Me

The year of our first garden, a couple months after Natalie was born.  Rob did it all- I did not enjoy my family's garden growing up, especially the weeding, and I don't enjoy gardening now.  I go back and forth trying to decide if that makes me a bad person. 

Natalie about 7 or 8 months old?  I was 3 or 4 months pregnant with Kyler here.  That pregnancy was not planned and when the pregnancy test showed positive, I slowly walked out into our living room and just stared at my 4 month old baby lying there on the floor, not even rolling over yet, and I cried.  Needless to say it all worked out, we love Kyler so much, and it's actually really nice that they are so close together in age.  I wouldn't change it for anything. 

This picture was taken towards the tail-end of my fight with lupus.  After six months of steroids, I was left with 20 extra pounds, and a nice chubby face.  Sigh.  Oh well, I can't complain.  I've been in remission for over 2 years, those steroids got my kidneys working again, and so far, I'm still doing great! 

Getting ready to go make a snowman with my family, and about 3 months pregnant with Kory.  I love every season, although if I had to pick a favorite I would have to say Fall.  I love the leaves changing colors, the cool feel in the air, and Halloween.  I love the beautiful snow in the Winter, the beautiful flowers in the Spring, and swimming and boating in the Summer and the amazing Summer nights.   

Easter 2012.  I look at this picture and I can't believe my kids are getting so big so fast. 

