Another catch up

I know I've said this like a dozen times this year but I seriously suck at blogging lately! 

It's not like my life is that busy, I guess maybe I just don't think about it as much. 

Christmas is less than 2 weeks away! We are excited about that. This year we started a new tradition called elf on a shelf. Basically, you get a small stuffed elf and a book. The book explains that the elf comes out at Christmas to help Santa keep an eye on girls and boys to make sure they aren't being naughty. Each night the elf returns to Santa to report any news and then comes back to our house before everyone wakes up the next morning. He is in a new spot Every time so matty (since kourtney is too little) has to find him everyday. 

Today he showed up holding on for dear life to the top of the Christmas tree. Haha. 

The only rule is that no one can touch him during the day or he'll lose his magic power and won't be able to get back to Santa. So far we've been good. 😉

I missed the entire month of November  blogging. But I do have a good excuse for that. Between my dad being here and my mother in law arriving we had one week. 

Kinsey moved out. 

Vilma arrived and was here for about a week and a half before my sister in law, brother in law, and niece arrived and stayed for 10 days. We did a lot of shopping (they shopped), went to the aquarium, the Grand Canyon, the train park in Scottsdale, ate a lot, and had a lot of fun. So we've had about 10 days to ourselves with no one and now my brother is moving in tomorrow. 

So as you can see it's been crazy hectic around here. A lot of stress and tears. 

And on top of that my dad is coming back at Christmas! 

Will the madness ever end?!

At least he's staying in a hotel this time. 

Christmas is going to be weird and awkward this year. I can tell. I have to deal with both my dads. One of which NO ONE likes. Berto has to work Christmas Day so were going to have to open our gifts to the kids on Christmas Eve. Which is weird for me but I also don't want Berto to miss out.

This year can't be over fast enough for me. I NEED a vacation from life in general. This year sucked. I think worse than last year. I'm really really hoping for a better 2014. I just want my life to settle down and relax a little bit. 

Well I think that's all for now but here's a butt load of pictures. 😄

Birthday, pumpkins, and Halloween decor!

Since my last blog post we've actually been pretty busy!
We celebrated Kinsey's birthday. We went to the Olive Garden for dinner. She's getting old!

My dad has come to visit for 3 weeks. It's been interesting to say the least. He's pretty much just slept and watched tv the whole time. (I don't have him as a reader on here so I can vent freely...)
He literally slept for the first 4 days he was here. He sleeps til at least 3pm everyday unless we have something to do, then I have to wake him up... like I'm his parent. It's rather annoying. Or he spends his time in the room he's staying in (the playroom) watching tv. He has taken over our DVR with all his shows! I guess I just don't understand the point in visiting if you're not even going to spend time with us....

Matty had his October break. I seriously, totally understand why my mom couldn't wait for us to go back to school when we had breaks. He has so much energy and he NEEDS school to help him get some of it out. So he went back this past Monday. This year I think is better than last year for him. He only has 5 students in his class so far this year. This time last year his class had about 15 students. So this year he's getting more attention which I know helps him.

We took a mini trip up to Tonto Natural Bridge last week. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to hike down to the actual cave under the bridge but we did enjoy the time we did have to take some pictures and enjoy the weather.

We went to the Pumpkin Patch this week with the kids and my mom. We got to take a hay ride, feed the cows and goats, pick a pumpkin, decorate the pumpkin, walk through the maze, and attempt the bounce house. I think Matthew enjoyed it the most. I had fun feeding the animals.

Yesterday my Aunt Jo stopped by. It was nice to see her and catch up. She has been working on a diaper bag/purse for me and she finished it so she brought it by. It is seriously so cute and so wonderful!! I have all the same stuff in it that I had in my previous purse but I swear this bag is 5 pounds lighter!! Its so nice! Thanks again Aunt Jo!

We also went mini golfing yesterday with my dad. (yes he got out of bed for it)
Matty had a total blast and he was pretty dang good. I was surprised how good Kourtney was for being stuck in her stroller for almost 2 hours.

Miss Kourtney is growing so fast! She is talking more and more. Some of the words she says are:

mommy
daddy
don't do that
i know
apple
book
shoe
sock
drink
uncle steve
papa
grandma
bye bye
nose
mouth
eye
ear
binky

and lots more.

I carved my first pumpkin last night. I think it turned out pretty good considering it is my first. I don't know if it'll last until Halloween but it looks nice for now. Boy, that is one messy project!!

