Cook Family Blog

2009-12-20T21:22:00.000-08:00

Saturday afternoon I gathered the family together. They were all excited-NOT. I told them I had something I wanted to do.

I then proceeded to hand them all the gifts I had put under the tree for them. They were in shock, we never open presents early (despite Kyle's days and days of trying to convince me every year that we really do open presents on Christmas Eve).

They all opened their boxes to find a Seasons Pass to Six Flags, then they were told they had 10 minutes to get ready, we were leaving to go. After that they actually perked up (once the shock wore off). Now you have to understand that we have lived here 11 years, 11 months and a little more than 11 days and have never been there, despite it being only 45 min. from our house (ok, actually the boys had both gone there once for a middle school field trip), we are not theme park going people (yes it is true, our kids have never been to the D-land place).

Once we got there, all the boys and Krystal took off to go on the scary rides. The girls and I went off in search the good rides. We got a little lost and ended up finding all the animals before we found the rides. The tigers are huge (I'm pretty sure that the fence was at least 20 feet tall, so we were safe from tiger attacks, and we didn't try to taunt it. It's feet looked almost as big as my head.)

There was an elephant out that you could pet. All the animal areas had workers by them to tell you about the animals. It was kind of neat.

I think the male lion wanted its picture taken, it was looking the other way, right after I took a picture, it turned to look at me, so I had to take another one.

There is a snow hill that you can sled down. Cammie was scared so I had to go with her the first time, then she wanted to go by herself. When she was almost down, her sled crossed over the divider and ran into another kid in the next lane. She didn't look like it was much fun. We all thought it was funny.

We finished the day with the dolphin show. We were warned not to sit in the front. They make the dolphins splash all the front rows of people. I was glad we listened to the warnings. We stayed dry.

By the end, everyone had had a good (although cold) time.

Why this made a great present:

5. Everyone liked it (halfway there Travis realized it was actually a season pass, not a one day thing, his look of shock was priceless).

4. One-Stop (web-site) shopping for 8 people.

3. It can be used over and over for a year.

2. Using it will be a good family activity and create good memories.

1. IT DOES NOT MAKE A MESS IN THE HOUSE OR ADD CLUTTER.

Halloween Week Highlights

2009-11-05T08:58:00.000-08:00

I did something very unusual for me. I chaperoned not one, but two field trips. I am the parent that never even helps out in the classroom, so this really is odd. It was actually OK.

First was Sandra's trip to the DOW Wetlands in Pittsburgh. I didn't even know this place existed. We had fun being pretend scientists. First we explored what kinds of critters are in the water, and at the bottom of the wetlands food pyramid. The kids got to suction them out of the water and look at them through a magnifier.

Then we went on a nature hike to find evidences of some of the larger animals. We found lots of scat. Our guide handled the scat and taught us how to look at it and the food remains in it to figure out what kind of animal it came from. We saw some from otters, coyotes, and prairie squirrels. I don't think this is something I will be doing on my own. It was a very windy and cold day, but the kids still had fun.

Next I went to Smith Family Farms with Cammie's class. I can't even figure out how many times I have been there. I think this will probably be the last one, and I am not even sad about that.

Friday saw me back at the school (I know three times in one week is REALLY amazing, another mom even pointed this out for me) to see Sandra in her 3rd grade musical. It was done during the day. I think this was probably one of the better ones. It was all about Halloween. Sandra had two speaking parts in it. Andrew was working from home that day, so hewas able to go with me.

That night Andrew and I went out again (like two dates in one day-almost like my single days again, but this was with the same guy) to buy a new refrigerator. We had been putting this off for as long as possible, but finally I was tired of cleaning up water all day that dripped out of the freezer due to condensation from a leaky seal, and dealing with a fridge door that often wouldn't stay shut.

Saturday, I took Travis to UC Berkley for a diabetes eye clinical trial. He spent two hours having different tests done on his eyes to try to monitor the effects of diabetes on the eyes.

Between all these extra activities and my normal busyness, I had to make Halloween costumes. I had failed to get these done in time for the ward party the week before. I tried to convince the girls it was better not to have them for that because we were eating dinner there and didn't want to risk spilling spaghetti on them. It worked. I did manage to get them done before school started on Friday so they could wear them then. Cammie was only a few minutes late, and she decided it was OK not to have her fairy wings at school anyways because they are annoying. Sadly, I didn't manage to get them done on Saturday either. Luckily Cammie is very easy-going about those kinds of things. She was just in love with her dress.

The last day of the trip

2009-10-16T21:03:00.001-07:00

On our final part of the journey, we decided to stop by Lake Shasta and see the beautiful water. This is what we saw.

We had stopped at this spot before, and had fun hiking along the water, skipping rocks in it and enjoying the scenery. This time it was all dry. Normally the water fills the valley to the right of this road.

At another stop we found some toys to play on, but still no water we could get to.

After much driving around and asking for help, we finally found a way to the water. We had to go on a scary dirt road, I had been assured by the friendly guy who gave me directions, that I would be fine taking my van down, since he had just driven down it in his non-4wheel drive truck. Getting down to the water was not a problem. Getting back up almost was. Sadly, it still wasn't a beach area that we could play in, but it was nice to actually succeed in our quest of getting to the lake.

Sandra and I walked into the water. This really freaked Fletcher out, and he dug his heels in, then started to lay in the mud, to keep away from the water.

Crooked River Canyon

2009-10-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

A beautiful stop. The Crooked River Vally Gorge. The drop off here is over 300 feet. There are signs all over telling you to leave dogs in your car, because many have fallen to their death. The signs have pictures of dogs falling off a cliff. I was cautious and let my dog stay in the car. That would have been a bit too tragic for me. The valley is so deep, that it made me a bit dizzy to try to look down it. I had to be brave for the girls.

North Pole or Equator

2009-10-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

Do you know which is closer; the North Pole or the Equator? For a few minutes today, we were right in the middle. I am happy to be heading back towards the equator and warmer weather.

Shoe Tree

2009-10-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

We are on our way home. We are stopping to see interesting things along the way. This is the Shoe Tree. It is in northern Oregon along Hwy 97. It is a dead tree covered in shoes. There are hundreds of shoes tied on and tossed over the branches. We were wishing we had some shoes to add to it.

Cammie's Sad Picture

2009-10-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

Cammie drew this picture a few days ago on my phone. She was getting a bit homesick and was really missing her dad.

My Grandma

2009-10-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

This is my grandma. She is the one whose history/memory books I went to copy. I managed to finish all 15 books. It took around 25 hours of work all together. Grandma is 92 years old. She started keeping memory books when she was in high school. As she had kids, she just kept everything in boxes, then as they got older, she sorted things out, then finally put them into books. It is not too late for me. Most of her books were about her kids and grandkids. It was fun to see all the pictures and write-ups about all the family events from when I was a kid.

Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

2009-10-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

Grilled Marshmallow/Chocolate Chip Sandwiches

1)Spread slices of bread with marshmallow cream and melted chocolate chips.

2) Put together sanwich style, then brush melted butter on outsides.

3) Grill both sides to toasty golden brown. Enjoy

For Dessert: Fruit Pizza

A meal you would only get at Grandma's House.

2009-10-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday the girls, their cousins, and my dad went swimming in Yakima's indoor pool. Apparently the water was cold, it took a lot of persuasion to keep them swimming.

This is Cammie and her cousin, who is just a few weeks younger than her.

They have the same smile.

This is my Dad showing his grandchildren a Totem Pole he helped carve. My dad has always loved working with wood. This last year, he and a friend took on the project of making this pole for a family member of his friend. It took them about 9 months of carving, preserving and painting to finish. Now it is waiting for the spring to be transported to its resting place. As compensation, the person who commisioned the pole, is sending my parents on a trip to New Zealand, where my dad served his mission.

Fair Day

2009-10-03T19:04:00.001-07:00

Friday we went to the fair. I have not been to a fair for many,many, many years. It involves a lot of walking around.

The girls had fun collecting freebies from the information booths, and looking at all thejunk people were trying to sell.

(Here they are banging on a lot of rusty stuff,

that is an attraction there)

We walked around and saw lots of animals. The girls were a little sad to learn that these were not pet animals, and that they were intended to be eaten. Mindy started wondering if she wanted to eat meat anymore, now that she had seen the pigs, cows, and chickens that most of what she eats comes from.

Of course, we indulged in some yummy fair food. GIANT Elephant Ears, covered in cinnamon sugar, that filled us up for the rest of they day. I'm already craving more of the chewy, warm, fried deliciousness.

My Set-Up

2009-10-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

The real purpose for this trip is so that I could work on copying my grandmothers history. For several years I have been wanting to copy her many books of family history/memory books. About a year and a half ago I decided that with the good quality of scanner/printers I could come up and just copy everything, then go have it professionaly copied and bound into books for any other relatives that wanted it. I made plans to come during this break from school, and then had the happy realization that I now had a laptop, so I could just scan the books into it, which would be much faster than scanning and printing.

Today I went to my grandmother's to get the books. I had thought she had about 9 or 10 books. My mom thought she had about 5. It turns out there are 15. This is going to be much bigger than I thought. I managed to get 2 books copied tonight. Luckily I have a whole week to get this done.

Vacation

2009-09-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

We are off on our "Girls Only" trip to Washington. The girls have really liked being free of the boys and the male push "to just get there". We have made some random stops at places along the way that looked interesting. (Although the stops have been short due to the 40 degree drop in temperatures that we were not prepared for-one of our stops was to Wal-Mart for jackets.)

Here are the girls during our stop at Stonehenge overlooking the Columbia River.

Sandra is 8

2009-02-23T08:46:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was Sandra's birthday. Friday night she had a roller skating slumber party, with a few of her best friends. There was lots of falling down, a few tears, lots of friends helping each other, tons of fun, and very tired girls by the end. She even let Mindy and Cammie tag along.

She received some neat presents, from her friends and family.

She chose to have birthday brownies instead of cake.

My camera battery died, and unfortunately the new one didn't arrive before the party, so I tried to take pictures with my cell phone, but they all turned out blurry. This is about the best I got, Cammie was very proud of her roller skating abilities by the time we left. At first she fell down a lot and was sad, but after about an hour, she was having a great time.

2009-01-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

For some silly reason, I decided that the girls needed new dresses and the boys new ties (boys are much easier) for Christmas this year. They were going to wear them the Sunday before Christmas. When I showed the girls the dresses I had picked out for them, they were happy and excited, except for Sandra, she admitted that she had a very pretty dress, but wanted to know why she had to be different. Apparently, she feels that she often gets the one thing that is a different color, and Mindy and Cammie are always the same. So to appease her, I told her that I would go buy me a green dress to wear, then there would be two green and two red. I did not have much luck in my quest for something green. Fortunately, we had Krystal came during this time. She was totally willing to go spend a day shopping, looking for something green to wear, just so Sandra wouldn't feel different.

Christmas 2008 photos

2008-12-26T14:10:00.000-08:00

All the kids eagerly awaiting the parents getting up so they could open presents.

Trav pretending to crash, to demonstrate the cuddly effects of his new robe.

Misc. pictures of happy kids getting what they wanted.

My new play toy. A 17" notebook, that is all mine, and no one else's.

Oh, what do you do with the packing stuff?

