And so it begins

This is what we woke up to this morning the kids were so excited but by the time we woke up it had turned from snow to rain... our ski resort isnt going to be to pleased with all their expensive snow being melted away by the rain... i probably wont be posting for a couple days my key board bit the dust im posting now with the on screen keyboard and it takes FOREVER!!! anyways have agood thanksgiving everyone

tata

Prayers a plenty

So I know we are on the East coast and so it's kinda the middle of the night for everyone who probably reads my blog but I'm requesting some prayers.. Hunter has a Dr's appt today he's totally fine and will be FINE and i wish I could say what we were going in for exactly but I'm feeling like my little Man wouldn't want me to share this bit of trouble he's had his whole life on the world wide blog.. those close to us probably know and if you don't well just give little prayer that things at the Dr will go smoothly and the wheels of slow diagnosis and resolution will be swift, correct and lasting... and He has had this issue his whole life but he's getting to an age where it could create some issues for him (we've been treading water up until now) so it's time to take action..
I haven't been worried one bit about this Dr's visit until last night when I had some AWFUL dreams that had Hunter going to Boston to the Children's hosp for urologist appts and surgery which are TOTALLY the WORST case scenario's and anyway we have an EXCELLENT hospital just a half an hour away that I know for a FACT has pediatric urologists so the going to Boston although wouldn't be the end of the world is just un probable and my TOTAL neurotic tendencies and our history with Children's hospital brings up a FEAR beyond all others (for clarification we LOVED LOVED LOVED our Children's hosp with Lane it's just a trigger!)
so maybe I'm needing a few of those prayers for ME so I'll probably update this before ANY of you are even awake so don't fret I promise all will be well..
Ta, TA

UPDATE: Back from the Dr. the visit went well.. Hunter's Anatomy is PERFECT so nothing a urologist or any other Dr. would/could fix.. we have a new prescription and a new game plan.. Dr was very delicate with Hunter and Hunter took an active roll in the discussion.. Hunter's Mom has chilled out and is feeling much better!... this parenting thing can get rough.. who knew!
thanks for all your support and prayers.. luv ya....

KayLea's Birthday is DONE!!!

So KayLea had her friend party yesterday and we all have fun hangovers today... we had 10 kids she invited her whole class (12 kids) plus one friend from church for some reason I couldn't remember my hard rule as to why we don't invite the "whole class" the last time I was talked into this maddness was Hunter's 6th birthday party... is it something like not remembering how much having a baby hurts when your contemplating having another?? of coarse Hunter's 6th b'day class was twice as big as KayLea's so I justified it in my mind I think.. but I digress.

the Theme for her party was "Mad Hatters Tea Party" because when KayLea has been planning this party in her mind for the last few months she wanted a "fancy Nancy tea party" which is a very girly theme.. when School started she discovered her very best friend at school is Kevin a boy, so she was torn as to what to do she has also really formed great friendships with all her class mates.. so we fiddled a bit with the theme and made it a boy girl party..

I think the kids had fun, we made Mad Hatter Hats (thanks Mom for giving me the idea about the plates.. it took a google search but I found a variation of what you described) the boys helped by decorating the house with streamers (they also helped clean!) and Ben made a REALLY good cream cheese frosting for the cup cakes.. the boys also tried to do games but the kids weren't really into the games they just wanted to run around the house and play.. KayLea got lots of fun presents and 90 minute party seemed to pass by very quickly and all the kids were gone.. the house was in a little bit of shambles but really it didn't take long to get it back together and we are good for another year..

a few things we discovered.. as much as KayLea likes the boys in her class it seemed like the boys all congregated together and the Girls did the same.. so I think next year I'm not giving in and we'll do just a "girl party"

all in all it was a fun, exhausting, entertaining day KayLea had a blast!

