Tess 6 Months Old Pictures

I just got Tess' pictures back today and I think they turned out so cute!! What can I say, I make pretty babies :)

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

Ethan is 7! I can't believe it has gone so fast. His birthday was on Sunday the 5th but we went out as a family last night instead of throwing a big friend party. We went to Thanksgiving Point and despite the wind we had a really good time!! They had a lot of fun stuff to do there. Here is my crazy bunch the empty hole is Joshua if you look close you can see his hand in there.



The dangerous go-carts.



Here is why they were dangerous. We don't really know what happened but some how she managed to drive up onto one of the logs and apparently bonked her face.



So we did the kiddie corn maze I went in with the kids while Johnny stayed out with the stroller and Tess. I let Porter lead the way and somehow we crossed over into the giant maze. I got us really lost and luckily I found a worker who got us out of there. I was laughing but Porter and Bella were crying that we were never going to get out of there. Oh the drama...I would have had a picture of Ethan but he had ran off and found a way out of the maze. Looks like I was following the wrong kid.




For his birthday Ethan wanted a globe and books. He needed the globe so he knows where he can go exploring and the books so he knows what he would like to explore. He got a bike recently and he has been giving himself bike lessons so he can go where he wants, to explore. Did I mention Ethan likes to explore?

Time For A Change

This summer I had made the decision to home school my kids. I had researched different curriculum and was all set to go. I had mentioned to a few people that I would be homeschooling and they went on about how hard it is and how I have little children, blah blah, etc. So I chickened out and stuck them back into their school. Well a month went by and although I loved the curriculum at their school I wasn't enjoying ALL the extra activities and time commitment. My friend that I was carpooling with decided to take her daughters out and that would mean I would have to start driving back and forth everyday three times a day. So I took my kids out last week and have been homeschooling. I LOVE IT!! I am getting so much quality time with my kids. I know exactly what they are learning and where they need to be challenged and where they need a little help. It is so nice to set my own schedule, do my own field trips even Johnny is taking the kids for 2 hours once a week to teach Spanish and Geography. I am really lucky to have 2 other families in my neighbor who also home school so that we can have our recess around the same time and to have their help and support on what I am doing. My kids really enjoy it, especially Ethan.

I thought the house would be a constant wreck while doing this but it hasn't been to bad (other than Joshua ripping everything apart) Since they're home they help do the dishes and keep the kitchen clean. Yesterday they sorted the laundry while we talked about some of the things we were learning. I guess I'll have to do post again in a couple of months when the newness has worn off and see if I'm still loving it :)

Sisters

I have to have the world's funnest sisters. Today is my sister Heather's 30th birthday. So what would we give her...perfume, jewelry, clothes?? Oh no, that just won't suffice for such an important birthday. Tiffany had the wonderful idea to make a music video for Heather. We found the most lovely song "Happy Birthday Princess" thanks to the Disney Princess Soundtrack I unfortunately own. Of course we had to dress up like princesses for the music video. Tiffany is a Hindu Princess, Ashley is a Hawaiian Princess, I'm Belle, and Kallee is Princess Aurora. So we spent a few hours last night creating this masterpiece for Heather and then we went to her house and tied black balloons in her trees and put signs up in her yard. Heather worked the graveyard shift at the hospital so we took the movie to her at 1:30 in the morning so she could enjoy her present. Needless to say she loved it. I don't dare share the music video with anyone but her is a picture of how hot we looked for it.

That's My Boy

I put the kids to bed at 8 and I've just been hanging out in the office playing on the computer. Ethan walks in with a large grin on his face completely dressed for school. He told me now I don't have to worry about getting dressed in the morning. I starting laughing and took his picture. I went through a similar phase when I was little. I figured if I slept in my clothes then I could sleep in. It's not being lazy we just know how to better manage our time. I like the thumbs up in his picture, just in case you didn't already know this was a good idea.

