My New 2nd Favorite Movie!

As if you couldn't guess, I LOVE the movie Mama Mia! I saw it in the theatre, and now I have watched it 3 times since it came out on DVD. It is soooo funny!

Can you imagine when Twilight comes to DVD?!? Man oh man I can hardly wait!

Welcome to the World Liam!

My sister Mary and her husband Chad had their baby on Wednesday. I haven't seen him yet, but from the pictures he looks cute. Congratulations Mary & Chad!

Date & Time of Birth: 12/17/2008 @ 1:53 p.m.

Weight: 6 lbs, 12 ozs

Length: 20 in

BRRRRR!

Man it is cold outside. I have been freezing my buns off the past 3 days. It has been cold, wet, and raining. I though Arizona was supposed to have mild winters. I don't like the cold, that is why I live in Arizona, specifically "The Valley of the SUN" I sure hope the weather warms up again soon. This precious delicate flower cannot stand the cold. I'd rather be hot than cold, at least when you're hot you can jump in the pool and cool off!

Also, I am includign a pic of the girls when we met up at the temple lights. I didn't put this one on the blog and Alesia got after me. She said it has to go on the blog because it is so cute. So here you go.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Alexander's Adventure

Okay, so he's just laying on the couch... what is so adventurous about that? Well, lets turn the clocks back about 16 hours and start there.

An anonymous family member showed Alex how to make a blow dart with a straw and a toothpick. Innocent enough right? WRONG! Martin and I stepped out for a bit to do a little of our Christmas shopping. We got home about 8:30p and were surprised that the younger 2 weren't in bed. Alex had been practicing with the blow darts, and wanted to show Martin how far he could get it to go.

So he put the straw to his mouth, took a deep breath in, and sucked that toothpick right down his throat. He started coughing and immediately told us he swallowed it. Martin and I just looked at each other and nodded our heads. The thought on our minds was obvious... This did not just happen! After a quick call to the pediatric ER near our house, I took him in. They looked down his throat to see if they could see it there, no luck. They took neck and chest x-rays to see if they could see it in there. Nope. Evidently wood does not show up on x-rays very well.

The nurse practitioner that was taking care of him decided they needed a pediatric GI doc to come in and take a peek down there to see if they could retrieve the toothpick. Bottom line was, the doc couldn't come in until morning, so Alex was admitted overnight (if you can call it night. We didn't make it up to his room until 1:30a. Then the IV decided to slip out, and it took 3 more tries to get the IV going again. Alex's veins like to play hide and seek, it's a good thing he's a healthy kid! We finally got to sleep around 2:45a. I evidently was dead to the world, I didn't even hear them come draw blood or check his vitals.

Alex was awake by 5:30a, he's an early riser. He wanted to get this procedure over with and go home. Unfortunately, the doc had other plans, the procedure wasn't until 8:00a. I had a very hungry 10 year old who did not want to hear that he could not eat or drink anything, boy was that fun! Martin got someone to help him administer to Alex, then before we knew it he was being taken down for his scope.

They gave him some sedation and took a look with the scope. To every one's surprise, there was no toothpick in his throat or his stomach. Back in his room, the hospitalist scratches his head and says he is going to go personally talk to the radiologist for a few minutes. When he came back up, he said they decided to do a CT scan of his neck and chest to see if the toothpick was in his lungs or wind pipes. Thankfully, a quick CT scan didn't show anything so we got to come home.

Alex was so happy to be able to come home, he was crying tears of happiness because he missed home, and the dog. Although, when he reflected upon his adventure on the way home, he decided that it was cool to be in the hospital because he got spoiled rotten. The hospital gave him a teddy bear, a game, a puzzle, and a Christmas stocking. Not to mention he could turn on the lights, adjust the bed, get the nurse, and change the channel all without getting out of bed. He thought the blood from the nurse starting the IV was cool too! He had never seen his own blood like that before. Then, there was breakfast... french toast, chocolate milk, Trix, and juice. He ate it all!

So what about the toothpick? Well, the theory is that it either came up when he vomited in the ER (BTW both the nurse and I checked it and saw no toothpick, but we didn't exactly do a detailed examination) or it has already made it past the stomach and will pass in a few days. So we watch for signs of infection, fever, or pain and follow up with our pediatrician. WHEW!

Temple lights

This past Tuesday, 4 out of the 6 of us went see to the temple lights in Mesa. Nikk and Alesia went with the youth for a combined activity, and I got to go with MacKenzie's Activity Day Girls. Of course we ran into each other. It was fun, but a bit too cold for me! Alex had Weblos that night, so Martin was sweet enough to stay home with him. They enjoyed some Alex & Dad time. It is hard to get some one on one time this time of year, so they were glad.

MacKenzie is the one with the pink hat on in the middle.

Inside the Visitor's center, we got to see Luke II, then we walked around the room of nativity scenes from different places. This was a nativity quilt someone had made. I would love to have one of these, it was soooooo beautiful!


Here is another nativity that was made of paper and was in a frame. I really liked this one too! People have so many great talents, it's wonderful that they share them with those of us whose talents lay in other areas.


Here is MacKenzie with her friend Kjersti and her mom Pam. They were looking at the nativity they had on the temple grounds.

Here is Kenzie, my beautiful baby! (Okay so she's not a baby anymore, but she will ALWAYS be my baby!)

Alesia has a job!

Alesia just started her first job last week. She gets her first paycheck tomorrow. She's so excited, (and we are too!) She has a lot of fun at work. Now she's saving for a car, and college. Here's a pic of her on her first night.