Hangin' with the Fam

Today we just got to hang out as a family. After I went grocery shopping bright and early this morning, we had GrandpaWilliams babysit Gracelyn while the rest of us went to a  matinee and saw Hotel Transylvania. It was a very cute show. Allie laughing all the way through it. That is one we will have to buy when it comes to dvd. When we got home we went to the backyard and took a few pictures of the kids and then had some ice cream. For the most part it was a pleasant day.

Note: There are no individual pictures of Grace because she is too busy being 1 1/2 and won't sit still long enough :)

Happy Birthday Trevor

Trevor thinks that he needs to grow up faster then I want him to. He turned 4 on Oct 3rd.  We had Veggie pizza for dinner, one of his favorites. Grandma and Grandpa Keele came over and had dinner with us and then we went bowling. Trevor loved it he was quite the comedian using his head to send the ball down the ramp. Allie loved to watch the screen to see what pictures would pop up when people bowled and Grace, well she decided that we weren't fun enough to spend time with so she went over to the lane next to us and sat down by a stranger for a good 15-20 minutes. Saturday we had a little family get together for his Brithday party. He requested that we have pizza. We had lots of pizza and a couple salads. He wanted a cars party so he got a cars pinata and cars cupcakes. He loved having everyone around.

Trevor and Grandma

Acting crazy

bowling

cheering on the ball

posing for the camera

Go allie Go

hoping all the pins get knocked down

Watching the happenings

Grace with stranger

Chris and Grandpa

Lagoon and Just Plain Crazy

Last night we went to Lagoon for our work summer party. Grace had to stay home due to her HF&M but she had a great babysitter (Grandma Keele)to take wonderful care of her. Allie and Trevor got to bring their cousin Rhett sice Grace wasn't going to use her ticket. They had loads of fun on the rides. Allie is getting to be such a big girl that she was able to go on quite a few rides with Christopher so she is missing in most of the pictures. Today we pretty much stayed home and got some well needed rest after being there until 11:00pm. We did run to Joanns and Hobby lobby looking for fall sprinkles and some window clings. tomorrow we are going to make sugar cookies shaped like maple leaves and decorate them with the recently purchased sprinkles.

Trevor is upset cause they won't unlock the gate so he can get on the tidal wave

Grace felt good enough to eat 2 football shaped oreos. This is the after math.

Allie wanted to get her picture taken. she is a nut.

Grace showing her beautiful smile.

Trevor being cool like dad

The Medical World

WOW!!!! We have visited the medical world more these last 2 weeks then I care to. On wednesday the 5th Allie was riding a scooter at the babysitters house and fell off and landed on her left arm. I took her to the Drs office because there is a bowed look to her arm...makes me queasy when I look at it. The second the dr walked in he said "oh ya that is broken. I am going to send you to the AF hospital to get x-rays and I will call you with the results tonight. You will then need to come in on Friday to get a cast put on it. Lets put a splint (wrist brace) on it to keep it stable." So off we go to the hospital. She did an excellent job at sitting still and not crying as the x-rays were getting done. Later that night the Drs office calls and says the x-ray results are in and it isn't broken, keep the splint on for the next 3 days, ice her arm, and medicate as needed with tylenol. OK wonderful that it isn't broken we will follow the orders given us... Well the next evening I was helping her take the bracce off so she can get in the tub and her arm looks a little bruised and there is a bump and of course the bend that makes me queasy is still there. She goes to bed and the next day I am at work and that bend and bump in her arm keep popping up in my head. How is that bend going to fix itself with just a wrist brace? So to ease my mind I call a different Dr from a different office to get a second opinion. We go in he looks at her arm and says "oh ya she deffinately has a bowed arm. Lets look at the x-rays that were taken at the hospital. Everything looks good. There is a chance that she has fractured it and some fractures don't show up on an x-ray until it starts to heal and then it will be white on the x-ray. This splint (which in my mind is a wrist brace not a splint. don't splints go down both sides of a limb and then a wrap is applied around it?) is the best thing for her to have on. Keep it on for the next 2-3 weeks and ice her arm and apply meds as needed. Here is a pediactric surgeons number, call him on monday if her arm is still hurting her. He can take more x-rays if needed to see if anything shows up." So off we go home. It has now been over a week the bow in her arm is still there and I don't know if I am dwelling too much on this bow and need to get over it or if there is a reason it won't stop picking at my brain. I guess if 2 different drs aren't all that concerned I shouldn't be.

These pictures were taken when she got out of the tub.

