molly girl....6 month well baby

Miss Molly had her well baby check today.

 She has been sick this week, so I figured we would finally learn what has kept all of us up at night, as well as have her normal well baby check.  Two birds with one stone.  (ugh, I don't really like that saying actually)

Double ear infections!  Poor baby!

Aside from that, she is doing great! 

She is 16lbs 4 oz  (48th%)
She is a little tall. 26.5 inches (68th%)
And her head is round.  17 in  (72nd%)

She is growing really well and doing just dandy.

Even though she wasn't feeling well, she was still grabbing everything.  It was hilarious.  Poor doctor Dave.  Every single time he would lean in to check something on her, she would quickly grab his stethoscope, or the tongue depressor, or his tie, or anything she could get a hold of.  It was really funny.  She finally just started grabbing the paper on the exam table, and she tore it to shreds!

William and Luke were squirmy and ready to bust out of there, but we tried to keep them occupied with suckers and stickers.

She got some more immunizations as well.  I was more concerned about William than I was about Molly, when it came time for this.

The poor little guy just can't handle Molly getting hurt or being sad.  When the nurse came in with the shots, William did this.

The poor kid ended up crying again when they gave Molly the shots, and as with her ear piercing, he rubbed her head the whole way home telling her she would be OK.

She is going to have an awesome body guard!

Every time I go to these well baby checks, I get hit with the reality that Molly is finally here.  She is my sweet little baby girl that I have known for so long, but have only been face to face with for 6 months.  She is the little peanut sitting on the exam table all by herself, grabbing at everything, and constantly giving me quick smiles and cute grins. It makes my heart happy. She is such a sunshine.

 

 

bling baby

A few weeks ago, as I was sitting at church, I noticed one of my friends holding her adorable baby girl, that was born the same week as Molly.

We talked a little and touched base with each other, but I my attention kept on going to her baby's earrings.  They were so cute!!!  I fleeting thought about getting Molly's ears pierced, but it was followed by some memories.

When Ben and I were first married, I worked at a kiosk in the Provo Mall selling shell necklaces.  The kiosk right next to mine was a jewelry shop.  They also did ear piercing.  I quickly made friends with the girls that worked there, and we spent most of our time talking.

I could not believe how many women brought in their little newborn baby's to get their ears pierced at that jewelry kiosk.  Being the young, childless, naïve person that I was, I immediately thought how terrible it was that these women would subject these baby's to this!  After the mothers would leave with their screaming babies, me, and the girls that worked there, would just cringe and feel so bad for the babies. I vowed that I would never, ever, get my baby's ears pierced.

It is amazing what time, and actually having kids of your own can do to a person's perspective.

As I sat there at church, thinking back on this silly little vow of mine, another thought crept in.

Molly is my last child.  She is the last baby girl I will ever have.  She is so dang cute, and I love to dress her up and relish in every baby girl thing I can possibly relish in, for the last time.  It would be so fun for her to have earrings, and so adorable!  I'm going to do it!  If Molly hates earrings, we can just take them out and let them grow back, no harm done.

And just like that, (and after talking with Ben) I decided to get Molly's ears pierced.

I called around and could not believe how expensive it was.  At least $60!!!  Forget that. I just let it go.

Then, I was in Walmart the other day, and I decided to ask the lady at the jewelry counter if she knew of anywhere in Heber that pierced ears.  She told me that they could do it right there for $20.  SWEET!

So, I quickly took a final picture of Molly's earing-less ears, and then we got her all ready.

Look at that edible chubby cheek!

The lady did her ears one at a time.  Molly just screeched with the first one, but did not cry.  With the second one, she cried for about 30 seconds, drank a little bottle, and within a minute or two, she was smiling at everyone and acting like nothing had happened at all.  It was nothing compared to what I remembered seeing when I worked at the Kiosk.  Few!

And then I looked at William.  He was half way hiding behind the counter, and his little chin was just quivering.

I asked him if he was ok, and he ran to me, buried his head into me, and started sobbing.  Between sobs he said, "Why did you let them hurt Molly?  They hurt my baby?  I don't like that.  I don't want Molly to be sad."

William was so worried about his baby sister, and he was just crushed that she was sad for just a few seconds.  The poor boy just couldn't pull himself together.

