First Day of School

Well the kids are back to school!! Yay!! Montana is in 2nd grade. She is doing great so far!! She is getting her work done, and homework as well. We are off to a great start. She has a couple of friends that she walks to and from school with. They are so cute together.
Sierra is getting the hang of 8th grade at her new school. She has lots of friends already and knows a bunch of people from her old elementary. So it wasn't such a hard transition after all. She has been super busy with cheer responsibilities- it is a lot more leadership behind the scenes kind of stuff than I would have ever imagined. They filed papers at registration, spent a whole day making posters and planning the pep rally, they practice practice practice. They really are a great squad and I am so happy with everything they are doing. She loves it and the girls are all best of friends. The text messaging on her phone is so out of control. It is nonstop, 24-7 unless her battery is dead. They never actually speak to each other- which seems weird, but those thumbs are constantly going. I remember when talking to your friends meant you were stuck to the wall phone and that springy cord that would stretch clear down the hall. Everyone would pick up the phone and you would have to say "I'm on the phone!!". Ah- those were the days.
Justice starts on Monday. He can't wait. He still packs his backpack everyday. The play time has been seriously cut down. Which he can't quite understand yet. I have to keep telling him that everyone is at school and won't be home until 4:00. So it will be nice to get him on a schedule also.
I Love School!!! The house is not quite so messy- not so many dishes- and I actually can have two moments of peace in the day. School Rocks!!

Montana's Baptism

Yesterday was such a special day for Montana. Uncle John came down from Wyoming to baptize and confirm her a member of the LDS church. She looked so beautiful and was so excited. Also Aunt Sherma, Cousin Holly, and Cousin Hannah came from Wyoming. We had them sing "I am a child of God." It was so good it gave me goosebumps. Sierra gave a very nice talk about baptism. She didn't want to do it, but I think she was quite proud of herself after- and she should be. She did a great job. Thank you everyone for coming all this way to be with us. Grama Dodie, Grama Laura, and Grampa Dave were there as well. Right after Tana came up out of the baptism water, Justice yelled "TANA, YOU'RE BAPTIZED!!" and clapped his hands. It was so cute. Everyone laughed. We had everyone over for dinner at our house afterward. What a spread. We ate ourselves silly. We had originally planned for Uncle John to baptize Tana in the Salt Creek up in Wyoming. We thought that would be so neat. But the water was getting sooo cold (about 40 degrees) and we couldn't get a final approval from the stake president. So we scrambled to make it still happen on the same day here in Salt Lake. It all worked out fine. Halley and Hillary stopped by the house later to Congratulate Montana. All the kids were running around the house squealing with delight. They brought little one month old Harrison- Sooooo cute- we all held him and played with him a little. But once he started crying, I remembered why I didn't have any more babies. Congratulations Tana. I will add some pics as soon as I get some back from dad, our official photographer. What a day!

Another Birthday

Written by Jenn


August is a month full of Birthdays in our family. August 18th is Montana, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Amy's birthday, all on one day. That is always fun. Then just a few days later it is my birthday. I don't know how but we always manage to make each birthday so special. Tana had a huge birthday blowout, and then they spoiled me too. Eric bought me this really nice table and chairs for the patio. SO CUTE. Here is a pic, and a pic of the nice chairs my parents got me. I just mentioned that it would be nice to get some more chairs a few weeks ago, and BAM- the house is now loaded with new places to sit. We all went out for dinner last night also to celebrate. The past few years I have really struggled with getting older, but this year I feel like I got a year younger. For the last 3 months or so I kept thinking that the year is 2008. So when I finally remembered its only 2007- I realized I also was not going to be as old as I thought. That 40 marker is fast approaching. So I am happy to know I have three more years to enjoy my 30's instead of only two. Dumb, I know, but it puts a smile on my face. Grama Dodie always calls with her birthday songs. The phone rings in the morning of your birthday and you just know it is her. She is amazing- all these birthdays to remember and she never forgets us. We love you Grama.Thank you family for always making me feel special on my day!

Back to the Grind

My preschool classes have started again (which I absolutely love) and we are trying to get into our school routine again. Sierra has had cheer practice every morning and so the kids have been coming to school with me until their school starts. So it is get up early and rush rush rush. Justice and Tana found out who their teachers are and are very excited. Sierra got her schedule and her locker/combo, so she is all set to go. We have gone through the kids clothes and had them try everything on to see what fits, what doesn't, and what is ready for the trash. Needless to say, we are in need of a shopping trip or two to be ready in the clothing area. But other than that we are set. This is always such a fun time of year. I still get butterflies - the excitement of what the year will bring, and having the days filled with activities is something we all look forward too. Especially after the "LONG BORING SUMMER WITH NOTHING TO DO" (even though we were running around everyday trying to entertain the kidlets). It will be nice. Plus mommy can sleep some while Justice is at school. Maybe I won't be so cranky. :-)

We celebrated my birthday yesterday at mom and dads. She made an awesome dinner, with cake and ice cream for dessert. Mom and Dad bought me some chairs that I have been wanting. They are so awesome. THANKS MA & PA. Then mom kept the kids for a sleepover. What a way to celebrate getting another year older.

