Fun Times....

We took Zach to his endocrinologist appointment on Friday.....he is growing.....taller then his mom and now second tallest in the family. Can't believe it..... The doctor is pleased with how he is managing his diabetes.
Kassidy and I found a dress for prom. YIPPPEE and it is modest and so beautiful on her. When prom comes I will post pictures. Saturday was spent with Kassidy as we then headed to the YW broadcast at the conference center. It was so good and I loved how the leaders spoke to the YW.
Audrey was away all Saturday at a science competition. She said there were 70 school present and there were many different categories in the competition. Well, her team placed second in one of her categories and she walked away with a medal and a $250 scholarship to Weber if she chooses to go there. She was so excited over placing!!!! Way to go Audrey!!!
My little sister and her family stopped by for a quick head rest and then headed on over to CA. for spring break with my parents. It was good to see her family since it has been 7 months or so since I have seen any of them. Her oldest daughter( age 8) looked at Zach and said something to the fact that he looked a lot taller. She was expecting someone smaller.
Snow is here again and I am ever so thankful for the moisture.....but I like it in the rain form more!!!

Always something going on!

Before the snow hit this week.....I believe this was Tuesday. Emily and Jolene had the neighbors bury them in the sand box out back.....do you think they are ready to be playing outside??


It seems like the teachers bombard the kids with so much homework.....
Does this look like the epiphany of exhaustion?



And yes, Tyler has asked Kassidy to prom. He brought over 12 long stemmed red roses and a card.... he was waiting out back, when she came home from feeding the homeless at the food and care place. He was holding a poster asking if she would go to prom with him......
Tomorrow we go dress shopping...wish me luck!

Do you love your neighbor??

Zumba....heard of that??? Well Emily and I attended a class on it for her activity days. Let me tell you of the work out I got. It is dancing with a major twist....lots of hip movements and hip hop. Yep, I did it...all but one song that I just couldn't get, but I rocked on the chacha and I had serious hip movement on the samba.....Emily was so cute with the other girls who were bopping around......fun times with Emily.....


Tonight was YW/YM combined activity. So the three older kids and Kevin were in attendance. They played a couple of games, but one imparticular had me laughing. Do you love your neighbor? Everyone is seating in a circle in a chair for each of them. There is one person in the middle who asks someone....do you love your neighbor? If he/she says no but I love.......blah blah blah then everyone with that trait has to jump up and move and the person who doesn't have a seat is then in the middle. WEEELLLL...someone asks Zach if he loves his neighbor and he says no he loves his female neighbors so all the girls had to jump up......this is what had me laughing...Zach, do you love your neighbor??? no, but I love anyone who is not a homosexual. Okay, so there was laughter, so I am told.....but Kassidy told Zach that that was not church appropriate. Thing is, on friday I had just lectured the kids and some neighbor kids that we do not call people...gay, lesbians, or homos and I explained why. They were playing a game and it had come up so I had to address it.....guess it made an impression on my son!!!

Pictures of the kids skiing....

As posted previously, the three older kids went skiing on friday with a guy Kevin works with. He is the nicest man to take them and teach them. There aren't any pictures of Zach, although he tried to ski....enjoy...




Kassidy on her way!!




Audrey having a good time!



Kassidy carrying the skis


Audrey



Audrey loved skiing



Audrey skiing with Mark filming...while skiing backwards





Mark interviewing the kids.....

say it isn't so.....

It is raining/sleeting/hailing/snowing outside.....Seriously did we not just enjoy a beautiful friday and saturday weather....
Friday Kassidy, Audrey and Zachary went snow skiing for the first time in their lives. I really hope to have pictures for you all soon, I am waiting for them from the man who took them. Kevin works with Mark Lords and he is kind soul who took the kids up to powder mountain in Ogden. He is part owner so the kids were able to go for free, we only had to rent the ski stuff. Mark said Audrey was a natural, Kassidy needed one more day to fully get the hang of it and Zach needed the one on one for a full day that Mark was unable to fully give him because he was teaching all three of them. He would send one kid down the mountain, then the next and then the next. He would then go and gather up the first casualty and their gear and so forth. It was not so easy for Zach, but he was a good sport. Would you believe that he was singing while riding the chair lift....My heart will go on and he was singing loud (according to Kassidy who was behind him and Audrey who was behind her.)Kassidy liked it and she was a bomb the whole way down.....even when Mark would yell for her to sit down, (which she did not hear)and she would keep going until she would sit down and fall over. He told me that it just scares him when they get going too fast.....Audrey did not wreck on her last two times going down. She is in love with skiing and so wants to go again.
Audrey went to walmart with our neighbor to get twilight at midnight...I was in bed and ever so thankful for our sweet friend to take her!!
To start off yesterday I drove Kevin up to the scout camp where his students were repairing pavilions and clearing trees and brush. It was a project Kevin was heading up, but had to delegate to others. The weather was beautiful but the dirt roads were muddy!! For some reason this wiped Kevin out. I think maybe all of the medication is just not out of his system....
I did talk Kevin into going geo-caching because it was so beautiful and I did drive. Emily went with us and we found 6 caches here in Payson.
Last night Kassidy and Zach used mine and Kevin's tickets to Macbeth at BYU. They really liked it and they loved where our seats are. We have season tickets, but only 1 play left. Fifth row and center!!! Audrey went to a twilight party (her second for the day), Emily had Jolene over and Kevin and I watched Twilight...I think I need to read the book to grasp the whole concept of the movie....
Today after church we went to the Draper Temple dedication at our stake center.....
Now Kevin and some of the kids are outside covering our apricot tree with plastic and a lamp because it is going to freeze this week.....say it isn't so!!!

