Dear Family and Friends,

This has been the week of sniffles around here. Allison came home early from gymnastics Tuesday with a bad cough and stayed home Wednesday under duress (please, can't I go to school, hack, hack, blow her nose). Spencer came home early Wednesday from school under the weather. Taylor also came home Wednesday sick and was home Thursday. Kids thought it was great hanging out on the couch watching cartoons until they realized they had to take naps, do their make-up homework, not play with friends - they all got better VERY quickly. Everyone seems to be back to normal though except for me! Yesterday I thought allergies had really hit. Later that night as I felt worse despite Clariton and got a fever I realized it was just a regular cold. So I have slept a lot today. Kids all let me sleep till almost 9 and then I skipped out after sacrament and went right back to sleep for 2 hours. I think I must have looked a little miserable this morning as Allison came back and asked me what she could do to help as we walked to church and pushed Taylor for me the whole way. But I am hoping it will pass soon, as Moms are not allowed to get sick!

Monday there no school for fall break so we spent the day up at the zoo. First though we made a stop at the dollar cuts place for haircuts. Spencer decided to switch to a short spiky hair cut and Allison had her hair bobbed to her shoulders. Both look very cute. At the zoo, we mostly followed Robyn around as she ran from cage to cage making all the animal sounds. Spencer and Allison took her on the train, which she was thrilled about. The kids loved to watch a monkey family wrestle with their little one. Allison had a friend invite her to see a movie that night so she had a full day.

Jeremy's back kept getting worse so he finally went into a chiropractor and has been in twice now. The first time the pain went way down and stayed down for a day and a half. The second time really didn't help too much. He had a vertebrae and a rib out of place so its mostly just popping those back into place so they stop pinching his nerves until they stay in their right position.

Spencer was very excited Thursday to go to the dentist and get his new retainer and his old on both put back in. He was literally jumping up and down on the chair as we waited. Then they put the retainer in and he realized how hard it was to talk and how it felt very uncomfortable. There were lots of tears as he tried to talk without a lisp. He has gotten much better since then. He also had two gigantic canines pulled. The dentist told him that with roots like that the tooth fairy pays extra. But the tooth fairy has yet to come, showing what a slacker she is - we keep telling him she is on vacation! A big milk shake afterward helped him forget all the blood and pain. Spencer keeps working hard to bring his math grade up. He if finally caught up on homework and we made him some flashcards to work on his multiplication. He knows his times tables just not quickly without thinking about it.

Friday we had cousin night here. Our kids were so excited for their cousins to come over, they were just pacing the front yard waiting. Pizza, brownies, running around outside, Rocky helping to eat said pizza and brownies, watching Disney Halloween movies curled up on the couch, it was a great time. Jeremy with my intermittent help set up the bookshelves in the basement. We just need to anchor them to the walls and I can move the stacks of books out of room - yeah.

Speaking of our basement, we are almost done. Yeah, I think I have said that before. We had the counter top and sink, toilet etc put in the bathroom and a door for the shower. Tomorrow they come to put in the doors on Jeremy's desk and then its just little touch ups everywhere. And our basement has been officially broken in as Jeremy went downstairs last night to find that while we were gone Rocky had pooped and peed in our basement. Not happy!

Saturday Jeremy had a photo group meeting up at Liberty Park to take portraits. So the kids and I met my parents at the park and had a great day playing on the playground and eating lunch. Jeremy has some great pictures from it I am sure he will post later. Robyn now recognizes my parents which is neat. It was just a beautiful day and kids had a great time and tired themselves out. Allison and Robyn fell asleep on the way home so Spencer, Jeremy and I left them in the car to quickly clean the office while they slept.

Saturday night was Allison and my girl's night out. We went to Cafe Rio, one of Allison's favorites. She always goes the zero nutrition route and goes for nachos, or chips and dip! Then we went to see High School Musical 3 together. As we were waiting in line Allison told me how nice it was to have some quiet time together without the fussy one around. I asked her who the fussy one was and she just got this exasperated look - "you know, the pill, the pain, they pushy one - Robyn!". Allison also has a new habit of just stopping to look at me periodically, hold my hand and say, "mom, you're a really good mom. You do a great job". Not sure where she got it from, but I sure love it.

This week I had 3 Relief Society meetings, two of them at night so Jeremy got stuck with kid detail a lot. We had auxiliary training for all the wards one night and a stake fireside on pornography the other (very scary but informative fireside). I felt badly at auxiliary training because I used the training materials from the previous secretary only to find out that some parts were wrong so I had to contact them all after to recant. I have decided stake callings can be summed up in one word - meetings!

On Thursday I went grocery shopping towing Taylor's wheelchair with Robyn lending a hand. Five minutes into it Robyn decided she was done and it was nonstop tantrums after that. I should have been wiser and just left but I had this do or die attitude. I have never had so many people stop and offer to help me! Robyn fell asleep on the way home, worn out. Reminded me that kids can have dinner without milk periodically and that next time I should just leave when it gets that bad. Jeremy pointed out that Robyn coming up and singing "I'm so pretty" is now a scary experience. Its like what did you do - ruin Allison's play make-up, put on all of Allison's clothes, dump gel all over your head - you just never know!

Allison learned how to do a back walk over this week and was quite proud of herself.



Spencer trying to show off his new top retainer. The inside part is blue with BYU written on it but the part over his teeth is mostly clear plastic around a wire. Its a much bigger appliance than I had though but they are stretching and pushing his teeth out at the same time.




Girls having fun at the park with Grandpa




Taylor was still not feeling great on Saturday but seemed to enjoy the sunshine.