Arizona So Far...A kinda long borning post, Sorry

Well we made it safe and sound to Arizona. I drove from our house to Memphis then Sol took over from there and got us to Oklahoma City for the night. The big girls did just fine in the car. We left at 4:30 so they slept for a couple hours but once they woke up Sol wanted to drive because Emma was throwing up and having major runny poop blow outs and that aint exactly his cup of tea. Once we got to Oklahoma City I had Sol go find a walmart or something similar so that we could get Emma some kids pepto or something to help her poor tummy. He came back with Immodium and gave it to her well at least her poop stopped but still throwing up anytime she ate or drank anything!

We pulled into Sols moms house in Snowflake, AZ on Sunday evening and it was just soooo wonderful to finally get out of the car, relax all that. Sol heads out to Pinetop with his dad on Monday for the day for some much needed Father Son Time while I relax with the kids and help Tana and Lacy with whatever needed to be done at the house. That night I decided I wanted to do some permanet makeup on my eyes for some good eyeliner. So we did that and my gosh it hurt soooo bad but now I have the start to some great eyeliner that I dont have to do everyday! I woke up Tuesday morning with my eyes swollen shut. So as soon as I get my eyes down enough to open them I look outside and it had snowed! Not a whole lot just a light dusting. That is where it gets fun.

We all were going to go down to the Valley for Christmas Eve but we quickly realized that if we were going to do it we had to leave within the next 2 hours or the roads were soon to be impossible to get thru. So we hurried and rushed thru a fake Christmas Morning (including singing Happy Birthday to Jesus-very wierd, I know, it was Sols dads doing) and throw everything in suitcases and get back in the car for a 3 hour drive to the Valley. I was still trying to get everything washed from all the puking and pooping that happened on the way out here. There were cars pulling over and getting chains on (the snow was up to the bottom of the road signs)but nope not us, we have AWD on my car so we were just fine. Made it to the valley in about 2 hours thanks to my amazing fast driving from Payson to Mesa! :)

Christmas was good although I am glad to just have it overwith already. We had Christmas Eve dinner with my mom and family. Then Christmas Morning with Sols family then Christmas Dinner with my family. Now all we have to do is get my sister married off on New Years Eve and we are done for the year! HOORAY! I am ready for a recoup day today and am soo ready to bring in 2009! 2008 was such a hard year in so many ways I really dont think I am going to miss it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Arizona Or Bust ( I guess you could also call it Arizona AND Bust-ed as in broke busted)

Well I did it, I finally got everything ready for our cross country treck to AZ. I called my mom tonight and told her how much more sympathy and admiration I have for her all those years ago when she was planning all the trips from Utah to visit her mother and sisters in Washington and down to California and Arizona. There are 8 kids in all but the older couple siblings werent on most of the trips that I remember because they are older and I am the second to youngest. I feel like a chicken with no head and I only have 3 kids, I cant even imagine what my mom felt like having do this times 6! Multiple hotel rooms, gas calculations, food planning or prep, entertainment prep, PACKING, and if we were lucky enough to fly all the airplane prep work! Makes me tired just thinking about it. Anyways Good Job Mom (even though you dont read my blog)you are amazing for doing that more than once! This picture is all of us girls (mom and my sisters that were on the trip) at Disneyland about 15 years ago. Hands down my familys all time favorite Disneyland trip ever! I was probably 10-ish I think in the picture. It rained so hard and we were SOAKING wet and I had to wear my moms sweatshirt on the plane home then my dad when to get the van and it had a flat so we sat in the airport with our luggage FOREVER but it was still fun!

Anyways, we are off as of 4 AM so I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I will try to take as many pictures as I can but since my *lovely* puppy Rosie who found a new home as of today chewed up my charger for my camera and they are +30.00 so I dont guarentee anything!
Abby-you tell lil buddy hes not allowed to come out until January 5! :0) Love and Miss you already and thanks for coming over today, it was nice to sit and chat with ya face to face!