So, I thought since my life is so glamorous and exciting, I should do a post about myself.... HA!  So not true.  But, it would be good to document what's going on and been going on in my life lately.  My days are filled with, well, children.  Bathing them, feeding them, changing them, wiping them, listening to them, disciplining them, chasing them, watching them, answering them, hugging them, kissing them, loving them.  Rob and I had a rather serious discussion the other day about our lives, our kids, and about how crazy it has been lately.  We looked back and thought about how we were ready for Natalie, we were a little blindsided, but ready for Kyler, very ready for Kory, and now, Rob can't even fathom having another baby right now.  I'm not sure what I want, but I know I want another one eventually.  Rob asked me, "How can you even think about having another kid right now.  You tell me all the time how crazy your life is."  And I thought for just a second and then I said, "Yes, my life is crazy, and it's really hard, but there are enough wonderful "mommy moments" during my days, that it makes me want to have another one.  I don't know if anyone else feels that way- that despite all the hardness of it all, there are just enough amazing moments that it makes it all worth it, and it makes you want to have more.  Which is crazy. 
During the school year I teach piano lessons.  This has been the perfect little job for me- just enough money to help pay for groceries every month, and it lets me get some of my teaching energy out. (I do love teaching!)  Some piano days are stressful with the kids, but overall I enjoy it and I plan on doing it again next year. 
My battle with losing weight rages on.  Like I said, I gained 20 pounds on those stupid, wonderful steroids, and I haven't quite gotten back to where I was yet.  I've never been a super skinny person anyway- I'm 5'9'' and bigger boned, and I will never be a size 2, but I feel like I could be more comfortable in my own skin.  I felt good when I got married, I felt good after I had Natalie, I felt good after I had Kyler, (even though my stomach did pooch a little more after him) and then the lupus happened.  I guess I'll tell that story now.
So, it all started with a camping trip, end of July, 2009, not with lupus, but with a blood clot.  I totally blame all my health problems on camping and tell Rob that I should never go camping again, but he doesn't take me seriously.  I'm really not a big camping fan.  I like feeling clean, bug-free, and comfortable- all of which do not happen when I'm camping.  Anyway- we had been invited to go camping with Rob's brother Thomas and his wife Roni.  Rob had to work that day, and left me home to pack ALL of the camping stuff and watch two little kids, which made for an extremely stressful day.  I met up with Rob, dropped the kids off at my mother-in-laws, and we headed up camping.  On the drive up, I started to feel nauseus and get a really big headache.  Now, I have NEVER had what I would consider a migraine, except on this day.  Not up to that point, and not since that point.  It's kind of crazy to think about.  My head hurt so bad, I couldn't think, I couldn't move, I felt like throwing up, and by the time we got up there, I told Rob to hurry and set up the tent, and I immediately laid down and eventually fell asleep.  I slept for several hours, and miraculously, when I woke up I felt a million times better.  So I ate dinner, we did a campfire and then went to bed.  When I woke up the next morning, I had a sharp pain in the side of my chest.  It was a pain that I had never felt before and just blamed it on the air mattress that had gone flat in the middle of the night and went about my day.  The pain was bearable, but constant, and I didn't really know what to think about it.  When we got back into Rexburg that night the pain slowly got worse and worse, until I went to lay down for bed and couldn't even lay on the side that was hurting.  I really started to notice that the pain was much worse when I took a deep breath and by about 2 a.m. I couldn't breath at all without intense pain.  I woke up Rob, bawling, and told him that something was wrong.  He gave me a blessing and I immediately had a strong feeling that I should go to the emergency room.  I told him I could drive myself so he could stay home with the kids.  I got there, the nurses and doctors examined me- they did the routine heart attack tests because I was having chest pain and trouble breathing, but they all came back normal.  Finally the doctor asked me if I was on oral birth control.  I said yes, and she told me that I could have a blood clot in my lung.  She told me I needed a CT-scan to find out.  I was a little skeptical, knowing a CT scan would be pretty expensive, so I told her I needed to call my husband and talk to him first.  I told Rob what was going on and that they wanted to give me the scan and he said, "Well, ask the doctor how serious a blood clot in your lung is, and do you need the test right away?"  So I did, and she said, "If you have a blood clot in your lung, which I think you do, you are in danger of dying any second, and you are probably lucky you are alive right now.  You should probably not worry about money and get the test."  So, Rob reluctantly said, ok.  :)  Sure enough, I had multiple blood clots in both my lungs, which the doctors contributed to the birth control.  I was immediately put on blood thinners, which I had to continue taking for 6 months.  Several weeks later, I was telling the whole experience to Rob's aunt, who is a nurse.  I was telling her about my really bad headache that night we were camping and she told me that very likely could have been a blood clot passing through my brain and that it was probably very, very lucky that I didn't have a stroke that night.  I don't know how true or accurate that is, but it was definitely pretty scary and I feel I was very blessed.
The blood clot is how I found the lupus.  I've also wondered if the blood clot might have caused the lupus "flare" I had, but I'm not sure.  My rheumatologist told me that lupus flares are sometimes brought on by a traumatic or stressful experience so I guess it could have been the clot- I guess I'll never know.  So, in October of 2009, just two months after the blood clot, I started having pain in my lower back.  The pain was really random and the thought of another blood clot of course came to my mind.  I waited a day or two and it didn't go away, so I scheduled an appointment with my family doctor to see what it was.  If it wasn't for the scare of another blood clot, I don't know if I would have gone in.  I asked the doctor if that's what it could be, and he said it was pretty unlikely that I would  feel a blood clot in my back, and he wanted to do a urine test because often lower back pain is caused by a kidney stone or a urinary tract infection.  When the doctor walked back in with the results, he had a really concerned look on his face and asked me if I had been having symptoms of a urinary tract infection, because I had very large amounts of blood and protein in my urine.  I said no, and he said I might have a kidney stone, so he sent me up to the hospital to get another CT-scan (or MRI, I don't remember which).  It came back normal and my doctor gave me an antibiotic telling me I probably had a urinary tract infection, but wasn't feeling the symptoms of it.  When I left the doctor's office, that diagnosis did not feel right to me.  