September...FAMILY FUN!

September was super busy but super fun!  October is going to be the same!

We did A LOT as a family this month.  The weather cooled down so we did a lot more outdoors which was nice.  I LOVE my little family:)

BIRTHDAY
My sweet Kayzee Lynn turned 3 on September 4th!  If you asked her how old she was she would always say 10.  Yes she definitely acts like she is 2 going on 10:)  She had a fun birthday and we got to do a lot!  I didn't plan a big party like we did with Memphis because her birthday just came too fast and life was crazy but we asked her what she wanted to do and we did it all!  We played all week long...here are some of the fun things we did to help Kayzee celebrate her birthday...

1-Play at Mommy's School:  My kids love to play at my school with all the fun PE equipment.  Here Danny pushed the kids on scooters so they would fly across the gym...

2-Go fishing:  Kayzee loves to go fishing with Daddy.  We usually go to the pond behind Lone Peak High School or to the Saratoga Dock.  We did both.  Kayzee was having fun posing for the camera.

3-Birthday Party: We asked Kayzee who she wanted to invite to a cake and ice cream party with presents.  She said her best friend Kate and neighbor Angela.  So we invited both families and we had a fun little party for Kayzee.  She LOVED all her gifts and says THANK YOU!  Those of you who sent money (grandma's and grandpa's) she got to go to the store and pick out a new toy.  She loved doing that so thank you!  And Mom...sorry I didn't get a picture of Kayzee with the presents you sent because the package came so much later and I forgot...SORRY!

4-Go out to eat:  We always sign our kids up for the free birthday meal to TGIFridays.  We drove all the way over there in bad traffic only to have it closed for renovations.  Kinda mad but Kayzee saw Texas Roadhouse next door and wanted to go there so that's where we ended up having her birthday meal.  It was yummy!  

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY KAYZEE LYNN!

Here are the birthday questions I asked Kayzee this year...

1-Favorite color? Pink

2-Favorite toy? Fairy's

3-Favorite fruit? Apples

4-Favorite TV show? PAW Patrol

5-Favorite food at lunchtime? Mac n Cheese

6-Favorite outfit? Princess dress-up

7-Favorite Game? Cards

8-Favorite snack? Fruit snacks

9-Favorite animal? Giraffe

10-Favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle

11-Favorite book? Fairy book

12-Who is your best friend? Kate

13-Favorite cereal? Dora cinnamon stars

14-What do you like to play outside? Sidewalk chalk

15-Favorite drink? Apple juice

16-Favorite holiday? Christmas

17-What do you like to sleep with at night? Lamby

18-Favorite breakfast? Strawberry pop tart

19-What do you want for your birthday dinner? Rice and cheese

20-What do you want to be when you grow up? A princess!

Just something cool I noticed about Kayzee...when I asked Memphis these questions when he turned 3 he didn't answer them very well so I know he didn't understand the questions yet.  But asking Kayzee at age 3 she understood every question and answered them so well.  Kayzee has definitely developed mentally a lot faster than Memphis but Memphis has her beat when it comes to physical abilities.  

DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS

Kayzee had her last GI appointment at Primary Children's Hospital!  YAY!!!  It was getting really annoying driving that far and paying so much money for a specialist but it definitely helped and I am glad we got Kayzee back to normal with all her GI issues.  She is now being weaned off all the stimulants (ex-lax and miralax) and by January 1, 2014 she will be off everything and hopefully stays normal and doesn't go back to being constipated.   I think potty-training her helped a lot too in helping her go everyday.  Go Kayzee!

Kayzee also had her 3rd year well-visit check-up at the pediatrician.  The pediatrician was impressed by her drawing skills.  He isn't much help whenever I ask him for help with her sleeping problems so I will have to find someone else for that part of her life.  She is growing at a steady pace.  Here are her 3 year old stats:

Weight: 32 lbs (63%)

Height: 37.5 in (61%)

Because of her GI issues she has lost a lot of weight and gained a lot of weight so she is leveling out.  In fact both my kids have leveled out and are not growing as fast as they were.  I am actually LOVING this fact because they still fit in their winter clothes from last year so I don't have to buy anything this year.  AWESOME!  

