Life on Purpose

Happy New Year?

2012-01-22T19:21:00.000-08:00

So sometimes we get our poem out on time. Sometimes we don't. We had this written by New Years, which isn't really on time, but better than say....the end of January! In any event....here's our "Christmas Card" for 2011...

An example and witness of Christ

2012-01-08T21:06:00.000-08:00

Last week was my cousin, Lauren's Missionary Homecoming talk. She had prepared her talk based on a quote from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Imagine her surprise when he walked in, 5 minutes before the meeting was supposed to start. I was out in the foyer with the baby and heard them announce Elder Holland, but I wasn't 100% sure I'd heard right until I made it in a few minutes later. During the meeting I watched him off and on and was so impressed by his example. He remained focused and intent. He didn't pan the crowd. He didn't flip through books or check notes. He watched the speakers. He listened to and cried during the musical number. As I watched him, I was reminded that perhaps I should do more as I saw him doing. And so I tried to do that. And it was amazing the spirit that I felt. I couldn't help but think over and over of that quote by Brigham Young that most of us live "far beneath our privileges" with respect to the Holy Ghost and his guiding power in our lives. I try to do the things I should, but even when I'm sitting in church like I'm supposed to, it's so easy to get caught up in things that don't matter. So I was grateful for simple example of one of the Lord's special witnesses to me.

After Sacrament meeting I asked Kelley if she'd like to go up and meet him. She and I went up and he talked to her so kindly for just a minute. I got to shake his hand also, which was cool and gave me something to Facebook about for the day ;). But really in all seriousness I am so grateful for living prophets and apostles on the earth today. I am grateful for their words and counsel from God. I am grateful that I have such easy access to it. One of my favorite "apps" on my iPhone is my Mormon Channel App. I can open it up and pull up several years worth of General Conferences. I've been systematically going through these and listening to the most recent, and then older General Conference talks every chance I get. I listen to them when I'm doing housework or cooking. As I listen to these I am changed. I am improved. It's interesting because lately I have been seeking help in some specific areas of my life and so I've been listening to more and more talks. And when I'm in the car I find I don't want to turn on music or NPR like I normally do. I want to either listen to more talks, or to nothing at all and leave room for the still small voice. For me, this symbolizes a change of heart. I'm becoming less concerned and content with the things of the world I hope and more concerned with seeking out the things of a better. And this change makes me hopeful and happy.

Living Life on Purpose

2011-12-30T07:06:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here at 8 AM. I've been up for a while. Baby TJ was awake early. He didn't sleep very well last night. The AMAZING thing is that my house is actually still quiet. Almost always all kids are up and things are bustling by now. And I'm relishing just a little this few minutes of quiet time I have to myself. So I'm blogging. I know. It's been a while.

I've been thinking a lot lately about living life on purpose. I follow Money Saving Mom's blog and she did a post this week on how she sets her yearly goals. One thing that stuck with me is that in order to lead the life you want, it has to be intentional. On purpose. I know that might sound silly, of course we lead life on purpose. But do we? Do I? Sometimes, but all too often I think I just get caught in the current of whatever tide or wave is washing through my life and home at the moment. As I'm sure you all well know, there's always a crisis or life is always a mess. There's always something urgent to take us away from the long term goals and priorities.

I want to lead life on purpose. I have a lot left to do in the time I have left, however long that may be. But if I continue to live day to day without a written, well thought out plan, it's hard to say if I will accomplish the things I really want to. So I've started on my list of priorities. And even though it's cliche, I'm going to write down my goals for the year. And we'll see how it goes. Read on quote on Pinterest this morning: I would rather live a life full of "oh-wells" than "what ifs". Even though it's lofty, I might as well try right? Shoot for the stars :)

How did I EVER have time to post as much as I did?

2011-08-13T20:52:00.003-07:00

That's all for now. Back to my Workman's Comp Audit. Bet ya all are jealous.

Oh, it's time for an update isn't it :S

2011-06-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

I shall title this one the "Kid/Family Version". Might get to posting some info about the new house, since we've been here for a good 8 months, but that will be a different post. I HAVE actually updated the daycare blog if you have any interest in the goings on there...

Alrighty...on to the monster task of filling you all in on our fabulous lives. And they are fabulous! Life is always busy and stressful. There's never enough time or money, but I have moment after moment where I just fall in love with life over and over again. We are really happy with where we are at right now.

This was taken at our latest Anderson Family Reunion over Memorial Day Weekend. We got some more family pictures of the whole clan and maybe will post those another time, but this is one of my favorite shots we've captured in a while. Not sure why I love it so much, but there ya go!

Joey and I met ten years ago last month. Our 10th anniversary is coming up in September. Oh we had big plans for a cruise, or all inclusive resort or something, but then there was the money issue (we had the unexpected opportunity come up with the house :), and I wasn't super excited about hanging out on a beach at 6 plus months pregnant. So the big trip went by the wayside for now. BUT, we did have a little hotel stay we had purchased last year to Vegas. So we took our trip early and spent a few days in the "big city". This shot was taken at Red Rock National Conservation Area. We went biking there, spent some time window shopping, went disc golfing and slept a lot more than we normally are allowed too! It was nice to get away.
The above photo was also taken with my Instagram App on my iPhone. If you are a friend on facebook, you'll know I'm only a little obsessed with it. "Fun and Quirky" I think is the description in the app store...

Also this month was Joe's 35th birthday. We had a get together with all the family that is here in town. It's really fun to have everyone so close.

Another shot from our Vegas trip. He was really excited about our trip to Hot Dog on a Stick. Sometimes I wonder where Tyler gets his goofiness from....but I don't have to look far for the answer. :D
OK, so Maren is now 18 months old. I think I blogged that she finally started walking between 15 and 16 months I think. She is still a super cute sweetie. She talks like crazy and will repeat almost anything you say. She loves to go outside (oust or owside), spend time with Kelsha (shasha), eat snacks (cra cra), look at pictures of family (bampa and Ty-Ty are her favorites), see the kitty (di de), and play with/love/smother babies (real or dollies). She is kind of obsessed with good hygiene: she loves to wash her hands, take baths (3 times a day if we would let her), brush her teeth, and throw her diaper in the "shrash". She is also very good about closing the closet doors when she gets something out. She is very hard to say no to a lot of the time because she is so dang sweet about asking for stuff. Although when she doesn't get her way she has this scream that has been labeled "the pterodactyl". She still does sign quite a bit. And she's in nursery now....wahoo!
Maren also has a little sweet tooth. But she is the only baby I know that will eat hummus by the bowlful and asks for more salad at dinner. Go figure. She also has some of the funniest facial expressions. This is kind of a glimpse of the mischievous face. You know...the one that says "I'm makin a mess and I know it and I like it....he he he...."
Alright, on to Kells Bells....Tyler calls her Kell more than anything else, which I think is cute. She will be going into 3rd grade this fall. She loved 2nd grade and made a LOT of progress throughout the year, especially on her reading. She really enjoys reading to her little brother and sometimes we have to get after her when she does it after we've sent her to bed ;) She likes computer games and has found some friends across the street that she can't hardly pull herself away from lately. She is so much fun to talk to and spend time with. She is still a great little helper and listens well most of the time. She is attending the Shakepeare Festival Playmakers camp next week and I think will do great! She has a little bit of a "flair for the dramatic" and I think could really have fun with this type of thing.
Tyler is still Tyler. He goes goes goes all the time. Occasionally if he we can get him to relax this happens:
I have another picture of him sitting behind Kelley in the same chair. He had sat down to watch her play computer games, but it was just all too much. Oh and funny story about those jeans. I got them out for some family pictures. All of his other jeans are really faded and have holes in the knees. He was quite skeptical when I showed them to him, saying they were "girl pants". I had to convince him they weren't because they didn't have any hearts on the pockets....

Tyler graduated preschool in April and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. He is really excited. I hope he likes it. He really liked preschool, but would throw a fit a lot of the time because he didn't like "circle time". I don't know if he realizes that they have circle time in Kindergarten too. Not sure if I should break it to him ahead of time or not....

He loves to ride his bike and LOVES to play with friends. He is working so hard on appropriate expressing his feelings and will tell me sometimes things like "I'm just frustrated mom. Frustrated isn't mad. I still love you even when I'm frustrated or mad."
Definetly all boy....The above picture was taken at our family reunion. We found a point in the road where it was more like a lake and so let the kiddos get out and play. They had a blast and of course it was Tyler's idea to do "mud angels"
Another picture of Tyler and Kelley with their cousin at the dunes west of Fillmore.

OK so have you all heard of "Wordless Wednesday"? There's a lot of bloggers out there that do it. I don't really, but it's kind of fun. I thought that this series of pictures might be appropriate for such a thing, except that the conversations that were going along with them was too funny not to share. You'll note my use of the Instagram App again....they have all sorts of finishes you can use with the photos, which is why they all look different....

At daddy's softball game: "Let's cheer for daddy: say 'Go, Daddy, Go!'"
"Hopefully he can hear us".... he's clear out in the outfield here....

"OK, get off, I have to pull up my pants!" And we'll leave it at that for now :)

I hate it when they leave ya hanging....

2011-05-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

I have a friend on my blog roll that is making a big life change and announced it, but not the reason and I'm intrigued. She did promise the reasons would be coming soon. But they haven't. And for some reason I am so curious and I wish she'd blog about it more. But I can't blame her. Maybe no one cares, but I bet there's one or two of ya who have been hoping to see some pics of the new digs, or know how the pregnancy is going, or get an update on any one of my adorable kids. Perhaps you just can't get enough of my fabulous wit or writing...ha ha!

I wish I could make myself blog more. But I am SO behind. My house is in constant chaos. I am always putting out fires and never getting anything on my to do list done. Even though some of those things are really important. I get to this point in the day and I usually don't have dinner done (um...yeah...), I have no energy to do anything and still a million things to do. But despite that my life is really great. When I fall into bed every night I am grateful for my blessings, immensely so. And then I pray to find some balance.

Not much of an update I know. {{{{Sigh}}}}}

Why does it smell like the Turkey is still in the Oven?

2011-04-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

So when I was a kid we used to have fire drills all the time. We'd get everyone together, all go out to the mailbox, talk about what we would do in the middle of the night, etc. etc. So when I was in 6th or 7th grade we had a little incident. My mom would put turkey bones on to boil after we had a turkey to make soup with. Well this particular time she forgot about the turkey bones and just went to bed. I remember waking up in the middle of the night because the fire alarm was going off and something was STINKY! I went into the kitchen and there were the turkey bones...flaming on the stove. So what do I do? I turned off the oven, went downstairs to the family room and went back to sleep with a pillow over my head so I couldn't hear the alarm or smell the smoke. Brilliant I know.

My mom got up later and couldn't figure out why the turkey was black, but still sparking, the oven was off and I wasn't in my bed.

Anyway, I've always caught a lot of flack for that. Well, last night we had a turkey dinner. I put the bones on to boil after we carved the turkey so we could make soup. We had friends over and of course the story was retold again. Funny funny. We cleaned up, they left and I was exhausted. Off to bed with me before 10 pm. I woke up a little after 1 am as usual. (Being pregnant I can't sleep more than 3 or 4 hours at a time right now. Blah.) Anyway, I got up, went to the bathroom and tried to go back to sleep. But Joey was snoring and the house still really smelled like turkey. I don't love sleeping with food smell in the first place, but it's way worse when I'm pregnant. I couldn't figure out why it smelled like we were still cooking when we'd pulled it out of the oven 9 hours earlier. Maybe 45 minutes later I finally decided I was going to try the couch. I walked out, peeked in the kitchen and a lightbulb went off. I had almost burned down the house with the turkey bones. There was still water it in, but barely!

I couldn't help but laugh at the irony. At least I'm pretty confident now that I wouldn't have taken more precautions than simply turning off the oven.

It was a very BIG year...

2011-03-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

2001 was a very big year for me. I started out as a Senior at SUU. I had great roommates and had finally decided on a major. I got my heart really broken for the first time. I graduated with Honors from SUU in Psychology. I met a really cute guy that drove a 99 Mustang and liked to waterski. I had a fabulously fun summer dating and falling in love. I got engaged and then married. September 11 happened 10 days before our wedding, but it still went off without a hitch. I worked three jobs putting my darling new husband through school. And I spent New Years Eve on Maui. It was the first time I actually had someone to give me a New Year's Eve kiss and we fell asleep early. Ha ha!

And the last ten years have flown by. We've moved to SLC, Logan and back to Cedar City. I worked for the Child and Family Services, Adrianna's, Applebee's and started my own business. Joey sold the mustang and graduated from USU. We went through a Mazda 626, a Jeep Grand Cherokee and now we own a really cool MiniVan and a beat up Prism. We've had three darling babies. We bought and sold our first house and bought another one.

And now it's 2011. I haven't even really blogged this year. Not because our lives haven't been interesting. They HAVE! Things are going fabulously!!! I think I haven't wanted to jinx it. But I do love blogging and having someplace to document our crazy little lives. 2011 is shaping up to be better than any before. We started it in a NEW HOME! We made kind of a crazy bet when we moved in 5 months ago. It was a short sale and so we put in an offer and rented it on hopes it would actually go through. We closed on it last week and are now the proud owners of TWO mortgages! Don't tell the kids, but we are planning a big Disneyland trip to celebrate. Unfortunately the big anniversary trip is not going to happen this year :( Not enough time and funds. But even so, we'll celebrate 10 fabulous years together in September. Baby number four will make his/her appearance about the same time. And after that....who knows! Our lives will probably be too insane at that point to count on anything!

Smoothie Face

2011-02-22T19:56:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure how else to add :)

Giveaway

2011-01-17T22:51:00.000-08:00

Did I tell you I tend to get obsessive about things and then fizzle out? It's not that I don't WANT to blog, I do, but other things are just more important...or pressing anyway. (((Sigh)))

In any event, my friend Brooke at All Things Thrifty is doing a giveaway...a Silhouette Machine! Go check it out...

Christmas Poem 2010

2010-12-24T10:20:00.000-08:00

Well another decade is behind us now
And time flies faster every year somehow
It seems that when we get a handle on things
We stir up the pot and with that brings
Plenty of challenges and opportunities through the years
But we wouldn’t have it any other way, so here’s
To the next decade and though it will appear a mess
May it bring more joy, inspiration and a lot less stress.

Our jobs are the same, Joey is still at SUU
And Kristy with her day care, always has much to do

We added to our family, with a puppy in the spring,
At 10 months old we wonder if she will ever stop growing!
Kala’s a yellow lab, which gives us three pets in the home,
Every time we get one, Kristy rolls her eyes and groans.

Maren our youngest is growing and she is learning fast.
She is a momma’s girl, I wonder how long that will last.

Tyler has just turned 5 and he says he is a big boy now,
Just got to figure a way to get him out of our bed somehow.

Kelley is half way through second grade and doing lots of things,
She has tried piano, soccer, ballet, and she even sings!

Well once again we wish you all well,
Hope everything is going swell.

From our family in southern Utah where the rocks are always red,
To where ever your family may call home and rest your weary head,
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We hope magic filled your home and you could spread a little Cheer.

Love,

The DeGraafs

Lately

2010-12-18T21:50:00.000-08:00

Family Pictures, taken in June 2010. We're blowing this one up to put above the fireplace.

Lately...

I've been very busy. Like normal. I've been often overwhelmed. Like normal. But I have felt so blessed. :) We've moved into this house and we love it. It feels so much like home it's crazy. Prospects are looking very good. But we're waiting patiently to see how it will all work out eventually.

I'm so excited for Christmas. Kind of getting close to being ready. But it's less than a week away and I'm probably less ready than I think I am...oh my!

I've been spending less time on the computer, most days. I obviously have not been blogging much, unfortunately. I like blogging a lot. I like hearing comments from people and catching up on your lives through your blogs. I really like having some type of record written down. My blog has taken a lot of the place of a personal journal and scrapbook. But alas, it's just been one of those things I've had to let slide. Anyway, here's a quick recap of the last little bit.

Tyler's taken to taking pictures of anything everything...including himself and his goofy faces. I have about a million more of these pics sitting on my computer. He's especially fond of taking pictures of his eye up close. Go figure.

He's also taken to putting stickers on everything but paper. And writing with markers on everything buy paper. It's a rather frustrating habit that I'm not quite sure how to address. I know he's thinking about it before he does it because he always puts in in places I won't see immediately....like on the couch BEHIND where the pillow sits. Or on the side of the table, under the top lip. What's the worst part of it is that he's taken to permanent markers. Barring anything that will get me throw in jail for abuse...I'm open to your suggestions.

Taken during one of his daily fits. He can be one grumpy boy sometimes!

Speaking of my little sunshine...he turned 5 in November. He was super excited and had a big pizza party with all his friends. I tried to make a "pizza cake" putting frosting all over a big cookie and decorating it with toppings. But unfortunately when you mix red dye with white frosting it just turns pink. He didn't care.

Maren turned 1 on the 14th. She is crawling everywhere. Her favorite is to go up and down the stairs and it's really funny to watch her do her three point turn to get turned backwards so she can go down. She's not really close to walking, but will finally take steps when we stand her up and help her, which is a big improvement. She continues to sign and is really verbal, probably more so than even Kelley was.

She's a ham and loves the camera. She will say "cheese" and give you a big old grin as long as she gets a peek at the picture afterward.

Kelley was in a Christmas Carol through the Shakespeare Festival's Playmakers program. She was just a little choir girl, but it was a fabulous experience for her. She got to work with an excellent group of directors, stage managers and musicians. I think it really helped her singing and she of course had a fabulous time! They are doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the Spring and we are all really excited. She will probably just be in the choir again, but it's better for us that way anyway. It's a lot cheaper and not as time intensive.

Oh, so this picture is funny to me. She poses for pictures while she's on stage and supposed to be performing. We have to work on that still I guess!

