MAY

Yep, it's May. At least when I look at the calendar it is. When I look outside I see.....


That was May 18th. We are well into May- not even close to April. Or January for that matter.

Sigh.

At least there's hope. Just last Saturday we had this:


Short sleeves! (Pay no mind to the girls attire- just for the record, I had no part of their wardrobe choice.) Granted, it really wasn't warm enough for this....


...but the girls absolutely insisted we put out the pool. If we didn't, it was sure to be certain doom and the world would come to a complete stop! I tried to warn them it was a bit too cool, but according to them it was just perfect for a swim.

After all, who am I anyway? I'm just the mom, what do I know?

After about 15 minutes they had a case of the shivers and were done. BIG surprise. How ever was I able to predict that one?


Maybe at least one of my children will give me some form of merit....

...Hmmm, I don't know. He's a boy. T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Especially if he is anything like his dad!

SEVEN

SEVEN YEARS AGO TODAY.....

....I became Mrs. Brittney Israelsen. Seven. Seven years! It's amazing to me how time goes by. I love how each year changes and molds our lives. Combine the fact that this time of year seems to be pretty darn hectic, we have 3 small children, and live far away from dropping off our kiddos for the weekend at Grandma's house, so Jacob and I will celebrate our anniversary with a simple night out on the town. But really, we don't need extra bells and whistles and hoo dee doo. I'm simply looking forward to a nice quiet dinner where we can laugh, be with each other (sans kids), and pat ourselves on the back for a terrific seven years. Then step right on in to another great year.

Oh, and possibly step on in to the store on the way home to get another plunger. Nothing says marital bliss more than a backed up toilet on the eve of your anniversary and the only plunger in the house being clear downstairs. Good thing I married a man with some good fast running legs. He got that plunger up the stairs lickety split! Apparently we haven't been very successful at teaching the girls to use a limited amount of toilet paper.

Marital bliss, I say, marital bliss.

Easter

Easter morning, I received a phone call from my mother informing me that the 2-month-old daughter of a cousin had passed away due to a heart defect she was born with. We were so hopeful for this sweet little baby. She had already made it through one major surgery and seemed to be progressing, but unfortunately her little body just couldn't do any more.

My heart hurt so deeply for my cousin and his wife. Losing your first little baby is something that seems almost unimaginable to me- Losing any baby, any child, anyone for that matter. I cried tears which could only understand the heartache on my own level. At the same time I was sure there was a mother and a father crying tears of a hurt that I pray I never have to understand.

Then, an amazing peace came to my mind. It was Easter morning. That sweet little baby returned home into the arms of the One who suffered just for this very reason. The far-reaching effect of the atonement and resurrection became so much greater for me this Easter. Not only can this sweet baby remain forever pure and innocent, but the heartache of her parents can be eased in knowing the Savior himself took upon the pains and sorrows of the world and through Him they will find the peace they need. They will be with her again! So simple yet so profound.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

I hope I will always remember the peace that is available to me. That in all things, I need not fear as long as I simply let Him in. Happy Easter.

Thirty One

Another Birthday down for the record books. Monday was the first day of my 31st year of life.

How do I feel about that?

Pretty good, actually. One year older and wiser too, right? Of course.

It turned out to be a great day. The girls sang "Happy Birthday" all day to me. It was pretty darn cute. Except when they started singing to me at Texas Roadhouse and I feared they would be overheard and I would end up on the saddle. Fortunately I avoided that possible catastrophe.

