SICK-O!

Sorry, no pictures. I had hoped to do one of those fun elf cards that's floating around on some people's blogs, but no such luck! After about an hour of it downloading, I figured out that my modem was disconnected. I tried again later and there were errors, so I guess it's not meant to be! I am really learning to let go this Christmas! We have been nothing but sick! Sat. Elly had the stomache flu, me on Mon/Tues, Rylan and Richard on Wed/Thurs., and Addi on Sat. Also on Sat. Elly started screaming and holding her diaper. I took her to the hospital and did tests for a bladder infection. The Dr. also said it could be a yeast infection. Mon (today) I finally took Bradly to the Dr. for his ear. Last week he fell on the corner of the landing on his ear. He complains of it hurting now and then. Last night he woke up crying from pain. He ruptured his ear drum and there was a large clot in his canal. The Dr. showed me and it was amazing to see. We'll just let it heal for a few more weeks, and if there is still problems, we'll look into it further. 2 kids left to get the flu. I quite trying to make treats to pass out, and I haven't gotten my cards out yet. It'll have to happen after Christmas! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and remember the priorities and the real reason why we celebrate it! Love to all!

Are our lives ever NOT crazy?

We've had a lot going on last week! Our Chirstmas decor is up. We've had a Santa that my SIL gave us about 9 years ago. My kids love it! It has 3 different story books that when you insert, Santa will sit and read to you. Here is a picture of Elly passing on the story tradition. She will spend 1/2 hour listening to the stories over and over.

Monday, Richard refereed 4 games that night. Tues. night Rylan had scouts and Richard reffed 4 more games. Rylan also had scouts. Wednesday was a 1/2 day for the kids and Rylan had pitching practice. We are so excited to have him working with Corey Wade; a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's a great opportunity for him. Because Rylan is on the Sandlot team we get an awesome discount. He practices with 2 other boys for the time slot and it was only $8.00. Rylan also had practice later that night. His pitching was at 5:30 and practice was at 8:00 so it was too far apart that he couldn't just stay at the Sandlot, so they drove back and forth.

Thursday was a big day for Morgan!! It was the day she got her braces off! The first picture is the before picture. You can barely see her braces ...

Here she is getting her braces taken off by the assistant (or whatever they all the orthodontist assistant). She got to choose a retainer that she'll have to wear all the time for 6 months and then just at night for the rest of the time. She chose a hot pink glow in the dark retainer and had a "High School Musical" sticker inside. WOW! The ways things have changed since my time!

Morgan was so happy to get them off! They gave her a "congratulations package" and filled it with all the kinds of candy that she couldn't have with her braces on. Here is her eating her first chewy candy since 7 months ago. She requested carrots for dinner. How often does that happen?!

Thursday night was also a Court of Honor for the scouts. They were really nice and presented Richard a Leatherman as a thanks for being in charge of the 11 year old scouts for year. Hmmmm .... I don't recall getting anything for being the Webelos leader for a year and making sure that each of the boys got their Arrow of Light! (While I had a baby in the middle of it ... and dragging 4 other kids every time after school.) It's ok... no bitterness! LOL

Rylan also received his 1st Class. We are very proud of him for getting this. He really needs to work on Merit Badges if he wants to get his Eagle.

Friday Richard didn't have to work since he got called in on Weekend duty. We decided to go out for lunch. Rylan had baseball practice and got done at around 10 p.m. By then Addi is coughing uncontrolably and is really laboring with her breathing. She has a pretty weak immune system and seems to decline so fast when she gets sick. It stressed me a little with her having been on a ventilitor as a baby and having RSV. I worried that it was rapidly turning into something scary. But she didn't have a fever, so at 11:00 p.m. we went to Wal Mart and bought a vaporizer. I have no idea why I've never gotten one before, but that thing is AMAZING! Everytime she gets in a coughing fit, we turn that on, and within a bit she settles down.

