Thursday, February 25, 2010

Does He Really Stand a Chance..

at battling the girlie-girl stuff?
Right now he watches them play dress up for a very long time. I am sure someday he will become the subject of their aspirations at becoming stylists! Poor, poor Kyce!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Deeply Touched.

It has been a life altering week for Benjy and I. I know we both want to hug a little tighter, sit a little longer, pray a little harder and appreciate a lot more! On Tuesday of last week a teacher at the girls' school walked into work, felt a little sick, dizzy and started to fall. Another teacher caught her and they called an ambulance and later that day passed away from a brain aneurysm. She was a middle aged teacher, I don't know her exact age, but she looked so young, so vibrant and touched so many lives. So drastic, so fast and so unexpected.
On Wednesday Benjy's boss' 19 year old son took his own life. So young, so vibrant, so much going for him, touched so many lives in his short 19 years on this earth and yet so drastic, so tragic and so unexpected.
I can't help but hug a little tighter, sit a little longer, pray a little harder and appreciate A LOT more!
Here is a very nice tribute to this young man.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fhome.php%3F%23!%2Fvideo%2Fvideo.php%3Fv%3D1230317239354%26ref%3Dnf&h=13df5abe16e032f341d7a00588b939a9

Writer's Block, again..

Do you ever find yourself so deep in thought that you just can't get out all the feelings and ideas that you have? Well....that is where I am at. Working through some pretty deep thoughts and feelings right now.. when I can find the right words, I will try to write. All that I can say right now is that I am soooooo thankful for family and friends and I need to do a better job at communicating that to all of them!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Building Character..

It has a been a great week for BUILDING CHARACTER.. The day after I blogged about Benjy's backing accident, I got rear ended by a neighbor who doesn't have insurance. He hit us pretty hard so Kaydree screamed and I really thought there would be a lot of damage but there wasn't. Of course while Benjy was gone this week we go a lot of snow and as I was shoveling and I glanced over at the snowblower and said to myself..."Why haven't I learned how to use that dumb thing?" I called my dad and asked him if he could run me though it over the phone. His response was, "You don't need to go anywhere, just stay home while Benjy is gone." So of course after I had the accident I had to tell him, he was right, I should have just stayed home! While Benjy was gone we were battling Kaydree getting over strep and Kyce was developing what we thought to be dry skin. I kept trying everything from baby lotion to aveno to Vaseline and then to baby oil. It kept getting worse. It wasn't until I called a friend in a panic wondering if he was having an allergic reaction to something that I decided to take him to urgent care after she said that it could be a strep rash. Since Kaydree had strep and even though they kept telling me it was highly unlikely that a baby would get step, they tested him. For the next 20 minutes the Doctor explained to me why it wasn't strep. About the time she was ready to send us on our way, the nurse popped her head in and said, "He's positive." I wish I could have taken a picture of that doctor's face. She said, "In 12 years of practice I haven't seen a baby with strep." So of course this sets me into a panic and guilty feeling. Why did my baby have to be the first and he has had this rash/dry skin for a week...I felt horrible! Had he been in pain for a week? He was eating fine and happy, but if he had a rash like this from strep, how long had he felt yucky? I had done pretty well all week with Benjy gone but getting sick kiddos sends me into a tail spin. I already had an appointment with our pediatrician the next day and debated canceling it. I am a huge googler and decided to look up what strep rashes look like and wanted to find others who had babies with strep. (which I found numerous people, so how rare is it?) The odd thing was that Kyce's rash didn't look anything like the other step rashes. So that bothered me. I decided to go to our own doctor and I am glad that I did. The reason babies don't usually have strep is because they don't usually test them. Babies don't get Rheumatic Fever from strep which is the reason why they don't need to treat them as the doctor explained it. Since I had already started the antibiotic he said to finish it but that Kyce would have been fine without it. What Kyce has is seborrheic infantile dermatitis, basically cradle cap---gone bad. It spreads throughout the body! yep...felt even worse after finding this out! It is an oil gland problem and all of the baby oil I was applying was making it worse! We had rubbed his scalp but with all that hair we didn't even realize how bad it was. So after massaging his scalp for a long, very long time, washing off the baby oil and using hydrocortizone cream..his skin and scalp are clearing up! Here is what it looked like.

He has remained a happy little guy despite the "condition." More info on the condition: http://www.skinsight.com/infant/seborrheicDermatitisPediatric.htm

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Kyce's Blessing

It turned out to be a beautiful day. It started out with Benjy backing into my Dad's car. Let's just say I wasn't in the mood to feel the spirit and I had some repenting to do as we walked into church, however the minute we started singing it felt like everything just melted away and the Holy Spirit diminished all of those anxious/negative feelings. All of the sudden I had an Eternal perspective and felt the magnitude of what was about to happen. My husband, who I love dearly, was about to give our precious little son a name and a blessing. It was so tender and I just cried through the entire blessing. AT that point I thought who cares about some minute detail of another accident? I really don't know how I would go about life without taking the time to go to church, to partake of the sacrament, to feel the spirit and to be taught about the most important things, not only in this life but in our Eternal lives to come....

