The Ya-Ya Fairy

Ever since she could talk, Erin has had, and LOVED, her pacifier. We call it her plug, she calls it her ya-ya. We would have to take it everywhere, because if there was a meltdown, it was the only thing that would calm her down. I could reason, rock, love, talk, do anything and everything, and she would scream "ya-ya!", and can I tell you, that girl is a belter!!

I had heard all of the tricks for getting rid of pacifiers, so I cut the tip...nah, didn't work. She just kept sucking on it. She didn't care. I tried other things as well, but it didn't take. Finally I told her that the ya-ya fairy was going to come and take her plugs away to babies who needed them. I gave her the plugs that night, but the ya-ya fairy came during the night and left a train and took the ya-yas. The next week went a little something like this...

And this......

I think we're through the worst now. She did ask for it a couple of nights ago, but I told her no more ya-ya's, remember? and she said "Okay." Okay!! You don't even know how exciting that is. We got through screaming tantrums (the girl can scream for three hours straight. She's got lungs, that one), sleepless nights (I threatened to put her outside for a couple of minutes one night and locked us in the bathroom so others wouldn't be awakened too much another night.) I think we're through it though and there's no more ya-ya!! Hooray and Huzzah! My next task is to get my eleven-month-old to eat. So you mommies out there, any suggestions? Owen doesn't touch baby food, he thinks I am poisoning him every time I try it. I've tried different "people" food and he just spits them out. I've got nothin' here folks. Any suggestions would be great!!

Catching up

Goodness, we've had a busy week or two. First of all, Liam got his patch. Here is a picture of him and his friend Kora who lives by us and has a patch too. They can be patch buddies. (I stole this picture off your blog MaryKate. Thanks!) He's doing pretty well with it thus far. He only has to wear it for four hours a day right now. It may go up or it may not. It also snowed here. My sister said the snow up where she lives melted really fast, but we still have about three inches. Owen really, REALLY wanted to go out, so we bundled everyone up and went out. Erin pooped out pretty fast. She got too cold. Owen decided it wasn't as cool as he thought it was going to be, so Erin, Owen and I went in while Liam stayed out and played with the neighbor boy in our yard until dark. Don't you remember the days when you could play all day long outside and never feel cold? Maybe it's because you're so short, your blood can circulate really fast. I got a couple of pictures of the snow. I need more time so I can get out and get some pretty ones.

A couple of trees in our neighborhood.

We also decorated our house for Christmas. Every year I trace the kids' hands and feet, make a reindeer and put the date on the back. It's fun to see them grow. Liam's hands and feet are on the top, Erin's on the bottom and Owen's is the lone one on the left that's all green.

Liam and Erin decorated the tree this year, can ya tell? I should put a picture of the whole tree on. Our tree is only about three feet tall. We put it up on a table in our window so it's decorated up until about the middle of the tree because the kids couldn't reach any higher. Of course we had to have Darth Vader...

....Superman and various other action figures on the tree. Mustn't let them feel left out of the festivities.

I have a shelf I hang the stockings on. It only has four pegs, so this year I put up two stocking hangers on the shelf to hang Cam and my stockings on. I must warn everyone that this is a very, very bad idea. I was laying on the couch and the kids were climbing and jumping on me when all of a sudden I am seeing stars. Being the nice, kind mom I am, I yell "Erin!" She is crying and crying and Cameron says "Look at her!" So I look and there's blood all over her face, in her hair, on her shirt and it's just dripping. I take my hand away from my head and there's blood everywhere on me too. Yes, yes someone had pulled on the stocking, pulling the stocking hanger down, hitting Erin on the head and ricocheting off her head and hitting mine. Those things are not light either. We cleaned ourselves up and after much crying (on Erin's part) and debating about whether stitches were needed (on my part), decided we were okay. Erin did really well and recovered quickly, although she did have a relapse when she jumped off the couch and bonked her head. More blood, more tears, etc. I, however, had the hugest headache in the world for a couple of days and couldn't even touch my pillow to my head because it hurt so much. They have healed okay. I think I'll have a little scar, but all is well.

Here is the vicious, vicious stocking hanger.

and the bonked on the head girls.

Happy Days!

My whole family (minus my older brother and fam and younger brother and wife) trekked down to Arizona for Thanksgiving. We were going to go with them, but decided at the last minute we would stay home. We had a nice Thanksgiving with Cam's Mom, Dad and sister. I'm glad we have a holiday to make us stop and think about all we have to be thankful for. Anyway...I thought I would do something productive with the long holiday weekend. Ready for the big news? I am so excited to say that Erin is potty trained!!!! Hip Hip Hooray!! No more changing two diapered bums. I just have one to change!! She did really well. Last night was her first dry all night with underwear night. We told her if she kept her underwear dry we could go swimming. That's all it took. So we go swimming Friday. Yay for the moments when you see success!!

