NOTE TO READERS:

I Blogged backwards :0) so start at the bottom of the page and work your way up...

OK... Now the BAD news!

Everyone that knows us well enough, knows that life isn't as "simple and pretty" as just Christmas pictures :0) There always has to be some "drama" involved. Well... here it is, if you are "offended" by frank and open discussions of medical and psychiatric issues then I urge you to just stop reading now and go back to the cute Christmas pictures :0)

Drama #1 - December 22, 2009:

Tia cracked her head open on her walker, she ended up going to the ER, having a CT then 7 stitches. Of course it took twice as much medication than "normal" to sedate her enough to do the cat scan and stitches. I had some very funny video of her trying to "bounce" while completely stoned, it was quite funny, Cody had to keep catching her as she tipped over. My obnoxious camera (see previous post) deleted the video as well as all of the pictures that I have of her at the hospital. She is quite a "trooper" and has actually done well leaving them alone to heal. Drama #2 - Sunday; December 27, 2009: We received a call from Krista's weekend treatment provider (so to any of you that are still just convinced that Krista doesn't have any neurological/psychiatric disorders and that she doesn't require CONSTANT supervision, here's one for YOU). Krista had a loose tooth on the bottom, it fell out sometime during the night or early morning on Sunday. Well, try as they might, no one could find the tooth. They don't know if she swallowed it or if it was just lost in the bedroom somewhere (you know those 2 front teeth are pretty small). The other girls in the home said "Ooh, we need to find your tooth so that the tooth fairy will come". They were going to continue to look for it after nap time. When Carolyn (the treatment "mom") went to get Krista up from her nap, she and the bed were covered in blood. Krista then proudly announces that she "got" another tooth out so now the tooth fairy can come. Krista, literally, scratched, gouged, clawed and dug at her gums until she managed to pull a tooth from her mouth. The tooth was NOT loose, she dug it out of her mouth using her fingernails, her gums are completely torn up from a couple of hours of this process. When Carolyn told her that the tooth fairy does NOT come when you injure yourself Krista proceeded to fly into a huge rage/tantrum. (Krista injures/self mutilates and actually hurts other children quite frequently, I guess we are used to it. I just take a picture, write it in her behavior log and move on). The next morning at breakfast, Krista proudly announced that she "didn't take out any more teeth", like that was the most wonderful (and "normal") news and that she should be "praised" for it. Ho Hum... such is the life with a child that has psychiatric "issues". Drama #3 - Monday; December 28th 2009: Josh's "routine" surgical procedure... these pictures were taken before surgery. Joshy went into same day surgery to have a circumcision done. His birth mom is not American so I don't think that it even occurred to her to have it done at all. Well, it is a good thing that they didn't try to do it when he was a newborn... I took Joshy in to a Urologist for a consultation for the procedure a few months ago. The Dr. wanted to wait another couple of months since it had to be done under general anesthesia. By this time, Josh had started to develop some "adhesion's" on his foreskin, (I guess that happens sometimes until boys are a little older and the foreskin can be pushed back more). When the Dr started the procedure, he noticed that the adhesion's were very "dense/solid" tissue, which is not normal. After he did some "exploring" he found that underneath the skin, Josh's umm... "manhood" was turned sideways a complete 90 degrees. The Dr came out to explain this complication and to get consent to surgically correct it (which HAD to be done). In order to do this, they have to completely "de-glove" the exterior penile skin, roll it all the way down to the base, manually twist the penis into the correct position, then roll the skin back up and stitch it all the way around in order to hold things in the correct position. Owww... are you cringing yet? He is now completely stitched up and "dressed" with 3 layers of surgical dressing. Joshy, of course, woke up this morning like nothing had even happened and is his normal, happy self. We have been assured that now that this has been corrected, everything will develop and function normally (which would NOT have been the case if he had not had this done). It has been a very long week. These pictures were taken AFTER surgery... 2 "Minor Dramas #4 and 5: Josh has cut 3 molars with a 4th ready to come through any day.

Last, but not least, I went in to the dermatologist today and had 3 "growths" excised on my legs (which required 12 stitches all together). So now, there are 3 people in the house with stitches at the same time... Happy Holidays to us! :0)

Christmas 2009

Sunday December 20th ~ All dressed and ready for church

Christmas Eve - We always have our "big dinner" on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas day so that we can just have a relaxing holiday. I took pictures of our Christmas Eve dinner, but my obnoxious camera deleted them. Grrr!

The kids each get a new pair of pajamas and we read the story of Jesus' birth from the scriptures

The pictures of Josh and I in bed (on the left) were taken at 4:00 AM on Christmas morning.

He woke up happy as a clam and was ready to stay up for the day.

I (obviously) was NOT ready to get up and in "desperation"

gave him my box of Kleenex to play with... He was in heaven!

The rest of the pictures were taken when the kids opened their PJ's before bed...

CHRISTMAS MORNING "EXTRAVAGANZA!"

DECEMBER 19TH 2009

Joshua was Sealed to us in the Provo Temple on Saturday December 19th

Lots of fun pictures... trying to get everyone to hold still, smile AND look in the same direction at the same time, it can be an all day affair just by itself :0)

After the Temple, we went back to the church.

Cody Blessed Joshua then ordained Cody Joe a Deacon

We had a "Winter Wonderland" party to celebrate...

It was a really special day for our family!

