Grocery smarts and Treehouse Museum

Saturday morning I went to a class to learn how to save money on grocery's. It's AMAZING! I can't believe the amount of money I can save. I hope I can do it. I just have to figure it all out. As soon as I go on my first successful grocery shopping trip, I will post all about it.

My friend Rachel was in town so we thought it would be fun to get some friends (me, Jill, Rachel and Mandi) together and go to the Treehouse museum. We wanted to be able to visit while the kids played.....WRONG!!! The kids had a blast and were begging to go back the next day, but it was so hard to keep track of them. They wanted to run up and down from one level to the next. There were different areas for different age groups so of course they wanted to be in different areas. It would have been so much easier if Tyler could have gone with me but I felt like I was running all over the place trying to keep both of my kids in sight. I barely even saw my friends, we would say hi as we were running past each other trying to keep up with our kids. But like I said the kids loved it. Here's pictures to prove it.

He did it!

Brittons award ceremony was last night. Of course he passed. But he did even better then we thought. If you get a perfect score on your test you skip a degree, he got a perfect score so now he is orange belt third degree. Good Job Britton, you make us so proud.

I bet you never would have guessed that we had pizza for his special dinner last night.

What a sweet girl

My precious daughter had a conversation with my Mom yesterday. My Mom called me crying and of course it made me a little teary eyed as well. My Mom has blue tooth in her car. When someone calls her cell phone she just pushes a button and she can have a hands free conversation. She doesn't use an earpiece so everyone in the car can hear the conversation. Yesterdays witness to her conversation was Shayna.

My Dad called my Mom and they started discussing money. My Dad thought it would be a good idea to cut back on their spending habits until business picks up again. My Mom said "well how am I supposed to do that when we have Birthdays and Easter coming up". The conversation continued for a few minutes and when they hung up, this is what Shay had say.

Shayna: Grandma it's my Birthday that's coming up huh.
Grandma: Yep it is.
Shayna: Well are you going to be able to get me a present.
Grandma: Of course we are Shayna, Grandma and Grandpa are going to get you the best present there is so don't you worry about it.
Shayna: Well Grandma, don't you know that the best present you could give me is a kiss and a hug.

I thought that was so sweet. I don't know many kids that would be ok with not getting a gift for their Birthday.

Your a precious little girl Shayna, and I'm sure that conversation won you some major brownie points....prepare to be SPOILED!

Young engineer and Doctor visit.

Britton is learning about objects, how they work and the scientific meaning behind them at school. Parents were allowed to come in for one hour and see what their kids have been learning. The first thing Britton wanted to show us was the four wheelers. They wouldn't let Shay ride because she is to young.

and this is what happened....

She was so sad she just wanted to go home, for the first little while she wouldn't participate in anything.

This was the seeing center, you try on different goggles to see how the objects on the goggles affect your vision. These ones are foggy.

We finally got Shay to calm down and she decided to participate....she likes the tops.

making bubbles....it was extremely difficult getting the kids away from this one.

It was fun to see what Britton has been up to in school.

Britton has been complaining about leg cramps for a very long time. I just thought it was growing pains and never really worried about it. They wake him up at night and they seem to have been getting worse so I called the Dr. and of course they wanted to see him. I took him in on Friday and the Dr. was not in so we saw the P.A. After reviewing his chart and asking me about his eating habits she told me she would be VERY surprised if it was growing pains. He is a very picky eater and he has not grown that much. She proceeded to tell me that he is way to little for his age and according to his chart when he was 18 months old he was in the 50th percentile for heighth, every year his heighth percentile drops. He is now just below the 10th percentile on heighth. The P.A. told me that if he continues to grow like this he will only be 5'2" as an adult. WHAT? The more the P.A. talked the more I started to freak out. She thought Britton had a severe vitamin deficiency and that was stunting his growth. She was afraid that Brittons body wasn't absorbing the vitamins he needed. She gave me orders to go get blood work done and have a bone scan test. She said if these tests come back normal we will have to do more testing to figure out what is wrong. I. AM. FREAKING. OUT....

