Happy Birthday to Us!

Darcy and I have birthdays 2 days apart in July. Right after the 4th of July, which means we eat, eat, eat and party, party, party for a week straight! As you can see, Paul was more interested in getting a picture of my "cake" than of me blowing out the candles on my cake. It may look funny but this stuff is heavenly! Thus the name, Angel Delight! And also because its angel food cake I guess. I make it only once a year for my birthday and man, it is good! Too dangerous to allow myself to make it more often. For my birthday we went to the park by the river and ate Subway sandwiches. Fine with me, I didn't have to cook! We had a beautiful sunny day and it was so nice by the river. We even got to see a huge ship go by. I got a timer and soaker hose, so I wouldn't lose my garden while on vacation, and a Kindle! I am an old fashioned kind of girl when it come to books . . . I like them, so I wasn't sure I would be interested in the Kindle. But boy, I am like a kid in a candy store! All those books at my fingertips, where all I have to do is enter some credit card number and then in seconds I have a newly released novel in the palm of my hand with little effort on my part . . . Awesome! I took it with me on our vacation and loved it. The hard part will be stopping myself from buying every book I can think of. It was a really nice birthday this year, topped off by Mason's guess that I was turning 20. I love my son!

Miss Darcy turned 3! For some reason mom scheduled the roadtrip to begin the morning after Darcy's birthday but that didn't stop us from making a puppy dog cake as per her request, and decorating the room with streamers and party hats! Its hard for me to believe she is three. I call her and Bree my babies but that really isn't true anymore. Darcy will play outside with Drew and Mason and I can trust her to follow directions and rules and be in control of herself. Darcy has always been my sunshine baby and just one look at the smile that takes up her entire face will keep me going. Now unfortunatley, that smile doesn't come around as often as it did when she was a baby. I have discovered with all my kids that the most trying stage for me is the last few months of being 2 and the first few months of being 3. I don't know what it is about that age but Darcy is struggling. We are still trying to potty train even though we started on January 1st. She just isn't doing it. She seems to cry at the drop of a hat, and we are also trying to figure out nap time, whether we need a nap time or not. Mom says yes, Darcy says no. So, we are having our struggles but we will get through it all, soon I hope. Darcy loves animal, stuffed and real. She sleeps with at least 20 stuffed ones on her bed every night and comes down in the morning with arms full of them. They make it into the car with us too. Too bad her mommy is so mean or else she would be great with a pet around the house. Oh how I love my Darcy. At night I give her a kiss and tell her I love her, she puts her arms around me and pats my back and says "love you too mom," with that sweet little 3 year old voice, and I just melt. I have been known to go through the ritual 5 or 6 times in one night just because it is so sweet. Hopefully this year will bring good thing to my Darce and she can find hapiness and independence !

Viva Las Vegas!

Last Friday morning Jodi showed up at my house, grabbed my suitcase, and ran! It was the only way I was getting out the door without staying home to comfort Darcy who was in hysterics at the thought of mom leaving her for 3 days. I almost didn't get out of there, and my eyes were glistening a bit as I left. This would be the first vacation I had ever taken away from my entire family. Well, I did spend one night in Seattle years ago when I tried out for Jeopardy, but I only had Drew then so it wasn't so bad. This trip would require us to be apart for 3 days and 2 nights and I didn't know how any of us would survive! And . . . we almost didn't. But let me back up. Last year I decided I wanted to go to Las Vegas with the 4 good friends I met at BYU as a freshman 20 years ago this August. Paul didn't understand why we couldn't just meet back in good ol' Provo, UT, but since none of the 5 of us stuck around good ol' Provo to graduate, I didn't think any of us wanted to go back! And besides, I had never been to Las Vegas and I was looking for some fun! So Vegas it was! I few months ago I contacted my 4 friends and we were all for a girls' weekend in Las Vegas! I was so excited I don't know how I made it through those months between buying the ticket and actually getting on the plane. Natalee, Jen, Annette, and I were actual roommates in Snow Hall 135, and Jodi was our next-door neighbor, but we considered her an honorary roommate since she got along much better with us than with her own roomies. Kind of funny how Jodi and I ended up in the same small town and the same ward 15 years later.

