Thanksgiving 2013

Wow, writing on here is so much harder than it used to be. Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is upon us. We spent thanksgiving with my parents, my brother Ben and his family, and my sisters. I was in charge of pies this year. I made 1 pumpkin, 1 banana cream, my 1st pecan pie, and 2 s'mores pies (Matt's fav, thus I made 2). Good food and company were had by all. Beckett and Anabelle had the whole week off of school so we were able to see other family members and friends over the holiday as well. We had a great time. Thanksgiving is easily one of my most favorite holidays. It is all about family and focusing on love and togetherness and gratitude, not to mention all the amazing food. Love it!

This month has been a rather busy month (when is November not busy). We went to our friend's  Pie Night for the 1st time. Yes, a whole night dedicated to pie. It was heavenly. We also went to see Ender's Game. It was pretty good. Matt read the books, but I had not. I could tell they left out details, but I was able to follow the story just fine and enjoyed it a lot. I can see why it is such a popular series. I also was able to participate in an amazing fundraiser for a sister in our stake that has cancer. Last year in the evening session of stake conference, this sister gave an incredible talk on faith (I want to share it on here sometime, but don't hold your breath). She was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. She has children ranging from 1st grade to Jr high. It was so touching to see people come and do whatever they could to help this family out. People are amazing.

Something that wasn't so happy that happened last month was that August got croup. It literally happened over night. I got home from zumba and put him to bed. He sounded like he was getting stuffed up, but nothing more than what comes from teething. When he woke up in the night around 2, he was much more congested. He was struggling to breath through his nose. In the morning, his voice sounded horse, I could hear each breath, and he had a horrible sounding cough. I could tell this was bad to come on so suddenly like that. I got him in to see the Dr as soon as I could that morning. My sister had had para-influenza a couple weeks earlier, so I thought it might be that. When I got there, I told them he had been exposed to para-influenza and they said that is what causes croup in babies, so he had croup. I have never had a baby with croup before and I never want one to have it again. It was so scary sounding. They gave him some medicine to help his swollen larynx and some advice to help with the coughing and congestion and we left. By night he was doing much better. The next day it seemed like a bad cold and kept getting better from there. I am glad I got him in right away. It was so scary to hear his breathing.

August has been my sick kid. He had RSV when he was a month old. That one freaked me out too. Beckett and Anabelle never really got sick much as babies, (but then they weren't born in the winter) so this has been hard for me to handle. I will say this, Heavenly Father has inspired me with both illnesses to get into the Dr early. The RSV didn't even test as RSV in the quick version. It came back positive in the longer test they do. "Luckily" the Dr got us one of those nose sucker-outer machines (the reversed air compressor) before we even knew it was RSV. If I had taken him in later when he was really bad, I would have been a wreak. Heavenly Father showed me some major tender mercies both times.

So anyways, November was a good month and despite some bad health, we had fun and lots of good food.