In Stitches!

So Friday I left for a doctors appt. and left the kids with Terryl since he has the day off.  I had my day pretty much planned out, which included a date night with Terryl.  So while waiting for someone to take my blood Terryl calls.  He told me that they had a little incident with Maddie.  At some point Terryl was in the bathroom getting ready, he heard Maddie cry, which isn't an oddity in our house, so he didn't rush to the scream.  But soon Maddie found him, with a mouth full of blood.  Blood isn't Terryl's favorite thing to see, so he was a little freaked out by the sight.  After getting her cleaned up he could tell it was her gum that was bleeding.  But she was not crying anymore and seemed fine.  I was sure that Caleb had grabbed her face some how and scratched her gums.  Any small scratch in the mouth can bleed like no other. 
So when I got home it had been a few hours since the "incident" and Maddie was her usual self, and seemed fine.  I had her smile for me so I could see her gums.  Her left side, above her front tooth was pretty swollen and looked pretty beat up.  I decided that Caleb probably couldn't have done that much damage.  But not looking to terrible and since she was acting fine, I didn't think much of it after seeing it.  So a few hours later, I was going to go to a store and pick up a baby shower gift for the next day.  I decide to look at her mouth one more time.  So this time I had her lay down and I started to touch the gum.  I didn't want to push to hard and cause her pain, so I gently started to push on the gum, and it started to slide up, and up and up.  Her gum was moving a little to much for my taste.  So I took her to insta care which I thought they could look at her.  A MA came and looked at her and said she should probably go to the ER, because if they need to stitch it up they would have to give her something to sedate her.  So...away we went to Primary Children's Hospital.  While waiting, Maddie was running around the room with Elmo and happy as could be. She was happy to see anyone come through the door and gave any nurse or doctor a big hug and checked their ID. ( O :  She was being so pleasant.  So fast forward  several hours and they decide they better put a stitch in to hold it still.  So they gave her this stuff through the nose to make her  loopy and help her to not remember.  She was pretty funny on that stuff I have to say.  So once she was "out of it" and was still the doctor and I were able to really take a look at the gum.  Well at that point I was SUPER glad I had taken her in.  The whole section above her left front tooth was detached except for the very top under the lip.  It was gross and pretty amazing to see that it was detached like that.  It would have never healed on its own.  So Miss Maddie got three stitches in her gums and she was a trooper!  She never once cried and really had no idea what was going on.

Once they gave us the O.K. to leave and she was a little more alert we left.  I carried her since she was still loopy and I knew that she couldn't really walk.  But Maddie didn't get that.  So after hours of doctors looking at her mouth and stitches and not one tear, she proceeded to scream for 45 min. on the way home because I didn't let her walk to the car!  That's my girl. ( O :  She did calm down at we got closer to home and she realized that she was going to get her new favorite treat, french fries from McDonald's. 

So Maddie is still doing great, she really has no idea she was every really hurt except for the moment it all happened.  We still don't know what she hit, but  whatever it was it did a lot of damage, and postponed our date night. ( o :  Such is life if you have kids. 

Happy Halloween

For Halloween this year we had my family over for a dinner and then some trick or treating.   We first met at the mall to do our usual round there.  It's a great place to get a good base of candy.  Plus it's quick ( O :  We then came back to our house and had some dinner and at that point Caleb was spent, and went to bed, but Terryl took Maddie out around our street with my sisters and my dad.  Maddie loved it!  She sure loves her Aunt Rashell and Beckie!   She loved her suckers, and had a ton yesterday.  I had to hide the candy this morning so that she wouldn't ask for any today.  Maddie was a Rock Star, and Caleb was a scary Giraffe. ( O :  Terryl even dressed up, without my influence, which has never happened. ( O :  I did dress, up but no pictures, forgot. I did some "fancy" face make-up and wore my wonderful purple wig, and some wings, so I guess you could say I was a fairy?  All in all we had a great Halloween and now ready to start into the big holiday season!

Sesame Street Live!!!

