Highs and Lows

Every night at dinner we do something called 'Highs and Lows'. We have done this for years. Basically we start with Addy since she is the youngest and everybody gets a chance to say their 'Low' for the day.. something that didn't go so well or something they didn't like that happened that day. Then, again starting with the youngest, we go through everyone's 'Highs'... something that was awesome that day.  It gets the ball rolling with conversation. Although, with little ones, it's not hard to keep a conversation going. 

This was Hailey's 'High and Low' yesterday.

High:  "That I saw two snakes at Grandma's house!"

Low: "That I didn't get to keep one of the snakes."

Where did she come from? Aren't little girls suppose to be scared of things like that? 

Not Hailey.

Preparation for Conference

The girls started learning a new song in Primary last week and since then, every night before bed, we have been singing it. Within no time, they had the last names of the Prophet and 12 Apostles memorized by looking at their pictures in the Ensign.  This video was captured by their aunt Melissa.  Everyone loves hearing them sing it.

Hopefully now, since they know who they are, they can get excited seeing them speak on tv next week. Fingers crossed for a successful conference with the kiddos. I have some ideas up my sleeve to hopefully help them stay somewhat engaged. 

What are you doing with your kids??

Another Tuff Lil Girl

Yesterday we were hanging out at our neighbor (and good friends) house when all the kids went out the back door to play.  Diana and I were just chatting in the kitchen about amazing Ecuadorian Food she had just made and let me try... mmmm.. so good.... when suddenly, Hailey comes through the door with a purple, no breathing face from crying so hard. For those of you who know Miss Hailey well, know that she RARELY cries. Even when she gets hurt. This time, it was different. She was PRETTY upset.

 Then, I notice the blood coming from her mouth. It wasn't much, but I noticed it. Then, she was able to mutter the words, I bit my tongue. Well, of course I felt bad for her because 'who likes to bite their tongue'? That hurts! But, when looking at it, I noticed that she had bit ALL THE WAY THROUGH her tongue. She was on top a chicken coupe and fell off, biting through her little 5 year old tongue. Poor thing. I would cry hard too.  Diana gave her some crushed ice to eat and in no time she was feeling much better. 

She did wake up this morning saying that it hurt really bad but the good news is, the tongue heals very quickly so she should be back to normal in no time. 

I'm noticing there is a pattern associated with this time of year at our house.  For some reason, when spring comes, the girls are a little more crazy and busy and energetic and usually we have accidents and bad luck that comes along with it.  Here's to hoping for an accident and injury free spring!

Tuff Lil Girl

This past weekend, Nate and I planned to go celebrate our Anniversary by actually going TO a restaurant. When we got back to pick up the girls from my in-laws (thank goodness for them) Hailey and Addy headed out the door when all of a sudden Addy burst into tears and Nate held her tight. He said her finger got smashed. Hailey was pulling the door closed behind her and didn't realize Addy's hand was still in the door.  Addy cried pretty hard and whimpered for the rest of the night till bed.  The next morning, we woke up to find that her poor finger had turned completely purple and black.  I almost took her to insta-care because I really thought it might be broken, but she was able to move it pretty good, so we've just kept an eye on it and it seems to be healing pretty well. She's one tuff little girl because since the day after it happened, she hasn't really complained about it at all. 

The next day, at church, a little boy squeezed her finger, then shoved a chair over on top of her. She was pretty upset, obviously, so she spent the rest of Primary on my lap in my class.  

Of course that has to happen the day after a traumatic experience to her finger. :-(

New Addition

Meet Curly.  

Nate and I have been thinking it's time to get Addy a little friend of her own. She's getting pretty sick of hearing "Addy, he's MY guinea pig" every time she asks to hold Cuddles. We saw this little guy and HAD to adopt him. He's pretty stinkin cute.  Addy affectionately named him Curly since he has really curly hair. It's hard to tell in pictures.  Even his whiskers are curly. Addy takes really good care of him. She gets him out at least 5 times a day to hold him and play with him. She makes sure he has food and water and gives him carrots, his favorite. She loves to get him out to show EVERYONE that comes to our house.  She's quite proud of her new possession. He and Cuddles get along great and now Scratch (our cat) has two guinea pigs to stalk. Good times.

Home Improvement 2012

Nate and I decided that this year we were going to work on some projects at home.  Let me begin by just saying that walking into Lowes or Home Depot for me is like a kid in a candy store. I have often said that if I could have a shopping spree at the store of my choice, it would for sure be one of the two.  I have told Nate several times that I want things like saws and work benches. He thinks I'm crazy and thinks I probably should maybe get a better wardrobe or something instead, but the truth is, I absolutely love building things and fixing things. I love putting things together and figuring out how things work.  

