Shopping ... and making memories

So yesterday I took all the kids to the mall for some shopping. Yeah, I have a death wish. But we had some Old Navy coupons and gift cards expiring so it was now or never. The boys were their typical bored selves in Old Navy, running around like banshees and making loud/crazy noises at themselves whenever they passed by a mirror. But we got Cailyn some cute clothes (turquoise skinny jeans, woot woot!) and the boys some flip flops.  Then we went and had some pretzel bites. We got cinnamon ones and salted ones. It's funny how Jacob and Cailyn hovered over the cinnamon ones (little sweet tooths) and Owen & Landon ate all the salted ones. After just one or two more stores we were done. But at the exit there was one of those little photo booth things and I thought, why not? So we all crammed into the tiny little booth and the boys really had no idea what was going on. Between that and us not all being able to fit, the pictures weren't the greatest but my kids just thought that was the coolest thing ever. We got 4 pics so they each got one and they were so excited. Ahhh, it's the little things in life. :)

 So after that we went to Barnes & Noble to spend a gift card Cailyn had. They had this huge kids area we pretty much hung out in and the boys loved getting books off the shelves and plopping down to read them. At one point I guess Owen lost track of me cuz I heard him calling for me. He started walking out of the children's area, a stack of books under his arm, shouting, "Mooom. Oh Moooom! You're missing somebody!" And yes, he attracted a lot of stares. Funny kid.

All in all my kids had a really good time. More and more I'm realizing that it's seizing the little moments that really matter most in life. There, that's my life lesson for the day. :P

 

Some pillows .... And a tough kid!

So my kids kinda love all the pillow cases I've made them. And it's been good sewing practice for me, too. :) After the Halloween & Christmas ones, we decided to make some they could use year-round. So I put on my brave pants and took all four kids to Joann's to pick out some material. Not gonna lie, I wanted to pull my hair out once or twice, but overall it wasn't too traumatic.

Landon was very adamant about having a soft flannel material for his. The Angry Birds Star Wars was just a bonus. ;)

Owen really wanted a space one but other than that didn't care too much what else there was.

Jacob was insistent that he have brown in his trim. I'd originally picked out navy and orange but he would NOT let that happen!

Cailyn was the easiest. She picked all her stuff out on her own.

 And now on to some other business.  It's probably no shock that Owen is turning into my most difficult child EVER! He is stubborn and vocal and independent and quick to anger and does not play well with the other kids. Or at least not when they try to boss him around. ;) I seriously need to get him this shirt because it is Owen to a tee!

 

So more and more lately I've had to remove him from playing with the other kids for a while till he can calm down. Sometimes he's happy to spend some one-on-one time with me.

 Other times, not so much. :P

But even though he may give me a serious eye twitch at the end of each day, he still never fails to crack me up! His latest thing is changing clothes many times throughout the day, usually putting on multiple shirts and pants at once. (Reminds me of the Friends episode -- Could I BE wearing any more clothes?) 

The other day I was making some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and the next thing I knew Owen was spreading his blanket on the floor and had gotten himself a plate and sippy cup of water and asked if he could have a picnic with his grilled cheese. I thought the glasses -- indoors, at night -- was a great touch. :)

Oh man, this kid is giving me a run for my money!

Lately...

So it's been quite sometime since I posted anything, and I wanted to let you all know that we are alive :).  We had a great Christmas and New Years! (though we did miss out on all the fun you guys had in Utah...)  Wes and I actually stayed up till midnight on New Year's Eve, and then got up at 6 with the kids the next morning- yup, I don't miss staying up late at all haha! For New Year's Day we took both the kids and saw Frozen which we all LOVED.  Mckay and Lyla were both soo good throughout the entire movie; I just cannot believe how grown up both of them are.  We then set a record for movies seen at the movie theater in one year because Wes and I got to go see Catching Fire for our anniversary and it was AWESOME!

Anyways, here are some of the other things we've been up to of late...

My little stud the first day of sunbeams. I cannot believe he's old enough to be a sunbeam already! He also told me he was going to grow up to be a princess after class. There are 7 girls in his class and then him...he got confused lol 

Mckay started swim lessons in December and he will resume them in february. Despite his face in this picture, he absolutely LOVES swimming and is doing super well! He'll swim by himself the 3 feet to the edge of the pool when his teacher asks him too :) We are blessed to have our community rec center so close by.  Their classes are so cheap!

Mom requested some Christmas pictures...we didn't take very many. Sorry mom :)

So I've never really had someplace to hang up clothes I didn't want to dry besides my door frames (sooo annoying), so when we found this adjustable flag pole holder at Home Depot for $6 I was pretty excited :). We just stuck a wooden dowel in it, mounted it opposite my washer and dryer, and...

voila! A disappearing drying rack haha. I am pretty excited about this dumb thing, I won't lie.

My new throw pillows made from cutting a king pillow in half...get on yours Marie!

I've been wanting to do this ever since I saw it on pinterest. Snow painting with hot water mixed with food coloring. We had a lot of fun playing in the snow.  We haven't had too much of it yet this winter :)

New Job Deets!

Hello everyone,

I first of all, want to say that I am SO glad that Mom, Dad, Colby, Marie, and the kids came up to Utah for Christmas.  It was so much fun!  I really enjoyed spending time with everyone.  Connor has been so irritated that he has no one but Mommy to play with when he wakes up in the morning.  I think he really liked seeing his Gramma first thing in the morning.  :)

So yesterday I had my first REAL day on the job.  I worked my first 12 hour shift.  It was AWESOME!  I get to do all of the dirty work (yes, I change diapers and have to give sponge baths) but I also get to do glucose readings, and help settle the patients that come back from having surgery.  I will do blood draws from the lines that they already have in their arms. I will also do some clerical work.  It should be pretty great.

I am super excited to get more experience and do things on my own.  Right now I have a trainer with me at all times, I'm grateful for that.  My boss is probably the nicest person that I have ever met.  She practically never goes home.  She stays as long as the unit needs her, which is pretty much 24-7.  It's a new unit, so they are still working out all the kinks.  She told me while I am training that I can just let her know what days I want to work and to just come in on those days.  So for right now it's super flexible.   A lot of the other HCA's go to school, so I will get to have my schedule for the whole semester, which is great because I sign up for what I want.

I'm hoping that with time, they will feel that they can give me more responsibilities.  It was so difficult to be away from Connor for that long and this job will be a sacrifice, but I felt like I was meant to be there yesterday.

Here are a few things I learned yesterday:
1) GET YOUR FLU SHOT- Just get it.  Get it for yourself, make your kids get it, make your spouse get it.  People die because of it.  I always knew people die from the flu, but it all of a sudden became real for me yesterday. (no, no one died when I was there)
2) DONT GET DIABETES - Please, please, please don't let yourself get diabetes. It is totally preventable and totally manageable (with exercise, not overeating, and watching your sugar intake- I really need to work on this)  Patients who have diabetes have a harder time recovering and getting back to normal.
3) DONT COME TO THE ICU!!- if you can avoid it (generally, you can with preventable measures)  take care of them before it's too late.  Sounds kind of negative, but you seriously don't want to have to be there- chest tubes and being intubated are not a fun time - from what I understand, you only go to the ICU if you are REALLY REALLY sick or if you are recovering from a major surgery, so don't come in.

That's that.  Love you all! Make healthy choices!