The ladies at the jewelry counter thought it was the most precious thing ever, and they joined in helping me help William.

On the drive home, as Molly was happily babbling and smiling away, William was constantly patting her hand or her head and saying, "Everything is alright Molly, you look so pretty."

Dang, I love my kids, and I love that they love each other.

Any yes, Molly looks adorable in her sparkly earrings!

"IT hurts" (bahahahaha)

 

 

 

 

 

OK class, here we go...

That bone you see above with the yellow thing on it, is the top of the femur (big leg bone that joins into your hip)
That yellow thing is called a bursa sac (it keeps things running smoothly and lubricated as things glide across the bone)
That red thing is the IT band, not as in the word "it", but the letters I.T.  It is a tendon that goes from the pelvic bone and hooks down just below the knee.

Got it????   Moving on.

So, a couple months ago, I started having some pain where my leg goes into my hip.  I figured it was just the aches and pains of getting back in to shape, and worked through it.

A few weeks in, the pain got a lot worse.  I started easing up on some of the plyometrics I have been doing, and kept right on running my 6 miles on my running days.

A few weeks later, I was limping after workouts and could not walk at all on my leg when I would get up with Molly at night.

Finally, I was limping all the time and in constant pain.  Time to go see someone.  BOO! 

I have been working so incredibly hard the past 5 months to get back into shape, and I have finally been seeing some results and getting back on track.  The last thing I wanted to hear was that I had to back off, and sit around waiting to heal.  I just started over 5 months ago, I didn't want to start over again.

I walked in the doors to the physical therapy office last week (which happens to be connected to my gym), thinking I would get some heat/ice treatment, some stretching, and some answers to what was causing so much pain.

 

Well, I got the answers.

My IT band is slightly torn where it joins at the hip.  Also, the bursa sac is twice it's normal size, because it is so inflamed (bursitis).  So, when the inflamed and torn IT band, rubs against the inflamed and swollen bursa sac when I move my leg certain ways (as in running, walking, sitting, standing, and basically any movement), I feel like someone is stabbing my hip with a knife and running it down my leg to my knee.  It is pleasant, let me tell you.

Once I got my answers, I felt ready to dig in and fix it.  Wow, I had no idea what was to come, or that smile would have been wiped clean off my face faster then you can say "physicaltherapyisexcruciatingbutwillhelpinthelongrun."

 

Basically, I had to move my leg into the positions that are the absolute most painful, and then hold it there for 20 seconds.  I did this three times each in about 5 different positions. 

 

I guess this is physical therapy's definition of "stretching," and that was just the warm up!  I was sweating from pain, literally.

 

Then we moved on to the "roller." 

I was told to put the roller under my leg, and roll the thing up and down my muscle that is hurting. 

Basically, it was like taking a rolling pin to bubble wrap, and every bubble that popped burst out fireballs of pain.  Yup, I got to do that for 10 minutes.  This created tears.  Not crying, but tears.

Finally, I was told I could get a massage.  I was so relieved to have the painful stuff over with.  BAHAHAHAHA!

Physical therapy massage, is not normal massage.

It is more like a really strong fingered lady finding the absolute most painful spots all along my outer thigh and hamstring, and digging in to them as hard as she could.  She literally used her knuckles at some point.

 I seriously thought I would never walk again.

I limped out of there discouraged and in pain, but determined to get better, even if it meant getting the crap beat out of my leg at physical therapy a couple times, or more, a week.

I walked back into there today absolutely terrified.  My leg actually hurt worse than ever, and I was not looking forward to aggravating it any more.

Thankfully, another dude was assigned to me today.  The guy from last week was great, but he also wanted a second opinion.

This guy today figured out exactly what is going on.  That bursa sac in the picture above (yellow) is twice the size it should be in my joint.  It is that swollen and inflamed.  The IT band in my leg, from my hip down to my knee is pretty much trashed.  It has been inflamed for so long, that it has created scar tissue all the way down the muscle.

In order to fix my IT band, that scar tissue has to be broken up and reformed in the correct way.  Yup, you heard right, "broken up."
No, they do not knock you out for this fun procedure. 

The roller and the "massage" from last week were done in order to begin breaking up the scar tissue.  It worked, but it also aggravated the IT band so much, that it only made the inflammation that much more intense.

