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Mini vacation to Yellowstone.
We saw Bison, 2 Bald Eagle's, Old Faithful and many other geyers, Yellowstone lake frozen solid, Waterfalls, Elk, happy kids, stinky smells, not a lot of people, bears.
It was a great time. Watch out for picture overload!
Old Faithful going off...
In front of Old Faithful before it went off.
This went right by the car! The kids were thrilled.
Frozen yellowstone lake behind us (the entire big lake frozen solid).
Bear warning
Thank you for all your well wishes on my great day post! Alan got a job offer we have been waiting/hoping for and we are thrilled!
The other day I got the twins dressed (as usual). They were very excited about their outfits and told me they were ready for the jungle. So they ventured outside on a nice warm day (the first in a while) and enjoyed every bit of it. Life through their eyes really is a lot more interesting...
A really really great day!
*Woke up did Lindsey's hair and went back to sleep till 9am! Alan made pancakes and took Lindsey to school and let me sleep (without being asked).
*We got a very important and wonderful e-mail (great great day).
*Went to the gym.
*Went out to dinner to celebrate at The Cheesecake Factory with Alan (alone). I told Alan to pick the place (but I know he picked this one for me). I ordered what I really wanted not what was good for me. Yummy (thank goodness I went to the gym).
I'll be honest things have been tough lately. I haven't had a day as good as this one in a LONG LONG time and I really needed it.
All I wanted to be was a mommy.
Me with my birthday baby (age 5)I was tagged by Jenny.
4 things I was doing 10 years ago (1998):
-Going to College.
-Enjoying my first year of marriage.
-Living in apartments.
-Working as a receptionist after classes.
4 things I was doing 5 years ago (2003):
-Mother of two.
-Decorating and redoing our first house.
-Got our first mini van (oh the horror).
-
4 things I did yesterday:
-Went to visit my dear Grandma (who is not doing well).
-Took Jacob to build a bear!
-Trying to figure out my hair after a new hair cut.
-Cleaned.
4 shows I love to watch:
-The Hills
-Survivior
-The Office
-Grey's Anatomy
4 things that make me really happy:
-My family
-Girls nights!
-Comments on my blog
-Shopping!
I tag Angie, Lisa (my sister in law and a new blogger), Debra and anyone else who would love to play along. Let me know if you do it.
Dear Lindsey,
You were due on April 29th the day came and went. Days past but you were happy right where you were. Mom and Dad were getting impatient. At nearly a week late we were getting mighty frustrated. I woke up Wednesday morning May 5th feeling like I had the flue. I was having a lot of braxton hicks contractions and they were close but not painful. I really was feeling awful. This continued all day at about 11 pm I thought I felt hot so I had Daddy take my temperature. I had a 103 fever! I immediately called labor and delivery and they told me just to take two Tylenol and not to worry. Well about a half-hour later the contractions came and they were long and close together. At 1am we headed for the hospital. When I got there they hooked me up and told me things were progressing, but that my urin sample indicated I was severely dehydrated. After checking me she told I was STILL only a one and was now 70 percent effaced. I thought I might die because I was in major pain and making what seemed like no progress. They monitored me while making me drink sprite and rehydrate myself and then told me they wanted to give me a pain shot because I was showing signs of being really sick. They said if it was real labor they would seem me soon. Just as I stood up I threw up everything they tried to give me. The pain shot helped a lot and about three in the morning I was sent home. Now I wonder why I was sent home at 41 weeks like this but I was naive. I slept yet I was still aware that contractions were coming. About 8am the pain was awful so we headed to the hospital again finally this time they admitted me and told me that my contractions were strong and hard and that I could have the epidural anytime. I said NOW! They broke my water and discovered severe meconnium. Which had me then very worried about you. At that point I got my epidural and felt wonderful seconds after. . Anyway as labor progressed it was clear that you were not doing well. Several times they told me they were preparing for an emergency c-section. Somehow every time they were about to whisk me away you recovered. It was VERY scary! We decided I should have a blessing. Your Daddy and your Great Uncle Layton said a prayer for you, we prayed everything would be o.k. The things the Doctors had told us were very serious complications. Even now I do not think we ever knew how bad it really was. The prayer helped a lot because right after the blessing things started to improve. Your heart rate began to return to normal and you were responding very well. They decided giving me stuff to slow things down and now they gave me stuff to get it all going again. About two hours later they told me it was time to push. Now this was hard work. On May 6th you my sweet Lindsey were born healthy with a full head of hair. You scored 8 and 9 on the Apgar and none of the major risks they had warned us about came to pass. I remember looking over at you and being amazed that you were mine. I have never ever felt that kind of love. I could not wait to hold you but the Doctors were still trying to make sure everything was out of your lungs. They brought you over to me and handed you to me. As I held you I knew that nothing in life was better than this. Nothing was better than loving you my sweet baby. Welcome welcome sweetheart. I love you!
