Hero

I have one awesome husband! It is currently 11:39 pm and he is sitting at the computer helping me finish all of my Primary lists for the new year. He basically did all the lists for me last year while he was recovering from knee surgery (yes, he just had the same surgery again...we are hoping that the results are a little better this time). Together, we have been working on it for a couple of hours, each of us on a different computer, but I was way too slow for him so he booted me off the chair and took over. I am not complaining! Seriously, I think I married the best guy around. He was called Hero in high school, well he really is my hero. He saves me several times a day by swooping in and helping me when I get myself into a mess. Love ya baby!

Time Off for Michelle...Movies, Football, and Carbon Monoxide?

I have had a really nice weekend. It started off with my being able to go see New Moon with a friend. We went on Thursday night and it was great because we saw it at 9:20 at the District which has assigned seating, so no waiting! She also picked me up in her husbands Mercedes which is also fun for me since I have been stuck in mini-van/SUV land for the past 10 years. About the movie, I say better than the first and go TEAM JACOB! Enough said....
Then on Saturday, I was at the gym and one of our neighbors was kind enough to ask if Justin and I would like to go to the BYU game with them since they had a couple extra tickets. I knew Justin would love that so we were in. Lucky for us they were Legacy tickets. I have never sat in those seats before and let me tell you what...I will never enjoy another BYU game that is not in them. That is the way to go. You get food (and dang good food) before the game, and at half-time. You also get free hot chocolate, a king size candy of some kind, and two water bottles. The view of the field is great and you have the comfortable chairs. I need more friends with Legacy seats. Anyone?
I also got to take Mikaela and a couple of her friends to the mall as a "thanks for babysitting". They had a good time and it was fun for me to watch them. They are growing up so fast!
Today has been nice. Our carbon monoxide detector went off at about 3:30 while I was making dinner and Justin was home teaching. I called him to come home because I wasn't sure what to do about that other than to open all the windows to let fresh air in. The alarm went off for about 20-30 min, then the air cleared. A man from questar came to check everything out and we are okay. He thinks that it was from the soup I had left simmering on the stove for 2 hrs. Apparently that is too long. I am just grateful that it went off and that we know it works. We ended up finishing cooking dinner and some cookies that I had to take to a church event over at Ryan and Jens and then stayed and combined our dinners. It made for a fun evening. It is really nice to have them across the street. The girls made up a hilarious dance together that Jen said she will post on her blog. So funny!
Tomorrow is Justin's b-day so we have more fun outings to start the week. Justin let me know today that this was the first week in our marriage where he cleaned the kitchen more than I did. I was out on Tues., Thurs, and Sat. nights. Still not sure you beat me dear. He is claiming that he helped me the other nights. Either way, I enjoyed it!

Time Out for Women

This weekend my sisters, mom and I went to Time Out for Women. This was my first time to attend this event, I hadn't really even heard of it before. I was so pleasantly surprised! It was a lot of fun. There were about 7 or 8 speakers and then Jenny Oaks Baker performed the first night and Hillary Weeks performed the second day. The speakers included Sherry Dew, Wendy Nelson (Elder Nelson's wife who is also Sherry Dew's best friend), Mary-Ellen Edmunds, a lady who lived next door to my sister Julie (Sis. Belcher) who is blind due to cancer, and a few others. They were all seriously funny and inspirational. The next event is in Logan Sept. 2010 and I am planning to go again.
We stayed at Connie's house Friday night because she lives the closest and we just had a big slumber party. We ate lots of good food and stayed up until 1:30. On Saturday we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and ate some more! (Not mentioning that I also ate at the Olive Garden for lunch...). It was so nice to get out and relax. Justin was in the Philippines so Guy and Judy watched the kids which I really appreciate. It was also nice because I am currently the primary secretary in my ward and while I enjoy it, I don't get to go to sunday school or relief society anymore, so I feel like I miss out on those opportunities to just sit back and be taught. I miss that. Now, I am feeling like a new mom/wife. It helps to get out and have time away every once in awhile. I am currently looking for a friend to go to California with me sometime in January if there are any takers out there :).
I did take one picture before my camera died for good. But the cable is still gone. Justin's birthday is on Monday, don't tell him, but he is getting a new camera :). Maybe then, I will be able to post pictures.

