Playing catch-up!!

So, this is going to be a few posts rolled into one. I haven't had the time to keep up with my blogging lately, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone :)

We got our Christmas tree up and it's huge. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the heater vent was open and so the tree has dried up a bit. Hopefully it will make it until Christmas.

Rob's mom, step dad, and Grandma came out to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving and we had a great time. We ended up going to Temple Square to see the lights, and it's so amazing. I love the Temple grounds even when there aren't thousands of lights.

Madison and Irelyn posing in front of one of the displays.

Rob, Madison, Rob's mom Dianne, her hubby Greg, and Rob's Grandma Nancy. (oh, and Irelyn) haha

I thought this was such a pretty picture.

Rob was able to meet his family to take the girls to the zoo for their first time. I'm so sad that I missed that. I had to work that day and I couldn't get out of it.:( I hope that we can take them back again soon. As you can see Irelyn didn't last very long, she apparently slept through the whole thing.

Can you say Attitude???

Madison fell asleep under the table during Thanksgiving dinner. She was so tired and onery, so we just let her sleep. Pretty freaky how she sleeps with her eyes half open.

Irelyn with her Grandma. She got new boots and she was so excited.

Us eating dinner.

This was @ the Planetarium. Hunter loves it there, so everytime he's in Salt Lake, we end up taking the kids there.

Irelyn and Madi doing what they do best.........fight!!

Irelyn in the 3D movie, this is how she wears her glasses. Any type, it doesn't matter,

they go around her neck. Funny girl.

Hunter and Madison being goofy. We had such a good time that day. The movie was

actually a little creepy, but they kids loved it.

So that's pretty much it as far as what's been going on here. Hopefully it won't take me this long to post pictures after Christmas. :)

Sick babies AGAIN!!!!!

I really feel like my turn is OVER!!! I have had sick babies off and on for the last 5 months. I need a break. Madison has been a really sick little girl the last week or so. I decided on Friday to take her to the Doctor, but had a really hard time trying to decide which one to go to. Since we've moved to Salt Lake, I haven't been able to find a pediatrician that my kids click with. So on Friday I found this clinic not too far from our house and decided to make the appointment since she really couldn't wait any longer. We get to the office and didn't have to wait more than a few minutes, so I'm thinking......nice, they are really on top of things here!!! After dragging her back to the exam room, this man gently knocks on the door and walks in. At first I"m thinking.....Oh how sad this old man is lost, and then when I realize that he's the DOCTOR, I thought, um........is this some kind of joke?? Now I"m sure that at one point in time he was an excellent doctor, but I think it's time for Hawaiian shirts and straw hats.....(if you know what I mean)!!! He just wasn't very personable and Madison did not like him AT ALL. After explaining her symptoms to him he simply said, "Well she tested negative for strep, and it's just a virus that will pass with time." As if I haven't heard this a million times before!!! He proceeds to say that he thinks there could be a possibility it was the swine flu, but since she didn't really have a cough, it wasn't!!! That was it....have a nice freakin' day!!!! Well later that evening she begins with a horrible cough. So I call the next day (saturday) and they basically tell me that it's probably the swine flu but since she's had the symptoms for more than 48hrs, there wasn't anything they could do for us. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday come and go and there is absolutely NO improvement for her, in fact she was getting worse. I was of course afraid that her cough was turning into pneumonia, so I make another appointment today with a different doctor. He walks into the room and he probably spent the first 5 minutes just showing Madison tricks, and drawing pictures for her until he felt like she was comfortable enough to let him examine her. She was completely calm and was actually laughing @ him. He checks her throat, her chest is clear no fluid in her lungs, and then he moves on to her ears. He puts the instrument in her ear and quickly pulls it out, he checks the other ear and the same thing. He then asks me if she has been complaining that her ears hurt because she has a double ear infection that has progressed to the point of gigantic pockets of puss in each ear canal!!!!! I was so pissed off. How could that stupid doctor have missed the fact that she had an ear infection in both ears?????? I know he's old, but seriously!!! I'm almost tempted to call the office and tell them that I refuse to pay for the visit since it was his mistake. I usually won't make a stink about stuff, but this really made me mad. I didn't even take her in because of her ears, and if I wouldn't have taken her in, who knows how bad it could have gotten. You would think the fact that she was running fevers of 103+ for 5 days would raise some red flags.!!!! Wow, I really just needed to vent! On a more positive note, they've got her on some antibiotics and hopefully she'll start getting better:)

My amateur photo session:)

We took the kids to Liberty Park and I thought it would be fun to take

some pictures of them. They turned out pretty good considering that

I don't have the best camera. I'm hoping Santa will bring me a better one

this year:)

Happy Halloween

Madison was Cinderella this year. My mom made her costume

(again). My mom is amazing!!!!!! It was so funnny because people

kept telling her she was such a beautiful princess and she would

get mad and tell them....."I not a princess, I'm bein Cinderella!!!!!"

