Scripture Heroes, Leg Wrestling and Stick pulling.

We decided to have some good old fashioned family fun on Sunday after church.

Uncle Bryan got the boys each a different scripture hero for Christmas a few years ago and the boys made them some building out of Legos.



Yes, these are not the most flattering pics of me, I know. I used to always beat Tyler at this game, I could beat most people for that matter. Tyler worked my trash! Mind you, I did have a c-section 2 months ago, and I have not had any exercise in almost 7 months! Yikes, time to hit the gym again!




So, Of course Tyler beat everyone at stick pulling. He let the boys each win, though I think they knew he was letting them win.






Tyler let us all go against him and pull but we still couldn't beat him. I decided to be crafty and put both of my hands together because I thought I'd have more strength that way, well, I was right, but sadly, I didn't think it all the way through and I broke our "stick". It was actually our flag pole, oops!

Family Home Evening, The Park, Mutual, Haircuts and Smiles!

Monday night for Family Home Evening Micah read us a story from the Friend about a little boy who gave up his Easter Eggs to two blind children. It was really a good story and the boys seemed to really grasp the lesson behind it. Jacob was asked to pick the song and while he was thinking about it I said that I had a song in mind that would go well with the lesson. He immediately started singing the song I was thinking of. It's the one that starts, "If you don't walk as most people do, some people walk away from you but I won't, I won't." When Jacob learned this song in primary he sang it quite often, he really likes it. Afterward we played games together. While tyler was doing some studying the boys started playing chess together, then we all played "What's Gnu" (a spelling game)and "Uno Spin". It was so much fun, I wish I would have taken some other pictures! It was one of those times I just felt an overwhelming amount of love for my family.



On Wednesday we had our play group, but it was the whole Fresno Play pals Annual Spring Fling. We had it at Oso De Oro, this huge park in Fresno, where we always have it. It is especially cool because it was built to be handicapped accessable. I love it, so do the kids. They had an Easter egg hunt, played a bit and fed the ducks and geese. Unfortunately we had to go a little late because Jacob had to be picked up from school before we left, and Micah had to picked up afterward and it was early release, 2pm. It was very fun though.



Jacob and Ben ready for the egg hunt. I wish you could tell how shiny all those eggs really were, it was beautiful in the sun.

Off they go! Look at Ben running.

Jacob collectede about 3 times as many as Ben. Poor Ben, the bag I gave him was closed pretty tightly and he spent a lot of time trying to get his first egg in the narrow opening before I realized what was wrong.

Jacob's hair looking a bit Bobby Brady ish.

Ben loved just throwing the bread, I don't think he even payed much attention to the ducks and geese eating it. He was just trying to throw it as high over the fence as he could, it just wasn't as fun to drop it through the slats.


Jacob had lots of fun feeding the ducks and geese too. Thankfully my friend Jennifer brought a lot of bread for everyone.



Wednesday night was mutual and Peyton came with me like always. Every 2nd Tuesday of the month we work on Personal Progress. Because there is a play going on, I only had 2 of my girls there, so after we finished with Personal Progress we put the baby on the floor and got a few pictures. This is one of my favorite sleepers she has, I especially like the hat, and of course, it's a hand me down!

On Thursday we had an appointment for haircuts, Jacob and I did anyway. I have always been the one to cut Tyler's hair, and all the boys too. It saves us quite a bit of money. I try to convince Tyler to cut mine but he refuses, that's probably a good thing. I don't want to be too low maintenence! Anyway, Jacob has always been difficult for haircuts. He is afraid of them and it takes 2 people to hold him down. This last time I just let his hair keep on growing because I was dreading having to cut it. Luckily that overgrown, shaggy doo is in right now. Well, my step sister's mom cuts hair. Her name is Janie and she's like family. Janie has her own shop in her house, it's not finished yet, but it's pretty cool. I made an appointment for Jacob and I because Jacob is not afraid of scissors, just clippers. All I can do haircuts with are the clippers. It still took a lot of time and a few bribes to get him in the chair. We even had Benji get a haircut first and he didn't even need one. What a good example for a little brother to set. Ben showed him that it was so easy! Jacob now holds a free pass to play Nintendo on a day when he usually can't (a school day!) When I first waved the free Nintendo pass he didn't bite, it took telling him that he wouldn't get to play on Friday or Saturday either if he didn't get in that chair!


Here is Ben setting an example. He always sits so still for his haircuts and never complains about it.



Afterward Janie even offered them candy. Ben was in heaven, he loves candy.



Before!


Doing good Jacob, I am so happy!


She thinned the back out quite a bit with one of those razor combs, Jacob has insanely thick hair.


After!




