Kim and Jim Dodds: Projects can always wait.

I have many a project sitting on the shelf (or in the sink, or the bedroom, bathroom, etc...) awaiting my attention, but sometimes all I really want to do is sit down and write a blog post. The dishes can wait, right?

We had a very eventful January. Right after the move, as we were still unpacking boxes and working hard on down-sizing from 2 houses to 1, Aspen came down with a tooth ache. But not just an ordinary one. At first, we thought it was just her 12-year molars making an early entrance. When Tylenol and Motrin didn't even touch the pain ( we had a really bad couple of days there!!) we took her in to the dentist an discovered she needed a root canal! In fact, the tooth was completely dead. The dentist was a bit amazed by it.
Aspen had her 9th Birthday in the middle of her tooth problem. She pretty much skipped her Birthday by sleeping most of the day (when she could). It was pretty sad. We did have a Birthday party for her the next weekend. She invited 2 friends and her cousin Cambri to go to the Provo Rec Center pool and they had a great time.

On top of that, or actually 2 days before it hit, Madi had a Colonoscopy/Endoscopy performed at the Hospital. We've been trying to figure out her almost-diarrhea problem for about a year now. She did amazing for the procedure, no problems at all. The hardest part was starving her & cleaning her out for a day and a half. Not fun. Turns out, she is gluten-intolerant. But all tests for Celiac Disease have come back negative. She is doing better, slowly, on some anti-inflammatory ,medicine the doctor gave us, and being off wheat. I have to be much more creative in what I feed her, since she still doesn't chew that well.

Madi turned 7 on Valentine's day. So hard for me to believe! We had a small family party complete with her traditional heart-shaped cake. Which she didn't eat much of, due to the fact that I made it with wheat flour. But she never has been big on sweets anyways. Next year she turns 8, and that will be a very unusual experience in some ways for us, as she won't be getting baptized right away.

Tysen is doing great- he almost has a normal toe again from his toe accident last October. The toe nail is still growing back, not quite normally yet... and he does have to be careful and not bump it or get it stepped on, or it really hurts. He's running around and kicking soccer balls like normal though. He will start Preschool next fall and can harldy wait! He will have a cousin in his class which will be really fun. He is still confused for Madi's twin a lot of the time. They are the same size and weight, but Tysen's feet are bigger so I am just waiting for his growth spurt, when he will just speed past her.

Brysen in BIG. That's all I can really say about that. 23 lbs at 7 months old. Almost outgrown all his 12-month old clothes. But- his biggest news is that he got his baby helmet off a week and a half ago!! All of us were very excited about that! He started rolling over on his own now, and kind of scoots/rolls himself around the living room now. He loves to sit in the activity bouncer car we have in the living room, since he is now too big for the swing. He has had 3 ear infections, all which seem to occur when he cuts a new tooth (he has 3 of those now). When he is not teething, he sleeps through the night and is a very happy, easy-going baby. Still very cuddly and loves any attention he gets from his older siblings! Even Madi, who doesn't realize how hard she can make him laugh when she shakes her chewy toys in front of him!

Jim and I are great. Adjusting to not living on the mountain, which has had it's good moments and its sad ones, but life moves on and we are happy! I've been making bread for the family for the past few weeks. Trying to save some money, and trying to use up some of our really big supply of wheat. I do close to half-and-half wheat & white flour right now. It is so tasty I have had to make new bread about every other day, because it just disappears! Jim is doing great in his classes and I'm enjoying having him home more in the evenings (sometimes) and more on weekends too.