Christmas

Is there anything better than Christmas with kids? Of course ours started Way too early about 5 am, but once they were up they were sooo excited. Santa was the big hit this year. He got the boys a Wii and they couldn't stop saying "I can't believe it, we finally got a wii!!!" Mom was too mean to get them a new Video game system but Santa pulled through. :) It was a great present for mom and dad too since we went back to bed before 630 and they were so distracted by video games we got to sleep till almost 11! Awesome!
After that we went to Grandpa Palettas. We stayed with Bryan's family for several hours till I had to come home and get ready for work. The kids were excited to play more video games and I headed off to the hospital.
Brandon was having a great day, not only did he get a Wii that he has been asking for for 2 years, but he gets to take snowboarding lessons starting in January so he got all his snowboarding gear. He is loving being the oldest and getting to try new things first. I just wish I had gone to his school. Instead of school on Fridays he gets to spend the says on the slopes and get school credit. How cool is that?!


I had to add this picture of Sean and his wife Mac. There relationship has outlasted most Hollywood marriages. They got married in Preschool because Mac told him they had to and they have been 'Husband and Life' ever since. She has him wrapped around her little finger. This year she decided she was going to be a BYU cheerleader so of course Sean has to be a BYU football player so these are the gifts they gave each other for Christmas.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great! I actually managed to leave the fall decorations up so we weren't having thanksgiving surrounded by Christmas decorations. Wednesday was our annual Pie Night. I'm loving the tradition of gorging on pie before filling up on Turkey dinner. I'm so glad our family is willing to travel to see us for the holidays. It's was great that Mel can all the way down, we never get to see her enough! Bryan's mom Alice stayed the night and stayed for Thanksgiving day. It was great to have her visit and spend time with the boys. I don't think I mentioned she was great 2 weeks ago.
Ben's class to prep for Thanksgiving decided to have a Native American Thanksgiving. They have been studing Native Americans so decided to spend a few weeks learning how the Indians harvest food for the winter. They dried fish, made their own beef jerkey, gathered nuts and fruit etc. Bryan's mom was great she came down for a day, went into Ben's class and taught them all how to make Navajo fry bread and tortillas. She was great and talked about her life growing up hearding sheep, drying their own salt, growing their own food, etc. She just turned 71 and most of her life was spent on the Indian Reservation in New Mexico. They lived very traditionally in a Hogan no utilites, hearding sheep. Her father was a medicine man so she had an interesting life, very different from ours.
They kids all Loved the fry bread, and couldn't wait to eat the homemade tortillas for their Thanksgiving feast.
I didn't spend much time in Ben's class on their Thanksgiving day because I had volunteered to Host Brandon's class party. It was like pulling teeth to get enough parents to help with the dinner, and not one showed up in the class to do crafts or games, but the kids are a little older in his class so it worked out fine. It was funny, the night before the feast I sent out yet another mass email to the parents telling them we had no one to bring pie and it wasn't Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. One parent said she would make a pie, so I was hoping it would be enough. When I got to the school the next day we had 7 pumpkin pies! 3 of them the HUGE Costco pies! It was hilarious. The kids got to eat all the pie they wanted and then some.

Family Pictures

Busy Week

Aren't they all! Took the GRE, am rushing to finish my application for grad school, threw together a b-day party for Sean, now looking forward to planning Thanksgiving etc. But So excited, got our family pictures back.!!!
Loving them. Wanted something a little retro and of course Marta is the queen of pictures. She has the patience of Job!! I couldn't hack all the kids and families so I got out of the picture business a long time ago. Marta is amazing. Check out her blog at . She is an amazing photographer, nurse, friend, all around super mom! Love her!
I'm going to add a slide show here, but there are too many great one's to put them all on, so the family shots first then I'll work on the kids later.

Sean's Birthday

Today was Sean's Party. It's so funny. His parties must be the thing, because he always get's every person he invites and then some to show up at his birthday.
He choose and Incredibles Party today, of course the first major storm of the winter, so we were all huddled in the basement with no outside time. So many kids, but he had fun.
He is an amazing 7 year old. He really is so much fun and so affectionate! He is a crazy kid, but we are sure glad to have him around.






