Tag

Kimberly Tagged me to share 6 things about myself that you may not know or even want to know. I had fun reading hers, so how can I not share...and ask others to do the same. These are random, but they are a part of me.



1. I love to clean out my ears. I love the feeling of the q-tip in my ear just after getting out of the shower. I cannot explain it, but I love it. The funny thing is I do not love it when Grant kisses my ear. It is just best if he stays away. I cannot explain that one either.


2. I cannot start a project and not finish it. I can actually get slightly obsessive about it. The problem is that I can also get impatient, which often leads to not doing as good of a job as I should or could.


3. I enjoy doing our family finances. I kinda have a thing for numbers. This leads into wanting to go back to school for a business degree. (Poor Grant I am sure he is rolls his eyes just at the thought of it.) It will be many years before I get to do that, but it is something I want to do. So why did I do Social Work? Your guess is as good as mine. I suppose I love feeling like I am contributing to helping others have good lives since I have been blessed with an amazing one. Mostly I think I needed to do it to help me be a better mother and wife.


4. I like taking pictures of my kids husband and scenery, but I hate being on the other side of the camera. It is not often that there is a picture of just me for two reasons. The first is I feel goofy posing and waiting for the flash and am always worried I will have a cheesy fake smile. Second, when I look at a picture of myself I always find the things that I think do not look good...and this girl does not need that drama. I will occasionally appease Caleb and allow him to take a picture of me. The following is some of his work.

5. I have a fear of dying in a car accident. I suppose you might not know it by the amount of driving I do by myself and the distances that I travel, but that is one way I just do not want to go. I am not even sure why it bothers me, but I am sure that is a fear of mine.

6. I am very particular about the way in which the toilet paper roll is put on the holder. I always have to have the toilet paper coming over and off of the top, not under and from the bottom. (I am not sure if this is making sense.) I try really hard not to change the tp at other people's house when I use their bathroom, but it does occasionally happen.

There now that you know more about me than you wanted too, I want to know too much about Britney, Ashley, Chelsey, Chanel, Janae, and Christi. Have at it ladies!

Siblings

I have been feeling slightly guilty lately that I am not at the school at all helping Jamison and doing things with her and her class. I try to keep tabs through Chelsey and Britney, but I am not physically there. I was telling Chelsey I wish I could be more involved, but it is a choice that Grant and I have made to have so many little kids so close in age. She responded that they would rather have their siblings than me at the school. It got me thinking about my own siblings. There was a time when the though crossed my mind that if it had been just Chanel and I how much more we would have, but there is no way I would trade the brothers and sisters for anything. If you would have told me 10 years ago (give or take 6 years) that I would be as close to all my brothers and sisters as I am, and how much I would love them and their friendship, I probably would not have believed it.) I love that I can count on good advice, help with kids, a reason to laugh, good conversation, an excuse to get out of town, a game night, a listening ear etc. My brothers and sisters mean so much to me, and I would not trade them for my mom helping at the school. Thanks Chels for keeping me straight. You know what else is great...that through marriage I have gained even more siblings. I really feel like my in-laws are real brothers and especially sisters. I am so lucky and blessed! So in short, I hope that our kids, someday, will be glad that mom had their brothers and sisters even if it meant she could not be at school as much as other moms.

Sleeping Chronicles

This is Asher one Sunday right before dinner on a day that he missed a nap. AS soon as he really heard it was dinner he popped right up and was at the table with all the energy of a two year old. It was hilarious!

Angel and Demon

Asher has never been our best sleeper (a nice way of saying he is our worst.) We have spent time in the last six months trying to help him stay in bed and sleep better. He does pretty good, but recently we have adjusted nap time to help him even more. He is such a little angel when he is sleeping (as evidenced by the first picture), but quite the demon when he is not ready to go to bed (as evidenced by the second picture.) One night he was not ready to go to bed, but I just let him scream for awhile. Eventually I went in to check on him, and this is what I found. He had taken everything in his bed and thrown it out, but that was not good enough...he had to strip the sheet and throw that out too. That is my little Angel Asher.

