Nick and Reagan Go To Tampa

Blogger deleted this post, and I've tried every which-a-way to get it back.  But it's gone.

So, I'll re-post it bare bones style.

Nick and Reagan left cold, snowy UT and went to Tampa to visit Nick's Grandparents.

NZ cousin, Sara, and her Mom: Kristin were also there visiting.

They went to the Manatee Viewing Center.

 Reagan and Sara were inseparable.

 They visited Nick's Grandpa, at his rehab center.

 Reagan had such a good time, she was exhausted at the end of the trip.

 Reagan and Sara sobbed, when they had to leave each other.

I made a mistake on Nick's itinerary coming home.  They arrived at the airport after their return flight had already left.  It took the 13 hours of flying standby to make it home.

Elsa Snores No More. We Hope.

Elsa has ALWAYS been a loud breather, and a snorer.  I cannot count the number of times I have looked in the backseat at her, while driving, to see if she is asleep, because I can hear her breathing from all the way back there!  And inevitably, she is wide awake.  She just breathes that loud.

My pediatrician referred us to an ENT.  He took a look at Elsa's adenoids and declared that they were blocking 85% of her nasal passage.  No wonder she still breathes through her mouth!  We decided to have them removed.
I took these pictures of my "precious sleeping angels" the night before Elsa's surgery.

We took Elsa to Primary Children's Medical Center.  Everyone at that hospital is so wonderful.  Elsa must have awful veins, just like me, because I noticed that they had to poke her 4 times before they found a place to put her IV in.  I really wanted Elsa's doctor to remove her tonsils, while he was at it.  But he wouldn't do it.  He said that the tonsils are a riskier surgery than an adenoidectomy.  When he told me that, all I could think was, "yeah, I've heard that deaths from tonsilectomy's are on the rise. Not."

In the end he left her tonsil's in, and I am hoping I don't end up regretting not pushing for him to remove them as well.  Elsa didn't do too well in recovery.  When they first let me back to see her she was crying and thrashing around in her bed.  I tried to comfort her, but nothin' doin'.  Her eyes were open, and she was looking at me, but it was like she didn't see me.  Orange snot was running down her nose, and she was still hooked to her IV, heart and oxygen monitors.  I managed to pick her up, and I held her.  But it didn't calm her down.  She was like that for a long time.  They gave her some medication and she fell asleep in my arms.  She slept for a long time.  When she finally woke up she was a lot better.

By the next day, you never would  have known she had just had surgery.  The only telltale sign is her stinky breath.  They warned me that it would be gross for up to a month after surgery.  I don't know how to even begin to describe it?!  It smells like dirty diapers.  But it will go away, and I am hoping the end result is that Elsa is finally able to breathe out of her nose.

A little nitty gritty: I vacillate between only mildly hating living in Utah, and despising it.  Lately, with the Arctic temperatures and weather being what it is; I have held my home-state in utter contempt.  There have been so many mornings I have awoken and though that we ought to put a for-sale sign in front of our house.

Inevitably, when I feel this way something happens to make me appreciate where we live.

This time, it was all about being surrounded by caring people.  On the Wednesday before Elsa's surgery Cohen started climbing some stairs, and he fell down.  He was acting like his leg was in pain.  I decided to give him 24 hours, before I took him to have it looked at, to see if it got better.

It didn't.

So, I called our pediatrician on Thursday, to see if I could bring Cohen in.  Our pediatrician's office is in downtown Salt Lake City.  And he had an opening at 4:15PM.

My next-door-neighbor, Bev agreed to watch Reagan and Elsa while I was gone.  When I left the weather was snowy.  I was late to the appointment, because of the road conditions.  But Dr. Swensen, our pediatrician/patron saint was waiting for me at his office (I was his last appointment of the day).  He wrote me orders to have Cohen's leg x-rayed at Primary Children's Hospital; but told me that I could wait until the next day, if I wanted to avoid driving any more in the worsening weather.

