Our Family

This is my life

2012-01-12T16:58:00.000-08:00

It seems that I lie awake through the night thinking of these wonderful posts to write and how knowledgeable I feel and I will save the world, anyone that stumbles onto my blog will be changed for the better (not that everyone is inherently bad) but somehow I can make the world a better place.

Then I get going through my day and I am a grump, the house does not get cleaned, the laundry sits on the floor, dinner is cereal again, I have yelled at my children and I wonder how I could ever make the world better when this is my life?

You know what I did do this week? I snuggled with my husband (who is gone way too much) I had friends over to make soup, I completed a church task that had been looming for awhile, I tied a quilt for a humanitarian project, I've studied spelling with my 4th grader, I've helped with a power point for my 7th grader, we played monopoly ( I am the champion), I wrestled with my sophomore son because he thinks he is stronger than me, I've talked with my daughters who are too far to visit. I've studied my scriptures, and I've set goals for the coming year.

I look at my children and husband and find joy. No it's not a picture perfect world and it could be better, but it's who I am and I am happy with that. This is my Life

Guest Post - Syd's Wedding!!

2011-09-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, it's me Sydney, and I"m guest posting on my mom's blog today because I'm the only one with wedding pictures:) haha. So if you read both our blogs, you get to see them twice! If you don't read my blog and just my mom's... Shame on you. Mine is way more funny. ;)

So we were a little worried about the weather when we went into the temple, but turns out about 20 minutes before we came out... so did the sun!!! And it literally dried up all the rain. So from what I can remember in my blissful mind of the day...

it was perfect.

Three months later....

The Reception!!!

Justin and I made this cake earlier that day. It was stressful, but we were pretty dang proud of ourselves for our first ever wedding cake!

And just because Justin and I are SO good looking.... ;)

It's love.

HATE vs. LOVE

2011-09-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hate..... it is such a strong word. I admit that I have used it in a casual way before for instance "I hate beets" but a friend on facebook made the statement that her daughter told her she hated her. The mother wondered what she was doing right to have her daughter say such a thing. Now I know what this sweet mother was trying to say, I love her dearly, but as I have been thinking about that comment over the past couple of weeks I thought back to my own daughters as teenagers and I cannot think of one time that they told me they hated me.

As we have just had another year pass since 9-11 and I remember that day so vividly I have never felt hate. Only sadness. I had no one close to me die or even be close to the east coast that day, but I felt it. I still feel it. It is always one of the highlights to my trips back to visit Syd. This past trip we stopped and spoke to some of the workers that were building the new Freedom Tower, I asked them where they were that day. They were there, at ground zero, working on some other buildings. I asked what they did, they said they ran, and then turned and went back to watch, then ran again. It took one man 12 hours to get home. And 2 days for his legs to stop shaking.

My niece died from cancer last year. I don't hate cancer. It is hard, I miss her, we all miss her terribly, and I still struggle when people make the comment to look at all the good that has come from our families trial. Baloney. Yes she has great parents. Yes she is in a better place, a place I wish I could be. Yes she is no longer in pain. Yes she has left an effect on so many people on this earth. But she is gone we can't have the kids get together and play, she doesn't get in my purse and dig out the gum then look at me with those big brown eyes, she doesn't call to see what's for dessert on Sunday night.

I believe that the word to counteract hate is LOVE, of course. Easy answer right?? But is it really? This mother loves her daughter very much and this daughter loves her mother. Her daughter said that because her mother was showing her love by not allowing her to do something that could lead to some harm and mothers know best.

As I wave my flag and sing the national anthem, I feel love for my country, for those serving this country, for their families left behind carrying on life while they serve for strangers, I feel love for those that died that day, innocent victims. I feel love for those workers that came back and are building the future. I feel love for their families because they ran.

We are coming up on one year since AmyLynne's death. I love my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ. I love that because of His sacrifice for me I will see her again. I love that I have the memories to treasure in my heart. I love knowing that I will be with the love of my life, Shawn, forever. I love that I can hear a Prophets voice. I love that miracles do happen.

