New pics

I forgot to get pics of my kids in their easter clothes. The boys didn't want to wear them again, but Ragan loves her dress! She's so sweet!

This pic come with a funny story! I made Ragan a smoothie yesterday and when she went to take her first "sip" she got a little surprise. She was upset, not because she got fruit up her nose, but because she got smoothie on her favorite jammies!!! Too funny...I love this girl!

Dal got his stitches out on Friday. He's healing up great, but he's gonna have quite the killer scar! Oh well!

These are just a couple of pages I've done lately that I love.

Trauma, Drama, Work & a whole lot of Fun!

TRAUMA AND DRAMA

Dallin paid a visit to the ER today. Sad story of course! We were at church just headed into sacrament meeting and Dallin got excited to see me. He took off running from his Daddy and tripped on his own feet and face planted right into the corner of the pew! Poor kid. I knew it would be stitch worthy just from the sound of it. I think the whole chapel heard it. Some of our friends took the other kids and we headed to the ER. As some of you know Dallin has had some drama before with Doctors and hospitals when he had his abcess last year. Believe you me he has not forgotten! He started throwing a fit every time the nurse and doctor entered the room let alone when they tried to touch him! Needless to say he had to be sedated. We've been through this with Ragan when she bit her tongue in half three years ago. So we knew what to expect with the cetamine. It doesn't mean it's any easier to see your baby like that though. I don't do well with this kind of stuff. But I had to buck up and "be a man" because right in the middle of it all Pete turned white and got queasy and had to sit down. He told me I had to clarify that it wasn't due to the blood or situation, he just happened to lock his knees while he was holding Dal down for the drugs to work. So I did my best to stay happy and calm (cetamine puts the patient in a highly suggestive state, so smiles and calm are best) but I just wanted to burst into tears. I hate seeing my babies in pain! Dallin is quite a fighter, it took him longer than normal to go under and he cried even fully sedated. I swear they didn't numb him well, because everytime the needle went in for a new stitch he would cry. It made me cry! Anyway, despite the fight, he was a trooper. He did great. And he came out of sedation very quickly. He was quite entertaining too! He was pretty loopy and saying some funny stuff! Interestingly he started reciting all the things he knows, like colors and parts of the face and body and shapes and animal names. It was pretty cute! When we got home, Dallin seemed to think everything was peachy! He tried to walk and realized that wasn't gonna happen, he looked like a drunkin sailor! Then he attempted a crawl and found himself face planting over and over. We tried to help him but he was determined and frustrated I'm sure! We had to keep him occupied for another hour or two until he got his "sea legs" back! He was still a little tipsy for awhile, but he soon recovered. He's doing okay and hopefully we can keep the wound moist so it won't scar too badly, but he wipes the antibiotic ointment off almost immediately every time we put it on! Oh well! Scars are cool for boys right!

The sedation couldn't keep away his "cheese" for the camera!

WORK

We did our spring cleanup this week. The city picks up yard waste on Tuesday and we're getting an appraisal for our refinance that day too, so we decided it was due time to tackle our daunting yard. When we moved in the yard was overwhelming and got put on the back burner to house projects. Sadly that made it become even more daunting this year! But after three days straight of back breaking yard work and some help from the missionaries, we managed to curb 62 bags of leaves, pinecones and branches, and 20+ bundles of braches from our trees, bushes, VINES and pines! Holy cow does my back hurt. But it feels good to accomplish so much and have a semi decent yard. It still needs a lot of love, but it looks better already!

A WHOLE LOT OF FUN!

We threw a baby shower at my house for Sadie, one of the YW leaders I work with in my ward. Brandy helped with the decor and food and all the other leaders pitched in with food and fun too! It was a blast. I hope Sadie enjoyed it as much as I did!

This game was gag inducing! We had to roll dice and if we got doubles, put on the "diaper duty gear" and open the diaper with a pair of tongs! SO FUNNY! Our very "proud" winner was Maria who got to eat the contents! (microwaved snickers, quite the unappetizing sight!)

STREAKER

And last but not least I captured the moment of my little streaker. This was mild, usually he's fully nude! This occured while Daddy and I were amid all our fun yardwork!

My Baby Sister's Last Dance! & a streaker!

It's so weird to have the baby of the family grow up! Hannah is 17 and a senior. These are pictures of her last date dance of High School. She will soon be off to college and who knows what else. The reality of getting old is hitting me lately. Sarah with a baby, Hannah soon to graduate and me having my 4th and likely last baby. I'm entering a whole new stage of life. It's weird! I think it's good though. I think I'm liking the changes that are coming.

