Build-A-Baby...???

I just love Oakley. She is really great when it comes to her sister Romy. She has fed her, changed her, held her of course, and even gets short little "babysitting" assignments when I need to do things like...oh, shower...!! One of her favorite things to do is get her dressed. The other day, she was playing with her in her room, and brought her down to show me what she had been doing...

Playing Dress-up...with Build-A-Bear clothes...HAHAHA!!!  Why play with stuffed animals when you have the real deal???  And of all the cute outfits, she picked the crop top and shorts...my little baby looks like "Redneck" Build-A-Bear!!  Don't worry, I didn't tell Oakley that...!!!  But, I HAD to get pictures!!!

She didn't like the outfit either...lol...

I'm Thankful for Not Being Bored...

Life seems so crazy lately, and I feel like I haven't had time to even stop to smell the roses...in fact...come to think of it...there aren't any...maybe I can stop to smell the fallen leaves...that are frozen.  HMMM...
Well, I have been keeping busy with all kinds of things...birthdays, photo shoots, Holidays, family, friends...the list goes on...and on it seems.  This last week I think I made the trek to Boise at least seven times...twice in one day...(40 minutes each way mind you)!!  Between doctor appointments, cheerleading, businesses, family, I just can't keep myself here in Caldwell much!!  Luckily between it all, cute little moments like these happen...

Does this look a little familiar to you??  How bout instead of a cute baby girl, its a mischievous two-year-old boy (also amazingly adorable might I add), and instead of dirt....NOPE....it was dirt too!!  What is it about my kids and potting soil??!!!  YUMMM....????

Another one of our fun adventures was Romy getting her x-rays.  I figured they would lay her on a table, and shoot a few pictures, and we'd be outta there...

Ya...not so much...ever seen one of these???

Now, this isn't Romy, and this baby actually looks about 100% more comfortable in this contraption than she was...you see they actually have to put this thing on so tight that if they move or scream (which inevitably they will cause it really is awful) their little bodies wont budge and ruin the x-ray picture.  She was so crammed in there she couldn't even move her arms that were jammed so tightly by her head that I thought they might be stuck there forever.  She was scared and screaming (told you), and just looked at me like "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME??!!"  I was sad.  I had to keep from losing it over x-rays...

Now...this would be the "PG-13" section of the story.  Proceed with caution...I wouldn't normally post my...ahem..."bosom containers" on my blog for the whole wide world (the whole 20 people that actually look at it) to see...but, frankly, it is unrecognizable anyhow!!!  This is a trick Blazer learned when a babysitter mistakenly let him sleep in mommy's room...don't worry, she learned you can never trust a two-year-old too...check it out...

He really does look quite remorseful in this last one...or maybe its the look of GUILTY!!!

Today, I am thankful for new make-up and an awesome husband who cleans carpet like it's NOTHIN'!!!

Somewhere in this whole mess of chaos my oldest son turned 9!!!  I can't even believe it...SO CRAZY!!!  We took him to Pojos as a family for his birthday...first time we've ever done that, and it was fun.  He then got a super cool tank cake, and some even cooler presents!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON...you are amazing!!

Oh, and P.S.  If you're ever at Pojos, and your kids wanna use one of their tokens for a giant gumball the size of a tennis ball...be prepared for this...

And maybe a slight sugar high??

Well, I hate to go so soon, but really, I have a lot to do...I mean it's 2:29AM, and I still have to squeeze some sleep in here sometime!!  But I thought I'd leave ya with a little face that I like to call "Popeye" (the cutest darn one I ever saw!!!)

I'd kiss this Popeye ANY day!!!

She's actually ambidextrous with her face...she can do this too...

She likes to suck up her bottom lip when she's eating her food...and don't ya love that little orange nose and orangy cheeks from all the orange baby food??  Do you think she bleeds orange??  How does that work??  Cause that color is comin' from the inside!!

Pumkin Bust...

Does anyone else have a hard time with Sunday Halloweens??  It really makes life awkward!!  We figured we would make Saturday a total candy fest...

We started at our Ward Trunk-or-Treat...well, it was two wards in fact...which made it difficult to eat.  When we arrived the entire gym was packed, and there wasn't even room for the homemade chili I slaved over...(oh well, more for us).  After waiting almost 20 minutes in hopes that someone would finish and stand up, we went into the hall to wait where we could sit down.  It wasn't looking so good, so we decided to take our chili home and eat it real quick, and go back for the Trunk-or-Treating.  We got there 20 minutes before it was supposed to end, and there were cars piling out of the parking lot...our kids were crushed...!!

On the way though, we had spotted a huge Halloween Party put on by D.A.R.E., which was free, so we thought we'd take them there...They had a lot of fun carnival-like activities...only...you had to stand in line for 30 MINUTES for EACH activity.  After an hour and a half, our poor kids only had six pieces of candy in their buckets, and that was only because the Mayor was handing some out in the enormously long unorganized lines...it COULD have been an awesome activity...they set it up ALL WRONG though...maybe next year they'll ask me??

SO, we decide to take them Trick-or-Treating.  After driving the neighborhoods not seeing ONE kid on the prowl, we called it a night...

