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2009-10-03T20:46:00.002-06:00

Hey photographers!
Jodi at MCP has a FABULOUS new action set releasing on Monday! You don't just want this set, you NEED this set! Head over to her blog to find out how you could WIN it!!!

http://www.mcpactions.com/blog

2009-08-15T15:57:00.000-06:00

New contest at MCP Actions:
Win More Free Time!!!

Long time, no post!

2009-08-05T10:52:00.003-06:00

For those of you that haven't caught on yet, I'm pretty much only keeping up with things via facebook, so if you're on facebook, be sure to add Mike and I so you can keep up with family happenings and see the latest pics of the kids!

I would like to share though that a really neat site called I Heart Faces is pairing up with Tamron to give away one of Tamron's newest lenses, the 18-270mm 15X Zoom Lens! Valued at $629................you can find our more information on how to enter to win at the I Heart Faces website: http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Goodluck!

Friday's happenings :)

2009-03-30T11:47:00.000-06:00

I had the opportunity to test and photograph some patterns for Aimee at Sew Sensible and made this outfit, comprised of the Boutique Bottoms and Boutique Dress Top, for Brylie! I have to tell you, I've sewn a lot of outfits in my 23 years of sewing, and this was one of the easiest things I've ever made!

a couple of Brylie videos :)

2009-03-23T20:57:00.003-06:00

We are still alive

2009-03-11T17:55:00.001-06:00

Just to let you know............

Jazlyn's birthday

2009-02-03T08:47:00.005-07:00

Sooooo, lots, as usual, has happened since my last post.

First off, Jazlyn had a birthday!!! She's 6 now, and is feeling pretty "big." She's been claiming six for a month though (after all mom, I am PRACTICALLY 6) lol.

She had a ballet party with a few other little girls (two were sick) where they made tutus, danced, played games, made their own pizzas, had a photo shoot, and of course cake and such.

Another race page

2009-01-11T13:27:00.001-07:00

This race stop (aka challenge) was fairly difficult! It required us both to work on one layout and the challenge dictated how much of what was on the page. Whew!

Alrighty, let's see if I can list this all right, lol

3 photos - obvious

4 papers - all from Lauraskathi

1) background (also rotated/flipped and clipped on a few circles)

2) blue paper clipped on circles (also levels adjusted to get a different tone to vary it up a bit)

3) yellow paper clipped on circles (also levels adjusted to get a variety)

4) green paper also clipped on circles and some levels adjusted

8 different types of elements

1) acrylic bracket by Cori Gammon

2) buttons (no name on TOU)

3) ribbons - by Lauraskathi

4) swirl stitching - Traci Simms

5) Splatter - Gwenipooh

6) stars - Miss Mint

7) cluster tab - Scrap Girls

8) paper strips - Lauraskathi

2 fonts

1) Orator Std (in journaling)

2) Marlo (in title)

Journaling reads: Peyton really blossomed in 2008’s swimming lessons! All of a sudden he loves to go off the diving board and the water slides! His swimming has greatly improved too and passing level 3 was no big deal! July 08

Title - alpha - Lauraskathi

Template by Cindy Schneider

Cuttlebug Valentine's

2009-01-08T09:38:00.003-07:00

So along with my new cuttlebug I ordered this embossing folder/die set. I didn't really want the dies, but HAD to have the embossing folder! I love my one word sentiment stamp sets and knew they'd fit perfectly in the blank spot for a simple but nice card (just my style)!

Here I combined it with "love" from the first wonderful words set and a polka dot sheer ribbon for a great Valentine's Day card!

It's race time again!!!

2009-01-04T11:59:00.004-07:00

Any of you that have followed my blog for awhile knows that every once in awhile my sister-in-law Michelle and I participate in the Amazing Digi-Scrapping Race (ADSR). Well, the race started again today! It's been tooo long since I've scrapped, and I admit I feel I've lost some mojo, but it's nice to be at it again :)

Here's my page for today's challenge:

Torn cardboard action from Atomic Cupcake
Indian Summer kit from Cori Gammon
Fall Alpha by Kristin Aagard

Happy New Year!!! Reflections, "resolutions", and the like

2009-01-01T09:44:00.002-07:00

But first a couple of funnies:
Brylie has been SUCH a nut lately!
Here she is hanging out on her horse watching Dora:

And that same night we found her talking to her reflection in the handle of the oven drawer............she was saying "Hi Punkin'! Awwww Punkin'! C'mon Punkin'!"

She's always got quite the imagination, and is OFTEN talking to her cup!

The other night she was talking to Mom while watching Dora. Mom asked Brylie where Dora was going.........her response? WALMART!

Not long ago she wanted her sister to do something. When Jazlyn wasn't cooperating, Brylie warned her twice "I gonna pinch you! I gonna pinch you!"............alas Jazlyn didn't do what she wanted, and after hearing Jazlyn's wail I went to scold Brylie, who simply threw up her hands and said "WELL!"

I guess we may as well enjoy it while it's comical, becuase all too soon it won't be so funny!

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We spent new year's eve eating a snacky supper and playing Sorry. The older two just LOVE that game, and often pick on their dad (even if it means they don't win). I was up to see Central time zone hit the new year and that was it for me. I'm guessing I was snoring by the time we here officially entered the new year.

I loathe new year's resolutions, but do like to choose something about myself to work on (instead of everything, lol).

Last year I chose contentment, and I considered choosing that again this year. I'm kind of thinking that I need to work on taking better care of what God HAS given me (this covers both being more content with what we have instead of admiring something nicer as well as showing my appreciation for the blessings he has bestowed upon us). It's awefully hard for me to be ok with the fact that we are still (and may forever be) paying for the financial mistakes we made when we were much younger and more immature. It's even more difficult when we see others that have made more/worse mistakes seem to bounce back very quickly. I know though, that he gives us what HE wants us to have, and we evidentally still have some lessons to learn or he wouldn't be leaving us here. Any words of experience or encouragement in this department from those of you that have "been there, done that" would be wonderful :)

Anyhow, looking at what blessings we had this last year.

2008 was yet another challenging year for us financially as the first 3 months of the year was spent with someone being sick pretty much all the time. That of course required lots of doctor visits, a hospital stay, and I don't know how much in medicines. Even with insurance it was quite out of our range.

The upside to that was that we formed a relationship and trust with a physician's assistant who is often here during the sick season to help lighten the MD's loads a bit. He's a very knowledgable gentelman, fabulous with the kids, and very thorough in explaining to us what's going on, why, how to treat it, and the like. It probably also strengthened us quite a bit and forced me to develop a lot more patience. It was not a time that I could rely on others much (c'mon, who wants to come watch 3 sick kids while I go get groceries and meds or, heaven forbid, 10 minutes of peace, lol) so He forced me into getting stronger and more creative.

In the long run though, everyone came out healthy and much more aware of what/who we're touching/around during this time of year. The kids are now hand sanitizer freaks, too.

Right about the time that all finished off I was blessed with the opportunity to follow my dreams of turning my passion for photography into something more. It slowly grew throughout the summer and early fall, allowing me to gain some much needed bare necessities equipment and come the first of November really boomed with everyone's need to get family pictures before Christmas. That, again, has allowed for a couple more basic purchases that should get me through the winter.

Summer break was full of kids activities and it was such a joy to watch the kids suceed and learn!

Fall brought a new school year, new teachers, and new buildings for Peyton and Jazlyn. We were so excited to hear that Peyton was officially caught up with (and in some cases ahead of) his class. Jazlyn is doing fabulous in school and has quite the passion for reading. She reads any and everything she can!

October brought my little brother's wedding and we are so happy to have welcomed Ashley into the family :)

In November we took Peyton to National Jewish hospital and got his asthma and allergy stuff all sorted out! This has been SUCH a blessing. December took us to Longmont for his tonsil/adenoid removal, and though the recovery was rough, was very much worth it. He no longer clears his throat constantly or has the nagging cough (which we figured out was probably just trying to cough up what he felt like was in his throat). He's looking forward to finally going back to school on a regular schedule after break.

As always, we were so blessed to be able to spend time with our famlies to celebrate Christ's birth. It's always a wonderful time, and even much more so with young kids :)

And here we are starting a new year, wondering what is in store for us this year. One thing's for sure, it's never dull, and we could never predict the blessings we'll receive!

Part 3 - Christmas Day

2008-12-30T11:44:00.004-07:00

Christmas day............well, Mike went to work at 10pm on Christmas Eve and came home at 11:30 vomiting every 15 mins -- yup, he got the same virus as Peyton and Brylie. Luckily we STILL had some phenergan left, and after the second dose he got some relief. He did however have to work as he was the only one on........fun, fun!

So when he got home we let the older two open gifts and then Mike went to bed. We agreed that since Brylie had been ill a couple days before we'd let her rest and open when she got up. Peyton got up about 3am and woke his sister up too. I told them to go back to bed, and although they went, I'm pretty sure they didn't go back to sleep!!!

Jazlyn uncovering her High School Musical slippers (to go with her pj's, but she'd already gotten dressed!):

Peyton was so excited to have a (closer to) regulation size football:

as well as a 2009 Guinness Book of World Records. He's been really into them lately, and this one even has some 3D images and glasses:

One of the things Jazlyn had on her list to Santa was a new lunch box - he found this princess one that looks like a hand bag and she was happy:

Jazlyn got Peyton a Sorry game from the kids' shoppe. They both enjoy playing Sorry, so it will probably get a lot of use!

Brylie got Jazlyn a Barbie guitar:

When Brylie finally got up I think the older two were more excited than she was. She sat there at first wondering what to do with the wrapped gifts! She was happy though to find a Cabbage Patch baby. Her name is Josie:

Did I mention she had to have every last piece of paper off? She got a set of Dora toddler silverware in her stocking:

And a baby from Peyton:

she thought it was neat that the baby's blankie is made from the same material as hers!

The big gift of the day was the PS2 that the family got, along with 20 some games. It's been played A LOT this week! I danced so much with Dance Dance Revolution my legs were sore!

Late morning Papa and Uncle Marc took Peyton hunting with them. He had to get all decked out in his new coveralls (from Granny and Papa), put on his ORANGE hat, and get his gun all ready. He asked me about every 10 minutes if it was time to get his gun ready, lol. It took him a sum of about 2 minutes to get around once Uncle Marc called and told him they were coming! He did get to shoot at a pheasant, and was thrilled :) He and Mike also went hunting all day on Saturday.

Christmas evening I hosted Christmas dinner for Mike's parents and brother and his wife. We had spiral cut ham, twice baked potatoes, a green bean casserole (not the icky canned soup kind though), and homemade rolls. The girls also brought over some of the finger foods we'd had on Christmas Eve. If anyone left hungry it was their own fault! lol

One more post to come.............

Part 2 - Christmas Eve

2008-12-30T09:13:00.007-07:00

Christmas Eve we decorated cookies for Santa:

Brylie just watched ;) She wasn't quite up to par after having that stomach virus (the Peyton had) the day before:

After Christmas Eve services at church, we headed over to Uncle Marc and Aunt LaShawn's for supper and to open gifts with them and Granny and Papa.

The kids admiring all of the goodies (paper, crayons, tape, envelopes, markers, etc) that Uncle Marc and Aunt LaShawn bundled up for them! They LOVE this kind of thing and can spend quite awhile just making things :)

Jazlyn showing off her pretty cowgirl hat necklace (and adorable cowgirl hat case) from Aunt Bev:

Brylie and Aunt LaShawn playing:

Brylie sticking the $20 she got from Aunt Bev into her pocket (and quickly too):

Jazlyn showing off her spending money from Aunt Bev while sporting her new sweatshirt from Granny and Papa, overtop her new High School Musical pj's:

Brylie has had a blast riding her new HUGE stuffed horse from Granny and Papa:

But the biggest deal of the evening was probably Peyton getting a BB Gun from Uncle Marc and Aunt LaShawn. He's been dying for one of these! I'm not sure who's smile is bigger - Peyton's or Uncle Marc's ;)

Course we gotta have some horsing around!

And Uncle Marc couldn't resist taunting Granny with the rubber lizard Peyton got from Aunt Bev!!! Thanks for the laughs Aunt Bev, hehe! Granny said she *almost* stuck her hand in their little bags to see what Aunt Bev got the kids, she was sooooo glad she didn't though (and it would've served her right if she had, lol)!

Peyton posing with his new gun and Aunt LaShawn:

We left a whole tower of cookies for Santa. Peyton was sure to write in his card that he could take what he liked and leave the rest :)

More still to come.............

Christmas Part 1

2008-12-30T08:45:00.004-07:00

The weekend of the 20th/21st my family gathered to celebrate Christmas! Here are some snaps from that weekend.

Peyton and Jazlyn passed the gifts out. They were in such a hurry it wasn't uncommon for them to give the gift to the person listed as "from" instead of "to" hehe!

Brylie opening gifts with Uncle David and Aunt Ashley. She was still pretty sober here, we had to wake her up from her nap (before the rest of us went insane from the older two bugging us about when we were going to open gifts!!!).

I had my sister-in-law Michelle for our gift exchange this year, and got her a Cuttlebug. Those of you stampers/paper crafters will know what a big deal that is, hehe! I had been taunting her about what a fabulous gift she was getting for a couple weeks. I've since ordered myself one with some Christmas money, lol!

Brylie opening gifts with Uncle Jim and Aunt Chelle. She was so funny this year, she had to get EVERY.SINGLE.LITTLE.PIECE of paper off before she would even look at the gift! hehe

Jazlyn opening her music box full of make-up from Uncle David and Aunt Ashley! I don't think a day has gone by that she hasn't put at least the lip gloss on! She's SUCH a girl ;)

Peyton opening his gift card for Uncle Jim and Aunt Michelle - they could barely wait the 24 hours they did to get to Walmart and use them. I think these are some of the best gifts for kids - they know when they get them what it means, and spend a day (or as long as you can keep them away from the store) getting excited about shopping and what they're going to get, then they love the actual shopping experience (and, btw, it IS educational - I can't tell you how many different combinations of toys they can come up with to equal the amount on their cards), then of course is getting the actual toy (or whatever) and using/playing with it!

These last three have nothing to do with Christmas, but I rarely get pics of Mike up here, lol! I was playing around with one of my bday gifts (well, something I got with some bday money) - a wireless remote for my flash. This allows me to get creative with some lighting but placing the flash different places than the normal on the camera right in front of the person.

Peyton was holding the flash behind Mike pointed at the back of his head here:

Then was standing in the dining room with his arms stretched up:

Then he decided to take the wrapping paper tube (from previous pic) and make a snoot of sorts, lol............and as you can see, Mike had had enough!

Many more parts coming, stay tuned..............

So I didn't get pics of the other things I made.........

2008-12-28T12:36:00.004-07:00

but I do have some cards to share!

The first is for Becky's sketch challenge over at the Page Maps blog:

The second is a couple of the 10 cards I made for our November card swap. I can't remember if I already posted these and I'm too lazy to look, so enjoy if you haven't already seen them!