If you know Madalynn at all, you know that she LOVES Sesame Street and especially Elmo.  So when I saw that Sesame Street Live was coming to Utah I knew we had to go.  So we forked out a small fortune and got great seats so that she could get some hugs from some of the characters as they went through the aisles.  She didn't know where were going or what was going on even when we got there since she has never been to anything like this before.  Of course there were tons of Sesame Street items for sale.  We hadn't prepared ourselves for this fact before hand which probably wouldn't have helped me anyway.  Maddie quickly spotty a Big Bird.  It was behind glass and she kept telling me that he was stuck. ( O :  I was ready at that point just to give in.  It was kind of a Maddie day and every child going to something like this always wants something to take away from it.  But Terryl said no and we were going to walk away, and Maddie was honestly CRUSHED.  You see Maddie has several crys so I know when something is just a tantrum because she isn't getting what she wants and when something is really wrong.  This cry was the "something is really wrong"  she was SO Sad.  I looked at Terryl and just told him I would be back in a sec.  Which he knew I was going to get the Big Bird.  I couldn't help myself.  It was so SAD.  I don't consider me a push over, this was tragic in her eyes.  Even one of the guys there helping with the event afterwards, said to us, "wow, that was close!"  She couldn't have been happier to hold that Big Bird.  She Quickly introduced him to her Elmo and Cookie that came along for the show as well. 
We had her dressed in Elmo P.J.'s and she was the cutest thing ever.  We got there early enough that one of the workers there told us we could put her on stage and take some pictures before the placed filled up.  We were more than happy to do so.  The pictures aren't great because of all the lighting they had, and I tried every setting I could think of.  But what we got was good enough for memories. (O :  We really enjoyed it and it was worth seeing Maddie's face light up when they came on stage.  These are the things that you don't do all the time and so we were excited to be apart of this with Maddie.  We sure love her!!!

It's Been a Year Already!

Well, Yesterday Sept. 10th we were blessed with the happiest, giggliest, and joyful little guy you could ever ask for!  Caleb was born at 8am, in Sept (9) on the 10th in 2011 (8, 9,10,11)  I remember feeling a little overwhelmed to have a little boy, since our family and all my experience with babies has been with girls.  What was I to do with a little boy?!  But Caleb made everything easy.  With that smile he can give, makes everything OK in a second.  Some things about our Mr. Caleb...He is our little eater.  Quite the opposite of his big sister.  He is our little vacuum.  It doesn't matter how much you vacuum, he will find some speck to pick up and try and eat, so he must be watched carefully!  He is also our little bulldozer.  I have yet to see an object that he will not attempt to climb over.  There is no going around something...he just plows through and over.  It's pretty funny, since Maddie is our little cautious one, and doesn't do anything that could inflict harm.  Some of Caleb's favorite things, are Food, Balls ( oh, he loves balls!) he will chase balls all day along around the house!  Loves cars that he can push and see fly around the kitchen.  He crawls but does the classic army crawl.  He is a turbo when he sees something he wants badly.  Which typically would be his sister's hair.  I think being a pesty little brother is born into him.  He will drop whatever he is doing and if Maddie is on the floor, rush over to grab her hair.  Which he thinks is hilarious!  He has started to jabber like Maddie, the unrecognizable language that she does.  By why wouldn't he, he hears it all day from her. ( O :

We celebrated his birthday a day early, with family.  We were happy that Terryl's parents were able to be here to celebrate, it was a treat for us.  Since Caleb is our little eater, we were excited to see him dig into the cake and have the "real" first birthday cake experience that we never had with Maddie.  So we placed the cake in front of him...AND....nothing.  He wanted nothing to do with it.  Pulled some faces like it was the most terrible thing he has ever seen, and eventually started crying.  For some reason.. my children do not like cake, it seems to terrify them!

We are so grateful to have this little man in our family.  He has brought so much joy into our home.  We feel we have been blessed with the best children ever!  They have the ability to love everyone and to make those they meet so happy and that is a gift I pray they never lose.  I think it's a special gift that most don't have.  They have personalities all of their own.  I like to think of myself as somewhat social and friendly, but these kids are so full of personality we just don't know where it all came from!  It is such a privilege to have a wonderful son to raise, and I feel so grateful to be his mom.

Happy Birthday Caleb!!!

  This is Caleb's happiest face during the Birthday Cake Process

Moving? What...?

