Crazy, Eventful Birthday Weekend

April brings our sweet Cadence's birthday.  I can't believe she is "5" already.  Time has just flown by. She is so incredibly fun.  She's smart, sassy, funny, and a pure delight to me.  We are all so grateful to have her in our family.  The beginning of April I was busy with birthday plans.  Getting ready for her special day at preschool and her first friend party.  Then the craziness began ...

It all started on Thursday night, April 4th.  I was making unicorn sugar cookies for Cadence's special day at preschool.  We were in charge of bringing a treat and Cadence was excited I was going to stay at school with her.  I was having some back pain while icing the cookies and after I had finished the glaze and was about to make the rainbow icing to add to the mane and tail the pain started to get worse.  I had Jason rub my back but then it was impossible to find a comfortable position.  For maybe a half hour I kept waiting for the pain to subside but it just continued to get worse.  Finally, around 10 pm we decided I'd better go to emergency.

I didn't have to wait in emergency too long probably because of the racket I was making.  Crazy pain.  After waiting for a bit while they took blood work, got me hooked up to an IV, they gave me some pain killers.  The instant relief was fantastic and I felt so much better.  Since the ultrasound department was closed for the night they decided to keep me until it opened again at 8 am since every time the drugs wore off the pain came back.

I was most upset that I was not able to finish Cadence's cookies the way I wanted to and that I would miss her special day.

Jason went home to get a bit of sleep and sort out the kids in the morning.  He had Ashton stay home from school so he'd be able to walk Cadence home after her preschool class and once everyone was at school Jason returned to the hospital.  In the meantime, I'd had an ultrasound.  After a couple more hours I saw doctors who informed me I had several gall stones and they recommended I have my gall bladder out.  They were hoping to do the surgery that day but depending on time it might have to wait until Saturday.

I spent Friday in the hospital on pain meds and waiting.  Jason went home later in the day to see how the kids were doing.  At 8 pm I was informed my surgery would happen at 8:30 pm.  I was very nervous but grateful I was being taken care of.  The surgery went very well, but I ended up in recovery longer than expected which worried my poor husband who had returned to the hospital.  I made it back to my room about 2:30 am.

Now my biggest worry was - will I make it home in time for Cadence's birthday party.  About 10 am the doctors were doing their rounds.  They said I could go home, so I asked if I'd be able to leave in time to make it to my daughter's birthday party at 1 pm.  They said I could and the nurses were great about getting me discharged first. Jason came and got me and we returned home about an hour before Cadence's little friends were to arrive.

Such a crazy couple days.  Very grateful for the care I received and that now I'm as good as new except for 5 tiny scars.

Crazy Hair Day

Cadence has been having a great time at preschool this year.  She is always happy and excited to go and has learned so much.  I'm so grateful to have such a great little school so close.  She recently had crazy hair day at school.  After perusing Pinterest for some ideas Cadence settled on this one.

She loved it, unfortunately the hair dye transferred onto everything.  It got all over her sweater, car seat, me, furniture etc. Maybe I sprayed to much and it didn't have enough time to dry.  Luckily it cleaned up nicely and was a hit at preschool.

Left quite the ring around the tub to scrub.

Happy 15th Birthday Ashton!

In March we had another birthday.  Ashton turned 15 on March 17th.  He has grown a lot this year, both in height and maturity.  He is very responsible, kind and can be a huge help (when he's motivated, hehe!).  He has really enjoyed going to seminary this year and has almost perfect attendance.

We had a quiet celebration on the day of his birthday with dinner at Dennys, presents and cake.

A few days later Ashton had a few friends over for brunch and an afternoon of video gaming.  They all had a great time.  Such a great bunch of guys.

Proud of you Ashton and the young man you are.  You are so smart and can do anything you put your mind too.  It will be fun to watch you continue to mature and accomplish so many things.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Our Beautiful Ballerina

This past year Cadence has taken 2 sets of 10 week ballet classes through the City of Calgary Recreation.

She has thoroughly enjoyed the classes and wants to take more.  We kinda exhausted the City programs so we have signed her up with a dance studio near our house for weekly classes starting in September.  She is very excited.

At the end of each course the parents and siblings were invited to come and see the young dancers and what they had learned.

I have to say I love her little ballet outfit so much.  She told me yesterday her ballet slippers are starting to get tight.  I guess we'll be buying new gear before September.

Routine Disruption

My regular morning routine is driving Ashton to seminary each morning at 6:30 a.m.  Luckily Bowen is old enough to stay home and he watches Cadence for me until our return around 8 am.  The seminary building is a 15 - 20 minute drive so it makes no sense to drive home in between so I just wait for his 45 minute class to be over.  I either read my scriptures, or my bookclub book, or let's be honest some mornings I sleep.

This past week Bowen has been away at Band Camp, so it has altered our routine a bit.  Tuesday morning Bowen needed to be at the school at 7:30 a.m., so at 6:30 a.m. I loaded all the kids into the truck and off we went.  About half way to the seminary building Bowen informs me he was supposed to bring his baritone saxophone to band camp as he isn't supposed to take the one he uses at school.  Ugh!  I dropped off Ashton at seminary at 6:50 a.m. and headed back home.  Got home, Bowen grabbed his instrument and we were off to the school.  7:30 a.m. dropped off Bowen at the school for his band camp.

