Pumpkin patch and other things

Unfortunately, we've had quite the weekend. Payton has been sick, sick, sick. On Thursday morning when she woke up she wouldn't go to the bathroom, and still hadn't gone by the time I took her to school around 9:00. When she came home that afternoon she was complaining that her stomach hurt, but then she had a BM and said she felt all better. She didn't eat any dinner that night, and was crying at 4am in the morning on Friday. I comforted her and she went back to sleep, but I thought her room smelled really bad, I couldn't figure out why though. It wasn't really a smell I recognized. That morning when she woke up she wouldn't eat breakfast, but I made her sit on the potty, and she cried the whole time she peed and said that it hurt. There was also some weird stuff in her underwear, I couldn't tell if it was discharge or diarrhea or what. At this point I was really concerned and I called Kyle to tell him I thought something was wrong with Payton, and as I was talking to him on the phone she started throwing up everywhere. I had just fed Carter and he was laying playing on his playmat, so while Kyle was on his way home from school to help me I drew a bath for Payton, who was very upset. I felt terrible for her! I called my mom too, who dropped what she was doing and came over to help so Kyle could go back to school. I was so thankful for everyone's help!

After her bath we wrapped Payton in a blanket and I cuddled her on the couch, and she fell fast asleep... that's how I knew how crummy she was feeling! She never does that! I called her doctor's office as soon as they opened, and they made an appointment to squeeze us in that afternoon. I let her watch as many videos as she wanted, and she just kind of laid around all day and rested and slept. Kyle came home from school early to watch Carter so I could take Payton to the doctor's office, which is in Corvallis. I was kind of nervous about taking her in the car, but she seemed to be doing better so I was hopeful she was on the mend. Well as we were about to walk into the doctor's office, Payton threw up again all over the sidewalk, poor thing. She was crying and upset, and I went in and informed the office ladies and they started bringing mugfuls of water out to wash it away. They brought Payton back to the exam room, and she did great; they took her blood pressure, temperature, weight, all that stuff and she didn't make a peep. They wanted her to pee in a cup so they could test it for a UTI, which she tried but she couldn't go. The resident came in to examine her, and I knew he would want to examine her "lady parts", so I was worried how that would go. Traditionally Payton gets very upset when we try to look down there! But I was shocked, she just laid down and let him do the whole exam, and he was singing the ABC's with her. We tried to get her to go to the bathroom again two more times, but no luck. Her regular doctor came in and examined her too, then said we would just have to cath her to get a quick sample. I was dreading it, but she didn't make a peep for that either; I was SO proud of her! They said that her urine was clean, no infection, but that it looked like she might have a yeast infection, it was pretty red and irritated down there. He said it appeared that unfortunately, it also coincided with her getting a stomach virus. I was extremely relieved she didn't have a UTI, although now my concern was that Carter could catch whatever she had too. I've just been using purel like crazy whenever I touch him! We went home and she ate a pretty good dinner, so we put her to bed. She kept waking up crying though, so finally Kyle decided to just lie down with her. She kept whimpering, then you could hear her stomach gurgle, then she would thrash around. We felt so bad for her, and she finally ended up throwing up about midnight. Since her bed was now a mess, we just brought her into our bed for the rest of the night. Between her being so uncomfortable and Carter getting up as usual to eat, we got basically no sleep. The next morning she ate breakfast though and seemed to be almost back to her old self, so we were hoping it was just a 24 hour thing.

We were originally planning on going to the pumpkin patch yesterday, but had postponed it due to Payton being sick. However she seemed to be doing so much better that we decided to chance it anyway. It was the only day all the grandparents could go, and it was such a beautiful day. Payton was really excited to go, and even threw a fit about having to wear pants; my princess was back!

The Halls at the pumpkin patch!

Payton got to drive the hayride!

Carter with Grandma Jo and Grandma Sue

Grandma and Grandpa C

Let's find the perfect pumpkin!

I pick THAT one! :)

Grandma Sue and Papa Rick

Silly kiddos

Fun!

