May 17

This week was a sick week. It started last Saturday when Danny threw up and was sick all day. Then Aaron got it Monday and Rachel got it Tuesday. Then I got it Thursday and Bob got it Friday. It was a stomach thing that lasted about a day and a half and it was miserable. Rachel also had a cold with a sore throat on top of hers and now Danny is starting in with the sore throat. I hope we don't start into another week like last week. I realized that we have been very blessed to not be sick since before Seth was born. It always makes me so nervous when we have germs going around with a brand new baby. And usually the spring is a bad time of year for sickness at our house, but we haven't had anything big for months. I'm thankful that at least Seth is a little older while we're dealing with this sickness.

Seth is awesome. He's such a happy easy baby. Last night he went to bed at 8:30. He got up and ate at 5 am and then slept until 8:30. And he naps so easily and he's happy and content when he's awake. He just started rolling over this weekend.

Aaron has been getting better with his tantrums. I've been really trying to be more positive with him while he's happy and patient in the tantrums and I've been talking to him about how he can control the tantrums. And it seems to be helping. I've been reading a book from the Library called How to raise your Spirited Child. It has some good ideas. I wasn't even looking for the book. I was searching for books about bugs and gardens because that's what we were going to do for his school and for some reason that book popped up in the search so I requested it too. I think it must have been divine intervention. Aaron is such a great kid. He's just a little more persistent and intense. I'm trying to learn to work with that.

The boys all were recovered barely enough to go on the Father's and Son's campout this weekend. They had a pretty good time for just coming off being sick. Rachel and I had a girls night. We went to KFC to get drumsticks--Rachel's favorite. Then we played go fish and watched Sleeping Beauty. Then she slept with me and we watched a little AFV in bed before going to sleep. She's such a fun, sweet girl.

And Danny is so driven when he is interested in something. He's the smartest in his class and has become a great reader. He loves catch-it at recess and he asks someone at home to play with him every night. He loves soccer and pretty much any sport. And he's building quite a testimony. He suprises me with how much he knows when we talk about the gospel. I am so blessed with such wonderful kids.

And Bob is my best friend. I love him so much. He totally gets me. He knows when to help me and when to let me do things myself. He's so supportive of me and my needs. And he works so hard for our family. Plus he's fun to hang out with when the kids go to bed or we get to go on a date. And he's so hot!

May 10 - Mother's day

I've had such a great mothers day. It started yesterday when Bob watched the kids while I went and got a pedicure and a new shirt for church. It was especially nice of him since Danny was sick and throwing up yesterday. Then today I got up and Bob had made breakfast and he and all the kids had made cards for me. And I'd asked for a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger for Mother's day (I read they make a really good clothes washer if there's no power) and he'd filled the bucket with several of my favorite candies. I taught Relief Society and it went really well. And Aaron had no tantrums yesterday. It was so wonderful. And he's had a few today, but he was great at church. He didn't complain once and he did the scripture in primary. Then Bob made lunch and after that I took a nap. It's been a pretty perfect day.

Friday night we had a graduation party for Bob. We got some decorations at the party store. Rachel made many additional ones too. We had cake and ice cream. And Rachel made a diploma. We're very proud of Bob.

My hip is doing much better. The doctor said I was just rotated a little this time and I was 50% better than the last time I went in. He said he thinks I should be able to run a mile in 4 weeks. I don't think I'll try that soon. I need to get much stronger first. But it was such a hopeful doctor appointment. I haven't had one of those in such a long time. I'm excited for the possibility of getting all better.

May 3

I think my hip rotated again and that's why I've been having different aches. I spent last week doing pretty much nothing for exercise so I didn't hurt it. I have an appointment with my physical therapist on tuesday. Hopefully that will help. I have been walking the kids to school though.

Also this week I got dry socket in the tooth they pulled. It's amazingly painful. And there's not too much they can do except prescribe pain medicine, which isn't really safe for Seth, so I've just been using tylenol and advil. The pain now comes and goes. But they say it takes a few weeks for it to go away all the way.

Also this week I've spent a lot of time at the store stocking up on emergency and food supplies. There is a new kind of flu called the swine flu and they say it will turn into a pandemic. Even if it doesn't, it's a good reminder to keep my shelves stocked. It is true that if you are prepared ye shall not fear. I feel a lot of comfort in the fact that Bob and I would be able to take care of our family and neighbors in a lot of different situations. I still hope nothing ever happens to us, but if it does, it won't be as bad as it could be.

Last night we took our whole family to an Area 51s baseball game. We had a great time! Sandy and May from next door gave us the tickets because they didn't want them. The weather was perfect and there is a great grassy area inside the stadium. We brought blankets and the kids ran and played while we watched the game. And Seth was great. He loved looking at the trees and the kids running around. And then he fell asleep and slept for half the time.