Headed back to seminary and picked up Ashton and finally headed home. 

The past 3 mornings with Bowen away I've had to bring Cadence with me to do the seminary run.  She doesn't seem to mind.

Toys, snacks, drink, movie to watch, comfy blanket, she looks pretty content to me.  Looking forward to getting back to our regular routine tomorrow. Hope Bowen has had a great time at Band Camp.

Valentine's Day 2019

We had a great Valentines Day at the Atwood house this year.  It started the night before with Cadence preparing valentine treats for her preschool friends.  Last kid to make valentine cards! I'm afraid we went with some store bought cards and added some tattoes and candies.

The kids were off school on Valentine's Day, so they surprised me with breakfast in bed.  Sweet kids.  It was very yummy.

When Jason got home from work we headed out.  We decided we would try and leave the kids overnight by themselves for the first time.  We got a nice hotel room just down the street (so we were close just in case).  Went to The Keg for dinner.  It was very busy.  We usually don't go out for Valentine's Day since it is so close to our anniversary, but we weren't in any rush so we didn't mind the wait.

We had a delicious meal.  Bacon wrapped scallops for appetizer and an amazing dinner of steak and lobster.

The kids did great on their own overnight and weren't nervous at all.  It was a much needed break and was so nice to spend some one on one time with my hubby.

A Day in the Life of ..

Our little Cadence is a growing concern and I'm enjoying having a little girl in the family.  She keeps me busy.  What Cadence has been up to the last little while:

Cadence loves girlie things like painting her nails.

Loves going to the library.

She loves preschool - this was beach day at school.

Loves playing dress up with mom's shoes.

Loves her brothers, especially when they play with her.

Putting on lipstick before going to preschool.  Like I said - a girlie girl!

Trying on a new outfit. She loves clothes.

Showing off craft projects from school.

She is still enjoying ballet class.  She goes on Saturday mornings to a City of Calgary run program.  She has 3 more weeks and then I think I may have to consider putting her in a studio in September.

Sometimes she wears her hairband as a sleep mask at night.  Crazy girl.

Crazy hat day at school.

How lucky are we to have such a fun, independent, smart, sassy girl to call our own.

DIY Dentistry

A few weeks ago Cadence said one of her teeth hurt.  So I thought we better get everyone back to the dentist.  Bowen had a broken tooth and one small cavity to fix.  Cadence unfortunately had 3 little cavities and one quite big cavity.  She was so brave and didn't cry or complain once.  She took the needles great and was a trooper for 3 appointments.  I may or may not have bribed her with getting a toy afterwards.

Ashton had 3 cavities to fix.  I was in the waiting room during Ashton's appointment.  After he'd been in the dentist chair for awhile I got a test from Ashton - "The dentist still isn't here.  I think I'm going to pull a Mr. Bean and fix my own teeth."  A few minutes later he sent me this picture.  He cracks me up!

Another Teenager in the House - Pray for Us

Well, I've finally dusted off my blog and am trying to get back at it.  There is so much to catch up on but for now, I'll post about Bowen's birthday that happened yesterday.

Our Bowen is 13!!  That's right, another teenager in the house.  Bowen is a great kid.  He's so smart (probably too smart for his own good).  He's very sensitive, talented, dramatic, really funny and we are grateful to call him ours (most days - hehe).

Monday night we took Bowen to his favourite restaurant - Red Lobster or Red Lobsters as Cadence calls it - for dinner.

Bowen ordered the most expensive thing on the menu I think.  He had crab legs, shrimp, lobster, and mashed potatoes.  Even Cadence ordered lobster and ate the whole thing.  Why do our kids have such expensive tastes?  When I was growing up we weren't allowed to have lobster!

Yesterday, his actual birthday I made him eggs benedict for breakfast after getting home from taking Ashton to seminary. 

Then off to school for the birthday boy.  Unfortunately, he had a pretty terrible day at school, including having a pop burst in his backpack, but he did say the rest of the day at home made up for it.  For supper, we had one of Bowen's favourite meals, butter chicken.  If you haven't figured out already, it is all about the food for Bowen.  Then it was time for presents and cake.

Bowen got a screen protector for his Switch, a pro controller, and travel case for all his gaming gear.  He was excited and happy.

Happy Birthday Bowen!  We are very proud of the great young man you are becoming and love you very much.  Hope "13" is a fantastic year.

Summer Beginnings

It is finally summer.  The month of June seemed long for my boys who were very anxious to be out of school. 

The last day of school I was trying to get a picture of the boys walking to the bus stop for the last time before their much-anticipated summer break.  They were being stinkers and were walking while facing me and would not turn around.

After school Bowen had a few buddies over for an "End of School" party.  I fed them pizza, chips and juice and they played games and had a great time.

It's on days like this that I'm very grateful for a big vehicle.

We've set up Cadence's little pool and she's spent many hours enjoying it.

Ashton checked out some garage sales one Saturday and came home with a huge bag of lego for his sister.  Such a great big brother.

A favorite activity to beat the heat is to head to the library.

SUMMER IS OFF TO A GREAT START