Traveling......

In August we took a last minute and unexpected trip to Jackson, WY. 

Patrick's dad suddenly got very sick and it was very scary how close we came to loosing him. He almost died from Spinal Meningitis and Sepsis (blood infection). It's quite impressive that his dad is still alive. He was literally minutes away from death when he was found by his neighbor and taken by ambulance to the hospital. To look back at the events and how they all played out, you can't help but see the Lord's hand in it all. Guiding, protecting, and comforting our family and the Doctor's and therapist that were helping his Dad over the weeks he was in the hospital and the weeks since he has been home. Many many prayers were said in my Father in Law's behalf and thankfully they were answered and he is recovering and doing pretty well. 

So we decided we needed to go up and be with our family up in Jackson for a few days and give Grandpa Patton a big hug. So we all packed into the van and headed north!

(By the way, this was our first trip in the van, and dang! It was much nicer then cramming all of us into our little car.)

We tried to make this little trip as fun as possible, considering the circumstances. And also we weren't sure how long Patrick's back would hold up on that long of a drive so we made lots of stops. The first stop was in Payson to visit Uncle Tom and Aunt Leah. As soon as we got there, Uncle Tom took the boys out to feed the chickens and help put them away for the night. The boys loved it!

They helped get the eggs from the chickens and then got to hold some of the baby chicks. Landon didn't want to hold one, but he loved looking at and chasing them!

Conner wasn't too sure about having it on his shoulder and neither was the chick, it didn't want to stay on his shoulder.

Conner, who has no fear, loved holding, touching, and chasing the chickens. He wanted to name this one "Pecker" and I tried to tell him that probably wasn't the greatest name for him, but he wouldn't listen, so this poor chicken has a crude slang term for a name. Nice. I guess you can only laugh at the innocence of a little kid!

Brayden wasn't too hip to the idea of touching the chicks and possiblly having them poop in his hand, so he didn't hold them for too long, but he did like seeing them and feeling how soft their feathers were.

And as for Colonel Sanders on the chicken coup, well I guess you would just need to understand Uncle Tom's sense of humor. But I personally find it pretty funny so I had to take a picture of the chicken with the Colonel! I love me some KFC! 

Then we were off to see Provo. We went to BYU and the boys loved it! We showed them where their dad spent most of his days while attending BYU (in the Tanner Building) and we went to the bookstore to buy all the boys BYU shirts, and one of their favorite things we saw there was the stadium.

 By the way, the boys were not big fans of getting their pictures taken on this day, so just ignore the weird faces they are pulling.

We walked around BYU a bit and it was fun for Patrick and I to go back and remember the spots where Brayden (as a new baby) and I would go meet him for dinner on the lawn outside the library when he would be on campus all day studying for finals and bring him dinner. Or seeing the new buildings that are now complete that were just barely under construction when we were last there. We drove past the old apartment that Patrick used to live in while we were dating and got lost several times driving around Provo. It's been a while since we were last up there!

Conner found these huge leaves and pretended they were antlers. It was kind of funny!

So naturally Landon had to do it too.

He thought he was pretty funny. I guess he was since I laughed and took his picture.

We also stopped by the Provo Temple and passed by the MTC and waved at my nephew who is somewhere among the thousands of missionaries there.

Before we left Utah and headed up to Wyoming, we stopped for lunch at one of our favorite Utah places.... Apollo Burger. (or Crown Burger, but those are all up in SLC)

 It was delicious and the boys loved it! 

We didn't have time on this first day to go to the BYU Creamery, so he hit that on the way home. It was just as delicious as I remember it and all the boys thought so too!

And yes, Landon is wearing the same shirt as the week before, but he went through all his clothes and all his extra clothes while on vacation, so the last few days it was just a matter of finding which clothes were LESS dirty and that was what he would wear. 

In case you couldn't tell, Landon really enjoyed his ice cream!

We loved seeing some of Utah again. We loved our years we lived up there! It was great to get to go back and visit.

Wearing Our Big Boy Pants!

I finally built up the courage and patience to potty train Landon. I hate potty training. I mean REALLY. HATE. IT! I know the end result is worth it, but the process is just not great. Thankfully it wasn't too terribly bad this time. The other boys were both trained a few months before they turned 3, and since Landon will be 3 in a few weeks, I decided about the beginning of August that I would just bite the bullet and do it. 

