Valentine's Day Package

The kids got their package from Mok and Pok today. Thank you so much. The girls loved the jewelry boxes. Griffin hasn't seen his present yet because he is sleeping, and Jackson hasn't opened his present yet either because he is gone with his Daddy, but I know they will love theirs too!

Lila was amazed by the whole thing, and by the fact that something so cool belongs to HER!
She kept saying, "Mine, Mine, Mine???" Yep, it's yours.

The first thing Sunny said was, "Mok sure is a good shopper!" She was thrilled and went and put all her jewelry in it right away.

It is so cute to watch the kids discover new things and get such enjoyment out of the gifts Mok send to them. We love you Mok and Pok. Thanks for everything.

So Sad

The poor kids have been so sick and sad. Today is day 7 and I am feeling very exhausted, and am starting to get sick myself (imagine that). It started last Thursday/early Friday. Lila woke up with a sore throat and cough. She had what we thought was croup (don't know if it was or not, I think it was) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. On Sunday Griffin and Sunny also started coughing and having runny noses.

On Tuesday I took the little ones to the doctor and he thought it was croup and gave L and G a steroid shot. I was so hopeful that everyone would get well. Well, it's not happening. On Wednesday night Griffin started wheezing terribly. I was pretty scared and took him to Insta-Care. His oxygen was 90% which is not horrible for a sick kid, but he was working really hard to breathe. His chest was retracting and showing his ribs and the wheezing just kept getting worse. He did a breathing treatment at the office and the Doctor said it is RSV. He said if we can keep him from getting worse by using the nebulizer then he doesn't have to go to the hospital, but he was pretty close to needing to go and to watch him carefully.

So, he is still wheezing and very sick, but I think the medicine is helping a little and hopefully he'll start to get better soon. Lila is also still wheezing quite a bit and is on the breathing treatments too. Between the two kids, I figure I am holding someone hooked up to the machine for 2 1/2 hours a day (and night for Griff). Not fun, but I'll do whatever they need to get better.

Lila loves her "fishy" medicine. The mask is a fish face if you can't tell in the pictures. At first I had to hold her the whole 15 minutes, but now she is a pro and can sit and do it by herself. Griffin is not a huge fan, but usually after the first 2 or 3 minutes he calms down.

Ignore me in these picture. I look bad. Seriously, I haven't slept since last Thursday night and I can't even tell you the last time I showered. I hate breathing stuff with kids. You just have to watch them all night and it is wearing me out.

On another note...our house is still only halfway painted. You can see a little of the brown/tan color behind me. We have some pretty burgundy/gold/brownish curtains and some 2 inch blinds to put up. Should look nice when and if it ever gets done. It is definitely not my top priority.

Family Home Evening -- Week 7

All I can say for this week is:

We did it!

We did it with Sunny being sick on the couch with her fever, Lila running around all hyper and jittery from her Albuterol treatments, and everyone not being very cooperative in general. Ryan did the lesson about Faith and the Brother of Jared.

It was okay, and sometimes okay is enough.

Shooting with Bear

Last week Bear took Jackson out to shoot guns for the first time. Bear has been wanting to take him for awhile, but we thought he'd have to be about 8 or 9 before he was old enough. Well, Bear decided it was time. Being the anxious worrier I am, I was super nervous about it, but I decided to let Jax do it b/c he was so excited and I knew Bear would take good care of him.

We didn't get any pictures from the first time, but they went again today and Bear took a ton of great pictures. Jax had a blast again, and Bear gave him B.J.'s old BB gun. It is really fun to watch Jackson spend time with his Bear, and to watch him do something that he loves. When Bear told us Jackson could shoot it all by himself I didn't believe him at first. But, the proof is in the pictures. What a cool kid is Jackson?!?!

6 Months Big

This is his "morning hair" It is crazy!
(No idea why blogger but the same picture on twice. Oh well.)

