February

Once upon a time, my girls used to be babies.  (The boy in the middle is my brother's son.)  Now they're both 7 years old.  It's hard to believe.  They're all sitting in a chair that used to be Lance's grandpa's chair. 

 

We had a birthday party for Mia and Chloe on February 9th.  We had to have the party in the morning because a party was also planned for Lance's dad who turned 80 on the 11th.  Anyway, I decided to go with a butterfly theme since the invitation I found online had a butterfly on it.  Usually, I would let my girls decide, but since we were doing it for both of them, I knew they would never agree on anything and they were both happy when they didn't have a choice.  There ended up being 11 kids total.  They each invited 8 kids so I was a little worried we'd have a whole houseful.  Chloe had a substitute teacher that week so she was afraid to tell her teacher she had invitations to pass out.  She finally passed them out Friday.  That may have led to a few kids being unable to come at such short notice. 

Anyway, when the came in, they colored some butterfly pictures.  After everyone was here, they made a butterfly out of clothespins, pipe cleaners and beads.  It was fairly simple, but they all loved it.  I put magnets on Mia's and Chloe's butterflies so I could put them on the fridge. 

 

While I hot glued the wings to the clothespins, the kids went downstairs and played Just Dance and a bean bag game.  Then it was time to decorate cupcakes and open presents.  It went really fast, but I think they all enjoyed it.  I had Brady and his friend help as well as two of my nieces.  That's probably what saved my sanity.

 

After that was done, we headed up to Chuck A Rama for the party for Lance's dad.  Fifty-nine people came for the big celebration.  I think all of his living siblings were there, some kids and grandkids as well as many nieces and nephews.  It was mildly chaotic for us since we were trying to keep track of our kids in between eating and visiting.  We didn't lose anyone, which is pretty much my only goal most days.

 

On Monday we went up to Planet Play in Draper.  My kids all think they need to have birthday parties at Chuck E Cheeses and that sounds awful to me.  Instead I convinced my kids Planet Play, which has a pizza buffet, arcade games, laser tag, go-karts, mini-bowling, and go karts, would be much better.  We invited our family and found a great deal.  Lance was able to stop by for about 20 minutes.  Isaac loved the skee ball and mini bowling.  Anything with a ball is generally a favorite with him.  Everybody had to use their tickets and pick a fabulous prize.  Mia and Chloe got slap bracelets.  Isaac got a ball that we lost before we even got home.  I don't remember what Brady got.  And Tyler got a whistle.  It's the loudest, most annoying whistle you've ever heard.  If you ever need a good whistle, Planet Play has the best whistles around and you can play a little skee ball to earn the tickets.  Who doesn't love skee ball?

 

After we got home, Chloe started complaining that her ear hurt.  I tried a hot pad and warm rice pack on her ear, neither worked.  Two ibuprofen didn't do anything for her.  She was still crying in pain.  Finally, I broke down and gave her two more.  Once those kicked in, she was able to go to sleep.  I got her a doctors appointment the next morning at 10 am.  She had an ear infection.  Shortly after we picked up her prescription and got home, her ear drum ruptured.  I couldn't believe how fast it came on.  She hasn't had an ear infection for years, so it was pretty surprising that it started hurting and ruptured in about 12 hours.     

Back in January, I took Mia, Chloe and Tyler in for their yearly well-child visits.  Tyler needed his kindergarten shots before kindergarten registration so I just did all three of them at once.  Then I found out Brady needed some immunizations before going to junior high.  So we all went plus my nephew.  Seven kids in a small doctors office for about 90 minutes was quite the adventure.  It wasn't as horrible as I had expected it to be.  I expected it to be pretty awful though.  Anyway, when he looked in Tyler's ears, he said one was definitely infected.  He had no fever and hadn't complained of it hurting nor had he been acting any different.  He wrote me a prescription just in case he started showing sypmtoms, but he never needed it.

