Trick or Treat

We went to the Brown's for trick or treating since Matthew was out of town.  The kids had fun, and Evie loved waving to every person she saw.  We definitely missed Daddy though!

He must always be in ninja form!

Madison was a fox

This is huge.  For whatever reason, Evie has been scared of Mark for forever.  We see them at least once a week, so she knows him, but would never go near him.  I think she is finally over it and Mark is so excited!

checking out all the candy

We got home and I put Evie to bed first.  I came out and Mason had managed to get out of his costume, but that is about it.  He was passed out cold!

Pumpkins

We carved the kids' pumpkins from the Pumpkin Festival on Sunday night.  Unfortunately, Evie had a fever and stomach bug so she was not interested in participating.  Mason and Matthew had a fun time though.  Mason named the pumpkins Jack and Korea.  (have no idea where that came from!)

Boo at the Zoo

Last Friday night was Boo at the Zoo.  I knew it might be pushing it going just two days after surgery, but I wanted the kids to get out of the house.  Matthew is going to be out of town for Halloween, so I wanted him to get to see the kids dressed up too!  We were glad that the Scott's joined us as well.

It was fun, except we didn't get to see many animals because it was dark.  Next year we might brave the weekend crowds and go during the day!

It was hard coming up with an outfit for Evie this year since she isn't really into anything yet.  I'm sure next year she will have her own opinion!  I think she looks precious as Dorothy and she just says she is a princess.  I had to let Mason watch the Wizard of Oz because he had no idea who Dorothy was either!

such cuties

Mason has said he wanted to be Iron Man since last Halloween, but changed his mind about a month ago.  He saw this in a magazine and had to be a ninja because they have swords.  Such a boy!

I was beginning to doubt our decision to go when he fell asleep at 5:00pm on the way there.  He was fine while at the zoo, but wanted to sit in stroller and was exhausted when we got home.

Sweet sister was trying to share her animal crackers with the giraffes!

Riding the carosuel 

Mom of the year award goes to me when I put Mason on a horse on the merry go round.  He immediately screamed "ouch" and decided he would rather sit.  I didn't even think about him being too sore to straddle a horse!

20 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 20 weeks

Size of baby: 14 ounces and about the size of a stick of butter (according to doctor)

Total Weight Gain:  I forgot to look at doctor but I think around 7 pounds

Maternity Clothes: all maternity pants, but still regular tops with some maternity thrown in there

Gender: ??

Movement: Feeling little kicks every day

Sleep: I'm sleeping pretty good!

What I miss: feeling rested and maybe an occasional glass of wine

Cravings: Nothing really.

Symptoms: Heartburn, exhaustion, round ligament pain

Best Moments this week: Hearing baby's heartbeat and finding out we have another perfect, healthy baby.  I am glad that I have a little more energy during the day and that I haven't had any nausea in a couple of weeks.

Mason's Surgery

At Mason's five year well visit appointment in September, the pediatrician noticed that one of his testicles was undescended.  I did not know that was supposed to be checked, so it was news to us.  She referred us to a pediatric urologist to have it looked at.

We got into the urologist a few weeks ago, and he immediately noticed that Mason had something called meatal stenosis.  Again, something I had never heard of.  He said if it was just the testicle issue, he would have told us to come back in a year to see if it was truly undescended, but with this meatal stenosis, he needed surgery soon.  Without the surgery, it could cause UTI's, pain urinating, voiding, and other issues.  During the surgery he would check the testicle to see if it was tethered and repair that if needed.

They got us into surgery the next week.  I mentioned it to Mason two days before and it didn't go so well.  We told him he wouldn't feel anything because he would be asleep.  That terrified him!  He was scared to sleep in his bed that night because he thought something was going to happen to him.  We calmed him down and didn't mention it again until the night before.  He was a little apprehensive about it, but seemed okay.  I told him that he wouldn't be able to eat breakfast and he thought I meant he could never eat breakfast again.  Sweet boy!

Wednesday morning, we left the house at 7:30 to be at the hospital by 8:00.  He was in pretty good spirits at this point.  We got into a room around 8:30 and just had to wait until surgery at 10:30.  I thankfully brought the Ipad and crayons/coloring book so that kept him occupied.  He did great through all the vitals, but didn't like having to get naked under the hospital gown.

my brave boy!

He liked that the special socks squeaked on the floor!

