The Fall

I hope you will excuse me. I haven't blogged in FOREVER! I misplaced the cord to my camera that I download pictures with it. I found the cord this morning. Since blogging is kind of like my journaling of major events in our household, I hope you won't mind as I backtrack and write about a few of those major events in our household over the past month.

I don't know if you have ever had a moment where you are trying to process something in your brain and you start reacting before your brain totally finishes processing. I had one of those moments today.

I had been in Idaho Falls at an appointment. I had Logan with me. I didn't get away like I had expected and so my good friend, Linda Gibbs, picked Conner and Natalie up from school and was watching them at her house. I went and picked them up as I was coming into town. I knew Linda had to be to work and so we were in a bit of a hurry. When I got there, I unbuckled Logan and he came in with me. Conner was all ready to go but Natalie didn't have shoes on. So upon leaving Linda's house, I start trying to figure out if I should carry Natalie down the steps and to the van or if I should just let her walk down the steps and then I would carry her to the van. My brain had decided that the steps were clean and dry and she could walk down the steps and then I would carry her to the van. However, I immediately leaned forward and went to carry her. That split second of indecisiveness was enough to through me completely off balanace. I fell forward. We must have also fallen sideways because we ended to the side of the stairs in a bed of lava rock. Me right on top of Natalie. Linda had been behind us and rushed to pull Natalie out from under me. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't like people to know I am hurt and I usually jump up screaming that I am okay. Not this time. I laid in the bed of lava rock screaming out in pain. Once Linda had gotten Natalie out of the rock, I notice that she is bleeding profusely. So Linda takes Natalie in the house to get her cleaned up. Thanks so much Linda. Those of you who know me know I don't deal well with blood or puke! Conner and Logan are standing there looking at me, scared. Natalie had left a lot of blood behind. Her pink coat and princess backpack were now more red than they were pink and there was quite a bit of blood on the sidewalk. I was still laying there in the bed of lava rocks trying to figure how I was ever going to get out of there. I tell Logan and Conner to carry Natalie's things to the van and I will be there in a minute. It took everything I had in me to get up and hobble to the van. Linda finished cleaning up Natalie and brought her to the van. I start heading home. I tried to reach Bryon at the school. He wasn't available so I left a message on his voicemail. You see I had had trouble sleeping lately and would be wide awake at 3 or 4 in the morning. This particular morning I had been up since 4. My appointment in Idaho Falls had also been very emotional for me. Anyone who knows me also knows that I love a little power nap in the afternoon. So I told Bryon that I had had a little mishap and was going to go home and have a power nap. I had a month's worth of groceries in the backseat. I told him I would carry in the refrigerated and freezer stuff but would need his help unloading everything else upon him getting home. But do not call me, I would just see him when he got home in a couple of hours. Well my mind quickly changed upon getting home. It took me a good 20 minutes to hobble from the van into the house and Natalie's nose had began to bleed again. Bryon came home and loaded Natalie up in the van to take her to Community Care. He asked me if I was going to go with them to have the doctor look at my foot. I do not like to go to doctors and try to avoid them at all costs. I told Bryon, "I am badly hurt NOT dead!"

Natalie ended up with two little stitches on the side of her nose. I am still paying for my little mishap. The very next day, my foot was still not doing any better. I have had a broken foot before and felt like I hadn't broken anything. However, this happened on a Thursday and on Saturday of that same week we were going to be taking our Young Women to Salt Lake to attend the General Young Women's Broadcast. I was going even if I had to go on a stretcher. I knew we were going to be walking all over Temple Sqaure in Salt Lake City. When all the kids were at school on Friday morning, I took myself to Community Care. They x-rayed my foot. Sure enough it wasn't broken but just very badly sprained. The doctor told me he was going to give me an air cast. I told him I was glad because on Saturday we were going to Temple Square and I would be doing a lot of walking and was hoping to get some support for my ankle. Upon hearing how much walking I would be doing, he opted to give me a walking boot. I wore the walking boot that day, Saturday to Salt Lake, and Sunday. By Monday I figured my ankle was feeling pretty good and I wouldn't wear the boot for all the little puttering around the house stuff I do. (The doctor at Community Care never told me how long I had to wear it). However, if I do any sort of exercising or walk any sort of long distance, that sucker swells up the size of a watermelon! On Monday I went to the doctor for a list of about 10 things I was hoping to talk to him about. While I was visiting him, I mentioned in passing about my fall. He looks at my ankle (which was NOT one of the 10 things I went to talk to him about). He found out I had a walking boot and had worn it only for a short amount of time. He told me I am to go back to the walking boot for a good week if not two!

I Love A Parade 07-04-08

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays.

This year it was a different feeling as we were sitting along the parade route. Sam wasn't with us because he was dancing in the parade. It was such a strange feeling knowing that I have a child old enough to be in the parade.

We sat near the end of the route. Sam's team was one of the first entries and so that way, Bryon could go get him and they could come back and watch the rest of the parade. It was a little cloudy that day and so we would get some relief from the sun beating down when it went behind a cloud. My friend, Linda, and her girls found us along the route and they came and sat by us.

The parade was fun to watch. You can always measure the success of a parade by how much candy you come away with and my kids got a bunch! Here are a couple of pictures of my patriotic cuties. I am not sure why I don't have one of Conner.

