Busy Trouble

This morning my kids have been busy. In the first hour of being awake Josh and Daniel decided to play barber with my kitchen scissors. Luckily I caught them before things got too bad and before they made their way to Sarah. I think I will have to do haircuts for them sooner than later, however. Daniel does have a few bald spots, but nothing a buzz can't cure. All I can say is good thing he's a boy who likes short hair. Then I was getting ready to take the kids to school when I went to pick up Sarah and she had a huge blowout. I hurriedly gave her a wet wipe bath got some different clothes and left. I think the kids got to school just before the last bell rang. I hope this isn't a sign of how my day or week is going to go. My kids keep things exciting.

All Your Saturdays are Over

This weekend was pretty boring all in all. Saturday we opted not to go to Matthew and Josh's soccer game for a couple reasons which were they were having a rather difficult day behavior wise and it was very cold outside with the icy wind blowing. I have decided that AYSO instead of standing for American Youth Soccer Organization it stands for All Your Saturdays are Over because every game is on a Saturday at various times throughout the day. I don't feel too bad because they have seven more weeks of Saturday games to attend. Instead Aaron got some more of the Honey Do list done such as putting fluorescent lights in the garage, painting the fence, playhouse and his new trailer. He even took the trailer on the maiden voyage with no mishaps--meaning it was still attached to the van and both were in one piece when he got back home. We are excited to pick up some nutramulch and tiller next week to start our garden. I almost taste the fresh tomatoes yummy--now if it would just stop snowing.

Today in primary I got to help out in Matthew's class. While in senior sharing time they gave the kids a reward for learning the songs so well. It was ice cream and cake. I told the Primary President that Daniel couldn't have any when the Junior Primary came in. Luckily I had a half a bag of skittles in my purse that I got so he could at least get a treat. I guess when the time came they got confused as to which one had the allergies--Josh or Daniel. They just played it safe and neither one got cake or ice cream. They both got skittles. I am really glad they were very cautious. I would rather have it that way than the other, however, Josh would have liked some ice cream--oh well, maybe next time. We have been really blessed by living where we do. Our ward really has worked with my kids' different special needs and it has been great. They can really roll with the punches Matthew gives them in Primary and for that I am very thankful!! Our ward has also really worked with Daniel's allergies. We even get Daniel friendly bread for the sacrament. It is really nice to live around such considerate people. THANK-YOU!

Old

Another birthday has come and gone and, boy, do I feel old. Aaron is rubbing in the fact now that I am two years older than he is right now, but only until May. He told me when I woke up before I got out of bed to wait for him to get my walker--I'm sure glad I married a comedian (read with much sarcasm!) Anyway, Aaron did give me the greatest birthday present! He potty trained Daniel for me back in January. Since I had already received my "gift" I was surprised when he called and scheduled me an appointment to get a haircut, color and pedicure. This was nice because I was able to have 4 hours of kid free bliss. He was hoping I would cut my hair short because he does not like long hair, but I am hoping to donate my hair. I could have donated it yesterday, but I would have had a really short haircut and I didn't want to go quite that short. Maybe next haircut I can since I only get them every 6 months. I also colored it to cover all my gray hair growing in--now they just look like highlights :). When I finished and came home, Aaron had ordered me a birthday cake from the bakery. He couldn't find any candles so I got to blow out a lighter after he and the kids sang Happy Birthday. It was a nice birthday it almost got me feeling better about being one year older--almost. Now if I could get Aaron to stop teasing me about our two year age difference right now...

Allergist

Daniel had an appointment with the allergist today. He, unfortunately, has not outgrown any more allergies yet :(. He is developing even more allergies if you can believe it. That's the course for these type of food allergy patients or so the doctor says. He is starting in to the bad seasonal allergies now, but at least his medication is preventing the brunt of his symptoms--watery eyes, asthma, runny nose, etc. At this visit we had the skin prick test. He only gets this once a year and I am glad because it is pretty bad. They place the allergen protein on his back then scratch it into his skin to see what kind of reaction happens. Here are the before and after pictures. He was a very charming patient wrapping the staff around his finger because he left with pocketfuls of suckers and stickers. At our next visit in six months we will have to get his labs drawn to test his reaction that way. Keep you fingers crossed that maybe, just maybe, he might be able to expand his food horizons.