For lunch, Jacob surprised me and brought me home a salad from Cafe Rio and then let me know he was taking the rest of the day off. Yay! So we headed on down to St. George where we made some random little shopping trips and then of course grabbed dinner at the Roadhouse. Ya- you do the math from my meals for the day. Massive birthday calories. We got home and topped it all off with a slice of key lime pie- many thanks to Marie Callendar's for supplying the birthday dessert. I've been eyeing one of those babies for a while now and decided my birthday was the perfect occasion to splurge. Here are just a few pics of the day:

My gifts from the girls- In the morning they locked themselves away in their bedroom with Christmas wrapping paper and wrapped up some presents for me. They scoured the contents of their toy boxes and came up with some real goodies. They were so excited for me to open them up, and were super proud they wrapped them all by themselves (we are now out of tape). It was so cute! You'll notice the one has a purple paper on it where Kenna drew a picture of her and I.


And of course the aforementioned key lime pie:


And what does Allie think of all the birthday fun? Well, judge for yourself:



Thanks to my wonderful little family for giving me a perfect 31st birthday. The only problem? It went way too fast.

True Story

Today I decided to treat myself to a little shopping trip. All alone. A vacation of sorts for me, if you will. As I was making my rounds in the grocery store, my cell phone rings and I pick up to hear Jacob on the other line in a panic. "How close are you?" he asks. I casually responded: "I'm just here at the grocery store."

Obviously not the answer Jacob wanted to hear.

In desperation he pleaded with me to get home ASAP because Ty had a major explosion in his diaper and the contents were running down his leg. I decided to try the cheerleader approach. "Oh c'mon Jacob, you can change the diaper! You can do it, I know you can!" A lady next to me in the store was giggling as she listened in. Jacob begged and pleaded. "You don't understand," he said, "I don't even have the diaper off....it's the smell....I keep gagging....I'm going to throw up." Well actually, my dear, I really truly do understand. I have been dealing with this for the past few days as Ty has had some crazy little bug and has had quite a few of these explosions. So yes, I really really know exactly how you feel. I kept encouraging. "You can do it, Jacob, just don't psych yourself out." He resolved to give it a try.

Not 2 minutes later my phone rang again.

Jacob again.

"I just threw up."

Oh for crying out loud, are you serious! Our cute little Kenna was doing her best to help and even went to get Jacob a little bucket to have by his side while he was attempting to change the diaper. He kept asking me if I was on my way home yet, but I was still in the store. "You're just going to have to do your best, hon. I'll try to hurry."

Bless his little heart, he tried yet another time to change the diaper, but once again lost his cookies. This time he reported it even came out his nose. I really tried not to laugh, but my sympathy meter wasn't even on the register.

I came home to find my little Ty lying on a towel next to the bathroom, and Jacob was in on the couch trying to stay away from the stench emanating from the back room. I got the little Ty in the tub and all cleaned up, all the while Jacob giving me praise and adoration for being able to change a stinky diarrhea diaper. Poor fella. I have to hand it to him, he tried. And I gave him fair warning this would be a prime blog entry. He muttered something about being thrown under the bus....

Yes Jacob I agree with you, it's a darn good thing we have mothers!

In his defense....it's a darn good thing we have fathers. He does plenty of little "chores" around here that I am completely helpless on. So Jacob, in an effort not to "throw you under the bus" on this one I have to give you credit for all the wonderful things you do. But you have to admit, it was funny.

At least that phone call wasn't as major as the one I made to him exactly one year ago today. Yes, it was one year ago today we took our little Allie into the ER after she split her forehead open.

One year ago:


And just two days later, her sweet little puffy face:


And fast forward to today: She still has a scar, but it has healed very nicely considering what we started with.


And last but not least we need to give a hooray to Ty for turning 9 months old! Hooray! And to celebrate my sweet little guy, here are some shots to show off one of my favorite things about my Ty: his hair. It is so wild and crazy and makes him look too darn cute.





Yep. Poopy explosions, visits to the ER, and crazy locks. Spice of life.

Us as of Late

And here she is, Miss America!

Okay, actually it's Kenna sporting her new glasses. Which we already have had back in to the Dr. office to fix the lens that popped out and refused to stay in. Speaking of refusal, the first time I pulled out the camera to get a picture of her in her new optical attire she was determined not to give me a smile.

Mom: "Okay Kenna, give us a smile in your new glasses!"

Kenna: "I'm not going to smile." (You can just see her saying this in the first picture.)



Mom: "C'mon Kenna, just give me a little smile quick then you can go ride your bike."

Kenna: "No, I don't want to smile."



Mom: Sigh.

Kenna: Silent.

Okay fine Kenna, you win. What can I say? Sometimes a girl's just gotta have the grumps. I would be a hypocrite not to concur.



Fortunately the grumps were short-lived and we were able to capture a smile!


Aaah. Much better. So far she seems to be okay with her new glasses and is doing great wearing them.

Now our problem is getting rid of whatever is causing some serious intestinal discomfort in my little ones. They've all had a little bit of the...well...how do you put this nicely? Well, there's really nothing nice about it, but to put it gently....loose bowels. However, last night when I went to give Ty his last bottle for the night, I found him lying in a pile of throw up. Gross, yes, I know. What a delightful little morsel to post on the blog, but it's my life as of the past 24 hours and noteworthy. So the poor little guy ended up in the tub and sent back to bed after a complete change of his crib bedding. He woke up hungry about 2:30, so I gave him a bottle which he kept in until about 5:30 when the remaining contents of his belly were heaved down the front of me. After another cleaning session for both of us, he went back to bed and fortunately (so far) is keeping everything down. However, Kenna wasn't so lucky and around 6:30 in the morning she threw up. Thank heavens she had a bowl close and we didn't have to clean up quite as much. I rolled back into bed and told Jacob I didn't even want today to come. Kenna had one more little issue with the bowl but will hopefully keep her chicken noodle soup in her tummy. Maybe the last half of today will prove to be a bit better than the first half.

Hmm, well that was gross. Let's change the subject. Here's a cute little picture:
Allie Gal clipping out some coupons. Start 'em out young!



Oh, and before I forget I need to add a few little extra's we've been up to:

Last weekend we made a quick trip up to Salt Lake where Jacob met up with all the Israelsen boys in his family and they went to the Priesthood session of General Conference. He reports it was a great session and thoroughly enjoyed his first time being at a session at the Conference Center. I dropped him off downtown and was amazed to watch the sea of white shirts and ties entering the Conference Center. There's such an incredible spirit even just driving by, I loved it. The girls and Ty and I stayed at my sister Steph's house and they loved every minute playing with Blake and Claire. We had a rude awakening, however, to find about 4-6 inches of snow on the ground Sunday morning, just waiting for us to drive home in. Bleh. Thankfully the roads weren't too bad and we made it home safe and sound.

This last Tuesday we met some friends down at Sand Hollow for the day. It was a gorgeous day and the girls loved being in their swimsuits and spent the afternoon playing in the water and sand. Of course the camera was MIA. You'll just have to use your imagination as you picture us sitting in our shorts and sandals, sitting on the beach with our toes in the nice red sand, enjoying the sunny April day. A perfect 78 degrees. There definitely are some perks to living in Southern Utah.

Okay, caught up for now. Another one for the record books.

For Lack of a Catchy Phrase, This is Another Long Blog Post about Us

Being a mom is full of twists and turns. You sometimes never know what's just around the corner. Like 2 Wednesday's ago, for example.

Let's start back at Kenna's kindergarten registration. Yes, KINDERGARTEN. Wasn't she just a baby? She's not even a toddler anymore! So there we are at kindergarten registration. All was going along smoothly until we had a little hang-up at the vision screening. I knew we may have had some issues when they asked the school nurse to come over. Was NOT expecting that. When it was all said and done, I had a referral to go see the eye doctor and the notion that my little Kenna may have a lazy eye. I'm sorry, come again? LAZY EYE? I'm not sure where I've been for the past 5 years to have any indication of this, but sure, we'll head on in the the eye doctor.

Now we can jump back to Wednesday. Kenna had an eye appointment scheduled for the afternoon. Well, come Wednesday morning, my little Ty guy had some serious goop going on in his eyes and it was obvious they were infected. So, I managed to squeeze in an appointment for my little Ty that morning. Needless to say, the day started off a little sooner than planned and would include 2 docs instead of 1. So we threw all our stuff together and headed to the appointment. Yes, he in fact had an eye infection, but the Doc also said he sounded really weezy and decided to go ahead and give him a breathing treatment and test him for RSV. Uh- once again, there's one of those little twists in the road that is unexpected. Fortunately, the RSV came back negative. Unfortunately, he screamed for 10 minutes while holding the little mask up to his mouth during the breathing treatment. At least he inhaled plenty of the medicine. We got his RX for his eyes and were on our way.

On our way to the grocery store.

With 3 kids.

Love it.

I have to hand it to the girls and Ty, they were pretty good this trip. Some days I come home from the grocery store absolutely determined to immediately fly to Tahiti and spend the rest of my days as a crazed lunatic on a warm sandy beach. Far away from everything and everyone. But today I had very empty cupboards, some eye drops to pick up, and yet another doctor's appointment. Couldn't go crazy just yet.

Lengthy? Yes. Interesting? Absolutely, keep on reading.

Grocery shopping with kids takes at least twice as long as it does shopping without, so we went from Smith's to the eye doctor. Mind you, the race started at 9:45 a.m. and it was now 2 p.m. In we go. Kenna got all settled in to the Dr. office and he starts the exam. He then decides to dilate her eyes and tells me it takes about 15 minutes for the eyes to fully dilate, so he'd be back. Well, 40 minutes later, he finally made it back in. 40 minutes. In terms of an added 3-year-old and 8- month-old in the exam room, that equates to somewhere around an eternity. By the time he got back in, Allie and Ty were pretty much at capacity. And can I really blame them? No. I myself was pretty bugged about that. So then the doc finished up and told me that it's not a lazy eye, rather, Kenna is extremely far-sighted and then mentioned something about 20/200 vision. I was just flabbergasted. Once again, where have I been as a mother?! Perhaps I'm the one who's blind here! We were then quickly shuttled into the eyeglass section to find some glasses for Kenna where Jacob was my saving grace who came to pick up Ty and Allie. Kenna's prescription is really strong. Strong as in coke-bottle glasses. Strong as in she might as well get two double-stuffed oreos to wear on her head. So to try to make it so it wouldn't magnify her eyes too terribly, I upgraded on the lens, handed over my credit card and proceeded to fork out $375 for ONE pair of glasses. The fact that I even handed over my credit card for that amount shows just how frazzled I was by this point. Me, the find-a-coupon-for-everything gal. Me, the don't-pay-more than-$2-for-a-box-of-cereal chic. I was less than satisfied with the doc. Not to mention, he didn't even give Kenna the little sunglasses to wear outside to help her dilated eyes, it was the lady at the eyeglass center who got us some.

Sigh. Remember how I left my house at 9:45 that morning? I got home about 4:30 in the afternoon. F-R-A-Z-Z-L-E-D.

I'm going to sum it up. I canceled the order on the ridiculous glasses and scheduled an appointment with another doc that we got into today. He was fabulous. He was darling with Kenna and gave me all the information a mom could possibly want and was so incredibly helpful. Yes, she is very far sighted and will have a very strong prescription, but now I feel like I know what is going on and am much more comfortable about the whole thing and feel certain we are getting her just the right prescription. And, I ordered glasses at a MUCH better price. MUCH. She will look absolutely darling.

Whew. What an ordeal. But isn't it so nice to have off my shoulders and now on the blog? Life isn't complete without a blog post. AKA, journal entry. But a blog is pretty much boring without pictures, so I leave you with the many faces of my Ty. I know you want to just give him kisses. I sure do.








Now THAT is what it's all about right there. What a blessed little mommy I am. Even if we do encounter plenty of twists and turns.