"I HATE Crazy Hair!!!"

Those are the words I hear from Hallie on a daily basis. She absolutely HATES crazy hair. Meaning, the way her hair looks right after we have taken it out of a style. She sleeps in her tight, pulled back hair every night. Unless of course, it's on one of the nights she gets in the tub. The only way she will let you take her hair out at night, is if she is getting in the tub immediately after her hair is taken out. She slept at my mom's house one night and my mom took her hair out. When Hallie had realized what she had done, she started crying and carrying on about how she didn't want it like that. She made my mom comb it down so it wasn't "crazy." So, the other day, right before we were getting ready to do her hair, I took this picture and she was NOT happy about it. She didn't want a picture of her crazy hair. She wouldn't even look at the picture that I had taken.

Seriously, look how mad and upset she is in this picture. She was so mad at me. But I had to post this, because someday I know she will look back on it all and laugh. Call me mean, but these pictures make me giggle just a little bit. Hallie is such a crazy little girl that it surprises me that she even cares what her hair looks like.

A ZOO-riffic Day!

This year for Spring Break, it was really cold the whole week. As a result, we hadn't done anything with the kids. So on Friday, we decided that we would take them to the zoo. We took our friend, Pieper, with us. We had lots and lots of fun. With the weather being a little on the cool side, the animals were very active. The tigers were my favorite to watch. There were 4 or 5 of them in there and they were running around playing with each other.

The kids' favorite thing to do was climb all over the statues and get their pictures taken.
And of course, the train is always a highlight of the trip.

Korver thought the train was AWESOME!!! He is really into trucks and tractors and trains. Basically anything that can be driven and makes a loud noise.

This picture makes me smile. I love how Hallie is looking up and Korver is ready to run. He didn't quite get what we were trying to do and thought it was a game. We had a pretty good time, even though it was cold most of the day. It finally warmed up towards the end. On the way home we stopped at McDonald's and got the kids an ice cream cone.

Easter Morning

I don't know about all of you, but the Easter Bunny made it to our house Easter morning. The girls woke up bright and early and went in and woke up their little brother. Then they were off to find the eggs hidden around the house.

Korver was so funny. He found one egg and opened it, sat down and ate all the candy inside. I don't think he moved from that spot until the girls were done finding their candy. Good thing they are nice sisters and shared some of their eggs and candy with him.

After the hunt, I made pancakes in the shape of E. Bunny himself.

THE Easter Egg Hunt

We went to an Easter Egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house the day before Easter. The weather was cold, but it wasn't raining or snowing, so the show could go on. The kids always have so much fun finding their eggs.I seriously don't think Hallie can take a picture without striking some kind of silly pose.

Korver thought it was so much fun to walk around and find the surprises. He would get really excited each time he put something in his basket. It was really cute.
Abbi was so happy with her hanging rabbit that she got at an earlier hunt with Grandma Diane and Grandpa Roger. We were kind of late to that one and it was SUPER cold, so I didn't manage to get any pictures at that hung, dang it!

Some of the cousins waiting for the hunt to start.

Did You Know It's All About Me?

Those are the words that came out of Abbi's mouth when we were getting ready to drive down to St. George. She said, "Mom, did you know it's all about me this weekend." And I replied with, "It is, how so?" Abbi said, "Well, Dad said that the only reason we are even going to St. George is because of me and my dance competition." I had to laugh. She was right, though. It was all about her. I had to have Abbi dressed and ready to go by 8:00 am. That means, hair and make-up done and costumes packed and ready. I woke up at 5:30 so that I could get myself ready and still have plenty of time to get Abbi ready. Her hair had to be curled in big curls all over her head. So we whipped out the handy dandy flat iron and went to town.

Next it was time for make-up AND fake eye lashes.
Once her lipstick was on, we were out the door. Jeff dropped Abbi and me off and then he headed with the other two kids to find some breakfast that he could bring back.

She's all ready to perform. I didn't get a picture of her other costume, which I'm really mad about. But there will be other performances in the next few weeks. They did great at the competition, taking 2nd in one dance and 3rd in another.

More Of Our First Day in St. George

After we went swimming, we were all hungry so we hit Iggy's for dinner. It was pretty good.

