We have it too...

Yep, we got the dreaded pool parasite that has been going around. I think the official name is Cryptosporidium. I have to tell you, if you are thinking about going swimming in a public pool in Utah...DON'T! Charlie has had it coming out of both ends for the last two weeks. Most it has gone on me, the carpet and in his crib. It's been a real treat to clean up. We've decided we are getting our carpets thoroughly cleaned after we get through this. I've been fortunate enough to not get it yet but Matt and Charlie have it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I won't join them. Anyway, just posting why I haven't been around much lately and I probably won't for a little longer. In the meantime, my advice to you is to stay as far away from the public pool as possible. Ang, I saw you tagged me and it will be my next post when I can find a few non-cleaning up pooh and puke moments. :) Ha ha

BEST WEEKEND EVER

We had such a great weekend. It was the most fun I have had in quite a while. Friday, we just relaxed and biked around delivering bags of vegetables from our garden to some of our neighbors. Saturday, we got cleaning and yardwork done and then picked up a babysitter at 5:15pm. The we were off! We went to the Waterfall Ampitheater at Thanksgiving Point to see our favorite comedian...Brian Regan. He's so funny and his jokes are CLEAN! It was a fantastic night filled with beautiful scenery, great friends and HUGE laughs. How can you not have a great night when you've been laughing for two hours straight? My parents, a lot of Matt's Fam and a lot of our friends were able to come as well. If you have not heard of Brian Regan, I would HIGHLY reccomend checking him out. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera but there is a picture of him above and here is a link to a clip of him on youtube. Enjoy.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WUU9CqrtFiU

Oh, but this is not where the greatness ends! The following day, Sunday, went so well at church. Charlie was okay during Sacrament. I only had to take him out a couple times and he let me hold him and walk around. No screaming or fits to get down and run around! So, I was feeling pretty good. THEN, I took him to Nursery and told the leader I was going to try leaving him. I've tried before with no luck but I thought I'd give it another shot. Well, he stayed the whole time...no problem! I got to go to Relief Society the whole time and just sit there peacefully listening to the lesson without a care in the world. The first time in 6 months!! When I got home from church, I felt so rested and happy. THEN, Matt got home from his meetings little earlier than normal! We got to spend a lot of the day together and we even snuck in a nap. It was the perfect end to the perfect weekend. I still feel a little giddy when I think about it. Good times, good memories! Yeah!

YUBA LAKE

I'm going to try and catch up on some of the things we have been doing lately. We've been a bit busy lately and have not had a lot of time for blogging.

We went camping and boating at Yuba Lake with the Shirts Fam and the Hodges Fam last week. It was pretty fun...a little windy which made all our meals sand flavored, but fun none the less.

We hate our tent. The poles are so hard to get in and out. Matt was still able to flash a smile while setting it up. We officially decided to get a new tent before our next camping trip.

I don't know if we should actually admit this but we tied Charlie to a tree. We were so nervous being so close to water, and he's such a fast little guy, so we tied him up. We only did it for about a half hour while we got everything set up. You can see in the picture, he's not too pleased about it. On the bright side, he did amazing sleeping in the tent. He didn't cry the entire night...even through the strong winds that were trying to blow our tent over. We were surprised and thankful.

Winston really enjoyed riding on the tube with me. Then he got a ride with Dad and they went a little crazy going in and out of the wake. He ended up in tears and in my lap the rest of that boat ride.

Picture of the lake. We had no idea this lake was only 45 minutes from our house. Who knew?

Matt, Scott and Dan hanging out at our campsite.

