My Baby is Two

This Birthday Tribute to Reecey is way late but as I've said before better late then never right?

On July 17th Reece turned 2. Oh my! Where does the time go? There was a time when she was a tiny baby that I thought she'd never get bigger. It was difficult since she was so fussy and there were a lot of tears shed...hers and mine! But once we figured each other out Reece became the most pleasant, content, snuggly, cute, ball of chub!

As she grew she just got happier and cuter. She's always been such a little trooper...being dragged here and there and everywhere and always at the mercy to my schedule, which is at the mercy of the older kids activites. But she loves it! She loves to go "bye-bye!"

Now that she's 2 she is becoming quite the little talker. She repeats almost everything we say! She sings or hums constantly and is the best little mommy to her baby dollies.

She speaks very clearly but here's a list of some of her Reecey words...

Kai-nin=Crying

Fwuip-a-Loops=Fruit Loops

Hummy=Hungry

Cinderlella=Cinderella

Melly=Smelly

She tells me "I hold you" when she wants me to hold her.

When she wants to wrestle with her Daddy she'll walk up to him and say, "piece-a-me!"

When I call for her if she's somewhere playing she'll yell "coming!"

When we put her to bed and she doesn't want to go she'll cry for anyone to save her whether its Bwady, Nanny, Jackson or Daddy! Its hilarious!

Basically I would love to bottle her up at this age and keep her 2 forever!!!!!

So to keep with tradition this last year with my kids birthdays, here are 10 reasons why I love Reecey!

1. She is THE BEST little snuggler

2. She sucks her index and middle finger on her left and its CUTE!

3. She would push her baby dolly in her baby dolly stroller outside all day if I let her

4. She is a GREAT sleeper and loves her bed once she's in it! The funny thing is I never know how long she's slept because I just don't ever know when she wakes up. She doesn't cry or yell or anything. She'll just sit and play and sing to herself so if I'm not near her room or if I don't check on her I can't hear if she's awake or not.

5. She loves her older brothers and sister! Oh she loves them all. She gives them kisses, hugs, she loves to play with them...she just loves them!

6. She loves shoes and clothes...just like her mommy!

7. She is a daddy's girl through and through! Even though she sometimes gets mad at him 9 out of 10 times she'll pick TJ over me!

8. Her giggle. It is such a big belly laugh for such a little person

9. Her singing. This little person can sing in perfect pitch and she LOVES music! She sings everything from "I Love to See the Temple" to "Living on a Prayer" Its one of the cutest things ever!

10. Everything! I just love everything about this little person. She is such a light and a joy in our home and lives and I'm so grateful that our family was blessed with such a precious, cute, innocent little princess girl!

So even though we're almost 2 months late...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REECE! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Pantene Beautiful Lengths

Miss Natalie has been growing her hair out to donate to Locks of Love for the last 2 years. Lately, however, it has just gotten to be too much to handle. Too many tangles, too many split ends and too long!

So a couple week ago we headed into the salon to my cousin Val for a cut! Since Natalie didn't want to cut 10 inches (the required amount for Locks of Love) off Val told us about the Pantene program that only requires 8 inches of hair. So it was decided that she would get it CHOPPED and her hair would go to Beautiful Lengths instead of Locks of Love.

Before

The Ponytail

The Cut

After the cut but before the style.

With Val after the DARLING style! As you can see Natalie opted for some bangs which she has never ever had before.

Darling Girl, if you ask me!!!!

Let Freedom Ring

I love the Fourth of July. Funny, since I'm Canadian, but even as a little girl I loved to come to Utah for Fourth of July! I even wrote a paper about how American's are more patriotic then Canadians are! Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be a Canadian, but I'm also proud to be an American!!!!

This year has to rank right up there in the top 3 Fourth of July's we've ever had! It was seriously so fun. All of my family, minus Marilee and my parents were here, and we had some serious plans! Like Stadium of Fire plans. Like Jonas Brothers performing at Stadium of Fire plans!!!!!!!

This is my feeble attemp at getting a picture of my cute kids. Its totally ghetto, but oh well!

