Happy Halloween!

Last night was perfect for trick-or-treating.  Just cool enough that you didn't get thirsty running from house to house (or pushing a wheelchair!)  Yes, Aaron got to go trick-or-treating.  I think it may have wore him out.  He slept pretty good last night and has been asleep for most of the day today.  

I managed to corral the boys for pictures before they all ran their separate ways.  Jonathan made a great pirate!  Then he and his friend, Jeffrey went down the road to a party.

Andrew was a BYU football player.  He keeps the faith even if they aren't doing so well this season.  Go Cougars!

Michael wanted to be a PowerRanger, and since our masks have long bit the dust (happens with several boys around), Deborah painted his face for him.  Pretty good!  

He and Andrew went with Aaron trick-or-treating.  They were awesome about asking if there were any suckers for their little brother and choosing a fun slinky toy for him.

Joseph decided to find out why the chicken crossed the road.  Turns out it was to get more candy!  He had a great time going out with some friends from church.

 

 Matthew also went trick-or-treating with some friends.  Being a little "backwards" (nerdy, you know?) they decided to do "reverse trick-or-treating" after a while.  Turns out, that happens when you ring the doorbell and instead of getting candy, you give them some of yours!  They had a lot of fun seeing the expressions on people's faces.

And that brings us to Aaron and me.  I kinda cheated.  I looked in my closet and saw scrubs. Since so many kids dress up like what they want to be when they grow up (firefighter, sports hero), I figured I would too!  Scrubs plus a stethoscope and my hair pulled back and I was a nurse!


Aaron's costume is an antique, well, sort of.  My mom made it many years ago for my brother.  When Deborah was little, she passed it on to me.  Each of the kids has worn this clown costume.  I really tried not to think about it in regards to Aaron.  I didn't think he'd every wear it.

Now, if I was only organized enough, we could have a slide show with all the kids in it!  But no, no digital camera for most of them, which means I'd actually have to do some work to find them.  Maybe in the next life...

A Peak Back in Time:

2011

Last year, Halloween found us in the PICU.  We'd been there for a few days, been sent to the floor, and then just three days before Halloween, he'd been rushed back down to PICU, being bagged with 100% oxygen to get his saturations back out of the low 70's.  We weren't going anywhere soon.  He'd caught a cold, plus his lungs decided that they wanted to add asthma to his diagnosis, but we didn't know that yet.

There was a cute monkey costume donated for him to wear.  We got some cute pictures and then had to undress him again pretty quickly as he was starting to struggle again.  It was a sad, scary time.

 

2010

Aaron was struggling, but we didn't know why.  Weather was pretty iffy, and he wasn't really stable, so this was the only Halloween picture we got of him that year.  Unknown to us or his doctors, his airway was collapsing.  Funny how it's hard to feel happy when you can't breathe.  He went in for surgery five days after Halloween and that's when we discovered that he would need a trach.  It was a really challenging decision to make.  We wanted what was best for him.  He had such a fighting spirit and a love for his life, that we knew we needed to fight along side of him, even when some others felt that it was asking too much.  

Gratitude Thought for November 1st:

I'm grateful for a special spirit who teaches me and the rest of our family so much.  He is loving, forgiving, and tenacious.  He finds joy in the smallest things.

A perfect body is not required to achieve a divine destiny.  In fact, some of the sweetest spirits are housed in frail frames.”

Elder Russell M. Nelson