Girls Weekend

The first weekend in June Chris was kind enough to send me away for a girls weekend with my sister Jenny. Maybe he did it for his sanity as well as mine, I think that I was running a little low on the sweet and patience meter. Either way it was a good time.

We started the night shopping at City Creek and then headed to Hale Center Theater to see the Sound of Music. It was a fabulous musical that we both thoroughly enjoyed. 

We spent the night in Salt Lake at the Pavilion Inn. They gave up complimentary tootsie rolls. :)

What is a hotel stay without a few jumping on the bed pictures?

The next morning we went and got massages from the massage school in Salt Lake. Our hotel clock was running 10 minutes behind so we were a little late for the massage but it all worked out. Our plan afterward was to go to a water park and spend the day. When we pulled up at cowabunga bay it was so windy that it blew my hat off so we opted to find a free pool somewhere. 

Jenny's friend in Provo suggested a free pool to us and we headed out. When we got to the pool I realized it was just a pool at some college apartments. I was a little hesitant to go but figured it would be fine for a few hours, then we saw a HUGE pool party sign with balloons and a bbq being set up. I REALLY didn't want to stay then, I felt so out of place and awkward. Jenny insisted it was fine, and that I didn't look like a 27 year old mom with three kids crashing in on a college pool party... hahah....yeah. I agreed to stay for a little while, but once the music started blaring and and the pool was swarming with 19 year olds I called it quits and we went to get a jamba juice.

 

After the pool fiasco we headed up to Aunt Bettys Cabin up Provo Canyon. Grandma Halladay, Aunt Betty, Mom, and Aunt Julie were all up there. It is so beautiful up there and we spent the next 2 days eating and hiking and eating and playing games and eating. :D

Monday on our way home we met Chris picked up the kids and headed to Cherry Hill for the day.

It was such a fun weekend and a great way to recharge my batteries. 

My ballerina

Can anyone tell me why blogger is washing out all of my pictures??? UGH. They look horrible on here.

Taycee Lynn had her first dance recital last night. She was adorable for the whole 2 minutes she was on the stage. She has only been in the class for about 5 weeks so she really had no idea what she was doing and mostly just followed the other girls but it was still darling. I mean come on what 3 year old in a ballerina costume isn't?

Here she is lining up outside the stage.

 Daddy got her flowers for afterwards. She kept saying "are these rosies all for me?" She was pretty excited.

Best Daddy Ever.

Here is the Taycee I know and love.... hahaha

My pretty pretty girl

I am sure there will be many many more of these in our future. ;)

My Bug is 5

He did it. Without asking permission or considering my feelings he grew up. Kaden turned 5 on the 30th of May. He woke up that morning shot his arms straight up in the air and said...WOAH I am so much bigger. He had been asking about his birthday since Christmas.I had promised him his first friend party this year and he wasn't letting me forget. It was a highly anticipated day around our house. In April I started brainstorming party ideas, the possibilities seemed endless and overwhelming. I  picked the five I thought would be most appealing to him and decided to let him choose. He X'd all of my ideas and said "I want to have a bug party." Guess I should have asked him to begin with. A bug party was the perfect idea considering the fact that I call Kaden "bug" way more often than I call him by his name :)

Ideas filled my head and I spent the next few weeks planning and purchasing. Many nights I stayed awake because I just couldn't stop thinking and planning. hah.... I got a bit carried away.

First the invites were made. A special shout out to Heather for the awesome design.

Decorations were put up

A snail cake was assembled. 

And 13 little guests arrived right on time 

We started the party by having all the kids crawl through a giant spider web I had made with yarn in the back yard. Once they made it through the spider web they got to put on a bug mask and they got a bug tattoo on their arm.

Then they each got to paint a wooden snake

Once the snakes were painted and all the little hands were mostly paint free we played pin the oreo on the lady bug. Each kid took an oreo and split it in half then they were blind folded and they had to try and stick their oreo on the missing spot. I think their might have been three kids who didn't peek through the bottom of the mask so most of them got the spot dead on. :)

Next we played "eat the ants" each kid got a plate filled with chocolate sprinkles "ants" they had to race to each the ants without using their hands.

