5 Months! & Finishing up Feb.

Can you believe Olivia is 5 months old already? How did this happen?

I am quite enjoying her at this age. She no longer cries for no reason, only when she's hungry, poopy, or tired. And those I can fix. She smiles every time she sees me (ya know unless I'm taking pictures) and randomly goes into giggles that just make my day every time. Oh she's just sooo much cute I can hardly stand it. Love that girl!

Here's her Billy shots. Oh yes she is bigger!

And of course the siblings had to jump in for a photo op.

Aww my sleepy baby fell asleep on the floor.

Don't worry, Bella tucked her in with my jacket so she would stay warm. Now that's love.

More are work by the kids. Jaden's class has been having a great time with Chinese New Year projects. Including writing in Chinese, and making Chinese dragons. Very cool.

Speaking of dragons. . . oh wait that's just Bella! Silly. 

 The wind Sunday destroyed our play set. If you're thinking "Oh it just blew over" Well you're WRONG. It is crumbled over the top of the slide. The whole upper house area is in pieces. :( Ryan says he thinks he can fix it (ya know if he's ever around long enough) but it'll never be quite as pretty since he's going to have to use spare wood and parts to fix it. Nothing like 60 MPH gusts. *sigh* Did I mention I could really use a vacation? 

Say it like you Mean it!

2/11/13
. . .And now it's my turn. Sinus and ear infection in both ears. I've never so much as had a real ear ache that I can remember. Owee it hurts! Been to the pharmacy for the 3rd time in 1 week. Maybe now we can all get better and stay better for awhile?

2/12/13
Jaden just said a prayer for us to be able to find Bella's boot so they could play outside before dinnertime. I did find it. Gotta love the faith of a child. I'll have to remember that next time I lose a shoe. :)

2/16/13
Ryan and the kiddos are off to Salt Lake to see the Monster Trucks. They have been looking forward to it for months! So it's just me and Olivia at home. Ahhh uninterrupted photoshop time! Ya know at least until Olivia wakes up from her nap. ;)

2/18/13
Last night as Daddy was leaving for a meeting. Bella gives him a hug as he walks out the door and says "Bye, Come back anytime."

2/20/13
Ears still infected. 2 weeks now of pain and clogged ears (outer ear infection I have 3 layers of infected skin over my eardrums no wonder I can't hear). I'm on new drops that cost $150. surly something that expensive would work right?. . . . right?

2/22/13
Jaden went to a birthday party today so the girls and I had a fun lunch at Rupe's and visited with Grandma and Grandpa Great for a bit. We all had a great time. I'm so glad Jaden has such good friends in school. (even if it is a girl and he was a bit concerned about this "girly" party. However it was at the community center and he had a BLAST!)

2/25/13
Ryan left for Florida this morning. . . ya know without me. *sigh* Excuse me while I go stoke the fire cause it's 7 degrees outside.

2/28/13
The sun was shining today! Yay! It warmed up our van so much it prompted this request from Jaden on our drive home from school:
"Mom, it's so warm out can we put the sprinkler under the tramp?"
Uhhh sorry love, heat wave or no, 39 degrees is not sprinkler weather. Yeah we're all so sick of winter.

Girls Only Lunch

 Friday, Jaden got invited to a birthday party. It was right after school at the community center. He was a bit concerned at being invited to a "girl party" but they had all kinds of fun indoor bouncy and playground type stuff to do. To make sure Bella wasn't too bummed at not going I promised her a girls only special lunch. I gave her some options and let her pick where to go. I told her she could even have an ice cream cone if she ate really well. We had a great girls only lunch at Rupe's. 

Mmm ice cream

 Bella decided this muscle pose was appropriate for the occasion. *shrug*

 Who's that peeking out there? Aww poor Olivia doesn't get any food. :( She was so good though. 

Afterwards we went to Grandma & Grandpa Greats for a bit while we waited to go pick up Jaden. 

Jaden had a great time at the party, even if it was a girl party. ;) (in fact I had a hard time getting him to leave.) & I had a great time with my girls. Friday fun = Success!

Frantic February

I've been having a bit of a hard time the past few weeks. As I mentioned the girls got RSV, but thankfully they healed up just fine. Shortly after I got a sinus infection. For the first time I remember the infection went to my ears. The ear pain was intense and kept me up at night. I went to the Urgent care and she said I had some wax in one ear, but she could tell from the other that it was infected and prescribed some Amoxacillin . 

In a few days I was no better, in fact my ears started feeling very clogged like I was hearing things from underwater. So on Valentine's Day I went back to urgent care and saw another Dr. They cleaned out my ear wax (which was super gross by the way) and he said my ears were VERY infected. So he told me to keep taking the Amoxacillin and to put in some medicated ear drops as well and to take sudafed to try and clear out the ear congestion. 

