Easter Greetings Everyone!

We hope this finds all of you in the joy of Spring!
This Utah Winter has been a long and brutal one, especially for the kids. They are greatly anticipating the warmer weather and can’t wait to get out and ride their bikes, blow bubbles, and run and play! The kids and I planted tons of bulbs in our new yard last Fall. It is fun to see our Crocus, Tulips and Daffodils starting to peek through the soil. It has been a great goal of mine to have a yard with an abundance of flowers and our own vegetable garden. We plan on planting Peony bushes and a great garden this Spring in memory of two of our grandmothers that have passed away this year. I remember as a child, my great-grandmother would always have a mason jar with peonies in the middle of the dining room table. To her dismay, there would occasionally be a parade of ants marching across the table. This is a fond and funny memory to me. Our family is doing well. Abby is adjusting to her new glasses and enjoying the ability to see out of her left eye again. She loves her new room and sleeping in her “big girl” bed. Isaac and Ethan are finishing up this year of Pre-school and eager to be the “Boys of Summer” once more! I am enjoying the calling as a Sunday School teacher to the 3-4 year olds. Justin has been a great helper on all of our many house projects and recently enjoyed a trip to the Google Campus in California. Happy Easter to all of you. We love each of you very much and thank our lucky stars daily that we are surrounded by such amazing people in our life!

Justin~Mindy~Isaac~Ethan~Abby
The Silly Hills

A new look

Check it out! Those of you who frequent our blog may notice some changes! I have been playing around and have learned a few new tricks. Now if I can just figure out how to put one of those cool custom backgrounds in....Rebecca, you are the savvy one at all things cool...any pointers? i have some new pics to upload soon too. Hope all is well! Pray for me, as Justin is on a buisness trip to Google in Cali this week. I'm sure I'll survive but it will be lonely and hectic without my better half around this week. Have a fun and safe trip babe! XOXOXOXO

SADNESS

Okay, yeah it is nearly 2 am and I can't sleep...all worked up after a traumatic day. I got the call at noon while I was in with a patient and rushed right home. She fell off her bike and her glasses had broken and the arm of her glasses was sticking out of her forehead. This is the second set of broken glasses this week, and second set of stiches in a month. Some of this is due to her difficulty seeing I believe. The first episode, she simply had walked into the corner of a table. We had to get a plastic surgeon this time, no ER doc or pediatrician would do. Took us about 6 hours to find and available surgeon and that took me calling in some major professional favors in a personal way. We finally found this awesome guy and they put her out and took great care. Good news is that it is right along her natural brow line and with all the great silicon products out there, he says you will hardly see it! She will now add regular plastic surgeon visits to her list of monthly visits! Maybe he can fix me up too! Thank goodness for insurance and cafateria plans to this already stressed out budget (paying for her lens transplant and glasses aren't CHEAP)! But alls well that ends well and it could have been so much worse. Now the nanny is totally freaked out. Isaac told me that she was right there when it happend, you know how it goes...you can be right there and stuff still happens. There are constant reminders of what we have to be thankful for and today was one of those days. I will tell you that we were also blessed with an intoxicated little girl when we returned home. It gave us all a good laugh to see how much she was enjoying the drugs still...the laughter was good medicine for the emotional pain we had endured today. I would upload a photo or two but it's still a tender subject....maybe later we'll be laughing but not until she feels better. Nighto you, I'm going to go eat a bowl of kiddie cereal and flip the channels until I can convince my racing mind to get some zzzzz's! M

ARRRGGGGGHHHH!

This is Ethan's best pirate face. Poor little guy fell about a year ago and killed his two front teeth. It became evident last week that one of them needed to go. I took him to the denist where he sat right up in the chair and (with the silly gas and a promise of a new Wii game) agreed to let the dentist get rid of the "yucky" tooth. To my surprise, he did not even cry...unlike Isaac who bit the dentist on our last visit. I was dumbfouned by this because Isaac is usually so even mannered and kind. He wore it around his neck in a little necklace they gave him the entire day and then put it under his pillow before bed that night. I can't believe the tooth fairy paid him $2 for that yucko tooth. Times have really changed! We are now enjoying his toothless grin which seems to fit his personality just great!

Abby's new Big Girl Room

Well, I am kind of sad to say that after nearly 6 years of having a nursery in our home, we have traded it in for big kids rooms! The good news is that Abby is no longer in our bed (most nights) and has taken to falling asleep in her new bed. I re-painted the room all on my own, with much help from daddy who played babysitter! We purchased all the furnishings from IKEA and re-did the entire room for around $300 (new bed and bedding included). The flowers on the wall are actually these awesome night lights from IKEA ($7) that make the room glow at night. She just loves them! All I have left to do is sew some curtains out of an extra bedspread. I asked Justin if Abby and I could trade rooms so that I could be a little girl for awhile again but he declined. We are enjoying the added independance to stay up at night and read or watch television. Our room hasn't belonged to us and we haven't sleep without a baby between us for nearly 6 years. We are enjoying the time together. I have gotten such a great sense of accomplishment from this that I am moving on to the kitchen this weekend! Enjoy the masterpiece!