Fall time...

I haven't been to good at blogging. So I'll try to recap what has been going on around our home since August.
In September we went to Peach Days with some friends. It was our first time going to Peach Days. The kids had a great time and I guess we did too?? (fought crazy crowds and spent a butt load of $$)

In October Bailey started dance. She is so girly and LOVES to sing and dance around the house. She has loved being in dance and has been doing well. Parents can only watch the first lesson of each month so we watched her for the first time in November. She didn't really pay attention too much while we were watching and we kept trying not to make eye contact so she would ignore us and dance but it really didn't work. Now we understand why parents can't watch every week.

Halloween was fun this year. We did our regular pumpkin carving with some friends except this year we used foam pumpkins. Foam pumpkins never get rotten and you can save them from year to year so we were very excited at our discovery. This year we carved batman, a skull, Snow White, Iron Man, and one that said Trick or Treat for Jackson's headstone.

Peyton dressed up as Wolverine and Bailey went as Snow White. We had a lot of fun with Beetle's costume, she sure played the part too.

Peyton had a kindergarten program a few days before Halloween. He and his class mates sang lot of cute Halloween songs. I have to admit I got a little teary (I know, I'm a boob) I just couldn't help it, he is so grown up!

Last but not least, we celebrated Peyton's 6 birthday!! I can't believe how quickly time passes. For his birthday we had a little party with his friends then took him and 7 of his friends to see MegaMind. Lucky for us we had some good friends who were willing to help us man the crazy kiddos. Let's just say Dan and I NEVER want to have 8 kids!! Especially all around the same age!!

I just want to mention how thankful I am to be Peyton's mom. He is such a sweet, kind little boy. I'm not saying he never gives his sister crap or is never disobedient but mostly he is perfect. Every time I turn around he is doing something sweet for his sister, helping her with her seat belt, getting her a drink or a treat, playing ring around the rosy with her, all without being asked. Peyton and Bailey have been doing the cutest thing lately, he is really into football these days (probably because it's LSU's football season) so they go into the living room and he is LSU and she is USU and they play one down of football then one round of ring around the rosy, then one down of football then a round of ring around the rosy and so on. Dan and I love to sit and watch them. We truly are blessed.

Easter 2010...

I know this is a little late but better late then never, right?? We had a fun Easter this year, it was a little crazy since I had to take the ATI the next day. For those of you who don't know the ATI is a test RN students at Weber State have to take AND PASS in order to graduate and be able to take RN boards (the NCLEX). It supposedly acts as an indicator as to what percentage the RN students have at passing the NCLEX on the first try, it also acts as an indicator as to how well they are teaching us. Anywho, I had the test on the 5th and rocked it! I'm so relieved and happy to have that over with!
Back to Easter, we forgot the camera for MeeMaw's Easter egg hunt, and we also forgot to take pictures of the kids as they saw their baskets :( . We did however take pictures of the baskets after the Easter Bunny had come and gone.

We had a family home evening lesson earlier in the week and talked about what Easter is about. It's amazing how much Peyton is retaining and can tell us about what he is learning in church and in FHE. Every week in FHE he readily participates and is excited when he know's the right answers (which is quite often). Bailey on the other hand, we're lucky if she sits still!

The last month...

February flew by. Things were pretty crazy with me working 3 nights in a row but things went just fine as we knew they would, there were very few break downs thankfully!
We started out the month by squeezing one last tubing trip in. Peyton's friend had a fun sledding party and we were introduced to an awesome hill! We got some new tubes for the kids but it was pretty dark when we got there. We didn't get a lot of pictures but we had a ton of fun!

Bailey had her tonsils out on February 4. The surgery part went well but because of her age we had to stay overnight at Primary Children's. Her pain was pretty bad and we weren't too surprised by her reaction to it, poor thing. The night at the hospital was a crazy one filled with much crying and discomfort for Bailey. She went into surgery at about 12:30pm that day. After the surgery she was barely making it 3 hours before she would be writhing in pain, which was a problem because she could only have the Lortab every 4 hours! The last hour was spent unsuccessfully trying to distract her. At one point she had pain meds at 9:00 then at 10:00pm she was screaming so bad saying it hurt. The more she would scream the more her poor throat would hurt, it was an endless cycle! Knowing that she had another 3 hours before she could have anything we begged the nurse to call the Dr. and see if she could give her something else. She came back and said they could give hr Benedryl, better than nothing I guess, except for the fact that the Benedryl and Lortab combination made Bailey's oxygen levels drop all night! Needless to say I didn't sleep much because I kept needing to move the blow by (a funnel that blows oxygen into her face) so it was pointing at her face since she kept moving!
Her recovery (the next 2 weeks) was just as rough. For almost 2 weeks she needed the Lortab every 4 hours, sometimes we would barely make it 4 hours! The day was pretty predictable including at least one crying spell that would lead to vomiting due to a very sore throat and gagging. As expected, we also dealt with the result of narcotics added to decreased fluid intake which is constipation, that was super fun for cute, innocent little Bailey who slapped me in the face after I nicely announced to her that I was going to do 1 last glycerin suppository (the last of 3, which didn't end up working anyway:( ). Good times, glad that's over with! Most importantly we had a lot of great, very kind family who were willing to help out with Bailey since she couldn't go to daycare for 2 weeks but I still had to precept. Thanks Betsy, Jenny, and MeeMaw!

