Halloween and Company

For this past Halloween weekend Jason and Sydney, our dearest friends from college, came up from Mill Creek to visit.

Jack as a "Superhero". We're not really sure who he was, other than Superhero Jack. It was a makeshift costume. Jump suit courtesy Danielle (Jack's preschool teacher), mask courtesy Jason and Sydney as a gift, and the cape was an old pillow case. I wonder how many more years I'll be able to get away with a Halloween costume like this. Everything was free...that's my kind of costume.

At my aunt Robin's house, Jack ran into a little boy dressed as Optimus Prime (Jack's costume last year). He stopped and stared at him, then told him "I love your costume", then gave him a thumb's up. Jack was all about observing others and enjoying the night. Several times he would say, "I just love Halloween."

Jovie's costume was a little more involved. She had a fairy costume that at the last minute ended up being too small, so we tried the backup costume, a duck, which also ended up being too small (she's quite round these days). It's a good thing that we held onto this frog costume that Jack wore when he was 1 year old, because we pulled it out of the closet at the last minute. It worked out perfectly, because it was warm enough for her to come along trick or treating. This picture of Jovie and my mom is priceless. She was all smiles until my mom put that witch hat on. Then she wasn't so sure.

Jason and Rob in matching superhero shirts. They also had masks like Jack, and fashioned capes out of Hawaiian sarongs (an old college dorm room memory)...a four year old is a grown ups excuse to dress up for Halloween.

Sydney and I (and our new friend Nick Cannon aka man in the horror movie in the background). The four of us are just sitting down to what ended up being an all night Cranium tournament. Sydney and I won the first round, and the boys won the 2nd and 3rd rounds. We played until 3:00am, but with the "fall back" time change it was only 2:00am when we called it quits...not too shabby.
Overall a wonderful weekend with our dear friends. I just wish they lived closer:(

Jack and Jovie

I've been wanting to post a comparison picture for a long time. I know this picture of Jovie is already on here, but it's the closest age and most similar pose I have of both of them. The similarities are obvious, and they really are exactly the same age here...9 months old. Both have 8 teeth and love to eat, however there are quite a few differences in each child too.

Notable differences: As chubby as Jovie is, Jack still takes the cake!

Jack had already undergone his first haircut, where Lisa VanderGriend cut at least two inches off! Jovie's is just starting to fill in a bit more. Rob just said it looks like Jack is wearing a hair piece!

Jovie is more vocal than Jack was, while Jack was already crawling and pulling himself up on things. (Boy versus girl I wonder?) Jovie crawls when she feels like it, but definitely likes to let the action come to her.

Jovie sure makes you work for a smile, whereas Jack was a little more liberal with his grins:).

Anyway, I thought it would be neat if one day when Jack and Jovie are older they would be able to see this...that is if I turn this blog to print like my friend Julie has done.

Jovie's UTI update: Rob took Jovie for her VCUG test on Monday and quickly found out why it's so important to be cautious and conservative when it comes to your children. We learned that she has Vesicoureteral Reflux on one side of her urinary tract. Translation-the kidney connects to the bladder via the ureter (small tube) and on Jovie's right side, there is a problem where the ureter attaches to the bladder, which causes urine to travel back up the ureter from the bladder to the kidney when the bladder is full. We can speculate all we want on what we think our treatment options will be, but we won't know until we meet with a Pediatric Urologist at Children's Hospital on November 20. What we think now is that surgery is a possibility, but again, don't feel comfortable jumping to any conclusions until we talk to an expert. Until treatment occurs, Jovie has a higher likelihood for kidney and bladder infections, which can be harmful over time. The silver lining, which I always try to look for, is that it's just on one side, effecting one kidney and not both. On a little side note, the antibiotics that Jovie took for her UTI wiped out her system so thoroughly that her bacterial balance in her intestines was thrown out of wack, causing a secondary infection in her intestines called c. difficile. We've been in and out of the doctor's office more times than I can count with her during the last 3-4 weeks, but finally we think we have some solid treatment and are getting her back to "normal". At least for now anyway. All in all, we're tired and pray for some relief from the schedule we've been maintaining. With all the doctor's appointments and days that Jovie has been sick, I have already used a few sick days, and Rob has totally been rearranging his schedule. Today Rob walked out the front door to go to work at 3:30pm while I was walking in the back door. Maybe next week we'll both be able to work a full week:)