It's that time of year

When people have a Christmas tree that's all fancy and the ornaments match it's lovely really. That's not what our tree looks like. Every year we all paint an ornament and add it to our tree. We get an ornament when we go on vacation. So, our tree is covered with hand painted ornaments and memories from places that we've been. Painting the ornaments is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. When our kids grow up and move out they can take all the ornaments that they've painted. I know it's a cute idea, you can steal it if you want to. :) Anyway, last night was our annual paint our ornament night. We actually made the ornaments that we painted. I had no idea that salt dough was so cool! We made it and then used cookie cutters and cut out ornaments.

He's so good at painting that he can do it one handed! He truly is an inspiration to us all!

You might be thinking that I use a lot of paint. This is where K was sitting. I needed yellow and he had A LOT of yellow, so I went to use his so as not to waste paint. Especially yellow paint. Yellow anything really. I love yellow! Yellow in any form, the sun, flowers, houses, dump trucks, the list could go on and on. But, we're not here to talk about my obsession with yellow now are we? 

Of course her's is hot pink. She loves hot pink like K loves cars, which as we all know, is a lot! I love that she's left handed. I love it so much that sometimes when I write something I like to do it on the bathroom counter so I can watch in the mirror as I write so it looks like I'm left handed. I wish I had her smarts and her left handedness.

If I remember correctly this airplane was his second ornament. His first was a car. This was the first year that when he was done painting you could tell what it was. Last year he put about 1000 layers of paint on his reindeer. It's so cool to look at their ornaments from the year before and see how much better they do this year.

Poor baby was so tired! He was happy as long as his sucker was in his mouth. Once it was too little and I took it away, he was all tears. He just wanted to go to bed. But it was only 6:30. So, we tried to distract him with the camera. We're pretty sure this is what he was thinking..

"Um, folks, I'm feeling kind of tired and sad."

"Ok, it's official. I'm feeling really tired and really sad!"

"Wait! I see the camera. Do you want to take my picture?"

"Ok! I'll smile, but only a little."

Didn't they turn out awesome?!I bet you'll never guess what one B did. There is no limit to his love for that silly team. This is not the first BYU ornament we have on our tree. I think all of them are swell, just swell (the hand painted ornaments. NOT the BYU ones. Just sayin') I love our little tradition and will cry when these little ornaments are no longer on our tree all together.

Running for a cause

My sister called me a couple weeks ago and asked if I wanted to do a half marathon with her in April. I told her that I would love to. She told me that it was to raise money for cancer research. I told her that it would be swell and that I wanted to do it with her. Well,  bad news bears, the marathon is the week of our spring break. Since B is the low man on the totem pole there's no way that he can get that week off to come with us to DC, where the marathon is being run, and watch the offspring. So, I had to call her and tell her that I couldn't do it with her. I truly was so sad that I had to back out. As I said, this marathon is to raise money for cancer, so I am going to put an email on here that she sent me that talks about the sweet little two year old that she's doing it for and a couple links on how to help. I know that there are only a handful of people that look at this here blog, but if the handful of us spread the word, then maybe she'll be able to reach her goal she has set for this sweet little girl.

      Hi all!

In 2005 I completed the Honolulu,  HI marathon.  I completed it through Team in Training and raised money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  It was such an exhilarating experience I've decided to do it again.  I have set up a team and will be walking in the Nike Women's 1/2 Marathon on April 27, 2014.  My goal is to raise $3000 for the cause.
I'm coming to my family and friends for help.  With so many people suffering with cancer, including people within our family, this is a way for us to help.  "When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God."  The little miss in the photo attached is Miss Brielle.  She's my Lincoln's newest friend and has just finished her first treatment for Leukemia.  Brielle is just over two years old.  How can we, as His children, not do all we can to help find a cure?  I know I'm coming to you at the peak of the holiday season.   It's the perfect way to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas; giving to benefit others. 
Below are a couple different ways to donate and/or help. I've attached a link to my team website and I've also attached a link for a pajama fundraiser.  The link to my website will allow you to donate online.  If any of you have the tradition of getting new pjs for Christmas this is the perfect opportunity!   I've posted ordering instructions and the website to go to.  You can get three sets of pjs for $30.  40% of the money you spend will go towards my fundraising goal.   If money is tight, which I completely understand, another way to help would be to post my website on your Facebook page, Tweet it, pin it on Pinterest or forward this email to any of your friends and/or family. Word of mouth is the best way to collect money.

Thank you all, in advance, for your help and support. 

Merry Christmas!  

