CPS came to my house...

Yesterday Hunter and Maddie both had their yearly Well Child Check-Up. While we were there the doctor heard the nurse teasing me about how often I have been to their office lately and how I had another appt. this coming Thurs. Being the wonderful doctor that she is she went ahead and did the follow up on Brayden's ears so that I wouldn't have to come back on thursday. Unfortunately both ears were still quite infected. Brayden has had these reoccuring ear infections since October. The doctor laughed and said "So much for you not having to come back this week." Instead of an oral Rx it is given through a syringe. Starting yesterday, monday , through wed I will be taking him in for one shot in each leg. After the shots we have to wait 20min. to make sure he doesn't have an allergic reaction. Thursday he will have a post op and if his ears are still infected we will be going to a specialist for tubes. I had to take Hunter and Maddie out of school for this appt. and had every intention of taking them back. An hour's appt. ended up being 3 hours. We didn't get home until 2:15. Why take them back for the last 40 minutes?

When we got home Hunter realized that he didn't have his his coat, back pack or folder. He wanted to go back to school and get these things along with the makeup work he'd have that he had missed. I wanted to oblige him and also thought it would be a good idea to get the work that Maddie had missed too. However, when asked both Maddie and Emily did not want to go to the school. I called Kory but he wasn't able to come home right then to watch the girls . I wanted to go the school real quick but I didn't want to have to take all 4 kids with me knowing 2 of them really didn't want to go. It takes me about 3 min. to get to the school so I made a rash, quick decision. Knowing one of my best friends who lives across the street was home I told Maddie that she and her sister could stay home by themselves. I reminded them not to answer the door or phone while I was gone and if they needed ANYTHING to go to April's (right across the street). So Hunter, Brayden and I left. 15 minutes later I walked into the door and had the following converstion with Maddie:

Mom- Maddie I'm home. Did you do O.K while I was gone?
Maddie- Yeah mom, CPS (child protective services) came.
Mom- CPS came?????? (OhCrap!!!)
Maddie- Yeah, right after you left they came.
Mom- And you opened the door. Maddie I told you, you do not open the door if I'm not there! (Oh crap! Oh Crap! Oh Crap!)
Maddie- But mom it was CPS, there right there. (pointing behind me)
Mom-(Oh Crap! Oh Crap! CPS is right behind me what do I say? I know I lost all coloring in my face. I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I leave my 5 year old and 3 year old home alone for 15 min. and CPS shows up. Oh Crap! And why the heck is CPS showing up on my door step?) I turned around to see a bright orange box sitting on the floor. I said, "Maddie CPS gave this to you?"
Maddie- No mom that guy rang the door bell and left. I didn't open the door until he was gone!
Mom- Ohhhhhhhhhh! UPS came while I was gone?
Maddie- Yeah mom CPS came.

That package was my school books that I had ordered online. I don't think I'll be leaving my kids home alone for a very long time. That gave me quite the scare. We've had a couple in the ward that recently had a run in with CPS that lasted almost 5 months. The past couple of weeks I've heard a few more stories of people run in's with CPS. Even with April right across the street I don't know when the next time will be leaving the kids home alone even for just a few minutes.

Did you know...

I don't know much about technology but it never ceases to amaze me what "they" can do with it. In early May Kory and I finally bought our 1st camera. It's a Nikon L100. We bought it from Target for about $200. Of course it didn't come with rechargeable batteries, memory card, or a case which made our purchase a bit more. The target salesmen was very helpful and picked out the best "charger that came with rechargeable batteries" that would work best with our camera. Of course when we got home we swaped the Alkanine reg. batteries with the Alkanine rechargeables.

The camera's been working great until just a few weeks ago. I was getting a low battery signal so after charging the *re-chargebale batteries* the camera would work for a few days and then I'd have to do it all over again. It soon got to that I'd have to *re chare* the batteries on a daily basis. Then one day even though the batteries had been charged all day and night they still didn't work. So I threw them away. The alkaline normal batteries that came with the camera were sitting on top of my extra batteries so they went in first. My camera's been working great till last week . The camera started telling me the batteries were getting low and then a few days ago the camera would turn on long enough to tell me the batteries needed replaced and then would turn itself off. So I went to my case of new batteries and pulled out brand new Energizers as thats all we had, does the brand really matter? Apparently it does! My camera still wouldn't turn on. Being it is still under warranty I called Nikon and was told there is nothing wrong with my camera but the batteries I am using. The Nikon L100 will only work off of Alkaline AA Batteries. Did you know "they" could do that? I thought all AA batteries were the same just sold with a different brand. Apparently NOT! Not wanting to leave the house do the outpour of rain we were recieving and not wanting to take 4 children out in it. I opened every component that might have a battery in it. I found 2 AA Alkalines. Using those 2 and 2 energizers my camera works, didn't think it would but I'm glad I tried or I would have missed out on yesterday's picts of our snow that it already gone. Nikon has emailed me directions on how to download an update to my camera so that it will accept other AA batteries. I'm still amazed that technology can program my camera to only accept one type of AA batteries!