It was hillarious. She had a good time this year except for she's

afarid of EVERYTHING!!!!! Pumpkins, anything that made noise,

and the fake spider-webs.

My little DooDoo was a witch this year! If you think you recognize

this costume, you're right!!! this was one that my mom had made for

Madison when she was 1, and it just so happens that it fit IRelyn this year.

I thought....why waste money on another costume when I have one here!!!

Everybody thought she was so cute cause she's hold her bucket up and

say "treat, treat". She had a blast!!!

Hunter was a ninja this year. We didn't think

that we were going to get him for trick or treating

this year, but Brittany dropped him off earlier so that he

could go with us. Madison and Irelyn were so excited.

He's the best big brother!!!!

What cute kids:)

Sick babies:(

So....my kids have Hand Foot and Mouth Disease!!!!! AT first, I thought it wasn't going to be all that bad because they didn't have any rashes on their bodies, just some sores in their mouths. Not "just", what I meant to say was that they only had that particular symptom. After a few days I thought they were feeling better, and then...........BAM!!! Fevers of 103+, swollen mouths, huge pussy sores down their throats on their tongues. Madison was doing a bit worse than Irelyn for a few days, and then today I thought I was going to break. Irelyn not only has this stupid crap, but she's cutting both sets of eye teeth. That's right.......both top and bottom!!! KILL ME NOW PLEASE!!!!!!! Rob started his new job today so I didn't have any help with the kids until 4pm. I wanted to pack up the kids and drive to my mom's house, and I would have if she didn't have a funeral that she was in charge of today, and if I wasn't chugging off of 3 hours of sleep in the last two days. Earlier today Irelyn was soooooo mean & every time Madi even looked @ her she would start screaming! I asked her why she was being so mean to Madi & she gave me a killer dirty look! Then Madi asks"DooDoo why you being so mean?" Irelyn replies with"I nuno!" So Madi turns to me and says"Mama, um her says her don"t know!!!" I was laughing so hard. Hopefully they both get feeling better soon cause I don't know how much more I can take!!!

So Thankful!!!!!!!

We just found out that Rob was offered a job in Salt Lake. It is the job we have been wanting to get, and we kind of thought that it wasn't a possibility anymore, because we hadn't heard anything in over a month and a half, but we just heard the other day that we got it!!!(well Rob got it) I feel so thankful that we have finally been given an opportunity to make a better life for our family. It is going to be a great career move for Rob, and the company is really great. They offer just about anything you can imagine. It will be nice to be close to Torie again, I really miss her and now that she's having a baby, it's even better:) It's going to be really hard to move away from Hunter, but we are just hoping that it's only going to be a year and then he will be able to get a job in the St. George or Cedar hospital so that we can move back. I hate that things have had to get to the point of us only getting to see him every other weekend, and now it's going to be one weekend a month. So you can imagine why we want to move back as quickly as possible. It's so hard on Madison right now because she doesn't understand why her brother doesn't get to stay longer and why she doesn't get to see him more often. How do you explain custody laws to a 3 yr old???? I must say that it's going to be nice to have a place of our own again. It's been a little difficult living with my parents. You just don't feel like you have your own space, and it's a little frustrating. Other than that it's been so nice to have my kids spend more time with their papa and gama! My kids absolutely love my mom and dad and I'm so thankful that they get to spend so much time with them. Hunter loves coming to Panguitch. He thinks it's the coolest thing to go help my dad do sprinklers, and he gets to ride the mini four wheeler, which of course he loves!!! He'll always say that he wished we lived there so he could ride the four wheeler anytime he wants to. I have to remind him that it's not his, it belongs to papa and it's for ALL the grand kids.
Thankfully we have found a house in a really great neighborhood, so I'm not as nervous to move up there as I was before. Rob's shift is a graveyard shift that is from 8pm to 7am. It's a 7 days on and 7 days off, which I think will end up being nice. It will give us the opportunity to spend a lot of time together as a family without having to take time off work. I'm not sure how I feel about being home alone at night, but we found a house that has a security system, so that's good for me. I just hope that my kids don't accidentally set it off and we end up with the Salt Lake City Police Department at my front door:) I shouldn't joke about that, cause it's a definite possibility!!!!!! You know what I"m talking about if you know my children. Well, in case you couldn't tell.................I'm just thankful for everything in my life right now and I just hope that everything will continue to pick up for us and that we can move past this crap we've been dealing with lately.

