Random Updates...

So this post is a random, catch all for the past I don't know how many months. Clearly, I have missed posting about each of the kids most recent birthdays, and they all had one, but this is going to focus on noteworthy events that have happened since the first of the year.

 First, {k} had his tonsils out in Jan. Here is a before...

 and here is the after. :) Clearly, he wasn't all that worse for wear after the procedure. The following month was tougher for him than for his siblings when they got their tonsils out, but he recovered just fine in the end.

 The end of the school year brought {A} earning Honor Roll for his class. He was one of only a handful of kids in his class to earn honor roll. We are very proud of how hard he worked in school this year.

  

 {A} participated in the school choir this year also. He would meet about 40 minutes early two days a week, and practice. They had 3-4 concerts throughout the year, and were even able to sing at the Capitol Rotunda during Christmas time. He loves to sing!

 

{a} graduated from Preschool in May. She had a wonderful teacher, and a super fun experience! She will now join her brothers in school this year, as a kindergartener!!

 My Grandpa {G} passed away in July. He was 93 and had had a wonderful, long fulfilling life. He went rather quickly, for which we are all grateful. He is now celebrating with Grandma {L} in Heaven. Love you Grandpa!!

July also brought {K} turning 8. This meant he got to have a friend birthday party. He invited 8 friends from school/church and had such a fun time! The most favorite activity were these bubble snakes. They dipped the end of a sock into a light bubble/water mix and then blew in the end of a water bottle. These cool "snakes" would then appear.

{K} made the choice to be baptized. He was baptized and confirmed by his dad and we then had a small gathering of family and close friends for dinner after. We are so proud of you, {K}!!



The following is a synopsis of what I have had to deal with this summer: (I wrote this to a friend in an email)
 While we were gone camping the end of June, I ended up getting mastitis in my left breast. It is very rare for women to get mastitis if they arent nursing, but apparently it can happen. So far it has been two weeks.  They cultured it last week and it is staph. Not good. Last friday a surgeon cut a two inch slit just to the left of my nipple in hopes that the infection would have somewhere to drain. I head back to the surgeons office today for a checkup. It really isnt getting better. In the meantime i have had a rash from the antibiotic. I am so ready for all this to be behind me.
 Next, I wrote:
 Really long story short, we finally made the decision to see another breast care surgeon(who is 1000 time better than the first) and she was willing to try and diagnose the problem, instead of just trying to get rid of the problem. She did cancer biopsies and thankfully they are all negative. She did however, diagnose my breast infection/inflammation as glanulomatous mastitis(GM). It's basically mastitis in my glands. Then, on top of that, I ended up getting erythema nodosum(EN). This is basically an umbrella term for a hypersensitivity/inflammation reaction to (blank). The blank can be infection, inflammation, reaction to antibiotics or any combination of the above. It was extremely painful bruise-like sores all over my legs. I could hardly walk, kneel and whenever I put my legs down I could feel the blood rush to my legs. She put me on prednisone, and I am pleased to share that the meds began working almost immediately. The leg pain is completely gone, and the bruises are looking wonderful(compared to what they did look like).
The surgeon found an article that links the GM to the EN, so that proved to her that they are connected somehow. The GM is a pretty rare kind of mastitis, so she is sending me to a rheumatologist for further consultation to determine if I have an underlying auto-immune something going on.


So, there you go. Major update from our family. Now, on to back to school!! :)

follow up thoughts, and pictures!!

My friend left this comment on my previous post. Oh, she is so wise. :)

 “My message to you today, my brothers and sisters, is simply this: the Lord is in control. He knows the end from the beginning. He has given us adequate instruction that, if followed, will see us safely through any crisis. His purposes will be fulfilled, and someday we will understand the eternal reasons for all of these events. Therefore, today we must be careful to not overreact, nor should we be caught up in extreme preparations; but what we must do is keep the commandments of God and never lose hope!”
M. Russell Ballard, “The Joy of Hope Fulfilled,” Ensign, Nov. 1992


 Just know that although I am not happy with the State of the Union, nor of it's current leader, I am happy with the State of my family Union and really do not plan to concern my time or thoughts about things I really have no control over. I will pray for him and hope the leadership as a team can work together.
I get to be a momma of 4 beautiful children, and so I will work on teaching and training them to be strong, courageous, thoughtful people instead of worrying about other things. :)



On a more fun note, we got school pictures back and thought I would share. I know lots of moms refuse to pay the high price of school shots, but I choose to because this way I know I have one really great picture of each of my children to document each year.

