A great Christmas!

I know I am behind on posting, so I'll do a short summary of the last week.  

Meaning only two or five pictures per event.  :D

We went with our good friends, the Colton's, to Ogden's Christmas Village on the 23rd.  It was warmer than last year, which made it a lot nicer this time.  :)  There were about a million people there, though, which was not so easy with three kids and a blind man.  But it was still fun!  :D

Don't our kids look SO happy to be there?  ;)

 Shane said that I looked like the kid from A Christmas Story....

I was only wearing two shirts, a sweater, a hoodie, and two coats.  :D  But, hey, I was WARM!

Kaden just wanted to see Liz.  The lights were a bonus.  ;)

Can I have some hot chocolate please?

Ari stayed super warm and cozy.   :)

All of the kids!  And Scott....who totally counts as one of the kids.  ;)

Kelly is too fast for me.  I was trying to get a candid shot of her and Scott, but she made sure to smile each time.  This is why I can't get bad pictures of her.  :)

   On Christmas Eve, we went to Shane's parent's house.  I forgot to get out the camera, so no pictures from that-sorry!  The kids had lots of fun, though, and it was a good night.  :D   When we got home, they opened their Christmas Eve pajamas and went to bed to wait for Santa.   

Kaden got up first, so I let him open his stocking stuffers while he waited for Lexi to wake up.  This was a Buzz Lightyear toy that he's been wanting for a while.

Lexi eventually woke up and we opened all the presents!  Here is Kaden opening up his "big boy" bike.

Lexi loved her life sized dancing doll and still carries it around and sleeps with it.  :)  She HAS to have her own little tutu on, too, and they dance and twirl around the living room.

Kaden opened all of Ari's presents for her,  but he made sure he was sitting right by her so that she could see him opening them.  :)  He's such a sweetie.

Here is Kaden showing Ari her present.  :)  He was seriously so cute.

Ari loves Christmas morning!

Kaden spent the morning riding around on his new bike.  :)  We had to put the seat as high as it will go.  He will probably be too tall for it by the time summer gets here at the rate he grows, but Shane said Lexi can use it after that.  HA-like Lexi will be tall enough to use it anytime in the next year.

 After a VERY relaxing morning (the kids also got a V-Tech system and played that all morning) that was really just perfect, we went to my mom's house for a gift exchange before heading over to my grandma's house for dinner with the whole family (who are in Utah, anyway).

It felt a lot more crowded than that picture looks.  ;)

On Sunday, the 26th, we went to my dad's house for dinner and gifts.  You know, it sounds fun having three Christmases because of the divorce, but it was actually just exhausting.  Fun, though, to be able to celebrate with all of our families!  :D   I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

 Oh, and P.S., Shane bought me a Silhouette!!!!  Click on the link if you are one of the many asking, "What is that??"

And P.P.P.S.S.S.S., Shane got a new computer for Christmas.  He had to buy it for himself because if he left it up to me to buy, I would just look for the cutest one.  ;)

The most wonderful time of the year

We went and saw Santa last Friday.  The photographer tried to convince us to buy pictures. 
HA! 
I'm not about to pay $27 for a picture of my son screaming.  I can get that for free. 

So, they allowed us to take ONE picture with our own camera, and no flash allowed.  The first picture I took was completely blurry (I hate not using flash), so I sneaked in a second one really fast.  Shhh-don't tell.  ;)

Here we were....waiting for Santa:

See how excited they BOTH are?

haha  The look on his face seems like it was a real giraffe he was petting.  :)

 All was well, until it was our turn....

 

Well, at least Ari loved him.  :)

 Lexi wouldn't stop moving her head, so I couldn't get a non-blurry shot of her face.  Oh well.   She kept looking back and forth from Shane and I to Santa, wondering why her parents would encourage her to sit on a strange man's lap in the middle of the mall.  Kaden refused to look up and I was just laughing the whole time.  The photographer didn't believe me, but I knew he would freak out.  Santa was SO great with him, though.  Last year's Santa was ornery and mean, so I was really happy with Santa this year.  He put his arm around Kaden and took a couple of minutes to really talk to him and let him see that Santa isn't scary.  Lexi never smiled, but she didn't mind him, either.  Ari was, of course, just fine.  We'll see about next year. ;)

Merry Christmas!

You know who you are

I've recently had it made known to me that I've been slacking a bit in the blogging department.  I won't name any names, but you know who you are.  ;)  So, just for you, I did three new blog posts (four if you count this one).  :D  Enjoy!

