The start of November

As part of Nathan's recovery he was not aloud to attend school, travel, or participate in sports for 10 days. Day 10 also was the day for his soccer tournament and because he did so well and had zero complications and had  stopped needing any pain medication we gave him permission to play. Because they were one of the top ranking teams for the season they only had to play one game to make it into the championship game. After winning their first game of the day the had a break before playing their toughest game of the season against they only team that had been able to beat them. They played hard, but in the end the other team won. But what a great season they had and Nathan had a great time learning from such a great coach.

Brady has been begging for me to take him on a date to Rita's Italian Ice. I finally had a chance the first weekend of November to take him and he loved every minute. We are so busy sometimes what the kids really need is one on one attention from us.

Halloween

We carved our Pumpkins Saturday night after we got back from the pumpkin patch. The boys were excited to carve and didn't want to wait for another day.

                                                                    
                                                                      Spider.

                                                                     
                                                                       Bat.

                                                               Fornite Llama

The kids had Halloween day off from school. The school held their annual costume parade and Carnival the day before. Nathan was still home from school due to his surgery but we went out in costume to watch the parade pass our house.

                                               Brady's first grade class in their costumes!

Halloween day we went to the ward part and trunk or treat and then stopped at a nearby neighborhood for a little trick or treating.

                                            
                                                                      Triceratops

                                                                      Hulk

                                                                      Thanos

            Colin saw me add the hair color into Nathan's and requested some red for his.

October

We have been pretty busy this past month. Here is a quick catch up for the month.


Nathan was the only one who wanted to sign up for soccer this season. He was lucky enough to get put on a great team with an awesome experienced coach. He really loves the sport and it was great for him to be on a winning team.They only lost one game during the regular season. They work hard and played great as a team.

Dave turned 40 on the 20th and we celebrated by going out to dinner with his parents and then going with them to a San Jose Sharks game. The game was lots of fun to watch. Fast paced and there sure was a lot of fighting.

The kids had red ribbon week a couple weeks ago and were excited to have their hair sprayed blue and red.

 My Parents arrived the day before Crazy hair day to spend the week with us so they could help watch the younger two while we Nathan had surgery. After his sleep study test results showed that his tonsils were causing him to have a moderate case of sleep apnea. He was having an episode where he stopped breathing 11times an hour. His tonsils were massive so we scheduled for him to have his tonsils and adenoids removed and on the 24th when we arrived for the surgery his doctor also recommended to put tubes back in his ears since they were still having problems draining properly. That morning we left for the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at 5:30am because we were suppose to check in at 8am. While the drive should only take 1hr40min it was rush hour so we tried to give ourselves enough extra time to get there on time. It ended up taking us 2hrs and 45min. That traffic is just awful. I am so glad we don't have to deal with it on a regular basis. The surgery went really well and his doctor said they were the biggest tonsils that she removed that day. His recovery went really smoothly and all the nurses were surprised by how quickly he was ready to eat regular food. The doctor had him stay the night at the hospital for observation because we are 2hrs from the Stanford's children's hospital, because he had been diagnosed with sleep apnea, and because he is on the heavier end for his age. She wanted to make sure there were no breathing complications from the anesthesia. He did great  but we sleep poorly since they came in every 3 hours to give him pain meds. We were definitely ready to get home in the morning. they did such a great job add keeping Nathan pain free that I don't think he realized how much the medicine was doing for him. He asked on day 3 to not take any medicine at night and I could tell the next morning that his throat hurt. He took a dose right away and about 40mins later he came up to me and let me know that he wanted to keep taking the meds, haha. Its like the doctor knew what she was talking about. He ended up staying on his pain meds for about 8 days. Also for 10 days he wasn't to play sports or go to school. So he was sent home an independent study packet. He really hated doing the work but of course enjoyed spending his days playing Fortnite.

                        After surgery with his new teddy from Grandma and Grandpa Dickson.

The Saturday after surgery we went to a local Pumpkin Patch with my parents put on by a local elementary school. The boys loved having my parents around. Especially Colin who was attached to Papa and was sad to see them go the following Monday.

3 Years Old

This year Colin's birthday landed on the same day as the monthly family party. So the night before we had cake and ice cream and let him open most of his presents.

Like my other boys Colin has been slow to pick up speech and while he did speak short sentences and a handful of words it was sometimes unclear. But it seemed like over night it all came together and now he repeats everything you say and clearly lets you know everything he does, wants, and hears. I love it!

Colin loves cars especially Blaze and the Monster Machines. He got a couple Blaze books and still wants to read all of them multiple times a day. He loves the outdoors and would stay outside all day if I let him. He finally got a new balance bike on his birthday and loves to ride it every morning to take his brothers to school. He is almost always happy but will let you know he is mad by running off to his bedroom and putting him self down for a nap. Which is the funniest and the best, win-win for me. He is still super picky about food and always knows what he wants to eat and will refuse everything else. He still does not like to try anything new and sticks to the textures he is most familiar with. His favorites being Pizza and Eggo waffles. He still will only let mom put him to bed and loves going on car rides to the store. We sure love him!!!

Labor Day Weekend

For the final weekend of summer we took the boat and headed to the cabin for a few days. we spent Saturday and Monday on the lake and Sunday we relaxed around the cabin. Everyone had a great time.

                                                     
                                                        Saturday tubing with cousins.

Sunday Nathan asked grandpa to take him fishing. So in the evening after dinner Dave and grandpa took a group of kids to Pinecrest to fish. Nathan was one happy kid when he actually caught a fish.

Monday morning we headed back to New Melones for another full day on the lake. Everyone had a great time. And Nathan even decided that he wanted to give surfing a try. Cousin Daniel was able to get up with him and he liked it so much he wanted to try by himself. He didn't quite get it this time, but we now have a goal for next summer.