NEW CALLINGS

Danny and I received new callings this month.  I have been the Relief Society pianist for the past 3 years so I was ready for a change.  Danny was an Elder's Quorum teacher for the past year and he loved it so he was not as excited for this new calling.  We are now Primary teachers together.  We have the 7 turning 8 group.  We actually lucked out and have the best class in the whole primary!  They are so good and so sweet.  We have 2 girls and 4 boys.  Danny has been struggling when it is his turn to teach the lesson only because he is used to teaching adults.  Being an elementary school teacher has helped me a lot in making the lessons fun and interesting for these kids so Danny is doing a lot better;)

We had our Primary Program on Sunday.  Memphis did really well sitting up on the stand for that long.  This year they had the kids write their own parts.  Memphis came up with his line and memorized it.  He said it with a frown on his face but he did great!

"I know I am a child of God because he loves me and I love him"

 Here are Memphis and Kayzee all dolled up and ready for church...sorry about the food in the picture. We have church at 11 and we give the kids a snack as we are leaving for church because they can't eat lunch till 2.  

PARK FUN
Because the weather has cooled down we have gone to a lot of parks to play as a family.  We went to Discovery Park in PG to play hide and seek.  That is the best park for hide and seek.  It was Daddy and Kayzee vs. Mommy and Memphis.  We also went to a bunch of other parks all over Utah County.  Fun times!

FAMILY WALKS
We go on walks as a family around our neighborhood every Sunday.  We have a mile route we like to go on.  There is a creek by our house and one day we found a huge crawdad.

PLAYING OUTSIDE

We also love to play outside.  Memphis loves to practice baseball.  He is getting really good at hitting the ball.  He also likes to hit golf balls with his Daddy.  And Kayzee loves to draw with sidewalk chalk.  Daddy and Memphis are the sport fanatics and Kayzee and I are the artistic ones:)  Kayzee loves to trace me when I am laying down.  Here is a butterfly and flower Kayzee drew.  She is amazing!

FAMILY NIGHT
We have family night every Monday and do a lot of fun things.  One night we went to Cold Stone.  YUMMY!

SCHOOL
School is going great this year.  All the 6th graders this year are so nice and so fun.  I don't have any behavior problems like I have had the past 8 years and with all new games I am having so much fun this year.  We also had an awesome BMX assembly at our school for red and green ribbon week (Drug Free and Safety).  They talked about bravery and natural highs.  Here is a picture of a jump over our principal...

ROYER TENNIS

We drove down to Mount Pleasant to see Danny's sisters play Tennis.  They are currently undefeated and headed to the state championships this coming weekend.  GO EMILY AND MARY!  We had a fun time visiting with everyone and enjoying a yummy lunch.  

5K WALK RUN BIKE

Our ward had a 5k on Saturday.  We could walk, run, or ride a bike.  We ended up just doing the 1 mile kid route.  It was freezing and Kayzee had to be pushed in a stroller but we still ran most of the mile (me pushing Kayzee and Memphis riding on Danny's shoulders) GO US!  The routes were around our neighborhood.  It was a lot of fun to do this activity with our friends, neighbors, and ward members.  We had a yummy breakfast after with everyone at the park by our house. 

   

What a great September!

One more post!

I had to get in one more post before September tomorrow.  I have crazy psychotic OCD (or so says my husband who just shakes his head at me during my craziness).  My OCD comes out bad when I am doing laundry and especially if you look in my closet.  But the reason I had to get one more post in before the next month starts is because of the pattern that I noticed this month regarding the number of posts I have posted each month.  I was looking through the right side of my blog the other day and I was looking at my blog archive and I noticed a pattern that my OCD is making me continue doing because if I don't it will drive me CRAZY!  Jan (1) Feb (2) Mar (1) Apr (2) May (1) Jun (2) Jul (1) and according to the pattern I have to do 2 posts this month so here is the 2nd one.  I. AM. CRAZY.

The week before we all got really sick which was the week before I started back to work the kids and I did a lot of fun things.