So anyway, Jodi and I found ourselves descending into Las Vegas through HORRIBLE turbulence. Supposedly that is a given when flying into Vegas but even seasoned veterans on the plane said it was really bad. As we were just about to land we started to go up again. The pilots never said a word the entire time so this is just speculation on everyone's part, but we all thought the landing gear wasn't working since we could hear the gears grinding over and over to get the parts to work right. We were circling the city for a long time, fighting the horrible turbulence, not knowing what the heck was going on. Jodi didn't like my comment about having lots of soft sand around in case we needed to make a belly landing, and truth be told, at one point I was thinking "please don't make Paul come down here and claim my body." I have never been scared for my life before but I caught glimpses of it on that flight. Scary stuff. We were finally able to land and I have never been so happy to get off an airplane in my life! We got our bags and headed to the parking garage to meet our friends who had all arrived before us. We stepped off the elevator and there they were! It was as if we had never left each other and we were 5 BYU freshmen who escaped for a weekend in Vegas. Of course, once we heard each other's life stories, which we told over 3 hours sitting at a buffet of course, we realized that a lot of time had passed and a lot of crap had happened. I sat there and listened, amazed at the trials my friends had been through, and amazed at how strong they had all been in order to come through them and be able to sit there and smile. What great examples they all are to me! My love and respect for each of them grew by leaps and bounds over dinner. Though I hated every minute of BYU when I was there, I came away with 4 amazing friends for life. If I had to go back and do it all over I would, just so I could have these women in my life forever. And I might try to change my attitude a bit too if I went back ;) That night we looked at old pictures, laughed hysterically, and had a great time reminiscing. We also realized that we have now know each other longer than we haven't! Pretty cool, but that means we are old. Sorry Snow Sisters!

Saturday morning we hit the Strip with stops at the Bellagio, where we had another buffet lunch, which was amazing I might add, and where I won $3 on the slot machine! Had I redeemed my ticket I would have broken even since I only played $3 but I wanted to keep my ticket as a souvenir so I never cashed it out. When it comes to gambling I am a chicken!

We walked around so much, and saw so many places its hard for me to even remember them all. We stopped to get souvenirs for our kids and took pictures with the crazies on the sidewalks in their different costumes in the 95 degree heat looking to make some tips, we spent way too much for bottles of water (just ask Jodi), and saw way too many pictures of mostly naked women. For some reason in Vegas I was told that naked women wanted to call me. That doesn't seem to happen in Oregon. Its unfortunate that the pictures are everywhere because I think my kids would love to see the Excalibur castle, the water fountain show outside the Bellagio, or go to the top of the Stratoshpere, but there is no way I would ever take my kids to Las Vegas and expose them to that junk. There was a line for Holly Madison (ex porn star and Hugh Heffner girlfriend) who was doing a book signing. I was appalled at how many women were actually in line, and the kicker was the dad with his 2 daughters, probably around 8 and 10. What an example! At times I just wanted to crawl back to the forests in Oregon and continue hiding from the world. But other times I was impressed. The streets were amazingly empty of trash and there were very few people on the streets dressed outrageously or inappropriately. I thought I would feel like a country bumpkin there but it really wasn't so bad. I laughed when my mother-in-law gave me this advice before I left: "Don't take anything from anyone and keep your eyes down." It turned out to be great advice!

Saturday night we saw Recycled Percussion at the Tropicana. It wasn't a huge, glamorous Vegas show but it was still pretty good. They are some talented guys. We waited too long to get tickets for anything else and most shows were sold out. Something to remember for next time. Oh yah, there probably won't be a next time! We ended up at the Stratosphere around midnight and Jodi, Annette, Natalee, and I were crazy enough to ride the Big Shot. The highest amusement park ride in the world, you shoot up at 45 mph at 4g's and then immediately drop back down. The view of the Strip was amazing and so was the adrenaline rush! Had the bungee jump off the side of the building been right there I swear I would have done that too, I was so high on adrenaline. Luckily I regained my senses by the time we got down to the bungee jump place and I skipped it. The Big Shot was a CRAZY ride and I am so proud of us for doing it! Later that night I got a little snippy due to lack of sleep but hopefully its all good.

