Another Tooth Bites the Dust!

Ryan lost another tooth and was he ever excited! He had been working on the tooth for a really long time and he would ask his dad every few days if he would pull it. He is a tough kid because Brad would pull hard on it and it just didn't want to come out. Needless to say, it finally did and here is a picture of Ryan showing for his Tooth Fairy booty . . . 2 gold dollars (one for each tooth)! I'm sad that he is growing up so quickly :(

Mother's Day - Brad's Turn

In my book, Mother's Day falls right behind Christmas and Easter in importance. There is a bittersweet element to it, since my Mom has been gone for 9 years now. Those memories are beginning to not seem so fresh, and I still miss her - that is the "bitter". The "sweet" part is being married to Chrissie and sharing the adventure of raising 5 kids together.

Chrissie has been a Mom for 21 years now, and it started out rough. Her first pregnancy with Emily was brutal - back then (back in the eighties!) her doctor wouldn't even think of given her any kind of meds while pregnant, so Chrissie spent half her pregnancy throwing up. Constantly. I remember one stretch where she threw up every twenty minutes for several day. (I was the one holding her hair with the washcloth - powerless to help.) At one point she had to get IVs because of the dehydration. It was a difficult time. Thankfully, as later children came, as and as doctors relaxed a little, pregnancy became less traumatic, and the sick period shrank.

Everyone who knows Emily knows she is a strong, capable girl. We saw it when she was born. Emily apparently had decided that she didn't want to come out. So she wouldn't. For 14 hours. Chrissie couldn't walk for weeks.

The Lord is merciful, and somehow manages to selectively obliterate the memories of women so that they don't recall pregnancy or labor with any degree of accuracy. That's a good thing, because if Chrissie remembered it at all, Emily would be an only child. Oddly, those memories remain sharp with most husbands I've talked to, creating a safeguard against families with 20 children and a destroyed mom.

Even last night as we were walking past the baby aisle at Target, Chrissie started the "ooohing" sounds that mean she wishes she still had a baby. She constantly reminds me of how much she LOVED being pregnant. Go figure!

As a Mom, Chrissie is kind, charitable, patient and understanding - all of the things I am not. I am firmly convinced that if not for her influence, some of our kids would have long since been offered up on Craigslist by now as a "free to a good family." She is always afraid she hounds the boys too much, (untrue) and I can't imagine how difficult it would be to be the sole source of estrogen in a family of 5 testosterone-addled boys with very smelly socks.

We love her, I love her. She is a wonderful mother to our children, and a wonderful wife. She also has another role I wouldn't ever want - Bishop's wife - or Mother of the Ward. It is an odd position she finds herself in, and at times uncomfortable. She is a great advisor on those select things I can talk to her about, but a lot of the time she is in the dark about most things. Nobody wants to hear the conversation stop when you walk in the room - but it happens. The Stake President warned her that a lot of the time she would be the last person in the ward to know some juicy bit of gossip - and it has turned out to be true. But, all in all, she handles that role with grace and kindness, and the Ward is blessed to have her.

I love Chrissie, and admire her , and love being able to focus on her today. Happy Mother's Day to you, sweetheart, and all the other good Moms out there!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! I love Mother's Day. I love being a Mom - that was always my biggest goal in life - was to be a wife and a mother. I am so blessed to have the 5 best kids in the history of the world! I love you guys.

I am also blessed to have such a wonderful mother myself. Mom, you are so good and have set such a wonderful example to us and our children. I chose to post a picture of you on one of your many missions. I am so proud of you for serving so much. I hated all the times you had to miss baptisms and other important events in our lives. But, then I would get over the selfishness and realize how blessed we are to have had parents that served missions. And you served 4! Thank you for being so wonderful. I love you very much!

Smarty Pants!

A couple of nights ago Danny had his 3rd Academic Night - the last in elementary school. Danny is really smart, but he also works really hard in school. We are very proud of him and his accomplishments! As we were reading the program I noticed Adam Patterson's name on it also. Pat and Krissy came and sat by us and I took a picture of the boys afterwards. Danny goes to Greenfield and Adam goes to Towne Meadows, but eventually they will both go to Highland High. Way to go boys!

Danny went to the Dr. the next day and got his cast off. However, they cut it in half long-ways and now he has to wear it as a splint for another two weeks. But at least this way we will get to take it off to shower and exercise his arm. It is pretty stiff and he can't straighten it all the way yet.

Senior Prom

Last weekend was Taylor's last school Prom. I thought he looked really handsome! By the way, on the same night Alex went on his first date!

