October Festivities!

Here are some fun pics from Halloween! We had a blast! We met up with some friends to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood. They decided to use their truck and trailor to make a hayride for the kids(and grown-ups too) and drive it around the neighborhood for trick or-treat. So much fun!!

Aubrey and Carter went as Dorothy and the Scarecrow- homemade costumes of course! :) Doesn't Carter look happy?

By this point Aubrey had too much candy and was feeling pretty silly!

Cowboy by day.......

Scarecrow by night! Here's Carter on the hayride enjoying EVERY minute of it! LOL

Okay- so MAYBE he likes it a little better without the hat :)

Some friends from the hayride...

This one still makes me laugh..hahaha

In the month of October Ryan had a rotation at Shant's Hospital in Gainesville, so we ended up renting a house on Lake Santa Fe, just outside of Gainesville. This was a pic from the dock of the boat house. I wish it could have been a panoramic view because it was beautiful! It took me a while to warm up to the house though. Ryan had very early mornings and left around 4am and i would lie awake in bed thinking that every noise I heard, was someone coming to murder me! Ahhh!I know- I have issues! Anyway I finally started liking it  and we made a few fun memories there. I will always remember with fondness, our scary little lake house! :)

Aubrey at the pumpkin patch trying to find the perfect pumpkin! Actually, we ended up buying one from the grocery store instead. These crazy folks wanted $15 for a pumpkin! I don't think so! $4 special at Harvey's grocery store sounds alot better to me! We had to choose from the 4 pumpkins that they had left, so we went with the one that wasn't growing mold yet- Seriously!

Aubrey LOVED cleaning out the pumpkin and then getting to squish all of the pumpkin guts in her fingers!

The finished product! Ryan did an awesome job with the carving! You can tell he took his work very seriously :)

Then we made ghost cookies like my mom always made with us...Yummy!

Lastly, These are a few pics from a fall festival that we went to that was pretty memorable, but for all the wrong reasons! We paid to get into this fall festival and it sounded like fun (hayrides, tractor pulls, petting zoo, and a corn maze). It was so stinkin' hot outside we were sweating the whole time! The petting zoo turned out to be 2 goats and a chicken( who ever heard of petting a chicken?), the truck pulling the hayride broke just before our group got on so we had to wait for about 20 min. in the SUN for the next ride, and don't EVEN get me started on the corn maze! By the end of it Aubrey was crying and had a busted lip, Ryan was mad, and we were all sweaty and dirty! Next year, I think we might just save our money and rent a movie.

 Ryan: Can we both fit on here?

 

Nope.. another disappointment. Oh well, at least Aubrey enjoyed it and they both smiled for the pic.

The most enjoyable part of the day- the hayride. I think those smiles might even be REAL!

LOTS of vacation pics.....

We went to visit family in Idaho/Utah in September and had a great time despite the fact that we ended up being sick for most of the time. Here are just some of the pics from the visit!.......

August was full of unexpected events..... One day I was headed to a doctor's appt. with the kids in the backseat when suddenly several cars in front of me slammed on their brakes. I slammed on brakes as quickly as I could but still collided with the car in front of me. It was one of the most scary moments of my life. Our collission bent the rear bumper of that car. Our little Ford Focus, however, took one for the team.

 Both airbags deployed, the windshield was smashed, and the front of the car was completely crushed. Thankfully, the kids and I, although scared and very shaken up, were completely fine and so was the driver of the other vehicle. Also, thankfully, the truck behind me ran off the road, just missing our car and the woman driving that truck turned out to be one of the best things about that day. She was so helpful with the kids and such a comfort to me about everything that had just happened! She even let the kids and I sit in her air conditioned truck while we waited for Ryan to arrive. She was truly a tender mercy from the Lord!

Our car was totaled and we ended up selling it to a salvage yard for parts for a few hundred dollars. Since I was the last car in the accident, I was faulted for it and recieved a ticket for quote "Careless Driving" which so obviously describes the situation since I remember thinking to myself right before the accident...  "Hmmm, the car in front of me just stopped, but I really could care less so, Oh well,  I think I'll just smash into the back of it!" 

Anyway...We were pretty sad to say goodbye to it. As Ryan drove away from the junk yard he called me and said "I feel like I just sold my child!" It's true- we had lots of fun adventures and memories with that car. Ryan bought it while we were still dating. It was the car that we took to our honeymoon and later we drove it across the country from Utah to Georgia. It has made many trips to Warner Robins, Athens, and Florida. We drove it to Ryan's Dental school and graduate school interviews and brought both of our children home from the hopital in it. It felt like part of the family.

This picture was taken just after we were married and were headed off to honeymoon.

Ahhh......Those were good times......But let's face it, the truth is, that car had SEEN it's better days and as of late, it was a falling apart- piece of junk! We had to take it in for one repair or another constantly and I was so tired of sitting in the parking lot sweating, and waiting for some knight in shining armour to come along and jump start it for me nearly every other day! If you think about it, I really did that car AND our family a favor by putting it out of it's misery!  

And as the new owner of a Beautiful, Pearl Red-Chrysler Town and Country I can finally utter those words that I never thought I would be so Proud to say ........." I Am a Mini Van MOMMA!"

The other major events that took place in August involved our little boy, Carter. As I have said before, and I cannot say it enough, he has been such a sweet, wonderful addition to our family.

In August, durring Carter's  four month check-up, the pediatrition noticed that his eyes were not focusing well on objects and that they were shaking back and forth as he would try to focus. She also noticed that he had not met the 3 month milestones for his age, particularly that he was not rolling over or pushing up off of the ground by straightening out his arms. She decided to refer us to a pediatric opthalmoligist and ped. neurologist.

We expected that everything was fine and that the doctors are just being cautious. At his visit with the opthalmologist, we found out that he has Nystagmus, which means that when he has trouble focusing on objects his eyes shake from side to side. The doctor says that it is due to a lack of pigmentation in his eyes and that hopefully it will become less noticible as he grows. We also found out that he is already far-sighted and will soon need glasses. We will return every 6 months so that he can be monitored as he grows. The Opthalmoligist also says that there are different stages of Nystagmus, such as becoming cross-eyed, most of which can be fixed with glasses. Ryan and his Dad were able to give Carter a blessing before his visit with the opthalmologist and we have since seen great improvements in his eye sight! The pediatrition still noticed that he was having trouble focusing at his 6 month check-up, but all of our family has noticed a positive change in the past 2 months!

We have only made one trip to the Neurologist so far but in our visit she was concerned that Carter's neck muscles were not developed enough and that he still bobbles his head sometimes. She said that this leads her to believe that he may have a problem with the optic nerve (the nerve that connects the eyes to the brain) and so we have done 2 sets of blood tests so far and the next step will be an MRI to look at his brain. She was also concerned that he had not yet met his 3 month milestones and wants to get the MRI results then, if everything comes out o.k. with those, we will go ahead and start physical therapy for 8-12 weeks. If he still cannot catch up on his motor skills by then, we will resume the testing. He is now 6 and 1/2 months old and has still not reached those milestones but we love him and are grateful to have him as part of our family and are thinking positive thoughts. :)