Our First Visit to the ER

I really thought our first visit to the ER would be with Tanner. I figured my wild 4-year old would have us there much sooner than my sweet baby girl. Well not really a baby anymore. Bailey will be 2 1/2 next month. 

Anyways, Saturday night Bailey spiked a fever but she didn't have any other symptoms. No cough. No runny nose. Her tummy was fine. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. We dosed her with Motrin and alternated with Tylenol and she was ok. Then Sunday, after church, she started telling us she had to go potty about every minute. We would have just gotten her off the toilet and then she'd tell us she had to go again. But then she would wouldn't go and she'd tell me it was "hard" and that she couldn't go. 

That had me worried. After talking to my Mom and doing some research online, I called the doctor "on call" at our pediatrician's office to see what I should do. 

The doctor told me it sounded like a urinary tract infection and because of her high fevers she told me to take her to the ER right away. 

So we rushed across town to the ER and got checked in.  She was acting fine and happy. I'm sure everyone there wondered why I had my daughter at the ER. But I was just following orders and I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry. 

I had to convince Bailey that the face masks were super cute in order for her to keep hers on. But once she was convinced it was cute, she kept it on the whole time. I worried about the flu, viruses and other sickness at the ER, so we both wore masks and sanitized our hands every two seconds. 

Bailey was so patient and happy. We just sat together with some of her favorite toys and watched "My Little Ponies" on my kindle. 

Then after 3 hours of waiting, we finally got called back to see a doctor. After analyzing her urine sample, the doctor confirmed she had a UTI. He said the bacteria count was pretty high and he was surprised with how happy she was acting.  She really liked her special hospital bed. She really was a champ the whole time. I think I was more of wreck than she was. 

Unfortunately, the doctor prescribed a shot in her bum.  Bailey was less than thrilled with the nurse who was giving her the shot. She cried and cried and kept asking "What are you doing to me?" It broke my heart. 

But after some apple juice and a little more "My Little Pony" we were all set to go home. We were told to go see her pediatrician in the morning for a follow-up.  

We saw her pediatrician yesterday and he put her on a 7-day course of antibiotics. Bailey is doing great. Her fever is gone and she seems like she's feeling much better. She's still doing pretty good going potty on the toilet so I'm glad her UTI didn't ruin her potty training. 

Anyways, I'm glad to have that milestone out of the way. Hopefully we wont have anymore ER visits for a long time.  But I have to say, it was way less dramatic than I expected. Yeah, we were at the ER for a total of 4 hours, but Bailey was such a sweetheart and so well behaved the whole time. I'm so grateful for my sweet girl and so happy she's better!

January Happenings

Well the month of January has mainly consisted of us trying to not get sick. The flu, several different viruses and colds and strep throat is sweeping through the area without mercy.
Our defense mechanism- stay away from everyone and avoid sharing germs. Oh and lots and lots of oils. LOTS of oils.
The week after new years we got hit with another snow storm. School was, of course, cancelled.

We spent most of these snow days inside because it was so cold. With the wind, it felt like -23 degrees outside. Crazy! 

We made snow ice cream one day. The kids loved that. We dyed it blue and added sprinkles. 

We also made these awesome colored ice marbles. Basically I filled water balloons with food coloring and water and then waited for them to freeze. Then we popped the balloons and got these little marbles.

True to character, Bailey only wanted to play with the pink ones. 

Tanner had a lot of fun with these marbles. We stacked them and rolled them in the snow. He liked it when I filled his arms with them. Love this sweet boy.  

My kids both got coughs and because I'm paranoid, I kept us home from swim. They didn't have fevers or running noses but I wasn't taking any chances. We just stayed in our PJ's and took it easy.
Bailey was feeling pretty good. She loves just playing with her toys and snuggling. 

She's totally her momma's girl. Shes always telling me "Say Cheese Mom" and "Look at the camera."

Love her!

Tanner didn't feel 100% and was more than happy to snuggle on the couch. Poor little tired eyes. 

Bailey is totally in love with her "My little Ponies" she got for Christmas. It's adorable. 

Finally, about a week after the snow, we got some decent sunshine and heat and the snow melted.
We hadn't seen the ground in so long, my kids didn't know what to think. We went to Daddy's work to have a "picnic at the cafeteria" with him and then we came home and played for a while. 

