DENTIST

Well we are back from the dentist and it did not go to well. Kaiden and Rylie checked out with no problems what so ever. Another 6 months of no cavities!!!! But Makayla did not take it well. She screamed she cried, it was very traumatizing for all of us. I am not sure who it was harder on her or me and Thom, it was so hard to listen to her back there screaming for us, and not be able to help her out at all. They do not allow parents to go in back with the kids. So it was very traumatizing. I can still hear her crying for "MOOOOMMMY!!!!!!!!!!!". It was so hard, I cried:) But we are done with the dentist for another 6 months:):):) WAHOO!

MY NEW DOG!!!

Well my neighbor came over yesterday morning and said, "Didn't you tell me you wanted a German Shepherd?" I said yes, I do. Well his son had rescued one from some rescue group in Arizona, with the thought of finding her a home. So his son brought this dog over. And I fell in love, of course:) But she was not exactly what I wanted. She is a Shepherd but she is only 9 months old, and I wanted something older, already trained, cause honestly I have 5 kids, I do not have the time to train a puppy as well. But she was so sweet and the kids LOVE her, that we decided to give her a home. She has been perfect, but she is VERY spoiled already. It amazes me how quickly we can spoil an animal. We are animal lovers so I guess it is not hard. I did not even realize the bad habits we were already instilling in her. She spent the better part of the day on the couch in our room. She has not had an accident on my new carpet yet *knock on wood*. But she was supposed to spend the night outside, but she cried and whined out there, so she spent the night on the couch in our room. Even this morning she did not want to go outside, she cried. So now I need to figure out a way to unspoil her. But the kids love her so much and she really is a very good dog, that I think she will be worth the extra time needed to train her.

This is not a good picture, cause it was taken with my phone and she was sleeping when I called her to take it. This is our new dog Neisha.

KAYLA'S PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCE

Well I was not necessarily expecting a good report when we went to Makayla's conference. As she went into this year slightly behind, and homeschooling did not seem to help her out much. But her teacher loves her. She is doing great, she caught right up and has made some really good friends and interacts well with the class(this was a concern of mine, cause she is so shy she does not like people much:) ) But she is excelling in most areas, she is still slightly below level on her reading, but close enough that with a little extra time she will catch up in no time!:)

So I am very pleased with how well both kids are doing. I am so proud of them both:)

Later this morning Kaiden and Rylie are going to the dentist for a checkup*fingers crossed* and Makayla is going to the dentist to have her two teeth extracted. She still does not know they are going to pull her teeth, she knows she is going in for the sealing of her molars, but we have not mentioned her other two teeth. I am not sure if it is a good idea, or if it is going to come back and bite us in the ass. Guess we will see soon enough, we are going to get them out of school in about an hour.

KAIDEN'S PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCE

Well we have parent teacher conferences this week, which means the kids get home from school about 1:40 all week. Yesterday was Kaiden's conference. Luckily my mom came and watched all the kids so we could go and talk without interruption. His teacher is very fond of him. And he is doing EXCELLENT! Coming in the middle of the year did not effect him whatsoever. He is brilliant! He helps the teacher out alot with projects, and loves to read. She is so happy with his progress. He is above grade level and excels at everything he does. We are so proud of him!!!!

WHAT A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Well I went into this weekend, thinking it was going to be horrily boring weekend. It was the weekend of Thom's annual spring conference.(There is two every year, one fall in Park City, and a spring one in St. George) And they are generally SOO boring, plus we have to pay for sitters, and you sit in a conference, pay for an expensive dinner(that is not even that good), and listen to a bunch of BORING guys talk. So needless to say I was NOT looking forward to this weekend. But then it turns out that my brother's annual confernece was also this weekend, down in St. George. So I was able to hang out with my sister while Thom prepared for his conference. We went shopping and had lots of fun! We had not seen them in 9 months, so it was so good to see them and hang out with Sheri!

