Thankful!

I am grateful for so many things, and while the company was great in Kansas, I am mostly thankful to be HOME!! This innocent looking monster in-disguise
is crazy!! She screamed for over an hour on our flight over, nothing could soothe her. The looks of death I received from other passengers are sure to go down in my long-term memory in the "frightened for my life" file. There were a few kind fellow travelers. One told me as I stood up trying to jump out of the aircraft before it had come to a complete stop, "You did good, Mommy." It made me loose any composure I had struggled to maintain! The nights with little Brenna were spent half of the time in the car, as Dave drove her around and pacified her so the other hotel guests could rest, and she also gave us the opportunity to visit the local ER. She fell into the entertainment center at the hotel and hit an artery of some sort because the blood was gushing in pulses. She is fine and only needed a drop of glue, which I didn't feel comfortable administering myself. The only picture we took is the following at a LDS Church history site. I can't believe we didn't take any with Amy and Jason's family. Next time, I guess, hopefully that will be sooner than 5 years or so!
Best parts of the trip: spending time with family we never see, having our kids meet their cousins for the first time, listening to Grant and Katelee reciting "Charlie Bit My Finger" (from the Youtube video), British accents included, as we flew home, eating a delicious meal and having my pies turn out this year!, visiting Liberty Jail, and taking time to be truly grateful...amidst the chaos! You will be happy to learn that Brenna Catherine is now grounded and on restriction from any further air travel.

Football Fans

We have enjoyed going to the Utah football games this season. Dave took Katelee to one, Grant to a home game, he has gone a couple of times with friends, and I took my friend, Alisha to one. He and I are going to the BYU/Utah game at the end of the month, but last weekend Dave and Grant took a little excursion to Chicago and South Bend. They went to Medieval Times to see a dinner show full of knights and jousting and swords. From the talk that has gone on since, I think it just may have been one of the highlights of Grant's life thus far! I am guessing he is going for the rotted tooth/decay infested mouth of the Dark Ages with his discolored teeth here! The next day Dave took Grant to the Utah vs. Notre Dame football game. While the football game itself was less than desirable....they had a great time! Dave said the Notre Dame fans were so nice and welcoming and really friendly. (I think some people here-both of the blue and red associations could learn a thing or two from them!). While the boys were away, oh yes the girls did play!!! We had a girls night on Friday, which consisted of my mom, Shannon, Katelee, Brenna and I doing our toenails and playing games. I do not have an affection for Candyland, but Horton Hears a Who is a riot! The next day I planned a date with Katelee to go to a movie. She didn't want to go with just me. She kept asking and asking who else could go...I am not going to lie, she hurt my feelings...but she was quickly forgiven and we ventured out on the town. The boys got back just in time for church and we are off next week as a family to Kansas for Thanksgiving.

Goodbye Gluten

The results are back, the surgery over and it's official. Katelee has celiac disease. She is going gluten free. The diet will be a bummer at first (and at times later-birthday parties, school lunches, church snacks, etc) but we will adjust. I am so glad we found out what was wrong. She was in a lot of pain and it was so sad. Many people with celiac don't manifest the excruciating symptoms, but the damage is still being done to their insides and attributing to higher risks of other dangerous illnesses-cancer (lymphoma), thyroid disease, anemia, internal bleeding, malnutrition, etc. Anyway, we are working on not cross contaminating her food from ours. Here she is pre-surgery at Primary Children's: It's a disturbing sight seeing your child go under anesthesia and flopping around the table like a fish. But the grape scented gas worked, and she was off to sleep in no time. She woke up very unhappy but was back to her happy self by the end of the day. If anyone has super great bread/rolls/cakes/cookie recipes that are gluten free, please share! Also, here is Grant after his school play. He was obviously Benjamin Franklin. For some reason, he isn't wearing the pink barbie glasses I gave him to wear for his big speaking part. He looked dashing and spoke ever so eloquently!

Trick or Treat!

We had a fun Halloween, with lots of treats...I thought I would show Brenna's trick-her walking. If you would like to see videos of this click here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae_3FhT3QtU or here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSMIf04Ghhg She is 8 months, won't sleep through the night, or eat well, or grow teeth or hair, but she is on the move! Here are our costumes this year, as well:

Katelee the spooky Ghost
Grant was Vader, Darth Vader (yes, he introduced himself like that)
Me the witch (I know, I know, why didn't I dress up?!) Brenna was a bumble Bee on Halloween and a pumpkin for some of the parties-two costumes, what a lucky girl.
Dave wanted to be a lost soul...misguided and confused...one neighbor just said he was dressed like a loser, assess for yourself!

Spooky Stuff...

Our month has been thus far filled with fun and frightful activities! We love picking out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, taking field trips with preschool,
and going to Cornbelly's. We have also been happily watching this little one taking steps. While it is adorable, at times I feel like it is slightly disturbing! She just seems too tiny!

We also love going to see the witches every year. Good times...

I have always thought the boys in our family were a bit more on the scary side, but this year, us girls take the cake. I have come to this conclusion due to the following examples:
Brenna-She seems to have an affinity for creatures of the night! She still insists on night time feedings! Me: Apparently, my hair is unruly. (Really, I already was aware of that, Grant just pointed it out to me the other day.) We were discussing how we could style his mop for crazy hair day and he answered he could just do it like mine...how I was wearing it right then...which is normal for me. Yikes.


Katelee: The other night I heard Katelee get up and go the bathroom. After I heard her conclude her business, I was certain she returned to bed. I discovered I was wrong when I heard snip snipping right by my ear. I awoke with a start, to find Katelee Edward Scissorhand-like with dangerous object in hand. Good thing I just opened my eyes and didn't sit up when she whispered my name because I quite possibly could have been injured! She calmly said, "mom, here are my scissors. They were in the bathroom." It was a sweet delivery, just very unsettling in the dark and at 3am. Hope your Halloween Haunts are fun!