"Every boy needs a staple in his head!"

I don't remember who it was that told Caleb "Every boy needs a staple in his head!" but I was like "What?!  NO!"  And visualized myself smacking them upside the head!

On Monday this week I sent the boys down to bed around 9:30 pm.  I'm quite certain Caleb went down and started jumping on his bed so he could see up on his brother's bed (Caleb's bed is a full and Nash's is a twin so there's room to jump on Caleb's bed to see).  I was on my way downstairs when I heard screaming.  I ran the rest of the way to the boys room where I found Caleb laying on the floor.  He was laying on the floor next to his bed but right in front of the desk they have in their room.  This desk really probably is more hazardous than not and likely shouldn't be in their room.  It has sharp corners and screws in it.  Now combine that with my boys and it's amazing we haven't had a hazardous disaster before now.  I picked Caleb up and asked where he was hurt.  He put his hand on his head and pulled his hand away to reveal a palm full of blood.  Not good.  I carried him up to the bathroom and sent Nash next door to grab my girlfriend.  My girlfriend came over while I was applying a cold, wet washcloth to Caleb's head.  I asked her to look at his head and tell me if she thought we should go to the ER.  She told me that it looked just like her daughter's (Emma's)  only not quite as long and hers got three staples in it.  Well, that made up my mind for me.

Amy left us her cell phone so the kids could stay home and call if needed (it was 10:15 by now, mom was sick, Travis was at work and I didn't want to haul all four kids to the ER).  I loaded up Caleb and left.  I tried to stop at the urgent care on the south end of Logan, but they close at 10 pm (how convenient).  So, we continued on to the ER.  Lucky for me it wasn't too long of a wait out in the main waiting area.  Unfortunately for me, we didn't leave the ER until just after 1 am thanks to all the other people also visiting the ER.

The PA came in and said, "Oh!  That's an easy fix!  We'll just get that numbed up and put one staple in it and you'll be good to go!"  Then the dr. came in and told me the same thing, but he added "Hopefully we can get to you within the hour.  We're really busy."  I thought he was joking.  Turns out, he wasn't.  Eventually the nurse came in and put some numbing agent on a cotton ball and stuck it to his head.  Then she took the corban wrap and wrapped it around his head until he looked like Rambo.  The numbing agent had to sit for 20 minutes so we were back to waiting.  After about 20 minutes the nurse came in and re applied more numbing agent - goodie!  Another 20 minute wait.  Finally, the PA came back in.  By this time Caleb had finally fallen asleep.  

The PA took our the staple kit.  The stapler looked like one of the white out tape things.  It wasn't big and didn't look anything like a stapler.  He kind of squeeze the cut back together and then stapled Caleb's head.  (It might not look like a stapler, but it sounds like a stapler and when you know it's going into your kid's head it kind of makes you sick.)  This woke Caleb up immediately and he was not a happy boy.  Poor kid!  So much for a double dose of the numbing agent!

We were finally released to go home and walked back into the house at about 1:30 am.  We have to go back after 10 days to get the staple out.  Hope our visit on that day isn't nearly as long as the original visit.  And yes, we're rearranging the boys' room this weekend so we don't have another incident!

Before the staple:

With the staple (and no, they didn't shave his head at all):

Brookelyn Dean

This little girl is as busy as they come!  It's a good thing she's so stinkin cute!

The other day she decided she was going to make dinner.  I was washing dishes, loading/unloading the dishwasher, etc. so I was in the kitchen with her.  However, it was when I turned around for a minute to get something out of the dishwasher that she grabbed my sugar container.  She filled her pan up with almost the entire sugar container!  She also had the salt and pepper out.  I think she may have gotten something else in there too, but I'm not sure what!  She had about three different spoons she was using to stir.  It was funny to watch her.  She was just as content as could be.  She kept telling me, "Mommy, I make dinner!"  She would put the pan on the stove and stir for a few minutes then move it onto the counter and stir it.  She'd tell me, "Hot mommy.  No touch."  Silly girl!

A few days ago I bought a family feast from Papa Murphy's.  With the family feast you get a 2 liter bottle of soda and a thing of cookie dough.  I have NEVER made the cookie dough into cookies.  Samantha always gets to the cookie dough before I do!  Apparently, Brookelyn has learned quite well from her sister, her mother and her grandma!

