jake's 1st stitches

on 08/24/12 jacob got his very first stitches.  not only are they his first stitches, but they are the first stitches for any of my children.  (i'd say we're doin' pretty good.  knock on wood.)  he said that he was walking in the hall at school when someone opened a door and the door got his toe.  obviously he was wearing sandals.  when i got the call from the school health tech, i happened to be at work.  i explained to her that she should be able to get a hold of ben because he was the one home with the kiddos that day, but that if she couldn't to call me right back and i'd come. 

so, she did get in touch with ben.  ben had just gotten his blizzard from dairy queen so he did what any reasonable parent would have done.  he asked if the bleeding had stopped and it had.  so he said he'd be there in 20 minutes.  he sat down ate that blizzard...and then went to his sons aid.  here's a photo of the damage.

one last get-away

the week before school started we decided we needed on last get-away.  our family usually loves to camp, but i didn't want all the work.  vacation never totally feels like vacation for mom, right?  i didn't want to have to cook and clean.  i knew i'd still have laundry when we got home, but while we were away i wanted no part of it.  so, we went to a resort down in phoenix.  they have great deals since summer time is off season.  we went to a hilton resort that has several pools and a small waterpark.  we had a blast and lots of r & r.  (when i find the photos, they will be posted here)

noelle's dance recital 06/15/12

 noelle took hip hop at the dance academy this last school year.  every june the dance academy puts on a dance recital that is very entertaining.  noelle's class did a routine to dynamite and i must say that my girl does have rhythm.  she did awesome...and she looked adorable if i don't say so myself.  good job, ellie belle!

it's great to be eight!

on may 26, 2012 ethan was baptised.  he chose this all on his own and we could not be more proud of him. 

what a great weekend it was.  we had lots of family in town because not only was it ethan's baptism, but kalen, libby's new son, was sealed to his family in the snowflake temple the night before the baptism.  we also celebrated a couple of the may birthdays at the firestation that weekend.  what a wonderful weekend to celebrate family!

Sadie is 5!

can't believe my baby girl is 5.  yes, i am doing this post 6 months too late, but she was ready for kindergarten well before it started.  this girl is sweet and sassy.  she is not a morning person.  in fact most mornings i question if she even likes this family.  don't be fooled by her sassy disposition.  she would be so sad not to have us around and we all know better.  and we would be sad not to have her around.  when she's not waking up on the wrong side of the bed, she is sweet, says clever, funny things and has got to be the prettiest 5 year old around.  she is quirky, clumbsy, messy and sweet...the cutest train wreck around!  i really do say this in the most endearing of ways.  she has the best hair ever, but it's usually a crazy mess within a half an hour of me spending a lot of time on it and she is the craziest dresser around.  combine all of this with the clumbsiness and her morning attitude and you've got the perfect train wreck.  oh, we love this little girl!!  underneath all of this sassiness, is the sweetest, most polite little ballerina who is a pile of putty when it comes to her daddy.  she loves her dad, and nothing will come between the two of 'em.  we love you sadie mae altop!  we know that our family would not be complete without our sadie lady!

on the day of your birthday, you had happy shake for breakfast, mcdonald's for lunch, and tortellini salad for dinner and a rainbow cake for dessert.  we had your friends karsyn, sarah and addie come with us for lunch at mcdonald's.

about sadie mae in her own words:

favorite song: twinkle, twinkle li'l star

favorite food: tacos, no... cereal!

favorite book:  that book with the talking bugs.  me: do you mean miss spiders sunny patch friends? sadie: yeah!

favorite movie: dora

what do you want to be when you grow up?: firefighter

who is your best friend?: karsyn

what are you good at?: coloring

what are you not good at?: uuhhh...doing backflips

what do you want to accomplish while you are 5 years old?:  doing sommersaults

what is funny about you?: doing a silly dance.