The kids loved that their meals came with an ice cream sunday. I love that they are always too full to eat the rest of their dinner, but they have no problem eating an entire dish of ice cream.

As you can see, Korver enjoyed some food, too.

Our St. George Trip

Abbi had a dance competition in St. George the last weekend of March so we decided to stay a few extra days and make a little vacation out of it. The first thing the kids wanted to do was, of course, go swimming. Hallie hung out in the hot tub most of the time. That's right where I wanted to be, too, because the water was so freezing. But Abbi wanted to swim, so I drew the short straw and spent most of the time in the pool with Korv and Abs while Jeff and Hallie relaxed in the warm water.

Korver absolutely loved his car floatie.

Abbi is our little fish. She could swim all day if we let her.

Korver has recently become obsessed with cars, or broom-brooms, as he calls them. He thought he was the neatest thing around when Jeff let him sit up front for a few minutes. Don't worry, we didn't drive anywhere. The car was off. I'm a freak when it comes to kids and seatbelts/carseats.

Wait... I Have A Blog?

Oh that's right. I have a blog. Things have been crazy busy around here, and in the middle of it all, my camera broke. But we're back in business and I'm back to posting regularly.

But in the middle of all the chaos, look what Korver learned to do. We're so proud!
Honestly, I could eat the kid he's so dang handsome.

Gender Specific

I am extremely impatient. Normally, we wouldn't have found out what our baby was until the end of March. But when I found out that my doctor's office offers gender ultrasounds for $30, I was all in. So I made an appointment for yesterday at 1:00. We took the kids with us to the doctor so they could be the first to know. It was such a fun experience for us all. Pretty much one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced in my life. Seeing that baby on the screen moving around took my breath right away. Every time I hear the heart beat, I'm overcome with emotion. Seriously, my doctor asks me if I'm okay each and every time. I'm just so happy, I always tell her. I still find it hard to believe that it's inside of me. But that "it" is no longer and "IT." We were convinced that we were having a boy. So much so that we had only boy names chosen and no girl names at all. Seriously, I asked people on Facebook to guess what I was having and I would say 90% said boy. There was no question that what was inside of me would be named Cooper Keith. So when the ultrasound tech said, "Oh, I see girl parts. It's for sure without question a girl," Jeff and I were shocked. I started crying... again. Not sad tears, but overjoyed happy tears. I didn't care either way, but it all the sudden became that much more real for me.

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We really had no girl names at all. But all of the sudden the name Lacie Gwen came to me. And I knew that was her name. My middle name is Kasey and I went by that until I was about 5 or 6. My dad NEVER calls me Shannon. A lot of my family members call me Kasey too. If you were to say the name "Shannon" to my Grandpa Ed and some of my uncles they would have no idea who you were talking about. My Uncle Ken calls me Lacey or Lace and always has. So I thought that would be a cute first name. And then my sweet little grandma that passed away last year is named Gwen (my dad's mom.) I told Jeff and he absolutely loved it. So Lacie Gwen it is. We are so excited and can't wait for her arrival in August.

xoxoxo

Hanging In There

This week has been a crazy one at our house. Last Thursday Korver started to get really fussy. He was in his high chair eating dinner and started screaming. Mr. K is normally a pretty mellow kid, so I knew something was wrong. I got him out of his high chair and he nearly crawled right out of my arms. He was in pain. I put him on the floor and he started crawling around crying. He couldn't even hold himself up. Now, back in December he had the same kind of episode. We were at my mom and dad's house at a Christmas party and it was almost the exact same scenario. When it happened then, I knew we needed to get him straight to the hospital. He just wasn't acting right. So we rushed him to the ER. On the way over he became lethargic and really dopey. Jeff called 911 and they said to pinch him, slap his little face, do whatever we needed to do to keep him awake and coherent. When we arrived at the ER, the doctor rushed out and grabbed Korv from me. They rushed him into a room and started working on him. They got him stabilized and ran a bunch of tests on him. The doctor wasn't for certain, but he thought what he had was an intussesseption, which is where the intestine folds over itself causing blood supply to cut off and everything basically coming to a hault. Not having the equipment necessary to fix the problem at the hospital, we were transported by ambulance to Primary Children's Hospital late that night. When we arrived they hooked Korver up to a machine that blows air into his bowels and blows the kink out. We were able to go home early the next day. They told us that there was a ten percent chance of it happening again. We thought we were in the clear.

