Just Keep Swimming......

AAHHH.....another swim season has come to a close. As you know I love swimming. I am sort of living through my kids on this one. This season was somewhat brutal but we made it all by ourselves. Jared is having to work 6 days which meant that the 7 am to 4 pm swim meets every saturday were braved alone by me and the kids. I did have some help babysitting ashton and we of course had our canopy mates the Hogues and the Whitezells to keep us company. Even though I have been told I am crazy by my husband and my sister I would be in complete heaven if my kids wanted to compete in swimming at the junior olympic level. It would require some extra training and swimming year round but I don't care I really would love it.

This was Mackenzie's first year swimming. She loved it and had a great time. It was funny watching her do the freestyle. Somehow she managed to combine the butterfly and freestlye into one stroke. On the other hand she did fabulous on her backstroke with that being her fastest swim.

Landon Landon Landon, if you know him you know what I mean. The kid is just impossible. He likes swimming but for him it is 1st place or nothing. So while swimming he will take a look at the other lanes, gauge where he is at, then decide if this is going to be a "fast swim" or the "first is out" so I'll just leisurely make it to the wall. Last year Landon took a lot of first places, this year there was a little boy on another team who could swim the butterfly in 17 seconds. Honestly when all the other kids were just coming up out of the water he was touching the wall. HE WAS 6! It was crazy to watch , but that made Landon become lazy about all of it. He enjoyed the season but was disappointed with how he placed. I was just happy that one of my kids showed an ounce about caring what place they got.

Ethan had a great season, he showed tons of improvement and was really interested in getting better at the different strokes. He swam really hard this year and was very excited when they told him he couldn't swim in the "B" meets anymore because he had gotten to fast.
He also got to start swimming breast stroke this year which I thought ok what's the big deal but when they were going through what would get him DQ'd I realized it would be a miracle if he didn't get DQ'd. He really paid attention and did awesome in the breast stroke. He was so proud of himself and so were we.

My View

This has been my view for the last few days. It will continue to be my view for a few more weeks. Surgery was really easy as soon as the gave me some versed and even after I was able to hobble around without any pain. Then the numbness wore off and all the blood came rushing back to my foot and reality set in. It has been a rough few days, mostly just because I can't get up and get things or do things I would like to. Hopefully within the next week I can be up and moving more and I can get the wrap off my foot so I can take a Brillo pad to it and scratch away. The skewer I am currently using to scratch just isn't cutting it. Jared has been able to take off work in order to stay home and help me which has been very nice. That along with some nice pain meds should make for a speedy recovery!

Things I Have Learned.....

I wouldn't make it as a single parent, my kids would need years of therapy

My respect for wives of medical residents who survive their husbands schedule has increased by 1000%

No one should ever have to work 6 days a week (especially my husband)

My house will never be clean for longer than 1 minute

Laundry will never be "done"

I think I might have this look on my face often

I am more resilient than I thought

I have fabulous family and friends

Despite all of the hard things, I really have a great life

WOW. Those words sum up our life right now. These two pictures (even though the one on the top is blurry, it was taken with a phone) show what has consumed our every waking and sometimes our sleeping moments. Jared has opened his own practice. Whew, just saying it makes me tired and stressed out. We are up and running after a whirlwind two months of craziness. I was so so so so excited for Jared to finally be headed in the direction of our long term goal to be practice owners, I wasn't prepared for what came with it. Jared is now working 6 days a week, 2 at his own and his usual 4 at the health center since he is still under contract with them. I am still at home with the kids spending large amounts of time dealing with office stuff both at the office and from home while we get all our insurances and billing stuff entered and figured out. Most days I feel like I have bitten off way more than I can chew but I just keep telling myself, "Self this is what you wanted and now you got it, deal with it. It will all be better in the long run"

One really good side of dealing with Jared's new office is that I got to design the logo and business card in my favorite of fave programs photoshop elements. So far we have gotten really good feedback on it and that has made me pretty happy. Also since I was forced to spend hours messing around with photoshop creating a logo and business card I played around with some of my "hundreds of pictures I intend to edit, print, and frame" and am loving the results. I have found a new site called http://www.coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/ . She makes free photoshop elements actions that take all the steps you use to edit photos and puts them into one click of the mouse. I'm in love and slightly obsessed with all of them. The flower is a picture I took in Hawaii last September and the bottom photo is one I took at Jared's sister Kristina's wedding. Here are the before and after. If you have photoshop elements or photoshop go to this site, it's fabulous and it's free!

