A return to food...

For the first time in 5 days, Quinn asked for food and then ATE it! It may or may not have been marshmallow mateys...

On Wednesday last week, Quinn went to the hospital and got her tonsils and adenoids taken out. When she woke up, I was next to her bed, and then finally in the bed holding her. When she first opened her eyes, all I saw was "crazy eyes." Anyone who has been with a child while they are coming out of anesthesia, knows what I'm talking about. They are not themselves yet. In fact, according to the OR nurses, they don't even know they're awake yet. It is not an experience I enjoy. In fact it scares me. A LOT. I had to keep talking myself out of running from the room. Sad, I know. But once they got some more pain meds into her, she calmed down and fell asleep snuggled on my lap. It was worth it to stick it out. As she lay there sleeping in my arms, I thanked Heavenly Father that I was able to be there for her-- Just grateful that this little one was sent to my care, and that I was her momma.

The next few days were rather hellish. Seriously. She learned on the first dose of pain meds that they burned BADLY on the way down. Which began a 24 hour fight, including one trip to the ER and an extra shot of morphine-- which I should mention, she hated worse than the oral pain meds. Which is eventually what helped end the fight. We finally got her to take them-- but only on HER terms. This girl is stubborn. SO so so Stubborn. (Takes after her daddy.) First, the medicine had to be dyed perfectly pink (why do they manufacture pain meds for kids that are a sickly yellowish green?? I mean really, who thought of that one?), and we were only allowed to do a quarter teaspoon at a time. AND she had to be the one to actually shoot it in her mouth, WHILE momma held her. IT was (and still is) quite the ordeal, but at least she decided that taking it was a better option that not (thank you morphine shot!). I spent that first 48 hours holding her and trying to make her feel okay about life. Enter Emilee. Without her, I would not have made it through those days. She took care of Mac. 'nough said. That girl was a lifesaver, for me, and especially for MAC. Thank you EMMY!

But Quinn eventually turned around and started drinking more than a couple ounces in 24 hours and Tyson and I's worry was able to let up-- just a bit.

I think that this experience has forever changed how Quinn views doctors, though. She has a very deep distrust of them now. It will be interesting to see how the follow-up visit goes. I am expecting lots of tears......

3! 3! 3?!

3. That's right- Quinn is officially 3 years old. SOOOOOoooo OLD! Seriously, this girl is 3, going on 13. But I digress.... We celebrated her birthday early because we wanted her to actually ENJOY her birthday since she was scheduled to get her tonsils out 4 days before her real birthday. So we invited the Hep's and got our party on!

It was "Tangled" themed...

 Please don't laugh at my first attempt with fondant. Emily tried to help me the best she could, but our tower was still leaning to the left BIG TIME by the time the party got underway....

 My gorgeous little birthday girl!

 I think she confused, "show me your biggest smile!" with "show me your deer-in-the-headlights look!"

 LOVE this one...

 blowing out the candles...

 Big smiles.... it's presents time!

 She got her first Book of Mormon. Yesterday, I put her down for a nap and came back 5 minutes later and found her sitting in bed reading from this little book, "Word of God. Jesus loves me."

 She was actually VERY excited for this princess dress-up set.... her face just didn't get that memo....

 And here's Mac, trying to recreate "UP!"

 The three amigos, or is it stooges? I can't decide....

 Bonnie and Miss Emmalee...

 You'll notice the cat could not escape the earrings...

 After presents we got out the socker boppers and all the kids went a few rounds, this one had months of aggression behind it and it was a doozy! :)

 So did Cooper and Emily's, if Emily's hair is any indication....

 Emily came back strong after the first bell and whooped Cooper pretty good. So he decided to pump some iron.....

 before his next fight. Not that it did him much good. I think there was some pent-up aggression here as well.....

And then the Hep's left us. All too early, in my opinion. And then Quinn slept-- with most of her gifts clutched tightly in her little fists.....

Proud mama moment

Can I take a minute and just be an incredibly proud mama? Thanks.

Quinn, that ever-feiry girl, memorized the first Article of Faith. She loved doing this. We just recited it before her bedtime prayers every night for about a month and now, she is finally to where she will say it all by herself (which she loves to do!). You can watch a video of it by clicking here

So, because of this, she was allowed to go to the store and pick out a small toy. She chose Cinderella and Prince Charming (anybody else find it odd that Cinderelly's man doesn't have an actual name?), and has not let them out of her sight yet. (okay, except for when "man" broke in half because Quinn wanted him to sit with his "grill" and it turns out he doesn't bend that way. Man, that girl can be forceful sometimes...but he was back in her loving care after a little bit of R&R and a whole lot of super glue.)

