Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been extremely busy since my last post and since I am having issues with our sd.card I don't have photo to post from Christmas yet. So I thought I would just give a brief summary.

Christmas Eve: we went to my sisters house and had a fun night helping a family in need who had lost their mother that year. The children in that family have children my kids age so it was good for them. Did a Chinese gift exchange for the kids and it was great. I think even the missionaries had fun.

Christmas Day: we opened up presents and made fun pancakes for breakfast. Overall it was a good Christmas. That afternoon we went to G-ma/G-pa Van's for Lunch with the family and do something we have never done before. NO presents. Of course there we present for the grand kids but nothing for the adults it was kinda nice to not have to worry about it. We did however have a Chinese gift exchange with stuff from your house that you didn't want. It was well played by all. We gave shampoo stuff and there were fights for that and a movie and cd. It was fun.

New Years Eve: Ben was working and the boys were at g-mas so it was just the girls at home we were kinda boring. Daisy fell asleep before 10 and Lilly was out by 10:30. I was up after midnight but nothing special just watched a movie. The boys stayed up late w/ g-ma and aunt Jen blew horn, shot off confetti and shot silly string. They even had sparkling grape juice. Essential for those who don't drink.

January is usual a slow time for most people but at our house it is just as busy as December because we have two birthdays. Ben's is on the 19th and Tim's is on the 24th. I have been busy planning Tim's party and trying to get stuff ready for that and still do stuff for Ben all the while holding a chunky baby on one hip. I must be crazy but this year I am going to make Tim's b-day cake. Mind you this is no easy feat. He wants a bak.ugan cake and since no one has anything bak.ugan I am having to do everything all on my own. All those years of cake decorating are beginning to pay off. Well sorta! =) We will see next week if his cake turns out.

Lilly has started to teeth and has probably gain 50lbs! Not really on the weight but man is she heavy. If I had to guess she is about 2olbs or more. Like I said earlier she is chunky!!! We take her later this week for her 4 mo appt. (I know, I know its late) so we will see then just how chunky she really is.

Daisy is having a hard time lately. All she wants to do is watch tv. She doesn't want to do anything we ask her to do. She has been doing a lot of screaming and tantrums. However, on the other side she loves to make Lilly laugh. She does whatever she can to make her laugh. She will even fall down. Most Lilly laughs when she sees Daisy hair flying around but sometimes she will laugh just because Daisy is laughing.

The boys are back in school and spent all of their break at g-ma/g-pas house with aunt Jen. They worked on scout stuff and of course played lots of video games. It has been kinda hard to get them back in the swing of things but they are getting there.

The Magic Tree

We had our Ward Christmas Party last Saturday and afterwords we decided to drive around and look at all the christmas lights. There were lots of pretty houses. We went to one neighborhood that had a tree completely covered in lights. It is so amazing. It is called the magic tree. I didn't get out and look at the info on it and what it meant but it looks beautiful.

UPDATE: So we drove back by to pick up a flyer and this is what it said. There are over 75,000 lights on the tree. Thats right 75,000. He started in 1995 with just 3,000 and each year added more and more. He has a website you can look at too. Click here to go to his link.

Funny baby

So this is not the greatest quality because we took this with our point and shoot camera but it is to cute not to put up for all to see. Hope you enjoy!

I've tried several times to upload this to blogger but it won't so click on the LINK to watch Lilly laugh.

This is after a couple of minutes doing this so she got a little tired.

Just another day

With it being almost Christmas I'm surprised that I am publishing a post like this. This year I have all my shopping done early. That never happens. I even have stuff for family in Utah ready. Again that never happens. I would post what it is but I know that mom and Cassie check this often and I don't want to ruin it. I really am excited about it because it will be well received by them.

We got the tree up the weekend after thanksgiving and haven't look back since. I didn't think that Daisy would be to much of a problem with the tree this year since she is almost 4 but she can't seem to leave it alone. I guess the last couple of years we have had a small tree that sat on a table so she couldn't reach it but I didn't realize it was that fascinating. So needless to say I have threatened to take it down almost every day since we put it up. She is getting better. Thankfully Lilly is to little to even know what it is this year.

We went to Ben's Holiday Party for work last Saturday. It is always fun to go to. They have lots of really good food and an open bar. (Sorry mom no drinks for you or us) This year was really different considering he actually works there now and not just a student. We sat with people that he works directly with and got to know each other a little better. A couple of people got pretty loopy but Ben and I think its funny.

Hopefully this year we will be able to do all the Christmas stuff that I always want to do but never have time to do. I always have good intentions but never enough time. Which is weird since I have a newborn and have been in the hospital. I guess it has slowed me down.

Thanksgiving

So it wouldn't be thanksgiving without giving thanks so here goes.