They're actually some more creative folds - the top piece is actually tucked under the flowers, it opens to the right, then the flap that has the flowers on it opens to the left.

It's the most crafty time of year!

2008-12-22T08:42:00.006-07:00

I *LOVE* paper crafts!!! In fact, it seems EVERY holiday I have so many things I want to make I of course never get them all made, and I usually end up giving several things to people I don't normally gift, lol! That's ok of course :)

First is a non-paper craft, but I thought it was cute anyway:) We have a yearly tradition of us Griffith girls getting new fun socks at Christmas. I usually try to find the soft fuzzy ones, but I couldn't find any that were Jazlyn and Brylie's sizes this year, so we went with fun holiday ones that blink. I rolled them up around a Lindor truffle (or in the little girls' case a chocolate Santa because they were nut safe) and tied them up with this cute ribbon that says "I believe." Unfortunately we forgot to get a pic of us all wearing them this year.

Next is the envelope I made for Mom's massage gift certificate. Not only was it a really odd size and shape, but I wanted something festive, so I made it with a sheet of 12X12 scrapbooking paper. You'll see more of these papers as I finish up all of my projects :)

This one is so darned cool.............It's called a box card. When it's closed/flattened it simply looks like a card..........

but when you pull the two sides apart it opens up into a box! I made this to put a picture of what my brother was getting (it hadn't arrived yet - although it ended up arriving in time, I still used this, lol). This would also be fabulous for a check/money gift, gift card, gift certificate, even just some hot cocoa.

This one is a gift card holder. Unfortunately I forgot to snap a pic of it open, but the bottom flap is only about 1.5" tall and is fastened down to the back with two mini-brads, then the top is just folded down and secured with the ribbons for easy opening (just slide them off).

I have more, but can't post yet! That'd ruin the surprise! hehe

Off to tend to my snickerdoodles and sugar cookies :)

If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again

2008-12-17T13:16:00.002-07:00

Our Parents As Teachers gal always sends out the most beautiful, thought-provoking poems at Christmas time. Here is the one she sent this year:

If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd build self-esteem first,
and the house later.
I'd fingerpaint more,
and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting
and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch
and watch with my eyes
I would care to know less
and know to care more.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites,
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields
and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
I'd see the oak tree in the acorn more often.
I would be firm less often
and affirm much more.
I'd model less about the love of power,
and more about the power of love.

(author unknown)

I challenge you to read that again, and think of all the ways you can enjoy your children more this coming year. Wow.

Soooo, that wasn't the end of it

2008-12-16T22:21:00.005-07:00

I last posted that Peyton needed more prayers for healing. He continued to not keep anything down the rest of that day and night, and by the time Mike got home the next morning Peyton looked HORRID. His eyes were getting the sunk in look, he looked like one of those starving children from Africa or something, it was really scary.

Needless to say I took him straight to the ER, and we spent 5 hours there getting fluids and two kinds of anti-nausea meds to get his stomach to stop. Then we came home with some phenergan (anti-nausea med) and gave it to him for a little over 24 hours every 4 hours to keep some fluids in him. It was amazing how much better he did after all that.

He has been greatly improving ever since. Monday and Tuesday this week he went to school half days in the afternoon, tomorrow he will go in the morning and we'll see if he can take a whole day or if he still needs the extra rest. Poor kid has been through the wringer these last couple weeks, let me tell ya. You can see that his scabs are off, and you'd think he hadn't eaten in a year! He has been eating ALL the time. I am thrilled to have my little boy back though :)

He was so happy to be back to school, and the kids were all excited to see him too! They had made him a big get well card last week and all wrote him a message and signed it. That card holds a special place in his heart :)

Friday (or was it Thursday? I forget now) Jazlyn got up to get around for school complaining her tummy hurt. Thinking she was just faking and wanted to stay home we told her to get into the shower and then see how she felt. Well, she didn't make it to the shower, she threw up. I was sure this was the beginning of the same thing Peyton had and kept her home. She has been fine ever since.

Friday I did take Brylie in. She's been fighting congestion, colored drainage, etc., for a month now, and it was evident it was getting worse not better. Turned out she had an ear infection and sinus gunk. It wasn't a cold though, it was allergies. Ugh. So, we're treating her for allergies in addition to the antibiotic for the ear infection and she's getting better every day. She's got the typical "wipe it on my sleeve" though and I'm trying my hardest to stop that, but it's not looking too promising right now -- why do kids do that?!?!?!?!

Last weekend we set up the Christmas tree. Peyton's "special job" has been to put the star atop the tree every year (I love looking at the picture of him doing it when he was 7 months old!). He was sure to remind everyone of that quickly :) He only has about a foot to go before he doesn't need a chair or step-stool to help. I'm guessing by next year he'll be able to do tip toes and reach!

It was of course fun to go through all of the ornaments again, and tell the kids about where they came from/who made them/etc. They're slowly adding their own to the tree as well, and they're enjoying remembering where/when/how they made them. Jazlyn's special job is to hang the stockings and Brylie's is to set up the nativity. I finally got everything cleaned up and ready for these to happen probably tomorrow. We rediscovered that I STILL haven't finished up Brylie's stocking so I need to do that first!

Saturday the kids had fun going to the kids' shop at the Churches Thrift Shop. Every year they put out new or nearly new items/toys/etc. and have special elves that help the kids shop so mom and dad are surprised. Then they wrap them and the kids get to take them home. The kids absolutely LOVE doing this. They enjoy shopping for others (parents, siblings, and grandparents are the limit) and giving the gifts so much - even more than getting them. Peyton put a little more thought into his this year, and it was fun to hear his reasoning as to why he got each thing. Jazlyn's still in the whatever, I just think this is a neat thing, stage of shopping. Of course I took Brylie back and we picked up a few things for her list as well ;) Gives me warm fuzzies to think of them enjoying the giving so much.

Sunday was the Christmas program at church. Jazlyn was an angel again this year, Peyton was a king. Neither had speaking parts this year (there weren't really that many) but it was a very cute and thought provoking program as usual.

Monday was our Christmas party at preschool. Miss Judi (the one that broke her shoulder that I've been subbing for since early November) had planned to make an appearance but ended up sick. The kids were disappointed of course but understood. The party went great and I'm glad to have Christmas break. I tried to give the keys back to Miss Judi but she had me keep them, so I'm not sure where that leaves me as far as teaching in January, hehe!

Here are the little gifts I gave the kids. Nothing big, but cute I thought! In the bag are 3 little 3X3 greeting cards (all stamped with a set that looks like children's crayon drawings) that are simply stamped with black ink, and several crayons. They can color their cards and then give them away as needed.

I've been busy busy getting treats for the kids' school parties and teachers as well as dance class, etc. Hoping to get pics of them all up before long! I've also been quite busy getting everyone's family portrait sessions done and ordered and am getting booked up for the weekend after Christmas. I have been so blessed with a lot of business these last couple of months and I am so grateful! I am learning as I go along and have got lots of plans for the new year! I was able to buy some used studio lighting for VERY reasonable as well as purchase a new lens that will enable me to shoot indoors for the winter time. Of course that means the kiddos are getting more guinea pig time in, some of which will be on our Christmas cards.

This weekend my family will be gathering to celebrate Christmas! I am so excited, as usual, to see everyone. It makes me sad to know that my brothers and their wives don't have a lot of time with the kids :( David used to pal around with Peyton (and some Jazlyn - she was pretty little) before he moved. I think David misses that, and I KNOW the kids do. Peyton has very fond memories of getting after school treats with Uncle David in his Jeep, and going sledding and such. Brylie's just starting to remember who they are, and since we just saw everyone in October at the wedding they'll be fresh in her mind (especially if they bring the pets, lol).

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself and could ramble on about Christmas plans for a whole 'nother page of reading, but I'll save that for later ;)

Peyton update

2008-12-09T10:48:00.001-07:00

Well, after the fiasco on Friday we finally got pain meds down him and a good nap and he was MUCH improved! He woke up and said “It doesn’t hurt to talk anymore!!!”

Saturday was a pretty good day. We went out to eat with part of Mike’s family who were here for deer hunting. It was good for Peyton to get out (on a positive note) and he ate some mashed potatoes and the filling from a slice of banana cream pie. He was pooped after that though.

Sunday he didn’t even ask for (or agree to any when I asked him if he needed some) pain meds – big stepping stone! I did give it to him before bed though. Yesterday was more of the same.

This morning however he woke me up at 3am in quite a bit of pain, and asked for some meds. Even the water based ones hurt this time, but he tolerated it, went back to bed, and slept until shortly after 10am. I figured he must be getting in some good “repair” sleep. Unfortunately when he got up though, he vomited and had a small amount of blood. Not a good thing. Dr said it was probably from the force of vomiting, but to keep a very close eye on it.

So once again I’m asking for lots of prayers for his healing. It sounds like if it gets too bad we’ll have to go back into surgery and re-cauterize the wounds.

Peyton's surgery............

2008-12-05T13:53:00.004-07:00

Sorry guys, I’m really just trying to make it through the day at this point. This journey has been much longer and more difficult than we originally anticipated!

We left Monday morning for Longmont for Peyton’s surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids. We were pleasantly surprised that the drive was very easy and traffic was light (thank goodness for the E-470!). Peyton met with Dr Carr first, then we headed over to Longmont United Hospital (LUH) to get pre-admission done, lab work, and chest x-rays. Everything went smoothly and they were super!!! The x-ray techs even brought Peyton back to see his x-rays and gave him a mini anatomy lesson J He thought it was particularly funny that he could see gas in his intestines, lol.

The rest of Monday was free. We got checked in to our motel in Boulder and hung out for a bit before heading into Denver to eat at Black Eyed Pea (one of our favorites, Peyton had never been – he’s now in love with the corn bread too! Haha). Then we decided to head to Pearl Street in Boulder and wander around. If you haven’t been there, it’s a really neat place! I don’t know the exact history of it, but it looks as though it was the original downtown district (lots of old, beautiful buildings) and they’ve closed the streets and it’s all paved with bricks. There are lots of neat places to eat and shop, and some fabulous street performers there! It really has an ambience all it’s own! We stopped at the Cheesecake Factory and got a slice to share back at the motel for dessert……..yummmmmmmmmm.

Tuesday we rose extra early and got to the hospital about 6am. Everything was pretty uneventful, getting checked in, vitals, etc. I was allowed to go back into the operating room and be with Peyton while they gave him the gas to put him asleep, and after I left they got the IV going, etc. About 7:30 the surgery started. LUH has special TVs in their surgery waiting room where each patient is listed (in code of course) with their Dr’s name, OR number, etc., and it shows the progress as the procedure happens. His surgery took about 15-20 minutes longer than expected (come to find out his IV went bad mid-procedure and they had to try again – actually twice before they got a good one). Dr Carr came and told us that everything went very well, and that they were QUITE large, but slid right out. The nurses later told us that they were very big for adults, much less a child.

Peyton took a bit to come out of the anesthesia and required a few doses of morphine to get the pain under control. Then we got to his room on the pediatric floor. Peyton came out with IV of course, O2 monitor, ice collar, and moisturized oxygen mask (but was allowed to just keep it near his face) which helped a bunch to keep him from feeling the need to cough.

We had a wonderful nurse the first day, Season. She thought Peyton was IT boy, she said if only she could clone him for all her patients ;) As expected, he slept most of the day. He did have a little trouble keeping things down early afternoon, but fortunately didn’t throw up and blood.

Later in the day Santa made a visit to the hospital to light their big trees and visit. It was so nice out, and Peyton wanted to go, so we went out and saw the lit tree, and Santa put Peyton first in line to visit with him! He got to ring the reindeer’s bells too! They even had a local community choir performing (with the grand piano that was in the lobby). It was very nice, and good for all of us to get out of the room.

Tuesday night was long and short at the same time. Seemed like every few minutes the alarm was going off that his oxygen was low or his pulse dropped below 70 (don’t know why that set it off???). We decided to wake him every 4 hours to give him his pain meds (capital with codeine) that night so that his pain didn’t get out of control. Mike went back to the motel to sleep and I stayed with Peyton in the hospital.

Peyton was still quite dizzy and nauseaous but we were allowed to head home about 11:30am on Wednesday, with what was left of the hospital bottle of pain meds (to use until we could get home and get his script filled). It was a VERY long trip home, as Peyton pretty much couldn’t keep anything down, including his pain meds. He was in a LOT of pain. Finally once we got home he had a bit of jello and another dose of pain meds and was able to keep it down and get a good nap in his bed. Finally he drank a bottle of water, so our worries about dehydration were eased a bit.

Thursday was pretty much more of the same. About the only thing we could get him to eat was frosties from Wendy’s, so that’s what he got. His capital with codeine finally ran out so we started his Lortab about 9:30pm. THAT was horrible. It’s an alcohol based elixir which, you guessed it, burned horribly on his throat. It hurt so bad Peyton ended up hyperventilating. It took a good 1 – 1 ½ hours to get him settled down and back in his bed. Dr Carr had called earlier in the evening and said that he would be in Goodland Friday (12/5) and we could bring him in if he was still mopey.

Friday morning came with no improvement, and still lots of pain, so I took him in. Dr said his wounds are healing beautifully, but that it was clear it was taking more of a toll on him than normal, so he gave him a steroid shot to give him a boost. We also discussed the pain med situation and Dr gave us a couple of scripts – one for a special med that had to be compounded here, to use long enough to get some capital with codeine here (it’s not usually kept on hand, which is why we didn’t get that in the first place). We got out to the lobby and Peyton sat down while I rearranged his appointments to come back. About that time Brylie took of into the gift shop, and Peyton started vomiting. Thankfully Avis Alcorn was in the gift shop and offered to watch her while I got Peyton settled. Peyton was actually being tended to by his teacher who happened to be there! Eventually we got him back to an exam room where the nurses helped get him cleaned up and got him some blankets so he could lay down for a bit to get settled.

As of right now, I’m seeing very little, if any, improvement in him still. The med is still being compounded.

Oh, a side note, Peyton was quite disappointed that our motel room faced the east – away from the mountains. He really wanted a mountain view, lol. He did, however, have a nice view from his hospital room!

2008-12-01T06:22:00.001-07:00

We are headed to Longmont for Peyton's surgery.
Prayers for safe travel and an uneventful and routine surgery are appreciated!

2008-11-21T20:38:00.003-07:00

I'm attempting to get a post in with a couple of pictures.

Monday the kids had their Thanksgiving Feast at school. Peyton's class didn't do anything special, but we did go eat lunch with him. After we ate with Peyton, we went to Jazlyn's school to see her eat their feast as pilgrims and indians. Only a couple kids in her class chose to be pilgrims :)

Later on Monday, it was parent's week at Jazlyn's dance class! I always enjoy getting to go in and take pictures :) Here's one of my favorites this year:

We also got to see what their costumes look like for recital. This year they get to wear two totally different outfits (instead of one leotard and just changing skirts). The ballet is absolutely beautiful, and the tap is sooooo cute!!! I can't wait to get pictures of her in them! Recital will either be the first or second weekend in May, and we will plan to have Peyton's family birthday party the same weekend - so be looking at schedules!