What a surprise

2011-05-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

We have some big and exciting news......Sydney got engaged!!! Now for the exciting news, she wanted to get married in 2 weeks!!! So we have been very busy running around looking for dresses and picking flowers but the big day was on May 20th. It was a beautiful day and it was pulled off without a hitch. We had been having a lot of rain and when we went into the Temple it was raining but when we came out it was blue sky and perfect. We wereAble to have her photographer there and everything I am hoping to have pictures soon. They will be staying here for the summer and then going back to school this fall. We will enjoy getting to know Justin better.

Hayden got himself a dirt bike and has been having lots of fun riding it, he seems to come home after every ride and tell me of some other thing that he broke because he crashed!!!

Joce has her seminary graduation last Sunday and her high school graduation this Thursday, I can't believe that she is all done with her high school career, it seems like just yesterday she was beginning kindergarten. Now she is all grown up:)

We have to get a new camera so I will get some fun ok ethers and get them downloaded soon.
I have my marathon on the 11th of June too. So we are keeping busy as usual.

Our wonderful dog:)

2011-03-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is our wonderful dog Star we got her for Christmas 1998. She would walk to town with the kids and wait outside of the store to walk them back home, she would chase fireworks on the 4th of July, she would hide from thunder or beg to come in the house, she loved to go for rides in the truck, she had the most beautiful smile (that scared the mailman!!!)she loved to run along and while the kids rode bikes, she hated to go in the water, she had the softest ears, she would put up with kids pulling on her lips, or mom giving her kisses! But most of all she loved us as much as we loved her.

Our sweet Star passed away March 14,2011

Some of our happenings.....

2011-03-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

Palm Springs!!

This is the mountain that Nath "ran" more on that at her running blog seesistersrun.blogspot.com

We had beautiful weather, 78-80, we were there over Valentines Day so Shawn counted that as his big plans!! It was great to just sleep in and sit by the pool, read some books, shop and just be together!

The view from the pool, this was during the 30 minutes of clouds we had all week:)

I want an orange tree in my back yard, this is at Shawn's brother's place in Southern Cal.

While we were there Nancy put Shawn and Bill right to work building a fence, it turned out great and makes a big difference in their yard, well worth the effort (not that it took much effort for those 2!)

It was actually me, Nancy and Clay that did all the work, Shawn and Bill are more "supervisor" material!!

Seattle trip

I find it pretty cool to see Elk on the side of the road just a little way out of Seattle!!

Josh, Dad, and Mom went to Seattle for a few days, we saw Mt St Helens and Mt Rainer, the weather was a perfect 55 and sunny, you don't get that much in the northwest!!

Just a couple of pictures from above the river.

Nashville Trip

This was part of the roof to our hotel!!

Jane Deer Girls

Luke Bryan

Shawn and I had the chance to go to Nashville in January, it was so much fun. I have always loved the South and jump at any opportunity to go that direction. I had never been to Tennessee before so again I was very excited!! We went to a few civil war sites and Shawn being the camera happy guy that he is took way to many pictures for me to post, but we have a great collection to keep the memory alive!!I would love to live in a plantation house!! We were the only ones on the tour so we got to go to the areas of the home not open to tourists, it was amazing. This home was turned into a hospital and had over 700 soldiers in it for several months. The location is one of the bloodiest battles of the war, over 10,000 men were wounded, died, or MIA in just a short 5 hour time.
This is the backside of the house, are those porches the best or what??
We stayed at Opryland it has something like 25 acres of land all under this glass roof! The balloons were up as part of the Christmas display and it was mostly gone by the time we left.
Shops and restaurants were all under this one roof, really no reason to even leave, except of course for all the great music and dancing and of course the Ryman theater where we saw Steele Magnolias, Eric Church, Jane Deer girls, Easton Corbin, and The Band Parry, and Luke Bryan!! We went dancing at The Wild horse and found some real southern bar-b-que, which we find every time we go to the south:)

I've decided to try and update by finding a picture,telling about it and then moving on, since I can't seem to be able to figure out how to post and then write!!

