Just Me & My Family: 2011

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

My Latest Projects

I purchased these letters from the Wood Connection in Salt Lake. I loved the way it turned out and since I don't have many Thanksgiving decorations it was a welcome addition.

This is what we gave Makayla's teacher for Christmas. I found the idea from a couple different pins on pinterest and designed my own. Makayla loved it and was so excited to take it to school and give it to her teacher.

These letters were also from the Wood Connection and since my familyand I are avid Grinch fans (only the original cartoon movie though), I just had to have it!!

I found this idea on Pinterest and knew that it would make the perfect birthday gift for my Grandma Lowry.

My cute Grandma. Look at all those birthdays. All of these hearts are here because of my wonderful Grandma and Grandpa Lowry. They have 5 kids and 4 son/daughter-in-laws; 22 grandkids and 5 grandson/daughter-in-laws; and 7 great-grandkids with 2 more on the way (that I know of).

Friday, November 18, 2011

Hair Cut(Chop)

Well I finally did it!! I had my hair cut after both my girls, and have been contemplating it since James was born. I finally got up the courage today and just went with it.

Before

After

*This blog is a rare find as I do not like pictures of myself

Leaves Are For The Kids

My grandma and grandpa Lowry have the most amazing trees for dropping leaves. The kids love to go out every year and play in the HUGE pile of leaves.

Just Your Crazy Everyday Family

My girls love me to shape their hair into all sorts of funny looks when they are in the tub.

Emma obviously missed her nap this day :)

My little terror

We always get big boxes from diapers.com and I love to let the girls keep them for a couple of days. This one was James' first box and he loved it.

The girls were sitting with Daddy and James kept trying to get to him so I finally put him up there too. As you can see he was so excited.

Makayla is such a good big sister to both James and Emma. She is always wanting to hold James.

And another episode of "I Can Sleep Anywhere". This one was slumped over in his highchair.

Halloween was such a "Fright" :)

Halloween this year went by so fast, but we did get in some fun times. The girls were so excited all month and had a blast decorating, playing at the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins and trick or treating.

It is never too soon to put away these cute little chickens, after hearing the chicken dance song for the 100th time. They were definitly Emma's favorite this year.

This is my little witch tribute. I made the hat, broom, and shoes. My cute sister-in-law BryAnne drew and colored the picture.

Makayla went to the pumpkin patch for a field trip with her class. Of course she can't knowingly have a picture taken without posing!!

We went to the pumpking patch as a family a couple days later. Pour little Emma had the croup here - although we didn't know it yet.

Little James was so cute sitting in the corn stalks -- as always he loved being outside.

Our good friends the Griffiths joined us at the pumpkin patch. This is Makayla and Macey on the hay ride.

It doesn't look like they were excited at all ;)

James thought this business with the pumpkins was just great

Richard spent tons of time on his pumpkin . . .

It was well worth it -- that's my artist!!

Makayla loved every minute of it

Her pumpkin turned out really cute too.

Emma wouldn't even touch a pumpkin and definitly wouldn't let me take her picture that night, but she was more than happy to pose in her costume.

Makayla wanted to be a princess; no a fairy; no a witch; no a cowgirl?? She finally decided on a "Pink Princess Fairy". She even had to have her hair painted pink.

James was our little stinker this year -- wait isn't he that everyday :) This costume was so cute on Emma last year that we just had to recycle it for James!!

This is after Trick-or-Treating. Can't you just see him saying "Okay, I've been cute long enough, now get me out of this thing"?

Overall the holiday was a whirlwind of activity and we had a blast all along the way.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Salt Lake City Trip Continued

Our second day in Salt Lake was also a blast. My parents joined us that morning at Gardner Villiage where we fulfilled a Halloween tradition by seeing the witches.

Makayla loves to pose for pictures. Of course she had to pose with Grandma for this one.

Emma wasn't so sure about all these witches and James really couldn't care less :)

Emma hates her picture taken so I have to take what I can get. She really loved this pond and the very large coi swimming in it.

This sign is priceless. There are all these boutique shops here and this sign was outside one of them.

This is a shout out to my wonderful parents -- Don't they look cute :)

After Gardner Villiage we headed out for some "Barnyard Boo" fun at Thanksgiving Point

James' favorite part of the trip was this cool fountain they had to wash your hands in before you went to touch the animals -- James was fasinated.

Again catching Emma on the sly playing in the little villiage

The pony rides were a must and the girls wonderful daddy and grandpa spent most of the time waiting in line. Emma who loves ponies suprised us by being terrified of getting on. . .

After 1 turn around she came around a loved it like we thought she would.

And of course Makayla loved every minute of it.

Overall the trip was a win. We loved the time spent together and the fun things we got to do.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

October Salt Lake City Trip

This last year has been a hard one, medically speaking, for Makayla. She has a condition called Vesicoureteral Reflux (I just call it bladder reflux, as I can neither pronounce nor remember the word). In small words it means that her bladder refluxes back up to her kidney. This is scary because she gets bladder infections very easily, and because of the relux the infection can get into her kidney's really easy. Makayla has had about 6 infections in the last 2 months, and last year it landed her a 2 night stay in the hospital hooked up to IV's and eating a straight liquid diet. Our wonderful doctor from Primary Children's Urology Department got us onto a daily antibiotic last January, which helped for the first few months, but in the last 2 months things have seemed to get worse culminating in an ER visit. So, back to Primary Children's we went for some very invasive and painful tests. We found that Makayla is actually growing out of the condition, which is what they thought she would do when we had the tests done last January, but this doesn't explain why she is getting so many infections now :( So as of right now we are still waiting to see what happens and hoping that the new daily antibiotic the doctor prescribed us will help, while hoping she continues to grow out of it -- if not it means surgery (thankfully it's a pretty lowkey surgery -- just an outpatient one). So after that rundown now we can get to the fun of it all. Because we had to go to Salt Lake for the tests, we decided to make it an overnight thing and have some fun too. We bribed (yes sometimes it works - especially when you have to make your daughter go through some pretty nasty tests) Makayla with Chuck E Cheese if she would be good through the tests and it worked (sort of - but those tests are pretty bad).

Of course the horse was the best ride of the day

Suprisingly Emma did not think it was a great ride

This ones for Grandma Hare (she loves all things Halloween)

This was Emma's favorite -- these ponies didn't buck her around :)

James was just James -- always happy
He's in pajamas because he has just thrown up his whole bottle all over his daddy (yes right in the middle of Chuck E Cheese)

After Chuck E Cheese we went to Logan to stay with Richard's brother Matt, and had a blast going to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk. All the scenes are created using pumpkins and guords :)