An Unaccomplished Mother!

 

I've read a lot of articles lately on how moms need to just be who they are, and they are good enough.  No need to compare themselves to others.  Then, they proceed to list all the amazing accomplishments they perform all the time.  Not to compare, of course!  So, comparing myself to all of them, it is time to face it.  I just kind of suck at all these "womanly" things.  Doesn't surprise me.  I grew up with four brothers.  My baby sis is 11 years younger than I am.  I don't really understand girls.  I love being one, I just don't understand them! Since I've had kids, I have learned a few things that I NEVER would have thought I would learn, or certainly not enjoy!  I crochet.  Yeah, me!  Go figure!  I went a couple years ago with my dad to pick a sewing machine out for my mom.  He wanted advise.  I warned him I knew nothing about sewing machines.  He didn't believe me.  At the store, they started talking about stitches, needles, and bobbins.  What the heck is a bobbin?!  My dad informed me he even knew what a bobbin was.  Good for him!  I did end up getting a sewing machine last year.  I now know what a bobbin is.  I can even sew an almost straight line!  Me!  Now, cooking.  Ha ha ha ha ha!  I didn't get married till I was 26, and didn't really have to learn to cook till I had Josh at 27.  My meals consisted of ramen soup (I still maintain I made an incredibly tasty ramen soup!), frozen dinners, and going out to eat.  Lets just face it, I'm not much better now!  Be prepared for a shock!  When I go camping, I bring hotdogs, potato chips, marshmallows, and cookies.  That's all.  I don't do tinfoil dinners.  If the boys ever need one, I'll go to KFC, dump the meal in tinfoil, and let my boys warm it up.  I don't have multi-course meals ever.  I have my main dish.  Sometimes, if extra ambitious, I have a veggie with the meal.  If a veggie is cooked in the meal, it always fulfills that veggie requirement.  When I scrapbook, my mom made me a bunch of cute pages, and I stick the pictures on it.  LOVE my mom!  She is the ultimate crafty person!  Not sure where I came from:)  I love the gospel, love my  Heavenly Father, love learning about the gospel.  If I read my scriptures once a week, I think I am doing incredible!  I'm lucky to get to the temple 3 times a year.  A big change, since when I was single I would go once or twice a week!  There was a talk in sacrament meeting on indexing the other day.  Yeah, just thinking about it makes me completely overwhelmed!  My house is always a mess.  Always!  Don't know how all those moms manage to go alone to the store with their kids.  I rarely go without Matt.  Even with Matt, it is constant temper tantrums, Josh hits Anthony, Anthony hits Josh, Josh squeezes Thomas too tight, Anthony kicks Thomas, and Thomas just cries.  We won't even start on the screaming, yelling, and incredibly annoying siren sounds!  Life was much easier when it was filled with shooting, fishing, four wheeling, and boating.  Still glad I'm a mom, wouldn't change it for the world!  I'm just so out of my element!  So good for all those who are so much better than I at everything.  Feel free to brag!

 Getting rid of the stump in our backyard

 Spanish Fork Rodeo!

 Still the rodeo, with my good lookin' husband!

 Anthony's beautiful make-up job

 Visiting Grandma and Grandpa at the cemetery.  Sure miss them!

 Anthony always wants to go higher, Josh is usually willing to swing them higher:)

 Thomas LOVES swinging!

 Every 24th of July our ward has a breakfast an the kids have a little parade down the street on bikes and wagons.  The kids love it!

 My handsome boys!

 Jumping on the trampoline with mom!

 Love camping, but it is a lot harder with little kids!

 Josh informed us he and Anthony were making sand angels.  Love the minds of little kids!

 My adorable baby boy!

 Big helpers assisting their dad with a flat tire

 Packing to go home from camping.  Anthony knows how to pack.  Sit and watch!

 Fishing!

 Josh's first fish!

 Fishing with my boys

 Monster truck rally.  I think Anthony looks like Shrek with the earplugs:)

Thomas didn't love it, but didn't hate it either!

