Hello, again.....

It has been a crazy past couple of months! Let's catch everyone up....

So, Madison lost her first tooth! Wahoo!!! She has come home everyday since the first day of school asking me to inspect her mouth and wiggle her teeth to see if any were loose. Apparently she was the ONLY (according to her) first grader in the world who had not lost a tooth! Then, when we finally found a loose one, she was SOOOOOO excited. Every day she would wiggle it for me and ask if it was ready to come out. So, finally, on Saturday, April 4th she comes up to me and bends it pretty much all the way horizontal to her gumline....."is it ready?" she asks. So, I fought back the intense urge to hurl and told her I thought it was, but lets wait for dad. I went out to dinner with me sis-in-laws and came home to a jumping up with joy, freaking out, excited out of her mind little girl!!! Daddy had come home and pulled it out. She told me all about how it hurt a little but that she was SOOOO brave. Thank you to BJ for pulling it out (still not quite sure why this grosses me out so much) and hooray for Madison.....you are so grown up!!!!


Speaking of teeth.......
So we decided to take the kids downtown on Trax a couple of weeks or more ago. So, the train stops at one of the stations and B and I both look out the window and see this crazy old lady about to get on. This lady seriously looks crazy and is like sucking on her lips and gums because she has no teeth. Of course the second she gets on the train and sees my children it is like she gets sucked into their cuteness and just has to sit by them. She starts chatting with Madison and Braxton.......Madison just has a look on her face that says, "ok, so.....why are you even talking to me" and Braxton is just chatting it up with her but studying her face very intently. B and I both have to turn away because we are laughing soooo freaking hard at the situation. Then Braxton starts asking this woman very loudly "hey, guess what? Hey guess what? Hey....". The woman finally asks him "what?". Braxton gets a big grin, open his mouth and starts pointing to his teeth......"look, I have teeth!!!" Again, B and I have to look out the window......I was just dying!!! I cannot believe my child just said this, but it is about the funniest freakin' thing I have ever heard (and seen!!). Thank heaven this poor woman got off at the next stop.

So, we walked around downtown for a while.....stopped at the planetarium, the Gateway water fountains (where of course we had to stop and just look...ya right!!) and then of course some childrens stores to buy my sopping children some dry clothing!!! Then we decided to walk over to temple square and wander around there for a little bit. Of course on the way a homeless lady asks us for money and Braxton walks up to her, studies her, realizes that she too has no teeth, gets a huge grin, opens wide, points to his teeth and says "Guess, what?!?!? I have teeth!!!" Oh, boy!!! It was all I could do to keep my composure together long enough to grab him, aologize to this woman and turn to walk away. I must say, it was a great day for laughing!! Thank you Braxie!! I love you sooooo much!

All in all, it was a great day. The kids had a blast....they love to ride the "train".....such an adventure for them.

It's been a while.....

Well, it has certainly been a while since I have been involved in the world of blogging! I know, I know.....big time slacker! Actually I have a pretty good excuse. When you are me and you are..... PREGNANT (what was I thinking!?!?), you don't really get out of bed! It has been a lovely past couple of months. Lots of home health IV therapy, ER visits, doctors visits, drugs that don't work, and A freakin' NG feeding tube for a couple of weeks!! But hey, it will all be worth it come July.....right? I am hoping that the worst part of it is over. I can actually stand up for like 15 minutes now...pretty amazing! I can't say that blog posts are going to be a frequent occurance now, but at least I don't still have up the Christmas stuff.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I have to say that I really enjoy Thanksgiving! What is better than spending an entire day with your family and enjoying a great meal and good fun?

Will woke up before any of us to go play some good old football with his brother and some friends. He came home muddy, tired and sore but had an absolute blast!! I spent part of the morning baking.....I was in charge of dessert. I wanted to try something new so, I made a pumpkin roll for the first time and although it looks hard, it was very simple and actually turned out fantastic. YUMMY!!!

