Isn't She Lovely

Walk down memory lane with that song; I used to sing it to Mercy while dancing around the living room to get her to go to sleep when she was a newborn... it doesn't FEEL like that was so long ago, but 6 years... whoa.



Anyways, the title is actually not about her. It's about this one.




Yep, we had our 20 week ultrasound, with my mum and all three kids in tow. We let Mercy ditch school because she missed the first ultrasound and really, really wanted to be there to find out if Lizard {since J was so insistent that the baby was actually a lizard, not a baby} was a boy or a girl. We had an awesome ultrasound tech who pointed everything out to us, telling us what was being measured and how it all looked. Mercy was into it, Porter was 'eh' on it and J was a bit creeped out by it. Ha! Finally she asked if we wanted to know what the baby is. I think my mum was about to jump out of her skin with excitement. So she moved the wand down to the baby's bottom area and I knew as soon as I saw.



We are definitely thinking pink here.



Mercy is over the moon excited for a sister. To be truthful I think she would have been fine with a baby brother too, she's not one of those kids that really forms an opinion and is heartbroken to find out they're wrong. She's been quite... interesting... with her name suggestions, but none is better than Jameson's idea. He thinks baby girl should be named Broccoli. After his favorite food. Erm...

We're all very happy, but we're mostly just happy that the baby is looking happy and healthy. We don't have any name for baby girl just yet, but I'm sure she'll have one within a few days of being born at the latest. I'm having a hard time believing that the holidays are almost upon us and after they're over, the next big event will be baby girl's arrival. This pregnancy is flying by so much faster than any of my other ones, which is probably good because I'm not the most patient person in the world. Plus all the junk that's been going down lately... well, I'll save that for a post tomorrow perhaps. Let's just say that when it rains, it pours, and I'm feeling quite soaked right now.

Comic Relief

So we haven't been having the best medical news lately, but we have to keep ourselves smiling, right? Mercy turned six in August and for her birthday CJ had the briiiiiiiiiilliant idea {sarcasm, yes.} to get her a cat. Ever since Isis passed away she's been asking for a cat, and being the sucker that he is for her, he told her she could have one. At first she had her heart set on one named Tootie at the Humane Society, but I have to admit I was secretly relieved when Tootie got adopted by someone else. I can just imagine the jokes and giggles that the boys would have at that poor cats expense for the rest of her life. So we ended up getting Sparkel from a vet's office. No idea on her background other than she's a year old and had a litter of kittens before she hit her birthday. What a hooch. She's fixed now, no more kittens in her future. Yes, her name is Sparkel. It *was* Sparkle as per Mercy's decision {she couldn't think of a name and after tossing out about 50, I blurted Sparkle out and she latched on. Sigh. Such a girl.} but when we took her back to the vet to get de-uterus'd, they wrote her name as Sparkel on her records. How you screw up the name Sparkle, I will never know. Anyways, ever since then CJ and I have an ongoing joke about it, and I can't call her Sparkle without sounding french and turning it into sounding more like "sparkelle". Childish, right? But that's how I roll.
Anyways. She's really not a bad cat, very patient with the boys. Porter doesn't really care all that much but Jameson finds her fascinating and can usually be found watching her and laughing hysterically at whatever she's doing. Even just cleaning her face. She mostly sleeps on Mercy's bed except for when Mercy locks her out of her room for playing with her Littlest Pet Shop toys when Mercy's trying to go to sleep. Sparkel is a big jerky bully to poor Molly though {our big, shmoopy black lab}. First time they met she about took a piece out of poor Molly, and ever since then Molly's been terrified of her and won't walk past her unless one of us is with her. Seriously, dog? You're 5 times her size. You could sit on her skinny butt and not even notice. Dog up, dude!! But no, poor wimpy Molly cowers in fear of her now, and Sparkel has taken to taunting Molly when Molly is outside by standing at the sliding glass door and just staring at her. Molly won't even eat her food when she does that.
Okay, so here she is, is all her ferociousness.

Wierdest colored cat.





Don't look her in the eyes!!


Ahhh!! The beast is out!! For the love of Pete, run for your liiiiiiiiives!!!!!



Other forms of entertainment in the house? Digging with dollies. I came out of my room one day and found this scene in the hallway. Completely abandoned, not a child in sight. I wish they'd stuck around because I would have loved to have their commentary on it...

Poor Cinderella didn't make it.


The scene of the crime. Apparently someone was trying to hide the bodies of some princesses and their pets. Perhaps a reenactment of a revolution? Who knows.


Jasmine somehow got turned into a mermaid, and Ariel... well, all that was found of her was her bottom half. *shudder*

8 Years, 10 Months.

8 years, 10 months.

Wondering what the significance of that number is?

It's not my age {though I might possibly act that age on occasion}.
It's not a birthday.
It's not our anniversary.

It's how old Mercy's bones are.

{double take}

What? But she's only *counting years on fingers* 6 years and 1 month old. And 10 days, if you want to get technical. How is that possible?

