Loving Spring...

One of my most favorite things about Spring are all of the flowers and trees in bloom.... Not to mention the yummy smell of all the fresh cut grass.. MMMMM.. :)

My Aunt Marti...

As my cousin (her grandson) put it best today, we didn't say goodbye to our beloved Marti we said "see ya later." My mom's sister passed away on Tuesday evening.. Leaving an emptiness and void in all of us who loved her.. I will always remember Andy and I as kids when my mom would say we were going to Marti's house, Andy and I would start to sing.... "Marti Farty had a party, nobody came but big fat Marti.." Yes it was not the most polite thing to say, but indeed a vivid memory of mine.. I am sad for my mom, my grandparents, her son, her husband, her grandchildren, her other siblings, but happy for her... She is in a much better/happier place.. And having a reunion unlike no other with previous family members, who have passed before her... So Marti until we meet again, "See ya later!!" Love you, may you rest in peace...

Update...

We were able to take advantage of a cancelled appointment and take Cole into a pediatric dermatologist at Primary's... Yeah... She really is the best around. We took Courtnee to her when she was about 2 to have a bunch of water warts taken off... First we saw her helper/resident... And the first thing she says to us, is "well you need to make sure you are moisturizing his skin..." NO WAY!!! He has had this since he was one, and golly gee I never thought of putting moisturizers on his skin... OK, I didn't really say that but I thought it, but as my sister in law said they probably have a few not so bright people come in who really would have never figured that one out, so they probably say that to everyone... :) I forgive her... She and the Dr. both agreed we are doing everything right, and that it is something we treat but he will probably never be rid of it.. Bummer... We were able to get something to help him stop itching at night and help him sleep (we will see if this works, I am not convinced there is anything that will help that...) They also gave us a stronger creme for his "thicker" patches... The Dr. also told us to put a little bit of Clorox in his bath water twice a week to help kill all of the germs.. They also gave us some stuff for his bath that helps with the itching and soothing called "tar"... Kinda freaked me out to know he will be bathing in tar, but if it helps I am all for it... Now if I can just find a pharmacy that can get it... I also went and stocked up on Cetaphil creme and Cetaphil soap.. They said to keep using Aquaphor with the steroid creams, but the Cetaphil will help in the mornings, so he isn't going to school looking like a grease monkey... Sigh.... I hope this helps him.. We go back in a month, if things aren't looking better... Let's cross our fingers, THIS will be the answer...

Simple things..

Sometimes I need to be reminded that it is the simple things in my life that matter most... Nothing is sweeter than waking up to this.. :)

Poor kiddo...

Poor little Cole has had eczema since he was a little baby, and every year I keep hoping he will grow out of it... Well, it hasn't happened yet... In fact his skin the last 2 months is worse than I have ever seen it... I have tried everything under the sun to help this kid.. I have done everything the Dr.s have said to do... Although there is one thing they have suggested that I will not do.. His Dr. suggested we soak his pajamas in icy cold water and make him wear them to bed, icy cold and wet... WHAT!!! I would never do this to him.. I can't even imagine wearing icy cold wet pajamas to bed... His itching is keeping him up a lot of nights, scratching until he bleeds, 100% miserable!!! I wish a million times over I could trade places with him.. I hate seeing him so sad... Tonight when I was "greasing" him up he said to me, "Mommy, why do I have to have this bad rash all of the time? How come nobody else has it? I really hate itching all of the time, Mommy..." It literally broke my heart... :( I snapped some pictures after getting him all greased up tonight.. Amazingly enough it looks better after greasing... I am stumped at what to do for him, there has got to be something.... I guess it's back to the Allergy Dr. and Dermatologist.... Anyone have a cure all miracle???

