Poor teeth

We haven't had dental coverage since 2007. Yup. The last time I saw a dentist was THREE YEARS AGO! Nasty, right? I finally put my foot down and (since my mouth is killing me) demanded that I see a dentist NOW. My appointment is on Monday. Before the 2007 visit, I waited two years between visits for the same reason (no coverage) and only had 3 cavities! It used to be that I would have 5 new ones every 6 months, so 3 in two years was fantastic. My worst nightmare is having to have a root canal. I have dreams about my teeth falling out. Seriously. I need help. Or a visit to the dentist. So, I added another poll to the side......how many cavities will I have?! :)

Once bitten, twice shy

A couple of weeks ago we went to a baby blessing. After sacrament meeting, we went to our friends' house for some delicious food and so that I could practice holding a newborn again and try to make myself believe I can handle three kids three years old and under. Our friend's have this great play area outside so, most of the time, that's where everyone was. I was trying to be helpful and hide from my kids so (luckily) I stayed indoors most of the time to help out when needed. I was outside maybe 30 minutes. Wanna know what I saw the next morning?

Yep. Mosquito bites. 21 mosquito bites from my knees down! This picture shows 9 all within inches of each other. (And go ahead with all your pasty white jokes....trust me, I've heard it all from Shane.)

My right leg got the worst of it, but my left was definitely still attacked.

I've had mosquito bites before (obviously) but never this bad. It seriously got to the point where it would wake me up in the middle of the night because Shane's leg would brush mine or the sheets would touch it. I would be up for HOURS because it itched SO. BADLY. After the 3rd night of that, I researched some natural home remedy ideas online (it was 2 AM and I wasn't in the mood to run to the store). The general consensus seemed to be baking soda mixed with water to form a paste.

It did help to relieve the itch....for a while. I tried putting band-aids on the bites so that I could go to bed without getting the paste all over. Well, in this one spot, there wasn't a band-aid big enough in the world. So, I got out the first aid kit, wrapped it with some gauze.....and realized that the gauze is flimsy and would fall off in seconds. So, being the creative genius that I am, this was my solution to keep the gauze on:

The tape on my foot didn't last 5 minutes before it started coming off, so I quickly took care of that....

My calves look huge and my ankles look tiny......I hope that's not really how my calves look.

Anyway, Lexi woke up about an hour later and decided she was done sleeping for the night (at 3 AM). I checked and the paste was all dry and nasty, so I decided to wipe it off and see what happened. Well, it came off easily enough, but touching it with the cloth brought the itch back full force. I googled some more and tried Aloe Vera gel instead. Holy hannah montana it was amazing! It dried quickly so I didn't need to look like a mummy going to bed and it didn't itch again for a full 24 hours!!
Can you see all the aloe? I may have slathered it on a bit thick that first night.... :)

Anyway, it has now been over two weeks and the bites are almost gone! The itching has stopped on it's own and I can shave my legs again! :) Shane, Kaden and Lexi were outside almost two hours at the same event I was and NONE of them got ANY bites. I complained asked my midwife why I got so many bites when no one else was touched. She said that pregnant women have a lot more blood pumping through them so I would be like a freakin' beacon for all mosquito's in Utah. Great. Just as summer is coming around. I was pregnant all summer with Kaden and never got more than one bite at a time. Not sure what that means about this baby....

So that's my mosquito story. Feel free to leave sympathetic comments. All Shane said was, "Oh stop complaining. You're fine."

Adorable pictures!

Ok, so in follow-up to my last post about our vacation, here are the pictures from Kenzie! She is awesome and got them to me fast. :) Enjoy!

Cutie patooties (don't you just love Lexi's expression? hahaha)

Grab and.....

throw!

Buddies. :D Kaden loves having guy friends (since his cousins are both girls).

Going down the slide!

Trying to find something to hang onto... :)

I LOVE this picture! BOTH kids AND hubby are all smiling!! Adorable!!!

