Followup

I just wanted to let everyone know how things are going with McKenzie, and Grandparents. In February McKenzie had her Kindergarten check up appointment, where they found blood in her urine. They thought it might be a possible UTI. The first came back negative, and so I kind of freaked out because blood in the urine is hereditary in Matt's family. I wanted to be sure. So the Doctor has us come in again to retest. They found blood again. The test came back negative again. The doctor wanted to do some more tests, so he has us go to Primary children's hospital to get Kenzies blood drawn, and do a urine sample, and a 24 hr. urine sample. Lovely. McKenzie did beautifully! She was so brave when getting her blood drawn, she barely even winced when they stuck her with the needle. She was all into it! Totally amazed!!! Such a better experience than what I had to go through with madisynn.
The 24 hr urine sample was easier than I thought it would be. Kenzie had fun, she thought that she had to pee in a cup for the rest of her life. Silly girl. When she was done with the 24 hr sample, she comes and says mom I have to potty and goes to get the cup. I hurry and stop her,, and say you don't have to use the cup anymore. She was disappointed, but she got over it pretty quick. So moving along the Doctor calls back a few days or more later to tell me the tests all came back normal, and that the next step was to do a renal ultrasound. She had the ultrasound on Friday and did great! The doctors that checked her said everything looked good, but to followup with McKenzie's Doctor. He called me back yesterday and said things are normal, but to schedule another appointment in 3 months to followup on everything. I'm so glad everything came back normal!!!
Last week I was able to go and visit my Grandpa Kotter, and my Grandpa and Grandma Zollinger. It was hard to see my Grandpa Kotter looking so frail, and hurting. I'm glad we were able to stop by for a little bit and help him get ready to go to a doctors appointment. I was able to make him some cookies my friend Shaina's Oatmeal butterscotch cookies. I hope he liked them. I know we did! Thanks Shaina for the recipe! Visiting my G & G Zollinger was really nice. We were there for almost an hr and a half! They spoiled the girls with there Bingo winnings! It was comforting to be able to go see in person how they were doing. I know they aren't doing great, but they are hanging in there.
My grandma is amazing you know she is hurting, but she never voices it. Grandpa every breath, you can tell he is hurting. He voices it more than grandma, but that's OK. My hat is off to anybody that has to go through that much pain, and be alive. Wow. I wish that we could have Gone to visit my Grandma Kotter in the hospital, but she wasn't ready for visitors at that time. She is ready for them now, and I want to go see her soon without the kiddos. She is doing remarkably well. I really didn't think she was going to make it through this whole ordeal. She is very lucky. I'm just sorry that she is in an incredible amount of pain still. Any kind of open surgery is very painful. I'm so glad she is here with us still! Thanks for your thoughts and comments. =)

chchchchanges

Lot's of change happening. Some good, some bad. I'm trying to deal. My Grandparents are not doing good at all. It makes me sad. Last week my Grandma Kotter was life flighted to a hospital here in the Salt lake area. She had serious complications from her earlier gall bladder surgery. She was not healing as expected. She had surgery and they determined that the intestine had been nicked during the Gall bladder surgery and extensive infection had resulted and part of her intestine was removed. It's very serious, and she has had a few surgeries over the past week. She has done well through it all from what I have heard. I don't know how long the recovery process is going to be. I'm sure it's going to be quite extensive.

My Grandpa Kotter isn't doing so swell either. When my Mom called and told me about my Grandma, I started to worry about my Grandpa as well. He hurt his back from overdoing it last October. He has been miserable. It's to the point where he can't even take care of himself. He has a hard time walking. I wanted to call him and see how he was doing, but I was scared to. I know that's silly, but you see he is hard of hearing, and he is very hard to understand when he talks. I love my Grandpa, and I really wanted to see how he was. I kept putting it off for a day, and then I talked to my Mom the next day and she says you really should call him. He would really love it. So I prayed for help, and called my Grandpa. It was a really great phone call. It was nice to tell him that I loved him and we were thinking about him and Grandma. My Mom went and saw him yesterday, and she said she couldn't believe how frail he looked. It's so sad. I hate it!