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When he started having this episode last Thursday night, I thought, please don't let this happen to my baby again. Please, just let it be a little gas. I was hoping it would pass. Then he started going lethargic again and I knew at that moment that it wasn't just gas. Jeff was gone and I immediately called him on his cell phone. He was on the other line. I hung up and called again. He still didn't answer. I tried to call my mom, no answer. I called my mom and dad's house, no answer. Finally Jeff called me back. I was in a panic by this point. I didn't know what to do. The girls were up in the tub and I was home having to deal with this by myself. I wasn't thinking clearly. Korver is crying hysterically all the while. Jeff helped calm me down and told me to try my dad's cell phone and have him come sit with the girls while I took Korv to the ER once again. I hung up with him and called my dad's cell. He answered and said he would be up in no time. They only live 5 minutes from our house. He was taking forever, or so it seemed. I was back on the phone with Jeff, he told me to call a neighbor to come sit with the kids. Just then I thought, duh, call Cindy. Who is my neighbor as well as my really good friend. I called her crying and she asked no questions and ran right over to my house. Just as she came around the corner, my dad pulled up in the truck. He asked Cindy to go with me. We rushed over the the hospital. Cindy was in the back seat keeping Korver awake. When we arrived they took Korver and again got him stabilized. They only did one scan on him and said it was more than likely the intussesseption again. So we were back in the ambulance once again headed to Primary Children's. My mom had since arrived at the hospital to be with me and said not to worry, that she would take care of Abbi and Hallie for us. Cindy drove my truck home for me and offered to help in any other way that she could and I was on my way with my sweet boy (who was feeling great having been given a shot of Morphine.)

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Jeff was on his way to Primary's to meet me there. When we arrived at the ER, he was already there. He gave me a big hug when he saw me and told me that it was going to be OK. I have never been more happy to see him. At Primary's they tried to do blow the air into his bowels to get the kink to release and they couldn't get it to. The radiologist then told us that the procedure wouldn't be successful and that our next option was surgery. I was scared to death. Jeff gave Korver a blessing and off our little boy went into surgery. It was about 1:45 am at this time. We waited and waited. 3:30 am came around and the surgeon came into the waiting room and told us our boy was all done and fixed up and that we could see him. When we walked into the recovery room he was lying face down in a huge hospital bed all hooked up to monitors and IVs peacefully sleeping. I was relieved that my baby was OK.

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They wheeled him to our room where we would be spending the next few days. I crawled right into bed with my little Korver and cuddled with him all night long. The next morning the doctor came in and told us that his stay was probably going to be about a week. That day was long. Jeff and I watched movies and had a few visitors. Korver was pretty still since he was on pain killers through his IV for the pain.

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Saturday morning when the doctor came in, we were told that his feeding tube would need to stay in for 3 more days. Meaning it wouldn't be out until Tuesday and that it would be a couple days after that until he could go home. About 30 minutes after the doctor left, Korver pulled his feeding tube right out. When I called the nurse, she told me that they would have to put it back in. But when the doctor heard, he came in and started laughing and said that they would keep it out and monitor him closely. He said, "Buddy, you have no idea how much time you just saved yourself." The little man did such a great job in the hospital and recovered quickly. By Saturday afternoon he was eating solids and Sunday he was walking around the hospital like he owned the place. We were able to come home on Monday afternoon. When we left we were told that this should never happen again. That the surgery should fix it making it so that the little guy won't suffer from that kind of pain ever again.

Missing In Action

I know, I know! I've been MIA for awhile. This pregnancy thing is kicking my butt. No seriously. I have been super sick and super tired... and a little depressed (not about the pregnancy!) It's been a tough month for me. But I'm starting to feel better. I'm 12 weeks now :) and went to the doctor yesterday. Everything looks great. I heard the heartbeat again which was a relief. I don't know why, but I keep thinking this is just to good to be true and that I'm going to wake up one day and this is all going to go away. I would be devastated, to say the least. But I'm still pregnant!

