Happy Smothered Day!

Oh the joy of Mothers Day. This morning I woke up and had to deal with screaming, fighting, crazy children. While trying to get everyone fed and clothed for church my whole house was torn apart by the tiny tornado. I had one of those mornings that make me seriously question my sanity and why I ever thought being a Mother was something I could do. Then I went to church... and when I walked into the Chapel and heard all the other screaming, fighting, crazy children I felt infinitely better. Everyone appeared to be having the same day that I was having. Happy Mother’s Day! Or at my house today, I am having a Happy Smothered Day!

Our Crazy Life

Saturday, November 27th, our sweet little KayBree decided to be baptized. My niece, Marlee, made this cute little invitation for KayBree's special Day!

The baptism was amazing. I let KayBree plan the whole program which made it even more special. She picked her two favorite songs; Baptism and I know my Savior Loves Me. I thought they fit perfectly! She asked her Aunt April to give a talk on Baptism and her Uncle Harley to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. They both did an amazing job at directing the talk to KayBree and making an impression on her about the decision she was making. Josh baptized her and did an awesome job! Then my brother Aaron confirmed her and gave her one of the most wonderful blessing I have ever heard!

All of us after the Baptism. We all look silly but KayBree looks pretty and that is all that matters right? After the baptism we decided to just go out to dinner. KayBree chose Ruby Tuesday, her favorite restaurant!

She got a new scripture purse, scriptures, hymn book, childerns song book, little notebooks, scripture stickers, scripture marking crayons, a CTR necklace and CTR ring. I don't think she has put down the purse with all of her new goodies in it since she got them!

Thank you to everyone who came and supported her on her special day!

We got our Family pictures taken by my friend, Cordie, in July. I love them!

KayBree has had a fun year so far in second grade. She loves her teacher Mrs. Lewis. She has found a joy in reading. She is determined to read the 1st book of The Diary of a Wimpy kid seven times. I think she is on her fourth or fifth time. She loves helping me out with Kaia. She is such a good big sister I don't know what I would do without her. If I ever have a migraine or I'm just not feeling well she will take Kaia and let me take a nap. She turned eight in November and it has been the most stressful month ever! I wanted to make her eighth birthday perfect, so basically it turned out to be a birthday month. Every weekend we had something to do. I even threw her a friend birthday which is WAY out of my comfort zone but it turned out to be perfect.

Daimen started the summer off by breaking his arm. We have a nasty little girl named Angel that lives by our park and she decided that she didn't want Daimen to be at the top of the slide so she pushed him off the side. He landed on his arm, went limp, and passed out. He never cries long after he gets hurt so after a half an hour of crying and holding his arm weird we decided to take him into the ER. Of course when we got there he stopped crying so we didn't think it was broken but they took an X-Ray and sure enough it was. They casted him in the ER and about a week later he could take his cast of by sliding his arm out so we went and got another one put on but this time it was a waterproof which was much needed since it was the summer.
He started Kindergarten in the Fall and loves his teacher Mrs. Larsen. She is the most amazing kindergarten teacher and I would suggest her to EVERYONE! He is doing an awesome job with his school work especially his math, which he didn't get from me. We are so proud of him!

Little Kaia Bean is a crazy, crazy baby. She loves to make big big messes all throughout the house. I'm pretty sure she has a daily schedule of mayhem; tear all of her folded clothes out of the drawers, go to the bathroom dump out all bath toys, hair clippies, and bows and if the toilet is open throw everything she can into it, then off to the pantry closet where she pulls out all of the cans and boxes of food she can reach, then to her diapers and wipes pulling every wipe out of the wipe case and throwing the diapers in every direction, then to the kids pencils, markers, and crayons dumping them all of the floor, then to the kitchen cabinets... the list goes on and on. She is a tornado! We love her little spunk and sass though. I honestly cant keep up with the messes so I enlist the help of KayBree and Daimen. Daimen always says, "Mom, it is really hard work to have a baby!" Yes it is Bud. Maybe this will help him remember how hard babies are to take care of when he starts liking girls too much... haha.
She is 15 months old. She talks so much and it's nice to be able to communicate with her. She figured out that if she says please she can get people to give her anything she wants. She loves chocolate, cheese, and Dora the explorer. She loves her "kids" and is so sad when they leave to go to school. She is a sweetheart and makes everyday a better day for all of us.


