Friday, July 29, 2011

BCF

Notice the cute little whip of a thing, Lexie, in the background of the pictures(She is the cute little girl in the blue shirt being held by her mom, my sister-in-law). She is one of my brothers twins. She is so funny and can never sit still. She loves Elanora so much. She always wants to hold her...




...and wants to kiss her :)




They are going to be bff's for sure! Or I guess bcf, best cousins forever :)

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Rope and the Mud, the Steers and the Blood....

...You guessed it...RODEO!!! I'm pretty sure that is how the song goes. In the scary teenage years when I was a little lost and my musical taste was underdeveloped, I did dabble in country music(almost not willing to admit it). The haze of my adolescence cleared and I stopped the evil practice of listening to country music(although I will admit I love classic gun fighter ballads and Johnny Cash).
This was the sweet lil' things first ever rodeo. I love rodeos and do intend on forcing Nora to love everything horse...minus country music(just ask Chris, if I would have known that he listened to country music before we were married, it would have been a deal breaker:)).
What a perfect first rodeo for Elanora! My niece Jaycee rode in the mutton bustin' event. For those of you ignorant in the ways of rodeo, 'mutton bustin'(important to note that there is no 'g' at the end of bustin') is when you ride a sheep. She was decked out in the cutest hat and pink boots. Not only did she look cute but she hung on to that little sheep like it was her job! She got a whoppin'(notice I omitted the 'g' that's how us seasoned rodeo folk talk)73, which happened to be fourth place! You betcha, I was keeping track. Pretty awesome! There was no mud or blood but she did land on her shoulder which was a little sore after but just added to the tuff(again that is how we rodeo folk spell it) girl's ride.


The rest of the rodeo was pretty great too! It was so hot when we got there that we couldn't put little Nora in her cowgirl shirt until half way through the rodeo, so she chilled in her wife beater onesie(that is how we do it around these parts) for the first part of the rodeo. She is having fun! Remember that thing I said about forcing her to love all things horses :)you thought I was joking. She LOVES this outfit!!!Look at the perfect little cowgirl boots my Aunt Ann made to go with the outfit. I love these, her first cowgirl boots :)Elanora really did good for her first of many rodeos. I probably would not have dared to take her if the voodoo was not working so well:) We had some good ol' fashion family fun.
Some pictures of my beautiful family enjoying the rodeo









Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Power of Voodoo and Eating Chicken Heads

Motherhood has been one crazy trip, that's for sure. I basically have no idea what I'm doing 99.9 % of the time. I'm the youngest(and cutest:)) in my family. I was a tomboy and never played with dolls(so dressing Elanora has been an adventure in and of itself), and I never really did a lot of babysitting (I had a horse...why watch kids when I could ride a horse?).
When my lil' babyface would eat she would be all smiles and happy, then out of the blue she would cry...more like scream for 20 mins. Nothing I did would calm her. I would hold her, put her in a swing, a bouncy chair, a car ride. Nothing stopped the crying until she would just fall asleep out of pure exhaustion. Needless to say, there was a lot of crying in our house. I'm not quite sure who cried the most, me or her. Her crying spells were happening almost 7 times a day. I took her to the Dr. and she said she had acid reflux, they gave her medicine and sent us home. Still crying and crying, my ears would ring because Nora would cry so loud. I took her to another Dr. and he put her on Prevacid and an anti-spasm medicine. The crying went down to about 4 or 5 times a day and not as long. But my baby girl was still in so much pain. I felt helpless and like a horrible mom because I couldn't fix my baby. I was tired and some days I would think to myself, "What did I get myself into?" Then I would feel so guilty because we had waited so long for this baby and I do love her so much. I thought I must be the worst mom for feeling that way and for not being able to help my baby.
Then Shalae, my beautiful sister-in-law (who sells stamps, her website is here)suggested a kinesiologist. I did some research and I'm not going to lie, the info. was really...hmm...interesting, to say the least. But it was like my dad said, he would do anything at this point to help my beautiful baby feel better. And if that meant eating a chicken head (not this chicken head...that's FiFi)
then he would eat a chicken head. Kinesiology did sound a little like voodoo, but luckily I didn't have to go to the deep dark forests of the amazon to find a witch doctor...I just had to go to Sugar House. And since the testing that would be done on Elanora was non-evasive(he hardly touched her)I thought I would give it a shot.
It would take too long to explain what he did. It only involved a little chatting and a few candles. This is his website. Have a look. He told me he was going to find her problem and treat that, not just the symptoms. That sounded good to me. I was nervous to take her there but it was painless and interesting. He found out she had a hiatal hernia(he said he fixed it) and that both her upper and lower digestive systems were immature. She couldn't break down the milk so it would sit in her tummy. It was pretty crazy because he said he could feel her energy through me and he told me to hold my arm up and try not to let him push it down. It was pretty easy to push down, then he put the enzyme that Nora's body needed to break down the milk on her belly. When he tried to push my arm down he couldn't. He did this three times to my arm and I was really trying to prove him wrong and in fact my arm was sore the next morning from trying so hard...yes I'm in that good of shape...AWESOME. But the results were the same every time.
He gave her all natural enzymes and probiotics. It has been a week and she is doing so good! Most days she doesn't have a crying spell. There's been 2 days right after we started her on the supplements that she had 1 crying spell a day. But nothing since. She is happier and I'm happier! It's wonderful! I hope that it continues to work. Oh the power of voodoo... for the record he didn't light any candles or chant but that would've been awesome, right? Right! This song sums up the experience. I should have just posted this instead of boring you with the details. It also includes the super cute David Bowie. Can't go wrong with a little Bowie!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Title Pending

