Photo Credits... because I'm a stealer of things...

In my last few posts, I used many pictures that I did not take myself and have been asked to give photo credits... The picture of my whole family is a picture by Emilie Campbell (a photographer in Utah), I got the picture off Paige's blog. Several pictures from the lake house are from Jaclyn, including the one of Miana close up. The pictures of Paige's kids are from Paige's blog, either taken by her or Matt. The one of Rockstin was presumably taken by Briette, as I stole it from her blog. The soccer pictures are either from Dave or me, I can't remember without looking at them...

It's December, let's talk about August...

In August, the kids and I went to the lake house with Jane and her kids, Jaclyn, and my parents. The kids had a great time with all their cousins and on Papa's new boat.

We came home and spent lots of time at the pool. Then, at the end of August, some wonderful things happened to my family. August 28 started it all...

That morning, my Dad and brother-in-law, Matt flew to Ethiopia to pick up Matt and Paige's new daughter. Anke is a beautiful little girl and just about the easiest baby I have ever met. She is a joy, which is great because Paige got her a little sooner than expected, giving her 4 kids under the age of 4. You can read about it here.

Then at about 1pm or so that same day, my Sister-in-law's water broke. In a matter of minutes, my brother delivered his new son all by himself. Rockstin is a cutie and also a great baby. Congrats to Brett and Briette!!

That afternoon, I started feeling like I was a getting a UTI which wasn't really a UTI, but I will go into more detail in a second.

Also, on Friday night, August 28, Andrea got engaged to an amazing man named BD. Sooo excited for them! They got married on Nov. 7, so look forward to more about that to come...

Back to my UTI... I dealt with it with OTC meds and planned on going to the doc on Monday. On Sunday, Dave left to fly to Detroit and about the same time his plane took off, I had a horrible intense pain hit. It was the 2nd worst pain I had ever had (my gallstone was worse). I left the kids with a neighbor while waiting for my Mother-in-law to come to the house. My sister-in-law met me at the ER (yes, I drove myself). I was in intense pain in the waiting room, but it began to subside as we went back to check in. I described the pain and was sent to get a CT scan. The scan revealed that I had a 5mm Kidney stone traveling from my kidney to my bladder and was currently hanging out in my ureter just outside the bladder. For those that don't know, 5 mm is considered sizeable. The best part was when we were getting my discharge instructions, the nurse tells me that they also found a 9 mm stone in my OTHER kidney. Sounds great. On Monday, I went to the urologist and got an appointment to get the 5mm stone removed in an out patient procedure the next day. (total luck that they had an opening, usually they schedule it a week out, they 9mm stone is a totally different procedure and is scheduled a month in advance, I have to wait for that one.) Tuesday was a horrible day, I was in intense pain and had a horrible, horrible headache. That night Spencer started soccer.

Carter started on Thursday night, which is the night Dave came home from Detroit.

(Carter throwing his ball into the air)

My pain continued until the following Monday. It's good it stopped because the boys started school on Tuesday, which is also the day Dave went back to Detroit. That's coming in the next post... :) That's all for now!

Actually catching up...

I've put it off long enough! I am finally going to write about our trip to Utah in July (it's Nov. if you didn't notice...)

We flew in late on Sunday night. Monday we went to the outlet mall and spent the whole day with family. We then had dinner with most of my siblings. On Tuesday, we got up early and drove up to Idaho to spend some time with Dave's family. That was, of course, fun as always. Here is a picture of the kids with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Young. We got there at lunch time, had lunch at their house with cousins, aunts, and uncles. Then we took the kids to play in the water at Aunt Carol's house, she flooded her lawn with canal water. The kids had fun with their second cousins! We then had dinner and got in the car to drive back to Utah, it was a crazy, but fun, day! Wednesday we went to Jordanelle Resevior to play on their "beach" with my mom's side of the family. Some people went boating, skiing, and road the jet skis. We left just after lunch to get the kids home for a nap, which was totally necessary. Thursday was family pictures, I've been trying to get a copy of one but never did, so I copied this picture off of Paige's blog. That night we had dinner with my mom's family at Sugarhouse Park. It was very nice to see all of the cousins and aunt's and uncles. Friday it was time for my dad's family to have their reunion. We went to Seven Peaks Water Park and then dinner at Kent's house. Saturday was again dinner at Kent's house. Sunday morning Dave, Trent, Jaclyn, Connor, and Annika all left for VA (Dave flew, the others drove together). The rest of us went to church with Paige and then had dinner at her house. On Monday, Andrea, Jane, Quinn, and Corinne all flew back to VA and Brett and Briette went back to CA. Between Monday and Friday, we got lots of quality time in with Paige's family. 2 of the days the kids went to a 3 hour camp at MyGym. It was really fun and they loved it! We also spent one evening at Dave's aunt's house. It's always fun to see Valda, Jennifer, and Christopher! The kids did a lot of swimming and having fun at the Condo while we tried staying out of Nana and Papa's way. Friday was Pioneer Day in UT and we watched a parade on TV, went to a little amusement park and then went to a park near Paige's house for dinner. We went to Paige's house afterwards, briefly, so we could check in to our flight. Saturday we flew home to VA. It was nice to be home, but I miss being able to see Paige every day. Someday...

