Dental plan.

Thank God we have a good one. In the next few days we will get a referral to a pediatric dentist who will then see Kira and decide on a game plan to fix her teeth. Dentist #2 thinks that her teeth do not need to be pulled, but again, they did not do an x-ray so we really do not know for sure. She will either need to be gassed or completely knocked out to repair them. I am leaning towards knocking her out. I know that she tolerates it after having tubes in her ears and this way we will for sure know that it will get done and not put off for another appointment. So now we wait for a call, then wait for an appointment.

We did find out some interesting things, apparently all the medications she was on over the past 7 months is probably what caused it. The side effects of the medications can cause dry mouth and this could cause decalsification of the enamel on her teeth making it easier for her to get cavities. So she got better from pneumonia but damaged at least two teeth in the process. I was really worried about her bottom teeth, as she rarely lets me see them or brush them as good as she lets me brush her top. Turns out her bottom teeth are perfect, which is an absolute blessing!
So let the waiting begin.

All I want for Christmas is her two front teeth.

From the moment of her birth, I knew that Kira would be the one child that would be more of a challenge than the rest. Her birth was more challenging than the rest, she was born at the same gestation as Jacob but spent 14 days in the NICU, 4 of those on CPAP and 2 more on O2. She was always catching some type of cold, later battling pneumonia 4 times-consecutively. Poor girl has had more x-rays than I have in my 30+ years. She has had tubes in her ears, locked me out of the house, climbed and fallen off of just about every thing in the house, lost two finger nails on her left hand from smashing it in the door. Now we have a new challenge.

Kira started complaining about her teeth hurting but she has issues with showing her teeth. I brush her teeth behind her clamped down lips, often having to wrestle her down to get the hard to reach front bottom teeth behind her lips of steel. So I get her to let me lift her lip and my heart breaks, my baby girl has visible spots on her two top front teeth. None of her siblings have had cavities, Haley is nearly 17. Kira has had these teeth (top front) for exactly 14.5 months. After consulting with a dentist (our dentist is out of town until Monday), depending on how bad the teeth are they could be pulled or filled/capped. I have yet to get her to really smile and get her teeth in the picture and now I may never get to w/o terminator teeth or no teeth at all.

Now in the grand scheme of things, this is small. They are just teeth, right? Well, yes, but my kids don't loose their baby teeth until 6.5/7. It makes me sad that she will have to be knocked out for whatever it is they[we] decide is best for her, as well as the real possibility of her not having front teeth for the next FIVE years.

Cheer!

On Friday Paige had cheered at the high school football game. It was the first game of the season and was intermural but the kids had a blast! Paige did so great when it was her time to cheer. She loves to cheer and if there was a place closer to us, she would be signed up. Here is a short clip of her cheer:

Enter to win!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

Who wouldn't want to win a free weekend stay at any Hampton Hotel? After the day I had yesterday I would love to win one of these daily giveaways.

To enter all you need to do is visit Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes click on the pink "Enter Now" button and you are entered. You can enter daily to increase your chances of winning.

These days it is important to connect with family. I treasure every moment that the kids are young as it is getting increasingly evident that they wont be little for long. If I were to win, the kids and I would be headed to Des Mones, IA for an Adventureland get away. I would love to take them to the park, but the thought of driving 4 hours after a long day of play does not sound pleasing.

Where would you go if you were to win?

Wordless Wednesday - Double birthdays.

More Wordless Wednesdays:

Wordless Wednesday HQ │ 7 Clown Circus │ 5 Minutes For Mom │ MomDot

Another one of those days.

I am writing this at nap time, a much needed nap time today. It is just after noon and today I have already been through enough to last me all week. Started off the morning with getting the younger kids to school late. Not that late, but late is late and we were doing so well in that regard. Get home to find out that the baby has had a blow out. Go to toss the car seat cover and baby's clothes into the washer and nearly fall on my butt from the 1/2 gallon of juice Kira got all over the kitchen floor. The only thing I can come up with is she was trying to poor herself a glass and couldn't wait. So now my lower half is covered in cran-grape juice and the top half, since I was trying to carry soiled items and try to keep my self from falling, is covered in soil.

