Jumbled Life Happenings

Thought I'd catch up on a few things. First off, thanks for all the comments regarding Shaun's invention. He seemed quite pleased to know that out of all the posts I've ever done, that this particular one received the 2nd most comments, ever! :) That seemed to make up for the fact that he wasn't overly amused that I keep posting such things. But the grandchildren will love reading about these things someday.

On to more serious issues. My poor Hollie has been sick since Friday. Started out as a sore throat and low-grade fever. We've developed into congestion, cough, hoarseness, fever that never wants to break and an all around miserable little girl.

Here are a few of the tools I've been using. This thermometer SUCKS! Do not buy one. It's Mobi brand and I seriously try taking the temperature in each ear and on each temple before I just kind of estimate an overall average. It can be anywhere from 99.5 up to 103. It's FABULOUS! So each time I use it, of course I curse the darn thing.
And of course the lovely flu, cough and fever that the kids love oh, so much! I hear it tastes just like their favorite drink. Haha! Seriously, I do feel bad giving them any liquid medication. (I'm quite certain that the FDA requires that if medicine is in liquid form, it must taste like liquid death!)

So we're hoping that Hollie is feeling better REAL soon, especially since she has her school opera this week that they've been working on all year long.

On a happier side of things. The Occupational Therapist came last week to do an eval for Kambri to determine if she had a need for her services. After being here 2 hours the conclusion was that Kambri did not need her! Hooray!!!! I was so excited to hear that. She gave us a few suggestions to work with Kambri for some fine motor skills and then for helping Kambri to do better in nursery without me!

Kambri had her very first play date the other day with Stephanie and her little girl Harli. They were both so shy when we first got to their house and then of course when it was about time to go home they started playing together! We'll definitely do it again. And I was so proud of myself for taking a step away from my reclusiveness. I have some serious issues with that. So it was as good for me as it was for Kambri! I had a great time with Stephanie- thanks Brittni for introducing us- now we all 3 need to get together!!

Taylor has joined the Facebook community so he can have his own account for playing Farm Town. Pretty exciting. That's our newest thing that we/I spend way too much time on the past several days.

Lastly, Shaun has been extremely this week with work and being on-call. Between the city-wide cleanup that he got to help with all weekend and then worrying about the run-off from the mountains he has been busy busy! It will be nice to have him 'back' tomorrow!! :)

That will be all for now...

Shaun-ism's

I love this man! Can I just tell you that?! His mom always taught him that buying a single rose is more romantic than a dozen, because to give your lady a single rose you have to go hand-pick it and give it to her because they don't typically deliver single roses.

So periodically, he shows up with a single rose for me. I can't help but love him!



Now a completely different side of the spectrum with Shaun. Occasionally he gets in these moods and he does some of the craziest things! He's getting quite tired of me sharing these 'things'...but I have to have them for memory preservation!! :)

This particular night he went and got me and him a drink. They only gave us one straw so he gave me the straw. What a guy!!

Then he called me in the room to show me his latest invention. A whole herd of straws connected with electrical tape. He was quite proud of the way it worked out and how he could just lay there and not lift a finger to get a drink.

This is how he stored the drinking end of the straw when it wasn't in use!
He ceases to amaze me!

Our Easter

We had a relaxing Easter Day! After waking up too early (in my opinion) we all headed out to the living room to see what the Easter Bunny brought. The girls each got a new outfit and Taylor got a basketball and then of course their baskets filled.

Hollie was pretty excited just thinking this is what she got from the Easter Bunny. But then I found a note on the counter from the Easter Bunny telling them to look outside....

And a trampoline is what they found.

And this shows their inventive way of getting on the tramp. The little play slide. Wonder how long until someone gets hurt using it.

Hollie and I attended church and it was wonderful! I was able to attend both Sunday School and Relief Society. It was the first time in FOREVER! It was the perfect ending to a special day. This is really sad to admit at 27 years old, but this was the 1st Easter that I had a more thorough understanding of Easter and the Atonement! I'm so thankful for a loving Savior who paid the ultimate price for me.

After church we had dinner at my mother-in-law's house and we had a good visit with her. We don't seem to do that often enough, and I truly enjoyed the visit! All in all it was a great day!!

The Cookie Finale

The next morning we frosted the cookies. It seriously was a lot of fun. Periodically, I take a really BIG deep breath and go out on a limb and let the kids make a total mess of themselves. It is truly something that is extremely hard for me to do. (Kind of the same effect on my brain as nails down a chalkboard.) But it was well worth the fun that we all had!

They did frost the cookies at some point.

The girls were thrilled when I found their aprons and pulled them out.

Taylor called this the Playdoh cookie because of the mixed colors.

"There were some sprinkles in here."

"...Where did they go??"

"Here they are!!"
We most certainly did not hold back with the sprinkles. Aren't they beautiful?? They were delicious. The original plan was to share with several of our neighbors...they didn't make it out the door...

Making Sugar Cookies

Over conference weekend we made Easter sugar cookies. I must admit that I don't normally do many of these types of things with the kids. I really need to do better and try harder to be more of a 'fun' mom! I get so caught up in the daily tasks of life that I overlook fun memory-making moments!

