Elise's Portrait Session

Here is Ellie.  You will notice she looks like she is about 10.  She is growing up so fast!!!!  She also knows how to pose... that will be obvious as you look at these pictures.

Next week: Owen!

Magdalyn's Portrait Session

Over the past couple years, I have finally learned that if I want the picture taking experience to be the least excrutiating it can be, I should get each of the kids photographed seperately at different times and then come back later for a group shot.  So, we did the girls last weekend and we will do Owen this weekend. 

Here are Maggie's shots.  You will notice that she looks a lot like her dad and you will probably notice (if you aren't blind) that she even got those ears from her daddy.  Poor thing, but not to worry, Ellie had some ears around Maggie's age too and I am confident she will grow into them :).  She is still the cutest baby around.

Housewife Top Picks

I am by no means a super clean housewife, but since I do have to clean my house, there are some key products that are must haves in order for this to get done. They are my favorite cleaning products... I know, that's weird to have "favorite" cleaning products, but here they are nonetheless:

My sweeper vac. This is my #1 favorite thing ever!!! If you have little kids, especially, you must have this. I use this on my hard surface floors (especially the kitchen) multiple times a day and it saves me from one of my least favorite cleaning items-- the broom. It really picks up fairly large pieces and I love it. My kids are always dropping food on the floor or cutting up paper and this picks it all up.
These are in no particular order, but I do enjoy my Swiffer wetjet as well. As with the swiffer vac, it saves me from my regular mop most of the time. I have to 'mop' at least once a week but usually two or three times and this does the job! It is great for a quick mop. Sure, it is no substitute for on your hands and knees scrubbing, but it at least puts it off for a bit. I especially like this for my bathroom floors. The bad thing about this one is that you have to buy new pads for it and new solution, though I can usually make up a solution from the generic pine sol stuff and just re-use the bottle.

I do like my feather duster. It keeps me from having to do the spray dusting so often and my kids like to dust using these, so less work for me.
Ah, my carpet cleaner. Best Christmas present ever (thank you again to my in-laws)! My kids throw up more than the average I am sure, so this baby has gotten us through some otherwise smelly times. Sure, it's a beast and I hate getting it out and emptying it and all of that, but it sure beats paying to have someone clean our carpets. Plus, it cleans our couches and I like that.

Foaming carpet cleaner... LOVE IT! This is what I use when I don't want to drag the BEAST out (the carpet cleaner). It is nice for smaller areas and is nice to use for a pre-treatment before I do use the carpet cleaner. All and all, I think the foaming spot cleaners work best.
Lysol disinfectant spray, I have you (and Purel) to thank for us and our friends avoiding so many colds. I find myself spraying all sorts of surfaces around our home several times a month (more if someone is sick) to avoid the germs from spreading. If germs get by you Lysol, then I know I am in for a pretty bad round of sickness.
SHOUT! I want to shout from the roof tops about how much I need you in my life. You will get out anything! From ketchup, to throw up, to chocolate milk, to blood, to chocolate, to grass stains, to dirt... you get it out. Now, if I could only find something that would work on a Sharpie.
Soft Scrub is the best. I have used what feels like hundreds of bathroom cleaners and nothing seems to do the trick like Soft Scrub. It also works on walls that have been colored on and tables that have been written on. Though I have lost a lot of shirts to the spray back of Soft Scrub, I still love it.

What's the theme here? Well, truly, I am lazy and hate to clean. BUT, since I have to do it, I want the quickest, easiest, most efficient products to help me out. These are what I have found to work for me. Anyone else have any gems out there I should know about?

Staph Infection #3-- Any ideas?

It seems these days that I have been making a lot of trips to the doctors, yet none of my kids are sick!!!  Between well-child check ups, Owen's issues and now Ellie's third staph infection I have been seeing quite a bit of our pediatrician. 

Ellie, like me, has a pretty bad reaction when she gets bit.  The bites swell up and the red area gets at least palm sized and occasionally they get infected.  Click here to see our post of her first staph infection, Click here for the second and keep on reading for the third.

Above is Ellie sleeping after being up much of the night complaining about her bite.

So, on Thursday or Friday Ellie got bit on her leg.  It looked like the other bites she has gotten and she complained a lot about it (as any 3-year-old with a bite would).  I gave her some Benadryl and continued giving her some itch spray and cream, but by Monday it still wasn't looking any better and was actually looking worse.  Below is a picture of the bite that I took yesterday.  I know, it is gross and I apologize for posting it but I thought you should see what it looked like to help in my explaining.

