May Madness

Feel free to skip the novel here at the front and just look through the pictures =) 

I started this journal entry a few weeks ago but didn't finish it till tonight so its a bunch of jumbled thoughts =) 

Journal Time May 2017

It feels like its about time I do a more in depth update about each member of our family.  

Lizzie:

Lizzie is one of the most remarkable little angels I have ever met.  I really feel like she is just such a gift to our family.  She is so funny and sassy and sweet.  Lately she has been learning to blow kisses and give kisses.  I love how she give me slobbery kisses right on the lips everyday, it really melts my heart.  She has been learning to hug and just today started getting better at her signs.  She can stand and loves to climb up and down the stairs, but won’t really try too hard to walk.  Crawling is just easier and she has super calloused knees to prove it.  She LOVES to play with her baby dolls!  She feeds them a bottle and put blankets on them and talks in a super cute sing song voice to them.  She is transitioning to one nap a day and is also wanting to stay up later to be with her siblings longer.  She is very clingy to her mommy; she will even sob if Sean picks her up instead of mom.  When she goes to bed and wakes up she just plays with her toys.  Most days Brett or Alana greet her first and they play together in her bed for awhile before I come get her.  She is 13 months old, has 7 almost 8 teeth, wears 12 month clothes and 18 month jammies, wears size 3 diapers, and loves to guzzle her whole milk!  Update 6-1-17  Lizzie is trying harder to take steps.  She loves to practice and gets the biggest grin on her face!  So far she has taken 4 consecutive steps.  Her vocabulary is also growing a lot.  Her favorite words to say are bear, bird, tree, fish, baby, ya, mama, and dada.

Alana:

Alana is at an age where I feel like she is changing every day.  Her face changes and looks older over night.  She is really really pretty on the outside, but even more so on the inside.  She loves to share her treats and toys and everything.  That is not to say that she never struggles to share things, but most of the time she is very giving.  She is 3 and is so so so emotional.  EVERYTHING makes her cry, poor thing!  She loves animals still, her favorite still being a lion.  She really loves tumbling class and I think she has some talent in it.  She is so so flexible!  She loves to eat toast with “buttew spway and sugah" every morning for breakfast and loves to drink her sippy cup of “wed” (red) juice (crystal light) during every meal.  She most definitely takes after her momma with her fondness for bread, crackers, and sweets!  She especially loves marshmallows!  She doesn’t like fruit or vegetables, but we can often get her to eat an apple, and she likes or takes the tiniest bites of other produce we have for meals.  Oh I guess she does like carrots with ranch dressing.  She loves to get dressed on her own and loves picking out her clothes.  She hates bugs and gets scared of going outside because of them.  She loves to be tickled and has a contagious laugh!  This girls loved to snuggle and watch shows or read books or even just sit and snuggle.  We spend a lot of time just snuggling while Brett is at school, though oftentimes she just wants to play all by herself.  She also sneaks into bed with me a lot at night, which is no good because I love to snuggle too and poor Sean doesn’t have enough space.  I bribe her with marshmallows to stay in her own bed.  

Brett:

