Thank you for all the well wishes. Leah is doing just fine. In fact, she wasn’t even acting very miserable today. She’d crawl around the house doing her usual busy exploring with an occasional wheezy cough.

My major cause for stress and frustration is this darn nursing strike. Leah only ate that one time yesterday. Today she continued to scream and arch her back whenever I tried to feed her. She acts like I’m trying to torture her. Arggg. I’m not sure what to do. I’ve been pumping and she loves the bottle but honestly there isn’t much there to give her.

I’m afraid of drying up while I wait for Leah to feel better. (If that is even the reason for the strike.) I have never had to deal with something like this and even have very little pumping experience. We went out and bought a pump but I just hate it. Hate it! It is uncomfortable and takes FOREVER!

I’m not ready to quit. I’m a nursing queen and enjoy nursing my babies well past 1 year. I can hardly consider the idea of having to give it up at 9 months. I know many moms are happy to make it this far but I’m just not ready. It seems like such a silly reason for quitting. Will she want me back? Should I not even offer the bottle? Will she ever get hungry enough? I’ve waited for hours for her to be interested and wondered how on earth she could last so long without milk but she’s done it. How do I keep my supply up?

Advice?

I also have really mixed feeling about the albuterol treatments we’ve been giving Leah. At times I feel like it does nothing for her but make her cry but then… I wonder if the albuterol is why she is doing so well. Sigh. What I’ve read about albuterol seems controversial if it even works so I’m not sure what to think. I worry about her not needing it but I worry about her being able to breathing well enough.

Honestly, I’m happy that she’s not in the hospital, but can we just start nursing again?

Leah came down with a little cough yesterday. I didn’t think much about it most of the day and just continued on with the usual course of motherhood. I did notice though how small and wimpy it sounded. Different kind of. It wasn’t the usual hacky, scary, head for the hills kind of cough my kids usually get so I thought it must not be much to worry about.

When evening came around, I realized that Leah hadn’t been willing to nurse at all that day. Whenever I tried, she’d just roll out of my lap and moved on to something else. I thought she was being “too busy.” I even showed Jer, “Look, she wont eat,” and sure enough she wanted nothing to do with it.

By bed time, the poor girl looked utterly exhausted so I chucked it up to having 2 itty bitty cat naps in the car instead of her usual long snooze. When I sat down to feed her and tuck her in bed she latched on for half a second and then clenched her teeth down on me hard. I screamed, of course, and  scared her into a big fit of tears. I suctioned out her nose, realizing that that was the problem and then tried to feed her again but boy was she mad.

I put her to bed hoping that she’d be interested in a few hours. She did wake up around 1:30 but still, nothing but tears and an arched back.

Morning came and I was so surprised that she wasn’t hungry enough to take me. So I pumped and she took the bottle. Bummer. I wasn’t so sure it was a breathing through the nose thing any more because she didn’t appear to have any trouble drinking the bottle.

But she was terribly fussy. I soon noticed that her breathing was weesy and a bit labored from her chest and belly. I thought I’d better make a sick appointment with the pediatrician.

After a quick phone call and the nurse hearing me say “labored breathing” they had me come in right away.

With the oxygen thingy on her foot, the doc was ready to send me off to the children’s hospital because her oxygen was so low. He suctioned out her nose and gave her an albuterol treatment with a nebulizer. Luckily her levels came back up and stayed at a normal level. He was happy and surprised that I wasn’t riding off in an ambulance and sent me home with antibiotics for an ear infections and my own nebulizer with an insanely large supply of albuterol.

I guess her diagnosis is RSV which I think has such scary stories to go along with it. I’ve had many friends with babies in the hospital for way to long because of it but I guess it’s more common then I realize. I’m just hoping Leah is big enough and tough enough to kick it quickly. My instructions are to go to the emergency room if she get any worse and he did say babies often get worse before they get better. Great.

I read on line the babies don’t really want to nurse while they are fighting RSV. It’s too laboring. I’m sure the ear infection wasn’t helping either. I was very happy when Leah woke up from her nap today willing to chow down.  A 30 hour strike isn’t too bad at all so I’m just hoping she’ll keep on top of it and keep being a willing eater.

It has been snowing here all week long. The wonderful thing about it is that the mountains are getting a ton of accumulation and my front lawn is barely even getting a skiff! And even that quickly melts away when the sun comes out. That is the beauty of Utah winters, my friends.

