I am Back!

Things have been crazy lately. Madeline had surgery on the 18th of August (her six month extension on her back). The night before surgery we had a bout with constipation that lasted until 3:00 in the morning. She never passed it, I think she just got so tired that she was able to relax and go to sleep. We got her up a few hours later to head to the hospital for her surgery. The morphene that they put her under didn't help with the constipation. Madeline was released the next day and we spent an extra night in the hotel so that Madeline could enjoy the hotel too. It was a long night, constipation still bothering her along with Spencer in retalitation that he was not in his bed and in his room in his house. We finally got Madeline the right amount of medicine to help with her problems. We thought we were home free, but we quickly learned that we weren't. It took a week in a half to get everything under control. Several calls to the doctor (don't ask why they didn't want to see us and instead just handle it over the phone..frustrating), two trips to the Urgent Care Center, and every over the counter drug that we could give her we finally got some peace in our house. It turned out that Madeline had stool stuck in her large intestines and to make matters worse gas was trapped in between all the stool and was not able to get out and to all this we add the pain that comes from having back surgery. She was a real trooper and you could see she was trying so hard to be brave. Spencer was feeding off of Madeline so every time she would cry in pain, Spencer would join in. It was crazy with having two kids crying all day and wanting and needing your attention, along with helping your son with school. It is a miracle that I am still alive. I had lots of plans, but as you can bet nothing got done. I just kept telling myself, this is just for a small moment, and it was. What was more frustrating than anything was not being able to do anything for Madeline and not getting the response from the doctors that I needed. Here I am her mother and I cannot take away the pain, all I could do was hold her as she screamed in pain. My girl is back and you can tell. I missed her spunk and the funny things that come out of her mouth, and I even missed her stuborness too. We got her on medicine for the time being, but I did inform the doctor that I much rather treat this with diet and get my daughter off from being dependant on a drug. I have to put enough medicine in her body to keep you a live I don't want to shove any more down here. However, until we can find a happy medium with her diet I have her on medication so hopefully she will never have to be in pain like that again.The kids have returned back to school. Madeline is in her same class with the same teachers, so no changes there. This year Madeline is finally able to communicate to me on what she did during school. Last year she would just keep telling me I don't know. When I pick her up she is so excited to tell me about her day. So all the way home from school she jibber jabbers in the car about all the fun things that she did during school. It is music to my ears and I absolutely enjoy hearing her talk. Anthony is in first grade this year in a gifted and talented class. He loves his teacher and is in with a few kids from his Kindergarten class too. He doesn't really tell me too much about his day, but I get a few pieces here and there. Anthony still enjoys piano and is having fun learning Star Wars music. I am amazed at how well he has grasped the piano and taken off with it. Spencer loves to jabber. He will come up to you and start jabbering as if he is having a real conversation with you. It is the funniest and cutest thing. He loves to jabber, I can only image what will happen when actual words come out. He had his 15 month check up and he weighs 27 pounds and is 33 inches tall.

I have been busy getting to know my sewing machine and in total love with it. My grandmother bought Madeline her first sewing machine, and Madeline loves it. Madeline pushes the pedal, I guide the fabric and tell her when to stop and the most important thing I do is watch out for my fingers. Madeline gets excited when it is time for her and I to sew, she loves making things. Though her attention spam fizzles out before the project is completed and I finish it myself. I took her to the fabric store and she picked out some material and fringe to make lots of pillows for her room. She thought that was the funnest thing to do and she was even more excited when we came home and made a pillow together.

After Madeline and I made a pillow together, I made a few more to cover her bench that I made her in her room. After that I attempted to make a fabric basket and after breaking two needles I decided that next time I will order the timetex on line. The basket turned out kind of funny looking, but it works to put things that we need to take care of when we leave the house (for example, bills, letter, packages, papers for school or doctor offices, etc.). I have a lot more projects, more projects then I have time for, but I am slowing chipping away at them. I am loving the fact that I can embroider things, it is like having a label maker for sewing. I love my label maker to label my totes around the house, and now I can label baskets, pillows, and bags that I make for the kids. It is fabulous.

Here are a few random pics of Anthony going to see the new star wars movie. He absolutely loved it, but Grant said it is not the same as seeing the original star wars movies. He said he wouldn't see it again.

The Best Gift Ever!

