Joel, Sarah, and kids

Christmas

2012-01-03T12:21:00.001-07:00

We started out our Christmas celebrations the Thursday before Christmas with a sing-a-long at the Fabiano's house. There were some pictures taken of the six sisters that were here for Christmas, but I don't have any of them! But we had a nice time singing Christmas carols at the tops of our voices, and eating some delicious goodies. It was also the first chance we had to see Adrienne since she'd flown in the evening before.

On Friday evening we went to the Gunnell's house for dinner and some Christmas activities for the kids. Dinner was delicious, of course. The kids then got to decorate their own gingerbread houses.

After gingerbread houses we did a gift exchange for the kiddos, and I think everyone got some fun stuff. Adam ended up with silly putty, Will had a noisemaker toy, and Jenna got a travel size Battleship. I was pretty excited about that one! :)

Saturday morning was very busy with cleaning the house and getting the food ready for the progressive dinner for Christmas Eve! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but we had a great time. We had a common food theme again this year (last year it was citrus) and it was BACON! Yum! We started out at Fabiano's with some delicious bacon-y appetizers.

After that we proceeded to the Blau's where we combined the second course and main dish. We were supposed to do main dish at the Turley's, but they had a sick one at home that was being quarantined. The lettuce bacon cups, funeral potatoes, and bacon wrapped meatloaf was delicious and very filling.

And last but not least we came to our house for dessert. How do you incorporate bacon into dessert, you might ask? Well, as it turns out there are countless recipes out there for desserts with bacon. However, I wasn't feeling particularly creative in the weeks leading up to the dinner, so the only bacon dessert we had was good old chocolate covered bacon. I think everyone was a little skeptical in the trying of the chocolatey bacon, but I think the consensus on it was "it's not so bad". We also had two kinds of chocolate covered popcorn and three kinds of chocolate covered pretzels.

Right before we had dessert I had the fun opportunity to share the news that Joel and I are having another baby! The reaction from my sisters was great, and I think I surprised them all with the news. My due date is July 8th, and we are so excited about it!

Christmas morning was a lot of fun, as always! We were up a little before 6 and digging through stockings and opening presents. We all got a lot of fun things. Unfortunately our camera was out of battery, so the few pictures I got were on Joel's phone.

I love how sleepy-eyed everyone looks in Christmas morning shots. :)

Adam got his own sleeping bag, so now each child has their own.

Adrienne had us for Christmas this year, and she surprised us all by getting Joel a set of golf clubs! She was even super sneaky and with some help she hid them in our garage the night before during the progressive dinner. I think his smile says it all!!

After we finished opening presents we had time to play with things for an hour or two, and then we got cleaned up for church. Joel thought the boys were looking particularly handsome (and I must agree) so he snapped this picture of them in front of the tree. I think he used the new camera that I got him for Christmas!

After church we got back in our jammies and played some more. Will got some Kinex, and everyone had a fun time making things out of them. We also got to Skype with both Grandma R and Grandma K!

In the later afternoon we headed over to Laura's house to hang out, eat dinner, play games, and generally enjoy ourselves.

Since Christmas there has been a lot of building Kinex, watching "24" (for Joel and I), and playing Uno Attack, battleship, and the game Authors which Joel's Mom gave us. Joel played the game as a child so it's extra special. We're happy that our kids have taken to it so well. Thanks again, Brenda! Jenna's also been drawing us lots of pictures on her new easel, and all the kids have enjoyed Will's new remote control truck.

The Christmas vacation has been so much fun, and it's been so great to have Joel home so much. He had an orientation for his third rotation today, and he will start the actual rotation tomorrow. The kids head back to school on Thursday, so it will be back to the routine. It's sad that the Christmas season is over, but it will be nice to get things back on a schedule. :)

Small p.s. Our New Year's Eve was wild and crazy here at home, watching "24" and drinking some sparkling cider. It was absolutely perfect! Welcome, 2012!

Dane's visit

2011-12-29T18:33:00.002-07:00

I'm a little behind on my blogging, so before I can post about Christmas I need to cover the week of Dane's visit! Joel's brother got home from his mission in New Jersey in November. Unfortunately we weren't able to make it up to WY when he got home, so he very kindly came down to Mesa to visit us. Joel finished his second rotation on Dec. 7th, then had testing the 8th and 9th. Dane flew in on the 11th and the fun began. :)

The weather wasn't very cooperative; it rained more in the week that Dane was here than it has the entire time we've lived here. Or at least it felt that way. It wasn't easy to really get outside and do a lot, but we did show Dane Joel's school, eat at Giant Hamburger, drive by the building site of the new Gilbert temple, visit the temple lights at the Mesa temple, and eat at The Cheesecake factory. Joel and Dane also went golfing and hiked Camelback. We watched a lot of movies, and towards the end of the trip we watched a lot of the show 24 on Netflix. I didn't take many pictures at all, which I always intend to do but never do. Blast!

It was so great seeing Dane again and spending time with him. Adam wasn't so sure about Dane at first; he didn't remember him at all. But by the end of the trip they were pretty good buds. We were sad to see Dane go and we hope we get to see him again soon.

Dane also got to enjoy Will's school concert with us. They had a Christmas themed concert with everybody in pajamas. I didn't bring the real camera so I had to use Joel's phone to snap a few. This was the best that I got. Will did a great job singing the songs and doing the actions!

Adam's Birthday!

2011-11-30T14:07:00.001-07:00

Yesterday our little Adam turned FOUR! It's hard to believe that our baby is so old and big. Thankfully he was feeling better after a long Thanksgiving weekend of fevers and allergies.

We went to Krispy Kreme for his free birthday doughnut! As soon as he saw that snowman he knew he wanted it. I'm sure it tasted pretty good, too. :)

After dinner (chocolate chip pancakes, at Adam's request) we opened presents. Here is Adam showing me how old he is. I love how his thumb is bent kind of funny.

He got a lot of fun presents!

He got a monster truck from Grandma and Grandpa K, and he couldn't wait to play with it!

So, whenever we tell Adam to smile for a camera, this is the face we get. The only way to get a natural smile in a picture is to catch him off guard. But can you tell how excited be was about his new guns?!

We had rice crispy treats instead of cake. We've had a lot of cake and pie recently, so we decided to change it up.

I had to tickle him to get this smile out of him. Isn't he cute!!!

Happy Birthday, Adam! Thanks for being you!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T12:05:00.001-07:00

I intended on taking a lot of picture this Thanksgiving so I'd have a lot of good stuff to put on the blog. Well, I started off okay, but I didn't get as many pictures as I'd hoped.

We had a pretty low-key Thanksgiving here in Mesa. We didn't travel because of Joel's work schedule, and most of my sisters eat dinner with their in-laws. So Joel and I did dinner at home this year. I got some of the cooking done Wednesday, which made Thursday a little easier.

Will made some Indian garb in school and showed it off to us Thursday morning. I think we all took a turn wearing that feathered headdress at some point during the day. :)

We were lucky to have my sister, Amy, join us for Thanksgiving this year. We took a break in the morning when most of the food was done and the turkey was cooking. She was showing the kids some fun stuff on her ipod...

After all of the food was ready we stuffed ourselves absolutely full. Joel snapped this picture after us adults and finished up and the boys were still working on their food. I had my feet up because I was trying to stretch out my extremely full belly.

After dinner, which was really delicious if I do say so myself, us grown ups helped ourselves to a leisurely afternoon nap. And it was lovely. After that is was time to get serious about clean up because the Blaus and the Turleys came over in the evening for pie!

We had a lot of pie varieties and I didn't even get to try them all because I was still pretty full from dinner. But I powered through a few slices and I'm very glad I did. It was a nice, relaxed, fun Thanksgiving. It will probably be our one and only Thanksgiving here in Mesa. Last year we went up to WY, and it's likely that we will have moved by next Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed it!!!

Happy Birthday to Joel!

2011-11-18T11:12:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was yet another birthday in the Robertson house. Joel turned the big 2-8! :) He says it feels the same as the big 2-7, so I guess that's good. :)

He got done with work early, so I went and got some Subway for lunch that we both enjoyed. We just hung out in the afternoon and relaxed. After dinner (which Joel didn't eat because he was still too full from his huge Subway sandwich) we opened presents. Jenna made him a card, and I got him the Bourne movies and some new basketball shorts.

I'm really not sure what this face is about, but it was funny enough that I had to add it. I love how Will is looking at Joel.

After presents was singing and cake. Cherry cheesecake, to be exact.

He had a lot of help with the candles... :)

Joel, we love you and are so happy that you were born 28 years ago! Happy Birthday!!!

Halloween, of course!

2011-10-31T20:03:00.000-06:00

Our ward trunk-or-treat was actually on Saturday the 29th, so that's when we did most of our Halloween celebrating. Unfortunately, Jenna had thrown up multiple times on Saturday, so it wasn't looking so good for her. Will, Adam and I ended up going to the first part of the party which was dinner and games. Joel brought Jenna over at the end of the games for the actual trunk-or-treat. Before we left I snapped these pictures.

Adam was, obviously, a cell phone. Will wanted to be a pumpkin, so we settled on a scary jack-o-lantern. I designed the face and put it on the shirt, then we stuffed him up so he could be nice and round. And of course his hair needed to be green for his stem. Jenna was a vampire. She wanted to be a scary vampire, so she had blood coming out of her mouth and black hair. She didn't wear the teeth much at all because they hurt her mouth. :)

Today both kids had parties at school. I helped out in Will's classroom, so Adam got to join in on the fun. I was also there for the parade. A lot of people tried to push Adam's "buttons". He pretended that he didn't like it, but I think he was actually loving the attention!

Here's Jenna with her friend from class...

I'll admit that Halloween isn't my favorite holiday. I liked it when I was a kid because of the free candy, but now I can buy my own candy and I'm not crazy about costumes. But I'm glad that my kids enjoy it and have fun with it. Now we're done with it for another year! :) On to the good holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas! :)

Birthday Boy!

2011-10-19T10:11:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was another birthday in the Robertson house! William is seven! It's hard to believe he's getting so big and grown up. He requested pizza for his birthday dinner, so homemade cheese pizza it was.

After dinner he got to video chat with Grandma R!

We invited all the cousins over for a party. After some playing we got right down to business opening presents. He got tons of cool, fun stuff, and I didn't even get pictures of most of it!

We were so happy that Joel got done at work (he's in his second rotation right now) in time for the party!

After presents was cake, of course. He had a snicker-doodle cake with cinnamon butter cream frosting. It was delicious!

After the party was over and all the cousins left I wanted to make sure to get a picture with my growing up boy! Isn't he so handsome?

We love you, William!!!

More T-ball

2011-09-24T11:43:00.003-06:00

I can't promise that this will be my last post about t-ball, but I'll try not to post about every game. :) I did want to get some pictures on here since the video won't be much use in my blog book.

Will did a great job in his game today! Here are a few pictures of him warming up with Joel.

This picture makes me laugh. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I look like when I catch a ball!

He was really great about running to get the balls that the other team hit. Maybe a little too great, we need to make sure that he lets other kids have a chance to get the ball if they are close.

He was also a great hitter today. The first time he was up they didn't pitch it, just used the tee. The next two times they pitched it and he hit them really well! Both were good, solid hits that went pretty far. We're so proud of our little guy!!!

T-ball

2011-09-17T20:23:00.002-06:00

Will started t-ball last week, but his first game was canceled so today was his first t-ball game! When it started Will was the first one up to bat, and the coaches on the other team started pitching it to him. Joel and I were like, "What the heck, this isn't coach pitch, it's supposed to be t-ball!" Only to each other, of course. Anyway, it turns out that they pitch a few to the kids and then if they don't hit it they use the tee. Here's Will in the second inning, hitting the ball and running to first.

He did a great job in his first game! He hit well, and he did a great job in the field getting grounders and throwing the ball to first. I was pretty impressed with him, actually! It was so much fun to watch, and I think he had a great time. Of course we had to get ice cream cones afterwards to celebrate. :)

I think Joel took some pictures on his phone; I'll try to get a few put on here soon.

Joel's trip

2011-08-23T17:06:00.006-06:00

I'm not going to do a "real" post about Joel's trip to Lovell since I wasn't there, and Joel doesn't want to post it himself. :) So I will post some pictures and tell what I know about them.

Joel went down Devil's Canyon twice. Once with his brother, Daniel, and once with his cousin Lane.

Joel and Daniel found Dane's shoe, which had been there for about two years!

Joel is drinking from Fan Springs, a natural spring that comes into the canyon. Joel says it's the best water he's ever had.

He killed a grouse to supplement their dinner.

He went golfing with Devin.
He went 4-wheeling on the Pryor Mnts with his Mom and Roland. Here you can see Big Horn Canyon and Devil's Canyon.
They ate in this cabin for lunch.
He saw a lot of wild horses, but couldn't get any good pictures of them. He was using a disposable camera, so there was no zoom.
While in the canyon with Lane they killed a rattlesnake and ate it for lunch.

And I guess that sums up his trip. :) I know he had a great time and was absolutely in love with being in the mountains again.

Joel started his first rotation yesterday. He's at a family practice a few miles from our house. He had a good first day, and hopefully the rotation will be fun and informative.

First day of School

2011-08-10T11:40:00.004-06:00

First day of fourth grade!

First day of first grade!

First day of preschool at home. :)

Jenna's Birthday

2011-08-09T16:09:00.006-06:00

Our big girl just got a little bigger. Jenna turned nine years old yesterday! We had her party on Sunday, the 7th. Some of her aunts and cousins that live here couldn't make it, and they were definitely missed. But Jenna wasn't going to let that stop her from having fun; I mean, there were presents involved!

She got a few things that she's been wanting for awhile, like a wallet and a clock for her bedroom. She got a lot of other things like bracelets, a new shirt, a new book, a movie that she wanted, etc. After she opened presents she told me that the presents this year were the best yet! :)

Dad was helping her put her birthday money in her new wallet.

And what's a birthday party without cake and ice cream? She picked out a funfetti cake, so that one was for the kids. The adults had a delicious chocolate bundt cake. It's too bad I didn't get pictures of it, because that was the pretty one.

On Monday, her actual birthday, we went out to an aquatic center that had some fun stuff for the kids.

We all had a great time! Both boys made progress when it comes to swimming. Will has been pretty attached to his floaties this summer, but Joel and I have been encouraging him to try swimming without them. He swam quite far a number of times without floaties on. Soon he'll be a little fish, I'm sure. And Adam's big breakthrough was putting his face in the water! He HATES having his face in the water, and avoids it at all costs. But by the time we left yesterday he was willingly putting his face in (eyes and all) and blowing bubbles. We were very impressed.

There was a lazy river and some water slides there that weren't open when we went. We want to go back when those are open because I think we would have fun with those. The price is super reasonable, and we're really glad we went!

The birthday girl requested fruit pizza for dinner. Since the kids don't all like the same kind of fruit I decided to do individual pizzas that we could top ourselves. I think the kids really enjoyed it.

After dinner we headed to Meet the Teacher night at their school. I think they are both excited to start school, but also pretty nervous. I'm excited and nervous for them, as well. Joel gave them each a father's blessing today before he left, and I think that helped a lot. It's hard to believe that Jenna will be in fourth grade, and Will in first. They're getting big!

Last but not Least... Laramie!

2011-07-28T14:11:00.006-06:00

Laramie! My home away from home! The place that two of my children were born! I love you!

I was, of course, very excited to go to Laramie and see our good friends, the Bades. As I sit here trying to remember everything we did while we were there I'm having a tough time coming up with details. I didn't take pictures of everything we did, and it has all sort of blended into one mass of enjoyable fun and talking.

The kids were excited to see their friends, and they had a LOT of play time while we were there. They played outside in the little pool (sometimes with swimming suits, sometime without [and I don't mean naked, I mean in regular clothes]), they played house and all sorts of imagination games. They played a little Wii (not nearly as much as they played at Grandma's house). Many balls were thrown and hit, and everyone survived in one piece. Success!

Sarah and I did a lot of fun things, like talk, laugh, chat, gab, confide, confer, discuss, talk, talk, talk... I think you get the idea. Oh, we also played cards, dominated Just Dance on the Wii, tried out some delicious recipes, watched movies, and had more fun than is strictly legal.

