Two Kids-Five Medicines!

So my kids have been sick for a while now. I talked to a nurse a couple days ago and she said to wait and see if they still were sick into next week. Well in the last couple days they've gotten a few more symptoms(fever, ear ache, wheezing) and so I took them in. Well the poor things are not well. They both have a virus that's making them cough up a lung and giving them runny noses. Sydney's is actually bad enough to be Bronciolitis. Each of them have two different medicines for the Nebulizer. Then David also has an ear infection! He woke up like every half hour last night until about 2am when I finally could get to bed. =(

I've never had to do a nebulizer before and it is a nightmare trying to get Sydney to do it. This first time she struggled for most of it and then finally fell asleep sitting up in my arms while it finished up. =( I felt so bad! I haven't done David yet so we'll see how that goes. !!

Life Expectancy

Update: I guess the links aren't working so I'll just type the addresses and you can copy and paste.
www.realage.com/
www.calculator.livingto100.com/calculator -I had to click on "Proceed to Calculator" twice.
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So I never posted about it, but last Summer I took a "Real Age" test at realage.com. After many questions about various aspects of my lifestyle and family history I found I actually had the body of a 21 year old, not of a 24 year old. I thought that was pretty cool. And this morning I found another cool test. Your life expectancy. It was a very similar test but instead the results showed how long you can expect to live and gives you feed back on how you can do better, according to how you answered. Scott and I both took it and my life expectancy is 89 years old, and Scott's is 81. I know what things I need to change and I feel a little more motivated now. I really was kinda expecting a higher number. I think it would be cool to live a long time. As long as I was generally healthy. When I found out Scott's I told him I didn't want to live 8 years with out him. Almost immediately thereafter he called his brother who runs Mondays and Wednesdays (I think at school) to see if he could run with him. He is so busy that I am impressed even if it is just 2 days a week. It's better than nothing! I'm sure these numbers aren't exactly right, but it's fun to see, and also I think when you look at both you and your spouse's, you can try to make necessary lifestyle changes now that will help you BOTH live a long and healthy life. Try it out!

Recent Happenings

Here is just a little update on what we've been up to.

Both of my kids have had runny noses for a couple weeks. David is very good at blowing his nose and is constantly asking for a "no wipe" (nose). Even if nothing is coming out. He just hates the feeling of a stuffed nose. On the other hand Sydney hates getting her nose wiped, period.

Just a couple days after she crawled for the first time Sydney pulled up to her knees on David's truck, which I was very impressed by...

until that night she pulled up to standing! As you can see in the picture she was very proud of herself. She can't do it on the couch yet because it's too tall, just shorter things.

Saturday night we babysat a couple of our nephews and our niece Naomi. David had a great time playing with her and Sydney also got lot's of attention because Naomi loves her. On Sunday we had Scott's brother Russell and his wife Hilary over for some German food that our hubbies were treating us(and let's face it, themselves) to. It was very tasty. Sorry if I'm spelling these wrong, but we had Rouladen courtesy of Scott, and Goulash over Knodel courtesy of Russell.

David had fun wearing "Uncle Doodoo's" shoes.

Comparisons

There are quite a few people that have told me Sydney and David look SO much alike. And I guess they do right now, but if you compare Sydney now with an older picture of david at the same age, it's not quite as much. I tried to find a picture where they are making similar expressions and turning their heads the same way. What do you think?

On the Move!

Just today Sydney crawled farther than 2 feet. In the background you can hear David who has a new complex about Sydney trying to take his toys. She just thinks his puzzles are cool!

Valentines Fun

On Valentines Morning this is what I woke up to...

Scott (with a little of David's help) made this for my card

This was the best breakfast I've ever had! =)

And of course our kids had a hay day playing with my card just a few minutes later

,

David especially had fun wrapping himself in it

and was very excited when he got some chocolate. =)

Sorry, I totally forgot to actually get a picture of Scott and I.

We mostly celebrated the night before just by renting Horton Hears a Who, which we both really liked. Then Saturday after my wonderful breakfast we spent several hours deep cleaning/organizing our apartment. Then that night we got my 15 year old nephew to babysit David while we took Sydney to the adult Stake Conference meeting. When that was over we rushed home, put Sydney to bed, and then left again to see Yes Man in the cheap theater in town. It was definately funny, but also really kinda weird, and had some parts that weren't necessary at all. After that it was 11:30 but we were wide awake and as my brother and sister in law stopped by to pick up my nephew and chatted, I made chocolate Souffles for the first time ever. It was fun to do, and very tasty, though I'm going to try it again, this time cooking it less so it's not dry all the way through. The elevation here is just such a pain! Hope everyone else had a fun Valentines Day!

Within the last half hour...

Sydney scooted forward for the first time(quite well I might add), crawled a couple shaky steps for the first time, and went from laying down to sitting up for the first time, all by herself! Crazy girl!