2008-12-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

You know how you want to avoid long lines and crowds at Christmas, so you order lots of presents on-line, so you can really get those special and perfect gifts for the ones you love. And along with your great carefully selected gifts, comes a LOT of packing stuff and tons of boxes. I know you are probably faced with the same dilemma that I have, what do you do with it all. If you dump it in your reclying bin, it will be full and there is no room for all your household reclyables, the same with the garbage.

Well, we came up with a solution.

Grandma, I hope the boxes we shipped arrive soon, and I REALLY hope you like your presents.

1 Rule

2008-11-30T19:20:00.000-08:00

When we got Fletcher I had 1 rule that was not to be broken. I just found out that I am alone in this idea of no dog on the furniture. He secretly sleeps on my bed when I am not in the room, and apparently, is encouraged by the one other person I thought would be all for this rule.

Obligatory Twilight Post

2008-11-21T08:02:00.000-08:00

With it being the day of the much anticipated movie finally opening, I have not yet decided if I am going to go see it. Sadly, the trailers have not made it look super-appealing to me and I am worried that it will be a big disappointment. I found this very entertaining recap of the movie. http://movies.msn.com/movies/galleryfeature/lost-twilight-script/?photoidx=1 (be sure to click through all 10 scenes) It actually had me LOL. However it may have ruined the movie even more.

Monthly Recap

2008-11-02T19:53:00.000-08:00

For fall break, we made the trek to Utah, to spend a week up at Snowbird, so I could attend a yoga class I need for my certification. While there:

We visisted the quarry where rocks were taken from to build the Salt Lake Temple,

The kids had a lot of fun climbing on all the big rocks.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens,

Mindy is going to fight for a spot on the Ark.
Choose your grave size.
Hungry fish.
A worn out family, wishing they could jump into the water behind them.

Kyle went down with Grandpa to finish up his horsemanship merit badge.

Cecret Lake (ok, I didn't do this one, but the kids had a great time)

Again, climbing on rocks was a theme

We participated in two craft activities. The girls all colored t-shirts, and we did string art. This was so much fun that we did more at home.

On the last day of our trip, we had a shower for Christopher and Cassie. I failed to get any pictures of them, so this is stolen from Christine's blog. Thanks Christine, and I know the difficulty you had with that one person blocking you. Where are the pics from the wedding?

And finally Halloween. We had the worst weather we have ever had here, this year. It was cold and rainy. Within a few minutes of fixing the girls hair, it was flat again. Mindy wanted just a very pretty dress, and decided she was a prom girl, Sandra wanted to be Arwen from Lord of the Rings, and Cammie was Tinkerbell. Kyle wore pieces from his costume last year, because he couldn't find anything he really wanted to be, and Travis wore his graduation gown, and went out with a friend, just to get gobs of candy.

2008-09-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

When they are all in the water they look a lot alike. I have to go by goggle color or swimming suit to tell the difference.

The big news is that Cammie officially became a swimmer at the end of the swim season this year. She competed in two meets. The first one was kind of scary, I had a horrid mommy moment and was worried that my kid might drown in front of my eyes, as she took over one and a half minutes to make it across the pool, and about 30 seconds were spent in one spot bobbing up and down. The second meet went much better and she took over 30 seconds off her time. Now if she would only learn to keep her head tucked, she would have a smokin' hot dive, instead of a belly flop.

We had our end of the season awards ceremony. Mindy received a special trophy for her work ethic. This is for always being on time, helping out, and doing her best in practices. Kyle wouldn't pose with his awards for me.

Cammie and Mindy both received Student of the Month Awards, (along with several others). Cammie's was for the kindergarten life-skill of the month: Alertness. Apparently, she is very attentive in class, and always ready to what she is supposed to do. Mindy finally got an award she was happy to get (it only took 6 years). Hers was for her writing skill. (In past years she has been honored to get the "off to a good start" or her most favorite "smarty" award, why do teachers think that would be cute or something the kid would be proud to have?)

(Travis is #8)

Travis decided to go out for water polo this year. Peer pressure can be a good thing sometimes. His high school has a huge JV team, so unfortunately, he doesn't get a lot of play time. But he does get a lot of practice time. This is a very good thing. I have decided that watching water polo games isn't too bad. They are fairly short, and the action is pretty fast. And, as a bonus, he gets to take his aggression out on the other team, with elbow jabs, fists to the face, and the all popular, kicking your opponent repeatedly as you swim to the ball.

Once again, I have Kyle pictures on my camera.

An interesting scratch from the dog.

What his eyeball looks like close up.

Travis is 14!!!

2008-09-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

On September 21, 1994, our first child, Travis Wesley was born.

We were living in Seattle, Andrew was still in grad school, and I was working to support our family.

He is our favorite oldest boy.

I had to return to work a few months after he was born. Andrew was able to stay home with him most of the time. One day I had some film developed, and these pictures appeared. It turned out, that Travis's routine, was to start out in the high chair, sit there for a while eating, then napping, then he went to the bathtub, for as long as he wanted to stay in. Then it all started again, back to the high chair, nap time, and bathtub. Sometimes, he added in the Johnny Jump. This was in the doorway of our apartment, right next to the computer, where Andrew would be doing his schoolwork.

Travis has always been a really cute kid, with a great smile, and adorable curly blond hair.

Over Christmas break, when Travis was 8 we noticed that something just did not seem right with him. On January 3rd, I finally took him to the doctor. The doctor told us to go home, pack a bag and get to Children's Hospital, where we would be staying for a few days to a week. It turned out that Travis had developed Type 1 Diabetes. Fortunately,we caught it before he became too sick, unfortunately it is something that he will have to live with for the rest of his life. This is probably the biggest trial that he has had.

On Sunday, Travis turned 14. He was very excited about the presents he received. And his two little cakes, although he did wonder why he had opted to have the candles spread out between the two, since it made it harder to blow them all out, though he did prevail, and got them all on his first try. In Church, he received his Duty To God Award, and advanced in the Priesthood, to become a Teacher. Now he has to start getting to church even earlier to help prepare the Sacrament, instead of just trying to be there early enough to get one of the spots to pass.

2008-07-29T19:44:00.001-07:00

I just downloaded all the pics from my camera, to get a few I needed for a swimming project, and found lots I had taken, planning on doing some blogging, but then I forgot, and some, other people took, so here are the short versions.

This is Andrew's camp injury. Apparently it is important because he took a picture of it. It was quite a big blister. I am sure he wanted everyone to know about it.

I have no clue what this is supposed to be. Any ideas?

Once again, Kyle did not want his picture taken. I wonder who it was trying to take it.

One day, Cammie decided that since she was 5, she needed to know how to ride a two-wheeler. Andrew took her to the park to try to learn. She worked very hard, and for a very long time. She then spent the next few days, in the garage working on it. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet, but I'm sure she will soon.

And of course, the big news of the week. School started on Monday. Cammie finally started Kindergarten. She has been very excited, and counted down the days for two weeks. (She is currently counting down the days until her first swim meet, she finally advanced enough to get to compete, she likes to count down until big events.) The boys weren't quite as excited as the girls, and I didn't manage to get a picture of them on the 1st day. Really I think I should have taken Travis to school and followed him around to get pics on his first day of High School, it is a big moment.

On the whiny side (please indulge me for a moment) I realized after picking Travis up, that it was the first day of the next thirteen solid years that I will be picking a kid up from the high school. I have not had to drive kids to school since Travis was in Kindergarten. I think I was feeling a little more sorry for myself about that, than about the fact that my baby started school and my oldest is now a high schooler.

Belated Cammie Birthday

2008-07-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

In all the excitement of our trip this summer, I didn't manage to post about Cammie's 5th birthday.

She had her first party ever with friends over. We borrowed a blow up water slide from a friend, and had a blow up pool for the kids to play in.

After a while she opened presents, then had cupcakes and ice cream cups.

She got a lot of neat new toys from her friends.

It was lots of fun to have so many of her friends from pre-school over and to get to play with them again.

Later in the day, Krystal gave her a special birthday hairdo. It was very cute.

That evening, she got to open presents from her family. She is very good at showing excitement for the camera.

She blew out candles on her birthday cake

(Notice the ballons that caught on fire, she wasn't very happy about that.)

When we got to Utah, she got to open her present from Grandma Cook.

She had a pretty good birthday, and is so excited to finally be 5.

CONGRATULATIONS

2008-07-19T14:20:00.001-07:00

TO KYLE!!!!!!!!!

He qualified for the county meet today in his fly race with a time of 32.78 for 50 yards. Because he qualified, the team will most likely also be sending the 11/12 boys for both relays also. This is the great news. The not so great news, it means 4 more weeks of swimming.

Oh, and his eye is doing great. When he came home from camp his eyelid looked like it had a bad bruise, and the white of his eye looked badly bloodshot. Now a week later, there is no sign of an injury.

Vacation Highlights

2008-07-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

It has been a few weeks since we went on our trip to the annual Bear Lake Cook reunion. Here are a few highlights from the trip.

The kids had a great time playing on the beach and in the water all day.

All the cousins worked together to dig this ditch. They had to re dig it out everyday.

Andrew was still able to get up on the wake board.

But even more exciting (according to him) was watching his boys manage to succeed also.

Grandpa brought a couple of his horses up to the lake for the kids to ride.

and we ended the trip with fireworks. Something they never get to do in California.

Poor Krystal

2008-07-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

Everytime I download pictures from my camera, I find many that were taken by Kyle. I think he spent the week, Krystal was here with us, tormenting her.

Krystal, you do know he really loves you, right?

We've been having a JELLY good time

2008-07-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

What do you do when your husband and kids are messing around outside, and come back in with many bowls and bags of fruit?

Apparently you make jelly. 56 jars later, and I think I am finally ok with not getting the rest off the trees.

Tell me it will be OK

2008-07-07T21:40:00.000-07:00

The boys left early this morning to go to Scout Camp. I was somewhat happy to have them all leave. Mainly to eliminate all the fighting that has been going on. They are very good at tormenting their sisters.

Andrew called me a little bit ago. This was weird, he can't call from the camp, it is in the middle of the wilderness somewhere, supposedly there are no phones there, and cell phones don't work.
Well, it turns out he was calling from a hospital. That is NOT a good sign. Not only was he in the hospital, he was there with one of MY boys.

Kyle had a accident with an arrow on the archery range and his eyeball. The story is that he was going to retrieve an arrow. He bent down to pick it up and didn't see another one sticking up from the ground. That unseen arrow went into his eye. He stood up and was pouring blood. Andrew did not see what happened, but suddenly heard all these boys yelling "BLOOD". When he looked Kyle had taken off running, he was on his way to the medic. (you can thank me now for not posting a gross picture of what I imagined he looked like at this time. It involved an arrow sticking out of his eye with blood pouring down his face, we may also be thankful that Andrew didn't have the camera with him, he says Kyle looked like someone from a terrorist attack photo.) Andrew says it is fortunate that Kyle was wearing a solid red t-shirt, none of the blood is showing up on it.

At the medic, Kyle started feeling sick and woozy, he really isn't very good with bodily gore.
At the same time, there was another kid there with diabetes that started feeling sick, Andrew used Travis's meter to check him, he was high and needed a shot. He thought his insulin was in the tent, so he and Andrew went to find it, they got to the tents, and it was not there, then they had to go find where it had been stored on the other side if camp in a fridge, and get him taken care of, all while trying to find out just how badly Kyle had been injured.