And while I was out shopping Thom was busy preparing for the conference. As his team was in charge of it this year (the recruiting command in Utah has around 300 guys and is divided into 5 teams, Thom's being team 5) they decided to make this years conference a more family friendly conference, just a weekend of fun with your family. So it was alot of work leading up to this weekend, but I must say they did a GREAT job! There was horse rides, ATV/rhino rides, mechanical bull rides, climbing wall, and for the children: movies, Xbox, coloring, face painting. Our kids had a BLAST! The dinner was good and it was very reasonably priced for what we ate. And there was only a few boring speakers:) And the award ceremony was great. Thom actually was called up and recognized at least 3 times! I was so proud of him, he is the most successful one so far this year (out of the 300 of them), so I am very proud of him:)! And General Tarbot spoke(for those who don't know as I did not know, the General is directly under President Bush), he speaks at all of the conference dinners and he is actually very encouraging and uplifting to me. He helps me make it through another year. he always applauds the families of the men, as he understands the hecticness of the job, and the sacrifices that the families make. And he is so encouraging that he makes you want to be the most supportive wife, and he justs makes me feel so good inside:) It is very encouraging to be with the other wives who understand the hours and the frustrations of the job. I always come out of the conferences with a renewed sense of pride ofr our country and patience for the job.

But it was really nice, cause we were expecting to have to take the kids with us, as my parents had other plans one babysitter had to work and the other one was already sitting other kids. So we paid for dinner for the kids and went to play for the weekend with them. They had a blast! But Will is teething and was MISERABLE the entire time (fever, runny nose, in pain, CRYING the whole time). So I was going insane! But luckily I ran ito one of my friends at Wal Mart and she offered to take the kids for us. So I took the kids over there during the dinner, it was so sweet of her, and again, thank you so much Misty, you are the BEST! But apparently Will was a perfect angel for her, and slept most of the time. So we were able to 'enjoy' the dinner:) So what the weekend that I was going into thinking it was going to be miserable, turned out to be alot of fun:)

Rylie LOVED riding the horses. But it did rain the whole day before so the fields were muddy, and there was some concern taking the horses out too far. So on the first day Friday, they walked the kids around the closest field, and would not let them go out alone, or even without a lead. Rylie's lead was thom's friend Brent, here he is leading the horse around, and she is LOVING it!

Then we went out on an ATV ride, but we decided to take the rhino out so we could take all the kids with us. Friday was not so nice(it was overcast and cold), so we decided to tak eit back out on Saturday, cause Saturday was abaolutely GROGEOUS day, about 60 degrees and sunny! And while we were out on Saturday my cellphone must have fallen out cause it did not make it back with us. So now I am out my cellphone:( But I called and they are sending a new one out to me and I should have ti tomorrow:) But i did lose all my numbers and pictures:( But it was so fun out there that it was worth it:)
Mommy and Pooh Bear on Friday
Rylie, Nic and kaiden on Friday (Makayla did not go on Friday she was scared to go)Our rhino from Friday
Rylie riding the horse on Friday.
She is so cute! Makayla is a butterfly on Saturday!

Rylie is a tiger!
Kaiden LOVED the mechanical bull!


There are a lot of pictures and fun stuff I did not get as my camera was locked in my car, and my keys were in my purse, which was locked in Thom's office, and his keys were locked in his office as well. So it took us most of the day Saturday to get into the office and get my keys to get my camera. So you missed out on alot of things, but here is a quick overview. And we had SOO much fun!:)

ANNIVERSARY

Yes, today is the 4th anniversary of my stroke. It has been 4 years tonight since it happened. We genreally fast all day today, and then have a huge party on the 25th(tomorrow) to celebrate when I came out of surgery, and when they knew I would live. But Thom is in Salt Lake tonight and tomorrow. So I am sittin gat home alone tonight, and I am sad. Happy to be alive of course, and to have my Nic, but still sad to be home without Thom tonight. This is the first year he has not been around to spend the day and night with me.:(

IT IS GOING TO BE CRAZY!!!!!!