Geez, has it been that long?

2008-11-18T07:57:00.002-07:00

First off I need to say
HAPPY 31ST BIRTHDAY MIKE!!!

It has just been a mad house around here! No dull and boring moments to be found, hehe!

We made it to Jewish in Denver, with a great visit, and found out that Peyton is only allergic to nuts, although he continues to have allergic-like symptoms to dairy. We've been testing out the lactaid to see if it helps, I'm not convinced so far. So he now has to carry around Epi-pens just like we do for Brylie, and I've gone in and shown all of his teachers and officer personnel how to use the Epi-pen (which I'm surprised they haven't been instructed on earlier - I know I don't have the first peanut allergic child to go through public school!).

The week after that visit I was scheduled to teach preschool while the teacher/director went with her husband to a conference in Flordia. That went very well and I was able to get right back into the groove from when I was her helper before Brylie was born. And boy is it a good thing that I was her helper for a couple years!!! While she was gone, she fell and broke her shoulder. She found out yesterday that she will be having surgery on Saturday and is not to attempt preschool for a couple of months. So, I will be teaching for awhile! At least until the first of the year, and we'll see how she's doing and if she gets the ok to go back after Christmas break. I'm (we're both) so glad that I know what to do and when, and where (most) things are! She said last night she would've just had to cancel preschool if I wasn't able to teach. I'd hate for the kids to miss their Christmas party and all!!!

In addition to teaching, I have been so busy with family portraits this month! Everyone seemed to hear at once that I'm in business and I now have a bit of a wait list if anyone happens to cancel. It's crazy, but I'm loving it!!!

All this in addition to my original stay-at-home plan of medical billing! Now you know why you haven't gotten an update! LOL

Awhile back Peyton had razzed me a bit as to why I didn't "work" (of course running two businesses from home doesn't count as work in his eyes, nevermind taking care of the house and everyone!). This morning he decided he didn't like me "working" as he's to the bottom of his sock drawer and the ones that are left are a bit too small. I'm sure he didn't catch on when I pointed out to him that that's what happens when I have to "work", but I got my jab in anyway :)

Mike's also decided that he doesn't care for this arrangement, but will tolerate it while it's needed. I'm not sad that this is requiring some effort from the other occupants of the house. It's good for all of us, and we'll all appreciate the "normal" times when they come.

Fortunately I'm able to take Brylie with me to preschool when needed. She doesn't care for the routine though, mostly having to sit at circle time, hehe. She'd much rather be up and playing with the babies! It's good for her, too, though, and the preschool kids as well -- a few of them don't have younger siblings and aren't sure how to deal with little ones!

Anyway, I keep getting interrupted by a toddler that keeps trying to give her baby a drink from the water bottle and then has a mess to clean up, and now I've forgotten my train of thought, so I'm going to jet for now. Just know that I'm not purposely avoiding y'all, I just simply do not have the time (in fact lately all of the computer time I've been able to squeeze in has been to edit photos -- you should check them out! There's a link to Sweet Peas & Memories Photography right below my picture in the column to the right).

Ciao!

A couple of cards......

2008-11-01T15:21:00.003-06:00

Lots of family birthday's in November! Here are a couple of cards I've made for them so far:

I didn't have time to get a good picture of this one before I needed to send it off, so I had to settle for a quick scan on the scanner -- needless to say it doesn't do it justice, and the colors are off, ugh!

Anyway, the inside says: Happy Birthday to someone who's always in perfect form!

I thought that was cute :)
The next one is also for Beate's weekend sketch challenge (and a hope that I win a prize, hehe!):

Oooh, twice in one day! lol

2008-10-22T04:23:00.002-06:00

and it's not even 4:30 in the morning! LOL

Just wanted to post my latest "update" email:

The second “dairy day” went as bad or possibly worse than the first, so we are banning dairy from our house. He’s not bouncing back nearly as quick this time either, so we went in for a Toby treatment yesterday. It, of course, helped immediately.

We have just been utterly amazed at the change in his disposition when he’s off of dairy. Most of you may not have seen this side of him, but he was very often on edge, and just about anything we asked him to do set him off. While we’re off dairy, he’s so cooperative, and will even help me do the dishes without complaining!!! The allergy shiners are starting to fade just a bit, which also tells me we’re headed in the right direction. Adjusting hasn’t been near as difficult as I had anticipated (and my dear aunts replied). Soy milk really isn’t bad at all, and as another aunt pointed out, has a very long shelf life – a container I purchased at the beginning of the challenge has a sell by date of 12/7/08 LOL! Biggest challenges are adapting baking recipes to include olive oil instead of butter (which of course doesn’t turn out the same result, but if you want it bad enough………..) and figuring out what he can put on his baked potato that isn’t dairy.

We didn’t have a super-duper parent-teacher conference last week for Peyton. His attention span is pretty much zero. Thankfully his teacher knows what’s going on, and has taken the opportunity to do some one-on-one time with him and knows that he has the abilities, and understands what they’re learning, but simply cannot focus when the other kids are in the classroom, to apply it. We all decided that probably this is a result of his medical issues (and further investigation by us has turned up many stories of misdiagnosis of ADD in kids who really have food allergies, one of the main culprits being milk) and have decided to just keep on keeping on until we’ve got some test results back and he’s had his tonsils and adenoids removed.

Speaking of both of those things, we found out later last week that when we make our trip to Jewish on the 5th that we won’t be doing a TON of testing, but we will do a full set of back-prick, scratch-test, allergy testing (as I understand there are around 100 of them). I’m anxious to ask them how accurate they really are, seeing as though his sister tested negative for peanut allergies with the scratch test and blood test (which by the way is not very sensitive) but clearly has a peanut allergy (evident by swelling of the lips, stomach cramping, vomiting, etc). They did warn that we may still have to do some food challenges despite doing the scratch tests. At least we can mark one of those (the milk challenge) off of that list! Our family dr, as well as the rest of us, are anxious (dare I say excited???) to find out what all he really IS allergic to and get onto the path of avoiding those things.

Peyton’s surgery has been scheduled for December 2nd. We will head up to Longmont on the 1st for a pre-op office visit, Peyton will go in for surgery at about 7:15am on the 2nd, and will stay in the hospital for 23 hours for observation. Mom was able to get off from work so that she can keep the girls while we’re gone.

In other news……

Jazlyn had a WONDERFUL parent-teacher conference last week! She is WELL above where they’d like her for her reading abilities, and is even performing tasks that they don’t even expect them to start doing until the second half of the year. She’s really taking to school and is just a sponge right now. We’re trying to give her plenty to soak up while it lasts 

Brylie is just Brylie, a VERY busy little girl (seriously, I should be like a size 5 as much as I chase her around) and very much a 2 year old. The last couple weeks she started to have a couple of tantrums. And over funny things like wanting Mommy to brush her teeth again even though I had just done it 5 mins before hand and was in the middle of breakfast, or the fact that sister handed her her cup instead of Mommy. We just go on about our business, knowing that the more attention we give the fits the more frequent they’ll be. She’s also exerting her desire for some independence – like insisting on getting herself down from her booster at the table, or picking her shoes out by herself. This stage always just cracks me up! She’s also quite social and will “perform” for everyone that will give her even so much as a glance at Walmart, hehe! We sure are enjoying these stages with her much more, knowing that although they can be challenging, they pass so quickly!!!

I have reached my limit for stress/anxiety/worry and made a trip to the Dr this week. Besides heading into winter (which is often a struggle for me anyway), there’s just so much going on, and I don’t have time to let it get a hold of me any more than it already has. We also decided to test my thyroid as I’m having some other symptoms that are leaning toward possible hypothyroidism.

And last, but certainly not least……………..we are supposed to be leaving for my brother David’s wedding tomorrow (Thursday) morning. While I’ve been at the computer, unable to sleep, they have issued a blizzard warning for us from Wednesday evening through Thursday evening. Snow amounts ranging from 3-4” here to 6-12” east of us are in the forecast. PLEASE pray for safe travel for us, I was worried something like this would happen!

When it rains it pours..........or blizzards..........

2008-10-22T03:47:00.002-06:00

Not that there isn't anything else going on in our lives to write about, but first and foremost at this moment is the weather............

We are supposed to be leaving tomorrow morning (Thursday) for my little brother's wedding, and wouldn't ya know it, we're under a blizzard warning from this evening through Thursday evening! Now, most people with regular 9-5 jobs could just say, hey, I'm leaving tonight, but Mike is on 2-10pm shift, which means we would leave in the heavy snow/blizzard.

Please pray that somehow we can make it there safely and in time!!!

I think our new normal is "crazy". Here was the last email update on Peyton:

Well, interesting…..

Our first 5 day set of going dairy free went well. Peyton adapted to the soy milk well, and didn’t complain at all about what he had to eat – his only complaint was that he had to take a cold lunch every day.

We didn’t notice any huge differences while off of dairy, but the day that he was on dairy, oh my. Poor kid. He was in the bathroom 5 times (and his system is still irritated), like clockwork after eating. His tummy was upset, he got congested, and he told us (without us even asking, didn’t even think about it?!?!) that his throat felt funny. We’re thinking it was swollen/swelling. That was on Saturday, and while most of the symptoms are gone, as I said, his tummy is still not completely settled down. We DID bombard him with dairy though – cereal with regular milk (of which he couldn’t eat an entire bowl) and a DanActive for breakfast, then mid morning he had a glass of chocolate milk. Lunch consisted of a milk/cheese based soup and croissants (which also have dairy). Mid afternoon he had cake (with milk, as well as the frosting had milk in it), cream cheese mints, and punch that had sherbet in it (contains dairy). Supper was bbq meatballs (which have evaporated milk in it), cottage cheese, dressed up mashed potatoes (milk, butter, cream cheese, sour cream, cheese).

If he does indeed have a milk allergy, then the next day he can have dairy (Friday) will probably bring on an even worse reaction, having been off of dairy more days than on recently.

Jewish called last week and we were able to switch from an out of state program (which is why we would have to stay 7 days, it’s designed for folks that, for example, fly in from the east coast and can’t come back easily) to a day program. This would mean that we would have a few day-long trips. Right now we are scheduled to see Dr Carol at 8:30am on November 5^th. The hope is that having an early appointment will allow for a day full of testing. Unless some of the tests that day will be behavioral (they really do examine every angle of how allergies and asthma affect a person’s life!) then we will just leave uber early and drive home that evening. Mom was able to take off and keep the girls the night before and that day. We’re praying for financial guidance(from up above) with this appointment as we will have to pay our share of the co-insurance upfront. We’re also hoping that maybe we can schedule the next day visit the day before his tonsillectomy (maybe we could get so lucky? Hehe).

Anyway, that’s the latest. Will keep you updated as we go through this dairy experiment and such J

Thanks again for the many prayers – they are much appreciated!!!

2008-10-07T10:32:00.000-06:00

Sorry subscribers/Google Readers, that last post wasn't meant for this blog, lol!

An update on Peyton

2008-10-03T17:38:00.003-06:00

I'm too lazy to write an entirely new post on this, so I'm just pasting the email I sent out to family:

What a day it has been for him!!!

The kids have been passing around this throat thing, and this morning when he got up it appeared that it was his take to have the worst of it. Okay, we’ll keep him home. I noticed this morning he started to get a little congested so I put a call in to Toby (the massage therapist) and he worked him right in after Mike. Toby, lol, was his normal bright cheery self when he took Peyton in. When he came out however and was telling us how his treatment went (he said he got some really good toxin releases today, and that he was glad we hadn’t been in the room), I thought he was going to vomit. He had absorbed a lot of the toxins that Peyton had released in the room, and it was clear he needed to get them released himself!

So once again he is not congested, and while a touch hoarse, he says his throat doesn’t hurt at all. Wow! He has coughed once, and it was more of a nervous cough (this was pertaining to his dr appt later – more on that in a bit). We are so encouraged by the results he’s gotten so far with this!!! We’ve been thinking since his treatment on Tuesday if he really needs to go to Jewish, which by the way has a 3-4 month waiting list. The only thing I was really hoping would happen, even if he didn’t need an asthma work-up, was to find out what he is in fact allergic to.

Fast forward to this afternoon when he has his appointment with Dr Carr, the ear nose throat doc, about his consistently enlarged tonsils.

After uncovering that Peyton has been sick nearly every month in the last 12 months, he immediately decided that it would be best to have them out, and even more so once we spoke of his asthma. Because of his asthma though, it will have to be done in Longmont, where there are pediatric respiratory specialists, in case he gets into trouble. We will do this sometime after Thanksgiving, either the week after or the first part of December (which will be interesting considering Mike is supposed to be in class in Kansas City the 1-5^th of December). We will schedule the exact date after our next visit with Dr Carr in November.

Meanwhile, we have to do a sort of dairy rotation (I can’t remember the exact term he used, sorry). We have to go 5 days with absolutely NO dairy products (mind you this includes not just milk but cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, butter, etc…………AND do you know how many food products have little things like milk powder or whey in them??? WOW!!!) then on the 6^th day we are to just fill him with lots of dairy, then see what happens. We have to make notes of bowels, gas, behavior, everything about that 6^th day. Oh, and did I mention we have to do this 3 times??? I’m stressing about this right now, trying to figure out what to make, what to send him for lunch, etc. (so if anyone has any great dairy free recipes feel free to share them! Lol).

Dr Carr also ordered him to get some blood drawn to check some allergies and thyroid even. Peyton was most nervous about this (not the fact that he has to under the knife, lol). Even to slight tears – he hadn’t ever had this done. Of course it was no big deal, but ya know.

While we were talking about the huge family history we have of allergies he said we may have to do some extensive allergy testing!!! YAY!!!! I told him I was all for that, as I really think there are many things, particularly food wise, that we don’t know he’s allergic to. We’re really hoping that he does ask for this, and then between this and Toby treating Peyton we’ll have this all fixed and not have to go to Jewish!!!

Anyway, another fairly stressful week with all three kids being ill Wednesday (actually Brylie got sick Monday evening) then being “ok” yesterday and the stuff today. I was hoping for a really quiet and relaxing weekend, but it looks as if it’s going to be filled with lots of recipe research, menu work, and grocery shopping instead :) I am so thankful though to just have to deal with “simple” things like this – my husband is here with me, not fighting a war and wondering if he will survive; all three kids are relatively healthy, I mean no cancer, they have all of their limbs and have full use of them, no disabilities – I know it could be horrible, but as it is, I can still hug and kiss all of them :)

Once again, thank you so much for all of your prayers and well wishes. I KNOW that they work!!!

Here we go again

2008-10-01T07:50:00.002-06:00

It's deceivingly quiet at our house this morning.

