July '13 - Utah

We love spending part of our summers in Utah visiting Aaron's family.  They are always so good to us.  I felt like I would break out in hives every time I thought about traveling in the car with Gwen and making that 11 hour trip.  She screams like a pterodactyl and the kids nick named her "screech".  I didn't realize how bad it was until a neighbor gave Trey a ride home from school.  They had a baby in his car seat who was quietly looking around.  Trey asked if the baby was asleep and then stared at it in awe that it could just sit there and be happy and quiet while awake.  Yup our baby does not do that. Turns out Gwen did awesome on the trip.  We had our normal baby glitches but she was a champ.  What a blessing for all of us.

We love spending our time outside at Grandma and Poppa's ranch.  The sprinklers in the fields.  The breeze.  The wind that comes through the canyon at night and the sound of the trains.  It has solidified some pretty good summer memories for these kids.

Grandma is always so good at organizing such a large group of people.  I have never once seen her stress out about it or be tired or want to reschedule. Her doors are always open.  Literally they are always open with an influx of family running in and out of them.  It is where everyone congregates and she is always talking, feeding and playing with whoever is visiting.  She set up a rain gutter regatta for everyone to participate in.  The kids had fun decorating their own boats which she and Poppa made and assemble into kits for everyone.

Aaron drove up with us spent a couple of days and then had to leave to get back to working and bishoping.  I stayed an extra week with the kids.

Logan had tried out and made the All Star team for his division in soccer during the fall.  With Gwen being born I knew it was going to be hard to run him across the state every weekend for tournaments without Aaron's help.  He decided on his own that another time would be best and we brain stormed that maybe soccer camp at BYU would be a good alternative.

He was so excited...until the day finally came and he turned into a nervous wreck.  The size of the campus and being unfamiliar with it. Being dropped off at 8 in the morning and not picked up until 8 at night.  Not knowing a soul. All of these made for a perfect case of Peptobismal.  I was proud of him for overcoming his fears.  Peptobismal and Sprite became his morning routine but he pushed through it.  I know this experience will only help him later in life.  He ended up having a great time.  He learned a ton and improved his skills. He made new friends and was so sore every night when I would pick him up.  He had the chance to meet the players that are on the BYU soccer team and they gave Logan tickets to go to their game which was at the end of his camp.  We went as a family and it was so fun to sit outside in the wonderful weather and enjoy it.

He is such a physical player and has such a high pain threshold.  I want to bubble wrap him every time I see him play.  Grandma has a shock therapy treatment that helps minimize pain.  She wanted Logan to use it at night to help with his sore muscles.  She was setting it up and showing him how it feels like a "pickly" massage.  Lo and behold it was accidentally set on maximum voltage and she screamed as she shocked herself really good.  He pretty much ran for the hills after that and wanted no part of it.

These are some of the friends that Logan made.  He called them the "Boston Brothers" because they were from Boston obviously.  They were in his group and they hung out together quite a bit together during the camp at lunch and also exploring the campus.  He has kept in touch with them through emails.  It was pretty cool to see boys from all over the world there.

While Logan was at camp every day, the rest of us (Trey, Avery and Gwen) went exploring.  We spent some time at Bridal Veil Falls which was beautiful.

These two have such a love hate relationship.  It's either the best of the best times or the lowest of the low.  At each others throats or planning their next adventure.  Luckily this was a good week in their relationship.  :) I guess that's how siblings are. 

We also went to a couple of museums.

Gwen was doted on by Poppa and Grandma.  She did pretty good being run around from place to place.  I don't consider myself a master in the nursing department but we managed it and Trey and Avery were very patient and understanding when we needed to leave some place or make accomadations for Princess Gwen.

The kids had saved up their money and purchased some baby cows.  This has been their first big investment.  They each bought one.  It was hard to get a good picture of them because they are so skittish and hyper.  They grazed on Grandpa's land and then recently they sold them at a cattle auction making a good profit.  This was how Aaron saved up money for his mission and this will be one of the ways our kids now will.  Avery is still not so sure she likes this arrangement and is worried about the cows ending up in the meat department at Walmart.  The kids have a good start on their mission funds and they are each getting ready to buy another one.

I don't know if those are smiles or grimaces.  The mosquitoes love our foreign blood and always eat us alive when we go outside.  We are constantly spraying on bug repellent.

We loved our time in Utah and I was especially proud of myself and Gwen for sticking it out for 2 weeks without another parental. There is always an adventure to be had at the ranch

 

 

 

 

 

And then this happened on our way home right outside of Flagstaff.  We hit a dumb deer that ran at us full force.  There was only a split second of reaction time from Aaron. Enough time for him to swerve so we didn't hit it dead on.  It was an awful experience listening to the screams and the sound of the car being hit.  We were so so blessed that nobody was hurt other than some scrapes and scratches.  We should have been hurt more...but we weren't.  Trey was in the front, without a seat belt.  Angels were watching us.  The doors wouldn't open so we couldn't get out.  We had to leave the car and have my dad come pick us up and drive us home.  We got home at 3 in the morning Aaron and Logan drove back up early the next day to tow it home.  We literally ended our trip with a "bang".  I will never drive at night in the mountains again.....NEVER....nor will I let any member of my family, for as long a live.