2011-02-04T21:10:00.000-08:00

Ok so if you have not been able to tell yet, I have no idea how to download pictures!! These are our pictures from our Christmas with our family from Holland, begining with their departure!! We had an amazing 3 weeks with them. They arrived Christmas Day and stayed until the 13th of January, we went skiing and snowmobiling in McCall, watched fireworks on New Years morning, went to a hockey game, they took a van trip through Yellowstone, swimming in Riverdale resort, SHOPPING and of course the Hardware store!! Just great to spend time together and enjoy one anothers company.

Shawn on his dream bike, which I hope he gets soon (can't you see me on the back of this??)

Troy after playing our new favorite game, he was a good sport!!

Enjoying a break from the slopes at Tamarak, Tante Ger, John, Joce, and Sydney.

Okko wondering if we will be able to dig our way out of the cabin!!

Tante Ger and Jan digging us out of the cabin in McCall, they had to earn their keep somehow!!

We picked them up in style from the airport, John has always wanted to drive a Hummer and I just couldn't find one to rent here so we did the next best thing and rented a Hummer Limo!!

There were 14 people in the house and when Sydney's boyfriend came we had 15 it was so much fun, crazy and oh so quiet when everyone was gone!! So glad they made the trip it was a Christmas to remember for sure:)

Some pictures

2010-12-01T19:09:00.000-08:00

Had our first snow day today. Here is Chubba playing with the dogs in the back yard, they all had so much fun!!

Dylan having just fallen off of the sleigh behind the 4-wheeler!

Joce and her artistic self showing through with this AMAZING snowman! I stayed inside and did laundry and cleaned the house, mostly I just tried to be warm, I thought we had moved away from all of this?? Although it was funny that we had a snow day when there was only about 7-8 inches at Preston it would have been just another storm!! It was a fun day, the boys were outside ALL day riding 4-wheelers and playing in the snow:)

Joce went to sadie hawkins dance, they decorated their shirts and had a great time!!

Just an example of the fun the boys have been having this fall with our new dog, aptly named "Birdie" Shawn has the best reciepe for cooking all kinds of game birds so we really have been enjoying them!

Crazy Dayz!

2010-11-12T12:38:00.000-08:00

I know I am such a slacker on this blog, but I will try to do better! I am also blogging for the marathon so I figured I can always do 2 right??

AmyLynne's funeral was on the 16th and was very beautiful and touching, she and her family are some of the best people around! We had dinner and everything then went back to KL and Troy's place to hang out for awhile, about 5'oclock there was screaming coming from the tramp, it was Chubba he was on with the big boys and came down on Hayden's shoulder with his chin. I pulled him off and had him come sit by me for a few minutes and before long he was off again. About half an hour later he came and told me he had a headache so I had him sit by me again, about the same time Shawn was going to run back to our house for a few things and Chubba asked him where he was going, Shawn told him and then went into the kitchen for a minute, came back out and said good-by again. Chubba asked him where he was going, Shawn told him, almost word for word, then Chubba looked at me and said "my head hurts", he had just said that 2 minutes earlier so we began to question him on other things, he could remember the Prophets name, his birthday,his family, but not why we were at AmyLynnes' house.

I wanted to know if he could still read so I handed him a program from the funeral and asked him to read it for me, it was the most horrible part of the day. He read it silently looked at me and burst into tears, he didn't remember that AL had passed away!! I proceeded to burst into tears as well for his pain, it was awful. It lasted about 2 minutes then abruptly stopped. I asked him why he was sad and he just looked at me with a glazed expression and said "I don't know, my head hurts." We gave him a blessing and headed to the hospital, I had a flower from one of the arrangements in the car it was a lilly, he smelled it and I asked him what it reminded him of he told me AL, I said "why?" he said "because she is beautiful" Then I asked if he remembered what had happened that day, he said no. We went through the grieving 4-5 times that night, until his memory began to return. He had a concussion and had forgotten the entire past week!! Thankfully as his memory returned it all came back so we didn't have to go through it again.

What I found amazing was the episode with the flower, we had never had these flowers before, he had associated then with her even through his injury. The mind is an amazing thing.

