Boo!!!

Well after all said and done...this is what we have left from Halloween!!! Luv this holiday:) Saturday was a full day for us. We started off watching Brilynn play her last soccer game. We came home, got the costumes on and headed for a late lunch at Warren's. They were giving out free kids meals to kids who were in their costumes. Nothing makes halloween better than a FREE kid's meal! Next we headed off to the seat and treat. We decided to ditch the cars so we didn't have to worry about any one getting hurt with cars pulling in By this time it had started raining so we decided to head to the mall. After a LONG hour of trick or treating in slow steady lines, we called it quits and headed over to the girl's piano teacher's house. There they had to play their memorized halloween songs to get a large candy bar of thier choice. They each played their songs without mistakes and were very impressive. Great job Brilynn and Maycie. By this time it had stopped pouring rain and we were able to let the girls do some trick or treating. Preslee and Payge were both a little cold and wanted to be held. When asked if they wanted to get more candy or go to the car, their response, with no hesitation, was...GET MORE CANDY!!! Brilynn and Payge were the first to be done and Maycie and Preslee did about 15 more houses without them. Maycie still wanted to keep going but I made the executive decesion and chose to be finshed at 8:30. Next we were off to the Smith's house for our annual soup dinner. We look forward to this each year. The kids are all tired and high on sugar but we still enjoy our adult conversations. Thanks Mandy for hosting it and for the delicious rootbeer!!! Well until next year...Happy Halloween my friends:)

Halloween is a favorite holiday at the West house. We love celebrating it all month long and we are all sad when it's over. This year I was asked to help in Maycie's kindergarten class. We made witch potion and passed out rotten pumpkin teeth.

Cute trick or treat bucket.Somehow i got roped into going into 3 different classes and telling witch stories, doing magic tricks, and making witch potion. Next year there will be a price tag for that:)My sweet Pres...LOVED being a pirate. She wore the silly patch ALL NIGHT LONG!!! She even stuck her lip out and started to cry when she realized she had lost her little pirate earing while trick or treating. She was also in full character and loved saying, "Arrrrghhhhhh" Luv it:)
3 little girls were happy for halloween...

1 was not:(Atleast we got 1 group picture. Don't we all look so thrilled to be in our costumes????Maycie was embarrased because the neighbor boys were out playing football and she didn't want them to see her, especially the crazy drawings her mom put on her face. Don't these 2 melt your heart. Next time you see them, ask them what a pirate says...they'll gladly tell u!A typical look for Preslee...totally bugged by Payge!Our little vampiress!and our little skeleton witch!

Sorry no pics of John this year. He chose to postone his costume till next year!

Lil' Punkins

This was the first year the twins participated in carving pumpkins. They were interested for the first few minutes but quickly chose to watch a movie instead. Maycie wanted to try to clean out her pumpkin "all by herself" the slime didn't stop her:)John's all business when it comes to carving!!!Brilynn checking out her pumpkin after "I" cleaned it out for her.This was the little extra pumpkin that Payge picked up while we were at the patchPreslee was curios about the inside of the pumpkinsBrilynn insisted on taking the pictures this night since she didn't want to get her hands dirty.
Yup...I'm still immature...somethings never change:)Oh, see babe, you don't need any boys!!! You already have everything you need.Brilynn got the twins ready for bed while we finished carving the pumpkins. Then she made them be her models, as she said.The finished product!!!We decided to try to be a little more "daring" with our pumpkins this year. They turned out much better than expected.
Happy Carving Pumpkins to us!

Yahoooooooo...Payge is all better and oh so cute:)

We are so glad that Payge is back to her normal goofy self. The day after she started her antibiotics her neck started to scab and then the next day the scab started to come off. It was really fast. She does have scars left, but I am sure they will fade away fairly quickly.