So now, I get the breaking up of scar tissue done in much smaller doses.  Today, they used one of those hammer things that doctors use to tap your knee to test reflexes.  He pushed the tip of that thing down on my IT band by my hip, and then ran it down the muscle to my knee.  I literally could not even breathe, it hurt that bad.  I wanted to scream and cry, but I just laid there trying to thing of happy things... like English bulldogs and sweedish fish.  I could feel the hammer thing bumping up and down over the scar tissue, like it was going over a bunch of marbles.  Ouch!!!

After that things got better though.  I guess my hips are all sorts of weak and tilted wrong...from pregnancy...so I have to do hip strengthening exercises. 

Those were fine, just horribly awkward to do with a guy physical therapist staring at you.


Then I got an ice massage right on the bursa sack.  It was direct ice to skin.  The physical therapist did this.  I guess he figured that the ice would numb it enough so he could rub out the bursa sac as hard as he wanted to.  Sorry buddy, no amount of ice will make that any less excruciating. Double OUCH!!!!!

Then it was on to the stem machine...which I loved.  It sends tiny electric currents through the sore muscle in order to keep it warm and to heal up.  That was great.

And so it begins.  I will continue this pattern the next few sessions.  They can't even work on the IT band or bursa sac yet, because they are so inflamed and painful.  They are going to spend the next week or so getting that under control, and THEN we start working on repairing the tendon.

Apparently, that is when the pain begins?!?!?!

These guys are no joke.

But hey, if it means I will be able to run again soon, I will take it!

 

 

st patty's day shenanigans

We had a good St. Patty's Day.

I like this holiday, because for us, it is just plain silly and light.  It is a fun one!

The kids woke up and thought it was fun to see what our little leprechaun had been up to last night as they slept.

From the looks of things, he drove the Lego car around for a while, leaving behind gold dust.

He attempted to use Luke's snow skis to go off of his homemade jump.

He visited and cleverly escaped the house/trap Mary made for him.  He did take time to fill out a little questionnaire Mary made.  Apparently his name is Lucky, and he is 3 inches tall.

He thought it would be hilarious to put a diaper on our big power ranger guy, and them stick him in the Bumbo with a green hat on his head.  He was right, William got a kick out of this.

He placed backpacks in the fridge and the microwave, he hung boots from doors, he turned the milk green, and he put stools up on the table.

He also left some fun treats, Lucky Charms cereal, and stilly mustaches for the kids.

The green mustache tattoos were a huge hit!  Little did I know that the kids would actually tattoo them on their faces, or that they would take the extras to school.  I about died when I saw one kid after another getting off of the school bus with a green mustache tattoo above their upper lip!!!

We ended the day with our very first meal of corned beef and cabbage.

It was good for the first 8 or 9 bites, and then it became repulsive.  Definitely a once a year kind of meal. 

Happy day o' the green everyone!!!

miss molly grace...6 months

I am going to skip the whole introduction about how our Molly Baby is 1/2 a year old already, and how it has gone by WAY too fast, and how I can hardly even choke out the words "6 months old," and how I am in complete denial that my baby is actually growing up a little, and move right along to the good stuff....

 

Our Molly Grace.

 

 

 

 

 `Molly is getting better and better every day with coordination and with sitting up.  She has started scooting a little as well.  I think army crawling is in the very near future, and actual crawling isn't too far away either.

We call her "grabby" because she grabs EVERYTHING!!!  She is right now, at this very moment, grabbing the computer screen and trying to eat it!  Her favorites are grocery bags, things that make noise, jewelry, Mary's hair, and shiny objects.  She also prefers black and white still, and her favorite toy is a plastic batman.

Molly cut her first tooth, and is working on her second.  Teething has been absolutely horrible for her, but she looks so cute!

Molly has just started trying to wave goodbye, and she gave her very first kiss yesterday, to William.  William absolutely adores Molly and is constantly by her side holding her, talking to her, making her laugh, picking her nose, picking her ears, picking her fingernails, and rubbing her head.  Yesterday, at church, Molly grabbed Williams head, pulled him in, and gave him a little slobbery baby kiss on his cheek.  William was overjoyed!!!!  It was priceless.



Molly loves to be outside, and go on walks with Daddy.