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Getting Out..

Last year when Grandpa and Grandma came for Kaydree's baptism we wanted to go to Como Zoo. It was so cold that we decided not to go. Even though we had a lot of snow it was a nice 30 degree day on Saturday, so we decided to take advantage of it.
Kyce was so good, he slept the entire time. He missed out on all the fun but it made it easier for us to enjoy our time there.
Grandma just loved all the flowers and how warm it was in the conservatory.Grandma made the girls these matching hats.
I always try to take pictures in this room, however my lens always gets fogged up. Grandma just loved it until she saw the little mice running around freely, then she couldn't wait to get out of there! She told us that she loved the zoo 99.9% and it would have been a 100% if it hadn't been for those mice!
It was so nice having them here this weekend. It is always sad when they leave.
I think Kyce looks like Grandma. Grandma made us some yummy pico de gallo and ceviche. I didn't like the smell of the ceviche but I have to admit it was really good. My parents loved it!

Patty Cake with Grandma

Grandma had Kyce giggling all weekend long. He would watch her come towards him and he would start to laugh. It was so fun to watch. We are all going to miss them!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Kyce Meets Grandpa and Grandma Villarreal

Kyce was just hamming it up!
Grandma made him this hat, but all he could think about was lunch!
After he ate he was much happier!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Sometimes I feel like..

I am not doing the best I could at being a mother, especially when I am yelling at my girls to get out the door in the morning so they don't miss the bus. Often I tell myself and I pray that I can muster up as much patience as possible in the morning, so that it doesn't go down the same way day after day. Actually in truth it is more like every other day, when Karsyn has Kindergarten. We use to think Kaydree was slow at getting ready, but Karsyn is even slower. She often gets distracted which I know is typical for her age, but sometimes it gets so frustrating. So the other morning, Karsyn hadn't put her school stuff where it belonged and it was spread all over the house. Some of it was out in the car, some of it was downstairs and some of it was upstairs. I could almost here my own mother saying, "You should have it all ready, the night before!" I don't know how she manages to do this? When this happens she walks around looking into space as she pretends to be looking for it. I could feel that frustration beginning to break, so I sent Kaydree out to get her coat from the car while I was feeding Kyce. Then Karsyn started crying. She didn't want to wear a cold coat, so I told her to wear her old black one, so she cried even harder as she informed me that she doesn't like her old coat. At this point she says, "I hate going to school. I hate having to get ready in the morning." What could I say? I don't like the mornings like this either. So the lack of me checking the night before has led to this little girl in tears. I do think that she can claim some of the responsibility, however I don't know at the age of 5 how fair it is to put the entire blame on her.
I use to call Benjy after the girls got on the bus after a stressful morning, but since Kyce has joined our family, it seems like every morning is somewhat crazy, so I stopped venting to him. So now he occasionally asks, "How were the girls for you this morning." He happened to come home for lunch after this horrendous morning and he asked me how it went. I informed him that Karsyn was disorganized and in tears. He responded, "Oh, no, she can't leave for school crying. That just breaks my heart. When she gets home, give her a big hug from me and tell her I can't wait to see her." Of course this made me have a reality check of instead of being frustrated it immediately made me feel guilty for not being as sympathetic and loving as I should have been. So again, I vowed to hug that little peanut super tight when she got home. When they got home, Kyce was eating so I called her over and hugged her and she told me all about her day. As I started to get dinner ready, Kaydree asked if she could hold Kyce, which comes in handy at this time of day. She took him and as I went to call them for dinner...this is what I found.

Oh...the tender mercies of our Heavenly Father. It was as if the entire stress of the morning had completely melted away and I was left with these three perfect little angels! It brought tears to my eyes and made me realize I have to do better and be better for these beautiful and impressionable little spirits!

I had just finished, "The Lovely Bones," so I had plans to go see the movie that night. As I jumped into the shower, Karsyn knocked on the door, which is another one of my frustration buttons, that I can't even be in the bathroom without someone needing to get in, even though we have another bathroom? So vowing to have patience I tell her that she can come in and get what she needed. When I got out of the shower there was a message from Karsyn on the mirror.
Again, another button...I just cleaned that mirror and now there are streaks... and yet all I could think of was how undeserving I am to have the unconditional love of my children! It was a very humbling day for me..

Monday, February 1, 2010

Tickle Me Elmo? NO....

tickle me...Kyce!

Kyce destroyed his pants and leaked all the way up his back. As Benjy was changing him and tickling his neck, Kyce let out his first full out giggles. A moment to remember!