Snaggle Tooth...

You know how they always pray at the start of Church basketball games that none of the players will get hurt?  Someone forgot to pray for the fans...

We were cheering at Tom's game and Brooke had one of her friends accidentally slam a bathroom stall door into her face... Her face was fine.  Her tooth, not so much...

It hurt a surprisingly little amount.  But Brooke really, really, REALLY didn't want to go anywhere with her broken tooth. 

 Luckily we know a super hero.  Our friend Jonathan is a dentist.  Who had the day off.  And whose whole office was closed that Friday.  He came in on his own time and fixed Brooke up.  I got to play "hygienist".  I'm pretty sure I wasn't any help, but I did have a great time sucking her cheeks and lips into the sucker thing...

 All finished and looking great!  Jonathan did an amazing job and Brooke's teeth look perfect.  

 I am so thankful for wonderful, unselfish, Christlike friends who understand the trauma that a 9 year-old girl was feeling.  Thank you Walkers!

Don't her teeth look great?

Braces next...

Follow-up on Sam...

Here's some follow up on Sam since her appointments in December.  She's on the higher dosing of vitamins and we saw a definite increase in her energy and talking (not clearer speech, but more talking, period.  She gets quieter and quieter the more tired she gets).  It's hard to say if the increase in vitamins is what made the difference or the almost four weeks off school she had.  Now that she's back, we're watching to see what happens.  She's not quite as great as she was two weeks ago, but is still better than she was.  As hard as we fought to get her in school, if it's too hard and causing her to not do well, we'll pull her and figure that out in kindergarten when she has to go... We're giving it a couple of months and we'll see where she is.
Her GI stuff is not better.  She's on Miralax (sorry for details here...) and her stools are softer, but she always complains that her bum hurts a lot and that her tummy's always full.  She's been so miserable that I took her to see her pediatrician (who we love).  Turns out she has some tears and the only way to fix that is to keep working on the constipation.  The doctor ordered some x-rays of her stomach to make sure she wasn't backed up higher up.  The x-rays showed that she is impacted up higher in her GI tract and the Miralax is just letting some stuff leak around, but isn't fixing the real problem.  So we've upped her to a LOT of Miralax every day instead of a little every other day.  We'll do this for 2 weeks, then cut it down a little for 2 more weeks, the get some more films and go from there.  I can't tell yet, in a week, that she's feeling better, but she's certainly not feeling worse.  Which is nice.
I think overall Sam's doing better and I wish you all could have been with her two Saturday's ago.  She was funny.  She was busy.  She was sweet.  She was happy.  She was wonderful.  It made me recognize how unhappy she'd been.  It was great to see her so happy and "normal".
I just love this little girl so much!

Hell Froze Over.

(don't you think that's what Hell would look like all frozen over?  Minus my family, of course...)

Why is it frozen?

April's on skis.

I'm actually trying to learn how to ski this year... I've done a few runs before, but only a couple and only managed to knock my children down... This year one of the ski instructors (not related to me) is helping me learn.  I'm doing all right.  And I almost liked it the last time we went...

Twin Day

One of the spirit days the girls' school does is twin day.  For the first time in a really, really, really long time, the girls let me dress them the same.  We tried to convince them to trick their teacher, but they didn't think that was such a good idea... But all the kids and their teacher were confused all day anyway.... 

Erin & Alix

 Aren't they cute?  

 And a look back in time... This is when they were almost three weeks old.

 And to think I used to think no one would believe me they were identical because they looked so different... I was crazy.  So let's pretend I know who is who in this picture and call it Erin on the left and Alix on the right.  I'm 90% sure I'm right and if I can't tell, they won't be able to either... (Chalk me up for another Mom of the Year award...)

 2 years old...

 And last summer... Erin (l) Alix (r)

Kinda makes you want to be a twin, doesn't it?

Better late than never...

We had a big snow/ice storm a couple of weeks ago.  Here are some shots from our yard...

This tree is really about thirty feet long, it keeps going all the way to the bottom of the hill.  We got lucky.  Lots of big branches down, but just the one tree.  Lots of other people weren't so lucky.

Japanese Maple in back

Japanese maple in front.  

All the weeds/grass on our hill.

I wish this picture showed it better.  Tom's car was covered in an inch of solid ice.  The snow was iced over, the sides were solid ice.  It was like a glass car.

Brooke reading to the girls by glow stick.

Swinging glow sticks around hoping to not hit your sister...

Sleeping arrangement in front of the fireplace.

The girls actually booed (I cheered) when the power finally came back on.  We had a great time and made some really fun memories.

Quote of the Day...

I'd just gotten all the (rowdy, crazy) girls to bed when Sam popped up and told me I'd forgotten to give her her medicine.  Which was true.  So she hopped out of bed, and on her way down the stairs, shouted this to her (still stuck in bed) sisters...
"See ya later, suckers!"

Talking Sense

While driving home from the ski hill, somehow our conversation turned into a math story problem.  Me, being me, was doing the wrong math.  Tom, being Tom (aka - the math wiz...), was getting frustrated at my lack of understanding (aka - idiocy...).  He was explaining the "correct" (and "correct" is only in quotes because it's Tom who was right.  When I'm right, it's never in quote marks...) way of figuring it out.  Here's a little how it went from there...

 me - "Don't yell at me.  I'm just trying to understand!"  

Tom- "I'm not yelling.  I'm just trying to talk some sense into you..."

me - "Well don't talk sense so loudly..."

And then we started laughing.  And I did eventually figure out why my math wasn't quite working right... Heaven (or Tom) help my children when they need help with math homework...

And aren't we young and cute in this picture?  Brooke was just three weeks old...  And Tom had hair.

Quote of the Day...

Brooke and her friends are very much into playing with makeup right now.  Every time we have someone over, they play "salon".  And come out looking like zombies (on purpose) or clowns (thinking they're glamorous...).  So I was teaching Brooke and her friend how to really put on some makeup up.  I finished Brooke and when she walked out of the bathroom, her friend said this...

"Whoa!  You look just like your mom.  Right down to the really big nose!"

Uh huh.  Sorry Brooke... =)

Inside and Out...

It's snowing here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.  We're predicted to get over a foot of accumulation tonight...

 Which is about what I have in my living room...

(That's a lot of coats, snow pants, mittens, hats, mittens, boots, mittens, hats and mittens... It's wet snow.  One pair of mittens lasts about half an hour...)

Great Joy

I was reading my Patriarchal Blessing the other day and it reminded me that I would find great joy in the raising of my children.  Great Joy.  

It's good to be reminded.  Great Joy.  I choose Great Joy over frustration and impatience.  I choose Great Joy over dishes or house work.  I choose Great Joy over sadness or loneliness.  I choose Great Joy over feelings of inadequacy or doubt.  I choose Joy.