A baby and her bag

I was trying to get a picture of Hadley and her "purse". She found this gift bag I had been using to hold whatever crochet project I was currently working on. She emptied it of it's contents and started to carry it around like a purse. She even found various items to put into her purse. She was walking around with it on her arm and her hand bent all girly-like. Her daddy tried to help me get a picture by picking her up...then she just became crabby. So I guess this is better titled a crabby baby and her bag.

Recently

Hadley and Julia enjoyed playing car together. I wish I would have waited a little longer to take the picture. Not long after I snapped this, Julia (being the awesome older sister that she is) went all out and decorated Hadley's "car" for her. She even added a cushion for extra comfort.
I put Hadley on Julia's bed to help her wake up. What resulted was a most precious snuggling session.
Emily looked cute waking up that morning too!
Here's Hadley trying to steal the camera from me. I can't believe that we are already at this stage. My how time flies.

New Projects

This is another poncho, this one I made for cousin Lyvia's 4th Birthday!



I made this scarf for one of the gym teachers at the kids' school.










These are ponchos that I made for Julia's friends (twins) that just had a birthday, these were the colors they told me were their favorite!
And lastly, this is a baby afghan I made for one of my good friends in our ward.

Communication

My sweet Auntie Rebecca sent me a link to a website called Read the Scriptures. I have loved it. You go onto this website and choose what you would like to read, I chose the Book of Mormon, I am STILL trying to finish a quick reading all the way through. You also chose your timeframe, I picked 90 days. Then they will send you your reading "assignment" for each day. They even include an audio link so you can listen to it instead of read it. When you are done you click a box that says completed and they show your progress. I am currently 15% done.
Anyway, I found a quote on there that I love. It sums up so perfectly what I often find myself trying to explain to people, but have never been able to as well as I would like.

"'Words do not convey meanings; they call them forth.' I speak out of the context of my experience, and you listen out of the context of yours, and that is why communication is difficult."
--David O. McKay, Ensign, May 1996, Page 9

Because we all have lived different lives and have had vastly different experiences, we understand even the smallest most commonplace words very differently. I broke my elbow at the age of 6 (I think) and when someone says "elbow" just the words conjurs up memories of strawberry scented anesthesia, they put two pins in my elbow and everytime I bumped my arm they seemed to jam farther into my elbow, OUCH!, I had to wear a plastic bag over my cast to take a bath, when they took the cast off my arm had shrunk, it stunk and was COVERED in dead skin. But for someone else, the word "elbow" conjurs up different images. Maybe on your first date with a nice boy he took you by the elbow to help you over a think patch of ice and you were SO impressed by what a gentle man he was that you married him!
Stephen Covey says this, "Seek first to understand and then to be understood." The difference in how we each interpret words is why this is SO important. Before you draw inferences into what someone else has just said, you need to make sure you understand not only the content of what they just said, but the underlying meaning and the intent. I would say that 99% of the time people do not mean to offend, they are just trying their best to communicate an idea, or a thought and have no way to know that the words they just spoke in combination mean something so vastly different to us that it is offensive. Just ask a few clarifying questions and it will be obvious that they had no malevolent intentions.

Weight loss update

Well folks, I thought since it has been a little while that I would post an update. We've now been doing the South Beach Diet for two months, during which time I have lost 9 lbs. and Scott has lost 14 lbs. So, that means we weigh in at 139 (I'm SO excited to have broken the 140 barrier) and 191 respectively.

Craftiness

Okay people, I admit it, I definitely have a problem. I don't know exactly what happened, but all of a sudden all I want to do is make things. Crochet is my current method of choice. And just to dispell the inevitable question that would follow such a statement, no I am NOT pregnant. This is a blankie I made for Haboo-bear (Haddie).
I love the ribbon that runs through the border and the little bow at the corner.
This is the little girl's poncho that I made for one of Emily's friends, her birthday party was today.
This is the girl's mini cardi that I made for Emily's other friend who has a birthday today.

My new birthday hairdo

Thanks to Mom and Dad, my in-laws and my sweet Gr. and Gr. Kohler all of whom contributed monetarily to this fabulous birthday present!

This orange is happy to see you! We did absolutely nothing to it. I pulled it out of the 5 pound bag of oranges we bought from Sam's Club only to see it smiling at me. Just remember, if you feel like no one else is happy to see you, this orange is!

Coming out

I've decided to come out of the closet. Yes, I'm almost 31 years old, and yes, I still sleep with my lovey and I probably will until the day that I die because it makes me happy. The end.

Cuteness!

I love when my kids are SO happy playing together or just being together. Here's Haddie and Ben snuggling in my bed, both drinking their favorite drinks.
Here's Emma and Haddie playing together at the door to the backyard. Such sweet girls. They were just giggling and loving their time together.

At the park

The other day it was too nice of a day not to get out of the house and spend some time at the park. Texas winters are very fickle. One day it's 70 degrees and the next it's 30. So you really have to take advantage of the nice days when they come around. I grabbed my camera, we went to the park, played some baseball, had a photo session, which was cut terminally short by a dead battery. All in all, it was a great day!

