Spring....I see SPRING!!!

I am so excited....it got up to 60 degrees today and has been a lovely day! Oh how I hope it sticks around for a while.

So we had a really busy weekend. First as most of you know me and Steve and the kids traveled with Kellie and Scott to Blackfoot Idaho on Friday. My nephew Randall was playing in a jazz band at a dance. All of the adults went to the dance and the kids stayed home and had their own version of fun. We had a great time. Connie had just had surgery and so was not suppose to move around too much. So Randy found her a chair with wheels and danced her around the dance floor. It was great!

Kellie and Scott were loads of fun and I tried to keep up, but man I think I got old. Randall was the band. Not kidding, he played more than anyone else. He also danced more than anyone else and with a different girl each time and they were all CUTE! What a hot guy my nephew is - it's genetic. But I have to say, the highlight of the trip was my hot husband. He was so charming. He just swept me off my feet. Well basically, he got out on the floor and danced with me - or jumped around with me. At one point he took my arm and told me he was going to show me how to cover some distance on the dance floor. So with our 2 arms out in front leading us, he danced me across the entire dance floor - basically we ran. I was laughing hysterically. It was a lot of fun and just the shot in the arm that I needed.

So when we got back to Randy's that night, the kids were still up and oh my goodness, hungry. So at midnight, they were having a snack - thanks Randy and Connie for your patience. But that wasn't enough, then Randy read Britney a bedtime story - he can do different character voices, so it was funny. I think we might have gotten to sleep around 1:00 am and then we were up at 6:15 am because we had to be at a baptism in Kearns by 11:00am. What a day!

We made it to the baptism. It was our good friends the Robinson's daughter Meghan that got baptized and she was so beautiful. We had a good time there, since it was our old ward and we got to talk to a lot of our old friends.

Then we went over to Tonja's and helped her fix up our car so that it would pass inspection. Man by the time we were done with all that we were wiped out. I seriously don't even know how we made it home - oh ya, I slept. I don't know how Steve does it. We all had that jet lag feeling for 2 days.

The kids are doing great! We are all looking forward to baseball/softball season right now. Sign-ups are this week - yeah!!! We really have a great time with it.

Well, that's it for now! Here's some pictures.

This was on the way up to Idaho.

Randy and Connie getting their groove on.

The Smith's are on fire!

Me and Steve - no one got a picture of us actually dancing.

Ignore my stomach - k-

Midnight snack

This is what 6:15 in the morning looks like.

Britney's essay

Okay, I should have waited until today to update the blog because Britney came home with an essay that she wrote about brushing your teeth and it just cracked me up, so I think you should all read it for a good laugh. Here goes:

Do you like brushing your teeth? I don't! I do it slowwwww! My mom get's mad at me though. Sometimes I'm even late for school.

The first thing you have to do is get your toothbrush and toothpaste. Then wet down your toothbrush and doodlyfart your toothpaste on it. Oh, turn off the water fast!!! You don't want the water bill to go too high, do you? I wouldn't.

While you are brushing your teeth, your gums should be bleeding. It's ok they're suppose to bleed. It's good for them. Hurry, spit fast before your mouth overflows with toothpaste! Ok good, it didn't.

When you are done, wash your mouth out with water and spit without swallowing. Now dry your mouth so it is not wet. Don't dry it on you shirt, dry it on a towel!! You're done now. That wasn't so hard now was it.

In the meantime, you should brush your teeth twice a day so that you don't have a cheesie smile. I hope you had fun. If you need help again, read this again.

I HATE SNOW!!!!

What the heck is going on? We have had a foot of snow up here today - no kidding - a foot! I am so ready to move. It is beautiful though - I just really like the blue sky, a slight breaze through my hair, and the sound of water beating ever so slightly against the lake shore.....ahhhhhh the sounds of summer.........

Okay, back to reality. We are in the thick of school work. Steve is in school, the kids are in school and I am the one doing all of the homework! It doesn't get any better then that!

Britney was in the school spelling bee a week ago. She did great. I did not get to stay and watch the entire thing because I had to get back to work, but she said she made it to the 7th or 8th round and there were only about 5 or 6 kids still standing when she got out. There were 22 kids that started with her. So I think that is amazingly great, especially considering that we didn't study hardly at all. I tried to get her to read through all of the words. She kind of seems to have a little bit of a photographic memory. So I know if she can just see the word at least once then she has a pretty good chance. We are so proud!