Now, if only we could get rid of the smog…

I think January and February have pretty bad raps for being the worst months of the year. Christmas is over, our New Year resolutions have already flopped and it’s mostly cold and dreary with no where to go.

This is normally a common feeling with me, but this year we have been enjoying this snowy month thoroughly. We have been watching the ski resort’s bases get deeper and deeper and are counting the days when we can get back up there to take advantage of any freshly fallen snow.

This last Saturday we took Emma and Isaac with us night skiing and we had a surprisingly great time. We had  prepared ourselves for complaining and begging to quit within an hour but Emma really caught on and couldn’t have been enjoying herself more.

I captured some great footage of her pizza-wedging-it down the bunny hill but I’ve been having problems with my camera connecting with the USB cord. I borrowed a camera so I could swap the SD cards but that camera wouldn’t recognize the video clips… so I only have these 2 photos for show. I’m hoping to fix the camera situation soon.

Isaac has extremely good balance and is a tough kid so we thought we’d try him out on the snowboard even though he is a bit young. He had no idea how to keep his edge up so I would just hold his hands and off we’d go down the slopes cutting back and forth. It worked pretty good and he thought that it was “Dodally Awwesdome!”

We agree.

There isn’t much going on with me today but so much is happening around me. Today is just another typical housewife-y day but I’m wishing with all my little heart that I could reach out and help those around me as well as those far away. It seems like everyone is going through something miserable right now and there just isn’t much I can do about it.

Instead of feeling trapped in my house, I wish I could zap myself to Haiti and work day and night helping with the relief efforts. I wish I could zap up to Idaho and help out my sister with her miserable health condition. I wish I could mend some broken hearts or give someone I love a million dollars. Wouldn’t that be nice.

I just can’t do those things, now, can I?

Instead I get to clean the playroom (again), hold a fussy teething baby, and be the mediator between the neighborhood boys and my rambunctious but sensitive boy. Instead I get to fix dinner, be the homework police and fold the never ending laundry.

I’m not complaining. I love that I have a roof over my head, food to eat, and sweet little ones to hug but it’s hard for me to do my mundane work when I feel like there is so much more need out there.

And as I feel like every post needs a picture, here is my latest page.

I’m on a major roll. I have another little template for all you digi scrappers. I have been doing so many 2 pagers lately that I really needed just a one page layout for my pics. Sometimes we all take just a few snapshots that we want to scrap and it seems silly to make a whole 2 page spread out of them. So here it is if you’d like to download it.

Now, if I must be totally honest, I can’t let my self have totally mismatched pages in my scrapbook. I’m crazy like that. So after I’ve designed my 1st page I’ll rotate the template 180 degrees for the 2nd page. I’ll then use the same kit but maybe mix it up a bit so it’ll look like different events but still have a nice flow to it. I know that a lot of you already do this but for those who don’t, here are my examples…

Page 1-

Page 2-

Happy scrapping!

My baby is 9 months old as of yesterday.

What darling little ball of chub. I could chew on her cheeks all day if I didn’t have any other human obligations.

More teeth are coming in daily so I want to remember how she looks with fangs because the moment is fleeting.

As enjoyable as this age is I need to start remembering that she is now on the move. Here are some of her latest accomplishments:

1. Broke her first glass bowl.
2. Managed to spread a bag of yeast all over the floor.
3. Dumped Ajax all over my mother’s kitchen rug.
4. Grew enough hair for her first pony tail.

Needless to say my vacuum has been my newest constant companion.

Okay, well, my sisters and I joked about making a pillow for every holiday but now it seems to be coming to pass. I loved my fall and winter pillows  so much that I had to try a Valentines one.

I couldn’t really find a example online that I loved for inspiration so I came up with my own. Looking all over the web has made me feel like hearts are kinda cheesy so I was going for a whimsical look. I did my best to make an uncheesy pillow.

Here is how to make it with a 16×16 pillow form-

Supplies

1. Fabric scraps for your hearts. Make sure that the fabric is bold enough to stand out on your background material. This was a bit of a challenge for me.

2. Appliqué material: I use Heat’ n Bond but there are a few other types. I’d get about 1/4 yard for this project.

3. Material for the pillow front, cut to 17″ x 17″ square. Look for something like lightweight canvas or even a muslin will work.

4. Material for the back. Cut 1 rectangle 17″x 14″ and cut 1 rectangle 17″x 10″.

5. 16″ x 16″ pillow form. If you choose to use a different size pillow you’ll just have to adjust the measurements of the pillow front and back.

