Maleina's Birthday

As a family, we went and saw Disney's new movie Frozen just before Christmas.  Maleina LOVED that show.  She was singing the songs the minute we got in the car.  She decided that she wanted me to make her a Frozen cake this year for her birthday.  (Finally, I didn't have to to make another castle!)  About ten days before her birthday I got a brilliant (or not so brilliant) idea to make her a dress similar to the one Elsa wears in the ice castle.  What was I thinking!!!!  I bought the fabric, and patterns (yes I needed two) and got to work.  This was my very first time sewing anything more than a blanket so having to work with two patterns took a lot of thinking on my part.  After a some trial and error (which means A LOT of unpicking) I finally had the dress finished at 4:45 pm on the day of her birthday.  Phew, at least I wasn't late!

For her cake I decided to make a tiered slanted cake to give the impression that the characters were climbing up a mountain.  I had a lot of fun making her cake and trying something new.  She loved both her cake and her dress and they were worth every minute I spent making them.

 

(view from the front)

 (view from the back)

This picture is just for fun!  I found it on my camera and just had to post it.  I have no idea why she did this pose for Mark when he was taking photos but I love it.  She has such a spunky personality and she keeps me on my toes.  Happy Birthday Princess!!!

January in a nutshell!

January started off with a bang!  Mark's family goes bowling every year for the New Year.  I had to miss it because I had to take our teenager to make-up school.  The kids had fun and enjoyed being with their cousins.  I ended up with flu like symptoms on the night of January 1st.  School started for my eternal kids on the 2nd and  I wished I could have taken it easy on but two of our kids had a visit with their mom in town that day.  So I got the honor of donning a mask and wearing it around town.  My teenager had to go to make-up school on the 2nd also.  But of course they don't start at the same time.  So when I really wanted to be snuggled up in bed I was a chauffeur for 3 hours.





On the 3rd of January, my teenager called me saying his stomach hurt really bad.  I assumed he got hit with the flu.  I packed up the younger kids and went to pick him up.  When I got to his school, he looked horrible (I'm not trying to be mean...).  I handed him the 'throw-up' bucket.  He said, "My stomach doesn't hurt that way, it feels like someone is stabbing me."  Uh oh!!!  This is more than the flu.  I told him we could go to Instacare but he said he just wanted to go home.  I asked him when it started hurting and he said 2:00 AM!!!  I no longer cared that he wanted to go home, I was going to Instacare.  I called my friend to see if Tyler could get off the bus at her house since there was no way I could get home in time.  I am so grateful for her help!  What I hoped would be a quick trip to Instacare saying there was nothing to worry about, ended up being a quicker trip to the ER with a possible diagnosis of appendicitis. Sure enough, Instacare was spot on and he ended up getting his appendix out at around 7:30 pm.  I had all three girls with me, so Mark came and picked them up from the ER and took them with him to work.

Thankfully once his appendix was removed he was back to school on Monday as though nothing had happened.  He was so lucky to also get his wisdom teeth removed on the 9th of January.  Yes, one week after his appendix was removed.  He sailed through that as well and has been healthy since.

Mark on the other hand, he had a horrible cough that started sometime in December.  He finally went to the doctor the second week in January and got diagnosed with bronchitis.  The medication didn't take care of his cough, so he went back a week later, ended up getting a chest x-ray and wound up with a diagnosis of pneumonia.  He got new meds and was on the mend.  Then I got a cold which I so graciously shared with him.  Since his body was still recovering from the stress of pneumonia, he got it again and had to take a second round of medication.  Thankfully this time he didn't get another cold and the meds worked as they should.  I hope to never have another month like last month.  I am grateful for modern medication that helped us all heal. Even more so, I am grateful that I have a healthy family finally!!!

Fall/Christmas Update

Life has been so hectic and crazy these past few months I never seem to have time to update my blog.  Last fall was quite fun with Halloween, Tyler's Birthday, a trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving, and then Christmas of course, is always exciting.  

My family came up to visit in October.  We tried to get a shot of the grandchildren on my side of the family, but sometimes that just doesn't work out well.  I had to post this photo it was just too cute!!

The kids had dress like a Rockstar day at school for Red Ribbon Week. I love that Tyler was trying to make a 'cool' hand sign and unintentionally was saying, "I Love You!'  Shhhhhh don't tell him that.  Maleina is posing as the ultimate cool girl.  I didn't know what to do so just added a little bit of eye liner to their eyes and made their hair crazy.  They loved it!   They also got to run through the halls at school giving high fives to parents that were cheering them on.  It was pretty crazy, but I think the students had a lot of fun!

For Halloween, Tyler was some kind of Phantom.  He just really wanted a costume with a mask this year.  I miss the old days when he liked dressing up as characters.  They just grow up way too quickly!  Maleina is was so excited to be a witch this year.  She loved her costume!  Many thanks to my friend who gave it to me, it was a huge hit!

Tyler's birthday arrived pretty quickly after Halloween.  For some reason I keep thinking I have a 10 year old rather than and 11 year old.  I just want time to slow down for a bit.  The years keep speeding by so fast it is hard to realize that next year he will be a deacon.  YIKES!!!  For his cake this year, he wanted this guy called, "Slenderman."  I don't know much about him, I am told to look it up online.  Ya, like I have time for that!  Anyway, I tried my hand at painting on fondant.  He loved it and that is all that matters!

For Thanksgiving 2013, we took our FIVE kids with us down to my brother's house in Arizona for the week.  It was a lot of fun visiting with them and spending Thanksgiving somewhere fairly warm.  Well, at least warmer that Utah.  The first couple of days, I was grateful I had long pants and a jacket.  But towards the end of the week it was comfortable to be outside without a jacket.  My sister-in-law and sister, took our pictures for our Christmas card while we were there.  They have the most amazing parks that provide the perfect background!  Many thanks to them for taking our picture!

Christmas time was HECTIC!!!  Oh my goodness, I was running around daily from the time I woke up until I bedtime.  It was nuts. I thought September was busy, little did I know what December would be like.  We had a nice  Christmas with all our kids (yes, all 5).  I got some great pictures of them opening up presents, but for their privacy I am not allowed to post their pictures or their names on my blog.  My parents came the Monday before Christmas and stayed until December 30.  It was nice having them here and the kids loved getting to spend time with them. 

(Just after reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas')

 (Tyler's all about video games.)

(Maleina is hugging her new Monster High doll.)

It snowed a bit before Christmas, so during Christmas break we found some time to take the kids sledding to the most perfect hill near where we live.  It is big enough to have some serious fun, but not so big that you're worn out after climbing the hill once or twice.  By the time we went sledding it has turned to an ice hill and they picked up some serious speed going down.  Maleina crashed her first time down and I wasn't sure if she would get back up.  Thanks to my teenager offering to down with her a few times, she built her confidence back up and finally was able to go again all alone.  It was a blast, and even I joined in the fun!

 Maleina

Tyler

 Me

My new tradition that I started in 2012, was turning my Christmas Tree into a New Year's Tree.  I take off all the ornaments from Christmas on December 26 and replace them with blow horns, hats, bling, noise makers, and anything party oriented.  Then on the 31st of December I blow up balloons filled with a prize inside and the kids get to pop a balloon every hour starting at 8:00 pm and ending at 12:00 am.  Tyler and Maleina love it!  Even my nieces and nephews enjoy it.  They all stayed up until midnight too!

(We missed two cute nieces in this picture)