Eleanor's Finger

A word of caution: if you get queezy at the sight of blood, do not look at the following pictures.

If you ask Eleanor what happened, you will probably hear, " Da door got Eleanor tinger" in a kind of remorseful wimper, which it indeed did. It all happened when we were at a fireside hosted by the bishop for the youth. When it was time to leave it was all a bustle with people going in and out of the door, which, by the way, Eleanor loves to open and close for people. Our time to venture out was upon us as we rallied the kids together and struggled to get coats on. When all of a sudden, a piercing scream broke through the chaos. Bishop released her from the jaws of the mighty oak and I sped her to the sink to rinse the blood that was leaving a trail from the door to the kichen. Calmly, I thought, I told Zach that we needed to leave now to go to emergency.

"Well, now calm down Sara."

"I am calm! I see bone. We need to go now!"

With her finger wrapped in a towel and an ice cube on it, we rushed to the hospital and left Ivan in the care of the Bishop and his wife. Poor Eleanor kept jerking her finger away from the ice and towel which made me nervous thinking she was going to rip the remainder of the attached fingertip off. Needless to say, we were put on the fast track of the ER. Three of us held her down with our body weight, so numbing shots could be administered. After some pain medication was also given, she fell asleep. Thankfully she stayed asleep while ten sticthes were sewn, putting her back together. X-rays showed that the tippy top of her bone also broke. So currently we are seeing an orthopedist to make sure it heals well. So far so good. The major concern now is whether her nail will grow back as the cut went right along her nail bed. She lost her fingernail about a month ago and I haven't seen anything yet. The accident happened Nov. 8th, our six year anniversary.

There was a brace on her finger which only lasted about the car trip home.

Day 2, a follow up visit to the ER and removal of the bandage. They said it looked really good. I took their word for it.

Day 10, removal of the stitches from the orthopedist. She was a champ, as they did not use the dissolving kind of thread, each piece had to be cut and yanked out.

The bone is starting to heal, but she tends to avoid using that finger to write or draw. So if it looks like she is flipping you off, she is more than likely just showing favor to the "tinger that got hurt in da door."

Day 60

Disneyland

The twins were turning thirty this year. So the Romeo family decided to celebrate at Disneyland! It was such a fun vacation and it wasn't even that crazy having 15 people all together, playing for three days and staying at one of the Disney hotels helped. It was a prime age for Sydney. She was able to go on all of the rides except Indiana Jones, not that she was very happy with us after we had her ride Space Mountian and Splash Mountian. Eleanor was equally exctied to be at Disneyland and see Mickey and Minnie, but she didn't care for the scary parts of the Fantasy land rides, such as Snow White or Mr. Toads Wild Ride. Ivan was a trooper. He was never scared and probably was only as cranky as the rest of us when waiting in a long line. Okay, he voiced it a little more openly. We look forard to coming in another couple years or so.

Their first character sighting. You can see the excitement in Sydney's hair.

Sydney and her cousin Alexis about to Bippity Boppitied into princesses. Fairy Godmothers in Training giving Sydney the royal treatment, hair, makeup and nails.

Sydney chose the pop princess look. That is her special guard "where no one can see her make silly faces if she so chooses."

TaDa!

While Eleanor was too young for the Boutique, she still went through her own special transformation to become Tinkerbell. She didn't like wearing the wings.

Aspen, Alexis, Sydney and Eleanor complete with woodland creatures.

Giving the head cheese a squeeze.

Aargh-even boys get to play dress up.

A couple of our favorite princesses in person.

Aunt Allison hosting a teacup party.

Ivan having some male bondong time with cousin Caleb. (We retired the stroller at the park after both straps broke and Ivan lost his lunch, luckily on the last day.)

Happy Birthday to you... Zach and Andy (the one in red)!

Ivan loves his Mickey waffles,

Sydney and Daddy on a big kid ride-jumping jellyfish!

Eleanor expressing how mad she is for not be tall enough for the big kid ride, so sad.

Another ride on the carousel makes it all better.

Mom with Ivan and Eleanor chew-chewing our way through a Bug's Life.

The girls with Minnie. (Ivan was not too thrilled with any of the characters.) Aaah- sweet dreams. Goodnight Disneyland

(Our view from our room.)