The first day was horrible! The second day was better, but not by much. By about the third day he was actually doing pretty good, just a few accidents, but not bad. By the end of the first week he was doing awesome! Then we ended up making an unexpected trip up to Jackson, WY and that kind of threw him off. He had accidents everyday! I feared that once we got home, we would be starting all over from square one again. But once we got home, he was almost a there! Only 1 or 2 small accidents a day. 

Now he is officially a pro, no accidents and he doesn't even need a Pull-Up at night. In fact, a few nights ago, he woke up just as I was getting into bed and was crying, so when I went into check on him and asked him what was wrong, he said he needed to go potty! So I took him into the bathroom and he went, and then was back in bed and fast asleep in no time! Awesome!

So thankfully it wasn't as painful of a process as I feared. And we are totally diaper free at our house!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

He's pretty proud of himself!

I am all about the bribery when potty training. It's what motivates and worked for all of my boys. They get candy for going pee and small toys for going poo in the potty. They are always excited to get the toys! I just let them pick out some things they like from the dollar bins at Target and 1 or 2 bigger toys that are still inexpensive. Landon got a new Mickey Mouse book, an Elmo coloring book, a new Hotwheels car, and a tractor that lights up and makes noise. Then for being accident free for several days he got a helicopter that also lights up and makes noise. He loves them! He also got to pick out his candy he would get and he picked out all of his new underwear. They are pretty much all Toy Story or Cars themed. I guess we know what he loves right now besides big trucks!

He is growing up so fast. I actually had a bit of a hard time wanting to potty train him not only because I hate it, but because I hate that he is growing up so fast! I wish I could keep him this small and cute forever. He is so much fun at this age. Although he is quite the trouble maker also, he's a pretty dang cute little boy.... which is his only defense to all that trouble he gets in!

Another Milestone

I just realized I never posted about some of Patrick's milestones and accomplishments he has recently had. In May it was one year since his surgery and it is amazing the progress he has made. To see him go from being about 90% paralyzed from the waist down to see him now is awesome!

He is still doing physical therapy about 2 times a week. We are so grateful we have some wonderful friends that give up their extra time to do PT with him. They are amazing and have helped make a world of difference in his recovery. 

There are all sorts of "small" things he can do now that once he couldn't, but some of the bigger milestones are:

He is able to walk pretty well without a cane about half the time. He still needs it sometimes, but can get around without it.

He has been doing a "test" as part of his PT for about a year now. What the "test" does is time how long it takes to go from a sitting position to standing without using anything to help him get up, walk 10 feet, turn around and walk back, then sit back down without assistance of anyone or anything. For a normal person, this would take about 10 seconds. If it takes longer then 14 seconds, you are considered a "fall risk".  The first time he did this test he was at 48 seconds. As he has done PT over the past several months he has gotten much better at it. We gradually saw his time go down more and more. Last week when he did this test again he was at 14 seconds. Amazing progress!!! We were really happy!

Back in April he started driving again!

It had been over a year since he had been able to drive, so finally being able to do it again was so great for him. And it helped me a TON!! He was able to drive himself to his early church meetings again, help pick the kids up from school or friends houses, and running small errands for me. It was a relief for both of us and helped him feel that he had his independence back.

He can get in and out of the shower by himself now. We have a tub shower, not a walk in one, and he hasn't been able to get in and out by himself for about a year and a half.

He still has bad days where his back is really sore or has several muscle spasms in his back that are incredibly painful for him. But to see how much better he is doing just makes us so happy and thankful. He still has a long way to go to be totally back to where he was, probably at least another year of PT, and honestly we know that he may never be fully back to 100%, but any improvement is better then where he was before his surgery.
He is a miracle! 

Back To School.....Again

It's back to school time agian!

This year Brayden is in 4th Grade.

And Conner is in 2nd Grade.

 They were both pretty excited about new backpacks this year. Brayden was very specific and wanted one with just one strap. Thank goodness I found one. He was so excited for it. He added his new BYU keychain to it that he got on our recent trip to Utah and Wyoming.

Conner thinks his backpack is awesome too. It has a place to hold an ipod and a slit for the headphones to go though the top, so now he thinks he needs an ipod.....yeah right! Good luck with that one kid! Maybe in another 5 years or so.

Conner also thinks his backpack is cool because it has lots and lots of pockets. It really does, I'm pretty sure he will loose lots of things in all those pockets.