Today Brookelyn wanted to color.  I got her some paper and she got a marker.  I really should know better than to let her have a marker.  She hasn't colored on herself in ages though so I didn't really think about it.  Besides, it was a washable marker!  She was coloring away at the table and I was in the hallway (within eyesight) cleaning out the kids' pj drawer.  She comes over after a few minutes and says "Cheese! Mommy!"  Sigh...it would seem I'm a day late and a dollar short for almost everything lately!

Tonight my mom came up "for a minute".  Brookelyn's new trick is to drag my mom by the hand to her bedroom, shut the door, turn on the radio and proceed to dance in front of the bedroom door so grandma can't leave.  She's also been known to sit in front of the bedroom door or sit on grandma herself!  My poor mother!  It's a good thing she likes my kids or she'd never come back!

And, sadly, my baby girl is no longer a baby!  She has been falling out of her toddler bed every night for a few weeks now.  In the morning I find her either spread eagle on the floor or bent over at the waist with her top half on the bed and her bottom half standing up!  Fisher's Home Furnishings was having a sale on Friday so I went in to see if I could find another twin mattress for a decent price (managed to get one for about $70).  I called Grandpa Scott and recruited his help.  Travis is in North Dakota and we were thinking he wasn't going to be home until Monday afternoon and seeing how Brooke has another set of tubes scheduled for Thursday I kind of figured that the beds wouldn't be a priority this week while he's home.  Good thing Grandpa Scott loves us too!  Brooke loves her new bed.  Her eyes bugged right out of her head when she saw her bed with her Strawberry Shortcake bedding on it (it's the bedding I bought for Sam when we moved into the house and set this bunk bed up for her and Nash).

Since the bunk bed goes so far up the wall I've had to rearrange some things.  Not sure I like how this is looking (Brooke & Sam's names don't line up evenly and it makes me crazy!).

Sam is thrilled she finally has some empty space in her room (this is where B's bed was).  I told her the space would be short lived (I bought B a kitchen for Christmas).  Brooke now uses this space where her bed was as her dance stage!  Goofy girl!

Halloween 2013

Our dad missed Halloween again this year, but we had fun anyway.  Caleb was a cowboy (John Marston from a video game).  When he dressed up for school he was "alive" but when he went out trick or treating we added a bullet hole to his forehead.  He thought it was funny when I told him he looked like he lost the duel.  He asked what a duel was and I explained it was a gun fight.  Eventually he started trick or treating like this: Knock, knock.  "Trick or Treat!  Don't make me use my gun!  I lost the duel" (take off hat).  At one point he told me, "Mom!  I get 2 pieces of candy when I tell them I lost the duel!"  He was so excited about that!  Silly boy!

This was when he went to do his Halloween play for school:

I made Brooke her Minnie (Mimmi) Mouse dress.  She is totally obsessed with Minnie and I have to say I think she was the cutest Mimmi ever!

Samantha (much to my happiness) recycled last year's hip hop costume and was an escaped convict.  When she went to school she asked me to give her a black eye (she didn't when she dressed up for her Halloween dance performance).

Caleb on Halloween night with his duster I was up until 3:30 am making and hoping he'll continue to wear:

My nerd Nash!  He wanted to be General Grievous from Star Wars.  There was no way I was making that costume (even if I could find a pattern).  I didn't have the money to go buy it either.  So, the day before Halloween I was finally able to convince him to be a nerd.  I had given him the choice of nerd or a girl.  Guess he didn't want to wear his sister's clothes!  Sam told me the night before Halloween the glasses we had that I was going to use were dropped and broken by B so we ended up drawing his glasses on.  I used an eye liner to do it but when I went up to the school for the costume parade I saw he had taken a PEN and redrawn them during the day!  We also gave him a killer STAR WARS tattoo.  Today (Nov. 1) he asked if I'd redo his tattoo.  I told him no.  Wondering how long it will take before he redoes it himself without me knowing!

With our pumpkins but minus Sam (she was on the phone with her friend)

After the girls went around the block (the boys were banished to their bedroom to get it cleaned up) and we had visited a few select people we headed out to Grandma Kris and Grandpa Scott's house.  Jamie & Robbie's boys looked super cute in their costumes.  I can't believe Clayton ever fit in the dinosaur costume!

