S'more Please

Actual Date: Sunday, January 23, 2011

Brian has been wanting to learn how to cook for awhile now. And when I say learn how to cook I mean it... about the only thing the boy can make is grilled chicken and canned veggies...  With me still recovering from my Wisdom Teeth surgery he decided this would be the perfect time to start.  He searched through our recipes and decided on his Mom's Swiss Chicken. 

And I have to say it was darn good.  Especially for his first 'real' meal.  

Good job Babe!  

Parker approved too.  In fact, he asked for more.  That's him doing baby sign language for "More."  

He does this a lot these days.  Sometimes if you don't notice right away he'll actually say "More Pwee" (more please).  And if you're still not fast enough for him after that he just yells "MOOOORE!"


He even does it at physical therapy.  It's so funny.  The first time he did it there his Physical Therapist was like "Um what's he doing?"

After dinner we got all the kids cleaned up and ready for bed. 

Every night before we put the girls to bed we read to them a page from their book of Daily Devotion's for Little Girls.  Or as Ava calls it "Boshinal."  That's the way it sounds when she says 'Devotional.'  

She usually runs in and grabs the book and says "I want Daddy read it!"  But the past couple nights she's been saying "I gonna read it" and then she sits there and pretends to read.  I will have to get a video of it because the things she says are so cute.  She usually says something like "You gotta be nice, you can't bite.  Jesus is God's son.  You don't bite your friends.  Something to sleep on.... Amen."

After Brian reads the page we usually ask the girls what they heard discuss what that day was about.  Whenever we get to this part Ava says "I want Brookie say it."  It starts so young... Whenever we ask Ava to give us a real answer she says "It's about being Godgood."  She thinks if she says "God" or "Being good" she's at least got a shot of being right.  

That girl... you gotta love her.  

Does This Hat Make My Head Look Big?

Actual Date: Saturday, January 22, 2011

Parker messing around with Daddy's hat.  He kept yelling "Me! Me!" Which roughly translated from Parkernese is "Look at me!"  When we would look at him he would bust out laughing.  He's such a clown sometimes.  It amazes me how interactive and how much personality he has at 16 months old. It's so fun!

Minus the Molars and Feeling Great

Actual Date: Friday, January 21, 2011

I made it!

A little after 10:00 a.m. this morning all four of my wisdom teeth were removed.   Everything went smooth but he did tell me that I would be a little sore for awhile because of the amount of work it took to get the bottom ones out of there.  

Great...

The first night was a little rough after all the numbing medicine wore off and the swelling set in, but those ice packs were amazing.  That is until the ice melted and the water started to soak through and I woke up soaking wet the next morning...  After that we had to put the ice in plastic bags and then put it into the handy little holder.  That seemed to work pretty good.  

Everything seemed like it was going good, until Saturday night when my gums started to swell in the front...  I figured this was just post operation swelling and it would clear up with time.  By Sunday night it was getting worse and I was starting to worry that this was not normal after all.  I called the Doctor Monday morning and they said that it didn't sound like something that should be happening but I couldn't go in that day because Brian could not get out of work to watch the kids.  So I made an appointment for Tuesday and I prayed that things wouldn't get any worse in that time.

Tuesday afternoon I went in and the Doctor looked my mouth all over.  I was concerned because my gums had actually started to blister and skin was peeling off.  It was getting quite painful and uncomfortable.  In fact, my stitches and the surgery site didn't hurt at all compared to everything else that was going on.  

I was worried that they had accidentally used something Latex on me because I usually break out in blisters whenever I'm exposed to Latex.  But the Doctor assured me that the whole surgery room had been Latex free.  He said it looked like I was either having an allergic reaction to the prescription mouth wash or that the mouth wash was too strong for me.  Either way he said to stop the mouth wash immediately.  

Good grief.  The mouth wash?!  Are you kidding me?  I had been using it more and more these past couple days because my gums hurt too bad to brush so I figured if I was at least using the mouth wash that was good.  Right?!  Obviously it was doing more harm than good.

