Yesterday there was a lot of ice…and the “invisible” kind too which is the worst. I had gone out to help Brian put something in his car and thought that the driveway was just wet, but I slipped a little and realized it was all frozen. Later that day, Aiden, Brady and I were supposed to go meet some friends, including Logan who was with his buddy, for an afternoon at the local inflatables jumping place. Aiden needed me to help him with something, but Brady was ready to go. I was JUST about to warn him about the ice, but he went out before I had a chance to say anything. About 20 seconds later, he came tearing into the house screaming that he hit his head. He had run out on to the driveway and SMACK – fell down and hit the back of his head on the concrete. He was VERY upset, confused and couldn’t see very well. He asked for water, forgot what he had asked for and asked for it again…even though he was holding it. It became obvious after about 5 minutes that he needed to go to the Emergency Room. Brian and I packed the boys into the car and left.

Here is my facebook post from today:

Conversation yesterday in the emergency room after Brady slipped on the ice and sustained a concussion:
Nurse: can you point to one of these faces to show how you are feeling right now?
Brady: points to the happiest face
Me: That's how you're feeling baby??!!
Brady: well, I'm happy....my head just hurts a lot!

We were taken back quickly thanks to a phone call from a friend who works at the hospital (my hero of the day!) They did a CT san on Brady’s head to make sure there was no bleeding. After an hour and a 1/2, we found out that his brain looked good…definitely a concussion, but no bleeding. Phew!! He is supposed to take it easy, EARLY bedtime for a week, very limited TV and video games, no reading, no running around. He came home and couldn’t stand lights so I set him up in my room with the lights down. He fell asleep around 6 and pretty much slept until 7 this morning. I was with him in our bed while Brian was with Aiden in the guest room (because of course poor Aiden threw up around 11pm…he was the last man standing who hadn’t gotten sick. I’m still the only one who hasn’t puked in the last week!) Logan was thankfully sleeping at his friend’s house and got to miss the whole thing!

Today Brady is acting totally normal. We are being cautious, but he seems good. He hasn’t had a headache, he’s back to being able to tolerate lights and is eating. I downloaded a few audio books (Diary of a Wimpy kid etc). He and Aiden lay on the couch this morning for a while just relaxing and listening to them. As I am typing, he ran in to update me on something they are doing in the living room. You would never know…but we’re still going to be on high alert!!

Sleeping it off in the ER while we waited for the test results. We had to keep him awake the whole way to the hospital and only let him fall asleep after the doctor said it was OK.

Chillin to an audio book this morning…drinking his 3rd of 3 Gatorades we purchased…doctor’s orders. 

He took sunglasses to run errands with Daddy.

Yet another installment of “how I slacked on blog posting this year”!

Brady was “an archer”. This is him at his class party with the girl he simply adores, Amber.

Logan was having difficulties deciding on a costume so I suggested that he “dress up” for Halloween. He loved it, owned it, and confused many many people that day. I got the suit from Once Upon a Child for cheap. Anyone need a ring bearer? We’re ready to go!

Logan dancing in the costume parade.

Aiden was a blue picmin. What’s a picmin you ask???

It’s this guy. He’s from a video game that Aiden was playing at the time. They pick flowers with giant numbers on them to produce more picmin and go on missions. The blue ones can swim in water. Don’t ask…this is the kid who dressed as a lightning bolt last year.

This has nothing to do with Halloween, but it was on my phone with the Halloween pics. It’s a giant Amber Brady built in mindcraft. He’s smitten.

House decorations.

I used my paper cutter to do the letters on the pumpkins. Gotta remember that one for next year!

Here are a couple fun things we did this fall:

Brady and I did the annual Juvenile Diabetes Walk with our team Krazy for Kate. Logan and Aiden had too much sports stuff that day so I got some special time with my littlest man.

It’s a great cause…plus Joel and Kristin always bring donuts!!

It was in a new location this year…very scenic! The weather was phenomenal as well.

Brady somehow convinced Mackenzie to give him a ride for a good portion of the walk!

Brady and his posse: Carter and Jackson (brothers)

Pics from our trip to the corn maze and pumpkin place:

This is Aiden running the “kids maze” after we did a small (easy) portion of the real one. Brian told him to look at the grass (which was worn down along the path that gets you out) so Aiden decided to RUN it and set….um…a record or something.

I love these crazy big statues with pumpkin heads. The lighting is bad, but there is a boy in front of each one.

They also had some apple picking…in like the most GIGANTIC clover field ever. I think Aiden and I found at least 5 four-leaf clovers that day.

Logan is getting a big too big for the riding toys, but they paved the track this year (or last maybe…we didn’t go to the same place last year). He is dying laughing at how big his legs are and how hard it is to peddle.

My boys admiring goats.

We decided we were only buying 1 big “family” pumpkin for carving. Everyone picked a pumpkin and daddy set them up randomly for judging.

Here we are gutting the winning pumpkin. Sadly, we never got past the gutting part…it was a faceless jack-o-lantern. We’re really phoning it in this year all around (as is evidenced by the fact that I’m documenting this on December 21st!) Selling the house and building a new one has proven time-consuming to say the least :)

So I’ve very very clearly been neglecting the blog lately. This is the time of the year when I start thinking about having it printed as our “year in review” album. Um…ya…I have a LOT to post. I just made a list

• Fall Stuff
• Halloween (!)
• Brian’s birthday (40th!!)
• Brady’s birthday
• Houckmas

So…I’ll be…um…catching up…in reverse order!