Quick Update!

Clover is doing MUCH better....thank goodness. She responded to the homeopathy almost immediately and there is no more swelling and she has a few hive dots on her back.

One of our friends who is a dermatologist left a comment about what her condition is and how serious it could be. As I googled and researched the information I feel much better knowing what it is and what to look out for if it occurs again in the future.

Urticaria and Angioedema... google it and be prepared in case it ever strikes someone in your family.

This has been fun

It started out just like any other cold...runny nose, cough, low grade fever 101.8. By the second night around 5pm fever is 104.0 so we give Tylenol. By 7:30pm I notice that her lips are swelling and she has a strange "ring" rash on her arm.

By 2:30am we notice the rash is morphing and spreading to pelvic area and bum (sorry no photos posted of adorable bum).

By 7am rash that looks like welts is all over and the little ring shapes have broken open and look like whipping stripes and yes they are hurting her.

By 8:45am we are in the doctors office and I thought for sure he was going to tell me that she had Ring Worm in which I had become an expert on during this sleepless night trying to figure out what might be all over my daughters body. The doctor says "no" to ring worm but "yes" to virus hives.

What in the world is virus hives. Her body is producing too much histamine with the virus and her body is responding with hives....nice. He suggested giving her Benadryl and if that doesn't work in a couple of weeks to then give her steroids.

Three days later we are looking like this. The welts are less but it just keeps moving around and her face is swelling up again. The Benadryl isn't really working and we are giving her more than I really feel comfortable with.

Day four I wake up to this! Honestly, I barely recognized her...the pictures didn't really capture it.

Enough!

I am now getting pretty concerned that the swelling could turn inward and maybe start to restrict her breathing. I made an appointment with our alternative medicine doctor and discovered that her liver and kidneys are trying to push out toxins from something that has infected her, maybe like the three other viruses since her H1N1 dealio. While we are in the office the hives are moving all over her face and starting to reappear on her back, bum, tummy, feet, hands, and legs again.

Anyway, we are using homeopathy to assist in the cleansing and so far her face has shrunk quite a bit....wish us luck.

This has been the weirdest thing ever!

Rain Gutter Rigotta

Halloween Costumes 2009

Happy Halloween monster cake....yummy!



Wolverine!


Beauty Queen 1983 (looks more 70's though)


Sunny the Giraffe

Bat Girl....of course.

Red Eye Green Tree Pets

Our children are getting older and insisting on having pets. I like dogs and cats as long as they live somewhere else.....so what to do.

Frogs.

We have six frogs now. Two of these Red-eyes, two gree tree, and two Whites tree frogs and the kids are happy.

H1N1 Hair

When Clover was really sick a month ago her body ached so badly that I didn't even attempt to brush out her hair...her curls really make it quite the event daily and I decided no to torture her. After about a week of neglect this is what we got...

I didn't even try to brush it out. We just went directly to the bath tub and worked this mess out with a lot of shampoo and conditioner and most importantly love!

Reading of choice

The kids are required to have a book or something to read at school for reading time...no brainer there. In Dalton's back pack the other day I found what he selected to read for that day.

When I asked him about his selected reading he simply stated that when he was reading his scriptures last night about the Savior, he just loved it and want to read more.

I understand....and please try your best to not covet me or my children.

Favorite moments

I just love these moments in motherhood where you're...let's say holding a baby on your hip, answering the telephone while writing an appointment on your calendar, when your toddler says, "Mommy, look at me!"

Priceless...

Corn

At church on Sunday and by word of mouth from a good and friendly neighbor, we learned that there was fresh corn for the picking at the local Stake Farm (church area run farm) for just $1 a dozen and the farm is maybe two or three miles away....oh we were so there.

Monday morning came, today Labor Day and by 9am we were out the door and on our way to a fantastic family activity. I won't bore you with the details of not being able to find the farm or that when we finally did find the farm (really, there are several farms around here to confuse the inexperienced farm folk with), that no one was around to point us in the right direction. Luckily a gentleman from our ward pulled into the vast parking lot, obviously on corn errand from his wife, and had an idea on who to call for help. After a couple of minutes we were en rout to the other side of the farm to get to the designated sweet corn area.

Ok, so we made it.

"Every one out of the car and start picking." I had wonderful visions of corn frozen to keep us nourished all through the winter, corn for lunch and dinner steaming hot off of the cob, and mostly I felt like I was finally making my pioneer ancestors proud by partaking of the great bounty fresh from the earth. We picked over TEN dozen ears of corn and decided to make our way home....by way of TJ Maxx so I could pick up a corn cooking pot big enough for the task at hand.

We made it home and the clan started shucking the ears and I started boiling the water, two pans on the stove top. I called up another friend just to make sure I was doing everything right and she gave me some great advise; boil the water, put the corn into the water, cook for three minutes, put cooked corn into ice water to cool, cut corn from husk WITH AN ELECTRIC KNIFE (brilliant), put cut corn into freezer bags, and then put filled freezer bag into the freezer.

Got it!

