first smiles/the rest of october

october was an eventful month around our house.

i had my 2 week postpartum checkup as well as my 6 week.

c had his 2 week checkup where everything looked great.

i went in for weekly INR checks - boy were my numbers all over the place.  i don't think we once got them normal.  i had to keep switching my dose every week.  the gal at the front desk and i are on a first name basis.  the pharmacy may or may not recognize my car when i pull up to it.  thank goodness for drive through pharmacies when you have three kids.  whoever thought of that needs an award.

 the mister has been having some right side abdominal pain that won't go away.  it's not his appendix, which is what they all (this isn't our first go around with this) start to come too at first - "well, that sounds like your appendix.  it's too late in the day for us to do any tests here, so you should probably go to the emergency room.  you don't want that to rupture, because then you're going to have bigger problems."

after the last time we heard something similar (it could be your appendix - if it gets worse, you should go to the er), we opted to skip the er because we were fairly certain at this point that if it was his appendix it would get worse and we could face the hospital then.

so he went back to a different doctor after the weekend was over to see if they could figure anything else out.  so far, all they've come up with is that it is inflamed lymph nodes.   (like the last time)  thankfully, after another trip or two to the doctor because the pain won't go away, they've referred him to a specialist.  he had a colonoscopy done and we're just waiting to hear results at this point.  let me tell you though, the mister is hilarious coming off of those drugs.  i had a great laugh driving him back home.

little man loves to sleep on the mister's or my chest.  love that little guy.

it snowed and dumped about 8 inches of snow the other day.

this is what my backyard looked like:

the girls couldn't wait to get out there and play in it.

while they played out in the snow, this is what little man did for me.

back to the beginning

we're going back to where it all began for the mr. and i.
if you know where that was, then yep, you guessed it.
back to rexburg.
why rexburg you ask?
because the mr. is going back to school.
and yes, i'm slightly nervous, scared & excited all at once.

nervous because we're not 21 anymore.
scared because we've got a family to provide for at the same time.
excited for the new adventure this will be.
and excited because the mr. will finally (when all is said and done) be doing something he loves.

and i'm kinda excited we'll be back there for the 8 year anniversary of our first date.
big jud's and riot zone anyone?

out of the mouth of babes

m to the mr. today:

"what a silly guy!"

i totally didn't even know that she knew those two words went together.

fuses anyone?

i went with the mr. to town today.

he's getting allergy shots done and the girls were grumpy from waking up early (again), so we went along for the ride.

when we got there, both girls were asleep so i stayed in the car with them to let them sleep.

then he called to tell me that he'd be awhile since the last time he gave them all such a good scare, they wanted to keep an eye on him.

so i ran to walmart to grab a new thermometer and cough syrup for b.

did you know that they don't make cough syrup for children under 4?  well, medicated at least.  good thing i checked the directions before i bought any, otherwise we might have had a slight problem.

when i was done, i went and picked the mr. back up and we ran to autozone to get a new overhead light-bulb for my car.

the mr. came back out with the new bulb to try it out since it wasn't actually the right bulb.

it didn't work, so he took it back in and got our money back.

and then we went to leave.

the car wouldn't shift out of park into reverse.

we did the manual override to put it in neutral and it would shift through everything, but still wouldn't shift into reverse.

the mr. tricked the car into reverse and we were on our way to the other auto parts place to see if they had a bulb.

while the mr. was driving, i was googling to see if i could find out what the problem might be.  after all, the car worked just fine earlier.  the first answer i got was that the shifter solenoid thing was out and we'd have to replace it.  it came with about a $400 price tag.  great.

i looked at another q/a thing and this one said that the lady had been trying to replace her overhead light when she heard a loud pop and then her car wouldn't reverse.

the nissan expert said it was probably just a fuse - so i made the mr. check the fuse box, even though we hadn't heard a fuse blow.

sure enough, when he'd tried to replace the first light bulb, he blew the fuse.

so thankfully, a few dollars later (and a few extra fuses), we were good to go again.

but seriously, who knew that a blown fuse could cause your car to not shift into reverse?

sick

January 2011

m started the week out monday evening being sick.
she just threw up once, then was fine.

fast forward to this morning.

the mr. and b were supposed to go fishing this morning.

everything was ready for them to go - until about 5 am.

the mr. and i both woke up at the same time.

sick.  of course.

the mr. was bound and determined that he was still going fishing.

until it was time to go and he was still sick.

you know the only thing worse than being sick?

being sick with your spouse and still having kids to take care of.

