This is what happens . . .

when you don't hear from your 11 month old daughter for 5 minutes.  She crawls into the boys bedroom and helps herself to their Easter Baskets.  She was quite proud of herself!

Easter 2011

Happy Easter!!  The kids were thrilled that it was finally Easter day.  We have church at 8:30 so the Easter Bunny was kind enough to leave a note with some candy that said he would bring their baskets while they were at church.  It made them quite good during church.

 I worked hard all week finishing their Easter outfits.  Claire was thrilled with her dress.  Owen always loves a new tie, and Grant and Ava don't care what they are wearing.  It is always fun to see them all dressed up and matching.

 The kids got a trampoline for Easter this year.  It was something we were going to get them anyways, so we decided to give it to them as a gift.  There were chocolate eggs headed from the upstairs down to the backyard.  They had fun discovering their baskets.

Easter Egg Hunts

The kids were able to attend two egg hunts this year.  The first one was at the church.  It is always quick and fun for the kids.  Thankfully there was no snow this year.  It still wasn't the warmest day, but it was much better than having Easter in March.  Grant was thrilled with this new to him concept, and had a great time.  Claire and Owen are experts by now so they didn't require much help.

The second egg hunt was at Grandma and Grandpa Clayson's house. Grandma and Grandpa took all the grandkids on a ride to see the cows while the adults hid all the eggs.  The kids love riding in the back of the pickup.  Grandma always has fun things for the kids to find.  This year she had bubbles with their names on them.  Grant was estatic!!  Ava loved getting to chew on as many plastic eggs and she desired.  It was a fun day.

Easter Eggs

Last year I failed miserably when it came to Easter Festivities.  I'm not sure why, so this year I was determined to at least get egg dying in before Easter.  We managed to do it on Friday night which was great.  Grant had never really dyed eggs, so it was so much fun to watch him.  He was very excited.  A bonus is that "egg" is actually a word that he can say, so he was happy that we all understood what he was saying.

 Chad gave Ava a hard boiled egg.  She wasn't sure what to think about it.

 Grant with his first egg.  He was so excited.

 Owen - not really sure what to say.

 Claire with her sweet smile.  Don't let her fool you!

 Our finished product.

Hospital

We had a crazy week this week.  Chad started getting sick last week but we just assumed it was the flu that we had all had.  I told him to rest for a day, and he should be feeling better in a couple of days.  He kept getting worse.  So on Saturday he went to the quick care and was diagnosed with strep and was given IV fluids because he was so dehydrated from not being able to keep anything down.  He came home, and we thought he was on the mend.  Then on Sunday night he started throwing up again and was in so much pain.  Once he threw up blood it was off to the emergency room for us.  Once there we never anticipated getting to stay for 3 days.  Chads blood work showed that his kidneys weren't functioning well.  Apparently sometimes when you get that sick the first thing to stop working are your kidneys.  He was given morphine for the pain, and IV fluids for 3 days.  It was terrible timing since he was on the tail end of this semester, but his professors have all been very nice about the whole thing.  They are working with him so hopefully all his work won't be for nothing.

He is still not feeling 100 percent.  We will find out tomorrow if his blood work is coming back more normal, and his kidneys are working better.  Hopefully he is on the mend because I don't want to go back to the hospital (at least until I have surgery).  Thank you to everyone who helped.  Chad's mom had the 3 youngest and my friends helped me with Claire.  We appreciate all the support, phone calls, and dinners.  I thought it would be easy once he was home, but there was extra work.  It is a blessing to have such a wonderful ward and great friends.

Monster Trucks

Chad was sooo bummed that he couldn't go to monster trucks with the boys this year.  He was sick and there was just no way he could go.  Luckily he had already had his dad and 2 brothers going with them so they ended up taking Owen and Grant with them.  Grant made it about 40 minutes until I was done with work and then he wanted to go home with me.  He did love the trucks.  I'm sure that he would have stayed if Chad was there.  Once I got home I got a call saying that Owen wanted to go home.  I knew he just wanted to be there with Chad so I headed back to the arena, and I got to sit through monster trucks.  I'm not really sure what the attraction is, but Owen had a great time.  There actually was a truck that did a flip that was kinda cool, and the freestyle was neat when they jump over buses and stuff.  It was just fun to watch his face and see him clapping and so happy to watch the trucks.  Once again it was a sold out crowd and I am always amazed at how much money people pay to see it. 