I didn't get a picture of Chad and Shanah's kids.  Prestin was a girl (and a super cute one), Livi was a little devil and Kash was a hunter.

We did lots of Trick or Treating in grandma and grandpa's neighborhood.  Caleb was sad that when we went to Buff and Laura's house they were out of donuts.  Lucky for him grandma was willing to share some of the ones they had brought over earlier!  This was the first year I haven't taken a stroller Trick or Treating in TEN years!  That was really nice.  What wasn't really nice was how stinking SLOW Brooke was.  Poor Nash, Caleb and Clayton would go about six houses ahead of us and then just sit and wait while Brooke and I caught up (and she didn't even knock every door!).

After all our Trick or Treating we went back to grandpa and grandma's house to celebrate grandma's birthday!

I love this picture of grandpa and Sam:

After all the door knocking and birthday cake eating Brooke and Livi had a tubbie together.  They sure had lots of fun in their tub!

We got home at a fairly decent time (about 10:30 pm) and the kids slept well.  Tonight Brooke fell asleep around 6:30 on our way home from Logan and she's still out four hours later!  I'm hoping she doesn't wake up at 3 am!  Can't wait until next week (after Stake Conference) to take Brooke to church in her Mimmi dress!  I have a feeling that she's going to want to wear it every day!

B goes to the ENT...

So Sunday night Brookelyn started telling me her ear hurt about 9:40 pm.  She had been sick for about 2 1/2 weeks prior, but, she had been doing so much better that day.  We had been to church and she had started being her perky self again.  She had even teased Grandpa Scott when we went for a short visit.  Come 10 pm she was screaming bloody murder that her ear hurt.  She kept covering her right ear and saying "Owie!".  When she'd try to lay on her ear she'd almost immediately start screaming.  Just before 11 pm I called my mom to ask what she thought I should do.  We decided that a midnight trip to the ER likely wouldn't yield many results and to just try to get her to take some Motrin and tough it out.  At 1:30 am Travis finally came home from work.  Brookelyn had been screaming the entire previous 3 1/2 hours.  I handed her to her daddy and within about 2 minutes the poor girl had completely exhausted herself and she was out.  Just my luck!  I went to bed while Travis stayed up with her (she didn't completely zonk for about another 30 minutes). 

In the morning I called the ENT's office to see if they had an appointment available and told them what my night had been like (in the hopes they'd get me in quickly).  Unfortunately, Dr. Blotter didn't have any appointments until 8:30 am Tuesday.  Seriously!  Fine.  I took it but warned I may cancel and go to Instacare before then.  Throughout the day Monday she didn't complain about her ear at all.  She seemed to be a little bit happier (still some of that previous 2 1/2 weeks illness floating around, but nothing major).  Just before we put Brooke down for bed she starts telling me her ear hurts again.  She isn't screaming like a Banshee this time, but she's telling me how much it hurts.  Monday night I asked Travis if he was still going to take her to her appointment for me in the morning....To which my husband replies, "You think she still needs to go?"  Me: Yes!  Travis: But she was fine all day.  She slept last night, she's fine.  I don't think she needs to go.  I won't lie...I wanted to throttle him right there.  I bit my tongue and said nothing planning to call the ENT's office in the morning and rearrange her appointment to a time of day that I could take her without missing work.

Tuesday morning I get up and start getting myself and kids ready for school.  Travis wakes up and asks if he's going to be late for her appointment.  I told him I had planned to just cancel it since he thought she was fine.  (Yes, he could tell I was mad about that.)  I finish getting ready and Brooke starts complaining again that her ear hurts.  She even starts to cry because she says it's hurting so much.  I leave to take the kids to school and call the ENT's office to see if there is an appointment available later in the day because she has, by now, missed her actual appointment.  I am sadly informed that no, there are no other appointments today because Dr. Blotter is going to go over to Tremonton.  I told the girl on the phone what was going on.  She was kind enough to tell me to go ahead and just bring her in now and he can look at her.  I tell her I'm in Hyrum and it will be at least 30 minutes before we get there - she's still kind enough to tell me to just bring her in.  I called Travis and told him to get ready to take Brooke into the dr.