Halloween Fun

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Taking a break...

We take a break from our regularly scheduled "catch-up post" to share some breaking news. Okay, okay, so we were ALREADY taking a break because I am VERY far behind on catching up. I am now to the point where I have to do catch ups on my catch ups. Before I get to any of that, I want to share a few conversations I have either participated in or overheard in the last few days.

Monday, Oct. 12:
-I see Spencer pick up an antenna and a broken remote control car.-
Me: That's broken, we're going to throw it away. You can play with something else.
S: No. I know it's broken, that's why I need it. With this antenna, I am going to make it connect to the satellites.
-Goes outside, comes back a few minutes later.-
S: I need tape. (he starts digging around in the cupboard so I ask him to stop and offer to help)
Me: Tell me what you need it for so I know what kind of tape to get you.
S: I need to connect 3 wires together.
Me: Oh, I see. (Of course. Normally, we would use electrical tape, but I couldn't find any so brown packing tape it was)
S: (after I handed him 1 piece) Mom... I think I will need more than that. I have to connect 3 wires and fix some broken parts AND connect the antenna.
Me: Okay. (3 more pieces of tape) Start with those and come back for more later.
-he went outside for about 5 minutes, normally he would have run off, losing interest in that long of time, but he came back in asking for more tape.-
Me, as I was cutting off the tape: What's this piece for?
S: I need to put the tiny battery back on, so make it a very small piece of tape.
-The tape I gave him was apparently really big, he ran out to get the battery, it WAS very tiny. He needed one more piece of tape to attach the spring to the end of the antenna.-

My sweet boy spent a good 20 minutes on this project, much longer than he normally devotes to a project. It was fun to watch him experiment. I am sure that if he had ANY knowledge of electronics that he could probably have made it work.

The next conversation happened on the same day, same child.
Me: When are you going to give me my birthday present? (I was teasing him because he had already told me he really wanted to buy me a diamond ring for birthday)
S: I don't have any money so I can't give you a present.
Me: You don't have to buy anything to give a gift. I would really like to have someone pick up the toys in the family room, and (muttering under my breath) I would really like it if I didn't have to make dinner.
S: I could make dinner! You will have to teach me to use the oven... hmmm... do you have to know how to read to use the oven?

I explained that I would help with the oven parts and we decided on something that he could make for dinner, he then went out to play. Later, in the evening, he did make dinner, cresent dogs, accompanied by potato & ham soup provided by Denise. It was a great birthday dinner. The boys also worked together to clean up the family room and then they let Miana vacuum when they were done! It was fantastic!!

Remember that day...

Do you remember that day when I said I was going to post something every day until I caught up? Well, apparently, sometimes I lie.

Also, I tried to find pictures of the baby's blessing, but I guess we didn't take any. I knew we didn't have any group shots (too crazy of a day with family coming in and out) but apparently, I didn't take any of the baby in her blessing dress either. So... no pictures of that, but here's the story.

Remember that on July 4th, my parents came home from their mission? Well, that weekend, Dave's brother, Don also came in that weekend for a visit. In fact, he babysat our kids so we could go see a movie! It was awefully generous of him and we really appreciate the chance to go on a date. We went that night and also picked up my sister, Jaclyn, from the airport. On Saturday, (July 4th) we had lunch with the Tarbets so we could spend some time with Don before going to pick up my parents. Jaclyn came with us because we were going straight to the airport afterwards. Then we picked up my parents which you already read about. Then, on July 5th, we blessed Tayla. It was wonderful to have Dave's brother there to participate as well as having my parents home to see it/participate in it. After Sacrament Meeting, I took the baby home and Dave stayed with the other 3 kids so they could go to their classes. My parents, Dave's parents, Danielle, Jaclyn, Andrea, Baylor, and I all had lunch. My parents went back to their ward, Dave's family stayed awhile then left to get Don to the airport, Jane and her family flew in, my parents picked them up, they came out here and had something to eat, then all went home and to bed. It was a crazy day but a fun memory!! I am grateful for so much family support.

Quotes of the day - both from Carter!!

Me to baby: Are you slobbering on me?
Carter, walking by: that's her super power.
Me to C: Her super power is slobber power?
C: Yes, she also has pee power and poop power.

I see. I hope she is on my team... don't want to come up against THAT in a fight...

Later this morning:

C: Mom, you have to move the couch. CAN you move the couch?
Me: Yes, I think so.
C: I think you can do it if you do not have so much fat. Let me see... (looks at my stomach). Yes, your fats are going down, you can probably move the couch.

I'm not positive, but I think that was his way of saying that I am looking skinnier today... Umm... thanks for the compliment?

This was all before 9:45am! Can't wait to see what the rest of the day brings!