 Owen and I.  I forgot my camera the first time so I missed a picture of Grant.

 Owen and Grandpa Clayson

 Owen and Uncle Trevor

 Owen and Uncle Brad showing off their muscles!

 Watching the freestyle portion he was loving it and clapping all the time.  It was so great to watch him.

What We've Been Up To

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged.  We just haven't done anything much lately, but living day to day.  However there are a few things going on that I just don't want to forget.

Miss Ava started having a yucky eye last week.  It slowly got redder and redder.  It wasn't inside the eye, and it really didn't look that bad until Thursday when it was bad.  Thursday is the day that Chad stays home with the kids while I work so Chad got to meet our family doctor finally.  She ended up having an outer eye infection which is just treated with some cream that we rub onto her eye and eye lid.  She doesn't seem to mind it, but she always likes to rub her face on my clothes once it is applied.  AHHH the joys of motherhood.



 I hosted book club last week, and made this yummy cake.  I was so glad that it tasted as good as it looked.  I found the recipe on my new favorite website "Our Best Bites."  I am hoping for the cookbook for mothers day.  I have ripped out a page in a magazine with the cookbook on it and given it to my husband.  I don't think he can really mess up.

 I don't like to save things my kids make.  There I said it.  If I saved every picture I wouldn't be able to see my fridge or open it up.  In fact the doors would fall off from the sheer weight.  They are always drawing me pictures or coloring me pictures which I love, but put in the recycling as soon as they go to bed.  Some days I am busted when they fish it out the next morning but for the most part my purging works.  I do save a few special ones.  This is a picture of one of Owen's latest creations.  He loves writing my name and everyone else's.

 Owen got to go to Monster Trucks last night.  Unfortunately Chad was sick and he couldn't go.  Grant went for awhile but decided to go home with me.  I went back after I got everything settled at home and spent the evening Monster truckin' it up!!  It was actually pretty cool, but I was done at 11:00 and the thing was still going.  Luckily Owen was also ready to leave.

This is the alarm that has saved our lives.  OK not really, but it will eventually save us a lot of money.  Claire has always had the problem of wetting the bed.  I had that problem when I was little and I guess so did some of Chad's siblings.  I researched this alarm online and bought because I was so sick of buying pull ups and when we did try going without them changing the sheets twice a night was a nightmare.  This thing has worked.  The first couple of nights she wet the bed a lot and at least twice a night.  The next 3 she only wet the bed once maybe twice but woke herself up and the bed was barely wet.  For the last week she has been dry!!  It has been awesome, and she is so proud of herself.  Here's hoping that we are out of that faze of childhood.

As for everything else.  I have been busy working the last two big events at the Holt Arena.  Rodeo and of course Monster Truck.  I also went to see the specialist in Salt Lake about my Achalasia and he basically confirmed that I do have Achalasia and explained the surgery a little bit better.  I decided to wait until Chad is done with school and preschool is finished so I will be having surgery on June 2nd at the Utah University Hospital.  I will only have to stay at the hospital one night and hopefully be on a full liquid diet for a little over 2 weeks which I can handle.  Then I can slowly introduce soft foods.  He said I will never be a hot dog eating champion and that I won't be able to burp or throw up.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it is life.

Chad is busy with school.  We are currently sitting at the hospital in the Emergency Room because he has been so sick.  Yesterday he went to the quick care and was given 2 bags of fluid, nausea medicine and a shot for his strep throat.  He is still not feeling well today and after a long day we are here at the hospital.  Hopefully he can get on top of this so he can keep up with his school work since finals are in 3 weeks.

We are doing well, just living life and waiting for the end of both schools so we can have a nice summer.  Hopefully Chad will find another job soon so we can stay home for the summer.  We are looking forward to Easter and hoping for some warm weather soon!