Emy's Blessing Miracle {and a Birthday}

My sweet little Em was born with a hole in her heart.  It was just something that the doctor monitored each visit and we saw a cardiologist from UT every year for check ups.  Last year the cardiologist found that she also had a narrow heart valve. 
We have always loved how tall Emy was for her age (she is taller than kids her age and taller than most kids that are 1 or 2  years older than her), because we knew it was a good sign that the hole in her heart wasn't getting bigger.  In the back of our minds we knew it was possible that she might have to have heart surgery in her future.
Six weeks ago I took her to her well child check up and her doctor listened to her heart and he said it sounded the same it always had.  To us this was perfectly good news...it wasn't getting any worse, so the same was great...the same meant no surgery.
Last night for FHE we talked about preisthood blessings with the kids and the purpose of them and the miracle that can happen.  Jay gave Emy a blessing in preperation for her appointment today with the cardiologist. 
To our surprise a miracle happened...The hole in her heart is gone and the narrow heart valve is healing on it's own!  It was an awesome doctor appointment.  She will still have to see the cardiologist each year to make sure the heart valve isn't getting worse, but the doctor thinks it will continue to heal on its own. 
I told Bridger when he got home from school today and he was so excited.  He had to run and tell Macie our good news. 

As another side note, Emy turned 4 last month!
This little note is to her

Dear Em,
I am so glad to be your mom.  I love spending each day with you and watching you play.  You can entertain your self for hours with a single toy...it continues to amaze me and dad!  You are such a sweet little girl and always so willing to share.  When ever you are eatting a treat you will break it in  half to share with me or one of your siblings.  It is so cute and it makes me smile every time.  You some times do this with your food at the dinner table too.   After you share you say "there you go, your welcome".  
The other day I watched you cross the street and a car had to stop in the road.  I tried teaching you that you need to stop if you see cars, and you thought really hard and said "or I can just run really fast, okay".  How about this next year we work on crossing the street...okay? 
You are a wonderful little girl and I couldn't imagine not being your mom.  I hope you had a great birthday.  I can't wait to see what this year will bring.
Love,
Mom

Bed Time

We love summer at our house.

Generally at bed time we can be found in the back yard doing things like this

and this

and posing for a cute picture like this

or this

{I love how Emy is looking up at her daddy...so cute!!}

or we can be found helping Daddy screw in some screws on the back steps 

{did you notice his awesome tan lines...nope those aren't socks!}

I love summer nights and I am already getting bummed out that school is going to start this month. 

What are we going to do when we have to start enforcing bed time again?

Macie's Missing Tooth

Macie has had a slightly loose tooth for a few months.  She started complaining that it was hurting really bad and I would look in her mouth to comfort her every time.  Then just last week I noticed her adult tooth was trying to peek through just behind her baby tooth, so off to the dentist we went.  She was so excited to go too...he has a phone there with makeup in it in his toy chest--she was so excited to pick that out this time.   Bridger kept asking me if he could PLEASE tell her what the dentist was going to do and I would nicely and quickly stop him every time.
We got there and the dentist said he could pull it or we could try to get her to wiggle her tooth out (remember it was only barely loose) so we opted to have him pull it.  She wasn't scared one bit and even told me I could leave the room she was in, so I decided to go since I had all the other kids there with me.  Bridger was in the waiting room with Emy and Paisley and I figured that wasn't going to turn out too good if I didn't hurry right back.
She came back out just a few minutes later with gauze in her mouth and a huge smile on her face holding her make up phone.  If only everything was that simple.  Unfortunately Emy cried for the next 45 minutes because in her words she "didn't get nothin' ".  It was awesome!

Macie just before we left for the Dentist

Macie's new smile, missing tooth and all

My sweet little Emy

Last night I was helping Emy get ready for bed, and she was being her silly self.  This was our conversation.

Me:  "You have such a cute personality"

Emy: "Persa-what?"

Me: "Personality"

Emy:  "Oh, who's she?"

Jay and I had a good laugh!  She is the sweetest little girl and so silly.

Sew Fun

One of my good friends brought me over some of her scrap material {super cute scrap material too!} a few weeks ago, and after a trip to the fabric store to buy some more material to add to what she had given me I found a pattern on Etsy and made these darling dresses for my darling little girls.

I love sewing and this was a good napping alternative...I had been wanting (or taking) a nap every day--stinkin' pregnancy-- and this helped keep me awake and give me something to look foward to doing for a couple of days.

I have lots more fabric left...now I just need to find the time away from vinyl to sew!

Right vs. White

This morning Bridger and Macie were arguing over if Paisley could eat a cookie.  Bridger was saying it was too big and Macie was saying it would be just fine to give it to her.  Bridger was standing by me and said that it was too big, and don't give it too her, and then I tapped Bridger and said, "you are right".  So he yelled out to Macie, "Mom said don't give it too her, and I'm white". 

I just giggled, and said, "no, you are right" and he said (as he is touching the skin on his arm) "I am too white"

Funny kids!  They make me smile every day.

