Life As We Know It--Watch out, it's a LOOONG one!

Most nights I stay up pretty late.  It's the only time where I get a good, steady break from the chaos of the boys and everything is quiet....not clean, but quiet!  I figured tonight that I might as well blog while I stay up late!  It's just that it's been soooo long since I've had a good blog, that it's really overwhelming!  I have so many pictures (but not as many as I should have) and there's been so much that has happened in these last 12 months that it's just all too....overwhelming!!  Where do I start?  Plus, this is basically my life journal and I want to eventually print it out and keep it as a keepsake, but then I have like a full year that isn't included!  Then I start to feel the guilt!  LOL!  But, I might as well jump in, right!  Just like I should with my dishes....

Lets not go there....

SO!  I think the last time that I really blogged was after Christmas.  I guess I'll start updating with the logical month--January!  The problem is, I don't remember January!!!  See--problem!  How am I supposed to let my grandchildren know what life was like for us if I forgot it??  Oh well.  Here are some pictures from January!  Thank goodness for the date stamp on all our digital photos!

 Xander discovered trains and started lining them up in a row in the bathtub!  I love knowing when my children have reached important milestones that will benefit them when they get into school!  (FYI--lining things up in a row like in the picture helps to train the brain for reading!  Cool, huh!)

On January 28, I wanted to do something as a family because I was just antsy!  I wanted to go somewhere and spend money, but Nathan talked me into just going into our backyard and playing with the boys in the snow!  I'm so glad he did!  It turned out to be one of my favorite memories of this year!

 Xander is all decked out in his winter gear!

 I kinda think I looked like a pioneer!  I was really warm!

 Nathan had fun throwing Michael around.....Michael wasn't too fond of it after too long!

 I thought Nathan looked like an ogre!

 We have a tiny hill in our backyard, and it was perfect for a little sledding hill!  Both boys enjoyed going down with me, and I enjoyed going down with them too!  It was fun.

 I love Xanders huge grin in this picture!

Then we came inside and made hamburgers!  Michael and Nathan donned their aprons and went to work!

 Xander, trying to be included...

Later on Xander decided to do some fingerpainting.....with peanut butter.....It was actually really easy to clean up, but soooo random!!!

January, from what I can remember, was pretty laid back and relaxing.  Or maybe it just was in contrast to how the rest of our year has gone!  Things have been HeCtiC and CRaZy since February!  It all started with the first week of February, when I had a huge training for work.  It was a 3 day long training, thankfully here in Rexburg, but it was from 7:30 to 4:30 Monday through Wednesday, and then on Wednesday night we had our regular monthly connection where all the families that are enrolled in Parents as Teachers come to a big event.  So I was out of the house for about 30 hours just in those 3 days, and had to figure out babysitting for all those hours!!!  Ya, it was crazy and I'm forever indebted to Becca and Shayna who helped to watch my boys for me!  And then, two days later, we drove to Salt Lake and flew home to California to visit my family and to send Bryce off to Boston to serve a 2 year mission for our church.  That was a nice visit, but we weren't there for too long.  It was good to see Bryce and meet his amazing girl friend!  The plane ride home was fairly uneventful, except I was afraid I had lost the christmas present Bryce had given me before we left and was stressing about that for longer than I needed to (It was in my luggage....), and then when we were on the shuttle at the SLC airport, Xander fell off his seat when the shuttle stopped quickly and fell headfirst into the floor!!!!!  I picked him up and he immediately had a DENT IN HIS HEAD!!!  Ya, I freaked out!!!  My mother-in-law is a nurse, so we called her and she told us to just watch for signs of a concussion--not walking straight, throwing up, sleepiness--and to just watch him.  Well, when we landed it was already like 7:00, his bedtime, so of course he was tired, but he was walking fine and wasn't acting nauseous or hurt, so we just went on with our drive home.  He fell asleep after finding a McDonald's and eating, while Nathan and I got lost.  Luckily we made it to the highway and were on our way.  About halfway home Xander woke up and threw up.  Crap!  So Nathan climbed into the back and got him cleaned up and put back to sleep.  Then we got home, and he threw up again.  So we called the ER, who told us they couldn't give us any advice and to call the on-call doctor of our primary care provider.  I called, and luckily it was our regular doctor.  I told him what happened, and he suggested that we go to the ER to get him looked at.  So Nathan packed up and took him away.  Luckily, they said he was fine and to watch him.  We were just so glad he was okay, but it was soooo scary!!  I still can't think of all that happening without having my stomach clench up and feeling sick.  It was just horrible!!!!  Although, his forehead is still dented in that spot!!  I've had the doc. look at it a few times, and he said it's normal and okay, so I'm wondering if we'll have a permanent reminder of that horrible night!  

Then about a week and a half later, I was driving Michael to Speech Therapy when a lady ran a red light and T-boned our van!!!!  Did I mention we got a van in November??  Ya, we bought it with cash, it was perfect for us and what we needed.  It got totaled!  So now we have a new van.  And a car loan.  And some bitterness....I'm working on that!  So ya, that was my first car accident.  It sucked.  I have an injury from it, and I've been working on that since the day after the accident when I first went to the Chiropractor.  After going to him for about 8 weeks and my back still hurting me regularly, I went to a doctor who ordered an MRI.  They found that I had some bulging discs in my back and he referred me to a back doctor, but also gave me some steroids to see if it would help.  It didn't.  The back doctor then referred me to physical therapy, so I've been doing that for a few weeks.  Thankfully, it is helping, but I'm not too optimistic that I wont be hurting there for the rest of my life!!  So I spent a big part of February and the earlier part of March sorting out the car accident business, searching for a new car, buying new car seats, giving doctor offices the insurance information, taking Vicodin (ya, had some FUN experiences on that one!!!), and sending receipts to the insurance agents.  Ya, it sucked!!!!  But, I can now say I've done it, and will know what to do next time it happens...Not that I want one to happen again, but I'm just being realistic! 

 Michael and Kellie's little girl Emma!  They always have a BLAST playing together!

 Aunt Rachel was SOOO GREAT with Michael, Emma, and Xander!!  She spent most of her time visiting with us being the detective and searching for clues!  I imagine she was pretty exhausted after those few days!

 Our family--Kellie, Brandon and Ben, Bryce, me, Nathan, Gary, Xander, Michael and Emma, Rachel, Bryan, and Dad.

 The Grandkids

Michael

 Emma

 Xander

Baby Ben

 Michael and Emma dressed as Robin and Batman! I love Michael's crazy eyes!

 Bryce and his girl Vivian!  She's really so sweet and so good to Bryce!  I'm really excited to see what will happen here when Bryce gets home! 

 Bryce and Bryan

 Our family--Bryan, Mom, Bryce, Dad, Kellie, and Me

 Rachel with Michael and Emma, probably looking for more clues.  I think the gazebo was their hideout or something....

 Xander, looking like the stud he is!

 One last picture with my family and Bryce!

 

 Xander and Michael playing with the storm trooper play stuff.  Michael took down my winter jacket and played with that for like a whole week!  Funny boy!

Anyway, so this is taking sooo long, I'm going to finish up March, April, May, June, and July tomorrow!!  But, at least I got this stuff done!! It's actually quite relieving!!!!!!