My Next 30 Years

In the words of a wise man (Tim McGraw) quote "I think I'll take a moment and celebrate my age." Today is my birthday and I usually don't tell people or make a huge deal of it but after spending some time listening to said wise man this morning I decided to spend a moment thinking about my last 30 years. And yes I am 30 today.

I was raised by AMAZING parents who, even though they were told that it probably wasn't a good idea to adopt a girl of such a different race (remember this was 30 years ago in a tiny town in Idaho) did any way. They were wonderful, loving parents who treated me just like the rest of their kids. I had amazing brothers and sisters who married amazing people who have all helped to shape my life.

Wendy taught me it was ok to be girly!
Todd has the biggest heart and always helps others.
Eric gave me a love for 80's music and Star Wars.
Scott has always been my best friend and even though he has always been a little shy is one of the funniest people I know.
All of my older nieces and nephews were more like my little brothers and sisters and my younger ones more like nieces and nephews that I love to spend time with.

I married an amazing man, who for some reason chose me to fall in love with and marry. He works hard to support his family and is the perfect man for me. He loves me when I am emotional and can't tell him why I am crying and he even watches chick flicks with me (only once but at least he does)!

We have beautiful, healthy daughter who has us both wrapped around her finger. And I wouldn't trade all the crazy late nights and bad weeks of being a mother for anything.

I married into a wonderful family who have accepted me (maybe because they were afraid of Ben :) I have an amazing mother-in-law who with Don raised a wonderful son. She is an amazing grandmother. And I am so thankful that I got to know Don before he passed way.

So in the words of the above mentioned wise man, quote "Lord have mercy on my next 30 years." unquote.

3 Weeks in a Row

Two weeks ago was Bailey's bad week, last week was just a crazy/busy week and this week was a stressful week.

We arrived home on Sunday night from Idaho, Ben got Bailey out of the car seat and handed her to me. As soon as I took her I could tell something was wrong, she had a fever over 101 degrees. We gave her some medicine which didn't do anything for the fever at all. She woke up at 11:30pm and her fever was over 103 and being the paranoid mother that I am I decided that she and I should sleep in the guest room. I hate sleeping in the same bed with Bailey and this was no exception, but I was too worried about her to let her sleep alone. Her fever was so high she was delirious which was pretty scary to me. I got about 3 hours of sleep that night. Ben was awesome and came home at noon on Monday to help out and let me get some sleep.

She had a fever Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. By Tuesday I had called the Dr.'s twice and they told me to bring her in Tuesday morning. So I did and the Dr. couldn't find anything wrong with her except her fever. He told me that it was probably Roseola which is that she would have a fever for 3-5 days and than break out in a rash. Which she finally did on Thursday. She is doing much better and Ben was awesome to help out with anything and everything. I am so thankful for an awesome husband, it was his idea to come home on Monday and help. We also did not want to send her to nursery today so Ben stayed home with her. I wanted to make sure she was healthy for our swim classes that start tomorrow!

I am crossing my fingers for a normal, nice week this week! I promise that Bailey doesn't always look like a little homeless girl!

Whew! What a week!

I honestly can't remember what happened on Monday or Tuesday. I know that this week was better than last week where Bailey was concerned, but not back to her usual self.
Anyway on Wednesday Bailey and I went to Story time at the library. I love story time because I get to see Sherri and her girls. It also makes me feel better because Sherri is usually chasing after Kara and so I don't feel like the only mother who's child won't sit still! :) Wednesday afternoon my niece Lexie came to visit. We had a great time. We went shopping, I bought the cutest gray shirt and we bought Bailey a new yellow shirt -Thanks to a request from Sommers:) I love shopping for Bailey. Lex also needed some flip flops and they were two for $5.00 and so she bought me a pair too. Thanks for the sandals Lex I hardly took them off today. And of course we had dinner at Firehouse. We hope you come back soon Lexie it was great to spend some time with you.

Lex spent the night and headed back Thursday morning. After she left Bailey and I started to pack for our little trip. Ben and I decided that we should try camping! What was I thinking? Ben came home from work early and we headed for Idaho. We dropped Bailey and Obi off at my mom's and met Jacob and Breawna (Ben's brother and his wife) and headed to Lake Cleavland. The Lake was sooo crowed so we found another camping site a little further south. We set up camp and camped until Saturday morning. Breawna bought a game called Botchi (sp?) which we enjoyed. Jacob cooked dutch oven and we played games, talked, laughed and had a lot of fun. Ben and I just really aren't people that like to get dirty and we really like to shower at least once a day so we decided that camping is nice and all, but a little too dirty for our liking.


My brother-in-law Dave participated in the Spudman which was the same weekend and he did well. So my sister and her family were there and we were able to see them for a little while when we came home for camping. My mom didn't want to have to worry about Bailey during the race so Bailey went to my brother's house on Friday and we went to get her on Saturday. We were able to spend time with Ben's mom and his sister April, who came home Saturday evening. We didn't see her but were able to see her girls who were so cute with Bailey. April has three girls and it was soo cute to see them all holding hands playing in Ann's raspberry bushes - and of course I left my camera at my mom's so I have no pictures.

We had a great weekend. Thanks to my family for watching and taking care of Bailey and putting up with my calling two or three times a day to check on her! Thanks to Jacob and Breawna for coming camping with us. And after a busy week on only had 4 pictures to show for it!

A Bad Week

Last week was one of those weeks that I spent wondering every day why the good Lord thought that I could/should have children! Bailey decided that she didn't like food last week. Now I know I'm not the smartest person/mother in the world, but I'm pretty dang sure that we all as humans are supposed to eat! So after many tears -mine and Bailey's - and after having meal times last about an hour one of us finally gave up. Either she would eat or I would get her out of her high chair feeling like the worlds worst mother because my child was not fed. Bailey isn't the worlds best eater anyway, but she loves vegetables (at the reunion she was eating raw pea pods and loving them) she loves broccoli, peas, carrots, bananas, and some melons, but she wouldn't eat anything.