When we looked at Tyler's growth charts, he said he would be about 6' 2" if he continues to grow like he has been.  When he looked at Chloe's growth chart, he said she'd be about 5' 8" if she continues to grow like she has been.  I really think she'll be taller.  She's definitely one of the tallest in her class.  He didn't say anything about Mia's growth chart.  I guess he doesn't expect her to be much over average.  It should be interesting.

I had Isaac and Gabe with me and they were coughing away while we were there.  The doctor told me to watch Gabe for symptoms of RSV.  The next day was Saturday.  Isaac had been pretty miserable the previous two days and just not himself.  Gabe started having a hard time breathing.  I called my sister who is currently doing her rotations on her way to becoming a Physician's Assistant to double check his symptoms.  None of my other kids have ever had RSV.  I keep thinking at some point I'll stop second guessing myself as a mom, but it seems my kids keep coming up with things that I haven't had to deal with before.  I took both boys in since I was already going.  I didn't want to be coming back for a third day in a row.  Isaac was basically fine.  He definitely had a cold, but nothing else.  Gabe on the other hand was definitely struggling to breathe.  She said I could go to the Respiratory Clinic at the hospital or we could try a breathing treatment right there in the office.  Not sure why that's even a question, but we did a treatment there.  Sometimes the treatments aren't effective, but Gabe was breathing better after it was done.  Fortunately, after that, he did better.  I didn't have to take him back in.  Besides that minor bout with RSV, he's been my healthiest baby.  Every cold he gets is minor and lasts only a few days and he hasn't had any ear infections.

Tyler burned his hand once again.  This time I was running around like crazy trying to get my kids some food before I had to leave for Young Women's.  It was New Beginning's, which is an overview of the program and introduction of this year's theme, so it was kind of important that I be there.  I hadn't been home very much that day so we were having ramen for dinner.  I put Tyler's in front of him.  Isaac decided to hit Tyler.  So Tyler hit him back.  You know the pattern.  Somehow Tyler got off balance and landed with his hand in his hot ramen.  Of course there was instant crying so I got his hand into some cold water.  My mom walked in the door since she was there to watch my kids.  I called the doctor hoping to be able to bring him in after my meeting.  But since it was a burn, they wanted him there as soon as possible.  Tyler was very upset and didn't want to go.  He kept saying "I don't want a cast!"  It took me a few minutes before I remembered he was talking about when they wrapped his hand with his last burn.  We jumped in the car with his hand wrapped in a cold wash cloth.  I should have brought a cup of cold water.  As soon as the cold wore off the wash cloth, he was screaming.  It was awful.  I felt so bad for him.  We got stopped at a red light and he was beside himself.  He kept tellng me to go and he said, "I don't want to wait here all day!"  It was pretty miserable.

Once we got back to the room, we turned the water on and put his hand in that.  That calmed him down.  Then he said to me, "I'm glad it wasn't this hand" while he held up his other hand that had a rainbow tattoo on it.  Then he pointed to the sharps container and said, "What if the Christmas tree was in there?  Santa would have to go in there!  That would hurt."  When the doctor came in to look at it and bandage it, he started out just fine.  As the heat crept back into the burn though, I could tell he was started to struggle.  So I asked him if he was ok.  And my poor little boy said, "It's making me cry," as he welled up and started crying.  It was so sad.  He mostly burned his ring and middle finger up by the nails. 

On the way home I asked him if he was hungry thinking I'd stop at Burger King or Del Taco. He said no, which I thought was strange, but didn't think too much of it.  After we passed the restaurants he told me he didn't want to eat it so it didn't burn.  When he said it, he sounded a little distraught.  Then I realized he thought I was going to have him finish his ramen.

 Even with the special cream they put on it to take the burn out of it, he was still in quite a bit of pain for a while.  Eventually, he was able to calm down and fall asleep.

