The Andrews Family

Family Pictures

2012-02-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

At the end of November our friend Jenna took our family pictures at Wheeler Farm. With the lack of snow this year we had beautiful weather and it was lots of fun. We got some great shots of just our kids also I will add those on a different post.

Aquarium

2012-02-02T08:29:00.000-08:00

Right before Christmas we took my parents to the Living Planet Aquarium. It was so much fun, the kids had a blast and it was the first time my parents had been there. It is hard to get Micah to hold still for pictures in a place with so much to look at, so I did my best.

I am not quite sure what happened here ...

While Makayla was touching the sting rays Micah was checking out some small animals with a magnifying glass. He did not want to leave that area.

The penguins were so fun to watch. They were playing while we were there. They were diving, swimming, and hopping out of the water. It was fun to see how they swim.
Since we got there about a month before the otters arrived we are going to plan another play day at the aquarium soon.

Christmas 2011

2012-02-02T07:49:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas! We celebrated with my family on Christmas Eve and spent time as our family at home Christmas Day. It was so much fun and exciting for all of us.

Here is our tree with the presents underneath

Santa came!!

The first thing Makayla did was check to see if Santa ate the cookies

Looking at the stockings

Micah "drove" his Lightning McQueen slippers around the front room on his hands. Making car noises the whole way. It was so funny!

After present opening we had our traditional breakfast of a Christmas Omelet and scones. Then we played with the kids new toys, watched the movies we got for Christmas, and had a great time. We all started getting sick Christmas Eve so we stayed in pajamas all day. It was awesome!!
The kids played with their new Tag books and it kept them busy for a long time.

We even played our new fishing game and had so much fun. The kids got pretty good at it too.

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope that you did too!

10 Things ...

2012-01-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

A very awesome sister in our ward is having a 2011 10 things party where you bring a list of your top 10 things that happened in 2011. I thought this was a great idea. With all of the health issues we deal with sometimes we feel like nothing goes right but as I thought over the last year here are some of my favorite things.

1. I got a job working for the Church as a custodian. And in September got to transfer to the Jordan River Temple - what a blessing for a job.

2. We found out we are having a baby girl!

3. I discovered Lemishine - if you get a white build up on your dishes because of the formula changes in dish detergent it will be the best $3 purchase you ever made!

4. Makayla got accepted to the Utah school for the Deaf and Blind. She is loving her class and doing so great.

5. We only set foot in an ER 3 times the whole year. Which by the way is a record for our family :) And only 1 hospital stay for our kids.

6. I am getting better at not using eggs in baking. The treat possibilities have opened up!

7. We had some fun memories made at the zoo, aquarium, drive in movies, parks, and camping

8. We got to experience the true meaning of Christmas first hand helping a single mother give her 5 kids a Christmas they would not have had. After we delivered the gifts and food Makayla looked at me and said, "Mom I am sure glad we helped those kids" Lots of tears on that car ride home.

9. I went to my first hockey game ever - it was a blast

10. Micah is almost completely potty trained! He only wears a pull up while he sleeps and is starting to wake up dry most of the time. Perfect timing since our baby is on the way!

What are your ten???

Christmas Program

2012-01-03T09:38:00.001-08:00

The first grade at Makayla's school did a Christmas Program. We got to go watch, it was so cute! They did a very good job with it. They had speaking parts and even sang a couple of songs in Spanish. My parents came to watch too and she was super excited to see us there. Makayla has had a hard time singing songs because of her hearing and speech delays. She just can't seem to get all the words out with the tune of the song. She did so well with these songs. She got almost all the words and I was so proud of her. I find her singing along to the Christmas songs we hear on the radio and while she plays with her toys.

This is Makayla and her best friend at school Savanna. They are only 2 days apart and are such good buddies. They both have hearing problems and I hear about Savanna all the time. They even have a sleep over planned!

After the program I checked Makayla out from school for just over an hour and took her to McDonalds for lunch. She had fun playing with Micah and my niece Mylee in the play area and then we took her back to school. Later when she came home she was all sad and I finally got it out of her that she missed eating lunch at school! I guess I can't win. We had a fun day and I am so glad we went to watch.

Christmas Cookies and Christmas Tree

2012-01-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

I try to make sugar cookies every year around Christmas. I don't know what it is but I just want sugar cookies at that time of year. I have had a hard time finding a recipe that works without eggs. This one had some definite potential. I think I finally figured out the thickness and time cooked by the end to make them soft and yummy. The kids had fun decorating them. What is life without a little sprinkles on the floor?

The kids helped decorate the Christmas Tree this year. They actually did a great job. Even Micah put them all over instead of all on the same branch. We had lots of fun getting the ornaments out and talking about past Christmas memories. If you notice Makayla's outfit, she misses summer! She is constantly coming out in shorts or carpi's which I only allow if we are not leaving the house because it is COLD!!

Micah wanted to take some pictures and these are two of our tree that I thought were pretty impressive for a 2 year old :)

We had a fun month leading up to Christmas. We did all get the stomach flu and missed some parties but the Christmas excitement built up just the same. We visited Temple Square to see the wonderful lights and I totally forgot the camera! But Micah was enthralled by the lights. It was fun to drive around a night because we would hear "look more lights" as he saw new houses with lights on. As a matter of fact he is still on the look out for lights even though most of them have been turned off by now. I waited to wrap the presents to put them under the tree until 1 week before Christmas because I did not want the kids to be too tempted to open them. The first morning they were under there Micah was next to the tree shaking the presents and asking Makayla whose it was. She knows all of our names I was cracking up! I have the worlds cutest kids!

I have a confession ...

2011-12-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

Well the past 14 months have been peanut butter free at our house and I will admit, I MISS PEANUT BUTTER!! I miss a quick PB&J sandwich for lunch. I don't know if it is because I am pregnant but I have been missing it more and more lately. Besides, certain recipes for baking are just not the same without peanut butter. I love to bake and especially this time of year with lots of parties and sharing of treats. I would make peanut butter bars, muddy buddies, no bake cookies, etc. The one thing these all have is peanut butter. We discovered Nutella within the last 6 months or so. I don't know why we never tried it before but as Micah can have hazelnuts we gave it a shot. Still not the same in a sandwich but we make due.

Recently I have been finding ways to make recipes from scratch with replacement ingredients. It has been great because that boy loves cake :) With Peanut, egg and milk allergies there are lots of store bought treats we can not enjoy anymore. Clint asked me to find a recipe for Nutella Chex Muddy Buddies. I found a couple of them today and tried them. I must say they turned out really well! Although maybe it would have been better not to find them lol!

I will share:

Nutella Muddy Buddies (this is for a half batch)

5 C Rice Chex

1/2 C Chocolate Chips

1 C Nutella

3/4 C Powdered Sugar

Measure out Chex cereal and put in bowl. Combine Nutella and Chocolate chips in a sauce pan over med/low heat and stir until melted. Pour chocolate over cereal and stir gently until evenly covered. Put a little of the powdered sugar in gallon size Ziploc bag and pour cereal into bag**. Sprinkle a little more powdered sugar over and close bag and shake to cover cereal in powdered sugar. Then enjoy!

**Note I realized I was out of big baggies after I did the mix so I poured a little powdered sugar in the bottom of a gallon size pitcher. Then added half the cereal mixture added a little more powdered sugar then the rest of the cereal and shook it to mix. It worked pretty well, I may keep doing it that way to save a baggie in the future :)

Mint Muddy Buddies

5 C Rice Chex

3/4 C Andes Mint Chips - or chocolate chips with a few drops of mint extract

2 Tlb butter

Directions are the same as above only melt the butter then add the mint chips and stir until melted then follow the usual directions.

This was a great find just before Christmas :)

Makayla's 7th Birthday!

2011-12-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

I can not believe that Makayla is 7 years old already. She is such a blessing to have in our family. This year she wanted a Rapunzel party. For some reason Tangled decorations are hard to find and thus expensive. So I went the homemade route :) It was worth all the work as I showed everything to her as I worked on it and she was so happy and kept saying - "it's perfect Mom." What a cutie!

Here is our food table with the triangle banners that have gold suns painted on them just like in the kingdom. We also had wanted posters of Flynn Ryder all over.

I got most of my inspiration for the party from Super Mom Moments Blog. She has such creative ideas - LOVE LOVE LOVE is all I have to say :) I also made this Bread which was a huge hit and super easy. In fact I just made another batch yesterday. Notice on the table there are frying pans that are holding cheese and butter - found them at Dollar Tree, Makayla loved them.

Here is the cake. I actually had a fancy one planned but she wanted a purple cake with her barbie on top. So the birthday girl got her wish. I used the same template for the sun banners to spray the suns on the side the cake with edible gold food color spray.

Here is the Birthday Princess in her Halloween costume. She had so much fun and was super excited about everything.

We made a tower pinata from a spare round tube from Clint's work so I think it actually cost about $2 worth of materials to put it together. Some tissue paper and glue sticks. I painted vines and flowers on it and we printed a picture of Rapunzel off the computer and glued it on. Makayla asked us to hang it in her room :)

Here is Micah showing off his loot from the pinata. I don't think he put it down for the rest of the party.

We have very loving and generous family and friends and she got some very fun presents and was spoiled rotten.
Here is her friend Dakota who decided that he needed to sing Happy Birthday to her while she opened her presents. It was so stinking cute.

She got a little embarrassed when we sang Happy Birthday to her. Micah was standing by for a cupcake. He had been waiting patiently all day. The second the song was over he had one in his hands.

It was a fun party, we had coloring pages for the kids to color, played pin the pan on Flynn, and we made Pascal Party Blowers. Overall it was a very successful party and Makayla loved it which made all the preparations well worth it.

Our Cute Micah

2011-12-01T15:51:00.001-08:00

Micah is growing up so fast and is so stinking cute! He is a stinker and gets into anything he can but it is fun to have him around. He is talking up a storm and saying and doing some funny things.

After Halloween he decided he had to have one of those really sour Warhead candies. I told him he wouldn't like it but he wanted to try it and this was his face. It stayed just like this for a minute so I asked him if he liked it. He shook his head no. Then I asked if he wanted to spit it out and right away he nodded his head and practically ran to the garbage to spit it out. I was laughing so hard and after he spit it out he laughed too.

He is obsessed with the pillows that go on our couch. He hides behind them, throws them on the floor and lays on them like in the above pictures, sometimes he lines them up and pretend snores when he lays on them. Almost daily I hear "Mom I want a puppy house" so we make little forts out of the pillows and he sits in them and laughs.

Lately he plays with cars ALOT! If we get in the car and he doesn't have at least one car in his hands I am shocked. He lays on the floor with one cheek on the carpet and drives them all over. Sometimes he just turns in circles with his head in the middle and makes car noises and has a blast. The other day I came into the front room to find all his cars in a nice little line. I laughed so hard and had to take a picture.

Another funny car story is he has some Shake and Go cars. You shake them up and the engine revs then when you set them down the drive forward. He loves them and some days they drive me crazy! About a week ago his car crashed into our front door. He turned and looked at me and I thought he said "oh crap" so I kinda laughed but tried not to laugh to much. Then he said it again and I realized he said "oh crash". So now when any of his toys fall on the ground or cars crash into each other or other objects we hear "Oh Crash!" from Micah. I giggle every time.

