Hansen family

Christmas Day and then some.

2012-01-25T18:35:00.001-08:00

A few days before Christmas we went to visit the "Grandmas" as we call them. Grandma Beth on the left, Stacy on the right. Stacy is not a "grandma" but it was a cute picture. Stacy is my aunt, she always play with Max he loves it. We have got to know this side of my family more and more they are very nice and fun to visit.

Max got to open a present too, he was pretty excited. We also went to see my Great Grandma Theda, that would be Max and Peytons Great Great Grandma! Wow, she lives at home and is still totally with it, she is so sweet too. We didn't stay long because Max was a terror. He was so naughty I was completely embarrassed so we didn't get any pictures. But it was nice to see them both.

Christmas came and went in a flash, seriously all of the work and preparation for one day? Max loved it all so much we actually kept celebrating Christmas for half the month of January. He sang Christmas songs, talked about Santa, and Christmas Eve for a long time, heck he is still telling us we are on the naughty list for getting after him. And he asks if he can still sing Christmas songs, this kid really loved it. We told the story of Christ's birth enough I think Max gets the gist of it. He retold it to us a few times too. We set out cookies and milk for Santa and sent Max to bed on Christmas Eve. We were exhausted too but stayed up a bit longer to help get things all ready for Santa to come. :) That was most fun of all, then we went to bed too. Max slept all night and we woke him up a little after seven. He walked into the living room and his eyes lit up. He said, "Santa was really here?" He looked up the fireplace to make sure he wasn't still here. Then we all poured out our stockings and played with the toys Santa had left. Max was spoiled a few of his favorites were, an Innotab (like an Ipad for kids), a batman costume, and Hungry Hippos. Peyton's favorite was a small cabbage patch doll, seriously she about ate the face off it. She loves to pull its hair and gets excited whenever she sees it. It is too cute. Troy and I gave her the small one and Santa brought her a big one, much bigger than her.

Max was in present heaven, he handed out all of the presents and took his turn waiting to open his until someone opened one first. He was just as excited about a sweater as he was about his other toys. The lighting in our house is just awful!

Troy trying to teach Max how to use the Innotab.

My stepsister Danielle (little Dani) came out and played with Max, he loved it, I do believe he won every time.
Little Miss Peyton is getting to big, her hair is kinda Crazy. There is not very much of it, and she has an unfortunate bald spot on the back of her head. We are hoping it fills in soon. Troy is very aware of it and always makes her wear thick headbands to hide it. He is so in love with this little girl, it's pretty cute.

She is quite the eater too. She loves everything we have given her so far, well not fresh bananas, just the baby food ones. Danielle gave me a baby bullet for my baby shower and we have used it a ton.

When I picked up Max from school he had a green bandaid on his forehead, I asked him why and he said he fell off the bed and bumped his head. Then I looked around and noticed that all of the kids had one on. He liked it and kept it on for a few hours at home.

Silly kid. We had a wonderful Christmas and are so thankful for all of the many blessings we receive daily.

Still Here.

2011-12-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

Well well well, where do I start. Since Halloween we have been to Peyton's doctor, finished beet and potato harvest, had Thanksgiving, cut Max's hair, met Santa, decorated the house for Christmas, became a rice cereal junkie, and drove Mom and Dad C.R.A.Z.Y., and had another preschool program.

November: I did not take a single picture of Thanksgiving. Bad mom I know. I was busy helping in the kitchen, and Troy was busy holding/chasing the kids. We had lunch at my Grandma's house with my side of the fam. It was... pretty good. No meltdowns or feuds erupted, so it was a success. Max ate mashed potatoes, carrots, a roll, and pumpkin pie. This is a vast improvement from last year where he ate crackers. Yes crackers. We missed the WBH family dinner, we actually didn't know when or where it was until the night before. So we decided not to hit the tail end of it and went home to relax. Good choice we were all exhausted. I wasn't planning on doing any black friday shopping, there was nothing I was willing to get up and fight crowds for this year. But after I woke up at 5 am and fed Peyton I decided to go. I went by myself, a LUXORY! Troy stayed home with the kids. I got most of my shopping done too.

A week later Peyton had an appointment with her pediatric cardiologist Dr. Wommack, in Ontario. He comes from Boise every 3-4 months. I was nervous to hear any bad news, Troy was optimistic though. She had a great check up. She is so happy and healthy looking you would never guess she had such a rare and serious heart condition. The nurses Dr. Wommack brought with him had never seen a transposition like hers. She was such a doll everyone in the office came to see her. She was wearing the onsie and headband Denise gave to her. After weighing her and getting her undressed the Dr. came in and said it was time for him to look at the poor neglected, malnutritioned baby. haha. Her heart is doing a great job of pumping the oxygenated blood where it needs to go, but the right ventricle is doing the bulk of the pumping, which is the left ventricle in everyone else. This is the concern. One day a long long long long long time form now the right ventricle may tire and give our or weaken, not pumping the blood with enough force to get it throughout her body. This is only a possibility though, it may NEVER happen. And she would just live a "normal" life with her condition. (We PRAY for that one) But just in case Dr. Wommack thinks it would be wise to start her on a heart medication this spring/summer to preserve the right ventricle from the get go. It's hard to believe there is something different about her heart, she is just so perfect! She loves to eat, laugh, play, sleep, cuddle, and coo. The Dr. reminded us not to treat her as though something is wrong with her, just let her do what she is meant to do he said. This is hard, Troy and I don't even let her cry very long or very forcefully because we know it puts stress on her little heart. But we also don't want her to grow up and think there is something wrong with her and not reach her full potential. What a do know is that I love her so much it is unreal. She was meant to come to our family, I cannot imagine my life without her in it.

Peyton 3 months

Waiting at the Dr.'s office.
Now this little man has been a changing. He is no longer a little boy, or so he thinks. He is trying to be so independent at times it is frustrating. Like riding a bike on the trampoline. I saw him struggling to heave the trike up there and thought if he can get it up there more power to him. Unfortunately he did get it up there, and he loved it. I watched carefully out the window.
He unrolled 3 rolls of toilet paper while I was in the shower, he was making it snow. I made him pick up all of the little pieces and throw them away and we re-rolled the big pieces. (I'm cheap like that).
He loved playing the carousel box, he broke a figurine and a flag off of it this year. He does not listen to a thing you say most of the time. But I know he is somewhat listening, he loves stories, especially Bible ones as of late. David and Goliath, and Jonah and the Whale are his favorites right now. He retells them perfectly so I know he's listening and learning.

Peyton turned four months old on the 11th. She is so sweet. Her laugh is so cute, it's really more like a grunt. She loves to play toys, reaching for things to put directly into her mouth. Her chubby cheeks get kissed I swear a thousand times a day by Max, Troy, and me. She drinks a 6 oz. bottle every 4 hours or so. She likes to be on her tummy, but can't quite roll over yet. She sleeps about 6-7 hours at a time. She LOVES the bath. Always has. I think I just have water babies. I put her in the big tub lying down by herself in shallow water and she kicked and waved her arms and smiled forever. She is really strong, I don't remember Max holding his head up or standing as soon as she did.

Santa came to Adrian. Max was really excited to tell Santa his Christmas list. Which is everything Batman and Hungry Hungry Hippos.

Her owl hat is my favorite.
I had Danielle's girls for a little bit. Alivia is such a little mommy to Peyton, she reminds me all the time that when she's older she will get to babysit Peyton all by herself. She read her a book and played with her.
Peyton is a rice cereal junkie. She loves it. She cannot get the next bite fast enough. She is still working on the swallowing aspect, she tries to suck on the spoon like a bottle. She has been on formula since 3 months. I just could not keep up with her demand. I would nurse her for 20-25 min. then 2 hours later she would want to nurse again. It was getting frustrating for her and me. I tried to pump but I had nothing.

Our Ward Christmas party was great. I helped decorate. Max was so anxious to see Santa, he waited in line and went up by himself no fear at all. He told him his list and we tried to snap a few pictures.

Max was very curious as to what was in Santa's bag.

Before Max's preschool program we had a little chat. He knew all of the songs and told me he would sing them with the other kids this time. I prepped and prepped him to stay in his seat, sing with the kids, and sit still. It was to no avail. He did everything I told him not to do... go figure.

He sat by his buddy Grayson, which was all good, until Max started playing the drums on Gray's head. Like 4 times. Gray is so nice it didn't seem like he was mad, they also started shaking their heads while all of the other kids were singing. Max sang about 9 words total. out of 5 songs. Little stink! I made him apologize to Grayson. He said sorry not too sincerely, then put his hand on Grayson's chest and said I'm sorry. It was pretty sweet. Hopefully Grayson will continue to put up with Max's wild ways. I think my new name for them is the "bobo brothers" from Diego. The twin monkeys that go around causing mischief and trouble.

Christmas is so close and I have a few projects I would really like to finish, I always tell myself to start in the summer, do I? Nope.

McCall and Halloween

2011-11-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a HUGE deal at our house this year. Max really loved everything about it, the pumpkins, the costumes, the candy, decorating, and especially the spookiness of it all. I was most surprised at how much he enjoyed decorating the house for Halloween, next year I will have to get more creative. He spend half a day helping me decorate then redecorate himself. Leading up the the Halloween Max had a field trip to the pumpkin patch with his preschool. We needed to be right on time or early to make the tractor hay ride to the patch, of course I was late. But we busted it over there and luckily one of the workers knew us and took pity, so Max, Peyton and I got our very own VIP tractor ride the the patch where the rest of the class was. It was kinda like high school all over, walking in late and having everyone stare. It didn't help we made our entrance with a tractor. Oh well Max would have been disappointed if we missed it. He picked out the ugliest smallest, green and yellow pumpkin and played in the hay bale maze with the rest of the kids. It was chilly, Peyton tested out her front carrier and really liked it. We bought two more pumpkins and carved them that night when Troy got home. Max's gag reflex is something he inherited from his Father and to touch the pumpkin insides made him gag a little at first. But we made him dig out his own, and he got over it. Silly kid.

Max told me exactly what shapes the nose, eyes, and mouth had to be. Troy was a sport, and carved one of his own.
And had a little too much fun.
My Grandma was having a new roof put on the cabin so the kids and I took her and Danielle up to check it out. Danielle didn't take her kids, not one. She was needing a nights break. Which was nice for me because she ended up missing her kids so much she helped take care of mine. After all three of us gals tried for an hour to get to fire working right we finally called Connie for help, turns out you must first PLUG IN the fan. After that we stayed nice and warm. This was Peyton's first time away from home. She was pretty rotten. She did not want to eat and did not want to nap for more then 15 minutes at a time. But she smiled a lot so we forgave her. :) It was a fast trip but it was fun. Max LOVES McCall and staying at the cabin, we had to walk down to the lake a few times. And it was beyond FREEZING!

We ate lunch at the Pancake House, they had tons of carved pumpkins lined up and lighted. It was pretty cool.

Peyton likes to wake Max up in the mornings by laying by him and sometimes talking to him.
Our little Dash Incredible. He really played the part well. He even allowed me to blow dry, tease, gel, and hairspray his hair.

Max's preschool class had a little program, it was really cute. Unfortunately mine kid was the only one with a blue ring pop in his mouth the entire time. Cute huh? He didn't really sing the songs even though we sang them every night before bed, he knew them.
The "hawk"
Max and Miss Krissy, pretty sure he has a little crush on her. Why else would he cry for her to save him from time outs. haha. And sit on her lap the whole second half of a football game that's a lot of sitting for my little guy.

What a mischievous face.

The trunk or treat. Max and his buddy Grayson.

Max and uncle Anthony. Everyone says they look the most alike, I agree.

After the trunk or treat we stopped by my Grandma's and Danielle's inlaws. The kids were thrilled to see eachother. Alivia was a hippie and Xalia was a dead vampire princess. Danielle said she insisted on this, and wanted a white face with blood too. Silly girl. Julian was a dinosaur.

These kids are so fun, they love to play with eachother, and love to have sleep overs at my house. Oh to be a kid.

Peyton and the blue bumbo. It was Max's I love that she will sit and watch me do the dishes or make dinner.

I have to be better about taking pictures when the kids are dressed cute. Seems like all of them are when they are in pj's. This Sunday Peyton was all smiles. Max got home and stripped before I could get a picture of him.

Yesterday I watch my nephew Julian who is 1. He doesn't really talk much yet but he let me know exactly what he wanted. A bottle of milk, and the swing, then a nap. It was hilarious to see such a big boy love this swing. He liked it a lot more than Peyton does. He took 2 naps in it that day.
I cannot believe it's the middle of November. Christmas is right around the corner, I have a ton of ambitious projects and plans and not a lot of time to do it. It would help if harvest every got over. I swear it was the never ending harvest this year. I am so done with late nights early mornings and driving lunches around to every corner of the farm. I complain way more than Troy. He's the one having to work all those long hours. But there is an end in sight. Thank goodness.

Max goes to Preschool

2011-11-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

I am so lucky to have a great preschool just up the road from me, this is quite a feat considering I live in the boonies. Way back in February I talked with the teacher Miss Krissy, she said she only had 2 spots open for the coming school year... I had no idea I should pre register my child for preschool. haha. Really it's just because it's that popular around here, and because Miss Krissy is AMAZING with kids. Troy and I really talked up going to school for 2 weeks to get Max excited and ready. Bad idea, every day after we first told him he was ready and waiting for preschool to begin. It was a VERY long 2 weeks. Finally the day arrived, he picked a picture for his first show and tell, one of him jumping off the low dive at the Vale pool. So Max. He got to take a backpack and everything, luckily Troy was digging potatoes near by and stopped to help take him in and say goodbye. I wasn't nervous about Max missing me or being shy, I was nervous how he would listen to Miss Krissy and not drive her too nuts the first day. Max's friend Grayson is in the class so that helped a lot. Krissy said he was just fine, and really smart. That made me feel good, then a week later she told me that he is now sitting through circle time. I guess the first few times he just would get up and do whatever he wanted. No surprise. He comes home with papers and treasures each class day and is excited to tell us about them. He LOVES school and I am so glad. Kinda makes me wish it was more than 2 days a week, just because he enjoys it so much, but I know if it were it would be too much for both of us.

Max raved about the glitter play-doh.
When did my baby boy get so big? By the way I now have to buy him size 5/6 shirts, and 5 or 6 pants, depending on the brand, and a gigantic size 10 shoe.

My birthday was September 30th, just another harvest birthday. Not too exciting after turning 25 the excitement kinda wears off. But Troy did get me some pretty flowers and told me he picked out my present I just had to ok it. So we went to town, turns out he choose the prefect gift. A new chair for our living room. Well, he picked one and then we looked around and found one at another store we both liked better, and was better quality. I love it.

Max and Peyton, he is so sweet to her. He asks to hold her all the time but it only lasts for a minute then he says Take her take her.

Peyton in her blessing dress on the birthday chair. She was blessed the 9th of October. She was almost 2 months. Her dress was adorable and a size 6/9 months, thankfully Julene (Troys aunt) who happens to be an extraordinary seamstress/ nicest person ever took in the sides so it fit perfectly. We were super rushed that morning so this coming Sunday we will have to do a retake of Peyton in her blessing attire.

The blessing was great, there was a huge circle, benefits of a big family. And afterwards we had a lunch at Valene and Charles' house. Max played his heart out with Xalia and Alivia.
My Grandma is the best, she is so active and can work circles around me. She is so helpful and kind, she also LOVES babies. She holds Peyton every chance she gets. And she is super stylish, ask her where she got her outfit and she'll 99.9% of the time tell you she found it for a steal at a yard sale or second hand store. She is so funny.

This is a laundry basket of clothes Peyton has already grown out of. It is so nice to have a chunky baby. Max was so skinny and hated to eat from day one. His blessing outfit was a premie size, Peyton's 6/9 months slightly taken in.
I usually love the month of September, this year is flew by and with a new baby and a 3 1/2 year old I didn't have to time/energy/sanity to do much of the usual fall festivities. And it was so hot outside it felt more like August anyway.

Troy stayed home with me for 3 days then went back to work, I think I cried that whole day. It was definitely a new experience having 2 little ones pull you in two different directions, and keep up the house and cook 3 meals a day. Troy really did help a TON and I was so thankful that even after a long day of harvest he came in and did dishes, held Peyton, and put Max to bed. This c-section gave me hope that I could do another, after Max I could even imagine going through it all again. This one was 100% different and better. Thank you Dr. Koszalka...

On another note September also brought bills, Bills, and more BILLS! I now dread going to the mailbox. But Peyton is absolutely PRICELESS, so I can't complain.

The rest.

2011-11-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

These were suppose to be on the last post but it was late and they were taking forever to load.

Peyton Ash, we love you.

Long time no post.

