Standing Up!

How cute are Cameron & Kesley! They are both standing up! Okay, so Cameron only stands by himself if we first help him - but he stands by the furniture and walks around the furniture all the time. Kesley on the other hand, is starting to stand by herself all the time. It isn't going to be long before she is walking! Cameron won't be too far behind her!

FYI - these pictures were taken on the same day as Cameron's surgery

- what a tough little guy!

Worst Day of Spring!

Well, that is according to my kids. We woke up to an inch or two of snow on the ground today (I really did just take this picture) and they said,

"This is the WORST day of Spring!"

"If Mother Nature is in Utah she sure is getting things mixed up!"

"This is going to be the coldest Spring EVER!"

Isn't it April 30? I love the snow but in the winter! I am ready to put the winter coats and long sleeves away - maybe I will be able to by June!

Tube Time for Cameron!

Somehow we made it to surgery day for Cameron and he was "healthy" enough to actually have surgery. And to make it even better, Ed was in town and able to come with me to the hospital (while Cortney took care of the rest at home). It was very nice to have Ed there with me! And Cameron - what a tough little guy he is! He didn't want to get down and play before surgery, he just wanted to be held and cuddle. He wasn't happy when the nurses touched him (okay - maybe he isn't that tough) but he was fine when they carried him off to surgery. Luckily for me, putting tubes in is a very fast surgery. They took him right before 8:00am and he was back to us by 8:25ish. He wasn't very happy but he didn't kick and get really mad like Kesley did. Once he got his bottle (they can't eat anything after midnight the night before) he calmed down. He would get a little upset and just want to put his head on my shoulder and then he was fine. Even after we got home, he was GREAT! I feed him a bottle and he took a 2 hour nap. When he got up he was happy and just played.

He is such a good little guy! You can already tell he feels better (now if his and Kesley's 4 top teeth would just finish coming in - yes, they are both getting 4 teeth).

Ready . . . Set . . . GO!!!!

One of Brecken's favorite things to say is "Ready. . .Set. . .GO!" And now that it has warmed up (until it gets freezing again tomorrow and possibly snows again) Brecken LOVES to play outside and he LOVES to go down the slide - and he can even do it all by himself! The trick now is to get him to come back inside. He has changed so much over the last month - he is eating more normal foods, trying to finally say words, and is just a HAPPIER little boy! I sure LOVE this little guy!

Photoshop Elements Pages

This past weekend, Michelle T. and I went to a scrapbook retreat up in Park City put on by Digital Scrapbook Memories. We had a fabulous time (I will blog more about that later) and can't wait to go again next year. At the retreat, they taught us how to scrapbook using Photoshop Elements. We learned tons of fun things (changing colors in pictures, removing color, changing heads, etc.) but Michelle T. and I are not convinced, at least not yet, to use Photoshop Elements instead of Memory Mixer. Memory Mixer is just so fast and easy. You can definitely do more in PS Elements but right now I just don't have the time. I am so far behind as it is. But, I can see myself doing a few things here and there in PS Elements (and then finishing in MM). The 2 pages above are pages I made in PS Elements. I made the one of Cameron in a "Speed Scrap" - very stressful but I like how it turned out. Then back in our hotel room, I changed the colors of the papers, etc. and made the page of Kesley.

One of these days I will do more in PS Elements - but for now, I LOVE Memory Mixer!

In Need of New Shoes!

I was putting the kids shoes away last night and couldn't believe what I saw! Dallin is desperate need of new shoes - I had NO idea! I couldn't believe he didn't tell me how bad his shoes were.

When I asked him why he didn't tell me, he said,

"I just wanted to make them last as long as possible so we could save money."

What a sweet, thoughtful boy! We TRY to stress that things cost money and that they can't have something just because they want it. I guess we need to be a little more careful. So, I explained to him that he can tell us when he needs new shoes, that we can afford to buy him new shoes and he doesn't need to worry about it or be upset about it. He teared up! I will go buy him some new ones as soon as Ed gets back in town (he did get back from Paris but he left again today - but he will be back in time for Cameron's surgery on Tuesday).

Kesley's Surgery

Yeah! Kesley was healthy enough to get tubes put in her ears on Tuesday! I woke her up at 6:30 am and we headed to the hospital (Cortney spent the night so she could watch the others while I was at the hospital and Ed was stuck in Paris). Poor little girl had no idea what was going to happen to her. I hated when they took my sweet little girl away - but she did really well. The doctor said she thought that Kesley's left ear was getting infected - they had a hard time getting her left ear to pass the hearing test, but it finally did. She was not happy when they brought her too me - but she was happy to get a bottle and so happy to go home!

