Please bless that we Might be Grateful

I was having a horrible day yesterday. I was in a horrible mood, I was in pain (stupid sciatic nerve!), and well just plain upset at just about everything that was happening. I was mad that it was only noon and my phone was already dead and then I couldn't find a USB cable to plug my phone in so I had to walk back to my room to get my plug (GASP...how horrible *sarcastic*). And well just a whole bunch of other things. It was lunch time and I asked Mayli to pray and while she was praying she said, "And please bless that we might be grateful." When she said it, the words seemed to cut right through me...how could I be so ungrateful...at least I had a cell phone, a house, a car that runs, a husband who is a wonderful provider and help and who loves me, 3 beautiful children, a baby who is growing inside of me and is healthy, and so many other countless blessings. Now unfortunately that didn't really change my attitude fully for the day and though for a while I did feel better my bad mood still stayed. So today please bless that I might be grateful and happy...because life really is wonderful and I am so blessed. Thanks Mayli for putting it into perspective for Mommy and for even at this very minute singing "He Sent His Son" right next to me while I'm typing this. When I finally grow up and stop being selfish and silly I wanna be like you Mayli!

Cake for a Good Cause

I was asked to make a cake for a 5k Cake Run/Walk. The 5k was a benefit for Jim Hughes a man in our city (He is 1st Counselor in our Stake Presidency) who has brain cancer. A few months before they found out he had cancer he had started his own business at home and hadn't set up insurance yet. Some women in our Stake set up this 5k and all proceeds will go towards medical bills for President Hughes. I jumped at the chance to volunteer when they asked if I would be willing to make a cake. Since 1st off I'm not anywhere close to inshape enough to run a 5k and 2nd off can't really train being pregnant and all. So I was happy to donate my time and some money to donate this cake for the winner of the women's division. It was actually quite fun to make and everything turned out lovely. It was so easy to decorate and no stress at all! It was so nice to not run into any problems and have everything run quite smoothly. It was the first time I made a bow like the one on the top. It was quick and easy to make and the cake frosted extremely well. Thankfully my fridge is capable to hold a 3 tier cake all put together since I had to go drop it of at 6:45am this morning. I was able to finish it all last night and run it to the race start this morning. I know President Hughes and his family could use prayers. So if you can add them in your prayers I know they would appriciate it. It's been a great testimony builder to see the solid faith they have had throughout this whole ordeal.

Close up of the bow

Weekend Trip to Montana...Homecoming for Kenna

We made a quick trip up to Montana to go see my family this last weekend. It was so fun to go up and spend time together. My baby sister McKenna was nominated into Homecoming Royalty and we went up to support her. We left on Wednesday about 2pm and headed off on our long journey. We had lots of fun while there. Here are some of my favorite moments.

On the drive up:
Me: "Mike you might want to repark the van."
Mike: "Oh this isn't diagonal parking?"
Me: "No." (While laughing hysterically)

One Night While Playing Scattergories:
A World Leader or Politician that starts with L:
McKenna: "Lance Armstrong. He's a world leader he defeated cancer."
Caleb: "Grandma defeated cancer."
The rest of us: "Yah Kenna I don't think that one is going to work."
Mom: "No wait, he is a world leader he landed on the moon."
Kenna: "Hahaa! No mom, that was Louie Armstrong."
The rest of us: While laughing hysterically..."NEIL Armstrong."

An older lady came to visit my mom.
Kate: "Grandma, there is another grandma here to see you."

Another night playing Scattergories:
I roll the dice: "Ok the letter is M."
Mom: "M as in mouse."
Carli: "Yah thats right."
Mom: "Ok."
While Dad is filling out his he is laughing so hard. After the round is over I start off and say my 1st one.
Dad: "It was M I thought it was N!"
Me: "Did you not here the previous conversation when I rolled the dice?"
Dad: "No must have missed that."
We still had him read his. The one he was laughing at was Hobbies he put Numchucks.

Same game Mike's book that starts with the letter T he puts 'To Save a Mockingbird.' Hahaa! A little opposite of the real title 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'

We had lots of fun. I had to put these down so I could remember them. We laughed so hard. Here are some pictures of the fun:

Madi, Kate, Evie, Hannah, and May in the back of a truck at the Homecoming Parade

The grandkids with Papa so excited the parade has started. In Glendive lots of the students wear football jerserys to the game. So on all the floats there were tons of people wearing football jerserys. Mike goes, "Are these all football floats?" Hahaa! It was awesome. :) Mike is always making me laugh. :)

McKenna on her 'royalty float'

Kenna waving to people

Madi with as much candy as she could hold from the parade. She wouldn't let it out of her sight.

McKenna in one of her many pretty dresses during the week. She looked beautiful and this one was my favorite. In Glendive all the girls in the royalty wear prom dresses all week to school. This was the one she wore for the parade and football game.

My pretty sister!

Isn't the back gorgeous!!!!

Kate and Kenna

Kenna and Madi

Mayli was so exhausted that she went upstairs and took a nap all on her own. She was sleeping when we were taking pictures with Kenna so she didn't get one. She was so tired.