Spent the night before at work making cardboard blocks, so the boys could build walls and breakthem down like Mr Incredible. Found free download iron on's off the internet to make the shirts. The kids loved getting a shirt in their gift bags.

H1N1

Well yesterday was interesting. They started giving us our H1N1 shots at work, so I figured it was time to get Sam's vaccine. He is my youngest who can not get sick or his kidneys stop working. Anyway I called 3 doctors besides his Pediatrition and none of them were getting any vaccines. They said we had to go to the Health department. So I figured I was till awake (hadn't made it to bed yet after work)so I though I would 'run' him down and get his shot.
Apparently we hit a 'short line' it only took us two hours to get in to get the vaccine! They were saying last week the lines were 4+ hrs long. I guess everyone is really paranoid about this virus.
If none of us were sick before we probably will be after standing in lines with hundreds of kids to get a shot. :) If it had been any other child I would have left and made them take their chances, but I get a little worried about Sam getting sick.
The hospital has gone a little overboard for flu season. It's getting crazy. No children are allowed anywhere on the hospital premesis (unless they are pts), visitors are being limited to 2 total and they all have to be checked and signed in as not being sick in anyway. We are having a lot of mom's leave early to go home and see their families. Winter is our slow time anyway so we'll see how many people get cancelled. Our hospital will slow down because of flu season unlike the other hospitals we don't admit 'sick' patients. So all the sickies are going to Utah Valley. I may have to pick up my extra shifts at the big hospital and actually deal with sick people. Yuck. :)

GRE

I finally bit the bullet and signed up for the GRE. I feel nauseated. Nov 12th is D-day, I really need math help.!

Vacation continued:

Not sure why that published right in the middle, computer ghosts.
Anyhoo, Once we got Ben on allergy meds every morning he was fine for the week.
Wednesday we made a trip to San Diego. I've never been to the Wild Animal Park, and it was cool, but we only stayed a couple of hours. It's inland and the heat was getting unbearable. Besides we were all anxious to get to Sea World. We had soo much fun there!. Of course we got SOAKED, the boys wanted to sit in the splash zone at the Shamu show and every other show. It was fun. Again, nice and empty park, so we got to go on the rides over and over with little to no waiting! Of course we had to hit the beach in San Diego too. We had dinner at this great pizza place looking out onto the ocean and then played until after sunset. Is there anything better than sunset on the beach? It was the first time the boys remembered watching the sun sink below the horizon. We have so many mountains around at home, it was great to watch the sky and the ocean changing colors.
Thursday we were back at Disney and California adventure. The boys must have gotten their love of roller coasters from me too, we had to ride California Screaming several times. I was not complaining! Again the park was deserted so we just walked around and got right back on.
It was really fun because I ran into my cousin Bryan and his family there. Neither of us knew we were going to be there at the same time till the day before and we just happened to run into each other. I'm sure the complete lack of other people around helped. :) It was really fun. I haven't seen him since his wedding nearly 10years ago. We were always buds growing up, so I was really excited to see him and his family.
We didn't want to spoil our empty park experience so we deciced to avoid the weekend and finish off our passes Friday. Good choice, by Friday night it was getting really crowded and I heard Saturday was crazy busy.
We went to Universal Studio's Saturday, probably won't go there again. Not a great place for the kids and since it's so far inland, BLISTERINGLY HOT. I love the heat, but dragging 4 kids around, through crowds and heat was miserable.
We left for home bright and early Sunday, 4 am early, Bryan's time table not mine. Although our opposite schedule work, I stayed up late packing, reading, working out, and slept most of the way home while he drove. Any yes, amazingly, the kids were even good for the entire drive home. I'm thinking in car dvd players are to be given the credit for that. How did people survive car trips before portable dvd players? :)
Any way, we all had a good time and the kids haven't stopped talking about when we can go back!
I'll try to get pictures up soon, I did post some to facebook if anyone wants to look on there.