While 2 years old has been a challenge it has been worth it to have such a fun little guy in our family.

Gardner Village

2011-11-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

Clint went Deer Hunting this year, and had a lot of fun but did not get a deer. He was gone from home for a week and a half. While he was gone I took the kids to Gardner Village to see the witches. It was a blast but super busy. We went over UEA weekend and I think every mom in the valley had the same idea. We had a picnic and walked around for a while and had lots of fun.

The next weekend we were missing Clint and so we went down to Mayfield for the weekend to get away and hang out with Dad. :) We mostly hung out around the house but we did go to the park and the kids had lots of fun. These pictures are at the park where they were playing with some cousins.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-10T07:30:00.000-08:00

Halloween this year was different. We only went to one Halloween party in the month of October instead of the usual 4, and then celebrated Halloween at home with a pumpkin shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and went trick or treating. The kids had a blast. We actually went out for about double the time this year and wore them out. They slept so great that night :)

This was at my parents Halloween party early in the month. Micah refused to wear his costume so he is wearing a pirate shirt. He has been obsessed with pumpkins ever since they started showing up this fall. We have left the store with him in tears because I didn't buy one for him. So when they got to pick a pumpkin to take home I thought he would be super excited. He was, until he saw the tomato plants. He picked a couple tomatoes and that was all she wrote. He was more excited over the tomato than his pumpkin and he shows them off proudly in every picture we took of him :)

Taking pictures of two kids is a challenge! Especially when Micah is a wiggle worm and rarely holds still. This was the only shot where they were looking in the same direction and Micah has his tomato in front of his face. Oh well ...

Makayla chose to be Rapunzel this year. I sewed her costume this year. However, I did not finish it in time for my parents party but luckily it was done for Halloween. She was so cute about it. She watched me sew and kept saying "its perfect Mom". Made all the work well worth it.

This was on Halloween before school. She loved her hair and had me take a picture of it.

They had a school costume parade. Clint had the day off and we surprised her and went to watch her in the parade. The little stinker waved a little but did not even crack a smile. After school when she talked about it she was excited that we were there but it sure did not look like it when we were there.

About 2 weeks before Halloween we forced Micah in his costume. It was not pleasant for any of us. It took both Clint and I to hold him in it until we could get it zipped up. We knew once he got it on he would like it but it was a fight. There were many tears and he actually almost threw up he was so upset. But that only lasted until he saw himself in the mirror. Then he said oh cute! Then we showed him that the costume talks and the fit was over. He actually didn't want to take it off. I thought he was going to sleep in it but right before bed he decided he wanted it off. He calls it "my Tigger" and if he saw another tiger or Tigger he said "HEY! that's my Tigger".

Micah and I had the worlds hottest costumes on the Halloween that had the best Trick or Treating weather we have had in a long time. I was sweating buckets when we got home, it didn't help that I walked about a mile uphill with a very tired Tigger on my shoulders.

We had a great Halloween and hope that you did too.

It's A ...

2011-10-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

We had our ultrasound today and we got to see our very wiggly and active baby. So far everything looks great! Oh yeah ...

It's a GIRL!

Makayla almost jumped up and down when she heard the news :)

We are excited to have another little princess in our family and I will get the pics up soon.

Fertility

2011-10-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

If you have never had a problem having a baby fertility may never have crossed your mind. I have friends and family that are all across the fertility board. Those who get pregnant the minute they think about it, a few take a few months to get pregnant, some require fertility drugs for a chance, some are unable to have children of their own. With fertility usually what you see is what you get, you have a hard time getting pregnant or you don't.

Strangely we have had such unique and different experiences with our kids. We thought it would take a while to get pregnant when we decided to try for our first baby, nope first month I was pregnant. About 2 years later we started trying again, after about 3 months I found out I was pregnant and lost the pregnancy 2 weeks later. It took 2 more years and some light doses of fertility drugs to get pregnant with our second child. So imagine my surprise when I started not feeling very well this summer then realized that I may be pregnant. It was a strange feeling to know that we had a "surprise" pregnancy, especially with how difficult it was to get pregnant before.

This experience totally renewed my testimony that our Heavenly Father knows us better than we know ourselves and sends our children to us at the right time and the right way for us. After I had a miscarriage I was very discouraged and sad. It was not until I looked back that I knew it was for a reason. Makayla had so many needs at that time that she needed us for a little longer. I am so grateful to have my children. I know I am a far from perfect mom, but I love my kids more than they will ever know. Life gets stressful with our kids sometimes but I would not change having them in my life for anything.

Our Little Secret!

2011-10-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Bay #3 due to arrive March 21, 2012

We are very excited for our new addition! This ultrasound was taken at 9 weeks and 2 days. The baby wiggled and almost danced through the ultrasound. It was funny! We are going to find out the gender of the baby hopefully in the first week of November.

I was pretty sick at the beginning but have been feeling lots better over the past 3 weeks or so. I am currently 16 weeks along and I can't believe how fast time is going. I don't know if I will feel that way in a couple of months but we will see :)

Makayla and Micah are excited to have a new baby. According to Makayla it is a sister like her. I asked her what if it is a boy and this is what she said to me. "No brothers, it is going to be a sister. It has to be a girl." I am sure that Micah does not really understand but when he sees the ultrasound he gets excited and says, "awwww its the baby." I love my sweet kids and cant wait to see what the new baby looks like!

Team Jackson

2011-09-05T13:44:00.001-07:00

There is a very sweet 5 year old boy in our ward that is currently undergoing cancer treatments for a rare and aggressive brain tumor called AT/RT or Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor. He is a fighter and doing fairly well with all his treatments.

Click Here http://goteamjack.blogspot.com/ to read his story.

They are doing an event on September 10, 2011 from 5:30 - 8:30 at High Bluff Park 6810 S 6190 W in West Jordan to help raise money for his treatments.

It should be a ton of fun and any money spent goes to a wonderful cause. Hope that some of you may be able to come :)

Moon Lake 2011

2011-08-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

We had a blast in Moon Lake this year. We decided to leave a little earlier than usual and drive to Flaming Gorge to take a tour of the dam before heading camping. We didn't get to do much as a family this summer so this was a fun little side trip. We stopped for breakfast at Burger King somewhere in Wyoming. The kids wore their crowns almost all day and they had fun. Apparently Makayla is the queen, not a princess :)

We could not get Micah to stand for a picture so Makayla gets a solo shot this time!

The tour of the dam was pretty cool, the kids got to feed fish at the end. The fish were HUGE and they swarmed and almost jumped out of the water to get the fish food. So fun to watch.

When we got to Moon Lake we ended up being the first family there. The kids were excited to be camping and they explored all over. Here is Micah with his new backpack.

We went on a fun boat ride around the lake, which was so high this year. There was hardly any beach for the kids to play on but they made do with what we could find. Both of the kids loved the boat, Micah almost fell asleep.

Clint enjoyed lots and lots of fishing, they caught lots and kept a few for a fish fry for dinner one night.

Micah finally decided this year that sleeping in a sleeping bag is fun. This is the first year he has not freaked out in the middle of the night. And he slept so good since he ran all over almost all day.

Makayla wanted to get a picture with Micah but he was his usual busy body self and didn't want a picture taken. So Makayla said, "its ok Mom, I will just pretend Micah is standing next to me." What a cutie!
Micah wanted NOTHING to do with the water. Earlier this day he literally put one toe into the water and said nope and turned around and headed back to his chair. We laughed so much over that one. That was one of those, I wish I had the camcorder moments. Clint finally got him to walk in the water then he had so much fun walking ankle deep to fill up his sand bucket and play with the older kids.

Trixie had fun chasing sticks in the lake.

We had a sad moment one day at lunch. Micah was sitting on his little camping chair and using the bench of the picnic table as his table so he could reach. He started leaning back in his chair and he fell backwards right on the uneven and messed up asphalt. It took him a while to calm down and his head was bleeding a little bit. I panicked thinking that he was going to need stitches but it was just a little gash and nothing got in it. This little boy is going to be the death of me :). He fell asleep in Clint's arms, which never happens anymore, and they took a nap together.

We brought the kids their rain boots since they clean easily and slip on and off fast. They both wore them alot through the trip and we got some cute pictures.

Capris and rain boots :o)

A Micah Update

2011-08-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the things that my little monster has been up to lately. We have been working on potty training and he is doing a great job. He wears underwear all the time except when he is sleeping. We are so proud of him. We are still dealing with food allergies, and some foods that have been ok in the past now are not. It has been hard to deal with trial and error, but what else can you do :)

We converted his crib over to a toddler bed. He LOVES it. When he gets tired he goes and lays down. It is awesome! He was so excited to see his bed that we could not even get him to look at the camera.

Micah is obsessed with our couch pillows. He throws them on the floor then jumps off the couch onto them. The other favorite thing to do is hide behind the pillows, I caught him peeking out at just the right time.

Micah was playing in his room when I hear a bunch of crashes, never a good sound with a 2 year old! I went in and this is what I found. He dumped each of the buckets out that go in the toy case under his window. He had fun for a bit then we had quite a clean up job to do. And yes he is wearing his cowboy boots and a pull up :o) This is a common sight around here.

Micah loves to watch Little Einsteins on Disney Channel. Here he is watching it and hanging out with our cat Luna. As he watches he pets her on the head then when he stops she will meow at him and he will start petting her again. It is so cute.

For some reason he loves to put his socks on his hands. Sometimes he pretends they are ducks and quacks and moves his hands around like a puppet. Here he his playing with a magic wand and laying on the floor. What a weirdo!

We love our little buddy and are so glad he is part of our family. He keeps life interesting!

Perspective

2011-07-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

The Websters Dictionary describes perspective as:

The capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.

Lately my focus has been slightly inward. I have been worried about so many different things and I have lost sight of what really matters. I suppose I had a pity party with myself. Worried about my kids, and Makayla's hearing problems, Micah's allergies. While I never asked "why us" I did not really ever look at it in the Eternal Perspective.

Heavenly Father will NEVER give us something that we can't handle. I suppose I have to learn this lesson every few years because I have already had a huge Aha moment when Makayla was a baby and just got one again :o)

When Makayla was not walking and we had physical therapy a few times a week and it was a fight everyday to get her to do anything other than crawl I found myself comparing her to other kids. I would point out kids that were around her age that were walking around and say Hey Makayla see those kids you need to walk like them. It wasn't until I heard another mother point to Makayla and say to her daughter (that was army crawling on her tummy) "do you see that little girl, you should crawl like her."

In that moment I learned that we all move at our own pace in all things. There is always another situation that is worse than yours and as frustrating as your trials can be at sometimes we have them for a reason. My most recent AHA moment was when I found out that an adorable little boy in our ward has a brain tumor that has required surgery and now months of chemo and radiation treatments. Their family will be in the hospital for 3 weeks at a time.

Really ... I was worried about food allergies and hearing aides ...

Eternal Perspective

I recently taught a lesson in Young Women's about this subject. There is a quote from Joseph Smith that I loved

"The nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin."