Journal Jog

So once again, I ran in the journal jog. It began back in 2005 when my friend Kris Burst said there a community run that had a stroller division. So we trained for it together with our first born children, Sydney and Kajaani. I have since ran with Eleanor and now it was Ivan's turn. I was definitely not as ready as I was with Sydney, but possibly better prepared than with Eleanor. I don't really know about that, but I did get a faster time. Ivan and I clocked in at 54:09, while Elle and I were 58 minutes. And I don't know about Syd's time. All in all it was pretty fun, even though my head was going to burst from being overheated and I blame that on having a small cold. Amy, my sister, came to support and offer encouragement while watching the girls. Well, really she dropped them off at the bounce houses at the kids corner. After the run we went to my mom's for her annual Air Race Party. Good times.

Valerie (left) was my Carson City training partner and Kris (right) was my stroller buddy.

Ready Set Go!!

We finally made it across the line. 4.8 miles is a long race.

Here's to next year.

The kids are sleeping so I have time to update...

This is our bathroom remodel currently under repair. If you think this is gross, you should see the floor leading up to and including the vanity. I at least spared you that photo-Gross!

There was only a tiny leaky that had just started a few weeks ago that I thought should be taken care of. I had no idea what was lurking behind the shower surround, the floor trim and the sink.

A couple of firsts for Sydney, one being Pre-K and the other Ballet! She was excited to start school, but after we went to the open house, September ninth couldn't come fast enough. And of course when I go to pick her up and ask about her day, her reply was, " We had a snack." As I was walking out one of the teachers pulled me to the side and said, "Oh, just so you know when she was eating her pretzel she started choking and threw it up." I guess she was so excited about snack she forgot to chew! What is it about food at "other" places? I fed her lunch right before school and we have pretzels for a snack all the time and still that was her highlight.

Eleanor on the other hand wanted to stay too and cried the entire way home ( five minutes). Since it is a Preschool and not a day care they have to be fully potty trained. I am thinking that I can use that bit of info to my advantage as she is showing no interest to the point of resistance as of now for the toilet.

We have been asking Sydney for a while what she might be interested in doing- soccer, swimming, dancing. But for the most part it has been nothing. Until one day she comes up to me and tells me she wants to be a ballerina. She loves the outfits, which I think is why she became interested. And she is doing better and starting to remember her positions, as am I. Right there she is in first position doing a pliet ( ple-ay I have no idea how to spell it.)

This is Ivan at nine months. I know, skin and bones. He was 19 pounds ( 50th%) and 30 inches(95th%). I have figured out that Ivan's traits are a mosaic of features taken from great-gradpasrents. Tall and skinny-GGrandpa Davis, forhead-GGrandpa Goedde, bright blues-GGrandpa Romeo, cleft chin-GGrandpa Smith, wide smile/big mouth (he can stick his entire first in it)-GGrandma Knell (I am not sure she can fit her fist in, but she has a wide smile) That is what I can pintpoint for now. It has just been so fun comparing old photos and knowing where some these beautiful features popped up from. I love my little Romeo. This is Ivan around ten months. I have taken a super cheeser of both the girls when the four teeth have come in. His was a particularly difficult shot because while he does smile his top lip rarely curls back enough to see his pearly whites. In the end I had to take the photo from a lower vantage point. This is Eleanor July fourth, being 2 1/4 years old and having only one haircut. And that was nothing from the top just a couple snips to remove the mullet. I could take her whispies no more. So I got out the clippers! She now sports a pixie and as my sister and I were discussing just recently, you have to have a cute feminine face to pull it off. Now tell me can it get any cuter than this? What a doll. This is actually one of her best face photos as she usually gets all "focused" for the camera.

