Chris, Annie & Cordon... 11.12.2013

Since mom was here for my surgery, we had Thanksgiving with everyone at Daniel & Erin's.  (Not sure why I didn't get pictures of that.)  Chris and Annie picked her up from the airport which helped me out a ton.  It was a great day and we enjoyed playing out back for a bit.  Cordon loved the slide!

My Hysterectomy...    11.13.2013

I was going to post pictures of it but I am too lazy to get them, scan them in and upload them so, just the story...

I had planned to have a D&C and have my endometriosis cleaned out.  When I talked to the doctor about it we talked about a hysterectomy instead.  Then I had a biopsy which showed pre-cancer cells and there was no question, a hysterectomy it would be. 

The very best part of it was (and I would do it over again just for this reason)  my mom came!!! I LOVE having my mom here.  I wish it happened more often.  The hardest thing about being from a big family and having her live so far away is that I have to share her when she comes.  Not just with my siblings, but with her siblings and my dads too.  Of course they have every right to be with her as I do, I just like her to myself and my kids, cause I'm selfish like that. :D  She stayed with me the whole time and made everyone come here if they wanted to visit.  It was such a blessing for me.  Thanks mom!

Anyhow, the surgery went well.  I left my right ovary so that I wouldn't have to have hormone therapy and the left one was the one that gave me the most issues anyway.  Come to find out, I had a  bicornuate uterus.  The uterus begins to form around week 5 of pregnancy.  It forms from two tubes that grow together to create one, which becomes the uterus.  Mine began to join but never finished, creating two separate "horns" at the top.  It is essentially heart shaped which causes miscarriages and pre-term labor.  This could have lead to some of our fertility problems.  The pictures from my surgery show it really well.

My funniest memory was just after I came out of anesthesia and was brought to my room.  I was in all sorts of pain and they couldn't give me any more meds until my oxygen levels stabilized.  I kept moaning "Ow, ow, ow" over and over.  I was barely awake but I remember hearing Derrick and my mom trying to figure out what I was saying.  They were like "How what?" 

I yelled "OW! O-W! OW!!!" (Seriously, why would I be saying "HOW"?:D)

They laughed and apparently the nurse said to them under her breath "Well, she's gonna be fun." 

All in all, everything went well and I healed great and am glad to have it out!

Miss Madi... 11.10.2013

Erin is am incredibly talented seamstress.  She makes the cutest dresses for Ava.  Since Ava has grown out of several of them, she leant them to us for Madi to wear.  This one is my absolute favorite dress!  I LOVE, love, lOVe it!!!

Erin's House Party... 11.9.2013

Erin won her first House Party!  It was a HP Wake Up Your Walls party.  She had a hot chocolate bar and made the CUTEST mugs for everyone.  Mine read "I'm so crafty I sweat glitter"  I LOVE it!  It has been do fun to live by each other and be able to craft together and play together.  I have really enjoyed it.

Halloween... 10.31.2013

Here is my beautiful Snow White...

 ...and my handsome little Dopey.

This year we went to Derrick's work to start our trick-or-treating.  Then we stopped to trick-or-treat around Colonial Square before heading to grandma and grandpa's.  We hit some houses around there but theirs is always our favorite place! 

This is Madi with all her treats the next morning.  They got TONS this year!  (In fact, I am typing this on 3.28.2014 and they just finished it this week.)

Playing in the Leaves... 10.27.2013

As a kid I always wanted to play in the leaves like they do in the movies.  I never remember doing this so every year I make Derrick wait to rake them up  so that the kids can play in them.  (This is a huge pet peeve of his because he doesn't like them blowing in the neighbors yard.  So, be mad at me for leaves in your yard, I'm creating memories. ;D) 

Madi and Easton both seem to enjoy playing in them too.  We rake them in a big pile and then they run and jump in them!

This year they both wanted the big rake.  This is his "Mine" face. 

Thank you Derrick and neighbors for being patient with me as I live through my kids. :D

Pumpkin Walk... 10.26.2013

We love going to the Syracuse Pumpkin Walk each year and are so grateful for Liseanne & her family for making it so amazing!  This years highlight was definitely the talking pumpkins.  They were AWESOME!

