Easter Pics

I am cursed when it comes to getting good pics of the kids! :) Seriously! Several months ago I bit the bullet and scheduled to have professional pics of the kids taken before Lathen had his surgery. The day of  the pictures Lucy and me came down with a nasty stomach virus and Lathen got pink eye. We ended up having to cancel. Then fast forward to Easter Sunday. I dressed all the kids up super cute and was determined to get some pics despite the fact Lathens hands were in casts. Well, Lucy had a different plan. She screamed the whole time!!! There was a small window of time where Blaine got her to smile and I thought I got a few nice shots. Afterwards I looked at them on my camera and they seemed good. Then I got home and put the camera card in my computer and they were completely gone along with the last 400 other pictures from the previous month. I tried everything to find the pictures, but they had mysteriously vanished. I then googled how to recover pictures on a memory card and found a program that could find deleted pics. After running it several times I was able to recover about 100 of the lost pics, but most of them were corrupted! :(   In the end I recovered a handful of pics that turned out ok. I am more than sad, but I learned the hard lesson to reformat my memory cards before using them. Here are the few Easter pics that I got!

 

 

Love my Easter babies, even my over the top dramatic one!

Makeover Fun!!

 

We have had some wonderful spring weather this week! It gave me the motivation to do a front porch spring makeover. Seriously,what is better than being outside enjoying the sunshine while planting flowers?! I scrubbed the porch, made new pillows, planted flowers ( I still need a few more for my flower pots) and pulled out my spring outside accessories! This is my favorite time of the year and I am trying to spend as much time as possible outside enjoying the fabulous weather. Having a cute porch to sit on just makes it all that much better!

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Syndactyly recovery-week 1

Well, it's been a week since Lathen had his syndactyly surgery. He also had hypospadias surgery(I won't go into detail about it, but you can look it up if you want). He is doing great and trying to figure out his world with two, big "clubs" for arms. The first few days (especially the first night) were rough. He needed pain meds around the clock and just wanted to be held and loved on. I kept him by myself the first night at the hospital (since their wasn't room for Blaine to stay) and I was ever so grateful when morning came and Blaine showed up to take over. You don't realize how tired your arms can get after holding a crying baby all night. The next day after his pain meds started working well, he finally started smiling and wanting to play a bit. It was actually quite funny when he realized he couldn't use his arms and started using his feet to play with some toys. Once we got home he started trying to crawl and get around. He would get frustrated not being able to use his hands, but soon learned he could use his casts to crawl and hit everything. My face has taken quite a few hits. The last few days Lathen has been doing really well. We even managed a trip to Wal-mart, where every person in the store asked how he fell and hurt himself?!?! Lol :) We are just glad his recovery has gone so well and that we are one week closer to having his casts off. THANK YOU for all your prayers and well wishes!! Blaine, Lathen and I felt those prayers! One of those tender moments was when Lathen woke up from anesthesia. We had been told to be prepared for him to scream and be very upset. I was so nervous and worried how to handle him when he woke up, but when he came out of surgery and woke up he barely even whimpered and let us hold him and rock him. They only allowed one person at a time to go back so I went in first and he was doing fine but he wasn't responding to my voice or touch. They wanted him to start looking at us or grunting or moving to our voices before they would move us to a room. Then Blaine came in and from across the room said "Hey Lathen, it's DaDa!" Then Blaine made a smacking noise with his mouth that him and Lathen used to do. All of a sudden Lathen turned his head (eyes still closed) in Blaines direction and made the smacking noise back. Blaine did it several more times and each time Lathen made the sound back. It was seriously the sweetest moment ever. I knew then that he was going to be ok!!! I love you my sweet boy!

Waiting to go into surgery.

He kept trying to pull his hospital band off.

He finally fell asleep. Thank goodness, because our surgery got pushed back 4 hours and he could not eat during that time. He was NOT happy when I wouldn't let him nurse.

Coming out of surgery! He just wanted his daddy! Seriously the sweetest daddy/baby moment ever!!

First night after surgery. He was not a happy camper. He slept, cried and whimpered all night long.

The morning after surgery. Finally got my first smile.

He started wanting to play a bit. He would use his feet to make the toy start playing music.