ta ta

letter of the law vs. spirit of the law

So Brad has been ready to advance in scouting getting both is first and second class rank advancement oh for about 6 months now.. the hold up.. his scout leader was out of town the whole summer (he's a law student) THEN he was promptly released (AFTER he returned) and was hard to track down for a few months to sign his book and for some reason NO ONE else would sit down and talk with the boy and vouch that he had done these seemingly simple things (which in reality each individual thing was not so hard the on the hole was ALLOT).. ANOTHER hitch was our then scoutmaster was working a job where he was working tons of hours and wasn't available for many weeks then he moved leaving us with out a scoutmaster and the combo of it all put the whole program into kind of a tale spin.. we NOW finally have a new scoutmaster and the boys really like him but he's REALLY into scouting which on the whole is an AWESOME thing BUT he's also a stickler; in Brad's scoutmaster conference to get the for mentioned 1st and 2nd class rank advancements he asked Brad to show him some kind of knot which was passed off with a date way back in December of last year Brad couldn't show him the knot and so he wouldn't pass off the conference.. I was supportive of the leader in front of Brad saying "YEA you need to work on those" but REALLY FRUSTRATED with in my own mind and thoughts (don't worry i'm repenting)..
THANKFULLY in our scout committee meeting today I repeated a condensed version of the whole saga of why it's taken so long for Brad and some of the other boys to get these seemingly simple rank advancements completed and WHY some of the recollection of the elements of the advancements might be a little fuzzy and he understood and said he'd consider the scoutmaster conference done and let him advance BUT he'd still work on those knots with Brad because in his words "its ridiculous for a 1st class scout to not know the **whatever i can't remember the name** knot" in which I whole heatedly agree..

The other issue we have in the Fox home.. Ben didn't really do scouts he went to scout camp a few years in a row and got the EXACT same merit badges each year. he doesn't even remember what rank he made it to.. he was very into soccer and he had some leaders that insisted he choose which he did.. Soccer.. and so although we whole heartly support Brad and want him to succeed in scouting, it's as long as he's into it etc. we aren't going to be the type of parents who will prevent him from getting his drivers license or what ever else parents are doing these days to bribe their boys into getting their Eagles.. I want brad to get his Eagle as long as HE wants to get his Eagle.. enough said on that my only point with this is when I told Ben what our Scoutmaster said about the knot he basically said knots are knots who needs to know more than one way to get two pieces of roap to stick together.. then I reminded him that he knew several knots to get a fishing hook to stay on the line etc.etc.. he then gave me that look.. and said.. "those are useful knots!" HAHAHA!!! i guess you remember whats important to you..

So the lesson learned here.. I'm not quite sure yet.. that maybe the letter of the law is always good and OFTEN necessary.. but when a Mom pleads your case in regards to the Spirit of the Law and is NICE and not bit&&y then allot can get done...
ta ta

Busy Birthday for her or me??

So KayLea's Birthday is passed, She got to open ONE present in the morning (the sweater she's wearing in the pic's) although she wasn't too happy it wasn't toys (she was told she had to wait for the "toys" for when Daddy got home from work) she managed ok.. we went out to breakfast (Dunkin Donuts) and then she picked her favorite lunch (McD's) then off to school.. she brought in yummy brownies for her class and she had a GREAT DAY she came home to a Lasagna dinner and yummy brownie sundae's for her desert (does this girl know how to pick a birthday dinner or what?).. Then she opened markers for her doodle bear, an art set and some hair stuff and fun lip gloss (she has one more "big" presant waiting for her party) I had to quick sing happy birthday and eat quick cuz Brad and I had to skedaddle to the Church for a Temple Trip Ben was gracious enough to deal with the mess and kids so I could go with the youth.. did I mention I HAVE A GREAT HUSBAND!!! he actually had to wake up super early this morning for work and won't be home until VERY late tonight so yea, I'm sure he wasn't super excited for me to just take off amidst birthday kayos but he fared pretty well..

So I'm not sure we were the smartest parents on the planet KayLea's friend party isn't until next sat (Ben's work schedule couldn't handle a party today) so I'm sure we'll be in Birthday bliss for another week here in the Fox home but somehow it always seems KayLea's birthday lasts pretty much the whole month of Nov!
I'm recovering from little sleep but I'm a proud momma for sure!
Ta TA

Random Scattered Thoughts

So My thoughts are a little scattered this evening, Mostly because I'm worried I'm going to forget that we have a day off of school tomorrow... are we the only ones who have the freakish week of going to school Monday after a weekend then having tomorrow Veterans day observed on TUESDAY, come on people doesn't anyone realize the practicality of a 3 day weekend?? but I'm not going to b'grudge a day off of school i guess, not sure what we are going to do we FORCED the children to clean their little fingers to the bone this weekend so the house isn't looking too shabby a few touch ups and I think maybe a movie is in order but I don't have a clue whats playing any suggestions for the 6-13 crowd??

