Luke is 2!!

This is Luke's smile for the camera face.

SLEEPOVERS

The kids are so grateful that Mommy is home here with them and they ask almost every night if I am sleeping here and if I will be there in the morning. I feel bad that they didn't get that security from me like they should have had.
I slept in their room a few times when Adam was still in the hospital because it was less lonely and I wanted to be with the kids. Katie had been asking me for a week or so if I was going to sleep in her room and I had told her that at some point I probably would. The problem with that was that I had already pushed the bed underneath her bed and every time she asked me it was already past bedtime so it would've been a very big hassle to pull it out and move all my stuff in there. So I told her that she could come have a sleepover in my room instead of me coming in their room. She really liked that idea and Kevin thought that was great too.
Katie was first. I told her that she could sleep with me after she'd already fallen asleep in her own bed. That I would move her into my bed. At about 10 o'clock she came out of her room and said "it's taking a long time I want to sleep in your room." So I had her come downstairs and finish watching my movie with me. It was fun to cuddle with her and watch a girlie show.
She brought a TON of animals into the bed and her dreamlite was super bright! But we enjoyed our time.

Lukey!!

This boy makes me so happy. He is always making some kind of funny face and he loves to be outdoors. We are loving Arizona weather and he loves to go to the park and swing on the swings.

Kids!!

I spent all weekend with my beautiful children. We potty trained Luke this week and he has been so good. He still has trouble with nighttime dryness but in the day he is fully potty trained.
 I just dropped the kids off for school and I had to write and express what my feelings on the school and how the kids are progressing. Katie's teacher Miss Jenna once she got out of the car said "have you seen her read" I said yes she's been reading to me all weekend and she is really good. Her teacher said "I know I was looking back on records on when she first started blending words and she has come so far so quickly that it's impressive." She seemed super excited and impressed and felt that she was coming along way further than she thought.
It is so fun as a mom to see your child progress. I know that not all of motherhood is progression and happy wonderful accomplishments but it sure feels good when those things happen. One thing that I want to focus on is helping the kids feel loved and understood even when they are not having success. I don't want to belittle bit them or make them feel small when they already feel small about themselves. I am not quite sure how to do this but with the Lord's guidance I will figure it out.
Those kids mean everything to me they are smart, beautiful, kind and have strong potential for amazing things in this world. In particular I need to praise and love and except Kevin for who he is and not try to change him when he is unwilling to make progress. Love is the key with him.

What a wonderful journey we are on. I wouldn't want it any other way. 

Lipstick!!!

I dressed up for church today and decided to wear red lipstick too. I wore my hair up too and apparently that was the ticket for everyone who saw me to say how great I looked. It was nice to hear the compliments but especially nice to hear if from Adam.

When I got home I took my lipstick off and Katie really wanted to put some red lipstick onto. So we put it on her and she looks super cute. Then she wanted to put it on me. She did a really great job and we both have red lips now... doesn't it look great

Katie's hair cut

What did it feel like to get your haircut?

"It was so good"

What did you like most about having long hair?
"About that we can do elsa braids"

What do you like most about having short hair?
" About having the earrings and that they show that I can sleep in them because when my hair was long I couldn't sleep with earrings in that were dangling because my hair would get caught in them."

Do you remember the first time you decided to cut your hair? "When Becca cut her hair and she gave it to locks of love"

What were your feelings when your mom cut your hair?
"I was excited and sad. Cuz I got to give my hair away to someone. I was sad because my hair would be gone and it can't really warm me up anymore. Everyone loved my hair too and now it's gone. "

Do you plan on growing your hair out more?
"Yes and then you will cut it off again"
Mom: "No I won't"

Just Another Saturday

This morning we went to find treasures while garage sale hunting. We tried to go last week but it was raining and nobody was out.

When we finally found one this morning it was like Christmas. We headed out late so I was a little worried everyone would be done already. As we all hopped out, the kids each headed for a stack of toys. Katie immediately found a girl pile, Luke found some cars and quickly crashed them together. And Kevin was instantly hooked on a bag of stuffed animals. We even found a bingo set later which he totally loved but he still couldn't part with his stuffed animals. 

As we left we found a cool little park and ended up playing for almost an hour. The wind was blowing a little bit and the park had a canopy over it so the sun was there but not blaring its days right on us. 

We had a lot of fun and the kids and I will definitely be back.

We spent the rest of the day at Aunt cocos house with our cousins. Aunt Linda and uncle Dale are in town and they were able to spend some time with them before they headed to a sealing. 

