Out hiking!

My side of the family got together at a local hiking and picnic area to visit. After lunch, Merril took the older kids to hike while Mikayla and I stayed back to visit with my Mom, Dad, sister Jeannie (who'd just had elbow surgery) and her husband Greg (who'd just had shoulder surgery). The kids had fun getting wet, even though I hadn't dressed them to get wet.

Maxine and Juliet paused on a bench to pose for a picture, all wet.

Here's Jack pulling his, "I'm feeling cool" look. I have a hard time getting him to smile for the camera any more.

We had a good time and I got a chance to visit with relatives that I haven't seen in a while.

Old laptop...

Merril got a new netbook (translation: small laptop or tablet with a real keypad) for Christmas. It's cute, small and light. It has an ugly, fat, seriously heavy grandpa. Enter the seriously old laptop that we've had forever, since Maxine was a baby. It's been rebuilt and had parts swapped a number of times. I think we're on power cord number 4 because after a while, the plug cracks and won't work anymore. But it has to be plugged in because the battery only lasts for about 10 minutes. Lately, the wireless card on it has been running SUPER slow. (It takes an external wireless card because it was made before internal wireless cards.) I thought it was our router for a while. But I finally ponied up the 6 bucks and bought a new wireless card on Ebay and now the internet is streaming like a champ. I know this one is old but I just can't justify buying a new full-sized laptop until this one quits working.

Turkey and the sand dunes...

For family home evening, we packed a picnic dinner and headed out to the sand dunes. I had Merril snap a few pics with his phone. We cooked a turkey dinner on Sunday and took leftover turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie. I had lofty ideas of freezing all the leftover turkey but instead we've just about eaten all of it. Little turkey sandwiches, turkey wraps and turkey just out of the tupperware container. Merril and I have decided that we need to have a Spring turkey dinner because turkey dinner is too good to only have once a year! We had turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and pumpkin pie and it was so good!

So we played in the sand, ate our sandwiches and drove home.

It was a fun evening. :)

Check out the Friend Magazine!

Before Christmas, I got a call from a ward member asking if she could sketch Juliet for an upcoming article in the Friend magazine. The artist, Dileen Marsh, came over and explained what the picture was supposed to look like and then snapped some pictures. The article just came out in the April edition of the Friend. We're on page 22. (Emily U: If you look close, that's the quilt you made for Juliet when she was born!)

I love the thing that Juliet's doing with her hand. She does it often when she's talking and I'm pleased that it's been captured somewhere. We also thought it was funny that the girl in the article is named Susie. Juliet LOVES the name Susie and has a favorite baby doll named Susie. I've already made arrangements to purchase the original artwork from Dileen when it comes back from Salt Lake. Yeah!

Grateful...

Today I'm grateful. I'm grateful because I've learned that it's not wheat gluten that's upsetting Mikayla, it's corn. Corn! Of all the goofy things to have a reaction to! I feel bad for Mikayla that it took me so long to put the pieces together. After cutting wheat, I pounded the corn products: corn flakes, popcorn, corn tortillas; and they were the exact ingredient I should have been avoiding. So much sadness for her. So I'm eating bread again (joyous day!) and cutting corn, something that makes us both happy. I haven't added dairy or chocolate back in yet only because we're still working on getting her acid reflux medication right. She seems 50% better than no medicine so that's an improvement. I'll take some improvement over no improvement at all. She's sleeping better at night, which means I'm sleeping better at night.

I'm thankful for a supportive husband who has stayed up late with our baby girl so I can get some zzzzzs and then gets up early with the older kids to get them on the bus. He hasn't gone to the gym in the mornings since Mik was born and basically been attached to my hip to help out. Seriously thankful. He did dishes this morning too.

I'm thankful that they even have these types of medications! I can't imagine living in the past and not having options for my screaming, sad baby girl.

I'm thankful because today Mikayla looked at me and smiled. A real,"Hey, I recognize you and like you" smile. Her first.

I'm thankful for baby swings and soothing vibrations baby chairs! Without which my arms would have fallen off from carrying her around all the time.

Mikayla's blessing

Mikayla was blessed today. This is right after her morning bath. (I say that like she has a bath every day.) She was calm and content and I snagged this pic.

This is my new dress. It is so soft and extremely comfy. I might wear it every week from now on. Unfortunately, it's complicated to nurse in.

Mikayla was really good during the blessing. Her newly ordained cousin, Michael, was able to stand in the circle and help with the blessing.

And just so you don't think I've given away all my other children, here's a picture of Juliet with Merril.

We had a party at our house afterwards with hamburgers and Merril deep fried some fries and onion rings. Boy were they delicious! When he said he wanted to do fries, I was like, "Whatever." But they were my favorite part of the meal! Thanks to everyone who helped out and brought things!

Starving more than usual lately...

So Mikayla is a month old now! Wow! Where did that month go? Anyway, she's developed some nice acid reflux and a ton of painful gas. :( So we've tried one acid reflux medicine but it didn't work so we're onto medicine #2. I've also started her on some probiotics to try and help with the gas. Neither seem to do any good yet. The only thing that seems to be helping are my dietary restrictions. I've cut dairy, gluten, chocolate, tomatoes, onions, anything spicy, broccoli, and citrus fruits. Hopefully this is just a temporary measure until we can get the acid and gas under control for my sad, sleepless baby girl.

The hardest part is trying to find something to eat that won't upset her stomach. Urg. Breakfast and lunch are okay but dinner is challenging. If I punch gluten-free and dairy-free dinners into google, I'm barraged with healthy food. Things that include swiss chard, wheat grass, lentils, etc. I'm not trying to be healthy people! I'm just trying to find something to eat that is bland, boring and creatively flat. Which boils down to a lot of plain chicken and potatoes. *sigh* I miss eating. So as I stand in the kitchen, clutching my box of Rice Chex (which has become my go to snack food), I'm getting "hangry." Please eat a chocolate bar for me.

1 month old...

Mikayla is 1 month old! I really don't know where the month has gone. It's been a blur of sleepless nights. :) I'm amazed at how I can love something so much so fast.