Josh is still going to school. He is finally done with regular classes and is now in the Secondary education program which gives him an opportunity to spend time in the classroom. This semester he was put into the sixth grade with Mrs. Schow in the Willow Valley Middle School. He absolutely loves working with the middle school kids which surprised both of us because we were set on him teaching high school. Mrs. Schow asked him if he would give a full lesson to her students. All she told him was that the unit they were on was the Greeks. He forgot until the night before he had to give the lesson. He stayed up until after four putting together a lesson on the Greek Gods. I was so stressed out for him but of course he did amazing and his one day lesson turned into a week lesson. Mrs. Schow loved the lesson plan so much she asked if he would give her his power point and other handouts he had made so she could use them from now on. He was made to be a teacher, kids are just drawn to him. Next semester he has to work with High School students. He will do great I'm sure. He wants to do his student teaching next fall with Mrs. Schow and she said she would love to have him back! I am so excited for him. He comes back from class just grinning from ear to ear because he is FINALLY doing what he loves. I am so proud of him!

As for me... I am doing the same old stuff. We are expecting our fourth baby and second boy in April. Daimen and Josh are excited to have our family even so the girls are not winning anymore. I have been having some health problems lately due to the pregnancy, but hopefully things are looking up.

Constant Sickness Is How We Do It!

Wow... I suck at keeping up with this blogging thing. I don't even know why, seriously it's not that hard, it's just that when I'm on the computer now a days I would much rather be on Facebook (I know I'm lame.) I don't even look at other people blogs anymore, and wont feel bad if everyone has given up on mine.

Well on to the story of my life these last couple of months...

I HATE LOGAN! Okay I don't really know if it is Logan or if it my apartment or if we are just going to be this way forever but my family has been sick ALL FREAKING YEAR! Seriously I'm not kidding here. There has been so many problems I don't even know where to begin... so I'll do it bullet style in no real order and I'll probably leave a bunch of things out but you'll get the idea at least.

* KayBrees throat closed completely and she had to have emergency surgery to get her tonsils and adenoids out.

* Daimen picked up the Rotavirus somewhere, lost close to 15 pounds, and looked like a starving child from Ethiopia.

* Kaia had something that resembled RSV but they could figure out what it was (a recurring trend).

* I got some nasty nasty sinus infections, and would have been happy if my throbbing head would have just exploded.

* We went through about 400 bottles of children Tylenol and Motrin just trying to stop the fevers that our kids would magically get for weeks at a time.

* Speaking of fever... Kaia got one that lasted two and a half weeks and yet again they didn't know what had caused it.

* Daimen is always sick... if you see him on the play ground and he's hacking up a lung just know that he isn't contagious. If he get allergies or a little runny nose he's down and out with his asthma.

* I got some seriously awesome strep throat! It was my first experience... and it was RAD! Don't worry though I went to the gym everyday and worked right through it. :)

* Poor little Kaia Bean has been so sick lately (lately means for the last two months) with some 'unknown' sickness. She has been throwing up everything that she ate or drank, kinda like Daimen's Rota Virus, but it has lasted freakin 2 months! She lost a pound which for her his half her dang body mass. Anyway long story short, we had to spend a couple of days in the hospital this week giving her an IV and doing some ultrasounds of her tummy that showed she has a virus that is attacking her intestines which stopped everything from her tummy to her bowels from working at all... she was in a lot of pain. It's so sad! She isn't better, the doctors don't know how she got it but they are pretty certain that she will be readmitted into the hospital. SO for now we can only feed her one ounce of formula and 3 ounces of Pedialyte... she is STARVING! I hope that her body can fight this off. I hate to see her so hungry all the time. Oh and on top off all that she has one awesome ear infection and because she has been on 4 rounds of antibiotics she has the sorest little bum I have ever seen, she cant even sit on it.

After trying to get the IV in 5 times they called down to the NICU and asked if one of their nurses could do it. She did, the first try. Poor Kaia was just so sad, after they got it in I was able to hold her. The first thing she did was put a death grip to my shirt and then fell right asleep.

They had to tape her whole arm up to her elbow on this little board so that she couldn't bend it. She also tried to bite the IV and rip it out of her own hand but after they taped it she couldn't so she just gave up.

Her taped up IV hand. She got pretty good at only using her left hand to grab things and to play with her toys.

Feeling pretty good now that they took off all the millions of wires attached to her tummy and feet. She was at least able to crawl around on the bed and play for a little while without strangling herself. Keeping her on a hospital bed for almost 48 hours was probably the worst part. She wanted to get down and play so bad so she just cried and cried.

But then we figured out we could play peek-a-boo through the hole in the side of the bed. She thought that was pretty cool and it got us through a couple of hours!
KayBree was pretty sad when Kaia wasn't home and almost cried when she first saw her. Kaia was pretty happy to see the kids too. Coming home was so nice for me and even for Kaia, she just wanted to get down and crawl around and play with her toys.

