The Good Old Days

I was just browsing through our picture file trying to find the most recent pictures that tyler downloaded last night thinking maybe I should update this blog when I came across this picture. I don't think I have ever seen this picture! I just couldn't resist. They look so YOUNG! Where has the time gone? I can't help but remeber this time when I was at home 24/7 with three little ones and NO CAR. I thought my life would NEVER change. I thought I was always going to live in a 2 bedroom townhouse and never have a car and always be what seemed like a single parent. Tyler would leave at 6 am and not come home till 10pm. He worked full time and went to school full time. I had to make my schedule around everyone elses schedule if I needed to take the kids to the dr.(which was quite often) or just run errands. I thought life was so difficult and hard. And yes it was. Just a different kind of hard than what we are living today. Even though I delt with the struggles of never having a break and being surrounded by children 24/7, I really do wish at times that I could go back to then. I hadn't gotten sick yet, my kids still adored only me, no talking back, no setting preteen rules, etc.... I hadn't started to really worry what my kids were going to face in the social world yet. This was when the most expensive christmas gift was a blue ball with white stars, or a huge candy bar. Now it's ipods and cell phones. It is weird to think that I am at a stage in my life when I want the same things for christmas that my kids do. I remeber when we bought ellie her ipod shuffle for her 8th birthday thinking " I am buying my 8 year old an ipod when I don't even have one!"

Oh my life was so simple back then.....only if I had realized it. Yes I have the days to myself mostly now. I can go as I please now. No more being tugged in all different ways. No more washing dirty little hand prints off of the walls. Now it is, "Mom so and so hurt my feelings at school today." and " So and so doesn't want to be my friend anymore." and "Why can't I have a cell phone.....all my friends do." and "Why can't I stay out till midnight and have a late night. All my friends do." (what the heck! My curfue was midnight when I was in highschool...not junior high. Oh how the times have changed. I am thinking right now that I wish I could turn back time and relive those tiring young motherhood days. I hate to say I took them for granted. Don't get me wrong I am enjoying having a whole different kind of relationship with my kids now but I really hate worrying about the real world stuff now.

Mom or a Doctor?

Tyler and I always try to encourage the kids to do thier best in school and other activities that they are doing. I always ask them what they want to be and Ellie always says "artist, of course." Maggee wants to be a mom (yes the best job in the world). Philip actually talks alot about being a marine biologist. My sister heather keeps begging me to let him come to florida in the summer and do some camps down there. Now on to Lucy. The other day we had this conversation.........

me: So what do you want to be when you grow up Lucy?
Lucy: I want to be a dr.
me: You will be a good Dr. but do you want to be a mom too? Even though you have kids you can still be anything you want to be!
Lucy: mmmm no. No kids. Just want to be a dr.

So there you have it. No kids for Lucy. Ellie and maggee always talk about how they can't wait to be moms. Lucy likes her dolls and imaginary friends but when ever I bring up having kids she always tells me " I already told you I am not having kids!"

I really just wanted to record this so that when she is grown up and a mom and maybe even a dr. I can show her how she said she would NEVER have kids and have a good laugh with her.

Freedom!

Ok so I guess I shouldn't say FREEDOM. I am a little sad for summer to be over but I am ready for some of the chaos to calm down. I do hate being tied to a schedule for the morings but I am ready for the craziness that summer brings to settle down.

I thought it would be fun to show a picture of the kids a few years ago to show how big my babies are getting (Philip would be embarrassed to know I was calling him my baby). Not sure why Maggee wasn't in this picture. Probably because she wasn't going to school yet. This was when we were living with Karol. I think Ellie was only going to kindergarten and Philip was going to second grade.

(philip's looks never really change)

And now my babies are BIG. I love this picture because it shows all of them. All three kids excited to go and Lucy in the back ground pouting as usual. In Lucy's mind she should ALWAYS be able to do what the other kids are doing.

I thought Tyler was going to start crying when he came home from back to school night last night and said he couldn't believe that Philip was done with elementry school. It is a weird thought to think I have a sixth grader, a fourth grader, and a second grader. Philip was nervous and we told him it is ok to be nervous but that he will be alright.

Philip's bus actually doesn't come till 8:31 (tyler is very annoyed if you say 8:30). The girls get on the bus at 8:04. I must admit that I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders as soon as Philip's bus drove away. It has been a very QUIET day and......my house is STILL clean! Don't get me wrong, I am very sad my kiddos are growing up but I am also excited for them to go to school and be with their friends and for the adventures they will have this year. I think my breakdown will really happen next year when the last one leaves the nest! Until then, I am enjoying my ME time and LUCY time!

Yummmmmm....

The best thing about this surgery has been all of the great food my ward has brought into my home. These were soooo good. I was soo sad when they were all gone. Definitely one of my new favorites!

