April 15th 2007

This week was an eventful one, and I feel... tired.

Monday morning, I started pestering Mike to get our taxes done. We had put it off for so long because we were told that our refund would probably be taken in our bankruptcy. We were told that we would either get one letter stating the "discharge of debtors" and "closing" or we would get a letter with just the discharge and they would close later. If the bankruptcy remained unclosed, they would take our tax return and we would get the closing letter later on. Well, we got the letter of discharge, but it didn't say anything about closing. However, as Mike was filling out all the information on the tax forms, he didn't notice any items asking about the bankruptcy. We gave our lawyer a quick call and found... it had been closed! Yay!! So what that means is that we got a pretty hefty refund! We wanted to rush right out and spend it on fun stuff, but of course, we know better than that. We paid rent and bills and tucked a large amount away in case Mike is unemployed for a while. We also bought Mike a new suit for interviews and I got my hair cut. It's all very boring when you consider how much fun we could have had on $5000. Then again, having a house to live in and food to eat could be considered "fun" too. The money was such a huge blessing. Our rent was past due and we didn't know where the money was going to come from. It was such a relief, and Mike and I were on cloud 9 all day. Heck, all week.

Emily had her 4 month checkup and shots on Wednesday. She's slowly dropping off the charts in weight and height. However, by the time Hyrum was this age, he was already too low for the charts, so she's still a bigger baby than he was. She took her shots very well at first. She only grimaced a bit, but didn't cry or complain. We thought we were so blessed to have such a wonderful baby... until the next day. By Thursday, Emily had developed a pretty high fever in relation to the shots. She was cranky and miserable, but slept more than usual. On Friday, she was still feeling sick and was awake and cranky most of the time. Saturday was even worse with hour upon hour of constant screaming. Thankfully, by this morning, she was back to her usual self.

In other Emily news, she tried her first solid food this week... if you call watered down rice cereal "solid." She really seemed to enjoy it. At first, she was angry because she thought we were being mean and not feeding her. But the second she got the spoon in her mouth, she said, "mmm!" and opened her mouth to beg for more.

Hyrum is learning and growing so quickly. It's so much fun to watch how he develops. We are concerned about his speech, however. We looked into getting him into speech therapy. They will do a screening on him, and if they find that he needs it, the public schools will pay for his speech therapy, and possibly preschool. We won't be able to have him tested until summer, but I really hope they can help him. He's a very bright kid and understands every word you say, but he just doesn't talk.

Well, I think that's all the news this week, so I'm off to eat some of the ice cream our refund bought!

Easter 2007

It was a quiet but enjoyable Easter at the Haddox home. We had planned to spend Easter with my family this year, but because of money restraints, we had to stay home. Sorry to my 2 grandmas who have not yet met Emily. We'll just have to plan another trip when our financial situation is a little more stable. For now, you'll just have to trust us that she's the most adorable little girl you'll ever meet!

Mike woke up early and made us all pancakes and eggs for breakfast. It was very yummy. After breakfast, we dyed eggs... yeah, I know it's usually supposed to be done the night before, but time got away from us watching movies, and Hyrum was falling asleep in his seat, so it had to wait. Here is a line-up of some of the eggs.

This one is an authentic Hyrum original! Note the bold crayon strokes and strong lines that represent man's struggle to find higher meaning in life... or something like that.

This egg was inspired by Hyrum's new hobby of running around the house finding and pointing out stars and circles. (Saars and Kirkles)

This was on the back of the "I Love Emily" egg.


This was the back side of the yellow "Egg head" egg shown on the bottom right of the line-up.


The main purpose of this egg was just to give Hyrum something to meow at. It matches the cats on the quilt I made him when he was a baby. He still sleeps with his quilt even though it no longer fits his regular sized bed.



I figured my favorite egg deserved two shots. This is a creation of Mike's and features a car on the front and a tow truck on the back. The top half is dyed blue for the sky, and the bottom, green for the grass. It also has clouds and a sun that didn't show up well in these pictures.

After egg coloring, Hyrum got to dig into his Easter basket. If there wasn't enough sticky, sugary goodness in the syrup from the pancakes, he got even more of it from the malted milk ball eggs and chocolate bunny. He also got a game of Memory. We played a few games with him with the cards facing up. We started with only a few different pairs and tried building up to more with each round. He's starting to catch on to the game, and maybe soon, he'll be able to play with the cards face down. I sure would have loved to get Emily something, but money didn't permit this year. Honestly, she's too young to know the difference anyhow! Next year we'll make it up to her.

Because we had to dye the eggs in the morning, the egg hunt had to wait until evening. We had wanted to hide eggs outside, but it was on again/off again rainy outside. Even when it was sunny, the ground was still soggy, so we had to hide the eggs in the living room. Mike tried to keep Hyrum distracted while I hid them. It was a tough task since Hyrum remembered hunting eggs from last year and wanted to get right to it. He rounded up those eggs pretty quickly and thoroughly enjoyed himself!


Sadly, all our nicely decorated eggs met a swift end. Only moments after the egg hunt, Hyrum helped me turn them into deviled eggs to go with the turkey roast I was making for dinner. He loves to watch me and Mike cook and always wants to lend a hand. I was afraid he'd make a mess of things, but as it turned out, he watched us very closely and did a really excellent job of cracking and shelling the eggs all on his own. He was very careful and didn't dig one single pit.

Bedtime was... well... difficult. Apparently, all that sugar makes kids hyper. Who knew?

Each year, I look forward more to the next. Holidays are more and more fun the older Hyrum gets and the more he understands and remembers. Soon, Emily will be able to enjoy the fun too. I can hardly wait!