I just can't get enough of the news right now about McCain's VP pick. Although I am worried about her years of experience what I know and have read about her I am very excited about. She seems truly conservative and willing to stand up and say no to big government. She is the only person on either ticket with any executive experience. She also understands energy/oil and the political issues around that. She's very conservative, but not your traditional "old while male" conservative.
I am more excited about her than I have ever been about McCain!

Yes, I love TV. I admit it. There are a lot of shows that I like to watch. I am really looking forward to next month when new show start again. The Olympics where fun, and I do like to watch the political conventions. But it's not the same as having a good drama to watch at night after the kids go to bed. Anyone else excited for new shows to start again?

Grant got his tubes put in yesterday. He did great and it went off with out a hitch. The surgery was only 12 minutes long. One cool thing is that they let me put on scrubs and carry him to take him back into the OR. I got to help hold him down while they put his mask on. It was really cool to be part of that yet at the same time really sad to see him scream so hard with the mask muffling the sound. But everything went fine.

I hope this helps a lot with his ears and makes for a happier baby!

Well I wanted to spend my birthday with my family doing something fun. So we decided to go to 6 Flags Marine World. We had such a great day!


The kids loved all the animals and had so much fun. We saw a lot of the animal shows and I got to touch a sting ray which was neat. Paige and Mitchell got totally soaked because they sat in the front row of the killer whale show!

Happy Birthday to me!
I had a great day and will blog about it tomorrow (too tired now to find the camera and load the photos).
Thanks for all the phone calls wishing me a happy birthday. It was a great one!

So, for the last few months while the children have been home all summer I obviously had to take all four of them with me every time I went to the store. My mission became to get in and out of Target as quickly as I could with causing the smallest of damage to the store as possible. It is amazing the havoc my four small kids can bring upon a store.
Well this morning Paige and Mitchell headed off to school and then a bit later Harrison went to playgroup/preschool and Grant and I took off for Target. Man, it was great! I only had one child making demands rather than all four. I was able to browse a little rather than my usual mission of in and out ASAP.
I love my kids but shopping without all four of them is heaven.

Well they're off to school! They were both so excited that I couldn't get them to eat breakfast this morning. Matt gave them a school blessing last night and then helped me take photos of them this morning and even dropped them off at school for me.
Here are some photos! It was cool this morning so when Matt took the camera outside the lens frosted over so they are blurry. Bummer!

So here are some quick updates with my kids....

Paige is really growing up. She doesn't like to watch the same shows her brothers watch very often but I don't like a lot of junk that is on the TV for her age so I am always looking for movies for her to watch. It is really fun that she is now into movies that I like to watch too. She really loved Karate Kid (which is one of my favs). She also liked Goonies, and Newsies. Any suggestions for movies that would interest her?
Also she auditioned for a play last week. It will be another week until we know if she got a part. Cross your fingers!

Mitchell is loving soccer. He only has one more week left so I need to bring my camera next time and see if I can get some fun photos of him. He is also very excited to start school on Monday.

Harrison has this new saying that cracks me up every time he says it. He always comes up to me and says, "Mom, I have a question for you." The way he says question is hilarious. He then asks a million WHAT questions. My other kids always hit the WHY phase about this age but Harrison never asks why....it is always WHAT is......??? He knows the answer to most of the questions he asks but he still asks them anyways. He will go on and on until I say NO MORE!

Grant is doing something that I love to see all babies do. He is trying to jump. I love it because it is so impossible at this age but he still keeps trying. He only gets his ankles off the ground and it is so cute to watch him try his little heart out.

Our family is loving this Olympics this year. I had a lot of fun watching the Opening Ceremonies with Paige.
I have fun memories watching the Olympics with my mom and dad when I was a kid so it is fun for me now that Paige is old enough to be interested in them. She really likes watching the swimming.

I can't believe it's been 11 years since Matt and I got married.
I just wanted to take a moment and tell him how much I love him and how important he is to me. I almost didn't do this because I am not a good writer and I have a really hard trying to explain what is in my heart....but I thought it would be at least worth the try.