I felt like something else was wrong, so I decided to go the next day and get a second opinion with another family doctor in Rexburg we had seen once or twice.  He examined me and got all the information and immediatly told me I should go see a kidney specialist.  This kind of upped my stress level, because that is not what I was expecting him to say.  That seemed serious to me.  They got the appointment scheduled and I went to see Dr. Rahim.  He did an examination, and did a ton of urine and blood tests- I had never had this many blood tests done before, little did I know it would not be the last time, not even close.  I had to wait a couple of weeks to get the results back.  The day of the appointment to find out the results, I was a mess, I cried pretty much that whole morning and as we were driving to Idaho Falls, Rob asked me what was wrong and why I was so worried.  I told him I had a feeling that the doctor would tell me something was really wrong.  Dr. Rahim had mentioned one of the tests he was doing was to see if I had lupus,and I told Rob that I had a feeling he would tell me I had lupus.  Rob told me I was crazy, and that I would be fine, trying to be a good husband I guess.  But unfortunately, Rob was wrong.  Dr. Rahim walked into the room and got very serious.  He told me that I had indeed tested positive for lupus, all of my test results pointed to that, and that I was in fact very, very sick.  My kidneys were not working properly and I was spilling very large amounts of blood and protein into my urine.  He said my overall health could be compared to an 80 year old person.  The whole time he was talking, the only thought running through my brain was, "Would I be able to have more kids, would I be able to have more kids."  He said a whole bunch of things I don't remember, and then towards the end I finally got the chance to ask him that question.  He didn't even pause and immediately said, "No, I don't think you should have more kids, your kidneys are probably never going to be healthy enough to support another pregnancy.  No, if I were you, I would not have more children."  World crashing down.  I couldn't breath, I couldn't speak, I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, and Rob pretty much took over the rest of the conversation with the doctor because I couldn't talk.  I kept it under control until we made it out into the parking lot and then I lost it.  My absolute worst fear about this whole situation had just come true.  It was really hard for the next couple of days to wrap my mind around this information, but I think I was blessed with strength to push that out of my mind and focus on getting my health back.  I saw a rheumatologist down in Salt Lake, he put me on the Prednisone, which is a steroid, and I started the crappiest six months of my life.  As I'm typing this I realize things could have been sooo much worse.  I didn't have cancer, I wasn't doing chemotherapy, overall, I really wasn't in pain, I didn't feel great, but I didn't necessarily feel unhealthy either.  I realize people have gone through much, much worse, but for me, it was the greatest trial of my life so far.  The steroid made me unnaturally hungry.  I had never felt hunger like that before.  I would eat a large meal, and a half hour later I would be so hungry I felt like I hadn't eaten for days.  I craved foods like crazy, way worse than I had ever craved food before.  It was not cool!  So, I gained 20 pounds, my face was swollen and puffy, and I broke out in acne all over my forehead.  I had no energy, by 8:00 at night I was DONE.  It was an interesting experience to have my physical appearance changed so much, by no choice or action of my own.  I really had to dig deep to ever feel good about myself.  I had some very dark and depressing moments in those six months, but, I think those dark moments pushed me to turn to my Heavenly Father, I prayed for help and understanding, and I had more spiritual experiences in those six months than I've ever had in my whole life.  I felt loved, I felt Heavenly Father was watching out for me, I was given strength, I even received assurance that I would get pregnant again, and I would have more children.  My testimony grew so much.  Family and friends were fasting and praying for me throughout that time, and it worked.  After six months, my kidneys were working properly again, the kidney biopsy they did showed very little scarring, which means they caught the problem really early, they tapered me off the Prednisone, and I've been fine ever since.  I go in for blood and urine tests every couple of months just to make sure, but the doctors are hopeful that since I've been in remission for so long, I will stay in remission. 
Soooo, back to the weight loss thing.  I gained 20 pounds, I lost about half of that, and then got pregnant with Kory.  After he was born, my body only lost 15 of the 30 pounds I had gained, so between that 15 pounds, and the extra 10+ I was carrying from steroids, I was not happy.  Rob gave me the idea to ask a neighbor who went running often if she wanted to trade babysitting so we could go running.  She (Jenn) agreed and we've been trading kids and running for almost a year now.  The running helped, I lost 20 pounds, but then I hit a wall and realized I would have to start dieting too.  I HATE dieting.  I love food.  I love all kinds of food- and unfortunately, eating is a stress reliever for me.  I'm still trying to figure out how to overcome that, and I'm still trying to win this war.  My goal is 20 more pounds, which would put me where I was when I got married.  I'm not giving up!
I still love playing volleyball- I get to play every once in awhile at women's stake volleyball, and we set up couples volleyball every couple of months with people from our ward.  I feel like I still have some of my skills, and that is fun for me. :)
 I have a love/hate relationship with cooking.  I feel like I've gotten a lot better at it in the past 7 years, and I really enjoy eating a lot of the stuff I cook, but it is a pain in the rear sometimes.  I hate coming up with things to fix and sometimes it is just more time and mess than it is worth.  But, I realize a good homecooked meal is important for my family, and sitting down and eating together is valuable, so I will keep doing it.  I do like fixing good food for my family, and it makes me feel really good when my kids say, "Yummy, Mommy this is good!" 
I love eating out, especially Italian food, and I love watching movies, both things that Rob really dislikes.  I say all the time that I should have investigated this more before we got married, because this could have been a deal breaker. :)  It's like pulling teeth to get Rob to go to an Italian restaurant, and I could count on one hand the number of times we've been to a movie theater together in our married lives.  I do have to say that he is pretty good about watching movies with me at home.  Oh well, hopefully I'll wear him down as he gets older. 
I love my kids, I love my husband, I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and I'm glad I have the gospel in my life, I'm grateful for all the experiences Heavenly Father has given me and the things they have taught me.  I'm grateful for my family and friends- I grew up with an awesome, loving family, and I married into an awesome, loving family.  And whenever I step back and really look at my life, it always overwhelms me that I have so many blessings. 

