Kids Halloween party!

We had a fun Kelloggs rice Krispies house party at our house today! We had the kids invite their friends. 

We played games

 we did a craft

 

We wore silly costumes (white trash baby)

 

We ate some goodies too!

 I am a little ashamed to admit that I haven't ever made rice krispies before. I know you are all thinking "how on earth can you be a mother of four children and have NEVER made them!?!" Well, I haven't until today. I made them into candy corns and they turned out adorable!

 I learned a lot though on how to make it right. I made two batches.

 color and measuring accurately make a huge difference! Hahaha

 

 The spread

basketball man (aka Tyler)  LOVED them.

Jake had his fake teeth in so he couldn't smile for the picture.

 Our fun group.

 Did I mention I LOVE Halloween?!

8 Months old

 Today my sweet Alyssa is 8 months old. I'm a little sad that she won't stop growing, but such is life. She is still the best baby ever. She loves to eat. she eats and eats and eats. She will eat pretty much anything you give her now. That includes paper and broken crayons and pieces of toys. Hopefully, I can keep her from eating non food items from now on though. She prefers to feed herself, but I still feed her baby food at each meal.
She is taking after her brother Jake. Not just in looks, but in actions as well. She can pull herself up on anything now and will even attempt at letting go and stepping towards something else. Jake walked at 8 1/2 months old and she is following pretty close to that bar he set.  She crawls really fast and can get where she needs to go. If I'm not careful she will climb half the stairs (7 or 8 steps) before I notice. The other day she climbed the whole flight of stairs (under Randy's supervision.) Sheesh!

I'm glad, unless she is tired, she will go to anyone who wants to hold her. It makes life easier for me, especially at church. She smiles and laughs at her brothers and sister all day. They love her so much and the novelty of a new sister still hasn't worn off. I'm getting to know her sweet personality a little better. I think if I paid more attention she wouldn't ever fuss. It is only when she is neglected that she cries out for my attention. I love you dear Alyssa! Happy 8 Months today!

Following the Spirit, or Heather's home makeover

Randy and I have been wanting to move for a while now. We are busting out of this house and would like to live somewhere with a little more wiggle room. Anyway, so we were looking at houses and had an appointment to go look at a few of them that we liked. (Most were located in Eagle wood or Bountiful.) Anyway, as I was thinking about selling/cleaning out and taking photos of our house I got the distinct impression "Do not continue on this path you're on." It was such a sharp warning, that I couldn't ignore it even if I wanted to. Anyway, Randy and I prayed about it and have gotten the impression that we need to stay where we are for the time being. 

Needless to say, I am pretty disappointed by this turn of event.  I will follow Heavenly Father, but I'm doing so a little begrudgingly. I sort of turned into a "little princess" as Dave Ramsey says and told Randy that if I was being forced to stay here, then I wanted to make it a little more livable. 

Hence, our new home improvements/ makeovers.

This is a photo of our new Shed. oooohhh Ahhhhh! We can put our outside junk in and have a clutter free yard! This makes me SO SO SO happy!

 

Next on my list? our kitchen floor. doesn't this photo make you cringe a little? I have never liked it, but have lived with it for nearly 6 years now. I know, I know, poor me with my first world problems right?

Demolition time

 

I had to get a picture of Randy mopping our floor for the first time.

Randy hard at work installing our Allure flooring by Traffic master from good old Home Depot. I think it is pretty cool myself.

progress

It is finished! Wahoo!!!

Randy admiring his work

I know I have put up entirely too many pictures, but I'm excited so I don't really care.

 

Lily likes it

It's good enough to play/lay on

Totally worth every penny of the 350 bucks! (oh BTW, the Home Depot said they didn't do any discounts and that buying at the store through them was as cheap as it gets. BUT, I bought the floor through Ebates on their website and got 3% cash back. It isn't much, but if I can save 15-20 dollars I'll do it! Plus, I got free shipping to our house.Also, I found online discount codes to use for $5 off a purchase of $50 or more. Saving is saving right?)

I love it! So now I have the two most important things checked off on my list. If you already didn't' know, Randy is the BEST husband ever!

Now for the kitchen cupboards.....

Oh, I threw in a video of Randy actually putting a piece of the floor down, for all those interested.

