Forgive me Father, for I have sinned...It has been 26 years since my last confession.

1. I did not go a whole day and eat nothing but a piece of coconut cream pie. That would be SO unhealthy.

2. I did not wash my cell phone in the washing machine and then say " I have no idea why it's not working" when Dallas asked me what was wrong with it. I would NEVER do something like that. I AlWAYS check pockets when doing laundry, so that would never happen to me. But, if it did, maybe Dallas should punish me by taking away my laundry priviliges. I think that would be appropriate, don't you?? It's a good thing I didn't do that. Otherwise, he might be a little upset when he reads this.
3. I did not spend hours making dinner, just to feed it to the dog and go to Taco Time instead because it didn't turn out very well. I wouldn't do that. That would be too wasteful.
4. I absolutely did not make Dallas sleep on the living room floor last night because I had just washed the sheets and he was filthy and refused to get in the shower because he was too tired. I would never be so mean. (OK- maybe I would)
5. I would never bribe Mackenzie with money to clean Gavin's room when he wouldn't. Bribery is absolutely WRONG and I would NEVER do such a thing.
6. I would not ignore my kids on a saturday morning when all I wanted was to just sleep-in for one day! I am a better mom than that. I would never leave my kids unattended while I slept in the other room. If I was going to do that, which I didn't, I would be very grateful that when they decided to make their own breakfast, they chose to make cold cereal instead of pancakes or something, because that would have been a disaster!

I think I've disclosed enough for one day. What things did or didn't YOU do this week?
Thanks Brooke!

Brought to you by the letter:
Brooke was doing this on her blog. She picked a letter for me to list my ten favorite things that start with that letter. I got "L". Hmmm. . .Hard letter-Thanks Brooke!!

1. Laughter. That's one of the things I love most about Dallas- He always makes me laugh!

2. Listening to the happy sounds of my children playing with each other-It's so nice when they get along.

3.Lemon cream pie-only when my mom makes it. I've tried but it never tastes quite the same. It must be because of the home-made crusts that she makes.

I have to say that I'm having a really hard time thinking of things that start with the letter "L"

4. Looking at my friends and Families' Blogs! It's a stretch, I know, but it works!

5. Learning new things

6. Lingering- I like to take my time no matter what it is I'm doing- I don't like to be rushed.

I'm really running out of things to say

7. Laziness- Every now and then I like to have a day to just relax and be LAZY. Maybe I should have thought about that before I decided to have kids! HaHa-Just kidding

8. Listening to music. I like all kinds of music (can I use the word "listening" twice?? Probably not, but I'm going to anyway)

If I get through this list it will be a miracle!

9. Libraries- I love to read and my kids love to go to story hour.

10. Long walks on the beach. HaHa (The Beach?? What's that?)

Yay, I made it! That was rough!

I forgot possibly the most important thing: lip gloss-can't live without it!

If you'd like to play along, leave me a comment telling me that you want to and I will assign you a letter.

My CrAzY Life!

I often go to bed at night wondering where my day went. I wake up every morning with a long list of things that I would like to accomplish that day and very seldom do I make it through that list. I've decided that there just aren't enough hours in the day. Some days, I feel as if I accomplished nothing and that can be sort of frustrating. The days just seem to go by so fast and before I know it, the day is over and I haven't even made a dent in my TO DO: list. I guess I need to learn to manage my time a little better. (I should probably cut back on the time I spend on the computer :) I am a stay-at-home-mom, so you would think that I have all the time in the world to do the things that I need to do, but it isn't so. Anyway, this was my day today: Maybe if I see it all layed out I will feel better about how much I DIDN'T accomplish.
7:00 am: Got out of bed
Fed Avery
Woke up Mackenzie and made her breakfast
Got Mackenzie ready for school
7:50 am: Put Mackenzie on the bus
Played with Avery
8:20 am: Gavin woke up
Made Gavin breakfast
Checked my e-mail and messed around on the computer till 9:00
9:00 am: Got in the shower, got dressed, did my hair and make-up
10:00 am: Made Avery another bottle, fed her, bathed her, got her dressed
10:45 am: Put Avery down for a nap
Went outside and rode bikes with Gavin
11:20 am: Started a batch of laundry, and loaded dishwasher
noon: Dallas came home for lunch so I made lunch for him and Gavin
1:00 pm: Dallas went back to work
Changed the laundry
Fed Avery-AGAIN
1:30 pm: Ran errands, went to the bank, grocery store, ect....
3:00 pm: Changed laundry- AGAIN
3:40 pm: Mackenzie got home from school
Looked at Mackenzie's school work and talked to her about her day
4:00 pm: Went outside again with Mackenzie and Gavin to ride bikes
4:30 pm: Started making dinner
Fed Avery
5:30 pm: Ate dinner
Cleaned up the kitchen
6:30 pm: Played Pirahna panic with Gavin, Kenzie, and Dallas-fun game!!
7:00 pm: Started getting kids ready for bed
7:30 pm: Put Kenzie and Gavin in bed
8:00 pm: Watched The Office and My name is Earl with Dallas
9:00 pm: Folded laundry-Didn't get it put away
9:30 pm: Cleaned up the living/Dining room
Fell asleep on the couch with Avery
10:00 pm: Put Avery to bed
Blogging on the computer
as soon as I am done I will be going to bed. All I got done off of my TO DO list for the day was laundry. And I didn't even get it finished. On goes my not-so glamorous life. But you know what?? I don't even care!! I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!! I LOVE my life, I LOVE my kids, and I wish they would stop growing so darn fast!!