How wonderful that day will be. I had an amazing spiritual experience at work. Working for the Church has good benefits like a work environment that encourages the Spirit. I do not have the most glamorous job - cleaning bathrooms - but it is in a beautiful building. I get to clean a bathroom that is in a limited access hallway, and it just happens to be the restroom that the Prophet uses when he visits the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The building recently turned 100 years old and they had a big celebration. President Monson spoke and the Tabernacle choir performed and they had a fancy dinner. We had a training that day and so we were behind in our duties so we had to hurry to get everything done. While the stress level mounted and I was worrying if Makayla was going to get accepted to her school I entered that hallway. It felt like I walked into a wall of the Spirit. I started crying instantly and was prompted by the Spirit that the Prophet had walked in that hallway that day. Next to being in the Temple it was the best spiritual experience of my life. The sweet calming influence of the Spirit helped me know that everything was going to work out, the stress melted away and I knew that by putting faith and trust in the Lord all things will be ok in time. What a huge blessing.

I keep trying to keep this attitude alive daily and when it gets hard I try to remember my many Aha moments and hope that I don't have too many more of them.

2011-06-28T09:30:00.001-07:00

I have a friend from my ward that moved to California :o(

She is AMAZINGLY talented and creative, here is her blog on how to make things at home that would cost alot at the store :o) Check it out!

http://unodostreschic.blogspot.com/

Can we have a Do Over?

2011-06-28T09:08:00.001-07:00

This was the picture I took just before Clint took our kids to the Daddy Daughter Camp out our ward had Father's Day Weekend. I had to work Friday night so Clint took both kids camping. We had high hopes for the weekend, the had toys, and hot dogs to cook over the fire and smores. They had a blast Friday night.

Clint woke up Saturday morning to the kids playing with Micah's EPI Pens, which he took away right then. There are 2 per case. As he tried to put them back into the case he realized that one of them would not fit and that the safety cap was missing. He asked them where the blue cap was and Micah brought it right over. As he realized that one of the pens would not fit he noticed that Makayla was upset. So he asked what happened and she held up her hand and said I have blood.

YIKES!!

We had our first accidental injection from the EPI Pen. By the time I got ahold of someone early Saturday morning they had already packed up and were on their way home. Luckily the effects are just a racing heart and adrenaline and they are gone in about 20 - 30 minutes. We were concerned because around the puncture was all white. Poison Control advised us to have her rub it and once she got home to soak her hand in warm water and rub it until the white went away. There is a reason you inject an EPI pen into your leg so it is in a large muscle. Poor girl.

And then once they got home Micah was VERY wheezy. We had to do his inhaler every 2 hours and when he was sleeping he had a really hard time breathing. He had to use his whole body to breathe and it was very scary. We took him to the Primary Children's ER and they did some breathing treatments, which helped greatly. However, because they had to do the first couple so close together they kept him overnight for observation. They even considered keeping him for a few days ... luckily we got to come home the next afternoon. Well all our Father's Day activities got cancelled and to top it off Clint got a cold. I felt so bad.

So this past weekend we took Clint to the Drive In to see Cars 2 and Pirates 4 and the kids surprised him with his favorite movie treats. And I made one of his favorite dinners for Sunday dinner. Crazy days, I just hope that life chills out just a little for the summer!

We did it!

2011-06-27T09:47:00.001-07:00

We found out that Makayla qualifies for the hearing impaired class at the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind!!

She is getting excited because in her own words:

"I am going to a new school where the kids have hearing aides like me"

yes I cried when I heard that. We are excited to see where the next school year takes her and are so proud of all the things that she has accomplished considering how she has not been able to hear properly.

Her speech therapist opened my eyes a little when she helped me realize that while she is 6 1/2 her hearing age is only 7 months. Puts things in perspective a little

Hooray for Makayla!!

Anxious!!!

2011-06-06T12:20:00.001-07:00

I am getting a post together that will show off Makayla's hearing aides! I have been trying to decide how to do it but in the mean time ...

Makayla is doing so much better since we chose to get her hearing aides. Her speech and hearing have improved greatly, however, she is still way behind in her learning and language. She gets so frustrated and it is hard to see your child go through that. Even though we have been actively trying all we can I still blame myself for not doing enough. I feel like I failed her as a mother. A hard situation all around.

We were contacted by a Speech teacher from the district who specializes with kids who are hearing impaired. She was concerned that she will have a hard time catching up in the current pattern of her education. She gets pulled out of class for resource and for speech class. So needless to say she misses a lot of time with her peers in her class room. And in 1st grade next year they are planning on increasing time in both extra classes. We learned that there is a hearing impaired class at the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind, and that she may qualify for the program. She would be taught in a language rich environment for her core curriculum by teachers who are highly trained to deal with children with hearing loss.

I went and toured the classroom and met the teacher and Principal of the program. I am in LOVE!! It would be perfect. They did all the testing required to see if she can go to school there next year. Now I have to wait until Friday to have a meeting to see if she qualifies and get a recommendation from like 7 people!

Needless to say I am ANXIOUS! I never wish that she would do poorly on a test but this time I kind of do because that would mean she will get the one on one attention she desperately needs. I will update on Friday once I know what is going on...

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

There are no words to explain how you feel after holding your newly born baby. That moment of happiness, fear, and holy crap I am a mom! It is hard to wrap your brain around the fact that you are holding a little piece of heaven. I am far from a perfect mother but my kids are amazing and love me unconditionally. I am so blessed to be their mom and am so happy to have them be part of my family.

Makayla November 17, 2004

Micah April 1, 2009

I am the luckiest mom in the world! Happy Mother's Day everyone.

Coloring Eggs

2011-05-04T11:53:00.001-07:00

Catch Up!

2011-05-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

I have missed a lot of fun things that we have been up to so here is a catch up! We also had about a month and a half of being very sick so I suppose that is a good excuse :o)

Makayla lost more teeth! She has now lost 4 teeth and has a few more that are loose.

We went to a hockey game

Makayla got a puck that the goalie from the other team threw over the glass for her. She was super excited!

Our kids still love their pillow pets that they got for Christmas. They both sleep with them every night. Here they are watching the Super Bowl.

Clint and Makayla went Ice Fishing with Clint's brother Corey and his daughter Ava.

I took the kids to Wheeler Farm with my friend Jen and her kids.
We had fun and had beautiful weather!

Makayla swallowed a squished souvenir penny that she got from the Heber Creeper last September. Scared me to death but she was able to pass it through with no issues

We adopted a new cat, her name is Cho

We went to the Living Planet Aquarium, It was my first time and we had lots of fun. The kids loved looking at all the fish but Micah got grumpy toward the end. Nap time was a little late that day :o)

Makayla was happy as usual, Micah did not want his picture taken so most of the shots I have of him are the back of his head! What a stinker :o)

Micah is 2!

2011-04-05T08:48:00.001-07:00

I can not believe that Micah is already 2! Ok so in reality he has been acting 2 for a few months but now it is official. He has been talking up a storm and has quite the attitude and personality :o) He loves to cook on our play kitchen, play with tools, balls, and trucks or tractors. He is an escape artist so we have to keep a close eye on him, especially since he can reach the dead bolt now and has actually locked me in the garage before. OH boy we are in trouble! He is very inquisitive and I try to let him discover lots of new things. He absolutely loves to be outside and cries when we have to come back inside. He is a very brave little kid, and will go down slides - even the tall ones - all by himself. He makes our home a very fun and sometimes crazy place but we love Micah like crazy!

We had his birthday party over at my parents house on his actual birthday which was super fun. We had a great turn out and he got spoiled rotten! We have been having fun playing with all of his new toys and he has been so excited to get them out everyday.

How to Train Your Dragon is one of Micah's favorite movies so we did a dragon party. Decorations for a dragon party are almost non-existent so we only really had a cake for decorations. He did not even care :o)

I baked the cake and made all the frosting, we had to use special recipes since Micah is allergic to Peanuts and Egg Whites, and is Lactose Intolerant. So we had a egg less chocolate cake with raspberry filling, it was a very good cake. Clint was the master designer for the cake and he sculpted the Toothless dragon. I think it turned out awesome. I was so happy with the cake and Micah was super excited.

So as I said before he got spoiled rotten, here are a few pictures of him opening presents. When he gets around people he stops smiling for some reason so he looks pretty somber in all of the pictures but he was so excited while opening presents. The funny thing was that every time there was clothes he threw them off to the side and looked around for a toy. Silly Boy!

We are so blessed and thankful for our family and friends who made Micah's party such a success. We are also blessed to have such a wonderful son to be part of our family!

Just in case you did not know ...

2011-03-09T08:57:00.000-08:00

Just in case you did not know and wanted to, Micah has hit the terrible two's with a vengeance. Last week he figured out how to climb out of his crib. Which has been a challenge for me! Here was my morning - keep in mind that this all happened between 7:35 and 8:30:

Micah climbed out of his crib all by himself

Locked himself in our hall closet and got stuck behind the vacuum

Escaped out the front door when my niece was being dropped off and I had to run down the front of our house to catch him

threw a fit for no reason - kicking and screaming on the floor and everything :o)

Wow he is a joy! He is such a cutie and a great kid, he is doing some wonderful things in his development. I am struggling because Makayla was not this mischievous at this age so this is a learning experience for me. I just take lots of deep breaths and try to remember that this stage will pass!

Courage

2011-03-04T08:26:00.001-08:00

A friend from my ward posted this on Facebook and I thought I would share it. It is so sad what this world has come to. I pray everyday that I will have the strength and knowledge to raise our kids to be good and faithful people in this crazy world. I must say that I am super proud of this Mom and how she handled this :o)
I copied the blog post and put it on here and also put the link if you want to see the original.

http://johnsonclanupdates.blogspot.com/2011/03/because-i-want-whole-world-to-know.html

Dear World:
I picked up the Jan 2011 issue of RunnersWorld yesterday and about died. A page fell open with a nude lady covering herself, wearing running shoes. You may be asking why I didn't see this earlier when I have looked through that issue? Well, we happened to have two Jan 2011s around (one from our subscription and my dad gave us one). My dear husband had already ripped that ad out of one and ripped it up and thrown it away. I never saw it and didn't know about it. But here was this PORN in our house. Disgusting. So I sent the following email to RunnersWorld right after I saw the ad.

I am disappointed that you decided to include what amounts to pornography in your Jan 2011 issue. We have subscribed to your magazine for several years and have given several gifts subscriptions. Never again. I will never invest one more cent in your magazine.

I received the following response today.

Dear Christi,
Thank you for contacting Runner's World Magazine. We apologize if we have offended you. We believe that an active and healthy sex life, based on mutual consent and respect between partners, is an important component of physical and mental well-being. We also respect that sex is a private matter, and that each person has a different opinion of what sexual practices or levels of discourse are appropriate. Rodale is committed to offering responsible, practical advice on sexual matters, supported by accredited professionals and legitimate scientific research. Our goal - for sex and all other topics - is to publish information that empowers people's lives.If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact us or you can visit http://www.rodaleinc.com/customer-service/frequently-asked-questions.
Sincerely,
AlvinRunner's World Magazine Customer Servicehttp://www.runnersworld.com/

So I replied.Alvin-I'm not offended. My feelings aren't hurt. I'm not even mad. I just can't support a company that tries to pass off pornography in a light-hearted, justified manner. And, by the way, I subscribed to a RUNNING magazine, not a sex informational magazine. Good grief. If you want to sell porn, don't try to pass yourself off as something else.

