Spring Break in Utah

My step-mom Deb, my sister Alicia, Riley and Raegan

My dad and the kids

Grandpa and the girls

Reese was trying to figure out who this man was that kept giving her kisses.

Riley LOVES his grandpa. He talks about going to see grandpa all the time. It is cute to see them spending time together.

For Spring Break the kids and I went to Utah to visit with my family. We stayed with my sister Rebecca and her family. We always love going there and spending time with family. It is sad to be so far away from everyone. Reese is so small that she forgets easy. The older two know who we are going to see, but Reese was pretty much freaked out the whole time with all the new faces and people. By the last day she was warmed up to everyone-then we had to leave again.

I loved being there. I saw my mom, dad, step-mom, sisters, brother-in-laws, grandma, aunts, cousins. Thanks everyone for letting stay and for taking care of us while we were there.

While we were away Russ stayed very busy. He actually had a big job to do. When he wasn't working he was doing work around the house. He finished a BBQ island, put some lights under the cupboards in my scrap-book room (What a nice hubby, I LOVE the lights), and built a chicken coop. OH YES--he and Melinda bought 16 baby chicks. We have been working on our emergency preparedness and food storage. We though chickens would come in really handy. Thanks hunny I love you.

AR What????

OK--so this is a really funny story that I what Riley to ALWAYS remember. I had parent/teacher conference yesterday. I LOVE to see how much he is learning and how he does in class. I LOVE his teacher. She does such a good job with all the kids. Of course every parent thinks that their kid is the best, smartest, cutest. I go once a month and "help" in his class and I watch the other kids. You can tell which ones are more advanced. I have always thought that Riley was a very smart kid. But, I always have in the back of my head, "how is he really doing?" His progress reports always have the best marks. He loves to learn and to be at school. OK, back to the story. Yesterday while his teacher was talking to me about how good he was doing in class, she asked me if he could be in the AR program. I have never had a kid in school so didn't know what that was. She started to explain about reading a book at home and getting tested and rewarding him and praising him. I instantly thought that she wanted to put him in like a special ed class or something. Like I said you always wonder how things really go at school. Maybe Riley needed a little extra help. I can handle that. Trying to control my emotions I nicely ask, "what is AR." She smiles and says, "advanced reading." I almost lost it. WOW. That is way better than the special resource class. OH my goodness. I am so proud of him. He really is a genius:) I hope that he always has a love for school and learning. What a great kid he is. He is loving and funny and smart. I love you hunny boy.

Cousin Fun

Boys will be boys. All the boy cousins played outside the majority of the time. Nick is the oldest boy cousin and he is such a sweet kid. He tried to help teach Riley how to ride his bike. He has it down--I think. Thanks Nick.

Raegan and Rosie played princess dress-up. Raegan of course was little miss boss and told Rosie what to wear and how to act. Rosie was a good sport and enjoyed herself.

We had Russel's sister Robin and her family here from Las Vegas for a few days. It was great to see them and how their kids have grown. Riley and Raegan were so excited to have their cousins here to play with.

Not much going on

I know I shouldn't post because there really is not much going on with us right now. BUT--I feel like I haven't posted in awhile. I think the kids are on the mend. LET ME TELL YOU having 3 sick kids, one sick husband, lots of very sick neighbors and a very sick mom--I AM DONE WITH SICKNESS!!!! I hope we have had our fair share of sickness this whole year. It makes me cranky and exhausted. Allergies have been really bad the past few weeks here. It seems like everyone I see or talk to has them. My poor little Riley boy. He is only 5 and had the worst allergies I have seen in a kid. His eyes would get so swollen they were almost closed shut. Reese had her ear infections. She is on an antibiotic right now. Raegan just decided to get a fever and start throwing up. I couldn't get her to eat anything for 2 whole days. When she finally did start to eat she started to get better. Russ has always suffered from allergies. They make him completely miserable. He usually ends up getting the shot. He has to go to work still which always makes him worse with all the drywall dust and such. Any-whoo!!! That's what's been going on here. LOTS OF FUN.