In the early afternoon we headed over to Wills parents house. We sat around talking and watching the kids play with toys and freak out about the fish in Nana and Papi's new fish tank!!! Although we did not get the chance to see everyone on his side of the family, we love them all! We are especially excited for next year when Will's youngest brother, Brett, will be home from Afghanistan!!! We really miss you Brett and can't wait to have you home!! Love you and be safe!!


Then it was off to my parents house. We ate a fabulous dinner then just lounged around for a while talking. After dessert we played a fun game of Scene It Squabble......girls lost (we let the boys win!!).

It was so great to spend time with my family, but I do have to say there was a rather large void in the day. My brother David and his family were not able to be there. David was diagnosed and hospitalized with Guillian Barre syndrome two weeks ago and has at least another week in the hospital and a long and hard recovery ahead of him after that. We (especially the kids) really missed having him there...."The Boy" (my name for him) is such a fun uncle and nobody can make you laugh as hard as he can!!! We love you Boy!!!

Here is just an example of what a joker he is....most of the time he has a thick head of hair, but this is how he showed up on Halloween!!!



Overall, it really was a great day! I am so grateful for all of the things that I have!! Here are some pics of my 3 greatest blessings!!!

Future Cheerleader?

I kind of always thought it might have been fun to have been a cheerleader or a member of the dance team, but I have always had.......lets see, how can I put this.....coordination challenges!!! So, I decided that I was going to make sure to put my kids in every class possible (sports, dance, karate, piano) so they could have their pick of extra curricular activities. I signed Madi up for a dance/cheer class and she looked forward to going every week-Wed was her favorite day!! But.....lets just say that she is turning out a lot like her mother (poor girl)!! I went to the final performance and I have to say it was sooooo stinkin' cute. She is just so tiny and cute!! I made the mistake of giving Madi a piece of gum before class and I think her dance performance may have suffered because of it. LOL-I think she was more concerned about chewing her gum than anything. Who knows, maybe if she keeps practicing she will grow out of it and become a star dancer someday. Who cares what you do.......Madi-I love you! Thank you for being the sweet and funny little girl you are!!!

So.........."Twilight"?

For all of you "Twilight" fans out there......WARNING: this post may cause intense feelings of shock, anger, disgust, sadness and hostility, in fact, I may be risking my very life by publishing the following.

I finally broke down a few weeks ago and read the book "Twilight" (GASP!!!). I had heard so many raving reviews and was told by I am sure at least 100 different people, that I was an insane freak-of-nature for not having read the series. And, every website, blog, facebook/myspace account has some picture or widget involving it. I mean, they MUST be great books if people order the books in advance or go to Barnes and Noble at midnight dressed up for prom just to get the most recent book published, right? Then, these same people go home and read the book into the wee hours of the morning until they are done with it. But, what really got me to read it was the fact that I had agreed to see the movie.....no, not the midnight showing but on opening day none the less!!

After reading the painful first 200 or so pages, I called my mom to ask if it was even worth it to finish it. She assured me that it would get better, so i mustered up the courage and did it. So......I don't get it?!?! I mean it did get better and by the end of it I thought it was good, but, not worthy of all of the hype!! (again, GASP!!!) Despite the disappointment in the slow start of the first book, I have started the second book in the series and have to admit that it peaked my interest much more quickly.....I'm only on like page 70 or so and actually want to finish it. Hey, who knows, maybe, by the end of the series, I will hat myself for publishing this post!!!

Now......onto the movie! I can sum in up in 3 words. WHAT THE HECK?!?! I will stick with the books.(Gasp! Oh my!! the sound of fainting bodies hitting the floor!) Actually, it has inspired me......I am going to be a millionaire someday!! Listen to this: So, I love science, especially dealing with the human body. I also like books and movies. So,I am going to invent a contraption that records images created by your brain as you read a book. Then, these images will be transferred to a DVD and Walla!!!!....you have you movie. And, it would be the PERFECT movie, right?!?!? Exactly how YOU imagined it!!

