Evan's "story"

Evan has an earache and will NOT take his antibiotics. We tried mixing it in ice cream, soda, juice, milk... anything we could think of. He knew it had medicine in it and would make himself throw it up. It took both of us to hold him down with puke everywhere. Lovely visual, I know.

So, I had to take him to the doctor's office yesterday to get a shot instead.

Today Evan told a wonderful story. He was looking at the mL markings on Madilyn's bottle and, pretending they were words, told her this story:

"Evan sick. Go to doctor. Get ouchie in my bunnos. Come home. Sit down all day. Bunnos hurt. The end."

How adorable is that? It's a sad story, but it was so cute to hear him telling a story about an experience. The kids amazes me every day.

Christmas Pictures!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

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Make a Smilebox greeting

A Restless Christmas

Our family had a great week in Duncan spending time with Todd's family. With all four kids home with their spouses and 7 grandkids, my in-laws had quite the housefull! We are lucky enough to live close enough that we could sleep in our own beds at night... or so we thought. Evan had so much fun playing outside but kept dashing outside without a coat on. So we spent the whole weekend up with him coughing. Thursday night he started having fevers from an ear infection. Getting him to take antibiotics is impossible! He makes himself throw up any medication we give him, so tomorrow I get to take him into the clinic to get a shot of rocephin. It is so not fun! Madilyn also has a horrible cough and now has two teeth, with 4 more on the way!

However, we had a wonderful time visiting with our family. The best part about Christmas was getting to open presents with just our little family of four on Christmas morning. We got up before the kids on Christmas day and got ready so we could head to Duncan after our gifts were opened. Evan has been so excited for Christmas this year and suprisingly, Madilyn was the one we had to keep pulling away from the presents! Madilyn got lots of little toys and some books, but her favorite present were the bows on the packages! Evan's favorite gifts were his bike, bike helmet, and superman cape he got from his grandma. We could not pry the bike helmet off his head all day on Christmas because he likes it so much. I got lots of cute pictures of him with his helmet and cape on. He's our little super hero in training!

This year Todd and I have been so worried about our food storage. We voiced this worry, and much to the men's dismay, we all focused our Christmas on food storage. We women spent Christmas day with my mother-in-law, Shellie, learning to can meats and butter. Wow! It's a long day and a lot of supervision, but it really is not too difficult! Then Friday we sent the men to do some dry canning. We also received a canner from Todd's parents. I am excited to have some tools to work with!

Todd and I decided not to buy anything for each other this year so we could spend the money on food. However, I ended up with a sewing machine and he a sound system to go along with the apple TV and new TV that was given to us by our good friend John. We were so spoiled!

We had a wonderful suprise Friday when the forecasted rained turned into snow. Not too much, but enough to just enjoy! We didn't even get an inch, but it was all white and glittery in our yard for a few hours on Saturday... just long enough for me to get some good pictures. Unfortunately, I am at work typing this right now, so I will post holiday pictures tomorrow after I've had some time to go through them all.

Todd went shooting on Saturday with the guys and they also hiked around a little spring while we women sat at home and watched the younger kids. Todd's brother James and his new wife Kathy took the four older neices and nephew to Morenci to go bowling and get ice cream. Evan was so excited because he is so in love with his Aunt Kathy.

Despite the sickness and lack of sleep, we really did enjoy this Christmas because we were able to spend some time with family. I only wish we lived close enough to be able to spend time with all our families.

Look for pictures tomorrow!

Holiday Pain

I have been attempting to clean my house this weekend, but haven't gotten far. Madilyn is an angel baby.... until she is teething. I kept wondering when her teeth would come in since she is nrealy 9 months with no teeth. Then Saturday her first tooth popped in after days of being grouchy. The other bottom tooth is swollen as well. She has been so miserable the past couple of days so I peeked at her top gums, and all 4 of her upper front gums are HUGE! So, it looks like in the next few days she'll have not one, but 6!!! new teeth!

Maybe I'll be glad that Madilyn won't remember her first Christmas!

Holiday fun

I wish I could get a good pictures of both of the at the same time!

We have been so busy lately with housework, work, and parties. We finally found some quiet family time to sit down and teach Evan about Christmas and why we celebrate him. We also did some good Santa teaching so he can be excited about Santa coming this year. I love to watch his eyes light up when he says "presents!"