Well, once I stopped the mouth wash the swelling cleared up in the next day or so and the blisters slowly started to heal.  I guess the best thing about that whole ordeal is that the actual surgery site never really bothered me.  Everything healed up just like it should and it wasn't as painful as i was expecting it too be.

Now I'm just trying to get my tooth to stop hurting...  Back in the end of December I had a cavity filled.  I had some sensitivity when cold things would touch it and a few days later my jaw was still hurting.  In the beginning I figured my jaw was hurting because of having to hold my mouth open for the filling but when it didn't go away after a few days, I looked back there.  That's when I saw that my Wisdom Tooth was popping through.  Fast forward though that.... after that healed up I noticed that when I would bite down on the tooth that I had the cavity filled on, it felt like it would hit a nerve.  It seriously would send me through the roof.

So I went back in and they said that maybe a part filling was high and it was causing my bite to be off, so they shaved it down a little and put me on a steroid to help it heal faster.  A week or so later it was still hurting so I went back in and the Doctor said that he was going to put a crown on it to cover that nerve and give it some protection and that should help.  They even put some special medicine that tasted like cloves under the temporary crown to help settle the nerve.  That helped for about two days but after that it got worse.  So finally last Thursday (Feb. 17) I went back in and they started a root canal.  It was at the end of the day so they didn't have time to finish the whole thing but they scheduled to finish it when my permanent crown came in.  

Well, today I went back in because it's still sensitive to cold and now it feels like the tooth behind it is hurting when I bite down!  They took some x rays and they said that it looks like, dispute the antibiotic they placed down there when they did the root canal, I have an infection down at the base of the root of the tooth they've been working on.  And they think that my other tooth is hurting because of all the work I have had recently and that it just needs some time to heal.  So the Doctor gave me some antibiotics and hopefully everything clears up in the next week or so.  

I had only ever had one other cavity in my whole life.  Now I get this stubborn one and it's making up for all the time I never had to spend at the Dentists office.  At least my Dentist and his whole staff are super friendly so that makes going there at least a little more pleasant.  It's a family owned company and they are seriously one of the sweetest families I've ever met.  The first time I went there I ended up being really sick (I think I might have written about this before so sorry if you're hearing this more than once) and the Wife/Mom who also works there actually called me the next day to see if I was ok and see if we needed anything or help with the kids because she knew that it was just Brian and I here doing it on our own. I couldn't believe it.  Who does that these days?  And especially to their patient whom they've just met.  

I seriously feel so blessed.  It seems like since we've moved here God has just put us where we need to be and he's put some incredible people in our lives.  Like our Pediatrician, our Dentist, our Neighbors, our Hardie family and of course our Church family.  I could not imagine how different our life here on our own would be without all of these amazing people in it.   

Day Two Hundred and Twelve

Actual Date: Saturday, October 22, 2010

Our old computer is still acting up but thankfully our pictures are safe on our back up drive.  I just disconnected it and plugged it in so I can finish up 2010.  I might jump back and forth for awhile until I get caught up so just pretend that you're watching an episode of Lost and try not to get too confused.  I always post the "Actual Date" at the top of every post so hopefully that helps.

The day had finally come for the big Hardie Party.  The kids were so excited.  Brooke and Brian left early to go help get things set up.

I snapped some quick pictures of her before she headed out the door. 

When we got there the first thing we saw was Hardie the Clown.  We thought Parker might like him, but as you can see we were wrong.  I like to call this picture "Good Grief."  You can't really see too good but Parker was dressed as Charlie Brown.  So the caption fits. 

Jason getting ready to be dunked.

There he goes.

Ava and I went on a walk around the park and we found this fun maze.

There goes little Raymond.  That little boy is so precious.

Next it was Darren's turn in the dunk tank.  I laughed when I saw this picture because I didn't remember reading Adam's shirt before.  It says "When Hell freezes over... we'll have siding for that too!"  haha.  In case you didn't know the company that my Husband works for makes cement siding, as well as some other things.

