Saturday, April 30, 2011

If I get one more...

If I get one more medical bill in the mail I may end up like this:


It is so interesting how every year can be so extremely different from the last. Last year we put $1500 into our FSA plan and had to come up with things to do to use it all before the end of the year. This year we put in $2000...and its all gone and the bills keep coming...

Things we've had to pay this year:
-2 visits to the hospital to do stress tests on the baby
-Madi knocking her teeth out
-Mayli's cavities
-The birth of Juliet
-Emergency bill for Mayli's Seizure
-Ambulance bill for Mayli's Seizure
-Katelyn's glasses and eye appointment
-Check up after the baby
-Visit to Primary Children's for Juliet
-Visit to Primary Children's for Mayli
-2 Children with Reflux ($120 a month gets expensive!)
-Co-pays for the visits to the doctor for the kids because of sickness
-Prescriptions

Totaling more than $5000 out of pocket so far this year

(And I wonder why I feel like I have no money left from Mike's paycheck after all the bills are paid)

Doctor Bills coming up soon or possibly :
-Mayli is having surgery at Primary Children's on May 13th to remove a growth from under her eye. It is getting bigger and they need to remove it and send it in for testing.
-Took Juliet to the doctor yesterday...another ear infection...the doctor said that it isn't looking good and with how its been going, if it continues she will have to have tube surgery.

I'm not writing this to complain because we truly are blessed. We have insurance that has covered so much and we all are pretty healthy. But this is something I wanted to keep track of for myself and for posterity in our blog books I'll someday print off. I know we have so much to be thankful for and I know that everything happens for a reason and the Lord has a plan for us. So when the next bill comes I will have to remember this! :)

Friday, April 29, 2011

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. Now that the girls are getting older it is so fun to be able to teach them why we celebrate these holidays. We had a wonderful Easter Sunday...church was lovely. The sacrament talks were great and we had a beautiful musical number. The spirit was so strong. We talked with the girls about why we celebrate Easter. It is so neat to hear them answer questions and know the answers. Mayli every once in a while will say to me, "Mommy ask me when Jesus will come alive again." So I ask her and she says, "Right now, He lives and is alive right now Mom." I love that my children know that Christ lives.

I didn't get any pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses before church...Mike had meetings and was unable to come home before we had to leave and I was rushing like a mad woman out the door to try to get to church on time. Which I was still late for because the Relief Society president called and said she was sick so I had to run by her house and pick up the binders and keys because I was the only one that was going to be there from the presidency. But the girls did look beautiful in their dresses and pink flowers! After church we went and had dinner at Grandpa and Grandma Wright's house. Then we went to study group and had a wonderful lesson about Christ from Grandpa Porter. It truly was a lovely day.

We got to dye Easter eggs on Saturday and here are some pictures of the girls having fun.





They had lots of fun dying the eggs. We had 54 eggs to dye and they got them finished in like 10 minutes! They had so much fun putting them in the cups and seeing the colors change. By the end they were getting really creative and putting them in different colors and trying all sorts of different combinations. We had a great time!

Cake Contest

The elementary school had a cake decorating contest and I made this cake and I won! :) YIPEE!!! This is a somewhat replica of what Kenzie's wedding cake will look like. It was nice to make a smaller version to see what it would look like. It turned out cute!


I also made some cupcakes for a charity event this weekend. They turned out cute too. Next time I make them I hope to have more time and I'll put on some fondant decorations.

The Living Planet Aquarium

We had Spring break a couple of weeks ago and we wanted to take the girls somewhere fun for one of the days. So we headed up to The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. It was a lot of fun and the girls enjoyed seeing all the cool fish and other water creatures. We got year passes so we will be going back often.

Here are all 4 girls right as we started

This octopus was so cool looking and it was moving all over the glass.

The girls had lots of fun here is a picture of each one of them as we were walking around:



They have a place where you can pet the stingrays. They are so slimy! The girls wouldn't touch them but they liked to watch them swim all over. We had a great time!

Friday, April 22, 2011

My Madilyn...

I love my Madilyn. Everyday is a new day, crazy and fun-filled. She is so curious about everything, I wonder what goes through her mind. She loves to get into everything and in the past week she has broken:
The Hallway Mirror (by throwing it down and jumping on it)
My $300 MP3 player (soaked it in water)
Joseph from my Willow Tree Nativity (Well it's behind my piano and I'm not strong enough to pull out the piano to see if he is broken)
Our Toaster (She put marshmallows in it and started it...now whenever I try to use it is smokes and smells like burnt mallows...it made its way to the trash can today)
A dozen cupcakes (we were at Walmart and she grabbed a thing of cupcakes and dropped them on the floor)
She drew all over the van window and cup holder with a crayon
Katelyn's flower she was growing (she dumped the poor thing and got soil all over the house...the plant was officially dead today and had to be thrown away)

At least once a day I find her in the bathroom playing in the sink. Which results in water all over her, the sink, and the floor. She loves to play in the water. Here is a picture; just look at the pure joy on her face:
She makes me smile and laugh. There was a talk given in General Conference and I know that Madi is in our family for a very special reason. "A sweet and obedient child will enroll a father or mother only in Parenting 101. If you are blessed with a child who tests your patience to the nth degree, you will be enrolled in Parenting 505. Rather than wonder what you might have done wrong in the premortal life to be so deserving, you might consider the more challenging child a blessing and opportunity to become more godlike yourself. With which child will your patience, long-suffering, and other Christlike virtues most likely be tested, developed, and refined? Could it be possible that you need this child as much as this child needs you?" Lynn G. Robbins. Madilyn is refining us and making us more Christlike. And I need her to help me be more patient and long suffering. It's like when she soaked my MP3 player someone asked me did you yell at her...well no I didn't I told her she ruined it and how sad it made me and how she needs to be more careful and thats why I tell her not to play in the water because things can get ruined. She had no idea that my MP3 player was right there she was just having fun playing in the water. I just have to remind myself...patience! She is a joy to have in our home even if she broke about $500 worth of stuff this week....

Friday, April 15, 2011

Accident...

Tonight me, Kenzie, Christina, and Juliet headed down to Orem for a little Friday night shopping. We were on our way home and as I was leaving the mall I thought maybe I should go the backway...but then decided to go on University Parkway. We turned right on to the main road and there was an accident at the next light. I said "Oh man I should have gone straight!" Traffic was moving slow and the light had turned red. We waited and when it turned green traffic started moving but then stopped. So I stopped and all of the sudden we
got slammed in the back of the car by this little car:
We looked and saw there was more damage than we thought so we pulled off the road. Kenzie went up to the cops helping at the other accident they said we still needed to call 911. So we called and they sent an officer to help with our accident. When we got hit it didn't seem too hard just more of a shock. I was a little shakey and Juliet just did a small cry and didn't seem too upset. Everyone was ok and no one was hurt. The poor girl that hit us was crying. All of us in our car were ok and we were laughing and trying to make the best of the situation. Here is a picture of Christina, Kenzie, and Jewels.
Here is the damage:

It wasn't that bad but it did knock the bumper off some.
When we were driving home the alignment seemed off and there was a clinking noise. There is definitely some things wrong with it. So we will call the insurance company tomorrow and get everything all worked out and get the car fixed. We are just happy that everybody was ok. Next time I'll listen to that 'thought' which was most likely a prompting that told me to the backway.

Here are some pictures of the damage when it is light:


Not too bad. We have to wait for the girl's insurance company to call and get everything figured out until we can go get it fixed. So we are down a car for a few days until we hear back from the insurance company.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Juliet's Newborn Pictures

Juliet had her newborn pictures taken on March 31st. She looked so beautiful and did such a great job. Olya, my friend down the street is a professional photographer and she took the pictures for us. Her business is called Endless Memories Photography you can check out her website...I highly recommend her. Olya came to our house and took the pictures. Juliet was having a hard time at first but after a feeding and a prayer from my sister, Juliet was asleep and perfect. She looked just beautiful!