Toss the clothes in the washer, clean up the juice and change my clothes. Go to get lunch going when I hear the front door close. I run out and see Kira trying to make it down the front steps in my shoes. I must have forgotten to lock the door when we came back from dropping the kids off at school. I get her back inside, go to start the washer when Kira declares, "I poop mom." So I bring her to her room to change her, get her dressed and walk outside to throw away the diaper. I am running to the cans as I have the windows open and if Kira opens the door the force of the wind will slam the door on her fingers. She already lost two nails on her left hand from smashing them in the door, I didn't want a repeat of that incident. I get back to the door amazed that she is just looking out the side window by the door and not messing with the door itself and go to enter.

That is when my head smacks the locked door that I thought would give open when I pushed and my heart drops from my chest. Kira locked me out. This amazingly smart, tiny tornado figured out how to twist the lock and engage it just enough to prevent the door from opening. I tried for a few minutes to get her to twist it back but I don't think she understood exactly what she did to get it to lock. So I said another prayer that I didn't lock the garage door or the door leading into the house from the garage. Thankfully neither were locked. Had they been I am not sure exactly what my plan of action would have been, all of our neighbors work but two that are about a quarter of a mile down the road. I would have had to call Toby to come unlock the door as we have no hidden key, I think I'm going to need to change that or learn to carry my keys with me at all times. This isn't the first or undoubtedly the last time I have locked myself out, it is however the first time that I have been locked in an area other than where my kids were. Well there was that time when I locked myself out on the deck BUT Jake was technically outside too, just in his car seat in the car lol.

So that was my excitement for the day. Anything interesting happen in your day today?

We did it! Wednesday - No sew rag quilt.

Last year my daughter Kaly needed a quilt for Grandparents day, being short on Grandparents and not having any 'family' quilts - or any, I don't have the talent for them - I modified the No Sew Knotty Blanket to make the No Sew Rag Quilt.

We went to Joann's and picked through their quilt squares, Kaly picked out a few different purple and blue patterns and then found a coordinating fabric for the backing and bought 2 yards and then batting for a baby blanket.

We took each of the pre-cut squares and cut one inch slits every 1/2 inch all the way around each. After each of the squares were ready we laid out the pattern and began knotting up the inside seams.

When we had all the squares together I measured the amount of backing material we needed and cut that out and added the one inch slits every 1/2 inch, placed the batting and tied up the edges creating a beautiful No Sew Rag Quilt.

For an added touch I tacked on a 1/2 inch by 2 inch strip of fabric onto five of the squares to tie, so there was a tiny bit of sewing but, nothing that is necessary to create the quilt.

All in all it took about 17 hours and yes all of those 17 hours were done in ONE day as my darling daughter told me about said quilt the day before it was needed. She got many compliments about it and won "Newest Quilt" there were many beautiful quilts on display and a few were over 110 years old.

Wordless Wednesday - School days.

More Wordless Wednesdays:

Wordless Wednesday HQ │ 7 Clown Circus │ 5 Minutes For Mom │ MomDot

Beautiful Blogger Award

I am honored to receive this Beautiful Blogger Award!!

Thanks so much to Michele at "Minnesota meets California" for awarding me with this award!


The recipients of this Award have to state 7 Beautiful things around me, and pass this Award on to 7 other blogs who inspire me!

7 Beautiful Things:

My seven amazing, beautiful children because they bring out the best in me!

My beautiful husband because without him, I would not be where I am today!

My beautiful fur babies, because they are so cute!

My amazing and beautiful house that my a fore mentioned hubby built for our family!

My beautiful Blogosphere followers because you give me motivation to blog!

All my beautiful friends because each and every one of you have listened when I needed to vent, cry or just have a conversation that didn't contain 'like' and 'um' as the subject!

My beautiful God who gives me my strength and wisdom to do all that is right in my life!!

7 Beautiful Bloggers:

Lisa at Oh Boy, Oh Boy

Gena at Fairytales & Puppy dog tails

Sara at PS Mom Reviews

Janel at Full of Grace x7

Melissa at Mr. Magnificent & Comp.

Rose at Nostalgic Marveling

Kelly at Mommy's Kicking Cancer's @ss

Wordless Wednesday - Six months

More Wordless Wednesdays:

Wordless Wednesday HQ │ 7 Clown Circus │ 5 Minutes For Mom │ MomDot

One of those days.

To say that I don't have many of these would be an understatement but as of late they have been few and far between. Quite the feet when you have just added the seventh child into the mix! I am sitting here with a toddler that can and does get into everything (just take a look at the various spots of multi-colored nail polish stained carpeting in our house), a baby that got shots yesterday and is very fussy, three other children that are tag teaming me on various questions at a mind numbing rate = one stressed out mom!

