Long Day in Show Low

This past weekend our very old and very rusted out evaporative cooler officially bit the dust. Luckily, our house didn't get up to 105 degrees like those people in Phoenix, but it was definitely a warm 85 the past few days. Macy had an appointment to get her cast off (Yay!) so while I was in Show Low I was on assignment to pick one up. Our morning started out in Holbrook where I was to Walt's to check out their selection. They said they had a few in stock that would fit my needs for a decent price, but I wanted to check out Home Depot and Lowe's before I went ahead and bought it, so we headed out to Show Low at 9am.

 I knew I was leaving a little early, so I was super good and went the exact speed limit the entire way - which worked out because it gave the girls a little nap before our busy day. We first went to Lowe's, no luck- they were all out, so I threw the girls back in the car and went to Home Depot. We found one that might work there. I called Kyle to go to Walt's and look at the cooler again to find out about it's specs in more detail. He was at work, so he couldn't do that till lunch and instead of hanging out at Home Depot for 3 hours, we headed over to Walmart.

 I got some stuff for craft night and then we went to Wendy's for lunch. After lunch Kyle still hadn't called yet, and we had about 2.5 hours till Macy's doctors appointment. We've already been to 3 stores and a fast food place so the girls were a little tired and I was done lugging them in and out of the car, so I checked to see if Winnie-The-Pooh was playing in theaters, no dice.

 I remember that there was a pet store with some small animals, so we headed over there. We looked at the birds and some cute cute puppies and Macy was done. I didn't know of any parks in the area and we still had 2 hours till her appointment. 

We started driving around and we found a McDonalds with a play place, Perfect! I stopped and the girls played for a good 45 minutes in the play area, they had a blast. Kyle finally called me back and said that I needed to pick up the cooler from Home Depot. Back to Home Depot we go, I buy the cooler and some nice Home Depot men help me to the van. The HD men are chillin' in the loading zone and when I pulled up with my van they gave me the "This is so not going to fit" look. Well- great. I open up the trunk and told them it was bigger then they might expect so we just need to try it. It didn't fit one way, so they turned it and got it most of the way in. There was still the backside hanging out but with some ropes and a cardboard box we got it all in. Thank you HD men, we were off finally off to the doctors office to get Macy's cast off. 

We got to the Dr. Office at about 1:50 and sat in the waiting room until 3:30. Gr. The girls were really good the first hour, but the last 30 minutes they were everywhere. It was nap time and I had been dragging them around all day- they were so done. Macy wanted to go read all the patient files so I had to keep to occupied from that and London just wanted to walk around everywhere. We finally got called back and waited another 30 minutes in the room for the doctor. There was a couple times I let London cry longed then I normally do to let them know that the lady with the grumpy children is still in the room. We got out of there at 4:15 and Macy's non-casted leg! She's hasn't been walking on it, she's crawling everywhere- but the Dr said that would be the case so I'm sure she'll feel better in a few days. 

We got home and Lorin and Lisa came over to help us with installing the cooler. We got it onto the roof and the vent hood flashing thing didn't match up at all with our cooler, so we have to call someone to get it installed- bummer, but necessary. The joys of home ownership.

We stared potty training! I kept telling Macy when she got her cast off she was going to go pee in the potty, and as the nurse was taking off her cast Macy was telling her as well- so I went ahead and got a little potty, candy, stickers, and panties. She woke up this morning and we had our first success! She's enjoying her own potty and that helps a lot. 

Wish us luck with the evaporative cooler and potty training! :)

Family Fun!

A few weekends ago my cousin Mark got married  and they were having a wedding reception in Flagstaff this weekend for those of us that couldn't make it to Payson last weekend. Steven, Meghan, and Baby Jack came up to visit us on Friday and then we all went to Flagstaff yesterday. It was really fun having them for the weekend and we loved having a little baby in our house again (No, that doesn't mean I'm baby hungry and I don't plan on having another one for another year). :)

Baby Jack and Aunt Alli

We had to protect Jack because London just wanted to love on him a little too hard. 

Poor London got so upset when she couldn't hold Baby Jack.