BEFORE

10 MINUTES AFTER

In other news I started a Yoga and Pilates class last night with my sister and sister-in-law. I have to say it is harder than it looks or rather I am more out of shape than I thought. It should be interesting to see if I get better as time goes on seeing as I have always lacked balance and coordination anyway. Even if I don't it is still nice to get out of the house without kids with me even though Aaron has to deal with a sad Sarah the whole time I am gone.

Dino Playgroup

Today was Daniel's turn to host playgroup. We had a great time putting thumbprints on dinosaur pictures. The kids were excited that someone would let them put paint on their fingers and then let them play with it. Here they are showing their masterpieces: In other news I have had sick kids the last few weeks so I have not been able to do much grocery shopping. To try and get caught up yesterday, I decided I would go. Aaron was willing to stay home with the boys as long as I took Sarah with me. I agreed and was getting ready to leave when I picked up Sarah and felt something wet and slimy. Knowing that is never a good thing I turned her around to find this:To make it doubly bad to start with she was sitting up using the Boppy pillow when she started sliding down. It was about this time she had her blowout. She then continued to slide down to the laying position spreading the blowout up her back and all over in her hair. Needless to say I didn't make it to the store. I spent the rest of the night cleaning her up and then trying to clean the stain out of the carpet since she was not sitting on top of a blanket when this happened. Maybe I will make it grocery shopping sometime soon, but who knows...Also, any helpful hints about how to get such stains out of carpet would be appreciated :).

Sarah's 7 Month Pictures

I finally got around to taking Sarah to get some pictures done. Here are some of the smiley and chunkalicious pictures:

Weekend Wanderings

This weekend we stayed pretty busy. I won some tickets to the Ogden Rodeo from a radio station for Friday night. We stayed for a while at the rodeo until the kids got pretty restless then we left to come home. The next morning Aaron, after multiple trips to Lowes and lots of help from Matthew and Daniel, finally finished putting the trailer together. After he finished we went down to visit G&G T. Daniel helped out so much he wore himself out and fell asleep on the way to G&G T's house. While we were there Aaron hooked up the hitch and wiring to the van with the help of my Dad. Now we are just in search of things to tow just to try it out.

Today we had a shortened church schedule due to the Draper Temple dedication time. That means everyone gets to come home 40 minutes early and have a little bit of quiet time--which we're really loving it!

This week we went and had lunch with Aaron. We decided to try Sarah out in a high chair for the first time. She loved it as you can tell from the picture.

When 7 Year Olds Dress Themselves

This is the result when I asked Matthew to get himself dressed this morning without my help. I must say it is a better result than when Daniel got himself dressed earlier, but you just gotta love the horribly wrinkled shirt, Dad's huge socks, and Josh's too small shorts. He is pretty proud of himself so I can't say too much and I absolutely can't ask him to change. If you see us somewhere today, don't laugh until we are out of earshot...please.

Green Eggs and Ham

Yesterday for St. Patrick's Day we had a very green dinner. Thanks to green food coloring we had green eggs and ham along with green pancakes, green syrup, green muffins and green soy milk--by the way ham is very hard to turn green with food coloring. Daniel could eat everything but the eggs so he wasn't left out. I wanted to take a picture of all their green milk mustaches, but didn't before they were washed off. After dinner I couldn't find my Green Eggs and Ham book so we just watched a cartoon about the book. Earlier in the day our city has a beautiful fountain in a park by our house. For St. Patty's Day they colored the water very green so we took a walk down there to see it and of course play at the park for a little while because it was such a sunny day. The kids had a fun St. Patrick's day.

I must say it does not look very appetizing! Amazingly enough everyone ate it without complaint.

After all the kids went to bed Daniel snuck downstairs, as he frequently does, needing "wuvs". Aaron being the softy consented and snuggled up with him until he fell asleep. We were thinking and realized that he is not going to want "wuvs" from us for too much longer so we are enjoying it for now. My babies are getting so big so fast! My Sarah just hit 7 months old. Where has the time gone?

St. Patrick's Day

Being St. Patrick's Day I made sure my boys wore some kind of green today so they wouldn't get pinched at school. I am sure glad I did because Josh told me when I picked him up from kindergarten that if you didn't wear green you got punched out. When did St. Patrick's Day become violent? I didn't think I was that old. When I was in school you just got pinched if you didn't wear any green. I guess it has escalated to punching out. Boy and I thought pinching was bad...Maybe slip of the tongue (punched vs. pinched) or slip of a fist--there's not that much difference between them besides some black eyes, right?

