Crafts

I have really gotten into fabric and ribbon crafts after having Shannon. Here are some of the things I have made.

Here is the link for the daisy looking one if you want to know how to make it. She used needle and thread to make hers but I just own a glue gun so that is what I used. Her's looks better with the needle and thread. http://gonetoearth.typepad.com/gonetoearth/2009/03/tutorial-fabric-flower-brooch.html
Here is the link for the white flower and how to make it. Super cute!
http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2010/05/tutorial-flower-corsage-for-celebrate.html

I think everyone knows how to make this one. Cut out different sized circles and then burn the edges. Then layer them on top of each other and hot glue!

I took this plain gray shirt and added one of my flowers and it looked way cute.

It looks better when you are wearing it.

I had this cardigan in my closet and thought it looked way cute with the white flower.

It is good to use magnets to attach so they don't leave holes in your clothes.

Then I totally got into making these bracelets. Here is the tutorial.
http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2010/05/tutorial-flower-corsage-for-celebrate.html
I had this brilliant idea that I would sell these but then I wondered if anyone would even buy them. But I made 4 or 5 of each color and they are now just sitting in my house. I wear them I think they are super cute.

If you know how to sew you should totally check out this site... http://jaynsarah.blogspot.com/search/label/Anthro%20DIY

She turns old and oversized clothes into anthropologie look-a-like's. I LOVE the squeezebox top. I have actually started to make it. Af first I didn't think it was that cute but after seeing it at the end of the post with her trying it on I decided I loved it.

More of what Conner says and does....

If only my children had a 1/3 of the mother that they deserve. My heart is so full of the love I have for my children. They are so incredible in so many ways. When we are taught to be as a child I never fully understood it until I was able to see first hand how amazing children are. Conner is so quick to forgive and to love. This afternoon we were cuddling and he lays his head on me and says, "I love you so much." That had to be one of the best feelings in the world. But how quickly I forget about what truly matters. Tonight Conner kept getting out of bed. I even kept him from taking a nap today so he would go to bed early. I lost my patience and yelled at Conner a few times. It scared him and he started to cry. I asked Steve to come in from working outside and get Conner down since I had allowed myself to get so frustrated. While I was in doing dishes Conner comes out of his room and tells me he is sorry. I was the one that needed to apologize. I went into his room a little later and asked if I could cuddle him. He said yes and as soon as I laid down he put his arm around me and said, "I love you so much." It is amazing how quick kids are to forgive and completely forget. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has allowed me to raise a couple of His incredible children. I remember reading in the Ensign months and months ago that said, “Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones. … Rear your children in love, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones. Welcome them into your homes, and nurture and love them with all of your hearts. They may do, in the years that come, some things you would not want them to do, but be patient, be patient. You have not failed as long as you have tried” (“Words of the Living Prophet,” Liahona, May 1998, 26–27; “Excerpts from Recent Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Ensign, July 1997, 73).


Now it has been a few days so obviously Conner has gotten into something and today it was my makeup. I was really tired today and had a bad headache so I decided to lay down and take a nap. I knew Shannon was safe in her bed and Conner was in front of a movie so I figured everything was safe. After I woke up I found Conner with all of my makeup on the couch.

Hard to tell but Conner has lip gloss, base, and who knows what else.

Conner has a huge obsession with trucks. He loves to ride in trucks and points them out while we drive. Last night Conner came up to me and informed me that we need to buy a truck. I am sure Steve encouraged him. I told Conner that he needed to save his money and then he could buy a truck. Then this morning Conner comes up to me with some coins in his hand that he had taken off of the kitchen table and said, save money, buy truck. I said, yep, save your money and you can buy a truck. He stood there and repeated, save money, buy truck, just like Lance's. Lance's truck is Conner's favorite because he can watch movies in it. He then said, kisses, buy truck. Meaning he wanted a kiss because he was going to leave to go buy a truck. Then he came over to me gave me a kiss then said, put shoes on, buy truck. I asked him if I could count his money, he had 27 cents. He now puts all his money in a drawer in his room.

ER Visit/Girl's Night/Drive-In

Well Friday started out really nice, Shannon woke up happy and Conner slept in a little. I was able to get going on chores without a lot of interruptions. Then later on I was in my bedroom on the phone when Conner starts to cry pretty hard. I get off the phone to check on him. I found him in the family room and there is a lot of blood on his mouth and face. I grab him and start hugging him to try and calm him down so I can take a look and ask what happened. He had somehow hit his lip on the corner of the entry way table. He busted it open pretty bad and was bleeding a lot. My shoulder was covered in blood and soaked all the way through my garments. Luckily my mom wasn't at work and the hospital that we have to go to is right by her house, so she met us there and took Shannon for me. Conner was acting normal by this point but every now and then would say his lip hurt. After two hours in the ER we left. Conner had to get 5 stitches and was a total champ through the process. I was so proud of him. It was a little tough for the doctor to stitch up with it being on the colored part of the lip and with it being in the shape of a V. They covered Conner's face with a cloth while they were stitching him up. Once they were finished they lifted up the cloth and Conner said he had been hiding.

