Surgery Day

It's 5:45am and I am sitting here with a brace and water cooler waiting for the surgical center to open. As long as I don't think about what I am doing I am ok. Sometimes I am perfectly fine thinking about laying on the couch and watching movies all day long with no mothering responsibilities. Kinda sounds like a break huh? I would still rather not be in this situation but I will take full advantage of not being able to do anything.

I just don't know what to expect. One guy Brian met was back at work after 4 days and another girl was on crutches for 6 weeks. I remember feeling like crap and doing physical therapy everyday was torture. I remember almost not making it to the bathroom because I was so unable to move. And the training and physical therapy were crazy hard to get back for basketball in 6 months.

This time I have no reason to hurry back to basketball or soccer. When I am ready I will go back. I have a cpm machine to help keep my range of motion, an awesome ice cooler thing and a hamstring graft. All things that should make my recovery easier. However, I now have 4 kids, a hubby, a house, a church calling etc. 

The unknown is hard and also repeating myself. I don't like repeating myself, watching a movie twice, re-reading a book, etc...it makes me mad that I am doing this twice!!

Thankfully again, I have an amazing husband who promised to get the kids up and to school on time and is taking work off. My friends are taking my kids this afternoon and my Mom is flying in for the weekend even though she just spent a week in Nova Scotia. 

My knee feels great and there is no pain or swelling. I have been working out and chasing after my kids. It's hard to go into this pain free knowing that will no longer be. 

In love...

I am so in love with my house. Not in a prideful way but in a oh my goodness this place is so perfect and amazing and I feel so blessed kind of a way. There is so much open space for the kids to play in. From the ditch out back to the little pond off the trail. I feel like my kids can live out their dreams of adventure in the backyard. I also love that the inside is circular and my kids can run around and around and chase each other. I still sometimes have to pinch myself that this is real. It all happened so fast and we felt the Lords hand guiding and directing us and allowing miracles to happen at every turn. I feel so blessed!

Miss B

Brinley is going to be taller than me very soon. I think I might cry when that happens.

B and the spelling B

Brinley is a phonetical speller. She wrote out our dinners this week and I just had to capture how she spells. Sunday Leftovers, Monday Lasagna, Tuesday Spaghetti, Wednesday Cafe Rio, Thursday crock pot, Friday pizza, Saturday Coupons

Sleepover

These two wanted to have a sleepover in our bed and this was how we found them. They do NOT look comfortable.

Crazy Boy

Matt likes his hair long but it's getting a little too long...

These are a few of my favorite things...

The cul-de-sac behind our house where Matthew meets his best friend Joe to hang out and do homework.

Double staircase. I love unique staircases and always wanted a circular one down to a secret hide out.

The view from our loft is amazing. This picture does not do it justice.

The open space and cul-de-sac behind our house. One of the main reasons we were ok buying in this neighborhood.

The railing looking down to the entry. Its like a little bridge and I love it.

Did I already say the open space out back? The kids will play out there for hours and I don't have to worry.

A place to put our food storage. All of this was somewhere in our other house. I liken it to having a 9lb 4 oz baby and then wondering how in the world she fit in my tummy!

Valentines Day 2014

Valentines Day this year was so much fun this year. I love February! It is my favorite month.

Red Mango had a buy one get one free deal so we went and got frozen yogurt for super cheap.

One of my best presents was finding my keys in the door of Brian's car. I knew he had stolen them!! :)

Brian gave me a chocolate dipped strawberry that was delicious and beautiful.

We went to The Cheesecake Factory with our good friends Ricky and Tisha and then went down to the Denver temple. The food was soooo good and we even made it on time to the 7:30 session.

My Mom sent all the kids pillowcases and socks. Macie was lovin' the pink!

Addi and her valentines from preschool

My little sugar sharks pumped to have gotten so much candy.

Opening the package from Grammy.

Addison let me do her hair in heart piggies. They turned out so cute. Brinley would never and still never lets me touch her hair so I am pretty excited both Addi and Macie will let me do their hair cute.

These two little ladies were busted in their closet trying to eat the cupcakes from Brinley's class party.

Good bye yellow!