Thanks to EVERYONE who has been helping us out. You will never know how much it has ment!

Just my thoughts

So here it is the end of August and I am STILL down from the surgery. I thought I would give a quick update as to our happenings lately. Sorry no pics so I hope this isn't too boring. Life has been TOUGH this last little while but I am hoping that I am turning a corner. This surgery has been VERY PAINFUL and a lot HARDER than I expected to recover from. Don't get me wrong I am still glad I did it. I think I have learned more about this disease I have since the surgery then I did before the surgery. I have found a website called dailystrength.org. I joined the pseudo tumor cerebri chat group and it has been sooo therapeutic for me. I log on everyday and read people's posts and love realizing that I am NOT crazy. There are other people out there that understand what I am going through. This group introduced me to another website, ihrfoundation.org. This website answers every question I have almost ever had. I am sure I bore Tyler to death cause I always have to tell him some exciting thing I have just read and he does listen but not with quite as much excitement as I have. My dr. at the moran eye center has also sent me a flyer about a group of people (from here in utah) that get together every year and are able to meet and talk about their experiences with this disease. It is a hard life dealing with chronic pain. It takes such a toll on your body.

The kids are all getting ready to start school. I FINALLY convinced tyler that I could handle going to provo with him so I could help out with school shopping. I wasn't quite sure about letting tyler pick all of Ellie's and Maggee's school things out. They probably would have come home with football and basketball clothes. We also went to dinner and a movie with some friends that night and for the first time in over a month I almost felt like a normal person. The kids are sooo excited for school to start. It has been a LONG summer. I have loved having them home but it will be nice to get back into the schedule of things.

My body is TIRED . I am ready for this whole thing to be OVER!! The walls of my bedroom are getting quite lonely. It is also very frustrating to wake up with extreme pain in my side and every little movement makes me want to cry. I am reassured by my neurosurgeon that this is normal. Apparently they don't suture the tube and drain into place so it is floating around in there. So at time it hits nerves and organs that causes a lot of pain and discomfort. My dr. says that my body should build up scar tissue to hold it in place. How long does scar tissue take to form anyways? I feel like I have given it plenty of time. I also get worn out ALL THE TIME. Who knew walking around Costco would be SOOO much work! I am also getting very horrible heat flashes since the surgery. I am also told that that is normal. My body needs to adjust to a foreign object inside of it. Good news is that I have not had one fever since the surgery which is a good sign that my body won't reject the shunt...knock on wood. It is very frustrating to feel really good one moment and then the very next..VERY HORRIBLE!

One last thing I need to write down before I forget. Tyler and the girls and I were watching So You Think You Can Dance. I LOVE this show. Anyway, Lucy always dances around the tv room while we are watching. During one of the routines Lucy is doing her usually moves and then stops right infront of the tv and pulls a Michael Jackson move. Yes the crotch grabbing one. AND she did it PERFECTLY! I turned to tyler and said, "Did she just do what I think she did?" We were laughing sooo hard. Tyler has been showing the kids a lot of Michael Jackson moves and videos. Gotta love this girl. Hopefully I can get her into some dance classes this year. She is also starting preschool. Yes my BABY is going to preschool! Life is moving on even though I am STILL stuck in this bed of mine.

Pseudotumor Cerebri

This is a post that I have been wanting to do for quite some time. Mainly because this is supposed to be a journal about my family. I want my kids to read this sometime and be able to understand why thier mom was the way she was. Also, alot of people that I run into always have the question "what is it you really have?" So I thought maybe I should do a post all about Pseudotumor Cerebri (PTC) or Benign Intracranial Hypertension (BIH). I completely understand if this post sounds way boring to some of you so feel free to skip. I mainly just want of record of what I have been dealing with for the past five years now.

My battle with this disease began when I was four months pregnant with Lucy. I was diagnosed with a viral meningitis. It was really scary and was hospitalized for it. The pregnancy was very difficult. The dr.s all assured me that Lucy would be ok and life would go back to normal as soon as I would give birth to her, but that I would be alot more susceptible to headaches. After I delivered Lucy I still suffered from extreme headaches but I thought it to be normal and didn't check back with my neurologist like I was supposed to.