I figured I was only a few miles away, and I have a 4WD vehicle.... So, I told Dr. Swensen I'd head up directly.

Dr. Swensen told me that he'd follow me up.

I told him that it wasn't necessary.

But he followed me anyway.

He looked at Cohen's x-ray and said he couldn't see a fracture.

We left the hospital, and the roads were worse.  Times Ten!

It was a nightmare.  The winter storm was a whopper!

While all of this had been playing out, I had spoke to Bev, and she told me that she had become suddenly, and violently ill.  I didn't want her to have to keep watching the girls if she was feeling bad; so I talked to Nick's brother, Nate, and he agreed to drive from his work in Murray, UT; to our house to pick up Reagan and Elsa.

I cannot remember driving in worse conditions.  And I've done my fair share of white-knuckle driving.

All the while, I was on the phone trying to coordinate child-care for the girls.  Nick was at work, and didn't get off until 10PM (I forgot to mention that part).  Nate left his work long before I left the hospital ; and was making slower time than I was.

I ended up calling my good friend, and neighbor: Kelli.  Of course, she was happy to babysit Reagan and Elsa.

When I walked in my front door, THREE HOURS after I left the hospital, Kelli was there playing with my children, and had also done my dishes, and cleaned my house!  What a good friend!

I made it to my house before Nate did.  The poor guy spent 4+ hours in his car, and never even made it to our house!  What a good person.

And then, as I was putting the kids in bed, my phone rang.  It was Dr. Swensen calling me to make sure I had made it home safely.

A few days after the blizzard was Elsa's surgery.  The original plan had been to have my sister, Heather, watch Reagan, and Cohen; while Nick and I were at the hospital with Elsa.  Then, the hospital called and told me that Elsa needed to be at the hospital at 7AM.  The logistics of getting two of my kids to Heather's house, and then making it in to the city by 7:00 was daunting.

I mentioned this, in passing, to one of my new neighbors; Jennifer.  We've only had a handful of interactions since she moved in.  But without hesitating, she volunteered to watch my kids.  I took her up on the offer, and we dropped Reagan and Cohen off at her house at 6AM.  How wonderful it was of her to be that gracious.

Heather got Lance off to school, and then came and picked up Reagan and Cohen from Jennifer's house.

My neighborhood, and neighbors can't be beat.  If I have to live in a place that I am less-than-thrilled about, at least I am surrounded by good people.

I've stopped fantasizing about moving.  At least, for now.

The New Year

As soon as I post this, I believe I will be committed to blogging for another year.  There's nothing wrong with that.  I enjoy having my printed blog books, and being able to look back at years past to see what we have done.

We did stuff during the first few weeks of January 2013.  Not terribly exciting stuff, but stuff nonetheless.

We tagged along with my little brother and made our first trip to Scheel's

The kids liked the taxidermy animals.  Elsa and Reagan each took a turn at the shooting game, and Nick and Reagan rode the ferris wheel.

We made a trip to Vernal, UT.  Nick worked at the Vernal Walgreen's, and I spent the day playing with my friend Jeanne.  And now that I think about it....  Nick worked at the Vernal Walgreen's a lot during 2012, I just never wrote about it.  I don't know why I never mentioned it, because being a single-Mom for several days at a time is a big deal!  I don't like it.  That being said, it adds a few extra dollars to Nick's paycheck; and if more opportunities arise for him to work in Vernal, it's not a bad thing.

We've been seeing a lot more of Nick's brother, Nate.  The kids love it!  A few weekends ago he took Reagan out on a "date" to a matinee movie.  She thought it was great, and keeps asking when he is going to take her again.  Sadly, Nate is a single guy again.  But he has a positive outlook on the future.  We adore him, and his sunny disposition.



Capping Off 2012.

The company I do my blog books through sent me a discount code.  It expires in two days.  So, I need to get in gear and finish 2012 blogging so that I can get my book published.

2012 has been good to us.  I could probably sum up our family activities for the year by saying: Vacations!