After that it was time for my girls night with my mom and sister, Debbie. We went to Chili's
and then played some miniature golf at Trafalga. I don't know if I have ever played mini golf with my sister or my mom but we had fun. Always nice to go out together. My dad was watching Shannon and Conner for a little while until Steve was able to get off work. During dinner my dad called my mom and said, "I don't know what to do for this little girl." He couldn't get her to stop crying. Sorry dad, thanks for helping.

Last Friday we took Shannon to her first drive-in movie. We were pretty nervous that she was going to cry the whole time but she was wonderful. She actually ended up sleeping the entire time. Conner was a different story. We had gone to the drive-in to see Rio, and Hop. Conner loves movies, he would watch movies all day long if you let him and he has been to the drive-in about 4 times before this and has always fallen asleep during the first movie. Not this time. Conner just wanted to drive the Jeep the whole time, so we were constantly fighting him from going to the front, which is where Shannon was sleeping. Anyway we could not get Conner to settle down or fall asleep. The second movie ended at one a.m. and Conner was still awake. We started to drive home and no joke, a minute later he was asleep. He won't be going to anymore drive-ins for awhile.

Found this on Tip Junkie's website and I thought it was pretty cute.

For mother's day Steve got me fabric cutting scissors, rotary cutting knife, and scissor sharpeners. I was really excited about this because I am having so much fun making bows and flowers for hair and clothes. But let me warn you about rotary knives....they are SHARP.

As soon as the knife slipped I applied pressure and put on two band-aids, but this thing would not stop bleeding. Then two days later I cut myself again, this time on my pointer finger. I am now A LOT more careful.

Spoiled

I have been spoiled the last couple of nights. Shannon went 9 hours between feedings last night, 10 hours between feedings the night before, 9 hours the night before that and 6 the night before that. Last week she had a night where she went 11 hours between feedings. Wednesday we drove the 45 minutes up to Primary Children's spent two minutes with the doctor and left without any hope of a quick recovery from her birthmark. The doctor told us that this type of ulcer takes a few months to heal and she wants to see Shannon every two weeks to check on her progress. I was bummed, I had been given some ideas from my regular care doctors that there were different procedures that they could do to help speed up the process but there aren't. Tonight driving home Steve mentioned to me that he felt some tension in the car. I started to cry a little and said, I have just listened to my daughter cry for 4 hours straight, I also just found out that the crying isn't going to stop for a few more months. This has been tough, I know it has been so much harder on her. I am sure that Shannon sleeping so well at night every so often is a tender mercy from Heavenly Father. He knows I need that break and I am so grateful. Thursday was Shannon's hearing appointment.That didn't go so well, at least with her cooperation skills. The first test that we get down when we go has to be silent. No one, including Shannon, can make any noise. Shannon can't move either so I have to hold her. Luckily that one went smooth and it only took a few minutes but the next test was tough. Normally it takes an hour and a half to test both ears. She can't move much with this test either and she can't make noise. She has four electrodes on her head with wires coming out of each one and then she has another tube that gets stuck down in her ear. It can't be the most comfortable thing. So we start this really long test and it is the third time she has had it done and we have never had any problems before. First, she was fussing because she was wide awake and that sore was bugging her I am guessing so I decided to change her diaper. So Shannon has to get unhooked from everything. I sit her on a chair (this test is performed in the woman's office) and put the mat under her. Luckily the woman stepped out for a second while I did this because as soon as I took off Shannon's diaper she peed. It wasn't a small amount of pee either, oh no, the pee got on her clothes and then proceeded to run down the changing mat, onto my leg and then onto her carpet. I quickly tried to clean it up off the floor and my thigh then saw how much pee was on Shannon. I decided to just hurry and get her dressed before the woman came back in. Once she returned we hooked Shannon back up to everything and tried again. She kept fidgeting so the audiologist had to keep stopping the test until Shannon settled. It took an hour and a half just to do the first ear. Then it was onto the second ear. She was still fussing and I thought she might be hungry so again, she was unhooked, fed her and hooked her back up. Still fussing and fussing...then she starts screaming..yep she pooped. Unhook her again, darn sore on her bum. Get that cleaned up and hook her up again. She finally gets settled down and then she gets the hiccups. We can't do the test while she has the hiccups. By this time it had been almost 2 and a 1/2 hours. The audiologist decided that I just needed to come back another day to get results for her right ear which stinks since it is by St. Marks Hospital on 3900 south. But the good news is that Shannon passed on her left ear. She said that she barely made into the normal range so she would cautiously pass her. So that is great.

