Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Jumping to our hearts content

Over a long weekend in January, we took the kids to "Airborne" which is a huge trampoline, foam pit, dodge ball place. They all had a great time! I stayed with the little kids, so I didn't get great pictures of the actual fun, but here are a few:


Hannah (and a blurry Kate in the background)





Sorry this is a through a net, but that's Jon doing a backwards flip!




Jumping into the little foam pit



Sweet Hailey, happy to watch what's going on - 9 months old!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

2011 calendars

I spent an enormous amount of time in November & December making calendars again. I thought about doing digital ones, but with such limited knowledge, just decided to do it the traditional way again. I always love having it done and I think others enjoy it too. Here are the pages:


January


February




March



April - I still LOVE the little picture of Hailey looking like a freshly hatched bird



May


June

(I had a fun time creating this page with circle punches)



July



August


September


October


November - the leaves are square punches with 2 sides punched with a corner-rounder



December

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Celebrating Kate's Birthday

Kate had "the best birthday ever!" this year! She anticipates her birthday for months and months and loves every part of it. She was up early and found some fun new things.


My mom sent this Barbie thing back from Russia - Kate had bought one while we were there, but Hannah had gotten into it (shocker!) and ruined it, so Kate was pleasantly surprised to have another one.


She also got a little gum ball machine and an easel with new art supplies. This girls loves her arts & crafts!

And, the main part of her birthday was going to Build-A-Bear with 2 of her friends. She had wanted to do this for a couple of years and we decided to finally let her. Jon and I piled all the kids in the car (including Hannah, Hailey & Brooklyn) and drove to the mall.

The kids were all fabulous and had a fun time picking out an animal and an outfit. Now doing things like this is just pure torcher to babies & husbands. Brooklyn, Hailey & Jon were all near tears by the time we left.

But, all 3 of these cute kids were so appreciative and loved being there!



Josie, Cage & Kate




It took Hannah the longest to decide.



Waiting in the stroller - hungry & tired







Hannah was more happy to wash the animals that she didn't chose.



Getting them stuffed full of love



We had plans to eat at the mall, but we were all so tired, we decided to just put the kids back in the van, go through the McDonald's drive-thru and get home. The kids then played and played, making Kate's birthday a great one!


That night, we had Kate's favorite dinner - spaghetti!


We love you Kate! Can't believe that you're already 6!!







Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Christmas break in Oregon

A couple of days after Christmas, we were able to drive to Oregon to spend a couple of days with Jon's mom and dad, his siblings Rebecca, Tom & Anne and our neice Emily. The kids were great in the car (520 miles) and we had great weather.

The kids were showered with more Christmas gifts the night we arrived. We ate delicious food, played a ton of games (Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries, Quirkle & gin), watched movies, played the Wii, made scones & bread and just enjoyed being there.

What a great family we have!



Diane showed the kids how to make her delicious bread - soooo yummy!



I love that you can see Jack sitting in the background. He's slowed down a ton and his memory isn't very good any more, but he happily sits in his chair and watches what is going on. He's such a wonderful man and sweet Diane has a guaranteed spot in heaven for all the care she has given him.





Monday, January 23, 2012

So much to be grateful for!!!

Okay, I need to do some catch-up, but we've had a crazy couple of weeks and we have so much to be thankful for..

First, I took Hailey for her 9 month check up 2 1/2 weeks ago. She's a teeny little thing - not on the charts at all for height or weight. If you adjust for her prematurity, it puts her at 8th percentile for weight. She's 14 lbs. 7 oz. Anyway, they poked her toe for an iron check and the level came back surprisingly low. I don't think our pediatrician had ever had a read so low. It read 5.9. (The normal range low is around 11).

So, he immediately put her on iron drops and sent us to the hospital for a blood draw. The blood test there came back at 5.2. He referred us to a hematologist at Primary Children's Hospital, so we took her there. They drew her blood again (this is now a week after the well visit) and her level was starting to come up - like 6.3. Because she was responding to the iron drops, the hematologist was confident that her hemoglobin was so low due to iron deficiency and that was likely due to her prematurity. She'll be in iron drops for 6 months or so, but we are so grateful that it wasn't leukemia, bone marrow disease or a blood disease.

Second, last Monday, Lindsey, Hailey & I drove to Bountiful for an eye exam for me and then an indoor soccer game for Lindsey. It had snowed a little and the roads were okay as we drove up I-15. But then, we got to North Salt Lake and we started to see more and more cars off the side of the road. Anyway, at one point, I had to brake (as cars were braking because of someone off the road) and I had ZERO control of the van. It was sheer ice and I couldn't get any type of control. I was able to steer some and avoid hitting an SUV in front of me, but just kept sliding to the right until I hit the cement barrier. As we sat there for 1 minute, we saw another car do a 180 turn right in the middle of the freeway and thankfully was able to drive to the median to avoid other cars.

I didn't feel safe sitting on the side of the road, as cars and semi's passed with the potential to hit the same ice that I did. So, we drove on down the freeway. The low-tire pressure light came on and we just prayed that we would make it safe to the eye doctor. We did and amazingly, the only damage to the car was the rim of the front passenger tire. I could tell the tire was losing a little air, but it still had enough to drive to Lindsey's game. The steering wheel was really jerky, but thankfully, we made it home safe and got the van in the shop that night. A new rim and 4 new snow tires later, we are safe & sound. I am so, so grateful that we weren't hurt or that no one else was involved in our accident.

Third, I saw a mouse in our closet on Friday morning. Now, I HATE mice! It was awful. So, I went to Home Depot at 9 in the morning and got some new mouse traps and things to plug in that are supposed to send out an annoying sound that only they can hear. I set the traps myself and waited and waited for that dumb mouse to be caught. Finally, Sunday morning, I came downstairs and we found one caught in a trap. Jack was very brave in helping me dispose of it. I'm leaving traps out to see if we catch any more, but I consider it a huge blessing to have it caught!

Anyway, as always, we are so grateful for all of our blessings!



Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Happy Birthday Blondie!

I can't believe that this sweet little girl is 6 years old today!!!! What a joy she is in our lives! Happy, happy birthday Kate!!








Thursday, January 5, 2012

Christmas Morning

I wasn't very good about taking pictures during the Christmas holiday! We had a really nice Christmas Eve. We had the Cowden family, Matt Nielson, my friends Julie & Camille and my siblings (other than Mike who was in Russia and Becky & John who were with the Mortensen's) over for dinner, a white elephant exchange & games. It was great to be together and the white elephant exchange was really fun!

The kids went to bed remarkably well! Peter slept over and I think he had the hardest of any of us sleeping. We woke Emily up at 6:30 and the rest of us got up around 7:00. Santa was very generous with the kids and we had a fun time opening gifts & stockings.

Emily got a couple of books and will get contacts soon, Lindsey got the Harry Potter DVD set, Jack got a net for pitching baseballs, Kate got some new Barbie things, Hannah got some Disney Princesses & Hailey got a new ball thing.

We ate a yummy breakfast and then got ready for Church. Church was wonderful - Lindsey sang in a quartet and did a great job. The music was beautiful & inspiring! Rich & Misty came to our ward and then we came back to our house for lunch and opening more presents when Becky, John & Peter all came. It was a great day! I was soooo happy to have it over though - it's just so much work!


Christmas morning


Peter & Hailey



Hannah & her stocking



Hailey's new toy




Kate & her new Barbie



Jack & his new rocket



Emily