Kaylee and the Chocolate Factory!

Last Friday, the 25th, Kaylee's preschool had a field trip to the chocolate factory again this year.  This time, Nick was home and was able to take her and Alivia.  I was able to stay home with Preston and get stuff packed for our weekend trip to St. George that we were leaving on as soon as Carson was home from school that day.  They had a blast at the chocolate factory.  They got to watch them make chocolate and even sample it.  That part I was sad to miss out on, but they brought home a few treats to share.  Here are the pictures of their fun day!

Dentists and Doctors!

It seems like lately we have been going to so many doctor appointments!  If it isn't the pediatrician or ear doctor, it is the dentist or endodentist.  Ugh!!!  Good thing we have insurance.  Kaylee has had fluid in her right ear drum for at least a month if not longer.  We have had her checked out by Dr. Reese and Dr. Skedros, and they just tell us to wait it out and hope it clears up.  That is good news that it isn't an infection, but at $30 a pop, those specialist copays really add up fast!  During December, we had weekly visits to Dr. Reese it seemed.  Carson had to go in twice to get a wart taken off his hand.  I thought both girls had an ear infection, and Kaylee had a weird rash on her bum.  Then of course add on top of that all of my ear surgery stuff!  Then in January we had our 6 month dental check ups with Dr. Adrian.  Dad and Kaylee did great.  Carson and I on the other hand...not so great.  Carson had 3 cavities that needed to be filled and I ended up getting referred to an Endodontist to get a root canal.  Double Ugh!  So $233 for Carson and $204 for my root canal (That doesn't include the pricey crown I get to pay for next month either).  I am listing prices, because some day when my grandkids read this blog book, they might think that wasn't a lot of money for these services, even though I think they are!).  And that is WITH insurance.  I guess our medical insurance makes up for our crappy dental insurance.  This picture is of Carson getting his cavities filled on Tues, Jan 22nd.  They didn't have school for a teacher prep day, so it worked great to have it done so he wouldn't miss school.  I was so nervous for him to have to get numbed and worked on, but he was a stud!  He was so good and held still and didn't complain one peep the whole time.  He even stood up and said "Yay" when he got done.  It was so funny!  He is a cutie!  I think I was more nervous for him that he was!  

 On Wednesday that week, Kaylee was still complaining about her ear, so I was able to get her into see Dr. Skedros again....but it was still just fluid in her ear.  But the hard thing about that visit, was that I still had Mayci and Cooper with me.  So I took ALL of the kids with me...in the yucky snow...loaded them in van and out and in and out...dragged them all to the 2nd floor...and we all survived.  Whew!  They actually were all very well behaved and didn't cause too big of a scene while we were there!

 On Thursday, Kaylee had gotten into trouble for trying to write on the piano with pencil.  I don't even know why she thought that was a good idea.  I was so frustrated with her that I put her in time out for not just 4 minutes...but a whole hour.  I guess that was a little too long...because this is how I found her about a half hour into it.   But I think she learned her lesson.

 This I just want to throw in there because he is so cute!  He is starting to like sitting in his bumbo. He still is a little young for it, but he is getting stronger every day!

4th Annual Ice Fishing Day

It is an annual tradition for Nick to take Carson ice fishing on Human Rights Day.  This year was no different.  They took off after church on Sunday and headed down to Holden.  They stayed the night and then headed out with Papa to Otter Creek, which is about 2 hours Southeast of Holden.  It was pretty cold that morning in Holden, and for a while they questioned whether or not it was too cold to go, but they figured they could tough it out.  When they got there, the sun was shining and it was about 44 degrees there at the lake.  The ice was about 18" thick and so that wasn't an issue.  They said it was a BEAUTIFUL day!  The air was clean and clear and it was so warm, that they ended up taking off their coats and hung out in their sweatshirts while they fished.  I was glad to hear that it was such a nice day since I was so worried about them being too cold.  They have learned from years past to lather on the sun screen so they don't fry their faces, so that was good too!  Especially with it being so sunny that day.  They brought home 6 fish and Carson said he had a blast.  They would have taken Kaylee with them, but since we had Mayci here, she decided to stay and play with her.  I was so glad to see them when they got home and to see the pictures they promised they would take for me.  Even though they were gone just over a day, I swear Carson grew taller.  He just has become such a big kid!!!  I love him!!  Here are some pictures of the fun they had fishing!

Oops...I did it again!