-Monday we went to Kangaroo Zoo (a giant bouncy play place my kids love).  We went with a friend and her kids from our ward.

 I was so amazed that Kayzee climbed right up this huge slide with Memphis.  Last time we came she wouldn't even go near it.  She loved it.  She is getting so brave!

-Tuesday we went to Farm Country for $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point.  It was crowded and hot but the kids had fun feeding the farm animals, riding the ponies, and going on a hay ride.  We went with the same friends and 2 other friends from the ward.

-Wednesday we went to my school so I could attempt to start getting my PE office ready for the new school year.  I got nothing done because taking my kids with me I just end up playing with them in the gym:)

The volleyball net was up so Memphis and I had fun playing with this big giant ball.

 Kayzee loves these fun rubber animals I got from the PE grant last year...especially the penguins:)

-Thursday we went to a fun park in Saratoga Springs.  Memphis tried climbing to the top of this giant climbing pyramid but he wanted his dad to help so we are actually going to go on Monday.  Memphis loved the spinning ride he is sitting on in the front of the picture.

-Friday I went out to lunch with my dearest friend Julie.  It was nice to visit with her and eat yummy Zupas.  That night I had a girl's night out with my friend and co-worker Allison.  We went to Chili's and Danny hung out with her husband at their house so our kids could play.  Their oldest daughter taught our kids a dance so here is a video of their performance.  The little girl on the right is Kayzee's best friend.  Kayzee calls her "sister" and Kate calls Kayzee "girlfriend".  They sure are enjoying going to preschool together this year.

-This is the Friday night I got really sick which I wrote about in my last post.  I had a fever for 8 days, and I missed the first two days of work.  I had also written that Memphis was sick and we were headed to the instacare.  Memphis ended up having strep.  He was so miserable at the doctor's office.  His fever was 104 so they gave him a fever reducer and wrapped him in heated blankets.  They gave us the option of a 10 day antibiotic medicine or a one time shot.  They warned us that the shot was one of the most painful shots but it would work must faster.  I opted for the shot.  Memphis SCREAMED and cried for about an hour and couldn't sit down (shot had to be in his butt cheek:) but the next day he woke up and was his usual self.  No fever and he had his usual crazy energy.  I wish I could have been given that shot!  I blame the strep on Memphis drinking from my cups while I had my fever.  We kept telling him no but we caught him at it several times.  Danny also got really sick!  He has himself to blame for that one though.  He would not stop kissing me when I had my fever and he ended up getting the same virus I had but it manifested itself as painful blisters all over in his mouth and a high fever.  The dr said I had the same blisters in my lungs and that is why I couldn't breathe.  Danny got a mouthwash and the antibiotic cleared me up even though it took about a week after taking it to get fully better.  But luckily Kayzee never got sick.  YAY!

Poor miserable little Memphis...

-Monday Aug 19 I finally started back to school.  I spent the first week still not being able to breathe.  I had to talk about PE rules to 35 classes but I was so out of breath that it ended up being short and sweet.  I have been teaching at this school for 8 years already so the kids already knew the rules so I just had them play kickball the rest of class so I could just sit and watch.  I just finished my second week of school and this week went much better.  I could stand all day and I could run around and demonstrate everything without feeling like I couldn't breathe.  So glad I am finally over that virus!  There is a lot of craziness going on at my school right now with a lot of changes and additional stress so I am glad for this 3 day weekend to get ready and also relax.  I am loving my new PE program and equipment I got from the grant last year!  My students are loving all the fun new games too!

-Tuesday Aug 20 was Memphis and Kayzee's first day of all-day Camelot Kids Preschool at Lone Peak High School.  Memphis went last year and loved it and this year Kayzee got to join him with her friend.  Kayzee LOVES it too.  Kayzee is still only 2 but they let her go because she was potty-trained and Memphis was going there already.

First day of preschool pictures

 With their new backpacks

 Silly Memphis

 Cute Kayzee

-When I got there after school the first day to pick them up their teacher asked me if I had ever seen Kayzee draw or color.  I told her that I had seen her color because she colors in coloring books every day and I knew she could color in the lines already.  What 2 year old do you know that can color in the lines perfectly?  Well, Kayzee can also draw really well.  And by really well I mean incredibly well!  Amazing for how young she is.  Her teacher every day brings me another drawing that she has done and she is just astonished.  I have a little artist on my hands.  She definitely got the art gene that runs in both sides of our family.