Weight Update

Hooray, hooray, today the scale is my friend. I was 141 lbs. I haven't seen that weight since I was first pregnant with Ryan! I'm at a 10 year low. That makes for me a seven pound loss in Phase I. Scott did fabulously as well. He lost a total of 8 pounds in Phase I.

Go go gadget arm!

I was trying to keep Hadley occupied in her booster seat and in desperation I handed her the cheese grater. I of course watched her closely at all times so that she didn't injure herself. But it ended up being quite entertaining. She put it on her arm, and Ben said, "Ally (that's how he pronounces her name) has a robot arm!" He was quite entertained by the spectacle.
This is the picture that especially reminded me of, "Go, go Gadget arm!"
Awwwwww! Haddie LOVES the cheese grater! What a funny baby!

Haircut cuties

Due to our second infestation of lice (super yuck-o disgusting, and did I mention that I object?) I did what they say you are not supposed to do, I got someone to cut both of the girls' hair. A lot of things I read on the website says that cutting hair short as a result of lice traumatizes them. Much to my relief, they seem to both really enjoy their new haircuts and they look super cute!

As part of our New Year's Resolutions to be more healthy, Scott and I have started the South Beach diet. It was developed by a cardiologist, and in my opinion, he is right on in his findings. We are just starting, in the first phase of the diet which is mildly restrictive to help you cut your addiction to sugar and bad carbs. We started on Monday, so today is our 6th day on the diet. I was going to wait for one week to weigh myself, but I couldn't resist because Scott has lost about three pounds so far. I got on the scale this morning, and I have lost almost 4 pounds! Hooray, hooray! So if any of you are looking for a good way to change your lifestyle and be healthier all around, this is definitely what I suggest. For as long as I can remember, around 2 or 3 in the afternoon I would feel weak and dizzy and a little faint, and it was a battle to make it through the rest of the day. That is gone on this eating plan. I feel full, and I don't feel weak or dizzy at all. I have to admit that the first four days, all I wanted was to make some cookie dough and eat it raw. And now all I want is to make some of my heavenly rolls and just down them all, but the fact that I feel SO much better keeps me holding strong. And he says that 90% of people after the first phase don't really even crave those things anymore. We'll see, and I will definitely keep you posted!

Pre-surgery

Julia felt nervous about her surgery and found a safe place to be, under grandpa's fuzzy body pillow where he had been sleeping. She must know that grandpa=safety.
Here's Scott, Haddie and Julie getting ready for surgery. Julia and Hadley were both very brave and did an excellent job. The hardest part of both was watching them come out of anesthesia. Hadley screamed for about 15 minutes and was inconsolable. She would rear her head back and try to push away from me. She didn't know who I was, she didn't know where she was, she was in pain and her world was spinning. It seemed like I just barely got Haddie calmed down and they were bringing Julia in. She was peaceful for the first minute and then she started to wake up. Her teeth would chatter horribly. She was SO cold. She kept acting like she was going to puke. The more awake she became she started trying to jump off of the bed. Then she started trying to pull out her IV and all the other cords that were connected to her. She was wailing that she couldn't talk, that her throat hurt. I have never understood why she doesn't get that crying like that hurts her throat even more. She kept telling me she wanted to go home. Then when the nurse unhooked her and told us we could go, she said she didn't want to go, she wanted to stay right where she was. Funny little girl. I'm glad we did it now though, as hard as it has been for Julia, it was 100 times harder for Scott to have his tonsils out at 27.
Here's Haddie trying to pull the oxygen sensor off of her big toe. We finally just put a sock over it and then she left it alone. I was hesitant that putting tubes in Haddie's ears was the right thing to do until the doctor came out and told us that when he punctured her ear drums to put the tubes in he found SO much puss and infected goo that he had to suction her ears before he could put the tubes in. That kind of problem I don't think would have cleared up on its own no matter what we tried. It's amazing how everything that happened that day and the few days before worked almost like clockwork. The Lord does go before our face and prepare a path for us. When Scott and I were on our anniversary night away we saw a TV advertisement for a CD collection of gospel songs. On of them was "Our God is an awesome God" and as funny as that seemed to us at the time, it really is true.

Random pictures

We tired out poor Scottie with all the late nights and kid watching. Poor guy.
Julia had to go and snuggle by her daddy.
Ryan got a chess, checkers, chinese checkers game for Christmas. He loves it! This was him recruiting Emily to play with him.
Hadley became quite fond of grandpa. He was her personal property and he took prodigious care of her and spoiled her rotten!

Happiness

Here's Haddie and Daddy snuggling with her new pound puppy from santa.
Emily absolutely adores her present from santa. It is so much fun to watch her imagination work as she enjoys playing with her new toy.
For one of their presents from mom and dad, I made all five kiddos a flannel blanket. I thought they turned out super cute!
Here's grandma and Haddie, don't they look SO cute talking together!