On Saturday evening Chad was nice enough to keep all of our kids and Sarah and I got to go on a girl date. Here is the traditional "about to leave, we're looking cute" picture.

We stuck with tradition and went to Sweet Melissa's for dinner. I love that place. And we had a great server: Bob. :) Oh, have I mentioned that my friend is a model? Well she is. Let me present to you, exhibit A:
She's definitely selling something high class, like mascara or lip gloss. Me, on the other hand? I just sell sugar. :)
After dinner we decided to try and see a show at UW that Sarah had heard was pretty good. We didn't buy tickets in advance, and when we got to the box office an hour before the show they said they were sold out. We put our names on the waiting list and crossed our fingers. Shortly before the show the guy behind the counter (who looked disturbingly like Robert Pattinson) called us up and gave us two tickets. Even better, they were free! Unfortunately I didn't snap a sneaky picture of our Rob look-alike. I'm so fired!

The show, A... My Name is Alice, was quite good! I'll admit to laughing really hard multiple times. It's a great show to go to with a girl friend. I know Sarah appreciated it a lot more than Joel would have. :)

After the show we went to Coal Creek for some hot snow and a brownie. It was kind of chilly and rainy that evening, so we were totally justified.
The hot snow was delicious, and we were enjoying our conversation, but we decided to leave a little earlier than we normally would have because there was a creepy guy that was acting strange and we both decided to get the heck out of there. But we had a great time!!!

On Sunday we went to church in our old ward. It was fun to see so many people that we knew!

On Monday we went up to Veedawoo for a picnic and to make s'mores. The weather was lovely when we got there, but a cloud (yes, just one cloud. I'm serious) rolled in and rained on us for a little bit. Luckily it never got too heavy and we still had a great time.

The kids found a little cave-like thing made between a tree and a rock with some pine boughs. They were cute, peeking out of it.

I went to take Adam's picture, and he focused on the branched right in front of his face. Hence the crossed eyes.
After I snapped it he said, "I'll fix it, Mom!" And indeed he did. What a guy.

After lunch and s'mores we decided to hike around for just a bit. It was great to stretch our legs a little in the mountains.

Monday night we stayed up way too late talking (we had been fairly reasonable about bedtimes up until then, not staying up past 12:30 or so). I'm pretty there was a point where we were talking with our eyes closed and slurring our words, but we did not give in! Those late-night talks are always the most interesting.

On Tuesday we took the kids to the new splash pad in one of the parks in town. The water was a little cold and Jenna was apparently in a bad mood. She played for a few minutes then took to her towel.
But the boys had a great time!

Jenna saw me taking a picture of her and wasn't going to take that lying down. So she did this...
She's a silly girl. :)

That night after the kids went to bed Sarah and I ate some delicious fried banana bread (with ice cream) from Sweet Melissa's while watching a tear-jerker of a movie. It was a great last night in Laramie.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the next morning. We got up bright and early and hit the road a little after 6. I managed to drive all the way to Mesa in one day. I thought about stopping, but it just made more sense to keep going. With the smallest of cat naps outside of Gallup, NM, the kids and I made it home to Mesa around 9:30 local time (approx. 16.5 hours of drive time).

It was great to see Joel again! We missed him so much, and I know he missed us, too. He had a special surprise waiting for the kids when they got home: a pillow pet for each of them! It has been nice to be home and get back into the swing of things here. We did our school supply shopping today and will need to do school clothes shopping in the next few days. School starts in less than two weeks! Summer has flown by!

Lovell, WY

2011-07-25T17:14:00.012-06:00

The drive from Idaho Falls to Lovell was fairly uneventful, though I was outrunning a thunderstorm the entire way. It caught up to be after Cody, but we still made it to Lovell safely.

We had a lovely, relaxing time in Lovell. But we still managed to stay busy. One of the things we did while we were there was drive up to Devil's Canyon overlook. I wanted to take some pictures for Joel, and it's been awhile since we've taken the kids there.

It was windy and the kids were looking into the sun. That makes for some great pictures. :)
Then I drove to the causeway to see how high the lake was. The mountain was so beautiful; I wish I could have taken pictures that would do it justice. The lake was the highest I've seen it in awhile, but apparently it got higher after we left! I saw a picture of waves on the road!

We got to spend time in Cowley with Brenda et al. The kids had fun playing with their cousins, Gavin and Kelvin. Gavin and Adam had the funniest conversation and I was quick enough to snap a few pictures of it. Gavin started showing Adam some scrapes that he'd gotten...

Then Adam pulled up his shirt to show Gavin his scars, saying, "See, I got burned."
So Gavin showed Adam the big scrape he had on his knee.
It was hilarious to hear and see these boys compare wounds! The funniest thing was said when Adam showed Gavin his scars. Gavin said, "Ouch! Did you cry?" Adam replied, very matter-of-factly, "Yeah, but I got a band-aid on it." We laughed so hard!

Jenna made a little thing from a kit that Brenda had. She painted it later and was very proud of it.
Jenna and Will love word finds, and as it turns out, so does Grandma K. I frequently found the three of them like this, working together. In this picture Jenna was looking up a word that was in the word find.
The kids (boys especially) played a LOT of Wii at both Grandmas' houses. I'm not sure what game Adam was playing, but he was very into it.
The kids swam at the wading pool in the park behind my Mom's house a few times. It's a great little pool with a fun whale slide.

After while Adam got tired and I guess this was his preferred method of rest.

The Saturday that we were there was Byron's Days. They had a couple blow up water slides in the park that the kids wanted to try. They went down each a couple of times, but the verdict was the lines were too long for not enough fun. They also had a climbing wall that the kids tried. Jenna got about half way up and decided that was high enough.

Will was doing great, even though the holds were a little far apart for his height. The guy in charge noticed that Will swung out a little once and didn't come down at all. He had Will let go, and Will just hung in the air. He wasn't heavy enough to come back down, so he only got to climb to the top of the guy's reach. If he had gone higher someone would have had to climb up and pull him down. So Will went up twice, but they wouldn't let him go to the top.

Adam also wanted to try, and the harness looked so funny on him! They had to tighten the straps so much that they dragged on the ground when he walked! He had a fun time climbing, though.
That night we went to the fireworks in Byron. They were impressive, beautiful, and loud, as always. The kids really liked them, which surprised me a little; I wasn't sure that Adam would like the noise. But he did just fine, and when it was done he even admitted to liking "all the colors."

It was a late night that night, and the kids were exhausted after a long day. I carried Adam in from the car, but when I put him down in the house this was as far as he got. Getting him to walk into the bathroom was hilarious! He kept going down on his knees and collapsing. He had no trouble getting to sleep that night!

On Monday we went up to Five Springs for a little picnic. They recently made some repairs/improvement to the switchbacks to get up there, and it was so nice! No dodging potholes while also trying to stay on the narrow road!

It was so beautiful and green up there; we miss the color green.
The kids had a great time running around and enjoying the fresh air and lovely weather.

We also roasted some marshmallows.
Then we headed up to see the falls.

I knew the falls would be different because the water has been so high this year, but it was even muddier and wetter than I expected. The falls came out a lot farther than usual because so much more water was coming down. It was slippery and muddy where you normally stand to watch the falls. We barely made it to the falls when the kids decided they'd had enough and headed back down. I barely had time to snap a picture.

Adam had a little trouble in some of the mud. :)

Daniel and Brenda joined us a little later, and Daniel Jay was teaching the kids some botany. They loved it.
On Tuesday we got to go to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody with Brenda. She has a member's pass (or something like that) so we got in for free! We couldn't pass up that opportunity. We visited the museum of Natural History first, and it was very cool. There were lots of buttons for Adam to push, which was his favorite part. I would love to go again without little kids and have a chance to really read about and look at everything.
We also ventured into the Buffalo Bill section. Again, it would be fun to get to read about everything and take time looking at everything. As it was, Adam was getting pretty loud and rambunctious by that time. However, the kids enjoyed sitting on the saddles and trying on the hats.

We didn't even see half of the things that there are to see there. I would love to go back sometime!

That pretty much brings our Lovell trip to a close. The kids had a lot of fun seeing family, playing the Wii, and overall not having any responsibilities. I had a great time with family, I played a lot of cards, ate too much, stayed up late, and got spoiled by my Mom and Bill. It was so great! It was especially wonderful to spend some time with my Mom and Bill because they are leaving on a mission in just a few days! I was actually there when they got their call to Utica, NY! I'm excited for them to have the opportunity to serve another mission, but I'm going to miss them a lot.

It was hard saying goodbye, of course. But I was excited to start the last leg of my trip. Laramie!!!

Robertson Family Reunion / Idaho

2011-07-22T14:43:00.007-06:00

Joel was able to ride up to Utah with his Aunt Karen and her family. They drove through the night Thursday night, and Joel got to Adrienne's house early Friday morning. We got ready, packed the car up, and headed to the Robertson Family Reunion! It was held at a girl's camp near Ashton, ID.

We had so much fun at this family reunion. It was great to see so much family, relax, have fun, eat great food, and have an overall wonderful time. I have a lot of pictures, but they are in no particular order. Usually I would try to put them in chronological order, but that would just take too long!

Some of the fun things we did were: play "Do you love your neighbor?", horseshoes, volleyball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, sit around the campfire, roast marshmallows, swim, etc. On Saturday evening there was a talent show/skit night that was really a lot of fun. There were also crafts to do, which Jenna definitely enjoyed. We got to hear updates on all of the missionaries that were out in the field at the time (five!).

The one downside of the reunion was the mosquitoes! There were countless mosquitoes, and our kids ended up looking like they had chicken pox. It doesn't help that they react badly and swell up when they get a bite.

I'll do my best to help make sense of all these pictures!!

Adam, Joel and I tossing a football Saturday evening...

Kicking around the soccer ball Saturday evening...
Volleyball Saturday morning...
Horseshoes (I think this was Friday night)...

Sorry Daniel and Joel, but I just thought this picture was too funny not to include. Even Adam is getting in on the crazy eating face.
Brothers, just hanging out on the stage...
Pinata (Saturday afternoon) !!!
Will actually broke it open...

The whole group...

Daniel reciting The Jabberwocky at the talent show...

Eric and his bagpipes. It was seriously impressive to see him play those! It was even more impressive once I saw Joel try (and fail) to play them later. Way to go, Eric!
Daniel, Joel, me, and Neva getting ready to sing the National Anthem...

And... here's the candy from that pinata. :)
Some lessons learned at this family reunion? I like playing volleyball, but I'm terrible at it. Ultimate Frisbee is fun, but can be dangerous. Swimming pool water is freezing cold in Idaho. Bagpipes take a lot of breath control. Mosquitoes are the devil. I can get a ringer in horseshoes, but I don't look pretty doing it. I think that pretty much sums things up. :)

We were sad to leave on Sunday afternoon, but we didn't go far. Joel and I went to Eric and Marie's house in Idaho Falls for the night. Sunday afternoon we played bocce ball in Eric's backyard. Logan Beach, Page and Brent, and Gary and Christina were also at Eric's house. We had a fun evening, and I was even able to was our smokey laundry. :)

Monday morning we had some time to run down to Pocatello to see our friends Nick and Tonya. We went to the parade there in town. It was nice and short, which was good because it was raining!

Next we went to Costa Vida for lunch. Unfortunately we didn't get to stay long because Joel had a flight to catch. It's always so fun to see Nick and Tonya and their great kids!

After that it was back to Idaho Falls to pack everything up (again!) and take Joel and Logan to the airport. It was sad to see Joel go because we knew we wouldn't be seeing him for a couple of weeks. But we were so happy that he got to come up for the reunion! He made it home without any problems, and as soon as we dropped him off we drove through the park and over to Lovell!

To be continued...

Utah!

2011-07-22T10:25:00.005-06:00

I started my long, whirlwind trip by heading off to Utah! The kids and I left early Wednesday morning (the 29th). Joel stayed home because he had school. The drive was long but uneventful. I stayed in Orem with my sister, Adrienne. We always have a great time at Adrienne's house! She has a great tree in her front yard that is perfect for climbing...

The weather was absolutely beautiful on Thursday. It was great to be outside and enjoy a fresh breeze; something that's not possible in Mesa at this time of year. We had a picnic lunch on Thursday at a park close to Adrienne's house. The food was great, and the kids got to play outside.

This isn't a great picture of the kids, but the mountain behind them sure was beautiful.

After the picnic we went to feed some ducks. The kids enjoyed feeding the ducks, and the pelicans were pretty impressive, too. They didn't eat the bread, but they would watch the bread and if a fish came up to eat it they would snap them right up!

Adrienne and I also had a great time trying out recipes, experimenting with nail polish, movie watching, and chatting.

Thanks for the fun time, Adrienne! We love you!

Busy Bees

2011-06-15T16:57:00.005-06:00

After Joel and I got back from Havasupai we didn't really take it that easy! We decided to take advantage of Joel's vacation while he had it. On Saturday, the 4th, Joel and I went to Jesterz Improv with some friends of ours. It was a hoot! It's a clean improv place with all-ages appropriate humor. We definitely had some good laughs, and when we were done there we stopped at Angel Sweet for some gelato. Yum!

On Sunday we went to my sister's ward because they were blessing their new little boy. We had a great time visiting with family and hanging out at the Blau's house, not to mention eating some delicious food. :)

Joel and I went to the temple on Wednesday and had a wonderful, spiritual time, as always. After that we went to Chipotle Grill for lunch. It was a great date.

On Thursday we went to a fun beach pool with the same friends we went to Jesterz with. Its pretty cool to have a sand beach and a regular swimming pool in one. Here's a few pictures of the kids at the pool, hanging out and enjoying their lunch. (They aren't great pictures, they were taken on my ipod.)

Don't you love Will's farmer's tan? He always wears a rash guard, and he'd taken it off while he ate because he was cold. But that Capri sun was pretty good. :)

Then on Friday Joel and I had a real treat! We got to finally go see Les Miserables; we bought the tickets back in December, so we've been patient for a long time! We went out to Four Peaks for dinner, which was absolutely delicious! (Joel had the filet mignon, and I had a salmon BLT)

And here we are in front of the Les Mis poster before the show...

We really enjoyed the show. It was the first time Joel's seen it, and it was my second time, though it's a little different than the time I saw it. They re-conceptualized some things, the staging was different, etc. I thought most of the changes were amazing. A few stand-out parts for me; Javert's suicide, the sewer scenes, One Day More, Bring Him Home, and the Finale. I know that doesn't really matter to whoever is reading this, but I would like to remember that in the future. :)

In other news, we had to buy a new computer last week. Our old one (which wasn't very old; less than three years) started having major problems. After a friend looked at it and tried to install a new hard drive, it was determined that there were multiple problems that would most likely cost more to fix than a new computer. So, we bought a new computer. Happy and sad news.

Joel went back to school on Monday, and Jenna started a basketball camp. Below is a picture of her with her camp shirt and new basketball that they gave her. She didn't have a whole lot of fun on Monday; it was harder than she expected it to be and she was really nervous. But she's been enjoying herself more the last two days, and overall I think it's a success.

We've only got two more weeks before the kids and I head North for a lot of family fun! It's going to be quite the trip- very long with a lot of driving- but I think it will be more than worth it!

Havasupai!

2011-06-02T15:22:00.015-06:00

Joel and I had the great opportunity to take a trip down Havasupai! Joel's friend, Reyn, has been multiple times and he organized a trip. We're so glad that he did, because it was an amazing opportunity.

Joel's Mom flew in to stay with the kids, which we are SO grateful for! We knew they were in good hands and didn't have to worry about them at all. Thanks, Bren!

Late Sunday night we drove to Glendale to meet up with Jared and Andrea. We rode with them up to Hilltop where we started our hike Monday morning. We tried getting some sleep in the car on the drive up, but we were basically unsuccessful. But it turned out alright, because we all seemed to have enough energy when it was time to go!

