Ears

Someone finally got brave enough to do this!!!

Karate

Alex is too darn cute in his karate uniform.

Phil

After over 3 years of survival in a bowl we finally got Phil in a proper tank!! He should grow larger with the bigger space, but knowing my luck he will hate the new, filtered space and go belly up! I hope not though.......he's a good fishy.

Alex redeems himself

Alex has had a rough few days. Just been plain old nasty! That makes me not happy. But the kid is KING of redeeming himself. Tonight was a prime example. I was saying his nightly prayer with him when he said this: "please bless mom at home tomorrow that the Holy Ghost will be with her while she is alone."

Yup, buddy. All is forgiven!!

Sent from my iPhone

Day 6

Day 6 and my eyes are feeling SO much better! I think taking those bloody contacts out of my eyes yesterday was a huge help. The doctor also gave me some gel eye drops that helped keep my eyes moisturized though the night. Thus, I woke up with pain-free eyes! Hallelujah!! AND, my sight has been much better today. Still not where I paid $3500 for them to be, but I know they will get there.
Yippeee for eye sight!

Blurry

The advantages of PRK over Lasik? Less "invasive". Which is good for someone like me who has thin corneas and a family history of various eye diseases.

The disadvantages of PRK? EVERYTHING ELSE!!!!! The healing time is longer and more painful. Your vision is not perfect right away. Oh, and did I mention your vision is not perfect right away? As in, I cannot read the screen as I type this! Andy will have to proof-read it for me. My vision is definitely better than before the surgery (20/40 instead of 20/400), but it will also be blurry for a few weeks as my eyes recover. The doctor was right, PRK is a roller coaster ride for your eyes. Roller coasters make me wanna puke!

I imagine I will be glad I did the surgery one day. But that day isn't today. I did go in for my 5 day check-up today and everything is healing just right and they took the bandage contacts out so my eyes are finally free!! The key right now is keeping my eyeballs hydrated. Lots and lots of artificial tears.

In short, if you can, get LASIK. If you can't, talk to me before making a decision for PRK. I'll tell you all the gory details!
What's that you say? You want to WATCH my surgery? Here ya go!


(PS, the surgery was completely painless! Easiest part of all of this so far!)

PRK

These are the eye shields they have you wear to bed so you don't rub your eyes. The most annoying part is the sticky face you are left with in the morning!!

PRK

Driving home after my eye surgery. My eyes were still numb and feelin good. Nifty sunglasses, I know.

Christmas 2011

Samantha and all of her goodies.

Alex lined all of his stuff up for me to snap a picture.

Love the first look at the Santa gifts.

Alex kissing his new MP3 player.

Family photo after church at my parents house.

We had another wonderful Christmas. We opened presents with the kids at our home, got ready for church, attended my parent's sacrament meeting then had lunch and presents with my side of the family. We played and laughed and cleaned and laughed until around 3pm at which time we had to leave for the Higham festivities. We dropped stuff at home then headed to Orem for dinner and more presents. It was a great day and we loved seeing everyone. We all got spoiled by Santa and each other. Christmas night brought much puking from Samantha and a sleepless night for me, Andy and Samantha, but overall it was a great day!

Christmas building 2011

My 3 favorite guys building Kinex on Christmas day.

Andy and his BFF's

It's rare to get these 3 together - especially looking so handsome. The occasion required a picture.

When Parenting is Awesome

The other evening we got a skiff of snow that needed to be removed. Andy went outside to start and the kids soon followed. After helping Daddy for a little while they both went across the street - without being asked - to shovel our neighbors driveway. She is a widow and always appreciates the help. Surprisingly enough, the kids did a pretty decent job!! Sister Johnson brought a treat by tonight addressed to the kids saying thank-you.
Andy took the treat into Samantha and her response was, "I knew someone would appreciate us!".

Sweet, sweet, kids!!

Like mother, like daughter!

The other night at dinner Samantha was telling a story and meant to say the word combine, but instead she made up a great word - combinate!! I was so proud!! I frequently make up words and this one was right up my alley!

Alex has started calling Samantha "Sam". Not entirely sure how I feel about that.

Grandma gave the kids a fun "countdown to Christmas" this year. They get to open a present every 25 days of December until Christmas!!! The good: they have a new toy to play with every day. The bad: they are so excited to see what the new present is that they wake up too early! This morning they got some playdoh and a memory game and they have been playing nicely together all morning. It's been lovely. Until I have to get Samantha ready for school.....then not so lovely! But that wouldn't be any different than all the other days.

Guess what Alex just had for breakfast??? Pickles on a plate with a bowl of dried cranberries on the side! And he was super disappointed that the cucumber we had in the fridge had gone bad. Kid belongs in the Mediterranean!!

Sunday night

My boys. Drinking hot cocoa and watching Thundercats together. Pretty cute if you ask me.

Moochies

The day before thanksgiving we drove up to salt lake and ate lunch at moochies. It was a gorgeous day and the meatball sub was nummy.

Alex with Santa at Walmart.

Samantha with Santa at Walmart.

Testing 123

Sent from my iPhone

Forgotten Picture

I realized the other day that I never really went through all of our Hawaii pictures! I had forgotten about this picture of Samantha and I in our matching floppy hats and I thought it was really cute! Isn't that girl a babe???

Family pictures 2011

Samantha's last soccer game of 2011

Alex's birthday party

Happy Birthday Alex!

Alex opened all of his presents this morning from mom and dad and grandma and grandpa. He was such a happy kid ALL morning long! He loved getting phone calls from Grammy and Grampy and Aunts and cousins and we put together some of his Legos. He played and sang and was the happiest I've seen him for a LONG time. It was awesome! In fact, after I found the legs of one of his Lego dudes he started chanting, "Kristi Rocks, Kristi Rocks!". Smart kid! Tonight we are going to the Mayan for his birthday dinner and tomorrow afternoon is his friend party. It should be a lot of fun.
Alex, I think you are the cutest, smartest, sweetest, funniest little dude I've ever met! I'm so happy you were born 6 years ago and that you were ALL MINE from day 1! Love you man!

Samantha soccer 2011

Andy was asked to be a line-judge-flag-holder-dude for a game. As you can tell, it was fascinating.

Big smiles!

Intense goalie!

Cute girl, and silly boy falling off a chair in the back.

I think Samantha has enjoyed soccer this year. It's been fun to see them learn offense and defense and play like a sorta-kinda real team instead of just a huddle of kids. Samantha loves to be goalie and she's a fast little runner. I just wish her attention span lasted more than 5 minutes!

Alex's first day of Kindergarten! (Hallelujah!)

Alex started afternoon Kindergarten today and we ALL were excited! I requested morning K because I knew with afternoon all I would hear in the morning was, "is it time to go yet? when does school start?". Sure enough, that's how our morning went! Oh well, hopefully he'll get used to it. Sounds like he had a great day! Andy was able to take a lunch break, see Alex off, and take me to lunch. It was awesome!!
Proud of you little dude! Love you!

First day of 2nd Grade!!

Isn't she gorgeous!!???!! My big 2nd grader!