According to Hailey

Hailey is a funny little gal. She loves her chocolate as much as I do. I had some chocolate in my car that I had intended to make little Valentine gifts with, but didn't quite get around to it. Hailey found the chocolate as well as a "few" wrappers. As she was looking for some chocolate to snitch herself, she says "Mommy, you a bad girl, you can't eat chocit, I eat chocit." I don't mind sharing chocolate, but don't tell me I can't eat chocolate, that is not nice. Chocolate does NOT make me a bad girl!

Proceed With Caution

Ok, I know this picture is disgusting, however, I am ok with that. I hope none of you readers have aversions to kids' mouths. This is poor Brooklynn's mouth. She woke up on Saturday morning with a sore throat. I told her to drink some water and that would help. Well for obvious reasons it didn't help. She was coughing and gagging a little bit, again for obvious reasons. The poor little lady's tonsils are swollen, her right is definitely worse. We took her to the Instacare that morning and she has Strep Throat. As far as I know this is her first time having it and she is handling it like a champ. This picture was taken yesterday after a few days of antibiotics and so is not quite as big as it was. Now she has a swollen lymph node in her neck too, which to me means her body is fighting the infection. She went back to school today since she should not be contagious after 24-48 hours on antibiotics (and she didn't want to miss another day of school or seeing her friends) She has been a happy, sweet little girl, even with not feeling so well. If only I could be so pleasant when I didn't feel well...

We Are Blessed

Some of you may already know this, but my dad was in the hospital last week. He had been having some problems around the time of Spencer's wedding. He was given a blessing, and gradually started getting better. He went to his PCP and was referred to a cardiologist. Three weeks later, it was determined that his problems weren't heart related. The cardiologist sent him to a pulmonologist. The pulmonogist's office sent him for some preliminary tests before the appt and found that he has a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) aka blood clot in his leg and Pulmonary emboli (blood clots in his lungs). This can be life threatening. He was immediately admitted to the hospital and started on blood thinners. The doctor told him he is lucky to be alive. I told him he was "fortunate", and he said "No, I am not fortunate, I am blessed... there must be more work for me to do."
He was released from the hospital a few days later. I talked to him today and he seems to be in good spirits and says he is feeling pretty good. I am so grateful that he has work left to do on this earth, I don't think any of us were ready to say goodbye. He is a special man and a great example to me! I know many prayers were offered and answered on his behalf. We all have so many things to be grateful for, sometimes it just takes a wakeup call to help us remember how blessed we truly are.

Valentine's Day

My husband asked me a couple of weeks ago what I wanted to do for Valentine's Day. All I wanted was a quiet evening at home. I have been leaving my family a lot lately for work volleyball and more work and so all I wanted for Valentine's Day was to stay home and spend time with them. We invited my in-laws over for dinner. My husband cooked delicious Chile Verde, ate yummy dessert, then we watched the BYU Basketball game. I got my quiet evening at home with my family. It was a great Valentine's Day. These are the tulips that Nate surprised me with on Valentine's Day. I love tulips, they are definitely my kind of flower. They are beautiful, then they die, shrivel up and then you can plant the bulbs in your yard and enjoy them in the spring, year after year.

Volleyball

I have been playing on a city league volleyball team. We finished our season last week. We won about half of our regular season games and then we took 3rd in the tournament. Our team played great together, I got some exercise, and made new friends. It was a lot of fun! Top: Me, Stacie, Emily, Heather

Bottom: Paige, Anna

Me and my pal, Heather.

Our husbands love it when we leave our kids with them and run off to play volleyball, ok, maybe they don't love it, but I am glad that they are both understanding :)

Spencer and Lindsay are Hitched!

My "little" brother got married! Spencer and Lindsey were married January17th. It was a beautiful, sunny (and chilly) day. I don't think Spencer noticed the cold though, he had a grin on his face the whole time. The reception was a lot of fun. There was a line and then dancing. My girls had so much fun spinning and dancing with Aunt Lindsey. Spencer is not a huge fan of dancing, but I am glad that he enjoyed himself anyway. He and my mom were so cute dancing!

Birthday Time! (December/January)

Hailey and I both celebrated birthdays within a week of each other. Hailey is the big "3" now. We had a little teaparty for her and invited 2 of her little friends and were lucky enough to have some of her favorite cousins visiting from Denver, so we invited them to join in on the fun too. She had so much fun wearing the birthday crown and blowing out candles. Who needs to open presents anyway? Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Michelle and cousin Ally even made a special trip down to see her. Thanks everyone!

I figured my birthday would be like every other one I have had since being married, very low key, without a lot of bells and whistles. We had a late Christmas Party with Nate's family which happened to fall on my birthday. I walked in the door and almost his entire family was there singing "Happy Birthday" to me, which was very sweet. We all ate dinner, hung out, had a great time. Then the birthday singing started again and Nate surprised me with this yummy cake. I say "surprised" because this is the first time he has actually bought or baked me a cake. He and his family made me feel very loved, and of course you can tell by the red eyes, I cried. Nate saved some money and even bought me the MP3 player I wanted. It was a very special birthday, even if I did turn 92! :)

Christmas Time

Santa made it to our house. My girls definitely deserved a visit from Santa, they were (and still are) good girls! They loved all their gifts, but some of their favorite gifts are their blankets and matching pillows from Uncle David and Aunt Carolyn.

Pre-Christmas Fun. We started our fun night by eating at Dell Taco for Taco Tuesday night, when their tacos are dirt cheap. We had my friend's kids with us (6 of us in all) and we all ate for $5. We let the kids play for a little while then we were off to see Santa.

We went to see Santa next. Hailey may have been threatened (by Nate) that Santa wouldn't come to our house if she kept going potty in her diaper. Brooklynn was scared that she would be affected as well, so she kept encouraging Hailey to go be a big girl. The threat worked and we are officially diaper free at our house.

To finish off the evening, we went downtown to see the Candy Window Displays. I have heard about them from my mom and others and decided we should check it out. We had a great time and the displays were definitely worth seeing.

(I realize that I am a little behind on my blogging, but better late than never!)

Go Steelers!

Our favorite NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, won the SuperBowl last night. We grilled up some ribs and headed over to our neighbor's house for a party, decked out in our black and gold, complete with our girls in their little jersey's (I am not going to lie, I was thrilled to not have the party at our house this year). I had to leave to go to work toward the end of the first half, so Nate had to stay and cheer by himself in a room full of hostile Arizona Cardinals fans. Honestly, I don't think any of them really wanted the Cardinals to win, they just wanted to antagonize Nate (it worked). I know this seems really random to post this, but sports are a really big deal at our house and occupies my husband's time from August until January (February if he is lucky like this year) and I am excited because now I might get my husband back. Way to go Steelers!