2011-11-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

So I didn't really think anyone every read my blog but I have received quite a few requests for an update. Peyton is basically perfect in every way and here are some pictures to prove it. I'm sure she's the reason people want an update...Megan... So here you go. In these pics she is 2 weeks. She is so super sweet, she still scares us from time to time with her gasping, but it's getting better. I always tell Troy how much I love her, he agrees. Troy is so different with Peyton. He is super soft and calls her things like princess, and doll, and sweetie. I know he was sweet with Max too, but now Max is so big and rough it's hard to remember. Max is always kind and gentle with her, something I thought would be an issue. If she's crying and I do not hop to and pick her up Max gets upset and comes to get me if I'm not in the room. He tells me to help her, and feed her, and asks "what does Peyton want." When she is being fussy and Max is scolding me to help her and asking what she wants I sometimes just look at him and say "I don't know what she wants MAX if I did she wouldn't be crying!" He is quite the go- fer too. He now answers the phone and has conversations with whomever, changes laundry, unloads the silverware, picks up toys, and helps sweep. He is a good big brother. I'm so glad he is the oldest. He teaches me patience, and forgiveness daily. 99% of the time it is him forgiving me. He is really so sweet and kind to Peyton and I, now to Troy that's another story. They love to play rough and ride in the tractor and work outside, and make homemade popcorn. Max is definitely becoming a Daddy's boy. Sigh.

Peyton's Sunday Debut

2011-09-16T14:22:00.001-07:00

This is terrible lighting for pictures I know.

Peyton is just starting to SMILE, and let me tell you it's a big pay off for the times I'm up with her at night, or have to hold her because she is spoiled.

Peyton and I finally made it to church last Sunday, we could have went the week before but I had a massive headache. She is so Adorable and fun to dress up, even though she has no hair and is still tiny it takes me longer to get her ready than Max. Boys have it so easy, no matchy - matchy with clothes, socks, shoes, blankets, burp rags, hair bows, etc. Everyone thought she was a doll, and I agree. She was much better behaved than Max too. I LOVE having a little girl, and as of late I feel she loves me much more than Max does. Three years old is MUCH harder than two years old, partly because I have a new baby and am tired and cranky I'm sure.

Someday You'll look back and laugh.

2011-09-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

Life at the Hansen's is back to normal, whatever that is. It was a rough few days post c-section at home, but this time around was 100% better than with Max. Even during the surgery I remember thinking this would be way worse. My sweet Grandma, or Gram as we call her came and helped me out for the first week I was home. She swept my floors and did my dishes, held the baby, and played outside with Max in the sand. She is awesome, so thankful for her. Peyton is the best baby ever! She sleeps and eats then sleeps some more.

Our morning routine: Max comes in around 7:30 watches some cartoons, Peyton wakes up around 8:00 eats then we all get out of bed at 8:30... sometimes later.
Precious Peyton, she LOVED her first bath. No crying at all, she was so peaceful in the warm water.

Pull up your pants BOY!

Max has really been liking Pirates lately. He says ARRRRGH me mateys.
He tells me he wants to be a pirate for Halloween, but that he needs a "real" pirate sword. I guess the cheapo $1 ones from Target just don't cut it anymore.

On August 30th, about 2 weeks after we brought Peyton home from the hospital we had an experience of a lifetime... not the good kind. That morning I was nursing Peyton and burping her as usual. She spitup and coughed a little then really puked. After she puked she could not get her breath. She just kept gagging and gagging and not bringing anything up. She was getting really red and would not start breathing. I did everything I could think of, holding her straight up and patting her back, turning her sideways, holding her on her tummy. Nothing helped. By then she was frothing at the nose and mouth. I called Troy panicked and told him to get home something was wrong with Peyton. Luckily he was just at the shop, (down the road). He got home and we decided to call 9-1-1. She still had not cleared and was starting to get blue around her lips. I was FREAKING out. I managed to get dressed, (I had just woke up to nurse her) and the emt's got there and put some oxygen on her. She stopped gagging but was white as a sheet, scary white and still blue. Her heart rate was Low and she was pretty lifeless. The Nyssa ambulace got there and we got in with them. I told them about her heart condition and it made them think this might be related to it. I thought we were heading to Ontario to the hospital, but when they pulled out of our driveway they turned left towards Adrian. They then told me Life Flight was meeting us on the Adrian football field. The lady in the ambulance contimplated placing an IV in Peyton's head, because her veins are so tiny. I'm glad she decided to wait for the Life Flight crew to get there because she didn't end up needing one. Once the helicopter landed Peyton was actually doing better. She was alert and breathing better. Her heart rate was still low so they wanted to take us. Once we got to St. Luke's she was doing a lot better. They hooked her up to every monitor you can imagine and called her cardiologist. Dr. Wommack did yet another echo and determined it was nothing to do with her heart. And the narrow part of her aortic arch we were worried about had opened up and is no longer an issue. PHEW!

What the Dr.'s finally determined was that she has acid reflux and while spitting up choked, and could not get it up or back down. She gagged so long it caused a vagal response and her heart rate dropped. We stayed the night at the hospital, and had no further issues. We came home the next day shaken and very nervous to feed Peyton. I did not sleep that first night home. Thankfully she has not choked again. She does gag and scare the heck out of us from time to time, but nothing like that day. So what we found out... Peyton is going to give us a run for our money, we will be nervous wrecks for a long time, kids are resilient, helicopter rides are pretty cool, and very expensive! Oh well I'd do it again if it meant our child would be safe.

Peyton Ash

2011-08-22T18:50:00.001-07:00

Peyton Ash Hansen

8/11/11

6 lb 9oz

18.5 inches

100% Perfection

So the story goes like this: Wednesday (10th) night I started having some contractions. I thought they would go away like they did the previous Sunday, but they kept coming and coming. At 2:30 a.m. I got out of bed and cleaned the freezer, two pops had exploded the day before and I had put of cleaning it. Next I cleaned out the fridge, thinking we might go to the hospital I threw away all of the leftover and washed out the produce bins. Then I swept the floor, after that I was still having contractions every 10minutes apart. I thought to myself, I could go lay back down but then the contractions might stop. I was beyond ready to have this baby so I stayed up and worked some more. I cleaned and cut 4 lbs of strawberries and froze them, washed and folded 2 loads of laundry, then went to wake up Troy. By 5:30 a.m. the contractions were coming every 7-8 minutes apart. Troy went to check water, I told him to hurry because I would be ready to go when he got back. I ended up calling him about 25 minutes later and told him to get home so we could go to the hospital. We dropped Max off with Charley, drove through the Neighborhood's (Val's shop) drive thru for breakfast for Troy and were finally on our way. But we made one last stop at the ATM in Parma for some cash. I was begining to think I would have this baby in the car. My doctor (Parsons) was on vacation but he told us to go to Meridian St. Luke's first and be checked out by someone with OBGYN associates. This was a DUMB idea. I ended up having to be transported to downtown Boise St.Luke's via an ambulance. I was too far dialated for Troy to drive me. I got to almost a 5 before I was transported. When we got to Boise we were pleased to hear the Dr. Koszalka was on call and would be doing the c-section. He was the doctor who did the ultrasound confirming Peyton had a heart defect. He is really nice and funny. Once at Boise things went pretty fast, I signed a few forms and by the time Troy got there they were prepping for surgery. The nurse was very nice and handed troy some scrubs and told him to get changed. they took me into the surgical room for my spinal. That was not very fun, and I couldn't stop crying. I was in pain, and nervous but I really don't know why I just kept crying. I am usually NOT a crier. The surgery was fast, and so much better than my first c-section. It was even less painful, when they pulled Peyton out and I heard her cry I lost it again.

Because she had a heart condition there were tons of people in the room, thank heavens she came out pink and crying... both great signs of good circulation. I was so happy they didn't rush her off to the NICU. They took their time cleaning her up, Troy cut the cord and even got to hold her and show her to me.
Troy gazing oat our BEAUTIFUL new little bundle of joy. (that's my arm) haha.
I swear I wasn't swollen or puffy until they started the IV fluids and I started crying, they I blew up like a balloon. Troy looks to cute in this picture, even if you can only see half of his face.

After I had seen Peyton they took her to the NICU for an echocardiogram and a few other tests. Troy went with her while they stitched me up and sent me to recovery.
It took a long time for the spinal to wear off enough for me to move my toes and legs a little, both requirements to leave the recovery room. Believe me I was trying to move those toes so bad. I was so anxious to get up to the NICU and see my little girl. Troy was quite the relay man while I was there. He stayed with Peyton mostly but came to check on me and show me pictures every little while. I also got to see Max while in recovery. I was just so tired and my my faced itched like crazy. Finally I was able to move my toes and legs so they sent me up to the maternity floor, my temperature was low 97.4 degrees so they wouldn't let me leave until it got up to at least 98 degrees. I had them bring me warm blankets, hot broth, and I MADE them turn on the HEAT in the room. I think they were a little annoyed with me at that point. I really didn't care. Finally almost SIX hours later I got to hold my sweet little girl. Again I bawled.
I LOVE the picture below, she looks so peaceful, and her lips are so red.
I was so puffy for the first day.Looks like she was put through the ringer in the NICU.

Going home! A day early too. We were so ready to get outta there. Especially Troy. She is so TINY in her car seat. She weighed 6 lbs 5 oz when we left.

We are so happy to be home safe and sound. So far Peyton is a dream, she sleeps and eats and looks at you with her big bright eyes and melts your heart. We love her and are so So SO blessed to have her home with us and not in Spokane having surgery.Max loves her too, he calls her "sweet girl". He has has a little adjusting to do, but I'm sure it will pass soon. I feel like this c-section recovery is 95% better than my first. It still hurts like crazy, but I find it more bearable and am up and around way earlier than I was with Max. We are so happy.

Way back when...

2011-08-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

So I have to post all of the happenings before baby #2 arrival, or I would never get around to doing it.

First Megan and Tad and their 3 boys were in town for Landon's homecoming and actually got to stay a few night with us. They were not here too much, but when they were we had a blast. Max LOVES Austin and Luke. He knows they live far away where the snow is. We always visit them in the winter so he thinks there is always snow where Austin and Luke live. One morning after breakfast we all relaxed and outside and let the kids play. By kids I mean Troy and Tad, they lit firecrackers off and tried to scare I mean entertain the kids. Good times were had by all.

Troy had a Saturday afternoon off so we went fishing on the river. It was fun... well as fun as it could be with a three year old and a very pregnant woman. Max loves to fish even though he has never caught one. Next time we may need Grandpa Charles to come along and show us how it's done.

Our ward 24th of July party was a success. It was a carnival with booths of games, cotton candy, and snow cones. Max rode his tractor in the parade. Troy closely monitored, making sure no one got ran over.

This was Max's first time on a horse. He was a little hesitant, but did it by himself. He was ready to get off though.

Randy, Kiah and baby Brody. I'm not sure what Troy would do without Randy to talk to/ yell at everyday. They are quite the duo.

The annual filling of the parking lot pool. It's kinda gross, but the kids love it. Especially mine.

I sure love this boy. HE is so sweet to his mamma.

And there was a dunk tank... sorry Bret.

Troy had to take a turn trying to dunk Bret. It was too funny.

Wow, that is one big mamma and two cute boys.

Max took swim lessons in Vale again this year. He had defiantly improved from last summer. He listens to instructions better and can swim a little ways underwater. His teacher was Olivia Walker, bless her for being so patient with him. He still is fearless and unpredictable. Luckily I didn't have to make ay rescue attempts this year.

At the end of each lesson Max got to go off the low dive and the slide. I am still amazed he is this brave. He jumps off goes under and pop right up, with the help of Olivia, and wants to do it all again.

Danielle's youngest Julian turned 1, and had a great party. Max has a new love for pinatas.

Max and Xalia

Eat that cake Julian!

Max and Alivia

Lastly I had the best baby shower EVER! Danielle and Megan did a fantastic job. The cake is courtesy of Megan. Isn't is the cutest? It is all edible, fondant. I loved the party and opening all of the presents. Lets just say this girl is set in the clothes department, they are all so cute. Girls are so much more fun to dress and doll up than boys. I am enjoying some pink around this house.

Now just counting down the days until this new little one decides to make her entrance.

The Zoo

2011-07-19T07:25:00.001-07:00

July 14th Troy and Max accompanied me to my Dr. appointment with Dr. Parsons in Eagle. Max loves going to the Dr with me, Troy on the other hand does not. I reassured him it wasn't one of "those" appointments and he was a little better. I made him step into the room and close the door before I got on the dreaded scale. :( Not my favorite part Dr. appointments. It was super fast Dr. Parsons gave me a hard time because we switched from delivering in Meridian to Boise, St. Luke's. Dr Emge thought it would be a better idea and safest for baby. After the 10 minute chat we headed to get some lunch. Troy and I like to watch Man vs. Food and he wanted to try out Rockies Diner in Boise. It was typical diner food (burger fries, breakfast) but it was good and pretty cheap. Max loved his french toast and chocolate sunday. There is a burger challenge Troy wants to try sometime, Gross. Next we got a little turned around and actually passed the Zoo, after circling the parking lot for 20 minutes we found a place to park. It was a hot day, and there was a lot of walking, and I'm 36 weeks pregnant. Get the picture? Really it wasn't that bad if I have one complaint about being pregnant it is my hips. They feel dislocated, broken, out line, I feel like a 97 year old that needs a walker most of the time. They sent me to physical therapy with Max because my hip actually did get pretty out of line. But it didn't help all that much.

Max was so excited to see all of the animals. He is just like his Dad, he would see an animal, say wow, cool, more animals. Not much held his attention. The giraffe and the penguins were his favorite. He wanted to swim with the penguins so bad.

These guys are just so cute.

Not really a zoo animal, but in hot eastern Idaho we take what we can get. Max fed the goats and petted them. He loves animals and is not afraid at all. I see 4-H in his future... sorry Troy. Max also likes to chase the chickens at our house. Lately they are free range so he chases them all around the yard, sometimes they chase him back. When they are really hungry we will fill up their feed and water in their coop then they come running.

The slide and tunnel play area were a hit with Max. We need to work on taking turns and being patient. Max pushed a kid down the slide before he was ready, oops. Troy had to go in and find Max in the tunnels, he was NOT coming out on his own. Max cried when we left the Zoo, he was really tired and slept the whole way home.

Oh Thunder Egg Days
I remember as a kid anxiously awaiting Thunder Egg Days. We lived just across the street so it was really busy around our house. One year I bought some porcupine quills, another some beads, a marble egg for my Great Grandma, just random stuff. But since I have been married I have not been so excited. We go every year and get a snow cone, this year we didn't even walk the vendors. Max enjoyed a train ride. They went all over the school grounds, he looks in pain here, but he really had fun. I don't know the kid riding with him, but he wanted the blue car too. After the train ride we were dying of heat so we ate lunch at the new Mexican place in Nyssa, (chapalitas? sp.) It was alright, Max ate all of his rice and beans so they gave him a Mexican popsicle, which he devoured.
The best picture of the 3 of us. I can't believe we are about to become a family of 4. It has been just us three for so long, so it seems. But a new little one will be a very welcome addition, especially a girl. I am so excited. For the longest time I thought, no, knew it was a boy. When we found out it was a girl I was shocked and had to adjust my mindset. But now I could not be more excited. Thinking of girls, I think it is true that girls are more dramatic than boys. Yes even in utero. This little Miss has caused us real "drama" in our relatively calm life. Besides making me feel crazy at times, The latest: Our pediatric cardiologist Dr. Emge suddenly left the practice. We don't know exactly why, yet. So we have a new Peds. cardiologist. Dr. Wommack. We know of him through a member of our ward and they were pleased with him so we will give him a go. We need him to give our little girl an echocardiogram after she is born and look for any other complications. Big job. The problem is he is going to be out of town the week I am scheduled to have a c-section. Good news, they moved up my date to the 12th in Boise so Dr. Wommack can be there. So 23 days. Might as well be 233 at this point!

Love our little family, love that it is about to get a little bigger.

The difference between l and d...

2011-07-13T17:18:00.000-07:00

Last week we got a call from Dr. Emge our pediatric cardiologist. He wanted us to come in a week sooner than our next appointment, that made us a little nervous for good or bad. He explained to us before the echocardiogram that he found some things last appointment that lead him and his colleagues to believe our little girl had a similar but different kind of heart defect. More rare and harder to diagnose, instead of having D-TGA (dextro transposition, which does require surgery right away because the blood does not flow correctly through the heart) she allegedly has L-TGA. He cannot tell us 100% one way or the other, which is good and bad. They will know for sure after she is born and they can to an echocardiogram and other heart tests directly to her and not just through me. And L-TGA does not mean everything is perfectly fine, her arteries are still switched but so are the ventricles so it kinda works itself out. But there are multiple other complications that may or may not accompany it. It's hard to decide which is diagnosis is better. But Dr. Emge reassured us that L-TGA is better because it requires NO surgery, and usually has the same prognosis as D-TGA. He told us that he is 85% positive it is L-TGA, but not to count out D-TGA completely. So yeah it's just one more thing to worry about at this point. Surgery or no surgery keeps me up at night. It is pretty complicated and hard to explain, I thought I had decent understanding of the heart and how blood flows through it but I have had to do a lot of research and studying to try and figure this all out. Here is some information from sites I have found helpful. ( and I want to make sure to put the correct info up for future reference)

Corrected Transposition of the Great Arteries (L-TGA)-

Treatment and Prognosis Simple L-TGA has a very good prognosis, with many individuals being asymptomatic and not requiring surgical correction. Although complications may arise at any time, also many cases have are complicated meaning other problems in the heart are present

What is it? L-transposition of the great arteries is the less common type of transposition. The right and left ventricles are reversed. The aorta and pulmonary artery are also connected to the wrong ventricles. Unlike in d-TGA, the aorta receives the oxygen-rich blood from the right ventricle, and oxygen-poor blood is carried back from the body. Likewise, the pulmonary artery receives the oxygen- poor blood from the left ventricle, which pumps it to the lungs. Because the blood flows Normally despite the inverted ventricles, this lesion is also called “congenitally corrected TGA.”

