Christmas morning

Can I just say that I love Christmas, but I am so glad it is over for this year. It is a wonderful time of year, but boy is it stressful. We started out the morning with what I hope will be a tradition that I had as a kid. Since we live so close to my parents (2 houses away and soon to be right next door), we thought it would be fun to have them over to watch the kids open their presents from Santa. The catch is that the kids can't go into the living room until Grandma and Grandpa arrive. Maizy didn't care so much this year, but I remember how hard it was to wait for Grandma to walk across the street when I was young. I hope it will be a memorable tradition for them as it was for me. (Miss you Grandma Betty!) Santa sure did spoil my kids. Maizy got her "pink camera" that she has wanted for months now. She also got a big surprise...a Hot Wheels 4-Wheeler. How spoiled is she??? Zoey also got spoiled with a stroller, Dora chair and a few other toys. Zander didn't need anything, but still managed to get a few presents. Santa fortunately left a small decorated tree for us since ours is still buried away in storage. The kids had a blast learning how to use their new toys. I know that Maizy took over 300 pictures today. Good thing it is digital and mom can erase the lovely pictures of the walls, floors, couches, and bellies! We spent the afternoon at my parents home which is only 2 houses away. I am glad we didn't have to travel anywhere today as the weather has been pretty ugly. My brother made the trip up in the weather from Salt Lake. We had a wonderful meal prepared by my wonderful mom. Then, as usual, we were spoiled rotten by my parents. I love that they still get a kick out of Christmas, but oh my. Where to put it all??? We never leave empty handed from their house. Unfortunately we left the majority of our gifts in their basement to join the rest of our stuff until our house is finished. Sorry mom and dad. Just think, you won't know what to do with all the room when our stuff is finally gone!!! Merry Christmas to one and all!

Christmas Eve party (Casey's family)

We had the annual Christmas Eve party at Casey's sisters house this year. As usual we had a very special guest for the season. He definitely gets everyone in the holiday spirit. Casey and Curtis always make us laugh. I'm sure Santa had sore knees after having both of them sit on him at the same time. Maizy is at such a fun age. She was excited for Santa to come and jumped right up on his lap when he called her name. He gave her her first Barbie. Zoey did not want to be on his lap until he showed her the gift. She was nice and content to sit on his lap after that. I guess she will be a child that we can bribe! Zander of course could have cared less who was holding him. It is always fun to get together with the family since it doesn't happen very often.

Finally....

Today was our appointment with the ortho specialists at Primary Children's to see why Zoey has been limping. It has been almost 2 weeks since this whole process started. X-rays and lab work were originally done at her pediatricians office. Both were normal. No swelling was ever noticed, but her right lower leg has always been tender to the touch when examined and the limp continued.













The Ortho office originally would not make an appointment for Zoey as she didn't have a "diagnosis". Isn't a limp a diagnosis??? Thanks to my pediatrician, we were able to coax them into seeing her. Of course more x-rays were taken, which I expected.

Ta Da!!! Imagine that. Zoey had a fracture on her right fibula. Right where she was tender to the touch. I am glad to finally have an answer for the limp. They placed her in a walking boot for the next 2 weeks. It is already showing new bone growth on the x-ray. I am sad that she has a broken bone, but it is the cutest little walking boot ever! We aren't quite sure how the broken bone came to be, but we have a good guess. Her lovely big sis has been caught standing on her legs before. Mmmm-a little more education to follow!!!

3 Months Already

Our handsome man is already 3 months old and growing like a weed. Not sure how much he weighs, but I am positive he has surpassed the 14 pound mark. He is such a good baby. Happy for the most part and the best thing....he is sleeping through the night.:) He loves to watch his sisters cause havoc around the house and is quick to smile when someone talks to him. His sisters are great with him and are learning a little patience. Little being the key word here. We are so blessed to have our 3 happy, healthy children in our lives...even though we don't act like it sometimes!!!

Stamps

I have a ton of retired Stampin' Up stamp sets that I am trying to get rid of so it is one less thing to move when we get our house done. If any of you are interested, I will try to get a list going of which ones I have. They are discounted quite a bit, and if I like you enough, they may even be cheaper. They did just release the new retired list, so I will probably be adding a few more to the pile.