During halftime at the football game they had the schools drumline play. They are pretty good. We got a new camera and I had to try to see how good of a picture I could get from the bleachers. Not too bad!

They had a DJ playing music and during halftime all the students were down on the track dancing.

Here is Kenna dancing with some little girls. I'm sure they were so excited! I know when I was little I would have thought that was the neatest thing ever!!!! I'll spare Glendive the embarassment of posting the football score...lets just say we were happy they finally made a touchdown in the last quarter. It was really fun to be back and enjoy my hometown.

It's not a vacation at Papa and Grandma's without smores at the fire pit! Here are Mayli, Daddy, and Madi getting ready to roast their marshmellows. We had a good time and enjoyed being together.

I Love My Mike!

I love my husband! He is such a good man and takes such good care of our family. I have some favorite Mike quotes from last week that are still making me laugh. I just have to post them before I forget.

Last Friday after Mayli's seizure I let him sleep in for a while. He came out about 10am and he was in his pajamas but he had his flip flops on. Here is our converstation:

Me: "Mike, where are you going?"

Mike: "Nowhere. Why would I go anywhere in flannel?"

(Still makes me laugh)

Then a few minutes later he went to his computer and was checking his e-mail. All the sudden he exclaims:

Mike: "Man I missed doughnut day again! I always miss doughnut day!"

Me: "Do you want me to go get you a doughnut, sweetheart?"

Mike: "No doughnuts sound gross, I don't want one."

Me: "Then why are you sad you missed doughnut day?"

Mike: "Because they always do it when I'm gone...it's free doughnuts."

(Again still makes me laugh)

Oh Mike always keeping me laughing! Why would you go anywhere in flannel and who could resist a free doughnut? Love you bunches babe!!!! Thanks for making life wonderful! :)

What a Week...Sickness, Call to 911, Trip to ER...and Everyone is Ok!

We've had quite the week last week. And since I do use this as a scrapbook/journal I thought I would write about it. It all started out with Madilyn going into the doctor on Tuesday. She had been really sick with a cold for about a week and 1/2 and we she wasn't sleeping well and woke up screaming in pain Monday night so I took her to the doctor on Tuesday morning. We found out she had a bad sinus infection and were able to get some medication. Later that afternoon I picked up Katie from school and she looked like she wasn't feeling very good. I felt her head and she had a fever I checked it and she was at 102.5 degrees. I gave her some medicine and had her rest on the couch. A little while later before bed I checked her temperature and she was at a 103.5 degrees. I gave her some advil and sent her to bed. I kept checking on her and her fever was still really high. I put a cool cloth on her head and gave her some tylenol 2 hours after the advil. She still was hot but started to cool down. Wednesday morning she still had a fever and I kept her home from school. By the afternoon my 'morning sickness' kicked in (more like afternoon and evening sickness with this pregnancy) and I was so sick. So we had 3 sickies in the house.

Thursday I had a better outlook hoping the rest of the week would be better from here on out. Katelyn was better and off to school and for Madilyn the medicine was kicking in and a she was feeling much better. That night before Mayli went to bed she started to complain about a tummy ache. I put her to bed and before I headed off to be I checked to see if she was doing ok. She was tossing and turning and I went to check her head and she had a fever. I took her temperature and she was at 102.5 degrees. I gave her some Tylenol about 11:20pm and headed off to bed. About 11:45pm she came into my room wanting to lay down by me . Mike was working on some work in the family room so I told her she could lay there until daddy came to bed. About 12:30 am she woke me up. I can't remember why we got out of bed but we were heading out of my room and Mayli started to have a seizure. She has had 2 seizures before because of fevers. They are called Febrile Seizures and are caused when a child's temperature spikes too quickly. Since we had already done this twice I had read up on it and knew what to do. I laid her down and waited. Her last 2 seizures have only last 1 minute or so. After about 2 minutes she was still having a seizure. I decided to bring her out to Mike. I sat down on the couch with her and after about a minute she threw up all over me. She was still in the seizure and wasn't breathing because she was choking on the throw up. We rushed her into the bathroom and finally cleared out the throw up. She was still in the seizure and by this time my sister Kenzie (who is living with us for a little while) had woken up. She is a CNA and told us we needed to lay her on her side. We did and just waited...after 10 minutes I told Mike to call 911 because it was lasting way too long for a febrile seizure. We moved her into the living room and waited for the ambulance. They were quick and were here within 5 minutes. Right before they came Mike gave Mayli a blessing. They paramedics came in and started to check vitals. Her oxygen level was at 70 and they put and oxygen mask on her. After that she stopped having the seizure and just sort of laid there. We still couldn't get a response from her but she was no longer tense or in the seizure. Finally after about 15 more minutes she started responding to her name.

