Just Writing...

I've been thinking about the good and bad today. And although I was feeling quite overwhelmed with the bad from yesterday and today, I realize that the good far outweighs. First, the bad...

Maren. She is sick, sick, sick. A couple of days ago she started with the infamous cough (as the doctor always says, 'It sure sounds like an asthma cough but her lungs sound fine.' That's pretty much what I heard all growing up...oh yeah, and still do!). Then everything escalated yesterday. Just the miserable-looking eyes with the runny nose, almost no voice, tired hurting body. She was a mess. After her nap she was sitting on the couch watching a show with Evan and I was on the computer trying to finish up my large assignment for the day. She came running in to me saying her eyes hurt. Hmm...pink eye, I figured. I told her I'd call the doctor and get some drops for them. Then all of a sudden she's freaking out because she says she can't see. What?!?! I look into her eyes. There's no goop in them or anything so why can't she see? I start to get a bit concerned, hold her on my lap, and check the status of her eyes on a regular basis. About 3 minutes after this she starts screaming in pain saying her thumb hurts. Random. I look at the thumb. Granted, everything had been hurting yesterday. And she was getting hurt left and right...biting her tongue, sitting on her fingers, getting hit in the head with the vacuum handle (yes, the vacuum does get used around here sometimes!). There seems to be nothing wrong with the thumb. I ask her about it and she is beside herself with pain, insisting that her thumb hurts so bad. I check it a few more times for a sliver or a bug bite or a bruise. Something. And then all of a sudden out pops this rash that goes from the base of her thumb, halfway up her arm. Looked like hives except little, tiny welts instead of the large ones. And it didn't itch. It hurt. Okay, enough weirdness for me. I decided to call Michael. Of course, he was with a patient and couldn't come to the phone. The lady he works with who was on the phone heard Maren pretty much screaming and made a comment about things not going well over here. I made the mistake of saying, 'Yeah, Maren's falling apart." Oh no!!! Did I really say that? Maren completely lost it...over the edge. 'I'm falling apart?!?!' My worrying was bad enough. I didn't need her thinking she was about to die, too. Okay, wrapping it up...I call the doctor's office and they tell me to bring her right now. That would be fine but we're in the bad stuff right now, remember? I had no car (you remember how much I LOVE not having two cars right now!). So then I call my sister and I think I probably demanded that she get to my house right away. Without question she got here in 15 - 20 minutes (it was a long, worrisome 20 minutes...with Maren's thumb pain not subsiding and her eyes only being marginal). To finish up with Maren, as we were turning down the doctor's street, I asked her how her thumb felt and she said, "oh, great". What about your eyes, Maren? "They're great, too." Wonderful. Doesn't it just figure. Turns out she likely has a crazy virus that does funny things like that. She does have an ear infection and possible pink eye. That was a lot for a mom of my caliber to handle. I think that when it comes to my kids I have an overly healthy level of paranoia. I know my kids are anxious to see Dallin, but I don't want that to happen until I'm long gone.

Then there's Parker...who also has the cold and pink eye. And as I was sitting at the desk at 11:15 last night with 30 more minutes of work to do, I threw in the towel. I was feeling really sick, too, and I just wanted to go to bed (I think I got to sleep somewhere around 12:45...ugh.)

So today has been another hard day with 2 1/2 sick kids (Evan is marginal but mostly okay). I think that mom's should get paid time and a half when they have sick kids and double time when they're sick, too. So how much would I be making today? Oh, yeah. Double nothing. Ha! But getting rewarded with lots of kid love (when they're not whining about feeling terrible).

Now, the good. Check this out. When my sister got here yesterday so I could take Maren to the doctor, she got hair clippers out of her car (she had been planning on cutting Evan's hair at her house but then we weren't able to go over there because of sickness and no car). Maren and I were gone no more than 20 minutes. When we got back, Evan was in the shower, rinsing off the hair from his haircut and Danica was halfway done with my dishes that I had yet to get to because nothing was getting attention yesterday other than Maren! Hello! That was amazing.

Today Sarah (yes, you, thank you) offered to bring over dinner which I happily accepted. I had grand plans of making something for dinner last night but when everything fell apart, we ended up getting pancakes and eggs. Ha! It always amazes me how wonderfully thoughtful, caring and loving the people in my ward and my friends are. I feel like they do way more for me than I am able to do back but I'm grateful.

I got a really small assignment today. I'll probably have it done only about an hour after the kids go to bed tonight. Now that's exciting! Maybe I can get some laundry folded or some dishes done or something. Yahoo!

