Out with the old

IN WITH THE NEW! :D

So what do you do when you are pregnant and you really really have the urge to change SOMETHING.... completely make-over the kids room. (Hey it might just have saved my hair) I was planning on doing this for Kadens birthday, but 2 months early isn't bad. If you remember when Kaden turned 2 we did his room in all CARS decor. Unfortunately that is not a very gender neutral theme and with this new baby on the way Taycee and Kaden get to share a room. After searching through many ideas I settled on crayons, simple easy, bright, fun, and very fitting for my kids considering Taycee colors on the walls about once a week. Once the theme was decided I spent hours searching online for the right decor. It was a lot harder than I had anticipated it to be. Chris gave me a budget ( a very small budget considering I was re-doing an entire room furniture and all) and I started planning.

I desperately wanted bunk beds with stairs not a ladder because I felt like they were safer for my accident prone children and the stairs beds came with drawers in them... EXTRA STORAGE! The problem was that all the beds like this cost around oh 600-1200 dollars not including mattresses. I had all but given up hope of getting the beds I want ( considering they were 3 times the amount of my budget) when I came across a KSL ad that had a bed just like the one I wanted. It was listed for higher than I was willing to pay but I decided to go look at it anyway and see if they would be willing to drop their price. LONG story short, we went and saw the bed and before we even offered an amount he lowered his price in half and included the mattresses. WAHOO! He all but gave them away to us. I was thrilled. We borrowed my Dads truck and picked them up 2 days later.

I am proud to say that I completed the entire room for 80 dollars less than the budget I was given. That includes bedding, paint, stickers, curtain, book shelf, coat hangers, letters, bunk beds, closet curtains and the materials to make the kids drawings. Yes, I did pat myself a little on the back. ( I also sold Kadens old room decor and entertainment center/dresser on KSL which put an extra 150 in my budget )

I am still waiting for my multicolored bead curtains for the closet since we had to take the doors down so the dresser would be functional. Also in the next week or so we are getting the 2 large drawers that roll under the bed.

Now for the reveal.... ( please ignore the semi blurry pics, I had to put my crappy lens on to get a wide enough angle.)

Kaden was over the moon excited to get a "tall bed" that he got to sleep on the top of. Taycee has also been sleeping in here even though she still has her crib in her room. She hasn't rolled off yet which was my main concern but she is getting up a lot earlier than before. She sleeps SO WELL in her crib and never cries or tries to get out, I am hoping she will adjust to a bed and get those old sleeping habits back.

One of my coat hangers fell down, but I need new screws to put it back up.

The kids made about 20 drawings on contact paper and I stuck them up all over the walls. This is my favorite drawing from Kaden.

The new letters I made.

missing the bead curtains...

I LOVE the growth chart. It is one of my favorite items.

LONG OR SHORT

Its the debate that everyone seems to be having... short vs. long hair. I have seen it on several friends blogs and now I am running into the same dilemma. I have a hair appointment in 2 weeks and I have to decide by then what I want to do.

I chopped my hair right after I had Kaden. I kept it short for a couple of years and then because of Chris's incessant begging I decided to let it grow. It has now been growing for over a year. It has gotten pretty long. But with summertime coming and my need for something fun and new I find myself itching to cut it off. Chris would be heartbroken. Sadly that is not enough to keep me from doing it.

SO PLEASE give me your opinion... cut it short... or keep it long?

PROS FOR LONG

1. Chris loves it

2. It is easy to pull up when I don't want to get ready

3. I think it might make me look thinner

4. It gives me more variety for hair styles

CONS FOR LONG

1. It take more time to actually do

2. It doesn't stay in place as well

3. Its hot and in the way during summertime

PROS FOR SHORT:

1. It is fun

2. It is easier to do

3. It feels more put together ( does that makes sense?)

4. It would satisfy my need to change something

CONS FOR SHORT:

1. Chris would go into depression

2. I don't know that it is flattering

3. I can't do a pony tail

Basically I can't decide... so will you all please do it for me? If you took the time to read this, please please please leave some input. :D

Bridal Shower

Kelseys bridal shower was last week.

Just a few fun photos from the day

some of the more "fun" presents

Kilie came down from Wyoming and made this cake for the bride.

What is a shower without Yummy food?

The 2 preggo sisters... we are only 3 weeks apart! And we are both having girls.

Kilie, Julie, Kathy

He wasn't really part of the shower but he is too hott to be left out.

Yea for fun parties.

Engaging Sisters

Both Chris and my sister decided to get married in April... within one week of each other! This had made for some busy weekends and lots of fun planning. I get the privilege to be both of their photographers, which has also made for lots of pictures and editing and announcement designing. Here is a sneak peak from their engagement sessions. I will post up some of the announcement invites later after they have been sent out ;)

Heather and Evan

Kelsey and Ben

New Do

Since we cut out all the straggles of Taycee's Hair I decided to try and straighten it. I have never done this before for 2 reasons.

1. her hair is super super thin and fine, like baby hair still

2. it was always way to uneven to have it be straight

and it looks super cute with all her natural curl so I never bothered.