We went on a walk so that Kaden could see "real" horses. Unfortunately, this one didn't want to be fed from us, but Kaden still loved seeing the "bown horse."

A little camera shy (both of them). ;)

On our walk-the boys were chasing some type of huge bird (I can't remember, Kenz, so feel free to remind me). :)

Kenzie took some pictures of Lexi in her adorable Easter dress. :) Which was pretty brave considering Lexi had gotten about three hours of sleep in the last 24 hours and was battling allergies. They turned out SO good, though! I couldn't pick just one, so here are a few for your viewing pleasure. :)

Kenzie picked this flower from her gorgeous flowerbed and Lexi was IN. LOVE. with it. She didn't put it down for foreva.


I LOVE the pictures and my adorable baby girl. :) Thanks again Kenzie!

Fun weekend getaway!

Shane and I have always loved going to fun, exotic places for vacation.

Hawaii? Check.

Disneyland/world (totally exotic)? Check.

Bahamas? Check.

Cruises to Mexico? Check.

Fillmore, UT? Check.

Like I said, we love exotic. ;)

Ever since our friends moved to Fillmore (3 hours away in the middle of nowhere) we have gone there more than I ever dreamed I would. And you know what? I love it there. It is everything a vacation should be: fun, relaxing, away from the busy cities, and (of course) we get to see our friends! We went this last weekend and, aside from Lexi deciding she only needs an hour of sleep a night on vacation, it was heaven. Kenzie's camera is way better than mine, so as soon as she sends me the pictures she took, I will post those. For now, here's a couple that I got:

At the park-Lexi eating her sandwich being her cute little self.

Kaden on the slide. See all those rocks at the bottom? Yeah. That would be courtesy of my son teaching Logan to throw rocks at the slide. You're welcome, Kenz. ;)

Kaden had SO much fun with Logan! I think Kenzie got a better picture of the two of them together and smiling, so I can't wait to see that. :)

Kenzie taking a picture of cute Gaines with her awesome camera. Seriously-I want it now. Don't be surprised if it turns up missing after the next time we come down, um-kay Kenz? haha

I am not above bribery. This is Kaden with his brand new Thomas the Train book I bought just for this trip. He was extremely happy and was an angel both on the way there and back. He just read and munched on goodies. :)

And, of course, since Lexi didn't sleep all weekend, she was out within the first five minutes in the car. Luckily she only slept for an hour, then when we got home, she passed out and slept for about 11 hours straight. Heaven.

Thanks Bailey family for a FUN weekend!!

It is still an it.

Well, baby was sleeping soundly yesterday and cuddled up so cute.....in a tight little ball. Which meant that we couldn't see any boy or girl parts. My midwife is amazing and has now been with me for three kids, so she knows me (and my impatience) well. She told me to come back in three weeks rather than four and we WILL find out that day-no matter what! :D May 4th is the new "big day." For those of you non-believers *coughKenziecoughcough* who think I did find out and am holding out on you, here is the proof for ya:

See what I mean? He/she was sitting Indian style with his/her arms tucked in securely on top of his/her legs. We got some great spine shots, though. So, Baby is healthy and growing strong. What more could I ask for? Well, a shot at some little man/girl parts would be nice. ;)

P.S. I still say boy. I've had two dreams now about it being a boy and there are certain dreams (not all of them, though...they can get crazy) that I trust. We'll see in 2 weeks and 6 days!

Couple of stories

Shane has school Thursday nights. It's the one night of the week that I feel sorta single again, since I only have to cook for one again (Kaden doesn't eat, and Lexi just has some of whatever I have, but not enough to make tons). Last night, I was eating my dinner for one when Shane got home and the following conversation took place:

Shane: You're eating ice cream for dinner??

Me: No! Of course not! The BABY is eating ice cream for dinner.

Shane: Okay, then what did you have for dinner?

Me: I'm actually kind of full after having what the baby wanted, so I think I'll just skip my dinner tonight.