My hair is in desperate need of a cut again BUT because the original cut was NOTHING what i asked for I'm resisting, I need a little more length but short stuff in the back close to my neck is getting outrageous.. I've hit the "ugly stage" in the worst possible way.. I'm thinking of going in (insisting on anyone EXCEPT for who did it last) and asking for JUST the back done.. I'm sure that can't happen but a girl can dream can't she!?

My little baby girl is turning 6 on Friday, can you believe it?? I can't!!! I had a moment last week, she for some reason was very cuddly and she fell asleep in my arms, I'll admit i got a little teary just holding her realizing that her time where she'll cuttle with me might be running out.. I've never felt sad that I won't have any more kids it was a complete answer to prayer BUT it's that i am completely and utterly Totally out of Baby mode.. we don't have a stash or baby seats or pack and plays in the attic or basement.. when KayLea and the boys grow out of clothes that still have some life they go straight into the give away pile and not in cataloged boxes to be saved for more kids.. KayLea is a great girl and is kind and sweet and Very EAGER to learn just about everything she can.. She can also be a thorn in her brother's sides at the drop of a hat BUT in return her brothers defend her at even the hint of anyone being mean to her.. I pitty the boy who tries to date her..

KayLea came to our lives when we desperately NEEDED her.. we had prayed and prayed for a Healthy baby our hearts had been shattered in a million pieces and were it not for the VERY strong promptings that we had ONE more child waiting for us we might have just settled on the family we already had to not tempt our Hearts being broken in 2 million pieces, I have even admitted that I prayed for a girl, I felt VERY justified in this what i figured was a righteous desire due to the fact that the Heart Defect Lane had was more predominate in boys (purley statistical there is really no medical reason why more boys that girls have his particular defect).. We tried and tried and what seemed to be an answer to prayer we got pregnant, it resulted in a miscarriage and not a pretty one (is there such thing?) and we had to wait 6 months to "try" again, you might as well have told us we had to wait a hundred years I was upset etc. etc. it had taken us QUITE a few months (almost 7-8 i think) to get pregnant and our hearts had been broken again BUT I knew we had another child to add to our family.. this time I prayed for a Child not a girl, not a boy heck as long as what ever would grow in my body had a 4 chamber heart and was healthy I really didn't care what we had.. on my 6th month visit to get the OK to go ahead and try again I WAS PREGNANT.. I even have to admit it was a pretty smooth pregnancy except for my wild imagination and doing fetal movement counts every night in bed.. we had every sonogram known to man to make sure she was healthy and Ben and I both cried when we saw those chambers of the heart and SHE WAS A GIRL.. I could admit then that i REALLY wanted a girl but of coarse we would have loved another boy anyway.. she came right on time and she healed our hearts.. I know babies shouldn't be born in to this world to be or do anything for anyone else BUT she did we gave her Lane's name as her middle name so she would know she had a brother that she would only meet in pictures and stories but who was so much apart of our forever family..

I've rambled and for that I'm sorry it's been an emotional week for me really having LITTLE to do with KayLea's birthday but i'm feeling better and I guess I just had to get it all out!
ta ta

Hip-Hip-Horray!~

THE ELECTION IS OVER..

Ok I know I'm a few days late but I seem to be a BUSY girl these days so ya.. So of coarse the person I voted for didn't win but to be honest I'm not feeling like it's the end of the world.. Maybe because I have a very cynical view of both the candidates and I'm fairly certain that our new president won't be able to do nearly what he's promised.. I'm not so much worried about his tax plan mostly because again I'm not so sure things are going to change all that much.. if I'm wrong don't worry I'll whine and complain because you see I VOTED so i get to whine and complain if things go bad..

