My Family.

Dave's sister Heather and hubby Chris and my one and only niece Olivia are visiting from Idaho this week. I got to take some photos for them. Aren't they just the cutest?





So cute I want to take a BITE!

Just one more.

Okay, so I know I have already posted an insane amount of photos of Grant but Dave took this one on his phone while at the store with Grant who he said was in the best mood and giggling half the time.

What a perfect capture of my happy little baby!

Uh-Oh.

In the news. Blake had his first kindergarten assembly that parents could come and watch today. It was adorable. And being that I am such a great photographer (who was in a rush trying to get the baby up and be on time), of course I didn't bring my camera. Dave did get a couple of photos on his phone but I am not sure how good they are.

It was totally adorable though. They wore plastic top-hats and sang a song to the tune of "New York, New York" but with the words "1st Grade, 1st Grade". Blake had a line: "I is for imagination, used at every turn" and he did a great (albeit loud) job!

I can't believe kindergarten is already ending. Wasn't I just sending him off to his first day yesterday? If this is how fast the school years go, I am in trouble.

The "Uh-Oh" heading is because of this:



Need a closer look?



While this is undoubtedly the cutest thing I have ever beheld, it is also a bad habit that I don't want him getting into. The last few days I have been seeing a lot of this. I need to start popping in his su-su (binky, pacifier, whatever you call it), when he starts doing this but I think it is so darling that it is hard to bring myself to do it.

I mean, if I had such cute, chubby little thumbs, I would want to suck on them too (and I did when I was younger and have a few pics of my teeth peeking out, (as in a little bit of BUCK teeth), to prove it!.

Grant 7+ Months.

How will I ever be able to say no to this face?





Getting bigger!



The cutest picture of drool ever!



Something about those eyes...



Yes I love to eat hamsters. Don't you?

Good News!

DAVE GOT THE INTERVIEW!!! This is all a little crazy. I can't help but feel that strings are being pulled for a higher purpose.

He will fly out sometime in a couple weeks for some intense CIA style interviews. And he has to give a presentation in front of a lot of intimidating people for a good 20 minutes.

I know you can do it Honey! (I am sure glad it's not me!)

Sydney's nose bleeds have stopped (thank goodness). To my anonymous reader: I had decided after that post that if she got another one, I would take her in, but so far so good!

The kids are on the mend. Grant is now used to waking up at all hours of the night and so he continues that tradition regularly.

I am feeling like death. This is the worst virus I have had in a looooong time and I am going on three nights with no sleep. I am THE lightest sleeper and so not being able to breathe and a throat feeling like rocks = me lying awake all night long.

I am going to try and sleep right now. The humidifier is my best friend at the moment.

Hmpf.

Three guesses who is feeling icky this morning? Correct. That would be moi.

We finally got the baby's temp down enough last night so he was able to have a long stretch of sleep. He felt decent this morning but was back in a fever by 10 am. He seems to be a little more playful and not quite as listless.

We have had the humidifiers going 24/7. Looking forward to another astronomical electricity bill. At least we are getting our money's worth out of those things!

Sydney seems to be doing better although a more frequent cough is settling it. And we are having a nosebleed issue. Shortly after she got sick, she was in the kitchen and Dave thinks she bumped her nose on one of the chairs or something because the next thing you know, her nose is GUSHING blood. And gushing is the appropriate word to use. I have never in my life seen a nose bleed like that. He told her to tilt her head back which was a mistake because then she started gagging and when she put her head forward it gushed out of her nose AND mouth.

OK. Now normally, blood does not bother me so much. I don't get weak in the knees and I even love to watch shows on television that include graphic surgeries. BUT, there is one exception to this, and that is if the blood is coming from one of my children. This just FREAKS ME OUT. I am not one of those calm people when one of my children is bleeding so when blood started pouring from her nose AND mouth, I freaked out a bit. Just for a moment until I realized I needed to keep it together so she could keep it together.

Her nose bled and bled and bled. I was ready to drive her to the Instacare, but Dave, who never worries about these kinds of things took over, did some sort of kamikazee-ninja pinching and the bleeding FINALLY stopped.

Fast forward to that night. Her nose starts bleeding again and she starts crying. She admitted she picked it so I chalked it up to that. Once again the little thing was bleeding like a geyser and I was wondering at what point she was going to pass out from such a loss of blood. Dave even had a hard time getting this one under control with his ninja pinching skills.

And it has been like that every day since. Day after, nose-bleed. Unprovoked. That night, another one. And yesterday and then last night it happened twice. She started crying, I walked in and didn't see any blood so I told her she must have been having a bad dream. Then I saw a little spot on her pillow so I grabbed some t.p. and told her to sit up and sure enough, it starts bleeding like crazy again. By now I have mastered the correct nose pinch and was able to get this one under control pretty quickly.

