The kids were really proud of their fort and its decoration.
On October 1 the pumpkin patch was finally open for business! So naturally we had to go. We joined up with our preschool group and spent some time playing in the very dusty corn. (Trip #1)
Oh, I was also babysitting the son of a friend of mine from BYU-I. It was the first time I had seen Lindsie in many years, but it was great to catch up a bit and play with her adorable baby Skye. (Lindsie was down from Idaho for her mom's sealing in the Payson temple, and I was the only person she knew in the area who could watch her son for her while she was in the temple. It was a pleasure.)
Did I mention that it was dusty?
As a thank you, Lindsie and her husband gave me this awesome huckleberry syrup. It was delicious.
Savers for the win! We went to Savers looking for items for our Halloween costumes. Earlier that morning I had been looking online for a plush talking Ferb doll, because we had a Phineas and a Perry already and I just wanted to complete the set. The dolls were like $30 online. Yikes! So I didn't buy one, but then I found one in great condition at Savers! What?! And it was only $3! And we found all the clothes we needed for Halloween. And I found a sweet Nike track jacket for $5! It was such a great day!
If you're going to let your sister clean your teeth in the front yard on a Sunday afternoon, you're going to get your picture taken and put on the internet. Sorry Marcie. That's the rule.
The next Monday I went hiking at Sundance with some of my ward friends. We rode the ski lift up and hiked over to Stewart Falls then hiked down. Then we went to lunch. A nice man took this first picture for us. I didn't realize I am so much taller than some of these women.
Everything was so pretty! And the weather was perfect.
Nate told me that I should scavenge for berries on the way down instead of paying for lunch. I took this picture for him.
Jami would probably kill me if she saw this picture of herself. But she doesn't read this blog, so we're good.
Colin's soccer pictures! He might not have been the most skilled on the team, but he was definitely the happiest. And the best looking. And the most enthusiastic.
On walk to school day there were some ambulances and EMTs and firemen at Sage Creek. I think Gray was the most excited about it.
Kate was the only one who would pose for a picture. I like how her bow matches the reflective stripes on the firefighter's suit.
I bought this jacket online, but I wasn't sure if I could pull it off or not, so I had to text a picture to my fashion gurus: DeAnna, Jami, and Heather. They said it was a keeper, so I kept it.
Jude went to the doctor for his 2 year well child check. And then we all got a flu shot. Well, the 3 big kids wimped out and got the nose spray stuff, but I chose a shot because I'm tough like that.
The day after his checkup, Jude was running a fever and not feeling so hot. Little did we know...(keep reading for the rest of the story...)
DeAnna and Donovan and Chamae were in town for DeAnna's baby brother's wedding. We hung out at a park with them for a bit, which was fun. Then Best Aunt Ever Hannah took all the kids to a movie and lunch. Awesome.
Nate is good at slides.
Gray had the sweetest face as a newborn. I'm glad it's still the sweetest face 4 years later.
Sunday after church we went back to the church to fly a kite. It was fun for all. Except for when it wasn't, which was whenever you weren't the one with the kite. The kids who weren't having a turn would run behind the one who was having a turn and shout out helpful instructions like "keep running" or "more running" or "run faster."
Kate has the cutest grumpy face.
Colin Silvey: keeping it classy since 2008.
Gray was being tickled.
Aww, brother hugs. But keep looking to see what this sweet moment devolved into.
Kate took this winning shot of me.
Kate loves taking selfies.
Gray told me he was doing "couch yoga." I find couch yoga is best done without pants.
We brought out the rockband for FHE one night. It was a hit.
Last day of soccer for Colin! Huzzah for participation medals.
It's hard to not go to the pumpkin patch. (Trip #2)
The kids helped themselves to the last of Granny's raspberries. Delicious.
The day of the library spooky stories Halloween FHE thing, I let Gray try on Jude's platypus costume. I was trying to hurry and finish it so Jude could wear it that night.
When it was time to pick the kids up from school, Gray would not get more dressed than this.
Fun times at the library with Candace, Phineas, Ferb, and Perry.
Back to the pumpkin patch. Why not? (Trip #3)
It's always better with friends.
Jude still wasn't feeling his best.
Kate's ballet teacher lets parents come and see what the girls are learning during one lesson. It was fun! (for me anyway. The boys were less entertained.)
