Follow the Prophet

Symi has been packing around our April 2014 Ensign for the last few days. She keeps asking me about a prophet. 

Is he real? Does he have a family? Does he have hands? Why does he smile? Where is his favorite temple? Will I ever get to meet him? When can she teach a lesson on the Prophet.  

Tonight we graced her with the opportunity to teach us this exact article for Family Home Evening.   The kids were wild and crazy, but she took a quiet moment to tell me thank you for letting her do that. She has loved on the article so much that the pages are tattered and nearly torn out. 

She loves President Thomas S. Monson. 

I love to see the Temple!

I told them to pick their favorite flower and we'd take a picture. Jayden picked a "spiky green flower". 

Symi loved each tiny baby flower. These small pink ones won her heart!

They are standing by my favorite flower. Tulips!

We love to visit the temple. Dane and Ben stayed in the car while the other two kids and I braved the rain. We stopped breifly to smell the tulips. I just love tulips! The kids got to see a squirrel and see the water fall too. It was nice to be at the temple even in the cold rain. Symi told me that she wants to be a princess someday and go to the temple. I told her that would be wonderful and I will be there with her!  

While Ben and Dane were in the car they got to scare another squirrel to death and were still giggling about it when we had arrived back at the car. 

Our lives are so richly blessed and good. 

Being with GG

The kids got to spend time with GG while Dane and I attended the temple. They love being with her and are always excited when we tell them we are going to see GG!!

Ben with GG. 

Symi asked me if I would take a picture of her with the "beautiful baby". I told her to get GG and we'd get a picture with all of them together. I think every grand daughter has LOVED the beautiful blue baby!  We need patterns so that some day we can each have our own "beautiful baby" to remind us of our GG. 

Busy Jayden with GG. 

A picture of 4 wonderful people that I love so dearly. 

Grandpa

Symi knew what she wanted as soon as she saw her Grandpa. She was talking about sitting on him for days before we went. I wasn't sure what she was talking about, she reassured me that she would show me. :0)

Here are the boys just wanting to be near him too. 

Box Falls

Spring Break at Museum

Climbing in the clouds. 

Wind blown. 

Playing in the water. 

Making natural energy. 

Making camp fire biscuts. 

Coloring on the wall. 

A "Paint" brush horse. 

Spring is Here

Spring has started to show up all over.  

Daffodils, budding trees, spring rain, sometimes spring snow, sunshine, followed by warm sun spots, birds chirping, and of course one of my favorites I'm watching a robin build a nest right outside my new kitchen window.  Sure helps pass the time doing dishes as I watch the happy couple wiggle around in their new home trying to shape it into what they hope it will become for their chicks.

 Here's our recent list of events:

1. Jayden's poor ears didn't get better.  He ended up getting a bulging ear drum and was pretty miserable for almost 2 weeks.
2. Spent our Spring Break in Nevada with my parents.  Such a breathe of fresh air!
3. Enjoyed driving for many hours, (best trip yet with kids) 
(I think we may have finally found our traveling rhythm) making sugar cookies with Grandma JoDee, hiking with Grandpa Bryan, touring the tanks, watching blossoms in bloom, going to church with Grandparents, visited the Discovery Museum,helping Grandpa build a chicken coop, and driving home for several hours. (still good kids!)
4. Came home to no power and realizing that we'd paid the wrong power bill.  Fridge food and freezer food, GONE.  Large chest freezer still did ok.
5. Stayed a night at the bishops house, too cold to stay at ours.  Until further arrangements could be made to restore our power.  We are blessed to have such caring and loving people all around us.
6. Power came back on!  Excited to finally be home!
7. Symi got a cold and it turned bad.  She ended up in the urgent care with what we thought was Strep Throat.  She was so sick with fevers, chills, aches, and sore throat.  Strep test came back as negative.  Doubled checked her throat and she had developed ulcers all down her esophagus from the cold symptoms and drainage down her throat. 
8. Pain meds, liquid diet, and rest.  Lots of movies, books,  coloring books, hold me please Mommy, and no naps. Took her over 10 days to get over just a simple cold.
9. Took our boy cat to the vet to be "fixed".
10. Questions came from Ben about "Why we were doing that?" and "How do cat's make babies?"  
11. Spent a beautiful moment explaining to him about sex.  (Been worried about this heart to heart talk for his whole life.  And it went so well. I'm grateful for the inspiration that came with my simple heartfelt prayer to Heavenly Father that I could teach him the correct principles, doctrines, and truths.  With the beauty that he intended it to have and be.)
11. I got sick.  Now I know why Symi was so miserable!?
12. Thank goodness for General Conference Weekend!  It allowed me to take a break from my calling and rest.
13. My heart is full from a heart to heart talk with my Hubby about many things that have been tugging us apart.  Many messages shared help to soothe our tender feelings and help us to strive to help and heal each other.  I feel like we have both got back onto the same track and are striving to work together.  We'll see what tomorrow brings!
14. Looking forward to our little Easter Celebrations this week.  Both family traditions (aka: coloring eggs, getting an Easter Basket with goodies, hiding eggs, finding eggs, and yummy food!) on Saturday, and remembering our Savior and his sacrifice on Easter Sunday (we have a special activity that we do every year with Easter Eggs and scriptures.  Each egg is filled with a small symbol of the scripture read. Our kids LOVE this!)