My Grandma surprised me with a brand new Embroidery/Sewing Machine. How cool is that! It is quite the understatement when I say that I was excited. Forget Christmas in July, how about Christmas in August! I quickly got the kitchen cleaned up, who wouldn't when you have a brand new sewing machine calling your name and your fingers itching to open it up and play with all the features. And oh boy does it have features. My favorite part is that I can sew without even pressing the foot, just push the start button and let it go. Now how cool is that! Having to thread a sewing machine and bobbin manually is a thing of the past. I mean with this machine it seems all I need to do is push buttons and watch my masterpiece unfold from my very own eyes.

I haven't been able to explore the embroidery side of the machine, I am leaving that to this weekend. Grant is planning on going for a bike ride and when he gets back, I am shutting the door to my make shift sewing room and letting my imagination go wild. My mind is filled with endless possibilities of what I can do, and my project list is getting longer and longer. Christmas will be so much fun. I plan on making the kids quilts for their beds with matching pillows and decorative pillows. With my new machine I can embroider their names and other decorative finishes now how cool is that going to be! I am probably more excited then they are. I know this for a fact. The other day in my animated voice I was explaining to Anthony all the fun things I have planned for decorating his room. When I was done explaining everything I asked for his opinion in which he replied you are crazy mom, you crack me up! This machine will give me endless fun as well as drain my wallet, those cartridges are not cheap! To try out my machine I made a bag for church

This isn't the best picture, but I was trying to show the decorative stitching that I did around the handle bars and along the top border. It sure is a fun toy!

Thanks Grandma you are the best!

Spencer's Quiet Book

Spencer is an active boy and loves to be moving, so sitting in sacrament meeting is not his idea of fun. We don't really have toys for him that would be church appropriate. Spencer prefers the toys that move light up and other fun actions. So for a few weeks ago as soon as we would enter the chapel he would start to protest because he knew where he was and what would be going on. Grant and I started to take turns sitting out in the foyer with Spencer. Thinking about this I knew that Spencer needed to be in the chapel with us as a family and perhaps with the right toys we could enjoy part of sacrament meeting together as a family. I decided about a quiet book and looking around realized that those babies are expensive and then I had a crazy thought, I will just make one. And so for one whole week the kids' enjoyed their total freedom and I became good friends with my sewing machine. I looked at other church related quiet books on line to get ideas and that put on my creativity cap and went to work. I went to the fabric store and bought whatever I thought would be fun in a quiet book. I was totally entering unknown territory for me, but in the end it was fun, I got to know my sewing machine better, figured out how to thread my surger, and produced a somewhat useful quiet book which Spencer through on the floor when he saw it. So we are still working on sitting through sacrament meeting. Only if the quiet book lit up and had action to it, but then it wouldn't be called a quiet book.
My favorite page is the family tree. It really neat to look at his tree with pics of his family members. It is almost overwhelming. I could have kept going at least two more generations but ran out of room. To do the titles of the book I used this paper, I found it at the craft store but you can make it yourself.

The book was fun to make. There are eight pages total and then I made a cover with handles and velcro to close it. Hopefully Spencer will appreciate the value of the book and enjoy it, until then there is always hope and the other two kids will enjoy the book for him.

Martha Stewart came for a Visit

I don't know what happened to me, but I got into a Martha Stewart kick this weekend. It all started when I saw these cute crayon roll ups and I knew this would be great for church. I then saw these cute bags and thought these would be great and the kid's church bag so they can each carry their own bag to church with stuff just for them. No more carrying this big bulky bag around. And so let the sewing begin. Thanks for the help of Grant. I am not really good at reading all those directions and so my husband helped me cut the fabric and helped me to understand the directions. I think they turned out really good and the kids sure did enjoy them.

And then I just kept going for some insane reason and I decided to make homemade cranberry bagels oh but wait I still kept going and made homemade wheat bread and Grant and the kids made homemade cranberry muffins, and I guess I still had enough energy to make dinner. Clean up was a whole other issue, it took me sometime to go in and clean up from my cooking and sewing excursions. I have determined that Martha Stewart has a crew and I don't so being Martha Stewart is exhausting. I have put her in the closet and am taking a break maybe she will come out again. I have some more sewing projects planned so we will see.

In searching the Internet to come up with neat ideas for the house I came across these neat ideas for traveling. My mind is dizzy with ideas that I just might have to put to action. Not only am I going to do this one for travel but I think I am going to make one for Madeline for when she goes to the hospital in a couple of weeks filled with fun and comforting things to do as she recovers.

