Toes

I am clipping Gavin's toenails this morning and he sees black toe jam on his big toe.

Gavin: "Mom, I am getting worried. I think my toe is getting a cavity."

I assured him that his toe would never get a cavity.

Alaska Moment

It's spring here so the kids can actually go outside and ride bikes. Corbin came in and asked for hot cocoa afterwards. Funny huh?

Bounce House

A new bounce house opened up in Eagle River. Today we went for the first time and had a blast!

One brace

Everyone had a dentist's appointment last week. I am proud to say we have NO cavities. Gavin had two teeth growing into each other so we were referred to the orthodontist. I was skeptical.

I asked, "Won't that baby tooth fall out and everything will be fine?"

It would fall out too soon because of the pressure from the other tooth and then the other tooth would grow crooked. This dentist is a member of the church so I trusted him.

The orthodontist office was right down the hall. It's owned by members of the church too. I walked in to make an appointment and they said they could see us right then. Score! Best day ever!




Gavin had to have a brass wire wrapped around his tooth to pull it to the side. He had to get two shots. He hated it but he was so brave! The dentist was actually the brother of one of my friends and he was AWESOME with Gavin. He showed him all of the pliers and what they were for and showed him how he uses them to shape the wire.



So I am $150 poorer but at least my little G will have great teeth!

Oh and Jared, they measured his bottom teeth and even though they are severly crowded right now there's enough room for them to spread out. His bottom row of teeth should be just fine.

Movie Feeder

Corbin: "Mom, I always thought it was movie feeder not movie theater. I kept waiting for food and it never came!"

It's a common mistake.

Hey Jared!

Hey Honey!
Here's our new table that the Reeders gave us. I LOVE it! Two benches for all of our little ones. Jayci said she gave it to us because we always ooo and ahh over it every time we come over. Maybe if we ooo and ahh over their other furniture we'll get that too. :o) Just a funny joke Jayci!

Corbin

So Corbin is so self-conscious about his hair-cut that he wears his hat everywhere! His snow hat of all hats. He wore it to church on Sunday! It cracks me up.

Updates

Pumpkin are officially gone from the front yard.

AND after much coaxing and begging Corbin finished shaving the rest of his hair. He keeps telling him he is having a hard day because he didn't want his hair cut. He is really upset about it.

Easter

The baskets all hung on the chimney with care with hopes that a brother wouldn't steal and ensnare....
After the Easter Bunny came this was where my children decided to put their baskets. I think it's adorable.



I found these at Wal-Mart; I had never seen them before. I will never dye another Easter egg the old-fashioned way again. These are q-tips full of dye. You bend and break one end which sends the dye shooting to the other end. You then paint and decorate your egg. LOVE IT!

Here are the boys working away. Oh, and I have to tell the truth. We did these Monday night the day AFTER Easter because I totally forgot about it. I am patting myself on the back that the Easter Bunny remembered to come.





Here's a showcase of our creations.

Asher's showcase.


Corbin's showcase.


Gavin's showcase.


My eggs.

Settlers of Catan

Everyone in our house has a wishlist. It's an excell spreadsheet with everyone's name and list of anything and everything they want. Nothing is offlimits. One of the things on mine was a game called Settlers of Catan. You usually have to find a specialty store that sells odd games like Dungeons and Dragons. BUT while walking in the BX/PX the other day at a small kiosk there they were! It was destiny so I bought it. AND to my complete utter astonishment my children can play it! Oh the joy of finding something you can play with your children that you enjoy too. I seriously can only play pirates or race the car across the kitchen floor for so long before I want to go crazy.

Gum in Hair

The Easter Bunny brought gum this year. Corbin went to bed with gum in his mouth last night, not known to me. He woke up with it all in his hair and on MY pillowcase. I just threw the pillowcase away. They are two for $7 at Wal-Mart for crying out loud.


Corbin was furious about it. I told him he could try to take a bath to get it out. That of course didn't work. So I told him he could either get a haircut or have gum hair. He was mad and for a couple of hours decided to have gum hair.

Then he changed his mind and decided to cut it out. Once I got the gum out he refused to cut anymore hair. By this time I was tired of the ordeal so I said fine. He went around all day with one side shaved and the other side normal. Whatever.

Dinner Group

Our ward is split into dinner groups. You meet once a month with your group without kids and have dinner at one of the member's house. It's a lot of fun.

Here's Shannon, our hostess for the evening.



She always makes things look beautifu.



This is Brother Hopkins on the left and Brother and Sister Mauger.


Chris on the left is Shannon's husband and Brother Goldberg on the right.


Brother Betz, one of the funniest guys I know.


I made everyone turn and say hi to Jared.

First Birthday Present

My sister sent my birthday present! I am so happy. I love this skirt! I do not know how she got it to fit me perfectly. I mean perfectly! It's official, we're soul mates. :o) Thanks sista!

Oh and Jared. Should I wear the white shoes or the tan shoes that you bought me?

Alaska Moment

Are you ready for this Alaskan moment?

Yesterday was 37 degrees.

The ICE CREAM MAN was out in his little truck selling away. And here's the best part, the children were buying it up. Oh yeah. I had my back door open like it was the best spring day I had ever enjoyed. Beth, my friend who is living with me right now, said, "Only in Alaska do we open the windows on a 30 degree day." It was beautiful! Sun shining. We're at 13 hours of daylight now.

