And now, deep thoughts, by Alexis Taylor

Alexis comes to me the other day and asks,
"If I cut my finger off, will it grow back?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't know, they just don't grow back."
"Well, my arm got better, and my owies get better."

Ummmm, I could not think of a response for that. Why is it that we can injure ourselves horribly and our bones will heal and our skin will regrow. Our blood vessels can mend themselves, and our nerves regeneraete. But our limbs don't grow back? So I replied,

"I'm not sure why. It doesn't make any sense, does it?"

I guess that was enough for her because she didn't ask any more whys. I'm going to have to start reading some deep science books to answer this ones questions.

I'm still alive...

I kind of dropped off of the face of the Earth for a while. Alexis ended up having surgery on her elbow and it was like having a baby again. Even though it was her left arm, I had to help her to eat for a while, and I had to take her to the bathroom every time. (She couldn't get on and off the toilet by herself, couldn't balance once she was up there, couldn't wipe, and couldn't wash her hand.) I also had to help her get dressed. It was not fun trying to find clothes that I could fit over the huge cast. For a while she wore a tank top and a shawl. We just took a blanket with us everywhere to keep her warm.

For Christmas, Santa had already gotten her a scooter, so he had to scramble at the last minute to find something else. (He didn't think it would be very nice to give her something that she would not be able to use for a long time.)

She only had the cast on for three weeks. They had to put pins in to hold her elbow in place. The pins were sticking out of the skin, so they had to remove them before they got infected. After that she was in a sling for another three weeks. We have to take her in for x-rays every couple of months for a year to make sure the elbow stays in the right place. The way it broke, it went through her growth plate and if they had not fixed it, her arm would have either stopped growing or would have retarded growth.

Right now both Emily and Dustin are in baseball, so that is keeping me busy. It's kind of a pain on school nights.

For Spring Break we went to Portland, Oregon for my niece Amy's wedding. She is the oldest granddaughter (of my parents) and the first to get married. Alexis was the flower girl. Since I am smart and organized, I forgot my camera at the house we were staying in. All I have is a picture of her in the dress when I tried it on her.

I am hoping to be able to get some pictures from the bride and groom once they are settled in. We had a good time seeing the sights. The kids traveled well, which was very nice. This is the first time they have ever been in the car for more than three hours. I take them to the beach, to the mountains, and to L.A. and that is about it. They watched a lot of movies and played with the DS's. It kept them nicely busy.

On the way home we hit a huge snow storm over Mt. Shasta. There were a lot of people driving badly and sliding off of the road. We were scared that someone was going to slide into us, but decided to keep going. They closed the road right after we got over it. It took us an extra three hours to get over the summit. Here are a few pictures of it.

It was beautiful. If we were the only cars on the road it would have been okay. We just got really stressed about the other drivers.

Today was Alexis' last day of preschool. She got out early because her teacher (unexpectedly) got pregnant at the beginning of the school year. She has to have her babies by c-section, and they just bumped her date up to the Monday after next, so she decided she wanted a week off to prepare her self and her house. At the last minute (literally after school started today) she decided to have a little graduation. So once again, no camera. I took a few pictures after we got home.



They made cute little hats and diplomas.
And a few days ago they made these cute hand print stepping stones. We got to bring them home today. She had a great time in preschool and learned a lot. She is more than ready for kindergarten. Thanks Miss Michelle!

We recently made some blankets for Project Linus and donated them for Disney's "give a day, get a day" so up next an (almost) free Disney trip!

November

This month Dustin got the student of the month award. It was a surprise for him, so that is his pleased grin. I made some turkey cupcakes for the ladies that I visit teach and some for Alexis' preschool class. I thought they looked like turkeys, but my kids asked me what they were.

We spent Thanksgiving at Mike's dads house. The day after was Dustin's birthday. Since it was black Friday, Mike had to work. So we let him open his present that morning and had his cake on Sunday. Unfortunatly, uncle Eddie had a little bike accident (and broke both collarbones) on Friday, so Alice was going to stay home with him and my parents were going to bring the kids over, but...

Miss Alexis decided to climb up on the kitchen counter and fell off. Mike and I were both cooking dinner, so we were right there when it happened. Mike picked her up and I lifted her sleeve. The arm was already swollen and had a nasty lump on it. And she was screaming. We decided we'd better not put her in her carseat, so we called an ambulence. We were having friends over for dinner and they pulled up right when it happened and heard the screaming. We let them in and immediatly gave her a blessing. When they sat her in the ambulence, she was very pale and was swaying. She looked like she was going to pass out. That's about when my parents pulled up. Mike rode with her in the ambulence. I went inside with our friends and we went ahead and ate dinner, then did the cake and icecream for Dustin. They had to cut Alexis' shirt off of her. It was new. She cried about it, so the EMT's went back to the hospital and took her a teddy bear. They xray'd her and could not see a break, but her arm was sooooo swollen, and she flinched and yelled and almost cried every time it was touched. They put it in a hard splint and a sling and sent us home. We were told to see an orthopedist today. So today, they took her out of the splint and straightened her arm to xray it from all angles and she started crying again. It is still very swollen and black and blue. It just looks wrong. It looks like her elbow is broken, but with the swelling as bad as it is they cannot cast it. They put her back in the splint and sling and told us not to touch it for a week. They will re-xray it next week and decide what to do. They said that when they are this young, the bones are still pliable, so they can go up to two weeks before something needs to be done. It is not hurting her as long as she doesn't move it. Too much excitement here. Let's hope for a quiet December.

