Mega Post

I thought I was going to be a better blogger this year not a worse one?? We have lots going on so I will subtitle the pictures first and then add updates so I don't confuse myself or anyone else.

Random photos of the kids borrowing my ponytail and taking pictures... they thought they were pretty funny.

 We have had quite a few birthdays, Alivia's in Jan, Cooper in Feb and Kessler just had a birthday the end of March.

 Coopers birthday cake:)

 We went to a hockey game in PHX, it was the Coyotes vs. Canucks. The kids had a great time, it was  beautiful weather and nice to get away for a few days.

 Our first airplane ride in a while, the kids reviewing the safety card:) Good little passengers.

 The kids don't care where they sit on the airplane, they don't even care if they sit by each other, Ben or myself. They just want to sit by a window. I love looking out the window as much as they do.

 Miss Liv got her braces off for now, she has about a 12-18 month break and will get them back on, once all of her other teeth grow in.

I have been slightly obsessed with the missing Malaysia flight, I don't ever use twitter but I tweeted a question to the program AC360 and my sister text me and told me that used my tweet. I luckily had it recorded! it is not really that big of a deal but I am a news junkie and it was funny to hear them say Andrea and then my picture popped up....woot woot!!

 Been able to hang with my niece Addilyn, she is so funny, she has the craziest personality, she loves to come and sleep over.

Ben's new truck, we also have a new Suburban, not really what we planned but it financially works out good. We had a lot of equity in the Suburban that made it all possible! The older suburban was my "baby" I loved that car and was religious about taking care of it. The new cars come with 4 years and 3.5 years of maintenance free which is nice. 

 We got chickens, we have four, their names are Buffalo, Cloudy, Macho and Nacho. They are a little over a month old and have been fun so far, we kept them in the house for a few weeks in a large fish tank and it was fun to watch them. As they are getting older they aren't as friendly as they were as chicks except for Coopers, he doesn't run from you he will let you walk right up and pick him up.

Kessler's Birthday Cake, I can't believe my youngest is 6. It does not feel like it has been 6 years since we had a baby in the house, it really feels like yesterday. Kessler chose his cake, he loves hockey just like his dad.

 He also loves fishing and loves the color green so we got him a fish balloon, he loved it.

 We officially kicked off the fishing season, the boat isn't ready yet, so we went shore fishing up to Deer Creek on one of our days off from Spring Break. We didn't catch anything and didn't even get a bite, but that's ok, we asked the kids if they still had fun and they asked if we could go again the next day.

 Picture below looks like a fish is on, but it was one of the many snags we got all day!

 Ben attempting to get one of his lures back, Bauer really wanted to learn how to cast him self and was practicing and was doing an awesome job, it is fun to see them get more independent and want to do things on their own and be proud of it.

Ben is doing well, he has been a walking time bomb lately, he rolled his ankle got a really bad sprain, got pneumonia, then has had horrible allergies, and during our week of yard work marathons he sliced the inside of his ear while trying to move something in the back yard. One night when he was sick he woke up at three in the morning and had this horrible breathing fit, it was wicked scary he couldn't catch his breath and I was just about to dial 911. He finally was able to catch his breath after he had a breathing treatment.

I am up to the same, being a wife and mom, flying, YW's, organizing Youth Conference, trying to exercise and doing lots of yard work. Just living the dream as I say often.

Alivia like I said got her braces off, and is excited that it is getting warm outside, she is still our animal lover, she takes really good care of the chicks. She is in 5th grade and loves her classmates and teacher. She and Cooper are in a musical and she loves playing the "nerd" while Cooper plays the "popular kid's friend"

Cooper is doing really well, I have been helping in his class and it is good to see how far he has come. He is funny, has lots of energy and loves to be a nice big brother.

Bauer is super excited to start soccer this spring he has been asking me forever and I would always forget to sign him up, so to save my sanity I made sure that I got him signed up in time. He also loves to fish and like I said is doing a great job with it. He is a mini Ben that is for sure.

Kessler loves kindergarten and isn't so much of the "baby" anymore. He is getting so independent and loves playing with friends and laughing and giggling with his brothers at night when they should be sleeping.

Feb already!

Every week in church I sit there amazed how fast the week went and now as I look at my previous post which seemed like yesterday we are already 10 days into Feb.

We have had a good Feb so far, we got to go on a quick road trip to southern Utah and Las Vegas to enjoy some sunshine and warmer weather.

