Happy Turkey Day...

Our Thanksgiving was filled with fun, family, laughter, and grumpy, tired children. We are so blessed to have three families that live close and that we get to share the holidays with. It is some times exhausting, but we wouldn't have it any other way. On Thanksgiving day we celebrated with my family first and then headed over to Chris's family shindig to top of the evening. Then on the Saturday following Thanksgiving we had a third get together at our home for the other side of Chris's Family. They all turned out to be a tremendous success, and I think I am still trying to get over my turkey coma. I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few. I hope you all had a fabulous turkey day!

Finley & her cousin Adalynn

Here we go AGAIN.....

I swear we have reached our limit of hospital visits in the Terrill household. Can I just say that 5 1/2 hours of waiting in the E.R., for your child,s bleeding head to be checked out IS NOT OKAY!!!
I truly love being a mother. In fact, there is nothing more rewarding in this world. On some rare occasions however, there is an exception. When your child gets hurt and there is absolutely nothing you can do to take it away, that is the exception I am talking about. Why can't we just have Super Mommy powers that take away all there bumps and bruises, make there insecurities and fears vanish into thin air, and have an override button for when things get messy? Seriously, where is the easy button for motherhood? I guess that's why they say stay at home mothers have the hardest job ( I think only stay at home mothers actually say that, but it is so true!).
Okay, so on to the story. I will condense it since my recent posts have been quite lengthy. Last week Gabe had a little mishap, well not so little as you can see in the pictures. (Did I warn you about the graphic images that you are about to see?) Any who, one loud thud, some screaming ( on Gabe's behalf) , and yelling ( on mine), later, Chris found Gabe bleeding profusely at the bottom of the stairs.
This is what he said happened when we got him to calm down. " I was walking like dis,( he continued to show us exactly how) and then my feet stawted to wun weally weally fast for my body, like Dash, ( from Incredibles) and then I fell and cwacked my head. " Although I was still in shock, I managed to let out a little laugh. He is such a funny little guy. The fact that he was being funny while blood was dripping over his eye, was good news. What really happened was that he was running really fast around the corner, tripped, and caught the edge of our banister.OUCH!!!
I never think to take pictures during all of these scary parenting moments, but lucky for me my camera was sitting on the bench right where he tripped. He thinks that the pictures are so cool of coarse, and each day he asks to see them over and over.

I know it is gross, but this is only the second towel of blood. He soaked the first.

On our way to the hospital I tried to get him to tell us what happened again!

I am so glad that someone found this whole experience amusing!

The whole time we were at the hospital I thought that he was going to break something else. He was jumping and climbing all over everything, telling us that he was " Dash and Batman",( If you look closely you will see that he is wearing his Batman Halloween costume. He has worn it since the month before Halloween and continues to wear the month after! Not every day of coarse, but between washings. The poor child looks neglected!).

5 and 1/2 hours, and one staple later we are now in the comfort of our thought to be, child proof home.

HAPPY APPETITE!!

Tag..Recipes..and other Random Ramblings...

I was HUSBAND tagged! I must say, I was a little disappointed when all of the questions were for both of us. I was looking forward to brag about and embarrass my hubby. I am calling this the SPOUSE tag instead!
1. What is his name? Christopher John Terrill, (AKA Babe).
2. Who eats more? I DO!!!! What can I say, I Love FOOD! On our first date, I asked for his leftovers!

3. Who said I love you first? I'm pretty sure I did, but he insists he did. Let's just say ME! Sad that we can't remember.

4. Who is taller? He is much taller

5. Who is smarter? He would say me, but he totally is! He thinks just because I enjoy reading, that automatically makes me smarter, but he is sadly mistaken!

6. Who is more sensitive? Man this is a hard one. I definitely cry more but he is super sensitive when it comes to the kids.

7.Who does the laundry? This is 100% HIM!!!! He hates when I do laundry, because I wash one load like ten times before I actually remember to switch it over, teehee. I love you babe!

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? It switches all the time. I am so fidgety, so which ever side I want to sleep on that night is how it ends up.