Here are a few details about Havasupai before I talk about our trip down. According to their official website, the trail is 10 miles from the hilltop to the campground. (I thought it was 12 miles, but their website says 10.) It is eight miles to the village where you check in and pay, then two more miles to the campground. There is 1.5 miles of switchbacks at the beginning of the hike, and then it is a slow decent down to the village. You have to pack in everything you need, including food. Joel and I weighed our packs before we left; his was 48 lbs and mine was 36 lbs.

Here is a picture from the top. The sun was just coming up and it was beautiful. We left at a good time because it was light, but we were in shade almost the entire hike to the village. It was actually a little chilly when we started.

Here's our group! This is who ended up going: L-R Tim (top row), Todd (in front of Tim), Andrea and Jared, Joel and I, and Heidi and Reyn. Don't we all look happy and excited to get going!? Well, we were. But we didn't look that way for too long. :)

There were dogs all over the place. This dog, who we named Rabies (Rabes, for short), followed us all the way down the canyon. He also started the hike out with us, but he didn't make it to the top with us. I'm not sure where we lost him. Reyn posed with him during one of our breaks.

Andrea, Jared, Todd, Joel, and I taking a little rest.

The hike down really wasn't too difficult, it was just long. The hardest part was just having the pack on. It made my shoulders and back pretty tired pretty quick. We took a few breaks on the way down and they felt great! By the time we reached the village I think we were all happy to be nearly done!

Here you can see Todd, Andrea was in front of him, then myself and Heidi, and Reyn is in front of her.

In the village we took a break and payed for our stay. Then we continued on to the campground, which we figured would just be a quick little walk. Wrong! Two miles feels pretty long when your legs already feel like jello! Not to mention that you are walking through fine, dusty sand, which zaps your energy quite efficiently. That was the hardest part of the hike in for me.

On the way to the campground we passed one of the falls. This a new waterfall that was created a few years ago after a major flood. I don't remember what they call it; it doesn't have a sign. But it was so gorgeous.

Same waterfall, different view...

We then came to Havasu Falls. Also very beautiful! It's always hard to capture the beauty in a picture. We couldn't wait to get to camp so we could come back and swim in this!

We found a pretty sweet camping spot and after resting our feet in the stream for a few minutes we set things up.

Then it was back to Havasu Falls for a swim! I brought one of those waterproof disposable cameras. It was fun to take pictures in the water, but the photos obviously weren't of the highest quality. But it was still fun! The water was a little chilly, but we braved it anyway. It was nice sitting under these little falls; kind of like a deep-tissue massage. If you look closely you can see Joel in the middle of that water.

Jared, Andrea, Me, and Joel enjoying the cool water. Falls in the background.

Joel, Todd, and I also tried to swim into the bottom of the falls, but it was harder than it looked! We got pretty close by swimming along the rocks, holding on, and trying to get in there. But the water was coming with such force that it would push us away. Not to mention that it was impossible to see anything because of the water flying in our faces! But we got pretty close, and we had fun trying!

Tim made a downright gourmet meal Monday night...

Joel and I just had some dehydrated meals. :)

I think we all had our various aches and pains Monday evening and Tuesday morning from the hike in. There were a lot of blistered feet and sore joints and muscles! It was pretty comical watching all of us hobble around. Well, I don't think Tim and Todd hobbled quite as much as the rest of us, but I like to think they were at least sore.

On Tuesday we went to Mooney Falls, which is just about a quarter mile from the campground. Even from the top it was incredible. You could hear the force and power of the water coming down.

As it turns out, Mooney Falls had a fun little "trail" that you have to take to get down to it. First there was the cave, which wasn't bad at all.

Then there were the stairs, which reminded Joel and I of the stairs in The Lord of the Rings in to Mordor. If you've seen the movies, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Here's another picture of those stairs. You can see the handrail at the right of the picture near the top. If you look closely you can see the chains and the ladders that are the way down.

Once at the bottom the waterfall was even more amazing, I think.

We continued on to try and get to Beaver Falls, which is a few miles past Mooney Falls. The trail was not so much easy to follow; at least not if you didn't know where to look. So we spent more time figuring out the best way to go than was really necessary.

This picture of Todd kind of shows what we were walking through.

We didn't end up making it to Beaver Falls, but we stopped at a nice pool to swim and eat and relax.

We headed back up to Mooney Falls after that, but we stopped at a place we called the showers. It was SO beautiful, and the water felt pretty good.

We are back in the cave area behind where the water was falling. It was so green and pretty, but these were taken with the water poof camera, so you just can't see the greatness of it.

Heidi and Reyn...

Andrea and Jared...Taking a shower...

Back at Mooney Falls they tried to reach the bottom of the falls. This water was so powerful it was no small task.

First, Joel and Reyn and Tim made it.

Then the men of A.T. Still. (They are all in the PA program together)

Then us wives braved it. I'll tell ya, if I didn't have Joel there to hold on to, I wouldn't have been able to get that far back. The current was strong, and I'm no swimmer. It looks shallow, but it got deeper between the shore and the falls.

Coming back up.

After Mooney Falls we went back to camp for awhile and then headed back to Havasu Falls for some more swimming. I didn't get any pictures of that on Tuesday, but Andrea snapped this one.

Wednesday morning we woke up before dawn to get our camp packed up so we could hike out early. We ended up having three of our packs taken out by donkey, so Heidi, Andrea, and I didn't carry packs on the way out. We put all of our heaviest stuff in those backs, so our husbands' bags were lighter. I just had a camelback on the way out, and that was the way to do it! It might have taken me all day to get out if I'd had a pack on my back!

Resting at the bottom of the switchbacks before heading up...

I haven't mentioned that I'd been surviving on a regimen of ibuprofen and tylenol all through Tuesday. My left knee started to hurt after the hike in on Monday, and without the drugs I had a pretty attractive limp and it did not feel so great. Wednesday morning I took four ibuprofen and a NoDoz, which I've heard is a great combo for pain relief.

We set a pretty fast pace out of Havasupai. We went much faster on the way out than on the way in. I was feeling pretty good! We only took about two breaks between the village and the bottom of the switchbacks. My shoulders and back didn't hurt this time because I wasn't carrying a pack, but boy was I breathing hard! It is definitely an up hill climb the whole way, even if it is a moderate grade.

On one of the breaks we took before we hit the switchbacks Todd had half of a NoDoz and I took the other half because I was feeling like I needed a little pick-me-up. At the bottom of the switchbacks we rested for a bit before heading up. I was feeling pretty good, but I could tell I needed to slow down just a bit. I told Joel that he could go ahead. I know sometimes it's easier for him to just got fast up stuff like that and get done, and it's not like I was going to get lost or anything. He was ahead of me for awhile, but he waited for me at some point and I'm glad he did.

Not too far into the switchbacks I stopped to rest and was feeling a little lightheaded, so I sat down on a rock. Things started looking a little strange and I told Joel that I was feeling weird. Then my chest got really tight and I felt like my throat was closing up. I was freaking out a little bit, and Joel took off my camelback and helped me calm down and take slow breaths. I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest, but when I was able to slow down my breathing I felt a little better. It was kind of scary for me because I've never experienced anything like it. We rested for a little bit and I ate some food. After that I had to go up very slowly; and I do mean very slowly. It didn't take much for my heart to beat really fast and hard, and then it got harder to breath and I would get light headed again. Joel was my hero and let me go as slow as I needed and was very understanding and reassuring. I'm not sure how many times I apologized for going so slow, and every time he told me to stop saying I was sorry and he didn't mind. I'm pretty sure that last half of the NoDoz was a mistake, and I was reacting to too much caffeine. Live and learn.

I did eventually make it to the top, where there was some cold ginger ale and grapes waiting. Yum! I'm not sure I've ever been so dirty in my life. The dust of the trail mixed with three days of sunscreen and sweat makes quite a combination!

We didn't get any pictures on Wednesday. I think Andrea got some. She took a lot of pictures that I'm going to need copies of! When I get them I will add them to this post.

Overall the entire trip was a lot of fun and totally worth it! It was definitely challenging and not for the faint of heart. I'm so glad Joel and I went together! Thanks to Reyn for putting the trip together, and thanks to Heidi, Reyn, Andrea, Jared, Todd, and Tim for making it so much fun!

End of the school year

2011-06-02T14:56:00.005-06:00

The kids got done with school on the 26th of May, and even though Will was sick they had a fun last week of school. There were root beer float parties, pizza parties, Will's Kindergarten graduation party...
...and Jenna had her third grade concert that was all about planets. Joel stayed home with the boys because Will was sick, but I got to enjoy the fun, educational concert. :) Here is Jenna looking way too cool in a pair of my sunglasses. They wore them while they sang the "Milky Way Rap".

There were some mixed emotions about the last day of school. Jenna will miss her teacher a lot, and she was extra sad because her teacher retired at the end of this year so Jenna won't even get to see her around school next year. She will also miss her friends from school, and I'm pretty sure she will be happy when school starts up again at the end of the summer.

I think Will is basically just happy to get to stay home all day. He did say he will miss his teacher, but he just doesn't get as sentimental as Jenna does.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of picking up Grandma R (Joel's Mom; Brenda; call her what you will) at the airport. She flew in to stay with our kids while we went on a camping trip. But first we got to enjoy a few days with her. Somehow we didn't manage to get any pictures of Brenda!

On Thursday evening my niece, Erin, graduated from high school! She is the first of my Mom's grandkids to graduate! All of the others will be following shortly, but it's hard to imagine this generation of our family going off to college.

Here are a few of us waiting for the graduation ceremony to start...

And here we are with the high school grad! My niece, Brianna, is in the far right of the picture, and she'll be graduating next year! These girls sure grew up fast!

Friday night we had a girls night since my Mom and Adrienne were in town. We ate some delicious food and played some games. We watched some videos on YouTube and laughed and talked and stayed up way too late. It was great!

We are looking forward to a fun and busy summer!

Another Anniversary

2011-04-03T12:02:00.003-06:00

It was one year ago today that Adam was burned with hot oil. It's hard to believe that it's been a full year; time goes by so quickly. Here are some pictures of Adam's scars that we took this morning. If you click to enlarge them you can see the detail much better. He scratched them in his sleep last night, which is why some areas are more red. Itching is really the only issue we are dealing with right now. He doesn't have any problems with mobility, though some of the scars are quite thick. On the third picture you can see where the skin graft donor sites were; they are very faded, and when he gets older and gets hair on his legs you probably won't even be able to tell where they were. What you can't see in the pictures are the white scars on his torso where the less serious burns were. I think those will also fade with time.

There was a time, about two weeks after Adam was burned, that I had a hard time with the fact that he was going to be scarred for the rest of his life. A few weeks previous he had perfect skin, and I couldn't believe that my baby would never, ever go back to that. I knew that eventually I would reconcile the scars with the boy, but at the time I just couldn't imagine it. Now, however, the scars are simply a part of who he is.

He still has a few lasting effects, besides the scars. Just the other evening we were outside in our backyard. We had turned on the sprinklers, and Jenna and Will each ran through a few times just for fun. For some reason Adam thought the sprinklers were spraying hot water, and he wouldn't go anywhere near them. Even seeing Jenna and Will go through didn't make him willing. We tried to get him to touch the water, but he screamed that he didn't want to touch it because it was hot, and he didn't want to get burned. We did make him put his hand in the water, and once he felt that it wasn't hot he kept touching it himself, and he ran through a few times. He had a great time, laughing and getting wet. But he is obviously still weary of anything that he thinks might be hot.

We are grateful to have Adam in our family, and we feel very blessed that he made it through that trial in one piece.

Nine Years

2011-03-29T14:24:00.002-06:00

Happy Anniversary! Nine years; not too shabby!

Thatcher

2011-03-21T10:19:00.006-06:00

Last week was spring break for the kids, so I decided to take advantage and go to Thatcher for a few days to see Grandma and Grandpa K! Joel started his new quarter on the 14th, so he had to stay home and miss out on all the fun.

None of us had been to Thatcher so it was great to finally be able to go and see where my Mom and Bill live for part of the year. We got there Sunday evening and had dinner, and the kids even got some Wii time. They were certainly pleased!

On Monday we headed out and did a little tour of Thatcher. We drove by the EAC campus where Bill taught for years. We also got to stop and see the house that Spencer W. Kimball grew up in...

Then we stopped at an old building that my Mom has always wanted to stop at. We found out that it was build to be a home for orphans and the elderly, then later became a place for social gatherings (I think); next it was a library, and now it is some kind of annex building.

Will had fun climbing the flag pole...

Grandpa explained to the kids how a sundial works.

Next we headed out to Roper Lake for a picnic. The weather was beautiful and we quite enjoyed ourselves. Will made a banana holder out of the picnic table.

No mess for your hands! :)

This is the view of the mountains that were Southwest of the lake. Bill told me what they were called, but of course I forgot.

After lunch the kids got to feed some ducks!

Once we started actually throwing out food there were quite a few ducks (and some other kind of bird) that came to enjoy the easy snacks.

After we ran out of food the kids just played for a bit.

We went for a little hike on a trail right there by the lake. Jenna and Will kept running ahead and Adam was getting VERY frustrated (MAD) that they weren't waiting for him. He just couldn't keep up with them. But we was a trooper and he made it to the end. There were some nice views on the hike. This was looking out over the Gila Valley.

Here is another view of that other mountain.

After the hike we headed home, but in the evening after dinner we went to walk around the new Gila Temple. I forgot my iPod (which is what I used for all the other pictures), so I didn't get any photos of the temple. It's a beautiful temple, though, with beautiful grounds.

Tuesday was pretty low key; the kids played the Wii for most of the morning, and after lunch we headed home. We had a great time visiting Thatcher! Thank you, Mom, for letting us come and stay with you!

The rest of Spring Break was spent here at home. On Wednesday we went to Mary's house for a good portion of the day. The kids played and Mary and I tried out a few new recipes.

On Friday I was lucky enough to be able to go to the new Jane Eyre movie with Laura, Rachel, Mary, and Mary's friend Lauren. I have been looking forward to this movie for months now! It hasn't been released in very many theaters, and we had to drive up to Scottsdale to see it. But it was totally worth it! I thought it was a very good adaptation of the novel for a two hour version. After the movie we got some gelato and talked (about the movie and of course other subjects as well). It was a great night, and I can't wait to see the movie again. It will definitely be added to my personal collection.

The kids are back to school today and I am very happy to be back to the routine. Speaking of the routine, I need to go and get myself to Costco! :)

Friends!

2011-03-16T19:19:00.008-06:00

Last week was Joel's Spring Break, and we had the great fortune to have our wonderful friends, the Bades, come and visit us! They spent a few days with some other friends of theirs, and on Tuesday we got to finally meet up. :) As you can see, Sarah and I were very happy to see each other!

Tuesday afternoon us gals went out to lunch and the boys went to a Cubs vs. Rockies spring training game.

They had pretty great seats.

Adam got to join the boys (Jenna and Will were in school)

We spent a lot of time just hanging out...

And playing games. We played this game called "Curses" and it was so crazy hilarious! Chad had to profess his undying love to Joel more than once, and Joel sure was soaking it in. :)

I made Chad laugh harder than I've ever seen him laugh before. Who knows what I said, probably something about Cops. ;)

Demonstrating how to remove an appendix (with an invisible golf ball in my mouth. Joel was impersonating me)

On Wednesday the guys went to play some indoor virtual golf and spend some time at Bass Pro Shop. Sarah and I soaked up some sun! (We did this many times while they were here; it was great!)

On Thursday Sarah and I did some shopping, and in the evening we went to Laura's house for dinner so the Bades could meet some of my sisters. We had some great dinner and conversation! We were quite tired from staying up late the previous nights, so the plan was to go to bed early after watching a little Friends.

The men headed to bed a little after midnight, perhaps hoping that we would follow their good example. However, after some loopiness and lots of laughing on our part, we got a second wind and stayed up until 3 talking. You might think that we would have covered all topics in the many hours we spent talking over the two days previous, but you would we wrong. There is ALWAYS something for us to talk about.

On Friday Joel and Chad went to Giant Hamburger for lunch, and brought back some fries to share. So nice! Then Sarah and I got all dolled up for our hot date. :)

After going by our library for a quick stop, we headed to Wildflower Bread Co. for a delicious dinner of salads. My salad was good, but Sarah's salad was delicious, and I will be heading back there (hopefully soon!) to have one of my own!

