Still Sneaking Away

The girls were great this year to create the traps on their own and they each made a trap.  They titled their places Lucky Leprechaun & Lila's Lucky Leprechaun with the year 2014.  They put tape like they were windows, hoping they would get stuck on the sticky side while trying to escape, but those handy little leprechauns used the sticks they used to prop their traps to break the tape and escape. Then they must have used their magic to vanish because magic was still in the air leaving green sprinkles on our breakfast.  The girls were excited that their smoothies were even in green cups--wish I could take credit for planning that, but they were the clean cups we had. :)  I did make clover muffins for an after school snack that they loved and then for dinner we managed to have a few green items--guacamole and salad.  For family home evening we played a Pot of Gold game and talked about our blessings and how we can share them with those around us.  It was a nice day and I truly am "lucky" to have such a wonderful family!!

Sick Days

As a Mom you don't really get sick days. You do your best to keep food on the table and get people to their activities while not getting anyone else in the family sick--especially babies like Andrew. And usually while not getting much sleep because the baby was up, or the sick kid woke you up or someone had a bad dream (there were several nights where I was awakened by the kids at least 7 times each taking their own turn after I just got back into bed). Last week I took three people to the doctor and came home with three different antibiotics. Ellie and I had bronchitis and Lila had another UTI. Ellie cleared up after two days on her antibiotics--me I'm still hacking over a week later. Lila's UTI was resistant again so we were back to the shots or a $400 prescription. I spoke with the pharmacist who priced it out for me and he said I could get the capsules and sprinkle it on applesauce or yogurt for $13 so we did that. Lila also went to the urologist again last week and she gave me a standing order for a urine test at the lab so I don't have to make a doctor's appointment every time I think she may have one. We still feel like we are on the right track to correcting the problem--we're going to do another urine test on Friday to make sure the antibiotic cleared the infection. Andrew also had is 4 month check-up on Friday which went well.  And my ENT called me twice during the week to follow-up with my biopsy results which were abnormal so I'll be doing surgery sooner than later. In the midst of all of this we are changing insurance because our plan no longer exists, thanks to the man who said, "if you like your insurance you won't have to change." Any way to sum up last week: 5 doctors visits, over 10 doctor, insurance, hospital, pharmacist phone calls (not including the ones to make appointments), 4 antibiotics.  PHEW!

Fortunately, I had made a few freezer meals recently so we enjoyed those without too much work from me. One night we had chef salads and I was a little worried how the girls would handle it since they don't like lettuce on their burgers or anything. But they thought it was great because they could pick whatever toppings they wanted to put on their salads. Lila didn't even have dressing on hers. Now they asked to have chef salads for every meal. :)

Needless to say the last two weeks I have been in a bit of fog with illness so I haven't kept up the blog like I would like so here are a few bright shining moments I remember through the fog. :)

The first week we were sick I thought it was just a head cold and it was a beautiful day and the zoo was having a free day so we packed up and headed to the zoo with Mimi who happened to be in town--I thought the fresh air and an outing would do us good. Well people were parking a 1/2 mile away on the streets and as we pulled down a side street to park I thought this is crazy I don't want to be in this crowded of a zoo and I have been wanting to take the girls to the Natural History Museum so we changed plans. The girls loved the museum (I did feel a bit bad for taking my sick child to the museum--I thought we would be outside and it wouldn't be a big deal). At the end Lila said, "We have to come back." So I turned our entrance fees into a membership and we will be going back. :)

Steve's brother Greg was in town with his girls Katie and Lexie so they came by Thursday evening and stayed the night before heading home on Friday. My girls were so excited to play with their big cousins. So sad I didn't get any pictures. Steve and Greg enjoyed visiting and watching a sci-fi movie that has been on Steve's list for a while.

Andrew started eating rice cereal. His weight gain was about a pound less than anticipated so the doctor suggested rice cereal. I thought it might be a good idea to get him started on a few solid foods before my surgery so he will be eating other things. He liked it a lot--almost nothing came back out. I kept making more and more like 3 small helpings and he probably would have ate more, but I wanted to start kind of slow. :)

Now he is trying to grab the spoon out of my hand. So last night I gave him one of these rice rusk things--he thought it was great. I love watching them try to coordinate getting food to their mouth. :)

This morning we had to call Lila down for breakfast several times. I know she was up and doing something, but she kept saying, "just a minute." Well she came down dressed and she had brushed her hair and put in her own barrettes (note the one dangling at the bottom on the right). :) So cute I think I'll let her go to school like this.

Mimi gave the girls these clip on earrings and they love them. Lila especially will wear them all day every day and was in tears one day when she lost one at school. Thankfully her teacher found it and returned it to her the next day.

