OUCH!

**update**

my poor baby boy got stung by a bee! We were outside playing when he started to scream. I ran to him and saw the bee on his sock just under his foot. I grabbed him and swatted the bee away running with him into the house. He was crying so hard, breaking my heart. I grabbed my library card from the table and quickly swiped his foot where the stinger might have been , I couldn't tell if Id gotten anything out.. believe it or not this is my first bee sting experience in 20 years. His poor little foot was swelling and he was still screaming so I stuck his foot in the sink and ran cool water over it while I found the "sting relief" from the cupboard.. that didn't help so I called Jeanne to ask her how I knew whether or not I got the stinger out. She suggested I make a baking soda paste.. I did so and smeared it on the swollen red spot. It took another 5 minutes for him to calm down but he seems to be okay now. I'm already terrified of Bees and watching him reminded me why... I don't think I'll be going in the backyard for a while........

Sorry for the picture quality, I grabbed my Ooooold camera and it didn't have enough battery for the flash. The one below totally blurry but you can see how swollen it got... poor little one.

**update**

so apparently I'm not savvy to the whole Bee vs Wasp thing.. When Taylor got home last night I told him about the sting and he admitted that early in the day he'd noticed that there was a yellowjacket hive not three feet from where Mattie was stung.. I'd noticed that the bee/yellowjacket looked like he was going in for another round before I swatted him away.. Taylor said that a Bee wouldn't have done that...
Needless to say We've sprayed and hopefully killed the wasp's home and all that still remained in it. Mean buggers!

I'm still not going outside!

Denial

Its almost midnight and I'm refusing to go to bed.... Refusing because it just means that when I wake up I will begin my 1st of 9 loooong shifts in a row......... I only have 6 more hours............

Mamma Mia

Saturday, I went to see Mamma Mia with Keena, and Merry. I have been so excited to see it for months. It was a perfect girls day out. Taylor watched Chandler while we went. I LOVED the movie so much (and so did Keena) that we went right out and both bought the CD right after the movie.. I think I've memorized all the songs.. Although I pretty much already knew them because I've loved ABBA for years

pics and videos

Grandma took the girls to get Backpacks and school supplies for school..

She Went WAY overboard! She says its a grandma's prerogative. Lets just say the girls are totally set for the year!

She also supplied our entire family with 3D glasses so that we could all enjoy the 3D Hannah Montana concert. Mattie thought they worked better in his mouth...
Matties 'thing' lately is to drop down and lap things off the ground like a dog. We've caught him drinking water off of the cement, the dogs bowl, and the kitchen floor. when Megan spilled candy the other day, no problem, Mattie dropped down and licked it off the floor before any of us could stop him!

Today he was sucking water out of the back of his Cozy coupe car, and sucking it out of the sprinkler. oh, and like the under-roo's? He wasn't all that impressed my them. he filled them up within 20 minutes..

"Ewwww, Gwossss!"

This is the other cute thing he's been doing lately. I was rocking him the other night and he accidentally snorted after he laughed. He tried to do it again and could only get a few random grunt sounds out. I tickled him again and he happened to have his finger by his nose when he snorted again he must have thought that was the key because now he puts his finger under his nose and snorts all the time. Usually (but obviously not for camera) he hams it up and thinks he's really funny when he does it. that loud snort is totally him!

***************************************************************

Ali's "BAND".......

I don't know what they call themselves but they're um.....pretty ...um.... talented?

They've spent hours downstairs in the unfinished basement decorating and practicing.. They grafitti'd the faux walls, and added all kinds of personal touches to the area. I think its so cute. This is Alora (one of my favorite of Ali's friends), and Brooke (Ali's friend since birth). They both got to sleep over on Friday night, and they had quite a party.

.

Monday

Today was supposed to be the big day.. Ali’s been waiting a little over three weeks for this …... for what you ask? For her Bionater that’s what. . Through the past week Ali’s become increasingly anxious about this appointment, much like the last asking questions over and over again about exactly what they were going to be doing to her and if it would hurt. .. This morning she said she had butterflies in her tummy and couldn’t eat breakfast. We had to wake up early than usual and it was evident that Mathew wasn’t happy about it. I ended up throwing everyone in the car 45 minutes early just to get him to stop fussing. To buy some time we decided to take a small detour to the girls’ old daycare which is coincidently just a block away from her orthodontist’s office. We haven’t seen Cherie in about a year but whenever we see each other again it just feels like yesterday. We hung out there for about 30 minutes and then left for the office.
Ali was so nervous she couldn’t sit still and when they called her name she very nearly jumped out of her chair. She wriggled and squirmed on the dentists chair and as Dr Jensen sat down he gave me a knowing look of humor. He was so sweet explaining things to her and calming her down. She still squirmed and practically did a 180 in the chair but otherwise was pretty cooperative.
Because her type of retainer is not made locally they had to send her molds back east to a special company. They had a hard time locating the small box that held it in their back room. When they finally found it, brought it out, and placed it in Ali’s mouth we were all disappointed to find that it had been built backwards jutting her jaw forward instead of back like we want it. Poor Ali will now be waiting another torturous three weeks for the new one to come in. Dr Jensen said he was going to call the company personally to make sure its done right and did an extra set of molds just for good measure. (this will be the 5th set of molds she has had to do poor girl).
Ali was very upset that she didn’t get to leave with her big prize and shed quite a few tears on the drive home. Its so hard waiting for something so important and then leaving without it. I felt bad for her.

Because we were all up and ready we decided to drive out to Angie’s house for some playtime. And because Angie lives so very close to IKEA we decided to go window shopping.
Ali has been working hard on her “band room” downstairs in our unfinished basement, and together with her band mates has raised 20 dollars for the specific purpose of buying a rug. She searched and searched the isles of IKEA but didn’t end up finding anything that met her vision. The little girls got to play in the playland while we shopped. It was great. We enjoyed some delicious Swedish meatballs and headed home.

We’ve spent the rest of the afternoon doing various non productive things. Angie brought the girls over to deliver about 30 pizzas from her husbands overstock at work. I don’t think she planned on staying but I’ve been struggling with a lot of things the past few weeks and Angie sat in the swing with me while I cried on her shoulder for an hour. She really helped me to see things that I’d been denying lately (mainly God’s love for me) and I am so grateful that she was here for me. I’m so blessed to have her in my life. .

Photo shoots= fun for me......

My favorite little 10 week old..........

***************************************************************************************
Awesome Family at Gardner Village last Thursday

Can you guess where we've been?

******

***

*

*

That's right people

We've been riding roller coasters baby!

We got to spend a great day at Lagoon on Monday with the girls.

Keena watched Mr Mathew for us so that we could enjoy the rides without dragging him around with us in the heat, we knew he wouldnt have lasted long..

The weather was really kind to us however. It was 20 degrees cooler than usual until early afternoon.

Craig and Merry brought their crew too.

Megan was a total die hard and went straight for the big rides She practically ran people over to get to the Wicked. She rode the Colossus 3 times!.

She is exactly 46 inches which is exactly the height that you have to be to ride them. Every time we'd get to a gate she'd stand up straight as a board against the measuring stick and then take off running for the line. she was so cute. Not a bit scared.

Ali on the other hand was content to take the slower rides . She rode the big rides too (all expect for the colossus) but was much more tense about them. Doing her usual 'freak out' mode during the lines.

We all packed food in for lunch and instead of dragging it all in, we decided to have a picnic right there in the parking lot.. Surprisingly we weren't the only ones doing it.



*********************************

We had so much fun. The girls have season passes with Ex's mom so they've been a few times this year already, but it was fun to be able to go with them too. I loved watching their faces on the rides, and to see them having a great time.

*****************************************

so How do you know its time to leave?

When your six year old refuses to raise her arms on the tidal wave (instead crossing her arms defiantly) even when everyone else is laughing and screaming happily......

More proof.....

And not a moment too soon...........

Children's Museum

Family outing to the GATEWAY, where we stopped at the Children's Museum for some fun. We invited Ali's friend Brooke along too as she'd slept over the night before. There were so many great things to explore and discover. There is something there to please just about any age or gender too. Its huge!

The exhibits were so inviting and kid friendly. Mathew enjoyed watching as the ball was swooped away by air when he stuck it in the tube.

The grocery store was an obvious favorite all around. The kids loved 'shopping' and taking turns at the cash registers. I absolutely loved their fake food, I wished we had some as realistic to play in our play kitchen with.

up on the roof they have an awesome life flight exhibit with whirring helicopter sounds and as you can see a real live life flight chopper. Mattie found it all just a little too frightening and stayed as far away from it as he could while still being able to see the girls inside.

Taylor loved it and couldn't stand the fact that Matt was frightened so he worked for a good ten minutes until he was able to sit inside it with him..
Surprisingly to me, Megan favored the farm and horse corral. She spent a good part of the time climbing the horse and loading the hay into the back of the farm truck. she also collected Eggs from the hen house. It was great, as soon an arm in the coop the hens start clucking. Mattie took off with a few of them at one point.
Ali and Brooke found the sound studio. It was a perfect place for them to hang out considering they'd worked all night long the night before setting up their "band room" in the basement.

The water play area was great too. Just the right size for Mattie.

climbing wall was a piece of cake for the girls. Well maybe not Brooke......

After we went the the Children's Museum we walked over the the fountain. The fountain is so much fun. Music is played loudly while the water dances to the beat. Megan didn't hesitate to get wet, but the others weren't so willing.

Sunshine

We went Swimming at my parents house tonight.

The kids had such a great time.

Megan learned to do flips off the diving board, she was so cute in her little get up.
Taylor and Mattie just chilling .
We BBQ'd Hot dogs and ate watermelon pool side.

I used to love poolside picnincs growing up. That brings back wonderful memories.

The kids swam for almost 3 hours!

Taylor had the brilliant idea of putting Mattie in a diaper AND a pull-up instead of the swimmer diaper that I'd given him thinking that "double duty" would do the work.. Instead it almost drowned him when both diapers filled with water. He seriously looked like This

I had to peel his shorts off him!. He was forced to go naked the rest of the night. Next time, I'll be getting him dressed for the pool..

Ali's such a good little gymnast, even off the diving board.

Last night we watched Chandler for a few hours. He was so sweet, and has grown so much since his tiny 3 pounds. He seems huge to me now, and yet he's still not as big as most newborns. His due date was last Tuesday. He's 9 weeks old.

Ali was so awesome holding him and feeding him, even burping him like a little pro. I was so impressed. She's growing up so much.

Earlier yesterday Meg came down all the way from Kaysville to hang out with little old me! We went to IKEA which the kids only liked because they got to hang out in the play area and eat yummy Swedish meatballs. I couldn't believe we actually got a spot because its usually beyond packed.. I LOVE IKEA, but wasn't having a good time because I couldn't buy anything. Sad... I keep dreaming of these to go in our entertainment center, but they've been out of stock forever.

afterwards we did a little thrift shopping but came out empty handed there too.

We spent the afternoon letting the kids run amuck.

Sammy and Mathew are getting older and starting to interact with each other more and more. I loved watching the two of them.

They were so cute sitting in the clubhouse together..

Mattie hadn't had a nap all day and completely lost it around 6:30. He begged to be put to sleep. He woke up fresh and renewed around 10 and wouldn't go back to sleep till well after midnight.