Vacation

I know it's been a long time since I updated so I'll try to catch up.
We spent an amazing week in California! It was one of those rare once in a lifetime vacations where everything works, and the kids are well behaved and and you actually enjoy yourself 90% of the time. I know, I know, too good to be true you say. I agree but it really happened. Unfortunatly this means the next few family vacations are probably going to be disasters, but we'll deal with those when they come.
We left early on a Saturday and drove to Las Vegas. The boys had just watched Loony Tunes so they were singing "Viva Las Vegas" for several hours on the way down. We drove around and showed them the lights of the town, but not much else. It's no longer safe to walk the streets in vegas with kids. Too many people standing around handing out "pamphlets".
Sunday we checked in to our condo in Anaheim. We had a perfect view from our balcony overlooking all of Disneyland. We actually had a better view of the nightly fireworks from our condo than actually being in the park. It was fantastic.
Monday morning bright and early we hit the park. They were closing early so we packed our lunches and figured we stay all day. We have such acommodating kids. We were there from 9am till 6pm and they did great! Of course I packed tons of snacks, water, etc, but even Sam (4yrs old) did great walking everywhere! I think the kids are just the right age to really be old enough to do Disneyland and young enough to get excited about it. It really helped that the park was deserted and there were practically no lines!!!! Again, I know, too good to be true, but true.
I found out AFTER we got home that just that weekend Disney had to close due to bomb threats, so that probably helped with the crowd situation, but I was completely oblivious to the threats so we really enjoyed the empty park!
Tuesday I thought Ben was getting sick. He kept coughing, so we slept in, worked on homework since we pulled the boys out of school for a week, and in the afternoon Ben was better so we hit the beach. I love the beach. I was born to live on the beach. We went to the beach several days while we were there and it was a blast teaching the boys to boogie board. My mom can attest that given the choice I will always end up on a beach in the waves!
Figured out Ben wasn't really sick, just the air in LA didn't agree with him. Hmm, wonder why,

Ironman 70.3

Neither Wind nor rain nor hail nor stronger wind etc etc can stop the ironman, but it can sure make them horribly miserable.
Well I survived, but only because I kept chanting "It doesn't hurt as bad as childbirth, it doesn't hurt as bad as childbirth." Unfortunatly, my knee kept screaming back, "I never hurt this bad during childbirth!" It was ruining my chant.
The swim was delayed over a 1/2 hr because of high wind and lightening, and then when they put us in the water they said, hurry up there is another front moving across the lake. Thankfully they shortened the swim, because I was close to bailing as it was. I've never been uncomfortable in the water but I was starting to panic at one point as I was getting mouthful after mouthful of water. I finally turned my back to the waves and side stroked for quite awhile to catch my breath. It was nearly impossible to see the markers so I kept stopping to figure out which way I was going. Things got even funner on the bike.
The wind was really blowing, at times we were fighting horrible cross winds, I swear 40 mph gusts blowing everyone across the road, and just for kicks it started to hail and rain buckets. I started singing "Just keep peddling Just keep peddling" Yes I have noticed I talk to myself alot.
By the time I got back for the run, the torrential rain was gone, but still cloudy and windy. It really wouldn't have been such a terrible run If my knee hadn't given out at 3 miles. I bullied it into another 10, but I guess I never got going fast enough to tire myself out because I couldn't bend my knee much.
I was soaked, muddy, tired and soo ready to go home (yes I need my head examined becasue I've already looked up other ironman's online). I grabbed my gear and headed home for a hot bath. I have a habit of leaving too soon I guess. I did the same thing at Spudman last year. When I got home my friend Ana called and asked what place I got in my division. I guess as I was leaving they called me up to get my award. Oh well I'll have to check on line in a day or two and see, because no way was I getting out of the hot bath. It was the first time I was warm all day.
But serious dispite all the gripping, it was a great experience. If I can ever get my knees to cooperate I'd love to do another one. See need my head examined.

Take me out to the Ball Park

We have been visiting the Orem Owlz over the summer. The boys are even learning the song during the seventh inning stretch. Gotta love hotdogs and nachos at the ballpark.



And on that note we are off to the games again. The mascots are getting married tonight and they are having a big fireworks show.