Tanner actually asked me if we had a backyard. It had been that long....

We might have been a little surprised to see the sun in the sky. It's been a hard winter!!!

When the weather turned cold again, we decided we needed some new indoor activities. So we tried yoga.

Oh how I laughed. My kids have my complete lack of coordination and Chris' complete lack of flexibility. 

But they look pretty cute doing yoga. 

One Friday night we ordered a pizza and watched "Despicable Me 2". It was super cute.
But then Chris told me he had never seen the first "Despicable Me". So we planned a movie night with a themed snack.
How adorable are these little minions? I love their goggles. Seriously.
The kids helped me make these and they couldn't wait to eat them. 

So that night we watched the first "Despicable Me" and ate our cupcakes. Don't mind Bailey's pantless state. Pants aren't required... 

This past Monday we were struggling. We've been trying to limit our tv now that the sun is out and we can play outside a bit more. But Monday it was too cold to play so we were inside again.
We busted out the dice. Tanner was enthralled.
No joke,we played with these dice for 2 hours. 

We just stacked them and made them into towers over and over again. We did work on some counting and we picked out our favorite colors. Tanner loves his dice so much. 

Then we had a tea party. My kids  crack me up. They totally make all the appropriate sounds when eating.
But Bailey was the funniest. She would say "Now take a drink. Now eat your sandwich. Now take a drink"

She was quite the bossy host. 

Pretty much, Bailey loves having tea parties and I think we might have to have a real one soon- with real food because I can only pretend to eat for so long. 

Anyways, we still have the occasional freezing cold day, but we are surviving the winter pretty well. The kids haven't been really sick yet. We just keep fighting off coughs but it never really progresses. I'm so glad. I think our complete isolation helps.
I'm so ready for Spring. No more sickness!!!!

The Skewed Reality of Facebook

Can I just say how tired I am of facebook. I’m as guilty as the next person, I get on facebook 3-4 times a day, but each time I get on I scold myself. I think I could give it up, except that I use it as a form of communication with too many people and groups.

When I first signed up for facebook, it literally was only available to certain universities and it in no way resembled the facebook we use today. Today it is our outlet for documenting our every thought and action. Again, I’m as guilty as the next.  But I think what a lot of people fail to remember is the facebook reality you read about isn’t a true reality. Very few post about when they have hard days, about when they yell at their kids or neglect them for something more interesting. Seriously, who wants the world to know about your weakness and faults. No one.

So what do we do? We post about how awesome we are. We post about the fun things we do. We post about how much we accomplish in one day. We post the good in our lives.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with posting about those things, I just hope we can all remember that it’s not the whole truth. Not by a long shot.

Now to get personal. I post things on facebook all the time. (I told you, I’m guilty.) I post pictures of my kids. I post funny things they do or say. I post fun activities we do together. I post tons of things.
But you know what I don’t post, I don’t post how many times I lost my temper with my son or when I scolded my daughter for peeing on my carpet. I don’t post about the argument my husband and I had about budgeting. I don’t post about my insecurities.

See what I mean? You would never know I have hard days, days that seem completely horrible and never ending.

I guess what I’m really struggling with is the tendency of people to judge a person based on their facebook posts or comments. You don’t know a person based on what you see on your “newsfeed”.  

END. OF. STORY.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop assuming you know what a person’s life is like because of their posts.

Now it’s time to get even more personal.  I’ve made some really good friends over the years. Girlfriends that I love going out with for “Girls Nights Out”, friends that I love for my kids to have play dates with and friends that make church more fun just by being there.
(And friends, please don’t be offended by any of this, because I love you all and you’ve made my life so much fun and full of laughter and smiles.)

But friends, please understand me when I say, you may not know the real me. You see my facebook posts and think “Wow, she does so many fun things with her kids. She’s an awesome mom.”
Or “She’s always planning fun activities for her kids, she’s such a fun mom.”
And I’m not trying to brag, but I’ve gotten this comment “You are the best Mom ever”. Or “You’re my mommy inspiration”.

These things are all really flattering, but your idea of me is totally unfair. And it causes things like this to be said:  “I see your facebook posts and I have to scroll right past them so I don’t feel bad about myself.” Or “I had to hide your facebook posts so that I don’t feel guilty as a Mom.”