All three kids and Mike are fast asleep. But wait you say, it's nearly 8am!

Mike of course is sleeping because he worked all night.
Brylie is sleeping, well, because everyone else still is, lol. But she can use it, she's run a fever since Monday evening and had a sore throat. This morning however she seems to have beat the fever, we'll see how the rest of it goes once she gets up.
Jazlyn got up at 6:30 and showered, only to head right back to the bathroom to vomit and dry heave. Ugh.
Peyton, when we tried to wake him, said he has a stomach ache.
Fine.
Everyone can just stay home, lol.

Today just starts October, what the heck?!?!?!

Peyton did have his massage/treatment yesterday for his asthma. Interestingly enough, he had to leave his shoes and socks of the rest of the evening. Toby said best case scenario (while we get things going) is that he'll need to come back in 3-4 days, worst case scenario the relief would just last through the night. Immediately his sinuses were cleared (this is seriously amazing considering this is his worst time of year and they haven't been truely clear for ages) and we've only heard him cough once and that was just before we left the "massage parlor." He didn't have to sleep all proped up with pillows last night, and we didn't hear the usual "crackling" of him snuffing his nose. So far we're encouraged, and will probably look at getting him back in on Friday. It was hilarious to watch him come out of the room and down the stairs though. He was all in a daze. He's exclaimed several times now how he can't wait to go back, lol. We're a house full of massage junkies now!

Brylie's Bday Pages

2008-09-30T21:08:00.006-06:00

I've been published!

2008-09-30T08:22:00.002-06:00

Awhile back I did a photo session for a couple of fun gals that are trying to get a new business going - greeting cards for step families! Because how many people would give their step-dad a father's day card? Not a lot.........BUT they'd give him a step-dad card, so........

Anyway they needed some shots to use in promotional materials, press releases, website, etc. Well they recently did a couple of interviews with area newspapers and they used one of my photos with the article!

Here is the link to the one in our local paper:
Blending Moments in the Goodland Star News

You can find another of the photos I took on their website:
Blending Moments

Anyway, just thought that was fun :)

Back to stamping......

2008-09-28T16:35:00.003-06:00

It's been tooooo long since I've done much stamping (with the exception of the 2-hour baby shower card I made in June, lol). I'm hosting a swap here tonight and am hoping that this will get the group going again! Here's what I made using Beate's weekend challenge sketch (here):

2008-09-24T11:42:00.002-06:00

Brylie's Bday Party!!!

2008-09-21T19:25:00.000-06:00

OUT!!!!

2008-09-20T11:02:00.002-06:00

2008-09-16T08:15:00.002-06:00

Look what Brylie got @ church......

2008-09-14T13:01:00.003-06:00

She tripped over a toy and met the wooden shelves with the middle of her forehead. Click on the picture to enlarge and have a closer look.

Busy week!

2008-09-13T07:27:00.004-06:00

It's all begun - the craziness is here! We have anywhere from 1-6 things EVERY evening during the week. It's simply insane!!! I've recently been bugged about why I don't do more adult

activities, but goodness sakes, not only do I have my few activities, but I also have the kids' as well! I think parents who are out of these seasons forget that.

Jazlyn started Dance for the year on Monday. We chose to do the after school rush and leave for more time before supper again this year. I admit it's going to be a bit of a challenge to get everyone picked up and her clothes changed/hair up and get to dance in time, but we'll make it!

Also on Monday, Peyton started Boy Scouts (technically Cub Scouts). He got bored with 4H (actually, he loved the project meetings, just really disliked the regular club meetings) so he decided to try scouts this year. He has 6 boys in his den (we're learning the lingo too, lol!). He seemed to really have fun!

Wednesday Jazlyn had an organizational meeting for Girl Scouts. She had so much fun meeting the other girls (several she knew, some she didn't). Technically she'll be in Daisies for this year and next year. Only bummer is that they don't sell cookies at this young age :(. She's looking forward to starting her real meetings this next week.

Thursday, after a game cancellation on Monday, Peyton finally got to play in his first flag football game. I would equate this game as the football equivalent to the first t-ball game in baseball - pretty chaotic, still learning the game, etc. Mike got roped into pretty much coaching their team, and was fairly nervous about doing it at first, but is enjoying it now! I think it's great for him to participate in the kids' activities in such an active role!

Peyton had a great time. Here are some pictures:

Thursday night was also our church women's group. This group is just amazing. I am the youngest at 29, and the eldest just turned 90 a few months ago. Somehow though we all pretty well mesh, and have a great time! Mom is the teacher, and I'm always amazed at how the Lord speaks to her about how/when to do what lessons. Since I had my camera with me, I couldn't resist taking a snapshot of the girls with their crowns on. We had one black jewel on there because we're not worthy, and to remind us to be humble. Then we went around the table and other's told us things about us that are worthy of "putting another jewel in our crown." I found it interesting that most of us said "Oh I wouldn't say that." But it was a good reminder that others don't see all of your faults.

Yesterday Mike and I were supposed to have a date night, but an oddly scheduled funeral that mom had to play for changed things up, and we'll just have some time today instead.

On the home front (aka during the day) I've been doing some spring, er, fall cleaning madly. Gotten rid of A LOT of clutter, sorted through the HUGE mountain (and I do mean mountain) of clothes that no one can currently fit in to. Seperated out into keepsake clothes, clothes to save for Brylie to wear, and TONS to get rid of. As I understand it our thrift store cannot take any more clothing due to fire safety, so I don't know if I'm going to try a late season garage sale or what. I have NO desire to list them on ebay, but any other creative suggestions are very welcome!

Yesterday Mike and I cleaned out the "pit" as it's become known - the odd storage area that was added on to the laundry room. Most of what was down there was tossed in there when we moved in 7 years ago and hadn't been touched since. We filled up the dumpster and have at least an additional 1/2 dumpster to haul out after trash day. I just couldn't believe how much stuff we had in there!

The pit is now all cleaned up (although could use a coat of paint) and with the addition of some area rugs is now the "toy room", which means we can now reclaim the family room as the family room - YAY!!!

The laundry room is nearly done, I have a small amount of things (namely socks) to sort through still, and then do a more complete vaccuum job. I'm so glad we got these done though; we had to get a new (to us) dryer yesterday. Our old dryer had to be run 3 times to get towels dry (doesn't work too well for a family who does anywhere from 1-2 loads just of towels a day!), AND something was off with the drum and I discovered it had rubbed clear through the metal and was catching our clothes and making black marks on them, ugh. That dryer was no less than 20 years old (probably even more though), so I didn't feel bad about tossing it out. We found a fairly new (less than 5 years old) used one at a local appliance store and they delivered it right away! Hurray!!!

Anyway, today the boys are at football practice, then Mike and I are going to have some adult time (aka go eat at China Buffet, yummmmmmmmmmmmm!) and Jazlyn's got a birthday party to attend this afternoon. Mike changes shifts (unfortunately) today to overnights (or as Peyton calls it, the month of grumpy). Let the 4 week countdown begin.

And I am simply exhausted listing everything! lol..........somehow I've really felt like I have crossed the threshold into adulthood these last couple months. Suppose that's a good thing since I'll be (eek!) 30 in a couple months. Something about actually keeping the house CLEAN (and for those of you that don't know me well, this is a HUGE deal!!!), having 2 kids in school with activities that keep us quite busy, and being happy to give up a couple of my own activites so that I can attend/participate in their activities as well as spend more time with them when they're home. I used to get involved in anything, so long as it got me out of the house and with some adult interaction, lol! Now I just want to stay home with my family! Boy how times have changed!!!

It's time for me to get back to life, the kids think they need breakfast ;)

Have a great week!

2008-09-09T13:50:00.002-06:00

What I learned (when my child was) in Kindergarten

2008-09-09T10:57:00.002-06:00

1) If they're supposed to eat breakfast at school, tell them so -- every day. Because if you don't, they won't, and they'll say "Well, you didn't tell me to!"

2) Even if you buy a special fancy hairbrush and keep it in their backpack, they won't brush their hair at school, no matter how stringy or ratty it gets.

3) Don't buy them markers that smell like food - the temptation is too great, and they will taste them. And they will coax the other kids into tasting them too. And the other kids will then have to taste their own markers, even if they don't smell like food.

Live Out Loud!

2008-09-05T17:07:00.002-06:00

Brylie absolutely lives out loud (sometimes too loud)! LOL

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"Flourish" kit by Designs by Krista

How well do you know your crayons?

2008-09-04T10:41:00.002-06:00

Today's From Our Blog To Yours @ Sweet Shoppe Designs was to takes this quiz from Crayola and name the colors in a 64 ct box (you know, the cool big one with the crayon sharpener that we all wanted when we were kids? hehe). Boy have they changed the names on some!

I ended up with a whopping 26 "oops" mistakes! lol...............I challenge you to take the quiz, then come back and post your results in the comments!

An older photo......

2008-09-01T16:21:00.003-06:00

I spin-a-lifted this layout by Julie with a photo from about a year ago of Mike and the kids sitting on the porch playing with Howie (no longer with us). I thought the preprinted words on the elements kind of made their own title to remember to cherish (each other, relationships, every day moments, etc).

Cozy kit by Designs by Krista

First Day of School Scrapbook Pages

2008-08-29T15:38:00.001-06:00

Who's in School by Penny's Miscellany

2008-08-26T13:17:00.001-06:00

Journaling reads:
When grandpa took out the garbage disposal he left behind this plastic ring. Brylie quickly latched on to it calling it her hat. She'll run around for hours with it on! Just proves one person's trash is another's treasure!

Postage frame from Lindsay Jane
Kit by July Designs
Note by FeMarini
Pin poke alpha by Rachel Young Designs

Pretty flower, Pretty girl

2008-08-24T17:26:00.002-06:00

Jazlyn couldn't wait for me to take pics of her with the flowers she picked!

template by Cindy Schneider

Kit is "Naturally" by Designs by Krista

School open houses

2008-08-19T10:48:00.003-06:00

The schools hosted open houses last night so that the kids could come in and meet their teachers, put away their school supplies, choose desks, etc.!

Jazlyn will start kindergarten tomorrow, and her teacher is Mrs. White. Amazingly there is only one other child from her preschool class in her K class, but fortunately it's Jack! Jazlyn and Jack are quite fond of each other (Jack, as you may recall, professed his love for Jazlyn many time at preschool - to her and others when she wasn't around, lol). Anyway, there are a few little girls from her dance class too, one of which she'll sit by (and, if all is normal, be quite chatty with). Jazlyn says she's not nervous, just excited. We're not quite sure if that's the whole truth, and she's being awfully quiet! I'm sure she'll be chatting our ears off tomorrow when we pick her up!

Peyton will begin 3rd grade. His teacher this year is Mrs. Boyington. I think she will be perfect for him - she seems sooooo nice, but you can tell she won't take any bologna. I hope that's true, as she's got some very unruly kids coming her way this year! Mrs. Boyington happens to have the only air conditioned room in that building - yay!!! Peyton has several classmates from last year in his class this year, as well as several friends from other activities/previous years. We're slightly anxious to see how he handles school with a teacher that's not a "second mother"!

(of course it was so busy there that I didn't bother to check and see if everyone's eyes were open, ugh)

Peyton as photographer for a day

2008-08-18T13:47:00.005-06:00

Peyton used the prize money he got from the fair (more on that in a bit) and bought a disposable camera. He was sooooooooo excited that he could take 39 pictures, and "now *I* can be the photographer for the day" hehe! Here are a few of his shots:

He's been watching mama too much, lol. He opened the front door (to get lots of natural light), took the black sheet I use for a backdrop, my baby beanbag/chair, and lots of toys for props:

He told me he calls these "It's all about toys":

Um, daddy trying on Peyton's new underwear (Peyton says he looks like Aunt Bev?????)

Of course a self-portrait:
Pictures of our pictures:

Daddy trying to nap:

Jazlyn being a rock star:

Another shot of dad:

Peyton's Blue ribbon fair entries:

Jazlyn made a bracelet and also got a blue ribbon -- I'll have to take a picture of that later :)

2008-08-14T13:08:00.002-06:00

Template by Tracey Howard
Kit is "Fancy" be Designs by Krista
Horizontal journal strip by Lindsey Jane Designs

I can do all things through GOD who strengthens me!!!

2008-08-12T21:00:00.002-06:00

If you haven't heard this story (or seen the video) please read/watch. This is a beautiful story of the love of a son from his father.

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?'.
The father who, despite having a heart condition, says 'Yes'.

They went on to complete the marathon together.
Father and son went on to join other marathons, the
father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through
the race together. One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join
the Ironman together.' To which, his father said
'Yes' also.

For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever.
The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86
kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile
(180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer)
marathon along the coast of the Big Island. Father and son went on to complete the race together.

NOW WATCH THIS VIDEO OF THE RACE:

2008-08-10T15:00:00.002-06:00

Finally getting around to scrapping a few of Jazlyn's t-ball pictures!

Template by Missy Strand
Ballpark by Melissa Bennett

2008-08-10T12:45:00.002-06:00

Brylie is the first of our kiddos to fall asleep at the table, hehe!

Template by Kay Miller

Kit "Tweet" by Designs by Krista

Some Brylie-isms

2008-08-08T14:51:00.005-06:00

mankie nigh-night (I want to get my blankie and go night-night)

whoodat (who's that?)

uf ooo (love you)

mantis (Peyton's Prarie Mantis)

oggy (Peyton's frog)

kickers (Snickers, Granny and Papa's dog)

owdy (Rowdy, Uncle Marc and Aunt LaShawn's dog)

uff uff (ruff, ruff)

ana (banana)

eeet eeet (tweet tweet)

cacakes (pancakes)

rowrow (Elmo)

gacket (jacket)

pone or gapa (phone - she talks to grandpa a lot on it)

ucky bug (any bug, including flies - had a cow when we ate at the fairgrounds yesterday)

kicket (cricket - talked for hours - literally - about a cricket Mike got the other day)

kuck (duck)

bed (bread)

mum mums (food)

EEEEEEEET! (yelling at Mike, Peyton, and Jazlyn that it's time to eat, and I do mean yell)

BUCKLE! (yelling at Mike to buckle his seat belt - taught 'em well!)

deuce (juice)

kickle (tickle)

pun (fun)

CHEESE! (someone's got a camera, and it's usually momma)

koks (her new crocs, she's very proud of them since Peyton and Jazlyn have had some. When she first got them she would run and watch her feet while running)

bee bee (baby aka anyone under the age of about 5)

guit (good)

I'll be back to add more as I think of them!

Alright, alright

2008-08-02T11:30:00.002-06:00

I know, it's been forever ;)

I keep thinking I'm going to get caught up with posting some of the kids' photos, but we're having computer issues so I can't ever seem to get them all resized and uploaded in one big sitting. So here goes a (nearly) photo-less post!

It continues to be pretty busy here, although we're slowing down DRAMATICALLY for the next few days with the heat!

