Girls Weekend Out!

We did it! We finally found a time where 3 of us could get together and PARTY! I met with 2 of my sister in laws, Jenn and Erin. We wanted my mom to join us but she was way too far out of the country to catch up with us. Don't worry Mom we will do this again when you get home from your mission! We were grateful she could lend us her unoccupied house as we all headed to Meridian without kids! We slept in, talked, shopped, ate, and talked some more! We did break girl rules and met with my brothers for eating at Cheescake factory and watching a BYU basketball game. Overall we had tons of fun and were so relaxed because we had absolutely no schedule! It felt great to be rejuvenated. We were all so grateful for our awesome husbands back home taking on double roles as mom and dad for 3 nights and 4 days!

As we were wondering in the mall we decided to visit Sephora and get our eyes made over. This was tons of fun. We each walked out of there with less money and a little tingling feeling on our lips from our new lip plumper gloss!

Cheescake Factory

Kind of funny that there were 3 girls and 3 boys (Justin, Brandon, Derek) and none of us were couples. We talked and laughed for a good 3 hours while all of us ate our favorite chicken dish (Justin was the only one who strayed from Chicken Medero).

The second day of shopping turned into finding suits for Dave. I thought we would be in and out of one store especially since he was not even there to try them on. Don't all suits kind of look the same. There really isn't a lot of options, right? Wrong! It was more time consuming than I thought but at the end of it all we chose 3 suits that had to be ordered and I still ended up getting the after Christmas sale! Dave should be set for another 15 years!I love my sis in laws like they were my own sisters (if I had any sisters). Even though they are younger than me I so look up to them. They are smart, talented, fun, good mothers, faithful church goers, and end up doing it all! Kind of funny that we are all 3 nurses (well actually Erin is a nurse practioner). Thanks for a great weekend! You guys are inspirational!

Of course I missed the family and was excited to come home and see them all! I realized I really do have all that is really important. There will always be material things I want but I feel blessed to have such a good family and knowledge of the gospel. How can I not be happy!

Home School in the Mountains

Mikayla 4th grade

Mikayla, Ashley, Kierra

The girls and their Moms. My friend Melanie comes with me and chooses to home school her kids as well - just for 4 days!
Every year in January I take out some of my kids to be home schooled in the mountains once a week. This was our third time snowboarding but our first time having any good snow. It had snowed 6 feet in a week since we had been to Pomerelle last. We were all loving it. We had good snow, sunny weather, and good company!

Just for fun Meet

Valerie

Hailey

Hailey and Valerie just finished their gymnastics meet where they had to memorize their passes and perform for the judges. Parents were invited to come and watch. Valerie was just there for fun and Hailey was all business. Valerie has been working on her inside outsides. Hailey has been working on her back whip. One of her passes was a roundoff, 1 backwhip, 3 backhandsprings. She did it! I am absolutely sure none of that talent came from me.

Another Driver?!

Cade did it! He passed his driving test and written test and is now a full legal driver! He is 15! It makes me feel really old! I am happy too to have another helper to run kids around and pick up milk! He told me during his written test he was on #30 and had missed 6 questions already. He knew there were 40 questions and he also knew he couldn't miss another one or he would have to retake it. It worked out good and now he has his license to prove it!

I went with Cade and the teacher for his driving test in our car. I had been driving before and had the heat on full blast. Cade made no adjustments with the heater during his 15 minute test and by the end we were all very warm and flushed! He just thought it was so hot because he was nervous! Ty idolizes Cade. One day I couldn't find Ty and I was hollering out his name. I heard this little sweet voice saying, "playin games with Cade." He was having a blast pretending to use the xbox remote with his big brother.

A New Year without GLOVES!

What a difference a year makes! I am so glad to not be repeating the beginning of the last 2 years. 2 years ago we were in the hospital with Ty for 9 days and last year was crazy with Ty burning his hands. This year has started out wonderfully! Ty is no longer wearing any compression gloves. He loves having free hands and stuffs them in his mouth regularly. Just before Christmas I talked with the UoU burn center. I was at the point of needing to order new gloves at 212 dollars a piece or checking to see if he could really be done! We did a test run and took off his gloves for 2 days. The scars did not rise up which was a good sign for us. We were told it takes a good year from accident for all the scar remodeling to take place. After that point there is not a whole lot you can do. So for the last year we have changed dressings, massaged, stretched, cried, worn braces, and washed and replaced gloves constantly. We have had many little miracles and been blessed countless times.

(Above) Ty one year ago
(Below) Ty now
He still loves cutie oranges

Reflecting back a year. Ty after surgery with huge bandages. I remember it being so difficult to not let him crawl for a while because we didn't want the grafts disrupted. If he walked I followed him around so he wouldn't land on his hands.

A couple weeks after surgery and when grafts more secure we started the dreaded brace wearing 23 1/2 hours a day!

The gloves became Ty's constant companion with braces at night. At night we had to put socks over the braces and pin it to his shirt so he would not take them off.

Now a year later, his hands look amazing! The right hand still has a ridge around where the graft was but he uses them without any difficulty. I have no idea what his sensation is like. They say it is different but it is probably normal to him. We will continue to watch him as he grows. We are still a little concerned about the tightness of his thumbs but it does not appear to be a problem now. It depends on how fast he grows if he will ever need more surgeries. So for now we are grateful and so HAPPY!


Looking over this past year I sometimes wonder how we all did it. Then I am quick to realize I was never alone. I had the comfort and guidance from our Savior the entire time. He helped me feel peace when needed and he helped me be strong when there was no other choice. He provided angels to help our family along this journey. The angels came in the form of friends, family, wonderful doctors, nurses, and physical therapists!

Goodbye 2011! Hello 2012!

Cade and his gang (Will, Jared, Braeden, Cade) heading off to the New Years Eve church sponsored dance. They had a blast and were served breakfast starting at midnight.

I'm still in shock that one of his friends can drive at night. They are just walking away and getting in a car without an adult. I never imagined this day would be here so soon.

Where does the time go? It cruises right on by the older I get. We spent New Years Eve with our friends, the Pages. It is crazy that they have 6 kids like us and our kids match up perfectly. We both have boys as our bookends and four girls in between. Lets not forget that we each have a girl dog!

We started fireworks an hour early. I'm sure our quiet neighborhood didn't love all the noise we were making but the kids were having a blast!

Averie and Valerie

Ty enjoying his sparkling cider and making everyone laugh. He hasn't made it to bed before 1100 or 1200 pm this Holiday season. He just thinks he is one of the big kids.

Mikayla & Kierra
Welcome 2012!

It's Finally Here!

The kids were out of school an entire week before Christmas. The excitement was building daily. It was 2 days before Christmas and I had not wrapped one present. One of Hailey's friends came over and asked if we were not having Christmas because there was nothing under our tree. Luckily my neighbor called and asked if she could wrap presents for me. (How she even knew was beyond me. My wise daughter Ashley said it was an answer to my prayers). I was so happy as I had not had anytime to get this done. I loaded up some armfuls of gifts and dropped them off. They came back wrapped beautifully. So nice and appreciated!

We were excited to have 2 of my brothers, Brandon and Derek, spend Christmas with us. Brandon got the whole family BYU beanies! We were all thrilled to put them on Christmas morning. We had fun with the uncles playing games, going to the movies, watching funny you tube clips, and having never ending shoulder rides!

We ate our traditional Christmas Eve candlelight dinner that keeps getting added too each year. We had calzones, shrimp, raspberry frape, and Subway? We then headed to the family room for the nativity story. Everyone cooperated very well this year because they were anxious to move on to opening up their one, well two gifts. (We didn't pull a Jim, my dad, and open up all of our presents on Christmas Eve!)

Kayla and her ipod touch

Ashley with her new snowboarding clothes and her first ever phone

Cade and his new phone. Dave got me one too. I am hoping Cade will figure it all out for us!

Lalaloopsy dolls were a big hit from Santa Clause this year. I know the elves were working hard on making these because they could not be found anywhere!

Ty was extremely happy getting car pajamas. He was also very excited seeing his new truck from Santa at 5:45 am.

Hailey woke up to her dream gift Christmas morning. A gymnastics bar! She has gone crazy on the thing. She even has a 10 inch long bruise behind her knee/leg to prove it!

Derek opened up his gift and found several 1 dollar bills individually curled up with a ribbon. The girls enjoyed doing this. At the bottom of the cash he found a random picture of a girl who must have been a BSU fan according to her shirt. The girls thought this was a funny joke because really Mikayla wanted to get him a real girl off the internet. This gave us a good laugh.

These two girls through on their matching American Girl doll clothes and we headed to church Christmas morning. What a great sacrament meeting we enjoyed singing and hearing Christmas songs about our Savior, Jesus Christ.