Halloween

Halloween 2009 was a very good one in Iowa. The weather was almost perfect.. just the right amount of cool, no rain, and not too breezy.

With the added stress I've been under lately, I was having a hard time getting into Halloween this year. Which sucks, btw, as Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the decorations, I love to hand out candy to kids, and now I'm really loving taking the girls around to trick-or-treat. Plus any holiday that is pretty much centered on candy cannot be a bad thing right? Well I hadn't put up any decorations, we didn't carve any pumpkins, and I had no idea what the girls were going to dress up for this year.

At the last minute I ran to Wal-Mart and picked a bag of candy to pass out. Ya.. I said "a" bag of candy. I refuse to buy the crap candy and the good stuff is expensive nowadays!! So being on a budget, I had to tell myself that there'd be no handfuls of yummy candy bars for kids this year.. just one piece per kid. (Oh the humanity!!!!) While at Wallyworld I grabbed the girls some costumes. Addie, a pirate princess, and Bethy, an elephant. Not the most unique costumes in the world, but hey they worked. And... my girls can pull of anything!! lol (ok ok I'm a bit biased)

(Don't mind the crappy coloring on the photos.. please refer to the other post about me needing a new camera!!)

I need a new camera!!

So my camera is pooping out on me lately. Most of the pictures I take tend to have some terrible pink thing going on nowadays.. Sometimes I can catch it on a good day, but most of the time it's just not fun.
So you'll please have to excuse the lack of good pictures lately. Hopefully in the next month or two I'll be able to upgrade to a newer and better camera.

Bethany's First Birthday

Today was a pretty good day. This morning I finished up Bethany's cake (well actually I had to remove all the leaves and start over as they did not darken as I had hoped). The family came over for cake and ice cream around 11:30am.

Bethany was not very interested in opening her presents so Addie was "kind" enough to do it for her! Pretty much Addie opened all of them, but that's ok. Beth couldn't have cared less lol. What a good big sister Addie was though!

While not quite sure what to expect when it came to Bethany's first cake experience, I'd have to say it was a little disappointing. She would poke at it and grab it and eat a bit, but nothing dramatic or funny as her older sister had done. Wouldn't that be just like Bethany though? To be such a little drama queen most of the time, but once the spot light is really on her and she has a free chance at making a mess, she just gets all laid back!!

Update on Addie's exostoses

Our visit with the new doctor at Children's Mercy went well today. The doctor was very nice and Addie was very well behaved. He seemed impressed with her ability to sit still and let him touch her.... but ever since her trip to the ER, she's a big doctor fan.

He checked all over her body and actually found 2 more tumors that I hadn't found yet. He said he wasn't too concerned with them as of yet, but we'd need to keep an eye on the ones on her ankle and wrist, because those are the ones that tend to become problematic as they can interfere with the two bones that run next to each other (for example, the ulna and the radius of the forearm). He did not take any x-rays today, but has asked to see her again next year, unless any problems arise, at which point he'll be sending her in for x-rays. He'll also be seeing Bethy then too.

Interesting side note: While asking about our family history and such, he asked if my brothers, who also have MHE, are tall or not. I told him how tall they both were. He found it interesting as apparently most people with MHE are very short because the bones spend so much "energy" making tumors that they don't grow very well. Oh, and we all have a very mild case of MHE. I guess most people that have it have many, many exostoses, which tend to really interfere with living. I suppose that's a good thing for us!

My Green Thumb

Last night my neighbor, Shelly, was able to come over and help me split some plants and transplant them to other places in my yard. She has been talking to me about doing this for some time, but we could never find the time to get it done. So after bundling up Addie we went outside and I learned how to slpit plants. It was ea-sy. Now I'm like ooh I can do that... but will I ever? That is yet to be seen.
It's great because Shelly is really good with gardening and she has so many plans for my yard.. that's right, she has plans for MY yard lol. I am excited. We were also able to find some nice rocks to add to the landscaping for free (again Shelly found them - she's a wonder woman I tell ya). I'll try to get some pictures as soon as I can, but it probably won't look good until spring.. so maybe not.
Addie had a wonderful time playing outdoors though. She got to dig in the dirt, climb on the dirt pile from the construction, and play in the leaves that have just recently taken over my yard. She did faceplant once onto the sidewalk winding up with a bloody nose, but it didn't keep her inside! That girl loves the outdoors.

All Alone Again

Welp, here we are, just the girls and I. Erik is gone for the second week to Mason City for work. Bethy, Addie, and I are managing mostly ok, although I had hoped to transform into some sort of super mommy during the past week that was able to not only work full-time, but have a spic&span clean house, spend oodles of time with my girls, and have lots of left over time to do crafts or catch up on shows. For some reason that didn't work out though, I'm not sure why....

Erik was able to come home from MC this weekend which was nice. He helped me get on top of the housework finally, gave me time to get the grass cut one last time, and we were able to hang out some and watch the Chiefs lose.. again.

Tonight he took off and I'm feeling pretty sad right now. It's not like we've not done this a bazillion times in our lives.. first the Marine Corp, then college, then the new job, then the pregnancy, now the job again. We won't be seeing him again for about 2 weeks this time as we're heading down to KC for Addie's appointment at Children's Mercy this coming week. It's only two weeks, and I'm grateful that it's not more, but man I'm pretty depressed. When will we ever get to lead a "normal" life? Never. Even when it all settles down and I no longer have to work, we'll still be playing the every other day game with him gone on the railroad. It's a choice we've made and we'll deal, but please excuse me this one complaint tonight.

Addie has been enjoying sleeping in my bed.. well at least falling asleep in my bed when daddy's gone. I will admit, I really enjoy it too. She is just so nice to cuddle up to nowadays. It fills my heart with warmth and happiness to just look at her and chat with her there. Her latest word/sentence fad? "Cut it out". While I'm tickling her she'll say "Cut it out mommy." It's the cutest thing. Doh, speaking of.. there she is not sleeping. Off to rescue her.

Mommy Date?

So this may seem a bit cheesy but I think I've set up a "mommy date" for next weekend while I'm in KC. Woot. I never get to go out.. especially without the girls. And the awesome part is I can actually stay out past their bedtime because I trust my mom with the girls and bedtime. Normally I hate leaving them with people other than Erik or I around that time of night. It's just our special time and I enjoy putting my kids to sleep (most of the time lol).

Soooo hopefully I'll be able to get this thing all set up and meet up with some awesome women from BabyCenter while I'm in town. I've made so many friends from that site, it's funny.. but cool.