Thank heaven for Modern Medicine

So for those of you who read the previous post, you know that Payge had some warts taken off by beetle poison last friday. First of all I want to apologize for blaming this on the doctor. Her doctor has actually been very helpful and was completely surprised with her reaction to the poison. With that being said...we have had a long 5 days with poor Payge. Saturday she was in pain but the tylenol and ibprofin seemed to take the edge off enough for her to be okay. Saturday night she went to bed around 8 and woke up screaming around 10 p.m. Little did I know that would be the last of her sleep for the next 48 hours, for her and for me:( She would fall to sleep for a few minutes and then she would tense up and start to cry. She would do this for about an hour and then wake up completely for an hour. I was still trying to recover from having the flu at this time which made it even harder to be up with her. John took her about 4 in the morning so I could get some rest. Sunday I kept her home from church an she just sat in my lap for most of the day. We figured that she would have a better night. We were wrong. It was the same as the previous night except the crying and pain was much more intense. I stayed up with her the whole night because I knew John had to work the next day. Monday morning we called the doctor to see if there was anything else that we could give her to help with the pain. I really think he thought that we were just being an over protective parents and told us that it was normal for them to have some pain. After John started to be a little more upset that his daughter was in unbearable pain and that her neck was a complete open burn wound he realized this was not so normal and had us bring her in that afternoon. I stayed home with the other kids because I knew I would just make a complete fool of myself if I went with them. I was completely drained physically and emoitionally and couldn't do anything but cry. While John had her in the office she was shaking and having chills and screaming in pain. He was told she had a temperature of 103.7 even though she had been on tylenol and ibprofin for the past 48 hours. As soon as the doctor walked in he was shocked. He told John he had never had this happen before and he need to get another doctor to look at her as well. They decided that she must have had an allergic reaction and it was more like a severe burn and was infected. They put her on 2 antibiotics and loritab for children. THANK-YOU. When she got home we immeditaley gave her the medications. She was still in pain and crying and was very very feverish. After about 3 minutes, she all of a sudden started to relax. All the tension in her body went away and she was asleep on my shoulder within 5 minutes. What a huge relief. Our child was no longer in complete agony and she was able to rest. We continued to give her the medication through out the night but she was so peaceful. This is by far the most pain I have ever seen in any of my girls. The hardest thing was when I would try to put oinment on her or clean the wounds, she would whisper in a tiny innocent voice, "you hurt me momma." That absolutely broke my heart. My little girl seriously thought her caretaker was hurting her. I can not say how grateful I am for the medications that took away the pain and infections. She still has a long way to go until she is back to "normal" but atleast we can take the pain away for her. John and I are so thankful for the good health that our girls have and our hearts go out to any parents who are watching their children suffer from any kind of illness.

Hayrides and Pumpkins

After Maycie's soccer game today we headed over for our annual hayride to the pumpkin patch. Preslee and Payge were pretty impressed with the tractors and loved every minute on the hayride. However, they weren't as impressed when we were walking through the fields of dirt and weeds. I was disappointed that I couldn't get a picture of Payge in the pumpkin patch but I guess when your neck looks like this you have a good reason to not want your picture taken. Yesterday I took the twins for a check-up. The doctor commented on the little viral warts that Payge had on her neck. All my kids have had them and they eventually go away after a few months. The doctor said that since these were more visable, he could use beetle poison to make them go away. Well when I agreed to it, I never imageined it would be so painful and look so awful. Last night her neck was just one huge blister with many small blisters on her chest and sides of neck as well. By this morning they had all popped and this is what my little Payge's neck looks like 1 day after having beetle poison placed on her warts. I mean wouldn't putting acid on the warts do the same thing??? Seriously!!! The doctor said it wouldn't be painful for her but I beg to differ!!! Next time I am asked a ridiculous question like, "do you want me to completely torture your child and bathe her in beetle poison because it will be much better than having a few warts on her neck that will eventually go away on their own." I won't hesitate to boldly say "No Thanks Doc!!!" So sorry Payge and we pray for a quick recovery!!!