Halloween Party

We had a cul-de-sac Halloween party with our neighbors.  We have great neighbors and have a lot of fun hanging out with them almost every night in the street as the kids play.  It was fun to have an organized activity with them.  The kids were so excited to wear their costumes.  My neighbor wanted everyone to have a costume and when she saw some of us didn't have costumes she pulled out some costumes for us.  Lucy became a referee from my neighbors collection, Garrett is a blow up guy with a jetpack and Nolan is a transformer.  I lucked out with the boys costumes, both great finds from Facebook marketplace.  We enjoyed all sorts of yummy food while the kids ran around and played.  We got our firepit out and roasted marshmallows for smores.  It was also nice to have the fire to stay warm, it was a chilly night.  It was such a fun night, lots of laughing!        

 

JJ had several things he needed for the office.  We took Lucy to church for youth activities and headed to Sam's club.  We filled the cart up quickly.  I laughed when I saw Nolan found himself a little spot at the bottom of the cart.  When we were walking to the car we noticed a police car by our van.  As we walked up some ladies approached us and asked if this was our van.  He cart had rolled down and hit the back of our van.  It left a big dent on our van.  Thankfully she called the police because she didn't really know what to do.  He ran our plates and got our names and then went into Sam's club to costumer service and had then pull our membership cards.  Once he knew what we looked like he started looking for us.  He saw us walk out of the store and came out not long after us.  We exchanged information and she felt so bad.  We were both so glad she went to all the effort to find us and pay for the damage.  It does seem like one more thing on our plates but at least it will be fixed and one day we will forget this even happened.     

It is getting darker earlier which is hard.  It makes the days feel so short!  The lawn needed to be mowed and it was a busy week.  I hurried and got the back mowed as fast as I could and then JJ helped trip and mow the front.  It got dark on JJ and I laughed when I saw him finishing the front with his headlamp on.  If only we had more time in our days!

Nolan loves to eat his lunch with our neighbor Declan.  I give him his plate of food and they usually eat on his porch.  They are such buddies and I am so glad they have each other. 

I can't believe we are already at our final steroid infusion.  The weeks in-between the last round flew by.  Lucy has been dreading this week and not looking forward to the side affects that come along with it.  We try to keep her hydrated and keep some caffeinated soda in the house to help with her headaches.  The first day of infusions the nurse had a really hard time getting her IV in.  She called in another nurse to help her hold down her vein.  They both tried and had no luck.  I could tell it was painful for Lucy.  She would squeeze her eyes closed but she was brave.  They were trying to do it farther down on her arm so she could leave it in.  After several attempts they put it in where they knew it would be successful.  Lucy decided to keep it in when we left since it was such a hassle.  Her arm hurt pretty bad and after day 2 she had then pull the IV out.  She said she was willing to go through another poke on day 3.  We tried to have a little fun together while we passed the time during infusions.  We enjoyed eating Oreos and watching "Legally Blonde" one afternoon.  Wednesday morning Lucy woke up feeling nauseous.  It was our last day of infusions and it is usually a doozy.  She was able to eat a little something and then had a snack at infusions.  She came home and felt even worse.  She was really nauseous and just felt super crummy.  I asked my neighbor if she had any Zofran and she did.  My other neighbor had some lemon lime sparkling water.  I was so thankful for my neighbors stepping in to help Lucy.  JJ stopped by the store for some sprite and peppermints on his way home from work.  Later in the evening Lucy was able to keep down some chicken noodle soup.  She said she woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well and went down to the kitchen for some more soda and a few crackers.  Poor Lucy.  It is so hard for us to see her not feeling well, we feel helpless.  We are thankful that after a few days she bounces back.  We are so thankful for the medicine and hope it helps her.  We are glad to be done with infusions.             

