What a sweetie

Caroline fell off her chair at dinner the other night. She fell right on her head on the tile floor and was really hurt and upset. Elizabeth asked me to paint her face like a clown. I asked why and she said, "I want to make Caroline laugh and feel happy." I thought that was so cute.

Miss Isa

So we've hit 4 months old. Well, 2 days ago. Surprisingly considering the fact that she's "loved" all day by her older brother and sisters. She's doing good though. She's 25.5 inces (92%) and 14 lb 6 oz (70%), so she's thriving! :) She's into her hands and feet and is getting close to the roll over milestone. On the sad side, she cleared up her infection on her right ear, but snagged one in her left ear. Hopefully we'll be sickness clear for a little while.

Another one down.....

Elizabeth has lost another tooth. It was pretty loose, so Bri finished it off and pulled it. She was so brave. I thought for sure she was going to cry because it looked like it hurt, but she didn't. We got new callings in church on Sunday. Bri and I were called to team teach the 12 year old Sunday school class. They waste no time here. This was our 2nd week and already called to duty. It'll be fun though. We're excited. We also had the Primary program. Elizabeth had a short line and froze. All she had to say was, "Read the scriptures", but she got up there and put her fingers in her mouth and they kept saying her line again and again to her, but she just wasn't up for it I guess. She finally whispered it. We asked her about it later and she said, "there were just too many people". I wouldn't label her as shy, but the past few weeks she put on a little "shy act". Oh well. I'm sure she'll be out of it soon!

We made it....

Yup, we did. We're here in our new home. All seems to be just fine. The house is really nice and we've met some really nice neighbors, but I really really miss our old neighborhood. I try not to think about it too much. I didn't realize how much I really loved our ward and friends, and now... we have no one. Well, time will tell I guess. Plus, this is short term and then we start all over again. Yikes. So I'll post a picture. The outside isn't that great, but the inside is really pretty. It's got a loft that we throw all the kids toys in, so we love that.

Liz is doing well in school. Her teacher told us she's one of the very advanced kids. She is a great reader! She's doing well making new friends. The first few days she kept saying she wanted to play with someone, so we walked around the neighborhood and found some kids. Our backyard opens up to more backyards and the first day we were here there were like 10 kids running around back there. There are 4trampolines and 4 playsets, so it's like a giant playground. It's good we moved in when it was still a little warm, 'cause now everyone is hiding out. It's been good though because Caroline and Liz have been playing together more and I like that.

Brian and I finally joined a gym. How's the Hawaii deal going you ask? Well, we're pretty much at square one. No gain, no loss. But we're motivated now! Hopefully it lasts until we reach our goal. It's hard working out with kids. We take them to the daycare there and work out, but part of me feels guilty. I know this is good for me, and for them, so I gotta just do it. I worry about the germs going around during winter, but we'll stock 'em up on vitamins!

Other than that, all's going well. I have some Halloween pics to join the rest, then a few random ones. Halloween was good. We made it to the ward party the night before we moved. Ended up loading the truck after the party. Thanks to the fam and friends who helped us. They got it all done super fast. Thanks to Mom, Dad and Caroline for getting it started. Halloween day was Mom's bday, so we went over there and trick-or-treated and had a little party. Fun to all be together. I had to throw one in of the Porter house because I love it!

101st Post

So..... here we are. One hundred posts later. I have so much to say and so little time. You see.... we sold our home. That's right. Well, as of 4:00 tonight, it should be official. We're moving tomorrow closer to Brian's job. We're excited and sad at the same time. Sad to leave all the wonderful friends we've made. Sad to leave the great ward we have and all the great friends our kids have made. But we are hoping we find some great people where we are going too.

We've been busy packing and cleaning and it's amazing how much can accumulate and get messy in 2 years! Well, so I have this great story for you. It all begins on Saturday morning.....