Kayzee drew and colored these flowers!

 Kayzee's cow

-One more accomplishment...I finished my lazy triathlon I wanted to finish by Sept 1!  I biked a total of 56.5 miles, walked 15.5 miles, and swam 2 miles.  I was going to start running and training for a 5K coming up but I still don't have the lung capacity for working out that I used to have before I got sick.  I am sure that it will come back so I will just have to slowly get back into jogging and look for another 5K later on.

-Had to post these two videos.  Memphis is getting better at hitting softballs.  We practice every day.  Hoping to get him into coach pitch softball in the next couple years.  And Kayzee loves singing silly songs!  She wasn't too happy when she eventually caught me recording her:)

Sick of being sick!

The last 12 months has been a wild crazy ride that I wish I didn't have to take but oh well that's life!  I have found many blessings through all this and I am so grateful for everyone that have helped us through it all.

I already blogged about Kayzee's adventure and her GI issues.  She is doing a lot better.  I think potty-training her helped a lot.  The only thing we are still figuring out is why she doesn't sleep through the night.  I think the longest stretch she has slept all night every night was two weeks.  Other than that she hasn't been sleeping since she was born.  She wakes up screaming 1-4 times a night.  So needless to say we are all tired at our house.  Yes we have tried everything so our next step is working with the pediatrician to find a specialist or sleep study we can get her into to figure out why she doesn't stay asleep.  Let the new adventure begin!

Here is Kayzee eating lettuce.  She is like a rabbit.  She LOVES veggies and she grazes all day.

Mommy Daughter.  She is looking more and more like me:)

As for me, well, I am literally on a roller coaster but once doctors figured out what was causing me problems the past 12 months I am figuring things out and my symptoms are mellowing out.  Last summer 2012 I was having some really annoying painful symptoms that were definitely not normal.  I don't really want to go into details but the symptoms were bad enough I would end up in bed for a couple days and I would lose too much weight the unhealthy way.  I missed out on a lot of fun activities with family and friends and just the fun that summer holds.  I was getting really frustrated.  And it seemed like every time it got bad enough, I went to the dr and he would just give me stuff to stop the symptoms and knock me out for a few days.  Not a life to live with being a working mom.

The symptoms continued into the school year.  I started missing way too much work because of it all and it was more important to me to figure out what was causing the symptoms then just to stop them only to have them return.  I had already researched my symptoms the best I could and that was why I quit drinking caffeinated sodas.  That helped a lot but it was time to find a dr that would help me.  9 months after symptoms first started my dr finally figured it out and I was diagnosed with IBS-D.  It affects women in their late 20s early 30s and is caused by many reasons.  I went to a GI specialist and we figured out that mine was probably caused by stress.  I don't handle stress very well and I have had a very stressful like 20 years (ha!).  There is no cure but there are ways to alleviate symptoms.  I can no longer have dairy or red meat.  No greasy food (like chinese), no citrus, and no veggies that cause gas.  Basically I am really struggling because cheese and ice cream are the hardest to give up.  I cheat sometimes and bam! I end up in bed in pain or in the bathroom all night.  IT SUCKS!  Pizza is hard too.  Danny gets pizza a lot and I can't have it.  Greasy cheese=PAIN!  But it's my favorite:(

Beginning of May symptoms were really bad that I just wanted to take the drugs that would knock me out but the sub system could not find me a sub so I had to go.  Luckily a BYU dance company was teaching all my classes that day so I just sat in the corner crying in pain.  My dr decided to put me on some medications that would help me get through the rest of the school year.  One of them said I could not be out in the sun and of course I did not have the gym for the rest of the school year.  I thought I might have to go on medical leave but my dr approved me being outside as long as I was sitting under an umbrella.  Not an ideal way to teach PE but it all worked out.  My students are great.  But what a rough month it was.  I was given a blessing at the beginning of the month that said I would have the strength to finish the school year so I know that helped a lot.  I looked it up and realized I missed 42 days of school last year.  NOT GOOD.  That is more days than I take off for maternity leave!  I hope that this school year will go a lot better