The pictures are of him in the hospital and with him all dressed up for the funeral, he was a pall-bearer.

On the run!!

2010-11-02T22:06:00.001-07:00

My sister KayLynne and I are going to run a marathon.....stop laughing it's true!

check out our "jog blog" at seesistersrun.blogspot.com

This is just in case anyone out there still stops in here!!

more pictures of the trip

2010-04-14T16:54:00.001-07:00

Our favorite place to eat (besides Chadders)
The fog rolled in at the beach but we had fun anyway!
Two very tired parents
Josh and Kayty enjoying a much needed break

Joce and Grandpa

Will you just take the picture already???

Minnie was the only character we saw out and about

We love Toontown

Another picture of the kids, we had a group of 16 it was so fun to be together

Gotta love family!!!

California!!

2010-04-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

Sidewalk of the Stars
Beverly Hills
A giant tree in Beverly Hills
Hayden's birthday at Bill and Nancy's
Loaded up and ready to go!!!

We decided to go with the Sharp Family to California to enjoy some family time together. We made the decision to go on Sunday and left Friday so not enough time to fly (we love spending time in the car anyway) Friday morning we piled in for the 15 hour drive south, so thankful for Redbox! We began our adventure at Uncle Bill and Aunt Nancy's house in Moorpark for Hayden's birthday, then to Hollywood and the sidewalk of stars! Monday found us at Disneyland pushing the gates open at 7:30am and getting kicked out at midnight! The next morning we were waking up the kids to head for Knott's Berry Farm and Josh says "why do you do this to your children?" too funny!! anyway 10 hours at Knotts then swimming and pizza, and another 16 hours at Disneyland the next day!! Grandpa and Grandma came for Mon-Wed too. Thursday found us at the beach chasing waves and building sandcastles then driving as far as we could that night and arriving home Friday. Troy talked with customer service at Disney telling them the reason for our visit and that AmyLynne had been a make-a-wish recipient and they gave him a fast-pass which helped so we didn't have to wait in many lines!!! What a week.

The only thing that could have been better is if Sydney were with us!!

Now to try and post the pictures!!

I will do another post with more pictures

Joce's first school dance

2010-02-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

Well this past weekend Joce had a school dance called Sweethearts. Its like a Valentines dance, but a formal girls choice. She had so much fun with all her friends, she took a boy in our ward, and everything went great.

I don't think we have more than 3 pictures where Joce, or other kids, are smiling. All the rest are funny faces! Typical Joce.

Lots and lots of posts...

2010-02-04T17:49:00.000-08:00

Well, since it has been 4 months, we are going to give you a slightly large blog today. yep, i said large, like big, humongous, A LOT!!!

Shawn and Nathlie went to Texas for a week, this is the Alamo.

First boarding of the year 2010. Very first day.

Oh Christmas tree!!

Nathlie was driving.

The last family picture for 2009. The day we dropped Syd off for another adventure in Connecticut.

This is Nathlie's 29th *40th cough* birthday party, dinner and a murder. intense.

Joce had a young women in excellence, red carpet night, she went all out. she was from the 80's and took an hour to comb her hair out. I don't think she will rat it up that high again.

Josh had his 8th birthday! It was really fun with all the family there for his baptism!

This is our very own house! finally its ours!!

Youth Day Camp

2009-10-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

It has been a very long time since we have updated the blog. We were going to do one for Joce's sweet 16. It didn't work out, so i guess not!

Well this past Saturday, Nath, Hayden, and Joce, went to a ward youth day camp. They had a blast! It was so great to get to know all the youth better and bond with everyone! We had some talks about not judging others, and peer pressure, and just all the regular stuff teenagers need to work on. :)

Hayden said he had fun, but he was super tired from hunting for a whole week then waking up at 6 the next day he got home, especially on a Saturday. He got along so well with everybody. There was also a dead cow out in the field and they just had to go explore that!

It seemed like everyone just loved Joce. She was happy about that. The youth did a skit in their group, here is Joce's group. It seems like they didn't even plan it?? No i don't think they did.

