How time flies....

So it is official, today is mine & Steve's 8 year anniversary!!! It is crazy to think that 8 years ago today, our cute little family began. I want Steve to know how much I love him. He is absolutely amazing and he never fails to tell me how much he loves me. Chances are he will never read this posting because he has so many other things going on in life. However, I still want to express my love and gratitude for him. He is absolutely amazing and he is perfect for me. Thanks babe, for being mine. :)

I am also extremely blessed to have two of the sweetest, most wonderful children in the world. Valentines Day was fun this year because the kids had so much fun getting Valentines and giving them to both Steve and I. In turn it was fun for Steve and I to give the kids a little Valentines gift. Saturday night Steve took me out for a Valentines dinner. We agreed not to get each other gifts, because our Anniversary is close to Valentines and we are going on a little getaway to St. George this coming weekend. Anyway, before we went to dinner we first went and saw our sweet little nephew, Ammon. He is such a beautiful baby and boy is he a fighter. He finally came home last week after over 9 weeks at Primary Childrens. He has been there since he was born, he was born with a heart disease, HLHS, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. It was absolutely amazing to be able to hold such a sweet little spirit. I hope he knows how much he is loved. After that we went to get the kids Valentines things which was fun. We tried to take the focus off candy alone and got them a couple other things. Then we went to dinner at Corbin's. Steve had made reservations, but did not tell me where we were going. I love surprises, it was so much fun.

Anyway, here are some pics from Valentines morning. The kids absolutely loved it!

We got each of the kids a little Valentines puppy. Isaac is pretty funny, he hasn't let his leave his sight since he got it.

Isaac posing for the camera, he loves his picture taken.

Audrey with her little puppy and Cinderella polly (she blends into her pajamas).

The kids wanted a pic of them with the flowers that daddy gave me.

The beautiful and thoughtful flowers that Steve gave to me.  I told him he was a stinker because he wasn't suppose to get me anything. But he said that the lofthouse cookies the kids gave him meant just as much to him as flowers meant to me.  

Poor Audrey....

For those of you who haven't heard already, Audrey has developed another allergy. I have determined that her skin must be as delicate as her tender little heart. Last Saturday I spent the day at home preparing for our wards Great to be eight program and taking care of some of the things on my "to do" list. One of those to do items was laundry, which is a never ending process. I had just bought a new bottle of laundry detergent the day before because I knew I was low on detergent and wouldn't have enough to do all the laundry. Anyway, I bought the same brand I have always bought, but this had Downy fabric softener in the detergent as well. Apparently Audrey is allergic. Saturday night we put her in a clean pair of pajamas which had been washed with the detergent and she woke up Sunday morning looking like a leopard. She had hives all over. They were all the way up and down her arms, legs, stomachm back, everywhere!!! Since I knew she was allergic to mosquitoes, at first I thought maybe it was an insect bite and she was allergic to whatever it was had bitten her. So we gave her benadryl and the hives went away completely within about an hour. But there was no bite visible. Then later she broke out again when we put pajamas on her again, this time almost instantly. (The dress she had worn to church was not washed in the new detergent.)

Wednesday night we were having dinner and Audrey said "Mommy, I'm itchy." So I looked and sure enough, more hives. So I gave her the benadryl and about 30 seconds later she said "Mommy, they are still there." It was pretty cute. I can see how benadryl can work wonders, but let's face it, it is not magic.

Now that we know she has this allergy, I have bought a baby detergent for delicate skin to wash her clothes in. The hives are not near as bad, but she still continues to get them. The nurse at the pediatricians office said that even after switching detergents the hives could continue for 4-6 weeks. This morning when she woke up again, she had hives on her face, legs, and arms. Poor thing.... hopefully these hives don't stay for the full 4-6 weeks.

Better late than never.....