{A} age 9, 4th grade

{K} age 7, 2nd grade

{a} age 4, preschool

{k} age 2

thoughts and updates

I know I haven't posted much lately, but I did want to mention a couple of things. I have a pretty heavy heart this morning after yesterday. I am very disappointed that Mr. Obama has been reelected. I was so hoping for this country to wake up and see the good in Mr. Romney. I fear for this country. I worry about my children and the evil they will have to overcome. I will pray that Mr. Obama will make good choices for the better of the whole country and not for his socialist plans.


It has been fun to watch my boys learn about the election and how hard the teachers worked to help them understand the electoral system.

Also, {K} started in a new classroom this week. He was tested for the full-time GATE program recently at school. He is now in a 1/2 combo class. So far, I am really impressed with his teacher and hope for the very best for him!!
{A} has been in a 3/4 full-time GATE class since the beginning of this school year. He has struggled adapting to the rigors of a much more difficult program, but I have seen progress in his organization skills. Next, we are working on helping him to listen more intently to the lessons at school, and to use his time more wisely during class. I am still convinced he is where he needs to be though. He received high marks on his report card which tells me he is learning the material, we just need to work on time management. I am excited to see what he can learn this year.
{a} is LOVING preschool. She has a wonderful teacher who is helping her to be completely prepared for kindergarten. There are 8 kiddos in her class, which is a great size. She is the oldest in her class. I love that she loves it!!
{k} is ready to have his tonsils out. Unfortunately, he is not old enough yet to do so. In the mean time, he is miserable and snoring all night long. He wakes regularly and makes noise. It has been a rough couple of nights.

back to school

Yesterday was the first day of school for the 2012-2013 school year. {A} started 4th grade in an all day Challenge (Gifted and Talented) Program. {K} started 2nd grade with an awesome teacher that we love! {a} will start preschool next week, also with a teacher we love. The boys were so excited yesterday to start school.

I have the opinion that my children should get to choose what they wear, so I dictate very little what they choose to wear on any given day. (Understanding that I am still the one who BUYS their clothes. :)) This is especially reflective in what {K} chose to wear for the first day of school. Blue and orange stripes with green camo shorts. :)

{k}'s blanket broke

so {k} has attached himself to one particular blanket, and one particular corner of that blanket. It is really quite gross. He sucks on it, sticks it in his ear, eyes and nose. It was very ratty. So, I cut it off. I sewed up the corner on his blanket, and he really doesn't seem to care. The video is cute.

He says quite a few things now. "oke" broke, "up" cup, "uh-uh" for yes or no(he now will nod his head to agree when he wants something), "nore" more, "ball" ball, "u-key" monkey. eta: "ninner" dinner, "um" some, "um" yum, "eese" cheese.
He received an adorable stuffed monkey for Christmas and has totally attached himself to it. It's really cute how much he loves it.

He is 20 months old now. He loves nursery and being funny. He is silly and loves to laugh. I can already tell he is going to be hilarious and a joker/teaser when he grows up. Much like {K} and his Dad. :)

budding photographers, and burned hand

Recently, I let 3 of my kiddos have a chance to take pictures around our yard. It was fun to see what they found important enough to take pictures of. Here are my 1 fav from each child.

The Tree by {A}
Corn by {K}
Baby by {a}









Also, I wanted to mention for journaling reasons, that {k} had his hand burned recently. We had a hot small bbq grill out, and he touched it with his right hand. It blistered right away, and popped that evening. He has had it wrapped in a bandage for a week now, but seems to be healing nicely. Poor little guy. We feel so horrible, but are grateful there shouldn't be any scars.

{a}'s birthday

Sister had her 3rd birthday right before Christmas. She was so cute about the whole thing. She got a high chair for her doll...
a rocking horse...a dump truck.
Here she is telling us that she's 3!

