Do We Actually Get to Go In?

After the hideous week with Hayden, we went to see Rob's family in St. George. We got half way there and his mom called. "You've had such an awful time lately, we thought it might raise everybody's spirits to go to Disneyland."

We rolled into St. George, bought some good walking shoes for Hayden, Rachel and myself loaded our luggage into Frank & Judy's mini-van and off we went. We didn't tell the kids where we were going (they know Grandpa likes to go to Vegas so they assumed that was where he was taking us). Lauren caught me loading the luggage & said "There is no way we are just going for a drive with all that crap in the car mom. Where are we really going?" (she's had one too many surprise vacations to be caught off guard anymore-bummer)

Grandma let her in on the secret & it wasn't until Primm when the other kids started whining about our long car ride that Grandma told them we were going to Disneyland. After the cheering died down, Rachel asked "Wait, do we actually get to go in?"

We did go in and it was LOADS of fun (a little too crowded but that's why we usually go in January but it was still a wonderful trip) Thanks for bringing some happiness back into April Grandma & Grandpa!!

It's been so long since we last came to Disneyland that Rachel & Hayden didn't remember it...They loved it & cried when we had to leave!

Grandpa

Poor Hayden looks so tired...he was such a trooper (as was Rob who was Hayden's Sherpa- carrying him through the parks for 3 days)

Praying He Broke His Foot...

We had the most hideous week in April...

Date night @ movies: our awesome babysitter Alex texts "Hayden won't stop crying. Acts like legs hurt-what do you want me to do?"

Like the concerned mother of the year that I am I tell her to give him some Tylenol, and a warm rice bag & he will be fine. We finish the movie & didn't come home until midnight.

Hayden cried every half hour from Saturday night until Wednesday afternoon.

Actually "cried" doesn't even come close to describe what he did...he clutched his legs writhing and screaming.

Rob gave him a priesthood blessing Sunday night. I have to be honest, I was close to coming unhinged after he was done. He didn't bless him that he would be healed, he blessed him with comfort and the ability to tell the doctors where it hurt so they could help him. Not quite what I was hoping for, but I am not in charge of everything (a hard lesson for me to learn). Thankfully the Lord loves and blesses us with those things we need.

After his blessing, Hayden told us it wasn't his legs, it was his feet. The poor baby couldn't even stand up by Monday morning. This is how warped I am, I was seriously hoping it was one foot, not both. Then at least it was probably something as simple as a broken foot, but if it was both feet that meant something more complicated. I found myself praying he broke his foot...it was both feet.

You know something really bad is going down when the Dr. gets another Dr. and then they send you to the closest hospital for a bunch of blood tests. She was worried that he might have Rheumatoid arthritis, great that runs in my family but I thought 3 was too young to have something that awful. I had a niggling feeling that wasn't all they were testing for & when I asked the nurse she was trying to be very vague and unalarming.

Being the blunt woman I am, I asked point blank "are they checking for leukemia?" All the poor woman could do was nod, the pity written clearly on her face. (I knew to ask because we had gone the rounds with Ben when he was 5 & they were worried about that with him...that nurse had actually given us the wrong results & for 45 minutes we thought Ben actually had leukemia. But that is a whole different tale)

On that happy note, we waited for a very LONG time for the results (24 hours is eternity when you are waiting to see if your child has something wrong with them). By Tuesday evening I hadn't heard back from the Dr. and there was nothing that was stopping the pain of my poor baby. So like a lunatic, I loaded him in the car & headed for my Bishop's house (he is a Dr. at Primary Children's). Something had to change, too bad for me he wasn't home (although he did call & check in with us several times). It was while I was leaving the Bishops house, full of despair & sobbing that Hayden's fabulous Dr. called.

It was nothing horrid!

It was a reactive arthritis that had settled in his feet (he had been sick the week before & they believe that his body reacted to the virus inflaming the joints in his feet). They put him on a heavy duty anti-inflammatory & by Thursday morning he was better.

Thanks for all the prayers, help with my other kids, and other kindnesses that people showed us during this ordeal. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life, and I am so grateful that Hayden is back to his spunky, bouncy self!