So, the first project of the year for us, was the backsplash in the kitchen. I figured out everything I would need and headed off to the store. Again, a super exciting day.  Since I did most of my shopping while Hailey was in school, Addy was my little sidekick. She was great.  After getting all the materials I needed and borrowing a tile saw from my friend,  I decided to just go for it. The plan was to wait so Nate could help, but I was too excited and jumped on it as soon as I got home.  By the time he got home from work, I had most of the kitchen tiled.  He tried to jump in and help, but I was in the groove of things and he 'didn't want to mess that up' so he left me to my creation and instead, got the girls ready for bed. :-)  Now i've decided that on my list of things I want is a tile saw. I'm kind of addicted and am trying to find other areas in my house to tile. :-)

Here's the before: 

And the after:

The grout was the messiest part by far, but all in all,

 i'm a major fan of my new backsplash. 

Next on my list: a new kitchen faucet, since, as you can see, mine is taped together with duck tape.:-)

Then, Either my bedroom or the backyard. 

Good times.

Sicky sicky

I'm feeling a little behind on my blog lately. There's good reason. We've been a little crazy around here. A couple weeks ago Addy started acting really out of character. She had a cough for about a week and a half when one day she just got so sad.. all day. She would lay there and just start crying. She wanted to be held constantly which isn't abnormal for her, but the constant crying was. Finally, I had enough of playing the mommy guessing game and just called her doctor. It was a Saturday evening so we had to see someone that was on call, not her regular pediatrician.  By the time we got to the doctor, she had fallen asleep in the car, which is also very abnormal of my children.  They had her put on a mask since she had a cough and she just looked awful.  Come to find out from her doctor, she had a double ear infection, an intense sinus infection & major chest cold. They would have classified it as RSV (the chest cold part) if it hadn't been that she was older.  So, needless to say, she was miserable.  While in the doctors office, Addy said to me while laying on Nate's chest, "mom, I can't talk, because then i'll just cry." Her eyes welled up with tears and so did mine. I hate when my kiddos are sick. It's pretty much the worst.

While on the subject of Addy, she took a few steps back yesterday in our journey of Anxiety.  We were at her gymnastics place when she and Hailey went upstairs to use the bathroom before class started. A few minutes later, I hear someone screaming bloody murder from upstairs.  Right then, I hear Hailey yell "mom! Addy's locked in the bathroom!"  I run like crazy up the stairs. Normally, I would be much more calm in this situation. I'm not a very 'jump to' kind of mom when something happens.  In this case, knowing her struggles with anxiety, I rushed pretty fast. Sure enough, she was absolutely beside herself.  Crying so hard that she couldn't hear me yell through the door some instructions.  Luckily, on the outside of the door, there was a groove where the lock was and I was able to grab my keys and twist it in there, opening the door.  My thoughts were..... WHY??!!! These are the kind of things that will make her regress so much in her struggles. And, it has. We went to my inlaws this morning, to which she absolutely loves.  She wouldn't even look at my father in law and just kept grabbing for me to hold her. It's hard to explain, but it just makes me so sad when we were finally at a point where she was doing so well and here we are again, back at the starting gate. We recently had a doctor recommend counseling for her. Not so much for her, since she is so young, but more for us so we know how to better help her progress through this and get it under control so it doesn't become more than it is. We'll see.

WHEW!!!  That's a little catch-up on sweet little Addy. I'm just grateful for doctors and also for medicine. I'm not too Pro Medicine, but when your little one is miserable and nothing else is working, I do have to be grateful for it, that's for sure.  

# 8

Yesterday was an interesting day. To say the least. It started off before Nate left for work, to which he hugged me and said "Happy Anniversary". Knowing it was going to be a crazy day, we looked at each other as if to say "oh well, we'll celebrate at some point, i'm sure".  Pretty sad, huh? We had absolutely NO plans to celebrate our 8th Anniversary.  

My day went like this:

Take Hailey to school. (in Orem/Lindon)

Go to Lowes & Walmart

Take groceries home. 

Drop packages off at UPS

Take garbage to the dump

Run to my in-laws

Pick Hailey back up from school.

Come home and work on a HUGE project I have been progressing through (that's for another post)

(meanwhile, take care of children)

Head off to ice skating lessons the minute Nate got home

This is the point where I got excited.  Nate said to me on the way to ice skating "I made reservations at Tucanos for all of us tonight after skating lessons". I was super excited, I can't even tell you. Then we got a dual cheer from the back of the van from my carnivore children who were extremely excited about the thought of steak for dinner. It was a great dinner. However, I feel a little guilty that I did absolutely NOTHING for him for our anniversary.  This is the first time in 8 years that I failed at celebrating in some way on the day of our anniversary. 