They had a great first day of school!

They both came home and told me all about their day. Conner started talking about it the second he was in the door. He really likes his teacher and has a few friends in his class too. Even Brayden told me all about his day, and that is huge for him. When I ask him how his day at school was he usually replies with just "good" or "I don't really wanna talk about it".  I hardly ever know what is going on with him at school. 

This year their school is starting really early at 7:25 am. It's a big adjustment for all of us. Conner is my early bird kid, and he is usually up before that anyway, but the rest of us are not. So I think we are all going to value our weekends a little more. But those are about to become very busy too. We signed both the boys up for sports this year. Since school gets out so early because they are starting much earlier, they are done with school at 1:36 so it opens up the afternoon to have plenty of time for homework and activities. Conner is going to play Soccer on a city league this year. He has been playing on the church Primary team for the past 3 years, but he wants to move on and try something new. Brayden is going to play Flag Football. If he likes it and does well (meaning he actually sticks with it) we may look into putting him in regular football. He really likes football, just like his dad. Both boys are very excited about the new school year and their new adventures in sports. 

Landon is also enjoying being back to our good old routine of having the boys in school. The very first day the boys went back, he was asking to watch Elmo as soon as we got home, which is what he always does after the boys leave for school while I eat and clean up the kitchen from breakfast. He has loved being able to play or watch whatever he wants and have mom all to himself again while his brothers are gone. But he is still just as excited to see them when they come home and he is ready to play with them. 

I think it's going to be a good year for the kids in school. I really like both their teachers and think that they are going to have fun! I am on the PTO this year at their school and I'm looking forward to that. Because of various reasons over the past few years, I haven't been able to be as involved at their school as I was when Brayden first started school. So I'm excited to get back to helping out and doing things at the school. 

Here's to a great year!

It's the Simple Things.....

Landon just loves doing anything and everything his big brothers do. The problems come when the things the older boys are doing aren't really things a 2 year old can do. Playing on the computer is one of those things. We have already had to replace our keyboard once as a result of Landon trying to play on the computer, so we try to limit his access to it. However, one thing we have found is a good thing for him to do on the computer and makes him feel like he's doing something like his brothers is watch videos of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Sesame Street. He loves it, and will just sit there, not touching things, and watch. He likes to use Daddy's headphones to listen while he does it. He's super cute with them on, they are almost as big as his head!

He's such a funny kid! He makes me smile and laugh all the time!

Just Dance!

For Conner's birthday last month, he asked for Just Dance 2. He had played it at friends houses and in PE at school and loved it! So he got is for his birthday and it's been pretty entertaining for all of us! We have had a few family dance parties and its tons of fun for all of us. 

It's absolutely hilarious when Landon is trying to dance. He just does his own thing and is so proud of himself for it!

Conner is pretty intense when he dances and is completely focused on watching the screen and following the dance moves. He's getting pretty good at it.

I love watching this video. It just makes me laugh. I love watching Landon trying to dance, he's just more swaying back and forth and clapping. And I think it's so funny and cute that Conner hangs his tongue out because he's concentrating so hard on his sweet moves! It just makes my day! :)

Conner's 7th Birthday

I can't believe Conner is already 7! He has been looking forward to his birthday for months and had a huge list of presents he wanted, things he wanted to do, and food he wanted to eat. We did our best to accommodate all his requests.

He woke up on his birthday morning and I surprised him by taking him to Krispie Kreme to get some doughnuts for breakfast. He loved it! He also wanted to go swimming for his big day and lucky for us, his birthday was the first day of swim lessons for the older boys. After swimming, we came home for a quick lunch and then were off to Flippin' Out with his big brother and his friend Jacob. They had a blast jumping and running and bouncing all over the place. It made me tired just watching them. It was super hot that day, so I bought them all a soda, and I may have won some major "cool mom" points for that one. You would've thought those kids had never had soda before, they were so excited about it!

For dinner that night, he chose to go to Red Robin because he wanted them to sing to him and give him a chocolate sundae.....

 .... And he wanted to get a balloon. 

Check. Check!

He got lots of great presents. One of the things he really wanted was a new soccer ball and goal.

He is really loving soccer and this year I think we are going to sign him up for a city team. He is super excited for it. This kid has no reservations to run after that ball and take down anyone in his way of doing so.