Five

FIVE?? I never said you could turn five!

Here are five things I love about Rachel:

1. Her laugh is contagious
2. Dimples, big green eyes & naturally curly hair
3. She is extremely clever


4. Her independence
5. She holds her own against her brothers (& she always has)

*Sigh* I guess you are going to keep having birthdays whether I want you to or not...so I may as well get used to it!



Happy Fifth Birthday baby girl! I love you!

10 Things I Adore About My 10 Year Old

10 Things I adore about my 10 year old (in no particular order)...

1. Great sense of humor

2. A friend to everyone

3. Obedient & honest

4. Mad swimming skills (even if she doens't like it)

5. Trys hard to do what is right

6. Beautiful

7. Responsible

8. Intelligent

9. Creative & Artistic

10. Loving & sweet

You're growing up so fast! Happy 10th Birhtday Lauren! I love you!

What's in a Name

I've been having some serious doubts about Hayden's name lately. I usually love his name, but the other day I was in a store & a lady behind me was getting after her child, also named Hayden. It probably wouldn't have been a big deal, except...the kid was not very cute and was terribly disobedient. I know that sounds horrible to say out loud, but you know good and well everyone has thought something similar!

Not that I can criticize too much in the obedience department right now...I just sent my Hayden to bed for at least the 10th time tonight. Make that 11.

I asked Hayden if I could change his name and started calling him Harry. I mean he is only 3, why would he care what his name is? Serves me right for asking, he wanted nothing to do with being renamed. He actually was belligerent when I tried calling him Harry a couple of times. I mean come on, what's in a name?

Richard Harrison, that's a good trade isn't it? Before he was born I asked Rob if we could name him Harrison...he declined emphatically.

His reasoning behind the immediate rejection was this: we knew if we had a boy his middle name was going to be Richard, after my dad, and if his name was Harrison his nickname was inevitably going to be Harry.

Stick with me now this IS going somewhere...(mainly toward the gutter)

With a first name Harry and middle Richard the teasing potential was HUGE based on the fact that the nickname for Richard isn't always Rick or Rich...do you see the problem?

Now back to my current quandary...couldn't I change the order of the names to Richard Harrison and have him go by Harry and be okay? I thought so, but now instead of having only Rob strongly against having a son named Harry, my son that would be named Harry is adamantly against it.

Hayden it is then, disobedient, ugly kid at the store or not...Goodbye Harry!

Winter Pictures of the Kids

My babies are growing up so FAST!

Lauren-age 9 1/2

Please note the jeans-that is a HUGE sacrifice (battle)
for her to wear something other than a skirt! Which kills
me because she looks darling in jeans!

Benjamin-age 7
Love his blue eyes & Justin Beber hair!

Rachel-age 4 1/2
My only green-eyed, dimpled child

Hayden Richard-age 3
He was too busy trying to make everyone laugh to get a genuine smile!



Love these kids!

Over-zealous

Is it just me or are our kids a little over-zealous about their ORAL HYGIENE products?




Keep in mind, we only have FOUR children...

We survived

I survived...actually WE survived. Rob went to Texas for work & I had some serious doubts as to our whether or not the kids & I would make it without killing each other off. He's our unofficial peace keeper-what I lack in patience the man has in spades. It's astounding!

There were some touch & go moments-like when Lauren wouldn't put her shoes on for church. Nothing says 'Love at Home' like your mom yelling at you on the way to church.

At least this time I wasn't trying to paint. He went to Texas last week & I figured I'd hurry & paint in the colors I liked. I was sufficiently punished for my wicked scheming (I had failed to take into account my four little "helpers"). But the bathroom & bedroom do look GOOD.

I now know that we can survive when Rob gets deployed with USAR...as long as I keep my expectations low (& hire a babysitter for an evening).

Welcome Home love!

Shipboard Silliness-Family Cruise on the Pearl

I originally planned to go into detail about our cruise, but I've decided to just do photo postings with captions. It'll never get done otherwise. Out of sheer laziness I'm going to break it down into a few parts-by island & ship. This is some of our shipboard silliness.