Emily Jane Kent Green

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ntx/nikewhlf14/WomenUnited

*HOW DO YOU ORDER:  Simply go to www.pajamafundraiser.com Search items to see what you want to order.  Inventory changes daily because these are leftover material.
When ready to order, print the order form from the top right corner of the website.  Note: don’t print until you are ready to order since some items may sell out.  The order form will be updated daily as sizes, colors, and styles change.
Fill out the top portion of the form, indicating the TNT Participant name (Emily Green or the team name Women United). 
Also, enter your customer information Name, address, and a phone where you can be reached in case there are questions on your order Once filled out, email your form to (kathymerani@aol.com), and then mail Kathy a check for your order, made payable to Kathy Merani.  Address is 3729 Whitehall Drive, Dallas Texas, 75229. As soon as your email order is received, it will be entered into their factory system.  Kathy will pick up your items and pay for them up front.

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Turkey's!

In primary yesterday a little girl in my class said that they were going to kill their turkey, that they were going to go out and shoot it! That's not how we roll around these parts. Instead, we use cookies, chocolate and candy for our turkey.

 

What good is a turkey without a body? Nothing like a little frosting, a nutter butter cookie and a Reese's to fix that little problem.

 

We don't want the poor little guy to feel naked, so you must add feathers with toothpicks and mike and ikes. Just in case you ever think to put mike and ikes on to a toothpick; either get heavy duty toothpicks or just don't do it! Trust me, trying to shove those sticky little candies on to a cheap toothpick results in a lot of broken wood inside some candy and some sore finger tips from trying to wiggle them on without breaking the said 'pick.

 

Then you can add a cute little face with mini Reese's pieces. I'm glad we have so many leftovers of those because they are going to make for some good eating whilst small children are in bed or at school!

 

Let's not forget to take a picture of the fat little baby that is happily sitting in his booster seat eating whatever candy or cookie anyone wants to feed him. We found out tonight that he loves nutter butter cookies and mini Reese's pieces and mike and ikes. Who knew?!

 

This is for sure my favorite picture of our whole evening. I love that little B is so happy to represent team T! Our little turkey's didn't turn out as cute or self standing as I thought they would. But it was still fun to make them and not have to kill them and pluck the feathers off! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y'ALL!!!

And the award for worst mom of the year goes to...

Me. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I haven't been able to come up with a speech yet, but let me explain why there was no competition when it comes to this dreaded award. As we all know I do not have a green thumb. It's so bad that it seems when I walk past any plant or flower or tree, you get the idea, in any store, they seem to wilt a little. About a month ago our landlord had the grass guys come and plant seed. I was a little confused as to why he was planting the seed right before winter. When the temperatures at night can get to freezing or below. I didn't question his madness and smiled at the creepy grass guys when they looked through the window. Actually I didn't smile, I tried to hide behind the wall so they wouldn't see me. Anyway, I have never tended to freshly planted grass seed, I didn't know that I was supposed to be watering it every day for an hour. The landlord came over about a week and a half after it had been planted. He asked if we had been watering it. He wasn't too happy with the no answer he received. So, water it I did. I didn't think it was great that there were puddles of water after being watered for so long. I thought that it would drown the seeds. He called about 3 days later to see how the watering was going and told us that there shouldn't be puddles. If there are puddles, the seed could get washed away. Oops! He said to only water each area for ten minutes. It went well until the hose started to freeze at night because it's cold now. One morning I went out there and could pick the hose up like a stick. The entire thing was frozen. Needless to say, I didn't water the grass that day. Well, it warmed up, the hose defrosted as so the watering of the grass resumed. You might be wondering why this makes me a horrid mother. Wait for it!

 