So apparently my laptop has some sort of a virus or something and blogging, esp. adding any kind of media to it, has driven me to the point of insanity!!! Anyways, because of that I am very behind on pictures from October. So, rather then doing separate posts, I am going to do a quick blur of October/Halloween..... Every year, I go to Gardner Village to see the witches. This year it was me, Madi, my mom, my grandma Barbara, and my Aunt Lori. We all had such a fun time chatting, shopping, seeing the witches and eating a YUMMY lunch at Archibalds. It was a beautiful fall day and the weather was nice and warm. We went over UEA weekend so it was WAY crowded (we won't make that mistake again!) The week of Halloween the kids and I went with my friend Jodi and her kids to a pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins. It was really fun......until it was time to leave! I think all 5 kids were screaming....awesome!!! After that, our family went to my mom's house for some pumpkin carving. The pumpkins all turned out really cool I thought! HALLOWEEN!!! I love it! It is so much fun to dress the kids up. It was kind of a whole week of Halloween for our family! The Saturday before we went to a Halloween party with a bunch of friends; Monday was the pumpkin patch and pumpkin carving; Tuesday was Braxton's school party; Wednesday was a break (whew); Thursday was Madison's school party and we had a fun little party at the church; Friday the kids were out of school and the day was filled with fun.....we went trick-or-treating at Grandpa Paul's work, visited Aunt Tandy, trick-or-treated around the neighborhood with some good friends, went to Nana and Papi's house, and ended up at Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Paul's.. What a day!!! The kids got way more candy then should be eaten in a lifetime (although it's almost gone) and by the time we got home, they were all asleep in the backseat!!

Peanuts anyone?

So, I was at my cute friend Shannon's house the other day and somehow we got to talking about kids and the messes they make. She was telling me about one night when her husband was home with the kids and how they had taken those Styrofoam packing peanuts, ripped them each into about a billion pieces and then (as if that wasn't mess enough!!!)scattered them in a trail from the basement of her house up to the main floor. We both started laughing and then both agreed that it seemed like those types of things always happened on the daddy's watch.....I mean come on, mom's are just so much better about keeping things in order, right? Well.......that same night, when we came home, I was cleaning my house while my darling, sweet, angel children were watching cartoons, and.....



they took the real peanuts from our pantry and decided to have a snack. These pictures do NO justice to how bad this mess really was. The shells were all over them so when they got up to run when they knew they had been caught, the shells scattered all over. Rather than get upset, i just had to laugh.....I guess I am not all that much better than the "daddy's" at keeping the messes to a minimum. Sorry all you dads!! There is also another message to be learned from this story.....get rid of all the peanuts in your house....edible or not!!!

Merry Christmas?!?!?

O.K, so this is not my typical style of blogging, but I just have to vent.......I apologize in advance to any of you Christmas FREAKS out there!! So, I get in my car with Cami this morning and as I am driving, I actually start to listen to what is being played on the radio........could this really be happening?......."Jingle Bells?" What the........heck (I will keep this G-rated). For a split second I though I was crazy and that maybe I had either slept through an entire month of my life or was in some strange universe!!! It is bad enough that all of the stores have been getting Christmas stuff on the shelves since before Halloween. I like Christmas as much as the next person, but c'mon, I think that a month of Christmas festivities is quite enough!! Maybe I'm the weirdo? Again, sorry to all the freaks out there, but could we at least get through Thanksgiving first?!?!?!

Oh, BRAXTON!!!!

