trick-or-treating

Kara and Kiersten were super excited to wear their halloween costumes to school on monday.
Evie wasn't too thrilled to get dressed up for trick-or-treating, but once she saw herself in the mirror with her hat on, she loved it.

We didn't think she'd wear the moustache, so Ben had the idea to stick it to her binky. That worked out great. I know I told Ben to get a picture with Tommy and
Whitney too, but there wasn't one on the camera. Grrr...

We were the first ones out on our street. You can see Tommy dressed as a cute little monkey behind Ben.

Evie was prety proud to walk along with the bigger kids.


As Ben was helping Evie down the stairs at one of the houses, I guess he pulled her arm a little too hard, and her elbow got pulled out of place. She started screaming, but quickly calmed down. She seemed to be okay unless someone tried to move her arm, and then she'd scream. She also was refusing to use her left arm or hand at all. So after dinner the others went trick-or-treating again, and I took her to the urgent care to get it set back in. The doctor tried 3 times, and said he just couldn't get it to pop back in place. Finally they took some x-rays to make sure nothing else was wrong, and sent us home, saying he thought it was back in place, but really wasn't sure. He told me to see how it was in the morning, and gave me a referral to an orthopedist just in case. The next day she still wouldn't use her left arm, and was crying when we moved it, so Ben made her an appointment. The dr. couldn't get it back in at first, but was able to on the second attempt. He also showed me how to set it back in if it pops out again. He said she is a high risk to slip back out for the next week or two. But I was amazed that by the time we got home, she was using her arm, and just back to normal as if nothing was ever wrong with it.

Kara's first flower arrangement

I haven't taken many pictures lately, so just a short update today.
A few days ago, the girls were playing in the backyard, and admiring the pretty flowers. Kara wanted to know if we could cut some flowers for the kitchen table. So I let them each pick out a few flowers, and put them in a vase. We had a lively few minutes when we discovered an earwig had hitched a ride in the house, but he was easy to deal with. Kara was the main "stylist". The white ones were droopy at first, but much perkier the next day. (now they're all dead, because I didn't change the water). I think in the spring she'll really like doing some little arrangements, because we have tons of other trees and bushes that I think will be really pretty.

Kiersten totally thinks she helped more than she actually did. I'm glad to let her think so, she was just as proud as Kara, even though she didn't touch the flowers once we brought them in the house. She was a contributor after the fact, though. The next day I found some dandelions floating around in the water, and today, before I threw them out, I saw a silk flower floating in there as well.

An updated pic of Evie's head wound. It doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought it would when we took off the bandage. I think it still may scar, but it's looking better now, and hasn't bothered her at all. Hard to believe such a small thing caused such a big fuss, but it was really scary at the time, and SUPER bloody. I should take a pic of her now. We went to a birthday party over the weekend, and she was diving headfirst out of the bouncy house, so now she has a few scratches and bruises on her little face.

little detectives

First, I'll just get this photo out of the way. the girls were playing keep away in their new room a few nights ago, and enjoying their recently downstacked bunk beds. Kiersten jumped right into the side railing, and this was the result. I can barely stand to look at this picture, it's so sad. But it looks much better now. She acted fine the rest of the night, and only remembers it now when she sees it in the mirror. I still feel awful about it though. My poor baby! Why are my kids suddenly getting hurt all the time?!? 2 things led to this blog entry. First, last weekend when we were packing up stuffed animals, we came across blue of blue's clues. The kids had obviously forgotten all about her, and were thrilled to see her and play with her again. The second thing, was last night. They were playing detectives, and going around the house with note pads writing down clues, and drawing pictures of clues. So the obvious thing for me to do, was to set up a game of blue's clues. They came down for breakfast and found blue on the counter with 2 notebooks and pens ready to go. It wasn't hard for them to figure out she wanted to play the game. She told me in my ear that she wanted us to find a friend for her to have a playdate with. They were also excited to be provided with paw print badges with their names on them to wear while we looked for clues.

Kiersten quickly found the first clue. It was on dad's tie. They both took it seriously and took a long time to draw their clues and then think about what it could mean. The second clue was on my face in a family photo. After that they were sure blue wanted me to wear dad's tie and play with her. But we decided to find the third clue. Kiersten spotted all 3 of the paw prints. The last one was on a closet door. (please excuse the moving mess in the background)

I didn't even get a chance to ask, "now what do we do?" before they both shouted, "thinking chair!!!" and ran off to their room to think about the clues. It only took a little help from me to get Kara to put together that dad's ties belong in mom's closet. and off they ran to check it out.

waiting in the closet was their favorite little stuffed puppy. turns out, that's who blue wanted to have a playdate with.

