The One With the Current "Quick" Update

Update time.

That's what it means when I have no time to actually blog about awesome things like I want to because my time is so completely filled up with what I am currently doing that I have no time to even sleep. Seriously, it's not the newborn babe keeping me up at night, it's the ability to have ten minutes that I can just SIT DOWN that keeps me up.

How can you not relish that for as long as possible?

Anyways.

Eric got some nifty award at work for being "Employee of the Half". Pretty amazing considering he's only been there for seven months anyways.

A month to get the swing of things and then six months excelling . . . . sounds good to me.

He also has been getting up super early to go and meet up with guys from work to run five miles.

Getting ready for a marathon in May  . . . . a marathon that has something to do with potatoes, creeks, or breasts as those are the only ones that happen in Idaho.

He's still going to school - trucking away at finishing up this Master's before the world ends sometime this year. Not sure why there's even the push to finish since he won't ever be able to put it to good use.

But hey, if the world ends it means no student loan repayment.

So really it's a win-win.

Still in school myself.

I spend my time arguing with people in my classes about demographics in gun control debates, how a person should really be spending their money, and most importantly the health care reform.

Really, you should ask Eric.

People get me so fired up with the ridiculous things they say that much of our pillow talk every night is consumed by my ranting of how it seems so many people today just want things handed to them.

I've been working out as well, though no marathons for me, at least not yet.

My sister put it best the other night at dinner "Crystal can't run!!!!"

Well, I CAN run.

My leg just ends up swollen to the size of a small tree trunk. I guess that's what three knee surgeries will do for you. Someday I'll get back into it. But for now I'll stick wit Tony Horton and his ridiculous P90X routine - how I LOATHE the way I LOVE you.

Parker is getting too smart for his own good.

He asks me constantly what is wrong with the LEFT since we are supposed to always choose the RIGHT. Funny kid I tell you, I'm not sure where he gets it from.

He also has developed a love for Lionel Richie songs.

Every time we go for a drive he asks to listen to the "sad people" song which we found means the Glee version of "Hello" and "Turn Around Bright Eyes".

I'm telling you this kid knows how to belt it Finn style, it's pretty awesome.

Eric and I also decided this summer is the summer to start sports.

I think we're starting with soccer, and then maybe we will incorporate some KARATE in with it too.

We will see.

Preslie is . . . .

a vaselien covered sticky mess.

Okay, only that one time.

She's cute. She wants to spend the entire day in the jacket for the monkey costume Parker wore for his third Halloween - the one from Old Navy that makes them look like they have huge bums. Pretty cute stuff. For whatever reasons he thinks that if she has that costume on she can go outside.

Interesting idea because I'd rather her NOT go outside in it, but she seems to have drawn some sort of correlation between the two. The doctor decided at her last appointment that she is lactose intolerant.

Yet another awesome thing to add to her never ending list of issues. She's hopeful that if we take her off ALL dairy for awhile Preslie's system will reboot and she will be able to have it again later.

For us this means she can no longer have cheese roll ups (which she loves), lasagna, string cheese, milk (which she was just starting to like again), and pretty much every other easy snack.

Seriously - like frosting, who would ever not want their daughter to have frosting because it has both milk and butter in it? LAME!!!!

So it is soy milk, almond milk, and coconut milk for her for a little while. We shall see how this goes.

Paxton is getting more smiley and interactive, I LOVE it.

At least on the RARE occasions he gets up in the middle of the night I am picking up a happy and laughing little boy . . . but seriously Pax, I would prefer to see that face AFTER seven am.

He sleeps through the night most of the time - a pretty consistent go down between 9-10 and wake up 730-8ish. Which there is NO complaining coming from me on this one. I wish his naps could get a little more consistent but that's about it.

The Relief Society gave us cute Oregon Duck colored binky clips and onsies. Eric had him dressed up in the tie-dye green and yellow onsie on Saturday with camo pants on - he looked like a hippy hunter . . . interesting combination.

We just got back from Portland and a trip to visit Grammy and Papa where we were spoiled beyond belief as usual. The kids always come back incredibly happy and Preslie always misses Denny. There is something about both my Dad and Eric's Dad, she LOVES them. At the end of May we will be headed back up there when Eric's younger brother gets home from his mission - watch out ladies, another Marshall will be on the market!!! He is probably my favorite brother of Eric's - Scott makes too many wierd dance moves when my Broncos lose, and Jeff would be cooler if I ever saw him. :)

The One With the Vaseline

Mommies are mommies for a reason.

