Halloween Festivities and more

It has been another busy week around the Sullivan house. Sometimes it feels like it's never going to end. Sometime over the UEA weekend (I think it was Monday), we went to Gardner Village and did a Witch Scavenger Hunt. We went on a wagon ride and then we went to the petting zoo and Cierra had a pony ride. Caden loved the petting zoo, but was terrifed of the goats that had horns and kept saying "Scary monster goat." It was really funny.

The kids at the petting zoo

Kenzie and Caden petting a goat

Cierra on the pony ride

Caden sitting with some pumpkins

Last Friday we went to a dinner/family gathering to celebrate Hugh B. Brown's 125th birthday (no, he's not still alive.) He was Erick's great-grandpa. It was fun to listen to all the stories and meet new people that we are related to.

Kenzie and Cierra at the dinner

Erick had Saturday and Sunday off and we had high hopes of accomplishing a lot of things around the house, but neither of us felt very good, so not very much got done.

Monday evening Kenzie went to a Halloween party with her friend Kara. It was a haunted house and she said that it was a lot of fun. Yesterday was the Halloween Carnival at Caden's school. It was so much fun. I wasn't sure how Caden would handle all of the noise and all of the people, but he did great. He played lots of games and had so much fun eating dinner and collecting prizes. He especially loved the swimming pool full of dried beans......I couldn't keep him away from it.

Caden playing some games


Eating a donut....yum!

Caden's favorite part of the whole carnival....the bean pool!

Kenzie, Cierra, and Caden......the three loves of my life

Today Caden had preschool and he did really good when I dropped him off, but they said he had several meltdowns during class. I just keep hoping that every week will get better. I also took Cierra to the neurologist again today. Her seizures are still increasing on a daily basis, so we are going up on the dosage again. We can still go up a little bit higher on this particular medication before we need to think about adding a second one to the mix or switching medications all together. I really hope that we can get them under control before we move, but as of right now, it's not looking too hopeful. Cierra also got to go to a halloween party at her friend Lillie's house today. She was so excited because it her first one and she had a blast.

I have also been busy this week getting ready for my first ever garage sale. We are trying to make a little bit of extra money for our move, so Saturday morning we are setting up shop in the driveway. I hope that I will be able to report back later that it was a success. And of course, with Halloween, the rest of the week will be pretty busy. I was just thinking how much I was looking forward to next week and then I looked at my calender. It is just as full with Dr. appointments and therapies, etc.

I also want to add this one last picture that I took last week. I just love it. It is rare to get a picture of Caden looking at the camera, but this was close enough.....he was looking at me instead. I love the look on his face. It just captures everything about my anegelic son in that one moment. His innocence, his beautiful eyes, his sweet little face. He is truly an angel on earth. I love everything about him and I wouldn't take away his autism, even if I could. It is so much a part of him and I think he is perfect :)

Goodbye Ericka!

Ericka and Malcolm left for Canada last Friday. It was a really emotional goodbye, but I know that they are going to have so much fun together and I am so happy for both of them. Congrats again you two!

Ericka and my kiddos

Ericka and me

Ericka and Caden

Update on Cierra

I just wanted to take a minute and update everyone on how Cierra is doing. Overall, she is doing better. But, she is still having daily seizures and I think that we have a long way to go until she is seizure-free. On Tuesday she had no seizures and then yesterday she had 27! It is always unpredictable and we are trying very hard to figure out what triggers them. We are going up weekly on her medication for the time being and are hoping that we will reach a therapeutic level soon. She is now taking 5ml of Trileptal 2x a day. We appreciate all of your concern and prayers and would appreciate it if you could continue to keep her in your prayers. She is really struggling right now with the emotions that come along with having epilepsy and with feeling "different."

The Week of the Wedding

Wow.....what a week it has been! This week was my sister Ericka's wedding. We had family gatherings and such almost every day. Last Saturday night, Ben and Mary (with Abby and Olivia in tow) flew into town for Ericka's wedding. We visited with them at my Mom's house until about 11pm that night. Sunday was conference and we hung out at home and watched that until we went to my Mom's house to have dinner with everyone. Then we headed over to my Grandma's house to celebrate her birthday. Monday we met the whole family at Chick-Fil-A to celebrate Olivia's 2nd birthday.


Then we headed over to the mall to try and find matching bows for the girls' dresses for the wedding. Tuesday morning, Malcolm (Ericka's fiance)arrived from Canada. He was supposed to get here Tuesday evening, but he drove all night to surprise Ericka. By the time he got to my Mom's house, he was exhausted and went to bed. Ericka and I went shopping while he slept and then checked out a kid's salon to see if Caden might cooperate for a haircut there. I took Caden back to the salon later that day and Caden got his first ever, tear-free haircut! If you've never been to Cookie Cutters, I highly recommend it. Caden loved sitting in the firetruck and watching Thomas the Train.