I LOVE this picture. She is blowing out her candles. But, what I love most is the expression on her brothers faces... :) HAPPY Birthday Sister! We love you! We love your crazy, funny personality and can't imagine our little family any other way!

Here is a video of her dancing and singing with some Christmas ornaments. Sorry it's sideways. Can't figure out how to change that...

ETA: I thought I would add a few things about what she is into right now. Her favorite song is Twinkle Star(twinkle, twinkle, little star). She LOVES her little brother, and her doll. She is in Sunbeams now and absolutely LOVES it. Her teacher is Sister Smithee and she calls her Sister Smoovee. I love the way she says it. She enjoys reading books at night especially her "sandwich book" and Silly Sally. She can be bossy at times. She still uses her hair as her lovey and twirls it to no end. She also sucks her tongue and has since she was very little.

zoo

Recently, we went to the zoo. I took my camera along (shocker, I know) and the condor was spreading his wings. They were enormous! I am guessing atleat 6 ft across.

Then the kids climbed on the komodo dragon and camel. We enjoy going to the zoo (with a zoo pass) on even rainy, or cold days. An hour is great fun if you don't feel like you HAVE to see everything this trip. Just the other day we went and the lions were out and very close to the glass. The male is HUGE! Their zookeeper came to the glass, and it was quite obvious that those lions knew just who he was. The zookeeper just had to wave his arm toward the shelter door and the male went right in. It was neat to see.

hodgepodge

ok, LOTS has happened in the past 2 months. Hold on for lots of pictures.



First, first day of school. {A} is in 2nd grade, and {K} is in morning kindergarten. He was so nervous. But, after about 3 days, he TOTALLY settled in and has done wonders! The next two are of {k} in his blessing outfit that I made. The booties are from my Moms beighbor that has taken a liking to me. She is from Uzbekistan--I am SURE I spelled that wrong, but I thought it would be fun to have him wear them at the blessing.

Next, {a} actually fell asleep while leaning on the chair...

{k} at almost 3 months old.

{a} Little sis decided she wanted to wash her feet, only she didn't think to pull up her pants.

I was going to post on this when it happened. {a} wanted to play a game, so we did. She is getting so interactive lately.

{a} I absolutely {adore} that she loves to wear these goggles. and she wears them all the time!

{K} and {a} playing super heroes.

{A} was chosen as Citizen of the Month for Sept.

{a} I LOVE her sense of style. She wore this flower to the store the other day, and got more giggles out of people... :) She is 2 3/4 years old here.

{A} at 7 1/2 years old.

We were taking pictures of each other.

This is one of {K} upset because, well, I don't know why... :)

Smoothie 'staches.

{A} was so excited. He got to go with Dad on a scout overnighter, and this time he got to wear a "real" backpack.

{K} wanted me to take his pic with the pumkin. He is 5 years old.

{k} at 4 months old.

so we had our RS Bday dinner last night. I say, it was a success! Considering we had all of about 3 weeks to plan it, not bad! I was totally in charge of the food. We had chicken salad Croissants-yum!, and Bear Creek Soup-double yum! We had about 15 sandwiches left, and about 55 people. There was quite a bit of soup left, but how do you know how much soup to plan for?? I certainly don't know. The food got rave reviews, so I feel good about it. I had lots of help--thanks ladies!! and it was so nice that I could actually sit down and enjoy a meal with my friends! Now, on to the next adventure.... whatever THAT is. :)

why??? Why is it that when I take the time to set up that stupid v-smile is it that a certain 4 year old then YELLS at me because it is not doing what HE wants it to? and, why does he YELL at ME when I can't make it do what HE wants it to? why???

well, hubby and I went out for a "romantic" dinner to Golden Corral and then to the Home Depot and Lowe's. I know!! You can't get any better than that!! But, then he dropped me off at home, and took another quick trip to Home Depot for lightbulbs, and surprised me by stopping at WAGS and bought me a Slap Chop! :) Only a gal like me could get excited about something like that. OH! and he bought me some Junior Mints. So sweet! :)

HAPPY V-DAY, DH!!! I love you with all my heart, and I can't wait for another 11 1/2 years!! :)

#3 bragging rights--that counts for something, right?

so my dad offered up a challenge to all his kids to beat him in the football bowls that have been going on for the past couple of weeks. I quickly went on thanksgiving afternoon and, honestly, haphazardly picked out teams I thought would win. I looked at the percent of other people that had chosen each team to win, and most of the time went with the higher percent team, and a few I went against the grain and chose the other team.(ahem, BSU!!!!!). Well, dad reported the results today.

