Arizona Trip

We went to Arizona last week to visit with family and friends. It was a great trip! We were traveling from Monday until Saturday. It was great! We stayed most of the time with our friends Brad and Kae (or if you are Taylor we stayed with Mica!). We stayed one night with my Aunt and Uncle as well. We spent parts of three days visiting with my Grandpa. He is tired and weak and waiting on Procrit to help him feel better and have more energy. He was supposed to get it last week but it didn't come in. It's very taxing on his heart not to have it. We enjoyed visiting with him but had to make sure we didn't wear him out too much. The kids just adore him. He loved playing, in his chair, with Mark and holding Luke. He also loved watching the girls playing and doing projects with Valerie (his caregiver).
Mark really loved his great grandpa and his great uncle. He enjoyed playing with them and they were great with him. He can be kind of hesitant and shy but he wasn't with them.
On Friday we were able to visit with one of my close friends from High School, Amy and her two daughters. It made me realize just how tiny my kids are. Her little girl who turned 3 at the beginning of March is a good two inches taller than Taylor who turned 4 a week and a half ago. Her little girl who is two weeks younger than Luke is much longer and bigger. It was just fun to see the two of them next to each other!
It's always fun to visit and hang out with Brad and Kae. We wish we lived near them!
It was so nice to see everyone and it was a much needed break to go out to Arizona and visit so many fun people!

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Taylor is 4 today! I can hardly believe it. I remember this day 4 years ago. I went to the doctor in the morning and I had been having problems but I was doing so well and the doctor said "You are doing great now! I think you will make it to full term!" You can imagined how happy I was since they have been telling me that I was going to have her early. We were just going to go home and take Leata with us to some tests I had that afternoon but instead we decided to drop her off with my mom and dad. We then went and picked up lunch at Taco Bell and went home. As I walked up the two steps in the garage, my water broke! We went inside, packed a bag called family and headed to the hospital not knowing what to expect. At the hospital they told me that they were going to try and prevent labor with me in the hospital for one more week (I was 33 weeks and they like to get you to 34 weeks if they can). Tayor definitely had other plans. There were problems that could have injured her or killed one or both of us. She came very fast once I went into labor, within two hours she was here. She did amazingly well for a 33 weeker and is still doing wonderfully! Happy 4th birthday, Taylor!

Fun With a Nebulizer

Not really fun with a nebulizer but that's what we were doing tonight. Any time this Winter that Mark had a cold he would wheeze, cough and his chest would retract. Finally, the third time this happened, we couldn't watch and wait any longer so the doctor prescribed a nebulizer. Until this point he's only had to use it through two illnesses but now his allergies are so bad that he was coughing wheezing and retracting again. We had to use it tonight. He's still coughing but the wheezing and retractions have stopped and hopefully he will make it through the night without needing another treatment. We are going to have to take him back to the doctor to see if their is a daily med he can take for his allergies instead of having to do this each time. He hates it, so do A.J. and I, but at least it saves us a trip to the ER (where they would just do the same thing).

Taylor

Taylor wanted me to take some pictures of her today. After a couple of minutes she was done but these are a few we got. She loves getting her picture taken. :)

Leata is 6 Years Old!

I can't believe my baby is six years old and finished with Kindergarten. She is so excited to go to first grade that she doesn't want to have Summer break. Taylor and Mark are thrilled she is home all the time and I love it too. Luke isn't so sure though. She likes to pick him up and carry him around when I am not looking.

Leata had a great birthday. The Saturday before, she wanted to go out for breakfast. We went to IHOP. She didn't want to go anywhere else. She loved her smiley face pancake and they brought her a Sundae for dessert and sang to her. She thought it was the best thing ever.

At school they celebrated the day before her birthday. On her birthday, they had field day and she decided it was all for her birthday. After school and when A.J. got home from work, she got to open presents and have an ice cream cake and then Saturday she had a few friends over to play games and have cupcakes. It was a lot of fun.

Leata is such a loving and kind girl. She is friends with everyone (even boys, or maybe especially boys?) and just loves everyone. She is very mothering to all of her siblings and a lot of the time they love it (but not ALL the time). She is such a fun little girl and we love having Leata in our family. I have learned so much from her, especially about loving everyone and being Christlike. She is such a good example of those things, even if she is difficult at times. She's still EASY compared to my sweet little Mark who is always in trouble!

This is just typical Leata! She is so fun! :)