9. Who pays the bills? We both do. We each hate doing it equally, so we take turns!

10. Who cooks more? He cooks breakfast for all of us every morning, but I do lunch and dinner!

11. What meals do you cook together? Apple Pie Baby, and if any recipe calls for chopping with a huge knife, he takes over. I tend to cut myself every time.

12. Who is more stubborn? Hands down, ME!!!!! What can I say, I love to be spoiled and I'm always right!

13. Who is the first to admit they're wrong? I am, because Chris is annoyingly NEVER wrong!

14. Who has more siblings? I have 7 and he has 2+ 4 from dads side+ 2 from moms side, so he wins!.

15.Who wears the pants in the relationship? Most people think me because I am definitely more vocal, but I think we are really pretty equal on this one.

16. What do you like to do together? I am definitely not writing what he told me to, but we like to Snowboard, play basketball,(he might be the better player but I kick butt at lightening!) travel, try new things, camp, Eat Out, Shop ( If we have NO children with us!) Watch the Spurs, play tennis, go on walks, and watch movies.

17. Who eats more sweets? Chris is more of a salty fan, and I believe in dessert with every meal!

18. Guilty pleasures? He has either Chips or overly buttered popcorn at midnight every night, NEVER FAILS.... Oh and his 44 ounce Pepsi every day!

19. How did you meet? I met him at a football game, we went on one date, I dated his best friend for three years, we reunited, and I have been living in absolute BLISS ever since!

20. Who asked who out first? I asked him out, oh about the first ten times before he finally returned the favor!!!!!

21. Who kissed who first? Yet again, ME!!! What can I say, I don't give up until I get what I want! ( Oh did I mention how incredibly shy my husband is? It makes me sound a little less creepy!)

22. Who proposed? He did! Finally, he made the move!!!

23. His best features? I love his tan skin, hazel eyes, his yummy nose, and have you seen that BOD?

I am tagging, Sheila, Mandi, and Kim. I am going to be checking girls, so get to it!

I use our recipe blog at least once a week for yummy meals! I just made this Yummy Oreo cookie cake on Saturday for some of our friends in the ward. They just had the most adorable little boy,(Skyler) so we took them dinner. If you want a recipe that gives the "WOW FACTOR" and is still so easy, this is the one!

Aren't those two of the yummiest things you have ever seen?

We also watched there kids over the weekend, and we had such a blast. They are seriously the best behaved children EVER. We ordered pizza and made this gigantic fort out of over sized boxes. They each had there own room and cut windows and sunroofs so that they could watch the movie. My mom used to do this for us when we were little, and it literally occupies kids for hours. I have been crawling around in the fort with Gabe and it is just as much fun now as it was when i was younger. The downside of being an adult, is that it doesn't seem as spacious as it once did. I don't think I even saw the boys once all night! The next morning we made yummy pancakes with there initials. I hope you guys had as much fun as I did! We hope that you can come next time Kennidy.

WARNING: I know this is a really long post, but it is about to get even longer and more random so feel free to stop reading at any chosen time!

The GIRLS got there ears "PIERED", (Pierced)!!!! We tried to get Chandler to pierce her ears earlier this year with her cousin Savanah, but no such luck. She chickened out when we got there. Yesterday, she was looking at the cute earrings at Walmart and she asked if she could give it another shot? I thought for sure that she would back out again, but she toughed it out. She tried to be brave and not cry, but when I saw her batting her eyes a thousand miles per hour, I knew it hurt. I told her it was alright if she cried, and that opened the flood gates!!! When she finally calmed down we let her call grandma to tell her, and the FLOODS came right back!! We decided to do Finley's also. I was a little nervous, but they ensured me that it was smarter to do it while they are little so they don't yank on them. They were 100% right! Finley only cried for a second and was smiling and cooing right after. Chris wanted to get Chandlers done when she was a baby, but I refused. I wish now that we would have, Finley handled it way better and is right back to her adorable little self.

