Exciting plans

I have been wanting to take the kids on a trip. We've been saving and about a month ago found a great price on airline tickets. It's been fun planning our trip and finally telling the kids a few weeks ago. They have been counting down. I'll blog more about it later.
We are so excited that we are going to DISNEYLAND!!!

Trials

Part of the reason I haven't blogged for a while is that it is often hard to talk about trials that you are going through. It is better after a little time has passed and perspective gained. The past month has been one of frustration, disappointment, and sorrow. The saying "When it rains, it pours" has been very true lately. Just when I think that it can't get any worse, something else happens.
I have mentioned before that my mother-in-law has been in and out of the hospital. About 3 weeks ago Rick was about to take his next test when the boys and I woke up with some intestinal issues. We sent Rick to a hotel to avoid the bug as he was to take his test the next day. That night the kids and I were feeling better but got a call tat my mother-in-law had fallen again (just 4 days after coming home from the hospital). I spent the rest of the night trying to convince her that she needed to go to the inpatient rehab to get stronger. (FRUSTRATION)

Rick ended up getting the bug about an hour before his test. Needless to say he didn't pass the test, he didn't even finish it as he was in and out several times. This just puts us further from him getting the jog he wants (DISAPPOINTMENT)

I have struggled whether to share this last information but am hoping that it will be cathartic or something. That night my brother called to let us know that they had found out that my sister-in-law in in Stage IV cancer. The cancer has metastasized and in her spine and shoulder blade. Her type of cancer has a 17% survival rate at 5 years. I still get choked up when I think about it. She has 5 kids ages 1-12. To talk to them it doesn't seem to be a big deal. They are such an example of faith and understanding Heavenly Father's plan for us. I on the other hand question why, why, why... and tear up far too often. I know that there is a bigger plan, I just think that the current one pretty much stinks.

Field Trip

Levi's preschool took a field trip to Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum. The boys had a good time in the education center and looking at all the planes.

Skiing

At the end of December I found the "Utah Pass of all Passes" on sale for $30 for the year. Seriously such a good deal. We get a tons of activities throughout the year and have already got our money worth. The big draw for me was 6 days per month of skiing at Wolf Mountain. Levi overheard Rick and I discussing it and said that he wanted to go skiing. For that price, I could take him. So I have since taken each boy twice and have had a lot of fun. The boys picked it up very quickly and it was fun to spend some 1 on 1 time with each of them.

The second time Levi and I went he said "Mom, I don't like the going down the hill part so much, I like the break part" Me, "the part where we get hot chocolate?" Levi "Yep" You can never go go wrong with chocolate.  

Jace is fearless for the most part and wanted to go on the lift the very first day. On our second day he got down the bigger hill with only 2 spills right when we started. That was more due to me not controlling his speed as well as I should have. 

The harness was definitely worth getting. They picked up skiing with less work on my part. 

Christmas 2011

We had a busy but fun Christmas. Here are a few pics from our activities. We went to Christmas Village in Ogden and the boys had fun seeing the different little houses with scenes inside.

We even were able to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. Levi asked for Ultimate Optimus Prime and Jace asked for a sippy cup, a bear and a frog. 

We rode the FrontRunner to Salt Lake and went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was snowing lightly that night and it was beautiful. There were a lot of people but it wasn't too crowded. 

December 23rd was the Cook family party. Since my mother-in-law has been in and out of the hospital since September my 2 sisters-in-law and I got together all the gifts. The younger girls got LaLaLoopsy dolls, older girls got various things and all the boys age 3-18 got nerf guns. I was in charge of the nerf guns, 33 in all. It was an all out war at the church. It was a lot of fun.

Christmas Eve we planned to spend the evening with my parents, but at the last minute decided to catch a matinee with the boys prior to going to my parents. We went and saw Arthur Christmas. It was super cute.  Jace fell asleep in the first 30 minutes but Levi LOVED it. I'm looking forward to adding it to our DVD collection to watch each year. Following the movie we headed to my parents and enjoyed spending time with them before we headed home to read the Christmas story from the Bible and get ready for Santa. 

Christmas Day was a lot of fun. The boys woke up around 7a.m. and we didn't have church until 1p.m. We took our time opening presents and enjoyed the morning. Santa came through for the boys and even knew to bring a few Wii games as he knew that Mommy and Daddy had bought a Wii for the family gift. We opened a few presents, played with them, opened a few more, had breakfast and continued this pattern until almost noon. Rick got me a Kindle and I have had a good time reading some books, which I rarely get to do. 

I left my camera at my parents house on Christmas Eve so I didn't get many pictures on Christmas Day.

