Oh, how I love the holidays!

Sometimes I wonder why I even try to have family get-togethers. I invite all my family over for Thanksgiving and my mom and sister's family are all that show up. What a bunch of bums! We still had a great Thanksgiving! Then I get my lazy bum out of bed at 4:30am to go shopping! I am NOT a shopper. Oh, the joy of the season! We put up our tree and almost immediately had the in house expert (aka Nate) rearranging it. LOL! He broke his 1st bulb before we even finished! Tis' the season! But it is still beautiful to look at, even though the bottom half is mostly bare! Hee Hee! I really do love the holidays, I promise! We went to see the temple lights already and loved them as usual! We attempted to take a family picture for our Christmas card at the temple....Yeah right! I don't know how people do it! I have 2 thumbsuckers who refused to take their thumb out of their mouth and look at the camera. The pic to the left is the best we could get! A professional photographer took pity on us and came over to take some pics for free. I am still waiting on those photos! Hopefully she got a better one!

Adam's mom came for a visit and was here to see Adam and Shaylee in the Mesa Veterans Day Parade. My mom was with us too! She also got to attend Shaylee's 5th b-day party! This is the 1st one she has been able to come to since she lives in Florida. We went to San Tan Flat afterwards and had a blast there!









Savannah hit her head (nothing new here), and was acting strange the next day. She would be playing and would all of a sudden collapse to the ground and cry. Her eyes kept rolling and she looked like she was passing out. I called a friend in our ward who is a pediatric nurse and she said that I should take her to the ER for possible head trauma. I took her to Mercy Gilbert and they had no idea what was causing it. CT Scan and blood work was normal. They said that she was acting like she had ingested something. All tests came back clean except her key tones which were off, indicating dehydration. They transferred her by ambulance to Phoenix Childrens Hospital PICU where she stayed overnight. She was released the next morning with a diagnosis of the flu. WHAT????!!!! What they mean to say is "we have no idea what is wrong and at the risk of sounding like we don't know what we are talking about and due to the fact that you have no insurance, we are going to say it is the flu cause we care more about our pocket book than your daughter!" I am not bitter or anything.... She was hospitalized for a couple of days as a baby with possible seizures that they never confirmed. I think that is what is going on but can't prove it. A friend took the other two kids while this was going on and she saw Savannah do the eye roll thing. She said she looked like someone who has just had a seizure. She would know, she was an EMT!

We had to take Adam to the ER in October. He had the same rash developing that put him in the hospital for a week last year. Turns out, he had walking pneumonia and they are saying it was a viral rash. Code for "we don't know what caused it". Can't they just admit that they don't know everything?? Geesh!

Halloween Fun

We seem to be very busy this Halloween season....we had our 6th annual PMA Halloween Party on Friday! Savannah won the Most Adorable Costume (I had nothing to do with it!) for the girls. Shaylee chose to be Barbie Thumbelina, Savannah is a pirate, and Nathan is a tiger. They had a blast! We went to Schnepf Farms for their Pumpkin and Chili Party last night. These kids are so spoiled! It was a great night!

Blah Blah Blah

I haven't posted in quite awhile but not much has been happening. I went to Utah and picked up my mom. She is living with us until next week when she will move into her new condo in Mesa. It has been nice having her around. The kids love it! The kids love to help Daddy make breakfast. They all clamor onto one chair and fight the whole time, pushing each other down, screaming.......great fun for all! We are getting ready for the Halloween festivities. We all have our costumes and are ready to party! Next week is our studio's party, Shaylee has a school party the next week, and our ward is supposedly putting something together too. Then there is the trick-or-treating itself! We are going to Schnepf Farm's Pumpkin and Chili Festival next week too! I love this time of year!

School Daze

Shaylee finally started Pre-K today! She has been begging to go back to school for 2 months now...so this is all too welcome! Poor thing had to miss the first day because we all had a horrible case of the flu over the weekend and we wanted to make sure she was over it before sending her.

A lot is going on right now, yet I am still ALWAYS home it seems......go figure! We are getting ready for our 9th anniversary for the business. We are having a big event at our school to celebrate that is putting us in further debt, but hopefully it will be worth it and we will get some much needed business from it. We just had new wood flooring put in and the mats professionally cleaned for it and it looks SO NICE!!!! Very excited about it!

