Happy Turkey Day!

Here is our Thanksgiving mantel. My amazingly crafty friend, Sarah, taught me how to make the cute bunting last year. I had good intentions to sew "GIVE THANKS" onto it, but I ran out of time. Again. Oh well. The sticks came from my neighbors' yard after a big wind storm and the apples were on clearance at JoAnn's way back in February. Hooray for cheap decorations! On Pie Day, I made four pumpkin pies (the boys in my house LOVE pumpkin pie!) and one Very Berry pie. I found this recipe in the Lion House Desserts cookbook. YUM!These cute turkey-shaped butters were from the Fresh Market. I think people were afraid to use them, because even after dinner for 26 people, all three turkeys were barely touched.

Once again, we felt so blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with wonderful friends while we are away from family! I felt a little sad that this was our last Thanksgiving in Ohio; we've made so many good memories with friends here during the holidays. Our celebrations have never been very fancy - just plastic tablecoths and paper plates, but there has always been plenty of delicious food and good friends to share it with.My amazing friend, Angie, and her beautiful fresh fruit cheesecakes and chocolate-covered strawberries. She and her daughter, Hadley, made adorable place card favors with the names of each guest.

About halfway through the meal, Hannah climbed up on our laps and discovered the CRANBERRY SAUCE! I gave her a little taste, and she liked it so much that she started eating it by the handful! She also helped herself to the chocolate-covered strawberries and the fruit on Angie's little cheesecakes.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!

More Logan Quotes

**Driving to church, a baggie of dry cereal (I think it's Lucky Charms) sitting on the back seat.

Logan: Somebody smashed the cereal!!
(Logan pronounces it "C.E.O")
Summer: okay
Logan: Will you answer the question?
Summer: That's really not a question - it's a statement.
Logan: Then answer the STATEMENT!!

** Then as we are leaving the church parking lot after the block, Logan looks up at the steeple of the church.

Logan: Dad, did you know the church is a sky-scraper?
Dad: really?
Logan: Yeah, look at that pointy thing (pointing at the steeple).
Dad: You mean the steeple?
Logan: NO!!! - That pointy thing!!!

Something WICKED This Way Comes!

AMAZING!!! Bryan, Andrew, and I got to see the musical, Wicked at Playhouse Square last night. We were so lucky to get an extra ticket at the last minute, so we were all able to go. Thank you, Days, for watching Hannah and Logan for us!

Andrew has a tuxedo from my sister's wedding last year. He doesn't often get the chance to wear it, so I was so glad he agreed to wear it to the show. He looked so handsome! All night at the theatre, ladies kept pointing and whispering, "Look how cute he is!"

Bryan and I absolutely loved the show and I think Andrew liked it too. A lot of things need explaining and I'm not sure he's convinced that the Wicked Witch wasn't really wicked, but he loved the clock dragon that breathed smoke and the song Defying Gravity when Elphaba flew on the broomstick.

The gift that keeps on giving...

Bryan has been having some trouble with his teeth lately, which is probably what inspired the following conversation between my mom and Andrew:

Mom: "Andrew, I just can't figure out what to get your Dad for Christmas! Do you have any ideas?"

Andrew, thinking for a moment: "Well, he has really been wanting a rool canal for a while now."

Happy Halloween!

Andrew and Logan wanted to dress as Shaggy and Scooby-Doo for Halloween this year. I snagged an awesome Scooby-Doo costume from eBay, and thought making a Shaggy costume would be a piece of cake.

I didn't realize, however, how impossible it would be to find a men's v-neck lime green t-shirt in October. I made a "help-me-Mom-what-am-I-going-to-do" phone call the morning of the ward party. Of course, she saved the day, suggesting I buy a white v-neck mens undershirt and dye it green. Brilliant!!! I bought a shaggy men's wig to complete the ensemble, but Andrew said it made him look like a girl...

...So we ditched the wig for the costume parade at Andrew's school. I'm not sure how recognizable he was when he was when he wasn't standing right next to Scooby, but Andrew seemed satisfied.

Hannah and Daddy enjoying the costume parade.

Pumpkin Hannah at the ward party.

I think the boys love ward parties because I'm too concerned with keeping Hannah from making a mess that I seldom monitor what they choose to eat there. Here I caught a glimpse of Logan's "dinner": shredded cheese, sour cream, and a handful of candy corn. Yeah, I'm a good mom.

HaHaHa! I loved this costume! When Logan fell asleep in the car and his head bobbed down a little bit, it looked like Scooby was riding in the car with us.

It was so fun to have Nana here with us for the Halloween festivities. On Halloween morning, she made us pancakes shaped like ghosts, bats, and jack-o-lanterns! They were sure tasty spread with pumpkin butter!

