Porter Halloween Party

Shane's parents had their annual family Halloween party on the 26th. 

Ryley (the kid's cute, little cousin) was sick and couldn't make it, and she was missed!

Lexi, Damon (he's just over 1 year old), Kaden, and Ari

Candy hunt!

Donuts!

I love this picture so much.

Cutie Damon! (He actually weighs the same as Ari now.)

Janelle doing a marshmallow game.

You have to see how many mini-marshmallows you can transfer with a straw from one bowl to the other in one minute.

It was a really fun night!

Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner

We were invited to a Harry Potter murder mystery dinner on October 25th. I was cast as Professor Umbridge (which I was excited about) and Shane was someone who's name I can't remember (he requested a small character who wouldn't have to speak much).

Our hosts, Sam and Jess, did a combined thing with Sam's sister and her friends. What no one mentioned was that the friends were all hardcore actors who took this a lot more seriously than we did. :/ Oh well.

Sam's sister (naturally red hair on the far right) and her group of friends.

Fun, random fact: The super tall, super hairy guy on the left? I know him. Yeah. He was a grade younger than me in school, but he and I did plays together all throughout high school. I hadn't seen him in ten years, so that was really fun. (He's not normally so hairy. He's in a play somewhere that requires it.)

Our old, married group. From left: Shane, me, Jess (Professor McGonagall), Sam (Ron), Cameron (Draco), Heather (Hermione).

Another fun fact: I know Heather from high school, too. She was in the student body presidency instead of doing plays, but she knew Brandon (hairy guy) as well. Last fun fact: Her husband, Cameron, had an older brother who was in our grade who I knew fairly well. It threw me off all night because they look really similar. 

Jess always goes all out with the decorations.

Jess grabbed my camera and yelled, "SMILE!" before taking a picture really fast. We were all cracking up because we knew her hat would be blocking us all. hahaha

Hatless this time. ;)

It was awkward with all the super-serious actors there who never broke character, but still a fun night! Shane's parents watched the kids for us and took them to the Clearfield Aquatic Center's carnival (no swimming - just games and stuff), then out to Pizza Pie Cafe. Basically, our kids didn't miss us one bit. ;)

Fun Saturday

October 25th was Kaden's last soccer game for the fall season. The only problem? There was a mix-up and the other team didn't show up. All of the parents were saying that they didn't want the kids to have their season end this way, then Shane suggested, "Why don't we have dad's against kids?"

Everyone loved this idea and soon the adults were out there going easy on the kids. ;)

I've never seen those kids panting as hard as they were after that game. haha It was good for everyone involved. Because of his eyes, Shane knocked over two kids and VERY nearly kicked the ball straight into one of their head's before ejecting himself from the game. 

After lunch, Kaden got to go to a Halloween party for a friend from school. I found out from the mom afterwards that she has four kids and a couple of years ago she gave them the option to have one, HUGE Halloween party instead of individual birthday parties. They went for it and loved it so much it's now an annual thing for them. And this family went ALL. OUT. There were two bounce houses, a professional face painter, a balloon guy, a pinata or three, games, and loaded treat bags. Kaden had so much fun!

It was a dress-up party. Now THAT'S face paint!

Later that night Shane and I headed to a Murder Mystery party, but that's for another post!

Voyage Fall Carnival

October 24th was Voyage Academy's Fall Carnival. I was so glad we were finally all healthy so we could attend! Last year it was a blast!

This year, notsomuch.

They took the Halloween part of it out this year, so the decorations were very scarce (which I'm sure was much easier for the PTA, but not as cute) and the games/booths were kinda lame.

Face painting was the worst part of the night.

Last year they hired a guy who came and did an AMAZING job with the face painting. This year it was two moms who used paint-pencil things and drew a moon and stars (badly). Lexi was so sad she didn't get the same princess paint as last year.

 

Ari was nervous to ride by herself.

She loved it once they started going, though.

This hula-hoop game was kind of hard for the kids. Lexi was the only one I saw get the hoops on and she did it by putting the hoop over herself (like in the pic) and flinging it over instead of tossing it. So smart and she got it every time doing it that way.

He wanted to try the rock climbing again this year. He got slightly farther than last year. Baby steps!

I didn't realize I chopped so much of Lexi's head off. Oops!

Cotton candy!

At the end of the day, I might have thought last year's carnival was better, but the kids had a blast at this one, too, so we'll call it a good day overall. :)

J&J Pumpkin Patch

J&J Nursery had their annual pumpkin patch ride (with free pumpkins for canned food donations). It was supposed to be a big family thing, but everyone canceled at the last minute except for us and my older sister, Suzanna. Oh well. We can have fun without everyone else!