Sadly, Nick and I cannot afford a repeat for 2013.  We have decided to limit our excursions to two, for the upcoming year.  With the possibility of an extra driving vacation to Farmington, NM to visit the Sims'.

However, very soon after we made that decision; Nick found out that his Grandpa's health wasn't good.  Nick felt that he ought to take a trip to Florida to see him.  So, Nick and Reagan will be flying to Tampa in January.  They planned their trip to coincide with NZ Kris' trip.

Reagan is thrilled at the prospect of seeing this gorgeous girl again:

Her cousin, Sara! 

Every year has it's ups and downs.  I find myself very fortunate to say that we've had mostly ups!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Rundown.

My whiny, desperate-housewives-esque post has been at the top of my blog for far longer than I intended.


I've moved on from most of the stuff I complained about. Right after that post Reagan did a "180" in her attitude about church. My brother agreed to come over and fix the tub faucet in our bathroom. I found wood pellets, for our pellet stove at nearby Cal-Ranch. I "got things together", and managed to get out a few neighbor Christmas gifts. I pulled myself up by the bootstraps, and decided that I'd try to keep my house clean, all on my own, for the first time in 2.5years. So far, so good. Christmas miracles, I'd say?!

Cohen's still a difficult little guy. But when I took him to the dentist on 12/26; Dr. Curtis pointed out that Cohen was simultaneously cutting 8 teeth at the moment. And I think that'd make anyone crabby. I've been giving him Tylenol to help ease the pain.

Christmas-Time was marvelous for our family.  And that is what this post is going to be all about.

The week prior started off with the Christmas Party at Reagan's preschool.  I was in charge, and I think it went really well.  The entire reason I signed up to do this particular party was because it was on a day when Nick wasn't supposed to go to work until 2PM.  I was thinking I could do the party and wouldn't have to worry about child-care for Cohen and Elsa.  Well, the week before the party, Nick switched shifts, and I was scrambling to find someone to watch my kids.  My Mom came to the rescue!  It was so nice to have my parents in town.

The Saturday before the Preschool party (pictures got out of chronological order), Reagan had her Christmas Dance recital.  Brian and Jenny came to the performance.  Jenny and I sat next to each other and were nearly crying from laughing so hard!  Initially, I was afraid that Reagan wouldn't even participate.  But she squashed my doubts, and then some.  She ran out on stage with the biggest smile on her face, and performed all three of her dance numbers with verve!  We captured her performances with our camcorder, so if you'd like to see them, I can send them to you via email.
Reagan's precociousness ended when she walked off stage.  She didn't want her picture taken. 

Here are a few various pictures of Cohen during the week of Christmas.  Cohen loves to have his picture taken.

One afternoon/evening our family joined my parents, and both of my siblings, and their families; and we went to downtown SLC.  Our first stop was at the Grand America Hotel.  We looked at all of their Christmas-themed windows.  And stopped at the french bakery for shortbread cookies.
Then, Nick, Reagan, and Cohen took the train to Temple Square.  Elsa and I opted to drive the car.  Our plan had been to park at the City Creek Center, and walk over to meet Nick.  But it ended up taking me ages to navigate the city streets, and then find an elusive parking spot at the mall.  My two youngest children were tired, and wanted to go home.  So, Elsa and I missed out on the Christmas lights at Temple Square.
Nick took this picture of Reagan:

And I took this picture of Nick and the kids walking to the train stop.  I loved that he wrapped Cohen up in his coat.

Another night, we went out to Grantsville, and visited with my Grandma.  Surprisingly, we got her to agree to having her picture taken with the great-grandkids.  Grandma doesn't like having her picture taken.  The following are some of the attempts I made at capturing the moment.
Cohen's face, in this one is funny.

 In this one, I got Elsa mid-jump, on the couch.

 This one would have been perfect, if Braedon's head hadn't been in the way of Grandma's smile!