I blew it dry with a round brush and WHALA...

Can someone tell her to stop being so big?

So what do you all think? Straight or curly?

No more snoring please

Our little man had his first big surgery on Monday. About a year ago he started snoring, about 6 months ago I noticed it was getting unusually loud and started to disrupt his sleep and breathing patterns. I scheduled an appointment with the ENT who did his tubes in his ears a few weeks ago and off to Salt Lake we went. When we got there he said something to Kaden and as soon as Kaden replied he said "I don't even need to look at his tonsils, by the way he talks I can tell his tonsils are too big for his throat." The poor kid has had everything in the book against him when it comes to talking normal. :S So the appointment was set for March 7th at 7 am in the morning.

This is my guy right as we checked in to the hospital, he was SO happy and excited to be there. Especially considering we got him up at 5:30 and he hadn't had anything to eat or drink for almost 12 hours. He thought his new bracelet was pretty cool.
Once they took us back he got to change in to this awesome little gown. He was so interested in everything in the room and kept asking all sorts of questions about the equipment and the doctors.
We were waiting for quite a while for all the nurses and doctors to come back and check us in, and Kaden decided he wanted to take his own pictures. He took loads of them but I will share the 2 that were most in focus.

One of the nurses had to take his blood pressure and heart rate. He was a little nervous at first about the cuff squeezing his arm but then he held daddys hand and he was fine.
They also came in and gave Kaden some "happy medicine" they told us he would get a little loopy and we should not let him walk. OH MY WORD, he was hilarious. It took about 15 minutes and then all of the sudden he went into silly mode. I have never seen him even close to this before. He looked high or drunk. He was saying the funniest things and banging his head on the chair. He kept repeating the name of our cute neighbor girl "Stella". At one point he looked at me and said "hey mom do you see my crab right here" holding out his hand. We took a short video but it doesn't do justice to the state he was in!

Here is my before surgery oh so happy boy...
This is my after surgery hating life miserable boy. IT. WAS. AWFUL. Kaden does not do well coming out of sedatives. He screams and cries, they had his IV in his foot and he kept trying to rip it out. They put him in my arms and he kept crying "mommy, it hurts, it hurts mommy." I wish I could say I had it together, but I didn't. I cried and Chris gave me the "you aren't making this easier" look. So I toughened up and just rocked him til he calmed down.

After about 2 hours he was Mr. Happy man again. He was drinking everything we gave him and asking for crackers. I was not expecting this at all. The hardest part of the afternoon was actually trying to get him to sit down and not run and yell and be a crazy man. He just wanted to play wild like he does most days but the doctor told us he had to stay down for the nest 5-10 days so that he doesn't get his heart pumping and cause a bleeding problem in his throat.

The Claytons were so sweet to drive up to be there for Kaden and we decided to come home with them for the week and spend some time in St George. Chris is working crazy hours right now ( last night he didn't even leave work he worked straight through the night) and I wanted to have some company and help if Kaden needed lots of TLC this week.

We left Layton around 2. We had a few stops to make and really got on the road about 4:30 in Provo. We hit Filmore about 6:30 and at 7:15 we came to a stand still in Beaver. It was a blizzard, the snow was coming down really hard and traffic was at a dead stop. In December when Chris and I went to St George for Christmas we hit similar conditions and ended up stopped on the road for about and hour and a half in the same spot. I was hoping this wouldn't be a repeat of that night.... it wasn't..... it was WORSE.

We were at a dead stop for almost 4 hours. With two kids in the car, hardly any food and full bladders. Kaden peed his pants a little and started crying because he needed to go potty so bad so we stood him up and opened the door in the middle of the blizzard and he peed onto the road. Poor kid was freezing, eventually we did the same with Taycee. The rest of us "adults" ( mostly me and Claudia) sat in the car and did a potty dance.

To be honest we were very blessed that nothing happened with Kaden that would require immediate attention, we were lucky I was feeling relatively well and didn't need too much in the way of food or drink. We weren't lucky to be parked directly next to a diesel truck whose exhaust was pouring into our car and giving us all carbon monoxide sickness. By the time we started driving we were all nauseous and had bad headaches. I got pretty nauseous and had to make use of Kadens vomit bag from the hospital. But we made it home only 11 hours and 30 minutes from when we left Layton. Yikes.

Kaden decided to make use of my camera again while we were waiting. (It was one of the ways I bribed him to take his pain medicine while we were waiting)

He again took loads of pictures but most were too dark and blurry to see. Here is a taste of what we sat in for 4 hours.

Grandpa in the front seat
the blizzard outside
Strawberry shortcake playing on the TV
Luckily we made it safe and are now enjoying some relaxation at grandma and grandpas house. Here is my little patient on day 2. Still doing really really well and drinking a LARGE cup of green smoothie... remember these? What a great way to make sure he is still getting his nutrients and not irritating his throat. I have heard day 3 is when it starts to get hard, so we are not out of the clear yet, but I am so proud of my little guy for doing so well with his first surgery.... and hopefully his last!