Jazz game

For Shane's work Christmas party, we got to go to the Radisson in Salt Lake for dinner, then to the Jazz game.  It was our first date without the kids since our anniversary last March.  :)

I wasn't all that impressed with the dinner.  The highlight was the salad.  But meeting Shane's boss and coworkers was fun!  I was expecting all of these nerdy looking guys with glasses and plaid shirts(I mean, come on-they ALL work with computers ALL day and love it), but there was only one guy like that.  

Everyone else was HOT!  When Shane kept introducing me to people, I kept asking where the nerds were and who are the hot guys.  He rolled his eyes at me and said that he didn't think they were hot.  

(I'm glad.)

We headed over to the Jazz game after dinner.  You could tell men had been in charge of the planning because here is what happened:  they were supposed to get a suite, but when doing a head count of those coming, they forgot to count the wives that would come, too and didn't get a large enough suite.  By the time they realized this (2 days before), it was too late to get another suite and so they gave up the one suite that they had and traded it for the only available tickets left:  above the nosebleed section.  

Guys-we were in the rafters.

I think next year one of the wives should volunteer to be in charge.  If we were still going to be there, I totally would.  (That's a whole other blog post, though.)

Anyway, it was fun to spend time with Shane!  We both kept looking around for a kid to take care of and kept going to the back of the car after getting out to get the kids out.  :)

The Jazz were playing the Miami Heat.  One of the guys is 7' 3" tall!!!    That is insane!

I'm pretty sure his name is Goliath.

Shane was thrilled.  haha  Do you see the ceiling behind him?  Seriously-the nosebleed above the nosebleed.

 The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters were great.  The 4th-notsomuch.  Jazz lost.

It was still a fun night out!  It made Shane and I realize just how old we are, though, when 9:00 came around and we were falling asleep at the game.  Yup, we're awesome.  :)

Decorating the tree!

For FHE last week, we put up our tree!  Normally I get it up earlier, but with Ari's blessing and a million people coming over for that, I figured we would wait cause we needed all the room we could get.  

I LOVE Christmastime with kids!  Kaden and Lexi totally got into decorating and loved every minute of it.  We turned on some fun Christmas music and got to work:

Lexi quickly realized that putting the ornaments on the tree was harder than it looked, so she started getting them out and handing them to Kaden and I.

She had fun organizing and grouping the ornaments.  Smartie pants.  ;)

When I was growing up, decorating the tree was a very stressful event.  My dad was SO, SO particular about how HIS tree was decorated and told us time and time again to not put a green ornament by a green light, a red ornament by a red light.....you get the picture.  We also couldn't put a round ornament near another round ornament.  Seriously.  So, my attitude now that I have my own kids is, "Do whatever the heck you want to the tree and HAVE FUN!"  :D  I let Kaden do most of the tree by himself (I got the taller part since he's still shorter than me).

Kaden loved decorating the tree.  :)  Every time he put a new ornament on, he would say, "I DID IT!!"

See all the ornaments CLOSE together?  I don't even care and I didn't fix it when he went to bed.  :)  I think it looks fantastic!

 Shane got in trouble because this is what he did while we all decorated the tree:

 Yeah.  

Loser.  

I called him Scrooge for the next two days to make him mad. 
It totally worked.  hahaha

(I felt bad later about getting after him for not helping with the tree when I read my friend, Jamee's, post about how she decorated her tree with her daughter while her son was sleeping and her husband wasn't even home.  It made me realize that it doesn't have to be this huge family activity and it can still be fun.  Just as long as the tree gets up.  So, thanks Jamee!)

Kaden and Lexi with their decorated tree!

Feelin' the love.

 I put up more lights around the house and now EVERY morning the very first thing Kaden does is make sure that every light in the house gets plugged in.  :)  We have all sorts of Christmas spirit around here!  

Happy 2nd birthday, Lexi!

Today is Lexi's 2nd birthday!  

Holy cow-where did the last two years go??

She had her doctor's appointment on Dec. 3rd (Ari had her 2 month appt that day, too).

Her stats are: 

Height: 33 inches tall (50%-YAY!!  She went from 25% to 50%!!)

Weight: 25 lbs (25%-so her normal)

She is finally getting taller (although she's got nothin' on Kaden)!

We had her birthday party yesterday, Saturday the 11th.  It was a Minnie Mouse theme.  Lexi has been a bit obsessed with Minnie lately.  :)

Food!

