Wednesday October 16

Not much went on today.....

After school Dad and the kids played with their little helicopter thing.

It's a big hit.

Goofy.

Anyway....I worked mostly today to finish getting the outfits ready that we are gonna wear for our family pictures on FRIDAY!

I am excited to have them done and over with :)

I am trying to not think too much about it and have the kids wear things that they actually wear....

Cause a lot of the time I put outfits together with things that they never wear again.

This time I only did a few modifications......

I also made my dress so it was longer.

And I made one of my cardigans smaller so it would fit Cassi.

I swear someone should open a store that only sells cardigans.

You always need cardigans, and I can never find what I need!

But it there was a cardigan store, that would rock!

ANYWAY......

The rest of the outfits are un-adjusted :)

And nothing is dyed a different color.

:)

I know I get weird at picture time.....trying to stay away from that this time.

*****

Madi had Young Woman's tonight.

They went to Linder farms.

Kara also went for YW, and they found each other.

Kind of fun :)

Sounds like Madi had a fun time.

It was a nice night for it too....not too cold.

 

Tuesday October 15

Did some shopping today.

We are doing our family pictures on Friday....and I am looking for a couple specific things.

Well, Porter found himself his Halloween costume.

And he has been wearing it ever since.

Kid cracks me up :)

Yes, he is wearing it to bed right now.....but I did tell him that maybe it would be better to sleep with the mask off.

 

Monday October 14

Dad came home tonight.

We were all so very excited and worked together to get the things done that we needed to around the house, so dad could just get home and relax.

The kids were awesome and super helpful.

I had a huge smile on my face when I looked over at them folding the towels.

Pretty great kiddos :)

*****

Daddy got home safe.

All the kids wanted to see him, so I let them stay up.

So we are a little late getting to bed.

Hope that they all sleep good.

Porter is actually still cuddled up on the couch with his daddy :)

Grandma was sent home after she was able to keep her numbers up.

I hope she can rest good at home and feel better.

We are more than excited to visit her in a weeks and a half.

She sure gave us a scare....quite a roller coaster ride!

We just love her so much.

 

 

Sunday October 13

Yesterday, when dad left, he told Porter that he needed to take care of his girls for him while he was gone.

Today at church, I told him he needed to sit in dads spot (by the end) cause he needed to take care of his girls.....it also makes it easier to keep him separated form the girls :)

Anyway, we started singing and he reaches his arms up over his head and brings it down behind my back and wraps his little arm around my waist.

Oh my goodness.....it was seriously the cutest thing ever :)

I know I shouldn't be taking pictures.....but I just had to send a picture to Dad so he could see how well that boy was taking care of Dads girls.

So cute :)

*****

After church I had a meeting.

The kids were all good and hung out at home without much fighting.....at least I don't think so.

Then Heather invited us over for dinner.

So we headed over and got there about 4:30.

The kids had fun and played for a while before we ate Heathers yummy cheesy potato soup.

And then there was more playing afterwards.

Drew had to get himself an automatic dart gun.....the girls thought that was pretty great.

They spent most of the time running around with pillows in the shirts shooting at each other.

t was a nice relaxing evening.

Thanks Heather, it was just what I needed.

*****

Brent said that Grandma is doing pretty good today.

Her night started off bad, but he got them to get her the meds she needed and she slept great the rest of the night.

Her numbers were low this morning, so she had another transfusion.

Her numbers have stayed low all day.

They don't think she is still bleeding, just not making enough blood yet.

They think if they can get her numbers up then maybe she can go home tomorrow.

Hope she has another good night.

Brent gets woken up every time someone comes in to check Grandma through the night....but at least Grandma sleeps through it :)

I am so thankful he is there with his mom.

 

Saturday October 12

As I am writing this, I can hear little sniffles from down the hall.

It has been another kind of emotional day.

Grandma had a hard night.

The ulcer looks good, but her heart is having troubles.

Brent finally decided it was time for him to go down and be with her.

With them....Gramps needed him there too.

Brent is staying the night with Grandma tonight, after she wouldn't let anyone else stay with her the last few nights.

I am glad he went down.

He said he would tell us if he thought I needed to pack up the kids and head down.

So far, not yet.

The big kids were gone to parties when Dad decided to leave.

So both of them are pretty emotional, because they figure for dad to drive all that way, it must be bad.

