An Ellie Memory

I was going to just post a picture of Ellie but I had to show off my amazing kids in their Easter outfits! But this post is really about Ellie.

I always want my kids to feel like they can come and tell me anything. Tyler and I try to be very open and patient with them (tyler being the better one). I always ask Philip who he likes, who he thinks is cute, and everything I can think of about his friends. He, however, does not want to share ANYTHING with me, which makes me a little sad. I am still working on changing that. He just gets embarrassed and turns red, and says he won't tell me because he does not want me to tease him. I always tell him that I am just interested and want to know what is going on in his life. Well aparently Ellie has been listening in on our conversations, and she is not so shy to share. Which I LOVE!!!

Here is a conversation we had the other day...........

Ellie: mom, you know that kid that I told you about who likes me?
me: yes, what about him?
Ellie: Well, he likes me ALOT!!!
me: Oh really?? How do you know this?
Ellie: Well today at school he gave me a note that asked me to meet him behind the hill at recess.
me: Oh really?? Did you?
Ellie: Yes
me: And......What did he say?
Ellie: He said He really likes me alot!
me: Oh...well...what did you say?
Ellie: I just said OK and ran away.

I love it! I absolutely love that she told me. I remeber being that age and the little crushes that I had. I just hope that she will continue to tell me about these little secret meetings behind the hill as she gets older.

October fun and picture overload!

It has been forever since I last posted so brace yourself for a ton of pictures. I actually wanted to post more but I guess I will save them for other posts. As many of you know I LOVE Halloween. I love dressing the kids up, I love scary movies, and I LOVE candy!! Every year I stress about what the kids are going to be. I know...stupid. but.. I do. So.....without further ado....Here they are!!

Lucy was determined to me madussa!! I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull this off and at one point I had her talked out of it and talked into just a scary witch. Then I was in st. George with the girls and came across this awsome head piece!! Problem solved! She was so excited to wear this and it fits her perfectly cause we all know how much Lucy loves to hiss at people. Thank you avatar.

Ellie really wanted to be ballywood dancer but the costume she had her heart set on got sold out so she settled for this gogo witch. But I think it turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

Tyler.....well, tyler. I really have no words for this costume. But he did have just as much fun dressing up as the kids did.

At the ward trunk or treat all the little kids had a blast coming up and kicking Tyler all night long!

Maggee inhereted Ellie's costume from last year but she was thrilled to wear it. Add some pink hair and pink eyelashes and it is a whole new costume.


Philip had issues with costumes this year. I think he is feeling too old to dress up. What??? You are NEVER too old to dress up for halloween. He was originally supposed to be the football but tyler took such a liking to the costume he couldn't breake his dad's heart. So we came up with this punk rocker costume. Lucy lately is very fascinated with real tattoos so I was a little worried about putting philip in this. Lucy looks up to philip sooo much.

Pumpkin carving fun!!! The kids all started out with ONE pumpkin. Well....Maggee accidently knocked Lucy's off the counter and it splattered everywhere!! Lucy started crying, then maggee started crying, so everyone got a second pumpkin to carve. You can't just let two of them carve two pumpkins. Philip didn't like his first one but the second one did the trick.


Everyone exhausted after the carving. But...very excited that they got to stay up past bedtime..again!!

Just had to include this one of Maggee. This is seriously the face Maggee always has on her face. She is alway sooo happy!! I love it!


Lucy carving her First pumpkin.

Everyone having fun.



Pumpkin marshmellows. Just a fun family night treat. Actually we forgot about getting a family night treat and I just happened to have t he marshmellows and candy in the cupboard. Worked out great.

yes I did dress up also but I didn't get a picture of it. But that is ok. Well here come the Holidays!! Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Maggee is *8*

This post is way over due. I am way behind in blogging. The summer is almost gone and I haven't documented one thing. Hopefuly I will get around to catching up but for right now this is one event I couldn't let go by unnoticed. I mean turning 8 is a HUGE deal!!!

Maggee had been anticipating this day for months. We let her chose what she wanted to do and she chose to go to our friends, Jayne and Robert's house for a cookout along with the rest of the charleston ward young women (karol is the young womens president). Unfortunately I don't have pics of that. She also got to have her very first friend party! (yes I know I am a mean mom. you are thinking "8years old and this is her first friend party?)

Of course turning 8 she was also baptized but I will do a different post for that. I just thought I would write down a few things about our Maggee Moo. She is by far our child with the most energy!! She NEVER stops. She no longer has her BIG tooth, which actually makes me sad cause only Maggee could pull that off. She now has braces. She LOVES her braces. She loves them a little too much. I have been taking her in at least 3 times inbetween checkups because she keeps breaking her wires. She cannot keep her fingers out of her mouth. She will come up to me and say, "mom, I DIDN'T put my fingers in my mouth, but look," and there will be a broken wire.

I usually have to tell her to do things on an average of 5 times before it registers what needs to get done. She will usually go in her room and do something else and when I ask her why she hasn't done what I've asked she says, "oh I forgot." That is her famous line. But don't get me worng, this is why we love her so much. She keeps us on our toes and keeps things very interesting. You can't help but love this girl. She is the second mom around here. Even though I may have to ask her more than one time to do something, she is always more than willing to do it. She LOVES her little cousins and gets soo excited when she knows they are coming to visit. She thinks it is her duty to make sure they are taken care of. She always tells me that she can't wait to be a mom.

