Happy Birthday Gracie!!

What was I doing three years ago? Let me see.... Three years ago we lived in Olathe, Kansas. Every pregnancy I go into preterm labor, I go on bed rest, all of that. It is always fun! Anyway when I was pregnant with Gracie, I saw the high-risk doctors. I went every week, even in the beginning. I had an ultrasound every single week, to make sure everything is on track. Chad had to give me a shot once a week to try to prevent preterm labor. So I made it to 27 weeks, I was admitted to the hospital and got Magnesium. That is THE WORST feeling ever!! Well, it stopped my labor. When it got near the end of the pregnancy, we were getting ready to move back to Arizona. We were getting worried that she would not be born before the move. So I asked the Doctor to induce me. So we went to the hospital to be induced at 37 weeks. The heart rate was not right, dropping way to low, for too long, etc. We had a very very scary experience with Anna, when they asked if I wanted a C-section, I said yes, we did not want what happened with Anna again. So they decided on the C-section, and she was born 11 minutes later. We lived in Kansas with no family, the family had all came to help during the hospital stay and after. So no family could come to see Gracie. It was hard for me, no one to show off my new baby to. The only person to come see us was the AWESOME family in our ward (who was watching our kids) to let Carter and Anna come see her. Thank you Marie! So we moved back to Arizona when Gracie was 3 weeks old. I had to get something from the Dr. for the airlines to say it was okay for her to go on a plane SO EARLY in life. My Mom was awesome. She flew to Kansas and didn't even leave the airport, she arrived and just got on the plane with me to help me with Carter and Anna back to AZ. It was so nice of her. So three years ago I had a lot going on. Gracie was such a good baby, never cried, good sleeper, always happy. Gracie is by far my easiest child. When Gracie was 3 months old she was admitted to the hospital. We do not have good luck with medical stuff, but this one was scary for me. She had RSV, both ears infected, and a urinary tract infection. She was in the hospital for 1 week. They had to do her IV in her head, us red heads have thin veins, except our head! During that hospital stay they did many tests, because she had a UTI, it is unusual to get them that early. We found out that she has Urinary Reflex. That is where her pee goes into her kidneys. So since that visit 2 1/2 years ago she goes every six months for them to check on that and make sure her kidneys still functioning normally. She is supposed to take antibiotics every single day, to prevent UTI's. Maybe eventually get a surgery to permanently fix it. when Gracie was 2 she broke her arm, she had to get 2 casts on it, and it was casted for 3 months! Gracie is such a good baby. She loves to be with the big kids, she has always thought she was one of the big kids, she is very tough. Gracie is so fun to be around. Gracie is so special to me, I know there is something about her that is different from my other kids. I knew it while I was pregnant with her. Gracie has such a strong spirit. She is ALWAYS so happy. I am lucky to have Gracie home with me all day while Carter and Anna are at school. I love my Gracie Girl! Happy Birthday Gracie!! I LOVE YOU!!

Sports Day

It was Sports day at school this week. Carter and Anna were super excited....NO UNIFORMS!!! You had to wear your favorite teams clothes...ASU!!! I was able to go to see it! It was SO much fun! At their school they do not have P.E. So it was like fun games. They had three-legged races, potato sack races, T-ball, hop-scotch, golf, basketball, and obstacle races. We are growing out Anna's bangs and she looked so much older all of a sudden! It was such a fun day! Here are a few of the pictures!

Such a FUN weekend

So we went to conference. It was so much fun! We drove up, and we had no kids so we took our time, we stopped a lot of times. It was fun though. We got there and it was SSSOOOOO COLD! I live in Arizona, I don't own any shoes, all I have is flip flops, my feet were FREEZING! I don't own a jacket, I borrowed one of my Moms, we don't own any umbrella's, good thing my Mom had 2 extra! So COLD in Utah, and it was raining the whole time! It was so much fun though. We went Saturday morning to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and watched the Joseph Smith movie, then stayed in our seats and watched Conference there. After Conference we ate at the Garden, on top of the Joseph Smith Building. That was actually where my Dad proposed to my Mom! It wasn't a restaurant then though! Then we went to the conference center for the next session. For Saturday night my Sister Linsey and her husband came to meet us. The boys went to the priesthood session and us girls, Linsey, me and my Mom, played. It was SO much fun, I miss Linsey so much. She is so awesome. I miss meeting her for lunch ALL the time. It was fun! Sunday we went to the conference center for the morning session and we were so so tired. So we watched the last session at our hotel room. Then we went to Linsey's house, I miss her kids! My kids miss her kids!! It was such a fun vacation and Conference was so awesome. I never REALLY get to watch it at home! It was AWESOME! It was a lot of fun hanging out with my parents! Everything was so cool! Here are a few pictures of our fun time!



Our kids stayed at my Sister KATIE's house. It was super fun to see Katie too!! My kids had a really fun time too! Thanks Katie, we could not have had this AWESOME trip if it weren't for you!