Shane (walking into the other room): uh-huh sure

Kaden (and Lexi, actually) inherited Shane's natural extremely hot body temperature. He was sitting next to me on the couch today and put his hand on my arm, then looked at me and said, "Mom cold?" I was freezing, so I told him, "No, mom's ok. Don't worry." He got up off the couch, brought me his coveted Thomas the Train blanket, tucked me in, then sat right next to me again and held my freezing cold hand in his uber warm hands (yes it took both of his to cover my one hand) until I could feel my fingers again. Is he not the sweetest kid EVER?! I love my kiddos. :)

Explain please

Ok, I put that voter thingy over on the right to guess if I'm having a boy or girl. I was surprised that some of you think that I shouldn't find out what I'm having. Now's your turn to explain why not. Because I already have one of each so it doesn't matter?? I'll just say this: I'm not that patient. Don't you like picking out a name and then calling it that instead of "it" for 9 months? Or even just "him" or "her" rather than "it"? Am I alone in this? Anyway, I will take everyone's opinion into consideration. Let me know why YOU (you know who you are) think I shouldn't find out IT'S gender next week. Have a great day! :D

Easter fun

I absolutely love holidays with kids! It makes them 100 times better. :) We had a great Conference/Easter weekend. Saturday morning I took Kaden to Macey's (grocery store-not department for those of you Californians reading this) for their Easter egg hunt. The flyer sounded fun and organized, but it was horrible. I couldn't believe people could be SO pushy and mean!! Kaden ended up with maybe 6 eggs and a bottle of bubbles. That will be our first and last public egg hunt. Not even worth it. We came home, ate breakfast, then decorated eggs. Well, Shane and I decorated eggs while Lexi cried because we wouldn't let her throw & chew on the eggs and Kaden refused to touch the eggs because he doesn't like getting his hands dirty. So, he picked the colors and faces and I "helped" him. This was the result of our hard work:

Ta-da! Yes, there are still some white (unboiled) eggs I saved. You know, in case I suddenly need cookies or brownies before I get to the store again. ;)

Notice how the two in the back middle are eyeing each other? hahaha I honestly didn't plan that-just stuck them all randomly in as we went. And the two pink ones have the kids' names on them, although from this angle, Lexi's looks like it says, "EXIT."

I loved the stick on faces. It made it more fun for the kids and easier for me. :) Definitely something I will keep doing until the kids are old enough to care.

Saturday evening we went to my mom's for dinner/Easter fun.

Kaden loved finding the eggs. :)

His cousin, McKayla, and Kaden both finding eggs.

Lexi had candy in her mouth and an egg in each hand. It's so simple to make a 1 year old happy.

My little brother left his sunglasses out and Kaden found them. Doesn't he look handsome?

Sunday morning the Easter bunny came! Shane took a video instead of pictures, so this is the only picture I have. The videos take foreva to upload plus Kaden was totally adjusting himself in it, so I won't be sharing that until he starts dating.
He loved the candy as well as yet another bouncy ball to add to his collection.

For dinner and yet another egg hunt, we went to my dad's house.

Shane helping Lexi.

Kaden filling up his bucket. :)

This was all the candy Lexi grabbed and it was all that she wanted. She was perfectly happy just gnawing away on the laffy taffy wrappers. And is that not the CUTEST Easter dress you've ever seen?!

I was trying to get Lexi's hand out of her mouth, so I asked her to do the sign for "A." She is both saying it and signing it and it looks like she is waving. :) That works! Yes, her one shoe is gone. They are new and a little big still, but adorable!

Lexi adored this dress! I mean, ADORED! I wish I had known what her reaction would be when I first put her in it. I would have made Shane record it. I got her all dressed up, did her hair, put on her new shoes, and put bows in her hair, then took her to a mirror. She looked at herself, got THE. BIGGEST. smile on her face, then started swishing back and forth to feel the dress move around her. She was loving it. She would walk in a room and when people told her how cute she was, she just smiled so big and started swishing her dress again. lol I love my girly girl.