Before

After

Before

After

Wow, it is already March. Where the last two months went I don't know but here we are. At the end of Feb. we decided to make a trip down to the happiest place on earth with my family. My parents, my sister and her 4 kids (Marc had to work) and all of us headed down. We couldn't have picked a nicer day since it had been raining for 3 days before this. We love going this time of year in the middle of the week since we don't have to deal with lines but this year seemed more crowded than usual. So we asked a couple of the workers why is was so busy. Captain EO. What? You mean that Michael Jackson show from way back when? Yes that one. Some people had camped out since 5 am to get in and see it. No I am not joking. Forget Captain EO give me the Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story Ride so I can maintain my highest score streak. Even though there were more people there we pretty much walked on most things or only had to wait about 15 mins. Of course I took my big camera, and my video camera and of course I only got a few pictures and no video. Also Ethan was so busy riding everything he could we didn't get any pictures of him, Landon on the other hand will ride only 5 or so things in the entire two parks.

Landon was trying his hardest to contain his excitement on the tea cups

These two girls can not go anywhere with out being dressed alike. Calls are usually made in the mornings so can match each other at school or church. They didn't both have Disney shirts so they decided they would wear batman.

Anytime Ashton sees a camera he now says cheese while closing his eyes. Should make for some great pictures at Kristina's wedding in a few weeks.

His eye is almost completely back to normal. Just a little bruising left and some puffiness but it looks sooooo much better now.

As I type this poor Ethan continues to lay on the couch, which is where he has been since Monday afternoon. I don't know what he picked up but it has him down for the count. They put him on zofran in order to keep fluids in him since he can't keep anything down and he has been able to eat 2 pieces of toast, some crackers, and a granola bar since Monday. This kid is our human garbage disposal so we know he is really really not feeling good. Hopefully he is able to return to school next week since it looks like this week is out for us. We are trying to keep caught up on homework and work that has been sent home but that has been a challenge. I honestly don't know how people home school their kids. So we are hoping Ethan can get feeling better and I am hoping even more that the rest of us do not get it.

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.

This is what I discovered about Landon this afternoon.

He loves pencils. Mostly he just likes to buy the pencils from school. Each pencil bought at school costs 25 cents. Not to bad unless you are Landon and feel the need to have 40 pencils from school. A little while ago I cut him off. No more quarters from me and no more pilfering though all of my stuff looking for more quarters.

So today he came home with his treasure. 15 pencils purchased from school. So we had the following conversation:

Me: Landon I told you no more quarters which means since you took them without asking you stole from me.

Landon: I didn't get the quarters from you.

Me: Don't lie to me Landon where else would you have gotten that many quarters from.

Landon: My friends

Me: Well you need to give your friends back their money from your own wallet

Landon: It was my payment, I earned it

Me: Payment for what?

Landon: Playing wall ball with them

Me: You mean you charge your friends to play wall ball with them?

Landon: Yes every time they ask me to play I tell them that if they pay me 25 cents I will play wall ball with them next recess.

Apparently he is running quite the business since he made almost $4 in a week. I apologize to any of you whose children have been swindled by my son. I am in the process of getting the names from him so he can return their money. On the bright side Landon may become a great salesman later in life.

What the???