We had a really long wait in line (seriously, an hour and a half), but they had some picture areas for the kids so that helped take up two minutes of our time.

Princess Ari

Kaden and Lexi

Farmer Lexi

Farmer Kaden

Princess Lexi

 My mom and her husband came by for about ten minutes, but it was long enough for Grandpa Kent to spoil the grandkids with cookies and soda (from some vendors there).

Lexi is drinking grape soda. Remember that for later.

We got to the front of the line!!

On the tractor ride.

Kaden was the first to find a pumpkin he loved!

Ari wanted to walk to the very back of the field. She kept saying, "C'mon, Mom!"

Lexi thought she found the one...

McKayla's got hers!

...but then she found a better one!

Ari with her pumpkin.

Ari, Kaden, baby Jared, Serenity, McKayla, and Lexi

Serenity cheesin' it up

We had big plans for after this. My dad had invited all of the grandkids over for a movie night and Shane was going to surprise me and take me to Tepanyaki's in Layton (which we LOVE, but haven't been there in forever). Well, remember that grape soda Lexi had earlier? To be honest, I hate grape soda. It smells like cough syrup and tastes like death. But I found out that I'm even less fond of grape soda that has been puked up all over the inside of my van.

Yep. The moment we arrived home to quickly feed the kids dinner, Lexi threw up multiple times inside the van. It. was. awful. I've honestly never smelled anything worse in my entire life.

We canceled all of our plans for the evening and Shane cleaned Lexi up while I cleaned my beloved van up. A few days before this, Ari had been throwing up and was diagnosed with strep throat. I was told that if the other kids (or Shane or myself) start throwing up, it's probably strep and bring them in for an antibiotic shot. So I called instacare and got an appt for Lexi. She threw up every 10-15 minutes from the first time she started puking. Five times in the room at the doctor's office. The doctor came back with the strep test and said it was negative and that this was a vicious stomach bug going around and Lexi would be puking for the next 12-18 HOURS. 

I would have preferred strep.

It actually ended up being about 24 hours of near constant throwing up. Shane and I took shifts throughout the night to stay with her downstairs. And something super fun (yes, that's sarcasm you sense) that was added to the mix around midnight was explosive diarrhea. No joke - Lexi couldn't even make it to the toilet because it came on so fast and forcefully. After about six accidents, I woke Shane up (this was about 2:00 AM) to sit with Lexi while I ran to the store for some anti-diarrhea medicine and some pull-ups. (And some well-deserved treats for the adults.)

Around 5:00 pm Saturday, all the bodily fluids started magically staying inside her again. It was amazing. I swear I could hear angels singing. 

Then Ari started throwing up.

I wanted to cry.

Another very, very long night for Shane and I, although with Ari this time. (And we knew to put her in pull-ups before any accidents could happen. Getting to be pros at this parenting thing.)

For whatever reason, Ari got over the sickness faster than Lexi. Maybe the antibiotics from her strep throat helped out or something. Either way, her near constant puking only lasted about 12 hours. Sunday morning dawned and I planned on spending the entire day heavily sanitizing every surface in our house.

Then Lexi threw up again.

I really did cry that time. We all stayed home from church and Shane kept Kaden as far from the girls as possible. Luckily, Lexi only threw up the one time on Sunday. 

I cleaned. And sanitized. And sanitized again for good measure.

The girls didn't have much of an appetite Sunday or Monday, but I wasn't about to force any food down their throats. Just Gatorade. :)

Monday evening, Kaden starting throwing up.

About an hour later, so did I.

Poor Shane. He dealt with all of Kaden's sickness stuff on his own because I was upstairs the entire night. It was bad for both of us. Around 3:00 AM, I hadn't puked in two hours and was SOOO thirsty. I would have given my left arm for a teaspoon of water in that moment. I came downstairs and Shane said that Kaden had only thrown up a few times, but not for a few hours. I asked Kaden if he wanted some Sprite and he was like, "YESSSS!!!!"

I poured us each a very small glass of Sprite and made us both pace ourselves on drinking it. (It was hard!) Kaden recovered faster than I did, but I got there eventually.

It took me about two weeks to have an appetite again (great for weight loss, by the way). I was really, really weak and shaky for a couple of days after, but at least the puking had stopped!

Shane never got it.

Stupid men with their Herculean immune systems.

No, actually I'm really glad he never got it. I wouldn't wish that sickness on anyone.

So, yeah. That's our horrible sickness story. So glad we're done with it and hopefully won't get any other stomach bugs this winter!