Because Mercy has something called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. Ever heard of it? We hadn't, until about two weeks ago when the pediatric endocrinologist called to tell us that M's bloodwork had come in and that's what she has.

Need a bit of a rewind, don't we.

Anyone who's met Mercy has noticed how tall she is. Let's be real, she's a giant for her age. The tallest in her class, despite being the youngest. People don't expect it when we say that she just turned 6 last month. She also had some other things going on that I'm just not really okay with putting out there in cyberspace, but suffice it to say that finally I had enough and after talking with a good friend about my concerns, I was finally validated into feeling that I wasn't being the paranoid momma and that we needed to have a good talk with our pediatrician. Our pediatrician rocks. Really, I absolutely adore him. He remembers things that are going on with our kids {or at least bothers to write it on their charts and then read their charts before our appointments} and most of all, he TAKES ME SERIOUSLY. That's my biggest thing, after our last pediatrician blew me off about my concerns with Mercy's lack of speech at 2 years and made me feel like a worrywart. Thanks again Dr. L. So glad we're not with you anymore. Anyways. We went to the office at the beginning of June and I started telling Dr. Smith about my concerns with M's growth and other stuff, and began to feel like I was being overly paranoid. But he immediately did a physical on her and agreed with me that something wasn't right. WHAT?! I wasn't being paranoid? Dr. Smith wrote me a referral right there to go see the pediatric endocrinologist department at UMC in Tucson, and told me that while he didn't know exactly what was going on, we needed to get this checked out as soon as we could. Doctor crush, right there.

Being that they're the only pediatric endocrinologists in southern Arizona, our appointment was at the end of August. The office was great, the nurses very sweet, and Dr. Wheeler was awesome. He asked us for every concern that we could think of, even if it was small. He wrote everything down that we told him. Her height, her starting to get acne, her other things. He noted that she was diagnosed with a moderate to severe speech and social delay, but that she'd surpassed them and was excelling in school now. Just everything possible we could think of, he noted it. He did a thorough exam on her, and gave us a list of tests he wanted run. He wanted a bone scan and blood tests to the umpteenth. He explained that he didn't know what was going on, but that the bone scan would tell us the age of her bones, and the blood tests would tell us what was out of sync in her body. Very kind, very caring and very serious about finding it out. Mercy was a trooper, an absolute trooper. When we went to get her blood taken I got mine done at the same time {for the pregnancy} so that she would know what was going on beforehand. She didn't even flinch when the tech put the needle in her arm, all she said was "that hurt". They took 6 vials that day, just to give you a guess at how many tests the doctor had ordered. Six vials from my 6 year old. She thought the bone scan was pretty cool, even though they didn't show it to her then.

Then, about two weeks ago Dr. Wheeler called me and told me that the tests had come back, she has something called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia and was not producing enough {or any, I can't remember exactly what he said as I was trying to process it all} cortisol so we needed to get her started on taking hydrocortisone pills. Basically she lacks an enzyme needed by the adrenal gland to make the hormones cortisol and aldosterone. Without those hormones, her body produces more androgen, which is a type of male sex hormone. If you really want to know more, I found the CARES Foundation to really be helpful but not overwhelming.

So what does this mean? She'll take hydrocortisone for the rest of her life, but CAH patients have normal lives for the most part as long as they keep up on their meds and are watched by their endocrinologists. This is not something she'll outgrow or be cured of. She'll most likely be on the shorter side of normal height due to the rapid growth early in childhood {which is why her bones are older than she is}, she'll stop growing when most kids are starting their main growing period. She may have fertility problems. Not so worried about that one just yet. Again, if you want to know more, the CARES Foundation website is really informative. CAH is the most common genetic "disease", so in our own way, we're lucky.

And yeah, it's genetic. In order for someone to have CAH, both their parents have to be carriers. It's recessive, so carriers don't have CAH themselves. The odds go something like we have a 1 in 4 chance of having a child who is unaffected, 2 in 4 chance of having a child who is a carrier but unaffected, and a 1 in 4 chance of having a child with CAH. The boys are going to be tested for CAH now, since it isn't as obvious in boys as in girls {due to boys having androgen present anyways}. And we're not sure what to do about this baby. The endocrinologist said the only way to really know is with an amniocentesis, but we are most likely not going that route since the risks outweigh the benefits at this point. We'll have our "big" ultrasound at the end of October and we'll see what they see then, I suppose, and take it from there.

Whew. That felt therapeutic. I still feel overwhelmed at times, but I'm trying to remember how lucky we are that this is all it is, if that makes sense. When we were talking to the endocrinologist on Tuesday, he told us they had a little newborn at UMC right now who has a severe form of CAH and is fighting for his little life right now. We made it six years before the CAH was diagnosed, which means she has a milder form called late onset CAH. Mercy is happy with the idea that she gets a pretty new bracelet that she has to wear all the time {she has to get a medical alert bracelet-if something happens to her she needs to triple her hydrocortisone or else get a shot of hydrocortisone, to keep her from going into adrenal crisis} and always reminds us to give her the pills at breakfast and dinner.

She's still Mercy, we're still us, just a bit wiser.

