I need this child in a bubble

Poor little Jaynee. Seriously, she needs to be wrapped in bubble tape or something cushy. She fell tonight trying to turn off her lamp, and hit her face on the corner of her dresser. This little girl just has the worst luck! She is our first to break a bone, and now the first to have stitches. I really don't want to know what is next!
We quickly made the decision to run over to our friend's house who is conveniently a surgical P.A. It is moments like this where I really really miss my dad. However, I am so grateful to our friend who generously opened his door to us, placed Jaynee on his kitchen counter (just like dad) and went to work. She needed two little stitches, but two stitches for a three year old who is still in recovery for her tonsilectomy is a big deal!The hands you see holding her down are not mine! I just couldn't do it! It is Catherine, Scott's wife and his "assistant".
Poor little thing had a hard time even crying because her throat is still so raw from her surgery-in fact, today is the first day she wasn't mute and trying to play charades all day.
Our wonderful friend, neighbor and P.A. Thank you Scoot and Catherine for being so wonderful and willing to help us!
This is a picture just before she nodded off to sleep-luckily still on some children's Lortab from her surgery. Poor thing!

Tonsils and Adenoids...take two?

Here we go again. This time, for Jaynee. I took her to the ENT yesterday, and we were in the operating room this morning. When he finished, he said "those tonsils and adenoids were HUGE." I figure if the ENT says they are huge and he sees them everyday, they must have been really good sized. Poor little thing was always snoring and always complaining that her "mouf" hurt. Apparently for good reasons. I just went up and checked on her in her bed, and the room was so quiet-it almost made me cry to not here my little snoring duck! Cam just went and checked on her too and says "can we go back to last night when we used to hear her snoring?" Change in so hard-even with something as no big deal as this! But that was just always a little trademark of Jayne-her snore!
She was such a good sport-SOOOOO GOOOOD! All the nurses kept coming in saying "oh, I've heard about you-you were our star patient today." Well, so far so good-but I have been through this before and know that the hardest days are usually those to come. I'll take you on our little journey today with a recap of some cute pictures. Her pre-op nurse getting her weight-a whopping 25 pounds!
She was really excited about her nightgown that they gave her-it had bugs bunny and taz on it. I don't think she even knew who they were-it was just cool to where the new nightgown.
Notice the lion in her hands. They gave this to her at the very beginning and it says on his shirt "No LION, I had surgery today." She had to have him with her all day today. Her finger was so small they couldn't get a good reading of oxygen-they tried 3 different times-her finger, her thumb and her toe-not one gave a good reading. The nurse just decided to go off her little happy attitude and decided she had enough oxygen for as happy as she was.
My favorite part of the outfit was the slippers-about 10 sizes too big and twisted-she thought they were so cool.In the pre-op waiting area, they had a little toy room. This was perfect to calm her nerves-wait...what nerves? Where was my toy room? I could have at least used a good tranquilizer or something!
This is my favorite picture-it was so funny! Everywhere she walked, it was just like the T.V. commercials, with the bum hanging out; except this one was little, cute and covered in Tinkerbell underwear.
She started to get a bit nervous when I told her that the nice nurse with the same name as her's was going to take her back to her "office" and let her see where she works all day. This is about where I thought I would loose it. When Emmie had her's out, they gave her a sedative so that she didn't care that someone came and took her to the O.R., and I was really worried she might cry and not want to go.
This was the nurse, with the same name as Jaynee and she brought this warm blanket with her, snuggled her all up and Jaynee just went right with her. I said " I love you" and the nurse told her to say I love you more, and as she walked off, she said "love you more! Bye!" AHHH, the tears started falling! It is silly that this is so hard, but I knew what she was about to go through, and the poor little thing had no idea.
And here we are right after in the recover room. They let Cam and I go back before she was completely awake, and they put her right in my arms. I laid down in a recliner while she took about and hour and a half to fully wake up, drink some apple juice so they could remove her little IV, and then let us go home. She sounded so little-when she would breathe, she would make little tiny whimpering noises. Then she would cough and it sounded like a little barking seal.
Sometimes you can't believe how little their hands are; and how little all the instruments must be in the O. R. to make this possible-look at the tiny I.V.
And here we are on our way home. She was such a good little sport! I am so happy this part of the ordeal is over, now on to her rapid recovery!

