A catchy new phrase...

Yesterday Mikayla brought a new phrase home to our family. She introduced it at dinner time. It's kind of catchy, I think you should share it with your whole families. She heard a second grade boy say it. Are you ready?

Talk to the booty, cuz the hand's off duty!

Now in our family, this must be followed by lots of laughter, because booty means bum, ha ha ha!! I hope you can incorporate this into your family dinner conversation, as we have.
Thanks so much second grade boy!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma Paulsen!!

Today is Grandma Paulsen's Birthday. I was thinking that mom might be able to show this to her, so she knows that we are all thinking of her!

Papa's Polar Patch

That is Tyson up on the slide, with Mikayla and Braden waiting their turns. Mike is ready to catch them.

This weekend we went to the pumpkin patch. It has been turned into a Polar Patch. It had sleigh rides, ice caves, ice skating, smore making and hay mazes and castles to climb and play on. It also offered old fashioned sled rides. This consisted of a car hood being pulled by a ATV through a field of snow. The kids loved it and Mike did, too. Jacob and I stayed behind to watch and take pictures. We pulled Jacob along with us in a sled. The weather was pretty warm, 42, so there was alot of melting going on, but it was still fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Good news!

Last week, Laura started to worry because she "thought" that she might be pregnant. When her time of the month came, her time of the month didn't come. Monday, we decided to take an over the counter test. After work, I bought the two pack of EPT because it was the cheapest per unit. These where the results.
Laura was worried that the first one was a false positive, so she did the other. Yesterday, we went to the Lab and had her blood drawn. They called Laura this morning to tell her the results. She called me and told me that she wasn't pregnant. Apparently she thought that it would be funny. It wasn't. She is. Pregnant. Her first appointment is going to be near the end of March, but we figure that she'll be due around October. Laura and I are very excited. Nick doesn't understand what's going on.

Valentine's Day

So, what is everyone doing for Valentine's day? I'm am looking for some fun ideas for my family. I may just go with a heart shaped pizza. The kids have been making cards for thier friends. Mikayla has a program at school on the 13th. I think I will also make candy trains and CHOO CHOO Choose them for my Valentines. Any other fun ideas?
I remember one year in high school, I must have been in 7th grade. Some group was selling carnations for Valentine's day. You could buy one and write a message and they would deliver it for you on Valentine's day. I was so surprised when I got one that day. I felt so special, as a goofy 13 year old to be getting a flower. Guess who gave it to me? Ralph! Wasn't that a nice brother?
One year Mom bought us all balloons and tied them to our chair. I also remember once coming to dinner and having some little gift on our plates.
I've tried to be fun and create on this loving day, but Mike hates Valentine's day, so I never expect anything.
Does anyone else have fun memories of Valentine's day?

Becca turns 15!!!!

Today Becca turned 15!!!! We went out to celebrate last night, because we have soccer practice and Young Womens tonight. It is hard to believe that we are a year from a driver license!

Ryan's 2nd Birthday!

Today is Ryan's second birthday. This morning when I went in and got him out of bed, I sang Happy Birthday to him. He said, "No, no birt-day." It was very cute.

To celebrate his birthday we get to go to the doctor's and get shots. Then tonight we will go the Chuck e Cheese's with Jason's family to celebrate. He got a new shirt to wear for the day.

What a blog should look like

I imagine most of us have seen this before. This is what a blog or a blogg is supposed to look like. I guess who ever started the ones on line didn't consult Dr. Seuss.

Austin's Game

Austin and Layla are sitting in the toy room. Austin says, "Pretend it is Grandma's birthday and every time she has a birthday she turns into something else."
He picks up a bumble bee toy and then throws in down and picks up a unicorn,"Hello kids, I'm grandma!"

Happy Birthday Mike!

Mandy had a great idea to post a younger picture for the birthdays. This was the best quality I could get.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Mikey!

Sad news

For those of you who haven't heard the news, President Hinckley died last night.

Here is the link to the church newsroom.

Cheese!!

Is this my color??

New Computer

Our computer is on it's last leg. We need to buy a new one. Any advice? Money is always an object and we are hoping to keep it under $1000.

