Sick days with littles

It is inevitable that our family will get sick at least once each year. We seem to find the beginning of the school year, despite the fact our kids are not in school, to be when we get hit hard. This year was different though. We actually made it through August, September, and October without getting sick. I thought we were in the clear when the stomach bug reared its ugly head. Our house was hit hard!

For 10 days, each child was sick. 10 days! That was 10 days of intermittent throwing up, constant bathroom accidents and blowouts, fussy sleep deprived children, fevers, chills, aches, and about 8 loads of laundry being washed daily. But, yet, my children still had happy, beautiful moments. Riley found cuddling with stuffed animals (or  mommy) to bring him relief. Payton still threw on her Cinderella dress and watched the movie every chance she got. We also got to see the field across the road bring cows in. The kids now watch daily as the water truck refills their water. Have I mentioned how much we love the country life?

As a parent, having sick kids is really hard. Really, really hard. In the last 10 nights, I have been up at least twice each night. Most nights, I was really up most of the night. With kids throwing up, I was constantly bathing children, changing their clothes, starting laundry, consoling them, cleaning bowls out, and laying with my children until they fell back to sleep. I now feel like I'm in a constant fog and keep praying I don't get the sickness shared with me. When backup (aka my mother, aka grandma) arrived, our house found a new sense of energy and excitement:

We are so blessed to have had my mother come visit and help with me for a few days. It gave us a little bit of change in routine we really needed and she always seems to be a breath of fresh air for us all. She was our saving grace.

The kids both still seem to be recovering but are doing much better. We got out a little this week after spending so much time indoors and feeling quite claustrophobic. It sounds like we only get a few days before snow could hit and send us back indoors again.

We hope you are having a great week and are getting ready for Thanksgiving! I'm hoping to start getting some sleep again at nights soon!

November weather

I am quite surprised that we are still having semi decent days and able to get out to play for the majority of the day. We are soaking up as much time outside as we can before the cold weather and snow comes. A few days ago I pulled out the bubbles for what I believe could be the last time this year. As I watched my children play I was reminded of how fun it is to just watch children be children. That's quite possibly one of the greatest gifts we are given as parents.

So, as you go about your day. Take a moment to watch life through your child's eyes. Their amazement, awe, love, happiness, sadness, and the million of their daily emotions can teach us so much about our life here on earth and the love God has given us.

Halloween 2016

We hope you had an amazing Halloween. Each year, we fall more and more in love with Halloween as our children show more interest and have longer attention spans (well at least in the case of our oldest anyways). Our youngest burned out quickly but he was a trooper as his sister kept going.

Payton really wanted to be a butterfly so, with the help of my mother, we made butterfly wings for her. She wanted her brother to be baby tigger and we decided that would work well for him.

We kicked off the holiday with the trunk or treat in our town on Saturday. On Halloween Monday, I started the day with ghost pancakes. They weren't the prettiest but the kids gave me an A for effort. We went to the nursing home trick or treating that afternoon and then went around to the houses we knew that evening. Payton also had dance class so I let her wear her costume there. For dinner, I made corn dogs and used ketchup to make spooky faces. It was a very festive day all around for us. The kids had a blast and brought home enough candy to last a year at our house.

We woke up today to November 1. How are we already to November? Cheers to a good holiday season that is quickly approaching.