Coughing and Candy

Last week was a rough one. Kate was very sick. I have never had a child that sick before. She couldn't breathe. It started with a cough at night and then she would be fine during the day. Then on the third day, the cough lasted through the day. By the fourth day she was coughing a lot, had a fever and wouldn't eat or do anything. I knew she wasn't getting enough oxygen by the way she was breathing(she has had breathing problems in the past) so I took her into the doctor and her oxygen level was 87. They gave her a breathing treatment of albuterol sulfate (she is on albuterol daily) and it only brought her level to 88. We waited 20 min and gave her another treatment and it raised into the 90's. The dr. just kept looking at her and telling me she wasn't moving much air. She was almost hospitalized, but I told them to write down what I needed to do during the night and I could do it. The dr. gave me the number to page him during the night in case she couldn't make it 4 hrs without a treatment. Well, she really couldn't but Justin and I were so exhausted we didn't call until 6 the next morning. We had to give her back to back treatments to get her breathing alright again. Long story short. She is now on steroids, antibiotic, and two asthma medications and is doing much better. She still has crap in her lungs, so I am still a little worried, but she is doing well for now. It was the first time I was seriously worried that one of my kids might not get better. I am so grateful she is healing.
In the meantime, Halloween was fun. Justin and I took turns going to parties while the other one would stay home with Kate. I loved the nice weather. Nate had a basketball game (they won) and then we took the kids trick or treating down main st. Gary and Tiffany made soup and doughnuts and then we went trick or treating for real. The kids have way too much candy, but they had a great time.
This week we are recovering from last week, enjoying having Justin home before he leaves for the Philippines next week and loving the nice weather.

Catching WAY up

Justin is out of town on business in Singapore. The kids are all in bed and I am just going through some old pictures. I found these of our 2005 trip to Thailand and thought that it would be good to post them because I plan on printing these blog pages as a journal and thought it would be fun to have a record of our family trip to Thailand. It is fun for me to see the kids and how they have changed in the past four years. We went in April of 2005 while we lived in Korea. One of the benefits of living over sea's is that you get to travel a lot. We were also able to go to Malaysia and Hawaii. Maybe I will post about those trips also. We all had a great time while in Thailand. It was so beautiful and so different from the U.S. Most of the housing we saw was very poor, but then next door would be a huge palace. It seemed to have a huge gap between the two. The traffic in Bangkok was horrible, but when we drove to Pattaya it was just beautiful. It was fun to see them using elephants to build buildings and to carry heavy loads. The kids had a great time swimming and visiting the zoo's and Justin and I very much enjoyed the two Thai massages that we were able to sneak in. It was a great and much needed family vacation.



Justin told me he wouldn't let Nate touch the snake. Uh huh.


They actually let you hold and feed a tiger. Alexa got a pretty good scratch on her leg. Luckily, it didn't get infected.


The kids loved the pool and spent as much time as possible there.


Part of the Grand Palace in Bangkok. I had to wear one of their skirts because my ankles were showing. I also had to borrow a guys shoes (gross I know) because I had worn sandals and you couldn't show your feet either. There was a Buddhist temple there and I hadn't realized that they were so modest.


Riding elephants at the botanical garden. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The elephants were bigger that I thought and I was a bit nervous to fall off because I was holding Ella who was only about six months at the time.


This was taken at a dinner that we ate that was on the top floor of the tallest building in Bangkok. I don't remember exactly how tall it was, but it was up there.

Update...kind of.