Luke took his nap there in a pack and play in collettes closet. I moved it away from the sliding doors because I didn't want him to play with them. When I went to get him after he was done with his nap I found him sleeping among a lot of clothes. He had pulled a good amount of clothes off their hangers since he was close to them. What am I going to do with him. 

The kids swam a bit today even though it was super cold. Everyone was all done but Katie decided she wanted to get back in and jump. I sat by the pool while she toyed with the reality of soaking here'd with all that coldness. The ultimate decision was not to jump in but just to tip her head over and get all her hair wet instead. She is so funny. 

Luke got his feet in too and was so mad that I wouldn't let him sit there all night. I was worried he would not be able to get warm again fast enough. 

Before we got the kids in bed they helped me clean the bathrooms. They were getting pretty gross. I was hoping to surprise Adam and help him to feel our live for him. He has been feeling yucky today. He was able to come down to collettes for a bit tonight and I was glad he did. 

Katie has been scared at night lately. So for the last few nights I've been laying in ned with her until she falls asleep. I have to be honest I really actually enjoyed. I know I usually want to just get all my stuff done and get the kids to bed cause it's been a long day, but laying with her at night remind me of how much I love my children and how much I need to focus on them and nothing more. 

Day after Christmas

We went on a little hike this morning. It was hilarious watching Luke try getting up the hills with rocks everywhere. He wasn't given into my hand holdings attempts though. I did end up putting him on my shoulders for the steep parts and he was only happy then because Grandma gave him a rock to hold. Halfway through he only wanted me to carry him. No more energy left to walk it out.

Katie was equally as tired but did enjoy herself. She even peed camping style by a bush. 

Grandma picked up a little piece of a cactus to show Katie but it stuck to her thumb and she didn't know how to get it off. I saved the day but got pricked by a few tiny ones too. 

We met up with Adam and Mandy for our movie outing afterward. We saw frozen for the 2nd time and laughed at our little snowman friend Olaf. Katie wore her Ana dress and looked beautiful. During a particularly emotional part of the movie I leaned over to Katie and said "here comes our favorite song" then she said "ya, hmp, you're probably gonna cry"!

Silly girl knows me well. 

We picked up Papa Murpheys for dinner and Anthony came for a sleepover. 

Now everyone if fast asleep in their warm beds and I am off to sleepy town too. 

Gingerbread night

We had our 4th annual gingerbread night tonight. The girls had a blast and we had some very colorful houses this year.

We watched a movie and had hot chocolate like we do every year and of course got crazy with the whipping cream. 

Regular day

Today is just a normal day I don't have to work and Katie Luke and I are going to target for a couple of things. I put Katie's hair in no heat girls this morning and they look beautiful as you can see in the picture. Her and Luke are both wearing Converse shoes that Dad got on clearance. It's so fun to wear lots of fun outfits that we know were really cheap. Katie is my sweet attitude girl and she is always thinking of other people. She is a a little

mother to Luke even when I don't want her to be.

Kevin's First Day of School

Today was Kevin's very first day of Kindergarten. It all went smoothly. We both woke up early and had peaceful unrushed morning. I was able to take some before school pictures to document the occasion.

 We were able to watch a couple of church stories before he left too. Adam gave a father's blessing on Sunday night and it was so sweet. He told him that the Lord would bless him to choose the right and stand up for good things. He aslo blessed him to learn the things his mind needs to know and to be confident and happy at school. I believe it was an inspiration to bless him with those things. I am so excited for him.

We picked Beckam Davis up because his Mom and I are carpooling. He is going to a Montessori school on Lindsay and Southern so it is a little bit of drive but not too bad. 

When he got home from school he was silly. He was hot so he took his shirt off (which he never does) and just lay on the couch. We had to pry him for information but you could tell he had a fun day and liked it. I asked him if he missed Mom and Dad throughout the day and he said he did. He liked his teacher and he made a friend although everytime we asked him what his friends name was he said "I don't know" so then Adam would tease him and say "His name is, Idon'tknow, that's weird!!"
All in all I think he likes school. I am really happy about where he is going and feel like it will serve him well. I miss him throughout the day but I know that he is in the best place for his almost 6 year old mind and he is going to grow so much in the next year. I love this kid and only want the best for him. 

Hospital again

Here we are in the hospital again... Our lives seem to go up and down and we must learn to roll with the punches and rely on our Lord.

We have been trying to figure Adam's belly pain out for years and he has been hospitalized 3 different times with it. Today we finally know what it is that has made him so sick. I am just glad to have an answer.