Now let me tell you that they helped with the entire thing from start to finish. It was a bit much with 3 kids and there were some moments of craziness, but we had a great time and even got a little messy, too!

DDR Family Night

I've sort of been slacking on updating with our latest 'adventures'.

So I finally decided to buy Dance Dance Revolution and give her a try. It's a lot of fun. We broke it out the first time for Family Home Evening and everyone had a turn, even little Kami!

It's been a lot of fun and I'll get done on it after a session and the kids are asking me to come back and do it with them. So, they're helping me exercise more and they don't even realize it. :)

Here are some pictures that show our fun we had.

"Hmmm...is this where I'm supposed to be?"

My natural born dancer. She's definitely got style and rhythm. :)

Shaun threatened me when I was taking his picture...and then again when he saw me posting it here. ;)

Oh how I love pictures of myself. Ugh!

Here are the spectators. Kambri didn't quite know what to think. But she thought it was fun none-the-less.

Taylor and I have definitely gotten the most use out of this. Which reminds me that it's time for the 2 of us to get on it again.

Kambri's Cooking Attempt

Kambri absolutely loves to help out with anything I will let her get her hands on in the kitchen...and then even the stuff I won't. :)

She loves to take leftover mac & cheese (her staple food for all 3 meals) out of the fridge and cook it herself in the microwave. Well, she decided to do that yesterday. She was up on the counter, I turned my back for seriously 10 seconds as I walked over by the bar to get a pen. I turn around quickly as I'm hearing all these zapping noises and a frightened 2 year old.

My dear little Kambri had decided to cook the tin foil that was originally on her bowl (mind you this is after the fact of cooking the macaroni) and Taylor's lunch $$ envelope and some other paper. So I'm a little freaked out. I quickly pull her off the counter, unplug the microwave and in the process of unplugging it, I spill my scentsy warmer all over the counter. Yes, we had a small little fire going on in the microwave.

Needless to say, she was quite scared after that happened. Enough to stay out of the microwave for good? Time will tell.

Oh the 'ists' Kambri will meet!

Kambri is quite the lil' trooper I have to say. For a year now a speech therapist and service coordinator from the Up to 3 program have been coming into our home working with Kambri with her speech. We are making a lot of progress and her speech is now considered to be a mild-moderate delay rather than extremely delayed from when we started last April. That's extremely encouraging and it is obvious she has made leaps and bounds.

Within the last 2 weeks we've added a Behavioral Specialist into her service plan. The lady came over yesterday for her first visit and it's going to be very beneficial to all my kids. She's primarily for Kambri and we're working with her separation anxiety and some other anxiety issues, but we're putting into place a good solid discipline 'plan' for all of my kids. I feel very optimistic about the direction we're heading...although as she said, we expect it to get worse before it gets better. My kids are good kids, but we've never had a solid discipline plan and therefore nothing gets followed through on. Oh, but that's changing! :)

Now after just completing Kambri's 6 month review they've decided that it would be beneficial to add an Occupational Therapist into the plan as well. This is mainly due to her really struggling to transition from one thing to the next. I suppose in some ways it's a good thing, because her attention span is relatively long, but it really makes things hard when it's time to go from one task to another. So...on board comes the OT!

We will now have a Service Coordinator, Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and a Behavior Specialist coming in once a month. This is in addition to the weekly 'Wee Wonders' groups that I can (and probably should) be taking Kambri to.

So we're learning lots and new things are always evolving. Who needs to go to school???! We're going through our own 'school' at our house and it involves every last one of us!

That's a little update on the 'ists' Kambri is meeting with! :) We are very grateful for the progress being made and their efforts with her.

Our Own Mr. Fix-It

I love the cute little things my kiddies do...and then somedays I just get real frustrated with their constant messing with things.
Case in point: The Fridge Door
Cause: 2 beautiful girls who love to swing the door open and shut and grab hold of the middle shelf on the door.
Resolution: Shaun with 4 zip ties and his cordless drill

Shaun has a unique way of sometimes fixing things and is actually quite famous for his inventions. Honestly he really is quite a fix-it man. I have so much faith in him that I find myself expecting him to fix everything...because he can! :)

He is really good with tinkering with things and figuring out how to fix them. It has saved us a lot of money over the years in not having to pay the ridiculous repairmen fees. And he is very willing to learn new things for the various projects we find ourselves doing with owning our home.

Thanks for all you do sweety! I am very grateful for you and all you do.

Hollie's 2009 Invention

Hollie with her new TV invention that her and her dad created for school. This was one of those projects that she knew about many days prior to...but waited until the night before it's due to tell us about it! And unfortunately, she wasn't real clear on what she was supposed to do and in turn, neither was Shaun.

This TV was supposed to do something really cool like send out a TV broadcast across everyone's TV in the local area of a fire...or something. We have pretty interesting imaginations around here. (Or should I take the fall by myself in this department?) This signal that is somehow electronically submitted has the capability of notifying fire fighters before a fire is even initially called in.

Sometimes there truly are NO words.