Lucky Stars!

What a week. We picked up Macie last Saturday and I had no idea what an adjustment it would be. The first two nights were a nightmare as I stated in the post about her. Then on Monday night Travis mentions to me that she has been itching. And I said yeah I noticed that too it's been getting worse I think she has flees. Travis gets all bug eyes and informs me I need to call the vet the next day and tells me all the wonderful things about flees, like how fast they multiply, that they get all over the house, and that they will eat us too. Great, so I call the vet on Tuesday and she informs me that since we have had her since Saturday we have to flee balm our house. For those of you who have never experienced this lovely adventure I pray you never do. I had to leave the house for the day, set of these smoke poison things in every room, and air out the house before we go back in. Well Macie is an inside dog so we had to take her with us to my parents which was interesting in it's self. They live a half hour away, so later I had to go home air out the house, and go back down for a church activity, which I ended up being late for. I still didn't get home until 9:00 at night put the kids in bed, shut up the house, and proceeded to clean until 10:30 that night. That was just one day. The next 4 days were spent washing every single blanket, sheet, mattress pad, and burp rag in the house while trying to maintain the other everyday tasks. Like cleaning up one of Coy's chewed up poopy diapers, and the vomit from the chewed up poopy diaper thanks to Macie. After all this I am thanking my lucky stars. Why? Thursday night I watched the house across the street from me go up in flames. This is the same family who when we moved into our home found out the woman who lives there fell and had surgery on her wrist, and a few months later her husband fell of a ski lift fell 25 feet and was rushed to the hospital. They lost everything in there home to top it off there Granddaughter was staying with them when this all happened. Thank goodness everyone is ok, but it was still the most tragic thing I have witnessed in person. I started breaking down, but my mom was on the phone with me and helped me hold it together for the kids sake. So yes I am thanking my lucky stars. Thankful for a complete home, for no broken body parts, for my family's well being, and yes even thankful for our new dog Macie.

ER Visit

Today was the day I was going to catch up to what has been a less than boring week. What has happened this week besides Coy's mishap is a whole other post. I had just finished feeding Grady and all the sudden I hear Coy screaming. So rush to get him. He fell running up the stairs. I comfort him thinking nothing of it just another Coy bruise. Until I pulled his head back to take a look and blood was gushing out of his chin. I quickly ran to the bathroom for some tissue to get a better look and sure enough there was a huge gash in his chin. He hit the square edge of our top stair that is lined with hard wood perfectly.

Poor kid, we got to the hospital and they assessed, thank goodness, that they could use this new skin glue instead of stitches. If it didn't work he would have needed 2-3 stitches, but they got it to seal and no stitches for Coy. He had to be strapped down in this big Velcro body straight jacket type thing. While he was crying it hurts, I want out I almost lost it. He was very brave and hardly even notices the big glue patch on his chin. I took them to Dunkin Donuts after for a much deserved treat, it was a long morning for all of us. Hayden and Coy were both passed out by the time we got home.

Two Months Today.

That's right two months has already flown by. He is such a good baby and so adorable. I think he talks more than any of the other boys. In fact he talks to me instead of smiling. He is smiling a lot now and we love it. I can't seem to catch a big one on camera, probably because there rare since he is so busy talking. He has the most sensitive skin. I have to change his diaper every time he eats and use Balmex and baby power and that's just to maintain. If he gets a rash I have to use a blow dryer first then proceed with the works. Once it's gone if I skip one diaper change or forget the powder he has another rash for 3-4 days. It's a pain in my butt to have to do this in the middle of the night, but it's a bigger pain in his. Poor kid it's looks so sore.
As easy as he is and as much as we love him, the longer he is here the more convinced I am that we are done. Three boys that are cute, strong, healthy, and smart is more than enough and a huge blessing. We are so grateful for our family.

Nana and the Girls Visit.

My Aunt Alice and her Grandchildren Ashley and Rozada came to play for the day yesterday. It was nice to have a change of pace and to see them again. We miss them greatly since they only lived 5 minutes away when we were living further south. Ashley and Rozada call their Grandma, Nana so the boys call her that to avoid confusion. She is the only Aunt that I am really close to and is awesome, always picking up things for the boys and I at yard sales and sales at Sears. We just hung out for the day, took the kids the park, walked around town. We didn't walk for long though cause it was 80 degrees outside. Can you believe it? We had no Spring it's gone straight to Summer. Not that I'm complaining it's just weird. Anyway we had a fun time, thanks for the visit Aunt Alice we love you and the girls and wish we could see more of you.

Call Me Crazy!