Mercy's bone scan. She was 6 years exactly when it was taken. Her bones date at 8 years, 10 months. That's a 2 and a half year difference.

March Madness

Yes, the rumors are true. March madness will hit here around St. Patrick's Day 2011. That is the time that our final four will be announced. We're having another baby-- okay, really just me. CJ just gets to pretend like he's suffering with me. Not really that fair, if you think about it... anyways.
We've known since after the reunion in July, but I'm one of those paranoid people that doesn't like to tell anyone {well... *almost* anyone...} until I've either heard or seen the heartbeat. Unfortunately, while my doctor rocks and is the best doctor EVER, she doesn't usually see patients until they're in the second trimester, so we didn't have an appointment with her until last week. Mercy was in school but we took the boys. We hadn't told the kids yet, so right before Dr. Lotke came in CJ told them. Porter said "okay" {he's not one of many words} but Jameson said "no. no baby." Um... too late, little man. Luckily once the doctor went over the usual stuff, she busted out the ultrasound machine for us so we all got to see the baby. Well... what we thought was a baby. According to mister J, it is NOT a baby, but in fact a lizard. He's quite positive of that. Porter was fascinated by the baby, who was very wiggly and squirmy so the only photo the doctor got for us was of the top of the head. But a photo is a photo is a photo in my mind! When we picked up Mercy and got her home, we showed her the photo and told her about the baby. She's very excited, which is great! Last time she was still so little that she didn't really get/care about what was going on, but now I get to use this to my advantage. Example: she was playing with my hair {heaven...} and was stopping, but I told her that the baby gets mad when she stops, so she kept going. Evil? No... creative? Yes. Her teacher is also pregnant and due about a month after me, so she's already been hearing about baby talk.

To answer some possible questions:

No, we will not be naming the baby Patrick, Patricia, or Pat. And since I tend to always go past my expected due date, I'm not banking on having the baby by then anyways.

Yes, I'll be going for another VBA2C. I'm seriously almost as excited about this as I am having a new, snuggly being in the house, since my last delivery was absolutely what I wanted! And yep, my doctor is a-ok with me having another one, in her words "if you pushed out an almost 9 lb baby, why wouldn't you be able to do it again?" Again... love. her.

Yes, this is our last baby. Unless we win the lotto, and then maybe we'll reconsider. But even then... no, we wouldn't.

Yes, I've been sick. Not pukey sick, but lots of nauseousness. And you should all be proud of me, I've had to give up drinking Coke because apparently baby and my tummy don't agree with it. Sigh.

Yes, I'm having cravings. Apparently this baby is much more tied into my Canadian roots than my other three, because I've been constantly craving things only found in Canada, like All Dressed chips {thank heavens for saints like Dawn, who mailed me a package of them!! LOVE HER!!}, ketchup chips, dill pickle chips, Wunderbars, Crispy Crunch, poutine {don't ask, it's something you have to try before you get the definition}, Swiss Chalet... oh, to go home for just a week. I swear I could blow a boatload of cash just sending home goodies to stock up on. Luckily I have friends in high places as well as a mother who happens to be going to Canada in a few weeks, so I'm being stocked up.

Yes, I hid it from most of you very well. Please forgive me/us!! I really did want to tell those of you that we were face to face with, especially on our vacation this summer, but I'm a paranoid person by nature. I promise to share my Canadian goodies with you if you forgive me.

No, I'm not getting enough sleep. So if anyone wants to come and stay here for a few days so I can go off by myself and just sleep, that would rock. {end of October, here I come! CJ and I are going to San Diego by ourselves for his cousin's wedding, and mum is staying with the kiddos here. Can't wait!!}

Yes, we'll be finding out the gender this time. I know we didn't find out with Jameson and it was a really cool experience, but with this being our last, I just want to know.

Yes, Jameson has come around to the idea of a baby. He told me today that he was going to be nice and share his toys with the baby, so hopefully he's a man of his word and actually does. We'll see though... he's a trickster.

No, we're not really hoping for a specific gender. It would be nice to have another girl and even it all out, but I also think it would be neat to have another little boy and Mercy to be the princess of the family. So either way, it's a win/win situation in my eyes.

That's really all the questions I can think of... we should be having our gender ultrasound either at the end of October or the beginning of November, so we'll know soon. I can't believe it's that fast!

Sweet, Sick Boy

I realize I haven't posted in ages, including our big family reunion and trip, but that will come. I've been wanting to post this for the record for a bit, but at first I was too emotional, and then I just wanted to avoid it, but now I'm just doing it. Follow all that?

