Last week: the good, the bad, and the frustrating!

This past week was pretty slow with not much happening until we hit the weekend. Then things got a bit interesting. Friday night Matthew woke up in the middle of the night screaming saying that his tooth hurt! But then he laid down and went to sleep. We thought it was a bit weird but weren't too concerned because we figured if he was in tremendous amounts of pain he wouldn't be able to sleep. The next morning he was acting fine. Every once in a while he would say that his mouth hurt but he was running around and playing. I thought maybe he had a canker sore or something. We got a kick out of Steven-aka "Mr. Independent". We were getting ready to go out and Steven was insistent that he had to put on his own coat. This is not unusual and he even has trick that his Grandma taught him to make it easier (lay the coat on the ground, put his arms in the sleeves, and then flip it over his head). However, this particular time he came running up to me and said "Mommy, I did it myself!" As I was praising him, I looked at him and could hardly stop myself from laughing. His coat was on upside down. It was pretty funny and of course we had to take a picture.

A little later on, Summer had pulled herself up to the coffee table and was playing with some toys on it. All of a sudden we realized that she was cruising around the table. It is the first time she has done that! Her brothers were pretty excited, especially Matthew. He gets so excited whenever she reaches new milestones.

While we were out and about that evening Karl and I were getting the kids out of the car. I noticed that Matthew's cheek was very swollen. I mentioned it to Karl and he said he had wondered earlier but attributed it to the fact that Matthew was leaning his face against the couch. So we decided to take him to the doctor (our pediatrician's office is also an urgent care). I stayed home with Summer and Steven and Karl left with Matthew. On a whim, Karl grabbed the card for our pediatric dentist and called from the car. Someone answered and told Karl not to bother with the doctor because they would just refer him to a dentist. They told us they would get in touch with Dr. Steve (our kids' dentist). About 10 min later Dr. Steve called and told Karl to me him at his office in 45 min. He was unable to get an X-ray that night because Matthew wouldn't cooperate. So the next morning (Sunday) Karl and Matthew went back in and he had to sedate Matthew. An x-ray showed that Matthew had an infected tooth. So he had to pull it. Not too fun. Luckily it was a back tooth and a baby tooth. The lesson we learned from this is too take tooth pain seriously. We are so grateful that we have a dentist who was willing to come in on Sat. night and a Sunday morning. We kept Matthew home from preschool on Monday but he went today. He seems back to normal. Now he is on antibiotics 3 times a day until both bottles are gone.

Then on Monday night Karl was working. I was trying to multitask by unloading the dishwasher while fixing dinner for the kids. I left the dishwasher door open and then I turned around and tripped over it and the door got a big crack in it. Now it won't close so we have to get a new one. I was so frustrated!

It's hard to tell from the picture but his coat is upside down!

If you look closely you can tell that it is upside down!

Matthew's cheek-this isn't the greatest picture but it is the only one we have. It got a lot more swollen later on but I didn't take any pictures!

Summer and Matthew

Summer and Steven-this has nothing to do with the post I just thought it was an adorable picture!

Celebrating Matt's B-day

Even though we had already had a party for Matthew the Saturday before his birthday, we celebrated as a family the night of his birthday after Karl got home from work. He wanted to have pizza for dinner that night so Karl picked up a Papa Murphy's Chicago stuffed pizza on his way home from work. While it was cooking Matthew opened his presents. He got a lot of fun gifts and was very excited. Some of his gifts included: The Clone Wars DVD, a Star Wars game, a roboraptor, a military playset, lacing cards, a magnet set, Batman on the bat cycle, several books (Curious George at the Circus, Ground Hog's Day, The Kissing Hand) to name a few. He loved all his presents and cards so many thanks to all who sent them!

After eating the pizza we had ice cream and cake. I was unable to make a cake-I didn't have time. I usually do a theme cake but this year we got one from the bakery. It was a delicious chocolate cake and Matt was excited by the sprinkles. So we sang happy birthday and Matthew blew out his 5 candles-with a little help from Steven. It was a fun evening.

The next day we took Matthew to Toys 'R Us to spend the birthday money he received as well as the $3 gift card that the store sent him for being a member of the birthday club. If you haven't signed your kids up you should! He also got a balloon and a birthday crown. He thought it was pretty exciting! After much debate he ended up buying a red light saber.

Matthew's Haul

"Hmmm...Which one first?"

Steven with the gifts

Picking a Present

With his new Batman

Star Wars game




Roboraptor

Steven is our acrobat


"What are you doing on the table??"










Karl was our photographer-Here he is with Summer

The very yummy cake

Lighting the candles

On the much loved singing cake plate-a gift from Karl's parents several years ago. It spins the cake, lights up and sings "Happy Birthday"!

Happy Birthday Matthew!

5 years ago today at about 4 am, mommy woke up because she couldn't feel me moving and was worried. I was already overdue and was scheduled to be induced on the 17th. She woke up daddy and on the advice of her doctor they headed to the hospital. A non-stress test showed I was doing fine but before they let her go they did a quick ultrasound. This showed that I didn't have enough fluid around me so they decided to induce labor. After a few hours labor hadn't progressed at all and my heart rate was dropping so a c-section became necessary. I was safely delivered at 12:53 pm and it was extra special because I was born on my grandpa's birthday. Prior to my birth, in an attempt to bring up my heart rate the doctor's gave mommy a sugar IV. This wrecked havoc on my own blood sugar levels and shortly after my birth they plummeted dangerously low. They had to put me on a sugar IV to stabilize them. This was hard, especially for mommy who only got to hold me for about 10 min on the day I was born. Daddy had to get someone in our ward to help him give me a blessing. The next day Grandma and Grandpa came and that made everything much better. Mommy and Daddy felt blessed because my blood sugar levels stabilized in time for me to go home with mommy. Over the past five years I have brought so much joy to mommy and daddy that they don't know how they ever got along without me. I am energetic and full of life. I love star wars and any type of superhero. I am outgoing and make friends easily. I also enjoy learning and am full of questions about everything! I am such a terrific big brother. Steven adores me and is my little shadow. Summer grins whenever I walk into the room. The other night all of us kids were in the room that we all share and Summer was crying and mommy and daddy could hear me singing to her, trying to cheer her up. I have a big heart and greatly care about other people. I am very special!
Happy Birthday dear Matthew, we love you!

Matthew with his IV

Matthew and mommy on his first Valentine's Day!

Matthew at 1 month

First day he went to church

Dressed like Daddy

With Mommy and Daddy

Matthew on his first Easter which was also his blessing day

with all his loot from the Easter Bunny!

At about 2 months


At about 3 months

6 months old

With Daddy on his first Halloween, Daddy had to work that night

9 months old

about 10 months old


1 year old

18 months old

2nd Christmas-he was excited to meet Santa Claus!


2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

Matthew at 5 wearing his birthday crown from preschool