Macy loved having Jack around. She would play with her arms and legs and just look at him. It was adorable. She's such a great big cousin. 

Thanks for coming and hanging out with us Steven and Meghan!
After a morning of just hanging out, we headed over to Flagstaff. Before we got to my Aunt and Uncle's house we stopped at Bun Huggers for some amazing hamburgers, YUM. Then we went over and met my parents at  Aunt Janet and Uncle Greg's house. They have an absolutely gorgeous backyard and the weather was perfect which made for a very relaxing and fun day.

Here is the happy couple. Congratulations!

Macy kept running and yelling at Grandpa, it was pretty funny.

Macy told Uncle Steven "Okay- Your turn. Run and scream" So like a good uncle, he did.

I seriously can't get over how nice their backyard was, it was seriously so beautiful and it was really nice to just hang out back there. One day we'll have a nice backyard, one day.

Girlies on the Couch

Macy and London were sitting on the couch while I was doing the dishes. Macy starts yelling at me "MOOOMMM, TAKE A PICTURE!!!" So I grabbed my camera and walked in to these two cute girls chilling all cute on the couch. 

They like to yell at each other. London yells, then Macy yells.. back and forth. They especially like to do this in the car. They love each other :)

Water-color Painting

I was chillin' on Pinterest and I came across a "packet" for toddler/preschool age kids for parents to work on with them at home. I was flipping through the packet and most of the packet is worksheets. I was able to get my bachelors degree is Early Childhood and in my classes we were all taught how boring and lazy giving worksheets is to your children at school- which I take to mean especially at home. It also got me thinking that I went to school for 5 years to learn all this stuff and I haven't really been using any of with my kids. I decided that I need to try to do something "preschoolish" every day. We already read books all the time, do puzzles, play with blocks, so I'm talking the hands on interactive things like painting, playing with magnets, making clouds with cotton balls, that type of stuff. Macy was watching some PBS cartoons and I noticed some of the kids in the background water color painting, so I decided that would be our first activity. Macy had a ball with it and asks me all the time if she can paint some more.

We had to stop an hour later after she had done 10 pictures and the paint was starting to end up on the counters, chairs, slide outside, cups, and other random places. She seriously had so much fun and I'm excited for her to get to experience some new ideas. What are some activities that you guys do with your kids? I'd appreciate some comments on fun things that you guys do so Macy can experience all sorts of fun. Thanks!

My Blog Book

Thank you FEDEX Man for bringing me my blog book today! I love it! The quality is amazing and it is so fun to be able to have all our adventures written down in a book instead of only stored online. This one is from the beginning of my blog, September 2007 til December 2008. I haven't decided whether or not I want to do my year, or by big changes (like having Macy, having London, that sort of thing)... because I don't want to do it by year and then only have like 10 posts in one book, we'll have to see how it all plays out.

My only complaint about the book is 100% my fault. I will definitely proof read my posts as well as making sure all the fonts and headings are the way I want them. I THOUGHT I proof read really good, but I should have had some one besides myself do it before I ordered it. There are places where "i" isn't capitalized, extra words here and there, and the picture below shows a heading that was supposed to all be on one page, but "I'm going" is on one page and "Snowboarding" is on the next. 

All in all, I am SO happy with the book and will definitely do it for all of my blog posts. 

On Friday my cousin Mark got married (congratulations!!) so his sister Jennifer was in Arizona visiting for his wedding. After their reception Jennifer came over to my house and hung out with us for a few days. I learned some awesome techniques for making bows and some ideas that I'm so excited to implement for the Holiday seasons. The kids had a lot of fun playing together and we got to know each other a little better. 

Jennifer's two oldest children, Ashlyn and Lincoln

 Levi, Jennifer's youngest and Macy

Thanks for visiting! We'd love to have you guys again!

Summer BBQ

We have been so lucky here in Holbrook to find some awesome friends. Lorin and Lisa both grew up in Holbrook with Kyle, so when we moved here 4 years ago we started hanging out with them off and on. More recently we've been trying to do FHE together and it has been really fun. Amy and Justin moved here a little over a year ago when he got the job as the new seminary teacher and they started joining us for FHE. It has been so much fun becoming friends with these two awesome couples! All summer we have been trying to get together to have a barbecue and we finally were all in town on the same weekend, so we had it a few days ago. It was a lot of fun to have a Friday night just hanging out with friends and eating good food! Thanks for having us over Lorin and Lisa!

This girls getting the food together.

Lisa's AWESOME desert. 

The Millers, Amy and Justin

The Larsons, Lorin and Lisa

Us, Kyle and Alli

Little London

The Miller's daughter, Bella

London and Macy

The jumping pictures!

Our Backyard

My Mom called me one day and said that someone in her ward was getting rid of a slide and a play house for outback and she wanted to know if I wanted it. Free stuff?? Of course! I'm so glad we got them too because the girls play with them EVERY morning.

Since the girls have been loving playing outside lately I really have been wanting to get the backyard grass in. Kyle started step one a few days ago- clearing out the area! Thanks for working so hard babe!

It has a long way to go, but we are going to have one amazing backyard when it's all done.

Project Decorate My Bedroom: Phase 1, COMPLETE

Friday night Kyle, the girls, Marie, and I headed down to they valley. Marie was on her way to Kaleb's (Kathleen and Davids son) baptism and Kyle was on his way to the State Governors Meeting (for choir people). Stormy, Breezy, and Tara are all making these ridiculously cute comforters so I joined in on the fun and made one too. My mom really did most of the work, but I helped as much as I could :) My mom is a lot quicker then me so at about 10 Saturday night she sat down at the machine and finished it up. I took out the pins as we went. I got some throw pillows to match from Ross and I'm excited that the first part of project decorate my bedroom is complete! It was really fun to be able to hang out with my mom all weekend and work on a project together. Thanks Mom!

Our Pediatrician Rocks

After we gave Macy a bath last night we checked her cast and it had gotten wet. We checked it right after the bath and it didn’t feel wet, but then about 20 minutes later Macy kept saying there was “bird poop in my leg”. We don’t have a bird, and we’re inside the house so there is no way there was bird poop in there, so I asked her if she put anything in her cast and she just kept saying there was bird poop in there. I felt around her cast and it was wet. We put her to bed and then checked this morning and it was still wet. At about 8:30 I called her specialist and the receptionist told me to keep using a blow dryer and she couldn’t do anything for me because they didn’t have anyone in the office again until the 22^nd and if I wanted I could call my pediatrician and they would tell me what to do. I called my pediatrician and the receptionist told me she would have the doctor call me when he gets in the office. He called me back within 30 minutes and started off by telling me her was furious with my specialist because they didn’t give me any more resources. He said he called them and gave them a piece of his mind and then told me that if she started complaining of pain then I needed to take her to the ER and get the cast off and get a new one. Right as I was getting off the phone with him, the receptionist at the specialist called me and told me she had just spoken to my pediatrician and that someone would be coming in at 11 to get a new cast on Macy. I love my pediatrician, he totally had our backs. I threw the girls in the car and we got to the specialist and waited about 4 minutes for one of the doctors to get there. It wasn’t the original doctor that put her cast on, it was his partner. He took Macy’s cast off and told me he was very happy we called him in because her skin was starting to get red and irritated and said it was definitely wet. He checked Macy’s file and decided to put a walking cast on her that goes under her knee so she can start walking on it (even though he was aware she already was). Macy was a great patient and held perfectly still while the doctor was working on her leg. They kept telling me how well behaved she was and how most kids aren’t that cooperative for them. She picked a red cast this time, which was the nurses’ favorite color. When it was time to go the doctor even scooped her up and walked to the desk with her and handed her to the receptionist and told her to help us out to the car. I am so pleased with my pediatrician and how nice the new doctor was to us even though we didn’t have a great experience with the receptionist, I’m still happy with the fact that she’s in a walking cast. 

And here are just some cute pictures of London :)

Runnin'

Remember this post when I pledged to start running?

It went well for like... a week.

Three weeks later I started again and that lasted like a day.

Then we had the musical, Califonia, and all kinds of other crazy excuses that I gave myself.

Really I didn't start really running and staying focused until the beginning of July.

When I first started I could barely run .5 a mile- seriously.

As of Saturday I can run 3 miles! Yay me!

I'm going up 1/4 of a mile a week and it's really going good for me. I think I'll probably start uping that a little bit as I get further distances, but the 1/4 of a mile was perfect to get up to 3 miles.

I love how when I run I really can get into a mode where I'm just running, not thinking about really anything, not doing anything for anyone, I'm just running. I go 3 days a week and I'll start going more as I start training for a 10k in October. Yay for running!

Broken!

On July 13th we were at Marie's house on just a normal summer day. The adults were in the living room while the kids were playing outside. We were just sitting there talking when I heard Macy start crying, and I could tell that she was really hurt- it wasn't just an attention cry. I ran outside and she was laying face down on the concrete and it looked like she had tripped over a shop vac hose that was laying across the walkway. I picked her up and gave her a hug, told her she was fine and she just needed to go play and walk it off (jerk, right?!). She kept crying and I had mentioned that we were about an hour past her naptime, so I just chalked her up to being tired and losing it. I tried putting her down a few times and she just wouldn't walk so I told Kyle it was time to take the girls home and put them to bed, so we went home and put the girls down for their naps. Macy took a normal nap but when she woke up she called my name and made me get her out of bed, and then she didn't want to play and said she just wanted to sit with me in the rocking chair. About 3 hours later she still wouldn't walk on it so I gave her some tylenol to see if that would help. She tried to walk after the medicine, but she would just fall and start crying. Kyle and I discussed it and I called the doctor to see what he thought. The doctor told me that I needed to take her in, that even if it didn't look swollen or no noticeable breaks, it could still be broken. I really don't like going to the doctor if I don't feel 100% sure I need to go, so Kyle and I talked about it a little more, tried to feel her leg to see if we could feel anything, and decided we just need to buck up and take her to the ER (it was like 7 so the Dr office was closed). We got there and waited about 10 minutes and they took us back. When we first got there Macy was really nervous with all the newness of the hospital, so they gave her this cute "booboo bunny" to help her feel at home. She really lit up when they gave it to her and it helped her relax a little.


She also loved being able to watch Backyardigans- gotta love Netflix.


At first the doctors didn't think she broke it, because Macy wasn't giving them any clues that it hurt. Macy is such a tough girl and really doesn't like crying about being hurt in front of people so she let the doctor move her leg like crazy which made the doctor think we were crazy paranoid parents- so they said they would do x-rays to rule it out. They took the first x-ray and it looked normal, but on the 2nd x-ray they could see the break in her Tibia, which is the shin/weightbearing bone. They told us it was a "large hairline fracture". Luckily it was a clean break so no surgery or screws were needed and it would heal just fine in a cast. They splinted her with a splint that when up the back of her leg as well as a stirrup splint around her ankle/foot.

After we left the hospital Kyle and I felt really bad for our Macy girl, so we took her to Walmart so she could pick herself out a present- and we needed to get the poor girl some more pain meds. We walked around the toy section but Macy really wasn't into it at all and kept saying no to everything we showed her. We made another executve decision and bought her some blocks. Best decision on toy purchase so far. She loves them and has been playing with them on a daily basis.

This was the morning after she broke her leg (the 14th) and she woke up and kept asking to go for a walk- so we took her for a walk :) She was in pain, but she really didn't want to sit at home. Poor girl :( She was pretty miserable for a few days.

She had the splint on for a week and we went to a specialist and got a bright pink cast put on her. For a couple days before we got the cast, we had asked what color cast she was going to get and she kept switching between pink and blue, I didn't sway her at all and she told the doctor pink :)
After we got her cast on she has been a real champ. She keeps asking to go swimming, but she doesn't have a waterproof cast so that's a no no. The doctor told us she's not supposed to walk on it, but I have no idea how I was supposed to tell her to not walk, I think that lasted like 2 minutes. It really doesn't phase her anymore. She gets it off August 29th so we have 3 more weeks!