The kids swam and played at the park, Ben and I went out for nightly walks around town. It was nice. I have a mountain of laundry to do, but that's ok.

Ben also got some good news from Target, they awarded him another stock grant. It vests in three years, I thought the first one was because he was doing all that training and wasn't getting training pay or anything, but this one I think is an incentive to stick around. I don't think Ben will leave Target anytime soon but we have been talking about making some changes with maybe his work or our house. Nothing set in stone just what if's?

Things are going well Ben and I went to parent teacher conf and everyone is doing well. Cooper has slipped a little in his reading but we will catch back up and work hard. Everyone is well behaved according to the teacher and that is always nice to hear.

My full time schedule has been an adjustment but overall I am thinking of keeping this up for a bit, probably through the summer. I like the bigger pay checks that's for sure. I am also getting better trips than I have the last few years.

I am excited to get out of town for spring break with the kids, not exactly sure what we are doing, I am just hoping it is cheap and easy like this last weekend.

Why I don't blog anymore?

I feel like I have to blog with pictures but don't take many pictures anymore, well only on my phone and then they usually go to instagram if I am feelin it.
So here is an update

Ben, he stopped drinking caffeine and is working out more, playing basketball 2-3 times a week and will come to the gym with me at night sometimes. He warms up by running a mile in 7-8 min and then lifting for 20-30 min. Work is work, he is already putting in his vacation days for 2014, including the CRAZY 15 year anniversary trip just Ben and I.......woot woot!!!! Can't wait!

Andrea
Back to real full time work, the first time in 7+ years. It was a busy month, I had some really easy trips that made it bearable though.
Started a neighborhood biggest loser competition that goes until Memorial day, so far so good, lets hope I can keep some momentum and make some permanent changes.

Alivia 
She is doing well in school and is excited to be 11. She decided for her 11th birthday she would read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover so she can have read it before she starts YW next year.
Her tortoise Iggy isn't doing that well, she has been sick and so we have been nursing her back to health and keeping a close eye on her. She seems to be doing better than a few days ago. It was pretty sad, Ben was a little too honest with her and told her that she may/most likely die and Alivia burst into tears. Hopefully our little Iggy will pull through.

Cooper
He is doing really good in school, he has an amazing teacher. He still has major trouble going to sleep and eating regularly, he has lost much of his appetite and so he has stayed the same weight for over a year now.
We have started him on a higher protein diet to try and help him gain some weight and keep him strong.
He is still my crazy imaginative boy, has the weirdest memory and recall the craziest things from vacations/boating trips, it blows my mind!

Bauer 
He still is my sporty dude. He is my best sleeper, my little morning guy. Tender hearted and loving, he is so happy for his teacher at school she was able to adopt a baby and he is excited to go to Target and get her and her baby something. He is ready to go fishing and talks about going to Flaming Gorge and catching some big fish this year.

Kessler
He is momma's boy through and through. Lately he has a weird fear of being the first person in line at school. He doesn't like waiting by him self for the few minutes until other kids come, so the kids have took him under their wing and wait with him till his friends get there.

Some sad news a good friend/neighbor of mine is moving. I am so sad, she isn't going far, but she is one person I can always count on, we can count on each other.... she needs powdered sugar and I need eggs she is my go to, we have the best talks on our summer time walks, we walk down to the frozen yogurt shop and walk back. I am going to miss her being right next door...........

Mega post

Lets start a way back and update Ben's handicap.

He had been putting in 12-14-16 hour days and everyday his leg was getting worse. After about 2 weeks of soreness and then 5 days of hot, red, tender, can barely walk I convinced him into going to the doctor. We show up, they weren't too worried a sore leg, yeah yeah. She said she didn't think she should x-ray it, but I said would it hurt we are here. So she decided to xray his leg.

Everyone was shocked, even Ben. They had 3 doctors come in and look at the x ray and all decided he needed to go into a boot and get over to a orthopedist asap. So we made an appt. at TOSH and long, long story short. Another set of x rays and they didn't think the pain was coming from the break. All the pain he was having was muscular. He did show signs of stress from the rod, hollowing where the screws are, and eventually he will have to get them out.

Today he is wearing a compression stocking and got a new pair of fancy shoes.