Joey and I are doing well. We're busy all the time. But we're happy. We've got great kids and life is kind to us at the moment. If I'm lucky we'll get a Christmas Poem written and posted before the end of the year and I'll actually have two blog posts this month. Here's hoping!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-21T22:04:00.001-08:00

I already posted these on Facebook, but since one day I hope to make a scrapbook of sorts out of my blog...I will post them here. Halloween turned out to be really fun. Normally it is a really big deal at our house. Our porch is decked out. We have all sorts of decorations for the house. And our costumes are REALLY cool and often coordinate with each other. But this year we were moving and doing flooring and just trying to stay sane. And so our idea to do a whole band of characters from Stars Wars went by the wayside, again. But I had seen a video on A Thrifty Mom about doing quick Tutus. My mom had a bunch of this material from Kember's dancing days and so we whipped two of these puppies out in less than an hour! And with a few accessories from our Halloween box we ended up with:

"The Best Halloween Costume I've ever had!" According to Kelley. She was a Ballerina/Witch thing. And Maren was her cute little twinner, although I'm sad to say we didn't really ever get a good picture of the baby's costume. But you can only do so much I suppose.

Tyler was a Dead Green Bat. And we had a lot of fun. We went around the neighborhood with cousins from both sides of the family, had dinner with grandma and grandpa, and had a great time, without a whole lot of fuss. It was a nice low key night.

Also, throwing this one in here because I thought it was really cool. Yes, that is real chain mail. My brother made it. It has taken him 4 years (I think) and it weighed either 45 or 70 pounds. Can't remember which off the top of my head.

Why I have not been blogging

2010-11-21T21:46:00.001-08:00

Because we have been busy transforming this:

Into this:

And moving everything to a great new place that I still don't have good pictures of because my camera was lost in a box somewhere in plain sight. Now I have finally found the said camera, but the camera battery charger is now lost, probably in the ginormous mess that is our office. But now our old house is FINALLY ready to be rented out and we've already made a lot of progress putting away boxes and cleaning up the new house. And we love it and want to stay here forever! (Working on that right now...)

Oh, and please don't judge me because of the top picture. It really didn't look that way when we actually were living there or had kids there. Well most of the time...ha ha! That picture was taken in the middle of the weekend where we turned everything upside down so we could start putting in the floors. But can I tell you that's what I have felt my life has been like for the past 2 months since we started this process! A giant explosion, but in a good way...kind of like the big bang that started something amazing. I know we'll get there....if we survive in the meantime ;)

Squash as big as young children

2010-11-21T21:36:00.000-08:00

This summer I seriously neglected blogging about my garden progress. Which is too bad, because it was a lot of fun this year. And who knows if I will actually HAVE a garden next year. We're still not sure what our situation will be in the spring/summer.

But in my garden this year I had a plant start coming up on it's own, presumably from my compost I had used to fertilize. I let it grow. And it grew at least four or five of the biggest butternut squashes I have ever seen in my life. Have you ever seen butternuts this big?

...Beep

2010-11-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry, Kristy is really busy trying to set up her daycare and fix up her old house as a rental. When her life gets normal again she will post something.

....beep.

Scrumming...

2010-10-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

I took the kids into get flu shots today. Didn't tell Tyler before hand what we were doing, but he didn't flip out. I got mine first and then Kelley and then Tyler. I had told them, as is par for the shot course, that they could have ice cream if they were brave. Neither one of them let out a peep at all. Later Tyler was telling me about it and he told me "I scrummed a little in my head, but it didn't come out". It took me a minute before I realized he was trying to put the word scream in past tense. I've been laughing about it all night.

Wow

2010-10-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

OK, so it's been forever. The reason? For those of you haven't heard, we've moved. We moved to a beautiful house three miles from our old house. Oh, and it's almost three times the size...woot hoo! It is still in our ward and it is PERFECT in every other way, well perfect for us. It is "lived in" and has a few issues, but we still LOVE it! Unfortunately we are just renting it for now. We have put in an offer and are waiting to hear back from the bank. It is a short sale, so it will probably still be a while. We are hoping it's a while anyway. We have to wait at least until our 2010 taxes are done so we can show we make enough money at the home business. We're also trying to tuck away every penny we can. Because even though we've been talking about doing something like this for years, we just barely started saving for it...ha ha! But it's been a really neat experience for us. Joey and I both have felt strongly this is the thing for us to do. We're not sure how it will work out, just that it will work out for our good somehow. And that's all we need to know.

Everyone keeps asking us what we are doing with our old house. We do "own" it. (And by own I mean we owe more to the bank than it's worth...by a long shot! Ha ha!) Anyway, we'll be renting it out. We actually have a family member moving in November or December. So we've been able to take our time moving out. Which is mostly a good thing. Both houses have so much to do and so much goes undone. We are also in the process of moving my child care license. Can I tell you it's a PAIN in the butt? When I say process, I mean it's a long process. But that's all the complaining I'll do here. At this point, I'm hopeful my new license will be in place by the time my old license expires in November. And then the FUN begins here. I'm so excited about having space dedicated just to the daycare. One of these days I'll post pictures and give you the visual tour. Maybe. But probably not until my life slows down. So maybe never. Or if you live close come by and I'll give you the real tour!

Maren's 10 months old now. She can sign milk (that's her favorite), more and all done. She says mama, kitty, ty ty, kelsha, daddy and hi. She loves to dance and she can wash her hands. It's just about the cutest thing you've seen. She's seen the daycare kids do it so much she knows just what to do. Oh and I almost forgot. She can do peekabo. It started as the one handed type, but now she'll cover her face with both her tiny hands when you ask "where's maren?" Then she moves her hands and says "de da do!" It's adorable.

Tyler is loving preschool. It seems to be helping his behavior. But there are still many days when I just want to lock him in a closet....the one in the downstairs basement so I won't be able to hear him yelling at me. On the other hand he's also very free to tell me I'm the best mom ever and he loves me so much when he's getting something he wants. It's a learning process for both of us every day. I think we'll both survive.

Kelley loves school and can't seem to live without her friends. I am not kidding when I say the instant that her little friends leave and daycare is over, she's begging to go play or invite someone over. It just about kills her when kids her age don't come at all to daycare. She lives a deprived life. Latest news...she will be singing in the Christmas Choir for the Shakespearean Festival Playmakers version of the Christmas Carol. It's a much less expensive way to let her be involved in the arts than they ballet we did last year. Don't get me wrong, the ballet was awesome and if it weren't for this house, we'd probably let her do it again, but this is better for now. Besides, I think she'll really enjoy this also.

In any event, I promised Joe I'd finally try to get my clothes put away. They've been sitting in laundry baskets and open dresser drawers in our room since we moved in three weeks ago. With that...good night!

Kelley the Lionhearted

2010-10-01T03:52:00.001-07:00

I have a darling girl at my house. Her name is Kelley and she is a sweetheart. She has always been a lovey girl. Maybe it's that she's now 7 and entering the "drama" phase, but sometimes she's more kindhearted and thoughtful than words can describe. She is always careful to think about how others feel and reminding me to be more loving and gentle. She truly is an example to me and I am grateful every day to have her in my life.

Two years ago, when she was still toothless in front, she donated her hair after I cut mine. We talked about how it would help women with cancer.

Since then she's talked about doing it again, because of her librarian who has cancer. She hasn't done it yet, I think she's fallen in love with her long hair and decided it's worth fixing every day.

Kelley is 08 with short hair, no teeth and a mouthful of food...ha ha!
So last week we were driving home from somewhere with her cousin and she bursts out into tears. Her librarian was apparently leaving the very next day and they might not ever see her again. She had to go home and get cancer treatments. She was truly upset. I suggested she write her a note to tell her how much she's enjoyed knowing her and this is what she came up with:

Yeah, I know it's sideways. Tried to fix that, didn't work. But here's what it said "I am sorry that yor sick. I am really sad that you have to go away. I love that you add so much detail to the stories you read to us and you've been so kind to us and our teacher. But I ges it's betr if you stay at hom. I'll mis you so muche.

PS Please visit back. Kelley"

Then she wrote this "You whll find a ltl somtheing on the back"

She also recently got some bath crayons from her auntie. This was her creation using said crayons:
It says: Kelley Tyler {heart} Mommy and Kelsha. Ilastrated by Kelley.

I {heart} you too dolly!!!!!

9 months old

2010-09-29T22:45:00.000-07:00

Maren had her check up last week. She is 28 inches long and 17 pounds, 11 ounces. That puts her in the 27th percentile for weight and 67th for height. That is about where's she's been for a while. Looks like she might be tall! She is such a joy! Did I mention she's crawling everywhere? She's finally starting to practice standing more. And she is a talker. Today she said Kitty. OK, so it was Didi...but I was not the only one to hear it. This morning I brought her in the living room while a mom was dropping her kids off. Maren saw Princess and said "didi". Before I said anything Breanne said "she just said kitty!" And she's been saying it all day long, very excitedly when she sees the cat. Even though she's number 3 I am STILL blown away by how smart they seem even when they are so little. That happens all the time with the daycare kiddos too. Finally can I just say that this little outfit I have her in here is one of my favorites and has been since I got it with Kelley....

Maren like Chocolate

2010-09-18T22:41:00.001-07:00

This was a few weeks ago. Maren was just starting to be more mobile. Kelley had a chocolate cupcake after her soccer game, then we headed over to Tyler's game. She gave me the wrapper, which I just set on the ground next to me. Not thinking I set Maren down in the same general area. I looked over a few minutes later to find her devouring the cupcake wrapper. A girl after my own heart...

Do they really think we are that stupid?

2010-09-14T15:56:00.001-07:00

Of I guess the scarier question is are we, as a society, really that stupid?

So I heard on the radio today that the Corn Growers of America (or something like that) want to change the name of High Fructose Corn Syrup to Corn Sugar. Apparently, since everyone found out that HFCS is really bad for you and is a major contributor to obesity, consumption of the stuff has plummeted. So they want to change the name. Really? Because do they really think that people will start looking at the labels and thinking "Oh....this only has Corn Sugar in it....well that's not as bad...." The sad thing is that I can see people, who are probably most likely to be consuming a lot of the stuff in the first place being the most susceptible. I believe there's a lot of research that says that people with lower incomes and in lower socio-economic classes tend to have poorer nutrition. Because the truth is when you can buy a can of Hunts Spaghetti Sauce for 75 cents, why in the world would you buy or grow your own tomatoes and make it yourself. And Hunts Spaghetti Sauce has...you guessed it...High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Another thing that made me laugh this week came off of the Apple Jacks box. OK, so I don't normally buy a lot of sugared cereal. But there was a big sale a few weeks ago and my kids love the stuff. So I buy it occasionally and call it Saturday Cereal...they can only have it on the weekends. In any event on the side of the current Apple Jacks is this quote "Family Life is Better when your kids are Healthy!"

Do you know what the first ingredient in AJ is? I'll give you a hint. It start with Shh and ends with -ugar. Yeah, that's before any of the flour ingredients. Ha ha! Anyway, the quote was referring to the benefits of Fiber. Then they have this quote on the bottom "Now Kellogg provides fiber to the great-tasting cereals your kids love!" That sentence doesn't even make sense. I can see what they are trying to say, but the way they said it doesn't sound right.

And I'm going to leave it at that. My kids are currently debating who pushed whom and who was putting sand in whom's pan...and it's dinner time. So the only question left is can I, with all my smartness and wisdom come up with something edible and healthy to put on the dinner table tonight? Or will I simply resort to the Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce I got for 75 cents a can on case lot sale last week. Hmm....

How I'm doing....

2010-09-10T20:38:00.000-07:00

So I had my knee scoped on Wednesday. The nurses said that they just cleaned it out, instead of the more extensive surgery. So that's good. It's less recovery time. But on my paperwork it also says they did a Chondroplasty....which might complicate things a bit. From what I can find on the internet that's a procedure they do to resurface a damaged joint. When I went for the initial consult they said that could mean 6-8 weeks on crutches. But I never did get to talk to the doctor after the surgery. I tried to call him and the nurse told me that I could talk to him more at my follow up visit in a few weeks. I pitched a small fit and she talked to him and called me back. She said he said it was just the clean out. So I guess we'll have to "wait and see", which is totally annoying, but what can you do?

Anyway, people keep asking how I'm feeling. I'm doing good, I suppose. The first day was great. I walked out of the hospital on crutches and hobbled around the house quite a bit without them. Yesterday I was up quite a bit in the morning and feeling pretty good. I decided to take it easy that afternoon though and elevated my leg again. About 3 pm my leg (not my knee ironically) started to ache. It was like when you were little and got leg aches or growing pains. But I'm telling you it was INTENSE. It was almost as bad as labor. I took a lortab and then an hour later took 800 mg of Ibruprofen. 30 or 40 minutes later it finally went away, but kept coming back all evening. Joey and a friend gave me a blessing, but I was really concerned I wouldn't be able to sleep. Somehow I finally figured out that when it started to ache I just needed to stand up and the pain went away. Odd eh? In any event I started alternating the Lortab and Ibuprofen in earnest. I was able to sleep all right, but today has been crazy. I got up this morning to help with the daycare for a minute because Joe had to run in for work for an hour. I know, I'm a nut. People keep telling me to milk it for all it's worth, but that is not all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes it's easier to just do it yourself. Everyone has been great, but it's hard not to feel like a nag constantly asking for things and reminding when someone gets sidetracked. But at least I have people here to help. I am luckier than some I know.

Anyway, by the time Joey got back this morning I felt like I'd been hammered in the head and went back to bed. Every time I would try to get back up I would get nauseous again. So I ended up sleeping most of the day. I haven't taken any more lortab since earlier this afternoon (that's what's making me sick...) so I haven't really been sick to my stomach so much. I was at least able to get up and eat dinner with the family, but I still have a lingering drug head feeling. You know that one where it feels like your brain is just sloshing back and forth, kind of like a bobble head? Can you tell how much I like heavy drugs? Yeah....not so much. I hate how they stick with you long after they've "worn off".

In addition to the floating brain syndrome my leg is getting pretty stiff and sore. A lot of it feels bruised and sore. Not so much at the surgery site, although that I'm sure will get worse, but they have me wearing this TED hose. It's a really tight sock that goes all the way up to my thigh. It's supposed to prevent blood clots and pneumonia. But it hurts, especially at the ends of the bandages where it digs them into my skin. I have it off for a little bit, but will have to put it back on before I go to sleep.

And can I just say crutches hurt? My underarms and rib cages are just super tender. But I guess they will toughen up...I hope!

The upsides:

*I can sleep whenever I want without any excuses.

*I got a really cool ice machine from the hospital that I get to keep

*Joey gets a glimpse at what my life is really like

*I don't have to do laundry or dishes constantly

*I've had to wear nothing but my really comfy clothes for the past three days because nothing else fits over the bandage.

*I have a really good excuse as to why I haven't put on make up or fixed my hair

*Did I mention I can sleep whenever I want?

Oh, and I get to take this huge bandage off and take a real shower tomorrow. Wahoo!

And then she was crawling...

2010-08-31T13:07:00.000-07:00

Mommy documentation time! Maren's 8 1/2 months old and started crawling everywhere within the last week. What's funny is I feel like I have been way more laid back with her and happy to just let her reach her milestones on her own, but she is crawling sooner than either of my other two kids. Kelley was 10 months old and Tyler was 9 months old. I don't think she'll walk for a while though. She doesn't have a whole lot of interest in standing at this point. My other kids loved to stand up on your lap and were all over by the couches and other things at this age, but until very recently she really wouldn't let you just stand her up and play with her. She tries to just sit back down. Now that she's a little more mobile I think she's starting to see how standing might be more beneficial for her and has started to do it a little more.

She really does love books. She gets really excited when you pull one out to read with her. She also can say mama, dada and hi. I think mama and hi she says with intent and understanding. I think she's still in the process of connecting "dad" with Dad. Oh and she can sign "more".

I have to pick a new pediatrician and am not happy about it. Ours moved away. I am trying to decide between staying with the current practice he was with or moving to a family practice doctor I've been seeing. It's to the point now I have to schedule her 9 month exam. (((Sigh))). I hate making decisions. I mostly want a doctor that cares and will listen to me. I want someone who is more interested in helping my kids be healthy verses just treating the symptoms. But I don't have time to think about it and where can you actually find that information anyway? Most parents are happy with who they have, but for no particular reason.

Anyway, back to Maren....

I love this picture because you can kind of see the scrunchy thing she does with her nose. She does it all the time, and can show you different expressions by varying details slightly. She does it when she's really happy or excited, but also when she wants something or if she's about to cry. She scrunches up her nose and then breathes in and out of her nose really fast. It's hard to describe. I know it sounds like I'm talking about a bull or something, but for some reason it still melts my heart every time!

You should have seen the looks on people's faces...

2010-08-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

For the 24th of July our ward did a float in the Cedar City Parade. Maren and I rode on the float and the rest of the family helped pass out candy. It was really funny to be in the float and watch people as they tried to read and process our sign which reads: A New Pioneer Face Born Every 8.8 Days, Cross Hollow Ward doing their part to populate Cedar City.

Hard to believe...yes. But the week Maren was born, four other women in our ward also had their babies. That happened again less than 6 months later (five babies born in one week). So when you add all the others in between...that equals a lot of babies. We have 3 nurseries and 3 sunbeam classes. I think the number was close to 200 kids under the age of 12 in our ward at last count. Welcome to Utah. However in all the wards I've lived in here, I don't think one has equaled the craziness that is our birth rate. Maybe we should adopt a rabbit as a mascot....

Family Pics

2010-08-23T22:35:00.001-07:00

So we got family pics done a while ago. But of course we bought the CD and so haven't done anything with them since then. We are busy like that. Here's a sneak peak. I'm really happy with the pics we got, but it might be a while until our favorites make it off the computer and onto our walls, or even our blog. So here's one for the moment...

I'm a triathlete and I have an injury to prove it!