I think it might be over.....

So for all of your wondering you may have, or if you have not heard.....
My wednesday to do list was abruptly interrupted by a phone call from Kevin. He was having back pain and wanted me to call and make an appointment for him to see the doctor.....fast forward....
The CT confirmed a kidney stone.....medication was ordered......Kevin could not keep it down or anything for that matter......I was called home from parent teacher conference to, actually he text me "home". So from there I was able to get him to see the after hours doctor.....well, actually it took Kevin a while to make it off of the floor in the waiting room to the doctors examining room. The doctor felt it was unprofessional to treat Kevin in the waiting room. Kevin was dry heaving and moaning very loudly of the pain he was having......the Demerol did not work and so the doctor admitted him into the hospital.....I have the best kids and neighbors, they were all troopers when I called them to action and ask for their help.....back to the hospital. After 4 doses of morphine the doctor ordered dilaudin (sp) and that finally killed the pain......his oxygen level kept dropping to 81-82 so then he had to be put on oxygen....I came home and had a restless sleep......thursday morning the pain was at a 0 then to a 4 so finally around 3 the pain was gone so he was able to come home. The stone was now located in his bladder. Okay, I know gross details....around 9 pm Kevin had a fever of 103.5 and it was finally down to 99 at around 1ish. Kevin finally passed the thorny stone and other bits......so now, today he has been resting most of the day and he is now in bed with a temperature of 100.1 ish.....oh I do hope this is over for him soon....he is having a bit of sore pain in the kidney area so who knows, it is nothing like before where he wanted a 22!!!! I told him I would have to up his life insurance first!!!! I hate to see him is such pain and helplessness, but I am hoping it will be over soon!!!

Spring Fever!!!

Oh, the weather was so nice today!!! I started off by walking Emily to school. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing slightly. I walked with my friend, CoriAnn, up and around the school to main street and then over to the trail and down and around to my house. It was so nice to be outside today. Such a break from last Monday when we had a snow storm. I headed over to Smith's to get a few good deals.....pasta for 49 cents, toothpaste for a quarter, gum for free....just to name a few things, it was actually my third time to Smith's for this sale.
January 4th was my last time I had my massage. My headaches had stopped so my massage therapist figured all was well......little did she know that I wasn't having massages as part of my life style but more rather as a maintenance program. Well today I was finally able to see her again. I have had a headache for a month and a half and I was so excited to get worked on. My massage therapist is trying something new, a massage using her feet. She needed me as her guinea pig as she watched her dvd and practiced on me. First she worked on my neck and shoulders, they were tight, but they loosened up once she got them warmed up..... now this whole massage with the feet. First she lathered me in shea butter. She has bars on the ceiling to hold onto as she does this massage. (of coarse her feet were clean). I really liked the massage, I was able to give her constructive criticism, which I get to do being the guinea pig!!!
Okay, so I get to go every other tuesday and I am so hoping we can get these headaches under control once again!
I walked to pick up Emily and tonight all but Kassidy went for another walk. It was such a beautiful day!!!

Stake Standards Night

Tonight we went to the stake center for standards night. None of the kids were excited to go, seriously, who wants to get dressed up again, sit for an hour at a fireside, miss amazing race and try to be comfortable on the benches....
Our stake president felt inspired to speak with the youth, and rightfully so. He gave such a good talk. He spoke about the youth and how power, pressure, preeminence, pleasure, disfiguring and money are tools that are used to persuade our children to make bad choices. He spoke for a long time on words that did not exist or that meant different things 18 years ago when our stake president was first put into a stake presidency. DVR, TIVO, Flip-flop, text, ipod, mp3, DVD, cell-phone, and many others. He said that there is now a language used with texting that a lot of parents do not understand and words that are spelled differently from what they learned in kindergarten. He went into sexting. He said he had to look that one up after hearing about it on the radio last week. It is when kids are taking naked pictures of themselves with the head not in the picture and sending it via cell-phone to people. They think it is anonymous, but it is not. Our stake president is a judge here and he said there are officers who's sole responsibility is to deal with these issues. He spoke of 24/7 and how electronic devices are becoming something of an attachment and how wrong that is. He said to make good choices and for parents not to deal with the "I'm the only one who can't or the only one who doesn't have". He also spoke about kids "hanging out" in the cover up of dating before they were 16. I was just really impressed with his talk. He spoke of patriarchal blessings and the one thing that they all have in common is that Heavenly Father loves them. He loves the youth of our church. There is so much going on out in the world and these kids have so much up against them that they have to be strong and they need to have good friends. It was a good night and I just pray my children were listening!!