Our life moved on and we sold our Hamlet townhome and we moved in with Karol. A few weeks after living with her I had a horrible headache and could not function. I was scared that I had gotten meningitis again. Tyler took me to the hospital and they did a spinal tap. Good news was that it was not meningitis but that I had Pseudotumor Cerebri. By the name of it it makes it sound like I have a tumor in my brain. There is actually no tumor. A phantom tumor is what a lot of dr.s call it. The minengies in my brain were not functioning properly. Your body is constantly procuding spinal fluid and the minengies around your brain secrete it. Mine were not secreting it properly so therefore fluid would build up around my brain and put pressure on it making my brain think that it had a tumor. So my body would act as if I had a tumor. Mainly I had alot of nausea and a lot of swishing sounds in my ears. The only way to relieve it fast was to have a spinal tap. Spinal taps, oddly enough, became my best friend. It was the only thing that kept my head from hurting. The hard thing about spinal taps is you have to be flat after them. As of today I have had around 13 or more spinal taps. The blessing in disguise was us moving in with Karol. Not really a blessing for her though. She had to take care of my family because I couldn't. To this day, I really believe that one of the reasons I was ment to marry tyler was because I needed to have the mother-in-law that I have. She kept our little family together.

I worked with a neurologist for quite some time and was started on medication. After a while he decided he could not help me and referred me to Dr. Digre up at the Moran Eye Center at the U of U. To this day she is still treating me along with a neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Schmidt. Dr. Digre tried me on every medication possible to treat this disease. All the while I am dealing with headaches every single day. Waking up with a headache and going to bed with a headache becomes a very hard life to deal with. I mainly felt bad for my kids. I just didn't have it in me to take them and do the fun stuff a mom should do. Luckily I was blessed with wonderful kids who are very understanding and patient. And with wonderful family and friends who help me with my kids. I am truely a product of family and friends helping me raise my kids. I honestly have not raised my kids.

Here I am five years later and still dealing with all the same issues. It has been a very frustrating last few years. Tyler and I decided to have a surgery to try and help me out. There are two different shunts that they can use to try and relieve this pressure in my head. The first is a VP shunt that is actually placed in the head with a tube that goes down the neck and end in either the heart area or the stomach area. Which ever the surgeon decides is best. The second shunt is an LP shunt. This shunt is placed in the spine with a tube that wraps around the waiste and end with a drain in the stomach are. Tyler and I decided to start with the LP shunt.

This is as close as a picture I could find to show what it looks like. I had the surgerly done on July 27. Today is August 14. and I am still down because of the surgery. I have had some headache relief. The last few days I have been feeling some tightness in my head and so I am to stay down hoping that the shunt will unclog itself. There are many things that can go wrong with this shunt. It can cause Chiari (where the brain is sucked down the spine), it can cause many infections, or it can just simply malfunction or pop out of the vertibret that it is in. We are hoping that none of this happens to me. This surgery has been a lot more difficult to heal from than I had expected but I am hoping that it will all be worth it. If I do have to many problems with this shunt, then we will try the one in my head. Strangely enough, I almost wonder if I would rather have the one in my head. I don't think I would feel it as much as I feel this one. It is very uncomfortabel moving with it. I can feel the tube around my waist, which makes it difficult to get in a comfortable position to sleep in at night. But then I always think, "Would I rather be uncomfortable or would I rather have part of my head shaved?" Tyler thinks I am crazy that I am most worried about getting my head shaved with the other shunt, but a girl needs to worry about her hair!

I am very glad I got the shunt because it has given me headache free days, and I forgot what that was like. It is very frustrating to still be down but I know it won't be forever. So far I think the shunt is a success. Anyone out there that has this disease.....I highly recomment this procedure.

Poor Ellie.....It is her 9th bday today and I am down. Tyler is having to be quite the Mr. Mom. He is making her birthday dinner tonight and is doing her friend bday party tomorrow. I feel like I have missed out on so much with my kids. All Lucy knows is me being this way. Ellie and Philip keep asking me if I am ever going to get better and that really breaks my heart. They remember before I got pregnant with Lucy and all the things I would do with them. The kids today think Tyler is the only one who can have fun with them. I am soooo greatful to have such a wonderful husband who will take over the whole household. I am not trying to be cheesy by saying this about tyler. I honestly don't know who else I could have married who would have taken over this family the way he has. He literally works his more than full time job and takes care of the household and kids. He is teaching Philip quite the cooking skills. I am proud to be apart of this family!

The birds and the bees :)

WARNING the content of this post contains "the birds and the bees" information. Please be advised ( I will try to keep the language at rated G level) as you read on........

The fourth of July this year will definitely be one that I will always remember. This is the year that my little boy "officially" grew up! Tyler and I have been debating lately whether or not it was time to have THE talk with him. Last year was the year they held the maturation (sp?) class for the fifth graders. Philip was gladly relieved when we were on our way to Olivia's graduation down in Cedar City on the day it was held. In fact, Philip never told us or gave us the letter about the class. We found out later from someone else that it had taken place.

Tyler and I kind of came up with an agreement that he would talk to Philip about things and I would talk to the girls. Which I did think was a little unfair since he only had to do the talk once and I will have to do it THREE times. However......I helped out this time so I think Tyler should return the favor when it comes time.