I am incredibly excited about Christmas morning this year and how Evan will react to it all.

We decorated some sugar cookies and Evan had so much fun eating every one he made. He has been on a constant sugar high!

We finally got some new glasses! I had a REALLY hard time finding some I kinda liked. I was way excited though that Todd and I finally decided to spend the money and get prescription sunglasses! We had transition lenses in our last set of glasses, and they were a nightmare! For anyone who may think of trying them, do not! Here's why: you can't take outside pictures with them on, and they do NOT work while driving!

Today we finally have a weekend at home together. I made banana nut muffins for breakfast and boiled eggs. Today we get to spend the day cleaning out the house and filling our storage shed. Yay!

My family

Me and my siblings from left : Cassandra, Brindi, Annalee, and Dave
I am so incredibly blessed!


I love this man!

My beautiful redhead!

My little buddy

Thank you to Heather Gunnell who took some fabulous pictures of my family despite all the drama and bad attitudes. We are so pleased!

Check out her blog:

http://www.heathergunnellphotography.blogspot.com/

Another reason to love Christmas!

We finally got our Christmas tree up today! Despite feeling like crap from a sinus infection, once we got the second peice out of storage from my in-laws, we had to put it up.


I am always amazed at how magical and wonderful it feels once it's finished and I get to sit back and watch the lights glitter in a dark room. I love Christmas lights! Oops, I got the pictures before I put the tree skirt under the tree.



Evan was sitting on my lap gazing at the tree with me and I took a moment to explain to him why the tree reminds us of Jesus. Then, his amazing child mind took over. He said "Jesus died. He has ouchies on his head. He has ouchies on his hands and here (he pointed to his sides). I agreed. He said "I want to give him a hug." How sweet! He then said "Jesus saves me."


Children are amazingly precious, with such simple faith. We too wish we could give him a hug. Evan asked if Jesus could come to Evan's house. How greatful I am that his spirit can always be with us and especially in our homes and we raise our precious little souls.

In case you were wondering...

I did, in fact, clean the house today. Do I feel better? Nope... it'll be dirty again in about 5 minutes!

A Mother's Typical Day

Today I caught my son's cold. I feel miserable. The original plans were to clean today because my house REALLY needs it. However, we stayed out of the house.

My kids look like this:

As for the house? Well, who wants to see it anyway. I have Christmas stuff all over because only half my tree made it back from Duncan so far.

*sigh* Maybe I'll clean tomorrow. For now, I am smelling brownies that are cooking in the oven and the kids are napping. Happy day!

I got Evan's car!!!

What a weekend!

It was a busy holiday for us! We were so lucky to have my sister Annalee here for Thanksgiving. We haven't seen her for a year since she is in the Air Force and stationed in North Carolina. My two sisters and I had a fabulous time making the Thanksgiving meal, and it was awesome!

We finally got updated family photos, but won't be able to share them for a few weeks, so be ready for those!

Todd's brother James got married on Saturday and it was the first time the whole family has been together in the temple. It was amazing. I have never been to a more beautiful reception. I wish we had gotten pictures, but we were too busy keeping kids away from the pool to take any snapshots. Let me just say that they are a beautiful couple and so perfect together. I cannot tell you how excited I am for them. My new sister-in-law, Kathy, is fabulous! Evan loves Kathy too and wouldn't stop looking at her during the pictures. We had to keep him out of the pictures too. He cried for quite awhile on the way home "I want to see Kaffy!"

Evan had croop attack in the middle of the night Saturday, and was gasping for air. By the time we got to the emergency room though, he was fine. We got him some medicine anway and finally crashed at 3 AM. It make for a sleepy drive home on Sunday. We have never been happier to be in our own home again. Our kids were even begging to go to sleep and they slept wonderfully!

We are so thankful for the chance we had to spend with all three sides of our family. Evan got to see all three sets of grandparents in one day. Spoiled!

These are the only pictures I had time to get this weekend during our Thanksgiving meal and no one wanted to take a nice picture:

Evan is ready for the food!

Happy Girl!M wonderful Dad checking out the foodMy Stepmom and sister AnnaleeBig brother DaveMy little sister Brindi and her hubby BrandonThe cats enjoying watching the rain