October Fun!

Here is a picture update of what we did for fun in October:

We went to The Beef House to celebrate Great Aunt Sherry's b-day!

Cousin Stephen was in town from Colorado!

Hannah "helped" me make homemade noodles in her Fancy Nancy dress.

We went to the Homecoming Parade and stood where I always stood as a little girl!

I think it's funny that Jacob is wearing shorts here, and he's wearing a winter hat a few pictures later.  

Crazy, Illinois weather!

Les and Sarah Evans got to come spend a weekend with us and go to the Illini game!  We had tons of fun!

Jacob went to the game, while Hannah stayed with Grandpa & Grandma.

First ever Stripe the Stadium!!

We had an all-church picnic and all the kids got to pick pumpkins!

We went up to the church playground... possibly one last time for the year.

 Seriously, this face kills me!  LOVE this little boy!

Hannah's looking so grown up!  Thanks Aunt Emily for the matching hairbow!

Hannah and Jacob are always cuddling.  They love each other!

Just looking cute before church...

Nursemaid's Elbow

We had a slightly eventful morning at church today.  I normally teach Hannah's Beginner Worship class, but today I was helping Josh in Children's Church.  Hannah's teachers brought her to me during class and said she was complaining that her arm hurt but they weren't aware of any injury.  I took her, and she asked me to rub her arm.  I rubbed it for awhile, but she kept crying.  So, after church, we stopped by our house, gave her some children's Tylenol, and went to my parents' house for lunch.  By this point, she was really in pain and wouldn't let anyone come near her arm.  She didn't want to eat or play or do anything, and she kept repeating that her arm hurt.  We weren't sure what to do.  We finally went home and decided to call our on call doctor.  As soon as I described her symptoms, he said he thought it was "nursemaid's elbow" (which is a partial dislocation of the elbow joint) and to meet him at the hospital in 15 minutes.  He pulled in right behind us and walked into the foyer with us.  We ended up meeting with him right there in the foyer-we never had to register or wait or anything!  Hannah was very reluctant to let him touch her, but I finally slightly restrained her, and he popped her arm back into place.  Within minutes, she was back to her happy, active self.  He told me that the same exact thing had happened to his son during Sunday School one time.  He was a very nice doctor, and I was glad we got him.  We got home and she told daddy, "Dr. Horner fixed my arm!!!"  I was very thankful for him today!


On an unrelated note, tonight Hannah and I had a cute conversation about marriage.  Hannah said, ‎"When I get older, I'm going to marry daddy."  I said, "Well, you can't marry daddy, but he'll walk you down the aisle... and give you away to another man."  "Oh, to Jesus????" she quickly replied.  She has high standards; I like it!

One of those days....

Ok, so I try to keep my posts positive and about the fun things that we are doing as a family, but I'm having a stressful day, so can you humor me and allow a gripe session here?  Nothing world ending is going on, but it's just one of those days.  I had a doctor appointment, which is always fun to figure out with two children.  My mom and Josh both had thought that they might be able to arrange their work schedules to watch the kids while I went, but I found out yesterday that neither one could.  Great.  This is why I try to avoid going to the doctor.  It's always a pain to take the kids or find someone to watch them.  Why do I have such a hard time calling people and asking favors?  I decided I would just suck it up and take them (even though I usually regret this decision...).  I got myself and the kids ready to go first thing this morning, and Jacob was fussy fussy fussy the whole time.  I finally get everything and everybody loaded up.  I put my key in the ignition and turn the key... nothing.  My battery is dead.  I remember Josh telling me he turned off the interior light the other day that Hannah had turned on earlier in the day.  Great, that killed my battery.  What will I do now?  I remember my dad is working from home.  I call and ask him to please come jump my car.  It takes awhile... the battery was really drained.  I'm worried about being late to my appointment and fly all the way to Champaign.  I amazingly get there just in time.  I talk to my doctor about pain I've been having, off and on, basically since I was pregnant with Jacob (all while trying to keep the kids quiet and sitting still).  They did an ultrasound last week to rule out some things (yeah... they couldn't do my ultrasound and my appointment on the same day so I had to go to Champaign twice-ugh!), and today we determine that my pelvis never came back together correctly after I had Jacob, which explains why it has hurt to walk for about a year now (off and on).  Unfortunately, there's not a lot that can be done.  However, she refers me to a physical therapist (more doctor appointments to figure out...).  We leave and head for home.  I stop at a resale shop to drop off some kids clothes.  Hannah tells me she has to go potty.  I tell her to wait a minute.  She pees her pants.  She has never once had an accident in public.  Great.  There's pee all over the store's floor.  The worker graciously holds Jacob while I get her cleaned up.  I put one of Jacob's diapers and a pair of his jeans on her since that's all I had and clean up the mess.  Ugh.  I'm ready to go home.  Now we're home, the kids are sleeping, and I'm typing this post and hoping to feel less stressed soon.  Breathe in, breathe out.  Really, everything's fine.  I'm a little aggravated about my pelvis situation because it really has been hindering me from exercising for months now, and it is frustrating to have pain while doing normal every day things.  Hopefully the physical therapist can help me and it will heal eventually.... like before I have another baby and have it happen all over again!

