The poster child for h1n1

Though we can't be entirely sure, we're treating Zachary as if he has h1n1.  On Sunday morning he started with the high fever and by that evening he had a cough and sniffles too.  I'll be honest- I have been entirely disappointed with the health professionals involved with our situation... I usually LOVE his pediatrician, but when we called them on Monday they were, of course, booked solid.  So we went to Urgent Care- which is normally an excellent choice.  They did an ear infection and strep throat test- ruled both of those out immediately.  They did the flu test- which came back negative... so she said that he doesn't have the flu.  Ummm... last I checked that stupid flu test wasn't exactly the most accurate test around.  Anyways, they said they would contact his pedi to see how they would like to have him treated.  Long story short, we didn't hear back from anyone until 8:30 p.m. Monday night.  Thank God his case isn't too severe... though I guess if it were, we would have been a lot more persistent.  Anyway, his pediatrician seemed to think he probably has a mild case of the flu... seeing as though it seems that every child in the Sacramento area has been exposed to it in some way or another.

He's been such a trooper... despite the high fever and seemingly uncomfortable nasal issues, he's been in relatively good spirits.  Damien wins father of the year award for his efforts-- on Sunday night Damien spent almost the entire night holding Zac in the rocking chair so I could sleep.  On Monday I wasn't able to take off work, so Damien spent the entire morning running around Sac trying to get Zac seen by a doctor and then spent the rest of the day chilling at home.  And then last night Damien spent the majority of the night in Zac's room again.  Today both of us stayed home- though Damien spent the day working from home, it was nice to have him here to help me out.

Our friends' little girl, Ellie, was given the h1n1 diagnosis yesterday too... though hers, unfortunately, seems a lot more severe than Zachary's.  Ellie was at the Thanksgiving party and I'm hoping that between her and Zachary, Deacon will hurry up and just get it and get it over with!  It sounds horrible to wish the flu on him, but I figure he's got a very likely chance of getting at some point this season- I would rather just do it now!

Annual JBF Thanksgiving

Tonight we had our 5th annual Thanksgiving get-together... and it couldn't have been more fun.  ALL of the moms were able to make it tonight - which was amazing.  I'm so thankful for each and every one of you- Jennifer, Kim, Dawn, Lisa, Theresa, Joline & Karla.  Thank you for being our California family... I love you guys.

(For a trip down memory lane... check out 2008 & 2007)

Unfortunately Zachary wasn't able to join us this year- he woke up this morning kind of crabby and by early afternoon he had a fever.  Poor baby.  Thank goodness we have an amazing babysitter- Christina- who came over and watched him.  Makes for an expensive evening... but oh well, he was, I'm sure, much happier staying home.

Deacon and I went to Dawn's early this morning... Deacon went over to play with Aiden and I went to help with cooking and keeping the boys entertained.  We had such a fun little morning, which did NOT include a nap... so by the time the party was over at 7 p.m. Deacon was BEAT!

Since my baby wasn't able to make it, I had to get a few adorable shots of the other cutest baby :)

hmmm, who put a dinosaur on the table?

That's who!

So I decided we needed to get a picture of all the girls... but I knew this would take a good amount of work since we had more kids than adults- and some of the dads weren't there.  So after carefully deciding which dad I trusted most to take the picture, I then figured out which dad I trusted most to watch the smallest kids locked upstairs in the playroom... I chose Chris.  This was a tough job because many (ok, almost all) of the children locked in the playroom during picture time were screaming and being held back against their will as they watched mom walk away.  But when we came back from getting our picture taken there were absolutely no tears... but quite a few kids hanging very close to the gate while Chris attacked them with a hand puppet.

 

Best friends... and Cory - LOL

Let's try this again...

Giving thanks...

Thanks mom for all you've done over the past month... we miss you more than you could possibly know.  I'd say you might miss us as much as we miss you- but I know that's far from the truth... especially come six zero zero tomorrow morning.

But in all seriousness, we are so thankful for your love and your presence... it means the world to all 4 of us.  We love you.

Turkey

Deacon colored this picture today at school.  It's amazing how something like a colorful turkey can make me stop and realize how much my baby isn't really a "baby" anymore... I mean, wasn't it just yesterday when he was happily scribbling all over the page with no regard to lines?  Today I watched him and he was so aware of the lines and so deliberate about what colors he was choosing.  And when papa told all the kids to get their names on their page, he wasn't one of the little kids lining up to get help... he just took the crayon and wrote D-E-A-C-O-N with no help at all.  

Slow down baby boy... mommy isn't ready for you to be such a big boy quite yet.

Biker baby

I found this adorable leather jacket at a consignment shop today - for $5!!!  It's a Kenneth Cole all leather jacket.  FOR FIVE DOLLARS!!!

He looks so big boy :)

face plant! someone was NOT happy that he lost his balance and no one was there to help him right away.

Guess who was jealous that we were giving all our attention to Zac!

Happy Halloween!

So we finally made it ToT'ing!  And for the first year EVER, we had a really good experience.  Both boys took late naps in the afternoon, ate a good dinner, and were both raring to go by 6:30.  Zac did great and lasted about 30 minutes and Deacon went for almost 2 hours (with about a 20 minute break to go home and check in with dad).  After the mini-break, Grandma took Zac to bed and Damien came back out ToT'ing with us.  We recently made some new friends in our neighborhood and their house was one of two really scary houses- Deacon didn't want to even go up and ring the doorbell without daddy- hence the pictures of Deacon looking skeptical approaching the one house.

All-in-all, a very successful Halloween for our Buzz Lightyear and Boo Boo Chicken.

Deacon wanted to scare Grandma, so he rang the doorbell, ran to hide and then jumped out at her- stupid light post is in the way so the picture is focused on that and not on them... but I liked the picture since you can see the candy in the bowl flying out :)

THE BEST TEAM IN NATOMAS!

I cannot begin to say how proud I am of our team.  We played the most horrible team today - they were rude & nasty... and acted as though our kids were playing a professional game of soccer.  Not only did they laugh at a player on our team after getting hurt, they laughed at Deacon when he went through the wrong tunnel at the end of the game... and they were mad at their players when the kids missed goals.  I was livid. The other team had all 10 players there and we had a few sickies not show up- so we had half the players.  But yet, we WON!!!  Our kids were so good and played so well- I'm so proud of them.

Anyways... funny story-
Deacon was SO tired by the 4th quarter and wanted out of the game... but we had one injured player and one player unable to go back in for other reasons.  Anyways, when we told him he couldn't come out of the game he started crying on the field... and then I screamed that he'd get M&M's if he played for 5 more minutes.  Well, as you can see from the next picture- he was VERY much on board with that.