Family Pictures 2012

Ashlee Sophomore

Ashlee and P.Q.
Sophomore and 8th Grade

Bryson Kindergarten

Brock 5th Grade

P.Q. 8th Grade

 I love how close we live to such beautiful mountains. We went for a ride up there and ended up doing pics of the kids.  It was a super great time. Thanks to Eric and Kaden for taking the pictures for us:)
 

Another bedroom makeover

wall 1 before....

wall 1 after

Preston and I did his room yesterday. It started out as tan walls and ended up blue and orange with white and orange accents. He loves it!

wall 2 before...

wall 2 after
 

Adjusting rather well :)

Well it has been a few weeks of the kids in school and I feel like I have accomplished a few things I never saw my self doing.
We bought paint and actually painted Ashlees room before the paint seperated.....lol

Ashlees room before
brown and peach

Ashlees room after
grey and pink
 

 Now for those of you who know me, know that I DONT AND CANT COOK!! It is a simple truth that I and my family will not hesitate to tell you....Well so now that I am home and Prestons garden has been producing a TON of zucchini, I had to find other ways to cook it than just steaming it (which truth be told, I dont do well, I know it sounds crazy but somehow I manage to burn it).
So here are a few pictures of food that actually turned out :)

Parmsean zucchini

Pumpkin chocolatechip Zucchini muffins

Ashlee and I also made some homemade scrubs with doTERRA essential oils.......

We took these easy ingredients and turned them into....

These wonderful foot, face, body, shaving scrubs
and even a wonderful body butter


 



Inbetween following Ashlee and Preston as they run cross country I guess I have taught myself a few new things.  I think I am adjusting rather well. :)

Back to School 2012-13

Well I sent of ALL of the kids to school this morning

This is Ashlee 15 years old starting her Sophomore year of high school. She also is the Sophomore class President.

Here is Preston starting 8th grade and his last year of middle school.  He is the Student Body President

Wow our Brock is all grown up.  He begins 5th grade and his first year of middle school.

Last but not least is Bryson.  He started Kindergarten! I can hardly believe it. I remember when he was born and we were learning about the many defects his heart had, the doctors told us it wasnt likely he would make it to school age.  Now here we are!!!! Miracle!!  5 years have been the longest and the fastest, if that is possible. :)

 

So now it is just me and the dog at home, if you can count the dog...I am looking forward to accomplishing many unfinished projects. This is the first year that I am not working, so it is a change for me to. Love new beginings :)

 

Busy times

Well baseball ended and all-stars began. Brock made the all-star team and Eric was one of the coaches. So since July 1st they have been practicing for the tournament that took place last week in Cody,Wyoming. The team did amazing and took consultation champs! So proud of all of them. In between baseball we have kept busy with family reunions. This is a picture of my family. All 5 siblings and families. Well just kidding, my iPad won't let me load them. I will have to Do it when I get home. Right now I am keeping Eric company in the hospital. After fighting his asthma for 2 weeks he needed to be admitted. So just when we thought things would slow down and we could get some things done at the house, we found we were just wishful thinking. Well I will post more when I can upload photos :)

Summer Nights

water bottles + glow sticks + 7 kids=glow in the dark bowling

Our summer seems to be going to way to fast.  Tomorrow night is closing ceremonies for Brocks baseball league and Thursday is Brysons.  I will post pictures later this week.

We have been on high alert for fires and under alot of fire restrictions.  As we were watching the news about all the fires, Bryson came upstairs dressed like this.  He said he would be back later cause he needed to go fight the fires.  LOL  I love that kids imagination!!

A sense of accomplishment!

My parents so graciously came up to help us this last weekend with our yard. We have a large beautiful yard, but it was in need of some attention and quite frankly we had NO clue what we were doing. So thank goodness my parents came to lend some guidence.  We did everything from, weeding, planting, trimming trees and lilac bushes, moving large rocks, tilling, to filling in our gardens walk ways with 6 TONS of gravel. Now that was a lot of wheelbarrowing from the front to the back yard. :)

This is the picutre of the back corner of our yard where the garden area is. The picture doesnt show the whole space, but this is where we tilled, weed eated, and layed down black weed barrier before hauling back 6 tons of gravel. It was hard work, but so rewarding now that it is finished.  The circle part of the picutre with dead grass is our next project where we are going to put in a fire pit, seating area.

Among everything else going on this summer, Ashlee is taking Drivers Ed. I can hardly believe that she is old enough already.  When we moved to Lyman she was not quite 2 years old. And now, 13 years later, here she is getting ready to drive!  I will take a picutre and post later.
Brock is taking piano and Preston is enjoying summer band while Bryson does swim lessons. Hurray for summertime!!

Laundry Room makeover and tonsils, why not?

I love our house and loved the laundry room. However when I was looking for baskets to put in there and came across the cutest ones. So cute that I repainted the whole laundry room the same colors :)

 basket of inspiration:)

Now for the tonsils:  Bryson had dental work done at PCMC a few weeks ago. 9 caps and 1 pulled tooth, but whos counting? Anyway, after they were done they came to let me know that his adnoids were so HUGE that they nicked them when intubating him. OUCH!  That is what I thought and so did the docotrs.  They said Bryson probally would not want to eat much for the following week becuase it would hurt to swollow. Well for those of you who know how tough our Bryson is, this did not slow him down at all.  He never even complained and ate like nothing happened. Crazy enough we had a discussion with cardiology before his procedure about his increased tiredness.  All looked o.k. heart wise, so we discussed his snoring and it inturpting his sleep.  It was mentioned that we should get his tonsils/adnoids checked to see if that was the source of his snoring.  So when they came out to tell me how huge his tonsils and adnoids were, that answered our question.  So this week we will see his primary care doc and get the orders to have his tonsils and adnoids taken out.