Ethan is 8

my E man is 8!  my oldest boy is 8!  let me tell ya, this kid is fun to have around.  he has the best, most contagious laugh.  he is also very easy to make laugh.  i love that he finds such joy in the simple things.  i love that ethan lets me cuddle him for as long as i want and he seems to love it as much as i do.  and his eyes...i mean really!  his eyes are to die for.  ben calls them his lady slayers.  i really don't want to let ethan on to that term for a couple twenty years.



ethan with his birthday breakfast in bed



so the day of ethan's birthday...he wanted happy shake for breakfast, mcdonald's for lunch and shrimp tacos for dinner.  so, that is just what we had. 

he wanted cookies for dessert, so that is just what we had.  he always wants cookies and i really never mind cookies.  he got a giant chocolate chip cookie for his dessert.  we had his best friend, braedon over after school and since dad was working, we had his birthday dessert at the fire station.

here are some fun facts about ethan in his own words:

favorite song: glad you came

favorite food: shrimp tacos

favorite book: don't have one

favorite movie: anything with dinosaurs

best friend: braedon

what are you good at?: popping wheelies on my bike.

what are you not so good at?: making snow angels

what do you want to accomplish while you are 8?:  doing a bunny hop on my bike.

what is something funny about you?: that i always play fight with jacob.  it's fun.

WE SURE DO LOVE YOU OUR E-MAN!!

Easter 2012

7 months

(taken 04/05/12)

chase, you're 7 months and you're still trying to get that coordinated crawl down. you are however, managing to get around in your own way. you do what we call an inchworm. it's very cute. i'm pretty sure that you will be crawling any day now. you say hi at the cutest most random moments. happy seven months little guy.

half a year

that's right, chase. you are six months! i know it's cliche, but it's going too fast. you have been trying your hardest to crawl. you get up on all fours and rock back and forth. when that doesn't work, you rock harder and faster and it still doesn't work. it's very frustrating for you. your two bottom teeth started sprouting on 02/27 and you are so cute with those two little teeth, but man are they sharp! oh, and i still love that you say hi.

(taken 03/08/12)

and i can't help but stare at you when you look like this...

(taken 03/05/12)

afFLICtion or conFLICtion

so, in a very brief, weak moment i somehow ended up a cat owner.

i don't want a cat. for so many reasons. if you really want the run down call me.

on the way home we started talking about what this cat's name should be. i told ben that we needed to come up with a single word that means to be forced into something and that should be his name because that is how i felt. i quickly got on the thesaurus on my i-phone and one of the words was affliction. ben thinks it is an awesome name. so his name is affliction but we call him flic.

i didn't touch the cat for almost 48 hours. i really want him to go back. my kids are getting more and more bonded and the cat is getting more and more bonded to us. ben finally says he'll take the cat back if that's what i want. i told him that is what i want, but i don't want my kids to turn out like me when it comes to animals. (again, call me if you really wanna know.) ben laughed and said maybe his name should be confliction instead of affliction.

either way, we still call him flic. and we are still cat owners.

the end.

Noelle's #1 fan

(taken 03/14/12)

is it wishful thinking or is she predicting the future? time will tell! she really means to say that she is taylor swift's #1 fan, but this is how it all came out and it still remains taped to her wall. too funny not to document. love that girl!

broken

ben's broken. it's just temporary. as a matter of fact today, 04/15/12 is his first day back to work. he broke his shoulder on 02/27/12 at work on a fire. he didn't know it at the time. he came home from work hurting. i went to work the next day and that night he was hurting bad enough to go get it checked out. poor guy NEVER complains about anything.

it was bad enough to get surgery...or so they thought. they got inside and were surprised that no repairs were necessary and that everything was healing quite nicely. we were glad that the surgery was not as extensive as they thought was needed.

my mom came to our rescue AGAIN. i say again because she came out the end of january and beginning of february to help us out when i had to attend some classes for my job in phoenix. anyways, as soon as we found out that ben was going to be out of work for awhile and that he needed to rest his arm i started making phone calls to see if anyone was able to help. i wasn't expecting anything from anyone, but knew that if i was going to make my training for my job work and get ben's shoulder better we were going to need to get some kind of help so that he didn't have to lift baby and what not. i really did not expect that she was going to be able to work it all out and within 10 minutes she called me back and her and john had worked it all out. let me tell you, there was a lot that she had to work out!! people would not think it because she is, by all technicalities, retired. The label "retired" does not fit her in any sense of the word, but she came...for a whole month! i know, i am spoiled.

i felt so guilty and blessed at the same time that she had just been here and she was coming back for a whole month. but she said that i needed it and so did john. he was so gracious to let her come. last minute john was able to come too. he came and stayed for the last week and a half of her stay. i will be forever grateful for their willingness to drop everything that is important to them in their lives to come take care of my family despite their responsibilities in their own home. they made such a stressful situation to my family seem like no big deal...and despite the circumstances we had so much fun having grandma & grandpa kelley here. i could go on and on and on about what they did for us and the gratitude that both ben and i feel at this whole situation. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

5 months old

(taken 02/05/12)

chase, you're still a delight. chunkier and cuter. i'm sorry you had to go through rsv this past month. thanks for taking it like a champ. thanks for still letting me cuddle you pretty much whenever i want. oh, and you're saying hi now and it is about the cutest thing ever. it takes people off guard, because let's face it, it is a little funny that a 5 month old is saying hi!

