February was FUN!

February was a blast for our family!

First of all back in November I was listening to the radio and they were giving away free Brad Paisley tickets if you could name the song they were playing backwards. Well I knew the song, called in, and got through, and guess what? I won FREE TICKETS!! This concert was a very much needed break for me and Tyler. It was seriously one of the best concerts we have been to. Brad Paisely is such a good entertainer, and we knew almost every single song. Seriously, it was so much fun!

 Our whole family went to the Utah gymnastics meet for the Princess and Hero night. The kids had so much fun running around to get pictures with all the characters... everyone, that is, except Brynn. She wanted to meet all of the characters, she just didn't want to be by them, so in every picture she is hiding behind Makayla. It was pretty hilarious.

We also went to a few women's basketball games. All the cousins got to run down on the court to give high fives to the team as they ran out. 

 Brynn loves Swoop, (or Soup, as she calls him) from a distance, but does not like him when he gets up close.

She prefers the bobble head fake Swoop. 

 But not Caden, he loves Swoop!

 Cam is hilarious. Tracy stuck a ball in his hoodie and he didn't even flinch.

And this expression... I have no words. He's just so cute and funny!

 Thanks Terry, for photo bombing.

 Brynn has quite the imagination. She loves Doc McStuffins and asks to watch it every morning. She set up her "clinic" one day and was taking such good care of her toys.

Just randomness here, but sometimes when I ask Brynnli to do something she tells me, "Yes, your queen!" I have no idea where she learned that from but it cracks me up every time. 

 Roger came into town for the Super Bowl and so we snapped a few family photos.

 Makayla got to be the Star Student for the week and made a poster.

 She also was awarded the "Leader in Me" award, so we got to go to an assembly where her Principal, Mr. Ichimura and her teacher,  Mrs. Anderson presented her with a certificate and treat.

 Makayla's favorite thing to do is to have "M and M" day (Mom and Makayla), so we went to Subway for lunch and ran some errands. Makayla informed me that she only likes to go to Wal Mart when we run errands and not the other boring places.

 Sometimes reading books is so exhausting!

 We have had a few good snow storms lately. It seriously took me 20 minutes to get these three all ready to go outside and guess how long they lasted... not even 15 minutes.

They have more fun when Daddy goes out there with them and builds them a sledding hill. He's such a good dad!

 Caden got to take his box car to school for a special parade.

 Terry and Craig got us free Grizzlies tickets, so we took the whole family to the game. As you can tell, some of us enjoyed it more than others.

The Tooth Fairy Has Been Busy At our House

This post requires a little background information. When Brynnli was about 18 months old she was climbing the play set outside and fell off and knocked her front tooth loose. I took her into our previous dentist, and without doing a thorough check up, he determined that her tooth was fine, but that we should look for signs of yellow discoloring. Well fast forward about a year and a half and a new dentist. I took all of the kids in for their routine cleanings back in December and I asked our new dentist if Brynn's tooth looked yellow. I had also noticed that despite brushing her teeth, she frequently had really bad breath. The dentist started examining her teeth and found an infection spot above the tooth that had been knocked loose. After doing an x-ray he told me that the baby tooth was dying and needed to be pulled out. I told him no. He had to find another way to fix it. He was very patient with me, but basically told me there was nothing else to do if we didn't want to risk possibly causing damage to the permanent tooth. I left the appointment in tears and sat in the car for a long time bawling, trying to explain things to Tyler. This was a rough time for our family, with a lot of things going on with Hannah staying at our house, so what would normally be a bad situation, was devastating. Well fast forward a few months, and although I was not entirely (and am still not) happy about the situation, we decided to have Brynn's baby tooth pulled.

Here she is on the morning of her appointment. We tried to explain as best we could what would happen that day, but Brynnli didn't really understand any of it. 

