Our littlest man

On Thursday my mom and I are taking Phillip to Salt Lake to be seen at Shriner's Hospital for his pigeon toes. I'm a little worried about what his treatment will be. There are a lot of options as far as I can tell off the internet; casts, braces, special shoes, surgery. I think the last one bothers me the most. I don't want to see him go through any more pain than necessary.

He's been sick this last week and has been miserable and I just keep imagining what he's going to be like if he has to have casts or surgery. Our niece Ellen had to have a spica cast a couple years ago due to a hip condition. She also had to have surgery. I hate to say it, but Phillip doesn't have the patience that Ellen has. If he gets stuck doing something he gets upset. I know he needs to be treated, but I don't think any mother ever wants to be put into the situation where their child could have to go through pain.

Stuart and I were talking about that this morning and somehow my eyes "started leaking". I'd say crying, but it wasn't full on crying so I won't classify it that way. Somedays I wish I had the emotions of a man because Stuart is very matter of fact about the whole thing. He knows Phillip could have to go through a lot, but at the same time it may be an easy treatment.

I'm praying for the easy treatment! Special shoes may not go with our plan to give him the sandals we bought for his easter present, but that I can get over!!

Please keep us in your prayers this week. We appreciate it!

I LOVE books!

I am an avid reader. When I was younger I had a book drawer and rather than ground me when I didn't do my chores or got in trouble my mom would take away my book drawer. However because I have small children I tend to pick books that are VERY quick reads because I will stay up well in to the night to read a book. I do love a good Romance though, and if that romance takes place in Scotland, Ireland or England in Medieval times all the better in my opinion. I'm not sure if I have any books that I LOVE from this genre though.

I also love books based in the Civil War Era such as the Faith of our Fathers series by Nancy Campbell Allen. I also enjoy reading the The Kingdom and the Crown series by Gerald Lund. I LOVE how those books give a different perspective than the one I already have of the events that happened. Since I seem to be listing off books to read I'll give another suggestion if you haven't read them is the books by Orson Scott Card; Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah. I wasn't sure about these 3 books to begin with, however I found that these women may have been A LOT different from the women I was taught about growing up.

My all time favorite is Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. I have ALWAYS loved this book and can read it over and over again. I love how I can get lost in the characters and live vicariously through Anne.

It's kind of funny that I list all these books (or series) that I like to read, because I have a very hard time picking out books for myself to read. I don't have issues picking out books for my children to read; however for myself I usually depend upon the recommendation of others (especially my sister-in-law Aimee and my mother-in-law...they pick out the GREATEST books!). For this reason I LOVE going to book club because I am somewhat forced to read books I may never have picked up (such as the Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King).

And since the weather seems to be warming up, what a perfect opportunity to head outside while the kids play and read a good book! Happy Reading!

AWESOME FHE

Tonight for FHE we finally had the right mix of assignments to do a lesson I've been waiting to try. Stuart had lesson, I had activity and Maija had treat. So, we started the evening out by having the kids watch us make our very favorite brownies. The kid were salavating pretty good by the time they came out of the oven. However, in the meantime we started FHE and started talking about Charity, Sacrifice and Service. Right as the brownies were done we got to the part of our lesson where we told the kids that our plan was to give our brownies to another family. Neither KatieJo or Samuel were thrilled (Phillip didn't take a nap today, so NOTHING thrilled him tonight). So, we loaded up in the car and took the brownies over to a family that has been remodeling their house and have just moved back in during the last week and a half. They were THRILLED to be on the receiving end of the brownies. We don't know them very well, and so I think they may have been shocked to receive them from us. As we got back in the van we started talking about how good it felt to give them our brownies. KatieJo really got the point of the lesson, but Samuel was still a little bummed that he didn't get the treat. The last part of the lesson was about the blessings we can recieve from serving and sacrificing. As we were discussing that last part what do you know...the van was pulling into the McDonalds parking lot. Our "blessing" was to have ice cream at McDonalds tonight. They were all excited to be at McDonalds and not only get ice cream, but get to play as well.

Even though I knew that we were going to give the brownies away, I still felt AWESOME handing them over. They are our FAVORITE, but I'm so glad we decided to do this tonight. I think I needed the reminder as well what it feels like to give of something I'd rather keep to myself. We also had the opportunity to talk with the kids about Christ and Easter. They are finally beginning to understand what he did for us! Yesterday in Church (and before & after) Samuel kept telling us that he was thinking about Christ and asked if he could watch a conference DVD. Now, I was shocked off my rocker. This is my child that I worry about the most, and to have him tell us that made me feel like maybe what we are teaching him is somehow slowly trickling into his head!

Homework

While I was at the Relief Society Birthday dinner last night Stuart was the man in charge at home. So, he was on homework duty. KatieJo had the following question and answer.

Travis has 10 nickles, 3 dimes, and 5 pennies in his piggy bank. If he reaches in and pulls out a coin, what coin is he most likely to pull out?

KatieJo's answer: "The one on top"

She was correct...technically, but thankfully Stuart didn't allow her to go to school with that answer on her homework.

Disabled blessings

This last week I had finally had enough, I was crocheting last Saturday and I realized my right hand was numb. I've been having pain and weakness in my right wrist since right before Phillip was born. At the time they attributed it to being pregnant. Then when he was about 10 months old I asked the doctor about it again and was told it hurt from overuse and to use a brace. So I got a brace. But, 2 years is a little much and I can't do a lot of things that I enjoy because of the pain. So, I gave in and went to see the doctor on Tuesday. He x-rayed it and decided that it most likely is sever tendinitis or carpel tunnel. Then I was told I needed a cortisone shot. He told me if I wanted I could go home and get up the courage to come back for the shots. Now, I'm not a big fan of needles. However, being the frugal person that I am I declined his invitation and chose to have the shots right then. As it turns out, the shots were quite painful. He kept apologizing to me, which I find a little funny because truth be told there are a few things (okay a lot of things) more painful than getting those shots. The up side to the shot was that it had a local anesthetic in it and so the pain I walked in with was gone by the time I left. However, I am stuck in a very limiting brace for at least 2 weeks. I'm not supposed to use my wrist at all, which the brace assures I obey. Unfortunately for my family that means I can't do a whole lot, and changing diapers is a pain in my posterior! But, Stuart can cook us dinner for the next little while since HS boys swimming is over and USA has a 2 week break.

But, this also means the Easter dresses I was planning on starting for my girls are put on hold...along with a whole plethora of other projects that require my dominant hand. But, on the plus side....I CAN go through things to donate and organize things that I've been meaning to get to with 1 hand. I can also play connect 4 which Samuel has challenged me to a game of! I suppose if I look close enough this could be a blessing in disguise.

I had the pleasure this weekend to attend Time Out for Women in Denver. I LOVE Michael McLean! And I've discovered that I really enjoy Mary Ellen Edmunds. What a great time I had with some great friends! And, I got to connect with some old friends I hadn't seen in a while...yea for me!

Wordful Wednesday-Books

I LOVE to read! My children love to read. When my oldest son was 3 he decided that he needed to know how to read and asked me to teach him. To my surprise it was incredibly easy (and it prompted his older sister to decide it couldn't possibly be that hard since her younger brother was doing it). I used a book called Teach your Child to read in 100 easy lessons. My sister-in-laws swear by the book so I thought I'd give it a try. Turns out it was great! It didn't take all 100 lessons, I'm not sure we even got half way through the book. But it gave us the foundation that we expanded upon with other books.

One of my favorite books to read with them (before they started reading to me) was (is with my younger children) Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss. I'm not normally a big fan of Dr. Seuss, but I absolutely LOVE this book. I love that we go through the whole book and make all of the noises. I love that my older children will make the noises right along with our two-year-old. It has to be one of the best books for children! I also really enjoy Dr. Seuss's ABC book. My husband majored in music and taught music for a few years before moving on to be a Spanish teacher; and he used this book for warmups in his classes. When we read this book it is always sung in our home. That may sound funny, but it's great to hear everybody singing a book!

Meet & Greet

I was journaling last night, which in and of itself was amazing. I keep 5 journals, sounds crazy right? Until you find out that only 1 of them is my personal journal. The other 4 belong to my children. There are so many things that they do that I won't remember more or less them actually remembering them. So, I maintain their journals a whole lot better than I do my own. However this wasn't the point of this story. So as I was journaling I realized that I hadn't posted in a while and my friend Holly who was here visiting last weekend told me she expected there to be a post about her. So here we are. I'm going to call this a MEET AND GREET post because most of you probably don't know Holly, and I am of the opinion that you should (that could be because I LOVE Holly like a sister!).

Holly lives in Curlew, WA in the middle of no where. The last time I heard she had I think 15 horses (don't quote me on that), 7 dogs, 4 goats, 3 sheep, 13 geese, 3 or 4 rabbits, a billion cats that roam around (ok not really, I think there are 4?), 2 Llamas, and fishtank full of fish...I may have missed a few animals so forgive me. She loves to go horseback riding and shows her dogs at dog shows. She also runs the dog class for her kids 4-H club.

Holly has 3 great kids, Echo who is in 4th grade, Tyler who is in 2nd grade and Nolan who is in Kindergarten. Her husband AJ in my most favorite State Trooper ever, who pulled me over last year in my opinion just so he could say he did (and to be the ornery person that I am I leaned my head out the window and informed him that I had only been going 5 over the speed limit before he could even get to my car.).

Phillip (before we moved) thought Holly was his 2nd mom; Holly still things that she is Phillip's 2nd mom. Holly and I are both grateful that while she was visiting Phillip STILL thinks that Holly is "his Holly".

I am very grateful to Holly for being my friend. I had a hard time living in Washington and Holly (and Cathy) were the light in my life while we lived there. I am SOOOOO very glad that she managed to make it to Denver 4 days before she had to be at her 4-H conference and that we got to go down and get her and bring her back to WY for a few days. My kids thought it was great that she came as well, but they wish she would have brought her kids as well.

We are going to visit them for a while this summer, and we are all SO VERY excited!

This picture isn't of Maija and Holly, however; Holly made the fuzzy hat that is on Maija's head and I think it's a cute picture.

Oh, as an after thought....Phillip has been accepted to be treated at the Shriner's Hospital in Salt Lake for his intoeing (he's pigeon toed). His appointment is on March 26th, and we are VERY grateful that he gets to be treated there. They are supposed to be the best and we're so glad he has the opportunity to go there.