At another point in the week we opted to have a last-minute visit from Santa, so my kids could see him.  I did ALL of my Christmas shopping online this year.  Heaven knows I don't need to expose my kids to more germs, than they are already subjected to.  Elsa brings home enough germs from church nursery-class as it is!  Taking them out in public isn't a #1 priority. 
So, this year, Nick's brother, Nate, agreed to "play" Santa.  We invited a few neighbors over too.  It was great.  And all of the reactions from my kids were predictable.

Cohen Cried.  Classic!

Elsa was apprehensive.  But had no problem taking candy from Santa.

And Reagan was thrilled to see him!  Although, it was at this point that she pulled a fast-one on Mom and Dad.  For months she's been asking for the 2009 Holiday Barbie (because that one has a pink dress).  I spent a lot of time searching on eBay for said gift.  I finally found one for a reasonable price, a month before Christmas, and I bought it.  Then, when Reagan spoke to Santa she told him that she wanted the big pink pony (it's actually a stuffed Unicorn), that she saw at the grocery store.

Fortunately, for Reagan... My parents had not completed their shopping for my kids.  They "saved the day", and purchased the pink pony for Reagan.  And one for Elsa too.

On Christmas Eve we had Nick's parents, and two brothers over.  We dined on take-out Indian Food.  Well, all of us except Nick's brother, Brian.  He brought up a steak, and grilled it; so that he wouldn't have to eat Indian Food.
The kids opened their presents from Nick's family, and the usual Christmas Eve present from Mom & Dad, Pajamas.
Reagan and Elsa also got slippers.

Elsa still has her love of Hats.  As gifts, she received several hats from different people.  She's been wearing them non-stop.

 Cohen, again, hammed-it-up for the camera.

These are the only pictures I have of Cohen in his Christmas PJ's.  Shortly after they were taken he had a diaper blow-out, and in to the hamper they went.

Christmas morning!  My kids slept in until 8:30AM.   Elsa was so pleased with herself, at being able to get through the shrink-wrap and box, to her solid-chocolate Santa.  She didn't eat all of it at that exact moment.  No.  She waited until the following day, and then stealthily snuck it off of the counter while I wasn't looking and put it away in one sitting.

 Here's Reagan with her Holiday Barbie.  She loved it!  She also got some Barbie horses.

Santa brought Elsa an Aqua Doodle.

We had a relaxing morning.  The kids played with their toys, we had doughnuts and juice for breakfast.  It was perfect. 

At 1PM we headed to my parents house for food and more presents.  Notice Reagan laying on her new pink pony?  Her face exuded pure joy when she opened the box with the pony, and realized what it was!
Oh, and also notice that in this picture, and the ones prior, Elsa is donning jackets.  She got a Dora jacket from Nick and I, and as soon as she opened it on Christmas morning she insisted on putting it on.  She also got a Dora t-shirt, so she put the t-shirt on over her jammies, and the jacket on over that.
At my parents house she got a new winter coat (for next year) and wanted to wear that too.

I love my unique children.  And husband.  It was a great day.  Nick made his terribly fattening, but-so-delicious-it's-justifiable mashed potatoes.  And I made rolls.  We had ham, and all the trimmings.  We stayed at my parent's house and watched Brave.  Everyone went home happy.

Issues.

Where to begin?

I know I don't have a large group of readers these days.  But for those of you that still read my blog, maybe you can help?

So, my most pressing problem is Reagan's behavior at church.  She despises it.  That's all there is too it.  For the first eight months of the calendar year she was fine with attending church.  Now, all of the sudden she hates it.  Once she starts crying in her primary class, her actions only escalate.  She hyperventilates.  There's no calming her down. 
This week I received a phone call from a member of the primary presidency, asking what I thought they should do about Reagan's outbursts, because "they are becoming a problem".  Not only did I want to crawl in to a hole to hide my embarrassment, but I also had no suggestions???

Reagan never acts like that at Pre-School, or in dance class.  I don't know what, specifically, about church sends her in to such an extreme downward sprial?!