Happy Birthday Joshua

Our sweet little Joshua is now 2!! His birthday was on Wednesday. He's kid #4 at our house so his birthday was a little sad. We couldn't think of what to get him, we have plenty of boy toys, clothes, etc. Luckily I was at a PTA meeting the night before his birthday and the school was having a book fair so I got him some books and a puzzle. Then I forgot to wrap them so they were all in a sack. He didn't care, that's what is so great about little kids. The big kids immediately grabbed the books and have had them ever since. Here are some pictures of him and his cake.



This next one is of Bella cleaning him off. I thought it was pretty sweet and Joshua thought it was really funny.



Here is Joshua opening his sack of presents. I made sure he didn't rip the bag so we could reuse it on Ethan's birthday.

EEG

I had another EEG this morning. (I still have no idea what that stands for) I had to go in sleep deprived so I stayed up doing my laundry and then watched two movies. When my alarm went off this morning I wanted to cry but I got up and went on my run then showered and headed to Timpanogos Hospital. I had three people hooking me all up so it only took about 15 minutes this time, my last one took about 45 minutes just to get me hooked up. The guys were nice to take my picture and laughed when I told them I wanted it for my blog. I had a Pleasant Grove Vikings sweatshirt on and they asked me if I go there? I just laughed and said well a long time ago. It was nice that somebody finally guessed me younger than I am. The other day somebody guessed me in my 30's and when I said no they said oh you're in you're 40's? I go to the neurologist on Monday to get my test results.

If you're wondering why I'm getting another EEG done... at first the hospital told me mine was fine but when I met with the Dr. he told me it said I had, had a seizure. But because I had all the medicine in my system it could effect the test so I had the 2nd one done today to hopefully rule out seizures and make sure that it really was just an allergic reaction.

Take me out to the ball game...

For the last 8 years Johnny has played on a coed softball team. I think this is the first time I've remembered to take pictures of him, whoops! Their team is Vanilla Thunder and they are the defending champs from last year. They've only lost one game in the season, so way to go Vanilla Thunder!!

Johnny's Dream Weekend

Every year Johnny and my brothers-in-law go to one away BYU game. This year they went up to the Seattle game. They went to the football game that morning and then three hours after the BYU game they went to the Mariners and Yankees game. He got home Sunday afternoon and could barely talk from all the yelling at the games.

Happy News!!

It's official, I AM KIDNEY STONE FREE!! I am so happy it has been such a crappy summer of pain, surgeries, and hospital visits. I am feeling great and am able to start running again!! I have to have some more tests done to see if I had a seizure or an allergic reaction but we feel pretty optimistic that it was just an allergic reaction.

Sweet Joshua

Joshua really loves his baby sister Tess. He's the only one who tries to soothe her when she cries he tries to feed her baby food and it's the only sibling name he'll say (he calls her Tessers). So while I was making dinner tonight I laid Tess down so I could cook and I hear Joshua talking to her and laughing and this is what I found. The funny thing is she was laughing too. Crazy kids, well maybe crazy mom for taking pictures instead of hurrying to get him off of her.

First Day of School

My kids all started school this week. Ethan is in the 1st grade, Porter is in kindergarten and Bella is in pre-school. It has been really nice having them back at school I've actually found time to do something for myself. I thought Joshua would be sad that they were gone but he is happy to get more of my attention. I know the kids don't love wearing uniforms but I think they look so cute!

A Little White Trash

The other day Captain Questions (Porter) was driving me crazy and asking question after question, I needed to distract him so I asked him if he wanted a tattoo. He wanted two and then Bella came and saw the fun of mom drawing on her brother with permanent marker (whoops) and wanted two tattoos as well. Just so you know she was bathed and had her hair done that morning but I took the picture in the afternoon.

