Boutique

My sister, Lindsay, hosted a boutique a few weeks ago. This is my table of items I made for the boutique. 

We all wish we could call it a success. But, unfortunately, it was not. And, that is not because of a lack of talent. All of the lady vendors were very talented, and I thought that for the most part the pricing was pretty decent. Hardly any people who came were in a buying mood. Some people came for free food and then left. 

I don't know if Lindsay will host one again. It was a lot of work. She put quite a bit of time and money into the event. It was fun for me to do some painting though.

Paintings

Scorpions

On Saturday Hannah got stung by a scorpion. She disturbed some scorpions when she picked up a towel from off of the ground. At first she was just crying, her foot swelled a little bit, but it didn't seem too serious. Michelle called the pediatrician and he said we needed to go to the ER. I am so glad that we did. 

The drive over to the hospital was the longest and scariest drive of my life. Hannah began to foam at the mouth, throw up mucousy stuff, her eyes began to roll around in opposite directions really fast, she had jerky movements with her legs, her breathing became louder and she was doing a weird raspberry thing with her mouth. I could see her getting progressively worse as we drove, and I kept yelling to Jon Mark to drive faster. He turned on his hazard lights and sped at about 85 MPH. My poor baby was in so much pain. By the time we got there, the receptionists were going to make us wait in line to register. Jon Mark said with urgency that she had been stung by a scorpion and needed to be seen now. We were rushed back by some doctors who heard him, and soon the entire ER staff (or so it seemed) was in our little room working on our sweet girl.

They hooked Hannah up to oxygen and started suctioning her airway. They gave her some pain medicine that knocked her out while they continued to work on her. Someone asked Jon Mark to go with them so that he could give them some information, and that's when I kind of lost it. I asked the nurses if she was going to be okay. I had tears flowing,standing there still wearing my swimsuit from earlier, I am sure I looked a little frightful. The nurse was reassuring to me. She said, "just wait til we give her the Anascorp, you will witness a miracle. She is going to be fine." I did witness a miracle. She has been my miracle child twice already and she is just 2.

I am grateful. So, so grateful. I am grateful for a husband who gave her two blessings. I am thankful for parents and in-laws who pray for us and who are willing to drop everything to come to our rescue. I am thankful for sisters and brothers who care so much about our children, who will watch our children at a moment's notice. I am thankful for the support of family. I am grateful for little Mercedes and her sweet, very tearful prayers. I am grateful that Michelle thought to sing our kids some primary songs to help ease their fears. My heart is just so full of gratitude. I know that Heavenly Father was looking out for my family.

Hannah is doing fine now. She had a follow up appointment with her pediatrician and he said that we were very lucky that it didn't happen a few years ago. Before the anti-venom, there wasn't much that doctor's and nurses could do for young children and babies. Patients would spend days in the ICU and some would die. Before Anascorp, they used an antibody from sheep's blood and the majority of patients would get what is called "serum sickness" and almost die from the medicine that was supposed to help them. So, I am grateful. I am thankful for advances in medicine and for medical professionals.  

Baptism and Boy Scouts

What a great day it was yesterday! Aside from Hannah being stung by a scorpion (a post for itself), it was a fun day. Joshua was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We had a luncheon afterward, and then we went down the river. Then, we swam at my in laws. The day ended with the ER, but it was a fun day beforehand.

Joshua was a little embarrassed from being the center of attention. He was a little shy. He was a good sport with all of the pictures, and Kevin did some great dance moves to make him smile. :)

Joshua also has started cub scouts. He LOVES scouts!!!!! He gets so excited. He comes home super happy and tells me all about it.

Baptism Pictures 1

This boy...

So handsome. So big. So sweet. So smart. So funny, inventive, mature, and 8.

Joshua, you have chosen to get baptized this weekend. We are so proud of you. September 12th, 2015 will be a momentous day for you. You will take that first step in a line of covenants and promises that will help you return home to Heaven.

This suit that Mommom got you makes you look so grown up. You love this suit. You wear it every Sunday and you like the way it makes you feel. 

Today I had the opportunity to go through a BUNCH of old pictures of you. Many of them I haven't seen in years. Your Grandma Haws is putting together a video for us all to watch at the luncheon after your baptism. I thought her video was PERFECT, and the song is so you! She did a great job making it and it made me cry. I went through some old pictures to see if I had any specific pictures that she thought would be good. I spent her whole visit looking at the pictures, hopefully she had as much fun as I did. 8 years has flown by so fast. 