We were glad to hear that one of us could go back into the operating room while he was put to sleep.  Mason started getting really upset when all the doctors and nurses started getting ready to take him back.  He was so mad because he did not want to go to sleep!  I got scrubbed up and it was time to wheel him back.  He was crying at this point and I was just trying to hold it together.  When we walked into the OR, he really lost it.  He didn't want to get off the bed and get onto the operating table so it took me and two doctors to get him over.  They put the gas mask on him, and he was just so mad with his arms crossed.  I was holding his hand and he had tears streaming down his face and then he finally squeezed my hand.  They warned me about him "falling asleep" but I was not prepared to see that.  His whole body twitched like he was having a seizure and I could see the whites of his eyes because he eyes rolled back into his head.  That's when my tears started flowing!  He then just looked peaceful and asleep so I left.

This look kills me and makes me laugh at the same time.  This was right before we walked back to the OR.

They called us about 15 minutes in and said that they would need to do the testicle repair, so we knew it would be a little while longer.  The whole thing took just under an hour, and then we waited another hour for him to wake up in recovery.

We both were able to go to recovery and he just looked so pale and in pain.  He immediately started crying when he saw me and said his teetee hurt.  The nurse gave him more pain meds and he slowly started feeling better.  He requested an orange and purple icee.  He just kept saying how hungry he was!  At this point it was noon, and he hadn't eaten since dinner the night before.  They said the fact he was hungry was a good sign and that we should get to leave soon.

Right when we he woke up in recovery

daddy feeding him an icee

Ready to go home!  He asked if we could take the wheelchair with us.

We were able to leave around 2 and all he wanted was McDonald's.  He ate well and just spent the rest of the day laying on couch.  He was in quite a bit of pain for the next two days.  The first night we had to wake him every four hours to give him his medicine.  He didn't pee for 24 hours, so we were really getting worried.  He was scared that it would hurt so he was holding it in.  After talking to the nurse, she said to go ahead and put him in a warm bath.  Almost immediately after sitting in water he went.  I thought we had turned the corner and he would start going, but no.  He held it again until 8pm that night and it took us putting him back in tub to get him to go.  His poor stomach was so hard because he was holding it in all day.

Friday morning he woke up screaming and didn't want to pee even though he had to.  He wanted to get back in bath, but we said no.  He finally went and that day went much better.  I think we over did it a little because his sutures starting bleeding a little.  He has fall break next week, so I'm glad we have a week to get him all the way better before he goes back to school.

All in all, he was so brave.  I am so glad this is behind us!

Mimi's Visit

My mom came for the week so we could go out of town.  The kids had so much fun being spoiled and Matthew and I loved all the extra help!  They love going on extra long walks to the park, playing ball outside, and playing all sorts of other games with Mimi.
When Mason's surgery day was scheduled for a few days after Mimi was supposed to leave, she decided to change her flight so she could stay and help.  It was nice to know Evie was well taken care of while we spent the day at the hospital.

shopping at Target with icee and popcorn

It snowed while we were in Scottsdale so they had a lot of fun playing in it.

Evie enjoyed eating the snow

shopping at Gap

Making Halloween cupcakes

They also made monster pudding

They love their Mimi!

Scottsdale

Matthew and I got away last week for a few days and went to Scottsdale.  We stayed at this amazing resort.  We knew that we wanted to go somewhere for some R&R and that is what we got!  All of our vacations are usually about touring, which I love, but we both needed something where we wouldn't feel guilty just laying around.

At the airport ready to go

The resort had these little fires lit every night all over the place.  We had dinner and them some of my favorite gelato.

My yummy breakfast Friday morning.  The food was all so good!

I fell in love with these beds around the pool.  We spent a lot of time just reading.  The weather was in the high 80's during the day, so it was perfect!

Not a bad view

Friday we both had massage appointments at the spa.  This spa was one of the best I have ever been to. We could use the facilities all day so we took advantage. 

This is the private pool at the spa.

Each locker room had saunas, steam rooms, plunge pools, etc and also had this waterfall pool.  Each section of water comes out at a different pressure.  It felt so good on our neck and shoulders.

The only time we got dressed in clothes (and not our swimsuits) was at dinner.  This is before dinner at La Hacienda.

We saw these cabanas by the pool and decided to rent one for the day on Saturday.  We had our own tv for watching college football, a stocked fridge, couches, and lounge chairs.  It was a great day!

watching football

view from inside

Dinner at Bourbon Steakhouse

It was a perfect weekend together and exactly what we needed.  I can't wait to go back one day.  Thanks to Mimi for coming to Denver to keep the kids so we could go.