One of those weeks

Have you ever had one of those days, or even one of those weeks? Well, I did. It was a crazy one. Monday I was getting our family ready to go to ABQ for another appointment. I started the laundry, but did not get very far. We left that night. I got the kids dinner before we went to Grant's work. I did not get them soda as to avoid possible sticky messes. When we stopped at Grant's work I said they could get out of their seats and have a sip of mine if they did not spill. I am sure you can see where this is going...yep a big ole spill all over my car. What do you do? Grant had to take a car for a dealer trade, so we had to drive separate, but it was a good drive.

On Tuesday we had James's appointment and fantastic news, she does not have glaucoma! Wahoo!!! She does not need to go back on eye drops, another bonus. We will see that Dr again in a year and her other on six months. She is doing so great and we are so excited for the recent news. We played with Justin and Ashley for a bit and then headed back home. No more laundry found its way to being clean that day.

On Wednesday I got Jamison up and off to school and then at 9:30 met friends to take the kids to the Pumpkin Patch. There we played in a corn playground, did a corn maze, picked pumpkins, learned about the different kinds of pumpkins and squash, took a hay ride and the boys ate lunch. I made it back in town in time to pick up James from school. I went home for an hour to get Grant and I lunch, and then off again to take the kids to a Primary program practice. I was going to drop the kids off and go run errands, but when I got there I decided to stay and help with the practice. After that it was off to Walmart to get James's new glasses ordered and do a little shopping. I got home at 6:00 just in time to make a frozen skillet meal and then get the kids shipped off the bed. Once again laundry was not done and beds were not made (which almost never happens in this house, it is kind of a sanity thing for me.)

Thursday I finally got around to finishing the laundry (four days in the making), but still did not get around to the ironing. Friday I did a major house cleaning and then took a needed break and went to Chelsey's house to scrapbook. I did not get much done, but I just love being with Chels and Christi and hanging out.

Saturday we had a full day. The whole family (except Mique of course) cleaned out the garden and cleaned up the yard...it looks great. Grant winterized and then he went running. When he got back I went running. After showers and lunch the boys went to the golf course to putt and the girls went shopping to try and find me some cheap pants to hold me over until I lose the extra baby weight. We all met up at Sams and did a major grocery/food storage shop.) After that it was off to Safeway for more groceries and Petco for dog food. I think Grant got a taste of why I hate grocery shopping so much with four kids...maybe he will be even more appreciative of the fact that I do it all the time by myself. Productive but exhausting day.

On Wednesday I was feeling a little down because I felt like I got nothing done around the house. I did not even cook a real meal. I kept telling myself that someday my kids will not remember the house being clean that day or doing the laundry, but they will remember that Mom took them to do something fun, and stayed to help them at church. I hope they will know that I do things for them so they can be happy. Even though I did not get the things done I normally do, I accomplished the important things!

Saturday was a great family day. I love it when we work together as a family. Thank goodness the kids still think it is fun. I know it will not last, but girl can hope and wish! Hopefully we are not only having fun, but teaching the kids the importance of work. Looking back on my week, it was a week, a really good week!

You call that a dream?

Grant has a dream to one day own a ranch were we have a huge garden with all manner of vegetables, fruit trees, chicken, cows, horses etc. That sounds like a nightmare to me...all the work that it would require. Not to mention, I do not consider myself much of an animal person. I told him he could have his dream if I did not have to take care of or clean up after the animals. I asked him why that was a dream and he explained that the thought of being self-sustained was very appealing to him. Since we cannot do to that now, we are doing our best to use what we have and be prepared. We have a peach tree and this year it produced a lot of fruit. So as not to waste what we had, we skinned, sliced and froze a great deal of peaches. The picture of the peaches in the bags are just a portion of what we have in the freezer. We also have been talking about getting our 72 hour kits ready for almost a year, and we finally got it done! The rest of the pictures are of the stuff we got for the kits in the grocery sacks, all laid out, and in the bags we will have to take in case of an emergency. We tested it all out to make sure we can carry them and children if necessary. It all works, and we even were able to get plenty of water in there too! It is amazing what needs to be taken for little kids and babies. It does feel really good have heeded the words of the prophets and be prepared just in case. I guess I can get a glimpse of why Grant has the dream he does.