Shaun and Steve's Baby Shower

Stacy, Nadine, and I threw a baby shower for Shaun and Steve last Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We went way overboard with decorations, food, and fun. They are so cute and excited. They had the surrogate mom and her 8 yr old flown in for the shower. That was really nice. She was such a nice lady and looked beautifully pregnant. They've decided to call the baby Skyler, it's a boy. So we are excited to have a new baby in the family. He should be here in time for Halloween. Auntie Jenn can't wait to babysit!!!!

So You Think You Can Dance

Oh Yeah!! Sierra, Me, Diane, Molly, and Niki are all going to the So You Think You Can Dance concert tour in Gilbert, AZ on Nov 18th. YES!! We tried like crazy to get tickets to last years tour and couldn't get tickets in any city. This will be so fun! It will be a big trip for us because it is so far away. We will travel down with Diane and Molly and then stay with Niki at her house in Arizona. We can't wait. It will be fun to hang with just the girls. Sierra sees them all the time but I haven't really seen them since Niki's baby shower eons ago. Can't wait!!

Montana's 8th Birthday Party!!

Montana had her very first slumber party! Four girls came and they partied from 10:00 in the morning (because they are neighbors, they are always here) until 9:30 the next night. It was CRAZY!! They watched movies, had popcorn, swam in the kiddie pool in the back yard, played dress ups in our overflowing costume box, barbies, house, "Hannah Montana" all that fun girl stuff. Grama and Grampa came over for cake/ice cream and presents. Holy smokes, the girl is SPOILED. She is all set for school and playdates for a while. One of her presents from her friends was to take her to the Dinosaur Park at Thanksgiving Point. So after we sent all the girls home, Brooklyn and Montana headed of for the dinosaur park. They stayed for a long time at the dinosaur park and then decided to have pizza and go to a drive inn movie to finish off the night. So she was gone all day and then we got a knock on the door at 9:30 pm. They had just gotten to the movie and Montana started feeling sick. They had gone to see Daddy Day Care. Montana's "cousin", and Brooklyns nephew are both in the movie, so they really wanted to see it. I knew something was wrong when she came home so early. She had to head straight for the bathroom. Good thing they came home or it would have been all over their car. I felt bad but it was for the best. Anyhoo- she partied til she puked. Now that's what I call celebrating!!

Lagoon

We spent the day at Lagoon with just our little family. It was a work party for the Larry Miller Corp. So it was a huge party but I didn't see one person I knew. They gave us great discount tickets and a nice bbq dinner for at least 1000 people. I was hoping they would have another prize drawing- turns out it was a raffle for a 7 day cruise to Mexico or a set of golf clubs. Winner to be announced on the 28th?? Lame. So I will enter that and see how my luck is holding out.

We had a great time running from ride to ride. Montana was super brave and rode all the big roller coasters for the first time. She LOVED them. Justice still wanted to stick to the kiddie rides. We did manage to get all of us on the River Run- and we all got drenched. It took half the day to dry out. The new roller coaster "Wicked" looks amazing. The line was just WAY too long and we decided we wanted to ride other rides rather than stand in line forever. We came home exhausted and funned out!! It just made us want to get busy planning our next trip to Disneyland. :-)

Sierra's Leg Part 2

We finally got the news from the doc. There is a small break in her hip. Right in the joint so it is very hard to see in the xrays. She will not be casted or on crutches but she can't do any kind of jumping or heavy impact for 4-6 weeks. This will be like death for her. She has so much going on at dance and cheer this month. But she will be on the sidelines for a bit. That is much better news than we were expecting. She is resiliant and will be fine in no time!!

More about Dad

This past weekend Mac-Daddy-D and his loveliness and I went to Price to clean out Dad's house. It was an emotional time for everybody. We stayed up until 1:30am Sunday working then got a hotel room and finished up Sunday afternoon. There were tears and lots of laughter.