Yep, I did it again!  I have signed up to run another Half Marathon!  I am so excited!  I have wanted to do another one, but after I had Alivia I focused more on Cycling and did a few triathlons and didn't log in enough running miles to do a Half and then I got pregnant.  Even though I was in shape when I got pregnant, I had many physical issues that made it impossible to work out or even walk most of the time!  But now that I am a few months out from having Preston, and I been working out daily for the past 10 weeks, minus a few days from my ear surgery, I am ready to get back into Half Marathon Training mode!  I have been running on my treadmill (which I totally do not enjoy, but it is too cold and the air is too unhealthy to run outside right now!).  I only have 6 more lbs to lose to be at my pre-pregnancy weight, and I think this will help me get the last of those stubborn lbs that are just SO hard to lose!  So I decided to do the Drop 13 Half Marathon that goes down Big Cottonwood Canyon.  It is mostly down hill, which I think is fun!  It is on June 8th, so if I do my 15 week training, I will start towards the end of February, but I think I will actually start sooner if the weather allows me to start running outside.  I am so excited for it!  I think most of the fun of doing a race like this is the actual training itself.  Call me crazy, but the last time I did this, I really learned to enjoy running.  That isn't to say there weren't days that I would absolutely dread doing my run that day, but whenever I was done, I felt like a rock star!  And....not only did I register for the Half Marathon, but two weeks after that I will be running the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay with my Brother Chris, an aunt, two cousins, and other runners from extended family.  I cannot wait!  I have wanted to run this race for years!    

 I was so happy when Chris said he would run it too!  I know it will be a blast.  And hopefully with training for my Half, it will make the Ragnar not too hard or totally kill me!  I will be running leg #8, which is a total of 15.9 miles.  I will run it in three separate runs, along with the rest of the team of 12 to total 192 miles.  Running from Logan to Park City.  Sounds crazy, I know, but I also think it will be amazing!  I am so glad that Nick is supportive of me and is willing to let me spend the moola to do this and help me make sure I get the time every day to run.  I won't be able to do this without him!  I am also looking into doing the MS Bicycle Tour with Matt the week after Ragnar as well.  So I better make sure I am ready to do all of this...since JUNE is going to be a busy race month for me!  So check back in June to find out if I succeeded in these goals...or if I died trying. Haha!

Six

We have been caring for 6 kids since Friday.  Yes, six!  My sister Marisa and her husband (And Tiff and Aaron, and my Mom and Dad) all went on a cruise.  They had invited us to go and I would have, but having a newborn, and kids in school, and not knowing who would even take our kids, we decided it was best to stay home and go another time.  Boy, I wish I would have just figured out how to go with them, but oh well!  So instead, we agreed to watch the youngest two of her six kids.  I don't know how she does it with six, it is hard!  Granted, they are all different ages, and for us it is like having two sets of 4 yr old and 22 month old twins.  THAT is hard.  The kid are loving having their cousins here though and we are surviving.  I have been doing dishes almost 2 times a day compared to my normal 1 a day, and after the first day I had to make a rule about keeping ALL the toys downstairs.  I just couldn't handle going into almost every room and finding a new toy, doll stroller, or puzzle scattered everywhere.  Mayci and Kaylee play very good together and had a fun time going shopping with me to SL on Saturday.  However, both girls woke up with a slight fever on Sunday morning and so all the little kids stayed home (Livy has a yucky nose and I didn't want to send her to Nursery).  I also didn't want to take Cooper and risk having him be exposed to an illness while I have to take care of him.  I think that would be just too much for me to handle.  Before taking on the two extra kids, I was already feeling very overwhelmed and just honestly tired of being a mom.  Is that normal?  Who knows...but that is how I feel.  Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom and I adore my kids.  But sometimes I just want to be left alone.  I want to eat lunch without being climbed on.  I want to pee without having to have a conversation with someone.  I want to sleep a solid 8 hours without having to get up to attend to a hungry child, a sick child, a child who goes potty upstairs and shuts the door loud, or a 22 month old who gets up for no reason than to cuddle.  I want to at least start reading one of the four books I finally got off of hold from the library that I waited for months for.  I want to watch my dvr shows instead of George, Fresh Beat, and Barney.  I want to only do 2 or 3 loads of laundry a week, not 2 loads a day.  That used to be my life and sometimes I miss it.  However, I can't imagine how it would be if I didn't have the moments where Preston has learned how to giggle or turn in a circle on his back.  Or miss Alivia dancing every time she hears music and loves to cuddle with only mommy at night.  Or Kaylee making me so proud when she performs on stage and makes me the cutest crafts out of paper and tape.  Or Carson who has worked so hard on the piano to play "Wash Day Boogie" and can read the scriptures for FHE.  Yes, there are days I feel overwhelmed and want to quit, but I can't and I won't.  Because the reward for all this work is worth so much more.  It is those times that I am feeling tired and stressed that I need to realize that this will be worth it and that I am so blessed to get to have this chaos in my home.  I know so many who don't get this opportunity or who have lost it.  I read about a couple who died over the weekend in a car wreck when their suv went over the guardrail on the corner of I215 and I15 merge just close by in North SL.  He died at the scene and the women, who was 9 months pregnant and supposed to give birth next week, also died but they delivered the baby at Lakeview Hospital and sent the baby to Primary's where He also died.  My heart just ached when I read that story.  How sad!   And how selfish of me to complain of my hard life when I am so blessed to even have one.  Yes, it is hard, but I am going to try and enjoy it and cherish it while it is hard, because I know it could be harder.  Anywho....now that I got that out of my system here are some pictures of some of the fun we have had with our cousins!