Soccer was kind of the theme to his birthday this year. He asked for a soccer ball cake. This was the best I could do. It was suppose to be a full 3-D ball, but when I put the 2 pieces together to make a nice round ball, it looked more like a squished, oval, UFO kinda shape. So we settled for just half of a ball. I made it late into the night the night before his birthday, so when he woke up in the morning, he told me it was "the most awesome-est cake in the world". So I guess it didn't matter that it didn't turn out like I had planned. 

The effects of lots of black frosting. Gross!

I think he had a very successful birthday. It was definitely not a boring day, I know I was exhausted by the time it was all over.

I just love my little Conner. He is such a fun, active, silly little guy. He still is my little cuddle bug and gives me hugs and kisses all day long. He is so fun to have in our family!

Hope you had a great 7th birthday Conner!!!

A Summer Cool Down

The week after school got out, the Griggs came for a visit. They are one of our most favorite families ever, and we always have fun with them when they come. One of the fun things we did this time they came to visit was go have a picnic up on Mt. Charleston. Not only is it like 25 degrees cooler up there, but it's nice to let the kids get out and run around and play. They loved it!

Landon decided he wanted to climb as many trees as he could find. With a little help from Daddy he was climbing like a little monkey.

I just love that little boy!

The older kids all ran off and played while Landon and Daddy tried to play a little Frisbee. Landon loved watching the Frisbee fly around, but wasn't a huge fan of it getting too close to him!

 5 of the 7 kids. They were very put out that I made them stop playing to get a picture. They had so much fun!

 Melis is one of my fav people in the world. I love it when she comes to visit with her family. We used to be neighbors in Utah, and I so miss her living down the street from me. It's such a blessing to have a great friend like her!

Moe was such a good sport and played baseball with the kids.....

 .... and football. They were all amazed at how fast he could throw the ball. 

The kids also loved exploring. Landon found as many sticks as he could. I'm not sure what it is with little boys and stick's, but he had quite a collection and was not happy with me that I wouldn't let him keep all of them.

We love a good time with our little family and great friends.... it's what makes life awesome!

Brayden's Egyptian Funeral

The last week of school Brayden's class had an Egyptian Funeral. They had been studying Ancient Egypt and their teacher had them make all their stuff for the funeral. Brayden really enjoyed this unit and loved learning all about the pyramids and ancient Kings. He had a lot of fun marching in the funeral precession. 

He makes a cute Egyptian! 

 The Funeral Precession went to several different classrooms. The kids were all quiet and carrying different tombs, offerings, food for the afterlife, and my favorite part was the girls at the end pretending to cry! It was hilarious and awesome! Once they got back to their classroom, they got to lay their things inside this giant tomb that they also go to help decorate.

Landon and I had fun watching Brayden and seeing what he's learned about Egypt. I love it when my kids get to do fun things that help them learn!

Only A Mother Could Love

This year for Mother's Day, Conner made me this at school. It is one of those things that a Mom just loves. It made my day and made me laugh! 

Some things I love about this, besides that my sweet Conner made it for me....

-"Cooking Time- 24 Years" Good to know that's how long it takes to make a good mom. Lucky for me, that's how old I was when Conner was born!

-If you look close, you can see he first marked the recipe as "easy" but then after some reconsideration decided the degree of difficulty of being a good mom is just "average". That's good to know, I was thinking this mom thing was pretty hard, but I guess it's not! :)

-His cute handwriting. 

-His adorable "cheesy" smile in the picture!

Conner has always been my sweet little boy. I love him to pieces and his handmade gift made my day.

Brayden's Pinewood Derby

A few months ago, Brayden has his 2nd Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts. Since last years car and race wasn't so hot for him (since I had to help him make his car and I know NOTHING about how to make pinewood derby cars!) he had high hopes for his car this year. Thankfully Patrick was able to help him with is car this year and you can for sure tell the difference. This year it was much better!

Lubricating the wheels before the race.... apparently that is an important step that I didn't know about last year!

His car did AWESOME! He ended up winning 2nd place in his division. He was so happy! His good friend Simon won third. The difference of their times was only .001 seconds! It really doesn't get much closer then that. He was so excited to get a trophy!

Since he was in the top 3 of his division, he got to come back later in the day for the Finals. He did really well in that race too! He came in 4th overall in the entire Stake. He was pretty happy with that. He had so much fun making his car with his dad and it was awesome for BOTH Brayden and Patrick that his car did so well. They are already planning the car for next year!