Refugee/Humanitarian Involvement

I will be brief, but just wanted to document my starting with some humanitarian work. It's a small beginning, but a beginning nonetheless.

Last October I ran into someone up American Fork Canyon who was also there with her family. Jennifer (her name) was taking pictures of nature for a photography class and asked if she could take pictures of our girls. After she took some pictures of them she asked if she could have my email so she could email me the pictures. On the bottom of the email Jennifer said she was starting a refugee/humanitarian group on FB if I waned to check it out. Ever since the call in April at the LDS General Conference to get involved with refugee work I had the desire to help but didn't know exactly how.

Anyway, now I am a collection point for this humanitarian collections group and I love having a small part in the  big work happening! What happens is we have periodic meetings at Jennifer's house and talk about organizations who need help and how we can help them. We each work with different organizations so we can be involved in many areas. Currently we are working with the IRC (International Rescue Committee), the URC (Utah Refugee Center), Lifting Hands International (helping refugees in other countries), and my group I have been working with is Days for Girls (helping women/girls in Africa and India continue through school on their period with reusable feminine hygiene kits).

People from all over can bring their donations to our homes (the collection points) and we get them to the appropriate organization. We also help get the word out about how others can help. It has been a great way to allow my girls to see how we can have a small part in giving. We receive SO many "gifts" on our porch (AKA Amazon shopping) and we have SO much. I want to always be involved in giving and not just receiving. Our family has been truly blessed and being involved just allows you to see what you have and the amount of blessings in your life. We are BLESSED.

The pictures jennifer took up the canyon :):

First Family ER trip...on Valentines Day :(

Well, this wasn't was we had planned for our Valentine's Celebration...spending if in the ER with Nora Boo. Poor thing! She and Reese were running around the house holding onto a blanket. Reese held onto one end and Nora onto the other and was pulling Nora around and whipping her around. Sounds like a good idea right? Definitely a recipe for a disaster...and no I had no idea this was going on at the time. Emma and I were sitting at the piano for her piano practicing when I heard a HUGE "bang" and Nora start screaming. I turn around and Nora had her hand on her head. I thought "oh, no...I'm afraid to move her hand." And sure enough I moved her hand and blood was gushing out of this huge, extremely deep cut. She had tripped and fell and banged her head on the baseboard really hard. I starting panicking. I didn't really know what to do and I wasn't thinking clearly.

I called my next door neighbor, Jill and she luckily had her head on straight for me! She took the older two to her house, took Lucy to our other neighbor's house and took me and Nora to the ER. I sat in the back seat with Nora and held a cloth on her head the whole time. Jill dropped us off and went back to her house. I am so grateful for her and always dropping everything when she is needed.

Cade came to the ER about 10 minutes after we got there. Nora got some "medicine" that put her in what the doctor called a "twilight stage" so she wouldn't remember everything going on from that horrible experience. She ended up getting 9 stitches and a pretty good bandage.

That was our first experience with stitches. I never had any as a kid but Daddy had to get some in his forehead too when he was 4. Almost the same as Nora. She was definitely a tough little thing. Hopefully there won't be another time!

Lucy Turns 1!

My little Lucy Lu is 1 year old! Some times the days went really slow but this past year sped by!!! She is such a joy in our lives and her sisters can't ever get enough of her!

Stats at her 1 year appointment:
Weight: 18 lbs 15 oz (pretty much 19), 33%ile
Height: I don't remember exact height but still was 94%ile

