Finally!!!! I Got Tim a Birthday present he didn't throw away, put on the back of the shelf, or just ignore until I finally took it back to the store and got my money back. This was so much fun! We saw a lot of elk and a moose and lots of pretty country.

CAYLEY, next year you are getting Shiloh up here and we are doing it together. And anyone else for that matter, please come, (although we can only do it once, because the snowmobills are a little pricey to rent).

Here is a snowman that Isaac, Grace and I made.

We really like the snow for 2 or 3 months out of the year but I we are all about to go crazy when it is still 3 and 4 feet high by March 1st!!!!! We need to move south on the parallels. Any Ideas?

Help!!

HELP!!

Grace refuses to wear clothes. She refuses to wear diapers. She will sometimes wear underwear. We tried ducktaping the diapers on. It took her about a week to figure that out. I have tried potty-training her and she will poop in the toilet but I don't think she is capable of holding her pee long enough. She just pee's a little bit every 15 minutes or so. Any ideas from anyone??????

What do ya know, I have some time on my hands (actually I am forfitting my housework and 1/2 of my naptime) so I scanned some pics of Sierra when she was little and here they are.

SOME INTERESTING AND FUNNY THINGS ABOUT SIERRA

1. When she was a baby she would store her food in her cheeks. We would find food in her mouth after she would wake up from naps. This ended up costing us a lot of money at the Dentist office and she is the only child I know that had at least four absest teeth and 4-5 root canals by the time she was 7. I hear she gets this lovely trait from her Grandma Syrett.
2. She has always found entertainment out of anything. When she was little, Grandpa and Grandma Syrett would take her on their tow calls to Vegas often and she loved it. All I had to do is send a bunch of little gagets with her and my parents would say she would just sit and play with them the whole trip. She also loved eating out in Vegas with my parents and has probably been to more Vegas restaurants than me.
3. This is definately not funny but last year she had some pretty painful injuries while playing her favorite sport. She had one week of softball where she was hit in the ankle by a softball and withing 5 minutes it had swollen to twice the size of normal. She skinned her knee up pretty bad and bruised her jawbone from gametime.
Then, for a season finale we went to the Chuckers game (Professional baseball team in Idaho Falls) and she was hit in the head with a foul ball. This sent her to the emergency room and in the hospital overnight. She fractured her skull and had some bleeding on her brain. She still has a lump on her forhead that docs say might never go away. All I could think of was how to get her out of pain and as soon as the EMTs got there I told them to give her something for the pain and they could only give it to her in an IV so she refused it. She's crazy. I would have said "bring it on baby, give me all you got". Both her eyes went black and blue and she looked sort of Asian for about a month but she has recovered and is now practicing softball for season 2009.

That's all I can think of for now. We are thankful for Sierra and although she complains alot, she is a great helper and we are so thankful to have her around. We Love her very much.

Happy Birthday Sierra

Happy Birthday Sierra

Ok, this is the month of Sierra's birthday, actually it has already passed, so I will introduce her for this month. Unfortunately, we didn't go digital until Sierra was at least seven or eight years old so unless I have some time on my hands you wont be seeing any baby pics of her. Too bad too, because she was a BEAUTIFUL baby.

Sierra joined our family on February 2nd 1997. Yes, it was ground hog day and she was a week late. They told me that if she saw her shadow when she came out that she would go back in for 6 more weeks. Lucky for me and her, she did not see her shadow that day. She had a rough time coming out (definately did a number on me) and after using the forceps and the vacuum, Dr. Henry just reached in and pulled her out. She broke her left clavical bone, and had various bruises on her head. She had lots of hair on her head and all over her body. Doesn't paint a pretty picture but she really was soooo beautiful.

Sierra was such a good baby. I would have more if I could be guaranteed they would be as good as her (unfortunately each one got worse). I don't think she even cried until she was at least 4 or 5 months old. She was easygoing and happy to be with anyone. Although she is now very defiant with me, she is still this way with others. She can be friends with anyone old or young.

Sierra is a very good student, always has been. She is self-motivated. I never have to tell her to do her homework or study for a test because she knows what she needs to do. She loves to read. Her worst subject, she says, is science which she still gets A's in. Maybe an A-. So, that has been nice for me, but imagine my rude awakening when Taten came along and is smart but does not enjoy school work. Luckily, he minds me and will do his homework after the 3rd or 4th time he is told.