The end of October

Emily turned ten! We had a little party with just us, my parents, and my sister Alice and her family. She chose chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so I added a sprinkle 10.
Next came Halloween. It started with Alexis on Thursday. Instead of having a dress up day at her preschool, they had a scarecrow day. This is how she looked when I picked her up. So cute!

Friday morning was the traditional Halloween parade at school. It was a complete mess as always, but the kids have fun.



Dustin, Luke Skywalker.

Emily, supergirl.

Alexis, the little mermaid, Ariel. I have always let the little ones dress up when they go to the parade, they like it. And finally, Saturday night. Here are the kids in front of the house before we left to go trick-or-treating. Mike made our porch scary, so that is a tarp that says "keep out" behind them. He had the spiders and the strobe light going on. He probably had more fun than the kids.

October

Emily got the first student of the month this year. Go Emily!

Here is our PTA president giving it to her.
Here she is closing her eyes against the morning sun.

Next came Grandpa's wedding. Mike's dad got re-married. It was very dark in the church and my flash is missing (any body know where it's at?), so I only took a couple of pictures in there.




Here are the cousin's minus Savannah. I never did get a picture of her.
Dustin, the ring bearer. He's so handsome, I think I'm going to have to peel the girl's off of him when he gets older.

Emily was a bridesmaid. Loved the spiral curls.

Here's Alexis. I made her this dress because they felt that she was too young to be in the ceremony and I knew she would be heart broken if she was the only one there without a spiffy new outfit. I took her to the fabric store and let her pick out what she wanted, so we ended up with a pink dress with a sparkly overlay on the skirt.

Lastly, Dustin again. The poor boy lost his two front teeth. He's speaking with a hiss/lisp now. It's funny. The first tooth was hanging by a string so Mike pushed it and it fell out. The second tooth then went completely crooked and Dustin started showing me how cool it was that he could turn it all the way around. It was nasty so I grabbed him and made Mike yank it out. Yes, I am mean like that. It bled. A lot. So that is why there is a little bit of blood on his nose. Mike felt guilty and bought him a pack of pokemon cards, so he was happy then.

All I want for Halloween is my two front teeth!

Up next, Emily's birthday, then Halloween.

I know, its been forever...

Okay! I'm back. I took a nice long summer break. I enjoyed staying up late and sleeping in. I did not enjoy being a referee.

Here we are walking to school on the first day. Right as I pressed the button, Dustin ran in front of Mike, you can see his shoe if you look. I wanted this picture, but the sun was behind us and the shadows were bad, so I did not take another one.
Emily, first day of fifth grade. She was obviously very excited to be there. Especially after she saw the stack of books waiting on her desk.

Dustin, first day of first grade. He actually was very excited and couldn't wait to see what friends were going to be in his class and to meet his teacher.
Here he is exploring his desk. He sat right down and started chatting with the little boy next to him like they'd known each other forever. It was so cute.
Here is Alexis the next day on her first day of preschool. She was super-duper excited. She hated being all alone all day last year while Dustin was in K. She was always asking me if she could go to school. She goes two days a week and doesn't stop talking about it in between. She keeps track of the days and knows when she goes. So she is loving it!

Mike and I are still plugging along in school. It's been about eight months. Only three more years to go...

A few summer happenings

It's been a long summer. School is keeping Mike and I very busy. With his new job, we are not having a lot of time to do things. I haven't taken very many pictures at all this summer. We spent the fourth of July at my sister's house. She lives right by BC, so we get a nice, free show. This year we walked down the street to a friends' grandparents home and the show was even better! There was a really nice breeze, and it blew the fireworks right over us. At the end of the show it rained ash on us. A few of us even got hit by some large pieces of exploded cardboard. It was fun. We spent the day making bottle rockets out of old water bottles. Here is Alexis holding hers.
My bro-in-law Eddie made a "launching pad" to shoot these off. They are powered by water and air. They shoot pretty high and you never know where they are going to land. I couldn't catch a flying one, but here is one ready to go, I think it might also be Alexis'.


Dustin wanted a "faux-hawk" but his hair would not co-operate, so he ended up getting his hair cut into a real mo-hawk. It looked cute for a while, but now that it is grown out, it is looking a little shabby. Here he is on the fourth. I tried to get pictures of the kids playing with the sparklers, but most of them turned out all blurry. I did not have the camera on the correct shutter speed for night. This is the only one that kind of turned out. Alexis had her fourth birthday on July 10th. We ended up accidently having three parties for her. It's a good thing I made a cake and a ton of cupcakes. The first party was a little girls only party. Alexis invited over a few friends and they dressed up and played a few games. I painted all of their fingernails while they colored princess pictures. They also all made necklaces with beads and filled them with sand. I let the girls decorate their own cupcakes. They had a lot of fun. Here are all the girls dressed up. We were supposed to have one big family party that night, but it didn't work out. Alice and Eddie had taken the day off of work and were leaving for a weekend trip, and Mike's sister and her kids couldn't make it until late, so we had two separate family parties. That's okay, then the house wasn't full all at once. I think Alexis had a really great day. Thanks to everyone who came and for the nice gifts.