Time to Surface...

Where have I been the last month?.... Reading!

Sometimes I wonder if I am a bit obsessive/compulsive. When I decide to do something it consumes me. So on November 20th, a group of 10 of us (including family and friends) went to see "New Moon."

I loved it!!!

It was much better than "Twilight". It was a fresh reminder of how much I enjoyed reading those books, so naturally the next day I started reading them again. I told myself I wasn't going to read them again for a year because I liked them so much, and that's about how long it has been.

I started with the first book and just finished the third last night, but decided I should update my blog before I spent the next week and a half reading again!

I have done other things with my time this last month besides reading...

Christmas Preparations...

The week before Thanksgiving I put my Christmas village up! Not a small task! I have 25 buildings to take out of individual boxes, protected in their own costume fit Styrofoam, each with their own power cord and accessories. This doesn't include trees and Elves. I gave up on taking the little Elves out of their boxes because my plant shelves are so high you can't see the little guys any way!

Usually my plant shelves have birdhouses, baskets, and silk plants, and some of Tory's mission things he got while he was serving in the Philippines. So I have to take everything down, clean off a year's worth of dust, and store them all, and dust off the shelf before I can run extension cords and lights up there! At least you can't see the mess behind the houses! Another good thing is they are all hooked together to one outlet that is controlled by a light switch! It's a lot of work but I love having them up, and the kids do too. May be when they are older I can put the lower so I can actually enjoy them more. The have so much detail it's amazing! It is the Department 56 North Pole Collection. My former boss Dr. Kelson gave them to us each year for Christmas. I'm so grateful for him and all he did for me those year I worked for him. He is truly one of the most generous men I have ever met!

The Monday after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree for Family Home Evening.

Me, being the perfectionist that I am when it comes to decorating, refused my husband's offer to help with the lights. He said, "Do you want me to do that, or will you just re-do it tomorrow while I'm at work?" (He knows me too well, I even rearrange the dishes in the dishwasher when he loads it... I'm weird) So while I was concentrating so hard on getting the lights perfectly on each tree branch I some how scratched my eyeball on the tree! (Who does that?) It hurt. Not so bad the next day... it was irritated and kind of a dull ache. But by Wednesday morning it was bad!

Eye Appointments

I wish I had thought to take a picture of it, but it turned out to be quite the ordeal. Wednesday morning I couldn't stand light! It was a searing pain! I had to call Tory and have him come home from work 15 min after he got there so he could take Chase to school and Tyler to speech therapy. I could not drive!! Any light was so painful especially sunlight. Then after Chase got out of school, He dropped me off at an eye Dr. while he took Tyler to his feet appointment!

To make a long story short; I went in Wednesday, Thurs., Fri., and the following Tuesday to check on my eye. It was such a bad scratch that it left a scar. Thankfully it wasn't on my iris so it doesn't have any affect on my vision.

I have 2 prescription eye drops (which I was taking every 2 hours). I have been taking those for 2 weeks. It also bruised my eye which was why light hurt because it affected the ability to shutter out light. They also dilated my eye on the third apt. to see if there was any damage on the back of my eye. And I couldn't drive without my hand covering my left eye for 4 days! They also put a contact on my eye the first apt. to act as a band aid and protect it against my eye lid.

I'm glad today is the last day for drops and greatfull my vision is fine, and thankful to be done with this 2 hour post!

Camrey Videos

I love her laugh! And She loves her daddy! Last night she was being so cute so I had to grab the camera.

Sugar...

My husband caught me red-handed this weekend. He found my secret stash of butterfingers stored in my pump bag! Of course they were almost all gone and I had only had the bag for a week.

So I've decided my sugar and candy eating habits are out of control!!! So this week I have a goal to not eat any sugar foods... until Halloween.

This includes:

-Cereal for breakfast... which I am proud to say I had eggs and wheat toast this morning,
-No juice
-no chips (I eat rice cakes)
-absolutely no ice cream (which I have been eating every day for almost 3 weeks)
-and absolutely no CANDY!! (and yes there is some in the house, along with chips-ahoy cookies!)
-No cookies, (fish crackers are ok)
-the only thing I will drink will be Mona Vie, Crystal Light, and Water!

If I succeed, I get to eat as much candy and junk I want on Halloween, and if I don't... I'll have to re-evaluate my priorities!

So now that it is 3:30 in the afternoon the crave for sugar is growing strong but I have fruit and carrots in the house so I think I'll survive.

Wish me luck, because if anyone needs it right now it's me.

Tyler's Feet

Our little Ty has very flat feet. When he stands his ankles tip in and so he doesn't really stand straight. So 2 weeks ago when we were at the Pediatrician for his 3 year well visit check-up, I asked the Dr. to look at them. He did, and recommended we see an Orthopedic Surgeon.

So last week we went to the Orthopedic office and had x-rays done. Lucky for us he doesn't need surgery, but Tyler's feet are about as bad as it gets for "flat feet." Where the arch is supposed to be it almost dips down instead of curves up. The only reason he would need surgery would be if he was having pain, or if he didn't have full movement of his foot (which he does), but it is a big problem because he doesn't have proper support, so he needs special insoles to give him an arch to support his feet and ankles.