Free Charlie to a good home

Does that seem mean? Sorry if it does. Today has just been one of those days where I wonder if this kid is for real. We started out the morning getting ready for church. It all went fairly smooth since I was actually responsible enough (for once) to lay out everyone's church clothes and iron everything the night before. (Matt has early morning meetings and I usually only see him up close for a few minutes at church each week.) We got to church...again, all going fairly well. Halfway through Sacrament meeting, C has some pretty gnarly seizures and ends up throwing up (an occasional side effect of the bad ones). I'm still optimistic about our day as I clean it all up with wet wipes. Towards the end of the meeting, C gets a stinky diaper. I drag both kids to the bathroom, get it changed and go to wash my hands, leaving C strapped on the changing tables. (I love whoever thought of including a buckle on those things.) While I'm washing, I glance at C just as puke-mania begins. Let's just say lots of puke, soaked clothes, my signal that it's time to bail and go home. By this time, Sacrament Meeting is over so I go in and find Matt while everyone is looking at my puke drenched son in my arms. I send W to Sunbeams and head home. You would think my troubles would be over. Not when you've got a kid like C-man. Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost sympathy for sick kids. I like to rock mine and help them any way I can when they are feeling crummy. I don't want to anyone to think I'm a monster mom after reading this. The thing is, C is just puking and running around happy as a clam. He doesn't seem sick at all. In fact, I feel like his energy has increased ten fold and he's into EVERYTHING today! Since we came home from church, here are a few of the things he has accomplished...

Emptying a bag of Saltine Crackers all over the kitchen floor

Poking in the lid of his sippy cup and pouring the entire contents on the carpet...oh, just did this again with W's sippy cup

Finding a bottle of bath soap I just bought and pouring the whole bottle on the kitchen floor

Puking on, not one, but both our couches. LOTS of it.

Opening and crumbling a chocolate bar all over the floor that he found in the cooler from our camping trip yesterday

Squirting A&D Ointment all over himself and the carpet

Playing with the stick of hair wax...again, all over his body, hair and our carpet and couch

Unrolling a roll of paper towels while I was trying to clean up the puke on the couch

Grabbing the pile of paper towels I had just used to clean up the puke and running away laughing while all the contents (puke) fell all over the floor for me to clean up again

Dumping out my big hospital mug full of water onto my bedroom nightstand and carpet

Repeatedly turning the dishwasher off while I'm trying to run it

Repeatedly unplugging the vacuum while I am trying to clean up his messes with it

Pulling half the stuff off one of the pantry shelves and throwing it on the floor

Dumping the container of grapes from Costco all over the kitchen floor

Getting in the fridge and pulling a number of condiments out of the door...I caught him before he could pour them out

There you go. I'd like to say this is unusual behavior for C. However, this is a fairly typical day, minus the puking. Luckily, he has a cute little smile and gives some mighty big hugs. I was just telling Matt the other day that God must have made kids cute to save their lives. I've got a few more stories on the C subject but they will have to wait for another day. Matt just got home from his church meetings...yes, it's almost 5pm and he started at 7am this morning. I'm going to spend time with another adult for a few minutes. TBC...

The McGhies strike again

We went to the Fiesta Days parade with some friends from our neighborhood. After the parade, they headed off to the carnival (we'd already been) and we headed home. Unfortunately for them, we spotted their Suburban on our way out.

At least we left a note. Later, we found out they really thought it was broken when they first saw it from down the street. We have been told they will be seeking revenge. We say "bring it!"

FLUBBER is Fun

I try to do a craft with W a couple times a week. Today we made Flubber. It was actually really fun. We used cookie cutters to make shapes and watched them melt together. This pic is of a gingerbread man we cut out and W held it by its head until it was all stretched out. I'll post the recipe below in case anyone wants to try it out. One small piece of advice...if you lay on the ground and put it all over your face to make your 3 year old laugh, make nose holes so you can breath. Otherwise, it will probably get sucked up your nostrils. Just an FYI...

It won't let me copy and paste the recipe, so look it up yourself. Here's the addy...

http://www.makingfriends.com/r_flubber.htm

Pool Parties Galore!

One of our lovely neighbors put a pool in her backyard. She gave Matt and I the combination to the lock on her gate and said to come and go as we please. How cool is that? We've had a few pool parties since and I'm sure there are many more to come. These are pics of a few of the neighborhood girls and I with our kids enjoying the goods. It's like the best of both worlds...swim whenever we want with no clean up or up keep. Yes please!!

