Free Swine Flu Infection!

Anybody want to get the swine flu to get it over with? Come on over to our house, we're swimming in germs!

Yesterday Rebekah woke up with a slight fever and a slight cough. I wasn't too worried because the kids get colds off and on during the winter. But, by 9:30 she wasn't moving much and her cough was sounding bad. By, 11:30 her fever was 104.5 and she wasn't talking much anymore. I gave her some tylenol and put her back to bed around 1:00. At 2:00 she woke up with a fever of 105 and wouldn't stop crying. I figured I'd better take her into the doctor. They got her in pretty quick and the doctor said it looked to her like Swine Flu. Rebekah was having a hard time breathing at this point, so they gave her a breathing treatment in the office. They prescribed Tamiflu and told me to use her inhaler ever 6 hours. She's breathing better today, but still coughing and her fever is lower.

Hyrum started getting it while I was at the doctor with Rebekah. When I picked him up, the baby-sitter said he was fussy and felt a little warm. I took his temp when we got home and sure enough, he was starting to get a fever. He also began coughing sometime last evening. I tried to get the doctor to just prescribe Hyrum some Tamiflu because his fever wasn't going down with the fever reducers and was wavering between 102 and 103.8 . But, the doctor wanted to see him to make sure he wasn't developing a secondary infection.

By this time I was feeling horrible. I started coughing this morning and was really dragging. The body aches started this afternoon. So, when it was time to take Hyrum to the doctor I was feeling poorly as well and Brigham had to be awakened from his nap. When I woke him up he was coughing and had red cheeks- no fever yet (although he has one now as I'm typing this). I called and got an appointment for him too so that we didn't have to make a bunch of trips to the doctor. Timothy came and we took everyone. The boys got checked and seem to be fine aside from the flu- no secondary infections. So, they got prescribed Tamiflu too.

They're all sleeping now, and I'm feeling okay because I took Ibuprofen, but I'm headed to bed early so that I can get as much rest as possible.

So, (since we have three toddlers, and they like to put everything in their mouths and touch everything that they can get their hands on) if you want to get the virus and get it over with now, you're welcome to come to our house and play with the toys and touch everything you can, and you'll get the virus now and not have to worry about getting the vaccine or contracting the illness later. I promise I won't charge you for the service. The virus is free! Any takers? :)

Halloween Fun!

The children seemed to enjoy Halloween. We just took them to the church Halloween party which was on Friday the 30th. They were able to play some games and then go "Trunk-or-Treating". They weren't too sure about the idea when they first started, but when they realized they were getting candy at each car we stopped at then they got excited especially when they got into their candy and could hardly say "thank you" for all they stuffed in their mouths. Since then we've only let them have few pieces a day, but they're pretty excited about having candy because we rarely buy it at our house.

I got really annoyed with Trick or Treaters on Saturday. We only got one family that we actually knew come to the door. There were two adults taking around a little toddler. I gave her a piece of candy and then the adults held up their bags and said- "No candy for the adults?" I think once you're twelve or thirteen you're way too old to trick or treat. So I shook my head, said "Sorry," and shut the door. Next year I'm thinking of putting a sign on the door that says "Feel free to Trick or Treat if you're twelve or younger." Then, if teenagers try to tell me they're twelve I'll tell them that there is a fee for lying at my house. I charge a piece of candy for every year old you are. I'll guess they're age. "You look about 15. Would you like to choose the 15 piece of candy to give me or would you like me to choose for you?"

Another little boy-probably about 5 years old came to the door with his mom and little sister. He said, "Trick or Treat smell my feet, give me something good to eat." Too bad I had already put the candy in his bag before he started in on the "smell my feet" part. What I decided I would next year if someone said that is I would tell them that I don't give candy to children who say rude things, and that there is fee I charge for having to listen to rude words. One piece of candy per word in the rude phrase. That boy would have owed me 9 pieces of candy.

How to get a toddler to sleep in a bed.

Rebekah has been struggling with naps because she has learned how to climb out of her crib and wouldn't stay in her bed. Although she stays in her bed just fine at night, probably because it's dark. Finally on Monday after not napping she was so tired that she had a hard time sleeping (don't ask why, but when my kids get over-tired they don't sleep.) She kept me up half the night on Monday night. So, Tuesday I decided she had to take a nap. After she played for an hour I prayed about what to because nothing was working and I was getting frustrated. I didn't want another sleepless night because she wouldn't nap again. After praying, I felt like I should go in there and sit with her, ignore her, but put her back in bed each time she sat up. I did that and she was out in 20 minutes. I felt bad ignoring Hyrum while I did it, though. Wednesday, she wouldn't stay in bed at naps again and I couldn't stay in there because Hyrum was fussy and needed me. I tried, but he kept screaming. So, I decided that each time she got out of her bed I would take something away. (One of her sleeping items: baby, water cup, extra pillow, favorite blanket, etc.) Finally I was down to her last item, and I wasn't sure what to do. Then it came to me- I warned her that if she got out of bed again I would have to buckle her in her car seat for a nap. I closed her door and went to get her car seat. Sure enough in a minute or two she was out of bed again. So, I buckled her in her car seat gave her a blanket that she doesn't necessarily like and left. She screamed for about 5 minutes and fell asleep. I wasn't sure I liked restraining her to get her to sleep, but something had to be done for my sanity as well as hers. The next day, Thursday, I took down her crib in the morning because it wasn't doing any good anyway. Then, at naps I told her the same story. If you get out of bed I'll have to take your things away, when everything's gone you're going to have to be buckled in your car seat. So, that day I ended up taking her water cup, baby, favorite blanket, and extra pillow. But, that was it. She stayed in her bed after that and fell asleep. On Friday I told her the same story, and -she proved to be a pretty smart two year old.- she didn't get out of bed once! She realized she got to keep her stuff if she stayed in bed. Saturday and today I didn't have to take anything away either. I'm glad I didn't have to use the car seat method again. And I'm glad she's back to her normal sleeping patterns.