All the groups did a great job. They were all very funny! We had a volleyball net set up, and a bunch of other activities we did. It was a really great experience!

Nath & Joce's New York Trip

2009-06-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

Nath and Joce went to The Big Apple last week to see Syd and get the personal tour. They had an absolute blast!! As you can see Joce is a little apprehensive about her first time in an airplane. I think after the first hour or so she settled down and did just fine.

We arrived in New York at 11:00 pm on Thursday so our adventures began on Friday. We mainly hit the hot spots around Connecticut where Syd lives. One of our main stops was the Waffle House! JK!! We went to Cosi's and a place that served Gelato. We couldn't get enough of it.

Then our tours took us to the Beach. The day started out nice but just after this picture was taken, we decided to cruise home and get our swimsuits so we could take advantage of this beautiful weather. Well wouldn't you know as soon as we got back to the beach, the clouds rolled in and it started raining cats and dogs. We had a blast non the less.

Saturday was our big day in the City. Here we are waiting for the train. I don't think they have these for everyday transit in Idaho. It was fun and the best way to get around.

Here we are at Grand Central Station. This is the whispering corners where if you whisper in this corner the sound will carry over to the other side and they can hear you whispering. It is so cool!!

Oh the people!! They are everywhere, but it creates a lot of energy and it is fun being in the hustle and bustle of everything.

Here is our first peak at the city. This is the Hyatt where Syd stayed the first year she went to New York and there behind it is the Chrysler building. (It may not be named the Chrysler building for long)

This is a sculpture that was salvaged from the inside of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

Here we are eating the famous street side New York hot dog. You would think a hot dog is a hot dog, but wait till you have one in New York. Its a life changing experience!!

Here we caught a couple of tourists jumping off the lamp post foundation by the harbor, looking out at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Do you think the people ever get tired of watching the tourists act so crazy?!!!

Here is a photo of Ground Zero. It was an awesome experience just being there and reflecting back on that day and all that happened here. May We Never Forget!!

Here it was time for Dinner so we went to Bubba Gump's Shrimp House. Oh the food!! Its all over the place.

Here we are shopping on Canal Street. Yes, we got our share of Coach and Dulce bags!! Nathlie even managed to find her a Prada. Oh a woman's shopping dream. So much high end (fake) articles at such a low price. Of course you have to barter the heck out of them. But it was soooo fun!!

Oh--Oh here's the food again. I told you it was everywhere. I think Syd talked us into sampling every single mini on the menu. I will be working out for 2 weeks to get all of these off my hips.

Here we are in Time Square. What a busy happening place. People everywhere! They had the streets blocked off so people could move around more freely and safely, so we just walked down the streets. (with everyone else)

Joce could not believe that you could have so many colors of M&M's. I guess she is only used to the basic Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Brown. It just goes to show what you can learn when you get out into the world a little bit.

Old Yeller was looking a bit down and lonely, so the girls stopped into say Hi and cheer him up.

Here we are doing the touristy thing. Sydney was saying just a few hours before how "This is my town and I am not a tourist, so we will do the things locals do". I guess you have to live there more than 6 months before all of the tourist blood is filtered out.

And of course we could not leave until we all had some of the famous New York cheesecake. Oh what a wonderful way to finish off the trip!!

This all took place on Saturday and Monday and then on Tuesday we got up and Syd took us to the airport for our trip home. We had a wonderful time as you can see, and hope to go back one day. Thanks Syd!!!

Catch up Blog

2009-06-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

We haven't written on the blog for a while. It seems like we have been going a lot of different directions at about a 100 miles per hour. This blog will catch everybody up with what has been happening in our lives.

On Saturday of Memorial weekend, went to Julia Davis Park down on the Boise River. It is in the downtown area of Boise and has a zoo and paddle boats and a greenbelt along the river. We played various games and the boys rode their bikes along the river and everyone went on the paddle boats. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.

Joce also learned how to change the oil today. As you can see she is now a pro. She didn't even get any oil in her hair. What a feat. That is unusual for a girl!!