Sunday we went back on the Strip to see the Venetian and we finished off the trip with the roller coaster ride at New York, New York. I was ready to get back to my family and reality, but I was also so sad to leave my friends again! We have plans now for reunions every 5 years. Not sure how husbands and kids feel about that but that's our plan! My family picked us up at the airport and we all talked at once about our weekend. I came home to clean kids, a clean house, and a welcome home sign from Drew. My expectation for the family was just survival but they had a good time without me, I think. Makes me feel better about leaving them, knowing they will more than survive. I am so grateful that Paul was totally supportive of me taking a trip and for holding down the fort while I was gone. It was a much needed and appreciated vacation. I was Tiffiny again instead of Mom for 3 days. What a luxury! I can't wait to do it again!

What a Weekend!

This holiday weekend our plans were to go camping with Paul's family at the annual camp out at Honeyman State Park south of Florence. We had the trailer mostly packed the night before so we could leave when Drew got home from school early Friday. We received a phone call at 8 am from Paul's brother-in-law, letting us know that Paul's mom was in the ER with what turned out to be a heart attack. Luckily, she was feeling sick and got there before she had the heart attack so they were immediately able to help her. We changed our plans to a wait-and-see approach. If she was stable and doing well we would maybe go camping, since neither one of us wanted to break it to the kids that we weren't. I admit I wasn't thrilled with the idea of camping for 3 days in the freezing rain on the coast, but that would have been a million times better than how the weekend eventually turned out!

We ended up parking the trailer at my parent's house and Paul visited his mom in the ICU. She was very sick so we decided we would at least spend the night there and see what the next day brought us. She was still pretty sick that day so we decided the thrill of the idea of camping was gone and we would probably spend one more night and then go home. Well, Saturday morning Mason woke up crying because his hip hurt. I thought it was probably a pulled muscle or something from playing so hard with his cousins on Friday. He was actually limping so I knew it was something other than a sore muscle. He kind of limped around all day, but he also went on a long nature walk with us and jumped on the trampoline at his cousins' house so I figured he was OK. That evening he was complaining that his knee on the same leg hurt. Then he woke up at 4 in the morning crying in pain and couldn't walk to the bathroom. He was also saying his ankle hurt. So I packed him up and off we went to Urgent Care while Paul had the girls and went to his mom's house to do some things. I took grandpa along too so he could heft Mason's 48 lbs in and out of chairs for me. At this point Mason was totally unable to put any pressure on his left leg. At Urgent Care he had x-rays done, which ruled out a dislocation or a fracture, but it didn't show anything about the fluids in the hip joint. The doc said if it was an adult he would send them home to rest for a few days but they don't mess around with kids and pain. He flinched as I a told him of Mason's recent bout with Scarlet Fever and sent us on the the ER. At the same hospital grandma was at! When we got there a very nice nurse was able to guess Mason's name and his owie (Urgent care called ahead) and Mason was extremely impressed. He even got a wheelchair ride! We were making a list of all the things he had to tell Drew about. At the ER he had his blood drawn, which thankfully Paul happened to be there for to help hold him down, and they left the tube thingy there in case they needed it later. Ugh. Not fun. He also got to pee in a jug and was very impressed at how full he got it. He had an ultrasound done and they discovered an excess amount of fluid in his joint. The resident on call decided he wasn't knowledgeable enough to make a call whether his joint was just irritated or whether it was infected so he called in his boss, the big gun with 30 years of experience. Thankfully he was in charge from then on so we know we got the best care possible. They were pretty certain that it was just irritated and would heal on its own in a few days of bed rest, but they wanted to be 100% sure it wasn't infected because that affects growth plates and bone and can do all kinds of nasty damage. So they decided to tap his hip for a sample of the fluid. Tapping a joint for fluid means sticking a LONG needle directly into the joint and sucking out the fluid. UGH! They recommended knocking him out and I thought that was a great idea! Until they wheeled him into a room with about 15 adults and scary equipment and told me to wait in the hall. I asked if I could kiss him first and they let me. I tried my best to give him a pep talk but I would have been scared if I was a 5 year old kid all alone with that stuff too. I could hear him crying and yelling as they were moving him around and trying to hook his IV up to the knock-out drugs. I will admit that I shed a tear or two at this point also. I just wanted to hold his hand and be there with him! By this time I had been with Mason for 8 hours and Paul and I decided to switch places and he would take over admitting him to the hospital for the night and stay with him, since they didn't want to do an invasive procedure and then just send him home. Also, if it was infected he would need immediate surgery to clean out the joint. I went back to the girls and Paul stayed with Mase for the night. Luckily the fluid was not infected and it was just irritated. They told us it was probably related to his scarlet fever. Scary stuff! I had no idea it could affect someone so badly a month later. I will keep my eye on Darcy now too since she had it the same time Mason did. We also learned that scarlet fever has a genetic tendency, which would explain why Drew, Mason, and Darcy have all had it and I thought it was pretty much an unheard of disease any more. Mason was released around 11am Monday morning with orders of bed rest and penicillin to fight off any infection that might want to start up around the procedure site. Thankfully Mason came out of this all OK with a couple of good stories to tell his family.

