Chicken-pox or Shingles?

Alexis' calf and one hand were terribly swollen on Thursday afternoon and we weren't sure why. After talking to Dr. Eric and MaryAnne, it was decided that she was probably stung by a hornet or something. We put some mud on it overnight and checked on it in the morning. The tightness had subsided and she agreed to not scratch it anymore. Little kids don't actually stop scratching anything, but she did really well. Saturday we noticed that it was oozing some clear liquid, but we didn't think much of it.
Today we noticed that she had little white dots all around it and on the other calf.
Drew has been fevering for the last two days and tonight he started getting these little dots on his face and arms.
Needless to say, we think that they have chicken pox. They were both immunized and we didn't know of anyone getting chicken pox, so this was the last idea we had. Mom actually came up with diagnosis first and MaryAnne confirmed that she thought that it was that as well.
Alexis might actually have shingles, she says it hurts really badly, and she won't walk on that leg without tip-toeing.
I'm going to have to take her in tomorrow to get a confirmation on the diagnosis that we've come up with, but consider this your warning if we've been around you in the last week.
Sorry.

Bad mothering

I've decided that I'm a bad mom, just for today.

Madison crawled up the stairs, by herself, without supervision, until Alexis realized she was climbing and watched her finish her ascent, to come and see me.
I was too busy doing "computer stuff" to care if she walked over to me or over to her high chair where her breakfast is still waiting to be finished.

After a few minutes I noticed that she was very quiet and I could not visually see her.
I had to get out of my chair to find her.
I followed the trail of tissues that she'd pulled out of the box and flung everywhere.
I found her in the bathroom playing in the toilet water. Both sleeves are very wet.

You know what I thought?
Good thing Drew flushed this time.

On an up note, she has a clean diaper and her nose has been wiped numerous times.
Maybe I'm just a mediocre mom today.

Learning early

Yesterday, I had a headache from Hades, horrid allergies and
some pretty good cramping.
It could have been worse I'm sure, but I'll need some time to think about how it could've gotten much worse.

I didn't realize that the kids had noticed that I didn't feel so great, so I was surprised when last night we were giving hugs and kisses goodnight and Alexis suddenly stopped and looked at me.
She told me: "I don't want to catch what you have, so I'll just blow you a kiss."

All those times that someone's been sick and I've told her not to touch them or vice versa because we don't want to spread germs must have really stuck.
Next lesson: what is and isn't contagious.

Busy, busy bees

This post is rather long, I didn't post last weekend and now I have to do two weeks at once!

John was teaching the kids how to go down the slip-n-slide the "correct" way.
They refuse to do it that way, but John sure seemed to have a lot of fun!

Drew was invited to the NICU reunion again this year, and seeing that it's free food, games and treats, we went. The kids loved it.

Alexis caught a lady bug and all the kids loved looking at it walking around. Luckily the lady bug decided to fly away home before either one of them could kill it.

John kept clicking away while I was watching this lady. She had three little boys, all dressed the same, and she was carrying her baby girl who was wearing a turquoise dress and huge head flower. The look is because the mom was also wearing a turquoise dress that matched the babies exactly and she had perfect make-up on and her hair was glued in place. I'm sure she's the nicest person, but it was so funny to see her matching her baby. John could tell I was trying to hold back the laughter for fear of being rude, so he took a picture of me right as I turned to look at him. This was my expression.

Drew and Alexis decided to go play in the rain. When I went out to see why they were so content, this is what I found:

They used their sidewalk chalks to color on the ground where it was wet, and then they took their little hands and rubbed them all around until they were good and pink. Next came the decorating of the fence. Luckily, it washes off easily!

While the kids were busy "painting" my fence, Madison was having fun playing in the water that had collected at the end of the slide.

Drew decided that the other fence needed to be updated with color as well.

Alexis' friends can ride bikes without training wheels. So, I thought we should let her try such things. John was such a good sport about taking the training wheels off and holding her up even though he didn't think that she would want to do it, because she's afraid of going too fast when going down the driveway, or off the sidewalk where it slopes down. (She walks her bike down both, but we're working on it.)

She tried it, but this is the only point at which she is smiling. If the bike started to tip to either side even slightly, she would stick both of her legs out to try and balance herself. Needless to say, the training wheels went back on about two minutes after they were taken off.

Since Alexis was trying something new, Drew tried something new. He did well at peddling the bike, but he was concentrating so much on the peddling that he wouldn't look up to see where he was going and would end up stuck in my flowers or the grass.


Alexis' preschool teachers little girl had another benefit thrown for her, this one at her elementary school. They had hot dogs, cotton candy, games and a raffle. It was really fun and they had a pretty good turn out.

Madison's hair has finally gotten long enough for two little itty bitty tiny pig tails. There wasn't much hair to work with, but it still looked adorable.
Madison is also officially a walker. She prefers to try and walk wherever she is going and she is doing very well at it. She took her first steps just a couple of days before she turned 11 months, so she and Drew ended up walking at about the same time.