P.S. My friend Gina reminded me that I forgot to take Mackenzie to Girl Scouts after school today!! OOPS! OH WELL!!

Gavin's Masterpiece!

Gavin is so funny. He made his cake. He mixed, he poured, he dyed the frosting green- for grass. He washed his toy deer and placed them gently on the cake.

Then, he carefully placed the candles exactly as he wanted. He was so proud. He did it all by himself.

And this is what I saw the next time I went in to the kitchen.......
I guess he decided that he wanted it to be a zoo cake instead of a deer cake.

I'm sure Dallas will be thrilled to eat a great big piece of it.

BiRtHdAy!!

For Kenzie's birthday this year, we just had a small party. We invited 5 kids to ride the bus home with her. We played a few games, ate pizza, and of course, cake, ice-cream, and presents. We've got birthday cake overload at our house. Mckenzie took cupcakes to her class at school, then they came here and ate cake and ice-cream. She had a good day. Today is Dallas's birthday. We don't usually get him a cake because we've always got a lot of Mackenzie's cake left. But, Gavin is convinced that Dallas has to have his own cake, and blow out his own candles. Gavin wants to make it himself. He says that he wants to make a "deer" cake. He is so excited! How can I say no to that? So, it looks like we will be making another cake today. I just have no idea how we'll turn it into a "deer" cake. We'll probably just have to put one of Gavin's plastic deer toys on top of it and call it good. By the way.... Happy Birthday Dallas!! We love You!!

Blowing out her candle

I always let her choose her own birthday present and this is what she picked. A wow wee Alive Panda cub. (Who would have ever guessed she'd pick another stuffed-animal?)

Gavin got her this Hannah Montana guitar. It's a video game that you play on the t.v.
Guitar Hero, Hannah Montana style! Dallas has played with it more than she has.

Her friend Hannah got her blendy pens-she LOVES them!
Braxton gave her a book and a Dr. seuss toy
Zoie gave her a puppy in my pocket toy
And Anna got her night light that she gets to paint.
Grandma Anderson sent her some money so she can go to the store and choose her own gift. She keeps begging me to take her, but she's got to wait till Avery gets better.

She told Grandma Sill that she wants "Martian Matters" It's a toy with this goopy stuff that you can make little creatures with. Today Mackenzie gets to go to Hanna's Birthday party-She's so excited. She's really going to be sick after having b/day cake twice yesterday, and now twice today. WOW!!

UPDATE: Avery is doing much better. She's actually getting hungry! She eats about 5oz at a time now. Still not back to normal, but getting closer. She's down to about 2 breathing treatments per day. She's smiling and laughing, and acting like her old happy self. I couldn't be more relieved. I'm glad to have my happy baby back.

Happy Birthday!

My Baby is turning 6 years old! I can't believe it! She is growing up so fast. Mackenzie has been such a joy to be around. She is my best helper. She is always willing to help out around the house. She keeps her room clean, and even helps Gavin clean his a lot of the time. I am so proud of the person that she is becoming. She is a good example to Gavin and Avery. I am so thankful that our family was blessed with her sweet little spirit. She absolutely loves kindergarten. After Christmas, she couldn't wait to go back. I am amazed by how fast she is learning. She is doing awesome with her reading and writing skills. She is constantly surprising me. She is such a sweet girl. She's always making me things, drawing me pictures, one day she even tried to give me her favorite toy, just to be nice. She loves to teach Gavin new things, and is always trying to make Avery smile. She has such a fun personality. She's like her dad-constantly joking around. She loves to make people laugh. Mackenzie has a lot of friends and she truely loves every one of them. She has brought so much happiness into our lives. I am so very proud of her. I hope she knows that. I just wish I could slow down the time because she's just growing up way too fast! Happy 6th Birthday Sweetheart! We love you!