It went pretty well, but the 2 puppies did end up having a small spat, at which point, I decided we'd better go downstairs for breakfast. I could barely get the girls to sit in their chairs and eat. they keep excitedly talking about playing again, and what kind of mystery we can solve next. So this wasn't exactly planned to be an all day game, but it looks like it might last a little longer than I'd anticipated. (Kiersten just came upstairs and proudly announced that she will be wearing her blue's clues underwear today.)since Evie was napping during the game, I wanted to share a photo of her too. It looks like she is sleeping on this box, but she just blinked as I took the picture. She was climbing all over this box of old clothes, and I thought it was cute.

poor baby! :(

Ben has been taking walks with the girls lately when he gets home from work. I love it because I can finish making dinner in peace. A few nights ago, Evie came back with this fresh scrape on her face. He said her shoe came off and she tripped. It doesn't seem to be bothering her though. I was glad her burn was mostly healed, and about ready to get family pictures taken. Now we'll have to wait a little longer. Kiersten wanted her picture taken too. It has finally been sunny this week, so the kids have been playing in the backyard a lot.

Today I let them eat lunch outside. Evie got to have her first picnic with the other girls. She was kinda naughty at first, grabbing their food, and making a mess. She did calm down and come sit in my lap to be fed her lunch. I was surprised she ate any of it after eating half of Kiersten's corn dog and several chips.

It was interesting to see Kiersten getting terrorized by someone else for once. She didn't know quite what to do with Evie coming so aggressively after her food. I think she'll be glad at dinner when Evie gets put in the highchair again.

I thought this was a funny, if not the most flattering picture of Evie. She was still pouting from having found Kiersten on my lap trying to eat her corndog in peace. Look at that sad owie!!

After lunch they ran around and played for a while.

Karalee tried to teach the other 2 to play soccer.

they didn't really get it this time.

a week in Idaho

On monday, we headed out to Kerry and Lana's to spend most of the week there. The girls were excited as usual about all the animals. Papa bought them little helmets so they could go riding. Kara went first. She had fun.

Kiersten really liked it. She kept begging to "dwive" the horse herself.

She also wanted to make friends with the roosters, but they kept getting away from her.

Kara always loves playing fetch with Duke.

Grams had bought a little tea set and some dress up things. They enjoyed their afternoon tea party. I think they used chocolate milk in the tiny little cups.

We decided to go visit Grandma Hill one afternoon. The girls had fun at her house, and Ben and Kerry were able to fix a few things for her while we were there. Evie crawled all the way up her stairs without assistance.

On friday we drove to Twin falls to see Nancy, Victor, Tommy, and Whitney. She is such an adorable little girl! She is just precious. Evie was walking up to her while she was sleeping on the couch, and Kiersten exclaimed, "oh no! Mommy, Evie's gonna get the princess!".

I wish I could have spent much more time cuddling with her, but I had a really bad cold, and didn't think I needed to be coughing all over her. I did hold her for a bit, and was able to hold in all my coughs until I was done holding her. It's nice to hold a baby that just lays in your arms instead of wriggling all over.

saturday we had an easter egg hunt with Tommy. That was the girls' third hunt, and they weren't tired of easter at all. They had tons of fun.

Tommy and Evie had some baby friendly eggs to find.

He loved finding those blue eggs, but did get distracted a few times with his fun backyard toys.

The girls got super spoiled again! And after they had these 3 hunts, they got to come home to the easter things that had been left behind. So they have candy that should last the rest of the year.

Kara took some of her easter candy to school for her class helper day. I think next year I will hardly buy any candy!

Evie got to try her first sucker. She was enjoying it until it got dropped in the grass too many times, and got taken away. Now if she sees her sisters with one, she goes crazy trying to get at it.

the daddys enjoying the hunt

Later that evening, Grandma Van Sickle was taking dinner out of the oven, and Evie was standing nearby. She put her hand down on the oven door and got a second degree burn on her hand. I have been racking my brain to remember what I was doing, and why she had wandered in there without Ben or me noticing. I was helping the girls with something, but I just can't remember. I felt like the worst mommy in the world! It was really sad and scary, but she handled it well. She only cried for about 15 minutes. When I took her to the doctor on monday, he was surprised she would let him handle it and dress it with no fussing or crying. I guess it must not hurt as bad as it looks like it should. He thinks it will heal fine. She had an ear infection when I took her in, so he put her on an antibiotic, and said it will also prevent the burn from getting infected.

my big, tough girl! Still so sweet and happy, even when injured. She was even good for our long drive home to washington.