Sean the Bike Rider

Well we had to literally force him to try his bike with no trainning wheels, but he took off on his first try and rode down the street and back no problems. He still is scared to try often and preferres to take his scooter but he can finally ride a two wheeler. It's about time.

Family race day

So much to blog about so little time. I'll start with today. My family is so accomodating. They got up at 5 am to drive to Nephi to do a little race with me today. Brandon and Ben also did the kids race. It was so fun. We all had a blast and the boys are so proud that they finished their first race. It was a little Duathalon Just a Bike Run, and it was a small town family affair. Only 60 people were there 13 of them kids under 12.
As you can see it was very cold this morning. I know it's supposed to be August 100 degrees, Oh no. about 50 this morning. Ben did the whole race in his hoody. It's been rainy and cold all week.

My nurse friends did the race with me and rocked!!

Weekend Fun

We'll this weekend has been really fun. I took off on Friday and went to Idaho for a Triathalon. It was my first long river swim and I'm suprised how tired I got. Swimming laps in the pool doesn't compare especially when you have to keep pulling up and correcting course since there are no nice neat lines painted on the bottom to follow. Mom probably remembers how well I can swim a straight line. On swim team I'd start at one corner and swim diagonally across the pool if the lane lines weren't up. Same problem I swear my swim was 2000m not 16oom because I kept zigzagging tring to stay on course. :) But the rest of the bike and run went well until the last 1/8 of a mile. A sprint finish down a hill and of course it wouldn't be a race if I didn't injure myself. Running down hill I steped wrong and something poped in my suposidly noninjured knee. No sprint finish, I limped across the finish line. Still It was a blast and I know I'll do it again as soon as I can walk. Yes I need my head examined. It's an addiction.
Got back home Saturday and had to watch the final climb of the Tour de France. I've been hooked on it for the last three weeks. Lance Armstrong is my hero. He is 38 yrs old, about 15 years older than all the other guys, hasn't competed in 4 years, has a broken collar bone just a few months ago from a crash and he still took 3rd overall in one of the most grueling races in the world. See - he's crazier than I am.:)
Today the boys were in need of my mommy attention, and dad in need of some rest. So we spent the afternoon out. Ended up at the local ballpark watching the Orem Owlz win their game. It was a really fun few hours, running around playing at the park, and spending time explaining the game to the boys. Ben at one point was trying to tell the score. As you all know there is a lot of info on the score board. At the end there is a row for Runs, Hits, Errors. Ben looks up and says wow the Owlz have seven hundred and eighty points. They actually had 7 runs, 8 hits, 0 errors, but it was fun to watch them get so into the game. This evening when we got home all the boys grabbed their balls and mits and played ball int he yard for awhile. We definatly need to do it again soon.
Best bonus, I took the whole weekend off for the race so tonight were going to play dumb, dumb, (yes mom they are still hooked on that game) and hopefully get some good sleep.

Proud Mother Moment

Well Sam is an exceptional 4 yr old. He is teaching himself to read and write. Truly he has a gift. He loves to write and actually as very good handwritting. Yesterday Ben brought up from the basement one of the note pads Sam carries around to write on. He has decided to make a swear word note pad. It was full of wonderfully written and spelled correctly swear words. Such a proud moment.

Ben's Baptism

Wow it's been so long since I posted. I'll fill everyone in on the last week since that is all I can remember. My folks came in to town last Thursday. Mom is recovering from donating the kidney, still can't do any heavy lifting, but is up and around and off the pain meds. My dad almost didn't make it. He went into the hospital last week with a suspected bowel obstrution. It turned out to be an Illius and he only spent two days with the NG pumping his stomach, yuck. But they still came which was great of them.
Brandon and Ben both went to Cub Scout day camp and had a blast. They are both still so excited about scouts and keep getting me to sign things off with them. Of course I'm going to have to do some camping this summer. AHHH!!!! We'll see how it goes.
Saturday was Ben's baptism. It was really nice. The stake takes care of all the baptisms, talks, etc so we just show up. We had some family over to the house for a BBQ and it was really fun. Daniel and family stayed most of the day to catch up with grandma and grandpa and came the next day for a big family dinner and games. It was wonderful to have the family around and no work. I was able to get the whole weekend off which is unheard of and got to stay home and play. Loving life!!