I'm a little late, but he's a baby, he won't care. So, Griffin turned 6 months old on January 31st! He doesn't go to the doctor for a few more weeks but I'll guess that he is about 16 1/2 pounds or so, maybe 17. Medium tall, and his head is actually looking not so "peanut-ish" so I think it has grown too :)

If I had blogged about him on his actual birthday I would've said Griffin can pretty much do nothing, but since it is 5 days later, I have lots to brag about. Just this week Griffin starting sitting. I have pillows behind him in the picture, but he doesn't need them. He can sit for 3 or 4 minutes at a time and he loves it. He can roll both way (that is nothing new, but just for record keeping purposes I'll write it), and the biggie -- he is starting to crawl. Yesterday he didn't know crawling existed, but today he got up on all fours and launched himself forward. Yea for progress! I don't think he'll really be crawling for awhile, but it was exciting for him anyway.

He continues to get happier everyday. He is usually just content to be held. He doesn't care for toys all that much, playing with my wedding ring is his favorite thing. He still thinks his brother and sisters are the best thing ever.

He is loving eating lots of new foods. I started feeding him regularly about a week ago. So far he has had: carrots, peas, sweet potato, avocado, and applesauce. At first he didn't care too much for eating, but each day he is wanting more and more.

It is amazing how fast he is growing and changing. What a perfect little man I have!

I was tagged...

...by Jess...my first time ever. So, here it goes:

4 shows I like to watch:

-General Hospital
-Project Runway
-Teen Mom (sad I know)
-Wife Swap

4 thing I'm passionate about:

-cloth diapers (it's not hard, they work, and they're cute...really!)
-eating healthy (for the kids at least :)
-car seat safety (even more than passionate, more like freakishly obsessed)
-my family

4 words or phrases I say a lot:

-is that appropriate?
-is that necessary?
-deal with it
-you get what you get and that's it (can you tell I have lots of kids?)

4 things I've learned from the past:

-don't quit school, it only gets harder to get back into it when you're old
-brush your teeth, floss, and use mouthwash. They are all easier and cheaper than root canals
-the grass is always greener on the other side...blah, blah, blah. But really, it's true.
-life is way better as an adult than a teenager

4 places I would like to go:

-no where. I'm happy where I am, and I can see the rest of the world through the t.v. and Internet. I'm a homebody.

But... if I did have to pick

- Egypt
-France
-Italy
-Hawaii

4 things I did yesterday:

-went to Sunny's parent/teacher conference (she's amazing as usual)
-cleaned up a lot of puke from Griffin (when is he ever gonna get over that?)
- ate red hots (my favorite)
-spent way too much time online

4 things I'm looking forward to:

-Ryan getting home from work
-bedtime for the kids
-a vacation sometime this summer (hopefully...just have to decide what, where, and when)
-Project Runway with Sunny tonight


4 things I love about winter:

-Pleh (*credit for that word goes to Audra*)
-Pleh (same as above)
-Pleh (you get the point)
-Pleh (I hate winter)

4 things on my wish list:

-an Ergo baby carrier (trying to justify buying one when I have plenty of others that will do
-a fence for my backyard (not gonna happen any time soon b/c the HOA makes you put in an expensive one)
- new jeans
-a good book to read

Family Home Evening -- Week 6

I've officially made it one month into the year and so far I'm right on track with my goal of weekly family nights. I'm really proud of myself. Sometimes it seems like such a hard thing to do. I have to make dinner while all the kids are usually melting down b/c it is 4:30 and they are getting tired, then Ryan comes home in the middle of the chaos. Then we eat and have to clean up and get the two little ones in bed, and then finally we have our family time and lesson. Tonight I think the kids really had a good time.

We learned about the Iron Rod. We talked to the kids about Lehi's vision and then turned off all the lights and blindfolded them and had them follow the Iron Rod that I had made. It went all over the main level of our house, and ended at our statue of Jesus Christ. I think they got the point (I hope they did :)

After we were done they played with it for awhile, which is when I took the pictures. They thought the whole thing was pretty cool.