Peyton and Jazlyn had swimming lessons starting the 14th for 2 weeks. I don't know if you remember from last year (well, the year before too), but Peyton has struggled and struggled to get the rhythm down to be able to do the front crawl good enough to pass (they have to do it half way across the pool). Well, first day, he does it perfectly the entire width of the pool! LOL He really seemed to bloom in regards to his swimming this year. He'll even go on the big slides and off the diving board this year (even the mention of either last year and you'd have thought we asked him to go get a shot or something). The pool is a lot more fun for him this year, and is excellent exercise for asthmatics as well.

Jazlyn is such a different kid from her brother! From the first day we went (for fun) to the pool this year she's been going under water, down the little slide, and trying to swim! We probably should've had her just test out of level one and start in level two, as she could already do all of level 1 plus some. Oh, and she was sure to point out to her big brother that she can do the front crawl ;) Needless to say they both passed with flying colors!

The day that swimming lessons was over they headed to Granny and Papa's (Mike's parents') to spend 6 days. Our wonderful friend (and Peyton's former teacher) Kara happened to be heading that way to pick up her step-daughters, so she was so kind to take our kids along and make the exchange with them as well. They had a grand time, and lots of stories to share each time they called! From horseback riding (and falling off) to fishing (and catching a minnow in the eye) to shopping (and being a picky little girl) to swimming, they had so much fun! I'm sure Granny and Papa were ready to send them home and get some rest! heheh..............Jazlyn I think could've stayed at least another week, but Peyton was getting quite homesick and was ready to come home. They both, of course, missed Brylie more than anything! She missed them especially the first day and was quite naughty at times trying to figure out what to do with herself, but quickly got used to the one-on-one attention. We feared it would be quite an adjustment for her for them to return home, but she did fine!

Today marks the beginning of fair week here, and the kids are looking forward to all that involves. Peyton lost interest in 4H, so they'll both just enter in the open class. Wednesday Mike and Peyton will make their annual visit to the PBR bull riding event here, and then we'll go out and enjoy the rides and such at family night on Thursday. We'll see, but I'm hoping to not have to attend every day/night this year.

Other than that, the next couple weeks is just going to involve surviving the 105-ish temps and getting ready for school. School starts here on the 20th, and I assume enrollment will be in the next week or so. School supply lists were FINALLY displayed for our district, so we'll be doing that soon too!!!

I am so ready for next week to be over -- not from the fair, but this ridiculous election!!! We've got one "heated" race here, and it's just been pathetic to see how childish people can be. From "misplaced" signs to trash talking where/when it's "not heard", and the thing I find the most hilarious, placing "re-elect me" signs in the yards of homes that are empty and for sale (interesting too that his wife happens to be their real estate agent, huh?). I suppose for those people who aren't smart enough to figure out that, hey, that house hasn't had anyone in it for 3 years, it may buy them some name recognition, but for the rest of us, it just looks pretty dumb! Amazing, too, how all of a sudden people do things for the community and seem to have acquired some newfound morals and ethics when it comes time for re-election, and particularly when they get some unexpected competition! Even if it doesn't turn out the way I'd prefer, it's sure shown some true colors, and made some of those already in office sweat a bit. Wiggle, wiggle!

That's pretty much the news at our house. Hot and busy!

Here's a recent scrapbook page I made of Brylie and my parents' neighbor's little granddaughter (who was actually due the week after Brylie, but ended up being a preemie!). Obviously some older pictures (Apr 07).

Sketch by Becky Fleck of Page Maps, kit "Mini" by Designs by Krista

So I had some requests

2008-07-16T18:29:00.002-06:00

to post a picture of my burned hands. This is a scan I took on Sunday. I debated on even keeping it because not only could you not see the extent of the damage there (it was really much worse even then) but you can't see how bad it really got.

Anyway, you can at least get an idea. The steroid cream has really helped with the swelling and some of the pain.

2008-07-16T15:52:00.002-06:00

I decided to do a spin-a-lift this week,
http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/inspiration/showphoto.php?photo=6507&ppuser=1012
and here's the result!

Kit is Daydream by Designs by Krista

Don't use Dawn with Bleach!

2008-07-15T22:54:00.003-06:00

*sigh* so over the last 2 weeks, I've been dealing with this. Over the 4th of July weekend we had company and I did quite a few dishes (our dishwasher is out of commission so I did them by hand). No big deal, used the same detergent I usually get.

Well, a couple days later on my fingertips I start to get blister like things, and then they'd peel...........everyday it got worse and worse, until over the weekend the blisters had covered nearly the entire palm side of my hands and BURN BURN BURN. I finally gave up and went to the Dr on Monday, to find out that I've got a chemical burn..........from the Dawn with Bleach (it's the only chemical thing I've been around!!!). It's really horrible. I thought about taking some pictures, we'll see. It really looks (and feels) disgusting. I've been so embarassed to get my change back from stores and such, I just know they're looking at my hands and then looking for their hand sanitizer!

Anyway, today the blisters (I call them that, but they're really pockets where the skin has pulled up) that covered 1/3 or more of my palm started coming open, so I went ahead and peeled the dead skin off (eventually I will have all new skin on my hands, as the skin was so damaged on the top few layers). The skin underneath is SO tender, and burns burns burns. Ugh. And to think, they have "gentle on hands" on their label -- NOT!

Needless to say I haven't been doing the dishes (and we got new detergent anyway). Doing much of anything where it pulls on my skin has pretty well been impossible, or I at least have to wear thick kitchen gloves to protect my hands - vacuuming, bathing, cooking..........it all hurts. I was prescribed some steroidal lotion/cream to help with the burning and swelling. Otherwise not much they can do, as the damaged skin needs to come off.

So lesson learned, don't use it!!!

New scrapbook page.....

2008-07-15T20:39:00.001-06:00

I'm finally getting around to scrapping some of baby dd's first days (hey, she's only 21 months, lol)!

I thought this beautiful kit from Designs by Krista called Tula was PERFECT for some precious newborn pictures! I also used the stitching from her Meadow kit.

Template by Meghan Mullens

I've joined the Etsy world!

2008-07-11T17:33:00.002-06:00

If you don't know about Etsy, you should check it out. It's a whole world of mostly handmade and vintage items!

I kept seeing all of these baby cocoons being sold for outrageous amounts (like $120!!!) and decided I could make up my own pattern and loom-knit some myself, and sell for 1/3 of the cost! So that's what I've done. I'm worried though, as y'all know, I love to make things, so this could become addicting! hehe

Anyway, here's a link to my Etsy shoppe:
http://www.alfenner.etsy.com

Cascade commercial

2008-07-07T12:48:00.002-06:00

Okay, I'm not sure if you'd qualify this as a rant, or just pointing out how these advertising people have no clue what real life is! lol

I'm talking about that Cascade commercial (actually I've seen a couple of these) where mom/wife is unloading the dishwasher in the morning, and discovers {OH NO!} some food or grease remaining on a dish.

In the one commercial, the woman is so engrossed in studying what was left on the dish that the kids start throwing food and running around and her pancakes (or whatever bfast she was cooking) start burning and set off the smoke alarm. Seriously...........lol.........dang, the food is left on there, scrape it off and put it back in.

In the other, the woman is so upset that there's food on there that she even drops her cell phone in sink water while the narrator says something about now the day's not going to go well. Are you kidding? LOL.........do you really have nothing more going on in your life that some food left on a dish is going to ruin your day?

Either way, it's pathetic. I wouldn't say that real life is less dramatic, but it certainly isn't that dramatic about stuck on food!!! What commercial annoys you?

2008-07-05T16:25:00.000-06:00

All done with kits from Designs by Krista

as well as others. Credits are here.

Boy, summer has arrived.........

2008-06-27T22:41:00.002-06:00

hasn't it?

We've been determined this summer to not turn on the big AC until July. We did finally dig out the window AC a few weeks ago to get us by, but this last week, when it was still 82 when we went to bed, we flipped it on.............not that it did any good, as we soon discovered that it's locked up or something. Ugh. Needless to say we won't be fixing it anytime soon (wouldn't that defeat the purpose of saving the money from that bill? lol).

So, we've been taking it easy, hitting the library and walmart, or going to the pool when it just gets too hot in here (which isn't until it goes above 96 or so).

Anyway, gosh, what else has been going on..........this was the kids' last week for golf and library functions. Kinda glad that that chaos is over, but now concerned with keeping the kids busy (and not bickering) for awhile till the other activities start :)

Jazlyn is playing tball this year, and hit her first "coach pitch" in her game last week. You'd still think we hadn't discussed what to do after hitting the ball, but that's part of the joy of watching tball, hehe! She doesn't hurry any too much getting to the base either, lol!

Last week Mike's Aunt and Grandparents from OK were here and we had a wonderful visit! We haven't seen them since last spring, so you can imagine their shock at how much the kids had grown.

Peyton's golf went well this year. He learns more and more each year. He did have to miss more sessions than I'd like due to illnesses and weather, but still well worth the $20! He did get kind of sidetracked a couple of times. A couple weeks ago he found a young bird that he was sure couldn't fly yet. Of course I told him to put it back where he found it and get his golf bag. He did, we came home, and were eating lunch when I said "Peyton why does it sound like there's a bird in the house????" at which point of course it hit me, he'd figured out a way to smuggle the thing home! That stinker had stuck that poor bird in one of the side pockets of his golf bad, and he had been there all the ride home and during a trip through walmart!!! I should've known when he insisted on taking his clubs in, instead of leaving them in the van as we usually do. UGH! Anyway, we decided that we'd make him care for it until it could fly (provided it would live that long). Turns out the thing could fly to begin with..........no clue why he didn't fly away from Peyton, lol! He's happily flying with his fellow birds now.

Of course the next couple of times we had golf, I was very suspicious and stated "no animals" as I dropped him off. We were doing good until last week, when he smuggled home 3 tiny little frogs. UGH UGH UGH!!!! THREE!!! At first we made him let them go in the garden, but then decided if he could find out, he could keep it in the old fish bowl for a bit (the things still had little tails left from the tadpole stage!!!). After much care, Froggy sadly died the next day, and is now buried in our flower bed. We're going to have to get a dog.........he just wants a pet..........he's so much like his dad in that regards..........

Both of the kids are involved in the summer reading program with the library this summer. Peyton has to read 300 pages a week (that was the option I chose, as if I said 100 mins he'd figure out a way to piddle that time away, and if I said 5 books they'd be early readers, so.........). Anyway, he's done VERY well, and has been making a daily trip to the library to read his 50 pages a day. Of course I always quiz him as to what book he read, what it's about, etc., to verify he did in fact read, and so far he's passed. He's learned some interesting things!

Jazlyn has to have 5 books read to her a week, which is nothing, lol. Brylie is a book fanatic too, so we've gotten LOTS of reading done this summer!!!

This last week a local church had a family night out. It started with a sloppy joe supper, a short family worship time (prayer and some praise music) and then the kids went and did crafts and played "carnival" games while the parents had a mini seminar on parenting. It was a WONDERFUL time and Mike and I are looking forward to making some changes in our household! Please pray that they go well, they are much needed! We also won 4 tickets to the movie theater, so we're stalking the marquee to see what's coming up :)

Dad started harvesting today, so the kids are all excited about when they get to ride in the combine! It's a wonderful lesson for them to see the wheat grow, head out, change, get harvested, etc and then talk about how many things wheat is in!!! They've also learned about wheat gum, and both like to eat it raw.

I had a engagement photo session last night with a fun couple! There are 3 of my favorites up on my website.

Sunday Peyton leaves for a few days to church camp! Luckily his teacher from last year, and our very good friend, Kara, will be attending as a camp counselor (I really think she just doesn't want to let Emily go without her, haha) so she'll be taking him down and bringing him back. I'm really glad it worked out this way, as she knows his medical conditions/needs (especially with the asthma this time of year) and he'll feel very comfortable having her around. This will, however, be the first time he's gone with anyone that's not family! I'm getting more nervous as the days progress...........

Next week Granny and Papa will make the trip out for Fourth of July festivities! They usually come and ride rides and play games with the kids at the freedom fest, then everyone (my parents too) camps out in our front yard to watch the fireworks and eat homemade ice cream!

Then on Sunday I FINALLY get to meet my dear friend, Theresa, whom I met online via digiscrapping!!! We feel like we know each others' families and I'm so glad they decided to vacation in CO so they had to go through here! hehe..........I'm also very much looking forward to having a photo session with them before they trek on to the Springs!

Brylie, oh my, has she grown. Physically, yes. But that little whipper snapper...........somedays I just wonder where she came from! lol............she is SUCH a silly girl (loves to dance, talk talk talk talk talk talk talk, pretend play, etc) and soooooooooo fiesty!!! She's taken to scratching and hair pulling lately. Sometimes it's out of self-defense against her siblings (she's drawn blood and left scratch marks on both of them) and sometimes it's just her way of getting that extra energy out..........too bad I can't safely put her on the treadmill! LOL.........she's quite the little fishy too........if you ask her if she wants to go swimming, she pops right up and nearly yells "YEAH!!!!" clapping her hands and heading towards her suit. I tell ya, somedays I worry about what the future brings with her -- is she getting it all out now and will just be a mellow, rule follower down the road (in which case, bring it on!!!) or is this just the beginning? Always amazes me how different the three of them can be.............seriously, she's a whole 'nother breed!

Mike and I are just pretty much along for the ride...........going where we need to go and doing what we need to do! Our current focuses (besides the kids of course) are getting our finances in order for preparation for the next sick season (seriously) and re-evaluating where our emphasis is for the kids/parenting. I've seen us team up more the last year than ever before (probably out of necessity, but wonderful, whatever the reason!).

Oh, I have a ton more to say, and pics to go with this post, but it's going to have to wait till tomorrow. Quarter after eleven, and I have more pressing things to do ;)

New layouts........

2008-06-22T13:58:00.004-06:00

All templates by C. Schneider
All kits by Designs by Krista

Prayers please

2008-06-20T09:28:00.000-06:00

Not for us, but for many that are close to us and that we care about.
Life is being very harsh to them.

I won!!!

2008-06-15T08:11:00.004-06:00

Okay, so admittedly this won't thrill everyone like it does me, hehe.

I recently started participating in the weekly assignments at Digital Photography School.

Last week's assignment was to find clashing colors. So I took my little fake pear and headed downtown to the old NAPA building and took a couple of shoots. Mike was so embarassed, hehe!!! Well, they have a mini-contest with the entries (and wow there were some AWESOME shots this week!!!!) , and I just got the results -- and I WON!!! YEAH!!! You can read the results and see my photo as well as the two runners-up HERE.

Here's my winning photo:

Mike is still rolling his eyes ;)

A few recent

2008-06-12T20:44:00.004-06:00

scrapbook layouts:

The girls climbed up in our big chair to "read" Jazlyn's Highlights magazine.......so cute, Brylie's going to miss sister when she goes to school this fall!!!