 

Thank you to those of you who stuck it out until the end. I promise to try and stay updated so that I won't have these long and random posts! Have a Fantabulous Day!!!

Our HalloWeen Fun...

We had such a busy, Halloween filled week. We have had Halloween parties, school parades, we baked Halloween treats, carved pumpkins, and went trick or treating. I feel like the kids have lived in there costumes every day for the past week.

We started celebrating the weekend before Halloween with a huge over the top Halloween party. My aunt Sharla goes out of her way with the best party ever. Every year gets better I swear. She decorates everything to the max. She had the whole place looking like a dungeon with skeletons, goblins, gools, pumpkin's, monsters and grave stones. She even had a fog machine. Each table had a spooky light and skeletons above it with individualized center pieces. The food was everything Halloween. My aunt is a fabulous cook and we are all so excited to eat her master pieces. We had graveyard veggie pizza, pretzel bones and guts, (which was homemade pretzels and dip,YUMMY...) Slimy sloppy Joe's, Spider Chocolate cake and Cupcakes and Caramel apples. I made monster toes and pumpkin cake. After we ate she had games set up for the kids. They started off by decorating orange buckets with Halloween stickers with each of there names on them. Then we played games to win prizes and candy to fill the buckets. They went fishing in the spooky pond for Halloween coloring books and crayons, went on a spooky cake walk, played Pumpkin twister , Pumpkin toss, made a monster out of a slimy concoction and had a donut eating contest. I think they were on a sugar high for the next week. They filled there buckets and had a blast. She made each adult these cute skeleton heads filled with Halloween goodies.

Thank you so much aunt Sharla, it was so much fun!

Each of the kids had Halloween parades and it was so cute seeing all of the unique costumes. Chandler asked if she could be a porcupine, or Glenda the good witch this year. I said, "uuummmm, sure if you want, but Finley is going to be a cat." She fell for it, and immediately asked if she could be a cat as well. Evil I know, but I had no time to come up with one of her choices and actually make it look good. So cats they were. I couldn't just have them in all black, so they were funky cats.

Gabe originally wanted to be a ninja turtle and I was going to ambitiously try and make him the costume. When we went to Walmart for the material and weapons, he fell in love with the Batman costume, so Batman it was. I must admit it was less stress for me. All I had to make this year were tutu's and hair bows, YES!!! I think I will get started earlier next year and make them there costume of choice.

We bought pumpkins and had a contest boys against girls. Chandler and I carved an owl with a moon and stars, ( I have a sort of fixation with owls) and the boys carved a skeleton with bats. I think that we totally won the contest, but they insist that they did. It was so cute seeing the kids concentrate so hard on cutting and poking. They thought that the "spider webs" ( the slimy insides of the pumpkin) were so cool.

On Halloween,we went trunk or treating to a few different locations, and let the kids do some old fashioned trick or treating in my moms neighborhood. They all came home with so much candy it was ridiculous. I loved dumping it all out, categorizing all of the yummy treats, and saving all of the Almond Joy for myself. They both agreed that Halloween was there favorite holiday, but they say that about whatever holiday it is at the time.

I hope you all had a fun and spooky Halloween...

Our Little blessing.....

Finley is going to be blessed Sunday, and we would love for friends and family to come if they can. We sent Invites to family around here, and to all of the grandparents but decided to go GREEN, save a little, and send it to the rest of our family and friends via blog. It is this Sunday, Nov. 2nd @ 9:00 a.m. and we are having a brunch following the meeting, at our home. We would love for you to join us on such an important day.

The photo was taken by my talented sister Bonnie. She just started Photography not long ago, and is already so amazing!!! She has been so busy and always has the most unique and beautiful pictures. Here & Here are some of the pictures she has taken of our family.

The Perfect Morning....

