Eating and sleeping

I think it is so funny when kids fall asleep when they are eating. I guess the pool wore Grant out. He started to nod while eating his bananas. When he opened his eyes, he grabbed his pacifier, put it in and went quietly back to sleep. He's so cute.

Another lost tooth

V lost another tooth. It was so wiggly and grossing me out. I'm not sure why. Danny and Victoria just thought it was hilarious to wiggle it right in front of my face. So it was the ultimate in funny to try to pull it in front of me. I shot my eyes and covered my ears. Danny said he could see behind it when he wiggled it so asked if he could try to gently pull it out. V said sure. He gripped it with a paper towel gave it a little tug. I was expecting crying, but heard laughing! There it was in the napkin. As easy as that! She looks cute and oh so proud. 3rd one, but the first on the top and the biggest space. Her bottom two are growing in. It'll be neat to see what grows in here.

Proud V.

And the tooth she lost. Isn't the human body amazing?!!

She left a message for the tooth fairy and got a dollar last night! Good times.

Car wash fun!

Danny and V decided to wash the Jeep after the camp out. It rarely gets washed and I wondered why on a day when we had so much to unload, wash, put away, etc. I wasn't super happy about their choice. It was just low on the list of things to accomplish that afternoon. However, when I peeked at them it sure looked like they were having fun together!

So, I think it was a good choice afterall. Just look at their smiles. Not to mention Danny's body- hot!

They got clean (or soaked at least) and the Jeep did too! Glad you did it guys.

Belmont Ward Campout

Last week was busy with preparing for the ward camp out. I am still the Activities Committee Chairman, so that made it a fairly busy around our house. It is hard to get an activity together the day before and day of the event. But then, as it gets rolling it usually starts to be fun. That's how it was again this time. By about a half hour into the cookout I was enjoying myself. My family had a great time too, so I am thankful for that. I was appreciative of their help. I also appreciated the help of Patsy Willis and Joyce Seay who are on the Committee with me and Bro. and Sis. Butler who brought tables and brought a riding lawnmower out a few days prior to mow the land! What a huge help!

We camped at the land across from Shoosmith Brothers again. It is pretty there.

Lilly pads on the lake

We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up for the cookout. It was hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone brought sides to share. After we ate, families participated in a Nature Scavenger hunt. it was pretty fun. The hardest things for our family to find were berries and a feather, but we managed to find everything on the list! Yea!

Then, we had a brief campfire devotional. We sang and prayed and our bishop, Bishop Farthing, spoke about handing our burdens to the Lord. It was a good spiritual thought. Then we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed s'mores!

"Mom, don't take a picture! I have smores on my face!"

Nice face, Christian!

Christian doesn't like smores, but loves marshmallows. Look at how filthy this boy is! He loves camping and sure had fun being outside with his friends.

Here he is bouncing around with Tyson and Greyson. Are they goofy or what?

Please ignore the stick. What is it with boys and sticks. After I took the picture, I took the stick. No worries about stick injuries. But on the topic of injuries. While chasing Christian, I caught a prickly weed and got about 15 itty bitty little thorns stuck in my toes. It got pulled right across the thong of the flip flop between my big toe and the one next to it. They were tiny, but ouch! The next morning I wore close toed shoes. I am thankful for Amy's tweezers.

I am also thankful for women and young women from church who helped with holding Grant! It helped me get the things done that I needed to do and allowed Danny to focus more on watching Victoria and Christian(mainly Christian). Thanks, Samantha!

It was a good night. It took us a while to get settled in the tent, but everyone slept OK. Grant slept in a pack and play and then with me. He wasn't so sure about what was going on, but was good anyway. We were able to nebulize in the tent thanks to the adapter that we plugged into the van's lighter, and his wheezing never got much worse than it started.

The next morning was pretty chill. We had breakfast(the AC wasn't in charge of it this year because the Cub Scouts had a fundraiser breakfast down the road. If people didn't go to eat there they were responsible for their own food). It was kinda nice not to have to be responsible for cooking tons of pancakes.

We just played for a few hours. Lots of people brought canoes and kayaks, so we took a few turns riding on the water.

Christian thought it was so fun to ride with Avery and Anson and some of the YW(young women 12-18) in our ward.