When I was in the middle of it all my wonderful mother-in-law told me that I was given this for a reason and I just needed to figure out why.  So insightful and that has made me look at trials in a whole new way.  I now know why I was given this trial and it has helped me a lot.  I needed to get healthy.  I was having a lot of health problems because of my weight so this is definitely helping me get to a healthy weight.  I am eating healthier and exercising also helps alleviate symptoms.  I was looking back through my posts of the last year.  I have lost 50 lbs to date and of that 50 lbs 35 of it was lost just from being sick.  Not a fun way to lose weight at all.  How come when I actually try to lose weight (and I have been trying all year) I only lose 15 but when I don't try the weight comes flying off while I am in pain?  That's life I guess.

This summer 2013 has been the best summer.  Yes I had my down days but they were definitely not as bad as they have been...until this last week.  OF COURSE I get really sick when I am supposed to be back to school.  I have already missed my first two days of school!  Not a good way to start out the school year:(

Friday Aug 9 I woke up in the middle of the night with a really high fever.  Felt so weird how sudden it hit me and woke me up.  I suffered through the weekend and thought it would just be a 3 day fever thing and I would be fine.  Monday morning my fever broke.  I was so glad because I needed to start getting school stuff ready.  But then Monday night my fever came back really high.  We found a babysitter and I went to the instacare that was open that night and of course they were of no help.  They just told me it was a virus and I would just suffer for a few more days and be fine.  But no!  I didn't have time for this.  And I didn't get better.  I got worse.  I didn't sleep at night because I couldn't stop coughing.  I was having trouble breathing and by day 6 with a fever I had had enough.  So missing my first day of school I went to my family dr.  He said a virus definitely doesn't last this long so it must have turned into a bacterial infection.  He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic saying I would feel better in 24 hours so I could go back to work and a cough medicine to knock me out at night.

When I got to the pharmacy they told me the antibiotic was $5000!  WHAT?  Seriously?  So I paid for the cough medicine and the pharmacy sent back suggestions for similar antibiotics for the dr to ok and I went home to wait.  Not hearing anything I kept calling and the dr's office kept telling me they were working on it.  What is there to work on?  By the time 5:00 hit the office was closed.  So I suffered that night and got worse.  the medicine to help me sleep didn't work, my fever got higher, and I was starting to show signs of liver and kidney failure and without eating all week I couldn't move.  In the morning I kept calling and calling but given the same response that he was still working on it I broke down.  My dad told me to go straight to the ER.  Danny didn't want to do that so he got off work and went and chewed out my dr.  That got results fast.  Not two minutes later after Danny called me the pharmacy called me and said they finally got the new prescription from my dr.  Then my dr personally called me to apologize and told me that if I didn't feel better on this antibiotic then I needed to go to the ER.  So far I have been on it 24 hours and two doses and I am actually feeling better.  My fever is gone and haven't been taking as many pain killers and I am eating and my body is functioning better.  WHAT A MESS!

Now the sad news...through all this we have been praying really hard that no one else would get sick because preschool starts for the kids on Tuesday and Danny needs to keep working.  And Danny's family was coming to stay for the weekend.  Yesterday evening I finally emerged from my room and everyone told me that Memphis had a fever and a sore throat.  NOOOOO!  He was quarantined to my room (the sick room) and we are headed to the dr. today so hopefully we can explain my past week and they can get him better right away so he doesn't have to suffer as long.  Stay away from our house!

I am so grateful for everyone who has helped through all this.  I have had two blessings.  So many friends and neighbors have taken the kids for a few hours every day so I could rest.  I couldn't eat or move so meals at our house with Danny coming home from work exhausted were non-existent so my wonderful ward stepped up and yummy food has stocked our fridge.  Danny's family is here watching Kayzee and they bought some groceries too.  I am thankful for my parents listening to me and helping me in every way they can.  WE ARE SO BLESSED.  Now fingers crossed no one else gets sick!