And Daddies are daddies for a reason.

God gave mommies this incredible gift called "multi-tasking."

And God gave Daddies this incredible gift called "the ability to be able to tune everything out."

Interesting, yes?

I can't count the number of times I have though, MAN I wish I could tune EVERYTHING out like Eric.

He lays sound asleep in bed while I get up CONSTANTLY some nights to one of three kids who is upset in their room.

Eric sets his alarm clock every night to wake up to every morning.

Only he doesn't wake up to it.

No, instead every morning he wakes up to me kicking him to turn OFF the alarm clock which could go off for twenty minutes growing continuously louder and he would STILL sleep through it.

It is SOOO hard for me to do my homework while the kids are awake - I wait and wait and wait until they are having naps, or I get up super early before they are awake or stay up until after they are in bed, because even if Eric is here to monitor them the constant noise makes it impossible at times to accurately describe what the health care reform is much less how it will effect me.

Well a few Fridays back, Eric grabbed the kids.

He gets off early on Fridays, which makes my Friday afternoons at work amazing because I no longer have three kids to keep track of and feed while I am trying to reconcile accounts.

He picked up the three kids, took them home.

I joked and said something like hey maybe you'll have time to make dinner and clean the house up.

Ha ha.

Eric thinks I haven't caught onto this little trick of his yet, but I totally have.

Somehow EVERY Friday night ends up being date night.

Which means Daddy doesn't have to figure out what to make for dinner.

It also means there's no reason to clean the house up because my brothers are coming over to watch the kids and by the time they leave it won't matter anyways.

Yes, Eric, you think you've tricked me.

But I am a Jedi.

You're mind tricks don't work on me.

Anyways.

It was after this particular Friday that I realized what an amazing gift it is that I am ridiculously tuned in to even a microsound coming out of one of my kids throats.

Because otherwise you end up with this.

Now you have to ignore the cute little face that this happened to in order to get the full effect.

Maybe a closer look will help to make this clearer.

You know that jar of vaseline you buy after baby numero uno because someone told you it would help a diaper rash.

And after four years you still have the entire tub minus about three pink finger scoops because you realized not long after purchasing it that it doesn't work that well on diaper rashes only on keeping water off an existing rash, and even that isn't worth the greasy residue that subsides on you're hands for the rest of the day.

Yes, Miss Preslie found that tub of vaseline.

And she proceeded to use it to full potential (i.e. empty tub) all over herself, her hair, her clothes, her bed, her pillows, or expensive leather couch, her tv, her dresser, her shoes, her monkey, and even the monkey's butt. . . . but somehow it never made it near her own.

Eric says he didn't hear a thing.

I believe him.

It's not too surprising considering the two times our alarm has gone off in the middle of the night (both false alarms) he has slept through the blaring of the alarm clear up until the time the police show up.

But I can say such a little act probably would have been heard by my ears that resemble one Horton the Elephant, about a quarter of the way into the jar, rather than waiting all the way until Mom came home and freed Preslie from her cage of a room.

We were going out to dinner with my parents and my sister that night, so there wasn't much I could do with it at the time. But in case any of you have such a misfortune, this is something you should know: just like vaseling repels the wet stuff in diapers, it repels any and all water, including (but I'm sure not limited to) the water from our tub, sink, shower, and hose.

In order to get vaseline out of hair:

1. Saturate hair with baking powder.

2.Saturate baking powder saturated hair with olive oil.

3. Saturate baking powder and olive oil saturated hair with dish soap.

4. Scrub and scrub and scrub and scrub.

5. Rinse

6. Repeat.

About seven hundred times or the equivelant of one entire bottle of olive oil, two bottles of dish soap, and half a bottle of Mommy's really expensive deep cleansing shampoo.

and 7. Don't believe the lies online about how this is EASY to get it out.



The One Where We Bless Pax

March 4th, 2012 at 1pm was Paxton's blessing.

True to form in a ward FULL of new families (160 families to be exact) he was not the only one getting blessed that day. . . . in fact there were three others and another little boy the week before!

CRAZY!!!

