Of course conference is always a fun thing in our house and Bentley fully expects lots of fun activities, so I kind of had to keep that tradition going! I make lots of church related activities for her and Deacon to do and they are sure to complete every one of them. I'm really enjoying conference these days having President Nelson as our prophet. He really hauls things forward and keeps us on our toes! We are excited about conference in the Spring because apparently it's supposed to be like none before. I have already been studying more about Joseph Smith in preparation for it.
Thanksgiving came and went fast. The kids both made the cutest turkeys at school. I forgot to take a picture of Deacon's, but he was so thrilled about it! He absolutely loves bringing his crafts home, even his teacher can't believe how excited he gets about it and thinks it's funny when he cries when something has to dry and stay at school for a little longer. I'm glad he's proud of the work he does! Bentley made this cute craft and I am constantly amazed by her creativity and how good she is at drawing. We had some yummy turkey dinners with both sides of the family and it was great!
I am so glad Bentley is enjoying Kindergarten. When she comes home from school she is always in such a great mood and it's so fun to hear about her day! I have been reading the book "how to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" with her and she is already getting close to reading. She understands it so well and I'm sure it won't be long before she's reading books by herself. She is also great at making friends and often comes home telling me about a new friend she made and wants to invite to her birthday party. We had a little play date with her friend Violet the other day because she couldn't make it to her birthday party so we decided to set up a play date instead. She is so cute and it was fun meeting her mom and getting to know her a little bit. It's also been really nice carpooling with Stacy-Ann or her mother-in-law. It makes it so that I only have to drive half the time! And Bentley enjoys riding with Abigail. The last picture here is Bentley waiting for her ride, with Deacon laying on her.
The boys have been loving playgym and we usually go every Friday to Foothills Gymstars. They just run and climb on the gymnastics equipment, and if they fall they land on soft mats so it's great for them. We usually go when Bentley is at school but on the Fridays she has off she comes with us. Lately she's been telling me it's boring, so I guess she's getting a little old for it? One day Deacon asked me to take pictures of certain poses he had in mind and it was pretty funny! He cracks me up sometimes.
One night we surprised Breanne for her birthday at an Indian restaurant. So fun!
When Bentley found out Violet's birthday party was on a Sunday, she said "Oh darn, I have church that day." She immediately started drawing Violet a picture and had me help her write this note for Violet saying she's sorry she can't come. I just though it was so adorable so I had to take a picture. The fact that she knew church was important and didn't even skip a beat or beg to go the party instead really impressed me.
I really couldn't believe it when Bentley told me her tooth was wiggly. She showed me and then the next day it came out! She's not even 6 yet so I wasn't quite ready for that. I love those baby teeth and I really don't want this girl to grow up! She's just the cutest right now. Right in the morning she said she went to the bathroom, wiggled it in the mirror and it came right out. She was thrilled and kept asking me if it was bedtime yet so the tooth fairy could come! Eventually the tooth fairy did come and it was like Christmas morning for Bentley as she woke up before 6am to find the note and shiny coin and came running into my room to tell me. Even Deacon got a note from the tooth fairy because he decided to leave one. It said that she was excited to visit him when he loses a tooth!
Jeff had Remembrance Day off work this year so we decided to make the most of it and go visit the military museum! We had never been and it was really neat. Leo was in the worst of moods so we didn't stay as long as we would have liked, but we got to almost every room. The kids thought it was pretty neat and felt sad for the soldiers who had died for us to live in this free country.
Looking at these pictures of Bentley in her Belle costume gives me mixed emotions. One day I woke up with a bit of a stomach ache, and in the late afternoon it turned into this intense pain that I couldn't stand. I picked up Bentley and Abigail from school and as I was driving home it was all I could think about. I dropped off Abigail, got home and called Jeff immediately. He came home right away and I drove to Urgent Care. Jeff didn't really want me driving but he needed to watch the kids so I told him I'd be fine, and I made it okay. I checked in and told them my pain was at an 8 and then proceeded to wait, and wait some more. Gotta love Alberta health care! It was getting worse and I was trying to distract myself in any way possible and even resorted to breathing through the pain. It literally felt like labor except worse because it was completely constant. I never got a second of relief. Eventually I talked to my mom and she told me she'd watch the kids and send Jeff over to me. It was really nice to have him! After almost 2 hours, we got a room. Then waited another hour in the room. They told us they had a lot of emergencies and it was very busy. When they finally came to me I just told them I needed to get rid of this pain as quick as possible because I could hardly stand it anymore! They took my blood, I gave a urine sample, I tried taking this gross gastrointestinal medicine for heart burn and such that did absolutely nothing but make my mouth and throat numb. Then they hooked me up to an IV and gave me this really high dose of Advil and Tylenol. That still didn't touch the pain. All the tests came back normal, so the doctor decided I needed an ultrasound. At that point it was getting really late so she decided to give me some morphine so that I could hopefully sleep and make it until the morning. Finally, I got some relief with the morphine! Ahh it felt so good. My body had been working so hard and I was completely exhausted but there would have been no way I could sleep. I could still feel the pain there, but it was very slight. On our way home we grabbed some food because we hadn't eaten anything for hours, but even though I felt hungry, I didn't have much of an appetite so I couldn't eat much. We relieved my parents and I got through the night okay.