Madeline has been having problems with stomach pain and constipation to the point of it disrupting our lives. The doctor gave us a couple of suggestions one was to do a test which I wanted to avoid I don't want to cause her pain more than I have to and the other suggestion was to eliminate dairy, fats, and grease, and processed foods. After looking at the list I realized there was nothing left to eat. Well we have eliminated milk and cheese, fats, grease, and taking baby steps to eliminating processed foods. We have noticed a difference and Madeline has not had any stomach problems or constipation since we started the changes. The only change has been her eating intake. She has started to eat more and enjoy eating. This new diet puts a lot of work on me, since most of her stuff needs to be made homemade, but we are taking baby steps so as to not overwhelm ourselves completely. It has been rewarding to see Madeline feeling better and not having problems with pain. She already goes through so much so to take care some of her pain is worth whatever effort I will need to do on my part.

Tinfoil dinners and our FHE

For our pioneer primary activity we wanted to serve lunch tin foil style. Since we can't start any fires we came up with idea of making pigs in a blanket using buicuit doe, hot dogs, tin foil and cooking it on the gril. With the help of the other primary counselor and Anthony and Madeline we figured out and experimented with the idea. I am happy to say it worked and ever since then my children ask for pigs in a blanket for lunch or for dinner. The critical step is spraying the tin foil with cooking spray for easy release after the pigs are done. So the first step is to take the biscuit dough (we used the ones that come in a can in the ref. section of the store). Flaten it out smooth and then place your hot dog in the middle. If you want cheese cut a slit down the middle but not all the way through and then add some cheese. Take the buscuit dough and wrap it around the hot dog like a taco shell. Then take the tin foil and wrap it burrito style and then place it on the gril about 6 min on each side.

For FHE this evening, it was Madeline's turn to do the lesson and boy was she so excited. We did the story of Nephi hunting for food in the wilderness. I wrote the story for Madeline and she colored the pictures that followed the story. I have included a video of Madeline giving her lesson.

After the lesson we took animals like Nephi would have hunted and with a bow and arrow we hunted like Nephi. The kids had fun hunting animals and knocking them off the coffee table. At first I was going to use clip art of different animals and attach them to a block, but forgot so I found some inexpensive plastic animals from the store. It was fun to use our imagination and pretend to be like Nephi. We were able to talk about out Nephi did not give up when he was faced with a hard task, but instead he asked Heavenly Father for help and Heavenly Father helped him. We also talked about how Heavenly Father did not just give Nephi the bow, Nephi had to work hard but Heavenly Father helped him to know how to build a bow. We related this to our own life that Heavenly Father just doesn't give us something, but instead we still need to work hard and Heavenly Father will help us.

It is neat to do stories from the scriptures and then help the children see in their own lives how they can be like the various prophets in the scriptures. I feel this helps bring the scriptures to life for the children and for them to be able to see how the scriptures can apply to their lives.

Anthony was sick during Pioneer Day so we were not able to have our Pioneer Day party so we will have this weekend. I figure the pioneers were still coming into the valley. So I will post pictures after our party.

How would you define Grant

Grant --

[adjective]: Extremely extreme!

'How" will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

How would you define Sandra

Sandra --

[noun]: A person who is constantly high

'How" will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Update on our life with Pictures

Princess Madeline. Madeline loves to dress up in her dress up shoes or as she calls them "princess shoes" her butterfly sunglasses, and any jewerly she can find. It is her favorite thing to do. This is funny because her mother is far from princess type at all. Her mother is more of a tom boy so to have a girl that likes all the "girly" stuff is amazing. However, she prefers jeans, shorts, and t-shirts to dresses so there is still a little bit of me in there. Madeline loves to be the princess and she even calls herself princess Madeline.

The time came for me to cut Spencer's hair. The curls around the ears were just gettin too long so off they came. Because I have curly hair all of our kids do too. I am not too big on curls on boys and so I keep the boys hair short. Afterwards by baby looked all grown up. His hair is thin enough that you can't really tell that he got a haircut.

What child doesn't love spaghetti. Spencer is no different. After his spaghetti episode we just took him outside in high chair and all and hosed both of them off, which he just loved. He absolutely loves the water. He loves it spraying in his face, he loves splashing in it, he just loves the water. This kid has no fear when it comes to the pool and water.

This summer we signed Anthony up for swim lessons at the local water park. It was only for two weeks so I wasn't expecting an Olympic swimmer, I just wanted him to at least give swimming a try without his life jacket. He is more comfortable in the water and will swim without his life jacket when he can touch, but he is more apt to put his life jacket on when cannot touch. However, with a little bit of encouragement he will take of his life jacket and go swimming and then after a few minutes you find him in a corner putting on his life jacket. His life jacket has become his security blanket. He amazes me sometimes. He loves the roller coaster slides and the other slides at the water park, but when it comes to swimming in a regular swimming pool without his life jacket you would think his best friend died. I think with more encouragement he will get the confidence he needs to kiss the life jacket good bye.