We were first, which was nice. Get it out of the way while he was still happy.

It was a beatiful blessing that Eric gave him, I almost cried.

I am finding that now that I am a mother I have this tendency to cry more often than I ever did before.

Seriously, I didn't cry when I tore my knee all up.

But Preslie can look at me a particular way and I'm sobbing.

It's ridiculous.

I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with my tear ducts.

Or hormones . . . I hear those things are real sob inducers.

Anyways.

I don't even remember everything that he said, and I was told once that you aren't supposed to try and write them down word for word, that you are just supposed to remember how you felt during it and impressions you got.

I do remember one thing:

Eric said that he had come and a very interesting and necessary (I think those were the words) time in our life.

And that is what really did me over.

Most of the ward probably thought he was referring to Paxton being born on Christmas Eve.

And to a point, I think he was. What an intersting day to be born!!! He will never forget it!

But Paxton joining our family when he did was beyond necessary, it was vital.

When I think about all that was happening when we found out we were pregnant . . . . I don't know, it almost doesn't even feel like the same lifetime.

The week we found out that Preslie had leukemia we went with my parents to the temple for the first time (with them, not ever) since I had my endowments out.

I sobbed.

I remember the lady temple worker kept looking at me and continuously asking if I was okay.

I don't know if she thought I was dying, or if she thought I was mental, or if she is just so used to seeing people bawl that it didn't even really phase her . . . . all I know is that I LOST it.

I don't think I have EVER cried so hard in my life.

Particularly revolving around particular parts of the blessings associated with the session.

Considering all of the blood work and marrow donors that we were dealing with at the time, I was literally bawling my eyes out.

Which made my mom cry.

Which made me cry even more.

I'm pretty sure Eric was looking at me wonering what had happened to his wife, she was now replaced with this blubbering, puffy eyed, snotty nosed, whale.

Aside from the obvious reasons of crying because my daughter had just been diagnosed with leukemia.

I was crying because three days before I had found out that I was pregnant.

Somehow I had gotten pregnant . . . . on multiple forms of birth control to prevent it.

So many thoughts were runnign through my head.

I was so concerned that this was going to be a replacement child.

And what an oxymoron that is  - replacement child . . . . as if ANY child could take the place of another child . . . it' can't happen.

I was afraid and grateful at the same time.

Cord blood, and donors, and blood matches, had been drilled into our brain by several doctors - especially cord blood - which we hadn't kept from either child. And the idea of getting pregnant with the specific intent of using that baby as a donor to save another child's life bothered me.

Not that I'm against the idea. But what does that child grow up thinking?

So many emotions were coming over me.

Eric and I weren't supposed to be able to have any kids.

So you can imagine the surprise when we found out we were pregnant with Parker four months after we got married, and then a few years later finding out we were pregnant again.

Having kids is such an emotional roller coaster anyways, having a baby under the situation we were currently in was bound to be an even bigger roller coaster.

In the end, everyone knows the story.

Somehow, someway, Preslie ended up in remission.

And we were able to fully embrace the idea, and LOVE the idea of adding another little one ino our family.

We even got to welcome our own little peace offering to our family on Christmas Eve.

And what a beautiful little boy he is.

For Paxton's blessing, Eric's parents and grandparents came down from Portland. His sister Katie, although she is sicker than a dog at 24 weeks pregnant came up with her two girls, Karlie and Mollie. My parents, brothers, and both sets of grandparents came. My sister Brittany and her husband Jared and their family were there, and my Aunt Tiffany, Uncle Blair, and cousin Lindsay came. We had TONS of food (WAY TOO MUCH) and had a great time seeing family.

There really is no better way to welcome a little guy into our home, our life, and our eternal family.

We love you little Paxton Dean!

Thank you for being a beacon of hope and a pillar of life to our family!

You are destined for amazing things!!

 This picture is incredible because of the amazing generations in it! FOUR GENERATIONS!!!!

L-R: Grandma and Grandpa Lewis (my dad's parents), my mom and dad, Eric, me and Pax, Parker, Denny and Kellie (Eric's parents), Preslie, Norma and Kuhn (Eric's dad's parents), and Joan and Bruce my mom's parents. This will be an amazing picture to look back for many generations to come!

The One With Cat in the Hat

Eric got the kids all excited for Dr. Suess's birthday by letting them know that the Cat in the Hat was coming to his work that Saturday.