A pornographic ad with a nude lady is not advice or scientific or informative or whatever you are justifying in any way. It's trash. Anyone with a healthy sexual relationship with their partner should be sick at their stomach to see their significant other strutting their stuff for millions of people. Rodale should be ashamed of themselves.

Trash trash trash.

I really hope, in the depths of my heart, that you personally do not really feel what you wrote in your response. I hope that you value the women in your life as people, not as images for the world. I hope you would CRY if your daughter decided to pose like this. And I HOPE that the response to my email was a mandated response from a bottom-line company, not a REAL PERSON.

I will be sharing your response with many, many people. And I hope they ALL cut ties with RunnersWorld, including my marathoning sister and all her buddies. It's sad, really. The magazine has so much good information, but rodale had to go throw garbage in there.

Christi K. JohnsonManchester, Iowa
Wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend.

I'm aware that I don't have a huge readership. That's fine with me. But I encourage you to share this with ever runner (or parent, spouse, sibling, child, or friend of a runner) you know. I have posted this to my unprotected blog so you can provide links to anyone and everyone. And I encourage you to NOT support a company who tries to slide obscene material into what should be a totally innocent magazine.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

About 4 years ago we started a tradition to eat at home and have a fun red themed dinner. I try to make the dinner a nicer one than one that I just throw together last minute. So last night we had Spaghetti, with heart shaped Rhodes Rolls, and a Pink Punch to drink. Then for dessert I made a Chocolate lava cake topped with Ice Cream. The best part of the cake is that they are small like the ones you get at a restaurant. So yummy!

Makayla had her first Valentine's party at school. She was so excited to take her Valentine's and to have a class party. When she got home we were looking at her Valentine's and she kept saying - "Whoa Mom, check this one out!" It was fun to help her read the names of her friends on the Valentine Cards, and to see how excited she was. Micah is still a little bit too small to understand Valentine's Day but he was excited about the nandy (candy) that he had access to for most of the day :o)

I hope that you all had a fantastic day surrounded by those whom you love and those who love you.

New Experience!

2011-02-09T07:48:00.000-08:00

I have been doing home child care for the past year and a half. It has been so nice to be home with my kids and to be able to take and pick up Makayla from school. Lately life has been so crazy and I have been stressed. Clint and I made the decision that I would find a part time job at nights and only watch my niece. It was hard to tell the parents that I am stopping watching kids. There are lots of benefits - more money, less hours, more time with just my kids, more time to help Makayla with school - but it was still sad. Those little girls I have been watching have become like family and it is sad that I wont see them very much.

I found a job as a night custodian for the church working at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I started training this week and I am pretty excited. It is the COMPLETE opposite of what I have been doing but the atmosphere is incredible. It is strange to start the workday with a group prayer. To have spiritual devotionals together as a team. To not have to be careful about talking about the church with coworkers. It is super exciting, however, my shift is from 9:30 pm - 1:30 am and that will take some getting used to! My first shift is tonight! Hope I can function tomorrow :o)

Boo for genetics!

2011-01-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

I think that this will be Micah's saying for his whole life.

If you don't know me very well here is a brief introduction :o)

I suffer from:
Cold Sores
Allergies
Asthma
Eczema
Very Dry Skin
Lactose Intolerance
A horrible Gag Reflex

So far poor Micah has inherited:
Asthma (even though the call it reactive airway until he is 5)
Lactose Intolerance
Allergies
And the Horrible Gag Reflex

The worst part of all is he is not even two and he has shown all these things. I started cold sores in 6th grade, asthma when I was 20 years old, and the lactose intolerance around 25. Poor kid.

**Warning the following story is yucky :o) contains bodily fluid talk**

Growing up families typically have stories that they save for a family party or when your friends come over to share so that you are extra embarrassed. Oh boy did I have a good one. My Dad loved to share / remind me that when I was a baby I would gag when they changed my poopy diapers. So sad but true. I turned some heads when I announced I was going to work at a Day Care with 2 year olds :o) Micah seems to be carrying on this tradition ...

Last night Makayla decided to help Micah sit on the potty. She helped get his pants and diaper off, well he was poopy. She set the diaper on the floor - open - and yelled for me to come help her. By the time I got into the bathroom Micah had put his toe into the poop and started gagging, borderline throwing up. So I grabbed him and ran to his changing table to get him cleaned up before he actually threw up. While getting wipes out he saw the poop on his toe and lost it. Yes actual vomit all over the changing table, my arm and him from seeing/smelling the poop on his foot. Clint was nice enough to clean the bathroom floor while I got Micah ready for the bathtub. I laughed pretty hard about this one. Later I called and reported to my Dad the events and he laughed pretty hard as we had made his day.

I am sorry to Micah who will probably never live this one down!

Little Stinker

2011-01-11T12:47:00.000-08:00

I know I already did a Christmas Eve post but as I looked through the pictures again I had to share our sequence of cousin pajama pictures. They are pretty funny!

2011-01-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

It's days like this that make me happy to be a Mommy! They were so cute and silly and made me so happy!

2010-12-30T14:27:00.001-08:00

My kids teach me so much.

I have learned that our Heavenly Father loves us more than we can ever comprehend. The love of a parent can not be described.

However my kids are AMAZING! They love me unconditionally, they don't care if I mess up, or burn dinner, or yell at them when they don't deserve it. They always forgive and show true love without a second thought.

Thank you to my babies for loving a very imperfect Mother who loves them unconditionally too!

Christmas Day

2010-12-30T12:50:00.000-08:00

Santa came to our house this year! He enjoyed the milk and cookies that Makayla left out for him and he left some great presents.

When Makayla entered the front room she did not notice her stocking or the big present for her by the tree, she noticed that the cookies and milk were gone. Then she ran across the front room to look at the plate.

Then she turned and found that she got a Pink and Purple bike! She yelled My bike! She had the biggest smile on her face. It was so fun to watch her.

Then as she sat on her bike it pointed her in the direction of the stockings on the couch. Hers included a Unicorn Pillow Pet which she asked Santa for.

Excited does not even describe her attitude :o). Micah was asleep when Makayla woke up so we let her open her stocking and we waited until Micah woke up for the presents. This is how I found him on Christmas morning. So cute.

He was a little grumpy when I brought him out of his room and he did not want to walk but he warmed up as soon as he saw the car that Santa brought him.

Two very excited kids!

Micah loves his car, he spent most of the day playing with it and sitting in it. He even got mad when I made him get in his high chair for dinner because he wanted to eat in the car.

Next we opened presents.

These were the gifts that our kids got for each other. Makayla was super excited to give Micah his present. And that was the first present she got out from the tree. Made my heart burst with joy to see her so excited about giving!

I don't know what it is but Micah liked having the Christmas bows on his head! LOL

They got the Toy Story 3 toys that talk. We tried to get them to look at the camera but no love.

We hung out at home all day. After dinner they got into their jammies, played with the toys and we watched a movie as a family.

Here they are watching a movie and enjoying the Pillow Pets! We are all so thankful for Santa bringing these pillows. They have come in handy and both kids love them so much.

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope that you all did too!

Christmas Eve 2010

2010-12-30T12:30:00.000-08:00

We went to my parents house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner. It was so much fun to see everyone and eat the delicious dinner my Mom made. The grand kids that play instruments put on a Christmas talent show. Here are my kids having a turn playing the piano. They had lots of fun - even though it did not sound very good. :o)

Every year My parents give the grand kids pajamas for a gift. Then they all run upstairs and get changed into their pajamas before we leave. It is a fun tradition. And as I have mentioned before Micah does not like to hold still for pictures. maybe next year I wont be in the picture.

When we got home Makayla finished decorating her cookies for Santa,

And she and Clint threw the reindeer food that she made at school on our lawn.Then with a last reminder for us to go to bed early from Makayla she fell asleep. We had a fantastic Christmas Eve and enjoyed the day even though it was a little bit crazy at first.

How cute is this?

2010-12-21T07:45:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to the instructions

http://craftsandcrap.blogspot.com/2010/12/snowman-hand-sanitizer.html

and by the way what an awesome name. Crafts and Crap. Crafts feel that way sometimes LOL! With having a home daycare we use A LOT of hand sanitizer. I may be making a trip to Dollar Tree to find this bottle to make one for me :o). On the other hand this would be an awesome neighbor gift ... maybe next year!

Temple Square December 2010

2010-12-21T06:05:00.000-08:00

We decided to make a break for Temple Square to see the lights on a Tuesday night as the weather cleared up and so did the haze. Our kids loved seeing the lights. Micah was very cute and kept saying WOW! Makayla's new saying is that is so awesome! I realized that I didn't take any pictures of the lights. Oh well there is always next year.

In front of the nativity

Gotta love the super cheesy grin :o)

Micah is at an age where if he is kept sitting in the stroller or on the couch he will look at the camera. Other than that you must click fast! I got a lot of pictures of the top of his head, side of his head, his back and half smiles. But I liked capturing him exploring around the Temple. The kids were enthralled with the Temple. They kept touching it and we showed them all the different stones that are all over. It was a wonderful night. I cant wait to go back when it is warmer!

Bedtime tradition

2010-12-20T12:50:00.001-08:00

Makayla and Micah love each other so much. It makes my heart so full to see them together. I know it will not always be so happy but I will enjoy it while it lasts. Before bedtime or nap time Makayla will lay down next to Micah and hold him for a minute. This started when he was about 3 weeks old and they still do it today :o). Micah loves to lay next to Makayla in bed and sometimes I have a hard time getting him to go into his room. I love these two like crazy!

4/2009

6/2009

10/2009

8/2010

12/2010

Makayla's Friend Party

2010-12-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

Makayla had her first friend Birthday Party this year. She picked a Princess and the Frog party. We wanted a smaller party so we invited 4 girls and 3 were able to come. They had a blast. They decorated princess crowns, then played throw the frog on the lily pad. I made some bean bag frogs and we cut some felt into a lily pad shape.

Then we had our cake, they ate the Prince Naveen cupcakes and we took the Tiana cake to the family party later that day. They colored on some activity pages that I printed out and then went home. They had so much fun that the girls did not want to leave.

Makayla still talks about her party when her friends came over. She even gave me a hug and said thank you when they left. It made me feel so happy to know that we did something that made her so happy. Happy 6th birthday to one of the cutest kiddos in the world!

Dear Laundry Fairy ...

2010-12-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Laundry Fairy,

I would love to think that you exist, so if you would please come fold and put away my laundry for me I would LOVE it! It would mean that I would stop procrastinating putting it away and being sick of clothes while folding 4 loads of laundry. Thank You so much for your help in advance ;o)

Sincerely
Kristy

Smarty Pants!

2010-12-06T21:05:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have done a Micah post so here it is :o)

oh where to start ...

Micah is 20 months old, he runs and climbs, and laughs most of the day. He is getting taller and loves to be a big helper around the house. He is saying a ton of words and the ones he doesn't know yet he does a sign or repeats after us. This has been fun, especially when he runs into Makayla's room in the morning yelling KAAAYYYLLLAAA to wake her up. And I must say that she does not oppose to Micah waking her up, she is not nearly as grumpy as when I have to wake her up :o)

Micah can reach into the top drawers in our kitchen, even though he can not see what is in them he reaches in and goes up on his tippy toes to get stuff out. Here are some of his favorites: can opener, spoons or forks, measuring spoons / cups, my Tupperware bowls and lids. He has a new found love of pots and pans. We went out and bought him a set of play pots so he would leave mine alone. I moved the play kitchen from Makayla's room to his and this is where he is for most of the day. He is my little chef and I love it.

