My Little Monster No More

Some of you may already know of our troubles with Bella's teeth, for those who don't I will give a quick summary.
When Bella's top four front teeth came in they came in all yellow, I was really concerned.  I didn't take her to the dentist because she was under 1 year old and who takes a baby to the dentist?!  Anyway, by the time she hit 18 months the yellow parts of her teeth just chipped off super easy and it was like over night that it happened.  From then on we had a little monster.  I took her to a doctor and they said to take her to a dentist.  Then she got sick and her gums were bleeding at random times and we were completely freaked out.  We took her to an emergency dentist who refused to even look in her mouth!  We took her to another dentist who said there was nothing that could be done to help her.  We KNEW this could NOT be true.  Luckily we are in a ward (our church) with several dentists!  A couple of them took a look at her but by the time we had them do this her gums finally stopped bleeding, but her teeth were still really bad.  But one of them, who will forever remain my HERO, Dr. Matthew Bahen of Emerald Valley Dental http://emeraldvalleydental.com said he could help her.  We took her to him twice to get resin bonding done, which is just kind of like a fake tooth attached to the original shards of teeth still there.  The first time they didn't take very well and we were only able to get two done, Bella was of course freaking out and Dave had to hold her there in a bear hug while she was worked on.  The second time only two were able to be done but one was lost fairly quickly because she had a cavity and he couldn't drill it out because of Bella freaking out again (she was too little to give her any nitrous oxide).

I had been growing more and more anxious about her getting her teeth fixed for a few reasons.  One, SHE LOOKED LIKE A LITTLE MONSTER!!!  Poor thing!  Two, sometimes when she would fall, the sharp points of her monster teeth would cause much more damage than regular teeth and third, she is approaching the age where kids might start to notice and poke fun at her and I didn't want that for my sweet baby girl.

But just this last week we got in to see Matt :) (that is a SUPER big smilie face).  He was able to use the nitrous oxide on her which took a good 10 minutes of her screaming until she got enough in her system and was completely complacent!  CRAZY, I have NEVER seen my daughter be so complacent, EVER.  Unfortunately, Dave was there as he was being the one holding her, but as soon as Matt took out a needle, they almost lost Dave.  He had to lay down, he turned green and almost passed out.  Yup, my husband is that man, the big guy who passes out because of needles.  It isn't that he is scared of them, we are actually told by doctors it is an actual physical reaction to something foreign entering the body and the body is saving it's blood for other vital organs and muscles such as the heart and lungs.  Anyway, so Dave had to leave while Matt did his beautiful work.  Matt was able to drill out the cavity and fix ALL FOUR teeth!!!  I can't even tell you how THRILLED I am about it!  She looks like a normal little girl again :)  I am one happy Mamma!  And I am FOREVER indebted to Matt!  It isn't super normal to have a lot of work done on one so young and they had to make sure the rest of the office was clear of other patients so they wouldn't be freaked out by Bella's screaming.  Their office is a bit away but it is so worth it for us!  Anyway, his staff was wonderful, friendly and super nice.  And his office is SO nice!  I THANK YOU MATT!!!

Here are some before and after photos of Bella.  Sorry if they are blurry.

BEFORE

AFTER

I should note that Bella hates getting her picture taken, she hates the flash :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that Bella's bad yellow teeth were formed in utero and what the docs think is that I got sick while the teeth were forming and my body needed all the good stuff to fight the illness which then took away all that Bella needed.  Again, that is a theory that two doctors told us, but who really knows.  All we do know for sure is that it happened in utero.

My Christmas Present!

First let me say that my husband is AMAZING!  I had no idea he could do this . . .

The man built me a sofa table!  How amazing is that?!  We actually found plans for a four cubby on pinterest with the link here:  http://www.takethesidestreet.com/2011/05/table-is-complete-next-comes-styling.html

I loved it instantly!  I knew we needed something like that to clean up the toy mess that was in the living room.  So, of course, my man went to work (without my knowledge).  He even dragged my dad and brother into it by borrowing their tools and even my dad's house to build it so I wouldn't know!  Dave built it in about 5 hours, after it took him 2 hours to modify the 4 cubby plan into 5 cubbies and get the materials.  He presented it to me unfinished on Christmas so that I could pick out the color I wanted.  He also had me look for the baskets I wanted as well as decor I wanted to place on top.  The decor is not done yet, there will be some plants and I am always on the lookout for a small ceramic/metal bird which I think would go wonderfully with the ensemble.

I just LOVE it! 

I love he even did the detailing on the side!  It is perfect!!

Isn't my Dave AMAZING?!  I sure love that man!

Now that I know I have such a carpenter on hand, we've come up with several more projects for him to do!  Hopefully we will finish one this coming weekend and I can post it on here when completed!

(I just had to add pics of my sweet babies!  They are SO adorable!!  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!)

I am so blessed to have such happy children!