Paul's mom, on the other hand, isn't doing so well. They found a valve in her heart that isn't working properly so she is having surgery to fix it tomorrow. Paul will be heading back down to be with her too.

Here is Mason in the hospital with his somewhat concerned sisters. See those things on his chest? Well they were stuck on him for his procedure and I ripped the one off his tummy and one off his chest but after that he wouldn't let me anywhere near him. He was also deathly afraid of the band aid they wanted to put on his IV site. So we wrapped an ace type bandage over some gauze and called it good. Last night while he was sleeping I ripped the band aid off his leg at the procedure site and I also got the last remaining sticky thing off his chest. He cried for about 2 seconds and then went right back to sleep. I told him about it this morning and he just giggled, thankfully. I'm glad he doesn't hate me! Today he scored the new Pirates of the Caribbean Lego game for the XBOX, hoping that would keep him in one place. He has actually walked a bit and he says he isn't hurting. I don't want him to over do it but its hard to keep Mason down for long. They told us this shouldn't ever happen again so hopefully we are done with all the sickness and doctors and urgent cares, and emergency rooms for about 10 years or so!

Finally 5!

Mason finally turned 5! He had a countdown for I don't know how long, waiting for his big day. He is so excited, as am I, for all the fun things that happen when he is 5. I think 3 and 5 are my favorite ages with my kids so far because its so exciting to watch all the learning that takes place. Mason is no exception. He is a smart little guy and cannot wait to get to go to "Drew's school." He just wants to skip summer and start immediately. Its going to be a loooong summer for him, and for me since he asks me a few times each day when he gets to go to school!

This year for his birthday Grandma and Grandpa joined us for pizza and cake. His cake was pretty cool this year, bees and a bee hive, but not nearly as awesome as his volcano cake I made last year so I didn't include a picture :) For his presents he got a Lego fire truck, a bug house and magnifying glass (both of which have been constantly in use), and a new bike! 5 is the magical age at our house to get your first bike. Mase picked out the one he wanted a few weeks before his birthday but he must have forgotten because he was pretty much speechless when we opened the front door and there is was! He immediately hopped on, proceeded to crash, and decided he didn't like the darn bike after all. He is a total perfectionist and if he doesn't get something exactly right the first time he is done with it. Tough way to live, kid! Thankfully Grandma was there to give him a pep talk and he has been riding ever since. In fact, he is driving me crazy because he constantly watches the rain showers and lets me know when its dry enough to ride. Oh how I love my little guy! But, he is not so little. He is taller at 5 than Drew was when she turned 6. He is still shorter than her but is catching up. They both weigh 48 lbs too!