Look at this face! What's not to love about it? He's such a good baby. This picture is actually a couple months old. He now has six teeth. Four of which he got at the same time. He weighs 20 pounds. Sleeps like a champ and has started to laugh when K acts crazy. Enter the dreaded account of horrible mothering. On Friday he had woken up from his nap. I gave him a bottle and changed his diaper. He had rolled over to his toys and was playing as I went outside to throw his diaper away and move the stupid water. Keep in mind that it was cold outside so as I walked to move the sprinkler I kept thinking,"this is so stupid! Why not wait until spring to plant grass?!" Anyway I moved the water, got sprayed in the process so then I was really annoyed because I unintentionally ran through the sprinkler when it was 50 degrees outside. Anyway, I get to the house and start taking of the muddy shoes before I go in. I try the door handle and it's locked! I remained calm for about.01 seconds. I don't even remember locking it. All I know is that this cute little baby is on the floor inside the house while I am locked out. I ran around to the front and opened the garage hoping that by some miracle I had left the door to the house unlocked. I already knew I hadn't. I lock all doors as soon as I am inside the house. I tried the front door too hoping that M and K had unlocked it for some reason before they went to school. It was locked too. I was totally locked out and the baby was inside all alone. B has a key to the front door on his keys, but he was at work. I had no phone, all of our neighbors work during the day. I thought to myself, "stay calm. What do you need to do?" A name popped into my head. There is a family in our ward that lives in the same community that we do. They live up the hill and around the corner. I was wearing B's yard shoes that are about seven sizes too big, but I took off running. I don't think I have ever run so hard and fast in my whole life. Truly, if I had run like that in high school I could have been #1 in the country if not the world! I made it to their house in lightning speed. I had prayed first that Heavenly Father would keep my baby safe. Then I prayed that she would be home. She home school's her boys and she told me that they like to be done by lunch time so they can eat with her husband when he comes home for lunch. I prayed and prayed that today would be a normal day for them and that they would be getting ready for lunch. As I rounded the corner, I saw their car in their driveway. Tender mercy! I got to their house and pounded on their door. When she answered I was breathing so hard that it feels like it took me close to a minute to tell her what was going on. Through huge gasps of air and the tears that had caught up with me I told her what had happened and asked if she could drive me to the hospital to get the key from B. She is an angel and an answer to my prayers. She told her boys to get in the car and she dashed us to the hospital. It's a seven minute drive but it felt longer than that. I don't know where the O.R's are at in the hospital. I didn't know where to go. I just ran into the first door. I'm sure the lady thought I was having a heart attack. I told her that I needed to find my husband. That he was doing surgeries. She sent me down the hall to another desk. I told the lady there that I had locked my baby in the house and needed to get a hold of my husband so that I could get his keys. I've never seen the 100 year old ladies that work at the desks at a hospital move so fast. She was on the phone and talking to B almost before I finished telling her his name. He told me to stay where I was and he would bring the keys to me. I don't know how long I stood there, maybe a minute, but I felt like he was never going to come. I just kept thinking of our sad little baby that was undoubtedly crying alone on the floor wondering why no one was picking him up and loving him. I saw B running down the hall, I ran and got the keys from him. When Jess had dropped me off at the hospital she told me that she was going to go to our house and see how the baby was doing. I hadn't even thought to ask B where he had parked, thankfully his car was right outside the doors. Another tender mercy! I zoomed home and prayed for no cops along the way. As I pulled into the driveway, Jess's boy's were walking across the driveway. I asked if he was freaking out. One of them said yes and the other one said,"No, he's just laying there motionless." Jess heard him say that and said,"He's fine, he's sleeping." As soon as I put the key in the door I heard him start to cry. It took me a minute to get the door opened in my frazzled state. I finally got in and ran and scooped him up. His cry was truly heartbreaking. He looked at me and just kept touching my face over and over as he cried. Jess gathered her boys and as she left she said that her oldest had said to her as they drove back to our house,"That baby's going to be fine. I said a prayer for him." When he said that her youngest said,"I want to say a prayer for him too!" I said thank you and even held it together until the door was shut. I cried and cried and cried after she had left. She and her boys really were an answer to my prayers on Friday. How do you thank some one adequately when you feel like they were your guardian angels for the day? You can't. When I told her thank you I felt so lame because I felt like what she had done to help me deserved so much more that a thank you. I am so thankful that little B was safe. That even though Heavenly Father controls the entire universe, he knew that there would be a baby that needed help. That he would send angels to sing him to sleep so he wouldn't be alone as he laid on the floor. Needless to say I now carry the spare key on my person and when I go outside to throw a diaper away,(I haven't watered the stupid grass since then. It can die and be replanted next spring. Not to mention the hose is frozen again.), I leave the door standing wide open.  

Turkey disguise

K brought home an assignment this week. Due to the upcoming holiday, all the turkey's are worried that they are going to become someones dinner. So, he had to come up with a disguise for his turkey so he won't get eaten.

This is what he came up with. how awesome is that?! I helped with the design, but he cut it out and glued it all together. If we could have a real live minion in our house, we would. They make all of so happy and they make for a great turkey disguise!

For your information: Due to some research that was wrapped up within the last week we have learned that if a pair of underwear is dropped in a flushing toilet at the exact right moment, it flushes down without causing the toilet to become clogged. Don't ask how we did the research, but I bet you can guess who was in charge of the study!

Let's have mexican

What do you get when you lay a baby down on a blanket to have a bottle and go to the kitchen to put dinner in the crock pot? You get a baby burrito!

He had finished his bottle and then started to roll around. He had held on to one of the sides of the blanket as he rolled. He was very content inside his little shell and when I unwrapped him, he held tight to the edge of the blanket. When I picked him up he squawked at me and lunged towards the blanket. I guess next time I'll just leave him wrapped up and finish dinner without a baby in my arms!

Ok, that's odd.