This was by far my favorite pumpkin quote.  I actually laughed out loud!  It reads "The opposite of PRO is CON so the opposite of PROGRESS is CONGRESS".  High five to whomever came up with that! :D 

Cordon, Sammy & Gardner Village... 10.25.2013

I LOVE when my sister-in-law, Annie, gets to come up my way for work.  Not only do I get to see one of my very best friends, I get to see my adorable nephew too!  I love this little guy!  Madi adores him and is so sweet to him when she sees him.  Easton is finally growing out of the jealousy phase and starting to want to play with him instead of hurt him.  Cordon is TOTALLY a mama's/daddy's boy so he takes a bit to warm up, but I usually have a popsicle or some other treat to win him over.  :D 

We planned to go to Gardner Village to see all the witched but got a few pictures of Cordon in the leaves first.

Madi's cute friend, Sammy, came with us.  They have so much fun together and spend entire days playing together.  Sammy is so sweet and easy to have over.  She came with us to Gardner Village.  They dressed in their costumes and we walked around seeing all the witches that had come out to haunt the village.  We stopped at the bakery and got a cookie.  We only went into one store, the Christmas store, and Easton broke an ornament.  The kind lady gave 70% off which was much appreciated since it was still $3.00 with the discount.

Easton was Dopey for Halloween.  Erin made his and Madi's costumes for her kids a few years back and was so kind to let us borrow them. 

Snow White and Dopey... 

I love going to see the witches but this year it seemed like EVERYBODY in northern UT picked the same day we did and they decided to start charging for parking.  It was a mad house! It's a good thing I had awesome company to laugh with!  Thanks for the fun day Annie!

Tough Love...

This post is completely out of order but I wanted to get it posted so that it was still fresh on my mind. 

It has been a rough week with my pretty princess.  She has reached a whole new level of sass and naughtiness.  As I whined to my mom about it she reminded me that the things my little lady was doing were not too far from the things I had done.  I insist however, that Madi is a still a little more stubborn and creative in her ways than I ever was.  I told my mom that is how I know Heavenly Father has a sense of humor [which also means that I am really in for it come the teenage years].  It also means that when Madi calls me to whine about how incredibly stubborn and challenging her little princess is, I will be able to pull out my blog journal and sweetly remind her of this week. 

It all started Monday morning.  I was folding laundry and talking to my mom when she came downstairs wearing her brand new, oh so cute, white patent leather church shoes that we had bought her on Saturday, the toes of which were covered solid in blue ball point pen.  I helped her to her room and went to fall into our couch that we had just got on Friday when I saw that too, had Madi's beautiful art all over it.  By this point I was fuming!  I cleaned up the shoes the best I could {No, it all didn't come off. Yes, I tried alcohol, Magic Erasers, lemon oil, hairspray and every other suggestion I could find.]  Lucky for her, the couch is microfiber and cleaned up pretty good. 

When she asked to come out a minute after she went in, I told her not until her room was clean.  She responded by throwing toys at in the hall and at me, slamming her door, screaming and yelling and kicking her door, over and over.  I ever so calmly emptied a storage bin and began gathering her toys she had thrown.  When she asked, I told her that if she was unable to take care of her things then she would lose them.  She asked for help to clean her room.  I told her that I would be happy to help if she would start cleaning and show me that she was making an effort.  She did a couple different times but each time I started helping, she stopped working.  This continued throughout the day, throwing tantrums, sobbing "I'm sorry's" and defiant "I'm NEVER cleaning my room!".  About mid-day she told me to take away ALL her toys.  I boxed them up (along with all her shoes except the new ones she colored on) and told her she needed to finish cleaning her room.  By the end of the night, little had been accomplished and I went to bed bawling.  I hate this part of parenthood.  I hate punishing my kids but I do it because I hate the way society is becoming and I don't want my kids to be part of the problem and also because I know that they need  to understand that there are consequences for every choice they make, whether they be good or bad. 

I was hoping that a good nights sleep would help and we could wake up starting fresh on Tuesday morning, work together to get her room clean and have an enjoyable day.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the reality.  I instead got day two of my little princess' stubborn, orneriness.  This time instead of throwing toys it was bigger things, like doll cradles, strollers and the chair to her little table.  By mid day I was done, with all of it.  I went in, stuffed everything, including her décor, into her kitchen and toy chest.  I then turned the kitchen around and put her table, castle and toy chest on top of it so it couldn't be reached. 

I then turned her bookcase around, took all her blankets except one [I was washing her sheets :D] and had her finish cleaning the garbage and clothes up.