The next day he said to me as he pointed to his forearm, "I wish it was up here so it wasn't on puppy."  I asked,  "Puppy?"   He said, "I named my hands. This one's puppy."   I asked him what the other one was named.   "Peter Parker. My feet have names too. This one's puppy and this one's Peter Parker, the same as my hands."

One day he and Andrew were talking about girlfriends and kissing.  Andrew was telling Tyler when he got a girlfriend he would have to kiss her.  Tyler replied, "I already have a girlfriend."  Andrew asked, "Who?"  And my wonderful little boy said, "My mom."   Isn't he the greatest?

When Isaac was one, he wore a monkey costume for halloween.  I made him a banana out of felt.  The peel and banana is seperate.  One day the peel was on the floor.  Tyler was walking and slipped and fell on it.  I know I shouldn't have laughed, but it was just too funny. 

Gabe turned 5 months old.  He's still cute as can be.  He's happy all of the time.

 

Most of his hair is short except for one little stripe down the middle of the top.  I can't decide if I should cut it so it's all the same length, or just leave it.  He still looks a lot like Chloe.  In case you don't believe me, Chloe's on the right. 

Whenever I take pictures of Gabe, everybody else wants to get their picture taken too.

 

 

Tyler is playing dead.

 

I made a smoothie with frozen marionberries from Costco and shared it with the boys.  Tyler spilled some of his, which is why Isaac is so upset in this picture.  It scared him.

 

Tyler was sad too since it got all over him.

 

And it kind of ended up looking like a crime scene. 

 

Mia and Chloe wanted their hair done for Valentine's day.  Mia wanted her hair curly,

 

and Chloe wanted her hair straight.

 

Later we celebrated Chloe's birthday.  She got some new long sleeve shirts which she really wanted.

 

 

My boys all needed haircuts.

 

So I gave them haircuts.

 

Can you tell the difference between Brady's normal smile,

 

and his cheesy smile?  This is what he does when I say "Smile."  He clenches his teeth and squints his eyes.  It drives me crazy.

 

Isaac wasn't too excited about getting his hair cut this time.  Last time he was totally excited, not so much this time.

 

   By the time we were done he had hair all over his face because he kept rubbing his face.  He was absolutely miserable. 

Brady got to go to the Klondike Derby this year.  Lance was able to go with him.  I spent way too much money getting clothes and sleeping bags so they wouldn't freeze.  Lance even bought a tent heater.  I guess it was a good thing since it was down in the single digits overnight.  I asked Brady about the sled race and he went on and on about how hard it was to pull the sled and how "intense" the course was.  He could hardly stop talking about how difficult it was.  From what Brady said, it sounded like it lasted at least an hour.  Lance was laughing as he listened to Brady.  Then he told me the whole race only lasted six minutes! 

One night Brady and I were watching Food Network.  It happened to be Worst Cook in America.  It was the first episode so it was showing the "auditions."   After a few minutes Brady said to me, 'Mom, after seeing this, I don't think you're the worst cook in America anymore." 

One day out of the blue Brady said, "Some dog treats smell so good, I want to try them." Then his friend Max said, "I want to try dog food."  I couldn't believe it.  No wonder they're best friends.

I know I'm heavy on the Tyler stories, but he just says funny things.  So here's some more.  One day we were in the car and he asked, "Is Santa an Awtrey or a Pearson?"  Of course Brady laughed and said, "Pearson." 

Mia talks about being adopted a lot lately.She likes to tell everyone how special she is.  One day Tyler said,  "I want to be adopted."  I just told him,  "Ok.  You're adopted,"  and he was satisfied with that.

When I was making dinner one night Tyler said, "I want to be allergic to something."  I said, "Ok.  What do you want to be allergic to?"  He responded, "Chicken."  So I told him, "Ok.  You're allergic to chicken."  Then he asked, "What's for dinner?"  When I replied, "Chicken," Tyler said, "But I'm allergic to chicken."