We had a good time at the pumpkin patch, although you could tell Payton still felt a little under the weather because she was kind of crabby. But, no vomit, so we considered it overall a success. We came home and she went down for a nap for a few hours, so I was glad she was getting some much needed rest. Kyle and his dad were going to the duck football game that night, so Sue and my parents came over for pizza and to help me with the kids. Payton threw up again right before we ate, but then she wanted to eat her pizza and drink some water. I put Carter down at 8:00, but I wasn't really sure what to do with Payton; since she was still feeling yucky (sitting on the couch with her bucket in her hands), I didn't want to put her to bed by herself if she was going to be sick. So we decided to bring a blanket and pillow out to the couch, and she fell asleep on my lap while the rest of us watched the football game. I wasn't sure if I should move her, but when Kyle came home he offered to sleep in the living room with her so I went to bed because I knew Carter would be up soon too. Unfortunately about an hour after I fed Carter I woke up with really severe stomach cramps, so I didn't get very good sleep the rest of the night, but at least Payton did. We were hoping today was the day she would feel better, but she threw up when she woke up so we're kind of stuck in the same spot. She ate some toast afterwards and seemed better, and even asked if we would get her a Subway sandwich for lunch. Now I'm starting to feel yucky, so I hope it just bypasses me and that Payton feels 100% better soon! What a weekend! In the meantime we've been doing lots of laundry and trying to keep Payton and Carter distanced from each other. None of us get sick very often, Payton included, so when we do it's quite the ordeal. Sick kids are no fun!

I have a lot of pictures, we've been doing lots of things lately. Plus my kiddos are just so darn cute! Carter is getting to be SO much fun; he is so interactive, and really trying to get moving. The other day during tummy time he did a complete 360 degree turn on his belly, it was so funny! He is drooling a lot lately, and really wanting to chew on things. He's discovered his hands, and likes to gnaw on them. He is very vocal too, he does a lot of cooing and giggling. He is a pretty chill baby, we're very lucky. I just love peeking over his crib first thing in the morning, and even if he's starving when he sees me he gets all excited and smiles and kicks his legs. I'm at a point where I'm really enjoying my maternity leave, which is nice! Before it just felt like I was in survival mode, but now there's much more of a routine to our day, and it's much more enjoyable when it's so predictable. I can do this!

On Monday, my friend Jamie texted me and asked if I wanted to try to take some fall pictures. It's been so beautiful lately, it was the perfect opportunity! So we met up at a park and had some fun!

 Sweet boy

Big sister! 

One very blessed mama :)

I've also been having fun getting pictures of the kids at home. I haven't been utilizing my nice camera as much as I should, so now I'm trying to correct that!

You talking to me?!

Pouty face

Such a sweet big sister

Hi mom!

Look what I have! Yummy...

I dropped it!!!!!

Getting really good at tummy time

Such a gorgeous girl!

I found my fingers!

Poor Payton resting with her sick bucket :(

This boy melts my heart!

Whew! I'm exhausted! Time for this mama to go to bed. I know I'm going to be getting up at least once tonight! On my next blog I'll upload a bunch of pictures from my phone... I take hundreds of pictures every month, it's a lot to sort through! Hope you all have a great (and healthy!) week!

Photo booth fun

Oh Payton Marie! She had so much fun!

Busy September...

Hello all! The last few weeks have actually been pretty action packed around here. Last week was powder puff and powder tough at Kyle's school; girls play football and boys play volleyball. It's juniors vs. seniors, and a lot of the kids get really into it. There's also a bunch of boys that dress up as cheerleaders... I think Payton is going to talk about THAT for quite a long time! She couldn't stop staring, and kept telling me that those boys were silly, because boys don't wear dresses.

Enjoying the nice evening at the game!

Last Friday was Kyle and my five year anniversary. Hard to believe it's been five years! They've been the best (and busiest!) five years of my life. Kyle was working the (actual) football game, so our moms came over to watch the kids so we could grab a coffee and go to the game together. It poured of course, we had epic rainfall last week! But it was still nice to be together doing something on our anniversary. 

These were delivered to my house Friday morning; so beautiful! 

On Saturday we had a wedding, one of our best friends from college got married. Everyone is getting married it seems like, so maybe soon Kyle and I won't be the only ones with babies! Hint, hint everyone! Unfortunately it was an outdoor wedding so I didn't really get to see it because I stayed inside with my babies. The reception was inside thankfully!

Party pooper :)

I had a nice big blowout in my diaper so my mom had to change me into comfier clothes. I was representing my ducks!