I have to stop now to put the kids to bed but hopefully will add more on Sierra later.

ISAAC

ISAAC

This is the month of Isaac's Birthday so I thought I would introduce and tell about him. He is going to be four years old on January 28th.
Everything about Isaac is extreme. From the moment I found out I was pregnant with him life was never boring again. I was extremely sick with him; he wanted to come early and we took a $20,000 plane ride to Primary Childrens together, but I kept him inside until he was full term. He arrived at 8lbs 15 oz. We decided that the doctors gave me the wrong kind of steroid at the time, but then Grace was 8lbs 13 oz, so I must just feed them well inside of me.
Isaac was a happy baby as long as he was being held AND ENTERTAINED. He has had to be entertained ever since he was born. Until recently, he would not watch TV either so that was out of the question for a quick baby sitter.

SOME FUNNY THINGS ABOUT ISAAC

He absolutely would not take a bottle. I finally said no more nursing during the day when he was 11 months and he lost a few pounds because he didn't want food. I didn't ween him until he was 15 months and at that time I nursed him, and when he was all done he looked up at me and went "Aaaaahhhhhhhh". That was when I decided that was enough.
Isaac does something funny two or three times a day but some things that stand out are: On Sunday, at sacrament meeting, I was trying to show him how to be reverent bye being very still. After a few seconds he nudged me and ask with a red face "can I breathe?"

Another time I had Isaac and Grace with me at the hospital so Sierra could get a CT scan for her head injury. Grace had a messy diaper so I took them into the bathroom to change her but they didn't have a changing station, so I took them into the dressing room to change her. I proceeded to change Grace and all of the sudden two nurses came running into the room and checked all the stalls. I didn't think anything of it until one of the nurses said "Oh, it's just this little boy." Isaac had pulled the help string in all of the stalls. Oops.

One day he decied that he wanted to be a helicopter pilot like Diego and so he got my headphones and cut the wires off of them. He got a spanking for that one and then he said "but, mom, just glue them back together". Apparently we have to glue lots of things back together and he figured it would work with wires too.

He has had a full vocabulary since befor he was two and he won't let anyone else get a word in unless you are answering his questions. About a week after we got back from Vegas, He ask me, "mom, do I talk too much? Grandma told me I talk too much". Believe me I am not offended. I find myself hiding in corners or locking doors just to have a moment of silence once in a while. The other day I told him the word "Mommy" was a bad word and not to say it anymore. The next day he ask me if it was really a bad word because he really wanted to say it. I had to apologize for that one.

Isaac has definitely put meaning into our life and I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world. He is a great helper. One time he was helping me make Great Grandma Noodles and he took the lid off the pepper bottle and poured the whole bottle in. That was some spicy soup. He loves to help me take care of Gracie. He will defend her from anyone and always made sure she was well taken care of at nursery. Of course, She refuses to bathe, and when I make her, she screams and claws at me to get out because Isaac has her convinced there are snakes in the tub waiting to bite her. She also believes that when she is alone downstairs there are monsters that come alive. He does love her and will make sure he walks her up the stairs so they wont get her.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. If I remember more I'll post more. Happy Birthday Isaac!

Holidays

The holidays were lots of fun and also not so fun. Christmas day was good but that night, Grace started puking and for the next five or six days I was getting puked on, cleaning up puke or running to the bathroom myself. We all got better for New years eve and had lots of fun bringing in the new year at Ruby's Inn.
Tim and I went to Vegas on the 1st and it was wonderful. Tim surprised me with a 1 hour body massage and 1 hour facial at the Paris and despite the insults I got about how tense I was and how dry and red my face was, I thoroughly enjoyed it. We watched movies, ate on the Eiffel Tower, Went to a Hypnotist show( Anthony Cools, I have never laughed so hard ever, but it was kind of bad). We also spent a day in our motel room just reading and watching TV, something we cannot do at home without kids screaming and crawling all over us. So we had a wonderful time and decided we need to do it more often.
Poor Sierra, I told her I would pay her to help with the kids and she thought I meant to take care of the kids herself so my mom told me Sierra wouldn't let her do anything but make meals for the kids. I guess I will have to pay Sierra a little extra.