Raging Waters Dance Performance

Laylah's dance studio performed at Raging Waters yesterday. It was so much fun and she did such a great job. Andy and I got a tender for Daph and Bear and brought Jo along so we could spend the day afterwards. We had so much fun and the kids are already asking when we can go back- they want to bring Daph next time. I know Bear would hate it- the water was like 65 degrees!

Laylah did such a great job- I can't wait for the end of year recital in a couple weeks. The only thing she's not so great at is smiling. She just won't do it! Don't ask me why.

We had so much fun all day that I really didn't get a lot of pictures. We were too busy playing!

Boating... in May

My cute dad is so patient with my kids and always lets them drive. They love it! I remember driving when I was little too, and I always thought I was so cool :)

brrrr! We're cold!

My dad got another boat and wanted to try it out, so he invited me and my kids along to see what it could do. It was nice and warm and a beautiful day in the valley, and when we got up to Jordanelle Res. it was cloudy and a little chilly. We got the boat in the water and drove around making sure everything worked okay. My kids loved it, of course. They've all been boating (and water skiing ;) since they were in utero! Baron especially loved it (except the life jacket part- he kind of had a fit about that for a minute) because he was too little last summer to remember it at all. The water was freezing, so all my kids did was dip their toes in, but we still had fun. There is just something about being out on the water with the beautiful scenery that is just so calming and relaxing. I love it, and so do my kids. By the time we had to leave, there were some MEAN looking clouds, and it started raining and was incredibly windyand cold. We had to wait a little bit for my dad to go get the truck and then wait for him to put the trailer in the water, because of course, everyone else was tring to pull out too. My kids huddled up in their towels and thought it was so much fun. I was really proud of myself for being able to get the boat on the trailer in that weather, especially after being out of practice for a few years. Thanks dad for the fun day. I love you and hope you invite us again soon... excpet maybe not in May :)

Blessed

I've been having kind of a difficult week. A lot has been going on, I've been really stressed out and busy, and on top of that, I've been in a lot of pain. My meds just haven't been doing the trick like they usually do. For that reason, I have been taking it more often, which makes me extremely tired (one side effect is drowsiness) and so I fall asleep whenever I sit down. Then I get behind on stuff that needs doing... you get the idea.

Anyway, on Tuesday, Jonah had another eye appointment. If you remember, his last one went really well, and he hasn't had to wear his patch for the last 4 weeks. When we went back on Tuesday, we were pretty certain we were going to have to continue using the patch. Well, the doctor came in and checked him out and did whatever he does and then turned to me with a big smile. He told me that he was so impressed with Jonah's improvement and also surprised at how far he has come. He said his bad eye was the same as his good eye now, and because it hadn't reverted in the past 4 weeks, that it most likely wouldn't (there is about a 20% chance it will, in which case, we will start patching again). I was shocked. When we first saw the eye doctor, they told me we would have to patch for at LEAST a year. It has been 6 months, and now his eyesight in both eyes is 20/40. The doctor said it was pretty amazing. I was so happy. Immediately, the things that came to my mind were people telling me they would pray for Jonah, and also my mom telling me she would and had put his name on the temple rolls several times. It is a small little miracle to me, and I'm glad I have these little things in my life to help my testimony grow. I'm so grateful for faith and prayer. And I am so grateful for people who pray on my families' behalf. Thank you.

Later that day, Laylah had her post-op appointment with the ENT to make sure she was healing okay and that her everything was looking good in her throat, etc. When the doctor examined her, he kind of had a surprised look on his face, and then he asked her to say a few different words. She repeated the words and then he turned to me and told me that she has healed so extremely well, and that he has rarely seen someone this soon after surgury be able to speak so clearly (for about a week after surgury Laylah was talking really funny, like she had something in her mouth all the time. It got pretty annoying, and Andy and I were worried it wouldn't go away... but slowly it did!) He said a lot of people need speech therapy after a tonsillectomy, but that she was doing great. He said she looked awesome and that she should have no other problems whatsoever. I am so grateful for this because after she got her tonsils out, I heard a bunch of horror stories from people who knew someone that had all these major problems after their tonsillectomy. I'm glad I was naive and didn't know all of this before the surgury, or I probably wouldn't have gone through with it.

I'm so grateful for these little blessing in my life that are just small things, but they make my life much easier and less stressful. Thanks for everyone's prayers, e-mails, comments and everything. I really appreciate it!

Memorial Weekend...

We went to Panguitch, UT for Memorial weekend this year, and our bad luck with weather on vacations followed us. It rained and was cold almost the entire time! Don't invite us on any trips, you'll just get bad weather. I think this is the fourth trip in a row! When will it end?? And I, of course, didn't check the weather and only brought summer clothes. Luckily Andy is smart and grabbed all of our jackets right as we were leaving. We also had some other bad luck on this trip, but more about that later. Anyway, I can't say I was really looking forward to it, but it was so much fun, I am so glad we went, and my whole family had such a great time. We went for Andy's grandparents on his dad's side (Great G and G Collette). It was their 50th wedding anniversery and all of their kids decided to throw them a big party. I am so lucky that I absolutely love and adore all of my inlaws- meaning Andy's immediate family and also all of his aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. They are such a great, fun, and wonderful group of people. It's funny because Andy's dad is the second to oldest child, and he has 4 younger siblings who all have really little kids. Some of Andy's cousins are my kids' ages, if not younger. So my kids had so many cousins and kids to play with. They didn't even want to come home.