How does it affect the heart? In this condition, the blood is normally routed but the right ventricle must pump at higher pressure than is normal. The right ventricular function may decline over time. This is the biggest risk for future complications.

Normal Heart L-TGA

Notice how the aorta and pulmonary artery are positioned, they are not "crossing" like they should.

We are still pretty nervous about the whole thing, but know we have been so blessed to find out this news. Not having surgery would also mean no surgical risks. It is a four hour open heart surgery on a 4 day old newborn if she has to have it. SCARY! We are praying that she will have the most simple form of L-TGA and require no surgery and have NO other complications.

All we can do at this point is wait. Waiting patiently is NOT my strong point. But time marches on no matter how you choose to pass it. So I have tried to stay really busy with scrapbooking, Thrive parties, fun things with Max, and house projects. Troy has also stayed busy, but he's always busy. I swear his life has gotten so complicated over the last year. I guess that's growing up. He is always working! Wether it is on the farm, the yard, the house, church, or his new P90X regiment. (he said he almost crawled up the stairs last night) He still finds some time to take Max swimming and today after my appointment with Dr. Parsons we are going to the Zoo. Max has not been since he was 18 moths old. He is super excited, I hope he gets to see all of the animals. Max loves going to my Dr. appointments with me, I don't know why. He loves to listen to "baby sissers" heart beat, so cute. Also we really need to decide on a name for this little girl, we are stumped! So any and all suggestions would be great!

The Fourth... of JULY

2011-07-12T07:56:00.001-07:00

The annual McCall Fourth of July trip was a success. We relaxed and worked at the cabin, took lots of walks to the beach, and even ventured downtown. This year we kept is simple with just Max, Troy, me and my Grandma. We went up on Friday and actually came home on Monday. We were total party poopers and left before the fireworks, I still feel guilty Max didn't get to see them. We were tired and had a lot of things to get done around the house though. The only way we convinced Max to get into the car to come home was making a deal with him to go swimming at Wagstaff's as soon as we got home. He did not forget, and as soon as we pulled in the carport he was ready to go swimming. We unloaded the car and got on our swim suits. Haddie and Belle came out to swim with us and Max had a lot of fun. Then we went to Valene and Charles' for dinner. We came home to do some sparklers. All was going good until Troy handed Max 5 lit sparklers, let's just say there were burned fingers, and not Troy's. Poor Max burned his first finger, at first it was just red, by the next day it was black and blistered. Troy felt terrible, so did I. It is actually a 2 almost 3rd degree burn. We have kept burn cream and neosporin on it with band aids for the last week. He hardly complains, tough kid, I get a little burn and think I am going to die of pain.

I think this is Troy's fire dance.

This lake (Payette) is beautiful, but Freezing. Not to mention it snowed in McCall just 4 weeks ago. Troy had the hardest time getting in, I got in to my ankles. What Dad's do for their kids!
We were surprised Max held still long enough for Troy to cover him, washing off the sand in frigid lake didn't even phase Max. It's like he has No pain receptors, but boy were his teeth chattering when he got out.

Ah, our beach... well it used to be. My Grandparents cabin is on a dead end road, at the end of that road is a path that leads to a beach with a dock and lots of soft sand. It was kind of like a well kept secret for a while, but the last 4 years have been crazy. Steady stream of traffic crazy. This is probably because McCall has grown so much, and become such a tourist town. Yes I am a little biased, my Grandparents built the cabin in the '70's and since I was too little to remember we have been going up whenever we have the chance. My grandparents even lived there for 11 years, I got to live with them and attend 4 and 5 grade there. Good Memories!

The rest of JUNE

2011-07-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

My sister Jordan had her baby the first week of June. Another little girl, so cute. They named her Jessica, for the sole purpose of calling her Jessie. She is so tiny, and so loved by her two older sisters Madison and Riley. My Grandma loved having them over for a while.

I have to admit I have not been the best playmate for Max lately. I won't jump on the trampoline, or climb in the club house, or go down the slide, or sit in the sand for hours, or chase him around the yard. But we have read a bazillion books, played play doh and painted lots as of late. When I just couldn't take playing Thomas and Percy another minute we called his friend Grayson to come and play. Luckily he could, and they had a great time. They played outside, inside, upstairs and downstairs. They both eat like birds, lets just say it was a good thing I had strawberries and sugar for Grayson at lunchtime, and carrots and mac and cheese for Max.

They did not want to take off these outfits. Dress up is so much for kids, I remember absolutely LOVING it as a kid. But the adults hated it because it was such a mess to clean up. Well boy dress up is different... no makeup, no jewlery, no shoes, no hair styling. Just simple, and fun.
Grandma Val had a birthday, Max was so excited to give her her presents. He helped wrap, and unwrap them.

Ever since bringing home a spider man costume from a yard sale Max has loved everything spiderman. We have yet to let him watch the movie or find any cartoons. One morning I wouldn't help him put on his spiderman costume so he thought he would just make his own. By coloring himself blue. Sure glad I found him before he got the red marker. He knew he was being naughty because this act was done behind the recliner. He took a bath, we had to drain and fill the tub 3 times to get all of the blue out.

This kid loves to be outside, and he LOVES his new swingset. For weeks after it was done he kept thanking Troy for building it for him. We would be eating dinner and Max look outside and catch a glimpse of the swingset and say "thankyou Dad for building my swingset" It was really cute. He is an exceptionally appreciative kid. If you get him something, anything, shoes, hat, toy he instantly loves it and thanks you a 100 times for it.
Yes he is really asleep, this is not the first time either. Now that it is so hot he would rather come in, but on breezy days I have to make sure he is really playing and not just snoozing.
Farming is getting busy, harvest is too close. I hope the rest of the summer we can do lots of fun things, before the baby and after. But first of all getting this baby here safe and sound. Knowing we have to go to Spokane for 2 weeks after the baby is born is really getting to me. Not to mention open heart surgery on a week old infant. Infact I was just fine until I went visiting teaching, and a sister remarked, aren't you nervous? You seem too calm! Now I love this sister and knew where she was coming from. And honestly I think I have pushed the thoughts of everything to the back of my mind and just assumed we could do it, it would be hard, it would be fine. But I think I had a little melt down when I got home. I had been underestimating our situation. So I panicked and tried to prepare everything in one day, and drove my husband crazy with planning and questions. I have since relaxed and am back to "normal" hoping we will be just fine. We talked with the surgeon on the phone and he reassured us, and told us more about the surgery. I thought is was way more common. He told us they preform this exact surgery 4-6 times a year. That is not very often! But the success rate it 97%. We are planning and trying to get all things in order before being gone for a month from home.

June

2011-07-08T08:15:00.001-07:00

Max loves his tractor he got for his birthday from Grandma Val and Grandpa Charles. He rides it everyday, rain or shine. I was cleaning out the cars and he was riding slowly, the battery was just about drained. Max was also drained, he fell asleep watching me scrub the carpet in the car where he had spilled his smoothie. I let him sleep like this for 20 minutes then I made him come in the house because I thought he would get sunburned. Not to mention wake up very confused.

Kory and Rebecca moved, they had to do some repairs (paint, flooring, lighting) to their new house. Max called it the "broken house" for the longest time. This is at Kory's birthday lunch.
This kid STILL has food issues. Believe me we have come a LONG way. I can pretty much get him to eat most things but I have to cut the tiniest bites and most of the time feed them to him. He chews a single bite for 3-4 minutes, no matter what it is, scrambled eggs, or steak. It takes him a good 20-30 to eat an entire meal. So we try things to speed it up, you know bribing, scolding, praising, encouraging. We've tried it ALL! We know his chompers and mouth work just fine though. Put a bag of chip or goldfish in from of him and they are gone in 2 minutes FLAT. He is just picky, picky, picky!

This picture just says "yeah I'm a stinker...but a cute one!"

Meet my miraculous shrinking husband, seriously he has worked hard and done so well. All on his own! Having a pregnant wife who loves to cook one day, then can't stand the look/smell of food for days has not been helpful. Troy you are awesome!
Kory the birthday boy.
Max is growing so fast, he is so sweet and so rough and tough at the same time. The perfect combo for a little boy, if I say so myself. These flowers were so pretty I had to take a few pictures of Max. It was really bright.

There was a bee buzzing right next to him. Actually there were tons of bees in these flowers, it was a quick few pictures.

Oh boy, just weeks to go... thank heavens. Being pregnant in the summer is NOT fun. I actually feel super awesome though. Our air conditioner just got fixed so I will survive the summer.
I think we have a problem here. Max only gets goldfish crackers once in a while, because he inhales them and cries for more and more. Church and shopping trips are some of those times. I cleaned out my purse and there was a container of them sitting on the counter. Max had been way too quiet so I went to check on him. He was no where to be found, I finally yelled "Maxton answer me NOW" He sheepishly opened his little cubby door beneath his bed. He was all scrunched up in there eating the container of goldfish. He thought he was in major trouble. I made him get out of the cubby, but let him finish the crackers. I guess I should make these more of a sometimes snack than contraband. Silly kid. He was happy he got to finish them all.

Coke in a bottle. machine gun monkey pirate. cake.

2011-06-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

It finally warmed up enough to take Max swimming for the first time this year. We went up to Wagstaff's, Max was so excited. I thought maybe he would be a little more cautious of water being a year older and all but NO he is still a fish and would rather sink to the bottom than wear a life jacket. He went down the slide and hit his eye on the side and cut it open. It bled a little but he was fine. It looked like it stung, tough kid. He hasn't really loved the slide since.

We waited for Troy to get home so it was an evening swim, we went at just the right time, no bright sun and right when we were getting out the clouds opened up and it started to storm. Troy is a big kid in the pool, Ivey, Levi, and Troy had a cannon ball competition, hmmm wonder who the winner was? Troy also encouraged Ivey and Levi to try and new game called, "try and drown your sibling," well I don't think that's what he called it but it's definitely what it looked like.
Max is loving pirates these days. And any kind of gun. He know if he wants to go swimming he better put on his monkey pirate shorts and pirate shirt.

This is the biggest waste cake. The biggest waste of half my day, waste of good ingredients, waste of calories. Seriously there is over a pound of chocolate in the cake and frosting combined. I'm sure it was a good recipe I just messed up somewhere. It was a trial run for Genniel's (Wagstaff) wedding cake. Sure glad I tested it first! But alas, I could not let it just go to waste so Max and I each took a slab- not a slice but a Slab, along with a tall cold glass of milk. The cake was alright not that moist, the frosting separated and was too buttery. Just all around not good, Max ate more of his slab than I did, so at least someone liked it. I sent the remainder of the cake to Brent and Karena's (wagstaff) house for their kids. They said they liked it.

What's better than most anything? Cold coke in a bottle. I am NOT a pop drinker but every once in a while a cold coke in a bottle really really really hits the spot! Max must have inherited my taste. He savored this treat and would not share. This picture is him handing me the empty bottle. No he didn't drink the whole bottle, but close.
He's thinking, "hey Dad got any more?" Seriously this kid is so cute!

I got some nail polish and didn't put it away quick enough. Max found it and had to try it out. There were two bottles, pink and blue, he hid under the kitchen table and painted away. He obviously preferred the blue. For a three year old little boy I think his paint job is awesome! I might have to enlist him for when I can't reach my toes in a couple weeks. haha.

Dump trucks, sand, pickles, and family.

2011-06-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

So Max's big birthday present was a little late... about a month to be exact. Troy and I (mostly me) wanted to get him a big swing set. Partly because he loves to be outside and it would entertain him for hours. And because I sorta feel guilty when we go for days staying home having no other kids to play with, and no parks for miles around. We looked on craigslist for a good deal on one but found nothing. Then we found a site with an awesome swing for an amazing price, we just had to buy a special gift card to use on the site. Well after about a week of trying to get the stupid thing activated and trying to contact a real person we gave up and later found out it was most likely a SCAM. We should have realized if something is too good to be true it usually is. But the swing set was really awesome! Oh well we broke down and got the one from Costco. It took many many many hours mostly late night putting it together. Troy that is, not me. We had to take out a shed in the yard, take out the gravel, and put in sand. We love the sand, and so does Max. He has fallen asleep in it twice. He refuses to wear shoes in it too, "them get too sandy." It's not like beach sand and he still gets mad that sand castles won't stick together right. Overall just the sand was a hit.

Do you see Max?

A tight fit to say the least, I was the traffic controller, until Tyler showed up. Good thing too it may have caused a ~~fight~~ dispute. :)

Finally a sunny day, Max had blast smoothing out the sand with the big rake. He kept at it until dark.

Max loves to work with Troy on projects, he loves all tools and fixes everything I hope he get his Dad's work ethic and always enjoys spending time with Dad doing projects. He is no longer a toddler. He is a little boy... the cutest by the way. He is so good. His potty holding abilities amaze me, one accident the whole time he's been trained.

Still pregnant... Hopefully for a bit longer too. Usually with a C-section they will take you a week or earlier. But for this little girl they want me to go all 40 weeks so she can be as big as possible and have as much time as possible to develop in the womb. So the middle of August is the plan. How do I pass the time? Well the obvious; housework, play with Max, make to do lists, and master honey - do lists for Troy, and before the baby comes to-do lists. I am a big list maker. I have also made a wedding cake, planted flowers, took up scrapbooking again, and started selling THRIVE food storage, it is awesome. For mothers day I made these sinful things. Stuffed strawberries drizzled with dark chocolate.

Then later on I just had to have pickles on top of sharp white cheddar with crackers. Typical pregnant lady food huh?

These were taken about a month ago before church. These boys are so cute.

We've had a few more appointments with our Dr.'s and all is looking really good. Our little girl (still nameless at this point) is developing perfectly normal aside from her heart defect. Her heart beat is perfect and all other systems are functioning normally. We are so thankful for that! Our pediatric cardiologist Dr. Emge encouraged us to deliver the baby in Meridian at St. Luke's then be flown to Spokane for her heart surgery. We were a little apprehensive about this plan. We thought going to Spokane for the delivery was a better idea, BUT after learning more and weighing our options we have decided Meridian is the right place for us to deliver. One of the main reasons for Meridian was because after she is born she may have to be on antibiotics, and gain ounces before surgery this may take a week. She will have to be on a special medicine delivered through a central line and closely monitored. Not a machine or ventilator like we had thought, good news. She will have to stay in the NICU the whole time. It's hard to plan much of anything because there are so many "ifs" if she is doing really good we will go in 2 days, if she isn't it may be a week, if I am not doing so well Troy will fly with her. If the surgery goes as planned we will be there for 2 weeks, if she has difficulty eating and gaining weight she will be flown back to St. Luke's NICU. So many variables make it hard to have a definite plan... I am the type that needs a definite plan so we're just trying to go with it. There is a hotel right across the street from the hospital and a Ronald McDonald house down a few blocks, so at least we've got that much figured out. TO make matters more stressful my OB Dr. Parsons gave me a due date August 15th. The single worst day to have a baby in our family. This is Ashton's birthday. For those of you who don't know, Troy's sister Ashley passed away right after giving birth to Ashton six years ago this August 15th. Needless to say it was a complete tragedy and extremely hard on all who knew her, especially her family. So I changed my due date to the 16th. Although I do think it would have been a beautiful blessing to have a baby on that day, just maybe not this baby as complicated as it is already going to be.

April... the month long PARTY!

2011-05-09T16:02:00.001-07:00

After Troy's birthday on the 10th we got ready for Max's birthday on the 21 and Easter on the 22nd. April also brought 2 dentist appointments for me and one for Troy. (I hate going to the dentist) I had a few cavities and so did Troy. I have not had any for 5 years so I guess I was due. We had to decide whether we should deliver our new baby girl in Spokane, Washington or Boise or Meridian. We choose a different OBGYN, then had to switch again. I'm sure our insurance is going crazy. We have been an extremely easy family as far as doctors go, Max has been like 3 times in the past year and a half. Troy finally succumbed to my nagging and went to the Nyssa clinic for his strep throat in January. We are trying to stay on top of every invoice that come in from our insurance and the Doctors. I've heard horror stories of battles with insurance companies lasting for years after a surgery. And although we have amazing insurance (that we pay through the nose for!) it's still scary to see Dr. bills come rolling in. The 29th was Troy and my 6 year anniversary. Some days it seems like we have been married forever and I cannot even remember anything else. Other days it feels as though we just got married. When we reminisce about high school or college it seems like just a few years ago... not 10. Troy hears something about 1999 and thinks it was like 4 years ago. The best is when someone says a car/truck/tractor is from 1997 he says it's not that old. I have to remind him 1997 was almost 15 years ago.

On the 23rd was the Cow Hollow Easter egg hunt. Max loved it. He knew just what to do. Problem was he wanted so stop and eat whatever he had just picked up. He wasn't concerned with filling his basket just getting what he wanted into his basket. So he had mostly suckers, and smarties. (much to Troy and my disappointment) He loved just running around and playing on the swings after the hunt was over.

Troy stepped in to help him find a little more loot. This picture was taken with us looking directly into the sun.

BIRTHDAY BOY

Happy Birthday to YOU!

He LOVED opening his presents and could hardly wait for the next one. Here is his beloved Diego, as you can see he wears his Diego shirt every chance he gets.
Dad trying figure out what this thing does. Max loved his new Percy and James trains and new tracks. This is mean... at Christmas we gave Max a Thomas toy that follows a light. He was way to young for it. He just couldn't figure it our himself, so we put it away and gave it to him for his birthday. Four months made all the difference. He loves it and can make it do all sorts of tricks. The 21 was his actual birthday and we just stayed home unwrapped presents, had Grandma and Grandpa Charles and family come over to give him his presents and watched his new movie tangled with popcorn. The following Sunday (Easter) we had a family party for him. We have a LOT of family. It was fun, he was wild and crazy through it all. My pictures all out of order so just go with it. This is from his party Xalia is patiently waiting to see what the present is. Max dives right in and tares the paper to shreds he even tore through 2 presents bags because the were tied and the present wouldn't fit through. He played so hard with the kids that he fell asleep at 6:45 pm. Troy and I thought for sure we were in for a long night. But he slept cleat till 8:00 the next morning. I cannot remember the last time he slept that many hours at one time. We sure do love this little guy. He is so rough and so loving at the same time. He is the light of our lives. He is all I thought he would be at three years old. Potty trained, knows his ABC's can count to 13, know all his shapes, and colors. He is starting to say his prayer a little better. He just repeats what we say but for a long time he just wouldn't do it. Now he repeats and says whats next. He still eats like a crazy person. He would rather eat carrots than most anything else these days. Maxton we love you so much, you are perfect. Never change. And please stop growing up.
On the 21st Val and Charles gave him this awesome tractor and trailer. This is the same one at the John Deere store he fell in love with. So in love that when it was time to leave the store he held onto it for dear life and thew the biggest fit ever. Grandpa Charles took note of this, spoiled kid!
Max and Grandpa Charles learning the art of reverse. We are still trying to master that skill.

Back to Easter. We actually attended TWO egg hunts this year, one at Cow Hollow and the other at Adrian. Cow Hollow was a little better, but Adrian did have an Easter bunny. Max found about 10 pinwheels and some stickers. He was not interested in the candy.

Charley came to spend the day and night and her and Max colored eggs. I was surprised at how meticulous Max was about his colors. They had to be really bright, if not they were dipped again and again. Also the mess was minimal. Shocker! He admired his colored eggs for a full week. We kept them in an egg carton in the fridge. Whenever anyone came over he had to show them off. The day we did them I peeled one and showed Max how to eat it. He liked the peeling part but wanted nothing to do with the eating part.... surprise, surprise.

We asked Val to snap a quick picture of us before we went to town for our anniversary. She took two. Both were fuzzy, oh well. We had a good time in town, this means Boise. I used to get so annoyed with the whole WHB farm family because when asked where they were going they would say to town. That could mean Ontario, Nyssa, Nampa, or Boise. Now I find myself saying it all the time. We returned some items and went on a wild goose chase for a new phone for Troy. Seriously 2.5 hours and three Sprint stores later had his new phone. We shopped a little and ate dinner at Tucanos only because we had heard how everyone loved it. We did not. Basic all you can eat salad bar, watery Brazilian lemonade, Troy thought the meat was just alright, I thought it was gross. Our favorite part was the grilled pineapple. Between us I think we may have eaten a whole pineapple. Oh I loved the little cheese filled rolls. (Cheese plus bread, how can you go wrong?) But in all not a place we would go again. Our second choice was Joe's Crab Shack... next year.

Justified

2011-05-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

COUPONING

addict

Sunday I clipped and organized my coupons and made my lists.. it did take a while. I made my sister Danielle do the same. Monday morning at 7:30 we were well on our way to Albertsons, we each stocked up on $.88 boxes of cereal, and cheap cheap pork chops, $.50 cent a bag tostitos and free pepsi. We both have a weakness for toaster strudels so we wavered a bit from our couponing and picked up a few boxes. Next we hit up Walgreens, then Wal-Mart, and finally canned food store. It was a busy day, but we found lots of deals. This picture is from today. Max and I ventured out to pick up some of the things we missed or were sold out of on Monday.

2 gume eeze flossers- free

2 fusion shavers

1 Hersheys bar

2 bag of pretzels

1 bag sun chips

1 bag kettle chips

2 sprite 2 liter

2 propel zero 6 packs

2 schick refill razors

2 dozen eggs

6 12 packs (72 rolls) charmin toilet paper

1 sucker Max took 3 licks of and threw on the ground

Total 32.50 thats 1.35 per item.

I know the die hard couponers get this kind of haul for like $2.27 or something ridiculous but I am pretty pleased with myself. Especially considering these razors are 9.89 each regularly, I paid $.89 and they are the ones Troy loves. I now have a 6 month supply of toilet paper for $12.00 and lots of razor refills to send to Kyle $2.25 each. I bought him some at Christmas time for like $12 each! So lining up my purchases and taking pictures is a little crazy but it makes me feel like my time and effort are worth it. Can't wait for next Monday!

Happy Birthday/Graduation Troy

2011-04-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well our spring has been anything but "springy" cold, and wet and very windy. Max and I decided to make an egg tree, like the one my sister Danielle had in her yard. We had fun, too bad it was freezing and blowing like crazy when we went to hang the eggs up. He was so cold I only got one picture of him, this is it. We played with chalk before hand that's why his shirt is so dirty.

This picture just makes me laugh! It will make me laugh even harder when he is about 14 I'm sure. We have a bunch of dress up clothes, and Buzz is his favorite, but we lost it. So he has gone to the dresses. He wears them for about a minute or two then says too pink, too flowers, take it OFF. He likes to help with the dishes, to keep him from "helping" too much I let him sort the silverware. Max unlike his Dad can tell the difference between the small forks, and spoons and the big ones. I just have to make sure and take out all of the knives before he gets to it.

April 10th was Troy's 29th birthday! We tried our hardest to keep it a secret. He suspected a party but didn't know who all was coming. For weeks he told me NOT to do anything (he is a bah humbug about his own birthday) but did I listen, No. He also graduated officially from Eastern Oregon University, we have the diploma to prove it. It was a long hard few years but he did it. It sure feels good to have a back up if farming ever goes bad. Troy is amazing, he is so good to Max and I, he works harder than anyone I know all for us. He is not demanding of anything, if all I got him for his birthdays was something for me he would be happy. Over the last 3 and a half months he has lost 70 pounds!!! He looks AWESOME and feels even better. His new best friend is the treadmill, and good old fashioned sit ups and pushups. Max and I got him a weight bench and a new outfit. All of his clothes are too big. Bad timing for him to have a pregnant stressed wife. My cooking has been awful as of late. Lots and lots of tacos. At least with extra lean hamburger, loads of lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, onions, and corn shells (not fried in oil). So if you have any "good for you" recipes send them my way. He forbid me to take before and after pictures, he still wants to lose more. Troy we love you so much... to the Moon.

Sergio, Julian and Troy at Troy's party. I quickly realized our house is WAY to small for that may people. We had the whole WBH family(which is HUGE 30+), my Mom and Scott, Gram, Danielle and Sergio family, Brett and Jen Neilson, Jake and Penny Speelmon. We had lots of good food. I tried to keep everything hidden so he would know just how many people would be coming. I was sure thankful to the women who helped me get the food out and do the dishes. We had sticky finger bites, coconut shrimp, vegetable tray, chips and dip, fruit and dip, deviled eggs, Danielle's beans (awesome), and strawberry shortcake! It was great. All of Troy's favorites. I thought I had a great plan to surprise Troy, Kory asked him to come help with something at his house. Then when he got back he was to go downstairs and see his birthday present while everyone was upstairs in the living room. Well I guess he already knew and Kory didn't text us when he left so Troy just kinda walked in the house with out anyone knowing. Big surprise huh? It was really a lot of fun, our house was way crowded. Max had a blast with all of the kids outside. The real highlight was when Max stripped his pants and undies and peed off the trampoline. The little girls ran in screaming. Hilarious! What can I say, at least he knows when he's gotta go.

We are still anxiously waiting for our next Dr.'s appointments on the 5th of May. It's hard to get too caught up in the planning of everything because there are still so many variables, and many months to go. 4 to be exact.

The News that Changed it All.

2011-04-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

Last week the 31st of March I went to my scheduled Dr.'s appointment in Caldwell for my 5 month ultrasound. Troy and I ( and the rest of our families) were so excited to learn if we were having another boy or a girl. I honestly thought it would be a boy, it kind of been a trend in our area. We have had somewhat of a girl drought. So I was excited that I already had all of the clothes, bedding, and everything else I may have needed. My sister Danielle had a boy last August so really I needed nothing. And having a brother for Max to pal around with would have been great... But... we were wrong, very wrong. We are having a GIRL! And are so happy. The ultrasound appointment was really long, maybe it just seemed that way because Troy and I brought Max and were wrestling with him and taking him potty every 5 minutes. Well Troy was doing all of the work. After the ultrasound I met with a new OB doctor. Mine was either fired or suddenly quit because a few days before my appointment I got a call from the office saying he was no longer with OBGYN Associates. They didn't want to tell me why they just said it had happened suddenly that day. A little worrying? Yes. But I agreed to see a new Dr. and see how I liked him. He came in the room introduced himself congratulated us on having a girl then said something that made us instantly sick. He told us that the little girl was healthy except they found something in the heart that needed to be looked at by a more specialized sonographer. He said the outflow tracks of the heart were running parallel instead of being crossed. He had no idea what the implications of this were or really anything about it. He even said he wouldn't bother researching it, he would just send us to St. Lukes in Boise. Well guess who won't be having me as a return patient! But I do appreciate that the sonographer at that office caught that there was a problem and let the Dr. know. He also told us it may be nothing, just something they were seeing, and maybe there were no implications like a functioning heart murmur.

We anxiously waited FIVE whole days for our ultrasound at St. Lukes. To say I was nervous would be a major understatement. Troy and I arrived waited, waited, and waited. We went to a dark room with the sonographer, she was really nice and explained what she was doing and seeing. That took almost an hour. Then Dr. Kozalka came in. He had viewed the images and came in to get a few more himself. It was extremely awkward meeting a Dr. for the first time lying flat on my back with my baring my stomach. But he was so calm and nice, took a little time to get to know us, then dropped the BOMB. Dr. Koz (as he's called) said little girl Hansen has a major problem with her tiny heart. The aorta and the pulmonary artery are switched. These two arteries carry blood away from the heart. Since they are switched her blood is not mixing and Not getting much if any oxygen in it. While I'm pregnant this is ok because I am the one doing all of the circulating and oxygenating for her. After she is born is another story. He held my hand and reassured us we were going to be well taken care of. His kindness, expertise, and compassion instantly told be HE was the Dr. I wanted.

This is not all, we were taken to see a pediatric cardiologist who did an echocardiogram of the little girl Hansen's heart. (Via ultrasound through me) Again I met another Dr. Dr.Emge lying flat baring my stomach (which after Max and a C-section if none too pretty) He took a look and listen to her heart left for a little bit and came back with a diagnosis.

A type of congenital heart disease called

TRANSPOSITION OF THE GREAT ARTERIES

It's been a few years since nursing school so I needed a detailed definition and illustration. Since I don't want to confuse myself here is the textbook definition.

"Transposition of the great vessels is a cyanotic heart defect. This means there is decreased oxygen in the blood that is pumped from the heart to the rest of the body. Low blood oxygen leads to cyanosis (a bluish-purple color to the skin) and shortness of breath.

In normal hearts, blood that returns from the body goes through the right side of the heart and pulmonary artery to the lungs to get oxygen. The blood then comes back to the left side of the heart and travels out the aorta to the body.

In transposition of the great vessels, the blood goes to the lungs, picks up oxygen, and then goes right back to the lungs without ever going to the body. Blood from the body returns to the heart and goes back to the body without ever picking up oxygen in the lungs." (Sacred Heart Childrens Hospital, Spokane.)

The condition is the second most common cyanotic heart defect. This made me break down, Troy was doing a little better, probably because he knew I needed him to be strong for me too. But it totally crushed us. You NEVER think something bad will happen to you or your baby. Well it did, to me, and to my family and to our precious little girl Hansen.

Luckily there is a treatment. A surgery that is called an arterial switch. It must be done as soon as possible after birth. It is an open heart surgery. So I will deliver in at St. Lukes by c-section and little girl Hansen will be immediately be taken to the NICU where they will pretty much keep her alive until I am stable and up and walking enough to fly to Spokane, Washington to Sacred Heart Children's Hospital with her to have the surgery. Here is more information about the time in the NICU and the surgery, again from the hospital web site.

"The baby will immediately receive a medicine called prostaglandin through an IV (intravenous line). This medicine helps keep the ductus arteriosus open, allowing some mixing of the two blood circulations. A procedure using cardiac catheterization (balloon atrial septostomy) may be needed to create a large hole in the atrial septum to allow blood to mix.

A surgery called an arterial switch procedure is used to permanently correct the problem within the baby's first week of life. This surgery switches the great arteries back to the normal position and keeps the coronary arteries attached to the aorta."

So after the surgery goes as planned and there are no complications she has to stay for a week in the hospital at Spokane, then we are free to come home. The prognosis is actually the best part. Most infants that have this particular surgery do not have symptoms after surgery (blood flows and mixes correctly) and will need NO further surgeries. And go on to live normal lives.

The day we found out was agony, the second day stressful, and the third day HOPEFUL. We have been comforted and now feel positive about the whole process. We know bringing children into this world is risky but so worth it. The plan of salvation did not say children would be born in to perfect bodies.

We are doing good, there is still a way to go before I am actually due, August 14th. We just pray her little heart continues to grow normally and that my pregnancy is smooth. We go back for more tests in four weeks. There is still a lot to figure out, it is overwhelming. I'm thankful I am not due in the winter time, but during harvest isn't ideal. The next several months will most definitely be an emotional and challenging time for our little family. But I am sure whatever the outcome we will make it though and be better people for it.

Really long post, I just want to make sure and write it all down so I don't forget anything and since our blogs are turned into books this is the best way to do it.

the rest of the pics

2011-04-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Here are the chicken pictures I forgot to put on the last post... Such a pain to add pictures after you have typed.

Max scares the crapola out of this little guys.

Conference weekend.

2011-04-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we watched/ listened to conference as a family. It was an amazing conference, the main message I took was help others. Helping others in turn helps you, in more ways than one. There were so many wonderful talks, I missed a few in the afternoon sessions. Max and I went to D&B and got 5 baby chicks. It was so fun to see him pick the ones he wanted and help me loadthe feed and so carefully put the chicks in box to take home. They are downstairs in our freezer/storage room with a heat lamp for now. They are too little to go outside in this weather... you know the weather that is suppose to be spring and sunny and warm but it's NOT. Because of the constant rain the farm is behind in planting everything. A month behind means some crazy long hours when the ground is dry enough to plant. Troy has been planting onions so the nights have been late, like 10:30 or later. Sunday though he gathered some supplies from the shop our house and wherever else so he didn't have to go to Home Depot, turned on the radio outside to listen to conference and built Max and I chicken coop. It was the only time in the next few weeks he would have free. He told me to say we found it on the side of the road because he was NOT proud of it. I was just happy it was done. I made a big lunch and had my Grandma over to eat. It was good to relax and talk. Then we all drove up to the Dam, what a sight. The Glory Hole is running and valves are turned on to let water shoot out from the bottom of the dam. There were even boats on the river as far down and farther than Snivleys hot springs. For as close as we live to the lake wehardly make it up there, and I forget how beautiful it is. There is a little flooding around the valley, luckily we are on a little rise so we don't have to worry.

Where the water come out of the needle valves and splashes and mists onto the rocks below. Max was a little scared when he leaned over and looked at this. Troy had a tight grip of him, I made sure of that.

Oh sweet Gram... we love her sooo much. Behind is is the glory hole. A big suctioning hole that takes in water and shoots it out at the bottom of the Dam.

See this cute boy, the little one he is 95% potty trained. Just a diaper at night time now. It took a week and a half. And during that time we went to Nampa twice, Ontario a few times, and to run errands... with NO accidents. He totally amazed me.

Kinda weird, but really cool to see. This is somewhat of rarity in that the last many years have been drought years and the glory hole was not running. In fact you could see it sticking up out of the water by many many feet.

And yes we are having a GIRL!!!

Today...

2011-04-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today just sucked

And we're Back

2011-03-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!