On top of the normal huge load that raising a family of seven children entails, I have taken on the task of three classes this semester. This is not a huge feat as I have taken four, or maybe it was five, at one point. This time it's for keeps though, if I pass these classes I will have achieved my A.A.S. The biggest problem is the main class this semester is speech. I loath public speaking, which is why I saved it for last, it has been dropped three times. When I try to give a speech, I don't know what really comes over me, but it's not good-or pretty. Just in normal conversation when I am the center of it and feel the least bit uncomfy my face turns red and gets redder and my level of comfort plummets. It also shows up when I'm embarrassed, nervous, mad or in pain but only my husband can distinguish the difference.

So I am sitting here trying to prepare for my first speech this Friday, which also happens to be the first day of school for the elementary kiddos and the second day of school for my middle and high schoolers. My topic is one that I should have never taken on- National Nutrition Month®. There is not much out there on the topic which makes putting the speech together a nightmare that I have to try and fill ten whole minutes with. TEN, TEN minutes! What was I thinking?

I am also taking the class online, so I do not have a specific venue to give the speech at so I will be going to the Lincoln campus and giving the speech in front of seven or so classmates that I have never met. I am beyond stressed about it all, even more so as if I don't pass this class I will be retaking it next semester. I do not want to repeat this class.

Well now that I have gotten the baby to sleep while one handedly pecking out this post I will attempt to set him down w/o waking him up and get back to finishing up the last touches on this speech. Wish me luck and if anyone knows of some great tips on how to hide my red face that normal foundation can't I would love to hear the tips!

Love this face he makes!

.:Sheila:.

Friday Follow - #9

Welcome to the 10th Friday Follow hosted by our awesome hostesses,

Thank you everyone for being willing to host! Please stop by and see these awesome host/hostesses:

Magee Baby
If the Crown Fits
Busted Plumbing

We invite you to join us every Friday to get more blog followers and to find many interesting blogs that you like. This is all about sharing and having fun.

We expect you to be on your honor and to have fun. These are only guidelines to make it more enjoyable for you. Here’s how YOU can join the Friday Follow celebration:

• Link up your blog below.. One Link per blog
• Grab our Friday Follow button include on your side bar, or post.. grab the linky information if you want it
• Follow the Friday-Follow blog and the hostesses in slots 1, 2, & 3 that have volunteered today to host
• Follow the blogs you want, leave comment saying you are from Friday Follow – use common courtesy

If you need more guidelines about following see Friday-Follow.com

This list is new each week and closes on Saturday at 11:59pm EST. The links do not carry over. Please link up each week for new participants to find your blogs. It will be visible all week to visit the blogs listed.

Wordless Wednesday - Cowgirliness.

More Wordless Wednesdays:

Wordless Wednesday HQ │ 7 Clown Circus │ 5 Minutes For Mom │ MomDot

Who doesn't love a bargain?

Talk about excited when I bought 10 Vitamin waters, 8 Sobe Life waters, 6 Dove chocolate bars, and 1 box of Huggies wipes for $0.02!

I do love a great CVS bargain. I have been to IheartCVS.com for over a year now and will always snatch up the diaper bargains. Last week I finally turned in my rain check for the box of Huggies diapers. This purchase got me a $10 extra care buck. I used that to buy the 18 drinks and two of the Dove candy bars (I also used a $0.50 off of two) and 4 BOGO Sobe coupons (doubled with the current BOGO offer). Used the $10 ECB for a total of $0, Zip, Zilch, NADA! I got a $5 ecb for that purchase. I used that ECB on the wipes and 4 more Dove bars for a total of $0.02.

If you are looking for another good bargain on diapers, they are currently offering the same type of deal for Pampers diapers this week. Purchase $25 get $10 ECB PLUS I believe Pampers is Procter and Gamble? If so you can get a free 8 pack of Bounty paper towels for the purchase! Can't beat that. 

Little swimmer.

I always knew that Kira would not follow the path of my other kiddos and have that gripping terrified fear of the water that prevented them from enjoying the pool. She has proved me right. We were using a life vest for her but it seemed to be too bulky and cumbersome for her to use. I saw a few pictures from an online friend with their daughter swimming in a Puddle Jumper, so when I came across one for 1/2 price at Shopko I decided to give it a try. Three different times in the pool and now she is like a fish!