And we just don't know.

We don't know if we have days, months, years.....

Brent and I just knew he needed to be there.

I wanted to be there too.....

He sent me this adorable picture tonight.

Gramps makes me smile.

Always has.

Breaks my heart that they have to go though this.

He loves his Little Bear to much.

*****

Anyway....Madi and Cassi both had birthday parties today.

Madi went to Jamie's aunt's cabin, just her and Jamie and Jamie's mom and sisters.

They had a fun time.

They picked her up about 9:30 and she got home around 6.

Cassi had a party from 11-3 (why are parties now-a-days so LONG!!!!)

She had a lot of fun too.

I picked her up at 3:00 and dropped her and the little ones right off at home because I had to rush to the stake baptism that I was in charge of organizing.

That went pretty well, except one of the speakers didn't show up because his truck had broken down up at scout camp from the over-nighter last night :)

Luckily, the primary president was there, (cause I asked her to say a prayer) and she gave the talk :)

But I did have to take her place as the prayer.....which worked out fine.

*****

Port was half good and half bad today.

I know we have had a lot of stress and worry at our house over the last couple days, and I think that works against us sometimes.

I hope that tomorrow can run better.....

I miss having Brent here.....

It's hard when he is at work....but I really don't like it when he is in another state.

 

 

*****

 

*****

 

Friday October 11

It's been a rough day for Porter.

Dad was called in this morning for some overtime.

Hard to turn down overtime when they are just giving it out!

So after dad left for work, we kinda stayed lazy around here for a little bit.

We finally got up and started cleaning up.

I also had some primary visits to do.

The kids job was to clean their rooms while I was gone....and they did pretty good.

Port was very irritable and kept complaining about his head.

I kept the medicine in him every 4 hours....but he was still very irritable.

Like a constant headache I guess.

Poor guy.

He would act normal until a loud noise happened and then he would start screaming and holding his head.

Poor boy.

He had some major meltdowns today.....

Worse then I have ever seen him do.

Hope it is better for him tomorrow.

I got him to take a nap pretty easily, he wanted to lay down.

It's quiet there.

I had to run to Deseret Book to buy papers for the baptism program tomorrow.

And I took Cassi with me so she could buy a gift for a party she is going to tomorrow.

We did some other shopping and then came home.

I ran to the church to make the program copies.

Once Porter woke up, I took Madi and Porter to the store to get a gift for a party Madi is going to tomorrow.

When we got home, we had dinner and just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Both Porter and Elsie didn't want to go to sleep and just wanted me to hold them.

So they were both crying and fussy for a while, but I got them calmed down.

It was kinda hectic, but I enjoyed the time with them...

I guess I enjoyed how much they 'needed' me too.

 

Thursday October 10

Man.....what a day.

It started with an early morning call saying that Grandma Ene was in the hospital.

That is never an easy call.

It was a long morning waiting to hear how things were going and deciding what to do.

Sounds like she has a bleeding ulcer.....

She lost a lot of blood and they couldn't stop the bleeding in her stomach.

They took her off Cumidin because it is a blood thinner.....and they also had her on epinephrine because it is a vassal constrictor.

So we are still waiting to see how things are going with that.

So, needless to say it was a rough morning....and all day, with her on our minds.

Prayers would be much appreciated.

*****

I went to Parent Teacher conferences today.

I had a long talk with Elsie's teacher.

Trying to figure out the best way to get her to learn with the class.

Finding that balance of getting her the help she needs, but not helping her too much.

But she is doing well, and is loved my her classmates.

Cassi is doing great in her class.

She has a great teacher.....she is the perfect teacher for Cass.

I foresee a great year!

*****

Just before lunch, the kids put together a 'Matthews family talent show'.

They gave us invitations and we joined them downstairs.

We didn't get far enough through the 'program' before things went bad.

Elsie was first and did a great little dance number :)

Then Cassi and Porter did a dance under the name 'Humans who dance the best in the world'.

Porter calls people 'Humans'.

Cracks me up all the time.

Anyway......

They had a trick where he jumped from the stairs and Cassi caught him.

They did it once perfectly....but the next time they did it, he leaned back and she didn't get a good hold of him and WHACK.......super hard on the floor.

The floor that is cement under the carpet.

It was a very loud sound and dad was sue he was gonna feel Ports head and it would be mushed.

It was really a scary moment.

