Spring Flowers

Okay, so they aren't real but they are pretty cool, huh? I made most of these last night in my cake decorating class. I am in level 2 now which focuses on making lots of neat flowers with royal icing. I couldn't believe how much easier the rose was using royal icing rather than buttercream. I love how they turned out. The bottom pic shows of the flowers that will be used on my final cake next week. I made violets, mums, daisies, roses, apple blossoms, pansies, daffodils and primroses. The pansies ended up being my favorite to make. The technique was fairly easy and yet impressive looking. Once I paint them with dark purple food coloring, they will look very realistic.

Hayden's 7th Birthday (from 1/29/10)

Before you even ask, no, I did not decorate that hideous cake. It came from the grocery store and he picked it out. I wish I had taken my cake decorating classes in time to make his cake for him. I would have made something much cooler. Oh well, there's always next year!

H was so excited to open his gifts. He got lots of stuff but he was really wanting this game.

Halo legos

My Valentines (from 2/14/10)

Emerson (5)

Hayden (7)

Cake Decorating-Level 1

The middle rose got smooshed a little bit by my cake carrier.

I took Wilton cake decorating classes last month for beginners. It was a lot of fun and I learned so much. Roses are a pain in the patootie but at least mine look okay. The cake below was my first ever and the cake above was my second. I didn't like how the name and age was done on the rainbow cake but that was how the example was done so I followed suit.

Now I am in level 2 and I have made some really cool flowers. We haven't had to bake a cake yet so I don't have any pics to share. In my last class (next week), we will decorate a cake using flowers from the previous weeks so I will share that when we make it.

Recent Recipes

Baking Powder Biscuits tutorial-I have been craving good Southern biscuits like my friend Tracy makes. Unfortunately, I forgot how to make a good biscuit and everything came out like duds. I watched a recent Bobby Flay showdown focusing on these delicacies and got inspired to try again. Lo and behold, they turned out fabulous!! I followed lots of Internet tips and the tutorial on All Recipes. I used the recipe for basic biscuits listed in the tutorial but I used buttermilk and half butter/half Crisco instead of what it called for. My biscuits were slightly crunchy on the edges and had perfectly tender middles. Be sure to top them with melted butter before baking for extra yumminess.

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbecue-This was really easy and made my kitchen smell wonderful. Everyone scarfed it down so it was a winner. I never cook stuff in the crockpot as long as the recipes say. Mine tends to run hot so I adjust accordingly. BTW, I shredded my chicken and then mixed it into the sauce just before serving.

Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies-Oh heck. You are going to kill me for this one. I will fully warn you that these little treats are addictive. I have already made the recipe twice in the past week. They are not to be eaten warm, in my opinion. The middles don't really set up until they have cooled thoroughly. These cookies are super soft and great to take to functions.

Quick and Easy Chicken-You need to double the sauce for this one. It is so good. I was surprised at how delicious this simple recipe is. The pics that people took for it are horrible though so don't pay those any mind. Note-You do not have to sautee the chicken. I made the sauce, poured it over the chicken, and then stuck it in the oven to bake instead.

Potato Latkes I-The kiddos even liked these. I couldn't believe it (they don't like potatoes). My whole family wolfed them down and asked for more. We had sour cream and applesauce with them. I gotta say that I preferred the sour cream. Also, I more onion than it called for.

If any of you try these, let me know how they turn out. ;)

The Curse of Daylight Savings Time

Why is it that losing an hour of the day can take such a toll on you? I mean, come on, it's only 60 minutes. Right? I will admit that I had a hard time with insomnia last night but it sure would have helped if we hadn't of lost an hour over the weekend. I woke up at 8:30 am on the nose. That's was just in time to hear the school bell a block away. Ugh. My kids weren't up either. Oh well. Hayden ended up going in 50 minutes late. I simply didn't care. I am sure it didn't ruin his academic skills. As for Emerson, I opted to just keep him at home. Normally he goes into preschool at 9am but oh well. I needed the little bit of sleep that I got last night and my kids obviously needed some too. E and I declared it a jammie day. :)

Anyone do square foot gardening? I am extremely interested in this and will be attempting it soon. March 27th is supposed to be my first planting but we shall see. I have a surgery set for March 26th so I have no idea how I will be feeling on that day. I am anxious to get started. It makes perfect sense and I would love to have homegrown veggies.