One of the coolest things that happened were the people that stopped by. Everybody we talked to said what a wonderful person he was and helpful he was. One of his close friends told us stories about how they would have coffee and talk. I think Dad needed someone like that. They played tricks on each other and would have coffee via the Internet. She also helped up out a lot with organizing and disposing of the trash.

It is clear that Dad will be missed by more than just his family.

And So It Begins

I woke up this morning to find the yard had been attacked by a small band of terrorists. Here are a few pictures. I don't so much mind the T.P. everywhere but the little darlings opened a can of chicken noodle soup and poured it on the steps and they put Oreo's all over Babe's car.

So you little terrorists, I am putting you on notice. I have declared war on terror. My four legged army and I will be waiting for you.

P.S. Sierra get home and clean this mess up. hehehe

Update

I found out last night that I am going to be learning to do live events at work. That means that Jazz Games, NFL games, Blaze & Grizzlies games, College or High School Games, or breaking news from Channel 2. We are big on sports at KJZZ, of course. I basically have a headset and we are talking live with production crews that are on the scene. I put the event on air live. So if I screw up- the whole station viewing audience will see it live. Not too much pressure. I am excited to do this because it is a HUGE bonus. I get paid an extra $25 per hour to do these live events. I can schedule to do as many games as I would like. Plus it is fun behind the scenes work. I trained a little bit on this about 7 months ago with the newscast that KJZZ broadcasts at 4 and 9 pm. But once I got my grave shift- I haven't had to do any of that. Plus I had so much to learn at the time that I opted not to learn it for a while. So- here comes a new adventure at work. I should be starting that in the next week or two. Yeah me! Ha ha.

We had to go into get more xrays on Sierra's leg/hip area at Primary's yesterday. The doc is thinking it could be tendinitis of the pelvis. She thinks the pain is just radiating downward. Whatever that means. So she wanted more specific xrays to make a final determination. It was just a regular old quick xray. We haven't heard anything yet but should know by tomorrow. We are biting our nails with anticipation of the outcome. I am just praying that it will be something that can heal with time and care. She is so young for an injury like this. We are keeping a positive outlook and praying for good news. More info to come.

It is really an eye opener to go to Primary Childrens Hospital. There are so many kids up there with every imaginable ailment. Lots of kids are being pulled around in wagons with their heads on pillows because they are too sick to walk. (Justice wanted one, but I had to explain that they were for the sick kids.) Your heart goes out to them and their parents. You can see the worry in their parents eyes. I was touched by the lady who registered us. She gave each of the kids a homemade toy to play with while we were waiting. She had genuine concern for us. Also in the waiting room- there are playstations, computer games, crayons/paper, toys, fish tanks. It really is a special place to be. It feels like you are in a bubble of love and it is surreal. Each of the rooms have been decorated especially for kids. They have videos to help the kids relax. We have been up there many times for Tana's eye checkups, and now again with Sierra's leg, and many years ago when Sierra had the operation on her mouth.It makes me feel so grateful for the health of my three babies. We have truly been blessed. Some of these kids are saddled with deformities, ailments, and disease right from birth. There were so many babies. I was trying to hold back the tears most of the time we were there. Anyhoo- I wanted to promote a few things that I know support Primary's financial relief for some of these families 1. The Festival of Trees 2. Pennies by the inch and 3. The Ronald McDonald House. Please support these if you are able. This hospital is a very special place and the kids who are here are in great hands. God Bless.

Sierra's Leg

Hi All-

We have had lots of questions about Sierra's leg problem so here is the low down. She has been having pain in her right femur for a couple of months. We have just been assuming that she was working too hard, maybe had a pulled muscle that just wasn't healing all the way. She has been cheering and dancing a lot this summer, so she is always using those muscles. So we finally took her to the doctor to see if there was a problem. The doc thought it might be a stress fracture. We had xrays taken and it didn't show anything. So our doc scheduled a bone scan. We did the bone scan yesterday at Primary Children's Hospital. It was a bit traumatic for Sierra. They strapped her into this MRI machine. They had her feet turned in kind of pigeon toed to put pressure on the area that was hurting her. The machine took about 30 minutes to scan so she was in pain and crying softly but it wasn't too bad. They gave her an injection of dye that gets into the blood stream. When they do the bone scan the dye shows where there is a concentration of blood flowing to. This indicates injury or other problems. Well, while watching the screens I could see that there was definitely a mass of some sort in her right thigh. The xray tech said it would show bruises, breaks, tumors, anything that was going on. So we are waiting to hear what the docs say after they examine the scans thoroughly and consult with each other. I will post more info as we receive it. Sierra is scared and understandably so. We are trying not to worry too much until we know what is really going on. Hopefully it is nothing- but better safe than sorry.