Mackenzie's Hospital Adventure

This happened so long ago it seems like "old news" but I started the post with pictures and haven't taken the time to add the description. I am just going to summarize for anyone who didn't hear.

Mackenzie was strapped into her booster seat on top of a bar stool/chair. She kicked the wall in front of her and knocked the chair over. She hit her head on our marble floor. After about an hour she was still laying on the couch, mostly asleep, which is VERY unlike my incredibly active little girl. So we headed to the ER. No one was too concerned but decided to do a CT as a precaution. They found a small crack in her skull. (No displacement or blood). Again, to be safe, they wanted her to stay overnight in the hospital to be observed. They didn't have a pediatric neuro surgeon at Spring Valley Hospital so they transferred us (by ambulance) to Sunrise Children's Hospital. It was a long 8 hours in emergency rooms before we were put into a room.

They had crazy "cages" for beds to make sure there was no way a child could fall out.

They had a playroom and also let you "borrow" toys and bikes to ride around the hallways. Mackenzie was totally fine by the time we were put in a room. She found all kinds of things to entertain herself and the nurses too.

The additional sad part to the whole "adventure" was that the morning after the fall was Mackenzie's 2nd Birthday. The nurse and Child Life Specialist did their best to make it special for her anyway. She got a teddy bear and a present to unwrap.

The ironic thing (for me) was that on that morning I held my baby girl exactly 2 years to the minute in my arms, in the hospital.

Nothing is Impossible...

So tonight we, as a family, had a really neat opportunity to drop off "care packages" to some homeless people in our town. We made it a Family Home Evening activity. Afterwards I was asking the kids how they felt and what they thought about it. We had already pointed out (to our hungry, pre-dinner kids) that these people were hungry most of the time. We talked about how cold it was outside. One of the boys mentioned Christmastime and presents. I told them that those people wouldn't get ANY presents. Dane disagreed. "You never know...NOTHING is impossible..." (we waited for something about Santa) he continued, "except not being tickle-ish...I know, I have Uncles."

Oh, Dane! Gotta love that kid!

Peter Pan and Associates

Dane's "wave pool"

Curly or Straight?

Curly or Straight? Which do you like better?

Dressing herself

I think the title and the pictures tell it all! Hilarious!

Reunions

I love being able to see "old" friends. This summer I was lucky enough to see two that I don't get to see very often. The first was on of my best friends, Ranisa, who moved to the mid-west a while ago. I did get to see her in Chicago when I was pregnant with Mackenzie (two years ago). But, our visits are few and far between. It was the first time all our kids had been together.

The next was one of my room mates from BYU, Tracey. She too has moved all over and I haven't seen her in about 4 or 5 years (when she happened to come to San Diego). This time she was driving through Vegas on her way to San Diego again. They only had time to stop and say hi and take a picture of all our kiddos together too. Fun times! (Getting all the kids in the picture was tricky.)

Love you girls!!

Dane's 7th Birthday

It was a Pool Party (because that means I don't have to come up with party games to keep them entertained).

We ended up with 12 boys (and Mackenzie) because all the friends Dane wanted to invite had at least one brother who came along. It was crazy! I think its funny to watch them enthralled with the gift opening.

Yaya gave me a icecream cone cake pan. The cake is the cone with a scoop of icecream on top. Hard to eat but so cute.

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Sleeping Brice

Brice has never been a good sleeper. Bedtime, every night, is a nightmare for me. He won't stay in bed, he won't go to sleep and he stopped taking naps a long time ago. So recently his sleeping has made me laugh. He has fallen asleep in strange places and strange positions in his battle to defy me. He has even fallen asleep in the middle of the day. Not my typical Brice. So each time it happened I had to take a picture.

(This is not the first time I have found him asleep on the bathroom floor.)

Great American Bake Sale

We went over our goal by almsot $200. We ended up with so much food (donated and homemade) that we also got to split it between a couple churches to donate to their families in need.

This was one of the things I made..."cake on a stick" thanks to my grandmother (Tutu) who sent me the random cake pan. It was fun to make these...they were definitly unique among the cookies, cupcakes and loaves of bread.