We decided to have her put out so the whole experience would be less traumatic for her. They gave her a shot that kind of put her out and then they carried her back to the room to do the IV sedation. After literally 15 minutes (and $300 later in anesthesia out of pocket costs) we were finally able to go back to see her. The procedure went great and the dentist said there was an infection pocket that came out with the tooth.

Brynn was hilarious coming out of anesthesia. She was slurring her words and really making no sense. 

After about an hour, she was cleared to go home. She watched a movie and was perfectly fine. She really didn't even notice that her tooth was gone. 

The next night we put her tooth under the pillow for the tooth fairy to get and leave her a surprise. Brynn didn't really understand what was going on, so she didn't want to put her tooth under her pillow. Despite us trying to reassure her, Brynn was "very scared of the toof fairy".

The next morning, however, Brynn was excited to see the tooth fairy brought her a coloring book, crayons, and some money.

Then just a few days later, Makayla's front tooth was getting really loose. She really wanted to lose her tooth at school because she could pick out a tooth necklace. Well on Friday, February 23rd, Makayla came bouncing in the house from school to show me her toothless grin. She lost it at school and got the necklace she had been wanting.

I never thought both of my girls would lose their front tooth at the same time. Look how cute they are!

A few days later Brynn went in to get her fake tooth put in. Daddy took her in because we knew it would be a rough procedure. Brynn was great at the beginning watching a show

However, the rest of the appointment didn't go that well. I guess Brynnli screamed the whole time and it took Tyler, the dentist, and the assistant to hold her down. But in the end they got it in...

Unfortunately this is the story that doesn't end. The next day the band around her tooth broke and we had to go back in to have them take the whole thing out. It took a few weeks for them to fix it and when we went back in (a much better appointment this time) the band didn't fit, so they had to send it back again. Hopefully when we get the tooth back in a few weeks it will actually fit this time.

In the mean time, the tooth fairy better be saving up her money because our kids are losing teeth pretty fast around here!

Tyler Turns 35

35! Tyler is 35 this year!

We love any day we can celebrate our favorite Daddy around here and this year was no exception!

When Daddy got home from work we let him open his presents. We got him a new razor and the kids made sure he got his Oreos. 

We went to dinner and then topped off the night with Daddy's favorite ice cream... Leatherby's Cookie Concoction.

The next day, February 17th Tyler and I went out on a date for his birthday. Tyler has always talked about Tuscany, but I was reluctant to go. Well since it was his birthday, he got to pick. I guess I should have listened to him because our dinner was SO GOOD! Tyler got lamb shank (weirdo) and I got salmon. We had the perfect spot in the restaurant, right by the fireplace, and the best dessert. It was a perfect night celebrating my favorite guy in the whole world!

 I can't say enough about Tyler. He is the rock of our family. This last year has been pretty rough for our family from stressful job, to new jobs, to ongoing drama with my family, yet through it all he has been the steady one. He has been there to calm everyone down, to look at things logically, to find the positive in everything, and to make a joke to make everyone laugh. I love that I get to be his wife. I love that our kids have such a good example of a loving, caring, and hard working husband and dad. I am so excited to spend eternity with him because I just love him so much! 35 is looking pretty good on you, babe!

Love Is In The Air

Ha ha! Happy Valentine's Day!

 Here's a few pictures of our cute cuties before they headed off to school for their valentine's day fun.

 Aww... See, they really do like each other!

 Caden got to make his own valentine's box this year and with the help of Daddy they made the coolest Lego Ninja box. Caden is a little obsessed with Ninjago lately, so this was the perfect thing for him.

 Wednesdays are busy days for us so when we got home from dance Daddy had our dinner all ready for us. We had steak, salad, rolls and red punch... on our Halloween table cloth.

 And the best part? Dessert! This year we had sugar cookies and chocolate covered strawberries.

 And what did Tyler and I get each other to celebrate our love? Well I didn't get Tyler anything and he regifted this from his work.

I guess Costco must have been out of chocolates and flowers this year? 

You know you've been married too long when this gives you the best laugh of your day. 

Love this family of mine!