My Mom's parents are also not doing so great either. Grandma and Grandpa Zollinger. My Grandma had another mini stroke last week. I think this makes 2 that they know of. It has worn her out even more, from what my Mom says. My Grandpa is frail, and just not doing well. He is just in constant pain no matter what. He can hardly feed himself. He just doesn't have the strength. My Mom went to visit them too yesterday. They had a good visit.

I plan on going out this week and visiting all 4 of my Grandparents. I don't know how much longer they will be here on this earth. I have so many feelings about that. I want them here, but I don't want them to have suffer anymore. It makes my heart ache so much. I was in tears for most of last week. I just want them to know that I love them, even though It's been hard to get out there way to visit them.

More change....matt's schedule changed and not to something that we like. He is now working Thursday and Friday 10 p.m. - 7:30 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday 6 p.m. - 7 a.m. I just want a normal schedule. Is that asking too much? He is starting to look more seriously for another job. Maybe this schedule will be good for a little while so he can get out there more and see what's available. Job hunting sucks, especially these days. Enough said.

Last change that makes me sooooo happy. Look at this:

Spring is coming!!! I have Tulips growing! Yay!!! I came home on Thursday, and glanced at my flower bed and saw something green that wasn't there before. I got out of the car and went to see what it was. I was so happy I yelled to the girls to come and see. They were as pumped as I was about it! I'm looking forward to this change and doing more with our yard this year. Sorry if this post seemed negative, or depressing. I just have lot's of emotions going on about everything. I'm handling it though, so that's good, and that's what matters. I've just got to leave it in the lords hands and ask him to do his will. I love Family....they are Everything!

Sledding

Last Saturday we went to Evanston to my Brother Chris's house to go sledding. We did this last year and had a total blast. We figured since it was so much fun let's do it again. As the date got closer to go sledding Matt comes up to me and says "Karen do you think they have any snow?" I say " well if there isn't Chris or Sarah would have called to let us know. I'm sure it's all good!" So we left bright and early Saturday morning. As we get closer to Evanston I was thinking boy I hope they have some snow. Their was nothing! So we get to Chris and Sarah's house and see that they have snow in there yard, so it must be OK. We go inside, and start talking and Chris says, we almost called to tell you guys to plan on doing something else because of the slim pickings on snow. Matt and I just laughed! Luckily there was just enough snow to go sledding and have a great time!

This year was so different from last year. Last year was so windy and freezing cold that we only lasted about an hr. Plus there was way more snow to trudge through. This year we ended up taking our coats off because we got too hot. The wind wasn't even blowing. It was so nice! We ended up sledding close to 3 hrs. or so. Also Matt wanted to buy another sled to use. He went to walmart and bought one for $30. You think that is expensive for a sled, and yes it is, but it was worth every penny! Everyone wanted to use this sled. It was easy to steer, and got Lot's of speed! In fact I think I set the record on distance on that baby! Sweet!!! Here are pictures of our sledding day fun:

Kenzie with her 2 cousins Gabe, and McKell:

Kenzie again:
I was so proud of her this year. She really acted like a big girl, and sledded pretty much the whole time. Last year she went down 1 or 2 times, and didn't want anything to do with it after that. I think it helped to start on a smaller hill this time.

Matt's turn, this is the sled he bought:

He had so much fun! I'm surprised that he was so alert seeing as he hadn't even gone to bed. He was up for over 24 hrs!

Me giving Madisynn a push start:

Madisynn just cracks me up! She has no fear. She would lay down on the sled waiting for someone to push her down and just lay there waiting for someone to drag her back up the hill. A picture to prove it:
Then when she had enough sledding she would roll down the hill, or push herself down the hill on her back with her feet. It was hilarious!

