Fall Mikey!

My friend Jenni took some cute photos of Mikey to advertise her fall porch studio and they are adorable. See for yourself how cute my baby is!

What a week full of Illness!

This week has been full of sickness for our family. On Sunday night I had some strange stomach pains that made it hard to breathe and when I did breathe deeply, I had shooting pain into my shoulder. Combined with my neck, mid back and lower back pain, not to mention my right shoulder aching some, I finally went to the doctor. He did an X-ray and my back is fine, probably just stress of holding a baby and care seat so much. (I can't wait until he can sit up and move around some!)

The doctor gave me an anti-inflammatory and it is great and I feel a lot better! I have had back pain for 2 months now and it was really starting to get to me. We even bought a new bed, didn't love it and exchanged it for a much more expensive bed and still no relief. However, I think I am going to like it once this back pain is under control.

Then on Monday night Justin started feeling feverish and ended up being sick until Thursday. On Tuesday morning Timmy had a low fever and stayed home from school and just lay around all day. When Allie woke up from her nap on Tuesday afternoon she cried and cried and I knew she wasn't feeling well so I checked and she had a low fever too as well as a cough and cold. On Wed luckily both kids were feeling better but Justin was really bad so he stayed home from work and stayed wrapped up in blankets all day.

I ended up getting a massage on Wed at noon and that was great! I really need to get this back pain under control so this was another step. Then on Wednesday afternoon Mikey got a fever and started screaming inconsolably for long periods of time. Once we got meds in him he calmed down and I unfortunately started feeling body aches and yucky sore throat too. The baby's fever got up to 103.8 and was so hot and not breathing well that I took him to the doc at 10 PM Wed night. He was okay with his breathing although when he really screamed it dropped some. Since it was so early in his illness they couldn't say for sure what was wrong but if his fever lasted 5 days, come back.

On Thursday I went to the chiropractor for an adjustment and it was my chiropractor's brother and I like his treatments better but if I switch, they are in the same office and it could be awkward since I have been going to my chiro for 5 years now! Also on Thursday I had a feeling I had strep throat so I went to the doctor again and he gave me antibiotics since he believed I had it too even though the immediate strep test came back negative. I told him it was mild though since I hardly had any fever and didn't feel all that sick but he said the anti-inflammatory was probably taking away most of my symptoms like pain, swelling of tonsils and fever. So, I was pretty lucky! When I got home Justin realized his throat was crappy too and figures he probably has/had strep too so we are waiting on the doctor to see if he will just subscribe meds over the phone or make him go in today instead.

Sheesh! The baby still is feverish and really cranky when not on meds so all in all, we are improving slowly but I still wonder if Mikey has strep....hmmmm.

Also, my back is getting better slowly but surely. I am determined to have everyone better by Monday since Justin and I leave to NY for 6 days, woo hoo! I iced it a lot yesterday and he said to do some ice and heat today so I am doing everything I can including some stretches given to me by my sis-in-law, a physical therapist :)

The After Pictures

Well, I have finished cleaning. It took me 3 hours and was a pain but it was worth it to have a clean house again :) Here are the after pictures:

Family Room Upstairs

Kitchen

Allie's Room

Basement Family Room

Never Ending Messes

Lately I have been feeling a little overwhelmed at the state of my home. If you know me well, you know that I tend to have a clean, tidy house and I like it that way. I guess having 3 kids and now with one in Kindergarten, I just can't seem to keep up on the daily messes and they are starting to flow into the next day and the next. I definitely need to get my kids in on cleaning more and they do help at least once a day, but it is done better and more quickly if I do it. I am too busy to clean all day long nor do I really want to.

One thing I am going to try and do today is go through some of the clutter and reduce it. I have several things in drawers that get pulled out by the kids that I never use and don't plan to for a long time, so I think they just have to go. Another thing is Allie's room. The girl pulls everything out every day and her room is a disaster most of the time. I think I need to take out most of her toys and put them in the play room downstairs and just keep a few favorites upstairs.

The basement is also turning into a disaster nearly every day. Whether its cousins or friends over to play, things just get turned upside down pretty quickly! I did go through and DI an entire garbage bag full of toys plus two other big toys and that helps a little.

I am eating my lunch as I write this and I've just put the baby down for a nap, I think it's time for operation Clean and Organize my house, even if it just lasts for today.

I went through my house and took some pictures. After I clean, I think I will take some more :)

Allie's Room

Kitchen

Upstairs Family Room

Downstairs Family Room

Anyone, anyone?

Won't someone leave a comment on my blog? I have not had a single comment on my posts since May. Let me feel the love :)

Timmy Starts School!

