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.