Rockland

It's been too long since I've last posted.  Many changes have happened to our family.

1. Dane got a job offer in July 2013 to work as "THE" Science Teacher for 7-12th grade.
2. We accepted.
3. Moved to Rockland.
4. Fell in love with the country life.
5. Watched blessings come in the health of our kids improving daily.
6. Started to mow a lawn again.  (squeal)
7. Nearly had a heart attack as I dealt with bats, snakes, flies, spiders, and mice in the house.  All of which I am deathly afraid of.  EEeekkk!!
8. Started to slowly unpack boxes that we haven't seen in YEARS!  From too many unexpected and quick moves. Wondering at times, What is this? We packed a nearly empty box!?  Why did we keep that?  Oh I didn't know I had 2 or 3 of these!
9. Dane started school and so did Ben.  Exciting for us all!
10. Symi got accepted into the Preschool program here and she started school as well.  
11. Jayden thought the world had ended because we left everything we knew and suddenly family members were starting to disappear!  He was pretty clingy to me.
12.  I started a Dance Team aka: Bullettes.  Loved every minute of it except that it took me away from my home and little family.
13. Started to plan for holidays.  
14. Found out that we didn't have enough vacation days to visit my family in Nevada.  But were pleasantly surprised when Zach and Tara, and Mom and Dad came to us for Christmas!   SO fun!  Except poor Zach got the flu and didn't feel good. 
15. Celebrated Christmas at our new house and enjoyed every moment of it!
16. Found out just after Christmas that the home we were renting was going into foreclosure and we needed to move.  Again.
17. Quit doing dance.  Started pack up.  Trying to find another place in Rockland.  Found one last minute. 
18.  Moved into new house.  Turned on water main.  Pipes broke all over.  Living like pioneers with buckets of water for toilets.  Packing dishes from one house to the other.  Living on dirty laundry.  How do I make meals? Good neighbors drop off food.
19. Suddenly get sick with cold.  Turns bad.  Then get a virus.  Puking and runs.  Fever + virus=dehydrated = IV therapy+antibiotics for sinus infection= bed rest = life on hold= horrible timing= Tender Mercies from the Lord.  Good people of Rockland= we are loved.
20. Oh and now Jayden has an ear infection from his cold going bad too.
21.  Dane started an online course+ all of the above = One Stressed Out First Year Teacher!?
22. I no longer Facebook about these events.  I'm trying to keep the "downside" to our lives more private.
23.  Hope you enjoyed! (And hope I didn't leave anything out.)

Jayder Man Boy

October 2011 (5 months)

October 2011

October 2011

October 2011

October 2011 - One tough guy!

Christmas 2011

December 2011

Trying to fall asleep in the jumper.

Always being so shy.

Symi asked me to put him in here and he was SOO happy!

I love that they have almost the same expression here.

Angry face followed by giggles.

December 2011 learning how to sit

Ben's 6th Birthday

Ben's Birthday couldn't have come any faster.  Since Christmas he has been begging me to tell him when his Birthday will be here.  He wanted to have a party soo bad!  But we've decided to only have a big party when they turn 4, 8, 12, 16, and graduate.  He was driving me crazy so a made a paper chain that he could take one off every day until is Birthday came.  Some days he would try to tell me that he forgot to take one off.  Until he finally admitted that he just wanted to have his Birthday come faster so he wanted to take more off.  I told him if he did that I'd have to add more on.  He about died!  So he patiently and faithfully anticipated his Birthday by paper chain.

When we originally planned his Birthday no family were going to be able to make it.  So we asked a few friends to come along just for cake, ice cream, and presents.  Ben was THRILLED!!  Then when the day came a few family were able to come and add to our excitement.

We started the day with decorations and a special breakfast.  He wanted Green Hot Cereal. :)  Mmmmm.  He asked for a rocket cake that was bright green, bright blue, and white.  

