Henoch Purpura = Crazy purple spots

I'm going to record this for future reference in case it happens again...

One day (of course it was a Saturday evening) out of no where I was helping Laylah go to the bathroom and she had these red spots all over her legs. What? They looked like hives. So I started trying to figure out if it could have been an allergy... I used my normal remedies. She did seem a bit uncomfortable but I think she was just tired.

The next day they looked like this!!!

Purple... The normal behavior of hives is to itch like crazy, and if you draw a circle around one of the bumps it should change size, shape completely within a few hours. These seemed to be in the same places and she never once tried to scratch them. But she said ouch if we pushed them. NOT the normal behavior of anything I had ever seen..

She still didn't seem bothered. I did a lot of research and found a couple of things it may be. I took her to the doctor Monday. He said it was 'Henoch Purpura'. This is short description: HSP seems to represent an unusual reaction of the body's immune system that is in response to this infection (either bacteria or virus). The blood vessels become inflamed. She had some kind of an infection which caused a high fever for 24 hours and then she was fine.. but that was about 1-2 weeks prior? I don't know, it was crazy. I'm going to have one more test run to make sure it didn't affect her kidneys. But she seems to be back to normal! Oh and I didn't think it would be a big deal to get her to pee in a bag... wrong! She was way to interested in what I was doing, it took 2 days to finally have success!

It was so sad. The Dr. said the bruising should last up to 6 weeks. I don't know if it was because of what I was doing (mostly applying oils and salves topically) but they were gone in 1 week.

We are happy that it wasn't anything serious!

Happy Birthday to you!

Laylah Eve Roberts - 2 years old

My baby turned 2. It some ways it seems like SO LONG AGO when I was welcoming her into this world (or rather - threatening that if she didn't come NOW I would't make it through the labor)! But she did listen and came in perfect time. She is such a gem. I am absolutely crazy about her. Her face, voice, pigtails etc. My sweet Kalel has loved her from day one. However we have entered the 'sibling rivalry' stage. It hasn't been too bad. But it gets really old hearing her scream and knowing he has something to do with it. We are working on the screaming with HER and teaching HIM that when she says please stop - he needs to listen!!

This are photos from a video I took of her when she found her lipgloss. I love her faces!

Some things I hear multiple times a day:

Hi Mom! - Can I hold you? - Can I hold your hand? - Okayyyyy - So... where's my Dad? Where's my binti (binky) - Stop Kalel, Okayyy? - Don't Kalel, Okayyy? - Hey! - Hey, that's mine! - I'll be right back, okayyyy? - Bye Mom! I'll see you later! - Can I go outside? - I'm so sorry! - Was that cool? - Was that funny?

She's a crack up. The other day, while sitting at dinner Kalel randomly (though not uncommon) says, Mom I love you. Laylah was in her high chair behind me and said, '' Lub you Mom... Monkey head.'' What? No idea where she got that one.

She is quite girly. She loves, necklaces, her 'pretty rings', shoes - no matter who's they are, getting her nails painted and then showing Daddy her 'preeey nails', and dancing. Whenever she hears music in the other room her eyes get big and she says, 'oh it's time to dance, pum (come) on!' We love love having her happy, sassy personality around. We really do smile and laugh at our kids almost all day :) What a blessing it is to have them.

For her birthday, she was actually sick so we waited until Sunday to celebrate at the Rickenbachs. She and Macie had a joint party. I spent a lot of time on her cake. It took awhile, but it was so fun!

I divided the cake batter into 6 bowl and colored them using Wilton's coloring gels.

Then baked them separately and put them together with frosting. (My pictures wouldn't rotate for some reason :( I used skittles, rolos, and marshmallows to decorate!

It was so fun to cut into!

Ha ha, she tried 5 times to blow out the candles. Her face was so cute. Finally her cousin helped her.

I also made Macie a few little presents. A bag for her, a matching one for her American Girl doll (named McKenna), and a headband and tutu for her doll. They were a hit, and I think I'll be making them for the other nieces this year!

Laylah was spoiled. My Mom got her a crib for her baby - she already made her a blanket and pillow for her baby, which Laylah Loves. She got necklaces, rings, lip gloss, stickers, stuffed animals, play dough, the cutest brown boots etc. It was so fun. And Laylah was so cute and excited.