I earned #3 bragging rights. :) I chose 58% correctly. Which, I might add, was the highest percentage in our family. Ok, so there were only 4 of us participating, but still...

and, I was #1 for a day in our local papers rankings!! Yeah me! But, alas, dad and my big bro beat me overall. You know, if Georgia Tech and Texas had won--like they were SUPPOSED to, I would have won, I think. So, until next year, I will take #3 bragging rights and say, "Hey! Not bad for a GIRL!!" Tee hee.

thanks dad, it was fun to brag for a day. :)

I survived.

I survived Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas with the in-laws, a morning by myself in someone else's house, a Temple trip, watching the football game, staying up til midnight every night we were gone, delivering Christmas to 2 friends, a wedding, helping in the kitchen at the reception, driving back to our place of rest at 10:30 at night, my baby throwing up during the night--in someone else's house, me throwing up in the shower--in someone else's house, driving home all sick like. Phew! I survived. Now bring on Christmas!! and the fact that I don't plan on traveling ANYWHERE for the next couple of months. :)

Congrats to K and J. The wedding was gorgeous, and I wish you the very best in your new life together! :)

so yesterday was my bday. (hippo birdie two me!) Had a fun day. {A} drew up a "plan" of what he wanted and then asked DH to help him execute! :) It was so cute! We all went to Best Buy and bought me a new camera--yeah!-- and then they stopped at Zurchers while {a} and I waited in the van. Then when we got home, I was asked to go downstairs for a few minutes while they got it all set up. They tied the balloons to the chair and piano, hid behind and called me back upstairs. When I came into the room, they all jumped out and said "surprise!" It was fun and totally matched {A}'s drawing. I thought it was very thoughtful of him to think of me like that. DH also bought me a cake, a card, and 2 paring knives. I feel quite spoiled this year!

Also, the other day, {A} and I were struggling with each other and he got sent to his bedroom for a timeout. When he came out, he handed me a note and this is what it said: "I thenk you are being to hord on me to day!" You know, he was right! So, I got down on my knees, told him I was sorry, that he was right and most of all thanks for communicating with me and for not yelling at me about it! Sometimes it takes my 6 year old to kick me in the rear! Thanks {A}!!!

Now that I have a new camera, maybe I can update with picts real soon!

I felt like baking today. So I whipped up pumpkin bars, banana-zucchini bread and my all time favorite Mrs. Fields cookie recipe. I doubled the batch, and froze a bunch of uncooked dough. I also forgot to add the baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Hope they turn out. :)

I'm bleeding...

...Blue and Orange today. In honor of the big game today and the season upon us, I have changed my background colors. Mostly because I don't have anything approriately colored to wear today, so my blog must show my true colors for the day.



GO BRONCO'S!!!!!

HIP, HIP, HOORAY...

...school starts in 4 days!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I am a little excited. :) I am looking forward to a new routine, {A} being at school full time, {K} going to preschool, just {a} and I for 4 hours a week. I am also hoping to work off these extra pounds that are hanging out around my middle. We got a Wii over the weekend and I plan to buy a Wii Fit soon. DH and I are planning to work out together a few nights a week. Wish us luck! :)

We had a wonderful summer playing and hanging out. Now it's time to buckle down and get focused again on my word for the year, Become. I have seen some small changes so far, now it's time to refocus on scripture study, my homemaking skills, and my patience level. :)

Tribute to my Mother (via photos)

Thanks for all you do and have done for me! I am amazed at the strength and courage you portray! Always remember that I love you!

Also, thanks to all the women in my life and in my children's lives! You amaze me with your patience, love, honor, respect...