blog giveaway

so i entered a blog giveaway. which I usually don't do but it looked like some fun stuff so I did.
You should check out her blog she creates super cute stuff!

Ward Campout

This past weekend was our ward campout! We went up a day early along with some other families to reserve some spots for those
that couldn't make it until Friday. One of the families that came had set up a zipline next to their site! The kids got to try that out for the first time! I was surprised that they were okay w/ it! They had it going over a little ravine too! Riley jumped right up and went and so did Seth. Lyddie had no intrest at all! And Lex was a tad nervous but thought she would try it out but before they let her go she started to flip out so we took her down. The next day she tried it again and was okay as long as they would keep hold of the rope. So she went the distance to the ravine and then got down.

Then we went to the fish hatchery. The kids had a great time looking at all the fish! They even got to feed the fish which they thought was pretty cool!

We walked from our campsite to the hatchery which ended up being about 2 miles roundtrip by the time you walk all through the hatchery too. Walking was a bad idea!! There was a big incline right before the hatchery. I have a really hard time walking up or down hills with my bad hips so by the time we got up there my hips were hurting and then we still had to walk around and back. By the time we started back we had a 4 yr old that was tired of walking and a 5 yr old w/ a broken toe that was bothering her and a 6yr old w/ her dying femur that was bothering her. So I got the 4yr old and Eliott rotated the other two!

It was about half way back when Lyddie laid her head on my head and said "mom I think I am gonna go to sleep on your head, okay?" It was too cute!

I love this scrunched up nose picture! Too Cute!!
Lexi decided to hang w/ me on the way back after her shoulder ride. She hung on my pocket so she could keep up. It was cute but made my journey a little more difficult! We had tons of fun but I don't think we would walk again!!

We have an amazing ward and I love going to ward activities but this by far was my favorite! The kids got to run around and play w/ all the other kids while we got to visit and relax with friends! I can't wait till next year!!

A bit of sewing...

I have been doing some sewing lately and I love it!! We had a few birthday parties in May that the girls were invited to but of course I didn't have a gift or time to get one. So I went digging through my stash to find something suitable and came up w/ a couple super cute aprons. I made one that was red w/ white polka dots and a white ruffle. And the other one was this cute little cupcake one!! I am in love w/ them and want to make some cute ones for my girls and possibly for my Etsy shop. That isn't quite up and running yet!!

                                                                                                                                                                   


With it being graduation and all I have 6 laurels leaving! (graduating seniors that are in my class at church). So for a gift we decided to make aprons and recipe books for the girls. They are seriously cute. I make things for other people all the time but somehow I never end up making anything for myself. After making these aprons I have decided which cute ones I want for myself! I made 6 aprons (one not pictured because we had to give it to her early because she was going to be gone for 2 months) and out of the 6 only 2 were the same. So I had 5 different ones to choose from. This 1st one is sooo cute! I found the tutorial online and I am in love with it and  I think I will make one for me!

This one is one that I made after making the cute little girl ones. I am sure I saw it somewhere but I have no idea. It is just put together from different ideas that were floating around my head! This is the other one that I am gonna make for me!  I think I might even use the same fabric cuz it is seriously cute!!

This one I made for our girls camp fundraiser auction. People seemed to like it so I made this one for one of the other girls.

The next 2 I saw a picture of and tried to recreate it.

This one is the shortest of all and of course it is for the tallest girl so I am gonna go add a ruffle to the bottom to give it some more length. I am thinking a black ruffle will be cute.

A little late

I don't use a pattern to sew but I really wanted to feel like I could. So the week before Easter I decided to tackle dresses for the girls. We all went to Joann's and I let them each pick out their fabric. Which was actually alot of fun! And then I got to sewing! I finished the dresses the day before Easter. I think they turned out super cute. And the girls LOVED them!! I love all the happy twirling and posing! I may even tackel a pattern again. But I still kinda prefer making my own!

love these girls

I took this picture a month or so ago but just came across it again. I love it!! I love how they all want to be close to each other. How they are the best of friends. How they protect each other. How they play together. How they love each other. I hope they can manage to keep the awesome relationship that they have as they grow.

the how

i guess i forgot to say how exactly the toe incident happened. so here is a little explanation for you. The bench is just a regular wooden bench for your dining room table. It doesn't have sharp edges on it or anything unusual. The best we can figure is that she was sitting w/ her knees bent and sitting on her lower legs. Riley told her they should tip the bench and then jumped off and Lexi must have tried to do the same and in the process pushed the bench harder/faster down. In the process it got her toe. Really just a random freak accident!

quite the story...

This is a looooong post!! And at the end there are gory pictures fair warning!!!

So wednesday evening Eliott and I were sitting on the couch chatting when we hear the dining room bench fall over. Eliott starts to tell me how he is so tired of the kids messing around on it. At that point I hear the cry to change to one that encourages us to check out what happened. So right as I start telling Eliott he should check (cuz I don't do blood so if there is a cry that might indicate blood, it is his job!) Seth comes around the corner super white and just says "there's blood". So we jump up to check and there stands lex next to the bench w/ half of her toe barely attached to the rest of it. It all happened so fast after that. I ask Eliott if it was bad, he says yes, then I say ER? and he says yes. So I rush the kids 3 doors down to my friend (scare her to death w/ my crazy pounding on her door and trying to open it) when she opens it I just tell her lex chopped her toe off and she takes my kids inside. Meanwhile Eliott puts her toe back together and wraps it in a towel. I So we go to the pediatric ER and on the way we pray and Eliott gives lex a blessing and we sing primary songs. The only thing that could keep me somewhat calm was the primary songs. Whenever we would stop singing my whole body would start shaking again. So primary songs we sang! Since I don't do blood Eliott held lex on the way and I drove. Which we decided was a good thing since I didn't see all the blood, the toe hanging or her exposed bone. Eliott would have driven way crazier trying to get us there!!