Spener's favorite thing to do is get in the hiking backpack with his dad and mow the lawn. He gets so excited when he sees his dad get the backpack ready. The other day I mowed the lawn for Grant and I am not so nice and don't carry around a child that weighs 26 pounds on my back and so Spencer sat at the back sliding glass door banging on it protesting that he wasn't out there mowing the yard. Grant has done this with each of our kids. Starting at around nine months he puts them in the back pack and they mow the lawn together, it has been their tradition together. We get all kinds of looks from the neighbors as they drive by, but it is something the kids have all enjoyed.

Madeline's new artwork

This summer I have been working with Madeline on recognizing letters in her name and then showing her how to write the letters in her name. It is one of her goals for the fall at school. Knowing that this was a goal, I thought I would start working on it thinking that the teacher will still need to work on it in the fall. Well the other day Madeline brought me this:

I wrote her name on the top on the page and she copied the letters herself. I was so proud of her. I didn't even know she knew how to write the letters of her name. It really made my day. Madeline is also on a new kick. She loves to draw people. She has a notebook where everypage she has drawn someone in the family. She draws the pictures and then tapes them up on the wall in the living room, in my room, and in kitchen. Here is an example of her artwork. This is a picture of me and she even signed her name with "M"

This is a huge imporvement because for the longest time she would just draw lines and circles and in a whole bunch of scribbles and then one day she drew a person. Everyday time she draws someone she adds more detail. She will watch us or her brother and then copy what they draw. Grant drew curly hair for Madeline so now everyone that she draws has curly hair. She has grown so much!

Navigation Bar

My Navigation Bar is working for FHE and Sharingtime. Still working on our Family Web Page.

New Changes

I have made a few changes to my blog. You might notice that I have a navigation bar under our header, I am not finish with updating the links so they do not work yet. This all takes time and right now my time is limited. I hope to finish it soon and when I do I will let you know. It is my goal to share my FHE lessons as well as Sharingtime lessons that I put together for our primary. I hope you enjoy the changes!

A caption of our Life

We have had a pretty relaxing summer. Grant's parents, sister, and Grandma Smith came for a visit for a couple of weeks. It was a lot of fun having them here. Anthony and Madeline sure enjoyed it, and I think Spencer just got use to it, though he was unsure every morning when he woke up and saw them here. Madeline loved to sit on Grandma Smith's lap and have her read books. Anthony enjoyed playing games with his Grandparents and swimming with his Grandpa. Madeline liked to have Grandpa hold her in the lazy river at the water park. While they were here we were able to celebrate Madeline's, Evelyn's and Bob's birthday. The children enjoyed giving their Grandparents their gifts and being able to see their reaction. The joy for me was enjoying my children with their Grandparents creating memories and forming a relationship with them. I am sure Spencer will warm up to them as he gets older.

We got season passes to the local water park for the summer, and as a family we visit it at least once a week. The kids enjoy playing for about an hour, which is nice when you have a season pass because you don't feel obligated to stay the whole day. Grant has taken the kids on one on one dates, Anthony especially loves this because he can go on all the water slides with his dad. Madeline enjoys dates with dad because she can do only the things she enjoys. The last time Madeline went on a date with her dad, as they were walking out she told her dad to stand under (one of those cones that dump water on you) so he can take a shower. Grant said that was the first time he got wet on his date with Madeline. Madeline on the other hand informed her daddy that she was going to stand on the near by sidewalk and watch.

Each day during the summer I have tried to do a little lessons for the kids. It has been tricky to involve both kids and have things that will work for both their levels as well as keep Spencer entertained. I have found that what works the best is have writing and reading time. Anthony writes in his journal while Madeline and I work on learning and writing the letters in her name. Madeline has picked up on it really well and often times during the day she fills scrap pieces of paper with letters from her name. She knows pretty much all the letters in her name, now we are just working on putting them in order. This is easier said then done, since her mother gave her a name with eight letters. Anthony's spelling is great! I am amazed at how well he can spell, I rarely need to help him. His reading is doing great too! He enjoys reading! There have been several days where he just sits on the couch with a pile of books reading. He loves to read the scriptures, which is a joy to see as a parent.

This week we are going to celebrate pioneer day with doing pioneer activities throughout the day culminating in a pioneer party in the evening. I think the children will enjoy it! I will post our acitivities after I have them a little bit more organized. I also have a few more FHE that I have put together that I want to share, but with it being 10:00 at night I need to get some shut eye so I am ready for when the kids wake up. Before I go I will share more pics which give a better idea of what us crazy coopers are up to.