C, W and I

W and his buddy from across the street

Me and C

Neighborhood Gals

I feel young again

I took the kids to the park tonight to watch Matt's softball game. We had a good time and played on the toys afterward. Matt drove the Jeep and I was on the bike with the kids in the trailer behind me and we were "racing" home. Matt turned up one street and I decided to take another one to beat him (not that I even had a chance). About a minute after our parting, part of my foot got tangled in the bike chain and the handle bars turned sideways and I ate it on the cement. C started crying and W was yelling "are you okay Mom? are you okay Mom?" I jumped up, looked around to make sure no one saw the wreck and gave a little laugh (for my kid's sake) and said "I'm fine, I'm okay!" until they calmed down. Then I checked out my skinned knee, gouged heel, scraped hands and torn baby toenail to asssess the damage. It smarted a little but I think my pride was hurt the most. I got home and told Matt about what happened and, after a small laugh, he helped me bandage up my wounds. I told him I don't think I have wrecked on bike since I was little girl. It made me feel like a kid again. I even get to have bandaids on! :)

Icelandic Days

Icelandic Monument here in Spanish Fork

Matt served his mission to Iceland. It is kind of nifty because, starting in 1855, a lot of LDS converts from Iceland emigrated to Utah with the majority of them settling in Spanish Fork. They have an Icelandic Association of Utah based here in SF that we are members of and they have Icelandic Days each Summer here in Spanish that we enjoy attending. This year the main event was at the park where we had some authentic Icelandic Food (I'll have Matt write what it was...I'm not even going to attempt...), we got to look at and pet the Icelandic Sheep, and they had a nice program with the Icelandic Children's Choir performing. It was a pretty fun day. They even have a monument here in Spanish (above) commemorating the first Icelandic settlement in the United States. The lighthouse is a replica on an Icelandic lighthouse and contains a Viking ship on top with the 16 original Icelandic immigrants names etched into the monument.

When we first moved to Spanish Fork in 2005, some additions were finished on the monument and President Hinckley came here to dedicate it. We were lucky enough to attend that event. It's been neat for Matt to have the opportunity to keep in touch with the people and some of the culture from his mission. I guess it was meant to be that we moved to Spanish Fork!

LAGOON DAY!

Matt's company had a family Lagoon Day last month. It was stinkin' hot but we had soooo much fun. Matt and I really enjoyed watching the kids on the rides. Thanks Ampien for the great day!

This was C's first ride. He was all smiles when he got in and then, when it actually started moving, he was so excited he kept his mouth open the entire ride. It was really funny and cute.

Once he caught on to the whole ride thing, C had a hard time waiting in line. He wanted to get on the rides and go as fast as he could. Each time we had to wait for a ride, he would cry and point and try to get out of our arms and run to it.

W had a blast as well. Being a little older and wiser, he was able to exercise a little more patience waiting for the rides but he loved them every bit as much as C. It was so fun.

Even I had to jump on and enjoy some of the rides. The last half of the day we spent at Lagoona Beach. It felt so good to cool down after walking around in the heat all day. All in all, it was a very successful Lagoon adventure.

Long time no blog

I have fallen a little behind on the blogging scene. This morning I had to cancel my slot for childcare at the gym because C was having an extreme meltdown and I knew there was no way he would let me leave him. I'm a little bummed to miss out on my favorite class and I really wanted to try out my new ipod armband. However, it gives me an hour and a half to blog some of the things the McGhie Fam has been up to lately. We'll see how much I actually get done with W talking my ear off :) and C still being the crankmeister. I'll do my darndest...

I've cooked a few meals using the fresh produce from our garden this week. Yum!

Basil that makes...

Fresh Pesto

Bell Peppers that make delicious... Fajitas!

Up and Growing

To our surprise, our garden is doing quite well! We have corn, potatoes, herbs, squash, watermelon, strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, peas, bell peppers, jalapanos, onions, cabbage and a few other things. Here are some pics of the goods.

Tomatoes

Cabbage

Lettuce

Cilantro

Last week, we went with the Shirts Fam to Utah Lake.

Me and Rhonda on the tube with all the kids...

Camden, Alora, Winston and Charlie

The funniest part of this trip was when Matt and Dan got on the tube and Rhonda was driving. She punched it to around 40 mph and the guys didn't even want to let go to signal us to slow down because we were going so fast. In the mean time, Rhonda and I were in the boat chatting and laughing at them. They were pretty tired after that ride.

Me. It felt good to get out on the water again. It's been a while.