 Molly loves to bounce in her bouncer...as long as the music is playing.  She bounces like crazy, and it is hilarious.  She absolutely loves music, and has started dancing to it.  It is a heart melter.

 Molly is truly a light in our lives, and a joy to everyone around her.  She is so quick to smile and laugh, and truly lights up any room she is in.  She is genuinely so happy to be here, and it is contagious.

We love you so much Molly Grace, that our hearts could burst!  Happy 6 months baby girl. (cry, cry, sniff, sniff)

the rug saga

I have been wanting to put an area rug in our family room for almost 2 year now.  It has just been something that keeps getting pushed down on the priority list when I finally get some extra $$ for home décor stuff.

I decided this month that that the time had come.  I spent a lot of time looking online, and found some great rugs, and then I decided to go check out Home Depot.  Bingo!  Found the perfect rug.

I decided to go get it the next morning.  Just run to home Depot with the 3 littles, grab the rug, and blast home.  No prob. right???   WRONG!  Oh, so very, very wrong.

Allow me.

The night before, I was up with Molly about every 40 minutes.  She is teething, and is all sorts of miserable.  Ben had to be to work early that day, so I pulled the all nighter myself, so he wouldn't be too tired driving down the canyon.  I "woke up" exhausted.

Luke and Molly decided to get up an hour earlier than normal, and then they both decided to cry ALL. MORNING. LONG.  Not kidding in the least.

I got Sam and Mary out the door after absolute chaos of breakfast foods everywhere, a screaming baby on my hip, a bawling Luke, and a house that looked like a tornado ripped through.

I am one of those annoying Type A people, that honestly and truly cannot handle much chaos and absolutely can't handle clutter and messes.  The state of my home, directly correlates with the state of my mind.  We are pretty much one, my home and I.  If my home is messy and cluttered, then I feel cluttered and messy.  ugh ugh ugh

Anywhoo....this particular morning I made Luke toast, cereal, pancakes, yogurt, and gave him a granola bar.  He ate one bite of each, and continued to scream and tantrum.  I finally just put him in my room and closed the door.  It worked for about 10 seconds.

I made William pancakes, 4 pieces of toast, two containers of yogurt, and a bowl of cereal.  He ate it all, and continued to demand food about every 10 minutes for the next few hours.

I did all of this with one hand, because I had a screaming baby on my hip.  I think I dropped everything about 10 times, and had jam and syrup dripping off of me, the counter and cupboards.

Rock on.

After our disaster of a breakfast, I fed Molly, changed her, gave her medicine, fed her again, changed her again, and then fed her a bottle.

I had a gym class to get to that morning by 9:00, and I was in a complete panic to get out the door.

By the time I got all three kids dressed, fed 10 times, and changed, I was ready to go. 

Until I heard the water running upstairs.

William had clogged the toilet.  In fact, EVERY SINGLE toilet in our house was clogged!  What the?!?!?!

I spent the next 15 minutes unclogging toilets, only to come back down to a poopy Luke and Molly.

I changed them again, while they screamed and got in the car.  As I put the keys in the ignition... I looked down.

Holy crap!  I was still in my pajamas and hadn't even combed my hair!

I rushed inside, got in my gym clothes, threw my hair in a ponytail, left the make up off, and jumped back in the car where all three kids had unbuckled each other, and William and Luke were doing nothing short of killing each other over a piece of gum.

The gum happened to be in my purse, and the contents of which were now strewn all over the car.

I drove to the gym with tears of frustration and prayed hard for some help.

My class at the gym was my saving grace that morning.  I came out of it feeling better and energized and with hopes of a better day.  Besides... I was finally getting a new rug!  That was something to smile about, right?

I picked up the kids from the gym, and we all got back in the car.  Molly immediately started screaming, and screamed the entire 20 minute ride to Home Depot.  Once inside the store, I put Molly in the cart and pushed it with one hand, while I fed her with the other.  Luke bolted.

He was so incredibly excited about pretty much everything in the entire store, and he literally sprinted down the isles in order to see what was around the next corner.  I did the best I could to run with the cart while feeing Molly, in order not to lose Luke.

I finally caught up to him, and put him in the cart, where he screamed his head off.