Lexi did NOT want to open presents at first.  She just wanted to keep playing and eating with her cousins.  I had to hold her down on my lap and show her that there were cool things under the wrapping paper. :)

She was so funny.  She had to try on everything she got.  She put on her new backpack (the purple one in this pic) and got some cute new boots that she just HAD to have on RIGHT. THAT. MINUTE.  :)

Lexi got so many cool toys!

Kaden loves them, too.  ;)

The cake!  :)

 The cake was one of my first attempts at using fondant, but I like how it turned out.  Plus, everyone said it tasted great, too.  :D  It took me a loooong time to make and Shane kept coming in the kitchen asking, "Why are you spending so much time on this?!  It's just a cake!"

Men. 

I told him he would never understand until he gets a uterus.

He said he'll pass.

I was all ready to "help" Lexi blow out the candle, but she did a great job!   I think she got it on the 3rd try.  :D

She was clapping for herself.  :D  That's my girl!

I did NOT let her have her own piece of cake this year, but she definitely still got plenty.  (Plus, she found out that if she goes up to people and says, "AHHH" with her mouth wide open, they will feed her cause she's so stinkin' cute.  She got more than her fair share of cake and ice cream.  haha) 

Anyway, I also wanted to point out just how long Lexi's hair has gotten in a year. This was from her party last year:

 

And now this year:

Looong curly hair!  LOVE IT!!  P.S. That's my dad's newest wife, Heidi, in the background.  She's super nice.....she'll never last. 

It was a fun party!  Thanks to all who came!

Ari's special day

This past Sunday, December 5th, we blessed Ariana.  We had so many friends and family come and felt so loved.  Thanks to everyone who came and supported Ari in her big day!  

We borrowed the dress from my sister.  I love loooong dresses on baby girls.  Ok, actually on any girl.  :)

 

 

 

BIG yawn.  Being the center of attention is tiring.

My beautiful girl.

HAHA  I love her little expressions.  Why is everyone looking at me?

Kaden kept a close eye on Ari.  Already a protective big brother.  :)

Most of the time I had no idea where my kids were.  Ari was being passed around and Kaden and Lexi were having fun with their cousins and friends.  :)

Our friend taking this picture said, "Kaden isn't smiling."  Yeah.  I know.  He doesn't like to smile for pictures unless I am the one behind the camera.  That's not inconvenient at all.

   We had sloppy joes (with lots of sides and desserts) for lunch.  I made 5 lbs of sloppy joe and every last bit of it was gone.  We were thisclose to running out completely.  Man our families can eat.  :)

Trying again

Well, on November 23rd I had a tubal ligation done.  If you are wondering what the difference is between the tubal and Essure (my other procedure) here ya go:

Essure: coils are inserted into each tube and over 3 months, scar tissue builds up so that nothing except Shane's super swimmers can get through.  A follow-up test is done after 3 months where dye is injected into each tube to make sure nothing can get through.  If the test is a success (mine was), then they say that there is a 0.02% chance of ever getting pregnant again.  HA. HA. HA.

Tubal ligation: the doc goes in through your belly button and also at your bikini line and, using a scope to see, puts a clamp on each tube to block it.  (They used to actually cut the tubes and take a little piece out, but I guess they've realized clamps work the same...?)  There is a 1.4-2% chance of getting knocked up again.  Awesome.  Like I can't beat those odds.

To help bring the chance of getting preggo again down, Shane is going to get snipped in January once he gets on insurance through his work.  We talked about it and if I get pregnant again after all of this, we are going to say, "Forget it!" and have 11 kids.  

Anyway, everything went smoothly with my surgery.  The hot anesthesiologist came in to give me the good drugs and said, "I head that you had a surprise baby..."  (Ok, seriously, where do all these people hear about this?!  I am famous at Ogden Regional.)  "...my wife had a tubal done and we had a surprise, too, only a little different."

Me: "Um....what do you mean a little different?"

Hottie: "Well, she had twins."

OH MY GOSH.  

I'm about to have that same surgery and you're telling me this now?!  I guess he knows his wonderful drugs will relax me, even if his words don't.  Thanks, dude.

The first thing I remember after waking up was P.A.I.N.

