New Year's

It has been a traditon for us to spend New Year's at the Swenson's for 5 years.  This year was a little sad because things happened where we could go, but tha t didn't stop us from having some fun.  This year we played at the Scherbel's.  The kids get to sleep over, but not Shelly or me.  I have to work in the morning.  First time that I've worked New Year's Day at Teleperformance.  I will not go into how disturbed I am about that.  However, we had fun.  I cannot win a game, but I had fun nonetheless.

Sledding

Audrey's knee didn't allow her to join us today.  Besides that, we had a blast.  I was most impressed with Bree.  She went up and down the hill all by herself. Marissa and Trent made me go down.  The hill at Orchard Park is most impressive.

My Little Utes

Last month I was able to get hooked up by my friend Brad Bateman with 3 tickets to see the Utes and the Cal State San Marino basketball team.  It was a preseason game.  I took with me Bree and Trent.  We had a fun time together.  They got to see me act a little weird.  We shared a soda.  We heard the band.  I clapped along.  But what I was most impressed with was I was able to get a picture of the two with the U 😀

Easter 2013 (I know it's late, but still)

I'm using the blog for ideas for the final.  I found some Easter pictures that I don't think have been posted anywhere yet.  I just added my first picture on here and holy cow, I thought I was going to have to find a computer with Photoshop.  Luckily it worked!  :)  I'm liking this.  Anyways, if I use these pictures, I'll be able to make a background and story this up. 

Audrey and Marissa Easter 2013

These first few pictures are actually on Easter Sunday taken after Church.  They were Easter egg hunting.

Breanne Easter 2013

Trent Easter 2013

The next few pictures are celebrating Easter at Shelly's parents house in Provo.  That was one monster Easter egg hunt.

Marissa at Grandma's

Audrey at Grandma's

Breanne and Momma at Grandma's

Trent at Grandma's

I think I can work with this one for the next little while.

Good Intentions

I have been reading Chalotte Mason's works over the last couple of months.  One of the things I have learned while reading her works is that, just as "the road to hell is paved with good intentions," my life is full on good intentions but very little execution. 
I am WONDERFUL at making plans, writing lists, and coming up with new ideas for my life.  EXECUTING those intentions though is a completely different matter.  However, if I never put my intentions into practice I don't get anywhere.  I am still sitting idly by, writing lists and making plans rather than LIVING them. 
Charlotte Mason stresses habit building a lot.  She talks about how to build good habits in ourselves and in our children.  One point that hits dead center to my life, is that if we are not actively cultivating GOOD habits we are, by default, cultivating bad ones. 
Oh, I have so many bad habits!!!!  So many things that need to be improved in myself so that my children can improve their own bad habits.  It is so very true that the faults you find in others are most likely faults you have yourself.  The bad habits that my children exhibit truly are a mirror of my own bad habits. 
There is hope though!!!  If I can just work on one habit at a time over the course of a few weeks to months I can build at least 6 good habits in a year!  I can build these in myself and my children, starting with habits that we all struggle with.  I must improve myself as well if I hope to improve my children. 
So, here's to building better habits and becoming better people!

2013 is off to a.........start

I would love to regale you with all the wonderful things we have been up to over the last couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, we have done diddly-squat.  We have been battling illness in our house now for over a month!!!! 
First Bree got RSV on December 17th.  She ended up being hospitalized for it, and over Christmas to boot!  While Bree was in the hospital Ben, Trent, and I all picked up a cold (I assume it was RSV).  The cold wreaked havoc on my asthma. 
We were just getting over the colds when we got ANOTHER bug.  This time a flu-type bug.  I was the first to get it, followed by Marissa and Trent. 
Needless to say we have been hacking, and sniffling, and shivering something fierce over here for weeks on end.  My asthma got so bad I had to break out the nebulizer, only to realize it was broken!  This was at 10:30 at night.  Luckily for me I have friends with nebulizers that generously shared with me so that I did not have to make a trip to the ER with no insurance!!!! 
So, here's to hoping this madness finally ends and we can become productive and resume normal life once again. 

Back to Reality

After such a crazy Christmas, including our 18 month old spending it at Primary Children's Medical Center, things are slowing down.  Our New Year's celebration was fun, spending the night at our friend's and playing games for hours.  I am now ready to get back into the normal swing of things though. 
Monday will mark our first day back into reality. 
Ben will be going back to full time work and night school 4 nights a week.  It makes for a crazy week for mom, but luckily I have some sanity savers to help until Ben is done with schooling. 

The kids will be hopping back into full time schooling.

I will be trying to use my spare time more productively.  Our goal is to have no media (unless it is a school assignment) until after dinner every day.  I am not cutting it completely out, because with Ben at school most nights, being able to sit and watch TV or play the computer in the evening is helping me keep my sanity. 