Weekend Warriors

This weekend Sarah was still sick so we were stuck at home. We have been needing a way to transport different items, but we didn't want to buy a truck. Last week we got a utility trailer with a hitch to attach to our van. It was a lot cheaper than buying a truck. The only thing was it came in pieces so Aaron had to assemble it. That is what he did ALL weekend long. Whenever you ask him how long a project will take you have to triple that answer and add 10 hours plus multiple trips to Lowes. It probably would have taken a little less time had he not had lots of "help" from the boys. Daniel "helped" the most by taking wire cutters and cutting the wires to the brake lights. Good thing I married and Electrical Engineer so he can fix problems like that. The kids also went crazy with the sidewalk chalk all over Aaron's car. We are hoping it rains soon so it will get washed off. While Aaron was keeping the boys occupied outside I was taking care of a sick Sarahbug inside. Since I was stuck inside I decided to start a project I have always wanted to do, but was too chicken. I have started painting a mural on Sarah's bedroom wall. It is taking me a lot longer than I thought it would, but I hope it turns out ok. I am about 1/3 of the way through the project--I guess the same rule applies to me triple the estimation and add 10 hours with multiple trips to Hobby Lobby, right?!? We are keeping the bedroom locked because I can just imagine how much fun the boys would have with all the tubes of paint.

Poor Sarah

We have had quite a week. Sarah started getting sick at the beginning of the week. It went downhill from there. I took her in to the InstaCare Wednesday night. She had an ear infection, horrible cough and a fever. They gave her an antibiotic (which she loves as much as rice cereal). To get her to take it we have to hold her down and force it down her throat. I feel terrible making her take it. Anyway, that night I spent downstairs with her to help her sleep sitting up to assist her breathing. She just screamed all night long and I mean all night long. She was wheezing and was having a hard time breathing. Yesterday we made an appointment with her regular doctor in which Aaron, the wonderful Dad he is, took off work and took her in. Since he is not used to taking her anywhere alone, he left the diaper bag and all the baby supplies at home. As soon as he got to the office Sarah had the most wide spread blowout of all time. Good thing the pediatrician's office has extra diapers and wipes. Sarah ended up just wearing a diaper until she got home. While at the pediatrician's office we she tested positive for RSV--poor thing. She feels miserable and in turn lets us all know it. I started her on nebulizer breathing treatments which she HATES as well, but it looks like she is finally starting to be on the mend.

We also had an ER visit last week for Daniel. He was on breathing treatments and they just weren't clearing him up. It was horrible just watching him struggle to breath so we had to take him in to the ER to get some help. Luckily, he was doing great by the next morning. Jeez, I thought we were going to have a hard time spending our $1800 in our flex spending account this year, but so far we are already halfway through it and it is only MARCH! I am so thankful for HEALTH INSURANCE and Flex Spending Accounts!! Kids are expensive!

When 3 Year Olds Dress Themselves

His pants are on backwards and his shirt is inside out. However, he was somehow able to do up his shirt button backwards as well. Usually I help him get dressed, but he is starting to be Mr. Independent and when he does that is when the above happens. At least we aren't going to many places today.

Daylight Savings

Daylight Savings is a good thing and a bad thing. I love that it is lighter later. I hate that because it is lighter later, the boys stay awake longer to tease and beat each other up at bedtime. I can't tell you how many fights I have had to break up the past few nights. We are starting to think about switching up the sleeping arrangements in the near future.

Today I got to see how far a small piece of styrofoam could be spread throughout my house. I was downstairs and didn't see Josh and Daniel get a hold of it until after the damage had been done. It was so bad that when Matthew, who is the most unobservant child, walked inside after getting off the bus he asked me what had happened in here. The picture doesn't even do it justice because you can only see the big specks not all the teeny ones that are EVERYWHERE. There are specks on all three floors. This all happened in the space of 20 minutes. Why can't they work that fast at getting ready in the morning?

Sarah is a girl who knows what she wants or doesn't want, when she wants it and she'll definitely tell you either way. She is absolutely REFUSING solid food. She took it for a few days and now whenever she feels the spoon on her lips she clamps her lips very tightly closed. None of my other kids ever had this problem. I have been reading online--not the most reliable source of info I know--but I am glad to know she is not the only one. I guess we will keep trying. She has got to take it eventually...hopefully. I don't want to be one of those Le Leche League members that feeds their kids into the teenage years....