Thankfully, this bite never got to the ooey-gooey gross stage that the other two had gotten to.  I recognized that the middle of the bite was starting to look a little gray and just starting to get to the point where it would start oozing, so I took her to the doctor.  Basically, we got yet another dose of antibiotics and were told that some kids are just more susceptible.  The problem is, I am worried that she is going to become resistant to antibiotics if she keeps on having these staph infections.

I have a friend whose son had to be hospitalized for several days because they didn't get it checked out early on and it got worse which is what I am afraid with Ellie.  My doctor just says to bring her in whenever it looks like an infection is coming on.  I trust our pediatrician, I am just wondering if anyone else has experience with this or knows some home remedies that I should try for next time to avoid infections.  So, does anyone have experience with staph infections from bites?  And/Or does anyone know of home remedies to reduce swelling and infection?

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

As reward for finally cleaning out our garage this morning, Daniel has agreed to let me buy this wagon that I have been begging him for for the kids. My friends with young children or multiples will love this too. This wagon is awesome!

The reasons why I am going to love this wagon:

• I read about 200 reviews for this thing and everyone loves it
• I can feel more independent because I can take all 3 of my kids out on walks with me
• My kids won't fight with each other because they each will have their own car
• It will fit in my car (though it will be a squeeze in the trunk, it will fit)
• I can put up to 5 cars on this baby and it will still work perfectly! Meaning, I can still have two more kids and drag them around in a wagon (the wagon comes with 2 cars and then you buy each additional car)
• Each car his its own cup holder. Genius.
• seat belts... no escapees
• My kids can see all around them
• I can fit the car seat in one of these until Maggie is old enough to sit up on her own
• My son is obsessed with trains, I will be the best mom ever
• I will get buff from wheeling around 3+ kids

I will have to blog once we get it in the next week or two and let you know exactly how in love I am with it. I'll keep you posted!

Pumpkin Patch Morning

Friday, I took Elise and Owen to the pumpkin patch.  Daniel was kind enough to do his work at home that day so he could watch Maggie for me.  I'd planned this for our ward a few weeks ago and I think we had a pretty good turn out.  Last year, our little preschool group was the only group there, but this year there were a lot of people there.  It didn't really make too much of a difference in our fun, but it was a little crazier.  Unfortunately, these pictures I took are not really great and I didn't try to get a whole lot, but it is what it is.

Elise trying to get Owen to stand for a picture with her.

Ellie showing me her pumpkin.  Instead of painting them there, we decided to take our pumpkins home to carve them later on.

Elise helping Owen pick out pumpkins.

Owen discovered what pumpkins were a few weeks ago and is now REALLY excited whenever he sees them, so he was in heaven with all of these pumpkins all over the place.

Ellie posing for mom.

Owen posing for mom.

Owen and I on the hay ride.  It was a little cramped but we managed to take a picture of ourselves.

Here is Ellie on the hayride.  She had so much fun.  She especially loved that several of her preschool friends from last year came to the pumpkin patch.  She still misses those kids and talks about them all the time.

All and all, we enjoyed the pumpkin patch.  It was definitely more entertaining the first year and we look forward to trying a new place next year.  We will still buy our regular pumpkins at one of the local churches since they're a little pricey at the patch!

Here's what Maggie was up to while we spent our morning at the pumpkin patch:

We got out the jumperoo last week and she seems to like it a little more each time we put her in it.  Though at times it terrifies her because her big brother comes up, grabs onto that blue bar in front of her and whips it up and down causing her to whip with it.  She still loves to jump and jumps more like Ellie did than did Owen... looking a bit like Lord of the Dance.

Tonsilectomy and Adenoidectomy

Owen is scheduled for surgery for October 23rd. He will be having both his tonsils and his adenoids removed. The specialist was concerned about the size of each of these plus concerned about the apnea getting worse. Of course, we are scared because he is so young and also because he will be in pain and no parent wants to see their child in pain. But, on the bright side of things, Owen has a high tolerance for pain and has always seemed to bounce back from pain fairly easily. Hopefully that will ring true with this surgery as well. He will be admitted on that Thursday and will stay in overnight to make sure that he is taking in fluids and then if he is, he will be able to come home and recover. Recovery takes about a week or two. The apnea should be resolved after this procedure. Neither Daniel nor I have ever had our tonsils removed or know anyone who has had them removed so young. If anyone has any pointers, let us know!

Weekly Update

It's been kind of a boring week for us so far I guess. I feel like more has been going on but as I sit to write this blog, I realize hardly anything of importance has happened. So, I will just give you some updates.

