Tonto Creek

We drove up North this weekend to hike around the Tonto Creek area.  It was cloudy and rainy, but man, was it fun and beautiful!  The creek was actually running pretty strong, and while we didn't play in it due to the weather, it was really nice.  The kids scaled a lot of rocks and we hiked a few miles before heading back.  We also drove up to the fish hatchery, but it was closed by the time we got there, and we just walked around for a bit before heading back home.  The drive was beautiful, and as usual, it was super nice to get away.  Pictures to follow!

Random Updates

• Karianna put together an amazing book report, in which she created a cereal based on a book of her choice.  Thus, "Dork-e-o's" was born!  Based on the "Dork Diaries" books, her cereal box shares specific details for one of the books, including "Glam Ingredients" (story elements), three awesome illustrations, a word search, and a persuasive aspect that convinces you to buy this "cereal".  Karianna did a really, really excellent job-I was so proud of her!
• Karianna also wrote a story about an illustration she did-I used to do this as a kid, her teacher gave her a paper with a doodle on it, and she had to turn it into a picture.  She turned her little doodle into a picture of the Mad Hatter making tea in his tea shop!  Her story is awesome, I'll have to post it here.  I wish I remembered to take more pictures of the kids' projects since I know they are not all going to survive being boxed up or put in scrapbooks.  
• Jackson no longer uses his binky during the day-it stays in his bed.  I don't care so much if he uses it while he sleeps, but I like this new independence during the day.
• Jackson is down to one nap during the day, though it is a long 3 hour one from about 10-1, sometimes even 1:30.  He goes to bed by 8 at the latest, and sleeps until 7:30 in the morning.  I am really liking this schedule.  Part of me would like to put him to bed earlier around 7, and I think he would be amenable to that, but I do not think I can expect the house to be quiet enough for him that early.  8 makes more sense since that is when the other little kids go to bed. 
• I am super happy to say I am having a great deal of success whittling down Jackson's nursing schedule.  I didn't want mastitis to be the reason I stopped nursing my last baby, but after I recovered, I realize the time had come. Jackson was nursing 5-6 times a day still, and my past babies have always been down to 2, maybe 3 times a day at this point.  So, I am pressing weaning with the goal of being totally done by the end of March; Jacks will be 16 months.  At this point, I have nixed several feedings with no issues (thankfully), and Jackson only nurses when he wakes up and when he goes to bed.  I'll lose the morning feed next week, maybe go every other day until dropping it completely, and then do the same with the night feed.  That will be hard for me emotionally, I think, but Jackson is acclimating well, and I am excited to move forward.
• Sara has stopped tutoring, as she finally told me she didn't want to do it anymore.  They have been giving her extension work for a while now, I was just waiting for her to tell me she WANTED to be done.  She is progressing so beautifully in school, it is so neat to see.  She mastered yet another list of sight words and got to attend the Super Reader lunch with her teacher-she is super proud of that.
• JD brought home a permission slip yesterday to test for GT.  He is extremely excited about that because his best friend is in GT!  I'll send in the forms to have him tested, but we are not stressing about it.  I honestly think he gets the support he needs in his classroom, though I always see great benefits of doing GT, so if he qualifies, great-we'll have him do it.  I just wish every teacher would teach as if he or she was a GT teacher.  I don't understand why we don't push our kids in "regular" classrooms to achieve greatness.  Sigh.  Off my soapbox.  
• Jordan has expressed a desire to do swim team this summer!  I actually think he would be great at it if he could discipline himself enough to listen to directions and hold his body still.  Jordan is such a wiry kid-he is all muscle.  His physical adeptness impresses me all the time, and he is such a fast runner.  I really do think he will be great at swim team, and I do think we will sign him up for it at the same time that we sign Karianna up for dive team.
• JD, as always just wants to do soccer.  I hate how expensive things like that are, but we are confident he will be able to start after spring break or maybe summer.
• Updates for James......I don't know!  James is my little buddy every single day, and i should probably keep a better log of the funny things he says and the little activities we do every day.  He is overdue (in my opinion) for potty training at this point, but we talk about it and sit on the potty all the time....some may already call that potty training, but for me, I need to change him to underwear and have that week where we live by the timer and constantly talk about needing to pee and poop.  I am really really hoping for next week, as I have a goal for him to be trained by the end of March, including naps (and hopefully nights, but we'll see).  