In the mean time, it was decided that Kyle's eye was bad enough he did need to go to the ER an hour away. Andrew borrowed someones car and drove Kyle there. At the hospital, it was determined that the notched end of the arrow had poked him in the eye, with one side cutting the inside of his eyelid, and the other side cutting into the white of his eye. Fortunately it did not go completely through the eye. He passed a vision test, though he said it was kind of hazy. The most they are worried about at this point is infection and the chance that he may have injured his tear duct.

Of course, being the mommy, I am much more worried. I want to be there with him, but fortunately he does have his dad.

And Andrew thinks he won't have to go to Scout camp with him next year. I think he is wrong.

This was just on day one, do I need to worry about days 2-6?

2008-06-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

We had high hopes for last Wednesday. Andrew's brother had called and said they would be in town, while on their way to spend summer in Australia, and wanted to see us. We had plans to meet up in Livermore and go spend the afternoon hiking and swimming at Del Valle park. These were good plans.

Unfortunately, Travis woke up sick that morning, with the barfies. I thought we could still do it, I would just take the kids down to meet everyone else, then come back to take care of Travis. His body had other plans. After a few hours of him throwing up, it became apparent that he needed medical intervention. I consulted with his Endocrinologist team, and it was decided that he needed to make a trip to the ER. This ruined out plans with Dan's family. Fortunately they were understanding, and just came out to our place to spend some time together. The girls were happy and just excited to get to see their cousins.

It turned out that Travis was starting into Diabetic Ketoacidosis. 6 hours in the ER, a few bags of saline, things turned around and he was feeling better.

We all went out for dinner and the kids had lots of fun playing together while the adults talked for hours. We were glad to get to see them all, since they won't be in Utah when we go next week.

Cyprus

2008-06-19T15:07:00.000-07:00

Andrew had the exciting chance to go to Cyprus for a week, early in June. I got the excitement of staying home with 5 kids, getting thru all the last week of school activities. I think he got the better deal. These are all the pictures he took. They are mainly of some ruins he visited on his sightseeting day.

Lots of updates

2008-06-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

I've realized that I have been a bit slow with the family updates lately. Andrew pointed this out, asking me if I had ever posted a picture of him and Cammie working in the yard. Apparently he sees this as our online family journal. So here are some pictures from our last month or so, along with a tiny bit of information.

Here are Cammie and Andrew working in the yard. He was re-doing a bit of landscaping, she wanted to help him. The amazing thing is that she spent the whole afternoon out with him, helping him shovel and put a border in. I think she was more dedicated to the project than he was.

Kyle has a project going for a few days of trying to make Fletcher be a "Cool" dog. I had lots of pictures of him on my camera and phone.

The boys planned a family project to wash the cars for one of their merit badges. Everyone in the family was supposed to help. Note there are two extra kids here. This is a warning. If your children are at our house, when something needs to be done, they very well may have to help. This isn't the first time kids friends have had to help with chores.

School Ended

Cammie graduated from pre-school. She was the first one in her class to be able to count to 100 on her own. We are very thankful to Ms. Bekky and Ms. Susan for being her teachers all year.

In Mindy's class she was voted the person with the prettiest eyes.

Travis graduated from Middle School

Kyle had to play in the band at the graduation ceremony ( I know, why why why a big production for middle school?). Note how thrilled all the band kids are to be there. They had to sit facing the sun. I had to have a conversation with his band teacher about Kyle not taking band next year. It was lots of fun.

The girls survived the ceremony, that we couldn't hear in the hot sun. I was nice and bought them all Tootsie Pops to help kill some time.

Travis walked and got his paper saying he could officially leave middle school.

Travis and Max look so happy to be done with it all. I think they are actually happy to be moving on, even if their parents aren't so sure about them starting high school in a few weeks.

As we were waiting around to leave, Cammie managed to fall and scrape her knee. Doesn't she look adorably sad?

Andrew and I sort of celebrated our 16th wedding anniversay. He still had to go to work, I had to teach a class that evening. At least we didn't have any swim practice, so he was able to go the class with me. Afterwards we went to the gyms hot tub. I made him these yummy yummy cookies. We are hoping for a better celebration this weekend, when we have more time.

Swim Meet

2008-05-31T20:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday was our first swim meet of the season. We swam in Walnut Creek, as is normal, it was cold and dreary there, until the meet was over, then the sun came out. Because both of our teams are big, the kids only swam two individual events. They all swam Free and Fly. Yes, our kids are all alike.

Sandra conferring with Coach Serge before her fly. She popped her time by 2 seconds.

And looking cute before her relay.

Kyle's fly race. The boy has speed. He also popped his best time by two seconds.

(Kyle is in Ln 4, with the gold cap)

Mindy's cool dive.

Other than the cold, it was a good meet. I rewarded them all for their hard work with a trip to Crepes A-Go-Go, for a yummy lunch. I hope we have more Walnut Creek swim meets.

How to legally torture a child, aka, TrialNet Phase 2

2008-05-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

We got the results of Cammie's retest for the TrialNet study and she definitely is positive for the GAD Auto antibody. We now had the option of saying that is nice and leaving it at that, but no, I opted for choice number 2, which was to enroll her in Phase 2 of the study. Because of course my kids are great and they will have no problem with me choosing to have them poked and have lots of blood drawn.

For this part, Cammie had to be fasting overnight, then go in for several hours to take a glucose tolerance test, you know that horrible test you have to take when you are pregnant and drink that gross gross disgusting super sugary pop. Fortunately for her, she only had to have about 4 oz. Unfortunately for Cammie, she had to give lots more blood, every thirty minutes for 2 hours, and 3 draws before drinking the gross stuff.

To prepare we bought a special bottle with built in straw for drinking the special stuff.

After patiently waiting for a long time while paperwork was filled out and equipment was readied, she had a hep-lock inserted. Luckily she had a good vein and the first try was a winner. Sadly though it was in her right arm, so she wasn't able to color through the rest of the day.

Cammie was great for this part, she just barely flinched once, and was a bit tense until they pulled the needle out. She actually had to watch, despite me trying to distract her. After the IV was inserted the blood draws started.

For this phase of the trial, they retest for the auto antibodies, they test for insulin in the blood, they test for c-peptides (which is a way to measure the amount of insulin the body makes itself), they do a genetics test to look for a protective gene that some people have which greatly reduces their risk of ever developing Type 1, and they test the blood glucose levels.

These are all the vials for blood, after the first round was over, in which they took another 4. 25 in all. Lucky girl.

After being there for over and hour and totally starving she finally got to have her special drink. She said it was very good.

We took books and a portable DVD player to keep Cammie entertained. She also got a few toys at the beginning. She patiently watched her movie and tolerated being bugged every 30 min for them to suck a little more blood.

At the end she was rewarded with a trip to the prize box and a water bottle full of little treasures.

We also got these fantastic t-shirts for everyone in our family.

After it was over, she said she wanted to do it again, and was wondering if it could be tomorrow. I think we will definitely go on for Phase 3 in which she gets to go every six months for the same testing to monitor any changes in her body. The nurse in charge said she was the best 4 year old she had ever had and she was better then many of their older kids.

Yeah for kids who like to give blood for a good cause.

Back to real life

2008-04-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Kyle was ordained a Deacon. This Sunday he had his first experience passing the Sacrament. It was a bad Sunday for this, as our ward had a double Missionary Farewell happening, so there were tons of people there, and extra sections of overlow opened up. Some of the deacons just didn't know how to work it, so they were wandering all around, once two guys sent trays down the same row at the same time. It was a bit sad. Sometimes I want to go explain to them how to read and follow the little passing chart they have. Some of them just don't seem to get it. I wanted to take a picture of Kyle passing, but seeing as how freaked out my kids were when I took of picture of them in the foyer at church, I decided I better not. Also I think it may be frowned on to take pictures during the Sacrament.

Sandra and I made our yearly trek to this wonderful place. Shriner's Hospital in Sacramento. We got some good news, sort of. She has extremely good functionality in her arm and hand, so unless something develops, they don't think they will ever have to do any correctional surgeries in her joints. However, we will need to continue to watch as problems could develop during puberty, and there is a very high likelihood that she will need some cosmetic surgery as a teenager. We don't have to go back for two years. Shriner's is great because we don't have to fight with our insurance to go there. They have some of the top doctors in the area working there. And they don't treat you like an idiot for wanting to know and understand what is wrong with your child.

Cammie decided one day, that it was too much work to carry her baby the normal way.

Mindy and I went to the Stake Activity Day program. She had a great time with her friends and was so excited to finally meet Claire's cousin who was visiting. She also enjoyed the classes.

The boys went on a campout. For the first time Andrew did not go, as he was needed at home to care for the litte girls while Mindy and I were gone. The boys had a good time and survived.

Travis had his quarterly Endocronologist visit. His Hba1c went down significantly. This is great news. He grew over 1 1/2 inches and has now surpassed me in weight. Cammie had her second blood draw at the same visit for the TrialNet Study. Now we have to wait six weeks for the results.

2nd Formal Night

2008-04-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

Andrew deciding caviar is better as fish bait.

My favorite pictures

Easter Sunday

2008-04-12T08:07:00.001-07:00

We were on the cruise for Easter. I was a little bit sad all day because I was missing my kids get their baskets, and do the Easter hunt, and seeing them in their new clothes for the first time.

The ship had this really cool Easter display. The chocolate eggs were huge (bigger then my head). We wanted to abscond with one, but they were guarded, so all we could do was bask in the yummy chocolatey smell and dream.

Easter was also the first formal night. Here we are at dinner.

Tortola, BVI

2008-04-11T20:06:00.002-07:00

We woke up the last day of the cruise, docked on the island of Tortola. The water there was the most beautiful I had seen.

The beach at Brewers Bay had decent waves. We had heard that it had good snorkeling, but when we got there, the waves were too rough for snorkeling. However they were just about perfect for body surfing, and this made Andrew's day. (if you look hard you can find him in the surf)

I actually managed to catch a few and get a good ride. I think this was the first time in my life I have successfully done it. I also had one of my most embarrassing moments and am still hoping that no one related to me actually saw it.

The beach even came complete with cute little critters, and wild chickens.

Sadly for Andrew, it was a short port day, and being the last, all the women decided they wanted to get back early to do some last souvenir shopping, so he didn't get to spend as long as he wanted in the waves, but it was a nice finish to the trip.

(the donkey you were supposed to pay to get pictures of, but I snuck one while walking by.)

2008-04-11T20:06:00.001-07:00

St. Thomas

2008-04-11T10:47:00.001-07:00

Next port of call: ST. Thomas

Andrew and I rented a scooter and we explored the island on our own. It rained off and on throughout the day.

In the early afternoon we ended up at the same beach Dave, Diane and his parents had taken an excursion to. Magen's Bay, one of National Geographics 10 most beautiful beaches. It just had some mild very calm waves, beautiful water and sand. It wasn't very exciting, so Andrew took off on the scooter to explore some more. He then came back and got me, to go show me the views from the top of the island.

Antigua

2008-04-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

Antigua was a restful day for us. Several members of the family had planned a shore excursion to go on zip lines over some canyons on the island. Those of us that were too scared to do such a silly thing, or pregnant, or just didn't think it was worth it, opted to just get off the boat and see what we could do. Mainly we planned on it being the souvenir shopping day. As we got off, Andrew and his Dad saw a church up a hill and decided they would rather hike up to it, then spend time haggling over prices of t-shirts.