On a more positive note. Russ and I, along with Russ's sister Melinda, have been very inspired to get more food storage going. We do have a lot of stuff--but we have narrowed things down to what will work for our family and our needs. There are a lot of things we are lacking in. We have been told and warned since I was a little girl (and even before that) about getting our lives in order, getting our homes in order, and getting our year supply of food in order. I KNOW that there is going to come a time in the future (hopefully in the way distant future) that we are going to need our food storage. Not just food but water and supplies. If you haven't started--YOU SHOULD. At least start. If you don't know how or what you need go to the church web site and they have all kinds of information. It really is so important. We do all we can to protect our children and families. Why would we not get our food supply??? I want to BE PREPARED when things get really bad. So that is our goal the next few months is to get the rest of what we need. Wish us luck.

POOR LITTLE LAMB!!!

Tonight I had Reese in the walk-in clinic. She has been totally fine. She had RSV like 3 weeks ago, but has been so much better this last week or so. We all went to church yesterday which was a rare sight. We have been passing sickness around back and forth. Anyways, yesterday when I was holding her I kept smelling something kind of gross. Not like poop but something different. It took me a minute to figure out that it was Reesie's ear. I know that is gross and I'm sorry if you have a weak stomach. Last night she was up all night and I knew she had a fever. Yesterday she was totally clingy to me. She wouldn't even go to Russ. Today was bad. I couldn't do anything if she was awake. She would not let me put her down. Her fever never went down, she was just miserable. Her eyes were sick. It was just very sad. So, tonight I took her to the walk-in clinic to have her checked out. We waited A LONG TIME, I think it was like 2 hours. We were the very last patient to be seen. Her fever was 101. The doctor said she had an ear infection in both ears. And in the right ear (the one that I could smell) he said he couldn't even see the ear drum it had so much junk in it. He also said the eardrum had ruptured. HOLY COW HOW SAD!! He said that the ear gets so much pressure behind it and finally bursts. It will heal itself and he put her on an antibiotic. Poor, poor baby. I can't believe it. I seriously almost started to cry when he said that. You probably think I am weird but my kids have NEVER had ear infections--that I know of. To know that my baby is in so much pain was awful. Tomorrow we start the antibiotic and hopefully have a happy baby again.

Crazy Baby

The other night Ninna was watching the kids. Reese was very tired and will usually fall asleep as Mel rocks her. She LOVES to suck her thumb when she is tired. She always wants to hold somthing in her hand as she sucks her thumb and this puts her right to sleep. I'm so glad that they got pictures of this. She was sucking her thumb and her hand slowly started to slip. This is how she ended up--in her eye. Crazy baby I can't believe that she could stay asleep like that.

Reesie crawls

My Reesie girl finally crawls. Really crawls on her hands and knees. She has been scooting for a couple of months now. 3 days ago (March 6, on Friday) she got up on her hands and knees and crawled for just a minute. Now she does it all the time. She had been getting up on her knees but wouldn't go anywhere. She is 10 MONTHS old. I can't believe how much she gets into. She is in EVERYTHING. Some other things she is doing right now are, she gives kisses to babies (dolls) and pictures of babies, she sings whenever she hears music or someone else singing, she loves to get out of bed when she is not ready to sleep. She mimics alot of words we say. She is growing up so fast and we are enjoying everyday and every moment.

Thank- You Bubba

We had Christmas again at the Sipes house last night. My brother-in-law came to Snowflake to do some work and my mom sent him with all of our Christmas stuff. I (and of course the kids) enjoyed having another Christmas. My mom got the kids new clothes and girls new shoes. Here is a fashion show just for you mom. They look adorable. The kids love their new stuff. Riley has all of his posters colored and hung already. As I type he s working on his coloring book. THANKS BUBBA WE LOVE YOU!!