Shayna and I took Britton down to the lab to get his blood drawn. He is the bravest kid when it comes to needles. It didn't even phase him.....at first. The girl did a really good job, she got it the first time but then his blood flow started to slow down so she started fishing around for his vein. That's when he started to cry and it was really hurting him. It seemed like it took FOREVER for the three vials to fill but we did it. Next we had to go over to the hospital for the bone scan. Britton asked me to carry him to the car because he was feeling a little weak. We almost got to the car when he said "Mom, I don't feel good", and then I felt him go limp. I looked at him and he was white as a ghost. The poor kid was about to pass out. I ran to the car and sat him down and put his head between his legs, he said he was feeling better and sat up, took a drink and he was white as a ghost again, he said he couldn't see, everything was going black. I put his head between his legs again and rubbed his back we sat in the parking lot for a few minutes just to make sure he was ok. Once he got his color back we headed to the hospital for his bone scan.....

We got to the hospital and got checked in, Britton was a little shaky so we went to the vending machine and got the kids a treat, and waited and waited and waited. We finally got called back and they had me change Britton into a gown. They didn't have any kid gowns so I had to wrap him up in an adult gown then walk out to the waiting room and wait and wait and wait. We finally got called back to radiology and they did his bone scan (x-ray of the hand). That took about two seconds and then we were on our way. We had to wait all weekend for the test results. That was the longest wait ever......

Monday morning I called the Dr. at 9:00 am. Yes they have the results but the Dr. will have to call me to talk to me about it. I waited until 1:00 and decided to call the Dr. again. Yes Mrs. Carver we have the results but the Dr. is with a patient, I will have her call you as soon as she comes out. Finally at 3:00 the Dr. called me back. She said Mrs. Carver we have a lot to talk about. I want to spend more time with you then the amount of time I have right now. Will you please let me call you back at 5:30 when I'm done seeing patients so we won't be interrupted and I can spend as much time as necessary with you. I was stunned, I just said "sure". I was so scared I didn't ask her any thing else. I thought it would be easier to wait then to hear the bad news......

5:40 we got the call, I made Tyler answer the phone because I didn't think I could handle it if she told me something bad. It was quite the opposite. She was confused as to why we even had the tests done. Everything was normal, he is not vitamin deficient at all, he is a little low on vitamin D but as soon as summer comes and he gets in the sun he will be fine, this is very normal. He is growing just fine, yes he is small but so was I and so was Tyler, we were both late bloomers so Britton will be too. He most definitely will not only be 5'2". So what is the problem with his leg cramps.....Oh, it's just growing pains.

No we will not be seeing that P.A. again.

Karate

Britton had his karate test to move to a new degree. We find out next week at the award ceremony if he passed. I'm not worried, he did great!

On test days and award ceremony days we always let Britton decide what he wants for dinner. Of course he ALWAYS chooses pizza. Shayna wanted to do a candlelight dinner. So here it is, our fancy dinner with Micky and Minnie wine glasses.

Weekend update

My Parents took the kids to Moab with them. They left Thursday afternoon, since I have to leave for work before the kids wake up I didn't get to see them before they left. The last I saw of them was tucking them into bed Wednesday night and they got home Sunday afternoon. Tucking them into bed that night was so hard. Shayna was crying saying she was going to miss us so much, she gave me so many hugs and kisses, she said that was going to be what she would miss the most, giving me hugs and kisses while she was away. Shay cries a lot when she knows she is going to be away from us, it doesn't make it any easier but I was expecting this from her but when I went to tuck Britton in and he was crying it nearly killed me. I MISSED them SO MUCH! It was really hard to be away from them for so long. Tyler and I were forced to remember what life was like before children. Talk about BORING, although I did like that my house stayed clean ALL weekend, I didn't have that much laundry and dishes were easy to keep up with. But I certainly wouldn't choose it.

Can you believe my Mom didn't take any pictures. None! She claims the first day she took the camera and when she went to take a picture she realized the battery was dead. That night she got back to my Grandmas house and charged the battery. The second day they were out playing she forgot to grab the battery off the charger. So, no pictures.....Devastating.

My Cousins happened to be in Moab this same weekend so my kids got to play a ton. Both Friday and Saturday were spent at their campsite. Britton and Shay said they had so much fun playing with Zoe and Callie (Travis's girls), Noah (Dusty's boy) and Kianna (Coby's girl). I'm not sure what other activities took place other then they went to Moab diner to eat. That's Brittons favorite place to eat. He was very excited about that.

Thursday Tyler and I got off work and went home to a very quiet house. We didn't plan much for dinner since the kids weren't there. We just grabbed whatever sounded good and watched real time TV. Yeah, were crazy like that.