Some facts about Lucy:
- Lucy started walking ON her actual birthday! She decided it was the perfect day to take her first steps!
- She still doesn't care for her car seat and definitely takes a miracle for her to nap in it. She'd rather scream for hours :)
- Lucy has gotten ear infections a lot and so every time she starts sleeping through the night, she gets set back again by her poor infections :(. We are still working on getting her to be a good sleeper.
- She is very independent and walks around the house like she owns it!
-She loves her sisters and following them around all the time. She doesn't always love the wrestling and snuggles if she isn't in the mood :).
-Lucy doesn't always like to take naps and going to bed for baby sitters is stressful, but I think she is starting to get better?
-She LOVES stuffed animals of every kind! She hugs them and makes high pitched-squeeky sounds all the time. It's super cute.
-She still doesn't like being in her car seat. It's hard because being the 4th, some days she has to be buckled in her car seat a lot!
-At one year old she can say: dada, dog, mama, more, hi, "woof", uh-oh (my favorite). She especially LOVES to growl all the time. It's especially wonderful during church when all is quiet and everyone around us wonders who is growling like crazy!


[UPDATE at 14 months: Lucy is over her ear infections, but still wakes up screaming sometimes. And she can scream for hours the middle of the night and there isn't anything we can try that helps her get through it :(. It's been very stressful for me. She is saying a lot more now: kitty, thank you, all done (by signing), please. She is still a fairly good eater and still LOVES baby food packets. She eats those before nap time and bedtime every day. We love her!]

Nora's Potty Trained...Wahoo!!

Yay! Nora is potty trained! And since we waited until she was ready (3 years old) and not completely afraid of underwear anymore and she pretty much potty trained herself. SOOOOO much less painful than the last two times we had to do this :/. We set up a chart and every day she went without an accident, then she got to put a sticker on for that day. Five days in a row and she got the surprise listed at the end. She was so excited for her dates and treats. We are proud of her and her choice to finally be done with diapers! Cheers to only having ONE child in diapers!!!!

Daughter Dates and Family Activities!

We LOVE spending one-on-one time with each of our girls. The more kids we have the harder it gets, but the more important it becomes. And the girls look SO forward to them! Last December I was so excited to take Reesie to her first Nutcracker Ballet. It was very well done and Reese just kept saying the whole time that she wants to be a ballerina when she grows up. She got her very own princess nutcracker and we had a great time.

I've also taken Emma to kangaroo zoo, to the mall to buy her beloved "scepter" from the Disney store. Nora I've taken to the swimming pool and another time out for ice cream.

Daddy has gone to the "carousel" with Nora and got ice cream there. He also took Emma to her first BYU basketball game. I think she liked it...she got a free t-shirt and snacks :).

We love spending time with our beautiful girls.

Good Penny Dog :)

Our Penny Penny. As Cade always says, "BEST. DOG EVER." And she really is. Even though I don't always have the best attitude about having a dog, she is really great and I am really learning to love her. She is so good with kids and puts up with a lot. Lucy loves to crawl all over her and Penny just takes it :). Also, this first picture is so great. Penny knows she can't eat anything unless baby is out of the night chair. Then she can go crazy :). So she just sits by the high chair and waits so patiently until she is allowed to eat to her hearts content! Penny turns 5 this August and is finally where I never thought possible 4 and even 3 years ago. Good Dog, Penny. Good dog.

Disneyland Extravaganza!!!

Our Week O Fun!!! We had SO much fun in Disneyland this year with Grandma and Grandpa Close. Having 4 adults with 4 kids makes it very enjoyable and not wondering why we decided to bring 4 under 7 all by ourselves! We are so glad they like to come with us on our crazy vacations!

We drove mostly all day Saturday, Feb. 4 and got to our townhouse late afternoon. We spent most of that evening grocery shopping, making dinner and getting our place ready for our stay. Then on Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting in the morning at a LDS ward in Anaheim. Then we went back for lunch and nap (for Lucy) while Grandpa and I went to an "urgent care" facility for my mouth which had sores and such. Cade convinced me to go on that day before anything got worse on days that we were at Disneyland. I will write my Urgent Care festivities at the end of this blog post (because a crazy story like this should be documented).

After the Urgent Care we got the girls ready for our beach day! Even though it was chilly and cloudy, the girls had been so excited to play at the beach so we couldn't let them down. To the beach we went! We went to Newport Beach and it was beautiful. Freezing cold water, but pretty. The girls mainly had fun playing in the sand and running away from the waves. Grandpa walked around with Lucy and Grandma had fun playing with the older girls. We only stayed about an hour or so but it was still fun.