Two nights ago I was thinking that M and K had been going to bed so well lately. It truly filled my heart with so much happiness and joy. I didn't dare say anything about them going to bed good out loud. I figure that's like saying that you hope to never be called as a primary teacher at church. If you say it out loud, you'll for sure get that calling. So, I didn't want them going to bed good to change so I kept my joy to myself. I guess I shouldn't have even thought it. Last night did not go so smoothly. B had a scouting thing so I was on my own for the bedtime routine. I had them all tucked in snug like bugs in rugs and had gone downstairs. I knew they weren't sleeping when I heard the awful sound of little feet jumping. I take it as a personal attack when my personal time at night is interrupted. There's no starting to get annoyed, as soon as I know they aren't sleeping, I'm already bugged and have to remind myself to stay calm and ignore them. I listened to the little feet landing on the floor upstairs over and over and over. I felt like it went on forever, when it actually was probably only ten or fifteen minutes. Which, if you're interested is far too long to hear jumping above ones head. Anyway, the jumping stopped and the blessed quiet that comes from sleeping children ensued. The time from when all the kiddos are sleeping and us going to bed always seems to fly by. All too soon it was time to check on them and go to bed. When we walked into K's room I noticed his closet door was open. I cannot stand when a closet door is open, unless of course you're getting something out of it. But once you have retrieved the item, the door should be closed! Everyone that lives in this house knows that. Just thinking about leaving the closet door open gives me a little bit of anxiety. When I saw his closet door standing open I knew something was amuck. Then I saw the hanger hanging on a knob on his dresser. B made it to K's bed before I did and started to laugh. I looked up and asked what was funny. he pointed to K and this is what we saw.

 That would explain all the jumping I heard. His life jacket was hanging in his closet, so he had to jump over and over to get it down. I don't know why he didn't just get a stool, but whatever. This is one of the times that I wanted to be in his head so bad! I want to know what he was thinking and playing. I also want to know what made him so tired that he laid down with his life jacket on and fell asleep. I asked him this morning why he had slept with his life jacket on. He got a huge smile on his face and just shrugged his shoulders. The smile made me want to be in his head even more to find out why. M sleeps in leotard's and socks and K sleeps in life jackets. As long as they sleep, I truly don't care what they wear!

Family pictures

As we all know I am less than computer savvy. I had to scan the pictures into the computer since the lovely but way over priced photographer didn't let me have a cd with the pictures on them. Anyway, I apologize that they are so small. 

 This is at a local farm. It's awesome because there is an orchard there along with the animals and this beautiful rock quarry. It truly is beautiful and we all loved it there. We really wanted fall colors in our pictures, but this quarry was so beautiful that we didn't mind that much.

I love these three little people so much. Sometimes they make me want to yank my hair out, but mostly I just get to love them. How lucky am I?!

I know I know I already put a picture of them on here, but I think they're so cute that I had to put on another one!

She totally loves her daddy! He paints her fingernails and toenails. She only likes him to check her homework. (That may be because I have looked at it and more than once had to tell her that I honestly don't have any idea how to do whatever it is she's doing, so go ask daddy!) She likes him to tuck her into bed first and then I can come in. She wants to sit by him at night when we read scriptures and loves when we play games if he will let her be on his team.

Look at my cute boys! The photographer didn't have this one in the edited ones that she was letting us choose from. But I asked if she still had it. She said,"Well, yeah, but he's like totally squeezing your head off." I told her that's how we roll at our house and asked if we could see it. I loved it when she took the picture and when I see it, it makes me smile real big!  I told her that's how K is when he stands next to me. B told her that is totally normal for him when he hugs me. She looked at us weird when I said that I wanted a copy of this one. This little 4x6 was totally worth every penny! I love my boys so much! I love M too, but a little boy needs his mom like a little girl needs her dad. I feel like our little kids aren't going to be little for very much longer and so of course I want pictures of them exactly the way that they are so that I can remember things like how he tries to strangle me with every hug!  

Halloween

We are so happy that we live in a neighborhood! We were able to go trick-or-treating with a few families from our ward. We love that it gets chilly here! We(when I say we, I mean me and the baby only!) took jackets and actually used them whilst we were out and about. Having little kids is also great because we only had to go for an hour and a half and then they were done!

We love to get costumes for the next year at Target after Halloween. The Mater costume was $1.20 the chicken was $1and the vampire dress was $2. That way when they go through the costume box and decide they don't want to wear the Buzz Lightyear costume the we bought for $2, we don't care. They can wear whatever fits them and makes them happy. K wore the Mater costume last year. We went to a Halloween party for B's work. K was a policeman there. He was Buzz Lightyear at the ward trunk or treat and clearly he was Mater for the main event! It drives M totally crazy that K won't wear the costume that we bought for the year. She feels like once you make a choice on a costume, you need to be loyal! If we had paid full price I would agree.