Aww, Peyton! On Friday I was finally able to capture some smiles on camera, they are coming more often and more easily now. I didn't get any of her open mouthed or her half mouth smiles, maybe next time. I was going to wipe the drool off of her face but I was afraid I wouldn't get the smile after that, so I left it. She is such a good and sweet baby. Her smile makes my day.

Peyton's Blessing

Tyler blessed Peyton at church today and the blessing was as beautiful as she is. She wore a dress my grandma Kay made for her. Several people asked if it was my dress because it had an old fashioned look to it. I loved it! She also wore socks and a headband that sister Boydston made for her and shoes from Mary Luke. Many people were able to attend. My Mom and Dad and 2 of my sisters, Lindsay and Morgan, my Grandma Kay and Grandpa Frank, Tyler's Mom and Dad (they're mine too!) and brother Brent, Marcia and Scott (Tyler's sister and her husband)and Essien (their son). The men who stood in the circle for her blessing were: Tyler (daddy), Uncle Scott, Papa Ron, Uncle Brent, Rick (Uncle Scott's dad), and Bishop Dockstader. She started to cry just before her blessing and stopped. It went really well. Marcia and Scott were both scheduled to give talks today, so that was an added bonus, they gave beautiful, emotional, heartfelt talks. We also had a young man in our ward speak who is leaving on his mission soon and he gave a wonderful talk. I had to hear everything via the speaker in the mother's room, but that's ok. I'm glad they have a speaker in there! I got to sit next to my family for a bit during the end of sacrament meeting and that was nice, I don't get to have them there at church very often. I am very happy and grateful for all the blessings that we have.

Nebulizer

Last week Peyton got put on a nebulizer. She takes Albuterol every 4 hours and with the Albuterol she takes Pulmicort in the morning and at bedtime. She is such a good baby. She sits so still for it and takes deep breaths, almost like she knows it's helping her. After she had just 2 treatments the crackling in her chest was just about gone. She sounds so much better now! Yay! I got sent home from the pharmacy with a very large bag of meds and her little machine. I asked the girl at the pharmacy how much it would have been had we not had insurance. The machine is a little over $100 and each container of meds is about the same. It would have been just over $800! I paid $22.50, thankfully we have insurance.

Fertility and my "procedure"

Well, it is something typically done for women being treated for infertility. They insert a small catheter, or tube, past your cervix and inject a dye. After the dye is sucessfully injected they take several x-ray type snapshots of the pelvic region to determine if the fallopian tubes are blocked. In my case I actually want them to be blocked. After several long, gruelling minutes and many times readjusting the speculum, the doctor was finally able to get the catherter in. Aparently my uterus is tilted. So, the first picture they took I could see that there were 2 clamps, one on either side, just as there should be. After the dye was injected I could see that the right tube was blocked by the clamp, perfect. That was the one he knew he got. I then looked over to the left clamp and saw the dye stop there, momentarily, before there was a little burst of dye on the other end. Unsucessful! One side will just not do. What next you ask? Not sure, any suggestions?

Nana

Nana Paula loves her grandkids so much but she works full time and doesn't get to see them as much as she might like to. Sometimes she just has to pop in after work for a quick fix. They really love and look forward to her visits.

Babysitting and tights! Oh yeah, and snow.

Friday night marked our 6 week mark since I had Peyton so we decided to go on a date to celebrate. It was our first date since the night before Peyton was born. We had one of my beehives, Ashley, watch the boys here at our house and Nana Byn watched Peyton. It was so nice. We have never had a baby that could be babysat so early on. It is a great relief to have a baby that will take a bottle! We went to the hospital to visit my friend Jennifer that just had twins, a boy and a girl, and then we went to dinner at John's Incredible pizza. It may not sound very romantic, but that's good (I'll tell you why later!) We had a lot of fun together, we played games and won some tickets and got the boys some prizes. So, even though we have reached our 6 week mark, this Wednesday I have to have a "procedure" done. They are going to inject me with radioactive dye to see if in fact my tubes were both tied, so we were not given the go ahead just yet. I have to pump and dump for 24 hours following the procedure because of the radioactive dye. It sure is a good thing that Peyton will take a bottle. I've got 4 stored up so far, so I'll need just a few more.

Peyton wore little tights for the first time on Sunday, they were so cute on her, she looked like such a girl! I tried to put them on her before, but they were so huge on her they just looked silly. She is really filling out now and they looked very cute on her, I think this is going to be a regular Sunday thing!


On Saturday Tyler took the boys and my sister up to the snow. I was sad that I couldn't be with them, I stayed home with the baby, but at the same time, I know that the time will be here before I know it that we can all go and play together. They had a lot of fun. They had snowball fights, went sledding and made a little snowman.