The day started off early for many of us as Ryan, Adam, Me, Jackson, Annie, Spencer, Justin and Amber woke up at the crack of dawn to head to Provo for the Freedom Festival 5K run. It was my first race and was so much fun! I finished in about 34 minutes and don't know how I'll even run more than a 5K but I'm determined to do a 10K in October, a half marathon in March and then the Wasatch Back next summer! Anyways, moving on, I was so proud of all the kids and I think they all had a great time running! It was awesome!

On our way down to Provo

After we finished! (pardon my crazy hair)

The Kids. They were a bit tired!

After the race we returned home and while the boys golfed and the kids played quietly we got prepared for the evening festivities!

My Flag Brownies. Its a big pain to make them but its tradition!

After the boys got home from golfing we headed down to Provo for some pre-Stadium of Fire tailgating! It seriously was such a good idea to get down there early, get a good parking spot and grill and eat in the parking lot! We got some strange looks but I guarantee you some of those people will be doing the same thing next year!!!

Ry and Nic

Me and my G-man

Brady reserved a perfect spot for himself in the trunk of the Van. It was super cute!

My babysitter Kirsten with her little sister/Natalie's friend Zoe and Jackson! Thanks to Cathy and Jeff for letting the girls come with us. It was so much fun to have them!

Me and Reecey rocking out to the Jonas Brothers! K, so I thought there would be enough going on that Reece wouldn't be too hard to deal with but I did not anticipate a full on dance party out of her. She LOVED the Jonas Brothers and danced and sang and cheered and clapped the entire time. The fireworks also amazed her and she ooooo'ed and aaaaaaaaah'ed at them too. Half the fun was watching her soak it all in! It was so cute!

And there they are. They were so cute and great performers. Even the dad's, who didn't think they'd love it all that much, enjoyed the concert. But who wouldn't? The boys were awesome and the atmosphere electric. It was a blast!!!

And last but not least, the FABULOUS fireworks show!!!! One of the best I've ever seen.

The past week was filled with fun and excitement with almost all of my Fam coming into town for the Fourth of July!

About 2 hours after Natalie got home from the hospital the Heather and Steve and kids rolled into town from Bear Lake where they had been with Steve's Family! Then later that night Adam came with his kids, but not Mar since she's too pregnant to travel. Originally she thought that sending her hubby and kids off to Utah would be a great idea but realized even before she left that sending her family off to be with HER family was not such a great idea! We missed her a ton and give full props to Adam who was so brave to travel alone with all 4 of their kids!

Natalie, Reece and Brooklynn in matching nighties!

On Thursday Heather and I had to come up with something fun to do with 11 kids while the boys went golfing so I got online and saw that Boondocks Fun Center offered group rates with groups of at least 10! So up to Draper we went for a fun filled afternoon of pizza, arcade games, lazer tag, mini-golf, bumper boats and go-karts!

Me and Joshie. He is so stinkin' cute! As my friend Janine said, "he's yummy!"

The go-karters!

The mini-golfers

Reece, who seems to be getting over her aversion to camera's

Natalie golfing left-handed. She actually got a hole-in-one!

Me and Brady on the bumper boats. Auntie Heather was such a good sport waiting for all of us to do our non-pregnant approved activities!

Since Natalie couldn't do the go-karts, boats of lazer tag I snuck her 20 extra tokens for the arcade. On her very last token she stuck it in a jack-pot machine and got the jack-pot of 100 tickets! When all was said and done she had over 300 and was able to get herself a little pillow to rest her broken arm on!

Friday afternoon Ryan and Nicole and Kids arrived. That evening we headed to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. (to learn more about LDS temples click here)

Me and TJ waiting to see the little movie before you go in the temple.

Natalie, Marin and Brooks

The "big" kids, minus Amber

Even though it took us 3 hours from start to finish at the temple I think it was a great experience for the kids and one I hope they remember!!!

note: if you're not a member of our faith and ever have the opportunity to attend a Temple Open House, which many of you will when the Calgary Temple is built, I strongly recommend it! Temples are beautiful buildings inside and out and Open Houses give people an opportunity to learn more about the purpose of Temples! I don't think it typically takes 3 hours to get through, we just happened to go on a really really busy evening!

Now...stay tuned for my Fourth of July post!