Friday Tyler had to work so I was home all by myself.....I took advantage. I didn't get out of bed until 9:00. I got myself a bowl of cereal and then got in a bubble bath and read my book. It was an hour of pure bliss, no kids bangin' on the door wanting to play in the bubbles, in fact, I didn't even lock the door. When I got out of the bath I cleaned the house. It's amazing how fast I got the house cleaned. No kids to say "Mom, I'm hungry, Mom, I need a snack, Mom, I'm bored, Mom, Brittons touching me, Mom, I need you". I had so much time left over that I went outside and got all of my yard work done. It was such a beautiful day. It felt so good to be in the sunshine. After that I got in the shower and had about a half hour to kill before Tyler got off work so I read my book. I read a lot....it was great. When Ty got home we headed for the grocery store. We needed food and I needed to stay busy....I was missing Britton and Shay. After dinner we watched a movie.

Saturday we got up about 8:30. Tyler wanted to get his motorcylce out after being stored all winter, so he got the oil changed then I helped him wash it. Our car needed the oil changed as well so Tyler rode the motorcycle and I followed him in the car to the dealership. We dropped off the car and I got on the motorcycle and we went to the Real Soccer Game. It was a free game so we thought what the heck. We had a lot of fun, Real won so that was even better and I totally enjoyed riding on the motorcycle, not something we do much, since, ya know, it's not functional for family traveling. When we got home we headed back to the grocery store to pick up a few items that we forgot for dinner. Normally I would never have gone back to the store. I would have just changed dinner plans but we had nothing else to do so why not. We made shishkabobs on the Bar-B-Q....Delicious. Then of course we watched another movie. Twilight, it actually was better then I thought it would be. I had heard some negative things about it so I wasn't expecting much. It was way better then I thought it would be. I can't wait for the next one, I think it will be better.

Sunday was a day full of anticipation. We just wanted our kids to get home. It was hard to sit there all day. The house was clean, the dishes were done, dinner was in the crockpot. But we made it and the kids got home and we were a happy little family again. It was so nice that the kids were as excited to see us as we were to see them. They were so cuddly all evening. That made it worth it!

Thank you so much Mom and Dad for taking the kids to see Grandma Donna, Britton and Shay love her so much and always ask why she has to live so far away, they don't realize it now but some day they will know how special it was to get to see her as much as possible....Love you both!

What have we been up to?

We haven't been up to much. There's just not a lot going on. We are just living day to day. Britton has been off track for the last three weeks and he was sick for the first two of them with a cold and then a nasty ear infection. This week they leave with my Mom to go to Moab before school starts again on Monday. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle being without my kids for so long. I guess we will see.

Soccer season has started! Britton had a practice last Saturday and the games begin on Thursday the 19th. However Brittons first game is a bye so he doesn't play until the 26th. That's why they get to go to Moab this week.

Shayna's ballet class has been working on their dance for the big recital in May. She comes home and shows me her dance, she still loves ballet. This year she is a fairy.

I found a cute blog with a ton of different hairstyles. I showed it to Shay and she has been picking out which hairstyles she wants to try. Shayna says she feels like a princess when we do her hair and she is so good about sitting still for me to do it. I love spending this time with her.


This is the first hairstyle we tried. It's supposed to be a heart. I obviously need to practice that one.



This is the second one we tried. A little crooked but could be really cute.



A star! She loves this one. I think we will do this for the fourth of July.



A diamond.


The weave. This is really cute and super easy.



I like this one with the ribbon, very creative.


Lots of elastics, a pain to take out but simple and very cute.


Last week we went to Carver's (our nephew) Baptism. I didn't have my camera with me but afterwards we went to Bruce and Mary's house (Tyler sister, Carver's parents) for lunch. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins I had to bribe them to leave. I told them if they would come home they could make their own cake. When we got home they immediately changed out of their nice clothes and we got started baking.








And...Just because it made me laugh I had to post this. Tyler was home with the kids the other day. He started taking pictures of them playing and he captured this.


Britton falling down the stairs.


CRASH

Face plant.

Oh, that hurt.

If your not going to help I'm just gonna walk away.


I thought it was so funny because 1) Tyler wasn't worried in the least. He just stood there and took pictures (that's not what I would have done...and we wouldn't have pictures). And 2) He didn't get hurt. Good times!

Shayna has informed us that she has a boyfriend, his name is Sam and he is in her preschool class. She says she sits by him whenever she can because he is soooo cute! I told her its ok to have a boyfriend as long as she doesn't kiss or hug him. She said "oh gross Mom, that's gusting(disgusting)". She makes me laugh all the time with things she says. She just loves painting her thingernails (fingernails) and she can't wait until she's an endult (adult) so she can do whatever she wants, even things she is not apposed (supposed) to.