This little Buzz has been quite a handful the last few weeks. His eating went from awful to horrible. I mean eating nothing but chips. Here he is exhibiting his new skill of scaling the countertops and getting into the snack cupboard. So we took away all snacks except fresh fruit and veggies... meaning carrots the one vegetable Max likes. He could very well become a

fruitarian (sp?) The kid loves all fruit. So at least there's that! The snack banning was slightly successful, he ate a little more willingly at dinner time. He's on a new kick, he might eat dinner, but I have to feed it to him, not Troy, not himself (unless he likes it) only me. This got old really fast, so we've been working on it. On a good note, we were at Costco and he said "I want Pizza" I didn't really believe him but knew I had to give it a try. He ate half of a HUGE slice, saying yum and more in between bites. This is nothing short of a miracle from a kid who doesn't even eat chicken nuggets, hamburgers, or fries. Next challenge... potty training!

So my hair looks ugly in this picture, I had it up all day. But I was really needing a change so I called Saije May. I found a really cute picture of the hair cut I wanted but went a little longer. I also got highlights. Usually I am so boring with my hair, like a trim a few times a year.

Before (this belly is starting to grow uncontrollably)

After

I really like it, despite in initial shock of having shorter hair than I ever remember having in my life. It is actually longer than I thought it would be, it feels so light and healthy. The whole family got hair cute that week. Troy, Max, and I were at Wal-Mart one afternoon and Troy decided he had to have a hair cut, so Max and I checked out with our groceries and went to see troy get a hair cut. Max was so interested that when Troy was done he jumped in the chair and said my turn! The last time we got his hair cut at a barber shop we all left covered in hair and 2 out of 3 of us were in tears. So we were a little apprehensive, but decided to just go with it. Guess what, he did awesome! He sat there like a champ, she used scissors and the clippers. He was pretty proud when he was done and so were Troy and I.

I don't think Max has ever watched Bugs Bunny he knows when you eat a big carrot you say "Na what's up Doc."

This is picture from a few weeks ago, I love how Troy is super cheesy.

Now moms turn, I think this was a Target, Costco night. I love those nights.

Grandpa Charles had a birthday and Max was super excited about it. He helped me wrap every present and drew pictures on them all. He wanted to light a birthday candle and sing Happy Birthday to Charles too. So we did, it was cute.

These are the types of things I find in my toaster, a quarter, a melted magnet, crumb trays removed, and the knife sharpener too close for comfort. Max likes to "FIX" anything he can get his hands on.
While Troy was finishing up with school Max and I tried to stay out of the way on Saturdays, we went to the library lots and lots. Luckily they have some train tracks to play with.
We love to go outside and explore as long as Max has on a hat and his "Rescue Pack" (diego), and his Froggy boots we are good to go. The weather has been wet and cold, but the last few days have been pretty nice. Max gets all ready to go outside and I just follow him all over our property. It's good exercise, he likes to explore and look for birds through his binoculars. Every once in a while he sweet talks me into going on a 4 wheeler ride. I am so excited in 5 days we will know if we are having boy or girl. At first all I wanted was another boy. But after the last 2 weeks with Max and potty training I will happily take a girl.

Note to Self

2011-03-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Courtney

Please update your blog, it is getting really old opening it and seeing the same old post from what seems like months ago. Really your life is more exciting than this, and those pictures on your camera aren't going to upload themselves. So get on it!

Sincerely

Your self

Quick update

2011-02-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

Before I forget here are some things that have been happening around here.

Sleep over with Riley, Troy made them "beds" from my laundry baskets. So fun. We sure miss Riley and Madison so it's extra special when they get to visit and stay the night too.

It has been so Freezing the last month or so Max has not been outside at all. He kept bringing me his dump trucks and shovels and saying "play in da dirt Mom!" I tried to explain it was too cold and the dirt was frozen, he didn't believe me. This day was actually really nice so we ventured out. He loved it, I think Roxie loved it more.

Mud mud and more MUD. He had a blast tromping through the puddle and throwing rocks into it. Sometimes a boys just gotta get good and muddy.
Mud, water, and dog smell. There was definitely a bath waiting.
We had Danielle's kids over to play for a few hours. Max is getting so much better about pictures. He actually doesn't scream and run when we point the camera at him. He likes to see the picture after we take it. Thank goodness for digital.
Baby Julian takes a lot of love from Max. I'm glad he is so loving and sweet with babies. He is "Max soft" with them. Which means as soft as my boy get, not very.
Other Happenings:

Max was sick sick sick last week. Fever all day so I took him to the Dr. My boy who is NEVER sick had Strep AND Croup! Poor little guy, the antibiotic they prescribed gave him the most horrific diarrhea. He would scream as he went then scream "no wipe" over and over again. After 3 days of that we called the Dr. and she changed his antibiotic. Now he is all better, I have to admit I liked the extra cuddling I got out of the deal.

Troy also got sick, after 4 days of feeling awful he went to the Dr. Strep. two days on an antibiotic and he is all better too. Geez all these sick boys wore me out! Boys, at least mine are Extremely demanding while sick. Thankfully I didn't get infected, although some of the diapers I changed made want to puke.

Troy is on his last semester, 2 classes. I know I know how long has this guy been going to school already? Well I have to say he has done all of his schooling (minus associates) online, while working full time ... WBH farming hours to be specific (CRAZY). Being a husband, and a father, having church callings, and paying as he goes so we have no school debt. So it may have taken longer but we both know it will be worth it.

I am over being sick, well mostly. I don't get too sick, and never throw up just nauseous and tired. Max likes to pat my stomach and say shhh baby sleeping, or baby tired. When asked if he wants a boy or girl baby it is alway a BOY. I think that would be awesome. I also think a sweet little girl would be good too. So either way I'm happy.

Despite losing 7 pounds since being pregnant and only being 14 weeks I was forced to bust out my maternity clothes. Uhhhh it's gonna be a long summer! By the way I love my maternity clothes, I think most of them are cuter than my regular clothes. Is that strange? Maybe it's because they are soooo darn comfortable.

I still have a Christmas wreath in my computer room waiting to be taken out to the shed. Procrastinate much?

Looking forward to spring, flowers, outside fun, yard sales, and lots of nesting. I need to start now if I want to get all the projects done I need to.

All About {Elder} Kyle

2011-01-19T15:05:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most of you know my brother Kyle lived with us throughout his high school years and before his mission. We wern't always sure if he would go on a mission, infact at one point he told us there was no way he would ever go on a mission. But he was young, and well, dumb and he grew up lot from the time he graduated high school and went to college. I wish Troy and I could take the credit for this but really it was Kyle. Our expectations

and rules never changed, his heart did. And we are so thankful for it everyday. It feels like we have two sons, and let me tell ya the toddler part is MUCH MUCH easier.

So before the mission Kyle was pretty pampered... meaning kinda lazy in the respect of cleaning, chores, studying. If we were having sandwiches for lunch and no one would make his he wouldn't eat. If he was freezing on the floor and no one would get up and hand him a blanket he would just freeze. You get the picture.

Kyle Before

On the mission is a completely different story. He is in the Philippines... deep in the Philippines. He has to make his own rice for every meal, hand wash all of his clothing, and fetch water from the well for their house, because they have no running

water. Right now he is in a small village up in the mountains. Lots of hil

ls and valleys. He says work is hard, people love Americans and will commit to be baptized but will not come to church and stay active. The people are humble but kind, most living in huts with thatched roofs. A couple wanting to be sealed in the temple must save for about 4 years to afford to make the journey to Manilla. I know he has a new found respect for our country and our lifestyle. He also has found out you can live with out cell phones, cars, tvs, and other material things. I have to admit sometimes I worry about his safety and if he is alright but I kn

ow he is in our Heavenly Fathers hands doing His work. And will be blessed for it. We have felt the blessing of having a missionary in the field.

Kyle after

Kyle is horrible about send pictures and even worse at telling us who is in them. I do know this was his companion, from Hawaii, they knew each other in the MTC.

There is a Filipino delicatesy called Bullott. They take a fertilized duck egg and bury it in the ground for 12 days. Then crack it open and eat it. It's like half boiled egg, half feathers and beak...or so I've been told. These pictures make me want to gag. He ate the whole thing.

He loves the children. He says they are so full of life, not chained to tv, sports, or video games. Just having fun, helping their families get food, and water. This was a family pet.

Terrible picture, this is a girl walking her pet Crab in the street.

He loved his first package so much he sent me a picture so I could send the same stuff again. I sent another package and didn't ziplock the candy and the ants got into it. They have really bad bugs. And it's their HOT season, so no more chocolate for a while.

A lizard in the shower room. No biggie they are everywhere.

We have to beg Kyle for pictures, his internet connection is soooo slow it takes almost the whole time to upload photos. When he does send them we get lots of landscapes and sunsents. Don't ask me why.

I think this is his house, he has told me it's in the middle of nowhere.

Best Christmas EVER...so far!

2011-01-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

A week before Christmas we got our family pictures taken by Amber Fischer (call her for your family pics, you will not be disappointed!) Of course we woke up to a few inches of new snow and freezing temperature. We traveled to Payette and found some cool backgrounds, I think she took a billion photos of Max. For the most part he was corporative, and smiley. We only have three pics right now, hopefully the Christmas rush is over and we will get more soon!

Hansen Family 2010

Maxton Reed Hansen

This year we have received so much snow, I don't think we've had this much snow in a long time. We took advantage of it by sledding lots and pulling Max behing the 4 wheeler. He found out it was just as fun to "drive" the 4 wheeler.

I took absolutly no pictures of Christmas this year... None, Zero, Nada. I know what a terrible person I am. But we did use the camcorder finally. On Christmas morning we woke up at 7:30 and went through our stockings. Max loved the binoculars and wooden Thomas set from Santa. He opened presents and stopped after each one and wanted to open it and play with it before he opened any other present. His new pal is Woody from Toy Story. The kid is borderline obsessed with puzzles, he got 6 for Christmas, some from us some from others. He is really good at putting them together. He makes us sit on the floor next to him and watch him, we are NOT allowed to help. I guess he just need the moral support. haha.

After we opened our presents we got ready and headed to Charles and Vals. Their kids had already opened their presents so all of the attention was on us. Max opened a few presents then I guess got bored and just wanted to play with the ones he had opened. This was alright we just saved some for later. Grandma and Grandma Hansen got him a tool workbench. He loves that thing, it is pretty cool. Now maybe he'll stop stealing Troy's tools and "fixing" things around the house.

Later we went to my mom's house and visited and exchanged presents. She got Max a huge Thomas the Train set. It took Troy and I forever to set up.

YES this is why Christmas was so awesome this year! We gave this picture to our families for Christmas to tell them the big news. They were all very excited, especially Charles. He has been on us for a while to have another child.
We couldn't be happier.

November to December 13th

2010-12-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

What a crazy end of November first of December it's been. Starting from most recent, we had our ward Christmas Party. Breakfast and Santa. I had Danielle and Sergio's kids because he went in for surgery. All day the kids talked about Santa, what they wanted to tell his to bring them, how they would hug him and give him a high five and knuckles (MAX). We got all ready and went to the church, as soon as they all saw Santa they Freaked! Max screamed while waiting to see him on the stage. We couldn't even get Xalia and Alivia to go on the stage. It really bothered Alivia that Santa was wearing big glasses. The girls ate their weight in ham, eggs, and pancakes, Max ate nothing... Julian was pretty good, but having 4 kids 4 and under at a ward party is crazy! Luckily the girls were still wary of Santa and stayed away form most of the chaos. We left early came home and we all watched Despicable Me. By the way it's really cute. Some kids shows are so annoying (Thomas, Diego, Word World, Wonder pets) pretty much all of Max's favorites. The kids went to bed and slept all night, even Julian. Infact he slept the best out of all of us. I bathed him and put him down at 10:00 and he would wake up around 7:30. So thankful he slept well. The kids played well together and had a lot of fun.

We played a lot of toys upstairs and downstairs, we made sugar cookies and frosted them, watched lots of movies, and stayed in PJ's all day. It was fun.

Sergio's surgery went well, they removed a little tumor that was growing on his adrenal glad. They did a biopsy and it came back benign. Thank Goodness. He did have to stay an extra night in the hospital because he spiked a fever during the night. They are all home now and doing great. Max crashed when the kids left. Three hours later he woke up and wanted to play with the girls again.

Here are the cresent rolls I made for Thanksgiving. 92 to be exact. One batch for dinner with the Hansens, the other for a dinner with my family. I like to shop on black Friday... this year was extreme! At midnight (Friday morning) Danielle, Valene, Rebecca, and Charley and I set out for Boise. Our first stop was Wal-mart. It was crazy as ever but we got some great buys. Then we went to Old Navy the line was around the whole store, so we left. There is nothing in old navy worth that! Next was the Mall, JC penny, Champs, Childrens Place, Macy's, Sears, and for a little breather we had hot cocoa and what else at 3:00 am Taco Time of course. Weird I know, but it hit the spot for us all. After the mall I was sooo tired. I stopped at Staples, they Danielle and I headed home. Valene stayed out until that afternoon. She is NUTS! and a shopaholic. But she got a lot of great buys. I got home at 8:00 am . One of the Many reasons I could never stay out and party all night... I like my bed too much.

During this time I made 2 cakes for friends, one for an anniversary party and one for a Wedding... that was nerve wracking. Max reaped the benefits... lots of frosting was eaten by him. I used 24 pounds of powdered sugar in 2 weeks making these cakes. 24 POUNDS!

I can't believe Max's hair was this LONG. I'm glad we cut it was super shaggy. I still liked it.

Max is my little helper in the kitchen, anything resembling play doh is fun.

This is the cake for the anniversary. Three teir red velvet with cream cheese filling and butter cream frosting, covered in cream fondant, with fake leaves. It was hard, thankfully Troy (my cake assistant) was there for me.

I took this picture off of a friends blog, I was so ready to be done with the cake I forgot to take a picture. It was a three teir cake Bottom layer, rice krispie treats, top two layers eggless chocolate cake, with vanilla buttercream frosting and white fondant. The groom is allergic to eggs, so I had to play around with a few recipes to get them just right. They wanted red velvet, but I just couldn't make it the right texture with out eggs. But the chocolate was great. even for us egg eaters.

Behind Again...

2010-11-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

So I'm not going to try to catch up on all of my non-posting in one day, I'll start from the begining... But here's what I remember most about the last few weeks.

My Grandma had her 80th birthday. She acts so young, and is the kindest person I know... seriously. Our whole family threw her a party at Danielle's house. Two of her sisters and her brother were there. We ate enchiladas, rice, beans, chips, and salsa. She loves spicy food so we gave her a fiesta. I made her a cake. It was fall-ish, lots of leaves. It was buter pecan cake with butter rum frosting, and french vanilla filling. It turned out pretty good. Really it was a good practice run for another cake I was planning a couple of weeks later.

HALLOWEEN

Danielle and Sergio came to our ward Trunk-or-Treat. Their girls were adorable. Xalia was Jasmine. Alivia was Hannah Montana, and she totally rocked it! Julian was a pumpkin. Here is our Bishop Hartley and his wife Brenda handing out lots of candy!
Max's costume was not so original this year, Mr. Potatoe Head. Good for a farm boy though. We drew on black black eyebrows, red nose and attempted a mustasche. It was all rubbed off in 2 minutes.
This was the best picture we could get of Max the whole night. He hates to smile for pictures he usually closes his eyes. We are having family pictures in two weeks so we better get to practicing. Max and the girls had lots of fun. Dress up+candy+running around= children's dream. It also equals one tired mom by the end of the night!

Troy really got into it this year he even dressed up.... a grouchy dirty farmer. He didn't have to try very hard for that one.

We had Grayson over to play for a few hours. It was so good for Max to play with another little BOY. We have so many girls in our family it's nice to do boy stuff once in a while. That's what they're doing in this picture. Boy Stuff.... ripping up a whole roll of paper towls and making it "SNOW." I couldn't even get upset, they were too cute. *Notice Max's shaggy look it may not be so shaggy in the next post. He is getting tired of it, much to my dismay. I love it.

Look mom a big snowflake.

Do You Know the HONEY Man?

2010-11-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I came home to a big box full of honey jars and spreadable honey, and a big bag of almonds. Unfortunately Roxie (the DOG) ate the almonds and any note that may have been attached. I would really like to thank whoever left this awesome surprise for us. We LOVE honey, yes even MAX loves it.So if you know who the Honey Man or Woman could be please let me know.

On another note I am going cake crazy... One for tomorrow for a friends parents' anniversary, then my first wedding cake next weekend. Some minutes I wonder why I said yes, other times I really enjoy it. By the way I used 12 pounds of powdered sugar for the cake this weekend. Can you say Sugar Coma...good thing I HATE frosting.

{October} here and gone.

2010-10-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have missed autumn. September flew by and by the time I realized it was October, it was the 18th. What a busy month it has been. I tried to can but just couldn't get into it this year. I did manage to do some jam and pears. I still want to try applesauce. Troy is still working like a maniac, harvest is longer this year than any other. A thousand acres of beets to harvest then ground work, then comes the fun part... shop work with the whole famdamily. Max and I have kept busy visiting my Grandma in McCall. She moved up to the cabin so Jill (cousin) could go her senior year there. I hate having here so far away. Danielle and I took up the kids for a few days. It was fun, and hard work. My Grandma decided she was now old enough to let her hair go gray, she is 80 today! At first I wasn't sure, but now I think it looks so cute and makes her look younger. She still out works me anyday! We tried to clean up the leaves outside but the kids kept running down to the lake. We had to stay in the house at from dusk till dawn because they have had bears almost everynight. They tip over the garbages and make a royal mess.