While he is super cute and lovey and says "ove you" and gives you a hug and kiss he has a dark side ... he throws some of the best tantrums, screams NO and throws his head back. He hates nursery and he screams bloody murder while he is in there. I hope he gets used to it soon.

Micah loves our Christmas Tree and I love waiting until he is in the room to turn the lights on because he says wow or awesome every time and that reaction makes all the work of getting it up worth it. Also it makes me super excited for Christmas.

Micah has been through a lot this year, and after his last sickness of a yucky stomach flu I hope that is the last of it for a while. I love my little guy so much and can't imagine my life without him. Although some days he drives me crazy he was definitely meant to be in our family and I thank our Heavenly Father for blessing us with this sweet spirit.

Disappointed ...

2010-11-22T14:29:00.000-08:00

On Christmas morning 2007 imagine our excitement when we saw what Santa brought for Makayla. A super cool play kitchen. It is interactive, has fruits that you can "cut" apart- they Velcro together.

So it was time to get up ... Makayla takes a little time to get going after she wakes up. I guess we should have let her wake up a little bit more before having her open presents because this was the reaction we got!

Actually this was one of the better pictures - a sad attempt at a smile! She warmed up a little once she dug into her stocking and played with that kitchen all day. Clint and I imagined such a different reaction from her. At her preschool that was her preferred center for work time. ALWAYS in the play kitchen.

Her reactions to surprises lately have been super cute and so much fun for Clint and I. So when she started planning her birthday party 5 months ago, and no I not kidding! And she decided on a Princess and the Frog party. She told me that she wanted a cute Princess Tiana cake. So we worked out a plan to make her a cute cake. Her birthday party was on Saturday so I got the cake baked and frosted on Friday. After she went to bed I decorated the cake with fondant. I grabbed her Princess Tiana Barbie earlier in the week and told her I needed it for a fun birthday surprise.

After I decorated it I hid it in the fridge so that she would be very surprised when her friends came over for her friend party. But of course the queen of disappointment struck again! I bring the cake out of the fridge and put it on the table and get her attention. I am expecting a squeal, jumping up and down, or a huge open mouth. Did I get any of these things ... nope! She started crying and as she ran into her room to hide I heard her say, " I need my Barbie out."

Now while I was disappointed about the fact that the cake sagged and she was leaning pretty bad and the fondant did not work as I imagined it, I still thought the cake was pretty cute. :o) After a talk with Dad, she came up to me with tears in her eyes and said "thank you for the cake Mommy". We assured her that her barbie will be just fine and that later that night we would take her out. After the initial shock of seeing her Barbie in the cake, she loved it. She showed it off to everyone that came to both the friend and family party. It made me feel good to have her be proud of something that I made for her. She had a wonderful party and we love our Birthday Girl like crazy!

Makayla is getting too big!

2010-11-10T22:58:00.000-08:00

On Sunday as I flossed Makayla's teeth I noticed that she has gotten 2 of her 6 year old molars, and she had a permanent tooth growing in behind her baby tooth on the bottom. So we took her to the dentist on Monday and they numbed her mouth and pulled the tooth out. She lost her first tooth! My baby is old enough to lose a tooth :o( sad day for Mom and Dad! She was so brave at the dentist. No crying or freaking out. I was one proud Mama. Our amazing dentist gave her a tooth shaped container on a necklace to put her tooth in. That went under her pillow, and the Tooth Fairy came and took her tooth and left her some money. I was sitting on our couch in the morning waiting for her to wake up. I heard her gasp and say "I have to show Mom and Dad!" She came running out like this ...

She carried her money around until she had to get ready for school :o)

Here is my happy girl!

She has 3 more loose teeth - YIKES! But she told me she is excited for them to fall out because she wants more money :o) She may be able to say - All I Want For Christmas is my four front teeth - LOL

Enough with the doctors already ...

2010-10-29T11:57:00.001-07:00

Well I got to make another ER trip this week. This time for Makayla. She was wearing socks as she ran into our kitchen, slipped on the floor, and slammed her head on the ground. She blacked out for a few seconds and about 30 minutes later threw up. So we headed to Primary Children's. They observed her for about 3 hours. She perked up about half way through our stay there and was diagnosed with a very mild concussion. I feel so blessed and protected as this could have been so much worse.

She has had a little bit of a headache for the past couple of days but is doing wonderfully. The doctors were happy of her quick recovery and she did not even need a CT scan. So we have a new rule of no socks in the house. We do not need a repeat of that incident.

2010-10-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

OK, I admit it!

I am a total fan of the show Glee. A Gleek, a Glee Nerd, whatever you want to call it. This week they did a Halloween show and did songs from the musical The Rocky Horror Show. As we sat watching Glee Clint and I realized that we have never seen The Rocky Horror Show. So we searched and it was on later that night so we recorded it on the DVR.

We watched it the next night and OH BOY were we in for a surprise at just how inappropriate and disturbing that show is! Yikes. I was soooo glad we watched it while Makayla was asleep. The music was fun but the adult themes were a little extreme. You can definitely tell it was filmed during the 70's. With the freedom of love etc.

However we watched Glee again and sat and laughed and laughed about the little jokes they threw in. I guess we learned to read about something before watching ... just so you know what is in it before you watch it. :o)

Unexpected!

2010-10-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

Well if you don't know our little boy Micah has had a sensitive tummy ever since he was born. While I was nursing him I couldn't eat or drink any dairy products or I paid for it with a screaming baby later. When we switched to formula he did ok on regular formula. Once we tried to trade the formula to whole milk at a year, his tummy did not enjoy that. So he drinks lactose free milk and has done great.

However, we tried a new brand of lactose free milk and the poor thing got 1st degree burns on his cute little bum! I couldn't believe it. And he is showing a sensitivity to eggs too. UGH! So we got him into an allergist office to see what foods he can eat and which we should avoid. He was tested for foods, airborne allergens, and animals and the skin test showed only one severe allergy.

can you guess what it is ...

Peanuts!

Holy crap, my baby has a peanut allergy. We went and had blood drawn so they can check for a dairy allergy too. Sad day for my family who eats peanut butter sandwiches a few times a week. No more Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, trail mix, etc. Ok so maybe the candy wont be such a bad thing - not that we always have it but it is Halloween season! And I am amazed now that I have paid attention at how many products either have peanuts in them or are processed at a facility where peanuts are processed too. I guess I am reading labels religiously now! Yikes. His doctor recommended Sun butter that is made from sunflower seeds so I will let you know how it tastes when we get some.

2010-10-19T09:45:00.001-07:00

I finally got some items that are for sale on my Craft Blog! Feel free to check it out!

http://kristyskrafts.blogspot.com/p/tulle-tutus-for-sale.html

Monson Family Halloween Party 2010

2010-10-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun at my parents Halloween party this year. I totally forgot to get costume pics of my kids so they should be up next week as the Halloween festivities commence this weekend :o).

Micah was a little cheater during the donut eating contest lol

Toilet paper Mummies!

Picking and decorating pumpkins

My sisters are dorks! But we had fun and laughed lots while taking these pictures :o)

HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!

Halloween!!

2010-10-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

I have been so excited for Halloween this year. Maybe it is because Micah is walking or because the costumes are done ... I don't know but here is a fun dinner we had last week. Spider web pizza!

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/spooky-spiderweb-pizza/824ad7c0-5d00-4675-bb3a-7a37ef773765

I made a few changes like I exchanged the crust to a whole wheat crust that I made in the bread maker instead of a store bought one. The kids loved it and even though it was messy I might make it again for Halloween :o)

:o)

2010-09-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

Me: Makayla would you like some more Apple Sauce?

Makayla: Ummmm,

Well,

Hmmmmmm

Probably just a little bit. (as she is holding her fingers out about 1/2 inch apart)

Probably is one of Makayla's favorite words to say, she is a crack up!

Overwhelmed just doesn't cover it!

2010-09-21T14:54:00.001-07:00

A week ago I got a call to meet with a member of our Bishopric. So then the game of which new calling I was going to get started! I was not expecting a new calling as I have only been in my current calling for about 4 months. I was a little bit surprised. The verdict is that I am now a Mia Maid advisor.

Yikes!!

When did I grow up and am now responsible enough to work with 14 and 15 year old girls? I so don't feel mature enough but I am so excited. The girls in my class are totally awesome and I couldn't ask for a better class. I am also super intimidated by this calling. I think back to those fabulous leaders that I had and I feel like I have HUGE shoes to fill. But I have the faith that Heavenly Father will guide me through this new adventure.

You know those things that you say, then the next thing you know they happen. For example: I just don't think I could handle (fill in the blank) and then within the next couple of weeks (fill in the blank) happens. We were cleaning out part of our storage shelves in our garage a few weeks ago when I came across my box of Young Women's handouts. Yes I know that I am a pack rat but I kept my favorite handouts in a special small box and I have been avoiding throwing it away. I even told Clint that I haven't thrown it away because I knew if I did I would get called into Young Women's. Well 2 weeks later - BAM - Young Women's. When I got home from meeting with the Bishop I looked at Clint and said see I told ya!

It reminds me of a tile we have hanging in our front room. It says:

Christ

The center of our home

A guest at every meal

A silent listener to every conversation.

It is so true! So wish me luck and hope with me that I survive the switch from 3 year olds to the Mia Maids! :o)

Poor Micah ...

2010-09-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

Well if Micah already didn't like going to the doctor, he would now ... Ever since his hospital stay in February he has not been a big fan of the Doctor's office and I can't say that I blame him. Last Thursday he had to go to the ENT and get a hearing test and they had to clean his ears out because of lots and lots of post op ear wax. So we had to hold him down. Then Friday he got his immunizations done. On Sunday we were at a family party at Clint's Dad and Step Mom's house. Micah was playing in their play room and lost his balance. When he put his hands out to catch himself his poor little thumb got pinched in the accordion style closet door. And it nearly severed the tip of his thumb off. It was super gross! We drove very fast to Primary Children's Hospital where they took great care of our little guy. They sedated him to do the stitches but he wasn't totally out so he was jabbering and sticking his tongue out. It was pretty funny. He ended up with barely any fingernail left and 7 stitches. He is doing great and you wouldn't even know that he has a brace on. He is playing and eating and doing everything he usually does. Thank Heaven for Children's Motrin and Tylenol! I am so grateful that it was not worse than it was. I am also so grateful for the wonderful staff in the PCMC emergency room for putting my little guy back together. Now if we can just stay away from the doctor for a little bit we would be super happy :o)

Here are some pictures from Clint's phone. They are kinda yucky so viewer beware!

I Am Done Making Tough Decisions ...

2010-09-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

We went to see Makayla's ENT last Thursday. The surgery she had in June on her right ear seems to be successful. However, the 25 decibel increase in that ear still leaves her hearing out of the "normal" range. Her left ear is still having a hard time. So we are at a point of do we do the same exploratory surgery in her left ear now and see if it helps, or do we go straight to hearing aides? We are struggling with this one. We don't know if the surgery will help and we will have to get the hearing aides anyway. UGH! It would be nice if the surgery would correct it but I don't want to make her have surgery again for nothing. Needless to say there have been lots of praying going on at our house :o). I have also been making lots of phone calls to get all the facts before we make our decision.