I am thankful for.....

1. Jesus Christ, who has made everything possible for me.

2. my wonderful husband who stands by my side in all that I do. Who understands my troubles and doesn't complain. Who loves me unconditionally. Who gives me the will to continue on. Who loves our children so much that he sacrifices his sleep to spend time with them. Who is so special that Heavenly Father saved him twice so we could be a family. Who provides enough for our family that I can stay at home and take care of our little ones. Who never complains.

3. my family. I love my children. I am grateful that we have a newborn ( I love babies). I am grateful that I have wonderful kids who don't give us to much grief.

4. my extended family. Those who are close and those who are far away. We love all of you.

5. for the friends that we have. Friends who care so much about us that they help when we call. Friends who call when we don't and those who always think of us.

6. for the ability to have a home that not only keeps us warm but has enough space that we are not walking on top of each other. That looks pretty, and gives us a sense of security. For all the things that we have in our home to fill it up.

Last but not least I am grateful that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. For the knowledge I have in a Savior who loves me and guides me. For the knowledge that my family is not only a family here on earth but for all eternity. For the knowledge that one day all my questions will be answered and the when I have questions now all I have to do is pray.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day. Remember be THANKFUL!

Another hospital stay

So I must say that I have had my fair share of hospital stays this year. I told Ben that I was done. No more. If you know me at all I don't like hospitals to begin with but it is a necessary evil when having a baby and then when you have an emergency situation like I had last week.

I had to have my gallbladder out last week. It was horrible. It was worse than giving birth. I have had 4 natural child births and never been in that much pain. This all started a couple of weeks ago when I thought I was just getting the colds that had been going around. Kinda sick to my stomach every other day and then it just got worse. On Monday the 10th I thought I had the full blown stomach flu. My back hurt so bad that when I walked it had to hunch over. When I was laying down I couldn't get comfortable. My stomach just kept doing loop to loops and I'm pretty sure I had a fever. Then Tuesday Janah came in to get Daisy to do Christmas stuff and said "holy cow, you needed to go to the doctor". Of course I just said I think I have the flu and thankfully she kept on me and dragged me out the door or things could have been worse. She drove me to the doctor and during the long hour wait to see him I was in so much pain. The doctor proceeded to poke around on my stomach to make sure it wasn't my appendix and then he did the most horrible thing he could have.... he poked on the area where my gallbladder once was. I shrieked out.

Now this man has seen me since I was a teenager and has seen my at my sickest and I have never been like that. His eyes got big as baseballs and proceeded to tell Janah to get me to the ER NOW. Meanwhile we have Daisy and Lilly and my brother Kellys daughter Rachel. This is a full plate with just Daisy and Lilly but then you throw Rachel in and things get really hard. So Janah is freaking out cause she doesn't know what is going on w/ me and then dealing with 3 kids under4.

So they take be back and start doing labs and test to be for sure it was my gallbladder. They did the most painful ultra sound that I have ever had and sure enough that's what it was. My white count was up to 20,000 (double what normal is) so they couldn't do the surgery till I was more stable. They thankfully gave me Demerol to help with the pain which was great in the beginning but as the night went on it wasn't even touching the pain. I'm sure this is why I have never had anything during child birth because it wouldn't work long enough to do me any good. The people in my family metabolize pain killers/anaesthesia anything that should help you really fast. When Tim broken his arm a couple of years ago they had to give him an adult amount of anaesthesia during his reduction because he kept waking up so I'm sure that is what was happening to me.

Anyway, by 12:30 at night my temperature had spike to 103. I was in so much pain that I couldn't sleep. I couldn't go to the bathroom without 2 people helping me and even then I just wanted to die. We had been told that they wouldn't be able to get in for the surgery until the afternoon on Wed so I wasn't expecting them to come get me at 9:30. I was so grateful that they did that. I was still extremely scared so I had a friend of ours who is a nurse anaesthetise come talk to me. I had asked if he could be my nurse so I felt like there was someone who cared about me who would take care of me if something happened but they wouldn't let them switch out that fast. If I had said something earlier I could have had him in there but after I thought about it later that day I was glad that he wasn't in there because he probably would have had to see me naked and I don't know that I could have looked at him after that. So it worked out for the best.

What should have taken 30/45 minutes ended up taking 2 hours. They had to dig alot of stones out and had to deal with really swollen, infected tissue. I was in recovery for quite a long time from what Ben tells me, I was gone for like 4 hours total. I can't imagine what Ben was going though during that time. I would have been freaking out. If they had told me they would only be gone for a couple of hours and then be gone double that I would be so upset.