This is a few of the chicken from the top. The eyeball looks kind of freaky, but the chicken bum is so cute! It's poofy anyway, but add a little diaper bum to it and it makes it really poofy! I wish that he could walk because I imagine that if he were to walk, the tail would shake and that would be awesome to watch! Trick or treating was fun except that there wasn't a whole lot of good candy handed out. When I say good of course I mean chocolate. They got a whole ton of smarties which are totally disgusting and should only be given to prisoners that have committed the most offensive crimes. They are for sure more of a punishment than a treat. They got a lot of sweet tarts and pixy stix both of which are nasty! Truly it's a tender mercy that they didn't get a lot of chocolate because heaven knows that I would eat it while they were at school or sleeping at night or for breakfast or while I was making dinner or anytime I walked past the cupboard, you get the idea!

Baby in a pumpkin

We totally stole this idea from Brent James and Sandra. They put their baby in a pumpkin last year. When we saw the picture, we knew that we would do the same thing this year. In my head I thought that we would carve out the leg holes, stick him in and be able to get him to smile his big smile that he does so well. He had other plans of course.

We tried doing it at the wrong time of day. This was right before dinner. He is the most smiley right after a nap. Right before dinner is not right after a nap. This is when he gets really sleepy. So he was not going to smile. The look on his face is probably because he was wondering why we were acting like idiots. We were trying really hard to get him to smile. Instead of smiling he just looks concerned.

After we had tried for close to five minutes to get him to smile, he got tired of us and decided to eat the pumpkin instead. He has tried pumpkin before and really like it. But, he's never had it raw. He gnawed some off and then

Sat and chewed it not really knowing what to think of it. We tried putting him in the pumpkin the next morning too. But, it had sat outside all night and was quite chilly. So, when we put him inside he took short little gasps of air because the pumpkin was cold. As you can imagine, there was no smile that morning either. But he must not have minded the raw pumpkin from the night before, because he ate it again in the morning. Clearly there is no picture with him smiling, but him eating the pumpkin is almost as cute!

Where did y'all come from and other usless things

No picture with this one folks, just have some things on my mind. I know that I was made in Utah and that that's where I was born and raised. You would think that I had been born near or on top of the equator. B says it's because I'm used to Florida and the suffocating heat. I don't concur. I think my blood must run only luke warm. Here's why I am going on and on about this. It was cold here today. Cold enough that I heard both of our offspring say, "kind a chilly willy billy." I had to wear long pants, sweats actually, long sleeves and a sweatshirt jacket thing. The temperature you ask? 72. In my defense, it was cloudy and cold.

Item number two on my mind, working out. It sucks.


Item number three: Family pictures. We found out that a lady in our ward does pictures. I asked her how much she charges. She told me it was only $55 for an hour session at a location of our choice. I truly almost grabbed her face and kissed her on her cheek. But, that would have scared the lass out of her skin, she doesn't know me well enough yet. Maybe next time. Anyway, we went and did family pictures on Tuesday. She knew a really cool place to go and I was so happy that we had found out that she does pictures. She not only knew a great place to go, but she called this afternoon to tell me that the pictures were all edited and ready to look at. So she is amazingly fast. We threw the kids in the car and went to look at the pictures. She did a great job! We told her the sizes that we wanted and then she dropped the bombshell. No wonder her price to take the pictures are so cheap! That would because the prints are not! Holy smokes, yeah we totally blew our family picture budget. At least they are cute and totally worth the over price she charges.

Item number four: bugs, spiders and the like.  EEEWWW gross!

Happy weekend?

Two weeks ago K was begging us all week to walk down to the community park so he could show us that he has not only learned, but mastered doing the monkey bars. School gets out so late and he is notorious for dorking around. Meaning that it takes him FOREVER to do his two worksheets that he gets every day as homework. So by the time he's finally done with homework dinner is already made so going to the park on a school night doesn't work. Last Friday there was no homework! We walked down to the park to see K and his bad self show off his monkey bar skills. He did it! He did it over and over and over. He loved it. B gave the kiddos a five minute warning before we went home to eat dinner. K said that he wanted to do the monkey bars one last time. He made it across to the little platform thing. He turned around and told me that he was going to do it back. Of course on his last trip across he fell. As soon as he landed and made the awful sound, I knew he had broken his arm. I went over to him as his right arm flopped off his stomach. I took one look at his arm and had to remind myself to breath. His arm was obviously broken. His elbow was bending the wrong way and his wrist was bumpy in places that it shouldn't be bumpy. I am so so thankful that B was there with us. I was feeling so lightheaded that all I could do was yell,"Look at that arm!" I truly gagged as I walked away. I am not one to be able to stomach such disgusting things. NASTY! B came over in lightning speed and just scooped K up and told us that he was taking him home. I put the baby in the stroller and M took K's bike and off we went. The ride to the hospital was so sad. He just cried silently as he laid his head on my shoulder(well, as good as he could in his booster seat. I was kneeling next to him on the floor of the car.) He would say,"mommy, my arm hurts." It was heartbreaking.