CONFERENCE

Every year my parents take turns with all 7 of us kids to take them to to see conference with them. I am the youngest and it is FINALLY our turn. We are super excited. We are going to leave the kids with my sister Katie, my kids are so excited. They have not seen Katie's kids for a while since she moved. Katie's kids are all my kids same ages. It is so fun to play with them because no one is left out. So the kids are excited and we are excited. I am really excited to go with my parents, they really are fun to be with. So we leave Thursday to take the kids to my sisters, (I am SUPER excited to see Katie!!!!) Then we will go back and sleep at my parents house. We will leave really early Friday. We have tickets to see one session on Saturday and the other session we will watch in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Then for the priesthood session my sister Linsey and her husband are coming!! Ryan will go to priesthood with Chad and my Dad; me, my Mom and Linsey will go hang out at the mall!! I get to see BOTH my sisters! I miss them SO MUCH! My sisters and my Mom are my Best Friends (and Chad) What will I do when my parents go on a mission and ALL my friends are gone?!?!? Then on Sunday we have tickets to one Session and the other we will watch in the Joseph Smith Building. Then drive home on Monday. It is going to be a GREAT weekend. I get to see BOTH my Best Friends, and I will Actually get to HEAR conference with out the kids screaming. It is going to be fun! It will be fun to be with my parents too! They are awesome! Here is an awesome picture of my parents with President Hinckley and his wife.







BY THE WAY...I DID IT!!!! I got an A- On Big Brain!! YAHOO!! My new high score is 1641! Awesome! Maybe I will get EVEN higher on the drive to Utah!

BIG BRAIN

So I have been really bored. I have no good books to read, so I have been playing MY DS. When I got my DS I got pink, that way it was not Chads and it wasn't Carter's Either, MINE! Any way, I have beat all of my games. I beat Elite Beat Agents, SO FUN! And I beat Cake Mania and Dinner Dash a BAZILLION times and Mario Brothers. I have had nothing to read and no games to play, so I have been DETERMINED to get an A on Big Brain Acadamy. I have been trying SO hard! I got a high score last night of 1597!!!!! 1597!!!! And it was STILL a B+!?!?!?!? I bet it has to be 1600, 3 points away! So Has anyone else EVER gotten an A? What is your high score? I want to know. Do you even play games? What is your favorite game? What is your high score? Especially Linsey! I know you play that game...what is your highest score?

Camp Rock

So Anna Really LOVES Camp Rock! She watches it a few times a day. And when she is in her room she has Camp Rock BLASTING! She loves it! Here is a video of her singing one of her many favorite Camp Rock songs! I can NOT figure out how to rotate the video though. Anna is silly!

ENJOY!

Here are a few of her Mitchie (the girl from Camp Rock) poses!

We Made It!!!

So we are done with the babysitting! Yeah! No really it was not very bad at all. The hardest part about the whole thing was that there were SO many kids, which meant SO MANY activities. Someone had something going on everyday! You know Volleyball, Chorus, Yearbook club, Swim meets, Beauty school, Mutual, all kinds of things. It was hard to get EVERYONE to school, but we were late to school only one day! YAHOO! I made it. My brother has 6 kids, the youngest is a 1 year old and the oldest is 16. It was kinda nice watching the Morgan, the teenager; me and Chad have found out new rules that we will DEFINITELY have with our kids when they are teenagers. Teenagers are pretty stressful! All in all we had a fun time. Those kids are such good kids. They all take such good care of each other. It was so awesome to see. When it is time to leave for school Garrett, the 14 year old boy calls everyone to say prayer. They did this every morning with no reminder from me. They all came to the front room before bed to read scriptures. They have not missed a night of reading scriptures in SEVEN years! The Farley kids are such a good example to me. I can only hope that my family can be as strong and have as good of spirit as they all do. I did have a good time babysitting them! I miss them right now, especially baby Hayden! I did not get any pictures while we were babysitting, I wish that I would have! Oh well! It was fun, not so bad!


This is the most recent picture that we have of them...one is missing...Hayden! We miss you guys!!! We had a fun time!


Done with the babysitting
Carter and Anna have been in school for one month now. We have not liked Carters school AT ALL. They go to different schools, Anna goes to Crown Charter School, because her birthday is later. And Carter goes to the public school. Our plan when school started was to switch Anna as soon as we could, it did not go that way. I have not liked Carters school. He is not learning anything at all. In fact he is forgetting stuff he learned in Kindergarten because he is not doing anything! Carter has not had any home work yet. I asked his teacher if he is going to be getting some any time soon. She said they are STILL going over rules and procedures...FOR A MONTH! she said that he will not get any homework until October?!?!?!? School started August 4th! Anna comes home every day with homework and already has her first spelling test! She is doing so good and loves school! Any way, also Carter has not been his normal self since school started. He is not as happy. He have been stressing about him since school started! So we decided to switch him to Anna's school! It was the best decision EVER! He started on Thursday, so he has only been there 2 days but he says he likes it more than his other school! We feel so good about this decision! Here are some pictures of his first day of school, he now has to wear a uniform...






















































So Carter is back to his happy self! He was so excited to go to school on Friday!