2010-08-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

So this is a little late. It's been over two months since Joey and I swam/biked/ran the Utah Summer Games Triathlon. But I'm here to say now I finished... and I wasn't last. Those were basically my only two goals. However I guess I thought I might be somewhere in the middle of the bottom half. I've gotta set my sights higher next time. I wasn't last...but only barely ahead of the 72 year old woman that was! Kidding...there was also a 50 year old behind me too. (((Sigh))) Oh well. I did have big plans to do another one in the fall and improve on my times. I had all sorts of plans in place. I was going to do the Cedar City Relay race that is coming up this weekend with a group of 5 girls from my ward. Then in September Cedar City is hosting a 1/2 marathon and I was going to do that. I even had a 12 week training plan. I was going to become a runner over the summer. I was so excited. Not that I really love running, because I don't. But I love the idea of being an athlete and being in better health. The week after the race I even jumped right back in at the gym.

But my knee wouldn't stop hurting. So I decided to give it a rest at the gym. And it still didn't stop hurting. After a few weeks I went to the doctor. He told me that I might have a small tear, but that the main problem was likely patellar femoral syndrome. So he sent me to physical therapy to learn exercises to improve my knee functioning and told me to come back in four weeks if it didn't stop hurting. Of course I put off going to PT for a few weeks because I'm so dang busy and it's expensive. Even with insurance it costs me $25 a pop. So I was hoping it would just go away. Well it didn't and I finally broke down and went to physical therapy. Two weeks and $150 later and my knee was worse than ever. The doc agreed to send me over for an MRI.

And not only do I have a torn meniscus (cartilage in the outside part of the knee), but I also have damage to the joint - which the surgeon informed me is a type of arthritis and that my knee will probably always bother me. Fabulous. So anyway, now I get knee surgery. Depending on what they find when they get in there the recovery will be 2 - 4 weeks or 4 - 6 weeks. But they won't know which until the actual surgery. Most like it will be the shorter recovery...here's hoping!

So surgery was scheduled for this week, but Joey's really busy at work. So it's set for the 8th and he should be able to take at least a few days off then. In the meantime I will survive. It really stinks. It hurts to bend down. I can't put any pressure on that leg to stand up (so my left leg is getting really strong ;). I can't plant my foot and turn. I can't run, I can't play soccer with my kids. When I sit or bend my leg for more than a minute it gets all stiff and painful when I do stand up. The worst pain has come when the dog has pushed up against the side of my leg. But I can walk without pain and so that's a blessing.

As a side note (and back to the point) I'm including the nitty gritty details of the race. For posterity sake. You really don't have to look at them. It's kind of embarrassing. But here it is anyway.

Joey and I did the Sprint length. It was a 1/2 mile swim in open water at Sand Hollow, a 14 mile bike and a 5K run. Going into it I was pretty confident I could complete all that in 2 hours. I did that length of swim earlier in the week in 30 minutes at the pool, the bike would probably take me 40 minutes or so and I could do the run in 30 minutes. Two hours still left me time for transitions and such. And I did better than I thought I would last year when we did the "mini" one at SUU, completing a 3 mile run and 12 mile bike (or was it 10?) in under 30 minutes each. My swim was slow, but I've improved a bit so I figured my expectations were realistic. I did it in 2 hours and 22 minutes. Joe did his in 1 hour and 54 minutes. Just for the record, it was a lot harder than the mini one at SUU, even though it wasn't THAT much longer. SUU's was a 3 mile run, 10 mile bike and 1/4 mile swim. I did that one in an hour and 15 minutes. But the bright side is if I ever get my knee working right again there is a TON of room for improvement...ha ha!

Copy Cat Explanation

2010-08-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

Kristy and I were early to Cats at the TUACAHN so we sat on the lawn and chit chatted while we were waiting. I noticed this guy who was sitting with his leg and posing for a picture. I thought it would be kind of funny to copy him. What do you do when you are bored?

Copy Cat

2010-08-15T14:35:00.001-07:00

Anderson Family Reunion 2010

2010-07-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

We had great family reunions growing up. I remember other kids hating their reunions. I always loved ours. They were huge....all of my grandpas siblings, their kids and all the grandkids (that was us). We traveled all over the western US - Yellowstone, Lake Powell, Lake Tahoe, Bryce Canyon and occasionally back to Oak City for Oak City Days. We always camped. Every year was a different place but there were traditions that remained in place: the talent show with yearly renditions of Rindercella and the Dead Kitties Song. The All Night game of Rook. The Sawdust Pool. White Elephant Gift Exchange.

They went strong for a good 20 maybe even 25 years. Then my Great Grandma Macel Anderson finally passed away several years ago when she was almost 100 years old. And the family reunions basically ended. They had been dwindling and just didn't survive after she passed away. We talked about getting just my dad's family together with his siblings and our cousins, but the interest wasn't there and I don't have the time or power to push the issue. So instead we have continued the tradition with my immediate family. For the third year in a row my parents and siblings have gathered once again to keep the fun alive. This year we went to Yankee Meadows above Parowan. It was a really nice spot with fishing, biking trails, beautiful scenery and lots of good times! Here's the recap in pics:

This is my ammunition picture. Joey gets after me when I very occasionally wash his wallet (which he leaves in his pants on the floor....hey, I'm in a hurry, I'm lucky to get anything washed. I can't empty the pockets...come on!) Anyway, a post for another day I'm sure....BUT on our first day there Joey took the dogs to the lake and was throwing the duck in the water to Kala. She was doing great, but then got tired of the game and wouldn't go get the duck. Joey didn't want to waste the $5 he had just spent on the toy, so he waded waist deep into the water to get it. Forgot his phone was in his pocket....

We put it in a bag of rice in the sun when we got back home and it has survived without any major brain damage. But still...I'm not the only one who makes dumb mistakes honey buns!

Love this picture of Kelley. She is describing how the wind lifted up the canopy and carried it clear across two campsites...

Traditional sawdust pool. The kids dive for coins and small trinkets. At OUR reunions, the adults get a shot at one too. Fun times!

Kelley and some of her loot from the sawdust pool.

Mom's haul from the white elephant gift. Now THAT is what we're talking about! In case you can't tell it's a toilet seat dedicated to Texas. It opened up to reveal even more interesting things inside. What do you want to bet that comes back next year....

At our family reunions growing up there was always this baby blue polyester pant suit. If you were lucky enough to snag i, it was like a crime if you didn't contribute it back into the white elephant gift pool. Or maybe it was so hideous that it was simply a cruel joke to bring it back every year. I wonder what ever happened to that....

I think this picture is funny. HD cameras are great except that sometimes you just get details you don't really need. The dirty buggery nose...the drool. But oh how those baby blues shine!

Maren had a blast hanging out in the spare tire. Who knew? Apparently she liked it because she started sitting up on her own within a week after this trip.

We'll end with this one. What a funny boy I have. He wore this pirate costume the entire last day. I brought it for our portion of the talent show, but he thought it was perfect camping attire. Notice the two wands he has stuck in the back of his shirt. For what I don't know! That is also a glow in the dark baseball cap he has on. What a hoot!

About what I expected

2010-07-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

So you have heard of "cleanses" or "detox diets" I'm sure. They usually involve uses of sometime of laxative and eating nothing but grapefruit juice and lettuce for 10 days. They are supposed to clean your body of toxins and restore life and vitality. From what I've heard they aren't really healthy for you at all, you get a severe case of the runs and grumps and your left weak and tired by the end of it. Well that sounds fun...ha!

I read something in a magazine though that got me thinking I should do a "cleanse" of sorts though. So this last 10 days I've been cutting out all processed foods, anything with preservatives, all white flours and refined sugars, all dairy (which I don't eat anyway right now, usually...) and all red meat. I tried to really limit butter and salt and used mostly olive oil when I added fat at all. I've eaten a lot of fruits and veggies, lots of chicken and rice, some eggs, beans that type of thing.

Well dang it all, you wouldn't believe the difference it has made. I have lost 4 or 5 pounds. I have been less distracted and able to focus more. Amazingly my house is cleaner and you can see more of the floor in my bedroom than you have been able to in months. My friend told me my skin was "glowing" and I feel really pretty good. I kind of hate it when you ask questions that you don't really want the answers to. It's like the whole dairy thing with Maren. Dang it all I didn't want it to WORK when I cut out the dairy, but it did.

Of course I knew it WOULD work - this whole nutrition thing. But I guess I didn't expect to see such a pronounced difference. It's like with the weight loss. Twice in the last year and a half I have trained for a triathlon for 5 or 6 weeks at a time. I was working out three times a week at least and lost maybe a pound or two the whole time. And here I was able to loose two or three times that amount it less than half the time just by limiting my calorie intake and eating healthier. Do you have any idea what this means???? It means I have to change my eating habits for good if I want to improve my health and well being. Not only has it helped with physical health (I mean who doesn't want to loose weight!), but apparently I'm more focused and in a positive frame of mind when I eat better too. ((((Sigh)))))

I mean it is good. But there are things that are a little sad. First of all, when I'm eating like this it can be a little difficult to keep my calories up to where they need to be. I've tried to keep them around 1600 a day, which is pretty moderate for someone my size, but you have to remember I'm also nursing Maren still, so I have to be careful not to go TOO low. But it was kind of hard. Whole grains and veggies just don't pack the calorie punch that crackers and canned chili do. There were a few days where I had to sneak a few cookies in at the end of the day just to get my calories up for the day. (You can see I'm not very good at keeping inner commitments sometimes... ha ha!)

There's also this kind of persistent hunger you have to get used to. It's not bad, not like my stomach is growling or anything. But most days I was a little hungry for most of the day. And food just isn't nearly as fun anymore. I mean, you can still make really good stuff with lots of goodies from the garden. But as yummy as that type of food is...it doesn't elicit the same type of excitement for me as say cheese enchiladas or carmel popcorn. And it's hard to focus on the yummy aspect of it when your dissecting your dinner for the purpose of making sure each calories is recorded in your LiveStrong.com food journal. And when you do sneak a big bowl of popcorn...it tends to just make you sick instead of happy. And you break out the next day.

So here's the verdict. I think you should try it. You might just like it. I will continue it I think, but won't feel guilty about cheating a little and having a steak for date night or something. It is a little addictive...this weight loss thing. I think the first 5 pounds is probably the easiest. I have about 10-15 more to get to my ideal goal. It's quite satisfying though to see actually progress, so the drawbacks are worth it I think.

AAAND....I think I need to try something like this with Tyler. Oh boy...If you don't know Tyler is...well he's just Tyler. But about every other minute of our life I think he might have serious issues. He is one passionate, dramatic little boy. But I've wondered for a long time if improved nutrition for him might not really help improve his behavior. We do eat better than a lot of people I think. I try really hard at the daycare to do fresh, homemade stuff. But we have our share of crackers, mac and cheese and the occasional chicken nugget. And so one of these days I'm going to gear up and go head to head with the monster and see if it doesn't help him out a little also.

Wish me luck on that one please...

A blessing and a curse

2010-07-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you don't know, I run a daycare out of my home. With a helper here I am licensed for 15 kids. Kelley and Tyler are old enough that they don't count, so technically I can have 17 kids here at a time. So this summer we are FULL at the daycare. I have as many kids as I can have. They are not all here all the time, but we are BUSY. Which is good. It's very helpful as we try to pay off our debt, make improvements to the house/yard and not have to live so much paycheck to paycheck. It's a wonderful HUGE blessing.

But my life is a mess. My house is a mess. My bedroom is BEYOND a mess - it's more like a massive tornado shoved into the tiny space that we sleep in. My bathrooms only get scrubbed down when we have company coming or the grossness just can't be ignored anymore. My files for the daycare are...well, they aren't really files. They are kind of a mass of papers waiting to be filed and then I have to make sure I even have everything, which I probably don't.

My desk is covered with papers, probably several bills that I could pay if I could find them...(((sighhh)))

This happens every time. When I get more kids, even though I have more help (my employees are here more) I get further and further behind. I just have to keep telling myself...one step forward, 3 steps back, but eventually maybe forward progress will happen...maybe?

Don't get me wrong. My life is good. Just busy and parts of it are overwhelming. I just keep repeating the mantra: Do what you can do...

With that, here's a list of blog posts I'd like to write sometime.

On hair dye and fake nails

Boys and their toys

Anderson Family Reunion

Garden Update

I am a Triathlete...now if my knee would stop hurting

But right now, it's off to clean my room. And when I say clean my room I really mean make tiny dents in the massive mess that inhabits it :) Good night.

More to come

2010-06-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

But in the meantime enjoy a sweet pic of my little dolly!

Some Things I'd Like to Do

2010-06-17T21:36:00.001-07:00

1 - Get a degree in Music

2 - Run a full triathlon

3 - Learn to do digital scrapbooking and do it well

4 - Learn to take really good photos

5 - Get my life in order, feel like I have good balance

6 - Run the perfect daycare

7 - Start a scholarship fund

8 - Build my dream house

9 - Do ballroom dancing with Joe

10 - Go on a cruise

11 - Tour Europe

12 - Live in New York

13 - Live in the middle of nowhere

14 - Become a "minimalist"

15 - Write a book...maybe...might just be content with an entertaining blog that people enjoy reading

16 - Learn to sing

17 - Play the piano again

18 - Learn to play the guitar

19 - Decorate my house

20 - Go on a mission

21 - Get enough sleep on a regular basis

22 - Practice Yoga at least weekly

23 - Read more

24 - Make meals my husband really likes every night

25 - Become Thrifty

26 - Visit all 50 states

27 - Keep my room clean

28 - Do community theatre

29 - Pay off our debt

30 - Get a masters

31 - Keep learning n growing

Pom Poms Up The Nose

2010-06-15T12:59:00.001-07:00

My son experimenting with his nostrils, decided that the craft pom poms my wife had for a day care project fit perfectly in his nose. Obviously he didn't think this one through and ended up in the doctors office.

Messin Around

2010-06-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

Kelley was having fun with the camera and wanted to get a picture of the kiss sandwich. It was making Maren really happy. She's so easily pleased!

Maren's got this cute little peach fuzz that sticks up all the time now. She has two or three hairs that are about twice as long as the rest of it, which makes me giggle. I'm just excited because this means she'll have "real hair" before we know it. I can't believe she's almost 6 months old!

Sisters :)

Happy Birthday my man!

2010-06-08T21:26:00.000-07:00

Joey turned 34 last week. I have a hard time coming up with great gifts, so I wanted to do something special this year. I had it all planned out to steal him away from work for a whole day with just us doing things he enjoys (golfing, being outside, maybe a movie). I even had the poem and scavenger hunt laid out. Well, my plans were foiled when the golf course was closed for a tournament that day....bummer. Then I got caught up reading The Hunger Games the night before and you all know how I get when I'm reading... So needless to say, the day came around and I was caught unprepared. I finally got everything together, grabbed some balloons and snagged him away from work. When I told him my plans, he suggested we go grab the kids. So we did and headed south to Red Cliffs only to find it CLOSED until August 1st...bummer #2! But it turned out great anyway. We drove up around Leeds down towards old Babylon trail and played in the river for a few hours.

The kids had a ball with their dad!
We even took the dogs. You see that big yellow lab...yeah, that's our four month old PUPPY! She's officially outgrown Koko....
I love this picture...our Mare-Bears is growing up. As a side note, in case I don't get to blogging about this anywhere else...she is now rolling over, both ways. She started rolling about 5 months old. I think she will crawl sooner than my other kids. She's still as sweet as can be and just is EASY to love! I'm her favorite person, but she's usually really sweet with anyone that wants to hold her. She loves being toted around in her carrier and is starting to enjoy toys.

Finally....snapped this photo simply because I feel incredibly lucky to live in a place like THIS:

We had to head back for Kelley's T-Ball game, but then left all the kids with a sitter and had a great time together at The Garden House for dinner. I'm a lucky gal to have such a great guy. Happy Birthday Joe!

(Whispering): Is She cRaZY?

2010-05-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

Why yes...yes I am, and thank you for asking!

Some days I really do feel like I am about half nuts. Today it's the "oh my...what have you gotten yourself into..." nuts, not the "I'm seriously going crazy!" nuts... I suppose the first is better than the latter, but still...crazy's crazy!

Curious yet?

Last year we did a mini triathlon at SUU. We trained for 5 weeks and I actually survived. It ended up being a lot of fun and Joe and I had big plans to do more afterwards. We were ready and had a great start on training plans! Well, the next week Joey got the worst case of food poisoning I have EVER seen (either that or he was being super dramatic! ;). Regardless, the training came to a screeching halt. Then a few weeks later we found out I was pregnant and we just never quite got the energy to start the running/swimming/biking again. But we kept talking about it. We had it all mapped out for this year to do one a month starting with a warm-up Duathlon in February or March. That went by, and the next one in April went by.

Joey finally decided he had enough and signed us up for the Utah Summer Games. That is right folks, in less than three weeks we will be doing the Sprint Triathlon at the USG. We actually signed up a few weeks ago so had 6 or 7 weeks notice instead of 5. However now I'm down to 3 weeks and I am sure I will probably drown.

I can probably get through the biking and running alright. I probably won't even be last! But swimming is another story. Swimming is by FAR my weakest area. I can keep from drowning usually, but am really slow. And this is in open water. And it's the first leg of things. In some ways this is good. I will be "fresh" and ready to go, but I'm going to be SO far behind everyone else to start out with. Don't get me wrong, I have no high hopes of winning or even being in the first half of people, but would really like not to be last...

How I WISH that healthy choices weren't such a battle for me. They truly are. I feel like it's a constant struggle. If I can get into the groove I actually start to crave healthier foods and enjoy exercising. I do feel strong when I can get conditioned a little and am not huffing and puffing in the first five minutes. After the tri last year I felt really great about what I had done and was so excited to keep making progress!

But most of the time I want my Oatmeal Cookies, peanut butter M & Ms, cheese, any dessert with chocolate really, McDonald's French Fries...EVERY DAY. (Yes, I linked you to that cookie recipe....) It makes me really MAD that I can't have them (unless I want to be overweight and make my baby throw up...).

I feel kind of silly telling people we are doing this because they act all impressed, when really, we, well at least I am just crazy to be trying it. Oh well...wish me luck anyway!

You know you live in a digital age when...

2010-05-24T09:00:00.001-07:00

Your children are playing "Stolen Identity".