Talk about a series of unfortunate events...maybe we should have dressed up as Lemmeny Snickets...hmmm...fabulous idea....

All the way home, I had the kids yell "Trick-or-Treat!!" and I just threw candy into the back seat for them.  It wasn't exactly what they had in mind, but hey...they FINALLY got some candy...!!

We ended up going Trick-or-Treating on Sunday.  It is a GREAT family activity anyhow!!!  We go to my dad's neighborhood...we LOVE it there...!!  The whole neighborhood just really gets into the Halloween spirit!!!  It ended up being the BEST night ever!!!  We all had so much fun...AND...their buckets were FULL...!!!

Our family...the "Party Poopers"(we forgot our party hats), Pirates of the Caribbean: Davey Jones, Jack Sparrow, and Elizabeth Swan, a monkey, and and Owl...

I made the Owl!!  And even though I had NO idea what I was doing...I love it!!!

Parents Gone Wild...

Well, we always have SUCH a blast with our Annual Halloween Party.  If you haven't been yet...you are MISSING OUT!!!!  Where else can you get a ton of adults together to dance, limbo, karaoke, party, and make FOOLS of themselves and not be all liquored up??!!  Nowhere...I'm telling ya....

I think the best part is seeing everyone's costumes.   People put so much time and effort into it...and it is AWESOME!! We're talking hand painted shirts, Men sewing, custom tattoos,  hair in places I didn't realize there could BE hair, hundreds of safetypins....It really is SO COOL!!  I for one stressed about ours for weeks...I just couldn't get the picture in my head to come to life...until...BOOM it hit me...and I came up with this...!!

Yes, it was PERFECT.  The ULTIMATE Party Poopers, and although we didn't win, we sure had fun wearing them...I mean, how often in life can you say you were So crappy, and feel good about it??  LOL...it was the joke of the night...we kept waiting for someone to call us a sh**head...but luckily...we weren't THAT crappy...!!!

And the winners of the night were...Yes...Caveman, and HOT Cavewoman...!!!

Oh ya...AND...

Oh ya...and did I mention that I make stuff too??  Cute stuff...Stuff people keep telling me..."You should sell that"....SOOOOOooooooo

I am.

Come on over to my little shop...OH...and tell your friends...and their friends....and their friends, friends...

okay...click the picture...!!!

I know...I've been a VEEEEEERY busy girl...

Well, what can I say....I DO BUSY!!!!!

As if...

As if I don't have enough on my plate...!!  This is something I have been doing for years...in fact over 9 years...!!  I guess I have just been "quiet" about it.  One could say I'm coming out of the closet so to speak???

I started my training at Kiddie Kandids as a photographer for a couple years where I worked on my professional certification.  From there I pursued my abilities on my own where I have captured the people and events around me...

I definately have a love for shooting infants and kids...but I have shot several families over the years as well...

ENJOY!!!

http://synergygirlshots.blogspot.com/

The Tale of Two Boys...

I've been kicking myself lately because when havoc rains upon our household...I haven't grabbed my camera for visual record of our great catastrophes...instead, you will have to visualize this chaos with me....are you ready...I mean....REALLY ready...???

A lot goes on in the Lords house...here are a few incidences from the past couple of weeks...

We'll start with Parker.  He thought it would be a FABULOUS idea to shove a tree seed INTO his ear canal.  This seed is roughly the size of a pinto bean (are we visualizing??).  He shoved it SO FAR IN that I couldn't  pull it out with tweezers as I have in the past...(yes, these things DO happen more than once unfortunately...) SOOOOO, we get to go to the ER.  LoVeLy. 

MEANWHILE...Blazer at some point during the day while playing outside decides that he will shove a rock up his nose.  Now I am thinking I have to take TWO boys to the ER to get foreign objects extracted from their faces.  I'm sure that will go over well....LUCKILY, I have had EVEN more practice with this, and I was able to get it out...PHEW!!!  Only one boy in the ER today!!!

Back to Parker...Upon looking at his ear, the ER doc states that it is all the way into his middle ear, and such cases generally call for an ENT to get it out, but that he'll try once just to see.  They hook Parker up to this minuscule vacuum and try sucking it out of his ear...SUCCESS!!!  Luckily we did not have to see a specialist, and we retreated blissfully to our home...

I hate to say that the remainder of the post focuses on Blazer, the impossible two year old...but what can I say...he just likes to keep life interesting...

If you ever wondered what would happen if you ate one those packs that come in shoes and whatnot to keep the moisture absorbed...well, I can surely tell you!!  YOU WILL BE FINE.  In fact, thanks to Blazer, we now know that you can eat the WHOLE PACK and be in good health.  All those shiny little clear silica gels are non toxic, and harmless...the warning is more for the choking hazard...thankfully...he didn't choke...

