq and bubble blowing at grandma and grandpa's.  

Here are the pics:

The birthday boy

The birthday boy!

The eyelashes (from daddy)

The sweetheart

The teeth

The eyes

The smile

The bribe

The clapper

The crawler

The cute boy

The boogie

The end.

Benson's First

 cake inspiration here

We threw a little shindig this evening...

for this cute boy and his grandma.  You see, her birthday is kind of today and tomorrow, and Benson's is on Monday.  His grandma found out just a couple of years ago that her birth date was wrong.  She'd always celebrated it on the 23rd, but apparently she was actually born on the 24th.  What a crazy thing to find out in your 70th decade.

This is one of the reasons we like to live here.  We love having family near to celebrate special occasions with.  We usually party at Scott's parent's home, but tonight the party was at ours.  I had a lot of fun getting ready for it, and we're so grateful we have a home and a yard so we can do things like this.

Benson wasn't too sure about this whole party thing.  He liked having other people around to hold him (he'll go to pretty much anyone), but he was very quiet and calm.  This was a stark difference to his sister who was infinitely more exited about this party than anyone else.    He especially didn't know what to do with all of the presents. He just sat and watched all of the commotion.

But this...

he was very, very sure about.