There were so many yummy treats: 

Snow cones,

Cotton Candy and my very favorite,  Goop Cake.  Mr. Duane aka Hardie the Clown makes a mean Goop Cake.  Some people call it Ooey Gooey Butter Cake.  I don't care what you call it.  All I care about is getting more Goop Cake...

...I think I have a problem

Send help!

Thanks Mr. Duane, errr I mean Mr. Hardie.  I fit into nothing but my yoga pants for about 3 weeks after that last fateful pan that I was forced to polish off.

I didn't want to but somebody had to do it.

After awhile, they lined all the little ones up for the costume contest.

This little octopus girl stole my heart.  How cute is she?  Don't you love her?  She won for her age group and my little Ava won for her age group.  She was so proud. 

The Judges trying to decide.  Gail's face cracks me up.

After the costume contest it was time for the Doughnut Dangle.  I have to say that was pretty hilarious.

While all the kids were distracted Duane was safe to take off his make up. 

And Parker could finally relax now that the clown was gone.

After the doughnuts were no longer dangling, it was time for some more dunk tank time.

Last but not least, it was Adam's turn.

This little boy was so sweet.  He couldn't get the ball to hit the target so his Dad told him to just run up and hit it.

He was so proud to finally dunk him.

Brookie girl was up next.  She never hit the target but she was fine with that.

Soon after the wind picked up and storm clouds were moving in fast.  It was kinda creepy.  I'd never seen anything like it.  The wind was blowing so hard that it was ripping the leaves off the trees and the one's that were already on the ground were blowing around like crazy.  Brian told me to grab the kids and head home.  I'm glad I did because not more than 5 minutes later, the rain started dumping down and lightening started.

The kids all feel asleep on the way home.  I don't know if they were worn out from the party or if it was the sound of the down pouring rain on the car, but I sure as heck wasn't going to wake them up to find out.

Roughhousing With Daddy

Actual Date: Monday, January 17, 2011

Parker and Brooke both woke up not feeling good this day.  Brian was even saying that his throat hurt.  He even stayed home from work which almost never happens so I knew he really didn't feel good.  I kept Brooke home from school and took her and Parker to the Doctor. 

Just as I suspected, they both tested positive for Strep.  They must have picked it up, despite my best efforts to sanitize, from Ava.  Our nurse asked where Ava was and I told her that she was at home with Daddy because he wasn't feeling so hot either.  She said to call his Doctor, who is in the same building as the kids Doctor, and tell him that all three of our kids have Strep and see if they could just call him in some antibiotics.  Brian called and they did call him in some meds, which he was grateful for.

I was just praying with everything I had that I wouldn't be the next one to get it.  My wisdom teeth were still making them self known and I was beyond ready to get them out. 

Here's some pictures of Daddy and Parker roughhousing before bed time. 

That's my 20 year old cat, Spottie.  I can not for the life of me get a good picture of that old girl.  She is not very photogenic, Bless her heart.  But, she is the sweetest kitty ever.  She's like a little Grandma around our house.  You would think after 20 years she would learn to stay away from wild kids and grabby babies.... but no.  She LOVES them. 

  

And they love her too.

That's Dr. Parker to You

Actual Date: Friday, January 14, 2011

This day was a busy Dr. day again.  In the morning I had to take Ava to see the Dr. because she had been running a fever and not feeling good for a day or so now.  Ava is my one who hardly ever gets sick so when she is sick, it's usually something that requires antibiotics.  

I'm glad I took her in because they swabbed her for Strep and it came back positive.  

After that appointment we met Daddy at home so he could watch the kids while I went to my Dr.'s appointment.  It was my yearly woman's check up if you know what I mean (sorry if that's TMI), but I also wanted to discuss with her the Migraines I had been having because my primary Dr. and I had decided that they were connected to my cycle.  Since that is her area of expertise, I wanted to hear her opinion on what was going on.

She told me that basically when I'm having these headaches it's a small seizure in my brain.  The only way  to stop them was to stop the cause.  So she suggested that I go on the Depo shot and if my cycle is the cause, the headaches should stop.