RSV

i had to attend some classes down in phoenix as part of my labor & delivery training. my poor little guy caught rsv. he was fine while we were down there where the oxygen is a little thicker. within an hour and a half of returning to the mountain we were in the er with him.

poor little guy. he was a trooper though. he really wasn't very fussy and slept good through it all. the only reason we felt we needed to get him some help was because of how fast he was breathing and, of course, this made eating a challenge. i think that the er staff also wondered how sick he really was because he was still so happy and "talkative" with them. so we came home with the nebulizer. he really did not it. the important thing is that he's okay now.

taken 02/02/12

l & d

i mentioned in an earlier post that our family was going to have some big changes with the coming year and that i would explain more later.

well, the first of the changes happened in january. a couple of weeks after i had chase, i received a call from my work and was offered a part time position in labor & delivery. i was elated and heart broken all at the same time. l & d is something i've always been passionate about and always thought that i would do, but thought that now was neither the time nor season for it with just having a baby. prior to this time, i worked on a very minimal basis in post partem and it was, what i considered a perfect situation for my family. taking this position would mean that i would need to work full time while i train which would be approximately six months and then when training is complete i am committing to work 2 nights a week.

when contemplating writing this post, i really thought that i was going to go into all the nitty gritty details of how ben and i came to the decision that we came to. however, i decided that some of the details are a little too personal for a public post. so if any of you really want to know for whatever reason, go ahead and ask me. it's not too personal to share with people who really want to know and care. i may actually decide to post all about it in a future post. it would also probably be a lengthy post and right now at this moment, i just really want to get my family happenings all caught up since i'm 4 months behind!

so, long story short, after going over the pros and cons and much prayer i accepted the position. i'm about 2 1/2 months into training and i love it. i don't know why i am suppose to be doing this right now at this crazy, busy time in my life and with all that i have on my plate but i am suppose to do this. i thought that my family was going to go crazy through all of this, but i have an amazing, supportive husband that just takes care of everything in my absence. he knows that i am a neurotic, perfectionist freak and that i stress and worry over every LITTLE thing. i make a big deal out of little things and out of every little detail. i am so lucky to have him during all of this.

i think that one of the reasons that i am suppose to do it right now is because the trainer that i have right now is available to train me. i didn't ask her permission if i can talk about her so i won't mention her by name. i'll just brag about her. she is amazing. i don't just want to be able to do my job, i really want to be awesome with it and i hate that it takes so much time to just be competent. i want it to just come to me and be able to do it so that i can work on being awesome at it. does that make any sense? and then to top it all off, i still have a breastfeeding baby so i HAVE to take breaks to go pump. i don't want to take 10-15 breaks to pump because i just want to get done with my training and understand what i am doing. well, watching my trainer in action makes me feel so lucky...no blessed to have her yet so incredibly incompetent because she is so great and makes it all look so easy. i just want to be able to do this. but, she pushes me and stretches me and is really helping me to grow. the fact that i graduated in 2002, but then did not work pretty much until the very end of 2008 meant that i really had forgotten and lost the limited skill set that a new grad has. so even though i started working in post partem in 2008, there are just some skills that i have not had the opportunity until now to use since i was in school. i am feeling incredibly inadequate and overwhelmed by this opportunity, but i love it and again my trainer is just amazing. she keeps pushing me and cheering me along and i hope when i grow up that i can be half as awesome as she is! i love her!! i am just trying to soak up every little ounce of knowledge from her that i can while i am with her because my training period is just flying by. she has to repeat so many things to me because there is so much to learn in one day that the only way to retain it is by repetition. i really just want to get it and be a rockstar at this and i just have to accept that this is going to take time and i am NOT a patient person. i am so glad that my trainer is being so patient with me! all of the girls i have worked with are amazing...i work with the best of the best.

i have learned a ton, but i still have a long way to go. thanks trainer...i will never be able to thank you enough or repay you, but i will do my best to try. you know who you are and YOU ROCK!!!

p.s. if i get her permission, i will mention her by name in future posts because she deserves it.