My sweet, happy little Porter got sick a few weeks ago. He'd been having allergies, and I thought they were finally calming down, but then he got sick again. He woke up on Saturday and was fine at first, but then got tired and lay down on the couch and fell asleep. He woke up mid-morning and started throwing up, poor boy. I cleaned him up and put him in his bed, where he fell asleep again. We watched the BYU football game and he woke up towards the end, cheerful but coughing a cough that he hadn't had before and I hadn't ever heard before. He came and snuggled with me on the couch for a bit, then tried to eat a bit but that came back up too, so I sent him back to bed and he was fine with that. He fell back asleep and slept off and on for the rest of the afternoon into the evening, which is when CJ and I noticed his breathing was funny, he just looked like he was working pretty hard for each breath. We tried rolling him on his side and saw a big sweatmark the shape of his whole body from where he'd been laying in bed, but he had no fever. CJ took his pulse and it was at the very top of where it should be, and we counted his breaths and decided to call the doctor. We called the after hours service and the doctor called us back about an hour later, and once he heard our concerns he didn't like what we said about his breathing, and told us to take Porter to the E.R. Since it was after 10PM we decided that I would go with Porter and CJ would stay home with Mercy and Jameson, who were both sleeping.
We loaded Porter into the car with the stroller and his Thomas blanket and he and I drove over to the hospital. Once I told the nurse what was going on she checked his oxygen saturation (hopefully that's the right term) and it was below 85, I can't remember what it was but it wasn't good. They put him on oxygen and got us back into a room. They tried giving him a shot of epinephrine in case his allergies had gotten really severe and it was an allergic reaction or something, but that didn't have any effect except to make him cry. Then they gave him an albuterol treatment with the nebulizer, and then the doctor came back and ordered a chest x-ray. At this point I'm freaking out because I thought it was just severe allergies or something, but it obviously was something bigger. Once the x-ray came back the nurse came and told me we'd be staying the night, it looked like Porter had pneumonia. They gave him some more medication, again, no idea because it was about 1AM by this time and I was trying to process the information as well as deal with my own allergies, which were stuffing me up and making my head feel huge. We got into our new room about 2AM, the hospital put him in a private room and brought a bed in so I could stay in the same room with him. The nurses were really great and sweet, and Porter finally got to sleep.
SUNDAY: We were woken up about 7AM by the new nurses and the food services, and Porter must have gotten plenty of sleep the day before because he was wide awake. I was struggling, just not enough sleep! We were really lucky, the whole time we were in there we had wonderful, sweet nurses who just bent over backwards trying to make Porter comfortable and happy. And I gotta say, the hospital food was really good! Mercy's best friend, Willow, and her awesome family came to visit us and brought Porter a new Bumblebee toy to play with and a book and sanity saving things for me, Porter really appreciated the company! CJ also stopped by in the morning with our great friend Tim, so that Porter could have a blessing. Dr. Price (not our normal pediatrician, but he's in our practice) came around to check on Porter and update me. He let me know we wouldn't be leaving that day, Porter just wasn't responding to the meds as well as they hoped. That was a shock, and hard to explain to Porter why we couldn't go home just yet, he was really missing home. The nurse found out that he loves Scooby D00 and brought him this entertainment center on wheels thing with a DVD player and Nintendo Gamecube, and she brought him the Scooby Doo movie to watch, as well as some other cartoons and movies to watch. Again, so grateful for our nurses! They also let him take the oxygen tubes off, and he did great, kept his levels up. CJ brought Mercy and Jameson to visit for a little bit after they got out of church, and you could tell Porter really missed Jameson, and likewise for Jamie. Mercy was fascinated with all the things in the hospital, from the oxygen tubes going in Porter's nose to the pulse ox on his finger. It was hard to say goodbye to them when they left. The goal to get Porter released from the hospital was for him to be able to go all night without needing oxygen, but unfortunately that night, within about an hour of him falling asleep, his oxygen levels started dropping again, so they had to put him back on the oxygen. The night nurse kept trying to take him off it, but every time she did his oxygen would drop again. So another night for us.
MONDAY: Another day, another dime... Luckily we had fun visitors to help keep our spirits up. MaryBeth, Rick and Tatiana came to visit us and brought Porter a Play-Doh set (seriously... most genius gift ever. ever.) and candy and a coloring book and crayons. And sweet, sweet chocolate for me. The company was the best part, MaryBeth can make me laugh anytime I talk to her, and I really needed it then. CJ came to visit with Mercy and Jameson again, and they got to stay for a nice long time. The food services lady brought Porter lunch while they were there, and she went and got Mercy and Porter french fries, cookies and ice cream so that they wouldn't feel left out. So nice! Sister Steventon, our Primary President, came to visit too, how she heard about Porter in the hospital I don't know, but I'm going to suspect.... MaryBeth? I really don't know! Then in the afternoon Porter's best friend Isaac came to visit with Kim and his brother Spencer, along with a balloon. You can bribe Porter with a balloon, I swear. The boys got hooked on Scooby Doo and just hung out while I got to have chat time with Kim. Truly, we are such lucky people. The nurse also let us go out for a walk, which Porter loved. He was so happy to get out of the room for awhile. The hardest part of the day was figuring out what to do for the night. We got lucky in that CJ had Saturday-Sunday off, but he had to work Monday night. We were so lucky, again, to have great friends, and we had offers for Jameson and Mercy to stay with a few different friends. We ended up having Mercy stay at Willow's house since she's really comfortable with both Martha and Johnnie and I knew she'd be happiest with them, and then lovely, lovely MaryBeth came and stayed at our house from 7:30PM til when CJ got home in the early morning, so that Jameson could sleep in his own bed. His bedtime is between 7 and 7:30mPM so he was asleep the whole time and had no idea what was going on, since by the time he woke up, CJ was home. Truly a massive weight lifted off my chest when MaryBeth offered to stay at our house, Jamie's never stayed away from either CJ or me, so I was really worried what we should do. MaryBeth, you are an angel, really. Thank you so much. Porter also managed to stay off oxygen the whole night, which meant we could go home the next day!
TUESDAY: Home. The doctor gave us our marching orders in the morning, and we got out just before lunchtime, armed with a brand new nebulizer and list of instructions as well as medicines. Porter was so glad to get home, him and Jameson went right into their room and started playing with the toys that Porter missed, and then with the Play-Doh. I think that's about the time that I was hit with the emotional wall and sniffled my way through the rest of the day.
I know it's not nearly as scary as what many others have been through, but for our first E.R. visit, it was quite the ordeal in our minds. I'm glad that Porter's completely recovered, and so quickly, and I'm glad for the prayers that were offered for us, as well as the visits and the calls and the dinners (THANK YOU LAUREL AND LYNSY!!). They truly made us feel so loved.

