Once there was a Snowman with random questions for dessert

Morgan had her friend Mallory over one afternoon to play. They both wanted to go outside and play in the snow. When they came in, they were so proud of their creation. They did this all on their own. Morgan was the proud one who lifted the head onto the top. Yeah Bug! Now I think it's MAYBE the cutest snowman in the world. I would never make an assumption like that if I wasn't 100% sure of myself. I mean look at that face. Who in this world could ever create an expression such as that on a snowman!?? Who I ask? Look at the delicate way the arms just extend from the torso, It's very balletesque (I'm also pretty sure balletesque is a word.)!

ANYway,

Now here is a random question. Why does Grace look like this before church.....(pardon the BOMB that blew up in my front room whilst taking this picture. This is just what Sunday morning looks like in the Bailey home. I personally like the fact that Crede is in the background trying to climb up onto the piano bench. There's no mischief going on there...noooooo.)

and like THIS after church


wait for it


wait for it...



BAM! We're only talking 3 hours folks. I don't quite understand the time and effort Grace puts into this metamorphasis. She's already gotten rid of the dress (who knows where that ended up), the pigtails are only a distant fond memory **sigh** and she's sitting at the kitchen counter waiting for her lunch. Somedays I'm not sure why I even put forth the effort. What do you think people would say about us if we just showed up at church like this? I'm all for it if you are!

Here's one more random question I will leave you with this evening. Why is it my kids wake up when there is just a HINT of sunlight coming up over the horizon?! EVERY morning regardless of when my kids go to sleep I hear "GRACE!!! GET IN HERE!!!" (courtesy of Morgan) and then that is always followed by "AAHEORIGHSDGHSLHGSLGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" (courtesy of a frustrated Grace). This is around...oh...6:30am. If you know me at all, I am SUCH not a morning person, and I am secretly cursing under my breath in my own bed. After said cursing, I progress into yelling, "GET IN BED!" Yeah, that works wonders, let me tell ya'. After that tactic, I resort into stomping into their room, vision blurred, bumping into walls and doors on my way, and saying, "If I hear a peep out of either one of you....." I never seem to quite finish that sentence as I'm stumbling back into MY bed and closing MY door to try to drown out the next cycle of, "GRACE!!! GET IN HERE!!!". Oh, and around THIS time I hear Crede in the next room just chatting away, happy to be alive, reading his books that he has strategically stashed in his crib. This usually lasts until about 7:30 when I relent and get up.

Now is this just my happy home? Am I such a lazy slob that I can't drag myself out of bed before 7:30am? Come on people!! Let me hear your mornings. (so I can feel much better about mine.)

Happy Birthday Morgan......

In my entire existance, I vowed I would NEVER make a Barbie Cake. You know the kind.....the cake is the skirt, and the barbie sticks out the top. If you need any visuals, see this link:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/02/come-on-barbie-lets-go-party.html

Guess what? I have officially broken that vow. I was searching for days, weeks, perhaps even months (really only a couple of days) for the perfect Little Mermaid cake for Morgan. I found one similar to the one I made, and I thought (I can do that!) so I did. I don't think it turned out 1/2 bad...but I'm biased because I spent all afternoon making it.

Now isn' that pretty? Ahhhh....ooooooohhh. I had to make cupcakes as well because the actual cake was so teeny. I just basically like to make extra work for myself. But there is my final product. Oh, and the seashells? They're all chocolates made a la me. Thank you thank you. But the real purpose of this post is to spotlight my Morgan. Here's my little birthday girl next to her cake:

She got a little party today in Kindergarten - we made a poster for her to take to display in her class. Morgan drew pictures of all her favorite things. You can basically guess what each picture is even before she tells you. She's a mini-Van Gogh. Again, I have a very keen talent of recognizing talents early on in life. Morgan is going to be an artist, Grace will be a brilliant scientist, and Crede will be....um....a hunter. (He's still a little young for my talent sensing abilities to perform 100 %)

Here's the poster that we made for Morgan to take to school. Here's the list of her favorites: Treat: ice cream. Holiday: Valentines Day. Movie: Little Mermaid 2. Family Activity: Checkers (we've never played checkers...so who knows about that one). Game: Hungry Hungry Hippo's. Food: Pizza. Thing to Do: play with Alaina, Breauna and Mason. Song: Once there was a snowman. TV Show: Curious George. Book: Pinkalicious and Purplicious.