Mia was complaining about her back hurting and was walking hunched over.  Tyler said to her "Mia, you're turning into Melvin, 'cause Melvin has a broken back."  Melvin is our cowboy neighbor who is at least in his 70's and has had one hip replaced twice. 

Tyler was watching Tangled.  At the part where Flynn Ryder sings "I See the Light" when they are watching the lanterns he said, "That sounds like me, but it's not."

My kids got to bed with sliced apples quite often.  One morning after I fed Gabe around 6 am, I went in to check on Isaac since he loses his covers quite often.  I heard a strange sound.  I looked up on the top bunk and Tyler was crunching away on an apple with his eyes closed.  I don't think he even heard me.  He never said anything, just kept eating his apples.

Tyler and Andrew were outside playing in the "warm" 40 degree weather. I was around the corner in the living room. They came in the kitchen, then stopped. Andrew said, "Look at this mess." Tyler said, "We made this mess." Then Andrew said, "We better clean it up." They got out some rags and started cleaning. Then they realized the more they walked around the dirtier it got so they sat down and cleaned off their shoes before they finished cleaning the kitchen floor. It was one of those magic moments when it feels like maybe they actually listen once in a while.

I was snuggling with Tyler in our recliner one day when he said to me, "Mom, your eyes sparkle like the ocean."  (Isn't he the sweetest boy ever?  He just melts my heart.)  Then I said back to him,  "Yours do too."  He replied, "But my eyes are brown," and I couldn't think of anything brown that sparkles quick enough.  I didn't think he'd call me out on it.  Next time I'll have to tell him his eyes sparkle like root beer.

One day Mia started talking about her "boyfriend".  I asked her what that meant and she told me it was when you liked each other.  I told her she's too young to have a boyfriend.  She insisted she wasn't.  So I told her in our family we don't have boyfriends at her age.  And she just replied, "But I do."  A couple of weeks later she was talking about her "ex-boyfriend".  I asked her about it and she said he wasn't her "boyfriend" but "he's a boy who used to be my friend."  I wish I could accurately portray how she said it though.  It was just so Mia with her little know-it-all attittude.

Mia has been totally obsessive about doing kartwheels.  Some days it seems like she can't even stop herself.  She's gotten really good at them and can even do them one handed. 

She's matured quite a bit lately.  Her prayers have become very thoughtful.  She even prayed for Chloe to feel better when she wasn't feeling well.  Lance's mom has had double vision for about six weeks so she prays that that will go away.  Lance's mom fell one day and got some "boo boos" on her face so she also prays that "her boo boo face will get better."  She absolutely loves Grandma so she always very concerned about her. 

Isaac loves Mickey Mouse lately.  We have a CD that has some Mickey Mouse songs on it.  One day he was listening to it over and over while he danced.  Brady was downstairs and Isaac decided he wanted Brady to dance to so he kept yelling down to Brady, "Brady!  Dance!  Dance Brady!"  And since he's so adorable, I forced Brady upstairs to dance with Isaac.  It was just about as adorable as you can imagine. 

One afternoon when I woke Isaac up to go get Tyler from pre-school, I told him we were going to get Tyler.  He kept saying, "What do you say?" with a heavy emphasis on the word "what."  I would repeat it and he'd say, "What do you say?"  It was of course adorable.

We went down to Payson one day to pick up some parts for Lance.  It was lunch time and Gabe was ready to eat so we stopped at a gas station with a Wendy's into it.  The boys kind of ate some food.  Then Isaac said to me, "Play my game?" I didn't know what he was talking about until he ran around the corner to the atm. 

And here's some random cell phone pictures.  This is Tyler at about two years old.

 

And here he is trying on a dress.

 

He spilled some water at my mom's house and this is how he cleaned it up.  Ironically, I have a picture of Brady at about the same age doing the exact same thing.

 

This is Isaac at about 5 months.

 

One day Lance laid down on the floor after work.  Before he knew it he was surrounded.