School Christmas Programs

TIA'S SCHOOL CHRISTMAS PROGRAM - MONDAY DEC. 14TH

ALL DRESSED UP! EACH STUDENT AT TIA'S SCHOOL HAS A "HELPER", THEY ARE KIDS FROM THE STUDENT COUNCIL AT THE HIGH SCHOOL. IT IS SO CUTE TO WATCH THEM INTERACT WITH THE KIDS.

KRISTA'S PROGRAM - DEC. 17TH

KRISTA AFTER THE PROGRAM

Cody Joe's 12th Birthday

LASER TAG PARTY

Andrew, Kyle, Cody Joe, Gavin, Jordan

Zachary, Peter and Noah

BIRTHDAY MORNING

CODY JOE GOT A PSP, HE WAS VERY EXCITED!

BIRTHDAY DINNER

CHOCOLATE CAKE!

Cody Joe celebrated his birthday by going to play Laser Tag with some friends on Wed. December 16th. His "actual" birthday was the 17th, he opened his gifts in the morning when he got up then went to school. I took doughnuts to his class in the afternoon then made him a birthday dinner, he chose Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and garlic bread. Krista's Kindergarten program was that evening. After we attended her performance, we came home and had chocolate cake.

The Princess and the Frog

We took Hailey to see "The Princess and the Frog" today, on opening day. She was so excited to see "her Hailey princess", and dressed for the occasion. The movie was very cute, fun music and hilarious characters! Even Joshy enjoyed it, it was the first time that he has ever been to the movies.

~ It was a fun day ~

Josh's Adoption Day

Yeah! Josh's adoption is final!!

Lunch (and photo ops) at Cracker Barrel after court

We had a great day yesterday! We finalized Joshy's adoption in the morning then went to Cracker Barrel for lunch afterward. Everyone went except Tia and Krista (they get way too confused when their scheduled day changes so, they went to school). It was a fabulous day and we are so happy that Josh the Squash is all ours!!

Yeah!! Our Day in Court!!

Rah Rah Rah!! We went to court this morning and things went off without a hitch! Josh's adoption is final! He's all ours!!!! (Well, he was all ours before but you know what I mean :0)

A long couple of weeks

I never realize how long I go between "postings", time sure flies. Tia, Hailey, Josh and Cody Joe all got H1N1. So, we were "quarantined" in a manner of speaking. Josh had a scary trip to the ER at 3:30 AM because the H1N1 then caused him to get croup and he was gasping for breath. (We've had plenty of cases of croup around here, none of them was ever this bad). The Respiratory therapist gave him a breathing treatment then he got an oral steroid to try to open up his bronchial passages. Luckily, it worked after a while so we could come home later that morning. Poor Josh the Squash was miserable :0( Luckily, Cody was able to get authorization to work from home for a couple of days, it was a lifesaver having him here! I put hand sanitizer in every room and told the kids that didn't get the virus to squirt some on every time they walked by. Which they were very good about doing, I think that the rest of us are in the clear now, whew! We have survived the dreaded "pork flu" (as we so lovingly refer to it here at our house).

Halloween

Reading everybody's posts, I realized that we all have the same problem. Costume on for class party... costume off. Costume on for costume parade... costume off. On again for the Ward party... off again. On again for Krista's after school program party... then off again. Finally, on again for trick or treating... whew! The costumes have been washed (what feels like) 50 times last week... I hate Halloween :0). The kids love it and they do look pretty cute.

Happy Happy Birthday Cody Dear....

Make a Smilebox greeting

Make a Smilebox greeting

My 40th Birthday

Well, It finally happened... my 40th birthday (On Wed. the 30th). I am always surprised when I wake up on monumental occasions, such as this, and I realize that I don't feel any different than I did the day before :0). Andrew made this an awesome birthday! He made a cute photo collage with all of the kids' pictures and hand prints, he bought me a tiara with a '40' on it (which i wore all day) and he baked me a cake. My friend Judy took me out for a pedicure and dinner at Olive Garden. When we got to the restaurant I was surprised by 5 of my greatest friends waiting for me! It was so much fun! I assumed that Judy had set this up, imagine my surprise when I tried to thank her... Apparently, Andrew called all of my friends last week and secretly invited them. He made the reservation at the restaurant and even made reminder calls to everyone the day before! He made my birthday extra special, it was awesome!! (He is going to have a very happy wife one day when he does these special things for her).

I love that kid!!

~Cute photo collage~

~Presents from my sweet kids and my dad~

The big card sings the "Hampster Dance" song... too cute!

Make a wish...

~Flowers from my Dad~

~Judy's pedicure~

My pedicure - Ahhh...

~The finished product~

Surprise birthday dinner!

~Kathryn Stitt, Angie Paynter, Danielle Thompson, Me,

Judy Eldredge, Trish Totten and Christi Trewartha~

Giving Andrew a great, big thank you when I got home!

Josh the Squash's 1st Birthday!

We celebrated Josh's 1st birthday on Wednesday September 23rd. I can't believe that he is one year old already! We had a quiet (as quiet as it can be around here ;0) little family party in the front yard with pizza and birthday cake. We had a very fun day...

Big 1 year old boy! The tongue!

Playing with Zachy

Mmmm... wrapping paper!

~Winnie the Pooh cake~ Joshie's own cake to "smush" Excellent "smushing"! After his bath... all "de-caked" and happy