The kitchen in our new house was yellow, bright sponge yellow. It was so well, bright, and one of the first things I wanted to change in our house.

The sister missionaries helped us tape and prime the walls.

Brinley was a good little helper!

Yay!

Remember how I locked my poopy one year old in the car? Well I found the keys on Valentine's Day in the door storage of Brian's car! I am so excited. While I would like to blame Brian for putting them there, I actually vaguely remember doing that myself.

Dreams do come true...

My dream has always been to have a mud room where the kids can hang their coats and backpacks. Out new house had the perfect corner wall right by the garage door where we could put up some hooks and storage.

We have a new no shoes rule now so kids shoes were all over the entry place as well as backpacks and coats. The coat closet is surprisingly small and the bar is quite high so my kids hanging up their own stuff was not going to happen.

We used some Ikea shelves and baskets for shoes and breadboard and hooks for the coats. I made a nice bench pad and just finished painting last night. I love it! I love that my kids use it even more. 

It was bound to happen....

We woke up today to, Mom!! Macie pooped on the floor!! Pretty sure we have already put more wear and tear on this house than the guy who lived here before us did in 10 years. 

One of those days...

I went and picked up the results of my MRI last week because the suspense was killing me. I was not surprised to find I had a partially torn ACL. Today I went to the doctor and he confirmed that I should do the surgery, not necessarily as soon as possible, but if I want to play basketball or soccer ever again I should do the surgery. I had already mentally prepared to do it and so we talked grafts and post op recovery. He recommend using a hamstring graft because it is less traumatic with a quicker recovery. The only con was that it would take a lot of work to get my hamstring muscle back to full function. I will take the trade off! I remember when I had my right ACL done with a patellar tendon graft I felt like my knee was going to pop open because there was a long incision in front of my knee.

My appointment ran long and I was supposed to take Addi and Maddie to dance. I ran home to grab their clothes and remembered that Macie had pooped at the doctors office and I would need wipes to change her. I ran back inside and came out to find that my door had locked, with the car on, with Macie inside... I immediately started freaking out because I knew I didn't have a spare set and I was late for dance. Did I also mention it was snowing and freezing cold!?!

I called Brian because at one point we had a spare that would unlock the van but not start it. That was lost as well. I had my friend go to our old house and see if we had put a spare van key in the lock box. No such luck. I gave in and called a lock smith to come unlock it. Right as he was almost there I remembered that the fire department can unlock your car for FREE. I know because my friend locked her baby in her car at my house last year. :) The guy came and unlocked my car in 1 minute and I paid him $70. Thankfully he also told my most insurance will reimburse for the cost. Yay!

I was pretty upset by everything but did think of two miracles that happened. 1) I had my phone. I was talking to Brian otherwise it would have been in the car as well and I would have really been freaking out. 2) Macie fell asleep like a little angel. Its the worst thing ever to see your kids crying and not being able to reach them or help them.

 

New Clubhouse

Our new bathroom is the size of the girls bedroom in our old house. The kids have been loving all the space and especially the big bathtub. It is their "Clubhouse." They brought all their blankets, chairs, toys, dolls, etc. and had a sleepover party.

Here they are with their BFF's chillin' in the shower.

There was not room in the tub so Matt got to sleep in the shower.

Addi asleep before I moved her. That does NOT look comfortable!

Can you find Addi in there?

Here she is...

Addison 4 and Matthew 7

Superbowl 2014

Matthew watching the big game.

My family will be super impressed that 1) we actually watched a football game and 2) that we actually have the ability to watch a football game!! Not only can we watch football but we got rid of the old 500lb tube TV and got ourselves a nice flat screen last year at Target on Black Friday. We got the last ticket. Oh yeah!

We have been made fun of for years for using this thing....

I think we jinxed the game because the Broncos got lost big time. It was actually kinda embarrassing for them. We all dressed in orange and blue because none of us actually had any Bronco paraphernalia. The Marshes came over and we had dinner, watched the game and let the kids play. We decided we will make the superbowl a yearly tradition.

Brinley with her dolls, Marie-Grace and Shannon. They are all dressed in blue for the Broncos.