Halloween

We did Halloween twice this year.  The first one was a Halloween Extravaganza that our friends told us about in Flagstaff at NAU.  Nate had to go to Flagstaff on Saturday with the high school for a marching band competition, so we followed them up there later that day for lunch and then went with friends to the Extravaganza.  Different groups from college put on little booths for the kids to play games and get candy.  Kayton had fun especially with one where he bowled and got a piece of candy when he knocked down all the pins.  He played that game about 3 times.  

 Then the night before and night of Halloween, we had the kids wear their Halloween pajamas that they got from Nana and Papa McClanahan.  Kayton loves to talk about his bones. 

This year, we borrowed the kids costumes from friends and Kayton freaked out a little bit at first when I tried to put his costume on to see if it fit.  He did it last year too but we finally got it on him and we had fun trick or treating.  Kayton was Buzz Lightyear and Merrick was Jack-Jack from the Incredibles.  We got a few compliments for sticking with the old fun characters. Nate was a 3 hole punched piece of paper like Jim was on the Office and then I dressed up in a poodle skirt.
On actual Halloween night, we went to our ward Trunk or Treat and it was perfect for us.  The kids were able to walk around and get candy and it was in a safe spot too.  We loved it.

His friend Bo and him were Buzz Lightyear together.  Not planned.

Merrick only lasted about 3 cars when he figured out what was being put in his pumpkin bucket.  He ate 2 suckers before we left.

 The kids and I had fun taking pictures together afterwards

Loves

Kisses

Happy Halloween!

The brother is home

On Wednesday, the 24th, I was able to go to Show Low and welcome home my brother Dallin home from his mission.  He served for 2 years in the San Jose, California mission.  We got lucky enough that he was able to get on a plane and come to Show Low instead of us all going to the valley.  He landed in Phoenix and had a mini welcoming party with some of our other relatives and them came home to Show Low and landed about 6.  It was just me, the boys, my mom, stepdad, brother, and sister.  It was short and sweet and then we went out to dinner at a mexican restaurant.  He had to go get released at 7:30 so we were cutting it close.  After dinner, I had to take the boys and drive back home to Winslow but everybody else went to the stake center.  It was a quick trip and the boys did pretty good considering they didn't really sleep much that day.  We are glad he is home.  

Waiting for the plane

Watching him land

Meeting Uncle Dallin for the first time

Giving him loves

Football

We are now the Winslow Bulldogs.  Go Bulldogs!  

We have tried to enjoy the football experience over this season.  Nate took on a little side job of being an assistant band director at the high school.  He and the director, Tyler Allen, are about the same age and they have fun together.  That means Nate goes to the after school rehearsal with them and then helps out at football games.  We have tried to go to a few and attended the tail gate parties for some of them.  Our last football game was a lot of fun though.  The other few times, it's just been me chasing around Kayton who just doesn't want to stay still, but this last game, we stayed by the band and Kayton even got to see and talk to the Bulldog mascot a little and he loved it.  It seems like the football season went by really fast but it was a lot of fun.  I think Nate enjoyed being able to be a part of it too.

Hepatitis C

Yup, for some reason I have it. Nobody knows where the heck I got it, but I have it.  It's a disease that you usually get from dirty needles.  Most commonly it's from tattoos or blood transfusions, which means it's a blood borne disease.  

At the end of July I started feeling some pains in my side and lower back.  It wasn't too bad at first and it only lasted for a little bit and then went away for a while.  Then it came back again.  I went to the hospital two or three times for the pain over the last few months and then one night they discovered that I have high liver enzymes.  They did blood test after blood test and discovered that I had Hepatitis C.  Apparently I am a special mystery patient and some doctors think I am hiding something, but I have had it for a while and I am just starting to feel the effects of it. 
The first week in October, I went in for a little surgery where they did a stomach biopsy.  They sent a little camera in my belly and put some gases in my stomach to move things around and then looked around in there to make sure my gallbladder and everything else looked good.  The main thing they needed was a sample of some liver tissue to see what stage my hepatitis was at and see the condition of my liver.  I was out of it for a few days, but I think I recovered really good and I feel pretty good now.  

The strand I have is Genotype 1B.  It is treatable and my doctor has been consulting with some Hepatitis specialist doctors at St. Joseph's in Phoenix so after she has a class with them and talks to them, we will figure out what kind and when to start treatment.  It's not going to be fun or easy and it could take as long as a year to get treated or maybe only 6 months.  I will always have the Hepatitis, but the treatment is basically suppose to make it inactive.  They say you are cured when you go through the  treatment and then 6 months after you are done they will do a blood test and see if it shows up.  If not, then you are cured.
It's all still really new to us and I will do a teleconference meeting with the doctors in a couple weeks and then probably start this triple medicine treatment that has shown some very good results.  I am really nervous about all of it because there are some crazy side effects from each different medicine, so I guess only time will tell how I react to it.  The big things we are grateful for is that we caught it early on so my liver isn't too damaged yet and also, Nate and the kids were tested and they don't have it either which is so great.  I will keep updating as things progress over the next few weeks. 