He also had fun playing with his friend, Tyson. I found you! He played with Zane a lot too. So, he had a lot of fun. However, one part was not fun! Being stung 7 times by a hornet! Seriously! It flew into his shorts and got him 4 times. Danny got the shorts off and shook them out. When he put them back on he got 3 more bites! The hornet was still inside! Poor kid! I didn't witness this because Victoria and I were out on a canoe, but Danny said that Christian handled it pretty well and was back to playing with his friends pretty quickly.

Grant and Daddy driving the Jeep.(No keys really) I just needed free hands for a minute. Grant sure thought it was funny though.

Then, it was time for games- everything that I had planned wasn't really working out, so I had to improvise, big time! But with Danny's help I was able to come up with a relay race, an obstacle course, and a game of sharks and minnows. Danny came up with the idea to have a ride in the trailer. The kids had fun!

V and Makayley were on a team together for the water relay

Wiley's team filled their container first and won!

Sharks and Minnows

And the non-hay, hay ride!

As they rode around I threw together an obstacle course. Zig zag through cones, jump over some caution tape, crawl under the picnic table, run around the bush, balance on the balance beam(a long board that I was lucky to find) and hop over the aluminum pans. It was fun and the kids did it over and over again to see if they could set a new personal best time. Sad to say, no pics of that. I was busy working the stop watch.

Victoria looking naturally beautiful with a lilly choker that Dad helped her put on.

A lizard that the kids found in the picnic pavillion. Here it is in front of an empty bird's nest. This is where we found our feather, by the way.

So, as we pulled out both boys were asleep within 5 minutes. How cute are they?

We wore them out!

It was a fun time. I think it is a fun tradition for the families in the ward. I know it was fun for our family. The kids told grandma how "awesome" it was! It was nice to spend time enjoying friends, family, and our beautiful world!

the rivah

I'm not going to type a lot. When Danny went to Helaman's Challenge, the kids and I went to the river house. It was a good time and the first time we'd been since Christmas, I think. We always love it there. My parents were there and Craig, Lorel, and Ella too. It was beautiful outside. It was kinda chilly for bathing suits, but the kids got wet for a little bit anyway.

I had fun with my camera there and the pictures turned out to be pretty cute, so I'll just post a bunch. Some help show what we did and others I just like.

Thanks mom and dad for having us and feeding us and taking us out in the boat. It was fun!

To the bustop with camera in tow

Beautiful baby boy enjoys strolling to the bus stop and is excited when V gets off the B-U-S. Yes, we spell it in a little song we sing. My mom made it up long ago, I think.

Christian finds something to do while we are there.

This day it was building a pyramid of some sort.

So much fun with rocks and chunks of asphalt.

And we happily walk home. V has the best little calf muscles.

Random post, I know.

Christian "tired" of me!

So, here's a glimpse into a not so great mothering moment, but it is funny.

Danny had a trailer full of hay and tires for Helaman's Challenge, a big camp out for the young men in our church that he was working on. It was a group effort, but he was in charge of organizing it and coming up with the location, challenge, etc. A post for another day. Anyway, Christian was climbing on the tires, so I wanted to take a picture.

I suggested that he get in the tires for the next picture. There were some spiderwebs inside, so he didn't want to. But, we cleared them out and I put him in.

Pretty cute, eh?

Well, he started getting frustrated with me and wanted me to take him out because he was stuck. But the faces he was giving me were hilarious and I wanted to take more pictures so he had to wait for a few minutes. (Really, fewer than 2 min.) It really was funny though. Here a just a few of the faces I got. He is such a funny kid. These are sincere looks of anger.

"Get me OUT!"

Hitting the tire, but wanting to hit me

And my favorite.

I love this boy. He has such strong emotions and is such a character!

Mother's Day with the sick kids

So, that post from Danny and the kids sure was a nice surprise for Mother's Day! I'm thankful for my husband and to be a mom to V, Christian, and Grant. Here's a quick post about how Mother's Day was around here this year.

Breakfast in bed! Lucky me! I do like the tradition of breakfast in bed for Mother's Day. It was nice to get up and get a shower and then get back into bed to wait to be served.