Rob

Typical Rob.

Typical Rob.

Our first date- cutting down a Christmas tree.  We spent several hours climbing a hill to find the perfect one.  I've always told Rob that we fell in love on that hill.  It was an awesome first date.

The evening of our first date- it was Rob's birthday that day. 

Hanging out in my Provo apartment.  We saw eachother only on the weekends because he was in Rexburg and I was in Provo.  This made for LONG weeks, and really FUN weekends. 

Our first Christmas in our first apartment. 

What a smarty pants.  All graduated from college. 

So I figured since I did posts about my children, I should probably do a post about my original child, Rob.  I tell him daily that he is a 10 year old trapped in a 30 year old's body.  And he just laughs and has no argument.  But let me tell you, being married to a man like this sure is fun.  My life with Rob is NEVER boring.  I am always entertained, always lauging and ALWAYS being teased.  Oh well, I guess I knew what I signed up for when I married him.
I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Rob and I were supposed to be together.  I know lots of couples can say this, but I'm glad I'm one of them.  I know Heavenly Father led us together.  The way we met was pretty crazy.  I was in Provo, single and ready to mingle, and Rob was in Rexburg, dating a girl from Washington, not far from where I grew up.  Well Thanksgiving break 2004 was rolling around and I had decided not to go home to Washington.  I would be going there for Christmas, and I didn't want to travel both times.  BUT, my friend Bekah didn't have a place to go for Thanksgiving, and we talked about it and decided it might be fun to go to Washington together.  Rob was in Washington over Thanksgiving break for several reasons.  He had come with his parents to visit his sister, but also planned to spend a couple nights at his girly friend's house and meet her parents.  As luck would have it, Rob did not have fun at his girlfriends house.  He didn't get along with her parents and they weren't feeding him enough food.  Typical Rob.  Well, like I said, I ended up in Washington for Thanksgiving and my sister Laura, and brother-in-law Casey were also there.  The string that ties all this together is the fact that Rob and Casey were friends- they had classes together at BYU-I.  So when Rob had a question about a truck that weekend, he called Casey.  Rob asked Casey, "Where are you for Thanksgiving?"  Casey, "I'm at my in-laws house in the Tri-Cities."  Rob, "I'm in Washington too!  Hey, you have to come get me and take me away from my girlfriend for a night."  Casey, "Ok, but we're just playing games at my in-laws."  Rob, "That's fine, just come take me away!"  Of course this isn't their word for word conversation, but very close I'm sure.  So Laura informed me that Casey's friend Rob would be coming over that night to play games.  Laura, "Now Kristi, this guy is Casey's friend, and he's pretty cute, so I think you should get dressed up and make yourself look nice so that you can marry this guy and our husbands can be friends."  WHAT?  I really had no interest in making myself look any nicer than I already looked thank you very much, but, truthfully I think I did end up spending a little more time on my hair that night before he came over.  He got there and we started playing games.  I could tell right away that this guy had a strong personality.  He was LOUD.  But also fun.  We had a lot of fun together that night.   Yes, we definitely flirted.  Now this part of the story Rob will argue.  But of course my version is true.  Rob started playing footsie with me under the table while we were playing games.  Bold!  But of course I didn't pull my foot away and I just went along with it.  I was a pretty good flirt back then.  So at one point in the night Rob left to go to the bathroom and I hurried and told my Mom, Bekah and Laura what was going on under the table.  They were shocked.  And totally amused.  They wanted to know if he was going to do it again, so we came up with a plan that if he started playing footsie with me again, I would subtly say, "Laura's a monkey."  so they would know what was going on.  Yes, totally subtle, I know.  Well, sure enough he started playing footsie with me again and I said "Laura's a monkey."  And they all burst out laughing.  I don't remember if Rob was getting what was going on, but it was pretty darn funny. 