Where to start

So I said in my last post (over a MONTH ago) that it has been busy. That is an understatement. It's been a very trying time for all of us and I feel that I need to document it somewhere in order to remember how grateful we need to be for the blessings we have.The week of Thanksgiving we were called with some heartbreaking news. My sister-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer. I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. I can't imagine

how they felt. She was scheduled to undergo a mastectomy in December and began chemo in January. As I looked at my schedule I had Dec 12-15 off and offered to come stay with the kids while she had surgery. They said that they could just have someone from their community stay with the kids but I told them I rarely have a day off, let alone 4 days in a row, I was coming to do what I could while I had the chance. The boys and I went up on Sunday and stayed until Tuesday afternoon. We had Santa pancakes,

made Christmas ornaments, fingerpainted with pudding and had a good time with cousins. Going from 2 kids to 7 was definitely a challenge, especially at bedtime.

About the same time my assistant who sees home care patients for me was in a car accident and was taken off of work, again and again. In fact the newest date for return is mid-March. This normally wouldn't have been a problem but I had already accepted shifts based on only doing supervisory visits for her. Suddenly I had an extra 20-25 hours of work to do. So it has been super busy since.

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I'm a little, okay let's be honest, A LOT behind in the blogging department. To say the past 2 months have been busy would be an understatement. We have been extremely blessed and by many standards are very lucky. Life has kicked us down, dragged us in the mud, and yet we're better off than many others. I have new family pictures to post, events to document and things to be grateful for. I have 1 last project that needs to be done by the end of the week and then I hope to catch up on our events of late.

New Job

It's been crazy the past few days. I have a new job that I didn't really apply for...but I'm happy about it. Here's how it all went down.
Last Saturday I was visiting my mother-in-law at Legacy (a skilled nursing facility) nearby and was walking in the hallway with her. As we walked back to her room there was a physical therapist getting a patient in the hall. My mother-in-law is quite proud that I do what I do and introduced me as "this is my daughter-in-law who is a physical therapist." Well this PT also happened to be the Rehab director, he looked at me and asked "When do you want to work?"
I had the boys with me of course so I asked if I could call him the following week. He later dropped off his business card to my m-i-law and she passed it to me. I called on Tues, he had left for the day. Wednesday I happed to be up in that area so I printed off a resume and wandered in to see what it was all about. He saw me and asked "Do you have something for me?" I told him I had a resume and he escorted me to his office handed me an application and told me that he had to have me fill it out to go through the proper channels and told me to just put "see resume" on most of it. As I did that he wrote down days that he needs in the next 2 months.
I walked out 20 minutes from the time I got there and had a job that I hadn't necessarily intended to apply for. I actually worked today and REALLY enjoyed it. So I'll be picking up a few more shifts. That's got to be some kind of record, beginning a job that I hadn't really applied for and starting less than 48 hours later.
Man, I LOVE that I have a job that I love and have so much opportunity to work and help others.

2 birthday parties, 1 day, EXHAUSTED

We may be a little crazy, okay a lot. But in the end We still feel that it was worth it. We decided to have 2 parties on the same day, 1 in the morning for Jace, 1 in the afternoon for Levi. We figured that for the most part is was about the same amount of work. We made the decorations interchangeable, rented a bounce house, made a bunch of cupcakes, a cake and a ton of frosting.

Jace wanted a Pirate Party so his invitations were a message in a bottle (forgot to take a picture of course, but they turned out super cute). I found pirate costumes for $1.00 at littletikes.com (1.50 with shipping) figured I couldn't put together a treat bag for that price.

Invited about 16 kids (not all were able to make it). Some kids weren't too thrilled about dressing up as they are a little shy. We even had cousins that were able to come down from Garden City to be here.

Levi showing his sword skills. I decided to do cupcakes for Jace's party, that was probably the way to go and should have done the same for Levi's party. Oh well, live and learn.

   

Levi wanted a transformer birthday and it was very important that there be a transformer on his cake, thus, I made a cake instead of cupcakes. The invitations were a shirt that had a silver autobot symbol on the front and a black decepticon symbol on the back (again cheaper than a goodie bag) The invitation read:

Are You an Autobot or a decepticon?

Choose your side and join us for the ultimate Battle to celebrate Levi’s 5^th Birthday

Yes, in this picture there are 23 kids (and a few weren't able to come), and a couple had already left to go home. This was definitely the more lively of the 2 parties as they are a little older and had a blast on the bounce house/slide.

Of note, Levi received 13 transformers and has be busy ever since. We grabbed a couple to the side in order to space the transformer mania out. This Friday is Levi's actual birthday and Rick has 2 more transformers for him and his Grandma Cook has another one. So it looks like we'll be getting a bigger bucket to keep them in.