He also decided to go off caffeine, he is now drinking chocolate milk, orange juice, sprite and some crush soda's. Ben has already lost 10lbs!! (in 5-6 days)

I was cleaning up all of my pictures on my phone and on my computer and put all of these pics together (although I did duplicate one) Love that little Addi girl, she cracks me up.

 A nice Christmas concert for Alivia and Cooper's choir. 2nd semester choir started yesterday!!

My little lunch date, and you can tell he liked his black beans.

Kessler is doing really well, he recently was sick with the pukies and a fever. It ALWAYS happens when I am at work?? it was nice to sit all day and snuggle with the poor little guy.

Miss Alivia got her Birthday wish a week or so early. She has wanted a turtle for quite some time, I didn't want a water turtle so I was opposed to the whole idea. She had been looking on KSL for weeks and did a lot of research about tortoises. She made up her mind she wanted either a Leopard, Sulcata or Russian tortoise. We ended up finding a Sulcata for 50% off and ended up getting it for her Golden birthday, she turns 11 on the 11th.

This picture below is a 5 year old Sulcata tortoise, I am not sure what we will do when the tortoise is that big??

 A few random selfies 

 a church selfie

 New years eve selfie, Ben trying to crush, candy crush!

I am kind of bummed that I didn't work New Years I know that sounds crazy  but it all started in 1999, I got stuck in Jackson Hole for New Years because SLC was fogged in and since then it has kind of been a tradition to work, I am not a big party animal anyway. Unless it involves ROOK!

There was a trip I wanted to pick up that I could have taken the kids with me, I still regret not doing it. Next year I will plan ahead!!

Ben annoyed (he really wasn't annoyed, more so that I was taking pictures) I loved watching Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin.....it was hysterical actually!

Kessler trying hard to stay awake!

 Another church selfie with my sweet baby girl!

 Ben got a few gift cards this year for some sporting good stores and so we were browsing on some things he wants to add to the boat. Kessler and I took a ride on the ferris wheel while he was browsing!

 January means annual safety training for Andrea and my friend Deb!

In 8 hours we had to

save a passenger having a heart attack with the AED and doing chest compression's and rescue breaths

4 pilot/flight attendant scenarios

passenger in the bathroom upon landing

landing gear failure

flaps failure

drunk passenger

We then sat through a smoke filled cabin, that always freaks me out!

We then did all of our drills

Door operation

Fire fighting

Prepared a cabin for a water landing

Evacuated an airplane on the water (mine was sinking) ahhhh:/

We then had another round of scenarios

Emotional support animal

deaf passenger

prisoner 

Unaccompanied minors

E-cigarettes

Infant on the wrong side

Airplane Preflights

Hyperventilation

Overall SO,SO glad to have that over with!!

Christmas week

Love finding random photos. 

Annual gingerbread (graham cracker) houses. We got to FaceTime with bens family in Canada last night, sad we can't be up there.  We will carry on the tradition here in Utah again. 

Previous gingerbread house nights....
here, and here 
Something I loved this week, here and here.

Plans for this week.

Relax

Movie

Relax

Cousins

Relax

Black Friday Week

So much to be thankful for...a few of the things I am thankful for. Bauer hit his head at school and luckily didn't need stitches. Just a butterfly bandage from the nice school office staff. Thankful for the nicest school staff around.

Kessler telling me we haven't taken a picture In a while. Thankful my kids like to be with me and feel like

they can talk to me .

Flying the friendly skies, thankful for a good job.

Thankful to spend time with my family, it has been a rocky road for some on my mom's side of the family. Thankful that I learned the lessons that I learned when I was younger, that I don't have to learn them today.

Diamond Debacle 2013 it started with Cooper watching tv and holding a fake diamond, not paying attention puts it in his ear, still in a tv trans and then realizes he can't get it out. He then tries to get it out with a skinny black thing, I don't really know what it was. I walked past and he had the black thing in his ear I didn't think much of it, and a few hours passed. Alivia then came and told me that Cooper has something in his ear, so I walked into the family room he still has the black thing in his ear and I look with a flashlight and I see a shiny diamond looking thing.

LONG story short, we tried everything to get it out, ear numbing drops (when kids have ear infections) irrigating it, even the vacuum, tweezers, you name it we tried it. 

The next day went to the doctor, the pediatrician tried and couldn't get it out, too close to his ear drum and didn't want to puncture his ear from the shape of the diamond.