I have been wanting to update this blog for awhile, but I keep thinking that I will wait until I can post pictures. I have been unable to upload pictures for a few weeks because I lent the cable out. Until I have it back...no pictures. Just to update a few things that have been going on in our lives...
-We have been working on finishing the basement. Well, other people have been doing the work, but we have put a lot of thought and money into it. How about that? The finish work should be finished today and the carpet comes in two weeks. I will post pics when done.
-I had surgery on an ovarian cyst. All went well and I now have cool pictures of my liver, ovaries, fallopian tubes ect. ( I won't post those).
-I finished my first triathalon. It was a fun, laid back kind of triathalon that raised money for the homeless coalition. It was a challenge for me though and I feel a real sense of accomplishment for finishing. I found that I LOVE biking and want to do several next summer. Well, at least two.
-Nathan broke his finger while playing football. Someone stepped on it. He is doing fine. The refs actually told him that he can play if he has a doctors note and pads the cast so that it is not a weapon. Justin is working on that.
-Ella started preschool for the first time. She just turned five last Friday. I normally just teach my kids preschool myself, but since she just missed kindergarten decided that she would like getting out of the house. She really likes it. I was able to get her into the preschool at our Elementary school so she is getting used to being there.
I need to take Ella to preschool, so that will be all for now.
Just one more thing.
I was making some scrambled eggs for breakfast and I asked Ella if she would like some. She said yes so I dished her a bowl. She took one bite, said that she didn't want them. I told her that I wasn't making anything else because she is famous for wanting me to make her three different things at each meal. She seemed okay with that so I cleaned up. As soon as I started the dishwasher she asked for a peanut butter sandwhich. I told her that she would have to wait until lunch..she had already had a bowl of cereal and wasn't going to starve anytime soon. She lays on the floor and starts crying loudly. I tell her if she wants to cry she should go to her room to do so because I didn't want to hear it. She stands up and sticks out her hip and says "FINE! Just just go ahead and hate me if you want to. I don't care!" Where does she get that? I just had to laugh.

Cleaning

Me: Alexa, you still need to clean the playroom.
Alexa: That takes forever!
Me: No it doesn't. I can get it done in fifteen minutes.
Alexa: Yeah, YOU can! You are used to cleaning!

Ray Barrus 5K

Mikaela and Jen....The two first placers

On the fourth of July, Grantsville holds an annual 5k. We usually try to run it each year if we spend the day in G-ville. Justin has a torn ACL so he didn't join us, and Nate just didn't want to, but Mikaela and I did. I had trained pretty well this year so I actually enjoyed it. I am not all that good, but it was fun. Mikaela ran the childrens 1 mile and she took first place in her age group. She is so competitive! She threw up when she was done because she pushed herself so hard. She does not get that from her mommy. I will do about anything to avoid vomit. Anyway...Jen took first place overall for the women. Her time was barely over 18 min. and she was disappointed because she wanted to come in under 18. Lets just say that it took me a little bit longer. It was fun to spend the day in Gville with family and some friends from high school. Good stuff.

Trekkin

Our "family"

The divas of the group

Justin and I were called to be a "Ma and Pa" for the stake youth trek. We don't serve in the YM/YW right now so it was kind of a good break from primary. We both actually had a lot of fun. I didn't love wearing those polygamist clothes, but other than that we had a great time together. I did gain an appreciation for how exhausted the pioneers must have been. The first night after we were done walking, I set up the tent and fell onto my sleeping bag for a minute. I don't know how they managed all the walking, setting up camp, preparing/cooking dinner/cleanup, caring for animals, etc. just to get up bright and early to do it all over again. One morning they woke us at 4:00 when a mob came and attacked our camps. Surprisingly the YW were up and out before the boys. Our YM (and a couple of the men) were competitive and wanted to be in the front of the line, so they would pass the other "families". The literally ran a fair amount of the time. By the last day everyone was annoyed with us and they made us stay in the very back of the line. I have to admit, it was hard to go that slowly. We hiked a total of 21 miles of hard terrain. One day was on dirt roads, but the other two we were straight through the sage brush. Justin almost had the cart tip over on him at one point.
We had the joy of riding in some sweet buses. The stake had hired an OLD bus company. They were old school buses that I really don't think could have legally passed any kind of inspection. They were hot and dusty to begin with, but became really tiring when two broke down on the way there and we had to double up. Then on the way down, we had to stop every 15 min. to let the brakes cool. It took us 5 1/2 hours to get home on a trip that should have taken 2-2 1/2. We were all a little grouchy by the time we got there. Other than the transportation though, it was a great experience. I have never been so happy to see my bed and bathroom as I was when we got home at 10:30pm the last night!