What's new?????? Not much!

Well even though there's nothing very exciting to post about, I figured it has been almost a month since my last one and I'd better update. We are now staying with my parents in Panguitch until Rob hears back on a few jobs. He's trying to decide if he wants to go and get his teaching certificate and teach science at a home for troubled youth. OR................try and get on at a company in Salt Lake as a Lab Tech. Which will end after a year and he will have his certification to be a medical technologist. Then, he can pretty much work in any hospital he wants. (if there are jobs) We still aren't exactly sure what we are going to do! In the meantime, he has been working @ the home as a Team Coach. Which basically means he supervises the boys and takes control when things get out of hand. I told him he was perfect for the job because they are all probably scared of him and don't want to get their butts kicked! Even though he is probably one of the most laid back people I've ever met. Almost too laid back. He was surprised when he actually was enjoying his job. We are just grateful to have one, and him liking it is just a bonus!
Other news.............I have to get my gallbladder out on Friday morning. I was kind of hoping that they would get me in sooner, but the surgeon told me that was the soonest he could fit me in. It was bearable at first, but it seems that everyday I just feel worse and worse. They are a little nervous because my liver enzymes were elevated and he's not sure if there is a gallstone blocking one of my ducts. Hopefully not, but it might explain how unbelievably terrible I feel. So I was kind of surprised that he wouldn't get me in sooner, but what do you do!!! Just let me tell you that having an attack is about the most painful thing I have ever felt. Including knee surgery/recovery, and having a baby when your epidural fails!!! I literally thought I was going to die. They say that gallbladder attacks mimic heart attacks, so you can only imagine. I kind of thought that I was a little young to be having a heart attack, but you never know right? Thankfully it's just my gallbladder and the surgery is same day. It only takes about an hour, and then as soon as you come out of the anesthesia, you can go. I'm hoping that it won't be like the last time I had surgery when I awoke in sheer panic because I was absolutely convinced the doctor had cut off my feet!!! Apparently I wasn't very nice to the poor nurse, I told her to shut up and put my feet back on. I guess when they have you wrapped up so tightly in 3 blankets, it's kind of hard to spot your feet:) I think I ended up yelling at everybody in the recovery room. Can't say that I remember much of it, this is just what I"m told! I do remember everybody was laughing and I couldn't quite put my finger on why they thought me missing my feet would be funny. Not really looking forward to that again, but hopefully it will be better this time around.
So that's pretty much all that is going on with us right now, I'll keep you posted about how the surgery goes.

Happy Birthday Madison!............(well almost)

So we decided to go ahead and have Madison's 3rd Birthday party a little early this year. Her birthday isn't until the 24th, but Rob's mom wanted to be here for it, and this was the only weekend they could do it. So we thought, she's 2, she won't know the difference. It was a fun birthday. She kept on telling me for weeks that the only thing she wanted for her birthday was a yellow skateboard!!!! I know right???? I have no clue where the idea came from (hunter) but she has been so insistent about it, so after many exhausted days of shopping, I found one in the clearance section of Walmart. It wasn't all yellow, but it was small and it has locks on it so that she can only go forward, just until she gets the hang of it and doesn't kill herself. I don't necessarily think of myself as an "over-protective parent", but I was a little nervous about getting my 2 yr old a skateboard. I guess you'll just have to check back in to see if there are any Emergency Room posts with broken bones:) Let's hope not!!! She wanted to have a Tinkerbell Party, so I found this really cheap website that had everything Tinkerbell, and it even came in 3 days. We were able to rent a bounce house from a lady here in Enterprise, and the kids loved it. We were supposed to have some water relay's, and play a few water games, but I didn't realize that 2 and 3 year old's don't really have the capability of following instructions for games. Not quite the right age group, so we ended up letting them go crazy and having a water balloon fight. I think that went over better for them anyway. They all had a lot of fun. Thank you everybody for coming, it was a great day!!!




This is her in her "tinkerbell costume". I made it for her
for halloween, but we thought it would be cute to use it for
her party. She loved it.


Irelyn decided to sneak a cupcake!!!


My mom made her cake, of course!! She was so excited because
she knew she got to have the doll after the cake was gone.