That is how my life feels these days. Honestly I am not sure if I could pack more things into my day. Having said that I did have a fabulous weekend with great friends one of whom flew in from Denver and so 4 of us girls chatted, shopped, and ate the weekend away forgetting that we had 4 bazillion loads of laundry, dinners to cook, kids to tend to, husbands turned babysitters, oh and that little thing called sleep, all waiting for us to return. It was so great to see you Kristin, Denver is calling our names next year.So now I have come back to reality and what a reality it is. This week has been non stop some of which was my own choosing. Like the cooking show I went to where I thought I would learn great and wondrous things along with receiving some samples of great food. Alas, it was not to be. I did get some good tips but they ran out of the bags with the cookbooks and have promised to mail me some (we'll see) and then not one morsel of food. I along with friends were starving so obviously that warranted a late visit to BJ's.

Thankfully this week is coming to an end. All we need to do is visit teach, give piano lessons, attend Ethan's first Pack meeting, go to craft night, have the boys birthday party, keep Ashton off of every counter and table in my house, also keep him from throwing anything he can get his hands on in the trash, and last but not least clean the dirty dwelling we are residing in so it can be called home again.

The craziness that is also known as the holidays is upon me. Pray for us as we attempt to take pictures of our kids and if we are really lucky a family picture as well. I really need to stick to what I say at the end of every year, "Next year I am going to keep it simple and not stress myself out". I think I need a support group for this. Anyone else need to join?

Halloween 2009

I love Halloween although I do not like getting ready for it. It seems like so much work and it stresses me out. I like to have a theme for my kids costumes (this is probably why I am stressed out). This year my kids just told me what they wanted to be and I said okay. Even though I didn't have a theme they kind of picked a theme. This year was "Classic Halloween". I decided to make all the costumes again this year. The prospect of getting to be creative and come up with ways to make the costumes look great is always so enticing to me until the day of Halloween when I am scrambling to get finished and make sure they look good. I did finish and we went to our usual trunk or treat and then made my way around my parents neighborhood. Now onto next years theme.

Chloe and Mackenzie at their school costume parade

Ashton's was the only costume I didn't make and he looked pretty cute in it.

Ethan, Tanner and Landon

Ethan's costume turned out better than I thought it would. He was pretty happy with the result

I think every year I will make Mackenzie's costume out of a tutu. They are so easy and there are so many cute costumes you can make.

Landon wanted to be a Ghost. First the Charlie Brown Ghost, then a Ghost with a hood, then a chain and the list went on. This kid is so hard to please. Of course there were no chains to be found so I had to make one with duck tape and rope. It was pretty ghetto. I also put some really cool make up on him and he was looking good until he decided he didn't like the makeup and wiped it off with a rag 2 minutes before we left. I can't talk about it without getting mad.

My niece Chloe was a 50's girl. I loved her costume(again made out of a tutu). Actually I think I just love the fact that she wore those glasses the whole time. She looked so cute in them.

Busy September

Besides our trip to Hawaii, I took a trip to Utah earlier in the month. My Grandma Casper (my mom's mom) had not been doing so well and on Sept. 12 she passed away at the good ol' age of 90. Although we were sad we were also very happy that she was now where she wanted to be with all of her family and friends that had already passed on. I spent every summer of my life until I was 16 or so in Utah at her house. We all have many many wonderful memories of her and she will be missed. I found this picture of her with Ethan who was 2 at the time and Landon who was about a month old.

So on a Monday afternoon my mom, sister and I along with Ashton, the Twins, Mackenzie and Chloe loaded up and started the drive. Luckily my sister had just gotten a Yukon XL so we were able to fit 5 kids all in car seats, 3 adults, 3 playpens, 2 strollers, and all our luggage into one car. It was the most pleasant of drives and pretty much this picture of Owen sums up how all the adults felt while we were driving.

We did make it though and the funeral was very nice. My cousin sang, I played a piano solo, and then my Dad and I sang a song as well. For those that know my Dad and I well, yes we did actually sing. We should have video taped it because I am not sure when it will happen again. Although we weren't there for the happiest of occasions we did have a very nice time visiting with all of our family.

My Mom

Mackenzie, Lindsay and Chloe

My Cousins Jeff and Monte, and my two brothers Dustin and Matt

My Uncle Ross