So This year Mason's favorites are:

Food - Cheeze its, peanut butter sandwich, pizza

Movie - Lilo and Stitch, Hoodwinked, Tron Legacy

Color- blue, orange

Animal - dog

Favorite part of preschool - Snack time

This year he has thankfully changed his career aspirations to wanting to be a soldier instead of the McDonald's worker he wanted to be last year. Life with Mason is always exciting. I would love to have his energy, but he could maybe use some of my self control. Once he figures out how to channel it into something productive he will be a force to be reckoned with. I couldn't ask for a sweeter little guy as my only son. We love you Mase and are so happy to have you in our family!

Happy Easter!

We had a BUSY Easter weekend this year. Actually, the entire week leading up to it was busy too. With it being so late this year, Drew's birthday was actually the Wednesday before, so we had a family party for her, plus the friend party the Saturday before. I was also trying to work a bunch of hours that week so I had to be pretty efficient with my time! Saturday morning before Easter we headed to Paul's mom's house where we got to visit with her and some of the kids' cousins. The oldest had set up an egg hunt for the kids and they had fun looking around grandma's front yard for the prize eggs. Grandma's front yard has a huge slope to it and once Bree started heading down her little legs were working hard to keep up with the momentum of her large head! She almost made it to the bottom when she fell and rolled once before I was able to catch up and scoop her up. She thought it was great fun.

From there, we crossed town to my parent's house for the annual family Easter party. 19 of the 20 grand kids made it this year. I think they were told to make silly faces for this picture but for some of them, its a definite improvement ;) I believe they range in age from 18 years - 15 months. My kids are #12, 16, 17, and 20.

If we wanted to eat we were required to wear hats. Mason made his own visor with stickers on it and I was wearing the hood of one of his coats.

Grandma had quite the hat, as you can see. She left it on most of the party. What a good sport! She is famous for her dangly earrings that correspond with whatever the season or holiday may be, but she took the whole fashion thing to greater heights I think.

Bree wasn't sure what the heck she was doing. I think she figured out she needed to pick these colorful things up, but didn't know what to do with them once she got them. She would put one down to pick up another. We had a great time hanging out with so much family that day. We had great food, a massive egg hunt, an egg toss, and and egg drop. We were the winners of the last one but balloons were outlawed this year (our egg would have survived being dropped out of a plane I bet, surrounded by balloons), so we went with fiberglass insulation. Didn't work. The winners used bubble wrap which to me is just miniature balloons, right? I protest! After the party we came home to sleep in our own beds in hopes that the Easter Bunny would visit.

Sure enough! There were 4 baskets of goodies and eggs hidden all over the house when we woke up! Bree didn't bother getting up with the rest of us, and it was probably easier on me to have her keep sleeping anyway. The kids found 57 dyed eggs (3 broke during the dying process) and never ate a single one of them. Good thing eggs are cheap.

Darcy was a great hunter. I think she came away with more than Mason. He is a bit skittish sometimes and hunting eggs is one of those time.

The Easter Bunny had to find some more difficult hiding spots this year for Drew. The middle of the floor just isn't hidden enough for her anymore.

Later on Sunday we went to church and then headed north to have dinner with Paul's sister and family. We had a great time visiting and playing with their dog, while it was in its cage of course. It was a very busy weekend but it was filled with fun, food, and family. What a great way to celebrate!

Someone is 7!