Drama, Drama

I went in yesterday to get my second round of lithotripsy(blasting my kidney stones) and when I started to come out of anesthesia I started having a seizure. I seizured for about an hour and a half until they finally got me to come out of it. I remember about the last 5 minutes of it and being put into the ambulance. They took me over to UVRMC and I was admitted so I could start having a bunch of test done. Once they got me settled into my sweet room Johnny went home so he could get the kids. I had an EEG (I have no idea what that stands for) and a MRI. Both came back completely normal. So they have decided that I have developed an allergy to all medicine. I'm not allowed to take any over the counter medicine except tylenol and deffinetally no prescription medicine. I also can't have any soda and I need to avoid foods with aspartame. She told me if I'm in pain from passing my kidney stones and I really feel like I need to take something I have to do it with somebody around so they can help me if I start seizing. Exciting stuff, I see the neurologist on Monday and then the urologist in a couple of weeks. The good news is I don't have epilepsy and I don't have to be on any antiseizure medicine. So anyway that has been my exciting last couple of days, I'll keep you all posted if I find out anymore.

The Birds and the Bees

We were driving home tonight from a party with all of our kids and Ethan was asking all sorts of questions about babies and twins. Can you see where this is going?? My sister Kallee has twins and Ethan said I hope she has more twins and I was telling him that Kallee gets really sick when she is pregnant so she probably won't be having any more kids. Then he continued to ask how she had twins so I explained that she has eggs in her body and her body dropped down two eggs and that is how they got there. Then Ethan said I hope you and daddy get married again so you can have more kids and I said you don't have babies from getting married and he asked, well then how do you make babies? So I gave a very textbook answer and explained that daddy has sperm and mom has eggs and when daddies sperm fertilizes my egg it makes a baby. Then Ethan remembered that when you're pregnant you get really sick and he asked, daddy will you please stop giving mommy your sperm so she won't get pregnant? Johnny just replied, I'll try.

Bella's Birthday

Bella turned 4 years old today!! She had a party today and the kids got to limbo (not a good idea when some of the kids are only two, we had a little girl just walk into the stick) a pinata, pin the horn on the unicorn and then our neighbor let us use their water slide. Bella loved it and she got quite the haul so she couldn't be happier!

5 Months Old

Tess is 5 months old today! I can't believe how fast it goes. She can roll over from her belly but is still trying to roll from her back. She is still my happiest baby, I love it!

Wah Wah

I went to the urologist today and the good news is that they were able to completely get all the stones on my right side. The bad news is there is another stone in the left side that is 8mm. I have to get lithotripsy done again in a couple of weeks. I was so mad at the office I just kept giggling. The reception laughed and said well at least you're not crying.

My Big Boy

Ethan is so excited, he just lost his first tooth!! Porter and Bella are diligently wiggling all their teeth in hopes that they soon will have a loose tooth as well.

So I Might Be 13...

I am such a teenager nerd. I just finished "Breaking Dawn". I have had to neglect my husband and kids but it was well worth it. I haven't fed anybody all day, Johnny finally broke down and made himself some ramen noodles and gave the kids cereal. I've been so excited for the book to comeout and have been so nervous that book would be sold out by the time I got over to the store to purchase one. My neighbor came home from Costco yesterday and told me they had a bunch. I was feeding Joshua and Bella lunch and made them put it into baggies so we could hurry and get to the store and felt so anxious as I was running into Costco frantically searching the store to hurry and get my copy. So I felt a little stupid when I saw how many copies they had sitting there. So if any of you fellow nerds want to go out and talk about the book I'd be the first one in line to go!!

