Christmas card 2012

I finally got my Christmas cards done for this year. I'm sending them out late, but better late then never I guess. I'm realizing that I didn't get enough printed this year for all our many friends and family. So for those I may have forgotten- I'm sorry. That's why I'm posting it here and on Facebook for everyone to see. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year.

Christmas at Hemming Village

We took the kids to the festive event at Hemming Village in town. We took a sleigh ride, visited with Santa, got hot cocoa and cookies,  and took pictures in their booth. Best part was- it was all free and the kids had fun.

Riley is 5 months old

5 months old already. Riley is such a sweet baby. She's so happy. She is eating rice cereal now. Riley weighs 14 lbs. and is 25 1/2 in. long. She is very tickilish under her neck and arms. She loves her siblings and being apart of what's going on. Riley especially laughs at Carson. She's a good sleeper.  I just can't stop kissing her chubby cheeks.

Decorating the Christmas tree

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight. The kids were so excited. They had lots of fun putting the ornaments on. They all did a good job. Carson was so excited to put his train around the tree. I enjoy helping the kids decorate the tree.

Thanksgiving 2012

We had Thanksgiving at home (well-upstairs).  My mom had all these recipes that she wanted to do for Thanksgiving dinner.  So my dad and I each cooked a turkey.  Kim came with her family. My mom, Kim, and I rushed around the kitchen getting all the food ready. Chris helped make the gravy and carve the turkey.  I was so hungry after all the cooking.  The food was so good.  I really enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner.  Good job to my mom for finding some good recipes. 

After dinner and pumpkin pie-I had to leave to go to Walmart and do an early Black Friday shopping.  I just went to the Walmart in Rexburg this year. I got everything I wanted, but at the expense of pushing and shoving people out of my way, getting pushed down trying to grab a video game and having people reach over me.  I couldn't get back up because there were people over me.  I had to pull myself back up and push people.  I was pretty mad because no one helped me up or apologized. I was at Walmart for 4.5 hours.  Now I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping.    

Riley is 4mo old

Riley is 4mo old today.  She is growing up so fast.  She rolled over all by herself yesterday-11/1/12.  She weighs 14.5 lbs. and measures 26" in length.  She is such a happy baby.  She smiles all the time, laughs, makes all kinds of noises.  Her new thing is spitting and smiling with her tongue out.  She grabs for everything.  She loves to have her family around her.  If I leave her in her chair I have to leave the TV on so she can see the colors and hear it because she likes that when she's awake.  She's been sleeping through the night for about a month now.  However, last night she woke up at 4 AM to eat.  She's pretty calm, except when she gets gas bubbles and then she screams until I get her to burp or give her some Mylicon drops.  Poor baby-that's heart wrenching when that happens.  Now that Riley's a little bit older she is doing better with not being colic.  Riley is such a wonderful baby.  We love having her in our family.  Her siblings just adore her too.

Halloween

There was an owl in the tree at the trunk-or-treat. 

We took the kids to the trunk-or-treat at our Stake Center. It was for the entire stake and there was a pretty good turn out.  After that then we took the kids around my sister- Denise's neighborhood.  We just went around to about 10 houses and then we were done.  Shelby was a little scared once it got dark and there were some scary props out in people's yard.  After each house, Shelby would cry for her daddy to hold her hand.  It was cute.  The kids loved dressing up this year.  They got a lot of candy.  At my work they were paying kids a $1 per pound of candy and then sending it to our troops.  So-I went in today with 3 lbs. of candy.  It was a fun Halloween.  Maybe next year Chris and I will have a chance to dress up too.

Pumpkin carving

Tonight for FHE we carved pumpkins. It was lots of fun. Holly carved her initials. Shelby's was a cat before she dropped it and broke her pumpkin. The kids were so excited and had fun.

 Chris's pumpkin

 Riley's cry baby pumpkin

 Carson's

 Holly's initials

My sweet tooth pumpkin and Shelby's is next to mine.  (After it broke)

Halloween Carnival

Tonight we took the kids to their school Halloween Carnival.  They were so excited to wear their costumes finally.  They went around the school to the different classrooms and played games and got prizes.  Carson went into the spook alley and after 30 sec. came running out and he was white as a ghost, then started crying.  They make the spook alley way to scary for little kids.  Shelby was covering her eyes when she saw a scary thing and said "Scawy."  I had to explain to Shelby that it wasn't real.  So-we stayed away from any of the scary stuff the best we could.  After the carnival we went to Kiwi Loco... our favorite frozen yogurt place in Rexburg.  I think the kids felt better after that.  All the college students were coming up to them saying how cool they looked in their costumes.  I think they had fun seeing their friends, dressing up, playing games, getting prizes, and then getting some frozen yogurt.  I hope Carson doesn't have nightmares!!!

 Holly as Medusa.  Everyone said how cool her costume was.  A couple boys pretended to turn to stone! 

 Carson was a cool skeleton... reminds me of Karate Kid.

 Shelby as a cute pink poodle.  She hated wearing the headpiece.

 Riley as a cute pink kitten.  I love that Shelby is a puppy and Riley is a kitty.

School pictures

Holly and Carson got their school pictures back. Holly is in 3rd grade and Carson is in Kindergarten.  Holly looks so grown up. Carson cut his hair before his pictures so I had to style it like that. I think it turned out cute though. Carson and his underbite smile. He looks so handsome. 