The next day was time to go home.  Laura and Casey decided they would follow me and Bekah back as far as our road was the same, which is about half the way, and Rob had arranged with Casey that he would ride back with him and Laura since Rob's parents had already left Washington.  We had decided on a gas station where Rob's girlfriend would drop him off to meet us.  Bekah and I had conspired that we would tell Rob we were scared to drive in the snow and he should ride with us and drive the car.  It was ingenious!  So Rob's girlfriend dropped him off and he kissed her goodbye!  I've seen my husband kiss another woman!  It just fueled my fire.  I was going to steal this guy!  Rob claims he saw right through our plan to get him to ride with us, but I'm not so sure.  He definitely didn't argue when we asked him to drive our car.  Bekah sat in the back and didn't say a word the whole trip.  Rob and I talked the whole time.  We parted ways when the road split to go to Idaho and Utah, and I honestly didn't know if I was going to see him again.  I didn't necessarily want a long-distance relationship, and I found out later that Rob was thinking the same thing.  So it probably would have died right there, but I happen to have a conniving sister who had a plan to get us together.  Just a day or two later she called me and told me that Rob was really interested in going on a date with me that coming weekend (which he never said).  And she called Rob and told him that I was really interested in going on a date with him that coming weekend (which I never said).  So I agreed to drive to Rexburg, and Rob agreed to let me come out to his parents house and celebrate his birthday and cut down a Christmas tree- all the while, both of us thinking the other one had set up the date.  Laura, Laura, Laura!  Well, it was an awesome weekend.  The day of cutting down Christmas trees was magical- we had a blast together, flirting, talking, meeting his family was great.  I knew by that night that something special was happening.  We had our first kiss that night in Rob's cool truck!  I could give so many more details, and stories of that Christmas, the first time he told me he loved me, New Year's Eve, the moment I knew we were getting married, the proposal, all the driving back and forth, our wedding day, the honeymoon, our crazy first year of marriage, etc. etc.  I'll have to find time to write all those experiences down another time. 
Rob is an amazing husband.  He tells me he loves me everyday, multiple times a day.  That makes me feel so...loved.  He plans surprises for me, takes me on dates, knows me so well and loves me anyway, makes me laugh, loves spending time with me, supports the things I want to do, values my opinion, etc. etc.  He is an amazing father.  He loves our kids and loves spending time with them.  He plays with them and has a genuine interest in helping to raise them and teach them things.  He helps me with the kids all the time and goes out of his way to take some of those burdens off of me.  He is a really hard worker.  He is disciplined.  He is smart.  He is always trying to learn new things and be self-sufficent.  Pretty much he is the opposite of me!  :)  I have found after 7 years of marriage, (our 7 year anniversary is in June) that we are opposite in many ways, which is probably why our relationship works so well.  He encourages me to get up and do more and I encourage him to slow down and relax.  I'm so glad I married him and so far we are doing awesome together!  Rob- I love you very much. 

Kory

My first time holding Kory.

All my babies liked to be swaddled- but he was my worst.  He had to be wrapped soooo tight ALL the time.  I should have kept track of how many times I wrapped that kid up- it would have been an insanely high number. 

He was a cute little duck for Halloween.  This picture doesn't even do this costume justice- it was sooo cute on him. 

I do have to admit that Rob is Kory's favorite.  He loves his Daddy.  Everynight when Rob come home from work, Kory will come crawling from where ever he is, as fast as he can, so Rob can pick him up.  It's so sweet.   

Kory is not a skinny baby.  He is solid.  I keep saying he will be our football player cause he is heavy and he is thick.  His chubby cheeks are so cute. 