We had to go back and shower off the beach and get ready for a full Disneyland day!

The first day of Disneyland was spent in the rain most of the day! But we were prepared, made the most of it and still had a blast! We had bought rain jackets and ponchos for everyone before our trip and so everyone stayed dry. The things that were most exciting the first day were: 

- Meeting Moana! The girls LOVED getting to meet her. It was so cute seeing them all get so excited and Moana was super cute and spent a lot of time talking with them. 

- Splash Mountain! Hahahahaha. Okay, well....Emma and Reese were excited they finally got to go on Splash Mountain. I even showed them a video of it before our trip. But the big hill scared them SO bad they're still talking about it months later! Their reactions and faces were priceless!!!

- The Finding Nemo ride was definitely a favorite of all the girls- Lucy included! It is such a cute ride and they loved the animations (well, to them they were the real deal fish!). 

- Getting treats and yummy food of course!

The second fun day was originally supposed to be Cade and I by ourselves at Universal Studios, but since I wasn't feeling very good I told Cade to take Dad. I'm sure he was just fine with not watching our girls and having a fun day with Cade! Grandma and I held down the fort. We were planning on taking the girls swimming or to play at the park, however, it was rainy in the morning and early afternoon. So we just took it easy and watched movies until the rain let up. In the afternoon we walked to Downtown Disney and walked through all the fun shops that the girls would like. Then we had dinner at Rainforest Cafe. It was so much fun. 

On Wednesday, Kristen and Jaxon got to join us for California Adventure! It was so great to have them with us and Emma and Jax were attached at the hips the whole time! Some of our favorite things about this day were:

- The Frozen show! I just took Emma and Reese and Cade ended up not coming so he could get Lucy down for a nap. If we had planned better, we would have made sure he came cause it was AWESOME. It was the Frozen movie on Broadway. And definitely broadway quality. The girls and I LOVED it. 

- Cars Land. Of course we love Cars land! Emma, Reese and Jax were all tall enough to go on Racers with us adults. That one is definltey a favorite!

- Soarin' Around the World. I was surprised that this ended up being Emma and Reese's absolute favorite ride out of everything. I have always loved it but we ended up going on it 3 times with them!

- Dinner with the Princesses. We took everyone to Ariel's Grotto for dinner and even though it was extremely expensive....it was priceless seeing Nora meet the princesses for the first time. 

- Of course being with Sisten and Jax! I'm so glad they got to come with us for the entire day. Emma and Jax are best buds and played all day together. Jaxon was crying when they left (partially from being so tired, partially sad from saying goodbye. I love my sister and spending time with her!!!

The last Disney Day...

We spent the last day doing more of whatever we missed or wanted to do again! For some reason Emma and Reese didn't want to go on Splash Mountain again. Luckily Grandma took the girls on the tea cups...two times in a row...and the girls LOVED it! Too much spinning for Cade and I though :). We did It's a Small World, go to meet Minnie Mouse (sad my phone memory would not allow me to take a pic of them :(). We also, did Soarin Around the World again with the girls and a few other things. Then late in the afternoon, we took the girls to the shops in Downtown Disney and let them pick out their souvenir we promised them. Grandma and Grandpa then took all the girls back the place so Cade and I could have a date together! We ate at The Blue Bayou, went on the Haunted Mansion, walked around some shops and then met up with some Fishbowl friends in California Adventure. It was a great ending to such a fun vacation!

