Making The Best Of It

Our 4th of July fun-filled day didn't quite turn out when Madison had a recurrence of the dreaded stomach flu. She woke up that morning barfing again (9 times by the time we arrived at the doctor's office, and once there, luckily we brought the bucket with us). We got her taken care of and she is doing much better now. Sufficed to say, our day was pretty easy going. I grabbed a mask at the doctors office, Madison wore it like a trooper, so at least we were able to go to my parents for a yummy dinner and not expose everyone to germs.

The Mask!

Here's poor little puppy resting on the couch.

Hot air balloons in Provo.

Cupcakes I made, if you can't tell, it's supposed to be the flag.

Bailee sampling the cupcakes (leftovers).

Just Catchin' Up

Here's some of the things that have been going on during the past few months. I should be better and post things as they happen. Oh-well.

What in the world is that? That little green thing on the brick is a baby praying mantis. I've never seen one that small. It was so cute.

We went to an aircraft show at the Provo airport. Jeff and the girls are standing in front of a

B-17 Bomber that my Grandpa Litton flew in WWII. It was cool to see it in person. It's kinda strange seeing all the guns on there, I can't imagine being in a war shooting at people. But I guess if that's what ya gotta do, that's what ya gotta do.

Madison and her dance class after the parade. Can you spot Madison?

Here is Madison performing a dance(cheer) routine in the Provo Children's Parade. She absolutely loved it. We were so proud of her. Her dance class took first place out of all the parade entries. So fun!

Here is a picture of Madison (the one with a blue belt) and Emma (next to Madison) at Madison's first dance performance. They were supposed to do the performance in the park, but it was raining pretty hard so it was moved into their dance studio. They did a cute routine with silver and red pom poms to the song "God Bless America". In this picture they are trying to hold their back bends for one minute. They also work on cart wheels, sommer saults, and doing the splits both directions, among other things. This is Madison's first dance class, it's fun to see the progress she has already made.

This was the first year we've planted broccili. It's cool to see it growing. I planted it on the north side of our house and with the weather being cooler this year, it's coming along nicely.

Madison, Bailee and their friends: Emma, Kyla(not in the picture) and Lily eating Otter Pops and playing in the pool.

Here's a picture of Bailee and Sarah's girls (Kyla & Lily) driving the Barbie jeep in our backyard. They were having some difficulties and ran into the fence, peach tree and over the top of some of my flowers. No permanent damage was done.

Here's a bunch of the kids smooshed in the kiddie pool at the swim party. I didn't have our larger pool pumped up and ready to go yet. Thankfully they were good sports and all seemed to have a good time.

This is a picture of Kari's newborn baby. We had a swim party in our backyard and they came over. The swim party switches to a different house in the neighborhood every week. It's been fun.

The pretty little plant arrangement I made. I love doing stuff like that. I also painted our front door red. Redford=Red door. I think it looks pretty good. I'll post a picture some time.

Here I am resting on the bench near the playground. I love camping, but sleeping on the ground is just not the same as being in your own bed. I got bruises on my hips from the hard ground, next year we'll be bringing air mattresses. Don't Madison and Isabelle look like sweethearts?

Madison and Jeff on the playground at the ward campout. The weather was nice and cool and even better, no mosquitos. We didn't bring Bailee with us, my mom was nice enough to watch her. We had a fun, relaxing time.

Here we are at our Ward Campout. We're in line for Sno Cones, thanks to Brother Johnson. I'm holding a friends (Kellie's) baby. She likes me :)

If you look closely, you'll see that Bailee dressed herself. I hope she doesn't get upset with me for posting this picture of her cute tush. At least it's semi-covered.

Here are Madison and Bailee on Madison's last day of 1st Grade. Madison was not happy about school getting out for the summer. She cried quite a bit on this day. She loved her teacher and her class so much. It took a couple of days for all of us to adjust, but we're used to it now.

Mr. Cutie with his healing broken hand. He had to have surgery to fix the bone. There are 8 screws in there. Little did I know we'd end up being at the surgical center for over 7 hours. They had a tv, which was nice, but it was on Fox News the entire time, and I couldn't find the remote. I was the only one in the waiting room, no receptionists, nothin'. After sitting for a while (quite a while) I got bored and started doing stretches. I also played Hide & Go Seek with the fish in the aquiarium, it was actually kinda fun, I'm sure they loved it. Anyways...Mr. Cutie is doing well, he handled it all like a sweet, tuff guy.

Happy 7th Birthday Madison!!!

Happy Birthday beautiful Madison! We love you soooo much!

Days of Our Lives

Here's the latest update on our life. Thank goodness for pictures, they help to jog my memory and they're fun to look at.

So, Madison's class didn't win the Box Top Label contest, so we had our own banana split party. It was yummy and fun!

Hmmm, what is this? It's chewed up Skittles that have been spit onto the kitchen floor, and yes I knew Bailee was doing that. Sometimes I just have to let her do those messy things so I can get things done.

This is when we had that terrible wind storm recently, and it knocked down our fence.

Here's us walking at the Walk-a-thon. We walked quite a bit. It was fun to spend time with Madison and her friends and support her school.

Jeff, Madison and Bailee with Flash the Fox at the Walk-a-thon.

The girls and I posing with The Easter Bunny at the Vineyard Easter Egg Hunt. I think this bunny was a bit vertically challenged. We had fun at the hunt and we got it finished just in time for the rain to start.

Here's a picture of Madison and Bailee with Debbie. Debbie moved here from Michigan to attend school. She's staying with us for a bit. She's great!