It's a Snow Day....

Yesterday morning we woke up to this.... Standing on my front porch all by myself. It was so peaceful.

It was still a little dark. There were no lights shining out of anyones windows.

No tracks in the fresh snow.

It was kinda cool.

The front yard measured 4.5-5 inches. The back yard was 4inches.

Needless to say it became a "Snow Day". Kory's always amazed when we have snow days. He just happened to be in his home town yesterday morning and laughed when I told him the kids wouldn't be going to school. He said Alton recieved 10+ inches of snow, the roads had been plowed, the buses still came at 6:15am and the kids were at school on time. Talking to my mother-in-law yesterday afternoon after Kory had left they received an additional 4 inches in about an hours time and it was still coming down fast. I love visiting Alton but I'm sure glad I don't live there. I couldn't handle that much snow. Even though we had quite a bit of snow for Prescott Valley starting early afternoon it rained and rained and rained. By bedtime the snow was gone. We enjoy it while we've got it knowing in a day or two it'll be all gone.

For breakfast the kids had *fresh* snow cones. mmmmm yum!!!

We spent half the day in our jammies playing with legos. The other half of the day was spent coloring, playing with barbies who were getting attacked by pirates, reading Junie B. Jones and watching a movie. Due to technichal difficuties with my camera I didn't get many photos of our snow day.

Making History...

This past weekend we went to Phoenix for a gorgeous little girls batptism that I will post about later. While we were in the valley saturday mid morning Hunter started complaining that his ear tickled. By that afternoon he was close to tears telling me how much his ear hurt. Being he had been a little emotional all day, he had stayed up late the previous three nights and we had to wake the kids up at 5:30 that morning to get to the baptism on time, I talked it up to being his ears needed to pop and being overly tired. I went ahead gave him some Motrin and immediately he was off running around with his cousins. He's really sick right! So all the way home he was moaning and complaining how his ear tickled/hurt. I was having him do everything I could think of to get his ears to pop. I was having him yawn, chew gum, gave him a cup with a straw to suck on hoping that would help. He said he had little pops but still his ear hurt. By the time we got home he was in tears. Being it was late and all the doctors offices were closed I sent Hunter to bed with more Motrin and the promise of taking him to the Dr.'s in the morning if his ear still hurt. Morning couldn't come soon enough. He was up numerous times due to his ear. Being it was sunday he and I went to the nearest Urgent Care. The office opened at 9:00 am and we signed it at 8:55, with 4 patiens ahead of us. Why it took 3 incredibly long hours for us to be seen with only the 4 patients and us in the waiting room I will never understand. The doctor looked in Hunter's ears and accusingly asked me when Hunter started complaing about an ear ache. Yesterday, I answered. Hunter ended up having an infection in his ear canal and in his ear drum. The doctor let me know that his ear was quite red, swollen and angry. His ear looked like he had had an infectin for a few days now. He told me how lucky we were that his ear drum didn't rupture on our trip home. So Hunter is on a RX 3 times a day for 10 days along with ear drops 4x a day for 7 days.

Starting sunday afternoon Little Miss started complaining that her ears hurt. I figured she was a little jealous of the attention big brother was having. She would complain and then run off to play. Sunday before bed she had a slight fever and was still complaining that her ear hurt. I told her that if her ear still hurt in the morning that I would take her to the doctor too. She then told me how she hates going to the doctor so her ear won't be hurting by morning. Once again Kory and I were up with both Emily and Brayden several times through the night. Brayden still has a cold and is quite stuffy. He just can't breathe well or starts coughing horribly when we lay him down. So come monday morning Emily still claims she doesn't feel good but her ear doesn't hurt. She said her throat didn't hurt, her arms and legs didn't hurt, nothing hurt she just didn't feel good but she still had a fever.