I Love Winter in Utah!

Too bad it is Spring! This is what we woke up to this morning - snow on the ground and more coming down! Good thing I left some jeans in the boys' closets for them to wear!

Ear Infections for Cameron - AGAIN!

My poor little Cameron. He has had a cold and cough for a few days and has been really fussy (for him). So today I decided I better take him to the doctor - since he is SUPPOSE to get tubes on Tuesday (Kesley got hers in yesterday - I will post about that soon). The doctor couldn't see past all the wax so once she got that out (and that was not an easy thing to do), she could see that his left ear was infected and his right one was really red. Because of all the medicines he has been on recently for all his ear infections, they are going to give him Rocephin shots for 3 days. His dose is so big that they split the shot into 2 and gave him one shot in each leg at the same time. Not fun at all! When we got home, he sat by his daddy (YEAH - Ed did make it home early this morning - so by this afternoon he was really exhausted) and both of them fell asleep. It was really sad and really cute! I just really hope he can get tubes next week. I will call the ENT tomorrow and see what she says.

Volcano in Iceland - UGH!

I never knew that a volcano erupting in Iceland would affect my family - but it has. Ed was in London all of last week for work. He was SUPPOSE to fly home on Friday but thanks to a volcano erupting, he is STILL in Europe. Last Thursday, when Ed and Rick (the guy from work that he is traveling with) heard the London airport had closed, they got on the last train (a new train added at the last minute) to Paris in hopes of making their flight on Friday from Paris to Salt Lake. Just as they were getting into Paris, the cloud of ash got there and closed the airports in Paris (Dallin drew a picture of that in Church today - see above). Since then, they have been scheduled on several different flights, all of which have been cancelled! Right now, they are SCHEDULED to leave Paris on Wednesday - but let's just say we aren't holding our breath. I guess if you have to be stuck somewhere, Paris is not a bad place to be stuck. He has gotten to do a little sight seeing - he went and saw the "Awful" Tower (as Gavin calls it), the Catacombs, the Palace of Versailles, and the Louvre. He tried to go to Germany but the trains were way to crowded (he served his LDS mission there).

We are on day 10 of Ed being gone (we were prepared for a long trip - he was suppose to come home on day 8) and hope he gets to come home on day 13! But with the way things are going, we will not count on it.

Grandpa on a HORSE!!!!! What a GREAT day!

What a great day this was! I took the twins to AZ for my Grandpa's 90th birthday party the first weekend of April (I had my cousin Cortney fly with me to help with the twins - she is a live saver). When Ed and I had been in AZ the week before for a work reward retreat (more on that hopefully one of these days), we visited my Grandpa real quick and told him we were going horseback riding the next day. He teared up. He said he couldn't even remember the last time he rode a horse (for those who don't know, I grew up on a ranch - my Grandpa is a COWBOY through and through). So when Ed and I were horseback riding, we ask the head guy, Troy, about bringing my Grandpa out the next weekend for his birthday - to let an old cowboy sit on a horse one more time.

The day before Grandpa's party, my sister and I picked-up my Grandpa and we headed out to Fort McDowell Adventures out past Fountain Hills. Our siblings and Mom met us there. It was a beautiful day out in the very green desert. I was so excited but for a minute, I didn't think that Grandpa was going to be able to climb the stairs to get up on the horse. But with a lot of help from me and my brothers, and the fact that my Grandpa is the most stubborn man in the world, he got up. And it was the best site! To be on a ranch again and to see my Grandpa on a horse, I can't think of many things that are better than that - I actually teared up! And then to put the twins up on the horse - it was just a GREAT day! I just wish my dad could have been there to see it!

Movie Time

Last week was Spring Break here - too bad the weather wasn't very springy. Oh well. We didn't do much for Spring Break, other than playing games at home and playing outside a little bit when the weather allowed. I did manage to take the boys to do 2 different things. The first I still need to scrapbook and the other was taking them to see "How to Train Your Dragon". We went on Saturday with the Taylor's (Jason was in school and Ed was in London for work). It was a good movie. We were worried it might scare the kids (so we saw the 2D version instead of the 3D one) but they weren't scared at all. Matthew left wanting to see it again. My 3 big boys are already asking when it will be out on DVD so we can buy it. My boys love going to the movies. But like Michelle T. said, we think our kids really like going to the movies for the popcorn - who can blame them, movie theatre popcorn is so yummy!