Return to the patch! Only pictures of Jude because he was being cute. (Trip #4)
I think it was the week before Halloween that we went to the Central Utah Gardens pumpkin festival. We saw the Dyes while we were there. We enjoyed a puking pumpkins science show, a magic show, a couple of games, and saw some awesome carved pumpkins.
I really liked the hipster pumpkin.
"Everyone look at me and pretend like you're having fun! Do it! Now!"
Gray thought it was hilarious to ride his trike while sitting on a pumpkin.
Ah, remember how I said Jude wasn't feeling so hot? Well, about 2 weeks after his checkup, he broke out in a rash. Naturally, it was on a Saturday night, so we didn't have a lot of options as to what to do about it. I took some pictures and sent them to my brother-in-law who is a nurse. He thought what Nate and I thought, that it was an allergic reaction. We gave Jude a bit of Benadryl and sent him to bed. On Sunday, it wasn't any better. But he was acting pretty normal. I figured we would keep him home from church, just in case he was contagious. I laid him down for a nap, and he never went to sleep.
When we went in to him about 90 minutes later, his knee was crazy swollen. He cried if we tried to touch it or bend it at all. We never heard him fall or get hurt. We thought it had to be related to the rash, and we gave him a little more Benadryl. Nate took the kids to sacrament meeting and I stayed home with Jude to see if the swelling went down at all. It did not. So we dropped the kids off at Granny's house and went to the InstaCare. The doctor there didn't know what the heck was going on. She said she hadn't seen anything like it before. We told her that he had been running a fever a couple weeks before, but then he seemed to be okay, and now all of this. She consulted with another doctor over the phone, and he said it didn't look like a strep rash, but we could test for strep if we wanted to. Then he said we should to go the hospital and get his knee tapped and x-rayed and ultrasounded and all this other stuff. The doctor told me all they could do at the clinic was a strep test, but she didn't think it was strep. She asked what I wanted to do. I said run the strep test, because we could at least rule that out, and I had had a kid have strep before without showing any symptoms. And lo and behold, it was positive. Apparently, if left untreated strep can lead to a rash and swelling of the joints (and then scarlet fever which will ruin your heart and stuff), so we got a prescription for antibiotics and went home. I was told to follow up with our regular doctor, so I did. He said it didn't look like a strep rash either, but I guess that's what it was because everything went away and now he's fine. But it was a scary weekend for this mom, I tell you what.
Cool bandaid from having blood drawn.
One swollen knee and one normal knee.
On Monday the swelling in his knee had gone down quite a bit, but some of his knuckles on his left hand were now swollen. Poor kid.
Halloween/fall decorations made from cinnamon sticks and my excess canning rings. Cute.
A picture I took to show my high school friends I was texting with how I have aged. Not cute.
The photo collage I hung up in the front room all by myself. Cute.
Jude in his new Halloween pjs. Very cute.
A few pictures from our ward Halloween party on Thursday night. I guess I was having too much fun to take a lot of pictures. It was amazing, as usual. The kids loved it, as usual. Nate would rather have been at home but he came and was a supportive dad, as usual.
My friend's kids were Star Wars. She made her baby the best ewok costume I have ever seen. It was perfect.
This cracked me up.
Colin lined up at his costume parade at school on Friday. I don't know why this dumb parade is such a big deal, but it really is. I went 30 minutes early and made the boys eat a picnic lunch while we waited so that I could have a place to stand and a place to park. Sheesh.
Kate's teacher (and Colin's old teacher) as one of the good fairies from Sleeping Beauty.
Colin's Chinese teacher as Hermione.
I love it when little kids sleep in weird positions.
Halloween night! We had already worn our costumes like 4 times by now, but that just made the kids love everything even more. They especially loved having their hair colored.
Jude didn't want to wear his fedora for the pictures I guess.
We went to Granny and Papa's ward chili cook off and trunk-or-treat. It was great, until the smoke machine set off the fire alarm. Then it was loud, but still fun. The kids had a great time, and I loved that I didn't have to cook dinner. After the trunk-or-treat we went around our block, met up with Laura who was dressed as Draco Malfoy, and hit a few of the farther away houses in our ward. Then we put the kids to bed and stole their candy. It was a perfect Halloween.
Awww.
Nate just asked me if anyone even reads this. I told him Diana Dye does. Does anyone else? Probably not.
