A visit to the ER

Olivia had her first (and hopefully her last) ambulance ride this morning. When I wasn't paying close attention, she had gotten into one of the kitchen cupboards (not unusual) and pulled out a couple of things. One item she pulled out happened to be a blade that went to a hand blender thing. It's not very big, but it's very sharp. I saw a few of the bowls she got out and didn't pay much attention to anything else. I was busy getting dinner into the crockpot and planning a trip to the mall to let the kids play at the play area. Just as we were getting ready to go, I went to do last minute diaper changes. Olivia started to scream. I still hadn't noticed anything unusual, she always screams when she doesn't want to be disturbed. It took me a few seconds to realize her foot had been cut. I had no idea what or how it happened. Logan had to show me the blade. When I took a better look at her foot, I realized this was bad...very bad. It had cut the bottom of her foot about a quarter of an inch deep and it was a long cut. I made some frantic calls to family to get help. Then I called 911 when I realized there was no way I could drive her to the ER while putting pressure on her foot. The EMT were quick to respond and we were on our way. Olivia loved the ride. She even got a stuffed animal from the crew. We got checked into the hospital and we were both well taken care of. I had my mother-in-law follow us there. I knew I wouldn't be able to handle this alone. It was nice to have that extra support. Olivia did very well. She was so brave during the entire time we were there (which was almost 5 hours). She received another stuffed animal from the volunteers that were going through the halls of the ER. The staff and volunteers were absolutely wonderful and made things easier to handle. I think I had a worse time of the whole ordeal than Olivia did. But several hours and 5 stitches later, we were on our way home. Once we got home Olivia was her happy little self. You wouldn't know she had gotten hurt, except for her hobbling around on her toes. She's a brave little thing. Much more so than I am.

Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving brought us great food, wonderful family and lots of snow. We woke up to a few more inches of snow on the ground, so we spent the morning shoveling snow off our driveway and Sam's brother-in-law's driveway. We were having Sam's family over to our house for dinner and wanted to have at least the driveways clear for parking. Logan was an excellent little helper when it came to clearing his uncle's driveway. He spent a good amount of time outside. He can never seem to get enough.



The afternoon came and so did the family. After some struggles of getting up the snowy/icy hill everyone had arrived safe and sound. There was so much food to go around. It was amazing. I didn't get any pictures of our feast, my kids made it pretty much impossible for such things. Later on we got the computer out and through the awesomeness of webcams we spoke with family not here. It was so cute to watch the kids gather around the computer to talk their cousin, Bailey, and Uncle Joel.



The rest of the day was spent watching old football games and talking strategy for black friday sales. My sis-in-law (Lina) and I were actually crazy enough to go out in the early morning hours to shop Target and Kohl's. We had fun. It was pure craziness and we aren't sure we'll do it again (too early) but we just might be that crazy again. Afterall, we scored some good stuff.

Snow

It snowed yesterday...a lot! Well, a lot for around here. It was beautiful to watch and fun to play in, but horrible to drive in. Today we've been snowed in our house. The roads are all covered in ice. And since we live on a hill, driving down and then back up is not something I would like to try and attempt. The temperature has been in the low to mid 20's. Yes, the 20's. CRAZY!!! We are not prepared for that kind of weather. I am lacking a winter coat for days that are that cold, no one has snow boots, and Sam doesn't have gloves. Oh well, hopefully it won't last for too long and we can get the ice to melt a bit before everyone comes over for Thanksgiving. I much prefer the rain and 40 degree weather. :)

Our house, just as it was starting to snow.
The trees next door. I thought they were pretty.





The kids just loved it. Logan kept asking for the snow to "turn on" if it stopped snowing. This morning he wanted it on again. I'm okay with it being "off". We really didn't get much, I'm guessing maybe 2-3" at most. It's the ice that's the problem. Oh well, it will melt one day.

What they do for fun

I think my kids are getting bored with staying inside during rainfall and cold weather. I've taken them to different malls to play in the play area. I'm just running out of ideas. There isn't a whole lot of free things to do inside for little kids (at least, not that I know of). So until I figure something else out, this is what my kids have been up to.

Logan loves to play with his cars and trucks. He has those rugs with the street and buildings on them, but instead of playing with those, he has chosen to play with the rug. You can make mountains out of it, you know.