Please, ignore the bedding. Christian and Grant took turns throwing up the night before and our bedding was one of the targets. Thus, the crazy array of spare quilts and towels. They both seem to throw up every time they get fevers no matter the cause, Christian in particular. So yucky. It was strep throat and a virus for Christian and just the virus for Grant. Unfortunately, whenever our kids get sick their asthma flairs. Christian who normally is our best breather (he usually doesn't get as wheezy) was definitely the sickest this time, but was better after about a week of treatments. Grant is still having breathing treatments 2 weeks later after a round of the oral steroids and hundreds of doses(every 3-4 hours round the clock) of inhaled albuterol. He was getting worse again this week and so he was prescribed Pulmicort (the same preventive medicine that V inhales everyday). It has helped so much in just three days! We are so thankful that something is working! We are also so thankful that he is a happy little fellow even when he is wheezy and tugging.

I was not going to include all of the asthma stuff in the blog, but I never have before and honestly it will be good to go back and remember one day. Hopefully they will outgrow this stuff. Plus, the asthma is a big contributor to our craziness. To put into perspective, when just Grant needs breathing treatments every 3 hours, that means that I spend roughly 2 hours and 40 minutes of the day "nebulizing." If Victoria and/or Christian need theirs too it can take up a huge chunk of our lives! Although they can administer their own during the day. V does a breathing treatment on her own every night before bed. We use that time to read books though, so it never impedes. When it is at night though and they are symptomatic coughing and wheezing, Danny and I have to hold them upright with the masks on their faces while they sleep. Luckily, it is rare when all three need it. There have only been a few days of overlap. On those days I get about 3-4 hours or intermittent sleep. It stinks terribly. But enough of that!

Back to the good stuff. I got really cute little presents from Danny and the kids- V decorated them! Each was a pack of candy. Love it!

Victoria and I went to church for Sacrament meeting and then came home. Danny stayed home with the fellows. I did not want to miss Victoria singing with the Primary. They were great and Victoria was glad to sing for me which made me very happy. The whole sacrament meeting was very good. Whitney and Clark Ramsey spoke and did very well.

After church I came home and helped take care of Christian. It seems that when he gets sick it hits so hard. Poor buddy. We were all pretty tired from the night before. Christian kept having bronchiospasms and just couldn't stop coughing(literally). He had a blessing and we just prayed that he could make it to morning. We had to increase his breathing treatments to every 2 hours per the weekend on-call doctor's orders. It was very scary. He told Danny and I to take turns sleeping with him to make sure he was OK. Uh, yeah, we were in there anyway making sure he was breathing. I know I can be dramatic and a big worrier, but really, when Danny is up counting respirations it is bad. After the antibiotics cleared up the strep and a few days of the oral steroids he was back to his wild happy self, thankfully! We do not want to have a night like that ever again.

We had invited my mom and dad over for dinner, but since our house was turning into a sick house Victoria and I just brought it over there with a book that the kids and I made for her. I didn't make it the best Mother's Day for my mom, but at least Danny made a nice dinner for them. I am thankful for my mom. She has been a great mother and grandmother and I am really blessed to live near her and see her so often. She and I are pretty good friends.

Back to the dinner- Danny made ham, rolls, 5 cup salad, tossed salad, and really yummy peanut butter bars. I really enjoyed it.

So, despite the sick boys, it was a good day. I really am thankful to be a mother. I feel so blessed to be able to stay at home with our kids. I am not the most patient person and I tend to get stressed out easily, so some days are pretty tricky, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am thankful that I am able to be the one who cares for them when they are sick. I love to hold them and tell them that it will be OK. On normal days, I like to play games or pretend with the kids. We like to put on puppet shows or do artwork. I love it when they help me cook. It is also great working together. It makes me so happy when we can work together towards simple goals like unloading the dishwasher or doing the laundry. I love throwing birthday parties for them and planning playgroups. I love teaching them. I love watching them learn and grow. It makes me so happy when I see them choose the right. I love holding and nursing a baby. Just seeing their smiles makes me so happy. I love to put the kids to bed at night. I love to read books, say prayers, sing songs, hug and kiss them and tell them how special they are to me and to Heavenly Father. The one on one chats and hugs and kisses at bedtime are the absolute best! I am truly thankful to be a mother.