Scavenger Hunt from a Leprechaun! Easy and fast activity for St Patrick's Day for kids from a Leprechaun! St Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt

Didn't catch the Leprechaun and he left you this scavenger hunt?? SO FUN!

Our leprechaun usually brings Lucky Charms.... looks like this year our kids will have to go on a scavenger hunt before they can get their cereal!

Christmas Shenanigans!

I cannot wait to do this for my kids!! I'll have to update this blog later with how it went... but for now, here is the plan: 

We are planning on going to Mexico in January (we have plane tickets and reservations, but you never know these days #2020 so hoping this plan doesn't get messed up!!) My kids don't know so we are going to tell them on Christmas morning with this scavenger hunt. 

I'm gonna start with giving them a present with nothing but this piece of paper and their first clue in it. I'm sure they will expecting an actual present... so to get a piece of paper will hopefully throw them off enough to make the rest exciting. Then at every place there is a clue, we also left a hint..... 

These are the clues & hints I plan on using: 

Then at the end, they will open one last gift with pretend plane tickets, hotel room key and a countdown. I think by the end they will have figured it out, but we can tell them exactly where and when we are going :)

I'm going to put these files on my ETSY in case anyone else could use them. They would work for ANY scavenger hunt you'd like to do.... whether at the end you want to surprise them with a trip or maybe a puppy or anything else. You don't have to use hints at each clue and this can be used simply as a way to build up to an any awesome present. 

This took me about 30 minutes to put together... I backed the clues on cardstock so they read like a card (with the clue inside) and put the chain together with the countdown labels and construction paper. 

 

Some other projects I've been working on.... 

CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE 

Kindness challenges for the whole month of December. You can have them come from the elf, or just give them to your kids randomly. Good way to help them add to the Christmas spirit!

SILLY ELFIE ASKS A QUESTION

Labels for questions Elfie could ask using strictly 

house hold items for an EASY and QUICK elf set up!

SCAVENGER HUNT FROM THE ELF

Quick, easy and FUN scavenger hunt from your Elf!

Emmett Brent Houghton

7 lbs 8 oz

19 inches long

Born at 12:22

September 10- lost mucous plug

September 14- Monday night I had lots of contractions, Tuesday at OB appointment I measured maybe 1.5 and not very effaced...  and then contractions were pretty quiet until Saturday morning.

September 19- in the morning I was super cramping, tons of contractions and lost more mucous plug. Then by around 11 am... not much after that 

September 21- back labor all morning (3am-8am) quiet during the day, then night time tons of contractions and back labor that were getting stronger and more painful. Thought this was it, then as soon as I asked Julie to be on standby, it totally stopped 

September 22- Doc appointment, membranes stripped. Measuring 2 and 50% effaced 

September 23- Not much. Contractions here and there until middle of the night... 

So I woke up around 3 and I was having contractions. I started to walk around and they wouldn't go away. They were getting worse but I wasn't in a TON of pain yet. Some of them were every two minutes and worried that if I didn't go to the hospital, I would have this baby at home! So we called Julie and Jeremy came over, and we went to the hospital. We got there at 4:45. 

The nurse hooked me up and monitored me for while. When she came in to check me even though I was contracting A TON, she said I was barely dilated to a two. SO disappointing to hear. She said they usually don't admit people unless they are at a four. Since I was 38 weeks and I delivered my others at 38 weeks she left it up to me whether I wanted to be induced or go home. I did not want to be induced, but didn't want to go home in pain. She could ask the doctor to prescribe some pain meds that usually help relax the mom enough to start real labor. I said okay and she left the room to go do that. 

By the time she came back the contractions had gotten way worse. Each one I had to grip the bed to get through it and they were at least every 5 minutes. One look at me and she said "ya, you're not going home". She admitted me. When we got back to the room the nurse checked me again, and I was at a 4. I believe at this point they started Pitocin and I got my epidural. 

 9:30 AM Dilated to 4

10:30 AM Dilated to 5

11:10 AM Dilated to 6

I usually go real quick once I get to 6.... 

12:22 AM BABY!

Emmett is my first baby where my water did break on its own! 

Evan James Houghton

It's been a week and a half since we had Evan and we could not love him more.

So here's the short version of his birth story: We were taking our Sunday nap when I woke up to my water breaking around 4pm. When we got to the hospital I was a 3.5 and pretty thick. I got my epidural in around 6:30 before I felt any bad contractions, at 7:30 I was a 4.5. Then by 8:30 I was an 8...  Evan was born at 9:11. 20 Inches long, 7.2 pounds.

For my journal/record keeping:

So to begin with Evan was sort of an accident . Casey and I weren't quite ready to have another kid yet, but knew we wanted to and were trying to get ready. In an effort to take one step in that direction we didn't protect when I was just coming off my period and wasn't supposed to ovulate for at least a week. WELL - I knew the very next day when I was having ovulation pain that I was probably getting pregnant. I even got this nerve/twitch thingy in my thumb that I only get when I'm pregnant... and was pretty sure right away that I was. Yup.