His arm must have moved as we were driving because at the park it looked a lot worse. He laid on the bed in the E.R like a champ! Thankfully Curious George was on TV so he was able to keep his mind off of his arm.

Clearly this is his wrist. Maybe they shouldn't send us a Radiology bill since it doesn't take a Dr to know that it's broken. He broke both the bones in his wrist. When he put his hand down to catch himself when he fell, he snapped these bones, they pushed up and

Broke his elbow in two places. This one is harder to see. Look at the ball of bone, go up to the dark white line. To the left of that line there is a crack. The other crack is to the right of the dark white line. OW! You would think that we've never given this child anything with calcium in his entire life. We have and we do every day! He just landed wrong and did a great job of breaking his arm. Go big or go home right?!

The E.R. Dr came in and told us that he had called the Orthopedic Surgeon that was on call. The Surgeon had told him to tell us to be there at 7:00 the next morning so he could do surgery. So, not only did he brake it, he had to have surgery to fix it. I understand that the bone wasn't out of the skin and that there was no internal bleeding. I also get that K's life wasn't in danger. What I want to know is why they couldn't do the surgery that night? I get that K had had some water and a fruit leather but by the time the Dr had gotten there and they were ready to go back, it would have been probably close to five hours since he had had anything to eat or drink. B tried to defend the Dr by saying since it wasn't a true emergency they probably didn't want to call everyone in. My rebuttal was that they were going to have to call everyone in on Saturday morning. I said that the Surgeon probably had plans and didn't want to cancel them. Maybe his wife had told him that if he cancels on her, his toast. So, we went home. Needless to say it was a pretty sleepless night for some of the folks that live in our house. he slept pretty good until 3. Then he couldn't sleep. He wanted me to lay on his bed with him. So, I was holding him as best I could without moving his arm. He was laying on his side, I was behind him with my arm around him. He was supposed to keep his arm elevated, so he was resting his arm on my arm. I could fill him finally starting to twitch, like he was falling asleep. All the sudden he jumped, his arm flew up in the air and he started to cry. I pulled him in close and asked if he was ok. He wrapped his other arm around my neck and as he cried he said,"I had a dream that I was falling off the monkey bars." I had tried to not let him see me cry because I knew that would just make him freak out even more, but when he said that I couldn't help it. We both laid there and cried. It was so sad. He couldn't have any medicine after midnight, so he cried a lot and said that his arm hurt a lot. Finally at five I asked him if he wanted to watch a show. Thank goodness for Disney channel! We were able to watch Phines and Ferb. He actually laughed a couple times.

We don't feel like we know a lot of people round these parts yet. I had asked B what we were going to do about K having surgery. He said that we could switch off, but I wanted to be with K the whole time. I also wanted B to be with us. I prayed and prayed to know who I could call in our ward to watch M and the baby while we were doing K's surgery. I felt so bad asking anyone because I knew that it would take most of their Saturday. I was longing for family or the close friends that we have to live close so that I wouldn't have to worry so much about it. The names of three families came into my mind. Heaven knows that I have a really hard time trusting people when it comes to watching our kids. I reminded Heavenly Father of that(like He needs reminding!...) The same three names were in my mind. I mustered up all of my courage and called a family. I have talked to this lady twice. I honestly didn't know if she would even remember who I was. I told her the whole thing, she asked what time the surgery was. I told her 7, so we would have to drop the other two off at 6:40. That's so early! She told me that was fine, she would be awake anyway because she was going to the gym. Bless her! For being willing to watch our kids when she doesn't even know us and for working out on a Saturday morning! There are limits to my working out and doing it on a Saturday morning is one of them! I am so thankful for ward families and that no matter where you go, there are people in your ward that are willing and able to help even if they don't know you!

He really didn't like the "party hat" that they had given him to wear. It didn't help that he hadn't been able to eat breakfast, have medicine or sleep. He was less than excited to be there. I asked him if he could at least try to be a little happy for the picture. Even a little half smile, he shook his head and stared straight ahead.

M.J was the CRNA on call. When she walked into the room and saw B she smiled and said in her very southern accent, "Well I didn't know it was your kid! They should have told me. Go change into scrubs and you can come back with us until he's asleep, then we'll kick you out so the Dr can do his thing. Would that be ok with you Tyler?" She kept calling him Tyler, he would just look at me, shake his head and smile. As soon as K knew that they were going to let B go with him AND he didn't have to wear his "party hat" he was able to smile a little.

B took a picture of him while he was asleep. I think it's awesome that they let him go back. He said that K did great, that he hadn't cried or anything. I think that was because B was with him.