Here's to a new year and the improvements that will (hopefully) come with it!!!!

My New Year's resolutions:
Teach Bree and Trent to be more obedient by being consistent.
Build a better relationship with Marissa to inspire honesty and confidences from her.
Teach Audrey to sew.
Use my free time more productively.
Attend the Temple at least 4 times.

What are your goals for the coming year?

Random Ramblings

1.  First off, don't hate me.  I forgot to take pictures of our Volcano!!!  I know, I know.  It was really cool though! 

2.  I had a very proud Mom moment this week.  Audrey accidentally broke a neighbor's car window.  That brave little girl, first went and confessed to the owners, then came home and confessed to Mom what she had done.  She was so heartbroken, upset, and embarrassed.  I felt so bad for her.  Since the neighbors only speak spanish we had to wait for Ben to return home to discuss reparations.  I am so proud of her for IMMEDIATELY doing the right thing!!!! 

3.  This was our last week of schooling before our fall break.  We get next week off.  We will use the week to have fun, deep clean, and relax. 

4.  Our General Conference bags were a HUGE hit.  The kids are loving the treats and activities.  I am loving how quiet they are being and how well they are listening to our church leaders.  This will become a new tradition for us. 

5.  I am baby hungry.  I am feeling jealous of all my friends that have just given birth, are about to give birth, or have just announced pregnancies.  I know there is another spirit that will join our family, I just don't know when.  I am anxious for the new little one to bless our family.  God willing, it will be soon. 

That's about it for this session of random ramblings.  Hope you enjoyed it.

One year ago.

With great anticipation we loaded the bags into the car, hugged and kissed all of the children, and thanked my parents for staying with the kids.  We headed over to the hospital to welcome our newest bundle of joy, Breanne Janeen Stephen. 
After getting all settled into my room, the nurse came to give me an IV.  She couldn't find a good vein and I ended up with black and blue bruises all over my hands.  Finally that was over and things really started moving.  The labor was fast, just a couple of hours, but all those details have faded in my head in wake of the nightmare that was about to unfold. 
Finally, after my hardest labor yet, little Breanne squirmed her way into this world.  She was perfect, and pink, and crying up a storm.  They cleaned her off, wrapped her up, and handed her to me.  Such a blessing.  I held my little baby for a few precious minutes, then it all began. 

Holding Bree before the "fun" began

She started making a weird kind of chattering sound.  It was weird, but I didn't think much of it.  The nurse came over to check on her, and with concern in her face asked if she could just take a look at the baby.  She just didn't think she "looked" right.  The nurse took Bree over to the bassinet and unwrapped her little body.  It was purple.  She called the NICU team right away and began listening to the baby's heart and lungs.  The NICU team arrived and listened to Bree's heart and lungs as well.  During this time, Ben and I were sitting off to the side just holding on to one another, waiting to hear what was wrong with our beautiful little girl.  The NICU team reported that they suspected Bree had punctured a lung during the birth process.  Phew!  A breath of relief.  A punctured lung, I could deal with that.  I knew it meant a few days in the NICU with antibiotics until the lung healed.  My friend had gone through it with her 4th baby as well.  I could live with that.  They would take Bree for x-rays to confirm the diagnosis. 


Bree, after her surgery, hooked up to all of her machines

So, breathing a little easier I sent my baby off for exrays and relaxed.  The time stretched, and stretched.  My anxiety grew and grew.  During my entire pregnancy I had felt that something was "wrong" with the baby.  The first trimester I worried about a miscarriage.  The second and third trimesters I worried about a still birth.  All ultrasounds were positive however, and showed that she was growing and functioning just perfectly.  Still, I could not shake the feeling that something was "wrong."  We received no word from anyone about the status of our baby.  After a long while, I had grown too antsy and NEEDED an update.  I sent Ben off to see what was happening.  He was gone for so long, I began to worry more. 

Holding Bree right before her surgery.  This was the only the 3rd time I had held my baby in 4 days

Ben finally returned.  He said he had good news and bad news and which did I want first.  I asked for the good news first, and he told me that Bree had NOT punctured a lung.  The bad news:  Something was wrong with her heart.  My own heart dropped out of my chest and onto the floor at this news.  NO!!!!  My little baby couldn't have heart problems!  She couldn't die!  She couldn't be sick!
Calling our parents with heavy hearts, we informed them with tears in our eyes, that Bree had been born.  She was beautiful and precious, but there was something wrong with her heart and they were preparing her to be Life Flighted to Primary Children't Medical Center. 
Our dear friends arrived to give love and support and help Ben administer blessings, the first of many to come over the next two weeks, to both Bree and me.  I was wheeled to see my little baby.  She looked so small and tiny in her incubator all hooked up to many beeping machines.  I was so scared. 
With fear in our hearts, we watched our baby be taken to the helicopter.  Ben followed the helicopter down to Salt Lake, while I had to remain at the hospital.  My mom came to spend the night with me.  I couldn't bear the thought of being alone when any moment my baby could die. 