Brett is growing up so fast.  I am having a hard time grasping that he only has 4 days left of Kindergarten!  He has become such a great reader and can zip through tons of books.  I even came downstairs one morning this week and he was laying on his tummy on the floor reading The Little Red Caboose.  He still loves arts and crafts and finds so much joy in all his stuffed animals.  He also loves to play with friends so much.  He gets bored easily and has a hard time picking things to fill the time so I have made some pretty structured summer schedules for us to try and help with that.  Sean and I have actually been really concerned for a few months about Brett and his sad moods.  He will often get into a mood and we really struggle to help him through it.  He acts out and is angry or sad, or frustrated.  He has taken to hitting himself whenever he gets in trouble for something and will tell me he doesn’t deserve things.  He has told me he hates himself and once told me he wished he weren’t even here.  He has gotten super clingy to me and needs a lot of physical comfort from me or his stuffed animals a lot.  It’s strange because some days he will act completely normal and be my sweet sweet Brett and then other days he gets in a rut and just can’t get out of it.  He especially lashes out at Alana which is hard for me because I know he loves her, but he can treat her pretty rotten.  We talked with one of Sean’s colleagues and few weeks ago and ended up deciding that we’d like him to be seen.  He has an appointment at the Children’s Center in June and we are really hopeful that they will be able to help him and us come up with some strategies that will help Brett get through his anxiety and depression.  He unfortunately comes from a long line of anxiety and depression from both Sean and I and his grandparents.  He is really excited for summer though and I am too.  I need to live it up since he will start first grade in the fall and he will be gone ALL day long!  I just can’t believe he will eat lunch at school every day.  I have eaten lunch with Brett for 6 years!  He is excited and I am excited for him, but its still a little emotional to see him growing so big.  He still likes chocolate milk but will now go days without asking for it.  He likes apples, green beans, strawberries, and carrots and will try most other produce.  His favorite breakfasts are pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse with cream on the head and sugar on the ears and cinnamon toasters cereal.  He loves getting different kinds of snacks and going to restaurants.  His favorite animal is a penguin and he is hoping to have a penguin birthday party =)

Sean 6-1-17

Sean is loving his residency.  He definitely has his good days and his hard days and there are some aspects of medicine and patient care that just aren’t his favorite, but for the most part I think he really loves what he does.  He just finished up an OB rotation which was scheduled before the residency changed its requirements for 2nd years to do an OB rotation.  He did some OB, and even delivered his last continuity patient, but he also did a lot of ultrasound work with the different techs at the hospital.  Today he started an endocrinology rotation at the University of Utah.  He had a good day today and learned a lot, but noticed the difference between the academic environment of an educational hospital and the way St Marks clinic is run.  Sean is continuing to serve as Ward Mission leader, choir pianist, and priesthood pianist.  He is often frustrated with the ward mission calling because it is a calling without a lot of guidance, he has to make a lot of it up based on the needs of the missionaries and the members of our ward.  He was mentioning to me the other night that he feels like he hasn’t had the chance to do any family history in a long time.  On Sunday, I mentioned that one of us should take Lizzie home to get a nap during 3rd hour, Sean volunteered because I was conducting in RS.  He worked on some family history while Lizzie napped and found some more connections in the Gorgen family for a random other person working on the same line who had asked Sean for help.  Lizzie Gorgen is who our Lizzie is named after since Sean had such a neat experience researching their family line and I had a really sacred experience in the temple while doing Lizzie Gorgen’s work.  Sean told me he felt like Lizzie Gorgen had something to do with this other person connecting with Sean.  

Jennie

Last month I put together a service project for the sisters in our RS.  I contacted my friend Shauni who works at a school that teaches adult refugees English.  While talking with her I decided that our ward would gather all kinds of items for refugees (shampoo, conditioner, soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, diapers, wipes, feminine hygiene products, and school supplies).  We also collected fabric for some blankets.  A wonderful sister in our ward gave me some money because its hard for her to get to the store and I was able to buy enough fabric for 4 fleece blankets.  The same sister also donated some material to make a baby quilt so I got some batting for that.  So many people donated different things, money and supplies.  We were able to donate a lot of things!  It was a really neat experience for our whole family.  Brett and Alana were asking one day about the refugees and what they were and Sean showed them a really neat clip on the church website about Refugees.  When the clip was over Brett said he’d really like to get a stuffed animal for all the kids.  Sean and I were planning to donate as well so we decided to put our funds toward Brett’s idea.  My mom also gave a generous donation which was so nice because it payed for half the 30 stuffed animals we bought.  Brett also told me we should make treats for the refugees and get them lots of water =)  The activity wasn’t super well attended because everyone was so busy with end of school May stuff, but we were able to get 6 fleece blankets tied!  The next Monday a friend came over and helped me tie the baby quilt, then Tuesday I finished the edges.  On Wednesday after I picked Brett up from school, the kids and I went into Salt Lake to the International Rescue Center where we were able to drop off tons of donations.  I think it was really helpful for Brett and Alana to see people in the lobby in different clothes, speaking different languages, with very dark skin.  On Thursday, we dropped off 9 blankets (a sweet older sister in the ward donated 2 more blankets she had done herself and I could tell it must have been difficult for her hands to make all the cuts) and 22 of the stuffed animals to my friend Shauni to give out during the schools graduation the next day.  Sean took 8 of the stuffed animals to work to give to the nurse practitioner who works with refugees.  She was excited to give them to kids who were getting all their vaccinations when they first get here. I was just so proud of my entire ward and my little family for how wonderfully they all served!  

