"Wittle Sisto"

Here are some pictures of Ellie, Marryne and Kaleb at the hospital. Marryne and Kaleb really wanted to go and see her they really missed their "wittle sisto", I think Ellie really missed them too, when we all walked in the door she was all smiles and giggles!!

This moment was so cute I had Ellie on the other side of my lap, she scooted and wiggled herself so she was next to Marryne, so sweet.

Despite everything she was still pretty happy. I missed her little smiles it was so good to see her feeling better and happy again.

She really hated the IV, but she was still fascinated by it =)

He was trying to put the foot rest up, he nearly fell on his head!

We got to keep the blanket she is laying on (she threw up on it). ;P

Hair bows!

I have finally taught myself how to make really cute hair bows for the girls. It's such a fad right now and I am not one to jump on the wagon and do what everyone else does, but I love the girls with hair bows in their hair. Marryne is such a girly girl and she is always askin me to make her bows to match her clothes, and I love the compliments Ellie gets when she has flowers and bows on. So this is what I have done so far. The pictures aren't the best so you will have to forgive me for that, I will try and get better ones on soon.

It's a lot of fun to see my creativity at work. I've had a lot of fun going through all of my ribbon and trims to see what I can make, all these were made with stuff I already had!

All of them are pretty cute but..................................
these ones are my favorites, amazing what you can do with ribbon and glue!

P is for !?

I think it's funny at the lengths a parent will go to get their child to fully potty train or at least go "poopy" in the potty! =) I have mentioned before that Kaleb is potty training and he is doing wonderful except that he refuses to go "poopy" in the potty. At first we just figured that it was that he did understand the feeling till it was to late, but he has proved me wrong he just doesn't like to go "poopy" in the potty. When he has to go he will bring me a diaper so that he can go in that and then he will bring me the wipes and let me know when he is done. Now I'm sure you are asking "why doesn't she just refuse to put the diaper on and encourage him to go on the potty?" The answer to that would be that I do and he is such a clever and sneaky little boy that he just holds it until it is bedtime when I put a diaper on him and then when I go to check on him later in the night I get a nice whiff and have to change him while he is asleep which by the way is harder than it sounds!! We have tried many ways to encourage him last week I was using my cheer leading skills and making up cheers for him, he seemed to like the way the cheers sounded but when it came down to it he didn't like the real meaning behind them! Today we were sitting at the dinner table when he brings me a diaper I of course refuse to put it on him and Dana is trying to encourage him to go in the potty by singing "P is for potty" to the tune of "C is for Cookie". Now Kaleb is a music whizz and caught on right away and started singing but still refused to go, I decided to sing "P is for poopy", this apparently was even more amusing and both kids started singing it and dancing around the house,but of course Kaleb has not yet gone "poopy".I'm sure that we will come up with some other funny thing to help encourage him to do all of his business on the potty. The sky is the limit, it's amazing how creative and fun you can get when you are trying to get something out of someone(no pun intended =)).

Quick update on Ellie most of you already know this but for those who don't Ellie is back home now she is doing great. They released her this morning after she ate and kept it down, she was so happy to be home she gave Marryne and Kaleb a giant smile when we got home and both the kids greeted her with hugs and kisses they really missed there little sister. We wanted to thank all those who helped us out with meals and babysitting and also those that didn't but were willing we really appreciate you all.

Ellie Update

Ok so for those of you who don't know what is going on with Ellie here's the low down, for those that do know here's what we know so far. Yesterday we took Ellie to the Dr. and she sent us to the ER. Ellie has had diarrhea since Sunday and she started throwing up on Tuesday and she was running a fever, needless to say she was dehydrated enough that she lost 1/2 lb since Monday. They admitted us to the hospital yesterday she is doing much better they were able to get the vomiting under control and she is able to keep food down, they still aren't giving her straight formula yet though. Right now we are waiting for some test results to come back to find out if she has an infection. That's all we know so far it looks like we are going to be in the hospital another night. I will be home tonight Dana ended up taking the day off tomorrow so we are switching off, it's really difficult to sleep in the hospital!. Anyway it's not much but it's all we know for now, we are hoping to be able to come bring her home tomorrow they don't want to send her home until the diarrhea is under control which makes sense cause if it wasn't I'm sure we would be back to the hospital. Keep Ellie in your prayers and I will keep ya'll updated.

Dad's are wonderful people!!