Last night in Relief Society I and my friend somehow got into a political conversation with another lovely lady who I do like very much.. she basically said it was another sign of the last days.. I don't think THIS is a sign I think there are FAR more signs that this MIGHT be sort of the last days but I'm wondering if my upbringing and my parents far more liberal view of the last days (and mostly questioning ANY time someone said something like that) has more to do with my opinion that I can only do what I can do, if I'm living the way I know i should (but lets face the facts, i am in NO WAY perfect) I'm not going to be able to do anything about it being the last days or not and if i AM trying to live the best life etc. etc. it won't be a terrifying prospect will it?? I'm not sure all of that made since.. Yes there are terrible things going on in the world no doubt about that.. YES our very belief's are sometimes held up for reticule and judgement BUT I am but ONE person holding hands with 4 others (my family) doing what we can do... Maybe it's not enough but it is what it is..

So I don't think it's the end of the world.. I'm more curious than nervous or scared.. I might just have to bookmark this to remind myself but that's life.. we'll just have to wait and see! as far as the blues i was/am feeling, I don't know I'm still uptight about the stockmarket, our retirement, money in general but again i'm not so sure the other guy would have made that much diff either..
ta ta

Halloween in a Small town and I mean SMALL

So actually trick or treating in our own community (technically the one community over but who's keeping track) was an interesting thing.. the last few years (it was our 3rd Halloween this year) we've either used the ward trunk or treat as our trick or treating or last year we went to a friends house quite a distance away that lived in a real honest to goodness subdivision with mass amounts of houses and the kids came home with quite a hall.. that friend sadly moved away so this year we could have either driven quite a distance again to go with friends who also would be driving a distance and just glom onto another community to where we didn't know any one or know where the heck we were going.. we opted to go the next town over where there is a neighborhood of around 20 houses spread over about 2-3 miles and so the kids could get the experience of trick or treating and we wouldn't waste take of gas and get loss etc. etc.. win win right.. it was a great experience one that I think we will keep up (unless a better offer comes up of coarse) but here's the thing about doing this in a VERY SMALL town... most everyone gave the standard treats snickers, reeces there were still the cheep treats bit-o-honey and dum-dums and of corase the non decrypt dollar store fair BUT 2 places gave home made treats and one hadn't gotten them wrapped in what ever she was going to wrap them in yet and just gave a very cute spice mini bunt cake with an AWESOME frosting on it.. Bradley was the recipient of this little cake and looked perplexed of coarse we've, always had the rule no digging into the candy until mom or dad has gone through it all, I don't really even remember having to throw out anything for cause unless it was a sucker that's rapper had accidentally fallen off in the may-lay of the candy bag but of coarse you can never been too careful so of coarse out it went.. when I was a child this was the routine also, I remember someone giving out popcorn balls and My mother being torn but we did throw it out (unless of coarse it came from Pat Jung's house those Mom let us dig into because we knew her!. and to be honest Pat only gave those to the kids who she knew)... so as Bradley looked at this bit of bake goodness he handed it over to me and I seemed to look at it oddly also, "what should we do?" I asked Ben, I handed it to him.. I of coarse had to lick the icing that had gotten on my hand and it was GOOD! we considered chucking it over the overpass into the river trailing the street we were on but then as Ben held it for a few more minutes I said "you could probably eat it".. He looked at me and kind of shrugged his shoulders and down it went.. He said it was good I asked him if we should go back and take down the address in case he died in his sleep.. guess what.. he said it was REALLY good kind of pumpkinnie and very spicy and no razor blades (at least that were noticed in the biting and chewing so i give it the all clear)... so here's my question to you all.. would you have eaten it?? did we set an AWFUL example to the kids?? and I think I've seen some urban legend stuff that says the razorblades in the apple and poisoned candy was kind of a over hyped up thing anyway (but maybe that's my way of rationalizing this experience)..
we did end up checking all their candy and since there weren't very many houses everything passed with flying colors except for some ginger snaps that actually looked store bought but were in a zip loc bag.. guess what we did chuck them but I wonder if we would have if it was actually a cookie that we all would have enjoyed Hmmmmm.
ta ta

Halloween

Where the heck did October go??? I'm a horrible sister and daughter Happy birthday Steph and Mom when I call on Sunday I'll be apologizing over and over for not calling on your birthday and oh yea happy anniversary to you and Dad too HECK I'm just not doing well.. I have a million excuses but none that should keep me from remembering these things!