Bryan and the scouts had to build rockets for a space derby for pack meeting on Tuesday so they were sanding and painting and decorating their rockets. Then at pack meeting they got to race them along wires. They had a blast. It was a bit noisy and unorganized for me, but 8 and 10 yr olds thought it was pretty cool.

My mom and dad left this morning for Nevada and then on to home in Cali in a few days. It's been a really fun week, I got a big packet back today from the Navajo Nation. I sent them all the paper work to register the boys with the tribe a few weeks ago and now they are official members of the Navajo Nation. Hopefully this means I'm off the hook for college tuition. :) I'll post pictures as soon as I get them back. I miss placed my digital camera for the weekend and had to use film, so I have to get it developed. I really need to invest in a nice digital camera.

Love you all.

Tour de France

I've gotten hooked on the Tour. If some 38 yr old guy can keep up with the best of the 20 yr olds, 100 miles a day for 3 weeks. IT ROCKS!

Last Week of School

It has been a really busy week. The last day of school was Friday an the week was fille with end of school stuff.
To begin, James and my Mom are recovering well. They are both home, up and around and sore, but doing great. James's lab work is normal and the kidney is working great. Now he just has to get his immunosuppressent drugs regulated. We are so blessed and happy that things are going so well. His doctors has been very happy with everything from the surgery on.
This week I had many extra hours to spend on end of school stuff since I haven't been able to exercise at all. Last Saturday I torn my calf muscle. I am so tired of injuries. Why won't my body just let me train?!!! The mind is willing but the body is weak! It's just frustrating since I'm willing to put in the time, energy, pain etc to get ready for my triathalon's but my stupid old body doesn't let me. Anyway enough of my ranting.
We actually had lots of fun, as I hobbled around all week with my leg iced. We spent Tuesday at Seven Peaks, for those of you who don't know that is a big water park in Provo. 6 hrs of waterslides, tidal wave pools, river rides etc. The boys never wanted to leave, I of course burned even through my shirt and the boys actually turned pick as well. I'm such a slacker. My boys are so dark skinned I didn't even think of sunscreen.
Thursday was their Spring talent show, all the classes sang etc, and then they had a field day. It was cool, lots of huge blow up bouncers, slides, water fights, and lots of activities out at the park.
Friday we spent the morning deep cleaning the school and helping the teachers pack up and arrange things. Then we went to a nearby pool. The school had rented out the whole place and we got to play and swim for a couple of hours. I didnt remember sunscreen, but I was the only one who needed it.
Needless to say we are all very tan this weekend. When I came back to work Friday everyone was asking about my leg. (the weekend before it was huge and black from 'internal bleeding' as Paula kept lecturing me) I told them it was aweful, I had to lay around the pool all week on a blanket and read books.

Surgery

I know all my family already knows, but yesterday my brother James recieved his kidney transplant. The surgeries went well and both my mom and brother are recovering well. As of last night his new (well 50 year old female) kidney was working and producing urine already. Yea. Hope the recovery goes well, and thank you to all who have been so supportive.

Scouts

Tonight was Ben's first scout meeting. It was pack meeting so we all went hiking up the canyon. He was so excited to put on all his scouting gear and look like an official scout. They earned their conservation and no trace left behind wilderness awards and he has so excited he was jumping. He was excited to get badges before he even earned his bobcat. Too bad they don't keep this enthusiasm as teenagers. He is determined to get his Bobcat by next month and start on his wolf. Brandon is now a weebelo. Wow they grow up so fast. One more year and Brandon will be an official Boy Scout. Sean is already talking about when he is a scout. It was fun to see them so excited.

