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!