So once we got there the first nurse looked at it right away and said it was cut pretty bad and that they would give her some pain stuff in the waiting room then pressure wrap it and take some xrays. Eliott tried asking her if she saw the toenail and she said thought it was somewhere in the towel. Well at that point we kinda started worrying that she didn't really know what she was doing. cuz if she couldn't see the toenail then she was looking at the inside of her toe because it was chopped off. Well we had to wait another 30-45 minutes to be taken into triage to have them pressure wrap it. When we got there a different nurse and a tech were looking at it and said that they couldn't pressure wrap it because it was a partial amputation. At this point I have lexi's head in my arms and my face right next to her singing her primary songs trying to calm her down and here they are throwing out the words "partial amputation". I am so glad she didn't really know what that meant, cuz the words alone were enough to freak me out!! So then we get put at the end of this hall waiting for the next room. After sitting there for another 30 minutes we get moved to a room. Then to another where we stayed till we got to go home. We were in the second room for another 30-45 minutes waiting for xrays, and dr. and whatnot. They finally came in and the dr. told us he would sedate her and sew her toe back together. The xray showed that she broke the bone on the very tip of her big toe. So after being there for about 2hrs they finally had her iv in and were starting to sedate her. She was awake but she had no idea what was going on. When I kissed her she didn't kiss back. Then we went to wait in the waiting room. When we were called back in she was starting to wake up and her toe was put back together!!! It was soooooo gross! I never saw it before it was stitched back together and barely looked at it when it was. There is about 1/4inch on the bottom of her toe that didn't get cut but that was it. So she has a stitch inside her toe and then a ring of stitches around it and one going through the nail. She has to be in a boot and can't walk for 4-6 weeks because of the broken bone.

She has been in such a good mood and hardly ever complains. We moved a twin mattress downstairs and that is her safe zone. I have been sleeping on it with her so I can help her in the night. And it about breaks my heart when she wakes up for medicine. She just rolls over and in a sad voice will say "mom, my toe hurts" so then we start the drug routine. She has been showered w/ love and gifts and is doing soooo well!!

This pictures was her being funny w/ Eliott on her safe zone!

We took her to the podiatrist and they unwrapped it for us. We didn't have a camera at the hospital and my phone battery was dying so it wouldn't take a picture. So we didn't get any before or during pictures. But here are the ones we took 36 hrs after. Eliott says it looks amazingly good considering what it looked like before. I didn't even really look at it at the podiatrist's yesterday. I caught a glimpse of it and that was enough for me! But oddly enough I can look at the pictures. They look sooooo much better than the actual toe. But it gives you an idea!

On the picture below you can see the part that doesn't have part of the black line going across there in the middle... That was the only part of the toe still attached.

new beds!!

So the girls were outgrowing their small room so we decided to get bunk beds!!

we got a twin over full and the girls are in love with it!!!

For the first week they rotated turns on top but lately they have been all snuggling up together on the bottom! it is so cute! I love that they are such good friends! and having it has helped free up tons of space in their room making it a bit easier for them to clean and more fun to play in. so all around an excellent purchase!!

hmmm what to do...

Well blogland, I am not gonna lie, I love comments! If I didn't like them or didn't care if anybody read my blog or not then I would just have it private and keep it to myself. I have gotten emails from people telling me to keep blogging when I start to slack. So if you want me to keep posting then you better start commenting. GOT IT LURKERS?!!

Thanks!!

Lexi's party

In our house you get a family (meaning, uncles, aunts, cousins...) party every year but on the years you turn, 5, 8, 12,16 and maybe 18 you get to have a friend party! The kids are okay w/ this deal and I love it!! So this year Lexi got to have a friend party. First we decorated cupcakes and had lunch

and then there was asurprise visit from some princesses!

The Princesses got to paint all the girls nails and then we took some pictures with them!

The girls LOVED it!! Lexi was so cute!

We had presents and then she got to blow out her candle in the cupcake she decorated!

In the evening we had our family party where she got more presents and more cake! All in all I would say she had a fantastic day!!

Lexi turns 5!

My Lexi is 5 now! look how gorgeous, sassy, fun and simply wonderful she is!!

Christmas

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Christmas morning.

The kids didn't get to bed until about 10 on Christmas Eve so they slept until about 7:30. Eliott and I got up at 6:30 and waited for them to wake up so they could come downstairs. Here they are on the top of the stairs in their new jammies!

They have been wanting zhu zhu pets and Riley has pretty much been the ring leader on that one so she was super excited that Santa had left one for each of them!

Lydia was more excited for the bubbles in her stocking!! I love this rag-a-muffin picture of her!

Well and then there was chapstick which is always a huge hit for the girls!

All the kids were having so much fun w/ all the stuff in their stockings that they checked everything out for a good 15 minutes before we reminded them that there were presents under the tree! I love that they are so happy w/ the little things!

This is what happened after Lexi opened the present from Riley (it was a cell phone from the dollar store). Apparently Lexi loved it because she attacked Riley in hugs to thank her. They were rolling around on the floor and it was hilarious!

Seth had a great time too I just didn't snap any pictures of him looking at the camera. But overall we had a great day!