Well I had to take all the kids but Kaiden to the ENT this morning. And March 4th is going to be a crazy day for us. All four of them will be having surgery that morning. The girls are both getting their tonsils out, Nic is getting tubes and his tonsils out, and William of course is getting tubes. So it is going to be a horrible crazy day. We decided to do it all on one day so that Thom can take some time off and help me out with them all. And we chose the 4th because the 7th starts their spring break, and so they will not miss much school. So it is going to be interesting to say the least:)

DENTIST

Well we had to take two kids to the dentist yesterday for their 6 month checkups. Yesterday was Nic and Kayla. I do two at a time, and I divide them up, one crier, one brave one, each trip, this makes the dentist so much easier for us all:) Being President's Day, Thom took the day off to spend with us, and he came with us, that helped alot!:) After the initial cleaning and flouride treatment, we waited for the dentist to come in and check them out. I knew we had some issues in Makayla's mouth, cause her mouth is sooo small. She lost 4 baby teeth on bottom, and only 2 adult teeth have grown in, but they have taken up the whole spot of 4 teeth. At previous visits the dentist had said that we would probably have to extract some teeth to make room in her mouth, but I was under the impression that it would be a few years away. But turns out he wants to extract 2 bottom baby ones now, and then we will see what happens, he thinks that in time he will have to take out 4 adult teeth. But he wants to make enough room for her front adult teeth to come in straight and then figure out the rest as it goes on. I guess the short of it is that she has daddy's big teeth, and mommy's little mouth. And she also needs to get her adult molars sealed. So she has an appointment next week to have two teeth extracted and her molars sealed. Poor baby, I feel so bad for her. She gets so nervous, I am very worried about her. But I rescheduled Kaiden, and Ry's chekcup for the same day so I can be in the back with her. Cause normally they will not let you be in the back while they administer the gas, but I will already be back there, so... I guess we should just feel blessed that we have not had any cavities. 5 kids and no cavities, must be a record or something:) oh but wait I should not speak to soon, it has been 6 months since Ry and Kaiden were checked, hopefully they will come back clear next week as well.:)

Augh, the adventures of keeping 5 kids well maintained:)

WHEW! WHAT A WEEK!!!!

Well we have had a busy week. It all started on Sunday morning, Kaiden was not feeling well, he said he had a real bad headache, so I gave him some Tylenol and we headed off to church. I was keeping a close eye on him, cause he generally does not complain about not feeloing good, so I knew it was a real bad headeache. About 15 minutes after being there, I saw him begin to lay down across the behind him, and he just looked miserable, and he wanted to sit with me and not his friends, which is VERY odd:) And I felt his head and he felt very warm, and I asked him how he was doing and he said his stomach was now hurting, so I took him and Will(as he had also been pulling at his ears again:( ), leaving the other kids with Thom, and we went home. I put both boys down for a nap and they both slept for a few hours. Kaiden woke up feeling 'okay', so I kinda pushed all foreboding thoughts aside and attributed his earlier sickness to lack of sleep that night. But as the evening progressed, he began to feel bad again. My concern was the abdominal pains he was having, not naseau, but pain. And then he bacame naseauted, and his fever shot up to 103. So I packed him up, and took him into St. George to see the doctor, I also took Will as he was still pulling at his ears pretty good and was also developing a fever, and Thom stayed home with the girls. I had to drive into St. George because our clinic here is closed on Sundays. I got to the Instacare, and there was a 2 hour wait, but they referred me to a new night time pediactric clinic in town. I went over there, and there wait was only 1 hour, WAHOO!!:) So we waited and waited, most of this time Kaiden spent in the bathroom throwing up:( So the throwing up, abdominal pains, and fever, I was thinking appendicitis. We finally got called back and she checked Will out first and he of course has a double ear infection:( my poor baby. Then she began to check out Kaiden, and could not figure out what was wrong with him. She ran test after test on him, one of which was a strep test(you know where they swab your throat), well my poor kid was already naseauted, so when she swabed him....you get it:) And after all these, she could not figure out what was wrong with him. She assumed it was a nasty viral infection that is going around that acts as the flu, and is absolutely horrible. So she sent us on our way, saying that if anything intensifies to get him in, as it may be leading up to an appendicitis. So I am now keeping a real close eye on him, cause we live 30 minutes from the hospital and that would be a real stressful drive, if his appendis ruptures. So the next morning, he still feels and looks horrible, so he stayed home from school with me. Will started his 500 millionth round of anitbioditics. I spent the day taking care of my two sick babies, and Thom of course went out of town. But by that evening Kaiden was back on the floor in the bathroom throwing up and his temperature had spiked to 104. So thinking about the doctor telling me, if his fever gets bad again or things seem to take a bad turn, get him back him. I called my mom to come watch the kids(they only live 3 miles from us), and I took him into the clinic that is 1 mile from our house instead of driving all the way into St. George. And again, test after test, with no results:( Poor kid! But this time the doctor put him on antibiotics, hoping to help him feel better, but still not knowing what is wrong with him. Our thoughts now are mono, as it is going around real good down here, and one of his friends' older brothers has it, I spoke to his mom, and they have been going through the same thing, so we are assuming it is mono. But the antibiodics seem to be helping him, and he is now feeling 'excellent'.

