Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my lil Eliannah! We love YOU! My baby-big-girl is two now! She got spoiled with two parties. They were both small and low key but that were wonderful! This party was at my parents home. My mom made this cake for her. Funny story: while my sister, Leah, and I entertained the kids with a game my mom was busy making dinner. Eliannah got into the cake and grabbed a handful out of the back! My mom was so flustered about it. I thought it was funny! My kids never do well on their first birthday when they are expected to grab the cake, but they always do it on their second birthday. Perhaps we should switch that tradition.

She had so much fun playing on this balloon! She would sit on it and then roll off and laugh! I tried to get a picture of it, but they mostly came out blurry. It was her highlight of the party!

Beauty!

Her she is after rolling off the balloon. She was so cute laughing so hard about it!

Here is another one of her right before she fell, in mid-laugh.

For one of the activities we played with a mini bowling set. It was a ton of fun and all the kids loved it! We could not get Tsadakah to stop throwing the ball overhand so the ball kept bouncing over the top of the pins and not knocking any over! Eliannah didn't get it so she didn't even want to play. This picture is of my nephew who is right in between their ages. He did better than either of them. lol. I was really impressed with how quickly he caught onto the rules and concept of the game.

Behind my niece, Olivia, is Tsadakah on her turn. There was another picture where I was laughing hysterically because at one point 5 kids were trying to help me re-set the pins and each one would knock down 2 when they were trying to set up one. They all fell adventually and nobody was helpful! It was so crazy I just had to laugh!

This is the other party that we had at home. Tsadakah was so excited about Ellie's presents. She practically unwrapped them all! And as soon as they were out of the box she was playing with them and claiming them as her own! This also made me laugh really hard!





For her cake we made a Strawberry-shortcake Trifle. It was very good! It only lasted a day though.

Thank You to everyone who helped to make her birthday special. Thank you all for the gifts and the love! She really enjoyed her special day!

On her birthday and the whole next day she got to wear a crown and she LOVED that!! If it fell of she wanted it back on right away and she didn't take it off for two days! She loved all the attention. Her birthday landed on a Sunday and yes I let her wear the crown to church! It was cute and a way to let everyone know it was her special day. If I was a good mom I would have made cup cakes for her to share in nursery, but I didn't even think of it til 5 min before. Darn!

We love you so much Ellie! You have a special place in our hearts!

Easter

I never before realized how much I enjoy Easter! It is so fun to have two girls to dress up. This technecly isn't Easter because Easter was Conference and they didn't get to wear their dresses at that time, so this is a week later. But they were adorable in their dresses. I also realized that I personally am not a fan of dressing my girls alike for Easter. I perfer having their dresses compliment each other.

Eliannah, who is a stinker about picture taking lately! This was the best I could do between the wind blowing like crazy and her running around.

Tsadakah is great! She participates in taking pictures really well.

This really was on Easter. I wanted to post my little tradition.My mom used to make these bunny cinnamon rolls, and she was so great to let all the kids make their own. She had a lot of patience and allowed us our creativity. Mine didn't turn out very well, but I have a really good idea to fix it for next year.

I must be nesting!

I'm not sure the exact definition of "Nesting" but I think that it includes projects as well as cleaning. Lately I have felt a huge push to want to finish everything that I started years ago. lol. I finished a blanket that I started in High School. (My girls LOVE it) and after 5 1/2 years of marriage I finally put my wedding flowers in a glass case! They look so gorgeous! I forgot how much I loved them and they reminded me of the SPECIALEST day of my entire life! I sat and stared at them for almost an hour afterward.

I have also tried a little bit of tool Tu Tu's! I don't for see myself making any more, but it was fun. Here is Eliannah in one, she was such a stinker about taking these pictures! It was like she wanted to mess them up on purpose! So they didn't turn out great, *sigh.

This is the kind with the flower pedals in it. I really like it, but I messed it up because I only did half the yardage, so it has not gathers or volume. oh well!

I think that Tsadakah's is my favorite! the color scheme is just one of my fav! Perhaps if I were to do my wedding reception over I would choose these colors instead. See what I mean about the pedal skirt? There are no gathers so it makes her look like she is wearing a see through skirt. lol It makes me laugh.

Other projects that I am trying to finish are: baby blanket for MiKaylah, scrapbook pages for 2009, and I want to scrapbook Mike's mission pictures and letters.

So my goal for April is knocking off projects. It has been fun so far, my house just isn't as clean as it was in Jan. ha ha!

Other things that I have been doing in the category of nesting is cleaning and re-organizing. I re did my kitchen and I LOVE it!!! My pantry!!! Love it! and my bedroom closet. Next up, the medicine cabinet!

Working through the storm toward the light.

Thanks to everyone who fasted and prayed for Michael. We have felt so blessed by the out poor of love and thoughtfulness of our neighbors and friends. Last week was an emotional rollar coaster that seemed to last twice as long as it should have. lol But now we feel the sun is coming out and rightfully so Spring is on the way! This week is looking up!