Then as I was 1/2 way through decorating it he asked if I could do red, white, and dark blue instead.  I told him no and the stinker said,"That's alright. I was just wondering if you could change when you were almost done.  But I guess you can't erase the frosting huh?"

Ben also requested that we celebrate at McDonald's so that we could have dinner there and play.  I was absolutely thrilled that he wanted it there!  That meant that I didn't have to cook anything and there was AIR CONDITIONING!!!!  (Our apartment stayed in the 90's all summer long, even at night.)  We ate dinner, opened presents, ate cake, and ice cream.  Then the kids just played for over an hour on the McDonald's toys.  Ben was so happy on our way home that he said,"Mom, I'm so happy I could burst."  That made me as a Mother feel so good to know that it was everything he hoped for and more. 

A New Year

Our little family has had many changes these last few months.  We'll go backwards and come to our current position.

December: We wrapped up our little apartment in West Stadium Villa as Dane finished his Master's in Education.  After feeling prompted by the spirit that we need to be in Star Valley we prepared our family to move.  Christmas was celebrated with lots of family and fun.  We enjoyed sharing it with Grandma JoDee and Grandpa Bryan through Skype.  Shortly after we all got terrible colds.  Jayden struggled with breathing and eventually ended up spending a night in the hospital with RSV.  I also got RSV along with clogged ear ducts and had a horrible infection in my head that made m loose my hearing for a month.  I appreciated being able to be a part of a conversation again and to be able to hear again.  But it was a lot of pain, swelling, and discomfort.  Symi followed up her cold with a terrible double ear infection.  She was a trooper.  Ben struggled with his cold and eventually got strep and the beginnings of pneumonia.  Dane had a cold that didn't last too long.  But his blood poisoning came back in his leg and he was put back on antibiotics.  

January:  I don't quite remember much other than we didn't really sleep.  Dane didn't have a job.  Living with family was a LOT harder than I had anticipated.  Sick kids.  Sick parents.  Struggling with finances.  Trying to come out on top.  All of this was more than we were up for.  Dane was faithfully trying to fix up his parent's basement while we were living in it.  All of this was just too much for me.  I asked Dane to help me find us a place of our own for a while.  He graciously agreed and within a week we were moved into the Porter's place.  A small barn that was turned into a small 2 bedroom apartment.  

February:  We moved in!  It was small but it was all ours.  We were happy and becoming more and more healthy.  After a few weeks we were starting to celebrate our health when we noticed a lump on Symi's wrist that was rapidly growing.  After tests and exams they thought that it was just a cyst and we would have it checked every year.  I was ok with this. Slowly she started to stop using her hand.  She wouldn't feed herself, color, wipe her bum (big deal for her as she had just started), and other fine motor skills.  She was frustrated and we were too.  

March:  So we went back into the Dr's and they were concerned too.  They wanted to remove it right away.  So surgery was scheduled and we were preparing our family for this change.  Time seems to fly when you are so busy with health issues.  I felt like a nurse in a war zone!  But alas it was all worth it.  Anyways, Symi had her surgery and all went much better than expected.  Originally they thought that the cyst was growing down into wrist joint.  And that there was an artery running in the middle of it as well as a tendon.  They had prepped us for a 2 hours surgery, but it ended up only being 20 mins.  I was grateful to hear that it was all much better than expected.  The artery was lying under the cyst.  The cyst was on the surface and didn't even go down into the join.  But it was wrapped around her tendon and "shoe stringed" down it.  It was an abnormal looking so they sent it to pathology to make sure.  Test results came back as a ganglion cyst and she was cleared!  It's been a long week.  We have struggled to keep her nausea and pain under control.  Her mornings are the toughest and we struggling until the afternoon to make her comfortable and to keep her puking at bay.  At her first check up they changed her bandages and splint.  We took her home and she seemed fine.  That night she was up most of the night screaming and crying.  Begging for pain killers and her bowl.  Throwing up till there was nothing left and crying throughout the next morning.  She struggled all day to be comfortable.  Finally I was able to get a hold of our regular Dr before the weekend.  We started to notice that her hand kept turning blue.  She asked us several times to fix her hand.  It's hurting me so much.  When we got in we found out that both the first and second brace were cutting off the artery to her hand.  We adjusted to yet another brace and a sling to keep her from rearranging the surgery and sutures.  After that she changed!  She no longer threw up or asked for pain killers.  She started to eat well again and wanted to get down with the boys and just play!  It's been a huge change!