PS-Can I also add that we keep breaking things around here!  Nothing super expensive but lots of frustrating things... including 3 pieces of FiestaWare (all my fault!).  I had only broke 1 piece in 7 years before this week.... I fear to make a list of the rest of the items with the chance that I will miss something, there have been so many.... oh boy

Pampered Chef Party!

At the beginning of the month, I had a Pampered Chef party with hostess Bethany Kuhlig!  I've never been big on the home parties, but I always said if I ever had one, it would be Pampered Chef because I actually use the stuff and don't think it's a rip off.  So, when I broke my favorite Pampered Chef pitcher, I decided to have a party to try and replace it instead of just ordering one.  Betty graciously drove all the way up to my house to host, and Abby got to come from Champaign and hang out as well!  Betty was a super cute hostess.  Everyone loved her.  And, I had a pretty successful party and earned lots of free stuff-yay!  I so wish I would have gotten a picture with Betty and Abby, but since I didn't, I'll post a picture of my new stuff!

In case you're considering hosting with Betty, here's incentive for you:  I got $90 worth of stuff FREE, 2 stones for 60% off, any two items for 50% off, and two more items for 25% off!!!

Look Who's Walking!!!

Jacob started taking steps at 10 1/2 months, and then started walking across the room on his 11 month birthday!  Here we go......

My Birthday Weekend

We got to do several, out of the ordinary things for my birthday weekend.  On Friday night, Josh and I took the kids to Grandma Jody's house for the evening.  We went out for a really quick dinner (at the Sonic drive-in so we could make a movie) and then to see Moneyball, which was actually a Josh pick, but I really enjoyed it as well.  I would watch it again!  

On Saturday, we had no plans, and by evening, I was ready to get out of the house.  So, Josh suggested that we drive to the pumpkin patch and then have pizza in Champaign.  We've been wanting to stop at this pumpkin patch on the backroads to Champaign for awhile, but we have never made the time.  They had all kinds of pumpkins and gourds, and they were cheap!  We got 4 pie pumpkins (that I plan on trying to puree) and some different little gourds all for $3!  Then, we drove to Urbana to try Amano's pizza, a place that Josh had recently read about.  We got there, and they looked like they were closed.  We finally decided they were open and went to the door, only to realize they are not a dine-in restaurant.  We ordered our food, waited half and hour for it, and took it home.  We were really hungry, and it was a long wait, but it was so worth it.  It was a great Chicago-style deep dish pizza.  We will definitely go back... and order ahead next time!

On Sunday after church, we went to my parents' house for lunch.  We celebrated my birthday and Betsy's birthday.  We had yummy food, and I got some fun presents.  

Then, we headed to Champaign (for the 3rd time that weekend!) to celebrate with Josh's family at Biaggi's.  Even though the service was slow (we were there 2 1/2 hours!), the food was good, and it was a nice night.  I felt very blessed with a very nice birthday weekend!  Here's to the start of the last year of my twenties!  

Phil & Erika Sudlow

 

My brother, Phil, got married at the Methodist Church here in Catlin on Saturday, October 1st!  He married Erika Prunkard, who he has been dating for several years.  She has a six year old son, Hayden, so I got a new sister-in-law and a new nephew in one day!  They had a very pretty day.  Here are some pictures from the events:

 

My sister Emily was taking pictures from the balcony, so the Downing clan decided to keep her company and watch from the balcony, while keeping our potential disruptions far away from the front of the church!

Hannah's dress unintentionally was just like Erika's!  Hannah wore her dress from Emily's wedding, and my mom made her a new black belt for it.  I didn't know Erika's dress also had a black belt.  They looked cute!

 

Our family tried to match the black and white wedding!

I decided to get my hair cut the day of the wedding.  I had a gift card from Christmas for a nice salon in Danville.  It was nice not to have to style it myself!

My handsome little guy!  I adore him! 

 

 Hannah had great fun popping bubbles at the reception!

 Phil and Erika's friends gave them a deer head as a joke wedding gift!

 We got Phil and Erika the traditional personalized crock.  Erika loved it!

 New cousins-Hayden & Hannah!!!