I love Alaska.

My Besty Hat and Mittens

All right Jared, here are my besty hat and mittens I bought on my first night out after you left. I got them at my favorite store, Woolies. The colors are fun and inside it's a soft fleece.


Here's me in my pajamas with my besty hat. Hope you love it as much as I do.

Little Present

So I got this little box in the mail today. What's in it you say?

Perfume from my hubby!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE smells.
This one is called Nina. My sister-in-law Tammy had it and I loved it. I've wanted it for some time and now it's mine!

This one Jared picked out. It's called Angel. I love it more than the Nina! It is fabulous! It's soft like baby powder but has a little bit of spice to it. It's not heavy but it's strong enough to notice.

Thank you my love! I feel like a queen.

Ringworm

December 22
We notice Asher has a huge ring on his head. Connie, Jared's mom, says it's ringworm and we need to go in.

December 23
Elmendorf hospital couldn't see us so they referred us to a medical clinic in the small town that we live in. They say it's ringworm and give us over the counter athletes foot to treat it.

We do that for about two weeks and then Gavin wakes up with it all over. We go into the same clinic and they perscribe the same athletes foot.

Meanwhile Asher's speads all over his body! We go back into the clinic and they perscribe 62mg of Griseofulvin once a day.

Take that for a month. Jared and I both get it. We put the topical on it and they go away.

Gavin's don't go away. School nurse freaks out and kicks them out of school.

Call the doctor they have us come in. The doctor we see says it's ringworm but it's not contagious, keep putting on the topical and here's a letter saying they can go back to school.

We're in the month of February now.

Nurse can't take it anymore because it's not going away and kicks them out of school again!

I call the doctor and we go in the next day. We see the SAME doctor as last time. He looks at the SAME spots and tells me it's not ringworm. I point this out to him. I tell him that Asher still has the ringworm but the perscription medication seems to keep it in control. I beg him to perscribe the same thing to Gavin. He refuses. The nurse in the room tried to convince him to perscribe it. I am at the end of my rope.
The doctor says, "You look frustrated mamn. What's wrong?"
I say, "It's March now and I've been dealing with this for three months will you please give me the perscription?! The topical is obviously not working!"
He says, "I will not give you the perscription."
I say, "So what do I do?"
He says, "It's not ringworm. I'll make an appointment for you to see the dermatologist."

We leave. The kids resume school. The nurse freaks out again and kicks them out of school. I call the doctor and tell them everything that happens and calmly express how frustated I am feeling. They let me come in the same day. They take a scalpel and scrape all of our spots even mine to culture them on a petree dish. Twenty-four hours later they call and say it's not ringworm and they have a letter at the hospital for me to pick up so the kids can get back into school. I go the next day at 7:00a.m. to the hospital again to pick up the letters.

I take the letters to the school nurse who says, "It looks like ringworm to me so they have to wear bandaids on all of their spots."
So Gavin has to wear five bandaids on his FACE! The poor kid has been such a good sport about it. He was so nervous about what the other kids would say. We prayed together. We asked Father to soften the other kids hearts and that if they decided to make fun of Gavin that the Holy Ghost would comfort him and help him get through it. He said the kids asked a lot of questions about it but didn't make fun of him.

Okay, today, April 6, 2009 Gavin and Asher had their yearly check-up and physical. We go in and we have a female doctor seeing us. She says those spots are ringworm. I told her the whole story and about the culture coming back negative last week. She says that a ringworm culture takes 3-4 weeks to grow and that there is no way they could have known that quickly. I told her that was what the vet said about our cat bacause I am still waiting for the results from Gryffindor.
She looks up the amount of Griseofluvin that Asher is taking and says, "No wonder he still isn't over it. They have him taking 62 mg a day and he should be taking 500mg a day." She perscribes Gavin and Asher the appropriate amount and tells me to crush it up and put it in ice cream twice a day. Okay. I go to the Pharmacy to pick it up. They are out and it won't be in for another week. No problem I think, I still have some of Asher's left over. I go and get 4 half gallons of ice cream at the store.

Tonight, dinner time. Asher takes the pills with water like an adult would do. Corbin eats his in his ice cream. GAVIN gags, cries, rolls on the floor, drops to his knees and throws his head back in agony, WILL NOT take it. I lost it! I said, "YOU WILL EAT THAT ICE CREAM!!!" Finally I go to my room close the door and lock it and have a meltdown. I hear a knock. It's Gavin. He says he took his pill. I said you threw it away didn't you. He says yes. Another half hour of trying to get him to either swallow the pill or eat the ice cream. No go.

After dinner I notice two round spots on the back of Corbin's neck. Two ringworms starting to form. So tomorrow morning I will be back at the doctor's office.

I sent everyone to bed and called my mother to vent. She was great. I put topical cream on my ringworm on my face and now I'm going to bed. I feel like bawling.

Here's some pix for you Jared!

We took a little family picture for you.


These pictures are of our walk that we took today in between General Conference sessions. I know you don't like the boys to have sticks but it kept them entertained! Forgive me and have mercy. :o) I even got into the sticks and fenced a little bit with Gavin.