Trenton just finished Basketball season. He loved it! Him and Timothy were on the same team and they had a great time. Trenton was without a doubt the best guard in the league. When you look at the picture I am putting in here - check out those arms - yes, he is only 8. So he figured out the rules and dribbling and passing and guarding, but scoring - well he is going to perfect that next year.

They both did awsome on their parent teacher conferences. Britney's reading has improved soooo much this year, she had gone up a whole grade and a half and Trenton's teacher said we can go ahead and start working on multiplications with him.

Steve just loves school - ha ha ha! His determination always amazes me though. He is taking a writing class and that just isn't his thing. But he will get an A, he always does - he's amazing.

There is nothing note worthy that comes from me. I am the mom. So I guess that's why the rest of these people are so successful!! Ha ha ha I am just a laugh a minute. So everyone have a great week! I'll try to get some interesting pictures in here.

Britney's birthday

Update on Christmas

This is up at Hardware Ranch - did I capture the essence of Steve or what?

Hi everyone! Sorry I have been silent for so long. I have just been so grateful to have a normal life, I didn't want to miss out on anything!

So.....I'll tell you about Christmas. It was wonderful. Santa went overboard. I think the kids were happy with their treasures. We however, did not get a Wii. Wendy did and I played it and I love it soooo much. And so Randy, I'm there brother. I will Wii with you anytime!!! =)

Anyway, back to Christmas. We did our homemade gifts this year and the kids did better at there gifts then Steve and I did. So Trenton made Steve a wreath with a bunch of miniature fishing things on it like a vest, boots, a pole, fish, a net, and some bobbers. It is really cute. Britney made me a candy dish. It is metal and she painted different saying on the for sides and on 2 of the sides she attached photo frames so I can put pictures in them. And of course she filled it with candy. It is perfect. Steve made Britney a puppet show thing out of PVC pipe and material. Basically it is a 6 foot tall, 4 foot wide curtain that she can hide behind and open the curtain when she is ready to do her show. It turned out pretty good, but is kind of wobbley and he has to brace it somehow. I made Trenton a tent. Well I'm still not done with it. It is huge! And it is also wobbley- PVC pipe as well. I'll finish it this week. I think it looks pretty cool.

Steve got a tree stand for Christmas. A huge thanks goes out to Jake and Deb for driving an hour out of their way to pick that up for me. Here are some pictures of him climbing the power pole accross the street from us. He loves it!!! I'm the best wife! =)

Anyway, we had a great Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with my family and went to Steve's mom's on Christmas Day. They made me sew. Actually, it was fine. Adrian had a quilt that she had been working on for a while and so we all jumped in and helped her out. Even Britney did some sewing on it - we're talking quilting here folks, not just tying it. Anyway, believe it or not it was relaxing, and nice to just sit and talk. That doesn't mean I want to do it every day, just so you guys don't get the wrong idea about me.

We had fun over Christmas break too. I was able to get the entire 2 weeks off work, so I just got to play with the kids. We went sledding one day with Wendy and her kids and also Kellie. That was fun. We also went and saw Bolt and Bedtime Stories. They were both excellent movies. We spent New Year's Eve with our good friends the Robinson's, I was not much fun. I was very tired, but the kids had a great time and their baby is so cute and fun to watch.

Just this last Saturday we got to go to the open house of the Draper Temple. It is a beautiful temple. Brett Robinson put in all of the locks on the temple, so he was invited to go and they invited us. Anyway, we went into the chapel at the church next door first and saw a video, which made me cry - no big deal, everything makes me cry lately. Then we went on tour. It was so funny. I was remembering when I was 10 and got to go to the Jordan River Temple open house and everything mom and dad tried to tell me and make sure that I knew, and I found myself doing the same thing to my kids. It was so important to me that they understood how special everything was. But everytime I opened my mouth, all I heard was mom. Thanks for helping me out there mom.

Well, that's us in a nut shell!

Trenton's foot

Okay, here's what we know. The name of this friekish disease is called Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. The written description that they gave me is this. HSP is an immune system reaction. It causes damage to small blood vessels int he skin. This causes a rash in the lower part of the body. It may also affect blood vessels of the joints, intestines, kidneys and other organs.