Your 4 year old calls a certain Gold Droid from Star Wars MP3PO.

Your 4 year old son can play XBox and all the games on the iPod Touch better than you.

A 10 year old girl doesn't recognize this toy as a phone:

All true stories...seen it myself!

I {heart} adorable shoes!

2010-05-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

Especially heels....

I was going to write more, but I think they speak for themselves :)

Is it just me or is this just wrong!??!

2010-05-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

So many of you read about Maren's issues with milk. It's been getting worse. Now not only does she throw up, but it makes her nose run whenever I cheat. This weekend I went up north by myself with the kids for a wedding. So I got Peanut Butter M & Ms for a 'pick me up' snack....ok, so I got like three packages because they were only 50 cents at Maverick. And then on Saturday I had Fettucine Alfredo for lunch because I figured I'd already cheated...I'm like that. If I eat three cookies, I'm going to eat eight...it's bad...I know.

Back to the subject at hand. So, this weekend was bad. Oh and let us not forget Sunday where I had not one, but TWO Utah mint truffles so kindly provided by the ward for Mother's Day. Well between Sunday and Monday Maren threw up 6 times. It was a lot worse than normal. Monday she also had a really bad snotty nose, a cough and a fever of 101 by the end of the night. She slept all day as well. So I think she might be teething, but I had a sneaking hunch most of the problem was directly connected to my "weekend-o-fun". My sister was passing through Cedar on Tuesday so I called my mom and asked her to send some soy formula with her for Maren. I wanted to just try it and see if we could get her back on track with that. (My mom works at a doctor's office and can get me samples...) Well she sent the formula, but instead of Soy sent Nutramigen Lipil. It's a formula for "babies with colic caused by an allergy to milk protein". Most normal formulas are made with Whey protein (I think). I was curious as to what they put in this that wasn't milk or soy so I turned it around and looked at the ingredients. Any guesses?????

Bet you will never guess....

#1 ingredient is:

CORN SYRUP SOLIDS

#2 ingredient:

VEGETABLE OIL

It then goes on to include a modified milk protein and I'm not sure what else. I couldn't get past those first two ingredients. They make up like 75% of the formula.

Does that totally disgust anyone else???? Seriously, who puts corn syrup and vegetable oil in infant formula? Well needless to say I didn't give it to her. Luckily she's been much better yesterday and today. I suppose I will just have to be more careful and when I cheat, not go so crazy. It still just blows my mind.

You know what else is a little crazy to me? I have been through at least three pediatricians with three kids and not one of them has ever suggested that I stop drinking milk to help with their "reflux". I think it was a chiropractor that said something to me about it. I did some reading on my own and tried it and found the answer myself.

My friend had some problem with milk too and brought the issue up with her pediatrician and he told her "seriously do you want to do that to yourself?" when she asked about cutting out dairy. I mean really people, come on! Doctors are putting kids on corn syrup and oil instead. OK, so I know there's probably more to it than that and I don't understand everyone's individual situation, but this is just one more really clear example to me of how important it is to be INFORMED and take charge of your own health. Because even with all that school, I am more and more convinced that sometimes doctors may not really have or be giving you the best information.

No, I am not anti-doctor. Yes, I really appreciate my pediatrician and have been very grateful for their help in many situations. Yes, we will continue to go back and no I'm not going "all natural". But this is still just eating at me. I don't know why it's bugging me so bad. But if anything is learned it will be that I need to be vigilant as a mother about my kids health and what is best for them.

Corn syrup and oil....come on! Am I missing something here?????

Artichokes

2010-05-05T23:41:00.001-07:00

The other night Kelley wanted an artichoke. It was late and we had to get up early for something the next morning. And these are the kind you have to cook for a half an hour. So I told her we could have one the next day, she just needed to remind me so I didn't forget. After she went to bed I found this on the whiteboard in our kitchen. It took me a minute to decipher....

The Birds and The Bees

2010-05-01T21:54:00.001-07:00

This is my Ty Ty in his beloved T-Bird hat. He loves this hat and wants to wear it everywhere. He thought he was pretty cool that he had his sunglasses on his hat, just like dad. What a funny kiddo :)

Last weekend we went to a Bees game with the kids. SUU Alumni was doing a thing with potential students. They fed us dinner and we all got SUU Baseball shirts. We have always liked taking the kids to the games. We went a lot when we lived there. The bummer this time was Joey had to work the whole game. He didn't even get to watch much of the game. Therefore I had to watch all the kids the whole game. It probably would have been fine, except the kids had to go to the bathroom about 6 times during the game.

Maren and I in all our SUU gear. GO T-Birds! and GO Bees!
Kelley loves the T-Bird. Tyler on the other hand, runs away, or buries his head in my lap. Today was my sister's graduation and it was at the SUU Centrum. As we were walking in, Tyler nervously asked "will the T-Bird be here mom?" I told him "no" but threatened that he might show up if he didn't behave himself ;)
Favorite part of the show! Fireworks afterward. Joey loves to sit on the grass and feel the perfection of it! The kids just like to watch the explosions.
Even Maren enjoyed the fireworks. She normally startles at loud noises, but she wasn't startled or upset at all. She just sat and watch the whole thing with intent interest.

It melts my heart!

2010-04-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

I decided to catch up on my blogging today and found this picture from three months ago. This is the swaddler I put Maren in every night. As you can imagine she barely fits in it now!

Funny story: The other night Joey asked Tyler who he loved better - Daddy or Kelley. Without hesitation he answered "Maren". He adores his baby sister as does Kelley. She just fits right in. I feel SO lucky every day to have her here with me. I must have done something right on the other side or something.

Bits and Pieces

2010-04-20T22:29:00.001-07:00

Several quick, random thoughts tonight. Let's begin with something fun! I finally understand the experience that is...I had not up to last weekend ever been to IKEA. I had heard it was great, but couldn't really grasp why it was so cool. I heard people say they literally could spend a whole day there. Now I understand why. All I have to say is "You had me at Hello....may I take your children please for an hour free of charge while you shop without having to chase them all over this really cool store?" WOW! Joey and I went in to buy end tables and came out with over $200 worth of stuff. We finally found the organizer we've been trying to find for MONTHS! Just after we went out and bought bookshelves instead....ah well.

Anyway, it's a cool place. Tyler asks me every day when we can back to the "IKEA --the blue store." We'll definitely be going back there sometime I'm sure! Moving on...

I have never seen this TV show. I've heard the music and thought it was fun. My sisters seem to enjoy the show. So last night I saw it was on and decided to check it out. Little did I know I would have to shield my poor children's eyes! Flipped over to the channel and there they are in all their glory. These young teenage kids crawling all over each other singing "Like a Virgin". OK, so I guess I WON'T be checking it out after all! I highly doubt it was like this when it first started, but my first impression was not very good...

Finally I find it really interesting how relationships develop with people. I was in Walgreens last night. I had a checker that I've seen there before. He wasn't very nice to me before. Not really rude or anything, but had seemed annoyed by my coupon habit. So tonight I was in there and as I was checking out he mentioned he was a vegetarian. So I told him all about Bountiful Baskets. We had a small connection and by the time I left the store I felt like he was my little buddy. I think when I see him again he'll be really nice and we'll be "friends forever" (as much as you are with your local drugstore cashier...)

I always try not to judge people too harshly based on my first impression of them. I have SO often proved to be wrong. Another example: Back in the day I was waitressing and some customers walked in. I didn't really want to serve them because they looked "scruffy" and I was sure I wouldn't get a good tip from them. But I treated them just as kindly and served them just as nicely as I would anyone else. He ended up giving me the best tip I think I've ever had. He did claim to have just won a lawsuit or something, but I was seriously suprised.

So back to my point. I think there is something we can learn from everyone. And even if it doesn't seem like you have anything in common, you just might. It comes down to this: we ought to treat everyone with respect and kindness. You never know where it my lead and the small blessings you might receive from doing so, even if those blessings are just knowing you have made a connection with someone. I think THAT is priceless and it always makes my day when it happens.

One tiny reason...

2010-04-07T21:44:00.001-07:00

I love my baby for MANY many reasons. One thing that makes me so happy right now...the pants I bought maybe 3 weeks ago that were a size smaller than I've worn for even several months BEFORE I got pregnant...are already feeling much looser...I LOVE nursing! It's the best diet ever...eat whatever you want and still loose weight. Except that I can't have dairy, except on the days I cheat....but I'm getting used to that...mostly.

Oh and I love that she sleeps for 10-12 hours each and every night and wakes up talking happily! People have to clarify that she sleeps w/out waking up to eat...yes! She is the best baby EVER!

Right now she is:

Talking ALL the time. Joey thinks she's going to put Kelley to shame. Kelley is our social butterfly. Maren really likes to talk to and smile at people, or the ceiling fan...

She's really interested in her hands right now. She looks at her hands a lot in deep concentration a lot. She also is really into grabbing....my hair, blankets, anything she can reach.

She still sleeps in her little swaddler. She's nearly grown out of it and I don't know what I'm going to do, since I'm pretty sure that's at least part of the reason she sleep so well. I don't dare try going without it. On the rare occasion that she does wake up at 4 AM I am so disoriented because I'm just not used it...I literally wake up thinking "where am I and what is going on!" Maybe one of the weekends I'll try it...or maybe I'll just buy a bigger swaddler...

I can take her anywhere and she'll behave. She was the perfect little angel at the Kellie Pickler concert last week...who by the way was very fun!

She doesn't like standing oddly enough. Both my other kids were working out their leg muscles by now if I remember right, but she's content to be held or just sit.

It's so funny, people tell me every day "She looks just like Kelley". But then other people tell me every day "She looks just like Tyler!" What do you think?

Oh, and on a side note, this is my 200th post. I've been blogging for somewhere around 2 years now. How time flies!

Favorite Quote

2010-04-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

I love General Conference!!! It is such a relaxing and enriching weekend for me. The talks this weekend have been fabulous as always. My "favorite" quote this time? Elder Holland said something to the effect of:

"The adversary comes as a thief in the night. But that doesn't mean you have to invite him in, serve him tea and crumpets and show him where the silverware is! YOU SHOULDN'T BE SERVING TEA ANYWAY!"

Mormon humor...makes me laugh!

Remember When...

2010-03-21T20:07:00.001-07:00

Joey lost our camera yesterday. Luckily I had downloaded all the pictures, except the ones from his scout camp out, where he lost the camera. Anyway, we've ordered a new one, but unfortunately I couldn't take pics of my cute boy crashed on the rug today. (The home teachers bored him to sleep I guess...) So I'm feeling a bit reminiscent and thought I'd share a few old photos with you all. Oh how they grow!

Tyler used to grab toys with his toys and dangle them in front of his face to play with. He was a funny kiddo even then!

At my sister's graduation in 2006.

October 2006, almost a year old.

November 2006.

Christmas, 2005.

How many times a day do you call your husband?

2010-03-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

I call my husband a lot I think...at least 4-5 times a day. When I think of something I need to tell him or ask him, I have to do it then or I will forget. Do you call your hubbies that much? I know I'm probably just weird...

Seriously, so grumpy!

2010-03-17T07:40:00.001-07:00

I have the grumps this morning. I'm always amazed at how once you start out grumpy it's really difficult to turn it off! A new moment is always at hand, so theoretically you should always be able to do a little better. You shouldn't have to wait for a new day. But my days tend to have themes. And today it's this: "leave me alone, let me sleep more, give me a fairy godmother to clean my house or at least help me remember all the important things I have to do that I've been putting off! Oh and then after a nap I need the energy to be superwoman. But like that's going to happen!" Or something like that.

So my goal today is despite the shortness I've already displayed with the kids, I'm going to try my darndest to have a great day. Maybe some happy music will help....

Do you find it difficult to turn off the grumps? What do you do to switch things around?

Distracted are we?

2010-03-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

No....not me...what would make you think that?

OK, so here I was going to put one of those Getting to Know You surveys I filled out for email. Then it wouldn't let me copy and paste it without it getting all messed up...

So I was going to type it out for you. I started and then decided you probably don't really care THAT much anyway, and I'm really tired...so now I'm going to bed.

My life feels so exhausting right now. Am I ever going to feel rested again?

Oh and I decided I probably ramble too much. That's not a promise to stop...just an observation. Alas, that's what you get with me!

Now we're committed...

2010-03-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

As if we don't have enough going on! We've decided to paint! I'm excited. I think it's going to be a big project, but we've actually made some progress...unlike some of the other projects I have on my list. And we've put 5 big fat splotches of paint on my wall, so I guess we're committed! We actually even managed to come to a decision and bought the paint on Saturday. I'm really excited to see how it turns out.

We've also had this photo collage project on the list for a LONG time. Last night we were messing around with different ideas and came up with some fun things. The only problem is the bookshelf we want to put underneath it is from IKEA. It's not available to ship online on and you can't get it at the Draper store...hmm....what to do? Maybe we'll have to drive to California to find it. Now wouldn't that just be the pits!

My Angel

2010-03-15T01:07:00.001-07:00

We blessed Maren today. She is three months old on the dot! And she's been the perfect baby. I feel SO incredibly blessed to be her mother. I thought my other kids were good babies....and they were...but Maren is positively angelic! She is now sleeping from about 9 PM to 7 AM every night. Yes....it's true and YES, I'm still nursing her. NO formula supplements or anything! We've been swaddling her in a Kiddopatamous and I think that helps a lot. I think it also helps that I'm on the no dairy diet as well. Her little tummy doesn't hurt all the time like Kelley's and Tyler's probably did! And I think the Lord probably knew that I needed a break on this one ;)

She is just sweet as anything you've ever met. She loves to sit and smile and talk to me, but she's also content to sit in her bouncer while I'm doing lunch or such. I do have a wrap carrier that I can hold her in if she gets too fussy and I've got stuff to do. The only thing I'm struggling a little with is daytime naps. She often won't nap well unless I'm holding her in the carrier. While that has been fine up to this point I eventually want to get her on a good daytime nap schedule. My dilemma is that I don't really want to swaddle her during the day in fear of messing up her nights. But I think she doesn't nap because she's so used to being wrapped up to sleep. So I've tried to swaddle her in a different blanket a little more loosely and that seems to be helping a little.

Our sweet little Mare-bears. This is the same dress we blessed Kelley in. I seriously contemplated cutting off the "doily". I was a little afraid it made her look a bit like Mary Queen of Scotts. But we decided just to leave it on after all. I think it looks a little better now than when we tried it on a month ago.

Cousins Remington and Boston and brother Tyler in their suits. What a handsome crew!

A picture from the other night.

Love this girl. I love it that she always has her hand up to her face. In her ultrasound it was up right next to her cheek too. You can see that pic HERE. Even though she's not doing it here, she will often point her finger up too, just like in the ultrasound.

Just in case you were wondering about the reason we didn't bless her in February as planned...

That morning I bent over to put on my snow boot and tweaked my back. I couldn't move off of the floor for the next three hours that morning. I finally was able to drag myself to the bathroom with my arms, mostly because I had strong motivation to do so. But I couldn't stand up at all until several hours and a blessing later that afternoon. Joey was able to carry me out to the car so we could get to New Harmony for the Superbowl party and by the end of the night I could walk with help. It was the craziest thing I've experienced in a long time. The doctor said it had something to do with pregnancy hormones still hanging around in my body, but those should be gone now. So hopefully no more invalid Kristy!

My Animal Lover

2010-03-15T00:37:00.001-07:00

I'm on a roll tonight...so here's another post! Tyler is my little buddy lately. Since Maren was born I've more often had to run errands while Misty stays with the daycare kids. I always take the baby, but usually tried to talk Tyler into coming as well. He's pretty energetic and I figure it will be easier for her if I take him with me. Well lately he wants to come with me everywhere. He's my little buddy. It's a lot of fun.

Anyhow...he's such a cute kid. He's my little animal lover. He's always loved to smother our dog and cat. But he really likes any animals: Grandpa's horses, animals at the zoo, my sister's birds, etc. So now he thinks Kayla is his puppy (of course!) Well for the daycare I decided to get baby chicks for a few weeks. I know...your thinking I'm nuts and yes your probably right. I was going to get ducks also, but we got the puppy and it's all just too much now.

Back to the birds...so he went with me to pick them out. We got one of each color: black, light yellow and a kind of orangish yellow. When we got them home he for some reason just fell in love with the black one. He basically refused to put it down. I asked him why he liked it to much and he just kept telling me it was really cool.

I was worried at first because I thought for sure it was going to die. Tyler wanted to hold it all the time and it wasn't doing that great. That first night it was just kind of standing there while the other birds were running around the box. Anyway, Tyler named it Black-black. The school age kids came home and they decided the other two were Snowball (the light yellow one) and Sunburst. Tyler thought they said SunBURN, so he started calling it that. Everyone thought it was really funny so it stuck.

I hope he survives when we have to take them out to Grandma's house to stay. I guess we can always visit...

Finally here's a last look at my funny man. He doesn't take naps...usually, but once in a while he'll crash. I found him on my bed like this the other day after I'd sent him in there for being a pill...pretty sure he was throwing a fit over the chicks or something. He makes me smile a lot :)

Cinderella in Review - My Darling Diva

2010-03-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

So finally getting to posting the Cinderella pics. It turned out to be such a fun experience for all of us. It was really neat to participate is this type of a show. It ran for two nights in the Randall Jones theatre. The kids had their own dressing room with lights and mirrors. I helped backstage during rehearsals and then for one night of the show. Then all the family came to watch her on Saturday night and so I was in the house then.

Kelley kept telling me she was nervous to perform in front of all those people and she would be too embarrassed. After rehearsing in the theatre for a few nights she told me "I want to do eight million more shows! Yeah, that is more like the Kelley I know!

This is the first night. Kelley was SO excited to go out in the lobby and meet with everyone. She was just waiting for people to come talk to her and give her flowers and ask for her autograph. I felt so bad for her because none of her family was there to watch her. Everyone was paying attention to the people they had come to see. She was so expectant and so excited! I tried to explain to her, but she just didn't understand. I finally just grabbed someone to come say hello to her. But I think she really was hoping for flowers like the other little girls and she didn't get any that night.