So after one really bad day Ben came home and took us to the park. It was a new park we hadn't been to before and she loved it. She was brave enough to go down the slide by herself. She is still playing with the glow in the dark necklace (toys) my sister-in-law Yvonne gave her after two weeks and they still glow in the dark. As you can see she has to take them everywhere - from the bathtub to the pool.

Because last week was a bad week I let her watch a lot more movies than I usually do - I had to get some sanity in somewhere. I usually let Bailey watch the beginning of a movie while I do my hair and this is what I saw while I was curling my hair one morning. Bailey just relaxing watching a show! :)

Family Reunion

This last week was busy, but fun and it went by fast. On Monday we celebrated Jon's birthday-it was the week before, but Monday was as soon as we could all get together. We had a great time and the girls played great together. On Tuesday Sherri and the girls came over for a little while in the morning and in the afternoon we met at one of Logan's gyms. Her two oldest are taking swimming lessons there and I went to sign up Bailey for a Mommy and Me swim class. On Wednesday Bailey and I had Story hour and had Tyler over for dinner. On Thursday we ran errands.

On Friday was my Mom's extended family reunion at Bear Lake. All but my brother Todd (and family), my sister-in-Law Sommers, and nephew Brandon came. They all arrived in the afternoon so after we hit the sidewalk sales we headed up. We had fun seeing everyone. We came home Friday and Saturday night to get some sleep and allow everyone else to sleep. We were a little worried about Bailey. On Saturday we headed to the lake and play on the beach. Bailey loved the water! She hated coming in, but the older kids were so cold from the water their lips were blue! Bailey got Grandma and Papa to take her on rides frequently and had a blast playing with Zach, Lily, Nic, and Shaydon. All play really well together and the older kids are soo good with Bailey. Bailey also learned that Lexie is fun to hang out with and was constantly grabbing a hold of her finger. My sister-in-law Yvonne bought some toys for her kids and of course hooked up Bailey with the toys, which Bailey has to sleep with, take to church, and everywhere else.
We had a great time and everyone made it home safe. A huge thank you to everyone who helped/played with Bailey.

On Sunday Dad, Mom, Scott, and Shaydon stopped by for a quick bite to eat and a little nap. Mom brought the lunch - food she had packed for the reunion. And since everyone was traveling home Ben and I took the kids outside to play while the rest slept. They are hanging out in the empty pool and Shaydon's hat was buried in the trunk so he is wearing one of Bailey's. Ben and I have both said how much we would love to live closer to Zach, Lily, Nic, and Shaydon so that Bailey could be with them more.

My Bailey Girl

On Monday Bailey had a really BAD night. We usually put her down between 7:45 and 8:00pm, which we did Monday night. She woke up at 11:00pm, 4:00am, 5:45am, and Ben finally brought her into our room at 6:15am and no one slept any more after that. Ben got ready and left for work around 7:30am and Bailey fell back to sleep at 8:00am in my bed. We just snuggled and talked until then. She woke up at 10:30am and while I was running her bath water found her swimming suit and insisted on wearing it. So I just slipped on her arms over her pj's and she was happy. She has bed head her and both the pj's and swimming suit are some more hand-me-downs from Lily! The outfit is a little crazy, but hey she was happy.



Wednesday morning Bailey had found my sun glasses before she got in the tub. I was able to get them away from her long enough to give her a bath (not always easy to get those pre-bath toys away from her). As soon as she was out of the tub she had to have them back. She just likes taking them off and putting them back on. She has her own glasses, but someone else's are much more fun. She has crazy wet head hair and she broke the ear piece off my glasses about 5 seconds after I took this picture.

Cars, blessing, & the 4th

Well Ben and I had decided not to go home for the 4th- a hard decision we ALWAYS go home for the 4th. Any way on Tuesday June 30th I got a call from Ben's Mom Ann. I love my mother-in-law, I couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law and grandmother to Bailey. Ok moving on, so I get a call from Ann on Tuesday afternoon. She was calling to tell me she had been in a car accident and the car had rolled and was totaled. She had flown in from Hawaii and was almost home, seriously almost to the exit. She had Ben's baby sister and youngest brother and one of his friends, all were in seat belts, Nic has a few cuts on his face and all are very stiff. The ambulance came and they were all looked over and sent home. I asked her what Ben's response had been (making sure he wasn't insensitive or any thing) and she said that she hadn't called him because she didn't want to bother him at work! I got off the phone with her and called Ben. We bought a new car a few months ago and still had the little car and so we decided to take it down to Ann. After looking at her car we have no idea how she wasn't hurt, the roof is totally caved in on the drivers side.

So Bailey and I headed home on Thursday morning and Ben came after work. We went to see his Grandma and Mom and had a wonderful visit with them. On Friday morning Ben went golfing with his brothers Matt and Nic. He came home for a couple of hours and went golfing again. This time with me, his brothers Matt, Nic, Jacob and his wife Breawna. It was my first time on a golf course, I have been to the driving range before, but I didn't totally humiliate Ben. After that it was off to Taco Bandito (Yummy) for dinner, home to check on Bailey, and off to the movie. Bailey was going out on the town with my parents (a wedding reception). On Saturday we got up and came home. Ben mowed the lawn, I unpacked, after that it was Little Ceasars for dinner and a movie. None of us saw one firework!

We are so grateful that Ann and the kids are ok and so happy that we live close enough to head home when we need to.