Now let me say that this was not something that we had planned on doing this holiday....something that just happened. AND I must say that I was very pleased to see how clueless philip actually was. I thought for sure that him and his friends had had talks about what they think IT really is. Which they have, but really didn't know.

My sister Darci came up with her boys on friday to spend the day, do a little boating on my dad's new boat, eat, play games, and just spend time as a family. My parents went up to The Sound of Music play in Miday (my dad was being honored as an artist and the architect of the legacy bridge in Miday......love ya dad!) so Tyler, Darci, Philip, and Colton and I were sitting at the table talking about random things (alone...no grandparents around). To be honest I am actually not sure how the subject even came up. But at some point, Colton stated that he knew what IT was. I asked him what he thinks it is (honstestly thinking that he would say kissing and laying in bed together) and he point blankley told me. I looked over at Philip and his mouth dropped to the table. Tyler and I looked at each other and thought "well......now we have some explaining to do!" So the next half hour to forty five minutes were full of explanations and questions from both boys.

I will admit that the conversation went over a lot more smoothly than I had imagined it to. I was terrified to have this kind of a talk with my child. I watched Oprah one day and it was on what was an appropriate age to talk to your kids about the birds and the bees was and how to have the conversation. There was a little girl on there at about the age of 10 and her mom and Oprah told her all about it. She took it so well and so maturly. I remember talking to tyler about it and saying how Philip is 11 so...according to Oprah we were a year behind. Both of us just kept putting it off. Now that the conversation is over , I am glad we had it. Philip was embarrassed while we were talking and got very red during some of the conversation.....but I know that he will come to us now when he has questions. I also think he was more comfortable having the conversation with Colton. I am so glad that Philip learned it from us. I always want my kids to feel comfortable to come and ask us questions and now I think Philip is.

So....one down, now three more to go. That shouldln't be awhile cause according to Tyler our girls won't be allowed to say hi to a boy till they are 21!!!

Happy Father's day to the two best dads in my life!

I couldn't let this Father's Day go by without honoring one of the best dads in my life. I could never ask for a better dad for my kids than this guy. Even when he is torturing and doing this to the kids.......................

Tyler is the one who knows how to have fun in this house.........even though someone always ends up crying in the end.

Just kidding hon...you are the best. I would be nowhere without you. You are the best Mr. Mom any wife could ask for :)

The other best dad ever that is in my life is my dad.....eventhough he is almost eighty (love you dad) he always has the energy for all of his kids and grandkids! Isn't he just the cuttest papa smurf guy out there?

One thing I would not have right now is my house if it wasn't for this man.

Isn't he the most talented architect you know? I remember when I was a senior in high school and he had a heart attack, I told him he couldn't die yet cause he wasn't finished raising me. He always says that I am catching up to his age but just remember dad....you will hit 80yrs way before I hit your age!!



This man can sleep anywhere!

Happy Father's Day to all you great dads out there!!

Daddy Daughter Dates!!

Last week I went on a trip to Seattle with some girlfriends. Tyler took the time off and stayed home with the kids. What a guy!! Everything seemed to be in control when I would call and check in accept for when Maggee told me Lucy feel asleep totally naked in her bed and dad didn't see the point in waking her up to dress her , so he let her sleep that way. The house was even picked up and everybody was alive when I got home! I asked him how things went while I was gone and he said that he had quite the daddy daughter date with the girls. Philip stayed home and Tyler thought it would be nice to take the girls to lunch at a nice restaraunt (olive garden, which is where tyler always has to go) and spend some time with them. He said that they were seated in a booth that was in a closed area with a lot of other people. Lucy said she had to go to the bathroom and Ellie said she would take her. After awhile, Ellie came back alone and said that Lucy was still in the stall sitting on the toilet singing, and grunting at the same time. Ellie was embarrassed so she left Lucy in there. Tyler said a few minutes later Lucy came running to their table just as excited as can be and said VERY LOUD, "Dad, my poop, it just slipped right out!" Tyler said everyone in the booths around them heard and started laughing. Now anyone who knows Lucy, knows that bathroom time is very serious stuff. She takes her time. And if you walk in on her she always says, "Don't come in here, it stincks!!" Or she is very polite and warns you not to go in the bathroom when she comes out because it may stinck for a while. What can I say.....Lucy is Lucy!!!

Posts from the past

Tyler finally got all of our pictures in just one place. I was looking at them today and thought it would be fun to do some posts about my kids from their earlier years since blogs didn't exist back then. These have been alot of fun to look at. I didn't realize how much my girls resemble each other as babies. But I must admit that some of my favorites are of Philip when he was little. So here are some past photos in no particular order. ( I'm too lazy to arrange them how I really should :) !)

