Carving pumpkins, Cornbelly's and Main Street

The black eye got worse before it got better. And he hates ravioli.

Look at her looking at him. She thinks he's cool

Be careful Dalton!

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It was SO COLD!!!

I should have shown how high up she was. This was a tall tractor.

Dexter fell asleep, Violet got tired, Mason and Conner are too cute

The loot...

....the brother trying to get the loot

  

This is the only picture I got from the day of Violet's procedure. It's a great one though. I was so glad my Mom was able to come and be there for me and Violet. Carol was able to watch Dexter so it was just the three of us.  The teddy bear she has is from Darla, Andrew, Amber, June and Lisa. They stopped by with gifts for her the night before. It was totally unexpected and I thought that was so nice of them. I am so glad we were able to have Paul give her a blessing the night before too. Things went so smooth. She handled the sedation really well and there was no stress surrounding things. So I took this picture while I was checking in from acreoss the hall. I could hear them talking and Violet was saying some funny stuff. "Look at that lady, she looks like a daddy" "that lady is so pretty, just like Grandma Holdaway" "I don't like that lady" Violet says what she means. What a funny gal.

Bruiser

I don't think this kid can go a day without falling on his head. This one was a doozy though. Right on the corner of a table at Grandma's house. Usually I'm the one who says "oh he's fine" This one worried me though. I though maybe he broke his face so I took him to the doc. They said "oh he's fine" And he is.

Violet and the Museum

We went to the specialist for Violet this week. I was able to get a lot of information and we decided to put her on the low dose of daily antibiotic for a year and see if her reflux problem resolves. They say that grade 2 reflux corrects itself 80% of the time. I was kind of worried about the antibiotics but after talking to the urologist, the risk is worth it. Hopefully she only needs the one more test in a year and she will be all done. If she does end up needing the surgery, it is not too invasive or risky. So, fingers crossed for the next year! During this time she has had so many uti's and has been on an antibiotic every other week. We found out that she's allergic to Bactrim for sure and possibly Keflex. The case of hives she got from that bactrim was so bad. She was covered head to toe in them.

Since we had to go to PCMC for her tests, we decided to go to the museum of natural history after. I was a little nervous going clear up there with only the little kids. Our doctor appointment was at 8:30 am. I had to leave the house at 6:45am.  I was a little early but that's okay. After our appointment it was only 10am. I thought "how could I come all this way and not do something fun?" I found out the museum was the closest. Just around the corner in fact. I was really surprised that Violet enjoyed it as much as she did. They have a great little kids room with a little river that the kids can play in with bugs and nets. She said that was her favorite part. Later she said that the dinosaurs were her favorite part. My favorite part was that Violet listened to everything I said, was super nice, and Dexter didn't make a peep in the stroller the whole time. It was one of those times when pat myself on the back for being a cool Mom. I want to do more cool stuff like that this winter.We're going to need to get out of the house.

Busy!

Man I haven't posted for a month! It has been really busy with everyone on school. I'm doing pretty good scheduling homework after everyone is in bed. I spend from @ 9:30 to midnight every night almost every night. I seem to be doing okay this way. I took my first official test at the testing center last week. I bombed it. Lesson from that experience?? I have to study before the test. Nutrition is harder than I expected. It has a lot of biology stuff. Health is easy. Computer basics is way more involved than I thought it would be. For only a 2 credit class it sure is a lot of work. English I dread. I do fine once stuff is done but I feel the most pressure from this class.


Dexter is walking!! He really started a few days ago and now he is toddling every where! It is the cutest thing ever. He is the happiest kid I have ever met too. He likes to put whatever toy he is holding in between his front teeth and walk around grinning. Kinda like a puppy I guess. Haha. All of his front teeth are in finally. 4 on top and 4 on bottom. I don't know if I posted about sleep training. IT WORKED!! Dexter is sleeping in his crib. All night long. He had a rough couple nights this week but I think that is because he has a little cold. Other than that it has been so great. We do dinner, bath, books, nurse and then he goes right to sleep. Just like real people. Now Violet on the other hand is still having a little trouble. She still can't fall asleep on her own so after we do the routine, I take her in my room to fall asleep. I move her into her bed after a while and she usually atays in there for the night. This is still better because we were watching a whole movie in her room every night. Now the whole bedtime process is done by 8:30 at the latest. Much better than 10 or later that we were doing before. Yay! Oh...and she no longer wears pullups! Yay.

Violet has been having so many UTI's the last 2 months. (her whole life really) The doc ordered a VCUG to test her bladder and kidneys. We were thinking about just watching her to see if getting her out of pullups would solve the problem and it didn't. Last week we got the VCUG done. This test involved a trip to the hospital and sedation. She did SO GOOD. Everything went really smooth.  It turns out she does have reflux in her right kidney. I am taking her to the pediatric urologist this Thurs to find out what we do from here. Poor baby. I hope we get her fixed up soon.