A proud Marissa holding her baby sister for the first time

The night passed, thankfully, with no more bad news.  I was discharged a scant 24 hours after giving birth in order to drive down to Primary Children's to be with my baby.  There, we received the final diagnosis.  Breanne had TGA, Transposition of the Great Arteries, meaning that her heart was basically wired backward.  Instead of blood flowing through her heart in a figure 8, it was flowing in two circles.  All the blood in her lungs only circulated through her lungs, picking up more and more oxygen.  All the blood to her body circulated through her body without ever going to her lungs to be oxygenated.  Without surgery, she would only live a few days at most. 


Audrey finally getting to hold her baby sister

We tried to prepare ourselves emotionally and mentally for our little girl to undergo open heart surgery.  In all of this horror, there was a glimmer of light.  Bree, amazingly, had no other heart defects!!  This is very rare.  Usually children with TGA have multiple other defects as well.  Not so with our little one.  The outlook was good.  The prognosis was optimistic as long as she did well in surgery and the first couple days of recovery. 
Thursday arrived.  Breanne was just 4 days old when she was taken in to the operating room to be operated on.  We waited, and waited, receiving updates periodically.  Things seemed to be going well.  There were a couple of snags, but nothing REALLY serious.  Then, blessedly, my little girl was out of surgery.  She had done so well that they were even able to close her chest cavity up that day rather than a couple days later.  This shaved off a few days from her recovery. 
Now on to recovery.  Recovery went fairly smoothly.  We were told that BEST case scenario, she would recover in the hospital for two weeks before being sent home.  They neglected to take into account the fighter Bree would turn out to be.  After the first couple days she was doing so well that machines just kept being taken off her every time we turned around! 


Trent is finally a big brother. 

The day arrived, not quite a week after her surgery, that we were informed that she would be moved to the surgical recovery floor.  She no longer needed one on one care, and we as her parents needed to start taking a bigger role in her care.  That move to the surgical floor was a huge milestone, but while the hospital staff felt she was ready, I was not ready for my baby to be moved.  I was still so scared that something would go wrong.  However, the hospital staff knew what they were talking about.  Breanne soared through recovery.  The only hitch was that she refused to completely give up her need for oxygen.  A short 8 days after her surgery Bree was discharged from the hospital and sent home with us.  She needed oxygen for the first little while, but other than that was doing amazing. 


Daddy holding his little girl

We left the hospital in joy, and trepidation, as we now knew that all her care was in our hands. 
Having great faith in the Lord, we survived the nightmare and here we are a year later.  Breanne is a happy, healthy, one year old today!!!  A fading scar remains on her chest to remind us of the miracle she is.  I am so blessed to have my little girl, and I am so grateful to my Faith, the priesthood power, and knowledge of God's plan which sustained me through those first few weeks. 
 I am so grateful to so many who did so much for our family over that time.  Friends who took our children full time.  Friends and church sisters that cleaned and sanitized my home in preparation for Breanne's homecoming.  Friends and church members who checked up on us, offered priesthood blessings, and love and support.  We were truly blessed by an outpouring of love.  Thank you to all, and most of all thanks be to God for his tender mercies.  Thank you, Lord, for letting me keep this precious daughter of Thine.  To be able to raise her and love her in THIS life. 

Breanne this morning on her first birthday!  Oh how far we have come!

House Craziness

After having read the Duggar's book "The Duggars: 20 and Counting" I was inspired to try a few things in our home.  Some of my inspirations dealt with homeschool and others dealt with the layout of our home.  This post deals with the changes to our house.  The first change we made in our home was to create a clothes room in the laundry room.  We moved all of the kid's clothes downstairs and they hang in a built in organizer that was already in our laundry room.  Ben and I hope to be able to add our clothes to the mix downstairs when we have the funds to purchase something for the clothes to hang on.  This has helped us out quite a bit.  1) We no longer have the issue that laundry gets DONE but never PUT AWAY.
2) We don't have as much trouble with clean clothes getting left on the floor of the kids's rooms and then rewashed because no one knows if they're clean or dirty.
3) The girls don't change clothes 5 times a day!