The first night.


Sunday, when they let him take the oxygen off. Seeing him so pale still makes me sad.


Sunday night, started off good with no oxygen...

but then it started dropping.


So the oxygen got put back on.

Playing with Mercy and Jameson

Monday night, no oxygen all night!


YAY!!!!!!!!


Waiting for the doctor to release us!


Almost home!

(my kids are) Proud to be an American

Happy belated Independence Day!! It was a fun, fun, FUN weekend.

On Saturday we went to the annual Sierra Vista 3rd Ward breakfast and water fight. This year was fun because M and P really got into it. J hates getting squirted, so he just wanted to water the plants with his gun. Hahah!



On Sunday CJ had to work, so when our friends Lyndsy and Travis invited me to go to Veterans Memorial Park with them and check out the festivities, especially the chili cook-off, I jumped at the chance.

For a Canadian, I did pretty good on dressing the kids up in their patriotic finest, eh?


Love this boy! Such a goof.


This was a neat moment for me. We had our governor AND a congresswoman in town for our festivities (our town isn't exactly big either, so that was cool), so they had the guard come in with the flags as well as the mounted patrol, and everyone said the Pledge of Allegiance... including my little girl. It was neat to hear her say it, made me tear up.


The F-14 flyover. {hopefully that's right... I don't exactly know fighter jets well, and I have no memory at all, so I can't remember what they told us.}


M and her friend Alyssa. They went to Carmichael preschool together, and I love this girl! She and M just get along so well, and the fact that they both have the white blond hair going... it's too funny.
I actually think that the chili on their chins plus where they're missing teeth, it makes them look like vampires. Maybe I shouldn't have gone to the midnight showing of Eclipse... ever since then it's been vampires on the brain...



We're leaving in three days on Road Trip 2010, and the kids are SO excited. We're going to be stopping in Sedona, Cedar City (to see Mandy and Sam! woo!!), Salt Lake, then up to Yellowstone, then to the Humpherys Reunion 2010, then to NorCal. It's going to be a blast I hope!! We're excited to see everyone, family and friends.

She's Crossing That Rainbow Bridge...

And oh, how I'm going to miss her.

I've had the privilege and blessing of knowing Isis since I was 13 years old, I believe. She was a loud mouthed cutie patootie, and I had to have her. Her stripes, her long legs, her huge eyes... she captured me from the moment I met her.

She was my confidante during my teen years, when I needed a cuddle and someone who would listen to the ridiculous, what felt like drama-filled woes of an awkward girl in an awkward stage of life, and not try to correct me or guide me.

She used to wait around the corner for our other cat, a... ahem... large white grouch named Princess. Isis would watch the mirrors in our entryway for Princess to come waddling by, crouch down... and jump out right in front of Princess at the perfect moment, scaring the holy out of Princess, and then Isis would leap away down the hall. Oh man. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

She also had an obsession with never-blown-up balloons and elastic bands. She used to stalk them at night, pounce on them and then toss them up, play, all the funny stuff cats do with their toys. And sing. Oh good law, would she sing. The most unearthly, creepy, loud sound, I can't even imitate it without looking like a loonie. But as soon as the balloon got a few holes or the elastic broke, she was done. She wouldn't look at them again, apparently she only liked the good stuff.

She was such a great cat. Great with the kids, they all loved her. M especially. She just got to stay with my mum and Isis for two weeks, and got to take care of Isis. I tried explaining that Isis isn't doing well and that she was going to go to Heaven, but I don't know how much her 5 year old brain understood of that. We got on Skype tonight to say goodbye to Isis and let Mercy be able to tell her that she loves her and will see her again, so I'm glad we at least did that. We're going to miss calling grammy and hearing Isis meow to us when we would call to her on the phone.

I have so many more stories and all sorts of photos, but they're all in my head or not scanned in the computer, and sadly, this is all I have on here right now. I know she's "just a cat" to some people... but she was mine, and I've loved her even when she was driving me nuts.