Usually when Finley wakes up at six in the morning, I feed her, burp her, hold her up for a half hour for her reflex, change her diaper, then I try to get in a few more zzz's before starting the day. This morning I decided instead of fighting the inevitable, (which is not being able to go back to sleep, and being cranky and tired all morning) I would take advantage of some much needed quiet time. The house was chilly so I got all bundled up and headed down stairs. I wanted the kids to have a good breakfast before school, so I started some biscuits. It seems like a nutrigrain bar and yogurt were becoming the quick and easy routine for breakfast and I wanted to make them something that would really stick to there bellies. ( I totally quoted my dad right there..how funny..). Oatmeal and biscuits are Gabe's favorite and Chandler loves them just as much, so I thought it would be a pleasant surprise. Here is the yummy recipe off of my sisters blog!

After I put the Biscuits in I made myself one of my favorite drinks, hot Apple Cider..YUMMY!! There is something about the brisk feeling of Fall that makes me want to drink hot cider every morning. While I made the cider I sang, The best part of waking up is with cider in your cup". I know it doesn't have the same ring to it, and although I do love the smell of coffee, I can't imagine it tasting as delectable as apple cider. It smelled like fresh warm biscuit's in the oven and warm apple cider, now all I needed was a good book to read while I waited for the kids to wake up.

A few of my friends, ( Brenda, Nichelle, and Janeal) bought me the fourth book in the "Twilight" series and before I read it I have been wanted to read the others again. I don't retain things for very long, and I wanted to remember every nail biting detail. So I started the books again. So far they are just as good as the first time I read them. Thanks again girls for the thoughtful gift. It wasn't long into the book before I could hear Gabe growling at the top of the stairs, followed by Chandler whining that it was too cold. Surprisingly I wasn't tired or cranky. I think I will start making mommy mornings a daily ritual.

Oh before I forget, Chris woke up shortly after the kids, saw me in all of my morning glory and said, and I quote, " I dare you to blog whatever it is that you are wearing"! I got a good laugh out of it, so here it is for all of you die hard eighties leg warmer/Mr. Roger sweater loven fans. ME IN ALL OF MY MORNING GLORY!!! This one is a shout out to my hubby...love ya babe!

I hope you all have a Beautiful day, and take a little time out for yourselves. IT IS WONDERFUL!!!!!

Catching Up....

I have so much to catch up on, so this is going to be one of those random posts.

First of all Gabe turned 4. His birthday was on July 27th. So much has happened since then, so I am a little late posting about it. I can't believe my baby boy is already four. Here is a little glimpse into the life of our wild child. Gabe was born with so much pitch black hair that he was already sporting the missionary side swipe. He was so handsome and so full of life. He never really slept as a baby and is still never really sleeping! He has the most wild imagination. He loves to pretend that he is a different animal or super hero each and everyday. This morning he asked me to do his hair like a cheetah. It is the only way we can get him to do his hair, so I am happy to comply. Gabe loves to act tough, but he is really a big softy. He is so protective of his sisters and mommy, and is always catering to our every need (poor guy). He is his daddies little shadow and wants to do any and everything Chris does. We Love our little guy so much and are sad that he is growing up way too fast. Happy Birthday Monster!

He invited his best friends, "Wuke" and "JoJo" (Luke and Joseph) to Blast Off for some fun and some pizza. I love this picture of the three of them, too cute.

We always have a separate celebration with family. We had everyone over for dragon cake and ice cream. I got this idea from my sister. It looks complicated, but it is so easy. Here is the link if you want to give it a try. You have to love Family Fun! Gabe had such a blast and loved all of his new toys. Thanks again everyone, for making his day special.

Although he wasn't quite as excited about it, Chris also had a birthday and turned the big 27 on Sept. 3rd. I told him we are going to be throwing him an over the hill party soon, and didn't get a very enthused response. Man where do I start with this guy. To let you know how great he is, I asked him what he wanted for his birthday and like every year he said he wanted to spend it with his family. I know he would have been perfectly happy with just that, but I took his motorbike in to be repaired and he acted like a giddy school boy over it. We also went to the Fair with some friends and celebrated each of our husbands birthdays by stuffing our faces and watching drunken Indians, YES! Chris is the most giving and thoughtful person I think I have ever met. He is always putting his family first, and is always looking for ways to improve as a husband and father. Thank you for working so hard to provide for us babe, I love you no matter how old you get teehee! I love this picture of him, doesn't he look like a hunk of man candy?