After dinner it was on to Beastly. The acting really wasn't anything impressive, but I liked the story, and the soundtrack alone made it worth it. Afterwards we went to Bahama Bucks for some shaved ice and, yes, more talking. We were also nice enough to bring some shaved ice back to our husbands because we're good like that.

Saturday involved a small photo shoot in the back yard. Don't the boys look great?

(I told them to hug; this was the best they would do) ;)

We took them to the airport Saturday afternoon. I tried not to pout too much on the way, and I think I was mildly but not wildly successful. It's always so hard to say goodbye to loved ones, especially after having such a wonderful time together. Sarah, you know I miss you already. And I don't have to say anymore because we've said it all already, and I know you know what I mean and how much I love you. Thank you, Bades, for coming! We had a wonderful time!

Usery Mountain Regional Park

2011-01-29T14:05:00.004-07:00

Joel had a few days off of school this week, so we decided to take advantage and do some hiking. We decided to go to Usery Park, and we hiked the Wind Cave trail. We took lots of pictures! Things kind of started off badly with Adam tripping on the road before we even hit the trail head. He scraped up his hand and was very upset for quite awhile. He did eventually cheer up, but it took awhile.

The weather was beautiful; sunny and mild. It's great to be able to hike in January. :) The trail was pretty nice, especially at the bottom. It got steep for awhile, and there were some rocks to climb over. I will admit that I was sweating and breathing hard for a little bit. It was great! Joel was awesome and carried Adam on his shoulders for most of the hike up (and down, for that matter).

Here's a view from the bottom of the large hill we climbed.

The big Phoenix sign...

There were some large cacti.

The view from the top...

And another...

Eating some snacks at the top.
The Phoenix sign again, from the top of the hill.
Just sittin' in a little alcove.

After we were done we ate a little picnic and headed home. It was a great morning, and I think we'll go again with the other kids. It was so nice to get a little distance from the city and breath some fresh air. And it was great that this park is only 15 minutes from our house; very convenient.

New toy

2011-01-06T11:14:00.004-07:00

For the last few weeks Adam has had a new favorite "toy". It works great as a bat or golf club to hit balls with. It is also a pretty great gun.

We are back to the routine at our house. New years was a lot of fun. Joel and I stayed home and played Trivial Pursuit while eating goodies, then watched a movie until midnight. It was great! The rest of our vacation was spent being lazier than anyone has a right to be. But it was just what the doctor ordered.

Monday everyone was back to school and life went back to "normal". It's nice to get back to a schedule. We are also trying to be a little healthier; you know, it being the new year and all. So there is no more candy or goodies around the house, and the fridge is full of fruits and veggies. I've also been getting up early to work out; I can tell it's been nearly two months since I've done any sort of exercise. But it's feeling good! 2011 is going to be a great year!

Post Christmas

2010-12-29T19:36:00.002-07:00

As I said before we had a lot of family around for the Christmas season, so Christmas day was not the end of our fun. On Sunday we got together for dinner and games at Laura's house. Monday was shopping at Old Navy, then watching Jane Eyre at my house Monday night. Tuesday was the "sewing party" at Rachel's', and Tuesday night was "pizza potluck" at Laura's.

This kids received a lot of puzzles for Christmas, so we've had fun putting them together. The kids are lucky enough to have some great grandparents to help them!

Here's Will and Grandpa Bill working on the "Cars" puzzle.

And here was Grandma K helping with another. I was able to sneak a few pictures without them knowing. :)

Christmas!

2010-12-29T19:11:00.002-07:00

Our first Christmas in Arizona was warm, and a lot of fun! :) We continued the family tradition of doing a progressive dinner on Christmas Eve. We started out at Rachel's house with appetizers, then to my house for a pallet cleansing course of sorbet and fruit salad. Laura and David were in charge of main course and we ate at David's brother Mark's house. To finish the night we went to Mary's house for desert. We were busy having so much fun that I didn't take any pictures.

Adrienne came down from Utah, and my Mom and Bill came over as well, so we had lots of family, and lots of fun!

Christmas morning was great, as always. The kids got a lot of fun presents, and Joel outdid himself with gifts for me this year. With an iPod touch, and the full set of Friends DVDs, I had a great morning!

(Brenda, I would like to point out that Joel is eating pistachios in this picture. I thought you might like that.)

Jenna got a desk this year, and this is the best picture I got of them opening it. It's the old kind where the chair is attached to the desk. It's already seen a lot of use!

This is a popcorn bowl filled with goodies and Toy Story 3 from Grandma R to the kiddos. They popped corn, ate candy, and watched their movie that very morning!

In the afternoon we went over to Laura's house to hang out, see everyone's gifts, play games, eat food, and generally be merry. I feel very blessed to be able to spend time with my family and make these wonderful memories.

I will mention that two of my favorite presents this year came from my Mom and Joel's Mom. My Mom gave all of her girls a book about herself. It was one of those books that has one question for each day of the year; things like "Did you have a nickname when you were little?" and other fun things. It is great to have a book filled with her memories, and get to know things about her that I didn't know before.

From Joel's Mom we got a DVD with the Robertson Family home videos. We are so excited to have these videos for ourselves, and in a format that will hopefully last a little better than the VHS. We've already watched the videos, some more than once, and I know we will treasure them for the rest of our lives.

Thank you to our families for making Christmas wonderful. We love you all!

Cookies

2010-12-29T18:54:00.004-07:00

On the Thursday before Christmas my sister, Laura, invited us over to her house so all the cousins could decorate some sugar cookies. We had many cameras clicking to document the occasion, and here are a few from my camera.

I never could get all three of them to look at me at the same time.

There actually is a cookie under all of those sprinkles.

We had a great time! After the kids did their cookies, the adults sat down and decorated a few of our own. I think we all had a sugar rush that day.

Holidays

2010-12-29T18:50:00.003-07:00

I had to take a picture of the kids before church a few weeks ago because they all looked so great! Such a beautiful girl, and handsome boys.

We had our ward Christmas party a few weeks ago as well. Jenna didn't want a picture on Santa's lap, but the boys were good sports. :)

Adam's Birthday

2010-12-03T13:59:00.003-07:00

On Monday, November 29th, my baby turned three! Because his birthday was the day after we got home from our long trip we kept things pretty low key. We opened presents, sang happy birthday, Adam blew out candles, and then we watched "How to Train Your Dragon" which Adam got for his birthday. While we watched we snacked on Adam's "cake", which was actually scotcheroos.

Adam knows that he's three now, and he loves to hold up his fingers and say "Three!!!" when you ask how old he is. He's a wonderful, mischievous boy and we absolutely love him to pieces! He keeps us guessing and he keeps us laughing. It's hard to believe he's already a big three year old. We love you, Adam!!!!!!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-02T09:20:00.006-07:00

This post is a little late, but better late than never, right?

Joel had an entire week off for Thanksgiving vacation, so we took advantage, took the kids out of school, and headed to Wyoming! I think it will be easiest to break this trip down day by day, so here goes...

Friday, Nov. 19- Joel took his last final Friday morning, and as soon as he got home we finished packing the car and took off! We stopped in Payson to buy some drugs for Jenna- she was feeling car sick. We ended up getting an antihistamine that would just put her to sleep. She was fine after that. The driving that day went off without a hitch. We spent 12 hours in the car and made it to Pueblo, CO where we stayed in a Comfort Inn for the night.

Saturday- We got up early and headed to Laramie! The roads were good, even between Cheyenne and Laramie, and we made it into town around 12:30. It was great finally coming back to Laramie! We stayed with the Bade's, so we were assured a good time! :)

Saturday evening Sarah and I went out to dinner at Sweet Melissa's while the men took the kids to a basketball game. We sure did enjoy our artichoke dip appetizer, falafel pitas, and even dessert. We talked and ate until they started to close! When they were putting chairs upside down on tables, we thought it might be time to get the check. :) Four hour dinners are the best!

We asked our waitress to take our picture. She warned us that she was "camera phone challenged" or something like that. She wasn't kidding...

So outside we tried to take our own picture. That didn't work out so well...

Sunday- We went to church with the Bades, which was also our old ward. It was great seeing so many people we knew! It was almost like we had never left. That afternoon we hung out, worked on dinner, made some snacks, kids napped, watched some football, etc. That night after the kids went to bed we played some Super Mario Brothers, about gave Chad a few heart attacks, and after the boys went to bed Sarah and I stayed up chatting until 2.

Monday- Joel and I ran a few errands around town and did some more hanging out. Sarah and I did some shopping at Maurice's. I got a pair of jeans and a dress, which was a small miracle. Thank you, Sarah, for talking me into it! (This is us being cute right before we went shopping.)

We were hanging out drinking pumpkin pie shakes (yum!), and Sarah kept snapping pictures when I wasn't ready. This is my "I wasn't ready!" face...

I was prepared for this one. :)

Monday night we went to Corona Village and stuffed ourselves! We missed you, Corona! Oh, it was so tasty. (I didn't eat all of that in one sitting! But I did get through about half of it!)

Tuesday- We were so, so sad to have to leave Laramie. It was hard saying goodbye again. After that we headed up to the Lovell area. The roads between Laramie and Casper were pretty snow/ice covered, but after Casper it got better. Once we hit the Basin the temp started dropping and didn't stop! Man was it cold! We stayed with Brenda and Roland in Cowley, and we unpacked as quickly as we could and did our best to stay inside!

Wednesday- It was -16 degrees when we woke up, so we spent the day inside. We all played some Wii Fit, but the kids especially had a great time with it. I helped Brenda with pies, and we generally had a nice time laying low and relaxing.

Thursday- Thanksgiving! Yay! We had a full day ahead of us, literally. First we headed to Joel's Aunt Marianne's house for dinner with the Robertson clan. The food was great, and the company was great. We enjoyed seeing and talking with everyone.

Marianne's house- we are obviously engrossed in something. :) Not the best picture of Joel and I. ;) (I'm holding our nephew, Kelvin)

At 4 we headed up to Joel's Grandma Asay's house for dinner with Brenda and Roland, two of Roland's kids and their families, as well as Devin and his family. Of course, the food was great again, and we were getting quite stuffed! I took a little power nap on the couch and I think that helped quite a bit!

At 6 we went to my Uncle Brian's house and had pie with the Dicksons. Again, it was great to see family that I haven't seen in awhile. We had some delicious pie and some great conversation.

Friday- Joel's Grandma Flash reserved the church gym, so we got together to play basketball and games. I lost at Boggle, and Joel had a good time playing ball. (I had a good time losing at Boggle, too.) I even shot around with Joel for awhile, and that was fun. That night I wrapped the first Christmas presents of the season, which is always fun. :)

Saturday- We were up bright and early to hit the road. We made it to Orem, UT with no problems. The roads weren't bad at all and we made good time. We stayed with my sister, Adrienne, which is always a party. She fed us some delicious dinner, which was much needed after the day in the car. We stayed up chatting, as always, but not too late.

Sunday- We woke up to a few inches of snow on the ground, and the white stuff was still falling. Yuck. We were in the car by 8, and the roads were treacherous. All of Utah was pretty bad (along our route). We decided to stay on the interstate and go to Vegas. After St. George the roads got better. We got slowed down before the Hoover Dam- there was a lot of traffic! We also got stopped about an hour or so from Phoenix because of a car accident. We had to wait for about an hour, but after that we were on our way. We made it home around 10:15. It was a long day in the car!

The kids did amazing with all of the driving. We are blessed to have good travelers. The entire trip was really a whole lot of fun, but went entirely too fast. We are so blessed to have good friends and good family. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week! Thank you to everyone who made it so great!

p.s. I didn't take as many pictures as I intended. There are some pictures from Sarah and Brenda that I still want to add, but I'll have to do wait until I get them. :)

*update- got the pictures from Sarah. Now I need to ask Brenda for hers!

Happy Birthday, Joel

2010-11-17T20:47:00.003-07:00

We didn't see a whole lot of Joel today because he was at school studying and taking tests for most of the day. But when he did get home we promptly opened presents and cards and sang Happy Birthday!

Here he is with his "cake". Joel doesn't like cake all that much, and when I asked him what kind of cake (or brownies, or cheesecake, or pie) he wanted this year he replied something like, "Nothing." Well, we weren't going to stand for that, so we made rice crispy treats.

He needed help with his candles...

Happy Birthday, Joel! We love you!

Halloween!

2010-11-01T11:31:00.004-06:00

We started out our Halloween festivities by carving pumpkins on Monday for Family Home Evening. Joel and I bought pumpkins for ourselves, but we didn't end up carving them because it was getting late. We did help the kids do theirs, though.

Will decided to do a small pumpkin, and we learned that it's a little trickier to clean them out, especially when I don't cut the hole in the top big enough to get my hand inside it. :) Thankfully my husband is pretty much an expert pumpkin cleaner outer, so no worries! Will drew the picture he wanted right on his pumpkin and I helped him carve it.
Adam just colored on his pumpkin. Then he had a good time carrying it around with him for the rest of the night.

Joel helped Jenna carve hers and it looked pretty cool all lit up; not that you can tell in this picture.

And I just included this one because I think Adam is super cute.

Saturday was full of Halloween fun. Jenna and Will got to go to a birthday party for our neighbor and friend. They wore their costumes and had a spooky good time!

Saturday evening we went to our ward trunk-or-treat party. They served dinner, had games (Joel was a champ helping out with the cake walk), a haunted house, and then the trunk-or-treat. Here are the kiddos before we headed out...

Jenna was a monster, Adam was Superboy, and Will was a doctor.

Jenna looks unenthused on purpose: it wouldn't do for a monster to look happy.

With some help from my sister, Mary, I made Will's scrubs. With no pattern, may I add. I am far from an expert seamstress, and I'm extremely pleased with how they turned out. I don't know about you, but I would definitely take medical advise from such a handsome doctor!

Here you can see Jenna's scary monster spines.

We had a lovely time at the ward party. Joel walked around with the kids while I handed out candy. After they were gone for a little while, Will suddenly appeared back at the van and said, "I think I have enough candy. Dad said I could come sit with you." So he chilled with me in the back of the van and helped me hand out candy. It was great!

The kids got a lot of compliments on their costumes. We saw some pretty cool and crazy costumes! The most impressive was probably the guy dressed up as the Mad Hatter (from the new Alice in Wonderland). His wife was the rabbit, and their daughter was Alice. There was also a guy who was a youtube video, entitled "This is was awesome is..." or something like that. There were at least 5 pairs of Mario and Luigi, and two other little supermen that were about the same size as Adam. Thankfully we brought home the right superhero.

We had a very Happy Halloween!

Happy Happy Birthday, William, Dear

2010-10-19T14:29:00.002-06:00

Yesterday our little (or not so little) William turned six years old! I definitely can't believe how fast he's growing up! He got a pretty cool crown at school.

Will was lucky enough to have a lot of family come over to celebrate his birthday with him! Not only our family here in the valley, but Grandma and Grandpa K as well as Aunt Cindy. Our house was full and we loved it!

Will was excited to finally get to rip into his presents. Here he is reading his card from Grandma R...

Joel and I decided to get Will his own atlas. Joel's is getting a little beat up. Will takes pretty good care of it, but then he'll leave it down on the floor and Adam will mess with it. So we are hoping that if Will has his own, Joel's atlas will last a little longer. I think Will likes it...

He also got a new (to him) bike! He's going to have to learn to ride with no training wheels (it's a little late, I know, but we haven't had a working bike that was his size for a few years, so he just rode his scooter).

He got a lot of other super cool presents! He hasn't even had a chance to really play with a lot of them, so I'm sure that's what he'll do as soon as he gets home from school today. :)

After presents we did cake and ice cream. Unfortunately I got a little ahead of myself and started cutting the cake before we did candles and sang happy birthday! Oops! But I will say that out family does one heck of a rendition of the Birthday Song! William has probably not had such a wonderful, boisterous, harmonized, energetic version of Happy Birthday sung to him in his life. I love my family!