I have officially been a mommy now for 7 years! And what a ride it has been. I couldn't have asked for a better daughter than my Drew, except maybe for Darcy or Bree, but they aren't old enough to read this and since this is about Drew's birthday, I will just say that I couldn't have asked for a better daughter than Drew! What a sweetheart this girl is. She is a great helper with her younger siblings and is quick to come to Bree or Darcy's aid when they need help. Mason . . . not so much. They love to play together though so I am not complaining too loud. This birthday was a bit different for me. We actually threw our first non-family birthday party with school friends. Her teacher's class policy is to invite all girls, which in this case was 13! Drew assured me that all 13 girls would be there, even though I only received 5 RSVP's, so to be on the safe side I made 48 cupcakes that the girls would decorate themselves. Well, only 3 girls showed up. We had tons of cupcakes and candy left over so Drew and Mason set up a table in the driveway advertising free cupcakes to whomever would come take them off our hands. We had a few takers, thank goodness! Drew wasn't too disappointed at the small turnout and I can't say I was either. Fewer kids = less hassle for me! The friend party was Saturday but her real birthday was yesterday. We had tacos for dinner and angel food cake with strawberries for dessert. She picked up a few gifts, but my favorite is the Michael Jackson Dance Experience for the Kinect. I am not quite as good a dancer as I once thought I was, I have discovered! Another reason this birthday was different is that Drew is growing up. She actually wanted nail polish! Heaven help me, I am raising a girl! I'm not sure how that happened but I will try my best to steer her in that direction if that is where she is headed. I wasn't sure if toys were appropriate or exactly what to get her this year. Its fun to watch her grow up but its also kind of tough to watch her grow up. I am great with diapering baby buns, I don't really know what to do for a 7 year old. I guess Drew will be our guinea pig, as she has been for all other stages. Poor kid. Let's see, she is in bed so I will have to guess at her favorites.

Singer: Michael Jackson

Food: tacos, chicken stir-fry, rice

Toys: Legos

Color: Red

Movies: Harry Potter series, Indiana Jones series, Star Wars series

Animal: Hippos

Drew's 2 bottom teeth in the front are loose but they aren't coming out anytime soon. She hasn't lost any teeth yet but doesn't seem to mind too much. I just hope when the time comes to pull them out she will do it so I don't have to. Yuck! Her reading abilities have exploded over the last year and she loves to read. She is trying to teach Mason how to also. Now that is fun to watch.

Happy birthday Drew! We all love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our family!

5 down, 1 to go.

The past 2 weeks have been rough on the immune systems around our house. Drew came down with a cold and sore throat but she was able to shake the sore throat after a day or two so we didn't take her to see a doctor. A couple days later Mason woke up and pretty much remained flat on his back for the next 3 days till mom finally decided to take him to Urgent Care after complaints of a sore throat, headache, horrible cough, nose bleeds, and a fine red rash. The tests came back positive for strep throat and scarlet fever. He also had an x-ray taken of his chest, which he totally loved because he could see his heart and bones, and they also threw a diagnosis of pneumonia in there for good measure. I was pretty sure Darcy had strep too, so the next day she went to see her doctor and as I pulled her sweatshirt off, the doctor and I noticed a fine red rash on her torso. Yep, scarlet fever and strep. The very next day Bree woke up with a temp of 101.8 so I took her to urgent care, and I was feeling funny in my throat so I checked us both in to be tested for strep. Neither of our tests came back positive. I was told Bree probably has a cold virus, which of course there is no medicine for for babies, so she has been suffering with her dry, barking seal coughs for days now. A couple days later, Paul started to feel under the weather. He finally got in to urgent care yesterday where he was diagnosed with pneumonia! He has been out of work for 3 days now and feeling pretty awful. As I type this I can feel a tightening in my throat. I hope it is just sympathy pains, but I wouldn't be surprised to wake up tomorrow and find myself in the same boat as the rest of the family. I am so very grateful that we live in an age where illnesses like scarlet fever and pneumonia no longer have to mean permanent damage or even death. What a blessing it is to have competent doctors and readily available medicines accessible at a moment's notice. It hasn't been an easy 2 weeks on me, or the rest who have actually suffered the sicknesses, but we are thankful for all the thoughts, prayers, and kind acts from everyone who helped us get through this mess just a little bit easier.