As I started to cut the corn off of the first husk with the electric knife, I was surprised and how tough it was...it even gave my electric knife a run for it's money. No big deal though, we were doing the pioneer thing. After a couple of minutes I just couldn't help myself and had to have the first taste of this beautiful bounty.

What the.......

"Stevey come try this corn!" He tried it and thought nothing of it.

"This doesn't taste like 'sweet corn....don't you think it tastes like feed?"

"Yeah...that doesn't mean you can't eat it."

"I'm not going to eat 'feed' corn....we must have picked it from the wrong area!"

"It'll be just fine."

I quickly evaluated all that I knew to be good and worthy of this man I am lucky enough to call mine and decided to end the conversation on a neutral note, "WHATEVER!"

Have you ever tasted feed corn or as real farmers like to call it "field corn" they use in cattle feed and by the way it tastes like crap and is as tough as leather.

Well, the activity stopped there.

We decided to leave the house then and head down to the State Fair (again), because that is something we are good at. You know driving somewhere, walking around, and spending money....ooh I can just feel the admiration of those pioneers.

Hours later we decided to try it one more time at the Stake farm and it worked. Sweet corn stalks are shorter than field corn stalks, and the tops of the corn husks as well as the corn stalks themselves are whitish in color vs brown. By the end of the day we had EIGHT dozen ears of sweet corn picked, boiled, cut, bagged and frozen. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about harvesting sweet corn vs field corn....I AM an expert.

Snakes

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Service

The other day I just could not find my kind voice tone with the children all day long...especially with Clover. I was so dissapointed in myself but I just couldn't stop. Every little thing (or should I say WHINE) put me over the edge. I would apologize to the kids for my grumpy voice tone but then I couldn't make them any promises that it was going to get any better any time soon.


The next day I stuck to my regular routine of reading my scriptures and saying my personal prayer and I specifically asked that I could have more self-discipline and not abuse the children like I did the day before. I then left to teach a Spinning class which I used to get rid of any pent up frustration I may have left in me from the day before. I think it worked, I was sweaty from head to toe and exhausted (in the thorough work-out way) and ready to head home.


Just as I walked in I found Dalton in the kitchen looking guilty of something and asked him what was going on. He told me not to ask but to just find out(oh great). I made my way into the master bathroom to find that Zoie had drawn me a nice bath, (with bath water minerals for added scent and muscle relaxation) candles, relaxation music (BLASTING of all things), a tropical drink, a bowl of ice cream with all of the fixings, and a small bowl of baked potato chips. Zoie then proceeded to tell me that she just knew that I was going to come home exhausted from working out and would like to relax in a nice bath and that she didn't want me to worry about anything because she would take care of everything including the babies.



I gratefully climbed into the bathtub with my gym clothes on (for their amusement and my modesty) and started enjoying all of the snacks and then I invited who ever wanted to to join me.



I loved it.


I suppressed to urge to feel guilty (let me be honest...more like the biggert JERK in the whole world and it was VERY difficult) about being so grumpy the day before, that it then became Zoie's purpose in life to make her mom happy, but I rather embraced the notion that my children do know when and how to serve when an opportunity presents itself.


I am so thankful for my children and for their forgiving hearts and for the Spirit that comes when we love and serve each other. I think Zoie grew 10 ft that day spiritually and I am so proud of her.

Catching up...sorta

Our summer has been a busy one so I will just quickly throw some pictures out of some of the things we have done.

Car show. Notice when the children are smiling...with the NEW and FAST cool cars...forget the classics.

This picture was for me. This beauty is called the Vista Cruiser and this IS the car that my family drove growing up. My father was a used car salesman and could have picked for us anything off the lot to drive, but this is the beauty he chose. Ours however, was a dark green color with faux wood paneling along the sides...very HOT!

This is an abandoned train track that back in the early 1900's used to go all the way up to Yellowstone.

Breakfast is almost ready.

What doesn't look quite right in this picture...any guesses?

Hiking and Sunny's assumed position.

Stevey and these three (Clover refused to walk this day) went on a HUGE 4 hour hike to the lower Mesa Falls falls and had a great time. Clover and I enjoyed the afternoon at camp beating off the flies and worrying about these guys.

Dalton and his buddy McKade cracking themselves up while I am trying to take pictures of the snake bites they received from a snake attack which occurred during their filming a documentary entitled "Snake Attack".

My VICE or is it VISE! The kids will trash the basement and the little girls will get into the game closet (in which I am standing to take this picture) and empty out all of the games and puzzles while I am upstairs enjoying a peaceful moment away for the children....serves me right.

Some "twiners" pictures...Zoie did love it and Sunny just liked playing with her on the tramp.

"The cozy tree" debut. This is only one small section of the show....I love these skirts.

Sunny and Clover jumping off of the wall and playing...do you like Clovers skirt? A cozy tree original.

This is the billy goat that tried to eat all of Zoies hair during our trip to Bear World.

Zoie's billy goat eaten hair.

Sunny feeding a friendly little deer .

Our family of little bears