Dad checked him out....he never lost consciousness.....but he cried and he cried hard.

It took a while to get him calmed down.

We went upstairs and tried to get him calmed down.

He was definitely acting weird.

He was nauseous and complained about his head hurting.

Pounding like it was going to explode.

He just wasn't acting like himself.

He was tired, but restless, and a bit confused and fussy.

After about 45 minutes we decided to take him to the doctor.

We got in right away, but b the time we got there, he was acting pretty good.

They did all their tests, and just told us to keep a good eye on him and to wake him up around midnight just to check him out real quick.

When there, we found out that Dr. Ally, our amazing pediatrician, who has been on our team and had our backs so many times when it came to Elsie......

And right there with us when we had those problems with Porter when he was born...

We found out that she will be out of the office indefinitely because she was just diagnosed with breast cancer.

The staff there said she is very optimistic and ready to fight this thing.

She is a great lady, who will definitely be in our prayers too.

My nephew Benji also had another seizure this morning......

Poor guy, I wish they could figure things out for him!

More prayers for him too!!!

*****

We got home and the big girls had helped by cleaning up a bit around the place and sorting laundry...which was a very big pile.

Just before dinner, I went out with Dad to put a new, very large tarp on top of the 5th wheel.

Holy smokes that was a big job!!!!

Especially since it was super windy.

Porter came out for a little bit.....and yes, he climbed with us on the shop roof.

He was doing good and really just wanted to be with us.

We got the tarp on....hopefully it stays put.

But we may never go camping again...because that was a big job!!!

*****

Dad made us a yummy steak dinner and we all stayed up too late watching 'The Voice' on DVR.

Love this little family of mine.

Days like this are pretty crazy and you really realize how fragile life really is and how anything can change in an instant!

We just need to love and be kind and be the best people we can be.

Oh....we also got a text from Heather saying that Kara broke her wrist!

Poor girl.

Quite the day.....

 

Wednesday October 9

Madi didn't feel good this morning.

So we kept her home.

It was a slow day at school for her anyway, since there is no school for the rest of the week.

She laid in bed for quite a while then came out to hang with Porter.

She watched him for us while we ran some errands.

We came home and we had Cannon over to hang out with Porter because Stacia had some errands.

I also went over to the neighbors to help them move.

When I was getting ready to head back home, the people who are moving into the place, stopped by.

They do seem nice.

Bill and Julie.

But Julie said to call her Vern :)

That is what she was called growing up and her friends call her that.

So I asked her what I should call her, and she said Vern.

*****

Today was crazy hair day.

I am mad I didn't get a shot of Cassi's hair.

I stuck pencils into several ponytail, making them stand up.

Pretty cool.

I did take a picture of Elsie's hair after school.

It was pretty messed up by then....but still crazy.

She was very excited about going to school with crazy hair.

*****

We finally told Cassi about the Mindy Gledhill concert.

She is SOOOOOOOOO excited!

I am pretty excited too.

It's gonna be a fun time :)

 

Tuesday October 8

I had such a fun time going with Porter on his field trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

He has a cute little class....and I finally got to meet the mysterious Emma that Porter has a little crush on :)

He was so funny and so shy around her.

Made me chuckle.

I thought it was gonna be cold, cause it was so windy, but it turned out to be perfect weather.

Porter had a lot of fun, although he wished that the zip line and rock climbing wall were part of the Preschool tour :)

Silly boy.

Dad is gonna have to bring him back to do that stuff.

Anyway....lots of pictures to enjoy.

This kid is such a cutie....and such a goof.

Oh, he loved the dog that roams around the place.

His name is Copper.

He is a pretty funny dog, that you can tell is very used to being around people :)

Went on a hay ride...he picked his perfect pumpkin.

He REALLY wanted to have green on his pumpkin....and her found just the right one with the perfect balance of green and orange.

Then we looked at the petting zoo animals.

Those little piggies were about the cutest thing ever!

Made me wanna have pigs!

Then the maze and giant slide, the buried tires and the pictures to pose for :)

He was in one by Emma, but couldn't reach the face hole.....so he just stood outside the poster thing.

Cute boy.

His teacher brought hot cocoa and popcorn as a snack and then they played in the corn box.....that was a big hit :)

The rest of the day went good.

But I am ready for some sleep.

 

That is Emma sitting behind him..... :)