A Date with Grandpa

My Dad took Tera to a Community Princess Tea Party. He even dressed up as a prince. He is the coolest Grandpa ever. She still talks about their date to the tea party and says it was one of the best days ever. They had the community princes their dressed up as different Disney Princesses.

Stunning Stisters

Some things we do

These days Tera can often be found with a hula hoop in her hand. She is so good at hula hooping that she is starting to make up a routine. She can go down on her knees and stand back up while keeping the hoop spinning, as well as spin while spinning the hula hoop. Its pretty cute to watch. She has all the attitude and expression on her face as she goes too.

Mazzi loves to find little "spots" that are just hers. She loves to bring pillows in this large basket and thing bring toys and legos in their to build.

She is also learning to jump. It is adorable!



This is her favorite spot in my parents house. It is a cabinet under the TV stand. She loves to shut herself in there while we look for her and listen for her muffled singing. She is always singing, yelling, or jabbering some nonsense.

Tera is enjoying her dance lessons, and both of the kids are enjoying gymnastics.

and were still enjoying the beauty down here. We went rafting as a family down the Sacramento river one weekend. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I think I have finally adjusted to living in Redding.

And just so I have these conversations documented...

Tera said the cutest prayer the other day.

"Dear Heavenly Father.

Thank you for miracles

Thank you for my remembering brain

Thank you that Mazzi won't pull my hair for a couple days."

And Ashton said something funny in the car. "Files are just like us. Except their smaller and they fly." I then asked him in which ways there were like us. He couldn't think of a single thing!

Not quite 5 1/2...

Tera celebrated her FIFTH b.day last month. I was very anxious for her to celebrate... mainly so she would stop asking me "how many days until my b.day? So you can imagine my horror when a few days after her birthday she said "How many days until I turn five and a half?"

She had a nice tea party birthday with a few friends. They had fun getting their nails painted, dancing and dressing up.

Cutest Cowgirl

Our family went to a rodeo the other day. Mazzi was the cutest cowgirl there!

Room Spinning

Mazzi got a fever on the last night of our friend reunion, causing her, Matt and I to all have a sleepless night. I woke up the next day more tired than I had ever felt in my life. Mazzi wasn't feeling well the next morning and just layed her head against Matt or I as we held her all day. We figured it was the flu so weren't too worried at first. However, Mazzi had been sick before and had never been lethargic like this so on her third day being sick Matt decided to bring her into urgent care.

They weren't very helpful at urgent care and just said that if she was being that lethargic that they recommended taking her into the ER. So Matt brought her to the ER where they did a catheter and took a urine test and came back saying that she might have a slight bladder infection and gave her antibiotics for that. Matt then noticed that she wasn't using her right arm at all, that it was little swollen and that if it were moved she complained. So he mentioned that to them and they took x-rays, but there wasn't a fracture, so Matt took her home. By the time he got home from the hospital her wrist was even more swollen so we knew something else was going on.

My mom called and got us into their family doctor that day. We felt very blessed as he wasn't taking new patients at that time. So we got in and after taking more x-rays and spending several hours at the office he decided that we should be admitted to the hospital for some tests.
I think you always go to the doctor expecting a quick fix or for them to know instantly what is wrong with you so when they don't it is a little scary. He thought it was probably an infection under the skin that she would need antibiotics for and an IV to giver her some energy. It had been three days since she had eaten anything and she was just laying against me. It was a very sad sight.

So, we went to the hospital and they admitted us to the pediatrics wing. They were so good and patient to us. Which is good because at this point I would have cried over anything. In fact, just on my way to the doctors office I couldn't find the building and kept trying to call different family members in the area to ask where it was at and couldn't' get a hold of anyone and finally saw someone on the side of the road so I pulled over and asked them where it was and was and drove away crying. The stress was definitely getting to me.

At the hospital they hooked Mazzi up to an IV after trying to get the needle in her little vein for about ten minutes... with me holding her down and her looking at me wondering why I am helping them do this to her, I am again trying not to completely break down in front of the nurses. After her IV is in she goes in for more X-rays (they really thought it must be a fracture) but once again they couldn't find anything so they drew some blood for tests and decided it must be an infection under the skin so hooked her up to antibiotics through her IV.

We spent two nights there and slowly her swelling and redness around the wrist went down and by the third day she no longer had a fever if she wasn't on Motrin. So they told us we would get to go home. I was so glad because I was getting so stir crazy being in that little room. I am not very patient when it comes to health issues and I feel so blessed that thus far we have had such good health. It really is something you take for granted until you have a little reminder like this.

I felt like I was pretty composed during our stay at the hospital and didn't feel that overwhelmed. However, once I got home from the hospital my body fell apart. I'd never understood the expression "it felt like the room was spinning" until I left the hospital. I think it was brought on mostly by lack of sleep and stress. But for about four days it would feel like the room was spinning off and on.

Once we were released from the hospital she still wasn't using her right arm for about a week. We had another appointment with the doctor and one with an orthopedic doctor. But they didn't see anything wrong so told us just to wait and see if it was just sore. And sure enough, after a few more days she began using her right had to eat and draw.

We were so happy to have our fun, feisty, happy little Mazzi back. I missed her!

This is a picture of what she would do when she wanted to go for a walk outside the room. She would start pushing on the pole that held her IV. The pediatric wing was set up in a circle of rooms so we would walk around the circle (come to think of it... this could also be why I felt like the room was spinning!)

Fun Family

My sister was able to come down for a visit from Texas and my brother and his wife, Sandra, were able to join us from Santa Cruz, and my Grandma was able to join us from Washington... so we had a mini reunion (missing Sierras hubby Bryce and my hubby). It was so nice seeing everyone, but I definitely did not get my share of time in... as this reunion happened kind of last minute and was going on at the same time that the friend reunion was occurring. We still managed to squeeze in some fun though...

And if I haven't bragged yet... my family is pretty awesome. I feel like they are always up for doing something fun and adventurous. This is my cool dad busting a flip on the knee board.
and my handsome brother getting some air on the "air chair"
And my sweet, beautiful sis, Sierra, who didn't bust any tricks because she is prego... so happy for her!! She is so fun to be around and so thoughtful.

and my Grandma... who is the nicest, prettiest Grandma in the world. She is so great with children and can think of creative ways to entertain them under any circumstance. (One of her many talents)

And Ash- who thinks he's so cool knee boarding by himself. (His mom agrees)

And his Aunt Sandra who is awesome enough to get in the cold water with him to help him start out and then swim around until we come to pick her up. She's going to make an amazing mother someday! And she is good at everything she tries. She just started wake boarding last year and is already showing me up.

And Trevor will make a great Dad... my kiddos love their Uncle.

I love my fun family! Wish we all lived closer so we could get together all the time.