POW WOW DAY...

Last week when I picked Kalei up from pre-school she told me that "my teacher said tomorrow I have to wear long pants and to bring your camera." So that I did. Being that it is Thanksgiving tomorrow they have of course been talking about the "First Thanksgiving" with the Pilgrims and the Indians. They made these cute little Native American costumes and had a "Pow Wow" at school. They made these little clay pots that they are holding in their hands that have muffins in them. If you can't tell she wasn't too thrilled to wear the costume. She wanted it off the second she set foot in the car, which is kinda surprising. I thought they turned out soo cute. They made them out of pillowcases. The next day they came out wearing pilgrims costumes. I wasn't prepared that day to take a picture. I love Pre-school !!

Kalei with some of the kids in her class

OH NO poor, poor "PIDDY"...

When Kalei was a baby Nani made her this little security blanket that has a pig head on it. She became very attached to it and is still very attached to it!! Over the past few years it has been our lifesaver. As you can see it's been through a lot. It's now a brownish pinkish color, most of the stuffing is a matted mess or gone, it has only 1 eye, one of the arms is about to fall off and as of a couple days ago it has been detached from the blankie. I remember a while ago we went up to Idaho to visit some family and Grandma Young spent time re-stuffing it and sewing it back on when it was about to fall off back then. Not long after that we were in the car and turned around to find that Kalei had removed all of the new stuffing... apparently it was too fluffy.

So Kalei came in to me the other morning in tears and totally devastated..."mommy, look what Talan did !!" he had basically removed the head from the blankie. She was probably wacking him in the face with it or something mean to him so I'm sure she deserved it. All day she talked about "when my daddy gets home he needs to glue it back together" and NOBODY else was allowed to fix it. So my thing is... it's probably the perfect time to wean her off of it right ?? I know kids have their securities but come on she's almost 4 should I let it go or not ?? It's to the point where I only let her sleep with it but still it's annoying trying to find that rotten thing every night.

HALLOWEEN FESTIVITIES

We started out the Halloween festivities this year with our ward "trunk or treat" Friday before Halloween. They had a chili cook off and different booths and games set up for the kids. We end the night going around the parking lot from car to car "trunk or treating". This year Kalei HAD to be "Sleeping Beauty Butterfly". I know, no such thing but hey it's Halloween and who really cares. So I pulled of the wings from last year's costume and pinned them on Sleeping Beauty and there ya go. Kalei was rather particular with everything, had to wear a certain crown, hair had to be a certain way, wings had to be touched by "DADDY" ONLY and placed in a certain spot etc.... Talan was pretty easy. He was a pumpkin this year. He had a lot of fun roaming around the parking lot and digging into all the candy buckets.

Quincy (mermaid), Kalei (sleeping beauty), Jackson (buzz lightyear)

Talan (pumpkin) & Lei's on our way to Trunk or Treat

On Halloween we had the Halloween ritual of Wayne's yummy chili outside of my aunt Karen's house and homemade rootbeer before everyone heads out trick or treating. After partaking in that ritual we headed over to Uncle Kevin's house where we topped off the night of fun. This was our first time going over there for Halloween. They close off their cul-de-sac and basically the whole neighborhood comes over and they all line their chairs up and pass out candy. They have a bunch of different games for the kids, spook alley, hot dogs etc. It was soo much fun. We got there at the tail end of it and it was a madhouse. It was basically a city block party. Kalei had fun just following her cousins around collecting candy while we all got to sit and relax watching them make the rounds without having to worry about cars etc. That's something we will definitely be doing again !! Thanks for inviting us guys !! :)

Talan, Kalei and Marley

Talan before trick or treating

Uncle Kevin, Tanner, Makenna, Kalei and Talan

CROUP

Less than a week after Talan and Lei's got the flu in San Diego Talan picked up Croup. Croup is such a nasty little bug. It started out with him getting hoarse and then ending in a loud barking cough, fever and delayed breathing. It was sooo sad !!! It had spiked pretty bad within a couple of days. It was miserable taking him to the dr's office and having everyone stare everytime he coughed. I could feel the eyes on us being that you could heard the poor kid a mile away, and then hearing the "ahhh" from a distance from others that could hear him. He had to get a steroid shot which he did not like at all and made him throw up all over him and myself as we were walking out of thed dr's office. He also had to take steriod antibiotics for the next several days. A couple days after him having croup Kalei got it as well, just not as bad and hers only lasted maybe a week tops. Needless to say we were quarantined in our house for at least 2 weeks so we didn't spread the germs. I don't know if it was more miserable for me or the kids !!

We are now WELL into our 5th week since the croup and he still has a lingering cough. Nothing contageous, just a bunch of flem built up inside that he can't get rid of. I have to gag him every once in a while so he will throw it up. I know sounds pretty bad but hey you gotta do whacha gotta do. So now he has to have breathing treatments at least 1x a day to help break the flem up, which also helps him sleep better at night. I guess the lingering cough can last up to 6 weeks so lets hope and pray it's almost over with !! Here are some pictures of him and his "nemo" mask !! :)