An Accomplishment

For Madeline's birthday this year, she wanted a butterfly party. I didn't feel up to having a friend party so instead we had a family party. Grant's parents were able to come from Florida, my parents were there as well my sister and her husband. So to keep with the butterfly theme I researched on line to find a butterfly cake. I didn't want to pay money for someone to make a cake and so I researched and was able to find a cake. It definitely looked easier to make on line than in reality but after 4 hours I finished and I am pretty proud of myself. Madeline had a great party and when we sang happy birthday to her, her eyes lit up. It was so neat to see her excited about her birthday.

The cake I made for Madeline

Madeline, A Mother's Perspective

In my life I have been blessed by people whom I consider to be angels. These people have come into my life at a time when I needed it and have enriched my life in their own unique way. Madeline is that angel. Who came into my life at the right time and has blessed and continues to bless my life in unique ways.

When Madeline was born she came with a few suprises. The first few weeks were overwhelming as I and her father were getting a crash corse in medicine. Going to the hospital everyday was even overwhelming. It was overwhelming in the sense of having to see your daughter surrounded by cords, machines monitoring various parts of her body, and the fact that after a few hours I would have to put my daughter down and leave her at the hospital for another day. However, each day as I went to the hospital to sit by her bedside or to hold her in my arms my battery was charged with Madeline's love and once again I had the courage to leave the hospital and start over again the next day. The time Madeline was in the hospital at birth as well as the nurmerous hospital stays during her first year of life taught me many important life lessons:

1. I could not control what was happening to Madeline. As her mother I wanted to fix everything and when I couldn't fix it I wanted to jump in for her, but that wasn't meant to be. However, I learned there was something I could do. I could love her only as a mother can. The doctors have the expertise to heal Madeline physically but what they lacked is love-a mother's love. Finally there was something I could control. The doctors would do their part and I would do mine.

2. Every month for her first year we would find ourselves in the hospital for respiratory distress. This became burdensome and at times overwhelming. I remember sitting in the hospital room thinking of ways I could fix this problem so we could avoid these trips to the hospital, even if it meant living in a bubble. However, I learned yet again there are things that I cannot fix. This time I was taught from my favorite scripture, "Be Still and Know that I am God." Here I was fighting Heavenly Father trying to find ways to solve the solution I was in, when my only job was to sit back and be still. It was when I sat back and chose to be still a miracle happened my burden was lifted and in its place I found strength. We still took our monthly trips to the hospital but this time it was okay.

3. My final lesson I would like to mentioned came in a place you wouldn't think-The ER. We had just spent an hour of holding Madeline down for the nurses to stick Madeline for an IV and blood work. Well after that hour all that was achieved was the IV. Madeline at the time was a baby and it was so frustrating to watch your child go through so much pain. After the nurses were done I immediately picked her up to comfort her. As I was sitting there she looked up at me and smiled. I remember thinking how can you smile you just went though an hour of pain. Well the answer came. "You too can smile after every storm." Know matter our trials in life, we too can smile."

Now fast forward a few years and my angel is now four. She has overcome many trials with spunk and tenacity. She takes each day and lives it! Her trials and limitations do not get in her way. To me she embodies courage, strength, and determination. She still teaches me from "Mommy I can do it" to Heavenly Father will help me be brave. I am glad that Heavenly Father blessed me with this angel who indeed came into my life at the right time and my life will forever be riched by it.

Random Pictures

Here are some Random pictures of the kids. Anthony's gymnastics teacher retired. It was sad and Anthony was dissapointed that there wouldn't be anymore gymnastics, but he soon got over it when he started taking piano lessons. His gymnastics teacher was awesome and she absolutely loved what she was doing and you could tell each week. Anthony loved his teacher and was always excited to see her each week. His last week of gymnastics they had parent day, a day where the kids can show off what they have learned.

Anthony finished up his first year of kindergarten the last of May. He loved his first year of school. He had such a great teacher. Anthony has turned into a little reader. He loves to read and has taken off with his reading. It is neat to see Anthony get excited about reading. Right now he loves to read Star Wars chapter books. His Kindergarten teacher did a fantastic job fostering reading and helping Anthony's love of books grow. On the last day of school they had an award ceremony in their class and each kid got up and read from a book they made of the things they learned in Kindergarten. It was neat to be there and see how much Anthony has grown over the year.

Madeline also finished up her first year of preschool. She has made leaps and bounds in school. Her speach has come a long way. I love to listen to her count things as well as looking at books and making up stories that go along with the pictures. She has grown so much and has really gained a lot of self confidence.