I took Gracelyn to the Dr last night because she has been irritable the last 2 days and didn't sleep good the night before and now has a fever. She had to get on the scale and at 18 months old she is a whopping 20.2 pounds (that is what most kids weigh on their 1st birthday). It turns out she has an Ear infection and Hand, Foot, and Mouth desease. Why they call it a desease when it is a virus, I don't know. She has ulcers in her mouth and a rash on her bottom. There is nothing to give her for the HF&M. It should run its course in a week. Until then she is contagious for the next 5 days to any kid 10 and under. Her temp can get upwards to 105, add diahhrea, throwing up, and loss of appetite on top of that. The poor little thing!! She has a lollipop that she gets to suck on for 30 seconds every hour to numb her mouth from the pain of the ulcers and once the numbness sets in we are to pump her full of fluids. We have to alternate between ibuprofin and tylenol to keep the fever at bay and of course her amoxaxillin for the lovely ear infection. Unfortunately for her today is our work summer party at lagoon and Gracie can't go so my Wonderful mom has agreed to sit with Grace while we take the other 2 kids. Last night my father and mother in law came over and Christopher and Kent were able to give Gracelyn a blessing. How wonderful it is to have a priesthood holder in your home!!! Oh speak of the devil Angel. Gracelyn is crying so time to medicate.

Lost

It seems I have lost it...My patience that is. I don't seem to have much patience when it come to helping Allie with her reading. I know she can figure a word out so I say "Allie what is this word?" She glances at it for a whole 2 seconds and shrugs her shoulders and says "I don't know". "Sound it out" I tell her and she makes a half hearted try and throws her hands in the air, flops her body on the ground and starts crying. Some where in that cry is the words I don't know what it says.  So I help her sound the word out and we move on. Once again there is the 2 second glance and the shrugging shoulders and those three words I am really starting to hate "I don't know". Once again, sound it out. and the small try and the tears. REALLY do we need to cry over every word we sound out? My temper starts to flare and her tears continue to fall. I know that it is more reasonable to stay calm and she will  figure it out, but it drives me crazy that she is so willing to give up that easily. Eventually the tempers calm down on both our sides and once we are finished I pulled her to me and put my arm around her and told her that I know she is a very, very, very, very smart girl and that she needs to try not to give up or she will never learn. I give her a hug and kiss and send her to bed. I just sat there for a few minutes thinking about what had happened and how I could have handled the whole thing better. It makes me wonder if I was as emotional trying to learn new things when I was younger. or maybe she gets it from Chris lol. Next time I chat with my mom I will have to ask her.

Labor Day Weekend= Domestic Work

Usually Labor Day weekend is reserved for camping with family, going on vacation, or just getting out of the house and doing something fun. It seems that every year we end up staying home and I bake, or can, and/or do laundry. Once again we stayed home...Don't get me wrong we had every intention of doing something fun but in the end we postponed/canceled our plans. So this year the kids got to play on a slip n slide in the back yard, watch movies, and play with friends. Gracie loved the slip n slide adventure. She loved it so much, her siblings were yelling at her and pushing her out of the way so they can have a go. Like always running through sprinklers and playing on slip n slides are short lived and Allie was ready to go play with her friends. Trevor always askes if he can go play with allie's friends too because he enjoys riding his bike in the church parking lot but is to scared to ride fast and he is stomping on the brakes every 5 seconds. I give him til next year then he will probably be flying on his bike and I will be yelling at him to slow down. I have done oodles of laundry today and picked 14 onions, 3 tomatoes, and 3 green peppers from my garden and kind of pulled weeds. I have sliced up all the onions and as we speak they are in the dehydrator drying out. I also have 5 mini loafs of pumpkin and cheese spice bread in the oven. I am in love with pintrest and found this recipe and have wanted to make it for a while now. I just hope it tastes as good as it looks. I have also had every intention of working on my next cards for my card group but so far the idea is in my head but nothing down on paper. Maybe I should put the computer down and start on my cards. I hope every one has a wonderful holiday!

Darling 1 year old

I just posted this on facebook and thought oh this needs to go on the family blog so that sometime in the future Gracelyn can look back at laugh at all the torture she has put her dear mother through.....As I was sitting in sacrament  meeting enjoying the wonderful testimonies and basking in the spirit, my beautiful 1 year old decides she wants to sit on my lap. I am feeling very loved until I look down and see a HUGE brown poop mark she just smeared on the front of my crisp WHITE skirt. Oh the Humiliation. I speedily packed up our kids and diaper bag and rushed out of the chapel with a blanket strategically covering the poop so those around me don't gag. As we are making our hasty retreat, I look down and that same beautiful 1 year old has her poopy diaper hanging around one ankle and smearing more poop through the hall way. I, being the smartest mom in the whole world, of course forgot to pack wipes in the diaper bag so I had to use said diaper to try to remove the skid marks in the hall way. How embarrassing!!

