October brought lovely fall days, a trip to the pumpkin patch and trick-or-treating. We picked probably the warmest day in October to take a trip to the pumpkin patch. Alex loved it!!! He played so hard and asked so many questions as we rode the John Deere tractor out to the patch. Alex also agreed to trick-or-treating this year. Last year he acted all excited about it and then was scared to go to other people's houses. This year, he eagerly ran from house to house, looking for the porch light that was shining brightly. He did great for the first few houses at only taking a few pieces of candy, until about the 4th house when the owner told him to take more than one. From then on, he reached his hand in the bowl and grabbed a handful. I had to tell him, respectfully, to only take 2 pieces. He had a blast!
November brought many trips for us. First, we headed to Disney World with my family. It was a time that was filled with memories for us. We spent 3 days on land, staying at Kidani Village. Over the course of 3 days, 5 out of the 10 of us came down with the stomach flu. By the time it was time for us to leave for the cruise, we were afraid that we would not even be allowed to get on the boat. After those who were sick talked with the nurse, we boarded the boat. It was our first time on a cruise and we loved it! The first night, the waters were a little rough and as dinner progressed, one by one, we dropped like flies, leaving only Kent at the table to finish the meal. He ate it up, no pun intended, and tasted each of our dinners and each dessert that our wonderful waiters brought out to him. After the first night, the waters calmed and we enjoyed our days by the Mickey Pool and our nights going to the shows for the kids. We saw many different characters on the boat. I think my favorite part was Castaway Cay (Disney's Private Island). It was fabulous! We are grateful for the memories that we made as a family. Four days after returning from Disney World, we again packed our bags and boarded the plane to Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with some of Kent's family. It was great to see family and watch Alex play with his cousins. Paige and Timothy are only 6 weeks apart and it was fun to watch their similarities as well as their differences. Alex played and ran and jumped and laughed the whole time we were there.
December is always a busy month and as we did our best to keep our schedule as free as possible, it was still filled with family time and other obligations. The biggest thing in December was Alex's surgery. Three days before Christmas, Alex had surgery both to take his tonsils & adenoids out as well as to correct his teeth. The tonsilectomy was the easy part as far as the surgery went. It only took about 45 minutes total, but the recovery was harder. Alex took probably a good 10 days to fully recover. It was hard to watch him in pain and barely eat anything, but he is back to himself and no longer in pain now. The longer part of the surgery was the procedure for his teeth. It took about 5 hours, but the recovery was only about 3 days of just tender gums. The dentist did a fabulous job on his teeth putting crowns and caps on almost all of his teeth. They also completed x-rays to see what we are dealing with as far as his adult teeth. We found out that they are also cone-shaped, so we will decide what is best when get to that point. We are so thankful for his dentist. She is wonderful and we can't say enough good about her! Because of Alex's surgery, we took it easy for Christmas. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day with my family, trying to keep Alex as comfortable and as calm as we could. It was a good Christmas celebrating our Savior's birth.
As the new year as come, we are looking forward to what this year will bring. Paige is now 9 1/2 months old and changing every day. She is crawling on all fours now and trying to pull up on whatever she can get to. Alex continues to enjoy preschool and we can see him turning into a 4 year old as each month passes. I continue to work 3 days at the hospital and love my job. Kent continues to work from home and is always busy.
