SUNDANCE OVER...mini VACATION BEGINS

As you all know, we opened Burns Cowboy Shop in Park City in November of last year. Since the grand opening we have been looking forward to the Sundance Film Festival. To gear up for the crowds, we spent the 4th, 5th, & 6th in Park City working out some computer bugs with our software company. Braydan got to go back up on the morning of the 15th to help out at the store during the festival. The store had great success. On Sunday the 25th the girls & I drove up to Park City to pick up Braydan. We then headed into the Salt Lake Valley to spend a couple nights in a motel. Ains & Addi were SSSOOOOOO EXCITED!!!! Staying in a motel is probably one of their all time favorite things to do as a family.
On Monday we started off our day with a yummy brunch. We then headed to The Living Planet Aquarium. The girls were so hilarious. They practically ran from exhibit to exhibit. Braydan & I kept telling them to slow down & take a better look at the fish but they weren't having any of that. They loved the sea horses, jelly fish, frogs & anemones.


Alivia was in awe the entire time (oh yea, her rash is almost gone). She got so excited when a fish would swim next to her. They all loved it. After the Aquarium, we headed over to the South Town Mall for some ice cream & a couple of rides on the infamous Merry-Go-Round (what some cheap entertainment). We then headed over to Jordan Commons to catch a movie. Ainsley & Addison both wanted to see Inkheart. We all loved it & would definitely recommend it. By that time the girls were begging us to get back to the motel so we could go swim. We all had a blast at the pool. We can't wait for summer!


On our way back up to the room Ains & Addi were totally checking themselves out in the mirrored ceiling in the elevator. Braydan & I were laughing so hard at them.

At that point it was pretty late so Braydan went to McDonalds & brought us back some delicious dinner. Of course, Ainsley & Addison were thrilled. What kid doesn't love McDonalds?
The next day we took them to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch which they loved too. We ran a few errands & then headed home. We all had a great time together on our mini vacation!!!

SURPRISE!!!

On Friday, January 9th my Mom, Danyette, & I were able to pull off the BigGEst, BeSTesT surprise ever!! My Mom & I flew Danyette in from Tennessee for Brittnie's Baby Shower. It was so much fun because other than the three of us, Braydan was the only person here who knew she was coming. Britt was moved to tears when she saw her. Ains & Addi were thrilled to see Aunt Danyette too. In fact, Addison would sit right next to her & hold her hand anytime she sat down. It was really sweet.
Of course I was SSSOOOOOOO EXCITED to see my sis. It had been exactly six months since she had driven away from my house to head out on this great adventure that they are on. The very first thing I noticed was how long her hair had gotten. WhoA!! Our time together was jam packed with activities. Of course Britt's Baby Shower was at the top of the list. Everything turned out so great, from the decorations to the dessert. She had tons of people come & got lots of really awesome gifts.



We were also able to get a bunch of friends together for dinner at El Mexicano (yum!). It was a ToN of FuN (that may be a bit of an understatement)!!! We had such a great time together. I can't wait until I get to see her again. Love ya Danyette!!!

POOR BABY

My poor sweet baby is covered in a mystery rash. On November 19th Alivia woke up with an ear full of sticky, yucky goo. I took her to the doctor & found out that her ear drum had burst (ouch). She was put on an antibiotic for 10 days. On the very last day of this treatment she broke out with a mild rash on her back & belly. I totally blew it off, not thinking it was a big deal at all. About 4 or 5 days later I took Alivia in for her 6 month well child visit. Her ears were still red but we opted not to put her on another dose of antibiotics so soon. The rash did concern her doctor though. She immediately ran her down to see the other doctor in the office. They both confirmed that it was probably 1 of 3 things; an allergic reaction to the antibiotic, eczema, or yeast. They told me to get some hydrocortizone & monistat to apply to the affected areas. So I did but her rash wasn't getting better. In fact, it was getting much worse. Her doctor wanted me to bring her back by in about a week to check on things, so I did. Alivia was actually seen that day by another doctor (3rd doctor). He told me to try some benedryl creme if in fact it was an allergic reaction. He also checked her ears that day & decided to try another round of antibiotics because her ears were still pretty red, this one being a 5 day dose. So I did that, but her little rash was now a BIG rash. Just over a week ago I took her back to see the 3rd doctor again & he gave me a couple of prescriptions. Neither of them worked at all. Finally I decided to get her an appointment with Ainsley & Addison's pediatrician (something I should have done in the first place). He was baffled!! He said it was hard to make a proper diagnosis mostly because we had tried so many different treatments & nothing was working. He wasn't sure if something could have been working at some point & if something else aggravated it at the same time, so we did a bunch of things. First, he scraped parts of her rash with a scalpel (yes, I did say scalpel) & put them on a slide to look at with a microscope. Second, he swabbed her rash to do some lab testing. Third, he took her blood to get a CBC level & a zinc level. WHAT THE... The zinc level was taken to see if she may have a zinc deficiency, the scraping & swabbing was to try to determine what the heck we are working with, & the CBC level was just a precaution. So for right now we are treating her BIG, GIANT, HORRIBLE RASH as extreme eczema with a bacterial infection. If things don't clear up within 2 weeks, he is sending her to Salt Lake to see a pediatric dermatologist. He also mentioned it could be a bunch of "weird, crazy things". Nice! We are hoping for extreme eczema at this point. My poor sweet (chubby) baby!!!

THERE IS BEAUTY ALL AROUND...

