In reverse order....

Last weekend we headed down to Sandy to say our goodbye's to Jill and Maya before they headed out to Arizona. Brian had been sick a few days before so we were trying decide if he should go or not. He said he felt fine Friday morning, so we all packed in the car and headed out. That whole weekend he was on and off with his fever. Guess he wasn't really better. Long story short on him, turns out he had swine flu which developed into bronchial pneumonia. So far, no one else has gotten it. Brian had to cancel patients on Monday to make sure he was in the clear. The Dr's office sent him home with a mask. I thought this was so sad and so funny at the same time.

The morning it snowed the girls asked if they could play in the snow as soon as they got home from school. Elizabeth was so excited to build a snowman, and so proud that she and Caroline did it all by themselves. I was pretty impressed too. I don't remember playing in the snow being fun, but they were sure loving it. So cute to see them out there building a snowman together.

We went to the pumpking walk for FHE the other night. It was pretty cool. All the displays were things made out of pumpkins. They were very creative and the kids had fun trying to find the hiding M&M. After all the displays they had these wooden stands you could put your face up to.


Why the tears you ask? Poor poor Cooper.

Unfortunately, he thought he was supposed to stick his head through, which he managed to do just fine, it was getting it back out that was the hard part. His poor ears were being smashed so bad. It took about 5 minutes to figure out how to get his head out. I thought we were going to have to cut his head out. I mean, it's not like peanut butter is going to help him in this case. His ears have red marks on them from squeezing through. So sad. We tried to get a picture of him doing it the right way, but he was scared of it and wouldn't go by it.




It was a fun night and we'll have to go back next year. Best part...it's free.


We also managed to do our pumpkins a few weeks ago, another FHE. Gotta love the holidays for easy ideas. Brian wanted to carve his, so Elizabeth wanted to, then followed by Caroline. I'm all about painting them. Easier and safer! Isabelle, Cooper and I painted ours. I didn't get a picture of Isabelle because she started eating the paint and I had to get it away before she overdosed on acrylic paint! :)




And just because I thought this picture was cute...

Happy Halloween!

Reminiscing

I've been going through my pictures to pull out all my "work" pictures and came across a few that I love. I know people say that your kids grow up before you know it and that you'll wish they were kids again. I've often felt that it goes by at normal speed if not a little slow, and that I can't wait for them to get older, but then I see their baby pictures and pictures from when they were younger and it makes me a little sad that they are getting older. I would like to be a little less depended on sometimes, but then I think that one day I'll look back and think "what was I thinking?!". I know a lot of times I gripe about my kids and their exuberant amount of energy, but I do love them! One on one we do a lot better. Heck, two on one even. When I do get the chance to have just one or two of them, I see how enjoyable they really can be. I love my munchkins. These 2 pictures tugged on a heart string for me.

Oh those eyes!

I love Cooper's brown eyes, but sometimes it's hard to get the light into them. Even though this one isn't in color, I love the way his eyes look. Such a sweet boy. (click on the picture to see it larger)

Oh my...

So this is what happens when I work at my computer and leave lunch on the kitchen table! OH, that's peanut butter by the way.

The Burning Bush

Brian came home from work one day and said, "don't you just love that burning bush?". I had to agree. One of the prettiest changes of fall if you ask me. So, Brian got a new lens and I grabbed Cooper, bribed him with chocolate and snapped a few pics. I only got the girls to sit still for like 1 sec. I really like this new lens Bri got for work. I hope I get to use it a little. Here are a few pics from our minute in front of our house with the burning bush.

Gotta Love Sundays!

I was trying to decide on what to write about for this past week. I had a few ideas on my list I could blog about:
1. Finding a dead mouse in our front yard
2. Finally figuring out how the mouse died
3. Taking the kids to a pumpkin launch and Lowe's for their cute kids workshop
4. Isabelle's endless screaming tantrums
5. My hot date to dinner and a movie where we were the only ones in the theater :)
6. How my camera has been in the shop for nearly 7 weeks and I want to kill the guy
7. How my sister and her fam are moving to Arizona in a few weeks
8. How Brian got his new ceiling tv's in his office
9. Or his new cerec machine

But the winner out of all these things is....... drum roll please.......
Sacrament Meeting!!!!