The greatest husband EVER

So the greatest husband ever happens to belong to me! Let me back up. The other night I had a melt down (and for anyone that knows me, I hate feeling like I do not have control over myself or my emotions...or much of anything actually; so to openly admit I lost it is kinda a big deal. But it does demonstrate why Grant is so good!) Anyhow, I was having a day due to numerous things that are impacting our life and mostly due to sleep deprivation. Grant was trying to get me to talk to him. Unfortunately that is not always an easy feat, especially if I feel the tears welling. He was persistent and I eventually let go and told him everything that was on my mind, and there seemed to be a lot of various concerns. One that escaped my mind and mouth was that I am tired of taking care of all of Jamison's medical by myself. We have to go to ABQ to see her doctor and had to go there when she needed to go under for her exams. In the four years we have lived here Grant has been able to go once. I was in ABQ last week and have to go again this week with all four munchkins. It is not that bad of a drive, and I have done it by myself with all of the kids more times than I can count, but the lack of sleep was clouding my ability to deal with the pending trip. I kept telling Grant that I would be fine once I got some sleep and a new day begun. He took the time to get me to talk (which even though I do not always want to is the best thing for me) listened and gave me hugs.I am the kind of person that once I purge all my concerns I can move on. I purged and knew I would feel capable of handling all the next day. So the next day came and I was good. We were on with life as normal. Or were we? Grant came home the next day and slyly informed us that he was going to go to ABQ with us. He was gone 3 days of work last week at a meeting, so for him to take a day off this week is unreal. He is not easily persuaded to take off time. It just reaffirmed to me how much he loves me and that he would do whatever was humanly possible to make me happy. I could have easily made the trip myself, but it will be so much better with him as my companion. He takes such good care of me and does all he can to make me the happiest person ever, and little things like this make him succeed. So yes, I have the greatest husband ever!

Sweet dreams

There is nothing much sweeter than sleeping children, especially newborns. Miquelyn is so sweet when she is sleeping. She loves to sleep on her stomach. Lately she has been having a hard time relaxing and crashing out, but as soon as I lay her on my chest she melts. I love it when she just cuddles up to me like that and fades into dream land. She is starting to smile at me, and I love it. When other people are holding her and she hears my voice she starts searching for me. I think she knows she belongs to me, and I definitely claim my little beauty.

I need you

How can you not want to kiss those little lips? I can never resist, and for the most part he smacks back! He is such a little lover with a huge personality. This morning he was wondering around the house and decided he wanted oatmeal (his new favorite food of choice, no matter what time of day). So I hear this, "Momma, I need you." I do not know why, but I love it when he says that. Last night he cried it in his sleep and it was the saddest little I need you I have ever heard. He is sure growing up and more often than not now he will say something that rings as clear is a bell and I have to do a double take to see if Asher said it or Caleb. He is not my little baby anymore. It cracks me up when he says OK because it comes out "otay" in a little rascals kind of way. Yesterday Grant called him to come inside and he replied, "alright, I am coming," with a little attitude behind it. I think he gets it from his sister. Since my sister-in-laws little nephew (who was just weeks older than Asher) passed away, every time I look at Asher I am just a little more grateful for his place in our family and his personality (I even try to remember that mid-tantrum.) The two's can be terrible, but little moments such as mentioned above make them absolutely terrific!

Little golfer

Explanation below

Oh Caleb

This kids whole face lights up when he smiles. I have to admit it is contagious. He is a funny kids. A couple little things I do not want to forget. The ivy in our backyard is starting to change colors, turning red. Grant asked him why the plants were turning red, his reply was "Because they do not want to be green anymore." We were at the park last week and he runs up to me with another boy at the park and told me he was playing football with him and said, "He is my bestest buddy." I said, "Really, what is his name?" He said, "I don't know." Caleb is friends with everyone. He was playing with another kid, but could not remember his name either. This boy is 3 1/2 years older than him, but Caleb does not know it. As we were leaving he sticks his hand out for a low five and says, "Hey my friend, see ya later." How can you not laugh at that. What a ham. His latest passion has been golf, hence the video clip above. He did all the actions on his own, without provocation from his father. He loves to watch golf on tv and is very much a visual learner...and the result is above. What a fun character to have in our family!