Projects I've Been Working On

I've been doing several crafty things lately and here are a few of the projects I've been working on:

First up are holiday blocks, one side says Give Thanks and the other Merry Christmas.  A group of girls and I got together to make these and holy cow we did not know what we were in for!  I can't believe how long it took to make these suckers but I LOVE the result!  Check it out!  (if you are interested in instruction on how to make these leave a comment with an email and I will send you them)

 And here is the Christmas one in action!

A giant  fall wreath that I LOVE!  I made this for a balcony needing a little something in my home.  Now I have to make a Christmas one, but not until after Christmas to get the flowers at a much better bargain!



I was talking with one of my friends and she mentioned she'd like to do this one and I thought, wow it sounds so easy and I could really use it!  I totally get sick of fishing for my makeup in my unorganized drawer.  I also chose to make a little something for my brushes and q-tips!

Get a frame, spray paint to desired color, cut and insert sheet metal and attach magnets on the back (get the good magnets, not the already circled ones, they don't hold much weight).  For the containers I got two Mikasa crystal candlesticks from Goodwill and two candle jars from Michaels and glued them together.  I think they turned out pretty wonderful!

There are more projects coming up that I've had ideas for.  Stay tuned!

Bella turned 3!

Our sweet baby girl turned 3 on Thanksgiving too!  We waited until most everyone left to celebrate but we did have everyone sing to her, she thought that was a lot of fun.  She kept asking for cupcakes and I feel bad that I didn't make any, I just knew we were already going to have a massive amount of desserts.

Bella actually letting me take a picture of her, she is saying "cheeeeeese".   She is holding a special eye spy toy from Grandma Stockdale!  Thanks Grandma!

Bella has a new found favorite.  Thomas the Train.  Oh my gosh.  I had NO idea about this until we discovered a lot of Thomas and Friends episodes on Netflix.  I also had no idea it has been around forever, go figure.  Anywho, she LOVES Thomas and trains, so for her birthday we got her some trains and a few tracks, now I think we created a monster!  She is obsessed with them, she doesn't want anyone to play with her with them, really.  She also has to sleep with them!  Crazy.  Forget dolls and princesses, my little girl loves dragons, cars, airplanes and trains!  Choo choo

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at our home this year and had plenty of company!  Dave had a brilliant idea of rearranging furniture to fit all the adults and teenagers as seen below (look at all that YUMMY food!).

 

Teenager table :)

All little kids ate here and it worked great!

We had 24 people in our home!  It was amazing!  We had such great food and a lot of it!  Way too much dessert we didn't even put a dent in it!  Thank you to the Wolfleys, Johnsons, Hallocks, my dad and step-mother, Mark (one of my crazy brothers), Lisa, Stacia, McKayla and Natasha. 

I am always so thankful for what I have, I feel so blessed all the time but this is a fun time of year to express it.  I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, without Him I would have nothing.  I am thankful my Father in Heaven sent me my sweet husband who is so good to me and our babies, I would be absolutely miserable without him.  I am thankful for my sweet babies (even though Grayson's neediness is killing me right now), they are TONS of fun and are so dang sweet, they enrich my life every day.  I am thankful for my home, that my husband has a job and I'm able to be a stay at home mommy.  I am thankful for all my many temporal blessings such as my wonderful home and working vehicles. 

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving as well!

Summer so far

Here in Eugene we went straight from winter (55 degree days) in May and even June to summer in July.  It is nuts.  But here are some pictures to document our summer.  Granted we have done a lot more going to the lake, visiting friends and family and such however I am TERRIBLE at taking pictures!  So here is what we got so far.

We were just playing outside enjoying the warmth and sunshine for the first time in forever!

Grayson had his first birthday!  Bella, of course, had to help him open his presents.

We went to Seattle to visit friends and go to a concert.  We had a BLAST with the Sassers, we went to the zoo and Bella LOVED it.  Bella and I were able to ride a camel which was super cool.  But Bella mostly liked the sharks.  She is obsessed with water and water animals.  One of her favorite movies is a dolphin documentary.  A girl after my own heart for sure!

U2 concert!!!  Oh man, seriously, I cannot say enough about this experience!!!  Dave got me tickets for the concert Christmas 2009.  We didn't think we'd be able to go because at that time the concert was scheduled for 6 days before I was due with Grayson.  But then Bono had back surgery and it was delayed for a year which worked great for us.  We stayed with the Sassers and they were wonderful in not only taking our kids for the evening but also my friend's baby girl so they could go as well!  It was my first real concert!!  I was so stoked and WOW, what an amazing experience!!  The music was amazing and it was SO much fun to see my all time favorite band live!  I gained a whole new admiration for the Edge!  Our seats weren't the greatest, but we moved down after a while.

In July my long lost brother, Greg, and his Canadian family came to visit.  Well, they aren't really lost, they just live in Canada which is really hard for them to come visit and difficult for us to go visit.  I hadn't seen them in two years!  I hate that.  Really hate that.  But it was so great for them to come and they even stayed at my house, which was awesome because with baby schedules we got to see a lot more of them than we would have otherwise.

Grayson and cousin Tati playing in the sand and having a blast being so silly throwing the sand and putting it on their heads.