Mother of the year

So just thought I would add to my wonderful mom confessions. Bryan told me the other day Sam had a large splinter in his foot I needed to look at. Of course I's tired and forget. Last night Bryan asked me to bring home supplies to take his splinter out, and yep, tired unorganized, forgot. I didn't notice he has been walking on the side of his foot for over a day. Today as I'm running around trying to get ready to pick up the boys he is crying so I finally look at his foot really well. He has a huge, black, deep splinter that has a large red circle surrounding it. All this is bad enough, but he has had a random fever for a few days and is spilling protein yet again. Wonderful mother of the year, maybe if I hadn't been so tired and ignored his foot he wouldn't be having kidney problems. I'm so tired of being a rotten parent.

Happy Birthday to Brandon

So I'm such an organized super mom that yesterday afternoon, my child is reminding me I promised him a party this afternoon with his two best friends. He had already invited them but I hadn't gotten any invitations or much of a clue as to what to do. We decided on a movie at the theaters since he only wanted two boys to come. Nice easy, very unorganized, right up my ally. A quick phone call to the mom's to make sure they could come on such short notice, and we were in business. So they came over, we saw Battle for Terra, a very 'cool' 3D show at the theaters, a big treat for all these boys. They were in heaven and I didn't have to clean my kitchen. Then they came back to the house to play for an hour and got to make their own cupcakes. Which of course most organized mom's would have done already, so they hadn't made cupcakes before. Again, big hit. Procrastination payed off big, and everyone had a good time.
Then Brandon asked what I had gotten him for his birthday, ?uh nothing? ?me no organized? But wait, I had bought a ton of video games months before from the rental store, they were clearing out their old game cube games, and since I refuse to spend good money on a WII my poor children must make do. So he got to pick out a new game from my stash. The day was saved. And I got to sleep over 1/2 the day, after a 3 am night before and a full night of work tonight.
How any child makes it through life without permanent scars from their parents is a miracle.

Spring Break

So we ran away to Arizona for the week. The plan was sunny warm weather, no rain, or snow, etc. Well so much for well laid plans. The storm that destroyed Utah was huge and we did get some of it all the way in Arizona. The first two days were cloudy, and would have been warm, but we had 50+ mile/hr wind gusts. The third day there was no wind, but the temp dropped and we had beautiful sunny skies and a temp of around 35 with snow flurries while the sun was shinning. Interesting. The best day was Friday that we spent in the car driving home. :) I did get a bike ride in only out of pure bullheadedness. It was the sunny day and I had not brought my winter gear, expecting warm weather, but I was not going to pack my things 600 miles and not use them. So I climbed mountains, in shorts and a tee shirt, in 35 degree weather and snow. So fun.
We hit the Grand Canyon Tuesday morning, It's been a long time since I've been there. It was fun to watch the boy's reactions as they looked out at the big hole in the ground. We did a little hiking, it's nice they have many short paved trails, the little boys get tired easy and are way to heavy to be carrying for too long.

The Condo's are really cool. The whole place is set up like an old western town. There are condo's above the shops, etc. There is a horse ranch, but with the weather we weren't able to go riding. Of course the boys had to play games and hit the hot tub a few times. They also have a fun place to dress up like cowboys and take pictures. Sean really liked dress up time. With the weather being weird, we did have the boys do a fun tye-dye shirt afternoon, and they are all so proud of their home made shirts.

Wednesday we headed out to the petrified forest and the painted dessert. The wind was really blowing that day and we kept getting hit with sand and tumble weeds. We did watch a movie about how the petrified forest came to be, it was really fasinating. That was when the snow started to blow in so we would drive to a point of interest, count to three and all run out of the car in to freezing 50 mph wind - take a picture- and run back to the car. Ahh good times. The painted dessert was really cool. We'll have to go again sometime we can actually hike around. It is amazingly pretty and colorful.

Hopefully this won't take a week to upload for all those logging on. We really did have a great week, and got back just in time for me to do the Bike Tour at the Salt Lake City Marathon early Saturday morning. Busy week, now I need a vacation to recover. :)

Super Brandon

Before, I post all our Spring Break pictures I just have to brag about Brandon today. He was bugging me to go on a LONG bike ride this afternoon, we we rode our bikes out to Sonic in Pleasant Grove. This is just over 8 miles from out house and we took the back roads so it was pretty hilly. He was doing great until about mile 13. I didn't think he was going to make it back. I called Bryan to come pick him up, but he was adamant that if he could just take a rest he could finish. I wasn't so sure, but we stopped at the gas station for awhile and sure enough he rode all the way home. He even made us tack on an extra mile to he could get a movie for the night.
I was so proud of him. He was struggling, but really wanted to finish what he started. 17 miles for a boy who isn't even 10 yet. I was impressed.