I love my roots and branches

When Sydney first wakes up in the morning it is either, " I am hungry. I want breakfast." or "What are we going to do today?" And that is her coming to rouse me out of bed because, I am sorry, 6:30 is too early to wake up on ones own accord. Anyway, one of her ideas was that we needed to have a Fancy Nancy night out. I think it took about two weeks of hourly recommending, starting at 6:30 am, before we were actually able to pencil it in. So we put on our fancy clothes with as many accessories as manageable and went to Burger King to eat. Sydney was thrilled, but her night didn't end there. She and dad went to a children's production of Beauty and the Beast. She is now is determined to be Belle for Halloween. And when LeFue (sp?), a boy in our ward participating in the production, was at church on Sunday she couldn't get over why Gaston was not there too. It was really hard to keep her quiet as he was passing the sacrament. "But where is Gaston. Mom there is his friend. Look, look, look! Where is the beast?..." Eleanor is always game to dress up and play along. Lucky for Sydney. Unlucky for me when they are older. Ivan is six months and counting ( more like 7.5 now), but because I am a terrible mother and he is the third child this is the closest solo picture that I have of him at that milestone. This was taken Memorial weekend, almost two weeks after being six months. His stats as of June comparing them to Eleanor's two year measurements taken the same day are: Ivan (I) Eleanor (E) (I)weight 18 lbs 50% (E)25 lbs 25% (I)height 29 in 97% (E)34.5 in 50% (I)head circumference 45 cm 75%(E) 48 cm 50% Zach was saying that in about four months their measurements are going to be the same and we'll be asked if they're twins. He's so cute and crawling now too. On our way to Utah for Memorial weekend we took a scenic detour of Lehman caves. It was fun and while I worried how the kids would do in a dank dark cave, they championed through a sixty minute tour. We didn't want to press our luck with the ninety minute one. We did drill them that the number one rule is NO Touching. As you can see we went ahead and strapped Eleanor onto Zach to limit her mobility and ability as there is No Touching of the rock formations. Sydney was pretty upset when she was looking at an article in a magazine featuring Mammoths Caves and kids were climbing all over the place because she knew what the number one rule was (Mammoth caves is not hailed for its rock formations, so it is okay to touch.)

Her favorite formation was, and you could probably ask her and without prompting and she'll answer, the popcorn. You can see the excitement on her face. I just love this picture.

We continued our journey on to Antimony, UT! Where the heck is that? ( I have a shirt asking that same question.) Antimony is in central UT about an hour north of Bryce Canyon and an hour east of Beaver. It is where my grandmother was born and raised and her father played many roles in community such as outside wireman, school bus driver, sheriff and other things that my dad is probably sad that I am not listing, but I just can't remember. Anyway, it is basically the meeting grounds for a Ricketts family reunion and it has been two years since I have been.

This is part of the school ground, which was a one room grade school when my grandmother went and she had to go to a larger neighboring town to go to high school. This particular playground set is newer by about ten years. My sisters and I are just hanging around.

The slide has been there as long as I can remember and it is dangerously tall and metallic. I was behind Eleanor every step of the way. It would not be a trip to Antimony if we did not play at the park. From top to bottom: Aunt Linda, Amy, me, cousin Elizabeth, cousin Sarah, Kristen, cousin Kaitlyn and Paige. The merry-go-round has also been there as long as I can remember. Eleanor loved it even though she looked sick after she got done spinning yet kept coming back for more. Sydney would not cooperate for this photo shoot. The boys needed a photo op too. By looking at the beat red strain on their faces, you can compare and tell the agony of this pose was worse with them then the more agile group of girls given the same circumstances. In this picture, from left to right: Dad, Travis, Stirling, Derek and Zach. One year we did a distance swinging jump competition and Paige was maybe five. She did a belly flop into the sand from quite a hefty height. It was hilarious. I can't remember if we stopped laughing to console the poor child after such a death defying feat. She eventually got over it.

And here is the traditional tractor picture that is a MUST for every year that we visit. I don't even know how long it has been around. I am sure it worked at one point, though all I have ever known it as a picture prop and something to play on when younger. Oh and the cows are the next door neighbors and they are worse then roosters in the morning with all of their mooing. The first year Zach came out a cow was actually giving birth. So you can only imagine the noise that inhibited any kind of sleep that night. My Grandma and my children's Great Grandma, if it isn't obvious, is the one standing to my left behind the big tire. Oh, I love my family.

Recently we were also able to celebrate in the much anticipated graduation of my father. He earned a BS in Environmental Studies. It has been great to see him achieve this long awaited accomplishment, especially knowing the hard work that must come with raising a family in the process. Congrats Dad.

Travis also received his High School diploma (and his eagle scout award) and we look forward to celebrating more accomplishments that come along the wayfrom him. Way to go Trav!