Then two hours later, she is tugging at my sleeve telling me it is bleeding again. Now she is so scared to even touch her nose I KNOW she didn't touch it. And the first time, I could tell she was half asleep. So what the heck is going on? I told Dave if this happens one more time I am taking her in to the Dr.'s. Either she bonked her nose and broke something (although I am seeing no outward indications of this), or... I have no idea, but I have an overactive imagination so I am not even going to process those ideas.

Seriously, if anything super serious were to happen to one of these babies, you would need to commit me. And that is no joke.

Today will be spent watching movies, administering medicines and lots of cuddles and perhaps some baking. I need something to do if I am going to be cooped up like this day after day.

Update - Poor Baby

After Grant was feverish all morning and into the afternoon and seemed worse, I decided to take him into the insta-care clinic. Turns out he has an ear infection. This will be his second time on antibiotics in the past 30 days. Poor thing, we haven't been able to break the fever for going on 3 days and he is the saddest little fellow. It is breaking my heart!

Dave took his "personality test" - this one was over the phone and basically they drilled him with questions for nearly 45 minutes. He thinks he did well. I am hoping he did and I guess we should know by Monday sometime if they will fly him to Michigan for the final interview.

As for my computer, whatever they did to it, it isn't working very well. They are having to basically back up all of our files and then re-install all of our software. Which means we will be losing a lot.

Sydney seems to be feeling better although Dave recently informed me that he isn't feeling so well. I guess the sickness is going to make the parental rounds now.

At least the sun is shining :)

What a week!

So I am currently updating my blog on my brother-in-laws macbook. This would be because my computer has been with the geek squad since Tuesday. It was running slow and the disc drive wasn't working. Well, since bringing it in, it has now been 'bluescreening" (I guess some tech people refer to this as the "BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH"). The guy said "Was this happening a lot before?" my response? "NOT UNTIL I BROUGHT IT HERE!". So far, I am NOT impressed with the Geek squad customer service. They never call even though they promised they would call to let us know what was going on (we have had to call every day twice a day), and it sounds like they might have broken my computer.

First there was no virus, just a disc drive that they replaced the wrong way. Now there is a virus that they don't know anything about, a disc drive that isn't working properly and the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. I don't think I will be taking it back there if I ever get it BACK!

Oh, and did I mention all three of my kids have croup? I am pretty sure that Blake brought it home from school because he had it first and the mildest version. I had to take Sydney to the dr.'s yesterday after she woke up wheezing so badly she could hardly breathe. And Grant has been mostly awake for two nights in a row with pain and a fever and now and seems worse today.

In the good news dept. Dave had a job interview that he did really well in. For a medical supplies company. In MICHIGAN. This is scary and really exciting all at once. Scary to think about moving out of Utah and being so far away from Dave's family, exciting to think of being closer to my family and of course, I like a good adventure.

He should now this Monday if he made it to the final interview or not. I am trying not to get my hopes up just in case. Mum, you should do the same.

Today will be spend with children's tylenol and humidifiers. Blake is missing the father-n-son camp-out :( I am just missing the ho-hum of a normal day.

But oh... the possibilities...

Happy Birthday Shout-Outs!

And I wanted to write a separate post to say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC!

Because you are the best Mum and brother ever! LOVE YOU BOTH!

Worst. Parents. Ever

So... Blake lost his second tooth yesterday. Put it carefully into the little tooth box and under his pillow in anticipation of $1.00 and trip to the dollar store today.

That darn tooth fairy - she totally spaced and forgot to put money into the box.

Blake woke up crying this morning.

Dave assured him that the tooth fairy just "got busy" because there were so many teeth to collect, and that she for sure would visit him tonight. Mommy was sleeping in (till 9:20 am - sometimes Dave and I take turns), and missed it all.

He felt better but still... DANG! That absent minded tooth fairy! GET IT TOGETHER!

Now. A video for your enjoyment. We took out the walker and Grant has caught on quickly.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Posts in Pics

It was a good Mother's Day. Thanks in large part to SOMEONE (Who may or may not read this blog). You know who you are (I have my suspicions)... you know what you did... Thank you. I can't tell you what that meant to me.

Because of you, Dave and I had a wonderful Mother's Day dinner out (we hadn't had a date in much too long!). Krissy babysat (thanks Krissy!) and we went to the Dodo in Sugarhouse. WOWEEEEE. I HIGHLY recommend it!!! The food was FABULOUS! And they had this amazing appetizer of baked cream cheese with pear and crackers - oh my word. I loved it so much I duplicated it on Saturday night and got it pretty close! Not going to share that recipe yet though - I have to use it to impress first!