The other day while Emy and Macie were taking a bath, I asked them what color their hands were.  They held them out and said brown.  I asked them what color my hands were and they both said peach.  Then I told them to turn their hands over (palm side up) and tell me what color they are.  As they were turning them over they both yelled out brown, and I said nope, look again.  Emy got the cutest look on her face and said, "they are peach just like yours!"  Then I showed them the bottoms of their feet, and that they are like mine too.  Emy has been facinated by this ever since.  I catch her looking at her hands and turning them over and over, with a cute little smile on her face...like she is magic! 

Priceless!

On another good note, as you can tell by the picture, my sweet little Emy is potty trained!!!  Yeah!    She has been for about 5 weeks, it is so nice!   But before too long I will have two in diapers again, I will enjoy it until then though.

And these are my other two loves...

Emy Turns 3 (a few weeks ago)

It has been a crazy few weeks, so I have been late posting these pictures.

Emy turned three the end of September.  For dinner we had a pizza party and we each got to make our own individual pizza.  (the kids thought this was great)

Any time we asked her what she wanted for her birthday present she would always say,
"I was a barbie car so I can go places"
It was so cute, she was super excited to finally get her car...now she can really go places I guess.

Here she is with her barbie.  Later that night she talked Jay into putting the barbies hair into a pony tail like hers.  I was quite impressed at how well he did.

Emy is so much fun.  She is super tall, people always asks us if her and Macie are twins, and when I let them know they are almost two years apart they can't believe it.  She has always talked so well for her age too.  She is super smart and knows so much for her age. 
She is silly, and likes to have fun.  She loves playing with Bridger and Macie and gets sad when they go somewhere without her.  We have lots of fun together though when they are gone at school and she often sits right next to me and looks up and me and says, "I like you".  It makes me smile every time!! 
She loves to open and close the garage door, and if someone else does it before she gets the chance, we have to close the door and start all over, or she won't leave the house...it is awesome when we are in a hurry to have to go through that process!  She loves to be with me in the office and always tries to help me do my vinyl projects.
She is such a good little girl and we love every minute with her!  

Chocolate Milk...MMMMM

The kids made their own chocolate milk the other night and this was the end result.

Things I've Learned This Summer

So far this summer I have learned that:

1. I can successfully take all four kids some where by myself and not want to pretend they belong to someone else. They have all grown up so much over the last few months and they are turning in to great listeners...some are already great listeners (Macie), some are evolving (Bridger), and some are still in their own little world (Emy), and sweet little Paisley is just along for the ride.

2. Flip flops are now called floppers. We bought the kids all some flip flops and any time we would ask them to go put on their shoes Emy would tell everyone to put on their "flip flop floppers" and soon it just turned into to floppers. Now all of us, parents included, call their shoes floppers.

3. I have learned that even though twisting Macie's hair is super cute, it isn't a permanent hair do. This I should have known better, but I twisted her hair the week before Easter (all week long too...might I add). Once we do this to her hair she won't let me touch it for a good couple of weeks...I can't blame her though, it takes forever. Well I left it in too long (way too long), and when we finally took it out it took about 2 hours. She hated it (and me) by the time I was done.

4. I have been reminded of my love for yard work. We didn't do anything with our yard (weeds) last year and this year we have finally started. We have our front flower beds in and lots of trees in the back yard. We had two dump loads of gigantic bolders dumped in our back yard, so our next plan is to put those all in place and mix several truck loads of soil pep in our flower beds in the back yard (that makes weeding so much easier). Then one day we will work on putting in the grass! Hopefully sooner than later!

5. I have found that I look foward to Wednesdays. This is the day Jay and I mow lawns all day long (we are up to 34 lawns now). It is actually nice to get outside all day and not worry about my little kids running in the road or falling off of something or running inside to go potty (the kids not me...well, sometimes me) or fixing food all day long (I swear my little kids eat all the time). It is just nice to listen to my music and think without interuptions. Then when I am all done, it is so fun to see how excited my kids are when I get to Grandma's to pick them up.

6. I have learned that the anticipation of waiting for my garden to grow is sometimes hard to stand. I am so excited to see how it will turn out. I wish that a few months ago I had learned about square foot gardening (thanks Jodi for the info), but that will have to wait till next year.

It has been a great summer so far and hopefully I will continue to learn new things each day. I love my little kids so much and each day I am reminded how lucky I am to be their mom. They are so fun and make me laugh all the time.

After a Hard Days Work...

We have LOVED our nice weather we have had the last three days. Our kids have loved being outside and running around in the yard all day...and when 8pm rolls around Jay and I are loving it too.

They fell asleep watching a show in our room.

Jay came to get me to show me how Macie fell asleep and I told him to run and get the camera, and in the two minutes it took to get the camera, Emy had climbed up by Macie and fell asleep too.