I still find myself feeling guilty that she is almost 6 years old and we are just figuring this out. I hope that we are able to choose the best route for her so she can catch up at school and be able to speak more clearly and enjoy friends and finally be able to hear. As we get a game plan figured out I will post more updates.

Camperworld

2010-09-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were able to go camping with my Mom and Dad at the Echo Reservoir Camperworld. We stayed in our tent and it was lots of fun. It was a good end to our camping trips for the year.

Fishin' with Grandpa

They have a pond that they stock with fish and they feed them every night at 8:00 pm. Anyone who is by the pond gets a handful of fish food.

Then the employee in charge says ok everyone. Then everyone has to stomp three times on the ground, say "Here Fishie Fishie" then throw the food in the water. It is hilarious the fish go crazy and it looks like the pond is boiling!

Sunday morning we got all showered and cleaned to go to church. Micah got a mini bath in the sink and he loved it :o). When we pulled up to the church in Coalville Micah threw up all over himself and his car seat. So my Mom and Dad were nice to take Makayla to church and let us go get him cleaned up. Luckily Camperworld has washing machines so we could give him a nice clean car seat!

On Monday before we got everything cleaned up to leave Micah found Makayla's fishing pole. He picked it up and headed toward the pond. He wanted to go fishing :o)

So Clint took his hand and walked him over and let him reel the pole for a minute.

I love this picture!

Homemade Baby Wipes

2010-09-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

4 C Boiling Water
4 Tlb Baby Soap
4 Tlb Baby Lotion
1 Roll Thick Paper Towels (Viva paper towels are best but Bounty works too)
2 Air Tight containers

Cut paper towel roll in half, then use scissors to trim off the excess on the bottom. Mix together liquids, pour 1/2 of liquid into each container, approx 2 cups. Place paper towels into each container, seal lids. Wait 5 minutes then flip over to distribute solution.

Remove cardboard and use by pulling wipes from the center. They should be good for 2-3 weeks.

I make half a recipe at a time and keep them in the kitchen for wiping faces. I have used them for changing diapers but I like the pop up function of smaller wipe containers :o). And it is nice because you can use the soap you bathe your kids in so they are used to the scent and no alcohol or additives.

First Day of Kindergarten

2010-08-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

It seems just like yesterday that Makayla entered our family. It has flown for her to go from this ...

To this ... And headed to school.

She has been sooo excited for school. I love love love her teacher and I
am excited to see how she grows and develops this year. She is too grown up and too cute :o)

There was no tears (her or me I am so proud to say) and she likes school. Even though someone was mean to her ...

Makayla's Totally Awesome Outfit!

2010-08-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

I Love it when she gets dressed in fun clothes, all the bracelets she owns and slippers on a hot day ...

My Little Monkey

2010-08-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the places I found Micah on this day. Also a few places I found him but did not get a picture are: Sitting on the arm of our couch, sitting on the table in the corner of our front room where a lamp sits and on the table that sits under our TV. Such a trouble maker ...

He found a bag of Doritos on the table and needed them I guess!

This is a shelving unit in Makayla's closet, he was pulling hats out and handing them to Makayla.

Kennecott

2010-08-24T14:33:00.001-07:00

Our Ward Campout

2010-08-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

I just found these pictures and realized I forgot to share them. The week before we went to Moon Lake we went on our ward camp out. We thought we were going to be so smart by putting an air mattress and sleeping bags in the back of our Durango and sleeping in there. We decided it was going to be better than setting up our tent for one night. Well what we didn't realize was how HOT it was going to be that night. Makayla fell asleep just fine, Micah fell asleep then woke up screaming and Clint wasn't able to fall asleep so at about 11:45 pm we rolled up all the stuff in the air mattress put the car seats back in and headed home! Well Makayla was bummed because she was excited for a camp out so Clint set up our small tent in the yard and we all slept out there. It was lots of fun and the kids loved it. We may just have to do it again soon :o)

Moon Lake 2010

2010-08-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

We had a great time on our trip to Moon Lake this year. The weather was wonderful, we had great food and had lots of fun with the Monson family. We went on lots of walks and hikes and fished and played on the beach. Here are some fun pictures from our camping trip.

On our first hike

Micah missed his morning nap and as we
were making dinner he crashed sitting up!

Playing on the Beach

Out on a boat ride

Micah fell asleep in Pawkers arms while riding in the boat

In the tent trailer where the kids slept.

Chane and Holly let us borrow their tent trailer. It was super nice of them and very nice for us while we were camping.

We love Moon Lake! And after many many years of having strange weather and weird experiences it was nice to have a fairly uneventful trip :o)

Funny

2010-08-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some fun things we have been hearing around our house lately ...

Me and Clint: Makayla do you want to practice writing your last name?
Makayla: Um, Ok but only after lunch.

Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong (constant as Micah rings the doorbell on Makayla's doll house)
Makayla: ( getting annoyed by the noise) Micah there is nobody home!

Our kids are super funny and cute! BTW Micah is a pretty efficient walker these days and I am sure will start running any day now ...

Giveaway

2010-08-10T06:35:00.000-07:00

http://lovely-silver-strands.blogspot.com/2010/08/r-house-couture-giveaway.html

This is a Giveaway for a totally awesome R House Coture Necklace.

The fish that Almost got away!

2010-07-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

Here are our fishing pictures from Moon Lake. As a tradition Clint, my Dad and Brother Robby go fishing every morning at about 6:00 am. Then they will take the grand kids fishing throughout the day. Makayla was so excited that she got to reel this fish in and it was the biggest fish from that trip out on the boat.

One morning Clint came back from fishing and he was mad because of a fish that he caught and almost had in the boat had gotten tangled up in the chain of fish in the water and gotten off the hook and swam away. Because it was so close to the boat he saw how big it was and he was totally bummed because it was the biggest fish he had caught. The next day, however he caught it again! It even had a partially digested small fish in it's mouth - ewww!

He caught a Tiger Trout. It was 18 inches long and weighed in at 1 1/2 pounds. It even made the Moon Lake Wall of Fame. So cool!

This is the picture up in the Moon Lake Lodge. In the picture are my nephew Alexander, niece Alexis, Clint, Makayla and my nephew Austin. I guess you could say that Clint was one happy camper!

Micah

2010-07-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

I Love My Micah Monster!

4th Of July Weekend

2010-07-19T06:44:00.000-07:00

We had a busy and very fun weekend! We started in Mayfield with Jake and Jen at the Andrews home. We had a blast. The kids had fun playing together.

We came home on Sunday. We got up on Monday morning and went fishing. We went to Kidney Pond in South Jordan. We didn't catch any fish but Clint did catch a couple of crawdads. It was pretty fun anyway. Hopefully we will have better luck on our next fishing trip.

Later that day we went to a BBQ with the Monson's. We also had a fun fireworks show. Since our kids had just had surgery 4 days before and their ears were still pretty sensitive they had to wear ear protection. They faught it at first but then did not mind wearing them after a minute :o). Micah did better than I thought. When he got a little bit upset all you had to do was clap and he would join in and then he was fine. We had a blast and loved our long weekend as a family!

Happy 4th of July!

Tubes and Ear Issues :o)

2010-06-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Today was our day. We started off with feeding the kids Jello for breakfast. Their ENT was not available for surgery until the afternoon so they could not eat any regular food after Midnight. I must say that they both handled their diet of Jello, Apple Juice and Sprite fairly well this morning. Micah started getting a little fussy just before it was time for surgery. Micah was first, his surgery of getting tubes was fast and before we knew it Dr Muntz was back in the waiting room to come let us know that Micah was done and that he had done great.

He didn't want to drink anything at first because he does not like the nipples the hospital uses on their bottles. However, as soon as we put it in his bottle he drained the sugar water they gave him and threw his bottle in protest that there was no more in it. After that point he was NOT happy unless he had juice in his bottle or a graham cracker in his cute chubby little hands.

He was able to be discharged rather quickly and they moved us over to Makayla's room to wait for her to get out of surgery.

Now we didn't really know what Makayla's surgery was going to end up being. We knew that he was going to irrigate both ear drum's and place a new tube in each ear. We also knew that he was going to lift the ear drum in her right ear to explore the middle ear to see what is causing her decreased hearing. From what I have been able to gather there are three very small bones in the middle ear that help you be able to process sounds. The ENT was worried that scar tissue had grown over the bones or that the frequency of her ear infections had damaged the bones in some way which would mean a more extensive surgery to repair the bones. This would mean making an incision behind the ear to get to the bones and an overnight stay at the hospital.

So you can imagine the joy of hearing that there was a thin layer of scar tissue over the bones that they were able to remove and that they tested the ear bones and they reacted correctly! And because they did not have to operate on the ear bones we would be able to take her home today. WHEW. Relief. Joy. Then concern when Dr Muntz explains that the amount of scar tissue would not explain the hearing loss. But that scar tissue combined with the hole in the ear drum was the most likely cause. OK this I can handle.

They had to pack the inside of her right ear to help everything heal which makes sounds muffled on that side. So if you talk to her remember that she most likely will not be able to hear you through her right ear for about 6 weeks. After that I am hoping that it will be much more clear for her ;o)

Makayla was pretty nauseated at first but they gave her some anti-nausea medication that made her fall asleep for a little bit then when she woke up she felt lots better. We got to leave the hospital at 7:00. Micah was getting pretty restless toward the end - I cant say that I blame him - and we took lots of walks around the hospital. The fabulous nurses let us use a wagon to keep him entertained.

Both kids were pretty excited for the wagon ride out to the car. I am so grateful for my amazing husband who was a HUGE help today. I could not have done it without his support and love for our family. And I must say that I was pretty calm and collected, which is unusual for me as I am a cry baby. I know it is because of the beautiful blessings given to the kids the night before. I knew that they were in good hands and that the Lord was going to be there with them. I feel so blessed and happy that I have the gospel in my life and to be able to enjoy the calming blessing of the spirit when I need it most.

When we got home Makayla got to sit in her favorite spot on the Love Sac and she stayed there pretty much until bed time. She seems to be feeling much better and I hope that tomorrow is a much better day for her. I am so proud of Makayla. She was so brave and happy today even when she didn't feel very good. And because of the Pre Surgery class she was not scared to go into the OR and I spoke with a nurse that said that she just looked around at all of the equipment in the OR with a smile on her face until she fell asleep. So here is my advice for the day. If your child is having surgery at Primary Children's have them go to that class. It made this experience so much better for Makayla and our family! Thank you everyone for your concern, thoughts, and prayers they are much appreciated.

Dr. Makayla

2010-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday Clint took Makayla to Primary Children's and they went to the Pre -Op class. This was a great idea because now she knows what the procedures are going to be and hopefully she wont be scared tomorrow.

She was practicing what they showed the kids about putting the leads on their chests and she is excited that she gets to smell bubble gum through a mask. They put flavoring in the gas that helps them fall asleep if requested. But I am really glad that they went because she remembers what she was taught and has been telling me what she learned.

