Dear Life, We still exist.

Amy got sick last Thursday, the 10th. She was sick for 5 loooong days. Then I got a little sick, and Dustin and Aurora. Adelynne has been the only one, so far, that has escaped this awful virus. I have not taken Aurora out of my apartment since the 10th because my worst fear is that she would get more sick with something like RSV or pneumonia. Most likely she has them already. She is miserable and the only reason I haven't taken her back to the doctor is because she is still eating and eating well, so she is well hydrated. But eating is her only comfort. You can see how miserable she is, just look at the pictures.

Her eyes are weepy and goopy, her nose runs like a bad leaky faucet, and she coughs so hard she gags. Could there be anything more pitiful? (Imagine all this on a grown man with a beard). I'd show his picture too, but he's just not as sweet looking as my poor baby.

She is fevering constantly, just like Amy did. But she can only take Tylenol every 6 hours, she's not old enough for ibuprofen yet. Her sleeping is not going well, she wants to be held a lot and then she cries in her sleep.

So it has been 11 days since this virus came to stay with us. What are we doing to keep boredom at bay? Here are a few pictures to show you:

Artwork. The girls will often pull out paper, scissors, and tape and go to town.

eating snacks and watching the reliable ol' tube;

Amy in action: (for 10 extra points, guess that movie)

Thank goodness for free video rentals from our local library. Amy has LOVED this video:

We have watched endless hours of television. I dare you to quiz us on the barbie movies.

And this is Adelynne showing off her artwork. She made a haunted house! Isn't she so cute?

Valentine's Day Happenings

Today I woke up and my apartment was freezing. Socks were a necessary requirement because the floors were like ice. At one point this morning I was walking into the bathroom thinking it will be warm in there (because the heater can actually heat that little room that has no windows). I walked in the bathroom and was a little surprised to find that it wasn't so warm. And it wasn't until my bottom touched the toilet seat that I realized it really wasn't warm in the bathroom. (I might be investing in heated toilet seats some day). So then I touched the heater and it was cold. Hmmm. No heat. Then I went around the rest of the apartment touching the heaters, they all were cold. No wonder it was so cold in my apartment!! Since I can't control the thermostat to my apartment, but I can turn on the oven and run it for as long as I want without it changing my monthly rent, I decided to bake. I baked some valentine cupcakes. They turned out really cute. I think I was inspired from my late night watching of "Cupcake Wars." (I find Food Network to be fascinating, now that we get it with our free cable package).
(This is a picture from my phone and the lighting is not so good. The frosting is pink).
They were quite tasty even though they came from a packaged mix. Although I sure would love to eat a cupcake from one of those fancy cupcake stores.

Amy has been very sick since Thursday. She started having fevers at 4am on Thursday morning and I decided to take her to the doctor since all three of my girls have had a cold for a couple of weeks. At the doctor's office, Amy's temperature was at 104.3, she was on fire. They ran a couple of tests and she came back positive for "Influenza B." (This is apparently the strain of flu that people have been vaccinated for this year, but only about 75% of people are being protected against this strain of the flu virus regardless of being vaccinated. Never mind the fact that Dustin and I decided not to do the flu vaccine for our family this year). So Amy was sent home with a prescription for Tamiflu. She's been on it for 5 days, today is her last day, and as I sit here typing, I can hear all too well, Amy and Adelynne playing so happily in their room when they should be going to bed. Finally! Amy has been so pathetic and dramatic these 5 days. She's had constant fevers that have made her eyes permanently puffy. I know her body must ache and hurt so badly. This morning when she was starting to fever I told her I would get her some medicine, and she just started wailing, "You always give me medicine!" Since she has this terrible cough her voice is raspy and sad so when she's crying (or screaming) it is hard to understand her. When I ask her to repeat what she says she just screams at me louder. She has been excessively emotional as well. Even the smallest bumps and stubs have made her bawl. I've held her as much as I could and reassured her over and over that she would get better soon. Today was the hardest day for her because she couldn't go to her preschool Valentine's Day party. Her little lip just stuck out and her eyes got all big and watery, and the tears just started streaming down her cheeks. It was even worse when she couldn't go to her dance class this evening. It is so awful to see her suffering. But I think tomorrow she will be feeling so much better. Aurora on the other hand.... has a fever.... right now.