Olivia loves to color...so much so that I have to keep my eye on her or else her artwork ends up in places I don't approve of, such as the stairs, walls, table, floor...you name it, she's drawed on it. Even as I type, she has found some more crayons and putting her artwork on a wall I just cleaned. Ah, it never ends.




( One of her first watercolor and crayon "drawings")

I'm hoping that the winter doesn't last too long, but that's just wishful thinking. I guess I better come up with some solutions, and fast before we all lose our sanity. :)

Conversations with Logan

Logan has been having some pretty interesting answers to questions I've been asking him lately.

Me: What's your favorite thing about our new house?
L: It's beautiful...and leaves (we have trees around us finally and he loves watching the leaves fall)

Me: What would you like for Christmas?
L: Candy! And see Uncle Dan, Hannah, and Jane (we don't know if we'll see them or not, but he sure talks about them a lot)

Me: What do you want for your birthday?
L: BALLOONS!!! CAKE! CANDLES!

Me: Do you want to take a nap?
L: No, but mommy does. (stated very matter of factly, and he's right)

Halloween

This year was interesting. We took the kids "trunk or treating" at our church's party. That way it was limited to how many places they could go and not get as much candy as they probably would have if we had let them go trick or treating. Olivia was not a happy camper since it was near her bedtime. This girl loves her sleep and doesn't like change from her routine. But she made a cute little ladybug regardless. Logan was a little more cooperative this year with the costume. He wanted to be a penguin. It's his favorite bird, animal, whatever. He made a cute penguin. It took some convincing to get the costume on, but once we had reassured him several times at how great he looked and that he would soon be getting candy, he was happy.

Goodbye Bothell, Hello Snohomish

I have had mixed feelings about moving. This house was our first home with kids. It's where our two kids took their first steps, said their first words...lots of memories. It's hard to say goodbye, but we have been looking forward to new adventures.

October 23...what a day! We woke up early to finish packing. Sam left to get the rental truck early in the morning and I tried to get as much done around the house as two toddlers would allow. Around 10am we had some guys from church come and help us load up the moving van. It really helped us to have so many come and help. What a relief! Even Logan wanted to help. He was really good at making sure his toys got put on the moving van.



I left the house around 11:30 to take the kids up to Sam's parents house. I had to get to the new house by 12 for the cable guy to come and to get the house semi ready for the move in. The day went by much faster than I had expected, but things went rather smoothly. We had lots of help show up on the unpacking side as well. It was a very long day. A couple of mishaps happened along the way. Sam lost his keys and I lost a few boxes that I have yet to find. Sam's keys ended up in California, but we got them back. Guess they wanted a vacation.


Our Snohomish home is bigger and has lots more room for the kids to run around inside and out. It's been an adjustment, but I think once we get things unpacked and cleaned up it will feel more like home instead of a house. Snohomish is a cute little town with lots of charm. We really like it so far. It's definitely different, but a good different.

Last walk in Bothell

I had been taking the kids on daily walks around our neighborhood in Bothell. I decided I should take pictures of where we walked. It is just too pretty to not document. It was sad, as it was the last time we'd be walking this route.






After the walk, we played at the neighborhood park. It has been a favorite of mine and the kids. It was easy to get to, and we spent many afternoons playing there, waiting for dad to come home.

The Farm

Back on October 16, we took the kids to a pumpkin patch in Snohomish. It was incredible. It had a pumpkin patch (obviously), a corn maze, a kids play area, a petting zoo area and lots of other things that I can't even remember. We didn't plan our day very well. We didn't expect there would be so much to do. But we still had fun and plan on making this an annual trip.

The corn house was a huge success with the kids. It was a little barn filled with corn kernels for the kids to play in.




Livi loved watching the ducks and quacking at them. Logan loved to play on the tractor and other toys.

Logan's Vocabulary

**I will blog about the new house and all our adventures one day. Right now I'm just focused on trying to get the house in order a bit.

I thought I should write down some of what Logan says. His vocabulary has increased immensely since he had the tubes put in his ears. Along with that though are words that aren't even remotely close to the actual word. Here are some of them...

Milk = Noke
Chocolate Milk = Chananoke
Soy Sauce = Sea Foss
Cheese = Fees
Grilled Cheese = Toe Fees
Vacuum = Backum
Bedroom = Bebbum
Spaghetti = Lageggi
Tacos = Kockos
Yogurt = Logurk
Fruit Snacks = Boot Dask

For those of you who see Logan, you should now be able to understand him a little better. :)