Our Early Christmas

We did Christmas early this year since we are leaving for Arizona this week. The girls had such a good time it was awesome! Chels almost went into a coma when she opened her Dora Pegasus and even snuck into the kitchen when Sol opened it for her and played with it until it was time to go to church. Kylee fell in love with her Tinkerbell head that you can do her hair up and earings and all that fun stuff, she even got a code with it for pixiehollow.com so she thinks shes so totally awesome because she got a code. Emma started screaming and started to frantically rip the paper off her Rocket. She had to take the kids that came with it to church with us even. As for the Jammie Pants, ya cute tradition. I think I like the idea of it but making them was retarded. I didnt have enough fabric to do some for Sol and I so that was kinda a bummer. But I think most of it was the pattern I had for it SUCKED! So next year I am going to buy a different pattern and see if it helps at all. I asked all the girls what thier favorite presents were and was kinda suprised at thier answers!

Mad Props to Adam!

Ok so everyone has pretty much heard of Hannah Montana aka Miley Cyrus. So our brother-in-law, (Sols sister Rachel married Adam) Adam Tefteller has been working so hard out here in Nashville writing songs and singing and all that good stuff. Well it finally paid off! He helped write this song and Hannah Montana is using it for Season 3 of her show in Disney Channel! Good Job and Congrats Adam we love you and are so proud of you and all the hard you have been doing! Keep up the good, hard work!

Awww

So I every morning and night Emma needs a breathing treatment of Respricort. I got her set up in my bed and turned it on and put it on her face and this is what I walked back into.

How heartbreaking is that?

Scentsy

For those who dont know I am a consultant for an AWESOME candle company called Scentsy. They are better than Yankee or Salt City because they are WICKLESS so no soot on your walls or dangerous flame for our kids to burn themselves on! Just a 25 WATT lightbulb in the warmer! And the wax gets just above body temp so you can literally put your finger in the wax at full melted point and you wont get burned-or your kids. NOT TO MENTION A TON CHEAPER TOO! I just made Lead consultant and soo excited for that! The newest product to come out is the plug in. THEY ARE AWESOME! I have 2-one in each bathroom!
For more info or for a free catalog, just let me know or go to my website:
www.scentsy.com/cwilliams

I also have the Montly Specials on there too for those interested at saving 10%

New Tradition

So Just to let everyone know first off that Emma is doing SOO much better, thanks to everyone for thier kind words, well wishing and prayers-they really worked. Last night she slept thru the night for the first time in a week and did not wake up coughing or weezing so thank good-ness for that!

Anyways, I was soaking in the bath the other night thinking about how I wanted to start a cute fun family tradition. I always buy my girls some cute new matching-ish jammies so it will be cute for pictures. But I always try to get into the spirit and find something that is like thiers for pictures (in the off chance that I am not the one taking the pics)

So I thought why not make everyone matching Christmas Jammie Pants? So I found a pattern online that had sizes for the whole family for a couple bucks and then found this fabric on ebay for crazy cheap!


Sol requested to do something "not lame like Frosty the Snowman" so this is what I found that wasnt too expensive but a guy could still wear and the girls and I could still wear too. Plus put a red or white top on and it will be totally cute for pictures! :)

So we will see how it goes, could be a tradition or a what was I thinking that one year type of thing, Who knows but I will keep yall posted!

Motherhood

This past couple months for me as a Mother have been very challenging. In September Emma was diagnosed with Reactive Airway Disease or RAD. Its basically Asthma that they hope she will grow out of. They cant diagnose her properly until shes 5 or 6 so for now in order to treat her they say she as RAD-Totally Lame and Dumb, I know.

She has always had breathing issues, she got her first round of pnemonia when she was only 4 months old and every winter since has been rough. Croupe and pnemonia are a constant thing with her as well as E.R. visits during the middle of the night.

This past weekend (Saturday, Sunday, and Today) Emma has been to the dr twice and the E.R. once. She also has to go back on Wednesday AM. Why? My poor baby has Pnemonia, Pink eye, and an ear infection at the same time. They decided to go ahead and put her on an every day nebulizer medication called Respricort, an everyday allergy medication called Singular that should help with allergies and hope that it will help stop her severe flare-ups. On top of Albuterol treatments every 4-6 hours as needed. So as of this mintute every day she needs an Oral steroid, eye drops, strong antibiotics, and 2 different kinds of inhlaation meds for the nebulizer.
( me and emma. She was about 10 minutes old and I has in such a deep love already that she came out in only 2 pushes so my drugs hadnt worn off yet and I was falling asleep but didnt want to let her go so we just fell alseep together)
Thats just Emma.


