Happy Birthday Makenna!

Today is Makenna's 7th birthday. Last night we had her party. It was fun. They all wore their pajamas, had pedicures, watched a movie, and played. I took them home around 9pm. They asked to have the same party next year. Today I am going to take Makenna to town and we will have a birthday date. She is excited. Tonight at the Olsen Custom Farm Harvest party they will sing happy birthday to her in front of everyone. She is excited for that too.

Yesterday I had to take Zeke to the doctor. He had been having diarrhea and it looked like there was blood in it. He had to have x-rays and blood taken. They said everything looked normal so just to keep liquids in him. He got worse as the day went on it seemed. Michael ended up having to take him in to the hospital last night and have more blood taken. He was still hydrated and his blood levels were fine so he got to come home. We have been having to feed him pedialyte from a spoon and constantly change his diapers. I slept with him last night and I changed him 5 times. He threw up once in the night and three times yesterday. I have to take him back to the doctor this morning. The poor little thing is miserable. I hope he gets better soon.

Thursday night Olivia found a pair of Dillons underwear and put it on like she saw him do after his shower (except she already had her pajamas on). She wore them all night. The next morning she was getting ready for the bus as usual. She brushed her teeth with the big kids and then got on her boots and hat and waited with the big kids until the bus came. She is such a little goof ball. She certainly has a mind of her own and knows exactly what she wants!

It keeps going around and around

We have been sick for a month here. It started out as colds with me and Olivia, then it turned in to pink eye for 4 of the kids. Then Zane got diarrhea. Then I got sick again. Then Zane threw up at church last Wednesday. Monday night Makenna and Dillon threw up.Wednesday Michael didn't feel well. Wednesday afternoon Olivia threw up. Wednesday night Dillon got diarrhea and threw up. Then all night he had diarrhea. Yesterday Zeke started getting diarrhea. Last night Dillon threw up in the night again. This morning Zeke still doesn't feel well. I can't get this cough gone and I have to get ready for Makenna's birthday party today. Yesterday I opened all the windows and wiped everything down with clorox hoping that would help. I haven't slept through the night in several weeks, which is why I can't get better I assume. Every night I've been up at least once for 30 mintues to an hour at a time. Sometimes it has been for several hours. I've had kids in the bed with us on several different occassions and even ended up on the couch one night because I had been up threee times with children and was sick myself and had to speak in church the next morning. I think we are going to start bathing, doing dishes and washing clothes in clorox.

Piano Recital

The girls had a duet recital tonight at the nursing home. It was their first time to do one together. They did a really good job.

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. Wednesday night we went to church and had a trunk-or-treat. Friday the kids got to waer thier costumes to school and go have a costume parade at the nursing home and go trick-or-treating there. Then they got to go back to school and have a party. Friday night we had our traditional spaghetti supper and went out trick-or-treating. We went to Orville's house and then headed in to Hendricks. We went to Ben's house (Becky was there and Dillon has a crush on her) and to some of the teachers' houses. They got quite a bit of candy. It was a beautiful night, around 50 degrees. Maddi dressed up as a baseball player, Makenna wore her Tae Kwon Do outfit. Zane was a ninja, Susie was a cowboy, Zeke was a dinosaur and Olivia was a pumpkin Wednesday and a ladybug on Friday. I dressed up as a lady with a big swollen chin and Michael dressed up as a cowboy. My chin is doing much better for everyone's info. Saturday we went to the doctor and Maddi, Dillon and Olivia have pink eye. Zeke woke up with it this morning. Zane is hoping to get it so he can stay home from school!

The strangest things, continued

Well, I went to the doctor today and it is definitely infected. Since hte area was so big he thought I needed a shot. I was all right with that until I found out where the shot would be. That's right, as the nurse stated "Please expose your rump". That is my first experience with rump shots. Can't say that I particularly like them, but as long as it gets rid of my second chin I guess it'll be okay. Now I want thank yous from everyone for the scarey Halloween picture in my previous blog and for the laughs provided in this one! I'll keep you all posted on my recovery - on both ends!