We are preparing to have my mom move in with us for a couple of months as well. She is moving back from Utah and is staying with us until she finds a new place and has some money saved for new furniture, etc. I love having my mom here! It helps break up the monotony.....I will be flying to Utah and driving back with her on the 25th. Very excited to see family and a couple of old friends!! Nice break from the kids too! BONUS!!!!

Adam's mom will be coming for a visit in November, which will also be fun. She has not seen Nathan yet and has not seen the girls since I was 7 months pregnant with him! She is staying for a week and will be able to be here for Shaylee's birthday too!

Mid-summer blues

Can we say hot?????? I can't wait to move up north....someday.....

Well, we won our court case thanks to the Lord. There is no other explanation for it. We were just as shocked as the other party when the judge told us his decision.....they have petitioned the court to reconsider....our lawyer doesn't think we have anything to worry about, but they still have 6 days left to appeal. We will see!

Unfortunately, I had an OB checkup the day after the trial, and found out that I had miscarried at 8 weeks. (I should be 11 weeks now.) I was sad, but I think the Lord prepared me for this. I have felt something for a few weeks, like I would not get to raise this baby in this life. I was too busy to dwell on it with the court case. We were not ready for another one, but the Lord kept pushing us until we complied. I think this baby just needed a body and the Lord needed him/her too much for something greater. We have made peace with it.

The kids are driving me nuts. I have got to get some play dates together or I think I will go insane!!!!! The girls are constantly fighting......Nate is now getting into EVERYTHING!!! **SIGH**

Pray for us that the Lord will soften the hearts of the other party and they will not succeed!!!!! Thank you all for your love and support and we love you all!!!!

Busy, Crazy Summer

Summer goes by so fast with all we jam into it! I only wish that the hot weather would go out as school comes in! It is supposed to get up to 115 degrees this week! Ugh!

My little Nater Tater Tot turns 1 tomorrow!!!! I cannot believe he is 1 already. This year has flown by so fast!!! A couple of weeks ago, my mom came for a visit to attend my niece, Alyssa's and my nephew, Jared's baptisms! All that is left are Debbie's 3 youngest (Tony, Aracelli, and Ricky), my kids and Dave's youngest, Jackson. So crazy!

While my mom was here, we decided to have a birthday party for Nate. My sister in law and her kids were going to be in Japan for all of July as well so we celebrated a few weeks early. We went to the Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center which was a lot of fun. Poor Nate didn't like it so much. He spent a lot of his time on Grandma's lap eating and sleeping. But the girls had a BLAST!!!!


Adam and I are preparing for our court case which will be heard next Tuesday. Can we say stress????? If we lose, we may have no choice but to file for personal bankruptcy. I know the Lord is on our side and has told us to have faith in Him, but it is still a scary thing. I don't know what we are supposed to learn from all of this, but I had better learn it quick! Patience and increased faith maybe??? Not to fear??? NO IDEA!!!! We have been told so much lately that fear is of the devil......I definitely struggle with it!

This month marks our 1st anniversary at our new karate location! We moved in the weekend after Nate was born. That seems weird too. It seems like last week......In August, we celebrate 6 years of having our own business location! Adam taught for the Parks & Rec for a few years before that. Time is so strange!

Shaylee starts Pre-K in September and can't wait to be back at school. She is so bored at home. She begged me all last week to go to school. Of course, she doesn't understand why she can't go now.....Especially when she sees her teacher at church every Sunday (she is in the Primary Presidency).

Wish us luck and pray for us that the court case will end well. Be happy and safe!!!!

Camping on the Rim

We had an unexpected but pleasant family outing with some friends this past weekend! We went to a friend's house to swim on Friday and she told us that a group from our ward was going camping, so we went with! We so desperately needed to get away and even though a couple of us were not feeling well and it was FREEZING, we had a blast and were able to take our minds off of our upcoming lawsuit. So desperately needed. The stress has definitely taken its toll and all we can do now is have faith that Heavenly Father knows what He is doing and everything will work out in the end. A little excursion and distraction was what we needed!

We had another unexpected surprise this past month......we are expecting our 4th baby! I go to the doc on Wed to confirm the due date but we think it will be Jan 24. We are scared and excited to add, what is hopefully, our last addition! It will be nice to have the freedom to get my body back to normal and the Lupus and other stuff under control for good! I have been limited in what I can and can't do due to pregnancy and nursing. I will miss it all but look forward to the next phase of parenting and life!