Morgan right now is into being a total goofball. She thinks any little funny face or funny dance is the most hilarious thing in life, and it doesn't help when Chance is sitting there laughing just as hard...but I digress. Right now she is playing with Chance's cell phone and listening to the funny rings he has on it. There's a baby laughing to some kind of techno song and she has made up a dance while lip-syncing the baby. Now THAT's a sight to see.

She is a VERY smart little girl and is able to pick up new and challenging things very easily. She's a very good big sister to Grace and Crede and when she finds the patience, she is very good to spend time with them and play with them.

Well, Happy Birthday Morgan. We love you very much.

Hardware Ranch

Well I'm finally getting around to blogging about our escapade to Hardware Ranch. Chance has had a LOT of spare time lately due to the lovely economy, so we decided to take a day trip up to Logan. Is it Logan or Nibley or....oh I don't know. We took the kiddo's up there and they had a pretty okie doke time.

When we first arrived we thought, "Lets go to the visitor's center and check it out." So let me just say how lame that visitor's center was. There was a big room, an Elk in the middle of it (stuffed of course), and a fireplace with a mountain lion on the hearth. Ooooooooh I could have stayed there for hours! Crede and Grace just wanted to pet the animals and get into anything they could. Chance on the other hand had to investigate every pamphlet and had to educate the children on the Elk, what it might have scored, the amount of points it had.....it's normal habitat, it's feeding habits, yadda yadda... oh but it was very interesting (Love you Chance).

Well we drove down to the sleigh area and loaded up. Here's the kiddies all ready for the ride.

Crede, Morgan and Grace. Grace thought it was a bit bright. Sorry little girl. Then the ride started. Oh how exciting. The sleigh moved at about walking speed, and it looped around in a big circle. I do have to give Chance props though because it was neat to see the elk right up close. Here's a picture of Chance and Crede checking out the wildlife.

When we were all done, we asked one of the passengers to take a family picture of us. Chance wanted the elk in the background, which meant we were all looking directly into the sun (which is why we're all pulling some pretty fun faces...)

Well that was our little family trip. We love you Hardware Ranch.

Back to Normal

Thank you everyone who called, emailed, delivered food, presents, etc. to our family over the last couple of days. We have so many awesome friends. Grace is doing wonderful, nothing else has happened since Monday, and we're just counting our blessings. She is back to getting into mischief, and screaming at Morgan and Crede if she doesn't get her way. Lovely. But to tell you the truth...I wouldn't have it any other way.

Today I discovered Facebook. Yes, I know I am a little behind the times, considering my entire High School has joined already! I have now officially declaired myself addicted. It's really fun seeing all of my old friends and their families, and hearing about what they are up to. I still don't understand a LOT of it...but I'll get there.

Lets see....Last night we went to Crew's birthday party (Chance's little brother) and let all the little cousins play. Chance's Mom and Dad have 14 grandkids with 15 come August. It's mayhem when we all get together, but our kids have so much fun. We ate an oreo cake, and Morgan threw a HUGE fit because we wouldn't let her have any. Okay back up here....during dinner she said, "I don't want to eat. That's a gross dinner!" we said, "okay but you can't have any ice cream or cake at Crew's birthday!" She gave us her BEST 6-year-old attitude and announced that she really didn't care!. Well at Crew's birthday, she did care, and she did throw a fit, and she did stand in the corner. We survived, and she's back to her ol' self today. It was a pretty good cake though ... I think it was from Baskin Robbins. mmmmmmmmmmmm.....ice cream.