As if I don't have enough on my plate. Between working out, taking care of three young boys, being the Young Woman's president in my church, Travis just got called as the new Branch President in our church, keeping the house up for a husband who is anally clean, and fitting in personal time to eat and shower (you know the non essentials :), some might say the last thing we needed was Macie. What can I say I finally got a girl. We were going to wait another year to get a dog. Yes I said it WE GOT A DOG, CALL ME CRAZY! When Travis brought home a picture of a very cute Beagle who needed a good home because her mom was moving and couldn't take her with her, who was already trained, already used to small kids, and only 2 years old so essentially still a puppy, I couldn't resist. She is already fixed and all her shots are up to date. They gave us all the dog things, everything for free, and she has adjusted so far really well to us. She hardly sheds and is perfect size for us, not too big not too small. She needs some training and nights have been a little difficult since she used to sleep under the blankets with her old owner. We have been trying to get her to sleep with the boys, they love to have her with them, but she prefers Travis and I so it's a work in progress, with Travis's allergies she just can't sleep in our room. But over all she is a great dog. Hardly barks at all, and listens all in all pretty well. So here she is meet the second girl in the family, Macie.

Brotherly Love.

Recently Hayden has taken a special interest in Grady. Asking to hold him a lot. He is no dummy he can tell that Grady is looking at him now and not into space. Now if Grady is in a good mood he cranks his head back looks right at Hayden. Hayden tells him all kinds of sweet things and rubs his head gently. It's so sweet it melts my heart. Sometimes Grady will even coo back. The other night they were together for probably a good 15 minutes before Hayden finally said "Mommy my neck hurts" I laughed and took Grady back. I was so impressed, he would have held him all night if it didn't start hurting him and Grady stayed happy.

Can't Get Enough.

I just can't get enough pictures of our new little guy. Especially cute ones like this. I think this will go down as one of my all time favorites. Now 7 weeks old, he is sleeping better, starting to go 3 1/2 to 4 hours between feedings. He likes attention and responds when you talk to him. I haven't gotten him to smile again yet but Travis said he did for him yesterday. He is starting to get fun.

Puddle Jumping!

Hayden has been begging all winter to go jump in the puddles. Finally we have had some weather where I didn't have to worry about them freezing to death.
They had a great time throwing rocks and running and jumping in the water. We have been kinda cooped up so it was some nice fresh air for all of us.
The funny thing is before I decided to let them do this Coy would always try to sneak into the puddles when I didn't want them to. I was nervous after allowing him to play in the puddles he would be even more persistent, but the opposite has happened. Now that he was allowed to do it and knows we will do it again, he listens when I tell him to stay away from the water and that we are not puddle jumping right now. Oh the temptation of restricted things, we only want what we can't have.

Go Away Snow.

We are making progress this picture was taken on April 8th and it's already dropped another foot. It's unbelievable to me still that it's April and we have this much snow.
About a month ago the snow fell off the roof and blocked the way to our mud room. We tried to shovel it but it was solid ice and still is. So we are anxiously waiting because our floors are getting dirty so fast. Hayden is standing in one of the only patches of grass that has peeked through.

Sleeping Grady.

He is getting so big and even more beautiful. I just love sleeping babys.

Car Tatoos.

We received a package from a dear friend last week and she included among other things these Cars Tattoo's for the boys. Needless to say they were excited to have stickers that don't come off for a long time.

Worlds Largest Snow Woman.

Check out the Worlds Largest Snow Woman. The buttons are tires, the eyelashes are skis, and the arms are trees. You can see how big it is as it towers over these houses. We don't know how tall it is but assume it's at least 100 ft. or more.

Grady's Blessing

We blessed Grady on March 30th. He is wearing the same blessing outfit that his dad, two uncles, and two older brothers wore at their blessings. We are so blessed to have such a great heirloom to pass on to our little grandsons.
Everything went perfect it was nice to have my side of he family to be able to participate in one of the blessings since we were in Utah with the previous two. My brother Chip and Dad Bill came which was extremely considerate given they are not members of our faith. They left right after the blessing so we don't have any pictures of them.

My Father Charlie and his wife Judy are in the first picture. Our attempted family picture, the kids wanted to go to class so we had to hold them there for the picture. My Brother Shane his wife Melissa and their five kids from oldest to youngest Micah, Majera, Donna, Jenna, and Joseph. Both my Father and my brother traveled over two hours to be there so a big thank you to them.

Grandma Shell and Grandpa Steve came all the way from Utah. The picture thing started to get hectic so I just got a quick shot of my mom with Grady and my brother Shane again with Grady. I just thought this picture was really cute. I learned that one of my brothers favorite things was putting infants to sleep. Who knew? Anyway after the blessing we all went to my Mom's for some simple food and family socialising. It was a good time, we love you all and wish everyone from Utah could have been here too.

Grandma and Grandpa Visit!

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Shell came for the weekend for Grady's blessing on Sunday. So on Saturday we decided to go for a little road trip and show them some sites. It was freezing because the wind was blowing really hard so we jumped out took some pictures and jumped back in the car. We ate at the floating restaurant, it was beautiful inside, a view from every angle of the sea. The food was good but not good enough for the price, you were definitely paying for the ambiance or maybe just the fact that you were eating on a small ship. I'm glad we did it for the experience but won't go there again. All in all it was a fun interesting day.