Mike's leg is looking better. I can still see infection in it...he hasn't seen the end of his antibiotics yet, but I see more healthy tissue than infection and it is drying out and starting to bleed, which the DR's said was a good sign, he is also seeing the skin in the outer area looking more like scarring! Sounds gross, but all good news. Wahoo!

The Dr's are also optimistic. He is off the IV's and is now going to a "wound" specialist. He was told that he is going to have a huge ugly scar, but that it doesn't need any surgery!!! He has to go to "Therapy" once a week for at least a month. They check it and tell him what he needs to do and make sure that it is getting better. THis wound specialist said that Mike has tunneling in his wound and was able to stick a Q-tip into the whole made in his wound all the way to the first cotton...then he said, I've seen worse, I've been able to stick the whole thing in once. He gave Mike the ok to dig the trench for the water line as long as he stopped if it started to hurt.

So here are some of the pictures from them digging and reconstructing our water pipes. My wonderful father came and helped. He was here for a day and a half after doing a job of his own, he works construction. We owe him so much!! Mike couldn't have done it without him. They work so well together!

They ended up digging 65 ft of trench and spending $50 on supplies! ha. My husband is AMAZING! Not only does he have the know how to do something like this but he always does a thorough job and does it in such a small amount of time!!! They actually finished! The dirt is still dug up like this, but the water is running to our house again and there is no leak!!! The meator is not spinning!

For the weekend we went down to my parents to have an Easter egg hunt early. It was a lot of fun and a good way to get away from our troubles. The picture at the top is of Sadye dying her egg.

When we got home on Saturday night, late Saturday night, we walked in the door and imeadiately realized that it was FREEZING! The thermostat read 52! What was going on? Mike went down stairs and saw that the heater had been turned off, when he turned it back on the fan would blow cold air only because the heater wasn't igniting, no heat! Mike stayed up until two in the morning trying to fix it. He was so worried about me, cause I already have a bad cold, and the girls who were under five blankets! He is wonderful and never quits when it comes to protecting us!

But he could't fix it! So for that whole night and the next morning we didn't have any heat! It was really really cold and I totally leaned an appreciation for having heat! I think God is just wanting to teach me a lesson of all that I am blessed with, because you don't know what you got til its gone! Our water heater was still working so we could take hot showers to warm up. My fingers got that itchy burn from the hot water and when I got out I could see my own breathe...In the warmest room in the house!!!!

We had the best person install our heater two years ago and we were able to call him, on a sunday, and he walked Mike through the process to fix the heater! yay! Then he gave us his home and cell number and said we could call him any time if it happens again! Thanks Dave!

Oh and then I think that I broke my toe Sunday night! I

tripped in the hall on the vent. Our house is old so we have a LRG vent on the floor of the hallway. As I stumbled on it my toes ran along it like a cheese grater! My toes were all chuncked up and I think that I broke the second toe. It imeadiately turned purple under the nail and it is swollen. It is the same toe I broke in high school. Not really a big deal, but just funny that it is happening now of all times.

So we are now crossing our fingers and hoping that nothing else goes wrong for a while. We need a lil break!.

But I really wanted to thnk everyone for their support and their love and the thoughts and prayers!

When it rains, it thunderstorms!!

Lately I have been feeling so blessed. I have had very few trials in my life which I am so very grateful for. Even this is nothing compared to the trials that I know others are going through, so I don't mean this to be a complaining blog, just an expression of all that I am going through at this time.

February 11th, Mike got injured. He fell and got a 4 inch scrape up his shine bone on his left leg. Because it didn't cut we thought that it was not a big deal and tried to take care of it ourselves. It bruised like mad!!! His whole leg was swollen and black with bruising! It even bruised into his toes! I kept thinking just hold on till the bruising is gone and then the scrape, which had become a large bump and infected, would heal.

After three weeks of it not healing, he finally was willing to go see a doctor. The Dr. gave him an antibiotic and told him to squeeze the puss out after soaking it in salt water. He got little metal shards out of his leg at that time. The infection seemed to improve, but not healing. As soon as he took the last antibiotic the infection came back and it was furious!!!

So he went to another Dr. (She has been amazing and we love her and I never want to change Dr.'s.) She gave him an even stronger antibiotic and took a sample of the fluid. Sunday, we had Mike's brothers and BIL give him a blessing which was a lot of comfort to him because he has been really worried about it all.

So then the utility co. called and said that they detected a leak in our water line. Mike was out there trying to dig it up and find it. But he got sick easily and he now is on a prescription for Vertigo. So we decided that he just had too much to deal with to expect himself to do the job. So we called a pro. and it will be thousands of dollars! oh the joys of being a home owner!

While I was meeting with plumbers all day, I get a call from the Dr. and she says that the sample taken from Mike's leg has been detected as Strep, and Staff! I told her that it isn't getting better, infact it is looking worse! It is opening up with a gray flesh and it is oozing. "Is that normal?" I ask. "Definately not! Have him come in ASAP!" After looking at it she sends him to U of U hospital. There he is hooked up to an IV and given his third antibiotic! He is there for three and a half hours and then has to return every twelve hours for more. They said that if it is going to improve he will be able to return to oral antibiotics...if not, we are looking at surgery!