Godspeed Icey cat. We love you so much, thank you for gracing us with your presence for so long. Cross that rainbow bridge and chase Princess across a field for me.

Maybe...

Maybe I don't need to be rich, famous, have fancy things and a huge house, or any of the stuff that most of us secretly wish for.

Maybe being me is okay.

Because it means I get to buy $1 watercolors from Walmart, fill some sparkly shaky cups up with water, and then I get to watch masterpieces being created right before my eyes.



I get to see the intense thought process that goes into creating a work of art.

Oh, those eyelashes.



I get to watch beauty creating beauty.



I see bystanders who appreciate art being created in front of them, even if they don't want to create themselves. They just want to snack and watch.



Maybe seeing the annoyance of an artist at having a camera in their face, maybe that's more entertaining than watching the latest TV show. It's certainly cuter.

Yes, definitely cuter. Even the "really... you're doing this now? I'm a little busy." look.

I get to appreciate the sheer amount of color that comes into your life when you have children. And I don't just mean the amazing variety of shades that Crayola has managed to come up with.

Maybe having a mess to clean up is okay, because of what and who created that mess.

Maybe I need to remember that more.

Yes, I definitely need to remember that more.

Teetering

Do you ever feel like you're teetering on the edge of something, unsure of whether to jump or not? The edge of greatness, edge of madness... the edge of something. That's where I feel like we are right now. Teetering. We're at the end of the school and joy school year, the end of ballet until August, the beginning of summer, the beginning of not having to do almost anything all week... I think that might be the scariest of all. Which is cuh-razy, since I love my sleep. Anyways...

I can't really say *why* exactly I'm feeling like this, it's probably just spring fever or the likes, but I still feel like it's time to take the leap.

I just need to figure out what that is.

I have a ton of things I want to do, or try to do, but the thought of starting to try them is giving me anxiety, because I'm kind of a chicken like that. For instance, I have a sewing machine, but the only thing I've made on it were tutus. Which turned out really cute, but if you think I've tried anything since them... no. Too chicken. I'd love to learn to make things, but I intimidate myself out of things so well.

So how do I get over these things? I probably just need to dive in head first and so on. But I am sooo not a good diver. Ugh. Sorry, I'm rambling all over the place.

And on another ramble.

We have been lucky lucky lucky enough to be getting a new Temple built that's two hours away. It's beautiful. Beeeautiful. They had an open house for it and my mum flew in so we got to go as a family and the kids got to see the inside of the Temple. P told me the Temple was NOT orange and blue like he thought it would be, but it is white and has lots of sparkles, and that he felt very happy when he was inside of it. Exact words: "mum, I was mad before I went in the temple, but then when I got i...nside, I wasn't mad anymore! It made me feel happy!" Be still my heart... J was most interested in the baptismal font, he said that it looked hot and that he wanted to go swimming in it. M was interested in the art, and really loved the celestial room. All in all, it was a beautiful, happy day. And of course I forgot the memory card for my camera, so this is from my mum's Blackberry.

Spring!

What have we been up to since I slacked off blogging...

Easter? Check! Photos of it? Not really! We went to an easter hunt put on by the station, it was awesome. P found the winning egg, the chocolate bunny in the winning basket he got melted in about 2 minutes, we did sack races, ate yummy food, got suntanned... and I left my camera at home for all of it. I stole Jessie's 40D and took photos on it, but I let her take it home and forgot to steal her memory card first. hahah! Must. Remember. And I have only a few photos from Easter Sunday because SOMEONE {cough, little miss M} woke up earlier than anyone else and decided to do the easter egg hunt around the house all by herself. And then woke up her brothers to give them their easter baskets that she'd found on her joyously alone hunt. Yep, by the time we woke up to the giggles and thumps, 50% of the candy had been eaten and all three were rapidly approaching a 8:30AM chocolate high. We made them stay in their rooms while we re-hid the eggs, so the boys still got to find eggs, but oh man. I wasn't very happy. It's funny now...

Sleepovers? Check! M has had her first, second and third sleepovers, all with her bestie Willow. The two of them... crackheads, that's all I can think of. I think this photo sums it up better than any words.

Coolest birthday party ever? Check! I'll save those photos for later. Adam=coolest kid in the class. We got to hold snakes, touch a live rattlesnake, touch a gila monster {google that if you don't know what it is}, I actually held a boa constrictor, we held chickens, {attempted to} hold turkeys, mice... super cool. We also went on the longest nature walk ever. Ever. I'm surprised we didn't lose anyone on it.

See old-new friends? Check! Ashley and her boys came to town and we got to play for a bit. I loved seeing J and Owen play. They're less than 6 hours apart in age, and right now they're about the exact same in everything. I know I keep saying it, but I'm gunning for them to be roomies in college or at the MTC. I wonder if you can put in requests for these things... Also got to see Amber and Brian. That was fun! Amber was the first friend I made here in Sierra Vista, and even though they moved back to the Promised Land {Utah}, we've kept in touch. No photos of that either, I forgot my camera yet again.

