Hello, we're your neighbors!

So when you welcome someone to the neighborhood what do you do?
Introduce yourself?
Bring over a plate of cookies and chat for awhile?
Help them unpack?
Draw them a nice picture?

Well, that's what Chloe and her friend did. They drew our new neighbor a picture of some beautiful stars. But this very special neighbor didn't get it on an ordinary piece of paper. She got it on her new car. She didn't just get one star, but multiple stars, all around her car. Did she get a beautiful picture with crayons? no. paint? no, but a nice piece of bark that can really get in the clear coat to make it stay forever. What a lucky neighbor she is right?

Welcome to the neighborhood!

I'm glad this neighbor wasn't a grumpy one, she wasn't to thrilled about it, but she was glad that we told her and that the girls apologized. The total damage $100. Chloe has already dumped out her purse, wallet, piggy bank and started filling a jar to pay us back. did she have her half of $50...nope. She will be working for the rest and probably for the next little while.

I was SO sad when she finally fessed up saying that she was one who drew on the car. I honestly didn't think she would do something like that. but I guess kids will be kids, and sometimes, they just don't think things all the way through. I think she's learned her lesson though, I hope so anyway. She was pretty upset while she was dumping her money in the jar. I explained to her what vandalism is and told her that people can actually go to jail for it. No, I didn't make her think she was going, but I wanted her to know the seriousnesshe did. So...anyone need any help around the house or yard? I know a girl who doesn't' charge much. ;)

10 days later

Chloe had a Dr. appointment to get her finger checked. The Dr. said it should heal better than he thought. Me on the other hand, I'm still skeptical. I don't it looked very good. Yes, it looked better than I thought it would, I thought the whole finger from the knuckle up would be black and blue. but it was just the tip. The part right below the nail bed is the part I'm worried about. It still look smashed a bit and a pretty good chunk of skin is gone. I know skin grows back, but, I'm not to sure the concaveness <---- is that even a real word? oh well, I'm gonna make it one. =) is even gonna look normal again. It's not as bad as what it was before but who knows how much more it'll round back out. The Dr. was happy with the way it looked, but I'm still wishing that this didnt' happen =( I wasn't expecting it to look normal today but it's still kind of upsetting to see it, especially it being your own child.
She was so brave. The other day, she said: "mom, I think I know how my finger will look, I don't think the nail will be there yet, and I think it'll be black and blue, because you can see through the top part and it's really dark" I told her she was right and that it would have some of the blood dried on it because she wouldn't let them clean it. She seemed kind of freaked about the blood part, she doesn't do to well seeing her own blood. When the doctor was unwrapping her finger I could tell it hurt a little, she winced a few times and said "owey" but she didn't cry until she caught a glimpse and he wiped it little, and again I wanted to cry right along with her. =( Vince did take another picture with his phone. it's not very good, but I guess that's what you get with a camera phone. He want's to see it again in 2 weeks, so we'll see how much better it looks then.

Ever wish you could take your childs pain for yourself? I'm sure every mom out there has, and yesterday I wished that it was possible. Yesterday Chloe broke her finger. Vince snapped a couple pictures with his phone and she was not to happy about getting her picture taken.

Chloe came home from school at 3. She asked to go out and play with her friends I said no, you don't get to play with friends until I can see the floor in you bedroom. She went up stairs to clean. About 5 minutes later, there was a knock on the door, knowing it had to be a friends Chloe ran downstairs to answer the door. It was a neighbor boy asking if Vince could fix the chain on his bike since his dad wasnt' home. Vince being the bike mechanic he is ran out to grab a few tools to fix it up (and probably make it better) Chloe asked if she could watch daddy fix it, I told her yes and that she could wait outside by her friend. That's when it all happened. Vince was going out the back door while Chloe was going out the front door and because it was so windy yesterday the wind swept through the house slamming the front door right on Chloe right index finger ripping her finger nail off with it, now it just didn't slam and bounce off when it hit her hand, it slammed so hard the door was closed shut with her little finger in there! I don't think I've ever heard anyone scream like she did in my life. I threw my laptop on the floor(yes, I was wasting my time on Pinterest) ran over opened the door and saw a bloody finger that was smashed FLAT! yes, it was flat and concave from the the pressure of the door. It was the WORST SIGHT EVER!!! I thought for sure the bone in her finger was shattered. Vince's thought as he ran over was that it had been cut off thinking of a similar story that happened to a friend. I'm SO SO SO glad that wasn't the case! I ran out the door carrying Chloe and sped down main street going about 60mph with her screaming in the back seat "it hurts, it hurts so bad" and all I could say was " I know, we're almost there!" that's when I realized she was in shock. She asked, "where are we going and why does my finger hurt so bad?" I looked at her and said "do you not remember what just happened?" No she did not remember anything, she said she was out playing with friends.

