Sweetness!

Yesterday, I met my new little nephew!
Isn't he SWEET?

I wanted to take him home.
So so sweet.

Conference Weekend

Between sessions on Saturday we went for a little bike ride.

A few of us ended up with some owies.
Kaeli scored a nice one!

I pulled the Littles (aka Sara & Violet).

When we got to our destination we played around.

Violet sampled some rocks and sticks.
She likes the way nature tastes.

Rylie just kept riding her bike. She LOVES to ride!


Sara found a stick that she decided would make a great sling shot.
It was a straight stick that separated into a V at the end.
She would wedge a rock in the V and give the stick a good fling.
She's a tom boy in the making!

And of course Sam climbed a tree!

I LOVED conference!
I feel refreshed and uplifted,
ready to take on the world!

A Decade Old!

It's birthday time at our house again!

Our little Kaeli is now TEN!
FLASHBACK: Here she is when she was 4 years old:

We love our Kaeky-Ray!

Kaeli holds a very special place in my heart.
She is sweet, strong, smart & spunky!
She has a big heart and is a good friend.
She is mature & wise beyond her years,
but also very silly and loves to have a fun time!
Kaeli is just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside!
We are so grateful for our Kaeli!


She asked for a baker's hat :-)
Looks like she's ready to whip up somethin' GOOD!

This was the cake I made for Kaeli.

The colors in the picture are messed up!
They really weren't this putrid.
The colors were neon pink, purple, orange & yellow.

I had never used fondant before. I still have a lot to learn, but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I found fondant and a how-to book at Walmart. But really all the credit belongs to You Tube! You can learn anything on You Tube!

I think I may have found a new hobby!

FaNcY

Sara was invited to a "Fancy Nancy" birthday party.

She looked just so fancy I had to snap a few pix.

Wow-wee!

And YES, she got to wear mommy's blush and lip gloss.
Now that's a BIG deal!

Sara is such a little comedian.
I couldn't stop laughing as I was taking these pictures.
Sooo fancy, but sooo much more SILLY!
I just love my little pixie!!!

Meet Lamby...

Doesn't he look dignified?

Lamby is very important.

He is very LOVED.
He is Violet's "lovey".

She WILL NOT SLEEP without this
fleecy, tiny blanket with a sheep head.
We have tried other toys, stuffed animals, & blankets,
but only Lamby will do!

She chews and sucks on his ears.
And they are brown now!
Because of my germ-a-phobia I sneak Lamby
into the washer when Violet isn't looking.
But his ears remain brown.

And just so you know
Lamby loves Violet right back.
And he especially likes it when she chews on his ears :-)

(awwww)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love St. Patrick's Day!
It may be because my favorite color is green,
or because I like little green men & rainbows,
or maybe its the wee bit of Irish in me blood!

Last night Aaron and I were practicing our Irish accents.
He told me I sounded more Australian.
I don't think he knows what he's talkin' 'bout!
(and yah, I just said that in my amazing accent, could you tell?)

Needless to say, we ended up laughing so hard I almost peed my pants.

And for the record, my accent is MUCH better than Aaron's,
but he has much better bladder control than I do.
So I guess we're tied: 1-1.

After we were all asleep a leprechaun must have sneaked into the kitchen and turned our milk GREEN! He must have spilled his coins on the floor in his rush to get out!

How else do you explain this?


The kids got a break from uniforms again!
Here are the lasses and lad in their Irish getup before school:

And we mustn't forget the wee lasses!

Guess what! I decorated those shirts!
Cute, right?
They are way easier than you think!

Freezer Paper t-shirts!

1. Find the design you want and put it on paper.
I googled to find the perfect images and then tweaked them a wee bit in photoshop, and printed them. For more complex designs you'll have to print a few copies for each layer of paint.

2. Cut out the design on freezer paper.
Lay down cardboard to protect your counter and then the freezer paper (glossy side down) on top of that, and then the paper with the design on top of that. Tape it all in place and cut out with an exact-o knife. Words and more intricate designs can make it tricky so try to keep your designs simple. The part you cut out is the part that will be painted. You're making a stencil.

3. Iron on the freezer paper to your shirt.
Iron your shirt first so there are no wrinkles. Make sure your iron isn't on the steam setting. You want a dry iron. Place the freezer paper, glossy side down, and iron it to the t-shirt.

4. Paint!
This is the fun part. Paint with fabric paints using a foam brush. Make sure you paint by blotting up and down, instead of moving your brush across sideways. This prevents bleeding under the stencil.

5. Let it dry.
If you're in a hurry or as impatient as I am, you can use a blow-dryer to speed up the process. Once it's dry remove the freezer paper. If you have more layers repeat steps 2-5 until you're all done!

Rylie & Vylie

Sara calls Violet "Vylie",
and the rest of us call her "Vy".
Occasionally it can get confusing...
You know, Vylie & Rylie and Vy & Ry.