We decided not to find out gender. I never felt this burning desire to find out (unlike with my first two... I TOTALLY had to know with them) so I figured as long as I didn't HAVE to know, we wouldn't find out. I also had lots of peer pressure not to find out, haha! We had a friend do a string and pencil trick to guess gender - she said it hasn't been wrong in 20 years - and it came out girl. Also Casey's dad was pretty sure it was a girl and said he hasn't been wrong about gender in 17 grandchildren. So we were thinking this baby was gonna be a girl.

Fast forward 9 months. I got my membranes stripped on Friday (3/16/18) morning and had lots of mucous coming out. I also started having contractions that were getting stronger and more frequent, but nothing super consistent. There was a moment Friday night when I thought it could be happening, but then I fell asleep and woke up the next morning. A friend in our new ward and I (both due end of march) went and got a pedicure. When we got there, this cute Chinese lady told me I would be having a girl too, and that I wouldn't be ready for a while... that my friend would have her baby before me. Pedicuregirl acted like she knew what she was talking about!! After the pedicure, Easton had a soccer game and then we had an AWESOME family night. We played games and laughed and danced. I remember thinking if this was our last night as a family of four, it could not have been more perfect.

Then the next morning, I figured I might as well go to church if I wasn't going to be having a baby. I was totally planning on curling my hair and getting ready but I wanted my hair curly when baby came.. .so kind of bitter I didn't curl my hair. I was contracting through church... about every half hour. When we got home from church we decided to take a nap since we would be going to the Godfrey's for dinner. At 4PM, half asleep but waking up I screamed "it's happening!!!". My water totally gushed (not trickle like before). I've never seen Casey get out of bed faster. I called my parents to meet us at the hospital to take Easton and Elsie - and I finally finished packing my hospital bag.

Put the same shirt on that I went to the hospital in with Easton and Elsie :)

Easton got pretty nervous about this. He was crying cause he was going to miss Casey and I.

Waiting for the nurse to bring us to our room.

When we got in our room and the nurse checked me, I was a 3.5 and pretty thick. I told the nurse that I get pretty nauseated and throw up quite a bit after I've gotten my epidurals before, and she suggested we use warm IV fluid. Must have been the answer because I only got slightly nauseated and didn't throw up at all. Getting the epidural wasn't bad at all - we chatted about anesthesiologist that we both knew and joked about Doctors having nicknames - sometimes good/sometimes bad :)



These pictures have become a tradition... this is WE ARE ABOUT TO HAVE A BABY face :)

Casey was able to watch 2 basketball games AND Julie brought him coke and a dinner.

Here's the birthing timeline (Michele got the stats from the nurse for me):

6:30 - Got Epidural and started Petocin
7:23 - Dilated 4.5
8:30 - Dilated 8 - felt a lot of movement, told the nurse and she checked again
8:32 - Dilated 9
8:50 - Dilated 9.5
9:06 - Dilated 10
9:11 - Baby born with 1 contraction and 2 pushes (Doctor had to tell me to stop pushing)

At 8:29 Michele texted and asked if  we wanted some company while we waited. Casey was watching basketball and I was watching This Is Us, but we are always up to see Michele so I said yes. Right after telling Michele to come on over, the nurse checked me and I went from 4.5 to 8... so I was progressing quickly. I hurried and texted Michele " Come quick if you want a show!". Michele, Julie and my Mom were all able to make it with just minutes to spare. My mom was the last to arrive at 8:52 pm (thank goodness for time stamps on text messages!!)

 Up until that point everything had gone wonderfully. The doctor walked in and I think because everyone and everything was so shill, she had to ask the nurse if we were actually ready. The nurse in a super calm (but with stressed undertones) said "Yep, she's at a 10+3". Casey took one of my legs, Julie took the other. The doc told me to push and I must have pushed a little too hard cause she told me to stop. Then she said to slowly push one more time.... BABY.

But then... what was supposed to be this awesome moment for Casey and I... something I had been waiting for MONTHS for... was ruined by a stupid nurse who blurted out "BOY". I was shocked and said "what??? A boy"" Casey, is it really??. Then that nurse spent what felt like minutes apologizing and messing up again and again. She probably felt pretty bad that she ruined our surprise, and got flustered cause then she did something to where she had to apologize to the doctor over and over. Super annoying. Now instead of remembering Casey cutting the cord and them placing Evan on my chest, I just remember this nurse trying to apologize to me. SO ANNOYING. Soon after that, that nurse left the room and it was finally shill again and I got to enjoy this sweet little boy!

This pic was after Casey said "that was easy". He wasn't trying to be insensitive - he just meant as far as deliveries go... it all went pretty smoothly and he was happy baby was here safely. 

His first bath :)

Car ride home