This isn't the best picture because Joe took it without a flash during the show. I had to post it though because it was so funny. During this scene she is supposed to be flying across the stage. She had already been on once before and had apparently seen her grandparents. But she didn't see us. So in this scene she's looking for us. She has the cutest grin on her face as she ran across the stage. Instead of using flying arms she had them tucked up against her side like when your jogging. When I asked her about it she said she was flying and she wiggled her arms and shoulders to move her wings that way. It made everyone laugh.

Kelley with Cinderella.
Kelley with part of her stash. I sent my sister to get some flowers for her. I figured she get a cute little bouquet of three roses or something. She came back with this. Kelley also got a really gorgeous bouquet from my parents and a silk rose she can keep from Grandma. She felt very special this night. Of COURSE when she went to talk with her little friends about it and told them she got three flowers someone had to pipe up with "well I got FOUR flowers!" Oh give me a break!

Proud parents!
Gorgeous girl!
Kelley and I, post show.

New Family Member

2010-03-14T23:55:00.000-07:00

So as some of you might have guessed we have been on the road to puppy parenthood for the last several weeks. This was not my idea! But it was my Valentine's present to my hubby. He's always wanted a yellow lab and we are hoping that she and Koko will be good friends. They already get along really well. It's pretty funny...if Koko is in her dog run and we let Kayla outside first thing she'll run down the sidewalk to find her friend.

We did end up buying a puppy instead of adopting an animal from the shelter. We probably could have lied or found one that fit eventually, but we are not very patient people. So Joey found this little cutie on KSL.com and the rest is history. She is nearly 6 weeks old, which we've since discovered is a little young still to be separated from mamma and her litter. She has a really rough night the first night, but Joey has been playing the perfect puppy papa and she seems to be doing much better lately.

Joe bought a kennel for her so she can sleep inside since she's been inside up to the this point and doesn't have a winter coat. He slept out by the kennel for the last two nights trying to help her adjust. It seems to be helping as she's getting better all the time. We're trying to see if she'll sleep on her own out there tonight. We'll see how that goes. I think Joe's getting a little idea of what it's like to be up several times with a new baby in the middle of the night. But he's been very faithful about taking all the responsibility for her. I hope it goes OK when he goes back to work. He took Friday off because it was NUTS at the daycare and there was no way I could take care of the puppy and the kids. He'll have tomorrow off work because they are doing something with the power at SUU all day. So hopefully by Tuesday she'll be more settled down and not so high maintenance.

And I can't wait until she goes outside. I swore up and down we wouldn't have inside dogs. Now the puppy's in here, so of course we have to let Koko in at least a few times a day so she doesn't get totally jealous. Joey keeps promising this is temporary and really it has to be because we just don't have room for dogs in the house.

We've named her Kayla. We were going to do Kaylee, but with Kristy, Kelley, Katie (Maren) and Koko...plus daycare kiddos (Kiley, Rylee and Kayzley) we figured Kayla might be a little better. My vote was Maggie, but I got shot down. She's not my dog after all.

Oh and while we're on dog stories....we've been trying for at least a month now to figure out how Koko is getting out of her dog run. She's been pretty sneaky and won't get out when she figures anyone is watching. Joey even set up the tomato cages in front of the fence to see if she was jumping over. (He figured she's knock them over). So on Friday he finally set up the video camera and made me promise to watch for her to get out so she didn't end up knocking it over and chewing it up after she got out. And the verdict? She is scaling the fence, which is actually mostly chicken wire). It's pretty funny to watch her climb over this...maybe we'll post the video sometime.

I really want to blog tonight

2010-03-10T21:28:00.000-08:00

I feel like I have so much to say! Not necessarily for your enjoyment or entertainment, although it might accomplish that purpose. I just want to get my feelings down on "paper"! I love blogging and refuse to feel guilty about it. It's often the only journaling I get to anymore.

I want to blog about how I keep WISHING this mess would disappear (that is the one that is overtaking my house), but then how I'm insanely grateful for the reasons it is a mess...

I want to blog about my cute babies: The Darling Diva, The Animal Lover and The Angel.

I want to blog about the chicks: Black Black, Snowball and Sunburn and how they got their names.

I want to blog some old stories, just for posterity's sake.

I want to blog about Maren's blessing and how it's actually this weekend. What? Wasn't that last month...ummm...yeah...that's a story I never got to posting.

I want to blog about Cinderella and how great Kelley did and how she cracked us up.

Let's face it, I want to blog so I can pretend I don't have a million other things to do.

But alas, my house is a mess and I have to at least attempt to make a dent in it. Plus my computer is about to die and the hubs has commondeered the main computer. So to all my friends out there...good night!

Explanation

2010-03-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

That was baby spit up in the last post by the way. This post explains the problem. I have tried a few different things seeing if I could get away with something that wasn't straight milk. Last week it was cheese. Monday I tried a brownie (OK, and some Andes mints...). So far anything with dairy in it has made Maren go back to the projectile vomiting. Joey bought me some almond milk the other day which is actually quite good so I can at least have cereal. I don't drink it as much as I did regular milk by far, but it's better than nothing. It makes me wonder when I finally get to drink a big ole glass of skim milk again if it will be all that I remember and more...

Ummm...yeah...

2010-02-27T17:04:00.001-08:00

So apparently I can't eat cheese...

Pet Names

2010-02-27T06:33:00.000-08:00

Pet names are a funny thing. My first dog was a beagle (I think). Her name was Heidi. I was too young to remember if I helped name her or how she got that name. Besides she didn't last for very long. She was hit by a car or something. I have one picture of her and every time I look at it, I want another Beagle. She was so cute...

Later we got the sweetest little springer spaniel mix. We wanted to name her Spot...yes it's true! I think I was only 6 or 7 though and all my siblings were younger. My parents wouldn't let us. So we named her Candy..."because she's so sweet!" We also had a gray and black cat, you know the kind with the stripes. Are those tabbys? Anyway, we named her "Zeba"...like Zebra, but not. Our parents were really nice to let us name our animals I guess.

We also had an orange tabby growing up. We named her "Esther" until we found out she was a HE. But you know what is so sad? We never changed his name....I've always felt bad for Esther. She lived a long full life, but ended up drinking some antifreeze or something. I remember her lying on our front porch unable to move. I just thought she was being a lazy stinker and so I shoved her with my foot trying to get her to move. (See...I still call the poor fellow her!) I feel bad about that to this day. Poor guy was probably in so much pain and there I am kicking the poor thing! We had to put him to sleep.

We also had a Malamute named Nikita...she was one of those purebred types and was really "Princess Nikita the 25th" or something, which is why her name isn't nearly so cool as our others. She had a litter of pups that were ADORABLE.

There was Joe...he didn't last long because he came after Candy. Candy was the best dog ever. She didn't bark or jump, unless someone she didn't know came in the yard. She was the perfect size. And she was quirky. She would sit on our fence and watch the cars drive by...just like a cat! I think they got Joe after I left for college, but he was a stupid dog, according to my dad. I don't know what happened to him.

There was also Dartanian, which I've since learned is totally the wrong way to spell that...he was a CUTE little stinker. He was a yellow lab mix and yes I named him after Chris O'Donnell's character in the The Three Muskateers. I love that movie and he's SO dreamy... I talked my parents into letting me get him. They made me promise I would take care of him. I don't know what happened, but one day he was just gone, with no warning at all. Maybe it was my crazy teenage brain, but I seriously thought I was doing OK. They gave me NO warning..."hey you need to do better with this dog..." Nope, he just disappeared. I was sad and have wanted a yellow lab since then, even though I'm not really a dog person at all.

(Dartanian with Kember)

My parents now own a pair of cats named George and Patsy. My sister's dog is Vince. The birds are Kelley and Gus Gus. We have Koko, which is an Indian name for night.

Princess Madeline the cat was named by Kelley (of course):

I like pet names because they can be so fun. It's not as big a deal as a child's name. Any of you have funny names for your pets?

I can relate

2010-02-24T12:08:00.000-08:00

So I have this cute little 5 year old girl that comes to the daycare every day. She is an absolute sweetheart and does really well with the kids most of the time. One day one of the boys was bugging her, probably Tyler....

Anyway, she says to me in the saddest, most frustrated voice: "He's making me CRAZY and I don't wanna be crazy!" It was everything she could do to hold it together and you could see it physically.

Oh honey...I understand where your coming from!

Can any of you relate?

The "fauxhawk"

2010-02-20T23:26:00.001-08:00

I always hate to do more than one post on one day because I'm afraid you won't read or comment on my older posts. But I get on a roll and get excited about things I want to blog about and if I don't do it when I think about it...it doesn't usually get done. So read my other posts from the past few days...

So I've tried to do this a few times with Tyler and he doesn't really like it. Last Sunday I got him out of the bath and did this "do":

He looked in the mirror and said "Mom I don't like fauxhawks....I look like an Indian..." Seriously don't know where he made that connection...Peter Pan maybe?

So he ended up with this darling do:
If you know Tyler, this is a little funny because he's such a crazy little tyke. Far from the demure little Church boy he looks like here.

His favorite is "spiky hair", but most days because of mom's lack of initiative, he ends up with whatever he rolls out of bed with. It's sad but true. The other day I was gelling his hair and he asked "is it church day mom?" No son, mom just decided to actually put some effort into life today :)

And finally a recent picture of the cutie pie, Miss Maren. I really need to do an update blog with all the fun things she's doing. She is such an angel though...seriously the best baby in the world...not kidding! Guess I'll go find her and get a little cuddle time in before bed.

I figured it out

2010-02-20T13:47:00.001-08:00

Have you ever noticed that a lot of families that have new babies also get new puppies? I always thought people like that were CRAZY! I mean come on...do you know how much work a baby is????

Today I had an epiphany and came up with a theory. I think Dad's sometimes have a harder time connecting with new babies at first. It's not that they don't like them, they just don't get as much joy from just sitting and holding and cuddling with them. At least my husband is like that. He really enjoys it when they get a little older and are more interactive with him. It's not that he doesn't enjoy holding her, but it's just different for dads. Besides that moms are usually doing the feeding and changing, etc. In addition Dad's attention from mom naturally decreases. Not only does Mom have a new baby to adore and dote on, they are also exhausted. The energy they have to put into the marriage relationship takes a dive for a little bit. (Call me a bad wife...but I'm sorry, something's gotta give until you can come up with a new equilibrium...)

So what does Dad do?

Get a new puppy to dote on. Because you see, puppies are interactive from the get go. They are instantly endearing with all their puppiness and you don't have to wait for them to play with you until they get older. Dad now has something to spend his time and attention on while mom takes care of the baby. A dog is, after all, a man's best friend.

Clarification

2010-02-19T07:06:00.001-08:00

I don't think the shelters here in Iron County care if you have your dogs outside or not. But since we are looking for a specific type of dog we don't have the selection here to find what we want (at least so far). The two places we have applied were up in SLC....

Rejects

2010-02-18T21:22:00.000-08:00

We have been rejected...twice now...

We were trying to adopt a yellow lab. Koko we got from Joey's brother, who couldn't keep her. Our cat was a stray. I think it's the responsible thing to do to adopt a pet, vs buying a new puppy. But apparently we aren't good enough to adopt from a shelter or rescue group. The reason????? We keep our dog outside. Really? You sure?

I know I know....dogs are social creatures, they love to be with their family...blah blah blah...

When I say blah blah, I don't mean that's it's not true. I just mean that I think there are much worse things we could do than keep our dog outside. I think we are very good dog parents. We gave her the WHOLE side yard all to herself. She's not chained or kept in a little dog run. Joey put in grass for her to lay on and a concrete pad to keep her out of the mud. She is out in the bigger part of the yard almost every day (except really cold ones in the winter when no one wants to go outside.) Those days Joey gives her special attention and usually lets her in the house for a bit. But the rest of the time she's out running and playing with the daycare kids. They wear her out like nobody's business. We take her out in the mountains with us and often on trips to grandparents houses. We even do doggie play dates with her friends. Yes...I'm serious. And we're trying to get her a friend because she likes other dogs so much.

Both our dog and cat are "fixed" and current on their shots. We do bring Koko in during the really cold part of the winter. Joey even bought her a heated water bowl. She is a happy well cared for dog. So what gives people? Come on! They are DOGS for crying out loud. I'm sorry, but animals are NOT people too....

Maybe I'm wrong on this too, but it sure seems crueler to crate an animal for 8 hours at night so they can sleep inside with their "pack" than to give them a good shelter, a warm blanket and a friend to cuddle with in the great outdoors. I'm not a dog so I don't know. But I do know this...I don't think the dog or I would be happy if they were inside. I'm just not really a dog person. Joey is the reason we have the dogs and I'm OK with that. Our kids love the animals, we take care of them and everyone is happy. But our house in not big enough for two dogs, especially not a big lab. It's already a mess all of the time and smells funny half of the time because of the daycare. Add two dogs to that and mamma's not a happy camper. And if mamma ain't happy....yep....you know it...

Anyway, so I guess it's a thing with shelters that you have to say you'll keep your dog inside. As a result we've been rejected for the two dogs we've been interested in adopting. It just seems crazy to me that an otherwise good home would be turned away. I mean we aren't perfect by any means....but I'll tell ya what...don't whine to me anymore about the shelters being overrun with animals that no one will take. We would take one if we could! Perhaps we should just tell a little white lie next time....

Miracles Happen

2010-02-14T21:26:00.001-08:00

I've following this blog and praying for this boy for the past week or so. I think it's truly a miracle and testimony to the power of prayer and the love he has for his children. I hope maybe you enjoy the video and can see the miracles God performs every day in your life and in others.

Cinderella Ballet

2010-02-08T19:15:00.001-08:00

Kelley is going to be in the Cinderella Ballet coming up next weekend. The shows will be Friday and Saturday night. Tickets are $10 a piece. The production is put on by the Cedar City Junior Ballet. Kelley doesn't have a big part, but I think it's going to be a superb production. It's a great way to support the arts and see something you might not normally get to see. We have to sell at least 15 tickets...do any of you want one???? Please let me know ASAP. I was supposed to have the money in by the end of January...oopps! Leave me a comment or send me an email. I will probably bugging you all on Facebook about it too....

Whoever decided humans should drink cow's milk...I hate them....

2010-02-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

Or: You never know what you've got until it's gone :(

(Warning: This post will be long...but possibly interesting so it might be worth reading ;) And I need your advice at the end!)

So here's the deal. I really like my milk. I drink it with every meal and usually a few times in between. I really like all the things that you can do with it: chocolate, cheese, cream cheese, ice cream, yogurt, butter (umm....real butter....), huge variety of desserts and sweets, breads, etc.

But I've decided Milk might be the bane of my existence! OK, so that's a really strong statement. But hear me out. Several years ago I heard a nutritionist talk about the problems with milk. He pointed out that we are the only mammals that: 1)Drink milk from another animal; 2) Drink milk into adulthood. He said there is a whole movement that is advocating that we shouldn't drink milk at all. It's not good for us overall and causes a lot of problems. It is mucous forming and can cause upper respiratory problems, stuffy noses etc. It is also very hard for a lot of people to digest. The milk industry is just out to make money and milk doesn't necessarily "do a body good". There's all sorts of other information out there if you were really interested in the issue. I personally am not here to write about all that...or am I?

So let's start with Tyler. He was born in Logan, which if any of you have paid attention will know is one of the highest polluted areas in the nation on many days in the winter. He was born in late November and 5 days after he was born he started wheezing. Over the next 11 months he ended up on oxygen twice, had pneumonia once and was almost constantly on a nebulizer (pulmacort and albuteral) to keep the wheezing at bay. At 11 months old he got a little stomach bug and so the doctor put him on soy formula because it was gentler and would help him get over it. Well wouldn't you know it...but his breathing problems disappeared almost immediately. So we went with what worked and kept him on soy formula/milk from then on. It didn't make any sense to me, but it seemed like EVERY TIME we tried to put him back on regular milk he would invariably get an upper respiratory infection and ended up wheezing again. When he was 1 1/2 we moved to Cedar City and his breathing improved even more. We ended up doing 1/2 cow's milk and 1/2 soy milk for a long time because any more than that he would get sick. We finally were able to go 100 % cow's milk for a good 6 months to a year without any problems. He was doing great. Then in January of last year he ended up in the hospital with RSV and strep throat. RSV sounds scary, but if you know anything about it, it's usually only scary for babies. In older children it's usually appears to be a cold. It shouldn't land a 3 year old in the hospital. So we ended up back on soy milk for the next 6 months at least. He's back on regular milk most of the time now. Occasionally he still chooses "special milk" but not usually anymore. And he's been doing fine. He's been sick a few times in recent months and I've just been holding my breath waiting for the wheezing to start. It hasn't. His body seems to be getting stronger I guess. I could never explain the connection to milk, but there always seemed to be one.

Well now we have another problem. And it's actually not new, but I'm just looking at it in a different way. Kelley, Tyler and now Maren have all been projectile vomiters. I have to bring at least three LARGE burp rags everywhere I went in addition to extra clothes for me AND them. People don't usually believe me until it happens to them, but my babies could SOAK themselves and an adult in one fell swoop. Kelley and Tyler just ended up on Zantac for their whole first year to control the "reflux". It controlled it OK...

A few months ago I went to a child care seminar and Dr. Harvey Karp was the keynote speaker. He wrote the Happiest Baby on the Block. He mentioned that he believes reflux is extremely over-diagnosed and over medicated. I talked to him briefly about my babies and my concern we'd end up with the same problem with this one. His theory was that if they don't seem to be in a lot of pain and they are gaining weight fine, skip the medication and just deal with the spit up. So that was the plan.

Sure enough Maren has had the same problems, although not as bad as I remember with the other kids...but it's hard to say because it has been a while and I was expecting the worst. Well I haven't done the medication, but have read some stuff and talked to some people who say that dairy can be a culprit in reflux babies. So this week I did what I thought was impossible and have cut out ALL DAIRY. It has been torture! Do you have any idea what it is like to skip the creamies your hubs and kids are having...to go without chocolate and most baked sweets....to try to eat bagels without cream cheese...to crave cheese enchiladas, but not be able to do anything about it...to never be able to butter your toast with (((((sigh))))) real butter??? I could have never done it for myself, but this is my little tiny baby girl we're talking about here.