He was happy to be home and started trying to crawl around. He looks like a gorilla! Lol :) Funny story as to why he has two different wrappings on his casts. We had just got home and I gave him some pain meds (they made him sick to his stomach) and he throw up all over his cast. Before I realized it he had crawled across the floor smearing throw up all the floor, his cast and him self. Since he can't take a bath yet it was a mess trying to clean him up. Thankfully they had his cast covered with an ace bandage so we could just throw the ace bandage away and rewrap it to keep it clean.

Happy watching me get ready in the mirror. Showing off his "cast muscles" in his muscle shirt. We found it really hard to get his casts into shirts with sleeves so Blaine bought him some sleeveless muscle shirts! ;)

First trip out of the house, no pain meds. He did great!

Big boy riding in his new carseat. We had a hard time getting him in and out of the baby carseat with his casts so we went ahead and switched him to a bigger seat.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Syndactyly

I haven't mentioned much about Lathen being born with syndactyly (fused digits) since he was born,but since we have his surgery coming up on Thursday (April 17th) I wanted to blog a bit about his hands to calm my nerves. I also am going to follow his surgery and recovery on my blog for others out there going through the same thing. When we found out Lathen had syndactyly I was surprised at how few stories and pictures I found explaining the surgery and recovery process. Their are many different severities of syndactyly. Lathens is incomplete simple type 1. Which basically means his middle fingers are fused with tissue only and not all the way to the top. It's one of the easier types of syndactyly to fix.

 

As his surgery date approaches I find myself taking pictures of his fingers and marveling at the perfection of them even though they are fused together. I honestly just want to leave them how they are. In my eyes they seem to be a normal part of Lathen, but I am told many times over that he needs his fingers full mobility in order to wear gloves, type, play piano, or wear a wedding ring. :) If you have a chance say a quick prayer on Thursday morning for Lathen that all goes well and that he has a speedy recovery. For now here are some of my favorite pictures of his fingers in all of their perfect glory!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Banana Nut Muffins

Since I'm in the process of making these today and I haven't posted a recipe in a LONG time I thought I would post my Banana Nut Muffin recipe. It is seriously the best and easiest banana nut muffin recipe ever. I make them at least once a week and the kids eat them for breakfast or for snacks. I purposely buy bananas and let them over ripen so I can make these.

 

Banana nut muffin

 

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

4 mashed bananas

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup flour ( I use whole wheat)

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup Chopped pecans

 

Mix all together in order listed.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full

Bake @350

Full size 22mins.

 

Bite size muffins

10-12 min.

 

You won't be disappointed! They are super moist and yummy!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Organization for the New Year

This year one of my goals was to get more organized. Yes, I know it's March and I am just getting started, but better late than never! :) Last week when we had a few days of sunshine the spring cleaning bug hit and I decided to use the sudden burst of energy to organize a few things that have been bugging me for the last few months! By the way, their is something therapeutic about organizing and cleaning out clutter!!

First thing on my list:

1. Pantry problems

One of the problems I realized was that the older kids had a hard time reaching and getting their own snacks/cereal. On most occasions after they climbed on the counter and raided the pantry I would find tore open cardboard boxes or left open boxes that eventually become stale. They also would get into food items that were only for lunches or special occasions. Well, thanks to a recent Wal-Mart trip where I saw these really cool canisters I decided to organize the kids snacks/cereal within their reach. It was so easy and the kids love it! I found the wire basket also for loose snacks and baby food items that I grab quickly. I've had it organized like this for about a week and it has stayed neat and the kids are no longer climbing on the counters searching through the pantry.

Before

After

 

2. Mail clutter

This is one of my pet peeves!!!! I hate seeing mail strewn across the counter with junk mail and important mail all mixed together. I never know what is what and end up with a big pile that I sort through each week making sure I didn't miss any bills or important papers. Well as it usually goes we lose some important paper or forget to pay a bill. I've actually had this organizer for awhile, I just never found the time to put it to good use. Now, bills that need to be paid go in front, important mail that needs to be kept goes in back, coupons on the side and odds and ends in the bottom drawer. It makes me sort the mail every day and helps me have a visual reminder of what needs to be paid or sorted later in the week.

Before

After

3. Pen drawer

Such a silly problem, but everyday when the kids come home and start homework we are always looking for a pencil that's not broken with an intact eraser. When someone calls and I need to take a note I search through the pen drawer trying at least 3 pens before one finally works. Why in the world do I keep pens that don't work?? LOL :) I finally tackled the pen drawer and threw away every pen that didn't work. I sharpened the pencils and got rid of the broken ones. We will see how long this lasts, but it has made homework time a bit easier lately!

