All I Want For Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

The week after Thanksgiving Avery got to have her two front teeth pulled!  A few weeks before Thanksgiving Avery fell down in gym and hit her teeth.  She came home and told me what happened and that her teeth were hurting, but after that didn't say anything about it.  The week before Thanksgiving I noticed that Avery's front teeth were discolored.  So the lucky little girl that she is, she got to go to the dentist on her birthday!  I knew that she would possibly have to have her teeth pulled and prepped her for that, trying to stay as positive as I could.  She was excited that she would get to see her Uncle Matt, (the dentist) and how cute she'd look without her front teeth, and that she would be able to stick her tongue between her missing teeth.
We headed down to Roy after school and she started the afternoon off with getting her teeth cleaned and having some x-rays done.  It was determined that she did indeed need to have her teeth pulled.  When they are infected that can start to infect the permanent teeth.  So she got set up in a chair with a nose piece for some happy gas.  In the end they were not able to pull her teeth that afternoon.  The smallest nose piece they had was still too big for her so the happy gas wasn't working very well and they were having a hard time getting her numb with the shot.  She was so incredibly brave with everything though!
The next week I took her to a pediatric dentist here in Logan and with the smaller nose piece the happy gas worked!  With the help of the happy gas they were able to get her all numbed up with a shot.  Avery got to watch Frozen the whole time and while they were pulling her teeth she started singing along to Let it Go!  I was cracking up!  I'm pretty sure that was the works of the happy gas!  Just as we suspected, Avery does look super cute without her two front teeth.

Thanksgiving

Louis worked the morning of Thanksgiving day this year so we decided to stay home as a family.  

It was my first year of making the whole Thanksgiving meal!  Well I did have a little help.

Mary scrubbed all of the potatoes for me, it was so sweet that she wanted to help out!  She did a great job.  I had fun setting our table and getting it ready for dinner that night.  I put paper over our table and drew place setting for everyone.  

This is what they looked like:

For dinner I made turkey breast (I didn't want to make a whole turkey when really only Louis and I would be eating it), 

stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, and cranberry sauce.  For dessert I decided to make snicker doodle cookies and these little pretzel bites.  It's two square pretzels with a rolo in the middle.

It ended up being really nice staying home as a family this year.  

We enjoyed our meal with our sweet kids and talking about what gratitude is and what we are thankful for.  

Avery's Six Year Old Interview

6 Year Old Avery

This Avery girl just keeps getting better and better!  We love her and all that she is so much!  

For Avery's sixth birthday she wanted an Elsa party, she had been planning it pretty much the whole year leading up to her birthday.  Her birthday really snuck up on me this year and before I knew it her birthday was a week and a half away!  I figured I had better start preparing stuff and sending out invitations for a party the weekend before her birthday.  

She was able to invite 6 friends for her party, she picked 3 friends and 3 cousins.  All but one person was able to come and she was so excited!  We played lots of fun games!  We decorated Elsa crowns, pinned the nose on Olaf, played Do You Wanna Build a Snowman, freeze dancing, freeze tag, and took some pictures with some photo props.  

Everyone had fun, especially our birthday girl.

On her actual birthday Avery went to school then we got to head to Roy to see the dentist, who also happens to be my brother.  Avery had fallen down in gym a few weeks before and hit her two front teeth.  A couple days before her party I noticed they were getting discolored which was concerning!  Not the best way to spend your birthday, but I tried to spin it for her and make it positive.  I told her how exciting it was going to be to get to see her Uncle Matt on her birthday, how cute she will look if she has to get her teeth pulled and how fun it will be to stick her tongue in the space her front teeth were.  It worked!  She was excited and did so wonderfully at the dentist!  She was so cooperative for everything.  Even when it was determined that her teeth did need to be pulled she was so brave while trying to get her numbed!  Unluckily, she never did go totally numb and wasn't able to get her teeth pulled.  From what I understand, when the teeth are infected it makes it harder to get numb around the area.  It didn't help that the nose piece for the happy gas was too big and wasn't really doing anything.  So we left the dentist with all her teeth still in that day.  

