Very Late Halloween Pics

I should have posted these a long time ago...just never got to it. Here I present to you the Princess Snow White and a Turtle:


This picture was taken at my work where we started our trick or treating adventures on Friday the 30th.


After here we headed to Downtown Davis to trick or treat at the local business...


Downtown we ran into our neighbors Alice & Evan...Samantha was really exicited to pull Alice's hair here:



The back of the very cute Turtle costume...take a look at that adorable little tail:


Here is a silly Turtle...Samantha loves to lean back and hang upside down...maybe we should have dressed her up as a bat. :)



Babi and Snow White walking:


Silly Picture with Mommy:


That night we also took Hannah to see "Disney Princesses on Ice" at Arco Arena where she again got to wear her costume...she LOVED the show.

The next day, which was actually Halloween Hannah went to gymnastics and then we met my friend Jill, her kids Logan & Reese and my friend Natasha who I have not seen in years. It was fun for her to finally meet my girls and while at first Hannah was a little scared of her she quickly warmed up to her b/c Natasha loves to play with kids. Here she is with Hannah on the swing:



Here are Reese, Logan & Hannah enjoying an ice cream in a fun tree...



It is some much fun to see our kids getting a long so well and playing with each other ...it is neat when you grow up with someone practically your whole life and then your kids like each other too.

Here is an adorable picture of Samantha giving my mom a very big and unexpected hug:



On Halloween night we headed up to Roseville to a Halloween party at a friend's house. There were a lot of little kids there...here are some in line to hit a pinta:



We did lots of trick or treating and here are a few kids (including our Snow White & Abby as Snow White) enjoying their candy:



Samantha trying to get at the family dogs...did I mention how much she loves dogs?!:)


And here are some random pics of something that Samantha tries to do constantly!...play in Tulip's water bowl:



What?! I am not doing a thing...can't you tell by my grin:

Hannah's surgery is complete!

Hannah went into surgery today to fix faulty sealing bladder tubes and she is recovering well. She has pretty much been asleep all day and right now is enjoying watching Winnie the Pooh in her hospital room.

Before the surgery they gave her some drugs to drink before they stuck her with anything...so that was nice. Those drugs made her sleepy and loopy and it was like watching Hannah drunk...it was hilarious!!! She totally started slurring her speech and then started tripping out on her name tags around her legs...totally hilarious. Adam and I were laughing so hard we were crying. :) The nurses told us to enjoy her now b/c when they come out of surgery 95% of the kids cry inconsolably for a long time b/c of the anesthesia wearing off and the tubes running out of them etc. So while we waited the 3 hours for her surgery to be complete I was trying to enjoy the "Calm Before the Storm" b/c I totally thought Hannah was going to be one of those 95%. But somehow she turned out to be one of those 5% b/c she pretty much as been sleeping all day only to wake up here and there, space out for a little bit and then go back to sleep. She also hasn't spoken very much today which is really strange to us b/c normally she talks non-stop. I get to spend the night here tonight, so we will see how it goes. The nurse says with these kinds of surgeries a lot of times the kids wake up at about 3 am ready to go wanting to play and eat...lets hope Hannah also doesn't meet those statistics and stays asleep all night.

The doctor said the surgery went really well...it was text book. I knew he was good doctor but it was nice to hear all the nurses telling us what a really good doctor he was too.

Oink Oink

I know I know...I am past due to post pictures from Halloween and I will get them up soon. The Turtle and Snow White pictures will make their appearance shortly. :)

In the mean time let me occupy your mind with another story. My dad's company "Novartis" makes the season flu and now the H1N1 vaccines and are offering it to employees and families for free. Since my doctor's office does not have the H1N1 vaccine yet and don't know when they will get it my doctor recommended I get it where we can even though Samantha cannot get it at my dad's work b/c they are only offering it to kids over 4 years of age...Hannah just made the cut off! Our doctor also highly recommended I get Hannah the shot before her surgery/hospital stay next Friday but to keep in mind that it is possible to get a fever within 7 days of the shot and if she has a fever they will not do the surgery. Well that is a total catch 22 b/c we are now 7 days out from the surgery but I decided to go ahead and take the risk that she will not develop a fever and get her the shot to help keep her immune from any germs lurking around the hospital.

Originally I thought I was going to have to go to Emeryville where my dad works but he found out that the Novartis in Vacaville was administering the shots and arranged for us to go there instead. YAY! I left work this morning and off I went to go get my mom (she is up visiting) and then Hannah at school to go get this shot. Poor Hannah...she was all excited to see us only to find out the reason we were there was to get her this shot. She was fine the whole way there but became very shy when we arrived at the nurse's office. The nurse was very nice and gave Hannah a pink pig hat to wear which was great and I thought it would be a great distraction. Hannah wanted me to go first and she was fine watching me get the shot but when I told her it was her turn she went running out the door and down the hallway screaming "NO!". I really don't know where she thought she was going. Of course I caught up to her and brought her back in. She was now screaming "No I don't want to do this, I don't want a shot!". Being the sympathetic mother that I am I told her we could do this the nice way where she sits o my lap and I hold her hand while she is given the shot or we could do this the not nice way and I could pin her down and she could get the shot. She chose the first option...smart girl. All was somewhat o.k. until the shot hit her arm and then more screaming occurred and she tried to move but I held her tight. Then she screamed for like 5 minutes aftewards indicating that she did not like that. Sorry. And because she is under 9 we get to repeat this again in 3-4 weeks...good times.