I believe in Miracles

First of all I love Jamison's smile, but it is sometimes hard to get a genuine smile out of her. That is why I love this picture. Even though she is not looking at the camera, that is her real smile...the smile she wears when she is in her happy place...swinging.

I will back up and give a quick history of Jamison and why I believe in miracles. When she was born we had all kinds of surprises. One being that something was wrong with her eyes. After spending two days thinking she was absolutely perfect in every way, the doctor told us they were bringing in a specialist because they could not get a good look at her eyes. The Opthamologist told us after examining her twice that she was definitely blind in one eye and most likely totally blind. Shock set in! It also brought a rush of a bunch of different doctors to examine her again. After talking to a geneticist, we were told she might also be mentally retarded. A lot to take in in a matter of hours. We did not even know what to do. We were blessed enough to have a great deal of support there with us. After seeing another doctor the next day we discovered that most likely she could see out of one eye. It is not take us long to know that she was not mentally retarded, so we moved on with life...just like normal (at least normal to us.)

We had more doctors appointments than normal, but since she is our first it just became common place. She had a therapist come to our home and work with her biweekly to help her develop properly and adjust to having sight in only one eye. At two months she was diagnosed with glaucoma, which required eye drops in both eyes twice a day to make sure her pressure did not escalate to the point of needing surgery or losing her eyesight in her one good eye. She was a trooper and we started her on the eye drops a two months of age. Later we were told her eyesight was pretty bad, even to the point of being legally blind without glasses. We just rolled with the punches and went forward the best that we knew how.

Here comes the part that never ceases to amaze me. Just under a year ago we took Jamison off her eye drops for the first time in four years. Now, to put that in perspective, glaucoma is not curable, yet her pressures were doing well enough to take her off. We are not sure if she actually has glaucoma now, but the fact that she is doing so well is a little miracle to me. She had an appointment today, and her pressures were up a little, but her optic nerve (which with glaucoma manifests damage) looked totally normal. We will be back in ABQ in a week to see a glaucoma specialist to have a consult, but it is still a miracle to me that she does not have damage or out of control pressures considering where she came from five years ago.

The next little miracle. Today we had her prescription checked, and it improved dramatically once again. Her original was +3.50 (which means little to me because I do not wear glasses) and now it is +.50. Now I am no genius, but I do know that is a huge difference. The doctor said that she basically needed to wear her glasses to protect her eye at school (after all she only has one eye with vision and we do not want to risk damaging that), but at home it is not all the necessary to wear them. This is amazing to me considering how bad her vision used to be.

Jamison teaches me little things all the time, but today she reminded me once again that miracles exist today. Some people might say it is coincidence, but I say it is the blessings of our Heavenly Father!

I am not sure what it is about little babies and all their parts, but I love them. I took a bunch of pictures of little Miquelyn and some of her little parts, so I thought I would share. She is already getting bigger, and I never want to forget all her beautiful little features. These are only a fraction of the pictures, but plenty to share. My sweet little Miquelyn, I love every part of you!

The precious moments

This morning I was feeding Mique. A lot of times in the morning I will get back in my bed and read a book while I feed her. I let the boys kind of run wild and do their own thing. This morning after I fed her she was pretty groggy, so I decided to put her on my chest and just snuggle for a little bit. I could think of a million things I wanted to do and should do, but I did not move. I put down the book and just enjoyed having my little baby near. I was laying there thinking that I need to take these moments with her because she will grow up quicker than I want and this will not be an option. I can always clean the floor later. I was also thinking how good it felt to have her cuddled up to me...it is one of my favorite feelings in the world. Before long Caleb found his way on the bed and laid next to us, just nuzzling up to me. That put a smile on my face. Just a few minutes after that Asher was on the other side of me. He leaned over gave his sister a d kiss and cuddled in next to me too. There is no way to describe how I felt at that moment. That made my day! The only problem was James and Grant were not there close by too. If I would have gotten up to clean I would have missed out on the precious moment. I am glad I took time to be a little lazy and really enjoy my kids!