J and Owen hugging (so. CUTE.)

The almost-birthday twins.

The clan. (M has a musketeer mask on her head. Yeah... I don't know.)

Lost a dog? Check. Macey either got out or someone got her out. No idea how, because we're pretty sure she couldn't fit through our gate... This makes me horrible, but... I don't really miss her. She was nutso. The kids were a bit upset, but she knocked them down a lot, so they aren't as devastated as they would be if The Great Snoring One disappeared. That would be Molly, the one snoring away next to me now. I lub Molly, we've had her since we moved here in 2006 and she's the best dog in all of Sierra Vista {sorry Laurel. Molly totally rocks the socks off of Ziggy. I know you're crushed.}

Bless her cotton socks...

Got a new dog? Psych! Nope. Molly's loving being able to be with us all by herself.

Aaaaand.... that's all I remember. Or have photographic proof of...

Questions You Always Wanted to Know

Saw this on sweet Laurel's blog, and M is off to school and the boys aren't up yet, so why not!




1. What time did you get up this morning?
6:45. I sleep as much as I possibly can before I have to get the girl child up and ready.

2. Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds. Duh.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Valentines Day. Really liked it too!

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Hmm... probably Psych. I have a thing for Guster.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
I don't usually eat breakfast. {I know. bad habit. trying to get better at that}

6. What is your middle name?
Anne

7. What food do you dislike?
Tofu. It's just gross.

8. What is your favorite CD at moment?
Hmmm... probably Train's Save Me, San Fransisco. Or else Michael Buble's "Crazy Love". {how's that for a random pairing?}

9. What kind of car do you drive?
Toyota Sienna

10. Favorite sandwich?
Hm. Depends on the day, but sometimes all you need is a PB&J sandwich.

11. What characteristic do you despise?
Ignorance

12. Favorite item of clothing?
My ratty old blue Roots hoodie.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Right now it's Kenya. Ask me next week and it'll be completely different.

14. Favorite brand of clothing?
Roots. They're super comfortable and they last forever and a day.

15. where would you retire?
Nowhere. I see us getting one of those huge RVs and just putting around the country.

16. What was your most memorable birthday?
Hm. I really can't say, I've had some great birthdays. I guess my 21st, mum took me on a trip to London and Scotland, just the two of us.

17. Favorite sport to watch?
Anything other than baseball. I just can't get into it.

18. Furthest place you are sending this?
Uh... this is the world wide web, right? So... the furthest it chooses to go, I suppose.

19. Person you expect to send it back first?
You can't really send it back. You can repost it, I guess.

20. When is your birthday?
October 5th

21. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Night owl.

22. What is your shoe size?
Anywhere from 10 to 11, depending on the shoe. {darn pregnancies, blah. i used to be a 9.5, i'm not even kidding}

23. Pets?
We have Molly and Macey right now, but Macey is hopefully going to a new home soon.

24. Any new and exciting news you 'd like to share with us?
Nope. lol

25. What did you want to be when you were little?
A professional horseback rider

26. How are you today?
Pretty good. Only today and tomorrow and it's the weekend!

27. What is your favorite candy?
Swedish Fish or a Crispy Crunch. Yum yum yum.

28. What is your favorite flower?
Gerbera daisies? I don't really have a favorite, it's fun to get ANY kind.

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
July 11th. We'll be on our trip by then, with almost 3 WEEKS with CJ with us, not working!

30. What is your full name?
Eee. This creeps me out a bit too much to put out on the internet.

31. What are you listening to right now?
P asking to watch Playhouse Disney, and J slurping the last of his cereal.

32. What was the last thing you ate?
A bagel

33. Do you wish on stars?
Not anymore.

34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Cerulean or Unmellow Yellow {that one is just for the name.}

35. How is the weather right now?
It's a gorgeous spring day!

36. What is your natural hair color?
Depends on the season. Summer-light brown. Winter-medium brown.

37. Favorite soft drink?
Cokecokecokecokecokecokecokecokecoke. Coke.

38. Favorite restaurant?
Olive Garden or My Big Fat Greek Restaurant

39. Favorite color of nail polish?
Dark purple or dark blue. Once I get used to spring being here, it'll be light pink. lol

40. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Oh man, I was the perfect child of the 80s, loved Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Popples, My Little Pony...

41. Summer or winter?
Summer as done in the east.

42. Hugs or kisses?
Depends... who's giving them?

43. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate

44. Coffee or tea?
If it's herbal, I'll take the tea. If it's not... I'll have water please.

45.. Do you want your friends to email you back
Of course

46. When was the last time you cried
Last night. I was reading www.laylagrace.org

47. What is under your bed?
Nothing. lol!

48. What did you do last night?
Watched Human Target and House Hunters with CJ

49. What are you afraid of?
A lot of stuff. Spiders being the biggest thing.

50. Salty or sweet?
Salty, salty and salty.

51. How many keys on your key ring?
Which set am I carrying? One has only the van key, the other has about 5 keys I think.

