April Fools....

I love to play tricks, however, I was rather mild this year. I switched the cereal packages for breakfast. As Jesse was gettting ready to leave, he showed me a couple of essays he wrote to turn in because he wants to try and get into peer leadership at his school. I noticed a couple of typo's and volunteered to fix them for him. He was worried about getting to the bus in time, so I told him I would drop it off. After he left, the fun began....

His essays were well written and thought out. Here's mine...

Leadr Essy

Being a leader is to be some1 who can tak charge of a group & push them backward in a good way. Like everything else in the world it can be a good thing & a bbaD thing, depending on the animal. *Without leadrs in this earth, we would soon be lost and confused, becausezx goooood leaders try to do what is best with what they R doing & always try to work hard two accomplsh the bESt for anyone. Crappy leaders don't have that objective. There just plain crappy!*A good leader should also set A goooood example & wrk hard to inspire others. If that doesn't work, they should just forget it!
*******By Jesse Croxford's Mom

The second essay was titled - (I added the parenthesis, hehehe)

What I Can Do To Help The School

(If I Feel Like It)

You don't have to be a student Council or a teacher to make a difference in this school. *You can make a difference just by being late EVERY DAY and entering each class with alot of noise and maybe have some music on etc. also, speak out during class time, don't bother to raise your hand becausee that is sooo elementary schoolish and your middle school teachers will appreciate your assertiveness.. take your little brothers and sister to school and give them permanent markers so they can decorate the wall (just like they doo at home) Ringing the fire alarm each week at some random time will really help to shake things up as well as help your peers will get out of the tests or assignments they didn't finish that day. encourage others do the same things here and add to the list and you will definately have ALOT OF FUN while learning.*******By Jesse Croxford's Mom

I took them to the school and told the office ladies what I was doing. They let me hide behine them in a room with the door open and called him down to the office. They told him that I had dropped them off and to look over them and make sure they were ok. Why didn't I bring a camera??? The very serious look on his face was so funny! I watched him reading them and when he finished I heard him telling the ladies that he didn't write this. By then, I couldn't hold it back anymore and burst out laughing!

Thanks for being such a great sport, Jesse and giving your mom a good laugh! I'll have to come up with some more tricks for next year! Any ideas anyone???

We will be adding a new addition to our family.....

Melinda and Jason are engaged! Congratulations to you! We love you and are happy for you both! I couldn't get these pictures to go any bigger. I'll see tomorrow if I can figure out how to make them larger.

I live in a zoo.......

.......these are the monkeys! I know you are probably thinking those adorable little boys? What can this woman be talking about. But.....Don't let those innocent looks fool you. They are soooo busy, especially lately. This morning was the last straw as I finally through my hands up and called on extra help....Daddy! They had been sent to their room a number of times for getting in to all kinds of mischief, hiding and eating the loaf of bread, turning on the washer (of course, there were already clean clothes ready for the dryer when they discovered this new game), sneaking out the back door (which is a big NO NO as we do not have a fenced back yard), hiding and eating cookies, dragging their ride on cars in from the garage, just to name a few. Well, exasperated, I took each little monkey by the hand and led them to their time out destination once again, and went downstairs to plot out my next plan of action. I was so tired and called Meg for a minute. After the phone call I went to retrieve them and I was shocked once again at what I saw. You have to know their bedroom is pretty much stripped to nothing except for their beds, bedding and a few stuffed animals. I also put potty chairs in there for their use while they are sleeping. They were clean. When I opened the door, two little boys were laughing delightfully in the middle of both mattresses that had been pulled from their toddler beds, sheets and blanket removed, and one mattress had a huge tear up the front of it. Meanwhile, both boys had used their potty chairs while in time out and had tipped them over! (BIG SIGH) At this moment they are asleep now, and I am breaking my diet and pigging out on Oreo cookies! I feel defeated. I'm sure once I get this chocolate in my system I will be able to better figure out what my next plan of action will be, just kidding. Seriously though, I am really wondering how a person gains control with so many little children around. They are in one thing and then right on to the next. They are so dang sweet and cute it's hard to be mad at them. They throw their guilty sticky fingers around me and smother me with hugs and kisses -- I become putty in their hands! Last night I left the kitchen for a moment and when I returned, 2 pitchers of juice were spilled all over the table. One of the boys had stripped his wet clothes right there and left his clothes in a heap. When I came by to the kitchen, no one was there. They had all gone upstairs to change into "clean, dry clothes" on this particular instant, Hallie was with them, as she often times is although I am sure she is not the instigator but definitely is another monkey living in our home. Notice once again, the innocent, sweet looking face? I'm finding it to be so much easier if I just take the kids and leave in the morning, the zoo, the park, the aquarium, a ride in the car, etc. The only problem with doing this, is that it is hard to get the day to day stuff done, cooking, laundry, cleaning etc. If anyone knows of any great ideas to share, I would love them! Here some pictures of some of those days lately when we just take off and play....

