Welcome Home, Hermana Epperson!

St. Patrick's Day was a little overlooked due to a much more important occasion--Stacey's missionary homecoming! Yesterday she spent time with the mission president and other returning missionaries at the temple and at a testimony meeting. Here she is with the family who were able to attend (so lucky)!

From March 2011

And here are some preparations for her homecoming:
Max painted a sign for the door.

From March 2011

We made a sign for the airport

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Max and Ryan "washed" some dishes (very important stuff)

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And more festivity

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Waiting at the airport

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check out Tony's temporary wheels. Max loved getting a ride!

From March 2011

So excited!

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And here she comes:

That is one happy missionary mama! :)

From March 2011

Welcome Home Hermana! Que te perdiste!

From March 2011

Weddings and Wild Children

My good friend Rachel was married yesterday to a great guy. It was so fun to see her wedding and spend time with friends.
To quote Max, "Rachel is so pretty"

From March 2011

I love that weddings bring people together too! I got to spend time with my dear, dear friends. Here are Kim and Kim. Rachel, Kim, Kim and I were roommates when I met Tony. I adore these girls.

From March 2011

Here's a pic of Kim, Baby Austen and another of my favorite people, Debbie

From March 2011

The stains on the tablecloth are an indication of the "fun" I had with my two wild littles. Max wanted to take pictures of things with the phone.

From March 2011

Ryan was fascinated with the tall, expensive camera tri-pods and with the decorative stones that were on the tables and the cake table. Several times I had flashes of my children bumping the cake table in their excitement and wedding cake diasster. Thankfully those were just my worried thoughts. Here is the cake table.

From March 2011

I tried to get more photos but I was definitely occupied keeping the children in check AND trying to enjoy my friends.
I got to have a girl's night with Kim and Kim after the reception. So different from our days as roommates with one of them having a five week old and one of them being 7 months pregnant, but it was so fun to chat with them.
And I got to hold the sweet 5 week-old Austen. I was in heaven!

From March 2011

Heated Hospital Gowns are Cool

Tony had reconstructive ankle surgery this past Friday. He changed into his gown and there was this flap that had an opening under it. It kind of looked like a vacuum bag hole. When the nurse came in, she attached a hose from the wall into the hole in the gown so that the gown had warm air flowing through it. How cool is that? Tony has chronic pain from the ankle that was broken during his plane crash, so this surgery will hopefully give him more movement and help him be more comfortable. The doctor removed 5 (but not all) of his screws, cut his calf tendon to allow for more up and down movement and also moved his heel over so that it would be directly under his ankle. Well, he had intended to move it 10mm but only moved it 5 mm because the heel was so damaged and there was scar tissue, etc. In the waiting room there was a screen that listed patient numbers and their doctors so I could see when he was in the operating room, when they were closing, when the incision was closed and then when he was in recovery. That was nice. Since he was nauseous and couldn't keep pain meds down orally, he was admitted and stayed overnight. The next morning he was doing great and a PT showed him the kneeling carts that he will be getting soon.
Tony wanted to save the screws that were in his ankle (oh, a few more were put in this time too) so here they are.

From March 2011

And here is a recovering Tony

From March 2011

Gymnastics

Max is taking a gymnastics class. He has a lot of fun and Ryan so wants to participate.

From March 2011

In fact Ryan does participate

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Some Drawings

I was drawing with Max today and loved his pictures.
Concentrating

From March 2011

This is an airplane (of course) with a really long propeller and really long wheels

From March 2011

He started writing his name last month. It's cute to watch him write an A. He draws an H and then kind of puts a cap on the top.

From March 2011

This is a self portrait--he added the eyes, smile and "hair" after I asked about them.

From March 2011

He then drew this picture of himself with a baseball cap.

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I think they're pretty good. It's so fun to watch kids learn and development. It makes the hard mom moments worth it.

Nursery Rhymes--Joy School

Today, I tried to teach three year olds the concept of rhyme. No, I didn't go to any child development books to see if this was a concept they could grasp at this age. And I learned that it is not. It was fun to try though. Maybe they caught onto some of it, but their answers were hilarious. We learned about nursery rhymes. First we did Baa, Baa, Black Sheep and glued wool (cotton balls) onto individual sheep templates. They did really well with this. Then we counted 20 of different things so it could be hands on. Then we had free time when my son on steroids (after his allergic reaction) threw the biggest, longest fit in his history (fun). After snack time we learned about Little Miss Muffet and the kids made these movies.

They got little spiders.
Then we did Hickory Dickory Dock and they learned about telling time--when the big hand is on the 12 that is. And then we learned about the letter N and traced and colored their coloring sheets.
It was a fun day--well, besides Max's outburst.

What I Learned About Popsicles and Google

Last night at bathtime, I noticed a disturbing rash on Max's torso. It was all over his torso, mostly on the right side but the bumps were raised (not blisters) and all different sizes. One was an inch and a half long oval. So, I didn't want to be a panicky mom but all the different sizes and shapes concerned me so I did the 21st century thing of sending pics to Tony and my moms to see what they thought. We decided to take him to the ER and I'm glad. Tony met me there. It was a really bad case of hives, some type of allergic reaction. We can't figure out to what because he wasn't introduced to any new foods and our soaps have been the same for a long time. When the doctor was examining him, the bumps were much worse and on his neck, behind his ears, one near his eyes. Yuck! So he got a steroid medication (can't remember the name), Benadryl and Zantac. And then an epi pen in case any reactions block his airways. He got juice and made the cutest "bitter faces" after drinking the "yucky" medicine. He also got a popsicle and the nurse cut a styrofoam cup and placed the popsicle in the bottom half, sticking up so that the styrofoam cup bottom was a little tray to catch drips. Genius! I also learned that google can be a friend and a foe when you're trying to figure out what measles, mumps and rubella look like. Some of those pictures--oy vay! I'm grateful that it wasn't anything worse. Tony had even thought maybe it was Kawasaki disease since Uncle Mike had that as a child. But nope. If he has another reaction then we get to visit a pediatric allergist. We're hoping it's a fluke thing!