I'm pretty sure that surgery should be deemed as false advertising. He thought that once he had the surgery, his arm wouldn't hurt any more. So when he woke up and his arm still hurt, he was not happy. I felt so bad for him. They gave him a lot of morphine. I don't know how much but B says that it was a lot for a Little kid. Thankfully the surgeon didn't have to cut K open, he just popped the bones back into place. Just thinking about how awful that must sound and how painful that must be gives me full body chills and makes me a little lightheaded.

He is supposed to sleep with his arm elevated to help with swelling. We thought that using a boppy would help because he could lay in the opening and have his arm up. This is usually what I find when I go check on him at night. Needless to say it took a couple days longer for the swelling to go down because he didn't use the boppy for his arm.

He loves his blue cast! It took 4-5 days for him to stop saying that his arm hurt and not wanting medicine every six hours. Maybe it was the blue cast that helped. The hospital didn't have colors, so he had a white cast until his follow up appointment. Blue anything makes this kid happy. Of course it was his right had, so now he gets to write with his left hand, which is interesting to say the least. Of course it happened three days before we were out of the 30 day waiting period for our insurance to kick in, but we are so thankful that he was able to be asleep while his bones were popped back into place and that a week later he is his happy self even though he milks his cast and acts like he is a cripple.

I'm a big kid now!

How come it is that when one is pregnant, six months seems to take so long in coming, but once the young one is out, it goes by so fast? Yes ladies and gentlemen you read correctly, this little man is six months old. Clearly he's able to sit although, since he inherited my laziness, he prefers to lay down. He has two teeth and loves food. All food. He has pulled himself forward two different times while laying on his tummy. But, once again laziness takes over and he'll only do it once in awhile. The toy he is holding is his favorite. He loves to go to sleep and will give you a huge smile when you go in to get him. We love him and are so thankful that he's part of our family.

Home sweet home

It has been brought to my attention that some of the good folk that look at this here blog would like to see what our humble abode looks like. So, come on in!

This was taken standing at our front door. Just to clear up any confusion, we don't worship BYU football, it just means a whole lot to a member of our family who shall remain nameless for his own protection. :)

                                               

This here is what we like to use as a second hallway. It's just to the left of the stairs. I imagine that it's actual use is a formal dining room. But as we all know we may be the least formal people on the planet! Not to mention the light hangs low enough that M can reach her hand in the bottom bowl part if she's on her tip toes. I know that it looks like it is hanging at a normal height, but let me assure you my dear friends, that is not the case. Now you might be saying, just raise it! But, we are not electricians around these parts! We don't have any idea how to  do that. We, and when I say we I totally mean B, tried to bend the chain link things with pliers, but that proved fruitless, so there it hangs at it's death diffing height of just over four feet. That's not even high enough to put a table under. The light would hang into the food. We don't even need to mention the white carpet. Three kids eating with white carpet below them does not sound great!

 

  If you were to go to the right when you walked into our house you would come face to face with the living room. It's pretty awesome because it has two steps that go down into it. We are real excited to use the fireplace! The only bummer so far with the fireplace is that the vent thing is like a metal box with a screen. That would be fine, but the screen has really big holes. Like big enough that one could stick their finger in it. So, bugs and nasty spiders use the vent as a pet door and crawl through it, into the fireplace and into our living room. Since the vent is located outside, we get all kinds of crawly things in here. Last night there was a cricket that had made the brave trek in from the vent. I got the spider spray and as I tried to spray it, it started jumping! I had to do some serious high knees really fast so that it didn't get me! I was laughing and grossed out at the same time! I just pictured this cricket landing on me and then having me and the cricket freak out as we were trying to free ourselves from this foreign body that was on us! Just thinking about it being on me gives me full body chills!

 

If you look to the left whilst standing in front of the living room, you would see the kitchen. You can also access the kitchen through the formal dining room. It's kind of exciting because every time you come to the bottom of the stairs and need to go into the kitchen; deciding how to get there is like one of those alternate ending books! You get to pick which way you want to go! Anyway this is the kitchen with an unusually high counter. I can't really see over it if I'm standing at the sink. I can see the floor of the toy room, but only about half way into it. Why does there need to be such a high counter? Both M and K can swing from it. not that they should, but they do it anyway. 

This room is a total mystery to me. I have no idea why it's in the house. This is the room across from the kitchen. We don't really go into it except to get books from the bookshelf. But, we don't stay in there to read. Things that make ya go hmm!

If one was to stand at the sink in the kitchen, this is the room you look at. We use it as the computer/toy room. This is why the other room is a mystery to me. Why do you need three living room type rooms? Oh that's right, you don't. If you walked through this room and turned to the right, you could go down the two steps into our living room. That folks is the grand tour! We really like it. We like that it's not connected to another human dwelling. We really really like that all the bedrooms are upstairs and that the kiddos have their own bedrooms. The downsides? The white carpet which we totally totally hate, and the white tile which we also totally hate. But, oh well. When we build our mansion in heaven we'll know not to have white anything and there won't be three living rooms or a fireplace with a vent big enough that crawly things can come in.