 I was nervous about starting the Depo shot because I heard horror stories of that thing making people gain a ton of weight.  My Doctor is really straight forward and she said, "Just control your mouth and you'll be fine.  It's all in your head."  When she walked out of the room her nurse turned to me and said "I was on that shot for 5 years and I don't think I changed my eating habits at all and I still gained 30 pounds!"  Thanks lady, that makes me feel better!

Anyways, I'm just praying that this medicine works.  I had been taking an anti-seizure medication but it was making me so tired and out of it all the time.  That's half of the reason why I got so behind on my blog.  I just didn't have any energy or drive while I was on that medication.   That's one of the reasons I could not continue taking that medication.  Plus, I was still getting headaches when how do I put this nicely, when Aunt Flo came to visit...  So obviously it wasn't the right type of treatment for me.

Recently a reporter suffered from one of the very same Migraines that I have been having while covering the Grammys live on the air.  They originally thought she was having a stroke, just like my Doctors did.  I don't think I've ever lost total control of my speech like she did but I did have a really hard time finding the right words sometimes.  Especially when they're really bad.

Here's some pictures of Mr. Parker Funny Man from that day.

After we got home from taking Ava to the Doctor, Parker went in the playroom and found the Dr. play kit that we have.  He walked around for most of the day with the stethoscope on.

I asked him "Are you a Doctor?"  and he said "Yeah!" and smile.

It still blows my mind every day how big he is getting.  I know I say it a lot but it really seems like just yesterday that he was born!  Slow down Father Time.  I want my babies to stay babies for just a little while longer.

Wisdom Teeth Are No Joke

Actual Date: Thursday, January 13, 2011

For the last two weeks my wisdom teeth have been hurting like crazy.  I hadn't ever had them removed because they never bothered me.  Except for last Summer when one side got infected, but after the antibiotics cleared it up I tried to push the whole wisdom teeth removal idea out of my mind.  I'd seen the videos of people coming out of surgery and I was terrified of that being me.

Unfortunately, about two weeks ago, when the pain all started, I looked in my mouth to see what I could see.  And what I saw was my bottom right wisdom tooth poking through!  I told Brian and being the funny guy he is he said "Oh, that's why you've been so crabby lately.  You're teething!"  Hardy-har-har.

Brian had been super busy at work and I was busy with other things so this was the first day in two weeks that I could get into see the doctor.  

Speaking of the Dr. can I please say how frustrating it was to find him?!  I called the one that my Dentist had written a referral for and they said they didn't take my insurance.  So I called the Dentist back to see if he had any other Doctors that he recommended.  They gave me another name and when I called that Oral Surgeon didn't take my insurance either.  What the heck?  It's not like I have some lame insurance either.  It's a pretty good plan through BlueCross BlueShield.  Anyways, after waiting about 45 minutes on hold with my insurance (no I'm not exaggerating) I finally got a list of Dr.'s within my area.  But just about that time Brian called and gave me the name of a Surgeon that someone from his work recommended.  I had asked him to ask around at work since we all had the same insurance.  That way I would KNOW that they took our insurance.

So after all that ranting and raving, obviously the recommended Doctor took my insurance so I made an appointment to meet with him on this Thursday.  After looking at the x rays above the Doc said that the reason why I was in so much pain was because my wisdom teeth were in fact growing in.  Or trying to anyways.

I thought because the one tooth was already popping through removing them would be a piece of cake. 

Right?  

Right Doc?!

Welp,  you would think so but no...  Apparently my teeth were growing in perfectly level, which would be a good thing if the other half of the tooth wasn't chiseling away at my jaw bone.  The Doctor said that there just wasn't enough room in my mouth for those teeth to fit.  And the reason it was hurting so bad because the part that was still under the gum was trying to grow up the jaw bone.  

Fun huh?

Like it or not those babies had to come out.  Surgery was set and scheduled for the following Friday.  

This is one of our families all time favorite AFV videos.  We are AFV fanatics in this house.  Don't tell anyone but most Sunday nights we sit on the couch and eat pizza for dinner and watch AFV...