And, lastly, I have something really exciting to look forward to. I am going to see A Midsummer Night's Dream on Saturday. And since it's totally crazy how that worked out, I'm going to write it down here. Michael's sister used to work with a guy who has season tickets to the ballet with his mom. We know him a little bit from visiting her at work and talking with him. He's been to our house a couple of times for family gatherings and stuff. Anyway, he's invited me a handful of times to go with them when they've had an extra ticket or something. But it's always on a Sunday. And he knows how tempting it is for me with ballet tickets dangling in front of me and that I don't do that kind of stuff on Sunday. But he wants to be nice so he still asks. And I've never taken him up on it. EVEN for Swan Lake...which I have never seen the full-length version of. Hello! Professional ballet dancer who has never seen Swan Lake...criminal. But it's true. And he went last year...without me. That was a bummer. Anyway, here's a curious string of events. When I saw that OBT was doing A Midsummer Night's Dream, I just thought I was going to die. It is one of my two favorite ballets to dance (the other one being Coppelia) and I had never been on the other side of the curtain, watching. I sent him an email saying that if he had any extra tickets for a day other than Sunday, to let me know. Well, he just went on Sunday. But do you know what happened? The power went out to the theater just as that portion of the program was starting. He had to get new tickets for another day. And do you know what day that is? This Saturday! And he has an extra one for me. Yay!

So, yes, there has been extreme chaos and craziness over here this last week but if I weigh the good and the bad, the good wins out. I am grateful for many blessings that I feel I don't deserve but am happy about. I'm grateful for friends and family who love us and help us. I'm grateful for an awesome Michael who calls and checks on my sanity, talks to the kids over the phone and helps take care of things when he gets home from work. I love my life.

No Captions Required

I was exhausted. I was sick. I gained weight. I had to go to 2 doctor appointments each week. I had 5 needles in me in one day. I labored. I puked. I pushed. I nurse all day long. I get up in the middle of the night. I change the majority of the diapers. And yet who gets all the credit?

Babies. He would be the third of ours who had that as their first word. :-) Good thing we all love Dad! Other fun stuff for him...he makes the greatest kissing noises. That one I'm going to have to get on video, too. Oh, it's sweet. He's now a tummy sleeper. Had never rolled onto his tummy before but I found him in bed like that one morning. Now it's just the norm. Meant we had to stop swaddling him, though. It was about time. Speak of the sweetie, he's crying in his bed. More later...

Brothers

Oh, they love each other soooo much! Evan would do anything for Parker and no one gets more love than Evan from Parker. I can't wait to watch them grow up together, see them play boy things together and just enjoy being brothers.

(By the way...can you see the shadow of Parker's eyelashes on Michael's jeans? Those things go on forever! Oh, to have such long, lucious lashes!! Lucky boy.)

Cousins

These two cousins are so cute! This was the first time I put them down on the ground together. Levi was all into the ball and Parker was just into Levi. He wanted to get his ears so badly!! Or anything, really. I have a feeling they're going to grow up to be best buddies.

Look Who's 3!!

Maren turned three last week. She was really, really excited about it...she's been 2 1/2 for a long time, you know? She feels very big now. She really enjoyed her princess cake (I know, I know...we are not professional cake makers. No comments required.), as you can see. And she loved getting girly-girl things for her special day. And what's beautiful about Maren is that she's so grateful for everything. Every gift she got she held close to her heart and said how much she loved it. And she hasn't stopped talking about any of her birthday gifts since then. She is very good about saying thank you for her gifts and giving lots of love to her givers. She's our sweet, *big* girl.

FUNNY story!

The day of Parker's 6-month appointment:

Michael: Did the doctor check Parker's penis?

Me: Yes. And she told me to be really careful when pulling the skin back to clean because you can actually pull it over the head where it gets stuck and then the head swells up and it's an emergency.

Michael: Yeah, I've heard about that. That's really bad.

Evan: Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You can't pull your penis over your head. That's impossible!

And, finally, Christmas!

First things first...the tree! We love going to the tree farm to pick out the perfect tree.

The Christmas Eve picture...one mediocre picture out of about 20. Good grief...is it really possible to get a decent picture of all of your kids when you have more than one?

Parker enjoyed opening his gifts. Well, no, he enjoyed eating the wrapping paper.

And then he enjoyed playing with them. At 5 1/2 months old I finally got a picture of him smiling, though it's not very good. Michael and I really have to tag team on this to get a good one before, like, his birthday or something!!

Maren really enjoyed her princesses and Evan loved his dart guns.

