Pay it Forward

Here is what you do...the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, type up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then come back and let me know you are going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Please leave your e-mail address in your post to me. Thanks and be quick!

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad week

Okay so this week has been no fun at all. Three of my kids had/have (we are still on antibiotic) strep. Jacob did not have school on Monday and stayed home on Tuesday as did Emma. Seth also has an ear infection and Tuesday his ear started draining fluid. I called the doctor and she called in a prescription for ear drops and wanted to see him Wednesday. So, Wednesday morning we headed back to the doctor. He has a small hole in his ear drum and that is why the fluid was draining. It will heal itself and there should not be any permanent damage from the hole. Wednesday night, my wonderful husband called out of work so that he could stay home and help me. I am very glad that he did because at midnight we were awakened by Seth crying. He had "poop soup", as we call it. So, into the bath tub he goes, while Sean takes the sheets off his bed and into the washer. Then again at 6am we were doing the same thing. Thursday night as we were getting medicine for the kids one of the glass bottles of medicine was dropped and cracked. There goes the $30 antibiotic all over the floor. Why would the put medicine for a kid in a glass bottle. I need to call the doctor Monday to see if she can call in another prescription so that we have enough. So we have had many sleepless nights this week, with sick kids and a 2 month old and spent about $200 in doctor visits and medicine. Next week can only be better, right.

(Check) Ups and Downs

Ups - Lucy is doing really well. She went in for her 2 month check up yesterday. She weighed in at 9lb 12oz, almost 2 pounds over her birth weight. She is a healthy girl. She got two shots and only cried for a minute. She is "talking" and smiling. She still is not napping well during the day which makes her quite fussy at times but we are getting through. At night she is doing great. She sleeps about 4-5 hours when she goes down. She eats and then goes back to sleep for about 2-3 more hours and does that one more time before she is up for the day. She is a great blessing to our family.

Downs - Seth has had a fever on and off for several days, a yucky nose and developed red spots on his face so we decided to take him in with Lucy yesterday to figure out what was going on. He has an ear infection in his left ear and strep. Jacob had many similar symptoms so we took him in to have him tested for strep also and yep, it was positive. Well, since we had Emma at the office and both of the boys had it the doctor asked if we wanted to test her too, mind you she was not "sick" at all and you guessed it she has strep too. So, we have three kids on antibiotics.

Ups - We are going to get it all out of the house at the same time. And Lucy does not have it. The doctor told me that babies have a very strong immunity to the strep virus.

Downs - I am feeling sick today and have very sore throat. We are going to Clorox all the door knobs and give all the bathrooms a nice good scrub.

Valentine's Treat

The finished product.

For many years our family has made chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine's Day. Sean and I were trying to figure out when we started it and we think it has been 6 years. We found a great, easy recipe for the chocolate. The kids have a lot of fun making them and even more fun eating them.

Seeing Red...

Family Room

Eat in Kitchen

I have been wanting to paint for over a year now and just never have. This week Sean and I finally decided to do it. Our family room and kitchen area are one big area. We painted one wall in each to try to tie it together. I think it turned our really well. One little problem, I dripped a spot of red on the light color carpet (now I will get my wood floor sooner). If you ever feel like you want to paint your wall red, let me know and I will talk you out of it. It is hard to paint a dark color on a light wall and it is easy to see when it gets on the baseboard or any other part of the wall. But all in all I think it looks good.

100 days smarter

Today is Jacob's 100th day of kindergarten, can you believe it!! As a homework assignment they had to choose 100 of something, put it on a shirt and wear it to school today. Jacob wanted to do cotton balls. So he and I worked on gluing the cotton balls to his shirt. We had a lot of fun. He was very specific that he did not want any on the back. I took him into school this morning so that I could see what his classmates had done. It was fun to see them all. Sean is at school right now for their 100 day celebration. It was a fun project and Jacob is now "100 days smarter".

Sunday Clothes

Matching Sisters

A Whole Lot of Brown's

On Saturday morning I went to a consignment sale. Jacob is in desperate need of pants and shorts since he completely skipped over size 5, but is another story about how fast he is growing. So, I did find him a few pair of shorts. Then I decided that I would look for dresses for Emma. She is tall so her dresses always seem to be too short. When I went to the area where the dresses for her size were I saw the above dress and got very excited. As I picked it up I was hoping it was here size and it was!! For Christmas Nana and Grandpa had gotten the exact same dress for Lucy. So, for $1 my girls had matching dresses. I also found the shirt Jacob is wearing for $1. I love consignment and yard sales. This was one of the best I have been to since we moved here. I left a game for Emma, a Star Wars ship for Jacob, Star Wars guys for Seth, 2 dresses for Emma, a shirt for Jacob and 3 pair of shorts for Jacob and only spent $9, now that is a bargain. I love it.

Busy Weekend and now its Wednesday

We had a wonderful but busy weekend. I have not had a chance to sit at the computer yet so here it goes now. Aunt Laura, Sean's sister, flew in from Seattle on Thursday afternoon. She was such a huge help to me, for example, Friday afternoon Lucy was napping(which is rare in itself), and Laura told me to go rest and she would watch the other kids and make dinner. That is a dream come true!! I am grateful that she was able to come and meet Lucy and help me gain a little bit of needed sanity.

Saturday evening we drove to Stafford to Sean (and Laura's) parents house for the remainder of her stay. Sunday were able to go to our old ward at church and see many friends. It was great to catch up with friends and be able to hug them. I really miss Stafford but know that we are where our family is supposed to be. Those friends need to make a road trip and come visit. :-) After church it was back to Nana and Grandpa's for visiting and of course, The Super Bowl. We let Jacob stay up until the end, I did not make it to the end but my 6 year old did, sad I know. We let Jacob miss school on Monday.

Emma is doing dance again and has class on Monday afternoon. We did not want her to miss it so we returned home Monday just in time to put her hair up and get back in the car on to dance class. She loves her class and has a wonderful teacher. She is all girl so dance is right up her alley. It is all new to me. I was not a dancer as a kid (I know surprise, surprise).

Yesterday, we finally go back to normal. Jacob was at school and Emma had preschool.

I am grateful for family and friends and fun times together and catching up.