Well....UNFORTUNATELY....it seems to be helping. She's only projectile vomited once since I started and that was after I ate waffles made from buttermilk mix. Grrr....So now I'm in a dilemma and I feel like a bad mother for even thinking this way...but now what do I do with this information? Go without all those things for the next year while I nurse her? Go without them most of the time, but splurge occasionally at her expense? At this very moment I have a box full of Valentine's cookies sitting on our counter that I don't dare touch because I bought them, they don't have an ingredient list and they were probably made with butter, sweetened condensed milk, or something. I do have to admit it would probably be a FABULOUS diet program, but it is really worth it? I LIKE my dairy!

There is the possibility that I could add in some dairy...it's just kind of a painful process of trial and error to figure out what and how much will bother her. I could just put her on the Zantac, but the older I get the more I'd rather not do meds if I don't have to. Sure I give my kids medicine when they need it. But if they have a low grade fever for example I don't give them anything for it. I'd rather have their bodies fight off whatever they need to. I also won't ask for antibiotics unless it's a bacteria. I once had a pediatrician offer to give me antibiotics for one of the kids if I wanted it. He told me it was probably viral but I could do antibiotics "just in case". NO! Are you kidding me? Anyone ever heard of "super bugs" and why they evolve? So I don't really want to do Zantac.

But...chocolate....cheese....milk....

Am I just the worst mother in the world???? I really don't want to do formula either, which is probably another option. I think breastfeeding is best if possible. There's the bonding benefits, the nutritional benefits that babies can't get anywhere else, and it's always been really helpful in my loosing the baby weight. Plus it's really convenient and virtually cost free.

Oh and did I mention she's sleeping on a regular basis now at night for 5-7 hours at a time? Could it be because her little tummy isn't bugging the heck out of her? My other kids were terrible sleepers. Kelley was a year old before she slept through the night...I'm talking up 2-3 times usually! So this no milk thing also makes for a much more rested mama....which is a happier mama. Maybe it's not connected, but it's awfully suspicious!

Anyway....what would YOU do? This is one of those things that you almost wish you never asked the question to because the answer is SO not cool! But if people had never decided to start drinking milk in the first place...I wouldn't have this problem right now and wouldn't know what I'm missing!

Oh and just one other thing I wanted to throw out there for discussion. The chiropractor told me that she knew another chiropractor that could eliminate allergies. There is this huge skeptic in me that says....umm...yea right! If that was the case why is everyone doing it? I actually saw an allergist a few years ago that said that allergy shots could cure you of allergies, but it takes like 5 years. But then there's this other part of me that says...what if they really could? Of course the medical field probably would never tell you about it because they would loose a lot business. I'm sure the allergy field is HUGE. Just think about all the commercials you see for Claritan, Zyrtec, etc. And if you do allergy shots it's once a week for like I said 5 years...or more. Imagine how much money they must make off of that. I know I sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist. I'm not saying I really think that is the case...but what if?

Any thoughts on this one friends? PLEASE! I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Tyler

2010-02-02T12:50:00.001-08:00

Tyler is my blessing and my challenge. Today he is a challenge! I will spare you the details...

But he has such a sweet side too. The other night I was grocery shopping and Joe had the kids. Maren was a little fussy and he was trying to clean up or something. Tyler wanted to play video games, but Joey told him he had to take care of the baby and do his other stuff. Tyler offered to hold her so he could do what he needed to do and then play games. Joe tried really hard to get everything done quickly so he could play with Tyler, but the poor kid was so tuckered out he just didn't last. Joey said he was SO sweet with her though, just taking very careful care of her to make sure she was happy.

He is going to be such a charmer too and practices on us every day. He is always telling me: "She's such a beautiful baby...she's such a good girl". Let's hope he stays so sweet and protective of her as she gets older.

So....what happens when Walmart is basically the only staple shopping place in the whole town for children's clothes?

Tyler and his two cousins are best buds...I thought it was really funny when they showed up one morning dressed like this and Tyler had already dressed in his coordinating duds.

Tyler is really funny about clothes lately too. He has to look "really cool" or "really super awesome". In order to get him to wear clothes that look decent I usually have to grab onto some feature he's excited about. Some how he decided his jeans are his "Diego Pants". That always reminds me of when I was a kid. My brother's jeans were always his "dunt ta dunts...." To this day I still think that is so funny and cute :)

Tyler's also got some cargo pants that have to be his "tool pants" in order to get him to wear them. (Joe showed him the tool hook for him play hammer....) Of course anything with trains or camo is easy to get him to wear. His latest thing is being twins with his daycare buds. He has the same shirt as one of the boys and as soon as he shows up in the morning with it on Tyler will go get dressed in his Lion shirt too. He's a funny kid...

Moms Do It Too

2010-01-21T19:46:00.001-08:00

You know my wife has a collection of photos with me falling asleep with our babies. Well I am here to tell you that moms do it just as much as dads do. Here's the proof...

Kristy's note: [Insert picture of me and my darling baby taking a nap on the couch this evening. I was let's say NOT so cute...Oh wait, I have editing rights to this blog, so instead let's DELETE the scary picture ;) In the spirit of good will however, sleeping picture of Joey, also deleted:)]

Valentine's Play List

2010-01-21T16:36:00.000-08:00

I don't feel very talented at the whole gift giving thing. Especially with Joey. Most of what I can think to get him I don't dare because it's electronics or tools or something else I don't know anything about. He's pretty picky about what he wants with that type of thing too, so unless I know exactly what that is, I don't dare just buy it. But I'm trying to get better and come up with thoughtful gifts. So last year I put together a play list for him. A little sappy perhaps, but it IS Valentine's and I ended up really liking the final product. So much so that I made copies of it for several other people too. With the holiday looming I figured maybe some of you could use it ;) Also I am curious to see if you have any you would add to this list. What are your favorite romantic songs? Keep in mind I'm not looking for the classics here for the most part. As much as I love "From this moment on" and "Everything I do..." I can hear them on the radio any given Saturday and am more interested in a song I maybe haven't ever heard before. (That being said, many of these are pretty popular songs....but whatever....)

Let me know your suggestions...I really want to know! Oh, and if you have any fabulous ideas for Valentine's gifts for the hubs for THIS year I'd love those ideas too ;)

Some of these I already had. The others I just bought off of iTunes or Amazon.com.

1 -I'm Yours by Jason Mraz

2 - Lucky by Jason Mraz with Colbit Calliat

*My sister found this song first. I don't know if it was ever released on the radio or not. When I bought these two songs I just bought his whole album because I was getting more than one song off it...I'm not sure I would suggest that. It's alright, but these are really the only two songs I listen to much.

3 - Love Me Tender by Brandi Carlile and Chris Isaak

*This is off the "Elvis:Viva Las Vegas" movie soundtrack. This I would suggest buying for sure. There's TONS of great songs on this track with about half of them sung by Elvis. The rest are remakes like this one. I like remakes because they give great songs a fresh feel.

4 - Can't Help Falling in Love by the A*Teens

*Another Elvis remake, but this is actually off the Lilo and Stitch Soundtrack, which is also fabulous...

5 - Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts

*Can I just say I LOVE these guys?

6 - The Colour of my Love by Celine Dion

*This was our wedding song. Joey is an artist, so the words of the song make me smile. I think it is a great song and can't believe it never made it to the radio...but that also means it was never one of those ginormous Celine Dion songs that was way overplayed :)

7 - Bella's Lullaby (Piano Version) from the Twilight Soundtrack

*Just don't tell him where it's from. If he likes Piano music he'll probably like it

8 - Save the Last Dance for Me by Michael Buble

9 - How Sweet it Is by Michael Buble

*There's probably a lot more by him that would work...I would also suggest his albums

10 - Rainbow Connection by Kermit THE Frog

*This one was just for fun. Yes, I put it on there really :)

11- God Gave me You by Brian White

12 - When you Say Nothing at All by Alison Krauss

13 - I Get a Kick out of You by Frank Sinatra

14 - The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson

*I really like her, but don't know a lot of her stuff yet.

15 - It's A Love Thing by Keith Urban

16 - This Everyday Love by Rascall Flatts

17 - How Deep is Your Love by the BeeGees

Others I might add if I did it again:

I never saw Blue Like That by Shawn Colvin (from the Runaway Bride Soundtrack)

Looking Through Your Eyes by LeAnn Rimes (from the Quest for Camelot Soundtrack)

Best Years of Our Lives by Baha Men (from the Shrek Soundtrack)

You Belong to Me by Jason Wade (also from Shrek)

Better Together by Jack Johnson

See what I mean?

2010-01-19T18:06:00.001-08:00

Kelley is so sweet about the baby. She always wants to hold her and love her and haul her around the house. But she's starting to think SHE is her mother...not me ;) A few highlights:

The other day I was in the kitchen and Maren started fussing. She was on the couch. Kelley was right there. I started to go get her when Kelley said "No no mom, don't you worry...I got her."

A few days after that I was changing her clothes or something so she was fussing a little. Kelley firmly tells me: "Give her to me mom, I'll calm her down."

Later that same afternoon I was folding laundry and Kelley comes and sits next to me. She's holding the baby and starts rocking her back and forth telling me "see mom, if you rock your body back and forth like this she calms down."

Do I seem that incompetent to her? It really just makes me laugh actually. Maren has been quite an easy baby so far. If she's fussy she will almost always calm right down if you pick her up. If that doesn't work you probably just need to feed or change her. So it's not like she's fussy much in the first place and then she's easy to make happy. Well, at least Kelley feels confident in her role as big sister.

Quote of the day from Tyler: After feeling his own eyeball - "Touch my little eyeball mom, it's nice!"

Following is a script of a conversation that occurred between Tyler and his cousin Remington, who is just a few months older than him. This happened back in November. They were playing a video game, either Lego Indiana Jones or Lego Batman. I can't remember now what it was. Either way, it's funny to me what little kiddos come up with. They were choosing what characters they were going to be:

Tyler: Do you want to be a girl or a boy?

Remington: I want to be a boy.

Tyler: Girls are cute. Do you want to be a girl?

Remington: No, I want to be a boy

Tyler: Your a boy called Remington?

Remington: Yes.

Later...

Tyler: We're both being girls

Remington: Yeah!

Tyler: I'm going to be a happy girl

Remington: I'm going to be a mad girl

Tyler: I'm going to be a mad girl....

Tyler: We're both being cute girls.

Going Private?

2010-01-19T15:19:00.000-08:00

I really don't want to go private, but am thinking I just might have to....dang it! I've just had some visitors from odd places and a few comments that make me nervous. SO...leave me your info and I will send you an invite...

What do YOU think? Is there a real danger to blogging publicly?

Fluffy...

2010-01-17T14:46:00.003-08:00

My sister, Kelsha, found this dress for Maren. She brought it over and told us that now she just needed some "fluffy underwear". It made me giggle because if you know Kelsha you know that she HATES pink and although she can definitely be girly and dressy, she's not really the "fluffy" type. Needless to say, she and Grandpa Pete of all people ran out as soon as they could and found her some cute rhumba tights just for this dress. I guess there's a different standard for the tiny ones.

Oh and did you notice she's starting to smile :0)

It is SO exhausting....

2010-01-10T19:54:00.001-08:00

[Insert cute picture of Joey and Maren snoozing on the couch. Deleted in exchange for deleting picture of me and Maren snoozing on the couch. :( I actually thought this was a really cute picture, but Joey did have a point that you could see straight up his nose....so off it goes....]

....being a new dad ;)

Mare-Bear...

2010-01-09T23:38:00.000-08:00

Anyone that spends time with me and my kids knows I'm constantly coming up with a new nickname. Kelley could be Kelley Belly, Kells-Bells, Baby Doll, Gooseberry...whatever. Tyler's been Ty-Ty, Ty-ters, Monster Boy. The one I like most for Maren so far is Mare-Bear. She is so sweet and such a good baby. I think she might be getting the Reflux that both my other kids had and so she isn't sleeping quite as well, but still is such a doll. She's just so content and easy to love. I'm amazed every time we go through this process. With Kelley I just didn't have a clue what it would be like. With Tyler I wondered how he would fit into our little family. With Maren I was a little unsure I was ready to take this plunge again. But with each one of them I've found them so easy to adore and they just seem to fit right in. Maren has been no different.

I am loving spending so much time with this precious baby. It seems a little easier this time around for some reason to just enjoy where she is at. There's not the anxiousness I've sometimes felt with my older two for her to grow up and get bigger. I feel like even though she's still so tiny, she's already growing too fast and I'm just happy to have her be little for now. One of the daycare kids was so observant when they told me yesterday "You just kiss her all the time!"

Life is good. She is the perfect baby. And with that I'm going to go to bed and get my sleep. It seems like such a shame to waste any time she's actually sleeping at night...although I seem to be able to get so much more done...

This year's "Christmas" Poem

2010-01-01T23:40:00.000-08:00

It is a tradition in Joe's family to write a poem every year to go with Christmas Cards. The first few years we were married we actually got them out in Christmas Cards before the holiday, if only just barely. I'm pretty sure there's been a few years lately that were more like New Years poems. Last year he finished the poem on Christmas Eve and I'm pretty sure we just put it up on our blog, nothing else. Well this year Joe actually got it finished a few days before Christmas, but we got busy and now almost two weeks later I'm finally getting to posting it. Joey is the author of this little masterpiece. I think he gets better every year he does it. Hope you enjoy the sum up of our years events!

Hello again all you reading this from far and near,

It's another poem from the DeGraafs you get to hear.

I don't know why so long ago Dad started this rhyme,

But I swear as each year goes by it kicks by behine. (phonetically spelled)

After writing these things for ten years you see,

It's hard to stop, so here we go - please endure with me...

Our family has grown bigger this year that is quite true,

Katie Maren DeGraaf is our newest and has joined our little crew.

She came to us quite quickly just a few short days ago, (December 14)

If she had come any quicker, Kristy would have had her in the snow.*

Tyler turned 4 in November - he has grown a bunch,

He is the sweetest boy, but really packs a punch.

He's really into Batman and playing Lego Indiana Jones,

If we try to get him to do anything else he really wails and moans.

Kelley is in first grade this year, she is learning all she can,

She has found a talent in visual art - just like her old man.

Ballet is her newest thing for now, she's really having a blast.

Looking at our pocketbook I hope that it can last.

Kristy's working on the daycare - next year is number three.

She's so loving with those kids, a better Mom there cannot be.

She's bumped it up again this year with a brand new preschool program,

Twelve hours a day washing, cleaning, teaching and doing everything she can.

(With help from Misty our sister who I really must thank, I don't think Kristy could have dont it without her.)

Joey's still at SUU, the greatest school in the land!

He really loves his coworkers and thinks they're grand.

He spent half the year this year redecorating the yard,

Six tons of dirt he shoveled, seven would've been too hard.

Well we hope this note finds all of you well and with good cheer,

We wish to thank all of those who showed their love to us this year.

Please know of our love for you as we head for Two Thousand Ten,

And if you are passing by please come see us now and then.

With Love -

Maren, Tyler, Kelley, Kristy and Joey

*You can read the whole story and our other adventures on joeykristyandkids.blogspot.com

My Kids make me Laugh

2009-12-23T12:48:00.000-08:00

This picture is from last month. The kids wanted to both be carried (a common problem) but as you can imagine at 8 months preggo I wasn't up to carrying either one of them. So Joey played the hero daddy and grabbed them both. They loved it as you can see!

Having a great day today. All my daycare kiddos are on vacation so it's just me and my munchkins. They just get cuter and more entertaining by the day. Just a few moments from today that have made me smile:

Yesterday Tyler got grounded from Lego Batman on the XBox for something (don't even remember what now). Today he asked to play and I told him he was still grounded. He said "But mom...if I'm grounded from Batman that's means I'm on the Naughty List!" I told him not to worry, he just needed to work hard to get back on the Nice list ;)

We were listening to Christmas Music this morning. Kelley was saying how she could NOT wait until Christmas. She was lamenting that she just wanted to go to bed all day today and tomorrow so then it would be Christmas. A song came on that's called "I just can't wait till Christmas." She points excitedly to the music player and says "This song is EXACTLY how I feel."

Tyler was in the kitchen and exclaimed "Oh NO!" Kelley asked why he said that. Tyler responded "Because I have Play-Doh up my nose!"

It still amazes me how much they pick up on. Yesterday Tyler noticed the fireplace and that it had glass on it. He wasn't quite sure how Santa was going to get in. So Kelley took over the explanation about Santa's magic and how it didn't matter that we had a small chimney or if there was a fire it in or that it had glass over it. She does the whole talking with her hands thing and her little pointing and explanation of the whole thing was very entertaining.

Daddy and Maren

2009-12-21T10:59:00.003-08:00

I'm awake!

2009-12-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

Maren is still sleeping much of the time, but I was able to snap these yesterday while Aunt Karmin was here. The lighting and color isn't really fantastic I know, but I love her little eyes just looking around so intently.

I'm loving just holding and spending time with her. Unfortunately she's now on the bilirubin lights for jaundice and so that cuts down on the time I can just cuddle her significantly. She's supposed to be in there most of the time. We are going in today again to check her levels and I'm hoping they've dropped enough we can be done with those. It's just the saddest little thing you've ever seen! She does seem to adjust after she's been in there for a bit, but when I first put her in there, especially if she's been out for more than an hour or so, she just screams and is so upset until she basically wears herself out and can sleep. Tyler was on the lights too and it doesn't seem like it took very long to get where he needed to be, so we'll hope for the best.

Katie Maren DeGraaf

2009-12-16T22:01:00.000-08:00

Can I just say...she looks just like Kelley to me in this picture! I wasn't sure she had that look when she was born...but feel that way more every day. Tyler looked a lot the same as well. Maybe I'll try to scan in their pics so you can see for yourself. But it sure seems to me that all our babies have a certain look...