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday we were so busy with Father's Day! The kids were so excited to give Dana the presents we had been working on all week. I just wanted to let my other half know that he is such a wonderful dad, yes there are those not so great moments but everyone has them. Dana you remind me so much of my dad there are so many things that you do with the kids that just make me smile and I think what a wonderful daddy your are. I look at the relationship that you have with Marryne and it really reminds me of how me and my dad are. I am truly a daddy's girl, my mom often tells me stories of how my dad use to rock me to sleep at night, for me going to bed was grabbing my "blankie" and crawling onto my dad's lap! I remember those nights when I finally did sleep in my bed my dad always came in and tucked me in and we said a little prayer together. There are some things that only a daddy can fix. I can remember times when some of my friends weren't so nice and my feelings got hurt and my dad just held me in his arms and let me cry myself to sleep. Whenever I was having any kind of trouble my dad was always there to fix it just like you are with our kids. I am so grateful Dana that I have you to help raise and nurture our kids, I couldn't do it without you I love you so much. I also want to let my dad know how much I love him and I will always be his "little girl" no matter how old I am.

Embarrassing Moments

So yesterday I talked about funny moments things that the kids do that just make me laugh, well last night we had one of those my face is so red it's embarrassing moments, but that still didn't stop me from laughing and wishing I would have had my camera! So here's the story we went to the ward party last night which was great fun, the kids were running around getting out some energy. Dana and I were sitting at the back of the cultural hall when I hear this little voice say " mommy I gotta go poop!" from across the cultural hall I look up right away and you guessed it Kaleb was standing in the middle of the cultural hall pants around his ankles half way bent over!! I had the baby so I quickly got Dana's attention,as he is walking up to get Kaleb the whole room is dead quiet( the quietest it had been all night) and you guessed it they were all looking at Kaleb who was waiting patiently for daddy to help him. Now I should have gotten up right away and passed my baby off to someone to go help Dana, but instead I just laughed and made the comment that I wish I had my camera I mean really a picture of that would have looked great next to the one of Marryne picking her noise during her pre-school graduation! I did get a few scowls from people but hey what do ya do, the boys is potty training, anyway after I got control of my laughter I decided I better get some clean clothes for Kaleb. Little did I know it wasn't just poop it was diarrhea!! Oh yes and I am sure you are saying oh that's so gross and trust me it was and I am sure that those who were still eating lost their appetites!! Luckily for us the party was pretty much over anyway, so with our heads held high we said good night and went home to laugh some more.

I guess that pooping in front of everyone wasn't enough embarrassment for mom and dad cause today he managed to do it again. I have mentioned before that I sometimes say the "d" word as we call it now, well this story is about that word. Today was the pinewood derby for scouts great fun and for most of it Kaleb was asleep in my lap which was really nice for a change. Towards the end the adults got to race there cars by this time Kaleb was awake and cheering, it was the first race for the adults and Dana's car aka bat mobile was on the track, they said go and the cars raced Dana's car came in last and to my surprise Kaleb yells at the top of his lungs " Damn it car" followed by "stupid, stupid car, oh man!" and yes he did learn the word stupid from me to but that's another story, now I don't think to many people heard him because of all the commotion but it was still and little embarrassing. So life with Kaleb is definitely busy, and fun and yes sometimes a little embarrassing but we love him anyway!

Funny moments!

Ok so this morning I was sitting in the living room feeding Ellie and Marryne asks Kaleb if he wants to dance. He looks at her for a minute and says "yeah". I think this is so cute, I figure they are going to do their usual little spins and stuff and to my surprise they start doing the tango!! And Kaleb my little music man is even humming the music. I was so surprised I wish I would have had my camera.I figured that they got it from So you Think you can Dance. I don't usually watch that show but lately we have been. After they were done doing the tango they kinda went into what I think it was suppose to be the graceful Waltz, but they inherited my genes so it wasn't so graceful!=)

I just love when my kids make me laugh here are some things they have done that certainly made me laugh maybe they will make you laugh too.

Dana was trying to show Kaleb how to stand up and go pee pee in the potty. Marryne walks in the bathroom and says "daddy I tried doing that!", I am in the kitchen but I can hear everything on the baby monitor and he says " or really and how did that go?", she smiles and without missing a beat says " it didn't go over so well!!!" We couldn't stop laughing.

When Marryne was around 2 yrs old she used to give herself "swirlies" in the toilet!!