A Rough Week

So this has been an interesting last couple of days. I woke up Sunday morning to go put Tess back in her bed after I had nursed her around 5:30am and I noticed that my side was really sore. I just figured it was from yard work on Saturday and laid down not thinking to much about it. Then about a half an hour later I was up throwing up and the pain just started to get worse and worse. I woke Johnny up around 6:30 and asked for a blessing. I figured it was another kidney infection so I took a pain killer and my neighbor had some cranberry tablets that I thought would help. Well it did. I just laid around Sunday and as the day progressed I was feeling better.
The next morning I woke up and was still doing alright, I was so relieved thinking that the cranberry stuff had actually worked. Man was I wrong! The pain started back up and by 9:00am I was vomitting again and in much more pain then the day before. So I had Johnny take me to Urgent Care. He floated in and out of the office waiting for his mom to get there to get the kids and take them home. I was going crazy I was in so much pain and I just kept throwing up. I scared a little scout half to death that was there for a physical, his dad made the kid go out of the waiting area. So they get me back there and put an IV in my hand I was getting dehydrated, and then they stuck two shots in my arm. One was for pain and one was for nausea. I had a really bad reaction to one of them and started having a small seizure. Needless to say that scared the urgent care facility so he called an ambulance to take me to the hospital.
So they took me to Timpanogos ER to try to see what was going on. By then the pain medicine finally kicked in, yeah!! So they started testing my blood, urine, etc. They ruled out any infection quite quickly so they thought it might be kidney stones so they had me get a CT scan and sure enough I had kidney stones. Then they did another xray to get some pictures of them. I don't know if you're familiar with kidney stone sizes but they range from 1-6mm. The one that was stuck in my urinary tract was 7mm. They also found more in my kidney's. The largest one being 10mm. So the hospital sent me home with a lot of pain killers and told me to take it easy. Yesterday morning I met with the urologist to talk about my different options to get rid of them. Today I went in and got the blasting done. The good news is that they were able to get the 7mm one and the 10mm one. They tell me I'm going to be really sore and I have to be incredible careful. I can't really hold my kids or do much around the house. I'm feeling so much better and am just glad it's over. The stones were calcium build up and they think it's from having my babies so close and taking a lot of tums when I was pregnant.
I just want to thank everyone who helped with my kids and for bringing us dinners. And especially thank Johnny who has been unbelievable, taking care of the kids doing the dishes and picking up the house.

Rock Band Party

So my sister had a rock band party the other night and it was so much fun!! We all dressed up and we eached played the guitar to determine who would be on what team. Then we each played the same 5 songs to see who won. "Num Nuts" ended up winning "Wicked Pickle" I thought Johnny's spandex were awesome!

Then we rocked off girls against boys. The boys ended up winning but we think it's because they sang the song of satan.

Finally!!

It only took eight years but we finally got our first kitchen table with chairs!! We've had a different table for a while but our chairs were folding chairs; and they were cheap folding chairs so whenever little kids would play on them the chairs would collapse. So now we have a much safer home and you don't have fear for you or your children's life, so come on over!

Happy 4th of July

We went to Seaside, OR for the 4th of July. We took three days to get up there so we could take our time. Our first day we stopped at Twin Falls. These are the Shoshone Falls. They were really pretty.

We slept in Boise that night and then headed for Portland the next day. We were about an hour out of Portland and everybody was starving and I really didn't want to do fast food so I asked if we could go to a restraunt, bad idea. When you're out in the middle of no where don't stop at the restraunt it was way gross, but it did have pretty views of the Columbia River.

We slept in Portland that night and then the next day we went to the Children's Museum. It was so cute. The kids had a blast.

After the museum we drove to Seaside and got settled into the house. The next day we went to see some Lighthouses. We were trying to get a family picture but Bella was mad and she's a little to far right and didn't make the photo. Honestly would you have noticed we were missing a kid if I hadn't told you?

This is us at one of the lighthouses.

For all you Goonies fans, does this place look familiar??

There were lots of little rides around Joshua was way happy that I was putting him on this one. He cried until they started the ride and then he loved it and cried when he had to get off. Johnny and the big kids got to ride the tilt a whirl.

On the 4th some of our family rode horse back on the beach, since we weren't able to do that we rode in a carriage it was a lot of fun. The guy let Ethan ride up front with him he was super excited and he had his dinosaur help him. We had to stop the ride to pick the dinosaur back up after he'd tried to escape.

Our crazy kids in the very cold water.

So all the family stayed at Long Beach, WA for a huge firework show; but it just wasn't working for our little kids so we left early in the afternoon and went back to the house. This is our sad firework show. Then me and the big kids walked down to the beach to see the big fireworks

We had a lot of fun and decided to make the drive home in one day it was a long 14hrs but we did it! I think my kids might get brain damage from all the movies they watched on the drive but at least they weren't crying!!