Here's an informative blog that talks about SFG: http://corditecountryshownotes.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/how-to-square-foot-garden/

Sorry for my long absence---A few updates

This inner ear thing has went from vestibular neuritis to BPPV in my right ear. I have a hard time laying on my right side in bed because it causes me to get dizzy. BPPV is a positional thing where crystals in my ear shift around when I change positions. Those crystals aggravate my vestibular nerve causing dizziness. It's insane, I tell ya. I have been going to lots of doctors and taking different meds to try to combat all of my ailments. The meds cause me nasty side effects so I have been spending the past few weeks in the bed. My Mom is here (she flew in on 1/29 and will leave 2/13) so she has relieved me from my usual duties so that I can work on healing. If my ear keeps causing me angst, my ENT wants to push for further testing in 2 months. The next steps are an MRI and another CT scan. He wants to look at my sinuses and inner ear. He seems to think that I will be better in 2 months though so he isn't pushing for those tests just yet. Regardless, I have a neurologist appt. set for next week and I can't make up my mind whether to go or to delay it until I have had further testing from the ENT (he says that the neuro is going to do the same stuff anyway so he would like to do it and have the results ready for the neuro if I come back to him in 2 months). Decisions, decisions. Anyway, I just wish this crap was over and my head/ear was back to normal.

Mom flew in on the 29th of January. She came with me to surprise Hayden on his birthday. We showed up at the school with cupcakes. I walked in first and told the class that I only had one container of cupcakes and that wouldn't be enough for everyone. I proceeded to say that we really needed more so that everyone could have one but 18 is all that I had. I told Hayden to look out in the hall and see if there were any more for the class. He walked out and saw my Mom holding another container of cupcakes for the class. He was so surprised and excited to see her standing there. It was cute.

For Hayden's birthday, we took him to Bonefish Grille for dinner. He chose it because he loves the Bang Bang Shrimp. It was fabulous as always. We surprised him with a small aquarium with an aquatic frog and a pretty beta fish. We also got him a new DS game. Aunt Steph came over the next day to celebrate and we had cake and ice cream. We played Rock Band all day and had fun.

I began cake decorating classes last night. It's so weird to have to learn from someone other than my Aunt Judy. I grew up licking beaters and eating icing at her house. She was a professional cake decorator and a Wilton cake decorating instructor while I was growing up. I so wish that I was back home so that I could learn from the best. Anyway, it was all pretty boring last night because we didn't get to do anything. Sitting back and listening was hard because all I wanted to do was start working with the icing. We get to do that next time. I have to bring in a cake that is already iced and ready to decorate. You wouldn't believe how much money I had to spend just to get my basic supplies to make that first cake. It was crazy. I got the class 1/2 off and the student kit 40% off and I have still spent over $100. This first cake better turn out decent, lol. Wish me luck!

Clayton and I went out on a date last week for the first time in forever. He took me to Rock Bottom and then we went to see The Lovely Bones. He hated it but I liked it. Clayton expected the clues to the girl's death to be more of a mystery-type saga. I think that he was expecting more of a M. Night Shyamalan kind-of movie. Neither one of us has read the book though so I am sure that made a difference for me. I can't wait to read the book now. The movie had a really cheesy part that was ridiculous in the end but that's the only part that let me down. Other than that, I thought that it was really cool how Peter Jackson portrayed the ever-changing world that the main character was trapped in.

A few recipes to share...

I made latkes the other night that were gobbled up quickly. We will be having them again, that's for sure. I added more onion than it calls for and used olive oil to fry them in. Yum!

I have also made Quick and Easy Chicken twice now and it rocks! The photos for it on allrecipes.com stink. Trust me, it looks better than it is depicted and it tastes oh-so-good.

Last month I decided to try a new lasagna recipe and I am so glad I did. It honestly is the best lasagna that I have ever put in my mouth. Try it. You won't regret it. World's Best Lasagna

*Sigh*

My VNG test came out normal. I was expecting that to happen though since I haven't been getting dizzy lately. I really would have liked to have the testing done while I was experiencing daily dizziness. Maybe now the nerve has healed enough to not be defective any more. Who knows? Anyway, the audiologist was a bit baffled on some of my symptoms and seems to think that I may be experiencing migraines now. They really have no clue and that scares me even more. If the doctors don't know then I am at a loss. I want to know what went wrong with my inner ear. Oh well, maybe it is on the mend now and all this crap is now officially over. I did know going into this test that it could come out normal even if I still had issues. Sometimes the test can't determine damage when you are feeling well as opposed to if you went into it while feeling bad.