June 2013

She fits the same mold as the rest of the kids have...practically born with teeth.  She shows off those chicklets pretty good and is proud of them.  It's non stop drooling biting and teething.  She loves to take a big bite of my arm when I hold her.  By 12 months Gwen has 12 teeth!

 

Journaling

My main purpose for keeping this blog is to keep a journal of our family and unfortunately I have not been doing a very good job of keeping it up to date since Gwen was born.  Of all the times to document our crazy life now should be one of those critical times but yet life is busy and unexpected and sometimes I feel like I am just treading water and in survival mode trying to get through the day, week or month.  Busy, fun, tiring, emotional, frustrating and happy times. 

My body has gotten used to surviving on 4-5 hours of sleep a night.  Not by choice that's for sure.  It doesn't mean that I am the most happy and patient person with that amount of sleep but I can drive the kids safely to wear they need to be without getting in a wreck or driving down the wrong side of the road and I can cook dinner without hurting myself.  Very high functioning I tell ya'.  At times I feel like I am having an out of body experience.  I should have said something to this person or I shouldn't have forgotten this or why would I do that, but that is where the lack of sleep becomes really annoying.  I'm not myself in that regard. It's been hard but someday I will miss this time in my life.  That's what I keep telling myself.  Gwen continues to get up every 2-3 hours at night and wakes up screaming in pain.  It takes a lot to calm her down and even then she seems restless and unsettled.  I my not have many accomplishments on my plate but one of them is the fact that I have never lost my cool with her.  I have grown frustrated with the situation but not with her.  I keep thinking it is something she will outgrow next month but yet we continue on and here we are 14 months later.  The Dr. wanted to switch her to soy and it has helped in her feeling more content in her car seat and when I lay her down but she still gets up screaming.  We are now trying out Almond milk and probiotics.  We'll give that 5 more days and see where we go from there.  And yes I have tried oils.

Aaron is still the bishop which means that the kids are being raised by a crazy sleep deprived woman.  Sometimes when they look at me I can almost hear their thoughts.  "Who are you and what have you done with our mother?"  Poor souls are stuck with me 95% of the time.  I know they would much rather be with Aaron who even with his bishoping is able to be more rested than me.  Not complaining just journaling. ;)

So here is to my renewed effort to get caught up and get life documented before I forget.

Avery's Art Party

Avery loves Art.  She loves to paint, draw, color, cut and glue and can do it for lengthy periods of time.  She was so excited to pick out her theme for her 7th birthday and have it be an Art Party.  I can't believe that she is 7.  For a minute or two I was confused and thought that she was turning 6, there wasn't any possible way that my Avery could already be 7.  Time goes by so fast.

We started off the party with creating some abstract art work using painters tape on canvas.  The girls had a great time creating their art work and making it unique.  We listened to a little Kids Bop as they were painting and shockingly they all new every word to every song.  It was so cute to hear them sing together and giggle as they painted.

In my opinion every party should involve some sort of blindfold activity.  It's goofy and fun.  We created a group masterpiece of Avery.  Each girl was blind folded and was responsible for creating a part of Avery.  (Eyes, nose, mouth, arms etc.)  I forgot to get a picture of the end product but it was pretty hysterical.  Avery loved it and had it hanging up in her room for months following.

This was their reactions.  Lots of laughing.  I love how Avery and Marley have their arms wrapped around each other.  Such cute little friends.

Opening presents was a blast.  We brought in some structure to our present opening.  We passed around a paint brush while listening to Kids Bop.  If you were holding the paint brush when the music stopped then you got to give Avery your present to open.  It turned opening presents into a game and slowed down the process so that Avery could say "Thank You's" and share the experience with the person that gave her the gift rather than just going quickly through the presents.

It was a great day for my sweet Avery.  She had been waiting anxiously for months and was on cloud 9 the entire day.  She said over and over how it was the best day ever.

I love this daughter of mine so much and am grateful that she's mine.  Our family was changed for the better on the day that she came into it.  She is my sweet little friend. 

7 things I love about Avery on her 7th birthday.

1.  She is always thinking about others and will chose to run errands with me even though she doesn't really want to because she doesn't want me to be alone or lonely.

 

2.  She is extremely competitive.  She came this way.  She is even more competitive than the boys.  I don't think we have had one family game of UNO where tears have not been shed. Either tears for not winning or tears for winning.

 

3.  She loves everything girly: Makeup, smelly lotions and perfumes, pretty dresses.

 

4.  She can get dirty with the best of them and is spunky and sassy enough to hold her own with boys.

 

5.  She is as smart as a whip and loves to learn.

 

6.  She loves to create ANYTHING.

 

7.  She can giggle and laugh to the point where she can't breathe.

Special School Year Comes to an End

This past year in school might have been one of my favorites.  Trey had an amazing teacher that literally changed his life and ours as well.  We think the world of Mr. Besselo and I am so grateful that there are people in the world like him who go into teaching to make a difference in a child's life.  There isn't anything that Trey would not do for Mr. Besselo and because of that he worked harder and his attitude about learning did a complete 180.  He had a great year and we learned that this kid is capable of a lot.  Mr. Besselo is able to see the good in every child in his classroom and because of that every child wants to be good.  He is our hero and has made a huge impact in Trey's life and we will miss him dearly.  We are so proud of Trey and all his huge accomplishments this past year.  He did awesome.