When Emily woke up from her nap later that day she still have a fever and her body was now covered with a red rash underneath her clothes. She said she didn't feel good but was up and playing with her siblings just fine. She seemed fine. Tuesday Emily's rash was now all over her body. It was in her ears, all over her neck on the tops of her feet, just everywhere. By bedtime she was complaining that she itched all over. We kept slathering her little body with lotion which seemed to help. She still had a fever but still claimed that nothing hurt. Maddie once got a rash with a high fever and when I took her to the doctors I was told the side effect of the fever was the rash, there was nothing to do for it. Not wanting to go to the doctors just to be sent home to ride this thing out I kept her doctored up with many popsicles, Motrin and Tylenol. Tuesday night she was up most of the night whimpering how she didn't feel very good and itched like crazy.

The best way to describe her skin tuesday night was that it wasn't really a rash anymore but she was now covered in goose bumps. As long as she was high on drugs you could see the bumps but they weren't bothersome. When the tylenol was wearing off the bumps turned red and started to itch again.

Being she still had a fever, the itchy rash, not wanting to eat and by now being quite tempermental and lathargic I took her to the doctors. The nurse came in took her temp it was again back up to 102. When I asked her about the rash she said it was probably a side effect from the high fever. After the bazillion questions that I was asked the nurse said that Strep was going around and so wanted to go ahead and swab her throat even though she wasn't complaining about a sore throat. The nurse left to do the in office test and came back a few minutes later. The nurse said,"Well I have an answer for you now about the rash. Emily has "SCARLET FEVER". Seriously!!!!! The Scarlet Fever is the same strain as strep throat only it also comes with a body rash. As you can imagine the Scarlet Fever is very rare but still happens. Emily made history today as being the 1st patient to be treated for Scarlet Fever in this paticular doctors office. The doctor had seen this only once before when she was an intern. Many of the nures kept coming in to see their first "Scarlet Fever" patient. Emily is being treated the same way as if she just had strep. She's on RX 2x a day for 10 days.

Since we had so much attention at the doctors office everyone could hear how congested and what a horrible cough Brayden had. Since strep throat is so contagious the doctor had Brayden tested as a percaution. Can you believe it came back positive. Brayden made history of being the youngest to be treated for Strep. He to is on a RX 2x a day for 10 days now. Since Hunter is already on an RX he should be O.K. I'm a little worried about Madelyn, being she sleeps next to her sister. So far she's good. No fever and no complaining she's not feeling well. If she gets this I hope it will show its signs today or tommorrow so we don't have to do another Urgent Care on the weekend. The office was thrilled to see the history we were making. I just wish it was in another way. I guess when it was rains it pours. But really we're doing O.K. The kids all slept very well last night including this mom. The kiddo's are happy and getting along this morning. We're doing better than I thought we would be yesterday. Hopefully everyone's good mood will keep through the long weekend.

Is it really January?

Kory and I were talking just last night about how wonderful the weather is here. How when we move the #1 thing we will probably miss the most (besides our friends) is the weather. It's the beginning of January and my kids can play outside in tshirts. When Hunter and Maddie get home from school they grab a snack and then head outside to ride bikes with friends. If you noticed, Hunter's pedals are missing. There is a Youtube video about how to teach your kids to ride a bike in a day. You simply take the pedals off so

they focus on balancing instead of peddaling and balancing. Hunter is doing very well and we could probably put his pedals back on. A few weeks ago Maddie crashed and she's been riding the 3wheeler since. She's scared she'll fall again and scrape her knee. One day we'll be able to convine her to get back on!
I bought the 3 wheeler at a garge sale soon after moving into our house. I am so glad I did. This is the most prized after outside possesion we have.

I love living in a cul-de-sac. What little traffic we do get is usually our older neighbors who are very cautious drivers when they see all the kids out on the roads.

Brayden may be too little to ride a bike but he usually gets a few pushes in the stroller up and down the street too. The other day the girls decided to switch him from his stroller to the baby doll stroller. They hit a bump and out came baby which explains the red bump on his head. Poor guy! His sister's do love him.

Another Sunbeam

This is our 3rd to be a Sunbeam now! I 've decided it doesn't get easier with each one. Its such a sad/happy day. It's great to see my baby girl getting bigger and becoming a little more and more independent each day. But becoming a Sunbeam solidifies that fact she's not a baby anymore. She was/is so excited to go to the big kid Primary! She was so excited to come home with a new "Sunbeam" shirt and her very first, her very own CTR ring.

Look who's in the CTR 6 class. Is she really? I don't want her to grow up either!

Maddie's been looking forward to this day for a few weeks now. She loves saying she is in the CTR 6 class but she's still only 5.

My beautiful girls! I'm so glad you both had such a great 1st day in your new classes. ( Daddy and Hunter both stayed home due to them both having the stomach flu.)