St. Lucia

2008-04-09T21:12:00.001-07:00

For our second port of call, St. Lucia, the whole family was supposed to go together to a beautiful beach for the day. Because of the sunburns we had received the day before, Andrew really did not want to go spend another day snorkeling in the sun. He had watched a show highlighting this island, and decided that he would much rather go see some of the islands attractions. So we ditched the family and went on our own long bus ride tour of the island.

Along the way, Andrew informed me that pictures are no fun to look at if they don't have people in them, so here is my concession to him, a picture of us overlooking the small fishing village, Anse La Raye. Every Friday, they shut down all the streets in this village and have a big party.

A banana plantation. They put these blue bags over the bananas to keep bugs out, rather than using pesticides.

One of the islands highlights is their "drive-in volcano" Basically the last time it erupted in the 1700's it left a huge caldera. This part of it is still active, it is like a mini-yellowstone. Complete with stinky gas and boiling mud pits.

The boiling water that comes out is very mineral rich and believed to have healing properties. They siphon part of it off to a pool where you can go bathing. The grey color of the water is not because of shadows, it really is a very dirty grey, like the sludge that comes out of my carpet cleaner. I was tempted to try putting one leg in, to test and see if it would heal the sunburn any better, but chickened out because of the intense pain I was already in, I didn't want to heat it up anymore.

The highlight of the tour was this waterfall where you could take a "natural shower" This is what Andrew most wanted to do. The water was very cool and refreshing. The force coming down sure beats the "low-flow" showerheads we have.

This is the cove where parts of Dr. Dolittle were filmed. We got to see it from above, the rest of the family got to go in it on their taxi boat ride.

Along our tour we had to stop and look at trees. Apparently the driver is proud of these trees.

A coconut tree.

a coffee bean tree

and, finally a tree I would actually like to have in my yard, a mango tree.

If you ever decide to go visit St. Lucia, be sure to carry a little extra cash, in case you need to use the facilities.

Barbados

2008-04-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

Our first stop on the cruise was Barbados. Here we learned that although getting off the ship and finding your own transportation to places is cheaper than pre-arranging it through a shore excursion, it still seems like a rip-off compared to the way fares are determined in the USA. Lesson learned here, take tons more cash than you think you may possibly need.

Several of the family members decided to just go to a beach someone had researched and heard was supposedly good and had snorkeling.

On the way our driver stopped by the oldest church in Barbados for us to have a little looksie. These are the pipes for their organ. Not quite as impressive as the MoTab's but still pretty neat.

The church had lots of neat decorative touches. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have pretty things in our church to look at when my mind is wandering or the speakers are boring. Imagine if we had these neat chimes that might just end up ringing at random times.

We ended up going to two different beaches per the recommendation of our driver, who was nice enough to come back and get us and ferry us all around. The first beach had some dead coral to snorkel around, but the waves were a bit rough so it wasn't that great. At the second beach we got to go out swimming with giant sea turtles. Andrew actually managed to grab hold of one and get a bit of a ride. Apparently though, the guides on tours there, don't like you to actually get close enough to touch them.

On the beach, there was this nice gentleman who was selling shells he had gathered in the wee hours of the morning. He was also cutting up the meat from the conch shells and sharing it with beach goers. Rich and I were the only ones brave enough to actually try it. Now, I am not much of a seafood eating person, but for some reason when it was offered I thought I could handle it. Just so you know, it is kind of a tough meat, with a salty icky seafoody flavor. I managed about two or three chews, then realized I better just swallow it before I gagged or barfed. Rich also learned how to blow the shell like a horn.

This is also the stop where I got my horrible sunburn. The backs of my legs from my swimsuit line to my ankles were very deeply red, and sore. It hurt to walk, to sit, and to move in any way. The pain lasted all week, then the itch started that lasted over another week. I think it is one of the worst sunburns I have ever had. I was sure to mention it a lot to Andrew and try to get sympathy from him, but unfortunately, he also ended up pretty badly burned and didn't feel to sorry for me.

Many Hours of Torture

2008-04-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

It seems like the theme of this trip was travelling. We took two days to get up to my parents. We stopped in Klamath Falls, Or. on the way up. There was snow there. The boys were especially enthralled with the piles of dirty plowed snow in the parking lot. Travis was hardly in the hotel room at all. Fletcher did not care much for the snow.

Andrew and I left my parents at 1pm Friday to drive to Seattle and catch our flights to Puerto Rico. When we got to the airport we found out that our 11pm flight had been delayed a few hours and we would not be able to make our connecting flight to PR. This happened to be on the day that Chicago had earlier cancelled over 450 flights due to bad weather, it was spring break, and the Friday before Easter. Needless to say all flights on all airlines were already overbooked and things were looking pretty hopeless. After many phone calls, lots of prayers by Andrew's family, and a smattering of patience, some incredible person managed to find us

(Looking so good waiting for a red eye)

a way to Puerto Rico by routing us through Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and changing our airline along the way. We had some fun adventures in this little country (really read some problems caused by being sent to another country and having to deal with immigration and customs). Eventually we made it the ship before it sailed, only 4 1/2 hours later than originally planned and 25 hours after we first set out.

(So happy to have made it to our cabin)

On the way home to pass the time, I decided to try to get pictures of all the dormant volcanoes we passed ( I failed to get them all, but I'm sure I'll have more opportunities). I'm always enthralled by these whenever we drive up to Washington. They are so beautiful rising over the rest of the landscape.

The quiz of the day is: Name That Peak!

(Actually I can't name them all, someday I will have them all memorized)

I think Andrew started to get a bit annoyed with my quest. I almost took more pictures on the way home, then I did the rest of the trip. It did help to break up the monotony of the long drive. If you look carefully here, you can see an upside rainbow around the sun, over Lake Klamath. The ice beginning to melt and break up was also very pretty.

So Andrew and I had 8 days of torture, the kids only 4. We all survived it, including Fletcher.

Happy Birthday Kyle

2008-04-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

Today is Kyle's 12th Birthday. He was born when Andrew was in his last year of graduate school and just finishing up his PhD. Shortly after he was born we moved to New Mexico.

Kyle was one of those challenging babies. It is amazing we were brave enough to have any more after him. As an infant he needed to be in constant contact with his mom or he cried, and cried, and cried, (really, screamed, and screamed, and screamed). We had much sympathy for our neighbors. He would not nap for more than 3 minutes if he was not being held. He stopped napping totally at 18 mos. He didn't believe in binkies, bottles or being fed solid foods.

Kyle is a very determined individual. This is both good and bad, depending on the situation and the mood of those around him. For the most part he pushes himself to be the best. Currently he is the most advanced math student his teacher has ever had.

He is a very creative writer, and I am truly amazed by his abilities. He always goes way beyond on school writing assignments, when assigned a paragraph, it becomes a whole essay, a short story is several pages long. In first grade he was very proud of himself for writing the longest story in his class. It actually had a plot and made sense. In middle school his stories rival the books that he reads. (ok, maybe I am a little biased here)

In our family he is known for his incredible insights. Once while travelling we asked the kids why they just couldn't be good. Kyle's response was "We are being perfectly good, just not from your perspective."

And Cammie says that sometimes he is good and nice.

(meditating before opening presents)

We're Home

2008-04-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

After two weeks, we have finally made it home. Home is a nice place to be.

Some thoughts I have had during this time:

Is a seven day cruise really worth it if it requires 8 days of travelling, 4 of those with 5 kids and a dog?

After having to drive through it, and feel the cold of it, I am so glad I don't live in a part of the country that has snow.

Which is worse, 16 hours driving in one day, with everyone getting super grouchy, or an expensive night in a hotel, with all the kids going crazy in one little room, and spreading the driving out over two days.

Why do money limitations go out the window when you are on vacation?

After a bad sunburn, how many layers of super itchy skin can you scratch off before causing permanent damage?

Stay tuned in the next couple of days for pictures of the good parts of our trip

Misc. Happenings

2008-03-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

Sandra had a field trip to the bowling alley. I got to be driver/chaperone. They picked me because I have a large car. It was fun to watch her with the other kids. She had the third highest score of her class.

Cammie recently registered for Kindergarten. It was a happy and sad day. Happy because she is excited and ready to be taking this huge step in life. Sad because she is my baby and she is growing up. It is almost enough to make we want another baby, but not quite.

Mindy had her friends birthday party. She went to Libby Lu to have makeovers done with her two best friends and her sisters.

Travis has been providing us with expensive slave labor for the last few weeks. This has been for the purpose of buying an Ipod. Kyle also bought himself one. Now they are motivated by the desire to be able to buy music. Travis is also working to buy Brawl.

We have been going through appliance melt down the last few months. It started with our dishwasher, which we thought we had fixed with the help of a great friend. A few months later our vacuum decided to finally gather its last piece of dust. The dishwasher then decided to develop another problem and not heat, so its gone. The pilot light on the water heater decided not to stay lit, so we forked out money to have it repaired. Three days later as we were getting ready to leave for church, we discovered that it had decided to start leaking water through the wall and all over the garage floor. Thanks once again to our great friend we were able to replace it for no labor cost (except for a pizza dinner for his whole family). We then discovered that our dryer had broken. After working with our friend several times to fix appliances, he has gained the skills needed to start tackling some on his own. He was able to fix the dryer all by himself.

Random Tidbits

2008-03-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Cammie had an evaluation for speech therapy at Loma Vista last week. She tends to leave off beginning sounds on words and had troubles with her blends. We are not really worried about this as the boys had the same problem and self-corrected in kindergarten. But hey, why not spend some time getting it checked out. It turns out she is pretty much age appropriate, with a few problems, but probably not worth trying to actively correct at this time. They will re-evaluate her in 4 or 5 months and see how she is progressing. One interesting issue did come up. When she tries to make the "c", "k", or "t" sounds at beginning of words, she has a back of the tongue clicking sound that precedes them. Apparently this is a trait of the Khoisan (clicking) languages of South Africa, it is very hard and rare for Caucasians to be able to make this noise. Now we have the dilemma of knowing that she may have a special ability to learn a rare language. Should we pursue this? Maybe she is supposed to serve a mission to South Africa, being able to take the Gospel out into the wilds, and we would be remiss not to help her develop her language skills. But would it make her a freaky girl here in America so speak this weird language? Would it mess up her English to try to teach her this? And where would we find someone to help teach her?

In the last two weeks Sandra has had three teeth fall out, for a total of 5 missing. It makes for a cute smile. And a hard time eating apples and carrots. This morning she informed me that another one is loose. I wonder if it will come out before these other ones start growing in.

Cammie went to a party at a gymnastics studio. She had lots of fun playing in the foam pit. This thing is harder to move in than a ball pit. I jumped in and got stuck. The foam grabs onto you and keeps you from moving. I wonder how they control the kids in classes that are actually supposed to be learning. What would a teacher do when a kid refuses to get out. Kids can move around much easier. The kid has a huge advantage, it would be hard to get a hold of one and pull him out. I want to go have an adult party here. It would be lots of fun, if they just let use all the equipment any way we wanted.

Thursday Andrew and I went to yoga. When we came out of the gym and went to get in the car, we noticed these dents on the top of the car over the door. They were not there when we went in. So much for the peaceful calming effect of yoga. What happened? Why would someone bang up a car in a parking lot? They are hard to see in the picture, but it is weird. There were also some weird marks on the window. Our current theory is that some people got in a fight right next to our car, and it took the damage. It is a mystery we will probably never have answered.