Here's hoping we stay at home for a while and not have anymore hospital stays.

P.S. Kaia Bean is 9 Months Old TODAY!!!!

Half-Birthdays and Such...

It's been such a long time since I updated the blog and to say that a lot has happened would be a gross understatement... So I will give you a somewhat short recap of the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010.

First off... Batman and Master Chief came to my house to play with playdough.

Second... KayBree turned Seven in November so we had to throw her a last minute fairy princess party where they even made and decorated their own fairy wings.

Third... Daimen dyed his hair black... okay so I did, but he asked me to. I thought he looked pretty dang cute too.

Fourth... Daimen is a little Ninja two days a week. Do you see that look? He means business, and yes his hair is dyed once again only this time it is red/orange like his best friend Will.

Fifth... We had a family birthday party for KayBree at the Treehouse museum in Ogden. It was a hit even with the adults and children too old or too cool to dress up.

KayBree tracing a dinosaur with Grandpa.

Daimen looking dang cute with his black hair trying to pull out the sword in the stone.

We had an awesome rodeo cowboy....

And some milking lessons from Grandpa, he was not satisfied unless they had the proper milking technique.

Another little handsome cowboy...

Sixth... Being silly with mom, trying to get a picture with all three kiddos by yourself is a challenge.

Seventh... There was a lot of sleeping and cuddling with our little Wild Thing baby...

Eighth... Some bonding time with Dad playing the Xbox 360.

Ninth... Watching some scary movies as a family. Tinfoil hats so the aliens couldn't read their thoughts... or eat their brains like soup.

Tenth.... There was a happy half-birthday to be celebrated, complete with tiny half-birthday cake which was devoured immediately.

The Doctor told me I could give her pretty much anything to fatten her up... I think this will do the trick.

She couldn't seem to get the amount desired in her mouth but she sure tried her hardest.

Happy Half-Birthday little Kaia Bean.

You are much loved and your cheeks are never in want of kisses. You brighten the day of everyone who sees your silly little toothless smile and hears your high pitched raptor scream. You are our sunshine, little Bean. We love you!

Snowtime Fun & Pretty Dresses

My sister bought this red dress for KayBree when she was born. It's Premie and Kaia is 4 months old in this picture... sad.

Dimples

What's cuter than this? Probably nothing. I know, I know, I am biased but seriously people, look at those dimples!!!

Doesn't she just make you happy! This is how she wakes up every morning. If you want to start the day out right come on over to my house in the morning and let my baby warm your heart with her toothless grin and cutest dimples! I love this girl!

Her BEAUTIFUL blessing dress was made by my mother... No not just by following a pattern, she made it up! I know she is amazing!

Blessing

We're Blessing Kaia this Sunday at eleven o'clock!

Singing and Smiling

While KayBree was at school today Kaia and I decided to play with Daimen in his room. Kaia loves her Brother even when he gets right in her face. I got a good video of Kaia smiling at Daimen after he kissed her.

And here is one of her singing her beautiful songs!

ENJOY!

Smiles

My sister, Aletha, took this picture of Kaia on her Blackberry. We finally caught her smiling! She is such a happy baby and smiles, giggles, and talks to everyone. We love this princess!

The Road to Retirement

So the world as I have ALWAYS known it is changing. My Dad, the work-a-holic, decided to retire. All my life he has worked, and no, not just the 9 to 5 kind of job but the, wake up at 4 get home no earlier then 10, kind of jobs. And when I say jobs I mean plural. He worked for Social Services and Prevention Counseling. He ran all the different AA type Meetings, he was a College Professor for UVSC. He had a farm where he fed cows and horses so they didn't escape, and when they did he would fix the fence so they wouldn't escape again, but they always found a way. He cut, baled, and hauled hay and had to move miles and miles of sprinkler pipe by hand. He was seriously never home, but now he will be. I'm not going to lie, I am a little worried as to how he will adjust with his new found free time. He has never been the kind of man to sit still. He was always going, he taught each of us kids the meaning of hard work and the rewards of a job done 110%. He is my HERO! Love ya Dad!

Me and Mom at his Retirement party in Heber.

Daimen decided to use my sister, Amy's crutches and stilts.

Baby Kaia is 6 weeks old. She now weighs 8 pounds 5 ounces. She is getting so BIG! Look at her double chin!!!

I Love this BABY!

KayBree loves that she can carry her around all by herself. She is such a great big sister!

Kaia loves her big Sissy!

BIG YAWNS!!!