Butt, butts and more butts

Here are some pictures of the girls butts when they were babies that I uploaded from my older computer in the basement. I especially love Julianne's butt. It is so funny because her butt is almost as long as her legs were. Mallory was smaller and thus did not carry on that characteristic but hers is just as cute.

Guess who this is? Look at the proportion of her butt to her legs and her thigh rolls.

Mallory's butt.


This was my favorite shot of Julianne when she was just one years old.

This was Julianne when she had Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. It did not bother her too much it just looked bad.

After she had Hand, Foot Mouth disease her eczema started to really break out. I don't know if it has any relation to it since it might have weaken her skin or allowed Google's dust, her favorite stuffed animal at left of her, to enter into her sensitive skin or what but it does seem kind of strange that since she had that disease her face always broke out in eczema. We know that Googles was a main culprit but she always had Googles since she was six months old.

This was taken in our backyard just after she turned one and she wanted to collect rocks.

This is Julianne asleep on D's shoulder after a hard day of playing. I think I see some of Nathan in this shot.

This is Mallory in our sink when our bathrooms were under demolition and reconstruction. She was probably about one years old.

Another shot of Mallory. So cute with her dimple.

Mallory's butt, which looks very similar to Nathan's.

A blurry picture of Mallory. I do love this picture because it shows her finger sucking, which she still does, and her inquisitive cross eyed look to her.

So those are all the old pictures that I downloaded. One of my favorite leisurely activities, when I have time, is to look through old photos of the kids. I can always remember what were were doing at that time, how the child acted during that time, how I felt during that time and I also like to see how my photography skills have progressed through time. So I will try to post older pictures more often so that I can also tell the story with the photograph and always have the story documented for the kids when they are older.

Well I think that Nathan had his first mini asthma attack from seasonal/plant allergies yesterday. So the past few days he has had a runny nose and then yesterday he started to cough more as the day went on. Well yesterday afternoon it was really nice outside so we went outside and he played outside while I cut down our winter grass, I don't really know what it is called but it looks like tall wheat and in the winter it turns yellow and actually like of looks like straw. Anyway, I cut it down and flecks of the plant were drifting into the air and I even felt like I had a sore throat last night. So after we came in he kept coughing a lot and his cough turned kind of barky, like a croup cough. Julianne had croup once and I distinctively remember the barky cough. He was also breathing harder but not as hard as when he is getting an asthma episode. He was also feeling warm so I took his temperature and it was 99.7 and he always has a temperature when he is breathing harder. So I looked online and I know that some kids only have cough-variant asthma where they just cough instead of wheeze or have labored breathing. But none of the sights discussed a barky cough. So I ended up giving him a breathing treatment before he went to bed since he was still having labored breathing and not feeling as good as he usually does. Well last night he did not cough too much and he is much better today. He also did not have the barky cough after the treatment. It did rain last night and it is cold and dreary out today so that may have helped him. So who knows. I like predictability and I kind of knew his asthma pattern of when he got a cold he started out with a runny nose and then it want to his chest for a few days and then he just had mucus and some coughing. This was different it was just one night and he is fine today and he does not have a cold. I am hoping that he only gets asthma symptoms when he gets a cold but this was not the case. I guess this spring will be a test to see how all the tree pollen and other allergies affect him. I did check the tree pollen counts for yesterday and both the tree pollen and mold were moderate so that may have not been a factor as much as him being exposed to the cutting down of the winter grass.

I had Mallory's school parent-teacher conferences yesterday and Mallory is doing well. The teachers really like her and say that she is a great friend to everyone, is very quiet when she speaks up in class, is reliable and will do her work when she is asked, loves to draw, color, paint and play pretend with her friends in the doll house. All her skills and abilities are all on line with where she should be at. She does have to be reminded a few times to clean up, which also occurs at our house, and she does not know all her letters all the time. So these are all things that we know and are aware of but it is always nice to talk to her teachers about her progress.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-running with a friend this morning.
- having a relaxed day today, Julianne did not have school
-having nice weather yesterday
-getting a good nights sleep, I have been going to bed too late the last few nights trying to work on Julianne's dress and so I went to bed at 9:30 last night and I feel better today.

We're back

Well we had a great time in Utah. The first few days of skiing were great but kind of icy and slushy, then the got a ton on snow on Tuesday night and it snowed all day Wednesday so the skiing was fantastic and exhausting. The girls took ski lessons on Monday and Tuesday and Julianne loved it and she learned a lot and skied very well. She could do regular greens hills, not just the bunny slope, and really had control of her skiing. Mallory liked skiing but was not as strong as Julianne. She liked going up the magic carpet and skiing down that hill. I did not take her on any other hills since she had a hard time really stopping on demand. I think she will be good to go next year and will really enjoy it. We put Nathan in the local day care for a day and he did very well. Dwight and I got to ski in the afternoons together so that was nice to be able to ski together and spend some time doing this physical activity. It was kind of stressful traveling with three kids. They did alright on the plane but Nathan did not sleep very well in the cramped crib in the closet that they provided for him. The time change was hard to adjust to but after a few days the kids were much better. The enjoyed playing with their cousin and we had fun playing Euchre games with my family. We got back on Thursday and have been busy getting back to home life and getting ready for school to begin. Here are some pictures of our trip and the beautiful scenery we saw from our condo and from the slopes.