Timmy started today at Cook Elementary and we are so excited. He woke up and got ready, ate some eggos and then I gave my 2 younger kids to my neighbor and walked Tim to school, 1 mile away. We kept having little races and it was a fun walk with him!

He went in, met his teacher and she gave him a name tag and he went and picked up his name on the wall and put it under the yes column under a sign that said "I'm glad to be at school." Then we found his desk (his spot at a table for 6) and then found his bucket with his name that had his crayons, pencil, and papers with his name on it to trace and then practice writing. He sat down and started coloring and then I left him to enjoy his first day! He doesn't have school the rest of week except for testing on Friday morning and will start going full time next Monday.

I can't believe my baby boy is 5 and going to school, I have been looking forward to this day for a long time :)

Pictures of Mikey

I had some fun taking pictures of Mikey on Wednesday. He is 5 months on Sunday and we fed him his first oatmeal which he really liked for about 5 minutes. My kids begged me to feed him some real food since my neighbor brought over some leftover baby food she was no longer using so I finally gave in and fed him a little. I won't really start full swing until he is 6 months old since the tongue reflex is usually there pretty strong until then. I love my little guy :)

The latest

So, I haven't posted much in the last while. It seems like I get on a roll and post a lot and have a lot to say, and then it slows down and I don't have anything to write for a while. Well, here is what's been going on in the past month.

Mikey does not have a very strong immune system I guess because he keeps getting sick. He got a cold for a week, started to get better and then it hit full force again. He was still sick 3 weeks later so I took him to the doctor and he had an ear infection. After antibiotics (what a pain giving a 3 month old 1 tsp of medicine twice a day) he got much better and at his 4 month checkup he was well. He weighed 15.2 pounds, was 26 inches long and his head was in the 75th percentile. Yesterday my niece Brynn watched my kids and when I came home Mikey was ferverish and has been for over 24 hours now. No other symptoms, but fevers and a little crankiness.

This summer my kids have been around quite a bit with no set preschool and Timmy quit tumbling as well. Because they are around so much, they have been a little crazy and I have lost my temper a few times with them and then felt guilty. Timmy starts school on Aug. 22nd so at least one of them will be busy at least part of the day and without Timmy and Allie to egg each other on, I suspect things will calm down here a bit. Allison is also quite the drama queen and is quite unreasonable, especially when she is tired. Fortunately, time outs work and when I let her out she is usually willing to go along with what I've asked or told her no to. She is quite the handful lately!

On the other hand, I have really tried to say yes to playing with them more regularly and I guess they are getting a little older because I have actually enjoyed playing kitchen, building forts and going on adventures with them. If I can reasonably say yes to my kids' request, I do and join in the fun for at least a little while.

On a fun note, Justin has nearly reached his vacation cap and has been forced to take some time off. He has taken several Fridays off and he has even had some 4 day weekends lately which has been really nice. We go and go until we wear ourselves out and recover over the week but it has been fun. The kids certainly don't go to bed at 8 PM like normal and it is starting to take its toll on each of us but we slow down when we have to.

Some fun things we have done lately are boating with the McMurray's, BBQ's, Welsh Days in Wales, UT where my Mom now lives, we spent the day up at Snowbird with my brother's family and rode the Alpine slide, hiked and swam, Friday outings with Rusty and Liz, hikes, date nights with our friends and spent some fun time with family and friends.

I'm really enjoying the summer, especially since the weather has not been so hot until now, and will continue to have fun until Timmy heads to school and more routines are developed.

Happy Summer everyone!

Fun Day with Cousins :)

My brother and sister-in-law are moving this weekend so I offered to take their two youngest boys for 3 days/2 nights so they can move more easily. Today we did an outing and went to the Ogden Union train station and climbed all over the locomotives, it was AWESOME! Liz joined us and Justin took the day off and joined us also. Then we went to Arctic Circle for lunch and more playing at the playland. Then we came home and built a fort, courtesy of me :) Here are some pictures of our fun day so far!

Allie's imaginary friend

Allie has an imaginary friend and I think it's so cute. She started telling me about a girl named Painy a few months ago, and I just assumed it was a girl from preschool. Then I asked her preschool teacher Sarah about it and she told me the names of the girls in preschool, and not one of them even resembled Painy so we started asking her more questions to figure out who this girl was. We realized she was imaginary once she told us her hair color was pink!

The things I have learned about her is that she is Allie's older sister, is 6 years old, is the same height as her and that her Mom is named Sally and has purple hair. I have also learned that she only goes shopping at night and comes to visit every day, but is usually not here when we ask her about her. I hope some day to have another girl to give Allie a real sister, but until then, Painy will do :)