Can You Say, "Nasolacrimal Duct Probing"?

Nicholas has had a congenital lacrimal duct obstruction (aka a clogged tear duct) since he was born. See green brown gunk around his eye.

After waiting and hoping for it to clear up on its own, it was finally time to get it fixed.  Nicholas was able to go to the new Primary Children's Medical Center in Riverton for his Nasolacrimal Duct Probing.  It was such a fun place!  We were really worried that he would be a basket case because he had to come in on an empty stomach.  The day before when I talked with a nurse I told her that we might be bringing a really grumpy boy in the next day.  She told me not to worry, they have really cool toys.  She wasn't kidding!  Nicholas was in heaven.  There was so much to touch and see.

I told Devin that we should just take our kids there on cold days and let them play in the lobby.
Nicholas was so good for the nurses and doctors.

I must say he looks way better in a hospital gown than I ever have.  He really liked his bright yellow hospital socks. (They let us take those home.)

Nicholas had/has a bit of a cold so we had to hang out in the little room while we were waiting for the operation.  Nicholas was pretty happy pushing the stool around.

No worries, the nurses brought us lots of cool toys.  I don't know who had more fun with them, Nicholas or Devin.

When it was time for the operation they marked Nicholas's eye to make sure they kept things straight.

Nicholas was a champ.  He whimpered just a bit when the doctor took him away.  But the doctors were so good with him.  You can tell they know how to help kids feel comfortable and to not be afraid.
The surgery went well.  It only took about 30 minutes.  Nicholas did ok waking up.  Well, he was pretty ticked.  They say that is normal.  Think about it, no food, IV in your foot, lots of wires attached to your body, strange nurses, and well...you just had surgery.  I can't blame him for being sad and mad. I was glad that I was able to go back and be with him.  Mommy+binky+puppy+food=we can be happy again.

I felt really bad, Nicholas really didn't like one of the nurses, he would just glare at her!  It is because she was the one who sucked his nose out.  He has a pretty bad runny nose and that made it hard for him to breath, so she sucked him out.  Ooooh he hated that!!!
They watched him for a little while to make sure he kept food down and that everything else was fine.  We were out of the hospital before 10am.  Not bad.
He is doing great.  Not a single crusty eye.  Bath time and waking up in the morning are usually the worst times, but his eye has been completely clean.  It makes me so happy to not have to constantly pick crusty stuff off his eyelashes all day long.  I'm sure it makes Nicholas happy too.

See Nicholas Shake

Turn your head sideways and have a good laugh.

Other October Fun

Here are a few random October pictures.

This is Rocky our Fighting Cantaloupe.  We called him Rocky because he has been a fighter all year.  I really didn't think he was going to make it but he did.  We would look at him and say, "He's a fighter!" I loved hearing Anna talk about Rocky.  He tasted really good.

Devin got a new shovel and the kids LOVED playing in the box.  It was too much fun!

Nicholas spends a lot of time in this position.  Too cute!

Ann loves to play with Devin's tools.  She is quite handy.

I am glad that Anna and Nicholas are starting to play together more.  I really hope that they will be the best of friends.

 And here is a great shot of Mr. Blue Eyes.

On to November and the adventures it will bring.

Halloween 2011

We love Halloween at our house.

I really do enjoy making costumes for everyone, especially when it is all over and I can sit back and see how cute they all look.

Anna really wanted to be Tinkerbell.  But not just any Tinkerbell.  She wanted to be Tinkerbell like in the Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure movie.  So I was trying to make a costume that looked like this.

And this is what I came up with.

Not bad. I think she looked pretty cute.

Nicholas was our little turtle.

I guess you could say we were going for a green theme this year.

Devin was Dobby.  His team at work did a Harry Potter theme.  So Devin got to be the world's biggest House Elf.  (He won 3rd place for Funniest Costume.  I guess shaving his head was worth $15.) Anna loves going to Devin's work Halloween party. She gets twice as much candy from that as she does from trick-or-treating in half the time.

Halloween night my brother Peter and his family came over to our great neighborhood for trick-or-treating.  Look close in the picture at our pumpkins this is the only picture we took that has them in it.  Devin carved Tinkerbell for Anna and it looks fantastic.

 The weather was AMAZING!!!!!  I don't remember the weather ever being this nice. The kids got lots of candy and had even more fun passing it out.

Emily made yummy doughnuts and everything turned out great!  On to next year.  I think we are pretty much decided on what Nicholas will be, Anna .... not completely sure yet. :)  

Anna's 3rd Birthday

Anna had her 3rd birthday last week.  We thought we would try and spread the birthday joy out and not try and cram too much into one day.

Friday we had a little friend party in the morning.  Anna is in love with Tinkerbell and fairies so we had a Tinkerbell party.  We played Tinkerbell bingo (Thanks Devin for the amazing game!). 

The girls went for a treasure hunt, because fairies love to look for treasure.

Each girl got to make her own fairy wings.   They were all so excited to decorate their wings with stickers and markers.  The look on their face when we put their wings on was priceless.

We then played Fairy Freeze which was basically run around, dance, jump, do whatever and then freeze when the music stopped.  Oh my, the camera doesn't do justice to this game.  It was so cute to watch!

We then opened presents.

And ate cake.

It was a SUPER simple party but the girls had a blast.

(Special thanks to Devin for taking such fun pictures!!!!)

Friday night we had our family party.  We are decided to start a new tradition.  Rather than having a friend party and a family party, we would just do a Family Movie Night where the birthday person would choose their favorite movie to watch.  It was fun.  We had cake.

Then we all watched Tinkerbell The Great Fairy Rescue.  

Saturday was Anna's real birthday.  Being the great parents that we are, we signed up to run the Highway to Hale 5k Race at the Hale Center Theater that morning.  I was feeling bad to drag Anna off to a race on her birthday, but she was SOOOO excited.  "I get to wear my runner shirt?!!!"  We borrowed a single jogging stroller from our neighbors so that Devin could push Anna in our stroller and I could push Nicholas in the other stroller.  The weather was great!  I was very pleased with my time pushing a stroller and Nicholas fell asleep.  It was fun to see everyone dressed up.  I even saw Tayla one of my 2nd grade students.  I love seeing my students!!!  I miss them.  I really do consider them my best friends.   Here is the great picture of Peter and his kids, and the Baldwins.

The highlight of the race was watching Anna run across the finish line.  I wish I had pictures.  Devin let her out of the stroller and she got to run her little heart out.  You should have seen the look on her face. Everyone was cheering for her.  That girl LOVES to run!!!  Not a bad way to start off her birthday.

We went home and opened presents. She loved her new Thomas book.  

Crazy girl would have been happy with that but we kept bugging her to open the BIG present.  Anna is now the proud owner of a green scooter.  If you ask Anna it is a Tinkerbell scooter.  And she can put pixie dust on it and it can fly.

Nicholas liked the balloons.

After snuggling up with Daddy to read stories, Anna and I went out to take the scooter for a spin.  I went out on my rollerblades.  I can't remember the last time I did that.  It was so much fun.  It was a perfect fall day.

We then took Anna to the temple.  The most important part of the day in my mind.  

I love walking around the temple with her and being able to talk with her about how important the temple is and how excited we are that she gets to go there in only 9 more years!!!!  She is growing up so much.  Here are my favorite pictures from her last three temple trips.

Anna's 1st Birthday

Anna's 2nd Birthday

Anna's 3rd Birthday

Happy Birthday Anna!!!!  We sure love you!!!!!!