Swollen

So Natalie's face is a bit swollen this morning. I probably should have been expecting that, but I wasn't. It's just so sad!! You can see in the pictures that she can't quite smile right. The first thing she told me this morning was "Momma, it still hurts." She's doing okay though. We went to Walgreen's this morning to fill her perscriptions and I let her get a new Princess coloring book. So she's actually pretty happy!

Natalie takes a Sunday evening trip to the ER

Tonight we went over to a friend's house to eat dinner and afterwards, the kids were all playing outside. Natalie ended up getting bit by one of their dogs. We were really worried about it scarring really bad so I took her to the hospital urgent care. She was so scared the whole time. They don't usually stitch up dog bites, but decided to do these ones. The top one was pretty open and would have scared really bad without stitches. They wrapped her up and covered her eyes (so nothing would get in them) and draped her face. Then they gave her a bunch of shots of lydocaine (sorry to all my nurse siblings for my lack of medical spelling). That poor little girl was so terrified but she did a really good job with the whole process. She got 3 stitches in the top one and 2 in the bottom one. What really stinks too is that animal control is probably going to have to take our friend's dog away for 10 days to quarantine it. Anyway, that is our fun for the night.

The top bite looks worse in this picture because the blood had run down her cheek. The thicker part is the bite--you can see where the blood ran off the side. I took this picture with my phone right after we got to the hospital. You can see how scared she looks.

This is the "after" picture. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and this is Nate bringing her in.

Natalie's 4th Birthday

Natalie just turned 4 years old! For her birthday this year, we headed to Snowflake so she could spend her birth day with all of her grandparents. She had so much fun. Her birthday was on Sunday so we had a little birthday party for her on Saturday. That morning we headed to Show Low (or Jello, as she calls it--"Momma, are we in Jello?" or "Melanie lives in Jello"). My sister Melanie's in laws have a pony and Natalie got to ride it. Needless to say, after riding around for a while, she did NOT want to leave. She didn't even care that there was a birthday party later. She just wanted to stay and ride the pony. After that, we hurried home so I could finish her Barbie/Sleeping Beauty cake, which she absolutely loved. We planned to have her party at the Pioneer Park so the kids could play, but that only lasted long enough to take a few pictures of her with her cake. We could tell that the rain was coming and as soon as we had decided to leave and gotten back in the car it started pouring. So we moved the party to Grandma and Grandpa Webb's. The next morning, on Natalie's birthday, she got to open all of her presents from us. She has been waiting for this for a long time and was so excited. She was also very excited to be 4 years old. We had a great weekend!

Relief from the heat

This afternoon we got our first rain! It's been so hot that this was a most welcome change. This is the first time Kelton has ever seen rain. (well, old enough to react to it, I should say) I don't think I need to tell you how he felt about it--the pictures speak for themselves. You can see that his arms are going like ninety miles a minute in this first one.

Water Babies

We've always known that Natalie loves water, but we found out that Kelton does too! After over a week of 100+ degree temperatures, we put up the pool in our back yard. Natalie remembers the pool from last year and was very excited. Kelton has never been in a pool of any kind. This was the first time he's ever been in a swimsuit--and he looks so cute! He didn't stop smiling the whole time he was in the pool. It was very easy to get some cute pictures of him. After the kids got out, we had dinner. As soon as dinner was done, Natalie was begging to get back in the pool. Poor kid is going to have to wait until Monday to get back in--I hope she can survive until then! There's a video of the kids at the bottom of the pictures. It's just randomness of them in the pool. They had already been in for a while by that point, so I didn't get the really good stuff recorded.

Dinner conversation

Nate got me some flowers for mothers day and they are in a vase on the table. Natalie really likes them and was looking at them at dinner. This is our conversation:

Natalie: "Those are your flowers."

Me: "Yep."

Natalie: "Mom, will you get me a present for Mother's day?"

Me: "No, you aren't a momma."

Natalie: "Not yet."

Me: "Mother's day is for mommas."

Natalie: "Yep. And when it's Little Girl's day, it will be for Natalies!"

I then told her I would get her a present when it was Little Girl's day.

There's a first time for everything

So I have been a mother for four years now (minus a few days) and I have actually never had a child with an ear infection. Until today. This afternoon Natalie was complaining that her ear hurt. Then about an hour later she was moaning. So we went to the doctor, and sure enough, she has an ear infection. Poor thing. But it doesn't seem to be a real bad one, and the medicine has made it feel better. And here are a few cute pictures of Natalie that I took the other day. I noticed that I don't have any real good pictures of my kids on here, including the family one at the top. (Natalie would not cooperate that day.) But these ones are cute. And for any of you who don't know Natalie, her personality is as cute as her facial expressions.

She's about to flee in this next one, if you can't tell.