52. How many years at your current job?
5?

53. Favorite day of the week?
Thursday or Friday. We have nothing on those days.

54. How many towns have you lived in?
Oh man. 12 I think?

55. Do you make friends easily?
Sometimes. Not as easily as in high school or college.

56. How many people will you send this to?
However many check the blog.

57. How many will respond?
My guess is none. hahahaha!

Forgotten Memos

So I realized, in my slackiness that is my blogging abilities, I've not really mentioned many day to day things that have gone or been going on. So, for the record or just because, here they are.

M lost her first tooth on February 20th. Sigh. Yes, my firstborn is officially a big girl now. That sucker hung on forever and no matter how much CJ tried to bribe M to let him take it out she wouldn't fall for it. Mum was visiting and that morning we were selling Girl Scout cookies so we had to get up earlier than we usually do on a Saturday, and M called me as I was getting her clothes ready, and there was the tooth, just sitting in her hand. The funny thing is the tooth that fell out was the first tooth that came through when she was a baby, and mum was there when that happened too! She wanted to save the tooth and bring it to show and tell on Friday, and she did it, and then... we lost it at the park right after school. No joke. So she drew the tooth fairy a picture of what happened, and the tooth fairy was very understanding and left her $3.

Valentines Day was lovely, CJ got me beautiful roses and some presents, and then surprised me with a babysitter for the kids and he took me to dinner and a movie. Dinner was good and the movie was great. We saw Valentines Day, and I loved it. Even CJ admitted it was funnier than he thought it would be. I'm all for shmoopy movies though, I'm a sucker for them!

Our new Temple is opening soon!! I'm excited to go to the open house. You can bring children to the open house... right?

Some friends and I threw a surprise baby shower for a sweet friend last week and made oreo pops. WAY easier than cake pops, lemme tell you. And then she had the baby three days later, and we got to see her on their way home. Oh heavens... what a little doll.

J has graduated out of speech therapy!! Yep... just 7 months into it, and he caught on so quickly and just excelled through it, and they retested him, and he even tested above in some areas now! So proud of him, it's just amazing how different he is now.

P is really starting to participate in Joy School now, which is really nice, I won't lie. He's a smart kid, but just never really participated in lessons both at Joy School and in Primary. But now he's coloring so much more and actually is drawing people now! He's never really cared for coloring, but it's amazing how detailed he can get. It still looks like scribbles, til he tells you what everything is and then you get it.

M is getting ready for her spring ballet recital, and already has one of her costumes. Not gonna lie, I totally get giddy whenever I see it. It's hanging in the coat closet with strict instructions from Miss Hilda for nobody to touch even the bag that it's zipped up tight in. Her second costume comes in April, I can't wait to see it. May 22nd, here we come!

CJ's big 3-0 is coming up! May 27th... dum dum duuuuummmmmm. Oh, you bet I'll be rubbing it in. He was meeeeeean when it was my 30th, he's getting it right back. Not sure how we'll celebrate it, but it'll be fun.

The reunion!!! I'm getting so excited for summer, ferrizzle. We're going to drive it and just take our time and camp out, so it's going to be fun! SAM AND MANDY, here is your forewarning. We will be seeing you and stopping and harassing you and so now you will be happy and giddy until we come. M'kay? :) When we get to Salt Lake/Provo area we'll stay in a hotel for a night or two so that we look presentable for seeing any friends who want to hang out while we're there (lemme know!). Then it's on to Wyoming and Yellowstone, and then off to NorCal for about 10 days. Anyone who will be there in mid to late July, let me know (Karin?). Such fun!!!

Need to get the kids swimming. (Jessie...... oh Jessie....)

Okay, I really can't think of anything else right now, but I'm sure I forgot something. Because I have no memory left at all. Oh... but my bracket is looking ama-za-zing right now, I love the first round!!

Ghost Hunting (lots of photos again)

So bad. Over a month since a post, what a rotten blogger I am. But at least I have photos!

It's finally spring here so this past weekend we decided to take the kids ghost hunting. In the middle of the day. That way nobody {read: me} gets too scared. It was a lot of fun, no ghosts and we're not really sure one of the buildings we found is actually the ghost house we were looking for, but we got to throw rocks in the San Pedro, see a marker for where the Mormon Battalion fought its only fight {against bulls} , and play pooh sticks on a bridge {P won} . Oh... and got some fun photos out of it!

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

"Heeeyyyy!!! That says Mormon! I'M Mormon!!!!"

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

Yes. J is carrying a bone. GROSS, right? Well, tell him and his dad that. They found it on our trek to the first ghostie housie, all sun bleached and blah, and thought it was super cool. Yucky thing stayed with us the whole rest of the day. And to make it worse, CJ told the kids it was a witch's bone. Um, ew.
Big, fat, icky ew.

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

Love. Love him. Right here, Cards hat and all.

From Ghost hunting

Looks like a sweet father-son moment, right? Until you realize he's throwing pebbles/rocks by me and splashing me. Nice. Wait, no, not really.

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

Don't worry, he didn't drop him. Both this time or the time he did it holding J upside down.

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting

From Ghost hunting