Gary

Over the past year my brother has been contemplating joining the Army.  He finally joined and will be leaving for boot camp on Tuesday.  He will do his boot camp in Oklahoma and then will be training as a medic in Texas.  While I know this was a hard decision for him, in my opinion it was a very smart one. He will serve as a medic for four years and after that he has his schooling paid for.  Something that hasn't come easy for him.  I am so proud of him for making this decision.  We are going to miss him so much!

Gary, you really make me proud every day!  I know you will make a wonderful father and hubby someday.  I'm glad it's not now because you have so much to look forward to.  I am so grateful for your testimony.  I know we waiver at times but knowing that your faith is strong has always made mine so much stronger.  I love you Gar bear.  Stay happy and strong!

My sweet little nieces!!

These are my sweet little nieces, Addie and Elise.

They are so stinken adorable I just want to pick

     Them up and squeeze them.  They live in Oregon

     and it's been over two years since I last saw them!

     Mandy, I love and miss you so much!  Give those 

             girls a big smooch from me and their cousins!

Uncle Hilary and Rockin Out!

This is my Uncle Hilary. I haven't seen him since

third grade. He happened to be in Salt Lake this

past weekend and wanted to take all the kids to

Chuck E. Cheese. It was so nice to visit with him, I

only wish my Aunt Maren had been with him. The

kids had a blast and loved him to pieces!! Thanks

Uncle Hilary. We don't know when we'll see you

again but hopefully it won't be years!

Miranda and her cousins always sing to music

videos on You Tube of their favorite

singers. I think they were rockin out to

Taylor Swift. Leland's got to rock out

once in a while too!!

No More Tonsils

Leland got his tonsils out today.  I am very proud of him.  He was so brave and didn't cry once!  He's a tough kid.  I think I did worse than him.  It was hard to say goodbye!  It was so fast.  It took Leland longer to wake up than it did for Dr. Pearson to remove his  tonsils.  And according to the doctor, his tonsils and adnoids were huge!  

I'm glad we got it done.  For the past year Leland's been waking up coughing and gagging and sometimes vomiting.  At first we thought it was asthma.  He was tested for it and does have mild but persistent asthma.  But after doing inhalers for a couple of months, his midnight episodes did not go away.  It was scary because he is basically asleep when he starts gagging and gasping and he never remembers it, even when he vomits.  I thought he was having seizures or something weird.  But after I talked to Dr. Pearson I'm pretty confident that it was sleep apnea.  Hopefully, the tonsils being removed will help.

The worst part for Leland today is that he can't eat. He is so hungry and all he can have is clear liquids.  Poor kid!  Hopefully we can shove enough jello down him to get him feeling full!

Cupcakes and Cousins!

Tubing in Brianhead

In the five years we've lived here, we have never been up to Brianhead, which is stupid because Toby's brother works there and we can go for free or at a discounted price.  So, Joy and her girls came down and we took a trip up that way.  

The kids  had a blast on the tube hill and thanks to Aaron we got in free!  Owen was shocked the first time he went down and wouldn't go again.  Parents aren't aloud to ride with so I was worried about him.  Then Aaron came by and we got special treatment again,  Aaron went down with Owen a couple of times.

Thanks Aaron it was a fun trip and wouldn't have been so without you!!

More Flu and Fun!!!

Yes, unfortunately we've had more flu. Everyone seemed to be doing okay. Leland had a little cough but we decided to go to California to Oma's and Opa's for a visit before Christmas. On the way down Owen got a fever. The next day he was hacking horribly with on and off fevers. By Sunday his fever got to 104.00 degrees so I took him in to an urgent care. Turns out he had Influenza type A. This is one of the strains the flu shot or flu mist is supposed to prevent. We had gotten Owen the flu mist so his symptoms were not as bad. But let me tell you, when your child has a fever that high, nothing could be worse! So, to make a long story short, we ended up coming home on Monday. Only three days in California:( We did manage to get out one day and go to the harbor in Dana Point. As we were walking on the beach we came across a seal!! The poor thing was sick and someone from the marine institute was watching him until animal rescue came. He was really cute, like a big puppy dog. The kids were amazed. We also ran into Ed, Nathan, and Cindy Ginn which was a very nice surprise. We had a nice long chat with them and that was about it for our vacation in Cali. It was such a bummer because we were possibly going to Disneyland but Owen put the niks on that pretty quick!

Thanks for the short stay Oma and Opa!! We really wished it could have been longer. We all had fun despite the sickness. Oma kept Miranda busy with art projects that she absolutely loved and Leland and Owen had a blast in the Jacuzzi. The kids each had a job there, Miranda was in charge of getting the mail, Owen fed the fish in the pond, and Leland pulled the strings on the coo coo clock. That was enough fun for a months time!

Oh yeah! I have to mention this, when we were in Cali, Lelands front tooth was really loose and kept moving around all weird (hilarious). The day after we got home he was sledding in our backyard which of course drives Titan mad, and he jumped on Leland knocking the tooth out. The tooth fairy came the night before Santa came!! Two fun nights this year!!