Jazlyn recently figured out how to ride her bike without training wheels (her brother had broken them late last summer and we decided to not replace them). She's very proud to be riding a "two wheeler" now! She does VERY well! Both of the kids got some nice hand-me-down bikes last week (I think?) and we greatly appreciate the Fulcher's who passed them on! Thank you!!!

Granny sent some fun money for the kids last week and we picked up this adorable outfit for Brylie with her money (plus a little, hehe). I took her out earlier this week to see what kind of faces I could capture, and here are just a couple!

Credits for all of these layouts can be seen with the corresponding layout in my gallery HERE.

Busy busy week as usual here! Last Friday night Brylie spiked a nice fever of 103.5. Her fever continued through Sunday morning, with no other symptoms. Jazlyn continued the tradition of passing gunk on and spiked her fever on Sunday night (I think? lol). I didn't even ever check hers. I knew it wasn't enough to warrant a dr visit but enough to need motrin/tylenol. She woke up fine yesterday morning. We figure Peyton will start tonight or tomorrow, then hopefully we'll be done with this little virus!

Brylie has been complaining lately about her feet hurting. Yesterday as I was getting a splinter out of her foot (she stepped on a sticker) I noticed she had probably 10 or so red spots on her foot (mostly heel) and one had even blistered. No stickers/splinters in them, and she doesn't walk outside without shoes. I looked at them again this morning and she had more on that foot (in the toe area) and one on the other foot. So back to the dr we go tomorrow. Mom's wondering if there's not something that she's stepping on that she's allergic to? Hard to tell, we'll see what we find out. Last time we saw this dr with something wierd (which is most of the time) she made the comment that if we get Brylie grown up it'll make her an old lady! LOL!!! I thought that was a funny statement, having raised her own kids and having grandkids probably close to my age! This is also the same person that my mom usually goes to (with her wierd things) and Mike too (with his wierd things, hehe), so she's used to us bringing in all sorts of odd symptoms and conditions.

Golf, t-ball (although they don't use the T anymore unless you ask for it), story hour for each of the older two, birthday parties (nearly a weekly event), plus a handfull of other activites have kept us running. We HAVE decided that we will only make one (two at the VERY most) trips in anything that requires gas. It's amazing that even though we're much busier than in the school year, we're using half or less as much gas. It's a nice break!

Mike has been walking to work and either walking home or we'll pick him up if our activites are also around that same time. We're looking at getting a little pull cart thing for Brylie to sit in (that attaches to my bike) so we can do trips such as going to the pool and such together.

Peyton did ride by himself, for the first time, to the library yesterday, and was so proud of himself! While I got the runaround from a fellow mom (KARA JEAN! lol) I was very comfortable with letting him go. It just felt like it was ok. Gotta start cutting the cord sometime I guess, and this was a much lesser evil than he's been asking for, hehe!

Anyway, I guess I better figure out what I'm going to do with Mike and Brylie snoozing together on the bed, lol (and not in bed attire).

10 years ago........

2008-05-30T11:48:00.003-06:00

I married my best friend.........

Who are those kids, who had no idea what life really was, what the next 10 years would bring, what trials and blessings they had coming! Somehow I see myself saying that again in another 10 years too, hehe!

I am so amazed at how much we each have grown, and grown together..........we are absolutely different people, but with the same hearts (ok, maybe a bit softer)! Our love has grown and matured like I never imagined, and while somedays it would be nice to have that naive love again, I would never trade our real love, the love that's built out of respect, kindness, and compassion for each other.

I remember how funny it felt to say I had a spouse, a husband! How funny! How grown-up that sounded! And then it wasn't long, and he turned into Daddy - now we had a family! Then adding each of the girls, and looking now to see we are a family of 5! We've got from our zippy little pick-up with plenty of room, to a mini-van that at times is cramped! From our tiny one bedroom apartment where we heard the cows from upstairs, to the farm house that needed to be (and now is) torn down, to our "huge" trailer, then our "huge" house, which is now overflowing! Oh and let's not talk about the growing bellies, hehe!

Anyway, Happy 10th Anniversary baby! I LOVE YOU even more than I did 10 years ago today!!!

Peanut Challenge

2008-05-19T16:25:00.002-06:00

Boy was that interesting!

We arrived at the dr's office at 9am, with a jar of all natural peanut butter, an extra change of clothes, some washable toys, and a large supply of wipes. We knew that we would be there at least 2 hours, and were as prepared as we could be!

After stripping Brylie down to her diaper, we began by putting some peanut butter on the under side of her forearm. She talked about it for quite awhile, and smeared it all over (herself and the other items in the room, including the waiting chairs, exam table, and floor). After 20 mins, the nurse came in to wipe it off and "read" it -- nothing. So on to the next step we go.

This time we put it all over her right cheek. Again, she wasn't very fond of it, and it must have itched a bit because it wasn't long and she was taking a swipe with her fist. We were able to entertain her for quite awhile with one of Peyton's practice golf balls -- washable, not likely to damage anything, fun for her. She did rub it into the peanut butter though. Before this 20 mins was up, her eyes started to get red and the rest of her got pale. Okay, we thought, maybe she's just getting tired. When the timer went off, the nurse came in to wipe it off and read it -- nothing. Next.......

Next step was to smear it on her mouth, lips, and chin. No longer was she going to tolerate being stuffed up in the little exam room, so we roamed the halls. Grandma was working in the adjacent hall so we visited her, and climbed up and down the scales. Boy did we get funny looks -- those poor people probably thought I took my baby out in nothing but a diaper, and with a horribly messy face! lol........anyway, mid session, her cheek, which hadn't shown any reaction, started to get very blotchy and even had some bumps. Ahhhhh, finally we see something. When time was up and stuff wiped off, we found swollen lips and a flaming chin. Doc came in, said we were done, that's a positive reaction.

So we got her cleaned up and dressed. Doc comes in to visit with us, she'll need to go back when she's 3 to retest (just to be sure it wasn't ultra sensitive skin (I know it's not, but ya know) and to test for reactions to tree nuts (peanut allergy and tree nut allergies often go hand in hand). We spoke about avoiding foods that could possibly be cross contaminated, etc. Just as we were getting ready to leave, she bursts out crying, and I could tell immediately her stomach was hurting. She hadn't gotten much in her mouth, just what little she could reach with her tongue. While it wasn't enough to have a severe reaction, it was enough to upset her tummy. We had to stay a little longer while she nursed (to dilute the peanut butter), and then we were free to go.

I'm so glad that we didn't have to do the next couple steps - ingestion, as she would've had a violent reaction again I'm sure. By the time it was all said and done she was so exhausted, poor thing.

So, we do know that she is indeed allergic to peanuts, and probably tree nuts (both of which we'll avoid). This means reading EVERY label EVERY time, inquiring while eating out, and avoid any foods that have been prepared by folks who haven't checked and/or aren't aware of what they've used. We've gotten along ok so far. It does make it very difficult come potluck time at church. I'll probably be bringing her meal separately so we don't have to guess. But what scares me most is her future.

*I know, God wants me to work on my control issues*

I am going to have to trust her teachers, family members, parents of friends, and many others, to be careful and watch what they give out. I've had personal experience where Peyton was given eggs (which he is allergic to) when I not only wrote on his registration that he was allergic to, but also verbally expressed that information. I saw another case where a little gal was given peanuts directly at a cooking class, when the teacher knew (but forgot) that she's allergic. Fortunately Peyton's allergy isn't horribly severe, and at the most will cause many trips to the bathroom, but peanut allergies are LIFE THREATENING!!! I'm amazed at the people that don't understand the severity. How on earth am I not supposed to hover constantly? Birthday parties, school lunches, treats, family gatherings............it stresses me out to think about it.

Anyway, we'll be heading to Jazlyn's first tball practice here in a bit, and I'm hoping to grab some pictures (always so funny to watch!). Happy Monday!

I know, I know........

2008-05-18T22:14:00.022-06:00

it's been awhile.......but we've been busy! lol

Before I get into what we've been doing, I have an update on my grandpa, and another prayer request for a friend.

Grandpa is doing well! All of the lymph nodes came back without cancer, and his scans came back great as well! He went back for a repeat scan on Friday (since the cancer had grown so rapidly before) which all came back clear!!! They did decide to go ahead and do some radiation just to be on the safe side. He will get 20 treatments - 5 days a week for 4 weeks. We are so, so grateful to all of you that have prayed for him!!! God does hear us all!!!

Ironically when I sent out my prayer request for Grandpa, I got an email back from a dear friend of mine. Without going into too many details (not sure how much she'd like me to share), she is in great need of our prayers as well. She has two lumps in her neck (thyroid) that are growing rapidly. She had some tests done last week and they showed that the lumps are cold, which means they could have cancer. My friend is only 30 years old, with a husband and two beautiful girls 5 and 7 months. This is not fair!!! She has been through so much in her life, and she never lets it beat her down -- she's such an inspiration!!! She will meet tomorrow with a surgeon to make arrangements about removing the lumps, and then go from there. Please, please pray for her and her family.

________________________

As for what we've been up to! May is generally a busy month for us, but seems to be more so this year!!! Last time I posted an "update" I just had time to post slide shows of Peyton's birthday party and Jazlyn's dance recital. The next week allergies hit the Fenner household and no one has gotten much sleep since. We're just now starting to head out of it all.

That Thursday Jazlyn had her graduation from Judi's Preschool! It's so sad! I can't believe she'll be entering Kindergarten next year :( and all day too! I can't imagine what it's going to be like to have the older two gone all day. Anyway, off of my pity party. Here is the graduate herself:

Right after her program we headed out of town to Salina, to capture my little brother proposing to his girlfriend! I played paparazzi and hid in the trees to snap some pictures, then acted like we just met them at the park to stretch our legs and take a break, hehe! The kids had fun feeding the geese and ducks in the park's pond:

And there was even a little family swimming around:

And some new ones waiting to hatch:

Then we headed on to McPherson. Friday we spent the day enjoying the All School's Day/May Day's festivities! We attended a huge parade (by our standards anyway, we're used to 10 min ones here!):

The kids enjoyed meeting with Smokey the Bear and the fire dog:

They sat on Granny's lap for most of the parade:

Then after lunch we visited the petting zoo:

Peyton got to ride a camel (Jazlyn was too scared):

And the older two played on a huge blow-up obstacle course, which, I think, they could've done ALL DAY!!!

Then Friday evening I had the pleasure of taking David and Ashley's engagement portraits! Family if you'd like to see them, just let me know :)

Saturday was busy busy! Mike, Brylie, and I went to Salina for the day to celebrate and attend Ashley's graduation from nursing school and her pinning ceremony. It was wonderful to meet her family and spend some time with my parents and brothers! Peyton and Jazlyn stayed in McPherson with Granny and Papa and attended the carnival, riding rides, etc. Boy did we have a lot to hear about when we got back!

Sunday we got to Salina in time to eat lunch with my parents, David and Ashley, and my uncle and his family (it was their first time to see Brylie!!!). Then we headed home. We did stop in Hays so that I could do some shopping at Fashion Bug, and I'm so glad we did!!! While I was shopping, Mike took the kids to walk around and ran into my friend that I mentioned above! I hadn't seen her for 6 years, and hadn't ever met her girls! I was so glad to see her, and give her hugs!!! It made the entire (long) trip back home sooooo worth it!!!

This last week was pretty much spent just trying to recover from everything. Monday was Peyton's well child visit. He's now 54" and 82 pounds -- at the edge of or off the chart for both, but at least he's proportionate! We did have to put him back on Singulair to try to tame his allergies. They were even keeping him up at night, which meant a very grumpy boy the next day. He's improved a great deal already!

Here are a couple of other misc pics from recently...

The girls reading Jazlyn's Highlights magazine:
Brylie and Grandpa in their overalls:

This is a busy week as well, starting with Brylie getting her peanut butter bath tomorrow (also known as a peanut challenge). That will take at least 2 hours, sitting in an exam room, with a child covered in peanut butter. Wish me luck. Then Jazlyn's got her first t-ball practice and Peyton's got 4H. Tuesday Peyton's class will take their end of the year field trip to a nearby dairy farm, and Thursday is the last day of school! Then we've got about a week before the summer rush starts.........funny, I don't remember summer being this busy! lol

Hope you enjoyed the update and pictures. I'm heading to bed, I'm pooped!

Prayer request.....

2008-05-07T15:31:00.002-06:00

Please, if you have ANY relationship with the Lord, please pray that His will be done with my Grandpa.

He just got out of surgery to remove a lump in his neck. The lump ended up being in his saliva gland, and it was malignant. They also had to remove some of his lymph nodes.

He's not into recovery yet, so they haven't begun to discuss radiation or chemo or anything yet. Gpa had colon cancer about 10 years ago and beat it, but did have some skin cancer removed from his ear area within the last year. I'm not sure he's willing to fight this.

Simply not enough time...........

2008-05-06T10:44:00.003-06:00

.......in the day to get everything done (much less blog about it too!!!).

So until I can grab some time, here are a couple of slide shows of Peyton's parties and Jazlyn's recital (she's the tallest one)! Enjoy!

On the mend, busy week, and a scrapbook page....

2008-04-27T18:06:00.006-06:00

Little Miss Brylie's ankle is much better! It's been about a week now since she started walking on it again, and thank goodness!!! She was NOT a happy camper when she was not mobile! It seems to be healing fine (she still occasionally tells us "is owe" but less and less every day).

Brylie also had a visit with the allergist Monday to see about her peanut reaction. After going through the events and family food allergies, the Dr decided to do the scratch test (actually little tiny injections of substances) for wheat (in case it was the bread), peanuts, eggs (family history), milk, and rice (suspicions). The only one of those that came back positive was eggs. Dr decided that we should go ahead and do a blood allergy test for the peanuts, as sometimes it just doesn't react on the scratch test. If the blood test comes back negative we have two choices - we can either say we know she's allergic based on her reaction and treat it as such, or we can do a peanut butter bath, which is quite literally smothering peanut butter on her skin. We have yet to find out about the blood test, but after coming home we remembered that we did a peanut butter bath of sorts (we put a dab on her cheek and waited 15 mins) and it did react. He sent us home with a prescription for an EpiPen Jr and taught us how to use them (really quite simple but there are specific steps to take). If we ever have to use one, we're to take her to the ER immediately. Reactions to peanuts can be so severe and life threatening.........we both look at the labels on every food now, and are starting to get used to asking for allergy lists, etc., when eating out. I'm already dreading things like preschool and school snacks, birthday parties, sleep overs (as in her at someone else's) because I'll have to trust that they monitor everything. I know it's partly the control freak in me, and partly the protective mother.

This next week is crazy busy for us. We have our normal activities in addition to a couple of photo shoots (weather permitting), 2 birthday parties for Peyton, and dance recital rehearsal and two performances. It's going to a busy, but fun, week!!! Last weekend the girls had their photos taken in their dance costumes, but I had to take Jazlyn out afterward and get some of my own:

And here's a recent scrapbook page:

The drama...........