The other day Kaleb runs past me in a panic and says " I have to pee!" I just smiled and laughed I could here him talking to himself over the baby monitor and then all of the sudden in a very shrill voices he yells " Hey mommy I can right my name!" he's cheering himself on and quite proud that he discovered that he doesn't need a pencil and paper to right his name!!

Kaleb kinda has a barbie fetish ( actually it's really just because of the hair.) and Marryne really hates it when she sees Kaleb with her barbies. One day I was in the kitchen making lunch and they were fighting and arguing, I ask what's going on and she tells me " buddy has my barbie and won't give it to me." now Kaleb had had this barbie all morning and it was just now bothering her. Anyway she's chasing him around the house and they are both screaming. Normally I give them a warning and if they don't listen they go to there rooms and I take away the toy so no one can have it. Well I give them the normal warning and tell Marryne that he is not hurting her barbie she looks at me and says very seriously I might add " YES HE ARE" and the chase continued! Kaleb finally got tired of her chasing him and he pitched the barbie.

Kaleb is potty training right now but he refuses to go "poop" in the potty. One day I was in the computer room and he brings me a diaper he tells me he needs to go poop and hands me the diaper again. I try to encourage him to go on the potty but he won't, instead of fighting over it I just put the diaper on him. He goes into the corner of the room and bends over and he exclaims as he is pushing and turing bright red " urgh that's a big one urgh!!", then after he was finished he brought me the wipes and said " ok I'm done!"

Ok so sometimes I have a little bit of a potty mouth ( oh come on who doesn't!) anyway Dana laughs and says that "damn" is my favorite word. And he is right I say it more often then I should, but I have been trying really hard to stop and this is why, Kaleb caught onto the word and now uses it all the time and he uses it in the right context! He isn't the only one that caught onto it, although Marryne doesn't say it all the time like Kaleb does it does "slip" out once in awhile, like the other day when I was on the floor of her bedroom having my "mommy melt down" she pats me on the shoulder gives me a hug, wipes away my tears and says " come on mom let's clean this damn house." It did make me smile and it gave me the little boost I needed. =)

Ok so those are just a few, there are so many more but if I shared them all then I would be here all day. Anyway I hope that made ya smile. I am still laughing!

Melt down

So I had a melt down today. I mean full fledged tears and frustration. Lately I have not been able to keep up with all the house work and my hubby and kids aren't making it any easier. Don't get me wrong I love them to death but come on help me out a bit. But while I was crying I had a lot of thoughts and questions like why does my family just expect things to just be done? For instance on Monday night Dana waited until 11p.m. to see if he had pants for work and to his surprised he didn't. We were so busy over the weekend that I didn't get the laundry done. Anyway so he is kinda ticked because he had no clean pants, which makes me mad cause I know that he is ticked at ME!! So anyway I get mad and gather up his pants and go wash them after 11 at night! I ended up not going to bed until after1 because Marryne woke up with a fever, I ended up sleeping in the girls room(cause I was so ticked) and Marryne needed the comfort. Now what made me even more mad was that Dana didn't even got to work on Tuesday cause he had taken the day off just in case we had to be in the hospital with Ellie. Well by the afternoon I wasn't so mad and we talked about it and one thing he said was that he was a little mad that the pants weren't clean but that he took it for granted that it's always done, that did make me feel better. Last night I went to go spend some nice quality alone and look at some pretty bows, leaving Dana in charge of the kids and the house, now I did leave it messy but I figured that everyone knows the routine. So I get home and the house is an absolute mess, the dishwasher never got unloaded and loaded, there were dirty dishes all over the house not to mention dirty clothes, toys and whatever else you can think of. So I wasn't happy but I was too tired to do anything about it. But it did spur up the question why can't men multi-task? I mean as a women I am expected to keep a clean house, make the meals , take care of the kids and everything else in between, so why don't we expect our husbands to be able to do it? The excuse last night was the kids, that it's hard to do anything with the kids. Now I agree with that but I always seem to manage.