Some pictures from the aquarium. The kids loved it here!

The boys loved the sharks!

We love the library! They do so many fun things.

No one ever tires of the park. Sometimes Dad meets us if he has a few minutes for lunch.

This is a special valentine that the little kids made for daddy!

We went to the zoo and this elephant was so entertaining. Unfortunately our trip was cut very short. Between Jesse not feeling well, he had just gotten a couple stitches in his lip the day before as well as a tetanus shot and Nathan had an accident in the bathroom (If you have little boys, it's a very good idea to make sure their pants are all the way pulled down to their ankles when they need to potty or they might accidentally spray on their pants making them very wet, and if this happens to you at a zoo, don't count on the gift shop having any sweat pants, shorts or anything like that. They only have T-shirts & sweatshirts!)

Today......

Today, is a new day! So many of my Resolutions, one to keep my blog better so I have a bit of history recorded of our family and events, is going by the wayside. I can't believe how much time it takes just to get through each new day with the day to day activities. So...with that being said it is time for new resolve.

And just as I am sitting here to "catch up" a bit, I hear someone (my guess would be the twins) kicking the door in their bedroom so I'm off to stop that and will be back later to "catch up"! (Hopefully before another month goes by!!!;o)

Thank goodness the kids are all getting better...

Wow! What a week and half. I never knew kids could get so ill. I am so grateful that each child is getting better, we managed to stay out of the hospital and amazingly, Abby was the one who was the least sick! Did I say that right? I am operating here on very little sleep. I hope I can "catch up" on that this week! I braced myself for her to be the most ill with her being so young and knowing how terrible this virus can be. Poor Micah was in the hospital for 4 days last winter when he had the virus. This time he managed to stay home although, he is on oxygen during the night. Poor Megan is pretty exhausted too! We are just so happy to see the kids feel better each day.

Bryce and Jesse are putting the final touches on their overnight Camp Klondike plans which will be tomorrow night. (Brrrrr, sounds cold, although I think they have it all covered with a new tent, heater, cots, good socks, snow pants etc. etc.) Hope it all works the way they are planning. They seem pretty excited. They will be up at Jordanelle. I can't say I envy them. I will be looking forward to sleeping in my warm, cozy bed with the heat turned up! I'm so glad they get to have the time together.

Valentines was great. Bryce and I went to a dinner/dance at Thanksgiving Point. We haven't been out on a date on Valentines for years but we planned this one and got all ready and out the door. When we arrived, we noticed that this was a semi formal affair which we had not planned on. All the men were wearing suits and the women were in really nice dresses. YIKES! We had dressed very casually. I was even wearing levis! Well, we immediately turned around when we saw this and went back to the car with the intention of driving home to change our clothes but then realized that if we did this, we would probably miss dinner as well as most of the rest of the evening so.... we marched right back in and had a wonderful evening!

Well, I will post more this weekend and get some more pics uploaded. I think for now, I will head to bed and see if I can start "catching up" on some much needed sleep!

All six babies/toddlers have RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus).....