Alivia Danielle Xalia and baby Julian

My cute gray haired Grama with the kids.
I love trees, I hate all the leaves they leave for ME to rake up. I filled 11 huge black trash bags, and guess what. Now there are even more on the ground and it's wet. Fun huh?
Max and Roxie had a blast running through them.

This little doggie has been quite a lot of work lately. She likes to chase cars, get into garbage scatter that garbage all over the yard, chew up cute decorations, lick you all over, explore into the neiboring fields and bring home lots of goodies. Snakes, mice, gophers, birds, potatoes, and onions. She is a really good dog I have to remind myself she is just 5 months old, she's a toddler. And boy do I know how rambunctious they are.... I have one.

Call him Picaso. This again seriously. The first time this room was painted Max came in and picked up where Troy left off. I traded the dark purple in for a lilac color. My mother in law came to help it looked great. I put away all open paint and brushed, I left one tied up in a bag out in case I had to do some touch ups. Of course Max found it and did major damage. The wall was not the only thing he felt like painting, the cement floor, his cars toys, his feet, and oh yea my leather couch downstairs. I couldn't believe that in 8 minutes he did this. I will never shower again..... without him being tied to bed. Just kidding.
We got to spend some time with my Grandma Beth and Great Grandma Theda. They had a BBQ, it was weird seeing family I don't even know. But these ladies are so sweet and kind I would do it again.

Max has decided to grow out his hair. Oh what's that your mom is making you? Yeah pretty much in love with his long flowing blond locks. Especially when he wears his suit.

More shagginess. What is fall without a trip to the pumpkin patch. This one was a doosie he was all over the place, it didn't help there were like a million school kids there. He really wanted to go play with them. I tried to get some decent pictures he really hates holding still, and smiling. Without squinting. He liked the tractor ride but wanted to "drive" like with Dad. I think he fell 20 times trying to pick out the perfect "baby Punk'in"

My favorite one!

4 Birthdays in Septmember.

2010-09-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Everyone!

So Riley and Madison's birthdays were the 6th and 12th of September. We didn't do anything big or fancy just a cake some ice cream and presents with family. I have to admit shopping or girls is SO MUCH FUN! I wanted to buy them everything but since I couldn't I had to spoil them just a little. I love to wander into the girls section at Target, and the doll section. It's a change of scenery from trucks, tractors, sports and blue green attire.

Before their birthdays Troy actually had a Saturday morning off so I had to drag him yardsaling with me of course. It was sooo much fun. We found some cool stuff, and even got a big bucket of sidewalk chalk for free for the kids. We found a very beat up kids guitar ( I wish I had taken a picture.) It was a buck Troy thought he could fix it up for Riley. All the girl wanted was a pink guitar and a big pink truck. Well we didn't find a truck but Troy did an amazing job on the guitar. It was more work than he anticipated but worth it. She LOVES it.. She thinks she is Hannah Montana. Seriously. I love that he found the perfect shade of pink and added rhinestones!

A cool princess purse from Grandma Val.

My attempt at a Barbie cake... Next time I won't be so cheap, I'll go out a buy a new barbie. This one was from Charley and it was well loved.

This sorry cake was for my brohter in law Anthony. He turned 15 and wanted a baseball cake... Don't think this is what he wanted. My design and planning really sucked on this cake. But I have a better idea how to make a round cake... Get the right pans! My birthday is tomorrow and I am NOT making myself a cake like last year. ( cut out 80 flowers) infact I am not making a cake at all, I HATE the way fondant tastes anyway.

I tried so snap a few pictures of the kids after church, some were more corporative than others. Max being the least corporative surprise surprise…

Riley and Xalia

Baby Julian

Isn't she just adorable. Alivia

Madison Riley and Max

Of course Riley had to make a face otherwise good pic of the kids.

Cute cute cute

Cutest kid ever? I think so.

Max and mom

Madison McKay

I cannot believe September has flown by already. I just canned 28 jars of pears and onto peaches next week. I have no desire to can this year, but I know I should do it. What was I thinking buying a glass top stove? I am really regretting that purchase. But I was blinded by the double ovens... Compromise. I am looking for an old stove to put downstairs in my freezer room it has a sink and canning nook, I could set up a table and have my own canning spot. That would save hours of clean up in the kitchen. We canned at my grandma's the other day.. it was fun but I feel bad destroying her house and not my own. The kids loved exploring every room and playing in the laundry shoot. That was SCARY!

Still Summer?

2010-09-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

I don't like summer to override my fall. I like fall, minus harvest. I like the colors, smells, and well ok I kinda like harvest. Onions, potatoes, and sugar beets in abundance. Why is it then I NEVER have any potatoes? Seriously my husband digs them for 15 hours a day.Honey would it be too much to ask to bring a couple home from time to time? The kids and I went and picked some up out of the field the other day for lunch. Then I stopped by a field and jumped the ditch to get some onions,I THINK it was our field. The the heck 90 degree weather go away! I want to decorate my house for fall and not die of heatstroke! Furthermore I want the sun to stop rising so early in the morning, Max would actually sleep past 7:00 am if it were a bit darker out. Got that mother nature, no your making up for a cold spring well alright I guess I'll drag out the kiddie pool a final time or two. Alright now to the catch up portion, August 20th at 7:40 pm my sister Jordan dropped off her two little girls almost 2 and almost 4 year old Madison and Riley.They are really just adorable and fun. She went to Montana with her ex- husband to fin

d a house because he transferred for his job. Yes I said Ex- husband, strange I know. I won't post all the details but ya get the picture. So I figured I would have the girls for a week or maybe 2 weeks while they found a house. No house yet... But I love the girls and would keep them forever if I could. So it's alright. I cannot believe the adjustment from 1 (albeit crazy man child) to 3 children! The sheer amount of human waste I deal with on a daily basis is astronomical,the gallons of milk in a week are many, and the laundry is heaping. Max and Madison are only 5 months apart so they are kinda like twins in the age category. She goes #2 in potty though.. which is huge. I wish Max would do that. Riley is pretty independent and a help to her little sister.They second week I had them Riley woke up 2 nights in a row with an earache but no fever and the pain was gone in the morning. The 3rd night she had a fever and was sick so the next day I took her to the Dr. She needed an antibiotic. She is all better now. I took Max to a new Doctor in Ontario. Dr. Shebani. She is great. I hated Treasure Valley Peds sooooo much and the experience at her office (Sunshine peds) was totally different. No long lines, rude receptionists, or hours and hours of wait time with an appointment. I call and they can get me in fast. She listened to my concerns with Max and offered some NEW direction (with his eating). Like her tons! Also all of the receptionists and nurses have been therefor years and know my mother in law and all of her kids. They knew Max was her grandson immediately. The kids have been playing in the pool and jumping on the trampoline. They love to color with chalk and run from Roxie our new dog. She is a german Shepherd, and even though she is still a puppy she is big, and will be huge in a couple of months. Max LOVES her sooo much no matter how much she nibbles on him or how much he jumps on her they get along like peas in a pod. I find myself relishing nap time which thankfully they all take at the same time! I feel like I don't sit down all day, because I don't. Add Danielle and her kids into the mix and we have quite the kid collection! Forget about going to town together anymore.... No vehicle will fit us all.

It's life... it's hard.... it's rewarding...it's what you make of it!

Riley Madison Max

Thank you Costco for the free entertainment..and eventual fight!

Beloved Roxie!

The Crew as of late!

Thirsty buddy?

Need vs Want

2010-09-22T09:44:00.001-07:00

I need to blog

I need to can peaches, pears, candied jalepenos, sweet and sour sauce, and jam

I need to dust

I need to finish my craft room

I need to finish my guest bedroom

I need/want to play with the kids

I need to get the girls ready to go back with their mom

I want to go shopping

I want to plant fall bulbs and clean out the front flower beds

I want to watch a movie

I want to take the kids to a cool park

I want to see my husband in the daylight hours

I want to keep the girls forever

I want to be super mom and do it all but I can't, so I guess I'll go clean the toilets.

catching up AGAIN

2010-08-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

Mad Max keeps us on his toes with his mischievous ways.

It's been a busy few weeks. Lots of running and going, lots of homemade salsa, and lots of mischief courtesy of Max. First, I have been trying to set up a craft room downstairs. It's been a long process. I found a great table and vintage curtains at a second hand store in town. I love them. The colors are so vibrant. Purples, blues, greens, and tans, and teal. Will post pic when project is complete (don't hold your breath) :) So I picked out a dark shad of purple for one wall, I was really busy with Danielle's girls, and other stuff so I hadn't gotten around to paint it. So my darling, loving, means well husband went down one night super late and painted it for me. So sweet right? Well he wanted it to be a surprise and didn't tell me. Then next morning I sent the kids downstairs to play and watch a movie. I had Danielle's girls because she was having a baby. Suddenly I hear screaming little girls running up stairs yelling "Courtie Courtie my Max painted me PURPLE" They were really upset and mad. It freaked me out because I thought Max must have broken the pails of paint and got it all over. Well when I ran downstairs I found Max painted dark purple from head to toe. He painted Alivia's leg, and Xalia's arm. He also painted the carpet, a white wall, my table, a chair, and well anything else he felt needed a coat of purple paint. I was sooo mad. I had to hurry and clean up my monster Max so he wouldn't get it everywhere else. I was so mad I didn't get pictures of the wall or the kids. After some yelling time outs, and yes spankings (only for Max) I set in and tried to get the paint out of the carpet at least. I called Val (mother in law extraordinaire) and she and the kids came to help. Charley played with the kids outside and Val helped me clean and scrub. Oh and the cherry on top of this whole ordeal...... Troy painted the WRONG wall! I could have just screamed. I didn't have the heart to tell him for a few days. Needless to say I have an even bigger project on my plate now!

The smoking gun

I think I hate this color now.

Malheur County Fair. Our yearly tradition of going, sweating, looking at animals, gagging due to the foul stench of the pigs, eating at Buffalo Browns, snow cones, visiting with people, going home to shower.

Tell us how you really feel Max.

Max and his cousin (2nd) Parker totally hit it off. They loved to play together. I think they look alike too. Parker is so easy going, they balanced eachother.

Just about had to take this little guy home with us. Max love him, and wanted to hold the "baby." He showed him his Thomas balloon, and hugged him until we dragged him away. Goats, lambs, chickens, and cows may be in our future.

Max went up to the bear all by himself. He gave him a big high five. He was amazed to find a bear at the fair.

Come swim with me please.

While Danielle was in the hospital Troy and I had the girls, it was really fun. This was the scene every night before bed. They both love Uncle Troy so much. This time we got smart and made them a bed on our floor next to my side of the bed. Last time we tried to get them to sleep in Max's room on his floor, all three ended up in our bed. This worked better for all of us.

Danielle, baby Julian, and Xalia

Sergio was out of the room while I took pictures. The girls just love him, and lets just say he has one proud Daddy.

He was a little bruised on his face from the delivery. Baby and mom are doing well, and the rest of the family too. After a few rough days at the hospital they are glad to all be home together.

Swim Lessons... Red Robin...Cookie CURSE...

2010-07-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

This was Max's last swim lesson. His teacher Hannah was really nice. But even she couldn't get Max to float on his back. He's much rather sink. Before we get to the last lesson we had an eventful second to the last lesson. Max was finished with his lesson and was playing in the baby pool where he can touch I was sitting on the opposite end of the pool watching him get out and jump in a hudred times. It's a small pool. He got out to jump in and hesitated, I said are you gonna jump in or what? Like a bolt of lightening he ran and jumped right into the big pool, around the four feet depth. I tried to catch him but I had to jump over a little retaining wall and well he is super fast, and he tricked me. So he's under the water, he came up for one breath then no quite floated 6 inches under the water. There were no life guards on duty because it was private swim lesson time, the only 2 in the pool were at the other end with their students. I yelled for help. He was too far away from the side for me to reach. Finally I had to jump in clothes and all to rescue the little pill. I was soaked in my jeans, shoes, and shirt up past my chest. I was so mad, embarrassed, and upset. I could help it but the tears started welling up as soon as I pulled him out of the water. Now don't get too concerned about Max, he thought it was funny. He didn't even sputter water or cough. I set him on the side of the pool while I got out and tried to wring out my clothes. He ran back in the baby pool and stood directly in the middle so I couldn't reach him... he knew what was coming. Finally I lured him to me, dripping wet I dragged him to the locker room where I proceeded to yell, cry, and give him a good ol' spanking. He was almost silent on the way home. I took him to Troy at the shop, told him the story and said, keep him while I go home and change. He did, I went home, changed out of my soaking clinging jeans and decompressed. Lesson learned the kid needs to wear a harness around water!

He didn't learn to float or doggie paddle too well. But he does kick and kinda move his arms.

O Holy Cow

My 2 year old is going off the diving board on his own free will

Climbing

Walking to the end.

JUMPING

Jumping from another angle.

Almost there.

Belly Flop!

Max was all smile after this, he jumped off the diving board a dozen times.

Red Robin

A bunch of us went out to eat. Of course Max wanted french fries, so we brought supplements. A yogurt, oatmeal cookies, gold fish, apple sauce, and chocolate milk. I just love how I have to pack a dinner for him because he won't eat chicken nuggets, hamburgers, pizza, or any other foods NORMAL kids love.

Who could stay mad at this cutie?

OK on to my real dilemma. I CANNOT CANNOT CANNOT make chocolate chip cookies. I know what a failure I am. As a wife, as a mother, and as a sister. This is my like 43rd attempt and now I officially give up for good!!! My sister Danielle even came over to help, we did everything she always does, and they still turned out like this. I definitely have the Cookie Curse! Any tips would be much appreciated. Or just a batch already baked would be better. Kyle has been begging for some at the MTC before he leaves for the Phillipines. Instead I send cupcakes, Carmel popcorn, mints, and store bought cookies. For the love... I thought every house wife made good cookies.

The chocolate chips are higher than the cookie

The middle is raw and the outside is crispy

I swear I follow all directions to the "T"

GROSS!

At least the girls still ate them. They asked Danielle what was wrong why they were so flat?

I wish I knew.

Oh well.

I make killer Cinnamon Rolls!

PS Yard sale at my house FRI - Sat 8-2

Rebecca and Kiah are chipping in.

We have a lot of stuff.

The Fourth

2010-07-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

My kid is a FISH!

He amazes and scares me. He is taking lessons at Vale this week. It's really more of a glorified playtime, but he is getting pool time and is learning to kick to get where he wants to go. I hoped he would learn to float... he hates to be on his back he'd rather sink. he loves the slide, and has no fear of jumping in from anywhere. Today he wanted to go off the diving board, I'm not ready for that one. He is great at holding his breath and likes to go to the bottom and bring up the rings. Maybe he'll be an Olympic swimmer or something?

Troy and Charley. She is a great little sister/baby sitter/ helper/mess maker! Just kidding we love ya Charley.

There is a little playground with 2 baseball fields up the street from our cabin in McCall. We walked there everyday to play. Max loved the slide and the climbing net. We had races around the bases, we tried our hardest to tucker the kid out. No can do.

SPARKLERS.

I obviously need a lesson on taking pictures in the dark. Most of them turned out double exposed looking. Max went though a thousand sparklers it seemed like. Each one was just as exciting as the one before. He only tried to touch the "fire" a few times. No burn injuries to report. Well except for the 3rd degree burn I got on my forearm. I'd like to say it was from being too brave lighting fireworks but no... it's from a boiling running over the top pan of poached eggs. My little cousin Ally was in charge of cooking them and took the pan off the stove before it overflowed. Too bad she stuck it right on my ARM!!! I screamed, it hurt, it STILL hurts. Good news, it burned off a few layers of skin and took the freckles with it. Bad news, my arm will look like I have leproacy for the next few months.

Red.White.Blue CUPCAKES

These were fun to make, and cute.

Troy's parents came up on the forth last minute. They stayed for dinner and the fireworks then went home. {party poopers} just kidding. The fire works were amazing this year. The finally went forever and had all red, white and blue blasts. I was so busy getting things ready this year I forgot to step back and reflect on what a blessed nation we are. And how many men, and women it takes to keep us all safe, and free. I know I could be a little better when it comes to doing my duty to help. like voting in all elections, showing support for local politics, and being a more active member of my community.

max and grandma Val.

It was a fun time at the cabin Kory, Rebecca, Charley, and Ally came along. We ate, played and, took naps, and went to ZIMS. (a hotspring) It was awesome. We met up with Lance Peterson and his little family. We went to their cabin and the boys + rebecca rode 4 wheelers, I think the younger girls were dissapointed. So we went to Ice Cream Alley (ICA as the locals call it). That made up for it. The next day we had a feast of a dinner and Lance and Kelsey came over to eat play games, and watch the fireworks on the beach. Great times were had by all.

Summer is Here!