Tuesdays are crazy days for me.  I have all 12 three yr olds in the morning from 9:15-11:15 and then go to the school to teach SEM from 12:45-3:15.  To top off this fabulous day Caleb threw up three times while I was teaching preschool.  Can I NOT catch a break here?!  I didn't get to talk to Travis about Brooke until after preschool was over and even then it was mostly to inform him I had to go to work and he had another one at home needing his undivided attention due to puking.  Against my better judgement, I asked what the ENT said........Guesses?????

Both of her ears are in fact quite infected.  The right one more than the left one.  Neither ear has a functioning tube left in it but there are tubes sitting in the ear canals.  Much to my surprise, Travis scheduled tube surgery #18 while he was at the ENT's office.  November 14th will mark a new milestone for this family.  Oy.  I'd seriously rather someone else hold this record!

Black Island Farm & Pumpkin Patch

Today I took the kids (& and my sister's kids & my sister) on a small adventure.  I was reading the news on KSL.com the other day and came across an article about the "Pick your own pumpkin farms" in UT.  I found three that were relatively close.  I found directions and whatever info I could on them and then convinced my sister she should go with me if I was feeling like I was able to rejoin the land of the living.  Fortunately for me (and the kids) I wasn't feeling as awful today as I have since Monday.  Bonus!  We headed out a little after 1 and made our way to Syracuse.  I knew the area we were headed to because my sister in law use to live just west of where we were going.  I wasn't sure what it was going to cost us to get in because they didn't have it listed on their website.  It was pricier than I would have liked, but we didn't want to go two more exits to Layton or down to Farmington, so we bit the bullet.  We did the courtyard first.  The courtyard consisted of some small farm animals, several different slides, some tires to play on (even one that was made to be like a bull that Caleb loved), a kid corn maze, a sandbox filled with corn kernels, a train ride pulled by a tractor, and a bounce house that looked like a giant cow!  We could have also done the rock wall and shoot corn on the cob, but it cost extra money.  For what we paid to get in, I think it should have been included but, oh well.  The kids were super well behaved (only one moment of B missing for just a short second or two) and they loved getting to spend time with their Bradshaw cousins.

After we finished up the courtyard the Bradshaws headed out.  They already had pumpkins at home.  We loaded onto a trailer pulled by a tractor and were hauled out to the pumpkin fields.  The kids were super excited to get to scour a field (of 10,000+ pumpkins) to find just the right pumpkin.  I was impressed with the fact that they listened so well and they stayed within eyesight and followed directions to the letter!

Nash hopped out of the trailer and found his perfect pumpkin almost immediately.  He asked if he could get one that weighed as much as he does.  I told him if he could carry that was fine!  I'm not carrying five pumpkins that each weigh as much as a kid!

B found her pumpkin pretty quick.  She tried to pick it up but couldn't quite get it off the ground herself! :)

Caleb looked a bit longer than B did and was quite proud of the fact that he found one he liked that we didn't have to cut off the vine.  "I just kicked the vine with my boot and it came right off Mom!"

Sam found her pumpkin after Caleb did but was too quick for me to get a picture of her with it!

Once everyone found their pumpkins and we were loaded back onto the trailer we headed back to the main farm area.  I told the kids my plan of action to get everyone and their pumpkins off the tractor without too much incident.  They followed directions to the letter again - amazing!  Twice in one day!  After we got all our pumpkins and kids off the tractor Sam & Nash headed off to find us a wagon to carry them all back to the car in!

I was SO glad when Sam came back pulling a wagon!  I had NO idea how the heck I was getting five pumpkins and four kids over to the Tahoe without a wagon!

Sam & Nash even pulled and pushed the wagon with all five pumpkins and the two little kids in it without me asking them to do it!  Sam lasted until we were only about 6 cars away and then I pulled the kids the rest of the way.

We had lots of fun today.  Brookelyn has been sick for two weeks and I know she feels just awful.  I was hoping today would put a smile on her face and help her feel better.  I think it did but it wore her out.  She feel asleep shortly after I put her in the Tahoe and didn't wake up until we came out of Sardine Canyon!  Our plan is to carve pumpkins in another week when our dad is home and it's a bit closer to Halloween.  Hope the pumpkins don't get pushed off the porch during preschool pick up before then!  I did stack them going down the stairs rather than across the front of the porch in hopes of avoiding a fatal fall!  We shall see...a lot can happen in a week when you have 20 3 & 4 year olds!