After the food (a chocolate bundt cake, a pumpkin cheesecake, caramel turtle cheesecake Blue Bell ice cream, and regular chocolate and vanilla Blue Bell ice cream) Joel and Will got right down to business. :)

Enjoying one another's company...

Aunt Cindy and the birthday boy

There are a lot of wonderful things about William! He is definitely smart, and he continually amazes us with the things he knows. He likes to joke around and tease, and he's always making us laugh. He is one of the best cuddlers I know; I love his hugs and kisses. He loves to play with Jenna AND Adam, and even though he tortures him sometimes (and a lot of the time Adam deserves it) they still have a lot of fun together. We are so blessed to have William in our family!

Long time no post

2010-10-13T14:25:00.004-06:00

I haven't posted in over a month! But I have a good reason: there hasn't really been anything going on with us. :) But I've found a few things to blog about. First is the kids' school pictures. I will say that I'm not overly impressed by them, but they aren't bad. We didn't get to pick out background color or pose or anything like that. I think Will looks super cute, as always. I think Jenna's picture is okay, but it doesn't entirely look like her. She thinks her face looks crooked, and I see what she means. On top of that they did pictures after recess, so her hair was a little messed up. What I'm getting at is that the picture didn't capture was a gorgeous girl she is! (Although that's not shocking for school pics, eh?)

This week the kids have fall break; an entire week with no school! We started the week off with a new haircut for Jenna on Monday. This was her first "real" haircut; I've done all of her cuts before this. It was fun to watch her get it cut. She looked like such a little lady. She's got a cute little bob with some layers.

Yesterday we went to an indoor amusement park. A friend gave us a tip and we were able to get $1 wristbands for everyone! The kids had fun riding all the rides and playing in the giant play area. Joel and I rode a few rides with the kids, as well. Will was even a trooper and wasn't scared about going on any of the rides. (A few years ago he rode one ride at the carnival and they had to stop it because he was screaming his head off.) They had a great time!

For some reason we weren't able to get any good pictures from Joel's phone (I forgot the real camera), and we tried to take a few of the kids while they were on the rides, but they were moving too fast!

Here you can kind of see Jenna's new haircut! Fun!

Hangin' out with the hippo.
I got Will to hold still just long enough to snap this one.
Adam wouldn't go down to slide, so Joel was trying to coax him down. A nice shot, right?

Finally Joel made Jenna just push Adam down the slide! Aren't we nice parents!? He didn't mind too much once he got to the bottom.
I think the kids are enjoying their fall break and all of the playing they are doing. Next week we get to look forward to seeing some family from out of town AND William's birthday! We can't wait!

We got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. A manila envelope from the Army. I'll admit, I had a little "yikes" moment like I do when we get anything official looking from the Army. Last month- September 11th, to be exact- Joel's obligation to the Army was done. Finished. The End. But I didn't feel as relieved as I thought I would on that day. I realized that it was because I knew he was done, and Joel knew he was done, but I wasn't positive that the Army knew he was done. Let's face it, there is a lot of paperwork involved in anything dealing with the government, and plenty of room for error. I was still worried that next week or next month we would get some letter or phone call saying "Joel, you're being deployed again." And we would say, "But he's done!" and they would say, "No he's not."

So imagine my relief when I opened the manila envelope to find this...

There it is, in writing! Joel is honorably discharged from the Army National Guard! I know that Joel felt bittersweet about it, but my only emotion was pure, unadulterated relief. I don't regret Joel's time in the NG, and I know he doesn't either. They paid for his college degree, and both of us learned a lot in that year he was deployed. But that doesn't mean I want to repeat it! Knowing that that dreaded phone call or letter won't come is such a wonderful feeling!

Just Stuff

2010-09-07T13:39:00.004-06:00

I just thought I'd mention a few of the things we've been up to lately. There's not much to report, really.

Joel and I enjoyed his three week break. The weekend before he had to go back to school we were able to go watch AVATAR in 3D IMAX. It was pretty cool! Neither of us have seen a 3D movie before. I was pretty excited that they re-released Avatar in theaters because I missed it the first time around. I also really enjoyed the extra scenes they put in.

I had to snap a few pictures of Will at his new favorite pass time...

About a month ago we got these maps at Costco and hung them up. That really made our house feel like home because we had maps in our old apartment, but they were getting pretty hashed so Joel threw them away when we moved. Will has been studying these maps (mostly the world map) so much in the last few weeks! As you can see he usually pulls over the bench from the table so he can read the names of the countries. He likes to look at a flag, read the name of the country, then find the country on the map.

Adam and I have been enjoying our quiet days together. It's amazing how quiet it is without Joel, Jenna, and Will. It's a good opportunity to get things done; shopping has become much easier.

I know that's not too exciting, but those are a few things that have been going on at our house!

Baptism Day

2010-08-17T17:58:00.003-06:00

I believe I mentioned in my last post that Jenna turned eight years old on Sunday, the 8th. Here's a picture of her with her ice cream cake.

Last Saturday, the 14th, Jenna had the opportunity to be baptized. We were so proud of the good decision she made, and we are so happy for our big girl. We were blessed to have our family come to town for the occasion. Joel's Mom, Brenda, and sister Erin flew in on Thursday morning along with my Mom. My sister Adrienne flew in Thursday as well, and my sister Cindy drove into town Thursday evening. Brenda's husband Roland was able to fly in Friday night, as well. And of course, my other four sisters already live in the valley. My cousin Kristin and her family were also able to come to the baptism.

Saturday was a beautiful day with the baptism in the morning. They do Stake baptisms here, so we didn't do anything for the program. But there were some nice talks and musical numbers. It was so special to watch Joel baptize and confirm Jenna. I cried more than once, and I think we all felt the Spirit strongly.

Here is Jenna before heading to the church...

Daddy and daughter...

Proud parents...

In their whites...

After the baptism we all came back to our house for a delicious brunch, starring Brenda's cinnamon rolls. Thanks Bren! Jenna got some wonderful presents, and she had a blast opening them, as always. One thing she got from Joel and I was a new scripture bag and a quad with her name on the front. She was really excited to have new, fancy scriptures. She has also really enjoyed ALL of the presents she received that day. She is a very lucky and loved girl!

And since all of us sisters were in one place at one time and even dressed up, we decided it would be a great time to get some group pictures. Aren't we cute!?!

And one with our beautiful Mother.

It was so wonderful to spend a nice weekend with our family. And it was even more special for our little girl to take such a big, important step in her life. We love you, Jenna!

First Day of School

2010-08-11T19:47:00.002-06:00

Jenna and Will had their first day of school today! Last Monday Will had his Kindergarten roundup where they did a mini screening with the kids, and showed the parents around the school a little. Yesterday evening was the Meet the Teacher Open House, and that was the first time that all of us were able to really get into the school and see what was where. It's a large school with a lot of kids.

Jenna has been excited for school, but I think she got really nervous after the open house. She was less sure that she wanted to ride the bus to school, and she asked if school would be as busy/crowded as the open house. I tried to assuage her fears, but I'm sure it hasn't helped that I've been voicing my concerns about the bus and a large school for a few weeks now. She obviously picked up on all of that.

It was great to meet both Jenna's and Will's teachers; they both seemed like nice, competent teachers. We also dropped off our MANY supplies, which took two trips to bring in! They weren't joking around when they wrote the school supply lists.

We were up and ready in plenty of time this morning with little hassle and no drama. We walked just down the road to the bus stop, where we saw a few people we know from the ward. We chatted about the bus and I asked the Mom if they'd had any problems. It's nice to have people to take to about our concerns. We had to hang around the bus stop for awhile (probably not as long as it seemed), but when the bus pulled up both kids ran and got on without so much as a goodbye! I wanted to get a picture of them getting on, but I wasn't fast enough.

Here are the boys on the way to the bus stop. Adam wore his backpack, too. He was a little sad that he didn't get to go to school.

Jenna was leading the way.

Waitin on the curb.

And... on the bus.

Joel and I got a lot done while they were gone. We even had a long, productive trip to Costco, and at the end we weren't pulling our hair out. Wonderful! I tried not to think about the kids too much because when I did, I worried. Did Jenna find where she needed to go? Did she find anyone she knew on the playground? Is Will eating his lunch, or is it all going to be there when he gets home? Are they having fun? Are people being nice to them? So... I tried not to think about it.

When it was time for them to come home Joel and I waited at the bus stop. The bus was a little late, which feels a lot late in the afternoon sun. :) But I found some shade to stand in so it wasn't that bad. Of course I had worried that they hadn't gotten on the right bus, or that they had gotten off at a different stop. My worries were unfounded; they were both on the bus, they saw us when the bus pulled up, and they got off the bus with big smiles.

They had both had a wonderful, fun day. No one got lost, they ate their lunches, they had no trouble finding anything, and the other kids were nice. They both really enjoyed the bus ride, which was a big relief to everyone!

A few other things that have happened that I haven't blogged about: Adam got his cast off on the 5th. The fractures are healed (he did have a fracture on his fifth metatarsal as well as the third). He has to wear sturdy shoes most of the time for the next week, equaling two weeks after the cast came off. He limps a little now and then, but he doesn't complain of any pain.

Jenna's birthday was on Sunday, the 8th. We didn't do much to celebrate because she chose to celebrate this coming Saturday on her baptism day. We did do cake and sung Happy Birthday. I can't believe she's eight years old!

We are looking forward to seeing all the family coming into town this weekend for the baptism! Everyone's rolling in tomorrow, and we can't wait!

Cast

2010-07-20T14:24:00.002-06:00

Here we have Adam in his cast...

This is what his cast looks like now...

I had to take him back to the orthopaedics office yesterday to get a new cast. A lot of the lining/padding under the cast had come out, so now he has a bright green cast instead of a blue one. 16 more days.

Long Weekend

2010-07-13T10:29:00.003-06:00

Joel had midterms last week, which he finished on Thursday afternoon, so he had Friday off! He didn't have any new material to study, so we actually had a nice long weekend with Joel. We decided to go to a movie and then dinner on Thursday. It was great to go on a date with the hubs; it's been awhile since we've been able to really spend any time with each other. And thank you to my sister and her husband for watching our kids for us!

We went to see Robin Hood-the new one with Russel Crow. I would recommend it. I'm always a fan of Russel Crow, especially when he's being tough and kicking some tush. (Now might be the time to mention that Gladiator is one of my favorite movies) After the movie we went to Texas Roadhouse for some grub. While we were eating, a guy came over and asked us if we might want a balloon flower. Strange? Joel told him yes, and here is my lovely rose...

We spent part of our free time this weekend writing talks, because we were asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. We also watched a lot of movies- some good, some not so good. On Saturday evening I had run to the mall because I needed a new shirt to wear on Sunday. Right when I got there Joel called me and said, "I think Adam broke his foot." I thought maybe he wasn't being serious at first, but he was. Adam had jumped off of Jenna's bed and landed strangely. We've had other broken bone scares, so we decided to give him some ibuprofen and keep him off of it for a bit, and if it still hurt we would take him in for an x-ray.

By the time I got home he was still in pain, and even if he was distracted and you just touched his foot he would scream. So Joel took him to a nighttime pediatric urgent care facility for some x-rays, and low and behold, he has a small fracture in his third metatarsal. It's hard to see in the x-ray below, but if you click on it to enlarge it you can see the fracture.

They put him in a splint, and we need to get him casted at the end of the week. That brings up a whole other can of worms that has to do with insurance that I won't get into. I'll just say it is beyond frustrating, and we've already spent more money on this broken foot than on everything involved with his burn.

Adam is doing fine and he doesn't seem to be in much pain anymore. He can't walk, so he scoots around on his bum or crawls when he isn't being carried. I am really praying that he will be done getting hurt soon! If he keeps up at this pace, we will be in big trouble.

p.s. Our talks in church went well, and we also got callings. We will be teaching the Valiant 8 class together. :)

Confession

2010-06-30T13:24:00.003-06:00

I don't think I've ever actually admitted this on my blog, although most of you surely know. My name is Sarah, and I am a Twihard.

It all started in November of 2008. A friend of mine was having a "Twilight" party; dinner at her house, then to the movie. I decided to go, although I didn't really want to see the movie. I hadn't read the books, and the commercials for the movie gave me the impression that it was not something I would be interested in. But I wanted to go hang out and have fun, so I went to the party for that reason.

I enjoyed the movie, even though I hadn't read the book. I think I may have actually enjoyed it MORE because I hadn't read it, so I didn't see all of the flaws in it. I liked it enough, and was intrigued by the characters enough, that I decided I had better read the books. I devoured them in no time, and loved every minute of it. Of course then I had to see the movie again, and then I saw all that was wrong with the movie (although I still liked it).

That's where the story begins. November of 2009 I went to my first midnight show to see New Moon, and I liked it much better than Twilight.

Last night my sisters Mary and Amy and I went to Eclipse in IMAX. They picked me up and we headed over to the theater to see how long the line was. The lady told us it wasn't very long, so we went to Walmart for snacks, then Rubio's for some quick dinner (and it was quite tasty). From there is was time to just wait in line. We entertained ourselves with playing some Phase 10 for awhile, and then decided to grab some Bahama Bucks. Mary and I ran over and got some while Amy held our place in line. Let me just say, it was YUMMY!

Above: Amy with her ticket, very excited!

Below: Hanging out on the floor of the lobby. There was no way we were standing for two and a half hours.

We were happy to be moving when they opened the theater at 11, and we got pretty decent seats. Not long after we got in the power went out, and I'll admit I was a little worried. It came on soon after, though, so I figured there wouldn't be a problem. In the meantime someone had blown up a beach ball and people were tossing it about, throwing it around the crowd. Some people weren't so amused, and it ended up that a lady right behind us took the ball and put it down by her legs. (I didn't mind, the people playing with the ball were pretty obnoxious). Some girl came to get it from her and just stood there, right in front of her (and behind me) for a couple of minutes. The lady that took the ball didn't even acknowledge her! I was uncomfortable just being near the situation! After a few minutes the girl gave up and went away, and then a different person got up and took the ball out. The whole time there were shouts of "give it back!", and "beach ball, beach ball!" A bunch of people booed when the girl took the ball out, and some cheered. Whew, it was too much tension for my taste!

At midnight we expected the previews to come on, but no luck. After 15 minutes I wend out to ask an incredibly uninformed theater employee what was going on. He didn't know. Apparently when the power went out it messed something up, so they were trying to fix it. At 12:20 the movie finally started, and the potentially angry mob was appeased.

About the movie, I will simply say that I enjoyed it immensely. I thought it was definitely the best so far, and they did a good job with the amount of time they had to work with.

So now you have it; my confession. I like Twilight. I love Twilight. The books are delectable pieces of words, ready for devouring. I will not be ashamed. :)

P.S. I just want you all to know that while I am a fan, I am NOT the fan with the Edward shirt, and the Jacob bag, and all that other paraphernalia. I was one of the normal looking people in line! :)

Not exciting

2010-06-24T10:37:00.003-06:00

Well, we are anything but exciting here. Joel was making fun of me for not posting, but I really just don't have much to post about. So I'm betting this post is going to be a lot of random thoughts and events thrown together. (Don't say you weren't warned)

Things in AZ are going well. We are basically settled in to our house, although there still isn't anything hanging on the walls. Hopefully that will be somewhat taken care of tomorrow. It is definitely hot (duh) but I think we are all getting used to it. I have enjoyed having a Costco card, though I've found it to be quite a dangerous thing. It's so easy to get carried away with all of the great deals. Before you know it you wind up at the register spending triple what you planned.

My sister, Adrienne, came to town last week. I didn't see her as much as I get to when she stays with me (obviously), but all us girls were able to get together often and it was always a blast. The highlights, I thought, were lounging around my sister Laura's room listening to some new music, and watching North & South. (If you haven't seen it, watch it. It's based on the book by Elizabeth Gaskell. BBC is awesome.) Anyway... I also enjoyed the game playing at Rachel's house. And my nephew's birthday party. And swimming. Okay, so I enjoyed it all.

Joel started school last week and he's already crazy busy. When he's not at school he's mostly studying. It's most definitely going to be a busy two years for him, but he will certainly learn a lot.