Here is madisynn the snow alien climbing up the hill:

Picture of my Mom, Me, and my Sis in law Sarah just hang in out:

Everyone except for Sarah who was taking the picture. Thanks Sarah! :

One of all of the Grand kids except for 2 who happened to be sick, and Grandma:

And lastly Madisynn and Trace being pulled back to the parking lot at the end of the adventurous day:

The good life!!!

It was so much fun! Thanks Chris and Sarah for letting us come crash up your way, and spend the day with you! =)

Valentines

So yes I'm slow on posting on how valentines day went. Valentines day week was crazy busy! To start it all off we had a primary activity making valentines for the kiddos that don't come to church in our ward. The kids had fun making them, it was a fun activity. We just made the shooting arrow valentines with the pixie sticks, and chocolate heart candy. It was a success too. 2 of the inactive kiddos started coming to church!

Later on in the week I decided that we were going to make sugar cookies. It's one of my favorite things to do if i am in the mood to do it! So here are some pictures of our sugar cookie making process. I was in a joking mood so I decided to rub flour on the girls faces. I didn't do very much, but they thought it was funny so they decided to do it more to themselves. Whatever they were happy and having fun!!!

The sugar cookie making took pretty much the whole week to do. So here is the decorating process:

Matt didn't decorate any he just ate!

The finished product:

Cookies for Matt's coworkers on the grave shift:

Cookies for Grandma Kotter, which she totally got a kick out of! I mean how could you not? Look at all that sugar! I think it's hilarious how kids decorate cookies! LOL:

Cookies for us, and some neighbors, and family:

I love Valentines day! This year Matt and I came to an agreement that we wouldn't spend any money on each other. So with that on Valentines day I awoke to my husband giving me a kiss when he got home from work. He gave me a discover card beanie which he had gotten for free at work, and inside the beanie was a burnt CD of this:

Matt had spent at least a week on lime wire downloading music from the soundtrack. He knows how much I love twilight and this totally came from his heart! He was so excited to give it to me, and I love him for it! I told him that I wanted to give his present to him after dinner, so he could sleep. The girls and I had a great time making valentines to give to their friends in there primary classes, and their cousins as well. I took the girls around and we delivered them to each of the kids. It was so fun to see these kiddos faces light up when they realized what they were getting! By the end of the delivering process we were tuckered out.

Matt woke up not feeling so swell. He had a miserable couple of hrs. in the bathroom. I hate when he feels like that. It makes me sad. He started to feel better later. We didn't do anything that exciting for valentines day with each other, it was just nice to be together. We banned the girls from coming upstairs, and we watched Fred Clause. Very cute show! This is what I made for my hubby:

He was thrilled! I thought it was pretty creative if I do say so myself!!! =)

Ward Activity

This last Saturday our ward had an activity centered around presidents day. The plan for food was to have a chili cook off/cornbread cook off. The primary presidency was in charge of organizing the food. I am part of the presidency so I helped plan. I'm a stresser, and I was just wanting the activity to come and go. So Saturday comes and we thought we were all organized and ready to go. Nope, there were so many things that we didn't even think about. Luckily we got it all fixed in the nick of time of eating.

The primary was also in charge of a coloring activity for the kiddos. I got together some coloring pages of the flag, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. I also found some crossword puzzles, and word searches for them to do. They really enjoyed doing them! Another activity they had was to put every president in the right order from the very first to the very last. I didn't even get a chance to try. Not that I would have done very well! They also had another activity. One of the councilors in the Bishop brick had made a background of Mt. Rushmore. He made it so you could remove the faces and put your own face in. They took pictures of each family or kid. Here is ours: I thought they turned out really cute!!! =)

I made white chili to compete in the chili cook off. I love it, it's so good! It's my sister's recipe. I didn't win the chili cook off, I didn't even place in the top 3. Something must have been wrong with peoples taste buds! Oh well not too big of an issue. LOL . I won first place in the cornbread cook off!!! I won a 100 grand see:

Oh nuts, I really wish it was money! My kids appreciated it! =) So here are the recipes for my chili, and cornbread. Try them.... you will love them. If your not a cornbread lover please try it, it's like cake. Enjoy and let me know what you think! =)

Cornbread

Mix together:

1 ¼ cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 white sugar
1 Tsp Baking soda
½ Tsp Salt

Mix together:

1 egg
1 cup milk
¾ cup vegetable oil
Stir and combine all ingredients. Grease 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 min. When done spread honey on top and bake another 2-3 minutes.

