Thankful For...

Well before we head off to Vashon to stuff ourselves full of yummy food I thought I would sit down and document the things I am most thankful for this year:

• My family. I have three beautiful, happy, healthy and wonderful children. A hard working, loving, kind and thoughtful husband.
• My health. I am so grateful to have a body that is capable of getting things done.
• The Gospel. I love having the truth and light in my life and for the blessings of peace I have had this past year with all the other things going on.
• A home. I am so happy to have protection from the elements and a safe place to put my kids to bed every night.
• Nature. Living on a lake I feel I get to enjoy so much nature just in my own backyard and it is a wonderful blessing.
• Life. I am happy to be having experiences that teach me to grow and become better, but also just because life is good and fun.
• Laughter.
• Friends and all my other wonderful family. Wonderful sisters that are both friends and family. Parents who are always great examples and friends.

Parent Teacher Conference

This week we had conferences for the kids and was interesting to hear what the teachers think of my children.

Cannon:
Always trying really hard to master whatever is being taught. (You should have seen how he practiced tying his shoe during church since his dad showed him on Saturday.)
He brings up great questions in class.
He is friends with everyone.
He isn't shy like Miya. (He has her teacher from last year)
He is wonderful to have in class, but he has had to stand on the line for time-out a few times at recess. (I have talked to him about this and the rule of no touching other kids. He loves to hug and so does his best friend in class, but it always turns into wrestling and then time-out.)
He is very respectful of his teacher, Mrs. Jones.

Miya:
She is a great reader.
She is SUPER quiet.
She is always helpful of other students in class.
She loves a challenge.

I am just glad they are both really liking school and we are excited to not have anymore half-days this next week.

Cannon

Well, where to begin? I guess to start a couple of weekends ago when Cannon was sick. He came home from school on Friday not feeling well. Cannon can NOT handle having a stuffy nose. It drives him crazy. He can't sleep, he can't stop sniffing (even though it does nothing), there are lots of tears and screaming and then finally there is a discussion with mom or dad. Everyone in the house hates it when Cannon gets sick. He is not a silent sufferer. Miya can get the stomach flu and you give her a bowl and she just does her business empties her bowl and goes back to sleep. You don't even know how sick she was until the next morning she tell you how many times she was up during the night. Cannon lets everyone know when something is bothering him and he doesn't stop until everyone no longer cares that he doesn't feel well.

Well I kept him home from school on Monday just to be on the safe side. Even though his fever (101.5) was long gone and his cough had settled down. On Tuesday morning I gave him the "sometimes it just takes positive thinking to get feeling better" he just rolled his eyes at that. He had been doing the international sign for choking the entire weekend because his cough was irritating his throat. I told him he needed to put on a happier face to go to school. Well less then an hour later I got a call from the school to come pick him up. That day he tried as hard as he could to act sick...he laid on the couch as long as he could (30 minutes) then he was up and ready to play. This pattern continued on Wednesday with a call from the school. Thursday and Friday he wanted to be at school because he had Fall parties and the ward party on Friday that he knew he couldn't go to if he missed school.

The weekend he was fine. Yesterday I took his temperature before school because he again had on his sick face. 98.6 and off to school we went. The phone rang an hour later...Cannon has a temperature and needs to be picked up. What? Okay. He does have on his sick face when I pick him up and we go talk to his teacher who says, "Cannon said he couldn't go home because he would get in trouble." Me trying to act like he didn't get in trouble last week when he came home and really wasn't sick tried to laugh that comment off. When we got home he ran to the bathroom and went potty. Now Cannon likes to have his time in the bathroom and doesn't really like going at school. (Reason #1 he came home) He came out and asked if he could have some of his candy. (Reasone #2) No. Then he did his homework and started to play. (Reason #3) I started putting two and two together and started asking questions. Cannon did you have PE before they took your temperature? Yes. Did you go straight to the office from the gym? Yes. Where you hot and sweaty from PE? Yes. Now my kids don't normally get super high temperatures, they do however get super hot and sweaty at PE. Cannon's temperature at 103 was the highest he had ever had. I took his temperature at home, it had now been 40 minutes since PE and he was at 98.6 AMAZING. So I did what we all do just to make sure our kid can't pull the sick card for the rest of the year and took him to the doctor.

Now I know that Cannon wasn't sick anymore and while we waited in the waiting room at the dr. office (with people seriously looking like they might die) Cannon was jumping off things and running around. When the doctor came in the room I said, "I am sorry we are here but Cannon needs to hear that everything is okay." Surprise Surprise, Everything was okay. I called the office this morning to let them know that Cannon didn't have a fever yesterday and that I was bringing him back to school this morning. When I told Cannon to get dressed he once again tried to put on his sick face. I informed him that if he wanted to keep staying home from school, home would become a much less fun place to be. He raced to his room, put on his clothes and he has been at school for over an hour now and no call from the office. I still have my fingers crossed.

Tree Removal

So after a few hours and a couple of chainsaws this tree became...

Thankfully Phil's brother Aaron came over on Saturday to help Phil get this tree chopped and out of the water. We started out dry, but it was just a matter of minutes of Aaron arriving that he was wet up to his waist. Phil only has a little electric chainsaw that he had started with before Aaron got there. We laughed at the struggle it had getting through the small branches and that it would have taken years to get through the tree with that thing. Aaron showed up with his big manly gas chainsaw and really got to work. We were super glad the weather was beautiful because the water was pretty cold.

Now we just need to get a chipper and get rid of the piles of tree we still have down on the beach, but we were happy to get as much done as we did before taking the kids out to trick-or-treat.

The Party NEVER Stops

Well it seems that Halloween in the longest celebrated holiday with parties starting the first week of October and extending all throughout the month. We had parties earlier this month, but just this last weekend we had a great ward Halloween party on Friday night. The kids loved all the carnival games and of course all the treats and candy they came home with. Plus we got Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the doughnuts on a string game (totally high class).
Miya was excited about her snow princess costume until she tried it on and it hit her mid-shin. She kept trying to pull it down. I kept trying to tell her that someday she would love having long slender legs, but she didn't believe me Friday night. Cannon really wanted to be a ninja, but we had this costume at home so he was forced to be a Power Ranger.

Lyla didn't really want to be anything and even when I told her she would get candy she just kept saying, "I don't like Halloween" I don't think I put her down for more than 3 minutes the whole party. We had a guy in the ward dressed up as Ronald McDonald (Phil thought this was the best) Lyla however wanted nothing to do with the guy. She doesn't like getting dressed up or seeing others dressed in costume. She still asks me where the Easter Bunny is from last years Easter Egg hunt. She is just making sure he wont pop up at our house unexpected.

Once we got her in costume she did turn on the smiles for the camera though.

Everyone yelling trick-or-treat.

Then on Saturday we went up to Seattle to the old Ward's trunk-or-treat and met up with some friends for food and a movie.

The kids wrapping up to watch a movie while all the adults went outside to watch a scary movie on our friends homemade movie projector. Of course Lyla didn't last long and we only got to watch about 20 minutes of the movie before we had to head home. It was great to see friends and hang out for a few hours at least.

Frankie, Will, Sophie, Miya, Lyla all hanging out watching The Little Mermaid.

The new costumes for Saturday night trunk-or-treat.