Justin is DONE!!!!

Just a quick post. Justin had his last night of school last night!! So happy to be finished. It seems like school has been way too big a part of our lives. Four of our five children have been born while he has been working and going to school full time. Well, no more!!! Justin will be coaching Nate's football team this fall and I am happy about that because Nate has really missed Justin being around more. Now, to get back to cleaning my house. Alexa's baptism tomorrow at 10. Lots of work to finish.

Happy Birthday Alexa!!!

Today Alexa turns eight. She is an amazing little girl. She is so kind and soft hearted. She is the peacemaker of the family. She loves to dress up, sing and dance. She can make a mess like no other...she is a creative, free spirit. She tries so hard to be good and we love her so much!!!! Right now, I really should be taking her to the store to buy what we need to make her cake. I told her that she could decorate her own cake. She was so excited! Little does she know, that she is just helping me get out of much dreaded cake decorating. I don't enjoy cake making and it shows. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXA!!!! WE LOVE YOU BABY GIRL!

Schonbrunn Palace

Schonbrunn Palace was one of my favorite visits of the whole tripp. It is an 800 bedroom palace where several rulers of Austria lived. If I remember correctly it was Maria Theresa who had it built. It is the home where Marie Antonette was born and raised before being married off to France. It is also the place where Mozart first played for the Emperess at the age of 6. Napoleon lived there for a short time and it was also the place of the meeting between JFK and Kruschev (Not at all sure I spelled that right). Anyway, a fun place to visit. The grounds were amazing! We hiked to the top of a small hill in the back of the palace where we were able to enjoy a beautiful view of the Vienna skyline. So fun!

The view from the top of the hill. There is some scaffolding where workers were setting up for a concert.

Building at the top of the hill. The backyard of the Palace.

Fountain in the back of the Palace just before starting up the hill.

One of several smaller gardens just behind the palace.

The front of the palace.

Europe Trip

Well we had good intentions to blog everyday of our trip. At this point however, I think that we will just give an overview. Justin will have to fill in the parts before I arrived. To begin with, I was worried about leaving the kids for that long and I was nervous about the flight. I don't like flying, but I especially don't like flying alone. I mentioned this to my doctor and he gave me a prescription of anti-anxiety medication. My sister-in-law said that she had tried it and that it had helped her. So I decided to try taking a third of a pill. The first section of the flight was 4 hours and I slept for 3. Pretty good, I think, so I decide that I am going to take another third for the long leg. It doesn't really knock me out this time so I take the final third a couple of hours later. Well, that is all I remember.
I arrived in Vienna and we ate our first real weinerschnitzel. Which is more like chicken fried steak than a hot dog. Our guide Fritz took us for a walking tour through the city to show us the museum district and the government buildings. Here are some of the highlights:

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Government Building.

Mozart Concert. The orange/red walls are to remember when the building burned.

A museum in Vienna. It had a really long name that I can't remember. Amazing though.

16 Days in Europe

Day 1 in Europe - Switzerland - The Alps and a night in Grindewald

Michelle will be shocked to see me post to the blog, but there's a first time for everything. I always wake up early my first night overseas. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. today and decided to try to figure out how to post to the blog. I'll try to post each day, but we'll see how that goes.

Yesterday was great. We arrived in Zurich at about 7:00 a.m. and got on a bus and drove to the Swiss LDS Temple in Bern. It's the one in the movie "How Rare a Possession". Here's short video of our stop at the temple.