I love this picture of her eyes open it is my favorite.

Olya put together lots of collages. I loved each one of them. I still haven't been able to decide which pictures to print off because I love them all!







There were so many great pictures. Juliet looks just beautiful.















Juliet is just beautiful and we are so grateful for her.

Monday, April 04, 2011

Such Girls!

Today this was my Facebook status:

Dede Clayton Wright finds it a little bit frightening that Katelyn-6, Mayli-5, and Madi-3 all seem to be having their 'time of the month' already and all at the same time! Katelyn is super emotional, Mayli is irritable and angry, Madi just melts down and cries over the silliest things. Oh what joys I'm in store for when they are all teenagers...eek!!! :)

Here is a little story of why...Katelyn just started crying yesterday. I asked her what was wrong, she said I miss you sometimes when I'm at school. Then she started sobbing and telling me how much she loved me and wanted to get Tangled and wanted to know if I could go to the store in the morning to buy it for her. She continued on saying that she wants to be Rapunzel and wanted to know why I didn't name her that.

Then Mayli jumps in yelling, no I'm Rapunzel! There can only be 1 Rapunzel and I'm her! I said there can be more than 1 Rapunzel and you can both pretend. Mayli then runs to her room screaming, no one ever understands me!

Later after scripture study Mayli was asked to pray and Madi had apparently really wanted to so she starts screaming and throws a fit for 10 minutes because she didn't get to say the prayer. I finally get her calmed down and we go to her room and Madi realizes she left her Dora pillow at Grandma Sherie's house! Meltdown #247 for the day! It was just one of those days I sat and laughed inside all day because if I laughed out loud that would start another snowball of emotions rolling!

They are such girls! There is a clip from Tangled that reminds me of how girls are. I have it below. I died laughing...thinking of my girls...and said oh she is such a girl. It makes me laugh...it will be so fun when they are all teenagers. Lots of drama I'm sure! They are such a joy to Mike and I and we know there is a special reason Father in Heaven gave us each one of them and blessed us with 4 girls so close together. Enjoy the clip...she is such a girl!


Sunday, April 03, 2011

Juliet is 2 Months Old!

Juliet turned 2 months old on March 28, 2011. She is growing up so fast and getting so big.

Here are her stats for this month:
Weight: 10 pounds 4 ounces (42 percentile)
Length: 23 inches long (76 percentile)
Head: 15 inches (51 percentile)

She is as beautiful as ever!
Our Jewels


Her 2nd month was lots of fun. She is a joy to have in our home. Some things that happened:

She was blessed. She moved out of our bedroom into her own room and crib, She found her hands, and she started having some nights where she would sleep through the night. Her best night was march 24th she slept from 8:30pm to 7:30am! 11 hours! She started following objects with her eyes and kicking her feet. She also got her 1st ear infection but is recovering quite well. Our favorite 'first' is that she smiled for the 1st time and started cooing and talking. There are videos below.

Juliet on her blessing day
Her tiny hands!
She is so cute when she yawns!

Here is a picture of the first day she smiled at me! The morning of March 28th she surprised me with this beautiful smile and she has been smiling ever since! It is truly a great reward to see that she loves me and recognizes me.

She loves to sit up in her Bumbo chair.

She loves to be swaddled but she was always getting her hands out of the blankets which was waking her up more often. I got her a swaddle blanket and she loves it! Here she is all bundled up. She sleeps better and doesn't get too hot in this 'blanket'.
She loves to swing her swing. She also loves her bouncer and still loves to cuddle. She was still sleeping quite a bit but in the last week she has been up a little bit more often which has been lots of fun to have her more alert. She still projectile spits up a lot and is always pooping out of her diapers. She isn't a fan of bathtime and gets upset during tummy time sometimes. She is content most of the time and we love to talk and play with her.

I love this picture of her! She looks so happy!
She loves to smile!
We had a photoshoot of Juliet and she looked so beautiful. I'll do a post of just her pictures later.


Here is Juliet smiling!


Here is Juliet talking!