Red and Blue

What is the difference between the BYU Cougars......

...and a bowl of cheerios?

One of them BELONGS in a bowl!!

HA HA HA HA!!! Go Utes...at least this year...!!

Tubes

Our Mr. Owen has had ear infections since July. We've been on multiple antibiotics and our doctor referred us to an ENT. Owen isn't hearing like our other kids, so we were going to have a hearing test and see if he needs tubes. The ENT told us he has lots of fluid behind both eardrums and that's probably the reason for the lack of hearing. It's probably muffled for him. So we get to do tubes! Yay for us. Really, I am so glad they have technology that can help us. I often think about those who have lived in ages without medicine technology and think we are so very blessed. I would have been one of the blind people begging on a street corner, because I can not see ANYTHING without my trusty glasses.

My mantra is now, and always has been, and forever will be: "I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids..."

And He's Off!

I can't believe my baby is 10 months old this month. He is the sweetest, most docile baby we' ve had. He has started crawling this last week. He's gotten the hang of it pretty quick. He's crawling all over the place and pulling up and crusing around. Yay, just in time for the holidays! Just in time to pull all those pretty sparkly decorations off the tree! Just in time to crawl around in the freezy snow. Hooray!! Good job Owen!

Tag...

Julie tagged me. This is an easy one. You post the fourth picture from the fourth album on your computer. Here it is.It's kind of a fun tag. I tag whoever wants to check out their pics.

Pictures and Glasses and Leaves Oh My!!

So we went and took family pictures in the leaves by Lagoon before it snowed. Tell me if you like them, I did them myself and it's one of my first shots at putting together a shoot.

Here's our cute Owen.

Erin...

Liam with his new glasses. They are cute on him. He's had a little bit of a hard time adjusting, just because he's nervous about what other people are going to say about them. (He's only four! He's not supposed to think about that stuff!!!)

Cam and I...

And the fam. It was a fun time. The kids got crazy after a while, but other than that, it turned out nice. Glad we got it done before the snow.

Next up, Thanksgiving.

Halloween is over. We had a good one. Everyone dressed up, except me, I just dressed everyone else up. Here is the fam. All happy, except poor Owen. Our Princess who wouldn't stand still for the pictures.

Our posing Grim Reaper.

The cutest pumpkin we could get for Halloween.

And my cute rocker husband.

We trick-or-treated, it rained on us, we came home and drank apple cider and ate doughnuts. It was a fun time. Now we have to look forward to Thanksgiving. They are playing Christmas music on the radio! I am so excited. I love the holiday season.

Halloween Horrors

I saw a post on a friend's site showing her kids' costumes in halloweens past. I thought it was fun and decided to showcase our array of costumes.

This was last Halloween. This is the only good picture I got of them, because after this one Erin started crying and screaming. Spiderman and a conglomeration of what we had to make a fairy. Thanks MaryKate for making the skirt!!

This was '06. Erin was only two months old, so we didn't dress her up. Liam was a ghost, but found this witches hat at my sister's house and wore it too, so I don't really know what he ended up being.

Thanks to my great bro-in-law, we have this pic of Liam as a Pink Floyd rocker now. Thanks Drew!!

In '05, I dressed Liam up as a rocker with a Pink Floyd shirt, levis, a bomber jacket, dangly keys on a chain and we spiked his hair up and colored it red. He got a little nervous when he saw his spiky hair and cried, but eventually was good with it.

This is '04. He was an elephant. Again, we don't have a pic on the computer with his ears on, but you get the gist. He was a cute elephant. I can't decide whether to put Owen in it this year or not.

Hope everyone has a happy Halloween! Be safe, and I'm sure we'll see many postings of this year's costumes!

If it's not one thing...

Have you ever noticed with kids, there's always something? We've had a helmet for plagiocephaly, surgeries, tongue clippings, I could go on and on. So now Liam came home from school with a poor vision check. We took him to the doctor and found out he has Amblyopia, or a lazy eye. I'm sure it's because of my stinkin' eyes. How come he couldn't get Cameron's I ask you? Anyway, we picked out some glasses. He has to wear them for six weeks and then we'll probably have to start patching it. He has this cute friend Kora who has the same problem. They are good friends and I am so glad we have her to show him it's not a big deal. She's such a fun girl and we are blessed to have such good neighbors and friends. This is a cute picture of them. Thanks Kora for being Liam's good buddy!!