All I can say is "Oh My Gosh"!!! Are all boys this much fun!?!?! So, about 2 weeks ago, we were at the InstaCare with Braxi getting stitches in his thumb. He sliced it with a boxcutter that someone (daddy-love you, honey!) accidentaly left on the kitchen table! Brax did suprisingly well-he is such a strong kid and I thought he would have to be tied down, but he was such a brave boy!!! He just cried a little, but held so still! Then, about a week ago at my parents house he stuck a freakin' bead up his nose. So......we were able to get it out without too much drama. Apparently, he liked the attention (or feeling) so much that exactly 1 week later he shoved ANOTHER bead up his nose!!! (where is he getting these stupid beads?!?!) This time was so much more fun than the first. We did our best "digging and blowing" (sounds fun, huh?) for about an hour and decided that it was time to visit our good friends down at the InstaCare!! Despite their best efforts, the bead had apparently found a permanent home! After reassuring me that it would be highly unlikely for him to suck it into his airway and choke him, we were told to go home, let him rest, let the swelling in his nose go down, and try to "blow" it out again in the morning. If we couldn't get it out, it was up to good old PCMC for some conscious sedation and "bead removal" experts!! The next morning, I gave it my best shot to get it out, but it was a no go. Just as we were about to leave for the hospital, B decided to give it one last ditch effort. We pinched the unaffected nostril, and B blew really hard into Braxtons mouth. WOW, GROSS, AWESOME, THANK HEAVEN!!!!!! There is was.....a little green bead, in a pool of sticky, green snot, all over daddy's face!!! (My hero!) The things we do for our kids!!!!

We've moved.......again!!!

Let me start by saying if we never move again it will be too soon!!!! We weren't even really planning on moving, but everything just sort of fell into place. Actually, this was the easiest move ever. We just moved about a block from our old home. The kids are in the same schools and we are closer to the park....just walk through the back gate and you are there! The house is amazing! (double the size amazing!) It is an older home and needs some (lots) of work, but we are getting settled, and slowly but surely making it home! There are three floors. The basement was just finished a couple of years ago, so it didn't need much work. We have spent most of our time on the main floor.....cleaning, stripping wall-paper, patching, painting, new flooring.......doesn't that sound like fun?!?!?! Just a few odds and ends left on the main floor, so on to the upstairs. All of the bedrooms are upstairs. Each of the kids now have their own rooms....this makes bedtime and naptime soooo much better. They are so excited to help mom and dad decorate their rooms! It will be interesting to see what Madi and Braxi pick out. The views from every door and window in the house are AMAZING.....mountains or valleys! B and I have a deck off of our bedroom with beautiful views of the west side of the valley, but it is about 25 feet off of the ground. B just walks all the way out the the edge while I have only worked my way about half way out! (hard to believe I bungee jumped in Mexico!) The backyard has not yet been landscaped, but it has a playground (needs to be refinished) and a trampoline (the kids' favorite new thing!) B is looking forward to landscaping it in the spring!! We have been so blessed to have had this opportunity to move into and live in this house and are excited to keep working on it and making it HOME!!!

Picture Day

Picture day for Madi and Brax was sometime last week and I thought that Madi looked so cute that I decided to take some pictures of my own. Apparently Brax was feeling a bit left out, because he came running into the room shouting "my turn" and "handsome"! It was perfect timing because although Madi was being a good sport, I could tell that she was sick of me trying to get that perfect picture......"look down, put your hand her, smile pretty, blah, blah....So, I let her off the hook and decided to get some shots of Brax. He IS handsome and I think that he is absolutely hysterical when he knows he is getting pictures!

Daddy's Girl

Since Madi and Brax have been in school, Cami has gotten lots of alone time with mommy and it has been great! But, Will has had the past week off (so nice!) and there was one day in particular that Cami was being such a daddy's girl! it was so much fun to watch them! She would bring him book after book after book and sit in his lap and read each one with him. While they were reading, she could hear the city clean up trucks outside and started saying "uh, uh, uh!!!" (this is pretty much all she says, but it seems to get her what she wants so why do or say anyhting else?!?!), so dad picked her up and let her watch the trucks for a bit. She was loving her one on one time with dad and it is definitely not hard to see that she has him wrapped around her little finger!