I love this girl!

PS- Quinn refers to "girls" as "grills," could be a tad confusing come barbecue season....

WoW- what the hay?

This last little while has been a tornado. A good tornado. Is that possible? Meh...

We spent three weeks living in one room in my sister's basement. Those were dark days for me. (Literally-- I mean it is a basement.) We had so many ups and downs, as we waited for "our" house to actually be our's, but the day did finally come. Although we love Bonnie and Shawn, and had a lot of good times while we were there, it was so nice to finally get into our own house. Quinn hated it for the first couple weeks. There was only Momma and Macadoo to play with and mom was usually unpacking and trying to get things organized. She was constantly asking when we were going to go back to "our old house," meaning-- Bonnie and Shawn's house. But eventually (just last week), she came up to me and said, "I love our new house, mom." Me too honey, me too.

Our weekends have been filled with unpacking and organizing and power-raking our lawn. Let me tell you- that is a workout. We are beginning to feel like that one room in B&S's house was heaven. All the heavy labor and decisions were someone else's responsibility. Sometimes I long for those days. But most of the time, we are so so so happy. Easter weekend, we also had a new arrival to our home. Not the delicious-smelling kind that come with lots of snuggles and cuddles.... a much different kind. This kind, to be exact....

Yep, the Emily kind. She is going to be staying with us all summer, which means that Tyson and I get weekly date nights-- part of the bargain. Although, I have to say I am way more excited about those date nights than Tyson seems to be. Saturday was supposed to be one of those such nights, and when I asked Tyson what he wanted to do, He just said, "Oh. I am tired. So so so tired." And the remainder of the night was spent on the couch watching Eli Stone. Oh well, C'est la vie.

As for news on our children, Mac started out the weekend with a double ear infection, and we are praying that the buck stops there and one ear infection doesn't turn into 6 in the next 6 months like it did with Quinn. But he is now on antibiotics and doing much better. Quinn has had 5 bouts of tonsilitis in the last year and is therefore scheduled to get her tonsils out next wednesday. I am downright, not-afraid-to-admit-it, SCARED. I am worried about how she will do with this surgery and how I will do with taking care of her needs AND Macadoo. We are just praying that all will work out. 

So that is that. If you are not feeling thoroughly updated, there is something wrong with you. Becca out.

Just some sweet pics...

Sunday morning, my kids were happy and oh-so-sweet, so we took advantage and had a mini photo shoot..... I'm sure you will appreciate it!

Charlie bit me....

And drooled all over my finger...

Ahhhh...... love.......

Some naked baby...... I just want to smooch all over my chubby little man whenever I look at this pic!

So sweet...

And so flexible.... yes, those are his toes...

And this pic, I love! It reminds me of his namesake, My brother Cam.

I think this last one was Quinn's way of signing off. "Okay mom, it's been real, it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun." Quinn out.

Easter DAYZE

The Saturday before Easter was spent at B&S's house with all the Heppy kids (get it, like happy?), Grandma and Grandpa Bray, and of course Emily. We had an amazing brunch (complete with Bonnie's buns-- ha ha ha!) and then the annual easter egg hunt. These are the triplets, just gearing up for some hunting...

And then the hunting craziness began. Anna loves to help Quinn....

And when it was all over, we made them line up for their mugshots-- I think you can tell that there was a clear winner here. Emma has to have some serious muscles to carry her basket of eggs. I wonder if she pumps iron in preparation for Easter? :)

Afterwards, Quinn and Anna disappeared into the playhouse for about 45 minutes. During which time they unwrapped every single piece of candy they had found and proceeded to eat half of it. The other half was left on the "stove" to simmer for later. It was a very "closed door" kind of meeting and this is the only picture I was allowed to take...

Then Sunday morning, we celebrated as a family, and opened up what the Easter bunny brought. This is Quinn realizing that she really did get mermaids!

And Mac dove right in with his usual amount of gusto....

And here's my cute little bunnies....

By the end of the day, we were all tired and cranky. Once safely in bed, we all slept like rocks. Here's to rocks. *clink*

Guess what?!.... It's been a while. AGAIN.

Oh, so much to tell you all about... But let's start with something fun-- like Mac's first motorcycle ride. He loved it, in a perfectly contented kind of way. Like he'd been there before and was just happy to be there and have daddy holding on to him. No fear, but no excitement either. Just contentment. Exactly what I would expect from a son of a Tyson. :)