BTW, that test was brutal. The cold air that she shot into my ears induced instant vertigo. I had to clutch the table because I thought that it would spin me right off of it. That air thingie is evil I tell ya!

Today is the big day!!

I am finally having the VNG test done today. It will hopefully help uncover some of the mystery of why I have been dealing with dizziness over the past couple of month. I am so ready to get it all over with. They are going to purposely make me dizzy by putting cool and warm air in my ears. All the while I will be wearing a huge set of special goggles that records my eye movements. I will be exposed to moving targets and flashes to see how my eyes react to the stimulus. My eye movements will be very telling. By stimulating my nervous system in ways that affect my balance and then measuring my eye movements, the audiologist will be able to learn more about my vestibular abnormalities.

I had to prep for this test by not taking any sleeping meds, motion sickness pills or Valium over the past 48 hours. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to do that but I haven't taken any Ambien in over a week and the last Valium I took was on New Year's Eve (I had a really random dizzy while playing a board game at my friend Melissa's house). To help myself prep for not taking sleeping meds, I started to try to sleep on my own last week. It was so hard the first couple of days but I stuck it out. I still don't sleep well but it is at least doable. I fall asleep easily but I tend to wake up at weird intervals throughout the night. It's strange but I have to sleep almost totally upright. When I lay my head down like a normal person, my head will spin when I shut my eyes. It's very uncomfortable. Once I figured that out I haven't had as many problems with dizziness. I believe that the fluid in my inner ears moves to a touchy spot when my head lays back. As long as I stay vertical, I don't get dizzy. Weird, huh?

Anyway, wish me luck! I will report on here as soon as I can. Hopefully we will learn something today about my condition. If it isn't today, then it will likely be next Thursday when they compile the results of all of my tests to figure this thing out. I soooo want to get back to normal. It's bad to say but I can't quit thinking about doing surrogacy again so I need to get this thing taken care of soon.

Ice Skating (please excuse the pics)

Back in December, we made a trip to the local shopping center (Centerra) to go ice skating. Hayden announced that he would be great at it and need no help. Boy was he wrong, lol. He was on his butt more than he was on his feet. Clayton helped him while Emerson and I watched. E originally wanted to try it but changed his mind when we got there so I stayed with him on the outskirts of the rink. Please excuse the horrid lighting in the photos. I didn't take my big camera with me so it's somewhat my fault. It also didn't help that it was really dark out there with sparse lights that changed color every few seconds.

Skating in front of the big Centerra Christmas tree (that weird ufo thingie in the photo is an overhead lamp that wasn't turned on).

Emerson was being such a butthead. He refused to smile for me so I took his pic anyway, lol.

An update on me

I am still experiencing mild dizziness, mild anxiety and I cannot sleep BUT I can tell that I am getting better with every day that passes. I have been going to an ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor), a masseuse, an audiologist and I have a holistic doctor appt. tomorrow. It has been crazy with all the running around lately but it seems that I am following the correct path to recovery.

12/23-The ENT diagnosed me with vestibular neuritis over labyrinthitis. The only difference is labyrinthitis sufferers experience hearing loss and my tests have came back normal so far. The audiologist tested me before I saw the ENT. She found that the virus is likely in my right ear. She did lots of testing for hearing and balance. I passed the hearing test but my balance was off which indicates that one of my inner ears isn't functioning properly (duh, we already knew that, lol). She had me close my eyes and march in place for about a minute. When I opened my eyes, I had moved forward (which is normal) but then I turned to face the right side of the room. That is an indicator that the damage is in my right ear. This is all preliminary but we will have a further diagnosis soon.

12/29-I saw the audiologist again for a VEMP (Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potential) test. I had to turn my head to tighten my neck muscles during it. I had electrodes on my neck muscles and just below them. She placed a plug into one ear at a time and then it would play some loud sounds while I strained my neck muscle. It was awkward but didn't hurt. I don't know what the results of the test were but it will be a piece of the puzzle once all of my testing has been completed.