The strangest things

Sometimes I have the weirdest things happen to me. One time I shut my own thumb in the car door and ended up losing my whole nail. Another time I had to be put on an IV becuase I somehow ended up with some infection in my eye that wouldn't go away. Now I have this infection on my chin and it's all swollen and sore. It started out as a little pimple then Monday night it started getting swollen and by Tuesday morning it was huge. Now it's all red and the swelling is starting to move onto my face. It goes all the way back to my neck and across the underneath side of my chin . It hurts to touch it or move it and trying to lay down on it and sleep doesn't work too well either. I have to go to the doctor today and see if they can fix it. In the meantime I've been trying to put peroxide on it and neosporin. Of course the only band aids we have are batman, spiderman and camo so I've been walking around with really cool bandaids too. Along with all that I've got some sort of cold or flu. Monday night I got the chills and couldn't stop shaking. Then I was freezing all night. Tuesday my while body ached and I had to spend most of the day in bed. Luckily Michael was home and helped watch the kids. Today the aching is gone and I feel all better except for my chin. Hopefully that will be taken care of soon!

Waiting for the bus

Every morning, Olivia waits with the older kids while they watch for the bus. Now that it's cold enough to wear hats and mittens, she puts hers on too. This morning she sat next to Zane on the steps with her hat on. She had tried to get her mittens on too but couldn't. She gets very upset when they actually get to go outside and she has to stay in. It's cute how she tries so hard to do what the older ones are doing.

Michael is only 3 hours from home. It will be about 1am when he gets here. I am quite excited about it. He is too. Tonight as I was getting the kids ready for scriptures and prayers we had a knock at the door. Some one had "BOOed" us. The kids were so excited. As we were opening the package there was another knock at the door and Ben and Becky were there. Ben works with Michael and Becky is his fiance. They are both very nice. They came in a visited until about 9:30. The kids opened the package and it was filled with popcorn balls, cookies and candy. They each picked one thing to eat and then spent the next hour wrestling Ben and (the boys) sneaking kisses to Becky. Now they want to BOO them tomorrow night. It was fun and the kids got all tired out from wrestling and went right to sleep.

Halloween Cookies

Yesterday we made our halloween sugar cookies. Makenna and Zane got invited to see High School Musical 3 at the movies (which if you don't know is a HUGE deal), so the rest of us decided to make cookies (partly because Maddi was in tears because she wasn't invited and we needed to do something to pass the time). It was a lot of fun. The decorating was the most fun, of course. Michael is still travelling and won'tbe back until early Tuesday morning. I was supposed to speak in church today but last night as I was trying to finish up my talk, Maddi came downstairs and informed me that Zane had pooped on the dirty clothes pile in the bathroom. I went up stairs and sure enough, he had. He had laid a towel over the top of it all and went back to bed. As I was cleaning that up Maddi informed me that Zane had also thrown up in the garbage. I looked and once again she was right. I cleaned that up too, started a load of laundry and made a few phone calls to let people know I may not be at church. 45 miles is a long way to go when we can't even make it a few feet down the hallway without an accident. While I was on the phone Zane came running down the stairs holding his backside (Makenna was in the bathroom upstairs) yelling he had to go potty. He made it to the entryway and had another little mishap. I told him to go stand in the shower and I would come. Obviously it felt a little uncomfortable because he started running with his legs apart so everyting started running down his legs and onto the floor. So I cleaned up that mess, bathed him, made another phone call saying I for sure was not coming and then went to bed. The missionaries have to speak in my place. We seem to be doing better this morning, but the girls are complaining of upset stomachs so who knows what the rest of the day will bring. At least we have yummy cookies to eat and I have some leftover M&Ms if it gets too stressful! Michael did make it to Ohio last night and this morning he is on his way to Lexington. He will spend the night there tonight. And I got the fire in the stove started all by myself which is good because it is cold today.

Here are the pictures of the kids playing in the snow.

First snowfall

Yesterday we got our first snow of the season. The kids were so excited. As soon as they got home from school they got on their snow clothes and went outside. Makenna even went down to the basement by herself (usually she it too scared to go by herself beacuse of the spiders and everything) and brought the snowpants and boots up. They played until supper time. It was a really wet snow so they came in soaked through but very happy. It all melted today. The kids were upset, but I was glad. Michael has to go on another trip this weekend, so I am hoping for everything to stay melted. He has to go to Minneapolis, then to Chicago, Ohio, and Kentucky (driving, of course). He'll leave Saturday and get back early Tuesday morning. Not too much fun for him. I am not too excited about it either. I have to speak in church on Sunday and I will have the kids by myself. I'll have to find some one to sit with the kids while I speak, but Olivia is not too keen on any one but mom and dad right now. I'll also have to have her while I do music and sharing time. Can we say slight distraction? Oh well, it will be fine I'm sure and if not - not much I can do about it! I can't get my pictures to download so I will have to add them later.