Your such a good boy. You try hard to do what is right. You look after your siblings with such maturity and love. You know the scriptures far better than I did at your age. You soak up knowledge like a sponge. You love to read. You love learning about history, especially American history. You love playing rough with Dad. I'm glad you have a Dad who loves to play with you, even after long days at work. You have such a great memory. You remember things that happened so long ago, it is pretty amazing. I hope you remember Saturday. I hope it is a good experience for you. Keep loving the Lord and keeping His commandments and you will have a happy life. I know that Heavenly Father has given us commandments because He loves us and wants us to be happy. This becomes more and more clear to me every day as I get older. There is such wisdom in the commandments. Stay close to your Savior, Jesus Christ, and you will always be happy, no matter what this life throws at you. You were saved to live in this time period. You can do so much good in this world. People ask me why I have so many kids, and I say it's because the world needs more kids like mine in it. You are such a good kid. We love you!

Shananigans

That messy-haired cutie is my Banana. She refuses to leave on clothes. She forever is taking off her diaper. She rips rubber bands out of her hair. She gets muddy and rolls in the grass. She loves to laugh and dance. She tells Jazmine that I am her mommy. She sits on her potty chair but doesn't successfully go inside it. She copies everything you say just like a little parrot. 

Caleb Jon can roll forwards and backwards. He spits up a lot. He loves catching my eye from across the room and giving me big smiles so I will come and pick him up. If I can't pick him up, he gets very sad. I is tickilish and fun. He has two teeth poking through and likes to chew on his fingers.

Lukey bear is a sensitive boy. He is always bringing me flowers and drawing me pictures. The other day he told me to stay upstairs because he had a surprise for me. When I came downstairs he had drawn four pictures and taped them up around the house. The other day I got upset with the kids for not picking up their toys. I sat them all down on the couch and said to them that I was going to throw away one of their toys. Joshua got really REALLY sad. Lukey didn't like seeing him so sad. So, he said, "Mommy, you can pick two of my toys to throw away so that Joshua can keep all of his toys. I don't want Joshua to be sad."

Mercedes has been finding her way into my room and sleeping on the floor at some point in the night. She says she is having bad dreams. We let her sleep with the boys on the weekends because Jon Mark and I feel badly that we had to separate them. If we had it our way, they'd all be sharing a room. But, we feel genders should be separated (except on the weekends-or so it seems). She loves her brothers and misses them. The other night, she called me into her room and said that she had a secret for me. I leaned down and she whispered in my ear "I love you, Mom". Then, she said, "Why do we have to eat salad?" 

I don't have a picture for Joshua on this post. I will be posting his baptism pictures soon. Anyway, he is a sweetheart. The other night, as I was tucking him into bed, he said, "You know, it's hard to stay mad at someone when they miss you so much." I asked him who he was talking about, and he said that every morning Hannah climbs up to the top bunk where Joshua is sleeping and wakes him up. She goes to him first, before any one else in the family. I said that I was glad it was him and not me because she wakes up way too early (like 5:45 or 6 am). My alarm is set for 6:45. Joshua then said, "Yeah, it's hard to get mad because she just misses me so much. And, I'm glad it's me that she wakes up because you're still recovering from childbirth." Not sure that 6 months is needed for childbirth recovery, but hey, I'll take it :) The other day we were headed straight to my mom and dad's after school because I was taking Leyla dinner at the hospice center. I told the kids that Grandma would have to help them with their homework. Joshua said, "I don't think that Grandma will know how to help us. I mean, she went to school in the olden days, like a really long time ago." I told him that Grandma was smart and would be able to help him anyway. He said, "Yeah, but, she went to school back when they actually thought that Pluto was a planet!" He said it with such disbelief that I had to chuckle. I thought Papa Mac would get a kick out of that because Jon Mark is always comparing him to dirt and whatnot. I guess the Pluto thing is a whole new generations version of dirt! HAHA!

A random picture of John Frost. Not sure when. Not sure why. But, he is cute!

Here I am trying to get a mom and son picture. I am just showing off his blue eyes. He is just too cute!

2 Milestones

Two milestones have been reached in the McAvoy household. The first one I was hoping would never exist. We had gotten lucky so far with not having to deal with this. Luke came to me with a bloody napkin and he was asking me to "get it out". I didn't know what he was talking about until I looked WAY up his nose. That's when I saw it. It was a bead. He had shoved a green bead up his nose.  I had heard about things like this happening to other families, but never in ours. I would have taken him to the doctor. But Caleb was sleeping so peacefully and I needed to get the kids home from school. Plus, while looking with the flashlight, I saw a slender gap and figured that I could carefully slide something through to get behind the bead and pry it out. I grabbed one of those "unlocker thingys" that you use to unlock household doors (I guess I could use the word "key", but it isn't quite a key). I told him to hold still, and very carefully I got it out of the danger zone. Then, I snapped a picture. I threw the bead away and he cried. 

The second milestone, is this one. My 8 year old son built a series of Lego projects ALL by himself. He read the step by step instructions and figured it all out. I was so proud of him! Way to go, Joshua!