Hello everyone, yes it has been over 2 months since my last posting. Sorry about that. Things just haven't seemed to slow down at all. But, things have gotten better, so I guess that is all that counts. For those of you who don't already know, Steve is working back at RC Willey. The work load at Redman was little to nothing, which as you can imagine his paychecks would match that. So after a while of looking, he came across an ad that RC Willey was hiring. He called down and spoke to management and a few days later he was re-hired. So he has been working there for a couple weeks now. It also happens to be the end of the term for Steve, so he has had loads of homework and finals to do. I am so grateful to have such a great husband who gives 100% effort to make life better for our family. He is absolutely wonderful and I don't know what I would do without him.

Isaac is doing awesome in kindergarten, in fact now that Isaac is learning how to read, he tries to read everything. Yesterday Steve and the kids came and picked me up to go out to lunch together. We went to Taco Time and as I was looking over the menu, the kids meals seemed a little pricey to me. So I asked Isaac "What do you want?" He said "I want a kids meal with a hard taco." Due to the fact that a kids meal was nearly $5.00 I said "Honey, I don't know if they have kids meals," thinking I could just play it off. Then Isaac said "Yes they do mom, see up there under the purple sign it says Kids Meals." Well, I was stuck and therefore we got the kids meal. Anyway, he is doing really well and is always anxious what the next school day will bring. Whether it is computer day, library day, P.E. or his favorite is free friday when they get to pick what centers they get to do.

Audrey is looking up to her big brother and is ready for pre-school. I haven't signed her up yet, but I probably ought to get cracking on that, I know they fill up quickly. At night she likes to "read" stories to me and she always asks when she can get a backpack like Isaac and go to school like Isaac. She is growing up so quickly, they both are. I can't believe that my baby girl will be 4 years old in just a couple of months. Where has the time gone?

I am still working full time, it is a huge challenge and makes things crazy for our little family, but it has to be done. I just have to keep reminding myself that it is a blessing that I am able to help provide for my family, because we certainly would be in a different place if I weren't working. The hardest part is when Audrey cries in the morning when she doesn't want me to leave and the days when Isaac asks if I would please take him to school. I am sure that if I were not a working mom, I would probably take those things for granted. But those are the things that I treasure. I am very grateful for my wonderful sister in law, Suzi, and my mother in law, Kaye that are so wonderful to help take care of my kids while I am working. I don't know what I would do without such a wonderful family!

I will try and post some new pics soon, we did get family pictures taken back in November, but I wasn't super happy with them. All in all, we are doing pretty well, and I want to say thank you to all those who have helped make things a little easier for us.

Growing up way too fast!!

So it is official, my little munchkins are not so little anymore. Yesterday when Steve and the kids got home Isaac told Steve that he had a loose tooth. Steve figured it was probably just starting to wiggle a little. Much to his surprise (and mine) he wiggled Isaac's tooth and it was just hanging by a thread. As silly as it sounds when Steve called to tell me that Isaac's tooth was about ready to come out, I said "don't pull it yet." Steve wondered why and I told him, "I don't want to miss his first tooth falling out." Crazy as it sounds, for some reason that seemed like a huge mile-marker. If he is losing his baby teeth, that means he really is growing up.

He was pretty excited to lose his first tooth. After this happened last night, Steve had young men and I had a church meeting to go to, so Steve came home to take the kids with him to rake leaves for a service project. After they were finished, they were rewarded with ice cream cones and the bishop gave Isaac his first dollar for his tooth falling out. Isaac absolutely adores Bishop Downs and he was very proud of his dollar.

Later, before bed, Isaac was sure to put his tooth in a small Ziploc bag and place it under his pillow in hopes of the tooth fairy coming. When he woke up this morning, he found under his pillow a new Spiderman toothbrush, with matching Spidermatch mouthwash (it turns your mouth blue to make sure he brushes well), and of course a dollar. He was so excited. He came in and after he showed me what the tooth fairy had brought him, he said "Mom, the real trick is how the tooth fairy put it under my pillow." I told him "The tooth fairy must have a magic wand." He agreed, then said "I think she came and saw that my room was Spiderman and that I like Spiderman, so that is why she gave me a Spiderman toothbrush." I couldn't help but smile. I realized that these are the great joys of being a parent, being able to see that spark in your childs eyes and all the joy and excitement they find.