Grandma Leora found a starfish, the kids were amazed with it.

I got to hold my nephew baby Gavin.  Oh, what a sweet boy he is!  Greg and Julie sure are blessed with such sweet kids!

We went on a hike and I actually took the camera!  Aren't you so proud of me?!  I am!  Bella hiked as much as she could.  The trail was kind of overgrown with ferns that were taller than her so I had her on my back for a lot of it, but she was a trooper.

I know, this is a bad picture, but it is the only one I have of the boys!  Grayson totally fell asleep in the pack, he had his head all the way to one side, it looked like it was going to fall off.

And thank goodness for Bono.  We don't have to take our own backpack when he comes!  He carries all our water, snacks, diapers and wipes in his pack, it is awesome!  Oh and it tires him out really well.

Well, we've done a lot more than documented with pictures here, we went camping for the first time since Bella was born.  It was a difficult first night (3 hrs of sleep) but the second was good.  It was fun to finally go camping.  Camping runs in my blood, but I also know we all need good sleep to enjoy ourselves so we haven't ventured out until now.  It was a lot of fun and it was good to go with some friends. 

We've done some fun yard saling, actual sailing, hiking, road trips, lots of time at the lake with friends and family, BBQs, fishing, clamming, walks and just enjoying nice weather before it disappears. 

We hope all of you have had wonderful summers so far as well!  Hopefully we will have great weather for a couple more months so we can enjoy the outdoors some more!

Early riser

So because of this

 sweet little girl

I had to make these

So that her room will look like this

in the morning so mom can try to get a few more

ZZZ's

For Denny and Fran :)

This is just for Denny and Fran!  Bella loves it!  Listen closely, she says hi to you guys and that she loves you too!  :)  Thanks again!

Snow day!

Dave had President's Day off so we decided to take our kids up to experience snow for the first time.  We knew Grayson wouldn't really be able to participate in any fun snow activities but we figured Bella would love it as she LOVES to be outdoors and jumping in puddles.  Heck, she would walk right into a lake, stream or river if we'd let her.  We went up to Willamette Pass and started packing on the layers.  Bella doesn't like layers we learned, but we had to do it because we also know she doesn't like to be cold.  She didn't know what to think of the snow at first, until we were able to show her how you could have fun in it.  We also brought our puggle dog, Bono, who loves the snow.  We thought we'd put him to work:

Everyone had a good time.  I'm still not sure how much Bella liked it.  It seemed like she really enjoyed herself but she didn't say much which is a new experience for us all.  Grayson hung out in the stroller all bundled up and was content the entire time.  It was a lot of fun and we were all beat by the time we got home.  A GREAT family day!

Catching up with B and G

Thought we'd do some posting about our sweet babies.

Grayson is a crawling boy now.  He is SUPER cute and such a happy little (or should I say big?) guy.  As long as he is feeling well he is just this happy little man, I LOVE IT!  He LOVES following his sister around, he absolutely adores her and she actually not only tolerates Grayson but it seems she really does care for him which is the cutest and most heart-warming thing on the planet.  He started crawling about a month ago and he is already trying to pull himself up on things with not much success.  He loves jumping in his jumper and he is a joy to bring with me to run errands.  He actually falls asleep in the car and on the go which is a whole new concept to me.  He likes to blow raspberries with his mouth.  Since his surgery to fix his tongue-tiedness he has been having a hay day playing with his tongue!  He loves to stick it out and curl it up, it is so cute.  Grayson is an easy going baby and I thought he would be my cuddler but as things are right now, not so much a cuddler, darn it!  He cut his first tooth on Valentine's Day which was such a blessing because he was having a really  hard time teething.  Not looking forward to more teeth coming in, poor thing.

One of Bella's favorite games with Daddy is the throwing the big red ball down the stairs, it totally cracks her up and gets her so excited.

Bella is doing awesome right now.  Granted she has her moments, terrible two's and everything, but really she has been doing so much better!  We've even been able to attend most or all of church which is wonderful for us!  Her communication skills are developing quite well and we are able to figure out what she is saying or she can communicate what it is she wants which saves everyone from a nightmare.  She still has her tantrums and that is usually when she is out of her element.  She is a joy at home and is so great with Grayson and man, when she gives you a hug, you just melt . . . you really earned it from her if you get one.  She is so sweet and is very concerned for the well being of others, asking if they are "okay" or "alright".  She is absolutely obsessed with all things Toy Story.  She loves Buzz, Woody, Jessie and Bullseye.  She likes pretty things but could care less about princess things.  She is a joy to have and we love her SO dang much!!!  It is also really cute that she has some of her favorite people, Grandpa, Uncle Mark (none of us get this one), Natasha, McKayla and Stacia, of course, and when the Wassoms come to town she is ALL about her cousins Dallin and Bobby!  She is loads of fun to play with.  She doesn't really have fear which then scares her mommy because she will go down the HUGE slide at the park and jump off things, I guess she is kind of tomboy because of all this but she also loves pink and purple . . . my kind of girl :).