So today I went to another office that actually makes the insoles and other prosthetics, and had them look at his feet.

In conclusion; they will do a custom mold of his feet to make the special insoles which will be made to go up his ankle a little bit. Thankfully insurance covers most of the cost for cases that are this extreme. He'll probably need to wear some type of extra support for his feet the rest of his life. The office said Tyler will need to come in about every 6 months to have them adjusted, and they will need replaced about every 2-3 years as he grows out of them.

I'm grateful we recognized the problem early in his life, and I'm grateful that there is a way correct it so he doesn't permanently kill his joints and have arthritis pain the rest of his life.

We'll go back to the office in a few weeks and get the cast of his feet done.

Halloween Party! (Fri., Oct 23, 2009

Last Friday I threw a Costume Halloween Party for Chase! I wish I would have taken the time to take a few pictures because I went all out! I started preparing on Thursday... I turned my garage into a haunted house for little kids. No scary monsters to jump out at them, but the atmosphere was enough to scare most of them. Using tarps I sectioned off my garage, first crawling through a tunnel them passing a suspended ghost (made from a very large Elmo toy covered with a white table cloth) then walking through curtains that take you by a grave yard complete with cardboard headstones surrounded by leaves and illuminated with a black light. Then you walk past a giant spider on his web around the corner into the flashing strobe light area where plastic ghost are hanging on the walls as you climb up the small stairs, cross the short bridge and slide down the slide and turn the next corner to pass the witch's table: complete with cauldron, a broom and large plastic rats! with a glowing pumpkin. All of this with spooky background noises from a Halloween CD!

It sounds cooler than it looked, but the kids had fun.

-We decorated sugar cookies
-Read them a Halloween story book
-played "Pin the spider on the Web"
-Colored Halloween pictures
-and had a treasure hunt!

I think there were 12 kids between the ages 2-5. But the little ones mostly just played.
In the end, the only thing I wish is that I took pictures. And I had so much fun I think I'll do it again!

Halloween Costunes

Yesterday Tory stayed home sick from work, so I decided to take the boys shopping for Halloween Costumes to get the noise out of the house.

After looking at a few different ideas Chase decided he wanted to be Spider Man! He's never even seen the show or a cartoon, but Jacob in our ward is going to be Spider Man and I think that was the deciding factor.

I went and got Tyler the Tigger outfit today... at first I was just going to throw something together for him, but after watching them play dress up yesterday with the old pumpkin costume I felt bad.

So they have been running around all day with each other!



It took a little coaxing to convince Tyler to try on his Tigger outfit... Chase put it around and started bouncing around the house and that was enough to get Ty to want to put it on himself!

Saturday Conference

For General Conference in our home I like to make a big platter of food to eat while we sit and watch it. The whole eating process only keeps the kids quiet for first 10 minutes, but oh well.

We had Apples. grapes, strawberries, brownies, crackers, cheese, animal cookies, cantaloupe, and carrots, and Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade!

Camrey had milk.

Durinda's Marching Band Competition Tory's oldest brother Ruston has a daughter, Durinda, who plays flute in the Elko High Marching band, and they were competing in Caldwell yesterday.

We thought it would be fun to take the kids and go watch her march. We packed snacks, and lots of blankets, and got out our heavy coats, the got in the car go.

It was about 45 degrees yesterday with light scattered rain, and cold wind, but we were prepared, so we thought! When we got there we realized that we both forgot to put the blankets in the car! It was cold. I even took my own coat off my back and put it over the front of me an Tyler because he was complaining of the cold. (We did remember Camrey's blanket).

Laura has been telling me how good Durinda's marching band is, and she is right. They were good. Their music and marching. They won 1st in their division yesterday! So congratulations Durinda!! We are so proud of you!

I'm glad we had the chance to go see her! Despite the cold, it was fun. We only stayed for 2 bands and Chase wanted to watch more (personally I did too) but the cold won out. So maybe nest time we can catch more.

Blowout...

FOR THOSE WITH WEAK STOMACHS, THIS POST MAY CONTAIN GRAPHIC IMAGES !!!

CONTINUE WITH CAUTION... YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

This is not the kind of blow out I am talking about! I am referring to

"diaper blowouts!"

For the last week now we have had a blow out a day!some worse than others, but nevertheless, it still amounts to lots of laundry!
Stain remover and bleach have become my new best friends!

So after an entire week of this I decided to start documenting these messes.

On Thursday morning I thought, "I should put a size 2 diaper on her to avoid the mess," which happens every morning after her 1st feeding. So she finished eating and Tyler started saying "Soggy, Soggy Diaper." So I changed him, he had soaked through and smelt of urine so bad I gave him a bath, but that caused me to be too late to change Camrey's diaper and she ended up filling her diaper before I had a chance to change it!

The next day wasn't as bad... a little spot on the corner; but yesterday... she didn't poop in the morning it was the evening when I was getting the boys ready for bed!

This is her back...


This is her pants...

This is the graphic mess I warned you about!

