I'm blaming Case

Sorry. I went missing. I know. ;) 

If you follow me over on Facebook, you've already seen these pictures. For those who don't, here's the story:

My baby sister, Cassy, was scheduled for a repeat c-section to have baby boy #2 on Tuesday, November 17. Micah and I were going to fly out to help take care of big brother Blaze while they were at the hospital. We were set to fly out on Sunday, 11/15.

Baby boy #2 decided he didn't want to wait for the 17th and made his appearance on Thursday, November 12 instead. Silly, Case. Scrambling, I managed to rearrange my flight and fly out early Friday morning to help out. Here are pictures from the hospital. Doesn't Blaze look thrilled about his baby brother? :)

My mom, grandma and I took turns holding the sweet little Case and watching Blaze.

Saturday, Cassy managed to get discharged from the hospital and my baby brother, Joe, and his family flew in to town. They were originally flying in for Cassy's baby shower (which had been set for Sunday, 11/15, but which we postponed/canceled). Sunday, Micah flew in on our originally scheduled flight. (We let him fly as an unaccompanied minor...which went mostly good except that his connection from Seattle to Spokane got canceled and then delayed, which wasn't great.) With Micah there, we had five cousins together and I neglected to take a single photo of them all. Drat!

Regardless, it was a full house (did I mention that Cassy and Charlie just moved into this new house a few months ago?) with Micah (10), Blaze (almost 2), Alice (18 months), Evan (6 weeks) and Case (new).

Joe's family flew home early Monday and we had a brief break before Tuesday's festivities and excitement. Tuesday was Blaze's 2 year birthday, so we had a special breakfast (he kissed his Mickey pancakes, which was adorable) and cake and presents later in the day. My sister, Bekah, and her three kiddos then joined us for the day (drove up from Prosser). And, again, I neglected to get a single photo with all the cousins. Double drat. 

In case you're keeping track, at this point, the house had Cas, Charlie, Blaze and Case...me and Micah...mom and gram...and Bekah, Alexis (13), Cade & Aidan (10).

And then a huge windstorm hit Spokane and we lost power for awhile and everyone scrambled to bring in a bench that was threatening to blow away and watched the neighbor's trampoline fly across the field and were sad for a different neighbor whose entire two story shop that was under construction toppled and waited to see if the neighbor's horse would fly. Charlie ventured out for a generator, and everyone ended up staying the night as it was just too windy and trees were down and apparently a number of roads were closed. So much excitement. ;)

(Remember, too, that this was the day originally scheduled for Case to be born. Perhaps he knew something we all didn't, as he chose to come early. If he'd been born on the 17th, Cassy would have been in the hospital when it lost power...and would have, um, freaked out even more than she did having us all in her house for the day, lol.)

Wednesday morning, things had calmed back down and all the Prosser folks headed home, leaving just Micah and me with the little Isaacs family for the rest of the week.

Here are some random pictures of Micah playing with Blaze all week (as was his purpose in coming):

And then on Saturday, 11/21, Micah and I headed home...sad to say goodbye to our sweet little nephews/cousins but happy to be reunited with our own house of boys. (I told Micah we can count this as a crash home ec course for him, lol.)

Here's a last group of family shots:

And since then I've been working on catching up on the things I'd thought I'd do before we flew to Spokane, lol (hence the title of this post). So that's why it's been so quiet here on my blog.

Five on Friday

Just some random notes:

1. Back at Halloween, I took Micah for a walk to talk about where he (and Asher and James) were allowed to go trick or treating. In reminding him to stick to the rules and not follow friends blindly (as he's apt to do, lol), he promptly pointed out that he knew all about that. Mr Yee (at karate) had already told him all about "indomitable spirit." And there's yet another reason to be thankful for Karate West. ;)

2. During that same walk, I made some comment about how sad it was that most of the trees were naked. Again with the quick retort, Micah explained that the trees didn't mind. They're not modest, after all...just like Asher, he laughed. Noah, on the other hand, he said, was more like a pine tree. LOL

3. For what it's worth, Asher's still swimming to improve his conditioning:

It was nice enough last week or so that we used the outdoor pool instead. His endurance is definitely improving.

4. Molly and I walked partially around Barr Lake last weekend. It was perfect weather for getting some steps and catching up...so lovely to have a friend where that's the extent of your plan and it's awesome.

5. Asher's been growing his hair out since summer. I've been trimming it a bit around the edges, but finally got to the point where I wasn't sure what else to do. :) So. I took him to see the fabulous Heather at Bask Salon (she's been doing my hair for years). The left is before and the right is after:

It's not a drastic change, but he looks great! (And there was actually a lot of hair that was removed...he has thicker hair than I realized.) Don't let his scowl throw you in the after picture. He's actually really happy about his hair cut...as evidenced by how often he's been looking in the mirror and preening, lol. 

Happy Friday to you!

Fifteen

As promised, here are our annual picture comparisons from Noah's birthday:

Yup. Boys all keep growing. Darn it. ;)

Meanwhile, I don't appear to be getting any taller, do I? But. At least I'm not alone:

Noah's definitely catching up to Nathan, though I think it's safe to say that he's slowing down at least a wee bit. :) 

As a mark of how he's maturing, though, Noah *did* put up less of a fight about me taking a picture this year:

Look, that's even a smile(ish)! 

Happy birthday, my Noah!

Permitted

So. This happened earlier today...

Yup, the boy is officially now FIFTEEN years old and carrying a drivers permit. I'll update soon with our traditional pictures and such but wanted to at least get this posted tonight. Sigh.

(Incidentally, what does it say about the post office that I found our experience at the DMV downright pleasant and speedy in comparison? lol) 

Halloween

Yes, I know I'm behind. :) Better late than never, right? 

So...just for the sake of recording it...we had a very low key Halloween. Boys had friends here and these three made the rounds in our neighborhood:

Micah is Batman (in his own patched together costume using Harry Potter's cloak, Boba Fett's belt and duct tape for an emblem on his chest...he bought the mask for $5...all this was because I'd already purchased the Drax costume for Comic Con this year and the deal was that he wear that for Halloween also or make his own...which he did happily). Asher is Star Lord (as he was for Comic Con), and James is Kylo Ren (from the new Star Wars movie). 

It was bittersweet as we sent them out the door on their own. They actually trick or treated on their own last year also, but that was out of someone else's house so seemed easier, lol. But. They're 10, 13 and 14. And our neighborhood is lovely. And it was fine. :) 

They came home sooner than we expected, too. It was kind of weird. We'd thought they'd be all about going to as many houses as they could, but they returned after just a portion of the neighborhood and declared they had enough candy and were just going to play games together...which was hilarious. 

Meanwhile, Noah and Gabe had their traditional "we're too old to bother with trick or treating so we're going to hang out together and play games instead" time. This was year four, I think. 

And Nathan and I manned the door, expecting loads of trick or treaters given the gorgeous weather. We were wrong. We got only a few (maybe a couple dozen?) trick or treaters, when we've gotten hundreds in the past. I'm thinking that since Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, many folks went to parties instead. Which is fine. Except I can't have all that candy left in my house (and we had a LOT). ;)

So, you're welcome, those last three groups of older kids that came to our door and left with multiple handfuls of candy each...and thank you. ;) (Nathan actually just dumped what was left into the bags at the end and then turned out the lights. Those kids got a heap of candy from us, lol.) 

And that was our Halloween this year. :)