Starting from here

I keep thinking about how I need to catch up from the past few months. Finally I decided I just need to get on here and start from here.  So here it goes:
This is the last week of school and the kids are excited for the parties and field trips.  Lost of fun planned this summer that we are looking forward too.

Ashlee is the Sophomore Class President for next year and Preston is the Student Body President for the Middle School.  So fun, busy times ahead for us.
Brock is starting baseball with Dad as his coach and Bryson is playing tball

We took some pictures last week and thought I would share a few more with you.

Realistic

I know everyone is thinking New Years Resolutions. Lose weight, be kinder, eat healthy, etc....while all of these are good I knew I had to be realistic with mine. I will admit I have made all of the above mentioned goals at one point or another. So for me and needed to be realistic I knew this one would work. I am going to keep our blog more up to date, mainly because this is like a family journal. One that we turn into a book and the kids lovve looking back and reading. So this is one goal that I am sure I can keep all year. Now you will notice that I have not committed to how often I will post, just that I will keep it up to date:) With all the social networking sights it is too easy to forgot about the blog, so here is to rededication.

Sheep, Zuchinni and Pigs, Oh My!

This year we participated in our county Fair.

Here is Bryson as he spent the week being taken from event to event to watch his older siblings.

Brock got a cowboy hat and Bryson insisted he needed one, so Preston gave him his hat from our youth trek. Bryson was so happy. He wore that silly thing everywhere

Ashlee and Preston did the Pig wrestling again this year. Their cousin Nikki Quinney and friend Brady Olsen was also on their team. I am not sure if I would want to jump into a pit of slimy mud, and pig crap, but something about it attracts so many.

This was Brocks first year participating in the 4-H program and raising and selling a sheep. He got a blue ribbon for showmanship and red ribbon for market. It was an amazing experience, now someone is enjoying it in their freezer. :)

Then of course Prestons garden. These are the first 2 zucchini and we have enjoyed many peas. YEA!

Happy 4th of July

Sorry I havent updated. My computer would not work at the hosptial and then things got busy crazy since we have been home. So just know that no news is good news. Bryson flew through his last procedure. In fact that night in CICU he was playing baseball with the doctors and nurses. It was great to see him feel so great so fast!
Since then we have been super busy with baseball. Bryson played tball, Brock played pitching machine and Preston is in the majors! Eric coaches Preston and I coached Bryson. It has been so fun. Now we are on to All-Stars. District is here in the valley this year, so that will be fun!
All of our summer pictures are on our facebook and Erics computer. I will have him upload some.
Thanks for checking on us!

Thank goodness for cardiology check-ups

Bryson just had his cardiology appt. Things look o.k., but now we know why he is a bit not himself. His aorta has narrowed again, causing the blood flow to be restricted. This can cause leg cramps, blueness (more than normal), fatigue, and as a mom I will say awnryness. When you arn't feeling well because of restircted blood flow, I think I would be awnry too. The cardiologist told me that when he feels for his pulses in his wrist and leg they should be felt at the same time, however his are not, his leg pulse is delayed, his blood pressure in his arm and leg are quite different and the echo showed restiricted blood flow, all indications that the aorta has narrowed again. So now we wait to hear from that cath lab as to when they can schedule him in to balloon it back open. This is something he has had done before, and will need to have done again, however we kinda got in a groove of normal. It is just another reminder that as 'normal' of a kid as he may appear, he does live with a life threatening condition. So we are grateful that it wasn't the news that he needs a new heart already, but a gentle reminder of what a blessing he is in our lives and that someday the time for a new heart will come.

more basketball

So now Brock has just started Jr.Jazz basketball, Preston is still playing on the travel team, and Ashlee is getting ready for a weekend tournament as well. So it is all basketball here at our house! We are looking forward to warmer weather, and summer.
On a side note, Ashlee made the school play. Susical the Musical, she is Maizy the bird!! Yea Ashlee!!

I thought for sure this blog updated itself.?!.?!

Everytime I have gotten on our blog I was hoping to find that the blog fairies had updated our blog. Well for my reality check it sits waiting for me.
This week is Congential Heart Defect Awareness Week. So wear red and wear it proud! We are always greatful for Brysons continued progress. I goes back to cardiology for a echo in a few months so stay tuned to hear of his progress!
Ashlee was playing 8th grade basketball and loving it until she hurt her shoulder and is now in a sling. So now we do physical therapy and wait for it to heal. She said the other day that she sure like play ball more than watching it. So here is to a quick recovery.
Preston is playing on a travel team and has really enjoyed it. He plays in a tournament this weekend in Rock Springs, so if I remember my camera I will post pics.
Brock is starting our local little league basketball. He is so excited to get in on the action.
Eric is still busy refing high school basketball, so that leaves Bryson and I to follow all the action. We love it!!!
Well I keep trying to post pics of the kids, but my computer won't let me, so imagine if you will lots of basketball pics and lots of cheering!