Week from H. E. double toothpicks



 THE FLU...THATS ALL I HAVE TO SAY. 
SOMEONE PLEASE KICK ME IF I EVER THINK OF NOT GETTING MY KIDS A FLU SHOT AGAIN!
I kept putting it off and then forgot and somehow in the funny part in the back of my mind I thought... 'people don't get as sick here like they do up north..because it's mild weather and your not cooped up in your house or buildings all winter spreading germs, so they probably don't need a flu shot!' 
 HA!

It hit us on Wednesday. And it went in this order...

1. Ruby- woke up in the night on Wednesday with stomach cramps.  She threw up twice but was up several times crying with her pains.  The next day -Thursday- she didn't leave her bed ONCE, not once.  She was in a terrible state.  A fever and cramps and aching body and kept saying her chest hurt.  So I was her nurse-maid: in and out of her room all day.
She was miserable, poor baby girl.

2.  Liam started coughing in the night on Thursday.  Nothing much, but Friday he started coughing more and more he couldn't take a nap because he was coughing so much..  Saturday he was coughing NON stop.  I mean literally nonstop.  It is the worst I have ever seen or had in my kids.  And it was a deep barking cough (not the croupe kind-but still a bark) it took everything he had each time he had a coughing fit.  I'm sure he had a sore, raw throat from all the coughing. And if I had a headache I'm sure his was pounding.  I almost wanted to shake him several times and say STOP COUGHING!!!!  It was so unnerving for two days straight.  It has been the most frustrating couple of days in my parenting career.  Especially at night when his coughing kept us all awake.  The worst part was...nothing helped, no doTerra, no cough syrup, no steaming shower, no humidifier, no cough drops, nothing. 
Poor baby boy.

3.  Charlie- got the bug too but it manifested itself not so much in throwing up, which her never did thank goodness- but diarrhea!  He had terrible diarrhea all day on Saturday.  Just straight squirts and it made his behind so irritated and raw.  The most foul smell.  I even called Marty home early from the Preisthood Leadership Meeting he was at on Saturday afternoon because I went to change yet another diaper and it was like 2 full cups of liquid-too much to even soak into the diaper!!  Never seen that before, it scared me.  I had to hold him over the toilet to even take the diaper off and it all came splashing down into the bowl.  When I looked in to see if his insides came out with it, I noticed two weird looking things in all that liquid...I thought it was a parasite or something.  Come to find out it was an undigested gutted out grape:)  So good thing Marty came home to help me figure that out.
  Poor baby, baby boy.

In the end- the kids had different symptoms to begin...but they ALL developed a fever, the squirts and that dang cough!
Noone coughed like Liam did though.  I wonder what made his so bad and consistent...endless.

Now between me and Marty- he got the chest cold/cough part and I got the stomach bug.  Like I said...
 THE WORST WEEK EVER. 



LOVE in the shape of a HEART

Many things and people to love...here are just a few..in honor of Valentines .
I LOVE sunrises. and sunsets for that matter. 
Here is one I experienced one morning right outside my patio.
Everything was glowing reds and pinks...so picturesque!

{I certainly love these two HOMMIES}

I love that my little man is SO SO SO into cars and trucks and 'doctors' (helicopters)
...Marty is such a proud daddy!

Liam and Ruby...LOVE spaghetti! They prefer to eat it every night. 
Charlie is picky, picky about food but he still took some bites this night..which was a miracle!  {anyone with picky eaters go HERE}



Marty and I love to have friends ;)  Especially the kind that like to eat.  Roasting marshmallows in a cafe?  oh yeah.



We love to CHOOSE THE RIGHT}  right kids??

Of course and almost most importantly Marty and I love each other...even when we can't pull off a 'hollywood kiss' for the camera!  ha! 
{we went hiking to Dixie Rock-alone (thanks Ricki) on Vday morning with a cup of hot chocolate and looked over St. George and relished the peace and quiet and warmth of the sun and cocoa and view of the valley.  Such a perfect way to start the day, thanks babe}

How can we not...even with ALL the meltdowns and screaming and fighting for our attention EVERYDAY-love these 3.  They are our life.



I love to have a dear friend that lives close, that knew me when I had brown curly hair and 'teenage chub' and more freckles than I do now:)  Her kiddos and my kiddos have a grand time together.