A night of concerts

Last night Audrey and Zachary were both in a show choir concert as well as Zach in his 7th grade choir concert. Here is a video of their number they did. Audrey is in the pink shirt, shorts ( and the ponytail) and Zach is in the bright blue shirt.



As soon as Audrey was finished she had to hurry and change because she was to go to the other jr high in town and perform with the orchestra. Why they had to do it on the same night is puzzling to me, but Kevin took Audrey over there.
Audrey did a solo in front of parents from both jr highs. She did so fabulous, Kevin said. Audrey had the piece memorized, and it is the one she did at the competition where she got a superior (highest rating). Kevin was standing in the very back of the room so the video isn't the best quality, but at least I got to see it!!

Enjoy if you wish!

Our Week!

Tuesday night we ventured to Draper to go to the open house of the Draper Temple. It was beautiful inside.


I love it when the kids get along...


Wednesday afternoon I got two nieces and a nephew for 5 days while their parents enjoyed a much needed vacation to San Diego.....


Wednesday night was new beginnings for the girls. I wish I had brought my camera!! They did the cutest skit that had to do with pirates and seeking the true treasure and using personal progress as a treasure map!

Thursday was enrichment and it was a night full of laughs!!!!


Mud masks all around!!!

On Friday one of my sisters, her husband and two of their daughters as well as my parents, came to my house because my nephew was playing in a lacrosse game.....

Friday night was a freezing night.....
My sister her husband, Kevin and my dad went to watch the game.....like I said, it was freezing!
BYU won against UF (where Kevin taught for a year)....

I went with them all on saturday as well as two of my daughters....
Now, number 29 is the number to watch....look at his stand!!



carrying the ball....


Check out that picture...he is airborne!!


Running with the ball again!!!



He hit someone with his stick and it BROKE!! It wasn't even half time yet...
I was so nervous for him.....
With a lot of tape and the help of another player, it was back in action for #29!!


They HIT each other!!!

Look at him run!!!!!


Okay, so I have never been to a Lacrosse game, but I was so proud of my nephew!!!
He did so good!!!!! GO #29!!!!!

and then I woke up!!!

Okay, so there is something called the vacation blues. You know it's after you have been on this most amazing trip and you loved every minute of it. Just like you were dreaming the whole time!!! Yep, then I woke up!!!
It all started when the kids came home from school.....Zach looked like he had grown an inch, Audrey greeted me with how happy she was that I was home, the house smelled so good like I had been cleaning (I was doing laundry) and she was so happy that I would now be home to clean the house....Yep, she is happy that the house will be clean when she walks in the door! I guess whatever it takes for your kids to love you!!!
I do feel invigorated, seriously, so much that I am watching 2 of my nieces and a nephew until Monday evening....it's time for their parents to go on an amazing trip!!!
I do love life, even when I have to wake up!!!

Our Farewell Day!

It was hard to get up on Sunday knowing it was our last day! We decided to go to church for sacrament meeting and so the boys found a meeting address and time and Kevin plugged it into the GPS and we started walking. It was just over a mile away. Wouldn't you know, it was the same chapel we had visited last Sunday..... The chapel was it's own building with so many doors going outside into the atrium.


After church we came back to check out of our rooms.....Just had to take a picture of all of our leis we put on the lampshade!


Sylvia and I are sitting out in the hall with the luggage while the men are getting the boys to hustle up.



For lunch we headed over to Bubba Gumps. What a fun place to eat. There were signs everywhere from the Forest Gump movie.


Just the gang!


Now let me tell you, the food was so good!!!!




After lunch we headed out to do some geo-caching.....
We found one near this beautiful spot!!



Always taking pictures of my feet in or near the water!!!


Jay and Kevin laid down on the bench and took a nap and so Sylvia and I walked the beach......

Once again we found the sand sculpture. This is his finished product of the day!



It was time to go......after a lingering look at the ocean, we left for the airport.

It was going to be a hard flight home.....we left Honolulu at 1 am Utah time and arrived just after 6 am. It is really hard to sleep comfortably, but I am so not complaining!!!


Lights of Honolulu as we were flying out!



Our sweet kids made us this poster that is at our bedroom door, and then when we walked in, this is what we found!!



We loved our vacation!!! We had so much fun with the Newitt's and so many great memories!!!
Our kids survived and they were even excited to have us come home!!!!!