I will not blog this subject again... I apologize for any of you who saw this horrid display and are now regretting it. Just remember, even though I have the perfect baby, who sleeps 12 hours through the night, doesn't need a pacifier, and hardly ever cries, We all have our trials and poop and puke are mine.

More Camrey pictures!

Camrey had the most adorable dress on last Sunday and I of course, HAD to take a few pictures!

Chase took this one of me, not bad except the sun-shine on the center of my face.

I took these other pictures in the shade, and now the color doesn't look so great!

But I don't have a good photo editing program on my computer ( and If I do I don't know where or what it is or how to use it), so these will have to do... my sister does a lot of photo editing on her pictures so may she can show me a few tricks.



Camrey was making the funniest faces during her bath, so I tried to get a video of it.
The squeaking sound is her feet rubbing on the tub.

Her hair tends to look like she stuck her finger in a light socket after a bath!

Vampires...

I just finished reading Harry Potter book 7 again! I love those books!!!

Tory and I went to see Harry Potter movie 6 for a date last month, and he has never read the books so if you've seen the movie you know it kind of leaves you hanging. So I convinced him to listen to book 7 on CD when he drives to and home from work. So each day he comes home and says some comment about what was happening in the book which made me want to read it again, which I did, and finished.

I love watching Smallville... but a new show called

"The Vampire Diaries" has now caught my interest.

My sister watched the first 2 episodes and loved them and recommended it. So thanks to the Internet and the CW website I was able to catch up!

My opinion... If you like Twilight Books, you'll enjoy this TV series. (But like so many shows on in today's world, the concept of teen sex seems to be accepted as "OK" unfortunately.)

Routeens...

I guess I'll make a quick post. I don't have pictures to post right now, and I just broke Chase's heart... Never Fails... any time I want to do something on the computer the kids come in and want to take me and my attention away from what I want to accomplish.

And now that I have that tid-bit out of the way I can't remember what I was going to post...

OK, I love school! What I mean is, I love having Chase go to school. What makes it even better is my baby Camrey likes to take her longest nap of the day while he is at school. So we have a great routine every day....

-Take Chase to Kindergarten at 8:30 a.m.

-Play the piano at 8:45 while Tyler watches "Super Why"

- Exercise for about 45 min while Tyler plays learning games on the computer

-Shower, pack a lunch, get milk for Camrey, wake her up, then...

-11:15 go get Chase and take kids to the park and feed Camrey sitting in a lawn chair while the boys play.

- Then around 12:30 we come home.

I feel like I do a lot of laundry with all the blow-outs Camrey has, and the Spit-up; and the boys like to play in the sand box almost every day so between the sand and sweat, they go through 1-2 outfits a day... but I guess that's part of my job as a mother!

Tyler started speech therapy again 2 weeks ago (Wednesday mornings for 30 min.) His communication has improved much since he started speech therapy over a year ago. The therapist asked me what I would like to have her work on with him, but I don't know what to tell her.

Tyler use to get so upset and mad in the morning when I had to take off his PJ's and get him dressed. Screaming and all; one day I took him to the grocery store in his PJ's just to avoid the drama! But after about 4 days of getting him dressed 1 thing in the morning it has become a new routine for him and the drama is gone. Some kids depend on consistency and Tyler is defiantly one of them.

One thing I love about my Tyler is his imagination... every morning we all get nick names:
I go in his room when he wakes up and the first thing he says to me is "Hi there little kitten!" or "hi there princess". Tory got home from work the other day and Tyler said,"Hi there Monkey!"
He gives himself nick-names too, Mario, Luigi, Super reader, and lately "Little Shooter."

Logan and Camrey

These 2 little ones are 6 weeks apart. Mt sister came over to visit and I snapped a few pictures and veido's while she and her kids were here.

Ok these are really short and kind of boring, but oh well.

Can't Get Enough!

I love pictures of my kids!!!

I just can't seem to get enough of them.

They grow so fast...

One minute you are holding them for the first time in your arms...

And the next thing you know they are 2 months old...

Or three years old...

Or 5 years old, and off to kindergarten for the first time!

I love my kids!!




This little girl is growing so fast, I feel like if I blink I'll miss it!

I can't get enough of them... (most of the time!) Especially right now. It is 2:45 in the afternoon and all 3 of them are asleep and have been sleeping for over an hour now!

People say the more kids you have the less pictures you take of them, but I think in Camrey's case it might not be true. I think I take a picture for every new out fit she wears!

Pirates...

Yesterday Chase and Tyler were invited to a Pirate Birthday Party, so I looked around the house for costumes for them...

I think I did pretty good! I printed the scull picture off the computer and pinned it to their pockets.

I didn't think Tyler would let me dress him up, but as soon as he saw his big brother dressed like a pirate he wanted to be one too!

Tyler likes to pretend he is sword fighting like the boys do on Peter Pan in the beginning of the movie.

The birthday party was for a boy in our ward named Ben, he turned 5 so he is in Chase's primary class, but missed the cut off date for kindergarten this year.

It was fun to see all the kids dressed up...

And most important, Chase and Ty had fun!