Bridal Veil Falls

So, last Sunday (9-7) we packed up the kids and headed up Provo Canyon to go to Bridal Veil Falls. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time! We just walked along the paved trail to the little wading area at the base of the falls. I don't think the kids were quite prepared for how cold (freakin' freezing!!!) the water was. Once they got over the initial shock, they had a blast splashing around. Cami insisted on walking around with her dad....in and out of the water.....in and out.....in and out...and on and on and on. It was SO cute to watch the two of them. Braxton was in heaven splashing, hiking and throwing rocks into the water.....although I don't think the people getting splashed were loving it! Madi was such fun to watch. She would go between doing her own thing and then helping her brother and sister. She was being a little bit of a dare-devil and trying to hike higher up the falls.....of course then braxton had to follow! Yeah, needless to say, that freaked me right out! When the kids were done playing we slowly walked backed to the car, hopped in and drove the looooong way home. We drove up and around through Heber and Midway and then down Parley's canyon. It was beautiful! The leaves are just barely starting to change.....I am sure in the next few weeks, it will be full of reds, yellows, oranges and purples.....definately a drive worth taking!!

Back in school!!!

So, Braxie is back in preschool. He is at the same school and with the same teacher! (she is wonderful!!) I took him to the open house last Thursday. It took some convincing to get him in the van.....when I told him we were going to school to see Miss Lisa he was convinced that the bus was coming to get him! When we got there for the open house he ran up and gave his teacher the biggest hug ever. In fact, his teacher was surprised....she hugged him back and told me that most kids (esp. kids like Braxie) don't do that! He played with one of the TA's so I had a chance to talk to his teacher about the upcoming year. His first official day was Tuesday. We got up and dressed and I asked him if he wanted to go to school and he said "YES!", grabbed his Lightening McQueen backpack, and ran to the front door screaming "the bus is coming!!!" As the bus came up the street, he could barely contain his excitement! He was jumping up and down, flapping his arms and squealing! As soon as the doors opened he couldn't get in it fast enough. He paused long enough for a quick picture and then he was off! When he got home, the bus driver told me what a cute kid she thought he was and that he insisted on sitting in a booster seat. I am so excited to see what kind of progress Braxton makes this year. Last year, his communication skills increased dramatically....his vocabulary is huge, he is speaking in short sentences, he interacts with other people, he exhibits imaginative play...etc. I am hoping this progress will continue this year. He will continue with speech therapy at school and they are also going to add some occupational therapy as well. He is such a happy boy, espescially when he is in school. I love to see the big smile on his face when he gets on and off the bus and I love to bring him in and talk to him about school. We are so blessed to have him in our family!!!

FIRST GRADE

I can't believe it!! Madison started 1st grade this week! She has asked me at least once a day for the past few weeks, when she started school. We went in and met her teacher on Monday nd she seems like such a nice lady and Madi seemed to really like her. I was all sorts of excited for school to start.....until Monday night when I got no sleep! I had nightmares all night......late for school, mean teacher, mean kids.....on and on and on! Madi, however, slept great and woke up bright and early Tuesday morning, excited to get ready and go! As, I walked her to the school, reality started to set in and I started to panick. She was going to be gone ALL day. My heart started to beat fast, and I wanted to take her and run back home!! When we got to the front of the school, Madi walked right over to the where the first graders lined up and began making new friends and hugging old ones. She turned around and shot me that "mom, you can go now" look and I felt tears spring to my eyes. Of course I stayed and watched her walk into the school....the whole time fighting the urge to grab her and run. As I walked back to the car, I went from misty eyed to full on crying!!! WHAT?!?!? I did not expect that at all. I thought that I might enjoy a littte bit of silence (for those of you who know madi, you know what I mean!), but the reality is that I miss her like crazy!! She is such a sweet, fun little girl and such a big helper. I love you, Madison. Just a cute little side story.....when I got home, Braxton could see that something was wrong, so he came up to me, sat in my lap and gave me great big loves. Just as I was feeling a little better, he gets up and walks away. But then, he comes back with a fistful of tissues for me to dry my tears and then proceeds to stand there and make sure that I stop crying. Could he be any cuter?!?! I love you Braxie!!