Oh, and the other night Morgan and Grace got out the dress-up clothes, and went to town. Our little boy LOVES to play too. He'll put on the sparkly high-heels and strut his stuff just as well as his big sisters. I had to take a few of the kiddo's all decked out in their "best".

Hmmm...I particularly like the red skirt with the purple leotard. Nice color combo Morgan! Credes' just happy to be in the picture (he looks like some kind of farmer? explorer? I can't put my finger on it.), and Grace's denim hat looks MARVELOUS with her princess dress. Is that a hula skirt in the stroller?


Here's little Crede....Beautiful hat little boy. I also like the silver slipper on your hand. Is that helping the grip on your dump truck?

One thing I have forgotten to post...and that is Morgan's 6 year old pictures. We went Monday morning to get them taken. She was in the STRANGEST mood while we were there. She was worried about how to smile, and she thought that if she laughed she would get a good smile. So she kept "courtesy laughing" the whole time, making the photographer think she was a goof-ball. Cute Morgan. She's just turning into a girl who worries what she looks like all the time, and worries about smiling crazy in a photograph. It's sad that she's only 6 though. Anway, here's her pictures.




Morgan's birthday is next Tuesday, so here's a pre-birthday shout out. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Morgan. We love you.

Well that's all that's been happening since the big MONDAY. Have a lovely day. We will check in again soon.

The Scariest Day in My Life

I am so grateful that our day had the outcome that it did, but I have to say, it was the scariest day I have ever had so far as a Mom.

Today around 4pm, I was sitting on our couch and Grace was in the front room with me. I glanced over and she was laying on the ground...I didn't think much of it...but I glanced back and noticed that she was convulsing. I ran over, and she was fully having a seizure. In my mind I'm thinking, "she's not really having a seizure...she's okay." So I said, "Grace! Grace!" Well at this point I yell for Chance and he comes running in. He tries to pick her up but I yelled at him to leave her where she was, and I just made sure that she was laying on her side so that she wouldn't choke. Chance then calls 911 and seriously, in about 2 minutes, the paramedics were at out house. It was a huge comfort to know that they could get here so stinking fast. Thanks Clinton City.

Anyway, by the time they show up at our house the seizure had finally stopped and Grace wasn't responding to anything. She wouldn't talk or look at me, and she was having a hard time breathing. She was also trying to go to sleep. The 911 guy kept telling us to keep her awake, so I kept saying, "Grace! Look at Mom!" By the time the paramedics came into the room, Grace was focusing her eyes on things and realizing she was on the ground. She was trying to talk, but couldn't do anything but mumble. It was so sad! They checked her blood sugar, her temperature (102.5 I think it was), and they gave her oxygen to help her wake up.

Finally she started talking and asking for a blanket...and that was a GREAT sign. It was also kind of cute because I asked Grace, "Grace, do you want to sit up?" She said, "umm........no." The paramedics started laughing too. She's just too cute. Anyway...by THAT time we had about 6 men in our living room helping. We gave her some Children's Tylenol to help with the fever at the moment, and then they asked if we wanted to drive Grace to the doctor or if we wanted them to take her by ambulance to the ER. We opted to drive to Layton to the Wee Care instead....but we made sure that they thought it would be okay.

Morgan was sure a good Big sister too. She kept bringing Grace baby-dolls and stuffed animals to help her feel better. While we were at the doctor's she made her a big card that said, "Dear Grace, I'm sorry that you are sick. Love, Morgan". I have such a good 6 year old.

I called my neighbor to let her know that I wouldn't be able to teach her daughter piano that day, and she said, "Lilly's not here right now, but I know you have an ambulance at your house...is everything okay?" So we told her what happened, and she said, "Holly is on her way over to watch Morgan and Crede so that you can take Grace to the doctor." That, my friends, is an amazing person. So her other daughter, Holly, came over and we headed out to the doctor.

On our way it truly hit me what had just happened. I was pretty calm and collected up until that point. I just started to cry and I realized how special our little Grace is, and how scared we were when something happened to her that was completely out of our hands.