On Monday which was Memorial Day, we had a bar-b-que in the back yard with some friends and Troy and KayLynne's family. We had plenty of food and lots of fun. Earlier in the day we were invited to go boating at Black Canyon resevoir with the Ririe's. The kids had a blast on the tubes. So did Shawn, even though he can't ride them as long as he used to. He must be getting old or something. It was a warm sunny day and perfect for water activities.

Then of course on Wednesday we went to Preston and spent the weekend there for Sydney's Graduation from High School. I will only post one picture depicting her true feelings, and if you want to see the other hundred or so pictures from her graduation, you can go to her blog.

On Saturday we ended up in Salt Lake City for Shawn's cousins wedding and afterwards went for a drive and ended up at Leatherby's Ice Cream parlor.

Here is the face of two young lovers waiting for their ice cream.

Here is the face of uncertainty!!!

This is the face of joyful bliss!

This is one of anticipation.

This is a face of victory!!

And one of defeat!!

and these are just some pretty faces!!

After we dropped off Syd at the airport on Sunday morning, we drove back home to Boise, and resumed life as usual again. Shawn was on the road for the week and the kids were finishing up school. Wednesday, June 3rd was their last day.

This week, Shawn and Hayden went to Northern Idaho and decided to do a little fishing while Shawn was "working". They finally had some success going after the big fish and a wonderful time doing it. Shawn finally caught his big fish. It was a 20 lb salmon that measured 36" inches in length. Hayden topped off the day with a 5 lb salmon that measured 18" inches long. As you can see, they are all smiles.

Haydens Bear Hunt

2009-05-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

On Monday, Shawn and Hayden went bear hunting up north a couple of hours away. They took along a friend that knew the area and said there were lots of bears around. They left about 4 pm and got home about 11:30 pm. They actually got something this time. They drove up in the mountains and then got on the Rhino and 4 wheelers and drove the roads stopping and glassing the hillsides as they went. Hayden spotted this bear across the canyon laying in the shade kinda on top of a rock. They were about 400 yards away. They knew the bear was not aware they were there, so they snuck down the hill and tried to get a closer shot.

When they were about 300 yards away they set up for the shot. Shawn was looking through the spotting scope as Hayden was shooting. His first shot hit the rock underneath the bear. The bear was looking around trying to figure out what was going on. Shawn told Hayden to get another shot off when it was right. Hayden popped off another shot and the bear dropped like a rock. It was an awesome shot!!

I think he is still grinning and its almost been a week. The bear was about 5 ft, and had a white blaze on its chest. The left front paw had been chewed off from where he had it caught in a trap or something. They had lots of fun and are now wanting to go to Alaska for the big ones.

Dylan's 10th Birthday

2009-05-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!!

Well today was Dylan's Birthday. He turned 10! wooo. The Big 1-0!

He got a bike for his present. On Thursday evening, he got to go with Mom and Dad to the musical "Brigadoon". 3 hours of a musical that you dont understand is almost too much, but he is still singing the songs today. We asked him after the play if he understood what "Brigadoon" was or was about, and he said "No, but it was good."

Today, during the day we decided to go to the neighbors and do some zip lining!! Thanks to Kevans assortment of construction equipment, we can make a 150 ft zip line starting at 40 ft in the air. It was a blast and everyone loved it! We will post a video of Nathlie soon. When they pushed her off, it was all over but the screaming.. Here is a video of Dylan on his big day.

After an afternoon of zip lining, Dylans family and friends came over and we had dinner and an Ice Cream Cake. It was a great day!!

Joce's Dance Festival at BSU

2009-04-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

Well tonight we had the awesome opportunity to go an see Joce perform in the BSU Taco Bell Arena. It was a combined stake youth dance festival. It was called "Be thou an example of the believers" and "Dance to a Different Beat. We had all the youth from 6 stakes in the Boise area performing different dance routines. It was a free production for members and non-members in the area, (actually everyone in the whole world was invited, but mostly people from the area showed up)
.

The youth from the Eagle Stake did the Tango.