Happy Birthday Mom

I have an amazing mom, and wanted to write a post about her. Today was her birthday (Sept. 9) and I want to tell her how wonderful she is to me. What a year this has been for her! I know she misses dad every minute of every day; in fact, she is so open with her feelings, that it has enabled us to tell her how we are feeling; we can cry together and even laugh together about the wonderful memories of dad. I am so grateful for the example of her for moving forward, and for continuing to be a stready influence of love and support to me and especially to my kids. I believe my dad's memory will live on through her because of how united they still are to this day. I thank Heavenly Father each night for my wonderful parents, who taught me all they did; and they did it together. I feel very strongly that my mom has such a purpose in my life and in the lives of my children and I am so happy that we live close to her, and that they can grow up having a relationship as strong as they do with her. Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

Soccer and first missing tooth-Sept. 9

No, the two really don't have anything to do with each other, I just thought it would make a good title to this simple post. Emmie is so proud to announce that she has finally lost her first tooth! She has been waiting ever since she was 4-maybe 3, I don't remember, I just know she has been wanting to be "big" and loose a tooth for a really long time. The crazy thing is, that we thought tooth fairy didn't come! Emmie woke up in the morning, checked under her pillow, and was so disappointed that the tooth fairy didn't come, that she was sobbing in her bed when we woke up. I heard the sobs and told her to wait just a minute. I dashed downstairs where I quickly said "hmmm, I wonder if the tooth fairy left some money under the pillow on the couch in the living room by my purse?" To her utter amazement, I came upstairs with the dollar in my hand! We decided the tooth fairy must have been afraid of Daisy who was sleeping on her bed???!!! Silly tooth fairy!
She has gotten a lot better this year, and isn't afraid to throw a few elbows-something Coach Houle taught me when starting out in a race-"sharpen your elbows Wendy", was one of his famous lines. No I didn't teach her to throw elbows, she's just realizing that it works!
She's also gotten more agressive in chasing after the ball, rather than dancing around the field like last year. Go get 'em Emmie!

Cam playing in the makeup

Well, its bound to happen when you have three girls! Okay, actually Cam was taking a nap, and Jaynee decided it was time that dad tried out the makeup thing. She dolled him up with everything from eye shadow, to blush and lipstick! Sorry Cam, but I had to take it. Don't worry, only a man "manly" enough would let his little three year old put makeup on him-or maybe sleepy enough.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Sorry Erin, but I had to name my "first day of school" the same thing as you, because I actually found myself singing this song! Don't get me wrong, I love my girls, but sometimes a mom just needs a few hours to herself-or at least without all of them at once. They were pretty excited to go, and are enjoying it so far. I am finding myself really enjoying my time with Jaynee before the baby gets here; she is so easily entertained, and really keeps me laughing most of the day.

