Allison: Sweet Sixteen

After school I took Allison to get her driver's license.  She was excited to get that.  She hasn't said much about dating, except she will gladly wait until her friends turn 16 to go with her.  Cherilyn has plotted a date, but it hasn't happened yet.

Here she is at school on her birthday.

Cherilyn arranged for some friends to come and sing her "Happy Birthday" after Allison got her license.

Here they are: Brevin, Jaron, Brandon, Erica, Cherilyn and Alyssa, with an armful of balloons.

Allison wore the balloons tied to her arm or leg for the rest of the day and after school the next day.  Who knew that a 16-year-old would enjoy balloons so much.  She had a fun day.

Allison can usually be found at the piano.  She may also be reading, making cards, listening to music or playing pool.  She is helpful and kind.

2nd Trip to the Hospital Avoided

The afternoon of Halloween, Allison's birthday, I took Allison to get her license.  While I was gone Joshua tripped on Ethan's backpack and fell on his arm onto Ethan's birdhouse.  They said he screamed that his arm was broken.  When I got home he whined a bit as he told me, but was no longer screaming.  I checked it out and saw no swelling, bruising or cuts.  He complained off and on that it hurt, but with Halloween and a birthday he was distracted.  He was not using that arm when he could avoid it and would cry if he did use it.  By bedtime he was crying too much.  We were all glad that he went right to sleep.  I hoped that he was simply tired and his arm was fine.  When I checked on him before going to bed he was tossing and turning and starting to whine.  As he woke up he began to cry that his arm hurt.  So he wouldn't wake up anyone, I took him into my room and tried to console him.  He tried to sleep but was awakened by pain.  We were eventually able to get him to take ibuprofen.  He watched a movie and was able to sleep the rest of the night.  He stayed home on Friday so I could watch him.  I was pleased that he could write without pain.  He continued to guard his arm by not using it, but any complaints of pain slowly died out.  He began asking for medicine without complaining of pain so we stopped giving him medicine.  We were glad to avoid a second trip to the hospital for the week and more importantly that Joshua had not broken his arm.

Halloween

We had our ward Halloween party on October 30th.  The girls helped with the games and the boys had fun participating.  The young men did a spook alley which all the kids enjoyed.  I forgot the camera that night, but here are their costumes on Halloween.

Cowgirl Erica

Princesses Cherilyn and Allison

The back of their shirts have this poem:  I am a child of royal birth, My Father is King of Heaven and Earth.  My spirit was born in the courts on high, A child beloved, a Princess am I.

Allison wrote on the shirts and her friend made their crowns.

Phantom Eli and Skeleton Joshua behind him.  They loved being able to wear their masks at the Halloween parade at school.

Ethan was Half awake-half asleep.

The boys went trick or treating for the first time this year.  (They usually just go trunk or treating at the ward Halloween party.)  They decided they didn't like it.  They like trunk or treating better because they get to see the other kids.

Ethan's 10th birthday

Ethan turned 10!

He is very happy about it.

Because of the ward party that night and a meeting of Dad's Ethan opened presents after they were in pajamas.  After presents we enjoyed strawberry shortcake.

Ethan is a very compassionate kid.  He wants to help out and tries to always be nice.  He is super smart and can tell you interesting facts about many things.

Pumpkins 2013

We went on a hay ride to get pumpkins this year.  Cherilyn and the boys were especially excited.  Since Cherilyn works at the Red Barn we were able to do so without cost which was great.  

Here are the boys on the way to the pumpkin patch.

The hay ride stops at the pumpkin patch.  They have an activity area there with slides, an apple crate maze, a car track with bike cars, and a few picture spots.  The boys quickly headed for the slides.  Charles went down with Ethan once.  None of the girls went, though they walked through the maze.

Joshua on the smaller slide.

Charles and Ethan on the big slide.  Eli also on the big slide.  Joshua says he will try the big slide next year.

Ethan and Eli racing on the car track.  Charles helping Joshua get on a smaller car.

Ethan

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Allison

Joshua, Ethan and Cherilyn looking for pumpkins.

Charles and Erica waiting for others to pick pumpkins.  Erica painted a large pumpkin at Young Women's and decided not to do another one.

Ethan lifting his big pumpkin.

Joshua's Frankenstein pumpkin with a toothpick mohawk.

Allison with her painted pumpkin from YW and the carved one from the pumpkin patch.  Allison also carved the bottom of a pumpkin into a mask.  Then she hung it in the tree.

Eli with his pumpkin.

Ethan had Dad help him carve the phantom pumpkin (on the top step) then he carved a smaller one and drew on the smallest one.

Erica chose to spray paint her pumpkin black and then have it carved.  It had a cool effect.

Trip to the Hospital

Ethan, Eli and some other boys in the neighborhood like to get off the bus at the top of the hill.   Then they proceed to ride fast down the hill to our house, trying to beat the bus.  Partway down last Tuesday Eli fell off and onto his head then his hands.  The bus driver saw him and stopped, allowing Ethan, who had forgot his scooter that day, to get off and assist Eli on the bus and put away the scooter.  As they entered the house Eli was crying and holding tissues to scrapes on his head and arms.  Ethan explained what happened.  I put down the load of laundry in my arms, grabbed cream and medicine and guided Eli downstairs in front of the TV.  I had to stop him from screaming.  (He tends to be overly dramatic.)  He was quickly distracted by Kung Fu Panda and I was able to tend to the wounds and get him to take ibuprofen.  He soon calmed down.  I went up to cook dinner.  Shortly Eli came up crying that he couldn't see.  He was able to see when he tried, but he complained that all was blurry.  He mostly kept his eyes shut.  As he went to eat his snack he complained in slurred speech that his mouth wasn't working and then that his hands wouldn't work.  He made quite a mess.  This caused some concern.  I got online and looked things up and contacted our neighbor.

Thankfully our neighbor is a nurse practitioner.  She came over and determined that a CT scan would be necessary.  She wrote up an order for a head and face scan, saving us a doctor's visit and a trip to the ER.

Ethan offered to sit in the back by Eli on the trip to the hospital  As Ethan, Eli and I headed out, Eli continually cried "I can't see.  I don't know what is happening."  It was too much for Ethan and eventually for me too.  I called Charles out of one of his meetings scheduled for that night.  After a blessing and Eli trying some food we headed out to the hospital.  Eli felt sick and was on the way there.  When we got to the hospital Eli felt sick again.  We found a garbage can and with many people in the general area Eli threw up again.  We were shown the small bags that hang on the wall throughout the hospital for that situation and used several for the remainder of our time there and one on the way home.  Then we had to wait.  Eli passed the time throwing up and trying to rest.  After the scan we waited again.  Charles and I watched some Brian Regan and Eli continued his resting and throwing up.

We were all pleased to find that he had no fractures or bleeding.  He slept soundly and other than a headache for a couple days and some difficulty focusing at school the next day he was fine.

While I took care of Eli, Allison took over dinner and fed the kids.  (Cherilyn was at work and didn't know anything had happened.)  The kids cleaned up the kitchen.  Ethan read to Joshua and listened to him read his book.  They were amazing.