Remember

President Kimball said "Our greatest need is to remember." I have a magnet on my fridge that has that quote on it. It is very applicable today for me. I have been having a really hard time with lots of things lately and it's easy to forget the blessings. I'm thankful for so many things and have been blessed in a lot of areas. These pictures are some of my blessings. I will not wax sentimental, but I am glad I can remember I am loved by someone.

More Pictures

So, if you're going to read my blog, you have to put up with my picture taking mania. I'm just posting some pics I took in the past week.


I was messing with the settings on my camera for a class assignment and thought this was a cool effect.


Pretty sky huh? Amazing how pretty weeds can look.

These guys hang out in a tree around the corner from us. I need to ask the people whose yard this tree is in if I can hang out in their yard and get the front side of them.
I need to go up the canyon and get the pretty colors.

Erin has been all into potty training. She's hit and miss, not very motivated, but the other day she needed to go and told me, so I put her on and she wanted me to sit by her. I sat on the tub by her and she whispers "Close door mom!" I said "You want the door closed? How come?" She whispers "Wolves come in and bite me mom!" What? Silly girl. It's not like we talk about wolves all the time. She's so funny. Liam has been into the solar system. He's telling everyone he sees about how Mars is red and Jupiter has a spot and Saturn has rings. It's amazing how much they soak up. Kids are so trying and so much fun and such a joy all at the same time. I'm so blessed to have them!

I've been tagged.

10 years ago I...

1. Had just started my new EEG tech job.
2. Was living with my awesome roomies in Salt Lake.
3. Was making midnight runs to the store for cucumbers and vinegar (and gross mint chocolate chip ice cream. Only for you Carrie.
4. Had an almost new (to me) car. I still have it. It's thirteen years old. What a good little car!
5. Had no idea what life had in store for me.

5 things on today's "to do" list...

1. Have lunch with Kara.
2. Clean my house.
3. Take care of my sick husband.
4. Take pictures for my class.
5. Read my book. (It's not rated R yet Kami, I'm not that far into it though)

5 snacks I enjoy...

1. Strawberry Shortcake
2. Popcorn with white chocolate melted on it.
3. Almond muffins.
4. Cheesecake.
5. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate and nuts.

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire... (Besides the obvious tithing one)

1. Buy a house.
2. Pay off Cam's school.
3. Go to France...maybe stay there.
4. Go to college campuses and give money to those who are paying for their own education. Especially those married with kids.
5. Invest

5 Places I have lived...

1. Vernal, Utah
2. Ephraim, Utah
3. Logan, Utah (not for very long though)
4. Salt Lake City, Utah
5. Bountiful, Utah

5 jobs I've had...

1. Care Center CNA
2. Post Office Casual Clerk
3. Home Health Aide
4. Surgery scheduler for neurosurgery
5. EEG technician.

Rules: Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person that tagged you know when you've answered the questions on your blog.

I tag:
1. MaryKate T.
2. Laurie L.
3. Julie M.
4. Jenny B.
5. Jenn L.

Elephant parade

The kids and I went to the elephant parade that the circus had at the Gateway on Wednesday. It was fun...and very fast. It was stroller central as we walked the few blocks from Cam's work to the Gateway. They had the streets lined with fun colored triangle flags and there was no "parking" for your stroller anywhere. It was madness!! The Ringmaster, clowns, acrobats, equestrians, policemen with clown noses and of course the elephants all came down the street. The kids loved it. They were going pretty fast for a parade, so I couldn't get really good pictures, but we had a good time.
Here's the back of the Ringmaster.


This was a fun vehicle that the tires went round and round while it drove down the street.

Yay!! The elephants!!

I thought it was cute how they held onto each other's tails.

I would recommend going at least once because your kids would love it. Once is probably enough though.

Dating wedding photos

My cute sister-in-law saw my need for wedding and dating photos and sent me some. Isn't she great? Thanks Laurie! Cam's mom was taking photos to put all over at the reception. This is one she took. It didn't get put up.
I've always thought this one was funny. Laurie is looking all posed and beautiful by the pretty waterfall and Cameron is attacking me. So funny! This was our engagement photo.

Wedding photo. I wish I hadn't have done my hair up now. I wanted Cam to have a tie with his tux, but he wanted bow tie. Whatever makes him happy...
Here we are at the reception in Vernal. I liked my hair better there. It was more me. Again, my cute sister-in-law Laurie. Thanks again for the pics!!