Yup, it is true, the Crow family of four is taking a big step and moving.  It seemed to have just kind of happened.  We talked about it, and before we knew it, our house was up for sale, or should I say, we bought another house and then hurry and put our house up for sale.  There is never an easy way to go about this process I decided.  I have been super busy to say the very least.  I have taken down ugly wallpaper that I have been wanting to take down for years, but never did, and painted the walls.  Painted my kitchen, we bought a new stove.  And those that have seen my old stove know what a big deal that is!  So now I have a new stove I get to use for a month.  We try to live in our house as though we don't live in it.  Complicated just a little with two adorable, busy children. ( O:  But for the most part, I have to say we do a pretty good job considering. 
Our new house is in Syracuse.  Much farther from Terryl's work than we had hoped to find.  But we do love this house.  It's not brand new, 2001, but beautiful and just what we have been wanting.  We have room to grow which is so nice!  My favorite part, the kitchen.  It's beautiful and with a nice kitchen like this I can see my chocolate chip baking returning. ( O :
When Terryl bought this house we are in, we weren't married or even engaged, but we did pick it out together.  But I really wasn't involved in the whole process.  So this has been super stressful to say the least.  So much to consider and oh, yeah money, you have to have that too.  Such a small detail... ( O :  But I feel good about the move and I do feel good that we will sell our home soon.  We have a fantastic realtor, Gary Shiner who has been so great.  He helped us find our house and is now helping us sell this one. 
As the time draws closer to moving day,(end of sept) I am getting a little sad to be leaving this ward.  This ward has been my very special ward.  They have been through everything with me, know me so, so well.  When I was super sick, heart surgery, pregnancies etc.  Now we go to a new ward, that doesn't have a clue about our past, and I think that can be good and also bad.  I have grown to love our ward for their care and concern for our family.  We are moving into a ward that instead of one nursery, like we have here in NSL, they have 3!  A primary of 240 kids!  We can't even imagine!!! But we are excited to be around young families with younger children and we hope to have this be as permanent of a move as possible.  We both hate moving and so pretty much you will have to drag me out of this house if a move is necessary in the future. ( O : 

My Beehive Beauty

I adventured to enter Maddie in a all natural beauty pageant.  I could never get myself to dress my two year old as a 25yr old.  Something is just wrong with that.  Plus in this pageant, everyone walks out a winner.  It's all about self esteem and loving who you are the way you are. ( O :  The theme wear was Rock, and I had a great time dressing her up for this.  She was a doll!  I had a blast curling her hair super tight, which she never lets me do!  She didn't like to be guided to the three stars she was suppose to stand on.  When I would try she would yell, "Stuck!"  That is one of her favorite words to use when she is being forced to do something.  So I let her do her thing.  She was happy, but became super happy when people would clap for her!  She just loved that!  Even when all the girls came on stage for her age and the audience clapped, she lite up, because she knew of course they were clapping for just her! ( O :  There was the "formal" wear part, and I thought she was adorable.  There were definetly fancier dresses but I refused to put her in something that she wouldn't be wearing to church...she's only two.  Maddie didn't "place" but she did get what she was most concerned about getting, the stuffed Zebra.  She also got a trophy, and crown, and she won best stage presence for her age, so she got another trophy for that.  But really she could have cared less about all that, as long as she got her Zebra. ( O :  It was an exhausting day!  Maddie was super tired and grumpy by the end, which I don't blame her, I was too!  Even though it was a all natural pageant, there were still the crazy pageant moms there.  One threatening to slap her two year olds face if she didn't stop complaining about wanting a balloon, and others offering their little one those super powerful energy drinks.  Wasn't the environment that I would like to have Maddie in.  I think I got the pageant bug out of my system.  Glad we did it, great memories, but we just aren't pageant people. ( O :  We just aren't crazy enough!

A Little of Everything

It has been very nice to have warm weather, and energy(moderate energy, don't think crazy).  The past few summers, I have either not been well, or pregnant.  So to occasionally have the energy to do things with the kids is fun. ( O :

 Maddie has loved, loved her tricycle.  It is almost a daily request for a ride.  She is adorable with her princess helmet and sunglasses.  We recently got out her water table outside, and set up a new water toy that hooks to the hose.  She enjoyed that a lot.  Maddie has been talking a dance class for the last month and a half, and has just loved it.  It's a Mom and Me class so I get to come too and chase her around. ( O :  She loves her ballet shoes and loves the music.  We only have two weeks left and then we are off until August.  It's been a fun thing for us to do together each week.  She seems to be growing up so fast these last few months as well.  She is so imaginative!  I love hearing her conversations with all her Sesame Street figures.  She is busy all day!  There is always something, or somewhere to be.  She is just a joy to me, and I am loving all the new things she is doing.