Also, if you EVER feel like you need a make over for your make-up collection, I'll send Blazer on over to your house.  All you have to do is keep the door unlocked to your bathroom.  When you are tending to the baby or other needs you may have, he will gladly EAT all your lipstick, SMEAR your concealer into the counter, JAM objects OTHER than the wand in your mascara, shake your mineral foundation all over the carpet as if it were winter falling over a tiny village coating it like the first snow fall...all the while you THOUGHT he was playing happily in the playroom...LUCKILY, lipstick is harmless to consume as well...

How are the visualizations going...would you like to borrow him yet??  He really is super adorable...and I love his little face!!!

In fact that sweet little face of his LOVES to chew gum!!  Today, he came inside chewing a piece of gum.  I asked him where he got it and he pointed outside with the biggest grin on his face...cheeky...Carter then proceeds to tell me that it was the gum that fell out of his mouth outside several days ago...he looked and looked and couldn't find it...Blazer took care of that one...YUMMMM...that gives a whole new meaning to "Lost and Found"!!!

Do you find it ironic that I found this picture and there's gum in Blazer's mouth??

Well...I hope that you enjoyed the small glimpse into our world over here...it is a crazy one...full of excitement and awe...!!

Moral of the story?? I definitely think that God has a real sense of humor...and I love that he shares it with me most every day...!!!

Dear Doctor...

Thought I'd share the letter that I wrote to our former pediatrician.  I thought he might be interested to know why out of the blue 5 of his patients switched practices...I sent it last Saturday...I don't expect a response, though I do wonder if I'll get one...here it goes!!!

Dear "Doctor" (I won't use his name for the sake of it...),

I really felt like I wanted to express my reasoning for switching practices, as it was not an easy or fast choice. I have always loved having you as a doctor, and felt like you have treated me and my children with care. I was especially impressed with the care you gave Oakley when she went through so many UTI’s, and your persistence in finding some answers for us. It meant so much to me!!!

When we had Romy, I felt like she didn’t get quite the same treatment. When I had concerns, I felt like they were not addressed, but brushed off. This is not entirely your fault because many times I called in and could only speak with your nurse. On one occasion I had called in because Romy had been overly fussy for 5 days straight. I had tried everything it seemed. Chris suggested that maybe she had gas, and needed me to play “motor boat” with her legs amongst other basic suggestions. If I am calling in, this means that I have tried EVERYTHING else, and I am out of ideas. I also called in about her anisocoria, and was told it was not a problem she needed to be seen for. It wasn’t until I had an actual appt that I was able to bring it up and get her to a specialist.

It was beginning to feel as though my concerns weren’t being addressed, and my biggest concern had yet to happen. In July, I began noticing that she wasn’t using her right arm. She moves it, but she doesn’t use it. When I spoke to you about it, you thought that maybe she was showing a hand preference. I was disappointed when you didn’t examine her. I was so torn. When seeing some of her specialists, I brought up the symptom with them, and they told me that children do not have hand preferences until about the age of 2, and that I should bring this up with my pediatrician. Imagine my discouragement when I had already done that. Our ophthalmologist decided that it was concerning enough along with her anisocoria that she wanted to find out more. She went on to order an MRI on her head and shoulder. Thus beginning a battle between offices for me.

When central scheduling called me, the tests had been changed from MRI’s to CT scans. I was frustrated. Why put my child through anesthesia and un-necessary radiation because it was “cheaper” as Chris explained to me. I tried to explain that if we DIDN’T find something wrong, I would demand an MRI to find more information because I felt like my daughter had a real symptom going on that needed to be addressed. If the CT scans DID find something, you would want an MRI done for her to find out more…so either way, she would have ended up in an MRI and it would not be cheaper. Chris proceeded to tell me that you did not feel like it was necessary, and that you had no ability to change the tests. So I called the ophthalmologist back and discussed my concerns with them. They agreed, and called and talked with you. The test STILL remained CT scans.

The decision to leave finally came down to feeling that my intuition and concerns did not matter. I needed to find someone that would listen and validate. I understand that you may deal with some moms that are new that will jump at everything, but I have been doing this for nine years, and feel as though that should earn me just a little credibility. I have children that were never even seen other than shots…so it isn’t like I have made a reputation of un-necessarily seeing the doctor.

I really didn’t want to leave. I didn’t. It was such a hard decision. You really were a good doctor, and I really wanted you to hear me. It took four months to make the decision to find another doctor, and took having someone I knew to make that decision. I didn’t just go to anyone…they had to be just as good.

I just wanted to let you know that Romy did have her MRI’s done. We got the results back yesterday, and found out that she has had either a stroke or a brain bleed (corona radiata) on the left side of her brain explaining why her eye and arm are affected. They aren’t sure yet how much damage there has been, and we will be seeing a neurologist to begin her journey.

I don’t want this to be a hate letter, or a finger-pointing letter, but maybe just an eye-opening letter for you. Please, please just listen. Sometimes it may be nothing…and sometimes it may be something. I thought it would feel good to be right about this after everything that had happened…but sometimes, you don’t want to be right…because it’s not about being right…it’s about being heard.

Thank you for all that you have done for my children. I really appreciate it all. I really do. I think you are a fine doctor, and I really wish that things would have been different.

Take care,

The Lords Family…

Sweet Romy Lin at the hospital getting ready for her MRIs!!!