I know what you're thinking. How exciting could that be. Well, read on my dear friends and you will see.
Brian and I were asked to speak in church this week. I was already feeling a little more responsibility since I got called to teach the 15-16 year olds in Sunday School and this was going to be my first lesson. Well, aside from all the drama (aka Satan) this week while trying to prepare my talk, it was nothing compared to actually giving the talk. I mean first off, what were they thinking, asking us, with no family nearby, to both speak. What are we to do with the kids? Sure, we could have asked someone to watch them, but who do we punish? We're too new to really know. So we both sat in the congregation until Sacrament was over. Cooper was already fussy before the meeting started because he wanted to go straight to nursery. Isabelle was fussy because... well that's just how she is these days. I swear it's the dang teeth and I sure hope so because otherwise, she may be living with relatives shortly! Well, before we even got through the sacrament, all the "food" I brought for Isabelle was eaten up by her siblings (thanks to Bri :)) and 2 of my treats needed for my lesson. No real biggie though.
Well I was first to speak. I was already frustrated and frazzled more than I wanted to be from the fighting over who gets what pencil, or someone using someone else's coloring book, or questions every 5 sec (no exaggeration!) about whatever. I could not get the Spirit and was not looking forward to my talk. I used to love giving talks and enjoyed preparing them but I guess that was before I had 4 people so dependent on me 18/7. As soon as I got started, Cooper was on the stage. Brian quickly grabbed him and calmed him down. I went on talking a little about our family and mentioning a little something on the kids in hopes that it would get their attention and distract them from whatever commotion they were causing. Like for Cooper, I talked about how he has potty trained himself in the last 2 weeks. Why is this important to note? Read on.
My talk went fine. I actually did feel the Spirit while I gave it and especially when I bore my testimony about the Savior. It's been too long since I've shared my testimony. I used to be a lot better about it, but I'm not sure why lately. No good excuse really I guess. I went and sat down and after the musical number it was Brian's turn. As soon as he started talking, Cooper ran up and latched, no lie, on his leg. I had to rip him off. He was screaming, " I want Daddy". Nice drama scene for our new ward. So I had to calmly walk him off the stage, in which moment he chose to right hook me right in the back of the head. A loud chorus of "oohhhhhh" rang through the chapel. Nice Cooper! So I walked him out the door while mouthing to my parent-less children for Elizabeth to bring Isabelle to me. I guess she didn't get it because I waited out in the foyer for a minute at which point I heard Brian thank a lady over the speakers for getting Isabelle. After about 2 minutes of hearing her scream over the speakers, I went back to the door to get her. Oh lovely!
The rest of sacrament meeting went fine as far as I know since all the trouble was out in the foyer with me. While we were out there I thought I'd run Cooper to the bathroom. At home, he's a sitter, but taking all the socks and shoes and pants off are a little much, so standing is a little unfamiliar. Once he began, there was no stopping it and it was shooting all over the place and no matter how I tried to direct it, "it" had a mind of its own. Luckily no one else was in there while I was trying to clean it all up and yell at Isabelle to stay away from the other toilets. AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Once the meeting was over, I took Cooper to nursery and then went to teach my lesson. Through about 75% of it I heard Isabelle screaming outside my door. She knows where I am and since she isn't well behaved enough to stay in Sunday school, she walks to my door. Then there was the drama of Cooper screaming out my door because Brian was trying to take him to the bathroom. Oh joy! There wasn't any other major drama. Just minor when I was actually making it through Relief Society because Isabelle was being fairly good. The door opened and there was Cooper. "Does he need to go to the bathroom?" I asked. "He already did". Of course, since I mentioned he was potty trained, he had to make me a liar. With 15 min. left, I tried to find which room Brian was in and get him because I couldn't carry Isabelle, a 15 pound diaper bag and a wet child all out to the car. After 3 doors, I finally found him and he helped me load them up.
That's where the church drama ended, but don't think that's where the drama ended! The whole day has been endless drama. Sorry Satan, but you're wasting your time. I've hit my limit. Go bug somebody else!
Gotta' love sundays!