Easter 2012.  I love this kid's hair.  He has had a full thick head of hair since he was only a couple months old.  It's so fun to style it. 

Kory's first birthday about a week ago.  The year went by sooo fast!  That kind of makes me sad. 

Kory is my sweet little 1 year old.  Everything about Kory (so far) has been such a wonderful experience.  When I was diagnosed with Lupus, the doctor's told me I probably would not be healthy enough to have any more children.  This devastated me.  I knew I wanted more than two kids.  So when I did get healthy again and then found out I was pregnant- I had never been happier.  The pregnancy was a little crazy- ok, a lot crazy.  I was considered extremely high risk because of my Lupus.  I had blood and urine tests every two weeks the whole pregnancy and then once a week at the end.  I had appointments with the high-risk OB every two weeks for the first 4 months and then once a month until the end.  I had monthly appointments with my regular OB for the first 5 months and then non-stress tests and ultrasounds, twice a week, for the last 4 months.  The doctor's were constantly reminding me of all the horrible things that could happen.  Well, either the doctor's were overly-concerned or I was incredibly blessed, because not one bad thing happened.  My only complaint was that the doctor's wanted to end the pregnancy as soon as possible and wanted to take him at 38 weeks at the latest.  Since I had a previous C-section, they would not induce me, so I did have to have him by C-section. 
The second he was born I was overwhelmed with a huge feeling of gratitude.  Gratitude that he was here healthy and gratitude that I had been able to have him at all.  The next couple of days in the hospital- I was giddy.  I had never been so happy to have a newborn.  With Natalie I was excited, but also scared and nervous because I had no idea what I was doing.  With Kyler- it was a total blur.  He was born 13 months after Natalie, so I think I was just completely overwhelmed and in a state of shock.  So with Kory, it was awesome to be totally ready for another baby, and to be so happy he was here.  I have loved every minute of the last year, which is probably why it has gone by so fast.  I think it also helps he is the best baby in the world.  He is always so happy, so content.  By far he has been my easiest baby. 
Of course our one bump in the road has been his seizures.  At about 7 months he started having drop seizures (I didn't know they were seizures at the time) where he would go completely limp for anywhere from 1 min. to 5 min.  I was starting to worry about this, when all of a sudden, when he was 9 months, he had a full on stop breathing, eyes rolled back, lips turned blue, foaming at the mouth seizure.  Within three days of that we had him down at Primary Children's in Utah where they did and MRI and an EEG which both came back normal.  The doctor's are saying that sometimes children have unexplained seizures and hopefully he will grow out of them someday.  He is on a high dose of the medicine they gave us, which finally started working and he has been seizure free for a month and a half.  We are crossing our fingers and hoping it stays this way. 
He is definitely on the slower end of the scale with his development.  He didn't sit on his own until 7 months, he started army crawling at about 9 months.  And he just barely started crawling on all fours about a month ago.  He is just starting to pull himself up on the furniture.  So it looks like he will be my latest walker, but I don't mind.  He can stay a baby as long as he wants. 
But he's not staying a baby.  It's been amazing- the past three weeks he has completely changed from a little baby who did very little, to a 1 year old who is communicating more, (he just said his first word, "Dadda", of course!) likes to feed himself, wants to play with Natalie and Kyler, tries to tell me what he wants.  He is growing up.  How grateful I am for him and the wonderful, sweet spirit he brings to our home.  I love him very much.

Kyler

Sorry for the "graphic" picture.  Rob told me that I shouldn't put this picture here, but I figure most of the people reading my blog will be women who have seen worse than this before!  Kyler was my only vaginal birth-and my only birth with no pain killers. They got the epidural in at the last second, but he came so fast I am pretty sure I gave birth to him before it kicked in. That was really, really painful! But the crazy thing is, I would do it again in a second. It was a special experience to give birth naturally and without a surgery. Because I had Natalie by C-section, the only way I could have Kyler vaginally was to go into labor on my own- they would not induce me. So I prayed the whole pregnancy that my body would cooperate and I would go into labor. Sure enough I went into labor 10 days early. Thank you Kyler for coming early and giving me that experience.

Six months old.

Cute little baby sleeping. All my kids love their blankets and always did weird things with them when they were sleeping. Kyler always had his blanket on his head.

