Lost camera!

So, I haven't posted in a while because I lost my camera. And although I am sure some of you would love to here me ramble on about whatever I like, the majority of you just want to see pictures of my sweet kiddos. I have spent the last couple of weeks hoping to find it but I think it was lost at PF Chang's in Las Vegas and I guess no one turned it in. :( If someone took it, they will be saddened that it is really NOT a great camera. I considered myself to be a great photographer because I got at least a few good pics out of it every once in a while. :) I have wanted a new one for a while but I am of the opinion "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," (or in my case, lost). And even though the camera did border on the line of broke, it really wasn't so I have just been patiently waiting for my kids to drop it a few more times and then planned on getting a new one. But as life goes, changes happen when you least expect them. So alas, I have been researching the last several days on which new camera to get. I have been really wanting a DSLR but now that it is time to actually get one they just don't seem practical for what I want to use it for. Since I take my camera pretty much where ever I go, I want to be able to fit it in my pocket and take video too. And I don't really have time to learn how to use a DSLR. If I could afford both, that would be ideal! :) The saddest thing about the whole thing is that I had some really cute pictures of Asher when he first learned to sit and now I feel like I have missed out on pictures of him for the last month, which in adult time is more like a year. But after reading about a thousand reviews online I have narrowed it down to two cameras I like. Hopefully, I can decide quickly. My kids aren't getting any younger!

Bakery Field Trip

Last month, Allison's preschool theme was based around the 5 senses, so we decided to take them on a field trip to the bakery where they could put all five senses to the test at once.

Here they are in awe of the "flour" room.

The bakery knew the kids were learning about their five senses so they had all kinds of things for them to smell and touch...dough, white and wheat flour, sugar, honey (which the mom's all agreed they should pass on)!

All the bread cooling on racks!

And of course, their favorite sense....taste!

Asher and Detox

Asher is 5 and half months now. He is moving around a lot more now. He rolls all over the place. He loves playing with his toys. We tried rice cereal for the first time this month and found out that he is very allergic to it. He throws up every time we give it to him. We tried it several times because we thought he couldn't possibly be allergic to rice cereal but the last time he threw up for about 45 minutes straight and was so lethargic afterwards he couldn't even lift his head anymore. It was horrible! So no more rice cereal!!! AND we also realized that I can't eat beans or CHOCOLATE while I am nursing!!! What am I going to do? You don't realize how much you have (or need) something until you can't have it anymore. Maybe it is just because I can't have it right now but I want it everyday. I really think I am addicted. I never would have thought I was because, hey, a little chocolate everyday is good for you, right? Well, I can't stop thinking about it. I want it in Chocolate milk, chocolate pop-tarts, oreos, brownies that I have to make for a bake-sale, the mini chocolate chips that I put in my kids pancakes. Do I really eat chocolate that much? And it has only been a week and a half! Only 6 and a half months left of nursing...can I do it? I am hoping after the initial weeks of my body "detoxing" that it will get easier. I guess the one up-side is that maybe I will actually start losing a couple more pounds.

Here we are feeding Asher food for the first time. He didn't know what to do with it once we put it in his mouth. He just kept it there. Little did we know that he would eventually puke this all back out. :(

Asher also got a little cold. We gave him a couple of breathing treatments to help break up the gunk in his chest a little. He thought it was so cool. He kept wanting to eat the "smoke."

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

OK, a little late but 4 kids is keeping me super busy. Between feeding the little one, trying to entertain the two year old, teaching preschool to the 5 year old and helping the 8 year old with homework and all the stuff that falls in between (like eating, bathing, sleeping, exercising, cleaning) blogging is definitely taking a backseat. But alas, here is Christmas. :)


CHRISTMAS EVE


Asher with his newest cousin, Kaley. Just a second before this picture he was holding her hand...it was so cute!

Allison and Kaley

Making cookies for Santa Christmas eve...none of the pictures of the kids turned out. They were being too spastic so they were all blurry. :)

Asher was totally diggin' the Nintendo DS!