When I woke up this morning the messy house was just to overwhelming, I got the kids up and fed and then began to shovel through the mess, now usually it takes us about an hr to clean the house, but today it took all morning. The kids refused to help, I asked nicely several times and when that didn't work I started yelling now that's not something that I usually do, in fact it is a last resort. Anyway once I started yelling and getting angry the kids jumped to it for a little bit anyway. Every time I emptied a laundry basket and went back to fill it up I just felt over whelmed every time I even looked at the house I just got tears in my eyes. I finally sat on the floor in the kitchen and gave into the tears. Now my poor kids are in tears cause mommy is in tears. Marryne brings me some toilet paper to wipe away the tears, Kaleb brings his Kaleb and his blanket and camps out on the floor ( I guess he figure that this was gonna take awhile !!). After I pull myself together I start talking to the kids about why I am upset and what they can do to help, they seemed to understand and after I cried some more we got to work. They were much bigger helpers after we talked, we did have a couple of bumps and I had to yell again but we did ok. Dana called from work and I melted again and told him just what had been going on. I felt much better just talking about it and we came up with plan and figured we would talk to the kids about it after he got home. So we sat down with the kids and made some house rules, we also talked about what would happen if the rules weren't kept. We also talk about the kids chores and we gave them each a little more responsibility. Dana and I split the chores that the kids can't really do yet, and ya know it didn't seem like it was that much when we gave each person something to do, but it seemed a lot when it was just me doing it. So I am hoping that by sticking by the rules and helping each other out we will all be much happier.

Good news!

Last week when I took Ellie back into the Dr. for her follow up the Dr. was a little concerned with the growth of her head, according to their records her head had grown 4 cm since the last visit which was 10 days earlier her doctor told me that they usually get concerned if a baby's head grows more than 1.5 cm a week. So yeah we are definitely in the need to be concerned category,she thought that maybe it was just a mistake that someone in the office had made when taking the measurement but just to be sure she had us take her to the hospital today so that they could do an ultra sound and see what was going on. So the good news is everything looks great no problems here yeah!! We are very relieved to know that everything is fine, Ellie did very well for the most part I did have to hold her down towards the end but other than that she did great. And the other good news I didn't loose my favorite sunglasses. After we left the hospital I couldn't find them and I was pretty bummed cause they were my favorite ones, and then as we were driving home I remembered were I had put them, I was very excited!! Thank you Kim for watching Marryne and Kaleb for me today, I know it was kinda last minute and I really, really appreciate it. Oh yeah and the Dr. said that she things the trouble Ellie has been having with breathing is connected to the cold she has, it's to early to tell so she is keeping an eye on that as well. So we are very blessed that everything is great!

There's a first time for everything!

So today was loaded with some "firsts", luckily for me I had my camera!! Let's start with Kaleb, as we were getting ready to leave the pool this morning Dana decided it would be a good idea to take Kaleb to the bathroom. While I was getting everything ready to go I heard Kaleb crying and Dana yelling for me, my first thought was to drop everything and go to them right away and then I realized that I left the baby on the picnic table( not the best place to leave a rolling baby!!)so I ran back to get her. Meanwhile Kaleb is now hysterical and Dana is still yelling for me. Long story short Kaleb somehow got his foot stuck under the heavy metal door, when we finally got his foot free we saw that his big toe was pretty mangled. Dana carries him home cause he is still crying, once we get home I get out the hydrogen peroxide so I can clean it Kaleb gets hysterical the second he sees it which I find funny because I have never used it on him before, this is the first "first" of the day! Anyway after a major battle I finally get it cleaned and bandaged ( I swear cleaning it was worse than the actual injury!)all is well, well then I notice that he isn't putting any pressure on it at all so I take another look and wouldn't ya know it it is broken. Kaleb is now the first one of my kids to break a bone. But I am still counting my blessings cause it could have been worse.

Now on to some good "firsts" Ellie got her ears pierced today, although I am sure she didn't think that it was good I did. She did very well she only cried for a few seconds once they got the earrings in I gave her a bottle and wa la no more tears. So she now looks very beautiful in her new earrings. Another first for Ellie was her first taste of baby cereal, I was surprised at how well she did, she only ate 5 spoonfuls but she opened her mouth right away. And for the first time since I had Ellie I have lost a significant amount of weight, I stepped on the scale this afternoon and to my surprise I lost 5 lbs!! I couldn't believe it so I double checked, only 10 more lbs to go. So even though some of today's "firsts" were filled with tears instead of happiness and giggles it was still a good day and I have the pictures to prove it.=)

She looks very frightened in this one, but you can see her earrings a little better in this one.