The combined stakes did a couple of numbers together, mainly to some of the songs off of the Musical, "Hairspray" They really did a good job. The arena was almost filled up to capacity. We think it was a great opportunity for the youth and Joce said she had a great time.

Here she is after the dance. Isn't she so cute?

Some things you see, and, some things you don't.

2009-03-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

After a while there are just some things that people don't want to do. And some things we have to do. Well for us kids we HAVE to, not want to or need to, we have to. Dang it. But for the parents they don't have to do anything, unless they are hinted to do it by their own parents. How about we see what some of these have to's and get to's are.

Then there is just some things that you can do, without anyone knowing. But you know, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Friday the 13th!

2009-03-13T20:17:00.000-07:00

So here it is Friday the 13th and Hayden's 13th birthday!! When he was born and we figured that he would turn 2 on Friday the 13th I wondered if that was an omen or something, well he has been the greatest kid so calm and sweet, but now he is 13 on Friday the 13th where does that put us?!? He went and withdrew from Eagle middle school today and begining Monday will be going to Galileo Science and Math Magnet school. I am excited he is excited!! He came home and took the rest of the day to spend with Shawn, they helped a family in our ward who is moving to Hawaii,move stuff into storage then packed up and went on a scout camp, he is loving life!!

We are so grateful to Hayden and the young man that he is. We love you Happy Birthday!!

Nath's Follow up

2009-03-05T14:02:00.001-08:00

Ok so I am not the best blogger as you can tell, but these days I can type faster than I can speak!! I went to the Dr yesturday to get the results of all the tests he had run and for my follow up. I am happy to report that I am healthy as can be (well except for this stroke thing!) I swear he tested me for everything under the sun and then some. The only restriction I have is not to lift anything to heavy ( more then 100lbs.) so I guess no more weight lifting, sorry Amy you are now on your own. I take an aspirin a day and he says it will probably never happen again. However, if it does then that will raise some red flags (ya think) and they will look more into my PFO, which is the flap in my heart that is supposed to seal when you are born but in about 20% of us it does not. It was funny to hear a Dr say "I really just don't know why" but we take that and run, but not to fast!!! I feel great I am not as tired and I improve everyday, we are so thankful for the prayers. And to know that we are a forever family.

Shawn went back to work this week, to Portland, he left on Tue and will be home tonight, now we know why we moved here 3 days instead of 5 is great!! Chubba was a little anxious when he left because last time he was gone I couldn't talk. But he is adjusting as we all are.

This house is beginning to feel like home and we are settling in well, I love all the space! There is a field next door for the boys to play in and they have gotten air soft guns to shoot each other with, now I can't wait for spring, although it is 20 degrees warmer then Preston (eat your heart out:)

Nathlie's Stroke

2009-02-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

Wow!! What a couple of crazy days. As you can see from the jogging pictures, Nathlie was ready to run a marathon a few days ago, well I had to leave town on Monday and flew to Austin TX. I called her when I landed and she was perfectly fine. She called me back 15 minutes later talking like she was handicapped or something. I said (in my sweet voice) "What are you doing?!!" She said " I can't talk" I then said (in my sweeter voice) "Are you messin with me?!!!" and she said (or tried to say) "NO, I CANT TALK". So I called the neighbors and had them take her to the emergency room and I went and bought a ticket home. It was like musical chairs. I walked out of the terminal and picked up my luggage, and walked over and bought a ticket home and went back in the terminal and got on a plane for Boise. To make a long story short, it turns out that she had a mild stroke which is affecting her speech. The doctors don't know why or what caused it, but have run every test they can to rule out everything else. It could be as simple as she has to take a baby aspirin every day for the rest of her life and hopefully it will never happen again.

It does make for some good material. I at least get a word in every now and then. It actually puts us on the same playing field. Now I can keep up with the conversation.

Really though, it was scary and I felt so helpless being 2,000 miles away and not being able to do anything. I am so thankful for good neighbors and family around us that were able to help and keep everything going until I could get home.

We thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and Nathlie should be back to normal within a week or two. Here are a few pictures that I took in the hospital. As you can see it took her a few frames to put her hand in front of her face so I couldn't take her picture, but she is coming right along and we look forward to her normal self soon.

