Happy Birthday Taylor!

I can't believe my little boy is 10! The time sure has flown by. I remember when he was just a tiny little baby with great big brown eyes that everyone loved, and even strangers commented on. He has sure come a long way. Taylor is an energetic, creative, out-going sweetheart. He's always willing to try new things (except when it comes to vegetables) and he helps mom out when it's really needed. We sure love him a lot. For his birthday we did a sleepover - first one ever for us. The boys did great, and actually went to sleep at midnight. We're not sure how many sleepovers we want to do or allow our kids to go to, but this one was pretty mild and fun. Anyway, we are proud of Taylor and the kid he is becoming.The birthday cake!
The school cookie cake treat.

Life's not fair

So lately, life has been kind of busy because Jeff has been traveling a lot with work. You'd think I'd be able to get more blogging done when he's gone, but the last few times he's been gone I've taken up a project to pass the time. I now have three nicely painted bathrooms. Unfortunately, I have no more bathrooms to paint, and the only other rooms I want to paint have children sleeping in them during the prime painting hours, so I will have to come up with other projects. Anyway, I have to admit I am just a tad jealous when he gets to go to cool places. Last week he went to New York City, and got to go on an adventure to find Times Square at night. He even had a thing come up where he was asked to attend a benefit dinner at the last minute while he was in New York. Not having a suit, or any dress clothes, he got to go shopping on 5th avenue with the promise that the company will reimburse him. We are really hoping that will all work out. Anyway, he had quite the experience in New York, while I was home holding down the fort. Here are just a couple of pictures of what we each did. By the way, I really am glad Jeff is having good experiences and that he loves his job right now.

Jeff's job

My job

One of those moms!

So the other day I turned into one of "those moms" that I swore I'd never be when I was a teenage babysitter. Back then, I was always grossed out by runny noses and dirty hands in kids' mouths. I thought I would never have a kid with a runny nose. (I learned quickly how crazy that wish was). Well, the other day when we were outside playing, Carter climbed up on our porch and started eating the cat food. Did I freak out and rush to save him? No, I just kind of laughed and asked him if it was good. He didn't actually swallow any if any on you are still in the "good mom" stage. I did stop and ponder at how far I'd come on the mommy spectrum. My first child rarely got too dirty, and I hated if he got anything in his mouth but food, and now number five eats cat food and rocks (he tried one of those at the park later that same day) and it doen't even bother me. I still haven't decided if this is a good thing or bad. I'm leaning towards good. My oldest is a little high strung when it comes to changes in his schedule, going to new places, etc. and as a baby he had a very regular schedule. He also doesn't like to eat new things. Carter on the other hand, has to adjust his sleep schedule to the lives of four siblings, and eats whatever is given to him (or that he can get his hands on). He's learning early to be easy-going. So, I'm hoping my learning to relax a little is really a good thing in the end. Anyway, it is funny how we change according to what we learn, and for the need to survive. If I still worried about every little runny nose or dirty hand in my house I'd go crazy. I still try my best to keep my kids clean, but I don't beat myself up about it when things aren't perfect.

Three-year-old's troubles

Oh to be a three-year-old again. It must be hard. At least it seems to be for Parker lately. This last little while he has been very upset a bout a few things. First of all, this week he has decided that he doesn't want his eyes to blink. Multiple times during the day he'll come up to me complaining that his eyes are blinking. I of course try to explain that they are supposed to do that, but it doesn't seem to sink in. While he's crying about his blinking eyes, he gets more frustrated because there is water in his eyes. Ahh! It's a no win situation. His other struggle lately is that he has decided he only wants to wear short-sleeve shirts. This is a problem when it is 8 degrees outside. It is even more of a struggle because all but one of his short-sleeve shirts has been put away for the winter. I'm still not sure how he found one short-sleeve shirt amidst the 20 other shirts he has. So every day Parker wants to wear his dinosaur shirt, and will ask me continuously for it until it is clean again when the shirt is in the wash. On the days the shirt is in the wash he has reluctantly been willing to put on other shirts and push up the sleeves. Silly kid. Finally, his new obsession is his swimming suit which he found yesterday and has been wearing it constantly since then. It has been quite the battle to get him to put something else on so we can go out of the house. In fact, I took him to play at a museum this morning and he kept asking to go home. When we got in the car the first thing he asked was, "Can I get my swimming suit on when we get home?" That's all he wanted to do. Scrap the museum mom. Though it can be a challenge as a mom, it is kind of cute watching him change his clothes all the time. He's really a fun, and silly kid.

A Bad Case of Spots!

So, if you have ever read the children's book A Bad Case of Stripes you'll understand what we as parents were feeling when just before her birthday on New Year's Eve Emily came down with Impetigo, and then Scalded Skin Syndrome. We first noticed a red rash forming behind her ears, and within a hour she had raw spots appearing on her face. Of course it was Saturday - my kids always get the bad illnesses on the weekend - so we called our friend who's a pediatrician. He said to wait because he wasn't sure if it was impetigo at the time. The next day, Sunday, she was a lot worse so we bothered our friend again and he decided to give her an antibiotic for impetigo. She got on the medicine that day, but on Monday she was even worse, and now in so much pain I could hardly touch her to lift her onto my lap. Poor thing. Being Monday, we were able to go to the doctor without having to pay the $75 emergency fee, so we took her to her regular doctor who gave her a new medicine. Apparently staph impetigo can be resistant to the first medicine. The new medicine tasted like banana vomit (according to our friend - I opted out of tasting it) but by plugging Emily's nose, and following the medicine with a spoon full of carmel she was able to tolerate it. She's a real trooper. Luckily the medicine worked, and the next day I could hold her again. Her problems didn't end there, however, she started shedding skin all over the place. Apparently scalded skin syndrome is like having a really bad sunburn that hurts and itches, and then peels. Her poor hands and feet were the worst. It was so hard seeing her so sad and uncomfortable, but she really didn't complain too much. I'm just grateful for modern medicine and good doctors.

Christmas Fun

We had a lot of fun this Christmas. My parents, sister, brother, and my sister's two dogs all came to visit for the holidays. It was a little crazy in our house, but not too bad. The only unfortunate part was that everyone had to endure a day of the stomach flu. Each morning we woke up to someone else feeling sick. Luckily it was a quick 24-hour ordeal. Anyway, we had a lot of fun just playing at home with new Christmas gifts. We were very glad they came.

Back in the Swing of things

Well it's hard to believe that it is 2009 and I haven't posted anything on my blog for over a month. Time sure flies by during the busy times. December is a busy time of year for everyone due to the holidays, but now that we have two birthdays added into the season there seems to be no end to the celebrating (and the planning and cleaning up afterwards). It's all fun though, so we love it. To get up to date here on the blog (I have hopes that someday I can print this out to have as a journal since I have also not written in that for more than a month). Here are some highlights.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Since our family is so far away, we decided to celebrate with members of our ward family. We were a little cramped in our kitchen, but no one seemed to mind.


December brought a lot of fun holiday programs. Ashley and Taylor both did great in their respective music programs at the school, and then Taylor, Ashley, and Emily all did great in their piano recital.



Carter had his first haircut about a week before his first birthday.

Ashley was beautiful as an angel in the Nutcracker.

And of course there was visiting with Santa at the preschool party. Ashley was with us that day because she had been sent home from school the day before with strep.