Meanwhile Cooper is NOT cooperating and that is where this little picture below comes from. I could barely compose myself. He was freaking out, I think the last time at the office, they accidentally pushed it farther down. So it was then off the ENT. Went back to see the doctor and by this time, Cooper was hysterical, like I have never seen. We just tried to explain we were just going to look, he would let us look and then start freaking out like we were going to kill him. At one point he grabbed the doctors hands and scratched him.......OH MY GOSH!!!!! I wanted to die!!!

Basically if he would have cooperated he may have been able to get it out, YES it would have been uncomfortable and painful but the alternative was CRAZY!!

Well as you can see, we had to do the alternative, take him to IMC at 1115am. Wait for 2 hours and 15 min to get back into the OR, they gave him some versed to calm him down, finally some anxiety relief for Cooper. It was a fast 20 min procedure, they gave is some "gas laugh" is what he calling it. No IV, or breathing tube THANK GOODNESS!!! Recovery for 20 min and then another 40 min recovery with me sitting next to him.

He wanted to see the diamond in his ear, I tried to take a picture by then it was too deep.

Convincing me that he just wanted to go home and that the diamond would fall out!! If it were that easy???

All said and done, it was the safest and best thing to do to get the diamond out was giving him something to 

relax. Against my better judgment I agree now, maybe not then. When I was talking to the doctor he asked me if I was ok holding him down and trying to get it out, and I was ok then, but looking back now I should have spared myself and Cooper all the trauma, pain, anxiety, anger, frustration and just slowed down and thought what was best . I just wanted to do what was the easiest and cheapest. 

My crazy boys are pretty good at their chores, clean their room, unload and load the dishwasher, sweep and mop floors, clean bathrooms, dust, vacuum. One day when I was helping them clean their room  we made it spotless......it was beautiful, it was pristine, it was heavenly, it was what ever mother wants a clean kids room. I came back from work the next morning (seriously 12 hours later and 10 of them they were sleeping) and walked past their room and saw this chaos!!! I actually had this moment where I thought maybe I had dreamed the clean room and had to stop and really think about if we did clean their room the day before.

As mad as I wanted to be, I was thankful, I know my life won't always be like this, I don't ever want to wish the days away, even the crazy rooms, diamond debacles. They are all good memories for me. I need to stay more aware and keep trying to make good memories for them too!

Thanksgiving was Fab!! I like my version of Thanksgiving way better than the version I remember growing up. Growing up it was stressful, everything had to be PERFECT, the cranberry salad with chopped pecans, the potatoes and gravy, the rolls, the turkey, the table setting all had to be perfect nothing could be done out of order. I get that my Mom was just trying to hard and had a lot of guilt working as much as she did, so she wanted to do something special for us. But what we/I really needed was a happy, calm, fun mom to be around.

I have made that my mission with holidays. 

We had Ham (from Costco) {not a turkey fan}

Funeral potatoes

A vegetable and fruit tray (Costco)

Jello salad

Pumpkin Pie (Costco)

Rolls

Lemon pie (Kneaders) not that good actually

Sparkling grape juice

It was such a nice day, we played and laughed and I only prepared in the kitchen for about an hour. I will admit I am not the best cook, lack the "training" and the desire {truly}. What I want to remember is not the food, but the feeling of the day, I don't want my kids feeling like they are walking on eggshells while I am trying to create this perfect day......I will admit though I missed the mash potatoes and gravy, but I will make them another day and be just as thankful for them that day too!

Grey Thursday and Black Friday!

I had a great time spending some time with some good friends of mine. I got to hang out with my Jamie's.

We met at Sandy Target, stood in line, laughed, teased people standing by us, had a great time. I am so thankful for friends who love me for me. Put effort forth to be my friend. I am truly thankful!!

Scored some major deals that I was planning on, and scored some deals that I wasn't necessarily planning on:) 

Ben and his team rocked it, his store looked great everything went perfect, no one got got trampled (uh hem Walmart) When we were rounding the corner into the store we saw Ben standing there I gave him this awesome high five, he had the cutest smile on his face that is forever engraved in my heart!!!

So thankful for my blessings this year, and blessings to come. So thankful to serve the Lord as a mother and in YW, I sometimes I fall short but my desire is deep and I am thankful for the opportunity. I am thankful to be able to write down the messages that are sent just for me, since I started doing it I have realized that most are them are very private and so I write most of them elsewhere.

So much to be thankful for!! I never ever want to take for granted for my many blessings!