Spring?!?!

Where are you spring?!?!

*Note the dates on these pictures......

(Photo taken 4/26/10)

(Photo taken 4/30/10)

8 Is Great!

Cole celebrated his 8th birthday and 8 truly is great! He thinks that being baptized will be fine but he is REALLY excited for cub scouts!

His birthday was on a weekday so we just celebrated as a family. Somehow we have started the tradition of waking up to a few birthday presents so that's what we did again. He got to open them before breakfast and school. I think it's a great way to start the day myself!

The next day he celebrated with his friends. We invited three friends to come miniture golfing. The idea was to go to Boon Docks which has a fun course that we have played before but because of the blizzard the day before we opted for an indoor course at Trafalga. I supremely underestimated the amount of time it would take to get there!! And it didn't help that the traffic was horrible. Lehi Main street is always slow but that day it was backed up march farther than usual. I was anxious to get to the freeway but to my chagrin the freeway was equally slow. I had 5 boys and a girl wondering "are we there yet? and "how long does it take to get there?"

To make matters worse, the preferred entertainment was bodily fuctions (ie burping and farting). This was a real eye opener for me. I was the oldest of sisters until my baby brother came along at the end and we either trained him well or he just wasn't as gross as all other boys! So you can imagine how long the car ride felt with all that!

We eventually arrived and it was great because it was a blue light course and it doesn't get more fun than glowing socks and shoelaces! The boys (and girl who is sister and buddy to the birthday boy) had a blast and everyone was very cute and totally happy to just be there.

You may have thought that our adventure had come to a close, but it hadn't. We finished golfing much later than anticipated (due to our lengthy time in the car and to having to wait for a group of college kids in front of us) and everyone was STARVING! It was almost 6pm after all so it's understandable. So we piled into the car and headed toward the freeway, only to see that it was still SOOOO slow even going the opposite direction. There was no way I was taking my gassy guests on that slow freeway. Justin fortunately knew a back way. We started heading beyond the freeway into industrial areas and eventually farm land, on windy roads. Macie lasted only 7 minutes before she was complaining about being car-sick. I knew she had a tummy ache but it was mostly because she was starving, but she really felt like she would throw up. That put me in a panic because throwing up kind of has a chain reaction effect, and I was not capable of dealing with multiple pukers. No Way! I gave Macie a baggy and then tried to steer the conversation away from that. What made it hard was that one little buddy in particular could burp and fart on command and it was such a hit that it was hard for him to resist doing it, all the time. The other challenge for us was that we were driving through a lot of farm country and you can imagine the odor that drifted, or bombarded its way, into the car. That was not helping. Meanwhile, Justin is giving me directions (I'm driving because he still can't really bend his knee), I'm trying to help Macie to think about something else and stop crying because it wasn't helping matters, and I felt like we are in the middle of nowhere. We managed finally to get to Little Caesar's which is where we planned to pick up pizza for dinner on the way home. Macie and I got out of the car rather than going through the drive-thru (for obvious reasons) and grabbed some pizza so we could get home and out of the car for good!

Just as we pulled into our driveway (which is about 4 minutes from Little Caesar's) Macie threw up. It was barely anything but you should have seen how fast we all got out of that car! And no one was more relieved than I to be home. It was 7pm and we started this whole ordeal, I mean party, at 4pm. Everyone recovered within seconds and they all inhaled the pizza, and I mean that literally! Cole had a blast and I have to admit, since it's been almost a week now, that it was fun, memorable and makes a great story :)

Lady Killer!

Recently Macie has given up on being agreeable about wearing weather appropriate clothing. She says she is tired of winter clothes (aren't we all?) and just wants summer so she can wear "pretty" clothes. So mornings at our house are a bit tense because I'm not patient when it comes to arguements about wearing skirts and tank tops in the 16 degree weather.

One morning we had a particularly bad arguement and Macie ended up wearing something not "pretty" and was very sad about it, and I was mad about starting the morning off so badly.

We piled into the car to get everyone to school and Cole decided to help, even though I'm not sure he completely understood the reasons for the argument. I got in the car in time to hear Cole saying this to Macie......"Macie, if you want the boys to be all over you, you have to choose to be cute. Just look at me, I chose to be handsome and the girls are ALL OVER ME!!

Cole is extremely modest and humble, and all that ;). Earlier this year I overheard him telling Macie again how all the girls in the neighborhood and his class love him but he thinks it's because he dresses "cool." He was sitting at the counter on a bar stool and said "it's no wonder all the girls love me, just look at this shirt." He was wearing a t-shirt that said Rock On (not that exciting but evidently it drives the girls crazy!!)

New Year, New Knee?

This picture shows the bruising, this is pre-surgery

This is post surgery, obviously, and shows the 21 staples, pain pump and drain, and all the doctor's doodles on his knee!