Thinking thing would surely get better now that the wax was gone I was feeling pretty optimistic. . . but it didn't get better. The clogged feeling continued and the pain didn't even go away. I was taking sudafed 3 times a day and IBprofen and Tylonal a couple times a day for the pain. Yeah I was getting concerned. I went to an actual ear Dr. last Wed. He said that my ears are still infected. It's an outer ear infection. That I have 3 layers of dead infected layers over my ear drum and that's why it's clogged and not congestion. (No wonder none of the home remedies for ear congestion was working). He prescribed me a different ear drop, noting that about 50% of people are a bit allergic to the one I was using and it could have been adding to the swelling. Sheesh. I wondered why I was prescribed that in the first place, but soon found out why at the pharmacy when I found out this new ear drop cost $150 Yikes!

Well it's now Friday and though the pain is less the clogged feeling is just as bad. I'm going crazy from 2 weeks of muffledness. (though it is kinda nice when the kids are being loud. hee.) Monday I'll be making and appointment to go into the ear doctors office in Pocatello to have him surgically remove that dead infected skin. Then that should be THAT! Eesh!

Also that will be my 4 doctor visits a year that my insurance allows sooooo no more getting sick the rest of the year. . . 

Anyway, although that's been annoying, life goes on and my kiddos are adorable. 

  

Olivia thinks she's so big and tries to sit up out of everything. Good thing this has a seatbelt!

Watching TV with Bella and Monkey. (don't worry the red mark on her cheek is just from laying on the floor.)

5 rambunctious boys on the trampoline. How long till someone gets hurt? Well the all were actually safe and sound. . . . . . this time.

 An apple a day. . . Bella really does eat an apple or 2 a day. She loves the things, just wishing they weren't so expensive right now. 

Bella was so nice to cook some bacon and eggs for Olivia. She really wants to eat them but just gets the seat instead.

 Which makes her mad. 

 Mom, just give it to me already!

Valentine's take 2

So keeping with our tradition of being sick on Valentine's Day I of course was sick, so we spread out our Valentine festivities a bit. 

We did our Valentine treasure hunt the Monday after Valentine's since Jaden had the day off for President's Day. 

Yay! Treasure! It was hiding behind Billy! Monkey's for Bella and Olivia, and a cool watch for Jaden that he's worn every day since! Oh and of course LOTS of CANDY!

 Woah that's some serious pink mouth from your rose sucker miss Bella. 

For Valentine/President's Day I made some Cherry Pies. Some little ones for the kiddos and a BIG one for Daddy!

Monster Trucks

I didn't realize last year when we went to Monster Jam, that this would be a yearly thing, the kids however remember and have been asking for months when they can see the Monster Trucks again. Sooo to Salt Lake we went. Well not "We" really, Olivia and I stayed home. We were pretty sure Olivia would not enjoy the really really REALLY loud trucks. 

This year cousins Brooklyn and Blake came along. Brooklyn did not like the Monster Trucks before when she saw them, but was sure that cousin Jaden would keep her safe and that made her brave. Ahhhh!

 I think they were having a pretty good time. 

 The McGruff truck was there. 

 So was Monster Mutt. He was a pretty big hit. 

 And of course the famous Grave Digger was there. We recently watched an hour long documentary on Grave Digger (Jaden loves Monster Truck documentaries) so those kiddos were in the know this year that's for sure. 

Thanks Jessica for the pictures so I had something from this event. My hubby tends to not take pictures EVER. 

Valentines

Valentine morning the kids woke up to this. Valentine's from GG and some candy hearts and kisses. They'll get the rest of their Valentine stuff later when Daddy is home. When I got up they were so cute eating poptarts on the bench so they wouldn't get the "pretty table" dirty. 

 Ryan was working out of town again this Valentine's, at least for part of it. He sent me these delicious chocolate covered strawberries from Hallie Austin. Oh yeah good move husband!

With Jaden in kindergarten it was his first big year for Valentine's day. I wish I got a picture of his pile of Valentines. He was so excited about every single one of them. 

I made these like I did 2 years ago I worked way too hard since I was sick at this time but they did turn out really cute. 

 Bella took her Valentine's to her dance class. She was so excited to get to do Valentines too. 

Had to do a Valentine from Olivia! Did these darling ones for Dad, and the grandparents. I saw the idea on pintrest. It was some serious work with the paint and all, but turned out darling. 

 A special Valentine lunch for the kiddos. Peanutbutter and jelly heart sandwiches. heart meat and cheese, and red applesauce.

Bella's chocolate lips she got from Grandma Potter

Ryan got home just in time to go to dinner and brought these bright and beautiful flowers for me. I didn't expect them since I got the strawberries. What a man.

 For dinner we went to the church for a Boy Scout fundraiser dinner.  It was wonderful! The boys were so sweet, all dressed up and the older boys even had a towel over their arm. The table decorations were lovely and the meal even better. The service was impeccable with those boys coming around filling water and taking plates. They even had a live violinist walking around the tables playing lovely music. Beat the heck out of going to a restaurant!

Here's a few pics from the photoshoot I did with the kids to get the pics for their valentines. 

I decided I wanted to get a pic with each of my kids since there are so few of me. I set up the tripod and although a bit blurry and a zillion tries I think we got some good ones.

 And of course my kiddos together.

 Olivia kept licking Jaden's hand. It was kind of hilarious!!

More Valentine goodness to come. We do like to stretch out our holidays you know. ;)