They played for awhile on the swing set while I made our homemade puff paints. 

The kids each got to make a bug out of the puff paints on a square of cardboard. Once they were done we "cooked" them in the microwave til they were puffed up and hard. I didn't get any pictures of this part, I guess I was too busy cooking 13 bugs.

The main even of the party was the bug find in the green slime pool.

Each kid got a bug net (that lasted about 30 seconds) to dig through the slime and find bugs.

By the time we were done we had lots of slimy kids running around.

We ended with presents, cake and dirt cups.

The kids went home with a bug kit, a bug mask and their projects from the day. The party was a success, Kaden said thank you about a million times. 

Bug,

 I can't believe you are 5. I am so proud of the boy that you are. You have such a quick mind and tender heart. You are so eager to please and love to be my helper. You are a ray of sunshine in our home and your smile lights up a room. You love to learn and are so smart. You are already reading words and you can count to 39 although you always skip 15, 17 and 18. Your favorite past time right now is playing the wii. I have to limit your wii time or you would sit on the couch from sun up to sun down. Your favorite game to play is Zelda, actually you just like to watch your dad play Zelda. You ask him every night to play "Zelba" with you. A few weeks ago you were watching him play, you were so intent on everything he was doing and then you said emphatically, "Dad, you are the greatest man I know!" You are always saying funny things. A few nights ago there was only a sliver of the moon showing and you said to me, "Mom, I have to tell you something terrible" I asked what was wrong and you said "something crashed into the moon and broke it into a tiny piece." I asked what you thought we should do and you told me the moon would have to grow back. You said it didn't need seeds or anything it would just grow on it's own. We went to Cherry Hill yesterday and you went down a slide with daddy. When you were done you came back to sit by me and said "mom, I didn't like that slide, it made my heart go bump." I guess it must have scared you a little bit. Tonight Addi was in her high chair and was saying "bababababababa" you looked at dad and said "I think she really likes the letter B"

  Your favorite food is cheese and chicken nuggets although you also really like meatballs, enchiladas and fruit snacks. You love the book Monster at the end of this book you have the entire thing memorized and still ask me to read it to you every day. You like to sing songs, you make up songs all day long but get really embarrassed  if you catch me listening to you. You have to have a cup of water and ice every night before you can go to sleep. You are the size of an 8 year old haha at your kindergarten check up you weighed 53 lbs and you are 47 inches tall. You really want to reach the 4ft on your growth chart in your room and ask me almost daily if I will measure you again to see if you are there yet. One day you told me you needed to take more naps and eat more vegetables so you would be to the 4.

  We love you so much. I tell people I want to have a hundred more boys if they are all like you. You are my little buddy. Happy birthday bug, try to stay little for a bit longer okay?? 

Love you forever,

mommy.

A camping we will go

We  had a fun memorial day weekend. The Clayton family came up from St George and we had a big family party for all the May birthdays. I wasn't feeling well that night and didn't get any pictures of the event. :( But we had a good time and ate lots of yummy food. Kaden's birthday was only a few days away so he got to open presents with grandma and grandpa on Sunday before they left. He was a spoiled boy and got a huge basketball hoop, some flying airplanes and some sports balls ( again no pictures... what was wrong with me??)

Sunday evening we headed up to my parents house to spend that evening and Memorial day with them. We had dinner and mom gave each of her children a book she had put together about my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents and great great great grandparents on both her and my dads side. It is such a treasure that she put so much work into. What a perfect thing to get for memorial day. The book had a picture a vital record and a story on each person. We played a few games and then they headed back up to Doc Flat where they had been camping for the weekend. We voted the camping out that night because it was chilly and we didn't know how well Addi would do in a tent. We decided to sleep at moms house and join them in the morning. The kids were pretty sad that they didn't get to go camping so to make it up to them we set up a tent outside our bedroom door on the patio. They were thrilled, it was the perfect camping set up :D they snuggled in with tons of blankets and a bowl of popcorn and we set up a laptop with a movie. 

They lasted til about 3 am when Taycee woke up screaming because Kaden was laying on her flower pillow. 