Anthony's Hospital Experience

 My poor Anthony got stuck in the hospital for gastroenteritis/dehydration.  My husband has IHC insurance, so unfortunately we got stuck at UVRMC.  I would have much preferred being with my old friends over at Timp!  We had some pretty awesome peds nurses there, and I think our experience would have been a lot better!  My insurance won't cover anything out of network, or I would have still gone to my old hospital!  Anthony was throwing up all day Monday, and couldn't even keep a sip of water down.  That evening I took him to the after hours pediatrician.  He gave me zofran for him, and said call if it didn't work.  I did not think there was a chance it would work, but it did!  He guzzled a whole bottle of pedialyte that night, and I thought all would be well.  The next day he started with diarrhea.  It was diapers full of pure liquid, and a ton of it!  Still, he would have been fine, but that afternoon he slowed down on his drinking.  The next day, he wouldn't drink anything at all.  I encouraged water, popsicles, gatorade, pedialyte, yogert.  He started throwing up again.  I tried syringe feeding him liquids, but he'd spit it out, choke it out, and I knew I wasn't getting him adequate fluids.  I called and talked with the nurse at my doctor's office, and she just said watch him till tomorrow, and see how he does.  I hung up, knew she was wrong, so I called back.  Dr Bailey wanted to see him, so I brought him in.  I told him how bad his diarrhea was, and that he would have it as many as 4 or 5 times in an hour.  That in addition to not getting Anthony to drink anything, he admitted him observation.  They missed his IV in the first two pokes, but had the pediatric hospitalist there still.  He was good at doing IVs under ultrasound, so he got it on his first try.  If it wasn't for my poor boy being so miserable, it would have been really cool to watch!  I'd never seen one placed under ultrasound before.  After that, Anthony just fell asleep.  He was so tired!  Matt stopped in to see him for a few minutes with Josh and Thomas.  I nursed Thomas, then sent the boys home with Matt.  I told Matt to come over as soon as Thomas woke up so I could nurse him in the morning, also.  Anthony was NPO to let his poor little tummy rest.  It was slow at the hospital, so they sent my nurse home at midnight and got stuck with another one.  She came in every 15-20 minutes to check Anthony's diaper!  She kept saying he only had until 2:30 to have a wet diaper, or she'd have to call the dr to get Anthony a bolus.  So from midnight until 2:30, I had to deal with a crying boy who was miserable every time she woke him up 3-4 times an hour!  Still no wet diaper at 2:30, she had me change him just in case there was a drop or two.  She said he must have had a little out, because it weighed 4ml's.  I didn't bother to mention that it was probably the desitin on the diaper!  Then, she started saying how she didn't really want to call and wake the dr up this late just for a bolus.  She said she was thinking about getting a bladder scanner to see if there was any urine in his bladder!  Seriously?!  His blood sugar was 58, his CO2 was 15, he hadn't had a drink in 24 hours, unknown last wet diaper due to the watery diarrhea, and instead of calling for another bolus he could obviously use, she wanted to scan his bladder?  But I was polite and just asked her to please call the dr, so she did.  Took a while to get a hold of anyone.  Dr Bailey slept through the call, Dr Cornish answered, but wouldn't order it because he said he wasn't on call, so finally she got hold of Dr Simmons, who said Dr Cornish really was on call because it was for a patient from the office, but at least he was nice enough to order the second bolus anyway!  She started it, then saw the smallest little air bubble, and said they freak her out so she was going to remove it.  The line was clamped above where she aspirated it, so it didn't get the air bubble out, and it cause blood to backflow quite a ways into the tube.  So then she had to get a flush to flush the blood back, the pump was alarming, and Anthony was screaming because they were messing with the IV.  She finally finished getting things settled  around 4, and Anthony was up for the day!  I had her bring in cartoons to watch.  Then, it didn't matter as much that she was still coming in every half hour to check his diaper (at least it was no longer every 15-20 minutes)!  Matt showed up around 7:30 with the boys, and Anthony was just having constant melt downs!  When Dr Bailey came in to check on him, he ordered clear liquids.  Anthony was so happy to eat a popsicle, but then refused to drink anything else the rest of the morning!  I made Matt leave at noon, cause I knew Anthony wouldn't drink anything unless he got a good nap.  He slept on my lap for 4 hours!  He was still moody when he woke up, but he started finally drinking!  When I was sure he would keep it up, I called the nurse and asked her to call Dr Bailey so we could go home before our observation hours were up!  Did I mention that Matt never even saw the nurse?  He was there from 7:30 (just after she did her morning assessment) until 12:30, and never saw her.  On the plus side, no one interrupted Anthony's four hour nap!  Maybe I'm picky cause I remember if my patients didn't need a whole lot, I would still make sure to peek my head in every hour or so just so they would know I was still there, and make sure they didn't need anything.  So Anthony is home, happy, and healthy.  He lost so much weight, he only weight 22 pounds at the hospital, but he's mostly gained it back!  And, if any of the peds nurses I worked with read this, thank you for being the most awesome peds nurses ever!  So glad I got the opportunity to work with you!  I wouldn't hesitate to ever have you in charge of taking care of my kids!  The thing that was the hardest about my decision to be a stay at home mom was leaving my coworkers, boss, and the sweet kids I got to work with.  They are all truly amazing people, and I hope they all realize what a great service they do!

My baby is 6 months old!