The bloody toe. It has changed color, now it's black and blue with an interesting shade of purple!!
This one is kinda blurry, it looked worse when it was all bloody, it hasn't been cleaned yet in this shot but I did kinda soaked up some of the blood. It's still pretty gross though. =)

I just thought this one was cute although this is the first time she has fallen asleep in the jumper roo!
I had a pic of her with her face covered in it but I must not have downloaded it I will go back and do it later, anyway this was a pretty cute one.
This was her fist spoonful and she opened up right away!!
It's kinda hard to tell in this picture but you can see the dark earrings, we got her birthstone garnet.

Bittersweet

I was sitting in my doctor's office today getting ready to hold Ellie down to get her shot's and I realized that being a mommy is bittersweet. I am a young mom and I am sure I don't even know the half of it, but there are so many things that are really hard about being a mommy but then there is a reverse side that makes it totally worth it. These are some of the things that I struggle with, so I thought about the flip side to each one.

When you see the look of pain on their face when they get their shots, my heart just aches for them but on the bright side after it is done the only one that can make the "hurt" go away is mommy.

When they are sick and there is nothing you can do to help them, most of the time all they want you to do is love them and to be there for them.

When they fall down and really get hurt, mommies kiss and a band aide always makes the "boo boo" feel better.

When other kids make fun of and hurt your child's feelings, sometimes I wish I could just take there place for them but I can', but with some kind uplifting words (and a cookie) the bad words just melt away

When all they do all day is whine and cry and fight with each other, the flip side peace and quiet when they go to bed, and when I check on the at night I remember how sweet they really are and how much despite all the crying that I still love them with all my heart and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

When there is something wrong and you have no answers and all you can do is wait, this is a tuff one and I was thinking what is the flip side to this? And if I were to answer it personally (and I am) I would say knowing that I am loved and supported by all my loved and that I am never alone in anything.

Sure there are more things that make it tuff to be a mommy like the never ending diapers, laundry, dishes, house cleaning, constant care of the kids, etc.... and any surprises that may come a long the way, just remember at the end of the day you truly are special because you are the only one that can handle what comes your way and as bitter as it can it can be you are always loved unconditionally by your kids and at the end of the day all they want is mommy and I think that is the sweetest part.

Matching bumper pad

We have a bumper pad that we used for Kaleb and of course it's blue now when we finally got another crib for Ellie and I pulled it out Marryne looked at it and said "Mom it doesn't match my our room, it's blue and our room is pink and green!". I told her that that was ok and that it didn't matter but apparently it does so she told me that I needed to make a new one so that's what I did, well it started out as a cover for the old one that way I could take it off and wash it but then I decided oh what the heck and just made a whole new bumper pad for Ellie's crib. Marryne now feels much better that everything matches, thanks to Grandma J we have a green sheet and a pink blanket with green turtles, so everything matches "so very perfectly" as Marryne told me so here are some pictures of that. Some of ya may not know what the girls room looks like it's light pink with giant fuchsia and bright green polka dots it's wild and crazy we call it our "Dr.Seuss room".

Ellie modeling the matching blanket and sheet, isn't she a natural!? =)
The short ends are pink with green frogs, the outside is all pink and the long sides are green bubble print. Kaleb wouldn't move his head =)
You can see some of the green and pink dots on the wall in this one, it kinda gives ya an idea what the room looks like.
I was going to make the whole thing with the pink fabric with the frogs but I didn't have enough fabric so I improvised. I thought it turned out pretty darn cute and it does indeed match their room.

Deep cleaning is good for the soul and the house!

I feel like the mom off The Incredibles, in one scene she is talking to her husband and she says"we are now officially moved in ha ha ha.." and the husband replies with "...and the last 3 yrs don't count because...."and the wife responds to that with " cause I finally unpacked the last box!." We have been in this house for 2 yrs now 3 in October, anyway and I finally went through my computer room that is also a sewing room and our storage area and unpacked the last box, now all that is in there is holiday boxes, camping gear and old kids clothes but that's it, so I feel really accomplished!! I really did feel "super" today, I got the house cleaned from top to bottom and even took some time out to play at the pool. It made me feel so good to do some much needed deep cleaning not just with the house but myself as well. When I get really stressed my outlet is to clean and I think that it's because not only am I cleaning all the unwanted stuff out of the house, I am also getting rid of all the unwanted stuff that is making me feel so bad and ya know I feel great deep down like there isn't anything I can't do. I don't feel cramped and over loaded anymore, just like my computer room has so much more space now that all the junk is gone. What a wonderful feeling!!