In the morning the ultrasound people called me to tell me I had an appointment I think around 9. The pain was pretty good through the night, but it was starting to come back and as the day went on I could feel it more and more. Jeff took the day off and Tamara drove me to my ultrasound. After that I went back to urgent care to get the results. After waiting again, they told me it looked normal! I was in so much pain at this point and I hadn't eaten anything. The doctor couldn't tell me what was wrong with me and said the last test she could try was a CT scan. So, in preparation, I had to drink four cups (1 every half hour) of this disgusting liquid that she told me would make me nauseous. I already had an empty stomach and it didn't make me feel good at all. I drove myself to the South Health Campus hospital and found the imaging room. I waited there, drinking a cup every half hour and felt the worst I've ever felt. Not only was the pain level so high again, but now I felt really nauseous too. I held it together only because of the hope of finding something on the CT and getting through this next step. After the scan they told me they didn't see anything that meant I needed to go to emergency, so they sent me along my way.
I drove home, hugged Jeff and just started balling. I couldn't stand the pain anymore, it had been almost a whole day again and I hadn't taken anything because of the imaging that needed to get done, and I didn't have an appetite. At that point I took a T3, which didn't even touch the pain. Jeff knew I needed some relief so he called his brother Justin since he's a doctor. Jeff had some leftover Oxycotin from his knee surgery so he said it was okay if I took some. I took one and, after throwing up, I started to feel a little bit better. The pain wasn't as strong, but it was still there enough that I couldn't fully rest. So I waited a bit and took another one. Finally some relief! I took another one in the night time and was able to get a pretty good rest.
The next morning I still had pain whenever the meds wore off, I was having trouble eating anything, and when I took the Oxycotin I would throw up. So this time I made an appointment with my family doctor and had Melanie drive me there (since I was on meds I couldn't drive). I was in so much pain it was hard to even talk normally with Melanie. I was also so tired because of the medicine. My doctor was great - she didn't know what was wrong but had some ideas of what medicines to try and also gave me some anti-nausea medicine to take along with the Oxycotin for the pain. I took those and felt so much better. I could actually keep the pain medicine down, so I was able to rest. Slowly, my appetite came back. Very slowly. I lost 7 pounds. The medicines she gave me were mostly antacid type ones and, to this day, I don't know if they worked or if the pain just went away on it's own. I took the pain meds for a day or two and then weaned myself to just tylenol, and then started eating again and slowly felt better.
I have an appointment with an abdominal specialist in December to make sure things are good and the pain won't come back. It was a very weird thing, and the worst few days of my life! Thanks goodness for so many people that came to help me though! My mom was amazing, as always. I'm not sure what I'd do without her! Tamara and Melanie were also great and just willing to drop everything to help me. It really made me feel so loved! Cindy also came over one night to help with the kids and Stacy-Ann drove Bentley to school a few times for me. And this brings me to the pictures. I had planned a date night with Bentley to go watch Disney on Ice. I even purchased the meet and greet beforehand where Bentley got to meet Mickey and Belle, and even get story time with Belle. I bought her a new Cinderella dress too. I was so excited, but definitely too sick to be able to make it! I really wanted Bentley to still be able to go, so luckily I have a great mom who stepped in for me and took Bentley on the date instead. She took lots of pictures and videos and when Bentley came home, she sat in my bed next to me and we watched all the videos together. She told me everything about it, and it was so fun to hear all the things she had to say!
My birthday came up and I had made reservations at a place called Aussie Rules. It's a restaurant with dueling pianos for entertainment. I had never been, but from what I heard it sounded like a blast! People request songs and the pianos play them and entertain, and you can stand up and dance on your chair! This was the day when I didn't have my full appetite back, but I had managed my pain and was feeling a lot better. So, I decided to still go. It's my 30th and I had invited 12 other people so I didn't want to miss it! I'm so glad I pushed through and went, because it was an absolute blast! I think I had a bunch of built up dancing energy inside of me that I needed to release and I did just that! Haha I may have been a little crazy, but I didn't care because I was having so much fun. I even got to dance on the stage because they called up all the people who were having birthdays. They served us 3 platters of different types of pub food, and then a big platter of desserts. I didn't eat a lot, because I still didn't have my full appetite, but enough to try lots of different things. I got a VIP song request too, and we all got mocktails. I think everyone had a good time and I was so happy all these friends came to join me and celebrate my 30th!
Here's one of those embarrassing pics the kids will hate when they're older...but they're so cute!
Once I was feeling better, we had this awesome snow day! The snow was perfect for snowman making and it was so warm outside still! Leo is crying at the door because he fell in the snow. He loves coming outside with his boots and coat, but then loses it when he gets cold!
Frozen 2 came out and I got tickets for me and the older kids to go on opening day! My mom watched Leo and we went at 11am. It was awesome! And the seats in the Seton theater are amazing. So comfortable! We went with a bunch of friends and loved it! Oh and Bentley didn't want to get in the group shot because she wasn't wearing an Elsa dress...oh well. Also, without Leo it was super relaxing. So nice that the older kids just sit there and eat their treats!
Also along the "Frozen" lines, Bentley went to Lucy's birthday party earlier in the month and Lena sent me the cutest pictures! She had Elsa come play and entertain the kids and Bentley was obsessed. She now wants to invite a princess to her party. Not sure that's gonna happen, but I'm glad she had a great time! Bentley's had a ton of birthday parties to go to lately, and she always loves them.
