Stephen's Birthday!

Saturday was Stephen's 2nd birthday. We celebrated with a family party at my mom's house (she has more room and makes yummy pizza). Stephen loves Finding Nemo and the beach so we tried to have a Nemo/beach theme. It turned out really well and the pizza was delicious (thanks mom!) We missed Grandma and Grandpa Smith - they were at a funeral in Oklahoma that weekend. Stephen had a lot of fun and didn't have any tantrums until the end of the party (it was his nap time). His favorite part of the party was singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles. (The first thing he said when he woke up that morning was "cake, blow out candles!") After the guests left we blew out the candles a few more times just for fun! The first few pictures are of my mom and I putting together the pizzas. Then, you see Stephen opening his gifts. He received some really fun things but I think he has used that step stool the most! He likes to be "so tall" and he carries it around the house and stands on it to get into things...its real purpose is for potty training! Oh, that group of people who look very bored are our guests! Then you see the cake and Stephen blowing out the candles. Finally, there is a picture of the kids eating cake at the little table. Ha ha - I just realized that Stephen is the only one who has cake in that picture!! Stephen's friend, Anden, looks like he is a little jealous. Yes, we did give all of the kids cake. The other two cuties are Stephen's cousins, Talan and Atley. Thanks for coming guys! Happy birthday to my sweet little boy!

Health Update

Yea!! We are all alive and well again! Everyone in the family has made a full recovery from all ailments. Stephen is going to have tubes put in his ears tomorrow...I am a little nervous about that one...but I've heard it is not really a big deal. It is so much better when everyone in the family is well! Hopefully we can all manage to not get sick again for at least a few weeks!

More Drugs Please

It turns out that Stephen is allergic to the antibiotics that we have been giving him for the last few days. He didn't seem to be getting any better and was soooooooooo irritable beyond anything I have ever seen. Also, he wouldn't eat. We finally figured out what was wrong on Saturday (we started the antibiotics on Tuesday) when he broke out in hives. After a call to the doctor we were told that we should stop giving him the antibiotics and start giving him Benadryl. Uhhhhhhh but he still has a double ear infection, remember? We are supposed to call on Monday and get a new prescription to start. I am sick of administering the medicine - luckily he likes taking it but unfortunately it gives him a terrible diaper rash. He seems to be doing much better over all - the hives are gone and he is eating now. He is still pretty grouchy but we keep him on Tylenol and Benadryl so he is sedated... that isn't necessarily on purpose but he fell asleep in church for the first time since he was a tiny baby! Hopefully we can get him all better before his birthday on Saturday!

Sick, Sick, and Sicker

It all started with Scott... He picked up some nasty cold bug at school and has been hacking up a lung and in misery for over a week now, poor guy. He can't sleep at night and, don't think I am cruel, I am kind of tired of listening to him cough.

Then, Stephen started to get a runny nose...didn't we just go through this two weeks ago? Yes, yes we did. So after a day or two of green nose snot and a morning of eyes glued shut by eye snot (sorry to be graphic but that is seriously what it looks like) I took Steve to the doctor again and guess what?? He has a double ear infection AGAIN! We literally just stopped with the atibiotics two weeks ago and here we are again! This time we got a referral for an ear nose and throat specialist along with the antibiotics prescription because Steve has had so many ear infections. (I don't think he ever got over the last one and it just came back worse than before).

Back to Scott - so last night he tells me that he feels the cough "settling in his lungs" and he feels like a weight is pushing on his chest. So I made him a doctor appointment too (I don't remember having two children....just one...) and he ended up with two prescriptions - one antibiotic and one extra powerful cough syrup that he is not supposed to take if he is planning to drive. (It's the good stuff!) When we went to pick up his prescription they told him that his insurance card was no good!?!!!! This is insanity since he has been using it for months now without any problem. So, we ended up paying $50 for the drugs with a hope that we can get the insurance issue straightened out and eventually get a reimbursement.

This has been a long week with my two sickies at home - they are so grouchy... which makes me a little irritable myself. Oh, and did I mention that my throat is sore?

It's not number 1 or number 2 ... it's number 8!

Stephen had a dirty diaper that was stinking up Grandma Smith's living room so I plopped him on the couch to change him. Well, imagine my surprise when I opened his diaper to find this!

It is a foam number 8 which is part of a set of letters and numbers Stephen was playing with at Grandma Quist's house an hour or so earlier. The number was exactly in the position you see in the picture when I opened his diaper and we have no idea how it got there! If you look closely, you will notice that Stephen is wearing a "onesie" and up until shortly before this incident he was wearing long pants with a button and zipper! We can only guess that he shoved the number down the neck of his shirt and it worked its way into his diaper somehow... Luckily, there was no poopy on it but we still sanitized it. Everyone in the room was laughing and crying hysterically, including Stephen!

A Good Way to Remember

I was reading a friend's blog and she had posted this article about 9/11. I am not sure where it is from but it really touched me when I read it.