 Avery was given the award for overall Scholastic Achievement for her 1st grade class.  She is a smarty pants and loves to learn.  She learned this past year that it is okay to relax and get a 105% every now and then rather than a 110% and not cry about it.

Logan was awarded Math Olympiad for the sixth grade level and also given the Presidential Scholar award for keeping his grades and aims scores above a certain level since 3rd grade.  He is one lucky boy that school and learning has come easy for him.  He was able to score above a 90% on every single spelling test since Kindergarten without me ever having to work with him on it.  I have learned now that I was a little negligent with helping him with his school work.  Oh the woes of being the oldest child when your parents are still trying to figure it out.  He's handled us well.

We joke that Logan participated in as many things that he could so that he could go on more field trips.  He participated in KDPE News for the school which he really enjoyed doing.  Sometimes he was the news reporter and sometimes he worked behind the scenes and would write the story and sometimes he would work the cameras.  At the end of the year he got to go visit Channel 12 news studio which he really liked.

He also participated in ELP one full day each week.  I am so sad that I didn't get a picture of him with Mr. McGee.  Logan thought he was the coolest guy around and loved his collection of restored VW buses that he would drive to school each day.  His main project that he made this year for ELP was a solar powered car made out of Lego's.

Patterson has been very good to this boy but he's now moving on to Junior High and after much thought and prayer he will be attending Desert Ridge in the fall.  I love having a school in our neighborhood where I can stop in and help out in the classrooms or eat lunch with the kids or walk with them to and from school. It has helped each of them in different ways.  It is a little surreal having my oldest move on to another stage in his life.  I remember dropping him off for 1/2 day kindergarten with his little glasses that he would push up on his nose and his big back pack with maybe only 1 paper in it at a time.  I remember that new school schedule that I had to be on as well and thinking to myself so this is what being a "real parent" feels like.

Walking the hall one last time with his baby sister.

May Madness

 Trey worked hard and got his Wolf 3 months before his birthday.  We pretended to be Wolves and forged for the candy bar in the chocolate pudding, or at least he did.  Chocolate and milk is not apart of my diet with Gwen and believe me she is not so cute when you cross her.  So rather than draw attention to myself I faked it.  Apparently I did not do a very good job and I think I drew just as much attention to myself by faking it. This picture cracks me up.  I think I was trying to hide behind my hair.

Trey loved it and like everything else he does he got right in there and threw himself into it.

Love this kid.

The kids and I decided that since it was the last time that they would all be attending the same school together that it would be fun to do the talent show together.  A great way to end the school year and this chapter with one last hurrah.  Luckily they had some friends that were thinking the same thing and the kids all put together a bobble head dance of their teachers.  I hung out in the teachers lounge during their lunch break to take pictures of their teachers and then made the bobble heads.  It was pretty funny.  They did a medley of different songs that were short (about 30 seconds) and put it all together to make one routine. YMCA, Gangman Style, Harlem shake and a bunch of others. After their first performance for the primary grades, k-3, they realized that they were a big hit and then got into it more and more with each performance.  Trey told me that he was "famous" at school.

It just so happened that Logan had the shortest teacher at the school.  I don't even think she is 5 foot.  She said that it was her only chance at being tall.  The kids gave their teachers the bobble heads that we made and the teachers still have them hanging up in their class rooms this school year.

Avery had a dance performance that she did great in.

Avery likes dance and has a great memory for the routines. 

Trey finished out his baseball season.  He had the hardest hit of the season during the last game. Mark my words this will be our last attempt at baseball.  This sport is just way too slow for my boys.  Soccer and basketball suit them better.  We start off each season strong and it always becomes a struggle to finish and frankly I want to poke my eyes out by the end.  To much down time and waiting in this sport. 

Little Gwen has been going along for the ride.  She loves to sleep in the arms of anybody who will hold her.  Her sleep is very restless still and she won't sleep longer than 2 hours at a time during the night.  After some tummy xrays we were able to find out that she gets extremely constipated and gassy to the point where it is painful for her.  The doctor found this rare since she is still nursing.  I had to modify my diet even more but it still doesn't help her that much.  Her solids consist of oatmeal cereal, sweet potatoes, pears, squash and the repeat. We had to do a solid 2 months of miralax to let the colon muscles strengthen again.  Once stretched out they take 2 months to go back to normal and function properly.

She seems to be much more content.



Gwen had her first bike ride in the bike trailer.  I took all the kids and cousins on a bike ride to Sonic to celebrate the beginnings of summer.  It was the last semi decent day temperature wise, before it got sweltering hot.  Gwen fell asleep on the way home.

I just love this little one and love how she has changed our family for the better.