These two scenes were taken on the first morning from our condo.

The girls getting ready to ski.




My hubby in ski's, doesn't he look cute.



I love these tall skinny tree's.

D waiting patiently for me while I take pictures of these trees.


This is all the snow they received in one day. It still snowed Wednesday night so that was only half of the snow they received.

My sister took pictures of the girls actually skiing so hopefully I will get copies of those and post them later.

My "step" grandmother, aka Gran, passed away last Thursday so I am going to go her funeral on Monday. She was a second mom to me when our step mother was sick with breast cancer and took care of us for several years after my step mother passed away. She was very warm and caring. I loved helping her cook and I would sit on her bed after we ate and talk and watch TV with her. She was there with me when I learned how to drive a car and she would graciously let me take her red Saturn out when I first got my licence. She was there for us when we got home from school, made us meals, and drove us around town when we needed her. It would have been very hard for our family to survive without her help and her giving up of her life for several years to live with us. Even though I have not seen her for a long time and she had Alzheimer's I still remember her sweet face and skin and her loving character. I really did miss her when she left our house and it was hard for me to adjust to everything while she was away. She was a great woman and I will always have her memories in my mind.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
- Having Gran live in our house for several years and her keeping our family together during such difficult and emotional time.
- Having good travel connections and everything going smoothly during our travel to and from Utah.
- seeing the girls enjoy and like skiing.
- appreciating the mountains, I miss seeing the TN mountains

Feeling better

Well, I went to bed early last night hoping to get a good nights sleep and heal my body and I feel 100 percent better today. Nothing strange happened last night in my sleep so I probably had a viral infection and it is clearing up on its own. The kids are ready to leave and we are mostly packed. The weather looks great so hopefully our flying will be trouble free. I am taking my good camera so I hope to get some amazing shots of the scenery and of the kids skiing. So stay tuned and I will write when I can.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-feeling better and not feeling like I will swallow my uvula.
-getting all packed
-having a beautiful day to fly
-being with Nathan on his first plane ride and Mallory's second

My strange symptoms

Okay so I had the stomach virus last weekend. Monday I felt better and then Monday night my stomach hurt again. I went to bed and then woke up with a sore throat. So I went to the urgent care since Mallory had strep throat and it felt similar to the strep throat I had last fall and I wanted to get on medication as soon as possible for our trip. Well I did not have strep throat and he gave me a prescription for antibiotics in case it gets worse. Well it felt the same as on Monday and he said to take the medicine if it got worse. On Wednesday night after the kids went to bed I started sneezing and getting a runny nose. It was within an hour where I was sneezing constantly and blowing my nose like a mad woman. I took some benedryl and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and my face was a little puffy but my runny nose and sneezing stopped. I still had my lingering mild sore throat but that was all. Then last night I went to bed at 11:00 and could not really sleep since I was anxious for our trip and D was out and I knew he would be coming home soon. So he got home at 12:30 ish and I went downstairs and my face was slightly swelled and my throat, not necessarily my tonsils, but my neck was swelled and I had swallowing difficulties. This morning I woke up and my throat felt really wired so I looked into it and my uvula was about three times the it's regular size and it was touching my tough. It was the weirdest feeling. My tonsils were not large just the uvula. I had a hard time swallowing and talking. My eyes were swelled up also. So I went about my day since I really had to and I was not really in any pain it just felt wired. I think the swelling in my uvula went down around lunch time and now right now my neck is swelled up and I have some mild eye pressure. My uvula is still a little swollen but it is alright. I took my temperature and it is 99 degrees. So I have no idea what is going on. I am unsure if it is a virus or an allergic reaction. The only thing I was doing that night was getting snack bags ready for the girls for their trips. I did open a bag of pistachio nuts and put them in the bag. I did also eat some of the pistachio's last night but I have had pistachio before and have not had this reaction ever. I also took my dust mite covers off of my pillows last weekend and put them on Nathan's pillow so I don't know if taking those off would make a difference. So I really have know idea what is going on. I don't know if I should fill my antibiotics prescription and just start taking in just in case or just see what happens. It is wired and I have never had this happen before. It will be interesting to see what happens tonight.

Bikram Yoga

So Saturday morning, before we all got sick, D's mom had the kids so I tried out this new yoga place that only offers Bikram Yoga, aka Hot Yoga. Bikram Yoga is "a twenty-six asana series designed to scientifically warm and stretch muscles, ligaments and tendons, in the order in which they should be stretched. Bikram Yoga's twenty-six posture exercises systematically move fresh, oxygenated blood to one hundred percent of your body, to each organ and fiber, restoring all systems to healthy working order, just as Nature intended. Proper weight, muscle tone, vibrant good health, and a sense of well-being will automatically follow."