2008-04-17T09:47:00.013-06:00

........never ends at our house!

But first some other news/pics/happenings!

I just realized that I hadn't posted pics of our April Fool's foods yet!
We started off the day with bfast (which was frozen in the bottom half):

Jazlyn figured it out quite quickly, but it took Peyton a little bit:

Then we were on to lunch:

Cupcakes (aka meatloaf with tinted mashed potatoes - actually very yummy, lol), eggs (aka marshmallow creme with a dollop of lemon pudding), punch (aka jello that I let set up with a straw in it), and corn (nothing special there, hehe).

Jazlyn and Brylie ate here at home, and then we took Peyton's to him at school.

The kids couldn't believe he got to eat 3 cupcakes and an egg for lunch! His reaction was actually the most comical, as he first tried to drink his punch.........and tried.........and tried.........before he finally realized it was jello. Then he was on to his cupcakes, where he first felt the frosting and said "that feels wierd" then discovered what they really were (Jazlyn first unwrapped hers and said "Ewwwwww" as she thought there was something horribly wrong with the cake part of hers, hehe!). Anyway, it was fun, and teachers and kids alike had to come see!

Now back to the more recent events.........

Jazlyn had a ball at the birthday party she attended on Sunday! They fixed hair and nails and put makeup on:

They also made flip flops:

I think she may have had a little too much cake and ice cream though, as she ended up in the bathroom in the middle of the night. Her baby sister ended up throwing up too, but besides being very grouchy for a couple days, that was the worst of it.

Then we come to Tuesday..................

I had an engagement photo session (you can access my photography site by the link/graphic under my picture to the right) and then Founder's Day for sorority. When I got home (was only got but an hour) it was chaos!!! Mom and Dad had arrived to visit just before I left, and I found it odd that they were just leaving as I got home. Come to find out, Peyton was asked to get Brylie from another room, so he picked her up and carried her to the living room. No big deal. As he was setting her down she started to squirm and made a little more abrupt landing than normal, but again, no big deal, it was only about 18" down to the ground, and she more less slid out of his arms. BUT.........from that point on, she was crying/screaming (from my understanding) and WOULD NOT put any weight on her one foot/leg. It started to swell, so we gave her some motrin and iced it. It was obvious she was in pain. We decided to wait it out and see how she was Wed. Of course, she was still in quite a bit of pain and still would not put any weight on it, so I took her to the Dr. It's difficult since she still can't tell us exactly where it hurts, so we ended up taking x-rays of her entire hip/leg/ankle/foot. Turns out she's chipped one of her ankle bones!!! UGH!!! Since it's not a traditional break in which you would want the two pieces of bone to fuse together, she's not in a cast, but just ace-wrapped. We have to keep her off of it for a couple of days and then see how she does. It's mostly going to be what she can take, and we just hope the chipped piece doesn't get lodged in the joint (which would then require surgery).

So fun times at our house........the dishes are piling up, the laundry is too, and frozen meals are what's on the table, as she won't let me put her down.

I'm not sure what the Lord is trying to teach us during these last few months (except that we will forever have debt at the hospital and dr's clinic) but I wished we'd hurry up and learn it so we can move on! lol..................

Brylie also has her appt with the allergist coming up on Monday, so be praying for her about that too. If we have to do the whole back pricks thing it's going to be a looooooooong day!

And here are a couple of scrapbook pages I've done recently:

Brylie thought she was pretty hot stuff climbing up and getting brother and sister's Valentine's candy!!!

My baby girl and my baby brother

Those of you that are visiting because I sent you an email, be sure to check back! I don't usually send out emails when I update the blog :)

2008-04-12T12:06:00.003-06:00

Trying to be a little more regular in updating the blog now that in general things are a little more back to normal.

Not a real exciting week. Peyton has been throwing up since Wednesday night but is fine otherwise -- no drainage, no fever, no coughing, nothing, and the way he's throwing up (and two weeks in a row on the same night) is making me suspicious of an allergy. Have no clue what to, so it may take some investigating.

Otherwise we just have been doing normal stuff -- school, preschool, dance (Jazlyn got her recital costumes -- they're ADORABLE!!! Going to have to grab some pics!), oh, and we got somewhat of a blizzard! I think we ended up with 4" of VERY WET snow with 30mph (constant) winds and gusts to 50-ish. Mike worked later that night and said many streets were drifted to nearly shut, and many country roads were impassable (even Hwy 27 was closed for quite awhile!).

Jazlyn has a birthday party to attend tomorrow afternoon -- her first, and she's so excited! Otherwise it's same stuff different day/week and I'm so glad!!! LOL The weather is supposed to be gorgeous next week so I'm hoping to be able to fulfill some of my practice photography sessions that have been waiting on warmer weather :)

Here's a pic I snapped of Peyton reading to Brylie earlier this week:

THEY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-07T21:53:00.001-06:00

KU JAYHAWKS - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! My nerves are shot and I'm literally shaking, but the boys did it! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!

2008-04-07T16:20:00.001-06:00

Ignore the actual video, the song RAWKS!!! GO HAWKS!!!!

Oh my.....

2008-04-06T18:36:00.006-06:00

Has it really been that long since I posted?!?!?! WOW!!!

Well, gosh.......for the most part everyone has been well. For the last 3 weeks all was well until we quit drinking our DanActive Immunity.........granted the two older ones just ended up with a 24 hour bug but still........

Prior to that, we had some interesting events occur. The Saturday before Easter Brylie ended up having an allergic reaction to peanut butter. In hindsight we probably should've headed to the ER, but her breathing wasn't alarming so we waited it out at home. It started about an hour after consumption and she started crying incosolably (sp?). When I picked her up, I could tell that her stomach was hurting just by the way she was holding herself. We immediately started going through what she'd eaten and discovered that it was probably the peanut butter that was the culprit. We gave her a dose of Benedryl, which she threw up (and again after another attempt). She developed the shakes and spiked a fever as well. After the third vomit, she immediately quit shaking, her fever went down, and she was fine. It was clear that she just needed to get it out of her stomach. I called the Dr on Monday and he absolutely agreed that it was most likely an allergic reaction and he made an appointment with the allergist. The earliest the allergist could get her in is April 21st, so we still haven't seen him yet, but were instructed to completely avoid peanuts (of course) as well as anything manufactured or processed in the same place as peanuts. You would be amazed at what that includes! Pretty much EVERY food product from Great Value is now a no-no, as well as many, many other things. I was reading up on the allergy, and you're to read the labels EVERY time you buy something, as they often change things and of course don't put a big star on the front of the box that says so :) Brylie has a well check tomorrow and I'm hoping to ask her regular Dr what to expect from the allergist visit. Mostly I'd like to be prepared if they are going to do the back pricking thing :(

In other news...........

Peyton and Jazlyn went to Texas with Granny and Papa (Mike's parents) to visit Memaw and Papa (Mike's gparents) for a few days before Easter. They had a BLAST and of course came home with (literally) a table full of candy and goodies!

The kids looked so sharp in their Easter get ups and had a ball hunting Easter eggs in the church yard after services! Brylie was a hoot during the opening hymn (Christ The Lord Is Risen Today) as she held her mouth wide open to "sing" Aaaaaaaleluia! hehe...........then we had Easter lunch with Mike's family - Grandma (Great), Granny and Papa, Uncle Brian and Aunt Joey.

Here is the pic I stole of the kids (we put Jazlyn's hair up in foam rollers the night before the picture):

And while I was practicing with the camera, I snapped this one of Jazlyn:

And yet another day I captured this of Brylie:

Peyton is counting down the days until school is out, and really enjoyed spring break. Jazlyn is counting down the days till her dance recital (May 3rd) and is really excited to get her costume this week!

Gosh, I'm sure there's stuff I'm leaving out................but it'll have to wait!

LAUGH!!!

2008-03-26T08:30:00.004-06:00

Okay, so it's come to my attention that despite the more than 10 million views, that there are still people who haven't seen this video!!!!!!! It is MORE THAN HILARIOUS!!! Please watch, it will put a huge smile on your face!!! Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Y4keqTV6w

Latest scrapbook page...........

2008-03-26T08:12:00.003-06:00

Even better

2008-03-13T13:46:00.001-06:00

This video is even better. This is SUCH a powerful song, and to see the motions put into it, wow.........

Who Am I?

2008-03-13T13:13:00.001-06:00

Most of you know that one of my favorite songs is Who Am I from Casting Crowns, well I spotted this on You Tube today -- very moving -- gave me goose bumps :)

2008-03-08T13:51:00.001-07:00

Your Ideal Hairstyle:

Sliced Layers

What Women's Hairstyle Is Right For You?

update

2008-03-07T11:17:00.002-07:00

After realizing that Jazlyn should be checked out because of her back/neck/head pain (possible meningitis) we decided we may as well take both girls in -- after all it's Friday(ugh)!

The Dr ruled out meningitis fairly quickly based on where in her back and such the pain was (whew!) but did want to test for Flu type B (they had A before) and test her urine for a possible urinary tract infection. Both of those came back negative, but she did have some blood in her urine, so Dr wanted to rule out kidney issues as well as determine whether she had a bacterial or viral infection, so went back to the lab and did a blood draw -- she was a real trooper, the fear of unknown was worse than the actual thing! Everything came back fine with those as well, and since her white count wasn't up, it was determined it's just another darned virus!

Brylie was checked out as well -- her wheezing and rattling is gone, however we will continue the breathing treatments as a preventative. He has also prescribed some Zithromax for her, since she's an undiagnosed asthmatic, it's important to be more proactive than reactive, as things can get bad quickly with asthma.

They're both sleeping well now, and the stubborn fevers are at least lower (at the dr office, despite being under BOTH motrin and tylenol, Jazlyn's was 100.8!!! UGH!!!). I am simply exhausted. At the risk of sounding horribly selfish, I could really use some prayer -- physically I'm am so tired, between getting up every couple of hours to give meds through the night and simply being stressed out with sick kids, I'm having a hard time scraping myself up off the floor. Mentally I'm even more exhausted, worrying about the Dr bills we're racking up and making sure we can pay for the meds they need is proving to be wearing, as well as simply worrying because, well, they're my babies! So please please please, pray for us all.

And please please please, don't go to walmart sick, don't go to work sick, if your kids have a little cold, please do everyone a favor and keep them home, that keeps them from catching something else and keeps the rest of us from getting what they have. I'm convinced that if people just had more respect for each other when it comes to health, it would be a lot easier for everyone :)

The short version.........

2008-03-06T07:22:00.002-07:00

After a few days of fever, some vomit, an ear infection, and antibiotics, Peyton is going back to school today.

After school yesterday Jazlyn started complaining about not feeling well - yep, she's got a fever, accompanied by back/head ache.

Brylie's rattles were beginning to get better, then overnight she's popped up with a very stubborn fever too.

I'm *almost* laughing.

2008-03-05T15:54:00.002-07:00

Finally got Brylie's 11 month pictures scrapped!!!

New scrapbook pages

2008-03-04T15:18:00.005-07:00

credits

Pray pray pray............

2008-03-02T17:36:00.002-07:00

Peyton's running a 102.3 fever. Something's going on, and it's not just a cold.

2008-03-02T07:56:00.009-07:00

Gosh, it's been FOREVER since I've done just a regular update! Here goes.........

Mike - Mike has made his way back to the DASH diet. We used our Christmas money to get a treadmill and he's been making good use of it! Even up to some jogging! Not sure if I mentioned this before, but he's got this wierd thing on his right pinky finger.........had it looked at, at this point they're not sure what it is, but are thinking it's just a large pocket of fat. It's in too sensitive of place to just jump and say remove it, so we're playing the sit and wait game.

Peyton - Ahhhh, Peyton, hehe! Peyton has just absolutely blossomed this last month or so!!! With the assistance of glasses (he's a bit farsighted -- go figure after I'm so darned nearsighted!) he's finally reading very well and seems to be able to pay attention in class better. It's often like and day and night difference! He picked them out himself too, and I think he did a wonderful job! At first they were really cool (many of his friends have or have recently gotten glasses), but now their often just a pain, hehe. He only needs them for close-up work (reading, desk work, etc).

His asthma seems to be nicely under control after the flu bout (or did)..........that is until the last week. Not sure if it's allergies creeping up already or just this crazy up and down weather forcing a cold on. We're staying home from church this morning because he's not feeling well and has chosen to just snuggle up on the couch.

The school kids had their art at the local Arts Center this last month, and after painting that picture, he's really been into painting. He used the Valentine's money that Granny and Papa sent him to get some paints (so cool, the paint is in the "pen" part and then the end is a brush -- much less messy!!!!) and we got him some additional colors as well as a watercolor pad from us for Valentine's. He's painted many many pictures, and really enjoys it! We'll be considering letting him take some art classes at the art center this summer. He's decided he's going to be a painting artist :)

On a side note, it's definately approaching spring -- many of his jeans are getting too short, and the little pudge is coming on, indicative of a pending growth spurt. He needs new shoes but I refuse to get any until at least April (maybe May) when I'm confident he's through his spurt. Last year I bought him new shoes in March and literally two weeks later he had outgrown them, needing two sizes bigger!!!

Jazlyn - Jazlyn is looking forward more and more to Kindergarten. We had her Kindergarten screening a few weeks ago -- funny how so many things are still the same! You still get a colored circle sticker when you've completed a section, and they still put it on a name tag. You still have to raise your hand when you hear the beep, and you still get a cookie when it's all done! lol...........We did find out a few interesting things though while we were there -- there were essentially 3 areas that they tested to find out if they're ready for school, Cognitive, Language, and Gross Motor...........she did ok in cognitive and gross motor, but her language was nearly off the chart! lol..........that seems to be the general pattern for all three of the kids, so it's got me wondering, if that's their forte, what things should I be doing to enhance that? Julie, Pam, any of you smart mamma's that know, please do tell! Another interesting thing, when they do the hearing test, you know they put the big ole headphones on and make beeps, and the kids are to raise their hands when they hear one. Jazlyn did wonderfully, and I noticed that I could tell when they tested which ear because she changed hands. I commented on that to the person testing her, and she said that seems to be a mark of maturity, and she'd only seen a few in the several days that they'd been screening -- interesting!

We're getting closer and closer to recital time!!! Only 6 more classes I think Miss Jessica said! I haven't been able to watch much of their class as I'm usually chasing Brylie around, but I'm sure it'll be adorable as always! Her class' costumes this year are very similar to last year's, only blue, and feathers are positioned a bit different. Blue is a great color on her and I can't wait to get some pictures! Picture day is sometime in April, and recital is on Peyton's birthday, the 3rd of May (we'll be having Peyton's family party that morning for those of you wondering)!

Jazlyn has really taken an interest in spelling/sounding out/etc recently, and I know that will assist her in learning to read. We've worked some on it, but honestly, life has just been too crazy lately to think about much other than the necessities of the day!

Jazlyn had her well check not long ago and passed with flying colors! She weighed 52 pounds and was 45 3/4" tall -- 95th percentile for each!