Norwegian Pearl 8 days/7 nights Eastern Caribbean Cruise (ports in Samana Dominican Republic, St. Thomas, Tortola, skipped Great Stirrup Cay Bahamas due to Hurricane Tomas) Bon Voyage Miami


We were still playing Beetle Bop as the ship left port...the new rule instituted was that if someone saw a crazy color VW Bug on any of the islands they were the winner FOREVER! Rachel became the slugbug queen when we were on St.Thomas. She spotted a tie-dyed VW Bug with a Rastafarian Jesus painted on the hood. There is no topping that...EVER!!!


Swimming & Waterslide

Kids Club



Towel Animals (& Bob-Ben's class dog that had to go with us)



I am really scared for the teenage years.


We were so happy Grandma Cooper came (we did miss Grandpa thought)

Rachel figured out almost immediately that the ice cream machines pretty much ran 24/7 & had to have an ice cream cone after every meal, once we got back on the ship from port & after leaving the kids club @ 10pm every night!


Headed out to sea. Just ditched the kids at the kids club for the evening-woohoo (maybe that's why I look slightly possessed)
Sharkbait-the comedy jugglers(they were very funny). After seeing their show Ben wanted to go to clown college & become a juggler-thank heavens clown college has closed down!

I probably didn't have too much to worry about with clown college...
after the juggling lessons Ben was a little frustrated with his juggling abilities (as was I)


Waiting: for Mom...AGAIN!
Still waiting...


The arcade outside the kids club


Rob playing dodge ball


The kids cabin



Rock Climbing
Rob made it to the top (I started up, looked down & freaked-I am so afraid of heights that I don't know why I was thinking I could climb that wall without a problem. DUH).

Aunt Danelle rigging up for her climb


Fancy Dress Up Night-We were like sideshow freaks when we herded the kids anywhere. People had to ask me if they were all mine, which was followed by "bless your soul" or stop them to comment on how darling they were & that we had so many (I guess 4 kids make a huge family outside of Utah).


Lounging

2011 Goal

On a random note...I'm trying to write a book. It's slow going but my fabulous friend, Crystal, has inspired me to keep slogging along. My goal is to finish it this year (I have serious doubts that anything will actually come of it, but it's loads of fun doing it anyway)! I figure if I put this in writing I might actually follow through...maybe!

Cowphobia

Ice fishing=torture right? I still firmly believe that (despite Rob's best efforts to convince me otherwise). He has managed to brainwash most of the children into his way of thinking (Lauren finally announced this year that she does NOT like fishing-ice or off the boat & that she's NOT going out to freeze with dad this year).

I mean seriously, does this even resemble FUN? Not hardly!

To supplement our boring Saturday's while Rob is freezing with one or more of the children I have started taking the remaining kids to various playlands. This last Saturday we decided to hit Chick-fil-a. I'm not entirely selfless in taking the kids out (I've been reading a long series & I get to read while they play...mother of the year I know).

Back to Chick-fil-a...

Things were going well, I was enjoying myself and the kids were wearing themselves out. A win-win situation...until Hayden spied a worker dressed as a cow out in the drive thru lane. You'd think the cow had a chainsaw & was slaughtering the innocent people in their cars the way he was carrying on. After a great deal of cajoling I convinced him to stay.
"We go home. Scary cow..."

"You're safe. He's an outside cow. Go play."

Once the cow disappeared from sight he'd reluctantly wander back into the play-land where he remained until he caught sight of the terrifying bovine reappeared. This process was repeated every 5 minutes or so.

We entered the realm of horror when the cow came inside to see all the kids. Most of the children came running to hug the cow, poor Hayden was shaking in his socks. Literally shaking. There was no consoling him. The manager of the restaurant gave him a stuffed cow trying to ease his fear. Not happening.

Hayden knew that cow was coming for him. What would that be called-Cowphobia?

We made a hasty exit and I thought all would be well. Moving ahead to Wednesday night: in his bedtime prayer Hayden asked "bless that Mom will trip the dancing cow & kill it".

I'm flattered that he thinks I could take down the cow (said cow was over 6 feet tall) but I seriously think this should be one prayer that should go unanswered ...for my sake as well as the cow!