Dear friends, I would never ever ever want you to feel bad about yourselves. EVER. Being a mom is REALLY REALLY hard. Like the hardest thing ever.
I never post things with the intent of proving how amazing I am at this whole motherhood thing. (Because I’m really, really not!!!!) I would never post anything with the intent on making anyone feel like less of a mom.
Just because you see me or someone else posting fun activities they’ve done with their kids, doesn’t mean you are any less of a great mom because you and your kids barely survived the day.
Because you know what’s even more impressive than a mom who does cool activities with her kids, is a mom who really plays with her kids. It’s a mom who gets down on the ground and crawls around with her kids pretending to be a lion. It’s a mom who has a tea party with her daughter or reads the same book 50 times in a row because that’s their child’s favorite. It’s a mom who really knows the needs of their child, emotionally, physically and mentally.

That’s the mom we should all be striving to be more like.

Please don’t let me or anyone else ever bring you down. And please remember that EVERY SINGLE MOM out there has hard days. EVERY SINGLE MOM has days when she wants to cry because nothing is going right.

Literally, yesterday I cleaned poop off of nearly every surface in my living room and bathroom. Yep, we all have days that are hard and that are just covered in poop.

So next time you see someone post a fun picture with their kids or a post about how productive they were that day, just remember, in most cases, that one productive or fun day was preceded by a million or two hard days.

Please don’t let the skewed facebook reality make you feel like less of a mom. It’s just that- a skewed, untrue reality.

Always remember we all have undocumented hard days.
You are not alone and you ARE amazing! 

And a Happy New Year

Our New Years Eve was spent at my parents house with most the family. Sarah, Johnny and Max had left earlier during the day to fly back to Utah, so they didn't get to party with us. But the rest of us were together. 

We started off our new years at 5:00 pm. We had a bag to open each hour until our "Midnight" at 8:00 pm.  

Tanner helped out by opening the first bag. It said  " Eat a delicious KFC dinner". So we did. We all scarfed down dinner, even the kids like KFC.

After dinner, the kids each got to dig into a cupcake. These were a big hit. 

Then Clark opened our 6:00 pm bag. It said "Make party hats" And although Clark wasn't all about making hats, my kids made hats and totally rocked them. 

Here we all our in our festive New years hats. Don't be jealous!

Nanny and Papa also got hats. 

Bailey really loved her hat!

Then Bailey opened our 7:00 pm bag. Inside the bag were a set of "finger lights" for each of the kids. 

So we turned off the lights and turned on some music. The kids turned their finger lights on and danced. It was pretty cute. 

Then Tanner did the honors and opened our last bag. 

Inside were poppers and music horns. 

We watched the ball drop and the kids each did a popper

My kids loved the horns. 

Love the facial expressions as the pull the string for the poppers. 

We eventually had to take away the horns because they made Clark and Danny cry, but they were fun while they lasted. 

Then the kids came into the kitchen and we had a "balloon drop" to ring in the new year.
This was a huge hit. We had about 30 balloons and it was so fun to see their faces as the balloons fell all around them. 

Then we poured ourselves some sparking cider and cheered to the new year. 

My kids were kind of cider drunks. They loved the stuff. 

The kids were in bed by 8:20 pm and then the adults stayed up to ring in the New Year at midnight. 

We watched movies, played games and chatted. It was great. 

The next day we were heading home, but before we went, we decided to go see "Frozen" with Nanny and Papa. It was so cute. The kids loved it. 

Anyways, we had a great vacation and we are now home from Mtn. Home. We had a fantastic visit, but it feels so wonderful to be home in our own beds and have a routine back. 

Some of our resolutions for our family include: 

1. Quarterly temple trips

2. More patience with each other

Then one of my goals is to be more relaxed. I have a tendency to control every aspect of  life- for my entire family. So I'm going to chill out. I'm going to be more laid back and patient. 

Also I'm going to try and take less pictures- well honestly I'm going to take more candid pictures and less of the pictures where my kids have to look at the camera and smile. They really hate having to pause and smile and I don't want them to hate me...so there you have it. Pretty simple but I know it's going to be a challenge for me. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year everyone. I have a feeling 2014 has some big changes in store for us, but we are excited to see what life brings!