It was so much fun to get out just the two of us.

Blake "decorated" the breakfast table for Mother's Day. The brown paper bags had "presents" of colored pages from coloring books, marbles, cars and crayons in each one.



Oh, and lets not forget, lots of pictures of Blake!



Dave made me breakfast! Eggs on toast, LOTS of breakfast sausage and fruit. Sydney ate my other piece of toast with jam.



We had a wonderful day at church and then off to dinner at Dave's Mom's house. Jenny and Larry made this fabulous roast with garlic mashed potatoes (they were so yummy) and we had salad and rolls and I brought dessert. More on that later...

In other news... look at those pearly white(s)!!!



My happy boy!


And look what he can do! This...



And this!



He is getting soooo close to crawling. He gets up and rocks back and forth, puts out one arm, and falls on his little face. He is getting really good at the "army crawl" too!

Blake reading to him. Too cute! Of course, he just wants to eat the book.



Dinner tonight. Buffalo chicken with sweet potato french fries and celery w/ blue cheese dressing. Low fat and healthy! Prep for tomorrow's meal - eggplant Parmesan!



And of course, I can't forget the Mother's Day dessert I made... You might hate me for this one.

Tuxedo Brownie Cups




1 pckg. fudge brownie mix (follow the cake-like brownies preparation)
2 squares (1 oz. each) white chocolate for baking
2 T. milk
1 pckg. (9 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 c. thawed frozen whipped topping (I like the extra creamy)
1 pint fresh small strawberries, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Spray mini-muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray for baking. Prepare brownie mix according to directions for cake-like brownies. Fill mini muffin cups 2/3 of way full. Blake 14 min. or until edges are set. Do not overbake.

2. Remove pan to cooling rack. Immediately press tops of brownies to make indentation (I used a little food coloring bottle covered in plastic wrap). Cool in pan 15 min. Loosen edges and gently remove brownies from pan. Cool completely. Was pan, spray again and repeat with remaining batter.

3. Microwave white chocolate and milk in small bowl, uncovered on high 1 minute; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. In med. bowl, combine cream cheese and powdered sugar; mix well. Gradually stir in white chocolate mixture until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.

4. Fill decorator bag fitted with star tip (or used a plastic ziplock with the a bit of the corner cut off) to pipe cream cheese mixture into cooled brownie cups. Arrange sliced strawberries on top of cups.

*You can also add additional garnish of mint leaves or orange zest or drizzled semi-sweet chocolate.

Refrigerate in airtight container, 1-3 hours before serving (I didn't. More like 20 minutes, they were still great!).

Yield - 4 dozen (I ended up with a little less... my cups were probably more like 3/4's full)

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom and Hannah. We all rocked in that chair with Mom.



Wishing I was little again so I could climb into your lap and you could rock me in that rocking chair (I remember that) and sing. It was the most safe and loved feeling I have ever felt in my life. With you.

I remember thinking how nicely you smelled, not of perfume or lotions but just you. You still smell the same way. And it is one of my most favorite smells ever.

I remember playing "baby" with your hands. I always thought you had beautiful hands. I still do. I am thankful for those hands. And all that they have done for me.

Now that I an a mother, I truly understand the kind of love that you have for me, and for the rest of your children. It feels wonderful to feel that. And when I have had my own babies, you have swooped in and taken care of me, of my family, like only a mother like you can.

The best kind of mother. As long as you are far away, my heart will always have this ache. But I am so very blessed to have you as my Mum. Even at such a distance.

I celebrate you today!

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living,
My mommy you'll be...

Goings On 2

So, I finally got our room put back together. Here is how it looks minus the purple. It actually looks a lot more tan in this pic... it is more on the grey side.



And the master bathroom minus the powder blue (I wish I had a before picture!). This color actually looks a little darker and more brown in real life.



Big improvement.

BLAKE.

Yesterday I got to pay a visit to Blake's classroom for a mother's day celebration. They sang songs about Mom's. We watched a slideshow his teacher had made, donned crowns the kids had made (we were queens for the morning), and had treats.

Of course, I was the Mom getting all choked up when the kids were singing, pinching myself hard under the table so I wouldn't shed a tear (no one else was). It just made me so emotional to see him up there, beaming at me watching him sing about his Mother.


(faces of the other kids are blurred well... because I guess it is no longer cool to post pics of other people's kids faces on your blog - even if you and I both have no idea who they are... we were told to keep them "private").

