Busy January

Not only did he turn 11, he earned a bunch of awards in scouts, participated in the Pinewood Derby, and competed in the Lego League! He earned his Webelos, Arrow of Light, Religious Knot, and some pins. This scouting thing is hard(more so on the mom's I think)!

Lego League competition at the U. They won first prize in one of the categories and Fischer LOVED it! 

The girls tried to stay entertained by running up and down the ramp...

7 and 11

In January we celebrated Dallin's 7th birthday and Fischer's 11th birthday. Can't believe how fast these handsome boys are growing up!      

Bathroom Facelift

 We have THIS lovely bathroom. We haven't been using it because it was ripped apart and always had tools stored in it. I avoided it at all costs. After having only 1 bathroom for 6 people the past few months, I decided it was time to make it usable. The shower was torn out because it was terrible..can't find any pictures of it, but believe me it was bad. So this is our face-lift for our half bath!

A lot of paint and some new handles, mirror, rug, towels and wallaaaa!

 

London's surgery

London has had kidney reflux since she was just 7 weeks old. She had to be on a daily antibiotic to prevent infections. Every year she gets tested to make sure everything is okay and if the kidneys have changed. This past test in May showed that it had actually gotten worse. The doctor recommended surgery for both kidneys to fix the problem. So, in September we had that done. It was a long day of waiting at Primary Children's Medical Center... they gave us a surgery time and then it kept getting delayed. And poor London, couldn't eat all day and as it kept getting delayed it got harder and harder. The meds they gave her to calm her down and so she would willingly go with the anesthesiologist, made her loopy. It was pretty funny, she perked right up. The nurses were surprised that it didn't make her sleepy. She finally got in a 6:30pm...we said our prayers and waved good-bye...

Daddy got to stay the night with her, but Mom wanted to snuggle all day.

 Thank goodness for visiting sisters to make her smile. It was the first smile all day.

 She rode in the wagon around the hospital, visited by Grandparents, and stories from Grandma.

 They said if she could pee on her own they would let her go home. That didn't come until the second day in the hospital, She had two stents draining as well. It was hard to see her have to go through all this so young. And then, when she was able to be released they decided her heart rate was too high and they wanted to keep an eye on her for awhile longer...

Right before we headed home...great smile! Ramen noodles and fruit...yumm. The hospital staff was awesome, they really have things figured out there. It took over a week at home to be able to get back to normal. She had a lot of pain and was up most nights crying. The pain medicine didn't seem to do anything to help her. It was so hard to not be able to really do anything to help her. She made it through (and so did we). Tests showed everything was working great, no more antibiotics (YAY!!!) What a blessing to have this over with and have good health!

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

I have been dreading this day for a long time... She isn't a baby anymore!

Berkelie wasn't so sure about this party thing...

 Not once did we get a smile out of her, and she is usually always smiley.

 The other kids LOVED helping her with her presents.

 Birthday cupcake

 One thing she was sure of, she LOVED the cupcake. She ate the whole thing and didn't stop for anything, except to lick her fingers of course.

 Party guests, also Grandma Ham and Grandma and Grandpa Packer were there.

We love you Berkelie Boo!

Thanksgiving 2010

What a blessing to have family around. Through our trials this year, that is one thing we were never lacking in is family that was willing to help. We have truly been blessed.

I just realized the pictures I took from Thanksgiving are on my sister's camera... This was part of the fun though. Since we took up Andrea's house, my parents stayed in a hotel close by. The kids had a blast swimming when it was FREEZING(actually below that) outside.

Berkelie and I enjoying from the sidelines.

 London and Ryan.

 Dallin, Ashlee, Brianna, and Hailey swimming.

We will have to post pictures of the kids playing and dinner later!

May 25, 2010

Beware... this is disgusting. As I am debating putting this on the blog I am getting emotional about it. Here goes... So, we bought a house the middle of May and about a week after we closed, we found the basement flooded, luckily we hadn't moved in yet. As Ryan started to pull up the carpet to get it to dry and pull off the wood paneling, this is what we found....

This is sheetrock and the black stuff is mold... rotted 2x4s, had to be completely gutted.

This is the main reason I haven't blogged for the past 6 months. This house consumed our life. We debated walking away from it because it really wasn't livable. We had many sleepless nights and fought legal battles about who was to blame, everyone obviously blamed someone else. In the end, we had to just buck up and fix the problem and move on. We are trying to move on. We ended up remodeling a lot more than we planned and now have a safe home to live in. Trials are a way to grow and be stronger right? Life never goes how you plan but things will work out.

Sigh of relief, don't want to relive this.

Pictures of the better stuff coming soon.

We have before and afters of the main floor remodeling.

Happy Halloween!

Rainy and cold Halloween night! Grandama came over and stayed home with Berkelie, which was great. We went to a friends' house and the kids went around their block and got soaked. Then followed them up to the "Witch's House", they said it was fun, but my kids were freaked out! London still talks about how the lady scared her. The boys then went around our neighborhood to finish off the night. The girls got warm at home while watching"How to Train Your Dragon".

Outing to Gardner Village

So far behind...

I really want to have this blog up to date, the only problem with that is I'm not sure who will do that! It is officially 6 months behind but with everything that has happened in the past 6 months, it's like ten years worth of events. It's an overwelming task, so maybe I will just start from now and do the past ones every once in awhile. Sound like a plan??:)

No More Monkeys...

London LOVES to jump off of things and she has had some pretty hard falls. We ALWAYS ask her not to and tell her to not jump off certain things because she really has no fear. Well, sunday afternoon she decided to jump off of the office chair and there were no witnesses, but we assume it spun and she landed just right on her arm and broke her elbow! She really wasn't crying that hard, but couldn't move it. Ryan took her to the Instacare almost immediately. They put a temporary cast on it and wrapped it. We tried to keep her from doing more damage until she got her cast on, which was a challenge! Barbie movies helped keep her calm and down for awhile.:) She needs help doing so many things because it's her right arm!

4 weeks can't come soon enough!