the good news is that b is a huge help and they mostly just played in their room all day.

tender mercy i tell you.

and after about 12 hours, we're both starting to feel better.

except that now b is sick too.
at least we all got it out of the way, right?

fishing

December 14, 2011

the mr. took b steelhead fishing today with grandpa and j&k.

they didn't have much luck - in fact they only caught one fish.

and it wasn't even a steelhead.

but it was one heck of a carp that they caught.

b gets all the credit for it.

it only seems reasonable since it *is* almost as big as her.

hunting cleanup

November 10, 2011

the mr. is back from hunting.

well, he's sleeping at home instead of on the mountain - they're still hunting though.

but today, the girls and i got to go up to where they were staying and help pack up camp.

never. again.

they basically just left everything there unplanned.

and let me tell you, it wasn't fun cleaning up after four men.

and it took way too long.

we didn't get home until late.

here's their setup.

it was actually pretty nice (and toasty inside with the propane heaters!)

the view on the way up to camp.

the view from the top.

i guess they ran across some wagon tracks up there.

the ruts go clear up to the mr.'s shins.

b up at camp "helping" clean up.

looks to me like she's just playing in the snow.

m hated her coat and pants - she could barely move.

so when she got outside, she just fell down onto the snow.

(plus b making a snow angel)

so she just tried to eat the snow instead.

and this is what we did the rest of the time the mr. was hunting.

posed for pictures to send to daddy.

and they recorded this super cute video to send to daddy while he was gone.

we're so glad he's back!

rain

October 10, 2011

it's been raining here for the last few days.

i don't like the rain.  it's always so gloomy.

and the rain hasn't been a welcome reprieve for the farm either.

they're right in the middle of onion harvest, so rain equals no harvest until it dries out.

which i do like, because that means that the mr. is home more since they can't do anything.

should i feel guilty about that?

my gut tells me my dad and father-in-law wouldn't like it if they knew i was praying for rain.

(don't worry, i'm not :)

but i do like having my hubby home more often!

hell's canyon

the mr. had a chance to go down hell's canyon with some family and friends.

he had a blast and has some stories to tell about it.

particularly the story about the "experienced" rafter who dumped his boat (with his family inside), and how they, the experienced rafters, thought that the mr. was going to dump his boat in the same rapid.

he didn't.

the pictures (i'm told) are deceiving because they really don't show how big the rapids were, until you get a picture like this:

click to enlarge to actually see it!

and i'm too lazy to scan in the other pictures i have from the mr.'s trip.

perhaps i'll actually have some stories from their trip too!

brownlee

since the mr. wasn't going to get the fourth of july off, he got yesterday off instead.

the original plan was for the whole family to get together and go play on the desert/river.

but that plan was foiled by a wedding that the rest of the family went to.

so our little family + justin and kristen went fishing instead.

the new plan was to go up to brownlee reservior to go fishing on the snake river below the dam.

the mr. caught the first fish of the day.

he was one happy camper.

he had a bet going with our sister-in-law - whoever lost had to buy the other a slurpee.

by the way k, he's still waiting for that slurpee.

not thrilled about wearing her life jacket

right after these pictures, the boys managed to get us out of a sticky situation.

we had decided to go up right under the dam because it's supposed to be good fishing up there.

no one else was fishing up there though.

that's because they were smarter than us.

you see, they had the spillway on the dam open.

which made for some bumpy conditions, and the water running super fast.

which was fine - until the boat decided to die on us and the boys were having a hard time getting the motor going again.

but they did a good job hiding their panic from us - which was probably a good thing, since we were already in panic mode.

after fishing for a while, we decided it was getting too hot, so we drove the boat up to the park to have lunch and let the girls run around a bit.

the mr.'s solution to keeping m from falling in the water.

yes, he tied a rope to her.  and she actually didn't mind.

then, he let the girls get in the river with him.

they played for a few minutes until we all decided that we were going to get in, so we found a better area to play with more sand and less rocks.

the water was super cold, but felt so good in the hot sun.

after we played in the river, i stayed with m while she slept in the pickup and the rest of the gang went to fish some more.

the best fishing of the day was right off of the dock which was where we spent the rest of the day.

the sister-in-law with one of her fish.

she also caught the smallest fish of the day - like the size they put in sardine cans.

that takes talent you know ;)

and by the way, i think you look cute.

b got to fish with her daddy, which she absolutely loves to do.

m got to play with mom on the boat.

b's fish that she caught with the mr.

we had a great time playing and fishing together - hopefully we can do it again soon!