12/31-I have an interesting appointment with a holistic doctor up in Fort Collins tomorrow. It's strange how I got hooked up with her. I have never been a person to believe in natural medicine (where are the good drugs???), lol. What happened was I went to the spa to get a massage earlier this month (Clayton bought me 3 for Christmas-gotta love that man!). My masseuse knew exactly what I was going through on the anxiety side. She had suffered major anxiety attacks stemming back 5 years ago when she was involved in a car accident, lost 3 family members and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She had really been put through the ringer that year, to say the least. We compared symptoms and we had many similarities (fear, withdrawal behavior from normal activities, headaches, inability to sleep, mind racing, distorted vision, etc.). I asked her what all she did to get rid of the anxiety and she told me that she tried lots of different methods that involved all sorts of doctors, counselors, gurus, quacks, etc. The one person that helped her the most was the holistic gal that I will be seeing tomorrow. She told me that I needed to be open-minded about my experience and to trust her. It's worth a shot, in my opinion. If my masseuse can go through all that misery and come out okay on the other side then this gives me hope.

1/7-My VNG test is scheduled for this day but I keep trying desperately to get the appt. sooner. This will be the best test I can do to pinpoint my inner ear issue. Once I get this test over with, the audiologist will be able to help me regain my eye coordination using vestibular rehabilitation therapy. Basically, I have to retrain my damaged nerve to work correctly so that it can function properly. I dread the prep for this test because I won't be able to take any meds 48 hours beforehand. Ugh, I don't need Valium all that often (only when my ear starts to bother me and I get dizzy or anxious) but not taking Ambien is going to be hard. I did somehow manage to go to sleep on my own last night so hopefully I can get back into my normal sleep habits before the VNG. I just don't like knowing that I won't be able to take anything 48 hours before it. That scares me just a little bit. 4 hours before the test, I can't eat or drink. I hope that I don't get a headache or lightheaded.

1/14-All the tests will have been interpreted by now so the puzzle will finally come together. I will hopefully know exactly what I am dealing with at this point and how damaged my vestibular nerve is. I will begin VRT (vestibular rehabilitation therapy) on this day with exercises that have been prescribed just for me and my condition. I can't wait!!

2/3-I go back to the ENT for a check-up. This will have been 6 weeks since he diagnosed me with vestibular neuritis.

I know that is alot of jibber jabber but I needed to write all of this down so that my family back home can track my progress. Sorry for the lack of fun stuff. I do have some pics to post soon of my family ice skating and on Christmas morning. ;)

The vestibular system is the part of the inner ear and the brain which helps control balance and eye movement. Although your balance system is located primarily in the inner ear, it is connected with the brain, the eyes and the sensory nerves throughout your body. Each of these centers sends and receives messages to the others causing you to feel dizziness when there is damage to the vestibular nerve.

Happy 10th Anniversary to My One & Only

Let me just say that the anniversary band was a complete surprise. I have always said that I would like one for our 10th but I honestly didn't expect it.

Today is our anniversary but we celebrated over the weekend. Clayton first surprised me on Saturday by having Aunt Steph take the kiddos. Then he took me to a nice hotel in downtown Denver where we got upgraded to a suite. There was wine and cheese waiting for us in the room. I couldn't believe it! He then gave me my ring. We went to Randolph's for a fabulous dinner and then took a romantic horse-drawn carriage ride down 16th St. It was a beautiful night and not too cold. We had such a good time.

Not to be Debbie Downer but we had a horrible night that night. We fell asleep just after midnight and woke up to fits of crying/screaming in the hallway. There was a totally drunk girl in the hall that would not go to her room (which happened to be next to us). The cops were called because hotel management couldn't do anything. I was ticked and so we got moved to the presidential suite just so we could get some sleep. It was insane. We were wide awake after that so we didn't get much sleep that night. Oh well, at least it made for a funny tale, lol.

Praise the Lord!! I Have A Diagnosis

You guys would not believe the heck I have been through over the past month. I began having constant panic attacks, nausea, sweating, heart racing, blurry vision, vertigo, dull ringing in ears (I can't stand not to have background noise or talk on the phone), nervousness, lightheadedness and just plain couldn't function. It has been awful. I was taken to the ER back on 11/14 because I thought that I was dying. I had electric shock waves through my head and racing thoughts. I also sweat a lot and couldn't sleep. The worry about the weird feelings is what brought on the anxiety and panic attacks. I have had an extremely hard time dealing with life ever since.

