Ah-uhs

Macie has quite the personality. She loves dogs...like run up to big mean scary dogs and doesn't flinch kind of a love. She calls them ah-uhs. They used to be birdies but now dogs are ah-uhs. 

We flew to Utah for a quick trip and took her along with us because she was free. My friend let me borrow her kid leash which just happened to be a dog! It was awesome and best of all Macie loved it. When we got home she wouldn't let me take it off so she slept with it on her back. 

Thoughtful

Matthew is so thoughtful. The other day Brian ate my double chocolate brownie that I had been saving and needless to say I was not happy. Matt could sense I was mad so he made me a girl out of chocolate and used chips for the hair. He sure knows what's his mama loves! 

Uncle T

Is just the best!

Macie turned 1

Happy birthday Macie! For her birthday she got 3 warm milk babas compliments of B and 3 silky blankies from Mom. She got to eat a cake pop during her photo shoot and loved every bite.We were going to have a party for her in Utah along with Brinley's baptism but Macie slept right through the festivities.

Snow in May...what the hey!

Spring was a little delayed this year as it snowed over a foot a couple times at the  end of May and beginning of May. Brinley only went to or played at 4 of out 8 soccer games and 2 out of 9 practices. Awesome...and so glad I paid $90 for her to watch it snow instead of play soccer.

April fools

Brinley loves April Fools Day. I think she gets it from Grandma K. She made salt brownies and thought it was the coolest thing ever. The kids even got one of the missionaries to fall for their trick. It was hilarious. Matthew also thought it would be funny to Saran wrap the toilet. Good thing he is so obvious because if I would have fallen for that after I had hopped my way to the bathroom with my broken foot in the middle of the night I would have been pretty mad!!

Dirt, detergent and sand...

Are just a few of her favorite things to eat!

Macie is such a doll even when I have to dig random things out of her mouth. She will lay on her belly and kick her legs. Its the cutest things ever!

What I did during spring break...

I had no where to go...actually I couldn't go anywhere so I made a bazillion or at least 100 cake pops for Brinley's baptism luncheon.

Love notes from Matt....

Easter

Easter was fun this year. We decorated and ate lots of eggs, hunted for eggs and hopefully my kids will remember Christ and the resurrection as well as all the candy they consumed.

Addison (3) with her silly face and egg she is about to color.

Matthew

Mommy's egg

Brian (33) and Jami (31)

Miss B. She always gets so messy when we do things like this...she is so creative.

Addison and the neighborhood egg hunt with her loot.

Even Macie got some eggs.

Matthew with his mouth full...

Macie and her basket from the Easter Bunny

Church was at 9 am. We made the kids get ready before they could check out their stuff.

Matthew had shot his other arrow like this over the fence to a yard with a dog that chews EVERYTHING. Needless to say there was not an arrow left by the time we made it over there.

Ankle

Now that I can walk I feel like I should be able to do everything again but its just not happening. I kinda liked the simple life. I don't miss not being able to walk. I love and I mean I LOVE being able to walk. It's seriously amazing. I also love holding Macie. It's so easy to walk upstairs and grab her out of the crib. I will never take that for granted again! I can walk but my ankle is still very tight and sometimes painful. I make improvements everyday but want to see things improve faster. :) I have to be ready for Havasu in 6 weeks.

These are my Grandma's hiking boots that she bought for when the saints walked to Missouri. I guess she figured she is too old now and wont be walking even if that time comes. I think they have great ankle support. :)

Saturday is a special day...

After snowing 14" on Monday it warmed up on Saturday to be a beautiful day! We cleaned out the garage and did a few projects which included digging through 2 weeks of garbage to find a piece to Brian's vending machine I accidentally threw away.

Am I Freaking you out mom?

Yes, Addison you are freaking me out!

My baby is back!

Macie had a fever of 102.5 up to 104 degrees for four days straight. She was lethargic, irritable, not sleeping and totally attached to the hip. She is smiling again and happy and it's sooo nice to have her back to her old self again.

Happy

Sad

Get out of jail free

I feel like I just finished a jail sentence and now I am out on probation. I feel so free. It is so amazing I can't even describe how wonderful it is to walk. I still limp and sometimes hop so it's not a beautiful glide quite yet but I have ditched the crutches! Yay! I am so excited! I feel like I am on vacation or something. I love it!! I am seriously so happy. It is so nice to walk albeit slowly from one room to the other. I needed something upstairs and my initial thought was that it was too much effort and then I remembered I could walk and I went and got what I needed. I am free however it has not been free in another sense of the word. My new brace will be billed to my insurance at $600 and I just found it online for $80. There is something seriously wrong with health insurance in this county but that is a whole other discussion.

Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

Today was just one of those days. Macie has had a fever between 102.5 and 103.1 for the past 2 1/2 days even with Tylenol and Motrin. She has been up the last 2 nights miserable and shaking. Needless to say I woke up today TIRED. I tried to get a little shut eye on the couch after I put Macie back to bed in the morning but all I heard was Addi and Matt bugging each other....Stop copying me... I not...stop...no....etc etc etc. I threaten my kids that I will send them to their rooms but most of the time Macie is asleep in Matt's room or I really can't get up and take them to their rooms and they know that. Earlier I had decided that if Macie's temp was still high I would take her to the doctor. Sure enough she woke up a burning hot 103 degrees. After finding a someone to take me to the doctor and some one to take Addison and her friend we ventured out in the snow, yes snow, it is not December people...we have at least a foot of snow right now. After several drop offs and pick ups we made it to the doctor only to hear the dreaded words, "Its just a cold." I just paid you how much money to say that...oh well, at least I know she does not have ear infections or strep or something like that.

So yeah, that doesn't sound so horrible after typing it out but it was a rough day and a super emotional day probably because I am tired and partly because I just want to walk. Tomorrow is my 6 week mark since my injury and I am so excited to get on with my life or so it feels. Sick kids always wear on me so maybe not being able to do anything because I am disabled at the moment in addition to not being able to do anything because I have a permanent living rice bag attached to my hip made it all that much more draining.

So the positive in all that whining is that I have amazing friends who watch my kids at the drop of a hat with no complaints. Friends who pick up my kids from school everyday.  And my friend who pretty much spent all day with me helping me out and driving me around in this winter wonderland..pretty sure she had way better things to do with her time. And then there is my other friend who I don't see as often since our ward split who called out of the blue to tell me she was going to bring me dinner because "she couldn't stop thinking about me today." I just cried and cried on the phone because I felt the call was inspired. I still cry just thinking about it. I am just glad she was living with the spirit because I so appreciated the help and delicious food. Even my picky I am only going to eat bread and sugar boy downed the soup and rolls. I just cant stop thinking about the kindness that has been shown to me over the last 6 weeks. I hope I can be even half as good of a friend as my friends are to me!! I am one lucky girl.

Sleepover!!

I love it when the kids are sweet to each other. Brinley read to Matt until they both fell asleep.

Theif

My kids try and steal my wheelchair all day long...kind of drives me crazy!

I love February!

I love February because its short, it's Valentines Day and its my birthday! Brian gave me the best valentines day present ever... He fixed the lock on my sliding van door. It broke several years ago and I had to lock and unlock it manually. It was so annoying and such a pain when loading and unloading kids. I was so excited and kinda mad because I had been doing that for at least 2 plus years and it only took a couple hours and $60 to fix it!! We should have done that years ago...

We had a "heart breaker" pizza for dinner.

Addison got some fun Valentines gifts from her favorite primary teacher, "sissa Geen" Sister Green. Can you tell she is totally excited!

The kids and their candy...why does every holiday involve candy?

Frosting cookies for friends. They kids had a lot of fun making and eating these cookies. For some reason Brinley always ends up with frosting ALL OVER her hands and the table. This was at the start so everyone looks pretty clean still.

My birthday was super fun. I went to Unique thrift store my my friends Toni and Jenny in Toni's 15 passenger van. We all rode together and had so much fun. Then we went to lunch at Which Wich and had to hustle back to get the kids from school. That night I had an early soccer game so the whole family came and watched me play. We lost big time and I got hit in the face with the ball and one of Tisha's boys fell on the bleachers and had to go get stitches on his forehead . It was eventful to say the least.

My little cheerleaders, Macie (10 months) and Matthew (6 yrs)

After we got home Brian and Matt gathered all the chocolate in the cupboard and lit a couple of candles and sang happy birthday. It was a great day! All I really wanted for my birthday was a clean house and obedient children and for the most part that is what I got!! Brian also gave me some money to buy a digital piano which I am so excited about!

Happy Birthday to me! 31 years old