Tyler vs the Bullies

  I took the three oldest to the school carnival last week while Randy stayed home with the baby. While we were at the carnival, the kids wanted to use their tickets to jump in the bouncy house. As we were in line, the lady in charge said that they were going to divide the line into 'small kids' and 'bigger kids.' I asked Tyler which group he wanted to be in and he said he wanted to be in with the bigger kids. The groups get 2 full minutes of play before the next round gets to go inside. Tyler went in with the big kids while Lily, Jake and I waited outside for their turn. But, Tyler had only been inside less than a minute when he came back out again. I asked him "Did you have fun?" and he said "Yeah,...well, no." He looked like he could cry. I asked him what happened and he proceeded to tell me that while inside, the other boys asked "What grade are you in?" and Tyler had said "3rd grade." Then, they told him "We are in 5th grade and you can't be in here with us." So Tyler left.
I felt so bad for my sweet Tyler. I told him that he was bigger than all three of those 5th graders and that he could go back in, but Ty didn't want to anymore. I told him that the kids were just bullies and he shouldn't pay them any attention.
I didn't think too much of it, until today when Tyler came home from school nearly bouncing off the walls with excitement. Then, he told me the coolest story ever:

Tyler was walking home from school when those same three bully 5th grader boys came up to him and called him "puny." Tyler said "Do you want to measure size?" (meaning let's see who is bigger.) The smallest boy came up to him and his head came to the middle of Ty's stomach. After measuring, he looked scared. The second tallest boy came up to measure and he came to Tyler's chin. He looked scared too.  Finally, the third and tallest boy walked up to Tyler and he said "I'm taller!" and then realized too late that he only came to Tyler's nose. Tyler then told me "I tried to look as confident as possible!"

Next, the tallest boy walked back and picked up a golf ball sized rock and threw it at Tyler.  (Can you believe he threw a rock at my little boy!! Tyler is two years younger than him for crying out loud!) But here is the best part; Tyler caught the rock  in the air,with one hand, before it hit him. He looked at the rock, back at the boys, and dropped the rock to the ground. Then, the tallest boy picked up another rock and held it behind him for another boy to grab. He said "Grab it!" But when he looked back, his friends were running away. He dropped the rock and ran away from Tyler with the rest of the boys. Tyler didn't think that catching the rock and that being taller than those 5th graders could be so effective.

He was so excited and I was so proud that I had to take a picture of his cute happy face. 

 Can you feel the excitement exuding from his entire body?!

I'm so glad that he "beat the bullies" so to speak. I'm also glad that he didn't throw the rock back at them or throw any punches to get the point across that he wasn't going to back down. Although, I feel he would have been justified if he had thrown the rock back at them. Hooray for my wonderful, brave, tall, non violent, 3rd grader!

videos

Proof that Tyler is a little bit crazy. Lol.

 My sweet girl.

The Inlaws visit. DUH DUH DUH

I already mentioned in the last post that Rick and Eileen came to visit and were oh so helpful with watching the kids for me while I took Lily to the Doctor/hospital. We were so excited to see them and play with them while they were here. Especially after all the worry we have had lately with Eileen's brain surgery. It was nice to see her up and healthy again. Paige also visited right after Gunnar and we played a lot with her, but I failed to take any photos. Of course. WE LOVE YOU PAIGE!!!

Here are some fun pictures (mostly of our sweet baby Alyssa while she enjoyed Grandma and Grandpa.

Alyssa, Grandpa and Grandma at lunch.

Grandpa took this photo during the vice presidential debate

My sweet sweet girl right after her nap the day Rick and Eileen left.

Bath time. It took me, grandma and grandpa, two phones and a camera to get through this adorableness that is bath time.

Grandpa had the best photos of the bunch.

 

Eventually, they had to leave though. Lily refused to say goodbye because she was so sad. I had to snap a pic because I thought she looked adorable. She wouldn't look at me though. 

Long story. Sick Lily.

I took these photos in the car on the way to pick up Jake the day before Lily got sick.

She looks good right? Well, that same evening lily had a low grade fever and no appetite. she was just wanting to lay down and sleep. I gave her some ibuprofen and then Tylenol rotating every four hours. I tried to anyway. She seemed to spit it out every time I attempted to give it to her.
By wednesday afternoon she was much worse. I took her temperature and it was 103.7. I thought "That can't be right." so I took mine (97.8 degrees) and I took hers again and again. Sure enough it was 103.7 degrees. This worried me, so I gave her a dose of Tylenol and called the pediatrician. She was unfortunately unavailable, but I told the receptionist what was going on and he said he would have the doctor call me, or that I could come in for their only opening for the day in five minutes. He seemed deeply concerned about Lily's high temperature. I packed us up and headed to the doctors office. Fortunately for us, Rick and Eileen were here visiting and were able to keep the other three kids for me.

 When I got to the doctors office, I waited in the waiting room for a while and then the pediatrician came into the waiting room, gestured toward Lily, and announced that she would be taking her first because "she is very sick." I was impressed with that.

It had been about twenty minutes since I had given Lily the Tylenol, but when the doctor took Lily's temperature it was a whopping 104.3. yep, it had risen since I gave her medicine. Anyway, this worried the Doc and she informed me that when kids this little get fevers this high, they can start convulsing. She also told me that strep was going around and that multiple people had come in with fevers and tested positive for strep. She gave me some Ibuprofen to give to Lily, but of course Lily spit it all over the place, mostly in her hair though. the Dr. then gave us a prescription for a suppository so we could actually give her medicine effectively. After checking Lily out some more, she said that she was going to do a strep test on Lily and that if it was positive she would get us a prescription, but if it was negative she would have to send us to the hospital for a blood test to see if what was causing it was bacterial or viral.  It was negative. 