Wish us luck because tomorrow is the big day!

The R House

2010-06-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

There is a fantastic sister who lives in my ward. She has adopted 2 kids and adoption is very close to her heart. She makes jewelry with some friends to sell and it is totally awesome! It is Sterling Silver and hand stamped, they even do personalized items. They have spiritual sayings, adoption sayings, gifts for Mothers and Fathers, etc. She even puts the inspiration for the pieces (some of which are tear jerking). If you are looking for something special check this site out.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/therhouse

She just added Team Jacob and Team Edward items in honor of Eclipse coming out next week ...

T Minus 7 days ...

2010-06-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

Well one week from now we will hopefully be at Primary Children's for our kids ears. The anxiety started yesterday. I think that the waiting and the unknown of Makayla's surgery is the worst part. I know this is going to be a wonderful thing for both kids and I am excited for it to be over. But I am most excited to finally find out what has been going on with Makayla's ears. I am sure this week will fly by but for now it feels like it will never get here :o)

Wheeler Farm

2010-06-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

Not Bragging

2010-06-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

I don't want to brag or make anybody jealous or anything,
but I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high school.

Thanks to my sister Julie who sent this to me in an E-mail. It totally made my day and I thought I would share it :o)

Our Ears Update

2010-06-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

Today I am a basket full of emotions.

Anxiety

Guilt

Happiness

Hope

Frustration

Love

It has been confusing. We went to the ENT today and found out that both kids need tubes in their ears. No big deal - we have been there and done that before. This time is different. We have never really known what has caused Makayla's speech delay. I think now we know. We have not really gotten a good hearing test out of her, never a total conclusive test anyway. This year we found the range of sounds that she is unable to hear and it was confirmed again today. There is something in her middle ear that is not functioning properly especially in her right ear. So when they go in to do her tubes they will rinse or irrigate out the ear drum and then they are going to go under the ear drum to see if there is any scar tissue or if the ear bone needs to be built up. So the 10 minute tube surgery is now going to be an hour and a half with the chance that she will have to stay overnight for observation.

I am so grateful for the technology and knowledge that we get to utilize. We have picked a fantastic doctor and our kids are in great hands. I just feel horrible as a parent that it has taken us until Makayla is 5 1/2 to get her ears figured out. But I am totally hopeful for the outcome. Even if this surgery is not successful at helping her hearing we now know that a hearing aid my be helpful as well. I feel like we got a good start today and just look forward to seeing Makayla develop into the wonderful and beautiful daughter she is. I don't know what I would do without my two great kids!

WHAT!?!?

2010-06-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

We saw a commercial for the show Toddlers and Tiaras the other day. I don't know if I am the only one that has some severe issues with this show, well apparently not because it is still on the air. But seriously people I don't know how they can do that to their kids. Kids grow up too fast anyway you don't have to layer on makeup and do their hair like an adult already.

On the commercial we saw they were waxing a very young girls eyebrows. Wow! I couldn't believe it. I know it is fun to see them dressed up and pretty ... but they are teaching them at such a young age to do what you have to to win, even if it hurts others. I just don't get it. I would worry too much about distorting self image. Our media is bombarding our kids with the have to be perfect and beautiful and super skinny as it is. I guess I can't even imagine inflicting that on my own kids too. I guess I will never be a good pageant Mommy. :o) Now no disrespect to those who are Pageant Mommies that show moderation, I just cant stand the crazy one's!!

Baby Cooper

2010-06-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

Our friends Jake and Jen had their baby on Sunday. He was born at 33 1/2 weeks 3 lbs 11 oz. He is doing very well and is such a cutie! We went to go visit them at the hospital yesterday and on the way Makayla said " I don't want to go to Target." We didn't really know where it came from but when we told her we weren't going to Target we were going to the hospital she laughed and said, "Oh". Then sat there giggling for a minute. Clint told her she was crazy and she announced

No my mom is crazy!

Maybe she is right :o)

Memorial Day Weekend in Mayfield

2010-06-02T21:27:00.000-07:00

We had a blast playing, laughing and eating! And were exhausted by the drive home but we had lots and lots of fun. Hope you had a great weekend too :o)

My New Weight Loss Blog

2010-05-18T23:32:00.001-07:00

Hello friends and family. I have some weight to lose and have been trying to find a new way to keep me motivated. After some debate and inspiration (thanks Celeste) Here is my new blog dedicated to my journey. I know it is not going to be easy and most of it will be for myself but feel free to check it out and keep me on the right track :o) It is still a work in progress and I will be updating the numbers and starting pictures in the next day or two.

http://myjourneyto170.blogspot.com/

This was a hard thing to do. It is not easy announcing your weight and broadcasting your bad choices, but after watching the Biggest Loser and they do it on national TV I guess doing it in front of people I know and love shouldn't be so bad. Thank you everyone and hope to see your comments to keep me going :o)

ENT here we come ...

2010-05-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

The ear infection saga continues, unfortunately. Makayla has a double ear infection and Micah has another one in one ear. Ugh! Hopefully we will be able to get them both to the ENT on the same day. He can be hard to get into and when I scheduled Makayla's appointment it was 7 weeks out. I am done with the blasted ear infections. I feel so bad for them but we will get through it!

Shrek Drink ...

2010-05-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

Clint decided to make us a smoothie for a treat last night. We bought a GIANT bag of spinach at Costco and added some to the smoothies. Well if you have not done this before it is a great trick because you get a serving of vegis and you cant taste it. The downside is that it turns our usually peachy pink smoothies a strange green color!

Makayla was stoked about the smoothies because she loves them, however, she went back into the kitchen and saw the funky green color and started crying. Clint tried to get her to take a little sip to taste it since they taste great, no love. I had my smoothie and am trying to think of what comparison I could come up with to get her to drink it and nothing came. It was Clint's genius idea to ask her if she wanted a Shrek drink. She perked right up, a SHREK DRINK suddenly the funky green stuff looked great and she gobbled it up and wanted more! So great. She even asked if we could make them again. I suppose that would be ok ... :o)

Angels

2010-05-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Lately I feel like I am being torn in a thousand directions and I have come to realize that I am not able to do everything that I want and hope to do. At our Relief Society Mid Week Meeting we had an AMAZING speaker come who made things quite clear. Vicky Pahnke Taylor was the speaker and it totally felt like she was talking straight to me. I love it when that happens, our Heavenly Father truely understands His children and sends answers to prayers and worries in amazing ways. She simply reminded us that we don't have to be Super Mom or Super Woman. All we need to do is our best. We don't have to do great things but do the small things well.

She also spoke of being an angel for someone else by an act of kindness or of help. Now I can think of many many angels in my life who did not even know they were helping me, but I will be forever grateful to them. Jeffrey R Holland said in a conference talk "Not all angels are from the other side of the veil" How amazing is that thought. We can be angels to our kids, friends, Mom's, Dad's, Brothers and Sisters, neighbors. And the beauty of it is that just by being yourself you can impact someones life. No planning required, it might be picking up the phone and making that call you have been meaning to, or sending an e-mail to a friend you haven't spoken to in a while. It is amazing how one small thing can change alot in your life. Sister Taylor compared our lives to an ocean, if we impact someone elses ocean they will see the difference but our ocean will remain untouched. So you may never know how you help someone else.

This post was mostly for me. I most likely will need a reminder of the things I learned that night, and I hope that this may even help someone else too. Thank you so much to all the angels in my life who help to keep me on track and from going crazy!

Happy Birthday to Clint!!

2010-05-12T10:51:00.001-07:00

Clint's birthday was last Friday. He got the day off so we had a fun day together. We went to Lunch / Dinner at Rodizio Grill. So yummy. Makayla loved it. It took her a minute to understand how to get her meat but then she thought it was awesome.

After dinner we dropped the kids off at my sister Julie's house. Thank You Julie and Lance for watching the kids again :o). Then Clint and I got to go see Iron Man 2, which we LOVED! After the movie we went back to Julie and Lance's house and shared an Australian dessert with them called Pavlova. This was one of Clint's favorite treats from his mission and besides not being as poofy as it is in Australia (according to Clint it is due to our stinking thin air LOL) it was delicious.

We had a great day and we are so thankful for Clint and all he does for our family. I don't know what I would do without him! Love you!!

Ear Infections BAH HUMBUG!!

2010-05-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

The month of April included both of our kids getting pretty yucky ear infections. Luckily they were about 2 weeks apart so I didn't have to deal with them at the same time. Especially since Clint got hit with a pretty nasty cold that I was lucky enough to catch also! All I can say is that I am sooo thankful for Tylenol and Motrin in adult and child form!!

Micah got hit pretty hard with his ear infection. He had one ear drum rupture which makes 4 ear infections in 9 months with 3 ruptures so we are close to tubes in both kiddos. On the 5th day of his treatment he got an upset tummy and a fever and when the fever went up the next day we took him back to the doctor and they did a chest x ray which showed he did not have Pneumonia (thank goodness) but they decided to give him an antibiotic shot and to continue the antibiotics at home. The sad thing was that the shot had to be given in both legs due to the dose of medicine. This was a traumatizing trip for both of us. First of all the put him in this contraption for the chest x-ray. Effective in keeping them still and making them cry so they can get a better picture.

Only it wasn't just Micah crying, as I am standing next to him holding his hands and he is looking at me like I am betraying him by not pulling him out. So sad and I am glad it is over ... And I got to help hold him down while they had to give him a shot in each leg. I must say that by the end of the day he was pretty happy even with a high fever and the events of the day. It seems he still loves me and HOPEFULLY has forgotten the above contraption.

My smiley boy wearing his "I got an X-Ray" sticker!

Here are his adorable chubby legs with band aids. :o(

We were told that if his fever did not go down to bring him in for up to two more antibiotic shots. I am happy to report that they did not have be used and he is doing much better now.

Our Little Princess

2010-05-12T10:20:00.000-07:00

Here is Makayla in her Easter Dress that she wore after Easter since Easter was Conference weekend. I thought she looked so cute and I must admit that I am a little proud of the hair so I thought I would share these pictures

Spring Soccer 2010

2010-05-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

Makayla was super excited to start soccer this spring. I must admit that I was too! She loves it and she gets great exercise and it gets her energy out! She was even more excited when she found out that her uniform is BRIGHT green. The first game she did not want to take her uniform off when we got home. She even fought it when it was time to go to bed :o) She is getting better at following the ball. And while she does stop to talk to friends she loves to throw the ball in and has kicked it a time or two! As most pictures of little kids soccer is quite entertaining ... here are a few of my favorites.

Easter Morning 2010

2010-05-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

On Easter morning Makayla woke up practically bouncing off the walls so very excited that the Easter Bunny came. She was so good and didn't go in the front room but came in our room like we told her. We thought it would be fun to go in as a family but Micah was sleeping. So Easter morning was done in shifts! Makayla got to come out and look at her basket and find half of the eggs and we saved the rest for Micah to find when he woke up.

Here are the baskets - well officially they would be buckets :o)
Clint making sure Makayla doesn't peek

She was so happy about a new Barbie! After Santa brought her her Barbie at Christmas - she only asked for a pink Barbie - she has told me that next year Santa is going to bring her 5 Barbies. So cute.

Here is Makayla going through her eggs

Here is Micah's entrance!