Easter

Today was very nice. I got a bit of sleep and the easter bunny came this afternoon after things warmed up a bit. We had a nice dinner with Bryan's mom and Daniel. His family is in Colorado so he can do finals all this week. He played video games with the boys while I ran to work and Bryan drove his mom home. There is so much candy at our house it is crazy. It needs to disapear. Planning on a lot of hiking this coming week.

Mental Health

So I sat the boys down the other day to plan out a few day trips for spring break which is starting tomorrow. I was thinking we go hiking one day and to the park another etc. So of course it is supposed to rain the entire week, be clowdy, cold, yuck!!! I couldn't take it. I am so sick of winter it's driving me insane!!! So Bryan got a call at work about an hour later informing him we were headed to the Arizona desert for spring break. ? Yes the only place in driving distance not expected to rain once all week long. We have a time share that had openings out in the middle of nowhere this week, so were off. Bryan wasn't sure he was going to go but I had had enough cold. He was going to stay home and work, but the boys guilted him into coming. It was really cute. They were all excited to go and kept asking him why he wasn't coming. Brandon can lay on the guilt thick when he wants to. "Dad, we are going on a family vacation. What do you mean you're not going? Don't you want to spend the week with your family? Is work more important to you than we are dad?" He was pretty ruthless, so of course Bryan spent the next day at work trying to get the time off last minute. I'm hoping for a warm, rain, snow free week with nothing to do.
Of course nothing ever goes completely according to plan.

Draper Temple

We were able to take the boys to the Draper Temple Open House last week. It was great. The boys really liked it and it was great to be able to show them the temple.

Better late than never

I've been meaning to update my blog for a few weeks. But haven't found the time. Lets see, from most recent to ancient history.

Wednesday,

Ultimate bad mom day. Got up at 6:30 said good bye to Bryan, started breakfast and got boys up. Somewhere went up to my room and fell asleep (probably trying to put my socks on) should never sit back down. A 'while' later Ben comes into my room, asking if I'm taking them to school. I look at the clock in a panic, past 9 o'clock. When I asked why they didn't wake me earlier he told me. "But mom the good cartoons were on. Now there done so were ready to go to school." Very practical kids.

Last Saturday,

Had a rare night off. What did my big night entail? Making cardboard swords and shields with the boys. Brandon had gone to a Knight birthday party and the boys were all jealous of his cardboard take home toys. We spent Hours, drawing and cutting up old boxes. They had a blast. Of course the next morning I was bad mom again and slept through church even with the night off. My internal clock is all screwed up. Of course Ben always concerned with money, decided to set up a weapons shop. He started inventing unique weapons and printing his own money so he could sell his cardboard weapons. He will do great things.

Sam's Birthday

Well my big plans to have Sam's birthday party on a different day than his birthday failed. He ended up with no party since I was sick all week. We just had a cake and a present with the brothers on his birthday and I went back to bed.

Family dinner

Here are some pictures of the cousins at our monthly family dinner. We really are going to miss Jared's family when they are all gone to California.

Bear Scouts

Brandon Got his Bear award tonight. Yes Bryan took the boys over while I was getting better aquainted with the bathroom floor. He also got a few arrow heads. It was the Blue/Gold banquet tonight. I've missed it every year for some reason. Oh well there is always next year. The boys all enjoyed going out to dinner and running around with their friends. Ben was in charge of taking pictures for me and so he took one picture of Brandon and one of Sam. :)
Sam is feeling better this week. Too bad I can't say the same for myself. Oh well. Good Job Brandon. He is still young enough he loves scouts and the only thing slowing him down is mom not helping him sign things off fast enough. He really is a super sweet kid.