So after a quick phone call to Rick and Eileen informing them what was going on, Lily and I were off to the hospital. My poor Lily bean was so scared while the girl took her blood. The tech kept commenting on how hot Lily's skin was. She thought it was incredible.

After getting her blood drawn I took her to get an ice cream cone at McDonald's. That seemed to make her very happy. We stayed home for a while and lily's fever seemed to have broken. After dinner, the pediatrician called us and asked us to come back into her office. 

I immediately took her in and the Dr. informed me that Lily's blood test had come back and her white blood cell count had skyrocketed. She also told me that the infection was indeed bacterial. She wanted to find out where the infection was. Because Lily wasn't coughing we ruled out her lungs/chest. The Dr. wanted a urine sample to see if it was a UTI. Lily and I went into the bathroom to pee in the cup, but after trying her hardest she said "The pee pee won't come!" After we came out of the restroom, the doctor was really disappointed not to get a sample. She said that She would have to give her a catheter if she didn't pee in the cup. We tried again. She didn't pee in the cup. After coming out the second time empty handed, the pediatrician told us that she had to do another procedure on someone else and that it would take about an hour. She really didn't want to subject Lily to a catheter. She said we could take the cup, go home, try again, and come back in an hour or so. 

Lily and I headed back home once again. That's when the chocolate milk drinking contest began. we drank and drank. Finally she peed in the cup like the little trooper she is. I nursed the baby, gave Jacob a bath and got the kids ready for bed. Randy was gone doing friends of scouting, but Rick and Eileen were still there being so so helpful. 

After an hour, we headed back out to the Doctors office for the third time that day. She was so glad that we had a urine sample. She tested it and it came out "clean". The Doc told us that she had sent in the extra blood taken for more tests. She also told us she was going to give Lily an antibiotic shot that "hurts really bad." Sounds exciting doesn't it. sigh. Anyway, she gave Lily the shot and through the screaming I tried to listed to what the Pediatrician was saying. I honestly don't think I heard much. It has been a long day and was after 9PM. She told me she had called in another prescription for the same antibiotic Lily was given in the shot. She told me to call her the next day and let her know if Lily's fever had remained high throughout the night. If it had, she needed to have another shot and maybe be admitted to the hospital. 

We waited at the office another ten minutes or so just to be sure Lily didn't have a bad reaction to the shot. 

We came home and went to bed. Lily slept through the night and didn't fever again the next morning. I called the pediatrician around noon and she was glad I called. She said that she had been worried about my little girl all night. I told her Lily was playing and acting like herself. She said that was great and told me to just give her the antibiotic every day for 10 days. She informed me that she would contact me if anything came up in the blood work later. 

It is funny that the shot turned out to be a great thing. Because I told Lily that if she didn't take her medicine we would have to go back to the doctors office for a shot. She has taken her medicine since then. She also has been recovering just fine.  She is back to picking on her brothers and trying to boss me around.

CEO...again!

 Tyler was chosen as the CEO (Chief Example to Others) for the third time in his four years at school. We had a great time at breakfast listening to his teacher talk about our little boy. When we received the notice in the mail Tyler said "I don' know why I always get chosen!" But I know why. He is well behaved, on time, works hard and listens when he is supposed to. Teachers love my boy.

Tyler being a silly 8 year old boy.

Tyler being given his certificate.

Lily Says

 

I'm making conference breakfast (German pancakes, fruit and bacon) when I hear Jacob screaming downstairs. Lily shows up next to me crying and I ask her "what happened?" she says 'Jacob went uh uh uh' and it hurt!!" motioning with her hands him grasping her head and moving it from side to side.  Meanwhile Jacob is still screaming and crying in the basement.

Me: "What did YOU do?" 

Lily: "I just threw a car at him" she says defensively.

Me: " You CAN'T hurt him back when he hurts you! where did it hit him?"

Lily: "I threw it at his penis..." she smiles and finishes with "...and it worked!!"

Hi and Goodbye

Our nephew Gunnar flew into Salt Lake on Tuesday evening. 

We were so excited to see him. So excited in fact that the kids were counting down the hours, minutes, etc. 

Randy and Gunnar didn't arrive home till after bedtime though, so the kids didn't get to spend the amount of time they would have liked with him. 

On wednesday morning, Randy took Gunnar with him to work, where he would then be picked up and taken to the MTC. He is going to serve his mission in Antofagasta, Chile.

We awoke and had breakfast with Gunnar before he left early that morning.

 He did have time to read the kids a book before he took off though. They loved it.

 We will miss Gunnar while he's gone. We are so glad the kids have a cousin as such a good example.

Bye Gunnar! Good luck!