4 kids changes lots of things. All of a sudden we are realizing that our house and our car are too small to fit us anymore. So we are selling both!!! My house can be found here . And my car can be found in my garage! Hopefully I will have pictures up of both soon, but until then you can look at my house at the link and my car is a super awesome charcoal grey Mazda 3, 2007, 42,000 miles, 4 door, tinted windows, automatic, and we're selling it for $11,500. So if you or anyone you know may be interested, let us know.

I promise that I will post pictures of our "goings on" later. There isn't much happening right now. I'm just growing a baby and being lazy! We're excited as can be still and still pinch ourselves (literaly) every day thinking this is just a really great dream.

Yes, It's true!

So, for those of you that don't follow me on facebook, you may not know our news. I am PREGNANT!!! Yes, you read that right. I don't know when I am due or how it even happened (well I do know how it happened, but I don't know HOW it actually happened!) My cycles are never regular and sometimes I will go a whole year without having one, but I had 3 right in a row that were exactly 28 days apart and then nothing. I didn't think anything of it and just thought, okay so I guess I'm good for a year or so. And then a couple of weeks ago I started getting really tired and kind of sick. I just thought I was getting sick or something. Last Thursday I was telling my sister, Kristen, that I really should take a pregnancy test and that Jeff wanted me to take one, but I didn't really want to spend the money on one because every one I've ever taken has come up negative. Well, bless her heart, she snuck one into my house one night when we were not home. So I took it and it came up inconclusive. That day, though, I felt really sick and VERY tired. So I went and got another one. I sat and watched the positive sign appear and thought I was dreaming (I still am not quite sure that this isn't all a dream!) I looked at the box to make sure I was reading it right and then started crying happy tears! I called Jeff sobbing and asked him if he was sitting down. He thought something horrible had happened before I told him because I was crying so hard. When I finally said the words that I was pregnant, he sat there in shock and then asked if I was ok. "Of course," I said, "I am so happy!" He was in disbelief and told me to call the doctor to see if I could get in. I did and I can't get in until January 4th. I asked if I should take another test and the receptionist told me that it was probably not necessary because you can't get a false positive. I told Jeff and he was still sceptical so he made me go buy two more tests. Both came back positive. The next morning he STILL did not believe that we could actually be pregnant, so he wanted me to go to the clinic and take one just to make sure we were reading it right and to have someone else tell me that what we knew was true. And yes, the nurse came in and said, "Congratulations! You're going to have a baby!" So, I guess I'm preggers. We're still both in shock but it's a good kind of shock. We're so excited and can't wait to experience all of this. When we told the kids Abbi said, "Wait, I didn't think this could happen." Hallie said, "I want to see it!" And Korver just said, "Yeah!" I will keep you all posted on the whole pregnancy. Michelle wants to take pictures of me each month so I'll make sure to post those as we take them. I still can't believe that I'M PREGNANT!!!

Just Thought I'd Pass On Some Info.

At Good Things Utah the other day there was this darling girl on the show as a guest that finds deals and freebies and then puts them online for everyone to use. Most of what she posts are printable coupons which I love since I don't do the whole cutting coupon thing. I've tried it, but I get way too frustrated. Anyway, I went to her site and just last night I got $50 worth of childrens books for my kids for Christmas for under $20. That's shipping and everything. And I also got a FREE bottle of J-Lo Perfume! She also has a coupon to buy the Blue Ray/DVD/Digital copy combo pack of UP for $10 off that I printed out. She posts a few posts a day. It was really fun to scroll through and find which deals I wanted. You can click HERE to get to her website. Enjoy!

Families Are Forever

Last Sunday was our Primary Program in our ward. Abbi was asked to give a talk on how the temple blesses her life. She had given a talk earlier in the year that was perfect. It was such a great talk that Jeff helped her write. I decided to put it on our blog. She held up each picture and then said what is under each picture. Afterwards, all of the primary kids sang "Families Can Be Together Forever." I was bawling by the end.