This particular battle started on February 4th, 2013. He went to work feeling yucky and came home halfway through the day and went straight to bed. I knew in my gut that this was going to be another attack but tried to deny it. On Tuesday I was trying to get Kevin registered for kindergarten and work and pick up Adam's prescription for pain. It was a crazy day and I called on all the help of my friends and family for prayers our way. Each day he lay in bed feeling yucky and we just waited for the flare up to stop. It didn't stop.
I finally asked my Mom to come down and help me as we were going on the 3rd week of the missed work. She was my saving grace and I felt that she was someone I could lean on since I had to be the strength for both Adam and I. 

We decided to go back up to St. George with my Mom to meet with an herbalist since none of the Dr.'s here were being very helpful. 

 (I never finished that post)
That trip turned out to be so painful for Adam. He didn't get any answers from the herbalist and we left so frustrated.
Logan came down with us to help us out and it was a life saving experience which actually ended us in the hospital for an official diagnosis.

Some of the funny things that Adam says

Adam has been sleeping a lot today which is a good thing because he hasn't slept in five days really. So because he hasn't slept in a long time and because he's on pain medication he has been saying some really funny things to me. This afternoon when I went in there he Was talking about I would project we were doing in the bed. Obviously we were not doing it wouldn't project in the bed so I told him we were not doing anything like that and he said well Then why are you asking me about that bench? I said that I was not asking him about the bench and he said well if we leave this piece flat and that but can we can put the bench together. I asked him if he was hallucinating and he said no just dreaming. It was then that I noticed that there was a woodworking show on. I decided to let him sleep a little longer since he was obviously still in his dream. About five minutes later he came out and said are we done with this candidate to bed and I said what he said are we done with this can I kill it and put it to bed? I said Adam I don't know what you're talking about and he said alders these guys working on this project in her bed and I want I want to know if we can be done with it.

Adam's pain

So today is 15 February and we have been dealing with major medical issues for Adam the last two weeks. It's the same old thing... his stomach hurts. We even had to go to the emergency room last Saturday night to see what was wrong. But of course they couldn't tell us anything because it was not a life or Death situation. They did an x-ray, gave him some pain killers through an IV and eventually sent us home around 6 o'clock in the morning. While I'm grateful that they did not admit us, I am grateful and disappointed that once again we cannot find the source of his pain. I can't even describe what it feels like to see your husband writhing in pain. He is in so much in pain that he is crying and doubled over and has no idea what to do. What is even more frustrating is that he has no diagnosis. It feels like the doctors really haven't seriously looked into what is wrong with him so we have no idea how to cure it medically or naturally. So the poor guy has missed two weeks of work that he really cannot afford to miss because they're trying to transfer him to a different division. This different division would be way less stressful and he wouldn't be working with his crazy boss and equally crazy group. His boss assures us that he will still get the division switch which is a miracle in itself.
So flash forward to today we had an appointment really early with the GI doctor. I feel like he was thorough yet my questions are not answered. He ordered some blood tests for celiac disease and Crohn's disease. He also ordered a urine test just in case Adam has Porphyria which was my concern. I don't know how long it will take to get the results back but I am anxious to see if they come out back positive or if we have to search for more answers. I think the hardest part about the whole thing is that I am all by myself doing this. My husband needs a nurse which is me and my kids need a mom and a dad which turns out to be my job as well. My house is in shambles my kids are grumpy and I don't feel like I'm taking care of me has been as I should. The bright side of this whole thing is that I really learned to turn to my Father. He can hear you need anything and I have seen him help us.

Airport field trip

Kevin and Katie came with me to get our van emissions test done. It was right by the Chandler Airport so they wanted to go see the big planes at the big airport as an activity together. Since Luke was still sleeping at Aunt Tiersas we decided to go on an adventure.
 On the way over we listened to some fun songs and played "eye spy". Kevin did wonderfully and Katie kept telling us what she was spying. Funny girl.
We parked up on top of the parking garage so we could get out and see all that was going on. It was super fun to see the big airplanes take off and land.
As one of the first airplanes was taking off Katie said "Maybe hims (meaning the airplane) going on a date". Kevin and I decided that that was the funniest quote of the day.
We watched probably 10 airplanes land and take off and even though it was kind if cold they loved it. The kids were amazed. Kevin liked that luggage cars and Katie liked that taxi. We also got to go inside the airport too. They pushed the elevator buttons, and we met a volunteer who gave Kevin and Katie little rubber airplanes to go on a pencil tip, she gave them one to take home to Luke.
All in all it cost me about five dollars for that field trip and the kids had a blast. I have to thank my friend DebraJo for being the inspiration on this idea since she took her kids a few years ago and I've always wanted to do with the kids. I'm so glad that I have this whole day that I can play with the kids. I seriously love being a mommy it is the best thing in the world. Sometimes I'm tired and sometimes it's crazy and sometimes I can't think straight for all the talking but honestly these kids are amazing and I am grateful to learn from them every day.