All in all it was a super fun day, we even had pizza for all the cousins (who came to both parties) aunts and uncle for lunch in between the 2 parties. We tried to have some "quiet time" as well but the kids wanted to get back to the bounce house as soon as possible. My sis-in-law was able to get her younger ones down but the rest were too excited to be with each other and play.

But by the end of the day, Rick and I were EXHAUSTED. At 8:00 the boys had crashed with very little of the bedtime stalling. I felt like it was after midnight and I had been out partying (oh, the college days), boy, we're getting old.

Canning

Last week I spent a whole day canning. 9 quarts of pears, 34 pints of tomatoes. Still planning on apples, apple juice and hopefully grape juice. My sister-in-law just gave me peaches...and I got called in to work for tomorrow. Guess I'll be canning when I get home. It shouldn't be too many peaches, maybe 7 quarts.

Building

About a month ago I quit one of my jobs and am able to spend a little more time at home with the boys now. I'm still adjusting to having more "down" time. Actually I now get to pursue some of my interests.
So far I've done about 3 builds. I get most of my ideas from ana-white.com. It's a fanastic website that has tons of free intructions for building furniture and things. The first was a pantry shelving that attaches to the pantry door. It's definitely not perfect, but it gave me a ton more space for spices, etc. In fact, I now have an empty shelf in a cabinet. Of course I don't have a picture of it. The next build was this closet organization. before it was just a clothing rod with 1 long shelf over it and about 3 feet of unused space above it. So instead I built some shelves, moved the bar and added another one. So much more space, my clothes are no longer crammed in. Last build was a silverware drawer organizer, need to make a few adjustments to it still.

Little Helpers

The boys love "helping" out in the kitchen. On game day they were making the infamous Cook cream cheese dip. And yes, Rick is standing on a chair.

First day of School

Levi's first day of preschool was September 6th. He is attending the same one as last year and has really looked forward to seeing Miss Mindy again. About 1/2 the class is the same as last year. He's been sounding out words trying to spell them. It's crazy how much bigger he is than last year.

Jace's birthday

Jace had his 3rd birthday this month. I've been slacking a lot on blogging our happenings, but Jace wanted a Pirate Party. This was the birthday cake for our family party with the grandparents. A treasure chest, he was pretty excited to dig into it all day. I had to hide it for awhile.

Jace loved opening the gifts from his grandparents and has had a lot of fun playing with them since. His favorite present was from Levi, a gumball machine (Levi picked it out himself), this kid loves gum.

Tip-Toe

About a month ago we took the boys to Lagoon. As we were leaving Levi saw a group of Lagoon security officers and wanted to talk to them. He told them how old he was, his name, blah, blah, blah. One of them asked him what his favorite ride was and he replied "The one I had to stand on my tippy toes for" They replied "we didn't hear that"

That ride would be the roller coaster which he is just a bit too short for.

The Backpack

Since Levi got a backpack for preschool (of course he needed a new one, the one that he used 2 hrs/day, 3 days/week just wouldn't do) Jace inherited the one from last year. Since then he has been toting it everywhere.

Today we went with my sister-in-law and her daughter to scout out photo locations in Logan for her upcoming shoots. Jace got his back pack ready to go. The contents:

3 sippy cups (which actually came in handy)

1 flip flop (the one I've been searching for the last 2 days)

fish crackers in a baggy (a treat of course, not sure how he got those, maybe left from Sunday)

1 coloring book

1 colored pencil-blue

and a spindle of DVDs (no idea

Ready for Summer (maybe not)

Summer is just around the corner and we have a lot of plans for some fun activities, a family reunion, Raspberry Days, swim lessons starting next week.

Levi's last day of school was last week. I was able to take off of work in order to attend the little program. What we weren't counting on was Levi doing a "back flip" on the FiestaSac and splitting his eye open 90 minutes prior to the start of that program. I saw that it was deep and since it was on his face I decided to rush him over to the InstaCare. Luckily we walked in about 3 minutes before they opened so we were the first to be seen. A little over an hour later we walked out with "stitches". The were able to glue the laceration and we were on our way. He was able to participate in the preschool program, messy hair and all. Here he is with his preschool teacher "Miss Mindy". He has really loved preschool this year.

We also weren't planning on this past Friday rushing to the emergency room...