These were the next morning when she was so excited to go find her loot and Kalel was 'helping' show her what she needed to do with everything. Again her faces in these are great.. as is Kalel's future blackmail picture :)

Unfortulately that was the night before Kyle would start his session up at the Capitol in SLC. He was Representative Mike Morley's legislative assistant. So he wasn't just a 'gopher' but was able to go to committee meetings, give his opionion on bills, and do things like helping with his scheduling etc. This was the beginning of a 6 week session. Kyle went and stayed at my parents. I usually drove up there Wednesday night. We would stay there until he was done on Friday. Then would drive home and be there Friday night through Sunday and he would either leave late Sunday or early Monday. Crazy crazy life, but it was a great experiene for him and my parents were so gracious to give up the peace and quiet of their home. My kids sure do love their Grandma and Grandpa! So do I :)

Oh January

Once we finished the apples we got busy doing other things. I make headbands for my sister's company Persnickety. Before I moved to Texas I was over the hair accessories. I quickly realized that is not something I want to be doing! Way too much work for a 'stay at home mom'. We passed it off to someone when I moved, and she and her husband and their 'people' do a great job. I just pick up 1-2 headbands a season. This season I was working on making 350 'red petal' headbands. I try to schedule my time so that I'm not working on it constantly. Other than that I have the normal crazy life of raising 2 silly kids and supporting one handsome husband.

These are just some random pictures from our days together.

I wanted to document a normal January day. Notice there is no snow. We have had a crazy winter.

The kids got all dressed up, well I just glanced up.. I got Laylah all dressed up. Kalel is (surprise surprise) in his basketball shorts. They went to play in the mud, since there was no snow.

This was hilarious. I went back out to check on them and does anyone notice the child in the background? I did as I was taking the picture....

Sure enough, just what it looked like... Nice. Ha ha and Laylah is trying to figure out what's going on :) Oh boys.

Laylah is really asleep in the first picture. And as always, her hand is through the hole in her pajamas to get to that precious belly button. Kyle is honestly concerned it will end up being huge and deformed :) He is always telling her, "All done belly!" Which lasts until we are no longer there.
Poor Laylah got pretty sick for about 1-2 days. She had a pretty high fever and was just kind of lethargic. I was able to get her fever down to a decent level and she wasn't vocal about any complaints so she laid on the couch watching movies and going in and out of sleep, while I made headbands by her. Kyle was really busy this week working on finishing a room at Persnickety which meant he was gone All day All week, so I'm not going to lie, since she didn't seem too miserable it was kind of nice to have her stay in one place all day! She really didn't want to do anything other than lie down or hold me. She wasn't whiney, crying etc. Very typical of this little one - she came happy. (...and sassy, but still happy) The next day she finally got up to eat breakfast and did pretty well, by the third day she was back to her crazy self. And there actually were times she would whine at my feet because she wanted to be held, but she is a trooper when she's sick.
Some more randoms. I was finally able to do something besides pigtails in Laylah's hair. Kalel and Laylah were hugging. I love to see her little arm hooked around his neck. They love to ride the horsie at Wal-Mart. Kalel was watching his reflection in the window the whole time thinking he was pretty cool. And last, Laylah put her baby to bed in a box, maybe we should get her a bed :)
I love having a girl. One morning we just sat in my bathroom and painted our nails and did her hair. Little cutie.

I sent Laylah to go get a diaper and found her wearing her brother's underwear... ha ha Notice that she also put both legs though one hole :)

Persnickety gave us a perk after we made the apples. A night stay in a local Marriott. We were going to get a babysitter but then I was looking it up and saw the pool and decided the kids would LOVE it. So we took a mini trip to be together before Kyle left for 6 weeks to be up at the Capitol. (more on that later). We packed their backpacks. They looked so cute walking around with their bags. We met Kyle there on a Friday night, he was coming after work. We went out to dinner at Zupas, which is one of my favorites. Then came back and went swimming for as long as they wanted! It was so fun to see them in a pool again. It's been awhile.

