2009 begins

So, not much has been going on so far this year. We are busy surviving. We all got a touch of the stomach flu a few weeks ago. It wasn't that bad. Dustin and Alexis both threw up once and were done, and the rest of us just got horrid stomach aches and sat around for a day. Emily is currently playing basketball, but we haven't got any good pictures of that. She is also starting softball soon. Dustin is now complaining that he wants to play again and we need to sign him up. He is doing really well with his reading and is very excited about that. He kept telling me all last summer that he wanted to learn how to read so that he could play video games better. The picture is of him getting a star student award. Apparantly they only hand these out a couple of times a year, and this was the first time this year. He is a huge teachers pet. He would do anything to please her, so it kind of didn't surprise me that he got it. Alexis has been asking me to help her write her name, so I write it and she picks the letters at random and writes them all over the page, but they look right, so that is a good start. Mike and I both started back to school. We are now in week four. Only three and a half more years...

Christmas Time

Here are the kids with Santa at our previously mentioned Ward Christmas party. We took photos for all the kiddos. The funny thing is that the guy who was Santa has a couple of kids and many grandkids in our ward. The only kids that were screaming were his own grandkids. I thought that was hilarious.

And just to get everyone in the Holiday Spirit... I present "Christmas toes" (These are Alexis' feet)

And speaking of Alexis, we've had quite a fun few weeks with this girl. It started out when I was in my room, sorting laundry and she was in the living room, playing with money. She came in to me screaming at the top of her lungs (anybody who knows Alexis, knows she is a very quiet girl, this is totally out of character for her) So I'm telling her to calm down because I can't understand what she's saying, finally I hear "I swallowed a penny" I thought she was too old for this stuff, I thought I was past the putting things in the mouth stage. Nope. So I called the doctor just to see what they say, and they tell me to take her to an urgent care and get xrays. How fun. So we do that, and from the looks of the xray, it was a quarter, not a penny, but she calls all coins pennys, so I wasn't all that surprised. So they tell me to fish through her poo, and if it doesn't come out in 48 hours, bring her back. (this was all on a Monday) So Mike and I looked (mostly Mike, she kept going when I would leave the house) (haha) and we never saw (or felt) anything, so on Friday night they call to see if she had "made a deposit" yet, and told us to give her laxitives, both oral and suppository. Oh yeah, fun. So I took her back in again Saturday night for more xrays, and guess what? It's gone. She must have snuck one out and not told us. So who knows how long we were doing that yucky stuff for nothing.

Then last week she suddenly got very sick, running a fever of almost 104 and coughing, so back to the doctor. She was panting by the time we got there and her heart was beating like a hummingbird. She was also just laying there. Not fun. It took them several breathing treatments to get it under control. She has a bit of asthma, and it only acts up when she's sick. She has bronchitis right now, so she's on some really strong antibiotics, steroids, and several different breathing treatments a day. So, that's why I painted her toenails. It makes her happy. Other then that we are all doing good, and the kids are ready for Christmas. So Merry Christmas to all my readers out there. I know I hardly ever post, so most of you won't see this for a while, but have a good one!!

Dustin's 6th Birthday

Dustin's birthday was on Thanksgiving this year (poor kid) so we decided at the last minute to have his party the weekend before. He invited over a few friends and they had a great time playing with his new things. This was the favorite present. They had a lot of fun seeing who could get the rockets to go the highest. And I had a fun time sweeping them off the roof!

When I asked Dustin what kind of cake he wanted he answered "Chocolate. With chocolate frosting." He must be my kid. So I asked what would you like on top of your cake? and he said star wars. That left it open quite a bit. So I googled "easy star wars cakes" and you would not believe the cakes that popped up. They most definatly did not look easy. So after a few pages, I found this cake. Anyone who has seen the movies will recognize this scene.

It was a little soft and the men kept sinking in, so that's where the toothpicks came in, and I could not get the lava frosting red enough, so Mike finally made me quit before I made it any worse. So once again I ended up with one of those cakes that doesn't look as good as I want it to, but it tasted good!