We've enjoyed the two Sundays that we've gone to our new ward. Everyone we've come in contact with has been very friendly and welcoming. It's a huge ward, and I doubt we'll get to know everyone before we move. We look forward to getting to know people, though, and getting involved in the ward.

Adam is doing well; healing well. We are finally (FINALLY!!!) to a point where he doesn't have any more dressings, of any kind, and all of his skin is closed up. He now just wears his compression shorts. We try to keep him moisturized so the scars will be supple, and so he doesn't itch too much. But we can't keep his skin too moist or he breaks out in red spots (yeast infection). It hasn't been too hard to find that balance, though. We are so pleased with his progress.

I think that pretty much covers it. Next week I am looking forward to seeing my fist IMAX movie with a few of my sistas. It should be a great time, and a late night (or should I say early morning?). Good times. Hopefully I'll remember to snap a few pics so I can post about it. ;)

Goodbye, WY

2010-06-04T16:04:00.004-06:00

Well, we officially live in Arizona now. It is an extremely bittersweet thing, as everyone close to us knows. We love Wyoming, and we love Laramie.

We actually left WY Saturday morning. My sister, Cindy, drove our pick-up down for us, so we were a three-car caravan. We were able to fit all our our belongings is a large yellow Penske truck, but we did fill it up quite full!

Saying goodbye to friends and family on Saturday morning was by far the hardest part of the whole deal. Even though I knew we needed to get on the road, I wanted to keep postponing our departure because I just didn't want to leave! After many tears and many hugs, we did finally pull out of town.

The trip itself went fairly well with little to no problems. We took two days to come down, staying Saturday night in Bernalillo, NM. We got to our new house Sunday evening around 5 and were welcomed by much family. Thanks to them we got the truck unloaded in no time! We also got beds set up and the large things brought into the house.

Everyday since then has been busy with unpacking and the many things that need to be done when one moves. We've gotten internet set up (obviously), registered the kids for school, bought a washer and dryer, and done approximately one million other things that needed done. We are very close to being done with the actual unpacking. We only have a few random boxes that need to be unpacked. There is still organizing and some moving around of things that needs to be done, so we're still keeping busy.

We are enjoying the new house, although is has a few quirks, as all houses do. It's been nice to have a garage, albeit a small one. We can get both cars in it, but there isn't much room to spare. I like that we are on one level; it's saved a lot of leg work. And of course, it's great to not share walls with anyone.

In Adam news, he is doing well and healing wonderfully, overall. We received his burn garment and he's been wearing it at all times, except for bath time. His right leg still has some ulcerations on it that need to heal, but I think those are coming along slowly but surely. His side looks absolutely amazing. Below is a picture Joel took on his phone this morning.

As you can see, there is only one small spot of scab. The parts that look pink in the picture are actually a little darker, for some reason the picture seems to bleach it out a little. The darker pink by the scab is a thicker scar. He's still sensitive on his side, but not as much as he used to be. We have to rub ointments on him every day, and he fights us a little less than he did before.

His donor sites are also looking wonderful. Those are completely healed and they don't bother him at all. As soon as we can get his right leg healed up he will be good to go!

Jenna and Will are also doing well. They've handled the move very well, so far. Jenna was sad when we left Laramie, but I think part of that was her seeing how sad I was. She came with me when I returned the paperwork to her new school for registration, and she was excited about going there. The playground looks fun, and the school looks nice. I think/hope that she and Will both have a good and positive experience at that school.

Joel starts school on the 14th, although orientation is next week. He is definitely nervous about the whole thing, but I know he'll be great. I think he'll be happy to get back to school and back to learning. I'm excited for him to start this new phase, and I'm so proud of him for all the work he's done to get here!

Copy

2010-05-26T17:54:00.004-06:00

So, I need to blog about the wonderful weekend I had, but I just haven't had the time. However, my friend Sarah did blog about it, so I'm going to redirect you to her blog to read a brief telling of our wild and crazy time.

Click Here!!!!

Getting back to "normal"

2010-05-12T09:28:00.003-06:00

Ha ha, isn't that a funny title of mine? I guess it's true when you realize that "normal" is a relative term. The reason I used that word is because Adam is now allowed to resume "normal" activity. We are happy about that, though not as happy as he is, I'm sure.

In Denver yesterday we stuck to our normal routine. The nurse took all of the dressings off, then brought the doctor in to look at things. Adam has another yeast infection, so we will stop the lotion massage and start a prescription of Diflucan again. The donor site on his left leg was still very red and looked "yeasty", as the nurse put it. The graft site on his right leg is looking very good, and the thick dressings are a thing of the past.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

You can see the graft site pretty well in this one. Those dark edges throughout are the edges of the donor skin.

The Child life Specialist (a person who comes in with toys, and their job is to distract kids from what the doctors and nurses are doing) brought a game with her yesterday, and Adam thought it was pretty darn cool.

His legs now have pretty simple dressings on: just a large nonstick pad smeared with nystatin (an anti-fungal ointment), and a thin tube of fabric pulled up over his thighs like nylons. He has a bandage on his side to protect it because it's still not healed.

We don't have to go back for two weeks, at which time they will have the compression garment and they will make sure that it fits correctly. Hopefully it will, because we are moving less than a week later.

Jenna and Will

2010-05-08T10:28:00.002-06:00

With all of the Adam hoopla going on, Jen and Will have been a little left out of the blog updates. Okay, a lot left out. Fortunately, they haven't been left out of everyday life! Today they decided they wanted to play "ocean", so they put their swimming suits on and did who knows what upstairs. After awhile they decided they needed some Popsicles. I tried to get a couple of pictures, and these were the best I could manage. :)

Jenna and Will have been troopers over the last month. They have been kind and gentle with Adam (mostly). They are both doing well in school and generally having a good time.

About two weeks ago Jenna got to go to Ft. Collins with her grade at school to watch the Disney movie "Oceans", and they got to go to a restaurant. She was very excited about that part! Jenna also did a project with the help of her Dad. She had to pick an ocean animal that they saw in the movie and do a report on it. Jenna picked sharks. Joel narrowed that down to hammerhead sharks, and they spent a lot of time doing research and writing about the shark. I think they both had a good time doing it, and the report turned out great!

Will has also been doing well in school, although it's harder to get much out of him about what he does at school. His favorite specials are P.E. and music, so Wednesdays are a good day for him! (Both those specials are on Wednesday) The other day I took Will to the store with me to do some grocery shopping and he embarrassed me more than once. :) In the produce section he said, very loudly, "Why does that lady have really big eyes?" I didn't know who he was talking about, and I didn't look around to find out! Then at the check out line he said, "That old lady has a LOT of stuff!" He happened to be talking about the woman in front of us in line. Yes she was old, yes she had a lot of stuff, and yes I was mortified.

They have both been their normal, fun, crazy, interesting, exasperating selves. We love them to death!

And so the story continues...

2010-05-04T16:55:00.004-06:00

Of course, it was back to Denver today. We finally got to take off Adam's dressings; he still had on the same dressings from surgery. They held up very well, especially considering they were on for eight days. I'm sure it helped that we didn't let him do much of anything this week.

It actually took them quite awhile to get us back into an exam room, so Adam made due in the waiting room by scooting around.

Below is the only picture we have of the actual dressing. I'm not sure how we didn't get any good ones, so this is it. As you can see (kind of) his right leg is totally wrapped up, and his left thigh is covered.

The nurse pulled off the DuoDerm on his side and was checking out the progress...

Next it was time to cut off the dressing on the right leg. As soon as the scissors came out Adam got upset. The boy is going to be permanently traumatized by the sight of scissors.

This leg was wrapped in layer...

after layer...

after layer... (and we didn't get pictures of them all).

There is a mesh layer covering the graft area.

Next it was time to unwrap the right leg. There was a large band-aid type covering over the entire area, and it was very painful to take off; that was probably the worst part.

Waiting to be wrapped up again...

After all of the dressings were off Dr. Moulton came to check things out. He was very pleased by the progress, especially of the donor sites. They are healed (by their definition, which varies greatly from my definition). The graft sites also look good, and our goal is to continue to let them heal undisturbed. They left the mesh covering on and just wrapped over it with the new dressing. In the pictures you might be able to see some of the black skin on the edges: that is donor skin that is overlapping good skin. It will just die and fall off.

They measured him for a compression garment today. It should come in in a couple of weeks, and if it fits properly we will order another one. He will wear the burn garment all of the time, they said 23 out of 24 hours in a day. They suggested that he wear it for about a year. He will continue to be fit with new burn garments as he grows. The compression mostly helps with scarring. By keeping things tight the scars will be flatter to the skin and less noticeable.

They didn't dress his left leg (the donor site), and we will do lotion massages on it four times a day to help with healing and scarring. They did a more normal dressing on his right leg -not so many layers- that goes to his knees. We asked the doctor if we should still limit his activity, and he said yes. He seemed quite surprised that Adam was able to walk with the splint on his leg; I don't think he understands this boy's determination. There is no splint now, but Adam has been fairly compliant with our not letting him walk around. Hopefully he'll be able to last out the next week without getting too cranky.

At our appointment next week they will see how things are doing and hopefully remove the dressings for good. We would then continue with lotion massage over the entire burn. Then we'll need to go back to get the burn garment, and hopefully that will fit well. They know that we are moving at the end of this month, and they've been really great with doing things in a way that will work out for us.

Speaking of moving, have a mentioned how stressful it is? We haven't even gotten into the thick of it, and it's already making my head explode. It could be because we're dealing with moving and all of this drama with Adam at the same time. Maybe one day I'll look back on this time and laugh about how crazy things were, but it is not this day. :)

Surgery

2010-04-28T13:03:00.006-06:00

I thought I had better update the blog before I forget details.

Joel and I took Adam down to Denver Monday for his skin graft surgery. My sister, Adrienne, stayed with Jenna and Will and took them to their Dentist appointments in Cheyenne. Thank you, Adrienne!

We got to Denver in more than enough time, and continued to be amazed by the Children's Hospital. They are very efficient, quick, kind, and thoughtful. It's great to be at a hospital that is just for children, because they really think of everything. After we got checked in and taken back to Adam's pre-op room a nurse and NP came to take a look at him. After checking vitals and looking in ears and all that good stuff we pretty much just had to wait until it was time for surgery. They had a great playroom to wait in, and Adam got out some wiggles.

After quite a lot of time in the playroom we were talked to by the anesthesiologist and then Dr. Moulton (the 'head burn guy' and surgeon). Everyone explained things very well so we understood just what they would be doing. Joel and I were both able to go back with Adam to the OR until he fell asleep. He didn't like it when Joel laid him on the operating table, and he really didn't like it when they put the mask on his face to sedate him. But once they put it on he only screamed for maybe 10 seconds before he was out. It was a little hard for me to watch, and after he went out he made squeaking noises like he couldn't breath. I didn't like that at all, and I asked them what it was. They just said, "That's normal, sometimes they squeak a little." Then we had to give him a kiss and leave. I didn't like leaving him in the OR, but I knew he was in good hands. The anesthesiologist also gave him a caudal block (which is similar to an epidural) so his bottom half would be numb for awhile after surgery, helping to manage pain.

The surgery went very well. The nurse called us about halfway through to let us know how things were going, and that was much appreciated. They took partial thickness grafts from his left thigh and placed them on his right. Dr. Moulton did a sheet graft, which means he didn't put the donor skin through a contraption that stretches and perforates the skin, he just placed in on the burned areas that needed it. They also cleaned the burn on his torso really well while he was out, so it looks pretty amazing now.

His right leg is now splinted down to the ankle and wrapped tightly. We have to limit his mobility because the last thing we want is for the graft to shift. His left thigh is also wrapped, and they put artificial skin on that area to help it heal. The doctor said that the donor site should heal in 10-14 days, and the graft area should be basically healed in about a week.

Shortly after the surgery we went back to the PACU so we would be there when Adam woke up. Right when we got there he opened his eyes for the first time. He was so out of it he could barely focus his eyes, but it didn't take long for him become a little more alert. We offered him water and juice, but he didn't want either of those. As soon as we mentioned popsicles, however, he was all over that. His appetite showed up as soon as he woke up, which isn't surprising considering he hadn't had any solid food at all that day.

They moved him to a recovery room where he had more popsicles and some crackers. He complained a little about his toes hurting; we assume they were just tingling from the caudal block starting to wear off. Other than that he didn't really complain about pain at all. We only had to be in the recovery room for about 45 minutes and then we were free to go home. We were all excited to get back home!

Above and below: before surgery, just hanging out and waiting.

Above: finally some food!
Below: the first crackers: they seriously improved his mood

It hasn't been all fun and games since we got home. We aren't letting Adam walk anywhere, and he's in plenty of pain, so he is quite cranky. We have a few different meds for pain and others for itching, but he is still uncomfortable and cantankerous quite a bit. He does sleep fine, which is a big relief. He complains much more about his left leg (the donor site) than the right, which makes sense. He also complains about his torso being itchy, and today at the store he scratched so much that he drew some blood. We are trying to keep that under control with ointments and the oral meds.

We go back to Denver on Tuesday and they will change the dressings. I am anxious to see what it looks like, and to see what progress has been made. Hopefully he won't have to be in a splint after that! Adrienne will go home on Saturday and we will be sad to see her go. It has been really nice to have an extra set of hands, especially when Adam needs so much attention.

Verdict

2010-04-23T16:21:00.003-06:00

It was the moment of truth today. We went down to Denver for yet another dressing change for Adam. It was a miracle that we got to the hospital on time and in one piece; the roads were absolutely horrible with snow and rain. It was very stressful, to say the least.

The doctor came in to look at Adam's progress after all the bandages were taken off. They are pleased with the healing on his torso and they will let that continue to heal on its own. However, the large white spots on his leg aren't doing so well. The doctor told us that if we let them continue on their own they will take another 3-4 weeks to heal and will end up as large, raised, red scars. After he let that sink in for a second he told us that his recommendation is to go ahead and graft the leg so it will heal faster and with less scarring.

The surgery is scheduled for Monday afternoon and we will either come home Monday night or Tuesday morning. They will take a partial thickness skin graft from his other leg (meaning they will take all of the epidermis and part of the dermis, but won't get down to hair follicles and sweat glands and all that good stuff). He shouldn't scar too badly on his other leg. They are going to put his leg (the burned one) in a splint for a week. They said he won't be able to walk and we'll have to carry him everywhere; I can guarantee that Adam is going to HATE that!

My sister, Adrienne, is coming over from Utah to help us out with the other kids while Joel and I are in Denver with Adam. I am excited to see her, but not too happy about why she happens to be coming! I did cry a bit when we found out we were doing grafts, but I am feeling much better about it all now. I am focused on the fact that he is going to heal faster this way, and scar less.

They didn't dress his torso today, just his leg. They did put a bandage on the deepest spot on his side (which isn't sticking at all, by the way) because they want it to be open to the air. He's developed a bit of a yeast infection on the burn because it's been so warm and moist for three weeks. They prescribed an anti fungal that Joel is picking up right now, and we are putting anti fungal ointment on the burn instead of antibiotic.

Hopefully we'll be ready for this new endeavor, and I want to thank you all for the love and support we've received over the last three weeks!

Below you can see the area on his torso that was very white last week. Now it is pink and on its way to being healed.

You can see one of the spots on his leg that is going to get a graft. The other spot is on the front, and larger than this one.

The Latest

2010-04-22T11:57:00.002-06:00

We did things a little differently this week. Instead of changing Adam's dressing on Tuesday the burn nurse told us that we could change it Monday and Wednesday if we noticed Adam itching too much. So we went ahead and changed the dressing on Monday, but we forgot to take any pictures. We also decided to try doing it without giving him any Oxycontin; we won't do that again.

We changed him again yesterday and here is a picture of that. His torso is looking so much better, and a lot of the burn is basically healed, just discolored and sensitive. The white spot on his torso that was so concerning on Friday is starting to look better with a lot of pink showing up. His legs are a lot whiter than we would like, and we'll just have to wait and see what the burn team tells us in Denver tomorrow.

In other news, it is my birthday today. Yesterday I got to celebrate a little by hanging out at the Bade's for a ridiculously long time. :) Joel came over after Chad woke up and we played cowboy golf and Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. We were also able to give Adam another blessing.