Thanks for all the fun Halloween goodies, Nana and Papa!

Carving pumpkins with Nana.

Poor Logan was grossed out by the whole pumpkin carving thing, and kept his head down while we scooped out the seeds and pulp. "It's yucky," he announced, "I don't like yucky things!"

SO, I bet you can guess which son chose the nasty puking pumpkin design and which chose the benign smiling pumpkin design. The cute girly Minnie Mouse was for Hannah. What a grouping!

My Lil' Punkin

Scooby and ShaggyWe had a great time Trick-or-Treating with the Weights and Brimhalls.

My favorite moment of the night: When we found a giant blow-up Scooby-Doo in a yard,

Logan walked up to it and shouted, "ARE THERE TWO OF ME?!"Happy Halloween!

IT'S OFFICIAL...

We're going to be WASHINGTONIANS!!! Olympians, to be exact. Yesterday Bryan signed the papers with a great anesthesia group in Olympia, Washington to start in Aug 2010. It was a very difficult decision, choosing between Olympia and Puyallup; the people we met in the Puyallup group were so great, like instant friends. It was so hard to turn them down. However, we feel really good about Olympia and are glad to finally know where we will be going.

Since I didn't take any pictures while I was there, I thought I share some pics of Olympia that I "borrowed" from the Internet.

When Logan heard the news, he said (with a concerned look on his face), "What do they have in Olympia? Do they have any playgrounds?" I showed him some pics of playgrounds in the area, so now he is satisfied. Glad he's so easy to please.

Patterson Farm

The Patterson Farm Fall Fun Fest (say that five times fast!) is something I look forward to all year. It just isn't fall without a trip to the farm! Is this place gorgeous or what?!

Hay ride to the fun fest.
Posing on the tractor.

Silly Hannah!

Racing tractors.

Logan wins!

Treehouse in the forest.

Tire swings.

Pumpkins!

Patterson Farm is something I will dearly miss when we leave Ohio. I'm pretty sure there's just no place like it on earth. I will definitely miss the delicious apple cider and pumpkin doughnuts too - YUM!

Who knew family portraits could be so dangerous?!

I bet you've never had a family portrait session end in an ER visit. Yeah, it was a first for us too.

Since this is our last fall here in Ohio, we couldn't pass up the chance to take some family portraits out in the beautiful fall colors. So yesterday we headed out to Patterson Farm for a photo shoot. In order to get Hannah to laugh and smile, Bryan and I were swinging her high in the air by her wrists. Everyone does it, right: "One, two, three...Wheee!" She was loving it and giggling her guts out until Bryan felt a POP in her left arm. She immediately stopped laughing and started crying... and wouldn't stop. Now, Hannah is a pretty tough girl. She has two older brothers to rough-house with and climbs on everything! She falls and gets hurt all the time, sometimes cries for a few seconds, and then gets right back to it.

So this time, we could tell she was pretty hurt. She held her arm close to her body and laid completely still in Bryan's arms, fussing if her arm was ever moved slightly. After a few minutes of this, we were certain something was wrong. Bryan suspected it was Nursemaid's Elbow (which I vaguely remember hearing about in Anatomy, but couldn't remember exactly what it meant), so we headed to the ER to get it checked out.

Poor Hannah! During the entire 40 minutes we waited at the ER, Hannah laid completely still in Bryan's arms whimpering softly. She would only take a couple bites of the delicious Patterson's pumpkin and apple cider doughnuts we offered her (Best doughnuts EVER, by the way! Andrew wittily pointed out how lucky it was that we bought the doughnuts before we started the pictures!). Once the doctor saw her, he diagnosed Nursemaid's Elbow in a matter of seconds, and said she would be fine once he popped the bone back into place. That didn't sound like anything I wanted to be around for, so I took the boys down the hall to the bathroom. From where I was, I could clearly hear her yelp in pain briefly, then nothing else.

I was anxious to get back to her, and when we did, she was a completely different little girl! She was climbing on the chairs and giggling and I had to chase her (happily) back and forth down the hall as Bryan finished up the paperwork. She was using her arm and waving at strangers while she gobbled a whole doughnut. It was wonderful and amazing to see such a complete and instant transformation after seeing her suffer so much! In pulled elbow, the annular ligament around the radial head (left) is dislodged when the arm is pulled (middle), partially dislocating into the radiocapitellar joint when the arm is released (right).

So we've learned that in order to prevent this very painful experience, you should not grab or swing any child under the age of 6 by the arm. Once Nursemaid's Elbow has happened, the child is much more susceptible to having it happen again. Good to know.

...and hopefully we can find another day soon to get our family pictures taken.