Aurora Faye at 5 months

She just gets cuter and cuter, all the while I just fall more and more in love with her, who wouldn't?! In honor of being 5 months today, Rori got to put on a new outfit (9 month size).

If you look closely at her mouth, you will see that Rori is turning her tongue over. She is often playing with her tongue or sticking it out.

She is so precious!

Soon she'll be bigger than the blanket!

At 4 months Aurora's stats were: Height 25 inches (75%). Weight 15 lbs 8.6 oz (90%). Head Circumference 42 cm (75-90%).

At 5 months:

- Aurora laughs and smiles readily. She has recently been finding the humor in her big sisters, especially in Amy. If Amy laughs, Rori does too. Its adorable. Rori just lights up when her sisters walk into the room.

- She drools, maybe because she is teething?

- She still has a clogged tear duct, and her eye is constantly weeping and/or goopy. I'm starting to worry a little about her eye.

- She's getting to big for her car seat.

- She is wearing 12 month size clothes, some 9 month sizes, and a few 6 month sizes. Definitely not the 3-6 month size.

- She usually wakes once during the night.

- When we eat she will watch us very intently and start moving her tongue around in her mouth likes she is eating something.

- We still swaddle her for naps and bedtime. In fact we now double swaddle her to make sure she is strapped down good.

- If we lay her down on her back, she will move herself around doing a 180. She did it tonight to move herself around to look at the TV.

- She likes the TV. Uh-oh. Hopefully she doesn't have slower development as a result.

-Aurora is a doll and I absolutely adore every moment I have with her. She still makes me want to have more babies. I'm not shy about telling people that I definitely want more babies!!

FINALLY!!! End to Beginning

January 18th, 2011:

I love this little girl! Amy is really great at giving me a reason to smile.

Amy said she was a "pioneer airplane driver." Do you see the little head cock?

I know, 3 of the same picture, but she's so dang cute!

Adelynne as Tinkerbell, and Eddie as a little wizard. He was going around casting spells on the girls.

We love Eddie! He is so fun to have around the house in the mornings. He is with us Monday through Friday in the mornings. He loves to join the girls in their play.

January 14th 2011:

Isn't she adorable?! She just melts my heart.

January 12th, 2011:

Happy Birthday to me! I had a great birthday with lots of friends over for dinner. It helped that my birthday fell on Wednesday night dinner. Christi made me a delicious dinner of pasta, and everyone enjoyed my delicious chocolate cake with homemade chocolate frosting. Joni made me this really cute headband that I proudly modeled.

Aurora wished me a Happy Birthday too.

During the party, Aurora showing off her ginormous flower:

January 3rd, 2011:

My parents, Dustin, me, Adelynne, and Amy went ice skating for the first time since we have lived here. We have a small outdoor ice rink. This was Dustin, Adelynne, and Amy's very first time ice skating. Dustin did very well only falling once. Adelynne and Amy fell quite a bit, but they were both good sports. By the end of our two hours Adelynne was out on her own and doing quite well. She had a great time, and I actually took her back the next Saturday, just me and her.

Big sister Amy. She sure loves being a big sister:

January 2nd, 2011:

Aurora is 4 months! She is grabbing her toes and it is so cute!

Oh I L.O.V.E. this baby!!!

Happy 4 months!

The girls in their Christmas dresses. Made by my fabulous mother! My mom is so amazingly talented. My sister and I had dresses like these when we were young that my mom also made. She used the same pattern for the girls' dresses:

My mom is so good at all the details. Thanks mom!

January 1st, 2011:

We invested in some real estate:

A house with a fireplace,

a birdbath in the front yard,

sliding glass doors on the side and shutters on the windows,

and a pond with a duck. Isn't it the cutest house ever?! Adelynne helped me put this beauty together. Legos is one of our new favorite family activities.