Her teachers at church are very sweet people.  And she hasn't had problems with any of her church classmates.  I'm at a loss.  Help!

My house is frustrating.  My kitchen floor is still a mess.  There is a lot of construction going on directly across the street from us.  There have been several days when they've been excavating, or landscaping; that it literally feels like someone is picking up my home and dropping it forcefully to the ground.  Now (because of the construction) there are bricks on the front of my abode that have cracked in half.  I called our insurance, and they told me that brick damage wasn't covered in my policy.  Now, the bathtub/shower in our basement won't dispense hot water!  Cold water comes out just fine.  But no hot.  I can't afford to hire a plumber to fix it, and I think that's what it might take to repair it.
I'm open to suggestion.  Just realize that Nick and I are not handy when it comes to home maintenance.  Thus, the reason my kitchen floor is in such bad shape (we tried to tile it ourselves).

Oh, and Home Depot decided to only carry wood pellets for pellet stoves (the primary way we heat our basement) at two stores in all of UT this year.  Does anyone know someplace in Davis County that we can go to buy wood pellets?

Elsa is an angel, but I cannot figure out how to get her to learn her colors?  No matter what I try, nothing sticks.  She isn't stupid.  She can count to 20, and recognizes her numbers.  She also recognizes all of the uppercase, and some of the lowercase letters of the alphabet.  She speaks very well.  The list goes on and on.  However, the only color she consistently gets right is White.
Nick thinks it is funny.  His helpful suggestion was that maybe she had "cones in her eyes, but no rods; or vice versa".
I didn't think girls could be color blind?  But maybe they can?
Should I even be worrying about this?

While I am venting.  I want to say that Cohen is the most difficult child of my three.  He gave up his morning nap two months ago, and that was hard.  The girls didn't give up napping twice-a-day until they were 16-18 months old.  Even though Cohen can crawl, he wants me to carry him all of the time.  He follows me around the house all day long, whining to be picked up.  I never thought I'd say it, but I wish he'd venture away from me and get in to stuff.  I think dealing with naughty behavior, and cleaning up messes would be easier than accidentally stepping on the crying baby under my feet, several times a day.
He doesn't like being bathed.  Popping either of the girls in the tub always (and still) solved nearly every problem.  Too bad I can't put Reagan in the bathtub at church.  ha ha. 
He makes babysitters miserable.  Already, he's scared off three (yes, THREE!) neighborhood babysitters.
He fights sleep at naptime and bedtime.
But at least, he is now sleeping through the night.  It only took a year of misery to get there.
My friend, Lindsay, told me that the first year of your baby's life is the hardest, but that it gets easier as each month passes.  I found this to be true with the girls.  Reagan was a difficult baby, and obviously, parenting her is no cake-walk.  But there are times that she gives me a break.  With Cohen I keep waiting for him to get easier, I certainly need the reprieve!  Maybe after his molars come in?

My AMAZING-no-one-can-compare, cleaning girl is moving to Arizona in two weeks.  I am torn about what to do?  Morgan (the girl that cleans for me) is the best at what she does.  I've tried other people, that charge the same amount, or more; and they just don't do as good of a job as she does.  It's a problem.  A real problem.

In the past two weeks I had to prepare treats to take to Reagan's preschool class, and directly after that I had to do Reagan's birthday celebration at preschool (since her b-day is in July, they celebrate it sometime during the school year).  Now I'm furiously putting things together for her Christmas party.

I don't think I'm going to do any formal "neighbor gifts" this year.  It's just too much.Even if I find a way to do thoughtful dollar gifts for everyone around us, that will still add up to over $60!  I hope people don't notice?  Our budget is tight right now.  In the past month-ish, I think we've had to put over $2K in to vehicle expenses, and my car still needs new tires- in the worst way.  I've been dumping all of the extra money on to Nick's student loans, we have a goal to have them paid off by February.  We're on track to make it, but only as long as I account for every penny we put out between now and then.  Being frugal is very difficult for me.