I went to the rug section with my cart of chaos, and pointed out the rug to the lady.  She just looked at me with my cart of chaos and said, um...you are going to need a bigger cart for this rug.

ummm, you think????

I politely, and maybe a teeny tiny bit sarcastically, told her that I was aware that the rug was very, very long, and that I would need a bigger cart.  I just figured someone could help me. Kind of like how they were helping pretty much everyone else in the store with their bigger items.

She pointed to the complete opposite end of the store and said, "the cart you will need is over there.  Just go get one and bring it back."

I just started at her.

Yeah, ok.  No problem.  I will just take my cart of a screaming baby I am feeding with one hand, my tantruming two year old, and my 4 year old riding underneath, and I will then go get ANOTHER much bigger cart from across the store and somehow bring that back with my third arm I will miraculously grow on the way across the store.

Seriously lady!

So, I took my cart of chaos, and went to the other end of the store.  I found the bigger cart, and just stood in front of it.  There was absolutely no way on God's green earth I was going to be able to lug that thing back to the rug section.  I glanced at William, and he smiled back.  He knew what I needed, and he grabbed that huge cart and started pushing.

We only knocked over about 5 displays, hit about 7 people and may or may not have run over a small dog, but we made our way back to the rug section where William proudly pushed the cart right up to the lady, where she glanced up at me and said, "Will you need help getting the rug onto the cart?"

Could this lady be for real?

The rug is 10 feet by 12 feet!  It was rolled up and standing up on a shelf!  It was stacked like dominoes with the other rugs!  If one went, they would all go.  I was honestly in complete and utter disbelief.

I didn't even give the lady enough of my time to respond to her.  I just turned around and found another employee, who gladly got a couple more men (yes, this took about 3 men to load onto the cart), to help me.

Once it was on the cart, the men left. 

I turned around to see "the lady" standing there.  She just looked at me, blinked a few times, and asked if I needed help getting the rug to the register.

I made absolutely no effort to hide my jaw almost hitting the floor. 

I said, "I guess I will just have my 4 year old push it over there."

If course I didn't mean it, but she said OK and walked away.

William spent the next 10 minutes grunting and yelling as loudly as he could while he and I pushed and pulled both carts over to the check out.  I love my boy so much.
Molly and Luke continued to cry.  I can pretty much say that every single person in that store knew where we were at any given moment during our time there.

I finally got to the check out, when it hit me.

My purse was at home.

If I were one to cuss, I think I would have burned the ears off of every person within hearing distance of me.

I told the cashier my situation, and she said that I could just giver he my Home Depot account number, and I could pay that way.  All she needed was my drivers license number.

WELL, license is in the purse. Purse is at home.  Home is 25 minutes, three screaming kids, and a crapload of energy away.  Not to mention the 25 minute drive back.

By this time there were 5 people in line behind me, and my kids were wailing for the wrapped suckers in their hands that I had promised them, but that I now couldn't pay for.

If I could have commanded a mountain to come down on me....

I called Ben to see if he could give me his license number, but he was going in to a meeting.

I was humiliated, frustrated, upset, exhausted, and just done.

The sweet cashier didn't know what the heck to do, but was trying so hard to do something, anything.

Finally, I remembered that my parents have a Home Depot account.  I very sheepishly called my mom, who more than willingly gave all of her information and paid for the rug, with me promising over and over again to pay her back as soon as I got home. She grew wings that moment.

In the main time, the cashier had unwrapped 2 suckers and given them to the boys.  I swear she grew wings at that moment as well.

With the rug paid for and the kids finally happy, I thought all was well...until I realized that I had to get the rug in the car.  I about died.

A merciful guy standing behind me in line offered to help me get the rug in the car.  I swear he grew wings too.

We finally made it home, where William and I drug the rug (ha, that rhymed!) out of the car and into the house.

I unrolled it and put it in it's proper place, and I swear the heavens began singing.  I grinned for the first time that day.

It was perfect!  It was so soft, cute, cozy, and comfortable.  Molly absolutely loved it.

And then the door burst open, and Luke and his little friend came flying through the house, to check out the new, soft rug. 

I still don't think I can talk about what happened next, but I'm pretty sure the pictures will tell it all.

The end.

stools

When we first moved in to our house, I bought the most adorable mustard yellow bar stools to go up by our bar/island.