Aunt Gail finished frosting them after we put the little one's to bed. Thank you so much Aunt Gail...since I hate frosting cookies (at least more than I am going to eat.:) )

CHRISTMAS MORNING

(bright and early)

The kids stockings!


The family got Mario Kart to play together on the new Wii!

AND DAD LOVES HIS WII GAME....especially since he gets to play it on his new...
TV! This is actually the first Christmas he has gotten something in our twelve years of marriage. We just never exchanged gifts after we got married. I know that sounds sad but neither one of us really felt bad about it. We always just decided we didn't need to. We are also REALLY frugal. Which is usually a good thing but we decided it was time to splurge on something that wasn't practical...and since we were in the mood we decided to go all out and get everything at once...big screen, surround sound, blue-ray and Wii!




Since we needed a place to put the new TV we also finished some more of the basement. We just finished the painting and the base. We didn't carpet...yet! We put the old TV downstairs along with all the toys. Every time I clean it I forget to take a picture of it...but since it doesn't stay clean anyway you might as well capture the true memory, right?

Allison and Abigail love the little Zhu Zhu pets they got from their Aunt Stacy!
Asher looks really excited for Christmas doesn't he?

Decorating the Christmas Tree and Visiting Teen-Santa

Here are some pictures of the kids decorating our Christmas tree. We actually did this the Monday before Thanksgiving since I knew December would be a busy month. I love our Christmas tree! Not because it is anything fancy but because I can tell you a story behind every ornament. I especially love the beaded bells and angels and the hand-stitched ornaments that both my grandma and Chris' grandma made for us. I love pulling them out every Christmas and reminiscing about them.



This year we thought we would try visiting the Santa in Cedar City. We have always gone to Las Vegas or St. George in the past but thought we would stay close to home this time. I think we are going back to the city....

We were standing in line for a while before Austin finally got his first glimpse of Santa; he turned to me and said "Is Santa a teenager?" I looked at the Santa and thought, "Now that has got to be the worst Santa ever." Luckily, we have already discussed with our children that the Santa's that we see are only Santa's helpers because the real Santa is busy getting ready to bring toys to all the little children and he couldn't possibly be at all the malls AND still get ready for Christmas. But REALLY, wasn't there any "helper" over the age of 25 in ALL of Cedar City that could have played Santa!

The Geek Squad!

Before I had children I wanted all boys so that I would have a little construction crew. Fortunately, you don't always get what you want. I got something better.... The Geek Squad!

Austin dressed up Allison as a nerd and thought it was so hilarious. He begged me to take a picture of her.

They are still pretty cute...even dressed as nerds!

Kaley's Blessing

My newest niece was blessed over Thanksgiving weekend and we got some cute pictures with her and all the rest of the nieces and nephews on my side of the family. (Hey Stacy, if you want more pics let me know and I will send you some. )

Katey, Michael and Kaley

Abigail holding Asher...or should I say, Abigail torturing Asher :)

Asher - 4 Months

With the holidays, lots of sickness and trying to fit in working out, blogging has been neglected. I have just a sec to post some cute pics of Asher at four months. He is the most smiley baby. Everyone who sees him falls in love with him instantly because he smiles at them and they immediately think that he loves them and only smiles for them. It is the funniest thing to watch waitresses, people at the store, and strangers virtually anywhere we go think that he smiles only for them and fall completely in love with him. I don't remember this happening as much with my other children. Asher is rolling over now and also learning to laugh.

Sleeping

Playing with toys

Stretching

Who Would have Thought?