Africa

Brad is in the middle of his annual trip to Mozambique, Africa. I hate so much for him to be gone. I really stress out the whole week before he leaves and then pretty much feel like a zombie while he is gone. Well, this morning was totally worth it! He texted me and said to call him at an exact certain time. When I called, he said, "The people in the community want to thank you". So, this guy gets on the phone and says this long speech which I can't understand because it is in Portugese - and then the whole crowd starts screaming and yelling thank you! It was so touching that I cried for 5 minutes! I haven't even done anything, except lend my husband for a week every year. I am so proud of him and what he is doing! We really believe in the Family Preservation Program that they are working on and feel that it is inspired. I'm sorry that I am such a baby when you are gone Brad. And, I really want to go with you some day. Come home safely! Oh, by the way - he said he did the "Pee Wee Herman Tequila Dance" for 300 people! Way to go Brad!

Easter 2009

I love Easter! I love the symbolism of renewal in everything around us. We have had such a beautiful, prolonged Spring for this area. We have enjoyed planting a garden and watching things grow - and watching things come to life again. I am so thankful for Jesus Christ. Every year I feel like I am a little more aware of the significance of what He did for us. Sometimes it is very overwhelming. I know that He loves me and I am so grateful for His atoning sacrifice. Mostly, I am so happy to know that I will get to see Dad and my other loved ones again!

I meant to take more pictures. I especially meant to take dressed-up Easter pictures, but I didn't do it. Here are the few I got when we colored eggs on Saturday.

You can't see very well, but Danny's egg is supposed to be a Phoenix Sun's egg.

I love my boys!

Missionary Matt

We got to go over to the Mooney's for Matt to open his mission call! There were a lot of people there and a lot of anticipation. He is going to Santiago, Chile and will report on August 5th! We are all so excited because Brad went to Vina del Mar, Chile, and Susie went to Concepcion, Chile! Another thing to remember is that our relative Parley P. Pratt opened up Chile to missionary work. We are so proud of Matt and can't wait until Taylor gets his mission call. They are 6 months apart but Taylor will be able to put his papers in sometime in June. We are all very excited and can't believe that the time has already come for these boys to serve missions!

Moving Day

One of Danny's best friends moved on April 9th. Holden Green is a great kid! His dad, Jeff Green got transferred to Virginia. We have been really sad about it. They are such a wonderful family. Holden got to sleep over the night before they left and then we let Danny play hookey for part of the next day! After a while Max Pothier came over and they played around and I took them to In and Out for lunch. I got a couple of pictures before I took Danny back to school. We are sure sorry to see him leave. We will really miss that family.

Tough Break!

Danny broke his arm on March 27, but didn't get a cast until 2 1/2 weeks later - Crazy! It was a Friday, and at the end of school he was playing basketball and someone tripped him and he fell. He came home in a lot of pain but was really upset because it was supposed to be his first Scout camp-out that night. I was worried because he broke the same elbow when he was three, and then last year he hurt the same elbow and had to wear a splint for a month.

Brad took him over to see Steve Mousser (who is a pediatrician and Brad's 1st Counselor). He said that he didn't know, but if Danny wanted to go on the camp-out, Steve was coming home later that night and he could bring him home if he was in too much pain. So, Danny set off on the camp-out holding his arm to his side. I was worried, but grateful that Steve was there. Well, Danny never came home that night and everyone said that he seemed to do okay. He got home the next afternoon and as soon as he came in I could tell he was in a lot of pain and his elbow was swollen. Brad took him to get it x-rayed. They said that it seemed broken, but they couldn't find the break. So, they put in in a splint and a sling and told us to go see a specialist.

On Monday, he got checked out and Dr. Peterson said that he thought that he just really hurt it but that it wasn't broken. He said to come back in a week and he bet it would be a lot better. We went up to conference and it didn't seem to get any better. He had a lot of pain, tingling, numbness, all sorts of stuff. When he went back to the doctor, they decided it was broken after all. Poor Danny :( I guess it's a really good story that he hiked to the top of Superstition Mountain with a broken arm. What a tough guy!

Okay, so I just went back to last year to look at the picture when Danny had a hurt arm and just realized that it wasn't the same arm. All this time we were concerned because we thought it was the same elbow!

General Conference

We decided 6 months ago that we would take the whole family to conference in April. We had it all planned out that it would be the only time that we could go as a whole family and the only time that Brad would be able to take Taylor, Alex and Danny to Priesthood Conference before Taylor goes on his mission. We were really excited about it! We were lucky enough to have Andy and Suzette's condo to stay in in Park City, or we probably wouldn't have gone.