Friday night Rick was out getting a movie at Redbox when Levi came down and started talking to me. I reminded him that it was 8:45 and needed to be in bed. He went upstairs and I turned back to the laptop. A few minutes later I heard some rustling up in his room and seconds later heard him start crying... that hurt cry that you know something is wrong. As I hurried up the stairs, I turned the corner to go up the second flight of stairs and realized that the crying was from outside and the front door was locked. As I flung open the front door I realized a parent's worst fear, my child had FALLEN out of his bedroom window. I rushed to him and began to inspect him for injury but it was dark and so I scooped him up and got him inside to look at him. He was bleeding inside his mouth and had grass in there also. I couldn't find any evidence of concussion or major trauma but knew we needed to get him to the hospital.

I called Rick and asked where he was, he was almost home, I told him what happened and to get home. I next called my neighbor and asked if she would come sit with Jace who was in bed. She got here the same time Rick pulled in. I loaded Levi in his car seat and scrunched in next to him. Rick wanted to take him to Davis but I said "No way, go to McKay" He replied "I can be to Davis in 5 minutes" I said "I don't care, go to McKay" (since I work there I know the procedures there and am more comfortable with the care they provide, besides, they LifeFlight to Primary Children's if need be). I have no idea how long it took to get there, Rick drove pretty fast. As we were driving I called up to the Emergency Department and told them what had happened.

Rick pulled up to the door and I rushed in with Levi in my arms.

The staff was incredible, they asked if I was the one who had called and ushered my right back to a trauma room where a whole staff was waiting for us. They quickly hooked him up to monitors and the doctor examined him. There was no evidence of head trauma so following the exam we went for x-rays. While in the booth I could tell that his right arm was broken but of course they were very professional and wouldn't confirm what they saw.

During the waiting time that followed our Bishop arrived (he's our next door neighbor whose daughter was watching Jace), he had been at a movie with his son when she called and left a message. He and Rick administered to Levi and Levi was able to go to sleep and rest.

Awhile later we found out that he had fractured the radius and ulna bones in both arms and would need to be splinted tonight and then casted in a few days. And while swim lessons are now going to have to wait until August, at least that's all that happened. He is a lucky little boy.

Here he is with his new "robot arms".

He was much happier after his dad brought back a new "Lego Hero Factory" toy.

Evidently he was "waving good night to Kasyn" his buddy down the street. You can see where his little hand went right through the screen. We didn't think he could even open the window. Lesson to everyone out there, put a mechanism in the window to keep in closed, or at least not open easily. There were 4 other incidents like this earlier in the week and 1 even resulted in a death of a 2 year old. We were planning on putting something in the boys room soon. They're in place now.

We are very grateful to the staff at McKay Dee hospital. We are also very grateful and lucky to have great neighbors who dropped everything to help us out.

Now we just have to keep Levi "down" for the next few days until we get the casts.

The nicest Mom

A few weeks ago Levi asked if he could do something, I said "no". He said "but Kasyn's mom let's him" I replied "well Kasyn's mom must be nicer than your mom."
Well a few days ago we ere at the store when Levi noticed a boy doing something that I would not have allowed him to do and stated "HIS mom must be NICER than you" Yep. At least he realized that I wouldn't have allowed him to act that way.

Naked

Recently Jace likes to strip down to nothing and run around. Levi thinks it's part of a superhero game.

Levi: "I am Pajama Boy and you are my sidekick Naked Boy" (picture not included for obvious reasons)

Opening Day

Yesterday was opening day at the local amusement park, Lagoon. Originally we were going to go to Disneyland this May but the thought of 10 hours in a car each way with Jace deterred us. Instead we decided to do a "Stay-cation" (later this spring) which includes season passes to Lagoon. After a day at Lagoon, we made the right decision. Boy are we glad!!! The day started off great! Our first ride was the bumper cars, the boys loved them. Then we headed over to the Dragonfly...and that pretty much was Jace's last ride... They had to stop the ride so that he could get off. Can you see the look of terror? Then we tried the little cars, no go... The day continued on about like that. Levi on the other hand went on about 20 rides, big and little and LOVED it.

The weather was perfect, overcast but warm enough for short sleeves and jeans. That is until you go on the slide that you sit in a raft and go down a tube with water. Rick and Levi fared okay but Jace and I had a wave go over us and were both soaked. Brrrrr. Jace at least had a dry jacket so we stripped off his wet shirt at least. Luckily shortly after he fell asleep and I was able to bundle him up with Levi's jacket. Myself, I think I get mommy points for tuff-ing it out until we decided to go home 4 hours later. It took a 20 min HOT shower to not be chilled. Overall we had a great time and look forward to going again, hopefully Jace will warm up to the rides and get more brave. Pretty glad we didn't find out that Jace doesn't like the rides after spending the $$$ to go to Disneyland.