We were supposed to play Pin the want on the Tinker, but we
forgot. So it ended up just being a decoration:)



This was the bounce house. It ended up having a slide that came off
the side, so the kids had a blast. Thanks Grandma Dianne:)


Madison swinging at the piniata. She actually hit it really hard.
She was upset because she didn't realize that they were going to
beat the crap out of it and ruin tinkerbell. But, once she saw the candy,
she was just fine!



Hunter ended up getting the candy to come out. Big surprise.


Daisy incorporating her karate moves into it.



Madison getting ready to open presents


She was so excited about the skateboard. Can you tell?

You know how when you are pregnant and you do stupid crazy things, and people tell you that it's because the baby takes your brain cells???? Well apparently my kids forgot to give them back! I don't know what is happening to me, but I am probably the most forgetful person on this planet. Thank heaven I haven't forgotten a child some place yet or worse! I have been confusing people and conversations, and that's just the start of it. I will tell somebody something not realizing that I've already told them that story about 5 times. Bless you people who have to deal with me on a daily basis and haven't wanted to just kick my butt!!! Hopefully it doesn't get any worse or they might have to commit me:)

New Pictures

These are my cute kids:) The pictures turned out pretty
good considering that they only lasted 20 min. Got to love kids!


Madison's new smile............not my favorite! It reminded
me of the Friend's episode when Chandler and Monica
are getting their engagement pics done!!!!!!!!! Impossible.


I wish she had more hair:(

Poor Hunter had to hold them both down on the bench & he wasn't

very impressed.

She sat right up and started posing. She's a ham!

I love this one, Irelyn kept ripping her headband off & Hunter and Madi

thought she was pretty funny. So did she!

We finally got Hunter over his "fake" smile phase. Thank

goodness!

And now................Madi's doing it:)

This is my favorite! If only we could photoshop in a headband for Irelyn:)

TRIP TO CATALINA!!!!!

Rob and I went to Catalina for our 5 year anniversary and it was so awesome. The place we were able to stay at was beautiful. We had 1 bedroom condo that had two balconies that connected. You could actually see the ocean from the bed. It was so peaceful to hear the waved crashing at night and smell the ocean air in the morning. We had our own private golf cart so we were able to come and go as we pleased. Normally you have to rent a cart and the going rate is $40 per hour. Our villa was about 3 miles outside of the actual city of Avalon, so it was cheaper than anything in town. But much nicer than anything that we saw. It was so nice to get away and finally get to spend some time with Rob before he goes back to work. It seems like our lives have been so crazy lately that we don't ever get to spend time together without our kids. (No offense kids, but sometimes we need some time to be adults:) I kind of forgot how much I liked him:) ha ha. Long story short, we had such an amazing time and I already want to go back. Maybe we'll take our kids next time and go on a family vacation..........................or maybe not!

It FINALLY happened!!!

Well.................today was the day!!! Rob graduated:) I can't even tell you how excited I am about it. I feel like these past 4 years have taken 10. I can't even believe that it's actually real and happening. I have missed him so much and so have the kids. I am so proud of him and how hard he has worked these last few years going to school full time and working to support our family. I can't even imagine how hard it must have been for him, but he did it. It was so rewarding to see him in his cap and gown today walking up to the stage. ( he almost knocked the microphone down with his sleeve though.......it was really funny) His family was able to fly in and support him and I know that it meant a lot to him. We aren't sure exactly what it next, we are waiting to hear about a few options, but hopefully he can snag a job at W.E.C.C.O. It's a chemical company in Cedar City, and that would mean that we can stay in this area and not have to move up north. We'll see what happens I guess. I'll post pictures later.................I'm so happy:)

I think our dog might need Therapy!!!

So....I think Spike might be a little bit confused about his purpose in life. He is such a funny little dog, always doing things that he knows will make us laugh. I think he can sense that I'm still not 100% sure about him yet, so he does whatever he can to make me laugh. I still can't figure out how in the heck he was able to wiggle his way into this tutu. I guess he's smarter than I thought:)

For those who know me you have figured out that I absolutely HATE Rob's music. But......for some strange reason it seems to always get Irelyn to sleep, and it provides much entertainment for the other two. And now..........it's Spike's favorite thing to dance to.

Counting my blessings!!!!