Nick and I desperately need a night away. Just the two of us. Our marriage needs it. But we don't have the cash to pay a babysitter to stay over night, and hotels are so pricey this time of year.  Now, I'm not trying to solicit for a babysitter.  I am well aware of how good I have things.  This is simply a brain dump, and slight temper tantrum.


I believe I am far more sensitive than I usual lately.  But in my personal life, I feel like I've been put through the "emotional wringer" the past month.  It's not secret that I've struggled with relations with Nick's family.  I think it may have calmed down now.  We cut off the relationship with the most difficult person/people.  And we are mending things with Nick's parents.
But I'm still frazzled.  All of the stress has really gotten to me.

On the bright side, though.... I lost all of the weight I gained while on vacation to Seattle, and then some.  I know the root cause is because I've been dealing with so much anxiety.  Since June 1st I've lost 26 pounds, and since October 8th I'm down 14 pounds.
I guess every storm cloud does have a silver lining.

Christmas is Coming.

We've been out and about during the month of December.

To start things off, we took the kids to the Festival of Trees (in UT, this benefits Primary Children's Hospital).

The only things the girls wanted to do was play with the bubble machine.

Reagan's hair is getting so long!  Every day I have to figure out a way to pull the hair away from her face, because she still has that chunk of "bang" (that she cut herself) in the front.  I cannot bring myself to cut her hair so that it is all one length.  So, I have to get creative.

Reagan's favorite tree was the upside-down one that was turned in to an ice cream cone.  I didn't get a great picture of it.  We are still primarily using out iPhones to take pictures.  I don't plan on taking steps to remedy that any time soon. 

The first Saturday in December we went out to Grantsville to the Imlay family Christmas party.  Nick dressed the kids, because I was making sugar cookie bars that morning.  I found the recipe on Pintrest.  In hindsight, I should ALWAYS do a trial run of things I find on Pintrest; before I plan on serving them to anyone.  The cookies were horrible!
I put them on plates anyway, and discreetly put them on the table at the family gathering.  Hoping that no one would notice I brought them.  At one point, I noticed my sister eating one of the cookie bars.  I sidled over to her and said, "I made those".  She said, "they're not very good".  It didn't hurt my feelings, because I knew they didn't turn out well.
Then, one of my Aunts went to the dessert table, and held one of the plates of my cookie bars up, and started asking who made them?  There went my anonymity.
I owned up to making them.  My Aunt wasn't being mean, she just wanted to know if any milk products went in to making the cookies, because she has a kid with lactose intolerance.
At the end of the party only three of my cookie bars had been eaten.
Stupid Pintrest, and stupid me.

Other than the cookie debacle...  We had a good time.
Here's Reagan doing her attempt at whistling.  She puts one finger in her mouth, and makes a high-pitched shrieking noise.  It's not whistling.  But it is funny.

Cohen and Braedon.  They're six weeks apart in age.  Heather finally has a baby that is normal sized.   Braedon is a little bruiser.

I told Elsa to smile, and this is what I got.  The second one turned out a lot better.

It may not be a true Christmas activity, but our 1st trip to the SLC Trader Joe's was like Christmas to us!  We are so excited to have a Trader Joe's withing driving distance.  No more packing an empty bag, when we go on vacation, so that we can fill it with Trader Joe goodies! 

Other Christmas news: we had dinner and made Christmas cookies with my friend, Michele, and her family.  And we attended the Christmas Party that our church put on.
I also found time to dress Cohen up in an awesome new winter hat.

In years past, I've always had my Christmas shopping done well in advance.  This year, I am WAY behind.  And, of course, the kids and I are all in the middle of fighting nasty colds.  Queen with David Bowie's song: Under Pressure is currently the theme song of my life!  And finalizing the gift list is only one of the things on my plate.  I'm also in charge of Reagan's pre-school Christmas party, and I have to get Reagan through her dance recital this weekend.

Wish me luck.  I'll need it to be able to pull everything off, and have some Christmas spirit left over.