The Answer is YES!!

Haylee had her first sleepover last night. Grandma had to watch cousin Chloe friday night anyway and asked if Haylee wanted to come over and have a sleepover at Grandmas with Chloe. When we asked Haylee if she would like to go her reaction was hilarious. She got sooo excited and told us that the answer was yes and that she was going to go pack her stuff up. She started talking about all the stuff that she was going to need to bring and which toys she was going to bring. It was really cute. She likes slumber parties at Grandmas house and doesn't seem to miss Mom and Dad at all. But I think that is a good thing. Haylee has always been very independent and likes to do things on her own. And even though it makes me a little sad that my baby is growing up so fast. I am glad that she is independent and can manage things on her own.

Feeling Better!!

Well we are all finally feeling a little bit better. Haylee ended up getting the same virus that Kyle had and was sick for about a week. Thankfully we didn't have to take her in to the E.R. We thought we might have to at one point because she was looking pretty bad but she pulled through. We threatened her that if she didn't start drinking she was going to have to go the hospital and get a shot in her arm. I think that was motivation enough for her to drink on her own. I also ended up with the horrible virus and was also sick for about a week. We are now starting to feel a little better and are very thankful for that. It makes me a little bit nervous that we are already getting sick and we haven't even begun flu season yet. I am also so grateful for the fact that we have a worthy priesthood holder in our home. Seth and his Dad were able to give Kyle a blessing before he went to the hospital and Seth gave Haylee one also when she was doing pretty bad. It is such a comfort to have that blessing in our lives.
So it finally feels like we are back in the swing of things. It was a little stressful for a while but feels like things might be slowing down a bit. We are settling into a little routine during the day, which I like. Seth is also getting things settled back at school. I just really hope for a fun fall, with as little sickness as possible and just a lot of good times. Heres to wishing right!!

sick weekend!

Well this last weekend was not the best for our family. Our little guy got sick with diarhea and he was throwing up. Saturday night we realized that this was serious and we needed to probably go into the emergency room. He was very pale and lathargic and didn't want to eat or drink anything. This scared me really bad. We rushed to the ER. They took some blood from him and gave him some fluids through an IV. It was hard but we were feeling like this will help him get better. We got home from the ER around 2 in the morning and the second we walked through the door, he threw up everywhere. I thought "great, all the liquid they just put in him is gone." The next day he didn't look much better and still I couldn't get him to drink anything. I knew that he was dehydrated because I hadn't seen a wet diaper for a while. Finally he got really bad and was just not there. It was hard to look at the little guy, he just looked so sick. I said thats it, and we went back to the ER and he was admitted to the pediatric floor in the hospital around 4pm on Sunday. They gave him another IV. The first time she couldn't get it into his vein and he was screaming and I was crying because it was hurting him. It was horrible to watch, I finally said I wanted someone else to come and try again. A different nurse came in and tried to start his IV and told us that it was REALLY hard to get a vein because he was so dehydrated. Finally she got it, thank goodness and they were able to start some fluids. We were in the hospital with him until Monday night, when he finally started to show signs that he was recovering and he would drink a little bit on his own.
This experience has made me more sympathetic to parents who have any sick kids that have to be hospitalized. It is by far the hardest thing in this world to have to look at your child and have them look at you with these pleading eyes and have there be nothing you can do for them. It is an intense feeling of helplessness. It is horrible to have to hold your baby down, while they stick him with needles while he is crying. I think I have found the hardest part about being a parent. We got lucky though that he recovered so quickly. I am thankful everyday for the doctors and nurses that helped him. It is amazing though the feeling you get when you know that your child is sick and needs help. Aint nobody getting in the way of him getting what he needs. The second time I took him to the ER, I walked in there ready for a fight. I was not going to wait 5 seconds. I told that lady he needed to get seen NOW!! I said I don't care we need to get back there right now. This Mother Bear just comes out of you and your are willing to do whatever it takes to help him. I think the lady knew that I meant business and they got us back right away. I also think though that you could tell just looking at Kyle that he needed help right away.
Turned out that he was so dehydrated that he didn't even have any tears when he would cry. This made me feel horrible, like I had done failed him or done something wrong, but it happened faster than you would think. They told us that he had some kind of virus and to watch his sister because it is very contagious. I am praying that she doesn't get it too. I hope everyone out there with kids right now takes extra care to wash hands and to those things so that you miss this one. It is pretty bad. Good luck.