And then that evening at my sister's house, the cousins enjoyed some DDR. Evan was serious about it and played for probably 45 minutes in those hot jammies with flush cheeks. All in all, it was our best Christmas ever. The kids were really fabulous, we had a great day together as a family, we were able to play together. Just a great time!

First Food

We started Parker on solid food and so far so good. Of course, we have to share the token first bite pictures. He had a funny face for the first 5 days or so but now he's really getting into it. And he always wants water and is getting rather good at holding his sippy cup. Yahoo for early independence. Ha!

Our Generous Boy

I just wanted to jot down some experiences we've had with generous Evan lately. He really amazes me sometimes. It seems like when I tell him about the kids who have few if any toys that he might think about donating his old toys to, he doesn't really care. I'm sure he cares, but it just doesn't seem real to him. However, if there's someone who needs help and he sees that need, he will just jump in to help. Here are a few examples:

1. Our friend wanted to go hike a really tall mountain with his brothers but didn't really have the money to get or rent the gear and pay for the training you need to get before you can safely make the climb. His wife was telling me this in our family room and Evan overheard. He ran out and came back a minute later with all of the money from his piggy bank...about $1.17 or something like that. He put it in a sandwich bag and handed it to my friend and said it was for her husband to pay for his climbing gear.

2. Evan and Maren had a sleepover at my mom's house one Friday night. The tradition is that on Saturday morning, after breakfast, they hit the local toy store and my mom gives them a couple of dollars to buy something. After the toy store Evan said, "Grammy, can we go out to lunch?" My mom said, "Not today, I'm all out of money." Well, was she really all out of money? Probably not. But that's what we tell our kids sometimes when we're not willing to pay to go out to eat. Well, when she dropped him off at home, he ran straight to his money and started a collection in another baggie. I think he got 62 cents for her. You've really got to be careful what you say around this sweet boy.

3. Our friend Steve's dog died. Evan had met this dog a couple of times and enjoyed having him do tricks for treats. A couple days after the dog died, Steve came over to help Michael with something. Evan walked up to Steve and said, "I'm sorry your dog died." I thought that was really thoughtful of him to remember. Then he ran away. A couple minutes later he came out with Patch...his absolute most favorite stuffed animal in the whole world. The one he made at Build-A-Bear that he sleeps with, takes to preschool when they're allowed to take things like that, just loves like crazy. Yeah, Patch. He comes out with Patch and hands him to Steve and explains that Steve can keep Patch because his dog died. Steve tried to tell Evan that he couldn't take him but, with tears in my eyes, I told Steve he'd better just accept it and be really grateful.

This is definitely something we want to cultivate in our children...this spirit of giving to those who are in need. Evan may end up giving the shirt off his back to someone one of these days but I couldn't be more proud of him and the choices he's making.

Recital Videos

I forgot the live action proof of the recital! One day when Maren is older and watches these, she's going to just roll her eyes (if she's anything like me).

In this one, they sang a verse, whistled in between verses, and then sang the second verse. When the video starts, you can hear Maren "whistling" and she whistles through part of the second verse. It just cracks me up. Maybe I'm the only one who could listen to this 2-year-old "whistle" all day. Cute, cute.

Here they are singing about popping popcorn to string for the Christmas tree. An d they talk about tasting a little bite. Of course they're not really supposed to take a bite of it, but, as I mentioned, she was spazzing out. I bust up laughing when she took a bite, realized it was gross and started spitting it out. Classic. By the way, she totally knew all the songs and sang then all day every day at home. But then when it comes time for the show, she'd just goof off during them. Figures.

And at her most spastic ever! Seriously, you'd think we'd given her speed for breakfast. And yet, I can't help but laugh.

Here's those five seconds of her solo. She really was so sweet...and that was my favorite costume. She just looked like, well, an angel in it. I believe she even through in an arabesque. What a dancer! I just adore this girl. She is ridiculously funny, kinda and loving, and has empathy just gushing out of her. Way to go, sweet Maren!

Let It Snow!

We got a surprise snow this week...according to Evan, because he prayed for it. Boy, that guy does get whatever he prays for, doesn't he? It just kept coming and coming. The kids had a great time playing in it while Michael was at home (Parker and I stayed nice and toasty inside) and when Michael got home, they wanted to go build something with him outside. 15 minutes before bedtime they finally talked him into it. I let him know that they had about 10 minutes and then they needed to come in. Well, an hour and a half later, I got pictures of one OCD husband, two sleepy but happy kids and one amazing "Wonder Bear", as the kids called it...

About another hour and a half after the kids were in bed, said OCD husband called me out to show me the new and improved Wonder Bear. Uh, honey, the dishes were waiting to be done, too!! :-) Heehee.

