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.

Long lost post about Lucy's cast!

I finally got Tyler to download a ton of pictures from our camera because yes I am lame and do not know how to do it. Just to give me a little credit, it is because our cord to use on the camera is lost so Tyler has to do something else to download them. Anyway, I never posted any pictures of Lucy and her lovely pink cast!

The girls are just goofing off right here. Lucy's cast went from her toes right up to the top of her thigh. This cast was a pain. Especially when it came to bathing her. She was a good sport about it though.

This picture is right as we were walking out the door to take her to the dr. to have the cast removed. She was not too happy about about the saw.

Lucy asked to keep her cast. It is still laying around the house. I went to throw it away the other day and Tyler couldn't believe that I wanted to throw it away.

After Lucy got her cast off she would not walk on it. So we went back to her scooting everywhere. The dr. said this was normal and to even expect her to limp for a while. It was a little over a week without the cast and we were at my parents house on Christmas day. My mom was having a small problem with some ants. Tyler told lucy that if she kept scooting around the ants would eat her bum. Well that did the trick. She stood up and has walked ever since.

Snowmobiling Fun!

Over the Christmas breake our friends, Robert and Jayne, brought over their snow mobiles and we took the kids out to have some fun. The kids had a blast. They lasted much longer than I thought they would. Of course we didn't go too far. Just out our back door. My kids love Robert and Jayne. There are many nights when I am fixing dinner and Philip will come up to me and say, "Mom, I was thinking and I think we should call Robert and Jayne and see what they are doing for dinner. We should invite them over."

This is Tyler, and..........yes me!, and Lucy. I even drove for a little bit. I let tyler take over driving again after I dumped him off the snowmobile. Poor Lucy. Maggee left her snow pants at school so she put on Lucy's snowpants. I was looking for lucy's and couldn't figure out where they were until I saw maggee and how short the snowpants were on her that she was wearing. So we just put multiple pairs of pants on Lucy. You would think she was the coldedst since she was the only child without snow pats on, but she out lasted all the kids.

At first Lucy would ride with me and Tyler, but that didn't last too long. The whole rest of the time she wanted to be with either Jayne or Robert.

Philip even got to drive!! He thought that was neat.

This is me and Maggee being pulled in the sled behind the snow mobile. I too am shocked that I was able to do this. It has been at least four winters since I have ventured out doors to do stuff like this.

Robert pulled the kids all afternoon. Ellie and Philip loved it.

Thanks Robert and Jayne for a very fun day!

The Grandkids!

These are pictures from Grandma Karol's birthday party. These are all the grandkids on Tyler's side of the fam.

Imaginary friends

We have some new members in our family. Lucy introduced me to Sleeping Beauty, Wickey, Peter Pan, and her new cat Saraphina. Lately these new friends go every where with us! A setting has to be set at the table when we eat and they have to be involved with everything the family does. Tyler was in a lot of trouble the other day because he didn't see Saraphina, the cat, and stepped on her. Lucy could not look at Tyler all day without giving him a dirty look! Lucy has not been sleeping in her bed agian lately. She says this is because her friends are sleeping in her bed and so she can't. If there is a mess left behind where Lucy has been playing, conveniently it was peter pan, or wickey, or sleeping beauty that left the mess. She says that she should not have to clean it up because they need to learn to clean up their own messes!! She gets really upset if we interupt her frineds talking to her. Where does she come up with these things?

I remeber my sister's kids having imaginary friends. Shelby always had girlfriend and boyfriend. I remember them having to eat with the whole family. Riley had Goo Goo. They had these friends for a long time and then one day they were gone. I always thought it was so funny. Non of my other kids have had the imaginary friend syndrome. But, of course, it would be Lucy who has them. She talks to them all day long and it is quite interesting to listen to these conversations. She gets mad at them one minute and then the next she says they are friends again! She does seem to be fully entertained with these friends and likes her privacy with them also. So I wonder how long these new friends will stick around. I look in her eyes and see that little mind spining a mile a minute and I wonder what she will come up with next. I really need to find a preschool for her next year. Any suggestions?

Do I live in a house or a home?

I guess you could say that I am a clean person and I prefer cleanliness, but I wouldn't say I am a perfectionist or a "clean freak". I will admit that it is hard for me to relax when the house is a mess and things are out of place and I absolutely hate waking up to a dirty kitchen. But you can always walk into my house and see a mess in one room or another. I have always wanted my house to be a home that people would feel welcome to come in and relax and feel "at home." I don't want people to feel like they can't touch anything for fear of messing it up.

I went to our relief society Christmas breakfast and one talk in particular has had me thinking quite a bit. This lady was talking about family traditions and different things that have created memories for her. She talked specificaly about her dining room table and how she loves every dent and scratch on it. Each dent and scratch represented some sort of memory about a different child. Durying this holiday season, as you all know, Lucy has had a broken leg. Let's just say her cast has done a little more than make scratches on some of my furniture. I will fully admit that I was not too happy about this, especially on my dining table that was bought brand new when we moved into this house. Everytime I walk down the stairs and I feel new carpet crunching under my feet , I am reminded of the 5 gallons of paint that philip spilt down the stairs going to the basement. That is a painful story. On the wall to the left side of the stairs as you go up stairs you can see the faint stamp marks from where Lucy had fun stamping where ever she wanted. Yes I did scrub the wall and Mr. Clean's magic eraser didn't fuly take it off. But now everytime I walk upstairs I glance at the marks and kind of laugh to myself.

When we moved into this house I was very strict with the kids on what they could and couldn't do. Rules galore! I kept thinking this is a brand new house and I don't want marks on it!! My view is quite different now. I want a home, not a house. I was creating a house feel not a warm homey feeling. Ok, so yes I do still have rules. I just think about my restrictions differently. It is the spilt paint, Lucy's stamp marks, Lucy's casts markings on furniture, and even Tyler cutting Ellie's door to her room upside down that makes this a home not a house. I am so greatful that I live in a home and not a house.

My kids are young and I know I still have many years of scrapes, and dents, and scratches that will be made in different places. We built this home as a forever not ever moving home. I will have to remind myself many times not to sweat the little things, and that they are only little once! Tyler and I worked really hard on this house so it is only fitting for us to build it, and the kids to mark it! There will be times in years to come that I will have to continuously look back and reread this post to remind me to not get so uptight. I look around me as I am sitting here and I am glad that we are here in this home and will be in this home for many years to come so bring on the scratches and dents and markings!