Party time

We have had such a busy weekend, and I am exhausted! Between Thanksgiving and Mason's birthday, then Mason's birthday party...phew!

Saturday was Mason's party, and he had such a great time. His party was a construction theme, complete with "hard" hat party hats. Todd and I got him a new "big boy" bed (a twin) and got rid of his crib/toddler bed. Then he was of course spoiled by family and friends at his party. He has so many new, fun toys to play with now, and to think Christmas is right around the corner!

It's so crazy to think that my baby is already three!

Another amazing cake from my mom

The birthday boy

New quilt from his aunt

Fire station

Landon helping Mason with a present

Pinata time!

Happy kid

New excavator toy

Showing us how old he is now

Happy Thanksgiving

Our family is so fortunate in so many ways, and I am so thankful for each day that I get to spend with the love and support of my fantastic, loving husband and my adorable, sweet boy.

We are hosting Thanksgiving this year at our house again. Our family splits up the work, so luckily we just have the turkey this year (and the house). I decided I had better write a quick Thanksgiving note before all the madness begins later today and I'm totally exhausted tonight.

Hope you all have a wonderful day full of family, food and football!

Ice packs and hot tubs

Lately, I've been having a lot of weird MS-related symptoms. I know it isn't a flare, but it's still annoying and troublesome just the same. The biggest thing going on is sensory stuff, mainly in my right leg. The sensation is hard to explain, and it changes a lot, too. It ranges from numbness to pins and needles to cramping to burning to pressure to pain and any combination of the above. I'm actually starting to run out of words to describe it to the neurologist.

Speaking of the neurologist, I did mention this about a month ago at my last Tysabri infusion. He prescribed Cymbalta, an SSRI that is also used for fibromyalgia and other nerve pains. It seems to be helping, but of course my insurance isn't wanting to pay for it because it is technically an SSRI and there are other, cheaper anti-depressants out there. I have a letter now from the doc saying this isn't what it's only use is, but we'll see if it works or not.

Last night BOTH of my feet felt like they were ON FIRE! I ended up getting an ice pack, which seemed to help a little, at least long enough that I could fall asleep. The hot tub sounds like a great idea lately, it's been cold and snowy, but every time I get in it the heat just makes it all worse.

Ok, that's enough bitching for now. Until next time....

Halloween and Snow

As I said before, Mason was a monkey again for Halloween. He had a lot of fun and is still enjoying the candy being around the house.

Anchorage finally got a decent amount of snow dumped on us, too. Saturday and Sunday gave us about 8 inches of snow in town and Mason is loving every little flake!

Indoor trick or treating is great!

My sweet Haily helping Mason around

Checking out his loot

Crazy kid

Crazy kid...and Daddy, too

Mason and Atalaya

Making snow angels

Buried in the snow

"I want to eat this"

Landon on his snow machine

Uncle Cameron taking Mason (we couldn't find Mason's
helmet, so we had to use a bike one...)

Landon and Mason

Having a blast!

Warming up by the fire at Papa and Nana's

Reindeer Farm

A few Saturdays ago, the three of us took a short drive out to Palmer to visit the Reindeer Farm. Of course, our Alaska boy kept calling them caribou, and had no idea who Rudolph is...but it was fun just the same. (To set the record straight, caribou and reindeer are the same animal. The only difference is that reindeer are domesticated.)

Mason got to feed the reindeer and a moose, go on a tractor ride, run through a hay maze and pick his own pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch. The only thing he absolutely would NOT do was ride on a pony.

Looking at these pictures also reminds me what a beautiful place we live in.

Feed a pony? No problem. Ride it? Hell no!

He still wanted to check out what the saddle was all about.

There were a lot of very hungry reindeer around.

So sweet.

We had a talk on the way home about this being a "special"moose and
that the moose we see by our house are not "special" moose so
we can't feed them. 

My two boys enjoying the ride.

Running through the hay maze

Which way should we go now?

"Over here, Mommy! Hurry up!"

Having a tootsie roll treat

Looking at all the reindeer

A hay "tunnel"

Having fun, even with that cold, red nose

So many pumpkins to choose from!

"I want this one, please"

Gishy Goo

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet or not, but a couple of months ago I got braces. Yes, real metal braces. Just on my bottom teeth, but still...they're the real deal.

Here's what happened. I had braces as a teenager and they put one of those permanent retainers on my bottom front teeth. As time as passed, my teeth surrounding the retainer have shifted, one tooth in particular. My dentist has been "suggesting" for years that I go back to an orthodontist, but since it was really just cosmetic, I didn't go. At my last cleaning, my dentist didn't just suggest, he basically told me to go. Apparently, my teeth shifted enough it was causing bite problems and TMJ issues.

The dentist told me it would be just a simple fix, like Invisalign.

HA! Not the case.

Basically, I forgot how much they could hurt. And how torn up the inside of you lip gets! To make matters worse, the little colored bands that they put on the brackets are made of latex, which I am allergic to. Those little bands, while making your braces any lovely color of the rainbow you could possibly wish for, also help add a little cushion for your lip against the metal. So I'm out of luck there. It hasn't been too terrible, but when it does get bad, I have GISHY GOO! This is something new, well, at least since my previous experience with braces. It's a strange silicone thing that goes on your brackets and works WAY better than that stupid wax they give you. It's a life (and lip) saver!

The only good thing to come out of this is that the orthodontist I'm going to is incredibly good looking :)