Dance Recital

Maren had her first recital this month (December). They had about three months to work on this recital and they did 13 numbers. It was WAY fun to watch. Maren was hysterical, to say the least. She was a complete spazz sometimes (you'll see the proof), but when she wasn't being a spazz she was posing for pictures in the middle of her dancing and doing whatever she could to get attention (I think not even all that much on purpose!). I just couldn't stop laughing at her. She really wasn't shy at all...she worked the whole floor when it was free dance time. I loved every minute of it (except for when Evan was trying to take the camera from me in the middle of her solo so I only got about 5 seconds of it!). Here are a few hundred highlights...

Their first number...

My kids have something with playing with their ears in the cold months. I don't know what it is.

She was supposed to stand by the fireplace in this pose, with her fifth position arm. She did a GREAT job of holding it while the other girls danced. I think that little arm is just too, too cute.

I love this full-action shot. She just took up the whole room when she started to dance.

I included this one because, well, I just think it's a sweet picture.

Michael was really excited to bring her flowers. He even took the day off work just to come to her recital. She loved having her family there and her roses. For the rest of the week she asked when her flowers were going to die. At first I thought she wanted them to. Then she told me she didn't want them to die so she just kept checking. Ha!

My Confession & 5 Months!

My confession is that I'm in love with Parker's dimple chin. And, speaking of that...did you know you can change your genetics? It's true. I did it. Here's the other part of my confession. Now, this is exciting because until Parker was born I had not told a single soul about this! Only my mom knew about this from observation. Here it goes...getting my weird quirks off my chest. When I was younger there was a guy in our ward at church, Brother Palmer, who was awesome! And he was always fun with the kids and did the best Donald Duck impressions. And you know what else? He had a huge dimple chin. And I loved him. I think it's because of him that I wanted a dimple chin, too. So every day on the way to ballet class I would sit in the front seat, looking out into the side view mirror and pinch my chin together to force a dimple. Well, I must say that over all those years something actually did happen. My chin isn't flat. There's a bit of a separation of chin fat between the left and right sides. Not exactly a dimple but I'll take it. Never in a million years did I think that I could have changed my genetics, however, to get myself a real, bonafide dimple chinned baby! Boy was I ever thrilled to see Parker with that chin! Just one more reason to love this guy. So, there you have it. I was a strange teenager...

And speaking of that Parker guy...he just hit his 5-month mark. I can't believe it! Seriously...didn't he just leave my body? Seems like it should be so but, in reality, it feels like he's always been here. We all love, love, love this baby boy! He is sweet and funny and cute as a button. Evan loves having time to "babysit" him when I take a shower or something. He'll hold him and let Parker watch the Christmas lights and then lay him down on his play mat and then pick him up to move him. Yikes! Scary, I know, but he's been so super amazing with him. The comment I hear most about Parker from strangers is, "He's so alert! Look at those eyes." Yes, yes. That has been said about all of our babies. I think they look so alert because those eyes are just huge, wide open. And his eyelashes go on forever! I still stare at them whenever I have the chance. Parker absolutely loves it when Evan dances around crazy. He laughs and pumps his legs and arms and rocks back and forth. It's dangerous, I tell you. I'm liable to lose my grip and drop the guy. Ha! And the last thing about him is that he's dying to eat solid food. Holy cow...he just wants our food SO bad. And our water, too. Every time I have a cup and take a drink, he makes begging noises. When I started to "pass" it to him, he grabs both sides of the cup and brings it to his mouth. Goodness, son. So we got some baby cereal, sippy cups, spoons, etc. for him for Christmas. He will be exactly 5 1/2 months on Christmas day so we thought it would be fun to start then. I think it will actually be tomorrow because we can't hold him off any longer. Good. Maybe that means he'll sleep through the night. :-)

I love my boys!

GWL

Yahoo! Just got an email with additional Great Wolf Lodge pictures. Here, in random order...

On day 2 Maren completely crashed for a 2-hour nap on the lounge chairs.

Looking at this picture makes me so sad. On day 2 he was such a pill and I kept getting frustrated with him. He wasn't having fun and neither was I when I was with him. In this picture he's about to fall asleep. Come to find out, when we got home at 1 a.m., he had a fever and the start of his [supposed] swine flu. Poor guy. He was sick and miserable all day. Next time we've got to remember to schedule our Great Wolf Lodge trip around everyone being sick!

We like to end our little vacation with a trip to the sweet shop. Yeah, it's about 9:30 p.m. at this time and we didn't get out of there until 11 p.m. Should've just stayed another night! Parker, are you asleep, buddy?