The exact cause is unknown. A recent viral or bacterial infection, certain food or drugs may be a factor. Improvement occures in 4-6 weeks. However, the illness may recur during the next six months. This is not a contagious disease and it cannot be spread to others.

What the doctor told us is that basically is blood vessels are bursting. What you see going on on the outside of his body is most likely going on on the inside of his body as well, that is why he is in so much pain. They basically don't know anything about this disease. There is no real cure, they just treat it kind of like a cold and treat the symptoms. So he is on a steroid and motrin to help with the pain.

So this is what happened. A week ago today Trenton started complaining of stomach pain. Our kids have constipation issues, so that is what we were sure was going on. Wednesday afternoon, I took the kids in to get their flu shots. While we were there, I had the doctor take a look at Trenton, just in case. The Doc couldn't find anything wrong with him, even said his stomach was soft, but from his "potty" habits that week, thought that I was probably right and to keep pushing the fruit and juice to get this through him. He also warned that there was a horrible stomach virus going around so not to get over zealous just in case this goes the other way. So..... take him home, that night he is sitting on the arm of the couch and so his pant leg is riding up and he says, "And what the heck is that on my leg?" So me and Steve take a look and I instantly thought he had bed bugs. But at closer examination, you could tell that whatever it was, it was coming from underneath his skin. The top of his skin was basically smooth and there were no marks. (Of course we still checked out his bed really good) At this point there was no bruising, it was just small dots on both of his legs below the knee. He had about 8 on each leg and they were about triple the size of a chiken pock. So we gave him some benedryl, in case it was an allergic reaction to the flu shot. Trenton said, "Google it, mom." So I did, what I came up with was phlebitis of the skin, which causes tiny blood clots under the skin (I am genious). Anyway, I took Trenton to work with me the next morning and got him in with the first available doc. She was certain it was a rash, but could not pin point it since it did not blanch. She brought in the master Dr. Amann, he took a look and said it looked like and infection. He rattled off a few different things it could be, but the one I understood was "staff infection". They gave us a script for and anti-biotic and said he could go to school. Said it was contagious with skin on skin contact, but he is of course wearing pants. So he goes to school Thurs and Fri. I gave him 2 doses of med. on Thurs and on Friday gave him a dose when he got home from school. His stomach was still hurting and basically killing him Friday afternoon. He threw-up an hour after I gave him the meds and kept on that roller coaster all night. Again, severe stomach pain. Tonja calls that night and said I could give him some of my phengren, which I did. It stopped the vomitting, but not the pain. Saturday, more pain, and now he is starting with a fever. I read all the instructions for the meds and they say: "may cause vomitting and diarrhea". Oh great, so now we are not sure what to do, and the spots on his legs are climbing. We decide to wait until Sunday, maybe his cramps will stop and we can try the meds again. At that point, we were really thinking that he had the flu and the leg infection. So Sunday I go to church and when I get home he says, "My foot really hurts." We take a look. Oh yeah, the top of his foot was swollen bad, and his ankle was really swollen, and now it hurt to touch. So I take him up to the clinic. We get there, there is an hour wait. While we are in the waiting room, his stomach cramping comes back with a vengence. I am trying really hard not to cry, very hard when your baby is in so much pain. Finally they get him back there. I gave the doc the complete history. She didn't want to give him anything in case what was going on was effecting vital organs, because we could shut them down. They do labs and multiple x-rays. He is writhing in pain. I tried to take his mind off of it by reading books and we talked about emergency precautions like if there was and earthquake or something - just to keep him thinking - that actually helped quite a bit. So then the doctor came up with the DX above, but said they couldn't do anything more and had to send us to the hospital.

So we go to the E.R., they concur that it is a vascular problem and tell me that whatever is going on outside is most likely going on inside, so they need to make sure there is no internal bleeding. CT scan. So then Steve and Britney finally get there - they were in Salt Lake, helpling Steve's dad. So my psyche can relax a little bit and Steve takes over keeping Trenton calm. They have him drink the contrast and an hour later we are going for the CT. Everything looked good. All his organs and his labs say that nothing crucial is effected by this. Basically it is a waiting game. The doc at the E.R. said he could be back to normal with in a few days. As soon as he feels up to it, he can go back to school. Basically what they really worry about are the bowels and the kidneys. If there is any severe abdominal pain that does not go away to get him back in to make sure those things aren't shutting down.