I wish now that the picture showed it from a side angle so you could see how flat and concave it looked, but picture taking was the last thing on my mind at that moment.

We walk into the office with her screaming (and I do not blame her at all) I sign her in, and they take up back into their little ER look-a-like room. I laid her on the bed and she said over and over "I wish this didn't' have to happen" That broke my heart! I felt so bad! The Dr comes in and looks at it and says "we need to take an X-Ray. They take us into another room and we sit Chloe down and it took the nurse and Vince to hold Chloe's finger down flat. She did not want to relax it or set it down on anything. Once we got that over with the Dr. looked at it and said "her growth plate it broken, I'm recommending you take her to this specialist"

You can see in this picture that she wouldn't lay her finger flat for anything.

We get to Dr. Larson (the specialist) and by this time her finger was completley black and blue and swollen. Dr. Larson was nice and did a very good job with her but did not look like a Dr. at all, but only in Idaho will a Dr walk in wearing wranglers, a big belt buckle and cowboy boots, the only thing he was missing was his hat. (which was probably in his office) he looked at the xray and said, with the way it moved it was all still aligned and would be okay and surgery will most likely not be needed. He wrapped pink splint around her finger prescribed Tylenol with codeine set an appt for 10 days and sent us on our way.

I always thought with how wild and crazy and daring Brayden is that he would have been the first to break a bone, but Chloe beat him to it by walking out the front door. Poor girl! She is doing much better today, she said it's still sore but not as bad as yesterday!

Maui, Dec. 2010

We went to Hawaii the week before Christmas, that was amazing! I LOVED it! and wish I was back. did you ever see the movie, Just Go With It with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler, the Hotel they were at was the exact same one we were at. yeah I've said it before, I'm not gonna lie, I'm gonna brag about it, it was that nice. ;) and no we did not pay for it, (if only we could spend $600+. a night on 1 room) Apex(Vivint) was kind enough to finally realize that Vince really does work his butt off and knows more than the people that get paid the big bucks and invited us on their Corporate trip. They chartered our very own plane to get us all there and paid for some very nice meals (where you only get like a tiny portion and a huge decorated plate.) but very yummy! Hawaii is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! if you can't tell.

The plane departed from Million-aire terminal in SLC-fancy I know! ;)

The hotel from the beach

One of the many pools/water slides and entrance to Water Elevator

Our view at Breakfast every morning

The gardens were BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

The Wailea Beach at sunset

Sunrise from our balcony

Road to Hana....Beautiful Drive!!! a must if you go to Maui!!!

o'heo gulch--swim in the 7 sacred pools and be welcomed into heaven. a dangerous climb to the other six, but maybe on the next trip ;)
black sand beachThe road to Hana was about 600 curves and 50 somthing one lane bridges. I recommend driving this by yourself, not on a tour,(buy the cd though) get a jeep so you won't get so car sick.

whale watching....

this was about all we saw though

but it was at sunset so it was a very nice boat ride.

Ohhhh going through those pictures made me miss it!! I'm not sure if the video worked, it's just looking like a black box right now...sorry.

1st day of Kindergarten!

Well today was the day, Chloe started kindergarten!! She was SO excited this morning that she was dressed before she even came out of her room. After she was all ready and ate, she kept asking "is it time to go yet?" When we got to school we were standing outside of the door waiting for her teacher to come the kids kept trying to open the door and look inside they were all pretty excited. Her teacher, Mrs. Milner finally came and she was So sweet! She asked all the names right there in the hallway, which I think was an evil plan made with her and the principal (just kidding) because the principal started talking about an important meeting tonight and the next thing I knew all the kids were gone inside the class. I was kinda sad, I wanted to say goodbye atleast and get a few pictures of her in the class, oh well, atleast I got some before school.