I decided that I should do another weekly post because I am doing so good with "Terrific Crafting Tuesday" or whatever I called it. I can't keep these things straight and I'm way too lazy to look back at old posts.
I love to read and I read a lot, so I thought I could do a book review post. I probably could do a weekly review, but just like I don't intend on doing "Terrific Crafting Tuesday" every week, I fully intend on not doing a book review every week. :)
Of course I need a catchy name ideally with an alliteration...how about 'Media Monday?' I have a kindle and often read the fantastic free books on it.(If you have read one of the free books you would think that line is funny. But every once in a while you find a gem and all the classics are free so that is great!). So maybe it should be 'Kindle Konnection'...OK enough meaningless babble, we will call it 'Title Pending', Clever girl!
Last week I read the book "Canaries on the Rim: Living Down Wind in the West" written by Chip Ward. This book is great for so many reasons. First, it's written by Chris's neighbor while he was growing up. Chip Wards family is so amazing and the nicest people you will ever meet! They are like family to Chris's family and when I met them I instantly fell in love with all of them! Second, Chip talks about Chris's family in the book (page 39). Third, I love a good conspiracy theory and I love nature and want to protect it and my family. The list goes on and on about why I like this book.
'Canaries on the Rim' is about hazardous waste disposal, chemical weapons incineration, industrial pollution and nuclear waste storage. All of which is happening in our backyards (Chris was raised in Grantsville so it happened in his front yard :)). Chip is a story teller and has had many adventures, so the book is full of great stories as well as information that I think everyone needs to know.
It is a great book. I enjoyed reading it!

My favorite lines in the book:
"Be a smart frog and recognize the sick canary when you see it. Then jump!"
(page 148)
"When asked by worried Utahns why their Department of Environmental Quality has "failed" I reply that it hasn't. Utah's DEQ is the perfect political expression of the governor who appoints its director and legislature that sets its budget and gives its marching orders. While Kentucky legislative leaders from both parties stand together on their Capitol's steps and refuse incineration, Utah's legislators have remained silent" (page 186).

Final thoughts on the book: We all live downstream.

Books I want to read because I read this book: "Hope's Horizon: Three Visions For Healing The American Land" by Chip Ward.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Bullet Hole in the Window


It is 3:00pm and yes I'm still in my PJ's. I'm sitting in my Grandma's old blue recliner. The evidence that her Italian frame used to sit in it, can still be found upon the head rest of the chair in the form of a blackish/purplish hair dye stain, that no matter how hard I scrub won't come off the chair.
My sweet baby girl is wrapped in my arms and is taking a small hiatus from crying.
We are staring past the glittered, popcorned asbestos ceiling, staring past the bullet hole in the front room window where our neighbors teenaged son shot at my cat with his bb gun. We are looking at the pastel blue sky that is littered with fluffy, white summer clouds. Nobody can tell me my life is not perfect, not even the bullet hole in the window.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

***Baby You're A Firework***

The 4th of July is my second favorite holiday for so many reasons. I'm thankful for the freedom we enjoy and grateful for those who have fought to insure that freedom. I love fireworks and I love celebrating with my family!
We always have a day packed with fun things to do and this year the lil' miss got to celebrate her first 4th. And luckliy we have the cutest pictures of her first July 4 ...oh wait we had cute pictures, Chris may or may not have accidently erased them( and by may or may not, I mean he did). Including the cutest picture of Elanora's one year old cousin, Lexie kissing(more like licking) her cheek, Elanora watching the parade with her cousins and her first roll over from back to tummy(she has been rolling from her tummy to her back since 2 weeks, but this was her first back to tummy roll). Poor Chris felt so bad. I laughed, because it was kind of funny :) Luckily, he erased them before the fireworks so we got cute pictures at the fireworks and today I put babyface back in her festive outfit and took pictures and she rolled again so I got more rolling pictures too.
7:40-Put Nora in car seat
7:42-Take her out to fix the diaper blowout
8:00-Breakfast with family at the Layton park
10:30-Parade (not actual parade pictures...remember those were erased)
11:00-Walking around Layton park
12:00-Buying a whole stab of
ribs from the True Vine Baptist Church
(yummiest ribs ever!)
1:00-Alternating naps and baby watching duty
2:00-Elanora rolls over>>


(these picturesare from today, not yesterday...someone accidently erased the ones yesterday...poor Chris, I'm having too much fun at his expense:)
3:00-Chris erases the pictures and is dissapointed
I laugh,it is sad but pretty funny too :)
(Chris is cute when he is frustrated)
4:00 Chris tries to get the pictures to come back,
I read.
6:00-Fed the horses
7:30-Back to the park for fireworks


12:00-sleeping comfortable in a nice warm bed