But....Thom's kidney stones are acting up again, Nic got an ear infection, Kayla and Ry seem to be developing symptpoms similar to Kaidens, and I go tthe flu, so with Will's double ear infection, we are all just tore up from the floor up! So appernatly the flu shot that I got, and got all of my kids, is not working. I was reading an article on line yesterday and apparnetly the scientists who made the flu shot predicted the wonrg flu strain, so we are all getting it anyway:( I have been miserable, aching, fever, not being able to breathe, coughing, ACHING! And I spent most of Valentine's day curled up in bed.

But the kids did get some things. I went to Lin's to get my prescription filled and while I was there I picked up some balloons and cookies with their names on them.

Will's favorite thing was the balloon...

Until we opened up the cookie for him:)

He loved that part!


Then grandma and grandpa came over to give the kids there gifts from them. And grandpa played with Will alot, and these are Will's first smiles in a week:(


Today is Saturday and I think things are going well for us, I still ache, and my bosy feels like it is sun burned from the fever, but I finally slept last night for the first time all week:) We have all been on antibiotics for a few days now. And things are beginning to settle down for us. I think we may survive:), it was iffy there for awhile.

HAPPY BABY!!!!

I forget what a sweet, happy baby William is when he is feeling good. Actually maybe that is because we never saw it before now. But he is a very happy and sweet, content baby. He is just so precious! He is always smiling at people, laughing, playing, just being a sweet little thing, he is actually a joy to be around now, I know that sounds horrible, but he was so sick before, that we never saw it. But we see it all the time now. Happy, smiling, beautiful baby:) I think after all is said and done with his illnesses, he is our most content and happy baby. But how could he not be? He has so many people loving on him, playing with him, kissing him, coddling him, he rarely has a free moment. He has 4 older siblings that dote on him constantly, and I mean literally constantly. 2 parents and grandparnets who adore him, and spoil the heck out of him. And a church full of people that think he may just be the best thing since sliced bread:), when I walk in with him AT LEAST 20 people if not more take him from me and pass him around and fight over him, and I never see him during church, it is very nice, and I know tht he is being very well taken care of. So, with so many people and him being the center of attention so much, how could he not be a happy baby? I am just so glad that we are able to see his personality show ing through now that he is better. AND he is finally starting to eat now, WAHOO!! He is now to eating 3 meals a day with us as a family (and actually eating a good portion that I feel good about). And he does a lot of snacking in between, so hopefully he will begin to put on some weight now. But he is such a joy to be around. Who knew what a sweet baby was underneath all that sick, aungryness? I did not:):):) But i am SO happy we have found it!

WHAT A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Well we had a great weekend. I have posted a bunch of photos, but most were taken with my phone, so they are not real good pictures of good quality, sorry. Well Thom did start to feel a little bit better, as you can tell by this picture, actually this picture was taken before it got real bad, this is a pretty mild picture. It looks a lot worse then this pictre, but the swelling is beginning to go down, and he is able to walk around more.