I decided last week to turn to God. The doctors at the ER and my general practitioner thought that I was just highly anxious. No prescriptions seemed to help. They couldn't help me. My GP prayed for me and then told me about his church. I decided to take the kiddos and my neighbor last Sunday. It was wonderful! I had a hard time focusing but I really loved the sermon. I have to laugh because the first half of the sermon was hard for me to sit still because I felt like I might embarrassingly pass out. The good news is that my doctor and his wife (who is also a doctor) were sitting beside us. If I were to pass out, that would have been a good place to do it, lol. Anyway, I prayed that night and cried forever as I asked him into my heart. It felt so good that words cannot describe it. I decided to spend the evening with my family rather than the bed that night because I felt so good. Well, that unfortunately didn't last too long. Evidently I needed the spiritual love but I spiraled again the next day and all the bad symptoms came back.

This week has been horrendous. I have tried to deal with the anxiety but finally had a total lapse yesterday. I couldn't function and I knew I couldn't drive. My vision was so bad and the room was spinning. My stomach just wanted to vomit. I called Clayton and got him to come home early for work. We went to the Urgent Care place in Loveland rather than my GP this time. Thank God I did!! When I went in, I couldn't even focus my eyes. Clayton had to fill out my paperwork for me. The nurse was disturbed and couldn't figure out what to do with me. I couldn't look directly at her and the room was wildly spinning. I thought that I was going to faint. The doctor comes in and starts asking lots of questions. I didn't mention the word "anxiety" because I didn't want her to write me off as just being anxious like the ER did. She listened and said not to worry because she could help me. I was shocked! How come it took so long to find someone who understood? If the ER couldn't figure me out, how could she? Well, she had been through it before herself. I was told that this will go away and she could help me do it. What a relief that was to hear for the first time! I fully believe that God led me to this woman. If I hadn't of found her, I would still be suffering. BTW-She said that this could not be total anxiety I was experiencing because I would not have problems with the room spinning. Rooms don't spin with anxiety.

This is what is going on-labyrinthitis or vestibular neuritis. My vestibular nerve is to blame. It is aggravated and it sure lets me know it, lol. It controls our overall balance. The brain, eyes and ears are all connected so my head is one big playground run by a bully right now. A regular ear exam looked clear because I had no problems with the part that the doctors can simply look into. The CT scan I had done while in the ER could never have spotted this either. They can detect middle ear infections but not this (which was originally what they thought I may have because they can cause the same symptoms). The big difference is that a middle ear infection can be treated with antibiotics because it is bacterial. My problem is a virus so it cannot be treated in the same fashion. I am now on steroids to help the inflammation and another med to battle the dizziness. I will also have to retrain my damaged nerve to work properly once again. If I cannot do it using the techniques the doctor showed me then I will move on to physical therapy with a neuro doctor.

Check out this:

Chronic anxiety is a common side effect of labyrinthitis which can produce tremors, heart palpitations, panic attacks, derealization and depression. Often a panic attack is one of the first symptoms to occur as labyrinthitis begins. While dizziness can occur from extreme anxiety, labyrinthitis itself can precipitate a panic disorder.

Anyway, sorry for the long post on medical mumbo jumbo but I just had to get this out. I am so happy now that I have a diagnosis and I know I am going to make it. It may be 6 months before I am totally normal but hey, I will take it any day over thinking that I am just crazy. My poor hubby deserves a gold medal for all that he has had to deal with lately. I am sure he is glad to finally have his wife back. God is good!!

Zoo Lights @ the Denver Zoo

Members of the Denver Zoo got a special sneak peek at the Zoo Lights display this past weekend. We went on Friday night and it was so pretty. I can't even begin to imagine how much money they have tied up in Christmas lights. Each tree around the place had tons of LED lights all over. I wish I could have gotten pics of everything but it was impossible with my little camera. I knew I should have taken my big camera. Oh well, I still got a few shots of us enjoying the festivities. Clayton's Dad had given him a huge thermos recently so we took it filled with hot chocolate. I brought each of our Christmas Starbucks travel mugs so that we could drink and walk around at the same time. It was wonderful! The only downside to going on going the first weekend of the event was that there were too many people. We weren't about to wait forever to get on the train and Santa's line was unreal. We ended up skipping those 2 things. Maybe we'll go back and do the things we skipped. If you live near the Denver area, I highly recommend Zoo Lights. It won't be open again until 12/11 and the hours will be from 5-9pm.