How many of us have heard the question "Where was your God when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked?" Well I know where my God was the morning of September 11, 2001, and He was very busy.He was trying to discourage anyone from taking those flights. Those four planes together held over 1000 passengers and there were only 266 aboard. He was on 4 commercial flights giving terrified passengers the ability to stay calm. Not one of the family members who were called by a loved one on one of the hijacked planes said that passengers were screaming in the background. On one of the flights He was giving strength to passengers as they overtook the hijackers.

He was busy trying to create obstacles for employees at the World Trade Center. After all, only around 20,000 were at the towers when the first jet hit. Since the buildings held over 50,000 workers, this was a miracle in itself. How many of the people who were employed at the World Trade Center told the media that they were late for work or had traffic delays? He was holding up two 110-story buildings so that 2/3 of the workers could get out. Wasn't it amazing that the towers didn't topple when the jets impacted? And when they did fall, they fell inward. God didn't allow them to topple over, as many more lives would have been lost. And when the buildings went down, my God picked up almost 6,000 of his children and carried them home with Him. Reassuring his frightened children that the worst was over and the best was yet to come.

He sat down and cried that 19 of his misguided children could have so much hate in their hearts. That they didn't choose Him, but another god that didn't exist, and now they are lost. He sent His children who were best trained for this disaster and had them save the few that were still alive, but unable to help themselves. And then sent many others to help in anyway they were needed.

He still wasn't finished, though. He held in His arms the ones that were left behind. He comforts them daily. And I believe He will continue to help us in what is to come. He will give the people who lead this great nation the strength and the wisdom to do the right thing. He will never leave us in our time of need.

Last Call!

This is the last call for sending me your email address! Tomorrow I am taking this blog private so if you want to be able to access it still, send me a comment with your email! I already have most people that look at it I think...

Yucky Pizza

Tonight we had some Red Barron frozen pizza for dinner. Stephen loves pizza so I thought this would be a piece of cake dinner without any battles. Well, apparently my little son has a very discerning palette and does not care for this brand of pizza. (Okay, when you compare it to my mom's homemade pizza it doesn't come close). He picked at it, eating some of the cheese off of the top and taking bites, chewing them for a moment and then spitting them out in disgust. Well, being the responsible mom that I am, I decided that he needed to eat at least "two bites of pizza" before he could get down. It was a mistake. He was absolutely determined not to eat it and because I couldn't blame him I didn't have the heart to enforce my demand. He kept saying things like "no, yucky!" and "crap" and "it's gross." (The use of the word crap is an entirely different story.) I watched Stephen throw his slice of pizza on the floor for Kloie the dog to eat. He kept saying "good girl Kloie!" over and over as she ate it. It was all I could do not to laugh because I just couldn't blame him. Luckily, Scott is much more firm than me even though he also thought it was pretty funny. He patiently talked and reasoned with Stephen and eventually triumphed. Next time I insist on Stephen eating something, I am going to make sure it is worth the effort (green beans, corn...healthy stuff)!

"So cool, mommy!"

This little story actually happened a few weeks ago but I have to share. I took Stephen shopping and we met up with my mom and sister Chery (before she went to BYU obviously). We wandered around Tilley's for a while - this is apparently Stephen's favorite store now - he loved it for some reason. Then, we wandered over to a shoe store next door. After watching us ladies try on a few pairs of shoes, Stephen became facinated with those little nylon socks that the store provides for trying on shoes. He asked Aunt Chery to put some on him, which she did, over his flip flops! You can see how that turned out. It was hillarious because he looked so goofy and kept prancing around saying "so coo mommy!" We laughed and laughed because he was so cute! Obviously all of that prancing wore him out too. This little guy always keeps me laughing!

Stephen's Toe (and Ear)

I realized that I never mentioned how Stephen's doctor appointment turned out. Apparently, there is nothing that could be done for his toe . . . anymore. If I had brought him in sooner they would have been able to drain some of the blood but I waited too long and it was clotted and would just take a long time to go away. Well, that night Scott and Steve were wrestling and Steve's toe got a little roughed up and started bleeding a little. I put a band-aid on it and sent him to bed. The next day his toe looked as good as new! You would never even know that anything traumatic had happened to it! I was a little irritated because I realized that the doctor (actually it was a CPN) was wrong and could have drained it after all. I wish that I had a picture of what his toe looked like before... no one would ever believe how nasty and purple and swollen it was. Sorry to ramble on about Stephen's toe but we live for those little dramatic moments in life! Fortunately, the doctor appointment wasn't a total waste of time. In a moment of mother's inspiration I had the CPN check his ears and she found an infection in one of them. No wonder he wasn't sleeping well!

Going Private II

Ok, I think I might have been a little confusing on this whole "update blog" thing. Really, all you have to do to is send me your email address and I will invite you. The other stuff I wrote about is totally optional and I did it only to make viewing my blog more convienient, So, don't worry about figuring it out if it doesn't make a lot of sense (the important part is your email)!