Jared and I are excited to get our yards cleaned up in the next week with our tax return arriving.  We will be switching out our awful, broken fridge with one we are inheriting from my Grandma Dana, and potentially doing the same with our washer/dryer.....our dryer is fairly new, but given that we are receiving a set, we may replace both.  Jared was asked this past week to serve in his FOURTH calling....yes, I said 4th.  Of all things, he was asked to be the Elder's Quorum secretary-something he has done I think 7 times before.  He obviously knows this calling extremely well, but considering that he has 3 other callings, and doesn't feel like he is able to even fulfill 2 of those other callings, he had to decline the secretary calling.  Jared does not want to put the EQ president in a position of relying on him when he really can't dedicate the needed time to this calling. His availability to do visits, attend meetings, and go to the church to input numbers is just super low given that my "work day" usually starts when he gets home.  He did accept the task of teaching in EQ, so he'll add that to his schedule on Sundays. 

I am in a mode of trashing a lot of stuff we don't need or want anymore, and just wanting to declutter.  Unfortunately, that usually means our house is a disaster because decluttering makes a huge mess before it resolves.  I have been making a concerted effort to change some things that have been bugging me, like kids taking advantage of making their own breakfast/lunches, and just leaving a disaster in the kitchen, or tossing dirty clothes anywhere other than the laundry room where they are supposed to go.  James has also been wreaking havoc in his room-he has drilled 2 holes in the wall by his bed, colored all over the door and his bed, and widened the hole in the wall behind the door.  So I have started painting things, patching up holes, and laying down extremely strict rules for James, as well as adjusting his nap schedule so he is not in his room at times when he is just not tired.  I am enforcing a greater responsibility with the kids to keep things clean:  bedrooms primarily, and now bathrooms.  i taught JD how to completely clean a toilet two days ago-inside and out.  The other kids are next.  :)

Those are the happenings right now.  I feel like every day just flies by in such a rush, and I often feel like I don't get enough done to relish my time with the kids.  I feel like I lose myself in frustration way too often, and that is something I am actively trying to remedy.  Constant process!

Hopefully, this was the last go-around.

I wouldn't have thought it was truly possible, but apparently, it was.  I got mastitis again, with Jackson being 14 and a half months old.  How seriously weird is that? Lets face it: I am prone to mastitis.  I have had it 9 times in my child-rearing years.  I know the signs, I know exactly when I need to call the doctor, and I know all the home remedies.  Those 9 times don't even count the clogged milk ducts that could have led to mastitis that I was able to fight off.  I have been in situations where I literally go to sleep feeling fine, and I wake up the next morning with a rock for a breast (sorry, too much information).  The only thing I have not experienced is mastitis with a baby this old, so this round definitely threw me for a loop.  

It started on a Wednesday, 2/4.  I felt a few weird twinges earlier that day, and was already on alert with those home remedies.  By early evening, it was honestly no worse, but it had also not gone away.  I took a long shower, and only then noticed, despite the pain level not being too bad, I had red streaks-red flag.  Within half an hour-I kid you not-I started having chills and body aches, especially in my legs.  I immediately called my doctor's after hours service.  In the hour it took for her to get back to me, I was in pain, as if I had the flu.  It always shocks me just a little bit how quickly this moves.  My doctor told me she was calling in a prescription for dicloxicillan, and while the name rang a bell, I couldn't quite place why, other than knowing I had probably had that before for an earlier bout of mastitis.  I sent Jared to get the med, and I started taking it, along with tylenol, aleve, and zofran, given that I was ready to throw up.  I managed to get to sleep but woke up several times that night alternating between a cold sweat and burning up.  I admittedly was a bit delerious and panicked that it had gotten so bad so quickly.

The next two days were pretty torturous.  I was completely useless.  Jared stayed home from work to take over with the kids, I took sick leave from work, and literally laid in bed moaning, crying, and just trying to keep breathing all day.  I left bed to take scalding hot baths every 4 hours when my meds would start to wear off and the chills/body aches would come back. On Thursday evening, I was so overcome from nausea that a bell went off in my head and I realized why I recognized the name dicloxicillan: I had it when Jackson was 4 months old, and it gave me extreme side effects.  I looked it up on my blog and saw I was right.  I called my doctor and she gave me the option of doing a different med or just doing a heavy dose of zofran with it.  I went with the second option, not wanting to start over with fighting the infection (in retrospect, this was a bad choice).  We got the zofran that night.  By Friday evening, not only was the zofran not helping at all, but I felt like the mastitis was spreading.  My side effects were worse.  I was running a fever on and off, and my entire body just hurt.  I called my doctor again that evening, and she advised me to go to the hospital.  If antibiotics aren't working, it suggests the infection has turned into an abcess that needs to be drained.  That thought scared me to pieces.  I had Jared give me a blessing and we felt impressed to crank it up a notch in terms of massage, heat and pumping, and decided to wait until the morning to see if we needed to go in.  I had a fitful night, and finally drifted off only to wake up around 3:30 am feeling slightly better.  I felt so relieved, which is funny because it really was only a degree of improvement-but it was something.  