Kalel picked right back up where he left off. He jumps right in and swims without floaties. Sometimes I wonder if he will make it but he always does. Laylah didn't jump in like she used to, but was in heaven swimming and just jumped from the steps for now.. I think we will get her warmed back up and back to jumping! Afterwards we went and got dessert and came back and watched a movie. Such a fun little vacation!

Apples + Caramel + Chocolate = My Life

My fabulous sister - in - law taught me how to make caramel apples. So so yummy. We made them for our neighbors as gifts. I brought one to a family party where people enjoyed the deliciousness. Then my sister called me one day and asked if I wanted to earn some money... It depends on how... We (persnickety) need to send out gifts to our customers (retailers buying from them) and I thought about your apples... How many?... 350 Wow. I'll think about it and let you know. I looked up the recipe, priced things out, figured out the time etc. and decided to go for it, only if Kyle would help. We could earn some extra money, buy the kids a bunk bed etc. Well... I went to the Red Barn in Santaquin to buy apples. They were either tiny or huge. And I mean once you get caramel and chocolate on there... HUGE! So instead of getting 25+ to a batch, I was getting 12ish per single batch. We started doubling batches but couldn't do more than that because the caramel would start to harden before we could dip them all. We ended up buying twice the supplies that I planned on and it took twice the time... There were a lot of burns, sweat, and hours put into those apples. I'm not turned off from making them, but I am turned off from making them in large quantities! I did learn a lot and they turned out great! But never again :) Oh, the things we do for money!

Here is a small fraction of the disaster that I called my kitchen. I can't even explain what it was like to get my kitchen back, caramel mess free!!! Clean counters, emptied garbages, clean stove (we did have a caramel overflow once, wow that stuff is not fun (or easy) to clean up! It was quite difficult to maintain a normal eating schedule when my whole kitchen was taken over!

You may not be able to tell from the pic but the counters and stove are covered with caramel and caramel making supplies, the left of the sink was the chocolate dipping station, the right of the sink was the cinnamon sugar sprinkling station. The black stand was where the apples cooled after getting caramel or chocolate. The kitchen table was covered in apples at different stages of the process on wax paper.

Stirring, stirring, stirring. In order to not get dark spots or burned caramel you have to stir basically constantly FOREVER while it caramelized. I started watching Design Star online to pass the time. I'm not sure what this face is... but it does kind of sum it up, jk :)

I was brilliant and put the leftover chocolate on top of the cooled / hard caramel. Well, it stuck...

Here are some waiting to be chocolatized or decorated.

Pretty huh? :)

We always caught her trying to dig into the cooled caramel. (don't worry Mom & Sara the stove is off and the pot is cooled :) She would dig her little nails in and try to get a taste.
Sneaky sneaky. She has put these #10 cans to use lately. They help give her a little extra boost to reach on top of the counter.
Smart smart girl. This is how she chose to eat her caramel apple. Just pull off the goods from the apple with her teeth :)
After being decorated and bagged.

The finished product. I must say I think they turned out be-utifully!

Truth be told, my kids watched their share of movies while we worked on this project! And for some reason they like to lay down together in this cradle, which is the cradle I slept in as a baby!

Here are most of the completed boxes. Waiting to be shipped.

For my record this was the process. Pick the smallest apples.. wash and dry... put on table and put in stick... make caramel and cook until 'soft ball' ... dip and tap... turn upside down to harden.. once cooled dip in chocolate.... sprinkle with cinnamon... put upside down to harden... add cutsy decoration... let dry... bag and tie... TaDa a beautiful and absolutely delicious treat.

Happy New Year!

We brought in the New Year with Kyle's family. We had lots and lots of yummy food including a make your own sushi option.

This was some serious business. Marc taught us how to do it, and then left us to try it out. We had raw salmon, tuna, shrimp, avocados, sauce etc. I'm not a huge sushi lover, but there are some I do like. Kyle on the other hand loves it!

A couple of us enjoying our hats and drinks.

My sister told me, "It's amazing your kids are as cute as they are..."

Here's to another amazing year on our journey together!

Year in Review... 2011

2011 brought us some crazy, hot, funny, cold, happy, not so much fun - changes. Here is a pic or two from each month for a review of another year in the life of the Roberts' Family.

A late celebration of our 5 years together - ice skating!