December 26th, 2010:

Christmas! Well, one day late. Amy opened up a new mermaid barbie, can you tell she was happy about it?

Aurora liked her new book that Grandpa and Grandma Belt sent:

Aurora was also happy to have Grandpa Biggs come for Christmas too!

We even had Princess Rapunzel come and visit us for Christmas!

Do you think she likes it?

Adelynne's hair was in curlers. We had our Christmas on Sunday because my parents came late on Christmas day and we wanted to do all the fun stuff with them. So I did Adelynne's hair in curlers to go to church, but she ended up throwing up all morning. She was still in remarkably good spirits for being so sick. Amy was fine all day, but when we put her to bed she ended up throwing up everywhere. So she was sick early in the evening.

Amy opening up her Rapunzel wig. Amy has always been obsessed with long hair, hopefully someday her own hair will be long, but for now she loves to wear pretend hair. Gramma and Grampa Biggs knew just what Amy would love!

She blinked. You can see that she is still dealing with a clogged tear duct. Always a goopy eye, poor baby.

Santa brought the girls flashlights!

Santa also brought Adelynne some pet shops:

December 25th, 2010:

So this was our Christmas Eve. Dustin and I told the girls that we had emailed Santa to come to our house on Christmas Day night, instead of on Christmas Eve. So, the girls took their reindeer food and sprinkled it on the ground. You can see they are in pjs and curlers.

The pure joy of believing:

December 24th, 2010:

Aurora had to go on a nebulizer because she had bronchiolitis. Say that one ten times fast! (So do you remember my old post about Aurora and her gagging issue? Turns out the gagging/coughing problem was leading up to this infection). We had to do her nebulizer treatments every four hours as needed. Plus she was on an antibiotic for an ear infection, and a steroid for the bronchiolitis. She did not enjoy all these medicines. But when Dustin would dance Aurora would not cry during her treatments. Daddy is wonderful entertainment.

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday. This was our very first time staying home for Christmas, and it really was wonderful. The worst part was not being with Grandma and Grandpa Belt and all our wonderful friends and family in Las Vegas. It really was a very hard decision to stay home and not be with the Belt Family for the holidays. We miss them so very much. But regardless, we had a great holiday, and it made all the difference having my parents come and celebrate with us. Every night we but two nights while my Dad was here, we played a game of chicken foot. My Dad never won once. We played with all our new Christmas toys, went ice skating, went to look at Christmas lights, and took a quick trip to Chicago. My parents watched the girls while Dustin and I attended the temple, and then my parents got to go as well. We ate at Giordano's and had famous Chicago style pizza. We went to downtown Chicago and walked around the "Magnificent Mile." Our favorite store was the Lego Store. Then we enjoyed dessert at the Rainforest Cafe. We really had a great time. My Dad went home and my mom stayed behind for an extra week and I enjoyed every moment having her here. One of my favorite times with my mom is playing Tuesday night volleyball with her. I have a blast with her. I also joined a co-ed city team with great friends, and my mom was able to come to my first game! Its wonderful to have the support of my mom. My girls love having Gramma here too. The girls and I drove my mom to the airport, and when my mom got out of the car, Amy looked horrified that we were leaving Gramma behind, and Adelynne just bawled..... for 20 minutes. I finally had to ask her to stop crying. We can't wait to have Gramma come again!

A Good Plan

My friend gave birth to a healthy baby boy yesterday. But he was at least 20 weeks too early to survive. He lived for three hours. This morning I opened up my email and read the words my friend wrote to share the news of her son's birth and passing. I cannot imagine what kind of pain she and her husband must be in. Yet her email message was so positive and uplifting because she knows that she will hold her son again, and be with him again. The end is not with this life, we are only at the start. I am grateful to know that God has a plan to allow families to be together forever. I am grateful to know that God is in control, and we can get through difficult times by relying on the Savior. I am deeply humbled by others tragedies and my own blessings.