I think Audrey was not so sure about Isaac's tooth falling out, but being the cute little princess she is, when I took a picture of Isaac with his tooth gone, she wanted a picture too. So here are a couple pictures from last night. FYI...Isaac's eyes are a bit watery because he has had a cold.

It's a busy life!!

As I am sitting at work today about to bust at the seams, I figured I would do something productive with my down time. Things have pretty much been crazy as ever lately and it is all due to a large combination of things. I have been having a daily guilt trip on the fact that I am a working mom. It has the hardest 3 weeks of my entire life. You know the saying "you don't know what you have until it's gone," well that pretty well sums it up. Steve's mom has been an absolute lifesaver in helping out watching the kids while Steve and I are at work. A few weeks ago she had back surgery to replace a disk in her back. Needless to say, the recovery has not been quick. Shortly after that, Steve's sister was admitted to the U of U hospital due to complications with her pregnancy. We are praying for her and her sweet baby boy as she is on bed rest at the hospital. We hope that they both come out of this as good as can be expected. The details of that would take a while to explain, so I won't elaborate on that. To top it off, this week is finals for Steve at school and I leave Thursday to go Atlanta, Georgia for work. The effort to find people to help watch the kids has been exhausting and they are always somewhere different. If you saw my schedule at work showing where they go, for how long, and who takes Isaac to school and back, you would laugh. I would like to tell all those people who have helped and those who are still helping me and my family out a huge THANK YOU!!!!! I could not do this without you and I am so grateful to have such great people in my life. At this time that I have felt that the world is just crushing down on me, so many people have given me uplifting words and thoughts. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

School's In

So I have decided that life is not going to slow down any time soon. Isaac officially started Kindergarten today. It is hard to believe that in the blink of an eye he is growing up and soon will be baptized, then all the milestones to follow after that. He was so excited to go to school today, he loves his new teacher, Mrs. Strawn. She is great with the kids, and the best part for Isaac I think was recess. He was so excited that at recess he got to go out and play with his friends. He has many kids he already knows in his class. A few kids from the ward and he also has his cousin Brinlee. Then he has his other cousin Kylie who is not in the same class. But they are all AM so at recess they get to play. He looks forward to P.E., computer and trips to the library. Along with Isaac starting school, Steve kicked off another term at college. I am worried this one will be a long one, as he has ALL of his courses on campus Monday through Thursday, then he will need other nights to get homework done. So I am hoping that he can keep his spirits up this term and hang in there. Unfortunately, that means that we will have to sacrifice much family time over the next 12 weeks. But we will all try and make the best of it. Good luck babe, we love you!!

Riding a horse at the Syracuse corral

Earlier this week John and Suzi invited us to go down to an old rodeo corral in Syracuse to ride a horse. Audrey was super excited about it. She could hardly wait to ride the horse. Isaac on the other hand, was a little hesitant. He is a lot like his mom in the way that he is a little skeptical of things and experiencing the adventurous things in life. I admit I am a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to things that are out of my hands. Anyway, the family had a lot of fun. The saddle on the horse was a saddle that Grandma Spencer had won in 1966 while barrel racing. So after each of the kids had a turn Grandma could hardly wait to get on that horse. It was a lot of fun to see everyone having so much fun. And if you are all still wondering, NO I did not get on the horse. Pretty sad that my two little ones have more guts than I do, lol. But I had just as much fun watching them have fun. I never believed my mom when she would tell me that when I was younger, but now I understand the joy that she felt watching me and my siblings grow up doing the activities we enjoyed. I love you munchkins!!