Christmas Card Picture

I guess I can post this picture now as all of my Christmas cards have been sent. I am not the traditional type that takes our Christmas picture in front of the tree. It doesn't even have anything to do with the fact that we don't have a tree this year. I like to take a picture with something that is going on at the time. For instance, this year we are building our home. We decided it would be fun to take a picture in front of the construction zone. It is coming along nice and slow. We are getting ready to do stucco soon. Windows are currently being installed, and the inside has had the plumber, electrician and heating guy all going. Hopefully it will start to feel like things are going faster.

What is going on?

My cute little Zoey is having a rough week. Friday morning when I got home from work, I noticed she was limping. When assessing her leg, she would push me away when I felt her right tibia, and only in this spot. The pediatric nurse in me came out. Lots of things, both minor and major, could be wrong, and I wasn't willing to wait it out. So...off to the doctor's office we went. Besides, I think she needed some one on one time anyways. We started with x-rays (that was fun) since Maizy is not a gentle sister. She pulls Zoey off the couches by her legs, plus we have caught her standing on Zoey's legs as well. Unfortunately, they revealed nothing wrong. The doctor said we could wait through the weekend, or we could do lab work then. What do you think was my answer? Yes, I had them torture my daughter and draw blood work. Her counts looked okay, which was my main worry to begin with. Even despite this looking okay, there can still be several things wrong. If she continues to limp, which unfortunately she is, we will call the office Monday morning and most likely be referred to the Orthopedic office for further evaluation. There are certain things than one can wait and see what happens, but not limps. I've seen way too many bad things because people "waited" to see if it went away. I wish she could just tell me what was bothering her.

Tag...I'm It

CrAzY 8's

8 Tv shows that i love to watch:

1. Greys Anatomy
2. Big Bang Theory
   
3. How I Met Your Mother
   
4. Two and a half Men
   
5. NCIS
   
6. CSI: Miami
   
7. CSI (the Vegas One)
   
8. Numbers
   

8 Things that happened yesterday:

1. Drove home from work at 8 a.m.
   
2. Took Maizy to Preschool
   
3. slept all day...night shift girl
   
4. Fed the baby-what else is new!
   
5. They started shingling the house
   
6. Casey cooked dinner...hamburger helper-Mmmmm
   
7. Went to work at 6 p.m.
   
8. Moved heavy boys all night...my back is sore:)
   

8 Things I am looking forward to:

1. Thanksgiving
2. Our house being done
   
3. Casey getting a job that he likes
   
4. To be done with Christmas shopping
5. To be done breastfeeding...way too much time left
   
6. Maizy to stop being such a sass
   
7. Zoey to stop getting into EVERYTHING
   
8. Zoey to start talking
   

8 Favorite places to eat:

1. El Matador
   
2. Olive Garden
3. Cheesecake Factory
   
4. Chili's
   
5. Ruby River
   
6. Texas Roadhouse
   
7. TGI Friday
   
8. The PIE
   

8 things on my wish list:

1. A new kitchen table
   
2. bedroom sets for the kids that match
   
3. A new car that isn't a boat
   
4. healthy, happy family
   
5. warm weather
   
6. better body
   
7. pants that are long enough
   
8. a job for casey
   

8 people I'm tagging:

1. Kamille
   
2. Angie
   
3. Michelle
   
4. Jessica
   
5. Kaydi
   
6. Nancy
   
7. Jamie Allen
   
8. Wendy Horton
   

So I guess I am a teeny bopper!

Twilight - I saw the first showing of the morning...on opening day...with 5 other adult women...and no teenagers. Say what you want, but I loved it! All I can say is Mmmmmm! I will take one of each. Edward, Carlisle, Jacob, and Emmett that is. So excited for the next installment - New Moon. Four of us topped off the day with lunch at Olive Garden with my favorite meal and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. Can the day get any better?

2 Month Measurements

Thursday was Zander's turn to visit the doctor for his well baby checkup. I don't know why I am always the lucky one who gets to accompany the children to get their shots. Casey dropped us off and then took the girls to run a few errands. I have to admit that Zander was a trooper and only cried for a few seconds. I hope we have a tough guy on our hands. We are also happy to report that he is growing like like a weed! He weighs 12 pounds 9 ounces and is just shy of 2 feet long. I guess he doesn't have much choice except to be a big boy. He's got the genes for it.

2 Months Old

I can't believe it has already been 2 months since Zander joined our family. He definitely completes the Jones crew. He is growing up so fast. He will have his dr. appt next week and I am excited to see just how big he has gotten. These are pictures of his adorable smile range. Talk about melting your heart! His sisters love him to pieces. If he is within touching distance, one of them is usually touching him.

