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Sunday, January 10, 2010

What's up lately~

Well, ever since a few days after Christmas, one kid or another has been sick. Gotta love that! I'm about done with sickness! I'm SERIOUSLY going to become a hermit one of these days! I keep threatening but now I'm really tempted. It started with Cohen and Brinley and moved to Dallas a few days later. It seemed like Cohen was getting better for a few days till Thursday - he was crying as I buckled him in to his car seat, which he does all the time! He never wants to go anywhere and never wants to leave once were there. As he was crying, I noticed his tonsils were swollen larger than I have EVER seen tonsils before! I was worried that something was really wrong! After the entire family had several good looks in his mouth with a flash light, Rich and I decided we better take him to the doctor, and while we were at it, we thought Macie may have a sinus infection or something because she wasn't really getting over her cold and also suffers from eczema which keeps her up all night itching so I was getting desperate for a miracle cream!

I took Macie and Cohen the next day to our lovely doctors office. They were playing and happy, other than a runny nose and a cough every now and then, you wouldn't have even guessed they were sick. So we do the usual stuff and the nurse sticks us in our room. We read books and played some more ... till the doctor came in. That's where the fun ended! Abruptly! He listened to Macie's lungs first. I don't know how he could hear anything with as loud as she was screaming! Checked her throat & ears. Then listened to Cohen and checked his throat, which he wasn't even alarmed at the tonsils that were so big they were almost touching! Then checked his ears... has he been tugging at his ears cause he has a DOUBLE ear infection! He then informs me that he could hear a wheezing sound in both of their lungs which worried him and to my question, he informs me that they both have the starting of RSV!

Having never had this at our house before, I have no idea what this means. He then takes Macie's blood oxygen count, which she vigorously screamed through the entire process, not because it hurt, but because the doctor was touching her! AAAHHH! So she was 95, and fine, but then he announces that he will be doing a breathing treatment on both of them. I, once again, never having been through this, have no idea what this entailed. A few minutes later the nurse came back with 2 machines and oxygen masks and informs me that they will need to keep these masks on for the next 8 minutes. She's preparing both masks at once and I'm looking at 2 kids who are not looking excited and wondering how this is going to go down. After applying Macie's mask to her face and having it instantly and repeatedly ripped off, I informed the nurse that there was no way I was going to be able to do BOTH children at the same time! So, for the next 8 minutes, I physically wrestled Macie nonstop! With every swipe of her hand she had tubes unplugged! I had dressed warm that day for the cold weather outside. I had a long sleeve shirt with a thick puffy vest, a nice WARM scarf, and my hair was down.... needless to say, by the 8 minute mark, I was sweating like crazy!!! The nurse was laughing at me cause the second she came in I was stripping : ) Not really but a few things did have to go before my next 8 minutes in the ring with a fresh and vigorous Cohen! He did much better for the most part. He was thinking this mask thing was kind of funny till about the 6 minute mark and then he thought he had pretended to enjoy it long enough and thought he should be able to be done.

When the nurse came back in, she took Macie's blood oxygen counts again, which with all of screaming, I would have thought they would have peaked at 100%, but they were still at 95. Then she did Cohen. His was 89. They like them to at least be in the 90's. With the reaction and look on the nurses face you would have thought they were in the 70's or something. She had me a little worried for what was to come when the doctor came back in and it was only down by one percent.

The doctor listened to their lungs again and said that my 20 minute rendevoux hadn't done a bit of good for the sound of their lungs, which also silently worried me. I didn't sign up for a hospital visit that day! But when they took Cohen's counts again he was up at 92%. Whew! So, he said that since they were acting fine, and the counts were good, we were good to go with 3 prescriptions for various things, and to call him if they made a turn for the worse.

Wow! Now that right there was.... FUN! Have I ever mentioned that I hate having sick kids! I remember complaining and stating that I would rather be sick than have sick kids! Apparently I forgot to knock on some wood after that declaration, so now I too get to experience their cold! Yay ME! Did I ever mention how much fun it is when the mom of the family is sick?