Mike will be out of work for at least a week, more if he has to have plastic surgery. He has been going to school full time too, and I am worried about the classes that he is taking. I hope that his teachers are flexible and understanding!!! If he loses his classes, all that time and that money I will be so sad!

So on top of that...our car is leaking antifreeze, or something. More money gone! And Eliannah is coming down with a cold/flu, which is really nothing compared to everything else but on top of everything else, it is quite overwhelming. We decided to tackle one problem at a time, so we are going to deal with his leg first and worry about the water line later, which means that right now I am living with the water turned off all day every day with the exception of one hour a night when we turn it on for 'emergency' purposes. lol. Needless to say I am so grateful for running water! I think that what I have is still better than what they pioneers had and I wonder how they did it. Back then Mike would have lost his whole leg for sure or even died! I truly am blessed.

Anyway, Mike just left to go back to the hospital because after two days in and out of the hospital on IV antibiotics (this being his third kind) it is still NOT looking any better! We are going to have a family fast on Sunday, and if needed before that too, but if you would like to join, it would be great! We'll keep you posted in case it changes. It seems like we are looking in the face of the surgery option. Hopefully the fast will ward off that. Below I have posted pictures for those of you who have a strong stomach and are curious. I'm warning you, It is bad looking so if you don't want to see it don't scroll down!!











The line outside the wound is where the red was when he went into the hospital on Monday night. Mike wanted me to take this picture of his whole leg so that you could see how large it is in comparison.

This is after two days of IV antibiotics for 3 1/2 hours at a time. I took this picture right before he left for the hospital 9 am Wednesday! As you can see...not improving.

Catch up

It has been a while since I have been on.

First, I need to catch up on my new years resolutions. So for February I chose to become a better mother by finding something every day, a poem, song, scripture, or article, that inspired me to be better. It was really great! I enjoyed it very much and I am now trying to compile it all into a book on blurb so that I can return to it often.

For March I am working on not gossiping. More on that later...

Second, The book, Fascinating Womanhood. I have met with my little group twice now and I wanted to talk a little about the things that we discussed.

In the first meeting we talked about the Intro chapter and the chapter "Celestial Marriage." In reading the Celestial Marriage Chapter I posed the question, "What would you be willing to give up in order to have the marriage of your dreams?" You know the perfect marriage in your mind, where your husband adores you and does so much for you and is romantic at all the right times. Well, what would you give up to have that? Would you give up being right? Would you give up time with friends? Would you give up the upper hand?

Lastly, In my personal life...well there is a lot! We found out that we are having another GIRL! I found out that I am anemic. I finished the life story of my grandfather. I am starting to nest, yes already. And I am starting a baby quilt for MiKaylah.

We decided to name her MiKaylah, which is the hebrew name meaning, God-loving. We are spelling it that way because her due date is on Mike's bday and so we are blending his name with his late mother, Kay's. It has great significance and meaning.

New Years Resolutions

Ok I know that this month is almost over so it is weird to be talking about Resolutions now, but I really have been doing it since the beginning, just haven't had time to blog about it until now!

Usually I do my Res's by 4-5 long-term year long goals, and in 10 years I think that I have followed through and accomplished...um 1. Sad! So this year I am taking a different approach. I am going to achieve 12 shorter term goals. Each month I am going to pick one goal according to what I need most in my life at that time.

For the month of January, I am printing my schedule daily AND I have to write down how long it takes me to do each task. The reason is because I was noticing that I was unrealistic on how long it takes to do things so I get overwhelmed with the fact that I am constantly "behind schedule" that I give up on my schedule my noon.

Perhaps this is all due to the fact that I recently watched Julie & Julia, which I really liked, I not feel inspired to want to write things that are special and important on my blog. I want it to be something that is so interesting or inspiring that strangers read it. Not because I want people to be impressed with me, but because I really just want to make others happy, inspire them, and or help them feel better. So not only am I going to report each month on the goal that I have attempted, but I am also going to write about one of my favorite books, like Julie did.

This month I haven't drastically changed. My schedule still doesn't always get all accomplished, but I have found a lot of self discovery. I am now aware that I really need to have a work hard schedule every day, because by the third day I am so done! So I've decided that every third day I get to sleep in and play with my kids for hours, even if the house is a mess, and even allow myself to do one of my favorite things without feeling guilty for it. Then I am refreshed for another two days of hard work!

The book that I was referring to is called Fascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin! It is so wonderful! It is a book about improving your marriage. I read it and reread it every chance I get. It is like another Bible! j/k But if any of you want to get your hands on it and read it along with my posts then that would be great! Otherwise, just enjoy the posts. I'll start with the first chapter on my next post. This way you will have time to get the book if you want.