So I have to share some funny things that Marryne said to me this morning while we were cleaning the house. Well first let me give ya little back story lately Dana and Marryne have been having some very good talks about Heavenly Father and Jesus, yesterday their discussion was about the Creation. Now Dana explained it very well to her so that she would understand he told her all about the things that they created for us and gave to us. Ok now that ya know that I will tell ya how our conversation went. Marryne started by telling me all about how Heavenly Father and Jesus created the Earth, and the animals and the food... now this is how the rest of the conversation went:

Marryne: " Jesus made the guy (Adam), and he made Eve so the guy wouldn't be scared."

Me: " Oh really?"

Marryne: "Yeah and he gave us lot's of things."

Me: "Like what?"

she stopped to think about it for a minute and then came up with this

Marryne: "I know (with finger in the air), he gave buddy a penis, and he gave me and Ellie vagina's!!!"

Now I wasn't expecting that I started laughing and looked at her and she was quite serious and she went on to say....

Marryne: " Jesus likes it when we go pee pee and poop in the potty cause we are being good, but he doesn't like it when Kaleb poops and pees on the floor!"

Marryne looked at me laughing my head and and still very serious waiting for my answer,and this is all I could come up with.

Me: "Oh really?"

she just looked at me with glaring eyes and said "yes! and he doesn't like you laughing at me, you are being mean."

Well that sobered me up, but hey it was really funny. I told Dana about it and he said that he had no idea where that came from. All though it might be a little irreverent there is truth in it.

So that little conversation kicked my day off, I was in a pretty good mood after that. Today really was a great day, even though we were busy we still had some laughs and to top it all off it was a beautiful cool night and the sunset was gorgeous. Well now that I am done, I'm going to have a tall glass of chocolate milk and a bite of my candy bar and go to bed.

Gotta love busy days!

So I love busy days, cause it really sucks not having a car during the day so when we keep busy the day just flies by. The kids actaully slept in this morning which was totally awesome the girls were up by 9 Kaleb slept till almost 10 aaahhh I tell ya. After getting off the phone with my mother, and giving Ellie her treatment and feeding everyone the kids helped me tidy up their rooms and they both made their beds (all by themselves) it wasn't the way I would have done it but then again they aren't me and they were so proud of themselves. Anyway after that we cleaned the rest of the house by the time we got done with all that it was time for lunch so we all took a break. Kaleb normally takes a nap at noon but I figured since daddy was going to get home around 1:30 he could stay awake and then we could all go swimming. So I put in a movie for them while I took care of Ellie and myself. Then daddy got home and after putting away the groceries we went swimming, well Dana and the older kids anyway Ellie wasn't having it so I sat on the side of the pool with her which was ok cause it was a little cold for me anyway. Once we got home from the pool Dana went out to drop of a prescription for Ellie and I got dinner ready, the kids and I ate while Dana was gone. (we just couldn't wait!) After dinner was done we cleaned up and then I got really ambitious and started deep cleaning our computer/sewing room , I have been avoiding cleaning it for to long so long that you could barely even get to the computer!! So I rolled up my sleeves and dug in (literally), I'm only half way done but I figured it's 10 p.m. and I am tired. It looks great though so far I can't wait to finish it. So yes today was a busy day and I am sure tomorrow will be to, I figure that I will do most of the work when Kaleb takes a nap, Marryne's excited to help me to so we will see how that goes. Now I am going to go have a nice tall glass of chocolate milk and go to bed. =)

Ellie update

I figured that since I had to stay home with Ellie I thought I would post some pics of the kids. We don't have a recent family picture yet as soon as we get one I will post it. I also wanted give an update on Ellie, she has been sick for a couple of weeks with a cold nothing to big, we did find out last week that she is having trouble breathing. We didn't realized she was wheezing so much I have never had a baby wheeze before so I didn't think about it. Anyway she has been on breathing treatments and seems to be doing better. We took her back to the doctor 2 days after she had been on the treatments just for a follow up she is indeed doing much better but our doctor doesn't think that her breathing problem was related to the cold she thinks she has asthma. It's to early to tell, but the doctor says it is likely cause Dana's dad has asthma and I also have a brother and a sister who have asthma and my sister has a son that has it too. So anyway that's the update on that. We didn't take her to church today cause she has to have breathing treatments every couple of hrs and figured it would be a pain. We have another follow up appointment on Friday hopefully we will know more by then.

Eleanor Grace

Kaleb William

Marryne Aurora

Pick your battles!