I definitely feel the need to express how blessed I am to be in such a SOLID relationship. Nate and I have been through a lot. I know most people will say that about their relationship, but believe me when I say, we've had to storm many more situations than most in the course of their courship and marriage. That's not to say, fellow friends, readers, that your lives are of lesser importance than mine. I am simply recording for my sake and my childrens sake, how deeply I feel for my great relationship with my husband.  Through the tuff times and the great times, I am here to say that I am the luckiest girl to have such an amazing husband to stand by my side through this crazy life.  I love that he's the last one I see at night and the first one I see in the morning. I love that just when I'm starting to feel like i'm having a crappy day, I get a text from him telling me how much he loves me. I love that I can call him out on his faults and he rolls with it and works harder. I love that he can do the same for me. I love that I can be myself around him more than anyone.  I love that I can go through my hormonal mood swings and he just understands and doesn't get bent out of shape about my latest rant.  I love that he never gets mad. I love that he loves our girls with all that he is. I love that he is so patient. I love that he gets along with everyone.  I love that everyone loves him. I love him. I love that we chose each other. For eternity.

Here's to a hopeful celebration in the near future. 

Happy 8th Nater!

The Lucky One

I'm not talking about the movie that's coming out, though i'm excited to see it. In this case, the Lucky One is referring to me.  So many things have happened in my life in the last month that I cannot even begin to explain how blessed and lucky I feel.  The first thing is that I'm lucky and blessed to have such a great man in my life. Although at times, he can be extremely stubborn and overly confident, he is the best person I could have chosen for me to spend eternity with.  Our ability to communicate and make joint decisions is unbelievable. We have this way of becoming a "team" and getting things done.  We agree on most things. We laugh a lot. We know what each other is thinking most of the time. We talk. A lot.  Recently, we made big decision. In our lives, it was huge.  I'm grateful for our relationship and our ability to love deeply and also agree to disagree. I'm blessed to feel so safe in such a scary world. Nate has given that gift to me. A year and a half ago, I started a gratitude journal. Almost every day, there has been something  I wrote about my amazing husband that i'm grateful for.  

The other thing that I have written about every day is about these two angels.

Little H and I have really been butting heads lately. For the last two weeks she has been trying my every nerve and most days, she's gotten the best of me. She has just been doing some things that are really out of character and aside from the fact that she's 5, i'm trying to pinpoint what is going on with her.  By the time she's in bed I have to take a deep breath and pray that I can get through the next day and thank God for getting me through that one.  It's been a pretty rough road and I've cried a lot.  However, every time I go into their room after they are asleep and shut off lights, I can't help but watch them sleep for a moment and realize how grateful I am to have them in my life.  I am even more grateful that they have each other.  They play so well and they are each others best friend.  I am grateful every day that they have each other. Little Addy has had a few struggles of her own that make me concerned. Of course they are things that I see regularly that probably are not apparent to most.  Lately, she has been really withdrawn. We already know she has some anxiety stuff she's dealing with, but lately she'd rather play by herself in her room than with friends that are over.  The other day Hailey was playing with our neighbor friend who is always their favorite person to play with and Addy just didn't want to be around anyone. She never wants to go to anybody's house. She'd rather just stay home.  I'm sure it's just a faze, but who knows. It may be another chapter in the book of anxiety that we get to handle. I feel for her. My heart aches when she just wants to 'be alone'.  

Aside from these little stumps in the road that are called 'being a mother' I can't help but look at my life, the one that Heavenly Father created for me and the one that Nate provides for me and the one that my girls help me feel alive in, and feel utterly and completely grateful and happy and intensly emotional about.  

Tonight Hailey said to me as she was going to bed, "mom, I love you more than as high as the entire outer space". And that, my friends, is why I love being a mother.

I am the Lucky One.

Daddy/Daughter Fairy Ball

Hailey's preschool, Kids Village, hosts an annual Father/Daughter Ball. This years theme: FAIRIES.  I debated on purchasing tickets because it was quite expensive. At least, I thought it was, but once I found out what all they would be doing, I knew it would be a night to never forget for our little Hailey.  Nate quickly agreed to go as her date and I handed over the cash money!  In the days leading up to her special date with Daddy, she would look at all her dresses, try them on, imagine how she wanted her hair, etc. It was pretty dang cute.

The activities for the night included all but not limited to: face painting, dancing, dinner, art projects, a fairy pledge to become real faries, etc. 

                            

                            

                                             

                            

Nate was kind enough to make sure and get some video for me. :-) He's a superb husband and daddy.

Hailey was so happy with the results of the night. Who wouldn't be, right? It was money well spent.