As for other things, Mike and I got called to be the activities chairpeople about two weeks before Halloween. So we had to throw together the Halloween party at the last second. (With no committee) Ugh! It was not fun at all. (for us, everyone else seemed to have a good time) So we had our Christmas party planned for Dec. 13th, and we got to church two weeks ago to find out that they did not reserve the building for us, and the only open date was the 6th. So it's been a bit of a stressful two weeks, and I am sooooo glad it's over. Everything turned out beautifully this time, and I actually got to sit and eat for about five minutes. I hate to admit it, but I actually work better under last minute stress. Way back in high school I wouldn't write my term papers until the night before, and they were always decent. The longer I have to do things the more I second guess myself and redo them, usually the first thing I come up with is the best. Okay, so now you've all had a little peak into my inner self. Christmas and Mike's birthday are coming up soon and we are not prepared. But I can at least try to post soon after they happen!

Halloween

Halloween night at my parents home. Everyone is so excited, can't you tell? After this we went to Alice's ward party and had a great time. They had some fun carnival games and a spook alley. We didn't do any door to door trick or treating this year because fewer and fewer people are handing out candy. A lot of the churches around here do the "safe halloween" parties now, and they attract huge crowds.

This is Alexis at school for the kids' parade, she had to get dressed up too. It was very windy (our yes on prop 8 sign blew away) so that's why she's holding her hat on. Isn't she the most adorable thing you've ever seen?

Here is Darth (Dustin) Vader. He wouldn't put out his light sabor, but at least he carried it.

And here is Tinker Bell Emily. (She's a little obsessed with Tinker Bell lately, can you tell?) I actually made this costume, wings and all. The wings were shaped a lot better when I made them, but they got desroyed really fast.

Emily's 9th Birthday (and Eddie's 39th)

As everyone knows, (or should know) Emily was born on Eddie's 30th birthday. I remember him coming to the hospital to see us and I tried to stammer out an apology (lots of drugs, not enough sleep) and he said something to the effect of "No! This is great! Now I never have to celebrate another birthday again, it will be all about her" We can't let that happen, we always sing to him, but this year we put together a few cupcakes and made him blow out some candles too. Emily invited three friends over, and spent the entire night giggling with them. She wanted a Tinkerbell cake, so once again I made one of those cakes that tastes a whole lot better then it looks. But like Mike said, it's better then a cake that looks perfect and tasted horrible. Thanks to everyone who came and sent birthday cards.

My first view of the canyon.
Down the trail a ways.
No trees blocking this view
The Colorado river. We wanted to hike down there, but the shortest trail was 7.5 miles one way. We were confidant that we would make it down, it was the getting back up that worried us.
And, finally, a beautiful sunset under those monsoon clouds.

I know I said I would post the pictures below, but the silly thing posts everything backwards. Does any body else have this problem? Or am I just blogger illiterate?

My (semi) impromtu trip to the Grand Canyon

Sometimes it's funny how things come about. I was having a rotton day a few weeks ago. It turned into a giant pitty party for me and I ended up crying. This is not something I do often. It's about once a year or less, but once I get going it's very hard for me to stop. I tried to tell my husband that he should feel lucky because there are women out there who cry all the time and about anything, so he rarely has to deal with this, but he went into "fix it" mode and just kept asking what's wrong? How do you explain to a man that you have no idea what's wrong and really don't know why you are crying? That sounds just plain crazy! But that is pretty much where I ended up at. Feeling crazy. As most of you know he has been off work for several months due to the latest round of broken foot. So I decided I'd had enough of it and just needed a vacation by myself, just to get away for a few days. A few hours after I finally calmed down the phone rings. It is my dear, wonderful, almost saintly (I hope she gets a kick out of this) friend Alena. She said to me "I want to go to the Grand Canyon, wanna come?" Without thinking I blurted out "YES!" A few hours later and a little convincing to Mike, the plans were layed and set into action. We had less then two weeks to prepare, but everything turned out wonderfully. We took along two more friends, Diana and David. It was seriously the best hole in the ground I have ever seen. There were quite a few times that I was extremely grateful that I didn't have my kids with me because I would have been a nervous wreck. This way I was able to relax and enjoy the beauty of it all. And except for losing David for a little while and those crazy monsoons that blow through once a day, the trip went great! We drove there on Friday, set up camp and went to bed, spent Saturday and Sunday hiking/exploring and drove home Monday. Below I will post a few pictures, I took a lot, but there are only so many angles you can look at the thing from, and a picture will never show the full beauty or the enormous size of the place. Hope you enjoy!