Baby Einstiens

As I've said before, my kids LOVE the "babies first moves" Baby Einstiens DVD we have. I'm really not into letting my kids watch TV a lot(David's not interested in cartoons except for Little Einstiens), but when the day's come down to the end, an hour before Scott gets home, it's the only thing that keeps them happy besides myself and I need to make dinner! I really like the DVD myself for my kids. If you have young children and haven't tried out this particular Einstiens DVD, you should check it out.

This video was taken a couple weeks ago when my friend Kelly(whom I walk with) came over with her kids to hang out.

Back to the Kids...

I know you have all been wanting to see more pictures of my kids right? Well Sydney is turning 8 months old tomorrow and I thought I'd get a head start on it. It's Saturday and Scott is off taking an accounting test and I have nothing else to do.

We love our Sydney very much. She is such a joy in our lives and we feel blessed to be her parents. She is getting closer and closer to crawling. She almost has it but seems not overly anxious to get it down. She can go from sitting to a crawling position though. She and David are so cute together. They are always smiling and "talking" to each other. She still isn't sleeping through the night but I've kinda just resigned myself to that fact for now because we do not have the means to get her to do it. Our apartment is just too small.

Sydney in her blessing outfit. She still fits in it! Her Grandma Sorenson made this for her and it is amazing. Yes, I played with the contrast and colors. It almost looks cross processed and that is my favorite look.
I'm aware the background is horrible. That's all I have for now as far as white ones go.

Daddy with his little girl! The children love the times they get to be with their Daddy. He is VERY busy right now with work and school.

Sahale Arm

When I get into a hiking conversation with people this is what I always rave to everyone about. I decided that I wanted to share it with everyone. It is the most beautiful, awe-inspiring place I've ever seen. Don't just skim over the pictures saying, "that's pretty." LOOK at them, and realize it doesn't even compare to being there in person. So please, take 5 minutes, sit back, and let me(or the pictures) convince you that you must go here, if at all possible, before you die.

The Sahale Arm(suh-hall-ee) hike is located in the Cascade mountains in WA. Google it to get directions because I don't remember how to get there.

This first part of the hike(2 miles) starts out with switch backs through the forest (this is a fine place to rest toward the end of the switch backs, next to a little water fall)
You get peaks out at this gorgeous view on the switch backs.

Once out of the switch backs through the forest you are free and clear and ready for the most spectacular scenery of your life. This stretch(1 1/2 miles) takes you straight across the mountain (don't forget with the mountains in above picture shooting up on your right)

leading you past wild huckleberries

and not too far ahead of this picture takes you to Cascade Pass. I do not have any pictures of that unfortunately. It is a very nice spot to sit and rest for a while. There are camping spots, but don't stop there. What you've seen is beautiful, but it just gets better.

Right after Cascade Pass I'd say is the hardest part, though it's not that long, and you come up over that edge behind Scott and I, onto the Arm. This is also a great place to rest. And we did!

This is doubtful Lake below us, which you can hike down to if you want, but there's no camping, so I say skip it! The hike is straight down and straight back up. For a while you hike through these gorgeous rolling hills that make up the Arm, with spectacular views of the surrounding Cascades.This is along the Arm, showing where we are heading. We camped right at the base of the glacier, on top of the left most of the 3 humps. Click on this picture to enlarge. It is so cool!
We saw a few animals... Besides these two pictures, Scott and David saw a mountain goat at Cascade pass, which ran away before the rest of us arrived a minute later, and Scott saw a nocturnal mouse with huge black eyes around our camp site. so cool! This is at the top of the Arm where we stopped for a long rest. You can see parts of the trail.

By this time we just wanted to take a while and enjoy the beauty surrounding us. Can you see why?

The last mile or so to the glacier you hike up this rocky area. There's no distinct trail, you just pick your way through it. It's pretty steep, but all of us got through it just fine. Even Rosalee who was 9 at the time.

And this is our totally awesome camp site! It was the coolest place I'd ever seen!

On the other side of this rock wall the mountain just drops down.

Our view straight out at sunset.

Our view looking to the right.

Dad got up and got this picture of Scott and I sleeping early that morning. Actually if I remember right I was awake but pretended to be asleep for the picture. You can see another couple's tent on top of that hump behind us. We were the only ones up there that night. Love it!

It got kinda windy during the night so we were all grateful for the rock walls.

And before we hiked down we went a very short distance to play on the glacier. We had brought plastic garbage bags and had fun sledding.

All of us ready to hike down, except for Scott who took this picture.

There. If I didn't convince you I hope the pictures did.

It's 7 miles one way. Go in July or August when you know it will be sunny. You have to purchase a permit and reserve a camping spot. You can choose whatever one you want when you get there. There's a little cascading waterfall up there so you can bring a water filter. I think we were required to bring one of their food cylinder cases so animals wouldn't get into our food, but it wasn't really big enough and seriously there's nothing up there. Our bags weren't touched over night.