At the doctor, we waited, and finally saw the doctor. He walked in and said, "so...this is Grace?" I said, "yes..." and right at that moment, Grace puked all over the place. Oh yay. I felt so bad, but that doctor was amazing. Seriously...I have not had a good doctor at Wee Care before, but this one was amazing. He ran and got some towels to clean up, and asked if we were okay, and he spent a lot of time with us. He ran copies off for us to take home that talk about seizures, and he reassured us that it was most-likely caused by her high fever due to an ear infection. He prescribed her antibiotics for the ear, and gave her some ibuprofen for the fever. At the doctor, we started getting all sorts of phone calls. My friend Amie called to ask if she needed to pick up Morgan and Crede to take them to her house...and asked if we were okay. My mom called, and when we hung up from her, she drove to our house to take care of the kids.

When we were driving out of the parking lot, our Bishop was driving TO the hospital to visit Grace, and Hayley Ropelato who is also at the hospital. (We really hope that Hayley is doing better.) He brought her a stuffed bear. He is such an amazing Bishop. We are so blessed to have so many people care about our little family. Thank you so much everyone!

After getting home, Grace laid on the couch to relax. We fed her a little dinner and put all the kids to bed. She is now sound asleep and we're so grateful that she is okay. We love our kids and we know that our Heavenly Father was watching over us today to help us know how to handle this situation. He was also blessing us with friends and family to watch over us. It has made us realize how precious our little children are.

Mystery Poop

**sigh**

I had to hurry and add this little story to my blog. Grace is up to it again. Yesterday she was out of pull-ups so I got her some new ones out. She wore them all day...and didn't mention any problems. Well I left for a little bit to watch Morgan at gymnastics and then I was pretty much home all day and night. To my surprise, when I was getting ready for bed, I noticed a pair of poopie pull-ups in the garbage. In addition to the poopie pull-up were wipes and wipes and more wipes. Some with poop on them, some not a mark. So I went into our bedroom to ask Chance if he helped Grace with poopie pants that day. (He tends to use many wipes in his quest for a clean bum). He said, "no, why?" After telling him about my discovery in the bathroom he starts laughing and says, "Earlier today Grace came up to me and said, 'Dad, poopie pants.' so I went to change her. I got her pull-ups off and there wasn't any poop!" So then Chance turned to Grace and said, "Grace, there's no poop!" And she said, "nope! all clean Dad."

So it's kind of nice to know that she is willing to change her own "diaper"...HOWEVER just that last sentence frightens me. I'm thinking in my head, "where did she change her poopie pants?"..."Did she touch anything?"..."Do I need to disinfect my entire home?"...

We've inspected the suspected area of contamination and found no traces of said poop...but we're still keeping our eyes open. Boy I sure hope that people are still wanting to visit our home after this entry. We really are clean people....I swear! Our little Grace is just struggling with hygiene at the moment. We still think she's a cutie though. Oh, and PS......we make sure she is washing her hands ALL THE TIME. Promise.

Jabberwalky

Grace.

Grace has decided in the last few days to REALLY talk. She has been cracking us up. For example....the other day Chance needed to get in the shower. Our 2nd bathroom has been out of commission because we're painting it, so we've been down to one. He was in the shower and Grace needed to go potty. So she went into the bathroom, pulled down her pants, and saw the "toy bin" that has all our bath toys in it on the floor. She, in her 2 year old mind, thought "hmm!" So she picked it up, with her pants still around her ankles, and said, "Dad, do you want toys?" She kept saying it over and over. Chance didn't really know what she was saying until he peeked out of the shower curtain and saw Grace standing with her pants around her ankles holding the toy bin for him. Cute.