We then got back on the bus and drove about an hour and half to the Swiss Alps. The Alps are amazing! We drove through a beautiful village called Interloken and then arrived at the base of Mt. Eiger. From here we caught a cog-wheel train that took us up the mountain. Here are a few pictures from the top:

The Brot cooked in saurkraut and hashed potatoes were tasty!

We then got back on the train and headed down the other side. This was my favorite part. The view was incredible.

The view as we started our way down the other side

Notice the cliffs on the right side of the pic. You'll see a few waterfalls coming off the top of the cliff. The next pics will show us getting closer. I couldn't believe how steep those mountains are.

Getting closer to the base. What a view!

Nearing the bottom

Remember the waterfall in the distance from the first picture.
Here it is from the base. This village was so cool. Everything is so clean.

We then drove to Grindelwald where we spent our first night. This is a really quaint village. So peaceful and beautiful.

Here is a panoramic view from the balcony of my room at the Hotel Eiger.

The view as you cross the street in front of the hotel is also spectacular. Check this out.......

Day 1 was great. I've got to run to get ready to go to Church. We're off to Lucern, Switzerland after church. Michelle will be meeting me next week in Vienna. I can't wait for her to get here. I really wish you were here to see the Alps babe! We'll definitely come back here together.

Days 2 and 3 - From Grindelwald to Lucern, Switzerland

We woke up in one of my favorite places in the world, Grindlewald and had a delicious buffett breakfast. We then had a great sacrament meeting. I took the next video that morning. Everything there was so peaceful. Check this out........









After leaving Grindlewald we drove down to Interloken, which is a nice city. We stayed there for an hour or so, and then drove to Lucern, where we've now spent two days. Today we visited two businesses ZAI ski company, and the Partners group. Zai makes high end handmade skis. We watched them make part of one. They range in price from $3,000 to about $9,000. We then visited a private equity company called the partner group. Both were interesting visits.

To get to Zai we had to drive through some very windy mountains. I'll post a few pictures, but need to get to bed. I haven't slept well since arriving, but need to get to bed soon. I have to be up early to leave for Munich in the morning. 5:30 wake up call!

Here are a few pics from the last day or so: My internet is out of time. This is all I'll post for now

1. Wood walking bridge. I'ts been around since the 1500's.

It's outta here!

This weekend Nate has been playing in the memorial day tournament. Justin is disappointed that he has had to miss it, but he is happy that he is in Switzerland staying in the "too beautiful for this world" Swiss Alps. We are missing him already, but I think that he is having a great time. Yesterday Nate's team lost the first game and won the second. Nate had two great hits to the fence yesterday and pitched pretty well. Today they won both games and Nate pitched great. I hear about the pitching from the other parents because I was late and missed the first two innings. :(. Anyway, during the second game Nate hit one over the center field fence. It was so much fun! He completed his run around the bases with a summersault over home plate. Unexpected, but funny. He has been on cloud nine ever since. It is so fun to see your kids do something that is so exciting to them because they feel so great about it. Compared to last week when he got pulled from pitching and he was so down on himself. We also went to Nicks game in Lehi. We are about all baseballed out, but it has been fun to watch.
Now on to preparing the sharing time that I just remembered I have last night. Nothing like procrastination. Thank you sugardoodle!