Ry is a great big sister to Vy.
She gets creative with the way she carriers her.
This is only just one of the ways Vylie & Rylie get around.

And just in case you didn't get your fix, here are more pictures of our Little Vy:

SERIOUSLY, she must be the most photographed baby in the world!

Arrow Of Light

Sammy earned his Arrow Of Light!

(where's my face?)

We are so proud of our little scout!

So long cub scouts...Hello BOY SCOUTS!

Wild!

I love Violet's WILD hair,
which is pretty much like this every day.
She won't leave in clips or head bands.

This picture makes me laugh out loud!

Wild hair or not, how could I not LOVE this little face?

Springy Pillows

I have been on a search for green & springy-looking pillows, and kept coming up empty handed. So I was forced to break out the sewing machine and make some. I made four. I still think I need more color though.

Hmmmm...any ideas?

Is it SPRING yet?

We were thrilled to get some warmer weather and headed to the park on bikes!
I was excited to try out my newly acquired bike trailer!

You could say Sara was ECSTATIC!

Our warm weather turned windy by the time we got there,
but we made the best of it!

It's so nice to be able to go on a bike ride with the whole fam :-)

SPIRIT Week!

NOT wearing uniforms was a big deal!

One-eyed Monster Cake

My in-box is OVERFLOWING with pleadings to explain how I made Sam's birthday cake!

OK not really!
But a girl can dream, right?

Whether or not you asked for it, I'm going to tell you :-)

I wanted to make a birthday cake for Sam using my new bundt pan. I stared at it trying to figure out what on earth I could make out of it that he would like. I came up with the one-eyed monster!


You can use any size bundt pan. The one I used is smaller than the norm.

Bake the cake following directions on the box or bake it from scratch...whatever floats your boat. Let it cool.

For the eyeball, scavenge for the perfect-sized ball. I found that golf balls were too small, and wiffle balls and tennis balls were too big. I was lucky to find a large bouncy ball that was a perfect fit.

Wrap the ball in press n' seal (love that stuff), and gather it all at one end, twisty-tie it, and cut off the excess with scissors. The twisty-tie side goes down.

Use a small cup to balance and steady the ball so you can paint it without it rolling around. I used a medicine cup. If you don't want paint to get on the cup, wrap it in press n' seal too.

Paint an eyeball on the press n' seal-covered ball with acrylic paints. (I bet permanent markers would work too!)

While the eyeball dries, decorate the cake with green frosting, using the star tip. You don't need to cover the entire cake, just enough to make it look hairy. Frost on an eyebrow and smile.

Make arms out of chenille stems.

Make teeth by cutting a large marshmallow with scissors.

Find some horns! I used Violet's banana cookies (you can find them in the baby aisle).

Plop the eyeball down in the center of the bundt, stick the arms into the side of the cake, stick the horns in, and place marshmallow teeth sticky-side down, and...

VOILA!
You have an One-eyed Monster Birthday Cake!

I was happy how it turned out considering it was a PIECE OF CAKE to create!

eLeVeN

Sammy made me a mommy ELEVEN years ago.

I am so grateful for my BOY...who is quickly growing up.
Sam has an enthusiasm & love for life!
He has a BIG heart and has blessed our lives in a BIG way!

We love our Sam!

In case you missed it...Sam is now eleven!!!
Oddly enough, Sam had an encounter with an alligator during the festivities!

No worries, he won the fight, and best of all he made a new friend :-)

-FLASHBACK-
Here is little Sammy as a 3 year old.
It doesn't get much cuter than that!

(all pictures of Sam pre-2003 aren't in digital format...
meaning Sam was born in the olden days!)

China Girl not Tin Grin

Kaeli got her braces off on Monday!
YAY!

On Wednesday she presented a report to her class on China.
And she even dressed the part!

A New Perspective

Could this be the face of ADHD?

Last year after a month or so into the 5th grade I had a parent-teacher conference with Sam's teacher. She told me what a smart and intelligent kid he is, how he always participates in class discussions, and what a delight he was to teach. I could tell she really liked Sam and meant what she said. But then she started listing the things that we had heard time and time again from his teachers...since preschool. He has a hard time sitting still and he doesn't do his work independently, he talks endlessly, and he forgets to finish assignments, or forgets to put his name on assignments, or even forgets to turn them in. He is often disruptive.

With every new school year more accountability is required and with that the more Sam struggled. He's such a smart kid, so why wasn't he doing well in school?

Things at home were following the same trend. He had a hard time finishing his chores without getting distracted, he was impulsive, and he was overly emotional. I often wondered in a Dr. Phil sort of way, "what on earth is his 'pay-off' for this behavior?" I couldn't figure it out. Aaron and I always tried to make the consequences for bad behavior as natural and logical as possible, and made sure "negative attention" from us wasn't the "pay-off". But no matter what we did the behavior continued.