Finally Some Progress

So, there is finally some good news and visible progress on our house. As you can see, they are almost done framing. There has been a lot going on, but nothing noteworthy until now. This is obviously the front looking from the South.

This is the front looking from the North.

This is the back and south side. We are very excited to have walls. It is finally taking the form of a house.

I've Been Tagged

This picture is of Maizy Easter egg hunting this past year. She was so excited to find her candy filled eggs at my parents house.

Here are the rules:
1. Go to your pictures
2. Upload the fourth picture from the fourth file
3. Post
4.Tag four friends

I tag Jami, Michelle, Kaycee and Teresa

The 4 of Us

This weekend we had a baby shower for Jami. We had a fabulous turnout. I hope Jami was able to get more things that she needed. Another bonus is that we were finally able to get all 4 of us together to take some pictures. If you didn't know, the 4 of us had babies within 15 days of each other in September with me and Mandy delivering on the same day. It was crazy to say the least. In order: Me and Zander, Mandy with Evelynn, Jami with Anna, and Michelle with Brylee.

We also couldn't resist putting the 4 of them together for their first photo-op. Starting at the top and going clockwise: Zander (9/15), Evelynn (9/15), Anna (9/25), and Brylee (9/10). I don't think I have ever been to a baby shower where there has been so many little babies.

Trick-or-Treat

Well, we had a rather busy Halloween. We spent the entire day in Ogden for Dr. appointments and errands. Maybe I am a mean mom for giving my kids shots on Halloween. Oh well, they will survive. We didn't even make it home until almost 6pm. Thank goodness our kids are still young and don't require much to satisfy them. We only hit a few houses and then called it quits since we hadn't even had dinner yet. It is sad that we live in the mortuary and only had 2 kids come to the door trick-or-treating. I guess the more left over candy for me. It is a good thing my kids didn't get more candy!

Zander was a Dalmation this year. He looked so cute.

Zoey used Maizy's old bumble bee costume. It barely fit her. It is a good thing she isn't growing as fast as her sister or we wouldn't have had a costume for her. Next year I will have to try her costume on.

Maizy originally wanted to be a cow. I looked in every store to find a cow costume her size. It was an impossible task. Her next request was Snow White. I could handle that.

6 Weeks Old

I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks since we welcomed Zander to the family. He has already grown and changed so much. He is in the beginning stages of starting to give those precious smiles as the picture below shows.

I love all the faces they pull. He is a pretty good baby, and I will miss him as well as his sisters as I start back to work today. Very sad about that. The girls continue to be amused by him. Maizy is already turning into his second mom.

My Favorite Time of Year

The weather has been absolutely wonderful the past few days and we have enjoyed taking the girls outside to enjoy some fall fun. Maizy loved playing in the leaves that we were helping to rake in my parents yard. Zoey, on the other hand, wanted to wander as usual. We put her in the leaves and almost immediately she started to climb out.

These pictures were taken at the playground up at the Elementary school. They loved sliding side by side. Zoey liked playing peek-a-boo from behind the shed there. This picture is of Maizy chasing Zoey around the shed. Zoey was laughing so hard she could hardly walk.

Grandpa's surprise 70th birthday party

We had a surprise 70th birthday party for my Grandpa Roger on Sunday. Amazingly, he didn't have a clue. My Grandpa has always been a very hard working guy. He deserves to have a break and enjoy a nice party. I had the opportunity to live with him for about a year just before getting married. Prior to that, Grandpa always seemed to be a little on the big and scary side. I was able to get a different view and realized what a great guy he really is.
It is always fun to get together with the Grimsley side of the family. I enjoy seeing all my cousins and catching up since we rarely see each. We may be a "loud" family, but we have fun.

Maizy always loves getting together with her cousins as well. This is a cute picture of them in beeny hats that Ryan and DeLys have. Their boys were nice enough to share with Maizy.

1 Month

Wow!!! I can't believe how time flies. I figured this would be a great first post since Zander turned one month old today. He continues to be such a blessing and joy in our lives. The girls are both mesmerized by him. Now if we could just get the entire household well, we would be perfect.

I also had to post this picture as Maizy was so proud of the pumpkins. She drew the faces on and then I colored them in. She was so excited to get her picture taken with her sculpture.

This picture is absolutely adorable. My friend Jami had her baby early only 10 days after Zander. At their 2 week appt, Zander weighed exactly double what Anna did. They looked so cute next to one another, I couldn't resist.