Picture of OIT peeps at the wedding. Please don't ask questions about Kyle :)

Payton was a dancing fool! Kyle and I took her and Carter with us when we danced to the anniversary dance, and after they announced the five year mark we started to go back to our seats and on the way Payton burst into tears and started sobbing! "Why can't we dance anymore???" We felt terrible, so Kyle took her back up there! She danced for probably 3 hours, and even when she got tired she had someone hold her (thank you Uncle Bryan!) while they danced. She would not leave the dance floor! They had a photo booth at the wedding too, which was so fun! I'll have to figure out a way to upload all those pictures and put it on my next blog. Payton went in that thing probably 15 times! She got pictures with everybody! We left about 7:00; the wedding started at 2:00 so we had been there a long time, and the kids were exhausted. It was loud, so Carter didn't really nap well that day. The good news is they both slept great that night! In fact, Carter is sleeping SO much better these days! The other day he even slept from about 8:15 until 5:00am! So amazing! He's not doing that consistently yet, but we are usually getting at least a 6-7 hour stretch at night, sometimes even 8 hours. Such a blessing to finally be getting big chunks of sleep! Thank you Carter! 

We moved Carter to his own room last night, which was bittersweet. I remember we did the same thing with Payton around 3 months, when she started sleeping longer at night. It's nice to have my room back, but it was also nice to be able to check on him so easily. We have a small house, but he seems so far away in his room! I think we'll actually both sleep better this way though. He was up at about 3:30 this morning, but considering he went to sleep around 7:00 that's not bad at all!

Checking out the mobile in my crib!

Mom and dad finally got the letters up over my crib too! Thank you Grandma Sue!

On Sunday Kyle and I went up to Portland for our anniversary celebration. We made reservations at The Melting Pot, yum! We hadn't been there in years, so it was fun to experience that. On our way up there I asked Kyle if we could stop by the Shane Co, which is where we got our wedding rings, so that we could have them cleaned, dipped and resized. Our rings hadn't been cleaned or checked in a long time, and after another child mine needed to be sized up (again), and Kyle's actually needed to be sized down. We just don't make it up to Portland very often, so I figured we may as well take advantage of the opportunity. Little did I know that Kyle was already planning on taking me! When we were at the counter explaining everything we needed done to our rings, Kyle told the lady "I also have something here to pick up for Kyle Hall". I was so confused! Then I realized what it was... When we got married and I added my wedding band to my engagement ring, I wanted to put a matching band on the other side but decided at the time it wasn't really necessary to spend the extra money. I always joked with Kyle that I would just get it after we had been married for five years... and he remembered and ordered it! I was floored! Not to mention very excited! So my ring is getting resized, dipped in rhodium to make it super shiny and sparkly, and the other band is getting sautered on as well. It's going to look like a whole new ring! I am soooo excited, it's been quite a while since I've been able to wear it! 

Chocolate fondue = DELICIOUSNESS. Kyle and I were so full when we left we felt sick!

Carter turned 12 weeks old this week, and is getting to be SO much fun. He's smiling so much, and even started laughing, giggling and cooing. It's so cute! This morning I heard him stirring in his room at 6:30, so I went in there hoping I could put his binky in and he might sleep an extra hour. As soon as I walked in the room I thought "it stinks in here", and when I peeked at him in his crib he was staring at me... and then gave me a big grin! Yep, mom, I pooped my pants! I just laughed, I wasn't even disappointed about not getting more sleep. You can have little "conversations" with him now, he'll make a noise and if you make it back to him he gets really excited and starts kicking and smiling. He has started drooling a lot, and chewing on his hands, especially during tummy time. He's not interested in rolling over as much, he just wants to gnaw on his arm! 

Strong boy!

Payton received all this as a gift and LOVED it... she wore that tutu and headband for like four straight days!

 Love this gummy grin!

 I think his hair is really going to lighten like his sister's!

My loves!

Laughing while playing pat a cake

Hi mom!

I got to hang with my buddy Bradyn again!

My mom puts me on my tummy a lot :)

This was my reaction to my mom's face when she saw this; I thought it was pretty funny!

 Hanging with great aunt Tawnya

And cousin McKenna!

Carter will be 3 months old on Wednesday! I can't believe it's already October. Payton's class is heading to the pumpkin patch in a few weeks, and I'm really thankful I get to go enjoy that with her. It will be Thanksgiving and Christmas before we know it! Have a great weekend!