Love,
Mommy
As I read this letter I wrote Lindsey as a young mother, just delivering my first child. I marvel at who I was at the time. I have gone on to have three more children each pregnancy and delivery harder than the next. Little did I know that day what was ahead of me. What a life changing thing becoming a mother would be. What having a really sick baby would be like? I am glad I did not know. Over time I become a stronger more capable person and mother. Delivering my second child (Jacob) via emergency c-section seemed scary and unbearable at the time. Yet I never imagined what was still ahead in my life. Finding out I was having twins. I suffered daily hoping the twins would be born at all. Delivering them at 32 weeks, knowing they were too small and not quite ready. Watching them on ventilators struggling to breath, weeks in incubators growing still receiving oxygen. 29 days in a hospital my arms empty. Yes I am glad life often prepares us for what is ahead that I did not walk this challenges alone. I am so grateful to be a mother. To have four healthy beautiful children. That these experiences are now in the past.
I have been a mother for 9 yrs. Amazing really. I am different. I am stronger. I know love like I never imagined.
I'm crazy grumpy today. I think its because everything and I do mean everything is a mess and I am just plain overwhelmed. Still dealing with my cold.
I love comments.
A BIG shout out to all of you and especially Erin who made me feel so good with her comments. Thank you.
So I thought I would update and answer a few questions from my hair do post.
First the sunflower dresses and jean coats are all from Baby Gap. Unfortunately that place sells out of all their cute stuff right away so the dresses will be hard to find. I think the coats will still be hanging around. If you have younger girls than me I will be reselling them next year. You know how that goes...
How do I get my girls to sit still to get their hair done? My girls are trained to get their hair done. They just know it has to be done. We do it everyday when they get dressed so it has become a habit. Just like other habits. I recommend lots of water in a good spray bottle and good elastics that do not slide out. Praise goes a long way. My girls think they look more beautiful with pretty hair so thats a motivator there too. They look crazy when I do not have their hair done.
As for getting them all ready for church and their hair done. I never thought about that as being unusual and as usual you all made me feel pretty cool with your praise. We have church at 11am so that helps a lot.
Today has been a soccer day. Alan did some jack hammering in the basement last night (for the plumbing). Can you imagine how loud that was? I am just trying to get my head above water. I keep saying to myself, "Just keep swimming just keep swimming". You get the idea.
Cheering leaders on the side lines...
Crawling out from a crazy week. Alan has been finishing a few rooms in our basement. We started with the only two rooms we could clean out. To do this we had to move all that stuff to the other unfinished areas. It's been a few months and those rooms are now wall boarded and close to done so Alan told me it was time to clean out the whole basement. Remember my post about Oprah and all the stuff? Well we had a lot of stuff (not as much as they did of course). Our entire 1200 sq ft basement was stuffed with stuff. What you ask? JUNK! I have dreaded this project but Alan had some time off so I had to give in and get it done. It wasn't great that I came down with a terrible cold. Worst one in a year. Aches, no sleeping at all at night. I worked with Alan from morning till late into the night feeling absolutely terrible. Alan worked a lot harder then I did of course but I was juggling the twins and trying to sort through all of the stuff. I hate these kind of projects because they seem to spill into the rest of the house and make everything a giant mess. We filled the entire dumpster and took 6 truckloads to Deseret Industries (like Good will). Oh and did I mention I was also in charge of a mother/daughter dinner for church yesterday? I was so glad when Friday came the dumpster was removed and I could finally take a nap. It felt like moving a whole floor of our house! My house is total chaos now. My basement is clean, my garage is clean but every inch of my house is a mess. No laundry has been done, no basic cleaning, every ounce of energy went into this project.
Day 1. My kitchen was stacked to the ceiling with bins eventually. Miserable huh?
Bags and Bags of stuff to donate.
Jacob had a friend over and they decided they loved throwing stuff in the dumpster!I grabbed some shots of the kids before church yesterday. You can learn more about fun hair do's too at Jenn's blog here http://itsmylife-jenn.blogspot.com/. I have loved her hair tips. I also like to look here too http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/.
Update:
I am not sure why its making it look like I had more pictures posted. Blogger can be very bad sometimes. It shows nothing so I cannot edit it. 