Guys, I've had THREE kids and never been in so much pain.  I sleepily told the nurse that I was hurting.  She asked what my pain level was.  I told her a 9.  She gave me morphine.  15 minutes later, she asked where my pain was at.  I was honest when I said an 8.  She gave me more morphine.  The morphine didn't do too much (surprisingly) and I kept telling her I was still hurting.  She told me that I had had another drug, too (I forget the name) and I couldn't have anymore drugs for a little while.

I have a freakishly low pain tolerance.  

(That's another way of saying, "I'm a total wuss.")

About 45 minutes after waking up, they moved me to a room where Shane joined me.  About 30 minutes later, I was again asked where my pain was at.  I said 7.8.  She made me keep some soda and crackers down, then gave me percocet, which helped a lot more than the morphine.

I was in too much pain to be funny-drugged Loretta, but here are some pictures:

"Can I have more morphine?"

"Am I smiling?"

Me: "Oh sorry-I closed my eyes for that one."  Shane: "It's okay.  You look asleep in all of them anyway."

More percocet please!

It was so annoying/weird, but I couldn't keep my oxygen levels up for some reason.  It kept going down to 76 and wouldn't go above 85 without the oxygen mask on me.  (They wanted it at or above 90.)  I remember thinking that I have never in my life had to think about breathing.  A nurse would come in and tell me to take some deep breaths and keep breathing.  Um, hello?  I AM BREATHING!  Just not enough for them.  I was told no more pain meds unless I could keep the oxygen level above 90 on my own.  All I thought about was breathing in and out.  It was really weird to literally have to tell my brain to make my lungs breathe.  Anyway, after 40 minutes of that, my oxygen level was steady on it's own now so we were good to go home.  

The next three days were the worst pain I've ever felt in my life.  Seriously.  (And to add to the three kids that I've had, I've also had very serious knee surgery on BOTH knees where they cut into my BONE.  This was worse than all of that.)  I felt like I had torn every muscle in my body from the base of my skull to my hips.  I don't know why I was feeling that kind of pain all over, but it SUCKED.  I kept my percocet close, though, and just layed on the couch waiting to die.  Shane was able to get Tuesday and Wednesday off (and of course Thursday for Thanksgiving) and I wouldn't have survived at home without him.  It was actually really funny because even after each kid has been born, I have felt just fine so Shane has never had to actually do EVERYTHING around the house that I do.  For two days I silently laughed at him when he would say, 

"Oh my heck!  The first chance I get to sit down for two seconds and suddenly one of the kids needs something!!"

He'll never again ask me what I do all day.  :)

It's been a little over a week since the surgery now and I feel much, much better.  (Thankfully!)  Recovery from Essure was a piece of cake, but since it didn't work, I'll take the pain (please let this work!).

P.S. The doctor asked if I wanted pictures of the clamps on my tubes.  I said, "HECK YES!"  He gave them to Shane after the surgery when I was still in la la land, and it totally grossed Shane out.  Wuss.  I was going to post them for everyone to see, but Shane said that I shouldn't if I still want friends.  So, FRIENDS, what do you think?  Wanna see 'em?  They are not bloody or anything.  Just really, totally cool.  (But apparently not for the squeamish.....) 

Sneaky cheeky monkey

Ok, I know I need to post on my surgery last week, but I'm waiting until I find the dang cord to my camera so y'all can see the pictures (no videos this time...sorry).

A couple of weeks ago, I was craving some rice krispy treats.  When I googled the recipe, one came up that said Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats.  HOLY. FREAKING. COW.  Yes, please!!  

I had some extra chocolate almond bark lying around that I really needed to use, so I thought, what the heck, let's cover this puppy in chocolate and see how it tastes.  

Chocolate + peanut butter = deliciousness

I made them and ate 3/4 of the pan by myself Shane and I finished the pan within hours.  Pigs....yeah, yeah, I know.  Sue me.  :)

Well, I cut it up in the pan and was waiting for the chocolate to harden a bit more.  I left the kitchen (first mistake) and went in the living room to feed Ari.  The kids were running around playing and I didn't think twice when I heard one of our kitchen chairs being dragged across the floor (second mistake).  All of a sudden, Lexi came into the living room like this:

(sorry for the blurry pics...the closest camera I had was my phone)

You know you love me.

 So, I figure at this point, what else can I do but laugh and let her finish it?  :)  I didn't want chocolate everywhere, though, so I strapped her in to her high chair and made sure she kept her bib on.

Like my mustache?  ;)

 

 

She made a HUGE mess and loved every choco-peanut buttery morsel. :)  

Isn't it fun to be a kid?