So I wanted to take a minute and jot down a few of the things that I'm truly grateful for.........................................................................
My husband and my beautiful children. I know that sometimes I'm a crazy person, and that I don't always let them know it, but I feel like the luckiest person in the whole world to have such a wonderful husband, and the best kids! Rob has sacrificed so much for me and our kids, and I wanted him to know how much i appreciate everything that he does for us. He has worked so hard the last 4 years to make a better life for us and I'm so happy that he's finally getting to see what the pay off will be. I wanted to say thank you for everything that he does for us. I Love you!!!
Hunter is 6 years old now, and I can't believe how much he has grown up. I am always so amazed at what he will do and say. I somehow always think of him as this little chubby red-headed baby. He's such a great kid. I know that every kid will have their moments, and he's not any different, but all in all he's such a wonderful little boy and I'm so grateful for him and his wonderful personality.
Madison is 2 and what a handful she is. I honestly didn't even know how much harder she would be from Hunter!!! She is always testing me to see how far I will let her go, and it's usually farther than I wanted. I have a really hard time saying no to her. She always meets me with humor. She'll do or say something so funny that I forget why I'm mad at her in the first place. I'm so grateful for her and her witty personality, she always keeps me on my toes.
Irelyn is my baby, and she's almost 1. I can't believe how fast time passed me by this last year.
I feel like I blinked and she wasn't my little baby anymore:( She is such a sweetie. She has always got a smile on her face and it brightens my day! She can be a little demanding, but I think that means that she'll grow up to be a strong woman:) I'm grateful for her ability to put a smile on my face no matter how bad my day might be!
We have been sooooooo lucky this past week because we were able to sell our house! It was getting down to the point where I didn't know what we were going to do, and then it seemed like all of my praying finally paid off:) With Rob not working and going to school full time I was beginning to wonder how we were going to make things work. I guess I'm grateful that we kicked the crappy economy's butt!!!!!

I know that it sounds so cliche, but things do happen for a reason, I know that sometimes it can be hard to see what the reason is, but I PROMISE there is one. When Rob was laid off from his job, I was devastated! I would lay awake at night and wonder what we were going to do and how we would possibly make it. Thankfully, we had a little nest egg saved up, and so far things have been just fine. It might sound crazy, but I'm actually thankful for this because I was able to see just how much we missed Rob being home and being able to spend time with all of us. All of this prompted him to change his mind about going to Medical School and choose a different career path. He doesn't want to miss out on being a dad and watching our kids grow up. It happens so fast anyway, he wanted to be there for it. So I guess what I'm really trying to say is that things can ALWAYS BE WORSE!!!

My MacGyver moment in all it's glory!!!!!!!

So today while I was cleaning my house, Madison was in the family room watching TV. I ended up hearing her asking me to help her. "heop me mommy" I went in the room and saw her sitting on the couch. I asked her what was wrong and she proceeded to tell me.......and I quote....."somfings in my nose" "What" I said, she replied "there's somfing in my nose."Keep in mind that she had her whole entire finger shoved up her nose. So I asked her "did you put something in your nose?" "Ya" she said, "Madison what did you put up your nose?" "UM..........my gum.".......... Oh yes people..............GUM!!! So I laid her on her back and got out my flashlight and sure enough, there's a wad of green gum shoved clear up in her nose. So far in fact, that I had to get my tweezers out. After about 15 minutes of trying to get it out and having her screaming in sheer horror, I decided we needed to regroup and try a new approach. I then thought I would try a bobby pin! I know it sounds awful, but she has a very tiny nose hole. I didn't know what else to do. One look @ the bobby pin, and she lost it. "Get it out mommy, it hurts!!!!" I was trying so hard not to laugh because she was totally freaking out. Her poor little eyes were watering, and she was crying. Just as I was about to call my pediatrician and take her in, she sneezed and I could see that it shifted a little. So I made her sit up and I plugged one side of her nose and told her to blow with all of her might!!!! After a few minutes a piece came out. I started cheering and was so happy that I didn't have to take her to the Dr., It was short lived............I hear "more". "What! Madison is there more gum up there?" "UM.........yes." So again, I had her blow as hard as she could and another piece came shooting out. These weren't chewed up pieces either, she had taken the stick of gum and broken it up and I'm guessing shoved them up one at a time. Just when I thought victory was mine, she informes me that....."It still hurts." HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yup, you guessed it, one more piece came out. 3 pretty decent sized pieces of gum up her nose!!!!! I'm still trying to figure out how she got it up there. What was even funnier is that the gum was pretty minty, and it was making her eye's water. With children, everyday is a new adventure, and everyday you try your best to navigate your way through it. Eat your heart out MacGyver!!!! He's got nothing on my newly developed skills!!!! Tweezers, tissues, and bobby pins..........genius:)