Randomness from my phone

So here is some random stuff off of my cell phone. I took this picture the other day when we were on a walk. I know I'm not the first person to take a picture like this, but that doesn't make it any less cute. And this is the first time I've ever tried to put a video on the blog. So I have no idea if it will work or not. It's not very steady because I shot it myself using my phone. Kelton didn't want to say anything but "hi" no matter what I told him to say--probably because he could see the phone and that's what you say into a phone. I think I did get him to say 'dog.' Anyway, we will see if it works!

If the potatoes poison us...

One of these days I really will have some new pictures to post--but we just haven't taken any lately. But Natalie keeps saying funny things, so I have to post them. The latest was our dinner prayer tonight. I made stir fry for dinner. Ours is pretty plain--consisting of chicken, noodles, and potatoes. When Natalie was Kelton's age, she loved this meal. A few months ago she started refusing to eat it at all. Recently, she has started eating the noodles and sometimes the chicken. She all out refuses the potatoes. In fact, she won't eat any potatoes at all. (unless they are french fries) So here is Natalie's blessing on the food:

"Dear Heavenly Father, we're thankful for this day. Do not bless the potatoes. Bless the noodles. In the name of Jesus Christ amen."

FHE--Strike 2

Okay, since last week's family home evening went so well....Natalie is at it again. Tonight it was her turn to say the opening prayer. Here's the gist of how this one went. What Natalie said is in red and what I said to help her is in black.

Natalie: "Dear Heavenly Father, we're thankful for our blessings. (Then unintelligible stuff that included the word 'barbie' somewhere in there) (We're thankful for our family) Help us to get presents. (help us to be reverent) Help us to get presents. (Help us to be reverent) Help us to be reverent. (help us to listen) Help me to get presents. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Apparently, Natalie has one thing on her mind right now. Ask and ye shall receive, right?

Easter FHE

We had a home evening about Easter tonight where I hid an egg with a picture of Jesus in it for Natalie to find and then we talked about what Easter is really all about. Here is our ending conversation.

Me: "So Natalie, is Easter all about candy or is Easter about Jesus?"


Natalie: "Candy."


Me: "No, Easter is all about Jesus. The candy is a lot of fun, but we have Easter because of Jesus. Natalie, is Easter about candy or about Jesus?"


Natalie: "Candy."


Nate: "She's not paying attention to you. She's just kinda doing whatever."


Me: (taking Natalie's face in my hands and looking right at her) "Natalie, Easter is not about candy. Easter is about Jesus. We like to get candy at Easter, but Easter is all about Jesus. Natalie, is Easter about candy or is Easter about Jesus?"


Natalie: (very definite) "Candy."

Oh well, we will try again next year...

ANOTHER new table

Like I said before, we've spent a lot of time lately at American Home's going out of business sale. One of the first times we went in there, we saw a table we really liked. We've been wanting a new table for a while now, but there was nothing wrong with the table we had, and we figured we would just wait until Nate finished school. Anyway, this table was still there every time we went back. As the days went on we started thinking more seriously about it. We finally offered a price for it--$500--which they refused and told us the lowest they could go was $675. Its regular price is just under $2,000. So we decided against it. But the table was still there day after day and we finally decided after looking around to compare prices that there was no way we would find a deal like this again for a table of this quality and size (5 ft plus a leaf and 6 chairs). So after days of debating, we bought the table. I listed our old table on craigslist and had it sold and gone within a few hours. (I had so many people call and email about that table, it was crazy!) It was a glass table that we bought when we got married and I am so glad to have it gone. It was impossible to keep clean. (Sorry about all the pictures--they are mostly for my mom's benefit. I've been talking to her a lot about the table. Also, the wood is not as dark as it looks in the pictures and there is one more chair still in the garage and the leaf too.)

Sometimes you just gotta cry

Kelton's been having a rough time lately. I don't know what's up but he seems to be crying a lot lately. We always take pictures of our kids when they are happy and smiling, but when he was crying the other day, he just looked so cute so I had to take a picture. He does this cry sometimes and the face he makes is just so cute. His eyes get wide and he pulls his eyebrows together and sticks his bottom lip out. It lasts for a few seconds before he starts all out crying. I didn't get the camera quick enough to get a picture of that face, but this will do.

New table

We've been at American Home's going out of business sale a lot in the past few days. They had these really sturdy little tables for sale for really cheap. I think they were used as display tables for lamps and such. Anyway, we decided to get one for Natalie's room. She is always monopolizing our kitchen table with coloring stuff and puzzles and more puzzles. This nice little table was only $36. So today I rearranged Natalie's whole room and put the new table in it. She was so excited. She sat down and just rubbed her hands across it. Then she immediately set to work on some puzzles.

Just playing

Nate pulled out the camera and took some pictures of me playing with the kids the other day. I thought they were cute so I figured I would post them.

Okay, so I don't think this one is too cute, but Nate really liked it...

I was touching Kelton's face with Natalie's barbie and he thought it was hillarious. He was so grumpy he was just crying all the time. I'd touch him with the barbie and he would laugh and then he would go back to crying like two seconds later. Crazy kid.

Nate said Kelton wasn't too happy about the flash on the camera from the picture right before this one, and this is the face he got.