Oh, I'm exhausted and Megan is too! (I could add Bryce and Wes to this list as well) This all started last Sunday, Feb 1, when Josh came down with a fever, cough etc. By Tuesday he was very ill and we took him into the doc's and he diagnosed him with pneumonia. We were able to get him on a prescription and by Thursday he was feeling much better. We went to Jesse's basketball game Thursday night and during the game Hallie just wanted to sit on my lap (very unusual since she loves playing with the other kids there) anyway, by the time we left her fever began to rise and her breathing began to feel more labored and by the time we got her home she was feeling very ill and breathing rapidly. Her fever was over 104 and we called the docs and this time ended up in the emergency room of the hospital where she was diagnosed with bronchiolitis and given a breathing treatment. Friday morning, we went back to the Dr's office and had him look at Hallie who was still having trouble breathing as well as Nathan who by now had developed quite a couch with no fever and acted fine. Well, Hallie was given another breathing treatment and sent over to the hospital for a chest xray while Nathan still appeared ok, except for his cough. The xray did not show any pneumonia so no antibiotic was given and again we went home. By that evening, Nate was developing the fever and Abby was coughing as well as Megan's 2 boys. Saturday was busy with sick kids. Abby continued to have a bit of cough but no fever, Micah stopped eating and his fever spiked and Megan and Wes were up most of Saturday night with him because of his fever as well as his labored breathing. Kolton's cough was sounding quite bad now, too. Well, Sunday morning, Meg & Wes took their boys into the Dr.'s and Micah was given a breathing treatment and a test was given which confirmed what these little kids/babies had been fighting - RSV! Wes picked up a machine for breathing treatments for Micah on the way home. By Sunday night, Feb 8, Micah was the worse now! He was still not eating or drinking much and by Monday morning Meg was back into the hospital where they gave Micah another breathing treatment. (Sigh) Abby's cough was worsening as well as her breathing . Meanwhile, my toddlers, finally woke up with no fever!!!! YEAH, Although, Abby still has a nasty wheezy sounding cough but she has never had a fever yet. Although the fever is not the dangerous part of this sickness, it is the way the baby is able to breath. We are watching her closely. Kolton's cough is also nasty sounding. Poor kids! We have hardly even had any sickness at all since the twins were born. We have lucked out. RSV is very contagious. The younger the child, usually the more ill he becomes. When an older child or adult is infected with RSV, his symptoms are more coldlike and they don't ever become very ill. The twins were given shots their first winter each month to prevent them from getting this virus. The shots were very expensive over $1,200.00/each per month given! I can't even imagine them being able to fight a virus like this when they were so tiny. I hope Abby lucks out and doesn't get it very bad. Micah had RSV last winter when he was just under a year, and he was hosptilized for 4 days! Very scarey virus. Well, today, all babies/kids are still coughing and Kolton, Micah and Abby are the worse now. The other's are finally feeling better although they have been so tired and a bit irritable unlike their usual happy dispositions and of course, the coughs all continue! So, that is what we have been doing. Meg did come over yesterday and the kids played together. I know they are all so sick of being sick! So it was a fun change of pace although our house looked like the sick unit at a hospital, kleenex boxes everywhere, kids in pj's, coughing, trying to get them all to eat and drink etc. At the moment, everyone here is asleep. (I better run and get a shower!!!!!) We are trying to finish up on a automobile purchase. Bryce found a car over the weekend to replace his poor dying car. It's really nice and will serve his purposes well so hopefully we will be able to get that all wrapped up today.

Jesse and Bryce went to the Globetrotters last night! They had a great time and said the show was so funny! I'll have to tag along with them next year!

"Cars" bed or no bed?

Lately I have been thinking about getting new beds for the twins. They are 3 and still sleeping in their cribs which are the kind that have been converted to toddler beds. Yesterday, however, I went in to check on them during naptime and found one boy on the floor asleep by the door while the other one was asleep under the bed! Hmmm maybe I don't even need beds!