ER Sundays

Our children have had several trips to the ER over the years. Nathan and Mikaela have broken their arms, we have had several stitches, etc. For some reason, they ALL have happened on Sunday. It has been a joke in our family for awhile. It will be Sunday afternoon when I finally let my kids out of the house and I will say "don't do anything crazy...it's Sunday." They know what I mean.
Well this Sunday was a nice day. We went to Grantsville for mothers day and we had nice visits with our mothers. It was fun to see family. It was also a little crazy that morning and I hadn't even had time to take a shower. I went to church looking and feeling a little frazzled. So I had told Justin that I would really like to get home by a decent hour so that I could take a relaxing bath. We actually got out on time and we got home and started unloading everything. We had literally been home five minutes, at most, when I hear what I thought was my kids fighting because there was so much screaming. Mikaela walks in holding Ella who has blood running profusely down her face. I had just seen Ella walking upstairs. I had no idea that she had gone out front and was riding her bike. She apparently fell on her face because her lip was cut badly, her front tooth was pushed back, and some of her gums had been scraped off. (I know OUCH!). I always have to mentally calm myself when I see one of my kids in a state like this because what I really want to do is run around screaming myself. It just turns your stomach into knots that don't leave until it is all fixed.
We ended up spending the rest of mothers day in the ER. Thank you to Tiffany who came and sat with our kids until after midnight. Ella was so brave. On the way to the hospital she kept saying "call the doctor to see if it's going to hurt" because she asked me if it was going to hurt, and I didn't want to lie to her. I knew that best case she was at least going to have to have a shot or IV, so I told her that it might hurt we were just going to have to see what the doctor needed to do. She didn't cry at all. Not one tear. She watched them put the needle into her leg and was fine. They used a consious sedation which are never fun to watch. It also makes my stomach turn to see my little girl laying on the table while the doctor stitches her lip and her eyes are wide open with her body jerking. Oh I hate the whole thing. I am glad that we have that help available though.
So, another Sunday in the ER. What are the odds, really?
Oh, and then on Monday at Nates baseball game, Ella gets hit in the back of the head with a foul ball. Poor thing got hit hard. She seems to be a magnet for pain right now.

Suggestions?

Okay, I know that I have five children and should have this figured out by now. I can not seem to teach my kids to pick up after themselves. I am not meaning a few things here and there...total messes. Everything they touch ends up on the floor. I am not even counting the number of wrappers I have pulled out of Kate's mouth. The problem is I don't want to do it for them because I want them to learn for themselves, not just to expect to come home from class and tada! the rooms are clean. I usually end up going with them to help them do it. If they go upstairs to clean on their own it is all out war between Alexa and Mikaela (please let us get the basement finished soon!). I know that I need to be more consistent with actually walking upstairs to check when they say "Yes I have cleaned my room" because guess what? They are lying. I have found clothes stuffed under beds, under dresses, in toy boxes and behind doors (to mention a few). I have heard people say that you should just throw away whatever they don't clean up, but I have tried that and I just end up having to buy them new pj's and underwear. Maybe I just need to go back downstairs and breathe for a minute.
Really this is probably just payback because I was the exact same way as a child. Justin says to just be patient, that they will learn eventually. In the meantime, I am so sick of the upstairs being a mess. I would LOVE to figure something out so that we could have a more orderly, peaceful home.

Little Miss Sunshine

I am having another one of my blog slacker periods. We have been very busy. Nate is going full time with baseball...3 games a week and 2 practices. Too much in my opinion, but nobody really wants my opinion. The girls all (except Kate) have a dance competition on Saturday, so they all have double practices going right now also. Add piano, homework, house and yard and we are going all the time. Yesterday we had cereal for dinner because I chose to vacuum out the filthy van and mow the long grass instead of making dinner before Nates game last night. Tonight Mikaela has dance and activity days and Nate has practice in Mapleton. Not sure how we are going to get Nate to practice and MJ to dance at the same time in different locations. Have I ever mentioned that I am really excited for Justin to graduate?
Well enough of my whining. On the bright side I get to meet Justin for lunch today. We try to meet for lunch once a week. Usually we meet on Thursdays, but he has a golf tournament this week so I am going today. Of course I will have Ella, Kate and a neighbor girl with me....So much for the positive. Have I mentioned that Kate is teething? :).

Dad's Retirement (18mo ago)

Justin just updated his work computer and while he was cleaning out is computer he found this old file that I had written for my dad's retirement party. We were each supposed to write our memories of dads working days. Here are a few of mine.