OK, so the first question we're always going to get is why didn't we just give her Maren as a first name if that's what she will go by? Those of you that know my family know we have Kristy, Kelsha, Karmin and Kember. My mom is Colleen, then there's Pete and Ryan who are kind of left out :) Well, when we named Kelley, it was NOT because of all the K names in my family. My mom's maiden name is Kelley and my parents nearly named my sister that. I've always liked then name and it just seemed to fit when she was born. Even after naming her Kelley I had NO intention of continuing with the K theme. We didn't know what Maren was before she was born, but we have both liked that name for a long time. It is my sister's middle name, as well as prominent in my family history. Since it was a name we both really liked, we were pretty sure that's what we would name our next girl, but we never get set a name before our babies are actually born. We talked about different names a lot and one day I mentioned that I liked the name Kate. Not Katherine, but Katie or Kate, I think is really cute. Joey loved it and thought Katie Maren was perfect. I suggested Maren Katie or Maren Kate, but by then he was kind of set on Katie Maren. Besides he said "I kind of want to continue with the K theme", which makes me laugh. It's my family thing and I didn't even want to do it. What is really funny, is that my parents didn't really intend to do it either. Karmin was supposed to be Monica! I remember being bugged when she came home as Karmin, because I liked Monica better. But such is life and now it seems we are carrying on the torch.

Someone asked if it's a family thing to go by middle names also. I guess it kind of is. My grandmother, at least one aunt and my brother all go by their middle names. I know it will be a pain for her. I already had to explain to the doctor's office today about it. Hmmm....is it too late to change it??? Speaking of which...I still don't really feel settled on the name really. Has anyone else gone through that? I didn't love Tyler's name either at first, but I knew there was no changing his name, Joe was determined there. There's some flexibility here though and we almost changed it yesterday in the hospital. Maren is for sure...it's just Katie I'm not sure about. I do like the name. I suggested it as a possibility. But we did find a name we liked better (Kennedy). Both Kelley and I like it better. I don't know that Joe likes he better necessarily, but he does like it. The problem is we didn't want to take it away from the sister(s) that suggested it to us, even though Maren won't go by it anyway. But I just keep going back to it.

The reasons I like Katie: It's Irish....my mom has a lot of Irish in her family history. Kelley is Irish also, if you didn't already know that. It's cute, fun, light. I played Kate in Taming of the Shrew. Not that I want my daughter to be named after the Shrew, but it was my first play and kind of a fun connection. It goes really well with Maren.

The reasons I like Kennedy: Both our other kids have last names for middle names (Madison and Thompson). Joe kind of wanted something a little more "elegant" than Katie, if we could come up with it and I think this fits the bill. Plus I just like it better for some reason. It's my fault really though. I was being a brat and wouldn't tell my family what we were considering until we decided and put it on the birth certificate paperwork. As soon as my sister heard it she suggested Kennedy. Loved it...but once the paperwork is filled out, it's harder to change your mind. It would have been easy yesterday, but now would be a big process to change it I'm sure.

Anyway...on a final note. We thought all along it was a girl. We both had a feeling for a while that our next baby would be a girl, way before we even got pregnant. Then after the ultrasound we both thought it was a girl. We would not have been shocked if it was a boy though, but it was just one of those feelings. Well speaking of my sweetheart, I think I'll go steal her from daddy and get ready for bed. Thanks for all the comments! We sure are loving her and enjoying this season with her here. Hope you are having just as Merry a holiday as we are!

Per request...

2009-12-16T11:19:00.001-08:00

I guess we keep getting in trouble for not posting more pics of the baby! Here's a few more and Joe is bringing home his nice camera today so we can hopefully get some better ones. The kids are in love with her...it's really cute. Tyler keeps saying "I love her" and telling me the blanket he bought for her says "I love you", even though it doesn't :) This morning he asked if she was sleeping and if he could sleep with her. Kelley constantly wants to hold her as well and understands that even though she cries when she holds her, it's just because she doesn't know her as well and she will get used to her.

I will try my best to post more, better, up close pics of the baby today, along with a post about her name :) For now, enjoy...

Only a few hours old here (if that!)

More pics :)

2009-12-14T23:19:00.000-08:00

Midwife Laurie Hansen, Maren and I

Because of the H1N1 they won't let any children in to visit :( But the kids seem to enjoy seeing their new sister through the nursery window at least.

Another one of baby and I. It is quite ironic to me that the one time I actually had my hair and makeup all done up, we didn't get the picture of us headed to the hospital, because I could barely get out the door, nor the picture of us right after delivery, because we had left the camera in the car. So this is several hours later. It still is better than my other after baby pics though :)

Just a fun one of the kids I took yesterday in their Christmas outfits.

Five, Four, Three...

2009-12-14T18:38:00.000-08:00

It's a GIRL! We decided on Katie Maren DeGraaf and are going to call her by her middle name...but we are now rethinking the first name....We are going to sleep on it and will let you know if anything changes. She was 7 lbs 14 ounces and 20 inches long, born at 9 AM this morning, 8 days early. For those of you that don't want any more gory details that should sum it up, but it's a pretty good story if you want to stick around. And I think this story beats Kelley's...as funny as THAT was. (For those of you that missed it I wrote about it here.)

Many of you know that I was SURE this baby would be early. Kelley was 10 days early on her own, Tyler was 2.5 weeks early. I had to be induced with him because of preeclampsia and almost was with Kelley for the same thing. I also have been having Braxton-Hicks with this baby for months and almost thought I might end up with a preemie! So we passed the preemie mark, 2.5 weeks came and went, 10 days early came and went and I was starting to think I might end up with a Christmas baby after all. It seemed like the one time we really wanted an early baby we weren't going to get one. My due date was the 22nd, but I thought it would be so ironic if I ended up overdue with this one.

At my 37 week appointment I hadn't made ANY progress, but was dialated to a 2 + last Thursday, so was hopeful at that point. My midwife offered to strip my membranes to see if we could encourage things to start on their own, so that was tentatively planned for tomorrow morning. In the meantime I was taking warm baths, eating spicy foods, trying to encourage the natural process along. Last night I finally finished typing up arrangements for the daycare kids and put the finishing touches on the Christmas program I was in charge of for church. The kids rooms were switched, my house was cleaner than it has been in a LONG time, I was actually feeling like I was ready to go. I put on my facebook status that the 14th seemed like a good day, but figured that was probably just more wishful thinking.

This morning I woke up at 1:30 AM, 3:30 AM, 4:30 AM...like most nights lately. I couldn't get back to sleep and so finally decided to just go shower. I started to have a few painful contractions, but they didn't last long. Still I had this feeling I'd better get my hair fixed and makeup on if I was going to. Right before 6 AM I started to have more regular contractions. They were painful and 4-5 minutes apart, but not very long in duration and still bearable. At 6:45 I told Joey he might want to get up and get showered because we'd probably end up at the hospital this morning. I also texted my sister and told her I might need her at the daycare this morning. About 7:20 I decided to lay down and see if they went away. They didn't go away completely, but slowed down to almost 10 minutes apart, so I figured we could wait until it was time to take Kelley to school at 8:30 AM. Karmin showed up, Joey got up and dressed. Contractions were still bearable. Just before 8:30 AM I had one or two contractions that were pretty painful and so we started shuttling kids out the door. Joey gave me a blessing before we left. It very quickly went to the point I was thinking there was no way I was going to get through the natural labor I had planned.

I had another contraction hit me as I was getting in the car. It was all I could do to crawl up onto the seat kneeling backwards and within the two blocks it takes to get to the school I'm yelling at Joey "get the kids out of the car NOW!" We had Kelley and the other 7 year old neighbor girl from across the street with us and luckily they thought it was pretty funny and so were just giggling the whole way. I'm glad it wasn't traumatizing for them :) We stopped at the school and my water broke and then there was all this pressure at one time. I crawled out of the car thinking there was no way I was going anywhere else. Joey kept telling me "you have to get in the car". I insisted I couldn't two or three times, but finally crawled back in. We headed off to the hospital and by this time I was certain I was going to die. Joey turned on Lund Highway instead of Airport Road like he was supposed to. Luckily it wasn't right in the middle of a contraction, or I might have killed him. Traffic was CRAZY though...I mean for Cedar City. There was three or four people ahead of us the whole drive, so he couldn't just pass them all. (Had I been thinking I would have told him to just put on his flashers and gun it). He was thinking though and trying really hard to get us to the hospital in one piece. Of course everyone ahead of us was taking their sweet time.

Funny side note here...I will freely admit I was yelling my guts out in the middle of those contractions. I kept thinking about my mom. She had all five of us naturally and whenever we would see a movie with a women screaming during labor she says "That's not really how it is..." Apparently she was not a screamer. I was thinking about this as I could think of nothing else to do besides scream and hold Joey's hand. I didn't want to break the windshield or something and so was trying to be as still as I could. So at one point in the middle of a contraction Joey says "your pushing....don't push...just breathe". I said "I CAN'T, I'm pushing I don't care!!!!" I also told him "If I'm not at least an 8 when I get there I've got to have an epidural!" So much for the natural birth...or so you would think....

Well we finally made it to the hospital and he pulled up to the ambulance entrance thinking it would be faster. There was no one there though, so I hopped out of the car. I had kicked my shoes off, so only had socks on, walking through the snow around the corner to the ER entrance. There was a wheel chair in the front entrance and Joey got me to sit down. He wheels me in and I'm yelling "This baby is coming now! Laurie...." Laurie is my midwife and luckily her office is in the hospital right next to the ER entrance. Her staff saw me come in and everyone is staring at us, but a few people in their right mind wave us down the hall to labor and delivery.

I have to admit at this point I thought I was probably being a little melodramatic. I wasn't sure the baby was coming right away, but that was all I could think to yell. Joey got me down to L & D and they directed us right to a room. I ran in the room and dropped my pants as fast as I could kneeling by the side of the bed in the middle of another contraction. Probably the biggest relief of my life was when I asked "is the baby coming?" I got a big fat YES! I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't at that point. The nurse kept telling me "Laurie's on her way, do what you have to do. I don't want to deliver this baby on my own, but I can...." Laurie walked in, I pushed maybe two or three times and she was here. Apparently she was already more than crowning when I got into my room. That was 9 AM.

It was really cool because almost before I realized that she was out Joey saw her and told me it was a girl. I was standing up next to the bed and I think he was behind me, so he had the perfect view as soon as she was born. It was neat to have him see that and let me know. No one else even thought about it until later. Of course most of the people there didn't even know my name, let alone that I didn't know my baby's gender yet.

And that was that. Five hour labor with Kelley, Tyler's was four, Little Maren was only about 3 hours total and nearly born on the highway at that. It was funny because I kept telling people I was afraid I wouldn't know when to go to the hospital and that something like that would happen, although I didn't REALLY think it would. That happens in the movies..yeah, just like people's water doesn't ever break in public places.... Kelley and Tyler were both pretty much no question as to when I needed to go in. People kept telling me "oh you'll know". Well I'll tell you what, until about 30 minutes before I delivered I didn't "know" for sure! My contractions weren't consistent or very long. Laurie told me afterwards, "Next time, you come in when you START having contractions...." Ya, that's a good bit of advice I think I'll follow!

Well, she's perfect. I feel great! It is true that recovery is SO much easier with a natural birth! I will have to write more later, but for now, I think I'll get back to my baby :)

Fun Saturday!

2009-12-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

Kelley has been wanting to take dance for years. I've hesitated for a lot of reasons. Some of them include: 1) It is kind of cost intensive when you consider the classes, costumes, traveling if you do competitions, etc. 2) Although I know there is a lot of value to dance, there's also a lot for a mother to be nervous about. I've seen some of the dances they have these little girls do and the costumes they put them in. Although it is tempting to get on my soap box here...I won't. But...it is something I think about a lot. 3) Time, we don't have a lot of it to spare :)

Well this year Kelley was asking about it again and so I asked if she would rather take dance lessons and get dance stuff for Christmas from mom and dad, or if she wanted toys. She said she'd rather have dance. (It was hard decision for her though, and it helped that she will probably still get a toy present from Tyler ;)

Joey thinks it's a good idea because she's at the age where she should start developing her interests if she wants to really excel at them. So....Kelley is now in ballet. I figured that was fairly safe as far as the modesty in dress and dance thing goes. It does bring up another concern....body image. I know a lot of ballerinas struggle with that, but I think I probably have more to do with helping her develop a positive attitude than anything else. Anyway, back to the point. She's taking ballet with the Cedar City Junior Ballet and will also be in their production of Cinderella in Feburary (19, 20 and 22 if anyone wants to know...). Right now she's slated as a fairy and a cupboard mouse. This is a picture of her first practice last Saturday. Isn't she cute in her little ballet bun? She seemed to really enjoy herself. I think she will really like the performance aspect of it. She tends to be very "animated".

Later that day we also went to the Storybook Calvalcade Parade. Best parade in Cedar City...I can't believe we haven't been before! It was so fun. It was a bit long and we ended up leaving early, but overall the weather was very nice and it was great for the kids. I think that the city has just collected story book costumes for years and years and uses the same ones every year.

Tyler's favorite was the marching band. My little rhythm boy. He hears a beat and he can't help but move! He liked the characters on the floats, but the ones that came down the sidelines giving the kids high fives scared him. He kept running behind me. He does the same thing at SUU games with the T- Bird. For some reason it freaks him out. Come to think of it, the only character he would see at Disneyland was Pooh Bear. Didn't want a thing to do with any of the rest of them. Funny kid...

Kelley's favorite part was all the princesses...of course!

The kids also got to see Santa. Pictures were supposed to be $5, $10 if you wanted a digital copy. BUT since we left the parade early, we were the first in line. The line formed quickly and Santa came in before the photographer or anyone else that appeared in charge for that matter. I tried to wait for someone, but there was a big line of people that didn't want to wait, so I just snapped the photos myself and saved a few bucks.
Tyler was funny. He didn't want to go see Santa...of course! The Santa was really good and said he didn't have to, but did ask from afar what he wanted. Of course then Tyler went off on Batman. While he was a little distracted by that we asked if he wanted to go get a treat. He said yes and went over to get one himself.

We got lucky that he was willing to turn around and cheese for the camera and that Santa did the same. Of course my camera was slow and so I didn't get the first grin, which was REALLY cute....but snapped this one, which will do for the year I suppose.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-05T15:24:00.000-08:00

I know it's way past the point, but for posterity's sake...we had a great Thanksgiving. Joe's parents hosted at their home and we enjoyed a fabulous meal! My sisters, Kelsha and Karmin both joined us as well because my parents went out of town. The girls are both finishing projects for schools, so they stayed local to allow time to work. Mel and Cindy have the epitome of a "man cave" in their basement. I wish I had a picture of it...but as it is, imagine a giant big screen TV with I think 5 or 6 Laz-Y-Boys and a Futon, all meant for football viewing pleasure. And that is all the men did all day. Joe was delighted.

All the cousins that were able to come....

Kelley has a thing for "handles". When she was only about two or three she used to ask for the oval with the handle on it from the chicken. Even with the size of the turkey handle....she did a pretty good job on it!

The kids had a great time with their cousins and managed to stay out of trouble. The weather outside was nice so they were able to run around plenty and were completely worn out by the end of the day. Poor Tyler kept begging to go home by the end of the night until he finally decided that sleep couldn't wait for his bed.

Making Applesauce

2009-12-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

I think it was last week or so that I FINALLY got to the last box of apples I had sitting on the back porch. I put them off for so long I thought for sure they were going to go bad, but they did fine out there, even in the snow and freezing weather. So then I put them off even longer figuring they'd be fine....well I finally got to saucing them. Tyler was so cute wanting to help. He wanted to crank the sauce maker. I didn't think he was strong enough to do it fast enough, but after I showed him how he did the whole batch! I love it when the kids want to help me with this kind of thing. I don't know if it will last, but I'll take it for now!

I want another entry...

2009-12-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

So....to let all of my friends in on the secret...my friend Brooke has this great website called allthingsthrifty.com. She and her other friend post great ideas for decorating on the cheap. For the next seven days they are hosting giveaways. This wreath trio is the first one. I'm sure you have to enter by tonight so...go get em girls!

Baby Update

2009-12-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

For anyone officially tired of baby related posts...sorry....it's kind of a big thing for me right now ;) So here goes:

I am now officially 37 weeks, which is full term! At my appointment today there is no change from two weeks ago. My Braxton Hicks contractions have actually decreased since then, in part I think because I'm not stressed anymore about having a preemie baby. I still have no signs of preeclampsia. It came on fairly quickly with the other two, but with Tyler I was induced 2.5 weeks early because of it. My next appointment isn't until next Thursday, so unless I go into labor on my own it will be at least the 10th before we have a baby. As uncomfortable as I am...this is good news. We still have a lot to do before we get ready and this week and next are fairly busy at the daycare. Plus my backup plan (Misty) is out of town on the 7th and 8th. So...here's to at least one more week....

Quick Thankful List

2009-11-29T12:53:00.000-08:00

For Family Home Evening one night we made a turkey and listed some of the things we are thankful for on the feathers. In no particular order here is our list:

Hot Water

Baby

Cars

Sunshine

Jesus

Santa Claus

Freezers (for ice cream)

San Diego

Gospel

Store

Earth

House

Space (because it's a home for Jesus :)

Holidays

Air

Family

USA

Food

Friends

Batman

Weekend Recap

2009-11-22T20:58:00.000-08:00

Joe took Tyler to San Diego this weekend. He went with his friend/coworker Nate and his little boy. They left at 4 AM Saturday morning and drove to Sea World where they let the boys run around and look at WHATEVER they wanted to. I love this first picture of Ty because it shows a classic expression of his. He has a love/fear relationship with the whales. He loves them, but is a little afraid they are going to eat him I think.