Pass The Torch Tuesday

So I never did get a Pass the Torch Tuesday done last week. Oh, the joys of having a sick child! I mentioned that I was going to try to post a little late for last week. At this point, I am not going to worry about backtracking. So with that this Tuesday I want to honor my little girl Natalie. I took the kids home to my parents house for the weekend. My sister that lives in Jerome, couldn't come over until Saturday afternoon but asked if I would watch her little girl Alice. I agreed. My kids were so excited to spend time with their cousin. Alice was so excited to play with Sam and Conner but spent most of her time playing with Logan and Natalie. On Saturday, my mom pulled out a bin of clothes that she has bought on sale and was going through it to see what she had. She had a little book about a mermaid. The pictures were actually little puzzles. Alice was so excited to play with this book. The only problem with this book was there was only one of them and there were two little girls who really wanted to play with it. Alice had had it for quite a while before Natalie decided she wanted it. My dad who happened to walk through the room at just the right time, noticed a little squabble between Alice and Natalie. He decides to try to reason with Alice. He asks Alice if it would be alright to let Natalie look at the book because she is just a baby and then in a little bit she could have the book back. Natalie now had the book and had gone into the living room and was sitting on a chair looking at the book. Alice pitches the biggest temper tantrum, throwing herself on the floor and crying. Natalie immediately goes over to her and gives her the book and tries to cheer up Alice.

Way to go Natalie. I am so proud of you!

Wordless Wednesday -- All Grown Up!

8 Things About Miss Natalie

Natalie was "tagged" by her twin Brooklyn. I say twin because I think they share a birthdate (November 13, 2005).

1. Natalie came to our home when she was two and a half months old. She had been released from the hospital to another foster home. When she and her brother came to stay with us, they were only supposed to stay for 30 days. It's funny how things just work out like they are supposed to!

2. How Natalie's name came to be -- I am from a family of all girls. My mom always wanted to name one of us Natalie. I know Jennifer, Lori, and Alyson are a far cry from the name Natalie. I always said that if I ever had a girl, I would name her Natalie in honor of my mom. Natalie's middle name is Ann. We chose it because her Grandma Dorothy's middle name is Ann, her Grandma Roskelley's middle name is Ann. Also, Natalie came to us with the name Annie. So her middle name is after her two grandmas and a reminder of her past.

3. Natalie loves to have her hair done. She will sit still forever for me to do her hair. Just Friday night, I got this hair-brained idea (no punn intended). I decided to put Natalie's hair in all these little braids so her hair would be kinky the next day. It took me over one hour to put all those braids in and she sat still the whole time!

4. She is 100% Girl! Not only does she love having her hair done but she always hast to be dressed. The other day I sat her on the toilet and walked away. I kind of forgot about her. She comes walking out with her pants pulled up. I then realized that I had sat her on the toilet. So I went and grabbed a pull-up and pulled down her pants only to realize she already had a pull-up on. She had gone into her bedroom put on her pull-up and put her pants back on. On top of always being dressed, she always has to wear her "pretties." She got her ears pierced when she was about eighteen months. Ever since then, she will bring me her earring tree every morning so she can have earrings to match her outfit. She also loves having her fingernails painted. She also loves purses and hauls a purse everywhere we go!

5. She LOVES shoes. I think she got this love from her Grandma Roskelley. She always has to have shoes on her feet. She will also bring shoes to anyone that doesn't have shoes on her feet. This fall she went to the toddler lab up on the campus of BYU-Idaho. I had also bought her these really cute brown boots. One day when I went to pick her up from school, they commented about how she really couldn't get around in her brown boots. When she would fall in them, she couldn't get back up. She also couldn't walk in them. She was basically banned from wearing her brown boots to school! One day, Bryon was home and he went to pick her up. The commented about her not wearing her brown boots anymore and they said they hardly recognized Natalie without her brown boots. She currently has seven pair of shoes up in her drawer. (Almost as many as her Grandma Roskelley!) I love it. If I can't find the boys shoes, we always do this mad dash around the house in search of shoes. If Natalie is missing a shoe, we simply pick out a different shoe.

6. She LOVES her doll. She got a doll for Christmas. She hauls this doll all over. She is rarely seen without her doll. She has even tried to take her doll to church and therapy with her. She is always feeding her baby a bottle, giving it loves, and dropping it off for her dad or me to babysit. Just recently she has started sitting the doll in the high chair for it to pretend to eat.

7. She is a blankie girl. She hauls her blanket all over the house and can often be found sitting down holding her blanket and sucking her thumb. She knows she is not allowed to have her blanket unless she is going to bed. So recently she has said cold as an excuse to take it out of her room. She will also point to her doll, meaning she needs it for her doll. Yeah Right!

8. She has the most adorable smile. Everywhere we go, everyone always comments about how she is always smiling. She really is a happy girl (as long as you don't tell her no!).

Natalie tags her cousin Cidney.

Natalie's 100% Girl

I have always wanted a girl. I think it had a lot to do with growing up with a family of all girls. I just didn’t know what to expect raising a boy. While I am having a total blast raising my boys, I am also really enjoying having a little girl. I just love dressing her up and putting cute little bows in her hair. Natalie has been a pretty easy girl, so far. She turned two in November. I thought we were sailing along pretty good. However the terrible twos have snuck upon us and hit us with a vengeance this past month or so. This afternoon I was busy teaching piano lessons. Bryon who usually is watching out after the kids, was trying to get dinner put together so we could make it to pack night on time. Just as I was finishing piano lessons, Natalie appeared out of nowhere. It was apparent that she had been in my mascara. I gave her a good scolding and then decided that I should snap a couple of pictures. I often say that Natalie is 100% girl. There is no denying that! These pictures prove that she was just trying to do what she has watched me do 100 times. It looks like she needs more practice of getting it just on her eyelashes!