***

Step 1: Trace or draw your heart shapes onto your appliqué material. Roughly cut out the hearts and iron them on to your desired material. This allows you to “fussy cut” each heart so that you can get the fabric pattern into the heart shape as desired. Iron the heart according to the directions on the appliqué material. (press & hold the iron over each heart for a few seconds) Repeat with all your hearts.

Step 2: Now with scissors cut out your hearts and peel off the paper backing. Arrange them on your pillow front material. I placed my fabric on top of my pillow so I could get a good idea of what it would look like and how far to stay away from the edges. Make sure to stay at least an 1.5″ away from the edges to leave room for sewing.

Step 3: Once your design is how you like it, iron over each heart to tack it in place. This will keep everything in place while you sew them on.

Step 4: Now you can sew along the inside edges of your hearts. A zig zag stitch or blanket stitch could work as well.

When I sew my hearts on I move my foot from heart to heart without cutting the strings so it goes faster. Afterward I’ll go back and cut the strings on the front and don’t even bother with the back side.

Step 5: To prepare your pillow back, fold one of the short edges of each pillow backing piece in 1/2″ and press, then again 1/2″ and press. Sew to hide any raw edges. These will be the edges of the envelope back. If you are confused about which edge to sew, lay out the pieces on the pillow front to give you and idea how it goes together.

Step 6: Lay the backing pieces right sides down onto the pillow front over lapping the centers. Make sure your right sides are facing towards the right sides of your pillow front and your outer edges match. Pin around the edges well.

Step 7: Sew a 1/4″ to 1/2″ inseam around the edges. Then clip your extra corner fabric off so the corners will turn nicely. Turn it inside out and stuff a 16″ pillow form in it.

Ta da! That’s it. Enjoy your pillow.

Hey everyone. I have another digi template for you. I had a fun time making this one so I hope you like it too. I think it’s a great way to look back over the past year and remember everything that has happened.

Download here.

Here are my pages.

Happy New Year!!

As promised, here are some photos from our totally rock’n ski/snowboarding trip on New Years Eve day…

On the way up the canyon it was soon realized that we were not the only ones that thought it would a perfect day for hitting the slopes. I didn’t mind too much though because the snow covered trees were just as gorgeous as could be and it had been two years since I’d been able to snowboard.

Heading up the lift, I couldn’t stop raving about how beautiful everything looked. It was a crystallized fairy land. I was snapping photos right and left as if I was a tourist there for the first time.  Jer made sure to make fun of me but I didn’t care. I think I was in heaven.

It was completely breathtaking. I wish my camera could have captured it better.

We spent the bulk of the day chasing powder and trying to get in as many runs as possible. We stayed on the expert runs all day to avoid the long lines at the lifts. Here is our crew on top of the world.

In a moment of pure exhaustion, I laid down in the snow to wait for Jer. Directly above my head was this.

My parents thought it was a sun dog but I’m not sure now I’ve looked at wikipedia. I had no idea that it was anything other than a rainbow caused by the sun coming through the clouds and snowflakes at just the right moment. I think it think it could have been a complete circle if there had been enough snow flakes blowing the right way. I was on the edge of some clouds that were lightly snowing and a blue sky. If I hadn’t of laid down in the snow I would have seen this. It was pretty cool.

The bit of clouds that were hanging over the top of the mountain dispersed later into the day and provided this view over the back side of the resort. My cute dad wanted nothing more than to get to the top so we could look over into Heber Valley that lays beyond.

Back in his prime my father was such a ski bum. He use to jump in his jeep with his buddies and ditch school to come up to ski. He had a great time reminising about the old days and told us all about his back country trips, the close calls he had and the awesome arrials he use to do. When we were planning the day, he had wanted so bad to come with us but was afraid his old frame couldn’t handle the pounding of the mountain. Luckily he managed to keep up with us just fine.

I just love this picture of him because I can see all of his joy on his face of being there with us. Love ya, dad!

Unfortunately I don’t have any action shots. We were so busy riding the slopes that I never stopped to take a picture mid ride. Jer and I love cutting through the trees especially because that is where all the good powder can be found so maybe you can just imagine that.

I can hardly wait until the next snowfall. Yippee.

I’m so excited. We are heading up this very moment to the resorts. There’s a bright blue ski and newly fallen snow. A perfect day ahead.

I even found my camera. Expect some awesome photos of me and Jer tearing it up on the slopes.