FROM THIS

TO THIS

This is what happens when your sister puts the ladder to the boys bunk bed back on and lets you climb to the top and when the doorbell rings gets down and leaves you up on the bed. We aren't sure if he fell from the actual bed which is about 5 1/2 feet up or if he fell from the ladder trying to get down from the bed. Either way it meant a good couple of hours in the ER, an appt with the neurosurgeon today, and one beat up and broken face on my poor baby. It took less than 30 seconds for his eye to swell shut. So far we have been told he has multiple orbital fractures including his ethmoid and frontal bone, air is leaking into parts of his eye from the sinus which could be concern for infection so he is on antibiotics for that, and they want a better look at the cribriform plate to make sure there is no leaking from a fracture to that which may require surgery to close. Jared had to break out the books from school to help me understand what in the world all of that means and I still don't understand most of it other than now I know where the bones are that they keep talking about. All I know is my cute little boy looks messed up and will for the next little while. On a good note, when they did the CT scan they didn't have to sedate him (thank heavens) after a minute or two he calmed down and was happy to listen to me sing "If your happy and you know it" even though the two of us were anything but happy. So we are crossing our fingers that we will dodge yet another bullet and he won't need surgery. We are very lucky this is all we are having to deal with since it could have been so much worse, but after doctors appointments today we will spend the evening taking bunk beds down. A big thank you to all of our friends and family that helped us out yesterday with all the other kids and for the yummy dinner!

As of late......

As you can tell from my lack of posting and general laziness about our blog we have been busy. We haven't been busy doing exciting things just with life in general. I am on a new organization kick and have vowed to stay caught up on everything. So we'll see how long that lasts and how much I actually get and stay caught up on. Although one thing that has kept me busy has been Photoshop. I just love this program although it is a HUGE time sucker for me. I have been working on the following projects:

My sister in law Kristina is getting married!!!! We are very excited for her and we love her fiance Brendon. We met him in December and the fact that he was able to stay at our house and tolerated my crazy kids means he is a keeper. They are perfect for each other! They asked me to take their engagement pictures and do their wedding invitation. I jumped at the chance. So here is the final product. Did I mention how much I love Photoshop?

Then there are these guys! They suck up all my time and energy! I love how these pictures turned out. At the end of the day when I have reached my very last nerve I love looking at these pictures when they are all in bed. It reminds me they are just kids and they don't have a huge conspiracy amongst each other to robbed me of my sanity. They just like to keep my life exciting. I haven't been able to mess with them on Photoshop yet. Although I think the only thing I would do is maybe erase the yellow lines on the stairs in some of the pictures. Now if I actually get these pictures printed I will have really made some strides in getting caught up on things.

Landon 6
Ethan 8
Also when taking these pictures I realized Mackenzie has no idea how to smile naturally when told to smile. She also can't take a pictures without striking some sort of dance pose. Although I got plenty of those kinds of pictures showing her true personality I wanted just one sweet simple picture.

Mackenzie 4 1/2

Ashton pictures were all on the go. So much so that there are pictures that caught his massive cheeks in action too. Some looked like he was a chipmunk storing acorns for the winter months with his cheeks sitting under his eyes, then in the very next frame he has massive jowls that look like they are sitting on his chest. Since he just ran up and down this orchard the entire time we were bound to catch some true action shots. This kid is a continual source of entertainment these days.

Ashton 18 months

Baptism

Last month Ethan was able to be baptized a member of the church. We were happy to have Jared's parents and his sister Kristina as well as her fiance Brendon come out to help us celebrate. My family was also able to attend and after the baptism we were all able to head out to Ethan's favorite restaurant BJ's to enjoy lunch. We are so proud of Ethan and his decision to get baptized. One of Ethan's new found loves since getting baptized is bearing his testimony. After he was baptized they asked him if he wanted to come up and bear his testimony which he did not hesitate to do. Then on Sunday which was fast Sunday he marched right up and bore his testimony in Sacrament meeting, and this last fast Sunday he was ready to head up there again. Obviously he did not inherit this no fear of public speaking gene from me. So we had a little talk about making sure to give others a chance to bear their testimony and he decided he would wait until next month.

Per usual Mackenzie can't stay out of a picture being taken and Landon refuses to be in it and I am pretty sure Ashton was trying climb to the highest point in our house when this picture was taken.