Here's Madison and Bailee with some of their cousins at my grandparents house. We went there for Easter. It was great to see my family and we also got to see Jeff, which was wonderful.

The girls and I visiting Moose the puppy at my aunt and uncles house.

Moose was enjoying playing with Bailee. Puppies and little kids are so cute together.

6 Days

With Jeff's new job, he works 15 days on (straight through), and he has 6 days off. Here's some of the highlights of what we did when he was home. First of all though, of course, I would have to get sick the day that he came home. It was the dreaded cough that lasts forever. I have not had a cough that bad since I was a kid and would get bronchitis. I coughed so much that my tummy & ribs hurt like I'd done thousands of crunches. I felt like Bella when Edward left in book 2, and she would wrap her arms around herself 'cause of the hole in her chest. I had to do the same thing, but for different reasons.

Jeff and the girls on Mars at Clark's Planetarium. Hot!

Madison walking on the moon. Look, you can see her footprints.

Me holding the whole wide world in my hand. I had to break out singing, "I've got the whole wide world in my hands." Everyone loved that.

Saturday, we drove to Vernal, which is always such a treat with Bailee screaming. She hates long car rides, therefore the rest of us do too. Here's a picture Madison took, of my mom Susan, Bailee, Jeff, me, my sister Jill, her husband Jacob and one of their dogs (either pj or laney). We went to help Jill & Jacob move and check out the real estate for ourselves.

Bailee and I on St. Patty's Day. You can't tell, but I am wearing green.

Madison's school was collecting Box Top labels. The winning class wins a banana split party. Fortunately a lot of what we buy has the labels on them. My mom was very helpful too, she got a bunch of them from work off of the papertowels and kleenex. Madison brought in 206 total.

Bailee trying on her new swimsuit all by herself. Yay!

Feels Good

I finally, finally found a swimsuit I really like. Here's a picture. It fits well, minimizing certain areas, but my favorite feature is that it maximizes other areas (the bust). I actually feel like I'm sort of well endowed with this top. Feels good! I got it from Shade and the bonus was that it was an on sale for 25% off.

Another thing that feels good. Since there was no school today, Madison and I were able to play paper dolls while Bailee took her nap. We played with Barbie paper dolls and they have some pretty fun clothes. Madison said she loves playing with me. I love playing with her too.

Also, today Madison had a friend over to play. I told her friend that there was a cup of water on the counter for her, if she needed a drink. She said okay and a minute later told Madison, "You have a nice mom." I overheard it as I was leaving the room and it made me smile. I was a little bit surprised she said that because I had just gotten after Madison for jumping on her bed and I was slightly frustrated with Bailee for turning off the computer while I was right in the middle of something. I guess I'm not too mean.

Do I even remember how?

I haven't blogged in forever. I got bored with it, but I came back. So, not too much has been happening lately except keeping my sanity being a 3/4 single mom and us being sick for the past three weeks. We're just passing it around and I'm afraid Madison has a new cold that she is going to share with us. I'm so glad spring is around the corner, I'm sure that will help. Well, I know this was a lame, boring blog. Next time will be better, but I'm just getting back into it, ya know. Maybe next time I'll have pics too.

Sayonara 2008, don't let the door hit you on your way out!

Ah yes, good old 2008, I'm really not too sorry to see you go. Well, actually I am, time flies by way too fast, I'll be old before I know it and I'm sure I'll cherish every memory. We had lots of good times in 2008, but we dealt with some tuff stuff too. Here's a monthly recap of 2008 for the Redford family. The computer is not working too well, I'll have to finish later...

January 2008

We started off 2008 with a BRAIN, oops I mean BANG! I had my first MRI on New Years Eve. I was pretty much freaking out, I thought I had Multiple Sclerosis, but a few days later we got the MRI results back and learned I had Chiari Type 1 Malformation. So, I spent the next few months going to doctors, getting MRI's and learning about my diagnosis. It was going to be a long road ahead.

February 2008

Jeff sold his long time friend, Mustang. (When you read this Jeff, please try not to get tears on the keyboard.) Sorry Buddy :(

March 2008

Bailee's 1st Jazz Game.

Madison's 1st Loose Tooth

April 2008

We celebrated Madison's 6th Birthday, and went to Kangaroo Zoo for the first time.

Jefferson graduated from UVU. Nice Job, Hot Stuff!

May 2008

Our last family pictures at the park before my surgery scheduled in May. After celebrating Madison's birthday and Jeff's graduation, now I felt ready for the big surgery day.

My brain decompression surgery went excellent. Here is a lovely picture of my scar and stylish hair-do. I didn't want to have to subject anyone to seeing the other pictures of my head with the staples still intact. It was a huge relief to get this surgery over with. We were very blessed. I still struggle with equilibrium problems, but I'm glad I had the surgery and hopefully with time my brain will heal more.

June 2008

Bailee learned to crawl.

July 2008

Bailee turned 1 year.

August 2008

Madison started 1st grade.

Gingerbread Houses

Last week we got together with some friends of ours. We decorated gingerbread houses and had pizza, bread sticks and a tossed green salad for dinner (one of my favorite dinners). I also made Moose Balls for dessert, they are quite nummy and easy.

Here's a picture of Thomas and Inndia posing with their almost complete house, I'm so busily working away I can't even look up.

Here are the finished products. Ours is on the left. It was kind a fun because our kits were slightly different from each others, they had gingerbread people and we had lots of trees.