Seth is getting so big. He put on three pounds last month. He's turning out to be more Danny-sized than I thought he'd be. He's getting pretty regular in his daytime naps and he goes to be easily at night, but he still gets up twice at night. Hopefully he'll just grow out of that soon.

Rachel and I went on a date yesterday. She's been really into dressing up lately. And I had to go to DI anyway, so for our date we got her a couple of dress-up dresses. She's so cute with them. She's changes from one to the other several times a day. It's nice that she's so easy to entertain and such a happy, sweet girl.

April 26

Amanda and her family stayed with us last night. They are on their way through to Disneyland. We got a babysitter and went out to dinner with Kevin and Amanda. It was so fun to spend some time with them. It's nice to be in a place where so many people pass through.

I had a tooth pulled this week. It wasn't fun. I had a root canal in the tooth in college. Then I finally got a crown on it about 3 years ago, but the dentist didn't do a very good job and they had to redo the crown. But in the process of taking it off and putting another one on, the tooth cracked all the way through the root. So this week I went in to see what was going on and they explained it all and pulled it right then. I didn't have any milk saved up in the freezer for Seth, so I couldn't take the pain medicine they prescribed for me. That first night was really painful. It's getting better now, though. And I go back in a couple of weeks to get a permanent bridge put in.

I hurt my back last weekend. I'm not really sure what I did. But it kind of threw me off with my rhythm for how my back was getting better. I've had weird different aches and pains this week. But overall not too bad. I'm still just walking for exercise.

April 19

The kids were back to school this week. They have less than 2 months left. The year has gone so fast. Danny and Rachel had their first soccer games yesterday. They were both a little humbled after the games. Danny has moved up to the 7-9 year old league and Rachel's real soccer game was a little harder than family soccer in the living room. Last year we rewarded Danny with ice cream at Golden Spoon when he scored goals. They were both expecting that after the game, but it didn't happen yet. But they had fun. Rachel has a hard time focusing after the first half of the game or practice. She starts dancing around of digging holes with her cleats. But she comes home saying she had a great time. And we have fun watching her.

I've been doing more walking and I haven't had pain this week. Bob and I are having a competition to see who can lose some weight first. My goal is 9 lbs to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. And Bob's goal is 13 lbs. Whoever does it first gets $100 to spend on whatever they want. Bob's super serious about winning. He goes to the gym twice a day and eats the same or less than I do. I think he's going to win. But, I'm still trying to eat better and exercise when I can because I'm tired of not fitting into all my clothes.

I've been working on websites quite a bit. My New Mexico site wants their site redesigned. I like that kind of work. And it's nice to make the extra money.

April 12 - Easter

We had a great visit at my parent's house. We went to the park a lot and shopping and just relaxed at her house. We had planned to go to the beach to celebrate Danny's birthday, but it was forecast to rain most of the week there. So we went to Adventure Park (an arcade and miniature golf place). Danny seemed just fine with how it turned out. It was nice to have a change of scenery.

Then we drove home on Friday. And everyone came here that night. Our house was full. We put our kids in the closet and used all the bedrooms for other family members. We went to a movie and had pizza and just hung out around the house. We also had a combined birthday party for Danny, Casey, Ryan and my dad.

This morning for Easter we hid Easter baskets for the kids and Aaron apparently ate too much candy because he threw up during sacrament meeting. Luckily we were in the overflow on the hardwood floor so it was easy to clean up. I had to teach Relief Society today. Then we came home and had lunch and walked to the park.

Seth was blessed today too. It was nice to have my brothers and dad here to participate. Seth slept the whole time. He's such a wonderful, easy-going baby. He still sleeps well day and night. He sleeps with me and gets up a couple of times a night, but I think that's partly because he sleeps with me still. We're going to work on moving him to his bed over the next month. He takes naps easily and sleeps in his carseat in my room for most naps.

April 5

My hip is much better than last time. It turns out that when it rotates forward it's something I can control more. And if I get my muscles strong with exercise and stretching I can keep it in place. Last time it seemed like it was more the tendons that couldn't hold my hip in place because even though I did all the exercises it still didn't stay in place. So my doctor says I shouldn't need to come back unless it gets really bad again. And I haven't had much pain at all since I saw him on Tuesday. I'm really excited and hopeful. This week I'm going to start adding in some aerobic exercise like walking along with my strengthening and see how it goes.

Danny's birthday was fun on Thursday. He requested dinner at Carl's Jr. and fudge instead of birthday cake. Then we went to the church and played catch-it.