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

GOAL REACHED!!!

A couple months ago, I set a goal to lose 15 pounds... didn't have a time line, just knew I wanted to be less than I was. So, a friend of mine posted that she was down in her weight and I asked her how she did it... and it sounded so easy.... I actually tried it! So I'm happy to announce that I've lost my 15 and have a new goal of 10 more!!! Yeah! Lets see if we can reach this new goal!

Thanks Stacie (and Heather for the post) for the info! I'm loving it!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

I love Christmas! There is a feeling in the air that makes you love and appreciate those around you more than any other time of year! We had a great Christmas this year! The kids were excited about their gifts! They were so excited to be able to give things to each other! They made simple cards for each other or found objects around the house to wrap and put under the tree for each other ;) (like my fabric cutting mat and old toys) I think we went through 15 roles of wrapping paper!!! Dallas had an awesome auction at school and got some really cool stuff for everybody in the family! (like an actual American Girl Doll for Mackenzie!) Jordan understood more about what was happening. For several days after, he would ask at bedtime if Santa was going to come again in the morning :) It was just fun! On Saturday, we went to Rich's grandparents and by way of Temple Square on the way home. It was FREEZING outside! It was about 19 degrees - literally! Our hands were cold even inside of gloves! But it was nice to see all of the beautiful lights and the beautiful Temple! How blessed we are to live this close to so many beautiful Temples, especially Salt Lake! I hope every one had a wonderful Christmas and took the time to remember the real reason for the season!




Gingerbread houses

One of the kids favorite things to do during the Christmas season is decorate gingerbread houses. They have so much fun!




Once again, Dallas is our big helper with Jordan! :) Thank you Dallas!


Macie hangin out

Cohen enjoying crackers and candy







My gingerbread manger scene


Mackenzie's house, she insisted she wanted it small

Jordans

Dallas's ranch

Brinleys final house, done COMPLETELY by herself! Good job Brinley!

Micailey's, complete with front steps up to the door

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas pictures

Every year, Christmas pictures get harder! This year... yep, harder! Micailey was on one all day, Macie didn't want anything to do with smiling. So, you get what you get I guess... So here are the best ones.



The boys



The girls






And all the kids together :)
Merry Christmas!

Decorating Gingerbread Men

We tried making actual gingerbread men from scratch this year. The kids had a blast and the cookies were yummy! So I think it is going to be a new tradition for our family :)




Jordan and Dallas

Mackenzie

Carefully placing her candy!

Cheeser Brinley

Dallas is SUCH a good big brother! He is always volunteering to help the boys with their projects! They LOVE him tons because of it too!

Micailey's is almost done!


getting ready to put on her gum drop buttons!

Jordan's finished gingerbread man

And she's finished!

Kenzie is finally finished!

And here is Dallas's masterpiece!

And after they all went to bed... Mom got a turn :) I don't know who had more fun!.... them or me!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Seeing Santa

I had to laugh when I saw this picture.... I am sad it turned out blurry, the camera was on the wrong setting, but you still get the idea....

This is at a ward Christmas Party 2006
...look there we are with Santa! .....

Christmas 2009....
Santa who? Where's Santa?
Sometimes you have to laugh or you just might cry :) Just kidding, but wow! We've multiplied.
Every so often it still hits me :)

Making ornaments...

I have had this project for several years to do and just haven't gotten around to doing it. This year I finally decided to tackle it and.... what a mess!!!! We had fake snow EVERYWHERE! The kids were whining to help get the snow in the ball and it took forever... they did have fun putting on the faces and the hats, but really, I'm glad it's over! But they did turn out really cute




It's hard to see his black top hat




Decorating the Trees


sipping hot chocolate


Mackenzie, Jordan, & Cohen's trees


Dallas, Micailey, Brinley, & Macie's trees


Our stockings


This is "Mom's Tree". This year I went with my sister and bought all new ornaments for it! It was so fun! It looks so pretty in person. The camera just doesn't do it justice.
I did let the kids help decorate this year & they did a really good job too!