fAmiLy ReUniOn

My uncle Eldon was in charge of the Randall reunion this year and decided to have it in October and make it full of Halloween fun!
After everyone brought their favorite soup, stew, or chili (mm mm GOOD) we played a fun game of "right, left, across"

The kids got the chance to receive candy SEVERAL times throughout this reunion - truly Halloween. First was the pinata - Our little pink cheetah butterfly, Lexus, got in a good hit.

Then we had the costume contest/parade... Rachel and I were a duo. Instead of Super Sista's, we were the Super Mario Brothers!

1Up
(We know Luigi is supposed to be taller than Mario - as we were reminded several times ;) that was our only flaw)

And then there was the trunk-or-treat. My mom was literal, and sat in her trunk!!The lady bug and the surgeon

I wonder if Mario ever has problems keeping his mustache in place?

and of course there was cupcake decorating

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!

I LOVE FAMILY
Thanks for a great reunion. It was so much fun to see everyone.

I don't know how Moms do this!!

I watch Alex suffer from allergies on what seems like a daily basis. I feel so bad for him, all the time. He comes in from mowing the lawn, just miserable. Can't stand going to our friends house because they have a cat, etc, etc. There has to be something we could do?....
Be careful when you think you're willing to do what it takes to stop the suffering. I'd heard about allergy shots from my brother, coworkers, friends whose family members have done it, and they all say it's changed their lives. So I figured, yeah that sounds like a GREAT idea. They test you for what you're allergic to, and then you go in once a week and get a shot and in 5 years, viola!
Well..... what I didn't expect was how emotional I would be to watch it all done.
I went with Alex to his allergy testing appointment so we'd both know what his options were. They begin with marking his back with a pen to know what the corresponding allergy was.

He gets numbered 1-41 and then they poke him. 41 TIMES!! I couldn't believe it. They poke him with all kinds of allergies from grass, to mold, to animals, everything inside and out. And then we wait.

This was what his back looked like right after the pokes. They all begin a little red, cause they've just been poked. But we wait 15 min. and they check every 5 to see how he's doing.
Imagine being poked with all the things that you could potentially be very allergic to. The antihistamine reaction is very itchy and he just had to lay there.

This was after 5 minutes. I just tried to tickle his arms, anything to keep his mind off of it.

This is after 10 minutes. And if you think 10 minutes isn't that long, try laying still while your entire back itches.... an endless itch you can't scratch. Finally after 15 min, they came in to check for the final results. I was loosing it. I felt so bad, so helpless and couldn't do anything. I don't know how moms handle watching their kids in the Dr. office.As you can tell he had some pretty big ones. They use a measuring tool to decide how big the wheel of the irritated area is and how allergic he is. The middle ones were GRASS!! He tried to get the Dr. to say he didn't have to mow the lawn anymore... but once he starts the shots he'll be good to go in May to start mowing again ;)So we decided to go with the shots! I won't be going with him every week but I'm glad he'll finally be getting help, relief from his daily suffering. I guess that's really what it's all about.
This has been an eye opening experience. He was such a good sport, as they say, "I think I did worse than him."