Wednesday morning, Ericka, Mary, Megan and I went and got pedicures done thanks to Malcolm. It was so much fun. After that, we met the whole family at Rafael's for lunch. Wednesday evening, Malcolm's parents arrived from Canada. Thursday, everyone met at the church to set up for the reception. Caden and I stopped by for a little while to see how it was going, but we weren't much help. That afternoon, I went with my Mom to pick up all the pies for the reception. Thursday evening was the wedding dinner at PF Changs. It was a lot of fun and of course great food. Friday morning, the girls and I went and got our hair done for the wedding. After we got home, we rushed to get ready and then headed out to the Timpanogos Temple, without written directions. Needless to say, we got lost and it took us over an hour to get there. But we made it and got to see Ericka and Malcolm exit the temple as husband and wife. Ericka was an absolutely beautiful bride and Malcolm looked so proud to be her husband.

Ericka and Malcolm

Ericka and me

Caden and Malcolm (Caden adores him!)

All the girls

Kenzie, Nancy, and Cierra signing "cold"......it was freezing!

We did all the family pictures and then met Ben and Mary at Zupa's for lunch. The younger kids had so much fun playing after we were done eating.

Cierra, Abby and Olivia under the table at Zupa's

Ben (my older brother) and me at Zupa's

Friday evening was the reception and it was gorgeous! It was set up so nicely and Malcolm and Ericka both looked great, but a little less innocent than earlier that day (I'm not sure why?) All of the kids had a great time eating pie and candy and dancing around. Tanner decided that he wasn't getting enough attention, so he threw up everywhere. We hurried to get it cleaned up and Viv graciously offered to take him home and bathe him, so that Megan could stay at the reception. Sparklers were passed out to everyone, so that the newlyweds could exit to their car through them. Of course I thought nothing of the flashing sparklers until Cierra started having seizures from them. We got her away from them and the seizures stopped, but it was time for us to go home and get her to bed.

Ericka and Caden

Cutting the cake

Cierra and Abby feeding eachother candy

Caden insisted on standing in bewteen Ericka and Malcolm while they were in the receiving line

Saturday afternoon, Abby came over to play with Cierra one more time before she had to head back to Texas. Cierra and Abby had so much fun playing together all week. Caden loved having her here, too. He has been walking around all week saying "Abby, Abby, Abby."

Cierra, Abby, and Caden playing barbies

Another word that Caden learned on Friday was "Honeymoon." I bet that he has said it at least 100 times in the last two days. Saturday morning, Malcolm and Ericka left for their honeymoon in California. They will be back next week and then they will be off to Canada. I am so happy for them, but I am really going to miss Ericka. Hopefully we will all be back in Utah next October for Shaun's homecoming. Ben and Mary left this morning to head back to San Antonio. We will miss them, too, but I hope that with our move to New Mexico, we will be able to see them again soon. So that was our crazy, busy, fun week. Sorry for making it so long, but I wanted to fit it all into one post. Thanks for reading if you got this far :).

Twilight Fans

I may be the last person on the planet to know this, but I wanted to pass it on just in case I'm not. Stephanie Meyer started writing a 5th book, but it was leaked to the internet, so she decided not to finish it right now. But, she posted what was done of the book on her website. It's called Midnight Sun and it's about the first book, but from Edward's perspective. I just started reading it tonight and I love it all ready! Here's the link if you want to check it out.
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

Free Skate Night

Willow Canyon sponsors a free skate night every year at Classic Skating and tonight was the night. Cierra had been begging and pleading for me to take them again this year, so off we went. It was actually really fun and Caden even figured out how to "scooter" on the three-wheeled scooters. Kenzie switched back and forth between using a scooter and skates and Cierra just stuck to the scooter. I sat by someone from my ward and talked while the kids played. She works with kids with disabilities, so it was nice to get her perspective about Caden and have someone to talk to about it. The kids were happy to have pizza for dinner, but after I had a bite of Caden's, I have no idea what they were happy about and why Cierra wanted a second piece. It tasted like garlic-flavored cardboard. I guess that's what you get for $2. The only problem that we ran into was the strobe lights. If you know anything about epilepsy, you know what can happen when someone with epilepsy is exposed to them. Within a couple of minutes, Cierra was having continuous seizures, so it was time to go. I'm just glad that it happened towards the end of the night, rather than the beginning. Cierra started feeling better as soon as we got outside and was back to herself within 20 minutes of getting home. She is such a good sport about all of this.....it really amazes me. I know at her age, I would not have handled it as well. Here are some pictures :)