Monday my mom was over at my house playing with my kids while I ran errands. Grace took it upon herself to pick up the toys in the front room. Now this is unprecedented. So my Mom starts saying "Grace, you are SUCH a good girl. I can't believe you cleaned up the WHOLE front room!" That night, I get a phone call from my Mom telling be about this little phenomena and said to make sure that I praise Grace and tell her what a good girl she is. I called Grace upstairs and said, "Grace...Grandma told me that you cleaned up all the toys by yourself! You're such a good girl!" She got a little smirk on her face and you could just tell she was proud. Okay so YESTERDAY my Mom came over again for a little bit and said to Grace, "Grace, I am so proud of you for cleaning up those toys yesterday!" Grace looked at her and said, "My mom likes me...and My Dad likes me." Let's say it together......awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

We went Monday night to sign our paperwork for our loan refinancing on our house (which we got such an awesome deal!!! But I'll leave that for another post. Seriously though, it kicked butt.) and we were getting the kids all ready to leave. We told Grace to go potty and she was SO worried that we would leave without her. She kept saying, "Dad! Wait on me, I'm pulling up pants." Okay this is such a huge sentence we just gawked.

Okay so this is my last story, and it's not a huge talking story, but it was really funny. On Saturday afternoon, we took all 3 kids to the matinee at the Kaysville Theatre to see "Madagascar 2". Afterwards I suggested pizza, but Chance insisted in something different. His idea was Chinese. Oh yay. We went to the "Hello China" by our house and picked up LOTS of food. Holy cow. We get home, crack open the boxes and dish it out to the kids. Morgan was crying and saying "I wanted pizza!" So needless to say, she didn't eat any. Crede just threw it all over the kitchen, and Grace - well Grace tried her very hardest to eat it. Chance turned to her and said, "Grace do you like it?" She looked at him and said, "Um hmm" and then in the same breath completely dry-heaved. It was the saddest thing ever. Chance felt bad and grabbed her fortune cookie so she could eat it and then let her spit it out. She just wanted to please her Daddy. Sweet girl.

So the lesson from this little post is this: Grace is FINALLY talking!!!! We're still trying to get understandable words to come out of her mouth, but yes, she is improving. We love you Grace. You are the sweetest and most tender spirit in our home.

What's that expression?

I can't think of the right expression at the moment, but you know when you say something and it comes back to bite you in the behind? Well I've been bitten. About 6 months ago I decided to boycott our music program in our Ward. I decided it wasn't worth the effort, and besides, I never got enough notice to perform and why should I continue to volunteer?!? And to top THAT off, I got one of those chain email things that ask a bunch of survey questions and you answer them with your own original answers and forward them to all your friends, and then they do the same. You know the kind....

One of the questions said, "your biggest stress" or SOMETHING like that. I opened this email around Christmas time and MY reply was, "TOO MANY musical numbers in church! We don't need 50 musical numbers each week. It's way too much work!" Well.

A couple weeks later I was called to be our "music chairperson" in our Ward. In addition to that, we had to have a Christmas program put together and ready in 3 weeks. What??! Okay so I pulled that off (barely) and survived. So this next month I was feeling pretty relaxed about my whole calling. I had a few musical numbers lined up, but then the last week in January I was told that I needed a choir number for February 15th (4 weeks away.) I thought, "okay". I held choir practice that day. Guess what? 2 people came. We chatted a bit...and went home. The next week comes...3 people come. Huh. So we chatted a bit...and went home. The NEXT week (superbowl Sunday I have to admit) came and guess what? 4 people came. WAHOO. So I sent a desperate email to our ward yesterday (feeling a bit sheepish I have to add) to ask for choir support (eating my words here...) and today we had about 20 women come and 5 men. Yay! I was elated. We sang our little hearts out, and we're now ready to sing the simple hymn in church next week. Whew.

What have I learned? I'm NOW going to be a bit better with my attitude....and hopefully I will not have to eat any more of my words. (eating crow?).

Craziness

Is it just me, or does everyone have days of insanity? Yesterday was a great day (sanity-wise). Me and the kids and my Mom took a trip to the treehouse museum, let the kids run wild for an hour-and-a-half, and then took them to Wendy's for lunch. When we got home, we all took naps, and had a pleasant day. There was no yelling, screaming, acting out, (or at least I can't remember these things.) Morgan even said, "Mom, Thank you so much for letting us go to the museum and to lunch!" I swear that after she said that, she smiled, and I heard a "ding!" as the sunlight sparkled off of her teeth. We were the perfect family yesterday.

