Oct. 2014 cont.

Benson lost a tooth! This kid works hard to get his teeth out.  He'll go through quite a bit of pain to get it loose and out.

 Reece and Spencer had to come up with a cake for their cake contest at scouts.  Reece came up with the design and spencer helped frost it.  Everyone was really impressed with their good looking cake.

 Spencer finishing Harry Potter before church.  I would say this is quite the handsome crew!

Fall school pictures

Tanner at Food therapy

The shark in his head helped us eat lots of food! We would put food in the sharks mouth and then transfer it to Tanners.  We used it for all kinds of games.

 Reece 3rd Grade

 Benson 1st Grade

Eagle Center 10/18/14

Every Fall we take a day-trip around the area to see the beautiful fall colors.  This year we went to the Mississippi River and visited the Eagle center.  Fall in Minnesota is unique-- instead of beautiful canyons full of color you have rolling hills that go on forever with all kinds of different colors, trees, bushes, etc.  Our scenic drive never got old-- we could have continued it for a couple more hours and still been entertained.  The boys enjoyed some Harry Potter reading by their Father, some candy at the famous toy store "Larks toys", and were thrilled to hold all kinds of fun creatures--namely snacks! I was pretty surprised to find out that my kids LOVE snakes (when I was 9 I wanted one for my birthday but instead got a bird that died when I fed it chocolate).  They were holding them while everyone came around them to pet them.  They decided they wanted a "fox snack" for christmas.  I told them to call their Grandpa Dunkley and tell him that he needed one for the farm!

This picture is awesome because Benson read somewhere about painted turtles and decided he wanted one for a pet.  He was surprised to see one at the Eagle center and was even more thrilled to hold one.

True Joy

COuldn't find a happier kid

Mississippi River

Nesting….

I am a crazy nester! I go wild cleaning, organizing, getting everything in place so it's perfect when the baby arrives.  I also like to take a 2 week break from everything when I have a newborn so I can just soak in the baby time and let my body heal.  Because of that I get a little crazy nesting and want everything to be perfect and ready so I can relax when baby comes.  This is her nursery.  I am in LOVE with it! My friends helped me put it together.  Ashley, Hiedi, and Cassi searched the internet one day (this was all through text messaging while our children were taking naps) and found this DARLING bedding from Lands End.   It was even on clearance.  I wanted the nursery to be purple because it's my favorite color and I also wanted it to be classy.  

Ashely made the signs above her crib, Alissa made the banner for Kate's baby shower and gave it to me for the room, Nicki bought the lamp, and I reupholstered the rocking chair!

I feel like her room is really peaceful. Sometimes I just sit in the rocking chair with my massive belly thinking about how I'm going to have a girl.  It's exciting, fun, and wonderful!

October 2014

Tanner LOVES to help me in the kitchen.  He will bring the chair over and say, "I help mommy". I love having a little helper in the kitchen.

 Chad got some extra tickets to the BSU vs. BYU football game and invited my parents to go with them! I love that both sets of grandparents are such great friends!!! Notice my Dad-- or Grandpa Dunkley-- is wearing a BSU shirt and a BYU hat! Funny.

 Our beautiful and lovely Grandmas! Grandma Dunkley and Grandma Miller taking a "selfie!'

 Tanner showing me his shark that he used during food therapy.  We got him to eat a couple new foods by putting the food into the sharks belly and then eating it.  We had an awesome routine with him when going to food therapy.  He LOVED going mostly because of all the fun things we did.  He would push all the elevator buttons, run up the carpet on the "track" passing all the elderly people visiting the Mayo (an of course them all saying how cute he was), getting a drink from the mini drinking fountain while I checked in, then going to food therapy, and then riding the bike up and down the hall as his reward for eating!  We would finish with "two stickers" and another drink at the mini fountain.  It was always an exciting adventure and I truly enjoyed my one-on-one time with him.  Although I got a lot of hilarious looks chasing him down with my massive belly.  One lady in the elevator asked how many more weeks I had until the baby came out.  I told her "6" and she laughed, "and you think you're going to make it"! I thought it was hilarious and told her I hope I don't--lets get this baby out of here!

 Reece started reading the Harry Potter series and has been hooked!! He reads a book and then watches the movie with Spencer while Tanner, Benson, and I watch a different movie upstairs on my bed.

 Piano lessons! The boys are doing great! I love seeing them practice-- especially when I'm not yelling at them to get it done! When they do it on their own it makes my heart swell.

 WHOA there belly! This is me at 35 weeks.

 Reece was the "Terrific Kid" in his classroom this month.  His award said, "Reece is a respectful student.  He follows the school rules in the classroom and around the school. He is very kind to his classmates". Way to go buddy! We are proud of you for the wonderful kid you have become.

September 2014

I can sum up September in 2 words: DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS

I honestly was at the doctors office at least 3 times a week--sometimes 4.  We had allergy appointments for Reece and Tanner, endocrinology for Benson, food therapy at least twice a week with Tanner, dermatology for Tanner thanks to some nasty muluskum, and lots of appointments for baby Kate (surgeon, NICU doctor, and a couple ultrasounds and regular appointments). It was exhausting.  I was also trying to get Benson squared away with his new routine at school.  Being in 1st grade he now eats lunch at school and is there for an entire day-- trying to figure out blood sugars and changing his basal rates was crazy to say the least.  Then mix a lot of anxiety for being in 1st grade with change in schedule and physical activeness is a bad situation for a type 1 diabetic.  It took about a month to get his blood sugars under control.  Lucky for us we have a wonderful nurse who is compassionate, knowledgable, and very organized.

OH, and did I mention Spencer was gone for most of the month interviewing for fellowship? I honestly had a melt down by the end of the month.  I was feeling so overwhelmed mostly from lack of sleep and feeling super uncomfortable with my massive belly.  It was also a challenge trying to figure out everyones medical needs.  I usually handle it well, but having everything crammed into one month was a little much.  Especially with the worry about Baby Kate and her CPAM.

Some highlights from September include:
*boys having great teachers and enjoying school
*having the boys walk to and from school everyday--they are so grown up!
*Young woman's-- I was in charge of two big combined activities that went really well! I LOVE Young Women's! The girls are so fun and cute! I also like feeling young again! :)
*Good weather! We had a beautiful fall.  The colors were magnificent and the weather was perfect!
*Baby Kate being healthy-- what a huge blessing!!
*Tanner getting over mulluskum--they thought it would take at least a year or two.  The body has a hard time acknowledging mulluskum and attacking it.  My theory for him overcoming it so fast is due to his excema.  He scratched his mulluskum so hard that it spread throughout his whole body (minus his face).  I think he triggered an irritation and started to attack it.  I'm so thankful its no longer affecting him.  Trying to manage severe excema and mulluskum was a tough task.  The head of Mayos dermatology department had an appointment with us and said we were in a really tough spot with very little options. It was looking dim and miserable for Tanner. What a wonderful blessing it went away so fast!