 

The were one of my most favorite items in the house.  I loved the color, the charm, and the personality they brought in to our kitchen.  They made me smile every time I saw them.

 

Sadly, those dang expensive stools were very wobbly, and would fall constantly.  One finally broke.

 

We were left with one cute, mustard yellow, wobbly stool, and three extremely ugly wood barstools that we bought years ago, that were covered with splatters of paint from my various paint projects through the years, and were chipped and nicked all over the place. 

 

I have really hated having theses ugly stools front and center in our kitchen, but I haven't had the heart to spend loads of money on new stools, and the kids need somewhere to sit when we aren't at the dining table.

 

The other day, I finally decided to just go for it, and buy new stools.  It killed me to think of the piano lesson money I would be spending, but I was tired of these ugly stools in our pretty kitchen.

 

As I was hunting online, I came across a picture of the cutest stools I have ever seen!  The only problem, they were $150...each (without shipping cost added on).  Um, I needed 5 of them.  My heart sank.

 

Then, I looked closer.  And a little closer.  And my heart soared.  My non crafty self could probably pull this off! 

 

I spent a total of $15 and one days (nights) time, and look what happened!

 

 

Boom baby!

I am absolutely in love!  I love the charm they bring.  I love the personality!  I love that they can get chipped and scratched, and it will only add to the look.  I love that they were only $15 to make.

 

I can now officially say that I love my bar stools once again.

 

I obviously have two more stools to make, and I skipped number 3, because William REALLY wanted number 4 (because he is 4).  I will probably make them this week.

 

 

As for my adorable mustard yellow bar stool...I found the perfect spot for it.

Hooray for stools!

sammy boy's baptism

Sammy Boy's baptism was yesterday. 

From a mothers perspective, and as someone who has a very deep rooted and personal testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it was an extremely special and sweet day. 

If I could wish anything for my children, it would be that they would stay strong in the faith that they are raised in, and grow their own personal and solid testimony of this church and of Jesus Christ.  I would give my life if it meant that my children would all serve missions (at least my boys anyway), marry in the temple and stay firm in the faith.  To me, there is absolutely nothing more important...nothing.  Nothing bring greater peace, joy and happiness to me in my life, than this blessed Gospel and its teachings.

The morning was naturally a little nuts trying to get everyone ready and to the church by 9:00 on a Saturday morning, but we did it, and it was worth it.  Sam absolutely loves his suit, and he literally couldn't wait to put it on.  He proudly walked out of the room once it was on, and "casually" made sure he walked right by everyone, so we could all see it. 

He looks so great in his suit.  It literally made me tear up, because he looked older.

Ben and Sam went to the church early to get ready, and then the rest of us followed a while later.

When we walked in and saw Sam all dressed in white, next to his dad, who was also dressed in white, I thought my heart would burst.  There was such a sweet and special feeling in the room, especially with Sam.

He seemed peaceful and happy.  He is a naturally very sweet and tenderhearted boy.  That vibe that he naturally sends out, was magnified and almost tangible.  He was glowing.

He ended up being baptized twice, because his hand didn't go under the first time, but he was a good sport, and now has something unique to help him remember his special day!

He best friend Blake was there, right next to the font, and right before Sam went under the water, he opened his eyes and smiled at Blake.  Blake smiled back.  It was a very cute moment.

My mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost after the baptism, and it was wonderful.

Then Sam was confirmed.  Ben did the blessing, and my dad, my brother Devin, Brother Asay, and Brother Deyer were also in the circle.

Sam told us that he immediately felt the Holy Ghost with him, and that he felt so happy and warm.

After the baptism we all ate at a Mexican restaurant here, and than played at the park.  It was a beautiful day! 

We followed Sam's request and went to Dairy Keen for the worlds best milkshakes afterward.

We then came back to our house, with the extended family members that came and watched a movie and hung out.

Sam got his very own scriptures, and was so proud!  He was really excited to use them tonight during our family scripture reading.

Grandma made him a HUGE candybar poster.  It was awesome! We hid it extremely well, but the littles still found a way to eat some of it.  hehehe

Sam was also able to have a bonfire at Blakes house that night.

Perfect day for Sam! 

I am so proud of you Sam, and my heart is very, very happy with this decision you have made.  I am so happy that we can be an eternal family forever.