After some discussion, Sam's teacher carefully suggested that Sam might have ADHD. I was a taken aback. At one time I had thought he had ADHD, but that was when he was a rambunctious 2 year old that spoke excessively in the third person, and who literally bounced off the walls. But since then ADHD hadn't ever crossed my mind. To me a child with ADHD was wild and uncontrollable, misbehaving and impulsive...someone that no one could control. THAT wasn't my Sam.

I went home and started researching everything I could about ADHD. The more I read the more I saw Sam in the descriptions, and the more I understood for the first time past behaviors that always baffled me. ADHD has so many different looks, but they always have symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. They don't need to fit all the symptoms, but must fit a certain amount in each category to be considered ADHD. The very next week I went to the school to help in Kaeli's class and afterward I spied through Sam's classroom window and watched him. There he stood behind his desk leaning over to do his work while all the other kids sat doing theirs. He fidgeted, paced, and spoke to the kids next to him. Overall he looked so much more active than the others in his class. This was all during a time that was obviously meant for working quietly and independently. I was scared and confused about what I was realizing.

I sought advice from my friend who has sons with ADHD and she suggested I make an appointment with their pediatrician who is a behavioral/attention specialist in Provo. So I did. Sam and I went to Provo and with us I had surveys filled out by Aaron and I, and by his teacher, rating Sam's behavior in all three categories.

The doctor spoke to me privately and then spent a considerable amount of time with Sam. He went over the surveys and concluded that Sam definitely had ADHD. He wrote up a prescription and we were to return in a month with new surveys filled out assessing his behavior while on the medication.

During our first month we saw a big change in Sam. He was doing better in school, remembered to turn in assignments, and his usual emotional responses that always seemed disproportionate to what he was reacting to was nonexistent. And most of all his self-esteem was so much better! That was the best part. He liked who he was and he was confident.

My need for knowledge switched gears and I started researching the effects of the medication. I didn't like the idea of Sam being on medication. Especially when it affected his appetite and sleeping. A boy who is almost 11 years old, but the size of an average 8 year old, needs food and needs sleep! I had never been more conflicted! He was doing fabulous now, but only because of a medication, a medication that may not be healthy in the long run.

When we returned to the doctor I asked him about a more holistic approach or herbs that we could consider. The doctor told me that there was nothing else out there that would work because ADHD was a bio-chemical issue in the brain and there weren't any herbs that could change bio-chemical responses in the brain. Nothing else was FDA approved.

I decided I needed a second opinion. So I made an appointment with our regular pediatrician, who I already liked and trusted. I also borrowed several books from the library, one was about self-coaching and coping with ADHD without medication. And of course Aaron and I have discussed every aspect of ADHD to death, but more importantly we have prayed for guidance.

We have a plan now. And I'm sure it will change as more knowledge comes and as Sam develops and matures. But for now we have a plan that we feel good about.

I've waited several months before telling anyone (other than parents) because I wanted to be sure I knew what I knew, because something like this doesn't come without opposition and opinions from all different angles and directions. And now I'm OK with receiving it. I'm OK with it because I know that Aaron and I were meant to be Sam's parents and that makes us the best experts out there on what to do for our son. And we won't make these decisions without thorough study and prayer.

So is Sam the face of ADHD? Not really. There are so many wonderful things that define Sam, but ADHD won't ever define him. And it won't be an excuse for him either. His path may be a little rougher than someone without ADHD but in the long run we hope it'll be something he can learn to cope with, adapt to, and navigate without the help of medication. Maybe in the future it won't be anything at all to him, but a mere bump in his past that he overcame.

Two little sickies sittin' in the tub...

The kids have been sick.
Sara and Violet were the last ones to get it.
And they were the sickest :-(

coughing, fever, stuffy nose, green boogies, ear infection, up all night...
all called for bubble-bath-in-Mommy's-tub-medicine!

Unfortunately, Violet was then diagnosed with
BUBBLE-PHOBIA!
So this medicine didn't help.
We'll just stick with the amoxicillin.

Violet also had her 12 month check-up.
Apparently she is TALL!
Aaron's genes just might make an appearance after all!

Skillz

I know most babies are walking by now, but we still get a kick out of Violet's new skills no matter when they're mastered. Here she has finally learned to go from a tummy position to sitting up:



I swear I heard Woody Woodpecker laugh at the very end :-)

Because you can't hear too much about LOVE in February...

Have a lovey-dovey Valentines Day!

ANOTHER daddy's girl :-)

little miss ONE!

Our sweet baby is ONE!
I can't imagine our lives without her.
What a BLESSING she is!

Here she is just one year ago:

Violet Mae

(picture taken by SIL Dawn)