Finally just to annoy Kyle, I have to add a picture of him. He was being a not nice boy, so I threatened him with a picture of him being taken and posted on the blog. This is actually one of the better pictures. Kyle be warned, next time I will make it the most embarrassing weird picture of you I take.

Kyle hates to have his picture on here. He is constantly threatening to sue me for posting about him. I just have to make sure he never figures out the password to the blog.

Mindy

2008-02-25T20:41:00.001-08:00

Today was Mindy's 10th birthday. I can always remember how long we have lived in Brentwood because she was born just a little over a month after we moved here.

Mindy was a much easier baby than either of the boys. She loved to sit in her swing and listen to Enya or classical music. As long as the music was playing she would happily rest. She spent a lot of time hiding out in our room, away from the boys.

Mindy is a quiet girl. She does not like to be the center of attention, esp. in school or at church. The first time she had to give a talk in Primary we had to work very hard to bribe her. She is not easy to bribe. Once she makes up her mind she is very resolute and determined. If there is something she does not want to do, she is very good at sweet talking her way out of it. In kindergarten she refused to participate in sharing. Her teacher decided to have a mandatory sharing day, just so she could get Mindy to actually talk in front of the class.

In our family Mindy is like the little mommy. She is very helpful, especially with her younger sisters. She is almost always willing to play with them and help them. She will usually do anything she is asked to do.

Mindy also has a great passion for reading. There have been many times when the biggest mess in her room was from all the books. Mindy actually strives to keep her room clean. She is the only one of the kids who picked up on, and seemed to get, the idea of just 5 mins. a day will keep it clean, (of course, we do need to do a bit of work on the closet and animal pile).

Mindy is the one who started the decorating your own birthday cake a few years ago. After Sandra's crunchy cake, she decided to take it easy on the sprinkles.

There is a reason all the candles are so close. For a few years, she wouldn't let there be candles on her cakes. She didn't want everyone watching her while she tried to blow them out. This year she finally put candles on, all close together hoping that would make it easy. (Notice the huge flame, we didn't even have to light some of them, they just started on their own.) It took her a few tries to get that big fire out, it actually was funny, as she blew, a few would go out, then relight from the rest of the flame.

This is probably her most exciting present. She has been wanting one for a long time. Kyle and Travis got this for her.

Mindy is a great girl. We are so lucky to have her as a part of our family.

Sandra

2008-02-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

Seven years ago I gave birth to our beautiful 4th child, Sandra.

She was a very happy and easy baby. She would go to anyone who wanted her and just loved to be with people.

She is one of those people that others are just naturally drawn to. It is fun to watch her grow and develop.

Her birth brought us into a new medical world. After over 5 years of being seen by specialists and learning how to navigate through doctors and the insurance world, she was finally diagnosed as having Isolated Hemihypertrophy caused by Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome. She has a rare case, over 90% of cases are in the lower extremities and of those most are on the right side of the body. Hers is in her upper left side. It is one of those things you wish you never had to learn about, but it is worth if for the blessing of having such a great child.

She is a true girl who believes dresses are the best type of clothes, spends hours in the bathroom fixing her hair, doing her nails, and sneaking make-up.

She has very little fear. As a toddler, she believed she could do anything her older sibings could do, and could often be found climbing on counters and jumping off surfaces higher than she was tall.

These days her biggest passion is reading. She has read every girls chapter book we have, and yearns for more. Her favs are Katie Kazoo and Juni B. I often find her sneaking reading late at night when I think she is asleep.

(Her first day of preschool)

This year for her birthday, she wanted to decorate her own cake. It ended up being a bit crunchy.

For dinner, she chose Chuck E Cheese.

And she got lots of neat presents from her family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SANDRA

Blood-draw update

2008-02-21T11:18:00.000-08:00

We received the results back from the TrialNet study that the kids and I all had our blood drawn for back in January. Kyle, Mindy, Sandra, and I all came back as being negative for the 3 kinds of autoantibodies they were testing for. Cammie on the other hand was positive for 1 of the 3. She will be re-tested the beginning of April, just as a pre-caution to make sure there was not a lab error. We will know the results, the end of May.

If she really is positive, then there will be more tests run on her, to come up a likelihood of her developing Type 1 Diabetes within a certain time frame. Depending on the results of this, we may have the opportunity to enroll her in some more studies that track the development of the disease. This does not mean that she for sure will ever develop it either, as lots of people can be positive for these autoantibodies, but never develop the disease.

Belated Photos from our Valentine's Day

2008-02-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

First I had to search through the junk drawers to find the right cookie cutters.

Then use them to make some fun food. (I decided it was too hard to cut the buns into heart shapes, so the rest just got an imprint)

Set a festive table.

Receive flowers from my loving spouse.

Make him his favorite special desert.

(Individual sized for him, big for the rest of us to share.)

Short Updates

2008-02-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know I haven't updated for a few weeks. I have planned many posts, just never quite got around to getting them done. There is actually a reason for this, but I'm not going to share. However, here a some of the pictures and brief notes to go along.

Continueing on the sickness theme: Travis and Mindy also got to have a day at the Dr's. They too, got to join in the antibiotic fun. So was it fun to have 5 kids with strep throat? Not exactly, but there are a few positives:

We were able to replenish our syringe supply.

With all these bottles staring at me everytime I got in the fridge, we actually got the 10 days worth of doses done in .................10 days for most of the kids. (usually by day 6 or 7 I start forgetting, and by day 14 I just give up and throw the rest in the trash). Notice there is not a bottle for Travis. He was the lucky one and got pills, although the pharmacy did give him a syringe with his huge horse tablets. I just couldn't figure out how to get the pill to go through the little hole. Maybe we were supposed to use it to squirt liquid down his throat forcing him to swallow?

The kids were getting along at dosing time as they were having sympathy for each other, having to take the gross medicine. We had much commiserating over how horrible the stuff tasted, how glad they would be when it was gone, and how they hoped to never get strep again. (I'll take niceness from the kids any way I can get it.)

On top of the strep, Travis and Kyle, ended up with a bad viral infection at the same time, consisting of horrible headaches and high fevers. They blame me for this, since I happened to actually say how nice it had been that we hadn't had any major illnesses yet this winter. I had kids home from school for two and a half weeks. Finally they all seem to be better.

Travis build a cool tower out of Jenga blocks. (It was very tempting to knock it down, but mommy niceness actually prevailed, and instead I took a picture.)

Cammie gave a talk in Primary a few weeks ago. This always amazes me because of how shy she is. She has no problem getting up in front of people and talking. She was counting down the days all week, and very eager to go do it.

Andrew had a birthday. It was on Superbowl Sunday. He didn't get much because he kept telling me not to buy him anything. This is because we started playing WOW again, and got the expansion packs, he didn't want to wait until his birthday for those. He got to spend time playing with the kids. That evening we went over to Olsen's to celebrate Brittons birthday that had been earlier in the week. I was a bit late, because Travis had a big project due the next day for school, and I was making him finish it up before he could go. When he and I got there, all the bigger peeps were watching the Superbowl, a few minutes later it all went dark. Apparently some drunk had hit a power pole, knocking out the electricity for a few hours. We heard it was an exciting ending to the game, but we didn't get to see. We spent the rest of the evening in the dark. The girls had lots of fun playing a game with Renee by candlelight.

Cammie and Sandra were supposed to be "Scooping the Poop" but instead were playing on the tramp, since it was finally a nice sunshiney day. They had fun with static.

I took Mindy and Cammie shopping for new church shoes, as they had grossly outgrown the ones they had, and Cammie had stepped in the poop with hers so instead of wasting time cleaning shoes that took 5 minutes to get on her feet, we just tossed them in the trash. Sandra was the lucky one who got lots of shoes, she didn't even go. These were on clearance mostly for $4 and $7 so I just couldn't resist. I figured if they were too big, we could save them until she grew into them, and if they were too small, we could save them for Cammie. She was very happy when I came home with 4 pairs of shoes for her.

While we were shopping, we stopped for lunch and Mindy and Cammie shared an Oreo milkshake.

Finally, Cammie got her CTR ring in Primary. She is very excited to have this, and constantly changes her mind about wether or not she will take if off to go to bed, or shower.

Sickness

2008-01-28T17:41:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Andrew and I were discussing how we have not had any big illnesses so far this season. Just a bit of someone or other not feeling real well. Our luck has run out. About a week and a half ago, Sandra started complaining of headaches. They came and went so we didn't worry too much about it. The Sunday before MLK day, after church, all three girls seemed to start feeling unwell, and were pretty much out of it Monday. By Tuesday they seemed to be feeling better, except for Cammie, who woke up and couldn't open her eyes. She spent the week home from pre-school, off and on feeling better or worse.

During the week, Kyle started complaining about not feeling well and being very tired with some chills. He continued to go to school and suffered through it because of my rule which says no fever, no barfing, you go to school.

Well, yesterday, half-way thru Primary, Sandra informed me she had a sore spot in her throat. She then woke me up early this morning, letting me know it still hurt, so the plan was to let her stay home from school and finally go to the doctor. When Kyle found out she was staying home for a sore throat he exclaimed that it was not fair because he also had a sore throat. So needless to say, I had to let him stay home also.

After half an hour trying to get through to the Doctor's office (first thing Monday morning is the worst time to call) I managed to get them both appointments today. We went and had the two tortured with a throat swab and waited and found out that they both have strep. So thinking about how Cammie had also been sick, we decided to wait some more and have her tortured also, and found out that she too has it.

The girls playing on the dino bed while waiting, and Kyle again threatening to delete all blogs if I took his picture and published it. I'm really going to have to make sure he never figures out the password.

So now I am filled with guilt, wondering how long they have had strep and been suffering. Secretly worried that because I didn't know and they all went to Primary yesterday, everyone else will get it and the whole ward will hate me. Also, I was supposed to teach a yoga class this morning, I mis-understood when I called someone to fill in for me, so she really couldn't and there was no teacher, it was purely my fault.

At least for Kyle, he finally gets to stay home from school. But sadly for him, mean mom doesn't let him play computer games.

Luckily, they are all on drugs and should be feeling better soon. Hopefully now the rest of us won't end up with it.

2008-01-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

Being the wonderful mom that I am, and after spending 2 1/2 weeks with all my kids home from school, I decided that on the last day, we needed to do something really great together. ( Or maybe, I was tired of them all, and thought I would do something to make them glad to be going back to school and getting away from me, you decide.)

Travis has Type 1 Diabetes. Monday was one of his quarterly endo appts. Since I had to take all the kids with us, I decided to enroll everyone into the TrialNet Diabetes Study. Basically, this study takes blood from close relatives of those with diabetes and tests it for any autoantibodies, so see the likelihood of those tested developing diabetes within a certain time frame. Those who have these autoantibodies can then be entered into more studies, most to learn more about how the disease progresses, and possibly some to study new treatments or ways to delay the onset.

Mindy was not too happy to have her blood drawn, but was very willing for such a good cause. The nurse was very impressed by her attitude. She volunteered to go first, just to get it over with.