That's all for now.
I'm waiting for Matty's teacher to visit this morning. Hopefully she comes soon because I need a nap!!
Til next time!

Serrano updates

Ok, I have 100% completely failed my blog this year. I'm just lazy, simple as that. It makes me sad because at the beginning of each year I make my blog into a book and order it for reference. This years book is going to be thin...

We have actually been pretty busy as of late. Especially for the month of August. 

Matty broke a bone in the top of his foot and got a cast (I know I already blogged about this). He has spent the last 3 almost 4 weeks hobbling around. He took it pretty well having to cart that stupid orange thing around but I know it was hard for him. No sand at school which meant for a pretty boring recess, no playing at McDonald's because he would smash someone's fingers or toes, no swimming since we can't get the cast wet, and by far the absolute worst thing was not being able to bathe him. Sponge(or wash cloth) baths sucked. Washing his hair in the sink and having to do laundry every couple of days for clean washcloths. Good Grief I'm glad that's over. He got his cast removed last Thursday. His ankle bone looked so weird and boney. The doctor said the X-ray shows that his foot healed completely. She couldn't even tell it had been broken. Good news! He's still limping a little but that's to be expected. It's like he has to learn to walk again. We bought him new sneakers for school now that he can walk on both feet. Kid has the BIGGEST feet. He's 4 people and he wears a size 11!!  Maybe that's normal for his age but they look ginormous! The store was having but one pair get the 2nd pair half off so we got kourtney a pair of sneakers too. Both of their shoes light up and they are ecstatic about that. And OF COURSE matty had to have orange shoes!

Last weekend I spent 2 days in the hospital. I went in with stomach pain pretty dang sure it was an appendicitis and in some ways I wish that that was all it was. But if you know my family nothing is ever that easy. 

I went in Saturday night around 10:30. After about 2 hours of sitting in pain and drinking disgusting water with contrast in it, getting my blood drawn, and my vitals taken, I was taken back for a cat scan. I was then put into a room and given morphine for the pain. I spent the rest if the night in the ER waiting to be told what was going on. Finally the doctor came In and told me that it was something he's never seen before. Apparently my stomach has twisted. Something called gastric volvulus. He decided to admit me to the hospital until he could talk to the surgeon and find out what to do. By the time I got to an actual room it was 5 am. 

I spent the rest of the morning in and out of sleep and being given pain medication. My dad and brother came around 10 and gave me a blessing. And I didn't realize it til my mom said something but I never had anymore pain after that blessing. It's so amazing. 

I finally got to see the gi doctor and he said that its not my appendix. The cat scan came back fine. (I also had an upper gi series to check my stomach) the upper gi came back fine as well. Even though my stomach is twisted its not causing blockage so that's not the source of my pain either. He decided he wanted to check my intestines. I have a strong family history of ulcerative colitis and all of my symptoms could be that or even Crohn's disease. So Sunday night I had to drink this disgusting stuff to clear out my bowels. ( I still gag just thinking about that stuff. It's so nasty). By midnight I couldn't drink anymore. Monday morning I was sent for an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. Thank goodness I was put to sleep and because I was put to sleep those tests were probably the most pleasant. After recovery I went back to my room and the gi doctor came back to give me the results. I have the beginning stages of colitis and ileitis. Hopefully we've caught it in time to treat it and prevent it from getting any worse. The doctor also took biopsies of the tissue to test for other things. I have to follow up in a month for the results of the biopsies. He also put me on some medication that's supposed to help the inflammation. So sorry for the Novel but this is what's been going on around here. 

I have noticed when I eat greasy food my stomach gets upset. So I've been cutting out as much greasy foods as I can and trying to eat a little healthier. I'm hoping everything comes back normal and that a diet change will be the biggest change I'll have to make. 

Kourtney is her happy go lucky self. She's talking more and more. 

We took a small trip up north for Labor Day. It was such a nice day up there weather wise. 62 degrees!! I've forgotten what that felt like!!

Here's some pictures from the past month!

Mattys school is doing a read-a-thon and for every book we read we fill out a raffle form and he gets entered into a drawing. He has won a free cheeseburger and small French fries from McDonald's, a free medium cherry limeade from sonic, and a free kids meal from rubios. This kid is so dang lucky! 

That's all for now. Til next time!!