Painted

We have finally painted Sarah's room and of course it is PINK. We decided to do it yesterday and so while Aaron watched the kids, I painted. I am excited to finally decorate one of my kid's rooms. We have lived here for over 5 years and I have yet to do anything. I guess it took having a girl to get me jump started. I am hoping to get some more decorating stuff done, but hey, it took me five years to do this. I don't want to rush into anything...

Today at church I substituted in Matthew's primary class. It has been years since I have been in actual primary other than nursery. Matthew's primary teachers are moving and we are very sad to see them go. They worked really well with him. I just hope the new teachers fare as well. They told me if I substituted in Matthew's class they would find a substitute for me in nursery--kind of funny to find a substitute for a substitute. It is always interesting to see how Matthew is in comparison to his peers. I just think..whoa, we have a long way to go. Then I look at how far we have come and think we can do this...hopefully.

Goosed

Today we went to Harbor Freight which is quite a manly store with their wide selection of tools, machines, and all other manly stuff. Matthew insisted on wearing his Heely shoes--the shoe with the skate in the sole. He is still learning how to work them so he is not quite steady on his feet. While we were there he was holding on to me and skating around. Aaron and I had stopped to look at something and next thing I know Matthew is holding on to a stranger for support. Now he isn't just holding on anywhere, Matthew has his hand grabbing this guy's bum. The burly guy turned around to see who the pervert was and saw it was just Matthew. Not knowing what to say I took Matthew to a different part of the store where there were no burly guy's bums to grab--not that I have ever noticed that before (except on Aaron of course). Gotta love kids!

Eaten Out of House and Home

Matthew has a huge appetite. The other day I was going out visiting teaching during dinner time. Because I was going to be gone, I baked two family size pizzas for Aaron, Matthew and Josh to eat for dinner thinking I could just grab some when I got home. By the time I got home there was no pizza in sight. Josh and Aaron split one and Matthew ate the entire other one by himself. Also this last weekend Matthew was with G&G T and they took him to McDonalds. Knowing he is somewhat of a big eater they ordered him a happy meal along with a 10 piece chicken nugget. He breezed through his happy meal and chicken nuggets, moved onto all of Grandma T's fries and half of Grandpa T's fries. He amazes me. I wish I could eat all that and still be skinny enough to see all of my ribs--I guess it does help that he NEVER sits still, either. I wonder if I will have to go back to work through his teenage years just to keep us all in food especially since there will be two other growing big appetite boys in the house.

Sweet Tooth...or Gums?

Thanks to many helpful suggestions we have finally found a combination of food that Sarah will eat. We had our first success tonight. We mixed rice cereal with apple juice and it was quite a hit. From looking at her I don't know if she even got any in her tummy, but she attempted quite a bit. Just to let you know starting out her bib was pink. I guess she has a sweet tooth (or gums as the case may be). She is also getting really good at sitting up. My little girl is getting so big!

We were at the church distribution center the other day and found a DVD with scripture stories on it. We got it for Sunday viewing and Josh and Daniel seem to like it. They are even learning things from it. For example today Matthew was doing something he wasn't supposed to and Josh said, "Stop being wicked, Matthew!" That wasn't quite what I wanted them to learn, but hey it's a start right?

Quick Trip

This weekend we took a quick trip to a few places. It was Aaron and my nephew's ordination (crazy to think that Jason is 12!) down in Circleville which is a very small town down by Richfield, Utah. On the way down we dropped Matthew off at G&G T's house for overnight while the rest of us went down. We thought it was best for him to have FULL TIME supervision of 2 adults (G&G T) rather than part time supervision by Aaron and I split between four children. After dropping Matthew off we drove the 4 hours for the visit. Josh and Daniel loved playing and seeing all their cousins. All the cousins loved taking turns holding baby Sarah. Even though it was a quick visit everyone enjoyed themselves--thanks for hosting us Susan! On the way back we picked up Matthew and now Josh and Daniel are just waiting for their turn for a sleepover at G&G T's house. However, I think we will wait a little while to let them recover from Matthew's sleepover. G&G T kept him pretty busy between feeding ducks, going to McDonalds, riding the tractor, reading and playing the piano with him they will need a little recuperation time. Thanks Mom and Dad!

I guess now it is back to the grind. I am currently looking at all our full suitcases dreading the unpacking. That is why I am updating the blog to prolong the terrible task of unpacking and laundry--ugh! Hmmmm I wonder what else I can do to prolong it even more...any ideas?