One year old!!

Kyle has officially turned one year old!! I can't believe how fast that year went by. He had his first birthday on August 12th. He didn't quite know what to do with those presents though. Luckily he had a big sister and a cousin that were more than happy to help him open them. He just watched with this look on his face like "what in the world are they doing". It was pretty cute.

I think Haylee and Hank were having a whole lot more fun opening these presents than Kyle was. But he is one so you really can't expect too much from him.

After his presents we got him all ready to get messy in his cake. First we lit his candle and sang happy birthday. He didn't know how to blow it out himself but Haylee was happy to help him. After that we got him ready to get messy. I even took his shirt off of him in anticipation of the big event. I handed him his cake though and he didn't quite know what to do but he sure didn't want to dive into it. He just kind of poked it with his finger a couple times and then looked at me like he wasn't sure what I expected him to do. He eventually got the hang of it but he never really got that messy. Haylee was the same way when she turned one. I broke some of the cake off for him and put little pieces of it on his tray and he picked them up and ate them. Afterward I thought I should have given him a spoon. He gets messy when he eats anything with a spoon. I think he would have liked that a little better. I think he liked his cake though he was happy eating it, he just didn't want to get real dirty.

They change so much in that first year that it just seems like you can't keep up. He is not quite walking yet, but I think it is only because he is afraid of it. He stands on his own and he can take a few steps as long as you are right there to catch him. He is so much fun though. He has only been a part of our family for a year and already when I look at old pictures I think to myself "where was Kyle?" It feels like he has always been a part of our family.

He and Haylee play so good together too they are the best of friends and I hope they always will be. They have there moments don't get me wrong and I am sure there are many more to come. But she is a really good big sister and they have fun playing together. I actually find that I can get more done with two kids then I could with just one because Haylee will play in her room with him instead of needing me to play with her all the time.

First birthdays are happy but always a little sad to me also. Its like he is not a baby anymore. But I also get excited for the things to come. It is so much fun watching them grow and discover new things.

Our summer adventures

Well we have had some good times this summer. We were able to drive to Lodi California, near Sacramento for a family vacation. I was able to visit with my Grandma which was really nice. We stayed at a KOA campground. We got a cabin and a campground. The kids and I stayed in the cabin while Seth stayed outside in the tent. We did some fun things while we were there. We went to the Jelly Belly factory. Haylee unfortunatly missed this because she got sick that day. We also went to Lodi lake and rented some paddle boats. The next day we were off to fairytale town, which was really fun for the kids. We also went to a little Zoo and a fun park that was right next door.

It is always fun for the kids to see there cousins that they don't get to see very often. This is Kyle with his cousin Matilda, who is only three months younger than he is. They had fun playing together in the play pen. It was fun to watch them use eachother to pull themselves up.

This is a picture of the whole family in the paddle boat. It was pretty funny seeing Kyle in the little life jacket they gave him. Haylee was bummed that she didn't get to paddle but I think she still had fun.

At the campground that we stayed at they had this big jumping pillow that looked like a big marshmellow. Haylee loved this thing, she had a lot of fun jumping on it.

Kyle and I even got on there and had some fun.

Fairytale town was really neat. They had slides and fun stuff for the kids to play on that went along with all the fairytales.

This is Seth and Haylee sitting in the throne at King Aurthers castle.

The slide at owls house at Poohs corner was really fun. Seth even got up there and gave it a try.

Seth and Haylee ran the crooked mile. Well Seth ran it one time, I think Haylee went four or five times.

They had some animals to look at. And we were able to find out how tall Hayee is.

Kyle mostly just rode in his stroller. Evey now and then he would get out and go down the slides or play on the stuff. He was a real trooper.

I thought this was a cute picture. Haylee has a little catching up to do if she wants to reach Daddys huge wingspan. I think his arms reach about as long as the California Condor.

At the Zoo, Haylee got to feed these birds that were really friendly and had really weird lookin tongues. I thought they were really pretty, but they were really loud. It was cute though they would come right up to you and eat out of the little cup. The instructor even told us to hang onto our cups because they will try to take it from you. I saw one bird do this to Haylee but she held on tight.

We tried to get the little guy out of his stroller whenever we could and let him play a little bit.

After the Zoo we headed over to this cute little fun park that they had next door. There were little rides for Haylee to go on.