Some things are worth the price

There are some things that are well worth their price. Let me name just a few that I am not willing to budge on. Running shoes. You can't go and get any brand of running shoe. There are brands that shouldn't even make running shoes. Like, Nike, Reebok and Adidas. I am sure that these companies make wonderful products, just not running shoes. Item number two, chocolate. I use to really like Hershey's. Then I met Lindt and Hershey's no longer stood a chance. Let's not leave out Cadbury eggs. There's no substitution for these heavenly inspired treats. We can't forget Glide floss. I know that it's over $3 a box, but it is indeed worth every penny. The way it glides in between my teeth makes me almost gitty! I know that you can get floss for a lot cheaper, but we are floss nazis around here. We start flossing our children's teeth as soon as the cute little teeth are in their mouths. No, that's not an exaggeration. So, we need really good floss. Glide is the only way to go. Rounding out our list is Harper's Homemade bread. I have only been able to find this wonderful bread in Utah and Idaho. Leave it to the Mormon's to know how to make bread. B says that Grandma Sycamore's is better, but I do not concur. If you can't have homemade bread from your own oven, Harper's Homemade is truly the only way to go. They have bran bread that I imagine the angels help make. Yes, it's that good.
Now, at the risk of sounding like a total snot, let me mention some things I don't mind finding for a lower price. Children's clothing. I love finding a good second hand children's clothing store. The one in Florida, what's it called? One Special Child or something like that, I didn't totally love. I felt like their prices were too high for used clothing. I have found one here that I totally love! We found pants for the baby for a dollar! They had bags of toys for $2.50. Bags of toys! Not just one or two toys, but bags of them! I love getting used toys because then when the offspring decide they don't like the toy that they had been begging for for months, I don't care if they don't play with it. I love a good clearance rack. Target has awesome clearance. When I see their red signs that say clearance, I have to go look. It's almost like an addiction and I should probably get some professional help. Toothbrushes. I love going to the dollar store and getting a pack of five toothbrushes for a dollar. I haven't had a cavity since seventh grade so I'm guessing the the name on the end of the toothbrush doesn't really matter. The dollar store in and of itself is pretty awesome! You can get children's fluoride rinse there. That's a steal because at Target it's like three or four bucks for the same thing. There is one more thing that I don't mind buying used or at a discounted rate. I didn't say cheap here, just used or on sale, and that would be a car. Now I know that we got our car in March. But when we were in Utah my sister asked why I hadn't done a post about our car. I told her that I felt weird. What was I suppose to do? Put a picture of it on here and say,"Look at our awesome, amazing car we just got that we love so much that sometimes we just open the garage door and stare at it."? She told me yes, so here's a picture of our car that we love and sometimes we open the garage door just to stare at it. No, I'm not making that up, we really do. When you upgrade from a clown car that burns oil, shakes violently at high speeds, has windows that don't close all the way, two blinkers that don't work and an A.C that blows hot air, anything would be amazing. But this car takes the cake.

Isn't she lovely?! Just looking at these pictures almost has me shedding tears of joy. Tears. Of. Joy! I am a snot in the matter of transportation. I absolutely refuse to drive a mini van. I know that they get better gas mileage. I know that they have more trunk space and are great for families. Blah blah blah. I know, but I LOVE our Acadia. We know that there's no trunk. Truly there's not a whole lot of space back there. When we go to the grocery store we usually have to put the back seat down to fit the bags, and we don't buy a whole ton of food. We also know that the gas mileage isn't that of a mini van. But oh what joy feels our hearts when we load the kids in and go for a ride. When I drove from Florida to here, the ride was so wonderful! There was no violent shaking. The windows went all the way up. The children were not sitting on top of each other. They were able to plug in their headphones and watch a movie and I didn't have to listen to it. We (my parents and B's mom rode with me and two of the three children while B drove the moving van with K) could have a conversation and didn't have to shout over the sound of the road. The A.C blew cold air and guess what? When we came to a stop sign and flipped the blinker, it came on! It even made the little clicky sound that blinkers make.

I truly love it so much that when B is driving I hope and pray that we can go in front of a building that has a lot of windows so I can see our reflection and say,"sweet ride!" B took this to Virginia when he went to the football game a couple of weeks ago. So we got to drive our white car for a couple days. Everytime we got in it both M and K would say," I hate this car! I am so squished in here! Holy cow it's so hot in here!" All of these comments made us even more happy that we have a bigger car and that it isn't a mini van!