Anyway isn't Hannah beautiful! I think she's a doll and she has the sweetest personality to go along with that cute face! I'm jealous that Amy has had her around so long, I wish she's come live with me next! Maybe I can talk her into going to Weber! (Yeah right!) Love you Hannah!

PS I have a streaker at my house and am open to any advice that anyone has! Dallin's latest interest is taking off his clothes. He has discovered the ability to get entirely naked and he does it often! He's not potty trained and I'm afraid we're gonna have some accidents soon! Neither of my other kids did this so I am at a loss. I redress him everytime, but he's back at it in no time! Help...anyone!

My Brazilian Niece Chloe is finally here!

So Chloe finally decided to grace us with her presence. I think she knew how eager we all were to see her! Poor Sarah was 6 days overdue and ended up having to have a c-section :( But mama and baby are doing well. Chloe was 8 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches. She is beautiful. She looks so much like her mommy! It's a little strange to have a younger sibling with a baby. Especially Sarah, since she's only been married just over a year! But hey why wait. She is actually older than I was when I had James, but still a little strange! I love it! I love adding sweet little angels to the family. I also love that our girls will be so close in age. Now we just need them to be in the same country. Thousands of miles just won't work for play dates! ;) In case you don't know Sarah and Pedro and Chloe live in Recife Brazil. They hope to be joining us back in the states within the next couple of years. This geographical challenge is hard on the whole family. It was a happy yet tearful conversation when Chloe arrived. My parents aren't able right now financially to travel to see their newest grandchild. And my heart goes out to Sarah, to not be able to show off her first baby to her fam. Thank goodness for technology. I can't imagine what it would have been like if this would have occured 30 years ago. We'd be waiting for pictures and letters in the mail. SO we are pretty blessed. It's ALMOST like being there with instant messages and pictures online, blogs, facebook and skype! But I still want to hold that sweet little angel in my arms and kiss her soft skin and smell that yummy baby smell and dote on her and let Sarah know that she is the sweetest most perfect thing ever! If only!
Congratulations Sarah and Pedro she's beautiful and we're all dreaming of being there with you! Love you!

In the mood to scrap + Easter & random fun

First of all I just have to mention Conference. I was amazed at the focus on family and overcoming trials. I guess it is really time to prepare our families for what is to come! The only way we are going to survive these times is to focus inward and get ourselves and those we love ready to face the hard times ahead. I loved the family focus though really. I need all the help I can get. I find it so interesting that the speakers are not given a theme, but somehow there always seems to be one! God sends his messages well! I am always so grateful to listen to the prophet and all our leaders and refocus on what's most important. Conference always leaves me feeling renewed and rededicated. I wish the feeling would stick a little longer, but like all powerful spiritual experiences, it will fade and we will have to rely on our own foundations!

Over Easter/Conference weekend Minde (my sister-in-law) and I decided to have some down time after all the kiddos were in bed and scrap some pics we took for Easter.

This one is of Ragan in the snowy wyoming weather hunting for eggs. This is a picture of the real page and doesn't do it much justice but it turned out really cute! Also it got me in the mood to scrap, which I haven't done for awhile!

These two are for our yearly Family Scrap Pages for the Julander Family Scrapbook (Minde's idea) I love this idea, I wish I could get my family to do it too. I tried one year. It was kinda a flop! Kat and Janna did it but everyone else bummed out! Oh well I tried!

This is one of the pics I've been excited to scrap for Dal's first year book ( I know I'm a bit behind!) I love this picture of my mommy! She is such a sweet lady! I couldn't ask for a better mom!

While in Wyoming Ragan fell in love! With Tiki my niece Caitlyn's dog! Ragan is an animal lover through and through. She just can't get enough. I'm sure by the end of three days that sweet little dog had had enough, but Ragan enjoyed every mauling minute!

She also discovered another "fun" thing...the scissors. I thought I would avoid this fiasco because we've had lots of talks about mommy being the expert hair cutter, but apparently she's just too curious. She figured she must know how since she's watche mommy a lot???? Luckily it caused minor damage. She took a chunk out of the under part of her bangs, part it just right and you can barely tell she did it! I'm just glad it was just bangs. I would hate to cut off all her beautiful hair!

BATMAN (and princess) T-SHIRTS

James somehow got it in his head that he wanted to make himself a batman tshirt? He kept asking if he could paint a shirt grey and put batman on it. I don't know exactly what he had in mind, but I thought that these turned out cute. Oh and of course Ragan couldn't have batman, she had to have princess. Although she wasn't very happy when I added the word princess to her shirt, apparently she liked it better with just the crown. Her face says it all!

We also had a little more fun with the face paints. We had quite the crowd that day!