I guess it was due to the fact that he is so grown up yet still little enough to sing to his mom in front of his class and love it. I know those days are numbered.

He had a soccer game this morning and scored three of the five (I think?) goals. He has crazy endurance and was actually upset when the game was over. He definitely doesn't get his athleticism from me. He may be small but gosh! He is fast!

SYDNEY.

Sydney brought home a potted plant and a Mother's Day card she had made at school. She told the teacher what to write. Here is what it said:

MY MOM

-She makes me pancakes (that would actually be her Dad. I make the french toast).
-She makes me chocolate sandwiches (nutella).
-She makes me laugh.
-She gave me some candy.
-She eats fish (I do? But not that often? ???).
-She plays with Grant.
-My mom makes me cereal (what a good mom I am!).
-She buys me lipstick (chapstick -she calls it lipstick).
-She brushes my hair (she hates getting her hair brushed so I am not sure if this is a compliment).
-She gives me hugs and kisses.
-She cooks. (She forgot to mention I EAT).

Love, Sydney

It was probably one of the best and most funny Mother's Day cards I have ever received.

She also attempted to wash her own hair last night while Krissy was babysitting. I think she forgot to wash out the shampoo because when I came home it looked like she had dreadlocks.

GRANT.

He has his first tooth! I am going to try and take a pic of it at some point. His second bottom tooth has also just barely broken through. This means he has been a little crabbier than usual but he is still a wonderful baby.

We also got the walker out. He is now scooting across the floor in it and seems to really love it. I am going to take some video of that soon.

And of course, I have pictures.

Grant in the tub - he LOVES the tub.



No really. He splashes and soaks everything within a few feet. And yes, I added some pants. Cover up the goods.



Getting ready to enjoy a walk with Mom.



And ANOTHER photo of him sleeping. Because LOOK AT THOSE THIGHS! And I love how he still has his finger hooked around his bear.



And just so he doesn't feel left out... Dave.




Check out the photog. blog. New pics of a darling baby!

Is it that bad?

Sydney to me this afternoon: "Mom, who is coming over?"

Me: "Nobody, why do you ask?"

Syd: "Because you are cleaning."

Okay, so this was a bit ridiculous since I feel like I am ALWAYS cleaning. Perhaps I was making some headway or something.

And the #1 reason I am always tempted to eat the baby...

Common. Look at the hair, the lashes, the cheeks, the lips... and tell me you don't even want a little nibble?

So, Dave and I spent to day yesterday painting (which is why Grant is in the porta crib for his nap - to avoid the paint fumes in our room where is crib resides). This was in preparation for putting our house on the market.

Normally I love to paint. It helps that Dave was painter for years so he is great at it and superfast.

But. Painting in order to make your beloved home appear more attractive to someone else so they can come and take it from you - pretty depressing. Especially when we got the bathroom done and it looked sooo pretty - the color I have wanted it to be for a long time - and it is not for me :(

The bathroom used to be dark purple. You heard it right. DARK. PURPLE. We didn't paint it that way. And then we used the leftover powder blue from Blake's room to get rid of the purple. But I almost think the blue looked worse. Now it is a nice tan/chocolate milk color. Very neutral and will appeal to the masses.

The bedroom? Guess what color that used to be? PURPLE. TWO SHADES OF PURPLE. I am not kidding. When we moved into this place, it looked like Barney had thrown up all over it. The kitchen even had a purple wall. Which led me to believe perhaps it was a family of 9 year old girls living in the house. Did I mention that purple is my least favorite color? Really. Least.

Now The bedroom color turned out a little more grey than I thought, but I love the color. The problem is our lack of decent bedroom furnishings and accessories make it not the greatest choice. Hopefully a quick trip and a few bucks at Ikea will make it show-worthy. The market is so bad right now, I know this home has to be as close to model home perfect as possible with the least amount of money spent in order to have a prayer of selling it.

Today I am made shortbread with semi-sweet chocolate drizzle for a "Mothers Without Borders" charity book and bake sale going on. It will be tomorrow in front of the Chris Jones office (I think that is on Lehi Main St.) so if you are in the area, you might want to buy some yummy treats for a good cause.

I also have a loaf of raisin bread going in the breadmaker, but that was mainly because I am procrastinating. And saying "take THAT!" to my diet.

I have a catch-up shoot tomorrow morning, a front garden to rip out and then re-plant and a soccer game for Blake. And the weather says it is supposed to be cold and rainy. Again. FOR THE LOVE OF PETE! GIVE US SOME SUNSHINE AND WARMTH ON A SATURDAY ALREADY MR. WEATHERMAN!!! My spirits are in need of it... I guess I can just go look at my sleeping babe again.