We did manage to find a few evenings to take the girls on their dates. Lila and I did manicures and pedicures since she hasn't been able to stop talking about it since Ellie went. She even told one of my friends about Ellie's pedicure and said, "they massage your feet and it is so great, I think." I took Ellie shopping for her baptism dress and we found a very cute one. Steve took Ellie to Boondocks to play miniature golf and I guess it was a closely contested game and Ellie got super excited after a good round and jumped up and down twisted her ankle and skinned her forearm. She still had a ball. I love these special moments with them. I love my family and am so grateful that we help it each other make it through the illnesses and the fun times. The family truly is central to life here, helping us learn and grow, and strive to be better and more Christ like. Thanks for being patient and loving!!

 

Sweeties

I love celebrating my sweeties. The girls were kind of spoiled this year.  Ellie got a pair of high heels that she has been asking for for a long time. Lila got a jewelry box.  They each got an outfit with a matching outfit for their American Girl doll and a new dress. Steve and I exchanged fun and fitting cards and some sweet somethings--Steve loves the Reeses hearts and he got me some sugar cookies, I'm a sucker for baked goods.

Traditional heart shaped pancakes.

Last week I told Steve that I think I signed up to help with Ellie's class valentine party. Turns out I signed up to be in charge. :) It was fun, but I did start out with a list of 9 volunteers and there ended up only being 3 of us, but the kids had a ball decorating cookies, hearing a story and making valentines, and then I played some games with them with conversational hearts and chopsticks (which I needed to acquire a few more and Steve had a bogo coupon for Pei Wei that was about to expire so we had take out last night). Then we decided to take lunch in and eat with Ellie since I was going in to setup for her party. Lila thought it was great to be at school and wanted to stay. We then had our traditional fondue dinner--so delicious and for dessert personal white chocolate mousse pies.

 






















Fortunately we started making our valentine's early. The girls had a ball making them and put more thought into than I thought they would--they would pick colors they thought would look good together to melt together.

Watching them melt in the oven while eating ice cream.

Valentine's they made for each other. :)

Just Life :)

We've been enjoying life and having fun, but haven't had anything too momentous to blog about. Steve took Lila on a date at the end of January which included her field trip to Get Air, a trampoline park and lunch. She thought it was great and kept talking about how she wants to go back there for her birthday.  She talks a lot about her birthday and what she wants.  Let's see the list includes, Frozen dolls and/or dresses, the movie, and make-up (what?).

A couple of Saturdays ago it was so lovely outside that we bundled Andrew up and put him in the jogging stroller with Lila and Ellie rode her bike while Steve and I jogged. It was so fun to get out as a family. I can't wait for spring when we can do more of that.

On Chinese New Year we were able to go to Ellie's school and see her participate in the parade with her class.  They made a dragon and everything. Lila was so excited to see the "festival" as she kept calling it. I did a little research on the Chinese New Year so we could have a little discussion and I found out that they do a deep cleaning on New Year's Eve to cleanse and have a fresh start for the New Year--sounds like a tradition I could get on board with, the girls were not as excited about it.

I don't know why she is still wearing her coat--she was so set on wearing red per instructions and she wears her snow boots whenever she can. :)

Ellie came home from school last week and was so excited to tell us that she "digested" an owl pellet. It took me a minute to process and I said you mean "dissected".  She then explained that she found a skull in hers and even brought it home yesterday--yay. ;)


We went sledding and snowmobiling with Venessa and her girls on Saturday. It was fun and cold. Then we were able to attend the ward baptisms which included our cousin Ellyn Olenslager and the blessing of her newest little sister Aneyah. It was a wonderful meeting.  We love hanging out with family.

 
Andrew has started giggling. It's that fun hesitant laugh where you're not for sure if they are going to cry or laugh. We sure do love trying to get him to giggle. Life is good!

Andrew's First Roadtrip

The girls didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday so I decided to take the kiddos up to visit Mimi and Grandpa and for Andrew to meet the Great Grandparents. At first, Steve and I were going on Saturday and spending the day visiting the great grandparents and then leaving the girls for the weekend, but Ellie got invited to Isaac Wright's birthday party and he is one of her new best friends in her class this year and really wanted to go so we then began discussing several versions of the trip--the problem was I had ward council Sunday morning, was asked to giving the opening prayer in sacrament, and doing sharing time, then Steve's work scheduled pictures and other appointments on Monday that Steve couldn't get out of so we decided the kiddos and I would leave Sunday after church and stay through Tuesday.  Steve was a little nervous to send us off because Andrew had never been in his car seat for that long, but he was a great traveler. I nursed him right before we left and he never fussed. Ellie sat next to him and gave him the binkie and he dozed off to sleep. It was a nice break for all.

Picture soon after we arrived and Andrew was fed. We were visiting with Uncle Kirk & Aunt Brenda.

 

The girls received their first valentine from Great Grandma & Grandpa Merrell-they were so excited!