These Cliffords.  They rock.  And we LOVE to eat what they cook-up. 
 Always divine.

We love how angry birds can bond and pull our kids together like THAT. SNAP.
Forget FHE..ha!  kidding.

This is your heart...how much can you possibly hold in there? 
I've found that it can be a whole lot more than I thought. 

alot of the same...but OH so different...




We had some more fun visitors during these last two weeks:)
 We do a lot of the same thing it seems when people come see us
but each experience is still unique and extraordinary.
 First off- my parents came for 3 nights. The kids are in high-heaven
 when grandparents come to stay...spoiled little brats...
We went to a 3-D movie (beauty and her beast)
 and out to eat at Teeexxxassss Roadhouse. Oh yeah.
 Can't beat their rolls with their special butter...

 


Even Charlie downed 3 or 4...

 

I say they are spoiled but we were too.! 
The kids got so much attention which allowed us to slack off...










There were lots of story reading moments.
And of course we had to do Dixie Rock with them!

So precious.  These two remind me alot of each other. I think Charlies' gonna grow up to look like my Dad.  Totally different personalities-except for their stubbornness- but same stature:)

Haven't done this since my dating years in High School!  It was a beautiful day at the park and someone left their ice blocks in the grass so we took it for a slide!

Bye 'bump-pa'!  We love you and will miss you and love it when you come to stay with us!!

Next it was the Californians(Marty's mom and sister)!  They stayed with us just 2 days later for 5 nights!  We loved it!!  They brought a load of goods with them from LJB Farm in Gilroy-which is owned by Marty's bro-in-law.  It was probably 50+ dollars worth (well lets see, the olive oil was 20 so maybe more than that) of dried fruit, nuts and jams! THANKS RUSS for sending it!  SOOO yummy and authentic...

More and more and more story time...I swear Kim had the most patience with these guys!  All 3 of my kids just bugged her to death nonstop and she just rolled with it. I would have been swatting them away:)  She is such a great auntie!  They love her!

But I need to add the 'Gramma DI-ane' has loads of patience too! She always lets them bake with her.  Such a hard and messy task when shared with kiddos.  Here she is guarding Charles Henry from eating a pound of M&M's...

One day we got 'a little' kid free time and toured the Brigham Young House and meandered around in some antique shops and art galleries. p.s. we ate really good while they were here...homemade lasagna with french bread and balsamic/oil/garlic dip, maple glazed pork chops with sweet potato and spinach salad, hamburgers with sweet potato fries and broccoli, blackberry shakes, brownies, buttermilk pancakes, oh, and we ate at Kneaders one day too...yes we gained a little weight:)



We took them to Zion's of course....COLDer than I expected!  There was snow in some parts and definitely hoody, gloves, hat, weather... but still majestic.





Weeping Rock (hike).  Bad Picture.  Need awesome camera.



Lots of whispering and yawning...ya think family wore us out?!  noooo....

Lots of flexing.

Lots of worm-looking rocks and then ice cream on a cold day in Zions.  The ice cream was actually in Springdale: a quaint, cute, dead-in the winter-but crazy in peak season- type of town just before Zion Park. 
 What a great day and a fabulous week and a half we had. 
Our house feels empty now...and maybe just a titch cleaner:)  We miss you ALL. 
Thanks for sharing your love with us. 

Car Show and Visitors:)

 Jami and her Momma and kids came to town. 
 They hung out with us a bit while they were here!  We loved it...

Of course we took them to our favorite hiking spot- Dixie Rock!

And ate at Tikki, Island Grill, so yummy!

And 'Krave'-build your own yogurt cup of lovin yum....

On Saturday, we went to a car show in Mesquite....

So fun watching Marty with the kids...this is HIS thing, he LOVES cars
And I think Charlie will be just like him.  That boy is obsessed.



We got to watch several cars drive by and rev up their engines...it was quite LOUD
 ..but fun to see them in action. (what's with the bink? he only usually has it at bed...it won't drag on till he's 5, I promise!)





I wanted to take this old trailer out for a test trip! ha!

Today for Martin Luther day, we took the kids hiking on Chuckwalla trailhead...I love that it was sunny and mild today.  It felt great to get some fresh air...