Birthday

February has always been the month of birthdays in our family. My big birthday this year consisted of having the day to sleep and go to my spinning classes at the rec center. Actually it was nice, because lots of people stopped by while I was asleep and left notes and small gifts. Best of both worlds, gifts and not having to make idle conversation with the various neighbors. :) Bryan got to be an greeting duty. He got Pizza for the boys so I could sleep longer. I guess the boys have noticed I don't eat pizza, but I love eating their left over crusts. So after I got up I went into the kitchen and there was an entire pizza ring of the outside crusts left for my dinner by the boys since it was my birthday. So sweet of them.
Bryan made the mistake of telling Sam his birthday was after mommy's and every single day since he has woken up and asked "Is it my birthday?" "Is it my birthday today?" The concept of 10 days after mom's birthday is too much for him. Actually, I realized I had already scheduled to do vision screenings at the boys school all day on his birthday, so I'm just going to tell him it's the day before. Hey, he's 4 he won't know the difference. right.

The circus

The circus came to UVU last week. We took the boys Thursday night after I had worked all day. We got all the kids free passes and we had never been to a circus with them before. I think Sean and Sam were a bit young, they were tired after an hour but Brandon and Ben loved it. We had to leave early because it was nearly 10 pm and still going and the boys all had school the next day. Sean and Sam kept complaining the whole time we were there but all the next day they kept talking about the circus and when they would get to go again. Go figure! Complain for hours and then talk for days about how they loved it. Kids!!

Virus's

All of you who have kids know how quickly they can be sick and then be fine. Last week Sam woke up at 1 am throwing up and by 6 am he was just fine! No other problems, nothing. He was just fine until two days ago when I noticed his eyes were puffy in the morning. Sure enough his kidneys have stopped working again!! I hate viruses. This is his third bought with kidney problems this year. The docs put him back the steroids but I guess this is the last time he can do the cortisol since he is repeating so often. The steroids in someone his age can give him brittle bones, cataracks, stunted growth etc. They said next time he gets sick he'll have to go on a specialty Chemotherapy drug that will completely wipe out his immune system. He'll be isolated, blood draws the whole works. Just one more thing to look forward too. But for now were doing the yucky cortisol everyday for the next two months. Poor boy, the stuff makes me throw up I don't know how he stands it everyday. But on a bright note, Spring is around the corner and we haven't had a snow storm in over a week. Hurray!

Science Fair

Well Brandon and Ben participated in their first science fair this week. It was only mandatory for the Junior high, but since their school is so small the elementary had the options of doing a project if they wanted to. Brandon did his on electrical circuits and Ben did one on magnets. Yes very boy things, but since I wouldn't let them blow up rockets those were the next best things I guess. They had lots of fun and didn't know why they had to make posters, they were having fun just playing with the magnets and the connectors. Brandon's poster was beautiful I wasn't sure his teacher would believe he made it. Of course the process was a big fight. Brandon is slightly OCD -don't know where he got that one from- so he is cutting out all the things for his poster and wants to glue them to orange paper before putting them on a white board. He has a major melt down when I don't have enough of the exact same orange cardstock. I keep telling him it's ok if they are slightly different shades, but that is completely unacceptable. So after the crying fit when I refuse to drive to walmart at 11 pm to buy the correct color he decides black will have to do. So his papers and cardstock are cut out and glued down very precisely. Ben didn't care, glued them crooked to some old red craft paper and tapes them willy nilly on his board. He just wanted to play with magnets. :) But they were both excited to get award ribbons and hopefully will be this excited about science projects when they are required for school.

New Years

This was the first weekend in 5 years I haven't worked so we had a little party. Brandon was so funny, he was asking what was so special about 2009 that everyone was staying up and making a fuss about it. I guess Bryan doesn't stay up and watch the ball drop with them. He couldn't believe people did this every year. The boys thought New Years was a great holiday. No problem with my little one's falling asleep before the ball drop, I finally had to force them to bed around 2 am because I kept falling asleep. We did have fun playing games and snacking, although Brandon did not like our veggy chips. I actually think they are pretty good, dehydrated salted veggies. The other boys liked them at least.