The paramedics said she needed to be checked by a doctor and taken down to the ER. We decided to decline having the ambulance take her in and chose to drive her in ourselves. I have to note what a wonderful place we live in...right before the ambulance left I recieved a text message from a neighbor asking if we needed any help to watch the kids or if we needed help giving a blessing. It was 1:15 am and our amazing neighbors were ready and willing to help. Luckily my sister was here so we didn't need anyone to watch the kids and we had to rush down to the ER so we couldn't give her a blessing at that time. They texted back and told us to call anytime if we needed anything! I love living here! Anyway we were on our way to the ER and Mayli still hadn't said anything. She was in a daze...which is normal after such a long seizure. Mike and I were so worried about her. As we were driving down we were trying to get some response out of her. She would shake her head yes or no but still not talk. After about 20 minutes in the car I told Mike we should just let her rest and recouperate. Mike said ok and then said, "I love you Mayli." She then said, "I love you Daddy." It was a heart-melting moment and we knew she was going to be ok. After that we let her rest. As soon as we got to the ER and were about inside Mayli threw up again. The paramedics had called ahead to the ER to inform them we were on our way. So as soon as we got there she was admitted so we didn't have to wait at all.

While in the ER they had to run lots of tests. Blood work, urine test, and a strep test. They gave her an IV and some anti-nausea medicine. We had to wait for all the tests to come back. They were trying to figure out why she had the fever. Her blood looked good, the urine test came back negative for a UTI, and the strep test came back negative. So they didn't know what was causing the fever but said we needed to watch her and just try to keep the fever under control so she wouldn't have another seizure. We finally were released and able to come home. We rolled in about 4:30am. The next morning the other girls were up by 7:30am and we were getting ready for the day. I got Kate off to school and ran to the store to grab Mayli some popcicles. Matt and Michelle (brother and sister-in-law) were visiting with us too for a few days and they took care of Mayi and Madilyn while I ran to the store. Mayli was still running a fever all day long but it never got higher than 102.5 degrees. She rested for about 3 hours in the afternoon and said her tummy was feeling better. By night time her fever was raging again. I was so scared she was going to go into another seizure. At 1 point her fever was at 104.2 degreees. I kept checking on her every 15 minutes. Finally after advil and tylenol her fever was down to 100.5 degrees before I went to sleep.

The next afternoon her fever finally broke and she was at a normal temperature. She seemed to be doing much better. Sunday she broke out in a rash and we found out that she had Roseola. And if your child is suseptible to Febrile Seizures then if they get Roseola they will probably have one since the fevers run so high and spike so quickly. She is getting over the rash and is feeling much better. It was a crazy couple of days. We are so blessed to live where we live we had so many people that were worried about us. The Relief Society President stopped by and her husband came to help give Mayli a blessing on Friday, the Bishop called Saturday to check on Mayli and us, the Primary President called to make sure Mayli was ok on Sunday, and we had countless neighbors and friends offer to bring dinner, take care of the kids, or do anything we needed. We truely live in a Zion. How blessed we are. I'm so grateful for my 3 beautiful daughters and for a husband who is worthy to hold the priesthood. After an experience like this you tend to take a step back and spend more time with your children and less time worrying about the things that really don't matter or can wait. We are happy all is well and Mayli had no brain damage. Everyone is feeling much better this week so we are happy about that! Life is good and our Father in Heaven looks out for us and blesses us. I'm so grateful for my forever family!

Mayli's first day of Pre-School

Mayli's first day of pre-school this year was on September 1st. She was so excited to go. She is going to the Lilypad Pre-school this year. She loves it and loves her teacher. Here are some pictures of her 1st day.

Super cute Mayli
Mayli with her Tinkerbell backpack

Here she is with her backpack...it has a little tinkerbell tutu that is on the front.

Here is Mayli walking up to her pre-school

Mayli sitting down at her desk getting ready to play with some playdough. She's had lots of fun at school so far. She is getting so big! We love you May!

First Day of 1st Grade

Katelyn had her 1st day of school today. And I have to wonder...where did the summer go? She was so excited. Last night she could barely fall asleep because she was so excited to go to school. It is her first time being at school all day long. She is super excited to eat lunch at school. She took her own lunch today and helped me pack it this morning. She picked out what outfit she wanted to wear and wanted her hair just to be straight.
We are all going to miss having her home all day. Mayli isn't quite sure what to do with out her best friend here to play with. Katelyn got a blessing from daddy and if a mom ever needs piece of mind that will give it to her. She was promised many things I was so worried about...now I don't need to worry...because she's been blessed and all will be well. She'll understand the work, learn quickly, make friends, choose the right, and will enjoy her time at school. Her teacher is Mrs. Hollingshead (pronounced Hollings-head). I was nervous about her teacher but when we met her I knew who she was and was so happy. She is a super nice lady and I know Katelyn will love her. She lives right behind us and we'll see her at church all the time because their ward is right after ours. :) Here are pictures of her 1st day!

So cute and growing up so big!
Got the backpack on and ready to go

Mayli had to take a picture with her sister

All the girls walking into the school.

Katelyn in front of her new school. Mountain Trials Elementary. The school was just built this year and is great! We really like it a lot. They did a great job with it! Gonna miss my baby but I know she'll learn so much and do just great! Love ya Kate-bug!