Not yet!

I woke up this morning and the first phrase that came in my head was one from my dear sister Jill:
" "H" no!".
And yes, she does just say the letter "H". We had snow on our grass. This was later in the day at the view out our front door.

How about a little more of this before the snow!

Nothin' but a normal week

Our week in review:

There was some marker play. She wanted to be a scary monster.

A number of faces like this: "seriously Mom! Another picture?!"

Yesterday's hair-do and last nights PJ's = next days outfit!

A little TV time.

Creative play and sister bonding time when TV was shut off

Another round of potty training (after constantly finding him with his diaper off, sitting on the potty. This round has been pretty easy so far!)

A few trips to the naughty corner. A sweet moment of consoling.

A billion messes to clean. A few extra special ones: diarrhea not quite to the toilet, potty training poopy in the pants, chocolate smeared in the carpet, fruit fly bodies.

A few faces to make you laugh. (Notice the new empty slots. Yup, 2 more in 2 days)

A few faces to make you chuckle

A few faces to make you smile

A few faces to melt your heart

A few faces to make you feel extremely blessed! I love my crew!

A little piece of heaven

Brian and I had a great weekend in Arizona at the Scottsdale Fairmont Hotel. It was amazing. I was a little worried as to whether or not I was going to get to enjoy it because Thursday I woke up and had a major headache followed by a sore throat. By the time my parents got to our house (they were so kind and willing to watch our kids) I was drained and fighting fever and chills. That night Brian asked me, " are you sure you don't want to stay home?". He's obviously never experienced being a sick mother! I said,"I'd much rather be sick in a hotel than sick at home!" Of course my parents would have taken care of me since they were already up here. They wouldn't leave me hangin'!
Well, we flew out Friday afternoon and in the airport I thought I was going to die. I was absolutely freezing and I don't remember ever having a sore throat like this. I couldn't even swallow spit. Gross, I know. But that meant for sure no food. I didn't eat until 5:00 that night. After my fever broke on the airplane, I was dying for some cool air, but then it made me freeze again 'cause it was cooling all the sweat. Gross I know yet again. I don't even take Ibeuprofen after a baby, so that's just letting you know how bad it was for me to take it. I stay away from medicine if I can, but it was extremely painful in my head and throat! Well, before we left for the airport, I asked Brian and my Dad for a blessing, so that combined with never letting Ibeuprofen out of my system, I was able to enjoy the trip.
We got there that night around 4:00 and had to hurry and get ready for the dental meetings that night. They had some great speakers and left some great impressions. After the meeting, some reps took us out to dinner, which was delicious. We didn't end up getting back to the hotel until close to 11:00. By then we were ready to crash!
We woke up the next morning and I ran over to the center with Brian to grab breakfast and then he headed on to more meetings and I headed back to the hotel for some truly solo time. It's not often that I'm without my kids, let alone my husband. I love them all, but to really relax "my way", I have to be without any of them. That way I can do what I want with no reserve. I took a long bath while reading a book (that never happens!) then laid in bed for a little bit to watch a little tv. A waste some of you may say, but I never get to watch anything I want during the day, so I watched a little home renovating. Then I headed out to the pool, book in hand and stayed out there until lunch time. I met up with Brian again and then stayed for another seminar and some hands on time with an updated piece of equipment he was wanting to get.
After the seminars and a little relax time, we met up with my cousin and her kids that live out close to where we were. We got some pizza, had a little chat time and then we headed back to the hotel to relax for a little bit before crashing for the night. The hotel was beautiful!


This is one of the pools lit up at night.


This is the pool that was right out our front door. They had 3 pools. 2 adult pools and another one that was more for kids with a shallow area, tubes and 2 big water slides. I sat by that one at first and all I could think about was how much my kids would have loved being there.


Everything there is so classy. This was the lobby and it was just beautiful!


Unfortunately my lens is still getting fixed, so I didn't have a very wide angle and this was as good as it got. This was our bathroom. You can't see all of it. There were 2 sinks, a built in laundry basket, a great tub and shower and all the fixtures, handles counter tops, everything was top notch.