Maggee Jane. My most mellow baby!

All of my girls have broken a bone. Here is Ellie right before I had Maggee.



This is Ellie sitting by grandpa Phil's grave. I forgot how bald she was as a baby.



Philip and Ellie. Wow!!! Not potty trained yet!! I remember the days with two in diapers.



I know I am biased but I really think that Philip was such a handsome little guy!



Like most little boys, Philip was obssessed with trains. When he was born Thomas the Train was very hard to find and very expensive. So he loved the movies but really didn't have the toys.

I love this picture. It was taken on Mother's Day 2002.

Phililp is like his mom and is very allergic to any kind of insect bytes or sting. He got stung by a bee right inbetween the eyes here. My mom always had this magic mud that she made that worked miracles. The poor kid!



Good old Lucy. I really do miss her baby stage.

Maggee Jane.




Maggee and Philip. I must say that Philip's looks really don't change as he gets older.



Philip annoyed that we were taking pics.

Lucy again.



I love this picture of Maggee. She is my little sport guru. She loves any kind of sport and is quite good at them.

Sweet Ellie. She has always been the quiet and shy one.



My kids aren't soo little anymore. It is hard to believe that phililp is eleven now and will no longer be in grade school. Not to mention that he is almost in young mens. Next year is Ellie's last year in grade school. Maggee will be baptized on her next birthday. And Lucy is four. Only one more year and school officially starts for her.

Dancing With The Stars

So I was getting Lucy ready this morning to head out the door. Got her dressed, brushed her teeth, put her shoes on, and she ran to my full length mirror to check herself out. After a minute or two of smiling really big at herself and modeling she turned to me and said..."Mom, I look like I should be on Danicng With the Stars!" Not quite sure why she thought that. Really people, I don't dress my 4 year old in skimpy (but in Lucy's opinion very beautiful) outfits.

When we watch Daning with the Stars in our house our conversations are usually about the outfits not the dancers. I rate the dances but my girls always sit and talk about the outfits. Right when they come on the floor all three girls usually give their opinion on whether they let the girls costumes or not. Yes my dream of having dancing girls is being smashed a little. Ellie would rather do anything to do with art, and Maggee loves all the sports and is begging for gymmnastic lessons. I do have a little hope with Lucy. She dances all morning long and loves to have people watch her. She does sing a ton too. So I think the singing may win out....let's hope she has a good voice. Of course I think it is beautiful right now, but what little 4 year old doesn't sound cute when they sing?

So back to Lucy and her outfit. Really all she had on was some camo (yes, camo) capris and light blue shirt and hoodie. She had on her favorite red butterfly shoes. I will post a pic tonight. I used to be very picky about what my kids look like, but I am afraid I've lost the passion. I can do that on my last child.......Right??

Lucy Belle

I found this cute video of Lucy as a baby while we were living with Karol. Just thought it was so cute, I wanted to share it. (Yes...Lucy had horrible hair as a baby. It always looked like a rats nest but we still loved her!) She pushes this toy around for a little while....but keep watching to see how cute her laugh was.

Did you notice how long my hair is? I was thinkin about cutting my hair because of all the hair I have been loosing lately.......but I think I am going to tough it out and keep growing it.

21, 24.......or 30 years old???

Ok so I thought I would get to the bottom of this age thing with me. A lot of times I go out in public and people will ask how old I am. Never does anyone guess above 24!! And then when they ask how many kids I have and my response is 4 they always assume I must have been a teenage pregnancy. I guess in reality I was....since I was nineteen when I had Philip, but I am THIRTY now almost 31, not 21 or 24!

Now I found this old picture of me, granted it is my junior year picture.....and this picture of me is just a few months ago. Enough said, I have aged and I don't look like a 21 or 24 year old....right!?!

I mean my face has aged and is of course, fatter and I even use better moisturizer on my skin now....you know the moisturizers that women should use in their thirties so that I don't start getting wrinkles......or cover up the ones I am starting to get. Good thing I have friends that inform me of stuff like this! Thanks Lesa :)

Unexpected Trip!

Just thought I would write a quick little notes as to our happenings lately.  I am writing this from my sister's house in Florida.  Yes, I said Florida!  The trip was very unexpected and no time to plan for.  I have been really struggling these last few months with my health.  I had the spinal tap which only gave my head relief for a few short hours and then I was back to the same old aching every day.  Just when I thought it really couldn't get any worse, I got a kidney stone.  I literally thought I was going to die.  In the mean time my sister was here in Floriday having a hysterectomy done.  She has been wanting me to come out but my health was preventing me from going anywhere.  After a long painful week of trying to pass the stone, heather called me sunday morning and said they had a ticket for me to fly out the very next morning.  I hung up the phone, had a complete melt down with hours of tears, and then packed my bags and got on the plane.  I am terrified of traveling because of what it does to my head.  Tyler gave me a blessing of comfort and here I am.  This was a much needed trip.  More so than I knew.  Lucy came with me and we have been here taking care of my poor sister and her throwing up every day that we have been here. I feel horrible for her. I know how hard hysterectomies are to recover from, since I have had one myself.  