New Year's Day

New Years Day Brayden woke up a new baby. He was back to his happy self. By that afternnon Kory and I decided we all needed to get out of the house so we headed on down to the bowling alley. Lucky for us during the weekdays between 3:30-5 kids bowl for $1.69 and shoes are FREE. Brayden was very content to sit in the stroller and watch.

Emily didn't care about the points just that each turn she got to bowl 2 TIMES.

Hunter would use this nifty device every other bowl. He actually did better on his own.

Can you guess what happened? It's a horrible pict but it shows her excitement. Yeah Maddie!!!! You got a STRIKE!!! Good Job!!!

New Years Day morning we spent quite a bit of time outside. I love our weather!

I love our Swingset!

I love this guy who loves to make goofey faces when he sees mom's got the camera!

I love this little girl who is also trying to copy her big brother in the making funnyfaces. Only this time I'm not sure what kind of a face this is.

I love these kids! The weather has been so good lately. It's great having the kidddo's run off some energy outside. And they like to be outside so why not? Our New Years Day started off the new year perfectly. We enjoyed the weather and the time we had with each other.

Unhappy Babies!

I was looking at some newly downloaded pitcs and came across this one. I thought I 'd use it to head this post. Doesn't he look happy! It has now been 10 days since Brayden's surgery. Brayden did very well the 1st 4 days. Starting Christmas night Brayden's behavior started to change. He cried constantly and only wanted mom. Come Sunday Kory started to mention the change in behavior and thought maybe something else was wrong. I know it's bad when Daddy says,"maybe you should take him to the doctor." Being he had had 2 ear infections the month before surgery I thought maybe he had come down with another one. There are no words to describe how cranky and miserable he seemed to be. He would't nurse or eat. On Sunday he went 9 hours before I could get him to eat again. He was pulling on both ears and had a temp off and on. He had dark circles under his eyes due to not sleeping more then 20min. at a time including through the night and his mouth was so dry that his lips were cracking and bleedy. Monday morning I called and made an appt. with his pediatrician. I love his doctor. She didn't find any ear infections, nothing seemed wrong but she too was concerned at his behavior that she was witnessing from him. She sent us home knowing the next day was his post op in Phoenix but to call anyways and discuss his behavior with the surgeon. When I got home from the peadiatrian's I called down to his doctor and had to leave a message for a nurse to call back. Of course she never did.

Tuesday we piled the family in the van and drove the 2 1/2 hours to the post op appt. After having to wait 2 hours before we were finally seen by the doctor he told us Brayden's behavior is typicall. The tylenol with codeine is known to dry a person out and luckily we don't need to give it to him every 4 hours anymore, just as needed. The doctor removed all the dressing and the cathetor so Brayden doesn't need any of his meds anymore. YEAH!!!

It's been 2 days since his post op now. Brayden is still very cranky and insists on being held constantly. At least he'll let his dad hold him now when he's home. The doctor told us with previous patients this kind of behavior can last up to 3 weeks after surgery but usually after the 2 week mark things improve quickly. Here's to 4 more days. Until then the house will continue to stay cluttered, laundry will be done one batch a day and I will do the days worth of dishes after the other kids are in bed and Kory is doing the baby dance with Brayden. It's sad but true that I actually look forward to the 20 minutes of doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen. Dinner will be cold cereal or pizza just one more night. Tommorrow Kory will be home and will be a great help with Brayden. I plan to make a few freezer meals that will hopefully last over the next week or two. I hate it when my kids are sick. I would much rather be sick then them. As a mom I think it's the worse to know your child is sick or in pain. You do everything you can to make them feel more comfortable but sometimes that's just not enough. It reall sucks that there's not much I can do for him.

We plan to have a few friends come over tonight and ring in the new year with us. Hopefully a few more people in the house will be a good distraction for Brayden. This year we're going to go out with a bang. Happy New Year's!