This morning I opened gifts from the family (thank you, Joel and kids!!!), and tonight Joel and I are going to watch a movie and head to bed early so we can get to Denver in the morning. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

Denver or Bust

2010-04-18T21:10:00.002-06:00

I have seen the beauty of copying e-mails and posting them to the blog; it really saves me some typing! I've copied an e-mail to my sisters about our trip to Denver:

I thought I would write about our Saturday. We had a seriously great day! We took our kids to the Bade's and Chad's mother came over from Cheyenne to watch all six kids (a brave endeavor). We left Laramie around 8:30 and had a great time just riding down to Denver. We definitely don't get to hang out with the Bade's enough without our children. When we got to Denver we stopped at Krispy Kreme for a mid morning snack before hitting the temple. The "Hot & Fresh" sign was on and we all got a free doughnut while we were waiting in line! I did not know that this was something Krispy Kreme did, and boy was I pleasantly surprised. After picking out a dozen donuts (yes, a dozen, for the four of us:), we headed to the temple.

Believe it or not this is the first time Joel and I have ever been to the Denver temple. We know that is pretty lame, but we are happy we were able to finally do it. Sarah and Chad have been there countless times so it was great for Joel and I to both have a guide. :) We had planned this temple trip weeks ago and were really happy to be able to still do it after Adam was burned. We were worried about leaving him all day, but after seeing how great he was doing we knew he would be okay. We also knew it was important for us to get to the temple, especially now.

While sitting in the chapel waiting for the next session to start I grabbed a BOM and decided to flip open to a random page. Of course I had been thinking about Adam. I flipped open to Jacob and picked a verse. I saw that it was talking about the allegory of the olive tree and I almost flipped to a different page, thinking, "this isn't what I want to read about." But I decided that maybe I had picked that page and that verse for a reason, so I read the verse all the way through. It said, "Take thou the branches of the wild olive-tree and graft them in, in the stead thereof; and these which I have plucked off I will cast into the fire and burn them, that they may not cumber the ground of my vineyard." (Jacob 5:9) Of course I cried a little bit because what was the chance that I would pick a verse in the whole book that used the word "graft" when I was coming to pray that my son wouldn't need skin grafts. I had hoped that while I was there I would feel an assurance that he wouldn't need the grafts, but that didn't happen. Starting with that scripture I felt that he really might need the grafts, and that what Joel and I need to do is have faith that the Lord will take care of him and to just do our best with what comes our way.

Soon after that a man (a VERY tall man) came and asked Joel and I if we would like to be the witness couple. We've never done that before so we were not sure if we should even say yes, but Sarah assured me we would be fine (her and Chad have been the witness couple many many times), so we followed him and just did what he said! :) Really it was a fun thing to do and a neat experience. It turned out not to be scary at all, as I'm sure some of you must know because I'm sure some of you have done it before!

After the session, and buying a few garments, we headed out to lunch at P.F. Chang's. Joel and I had never been there, but man was it good. Have any of you been? Have you tried the lettuce wraps? They were so good that I could have licked the plate clean. After the meal we got our fortune cookies, and the message in mine seriously made me tear up. It said: "You will receive unexpected support over the next week. Accept it graciously." Who knew a fortune cookie could make you cry in the middle of a crowded Chinese restaurant? Well, it was a great message.

The drive home was a blast, of course, with lots of laughing, joking, teasing, Sarah cringing at Chad's driving, and eating more donuts. Good times. :) We got back to Laramie a little after 6 and our kids were great! Chad's Mom said that they had behaved themselves and Adam only cried for me when it was time for him to take a nap, but of course he quieted down after a minute or two. They didn't want to leave when it was time to go home. I could understand their sentiment.

We had such a great time, I am hoping that we will be able to get one more trip in before we move to Mesa.

At The Chang Man's house

On the way home...

More Stuff

2010-04-16T15:54:00.003-06:00

As I'm sure you all know we went down to Denver again today to get Adam's dressing changed. He did pretty great and didn't cry or complain TOO much.

We were both pleased and displeased with today. In most places his burns look so much better. The spot on his ribcage that was very white before has turned very pink and is healing well. Many of the superficial burns are basically healed. However, there is a white spot on his side that looks a lot whiter than it did before. I'm not sure if that's because it was covered with dead skin before or what, but it now is very white.

When the doctor looked at it he asked how far out we were, we told him it's been 13 days, and he told us that when we got back next Friday they will make the decision about whether to graft or not. He didn't sound confident that they WOULDN'T have to graft, and I didn't like that much. He said that if they did graft they would most likely take the skin from him other thigh. They would do it the following Monday, the 26th.

I am still very hopeful that he will continue to heal and they will decide not to do any grafts. There are many reasons that I don't want him to have to get grafts, some of which include having to be put under general anesthesia, being admitted to the hospital again, and having his other leg hurt. We are praying hard that he will heal on his own, and Joel is going to give him another blessing.

I also asked the doctor about scarring, and he kind of looked at me like I might be crazy and said, "It's going to scar." It makes me sad to think that my baby is going to have permanent marks from this trauma. I hope that they won't be too bad and that it won't effect his self esteem or body image as he grows up. It's hard to imagine his skin being permanently altered from what it looked like just two weeks ago, before all of this happened.

We are lucky to be able to go to the temple tomorrow with some friends and I am looking forward to it so much, especially at this time in our little boy's life.

Bath

2010-04-13T10:06:00.002-06:00

I'm sorry if I am going overboard with the pictures. I'm sure everyone is tired (or grossed out) of seeing pictures of Adam's burn. But just to warn you, I will most likely be posting pictures of his burn after every dressing change so that I am record his progress. So I apologize in advance.

We were able to change his dressing at home today. They told us to give him a bath, as well. We were nervous about it, but Adam did great. He didn't complain too much when we took the dressings off, which was probably the worst part in Denver. I think it's because Joel and I were a little more gentle than they are (they are used to doing it, and we don't like to hurt our baby). A lot of dead skin came off in the tub, like they said it would.

We put the new dressing on with Adam standing on the kitchen table. We tried to work quickly, and I don't think we took too much longer than the pros down in Denver, but Adam was definitely tired of the whole thing by the time we got done.

He is looking better each time, which is so great. We are basically back to our "normal" schedule, aside from the dressings changes and continued giving of pain medication. He sleeps normally, plays normally, eats normally, and even the diaper changes are back to normal. Only the young could rebound so quickly, I'm convinced.

Dressing Change

2010-04-09T16:42:00.006-06:00

As I mentioned, we went back down to Denver today to get Adam's dressings changed. They did need it, as they were not covering some parts anymore. He was pretty active over the last few days, although he did slow down a lot from the first day. It was obvious that he was feeling a little stiff and hesitant to move.

Adam didn't have morphine for this dressing change; we gave him some oxycodone 30 minutes before his appointment to try and help with pain. I think the morphine made quite a difference last time, because in some ways it was worse today than it was on Tuesday. We could tell he was in pain, especially as the nurse took his old dressings off. They did stick a bit in some places. After the nurse got everything off we covered him up and she went to get all the supplies ready and tell the doctor that Adam was uncovered.

When the doctor came in he thought it looked better than last time. He said very confidently that his leg would heal completely on his own, and he thought all of his torso would as well. As the nurse redressed him, she gave us instructions on how to do it because Joel and I will be changing it next Tuesday at home. We also are supposed to put him in the bath when we change him. We are a little hesitant about that, but they reassured us that the water would sting at first but then would feel good. They sent us home with all of the supplies for changing, so we'll see if we can manage it next week. We do have to go back to Denver on Friday so they can change it there and see how it's healing.

Overall it wasn't too bad, but it was definitely hard to experience again. I hope that the dressings changes will get better (a lot better) as things heal.

Here we are, waiting for the doctor to come in.

The uppermost part of the burn that has the white color to it is the deepest area. If you click on the picture to make it larger you may be able to see the reddish dots, which is called "budding". It is the new skin beginning to grow.

A few more pics

2010-04-08T11:52:00.002-06:00

Adam is holding the remote, which had a speaker in it. He really liked to hear his movies.
This was not long after we got home on Tuesday.

Jenna, Will, and Grandma made signs for Adam.

Adam is doing well, although he's being a little more cautious and hesitant in his movement. I think the high of being home is wearing off and the pain is winning out a little. We are going back down to Denver tomorrow for a dressing change; wish us luck, Adam doesn't get morphine this time.

Pictures of Adam

2010-04-07T16:58:00.004-06:00

Above and below: In the ER in Laramie

Below: ER in Denver

Below: In his room

He always wanted hugs, which consisted of him tightly wrapping his arm around my neck. I loved it.

A nice juice box: we gave him as many as he would take.

Physical Therapy

Standing by the window, enjoying being out of bed.

First dressing change and dibridment

After getting the new dressing.

Adam

2010-04-05T13:32:00.006-06:00

This post is going to be quite a mish mash. First I tried to just copy and paste some e-mails that I sent to my family, but I couldn't get it to work, so I began writing out our story from the beginning. Then I had a friend tell me how to make the e-mail work. I am including both what I started writing, and the e-mails. Sorry about the overlap, and sorry about how incredibly long it's going to be.

Here's what I started writing this morning:

I was trying to avoid having to write this post. I tried to copy and paste some e-mails that I sent to my family so I wouldn't have to re-tell everything, but it won't let me do that. So, as a warning, this post is going to be extremely long and detailed for record keeping purposes, I'm sure I will forget a lot of it very quickly. I will post pictures next.

Saturday evening Joel went to the Priesthood Session of General Conference and while he was gone we decided to make some donuts. They were tasty and the kids enjoyed them. After they were done it was time for baths so I unplugged the deep fryer, pushed it back on the counter, and went upstairs with Will to give him a bath.

When I was just finishing up giving Will a bath- he was out of the tub with his towel on- I heard Adam scream. I knew right away that something was seriously wrong, because he wasn't just crying. I could hear that he was definitely hurt, and he was also panicked. I ran downstairs, and about halfway down I just knew that it had to be the oil. I ran into the kitchen at top speed (and of course fell because the floor was covered in oil). Adam was stading there, clothes soaked in hot oil, screaming. I immediately pulled his clothes off and put him in the kitchen sink because I was going to spray him with cool water. I thought at first that maybe it wasn't too bad, the oil had been off for at least ten minutes. and Adam's skin just looked red. But then I saw that his skin started to slough off, spots of blood were appearing on his torso, and over his rubs were strange dark purple marks. I didn't put any water on him because I was afraid that his skin would just come right off and he'd have no defense against the open air. I grabbed my phone and for one split second I thought "Joel, or 911?". Obviously it didn't take me long to make that decision and I called 911 right away.

By this time Jenna had come out of my bedroom where she was watching T.V. She was really worried and sort of freaking out, partially because she could see that Adam was in a lot of pain, and partially because I was freaking out. I was trying to hold it together on the phone with the dispatcher, but Adam's skin was starting to blister and look worse. After I gave her the info and she said an ambulance was on the way I hung up with her and called Joel. Eventually he answered (he had to get to a place where he could answer) and he came home quickly. He got here less than a minute after the paramedics.

They had me wrap Adam in large sterile pads and carry him out to the ambulance. I was still trying to hold things together. It was hard to see my baby in so much pain, and once the paramedics got there and they were supposed to take care of things it's hard to stay strong. I'm not sure if any of you have experienced something similar, but it feels like you should be able to put some of the burden on them, and that's when the tears start flowing. At least for me.

Anyway, we rode to the hospital in the ambulance, and in the E.R. they put in an I.V. and started giving him fluids as well as morphine. The E.R. doctor looked at him and told us that they would most likely be sending him to Greeley (where they have a burn center) or Denver Children's Hospital. They estimated that the burn covered 20% of his body.

Joel got to the E.R. shortly after we did, thanks to some neighbors of our that saw the ambulance and came to take care of Jenna and Will. We are so grateful to them for their help in our time of need. Joel called a man from our ward and as soon as we got a chance they gave Adam a preisthood blessing.

We got many calls and texts while we were in the E.R. from people who had found out about what happened and offered their support. It meant so much to us to see what great freinds and family we have. I called my friend Sarah to tell her what happened and she immediately came over from Cheyenne to get my kids. I knew they would be in good hands with her family, and that they would be comfortable with them. We have wonderful friends.

After the doctor made some phone calls we found out that we were going to Denver Children's. We found out later that it was because the burn center in Greeley didn't have a pediatric anesthesiologist on hand and they weren't sure if Adam would need surgery. Adam's pediatrician happened to be in the hospital at the time so she came down to see us. She figured that they would fly us, either helicopter or fixed wing. When we found out that we would be going down in the ambulance she was pretty surprised. I didn't know enough to be surprised, I just wasn't looking forward to Adam having to make that long trip.

We decided that I would ride down with him; he was still on my lap and he didn't want to move at all. I did have to hand him off to Joel for a minute while I used the bathroom before the trip, and that was hard for all of us. Of course, any movement at all was quite painful to him, even with the morphine.

So I rode in the ambulance and Joel drove down after packing a few things that we might need while we were down there, since we didn't know how long we would need to stay. The ride in the ambulance wasn't fun at all. The I.V. pump stopped working and the EMT didn't know how to fix it because they don't use IV pumps. After some phone calls he eventually just set the pump aside and did it himself, trying to keep a steady drip at the right speed while in the back of a moving vehicle. The temp in the back of the ambulance was a little crazy, up and down. This was furstrating to me since burn victims have a difficult time regulating body temp and Adam was going back and forth between cold and clammy and sweating heavily.

Eventually we made it to Denver where we were admitted through the Emergency Room. They gave him more morphine and put on a temporary saline gauze dressing.

Here is where the e-mails begin:

Instead of writing about what has been our life for the last three days I am just copying some e-mails that I sent to my family:

So you may all have heard by now that our little Adam had a bit of an accident. Last night (Saturday night) he knocked over some hot oil on himself and was burned pretty bad. Joel was gone to the priesthood session, so the first thing I did was take off Adam's clothes and call 911. I thought for a moment that he might be alright because he was just red, but then I saw his skin begin to slough off. Joel rushed home when I called him and he got there shortly after the paramedics.

Adam and I rode to the hospital. When we got there they put in an I.V. and gave him fluids and some morphine. He was sitting/laying on my lap and he didn't want to go anywhere. I didn't want him to go anywhere, either, of course. It hurt him very much just to move, so we did as little jostling as possible. He is burned over the right side of his torso and about half of his right thigh and up his hip is also pretty badly burned. Luckily he isn't burned on his face, hands, or genitals, so we dodged a lot of bullets right there. Joel called a guy from our ward and he came so they could give Adam a blessing.

The E.R. doctor looked at him and decided that they needed to send him either to Greeley or Denver because they couldn't quite deal with this kind of burn on someone so small. After calling Greeley, where there is a burn center, they decided to send him to Denver Children's because Greeley didn't have a pediatric anesthesiologist on hand and they didn't know if he would need surgery.

They sent us in the ambulance, and our pediatrician who happened to be in the hospital at the time was pretty surprised. She thought they would fly him, either helicopter or plane, but they didn't. Even the EMT in the back of the ambulance said he was surprised they didn't just fly him. It was a long ride down to Denver for Adam and I. Joel went home to pack some things and came down in the car.

Jenna and Will were well taken care of after this all happened. Some neighbors of mine that are also in the ward saw me walking out to the ambulance with Adam and they came over to take care of the older two kids. When I was waiting in the E.R. I called my friend Sarah and she immediately drove over from Cheyenne (they were there with her family for Easter weekend) and picked up my kids. She took them back to Cheyenne and as far as I know they have participated in the Easter activities that Sarah's family does. Brenda is on her way down right now, in fact she should be getting close to Cheyenne now. She's going to take care of the kids while Joel and I are down here.

When Adam and I got here to the Children's Hospital they fixed his I.V. that had a clot in it and they put a saline gauze dressing on it for a temporary dressing. They gave him some more morphine, but he really wasn't complaining too much.If he wasn't having to move then he was fine, but with any adjusting it was obvious that he was in pain.