I also have benefited being her by being able to get into contact with some other neurologists that my sisters friend, Michelle knows.  My head has felt absolutely wonderful here. I have only had to take my medication once so far.  This is mainly because of us being a  sea level here.  It has been nice to have a break from my head throbbing, and every day nausea and the break not being from a spinal tap.  So I think Tyler and I are finally facing the fact that a shunt placement in my head is our next step.  The thought terrifies me, but if I can be head ache free for more than a few days it will be worth it.   Now that my head medication is causing kidney stones and I am being forced to face reality here.

I come home on monday and back to the struggles.  And back to a full couple of months of dr.  appointments.   I am so thankful for tyler and all he has had to put up with me and for sending me here while he stayed home and took care of kids.  I definitely would not make it if I were not married to him.

3 Brides!!

Doesn't every girl dream about their wedding from the time they can walk and talk? I know my girls do. Lucy marries someone new every day. Lately her husband is Derek. I have caught her in the shower pretending to shower and when I ask her what she is doing, she says she is showering with her husband, Derek! Don't worry we had a talk with her.

Ellie, Maggee, and Lucy love to play dress up at Grandma Karol's house. This particular day, the three of them came out humming the tune Here comes the Bride. Of course, I thought it was cute and laughed. Tyler, on the other hand, didn't think it was soo cute. He told them they are too young to even think about these kinds of things. Tyler is going to have stress heart attack with how much he always worries about these girls and how protective he already is!

Valentine Blues

I have to give all credit for Valentine's Day this year to Tyler. I do usually try to plan something fun and out of the ordinary for us but I just didn't have it in me this year. One year a group of my friends and I planned a scavanger hunt for our hubbys. We sent ransome notes to their work saying their wives had been kidnapped and to follow the clues if they wanted their wives safely returned to them. That year , by far, has been one of my most memorable valentines with Tyler. They had to go to various places around town and perform dances and songs in order to receive their next clue. In the end they found all of us wives tied up together. We went to dinner and played games. That year we were living with Karol so Tyler and I got a room to stay in down in Provo. This year, I am ashamed to admit, I did absolutely nothing! Usually it's the wife complaining that the husband didn't do anything. I have felt soo crappy these last few months and these last few weeks inparticular. I really wanted to plan a fun date wich would include maybe an afternoon movie and then an earlier dinner.

Philip had a bball game saturday morning and tyler told me to stay home and rest. After they had left for the game, I got out of bed to go down stairs to take my meds and low and behold there was a box full of roses for me! Tyler said that he only ordered a dozen but 17 came. They were different colors. They also came with a small hear box of chocolates. I felt horrible because I didn't even get him a card. Boy did I blow it this year! When they got home I told Tyler that I had wanted to take him out but I just didn't think I would make it. He was soooo understanding. We stayed in all day with the kids and watched movies. That night Tyler made a candle light dinner for me and the kids. What a sweetheart! So I guess I can't say anything the next time Tyler forgets to give me a card or take me out for a special occassion,or.....gives me a can opener!

Tyler didn't just stop at Valentine's Day. I just kept feeling worse and worse so early sunday morning (3:30am) I woke Tyler up and told him I couldn't stand it anymore. We headed down to St. Mark's and I had a spinal tap done. Boy does my head feel better now. Tyler was so patient with me and held me down so my body would stop shacking, and held my hand during the whole procedure. So today is Tuesday and I have been in bed since sunday morning and Tyler has taken over the house and the kids. Thanks to Karol who came and did some cleaning and all of the kids's laundry. I must confess that tyler has put up with poor housework and no laundry really being done for quite some time now. Philip's birthday is today and Tyler made his birthday dinner. What a man!!! and...........he is MINE!!!

Passing Notes

Passing notes happens on a weekly basis at our house. A lot of times Tyler and I will wake up to whispering and laughing and then footsteps running down stairs. I will get out of bed and there will be notes that they have slipped under our door. This first one is from Ellie.

Dear Mom, I cleaned my room when I got up because I thought you would be happy. And that you wouldn't have to tell me over and over again. And one important thing about you is that you are a SPECIAL girl. And you are the best mom EVER! Love Ellie

P.S. Please write back.

This next note is from Maggee.