We got there Friday afternoon (after Andy had recieved a speeding ticket on the way down. More bad luck. I think that is like his 13th since I have known him. Grrr, it drives me crazy) and they had planned a bonfire to roast our dinner. We had so much fun chatting and catching up with everyone (all of Andy's aunts, uncles, and cousins live out of state, so it had been a few years since we'd seen all of them) My kids were in heaven with the tons of kids running around. We did have a little scare for about 5 minutes (which felt like hours) when Daphne went missing. We had rented this big warehouse at the fairgrounds to have all of our parties at, and there was a playground nearby. All of the little girls from ages 2-14 had gone over to play freeze tag. Laylah came running in after awhile and said that Daphne was missing. One minute she was there and the next she was gone. I jumped right up and told Andy and we ran outside in the rain to search for her. There were a lot of people nearby at other buildings on the fairgrounds, and I just kept picturing someone driving by and snatching her up in their car and driving far away. I had horrible images going through my head. I was terrified. Andy called his dad after a minute, who announced it and everyone jumped up to start looking. All of the sudden Daphne walked out of the restroom. No one had even seen her go in there. It was the biggest relief I have ever felt. Here are a few pics of the first night.

At the bonfireHaving a blast running around the warehouse

Playing basketball in the warehouse

Our family pow-wow

The next morning we had this huge delicious breakfast and we had the town pool rented to go swimming that afternoon for a couple hours. Then the pool called to say the water heater was broken and the water temp was 40 degrees(more bad luck). So the kids had to find some other entertaining activities. They found this old tractor...
And Andy's grandma was nice enough to bring some movies and a TV to set up in the warehouse...And that day was Laylah's birthday, so we ended up going back to our hotel and having a little party for her. Later that night was the big anniversery party. Andy's aunt decorated the church so beautifully and dinner was amazing. It was such a fun party with dancing and everyone was on the floor. Daphne and her Aunt Terra were really ripping it up. One of Andy's cousins that is just a little older than Laylah was teaching her to dance. They were so cute. I think they both had a little crush on the other :)Everyone was giving Andy a hard time about not dressing up(he wore jeans instead of slacks), and he went in the hall and found this tiny tie and jacket and wore it around the rest of the night.

I didn't see Jo for awhile (which is usually the case) and went searching for him. I found him in the nursury playing with toys. I guess he's not into dancing :)

The last day we went to church with everyone, and then had a luncheon afterwards. It was also a birthday party for Andy's grandpa who turned 75. These pics are the morning of, in the hotel room. The kids were being goofy.
I had to take this picture. We made Jonah sleep in the bathtub because he started coughing Saturday night and it was driving everyone crazy. Andy made him a bed in the tub and we all finally got a few good hours of sleep. We had a great trip.

Happy Birthday Laylah and Family Party

We were out of town (in Panguitch, UT- see above post :) for Laylah's birthday this year. I brought all of her smaller presents and also a cupcake for her and we had a little party in our hotel room for her. We had planned on going swimming that day because she loves swimming, but the pool heater broke, so it was closed. Instead, after she opened her presents, we all took a nap, except Laylah, who played with all of her new stuff. I told her I would take her swimming this week to make up for it.

From Andy and I Laylah received 2 Barbie movies (Thumbelina and Pegasus), a Barbie ipod, a digital camera, and a cute little purse full of stuff- Hannah Montana slippers, jewelry, lipgloss, and a diary with a lock on it (she informed me this was what she REALLY wanted so no one could see all of her important things :) She also got a Delux Cupcake Maker at her family party- I wasn't about to lug that thing out of town when she couldn't even play with it while we were there.

Family Party

We had Lay's family Party on Memorial Day. For dinner, we were invited to a BBQ at Andy's parents, so she didn't get to choose her favorite dinner for me to make, but I think she was happy with the hot dog she had :) We came to our house afterwards and had sour cream fudge cake, cookie dough ice cream and cookies and cream ice cream, and Laylah got some more gifts- a craft kit, some money, a porcelain doll, and a laptop computer. She was so excited and happy with everything she got. She had such a great and happy birthday. Thanks everyone!!

I ran out of girly wrapping paper and had to use this Cars stuff. Jonah was excited for a minute and thought that maybe the gifts were for him because of the "boy" wrapping paper. After I told him they weren't he was even more upset than usual (see picture further down :)

Look how hard she's concentrating!

This picture cracks me up. For some reason, Jonah has the hardest time with birthdays. He is the sweetest kid until someone else's birthday comes around. I wonder if it's because his is the last of the year in our family. He was ornery all night. He refused to smile for this picture.

Laylah was such a lucky girl this year. Her birthday lasted for a week! She took cupcakes to school last Tuesday and her class celebrated that day, her birthday party was Thursday, her actual birthday was Saturday, and her family party was Monday. She said to me "I am SO lucky mom, my birthday was way longer than just one day!"