Family trip to Arizona

This is just a cute picture Cam snapped of Jaynee on the bridge at Lake Powell. We took the trip to Arizona to make it Stephanie and Simon's wedding, Bob and LaRee's farewell, and to just make the trip to Arizona so that my kids could see it, and to go to Mount Graham. I always wanted to go with Mom and Dad, and unfortunatly we had talked about going this summer for quite a while, and we were just a bit late to have dad with us; I am so happy grandma could take the trip with us and make it a great memory for my girls.
This picture was taken on our second day of traveling, at the Lake Powell dam. We hung out at the bridge that morning and let the girls explore. I can remember my parents letting us do the same thing, and I enjoyed my girls making some of the same memories.
This is about 5 hours into our second day of traveling; and this is where we decided Jaynee was going to ride the rest of the way!
We made it to Safford that night about 8:00. This was taken the next day after Bob and LaRee's farewell, outside of their house. This is LaRee's golf cart that she cruises around her little neighborhood in. Notice where Jaynee is sitting-she is in the little basket on the back.
The next day we went to Mt. Graham. The memories I have here are priceless. Dad's family has cabins on the mountain, and we would have a family reunion here about every other year when I was growing up. I have always wanted to take my family here and let them experience some of my same favorite childhood memories. This is one of my very favorite-making mud pies, and just "cooking" in the little kitchen that would always be set up.
This swing was amazing! It was put between these two huge tress, so high, and it would swing out over a little drop off. You could go so high because of how long the ropes were. The girls spent so much time here, especially Kaylee Jo.
There was also a big zip line, next to the swing, and Kaylee of course loved this too. She is always up for an adventure. This was also one of my favorite memories, and I had fun watching Kaylee.
Most of Jaynee's time was spent either making mud pies, or "cooking dinner" for someone in the little kitchen. This was her very favorite part-we are talking HOURS and HOURS that she spent right there.
We took a hike and tried to find Bear Caves-not sure why it is called that-not really sure if bears go there, but as a child it was always one of the hikes we would take. However, we never found it! Where is dad when I need him? He always was the leader on our hikes-and I think he only got us lost one time. We were like the children of Israel following Moses in the wilderness- dad leading us with his big old walking stick! But, even though we didn't find it, the kids had a good time getting dirty and being able to use their cool walking sticks.
Kaylee sporting her cool "Hanah Montana" sunglasses on the hike.
We took a crazy turn and ended up going up a really really steep hill, so when we came down, Jaynee just sat down and slid.
While taking a little pause on the hike to take a pic, I noticed something about 150 yards away, with 4 legs and tail!!! I about died right there from being so scared. We still don't know what it was, but Cam looked and looked and finally found it too, but it was so obscured by trees that we just couldn't get a good look at it. I think Kaylee just about lost her lunch she was so scared. Good thing we had our walking sticks! I kept telling my girls we were safe cause we had our "clubs" to help fight with...this was more for my sanity the rest of the hike.
Farrell and little Isaac on the swing.
Emmie finally got brave enough the day before we left to go on the swing and to let Cam push her high.
Go Grandma!! Mom got on the swing and went really high! The little girls were so proud of their grandma!
This picture may not show it, but Cameron and Farrell got me SO high on the swing-careful, pregnant women don't have too good of bladder control-especially when I get nervous or laugh really hard-and I was doing both.
Jaynee was not about to get on this swing alone, so cam had to take her-she loved it as long as she had her dad there to protect her!
Of course Aunt LaRee got on the swing! She is always up for anything fun, and my girls are sure missing her!
Little Isaac learned to go all by himself. He loved this!
Jaynee finally decided she could do it all alone, and she lasted about 10 seconds, and went about 2 feet in each direction. After this time, she decided she would never do it alone again and made Cam or I go with her everytime; little chicken!


She looked like this most of the time-just SO dirty. I didn't bother to wash her off until evening cause she would just go right back to making mud pies as soon as she was clean. So fun for her!
And of course this just topped off the filthiness-a chocolate donut. Actually, not much of the donut was eaten, just the top with the frosting.
Once we came down from the mountains, we went to Mesa for Stephanie and Simon's Wedding. This is right before we said good bye to Jody's cute girls. My girls had so much fun with them, and continue to talk about them as if they are best friends.
Grandma and the girls on the long ride home. I don't know if we would have made it without grandma in the back to keep them all busy with silly games, books, games, games, games...it was a pretty long drive. Here she is drawing on the white board-she literally drew this picture for 45 minutes, and the girls we entertained the entire time.
Here is the fisished product of the 45 minute art project. Look at my big belly! And look at the dog-we laughed and laughed about the "pig dog". Thanks mom for going with us-it was such a better trip to have you with us.

Sleeping Beauty

This is how I found Jaynee the other night. Notice, she still has her Wall-e pillow! But the older she gets, the more girly she gets, with her necklaces, bracelets, make-up and of course we all need a Tinkerbell Umbrella when we sleep!