Reunion, Again

Based on previous posts, this is a tentative schedule. Please comment if you have comments.
Mon: Family picture at park in morning
Picnic at park
Unbirthday party and games

Tues: Beach
Boardwalk

Wed: BBQ at noon at Crowls

Thurs: Zoo and picnic lunch
Option of attending temple visitor center (10 away from zoo)

Fri:


As you can see Friday is blank. There are additional options that have been mentioned:
Hershey Park
DutchWonderland
Chuck E. Cheese
Philidelphia
DC
New York

We also must have a planning session for future reunions.
Is there anything you would like to change, add or delete? Please let it be known!
As soon as this is set up we can start a blog about food!!

FYI

So today was Jacob's surgery.
I got up just before 5am and got ready. My in laws came over at 5:30am. Laura stayed with the older kids, she would use my van to take Mikayla to school and then take the boys to her house. Ryan drove Jacob and I to the hospital.
We checked in downstairs and then were sent up to the 6th floor. We were put in a little room with two nice rocker recliners, a baby scale and a fully loaded change table. Also a tv and dvd player. We were given little tiny pjs and slippers to put on the baby. They took his viatls and then the waiting started. At this time he had not eaten in 5 hours. So, he was doing surprisingly well. He didn't want to just sit and rock, though. We walked around in the halls and then when some other children came in, we went to the play room and watched them play.
About 7:30 we were taken to the 2nd floor to another waiting area. Around 8:10, I was gowned, bootied and hairnetted. I carried the hungry, tired little guy to the operating room. I got stay and hold his hand while they put a mask on him that put him to sleep. The hardest part was leaving after that.
In yet another waiting room, they called and let me know the surgeon was finally there and beginning the procedure. That was at 8:40am. At 9:10, I was let to another room to wait and talk to the surgeon. He came in 10 minutes later. All went well, he had removed a 1 inch section of skin from the navel, and found that it was not attached to anything vital, just extra. Jacob is fine.
I was pointed in the direction of the post op room. I went and found my little guy. He was still mostly out of it, but starting to wake up and getting angry. I was able to carry him up to the first room and feed him. They kept coming in to check his vitals and his diaper. I couldn't take him home until he had wet his diaper. He also had a little tiny IV, and a great big wrap on it to hold it in place.
We finally left the hospital at 12:15. He has a gauze animal shaped bandage on his little belly button. It is bloody and kind of gross, but covered in that plastic sticky tape. We will leave it on for 2 days and then underneath it are some white steri strips that we just leave on until they fall off on their own. They said he will either sleep mostly for the next 24 hours, or be irritable, it just depends on the kid.
I am glad it's over!! I am glad he is fine! I am glad my husband is coming home tonight!! I'm glad I'm done waiting in various waiting rooms.

Because we never responded

If I come with the boys (because I think Mike will come either way) I am sure they would love to go to the beach. They have never been to the ocean and they would be in heaven in a world of sand--and I won't even flash my brothers-in-law this time!

I do however, think we should narrow down the list of ideas since we only have five days. I guess we could do all those things but I would not be participating. I'm simple and would go crazy doing that many things!

A Miracle

Well, it's finally happened. We've posted on our own blog. Instead of putting all of the pictures we want you all to see on the family blog, we've decided to start using our own. I made a blog for nick's pictures about a year ago and never added to it. I've now put on a bunch of pictures of our trip to Argentina and changed the link on the left. I hope you all enjoy.
and this is a smiley beard.

Happy Birthday Mandy!

So, it's a good thing we're having a family reunion so we can all take new pictures of one another. This is one of only a couple pictures I have of Mandy.

Me and the boys

This is the broken belly button. It's not very clear, but the part in the lower half of the button is a seperate piece that is a bright pink and pokes out unattractively. They will fix that.
This is just my cute boy!


Today was an interesting day. We took Jacob to see a surgeon. He has decided to do surgery on his little baby belly button. There is something herniated in there. He will go and remove fix the problem next Thursday. Poor little baby. I am glad it doesn't bother him.

Tyson was matching letters on animals to letters in on train cars. He found T for Tyson and B for Braden. I gave him J for Jacob and M for Mikayla. Then he gave me the unicorn.
T: What's this?
M: That's U.
T: That's me??
M: No, that's a U.
T: Me??
M: No, letter U.
T: OH, letter U.
Then he took it back and said:
That's me!!

Braden today brought me a metal ball... the one he swallowed last Saturday night. It "reappeared" today. But don't tell anyone, it's a secret. I'll say it for all of us:
Um, EW! Gross!!