comes in 3's

what to do, what to do???

Since last Wednesday we have been stuck inside our house and we've all been going a little stir-crazy since we usually like to be on-the-go! We have watched too much TV, too many movies, baked too many goodies, read lots of books, cooked some really yummy soup recipes (if anyone wants a good tomato soup recipe let me know), and since we had to miss our friends' Halloween Party tonight, we made our own little party right here in the comfort of our own home!! I'm sure we really missed out, but we have another one planned for Friday that we hope we can make it to! When you have cabin-fever, sometimes the littlest things seem to make you happy! Today was a great mail day! We got a couple of packages (thanks G-Ma and G-Pa Howard!), some Halloween cards, and the kids got their Highlights Magazines!! Yee-haw! The things that bring joy to a sick household! You would have thought it was Christmas morning! But, I have to say that we have also enjoyed each other's company. If I had to be stuck with anyone for a solid week, I'm sure glad it's with my amazing kiddoz!! Here are a few things that have kept us sort-of busy!

Lots of napping!

I canned for the first time!! Tomatoes- and it was surprisingly fun!

This was the stash we got in the mail today (minus the candy the kids had already scarfed down!)

Again....when you are bored, it's the little things that bring joy to your day!

Just to get some fresh air, we drove around and went on a leaf hunt! KJ made a leaf monster and Jack and Olivia made a collage. This was actually one of their highlights of the week. Did I say we were bored?!

Halloween Cookies are always a hit!

For FHE, we did the whole pumpkin thing, the kids are all old enough to help get the slimy stuff out and pick out the yummy seeds! We had lots of fun!

Then we made some yummy pumpkin muffins with cream cheese topping for dessert!

The kids have also had fun moving our friend Jack Skellington around!

The boys are all better (besides some coughing), and livie is developing a cold (no fever yet), so we're hoping that's all it turns out to be. I am still in the clear, and keeping my fingers crossed. We are no longer contagious and can't wait to get back to our routines on Wednesday...seeing as we all stay healthy!!

Woo-hoo!

The Inevitable....

These have been my best friends this past week!

I've learned that no matter how many bottles of Purell you go through, there are just some things that are inevitable when you have 2 kids in school and 3 kids in Primary. Yes, we have Swine Flu in our home (H1N1). Poor little Jack started with it during the night a couple of nights ago. He had a really croupy cough and was having a hard time breathing, so I called the on-call Doctor and he told me to bundle him up, and go sit outside so that he could breathe in the cold air. And YES, it was COLD! Jack was NOT happy about this, seeing as it was 4 in the morning! So, we sat on the porch swing and I had to sing him songs to keep him quiet so we wouldn't wake all the neighbors! After 45 minutes or so, his cough seemed to calm a little, so we came inside opened the family room windows and both Sliding glass doors, turned down the thermostat and relaxed on the couch with the humidifier. He was able to fall asleep and breathe a lot easier for the next couple of hours. I called the Doctor's office as soon as they opened and we headed down there for Jack to get checked out. As most of you know, Jack's little body has a hard time with sickness, so we have to jump right on it when he starts to come down with anything. Turns out, he has Swine Flu. The Doctor told us that it is most likely that we will all end up catching it since we've all been exposed to it, so he gave us extra Tamiflu Rx's for the kids. Jack was also put on a steroid to help with his respiratory/breathing. 3 doses of Tamiflu later, he's doing much better, his temp has dropped to 100.6!!! It's amazing what modern day medicine can do for us! I am so grateful. So I got the kids down for bed and KJ had a headache and started coughing...uh-oh. His temp rose from 100 to 101.6 to 102.8 within half an hour. I gave him his Tamiflu (luckily I had it on hand), some tylenol and kept checking him during the night to make sure his temp didn't get too high. He had another dose this morning and is just tired and achy all over. We are quarantined to our home for about a week or so, so we're laying around being lazy and watching a lot of movies and Nickelodeon! At least now that we have been exposed I don't have to worry about protecting the kids from it any more and don't have to be as anal about hand sanitizing!! One less thing to stress about, I guess?! Here are some pictures of our first couple of days and what we've been doing, a whole lot of nothing!