The sunset our last night was beautiful. We were out enjoying the pool and I had to leave Brian so I could go grab my camera to try and catch it.


They have all these great spots around the pools. Here Brian is on one of the beds that you can lay out on. They have tented areas where you can be shaded from the sun and all the chairs are so comfy. At the kids pool they had a huge playground just up the steps, a covered sandbox, basketball hoops and vball net. Playtime everywhere!


Since my lens was too much of a zoom, I had to photostitch these last 2 together to show you the view out from the pool and our room. Next time I'll make sure I have a wider angle lens.


It was a great time and it's always nice to have adult time. Thanks to Mom and Dad for watching our kiddos and having fun with them while we were gone.

What's up doc?

This last week was fun and semi-eventful. In no particular order....

After a few drives back and forth to Bear Lake we noticed there were Elderberry bushes in the mountains. After some debate on whether or not it was stealing to pick the berries (in the wild on the side of the road) we decided to pick some and make some jelly. Brian grew up on this jelly and they never got sick. I've heard great things about the berry and thought we should give it a try since everytime Caroline gets sick it goes right to her lungs, and maybe it will help ward off the swine flu. :) It was quite a process. The worst part was picking the little suckers off the branch. It took literally hours. Brian was the main maker here. He loved making it. Hope this bit lasts a while 'cause I'm in no hurry to make more!

Elizabeth and I need to have another date night. They are so good for both of us and so fun. No other kiddos tuggin' at your legs, just me and Elizabeth. And... you find out the funnies things like this....

We walked into Sam's club and she said, "when I was little I used to think that was the Holy Ghost". Talking about the tire guy. How funny is that. We've been into Sam's a number of times, but this was the first time I'd ever heard it. I thought that was so funny, had to whip out the camera of course.

Well part of our date was to find her a church dress. Let me just say that I cannot believe how much little girls dresses cost!!! We went to a few mall places first and then Old Navy and Kohls. All except for Old Navy, the dresses were $50. I haven't ever spent that much money on a dress for me!!! Well, except for my wedding dress, and that was paid for by the ma and pa of course. (Thanks!) We finally found one on clearance at Kohl's. I showed Bri and do you know what the first thing he said was? "It looks like you". But it's true. It's "hippie-ish" which I'm not a hippie dresser, but it's got the pattern, bell sleeves and such. It's way cute one her.
While at Old Navy she wanted to go to each manaquin and say hello. She was being silly of course. After our success at finding a dress and a long sought after necklace (like the 3rd replacement), we ran to the store and grabbed some treats and then headed out to see Up in the theater. We don't take them to movies, well ever really because the last time we went it was a nightmare. We have yet to make it through a whole movie with all the family there at the end. It's been over a year though. Elizabeth has always been good. She's a movie junkie. It was fun. It's so fun to see the magic in their eyes as they watch things. I love being able to spend time with them 1 on 1. I see a totally different side and helps remind me why I love them so much.


Cooper seemed to have contracted the cough the girls got. Caroline had it in PA and Randy prescribed some medicine for her and thankfully she got better. Elizabeth got it a week later and Cooper a week after that. Cooper was on and off with the fever and was coughing ALL THE TIME!!! So after almost 2 weeks, we took him in and turns out he had pnuemonia. Blah! Apparently there are several different strains of pneumonia and he caught the only contageous one, from Caroline we're sure! He's doing better now, meaning he's actually eating and getting off the couch, but this was pretty much his whole day for about a week.

Caroline has been anticipating the start of pre-school for who knows how long, but the day finally arrived. She was so excited to wear her new outfit and head over to the "school". It's in a lady's basement and on the front there's a rainbow. If the rainbow has a smiley face on it then she's ready for the kids to come in. If not, they need to wait. When I took her over and we were waiting outside, I was talking to another lady in the neighborhood. I missed the teacher coming outside and turning the rainbow face because I look up, the teacher is out and Caroline is running, infront of all the other kids. She didn't even let me give her a kiss goodbye. She did turn around at the top of the stairs and say, "the rainbow's smiling Mom!" and then ran in. It was so cute how excited she was!