My Name is Emily!

Last week when we were at my parent's house, Emily was saying something very serious to my Mom and so my Mom responded with "Yes, Ma'am" Emily came running over to me almost crying "My name isn't Ma'am, it's Emily!"

Joe's Mom

Joe's Mom passed away on Friday afternoon. She had a relatively short battle with cancer and passed away peacefully. Her funeral will be this coming Wednesday. She was a great lady that was always full of life and was a lot of fun to be around. She will be greatly missed. We will be traveling to Ohio for the funeral and leaving our children here with Grandma and Grandpa. I remember the first time I met her. She was so happy because it was her wedding day to her husband Kurt. She had some tough times in her life from what Joe has told me, but it seemed like after she married Kurt she always had a smile on her face and things got a lot better for her. She really loved her kids and her grand kids. When we went to visit last June she played with our kids so much. Two weeks ago when we went to visit, I think that was the hardest thing for Emily because she was expecting to have a fun friend to play with, and she was surprised to see Grammy Carol laying in a hospital bed. We will miss her.

Stepping stones

A year ago we started square foot gardening. I love it. Well, when we were putting it all together we decided that we wanted stepping stones in between each box. I was pregnant at the time and Joe was busy with swim team. So when it came time to put down the step stones we just smoothed out the ground and put them down. Needless to say our walkway is very wobbly, and crooked and we never finished putting down the ones next to our Raspberries. That was my task today. I smoothed out the ground and made it as even as possible and then put down all the stepping stones next to the raspberries. There was 30 total and it took me 5 1/2 hours with only a couple of breaks. It was a lot of work, but it looks awesome. Now I just need to go back and fix all the ones we put down last year. Yikes!

Here are the ones I did today.

This is our complete garden. I can't wait to start planting things in it. We actually have some chives that are already coming up from last year!

Want a shoe for that nose?

Today, while I was doing Emily's hair she said her nose was running so we asked Madison to get her a tissue. A few minutes later Madison came running in with a shoe in her hand and gave it to Emily for her nose. She thought a tissue was a shoe :) Silly girl.

Madison is 2!

Yesterday was Madison's 2nd Birthday. I can't believe that she is 2 already. Time flies by. She still looks so little to me. She has started acting like a 2 year old though. She can be a little stinker and is always getting into things. On the flip side though she listens better and is easier to take places. She talks a lot more, but is still working on expressing herself and being understood. All day yesterday she walked around saying HAPPY Dirday! It was so cute. For her birthday we went to McDonald's on Saturday so she could play in the play place (the one at our McDonald's is great) Then on Sunday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Mefford's house for dinner. Joe and I brought the food and we made Homemade Macaroni and Cheese, Biscuits, Corn, and Jello Salad. She loved it. They were all her favorites. Then we went on a walk. After the walk we had cake and she loved being sang to. She liked to eat the cake too. She said she wanted a princess cake so we made a doll cake. She also said she wanted blue which is her favorite color. After cake we opened presents and she loved them all. She was so excited to get all these new things and didn't understand why we couldn't open them all right then to play with them. She also kept sticking her foot out to use as a table while she opened the presents. It was adorable.

Soy

On Monday, Emily went to the GI again for a follow-up appointment for her EE. We haven't really seen any improvement over the last two months as she still tells me every day that her tummy hurts. The other day she said to me "Mommy, I went to the hospital because they were supposed to make my tummy feel better, but Mommy, they forgot." It made me feel so sad that she felt like nothing was happening to make her feel better. The doctor said that she wasn't surprised when I told her that she was still complaining of stomachaches because she hasn't gained weight or grown at all since we started seeing her. She said the next step is to take her off of the five main food allergies because they find some people with EE don't test positive for any allergens but still have some foods that bug them and they are usually one of the main food allergens. She said if we could think of anything that might trigger it we could try that first before we went on such a strict diet. I told her that we had Emily allergy tested a year ago because every time she ate certain foods she would get welts wherever it touched on her skin. The only common ingredient in them was soy. When the allergy test came back negative we figured it must just be a skin reaction. Well the GI said that was actually a great place to start because the esophagus has a layer similar to our skin and it could be reacting the same as her skin would. So for the next 3 months we are trying to feed Emily soy free. We are finding that it is difficult, but not impossible. It is mostly just making things from scratch and using Canola oil or Butter in place of Vegetable Oil and Margarine. We haven't found shortening that doesn't have soy yet, but I know it is out there because I have done some research on the Internet. She also can't have most chocolates because they contain soy lecithin. Emily is being a great sport about the whole thing. We explained to her that she can't have soy anymore and all we usually have to tell her when she asks if she can eat something is that it has soy and that is enough for her. After 3 months we should know for sure if this is helping at all and if it is we will have to continue the soy free diet and if not then we will move on to taking out the top 5 allergens.