The next inspiration I had was that I felt the prompting to move the kids downstairs and create one room for the kids to share and move the family room upstairs to the main level.  Eventually, when we have the money we will actually build walls and have a boys room and a girls room but for now the 3 older kids are all together.  They LOVE being in the basement and I love having the family room upstairs in our main living area.  There are many things I love about my new set up.
1) There is no reason for ANY kids to be downstairs unless they are cleaning or doing laundry.
2) With nothing much more than just beds in the kids's room the room stays very neat and clean
3) They are right by all their clothes in the laundry room so they just wake up, make their beds, and get dressed before coming upstairs.
4) We spend more time together in the family room doing things as a family.
5) With the family room on the main level it is very easy to keep tabs on what the kids are watching and what they are playing.
6) It has made my front room a room that is usually company ready.
7)I'm not so worried about questionable neighborhood kids getting them to do bad things because I'm always in the know about what's going on.
8) All the toys just SEEM to be more accessible upstairs and the kids have played more with their toys than EVER.

All in all I LOVE the new set-up of my house and I am SO glad that we swapped everything.  I am thankful for revelations and inspirations that can come from so many good sources.  

Week off school doesn't mean off work

We have hit our first scheduled week long break of our school year!!!  Yay!!  Around here we don't do 3 day weekends like the public schooled kids.  Why?  Because Ben always has to work them and they're just another day around here.  So I scheduled week long breaks about every 5-6 weeks throughout the school year.  Yesterday started the first break, but is it really a break?  This week off of school is being used for chore training.  I am working on training the kids to do the chores the way I WANT them done.  I made up check lists and everything.  Today's focus?  How to pick up a room.  All of the children participated since all of them have at least ONE room they are in charge of to pick up.  Audrey has the TV side of the family room, Marissa has the front room and toy side of the family room.  Trent has his bedroom.  Other chores on the docket are the toilet, sink, tub, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, clearing and washing the table to name a few. 
I will not excpect the children to execute their chores perfectly without guidance and adult support yet....well Audrey will be expected to, but not the others. 
We'll see how THIS plan goes..... 

Opinions wanted

Sooo....Ben and I have been contemplating puting all of the kids downstairs in the now family room.  All the kids would bunk downstairs with a curtain to separate the boy side from the girl side.  (Eventually we plan on making 2 permanent rooms down there and a bathroom)  Then all the family room stuff (couches, toys, TV, ect.) would be moved into the current master bedroom and become the family room.  Ben and I would move back into our old room (currently Trent's room) and the girls' current room would become a guest bedroom.  WHY you ask would we want to attempt this?  Mainly because with only bedrooms downstairs kids have no reason to BE downstairs unless it's bedtime.  It would put the family room up on the main level and make it easier for me to keep tabs on the kids when certain friends are over to play. 
So, what do you think?

Taking a page from the book of Duggar

Most of you probably don't know this, but I'm a bit obsessed with the Duggar family.  My obsession comes and goes in spurts.  Right now I'm actively obsessed.  So, after watching every episode of the last season on youtube and thoroughly exploring their updated website I have decided a few things:
1)  I need to make my religion as prevalent in my life as it is in theirs.  If I were to be convicted of Mormonism, I want to be put away for life with no chance of probation. 
2) I want 19 children.....my mom said she wasn't going to move in to help me out though.  Well, there goes that plan.
3) I still think it would be fun to have a ton of kids and in part I envy the Duggar family for their lifestyle.
4) I am intrigued with the idea of my girls only wearing dresses and skirts.
5) I want to live in a big house with my 19 kids, in the middle of the country and we must have a sledding hill right outside the front door.
6) Now to the point of this whole post......I have decided to try out two of the Duggars' systems.  The first being chore juristictions the second being character qualities.
I want my kids to have a chore and learn to do that chore EXTREMELY well so we decided yesterday to have the kids choose chores and they will do those chores until April's General Conference.  Then we will switch for another 6 months.  That means, that day in and day out my kids will be responsible for the same chore for the next 6 months.  We divided the chores into 3 zones in our home: upstairs, kitchen, and downstairs.  The kids chose one area from each zone.  Here's what they chose:
Audrey:  Kids Bathroom, Clear and Wash Table, and TV side of the family room.
Marissa:  Front room, Kitchen Floor, and Laundry/Storage room Floor.
Trent: His bedroom, Unloading dishwasher, and Laundry. (Trent gets help from Mom and Dad on all chores)
The other chores not chosen will be delegated as family chores or they are Mom/Dad chores.
Hopefully this works!!!

On to Character Qualities.  I ran across a printable page on the Duggar website that has a HUGE list of Character Qualities that they instill in their children.  The really nice thing is that each character quality lists the quality, it's opposite quality, and a scripture to back it up.  I think I'm going to print it off and start adding charater training to our devotional and daily life. 

So, there we go.  There is my post about my deep dark secret!!!!!