As I said before Maggee has lots of energy. She is the one that is usually standing on her chair during dinner or running around the kitchen instead of just sitting down and eating. I will never forget a few years back when I came home and Maggee was crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said "Dad tied me to the chair!" I could not believe (well yes I could) that tyler would do something like this and I looked at him for an explanation and he said "well I told her that if she got up one more time instead of eating, I was going to take her jump rope and tie her to her chair. She didn't listen, so I did it." Maggee still brings up that story. Tyler will always respond, "In my defense, at least she remembers". Sadly though, maggee still can't sit still through dinner time. Dinner time actually would not be the same if she did sit through it.

Maggee will be in third grade this school year. She is very excited for school. She is also going to start taking gymnastic lessons, cause lets face it, she needs something to get all that energy out! I always worry that maggee doesn't get as much attention being the middle child. She was born with the right personality to stick out and get attention.

We love you Maggee!!

This little man....................

Is now 12!!!

Yes 12... I can't believe it either! I know this post is a few days old but I couldn't let this huge milestone go by unnoticed. I don't want to get too cheesy because he is now gets embarrassed when I am cheesy about him. I rember the day I had him and the drs. kept telling me what a small baby he was going to be and then out popped an 8lb 4oz 22 1/2inch long baby. I looked at him and thought "He does not look like a new born! and where did that BIG head come from?" Needless to say that I still loved him even though at that momment I said I was NOT going to have anymore babies if they were all going to be as hard as he was.

Ok so now I am going to get a little sentimental. A few days after Philip was born we wound up in primary childrens hospital because he was having seizures. These seizures were very seviere and me being a first time mother, who was only 19, was scared to even touch him. The first year or so of Philip's life we spent at primary childrens hospital. We had a lot of family prayers and fasts for him. I wont go into every detail but that is one moment in my life where my testimony was strengthened. His neurologist said that he had never seen a baby have such seveire siezures and not have any brain damage. I knew it was an answere to prayers. Grandma karol and Grandpa Lee were in Hawaii and they put his name in the temple and karol called us and said that she knew he would be ok. Midway 2nd ward had a fast for him. My mom told me (a few years later) that she had also had an experience that philip was ment to come to this earth to accomplish something very special......but that was all she would tell me from her experience. I am mainly writing all this because I want Philip to know how special he really is and how much we fought to have him in our family.

Being the oldest isn't always the easiest and many nights tyler and I talk and wonder if we are too hard on Philip because we correct him more than the other kids. We always use the "your little sisters are watching every move you make" talk. I guess I shouldn't forget to say that all my other actual births were a bit easier because of the babies being smaller but we always say to philip that he "paved the way" for all the other kids to come to our family. And.....he still is doing just that.

We love you Philip even though I know we are mean and won't let you have a cell phone...yet!

Best Snuggie Family Ever!

What more can I say other then... I LOVE THESE GUYS! I couldn't ask for a better family to put with me. Yes, we all got snuggies for Christmas....I know you are all secretly jealous cause who wouldn't want one of these awsome backwards robes?? I think maybe our chrismas card next year will be us all wearing our snuggies. That is if I get around to actually doing a Christmas card. I never have before but maybe, just mabye next year I will.

Creative or What!

I have been wanting to show everyone what a creative family I have. My kids were a little upset that I didn't get out all of the christmas decorations this year. I just didn't know how much energy I would have with having surgery during the holidays so all that got put up was the tree. So we had the great idea to make it snow in our living room. The kids LOVE it!! It was a fun family home evening activity that did take longer then we planned and the kids loved it even more when it ment they got to stay up way too long past their bedtime in order to see the final look. Grandma Karol even came over and cut some snowflakes out. Fun, fun, fun.


Just a small confession. The snow flakes are STILL up. I love that when you drive past the house you can see them through the window.

I just had to slip this picture in. Maggee has had this ONE big tooth for forever! IT wasn't so bad until she lost the one on the other side of it. Now when she smiles all you see is this ONE BIG tooth!! Only Maggee can pull this look off.

Another fun thing to do with paper. Hair bows. This little creation was Ellies. The girls had a blast with it and especially Lucy thinks she looks Oh so pretty!! Ellie had fun being the big sister and teaching them how to make it. They spent a whole afternoon not moving from the dining table making tons of bows. Good little activity for all you moms out there who may need a few minutes to yourself. This activity consumes them. Not to mention I know Ellie was pretty proud of herself for showing her sisters how to make them.

This is Lucy's photo smile. I don't think I have seen a more fake smile!

Ok this smile isn't too bad.

Camera Bandit

So our camera was lost for a few days and we could not figure out where it had gone to. We always keep it in the kitchen drawer next to the stove or tyler has it on his computer desk. We asked all of the kids if they had seen it and every one of them said they had no idea where it was. I know that Lucy takes things and hides them and when we are looking for them she always says "I think I might know where it is.....let me see." Then she ALWAYS can muraculously find it! Because of her history I continued to ask her where it was and she PROMISED me she had no idea.....then one day it was all of a sudden back in the drawer where it is supposed to be. I took the camera out and this is what I found on it...

These were only a few (the camera was completly full) of the pics that I found. I called Lucy to the kitchen and here is our conversation.....

me: Lucy, are you sure you had no idea where the camera was?

Lucy: Positive

Me: Then how did pics of you get on here?

Lucy was quiet for a moment and then said....

Lucy: Mom, Santa isn't watching us anymore right? Cause Christmas is over.

Me: Lucy, Santa is always watching. All year long he watches.

Lucy quietly says "dang it" and then....

Lucy: Look at me in these pictures mom, I am almost grown up!

She never fessed up to playing with the camera, and this isn't the first time it has happened. I think our whole house has been photographed clear down to the smallest crumb on the floor. I showed Tyler the camera when he got home and all he could say was how proud he was of her taking such a good picture of the BYU cup. Really?

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.