Kyler's 3!

Wearing new clothes, and sporting the Toy Story backpack Daddy bought him.

Easter 2012. So handsome.

If I had to pick one word to describe Kyler it would be...exhausting. I think the mixture of being a unique little boy and being 3 is...exhausting. He is teaching me so much about patience, long-suffering, and creative mothering. But there are so many things that I love about this kid. He has a passion for things. He is very loving. At least 3 times a day he will come up to me, wrap his arms around me and say "I love you so much Mommy, I give you hugs and kisses." This makes all the rest of the stressful day worth it! He has a passion for things he's interested in. He loves Disney movies. Ok, loves might be an understatement. He is OBSESSED with Disney movies.   He loves Cars, Toy Story, Meet the Robinsons, the old classic Disney cartoons like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Chip and Dale. He can act out word for word, several minute long scenes from these movies. Almost everything he sees in everyday life, he associates with a movie. For example, the other day Natalie brought me a flower from outside, Kyler grabbed it and acted out a scene from a Chip and Dale cartoon that has a flower in it.  He is incredibly creative and imaginative.  He will pretend his toy airplane is a time machine and the other day he put a clear plastic cup on the head of his stuffed Buzz Lightear, so Buzz would have a helmet, just like in the movie.  I love Kyler's laugh.  He has an awesome sense of humor.  That's because he got MY sense of humor! :)  We are working on Rob's sense of humor- he definitely does not think many things are very funny. :)  Kyler knows when something is funny and he laughs- loud.  I love it.  Kyler loves riding his bike, and going on the 4-wheeler with Daddy.  I did an interview with him and here are his answers.

What is your favorite?

Food:  Pizza
Dessert:  Cookies
Color:  Blue
Book:  The Incredibles Book
Movie:  Meet the Robinsons
T.V. show:  Super Why
Friend:  Emily
Toy:  Mr. Potato Head
Animal:  Dinosaur
What is your favorite thing to do?  Play outside
If you could have anything in the world what would you want?  A Cars Toy
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Peter Pan

Too often I find myself wishing Kyler would grow up faster.  I know once he is grown up I will wish he was little again.  Kyler is definitely a special member of our family.  He is Natalie's friend and play-mate, he is Daddy's little helper, and he is my sweet little boy who tells me he loves me probably more often than I deserve it.  He's so forgiving.  He gets in trouble alot, but he will always come apologize afterwards and tell me he loves me.  He is a good example to me.  I love him very much.  

Natalie

My first time holding her.

Asleep in Daddy's truck.

She started walking at 10 months and was into everything!  Here she is emptying out my lid drawer.

For awhile Natalie never fell asleep in her bed.  We would find her asleep in random places all over her room.  Mostly she would fall asleep right by the door. 

Her first day of pre-school.  She was so ready and so excited. 

Easter 2012.  She looked so pretty.

I haven't been very good about keeping a journal of the things my kids are doing.  I have a notebook somewhere where I wrote down some things about Natalie and Kyler's first year.  When they crawled or when they walked and what their favorite things were.  I've written down nothing about Kory.  :(  So besides those few things, I've written down nothing about their milestones, or things they are doing.  Hopefully I can start that now. 
Natalie is a beautiful, smart, kind, almost 5 year old.  Her birthday is in a couple of weeks.  She is the "good kid" in our family.  She rarely gets into trouble and she is very good about listening to and obeying me and Rob.  She is a fabulous helper with Kory.  Without even having to ask her, she will play with him and entertain him.  Kory loves her.  I can tell by her interaction and creativity with him that she will be a great Mom someday.  She is also very good friends with Kyler and they play together all day long, almost always with no fighting.  She has been going to pre-school all year and loves it.  She has been learning alot and is definitely ready for Kindergarten.  She loves both sets of grandparents and is always asking to go over to their houses.  She still loves to cuddle, which I'm afraid will end soon.  Ever since the weather got warmer, I cannot keep that girl inside.  She wants to play ouside all day long, riding her bike and playing with her friends.  She changes her outfit at least 5 times a day.  She loves wearing different things.  She is so patient when I do her hair, and like I said, she is beautiful.  I did a little interview with her and here are her answers.

