January 2016

     It's a new year and what a crazy busy month this was. We are really loving our new house and we are starting to feel all moved in and settled. There were lots of changes for all of us. We went to our new ward the first Sunday of the month. It is at a different building but at the same time. We get to go to church at 11 for another year. We were not looking forward to church at 1 so it all worked out. Annalyn got to graduate from Nursery and is now a Sunbeam. She seemed to enjoy going to class with Brynlee and all the other big kids. Brynlee and Annalyn both have really small classes with just a few other kids which is funny because the classes above, below, and between them seem pretty big. Kyla went to nursery just fine and seems to like it. She has fallen asleep a few times during nursery and missed part of it but every time she has gone she likes it.

      Brynlee started back up at school after a long winter break and she was more than ready to go back. She rides a new bus now and she was really excited about it but super nervous all at the same time. This bus comes at 7:35 instead of at 6:55 like her old bus but now she has to walk quite a ways and she has to pass the big road and walk into the other subdivision. It isn't a very long walk but I do not want her walking it by herself so I have to get all of the kids dressed so we can walk over there with Brynlee. I usually just stick Anna and Kyla in the wagon and cover them up with a blanket so they are nice and warm. Kyla would not let me put her in the stroller when I tried that. She kept saying "scared, scared," for the whole ride so I finally just pushed Anna and carried Kyla. We don't mind picking Brynlee up after school. It is good exercise and some good fresh air for all of us.

     It has been pretty cold outside but we had a few nice days last month where the kids got to go outside and play on their scooters. They love riding those scooters around the neighborhood. This is really the first time they have gotten to do that. They spent time helping dad to work out in the garage and they love hanging out and playing in our big living room. I love having all the toys in the toy room, although they are allowed to play with some toys in the office as well. They played lots of dress-up this month and they have been really into playing with their dolls and stuffed animals.

     Kyla's hair is finally long enough that I was able to put a little pony tail in there. She likes to get her hair done like her sisters. She was sick for much of the month but when she was feeling well she was sure to be pushing the chairs around the house so she could climb and get food in the pantry, get ahold of my markers to write all over her legs, or to turn the light on and off. 

     Annalyn loves having her own room for now and she can't wait to share with the new baby. She adjusted well to her new bed and has been talking about and planning for her birthday that is in March all week. She has invited everyone she knows to come to it so I guess it had better be good. She has been getting upset really easily lately and every time someone hurts her feelings she runs to her room and sobs very loudly. I usually just let her cry and then when she is done she comes out and we talk about what happened. 

     Joel's sister Joy and her son Michael came down from Washington and helped Janeen watch Joanna's kids while Joanna was in Hawaii. Janeen was due with her baby that same week but her baby didn't come until the weekend after Joy left. Janeen had a little girl they names Jackie. Kyla was sick with a fever the day she was born and then she had a cold so we had to wait several weeks before we got to see her. We had a lot of fun spending time with Joy and all the family while they were here. She likes to cook so she invited us all over for dinner and we took the kids swimming and Joy let my girls help her make and decorate sugar cookie. Joy came to our house to visit as soon as she got here and she read books to Kyla and Annalyn so they were her best buddies all week. Plus they all took a liking to Michael. Joel got to see the new Star Wars movies with his dad and brother one weekend and Joy offered to watch the kids so I could go but I decided to pass so Joel could just have some time with the guys. He loved the movie and made me watch all of the old ones so we could see the new one together when it comes to the dollar theater. 

     The rest of our month was mostly spent unpacking, taking care of sick kids, and adjusting to a new house. By the end of the month I was 27 weeks pregnant and stating to get much more tired by the end of the day. (One of these days I will take a pregnancy picture.) I still feel pretty good but I can tell I am getting closer to the end. 

Allergic

     At the end of December, right before we moved, I took Kyla and Anna to the doctor because they both had pink eye. Kyla also had a pretty bad ear infection in one of her ears so the doctor prescribed her some Amoxicillian. Kyla had the medicine before when she was only four months old when she got her first ear infection. This was only her second infection ever and I was feeling grateful that the doctor caught it while we were there. Kyla could not stand having me put those drops in her eye but she was more than willing to take her antibiotics. In fact she seemed to like them.

     In the process of moving I totally skipped a few of Kyla's medicine dosages but I started her back up and she seemed to be fine until a few days after we moved into our new house. She was already having a hard time transitioning to her new bed but then she woke up during the night and threw up all over her covers. The bad part is that my washing machine was not hooked up yet and I didn't know where her extra sheets were. Since she was already having a hard time adjusting we just took her to our bed and prayed that she didn't throw up again. When I went to change Kyla's diaper that morning I noticed that she had a pretty good rash all over her belly and back. As I was giving her the medicine I wondered if it could be related to the medicine. I had a doctor's appointment that morning to check on baby so I showed the rash to my doctor and she confirmed that Kyla was allergic to her antibiotics. She told me to throw the medicine away and not give her anymore.

     When we got home from my doctor's appointment I called Kyla's pediatrician and talked to her nurse. The nurse kept assuring me that it was a non allergic reaction and she kept insisting that I needed to give Kyla the rest of her medicine. I talked to her for a quite a while and she was insistent that I needed to give Kyla the medicine. When Joel came home from work I had him look at the rash and I tried to get his opinion on what we should do. The rash looked much worse by then. Joel called the doctor's office again and we both talked to a different person than whomever I talked to that morning. I talked to her for a really long time and she kept assuring me that everything was normal and she kept insisting that I needed to give Kyla more medicine because she had only had a non allergic reaction. I described the rash as hives this time that looked like welts all along her body and I told her they were as big as quarter and she told me they can look like that and that it was normal. I described how uncomfortable and itchy Kyla was and she again assured me that was normal. She didn't need me to bring Kyla in to see the doctor either. Joel and I were really torn at that point. Should we give her the medicine? It didn't seem like a good idea to me and I wish I would have listened to that voice in my head that told me the nurse was crazy. Kyla ended up in our bed again that night and she was miserable all night long.

     As soon as Kyla woke up that morning I called the doctor's office and told them I wanted an appointment with the doctor and I did not give her any more of the medicine. The appointment wasn't until 2:15 so we had a long miserable day of waiting. My grandma watched my other girls for me while I took Kyla in. By then the rash looked really painful and covered her whole back.

     As soon as the doctor saw Kyla she confirmed that this was an allergic reaction and she told me to throw away the medicine and to never give it or any other kind of penicillian to her ever again. I told her how mad I was that I called twice yesterday and they told me to keep giving her the medicine. Dr. Bennett was able to look up and see who I talked to. The one nurse was not in that day but she made all of her other nurses come and look at Kyla and she kindly told them not to every diagnose a rash over the phone. She said the other nurse would be talked to as well and she apologized on their behalf. The good news is that Kyla's ear infection was gone so she didn't have to be on any other kind of medicine. I just had to watch in case she developed another infection since she wasn't able to finish her antibiotics.

     Kyla was pretty miserable for the next few days. The next day when she woke up the rash on her stomach looked a little lighter but then she had the rash all over her face. That night her knees were so sore that she would not even bend them. They looked pretty swollen. She just wanted to be held for the next few days.

     The day after her face was covered in the rash she woke up and looked so much better. By the fifth day she was pretty much back to her old self and the rash was completely gone. Thank goodness. She seemed to be feeling fine as well. The whole time she was sick she pretty much slept in our bed because she was so miserable at night and she kept waking up. We are still trying to fix that habit and get her to sleep in her big bed.

     Kyla ended up getting a fever about a week later and she threw up once and had the chills all day the next day. She kept rubbing at her ears and moaning "urt" (hurt) all during the night so I was worried that she might have another ear infection. I took her back to the doctor and it seems she is fine. I guess it was just some kind of virus that she was the only one to get. Last night she was up all night coughing with a cold that is coming on so this whole sleeping in her own bed at night thing is getting even more complicated. I hope she gets healthy soon and starts sleeping through the night again. It is not easy to see your baby get so sick. I kind of enjoyed spending time cuddling her. Brynlee and Annalyn had a hard time with it though and it was not great timing. I was still trying to get the rest of the house unpacked so I had to take a break from it to rock my sick little girl. I am just glad that she isn't so miserable anymore. Let's hope she stays healthy for a while.

Our New House

     We spent New Year's Day moving into our new house. We had so many people from our old ward come and help us move, we felt pretty blessed. I had most of our stuff packed in boxes and ready to move. I tried to be pretty organized and I got rid of several things, (I still want to get rid of a lot more stuff) but in the end I ran out of time. We had sick kids the week before and we really were not sure exactly when we would need to leave so it was hard to plan and know exactly what to pack. I spent the morning while everyone was loading up our stuff, throwing all of the last minute things in boxes. I was lucky that someone in our ward moved right before us and they gave us all of their boxes. I told my mom kind of where I wanted everything at the new house so she was there helping to make sure all of the furniture and stuff got put in the right room.

     Brynlee and Anna were at Grandma Hirtle's house where they had spent the night. They had a great time over there and even got to go to Aunt Janeen's baby shower. I tried to watch Kyla but she was kind of freaking out with all of the people in our house and she really had no idea why everyone was taking all of our stuff. I ended up asking my sister Alesha to come and get her. Everyone came at 10 and we were done well before lunch time. I drove over to our new house and was surprised at how much had already been done. My mom and my sister in law Heather had all of the clothes hung up in the closets (I packed them on the hangers) and they had clothes in some of the dressers. The Justice family stayed and helped to get all of the beds set up and they even helped to make all of the beds. Then they brought us some pizza, plus they brought us dinner a few nights later. We can't thank them and everyone else who helped enough.