Fall & Hot Chocolate

I am so looking forward to the fall season. I love when it cools down and and pumpkin patches open up and hot chocolate becomes more prominate. I have been wanting hot chocolate lately. I feel like a dork drinking it in the summer, but it is one of my favorite drinks in the cooler seasons. I need to invest in a coco latte machine. I had one and then one of my precious kiddos ruined it by dumping syrup into the motor. I might just have to go make me some now.

Motivation...Or Lack of

I have been telling myself every day for the past couple of months that I need to get up and going in the exercise area of my life. Then I eat something not so healthy and I tell myself "oh you messed up today what is the point in exercising, try again tomorrow". Don't get me wrong, I know full well that that is all the more reason to exercise but my brain is tricky. So this morning I told myself that today is the day i'm going to get on that treadmill. Well I knew I would be having pizza for lunch (my department won a contest and the prize was a pizza party)..that doesn't help the waist line. I decided salad was going to be my dinner. As I was driving home I was thinking about that treadmill and remembered that my headphones for my ipod is broken so I splurged and spent a whopping $5 on headphones so I can run to my music. I keep telling myself that even if I just run for 20 min (if I can last that long) I will feel so much better about myself and it will motivate me to keep getting on that treadmill every day. Well here it is 8:30pm and my brain is being all tricky again and telling me that I ate pizza what is the point in getting on the treadmill. So here I am documenting the fact that today is the day that I over power that tricky part of my brain. As soon as this post is completed the knee braces are going on, the tennies are getting tied, and the hair is getting pulled back as best I can and I am going to conquer that stupid voice in my head. Wish me luck!

Let's Try this AGAIN!!

My darling husband informed me a couple of weeks ago that I haven't been blogging and need to do better. So here I am AGAIN to say i will try to do better. I decided that I would wait until Allie's 6th birthday to do my come back post. Can you believe it?  6 years old!  So here we go....Allie turned 6 yesterday. We had a birthday party for her on saturday. She let me know that she wanted a smurf party and she wanted to be smurfette. Being the most fabulous mother that I am I set out to accomplish her smurf desire. I got online and looked up all the info I could on smurf parties and prizes and decorations and games and the list goes on. I found a wonderful lady on ebay who made these darling invitations. I then went on amazon and found a smurf movie (old school), smurf reading books, smurf stickers, smurf rings, and smurf coloring books (prizes covered). Then there were the Smurf hats I wanted to make for each child at the party. They turned out cute. I went to the copy center and this wonderful lady helped me create the decorations and the details for the gift bags. In the gift bags went a blue jump rope, blue balloon, blue push pop, blue airheads, blue mike and ikes, a sheet of smurf stickers, and a box of crayons which as you know contains a blue crayon. I made Allie a white tutu for a different spin on smurfette's dress and a white t-shirt went over a long sleeve blue shirt and a pair of blue leggings under the tutu. I cut out brainy smurf glasses for a trivia game. We had a smurf bingo game, and played pass the present, which we did to the smurf theme song. then it was time for smurf cupcakes with the rings on top that I got from amazon and a blue squeeze it juice. I think that it was quite a success. That night when Allie was a sleep I blew up 25 balloons and trapped them between her door and garbage bags so that in the morning when she opened her door the balloons would fall at her feet. It didn't work out as perfectly as I had planned but she still was suprised and loved every minute of it.
Also this week, allie started first grade.




Allie opening gifts

Gift bags



Decorations

My brainy smurfs

Cupcakes

Having refreshments

 

1st day of first grade

Milestones

The Kids in our family are starting to reach milestones and I am sad that they are growing up so fast. The week of Christmas Gracelyn started to crawl and get to the sitting postion on her own. I think those go hand in hand. Now she is pulling herself up and walking around the furniture. I took her in for her 9 month check up (9 Months...where does the time go?) she weighs in at 15 lbs 7 oz  3%tile  and is 29" tall  90%tile. WOW!!

Grace standing

Crawing

Allie just lost her 1st tooth today. She told me she kept wiggling it and it just falled out. Now she is happy not only cause the tooth fairy will be coming tonight but because she can eat food now without her tooth moving and hurting her. We have been working very hard today to get her tooth fairy pillow sewn together so the tooth fairy won't have to fish around under her pillow and risk waking Allie up and blowing her cover.  

Cute smile

Tooth fairy pillow

Trevor has been trying his hardest to go potty in his big boy potty. He is doing a great job. Every once in a while there will be an accident but for the most part he is making it. He gets rewarded with chocolate milk and cheetos.

Big boy

He loves to vaccuum