Here is our favorite news yet! Notice anything? Finley is completely off of the oxygen and getting cuter and bigger everyday! Don't you love these shots? I still can't express the gratitude I have for everyone and for all of your prayers. Thank you just doesn't seem to be enough.

I may be a little bias, but these are three of the most beautiful children ever!

I can't get enough of this sweet baby girl! Here are a few shots that i couldn't resist!

I think she is going to have attitude just like her sister. Chandler is totally obsessed with her new baby sister. She is such a big help. I jumped in the shower and asked Chandler if she would listen for Fin and tell me if she starts to cry. When I got out, Chandler had Finley in her arms rocking her to sleep. I was a little nervous about chandler lifting her while I was gone, but Finley was perfectly content, so how could I be upset?

I don't have all of the pictures for this, but I wanted to thank Primary Children's for being so sweet to our family and all of the other families who were there. For those of you who don't know, they really focus on the families comfort. They gave us free zoo tickets, museum tickets, and free counseling for the children to help cope with there emotions and help them to better understand all that was going on. They brought the cutest little dolls in hospital gowns and explained all of the wires and tubes that Finley had. The kids were able to color faces on the dolls, put band aids and wires on them, and talk about how they felt. Thank you to everyone at Primary Children's, we love you.

Here are a few of our favorite animals at the Zoo. We watched the gorilla's for about fifteen minutes, I just couldn't get enough of them.

A Fresh Start...

Well, back to blogging. I have so much to blog about, but I decided the kids first day of school would be a great place to start.

Chandler as been so excited to be going to the "Big School". She was really disappointed when she found out she didn't get to ride the bus, (They decided to stop bus transportation for those who live within a certain parameter ) and she was so mad when she found out. The bus used to stop right in our front yard and for two years she has said she can't wait until she gets to ride it. I was a little sad for her sake, but I didn't really want to let her ride it anyway. I am a paranoid freak that way. She loves her teacher and loves going to the "Big School."

I asked each of the kids there favorite part about school. Chandler said, so enthusiastically, "playing computers, there is a fairy game and the fairy knows my mame and she even can spell it!" ("mame" is name, it's not a typo, its how she pronounces it.) Although I correct her, I happen to think it is adorable.

This is her teacher Mrs. Peterson. She taught when I went to Iona Elementary. I never had her as a teacher but a few of my sisters did, and they say she is the nicest teacher ever.

When I asked Gabe his favorite part, he said, "nothing"! He wasn't as enthusiastic as Chandler was about school. He was so scared when I took him. I thought he would be my social butterfly, but no such luck. He was so shy. I think he has had so much change, like a new baby, then us leaving for two weeks, now school, he is just having a hard time getting into a familiar routine. Every time I try to leave somewhere he breaks down, tells me not to leave him and asks to kiss baby "finny" before I go. I think that he thinks we are going to leave again, and it breaks my heart for him.

Gabe's teacher is Mrs. Blakely. They call her Mrs. Di, because her name is Dianna and it's just easier. Chandler had her in Preschool, and I was so impressed with how much she learned!

I got really inspired by this art station I saw in a pottery Barn Kids magazine. I made this organization station in the library for them. I wanted to wait until the wall was painted, but decided since that wasn't happening any time soon that I might as well just do it.
I am so glad I did. I love it, and it has helped me stay on top of things.

I also made these puppies for an after school snack. My mom always had yummy after school snacks for us when we got home and I plan to keep it a tradition. They are called "Chocolate Chip Blondies" and they are divinity let me tell you. I think I ate most of them!

Last but not least, our sweet baby Fin. She is growing like a weed and getting stronger everyday. She is still on oxygen, but is making improvements all the time. She is so spoiled by all of us. I swear the child is never put down between the four of us. The kids love her to death, and hold her every chance they get. She is our little miracle.