So the class is 90 minutes long and like they said it is 26 poses which are preformed twice in a 105 degree room. I must say the the room was hot. I am a cold weather, fan in my face, fresh air kind of work out girl and this was nothing like that. The room kind of smelled like hot recycled sweaty air and as soon as I got in there I was sweating. After the first couple of moves my entire body was dripping with sweat like a pop container from a fast food restaurant "sweats". It bubbles and then the water runs down the cup. That is what my entire body was like. I looked around and there were others like me but most of the other people were not as bad. I have always been a big sweater but this was the kind of sweat that generates after being in a spinning room for 90 minutes. Anyway, I had to sit down several times because I felt like I was going to pass out. They warned us all about feeling this way and just said to sit down and relax. I had took two full sized towels with me and they were very wet, not damp but wet. So the moves were all right, it was a lot of standing poses and balancing poses but we did not do any flows or vinyeses. It was not really physically hard, like a challenging cardio workout, it was just kind of hard to tell since I sweated so much and I felt like I was going to pass out. I do know that my muscles were really stretched out and I felt pretty good afterward, despite still having a stomach ache. So I should probably try it again since I now know that I was just beginning to get the stomach virus and that could have something to do with my nauseated feeling and not liking how the room smelled or it really could have made me feel that way. So it was a great stretch, I don't really think they need to have the room be at 105 degree to get the same affect but I am not an expect so maybe it is more affective.

I am glad that I tried it. I will probably try it again and stand by the door this time since that was a cooler spot, I was right by the heater.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Nathan not having another ear infection
-sleeping in my comfortable bed
-watching Julianne interact with her friends at Daisy Scout meeting

Nathan's butt

Well last week I took some pictures of the kids while we did a paper mache project and I took some pictures of Nathan's naked butt. I love baby naked butt pictures. This will be the last time I will take his naked butt picture since he is getting older and his butt is cute but not as cute as a baby butt picture. I will have to find Julianne and Mallory's naked butt baby pictures and post them since they had dramatically different butts. Nathan's butt is more like Mallory's. He had fun posing and knew how to hid is privates very well with his leg or with a frog puppet Julianne made.




Here are some pictures of the girls doing their craft of the week. We have not finished them since we all got sick this weekend but hopefully when we come back from vacation. They are going to either be Easter eggs, fish or anything else the girls want them to be.



Over last weekend I made Nathan his own "boy" doll since I made the each one of the girls one. I think it turned out very cute. He is not too thrilled with it and pretty much ignores it but at least I know that I made one for him. Hopefully he will give it to one of his kids.



My new projects, I guess after our vacation, will be dresses for the girls. I saw these cute dresses at the fabric store when I went the other day and really had to try making them a dress. I have cut out the pattern and I plan on copying the pieces so that I can use them for both different sizes for the girls.


I am going to try this dress first since it does not have sleeves


Mallory loves this dress since it has ribbons. So I will try that second so that I can get used to sewing dresses.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Talking to a good friend from TN on the phone this morning (I wish we could talk more often:( )
-having neighborhood dog friends for the boys
-Not throwing up while I ran this morning (I kind of felt like I was going to but it went away after a while and it was actually a nice run after having not exercised for awhile)

We are all sick

The bad news is that we all got the stomach bug this weekend. The good news is that we hopefully will not be sick on our vacation. Mallory started throwing up on Saturday night and pretty much did it all night. I threw up Sunday morning, Julianne started throwing up late Sunday morning and Nathan threw up once in the afternoon. So I am feeling a ton better today and I hate having the stomach. I guess that no one really likes it but it just reminds me of when I was little and I would get it every year. Nathan is doing well today. I thought for sure he would throw up again but he did not. I put towels on his bed, took away his stuffed animals and did all the throw up proofing I could to his bed and sure enough he did not throw up. He does however, have terrible diarrhea. He poops like every hour and it is from his antibiotics. Julianne is feeling better today. She just told me an hour ago that she was feeling better and she wanted to go to school and not stay in this "boring house all day". So my neighbor took her to school. Mallory is not doing as well. She is struggling to eat and still looks ghostly white. She had a bite of soup this morning and maybe a bite of bagel but that is all.

I am glad that this is happening now since the last time we went on a family vacation was in December of 2005. We all got sick and it was an exhausting vacation. Two nights before we flew to Utah Julianne had the stomach bug and threw up the entire night. So we thought we were in the clear but the night that we flew into Utah Mallory threw up the entire night and then the next night I got it and then the next day D had it. It was the worst stomach bug I have had in a long time. I my entire system was all off kilter. D never threw up but had the other stomach issues and he fainted in the bathroom while he was at the sink. We also got my brother sick and I felt really bad. It was a fun time despite our sickness. We got to ski several days and the kids still enjoyed themselves. So I don't want to relive that so I am glad that we are getting now and the changes of us getting next week are very slim.

Things I a grateful/thankful for:
-how good you feel after not having the urge to throw up
-having a washer and dryer to clean dirty smelly thrown up on sheets, towels, etc.
-Liking food again