2010-06-27T18:57:00.000-07:00

Alright there are a lot of pictures in this post, trying to stay caught up. First my sister Danielle's baby shower was today. Her mother in law planned it, and was at Fiesta in Ontario. There were a lot of people, lots of food, and lots of presents. Sergio's family is really into parties of any kind so it was loud, and fun, with lots of games and great prizes. Did I mention it was really loud? Well it was. I made her a diaper cake... no real cake involved. I had never made one before it was a fun project. It took 96 diapers, and I needed more. I forgot to take a picture before I took it to the party.

The lighting was terrible and I had to hurry and take a picture before kids ran in the way.

Ashton came to visit for the weekend with Roger Krista, Jocelyn, and baby Ryker. It was too short of a stay but we loved seeing them.

Ashton is so dang handsome, he is getting so tall, and smart. I can see some similarities between him and Max.

" oh What do you do in the summer time, when all the world is green, do you swim in a pool to keep yourself cool, and watch all the clouds go by? Is that what you do, so do I." (Primary song) We are loving the pool these days, thanks to Brent and Karena we can go pretty much whenever we want. Max is a mad dog in it. He loves the floaty, but also loves to go without it. He has NO I repeat NO fear of water. He goes under like a fish but can't come up by himself where he can't touch. There is a big step he likes to play on. when that gets boring he just jumps off into the deep end or goes down the slide. I have to be super cautious when I take him. His bravery scares me to death. This week we are scheduling some priviate lesson at Vale. I want him to learn to float and doggie paddle. This may be a little much for a 2 year old, I'm not sure. He even likes to go tot he bottom of the pool and bring up the rings. Crazy kid!

Troy is so good to take Max swimming to work and just to play outside. I think he had a good Fathers Day. Biscuits and gravy for breakfast, I was ready and early for church (his favorite gift I'm sure) I scored an awesome Love Sac from a yard sale, it was a year old and the previous owners said they didn't use it any more because their kids all went to college. It is in great condition too. Troy likes that it's the "BIG Daddy" size. He also got some golf balls and swim trunks. I surprised Troy with the Love Sac. I hid it downstairs the day before and told him Max had put his toys in the toilet and some were stuck. He was ticked. When he went downstairs he saw it, he was excited. He has always wanted one, but they are so stinkin expensive. We love ya Troy, thanks for all you do for us.

This is our awesome yard sale loot. Alli Nunex, Rebecca, Charley and I went to Eagle and found some great deals.

I am trying to teach Max to keep a clean room, and to get our one toy at a time... as you can see he doesn't quite get it. He took out all of his clothes and blankets from his dresser and put them on his head.

and tried to dress himself. I put the these overalls because he insisted on wearing them. He was trying to put on more shorts and this is him "folding" his clothes after getting in trouble.

The pile of books I had to repair.

Someday they will hate this.. but right now it's too cute. Karli her boys, Danielle and her girls, and Max and me went swimming then to our house for tomato soup grilled cheese, and watermelon outside. Let's just say Max took a good long nap after this play day.

Papa and Max

Some of my greatest memories are of my Grandpa playing the piano for me. He still loved to play for the great grand kids. Miss him more than ever.

Papa... before he was Papa.

If you look closely the writing on the photo is to my Grandma, it says "To the one I love always" Reed. how. sweet. is. that. He was so handsome too. Kyle looks so much like him. Speaking of Kyle, he is doing so incredibly well. The MTC is kinda hard for him, but his letters and emails are awesome! He sounds almose like a different person, then he throws in that his companion is legit, and fo' shizzle and I know it's the same Kyle.

More summer fun, the trampoline. At first Max hated it. Now he loves it and can't get enough. He is jumping with Vince, Julz, and shaggy Randy- his hair is now short.

Do You Smell Something?!?

2010-06-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

The other night Troy and I ran to Ontario, we left Max with Danielle to play with the girls. When we got back Xalia wanted to have a sleep over at our house, so we took her home. The kids played ate dinner, well Zay-Zay ate and Max screamed, and went to bed. It took like 2 hours for the little buggers to go to sleep. If you haven't noticed our weather has been less like summer and more like fall. It was chilly in the house so we turned on the heater, we've had it on before. Troy and I collapsed into bed around midnight. The heater was making loud noises but we didn't think anything of it. A few minutes later I thought I smelled smoke. I woke Troy up and asked him if he smelled something. He was not exactly thrilled to be woke up again, he said he didn't smell anything and told me just to turn it off. I got out of bed, went into the kitchen and it hit me... thick black smoke. I flipped on the light and told Troy there was smoke. He jumped out of bed and came into the kitchen, we started looking for a fire upstairs, then went downstairs. Nothing. We examined the furnace, there were black burn marks but no sparks and no fire. We didn't know what to do so Troy called his Dad. he didn't really know either. By now the smoke detectors were going off like mad. The kids were still asleep, and that was making me nervous. The smoke was so bad, it stunk like wires and diesel. We decided to go into Val and Charles for the night. It was defiantly not safe to stay there, especially for Max and Xalia. We took Zay home and stayed in Charley's bed, it was soooo comfortable. Max slept with Troy and I and he was actually really good. That was the first time we have stayed the night at Troy's parents. We all smelled so strongly of smoke we had to change before we got into the bed. Luckily we opened most of the windows in our house before we left. This morning it still smelled like musty smoke- think camp smoke the next day. Gross. Thanks to Scentsy, Febreeze, and Val's candles we no longer smell like a camp fire. We need ot have it servied before we start it again. It was an eventful night.

Today I watched Danielle's girls while she and Sergio went to her Dr. She is in major pain with 7 weeks to go... I bet she makes it another 3 tops.

Please if anyone knows where my sweet, loving, son went tell me. I. want. him. back. In his place is a fit throwing, hitting, crying, screaming, boy who NEVER eats monster. Don't get me wrong I get glimpses of the old Max and that's enough to keep me going. Let's just say he has had to go to work with Troy more this week than ever before. Troy and I just hope we can make it through these TERRIBLE TERRIBLE two's.

Seriously I can be so frustrated with Max, then he gives me a hug and kiss and a big smile and I forget why I was so mad.

Run as fast as you can I bet you can't catch me. Really though he loves to run everywhere. Outside, inside, stores, Gramdma's, baseball games, Temple Square, even on the treadmill. He likes to go fast, he runs for about 2 minutes on 3.5 he is CRAZY!!! Hopefully he developes a love for running, I'm still working on that myself.

One of the better family pictures in a while. In front of the Provo Temple.

Back to NORMAL?

2010-06-14T14:15:00.001-07:00

The past month has been the most stressful and hard month I have ever had. I'm glad things are settling down a bit. On May 31 st we started working on our new house. We painted the living room and Max's room. I wanted to do the kitchen, bathroom, and downstairs but after those two rooms I was willing to wait a while to do the others. I don't like the painting process, I love it when it's done though. Troy HATES to paint, hates it. But between Troy, Kyle and Myself we got it done. One June 1st we moved in, and we did it in a hurry. It was also Kyle's last week at home so that was no fun for him. I worked like crazy to get most of the boxes upstairs but away and pictures hung on the walls because the following Sunday we were having a going away party for Kyle. There were still boxes, lots of boxes put we mostly got it put together. It was actually helpful to have a deadline to get every thing done. Now I don't have a deadline and there are still boxes downstairs that need put away. Kyle's party went well, there were quite a few people. We kept it simple with an ice cream bar and brownies, and root beer. Kyle's farewell talk was excellent. Troy and I were more than worried when he rehearsed it to us and it was about 8 minutes long. Troy was really concerned because he was the only other speaker. Kyle talked about Joseph Smith and how he became a prophet. Troy talked about prophets in general. I know the spirit helped them both tremendously because their talks were great. My family came, mom, scott, Danielle, Sergio, girls, and my grandma and grandpa. My grandpa hadn't been feeling well and probably would have just stayed home, but he was not about to the family's first missionary farewell. He made it...barely. It exhausted him. How sad to grow old and not do the little things that once seemed to easy.

Riley was Queen of the whipped cream... Xalia was not happy she had to share.

Kyle with his cousins, Jill and Ashton.

We managed to get all of Kyle's missionary shopping done before the move, the Monday night we helped him back. It was hard for him to fit his life into 2 suit cases. Everything is sentimental to this kid, a candy wrapper, an old wrestling shoe. We finally convinced him to leave his pocket knife at home though. Monday night was his last hoorah with friends, Tuesday morning Troy, Max, Kyle and I went to visit our grandparents one last time. Kyle and Troy gave my Grandpa a blessing because he still wasn't feeling well. He felt weak and his mind was foggy. But he wanted a blessing from Kyle before he left on his mission. He wished us well and told Kyle again how proud he was of him. It was sweet. We set off to Utah and made it to Provo. We ran to Wal-Mart for some forgotten necessities for Kyle then we went out to dinner at a old spaghetti factory type of place. It was really good. There was a huge train the the middle of the room that had dining seats in it, Max thought he was in heaven. He kept saying choo chooo blue choo choo, oh wow. It was pretty funny for a while. We ordered Max a kids meal that came with spaghetti, apple sauce, milk, and a Popsicle. Talk about an awesome kids meal. Some of you know we've been bribing Max to eat with popsicles. Like he has to take 2 bites or so before he can have a bite of popsicle. It was awesome. He ate almost his whole plate. Too bad now the bribe doesn't work. We stayed at a hotel, Max slept awful, in turn I slept awful. We had a room with 2 queen beds, at one point I think I was in Kyle's bed and Troy was on the edge of our bed with Max mashed into his side. (The boy loves his crib) The next morning we got ready and were in the car to go to the Provo Temple for some pictures. It was then we got the call. Papa had passed away.................................................................................................................................

It was like a ton of bricks hit us all. It wasn't a shock but it was unexpected. It was hard to keep it together for Kyle, for Max and for Troy. If you know me at all you know I am extremely close to my grandparents, especially my Papa. He was my grandpa, friend, and father. Surprisingly I felt immediate peace. I know it was the spirit. I knew he was in a far better place, with loved ones, I knew he was happy, I knew his was no longer a prisoner in his broken body. I knew he was with me at that moment.

Kyle took it really hard. Here we are 6 hours away from home, and Kyle has to report to the MTC in 3 hours. It was really good he got to talk with our grandma, and mom, and other family members, I think it helped him. Troy was shook as well, Max knew something was wrong and got really fussy.

We headed to the temple and took pictures, ate lunch and took Kyle to the MTC. I thought for sure we could park and take a picture by the MTC sign... Nope it was a stop and drop. We pulled in were directed where to stop along a curb a missionary met Kyle and took his bags, we all hugged and he was gone. Just. like. that. It made me so sad, I had been looking forward to this day since the first day he moved in with us 5 years ago, and I was sad. Then we drove for a few miles.

Suddenly it was like the heavens opened up and angels were singing "Hallelujah, Hallelujah" I had been waiting for this day for 5 years... Finally!!! Kyle is slightly maintenance, and dramatic, and needy. And for the last few months we have butted heads. The boy won't make his own sandwich even if everything is laid out for him. Finally a little break. I'm sure in a few more weeks I will really start to miss him :)

We were going to stay at Troy's cousin J.D.'s house but decided to head home asap to be with my grandma. I got to her house at 10:00 pm. Wrote the obituary, and the funeral program, headed home around 2:00 am. The next couple day were very stressful dealing with family, and planning. the funeral was last Saturday June 5th. I spoke. My aunt Linda spoke, Ally and Jordan sang, Sam Hartley spoke, and Gaylene Ellsworth played the accordion. (My grandpa loved to play the accordion) The service was wonderful... it was everything he would have wanted. Short, to the point, and lots of music. He was int he air force so a flag draped his coffin. and at the graveside he had full military honors, including a 21 gun salute. It was very touching to watch the two officers to delicately and precisely fold the flag and give it to my grandma. Very sweet. Love you papa... you are missed.

Doesn't he look like Kyle? And my Gram was smok'in!

Crazy kids at the luncheon all 5 cousins. Max, Xalia, Riley, Alivia, and Madison.

Some cute ones of MAXTON

Shhhhhh Don't tell mom I got out all of my blankets again!

Cold popsicle on a hot day.

Uncle Kory and aunt Rebecca thought it would be cool to get Max fish for his birthday. It was really cool.... for the first week. Then I had to take out the fish (Nemo's) and wash out the tank. I had to do this like twice a week. So when Max dumped all of the fish food into the bowl and there were multiple causalities, I wasn't too sad.

We love to see the temple. The Salt Lake Temple

kyle had never been to Temple Square so we stopped on the was to Provo.

He had to pose.

This is the only picture I got from the MTC.. the redhead in the background was waiting to with Kyle's luggage.

Cousins play time with Play-doh. SO fun but oh so Messy!

Danielle's mother in law picked up this sweet water slide at a yard sale, Max had to try it out.

It was pretty cool, sigh, wish I was a kid again.

The yard sale divas!! Ally,Danielle, me, and Gram.We headed to Boise early on Saturday for some good yard sales. My favorite purchases were a solar oven thing (for food storage) and awesome reef sandals for $2 bucks. And of course clothes for Max, books, and 2 cast iron skillets. We ended up in Eagle for lunch at Souper Salad. It was a really fun day with Gram and the girls. A nice change of pace from the previous weekend. Next time we will hit up Eagle and Meridian.... any takers? I always tease Danielle that she is like 12 months pregnant and still thinks she can out do us all. She almost can too.

Happy 2nd Birthday MAXTON

2010-05-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

Look Who's 2!!!

I cannot believe my baby is 2.

I think I will always call him my baby, I kind of understand how 85 year old parents still talk about their baby boy who is 55 years old. I will be one of those old people. He is talking so much and is so funny. His imagination cracks Troy and I up daily. His new thing is hiding in the couch pillows and blankets, when we walk by he yells BOO! We totally have to act scared and start screaming or he gets dissapointed. My favorite thing he does right now is he crumples up paper and then un -crumples it, or puts a puzzle together and says "TA DA" Until you acknowledge him he will continue to say "Ta DA". So cute. He loves movies of all kinds, Little Rascals, 101 Dalmations, Monsters Inc., and his favorite Tinkerbelle and Tinkerbelle the sequel. He has started to like playing with baby dolls. This is precious, Troy isn't such a fan. He gets their blankets, bottles, and bassinets and treats them so gentle. UNTIL he get frustrated or bored then he throws, kicks, and steps on the babies. His temper flares once in a while---wonder where he gets that---? I vote Troy. Just kidding. Max weighs a ton 30 lbs to be exact, he wears a size 6 1/2 -7 shoe and wears mostly 3t's. I don't know where it comes from, he still eats terribly, very picky. His new love is peanut butter and honey toast. Popsicles are a great bribe.

I was hessitant to do a big party because I wasn't sure how he would like it. And it was a lot of work. I couldn't have asked for anything better. He LOVED it! He ate a cupcake, well the icing, ice cream, played with the kids, and the adults, played with toys, and was just enjoyable. The adults had a good time too. I made Cars cupcakes, and decorated with Cars motif. Max loves Cars. I wanted to make a Cars fondant cake, but then I remembered Max hates cake. I decided not to do that to myself...10-15 hours of labor on a cake that my son wouldn't even eat, no thank you. So we did brownies and cupcakes and lots of ice cream. The food was good, and company better. Max was totally into openeing his presents. Good thing there were a lot of them, he just wanted to keep ripping open presents.

We are moving in 3 weeks, I hope to have a few rooms painted and the carpet out of the kitchen before we move in. It will be crazy for a few days, but it has been crazy for the last few months. What's a few more weeks? So excited to paint and do some different things.

Max loves to ride in the Jeep with Troy. It's pretty tippy so they stay close to home.

troy and Charley helping Max open his presents.

Happy 5th Anniversary!

Cupcakes Galore

Don't mind my sister-the one sticking out her tongue with food, she's pregnant, hormonal, and therefore a little crazy!

i love Xalia in this picture.

Mom and Max

Let him eat frosting- Dinaco blue frosting that is.

Kind of a bad picture of Max, he is really hard to get a good picture of, Wal-Mart told us not to come back.

I love Max so much and couldn't imagine my life without him in it every single day. He is the light of our home and lives. Bringing us so much Joy and so much crazyness and frustration at the same time.

So many things I miss...

2010-04-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

Since moving literally to the middle of nowhere I have come to realize there are a few things I miss about civilization. Like cell phones, and the internet, couponing, scrapbooking,blogging thigs when they happen not weeks, months later,having friends over, a diswasher, and multiple bathrooms, and a store less than 37 minutes away. Hopefully we will be moving again in a month. I'm trying to make myself get excited about it. We are going to paint some rooms, and some fixing up so that should be fun. Any cute color scheme's or other ideas? I could really use them. I can't imagine myself in a totally white house, I'm sure Max would help with some of his famous crayon/pen/permanent marker murals.

Easter was great. We went to my mom's with the rest of my family, Max and the rest of the cousins were wild as ever. The cold and wind prevented us from going outside too much. The egg hunt was a success, 5 kids and 100 eggs to find. They did it though, all eggs were found opened, fought over, spilled and contents devoured. Everyone enjoyed it.

Kyle went thought the Boise Temple, and leaves in one month!!!

Headed to church.

Sidewalk chalk our new hobby.

EASTER it was cold but that didn't stop MAX. He wanted to open the eggs on the spot. He knew there was candy in one of them.