Saturday we woke up to SNOW!! Rylan had a clinic at the Sandlot on the mental sport of the game. It was incredible to listen to! They are having Richard help coach until he leaves so they had a clinic at night for coaches and during the day for the kids. I got to go to the one for the kids. This guy works with MLB, NFL, and the Ultimate Fighter champions. It was so fascinating and there were so many "life" lessons as well as team lessons. I think any athlete should hear this man speak!! (I took very detailed notes, so if you're interested I can give you a more specific low-down). When I got home Richard was in the shower and Elly in the bath and I was informed by 3 other frantic kids that Elayna threw up on Richard 4 different times. Whew! I'm glad I left when I did! haha! He even tried to call the Sandlot ... too bad they didn't answer their phones during the clinic! It was a loooonnnngg night with a little one that refused to throw up in the bucket!! Richard slept on the couch. He enjoyed going to his clinic that night as well. I thought it would be the same but it was totally different.

Sunday, Rylan received his first calling in the church. He has been called to be the Deacon's President. He's pretty excited and is taking it very seriously. I'll have to go to Deseret book and see if there is any good books that will help him.

So that's about it for now! This week is full of cooking goodies to pass out!! Hope I'm not passing out the flu too!! Happy Holidays to all and hope we can all slow down to actually enjoy it!

Sorry

The post below has a huge space between the title and the post ... sorry about that! I don't know what happened. Please just scroll down.

Crazy Life, as Usual!

This week has been quite crazy! Richard had work off Mon and Tues. That always throws me off schedule! I always think I can get so much more done since he's home, but I find that I just don't want to do my daily stuff when we can do so many other things! It was a beautiful day; so close to the 60's in temperature. I decided that would be the perfect day to get the outdoor Christmas stuff out. Since everything was out already and it was Monday, we put the tree up and all the decorations for Family Home Evening.

Tuesday was Richard's birthday. I ended up getting myself a present. Didn't that work out great? Michael's was having a 40% off frames sale and I had an additional 25% off so I wanted to look for frames to put our new family pictures in. I've been tired of my wall picture arrangement downstairs (we've had it for our 14 years of marriage) and I was ready for a change. So I got a beautiful frame with 6 arrangements. It is 3 dimensional and in the middle is metal leafing made into a tree. At the bottom is says Family Tree. It sounds really bad in description, so next week I'll have to post a picture! We got home just in time to pick up the kids from school. That night, after kids went to bed we went out to dinner. He chose Texas Roadhouse. It was so good, and my meal lasted me for 2 other lunches!

Morgan had a performance with her Tiger Talents. I only took her and Bradly ... it was so nice to have just 2 kids to look after! They each sat with Santa.

Saturday was the craziest day of all! We had a ward Christmas Party at 9:00 am. I volunteered to cook up sausage. Morgan was part of the "entertainment". She was Mary in the re-enactment. 5 min before we were walking out, Richard got a call that he had to go into work and fix 2 ejection seats. That was a big blow because Rylan had to be in Ogden for baseball fittings, etc. We sat and ate breakfast, Morgan moved over to another family to stay with (they took pictures for me and brought her home) and we left to take Rylan to Ogden. When we finished with Rylan we had to go to Pleasant View to pick up Poinsetta's for a fundraiser. After delivering them, we went home, had lunch and I headed to Wal-mart and the Comissary. Richard met me there when he got off work and took Elly from me. I got home and we found dinner out of the bags and I frantically got ready for Richard's squadron Christmas party. We stayed until 10:30 and even won something!! This is only the 2nd time we've own anything .... and both times it's been a bottle of wine! Oh well.

We got to be designated drivers that night! It wasn't planned, but a girl that Richard has worked with in another section lost her driver and she had 3 kids in the playroom, so she asked Richard if we could take her and her kids home. When I pulled into her driveway on base I found out that she moved into the house that my friend lived in.

Do you need a laugh for the day?! It's no secret that I have horrible perception with driving. Well ... driving a suburban has definately been a challenge, but a back up camera has helped. Guess I should have used it!! Do you see the stroller under there? That's the second one I've totaled in 3 months. Don't worry ... I won't run over a kids someday. I always check behind me, but I must have kicked this as I was walking around and it rolled behind the suburan.

I found Elly in the sink like this the other day ... she never fails to crack me up!

New Photos

My awesome brother-in-law took our photos for us. I really wanted family pictures done before Richard went to Korea, so while we went home for Thanksgiving he took time out of his schedule as a police officer and did pictures of each of us with Richard. They have their own business they do on the side: J Clayton Photography. I have a link on my blog, so if anyone in the UT, ID area want pictures done, check out their blog (they are just starting to put the blog up so it may take a while). I love how they turned out. Hope to post more of our goings on later! Kim