Derek's costume

Derek has a twin in our neighborhood!

Well, at least some people think so.

Introducing Derek and Ty!

Every single Sunday someone gets Derek and Ty confused at church.

So for our ward Trunk or Treat Derek and Ty went as each other.

What do you think? Do they look alike?

Go answer the poll over on the right ------->

Happy Birthday Ethan!

OK, so I'm a couple weeks behind on my posts, but I had to post about Ethan's birthday!

For Ethan's party we decided to take the kids to the movies to see G-Force.

Between our 2 cars we can fit up to 8 extra kids.

We sent out 10 invitations figuring that at least 2 kids probably wouldn't come.

Wrong!

Every single guest came, and 2 brought siblings!

We were SO glad that the weather was nice enough to have lunch outside!

The party started with pizza in the backyard.

And wow, those boys can eat!

Ethan received lots of fun gifts.

And we ended with brownies (Ethan's choice instead of cake) and ice cream.

We then loaded all of the kids into the cars.

Luckily my friend Alisha was able to drive too-- we just barely fit everyone.

Our group had 17 people!

We took up 3 rows of seats at the movies!

But everyone stayed put during the entire movie,

and they were all entertained.

It was an ideal movie for this age range.

It was very fortunate that we had counted everyone before the movie,

otherwise we would have left one boy in the bathroom when we were ready to leave.

Everyone ended up having a great time,

and it was a fairly easy birthday party.

The next day we had Ethan's family birthday party

at Grandma's house.

This time he had an actual cake,

and his choice of dinner-- lasagna.

He was very excited to get the new Far World book.

And he was also excited to receive money for his birthday!
He'd been saving his money, and he finally had enough to buy a PSP.

All in all I think he had a wonderful birthday.

Happy Birthday Ethan,

we love you!

Stacation, part 2

Among all of our other activities during Fall Break we were also able to go see

Where the Wild Things Are.

The kids really liked it.

Derek did too.

I liked it but I didn't love it.

But it was still worth it.

And it didn't really feel like we were on vacation... until we spent the night at a hotel in Bountiful.

The kids had tons of fun swimming!

Our last day of Fall Break was spent at a place where we've never taken our kids:

LAGOON!

They've been to Disneyworld tons of times, but never to Lagoon. We thought it was about time!

We were there for Frightmares, and the Halloween atmosphere was a lot of fun.

Julia on the carousel



A family shot near the entrace to the Spider!
(No, I didn't go on this ride.)



Derek and Julia on the Sky Tram

Julia had lots of fun running through the fountains,

and happily she didn't complain about being wet!

Julia loved driving!

And they both liked the Puff the Magic Dragon roller coaster.

We all got to ride on the train together-- one of the few rides I could go on.

(Ethan being a smart aleck)

We, of course, had to visit an occasional Spook Alley.

Some were especially scary for kids!

The kids had so much fun together!

But by the end of the day they were done with big rides.

Derek rode on the Colossus by himself.

We ended the day with these fun souvenirs.

They changed colors, made great sounds, and weren't a bad deal at $5.

I think we'll probably have to take them to Lagoon again next year,

they're already asking!

Staycation, part 1

The kids had fall break last week, so we decided to have a staycation!
It ended up being a little shorter than we had planned since
Julia was still recovering.

We started at Gardener Village.

Julia enjoyed a pony ride (Ethan wasn't interested), and the kids played hide and seek in the hay maze.

The Halloween witches and decorations are so fun!

We stopped by Naborhood Bakery (owned by my Uncle)

and of course ended up at the candy shop!

Derek checking out the BYU blue hot chocolate

We finished up our browsing at Gardener Village

and ended up at Pei Wei for dinner.

YUM!

We then headed to downtown Salt Lake to visit Temple Square.

We went to both Visitor's Centers,

we haven't been there in years!

And we were able to listen to the

Tabernacle Choir's rehearsal.

We had so much fun doing things that

we normally don't have time to do!

A Night in the ER

Julia was sick this past weekend.

It started on Saturday morning

and when she still wasn't able to keep anything down

on Tuesday, we called the doctor.

They told us we needed to take her to the hospital--

four days was too long without fluids.

So Tuesday night around 6pm we first stopped by the Instacare.

The doctor's office had instructed us

to first question the Instacare as to whether or not

they were able to give a pediatric IV.

They weren't.

So we headed to the ER.

Kids under 12 weren't allowed past the waiting room

(except as a patient)

because of possible exposure to the H1N1 flu.

So Derek stayed in the waiting room with Ethan

while I went back with Julia.

I was really impressed with how quickly they took care of us.

The nurse took us right back,

and we saw the doctor within 5 minutes.

They took some blood for testing,

and started an IV.

Julia wasn't thrilled with this part,

she squeezed my hand really hard,

but she was so brave and didn't even cry.

They inserted some anti-nausea medicine into her IV.

And let Julia have a soda 10 minutes later.

(She was SO thirsty!)

I was able to text Derek so he knew what was going on.

Julia had been instructed to take a sip of her soda every 5 minutes.

So every minute or so she would ask me if she could have another drink.

Soon I started letting her have 2-3 sips at a time because she wasn't having any trouble

keeping it down.

Julia was very happy when they let her watch tv

Derek took Ethan to get some food, and then dropped him off at my parents' house and came back over to the hospital to stay with us. When Julia's test results came back the doctor came in and told us that she was extremely dehydrated, most kids had to be hospitalized when at this point of dehydration. He told us that he was going to give her the full bag of IV fluids instead of half as he had originally planned. After hearing this we were SO glad that we had taken her in!

The IV took a couple of hours, and they finally let us go home around 10:00. It was amazing how different her appearance was after the IV. Before she had large black circles under her eyes, and her skin seemed almost sunken in. After she looked a lot more like herself-- just a bit tired. We were grateful that they had let us take Julia home rather than keeping her in the hospital overnight.

Julia is now pretty much back to normal, and we are SO glad!!!

Fall Hike

The red in the mountains has been beckoning us,

so tonight we went up to the canyon for family night.

It was the absolute perfect time to go!

The leaves were just breathtaking everywhere we looked.

It was nice getting out and spending some time together!

When we made it to Timpanogos Falls there wasn't another soul in sight!

We took a little break and enjoyed our picnic dinner.

And eventually we headed back down.

If you haven't been up to see the leaves yet then hurry and go,

it is totally worth it!!

Great deal on a nursing cover!

Just go to http://www.uddercovers.com/ and click on "shop now".

There are 6 patterns available.

Choose the pattern that you'd like and add it to your cart.

Type in promo code "chatter" and you will save $32.

You pay only shipping costs-- $9.

(Thanks to Robyn and Holly for sharing this deal with me!!)

I've already ordered mine,

and I received it really quickly.

I'll be needing it in early April!