It only took about 5 months but Conner finally stays in his bed when it is time to go to sleep. He'll lay there for half an hour and still not get out. Then, this week started. His one, sometimes two hour nap suddenly went to three hours. My first reaction was, this is great, then bedtime came. After fighting him for two sometimes two and a half hours Conner would finally go to sleep. So for three days in a row he hasn't fallen asleep until 10:30!! Today he only had a two hour nap so I thought he would go to bed earlier....he is still awake. Steve is sitting in the rocking chair right now keeping Conner in his bed and it is 10:00. I guess it is time to cut out nap time.

Oh Goodness

So last night I went in to check on Conner and found this...

You may not be able to tell, but his head is covered in lotion.

Shannon has had some issues since she was born. First, she was born 4 weeks early, then she has had her hearing issues (sixth hearing test on Thursday, then we will know about hearing aids for sure), she has acid reflux (finally got put on the right medicine last week so she is doing better, she has a lot of gas and lastly she has this...

It is a birthmark that has begun to erode. When she was born it looked like a bruise, then around 2 weeks it began to turn red and then starting to get a dimple like hole. Now you can see it has spread. This was taken a couple of weeks ago. We have already seen one dermatologist and he referred us to a pediatric dermatologist at Primary Children's. It is INSANE how many doctor appointments my children have had in the last couple of months. Anyway, she was booked out a ways but had given the doctor that we had seen the approval for us to overbook her. So, I called up to Primary's and the reception man wasn't very nice. He told me her next appointment was 3 and a half weeks away. So I informed him that we were approved to overbook her. He tells me he can't do that. He then tells me, "Well, she usually sends me an email when she approves someone for that." Then he just sat there. Then I said a little sternly, "Well then who can I talk to get this approved?" He sat there for a second and then said ,"I'll have to call you back, let me email her." At this point I have been listening to my daughter scream and cry every time she pees or poops for a couple of weeks because of the immense amount of pain she is in. Her skin is eroding away! Not to mention her acid reflux medicine had not been working since it was too low of a dosage. He calls me back and says that she gave him the approval but he said the soonest he could put me in was the 18th of May, which was 5 days sooner than the original appointment he had offered me. So we finally get to go tomorrow!!!!

This is how it looked a week after using some cream that was prescribed to us by the first dermatologist.

Last night I dyed my hair even darker. You gotta love some things about facebook. I am a fan of Clairol and have now received two free boxes of hair color from them. So what do you think?

I used the self timer on the camera.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

LOVE her!

In these next pictures Shannon had been fussing quite a bit and Conner wanted to hold her while she was crying. We let him cuddle her and she settled right down. My love for these kids has grown so much lately and I am so grateful for them.

Conner was playing in his toy room and I looked in to check on him and found this.

I don't know what he was thinking.

Hodge Podge

So I called poison control for the first time on Friday. Conner KNOWS he isn't suppose to touch medicine but for some reason he LOVES the taste of gas drops. On Friday I found him hiding underneath a slide in the toy room. I thought it was cute, I figured he was playing hide and seek. I left him alone, grateful for the quiet time so I could finish getting ready for the day. As I am standing in the bathroom curling my hair Conner comes and says something about medicine. I asked him if he ate medicine he shook his head and said a drawn out, noooooo. Then I asked again, did you eat medicine. He said, "Come, I'll show you." We walk into the toy room and there sat an empty bottle of gas drops. Just so you all know it is not going to hurt your child to down a bottle of gas drops. Saturday he did it again with another bottle, he was hiding under a chair at the Ferguson's. So we had an idea, we took the empty bottle of gas drops and filled it up with vinegar. Ha ha take that Conner. So we have been waiting for a couple of days for him to take the bait. Leaving it out in the open on purpose. Then last night Steve noticed the bottle was missing and saw Conner laying under the slide again. Ha ha we got him. But then Steve and I waited and waited for some sort of grossed out cry. Nothing. I went over to check on him, he had vinegar on the side of his face so I figured he must have eaten some and there wasn't as much in the bottle. He didn't care about the vinegar. Twerp.

Conner scared the heck out of me a week and a half ago. I had laid him down for a nap and 30 minutes later went to check on him. He had pulled the comforter over his head before he fell asleep so I pulled it down. Conner was laying on the bed wide eyed but not blinking or anything. I checked and he was breathing, then I called out his name a couple of times and there was no reaction. Still laying there wide eyed and not moving. Then I shook him, he sat up and looked around so confused. After a minute or so he layed back down and went to sleep. We took him to the doctor because Steve was freaking out thinking Conner was having a seizure. The doctor said either I had caught him in between sleep cycles or he had a seizure. So we were sent to Primary Children's for an EEG. He had at least 20 wires coming off of his head and a couple on his chest. Then his head was wrapped with gauze. He looked like some sort of trauma patient. Anyway we got the results yesterday and everything is normal. Crazy sleep cycles!