Saturday was a watchful day as we kept the idea of going to the hospital in the back of our brains.  I felt the antibiotics had finally started to work though, and although they were still making me extremely sick, the infection itself was starting to get better.  We ended up not going to the hospital and I spent the entire weekend in bed.  Jared was a lifesaver with the kids-he took them all the way to Anthem to play at the new major park, and was gone with them for about 4 hours-it was incredible, and I was able to really rest in between visits to the bath.  He took them all to his mom's house on Sunday to again allow me rest time, and while the house fell the the wayside a bit,the kids were well-cared for, and that was such a huge deal to me.  

Monday was a hard day.  The infection thankfully felt like it was gone, but I was only 5 days into the med with 5 days to go.  i knew I could not keep taking it and survive.  i called my doctor again to report I either needed permission to stop taking it, or I needed to switch to another antibiotic to make sure the mastitis didn't come back.  She asked me to come in.  I very hesitantly agreed, knowing my stomach was going to make it very difficult to drive 45 minutes to her office in Scottsdale.  To make it even more difficult, I would have to take all three younger kids with me, given that Sara stayed home from school after having a fever on Sunday.  I had absolutely no energy.  It took absolutely everything out of me to make that trip.  I hadn't eaten anything but dry toast and some soup in 4 days.  I said a prayer before getting on the road, and thankfully everything went okay, but when we got home, I just cried because I was so unbelievably tired and sick.  Anyhow, the doctor clarified my infection was indeed gone and put me on a new med to take for 10 days, just as a precaution.  Jared came home early and I just fell into bed, more tired than I can even express.  

Tuesday was also difficult.  I expected to feel better since i had stopped taking the bad med the day before.  Unfortunately, I still had major body aches, nausea, and chills throughout the day.  I was able to eat a little more, but not a ton, and I was still so lethargic.  I had a major breakdown that night, just so tired of feeling so sick, and worried the new med was still making me feel bad.  jared reassured me that the dicloxicillian probably hadn't leached out of my body yet, and that was why I was feeling so terrible still-not to mention my energy levels had not sustained themselves by any means. I knew he was right, I was just so tired of feeling sick and being so useless in a house and family that really need me to function as the mom.

Wednesday marked one week since I fell ill, and I finally started feeling better that day.  I ate three small but normal meals.  I still had some acid reflux and food aversions, but the nausea and body aches/chills were gone. I had some massive headaches that day and Thursday, and I'm sure those were the results of taking so much medicine during the previous week.  I had a few instances of weird vision, as if I was getting migraines, and my legs had a funny ache to them, so I started taking a vitamin D/iron supplement.  Eating got better on Friday, and while I was still extremely tired, I managed to get some cleaning done around the house and took the kids to the splash pad at Riverview park.  I was so surprised how tired and weak I still felt--I just cannot believe how much this round of mastitis took out of me.  Other than that exhaustion, we had a fairly normal Saturday as a family-I did the grocery shopping, Jared and I went out for a lunch date for valentines day, we celebrated Jordan's birthday finally at Falcon Hill park, and I managed to stay on my feet the entire time.  I was able to go back to church on sunday and run a very successful singing time-and that was when I decided I was back to normal, because that takes a ton of energy.  Granted I had to nap after church, but that was minor.

So, as a conclusion to this seriously long account, I am so done with mastitis.  I cannot believe how aggressive this case was, and how poorly I reacted to the antibiotic.  It was just a disaster of a week, and I missed several things with the kids that I really regret.  Jared was such a lifesaver to make sure things were still okay, and he kept me from going insane.  I am glad we were directed to not go to the hospital-I think that would have made things so much worse.  I am also grateful that this should be the last time I have to deal with this.  I didn't necessarily want mastitis to be the catalyst for weaning my last baby, but I am definitely ready to move on.  I am somewhat nervous about actually weaning since I usually let babies do it themselves when they are ready, but the time has come.  My goal is to be done nursing by the end of March-Jackson will be 16 months old, and that is pretty awesome.  

So glad to be feeling better.

Valentine's Day

 Happy love day to all of my loves!  That includes Jared, even though he's not in the pictures!  Today was a busy day, and we got to carve out a few minutes to hand out little valentines to the kiddos.  I love their reactions, and the pure joy of getting a few little treats.  They all had such fun parties at school yesterday, made some very creative valentines boxes, and had a fun time at the park celebrating Jordan's birthday.  Jared and I got to go out for lunch-I am so grateful I felt up to eating.  I was kind of tired, but it was lovely to enjoy time together as husband and wife-even nicer that Karianna can babysit!  I know valentines day is typically geared towards couples, but I love my entire family so much.  I wish I did a better job avoiding frustration and impatience as a mother, because I really do enjoy my children-they make me smile and they bring joy to my life every single day.  I feel so blessed to have the family that I do-we are crazy and chaotic, but that's how memories are made, right?