So finally as a mother of 3 I have learned to pick my battles like this morning for instance the kids wanted pizza for breakfast, now I could have said no and dealt with the yelling and screaming but instead I though about how pizza really is the perfect breakfast food, I mean when you have breakfast you usually have eggs, juice, toast or some kind of bread, some kind of meat like sausage or bacon, now pizza has all of that and you don't have to dirty a ton of dishes to get it and better yet they can have it for lunch too then that takes care of the leftovers!! So now I am the best mom in the world cause I let them eat pizza for breakfast. It reminds me of Bill Cosby's "dad is good, dad is great he gave us chocolate cake!!".

Here are some other battles I have chosen to work around instead of being in the middle. What would you do?

When your child really hates wearing clothes cause he just hates it what do you do? Now I have come to a compromise with Kaleb if he wears either a diaper or underwear then I don't care if he wears anything else (the important parts are covered up). It actually works out nicely now that he is potty training if he has an accident I don't have to wash a butt load of clothes. =)

When your child insists on getting herself dressed to go to the store and she comes out wearing a pink shirt with red white and blue pants with 2 different shoes on the wrong feet, and she is so proud that she did it herself without ANY help, what do you do? I don't know about you but I don't like to break my little girls heart even if she does look a little odd, but hey if she were in Japan she would fit in perfectly. So I do make her put the shoes on the right feet, but other than that I just laugh at how she isn't embarresed about how she is dressed just proud that she did it herself.

So here's another one Kaleb is potty training now which is great but when he puts his underwear on it's backwards,now I don't think that would be very comfortable but hey he seems to be fine with it. Now do ya force him to turn it around and he hates it so much he decides he would rather wear a diaper instead (so much for potty training!) or do ya just say the heck with it as long as he is going to the bathroom it's fine and he will eventually turn it around?

Marryne is on a kick right now she wants to be a boy! She thinks that boys have more fun and let's face most the time boys do have more fun. I know I always wanted to be a boy scout growing up because of all the cool fun things they got to do. Anyway so here's the battle she likes to wear Kaleb's clothes sometimes, so what do ya do? Make her change or say hey at least she is wearing clothes and Kaleb isn't using them anyway!?

So these are just a few of the battles I have lost or rather avoided. I would really like to know what you do and please share any of your 'battles" as well.

One of those days!

So I was up all night with a sick little baby. Ellie has an ear infection and she has been having trouble breathing..yeah. At least we know what is wrong and now we have the stuff to make her better I just wish she would get better fast so I can get some sleep. Trying to giver her nebulizer treatments in the middle of the night is tuff, she hates the machine, the medicine tastes awful and she can't eat for a half after she has the treatment! So she screamed her little head off till the older kids woke up, I guess she figured if she had to be up and miserable so did everyone else!=) After I finally got all the kids back to bed my hubbies alarm went off ( I really hate when that happens). Then shortly after that Ellie woke up again, she is really struggling with breathing and it freaks her out and then she just cries but at least when she cries she is breathing, so I guess there is some good to it after all.

So we all get up at 6 this morning, Kaleb is potty training at the moment and so he wants to wear underwear he has been doing really good with it lately so I figure sure why not?. Yeah that was the wrong response, what I should have said was no how bout ya wear a diaper today!?, but I didn't. Anyway so after we eat breakfast he goes potty and we are doin great, after giving Ellie another treatment and feeding her she's asleep so I figure I will pop in a movie for the older kids and take a nap, which was really nice until I woke up to Kaleb's little wet behind next to my head. So yeah he had an accident so no big deal right? Well then I take a nice deep breath and oh boy it didn't smell like my air freshener! So great he pooped, still not to big of a deal till he decides he is going to help me out by cleaning himself up. Not only did I have to give him a bath but I had to scrub down the bath room and pull out the carpet cleaner!! So it's only 10 a.m. I wonder what other adventures we are going to have today. I just keep telling myself it could be worse so be grateful and I am very grateful.

So I am finally joining the rest of the world and blogging! I have checked out several friends blogs and finally decided to create my own, not just to share new things with friends but also to keep a record for myself. My grandfather was a huge advocate of keeping a journal, writing down everything that comes to mind, because it can help the future generation. I love to sit and read my grandpa's journal, all the fun stories and spiritual experiences so I hope that my chidlren will enjoy mine as well. Even though they can't read yet I figure I can keep them involved and read to them everything I add and ask them if there is anything they would like me to write down for them.