Happy St Patrick's Day

We had a fun day for St Patrick's day and went all out with the green. This morning we of course all dressed in green and had green oatmeal for breakfast. Then we went to the Y and I worked out with Sally and Kendra while the kids played in Child Watch. Then we went to Sally's house and had green Macaroni and Cheese. The kids did a small craft gluing macaroni and cheerios on a shamrock and we ate sugar cookies with green frosting. The kids also had fun playing outside in the nice warm weather. For dinner tonight we had green pancakes with green syrup and green milk. It was so much fun. This morning when we got dressed Emily kept asking why we celebrate St Patrick's day and why we wear green so Kendra looked it up. We found out that we wear green because some school children started it. Probably because of the Shamrock that St Patrick used to teach about the trinity. St Patrick was a catholic saint that went around Ireland converting pagans to Christiandom and they say that he led all the snakes out of Ireland (probably just a symbolic meaning of driving out paganism) March 17 is the day that he died and that is why we celebrate St Patrick's day on March 17th. It is so much fun to learn all these things because we have children. I love how curious they are.

JJ is 7 Months

JJ is another month older and is growing so fast. He is really loving his solids and will eat an entire bowl of mashed food. I think his favorite is pears. He is babbling a lot now and loves to giggle. He really knows his family and has been scared a couple of times by strangers. Normally though he loves to smile at everyone. We love our little boy.

Our Trip to Ohio

Last week we went to Ohio to visit Joe's mom. She has cancer and was told she has less than six months to live. By going last week we were able to only buy 3 tickets because Maddie doesn't turn 2 until Sunday. It was also Joe's birthday so it was nice for him to be with his mother on his birthday. We flew out Saturday morning at 6:55 am and arrived in Ohio at 4:00 pm EST. Overall we had a great flight and the girls kept busy with activities that I had bought specifically for the flight. We had a friend in our ward let us borrow her DVD player that had a battery for the flight, but it had been left on and there was no battery left and no plug in to charge the battery. Only a car charger. It ended up being fine though because they had plenty of other things to keep them occupied. When we got to Ohio we went to my brother Dean's house and spent the night there. It was a lot of fun and our kids were able to play together which was nice because Lucas and Emily are only 3 months apart and play really well together. Madison even liked playing with Keira who is only 9 months. The next morning we got up and drove to Findlay which is about a 2 hour drive. That evening after letting the girls take naps we went over to Joe's mom's house. It was quite a shock to see how much she has changed because of the cancer. Last year when we saw her in June she was out playing with the girls and talking and her usual self and now she is confined to a hospital bed at their house on oxygen. I think it helped with closure for Joe to see her like this and we all hope that she goes quickly so she doesn't have to be in so much pain. We had pizza for dinner and cake for Joe's birthday. We spent some time talking with his mom in between her little cat naps. The next day we visited with his mom in the morning and then went back to the hotel and had Aunt Julie play with the girls while we went to his Mom's old house to see if there was anything left there of his that he wanted to keep. Then we went to lunch and got Friendly's ice cream. (yummy!) After ice cream we went back out to Joe's mom's house for the evening and spent time with her, Kurt, Julie, and Grandma & Grandpa May. They drove out to say hi. It was great to talk with everyone. Kurt even played the guitar with Madison which she absolutely loved and Emily danced while he sang a song. We really wish that we could see them all more often. Saturday morning we went back out to his Mom's house to say goodbye and then we went back to my brother's house in Columbus. We went out that night with Dean and Amanda and got a babysitter for the kids. (we took Keira and JJ with us) We went to Max and Erma's for dinner which was delicious and then we went to Game Works to play some video games. Amanda and I did awesome on this game that you beat the drums. It was completely in Japanese so we couldn't read anything we just got the gist of what we were supposed to do and had lots of fun. We also played Air Hockey(I lost both of my games). And played a couple of other games. After game works we got Graeters Ice cream (I love it because it has these huge chunks of chocolate that melt in your mouth). We then took the babysitter home and then Amanda and I went and got diapers at Walgreen's at 11:00 pm right before their sale ended. Then Sunday morning we woke up at 4:30 am ET and took 3 flights to get back home. Again they were overall great except for the last 1/2 hour of the last flight that Madison decided to shriek at the top of her lungs and nothing I did would get her to stop. Not even candy. We had a great time visiting with so much family and are glad to be home.