Grafton Family Fun

We were due for a family fun day.  We haven't been doing much lately and didn't do a whole lot this summer.  It has been a while since we have spent money on doing something fun.  We did a lot of dog sitting this past summer.  We decided the money we earn from that will go into our family fun budget.  We talked about it and decided to spend some of the money and do something fun together.  Fall is here and the leaves are starting to change colors.  The weather was perfect Saturday and we have always wanted to ride the ferry to Grafton Illinois.  I can't ever remember riding a ferry.  The kids thought it was so fun!  We drove the van right onto the ferry and then we were able to get out of the car and look around.  We decided to grab some lunch and decided on a pub with some good burgers and sandwiches.  We were able to enjoy our lunch on the deck that overlooked the river.  We haven't been out to eat as a family in many many months.  It was nice and the food was so yummy.  After lunch we went down to see the lighthouse and look at the river.  We then rode the Grafton Sky tour, it is like a ski lift.  It takes you to the top of the hill where there is a winery and a pretty view.  We got off and walked around for a little bit. The winery was busy but it was a fun atmosphere with live music.  The ride down on the lift was my favorite.  You could over look the river and see lots of fall colors starting to peak through.  I have been wanting to ride the sky tour for a while.  Riding the ski lift at Sundance was one of our favorite fall activities when we lived in Provo.  It reminded me of that and all the fun times we did that.  After our sky tour we headed to Pere Marquette state park.  It has been so many years since I have been there.  I actually don't even remember any hiking there.  We stopped at the visitor center for a map and a recommendation on which hike to do.  She highlighted some trails that would be about a 2 mile hike.  We put a blanket down and had a little snack before we started out hike.  The trail was a beautiful trail and the colors and landscape were so pretty.  It was hot and we were all very hot and sweaty on our hike.  The kids liked climbing on as many rock formations we would let them.  We got to the top and the views were so pretty!  We would love to go back and do some more exploring and hiking there.  We rode the ferry back over the river after leaving the park.  We had to wait in a pretty long line to ride back over.  Grafton was busy on this beautiful fall Saturday.  By time we got close to home it was getting late and we were all really hungry.  We ordered some Dominoes pizza to pick up on our way home.  We made some brownies to have with ice cream and enjoyed relaxing and watching "Hocus Pocus" together.  It was the perfect day!  A much needed break from life and a great change of pace.  It is fun to have a family to do fun things with.  We all enjoyed getting out and spending time together.               

Volleyball Tournament

Our volleyball team made it to the final tournament of the season.  We have been playing pretty good this last session and felt like we had a pretty good shot at winning.  We won our first set of games so we moved onto the next round.  We won the first game but then lost the second game.  We were up on the third game but had a run of bad plays and ended up losing the third game.  We all felt a little disappointed because we knew we could have won it.  They were a well matched team and were fun to play.  If it weren't for those few bad plays I don't think we would have felt as disappointed.  It was a fun summer playing volleyball with our team.  They are a great group of friends and we have made some fun memories this year with them.  It has been so good for us to be able to play.  A great outlet for us with all that is going on in our lives.  Often times it would be the only night of the week that JJ and I would see and spend time together.  It was almost like a date night in the middle of the week since we would mostly leave our kids at home.  With Covid I was nervous to play but I am so glad we did.  

They texted and asked if we would bring Lucy to the games, they had a gift for her.  We kept it a surprise and just invied all the kids to come with us to see us play our last games.  They like coming and were happy to cheer us on.  In between the games they gave Lucy a gift bag and told her they had something for her.  She was surprised!  She opened it up and they gave her a new iPad, some wireless headphone and a keyboard for her iPad.  She broke down and started to cry, so did most of the volleyball team.  We were all so surprised by their generosity.  It was such a sweet moment!  Lucy was completely taken aback and couldn't believe it.  We are so touched by their sweet gesture and feel so lucky to have such great friends.  They truly are like family and we know they are there for us if we ever need anything.       

 

Braces for Garrett

Garrett has had his expander for a few months and is now ready for braces.  He was looking forward to moving forward with the next step.  We both thought his expander would be coming out but we must have misunderstood or been accidentally told the wrong thing.  He is such a good kid and takes things in stride.  He looks just as handsome with his new braces.  The next day his teeth hurt pretty bad and he was in tear's trying to eat his breakfast.  I made a run to the store for some soft foods and a big thing of ice cream for him.  He was a happy camper enjoying some Italian ice and ice cream to help with his sore teeth.  He is in good company with his misery, there are now 3 of us in the family with braces!     

Garrett loves to swing.  I will often look out the kitchen window and see him out there swinging.  The poor grass under the swings is getting thin.  I am usually pretty particular about the lawn but that bare grass means the kids are having fun and I love that.  

Lucy has been enjoying her ukulele and has been working hard to learn some new songs.  She printed out some new music and made herself a binder to put it all in.  She called me in her room one night to play a song for me.  She is getting better and I am happy she has something she enjoys doing. 

My neighbor walked the kids down to the neighborhood playground.  My kids haven't played at a playground in months.  Nolan was in heaven and so excited to be there with the neighbor boy Declan.  

Nolan has become very attached to this monkey stuffed animal, he calls him Buddy.  He is with him all the time.  He makes several appearances in his class live meetings.  He helps him do his school work and lately has to sleep with him at night.  I think it is cute and a little funny that now at the age of 6 he has a favorite stuffed animal.    

Nolan loves to picnic lunch with Declan on his porch.  They want to spend as much time together as possibly during lunch and recess break.  It will be hard when it starts to get colder.  Thank goodness for fun neighbors during this pandemic time when we aren't hanging out with a lot of people.