This is also such a fun picture for me to see. Tyler has had an obsession with penguins for the last several months, probably since we went to Sea World last time. He sometimes has pretend penguin friends that follow him around. Incidentally they have very Russian sounding names. One day he was coming in from outside and we went to shut the door. Tyler panicked a little because we were squishing his penguin friends. He then proceeded to lead them into the house one by one with his hand. He doesn't talk about them so much anymore, but Kelley thinks it's really cute to ask him about them every once in a while. The other day while we were out driving Kelley asked where they were and he answered simply they were "home playing with my toys".
Saturday night SUU closed their football season at San Diego University. Joe reports it was a great game and SUU won! Tyler of course loved the music at half time. He's such a fiery fun kid.
On Sunday morning they took the kids over to the San Diego Temple. Tyler wanted to pick some flowers for Kelley. Joe told him that he couldn't pick the flowers, but they could take a picture for her and so that is what they did. What a sweet boy. Tyler also really liked the "singing guy" on the top of the temple. :)

AND - Happy Birthday to my "Ty Ty" today! He is now officially four years old. If I can get to it in the next few days I'll post his birth story as well. Although not as "exciting" as the water breaking in the grocery store, I think it would be fitting.

After looking at the pics Joe took on this trip I've decided that he has a much better eye for photography than I do. One day I'd like to develop that talent, but for now I think I should give the camera to him when we go anywhere :)

Kelley and I spent the weekend at my parents house. My sister, Kember, was Maria in the Sound of Music at Millard High. I have to say I would have never guessed she could sing that well. She did AWESOME! It was so fun to watch her. A great part of the fun also was seeing so much family. My extended family has always been really supportive of each other and they came to a lot of my plays and events growing up. Baby blessings, graduations, etc are usually big family events as well. It's been a little more complicated in most recent years as some have moved farther away and everyone's kids (my cousins) get older. My Aunts and Uncles become grandparents and since we moved to Cedar it seems like we rarely see them. But it worked out so there were Aunts, Uncles, cousins, Grandpa and two Grandma's there. It was great to see and talk with them.

We spent Saturday lounging around mostly and trying to get some more done on my scrapbooking. I have to say, I don't enjoy it nearly as much by myself. I'm too indecisive. I can't decide what I'm going to do and just do it. If I have other people there I can bounce ideas off them and get their advice. Something as simple as what color to matte my picture with. Oh well. At least I am making SOME progress eh?

We are all back home again. As fun as it was, I hate being apart and am glad to have everyone safely gathered in :). We'll have a short week this week spending Thanksgiving at Joey's parents in New Harmony. We'll likely head back to my parents house on Friday again and hopefully get a Christmas Tree this weekend. Tyler has been asking to go to the "other grandpas" for several weeks now. Fun times!

A few things

2009-11-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

OK - Quick baby update. Going to the doctor is good...it makes me feel better. Everything is fine. No indication this baby will come very soon. For all the contractions I've had I'm only dialated to a 1 at 35 weeks. I was at a 2 with Kelley at 36 weeks and she wasn't born until 2 1/2 weeks later. This is good...as uncomfortable as I am... Also no signs of the preeclampsia yet. I need to get through at least this week and next would be nice too. Have to drink more water or something though. These "braxton-hicks" can be strong enough to take my breath away sometimes...

ALSO - Please consider signing this petition. With the economy the way it is it feels totally useless to even try, but I feel like we have to. Currently there is an awesome art program in place in elementary schools (maybe others???) around the state. Kelley has one of these programs at her school and she LOVES it. Research shows that children involved in the arts do better academically. But it is difficult for the people financing that to see that through the dollar signs and the program will likely be cut at the end of the year. We can let our voice be heard. Perhaps if they see that we care, there is a shot at saving the programs. The site is http://www.artworksforkids.org/get-involved/get-involved. They don't need a lot of information. Please look at this and consider signing the petition, even if you don't have kids currently benefitting from the program. I think the arts benefits us all in so many ways we don't even know. Please also consider ways you could spread the word if you feel passionately about it as well.

Kelley's Birth Story

2009-11-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

Many of you have probably heard this story, but I think it's always fun to share these and since many of you might not have heard it, I thought I'd share it here.

We had been anxiously awaiting the day for months and it had been getting worse over the most recent weeks. I was so uncomfortable all of the time! I had started to get nauseous at six and a half weeks and had thrown up the whole pregnancy, with the exception of about 2 weeks right in the middle. On top of that it was now June (summer heat) and I had started to swell like a marshmallow. At our appointment on June 18, Dr. Barton was a little concerned about the swelling in combination with high blood pressure and so suggested I get induced on Friday, June 20^th, if the baby hadn’t come by then. That would be 10 days early. He’d told us a week and a half before that it could be any day as I was already dialated to a 2 or 3 then. I finished things up at work over the next day and a half and Thursday evening we headed to the store to get some things for the next day. It was about 7 pm and I was starving! (I hadn’t eaten since lunch.) In the produce section we ran into someone Joey knew from scouts. I was standing there, minding my own business while they talked when I began thinking “I wonder if my water just broke and I wonder if I should go to the bathroom…” Then without warning, the flood gates opened! There in the grocery store I stood, both legs soaked and a puddle on the floor. Neither Joey nor his friend had noticed what happened so I stepped quietly behind Joey, waited for a minute then whispered urgently in his ear “Joey, we have to go…NOW!” Joey at first wondered why I would be so rude until he looked down and saw the puddle. He hastily ended the conversation and we jetted out to the car, leaving the cart with the grapes and gummy bears we had picked up at the front of the store. (Incidentally...it only happens about 10% of the time that your water breaks before you are actually in full blown labor...)

We ran home, grabbed a few necessities, changed clothes :), paused for a picture and headed to St. Marks. We arrived at about 9 pm and I still hadn’t really had any contractions that I could feel. When we checked in they said “We’ll put this lady who thinks her water broke in room 4…” Kristy just laughed inside as she was pretty sure it could not have been anything else. After we got all settled the contractions began coming steadily and quickly. Soon they were right on top of each other and I asked for the epidural. It was now about 11:30 pm. Before I got pregnant I thought "I am getting an epidural in the parking lot!" I felt sure I was a total wimp and couldn't deal with the pain. But after the birthing class, I felt really brave. It was helpful to have more information on all the options and the actual birth process. I thought I would see how long I could last before I got one. Bravery is fleeting amidst that much pain and the epidural couldn’t come quickly enough. In my class they had told me that "some women even sleep between contractions". Well maybe some people do...but my labor progressed so quickly that there was no "between" contractions. They were literally one right on top of another. So I go the epidural and it was just what the doctor ordered. I was ready to start pushing about 12:30 AM and finally at 1:53 in the morning, June 20, 2003, our baby girl was born.

We had gone through several variations on her name prior to her birth, but hadn't been able to settle on anything. Joey suggested Kelley Madison. I loved it! Kelley is my mom's maiden name and one of my sister's was nearly Kelley. Plus we spent a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa Kelley growing up and so it seemed perfect. When I was in college I went to New Jersey for the summer as a nanny and one of the little girl's I'd watched was named Madison. She was so adorable and I'd loved that name ever since. For a long time thought we would have a "Maddie" as our first little girl. In the end however I didn't love the fact that it was the number one name in the country (or close to it) and so it went in the middle. (As a funny side note I know relatively few Madison's, Kelley's age or otherwise :)

Kelley has been such a joy and a blessing in our lives. I was surprised at how instantly I loved her and how mothering came more naturally than I thought it would. I am truly blessed.

Oh Baby!

2009-11-09T17:53:00.000-08:00

Current Pregnancy update: Things are going well. I can't shake the worry that I'm going to end up with a baby this month though instead of next. I think I'm just being silly. I do this every time...but I have some legitimate reasons to worry. I started having Braxton Hicks contractions about 2 months ago on a regular basis: about a dozen or so a day. I don't remember any with Kelley (although I had to have had SOME) and only a few episodes with Tyler. They have steadily increased so currently I have about 2-3 an hour most of the time. I talked to my midwife about it and she said not to worry: as long as they go away when I lay down they aren't a problem. So far they have been mostly. They do tend to get worse throughout the day though and tonight they are as bad as they have been. They were pretty bad this afternoon, so I laid down and they went away. But now, 2 hours later I have had 13 contractions in the last 53 minutes. They aren't really painful, but they are a lot stronger tonight than they have been. So I've eaten, drank some water and am laying down. We'll see what happens. Really don't want to spend the rest of my evening hooked up to a monitor in the hospital just for them to tell me I'm being a worry wort, I should know better (already having had two kids previously) and to go home and take it easy. But then again, I really don't want to get to a point where they can't do anything about it (my labors have historically progressed VERY quickly) and end up with a premature baby that could have been saved that struggle.

Good news though. According to my ultrasound I was 34 weeks on Saturday. That means they could deliver the baby here in Cedar if it came at this point and babies at this age generally do really well, without long term problems. That being said, I have stuff still to do and really don't want a preemie if we can help it. That just seems like it would be super complicated with the daycare and it being winter and all. I am starting to get really uncomfortable most of the time and tired really easily, but I'm willling to buck up for a few more weeks :)

Can I brag a little too? I shouldn't say anything because I'll probably balloon in the next few weeks, but I have still only gained less than 10 pounds this whole pregnancy. Now before you get all jealous on me or something you have to know that I started this pregnancy probably 20 pounds heavier than I did with my other two...as much as I hate to admit that! But the funny thing is if I keep this up I will end up weighing less AFTER I have the baby than when I started. Joey keeps laughing about it and calling it the pregnancy diet. It's really exciting for me though because maybe it will give me the motivation to shed the rest of what I gained pre pregnancy after I have the baby. I always find it easier to loose weight when I am nursing. Love that little perk!

Anyway, I guess I better LAY down, instead of trying to just sit here as that doesn't seem to be helping. I'll let you all know if anything dramatic happens in the next few days...

Notice something new????

2009-11-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

When Kelley was two years old she fell and smacked her front teeth on the concrete at Park Discovery. They turned brown, but the dentist said we should just leave them in unless the started to bother her. Just before she turned 5 (Spring 2008) I noticed they were starting to turn pink. She also started complaining that they hurt. Had I looked behind them I could have clearly seen the problem, but the solution was the same either way. We took her into the dentist and he informed us that they were rotting and needed to be fixed. The "pink" color was from new blood draining through them. The backs of them were totally rotted and they were eating away the root.

At first he thought he could do it without pulling them, but when he determined the extent of the damage he decided they had to come out. He said it would probably be two Christmases where she could sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...." Eighteen months later we are happy to report that she only went one Christmas and now has two lovely front teeth coming in quite nicely! In a way I think she was actually kind of lucky. Instead of loosing them one at a time and then having one big fat tooth come in before the other, she gets them both at the same time. I don't know if that has anything to do with them being pulled or not, but it seems like a nice reward for having to go toothless for almost two years!

What are you going to be on Halloween Night?

2009-10-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

OK, so we love Halloween at our house. (I think I already SAID that :) Anyway, I'm ALL about the homemade costumes, although I usually bite off more than I can chew (more on that later). I just think they turn out so much better and last longer if you make them yourself. What you can buy at the store is nothing but junk anymore. Case in point: Tyler's spiderman costume this year already had seams ripping out of it.

But I digress... Joey was a pirate again this year. I spent so much time making it the first year (probably 5 years ago) and it turned out so good, he just keeps adding to it every year. One year he got a sword, the next a cool old looking gun. He's added keys and this year it was a talking parrot. I'm really proud of this costume, but I haven't got a lot of good pictures of it over the years. So I made sure to get some this year. As much as I like making our own costumes, this year we went for convenience. Tyler wanted to be spiderman. We didn't want to fight with him, so he got the $12 walmart special. Kelley's is actually one of my sister's old dance costumes. I think it's SO cute and so actually suggested it to her last year. She wanted to be a fairy princess, but this year agreed Red would be fun. So here's the pictures from the day. There are a lot of them...just to warn ya!

Kelley and Tyler, ready for the trunk or treat.

A pirate's wench.
The winning trunk at the ward trunk or treat. Joe does an AWESOME job playing his pirate part. Kids came back several times to tease him or get teased by him. He also put together a great Halloween soundtrack that we blasted through the stereo. It was SO fantastic that the battery in our car died. We almost thought we'd be stuck there all night!

I love that I got this picture at this moment. Kelley was "trick or treating" her dad. This is such a fun age...
My spiderman boy. He was kind of funny about stuff tonight and we had a hard time getting a good picture of him, but he looked just like every other Walmart Spiderman out there. It was funny because I was all worried about him being warm enough and ran and bought him sweats to wear under his costume this morning. Turns out we were trick or treating in 60 degree weather most of the afternoon and he really didn't need them for warmth, but they kind of bulked him up and made him look a little like he had muscles :)

Joe was messing around tonight after we got home and came in saying he was going to be a "sexy" pirate next year. I called him my "pretty boy pirate". After thinking about it though I realized he reminded me a bit of Porthos on the Three Musketeers. One thing I love about him is that he makes me laugh in all types of random moments :)

No one's going to bother THIS little Red Riding Hood.

Mom and Kelley. I also made this costume for myself at the same time I made Joe's. BUT this is such a classic example of me. I got the shirt done, but the skirt is still unfinished. It still has the elastic sticking out of the waistband waiting to be actually sewn up, instead of just safety pinned. AND it still needs the fancy beading I have for the bottom of it, which is as of yet unhemmed. I also have yet to make a proper sash/girdle for it. Twice when I've worn it I was pregnant and so I had that excuse that it wouldn't work anyway. But that leaves 2 or 3 other years I could have actually finished it before wearing it...ha ha!

33 weeks preggo. When I look down at myself I think "oh I'm not THAT big". When I look at pictures like this...it's feels like ALL belly :)

Random conversation in the car tonight while driving out to Grandma and Grandpa's:

Kelley: Tyler, that's what Halloween's all about: darkness

Tyler: Kelley, I don't know about darkness

Kelley: (in a half mutter) Whatever....

Carving Pumpkins

2009-10-30T23:14:00.000-07:00

We love Halloween around here. Not so much all the ghoulish, scary stuff, but the kind of fun silly stuff. Normally we get the house all decked out and everything. This year, the house has been neglected due to my inability to do much more than make it halfway presentable after daycare and Joe being very busy at work and with the bishopric. By the time we got around to the point of thinking about doing it, Halloween was nearly here and so we decided to focus our efforts on winning the trunk or treat trunk contest instead. That will happen tomorrow night so stay tuned for pictures of the scary results.

Anywho, for FHE this week we carved pumpkins. I don't really love carving pumpkins. I am not very artistic and it's just a big mess. The kids and Joey love it and so I let them do it for the family, helping out when needed. This year I was super impressed with Kelley as she did almost her whole pumpkin herself, including coming up with her own design.

Tyler had a great time watching dad carve his.

For me, it's just fun hanging out with the kiddos and hubs and watch everyone enjoy themselves so much.

Carmen Sandiego

2009-10-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Did any of you ever watch this as a kid? I loved it and my little sister liked it because her name is Karmin. So the other day she sent me a ring tone with the jingle. How fun is that? Well Tyler is now obssessed with the song and keeps asking me to play it for him. I got tired of the short version on my phone so found it on youtube. We are now listening to it for about the 50th time this morning and Tyler is singing along. It's really cute... He's figuring out most of the words, along with the be bops and um-bops, except no matter how many times I tell him it's "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" he asks for "In the world, in the world is Carmen Sandiego". Funny kid. He's been a lot of fun the last few weeks....maybe it's because there's less stress at my house right now, or because he's almost grown out of the difficult 3 year old stage...but I'm really loving hanging out with him lately!

If you ever want a vacation...

2009-10-20T17:37:00.001-07:00

...just say the words..."swine flu". So last week actually ended up quite nice. Kelley tested positive for Influenza A (could possibly have been the swine flu, but they didn't send on for that test) and Strep on Monday. We started her on the Tamiflu and antibiotics that night. Tuesday I felt like a total train wreck. I was exhausted, starting to get a little cough and congestion and a slight fever (101). So I ran in to get tested. It came back as negative for Influenza, but they put me on the Tamiflu anyway. I had the same thing happen to a friend if Richfield, so I get the sense that they aren't really messing around with pregnant women with this. My pediatrician was also kind enough to prescribe it for Tyler as well, without a test. He'd been pretty exposed to Kelley and had started running a slight fever (didn't even get up to 100), but he has his history of lung problems and so is considered high risk. So all three of us had started the Tamiflu by Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday I didn't have any daycare kids and we actually all felt great. We took the rest of the week to just relax and get some stuff done at home. We had a few kids here on Friday, but most people were steering really clear of our house.

I felt kind of guilty and started to wonder if we were really sick in the first place, but I think the combination of rest and the quick start of the Tamiflu must have done wonders because the kids that were here on Tuesday ended up with H1N1 for sure (their doc did send out for that test) about 2-3 days after they were here. So I guess I can take my "sick" vacation guilt free and with gratitude. Joe still thinks that we all sick in reaction to the flu shot we had received the week before we got sick. He's very skeptical about those things...

So the question now is do I and Tyler go get the H1N1 vaccine? We probably had it, but enough to develop immunity? Really neither of us were sick for a full 24 hours because I got so paranoid after Kelley tested positive and didn't let it get bad before we ran in and got drugs for us too. Should I try to get Kelley the vaccine too even though she's not high risk? Plus she actually probably had it last week... I don't know what to DO! What do you think?

Add to the list...

2009-10-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

So speaking of the last post and really how grateful I am to have health insurance and that this information only cost me $20....

Illnesses that my kids have had this year. To recap:

RSV and Strep...together (Tyler, cause of his hospital stay in January)

Strep

(You get the point...)

Tonsils out...

Influenza A and Strep...together. Kelley has both. Influenza A is the one that could be swine flu, but they aren't really testing for it anymore. We did catch it within the window of opportunity (she started getting sick yesterday) so she'll be taking Tamiflu, which is supposed to help. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous though about the Flu....if it is swine flu that is really scary for pregnant women. And guess who's been taking care of the little sickling...

I've been really lucky and haven't really caught any of their illnesses so far this year. Let's hope MY irish luck holds out, even if theirs hasn't. We could probably use all your prayers too...