When morning arrived we headed up to the campground for breakfast and some four wheeling.

 We played a few lively games of ladder golf ( I am HORRIBLE)

The kids built a fire with grandpa

 Jason showed off a bit

The kids would ride with grandpa all day if we would let them.

When we came home Kaden got to open more presents. He got a bubble machine from grandma and grandpa Webre. He had to open it immediately. It is incredible how entertaining bubbles can be!

We ended the day by going to the cemetery and visiting a few of my relatives graves. 

SO SO grateful to all of those who have gone before me and paved the way. It is humbling to me the hardships so many have endured so that I can have the easy life I have filled with so much joy. Chris and I are both blessed with incredible families. So thankful.

2,191 days

We have officially been married 6 years. It seems like it went by so fast but then I think about everything that has happened in the last 6 years and it feels like an eternity.

Our big celebration won't be until the middle of June when we will go to the Tahiti village for a week of relaxation and no children. But we did go out to dinner that night and Jenny was kind enough to watch the kids. 

Chris was so sweet, he had a huge amount of work to get done and didn't sleep at all the night before. He was up til 5 working on research and school things. He had to leave at 7 to go into work. Instead of catching  a couple hours of sleep he stayed up and cleaned the entire house, started the laundry and went out and bought me 2 potted flowers to put in my new pots outside. Now that is true love.

So glad I found this man.

Happy anniversary love.

Two front teeth

This poor little baby has had her share of doctor visits since she has been born. In the month of May alone  we have been to the doctor 6 times filled 6 prescriptions and had 1 surgery. We are a little tired of the doctors.

Little Addi Boo has had huge swollen gums for months. Both times we had been in the ER I had mentioned her gums and wondered if they were the cause of all of her unexplained problems. But both times I was dismissed and told her gums were normal and the teeth would break through any time. After months of having a sick fussy baby I decided to take her in to the pediatric dentist. I felt a little silly and wondered if he would just dismiss me like the others but I just didn't feel like her gums were normal at all. He took one look at them and said he thought she might need surgery. He explained that sometimes gums can have an extra fibrous layer on them and the teeth can not break through on their own. He told me I could keep waiting and let her chew on things and brush her gums to try and get them through, or we could open up her gums for her. I asked him what he would do if it was his child and he said "I don't think surgery is the wrong choice." I hated to put her through a surgery but I couldn't see her suffer in pain anymore so we scheduled the surgery for the next day.

Here she is the morning of giving me big smiles.

 

Here are her huge swollen gums :(

When we arrived at the doctors office the anesthesiologist explained that instead of putting her under general anesthesia (the surgical center refused her case because of how small she is for her age) they were just going to give her a shot of Ketamine (sp?) in her shoulder. This only puts her in a dissociative sleep but does not suppress her breathing or other vitals. I would hold her as she fell asleep and then they would use the laser to   lacerate her gums open. Then I would come back and hold her as she woke up. Sounds ok right? WRONG. Ketamine does not put a baby into a peaceful sleep it makes their eyes glaze over and their body go limp... basically she looked dead. It was horrible. Then the doctor took her and told me to kiss her goodbye. Wrong words to say to a mother as you take away her limp child. I sat in the waiting room (alone...Chris was with the other kids at home) doing everything in my power not to go break down the door and beg them to wake my child up and give her back to me. I think that might have been the longest 15 minutes of my life. When they were done they took me back to her, she was still out of it but she now had two front teeth.

The doctor said her gums had been full of puss. Her teeth would have never broke through, the infection surrounding them would have just eroded them til there was nothing left. Luckily he was able to extract all the puss and infection and her teeth would be able to come in as normal.

It took her about an hour to come back to normal. She was moaning and flailing her arms around, I felt like a terrible mother for putting her through it. The dentist said there is a possibility none of her top teeth will be able to come through. I sure hope he is wrong. If not, Chris will be making a lot of dentist visits with her :)

Her teeth now look awesome and it is easy to tell she feels a tremendous amount of relief. I am so grateful for modern day technology and the incredible things they can do to make these little ones feel better.