Dan and Peyton gave Bailey and I these beautiful roses for Valentines Day. The red roses were for me and the pink were for Bailey. What sweet boys we have!

Precepting turned out to be an ok experience. I didn't get my first choice of specialties, or my second, or my third, well, actually I didn't get any of my choices at all but at least I got a good preceptor. I was at David Hospital (not my choice either) on the Women's Surgical GYN unit and also did about 1/3 of my shifts on Postpartum. I learned a lot about piggy backing antibiotics, PCA pumps and meds, hysterectomy's, bladder slings, and postpartum care, removed a whole lot of Foley's and checked dozens of fundus'. All interesting in their own way but not really something I would like to spend my nursing career doing. I may have liked an experience with labor and delivery since it provides a little more action and my experience in that specialty is very limited but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Anyway, I'm glad that's over and now I am back to working for $ which is always nice!

Last but not least, today we finally got Bailey's hair cut. If you remember she was quite the hair twister as an infant and can still be caught with her finger stuck in her hair. All the twisting made the left side of her head a little thin and bald in some spots. Her hair is growing back ok and the shortest spot is now almost to the top of her ear. We decided to try to even it out a little since the right side of her head had hair that is all the same length and fairly thick. It looks so much better now and you can barely notice the difference. She is getting to be so grown up, I just can't believe my baby is going to be 3 in 2 months!

My Sanity...

Before the chaos of February starts (I'm precepting and Bailey is getting her tonsils out, added to all the school and family stuff, and my new diagnosis of Celiac disease!) I just wanted to share a few things with you. They (in no particular order) are all bringing sanity to my life as I'm in my last semester of nursing school (Yahoo!) and things are CRAZY!

First:
http://downloads.sugardoodle.net/2009FHEBook.doc
This is a great little book of family home evening lessons for the whole year! This has made it so easy to meet our goal of holding FHE each week and my kids LOVE it! We print 2 lessons out every other week then Dan and I take turns giving the lesson. We also had this made by a consignee at Quilted Bear

This has also made it so much fun for the kids. I probably could have made this myself but there was just no time and we loved this one when we found it. The name pieces are stuck on by magnets...perfect!

Second:

and
and especially
They have made this semester and all of nursing school so much better. They all have helped me so much, the kids by being silly and by making me laugh and Dan by doing the things that I haven't been able too, like laundry, cooking, cleaning and entertaining our crazy kids.

Third:
Just before the new year Dan and I started doing what we call "the weekly article". Every Sunday after we get home from church we put Bailey down for a nap and spend some time together as a couple (P does whatever his little heart desires ie plays the Wii). Dan and I switch off every other week being in charge of picking the article. It can be about whatever we want it to be. We usually get the articles from here but have gotten them from the Ensign and other LDS websites. We both read the article then we talk about what we thought about it. This has been such a great thing. In a way it sort of forces an adult conversation which doesn't end up being forced, we are just forced to start it. This leads to great conversations week after week and some good quality ADULT time between Dan and I.

Fourth:
Weekly date night! I have such a hard time relaxing and weekly date night makes me do just that! Each week we plan a date night, sometimes it's just watching a movie after we put the kids to bed but it's time Dan and I are able to spend together, which is what we are shooting for. It's been so nice to spend quality time together so much and has for sure made a difference!

I'm hoping all these things (along with the fact that the end is in sight) will push me though the month of February! Here's to a good month!!

Sledding & Santa's Sleigh...

Yesterday after I took my last final for the semester (YIPEE) we went sledding with some friends. It was a lot of fun minus the steep slippery hill that provided a great workout for my outta shape bootie! Peyton had a great time going up and down while Bailey sat at the top watching contently (she did go down twice much too her dismay).

This morning Peyton's daycare class took a field trip to sit in Santa's sleigh! Here are some of the pics...

Halloween 2009

We kicked off the Halloween celebration last Thursday by attending the Syracuse pumpkin walk with our good friends, the Merrills. The kids loved playing and looking at all the fun pumpkins. Thanks for inviting us, it was a good time, as always!

Sunday we carved our pumpkins. Dan and I love carving pumpkins and always look for a challenging pattern. This year Peyton wanted a Darth Vader and Bailey wanted a princess pumpkin. None of the one's we carved this year were too tough, they were fun to carve. Next year I think we'll wait until as close to Halloween as we can so they aren't all caved in and wrinkled by Halloween night!

On Friday the kids had their daycare Halloween parade, I went to watch and hand out candy to all the kids. They had a lot of fun showing their costumes to their friends.

This year we spent Halloween at Dan's brother Shawn's house. It's always fun for the kids to trick-or-treat with their cousins. It was especially nice this year to have some of the cousins help Bailey as she is so small yet independent and didn't want Dan or myself to help her up or down the MANY stairs on the MANY porches! The kids got way too much candy and Bailey and her sweet tooth are in heaven right now. Bailey's costume turned out really cute, everyone commented about how awesome it was!

And a random silly picture of Beetle Bug.