My talk is about Temples and how they are an important part of my life. A long time ago my mom and dad were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Because they were married in the Temple, they are now sealed to each other for eternity. This means that they will be together forever, even after they die.
A few years later I was born and adopted by my mom and dad. When I was six months old, we went to the Provo Temple where I was sealed to my mom and dad for eternity.

A few more years passed by and my little sister, Hallie, was born. She was also adopted. Like me, when she was six months old, we all went to the Jordan River Temple where she was sealed to my mom, dad, and me for eternity.

Last September my baby brother, Korver, was born and we adopted him. In March, when he was six months old, all of us went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple where he was sealed to us for eternity. This means that we will be together forever.

This is a picture of my family. We are an eternal family sealed together forever. I am grateful that Heavenly Father has given us a way to be together as families forever. I love to go to the temple because so many important and happy things happen there. When I get older I want to be married in the temple. I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us and wants us to return to live with him with our families.

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She did such a great job presenting her talk. I had so many people come up to me after the program and tell me how much they enjoyed it. Abbi is a special girl and we're very thankful we have her as part of our family.

For more information about the LDS (Mormon) church you can click on the Temple picture on my side bar that says "I belong."

Good Things Utah

Last week my friend, Natalie, called and asked if I wanted to join her and a group of her friends to go to Good Things Utah. I have always wanted to go see a live taping of that show, so of course I said yes! She is friends with Reagan Leadbetter and wanted to know if I wanted to join them for lunch afterwards. It was so much fun. My sister-in-law, Carrie, has actually been a guest on their show quite a bit (an actual GUEST, not just an audience member!) and she has told me that all of the girls on Good Things are so nice. I can vouch for that. Angie, Marti and Reagan were incredibly nice and so personable. At lunch afterward, Reagan was a lot of fun and it was fun having lunch with her. I sat right across the table from her and we chatted quite a bit. It was fun meeting one of Utah's local celebrities.

"I Like Her Bangs" - Pedro

I have been thinking about having some bangs cut on Hallie for quite a while now. So when she had a hair appointment scheduled, I was ready to take the plunge. I LOVE them. Bangs are in right now so I thought it was a perfect time to do it. She loves them too. This morning when she woke up, her bangs were pushed off to the side and she came into our room really upset and said, "Mom, my bangs are all gone. We need to buy some new ones." I quickly assured her that they weren't all gone and just kind of messed up. We fixed her hair and she was once again happy. Even though I do love her new "do" I gotta say that it grows her up a little bit more. She all the sudden looks and acts just a tiny bit older. I'm still waiting for that drug to be invented to give your kids that will make them stop growing up so dang fast :)

Buy THIS House!!!

My friends, Jason and Tisha, are selling their home in Payson. It is DARLING! It's one of those really cool old homes that has TONS of character. It has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath, HUGE living room and kitchen, hardwood floors, 2 car detached garage. There is a full salon that could easily be turned into an office, family room or extra bedroom. Honestly, it is worth taking a look at. For more information and to see more pictures go here.

Love This!!

I saw this on The R House and I LOVE it. Make sure to mute my music at the bottom of this page so that you can hear the music on the video. Enjoy!!!

A Vampire, A Princess and a Martian... Oh My!!!

Our 3 cute kids before going out Trick-Or-Treating.
As promised, our cute little guy all dressed up in his martian costume. I thought he was going to hate it, but he actually didn't mind it too much.

Carving Out Some Time For FUN!

Friday night we decided to carve our pumpkins. We invited my mom, dad, Kristen, Weston and Cody over. Cody had other plans so he was unable to make it. My parents decided to plant their 3 acre field full of pumpkins this year, so needless to say, we had a lot of pumpkins readily available :). The kids had fun picking out what kind of face they wanted on their pumpkins and then we got busy helping them carve away.

Since Abbi is a little older this year we let her carve her own pumpkins. We used those special knives in the pumpkin carving kits and they worked pretty well. Tons safer than a regular knive.

My dad got his carving done early and took Korver downstairs to do some playing.

Jeff is the master carver at our house. His pumpkins always look so great.

Here are all of our carved pumpkins. We carved 16 in all including the ones that my mom, dad, Kristen and Weston carved. It was a fun night.