Sandra, on the other hand, was very excited to have blood drawn. She is our very brave girl when it comes to needles. I think this comes from the series of rabies shots she had to have. She had to have blood drawn before, and after the last time, she kept asking when she could do it again. Her big dilemma, was over whether or not she wanted to watch the needle being poked into her skin.

Cammie was also very willing. She has been asking for the last month when she would get to go give blood. She was also brave enough to watch the needle going in. Here she is proudly viewing the blood she gave.

Kyle was the hardest. He kept telling me there was no way he would let them take his blood. He has had blood drawn before, so I couldn't understand the big deal. I told him he didn't have a choice, I am his mom, and I was signing him up, but it turns out, that all kids over the age of seven, do have a choice, and have to sign their own study agreement. Once he found this out, he said he just wouldn't sign. Fortunately, he had a change of heart and decided to participate. He was very apprehensive while waiting his turn, ( and threatened to delete all pictures and blogs if I posted some of these of him.)

He seemed to be happy while the needle was in him, it really wasn't that big of a deal. He proudly examined his blood after it was over.
However, about 5 minutes later, he turned very pale, then a bad shade of green, and claimed he didn't feel very well. He had to lay down for about 20 min. and it ended up taking him a few hours to fully recover. Now he refuses to participate any more. It turns out that they would like all participants to give new blood samples every year until they are 18. Kyle says he just doesn't care. Even if his comes back positive, it just doesn't matter.

Travis didn't have to participate since he already has the disease. I gave blood too, but no pictures of me. Andrew was only saved from participating by claiming he had a meeting at work he couldn't get out of. I was slightly skeptical, but since I can't get to his office and drag him out, I let it go.

Christmas 2007

2007-12-26T15:34:00.001-08:00

Random pictures of the kids from Christmas dayTravis sleeping on the couch after getting up at some super early hour to see if Santa had come and getting his stocking.

The girls opening their stocking while waiting for everyone else to get up.

Each of the kids, happy while opening presents.
Giving Fletcher new toys in the hopes of him leaving us alone while we were opening presents. It didn't work as well as we hoped. He kept wanting us to play with him and his new toys.

Playing and checking out the presents the rest of the day.

One of the biggest highlites of Christms. The arrival of Krystal the next day.

Gingerbread tales

2007-12-26T15:26:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time there was a mommy who was not feeling very much like it was Christmas time. She was pretty much done with the shopping, but hadn’t managed to do much decorating. And really hadn’t managed to do much in the way of Christmas baking. She just didn’t feel like making tons of cookies and candies, that ultimately she would be the main one eating. Seeing as how Santa was always so generous to the kids in their stockings. Guilt started to set in, she felt like maybe she just wasn’t doing enough to make it a merry Christmas season for the kids.

One day she was reading a friends blog and saw a post about a family’s gingerbread house. Hmmm, her brain went, maybe it would be fun to make a gingerbread house with the kids. We’ve never done that before. But no graham crackers glued to milk cartons here, it would have to be real gingerbread. Then she remembered that many many years ago, she had bought some gingerbread house molds, and never used them. Now might be a good time. So she dug through the cupboards and came up with molds for three different houses and a train. (You tell me, what do you buy at a Longeberger party when you have no use for $90 baskets?)

So she compiled a list of ingredients to make the gingerbread and set off to the store that afternoon to buy the needed items and a variety of candies to the kids could have fun decorating them. Then she spent the evening measuring out ingredients to make several batches of dough. The next morning she spent making all the pieces for four houses and a train. Working out a mistake she made in doubling the recipe, but still managing to get it all done. Even while going to a Relief Society luncheon. Being the smart mom she is, she knew it would be best if each kid was able to do their own, so as to alleviate potential fights. She was hoping that one kid would be happy decorating a train. That afternoon she worked very hard to assemble the pieces. Making sure that no roofs slid off and no walls caved in. She had a nice assortment of houses and was feeling quite pleased with the effort. She just knew that this would be a great family project.

As the evening came, off she went on some errand. When she returned she was met at the door with tales of the dog who had managed to sneak his big snout up on the counter and eat the gingerbread. Very worried she rushed into the kitchen to discover that it wasn’t as bad as she had feared. He had only managed to eat some extra accessory pieces that went to the houses and one train piece. Her hopes for a fun experience were not ruined. She smartly covered the houses and left them on the counter.

The plan was to decorate the houses the next day after school. That morning she had to go to her youngest daughters preschool program. What a sweet thing this little girl was. She smiled so brightly as she sang the songs she had been learning and looked so darling in her little reindeer shirt made with a footprint and two handprints. When the two arrived home, she climbed up the stairs and upon looking around began to be worried. It looked like the dog had once again managed to get into the garbage while she was gone. She really did not want to spend time cleaning up garbage again, but oh well, it must be done. As she walked toward the kitchen to fully assess the damage she noticed some suspicious looking crumbs on the floor. “Oh no,” she thought,” Please don’t let it be.” She walked into the kitchen and discovered that truly her fear was real. Naughty dog had eaten a whole house! What to do, hope that the kids could cooperate and share a house, or make more. Well, she decided that the best plan would be to make more, so she immediately set to work making up a new batch of dough, and spending the afternoon getting two more houses made. This way there would be a house for everyone and she wouldn’t have to worry about someone not wanting to do the train. Despite the frosting glue not wanting to hold as well this second day, and walls that didn’t want to stay up, she managed to make these last two houses work.

The husband came home to a third day of smelling the delicious smells of gingerbread in the house. The mean mommy wouldn’t let him eat any of it. “Leave it alone,” she kept telling him, “No eating it until we get it all decorated. (He was starting to believe this was all a joke, and would never happen.)

Finally the time to decorate the houses came. The mom had worked hard on cleaning up the kitchen and getting everything all ready. She went to get out all the decorations she had bought and discovered that two of the kids (the boys) had managed to eat three bags of candy. Still positive that she had enough she tried to gather all the kids to come participate in this great opportunity. By this point, after days of hearing about it and waiting, only the girls had any desire to participate. They had fun, and with any luck, this will not be something that they want to repeat year after year after year.

2007-12-17T08:57:00.000-08:00

One of Paige's hugest fears happened in my house a few weeks ago. Cammie was using some scissors to cut the string off a balloon. I walked by and saw a pile of hair on the floor by her.

She had been wanting a haircut for along time. I think this was her way of pushing the issue. Mindy used to do this a lot. Unfortunately for her, she did this right as we were getting ready to go on our trip, so there just wasn't time to fit a haircut in. Fortunately those really long strands of hair were cut from the under layers behind her ear, so it didn't really show. If it had been worse I of course would have taken care of it immediately.

Yesterday I finally managed to give her her long anticipated and eagerly awaited hair cut.

While I was at it, I decided to take care of everyone elses haircut needs. Mindy and Sandra just got trims (Sandra was horrified by this, but I think she is ok now.)

Travis and Kyle got their normal shearing

Other highlights of the week:

Kyle had a band concert. I was unable to find a substitute for my yoga class, so Andrew took him, Cammie, and Mindy. (more mommy guilt for me.) He said it was bad, mainly because Cammie didn't want to sit and listen thru the whole thing. Cammie thought it was great, because she saw one of her pre-school teachers and some friends there.

Brentwood Community Chest had its annual food sorting and boxing night. We forced Travis and Kyle to go, to get a required 8 hours of community service for one of their merit badges. Being the great mom that I am, as we were leaving I called a couple of their friends moms to see if we could rope a couple more people into going with them to make it more fun. (Thanks Carol and Celia for being such willing moms). Later that evening I took the girls to let them help and so we could feel like we had done a little bit of service to help others.

Cammie had a lot of fun putting cans into the boxes and pushing them along the line. She was very disappointed Saturday morning when she couldn't go with the boys to help hand items out.

Sandra and Leppie

2007-12-13T17:28:00.000-08:00

Sandra had the great honor of being Student of the Week this week. I am feeling a little sorry for her, as it is her last day, and she just finally got to take in her assigned items.

She came home from school last Friday with a poster to make and a list of things to do to make the next week special. The poster was supposed to be taken back on Monday. I was gone all weekend, so the poster didn't get finished until last night. The biggest hang-up was getting a picture of her taken and printed to put on the poster. She was supposed to bring home the class stuffed leopard, Leppie, last Friday also, to spend the weekend with him, and take pictures of all the fun stuff they did together, then write about it in his special journal. She forgot to bring him home until Monday.

With it being the next to last full week the kids are in school before Christmas, I have spent any free time, working on Christmas shopping. So once the kids are home, I am trying to catch up on housework and getting the kids to do homework, along with several trips to various places with the kids. Mindy had a big project in school this week also (thanks Carol, for doing so much for her) that involved me making tons of cookies for her. So basically, Sandy's need were not very well met, and she didn't get to really take advantage of her special status at school. She didn't even manage to get to do any of her other homework this week. I decided the poster was enough for her. I think her teachers think I am a bad, uncaring mom, because I am not that involved in her school life. She also has had many missing homework assignments. She tends to come home and just dump her backpack out, so things get scattered and lost, before I have a chance to see them. I find them days later under the couch or in the shoe closet, and decide that they are no longer important.

Last night, being the last chance to get her student of the week project done, we finally manged to make it important, and staged a few pictures of her and Leppie. She took great pride in filling out his journal, and making sure that she had written more than any previous kid.

(Be sure to take note of the chocolate on her mouth and the mustard stains on her shirt, I didn't even notice until I was printing the pictures.)

Here is Kyle, doing his best to try to make the picture taking harder, and annoy his little sister.

The bad thing, is that right now, I am staring at a paper I found this week, outlining a heritage project she has due on Monday. I HATE school projects, especially ones that mean parents have to do lots of work, or go out their way to gather stuff for them. I would love to just blow this off, but then I will have lots of mommy guilt and worry that she will be feeling bad at school when she doesn't have anything to show. Why do we keep having to do these stupid projects about our family from over 200 years ago. I don't know about you, but I consider my family to be American. We have no traditions or favorite foods, that have been carried over from where our ancestors came from hundreds of years ago. Anything we do will just be faking it and teaching our kids to lie. Not only do we have to make a poster for this, but she has to take in some kind of food from this country. Does anyone know any kind of food England is known for. England has a reputation for having the worst cuisine. I know, I have had to do various forms of this project several times for the three kids that came before Sandra.

Now my guilt just increased as I remembered that today was her one chance for the whole year to take something in for sharing, and we forgot. I guess I've just been a bad mommy this week.

(I've decided to blame the teachers for not giving us notice ahead of time, so I could properly plan for this honor for her.)

2007-12-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

I got to spend this last weekend in Sacramento at a two day yoga training. Highlights of the weekend were:

Learning how to teach new exciting poses like:

Cow's Face (one of my favorites for many years.)

Frog

Lord of the Fishes

Gate

Marichi 1 & 2

Don't you just want to come to my classes and learn these fun poses with me?

Spending the night in a nice hotel. It even had a sleep number bed. Like this is some really big deal. Unfortunately, since I don't already own a sleep number bed, I don't know what my "number" is. After being in classes for 9 hours, by the time I made it to the bed, I was just too tired to try to find out. Maybe I should request a free night so I can take advantage of this.

My room was even upgraded to a "waterview" room, vs. a "plaza" view room. This was supposed to be a big deal according to the clerk. I didn't understand why, since it was already dark when I got there, and I was leaving first thing in the morning. He explained that there was a lake with a fountain and lights shining on it. All very neat to look at.