Cute baby giveaway

The Krazy Coupon Lady is having a giveaway for cute baby stuff from Go Baby Idaho. I love coupons and will have to check out her blog more often. Thanks to Julee for posting about this so I could see it.

Hair Ties

Last night Emily had a sleepover with her aunt Rachel. She was so excited to go and as we were packing for her sleepover she told me that Rachel would need to do her hair. She decided that Rachel needed some Rubber Bands to do this. She immediately ripped the ones out of her hair, gave them to me, and said "Here mom, pack these now Rachel will have rubber bands to do my hair" I tried explaining that leaving them in her hair would have worked just as well, so she didn't have to ruin her hair that I had taken the time to do for her, but to no avail Rachel needed those rubber bands. Silly Girl.

The Family

Today at church some families sang a song called The Family is of God. I love this song. We have it on a CD of primary songs for the primary program this year, and we listen to it in our van whenever we are driving around town. Today, listening to the song got me thinking about the family and how important it is to our Heavenly Father's plan. The first verse and chorus of the song say:

Our Father has a family, it's me, it's you, all of us too we are his children

He sent each one of us to earth, through birth, to live and serve here in families.

God gave us families to help us become what he wants us to be.

This is how he shares his love, for the family is of God.

Our Father in Heaven loves each of us so much. He can't be here on earth with us so he has set up these family units to help each one of us return to live with him again. It makes me think about how important it is for me to teach these children he has entrusted me with about Him and His Plan. And how important it is for me to listen to the spirit so I can raise them how our Father in Heaven wants them to be raised so they can become what he wants them to be. Each child is so different and something that works for one of my children doesn't always work for the other.

I am so grateful for the knowledge that the family unit doesn't just stop here. That it is perpetuated beyond the grave. I will get to be with my family even after I die. It brings me joy to know this.

Open Wide

We were eating dinner and Madison said she was done. She was getting down and noticed that JJ still had food in his bowl. (he wasn't in the mood to eat it today). She decided to help him. I turned around to find her shoving food into his mouth and making a huge mess. It was too cute. She loves to help her little brother. Of course we had to take pictures.

You can't really tell, but it looked like he had a beard of peaches.

Fun Hair-Do

I found these fun blogs about doing hair on my friend Kat's blog. I decided to try them out on my girls' hair and the one I did today is called the Beehive found on It's a Girl Thing. Emily actually did really well sitting while I was doing her hair. Madison decided she needed her hair done too. I tried telling her to wait until after dinner and that wasn't going to happen. She went into the bathroom yelling No! No! No! So I did her hair too. She isn't as patient yet so we just ended up with a ponytail with her new bow in it. She doesn't have as much hair yet either.

Here is the side of Emily's hair

Here is the top back with her new bow.

Here is the front of Madison's hair

Here is the back with her new bow.

Hair Bows

Today I made Hair Bows with Sally. She let me use her stuff. Which was so nice of her. We had a lot of fun. She made one for Emily and I made one for Madison.

Here is Emily's. She loves it and doesn't want to take it off.

Here is the one for Madison. She won't keep it in her hair. I am planning on making another to go along with it and then put her hair in pigtails.

Swimming Lessons

Emily just finished up another swimming lesson class last Wednesday. She gets to advance to the next class which they call the Eel class. She is now in the 3rd level and is doing great. She loves the water so much. She gets to start the new class tomorrow. This will be the first time since the very first class that she is actually with other kids at her skill level because they never had enough kids sign up so she just stayed in the beginner class and did the advanced stuff.