April:  I suddenly realized that we've had so much going on that I haven't had time to focus on Taxes.  Oops!!  I don't have much time left.  So Dane and I started to spend some late night's together working on putting together our taxes.  Hopefully the return will be a relief.  To top it off for the last several months we have been applying for jobs and spending time researching areas we've applied too.  It's been a challenge to say the least and has been tough to work out between the two of us.  We are hoping and praying for ANY job and to be where the Lord needs us to be.  I personally am SOO ready to settle down and to have a home.  One where we don't have to move again!  

Love you all and hope you are all well too.

Thanks for Giving

This month has been full of ups and downs.  It's been long and I'm so grateful that it's almost over.  Come on Christmas!!  

Dane gave us a scare when he started to get a sore knee that started to become red and hot to the touch.  We took him to the ER.  He has blood poisoning.  It was quite scary.  They wanted to admit him, but he wanted to just take oral antibiotics because he has a lot to do with Student Teaching all day.  Classes at night.  Family to help take care of.  He was concerned about getting it all done.  They pumped him FULL of antibiotics and had him checking in with our Family Dr. daily.  He is now doing so much better and we are grateful for all the prayers, help, and support.  

Jayden struggled on and off for the past 3 months with sicknesses, teething, and ear infections.  We spent many nights and long days trying to soothe a very upset little boy.  He is doing much better and we hope that once his teeth come in all the way his ears won't bother him anymore.

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving Feast in Nevada with the Cook family.  We enjoyed food, games, giggles, gifts, passing a baby around, Discovery Museum, family, colds, and sleep!   I sure wish that we could enjoy each other more than once a year, but I'm grateful to even have this time together.    

Once we got back I was put in charge of our Relief Society Activity for the month.  I had a few days to plan a meal, prepare the meal, and only had 2 other ladies to help me do it.  Needless to say the Lord was with us and we were prepared and ready to serve.  It was a neat experience and wonderful to see so many others step up and help us out.
  
We are slowly starting to sell of things and pack up.  Dane is finishing up this semester and Graduating!!  Yeah!  We are so excited for him.  But saddly we have to leave Campus Housing once we graduate.  So we are living with Dane's parents for a while, until we can find a job and settle down somewhere.  We are excited, nervous, and anxious for the change.  But we are grateful for a place to stay and to live while we are transitioning.  

This month has brought a few heartaches and many blessings.  We are grateful for all that the Lord has given us.  

Gutting the pumpkins.  We started by cutting the top open.  Ben was so excited to start with, but he suggested that we just wear our underwear so that it doesn't get on our clothes.

Then he started to bawl.  It was so gross and he couldn't take gutting the pumpkin. Jayden was waiting patiently for his turn.  Ben gave up and we gutted it for him.

He was still very upset and didn't want to do it anymore.

All of us together.  FHE carving pumpkins and watching the debates.

Ben trying it out again for the 3rd time, and tried for about 5 minutes.  Then asked Dane to finish it for him.  Symi wasn't liking it at all.  She would daintilly pick out one seed at a time and cringe in she touched the slime.  Until she started gagging.  Then quietly asked to be done.

Jayden started to play Peek-A-Boo.

Laughing because he thinks he's funny!

It's "Red Ribbon" week at school.  Today was "Wear a Hat Day".  Ben wanted to wear his cowboy hat.  Symi wanted hers too.  Jayden doesn't have one and keeps stealing Symi's.

He just wants a hat, he doesn't care that it's pink or his sister's.  He's got it now and won't give it back!

Just the normal.  Unload tupperware drawer. Check.  Pose for Mom. Check. Say cheese. Check.

Today has been a movie day.  Symi woke up with a fever and a tummy ache.  So she's just vegging.

A few weeks ago, Jayden was woke up that morning at 5 am.  WOW.  I was not ready to be up that early, and he'd been up most of that night. Finally at 8:30 I couldn't take his whinny, clingy, sobbing stories anymore.  I set him up with a bunch of toys and took a shower.  He was too quiet so I looked out to find this.  He was so tired and slept for 3 hours.

Symi was right where I left her as I showered.  She loves to sit so close because we have 1/2 of a speaker that works.  So we always hear 1/2 of a show.  But the kids don't know that, they are just excited to watch TV.

Please forgive my photography skills.  Our original camera eats up batteries in less than 5 mins. (Not exaggerating)  And so my parents kindly sent one of their older cameras for us to use.  On the first day here Dane sat on the camera and the screen broke.  So we have no idea what kind of pictures we are getting other than most of them the kids are cut off or we get a partial picture.  At least we have some way of taking pictures for future generations to laugh at. :)