Goodbyes and new times.

2009-01-27T11:25:00.000-08:00

Well now that Syd is gone I guess I have to be the one to update this, yes me Joce, so hopefully I will do fine. Here are some pictures of everyone at goodbye time for Syd. She chose to go to BeniHanas in Salt Lake. It was so cool!!!! we had our own chef and he cooked right in front of us! Everyone tried everyones and they were all super good. Except I chose not to try Sydney's Sushi, it looked alive? but it was super good!

After we dropped syd off at the airport at 7:30 in the morning we went straight home and finished up everything, loaded the U-hauls - cleaned everything and got in the cars and

left at 8:00 at night. We made it to Boise at 1:20 in the morning on Saturday because we drove the whole time! But here are some funny things, my dad thought my mom wouldn't know that he put the snowmobile in the trailer but when it started shaking and stuff on the hi-way she found out pretty quick! Then we had to take the cats with us or Chubba would have been pretty upset, so we put them in a box, but that didn't stop them from trying to get out, so we stopped and got some tape to put on the box and poked some holes in the sides, and when we got to the hotel the holes were huge! it was a crazy experience. But here are some pictures of the night.

So now we have gone to school for almost 3 days and on Monday, my dad took Hayden to Sportsman Warehouse at 9:00 in the morning and you will never guess who they met. Yup Jim Shockey off of the outdoor channel. It was planned so its ok, my mom knew. Here are some more pictures, they are of Jim Shockey, Hayden and Dad.

Bye Bye Tooth

2008-12-21T18:06:00.000-08:00

So Tonight Chubba came up to Syd and said hey look at my tooth! It was dangling to the side, so Syd convinced him to let her pull it out!

After two tries she just couldn't get it to come out! So Chris offered to try and Chubba refused to let anyone but Sydney do it. So she tried one more time and it finally came out! Now when he goes to the dentist tomorrow he will be sure to show them his missing tooth!

It was cute because after he had gotten the bleeding to stop, he asked Syd if he would get a gold tooth if he stuck his tongue in the hole. Of course after she told him it wouldn't turn gold, he said oh yeah I knew it I just thought I'd ask. :)

Shawn's & Haydens Hunting Excursion

2008-12-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

Shawn and Hayden had a wonderful opportunity to go pheasant hunting on a pheasant preserve in Northern Utah. (Thanks Chris) The package deal came with 7 birds, a guide, and a dog. As you can see there are still 2 lucky birds running around out there enjoying life in the wild. I think we shot about 30-40 shells and hiked a hundred miles. We had an absolute blast running around the hills chasing birds. Many thanks goes to our our fabulous guide Kati, the owner of the operation. We hope to be able to make many more returns in the future.

Christmas bells.......

2008-12-13T20:46:00.000-08:00

So I have some friends that were telling me I was neglecting my children their childhood because we didn't have our tree yet (Amy and Shelly!!) If it were up to me we would wait until Christmas eve to put it up!! So Shawn took the boys and the snowmobile out to his folks for the afternoon, well in the meantime I went with KayLynne to Logan to get a tree that was already cut and half price. There is no where in Logan to buy a tree they are all gone. Except for Home Depot they just happened to get in a new shipment today!!! So we rush over and pay $40+ for a Christmas tree, Way to much but we have to have a tree right?!? So Shawn calls while we are in Smithfield to tell me he cut a tree with the boys!!! He told Chubba that mom bought a tree from the store and he was not at all thrilled with the idea of not having one from the mountains, so Shawn told him he would go home and get moms and then bring it back for Nana and that would make him happy. Well mom is not about to give up her $40 tree, it is way prettier then another Charlie Brown tree!! So Shawn did what any good Dad/husband would do and sat at the top of the dougway for a while then took the mountain tree to Nana's and mom got her tree at home!!! Merry Christmas to all......

New Blog

2008-12-13T12:01:00.000-08:00

Hey we just decided to set up a blog (well rather Sydney did because she's the only one that knows anything in this family). So enjoy it while you can because she leaves in January!!!