My memories of dads work:

-Travel! The van packed with people and luggage. The bed in the back. The cooler between the two front seats with Laurie sleeping on it. Eating sugar cereal out of a paper cup. Picking up turtles from the road. Dad and Grandpa in the water with the dolphins, diving for golf balls in Virginia-let’s not forget the red and white gingham tablecloth, and swimming everyday in Chicago (Mike popped my inflatable turtle L). Celebrating my 9^th birthday in Florida. Disney World (Chocolate dipped banana) , Busch Gardens, Liberty Jail, Carthage Jail, Navoo, Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah (catching fireflies), Mt. Rushmore, monuments in D.C. and St. Luis, and being left in the car at Graceland. Just to scratch the surface :).

-Dad packing his lunch at night. I remember sandwiches with Mayo (lots of it) and tomatoes. As an after work snack dad would eat a spoonful of peanut butter with a glass of milk. I also remember washing out is lunch containers (black lunch box) yuck!

-Every Friday morning, when dad had the day off, he would make a big breakfast--John would throw a fit because he didn’t want to go to school smelling like bacon. But, the pancakes with peanut butter and eggs with mustard were great!

-The candy bar hunt. Were they hiding under the drivers side seat, in his briefcase, or in the top of the closet? Maybe all three…:).

Easter Eggs

Every year we color Easter eggs for FHE the week before Easter. Here are some of the results. I think Justin had more fun than the kids. The only problem with that was the inappropriate messages he would write on them. :)

St. George

I am really behind on this blog. I have good intentions, but it seems like I just can't get everything done. A couple of weeks ago our family went to St. George for the March Madness tournament. It was a great break for us. The weather was great and the kids were able to get in a lot of swimming. Nathan and his team played really well. They lost their first game, which is only frustrating because it was a team they should have beat. They won their next three games. Nathan played well so he was happy. I loved having that time with Justin and the kids without all the usual distractions of home, work and school.

He takes after his daddy.


Mikaela showing her best pose.

Nate getting a hit.

MJ

Alexa

Ella LOVED swimming

Kate

Nate pitched great!

This week the Pizza Factory Tournament. We are just getting started on a long season of baseball. This will be our lives every weekend until the 24th of July. No wonder I am behind.

Ella, Kate, and Grandparents

Monday morning Kate had her nine month check up. She is doing well (34% weight ,60 something% height). Everything is good. She didn't have to have any shots either...always a plus. Later that day, Laurie and I went to Target and I saw something that looked like a sty in Ella's eye (didn't mean to rhyme there). The next morning her eye looked a little red and by Wednesday she woke up with it swollen badly. It was not pretty. So we went back to the doctors and she has conjunctivitis (pink eye) and cellulitis. She is on eye drops and an oral antibiotic now and she is much improved since yesterday. She is not a fan of the eye drops but is being very brave about it.

Here she is looking much improved from the day before. Almost normal.

Kate has just been crawling for a few weeks now and she has been great about not getting into too much trouble. No trying to crawl down the stairs, eating electrical cords, etc. I am hoping that it stays that way. She did fall off one of the kitchen chairs with Ella's help yesterday, but overall has been pretty good to stay near the toys. I am sure that will all end soon enough, but we are enjoying it for now.

Ella loves carting Kate around. Kate...not so much.

Also, my parents came home from their mission almost two weeks ago. It was so much fun to see them again. Their flight was originally scheduled to arrive at 7:30 pm but they missed their flight in NY so they had to get on the next flight which was scheduled to arrive at 11:30. It was late. I think they finally arrived a little after midnight. It was a bit of an adventure carting the kids to the airport that late. Justin was still in Thailand, but everyone did well. Kate was really tired, but we all made it safely to Grantsville around 1:30am.
The kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa that they went running up to them the second they got to the bottom of the escalator. People were getting backed up behind them. It has been nice to have them home. On Tuesday they came to Spanish to visit Gary and Tiffany because Haydon had been sick the night they came home and they hadn't seen them yet. They stopped by our house to visit and we were able to go on a walk and the kids showed them their new bikes, scooters, etc. It was nice to have them here for a visit again.