It was a normal Saturday morning. Getting up with the kids, cereal all around, a little tv going on. The usual. All of the sudden, Caroline starts crying hysterically. She started complaining about her ear. I immediately called the doctor. How nice for us that our doctors were there on Saturday. Cooper had been sick too so I told Bri he should take Cooper just in case and get him checked. Well, I'm not sure what happened, but Cooper didn't go. Bri took Caroline and Elizabeth because we had ward members coming over to help us pack. Somehow I ended up with the harder 2, but it worked out okay. Turns out Caroline did have an ear infection. She was one unhappy camper! After the medicine and antibiotics, a little warm pad on her ear and the Chipmunks movie, she started feeling a little better. We got all the kitchen packed up with the help of our wonderful neighbors, then had a little lunch outside which was really nice. It was beautiful outside that day! So fast forward to Sunday night. All seemed fine. Cooper was a little fussy during the day, but nothing major. Isabelle woke up at about 11:00 at night, about the time I fell asleep of course, and decided she wasn't feeling too well. So seriously, I was up ALL night. I mean, I was sitting at my computer at 2:30 am working on pictures, then watched a little tv. Finally I decided to just give her some medicine and some ear drops. She didn't have a fever or anything, but I thought it couldn't hurt. Around 4:30 she fell asleep but woke up about every 20 min. Finally I got to sleep at 7:00 AM when Brian woke up. I slept for about 2 hours and then we started packing. We got a bunch done. Cooper got fussier later on and Isabelle was mostly fine if she was being held. About 4:00 in the afternoon, Cooper started pulling on his ear and then cried for the next 2 hours. I had set up a dr's appointment and took him and Isabelle. I figured we'd have Isa checked out just in case because we had no idea what was going on with her. I was at the drive through at the bank and Cooper was in hysterics. He ended up throwing up but luckily most of it ended up on his blanket. Then he fell asleep. I carried both of them into the doctors office where they both decided it was time for a break down. I sat in the room with both on my lap. Cooper finally crashed and fell asleep, but Isa was just getting started. The doctor came in as I was trying to juggle both of them and we couldn't even hear eachother, so he had his nurse hold Isa. Well, making this already long story a little shorter, Cooper has severe ear infections in both ears and Isabelle has one in her right ear. While the doctor checked Coopers throat, he threw up all over his shirt and then rubbed it on me. Nice! Well Bri met up with me so he could run in and get the meds and I took the 2 home to get them in the tub hoping it would help soothe them so they'd go to sleep. Well, Isa was already asleep, but Coop didn't want to get in, so I got in with him. Just as I did, of course, Isa woke up, so we brought her in. Just after that, Cooper fell asleep holding onto me. I figured Bri would be home soon, so I just sat in the tub holding both of them, waiting for him to help me and get one out. Well, about 15 minutes went by, and no Bri, so I finally got them both out. All in all, they both slept great and seem to be doing better today. So, in the midst of packing and moving, 3 out of 4 of our kids get ear infections, which we just about never get. Isn't it great?!! Well, Isabelle is crying and I suppose I should get grab her and finishing packing. We'll post pics of our new place in a few days.

I finally got a few of Cooper smiling,so I added those and a few others.

Scarecrow Festival

For our date night this week we took the kiddos to the Scarecrow Festival. They had a blast running through all the blow up slides and going on the train ride. It was fun to have fun with them. Too often I think we get frustrated and just forget to have fun, so it was a good time for all of us.

Fun Family Weekend

On Saturday, Brian helped my Dad put in a wood floor in the living room. It was my plan to help as well, but I'm just a girl, what do I know rigth?! Amazing how that happens even after you've given birth to 4 kids and raise them 90% of the day by yourself, taking care of illnesses, school projects, bills, cooking, cleaning and a billion other things, still, we know so little. Okay, they didn't really say anything, but it seemed like that was how it was. Anyway, after 3 hours and about 5 pices of wood down, we took a break and went up to Snowbird for the free tram ride. The kids loved it and the views were awesome. It's amazing that I've lived around mountains all my life and are just now really starting to see how amazing they are. So here are a few pics from the outting.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I'm not ready!!!

Who wants to wake up to this?!!! Well, just about everyone in our family but me!

Gardner Village

So a couple of weeks ago my sisters and I met up with my Mom to feed the fish and ducks at Gardner Village. Mom had been wanting to do that for a while and we finally got all together. The kids had fun of course. The witches were out so that was fun to see. It was fun to get out and do something different. We had to stop at the candy store of course, 'cause what's a day at Gardner Village without a trip into the candy store?!

WeeMama and the chillin'


Michelle and Caroline


Caroline and Elizabeth


The Fam


Who Michelle turns into when she has to get the house ready for a showing!


The Boys... Cooper and Will


Baby Girl


WeeMama and Cooper

So sad

So yesterday I took Caroline and Cooper down to the basement 'cause Caroline wanted to play a computer game. I turned the computer on and then ran upstairs to find some packing tape so I could tape up some boxes while they were down there playing. Well, I was upstairs for maybe 3 minutes looking for the tape "gun", decided to just use scissors and started downstairs when I heard Cooper scream. It was the same scream as when Caroline is teasing him, so that's what I figured it was. When I got to the bottom of the stairs he was spitting and wipping his face and then I smelled it. Wood stripper! Some how Caroline had gotten the bottle open and poured it in a bowl in those few minutes I was upstairs. We think Cooper dipped his hands in it and tried to taste it, but realized it was nasty and was spitting it out and rubbing it off. I ran him upstairs and washed his hands and face off then tried dabbing it with a towel. All this white stuff was coming off. I thought it looked like wet paper towels coming off, but I was using a cloth towel. It was his face! I called poison control and they said I needed to get him into the ER because if he swallowed any it could be burning through his throat and stomach. It didn't look like anything had happened in his mouth, from what I could see. He wouldn't open his mouth very far, so I couldn't be sure. I called around and was saved AGAIN by Melinda who watched Caroline and Liz for me while I took Cooper and Isabelle to the ER. Well, already long story short, he seemed to be fine except for the burns on his face. He swallowed fine and didn't seem to have ingested any of it THANK GOODNESS! Well, it looks a lot worse today and he's having a hard time closing his mouth. I put up a before and after shot. We're getting family pictures done in about 9 days, so I hope it heals by then!

Before



Now