So on Firday I was able to go out with my girlfreind and play for a bit. I took the baby with me, my mom and school had Kaiden and kayla, and Thom took Nic and Ry to work with him and they played there while he sat in his office(with his foot elevated) and worked on packets. I went shopping all day, and then my best friend took Will home with her while I went and got my nails and hair done:) So things turned out okay after all:) We got our taxes back and payed off all of our debt(our credit cards and personal loans)and then decided to go play a little bit. So first thing Saturday morning we drove to Mesquite, it is only a 45 minute drive into Nevada, but it seems like a lot further, and it is fun to just go there and 'chill', we try to go at least once a month, and during the spring, summer, and fall, we try to go at least once every other month for at least 2 nights, just two get away and play. So we took my parents to breakfast there on Saturday morning. We always go to the Virgin River for breakfast, they have a real nice 'cowboy restruarnt', as my kids call it, and the breakfast is fairly cheap but real good. And they have a fountain out front that the kids love to play in, it was not as fun this time cause it was only like 52 degrees, but the kids genreally leave there SOAKED! This was Will's first experience to really play in it. Here are those photos.

Grandpa and Will
Kaiden, Nic, and Kayla, trying to decide if they are brave enough to get wet in these cold temperatures:)
Grandma and a wounded Thom(see his 'cane', LOL)
All four of them decide to just put a hand in and test it out. But Will was arms deep in it, he loved it:)

The we headed to Lee's. And we stocked up on alcohol! Now this is a bad parent picture but Will LOVED riding in the cart with Grandpa puching him, he just stood there and laughed the whole time. Now that looks like a lot of alcohol, but we only stock up like this every few months, and we have lots of parties at our house.

Then we drove home, and then it was time to go out with our good friends, the Herpins and Hirschi's, to Fiesta Fun. Fiesta Fun is a indoor/outdoor, activity land. It is very ghetto, but the kids have a blast, and you just gotta watch your kids, which you normally would anyway, so we don't mind going here that much. The kids love it. We played in the soft play first, Will loved this, they hada little slide just his size.

Kayla and Will going down the slide
Nic 'helping' Will down the slideWill and his 'little' friend Ezra playing together on the slide.Ezra made it up, but Will is still struggling:)Finally made it to the top with Dad's help, and is LOVIN it!Will had so much fun in the soft play land!

Then we decided to brave the weather outdoors(the wind was picking up in antcipation for the storm that would hit us on Sunday). And we went on the go-carts. Now none of our children were tall enough to be the 'driver', so Thom had to take each one of them on their own turn, which of course being the kid that he is, he had no problem with:)

Daddy going with Kaiden.




You can not tell in this picture, but coming down the lane, there is Thom and Nic in the lead, followed by Maria and kayla, Greg and Ziggy, followed by Mike and Bella.

Coming around the bend.

Time for the second teams to go, this is Kayla with our friend Maria. She was nice enough to go with both girls, cause they begged her, they just love her so much!:) I was on baby patrol, I had Will and Ezra, the whole time.

So we had a great day playing on Saturday.

Sunday was another story! We woke up to the pouring rain, and it was beginning to turn slushy as we drove to church that morning. But being in southern Utah, we just assumed it would pass over us and clear up. But by Superbowl time, it was a snow storm! We went to our freinds, Jeff and Kathie's for a Superbowl party, and they live up near the mountain, actually on the side going up it, and the snow was really coming down there, by the end of the first quater there was probably 2 inches on the ground, which is not a lot but for where we live it is A LOT! And then it happend, half way through the second quarter, the cable went out! Needless to say, the guys were very angry:) They went outside to try to clean off the dish and try to get it working again, but to no avail. So we all decided to head to our house, we only live about 4 miles away, but supposedly on that side of town the cable was still working. So we load up the kids and head out. All but Jeff and Kathie and Cory, cause the guys are firemen, and were on call, so they could not be that far away from the fire station, which was only 1/4 mile from where we were at originally. So we got to our house, and the cable did not work, but Thom hobbled outside and cleaned off our dish and it turned back on:), but by this time it was half time, and the score was still the same, so we did not miss much! The snow kept coming down and the kdis were playing in the front yard as the adults watched the game.

Building their snowman
Tiara, Kayla, Nic and Ry and their snowman.

After the AMAZING victory for the Giants!!! WAHOOOO!!!!!! We had a huge snowball fight, it was so much fun!

Charlie geeting Casey good!
But looks like she recovered alright:)

Yep lots of fun!

So we had an amazingly wonderful weekend, even though it looked like it was going to be a rough one. I guess amazing things CAN happen when you let go and let God!:)