The other day Sydney began screaming because she got gum in her hair. It hurt and was pulling her hair. I was driving and could not deal with it at the time. Lindsey began trying to settle her down telling her that she could use peanut butter to get it out and it was "fun". Right then Hailey reached in her mouth and removed her gum and stuck it in her hair too! Fabulous! By the way the peanut butter got the gum out along with half the hair. Not fun at all.
My goal was to spend a lot less time on the computer.
It's working...
The side effect is finding time to read all of your inspiring blogs and to comment. I promise I will try to find some balance in all this. I just need to have time to live my regular life and enjoy the computer time in moderation.
Aquafina Flavorsplash water
I love the stuff.
Calorie free.
Light taste.
Nice change from just plain water.
Love grape.
I need to picture this today. I wish I could jump back in time and enjoy these moments more feel them all over again.
We went to Hawaii when the twins were 13 months old. Lindsey was 6 and Jacob was 3.
To everyone including myself this seemed like an ill-fated plan. Believe me my expectations were not very high. I was still nursing the girls and the thought of managing to make it through the plane flight was enough to make me not want to go.
When we arrived in Hawaii what I found was amazing. We stayed in a condo right on the beach. I could sit in the sand outside the girls window while Jacob and the girls napped! The girls were so tired they slept like a dream. I spent my days enjoying every minute.
As with any vacation there were a few disasters....
This picture cost me a lot!
Last but certainly not least occurred mostly without my personal witness. On the return trip we were flying into LAX and driving home. Alan and I had purchased tickets for ourselves and the twins knowing a long flight and long drive home would be too much. As we were getting checked in we were offered a direct flight home bypassing LAX. It was a emotionally decision for me to separate from Lindsey and Jacob and leave them to fly home with their Grandparents and sister/brother in law. I was actually in tears. With Alan's ear he had been given medicine to hope to avoid it rupturing under the pressure of landing etc. A direct flight was much better for this so we did it. The flight was long and my arms nearly broke off holding the sleeping baby. I thought it was bad. Upon landing I called to see if they had made it to LAX only to find they had not left Maui at all. Flight cancelled left 2 hrs on the plane waiting. No more flights available. They were not given luggage or any personal items. The airport was closed and there was nothing done. They were left stranded at the airport for almost 2 days before Delta got them out. No compensation. No luggage! My niece was also just one was there sleeping in her mothers arms. It was awful for them. Thankfully they arrived home safely. Lindsey and Jacob remember this as an adventure having fun sleeping at the airport. Believe me EVERYONE was glad we took the other flight. Just the thought of twins in that airport was more than they could bear.
Jacob and Grandpa sleeping on the floor at the airport! Jacob is only three.
Forgive me while I journal a bit more about my Jacob. His birthday was wonderful. He appreciated and enjoyed every single thing.
I love that you call your hair Golden (not blonde). So now we call you our "golden" boy.
I love that when I do Laundry your pockets are stock full of the most interesting items. Your pants have holes in all the knees. You are all boy!
I love that packed your suitcase 2 months before our trip to Yellow Stone or as you call it "Golden" stone. You are that excited!
I love that when you have a friend over I have to watch out for you because you are so nice that they take advantage of it. One time you had a friend who wanted both the transformers and you were sad but you gave them both to him and said you would just do something else. You often let your friends play one player games and just sit and watch even when I know its not what you want to do. Like I said sometimes I have to intervine.
I love that you adore your sisters. You take such care of them.
You love to be outside ALL.THE.TIME. You will spend hours riding your bike back and forth or playing in the backyard. Even in the winter. All of neighbors comment on this.
I love that every time I ask you how something was you respond with GRRRRREAT (imagine Tony the Tiger)! You have a optimistic and happy attitude about life. I hope you will always keep this quality because it is one of the best things about you. Everyone who knows you comments on your great disposition.
His new BMX clothes!
Happy Birthday Jacob!
For my Boy! Today is your 6th birthday! This year has been a BIG year for you.
You have learned to swim.
Learned to ride a bike.
Learned to read, write and many other skills.
Started school.
Lost your first tooth and have two more on the way out.
Learned to play the computer.
and many more exciting things!
I hope you never forget how loved you are. Your kind heart has brought so much joy to our lives.
I had a plan for this morning that involved getting up at 5am. That did not happen at all. Last night I was awoken to loud noises of giggling and lights. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and try to focus on the clock it was pitch black. The clock read 3:40am. I stumbled out of bed only to find the twins light on and them wide awake playing in their room. I very forcefully made them go back to bed. I went back to bed and was asleep in seconds only to be awoken again by the same noises. This time I carried Sydney to her brothers room (screaming and waking the whole house). Then I went back tried to go back to sleep only to hear Hailey out of her bed playing again! Needless to say it was a long night and I did not get up at 5am.