This cup with a straw was his favorite thing to play with. The Easter Bunny sure is smart :o) Clint and Makayla ended up finding Micah's eggs for him because he just wanted to play with his cup and throw the eggs they brought for him like a ball. It was fun to watch him put 3 or 4 eggs in the bucket then take them out and throw them. Of course Makayla would bring them right back. It was fun to watch them play and have a fun morning.

We had a wonderful Easter and hope that you did too!

I am a naughty Mommy ...

2010-05-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well for those of you who don't know this is our Chocolate Lab named Trixie.
She is a very cute dog and has lots of energy however, she makes me crazy because she BARKS whenever there is anyone in the vicinity of our yard front or on the street behind. Now this can be helpful when someone is coming over. She is kinda like an automatic door bell :o)

The downside is that I babysit kids from home so there are people coming and going at all times of the day and there are some days that she will not be quiet. So what do I yell at her ...

Shut Up! Of course.

The naughty Mommy moment hit when I started telling Trixie to shut up and now my beautiful daughter has been saying it to her brother and friends
I feel terrible. I have taught her bad things to say already. I am doing my best to tell Trixie to be quiet instead and remind Makayla that it is not a nice thing to say. She catches herself now and says sorry to me. So I guess we are getting somewhere.

The part that kills me is that we have been talking to her about being a good example for Micah and those around her and I have failed as her first example at home. Grrrr. Lesson learned and it is amazing that kids pick up on things so quickly :o)

Our Snowy Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-24T01:05:00.000-07:00

Every year on the Saturday before Easter we have a big Easter Egg Hunt with family and friends followed by a pot luck lunch. It is always a very fun time and this year there was snow on the ground! So we dressed warm and headed out.

Even in the snow and dressed in snow pants Makayla had a blast. I was exhausted after hauling a well bundled up Micah up and down the hills and gathering eggs so Clint got a turn too :o)

After the egg hunt we headed into the church for Pinata fun and a delicious lunch.

I made some yummy Oreo Balls to share and Micah stole Makayla's and ate it while making a fun chocolate mess :o)

We had fun at the egg hunt this year and are looking forward to next year - I only hope for green grass and some sunshine next year. It just doesn't seem like Easter when there is snow everywhere!

Good Night!

2010-04-24T00:55:00.000-07:00

There is a night time tradition at our house. Because Makayla learned sign language so she could communicate as she was learning to talk there are a few signs that have stuck. The sign for I Love You is one of them. Here is Makayla and Clint's bedtime ritual.

(one will start then the other repeats it)

Good Night

I Love You (with I love you sign)

Go Utes (making a U out of both hands kinda like a goal post)

Rock On (with the classic rock on hands)

It is cute and funny and it happens every night. I really need to get it on video. As soon as I do you will be the first to see :o)

One Year Stats

2010-04-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here are Micah's stats from his one year check up

Height 29.5 inches long (45th percentile)

Weight 23 pounds 13 ounces (75th percentile)

Head 19.5 inches (off the charts 100th percentile as she put it :o) )

Micah is a very happy baby even when he doesn't feel good. He is now crawling on his hands and knees more than army crawling and he pulls himself to stand to anything he can. He is learning some sign language and does it when he is in the mood :o) He loves to cruise along furniture and when we help him to walk around. He is in the process of getting about 5 more teeth so that is not so much fun but he is doing pretty well considering. Micah absolutely loves Makayla. He will follow her around and loves to play with her toys. She is a great big sister and shares with him most of the time. Micah has the cutest smile and the best laugh and he makes our home a very happy place!

Happy 1st Birthday Micah!

2010-04-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Micah! This is how we find him almost every morning, standing up in his crib pushing buttons on his mobile.

We did his party the weekend before his actual birthday because his birthday weekend included Conference and Easter. The party was at my parents house. We had a great turn out and had lots of fun. As always it was loud and a little crazy but we had lots of friends and family around us.

Here is his cake, Clint helped me make this cake. It was the first time I used fondant. It turned out to be a really fun cake.

Here is Micah's reaction to everyone singing Happy Birthday. I guess we are terrible singers!!

We tried to get him to dig into the whole chocolate cake but he was not interested. So after a few minutes we cut off a smaller piece and that seemed to do it.

Here is the end result, not quite as messy and I thought he would get but he had fun. We had a fun birthday party and are so glad that Micah is part of our family. We can not believe he is one already. He is a super fun baby and brings so much joy to our family. Happy Birthday little one!

Disney on Ice

2010-04-06T11:43:00.001-07:00

Clint and I surprised Makayla with a girls day out to go see Disney On Ice. We went a couple of years ago and had tons of fun. Clint decided that he wanted to stay home with Micah. They had a Princess Preview before the show and had Cinderella and Tiana (the Princess and the Frog princess) there. Makayla was stoked, even the snow we had to walk through did not dampen her spirits. We had a blast and hope to be able to do it again soon.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Exciting!!

2010-03-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks have been exciting at our house!

Sweet pictures like this will be no more ... Micah has decided that he is done with the binki! He played with it more than sucked on it and started falling asleep without it so we hid them :o) And here we are 2 weeks later still binki free and we have one happy little baby! Also he is now drinking milk instead of formula. He has one happy Mama!!

I Love To See The Temple

2010-03-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago Clint and I were lucky enough to be able to go here

twice!! This was the first time we have attended the Beautiful Oquirrh Mountain Temple since it was dedicated. We had the amazing opportunity to go to our Ward Temple night. It was the week of our Ward Conference and the spirit was incredible. Clint and I agreed that it was possibly one of the best Temple experiences we have ever had.

Then we got to go and do some Sealings. It has been a very long time since we did Sealings and it was such a great reminder of our wedding day and all of the wonderful things you are blessed with. I feel truly blessed and uplifted after a very challenging month of February. I love that there are so many Temples that are so close to our home. Makayla loves looking for Temples as we drive around and gets so excited when she sees them. There is a road that exits out the South side of our neighborhood. As you go down the hill you can see 4 Temples. We are very lucky to live where we do!

Poopy!

2010-03-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

I have a few words to describe the month of February ...

*#$%+

^%$#@

>:!@#&*

The month flew by mostly because Micah was sick the entire month and Makayla and I joined him for the last 2 weeks. Last Wednesday was a very rough day for Micah. He has Bronchiolitis and has been coughing and congested and very unhappy. They to top it off he had a double ear infection too. Because I was sick too my wonderful Hubby called in sick on Thursday so I could get some sleep since I was up all night with Micah. That afternoon Micah just kept getting worse and worse and had to work really hard to breathe.

We made the decision to take him to Primary Children's Emergency Room. So we dropped Makayla off at my Mom and Dads and headed up there. They used the deep suction, and monitored his oxygen levels for a couple of hours. After he fell asleep and his breathing seemed better they felt comfortable sending us home. They gave us a prescription for a suction clinic - or a respiratory therapy clinic to get the deep suction if we need for a week. By this time it was 12:20 am so Makayla got to sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's and we headed home to get a little sleep.

Clint ended up getting Friday off too so he could help me watch Micah and it was a good thing because I ended up needing him. We noticed Micah's breathing was labored when he woke up so we decided to take him to the suction clinic, then we thought we would stop at Target and get a humidifier to keep in our front room and maybe go to a fabric store so I could get fabric to make Micah a new blanket. However, our plans changed quickly. The Respiratory Therapist was able to get lots of gunk out but his oxygen levels would not stay up. They were very unstable so after an hour we were sent to the Emergency Room, and 6 hours later I was riding in an ambulance from Jordan Valley Hospital to Primary Children's.

Micah was admitted with the thought that he would be able to leave within 24 hours but we ended up having to stay for 2 nights. The first night he had to be on oxygen and they had to use the deep suction alot to help him breathe. But by Saturday afternoon they were able to wean him off the oxygen and he was doing lots better. He had a great night and we were discharged from the hospital before lunch on Sunday.

What an ordeal. It was so scary and stressful, and just plain poopy! But I am so glad that he is doing better and we have not had to take him to the suction clinic since we got home I have been able to suction him out at home with a bulb syringe. We felt so blessed and protected up there and I know that many prayers were heard and answered.

Now that we are home and happy Micah has slept great in his own bed :o) he loves to play and move around and Clint and I have never been more happy to see our own bed! We appreciate all the love and prayers and support from our family and hope that this does not become a yearly ritual with Micah...

Daddy Daughter Day!

2010-02-14T14:05:00.000-08:00

Makayla has been DYING to go see this movie again after we saw it in the theater in December.
The Princess and the Frog was a very cute movie and we enjoyed it but upon some research we found out that it is going to be out on DVD in a month so we didn't think it would still be in a theater but there are a few theaters in Salt Lake Valley that are still playing it. Clint suggested that we all go but with Micah being sick I didn't think a movie would be the best for him so he got to take Makayla on a date! All we told her was that she was going to lunch with Daddy.

So we got her ready and I did her hair in a fun Valentine's Day hairdo (which I found on the blog Princess and her hair it is on the left column if you want to check it out)

And they were ready for their day out. They went to Fazoli's for lunch then Clint told her they were going to a movie on the way and she was SOOOOO happy.

Thank you Clint for being such a great Daddy and for giving Makayla the special day she needed after being such a great helper to Mommy and Micah over the past week. Love you!

Ears

2010-02-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

What are the odds that on a day we have an ENT appointment for Makayla to see if she needs tubes again or if there is a hole in her ear drum that Micah would get a double ear infection and have one ear drum rupture?

SERIOUSLY!!

Well I have had my fill of the doctors office this week ... on the good side of things Micah's RSV seems to be on the mend. His breathing is getting way better and now we have antibiotics for his ears.

Makayla has a small hole in each ear drum. We are not sure if it is from when her tubes fell out or if she has had a rupture so the ENT is going to keep an eye on her and we will go back in to see him in about 2 months to see if the holes have healed. If not she may have to have surgery to patch the holes or if there is fluid in her ear she may need a second set of tubes. And since Micah has had an ear drum rupture twice in the last 7 months and has had some fluid in his ears he might get tubes too. But that will mean happy and healthy kiddos which is what we all need!!

Here is our update and hopefully there will be fun and happy posts to follow!

5 days

2010-02-09T23:57:00.000-08:00

5 days of a cranky baby

5 days of a fever of 102

5 nights of little sleep

5 days of cuddling, rocking, bouncing and doing anything to comfort Micah

5 days of worries and lots and lots of prayers

They said the 5th day of RSV is the worst, which is why I am posting this at 1:00 in the morning ;o)

Here is to keeping my fingers crossed that day 6 gets a little better because I hate seeing my happy baby be so sick and so sad.

9 Month Stats

2010-01-27T19:40:00.000-08:00

OK the well check was today so here is the info

22 pounds - 55th Percentile

28 inches long - 55th Percentile

Head 23 1/2 centimeters - off the charts our poor babies with big noggins!!

He is doing well and except for the shot they gave him he has been happy :o)

He went from 95th and up for weight to right at average. He really has weighed the same for the past 3 months. I guess all that army crawling he does has been burning some calories! :o)

Licorice

2010-01-26T15:01:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered what it would look like if you gave a 9 month old licorice? Well wonder no more!!

It was in his hair and up his nose and he was very upset when we took it away!