Before

After

4. Bathroom clutter

This is one thing that I was forced to address when every body started getting sick this winter. Before then we kept everybody's toothbrushes and toothpaste on the counter near the sink. When all the sickness hit, I decided to give everybody a different drawer to keep all of the mouth germs separate. This worked, but over time the kids had smeared toothpaste inside the drawers and they were a complete mess. It took me forever to clean the dried toothpaste out of the three drawers. On the same day that I found the kitchen containers I found these drawer organizers. Now mind you I've used drawer organizers before, but they were usually cheap and broke easily or slid around every time you opened and closed the drawer. These rubbermaid ones are thick and seem very sturdy. They also have rubber grips on the bottom keeping them from sliding around. They have been wonderful for containing all the bathroom clutter and each kid loves the fact that they have their own box to keep their stuff in!

Before

After

I guess that ends my two day efforts at organizing. The weather has turned back cold and I have lost all motivation to do anything but lay on the couch wrapped in a blanket. I still have fifty million other projects I want to organize and might make this a regular once a month post. It will keep me motivated to keep organizing! Let me know if you have any good tips or ideas for my next organizing spree!!

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

The sun will come out tomorrow!

I'm still here! :) Needless to say its been a long, hard winter! Lots and lots of sickness, stress, worry, sleep deprivation, and way too much cabin fever! Everyone is finally feeling better (knock on wood) and we got a few days of sunshine last week that I am so grateful for! We are having another cold snap this week, but I can feel the weather changing! I am so ready for spring! On that note tomorrow is a new day and I feel the sunshine on its way!!!

Pics from last week when we had a few nice sunny days and a few updates on everyone!

Lathen is now 8 months old. He is crawling, pulling up and getting into everything! He loves to eat and we have yet to find something he doesn't like. He keeps me super busy crawling from one room to the next before I turn around. He seems to be really good at finding his brothers lost Legos and loves giving them a spit bath. I am always swiping something or another out of his mouth. He is such a happy baby laughing and smiling at the never ending entertainment of his siblings!

He was enjoying the warm sunshine! Don't you just love those baby thigh rolls! :)

Lucy is 2 1/2 and a MESS! She has enough drama and attitude to keep me completely puzzled most days to what shes upset about! She is starting to talk a lot but she is still hard to understand. She loves all things Dora, Princess and Minnie Mouse! She hates bedtime(screams most nights) but LOVES bath time (swims around until she turns into a prune)! She is a very picky eater and lately lives off of yogurt, drinkable yogurt and chocolate milk! Se has been potty trained for about 6months but has recently taken it upon herself to be a "big girl" and do it all by herself with no help from me(lots of cleaning up of messes on my part)! ;)

Carter is our high strung 6 year old. He lives life on fast speed all day long, literally bouncing and flipping from one place to another. He has excelled academically in school this year and got accepted to be tested for the gifted program this summer! Yea! He is still enjoying gymnastics and loves that bouncing off the walls is acceptable on gym day!! Lol:) He loves to read and has recently taken it upon himself to read the entire Book of Mormon all by himself.

Cooper is our sweet 9 year old. He is a great big brother, always trying to take care of his siblings and set a good example. He's had some big hurdles this year in dealing with some teeth problems and with school (do most kids have a tough transition year in 4th grade?)but has continued to keep a happy personality and let's most things roll off his back! We had noticed some extreme whining/stress meltdowns lately so he recently started an art class to help and he LOVES his weekly quiet time!! One of Coopers accomplishments this past year was memorizing all 13 Articles of Faith for church!

Blaine is now in solo practice running his Med/Peds clinic. The first 6 months proved very stressful with lots of hard work, many late nights and lots of unexpected bills/taxes. But Blaine has done a wonderful job of managing the business end along with being the best Doctor in town (I'm a bit partial, LOL!!!)! He has kept it all together and is gaining clientele and slowly learning the ropes.

As for me, I am just busy being a mom. My life is far from glamorous with most days full of laundry, dishes and messes. But along with those boring chores I get to see sweet smiles, feel sticky hugs and hear silly laughter! It makes the sleep deprivation worth it! :)

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy