Happy St. Patty's Day!

I remember my mom doing fun things for the holidays when we were young. It was something that was fun for us. I enjoyed looking forward to each holiday and have good memories of them with my mom. I want my children to have the same thing, so I planned this "green theme" for St. Patrick's day, only Brian was going to be out of town for the actual day, so we celebrated it early...

We got Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" book (Jackson loves books) and we've been reading this one in preparation for our meal. For breakfast, we ate green eggs and "ham" (Brian picked up bacon at the store instead of ham, saying it was more or less the same thing...),

You do not like them.

So you say.

Try them! Try them!

And you may.

Try them and you may, I say.

Say!

I like green eggs and ham!

I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!

And of course we dressed in green. It wasn't anything outlandish, and maybe he'll never remember eating green eggs for breakfast, but we had fun doing it. Maybe on the real holiday we'll frost some sugar cookies with green frosting or something.....

Zoey

Zoey is almost 4 months old now. Time flies! She's the cutest little chunk. I just love her baby soft skin and chubsy rolls. She has had a lot of "firsts" already-- which makes me both excited for the things to come AND sad to see her grow up at the same time.

She has found her hands and tries to fit both of them in her mouth at once! Drool slides down everywhere...in her neck rolls, in between her fingers, the front of her shirt....only moms think this stuff is cute!

She had her first laugh this week! This is one of my favorite milestones! It's the cutest little belly shaker! I've only been able to get her to do it a couple of times though. I caught one on those episodes on film, but I was working so hard to entertain her, that I missed most of her face in the shot!

She is starting to roll too! Her first roll from her tummy to her back startled her and made her cry! Jackson likes to "help" her more than she likes getting the help, but it's fun seeing him interact with her (now that she's big enough to handle a little roughness that is).

If you've been keeping up with us, you also know she had her first bad cold. We are so glad that she is better. Although she lost a little weight and has been playing catch-up ever since, she is now growing and thriving as ever. I can't wait for Spring!

I know that all moms think their children are cute, but I just can't get enough of mine! Albeit they have their moments that can drive me crazy, I'll be honest! Zoey's cheeks beg for kisses and Jackson keeps me laughing and a smile in my heart. I'm so lucky to be a mom. It's the best!

Thanks to my wonderful friend Trina who took these shots! She has such a talent I wish I possessed (check out her other work on her website, trina nelson photography). I love how pictures capture moments in time, and these will be cherished forever!

Wedding Cake

I have never made a tiered cake before and decided to give it a try. Well- actually I was more or less "assigned" to give it a try. I am on the enrichment committee for my ward. Since we are celebrating the Relief Society's Birthday this month, our ward put together a program centered around the wedding feast from the 10 virgins parable (BTW- it was fabulously uplifting).

Now, we all know that women can outdo themselves, but what would a Relief Society function be without a wedding cake as a center piece on each table? I am one who usually votes for simplicity... and trust me...this was easier than what was originally planned!

I have to admit I was excited to give it a try. I took a few pictures of the process, because it took a day to make, and because I was a little impressed with the outcome.

I baked an Italian pineapple wedding cake. It was dense which made the layering aspect easier to work with, yet moist and tasty too. Brian hates cake (along with pineapple and coconut) and he loved this one! The recipe can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Italian-Wedding-Cake/Detail.aspx

I used the frosting from this recipe as the filling in between the layers by adding 1 cup of crushed pineapple to the batter. For the rest of the cake, I frosted it with a typical vanilla cool whip frosting.

I have to give a big THANKS to my husband, who did all the leveling and cutting the layers for me! He is a perfectionist, and did a meticulously good job. Much better than I would have done!
After the cake was leveled and layered, I placed a simple syrup coat over the cake to keep it moist, covered it with Saran wrap and refrigerated it over night. Then I iced the cake with a crumb coat, let that set in the fridge, and then iced it again with the final coat. I sprinkled toasted coconut over the top, and added a few flowers for decoration (with help from my mom- she came over to watch the kiddos while I attended Enrichment becuase Brian was gone- THANK YOU mom)!

I won't be starting up a cake bakery soon, but I think it turned out fairly decent for my first try! A little rustic, but good. And the most important part is that it tastes good.

Laughter is the best medicine

I know I have been posting a lot lately. But I couldn't pass up on sharing this one! They say laughter is life's best medicine. Luckily children bring laughter in the home (as well as dirt, germs, poopy diapers, etc.). I got an e-mail this week that gave some staggering statistic that claimed children laugh on average 200 times per day. Adults only laugh between 15 to 18 times a day (and Brian didn't even think he laughed that much at all)! So, having children helps us make up that deficit! I know I laugh everyday at something they do. Here's a cute one of Jackson trying to say "Philadelphia"...the video says it all!

Babies don't keep

My visiting teacher dropped by a little poem, which I thought was really cute. Yea for visiting teachers! She had heard of Zoey getting sick and thought I might like this:

"Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,

For Babies grow up,

as we have learned from our sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs,

Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby,

and babies don't keep."

Ironically, I was rocking Zoey at the moment she stopped by. Her fever had spiked again (I thought we were over that phase!) and she was just so tired and uncomfortable and couldn't fall asleep on her own. Of course in the back of my mind I was thinking, "I need to mop up that juice Jackson spilled on our floor that hasn't been swept in 4 days...."

It is just a cute poem I thought I would share. A great reminder for me to enjoy all of the times with my babies, because they truly don't keep....and not to worry about things that can wait for another time.

Cursed Virus!

There are times when children cause us to worry to the point of tears and compel us to pray our hearts out unceasingly to God in their behalf. Sickness is one of those times. Jackson started out last week (besides getting stitches) with a little chest cold, and try as I might, I could not keep all the germs from his sneezes and coughs contained. Zoey got sick. We were able to keep on top of it at first, but Sunday night, she had a turn for the worse. After 3 consecutive nights of no sleep (no exaggeration), I decided I better take her in to see the Doctor. She had a nearly constant temperature of 101, would hardly nurse (just enough to stay hydrated) and her coughing had become more restricted.

Luckily I did. Her blood-oxygen level was so low it was near critical. They sent us over to the hospital where we endured tests, suctioning of her lungs, chest x-rays, and lots and lots of waiting. Why? To find out if she had this cursed and very scary virus called RSV. She does.

I view my blog as my journal. Someday I will look back at this post and think: "Wow, how did we make it through so many sleepless nights like this one?" It might just have something to do with loving my child more than loving myself (or my sleep). It might have something to do with those fervent prayers for them to make it through the night, which in turn, blesses me to get out of bed time and again to give attention and care. It might have something to do with my several family members who live close enough to step up and give help where needed (tending, grocery shopping and meals- Thank you VERY much). Although she is far from being better, here is a sample of what the last few nights have been like.

Night 4:
10 pm: Nebulizer treatment with Albuterol (a vaporizing treatment to open up the bronchial tubes and relax her muscles in the lungs so she can breath). Breathing better.

1 am: coughing makes her wake up crying; try to nurse but non-responsive, falls asleep in my arms. Temperature at 102. Give her .8mg of Tylenol for fever, try to nurse again but won't (hasn't eaten since 6pm). Feed her 1/2 ounce of pumped breast milk from a dropper. Falls back to sleep at 2:20 am.

3:30am: wakes up coughing, soothe her back to sleep. Fever still high. Won't eat.

5am: Wakes again, try to nurse but still non-responsive. Falls asleep in my arms.

6am: Fever at 101. Another round of Tylenol. Another round of feeding from a dropper (she has had less than 2 ounces in a 12 hour period).

6:30: Jackson wakes up.

7am: "The morning breaks the Shadows flee!" (this was literally the hymn that popped in my head this morning). She is alert and wants to nurse! Fever gone. Nebulizer treatment for breathing. Doing much better. What is it about the daytime? Things are so much better when the sun is up.

8am: falls asleep and sleeps for 4 hours without interruption (so did I-Ma and Pa Beutler took Jackson for the morning)! Yea! Luckily we have been able to keep Zoey out of the hospital for any extended stays, and we hope she continues to improve. Say a prayer for us- Brian is gone.

Update

ok. Here are the pictures of his eye wound. It doesn't look as bad as it does in person! The eye is swollen enough that a lot of the bruising, cut and one of the three stitches is hidden. Notice he also has a nice goose egg on his forehead.

The band-aid didn't make it past his nap. Go figure. When I took him to the bathroom to put a new one on, it was the first time he had actually seen his eye since the accident and the first thing he said was, "Awe Man! Owee" It was cute. All I could say to that was "Yup, you got that right."

Anyway...poor guy. He's got a cold on top of all this to boot. He's a tough guy though. This doesn't stop him from being crazy and wanting to wrestle!

Owee...

Brian and I were just commenting on how lusciously long and dark Jackson's eyelashes were at breakfast (the kind that will make his sister(s) jealous someday), little did I know a nurse would be looking at those same lashes later that morning saying, "those lashes are so long, we could use those to stitch you up!"

Jackson was riding his little push-and-ride truck we gave him for Christmas...drinking his juice..no big deal (ok, maybe that's where I went wrong, should I be teaching him not to drink and drive at this age?). All of a sudden I turn around and he had slipped off of the seat and his eye met the corner of the base molding just perfectly that it split his eye right open. OUCH! I had to tell myself not to freak out because that would just scare Jackson, but that must have been AFTER he saw my initial facial reaction....he freaked out.

Luckily my mother-in-law was available to zip over and watch Zoey so I could take Jack in for stitches. This was not an easy task, don't be fooled. He got three stitches: one stitch in the eyelid (between the brow and the lashes) and two on his upper cheek bone just below the eye. Poor KID! I felt soooo bad for him. The worst part was holding him down to numb it up. Not good. I had to hold his legs between MY legs to keep him from kicking, cross his hands over his chest and lay on top of him to keep him from moving AND a nurse was holding his head to keep him from squirming away from the Doc who had a needle pointed at his eye! whew! And he was screaming "mommy, owee" the whole time....doesn't that just pull at your heart?

After the torture was over at the Doctor's office, we got him some french fries and nuggets for being such a big boy! I'm so glad he's at the age where french fries can make it all better!

I will post pictures of the accident after the band-aid comes off...it's pretty ugly right now as you can imagine. I'm sure his eye will be black and blue in no time. I just hope he heals well and doesn't have a huge scar to detract from those lovely lashes!

The 30 Day Shred

Familiar with Jillian Michaels? She's the female trainer from "The Biggest Loser." I have a few good things to say about her 30 day shred!

Now, I don't have a TON of weight to lose, but I do have some post-pardum softness that is lingering in places I'd rather it not, AND I would like to get heart-healthy with a good cardio workout. So- I decided I'd giver her a try. I bought her DVD because I heard a lot of rave reviews about her 20 minute workout. I thought- 20 minutes? At home? I can swing that.

I consider myself to be in fairly good shape, but I started off with level 1 (there are 3 levels) to stick with the program, and MAN! She kicks butt! I did it two days in a row...resting on the sabbath, of course, and I could hardly sit to go to the bathroom comfortably. My legs and arms felt like jello after the workout and now I'm just sore all over. I guess that means it's doing something- right? I never knew 20 minutes could be so effective!

Hopefully I can stick with it and see some results!

Photo Tag

My friend Trina tagged me with this photo tag, so here we go...

This is the 4th picture in the 4th folder. ..a folder I created for a slideshow for Jackson's 1 year birthday, and the picture is of him when he was born...just one day old. I love it and it brings back fond memories. Brian looks so awed by his son, that he is holding so proudly in his arms.

Here are the rules:
1. Choose the 4th folder where you store your
pictures on the computer
2. Select the 4th picture in the folder
3. Explain the picture
4. Tag 4 people to do the same...

I tag: Sara, Mauri, Lindsay, and Claire