Next week Adam and I get to tackle how to explain to her that she is having surgery on Friday...wish us luck. Any suggestions would be great!

Bye-Bye

Today Samantha is 10 months old and when I dropped her off at school this morning she waved bye-bye to me for the first time! In the past they were just half waves good-bye or you couldn't really tell if that is what she was intending to do, but this morning it was a completely intentional wave good-bye and really good looking wave too. Too bad I didn't have my camera on me. She also had a great smile while waving good-bye, it melted my heart. :)

Happy 4th Birthday Hannah!

I cannot believe that Hannah turns 4 today. I also cannot believe that she is sick with a low fever and I am sitting at home with her today while she is sick celebrating her birthday. She had her big princess party with her fellow princesses and princes on Sunday and then woke up with a fever Monday morning, which since then has remained low grade...enough to let you know you are sick but not enough to keep you down so she really doesn't think she is that sick and wants to do things, but we have to keep reminding her to rest. Ughhh!

Here are a few picks from the princess mania party...

The birthday princess...


Every princess has to do some swinging...


Some other Snow Whites that showed up to the party:




Having some fun...


And getting into a little mischief..


Having lunch...I set up little kids tables on the deck with table cloths and flowers in the center...it was cute...


All of Hannah & Samantha's cousins were there...Hannah was so excited and this was the first time they were all together as a group so we had to take a picture. It turned out really well!



Here is the royal group (with a few missing due to illness or the fact that they just did not want to be in the picture...


The fancy princess cakes...that's right we had two b/c Hannah wanted a round cake and so we needed to get two to feed everyone, plus the princess that went on top took up all the space on top of one so we had to get 2 to write on the other one...





And finally the present mob...believe it or not I am in there...somewhere...


The royal guests also did some decorating of sashes that I made for each of them with their name on it (you can see them in some of the above pictures) and they decorated crowns...all in all the arts in crafts were a big hit, so I am glad.

At then end, Hannah was trashed (perhaps her illness was already beginning to creep up on her)and so she laid down on the couch with her new princess blanket, opened up her ballerina music box and closed her eyes listening to the music...the princess needed her beauty sleep...


When Hannah gets back to school she will celebrate with her classmates and I will make a cupcake cake so the celebrations will still continue when the princess is feeling better.

I still cannot believe Hannah has gone from:

1st Birthday:


2nd Birthday:


3rd Birthday:


To the princess that she is today. :) Time flies when you are having fun. And we get to go through it all again with little Samantha. By the way Samantha had a great time at the party too...especially with the balloons...

Pumpkin Patch Day at Hannah's School

It was my turn this year to help Hannah's school on their annual pumpkin patch field trip since Adam participated last year b/c I was much too pregnant to attempt it. He was happy to hand it over to me this year. I borrowed our friend's truck b/c it had 2 forward facing car seats so we didn't have to do car seat swapping and I took their daughter Sydney along with Hannah to the pumpkin patch along with lots of other parents and children.

They both behaved great and it was a wonderful trip. They got to pick pumpkins...



Run through the hay maze...



Pet animals...



I love this picture...this poor cat...



And I love this picture too...Sydney seems really interested in this bunny ear...



Hannah was not too sure about the chicks or the ducks...to wriggly I think...




They also got to go on a tractor ride...



The two well behaved girls and me...


Then we loaded up the truck with a lot of the pre-school class pumpkins and headed back to school.



When we got back to school both of the girls were very excited to help unload the pumpkins and came outside with me for each of the 5 trips I took to unload them all and each time took a pumpkin each and helped bring it inside for their friends. Very helpful! All in all a great outing. :)

BTW...Happy Birthday to Jenny, Kate, & Cindy...I know way too many people born today!

What the What?!

I have a really bad headache, so I go to our back office to look for some Tylenol. There is none to be found but I run into Paul, and EXB professor also in the back room. I ask him if he happens to have Tylenol in his office and he says yes...score! So I follow him to his office down the hall and he hands me his bottle of Tylenol from a drawer. I look at it and think "this bottle looks a little old". So I decided to turn it over to look at the expiration date and to my surprise I see 4/95...yes that's right folks it is 14 years old!!! I of course inform Paul that his Tylenol is 14 years old and he says "oh, I don't believe in that stuff". Well I don't believe in it if it is a couple of months old, but 14 years!!! My god!! I kindly hand his bottle back and say thanks but no thanks.

So next I call our Training Room, luckily they of course have some and are willing to give me some. So down I go and one of the student athletic trainers hands me the Tylenol and in the room are several student-athletes getting worked on and other trainers. Also in the room is our Men's Locker Room Asst., Joe. Really nice guy but sometimes I don't think there is a filter on what he says because he turns to me in front of all these people and says "Hey Nicole can you take that while you are still breastfeeding?". Of course everyone turns to look at me and I have to kindly inform him that I am done breastfeeding but thanks for being concerned about me. He says he is just looking out for me...again sweet, but the concern coming from a male co-worker is a little funny to me and in front of a lot of student-athletes and trainers makes it even funnier. But I have my Tylenol and hopefully my headache will be gone soon.