Daisy's baptism day

Halloween, Drive-ins, and 

Traumatizing Adaira...

With Halloween being on a Sunday this year, we didn't get to do anything outside of our ward's trunk-or-treat the Friday before Halloween. I felt bad for the kids, but we definitely weren't going trick-or-treating on a Sunday. I'm not too picky about Halloween costumes but I wanted to find something for the kids this year outside of the standard costumes at Walmart that a dozen other kids might also be wearing, so I found a website with a large selection of costumes and shopped the clearance section :)

Adaira was, of course, a pretty princess. Her skirt had lights built into it which was kind of a cool touch. Brighton was a Ghost Pirate and Dale was a Monkey. He looked so cute as a monkey but the costume was way too hot for the weather. We wore the head piece for a little while but it was off for most of the night.

Just for comparison so you can see how Adaira works it as a princess, this is a picture taken from earlier in the day when I was pleading for her to smile for the camera. This is all she would give me:

Now just look at all her instant smiles and poses every time I asked her for a picture...
Grandma Jo & Grandpa Dale stopped by to see their costumes. Thank goodness we had another pair of hands to do makeup while I got Adaira ready. Grandpa Dale let Brighton put some makeup on his face too!

Justin's impromptu costume consisted of one of my dad's old suits, leftover Halloween makeup and a wig he's had since high school!

 Beautiful pose and smile by Adaira, I didn't even have to beg...Perhaps I just need to dress her up like a princess every day and she'll be that happy to comply with my requests!

 Apparently I haven't let Dale play in the sand...ever. He sat down, felt the sand in between his fingers and just wanted to swim in it!

 Again, Adaira's instant poses...

 Our cute family after the trunk or treating was over

 time to eat SUGAR!

 Shot of Adaira's hair before bedtime. It was full of sparkles. She won't let me get near her with a curling iron so this was the next best thing to doing her princess hair.

The next day we hit the drive-ins with Brighton & Adaira while wonderful Frances watched Dale. We hadn't been in a few months so it was nice to get out. We throw our love-sac into the back of the truck and cuddle up for a movie together. We watched The Legend of the Guardians and I enjoyed it. I'd heard mixed reviews but for a kid's movie what can you expect? Simple plot, simple characters, simple ending. Before the movie started the kids enjoyed Lunchables for dinner and Justin & I had In & Out Burger. Good times!

 The next day at church we noticed that Adaira's left ear piercing looked infected and swollen. I looked behind her ear and it looked like the back of her earring had already fallen off. I tried to pull the front out but she yelped and whipped her head away from me and wouldn't let me touch it. I told her after church we were going to have to get it out. I still couldn't figure out why the earring would turn in a circle but wouldn't pull out. Later that night when I tried to get it out we realized why: the back of the earring was embedded in her ear!!! I couldn't see it because the back of her ear piercing had engulfed the stop of the back of her earring! It was kind of horrifying. It was in so far that I couldn't even get a good grip on it to pull it out with my finger nails. I had to call Frances upstairs and she was able to grip the tip with her fingernails and pull it out (while Adaira screamed bloody murder and Justin had to hold her still - he probably had the worst job of all). We happened to check the other ear and while it wasn't red and swollen the same thing had happened on that side! Adaira was not happy AT ALL to find out she had to go through it again. She was running around the house screaming for us to stay away from her. For whatever reason the second one was even harder to get out. It doesn't help that the front of the stop has a lip on it and we actually had to pull that through the smaller hole in the back of her ear. Frances couldn't get the back out so I had to get some needle nose pliers. We got it out but not without a lot of blood and tears. Looks like Adaira won't have earrings again until she is old enough to get them pierced herself. I had them pierced when she was 18 months old because she still didn't have any hair and I wanted her to look a little more feminine. At least now we don't have to worry about that! I can't believe we went all this time without any issues and then when we do have a problem it almost makes a crater in her ear!

This is the second ear we pulled the earring out of. Doesn't look too bad...

Can't say the same for the first ear. This is the one that was infected and you can see the tear where the back of the earring almost came through the front of her ear.

 I apologize for the graphic nature of these photos, but here is the backs of both her ears. They were clean, this is the crusty blood and stuff that seeped out overnight (they were dripping with blood when we finally got the earrings out!). As you can guess, Adaira wants NOTHING to do with earrings "ever again!"

This is a picture of the back of the earring. It was engulfed in her skin all the way to just past the little lip on the right end. I had to push the skin of her ear back just to get the slightest grip on that lip. As you can guess that large lip on the left side basically ripped the inside of her ear as we pulled it out.
Poor Adaira!

I also have to say how sweet big brother Brighton was during this ordeal. He was VERY upset seeing Adaira in so much pain. I saw him pacing around with his hands covering his ears, then his eyes, then his ears, etc. He told us later that he prayed five different times during the extraction process. He told us he just kept praying to Heavenly Father that he could help Adaira to not feel so much pain. He is such a sweetheart and we are very proud of him for thinking to pray for his sister all on his own. We are glad he loves her enough to try and help her in that way.