We left town at around 11 a.m. on Friday and Brad drove like a maniac to try and get us to Park City by midnight. We were losing an hour by leaving Arizona, plus Park City is an hour past Provo. We were worried because we knew we would have to get up at 6 a.m. in order to get to the morning session of conference. It was a crazy trip. The wind blew really hard all the way to Page and then it started snowing. When we got to Kanab we had to take a detour towards St. George because of a 12 car pile-up. The snow was so bad. It was a total blizzard. Brad was such a trooper.

We got to Provo, had Emily meet us and drove the rest of the way to Park City. Needless to say, we were very tired the next morning - especially Brad - since he drove the whole way. But . . . we got the whole family there and it was such a great experience! Here is a picture inside the Conference Center.

After conference, we drove to Heber and went to Dairy Keene. Gotta have those Train Burgers! We watched the afternoon session and then the boys took off to go to General Priesthood Meeting.

While they were gone, Emily, Ryan and I went to the outlet mall for a little while. Ryan was enthralled by the snow. He hasn't been around it before except for once when he was tiny.

It was snowing huge snowflakes here but it is hard to tell in the picture. I only had my IPhone since Brad took my camera to his meeting. Later we met up with the rest of the family and went and had pizza in Park City. The weather was crazy and stressful, but I hope it will be a good memory for us and the kids.

On Sunday night we sent Taylor and Alex home on a plane because we didn't feel like they could miss school anymore. Brad was invited as President of Care For Life, to speak at a special international conference at BYU. He was scheduled to speak at 3pm on Monday. We decided that he would drive down to Provo with Emily really early in the morning (because the conference was all day) and I would finish things up at the condo and head down later and be there in time to hear him speak.

At 6:00 in the morning, Danny was throwing up. And things just got worse from there. He was really feeling sick and so we waited until the last possible minute to leave. If necessary, we would have stayed there, but he decided that we should try and leave. I dropped him and Ryan off at Emily's apartment, changed my clothes, and grabbed Emily. We made it just in time to hear Brad. He did such a wonderful job! I was so proud of him! After that, Danny was feeling a little better so we said goodbye to Emily and drove to Cedar City so that the rest of the trip wouldn't be so long. All in all, it was a wonderful trip!

The New Deacon!

Danny happened to turn twelve on March 22, which was a Sunday. It was really special I thought, because he was able to be ordained to the Priesthood on his actual birthday! My sister JoAnn was able to be baptized on her birthday and I always thought that was so neat. It was a very special day. We had family members representing both sides of the family. Nana, Uncle Don, Uncle Andy, and Aunt Susie were all there. It was really neat to see Taylor standing in the circle. If it were only 2 weeks later, then Alex would have stood in also! Danny, were are very proud of you for the sweet, sensitive boy that you are. I know that you have a testimony and that you will take your Priesthood responsibilities seriously. We love you!

Randomness (is that a word?)!

I have been such a procrastinator with my blogging lately. I got stuck on Danny and then Alex's birthdays. I need to scan old pictures in order to finish their posts, but have been unable to find the time. Unfortunately because of that, I have put off doing the other posts that I need to do. So, I decided enough is enough! I will eventually get around to doing the scanning, but I will try to catch up with the rest a little at a time.

We were lucky enough to go to Knott's Berry Farm for a whirlwind trip for Spring Break. We drove over, spent the night, went to the park for the day and then drove home that night! It was very tiring but great fun! We missed you Emily! Ryan was excited to be able to ride most of the big rides! Thanks Brad for helping us make another fun memory.

It has been such a beautiful Spring this year. I don't remember when it has lasted this long in the Valley. We have enjoyed it so much. I love this time of year!

Orange Blossoms! One of two favorite smells! The other is a newborn baby.

Danny is in 6th grade and it was time for "Country Reports" in March. He chose to do New Zealand. I was a little bit panicked because we have never been to New Zealand and didn't have anything from there. We have stuff from England, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Thailand, Urkraine, and Mozambique. However, Danny wanted to learn more about New Zealand. He did a great job and luckily we were able to borrow a few things from Brita Ball and we bought some kiwi to sample. Way to go Danny!

Danny was playing with Cricket and I got this great picture

A Lost Tooth!

Ryan lost his 1st tooth back on March 14th. You wouldn't find a happier boy than he was that night. He had been so anxious about the whole thing because he is already 7 and in 1st grade and most of the kids have at least lost 1 tooth, if not more. It had been kind of wiggly for a awhile but was really stubborn. One night, he matter of factly asked his Dad to pull it out. He wasn't worried or scared or anything. We were all surprised when it came right out! He's trying to get more of them out as fast as he can so that he can get another "golden dollar"!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Alex is 16 - I can't believe it!