This week has been a very busy and exhausting week. Wednesday night we had Stephanie's bridal shower. Thursday we dipped 600+ strawberries for her reception, and Friday was her wedding, luncheon and reception. We also received a call Friday about 1 pm from our real estate agent who wanted to know if we could have the house ready to show at 6 pm. (Yes, we put the house on the market, and yes, it was looking great when they came at six.) Saturday was Cheryl's baby shower. Needless to say we are so excited that this week is over. We only took one picture of Stephanie's wedding with our camera, because the batteries died, so until we get more pictures, this will have to suffice.

Graduation & Birthday

On Friday John and I took the kids up Hobble Creek Canyon for a little drive. They didn't like getting dirty, maybe we should take them out more often!

They loved seeing the river.

When we stopped to strap the kids into their seats, this was the view out my window. I commented that it would be nearly impossible to climb. John decided to prove me wrong.
He climbed up, up, up and then as the kids said,
he skated back down.
He did admit that it was a work out!

Alexis' school program was so cute. She made me wait all year to hear any of her songs. She kept telling me that she couldn't sing for me, I had to wait for her program. Little tease. All the kids came in and sang songs and had little costumes and looked so adorable. Alexis had no desire to sing at all, she stood there and made her shy face the entire time. Before the last song, John went over and told her that if she would sing we would make some chocolate molten cake. Guess what . . . she sang. Go figure.

A picture with all her classmates and teacher. The boy in orange was so cute, after each song we would clap and he would say: "Thank you". What a polite little guy.

Guess what . . . it was my birthday! Can you tell I was wigging out?

Actually, Alexis took this picture of me and was annoyed that it turned out blurry. So, she proceeded to take pictures of my backside trying to
get a "good one".

Got to love kids.

John bought this cheesecake with strawberries for my birthday.
The kids LOVED it (notice the hand outreached), especially MJ. Can you tell . .

Lets not lie, I look hideous, but that's what happens at the end of the day.

Alexis asked how old I was, when I told her she just looked at me blankly for a few seconds and then said: "Hey, there weren't that many candles on your cake!"
Drew loved the strawberries on top so much that when I gave him his piece of cake, he put his fork in it and then looked at me and said: "I forked the strawberry so nobody could steal it!" Had I known all you had to do was fork something to claim it as yours, I would have a lot more forks in the house.

Cutest video ever. She LOVED the cheesecake so much that she tried to get every last piece.

MJ has her first tooth and the second one is popping through partially!! She also took six steps today!! She's going to be our little walker before we know it.
As a side note, she does not like John. I don't know what it is, but she only wants me. The other two kids loved John and as soon as he walked through the door they were all over him. If I hand MJ to him, she will start crying and throwing a fit. Honestly, it's driving me nuts, moms need breaks too, especially when the baby weighs as much as she does. She's so cute though, so we'll keep her and I'll hope she outgrows this stage soon. I think John secretly likes it!!

Happy Birthday Tiffani

Soiree

Alexis' pre-school teacher's little girl (follow that) has been really sick since Thanksgiving. Now she needs a life-saving surgery that they have to fly to Maryland to be evaluated for and then she'll probably have the surgery in Italy or Germany. Needless to say, the bills are adding up. Today they had a fund-raiser soiree (fancy name for party). We went to Primrose, where we had afternoon tea (some good finger foods, treats and pink chocolate milk), manicures, were able to walk down the cat-walk, make crowns and they had some royalty there with the paparazzi!!

It was great fun and all the little girls loved it.

Alexis decided to wear her black princess dress, so MJ wore hers too. I was dressed in a gray skirt with a white shirt, I thought I looked good. Alexis informed me that it was not okay to wear a skirt to a princess party. So, she went and picked out a new dress for me and some shoes. I obliged, and was one of the more dressed-up moms. Alexis loved that she was able to pick out my outfit, which made it all worth it. Alexis also enjoyed having her make-up put on. She has mascara and rouge on, she's soooo excited.



While the girls were having their "girl-day" the boys went to cousin Ethan's baptism. John said that it was lots of fun and that everyone else in the family was there. Because I had the camera, he didn't get any pictures, so use your imagination and I'm sure you can picture Ethan looking so handsome all in white.
After the baptism and lunch, John took Drew to the mall to ride the ecsalator. Yes, it's spelled wrong, that's how he says it, it sounds like x calator. Drew was so excited for boys-day because he wanted to go to the mall with daddy and ride it: "again and again and again, lots of times." He was happy riding it up and down and up and down, over and over again.

She loved this pink princess chair!

Alexis walking down the cat-walk. She loved doing it, but was self-concious about it.

Madison is waving to the reporter sitting next to them.

Madison was getting jiggy with it. She loved to get up on the cat-walk and dance with all the other girls!

Alexis and Miss Spanish Fork. Alexis thought that she was a princess.

Madison was all about being right in the mix of things. The little girl in green was playing with her and they were having so much fun dancing together.

You can see the big screen on the wall at the end of the cat-walk. There was a video camera hooked up so the girls could watch themselves as they walked/danced down.

Alexis didn't want to get up and dance with her friends, she just wanted to watch them. Madison however didn't care if she was on the stage or not, she was dancing her little heart out.