Matt ended the evening by slaloming off into the sunset...or away from the sunset. :)

Boating with Friends

We went up to Deer Creek with the Loftus Fam. It was a little

chilly but still lots of fun. Matt skiing

The funniest part of the trip was that they only had these teeny orange vests for the adults. (They just bought the boat and thought it came with some ski vests.) This is Shane modeling one of them.

Matt and Win on the tube

Charlie, Alison and I

Finding Help For Our Sweet Charlie

After some really awful experiences with medications to treat Charlie's epilepsy, we decided to take him to a Homeopathic Doctor. We decided we will try pretty much anything we feel is safe before we try another medication. They really messed him up. He was like a different boy...cranky all the time, he stopped talking, his learning was slow, he needed to sleep a lot and more...it was upsetting to all of us. So, we felt the best thing was to take him off medications all together for the time being. They were not stopping the seizures anyway, so we weren't doing any harm.

We've tried no dairy diets and a few other small things that haven't seemed to do a whole lot but we feel like there is something out there to help him. We just need to find it. Matt's boss was recently telling him about their daughter who had some health problems and their friend suggested this homeopathic Dr. They have had no luck with other treatments so they figured they would give it a try. It has only been a couple weeks but her problems seem to be getting better with the herbs and regimen the H.D. has given her.

Why wouldn't we try it? There's nothing to lose (except a lot of money...it's a bit expensive and insurance doesn't cover it.) So, we took him to his first appt. yesterday. I knew it was going to be a little "different" and had somewhat mentally prepared myself. She did her testing and found quite a few things out of whack in Charlie's poor little body. She said he has three major things that need to be taken care of and if an adult had just one of those things, they would be in severe depression. She told me he is an overactive child (really? I hadn't noticed!). I was feeling a little overwhelmed and I was really glad Matt was there.

So, she gave us a list of things to do to help C and we are going back for a second appt. in two weeks. She said we should notice a difference in him by then...less seizures, calmer, etc. I am just worried about doing everything she "prescribed." She told us to feed him 4-5 slivers of garlic a day and to blend 3 stalks of cilantro in a half a cup of water and have him drink that daily as well. Hmmm...how do you get a two year old to eat stuff like that? She is also having us use a blend of three essential oils and olive oil to rub on his head, neck and feet each day. Then we've got to get him to take 30 drops of Kid-e-Mune, 20 of Kid-e-Calc and 30 of Kid-e-Trac (also daily) and give him chewable Calcium with Magnesium after each seizure. See what I mean about overwhelming? Oh, and did I mention he cannot have dairy anymore...and Soymilk is not allowed either. So, I get to buy the super duper expensive Rice Milk. I thought the Soymilk was expensive until I had to start buying this stuff. We are going to have a tough time eliminating cheese from his diet as well since it is one of his favorite foods. :(

Honestly, if it works, it will be worth it a million times over. I really want to believe it's going to help. I know a lot of people have had success with natural healing methods. I hope we are one of them. Pray for us...mostly for our little Charlie. I don't know what to do for him. I wish I could just sweep in and take away all his problems and let him have a normal, hassle free childhood. I know there are a lot of people out there who have problems worse than ours. Sometimes I just need to let a little of the worry out.

4Th of July

Matt and I met my parents at the Freedom Days Celebration in Provo and walked around for a bit. Then we came back to our house and had a BBQ with mine and Matt's parents and Michael. It was blooming hot but it was really nice to visit with the family. We also celebrated C's birthday that day with the family.

That night, a lot of neighbors gathered in the street in front of our house and lit off fireworks. It was really fun. The kids all had a blast. We love our neighborhood...there is always something happenin' going on around here.

Winston with some fireworks in the background.

Matt helping W light a sparkler. He was a little nervous at first but (as you can see in the bottom pic) very determined to participate in the 4th of July fun. :)

Charlie is 2 years old! Unfortunately, he didn't feel very well on his birthday.

Fortunately, he had a big brother to help him blow out the candles...

and open his presents...

and eat the cake I got up at 6:30 am that morning to make. He LOVES dogs so I thought he would love a dog cake. I knew it was a success when he said "Sam...Speak!' (Sam is my SIL's dog and he barks when C says "SPEAK" and gives him a treat.

Happy Birthday Charlie!!