That was yesterday. As I sit in a moment's silence, I am pondering back through my day. "It's only 1:00pm!" you say?....well. Let's just say I'm pooped. Morgan has been at school all morning, so I have been battling with a 2 and 1 year old only. You'd think I could handle my 2 kids! After breakfast I decided to try to get on the laptop for a quick search of Birthday cake ideas for Morgan. This was my downfall. Apparantly my little ones find it difficult to entertain themselves. All I hear is screaming, crying, and yelling. Oh, and the occasional running of water. That is the most terrifying noise in my house. I have to run through it and try to find the source. It 100% of the time begins with Grace...it's just finding the room she's in. She's still going potty, but insists on washing her hands afterwards. She has washed all the toothbrushes, toothpaste, her hands, her hair, oh, and even our cordless phone! (we're still waiting for that to dry out.). This afternoon though, the water source was from the kitchen. In the two minutes I was in the bathroom during lunch, she cruised over to the kitchen sink and decided to rinse out the wash-rag and do some dishes. What a thoughtful daughter.

Well...we'll cross our fingers to a better afternoon. I'll get my happy face on, and get through my day of insanity. Wish me luck!

My Snorin' Study

So have any of you out there ever had a sleep study? Let me just say how much fun they are. First off, I snore like a lumberjack (just ask Chance...) and I get horrible headaches at night. My doctor said that I might have sleep apnea while pregnant, so I relented to a sleep study. I knew they hook you up to lots of different electrodes, but I just didn't realize how many there were! It took 30 minutes to hook me all up. I had about 8 in my hair, 2 next to my eyes, 2 behind my ears, one under my chin, and 2 things stuck up my nose to measure oxygen or something. Then you know those clip thingy's that you put over your fingers in the hospital? I got to sleep with one of those on. Then I had a belt around my chest and around my stomach, and 2 electrodes on each leg. Oh, and the coux de gras (is that how you spell that?) was the fact that I had a MAJOR cold, runny nose and all. YAY!

So after getting all hooked up, I decided it was time to turn off the lights and go to sleep. I shut off the lights, and noticed the camera pointed right at me all lit up. I'm a pretty private person, and just the idea that there was someone on the other end of that camera ALL NIGHT made me crazy. The last thing that my nurse-guy said before leaving me for the night was, "if you need anything during the night, just sit up, and I'll be right in." So of course I didn't want to sit up to blow my nose, or go to the bathroom, or to even turn over to get comfortable, because I didn't want to run into my little helper. Argh.

The next morning at 5:45am I was woken up, and unhooked. What a wonderful night's sleep! I had to pee like no other (sheesh I'm pregnant for crying outloud!) so I was spying down the hall waiting for the other "guests" to GET OUT of the bathroom....waiting......waiting.....and then I realized, there's a 2nd bathroom. Nice. So I run in, check out the damage to my face and matted hair (they put something like JB Weld in your hair to hold down the electrodes) and then hurried over to do my morning business....when I look down, and there is PEE all over the toilet seat. Seriously folks....there were MAYBE 6 of us sleeping there that night, and I'm pretty sure I was the youngest one there....so we should ALL know at this point how to use the potty. Come on folks! So that was a WONDERFUL start to my morning. If only I could do that more often....

So my little helper told me that they were able to collect a lot of good information, but he couldn't comment on anything until I talked to my doctor in 2 weeks. We'll see what he has to say. Fun times.

I did have strict instructions on when I needed to be home, because Chance had a very important Church basketball game at 7am that he HAD to be to. So I got home, sat down - dazed - on the couch, and Chance said, "wow you must have had a good nights sleep, you have sheet marks all over your face!" I said, those aren't sheet marks, those are tape marks from the stupid electrodes." I am STILL dealing with crazy complection issues from that tape and "conductive gel" that they put on UNDER the tape. Yay complection problems.

On the plus side, Chance had a good time at Basketball, and I slept VERY well that night.