Once I got home I anxiously watched the time waiting for her to get home to hear all about her first day. at 2:35 I was out with a few other mom's waiting for the bus to arrive. 3 buses passed and they finally showed up. Chloe was so cute, she was sitting right next to the window in good view with a HUGE smile on her face!! (I wish I would have gotten a picture of that but I waved back instead) She jumped right off the bus and ran up to me with a big hug! She loved it!! I asked her if she knew any kids in the class besides the neighbors and she said "no, and there's not even any mean boys like there were in preschool!" well that's good!! ;) She loved her teacher! I'm SO happy she loves school! Hopefully she'll keep up with this attitude.

After months of trying I FINALLY got Chloe into the last session of swimming lessons!!! YAY! I was nervous she wasn't going to get into anything this year! Today was her last day and boy was she sad! She LOVED it this year, she liked it last year to but was alot more confidant this year. She has this thing about getting her face wet, she HATES it!!! On the first day of lessons, she was asking for a rainbow colored sno cone, I made her a deal....If she put her face in the water everyday and jumped off the diving board by herself on the last day then I would buy her a rainbow colored sno-cone. Well after 2 weeks of getting her face wet, jumping in from the side of the pool, and then the diving board we still haven't gotten her a sno-cone, we were in line, but it was SO slow and Brayden was hungry and tired so we promised her after his nap we'd take her to the one here in Rexburg.
I was SO SO SO proud of her, she passed the class this year and she was to the point of dunking her head in the water and coming up with a smile on her face! she had a GREAT teacher! Here are the videos of last year and the huge difference of this year! **funny story...After the diving board last year she told me she couldn't jump in because she was a mermaid and couldn't stand on her fins that's why they had to drop her in. hee hee her imagination makes me laugh.

I felt so bad that she was up there screaming and yelling "I want my mommy" I was laughing and probably the only mom crying watching her up there.



This year, she walked right out there...I noticed her teacher wasn't in the middle yet waiting for her, I had to tell her to wait or she probably would have jumped off without her. =)

I really don't want summer to end!!!

YAY!!! another blog post!! maybe I'll start keeping it up again.=) A few weeks ago we met some friends at Porter Park and ate lunch and then played over at the splash park! It was so fun to see old friends again!! and Brayden FINALLY got wet! I took him over to one of the low water spouts and put my foot in it, he looked at me and did the same then got the biggest smile on his face and yelled "fwimmin" then another little boy came over to the spout next to us and sat down right on top of it! haha Brayden decided to do the same, and for the next 30 minutes or so played in the little fountain and had SO much fun! Chloe also got pretty soaked which is not normal for her either, any drop of water on her face she usually freaks out about! (yeah try washing her hair!) Brayden also has the weirdest fear ever....carousels, he thinks the horses bite! he hasn't gotten on one or touched one all summer till Auntie Jana got on with him and he was pretty happy!




We also went to the Blue Angels Air Show on the 24th! It was so fun! I've never seen the blue angles before, I wanted to watch instead of take pictures so I could really pay attention to the show. So....since Vince said he's seen them I handed the camera over to him, showed him the basics and let him at it, I thought he did pretty good!
We had a really good view for the show, we didn't get tickets to go inside and I'm so glad, I heard it was a nightmare!! We sat in a top secret parking lot by my dad's office. okay not really top secret, but secret enough, lets just say there were gaurds around the building and we couldn't even go inside to use the bathroom, so we had to drive over to my grandma's house if we needed to go. My dad brought this little grill and grilled up some burgers for lunch. YUM!! my dad is the best griller (is that a word) ever!! and not to mention the cutest show before, during and after the show ever! Chloe and Brayden played on this rock for most of the afternoon, they danced and made funny faces, jumped off pretending to be Buzz Lightyear and showed off their huge and rippling muscles! I have to say that these 2 kids are the cutest ever!!