 Now that, right there, is the best reaction-he loves fishies!

 She did such a great job waiting until the end to open her bag of goodies!

The First of 2015: Splash Pad

I am sure, in the upcoming months, I will have many splash pad posts.  We just happened to have our first splash pad adventure today-who cares if it is February?!?  JD, Jordan, Sara, Jackson, and James pretty much got entirely soaked-the older two boys more so than anyone.  That's what they get for literally sitting on the little fountains of water!  Karianna was such a god helper during this outing, she had such a good attitude, played with Jackson and James for quite some time in different areas of the park, and climbed every single structure as part of her fitness goals.  She did such a great job enjoying herself, even though I know parks are just starting to lose their appeal.  I hope that doesn't happen for a while longer-I love parks!

And of course, here's the stream of pictures to commemorate the first run through the splash pad!

 I love this look on Jacks' face-he is constantly going "whoa!" at things he thinks are cool!

 This was after he got his first face-full of water!

 Jackson finally decided he likes slides!  JD did a great job following him around this play structure and sliding with him.

 Karianna rescued James on this bridge when he decided to take a flying leap on it rather than stepping carefully!

 Swinging like a monkey before he takes the plunge!

 The true monkey of the family-Jordan is crazy with his climbing abilities!

 JD's not far behind....

 I was surprised Sara acquiesced to getting soaked!  She was the brave one to walk through the middle fountains!

At one point, I was sitting with Jackson by this little spout, and the tall water fixtures turned on without warning-we both got good and wet before I ran him out of there.  It was honestly quite refreshing!  I haven't felt that alive in a while with getting over my sickness for the past week and a half.

Joy

 This little boy is so ticklish-it is utter joy to see him giggling and laughing with so much gusto!  His laugh is still difficult to hear, and I am not sure if that will ever change.  But the smile on his face relays that pure happiness that I love so much about James!

This is totally normal.

 Well......totally normal if you know Jackson has two older sisters who like to play dress up.  He's not hatin' it!

A New Cousin

 We got to meet a new cousin over the weekend-David and Sarah had baby Olivia this past week!  She's less than a week old in these pictures, and since she is so new, we only brought Karianna to meet her.  Olivia is just a doll-a perfect little bundle with that indescribable new baby smell.  It is so interesting to me to see how distinct gender is even at a week old-she is completely a girl.  I really enjoyed holding her-I'm so content being done with babies, but there will always be something very special about holding a brand new baby.

She kept giving these cute little half smiles in her sleep!

 A funny little face-

 I think Karianna likes holding babies even more than me!

 Such a sweetie!

We actually went out for a quick breakfast at IHOP after our visit, Karianna was overjoyed with that since it is a rarity for her, especially with just Jared and myself.  We have something very special planned for Karianna in April, and this was kind of a precursor-made me all the more excited.  I know this is very mysterious, but it has to stay a secret for Karianna's sake more than anything.  :)  Fun morning!

Warming My Heart

When we decided to change our bedroom arrangements, Karianna was really hesitant to share with Sara...she kept citing instances in the past when Sara would get into all of her stuff, especially her nail polish, barbies, and dolls.  I kept telling Karianna it would be different because Sara is so much older now, and must more responsible.  Sure enough, it has been a super easy transition, especially considering Karianna has given Sara all her dolls/barbies!  More than that though, Sara has been a great room mate for Karianna in many, many ways.  Last night was one of those moments that just warmed my heart:  we overheard Karianna teaching Sara how to sing Let It Go in parts.  She would direct Sara on what to sing and how to sing it before performing together-this all was happening after we had put them in bed, and lights were out, Jared and I just heard it from down the hall and we huddled there to listen for a while.  It was so sweet hearing their voices working together to sing-together.  I think Sara just adores and admires Karianna, and Karianna can be such a good example for Sara.  I love that they share a room and are actually, truly enjoying it.

At some point, I stuck my arm out in front of their open door and quickly snapped a picture to catch their sisterly bonding time on film....yes, their walls need major work, and their room is not clean, but i can't care in this moment because the memory of this picture is just too sweet!  

And of course, if I am going to take a bedtime shot of the girls, may as well get one of all my boys!  Sleeping pics are great!  

Jacks was on his stomach with his blanket tossed to the side when I snapped the first picture.  That woke him up enough to make him roll over to see what the heck was going on.  He immediately reached for his blanket and of his own accord, wrapped it around his neck/face like so-he LOVES this blanket, which used to be Jared's as a baby.....my first kiddo to really get attached to a blankie.  If you try to put him to bed with a different one, he will struggle to fall asleep.  So cute!

James always sleeps with heart dog in hand!