To Dad From Maggee. We want to have fun today. from Maggee. Phililp wrote for me (Maggee)

This last note is from Philip

Dear mom and dad

Will you please slide it under Maggee's door and when we mean "it" we mean the paper to write back on. Thank you

Love Phil and Ellie

There is one note missing that is an important one and Iam not sure what happened to it. I thought I had kept all of them, but like I said this happens very frquently so I have lots of notes laying around from the kids. Anyway, the note that I can't find was talking about how the kids wanted to do something fun that day (a saturday). We would write back to the kids and run down stairs slip it under Maggee's door and we could hear them laughing and getting excited that we had written them back. Tyler and I would run back upstairs and shut our door and wait for them to write us back. The last note that was passed asked if we should keep writing notes back and forth to discuss what fun activity we would do that day as a family or if we should just have a family meeting. We wrote back and said a family meeting would be fine.

Notes are left all over the house to different members of the family. The kids will write notes to each other or Tyler and I will wake up to notes on our bed from the kids just saying that they love us. I always try and put a note in their sack lunches. One morning, as I was writing their notes telling them to have a good day and that I loved them, I started wondering if they even noticed them because they never mention them. Just as I was thinking this thought, Maggee came into the kitchen to check on her sack lunch and said, "oh mom, don't forget my note!" I just smiled to myself.

My kids are growing up which makes me very sad, but I am glad that they are still young enough to think it is "cool" to write notes to their mom and dad!

My baby is 4!!!!

This post is about a week late, partly because I think I am in denial. Lucy turned 4 on January 25. My life with babies and toddlers is gone. Hard to believe and hard to accept. Lucy has always been very very different then the rest of my children. Tyler used to always joke that we needed to stop because Philip and Ellie were always so mellow, then Maggee was a little bit more.....I guess I should say, Energetic!! Then Lucy is, at times, undescribeable. We often wondered what the next one would be like. There is no denying that we all give in to Lucy and she steals your heart once she decides that she likes you. There is no other way to describe Lucy other than she is just Lucy!!

The only thing Lucy really wanted for her birthday was a sleeping beauty dress. This exact specific one. There was no fooling her into a different one. Believe me, I tried. I took her shopping with me the day I bought her this dress. We went into the disney store and she walked right up to this dress. Well I will say that this dress was not cheap. I told her we should go to other stores and look. We left and she was not happy. After shopping around for a while, I discovered that the price wasn't as bad as I thought. So karol drove me back to the mall. She stayed in the car with Lucy while I ran back into the disney store. Mind you this whole time Lucy has had a dirty look on her face because she didn't want to leave this store in the first place. I told her I just had to run in really fast and I would be back. I didn't think she would know where I was going since we were at the mall. I came back to the car and Lucy had the biggest smile on her face. I asked her why she was so happy all of a sudden and she said because she knew I had gone in and bought her her dress. I told her I didn't, and that I did recheck the store but they had sold all of them. She just laughed and told me she knew I had her dress in my bag.

Lucy with some of her cousins who helped her celebrate. Lauren, Ellie, kyla, Maggee, lucy, Philip, and Rachel.



Lucy with all of her presents. She was not soo happy right when she woke up that morning. I thought she would be because she had been counting the days down to this day. She woke up with a scowl on her face. Some family members called first thing in the morning to wish her a happy birthday but she refused to talk to them. In fact, she cried all morning long while we were trying to get her ready for church. After she got out of the shower and she was all dressed, Tyler made her call everyone back and apologize to them for not being nice. Once she did that and she got to church her birthday mood was in tact.

Grandma Karol made Lucy this cute blanket for her birthday. So the party would not have been complete with out a slumber party. Aunt Olivia, Maggee, and Jayne enjoyed this the most out of the party. Jayne is holding a microphone that Lucy got for her birthday. Lucy sings at the top of her lungs. If you call our house around 9am every morning you can hear her singing all the mama mia songs! She knows them all.

We couldn't end the party without Grandpa George's birthday spankings. Lucy laughed through the whole thing.

Lucy, at the moment, is obssesed with Sleeping Beauty. She marries Prince Phillip every day. Her favorite characters in the past have been, the black spiderman, darth vador, and Iron Man. I tried to convince her to be a princess or something really girly for Halloween but she just had to be spiderman. So I was pleasantly surprised when she finally wanted something girly for her birthday.

Dentist Fun

This week has been pretty eventful. Actually, no it hasn't. Just the same old same old usual every day mom stuff, which is great! The kids all went to the dentist this week and that was a little adventure. All four had to have some work done. Philip had some teeth come in in the worng places so he had to have some teeth pulled to prepare for braces. Ellie's mouth is too small for her teeth so she had to have two teeth pulled so that the permanent ones waiting to come in actually could. That is a total of six teeth pulled for her because of this problem. My poor kids just don't lose teeth. The roots on those teeth are so dang long! Maggee had an absessed tooth that had infection. She never really complained about it so i didn't realize it was as bad as it was. Lucy had a few little cavities. Now, I know you are all thinking that I am probably not teaching my kids, or making my kids brush regularly. That is not the case. My kids LOVE brushing their teeth. I was a little embarrassed sitting in the dentist office with them and hearing everything that had to be done.