A bit of a self-reliance lesson

A few days ago I had made a really hot fire in the wood burning stove to heat our cold house. Well, apparently I did a good job, because the fire was hotter than ever. So, I wondered if I could boil water on top like people used to do to cook food. Well, it worked. I boiled potatoes and and I boiled some noodles for snack. I decided to use the potatoes to make a shepherds pie for dinner. Then, when the boiling water was successful I decided to try making a makeshift oven on top and see if I could make the whole dinner over the fire. Here's a few pictures of my "oven". I made it with #10 cans, a cookie cooling rack and some tin foil. Shepherds Pie turned out great!
That worked and so I thought I'd try making some brownies in my makeshift oven. But, by this time the fire was even hotter. It ended up being too hot and burnt the brownies on the bottom and edges while the middle took longer than normal to cook. The brownies turned out okay as long as we just ate the center. I definitely learned a lot and am more prepared to cook over a fire if we don't have electricity for some reason.

Yesterday I decided to move all my canned food out the food storage area and into the house because (silliness) the food storage shelves are in the laundry room where the air gets very moist from the dryer. The cans are starting to rust on the outside. So, I pulled all the extra toys out of Rebekah's closet and put them in the laundry room storage cupboards and I also cleaned out the linen closet and put the extra blankets, sheets and towels out in the laundry room too. I filled those two closets with food storage.This is where my cans used to be stored.

I also made a little stair place for the children to play on in Rebekah's room. I covered it with two table cloths to protect the boxes. We'll see how long this lasts.

The children had fun helping me put the cans and jars in the closet when I was down to the single cans.
Sorry the pictures are fuzzy, I just realized that there was a big smudge on the camera lens. (Probably toddler fingerprints) :)

First Birthday!

Happy Birthday Hyrum!

My baby turned one! I can't believe time has flown by so fast. Hyrum's been with us for 8 months now and he's growing so fast. Here's a little picture story of his cake expereince. I
made a cake for him, but his "Nana" (old foster mom) made him a little one to have all for himself. So, he had that one and the rest of us had the big one.

Had to move the curtain out of the way...




On to the presents!

He's our happy boy. We sure love him!!

It's final

Yesterday we received a pile of papers in the mail from out attorney basically stating that Brigham and Rebekah are now ours for good. The adoptions were finalized and their names legally changed. We are so excited! To celebrate, we went out to dinner as a family. It feels so good to have two out of the three be ours for real. We're still waiting on the amended birth certificates, but those will be along shortly. Now I have to go to the doctor office, pharmacy, and everywhere else that has records of them and get their names changed. It will be so nice to call the doctor and actually make an appointment for Rebekah F____ instead of Angelina G______ . And to go to the pharmacy asking for a prescription for Brigham F______ instead of William R____. I'm so glad they're ours!!! We're also looking forward to getting them sealed to us, but we're going to wait until Hyrum's adoption is final as well and seal all three of them at once.

For those of you who haven't heard yet, Hyrum is now legally free!! We're just waiting on paperwork to be sent to us so that we can contact the attorney to get things rolling for him. He'll probably be ours for good in about 4-5 months.

Happy Birthday Brigham!!

Brigham's birthday was last Saturday. He is 3 now, though we're having a hard time convincing him of it. For a while there he was still convinced he was two. Then, when Nonna asked him how old he was on his birthday he told her he was four. The other day he told me he was five. So, I think we've confused him. But, the past two days he seems to be getting it.

Brigham wanted waffles for breakfast.


Here's the cake I made him. (pretty much the same as Rebekah's but different colors)

Another cake difference-I made it two colored with three layers.
(I got the idea from my friend, Teresa)



I thought this was funny, the gift bag was almost as big as he was.

He had a great day, he loved all the attention. The children are still singing the happy birthday song to each other at random times, which is delighting to hear. They're turning into quite the little singers. :)

Vacation for a wedding

We spent 10 days on the road and are sure glad to be home again. We made a lot of stops and visited with a lot of people. The main reason for our trip was for my sister, Tasha's wedding. She got married on the 1st of September.

Here are a few pictures of the children we took before the wedding.

Brigham was asked to be the ring bearer. He did a great job for how tired he was.

Tasha was beautiful all dressed in her wedding attire.

This road trip went a little better than the last as far as the children being in their car seats. They were a little more used to the idea of sitting in their seats all day, and therefore new what to expect when we talked about it ahead of time. They still got fussy from time to time, but that's to be expected with toddlers.

It was sure nice to visit with all the family and friends, though! Thanks to all of you who housed and fed us. :)

Rebekah's Birthday!

Rebekah's birthday was on August 26th. We had a great day, celebrating with her. We started out with some birthday crowns.

Followed by one of her favorite breakfasts- hot cereal. (That girl can eat almost as much hot cereal as I can!)


I made this cake for her the night before. I'm not very good, but I'm learning.



We played all day and got ready for her party in the afternoon. Her birthday party was after dinner. We sang, ate cake and ice cream and she got to open a few presents.




Our gift to her was a toddler bed.

She was very excited!