Last week where I live an Amber Alert was issued. A little girl had gone missing. Just 7 yrs old, missing her two front teeth. She did not live near us but it affected all of us when she was found and was dead. Thankfully they caught the guy who did it, a neighbor. All this really got me all worried about the safety of my kids. We do live in a safer area than where this event occurred but nothing is safe enough. So last night for family night we went over safety. One of the things we used was this list. I thought I would share it here so you could also have a starting point to use with your children.
Safety Check-Points for Kids |  |  | |||
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Every day as meal time approaches I offer my twins a few choices for the said meal. Let's focus on lunch. All choices non dairy because of their allergy. All lunches have fruit on the side. Every single day they voice a strong opinion on what they would like to have. Every day they quickly eat the fruit and won't finish the main dish (the sandwich in most cases). Then begins the battle for chips. You can only have chips if you eat your lunch. Soon plates are empty quickly, too quickly. Yeah they moved it ALL to their sisters plate. Who in turn moves it back to hers. Whailing and tears insue for the chips. I will not give in. After all I always eat my lunch so I can have chips.
Last week while working out I happen to catch a snatch of Oprah. It was on hoarding. It was a real shocker of a show. I came home and taped the episode (Oprah replays at midnight here) and I watched it all. It got me to thinking of a manageable way to reduce the clutter in my house. He recommends two bags a week of trash and goodwill and then stop the influx. Yeah I have stuff. So I started with my closet. I have saved a lot of clothes thinking someday I would fit into them again. So I braced myself and began the purge. I had a pile of stuff to throw out entirely, stuff to give to cousin, and stuff to give to Deseret industries (like Good will but run through our church). I began trying on all the clothing I had so carefully saved that have taken over my closet for many many years. Guess what? Sure they fit. Let me give you a piece of advice. Do not save this stuff. By the time it fits it will be out of style and you will wonder why anyone would buy jeans that go up past your belly button and make your (not so flat) stomach look twice as bad and don't get me started on the rear view on these jeans! So I am happy to report that after a whole day. 3 black garbage bags hit the trash, 1 box to my cousin, and 5 bags went to DI. Those bags were SO huge. How this all fit in there I will never know. What I do know is that I won't be hanging on to this stuff again. I actually need my closet for clothes I do wear. In this process I discovered I have a love for two items sweatsuits and jeans. Thank goodness my taste has improved over the years! I found a few treasures in my trash but most of the things I found I had a good laugh at myself.
Oh by the way I am by no means a hoarder but I do need some help getting my clutter under control.
The other day Jacob came to tell me one of his front teeth was loose. I had a strong reaction and told him NOT too wiggle it. Why you may ask? Well about a year ago at a dentist appointment we were told it was dead and a bit loose. He said, " try not to have him wiggle it and it might hang in there till it should fall out (some time around 1st grade because boys are slower)". So I have been hoping we could continue to hang on and we could avoid the inevidable. So when my boy ran in with jubilation at the loose tooth my reaction was not as positive as it should have been. He immediately became really upset when I explained it was a dead tooth (what was I thinking) and told me he must not have good oral hygiene. His words not mine. So I quickly scooped him up and corrected my naughty behavior and explained to him how exciting this all was and that his oral hygiene was fine. Fast forward two weeks. We are out to dinner with friends when exclaims (loudly) the tooth is out. I look over and it sure is. His cousin pulled it for him (lovely huh).
Gross I know...
It was Easter's Eve (is that really a day). So it was pretty amazing when the Easter bunny and the Tooth Fairy were arriving all on the same night. Not to mention that was also the night where Jacob got the stomach bug. Busy night.
Because I am a slow blogger (lately) I have an upside to this story. Yesterday he came home from school thrilled because another tooth (right next to that one) is loose. So maybe its all natural and we won't be toothless for year. That would sure be nice. Oh and my reaction was MUCH nicer this time I promise.
Happy Birthday to one of my favorite people.
Some of favs about Angie are:
She is totally funny.
She is a great writer.
She is very stylish.
She is VERY intelligent.
She is very kind and generous and would do anything for anyone (many she does not know).
She is an amazing wife and mother.
She is not a complainer (unless its warranted).
She is a beauty!
She inspires me ALL.THE.TIME!
Her example and friendship have meant the world to me and I feel very lucky to count her as a dear dear friend.
Happy Birthday Friend!
Pop on over to her blog and send her some BIG birthday love!
