BOO!!! to the Flu...

Yes, hopefully we have scared off the flu from returning to our house this year. It may have temporarily dampened our spirits due to some plans we had to cancel and it may have temporarily made mommy go insane while dealing with doctors, lost swabs and her own crazy fears but all in all we had a great Halloween!

But before Halloween night we had Ainsley's school parade on Friday (before we knew Bennett was sick)...


Here's Miss Fancy Nancy (for those of you not familiar with Fancy Nancy, she is a character from books and is just a little girl that loves to dress up real fancy and have tea parties basically).

The costume.

I had to show the shoes because she was not able to wear these due to the rain we got on Halloween night.

A not so thrilled Fancy Nancy. She's wearing just the tiniest bit of makeup and she's got the attitude to go with it-ha!

A much happier Fancy Nancy on Halloween night.

And a crazy little cat.

I decided I'd surprise the girls and dress up a little myself so when they woke up from their naps they were greeted with cat mommy! They loved it! And Bennett was my little lion this year:)

All the kiddos...Bennett was not too happy with this. The costume lasted for about 2 minutes, just enough to get pictures. I know the poor little guy was probably hot and uncomfortable:(

Time to head out!

Mike took the girls this year which we never do- we both like to take them but obviously I was not going to drag Bennett out. And we really wished we could've gone to our friends house for a little joint trick or treating but maybe next year.

"Trick or Treat!"

All showered up and checking for razor blades in the candy-lol
Just kidding, I didn't tell them that's what we were doing!
{do you remember all those stories when you were little about crazy things in the candy?}

One more thing- I have a very short clip from the parade for all you baseball fans-apparently the World Series is a pretty big deal around here-don't know why that would be???;)

May the best team win!

Flu Update

Well it's Halloween and my poor baby has H1N1. He has been fever free since this morning and took his entire 8oz at 8 am. Hopefully he takes this next bottle. The tamiflu seems to be working really well for him and I can still get a smile out of him every now and then.


I on the other hand I had a freak out moment at about 2 am in the morning once I started to notice I was wheezing when I would take a deep breath. I have asthma and it's controlled by taking Advair so I hardly ever need my rescue inhaler-ever. So I took it and just expected it to work like it always does. Well it didn't and the wheezing continued so I got on line and typed in swine flu and asthma and let me tell you that was a huge mistake. I was convinced I needed to go to the ER because I was afraid I was going to get pneumonia if I just let it sit {I can kinda laugh at myself now as I was in a real tizzy} I woke Mike up and told him I was literally going crazy and that something was wrong. I don't know what was the matter with me. I think getting the call at 12:30 am from our ped telling me that Bennett indeed did test positive for H1N1, sent me into a frenzy! And asthma and anxiety go hand in hand as you may know if you have it yourself.


So I decided before driving myself to the ER I'd call my friend Ginger who is a Physicians Assistant. I could breathe fine I would just wheeze when taking a deep breath. I hated to wake her but like I said, I was freaking out! Let me just tell you, Ginger has been awesome. Thank you so much Ginger for everything, you know all the things you've done for us and I just can't thank you enough! I ended up not going into the ER and I am now taking nebulizer treatments and I hope to get in with a Pulmonologist on Monday just to check my breathing and lungs to be safe. I have calmed down considerably since last night and realize now that it is quite easy to work yourself up.


So if you've learned anything from my last post please know this-if you or your family members are coughing, sneezing, have a low grade fever or just don't feel right- take them into the doctor and get them tested! Please! We've all heard of the horror stories with H1N1 and that doesn't mean we all have to be scared it just means we need to notice the signs early and don't assume you just have a cold. You just never know.


The girls will go trick or treating tonight as they are feeling fine and have been fever free for days now but we are trying to keep a low profile and keep the germs to ourselves. I hope to share some cute costume pics next week-Have a Happy Halloween!

The Ghost of Halloween Past...

Not sure if the title makes since but we'll go with it. Thought I'd share costumes of our past! Won't you join me?

1996-Our first Halloween! "Fairy Princess and 70's Guy"...YIKES!

1997-"Ed Grimley and Black Widow Spider". This was perhaps my worst costume EVER. Last minute thing, literally the day of Halloween I did not know what to be so someone suggested pinning black pantyhose, stuffed with socks to my back (the legs) and wearing all black with the signature mark of the black widow....good idea in theory. You can't see Mike's entire costume but he really did look good.



1998-"Candy Corn and Bum". I had to make a come back from the previous year! My mom made this candy corn outfit (I love candy corn and thought why not be my absolute favorite candy for Halloween!)

1999-"Crayons!" (I'm the red crayon on the far left) senior year at ECU! This costume was a hit-to see all the crayons walking around-pretty cool I must say;)

Okay, we take a big break here because I have no pictures of Halloween from 2000-2003-sorry, I know you're disappointed.

2004-No kids yet but Ainsley was on the way. First appearance of one of the dog pumpkins- isn't Sophie so cute?!

2005- Ainsley's first Halloween- "The Strawberry"

2006-"Minnie Mouse"

2007-"Cinderella and Strawberry...again"...and the dog pumpkins:)

~Sigh~ I miss our old porch. I love decorating for Fall and Christmas and I just can't do it like I like to in our current house:(

Still 2007- Mike and I started dressing up again..."Fred and Wilma Flintstone"

We won a costume contest for the "Fred and Wilma" !


2008- "Sleeping Beauty and Minnie Mouse...again" and the dog pumpkins of course.

Okay, I can joke about this now- how strange is it that I was 10 weeks pregnant with Bennett in this picture (had no idea he had Down syndrome) and I was dressed up like Sarah Palin with her baby, Trig (who has Down syndrome)?? Now I was not in any way making fun of Sarah Palin and her son, in fact I didn't think twice about him having DS I just thought it was a funny costume (you can't see it very well but I also had a toy rifle on my back:)). Mike on the other hand didn't make the best John McCain. Kind of hard to make almost jet black hair completely white...should have gotten a wig.

Stay tuned for this year's pics!

Do you have Halloween pictures from the past?? Share them if you do!