Hayden

Emerson

Pumpkin Roll

Hayden and I made a pumpkin cake roll today. I thought that it would be hard to roll up but it was rather easy. I hope it tastes as good as it looks!

I am a bit bummed that no one is coming over for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I have always hosted for family. Heck, we even hosted in our little apartment in Raleigh when we were both at NCSU. We had no money back then but I still managed to do the full spread. This year Clayton's birthday managed to fall on turkey day so we will celebrate that too. Maybe we will go to the movies or something?

BTW-I have changed my blogger template and managed to lose all of the blogs on my sidebar. If you don't see yours listed, will you please leave me a comment with your blog address? I want to add them back.

Deep & profound thoughts on my baby turning 5

It is unreal how time seems to fly now that I am a mom. It seems like just yesterday I had to use a stroller and change diapers. Now I am the mother of a 6yo and a 5yo. How weird! I never thought that I would make it this far, lol. Once I had my babies, I couldn't wait until this point because then I wouldn't have to contend with baby or toddler crap any longer. Being 5 means going to school and understanding rules. I am thrilled to finally be at this point. I used to be so jealous of the moms that didn't have to deal with babies/toddlers because their lives seemed so much easier. I now know that it is easier in some respects but more difficult in others. Just because my kiddos are more self sufficient doesn't necessarily mean it is a cake walk. For instance, I don't have to worry about sippy cups but I do have to deal with occasional spills from regular ones, kwim? It is nice to not deal with washing all those sippy cup parts but I miss not having to worry about spills. Oh well. I will take not having to deal with diapers, bottles, teething, burp clothes, onesies, carriers and strollers any day over the occasional upset that a 5 year old deals me.

Being 5 means more independence but it comes with a price. I now serve as a constant mediator and it is super annoying. I have to settle arguments between my kiddos because they both want their grievances heard. The youngest no longer simply succombs to the bossing around that my older one dishes out. Emerson used to just be passive and let Hayden rule his world. No longer is that happening, lol. My boys now think that they can do many things for themselves that they don't understand fully why we won't let them (like walk to/from school by themselves, get things down from a tall shelf or walk through a crowded parking lot without holding our hands). These things may seem minor but it can be really frustrating to constantly battle my boys' newfound independence. They want to be more self-reliant and I want them to be too but it isn't always in our best interest to just let them be on their own. They still have a lot of growing up to do and I am thankful that they still *need* us.

Anyway, enough about that. Here are some fun pics of Emerson on his special day (11/8):

Emerson laying across my glider and footstool

Opening gifts (he LOVED everything!)

He almost blew out the candle before we sang to him. He stopped himself just in time, lol.

Halloween 2009

Hayden as Optimus Prime

What a ham!

Emerson as...hmm...something evil? demonic? Skeletor?

Let me just say that this costume is pretty scary but it was a compromise. Emerson wanted to be the guy from Scream with blood flowing down his face. Ugh. I wasn't about to allow that costume in my house. Hayden was terrified of all the costumes Emerson wanted so the Scream guy was most definitely out. He settled on this one knowing that he couldn't wear the mask nor the evil necklace that came with it to his preschool party. That was okay by him so everything worked out well. He did make quite a few parents chuckle while he was TOTing because he was so little to be such a scary character. Who knew that a 4 year old would want to be something so demonic?

more Halloween pics

Clayton's pumpkins-Mario and Luigi

Emerson trick-or-treating at the Leal's (our friends across the street)

Now this is hilarious. You saw how scary Emerson looked, right? He was too chicken to go up to the doors because he was afraid that a dog would run out and attack him, lol. He would peek around the corner of every house until he knew it was safe to proceed to the door.

Blizzard pics-October 28 & 29, 2009

Emerson smashing snow on the back door

Don't ya love how the snow stuck to the fence?

Look at how much snow piled up on the table. It was unreal! You would think that it was December rather than October. What's really strange is that we were in shorts 5 days later, lol.

More blizzard pics

Emerson

Hayden

Pumpkin Patch (a little late, lol)

Clayton showing the boys how to find the perfect pumpkin to carve

Emerson-4

More pumpkin pics

Swan Gourds

Hayden-6