     I worked on putting all the food in the pantry later that day but we didn't have the kitchen drawers finished yet so I had to wait until later to get the rest of the kitchen stuff unpacked. By the time all of our helpers left later that day we had the majority of the boxes unpacked. All of the stuff is not exactly in the place I would have put it so I have been going through and reorganizing stuff but it was a huge blessing just to have everything up and out of the way. We really felt moved in from day one thanks to all of our help. When Brynlee and Anna came home they were both really grouchy since they didn't get enough sleep that night. We put them to bed and they seemed to adjust really well to their new beds and rooms. Kyla is still trying to adjust to a new room and a new bed.

     The day after we moved into our new house sent me back to the old house to clean. Joel was there working on cleaning out the garage and I cleaned inside. My mom took the girls and Joel's mom came and helped me to clean the kitchen. We got a lot done but we were not quite finished so I went back on Monday to finish up. On Sunday we went to church at our new ward and we all liked our new classes. On Monday when we went to our old house to finish cleaning Brynlee and Annalyn both just went on an on and raved about how nice and clean everything was. They couldn't believe how beautiful everything looked. Annalyn had me take a picture of her in her old room and she really misses it. I was pretty surprised that they had that reaction but I will miss that old house too. There were a lot of great memories made in that house. We lived there for four years which is longer than I have every lived anywhere before. And to think we signed a six month lease in the beginning because we din't think we would be there for long. I will not miss the old carpet, (especially the carpet in the dining room) the dark paneling and wallpaper on the walls, the cold windows that would have ice on them in cold weather, the mice, or the old musty smell of an old house but we will really miss our big yard with all of the room to play in and the big trees with our tire swing and the room to have chickens. I was a little bit sad to hand over the key to our old place. But then I get to our new house and look around and I still can't believe that we own such a fancy house. We love it so much. There is something special about owning a house that we built on our own. We know our new house is well built because we did (almost) all the work.

     Goodbye Old house! You will be missed.

     We spent the next week dealing with a sick baby and trying to get the house more organized. Joel finished the rock on the front of the house, put up some pictures, and got us some mirrors for the bathrooms. One of them broke right away so he had to go back to the store for another one. Luckily Kyla was feeling much better by then because Joel's brother Josh brought back the rest of the cabinet doors that Saturday and spent the entire day installing them, with Joel's help. Once the cabinets were in the appraiser was able to come and then we could finally close. Yahoo! Joel and I signed the paperwork on the 11th of January and we are now officially homeowner. It is a good feeling. We are loving that Joel can come home and eat dinner with us. His projects on Saturday don't have to send him far away. He has been putting in shelves in our garage lately and he is working on making us a new kitchen table. He built a stool for the girl's bathroom and he has gotten to spend several different evenings just relaxing with the family. We love it!

    Annalyn and Kyla are pretending to sign papers like Joel and me.

     And now for a few pictures of our new house. There are a few of them from before we moved in and some from after we have all of our stuff in. To start off here is a picture or our entryway and the living room. There is a nice big walk in closet in the entryway and Joel did all of the shadowbox stuff and the oval ceiling to add some unique features. Notice how the living room has a curved wall with the fireplace in the middle. I think it turned out nicely. The living room is huge and as soon as we walked in after we moved it felt like even our furniture looked nicer.

     Here is the kitchen. The first picture is taken right after we moved in and then I added another picture after the cabinets were put on. We have so many cabinets that some of them are completely empty. I guess we need more stuff. HaHa. Joel did all of the tile work with leftover tile from work and he got all of the knobs from leftover jobs as well. 

      Here is the dining room with a picture of our pantry. Our table looks so little in that big dining room. 

     This is a picture of our front entryway closet and our laundry room/mudroom. Then you can see the stairs that lead up to the bonus room that is above the garage. Right now the bonus room is a big toy room. I love it because all of the toys and the mess are not in the middle of the living room anymore but it sure is a mess up there. Eventually there will be a bathroom behind that door you can see. 

     Here is the master bedroom, bathroom, and closet. Everything is so much bigger than what we had before. Our last bathroom was tiny so this one feels huge. 

This is a picture of Anna's room. She will eventually share with the new baby. Brynlee and Kyla get to share the other room. They both have the same closets. The last picture you see here is a picture of the office. 

Last I am going to leave you with a picture of the girl's bathroom. 

     We sure do love this house. I don't know how we will ever move away. It feels so good to be living in this house that we worked so hard on. It sure was a lot of work but we love the way it turned out.