So I go to my room. Wander over to the windows, and sure enough they look out over some very dark water, and a tree. I know there was a fountain, because I had seen it on my way to the room. Unfortunately, it was blocked by a tree. I could see a string of christmas lights across the water. That was so exciting. Here is what my daytime view would have been like if there hadn't been a tree. Actually it was a very nice room. Unfortunately after a day of classes, I was just too tired, sore, and utterly exhausted to truly take advantage of being there alone.

Yummy chicken coconut soup and curry for lunch from Thai Basil.

For some reason I always feel a little guilty when I go to these, and that inhibits my really enjoying the alone time. Maybe I am worried about my great husband and the kids. I know I always pray extra hard for him while I am gone.

Gettting our Christmas Tree

2007-12-07T22:05:00.001-08:00

Tonight we all ventured out to the ABC Christmas Tree Lot, to try to get the perfect Christmas tree.

When we arrived I asked all the kids to go find what they thought would be the perfect tree.

The girls all wanted ones their size, the boys, for the biggest on the lot.

Mindy thought we should just get each of them their own tree. That way, Santa could just put each persons presents under their tree and make it easier Christmas morning. I vetoed this, on the grounds that our living room just isn't quite big enough for that many trees. She then thought that they should each get one to put in their rooms. Still not happening Sweetie. Only one tree for this family.

We then went in search of just the right tree. Quite a few years ago, we decided to try getting a tree that was still wrapped up. We figured it would be easier to get on the car and in the house. And it would be fun to unwrap it, and see what it looked like after we got it. You know, add a little suspense and excitement to all. We lucked out that first time, and so we have continued to do it this way ever since. We look for a nicely wrapped tree, that is an even thickness all the way around (so hopefully there are no holes). It also helps to narrow the selection down, and with seven people giving in put, this is a big deal. Although, the workers there, all act like we are crazy when we buy it. Those weird looks just add to the fun.

Our hopefully perfect selection.

The nice tree farm worker, carrying, cutting and loading the tree on the car for us. Aren't we all glad there are people to do this. I told Travis he could have a job doing this when he grows up if he wants. Somehow I don't think he will. Although I bet by the time they go home, their clothes smell very christmasy.

Getting it set up and watching the mystery unfold.

Here the kids are finally using the vacuums they each got for Christmas last year. Hmm, I think eleven months is a little long to start using a present. At least they weren't a total waist of money.

Cammie deciding that she needs to test the tree (just to make sure we will be able to decorate it) with one of the ornaments she painted at the Cook craft day.

Here are the trees I secretly would like to have someday. I think the white is so pretty. In order to get one of these, I will have to wait until all my kids are grown up, then sneak out and buy it by myself.

I am also secretly hoping that Andrew and the kids decorate this tree while I am gone for the weekend.

Cammie's Song

2007-12-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

Cammie likes to sing while she is otherwise pre-occupied. Here are some of the lyrics she was singing this morning.

Choose the right way and be happy.
Choose the right way, not the left way.

Choose the right and be good. Choose the left and be bad.
Cause it's not good to choose the left.

Choose the right and your mom and dad and brother and sister will be happy.

We're sorry because we don't choose the right in our family.

If your mom tells you to be quiet, then be quiet.

If your mom tells you to clean, then clean.

Do what your mom and dad tell you to do. That is choosing the right.

If you choose the right, you will be happy.

My mom and dad are mad at me, cause you choos-ed the left. So choose the right.

Don't choose the left, and choose the right. If you choose the left you are being bad. You may choose the right. You may choose the left but you will be in trouble. But it's ok because your whole family will love you.

Unfortunately, I couldn't type as fast as she could sing, there were lots of funny lines. Although, it would probably be embarassing to our family to have really gotten them all. It's been going on for over 45 min.

My Sunday Pet Peeve

2007-12-02T19:11:00.001-08:00

I have had a pet peeve with church for a long time. I thought I was getting over it, (this is probably because I've been on time lately) but as I found out today, I haven't.

So here is the problem, our chapel is not really big, and it has a couple of overflows. Our bishopric only likes to have the first overflow open before church actually starts. Having a bigger family, if we don't get there early, we can't sit in the space. Occasionally we can still find room, within the first few minutes of church starting, but not normally, so we end up having to open up the next overflow, which is very loud and disruptive to the whole meeting.

If Andrew is not at church with us, I will just generally try to sit out in the foyer and fight with the kids, trying to keep them from running all around, and making lots of noise out there. A few times when I have been having a bad day before church, I have even been known to leave because it just felt so unwelcoming to me, and with 5 kids being by myself, I just couldn't handle trying to open those monstrous large sliding doors, or trying to corral the kids. (ok, this was just my problem, but I had had a hard enough time getting myself to church in the first place, I just couldn't deal with it. I did go back in time for Primary.)

Once Andrew was sitting in the second overflow, the Bishop came and asked him to move forward, then shut the doors to it. When I walked in, still before church started, there was not enough room for our whole family to sit together, and we ended up having to just re-open the doors. There were normally about 5 large families getting there late and sitting in it., so I have never been able to understand why they close them just before the meeting starts.

So today was one of those days, I was a few minutes late, the chapel and first overflow were filled, Andrew was on his way to Los Alamos, and I was stuck with all the kids out in the foyer. In the spirit of Celia and always having the camera ready, here a few pics. of my kids trying to do Sacrament meeting in the foyer

At first it wasn't too bad, they were managing to be on the couch a bit. But then.........

Sandra and Cammie started thinking they needed to dance around the big open space and .........

The boys thought they should start making paper airplanes.

I know this is just really my problem (although I know I am not the only one in our ward), and I should really use this as incentive to try much harder to be on time.

Very Belated Thanksgiving Week Post

2007-11-27T10:05:00.000-08:00

This year Andrew's pre-thanksgiving APS conference was in Salt Lake, so he decided the whole family should go and we would stay and spend Thanksgiving with his family. We drove up on Saturday (in our nice new wonderful van, that did make the trip much more pleasant than normal.), dropped Andrew off at his hotel in SLC, then the kids and I went on to his parents in Bountiful. I spent the night with them, went to Church on Sunday, then left all the kids and met Andrew back in SLC to spend a couple of quiet days with him and no kids.

Sunday night his conference was having this really cool demonstration of a fire tornado. I unfortunately forgot my camera at the hotel, and was worried if I went back I would miss the show. You can look here http://pic.templetons.com/brad/photo/bm04/burns/ to see some pictures from the guy who did it. It was totally cool, and I was wishing I had taken the kids to see it.

Monday I had some blissful alone time, before meeting Andrew to take a friend of his to Temple Square. That evening we blew off all the people that had invited us to dinner and went for a walk around SLC and dinner by ourselves.

Tuesday, I snuck into the conference to watch Andrew give his presentation, then left and went to the Temple. They were putting up the Christmas decorations at Temple Square while we were there. These are some pics of all the nativity scenes that were already done.

After his conference ended Tuesday afternoon, we went on a few tours around Salt Lake. We went up the Church Office Building to look out over the city.

That night we went out to one of our top 3 most expensive dinners. I did embarrass Andrew when I asked for an empty take out bag.

Wednesday was back to reality, meeting up with the kids, and spending the next few days with Andrew's family. His whole family was in town for the holiday, it is the first time in several years that all 39 people have been together. Early Thanksgiving morning we all met for a family photo. I didn't manage to get one of the whole group, but here are all the grandkids and our little family group. After dinner, we found out that the picture will soon be outdated, as Nate and Monica are expecting their first child next summer. Congratulations guys.

On Friday, Juli blessed her new baby Chase, with the whole family there. After the blessing we drove to Andrew's brother's house, and Sandy promptly got sick, and spent the rest of the night doing battle with her stomach. Andrew and Krystal went to see Enchanted and said it was a really good movie. (this is a lot coming form Andrew, who tends to hate Disney movies).

Saturday was craft day at the Cook's. This is a tradition that we did not know about, as we have never been to the Cook's for Thanksgiving before.

The kids all had a great time without mom and dad for a few days. Travis went to one cousin's house without any of his siblings, and apparently spent most if his time playing pool, video games, and watching movies. Diane said she hardly saw him at all. He thought it was great. Mindy and Sandra went together and had lots of fun playing with cousins they hardly ever see. Kyle and Cammie stayed at grandpa and grandma's to be with cousins their age. Grandpa took them out to the horse pasture and Cammie fell in love with riding horses.

On the way home, we ran into the Homec family at McDonalds in Winnemucca, NV. That was a fun surprise, esp. for Sandra who had fun playing with Madisen.

Julie has more pictures of the week on her blog. http://www.richandjulifam.blogspot.com/

For those who keep track, (RICH) , Kyle did not get sick once on the whole trip. As we were getting ready to do our "Let us get there safely" prayer, he asked that we add in a plea for him to not get sick. It worked.

Update on my conflict

2007-11-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

Well, we decided that with a couple of trips planned in the next 5 months, we really do need something reliable so we are dumping the old van. I am not really sad at all about this, it is old and yucky. The real hard part is the fact that we have had it paid for for many years, and now with our new purchase we will be burdened with debt. I guess I really was just sentimental about having some cash flow.

What to get was a very hard decision. It is not fun to be spending a lot of money with any uncertainty if this is actually the very best of your choices to meet your needs. One of our concerns is that we do go on long trips with all the kids. We need to be able to fit 8 people in the van. Ideally it would have enough room so that all the kids can have space to themselves to help alleviate some of the inevitable fighting that always occurs.

We thought something like this might be nice:

There are enough seats they can all have their own. The drivers are separated from the passengers, and if the kids behavior gets bad enough we can always threaten them with riding on the top.

But alas, these are a little hard to come by in Brentwood.

So I thought about this:

Just think what great shape I would be in after carting kids around town. And if they were being bad, I could make them peddle. It even has a luggage rack on top. But unfortunately, I don't think I would ever be in good enough shape to make it to Utah or Washington with less than a year driving time. (Work and school frown on taking that long for vacation)

Another option was:

There are enough seats. There is room to move around while driving. It comes with a stop sign which could be fun to just randomly pop out around town. And, if the payments get hard, we could always supplement our income by undercutting the fees the school district charges parents to bus their kids. But it wouldn't fit into our garage, and I didn't feel like getting the special bus driver, driver's license.

So finally we settled on this: A 2008 Toyota Sienna in a very pretty green color (All the boys hate the color, the girls love it. I won in the color battle.)

It was delivered to us last night. Now I will just live in fear of anything happening to it. We have already threatened the kids with bodily harm if they so much as get a drop or crumb or mark of any kind on it for the next 10 years. (Only sort of kidding, maybe not bodily harm, but definitely some kind of torment). And I get to spend the next couple of days figuring out how to work all the cool little extras that came with. What a great excuse not to do housework.

My new conflict

2007-11-09T08:18:00.000-08:00

I have a new source of conflict in my life. I feel like I am in a huge struggle with this object. It is kind of like a little war with battles. Over the last week, things have really been escalating. You see, 9 years and 10 months ago, after moving to Brentwood, we purchased this 1 year old used minivan, after realizing that with Andrew going to Livermore to work, we just could not get by on one car anymore.This is the car we used to bring all three girls home from the hospital when they were born. This car has taken us on many trips to Washington, Utah, and other places for vacations. With it's handy movable seats, we were able to buy a second third row seat from a junkyard and make it carry 8 passengers, securing it's survival with our family after the birth of our last child, over four years ago. It has carried our kids to many swim meets, to pre-school, to church each week. It has been with us for a long time.