Ok On to Halloween this week for family night we carved the pumpkins.. this proved to have a slight slow start because I had put the pumpkins on the front porch after I got them (you know to look festive) and well they kind of froze a little bit not enough to make them yucky when they thawed only enough to when we brought them in and warmed them up they had ALLOT of condensation on them which made the first step of tracing the stencil kind of difficult especially with the market that was provided.. to top this off the boys convinced us they were old enough to be in charge of one of the pumpkins and with Ben's urging i caved and said ok.. so they chose their design from the stencils and off they went..

so here's the before pic of both pumpkins after the tracing (ok I get you can't really see anything but go with me here!)

So after that first step off they all went cutting and sawing following the lines looking back at the stencil to see if there was something they missed.. somehow I don't have any pictures of Ben cutting away but let me tell you he did and he was into it.. the boys they were also into it and I'll have to admit there were a few times I just couldn't watch i just kept reminding them to keep their fingers away from their line of cutting

I'm happy to report no human was harmed in the cutting of the pumpkins.. only KayLea's ego because there was NO WAY she was getting a hold of anything that could cut a pumpkin and she was none to happy about that but she perked up when she was told she could set in the candles.. yippee!

So the finished products they were quite cute if I do say so my self.. the one on the right is the one the boys did the left is what Ben did under KayLea's direction

Anyway we had a fun Halloween Day ... I am room mom for both Hunter and KayLea's rooms (something I'm putting in the remember bin to NOT do both again) thankfully there are a whole troop of Mom's that understood my dilemma of not being able to be in 2 places at once and pitched in.. and luckily at least for this party KayLea's was before the Halloween parade and Hunter's was After so except for some set up in Hunter's room and clean up in KayLea's room I think I fared pretty well and we'll cross our finger for the winter party (ie: Christmas who are we kidding!) they keep the same schedule (I'm afraid no chance there!) and frankly Hunter's class really only wants the treats the crafts and games they are way too old and cool for so why am I complaining??
these first ones are of KayLea's party

Here's the parade

Hunter's Party

KayLea was a Princess Elephant, the story behind that was a conversation we had about a month ago.. but first you should know KayLea has wanted to be this Elephant for as long as she could choose a Halloween costume because it was Bradley's Elephant costume he used when he was about her age (if i was a good blogger I would scrounge up the pic of Brad in the costume but I don't wanna sorry!) it's been in the dress up trunk well before she was born.. but it was always too huge for her so this year it FINALLY fit and she has been talking for a good 6-8 months that she can FINALLY be an elephant so there's the set up here's the conversation;;

KayLea: Mom, I think i want to be a Princess for Halloween

Me: ok that's fine we can do that

KayLea; but I REALLY want to be the Elephant

Me: Fine KayLea you can be either we just need to make a decision so I can get things going if you want to be a Princess..

KayLea: But it's hard to choose

Me: I know but you HAVE TO CHOOSE

KayLea: Why do I have to choose, Why Can't I be a Princess Elephant??

me: I don't know why, I guess there is no reason YES, YES you can be a Princess Elephant!!!

So she was a princess elephant and Hunter was Elvis..

I almost forgot (probably cuz I didn't take any pictures, go figure!) we did go trick or treating.. the next town over actually has a neighborhood and by that I mean 20 or so houses semi close together.. it still was probably about a 2 mile walk but we did I guess the good part the kids felt like they fufilled their need to trick or treat but they didn't come home with too much candy.. now we had no clue if we'd get trick or treaters at our house we live on a major road so we knew we wouldn't get foot traffic but everyone knows we live here we lit the jack o lanterns i got a bag of candy (at Sam's) and NEVER cracked it open so I guess it IS a good thing the kids didn't get much candy cuz we have a TON that i purchased myself I can't win!!!

Ta, TA