White Chili

Sauté until brown:

1 lb. Boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into ½ inch cubes
1medium onion chopped
1 Tbsp. Vegetable oil
1 ½ Tsp. Garlic powder

Add: 2 cans (15 ½ oz.) great white northern beans rinsed & drained
1 can (14 ½ oz.) chicken broth
2 cans (4 oz.) chopped green chilies
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Dried oregano
¼ tsp. Cayenne pepper
1 tsp. Ground cumin
½ tsp. Pepper

Bring to a boil, reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 min. Remove from heat; stir in:
½ cup whipping cream
1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream

Yield 7 servings

Medical Appointment

Wednesday was a big day. McKenzie had her kindergarten appointment. I can't believe that she is going to be in Kindergarten this year. It's so crazy! She was excited to go to the Dr. I have no idea why. I never was excited to go to the Dr! So anyways I didn't know how involved this appointment was. We were there for a long time. She has great hearing. She is not color blind, good thing too because Matt is. She is blind though, she is definitely going to need glasses. That was the hardest part of the whole appointment. She has never done a vision test before. We did it twice to make sure it wasn't a shyness thing. The first time they did the letter one, and the 2nd one they did the E one. They got the same results. Her results were 20/30 in her Right eye, and 20/50 in her Left eye. Man I was really hoping that we would not have to do the whole glasses thing with our children. Kind of hard though seeing as both Matt and I wear glasses. I guess we better take her to an eye doc and see what they have to say.

Next I didn't know that you had to do a urine sample too. If I would have known that I wouldn't have had her pee before we left the house. She really didn't get much in the cup. McKenzie thought that the whole cup thing was pretty cool. I didn't seeing as though I was the one holding the cup! I'm glad she didn't pee on my hand! While waiting for the Doc, the nurse assistant comes in and asks me if McKenzie ever complains that it hurts when she pees. I was like no, Why? She tells me that their is a whole lot of blood in her urine, and other things as well. I can't remember the words. She says that it's possible that she might have UTI. Nice. I was also worried about the blood in the Urine because Matt has blood in his urine, and it's an indicator for lupus. Matt doesn't have it, but his Mom does. Anyways I haven't heard back from the Dr. so she doesn't have a UTI. That's good, but that doesn't explain the blood in the Urine. I'm going to have to talk to Matt's mom about it. Lupus is not something you want to have. She probably doesn't have it, but it's something I've always worried about when Matt and I decided to have children. I'm not going to stress about it.

Finally the Dr. made it into our room. He was happy with how McKenzie acted, and looked. McKenzie was very shy at first, but warmed up after about 5 min. The next best part of the whole appointment was she didn't have to get any shots because I did them last year. Wahoo!!!! I was so happy with how well behaved McKenzie was, she did such a wonderful job! I told her I would take her to the $ spot at target and let her choose a treat for doing so good. She was excited, and was just beaming about it! I'm so glad this appointment is over and done with. Registration is March 11th and 12th. It's coming way too fast! So lastly here is a picture of the happy girl with her treat that she chose:

I Love??????

So what did you think I was going to say? I Love you? Yes I do!!! I love my husband too, and I love his homemade gifts to me, and our children. I think he is full of talent! So for Christmas he made me this key holder:I thought he did an awesome job! I think it's pretty cool looking as well. I wish that he would get out in our garage more often and put his skills to use and make some more wood projects for me! =)

He also helped the kids make this cute gift for me:
How thoughtful huh? I just smiled and laughed when I opened this gift! It melts my heart whenever I look at it. I have it in my kitchen bye the phone, so I see it all the time!