(most of you could probably care less about this post, but I just wanted to document it for ourselves so we can look back one day and remember what this whole Swine Flu craze was all about!)

Jack on the way to the Doctor's office

They made him wear this mask everywhere, he hated it.

(these are cell phone pictures, so they are kind of blurry)

Turns out Tamiflu is really expensive (even with insurance) but when their temperatures were spiking it was worth the $198.66. Someone out there needs to make a generic already! Plus the steroid has really helped Jacks breathing! Here's our stockpile of meds that we keep handy!

These are what the next few days will look like! The kids keep watching all the Nickelodeon and Disney commercials and have all their Christmas wish lists already! Those advertisers really know what they're doing!

Keaton was trying to prevent catching the bug from Jack, with no avail :(

Poor guy is miserable, but it only gets better from here.

Olivia is a trooper and hasn't had a temp yet, but I'm keeping an eye on her and just waiting for her turn to come :( Wish us luck! We'll be anxious to get out of the house and play when this is all gone and done with!

Fall is in the air...

It's that time of year again; the leaves are changing, it gets dark right after dinner, the mornings bring a layer of frost on the lawn, hot chocolate is a nightly craving, crock-pot stew dinners 'hit-the-spot', we put a thicker comforter on the bed (which makes it even harder to get up in the morning), our tans are fading, we are getting used to our school routines, we have the thermostat changed from AC to heat, we are breaking out our fall/winter clothes & putting away our flip-flops, we are in the mood to bake more goodies (is this the reason it's so easy to put on a 'winter-coat' every year?!), and we seem to crave watching movies cuddled up under the blankets!! It's also that time of year for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch! We were sad that we weren't able to make it to our traditional pumpkin patch in Oregon (which we've been going to for the past 7 years), but we've found a new one this year here in the Boise area, and we all had a great time. I'm sure it will be our new traditional destination, it was just perfect! We were so lucky that we had a fabulous weather day. It was 78 degree t-shirt weather while we searched for the 'perfect' pumpkins!! Here are some snapshots from our 'punkin' day!

(as usual, click on the collages to enlarge)

Dan and I would both love to live at a place like this one day.

The kids excited to get to our destination!

What's a 'punkin' patch without a corn maze?!

We took a hay ride to where the pumpkins were!

It took the kids a while to pick our their 'perfect' pumpkin!

The kids favorite part of the day was this tractor pull ride.

Showing off their prizes!

Halloween is just around the corner.....can't wait!!!

Short....but very Sweet!

We had a really enjoyable weekend spent with great company. Dan's parents drove to Boise from Illinois for a fun visit! We are lucky enough to get to see them at least once, sometimes twice a year!! This trip was shorter than usual, but we enjoyed every minute of it! The kids just can't get enough of them. They were 'wired' from the minute they got here, last Wednesday, until this morning when they drove away. They were full of jumping, laughing, screaming, dancing, wiggling, eating, playing, and eating some more!! It was really cold, wet, and rainy all weekend so we had to do indoor activities, but still managed to keep busy and have fun. Here are some of our favorite moments from our weekend together.

We spent our first day at the Discovery Center, a perfect place for a rainy day!

And the kids talked G-ma and G-pa in to taking them to Toys R Us. They each got to pick out a toy. KJ got a microscope, Jack got a Thomas music book (surprise, surprise), and Olivia got a cute my-size ballerina! Can you say, "Spoiled"?!

One of our many yummy meals!

We went to see 'CLOUDY with a chance of MEATBALLS' in 3D, we all loved it!

Olivia can't wait to see this movie!

On our lazy Sunday we played games, ate good food, watched movies and gobbled up the ice cream!

We learned a very good money saving tip, don't buy toys, just get kids a box to play in! Hours of fun for no money at all!

Drive home safe Grandma and Grandpa, and thanks for coming to visit!!!

We miss you already :(