Fun Spring Crafts

I have made a few spring crafts these last few weeks and I thought they turned out pretty cute.
This one no longer exists...thanks to Emy! She has successfully peeled off the vinyl and paper. Lately she spends a lot of her "free" time in the office cutting up things I need and peeling vinyl off of crafts or just the big rolls of vinyl that I have. If I ever leave anything unattended she gets out the tweezers and starts pulling letters off of the vinyl that I am working on. She is such a little turkey!

I made these blocks with my sister this week. One side says spring and the other says summer. After she left I redid the spring side on my blocks. I am just not a bright-colored person...it just looked so out of place in my house.

this is how it looks now:


this is how it used to look:

and this is the other side of the blocks:


I have also made a couple of these cute little cubes. I did one for easter and one for spring. I have since changed the spring one a little bit...thanks to Emy! Each side of the cube has a different peice of paper and a different picture or word. They turned out pretty cute and were fun to make. I did an easter one with my sister and a spring one with the old young women's presidency. They all got released from their callings a few months ago and I was left in with the new presidency. We try to get together every month and have lunch and the last two times we have made a craft too. We will have plenty more crafts to make too...a new cube for each season or holiday and maybe one with just family words on it too.
(I borrowed this picture...I haven't taken a picture of mine yet)

We had a couple new girls come into Young Women's and this was their birthday present (a magnet board) that I made for them. It goes with this years theme. I think they turned out pretty cute too. I hope the new beehives liked them!

Diaper Duty

You know those stinky diapers that make you wish you had potty trained your two year old last month...well tonight was the BIG one of all big ones.
We have learned that apple juice and Emy are not a good combination. Well we bought some juice the other day and hid it in the garage, in an awesome hiding spot right by the door. It took all of one trip of coming back inside the house for the kids to find it. Well today Macie wanted some juice, so I filled up her sippy cup with the forbidden juice from the garage. I made Emy some other juice (not diarrhea causing) and they were both content. It was apparent tonight that Macie shared her juice.
We all kept telling Emy she was stinky and she would just give us her cute little smile where she tips her head to one side and shrivels up her nose, and then she would go bouncing off.
Macie kept saying, "she smells like a skunk and skunks are stinky".
Well needless to say our cute little two year old is soaking in the bath tub and her clothes are soaking in the washer.


On a more pleasant note...Emy has grown 2 1/2 inches in three months!! She is so tall. Every where we take her people think she is so much older than she really is. She is taller than a lot of kids that are a year older than her. Today I saw her with someone that was her same age and she was a good head taller. It will be so fun to see how different all of our kids turn out...we have quite the gene pool.

If only it was always this easy

The other night our kids all fell asleep in the living room. Bridger and Macie fell asleep watching Jay and I exercise and then while Jay and I were talking after we were all done we realized Emy was also sleeping, and of course the baby was asleep for the night (because we are that lucky).

I just had to take a picture of how they all fell asleep. It was just so cute.

Bridger and Macie piled under pillows on the couch



Paisley asleep in Jay's arms


and Emy asleep on Jay's shoe...that he was still wearing.


They are all just too cute...especially when they are sleeping. I am such a sucker for sleeping kids.

Where is Emy?

So just a few minutes ago I was running through the house in a panic. I could not find my little two year old. I was yelling her name and frantically looking in each room of the house. Normally she is always two steps behind me weather I want her to be or not. Thoughts were running through my mind...did she come back inside after we ran errands, did she get outside without me knowing, did she choke and is now unconscious...
I ran to get Bridger and Macie to have them help me look for her and after I yelled at them that following me around the house to look for her isn't really helping, they finally went a different direction them me and I heard Macie say, "I found her, she is sleeping". I still was a little bit panicked and ran in the room to make sure she was alive (crazy I know, but I have fears they will choke on something and die).
Sure enough all is well...this is what Macie found...

and then my panic and fears turned into awe she's so cute!

Sweet Dreams

I don't know how I got so lucky.

My sweet little baby has slept from 10pm till 10am the next morning for the last two nights. She has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks, but just recently she started sleeping an extra 3 hours.

I probably just jinxed myself...hopefully she will continue to sleep well!

I do however get woken up by two very loud and very tired little girls fighting over who gets to lay by mommy when they wonder out of their room in the middle of the night. Occasionally a punch is thrown (not by me or Jay!).

In the middle of the night reasoning with our children is out of the question. Generally Macie wins being by my side so I can avoid a punch to my own face and Emy lays on top of me till they are both back asleep.

Where is Bridger in the middle of the night? We had to bribe him with a Nintendo DS to get him to stay out of our room. He had to sleep in his own bed for 100 nights in a row. He did great and now regularly sleeps in his own bed. Occasionally we wake up in the morning with him laying at our feet. He knows if he tries to lay by us then we will send him back to his own room or have him lay on the floor next to our bed.

So even though I have a little tiny baby who sleeps through the night, I still don't...and honestly I can not even remember the last time I slept all night long. But in the morning the kids are worth it all...just don't ask what I think of it when I have two kids smothering me at 2am.