Celebrating my happy baby turning 1!

Another year with this crazy kid... I turned 26!

Always love my girl time. My sisters and Mom will always be my best friends! And we love our only brother Mikey too!

Lil' color festival with my man.

Happy birthday to my little man who turned 4! He is such a joy!

Welcome home Uncle Kevin!

Goodbye our Spanish Fork home where we stayed for 1 1/2 years. We had some great times there and some hard times. Best memory there would be introducing Laylah Eve to our family! We loved playing in the backyard with our swingset, and loved being close to the 'farm', we didn't love being away from Kyle while he worked in North Carolina, and we didn't like working on headbands until all hours of the morning! We loved our ward and friends we met while living there, we didn't love the drafty windows and dated... well everything! We loved all the space we had there, but were ready when it was time to pack up and leave! Goodbye Spanish Fork....

Hello Texas! Longest drive of my life, of course until I had to do it again a few months later.... We stayed in Tyler Texas for a few short days. We really liked it there. Zoo, pool, museums, health food store, nice people, nice apartments, oh but we did somehow lose Kyle's new iPhone there... that was oh so sad. Goodbye, too bad we can't replace you for $700.

Hello Texarkana. Where there are no real attractions except for the mall, bowling and movie theatre. Oh, and the people are still nice, but it's not the same. Since all the apartments were 'scary'. We opted to stay in an extended stay hotel. Which was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Laylah went from a crib to a king sized bed with her brother.

We spent many an evening at the park. Because it was too hot during the day!
And even more days at the pool! Laylah learned how to literally jump in and swim by herself. By the end of the summer Kalel was swimming small distances without his floaties!

Whatever would keep them happy in our little hotel we called home.

Laylah began climbing... everything possible. Kalel still loves to dance and pose.

Hello Nash-Vegas!! I was able to bring my baby and go on a vacation to Nashville to see my brother and the girls!

Oh, so much fun!!!

Happy Father's Day to Kyle! He is an amazing husband and father. Honestly couldn't ask for more from this man I love.

We took the kids on a 'pioneer trek' in the big field by the hotel. The definitely felt the heat!

We wrote many cards and received packages from my Dad, Mom & Aunt Sara. They were a joy to receive!

Happy 4th of July, we went to a fair... Arkansas style. What a memory!
Bowling was somewhat regular on the project: Get kids out of house without them melting.
I kept sewing while there. Here is Laylah's dress!

Crater of Diamonds, Arkansas. We didn't find any diamonds but we sure did experience the heat!!!!

I have to include Kalel's chosen wife. This is Abigail. Oh how we loved spending the summer with her. Kalel wants to marry her, "and she will be beautiful in her white dress."

Sad sad day when I had to fight back tears while loading up the van and saying goodbye to my love for a month. But then we have Big memories with my amazing father who flew out to meet us in Oklahoma. That was quite the road trip.

We had a fun stop in Denver, CO. Where Kalel took a memorable 'bath' in a fountain :)

And of course the dinosaur museum in Vernal, UT - where they advertise have color television at their hotels! And we loved stopping in Gusher, UT to visit my Dad's old stomping grounds.

Hello to the cabin, the reason I drove home early. And I was not disappointed!

We played with cousins, went on a bear hunt, swam in the river, went West and enjoyed ice cream, shopping and a play, did crafts and just enjoyed everything about it!

Happy 75th birthday to my Dad and his twin David! He is quite amazing, I might add.

Welcome back Daddy. We went on our first family vacation, all by ourselves! We went to St. George and Zions. It was heavenly to be together again.

We enjoyed slumber parties outside at the farm, with the kitties.

We loved participating in Kanani and Ryan's wedding celebrations! The dancing was amazing!

'Auntie Glenda' was certainly a highlight.

Family pictures.

Annual cardboard boat race, ahem Kim's team took 2nd place.

Happy Halloween!

We moved into a new house!!! We love it and have spent much time canning!

A new house has brought many new projects.

And much more freedom!

December brought us some goofy kids with HUGE personalities, lots of trouble makers, the possibility of potty training, teaching moments and lots of laughs.

Christmas morning.

Here is to another year full of laughter, love, learning and joy!