When they brought me back I was still in a lot of pain. They had to give me morphine for the pain. The only problem with that was that it made me see people. I had Ben come in Thursday night before work to give me a blessing and I was a little loopy to say the least. I kept seeing other people besides Ben and Matt. I'm sure that Matt will tease me the rest of my life cause he's like a brother to me and won't let me live that down. We thought that they were going to have to go back in and make sure that I didn't have something wrong because I was still in so much pain. Come to find out it was just the drain they have in me. As soon as they took that out things got much better. I went home on Friday so I spent 4 days in the hospital. Most defiantly the longest I have spent in a hospital in my life.

Needless to say, all is well now. Still in some pain but nothing that advil can't help. I had to have Janah stay with me for a week to help with the kids cause I couldn't lift Lilly. And as you know newborns need to be held a lot. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would to recover but Janah kept telling me I was doing amazing compared to other people who had really bad gallbladder surgery. The surgeon said it wasn't the worst he had seen but almost. So I guess I should be thankful.

I am very thankful for all the people who said prayers, sent in food, took Ben to work, offered to help with the kids, and so on. Thank you all for the love and support you gave to us in our time of need.

Ward Halloween Party

Last Saturday was our Ward Halloween Party. We usually do a chili cook off but this year we just brought in chili and soup and all kinds of deserts. It was still good. Lots of fun foods.

Tim won a prize this year for his costume.








Here is Jesse and Amelia. She was a duck!!! Daisy always walks with Jen. In our ward we do a parade to show off the costumes.







These are our friends the Schawlbs. They are an awesome family.











Zach of course was an ipod and Tim was a rubik's cube. Zach's headphones plugged into himself. He liked this until the younger kids like 8 and under started to try and play him. He got really mad at them.










Here is Daisy in the Parade. She was Hannah.Montanta.












I usually decorate a room for the party but this year I didn't really feel like I had time for it. But when the sign up sheet went around there was only 5 families on there to decorate, so I decided I would make the time.

This year was very small scale compared to previous years but nevertheless at least there was a decorated room.

The pumpkins light up and laugh a scary laugh when you walk in front of them. The cauldron has a strobe light in it. And all the webs have spiders in them. Plus I had a bunch of snakes in there since I went as Medusa a couple of years ago.

Corn Maze

The 5th Graders sponsored a trip to the corn maze about 20 minutes from our house.

Funny enough the corn maze is done by some people that I went to school with. Who would have know that 15 years later that my kids would be going to something a bunch of kids I went to school with made. It is pretty neat.

This years theme was the White House, because of the elections. It looks pretty cool. You can go to this link to see an aerial view of the maze.



Ben and Zach went without the little kids. Zach was really excited because we let him take his friend Joe. They had lots of fun.

There were lots of kids from their class (which I was surprised because there wasn't a lot of time between when people get off work and when we were supposed to be there). Needless to say fun was had by all!

Daisy Nursing

One day last week we were ready to put the kids in bed, when we went to find Daisy to get her dressed, and walked in the playroom to find her breastfeeding her baby doll. I asked what she was doing and her reply was.... "nursing". Imagine her saying this while shaking her head and lots of attitude. Even with all the tude it was still very cute.

It never ceases to amaze me just what our kids pick up from us at this age. Something so simple as feeding your baby makes such a big impression on your older children that they mimmick it in their play. Daisy will be a great mommy when she grows up.

I hope I am laying the ground work for the boys that they will one day be supportive of their wives breastfeeding and that it is not something to be embarrassed about.

Bread making

While Ben's mom was here she taught me her scone recipe. It is great for all kinds of stuff so this day we were having the missionaries over for dinner so I decided to make cinnamon rolls for dessert. So I thought I needed to make a double batch so they could have some to take home and so we could have some for a couple of days. Well, we got more than that. I had about 3 dozen cinnamon rolls and a loaf of bread. We had so many that we decided to give some to Jesse and the Nevels since they have helped us so much the last couple of weeks.


Adding the flour.


Ben made me look at the camera.


kneading the dough. I had to take it out of the bowl to finish kneading it, there was too much to fit in the bowl once all the flour was in.


Ben making me look at the camera again.


And of course Daisy has to help. She wanted to put her hands in there so bad. I finally had to make her wash her hands so she could help me because she kept sticking her fingers in it.


This was after it had risen for about 20 min. The kids thought that this was the coolest most amazing thing they had ever seen. It kinda looked like a mushroom. It had double almost tripled in size within 20/30 minutes.


You can see all the different size cinnamon rolls here. These are the really big ones. This is a serving tray like to serve someone in bed. This was the only thing I had that would hold more than 4 cinnamon rolls. In all I think I ended up with like 48 cinnamon rolls.


This was the plate we sent home with the missionaries.


You can't really tell in this picture but this too had risen a lot more than I expected. This is the largest loaf of bread I have made so far.