It's been awhile since the kids have been so excited about an event.

I was excited to see them so excited . . . . not so excited to have to get up EARLY on a Saturday to make it. But it was worth it to see them have such a blast.

It was the weekend of Paxton's blessing so Grammy and Papa, Great Grandma and Grandpa Marshall, and Katie, Karlie, and Mollie were all in town and went with us.

You know who wasn't there???
The Cat in the Hat.

Apparently it was decided that he is not supposed to be around kids.

I'm not sure if that is court mandated or just morally mandated.

Either way, I'm glad Cat in the Hat wasn't there to show my kids what was really hidden in his hat other than a cat. . . . .

And good news the kids had a blast anyways.

There was BALLOONS which was Preslie's favorite.

She stole all of them in an attempt to fly away.

 Parker had a lot of fun at the arts and crafts table.

Apparently University of Phoenix is trying to etch into little children's brains that they should be green and recycle, cause that's what most of the crafts were on.

It was actually awesome, Parker loved "building" the world and putting stickers all over everything.

I loved picking a million stickers off his clothes later that night.

 Grammy and baby Pax.

 I don't think there are too many little girls cuter than this one.

 Parker, Karlie, and Mollie had fun with the other activities.

Like getting balloon animals swords made and having face arm painting.

 Papa Denny mostly enjoyed having all three grandgirls around to love him all weekend long.

And ever since Preslie has been running around the house askign for PawPaw.



The One With Preslie's Second Birthday

I am pretty astonished right now!!!

Preslie is a full two years old!

It is amazing, and time has literally flown by.

When I think of the last year with her, I am astounded at all that has happened.

We were sitting on the couch watching TV the other day and realized that exactly a year before was when everything started going down hill with Preslie as she dealth with her first round of a ten day long fever.

Crazy how time has changed everything, and we have come out on the other side of an amazing trial and learnign experience, and now we are smarter, braver, and more in love with our little family and sweet Preslie than we ever were before.

This year I wanted to throw Preslie a Pink and White birthday party.

Courtesy of Pinterest, I found plenty of inspiration and I think it turned out to be a success!

Preslie on the morning of her Birthday. She decided she had to be in on making the yummy treats, which meant mostly eating as many as she could. . . . .hence the dirty face.

On the menu: Chocolate covered pretzel rods, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate dipped marshmallows, chocolate dipped brownies, chocolate dipped rice krispie popsicles, cherry and pink lemonade rock candy, cinnamon taffy, peppermint bark, and cupcakes!!! 

Licking the frosting off the beater. That's all she wanted for breakfast.

Ahh well. . . . .her birthday only comes once a year. 

CHEESE!!!

 She blew out the candles on her cupcake (she's not much of a cake eater anyways, so a cupcake with candles was PLENTY) in one breath! It was pretty awesome, we didn't even practice!

 This girl is OBSESSED with sun glasses. She got three pairs just for this birthday to add to her collection.

 The haul. For posterity's sake I shall try to remember: Lots of clothes from mom and dad, my little pony baby doll which she LOVES to carry around a feed, a Minnie Mouse doll that has tons of little outfits to snap on, dresses from Aunt Britty and Grandma Lewis, a teacup piggy from Aunt Britty, Little Mermaid doll and princess dishes from Grandma and Papa, Sweedish fish and pajamas from Great Grandma and Grandpa Carpender, Squinkies and shoes from mommy and daddy, and that's all I can remember at the moment.



The One With The Big Brother and Sister

Parker and Preslie are pretty good at being older siblings.

We were pretty worried about whether or not Preslie would adjust to having a little baby around the house who would require so much attention.

She seems to be adjusting pretty well.

And she LOVES to hold baby brother.

She comes up to me quite often with her hands outstretched asking to hold him.

It usually only takes a few seconds (two or three) for her to decide she no longer wants to hold him, but it's the thought that counts.

I have to hand it to her anyways, when she holds him Pax is almost as big as she is!!



The One With the Paparazzi

When Eric's parents came down for Pax's blessing, they were the only ones smart enough to remember to bring their camera along to all the fun events - so I had to steal all their pictures before they left, and among all the pictures was this one. Eric and I both think it looks like a paparzzi picture. . . . .  I guess we really are famous!!!!