OH SNAP...LITERALLY...LIKE SNAPPED IN HALF

Last Tuesday, about 5 miutes before I needed to go to mutual I got a call from my friend, who is the mom of Natalie's friend. "Julie, Natalie got hurt on the tramp. Its her elbow. It looks dislocated."

"Okay," I said. "I'll come get her."

When I walked in the house Natalie was laying on the couch holding her arm. I could tell something was wrong. It looked weird. But, since she fell on the actual bouncy part of the trampoline I too thought it was dislocated.

My friend's hubby carried Natalie out to the car for me and he and my friend followed me home so that he and TJ could give Natalie a blessing before I took her to the doctor.

After the blessing and a call to the gal I work with in Young Women telling her I wouldn't be able to make it we headed to the after hours clinic at the pediatrician. We arrived and they got us back to see the doctor right away. After asking Natalie what had happened he examined her elbow and said, "It's definitely broken. You need to go to the hospital for x-rays. I'm contacting the Orthopedic Surgeon. She'll probably need surgery." Seeing how I was fully expecting to be told her elbow had been dislocated I was SHOCKED!

So off to the hospital for x-rays, admittance and emergency surgery. Oh! How my heart hurt as the radiologists shifted and moved her arm around to get the right angle for the x-rays, and how my heart hurt as they wheeled my baby away for surgery to put her back together again!

The doctors told me that the surgery would be 1 1/2-2 hours long. At about 1 1/4 hours my heart started to pound and I started to feel absolutely sick as we waited for the doctor to come and tell us she would be okay. All I could think about was my tiny girl, so little on a big operating table, with a tube down her throat to help her breathe during surgery. It scared me. (I think I watch too many medical shows) Good thing TJ was there to keep me calm. He didn't even have to say anything. Just his presence was enough for me not to FREAK out!!! Right around 1 1/2 hours Dr. Larsen came out and told us she was in recovery, that the surgery was a little more complicated then he had anticipated but that everything went well and she would be fine. He then showed us an x-ray film of Natalie's little elbow pinned back together with 3 pins.

About 30 minutes later the nurse came and got us and we accompanied my sleepy, drugged out girl up to her room for the night. She looked so little and cute in the big hospital bed with cozy blankets tucked around her. Again, my heart hurt!

After she was settled I decided TJ would stay the night with her. I went home, exhausted.

The next morning I got up and headed over the the hospital with Brady and Reece. Luckily she was able to be released about an hour and a half later!

So there ya have it. Natalie fell back on a trampoline and hit her elbow on the bouncy part of the tramp. She snapped the skinniest part of her elbow in half. She must have hit it just right!

Its so weird though because looking back at last Tuesday night is a total blur. Everything happened so fast. By the time we got x-rays at the hospital to the time she was wheeled up to her room was only 5 hours. It was crazy!

She's doing so good though. We had family arrive a few hours after we got home from the hospital so she's been going going going since the accident happened. She's mini-golfed left handed, she's figured out how to get dressed on her own, she can eat with her left hand and she's down to 1 or 2 advil a day to manage the pain! She really is a trooper!

This is Natalie and her kindred spirit friend! Thanks to her and her family for the cookie bouquet, the visits, the phone calls and the gift certificate! You guys are AWESOME!!!

This is what her poor arm looks like above her cast. From the time we got her home she said that underneath her arm was really sore. TJ thought that the cast was rubbing it raw but yesterday this is what we saw. And this doesn't even come close to giving this bruising justice! Today its worse. Her entire armpit is BLACK and BLUE!!! Thankfully the swelling has gone down though!

And now a shout out to all of you for the cards, gifts, phone calls and prayers!!!!

Thanks to Auntie Lori for coming over so late to stay with the kids so TJ could come to the hospital.

And through the whole ordeal I kept thinking back to the blessing she received from my husband and our friend. I'm so grateful to them for being worthy to hold the Priesthood and give a hurt little girl a blessing. That blessing gave me so much comfort and I KNOW that it helped Natalie be brave and calm. Beyond that though I know she'll heal well, with no permanent damage to her arm and elbow, even though she may have a few months of limited mobility in her arm!

By the way, she'll be in the cast for 4 weeks total. Luckily she'll get it off just in time for swimming lessons!