Chelsea this past couple weeks has had this nasty cough that wont go away no matter what I do. So into the dr and you know it, Bronchittis. So steroids and breathing treatments for her as well! And Halloween weekend she had what everyone thought was appendix issues so we take her in and its a viral infection of almost everything in her abdomin.

(all of us at Chelseas birth. I felt everything and started going into labor at 11 PM and got to the hospital at 3:30 AM and she was born at 9:11 AM so I look like a mack truck had hit me and I sure felt like it too!)

And WHILE Chelsea was sick, Kylee had Strep and was out of school for almost a week! (Me with Kylee right after Kylee was born, I was starving, she was born at 11:29 at night and I hadnt eaten ANYTHING since 9 AM)

Well, What doesnt kill you makes you stronger, Right? So this is what I have learned thru this:

1. I am a LOT tougher than I ever knew or gave myself credit for. Only a tough mama could sit there and watch your babies get IVs misplaced and stuck 50 times with different testing sticks and getting x-rays and cat scans and shots the dr still have no idea what is wrong not come completly unglued at the seams. Not to mention the whole walking into your kids room at night and hear your youngest baby literally gasping for air and almost turning blue and driving to the E.R. hoping and praying that your baby will be ok. Did I mention that having her oxygen level that is supposed to be 100 be in the 60s? Ya not so fun!

2. If it is this hard being a parent of 3 kids and having to watch them go thru all this I can only imagine what Heavenly Father feels as he watches us here on earth making all the mistakes that we do.

3. I am so grateful for good drs (and even the not-so-good drs) who have helped all my babies during thier troubles and continue to work to find out whats wrong with them and how to help them.

4. Great friends and family are absolutely PRICELESS! I have had to call different friends and family to help watch kids and do various things for us and they have all agreed and I know I couldnt have done all this so far without you!

5. Prayers are answered every day! This I know for sure!

6. As bad as these issues are(to me anyways) I am so greatful to have these issues and not some worse ones that we could have.

I am so greatful for my babies even though we have had issues with them. I know that compared to some that these issues are a walk in the park and I truly admire them for surving.

Anyways, sorry for this kinda lame post but I just felt like I needed to get some things off my chest and decompress a bit

Thanksgiving Pies!

Ok so I just finished my Thanksgiving pies. Here they are! I still have the Apple Raspeberry Crumble in the oven so stay tuned for that!

The Big Girls are getting BIGGER!

Ever since I got my hair cut, the big girls have been PLEADING to get thiers cut too. While I was growing up (although mom wont admit to it now) we werent allowed to touch our hair at all! (or get our ears pierced) I remember being so mad everytime I saw my friends at school with cute new do's. So after a bit of tinking about it, I decided that I wanted my girls to be able to decide how they wanted thier hair-within reason. So last night after church we went to Rachels and did it!

Kylee was so excited but the other kids were watching Ratatuille (I know its spelled wrong but I am just glad I didnt spell it the way it sounds and slaughter it) so she kept asking if she could get down and watch the movie yet. She was so funny, Sol had to hold her head straight, everytime we get her hair cut she turns into a floppy rag doll.So while Sol held her head, I took pics. I didnt have my camera so all the ones of the actual cut are from my camera phone.




The Second we finished Kylee we were all Ooohing and Awwwing and I turn around and Chels is right there in the chair. We hadnt planned on getting hers done tonight since it was a school night and her hair isnt quite the rockstar,awesome hair like Kylees but once she was there, Rachel couldnt say no to her so I said why not, go ahead! She was so good Sol didnt have to hold her head at all. She was so relaxed but stiff, shes definately like her mama and LOVES to get her hair done and blow dried!

So, here we go.

BEFORE:( I just so happened to be taking pics before Church yesterday, Kylee took the pic of me and Chels so thats why its kinda crazy! :) )






AFTER:

Christmas....DONE!

Ok I am feeling WAAY accomplished today and had to share. So I just realized that Christmas is DONE, completly 100%, no more figuring out presents, Done!