It has developed lots of little quirky problems, like the gas light and dinger randomly chiming when the tank is full, like the windshield wipers just arbitrarily taking a wipe. Like the speedometer not registering motion on occasion. These kinds of things just give it personality. They are nothing big.

Lately it seems to be deciding it no longer wants to live with us. Maybe it wants a quieter life, maybe it wants to be put to rest. Last week it upped the ante, when it tried to strand me on 580 while going to the temple. It decided to leak out all its coolant and overheat. Fortunately, my dad was with me at the time, and he was able to save me. Now I have to drive around with a gallon of water and anti-freeze, and frequently check to make sure it isn't trying to pull this little stunt again. Not happy with this result, it decided that instead of letting the blinker come on, it would light up the brake light, when I tried to signal for a turn, and occasionaly refuse to shift gears when I am trying to accelerate.

So here is my dilemna, do I continue to fight with this van, and exert my will over it, knowing that it is upping the ante, and may just do some horrible thing and cause me to be stranded somewhere, or do I give it up, and hope we can find a new vehicle to join our family. Both options cause me much turmoil.

If we keep the van, I will always be stressed and worried that every little noise is a sign of some horrible thing about to happen. However, I won't be so worried about messes in the van. If we get something new, I will be constantly worried about everything around me as I drive, being out to mark it up, I will be worried about anything getting in it, (no food or beverages, other than water, even on long cross-country trips for those messy kids). I will stress that the kids might somehow do something to it. Andrew will be constantly worried about the side-view mirrors, and the side of our garage (ok, he already is, but at least now one is already damaged). I will feel guilty anytime I spend extra money on something not really necessary that could be going to pay off the new vehicle. I will feel greedy wanting anything for Christmas.

If we get a new van, does that mean that our old one wins, or do I win?

Can you guess what this is?

2007-11-04T14:55:00.001-08:00

Halloween pics a little late

2007-11-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

Lively Link aka Travis

The Great Gimli also known as Kyle

A beautiful bride Mindy

The fancy fairy Sandra

and an adorable angel Cammie

Mindy and Claire decided to go as twin brides. They even were asked if they were twins while out trick-or-treating. Aren't they just so cute together. To bad twin day at school was two days later, and we wouldn't let them wear their costumes again.

Here is the answer. A gigantic Tootsie Roll. Mindy decided to mash all her tootsie rolls into one large one. My kids are a little weird. This is what they do instead of sorting out and categorizing their halloween candy.

Things to be Happy about

2007-10-25T14:45:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to take more notice of the joyful things in my life lately. These are a few things that have brought me happiness this week.

Going into a store and finding strawberries on sale for 99 cents a pound. They were actually very good and tasty. I bought ten packs over the course of a few days and have been greatly enjoying them. My favorite way has been on waffles with half a can of whipped cream. This is not just a breakfast dish.

Loma Vista is having a book fair this week. Sandra got her first chapter book and devoured it in less than a day. It was fun to watch her be so excited to read, even if it was hard to get her to get ready for bed. She hasn't stopped reading since then. It is such a joy to see your kids develop a love for something good.

Tuesday night I subbed for a yoga class. Its was one of the funnest classes I have ever taught. It was huge class, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. We did lots of hard poses, and laughed as we struggled with them. (sorry no pic to go with this, I'm not quite as stealthy as Celia with the camera)

I ordered some items from Amazon last week. They showed up a week earlier than expected. I am so happy to be reading the sequel to a good book. Boxes in the mail are always fun, esp when they are something you have been waiting for.

A Dog's Birthday

2007-10-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

We found out that today is Fletcher's birthday. The kids insisted on having a birthday party for him. I tried and tried to get out of it, mostly by just ignoring them. I tried to explain that he is a dog and he has no idea about birthdays, and really doesn't care. But it was all to no avail, the kids won, and we had a small celebration for him, which consisted of him getting a few new toys (which have already been destroyed) and a lot of treats.

This is a gross huge bone part he received. It had tons of stuff falling off of it. It has been relegated to the back yard. Fletcher isn't very happy about my decision, but I am the boss.

Everyone had fun playing with him and his new toys, until they broke.

Smith Farm

2007-10-18T13:28:00.001-07:00

Cammie had a pre-school field trip to Smith Family Farm today. She had a lot of fun seeing all the stuff there. She really enjoyed the corn maze, and didn't want to leave it. We were supposed to go back in it before we left, but we ran out of time.

Here she is in the pumpkin patch with the pumkin she picked out. All the other moms loved this one.

Here she is running around the hay maze with some of her friends. This was the first time she left me to play with the other kids. Usually when we are at parties or stuff, she gets really shy and clings to me. It was neat to see her having fun with others.

She got to participate in the barn music show. She was a little unsure of being up there, but seemed to enjoy doing it. She wanted to go do it, so I am proud of her for not being to shy and going up.

This is on the wagon ride to go out and get our pumpkins. This was another fun part, she really enjoyed riding in the wagon being pulled by a tractor.

Sunrise

2007-10-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today was the dreaded first day back to school after the two week break. Only dreaded because it meant getting up early, getting all the kids up early, getting them ready for school, making them lunches, and getting them to leave the house with enough time to get to school. I was greeted by a beautiful sunrise as I staggered out to the kitchen to get the morning started.

A bucket is NOT a hat

2007-10-12T18:13:00.001-07:00

and if you try to use it as one, anyways, it may get pretty stuck on your head. Maybe we should have Jack-in-the-Box add a warning to their kids meal toy.

AfterCammie had to endure me taking pictures, we did manage to pry it off. That strap was quite tight on her forhead.

Escondido

2007-10-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

We spent the first week of the kids fall break down in Escondido, California at the Lawrence Welk Resort, with Andrew's parents, grandmother, and one nephew. They all came out from Utah to be with us. It was a lot of fun to see them and just spend a lot of time relaxing. The resort has some great water play areas with pools, a waterslide, splash play area and hot tubs. We were in the water everyday.

We went to the beach at the Oceanside Pier. It was the first time I have ever been to a California beach and not been painfully cold. The kids had a great time playing in the waves, even if the water was on the cold side.

It took Cammie quite awhile to want to go in the water, once she got used to the waves moving over her feet, she didn't want to quit.

A couple of cold boys. Kyle and his cousin Bradley.

Andrew's mom bought boogie boards. Travis and Kyle decided they were much better than just trying to body surf. Travis had so much fun, he and Andrew went out to the beach a second day.

Andrew's grandma. She wasn't really cold, just worried about the sun. The boys ended up with pretty good sunburns on their backs, and the girls on their faces.

Where's Andrew?

He rode this wave in from really far out.

On our next to last night, Andrew's parents took us out for dinner to a buffet. After we had all totally stuffed ourselves and were getting ready to go, the three boys decided they needed a bit more steak. They then spent the next half-hour eating steak after steak after steak, while we all impatiently waited to be able to leave.

We also spent a couple of days doing crafts that were offered there. The girls had a lot of fun painting things. The boys spent many hours playing pool, air hockey, and playstation in the rec rooms. It was a great vacation.

2007-09-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

Yo, This is Travis and i just turned 13. well, you know what that means, i am now a teenager. for my birthday, i got a huge, circle chair, a rug for my room, a lamp, some bike stuff, a really cool sweater, and aroun $150!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A lot of my friends came over for a sleepover party that started at 5 and went till 10 in the morning. at around 12:30 at night, we went tping at the Heston's and Pederson's houses. we got caught at the pedersons house by the stupid neighbor who threatened to call the cops and release the hounds wich were really 1 little 15 pound mini-me dog. we made up for it by getting the Heston's house sooooooo bad that they asked us to come help them clean it up. This is the best party that i have ever had and i am planning on making the next one even better.

Library Field Trip

2007-09-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today I had a new experience, for the first time in 9 years of having a kid in school, I chaperoned on a field trip. Sandra's class went to the Brentwood Public Library. I was supposed to drive students there, and help supervise. It turns out that they had more than enough parent drivers, and I only had to take Sandra. She was excited to get to go with only me in the car. She decided that a field trip to a place you have been to many times before is not very much fun. She did get to check out some books. I guess this is one more advantage the younger kids in a family get. It's much easier to help them when there aren't littler ones you have to find care for.

Bags

2007-09-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

Last month for Enrichment night we were going to make tote bags out of placemats. The samples were really cute, I thought it would be really fun to do. I got a little too carried away when I went to the store to buy a placemat and had to buy several. I finally got them all made. They are very easy and fun to do.
Originally I thought I would make them and fill them up with something as a Christmas present for the girls. Unfortunately I didn't want to have to work on them in secret, so they have seen them. Now I don't know what to do. They don't actually like the ones I had intended for them, (they all want the yellow and brown ones, which I wanted for myself, even though I have no use for them) and they really don't need any more bags. (Purses and bags are one of the things I am always secretly trying to get rid of whenever I help them clean their rooms. They have shelves of them) I thought about saving them till Christmas and hoping we get some girl cousins in the gift exchange, but I know the girls would really like to have them. Until I decide what to do, they are just sitting in my living room being a bit annoying. I bet within a couple of days the girls will just start taking them over, my guess is Cammie will be the first to start using one for her treasures she collects.

Fletcher's Clothes

2007-09-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

When we adopted Fletcher, we were told that he had a little bit of separation anxiety. In his old house whenever he was left alone, he would go gather a pillow and a doll and put them in the living room while he was home alone. The first time we left him home alone, we shut all the doors to the bedrooms and left. When we came home we discovered that he had raided the laundry room and brought lots of dirty laundry upstairs and scattered it around the house. Now he likes to take his clothes and pile them up around and on his bed to cuddle with. Occasionally he will even growl if someone tries to take clothes away. This is the pile that he had accumulated yesterday and this morning while I was showering.

Fletcher's Begging Talent

2007-09-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

Just now, as I was leaning against the couch, Fletcher went into the pantry and began to whine. I thought he might have wanted a treat, but they were all gone. Then I figured, maybe the pantry still smells like his treats. That was to be proven wrong. When I went in, he just kept on whining, and smelling the shelves. I kept asking him what he wanted, and he put his front paws on a shelf, and started smelling a higher shelf. I took things off the shelf that he might want, to see if he would come after that. Finally I tried the beef jerky, not quite sure that that was what he wanted, but he took one and ate it.
Only about a minute later, he was whining in the pantry again. This made me pretty sure that it was not the beef jerky that he wanted. So again I asked him what he wanted, but he just kept nosing different stuff. And he kept whining........................................................................................... Finally, he put his front paws on a shelf and got up higher. Yep, it was the beef jerky he wanted. I could tell by the way he was nudging it enought to get it onto it's side a little bit.

I got them down, and took them to my mom who was sitting at her desk, and informed her that I was able to confirm that it was the beef jerky that Fletcher wanted. She just said "Well, he''s already had one today", but I supported Fletcher and his whining with a convincing, "C'mon". Mine and Fletchers arguement won, she took out a pice, tore off a third and asked, "What tricks can you do boy? What tricks are you going to do?" He got past this by sitting and shaking without being told. This continued till the stick was gone, and then my mom put them away in the pantry.

Fletcher hasn't been whining since that.

Kyle