This morning however, I am pleased to announce he has had no abdominal pain and he even walked on his foot for a minute. His spirits are up and this is the best I have seen him in 3 days. So.....I think the steroids are working and he will be back to school as soon as we can fit a shoe on his fat foot.

Thanks for the phone calls, prayers and the love. We have let him know that you all care. He will be fine. Just a really friek thing!

Love ya!

Christmas is here!!!

Ben and Steve at our Family get together

wrapping Jenna's gift

reciting the cub scout oath

how do you like that chin? man it was a pain!

Well, we are in the Christmas spirit at our house. The tree is up and all the decorations are out! We just need to put the lights on the outside of the house, but we are getting there! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Tonja and her kids. It was very relaxing and nice to have them over. My kids were so glad that Sean came and they all had a really good time with each other. Then of course my sisters and I went shopping the next day! YEAH!!! I was able to get a lot done. I still have the kids main gifts to get and a few other things for them, but I'm done with Steve and he went shopping with Scott that day and now he is done with me! What a great day!

I am feeling a lot better. Thanks so much for all the prayers and concerns on my behalf. Right now I am trying to wean myself off the pain meds, so I am kind of nausiated, but I need to do it. My family has been great and have helped me with everything.

Britney has been working hard today on a book report. UGH! She had to draw 4 pictures of souveniers that partained to this book and then write a paragraph about each picture. For example: one of her souveniers was a snow globe with 3 horses in it and then she told about how the horses were significant to the story. She really did a great job on everything, I am impressed with her imigination. But man, it took her 4 hours. Maybe if we hadn't procrastinated.

Trenton had his first Pack meeting last week and earned the Bobcat award. He just loves scouts and is excited to earn all of the hunting and fishing merit badges. Steve and him are in the living room right now working on a ghillie suit for Trenton.

I'm going to include a picture of me as a witch for Halloween as I failed to add that to my October report. We hope all of you are well. We were happy to visit with all of my family on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. That was a lot of fun and I think I was even able to visit with just about everyone. Steve however, is going to make sure to bring ear plugs next time we all get together. =)

Well, have a great holiday season everyone!

October is fun!

Crazy hair day

Okay, so I had my birthday and I got my first grey hair and also something else very horrible that I do not wish to discuss in this open forum. But apparently 38 does not like me very much!

Steve and the kids spoiled me. I got the exercise ball that I was wanting - haven't been able to use it yet, but I am still very excited about it. I also got a radio that I can wear on my arm for when I go walking or running. Very excited about that as well. We got to go to Sean's football game on my birthday. It was the most beautiful day and it was so nice to just relax with the family and enjoy the outdoors. Sean is such a cute football player and you can tell he has skills. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

Well, onward to Trenton's birthday and the baptism. We were cleaning house for 3 weeks to get ready. Trenton asked me if it had to be perfect, of course I just answered, "yes". I just want to say thanks to everyone that came to support Trenton for his big day. He really was excited to see so many people there just for him. He was so excited all week for that day to come around that he was up extra early every morning - that's how I know he's excited. I thought Yvonne and Kellie did exceptionally well on their talks, it was nice that you guys knew him so well that you able to talk to him. Also, kudo's to Deb for playing piano - bless you for having talent! And thanks to all for bringing food and helping with dinner. I really had a great time and hope everyone else did too! Trenton ended up with $100.00 when all was said and done. He was really excited to be able to pay $10.00 tithing - he's such a cute kid! Then he took all his money and invested it in an $88.00 Indiana Jones lego set. Him and Britney have been dilligently putting it together for the last 2 days. They love it - Thanks! He liked all his other gifts too, and has played with everything, and also worn the clothes.

This last week at school has been their red ribbon week. So every day they wear something different. Today was crazy hair day. We had fun with that. I will put in some pictures of it. They also went to a Halloween carnival last friday and so they got to wear their Halloween costumes. Very exciting. They are Luke and Leah. They looked good. We are excited to go trick or treating tomorrow night and I am going to dress up like a witch.

Well, Happy Halloween everyone! Be safe and have a great time!!!