So I have to admit that one of my most favorite things in the whole world is a sunset. A beautiful sunset can make me happy when I'm sad, it can make me excited to share the beauty of nature, & it can warm my soul. I hope you can see & feel the beauty that is all around us just like me.

WHERE DID DECEMBER GO?

I can't believe December is already over! The holidays are always so busy for our family. Between business at Burns Saddlery, Burns Cowboy Shop, & the National Finals Rodeo, finding time to take Ains & Addi to school, dance, & singing, & balancing my church calling, busy may be an understatement (oh yea, I should probably mention my responsibility of being MOM in there too).

As always, Braydan & the NFR crew left the Sunday after Thanksgiving for Las Vegas so the girls & I were left home alone during the busiest, most hectic, crazy month of the year (such a bummer). This year Brayd was gone for 15 days which is actually 2-3 days less than previous years. We were pretty excited about that! While he was gone Alivia had her 6 month check up which went pretty well, other than she broke out in this weird rash while she was on antibiotics for ear infections (actually her left ear drum had burst). Liv has since been back to the doctor two more times because of this peculiar rash & not one of the four doctors she has seen knows what the cause of it is. I am taking her to a dermatologist as soon as possible.

On Saturday, December 6th Alivia & I were able to go to Temple Square in Salt Lake City with the Young Women & Young Men of our ward. It was alot of fun. We attended the Joseph Smith movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was absolutely phenomenal & I highly recommend it. After the movie, most of our group went ice skating at the Gallivan's Plaza. Alivia & I walked over to The Gateway to shop with the rest of our group. We all then met at the Tabernacle to walk around Temple Square & view the lights. I am always in awe at the beauty of Temple Square, no matter what time of year it is. It was truly a great day.

The following week was cRazY!!! I worked every day except Wednesday, decorated for & attended the Ward Christmas Party, & watched Addison sing at the Richfield Care Center. Not to mention, I tried to keep up on the regular every day stuff like running the girls to school, doing the laundry, grocery shopping, making dinner, etc., etc., etc.... While we were at the Ward Christmas Party each of the girls took their turn to sit on Santa's lap. When it was Addison's turn she hopped up on his lap & told him exactly what she wanted, a PONY! Santa immediately glanced my way then turned back to her & said, "You know, Rudolph won't let me deliver ponies to little boys & girls because he just doesn't like them." She looked at him & said, "OK, then I want a pupcake kitchen." All I can say is, THANK YOU SANTA!!!

The week before Christmas was even CRaZieR! Braydan finally got home, which we were all so happy about. We had missed him so much. I still had to finish up my shopping which (thank goodness) was not much. But the only gifts I had wrapped were the gifts I had mailed to the Gladwell's. Needless to say, I spent a couple of nights wrapping into the early morning hours. Ainsley & Addison had Christmas Parties Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday that week, so we had plenty of "goody bags" to assemble. For Young Womens we did the 12 days of Christmas for some of our inactive girls, so Rochelle & I spent a couple of nights getting their gifts ready for delivery. We also put together our gifts to all of our girls & delivered them (they turned out super cute by the way). I also worked every single day but Tuesday (one night until 4:15 am, cRAzY!!!). On Sunday, we made a quick trip to Provo which was a total waste of our time. The only good thing about that trip was that I got to deliver my Christmas gift to Jami (my totally aWeSOMe hair dresser) before the holiday. Finally, the week of Christmas arrived. I didn't work one hour that week (hallelujah). Ains, Addi, Alivia, & I wrapped & delivered gifts, made sugar cookies, watched Christmas movies, & played. It was so nice to just relax & enjoy the holiday season, even if it was only for three days.

This year we spent Christmas Eve with my family. We met my Mom at my Grandpa & Grandma Buchanan's for dinner. We visited while we stuffed ourselves with yummy food. We then headed back home where my Dad & the Memmott's were meeting us to watch a movie. After everyone had gone home for the night, we opened our Christmas Eve presents (a pair of jammies & a Christmas book which Braydan & I write a special note in about the past year for each of the girls). Ains & Addi were eager to get into their new jammies so we could snuggle up on the couch & read their new books.

Once we read their books, we headed into Ainsley & Addison's bedroom to tuck them in. They were pretty excited that Santa would be delivering their gifts very soon. After saying our prayers, they both insisted that they could hear Santa on the roof but it didn't take them long before they were sound asleep (thank goodness). On Christmas morning, Braydan & I ended up waking all three girls up around 8:00 am because we were so excited for them. We had an awesome Christmas!! Ainsley got the tea set she had asked for, Addison got the cupcake kitchen she had asked for, & Braydan surprised me with a brand new Canon Rebel XSi (I LOVE IT!!!). We are still enjoying Christmas at our house. Addison wakes up every single morning & says, "Mom, did you remember that it is still Christmas?" We have had so much fun watching movies, playing games, baking cupcakes, having tea parties, sleeping on brand new sheets, wearing new clothes, & taking pictures.

On New Years Eve, the girls & I met our friends Tiffany, Tai, & Teya at the Aurora church to play. Tiff brought a bucket full of balls of all sizes for the girls to play with. They had alot of fun! They also had alot of fun pushing Alivia around the gym floor in the bucket. After a while, we went to Tiff's house & had lunch.

That night Jake, Tiffany, Tai, & Teya came over to our house to ring in the new year. The girls had a ball dressing up & playing while we watched our favorite episodes of The Office & visited. Braydan & I are so grateful for good friends. We just love the Quarnbergs! Where did December go? I'm not quite sure, it was such a blur but I do know that I am very grateful for an awesome 2008 & can't wait to see what 2009 holds for my families future. Happy New Year!!!