I have learned..

that with 3 year olds, you have to pick your battles... For example; yesterday when I told him to get dressed so we could go run some errands, he comes out "dressed," but in his pajamas, I guess I should have been a little more clear about the clothes part... There was no getting them off either. He explained to me in his cute 3 year old dialect that he was "dressed" and was ready to go... Not a battle worth fighting, so off we went to run our errands.. I am sure I got a few looks, but oh well.... Tonight while out riding his 4 wheeler, he insisted he wear his "Andy" boots.. Yes I know that cowboy boots and shorts really don't jive, but again a small little battle, that he again won... Although I have to admit, him on his 4 wheeler, boots and motorcycle helmet was pretty dang cute.. Man I love that kid, even though he wins more "battles" than I do... Saving all my winning battles for the teenage years, yeah right huh... :)

Tax Day Birthday!!!

Just wanted to wish my brother in law Tim a Happy Birthday today!! A tax day baby!! Here are a few things we love about Tim...

T... Tease... Tim has been known to be a bit of a teaser.. A lot with my Mother in Law, but has a teasing gene in him for everyone... A massive cupcake fight recently comes to mind, when I think of what started out as a little innocent tease fest.. As a person who likes to tease myself, love this about him... :)
I... Intelligent... What a little Mr. Smarty Pants.. Tim can figure things out in his head, do things on a computer, both of which are things I didn't even know were possible, wish I had some of this talent..
M... Mr. Mom... Tim is such a good dad to the kids.. They have it worked out so he is home with the kids during the day, and what an amazing Daddy he is.. My hat goes off to him, this is not an easy task..

Hope you have a great day Tim... Love that you are part of our family.. :)

Recognition..

I love the fact that at the boys' school they recognize every single kid throughout the year, for something academically they have done... I think it really helps build up the kids' self esteem.. I love going to these little ceremonies.. Makes me an even more proud mama... Stockton received his Principal's Pride award for a great job on his Math test.. :) So proud of you S...

Easter..

A little late on posting these pictures, but better late than never.. We had Easter at our house this year.. It was really fun. We ate a yummy dinner, let the kids find all the eggs Troy's Mom had made, had an egg making contest and enjoyed each others company.. Here are some pics from the day.


The kiddos Easter morning.. Goof balls..


Troy's cute mom..


Courtnee & my cute mom...


Silly...


I had bought these foam eggs, and had a little contest with all of the kids.. The winner of the older kids got a Jamba card and the winner of the little kids got markers.. I was amazed at how detailed they got and how much time they spent on their eggs.. So hard deciding the winner.. They loved it though and spent about an hour on their eggs.. I had my sisters and brother in law judge them, to be fair.. :)




The older kids eggs.. (Braden's egg won, bottom far right..)


The younger kids eggs... (Kamden's egg won, far left..)


The "Hunt.."











Thanks everyone for a great day!! Happy the weather was a little bit cooperative too.. Good times.. =)

Eggs to Dye for...

The day had finally came, Cole had been anticipating this day for weeks... He has been looking at old scrapbooks of Easter pages and counting down the days until he could color his eggs.. I have never seen a kid get so dang excited to color an egg... The last few years he would dye his eggs several times, and this year was no different.. That's all he talked about Friday, wondering when, when, when.... He was more excited for dyeing eggs than he was for Christmas or his Birthday... It was so dang cute... :) He was so proud of his eggs.. He showed them off to everyone.. He was even more amazed to think that you could eat them, the look on his face when I cracked one and ate it was priceless... He could not believe that I would eat a "rotten" egg as he called it.. It was pretty funny.. I guess he thought they were OK to dye, but not to eat.. :) The other kids were into it, just not quite as much as he was... OK well I think Nancy was just as excited as he was.. She just loves doing eggs too.. =) Here are a few pics of our white eggs turned beautiful!!!

Nancy and her totally awesome tie dyed egg... :)


Stockton & Courtnee dyeing their eggs... :)


Jade finally got the hang of it!!


Can you just see the beam in his eyes.. This kid is in total heaven!! He was so amazed that you could write on your egg with a crayon and it wouldn't dye that part... :) Oh he is so cute!!!


Stockty...


Love this picture, because of Levi in the background.. :)


Our attempt to make a marble egg...


The kiddos... Stockton is so funny some days!!! :)

Sweetness...

Just when I think I am at the end of my rope, I see things like this... Can they possibly get any sweeter?? Man I love these boys.. =)