Brylie..........Brylie Brylie Brylie...........where do I start with this stinker? I admit that this will be a long section on her, as she's changing so much every day, and I've captured so many darn cute pictures! lol.............

Lately we've been on a spurt of at least 2 new words a day.........most recent ones are: no, no; yes; diaper (she'll tell me now when she's gone poopy); coat; shoe; a few phrases like go bye bye, call gpa, etc......oh c'mon is a recent favorite, especially when she wants to go outside, she'll say go bye bye, coat, and then look at you and say c'mon! lol.............the last few days she's figured out how to frown, but it's clear she's not sure when the appropriate time to use it is, hehe..........funny funny!

This girl is a climber let me tell you! She climbs on the fireplace hearth to get onto the big chair, onto the big cube basket to get onto the love seat, onto the end table (yes end table, knocking over the lamp and everything) to get onto the couch, the dining room chairs to get on the table (and thus into anything left on the table), and even has attempted to scale the kitchen cupboards, stepping on the door trim and the hinges -- just wait till she figures out she really could climb the column of drawers!

She keeps us constantly on our toes, that's for sure!
.
Oh, forgot to mention that she's now figured out how to undo the babyproofing cabinet locks in the kitchen too..........starting to think maybe I should just drill a couple holes, thread a chain through them, and put a pad lock on!!!! YIKES!!!

Hope you enjoyed my "little" update, and we ask that you still keep us, and everyone else that's ill, in your prayers :) Thanks!

Please keep Brylie in your prayers........

2008-02-28T18:17:00.002-07:00

For many reasons.

The first being that while her little virus thing has gotten much better, she's developed a cough today (the kind that makes you cringe because you know it's more than a cold.........) and I'm concerned she may be getting the secondary pneumonia that goes along with the flu. We started breathing treatments this afternoon and will watch her tomorrow.

Secondly, she has figured out how to work the locks on the kitchen cupboards!!!!!!!! Oh my, I don't know what we're going to do with this child!!! This, after she climbed up on the end table and knocked down the lamp (who knows if it still works)! Actually maybe that portion of the prayer request should be for me! lol

2008-02-25T18:48:00.002-07:00

Well, it's been another dramatic day at our house (actually weekend).

Backing up a bit -- last Tuesday evening Brylie started complaining that her hands hurt. We thought maybe she just poked them on something, etc. By Thursday, it had creeped up her arms and they were hurting. By Saturday her feet were hurting to the point of screams and crying for a few hours. By Sunday she was complaining about her legs, and by this morning she was screaming and crying about her arms as well as her feet. This whole time we gave her Tylenol and Motrin, with no help at all. The only thing that had helped was some arthritis cream.

So this morning I called to get her an appt with the Dr, and we got in mid afternoon. The nurse practitioner we saw had no clue, and was completely puzzled, so she consulted with our regular Dr, who was equally puzzled.........the symptoms weren't there all the time, there's no rash, nothing to see........crazy. So they ordered a load of blood and urine tests. After three pokes and lots of prodding (horrid) we got the blood drawn.

The nurse practitioner called us back this evening -- they had gotten most of the blood tests back and she had consulted with the Dr. They both agreed that it was some sort of virus, one they hadn't seen before, and that her levels of CPK were elevated, which proves that she is indeed in pain. We'll wait for the remainder of the tests to come back to reiterate that (she's got the Wee Bag on as I type, and hating it, lol). They think she'll be over it in a week and then we have to retest to double check her levels of everything. What a crazy thing -- over the weekend all we could speculate was that it was a type of neuropathy or a syndrome of some sorts (both of which could be life long). What a relief!!! Thank you everyone who has been praying for her! We will continue to use the cream to manage her pain when need be, and of course go back to the office if she gets worse.

I am so tired.............literally tired..........tired of viruses and infections and bugs..............I'm just tired.........lol............

I screapped!!!!

2008-02-18T13:45:00.006-07:00

So I finally made up my mind to scrap a few pages -- seems like ages since I have!!!

I am THRILLED with all of these pages! Felt so good to do some scrapping!

Mike and Brylie, Dec 07:

Brylie Feb 08:

Kids Feb 08:

And, yikes, I scrapped a page with me on it! At GDS we're doing a legacy book (a book about ourselves to be passed down to our kids). I'm really excited about it! Last month we had to make our cover page, and this is mine. This month we're making a page or two about our birth, and I've had a ball scanning in lots of pics and memorabilia from my baby book, and I'm having mom write out my birth story (pregnancy and my first few days) and I can't wait to scrap it! Anyway, here, again, is my cover page:

I'm thrilled with this layout, but not so much the photo -- seems whenever I try to take a serious picture, I just look torked, lol...........I have better pictures, but this is about who I am NOW, not last year, or even 6 months ago, so this is it -- me now!

As soon as I started thinking about this book, a song from Casting Crowns popped into my head, called Who Am I? and I've journaled an abbreviated version of the lyrics of the song:

Who Am I?
That the Lord of all
the earth would care
to know my name,
Would care to
feel my pain. Who am
I? That the bright and
morning star would choose to
light the way for my ever
wondering heart. Not because of
who I am, but because of what
you’ve done. Not because of what
I’ve done, but because of who you
are. Who am I? That the eyes that
see my sin would look on me with
love. and watch me rise again. Who
am I? That the voice that calms the
sea would call out through the
rain and calm the storm in me.
I am a flower quickly fading,
here today and gone tomorrow, a
wave tossed to the ocean, a vapor
in the wind. Still you hear me
when I’m calling, Lord, you catch
me when I’m falling, and you told
me who I am. I am yours.

Everything from all of the pages is from Weeds and Wildflowers Designs :) Thanks for looking!

2008-02-14T16:47:00.002-07:00

I GOT A MASSAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I got a gift certificate for one, hehe, but I am THRILLED!!!!! I've never had a pro one, and by his own admission, it's not Mike's forte, so he opted to hire it out :)

I'm a little nervous because the person is a guy, but I guess he's best at deep massage -- so now to get well so I don't release more icky toxins!!!

Ahhhhhh, it's gonna feel soooooo good!

Thanks honey! Love ya!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T13:01:00.018-07:00

How sweet was this to wake up to this morning? hehe

Jazlyn's valentine's (I made the little "milk cartons" and stuffed them with fruit snacks):

Peyton's valentine's:

Teacher's bouquets:

Here are the treats I made for Peyton's class party, the heart is cut from watermelon, and the arrow is a bamboo skewer and orange slices.........

The kids' valentine's:

Two steps forward, one step back.......

2008-01-31T10:54:00.000-07:00

That seems to be the pattern.

Peyton - still no fever, but his asthma is getting increasingly more irritated. We got up in the night and gave him a dose of Tussinex (Robitussin with Codeine) and sat him in the bathroom with the hot shower running. He said when he was ready to go back to bed he'd shut it off and go to bed, so we crashed. 7:15 this morning the shower was STILL running and he was asleep on the bathroom floor, with a roll of toilet paper as his pillow!!! He's sleeping now -- hope I don't end up taking him back in :(

Jazlyn - no fever, her cough is a bit different, but she seems to be able to listen her body better and rest when she needs to. We'll see, but I think she's on the mend........

Brylie - After discovering that the pharmacist misconverted her script (they didn't have the correct strength, so had to substitute and didn't do the math correctly to change her dose -- you locals, is WAS NOT Walmart), I spoke with the dr and we decided on a plan of action, which included increasing her dose of steriod and doubling her Xoeponex dose. That helped SO much and while she's not 100%, she's definately better, and seems to be out from her fevers as well (just came out of meds 1/2 hour ago so we'll see). She has a recheck this afternoon.

Mike - thankfully he stayed home from work last night (I admit it was partially a selfish request on my part - I wasn't sure I could handle another night of meds every 2-4 hours by myself again!). By the time the day was over, he started feeling draggy again, but no fever. He's also sleeping now, thinking he's going to work tonight -- I on the other hand wish he'd just stay home (his last night of overnights) and keep himself progressing. Tasing went fine -- he said "It Sucked" and would prefer to not ever have that happen again. Somehow those COPS videos of people getting tased don't seem as funny to him anymore! lol

Me -- Well, I'm hanging in there. Patience isn't my best virtue, but I believe I've improved this week! I was finally able to put Brylie down this morning and tackle my HUGE laundry and dish piles a bit -- it's evident they've been growing for nearly a week now. So far I'm keeping my sanity - we'll see how much longer that stays true, hehe! I have enjoyed the extra cuddles from the kids though :)

No one is returning to normal activities until AT LEAST Monday........Peyton and Jazlyn have eye appointments that morning, and if they're well enough, we'll go and then stay home the rest of the day (I suspect after a week of being down that a trip to Colby for the appts will wear them out). Time will tell I guess if that plan works or not. Jazlyn will miss dancing for the local health fair this week :( Otherwise, no one's disappointed that their missing stuff.

Thank you all for your well wishes and prayers -- they are MUCH appreciated! Special thanks to Kara Smith and Amy Miller for providing supper last night -- what a relief! Thank you so much!

I think I'm going to try and catch a shower while I'm not urgently needed :) Wish me luck! lol

2008-01-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday morning, and yesterday proved to be almost as eventful as Monday. Brylie seemed to have her worst day (so far) yesterday. She woke up a little rattly, and as the day progressed, it got more and more difficult for her to breathe. I took her in early afternoon to find out that it had indeed entered her lungs, and she needed breathing treatments and steriods. They even made us get a treatment and dose of steroids before we left the office. While it hasn't cleared it all up from her lungs yet, it's definatly eased her difficulty. On a positive note, her ear infection was already cleared up! lol

Peyton has been out from under any fever reducing meds since 2pm Tuesday and has no fever!!! YEAH!!!

Jazlyn, while still running fevers, is better as well. I'm hoping that today will be her last day of fevers too.

Mike started getting his fever yesterday afternoon, and it completely wiped him out as well, however, he's got no fever this morning and claims to be feeling better. I hope he stays home from work tonight just to regain his strength instead of knocking himself down again. We'll see........

We of course had another rough night of meds and breathing treatments. Between caring for everyone and lacking in sleep, I have no idea how I'm going to avoid getting this too, lol!

2008-01-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's 6am, and what am I doing? Getting kids up for school? No...............I just got everything cleaned up from the 5:30am meds............and I did the same at 1:30am................all three kids tested positive for influenza yesterday!

It's funny how we call anything that causes vomiting "the flu" but the real flu would be CAKE if that's all it were...........no, this is the real deal, the kind that makes you want to do nothing buy lay around for days because you're freezing (despite 104+ fevers), your entire body hurts, your eyes burn, your head hurts, you've got this nagging cough that makes your throat hurt, YOU JUST WANT IT TO GO AWAY!!!

But the dr says it could be like this for up to 2 weeks. UGH. Fortunately we got into the office and got antiviral meds (ie Tamiflu) down the kids before the first 48 hours was up (essential if the med is going to do anything). If the kids are in the fortunate 60% that the med works on, it should knock 3 or 4 days off of the acute phase of the virus (the horrible "I just wanna die" phase) and possibly ease the symptoms a bit. It's pretty much standard practice now that if one person tests positive, the entire family gets treated (full dose if they've got symptoms, half "preventative dose" if not), so Mike and I are hoping to ward it off, although Mike is already showing small signs that he may get it.

This is also the kind that is deadly for many very young, very old, and those with other complications, such as asthma. Well, Brylie's only 16 months, Peyton has asthma, fun..........I really think we may be able to stay on top of it, but after the patient feels better and thinks they escaped the whole virus, 3 or 4 weeks later they seem to feel flu-ish again, only it's a secondary thing, and it settles in the lungs as pneumonia.

So we are quarantined for at least a week, possibly 2. Although having finally had our last Christmas celebration last weekend, chances are that many got infected already. The typical incubation period is 2-4 (some say 5) days. Dr instructed me to inform them that if they develop a fever, to get straight to the dr, tell them that they've had a first degree exposure (ie my kids) and request a flu swab. Hopefully they too could catch it within that first 48 hours.

Course, no one in the house got the flu shot. The kids can't because of the potential of having egg in it, which they are allergic to. Not that it mattered this year, as hospital employees here will tell you that the worst of the ones we've had here weren't covered with the shot.

Peyton and Brylie have ear infections as well (secondary to the flu -- the drainage from the flu is probably what sat in their ears and caused the infection). Poor Jazlyn seems to be feeling the worst of it. She even went to sleep on the exam table while we were waiting for the lab results on the swabs. Poor thing.

So we're alternating Motrin (every 6 hours) and Tylenol (every 4 hours), taking Amoxocillin three times a day, Tamiflu twice a day (once for Mike and I), and Pulmicort flexhaler once a day (hoping to keep that asthma tamed). Needless to say I've had to make a schedule, I just couldn't keep track of who got what, when. I also (so proud of myself for thinking this one up!!!) took a million different syringes and medicine droppers, labled them with the kids' name, medicine it's for, and then took a permanent marker and marked on the dropper/syringe the dose. That way I don't have to look it up each time!!! WAHOO!!! lol.........

If you live in town here, you're SOL if your kiddo comes out with the flu -- we took the rest of the town's liquid, and neither pharmacy's warehouses have more at the moment. It took us 2 1/2 hours and trips to both pharmacies to figure out what we could get where (one place had 2 liquids but no pills, other had one liquid and the pills, lol). Go figure, but at least everyone has their stuff. And it's not cheap either -- the preventative dose for Mike and I (half of the regular treatment dose if you have symptoms) was $80 EACH!!! Sheesh!

Anyway, I've done enough ranting about this stuff...........can you tell I'm stressed about what the next week is going to bring? lol

Mike is currently as his taser class (don't know if that's spelled right or not). He's essentially pulling a double, having worked all night and then his class started at 6. He expects the class to last until noon, and he has to get tased! Last I heard they didn't feel like anyone was big enough to support him so that when he falls he doesn't hurt himself. So they were going to make him lay on the floor, lol! Should be interesting to hear what it's like (don't think I could watch him, I would freak out!!!).

I guess that's the news today, lol...........probably more that you wanted to hear/read!

Day 27 - Count Your Blessings

2008-01-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

Us "Griffith Girls" (my maiden name) started a thing a few years back, where we all get new fuzzy socks at Christmas. This weekend we finally got to celebrate with that side of the family, so we all got new socks! This year we added Jazlyn and David's soon-to-be-finacee Ashley to the mix!

Day 26 - Getting to know you - favorite food

2008-01-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

Horrible surprise, right?

Day 25 - color

2008-01-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

I just love these colorful little clothes that Brylie has -- several shirts and pants that you can mix and match!

She's been REALLY into talking on the phone lately. This day she found the old corded phone we keep around for times when the power is out, and drug it all around the house! hehe

Day 24 - bump

2008-01-27T18:59:00.001-07:00

Brylie has been tripping over EVERYTHING and bumping her head -- fortunately this time she just hit the floor!