Reinforcements Arrive!

What would you do with three long wonderful weeks of free live-in babysitting?  I got a chance to find out during March! My Mom came to visit and help take care of the kids during a crazy month, since Milt had two work trips and we had a million things going on.  The kids loved having her come and visit, and now that she's left Maddox especially misses her terribly (in particular her iPhone with the lightsaber app).  I think we completely wore her out with our craziness, but she was such a big help while she was here and we miss her already! 

Another month, another holiday.  This picture is just a glimpse of our 2011 St. Patrick's Day Fun.  After last year's green eggs and ham, the kids really put the pressure on me for some kind of creative green meal (I didn't think they were going to be too eager to try corned beef and cabbage quite yet.)  My quick-fix solution?  Green food coloring in oatmeal...yum!  It totally looked like guacamole, which wasn't what I was expecting, but the kids loved it!    (Plus I am currently in a hot cereal faze, so my mom ate A LOT of cream of wheat, cream of rice, wheatena, and oatmeal while she was here. How fitting to have oatmeal part of our green day!)  Another festive holiday for the year? Check.

I got LASIK Eye Correction surgery soon after my mom arrived, which has given me perfect 20/20 vision AND as an added bonus, aura migraines that come from light sensitivity - delightful!  Milt and I have decided that from now on we're going to remember that even with medical things that should go smoothly, I will find a side-effect to get (even ones that I don't know are possible).  My eyes are doing better day by day, especially as long as it's gray and cloudy and I can stay inside a dark, curtained-drawn room...it's so depressing!  It's a good thing it's spring and we get lots and lots of rain this time of year (and I never thought I'd be saying I was hoping for a cloudy day!) The doctors assure us this will go away in time and I'm using steroid eye drops to strengthen my eyes, so were hoping for some improvements soon.  But, my vision is perfect, so that's something...right?

This picture was from the day I had the LASIK and I'm rocking the goggles...my eyes were so sensitive and watery that I had to have tissues ready for the waterfall coming out of my eyes.  The kids were pretty freaked out by the bright red in my eyes (that still has not completely gone away) and the alien goggles.  Fun times!

BYU FEVER!  We joined in (with the many other BYU fans throughout the world) with our cougar pride for March Madness and Jimmer-mania!  The girls especially rocked the BYU wear to school on game days, and people out here are starting to recognize the "Y" magnet on the car as actually coming from BYU ! Oh, and don't mind Maddox's grouchy face in the picture - he is in a really fun phase right now.

We took advantage of having my mom here by scheduling all the doctor's appointments we could fit into three weeks.  Between three kids needing well child visits, shots, and dentist appointments, along with my physical therapy (still for my neck and back) and all the eye appointments I had to go to -- it felt like we spent all month paying co-pays!  The following picture was taken after Maddox's well child visit where he got FIVE shots and a finger blood draw/prick.  That did not go over well with him.  He is apparently stronger than me and a nurse put together, so holding him down for his shots was not very fun and he got quite angry (he kind of turns into the incredible hulk when he's mad...extra strength!)  I promised him we could go to the store to pick out a treat afterwards, and this is what he wanted more than anything else:  his own can of cashews.  And his personality in this pictures shows just about what kind of mood he was in ALL DAY LONG.  Oh, just look at that face...covered in chocolate to boot because I tried just about everything to make him happy again!

Right after my Mom left we were excited to get a visit from our good friend Nato who was out in the area preparing to deploy to Qatar for the next year.  Nato and his wife Robin are our friends from our dating/early married days, and it was great to get to spend a day with Nato before he leaves.  We miss their family all the time and we hope they will be especially watched over during their time apart! We're thinking of you guys!

So, anyone have any ideas on how to un-busy crazy family life?  It's hard to remember to take time to enjoy the little things everyday when time goes by so quickly, but we're sure trying! And having Nana Betty here was such a treat because there's nothing better than family and friends coming to visit. It was a wonderful  month!