My CRAZY Urgent Care Story:

I got an address of an Urgent Care in Anaheim- there were a few but this one was closest and had 4 stars on google (which now I know were all fake reviews). When we showed up to the old, almost broken down building it felt a little odd. And especially when the first doors on the main floor had a hand written sign saying to go up the stairs, that should have been a sign to leave. Or when we walked upstairs and the door was wide open and no one was sitting at the front desk to greet us...and especially when I had a funny feeling about it...I should have listened and walked right out!!! BUT...I kept thinking "hmmm. I know I am used to excellent care in Utah and have heard weird things about California health care." I just kept going forward. The "nurse" (who was the only one in the office running everything) finally came to the desk and said it would be $100 for the visit. I'm sure glad I didn't fork over money right off. I asked if they took insurance and he said, "sure". What? Who doesn't ask for an insurance card when you get there? He took my info and took me back to a "room". A room that had one little desk and a table and chair in it. He told me I could sit on the table and he did a strep test....all right in front of me which seemed weird. I sat in that room for a long, long while. I even saw the "nurse" walk past with a woman carrying a bunch of oranges and left to go outside for a while. So weird. The whole time my Father-in-Law was enjoying watching TV in the waiting room :). Finally I heard the nurse coming back up the stairs that led to outside with someone else with him. They were going slow and when they came to the top I saw why- the man with him was hobbling up the stairs on crutches. He was a very large man, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and in pain from climbing those stairs on crutches. I thought, "Oh, poor guy. Wish they had an elevator for him." Then I heard that man talking to the 2 ladies in the other waiting room and giving a diagnosis of some sort. WAIT??? Was THAT guy the doctor? No way!!! I definitely should have walked out then but I was too curious. I had to wait and see. There's no way that could be the doctor. After he told those ladies, "yep, its a sprained ankle and you need to ice it and take IB profen..." I waited for my turn. Then he came hobbling to my room. Very large, breathing heavy, looks like Santa Claus with a Hawaiian shirt and a stethoscope around his neck. He came in and I cheerfully said, "hi!" He mumbled "hi" back and looked at my paper with chicken scratch on it. He proceeded to ask me some questions, "Where are you from? Where are you staying? How long are you here for?" What? Are you asking me out on a date or are you a doctor? I didn't give him any specifics he was looking for. After looking at my paper again and mumbling for a bit more he said, "well, sounds like you have a cold. You need to treat it with..." I immediately said, "no- I do not have a cold! I have sores in my mouth and a white tongue. I said are you even going to look in my mouth?"He replied, "After many years of experience I've learned that you can't learn anything from looking inside someones mouth." WHAT????!!!! I said, "how can you diagnose anything without looking in my mouth?" He said, "Listen, I don't want to get sick from looking in your mouth." Outraged I said, "What? Are you a doctor?" Then after realizing he had been sniffling this whole time, I said, "Wait, do YOU have a cold?"  He replied, "yes, and I don't want us to get each other sick." I said, "I have had enough! I am a leaving and not paying anything!" I stormed up to the desk and said, "That is ridiculous! He didn't help me at all and I refuse to pay. Are you going to bill my insurance?" The "nurse" at the desk said, "I guess not. If you don't want me to." I got Dale and we walked out of that joke of a facility. I only had wished when I left that I had grabbed my insurance information they had made a copy of. I honestly wonder if the real doctor hadn't come in that day and this guy was the next best thing walking down the street and they said, "you'll do. Come in and pretend to be a doctor." Trouble is, he was not a good actor. 

Dale and I left and went back to the townhouse. I told Cade and Tammy everything that happened. Cade said, "Dad I sent you to protect Kellie! Why didn't you insist that you leaven??" Dale said, "Well, Kellie was super confident when we walked in, it seemed like she knew was she was doing." I guess I can hide my true thoughts easily :). Cade was convinced there had to be a better Urgent Care (I mean it wouldn't take a lot to beat that one). He drove me to this other one that had TONS of legit google reviews and immediately when we walked it I thought, "now THIS is an Urgent Care!" Lots of staff ready to help and assist. More than one person running the show and they asked for my insurance card and info right off the bat :). We had a great experience at the second place. 

Lesson learned. Listen to the Holy Ghost. I have been given that gift for a reason and so next time i have a funny feeling about something I just need to be brave and walk away. But...it did leave me with a funny story to tell :).