She got to drive the car all by herself. I think she has reached a big milestone because she is now taller than that sign they have outside all the rides. She is happy to do it all by herself too. In fact she doesn't want any help. She is little miss independent.

The roller coaster was a little scary though so Uncle Kevin went with her. She was a little scared at first but then she loved it so much she wanted to do it again. This time Daddy went with her and bye the end she had her hands up and was yellin and screamin.

She had a fun time on all the rides. I think this was probably her favorate thing that we did.

It was a fun trip and it was good to see some of my family that I hadn't seen in a while. Family vacations are the best.

Fourth of July Fun!!

Hope everyone had a good fourth of July this year. This year we did our usual. We had a great BBQ with family and then we went down to the river to watch the fireworks. It was nice. We were a little worried about the weather because it had been a little windy that afternoon, but it was actually a really nice night.

A couple of days before the fourth, we had a really weird rainstorm. It was sunny outside all day and then a couple of gray clouds rolled in and it just started to dump rain. Haylee wanted to go outside and play in it so we put her rain coat on and got her unbrella and out she went. I think she was out there for like 10 seconds and she was ready to come in. But I got this really cool picture of her before she came in. I was pretty proud of it.

This is us at the river waiting for the fireworks to start. This was Kyls first year at the fireworks so we were anxious to find out what he was going to think about it all. He was interested for about 2 minutes and then he got grumpy and then he fell asleep.
Grandma brought the kids candy and glow sticks so Haylee was content sitting in her chair waiting and eating her skittles.

While Seth was waiting he got the camara and took a picture of the Sunset. It was another really good picture. It was a really pretty sunset that night.

Haylee and Kyle loved the glow sticks. This would have been a lot better picture if we could figure out how to turn the flash off on our camara. It was dark and the glow sticks were glowing and they would make there whole mouth glow. It was pretty cool.

After the fireworks we went home and put Kyle to bed. Haylee wanted to do some sparklers though so we went out in the backyard and lit off some sparklers. She had a lot of fun with it.

Happy 4th Everybody!!

Happy Birthday Haylee!!

Haylee is officially a four year old. I can't believe it. We had a strawberry shortcake birthday party for her to celebrate. We celebrated as a family on her actual birthday. Then only a couple of days after we had a big birthday bash in the back yard. I think it turned out pretty good. She had been telling me for months that she wanted a strawberry shortcake birthday party. I was a little unsure exactly what to do. This was the first birthday party for me, and I wanted it to be good for Haylee. The first task was getting all the stuff together. They don't really sell that much Strawberry shortcake stuff anymore. I don't know why but you can't find it at the stores. So I ordered most of what I needed online.

Seth picked out the cake all by himself while we were in California, and I have to say he did a pretty good job. Haylee was really excited about it.

She opened the presents from us with the family and I think she liked most of what she got. We got her some slippers that came with strawberry scented bubble bath and lotion. She also got a big strawberry shortcake toy she was pretty excited about, and snow white polly pocket stuff that came with a prince. She is always telling me when she plays with her polly pockets that she needs a boy. She has all girls and no boys. I don't exactly know if this is a good thing that she wants boy polly pockets or not.

She also got cute outfits from Grandma and Grandpa actually built her the prettiest head board for her bed. It's pretty amazing what he can do.

The big present from us what her big girl bike. Seth even set up a scavanger hunt for her to go on to find her bike. It was really creative. He hid clues for her to find that would lead her to the next clue and then finally to her bike. She was really excited about her bike she rode it until the sun went down.

A couple of days later was the big strawberry shortcake birthday party. It was a blast, they decorated visers and played games. My Mother in law drew up a strawberry for us to play pin the stem on the strawberry, which was really fun.


Haylee opened her presents surrounded by all her cute friends. She got some pretty good stuff too. It was so nice of all of her friends to come and celebrate with her.
The big hit of the party though was little strawberry shaped pinatas that we hid around the backyard for the kids to find and break into. At first they weren't exactly sure what they were supposed to do with these strawberrys, but then I had Haylee stomp on hers until it cracked open and they were off.

The party turned out to be ok. It was actually pretty fun. I have to admit I was a little stressed out about it, especially when I realized while I was trying to set up that morning that the wind was blowing a little bit. I may have a big backyard but I have a small house and we were gonna be out of luck if the weather turned bad on me because I am pretty sure we would not have fit in my house. I couldn't believe the help and support I got though. All theses kids are adorable and it was fun having them at the party.