Here's another funny one that my friend told me about.

The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That

Actual Date: Sunday, January 9, 2011

When we woke up this morning the kids were excited for three things:

1) We were heading to church and they LOVE going to church.

2) After church we had plans to head to sweet little Mariska's birthday party. (I was excited too because I bought her the cutest little present. When I first saw it at the store I wanted to buy it so bad. But the only child in my house that it was age appropriate for was Parker, and it clearly is not a boy toy. So needless to say, when we were invited to a 1 year old girls birthday party, I HAD to buy it. I'd been praying for someone to have a baby girl just so I could buy this darn thing. Here is the link so you know what I'm talking about.)

And lastly 3) It was dark and dreary outside and "they" were predicting snow!

It started snowing when we were in church. After we got out we headed home to grab some lunch and head to the Birthday Bash. I was glad Brian was home to drive because I'm such a baby about driving in the snow. I can't help it, I'm a California girl born and raised.

The theme of the party was Dr. Seuss. It was actually a double Birthday Party. The two birthday girls were born just a day apart in the same hospital. They were in a race to be the first baby born in that hospital for 2010. Mariska won but Lexi followed soon after. The mom's knew each other from High School but became good friends after their daughters births. They even opened a boutique together. I told you about them in this post awhile back.

Here's Brooke trying out the green eggs. We had her be the taste tester. She took a bite and said "Mmm. It's sweet." That's when I had a panic attack.

I just figured it was the egg yokes dyed green but when she said "It's sweet" I thought oh no, what if it's frosting. Not just frosting but frosting that's not peanut free?! So I asked her if I could please try it and when I did I could tell it was for sure egg yolk. Phew, that was a close one.

It was just another reminder that we can never let our guard down when it comes to her allergy. It could have just as easily been frosting.

Here's the birthday girl Mariska with her Grandma and Grandpa, Rena and Mike. They were our neighbors the first time we lived in Texas. We've missed them but we've stayed close through the years. And I'm so glad we did because here we are back in Texas, not very far from them. It's been nice to catch up with them and their growing family. Their whole family is great. Sweetest family you'd ever wanna meet.

They even let us spend the night with them one night after Brooke had been hospitalized at 3 weeks old and we had no place to go because the movers had already moved all of our stuff back to California. Now that's truly loving thy neighbor.

The cute cake and marshmallow pops. Mariska's mom, Adrienne, made them. She's so talented. I remember back when I first met her she brought over some kinda yummy goodness that had crushed up Heath bars in it. Remember that Adrienne? That's when I knew that Mikey should marry you. You were a keeper from that moment on in my eyes! I think you should make some more of that stuff and send it my way... I'm just saying...

Ava trying out the marshmallow pops.

Ok totally off topic but did y'all know it's "marshmallow" not "marshmellow?" Or am I the only one that's been spelling it/saying it wrong for all these years? Had my spell check not corrected me, I would have never known. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I feel like I've been lied to my whole life... Things just wont be the same.

Anyways...

This is Mariska's brother and cousin, Landon and Taytum. Aren't they too stinkn' cute? Taytum was just a little bitty baby when we were all neighbors. I remember seeing her when I was pregnant with Brooke and thinking "I can't wait!"

There's the two Birthday girls getting ready to dig into their cakes. They had shirts that said "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" from their Momma's boutique of course. It was precious.

'That was yummy!'

Thanks for inviting us guys. We all had a blast and it was good to see everyone. We are so happy that we're back in Texas and we get to be a part of each other's lives again!

I took this last picture on the way out of town. The town we lived in the first time we relocated to Texas was one of those cute little Texas towns that you see in the movies. This building is the court house right downtown that Brian and I went to to get our passports made for our Honeymoon. Isn't that sweet? It's so weird driving back though that town. When we moved I wasn't sure we'd ever be back. What were the odds that we'd be transferred back to Texas just 40 minutes away?

Oh and you can see from the picture that the sleet/snow turned into rain. The roads had cleared up and the drive home was much easier than the one on the way out there.