Matt is such a good husband to me. He never criticizes me....ever. He never tells me what to do, he never gets mad at me and he is always so patient with me. Matt is my other half and I would be so lost with out him. He centers me and brings me comfort and peace.

He works so hard to support our family and he never complains about it. He is the hardest worker I know and I appreciate him letting me stay home with our kids.
He is also an amazing dad. He is never harsh or mean to the kids and always talks to them lovingly and is so patient with them. He is always there to cheer them on in whatever they are doing. The kids love him so much and can't wait every night until he comes home.

I am so appreciative that Heavenly Father brought us together and gave me the best husband I could ever have. Happy Anniversary Matt. I love you!

Well Grant gave us quiet a scare there for awhile. He went a total of 9 days without eating and drinking very little. We were debating on putting him the hospital so that he could get some IV fluids but then I decided to start pinning him down and forcing him to have some Pedi-sure. I did that for a couple of days and then he finally starting eating soft things again. He is not back 100 percent but he is eating now and doing much better. Thanks everyone who was so helpful!

The Youth in our Stake did a really cool Trek this last weekend.
You can read about it here in our local newspaper!
http://turlockjournal.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=2385&SectionID=21&SubSectionID=&S=1

Well I just finished the book. I have to admit it was my least favorite of the 4 books (5 including Host). It got better as it went along but I was a little frustrated knowing that all my Young Women at church were reading it and Meyers obsession with the topic of sex in the first 130 pages of the book. Just thought it was totally unnecessary and it was frustrating because the first three were so clean.
I was also frustrated with how Bella was a selfish, winy, teenager in the first three books and then she suddenly in an instant becomes this mature women and doesn't think of her self anymore. I also couldn't stand the real name of Ness....just weird.
Oh well....it was still a fun read.

WARNING....don't ream the comments if you don't want to read spoilers.

I took Grant to the ER last night because he wouldn't stop screaming. Turns out that the anti-biotics he is on has caused a horrible case of thrush in his mouth. So just in case you were keeping track in this last week Grant has
1) had a horrible cold
2) had 2 molars come in
3) had a double ear infection
4) had hand-mouth-foot
5) and had thrush

I know there are a lot of you who read my blog that have dealt with so much more in regards to dealing with your children's health problems and are probably sick of hearing my daily gripes of Grant but this is what is going on with me in my life right now so this is what I am writing about. ...and I appreciate everyone for putting up with me.

I think that since I got Grant the medicine for his thrush he is starting to turn the corner and feel better. He hasn't had a fever in about 12 hours which is a first in the last 6 days. But he has a lot of blisters all down his neck and about 6 on his tummy. The ER doctor said that both his ears still look really bad which is frustating because he has been on his third antibiotic (for this infection) for 7 days now.
I am hoping every day gets a little better.

Poor Grant. He has been SO unbelievably miserable the last few days. He hasn't slept or stopped crying for 5 days now. Yesterday we finally found out why. He has Hand-Foot-Mouth. This is all new to me because none of my kids have had it before. He has blisters on his face around his lipsand down his chin. And he has a mouth, throat and tounge full of little cancer sores.
When I found out what he had I called Matt at work and was telling him what was going on. Mitchell was crying because I thought he was upset I made him get off of the computer. I wasn't very patient with him because of the stress of taking care of a sick baby and so I was yelling at him to stop crying about the computer. When I got off of the phone Mitchell was still crying so I asked him what the heck was wrong with him. He told me through his tears that he was sad and didn't want Grant to die. He had heard the word disease (Hand-foot-mouth disease) and somehow thought that meant cancer and was crying cause he thought Grant was going to die. I am such a horrible mom sometimes :( !
This is supposed to last 7-10 days and we are on day 5 with no signs of stopping anytime soon. Pray for me that I make it the next 5 days and that Grant feels better soon.