Blue skies, red dirt.  Love it.  Love these Kiddos.
Then we went to Menchies for frozen yogurt...I could live on that stuff, and the kids get extatic to build their own sick concoctions: like-chocolate and peach yogurt with sour gummy worms, sprinkles, marshmellows, captain crunch and all other sorts of weird toppings!

Christmas and Beyond...

We went to an ugly sweater party with my extended
 family the weekend before Christmas.  We drove
up north for the weekend...

And man, were we ugly.  I wish you could see Marty's shirt I made!  Dang.  It was hilarious.  Liam almost one the grand prize!  ha!  I think it's because everyone was impressed he kept a cup pinned to his shirt all day.



The kids starred in a nativity at our 'other' extended family party that same weekend.



On "OUR" Christmas Eve (which we had a day early-and I am so glad we did)...we went to a nativity with the Chambers at Tuachan and out for Pizza.

It was a 15 min. performance with live animals- and 3 real camels- and the reading of the Christmas story from the Bible.   Then the kids got to see Santa. 
 Oh, Santa... you look so overwhelmed:)

Santa's letter (hand-crafted by Ruby) and food- we almost forgot to do it!
I heard some good ideas this year from friends that I might adopt...
 3 gifts per kids because that is what Jesus recieved.
Getting ONE gift from Santa-(whatever they tell him on his lap) and the rest is from mom and dad.
All toys from Santa, all clothes and things that might need to be returned or exchanged from parents.

Christmas Jammies!

Their' big' gifts this year...Charlie a 'flinstone' car, Ruby a guitar and Liam a scooter.

We went hiking on 'our' Christmas Day after naps and eating and eating and laying around.  It was actually Christmas EVE for everyone else...kinda weird.







 

It was a gorgeous day.

We had church at 9 on Christmas day. We saved a little present for the kids for that morning and Ruby and Liam exchanged gifts which they were SO excited for. We'd gone out shopping the night before and split up Liam with dad and Ruby with me. They bought it with their own money and all. I was so happy not to have to do Santa presents on Sunday, especially because we left about an hour and a half after we got home from church to drive up north for Christmas dinner at my parents with all my family.








Up at Grandmas. Ruby and Liam singing the 12 days of Christmas to everyone for the talent show. They have both memorized the whole song without any push from me...so funny.

My mom and dad tried to 'scale it down' with the gifts for the grandchildren...but only giving 3 presents each still felt like a madhouse!!! With 24 kids in tow!!  One of their gifts were these hats...and of course my mom had all shapes and sizes of extras upstairs for exchanges...I swear Target hated her when she walked in to return all the ones that weren't taken!! 

Charlie's birthday was the next day.  I am still trying to convince Marty to let me change his birthday to January 26th...it's just too much to celebrate the day after Christmas.  And this proves it...he didn't want me to make a cake cuz we'd had to much 'crap' to eat over the holidays and also didn't want me spend the time on it....HA! Like I'm not going to make my son a birthday cake for his 2nd year birthday!

{SO excited}

Charlie got to celebrate his birthday with cousins at my mom's house and then again that night with cousins at Ryan and Becca's (Marty's bro) and with Grandpa Lee and Merry.  What a spoiled kid.  He is a riot at 2.  Although he isn't as ornery as he was months ago...he is still REALLY, REALLY loud and still screams often.  Now he is usually such sweetie and and his screaming moments are less frequent.  His temperament is way different.  He is singing little songs most the time, giggles alot and pulls all kinds of faces!  And and is learning so much...counting to 5, singing jingle bells, saying everyones names.  He is obsessed with trucks, trains and cars-just like a true boy.

We celebrated New Years Eve day with my family up north with a big breakfast at mom's (waffles, pancakes, ham, eggs, egg and potato casserole, fruit, 3 types of milks and 4 types of juices).  Then we went to the church building-yes our family is that big now- to play games and so the men could play basketball. 
This is all the grandchildren-minus Brystun and Brigham- at the church.



Then we sped home to St. George and celebrated that night with the Chambers...Karlin with her sidekick and hip bruiser-Charles Henry.



Yep kids...whistle in the new year....here we go...it will be better and brighter, ya?