Justin wanted to document Dr. Kimball's sewing skills. The drain is sewn in nice and tight!

So it's a well known fact that Justin has a few broken body parts, past and present :) Well, last month he was bringing in the garbage can from the curb when he hit a patch of ice and slipped just enough to fall and dislocate his knee. He is no stranger to this either. The first time he dislocated it he was on his mission and since then it has happened a number of times. He has even had surgery on it twice before. Evidently he has genetically screwed up knees and he says we can thank his dad for that, so Thanks Dennis!!

This time the fall broke off a little fragment of his knee cap and tore a few other things, all of which I don't know how to pronounce. We took a fun trip to the ER, at night of course because why would anything ever happen during the day on a weekday?!?! They told us it's bad news and that we need to get into the orthopedic specialist. Not surprising. The surprising part.....our new insurance was not accepted by our ortho guy that we loved. Thankfully we found Dr. Kimball who accepts our insurance and could get Justin in for surgery fast.

On February 18th, two weeks after his ice capades stunt, Justin had knee surgury. And let me just say that this was no minor surgery. The doctor shaved off bone, smoothed out knicks, razored off cartilage, re-aligned Justin's knee cap and there is even a screw in there (for good measure or something?!?!) Justin is successfully becoming the bionic man, one limb at a time :) He is recovering now. It is a slow and very NOT FUN process. Everything seems to be healing correctly and we have been told that this surgery should fix the problem until Justin needs a total knee replacement when we're old fogies (is that how you spell that?!?).

Needless to say, Justin has successfully gotten out of garbage duty for the rest of his life!!

The Big 5!!!

Macie, Ellie, Claire, Avery, Shelby and Emma

Macie celebrated her 5th birthday on the 13th. Macie woke up to a little pile of presents which she opened like a pro. We had a quick breakfast of Justin's specialty, wheat pancakes, which are a big hit at our house. We cruised to Cole's last basketball game of the season then cruised home just in time for Macie's princess party. Macie usually gets nice spring weather for her birthday but not this year. It was a total blizzard! But we didn't let that dampen our spirits :)

We invited Macie's friends for lunch (pizza and grapes at Macie's request), a wild rendition of the animal game (where Cole ended the game as a tree, which was tricky because we were guessing animals since it is the "animal" game and all), cupcakes, making a bracelet and a treasure hunt. Cole was a great helper and was known as "grape boy" because it was his job to bring the grapes when there was a request for more. The princesses were super cute and most of the bracelets turned out cute too. Justin and I were a little challenged when it came to getting the knot to stay so Claire, Avery and Macie had to make theirs twice!

We ended the birthday celebration with dinner, cake and ice cream. Just the 4 of us. Then we all danced around to Macie's Birthday Mix CD that Justin made for her. When I say all, I mean Cole, Macie and I danced. Justin hasn't done much dancing in the past few weeks for obvious reasons!! Her favorites are "Pour Some Sugar on Me" (yes, by Def Leppard) and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."

Go Gators!!

Cole's team: Jared, Cole, Carlos, Mason, Coach Monroy, Alan, Tommy, Dallin and Isaiah

Basketball season was great this year. Cole had a great team and a great coach. The kids looked like they really got it this year. It has been fun to see the progress over the years. Two years ago basketball was great fun with little or no idea what was going on and what you were supposed to be doing. It was complete mayhem and very fun to be a spectator. This year the kids understood offense and defense and were pretty good at playing as a team rather than just being ball hogs :). There was a little more strategy which made it very exciting. I also will admit to becoming a little more competitive myself. I was surprised by how mad I got at the other team's players, coaches, refs, etc when I thought things were unfair or just plain wrong! These are 1st and 2nd graders here. I'm worried because I think it will only get worse!

Phew!

The holidays are over. It was another fun Christmas and New Year but I have to say that I am, as usual, glad to be done. I like getting back to the routine. I also am glad to be finished with all the yummy goodies that we have around during the holidays. Not only do I lack any self control, but my kids think they need dessert after EVERY meal and snacks! We are working on getting rid of that mentality, for them anyway. I still sneak treats after breakfast but the key is to not let them see me!

We had a fabulous holiday season. It was so fun to get Christmas cards and letters from our friends and family. I love hearing and seeing how everyone is doing. We will someday reciprocate and send some too, but you may not want to hold your breath :)

I have been thinking a lot lately about how fortunate we are to be surrounded by so many good people. There are positive influences and great support all around and I am so thankful for that. So in lieu (wow, that is a word I'm not sure I spelled correctly!) of a Christmas card this year I will just say Thank You to all. We would not be where we are without you!!!

Also, here are a few holiday pictures I wanted to share......(and they are not in any particular order because I am clearly blogger-challenged and can't make them go where I want them!)