Growing up

Merrick has picked up really well on things that Kayton does and he wants to be just like him.  Just this last week, we have moved him to the booster chair at the table so he isn't in the high chair anymore.  He now only likes to eat food the way Kayton has it.  So if I give Kayton cereal in a bowl with milk, I have to give Merrick cereal in a bowl with a spoon and a little milk too.  He wants to be grown up now and he is working on feeding himself.  He is definitely messy about it, but he loves that he is doing things that everyone else is doing.  He is becoming very independent and it's very cute.  

This is the first time he fed himself with a spoon

Our Calling

Well, after a few months of being here they found a calling for us.  We are the new den leaders for the cub scouts.  The troop isn't very big so we are in charge of all 8-10 year old boys.  We had a little meet and greet dinner a few weeks ago and then on Wednesday we had our first Den meeting.  There are a lot of new 8 year old boys so we just went through the book a little bit and did some explaining.  We hope to do some fun activities soon. 

I was also asked to do a part time thing playing piano for the primary.  The person who normally plays couldn't play for the Primary program so they called me and asked me to sub for her for about 2 months.  The program is on Sunday and then I will probably be done.  I enjoyed doing it and it also made me realize how I should probably be practicing a little more.  We are excited and feel so at home here now.   

Fall Break

We had an awesome fall break.  We had two weeks off but one of them Nate still did some work part time. The school district here is on an intercession schedule which means that the first week of break some students have to come and meet with teachers to help them catch up or get extra tutoring.  For some students that don't need the extra help, some of the extra curricular teachers have Enrichment classes that parents pay a fee for the kids to do. Nate decided to do an Enrichment class and had about 6 students that he was able to do work with and help them improve a little bit.  He really enjoyed it and the kids had fun too.  They even took a little ice cream field trip on the last day. 

So, that was most of the first week for Nate.  I had a little surgery near the end of the week too, but I'll go more into depth about that later.  My mom came that day and then for the rest of the weekend, we just relaxed and enjoyed an awesome General Conference.  

Come Monday morning, we had to run to Flagstaff.  The kids had some doctor visits and we had a few little errands to run then we met up with our friends from the valley.  It was one of Nate's old mission companions and his wife and their four kids.  They were on fall break too and we were excited to have them come stay with us for about 4 days.  It was so nice for Kayton to have boys to play with all day long and I had a friend to talk to at the same time.  We went to the park and showed them the classic stuff in Winslow and just enjoyed hanging out and playing Clue.  We were so glad they came.  It made it so hard for us to go back to our normal stuff the next week.  

All the boys - Patrick, Eric, Merrick, Kayton, and Josh

Baby girl Amber

Stacey and me

 

 

 

Stephen and Nate

 After they left, we were all about fall and all things related.  Nate went to the high school football game with the band on Friday.  Then on Saturday, we welcomed in fall with pumpkin pancakes for breakfast.  Then, we went to our friend Tyler's house, he is the high school band director, and watched the BYU football game at his house while we had hamburgers.  It was a lot of fun even though they lost the game.  

After that break, I felt like I went on vacation, even though we stayed in Winslow mostly.  I enjoyed all the company.    

Crazy kids

I love my kids and the crazy things they do that are super cute and make us laugh.  

They like to get on the rocking horse and then they will turn and look at me so I can sing the horsey song while they rock back and forth

He likes putting glasses and hats on

Merrick likes to ride in the stroller and Kayton likes pushing him down the hallway

Merrick's 1st haircut

I don't know why it took us so long, but we cut Merrick's hair for the first time on Sunday.  He had a lot of curls and only the hair in the back of his head was growing.  It was so cute but it was getting out of control. Now he doesn't really feel like my baby anymore.

A before picture.  If you look hard enough there is some hair coming out of the side, and that's what it was around the back of his head.

So cute!

Standin' on the Corner in Winslow, AZ

"Takin it Easy" by the Eagles put Winslow on the map and every year there is a Standin on the Corner Festival.  We wanted to go and be a part of it this year so that we could feel like one of the locals.  It wasn't that exciting, but there was a place set up where they had vendors set up and a stage for all day concerts and some of the blow up toys that we took Kayton on.  They we went down by the actual corner where they have a statue of the singers and then went to the little souvenir shop and museum.  I never realized how much historical stuff there is in Winslow.  It's fun to be a part of some of this stuff.