About a month ago when Sean was away in San Diego, I had a really good chat with my sister in law about health and weight.  I’ve been unhappy with the 10-15 extra pounds I’ve been carrying, mostly because I feel out of control and very impulsive in my eating which makes me feel crappy.  Ever since Lizzie has been born I just want to eat all my emotions.  It feels good to eat so I just keep doing it.  I get bored or I don’t take time to make myself a meal and just snack on my kids scraps.  I had a good chat with Sean about it and we decided together to try and make some healthy changes to our family. I started that Sunday with a fast that I could be more intentional about my own health. I started keeping a food journal again, and I stopped all my bites licks and tastes of everything! I have still indulged in ice cream, and cookies, and treats, just in moderation and not every day. I fill our fridge with healthy food and I think I may be driving my kids nuts =)  I have dropped 7 lbs and feel so much better, not just because of the number, but because I have been taking better care of myself! 

The other think I am working on right now is summer scheduling. Since Brett has such a hard time with lack of structure I have created a summer schedule which is awesome because we are getting things done, having fun, and the kids know what to expect.  I just have to be a little more thoughtful about making plans.  This last week I have been getting up at 6:30 to exercise and having some time to myself in the morning before the kiddos wake up has been really good for my moods.  I think its helped me to be more patient with the many moods of Brett, Alana, and Lizzie!

reading Little Red Caboose

Picking out stuffed animals for refugees

making blankets for a RS activity

This picture doesn't do justice for how much stuff there was

Kaden has been enjoying legos lately and Brett decided he'd like to try them too =)

Being a sloth and the Museum of Curiousity

Lizzie laughing at the earthquake table at the museum

shopping for our flower bed

planting our plants

BBQ at our home teachers house. Jack will be in Alana's preschool class in the fall.

Will is one of Brett best buds, Will will have Brett's same kindergarten teacher next year.

We had a trip to the dentist and the kids were so brave!

Look at the adult teeth pushing down the baby ones.

This was Alana's second time at the dentist and she let the hygenist do everything!  

We went to look at a house in Lindon that Sean's parents were thinking of buying, there was a fun playground right next to it.

Watering the flowerbed

Brett's second to last day of school was a summer birthday celebration and teddy bear picnic.  This is his wonderful teacher Mrs. Cox.

Big pony tail like mommy

I just get so excited when the bread raises like its supposed to.

We had some friends over for Brett's last day of school.  We played super smash brothers and ate ice cream

Cousin wii time

We spent the night last Friday in Vineyard to get some extra time with Mom and Dad P while they were visiting to BUY A HOUSE!

Lizzie liked playing with toys with Papa

On Memorial day we went shopping with my great great Aunt Lucille and Alana was exhausted, she fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep on Sean when we got inside. 

We went to the park this last tuesday

More lego fun

One of Brett's biggest quests right now is to fill this fun jar with chalk dust =)

Filthy feet!

Corn on the cob

Peanut butter cup smore!

Museum legos

She loves her baby and bear

When we spent the night in Vineyard, Brett had a blowup mattress next to Kaden

Alana slept in Lexi's bed with her.  When we checked on them before bed, Lexi was asleep on Alana's face, lol!

Alana was pretty shy about shopping with Aunt Lucille but she did like this pretty bow!  Aunt Lucille got them some awesome things from Janie and Jack, I am going to have them wear them tomorrow and get some nice pictures of them in their new clothes.