Luke At 10 months

I can hardly believe that 10 months ago I had this cute little bundle of joy. He has brought us so much brightness and honestly hope that it's indescribable. He is so happy and so wonderful. The kids both love him to death and are always helping me with him. Some of the things that Luke does at 10 months old are...
He crawls around so fast in fact he has a specific way of crawling to get around even faster than normal crawling. He puts 1 foot on the ground and the other knee on the ground and pushes himself with his foot. It looks kind of funny but it is so efficient. The other day had a snack in one hand and was trying to crawl at the same time so he looked like he was crawling on just one hand and one knee with his foot pushing him around while he held his snack up in the air.
He just learned how to clap and will do it on command. All you have to say is Luke clap and he will do it and gets this huge grin on his face. We were sustaining callings in our ward and he kept raising his hands to do it with us. He raises his hands for excitement as well to say "Yeah" and he scrunches up his nose and shows his teeth in a funny little grin.
One of the other things that Adam and I both love about Luke is how excited he gets about things. He shakes his little legs and kicks them as if he is too excited to contain it all. He is pretty patient as he is the third in our family but when he does gets impatient he screams at us with the low groan or a high squeal. He does this most often when he is hungry or when he wants you to pick him up. Sometimes this can be rather annoying but for the most part he's pretty patient.
He pulls himself up on everything and in the last two weeks or so has started to forget to hold on while he stands up. Which means this little boy is going to be walking way faster than I'm ready.
His regular schedule is that he wakes up around seven or eight I give him a bottle and feed him some food. He eats my baby food that I make for him and usually has a whole bowlful. This boy loves to eat the other day I was doing hair and he was off his schedule a little bit so my client had to hold him quite a bit (which was fine for her she loved it). So because he was off his schedule he happened to be awake for part of my next client. I put him in his highchair and gave him some pretzels and I didn't hear a sound out of him for the longest time probably 30 to 45 minutes, he was so happy with his pretzels. So now the trick is if he is cranky and we can't hold him then we give him pretzels and then he's super content.
So after I feed him food in the morning he plays until about 10 and then he takes about an hour and a half to two hour nap and we get some things done around the house. Usually when I put him down I turn the fan on high give him his blanket which he loves and i when i lay him down almost immediately he will turn over and sit up and cry just a tiny bit. He never cries really long unless he's not really ready for a nap. He sleeps sound and long and sometimes has gone three hours for a nap. When he wakes up we do the whole bottle routine again with some baby food which again he eats a very large serving of, then he plays with the kids cause they love him and around two or three he goes back down for another nap which usually lasts till dinnertime (right about the time I'm sitting down to eat). When I was nursing that was hard because he wanted to eat right when I was wanting to eat with the family, so I would have to serve my family and then feed him before I could eat my dinner or if I was really coordinated, while I was eating my dinner.
He weaned himself off nursing a week or two after New Year's. I was not ready and was very very sad. Still when I think of it tears come to my eyes because I wasn't ready to lose that closeness with him. But I guess that's what happens when you give them lots of bottles.
I still want to enjoy every moment of this little guy. He is so yummy. I cannot describe what I feel for him. Thank Goodness we have him!!

Katie-isms

Katie: my legs are tired because They are bored of walking.
-my eyes are mad because them are tired.
I can't cough right now Why? Cuz I'm just looking out my window.
If you wan that makes you tired. Ya cuz I'm tired and I want to go to bed right now.
We went by the hospital and the kids said they don't want daddy to be sick again, this is the conversation that followed...
Kevin: Daddy if your that sick again I will be so sad and I will say so many prayers for you like 150 prayers
Katie: yeah and I'll say like three or four

Happy New Year 2013!!

I can't believe we are beginning a new year. 2013 feels wrong in some way. It feels as if life has happened too fast. Yet here we are and here we go.
We spent New Year's Eve at Collette and Tonys house. Mom and Dad came down and we had fun with fireworks and SO MUCH FOOD.

Ella's Visiting

Tiersa and Kris have been in Costa Rica so we have had Ella over at our house for a few days. It is been super fun to have her here and Kevin and Katie couldn't be happier.
They are currently running around the house playing freeze tag. We made gingerbread houses with all the nieces and they keep eating all the candy off them. They all seem to be really good friends and I couldn't be more grateful to be around my kids cousins.