Today I had Shannon's two month appointment. I really like Dr. Johnson at Alpine Peds. Shannon has a birthmark right where her leg and bottom meet. It is about the size of a quarter, maybe a little bigger, and it has become an open wound. We were sent to a dermatologist about it and Shannon was prescribed a couple of things.

We have another appointment with another dermatologist later this month.

Here are her 2 month stats:

Length: 22 1/4"-25%

Weight: 10 lbs-25%

Head Circ: 37 1/2 cm-10%

Dr, Johnson said that if you take it back 4 weeks and look at the percentages. (Since she was 4 weeks early) She would be in the 90% for height and 75% for weight or it was the other way around. I don't remember. So she is doing really well, we sure love her. Her crying has gone down some, we now have a couple hour break every now and then. She hasn't cried all day long for a few days now, except yesterday, that was tough. She also takes 6 oz. bottles. The biggest bottle Conner ever took was 8 oz. and she is only 2 months.

What Conner says...and does...

All of these things happened in a two hour time frame except for the car seat one.

Brings me his Woody doll and says, "Woody pooped a lot. I need to change his diaper. I'll get it." He then goes into his room and comes out with lotion. I guess he decided that Woody needed his back lotioned. One of Conner's favorite things after he has a bath. He then pretended to rub lotion on Woody's back. He then decided that wasn't good enough and opened the lotion and ended up missing Woody's back and dumped some on the couch. I then asked him to put the lotion away. He was taking awhile to do this so I went to check on him and this is what I found.

While we were driving in the car Shannon was crying (which seems to be all the time) and Conner looks over at her and says, "It's ok, sweetheart. It's ok."

 I was just in the kitchen working on dinner and Conner was trying to help me. He was making it a little frustrating and Shannon had just started crying while she was in her swing so I asked Conner to go and check on Shannon. About two minutes later I went in to check on them and Conner had taken her out of her swing and was holding her just like I hold her but wasn't supporting her neck. Scared the heck out of me I ran over to them as fast as I could and grabbed her. She seems to be ok.

I was on the computer looking for recipes and Shannon started crying in her swing. Conner looks at her and says, "Mom's busy." I thought this was pretty funny but at the same time felt like a bad mom.

Conner was just holding his Woody doll when I hear Conner say, "Woody, you are in trouble, put nose to wall, you are in time out. You are being mean." He then walked Woody to the wall and held him so his nose touched the wall. He then said, "time out until it beeps."

Conner got wound up and Steve asked him if he needed to take a break. Conner said, "I take break" He then went into his toy room and shut the door. About ten minutes later he opened the door came out and said, "I take break."

He put his back pack on walked over to Shannon and said, "I do homework Shannon, I'll be right back." Then he starts to walk off turns around and says, "I'll be careful." Then walks into his toy room. Then he comes back out and asks for a kiss before he leaves to do homework.

Conner just tried to give Shannon an M & M. She now has blue coloring on her face from the M & M. At least he was wanting to share.

I just found a nickle and a dime in my SD drive on my laptop. Thanks, Conner.

Updadte on Shannon's hearing.

Today Shannon had her fifth hearing test and guess what! Her hearing has improved a little. Right now she is borderline on having to get hearing aids. They want to test her again in a month before they give them to her to see if her hearing will improve anymore. Right now she can't hear whispers, trees rustling and things like that. Three weeks ago she couldn't even hear parts of regular speech, I was so excited when we left the audiologist. Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

Post #5 this week-Goblin Valley

View of our campsite. Steve and I were lucky to be able to borrow a pop up trailer. It was nice not to have to stay in a tent.

Conner and his cousin Madi. Conner wanted to be on this 4-wheeler pretty much the whole time. He LOVED it.

Inside Goblin Valley

I think Steve looks pretty good here. It looks like he is modeling, but he didn't even know I was taking the picture.

I had Shannon on the front and a back pack on my back. By the time we were done walking around I was sore.

Part of the valley, it was so pretty.

From the top, Billy, Aubree, Madi and Conner.

I was impressed my camera caught this.

Conner's cousin, Brigham. They are only 3 months apart so in about a year it'll be really fun with these two, right now they mostly fight.

Aubree, Conner's cousin.

Everyone that went. Lance, Amber and their kids.

I look like I am going to break this kid size 4-wheeler.

It was so nice to get away for the weekend and see some amazing creations that we get to enjoy. Thanks Lance and Amber for letting us tag along.