Be Careful What You Ask For

This week for FHE we had a lesson on "Responsibilities" We talked about chores and being more independent. For example, we encouraged Brayden to make his own breakfast in the morning and we encouraged Makenna to get herself dressed. Well-- she listened and the next morning...

VOILA!Feel free to laugh.

It was very hard for Kevin and I both to be encouraging and positive and not crack up at her outift. However, I did have to take her out in public, so after praising her efforts, I managed (or should I say struggled) to get her to make a few alterations...Needless to say, I was grateful it was cold enough to need to wear a coat when we went out :)

Makenna has such a big bright personality. I just love being her mother- she is a continual "teaching moment" for me. For posterity (and your entertainment) here are a few recent Makennaisms...

Last time we had the missionaries over, they asked Makenna how she knew that Jesus existed.
She answered matter of factly- "because of the picture"
Then they asked her where Jesus lived and she said very confidently
"in my heart"

I recently got a new apron for my cake classes and when I tried it on Makenna let out a big enthusiastic "woooow" and then said, "mom, you know why I said that- it's cause I believe in you!"

While getting ready one morning, Makenna said to me "You know why I have to be so beautiful today... its because I am everyone's favorite cheerleader"

A Different Perspective

While I felt the blog needed an update, I didn't think I had any new pictures to make into a post. However, someone...some mysterious photographer had been taking pictures ... yes usually these are the pictures I would delete without a second thought but just for kicks, here are a few. Sometimes it's nice to get a different perspective (Brayden's perspective).

Not much is new with us. We are back to work and school and all the accompanying busyness.
Here's a brief update on all of us
Me: January has been way too cold for me. I'm so done with winter! I've been busy teaching two cake decorating classes a week at Hobby Lobby. It's been a bit stressful to undergo since it's new and there is a lot of preparation but I absolutely love it.
Kevin is happy at work and fabulously succeeding at his "get in shape" New Years Resolution. He's been doing the fitness classes offered at his office and is seeing great results.
Brayden is back to school, sad about out lack of good sledding snow, back into a Wii phase, and really reading well.
Makenna is HEALTHY (hooray) and very very into horses, ponies and singing about her heart, her feelings and her dreams (thank you Barbie). She can also name all the letters (except P- she always says B), spell a few names and words, and tell you her address and phone number.
Brielle is walking a lot. Unless she is in a hurray, she usually will walk. She hates naps and bedtimes like nothing else but she is just so darn adorable. She's currently into mimicking everything her siblings do, opening and closing doors, and putting things in and out of drawers, containers, and cupboards. Oh- the life of a one year old!

Well, thats it in a nutshell. Hope you all have a great week!

Uncle Scott and a Hospital Party

Oh the holidays... we are sad to see them go. We had, for the most part, a great two weeks with Kevin off of work, the kids home from school, fabulous Christmas celebrations, and to top it all off- a visit from the very missed, very popular and much adored, Uncle Scott.

And now for the hospital part. The one hiccup to our holiday splendor was poor Makenna's health afflictions. Makenna was sick a couple of weeks ago (in fact I think I blogged about it). She seemed to get better just in time to enjoy Christmas, but shortly thereafter her ailments resurfaced. I took her to the doctor promptly on last Monday morning. I told them she had a fever, a cough and thanks to a fellow bloggers "comment" on my previous post I suspected possibly a UTI (that is a urinary tract infection, for all those lucky enough not to be familiar with the term). They listened to her chest, suspected pneumonia, which they confirmed with x-ray, took a urine sample, suspected a UTI- which was confirmed days later by the lab and then got suspicious about sugar in the urine and did a blood glucose check. They sort of got all freaked out on me and sent us straight to the hospital.
Makenna was in the hospital for a little over 24 hours. She loved every minute of it. They did a lot of testing on her and all of the results were good. They were immediately suspecting diabetes but all her later blood sugar tests were fairly normal so we think we are in the clear for that- at least that's what they tell me- I can't say I feel at peace about it all. The morning after Makenna was checked into the hospital, I was back at the doctor's office with Brielle who had a fever and who's breathing just wasn't sounding quite right. Luckily she just had an ear infection and a bit of wheezing, so we were sent home with a nebulizer and antibiotics. She might end up having asthma like her brother but it's too early, they say, to diagnose at this point. Anyways, at that visit our doctor said that she was sorry for getting me so worried about Makenna and she was surprised, but glad of course, that Makenna was turning out to be just fine (aside from the pneumonia and UTI). They are chalking up her high blood glucose levels to "stress." I suppose those two unpleasant infections that had carried on for quite some time could certainly cause her poor little body some stress.
Don't feel to badly for Makenna though. She really lived it up in the hospital- asking the nurses to tend to her every whim and having the undivided attention of her dad- she was in heaven- the needles and finger pricks were a small price to pay. In fact, after I took her to the doctors for a follow up appointment today, she threw quite the tantrum when we were leaving because she wanted to be going to the hospital, not home. I only got her out of there because we do have to go to the hospital later in the week for "voiding cystourethrogram" and an ultrasound of her kidneys. (By the way, if any of you reading this have had to take your kids to get a voiding cystourethrogram, let me know- I am feeling a bit uneasy about it).

So, back to our holiday splendor... we tried to show Scott a good time in Omaha, despite our sickness circumstance. We visited Winter Quarters and were lucky enough to catch their annual gingerbread display. We walked around the cemetery there and saw the temple too. And yes, we unabashedly tried to get him to move to Omaha on two big selling points 1. the Amazing Pizza Machine and 2. Creighton University--- yeah yeah, the odds are not in our favor but you can't blame us for trying :) (I know Scott you won't like the above picture since your eyes are closed but its too great a memory to leave out :)I don't know what it is about Omaha and puzzles but all our guests seem to become hooked whenever they visit. Scott slaved tirelessly on this one, but despite an ingenious system of organization, he just couldn't get it done. Maybe if I had been a little less occupied with sick kids I could have been more help- but we will keep it here waiting for him or anyone else who comes to visit...
any takers?