The girls loved telling all the great grandparents stories and were trying to teach Great Grandpa Olenslager a new game on his tablet--it was pretty humorous to watch. :)


Dad took the girls to Zumba and it was quite fun to watch. Then he took them to dinner. Good relaxing times for everyone! :)

Ellie & Mom's First Date

Today Ellie and I had our first date. I have to admit it was kind of hard to get myself out and going, but once we got in the car and Ellie started talking and talking--I thought you know what I can just listen and not worry about having to do something like cook dinner, change a diaper etc. It was nice! We had several ideas for our first date, but Mommy really wanted to get a pedicure so Ellie agreed to try it and I think she liked it. :) They served us hot cocoa and peppermint bark with water in these fancy glasses. She was silly and burped a couple of times--she never does that and here we were at the spa and it was a bit ironic. After the pedicure, I told her I would take her to get a hamburger or something, but she just wanted a special donut so we went to Krispy Kreme and she picked out any donut she wanted. It was a fun afternoon. We've already decided on our next date in March we'll go shopping for a white dress for her baptism and get lunch.

Getting in a Groove

I feel like we are finally settling into a routine. Don't know if I mentioned that Steve was really busy in November. Right before the baby came he had 3 clients give him new projects with a 10-14 day turn around. With those deadlines Steve took the 2 days off we were in the hospital and then went right back to work. I'm glad he could spend the time with us in the hospital--there is something wonderful about having just the three of you for a bit and Steve really is comforting during the whole delivery and recovery process. So life felt like a little bit of survival during November, then the holidays came and schedules were just a bit crazier than usual. Steve did manage to work from home a lot during December allowing me the flexibility to leave sleeping Andrew home while I ran the girls around etc. which was so nice and I am so grateful.

Last week started a new year and I managed to do carpool for Ellie's school, get Lila to school, and carpool for Lila's dance class last week while taking Andrew--granted it was only a 2 day week, but it was a nice ease back into life giving me the confidence that I can do it. I managed to make good dinners, do homework, and finish preparing for primary (the first Sunday of the year is always a little crazy). I think we are now a confident family of 5. ;)

Andrew continues to grow; he weighed 11lbs 8oz at his two month check-up. He also received a round of immunizations and all I can say is we have heard a lot of screaming from him, but we have never heard his hurt or scared scream--it was a whole new level. He has dropped a feeding at night and is sleeping pretty good most of the time. As a matter of fact, he slept all night Saturday. Of course I didn't because my body is used to getting up between 2&3 a.m. so I was awake and did a bit of cleaning which woke up Steve--oops. Yesterday he was really good with his naps. I would lay him down awake and he wouldn't fuss much if at all before falling asleep and he would sleep soundly until the next feeding (Steve thinks it may be due to the shots) and he had a rougher night last night. I tease that he can only have a good day or night, but I'm sure we'll eventually work it out. Until then we'll just keeping loving on him. :)

Dangerously Close

to sucking his thumb

 

Final Party of 2013

I saw this cute idea on Our Best Bites blog where they decorate their Christmas tree for the New Year Eve festivities.  I liked the ideas, but my tree usually comes down the day after Christmas (let's be honest--I started taking down stuff on Christmas this year, don't think of me as a buh-hum-bug, but I just find it nice to do it when Steve still is home and family is here to help so it comes down pretty quickly). Anywho, I still wanted to incorporate some of these ideas so I decorated our railing. The girls woke up on New Year's Eve to find the decorations and couldn't wait for the party.

They could not wait for the party which I told them would start after dinner. So finally at 5:30 we had sloppy joes, cauliflower, and these delicious cookie cheesecake bars for dessert then the party started. Since we had just finished eating we decided to postpone Just Dance for a bit so we went outside and did sparklers--always a hit.  Then we played Just Dance.  Then we popped the balloons which they found coins and jokes inside--this turned out to be more fun that I thought, they actually thought about the jokes and came up with some good answers.  

Lila did not really like the popping sound, but would scavenger for the coins and jokes as soon as the balloon popped.

We then played Uno Spin and had more cookie cheesecake bars.  Then we watched the firework shows in Taipei and London on YouTube then off to bed with the girls.  I'm going to bed as soon as I finish this post. :) Tomorrow we'll have our traditional breakfast of Aebleskivers and then I have ribs ready to go for dinner.  We'll work on 2014 family goals which I think will include a date night rotation--it was so fun to work with the girls one-on-one with their Christmas crafts and Lila asked if I would take just her to lunch after her appointment with the urologist so I thought it would be a good thing to add to the rotation. Happy New Year!

Special Fast for Lila

Last week I took Lila to the doctor because she had had a fever above 100 for 5 days.  Turns out she has her 4th urinary tract infection. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic to treat it and a low dose antibiotic for two months to "suppress" it.  I then received 3 phone calls from the doctor's office on Wednesday. They said this time the infection is resistant leaving us with three options, an antibiotic that is hundreds of dollars, three shots, or a home health IV for 7 days. Really not good options. We filled the antibiotic and made an appointment to see a urologist.  I then sent an email to some family asking that we have a special fast for her last Sunday.  

We just left the urologist office and she sent us home with what should be a simple fix. I really hope it works--I'm kind of kicking myself for not insisting they do a urine sample today (when your daughter seems to get one monthly it would have just been nice to know the infection is gone). She is returning to her happy healthy self and we hope to keep it that way. :)

I have a testimony of the power of prayer and am grateful to a Father in Heaven who hears and answers.