                                          

Friday night we made homemade pizza, and the kids made their own personal pizza.  Yes, a lot of work and mess, but it was fun!

Saturday another fun meal, but we used the table this time, more room for everyone!

 Preston is getting so big!  He will be four months old next week!  We got out the bumbo and he sat in it for a few minutes before getting upset.  But he is close to being able to really sit up in it!

Yes...more Random...

Lately, I have been mostly using my cell phone for pictures, because it is the most easiest accessible camera I have.  But since I don't download them very often and since I have been constantly behind on blogging right now, the pictures I get become random and are from a spread of several weeks!  But none the less, I love the pictures and want to share them.  The first one is from our snowy day that I took before the kids went outside to play.  

 This I took a few days ago.  Alivia wanted to go outside and took it upon herself to get her coat on.  She just didn't quite get the coat on the right way! What a silly girl!

 Again, more pictures from our snow day!

 It has been below zero at night, but I took this snap shot of my phone when it was 2 degrees outside at 7:40 AM.  Crazy Cold!!!!

 I ordered new lights for my lighting kit, not only because I wanted brighter lights, but because Nick broke one of the bulbs when he was helping me take it down at Natalie's house.  So this is what showed up in the mail the other day.  It is hard to tell even how big the bulbs are in this picture, but they are HUGE!  And bright!  I am excited!

 Every year we get the worst ice built up on our front porch due to a poor design of the roof above it.  This year we had a big block of ice form on our christmas lights and on Saturday, Nick decided to just cut the lights, meaning I will be in the market for new Christmas lights next year.  Great!  We have also run out of ice salt and many people, including Carson, Kaylee, and my brother Matt have all taken their turn falling on their butts!  Sorry!  I promise as soon as we can find a store that has some salt in stock, we will buy some!

 Since today is Human Rights day, Nick and Carson are ice fishing today.  They have done this the past 3 or 4 years now and is a big tradition for them!  Carson has been so excited for this day and was so excited to go and buy treats for their trip over the weekend.  I didn't notice this until yesterday after they left, but he had it all planned out that they would go get treats at 7:30 PM on Saturday.  Which is what they did!  What a cute kid!

We have been looking for new couches for our living room for a few months now.  I sold our red couches and chairs to Kaylee's preschool teacher Trisha.  It worked out great.  I had gone to Zurchers on 21st south in SLC to get some party stuff for Kaylee's upcoming birthday party and next door was a furniture discount place.  It is actually the same owners that used to own Furniture Wharehouse on 'Road Redwood'.  I immediately spotted these couches and fell in love.  I got home and showed Nick the pictures and we got them ordered and they were able to deliver them that day!  I was going to do a couch and chairs again, but I like the sofa and love seat and it makes it easy so I don't have to match chairs now!  Love it!  Now we just need to do some painting, base board updating, and possibly new curtains and I think it will look great!

Basketball Player Carson!

Last year Carson did the Jr. Jazz instructional league and liked it, so he was all in to do it again this year!  He has basketball every Tuesday, and started January 7th.  They go for 6 weeks.  Since he is only in 2nd grade it is still instructional, which I think is good for Carson.  He really enjoys it!  Next year they start playing games.  Here are a few pictures from his first week playing.  I love that his jersey is #8, that is my favorite number!

Holy Snow!!!!

Wow...did we ever get a LOT of snow!!!  Last Thusrday night, my mom had made arrangements for my grandma Edstrom to come and sing with the Tab Choir for her Birthday.  But, because of the snow they cancelled choir, and they had even made it as far as Clearfield before they turned around in the horrible snow.  It snowed all night Thursday.  After a Relief Society Activity that night, Nick and I both shoveled and then I shoveled again Friday Morning.  It snowed so much that they cancelled school on Friday.  Yeah!!  The kids were  happy about that.  Even though it didn't make much difference to me.  The kids were up by 6, and by 7:45 AM we were outside shoveling the snow once again and the kids were playing in it.  The spent most of the day playing in the snow.  Including Alivia, who was in heaven!!!  Nick shoveled the snow again when he got home from work and then again on Saturday.  SO MUCH SNOW!!!!  We mainly just stayed home and played most weekend.  However, Nick and I did manage to get a babysitter and go out on a date Saturday night.  We ate at Rumbi then just did some shopping.  That is our typical date, but we enjoy it!  Kaylee was so tired on Friday, she just zonked out on the couch!  It was cute!  Here are some pictures of our snow days!!!!

 On Sunday, we all had to be to church early.  Nick had stake meetings and I had Choir practice since it was Ward conference and the choir had to sing.  So we were up and ready and I had enough time to take pictures of the kids while they had a quick hot dog before church.  I had tried something new with Kaylee's hair, and I thought it turned out cute!  And of course, Carson was so handsome in his tie!  And not only did I give Livy a piggy, but I tried to round brush her hair too...so cute!

It was a fun relaxing day on Sunday.  I took some pictures of Kaylee that I am using to make her Bday party invitation with.  I love our weekends when Nick is home and we all just get to be together!  I love my family!