How does time fly so fast?!  I can't believe I'm already mother of three kids!  Crazy!  My Thomas is 6 months old now, and growing so fast!  I haven't taken him for his checkup yet, so I'm not sure how big he is.  I actually got in a bit of an argument over it with the pediatrician's office.  Josh just turned 4, Anthony just turned 2, and Anthony is 6 months.  I told the receptionist I wanted to schedule all three for their appointment.  She told me no, they will only see two at a time.  I was unwilling to schedule multiple appointments, and informed her of this.  Then she said there was the problem of wanting to see Anthony before his second birthday, and not wanting to see Thomas until after he was 6 months.  Seriously?  I had to explain to her again I don't really care what their policies are, I have three kids.  They all are due for a check up.  Sorry, but I have better things to do with my time than spending all my days at the dr's office!  She then went and got approval to make an exception.  Annoying!  So I've been working with Josh on his letters.  It is very difficult!  I've had to learn how to write with my left hand, as he is a lefty!  I also figured out I am SO GLAD I am not a kindergarted teacher!  It would drive me nuts!  But he loves learning his letters, and loves the praise I give him when he practices, so it's all good in the end.  Anthony is the biggest tease!  He teases Josh mercilessly!  And Josh does not handle it well at all!  It will be interesting seeing what happens with that!  Anthony is also definitely in his terrible twos!  He has been crying all the time lately!  He's always been kind of a whiney kid, but now it is just out of control!  He hates napping now, and that happened over night!  By around 4, he is so exhausted, and throwing temper tantrums, and he'll snuggle in my arms, then crash.  It is cute, and I love snuggling with him,  but never get to for long.  Guess that's what happens when you have two other little kids that need you!  Thomas is a cute baby, but he's been hard.  He sleeps from around 8:30 or 9 till around 7:30 in the morning.  He takes little catnaps during the day, only ten minutes to a half hour at a time.  It gets a little frustrating, because I can't get anything done when he's awake.  The other two boys just maul him, so I have to be right by him.  He's fussy quite frequently, content for only five to ten minutes at a time.  But I love him so much!  I'm grateful he's part of my family!  And I'm so grateful I've been blessed to be able to stay home with my kids.  I love being a stay at home mom.  I was blessed to have a mother always there, and I'm so glad I will be able to offer the same to my own children!  Anyway, now for a whole bunch of pics:)

 

My sweet boys and their Valentine candy

 

 

Matt turned 37 this year!  Matt gave me a kiss on the cheek right before the pic, so Josh had to do the same to his brother!

 

Matt is obsessed with gadgets of all sorts, so for his birthday we got him a Nexus 4 phone.  He LOVES it!

 

 

Once it warmed up a bit outside, we were able to put up the trampoline my parents got the kids for Christmas. 

 

 

 

We thought Thomas looked a bit like a vampire, he he he:)

 

 

Josh was so upset he had a cut on his head, he wanted a wipe to keep cleaning it off.  He fell asleep with the wipe on his head!

 

 

Anthony fights me for the heater in the mornings

 

 

We had a tree in the backyard we hated because it would always drop sharp, pokey things into the grass, so we decided to chop it.

 

 

A couple hours later, it is gone!  The only casualty was the leg of Matt's pants!

 

 

My little mischief maker!

 

 

Josh always requests many things for his birthday cake.  This year, he wanted a Spiderman Raphael cake.  Done, and done!

 

 

Josh loves his new Spiderman bike!

 

 

Me and my babies

 

 

My boys LOVE helping me sew!

 

 

My happy baby!

 

 

Easter egg hunting outside

 

 

Picking candy out of the grass

 

 

Happy Easter!

 

 

Can't forget to color eggs!

 

 

Helping me clean the bathroom.  I didn't even yell about the toilet paper that was soaked and the bits scattered all over the bathroom.  I was so proud of me! 

 

 

Thomas loves to eat!  He caught on so quick on what to do, it made me feel a bit guilty for taking so long to give the little guy food!

 

 

My Avengers

 

 

My boys are obsessed with Ghostbusters, but they have to have a stuffed animal for comfort!

 

 

 

This one I did yell.  In case you're wondering what was in the bucket, it was rolled oats.

 

 

So fun to play hide and seek in the cupboard.  Unfortunately for them, the big mess of food next to it usually gives them away!

 

 

The boys have their own clothes basket when I fold laundry.  I take it upstairs, and they push it into their room and put away clothes.  They are so cute to watch, Anthony hands Josh the clothes, and Josh puts it in the drawer.

 

 

Chuck E Cheese for Josh and Anthony's birthday.  They loved it!

 

 

Love the look Anthony gave Matt.  "Really, Dad?"

 

 

Anthony loves Mickey, so of course I had to make his Mickey Mouse cake.  It was a hit!

 

 

A musical Mickey to go with his birthday cake.

 

 

My Joshua

 

 

Anthony fixing the clothes hamper with his screwdriver

 

 

Worn out, and folding laundry!

 

 

Reading to my sweet boys!

 

 

At the zoo!

 

 

Sheer terror!  The bears?  No.  Tiger?  Nope.  It was the fake elephant that plays music!

 

 

Checking out the tiger!  The boys were both nervous when it growled!

 

 

Me and my Josh

 

 

Loved this pic!  Anthony and his Daddy

 

 

Can't go to Salt Lake without dropping in at the Salt Lake Temple!  Josh is determined to marry his princess (a girl from primary)  in this temple.  Cute little kid!

 

Little rascals!

 



 

Wow, I love my boys!