Riley is 3 mo. old

Today Riley is 3 months old.  The time is going by so fast and she is getting so big.  She's such a good baby.  She is on a good schedule now.  She sleeps about 6-7 hours at night, sometimes longer.  She's such a happy girl.  She loves to have her family around talking to her.  She smiles and makes all kinds of noises.  She laughs a lot too.  She likes watching TV- all the noise and pretty colors.  She is pretty easy to read now-I can tell when she's hungry, or tired, or needs to burp more .  She's doing better with not spitting up all over and I'm able to control the colic issue better.  She is moving so much-kicking and lifting her head up really well.  She's trying to roll over already.  She's very strong.  She isn't much of a cuddly baby.  She likes to be held facing out so she can see everything.  She stiffens up her back if she is being held the wrong way.  She let's you know by fussing if she isn't happy.  She is grabbing at things and holding onto things.  She loves chewing on her fists.  Today she measures 25.5 in. long and weighs 13 lbs.  She's growing very steady.  We just love having her in our family.

 

Suburban (or our BMW)

Here is our new family vehicle.  Since Riley was born the Durango was just too small.  We had no trunk space and we had to flip the seats down.  It was difficult to get all the groceries in the Durango.  We decided it was time to look for a bigger vehicle.  A friend of ours works at one of the car lots here so we had a better experience with buying a car.  It took us two days to decide on getting the Suburban.  I miss my Durango and the extra things that it had, but I can live without the little extras.  The Suburban doesn't have leather or heated seats or Satelite radio, but that's ok.  *SIGH* I love the space and how comfortable it is.  Chris fits better in the driver seat.  And we can put both car seats next to each other and not in the way back-like we had to with the Durango. So now we are like every other Mormon family here and have a Suburban.   Bye to our Durango-it was a great vehicle and we have lots of memories. 

The damage is done

Ok I would rather post pictures of the kids.  But my blog is my scrapbook and I should post what's going on with the entire family.  Here is an updated picture from my BCC surgery.  My black eye is starting to go away now.  My scar is healing and looks better, but it's going to take awhile for it to completely heal.  It won't be too bad when it's completely healed.  I'm still mad at myself for not going in sooner to the Dermatologist.  I think this would have been a lot smaller and easier.  Oh well-live and learn. 

Carson's new hairstyle

I recently posted something about Carson cutting his hair in Kindergarten class.  Well-Chris took the clippers to Carson's hair and tried to fix it without having to shave it.  Well-that wasn't working and so Chris decided to teach Carson a lesson about cutting his own hair--and gave him a buzz.  Carson hates his hair like that and cried about it.  I was upset too.  I like the stylish hair Carson had.  Oh well-it grows back and I don't think Carson will ever cut his hair again.  He's feeling better about his hair now since I had a talk with him about it.  Lesson learned...the hard way...He's still smiling though! 

My BCC surgery

Today I had my surgery to remove the Basal Cell Carcinoma that was above my left eyebrow.
Let me back up a few months. Back in April I went to the dermatologist about this red spot above my eyebrow. It was noticeable and itchy. I had a biopsy done and it turned out to be Basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Which isn't life threatening but nonetheless is skin cancer. So I went in for surgery back in May. However, the Dr. wanted to reschedule the surgery because I was pregnant with Riley at the time. I was told it was safe to do during my pregnancy, but then when he saw the size of the spot he said the anesthetic would be to much for the baby.
So here I am today a couple months after Riley was born and finally got it removed. I was so nervous because I thought it was pretty involved.  I had Chris, my Dad, and Josh Tollefson give me a blessing last night. I got something to relax me today, which was helpful. It made me tired and a little loopy. The first part of the surgery was the removal and the Dr. got it all the first time, so that was good. Then I went back in for the repair. That was the worst part. He showed me how he was going to repair it by not causing the tissue to pucker or make me look like Elvis with my eyebrow raising up. I made sure to tell him to not do that. "Thank you very much!" So during the repair I was shaking (from the anesthetic I think) and it was kindof scary to have someone working on your forehead while you are awake. The Dr. and nurse were great though. They were talking to me and telling me jokes and stories. It was a pretty quick surgery and we were home by 1 pm. It was really weird having 1/2 my forehead, eyelid, and top of my head completely numb. Chris decided to stay with me all day instead of going back to work. He was great. He took care of the kids. Riley was very fussy since I couldn't nurse her today from the meds and anesthesia.  He made dinner too. I was so tired,  I slept this afternoon.  It was great to rest.
The picture of me holding an L to my head is because I'm a major loser for not going in sooner for a skin check, even after everything with Chris' cancer. Also now I have a huge stitch line in the shape of a L. The Dr. showed me the stitches afterwards. Now I don't have to do the L shape with my hand, it is now branded on my forehead. HaHa! I have to keep the bandage on all the time, so redressing it everyday for a week.
So let this be a lesson to all you fair skinned people who like to sun tan. Please use SPF lotion and see a Dermatologist (start at an earlier age). I never thought I would end up with BCC at a young age. Most common areas are above the eyebrows or on the nose.  I'm doing fine now, still tired and having a little bit of pain, but manageable. I'll update my status later, after the stitches come out. For now I have to wear a huge bandage for a week.