Christmas Morning

This was our 4th Christmas staying at home. The 1st question I get asked when talking to loved ones on Christmas Day is, "how early did the kids wake up?" Usually my reply is sometime between 5-6am. This year was a little different. The kids were so so so excited that we didn't get them to bed until 9:00pm. By 10:00 the kids were asleep and by 10:30 mom and dad were also snoozing away. I am still unsure as to what woke me up at 12:15am but something did. I laid in bed listening and sure enough I heard very quiet chit chatter. Then out of the dark a light switch flipped on. I ran out to the family room to discover both Hunter and Madelyn getting more excited by the second. "Look mom look Santa already came. Can we go wake up Emily?" Uh..... NO! I sent them both back to bed in a hurry with strict instructions as not to get out of bed until 7:00am (what we usually say). Knowing that both kids would probably have a hard time going back to sleep and going to bed almost 2 hours later then usuall I was really hoping it would be 7. Once again I was awoken with the sound of a light switch. I rolled over to discover it was 5:45am. Quickly I ran to the family room to discover Hunter, who quickly said "I'm just looking mom!" at what Santa had left behind. Once again I sent him back to his bed until the girls woke up. By now I too couldn't go back to sleep so when I discovered Hunter at 6:45 "Just looking" again we woke everyone else up. We had the kiddo's line up in the hall so daddy could inspect what Santa left. Ignore my son's pose. Where do kids learn these things???? Hunter was thrilled with a Pokemon movie and puzzle. The past 2 years Santa hasn't necesarily goofed, Hunter has just changed his mind a few days before Christmas and has been a little dissapointed that Santa too didn't make the change on the want list. He was so excited and kept saying, "I can't believe Santa brought me what I really really wanted."

Madelyn wanted a My Little Pet Shop. Can you tell she's pleased?

Emily of course was another baby doll.

The girls and their Barbie House.

Mommy, Emily and Brayden. Brayden wasn't quite ready to wake up yet.

Hunter was proud of himself to lay all his gifts out for a picture that mom insits on taking every year.

Maddie who is usually so photogenic complained that the flash on the camera was hurting her eyes. When mom turned the flash off it was too late. All I get is a bunch of squinty eye picts of her.

Emily loves her baby and the new playdough. Mom can now throw out all the dried up, mixed color, old yucky playdough away. It will be great to start fresh.

Brayden's 1st Christmas was a success. Santa brought him a choo choo train that shoots out balls and chugs away by itself. Unfortunately Santa forgot to leave batteries. A few days after Christmas we now have the batteries and he is enjoying chasing after his choo choo train. What a great smile he has on his face.

What I miss most about not going home for Christmas is the visiting. The kids are off playing with cousins and the adults are sitting around socializing. So since we've decided not to travel any more for Christmas 4 years ago we started a new tradition. We invite a few friends over for Christmas that would other wise also be alone for Christmas. We split up the good food and everyone brings something to contribute. We stick to the traditional Christmas dinner of turkey/ham, mashed potatoes, salads, rolls and pies. Nobody leaves hungry. We had 2 families over this year which gave us 6 adults and 12 kids. We had so much fun that my camera sat on the counter the entire afternoon taking a nap. It wasn't until the next morning that I thought about all the pictures I wanted to take that didn't get taken. Oh well. Maybe next year. I hope you all had a great Christmas too.

Santa's Dollhouse

I've been told many times now that the bestest part of Christmas was the surprise Dollhouse. Madelyn said, "WOW! Mom, Santa is really really smart. I didn't even ask for a Barbie house but he sure new I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. This was our big project over the past few weeks. I have been working on the furniture for quite some time now. I couldn't sew at night because Hunter would wake up and come out to tell me I was being too loud. So I would pull out the sewing machine as soon as I dropped Maddie off to school and put Emily down for a nap. I would then have about 1-2 hours before I had to start cleaning up before I had to pick her and Hunter up from school. I found many, many ideas on the internet for bedroom furniture but not too many durable ideas for the kitchen and bathroom. I was still planning on making these until I discovered the kitchen on ebay for $8 and the bath for $5. With shipping it cost me about $20.

The beds are made from shoe boxes donated by Big 5. All of the fabric are scraps from my sewing drawers or from a friends. The batting I took out of an old pillow that has seen better days. The 2 dressers I bought for less then $3 each thanks to our new Hobby Lobby store that was constantly offering 60% off unfinished wood items. The couches were made with Mac n' Cheese boxes and more batting. The lamp post also came from Hobby Lobby and the shade is a piece of scrapbook paper. Santa made the house with scraps from the shop so overall we spent less than $35.00. Not too bad I think.

Bedroom #1

Bathroom

Bedroom #2

Kitchen with a broom that I bought from D.I for $.25. The kitchen came with pots and pans and lots of little food that fit in the refrigerator.

Flower pot also came from D.I I love the way the big screen TV turned out. Both of my girls have spent the majority of the past few days sitting in front of their Barbie House. They love it and I had fun making it. Not wanting Santa to get all the credit we told them that Santa and mommy have been in cahoots. That Santa told mommy he was going to be bringing a Barbie house with the kitchen and bathroom but mommy would need to make everything else. I absolutlely love it.