The whole gang, well mostly. R-L Alivia, Xalia, Riley, Max Ally, Carley, Jill, Kennedy, and Dani.

Mad Max we love you!

Alive and Well

2010-03-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

Well I am a slacker lately and our laptop is about to die so these pictures are out of order and not so great, but better than nothing.

Chelsey got married and looked beautiful, I didn't take many pictures I was busy chasing mad Max, and cutting cake.

Max loves his hat, well any hat will do, before we can leave the house he says my hat, my hat. And this is his best smile.

Me and Max at the reception. Yes I now have bangs, and I love them.

My cute little guy

All of the cousins playing minus Maddison, and Danielle is expecting a BOY in August.

We have been playing outside most days, we have a fence which I LOVE, and a

Her backdrop was old doors it was really cute.

Max loves loves loves Charley! He cries when she leaves and brings me the phone and says "YARLEY" he tags along with her a lot. Good thing she is so kind and patient with him.

Kyle got his mission call this is right after he found out where he was going.

Our front yard, at our interm house. Hopefully he will be moving again in a month or so. The house we are at now is really cute and has personality, but we feel like we are just camping out. I have hung 2 things on the wall and 2 rooms are full of boxes and things we are not unpacking, so it's not really like home. But look at this view it's beautiful.

Opening the long awaited call, most of us thought he was going stateside, or to South America.

Kyle and his friend T. got their call the same day.

KYLE is going to the Phillipines and speaking Tagalog. He was so shocked!!! And so were we.

T. is going to Mexico City.

We are happy and doing well, just feeling a little caught in the middle of setting up house and moving so soon. Troy has started planting....so it begins... long nights and early mornings. Max loves to play outside and go to friends and cousins, and especially ride in tractors. I have busy keeping up with Max and church callings.Missing our Mac and the internet and cell phones. One day our life will be back to normal, whatever that is.

update soon to come

2010-03-03T10:35:00.001-08:00

We've been busy...real busy.
Went to McCall winter carnival.
Valentines day
Max wears makeup
Packing up our entire home
Moving from a huge house to a small house
playing outside everyday rain or shine
planning a bridal shower
Chelsey (SIL) is getting married
Troy doing homework all hours of the night
no internet
no cell phones
Max getting bigger, smarter, and more handsome every single day!

Hurry up and Wait.

2010-02-01T14:31:00.000-08:00

Lately it seems like everything I try to do is a hurry up and wait kind of deal. Like hurry and get to the store for a good deal, wait for my sister to get ready to go with me, wait in line, hurry home. Hurry to pack the house, wait to find a house. Hurry and clean the house, wait 9.5 seconds until Max and Troy destroy it. And the worst hurry and get to church on time, by some miracle, wait the longest hour ever until Max goes to nursery. This Sunday something was off. Max fell asleep in sacrament...hasn't done this in like 6 months. Then he protested going to nursery, he screamed his head off actually. But then he settled down and played with toys and the other kids, I just left him screaming kinda sad.

I took my sister Danielle couponing for the first time, she did really good. I did ok I know lots of gals who do way better but I needed the stuff and was able to get pretty good deals. I paid $23.94 for this trip. The checker at Albertson's was so nice, she let us do all of our doublers in 2 transactions. Usually you can do 3 doubler coupons then you have to physically leave the store and come back in to do the rest. I'll tell ya with three kids in tow this was a life saver. I will pick her line from now on.

6 big oatmeals, 5 instant oatmeals, 5 boxes granola bars, 2 V8Vfusion, 1 baked lays, 1 tillamook cheese, 4 bertolli pasta sauces.

Rebecca's birthday was Friday, I made her a cake, which turned out fair, the cakes inside were all different and the fondant bubbled around where they didn't join and the icing didn't spackle. But the design was cute, and we're all happy Rebecca is in our family... but now we can't tease her about being a teenager anymore. She just turned 20, oh youth!

Max hates to eat. Really it's strange, but we have made vast improvements in the last few weeks.

Hi my name is Max and I'm a raman-a-holic, I've been clean for about a month now. I have added scrambled eggs, spaghetti, and chicken vegetable soup to my diet, but I still won't touch bread.

This is back when Max had his "long hair" He loves to watch movies, right now his favorite is UP, he watches it in Troy and I's bedroom with his beloved blue balloon.

Cake Crazy

2010-01-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

I have been a little cake crazy lately, I love to make fondant cakes. But really I like spending hours on the internet looking at amazing professional cakes wondering if I could ever be that good... Answer NO. But I like to try.

The inspiration for Charley's birthday cake. I was going to make it 2 layer only.

The results... too small of cake pans. broken letter C like on cake above (big bummer), broken flowers, not the right color ribbon, colors of fondant darkened overnight. Ok compared side by side mine Sucks big. But it was fun, and gave me some practice. I need to find things to make cakes for to keep in practice, every time I decorate a cake I learn a ton of new stuff.

Charley and I. She's 12 and already as tall as me, how pathetic.

This was Grayson's birthday cake. Karli had the idea and just needed a little help. It turned out so cute. I was afraid it would be a flop, I would have felt terrible. There were some flaws though. Icing was not wet enough to stick to fondant, I cut a few edges too short, and luckily there was a ribbon on the bottom. Making the fondant rope was easy.

Possibly a future project... so cool.

What kid wouldn't love this?

Things I'm dealing with...{in pictures}

2010-01-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right we're moving, Charles and Val sold their farm we have been living in. We will probably have to move into town (Nyssa) for 4 months but there is nothing to rent right now especially for only 4 months. After that we are moving back to the country. The Farm bought a house close to the shop, but the residents don't have to be out until sometime in June. And we are moving in having never seen it. I don't know if it is 1 bedroom, or 5. One bathroom or 2.5, if the residents smoke? have pets? if the carpet is gross....get my drift NOTHING! This really drives me insane, I'd like to have some clue as to what I'm walking into. Frustrating. So anyone got a basement for rent? :) just kdding. My mom offered for us to live with her, which was nice but.......we've been on our own for too long, and we have way too much stuff. And I think we would all go nuts.

This is not my house but it soon will be.

Max actually is doing pretty well with the binky only at bed time, but if he happens to find one throughout the day, Watch out! He was screams when you take it away from him.

The boys won't eat like a normal human being. I don't get it. So he starves until we have something that he will actually eat. This morning we had scrambled eggs and pancakes-he turned up his nose, and ate crackers off the floor I didn't vacuum up last night. But he ate a good lunch, aw oh well.

The battle continues.

The other day I had a deep meaningful conversation with my treadmill, yes that's right my treadmill. Let me tell you he let me have it. Since then we have become better friends, I now see him regularly. We are both happy about this.

This is Troy nightly.

The man is BUSY! He works a full time job PLUS. Comes home plays with Max then goes to back to work in the office. He's taking 16 credits. Crazy. But I'm thankful he's getting it done, by the end of summer he will be Finished.

Add in there trying to get Kyle to submit his mission papers.

We are busy and happy, Max is called Mad Max for a reason, I could follow him all day and just clean up his messes, sometimes I do. Sometimes I just say heck with it and make a mess right on with him.

Lots of 2009 Pictures.

2010-01-17T22:32:00.000-08:00

Long time no post... We sent our not even a year old camera into get fixed and have been missing it for a while now. I'll have to call on it tomorrow. Christmas was wonderful, we got to spend time with both sides of the family. Kind of felt like the movie Four Christmas's -watch it it's funny. Between Troy's huge family, my crazy family, Steve, my other Grandma's it was something else. But I'm glad we got to spend a little time with them all. We care for all of them.
My family came to my house Christmas day for lunch it was packed. We had the annual shop party on Christmas Eve with WBH Farms. Always a hit with Max, he ran around, rode bikes and got extremely dirty and smelly playing on the dirty floor, and in a pile of grease he found. (JOY) Max loved opening presents, he got a lot of books, and a big playhouse with a slide from Troy and I (oh I mean Santa).

Random order of pictures coming up.

Maybe you can't tell from this picture but our grandpa and Kyle look so much alike in pictures from his teenage years, really it's shocking. Grandpa is very special, we love him lots. Max always gives Papa knuckles and hugs. And Papa always gives him a chocolate hostess cupcake. (even when I don't want him to :)

A very tired little boy. He fell asleep during Christmas lunch- which of course he ate none of.

Kyle with our step sister Dani- she is so kind and patient with the kids and cute to boot.

Kyle and our other stepsister Carley- she is so fun and pretty.

This is almost the whole Famdamily- and I stress Dam-ily. Max was asleep and we all know not the wake the monster when he slumbers. Also my sister Jordand and her two girls couldn't malke it. :(

The night we went and decorated Grandma's and Papa's house. Everyone gravitates to this little lady in the middle, she is still the one every member of the family looks to. Whenever Xalia gets sick or hurt or upset she always asks for Grama Do lo res.

Troy's cousin Katie (Riley) did this, so cool. What a HUGE family huh?

Danielle and her family and Troy, Max and I set up my Grandma's tree and Christmas decorations. It was fun, the kids loved the snoring Santa.

He may no eat much but when he does it is M E S S Y !!! I really think he can put the pigs to shame when he eats. By the way this is nothing. I'm talking floor, ceiling, drapes, and surrounding table, or counter, himself... and ME.

I was experimenting making tissue paper poof balls and Max just had to get in on the fun. This one was huge, in the end he tore in up into a thousand little pieces.

Troy and I at Thanksgiving at his parents. (he has since shaved...thank goodness)

Before Thanksgiving we went to Washington to visit the Hartley family. It was fun as always, Ty and Brent and Berniel gave talks in church because they had just got back from missions.

Thanksgiving {recap}

2009-12-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

At this time of the year I am grateful for so many things, a warm home, vehicle(s), family close by,the gospel, and the fact that if I needed something, anything, lots of people would be there to help me and my family. It breaks my heart to see the homeless, with no one and nothing. This Christmas season we are going to try and give more, do more, and help more. ok off my soap box.

This Thanksgiving we went to Valene and Charles house. There was so much food and all of it good, except the giblet gravy (which is unatural and disgusting). Rebecca and Anthont heard me saying how gross it is, turns out they didn't even know what giblets were. They were just as grossed out as me, but they had eaten it. Later we went to my grandma and grandpa's where there were a few families. It was good to see my cousins. That night we went home and relaxed. We wanted to go to a movie but there was so chance of that with our little monster. I thought terrible two's started at 2, not 19 months. Of course Max ate no Thanksgiving dinner, not even a bite, well I guess you can count crackers. This picky eating stuff it getting really old. What should I do, starve him so he has to eat? give him what he wants? There is no middle ground.

On another note our camera is broken, the adapter won't plug into the cord... is anything made to last? I don't want to send it away to get fixed until Christmas is over.

Crafts crafts crafts why do I do this to myself? I have all summer and fall to get ready for the craft show, but no I wait until the last 2 weeks to get stuff done. I have made some really really darling tutus, too bad Max doesn't like to wear them.

If this is what it's like to come home, I'm leaving more often!

2009-11-19T15:42:00.001-08:00

Max and I had a great adventure last week. We made the 4.5 hour drive to Idaho Falls to visit Megan, Tad, and boys. First we stopped in Pocatello to spend the afternoon with Kyle. We hung out at his apartment for a while, went out to lunch, Costco, and Wal-Mart. Kyle got much needed groceries, and loved hanging out with Max. He can't wait to come home from college, I think he has realized how good home really is. His mission papers are complete minus the physical and dentist portions. He is excited to get them totally finished and get his call. It's been interesting learning where other missionaries in our area have been called lately... Armenia, Poland, Texas, Argentina, and Guam! I think I am just as excited to find out where he will go as he is, ok probably not quite.

The long car ride was no fun for Max or me. Luckily we had lots of snacks, books, toys, crayons, and a dvd player- my salvation. I forgot my camera at home but Megan took a great picture of Max while the boys were playing in the jetted tub, Max was scared of it at first. We explored Idaho Falls, got lost, found Sam's Club, and Downeast Outfitters, where I bought Max an awesome table and chairs. The kids were terrible so we called the shopping day quits. Megan house is so nice. New everything... after living in the country in old farm houses I can really appreciate new carpet, walls, appliances, and BATHROOMS! Sorry but the yellow ting in the bathroom never really come clean in an older house, despite vigorous scrubbing and harsh chemicals. Anyway we talked played with the kids, looked on the internet at cool cakes, toys for our boys, and blogs. I got roped into going to her wards relief society's meet and greet. That was an experience. The invite said business-casual dress... I only brought jeans.... ALL of the food was good, (in our ward the food is risky - I only eat it if I know who brought it). The bread bowls were PUMPKINS orange rolls with little green stems. The center pieces looked like they came from Macy's it was intense I tell you. Our ward is not this "dainty" or "fluffy" I think a balance of "fluff" and "substance" is best. We all had a good time, I owe Megan a few Magic erasers for the purple crayon Max put on the wall and the highchair, and an ice pack for Luke because Max was a bully. Thanks for having us!

I guess Troy missed Max and I because when we got home the house was spotless, fire burning, and presents for both of us. Max got a coloring book, a bug juice, and mini M&M's. I got flowers, a card, and a movie and popcorn for a date at home. We're glad he missed us because we missed him too, a lot.

Max loves to play with his cousins, they are a real handful when they get together.

Max, Alivia, Madison, Xalia, Riley.

Oh my son.... his food of the week is Nutella on crackers.

He doesn't eat anything, and I am going insane... really!

I learned my Lesson

2009-11-06T07:01:00.000-08:00

So on Wednesday I learned a great new workout! It's called your Father in law calls and says a realtor will be at your house in 45 minutes to show it to interested buyers!!! It was 10:00 am, and needless to say I was not ready for the day, had let Max dump out all of his block- which he scatters around the whole upstairs. The office was atrocious becuase I was clipping coupons the night before and just let the paper fall thinking I had time to clean it up in the morning, plus all of my scrapbook, craft, sewing projects thrown all around - mostly on the floor. The downstairs is in a contant state of ugggg. I have been trying to get my food storage organized- boxes everywhere. The toys Max has out grown are down there too, he goes down and plays with them, and takes new things down too, like my strainer, his dirty clothes, sippie cups, you name it. Anyway I was felt like I was doing high impact aerobic trying to pick up my whole house in 45 minutes, luckily the kitchen was spotless and I had vaccumed, and dusted. My face was bright red I was hot and tired at the end, and I still had to look presentable, so I changed my clothes, and put on some mascara and called it good. The people showed up 10 minutes later. They were nice, went through every room, used the bathroom, opened closet doors, asked lots of questions, turned on the sink, looked in the shower, and in the pantry. I heard them doing all of this while I sat on the couch watching some cartoon with Max acting like I had no care in the world, and that my house is always this perfect with a monster of child. I wanted to kick Charles and thank him, it forced me to pick up messes that would have stuck around a lot longer, like my craft messes.

Lessons Learned

1. Get up earlier

2. Don't leave workouts for "later" and not get ready for the day

3. Pick up the house before going to bed

4. EASIER SAID THAN DONE!!!

P.S. I don't think I am a horroble house keeper, but just knowing you will have strangers going through every room and closet makes me like I am to be judged on my worth as a wife, mother, and house keeper, dumb I know.

Halloween

2009-11-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

Our Little Caveman

Please tell me you can tell what he is dressed up as. This year I decided to MAKE Max's costume. I have only even sewn receiving blankets, so it was a bit of a challenge. He went as BAM BAM from the Flinstones, which totally fits his personality. ( Running around, hitting things with his baseball bat, mostly unclothed...) I think the outfit turned out great. I just kind of made it up as I went along. The bone is actually a dog bone, chicken flavored if you must know. I didn't really know how to attach it to the sash until Troy suggested I just cut two slits in the fabric and weave it through. You don't know how many times I have been stuck on a project and Troy gives the perfect advice. He gets it from his mother. (This is not the kind of information I should blog about, he has a reputation to protect). I covered his yellow bat with scrunched up paper in hopes it wold look like a tree branch . It was fun to make and watch hime wear for a total of 2 hours.

This is Max. Max never holds still, unless he is watching Curious George or Tinkerbell, or Bugs Life. He likes to run and scream through the house and hit baseballs of his tee, then use his bat like a golf club and hit the basesballs all around the house. This picture captures him well, going- going- gone!

Max and Grandma Valene

Belle, Ivey and Max. Ivey was Pebbles. All of the kids at the Owyhee Ward Trunk or Treat were dressed up really cute or scary.

Max and Mom.

I'm not sure how he felt about trick or treating. He liked the candy and put each piece in his mouth before he would put it in his basket. He started to get the hang of it and said thank you to most of the treat givers. It was a good time, I think next year will be even better!

This is not Good!

2009-10-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

Max now opens doors. Enough said.

I only have two goals now

1. keep him away from chemicals, TOOTHPASTE, and makeup

2. keep him from breaking a body part.

His favorite thing to do is go into Troy and my bathroom climb onto the toilet and free fall to the sink, turn on the water (always hot) and suck on the toothpaste and say mmmm mmm.

I guess I will breakdown and buy those hideous safety door knob handles. The big plastic ones.

The high point of my day... he was asleep by 8:30!!!!!! This is huge in our house, maybe it's because he's been waking up at 6:oo AM. So much energy.