All the presents from Santa are bought. That in itself is awesome due to the mere fact that between all my selling on ebay and my Scentsy sales I have paid for every Chrismtas present for the kids by myself! And it will probably be the best Christmas the kids have had yet.



We go "home" to Arizona every Christmas since we have not lived there, While we were living in Texas we drove home with Kylee 9 months old and I was 4 or 5 months pregnant with Chelsea. We even brought our dog that we had at the time! We decided that if we wanted to go back to Arizona this year we would have to drive and we are desperate enough to see our families that we are going to do it. So Santa is bringing the girls two new portable DVD players, some new movies, and a ton of other quiet, car friendly, ear phone using toys to keep them occupied on the 23-25 hour drive to Grammys house.


I was also able to pay for a room in Oklahoma City to stop at. I got on Priceline and got a room at the Hyatt for $45! Yes, I am excited about that too, not only was I able to pay for it myself, its the Freakin Hyatt!

All the presents for Grammy and Papa (both sets of them) are done, the gifts for the girls school teachers are done, and the gas money for the trip is figured out. All I gotta do now is wrap my butt off and get my Tree out and up! YAY! I am starting to feel not quite so overwhelmed by the whole Christmas thing and then a treck across the US!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Happy Birthday to Me! Yup, As of November 3 I am a whole quarter of a century old. I threw myself a birthday party and bought my own birthday cake with complete my favorite Blue Bell ice cream. Sol got me a ipod player today for my car for my present. Yes I feel old!

Happy Veterans Day

For Spirit day yesterday they asked all the kids to wear anything red, white or blue. Now, normally I have the kids clothes laid out for the entire week so if they are trying to do spirit day and it doesnt work out, Sorry! But Chels was so adament on wearing the colors and was in her closet trying to find them herself that I decided to be a nice mom for a change and let her participate. So this is what we came up with.

Chelseas ABC Award

Chels was awarded the ABC Award for her grade for October and I got to go to a ceremony for it on Thursday. She was so proud (I think I was even more proud if thats even possible) and looked she looked so stinkin cute, I had a hard time not embarassing her by hugging and kissing her the whole time. She also requested a picture taken with her teachers, Ms Connor and Ms Byrum and her best friend in class, Connor.

The Big Girls' School Pictures

We got these back a while ago but I never got around to scanning them till now! So here they are. Chels has a big gash on her head from when she split it open swinging the dog leash around. She was very proud of it and just wanted to take pics of it and send it out-VERY CHELSEA! I told Kylee to make sure she smiled pretty since she gets some pretty funny smiles when she knows someones taking a picture. Anyways, here they are!

Another Tag

My sister tagged me so here I go. You have to find the 5th picture in your 5th folder. Here is mine:


Its baby Chelsea, 9 months old at Kylees 2nd birthday party. She was just learning how to pull up on stuff and thinking she was hot stuff! Aww, I miss my baby babies. I need another one! :)

I tag: Whitney, Becca (either one), Abby, Margarite (I know shes gonna have a good one, shes always taking cool pics!)and Shaina

Honeysuckle Hill Farm pt.2

This pas Wednesday I went with Kylee to the pumpkin patch. It was soooo cold! I had Kylee all bundled up-she had 3 jackets, 1 long sleeve, 1 short sleeve shirt, knee high socks with her snow boots. I couldnt get the hot chocolate fast enough! At the end since all the adults had to drive thier own vehicles the teachers said if we wanted to we could check out our kids and just go home instead of having to meet at the school. I asked Kylee if she wanted to come with me or ride on the school bus and she didnt even have to think about it. "No, thanks, I am going to ride the bus because its cool!" Thanks Kylee, that was a serious ego-boost right there! :)

Move Over Martha Stewart!

Ok I was too excited and proud of my treats I made for the girls to take into thier classes. They were just as excited to take them in as I was to make them!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! We went trick or treating with the crew last night. Tim had the best costume, I didnt even recognize him until he started talking! Emma kept saying "HAPPY CAL-OWEEN!" and Kylee was having fun karate chopping everything and everyone in sight. Chels was so excited to have a crown and wear her slippers.