The next week we were able to get in with a pediatric dentist up here in Logan.  They had a nose piece that fit for the happy gas and I think that made all of the difference!  Between the gas and a shot they were able to get her completely numb!  She was also distracted by Frozen being played on the ceiling.  She actually started singing along to Let it Go while her teeth were being pulled!  It was hilarious!  

She came out looking adorable and loves that she can now stick her tongue through her teeth and she can whistle.  

Avery is a wonderful girl.  She makes friends easily and is a good friend.  She loves to have fun, loves to play games, dance, and sing.  She always wants to do what is right.  She is a great helper and a great big sister.  She has the best personality and we love having her in our home.

Halloween 2016

This is Halloween, This is Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween weekend this year!

Our Halloween fun started with a party I put together for the Brandley cousins.  All of the cousins over the age of 2 (plus Ethan, because he lives with us) are invited over for food, games, crafts, and fun!  Sadly Louis had to work the night of the party, but luckily I had asked Tifannee and Kami if they wanted to come help out with the party and they had accepted.  I spent almost the first hour alone taking care of 7 kids under the age of 8.  It was just the eating part of the night though, so there wasn't any running around with the games and me going crazy trying to control the chaos.
As a surprise Kami and Tifannee dressed up as Anna and Elsa!  The kids were so excited when they showed up!  Mary couldn't contain herself and ran out the door to them!

After dinner was over and the excitement from Kami and Tifannee coming had worn off we sat back down at the table.  I had all of the kids bring a plain white shirt and we decorated them for Halloween.  The kids had fun and they got to take home something that will help them remember the fun night!  When the shirts were done it was time for the most exciting part of the night!  Elsa (Tifannee) showed us her magic!  There is a fun video of it on Facebook if you want to check it out.  The kids were entranced with it!  After all of the magic we played glow in the dark ghost bowling!  I don't have any pictures, but I got Styrofoam cups and drew ghost faces on them.  I put a few glow sticks around them and we also had black lights, but they weren't any good because they were just from the dollar store!  The kids took turns rolling a plastic bowling ball to knock over the ghosts.  Then it was time for dessert!  I made Frankenstein cups, clear cups with Frankenstein faces drawn on them, vanilla pudding dyed green, and crushed Oreo's on top!  As we were eating, their parents showed up and we played until everyone filtered out the door.

The next night was the Pugmire's ward Fall Festival, Alisha was a part of planning it and it was wonderful!  The kids had lots of fun doing crafts, playing games, and again running around with cousins!  This year we did a family theme that the girls chose last year.  Avery was Elsa, Mary was Anna, Ethan was Olaf, Wyatt was a snowflake, Louis was Kristoff, and I was Sven.  Avery and Mary decided this theme last year and the idea actually stuck the whole year!

On Halloween Megan, Phillip, and Ian came up to have some fun!  We started out by trick or treating down main street.  Several of the stores participate and have a treat for the kids and often coupons for the adults.  Ethan picked up real quick on the whole trick or treating thing.  He was so cute!  He would run up to the employees and say "Peeeeassse!" then he would spend several moments contemplating which candy he wanted.  We took a break while Avery was at school, but picked up again after she was done and went trick or treating at the mall.  We have been going to the mall on Halloween every year since Avery was born!  We also ended up running into Avery's friend LynnDee, they've been friends with they were babies.  Avery left us and ran off with LynnDee and her mom the rest of the time.  That night we had a picnic in the living room with pizza and watched The Wizard of Oz.  The girls had fun handing out candy to trick or treaters.  This is the first year we've had more than 5 kids come by!

It was a fun weekend. I don't love Halloween, but I do love seeing my kids so happy and excited about everything that comes with holidays.