My poor baby!!

It's official. HATE winter! I hate everything about it. The cold, the wind, the snow, the slippery roads, and the germs. I've tried to be really careful with Avery since she was born. I try to keep her home as much as I can. But, Mackenzie and Gavin are older and that's not really a possibility. They've got school, friends, ect.. Anyway, Gavin picked up a TERRIBLE croupy cough. He would cough so hard that he would make himself throw up. It lasted over a week. All he would do is lay on the couch and watch tv. He was so miserable. He started to get better, was up playing, then started screaming in the middle of the night that his ear hurt. So we took him to the doctor the next morning and of course, he had an ear infection. That same day, Avery started coughing pretty hard. I had tried to keep Gavin away from her but obviously, that wasn't enough. The next day was even worse. She was coughing more and wouldn't eat much. The next day, she didn't hardly eat at all and was still coughing. That nght, she had a horrible night. Could not sleep, and was really congested. In the morning she started screaming and nothing I could do would make her stop. I didn't want to take her to the hospital here, because these small hospitals just don't have the resources that the big hospitals have, and I dont trust them with my baby. So we drove to Layton. By the time we got there, her breathing had gotten so so much worse. She would take a breath, and hold it, exhale, Take another breath and hold it. There was such a big gap between breaths, it scared me to death. My mother-in-law met me there and took Mackenzie and Gavin with her, which I was really grateful for because it ended up being a long and stressful day, and would have been much worse if I'd had all 3 kids. Anyway, As soon as I took her in, they did a breathing treatment. It helped, but not for long. They gave her a shot of steroids, then another breathing treatment. The doctor said that she wasn't responding as well as he had hoped, so he sent us to McKay Dee hospital to the RSV clinic. Sure enough, she has RSV, and an ear infection. The respiratory specialist there was amazing! He was so nice, and SO gentle with Avery. He had a way of making you feel very comfortable and relaxed in a stressful situation. He gave her a different breathing treatment and used a machine so suck out all of the mucus and clear her nasal passages. Instantly, she sounded much better. She was holding her own, so she didn't need to be hospitlized. But the doctor wanted us to stick around for 24 hours before going home, to make sure that she starts eating. He explained everything that he was doing, everything that he was thinking. That's one thing I don't like about some doctors, is that they can be so secretive, and you never know what they are thinking. But he wasn't like that. He told me exactly what he was thinking, and walked me through the whole exam. He had me listen to her lungs, and explained what I was hearing. They sent us home with antibiotics for her ears, and a nebulizer, so we can do the breathing treatments at home every few hours. We stayed at my mom's house and luckily, she started eating that night so we were able to go home the next day. The breathing treatments are helping a ton and as long as I keep her elevated, she does really well. She's still only eating about 4 oz per feeding, but I can tell she's feeling ALOT better. So, in conclusion, I have decided to become a hermit for the rest of the winter. I am not taking Avery anywhere. She had me so scared and I do not want to do this again. Mackenzie's birthday is this week and I was thinking of cancelling her party. She was so upset. but, I talked to the doctor and he said it would be ok. I'm just going to make Dallas and Avery stay locked in my bedroom while the kids are here. There will only be 4 kids, and they are only staying for an hour and a half, so it won't be too bad.

Gavin has been begging me to let him "write" something so here it goes:

jjjjj hhggggggggnnnnmmmmmmm,,,,,...ddrewewqytyu88uyyrr34343rf fc ['pkkk.

4 months already!

I can't believe that my baby is already 4 months old! She is growng up way too fast. She is such a fun baby. She absolutely adores Mackenzie and Gavin. Gavin loves to play with her and make her smile. It's funny because I was always worried that he would be too rough with her but he's actually more gentle with her than Kenzie is. She is so much fun to have around and she already has such a fun personality. I always get my babies pictures taken every 2 months or so for the first year because they just change so fast! With Avery it's much easier to because I can do them myself. Here's some of my favorites. I still think she looks alot like Gavin. These are his 4 month pictures.

This is Kenzie at 5 months