In Denver the blisters looked horrible. I've never seen blisters so big; I thought they would burst before holding that much liquid. Joel took a picture of a blister on his leg in Laramie, and looking at it now it doesn't seem so bad compared to what it looked like when we got here to Denver.

Two surgeons came to see him and they told me that it is all first and second degree burns. Those usually heal very well and he might not even have any scarring. They thought he probably wouldn't need any skin grafts, but they said they wouldn't know that for sure until the head burn guy came and saw him on Monday. They said he would certainly be here until Monday or Tuesday. I can't imagine going home tomorrow because I wouldn't know what to do with him. The physical therapists will come in tomorrow and get him walking around. He wants to get up today, and they said we could let him, but every time we move him he whimpers.

Last night at about 1:30 they put a real dressing on it that included about 20 tubes of antibiotic ointment and petroleum gauze, then wrapped with coban. After he got that dressing I was able to get off the gurney and lay him on it, so then I was able to drink some water (I'd turned down all water before that so I wouldn't have to go to the bathroom when he was on me). They won't change that dressing until tomorrow.

Right now Adam is eating and drinking normally. He's watching movies and he's even joked around with us some today. The first time we had to change his sheet and diaper today he was in a lot of pain and he outright cried for the first time since the accident actually happened. After that they gave him some Oxycontin for the pain.He did much better the next time we had to change things.

We have really seen how blessed we are and how many people we have in our lives that care about us. Last night our phones were ringing or beeping constantly with people asking if we were okay and if there was anything they could do to help. It has been wonderful to have that support, even if there is nothing that people can actually do.

I've sent some pictures that Joel took on his phone, but I'm not really sure what they are of. :) I haven't looked at them.

Joel and I are holding up. Joel slept a lot yesterday, so he actually wasn't too tired last night. We got 2-3 hours of sleep last night after Adam was admitted, so I'm sort of running on fumes right now.

Well, I can't think of anything else to say. Thanks for any prayers you can send our way. We love you all.

Sarah

Hey. I have some time so I thought I would update you all.

We are just hanging out at the hospital right now. Adam did pretty well through the night. He did have some low blood pressure but it wasn't something they worried about, they just checked him more often. He also didn't urinate at all through the night, so by the morning they were talking about possibly using a catheter to drain his bladder. He'd had a lot to drink and his IV was still running, but no pee. However, after he was up and awake for awhile he did urinate. A lot. Joel and I changed many wet diapers (which is a bit of a process; one that Adam doesn't like).

Anyway, a doctor came in this morning and said that as far as she could tell there was no reason to keep him here after the burn team changed his dressings. I was a little surprised about that, and worried also. I wasn't sure I would know what to do with him at home or how he would handle things. A few hours later physical therapy came in and she had Adam throwing balls and sitting on the edge of the bed. Then she had him walk across the room and play with more toys over on a bed that Joel and I are using. He was throwing without any problems or complaints of pain. He could bend to pick up a toy, and he even climbed onto the bed (it's really low). She was really happy and impressed with how he was moving and she said he didn't seem to have any limitations with mobility, besides the bulky dressings. None of his burns are over joints, so we don't have to worry about the bending and stretching that would happen with that. It was scary watching him be so active; I was really worried about the blisters and the sensitive skin under the dressings. But I trust that the therapist knew what she was doing, and it was a relief to see Adam moving around so normally. He was really enjoying being able to play after being trapped in bed all day yesterday.

I was getting my hopes up that we would be able to go home today; seeing him move around reassured me that he would be okay at home. Not long after the physical therapist left our nurse came in and told us that she'd heard from the burn team and they wouldn't be changing his dressings until tomorrow. Bummer! So we are definitely here for one more night, but we should pretty definitely be able to go home tomorrow. About 45 minutes ago the "head burn guy" came in to talk to us a little about what the plan is. They will change his dressing in the afternoon, and we'll need to come back on Friday to get it changed again. He said that after that, if we feel comfortable, we can probably just change the dressings at home twice a week. He said that they like the entire burn to be healed in 21 days, and if there are parts that aren't healed after that time they will possibly do skin grafts or things like that. When he sees the burn tomorrow he will be able to tell us whether he thinks it will heal on it's own, how long it might take, the risk of scarring, etc. I am really looking forward to the dressing change tomorrow. I want to see if his burns have improved at all, I'm anxious for his dressing to be on a little more securely and with better coverage, and I want to know what the doctor has to say about it. I'm dreading how it will hurt Adam, but he's really been hanging tough for the last few days. The morphine that they are going to give him beforehand will surely help, as well.

They hep locked his IV a few hours ago so it's nice that he's not tied down as much. He still hates having the IV in his arm, though.

Jenna and Will are at our house with Brenda. I don't remember if I said in my first e-mail, but it's been great not having to worry about them. Knowing they are in great hands is such a huge comfort. I miss them both a lot, and I can't wait to get home to see them. I was hoping that they might be able to come visit us today, but children under 12 aren't aloud to visit on this floor. Adam is also on contact isolation, so he's not aloud the leave the room at all. The people that come in; doctors, nurses, therapist, etc. have to put on a gown and gloves to come in. Joel and I don't, which is nice. They do it with all burn patients because of the risk of infection.

Adam is about to take a nap now, and we are just going to have to hang out for the rest of the day. We are in good hands here, so it's really great to know that Adam is well taken care of and in the best place possible.

We appreciate your love and support.

Love!

Sarah

Last night was a better night than the previous one. Adam slept very well and the nurse didn't interupt us much. We were expecting to see the burn team in the afternoon, so we were quite surprised when the burn nurse came in at 9 and told us that she was preping everything for the dressing change and they would get us in there at 9:15. Our nurse gave him some morphine so it would help durring the change.

Joel and I put on gowns and I sat on the table with Adam while they changed it. The nurse is the one who did all of the changing, there was a PA in there also who documented where the burns were, color, area, severity, etc. but he didn't do anything with the changing itself. The nurse cut off the first dressing and Adam didn't like that so much. After that she cleaned it, and he really didn't like that. Some of the large blisteres on his leg were still intact, though somewhat deflated. The went ahead and took all of the skin off of those, and also a lot of the dead skin from the torso. That was really hard for me to watch, but she did a great job and worked quickly. After she got it cleaned she paged the doctor and he came in to look at it. He said that from what he could see he guessed that it would heal completely on its own, but he'd have a better idea as time went by. He pointed out the areas that were the worst, and areas that weren't so bad. To the lay person (me) the worst parts didn't look so bad; it had a whitish color, which meant it was deeper, but to me it didn't look as horrible as the red inflamed aread. Yeah, I was wrong. He has two main spots that have the write color, on on the front of his ribcage, and one on his back.

The nurse finished the dressing, but in the middle she asked if we could stand him up because that's how she'd be able to do it most effectively. It hurt Adam a lot to stand up. As he stood up Joel was in front of him and Adam cried, "Dad, help me!" It was completely heartbreaking. But he made it through it and didn't do bad at all.

As they were changing the dressings we had the chance to ask questions. The said that he might scar, but the more artificial areas would probably just end up being a pigment discoloration that would be nearly impossible to see as he got older. As for the deeper areas they really couldn't say; it was too early to tell. I asked if we should try to limit his movement or activity at all, and they said definitely not; he needs to be as mobile as possible. I said I wasn't sure they knew who they were talking about.

We have an appointment Friday morning to get the dressing changed again. On Friday we will see how it's healing and decide if we will go back on Tuesday to change the dressing again, or if we'll just do the dressing changes at home after that.

It was great to get home, but we've run into a new obstacle. Adam is SOOOO active. It's making Joel and I crazy, and I'm definitely paranoid about it. I'm finally convinced that if it doesn't hurt for him to do it, he won't do it. However, he is wreaking havoc on his dressings! I'm not sure they're going to make it to Friday! Joel and I will definitely be doing some patch jobs to keep things covered.

Sarah

Happy Anniversary

2010-03-30T08:59:00.004-06:00

Yesterday Joel and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. We exchanged gifts last week (because we just couldn't wait), and then last night we went out to dinner. We were able to go without our kids, which hasn't happened in quite awhile. Thanks to our awesome friends for watching our children!

Joel had the great idea to take a little "tour" of downtown Laramie. We went to Sweet Melissa's for our appetizer; if you've never had the artichoke dip appetizer from Sweet Melissa's, go there right now and get it. You won't regret it.

We headed to Jeffrey's for our main dish. I had a delish chicken and spinach salad. They brought it to me in this crazy big bowl! I had already eaten quite a bit when Joel took this picture. (Please focus on the bowl, not the crazy look on my face)

Joel enjoyed his sesame chicken with peanuts and broccoli over rice. Neither one of us could finish our dinner, so we'll have a nice lunch today!

Then it was onward to LoveJoy's for dessert. My deep fried New York cheesecake with ice cream was to die for, and Joel's root beer float was also very yummy.

We had a great anniversary dinner, and we couldn't have been more stuffed by the end of the evening!

Over dinner we talked about the fact that the last eight years have really flown by. In eight more years I'm sure we'll be amazed at how quickly time passes. I'm happy to be sharing my time with my best friend!

Now, to segue into some older news. I really haven't been motivated to blog lately, so I've missed a few things.

Will had his first school concert a few weeks ago. He was adorable all dressed up like a puppy. They sang "Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone" and "How much is that doggy in the window". He sang the songs and did the actions, all while squinting into the crowd trying to find where we were sitting. It was adorable!

One big piece of news that I haven't blogged about is that Joel's Mom, Brenda, got married on the 14th of March. We were able to get up to Lovell after Joel worked the night before. She married Roland Simmons from Cowley. Here is a picture of the whole bunch (minus Dane, of course).

We are very happy for Brenda and Roland!

About time

2010-03-03T15:20:00.003-07:00

Joel has been bugging me to post something for many weeks now. I didn't post at all in February, so I am a major slacker in the blog department. I have just felt like there hasn't been much to say. I've also been frustrated that I have had no luck in uploading my 2009 blog book, so I have been less motivated to blog, because why blog when I can't even turn it into a book! Anyway...

We really haven't done a whole lot over the month of February. We had a fun and delicious Superbowl party at our friends' house. Jenna had her school concert; the theme was a beach party. It was a great concert, but made me really sick of the cold.

Jenna lost one tooth and Will lost two. In the space where two teeth left only one tooth is coming in, and it's taking up the entire space. I see trouble if two baby teeth get knocked out for every permanent tooth. He and Jenna are both, most definitely, going to need braces in the future. I can already see the $ those mouths are going to absorb.

That seriously about covers our entire month of February. Joel has been on a pretty nice schedule at work, consistently working Mon, Tues, Wed. This is his last week with that schedule, then it's going to be back to the unpredictable.

This weekend we get to go to Casper for the State Basketball tournament. Joel's little sister, Erin, is playing. We are excited to get to watch her play. The Sunday after that we are heading up to Lovell for part of Spring Break. Joel has to work the last part of spring break, so we only get to spend a few days in Lovell. But we are looking forward to it.

I wish I at least had some fun pictures to post or something, but I don't! It hasn't been a very impressive post, but at least it's something. :)

William

2010-01-31T19:42:00.003-07:00

William lost his first tooth tonight! He is officially a big boy! :)

The strange thing is that it's not one of the front bottom teeth, like normal. It's on the side. Very strange! But it's been so loose for so long, it's about time it came out. He is excited for the Tooth Fairy to come and leave him some cash. :)

Another trip

2010-01-26T10:14:00.003-07:00

Believe it or not, my family went to Lovell again last week! That makes three times this month. This time we all went. Joel's brother, Dane, was approved to finish the rest of his mission, so we went up to spend time with him and say goodbye. While we were there Lovell finally got some snow. I think it was making up for lost time because there was a LOT of snow. Joel and his brothers were disappointed because they weren't able to go out shooting, but instead we all went out and played in the snow! We were going to sled down the hill by Joel's Mom's house, but they plowed the street before we could get to the fresh snow. The kids played in the front yard for awhile, and Aunt Kynstyl helped them make a little hill of snow to sled down.

Will...

Gavin...

After awhile we went and found a place by the canal that had an okay hill for sledding. Jenna was the only kid that came, the others were a little too cold by then. Here she is with Uncle Dane...

Brothers...

Devin came down pretty fast once, in the process getting a lot of snow in his face. The snow in all of his hair made him look like an old man! It was hilarious!

After Dane hit the tree at the end he made himself comfortable in the snow. :)

Dane flew out of Billings Monday morning and headed straight for New Jersey, where he will be serving. It was hard to say goodbye to him again, and we will miss him so much, but we are also so proud of him and happy for him!

We came home on Sunday even though the roads were not all that great. We made it to Casper without any problems, but when we got to Casper we found out that part of the highway between Casper and Laramie was closed. We ended up going down the freeway to Cheyenne, then over to Laramie. The roads were fine that way, but there was some seriously strong wind that was actually scary at times. It was definitely the long way around, but we made it home safely!

p.s. Has anyone ordered a book from Blurb recently? I'm trying to order my 2009 book and still haven't been able to. Every time I try to upload the book to blurb it stops partway through and gives me the error of "Out of sequence chunk". I've contacted blurb support about it, and they basically say to just keep trying. They also say to try from a different Internet connection, even though I know nothing is wrong with my connection. From my online research it seems to be a very common problem they have. Has anyone else had this problem, and how did you deal with it? Any input would be helpful!

A few days away

2010-01-14T09:09:00.002-07:00

Beginning last week Joel had a week off of work, so he decided to go up to Lovell to hang out for awhile since he didn't get to be there long over Christmas break. He took Adam with him, which was fun for everyone. Father and son had a great trip, and Mom had the opportunity to get some things done without a two year old.

Jenna, Will and I had a fun time as well. A few things we did included a living room picnic, playing sequence dice, cleaning out toys (okay, that was only fun for me), having a talent show that the kids put together, and just spending time together. There is also a possibility that I spent a lot of time at my friend Sarah's house. :) I didn't get any pictures of all of these things, which I was bummed about. When it was time for Dad and Adam to come back the kids weren't as excited as I thought they would be. They both kept saying how nice it was that it was quiet because Adam wasn't screaming, and how it was nice that they could play without Adam messing up their stuff. However, as soon as Daddy and Adam walked in the door they were obviously excited to see them! Adam and Joel both got a lot of hugs, and the kids have enjoyed playing together again.

Joel and Adam also had a great time in Lovell. Adam was able to play quite a bit with his cousin, Gavin. They had a fun time together! Joel snapped a few pictures of them..

With Grandma...

Having a drink... :)

Climbing on the back of the couch and peeking over the wall...

Looking fierce!!! (Isn't Gaven's face awesome!)

I was very happy to get my boys back and have our family together again. It was nice for Joel and Adam to have a few days away, and I think it made us all appreciate each other a bit more. It's always good to be reminded of how much you love your family!

Hello, 2010!

2010-01-04T10:24:00.002-07:00

Happy New Year, everyone! I know I'm a few days late, but better late than never.

We headed up to Lovell a few days after Christmas so we could spend time with family, and get out of town for a few days. We really didn't do anything too exciting in Lovell. However, Joel's Mom got a Wii for Christmas, as well as Wii Fit Plus. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time enjoying the games! Here are all of the grandkids on that side (yes, my children make up three of the four, but another will be added soon! Congrats, Devin and Kynstyl!)...
Devin was busy, he couldn't pose all pretty like his brothers. :)

Bowling...

Dane had a trick he liked to do every time...

It didn't always work out for him. :)

Brenda had great form!

Joel wasn't able to say in Lovell for very long because he had to work. He went home on New Years Eve day, so I had no one to kiss at midnight. :( I did go to Joel's Aunt Marianne's house for a Robertson New Years Eve. We played games and ate yummy food. It was a good night, and I actually went to bed earlier that night than I had the previous two nights!

We are back home now; kids are in school and life it back on schedule. I have to take Jenna to Cheyenne today to get a cavity filled, but luckily Joel didn't have to work last night so he gets to stay home with the boys. That definitely makes things easier!

We are looking forward to a great 2010!

p.s. I must have forgotten to mention this in previous posts, but Joel and I have decided to move to AZ. Joel will start grad school at A.T. Still University in June!