Elise has been so fun lately. She has started coming up with these words and phrases that I find to be pretty amazing for a 3-year-old. The other day I was just staring at her and it made me realize that she isn't a baby anymore. She has really lost most of the babyness and now looks like a little girl. Ellie really loves preschool. She wants to go every day and often talks about the fun things she gets to do there.

We continue to try new things with Ellie's hair. Gives me something to do and it gets the hair out of her face (which drives me nuts), so we like it. She is even into it. She tells me things like, "I don't want swirls today, maybe like (holding up both her fists) two things like this instead". Translation: I don't want braids, I want two pig tails. I suppose half of the 'excitement' of doing Ellie's hair is translating what she says she wants done.

Here are the puppets that the kids made the other day. They are pretty cute and they have actually had a lot of fun playing with them. Elise has always been really into doing crafts and different projects. Speaking of projects, I taught her how to dust with furniture polish this weekend. She was pretty good at it. I also taught her how to disinfect all of the door handles, light switches and other handles around the house. This is something I try to do frequently to keep the germs and colds at bay.

Now Owen, he has an actual update. So, this last week I have gotten about 2 hours of sleep each night. Owen has had a cold, but on top of that he has had some problems breathing at night for a long time. I think that allergies have exacerbated the problem. Anyways, sometimes he will stop breathing for a time and then gasp for air in his sleep. It was never really too bad (meaning he only did it occasionally and when he was a baby which is normal for babies who breathe in strange patterns anyway) so I never took him to the doctor, but the past couple months it has gotten bad.

Not only was he waking up frequently, very frequently, but the snoring has gotten worse and his disposition has even been different. The last couple weeks I have noticed him not being himself. Either being kind of a zombie or really irritable, plus he has lost a bit of weight from not eating. He hasn't been his happy, independent self that he usually is. What I realized is that he has sleep apnea.

Anyway, to make a long story shorter, I took him to the pediatrician who gave him some allergy medicine to at least help while we go to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. We see the specialist today who will let us know if he either needs more tests or needs his tonsils and adenoids removed (which fixes sleep apnea in 90% of the cases). So, I will have to update when we get back from the doctor today.

I bought the kids footed pajamas, but they turned out to be a hassle. Owen's feet were too big for the foot part (I know, usually the foot part is totally oversized... the boy has huge feet). Plus they were too much pajama for my kids.

Owen and Elise doing some preschool books together.

Miss Magdalyn ready to leave. She isn't much of a car seat baby, but dad was entertaining her in this picture. Maggie continues to be a pretty easy baby. She does have a bit of a cold right now and loves to be held, but what kid doesn't?

Here is Maggie sad that mom isn't holding her. She has recently just become enamored with me. She follows me with her eyes wherever I go and just smiles at me the whole time I hold her. She is too sweet!

Our Saturday

It has been kind of a lazy, but fun Saturday so far today.  Daniel and I (and Maggie) are going out on a date later tonight, so that should be fun.  Here is what we have been up to so far today...

The kids love to read.  I read to them quite a bit each day but my favorite is how they will actually go off and read by themselves for like an hour at a time!  It is so great, for many reasons (including giving mom a much needed break), but in particular because I can tell they just really love books.

Ellie likes to show Owen the fun things she sees in her books and Owen is always there and eager to learn from her.

Maggie, she likes to sleep during the quiet book-reading time.  She always sleeps with her face planted straight down.  We aren't sure how she breathes, but she seems to manage.

When Ike hit, I bought a bunch of crafts for the kids to do in case the electricity went out, plus I figured it would be fun to do them together.  The electricity never went out, in fact, we never even got a drop of rain, so now we get to use our fun crafts on Saturdays.

Owen built a Rocket ship mobile.

And Elise made a butterfly mobile almost entirely herself.

Elise and Maggie showing off Owen's mobile because...

Owen fell asleep on the floor.

Not really sure where we should put these mobiles, but for now they are hanging above our trash can.  I figure they'll end up there anyway sooner or later!

Maggie sporting a glitter sticker from Ellie's craft.

Ellie playing with her (pantsless) dolly.

Righteous child.

Magdalyn having fun in her exersaucer.  She likes it a lot more now than she used to, but always manages to fuss right as we are putting her in just to make her point that she would rather be held.

Not pictured are Daniel and I who spent much of the morning organizing closets, pantries and other needed areas.  We had hoped to work on the garage but it is getting put off again.  Is it just me or is everyone's garage like their "dirty little secret"?  It is such a mess.