Who would have thought that by working out you could give yourself kidney failure! We sure didn't...but you can...and Chris almost did! Last Monday, he went to the gym for the first time in a long time. He worked out with a trainer. The next day when he was complaining about being sore I basically told him to suck it up and stop complaining because he would be fine. (I am such a nice wife, aren't I :)) By the end of Tuesday his arms had swollen up pretty badly and I thought that was unusual but I spoke with the trainer and they mentioned that it can happen. So we continued to let it go but Chris still was saying that he was in a lot of pain and it wasn't going away it seemed to be getting worse. I feel really horrible because I still figured it would just go away. Well Wednesday night he started peeing BROWN! That is definitely NOT normal and then I knew that something was wrong. I told him to drink twice as much water as he usually does and we started looking up stuff online. He didn't want to go to the doctor. By Friday, I told him he had to go. When he went in, the doctor almost hospitalized him immediately. He still had blood in his urine, his liver enzymes were 10x higher than they should be and his CPK test (which checks to see if a certain amount of enzymes are in the blood) came back over 100,000 (it is supposed to be under 300). The doctor said that he had something rare called Rhabdomyolysis. It is when there has been trauma to the muscle and it starts to die. As the muscles die, they release so much "gunk" into the bloodstream that the kidneys can't fight it and shut down. The only treatment is dialysis. Luckily, Chris's kidney function test came back fairly normal so he let Chris go home. He told us that he was the first patient he hadn't hospitalized. He had to go in and get more testing to make sure he was continuing to improve. In the meantime, he has been in a lot of pain, nauseated, extremely fatigued and disoriented. He also couldn't use his arms at all...his muscles just don't work. He is slowly getting better and will hopefully not have any long-term effects. BUT who would have thought that this could happen simply by working out?!

What the...

Asher's favorite sleeping position makes you go "what the......?"

Welcome Kaley!

This weekend we were lucky enough to be able to go see our newest niece be born. She is my brother and his wife's first baby. Congratulations Michael and Katey! We love you guys!

This is Kaley with daddy. My sister is a NICU nurse and made her cute bow from hospital hats.

Preschool Co-Op

I am in a preschool Co-op with some family and I am LOVIN' IT! There are 5 kids so we teach one day a week for 2 hours. We found this program online and I just have to brag about it. If you want to know more about it keep reading...if not, just skip down to the cute pictures.


This is NOT a paid advertisement...but I had to tell anyone who is interested in doing a preschool from home about it. The first month we tried another program (which was actually a little more money) and it doesn't even come close to this one. It works for co-op groups and even real preschools. You can get it for schools from 1-25+ students and for as many months of the year as you want. They send you everything that you would need for school (except for the things that you should have on hand, like glue, crayons, scissors, ect.) Every month there is a different theme and they focus on about 3 letters, 2 numbers, 2 colors, and a shape. They have several different activities everyday that you can choose from: crafts, music (it comes with a different CD every month), science, reading, theatre, social studies, etc. We usually don't get through them all. I am sure that Allie wouldn't be getting a better education if I were so send her somewhere! If you are doing any kind of preschool you have to look at this site...and it is all for the LOW PRICE of $13.50 a month. (Prices vary depending on how many kids/months you choose but it should stay around $15 per child per month). Enough already....check out the site! MOTHERGOOSETIME.COM

This lesson was on spiders. They made their own spider web, painted with finger paints, played spider games, listened to a spider song made a "Spider" treat, etc.

Asher at 3 Months!

Wow...time just keeps on aflyin' by! Please tell it to stop so I can catch my breath!

Asher's first smiles caught on camera

Tummy time!

Austin's Baptism!

Once again we are so proud of you!

As soon as Austin came up out of the water he shouted, "Can we do it again?"

Halloween

Who doesn't just love Halloween?! We are no different! I think I enjoy Halloween even more now then when I was a kid. I love looking at my kids excited faces when they get dressed up and get candy just for knocking on someones door! It is awesome!

The kids went to a Halloween Carnival at my sister's work!

Austin feelin' "the force."

It wouldn't quite be Halloween without stopping by Great Grandpa and Grandma DeMille's to ride the train, eat some food and visit with some cousins!

Grandpa just had surgery and this is him dressed up in his "Get Well" hat.

We ended the night by having a little "Wii party" at my sister's house.