Science project

The beginning of February was science project time. We worked hard on science projects this year. Noelle REALLY wanted a special award (not just 1st place). She's a little on the competitive side.

Let me back up a little. Halloween 2011 we went to our church's trunk-or-treat/chilli cook-off/halloween party. At the party there was a little costume parade for the kids and then awards were handed out for best costumes. All of the kids got a ribbon, not just the winners. After ribbons were handed out, Noelle came to Ben and said, "Look Dad. I got a participant ribbon." Ben responded, "Cool, Ellie." To which Ellie replied, "No it's not, Dad. It's a participant ribbon. Everyone got one." We had to laugh and Ben says that she is my child. I guess I was a little competitive growing up. Sometimes I still wrestle with slightly competitive feelings, but for the most part I've had to give them up as I no longer have the time or energy. My time and energy now go into making sure I raise my kids to be the best kids ever...err...I mean my time and energy now go into raising good, honest, smart, compassionate kiddos.

Anyway, one morning in the midst of trying to pull Noelle's science project together, Noelle woke up and explained that she had a dream that she didn't finish her science project so she turned it in unfinished and earned a participant ribbon. This was no dream to her. This was a nightmare.

No worries though. We did finish. We got it turned in. She did not win the special award, but she did earn herself a first place ribbon. Great job, Noelle!

chase is 4 months

Chase 4 months old (taken 01/05/12)

you are now 4 months old. we still couldn't adore you more. dad and i are pretty sure the cute, cherubic sprinkles container accidentally got dumped on you when you were made. your babbles, giggles and coos delight our house every day. you still talk like you know exactly what you're saying. i wish i understood your language. you lock everyone in to your conversation. you now not only roll from front to back, but also back to front. you still love your feet and i still love to watch you love them. i love getting to know you and watch you become more you. we love you chunky monkey!

chase with great grandpa poindexter. i just had to include this one because it was such an endearing photo and a great example of how you lock others into conversation. (taken 12/27/11)

chase's blessing

december 30, 2011 chase was blessed. we were able to coordinate having chloe and sophie blessed at the same time so we were able to have lots of family in town including great grandparents! so blessed to have such great family.

my kids didn't exactly cooperate by the time we got to chase so i missed most of chase's blessing but i was so happy that my sister-in-laws cindy and michelle were present to document the whole thing and what a beautiful blessing it was. thank you so much michelle and cindy. THANK YOU!!!

each of my kids have had a handmade blessing outfit from their grandma kelley and here is chase in his. each of the kids also have had a handmade blanket, most of them have been made by me. well this time around, i didn't get to it and when i received chase's blessing outfit in the mail my mom had also sent a blanket that she made. i never even told her that i wasn't going to get to it! mom's always know just what to do!!

he could not keep that tie out of his mouth. he loved it!

afterwards we went out to eat at a yummy chinese buffet.

the next night was new years eve and we partied it up with the all of the family that was in town most of the night. we were suppose to get on the road and come home on new years day, but ben went to put on his jeans and got stung 4 times by a scorpion. he survived. we really probably could have gone home, but ya know we didn't want to take any chances of him having an adverse reaction en route in the middle of no where ;). thanks to all of you family that took the time to come and for those of you who couldn't come you missed out...but thanks for supporting us from afar. we love you all!! (will try to post a pic of the whole group at the blessing later)

Christmas 2011

i know that this is a long overdue post. i am trying to catch up. i am way behind and i have a good reason which you will all see why in a future post. but, first things first...

i love Christmas! Christmas 2011 in the altop house was great!! i was scheduled to work so we sent our letters to santa a couple weeks prior asking him if he could come on the 26th instead. i ended up getting put on call and so we discovered when we got home from church that santa had come. because, even though we asked santa to come a different day, santa knew that i was home. santa knows everything! it was a great surprise for the kids and super fun. i still ended up having to go into work later on in the day, but atleast i got to enjoy all of the christmas festivities with the fam first.

the gift of the year was getting tickets to ride the polar express and staying at the lodge in williams, az. so the day after Christmas, we packed up and headed to williams. i love family trips. this was a smaller, shorter trip but still so much fun with all of the anticipation from the kids! here are some pics from the event.

waiting to board the Polar Express in the jammies of their choosing

arriving at the north pole, looking for santa.

and look who slept almost the whole way.

after our trip to the north pole, we went back to our room, watched movies and ate pizza in bed. the kiddos love staying in a hotel so the whole experience was a treat.