Picturepalooza

Yeah....lotta pictures. OK, captions are up now!!

We've had such a busy couple of months that I hadn't even uploaded all of our pictures onto my computer until last night. We've had so many visitors, sicknesses, and things on our "to-do" lists that I sometimes feel like I need to come up for air. We even had an emergency room visit.

In February Ian's parents came from Washington when my sister-in-law, Megan, had her sweet baby. Ian's mom stayed with Megan to help and his dad and the twins stayed with us. Ian took a few days off from work and we all had a blast. They even helped set up our pool and swing set - thanks guys!! We really enjoyed the visit and miss them!! Here are some of our pics from our trip to the Mesa Temple. While the twins were here Ian decided to make pancakes. Correction...he decided to feed an army. The batter didn't even fit in the mixer. Random cute pic of my tired son:FREE!!! Here's another cereal picture of Ian's bargain shopping trait he inherited from his sister. He bought 20 boxes of cereal(captain crunch!) and payed absolutely nothing at the register(he had ordered some coupons online for $2, so technically they cost him $2). Sometime I'll post all of the pictures of Mckenna sleeping in random places all over the house - mainly half naked. She doesn't do it nearly as much since her tonsils/adenoids were removed but every few months I find her just conked out in crazy places...like the bathroom floor:While Ian's family was here we went to the Arizona Museum for Youth in Mesa. While there we discovered some hidden aspirations...And some not so hidden weirdness:Last month we sent with our good friends, the Jardines, to a local organic farm for what's called "Dinners in the Orchard." Four times a year they set up a table in the peach orchard and have a famous chef come and make dinner. The trees were supposed to be in full bloom, but because of the early spring, they bloomed early. You can see one blooming tree in the back right of the picture. Anyway, it was beautiful and the food was divine!! The sun set while we were there and it was a bit windy and cold(the woman next to Amber lent her her jacket and I used one of Ian's dress shirts from his car) but it was such a fun night!EASTER!!!

David enjoyed stuffing Easter eggs...well, opening them after I'd stuffed them and stuffing the contents in his mouth...Easter bunny brought jammies:Shan and Jed came for the weekend and brought swimming gifts:Our ward had breakfast and an Easter egg hunt. I love this picture of Jed and Mckenna:The Easter bunny also brought sunglasses which were very beneficial in the egg hunt:I just socialized while David drooled over his chocolate:Easter dinner with a very sick Jed(we later learned it was bronchitis), Shannon, and my wonderful Aunt Pam and Uncle George:Ian's lemon cake:SOOOOOO YUMMY!! (don't you love my Easter tablecloth?)I love this boy!SICKNESS!!!

We had about a month of ridiculous sickness in our house. It started with small colds, worked up to big colds, changed into the flu, and then ended with a bang of pukey sick. All three of my kids, plus Ian and I were all hit with every bit of it. We were miserable. Here's the proof:This picture was taken the day that Emma threw up at school. I was just so proud of her though. She wasn't feeling good so she asked her teacher if she could go to the bathroom because she thought she might throw up. So she went, threw up in the toilet, rinsed out her mouth at the sink, washed her hands, and returned to her classroom to tell her teacher that she'd thrown up. What a big girl she is! She then went to the nurse's office where she proceeded to throw up ALL OVER the floor of the nurse's office. Poor thing. By the time I picked her up she was feeling much better. I had made an appointment that day to take Mckenna since she'd been sick with vomiting and diarrhea for a whole week. On our way to the appointment Emma emptied her stomach again. Luckily that was the last time. The next day we went to Porter's 5th birthday party. This was the only picture I could get of him looking at the camera because I called his name and took it right when he looked up. Otherwise as soon as he saw the camera, he'd run. Happy Birthday big guy!!!
I don't know if there is anything cuter than kids in jammies. And finally...we got to enjoy our backyard and the nice weather:

Running in the sprinklers:

So a little more about the ER visit...

Last week on Monday I took Mckenna and David with me when we dropped our dog, Kelly, off at the groomers for her summer haircut. I love going to that shopping center because right next to Pet Smart there is a World Market, Pier 1, Michael's, Ross, Linens 'n Things, and Target. It's fabulous.

I had a whole list of things to buy at Michael's so we made our way down there, stopping at Pier 1 and World Market on the way. Right before we got to Michael's, David started to get a little bit upset. I thought it was because he wanted Mckenna's smoothie. She was done with it so I let him finish it. As soon as it was gone he got more upset. So I fished out his bottle, gave it to him, and we went in to Michael's.

He started to gulp the bottle down but stopped abruptly and just started to cry. This was so out of character for him. I tried everything to make him happy but it just kept getting worse. Finally I gave up and took the few things we'd found up to the register. While there he just got worse so I gave up, left my things in the store, and walked out. On our way back to the car he continued to get angrier. This is the baby who NEVER cries unless he's hungry or tired and even then - he'll stop as soon as you pick him up. I had been carrying him for the last 10 minutes and he wouldn't calm down.

I put him in his car seat thinking maybe he'd take a nap. He got worse. As soon as we got on the freeway(where I was sure he'd quiet down as he never cries on the freeway) he started wiggling and writhing - like he was in pain. His face turned beet red and he started to sweat. That's when I lost it. I called Ian crying and told him we were going to the emergency room. I didn't know what else to do. At this point he'd been crying for almost 45 minutes.

When we pulled in to the parking lot and I took him out he calmed down a little. So when we walked into the reception area I felt a little silly telling the lady that he'd been screaming for 45 minutes. But then he started again. The nurse came out to see what was going on and commented to me that he was pulling his knees into his chest which meant his tummy was hurting.

So we went into triage and she checked his vitals. While we were there my sis-in-law called and said she'd come and pick up Mckenna. Poor Mckenna she had no idea what was going on. As soon as I got off the phone with Megan, Mckenna burst into tears. I felt so bad!! David was crying, Mckenna was crying, I was crying. Surprisingly, the nurse was all business.

By the time we got to the waiting room, David had calmed down again. And then he was fine. No, better than fine. He was great. He started walking all over the waiting room, talking to everyone, pointing at everything. Megan came and picked up Kenna, we went in to see the doctor and David was fine. The doctor found nothing wrong with him. Didn't I feel stupid!! He thought it must have been something intestinal - gas, a spasm, etc. I'm glad I took him because it was nice to know he was fine, but oh my goodness it was so stressful.

After that he was worn out - he took two naps, and slept great that night. I picked up Mckenna(thank you, Megan!!), went back to pick up the dog, and determinately finished my shopping at Michaels where I found the saleswoman who was really nice and helpful during David's screaming and I thanked her. She summed up the whole ordeal by saying, "Well you know your children and when something's not right, you know." So, even though the doctor found nothing - I know there was something wrong with him and we'll just chalk it up to a miraculous event because we were all praying he'd be ok...and he was! :)