Thanksgiving 2011

We started out the month with Keaton's Birthday. Can you BELIEVE he turned 6. He was pretty excited! We were really happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Palmer up for the celebration!

Living away from family has been really hard around holidays. We have found it best to "get the heck outta here". For Thanksgiving the last 2 years we have gone to Portland. It was really fun. This year we went to the Portland Zoo. It is really a fabulous zoo. The only bummer was I had surgery 2 weeks before so I wasn't getting around too well.

I really don't know how this got in the middle....blogger changed. Annie also started ballet classes in November. She LOVES the ballerina training she is getting! She is a natural!

Lee and the kids sizing up the bears. You can see Tessa was not too impressed :)

Tessa and Annie "matching". They love to stay in a hotel....especially when they can SWIM!

Lee and I took turns going to the Portland Temple. I had a pretty great experience there. It is a lovely Temple. Annie always wants to have her picture taken at a "Princen Temple".

Savannah

This is from the here and now. I know I risk putting this out of order but this serves as our family journal and I don't want to forget this experience.
Savannah has always been a very careful special child. She picks up on things and understands things way beyond her years. On St. Patty's day I painted foot prints on the toilet and tried to pass it off as leprechaun footprints. Keaton fell for it completely. Savannah looked at me, saw a TINY dot of paint on my leg said nothing but pointed at it and shook her head at me. I tell this story just to remember how she looks at details and sees things other kids miss.
This month Savannah has been suffering with her ears again. We were told to do the "drops" and they didn't do anything. After that we tried antibiotics and they also did nothing. The Pediatrician said that there was a HUGE build up of blood on the ear and that she did not have the skill or tools to take it off but that was probably causing the pain. She suggested that I take Annie to the ENT. We made an appointment and waited in pain for the day to come. She woke up every night in pain up to the appt. day. The night before she was up 3 hours. It gave me plenty of time to panic about the appt. The pediatrician said that any other drops would be painful so they would probably have to do some sort of "procedure" to remove the dried blood and Savannah would probably freak. I was worried how I would comfort Savannah and get her through it and take care of Tessa. I thought about who I could call to come take Tessa. I prayed that it would all be fine. I thought of a bunch of ladies and my thoughts kept coming back to Jewel a gal I visit teach. I kept dismissing it thinking she has a new baby too and a lot on her plate so she couldn't help me. The thought came again, "Jewel will be there and it will be fine". We drove up to her appt. the next morning. I was nervous. You can imagine my surprise when Jewel was walking into the building at the same time as me. She had an appt for her son at the same time. We visited in the waiting room and I told her about the thoughts from the night before. You have to know Jewel to know that she is really laid back easy going gal. She put me at ease.
We went into the appointment and the Doctor said we don't have a ton of choices. The blood is causing the pain and we have to get it off. He said we could put hydrogen peroxide in her ears 2x a day for 4 days but the pain is unbelievable and after the first time she would freak when I got near. He said though the only other option would be for him to remove it with his tools. He said it was also very painful and he didn't have many patients that could tolerate it awake. She would have to hold still and that would be near impossible. I asked for a minute to talk to her. I was very calm and peaceful because I knew Jewel was there if I needed her. I put Tess in her stroller and pulled Annie on my lap. I told her I would lay on the procedure table and that she could lay on me. I told her the Doctor had gone to school for a long time to know how to help peoples ears. I told her that she would have to hold perfectly still so the Doctor could help her pain. She looked at me and agreed. I lay down and held her close. The Doctor had 2 nurses come in to hold her down. I told him that would not be necessary but would freak her out. I said she would be fine. I sang to her in her ear and patted her hair. It was unreal she flinched her leg on time. I reminded her to hold still. She didn't move after that, she didn't cry out, she didn't do anything. He removed the first big chunk of blood. He checked his work and he told me he didn't get it all. He was worried she would freak. He had to go back in 3 more times and took an amazing amount of blood out. Each time she held still. The Doctor and the nurse were AMAZED. They had never seen someone so young with such self control (they had never been around my Annie). They had never seen such bravery from someone.
Heavenly Father answers prayers. He knew Annie needed me calm. He was right Jewel was there if I needed her (and what I needed was to keep me calm for Ann). He knows my sweet little girls heart and her bravery. I am thankful that I get to be Annies Mom and I am excited to see who she grows into!

Halloween 2011

Well, this blog is serving as my families journal so as much as I would like to just start where we are at I would hate to loose those memories we made over the Fall. Fall in our neck of the woods is FABULOUS. We loved all the Fall Festivals and pumpkin patches. They were all free to cheap and really made our fall!!

This festival had a huge hay pyramid with a slide down it. Lee climbed with the kids to the top. They had such a great time sliding down and getting hay all over EVERYTHING!
Little Tessi just liked to be outside. She was pretty happy watching the kids :)
The other thing we loved along with picking apples, pears, blueberries, walnuts, pumpkins, etc. was pressing our own cider. This farm here gave us the pre-picked apples for free, let us use their old press and then we could take the cider in our own bottles. Why is it that anything free tastes so much better to me? We have squirreled away the cider in our deep freeze and pull it out for truly special occasions :)
I have really focused this year on getting healthy. After a diabetes scare and a pretty bad pregnancy I decided enough was enough. I love this picture because it reminds me how great I am feeling. I RAN with Keaton through that maze. I couldn't have ran 10 feet the year before!
Savannah wanted to be Cinderella for Halloween. I cut up the tablecloths from Lee and I's wedding and made her a dress and cape. For Halloween I let her wear my wedding tiara (what else am I going to do with it?!?!?). She was so thrilled. Tessa was an Elephant (which all 3 were for their first Halloween).
This is an even better picture of Annie's costume and cape. Please note her sparkly shoes!
Keaton was a pirate. He looked pretty cute. I made a lot of his costume too. I even dressed up as a witch this year. I think it is the first time I bothered in 10 years or so. It was kinda fun. I think I will do it again next year! We moved the day after Halloween so I am glad we filled up October before we had to get to WORK!