This is one of Ellie's teeth and tyler is holding onto the root of the tooth. Now that is one long root!!

So Ellie and Philip go first. Well with pulling their teeth they had to have guaze pads in their mouth and for the first little while a lot of blood is coming out of their mouth. Poor Lucy took one look at this and had a look of terror on her face. I assured her that that would not be done to her. Luckily we gave her the sedation medication before we left so that mixed with the gas she did pretty well. They had two chairs open that were being used on my kids. The one chair had a really nice lady that was pregnant helping the dentist, and the other chair had a really nice bald man that was helping the dentist. Now you would think that Lucy would automaticaly want to go to the lady's chair. No, she wanted to be with the bald man. She kept telling me "mom, that man has no hair. Just like my dad!!" I guess she felt connected with him. The problem was, Lucy was assigned to the pregnant lady's chair. Finally I convinced her to go to her chair but it took a blues clues blanket and she had to take her shoes off. I guess she needed to feel tucked in and safe before her work began.

So the day was long and not to mention the weather was horrible!!! I must admit I was a little scared driving. The kids did not look too good after the apt. was done so we took them home and grandma karol came over and stayed with them while Tyler and I went to their parent teacher conferences without them. I must say that I really liked not taking the kids. We were able to talk with the teachers about things that we probably wouldn't have with the kids there. I found out a lot of secrets about my kids that may be good blackmale material later on. We did get good reports from all three teachers and good grades were achieved by all of them.

Maggee's parent teacher conference was probably my favorite visit. Her teacher is great. Now anyone who knows maggee knows she is a wiggle worm. Her teacher has always told me that her students never sit for more than ten minutes at a time at their desks. It is still a little hard for first graders. In this visit, her teacher told us that she has had to have the kids at their desks a little more. I said that was probably torture for Maggee and she said it was at first but then she decided to give her a BIG chair. That way she can kick her leggs and swing them around as much as she wants while she is sitting. That way she is still getting her energy out of her body. Amazing. I never would have thought to do that.

So today Ellie and Maggee are home from school because of their mouths still being pretty sore. I thought I would be a good mom and make them their favorite, blue berry muffins. Lucy sat on the island to watch me make them. She asked if she could have some batter and before I could even answere her, she had gotten her own fork out and stuck it in the batter for a taste. Well it got to the point that she was taking way too much. I told her that if she did that again I would take the fork away so fast. She replied with, " I will just hold on to it soo tight mom!" I admite I didn't say anything back cause I didn't expect that responce from her. I did expect a dirty look, or stomping off. She said it soo nicely too! At least she is learning to control the tone of her voice, right?

Sisterly Fun

So there only remains three more weeks of nursery and Lucy still won't go. So I bought her a little makeup kit and stuck it at the top of the fridge. I told her that it would stay there where she could see it until she would go to nursery. She did it even if she only went for three weeks. The only thing that works with this child is reasoning.....and when that doesn't work...BRIBERY!We got the makeup down and the girls had a blast and wanted to pose for the camera. (Lucy was in a good mood that day so she was willing to share.)

The makeup doesn't show up that great but believe me it was everywhere. Of course they have their arguements but for the most part my kids get along pretty well. I love that all three of these girls are so close in age. I know I probably won't be saying this when the teenage years roll around so I will enjoy it for now.

Some More Catching Up

Over Christmas breake my kids were all lucky enough to get fifths disease. Poor Lucy got the worst of it out of everyone. To this day she still has blotches of it in random places on her skin. Philip and Ellie just got the rosie cheecks and Maggee later broke out with the rash also. I even wound up with the wonderful rosie cheecks for a few days and caused great headaches for me. The kids loved that they got almost an extra week of christmas break with no school.

Right before the christmas break Ellie had a class program. They all took apples to school and let them dry out and made an indian head out of the apple. Put a stick in the bottom of the apple for the body. The body had paper rolled around it that you would unroll and it had and indian story written on it. I was not able to go because of my head but that was ok because it was even better to have dad there all to herself.

Ellie and her apple Indian man. She was soo proud. She said that no one elses in the class looked like hers.

Ellie and Maggee had the opportunity to do an after school activity and participate in a sleeping beauty play. For a whole week they stayed at school until 5:30. They loved every minute of it, even though it may not look that way on their faces in this picture. They were soo nervous but they did a great job! They were sooo sad when it was all over with.