What is your favorite?
Food:  hotdogs (yes, without fail, she asks for a hotdog every day) 
Dessert:  Cookies
Color:  pink
Animal:  giraffe
Book:  Sesame Street book
T.V. show:  Dinosaur Train
Movie:  Tangled
Friend:  Megan
Toy:  There's a funny story that goes with this one.  During Family Night this week, we were playing "school" for the game.  Rob and Natalie were taking turns being the teacher.  When Rob was the teacher, he was asking Natalie what her favorite things were.  He said, "Natalie, what is your favorite toy?"  She thought for about 1 sec.  and then shouted at the top of her lungs, "Daddy!"  It's true, she loves playing with her Daddy.  They have a great, wild, LOUD time almost everynight.  Sometimes Rob is exhausted by how much she wants to play with him.  It's his own fault though, he's just so darn fun!  Everynight when he comes home from work Natalie says, "Daddy can I play with you?"  They have a special relationship. 
What is your favorite thing to do?  Ride the 4-wheeler with Daddy. 
If you could have anything in the world, what would you want?  Candy
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A mom

She is definitely growing up.  I can tell she's starting to watch me more, see what I'm doing, see how she should act as a girl.  Whenever I paint my fingernails, she wants me to paint her nails the same color.  She notices when we are both wearing skirts and says "Look Mom, we're matching!  Because you're a girl and I'm a girl."  She wants to help with the dishes and cooking.  She wants to wear make-up like me and loves wearing cute girly outfits.  She's so fun!  I'm so glad I have a daughter and I love her very much.

Tess

 So I'm still a little baffled by how this happened.  We are getting a dog.  A cute little golden retriever puppy.  How I went from not wanting a dog at all, to all of a sudden telling Rob that he could get a dog is beyond me.  It was literally beyond me.  I did not come to this decision on my own.  Here's the story.  For the past couple of months I was considering having another baby.  I feel like my lupus is always hanging over my head- even though I am in remission and still doing just fine, the doctors have told me that it could come back at any time and it could come back worse than I had it before.  Which would mean stronger and worse drugs, some of which cause infertility.  Because I've been in remission for so long, I really don't think that would happen, but it's always there in the back of my mind, making me wonder how soon I should get pregnant again.  I couldn't get a set answer on what I should do- I had been going back and forth for months- "yes have a baby", "No, you're crazy!  Four kids age 5 and under?  No way!"  Anyway, I couldn't decide.  Then, I threw out my back.  I was completely bed-ridden for about 2 days.  Needless to say, I had a lot of alone time to think.  And then, it happened.  The thought came to me that it was not the right time to have a baby, and it WAS the right time to get a dog.  WHAT?!!  I tried to push the thought out of my head, but it was there, clear as day.  So, I sucked it up and told Rob.  He was so excited.  We looked for Golden Retriever litters in the area for over a month, but there were none.  We were starting to wonder if we would have to drive down to Utah to get a puppy and were getting kind of frustrated.  I talked with one of our friends/neighbors about our plan to get a puppy.  I told her to keep her eyes and ears open for any puppy litters.  She reminded me of a family that had moved out of our ward a couple of months previous and that they had a Golden Retriever that they had bred before.  I knew it was a long shot, but I thought we could call and just see if they were ever going to breed her again, and if it was going to be anytime soon.  We called Terri (the mom of the family) and told her we were ready for a puppy and were wondering if they were planning on ever breeding their dog again, and if it would be in the near future.  She said, "I can't believe you are calling me right now.  We have nine puppies in our garage right now!  They are a week old."  I was totally in shock.  For some reason that I still don't know, our family is meant to have a dog right now.  The way it happened was all so weird.  So we drove to Star Valley Wyoming last Friday and picked out our puppy.  Her name will be Tess and we are getting her Friday, May 11.  Wish me luck! 

She is pretty cute. 

Here I go.

Well, here I am, trying out this whole blogging thing.  I've been looking at a lot of people's blogs lately, and I must admit they are pretty neat.  I think it's a great way to document what's happening in your life, hopefully a motivation to post updated pictures, and a way of keeping a journal.  And that's my main reason for doing this- to keep a form of journal so I can remember all the awesome and crazy things my kids and family are doing right now!