Mr. Caleb seems to be changing daily!  Getting more and more personality, if that is even possible for him.  He is beginning to interact so much more.  Playing peek a boo with you and his classic head shake.  It has been fun to see how different he is from Maddie!  He is our little eater.  He loves FOOD!  He will try anything, and usually likes it.  He can eat pretty much anything he wants.  He loves to steal Maddie's gold fish and eat those.  I was nervous the first time he did this since Maddie took so long to chew anything!  But even with no teeth he is a great chewer. ( O :  He is quite the solid boy.  He has thunder thighs that are super strong, which probably come from the fact that he is jumping all the time.  He has almost mastered the crawl.  But even though he doesn't haven't it perfectly down, he is the mover.  He is our smiley little guy too.  He is just pure sweetness.  I feel lucky to have two very happy kids.  His favorite toy I would say is a plastic french fry. ( O ;  Which fits him since he loves to eat so much.  You can usually see it clutched in his fist or chewing on it.   

Terryl and I are doing well.  My kidneys seem to be stable for now and I am enjoying feeling relatively good most days. ( O :  I was recently released from teaching my 12-13yr old Sunday school class, which I just loved teaching.  I was put in as the secretary in Young Woman's, which has been fun so far.  I figure it is payback for the years of never going to Mutual as a teenager, and not going to camps. (O :  Terryl has worked hard outside taking out one of our trees.  It's been quite a project.  He stays pretty busy between work and ward clerk during the week.  He has been super helpful with the kids, and so willing to help with other extended family.  I have really appreciated it.

Memorial Day at the Zoo

 We decided to go to the Zoo on Memorial Day.  It was Maddie's first time at the zoo, and actually Terryl's too, well at least Hogle Zoo.  It was fun to see Maddie identify all the animals she knew and do the sign for them too.  She loved the carousel ride.  She was saying "Weeee" the whole time.  Each time we past daddy and grandma she had to wave.  We had a really good time, and were there longer than I expected with the kids.  Caleb was awesome and just chilled in his car seat.  He slept some and ate, and slept some more.  At the end I had to fulfill a childhood wish.  Every time I went to the zoo I would just ache to get a toy at the gift shop.  But it was never granted.  So I took Maddie to pick out a toy to remember the zoo by.  She picked two little tiger figures.  Terryl thought it was silly to buy her anything since she probably wont remember, but it satisfied a childhood wish for me. ( O : 

I Know, I Know!

It has been a very long time since I have posted much.  And taking pictures and posting them isn't my strong point.  There has been a lot that has gone on, and also many things that haven't really changed at all.  Caleb of course changes daily.  I hope you like the pictures of our family.  He has grown up so fast.  I can't believe that he is 7 mo. already!  Goes way to fast.  Maddie is growing up so fast too.  She is such a joy to have.  I love seeing her become more and more independent and I love seeing her learn.  She soaks things up like a little sponge. ( O :  There seems to be so much that has passed since I last posted that I am just going to start from now, and not worry about the catch up.

Many know that I have been in a Lupus flare since I had Caleb.  We haven't been able to calm it down yet.  I have tried a few things, but nothing seems to work yet.  So to complicate the flare more, my kidney disease has returned due to the lupus.  I had a kidney biopsy two weeks ago and they discovered that I have membranous nephritis, a form lupus nephritis.  Luckily this kind is the least likely to cause kidney damage or failure.  We are actually not doing anything for it other than watching my protein levels and kidney function.  I have normal kidney function and that is what matters the most.  I feel good about this because last time I had kidney disease I had the worst kind, that can quickly cause kidney failure, and I beat that one, so I know we will get this under control too. 

The next couple of weeks we have a few Walks that we are participating in.  We are walking for MS on April 28th and then walking for Lupus on May 5th.  I am excited to be a part of the walks and show support for each of these diseases.  If any of you would like to join us, let me know and I can send you more info. on it.  We would love to have more join us. ( O : 

Love My Family

		Family Pictures 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL