Phoenix Temple

Yesterday we went to the Phoenix Temple open house.  It was a lot of driving (five hours round trip) but it was nice to go.  I would say that we mainly did it for our kids, so hopefully they remember it and what it was like to be inside the temple. 

This Christus statue was in the reception tent outside.  I've said it before, but I love how children interact with this statue.  They just want to touch Him.  And the marks in His hands. 

On our way home, we stopped in Casa Grande to eat dinner.  We ate at In-N-Out, which is always a favorite.  Except for Natalie, who doesn't like hamburgers, but she loves the fries.  There was a Krispy Kreme in the same place and their "hot" light was on, so we had to go inside.  They also had a deal on buying two dozen doughnuts.  Because this is a treat we never have the option of buying, and our kids had never had Krispy Kreme before, we bought the whole two dozen.  They were so yummy and the kids, of course, loved them.  Unfortunately, we realized on the way home that the following day (today) was fast Sunday.  Not a great day to have a bunch of doughnuts sitting on the counter!

Happy Birthday Arie!

Where have the last two years gone?  Arie's second birthday was on the 3rd.  She is getting so big!

We waited until we heard that Arie was awake to go in and sing to her.  When our whole family came in and started singing Happy Birthday, what did she do?  She started crying.  When her name was inserted into the song, she fell down and cried even harder.  What better way is there to say, "Hello, I'm two" than this picture?  Arie really is still very sweet, but she has her terrible two moments.

Then we got her out of her crib so she could open presents.  You can see from her face that she is still not too sure about all of this.

But she was happy once she saw what was inside.

Here she is with all of her presents.  Why the look on her face?  We started singing Happy Birthday to her again.  She was not thrilled with this song.  What's funny is that she really likes the song--when it is sung to other people.  We sang it to Nate not that long ago, so she thinks it should say "daddy" instead of Arie.  However, by about mid-day, she would happily sing along to "happy birthday, dear Arie."  

We gave Arie a Minnie Mouse and I made her a sock monkey and owl hat.  She wasn't thrilled with the hat at all, which is surprising because she wears her brothers' hats all the time.  Grandma and Grandpa Burgess gave her Belle's Klip Klop Cottage and Grandma and Grandpa Webb gave her some money to go pick out a present, which we will do this week.

She had fun playing with her new toy.  Whenever Damon came close, she would grab the horse away from the toy and exclaim, "It's mine!"

The older kids only had a half day of school that day, so they were only gone for a few hours.  I love this cute picture I took after Kelton got home.  (Apparently it's okay for Kelton to play with her new toy.)

There are a few cake options that would have been more fitting than the one I picked.  Like something Bubble Guppies related.  Arie watches that all the time.  She used to call it "Buppies," but now she has moved on to calling it "Gubble Guppies."  She really likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse too, which she calls "Hot Dog" because of the hot dog dance at the end.  (I asked her one day if she wanted a hot dog to eat.  She was excited about it until I gave her the hot dog.  She thought I was asking if she wanted to watch the show.  She cried for a while when she realized that's not what I meant, and wouldn't eat the hot dog in protest.)  Anyway, she has been watching Winnie the Pooh recently and I knew she would recognize Pooh Bear.  I already had the cake pan from one of Natalie's birthdays (probably her 2nd too, actually) and I didn't want to figure out anything tricky.  So Pooh won.  And you can see that Arie's finger got to the balloon in a few places.

I showed the cake to Arie before it was finished.  It took her a minute, but she was really excited when she figured out it was a cake and that it was Pooh Bear.

After she saw it, I took her upstairs for something.  When we were coming back down the stairs, I stopped to talk to Damon.  Arie put both of her hands on my cheeks so she could turn my face and look me straight in the eyes, and said, very seriously and deliberately, "Momma.  Cupcake."  It was so cute.  So we went back to the cake.

Arie wanted to sit on my lap while I finished the edges.

It must be very interesting to watch.

I picked this cake because I knew it would be easy.  However, I forgot how time consuming these star cakes are.  And how much my hand hurts after squeezing a million little stars out.

Disposing of leftover frosting.  They hung around the kitchen just waiting for my okay.  Definitely my children.

She wouldn't leave the cake alone.

Since it was Friday night, we had a night full of soccer games.  Once I finished the cake, we ran to Little Caesars to pick up a pizza.  We ate and then rushed off to Damon's soccer game at 5:30.  Then Natalie had a game at 6:30.  It was about 8:00 by the time we got home and could have cake.  I think the next time my kids are being crazy, I need to sit them down in front of a candle.  They seem to have magical properties.

After the song, I told Arie to blow.  I expected to have to explain a little more, but before I knew it, she leaned forward and blew the candles right out.

She is ready for some cake!

This little girl is so fun.  She is adored by everyone in our family.  She loves to talk and sing.  She knows all the words to several songs, including "I Love to See the Temple," "I Am A Child of God," "Give Said the Little Stream," and lots more.  We all love to hear her say, "Arie is soooo...pretty!"  She loves to wear bracelets, or anything that looks like a bracelet, and put things in her hair, like My Little Pony crowns.  Arie has a talent when it comes to getting into things she shouldn't have.  We constantly have to watch her.  She loves to watch movies and will sit for an entire movie.  She continues to bonk her head on her crib railing before she falls asleep.  She has done this since she was about nine months old.  We don't like it, and have wrapped blankets around the rail to pad it, but she still does it.  We took away her pacifier ("plug") about a week ago and she is doing okay without it.  At church, she constantly gets away from me on the bench and runs up to the stand where her daddy is.  Problem is, she doesn't always go sit with him and I have to go get her.  She is full of energy, sweetness and love.  We love our two year old!

2 Years in the Making

Yes, it's been almost two years since we had a family picture taken.  I feel really bad about that because my kids are still so little.  I hate to miss a year.  But, unfortunately, all the little kids are part of the reason for the lapse.  They keep us busy!

But, while we were at Haigler Creek for the reunion, I heard someone mention that Delsy was taking family pictures for Rayla.  Since not knowing who to have take our pictures in one of the hold ups, I figured now would be a good time to just take a few shots while we had a photographer and a nice camera.  In an incredible stroke of luck, I just happened to have coordinating clothes with us.  Arie was the exception, but she was close enough.  Wardrobe choices are probably my number one hold up when it comes to family pictures.  I never know what to have us wear and I'm NOT spending money on new matching outfits for everyone. 

Anyway, I was really excited about the clothes in the same color scheme, a photographer on hand, and a beautiful location.  I think we got some great pictures!  Now, I can't decide which I like best.  Help me out...

Photo #1

Photo #2

I can't decide if I like the picture showing all of our bodies and more of the scenery (#1) or if I like it to be cropped in closer (#2).  The picture needs to be horizontal.  All of the kids are smiling in #2, but the picture was taken vertically. So I don't have the option of photo #2 to be further away--it has to be cropped close in order to be horizontal. 

Photo #3. 
This one probably isn't my favorite, but I like it because it's different.  And because it was a small miracle to get everyone standing in a line, holding hands.

 

 

Individual shots of the kids. 

I'm so glad we did these.  I'm even happier that I didn't let the guilt make me buy expensive school pictures a few weeks ago.

 

Natalie 

9 1/2 years old



Kelton

6 1/2 years old



Damon

4 1/2 years old

Arie

almost 2 years old

Webb Family Reunion

Nate's parents recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  As a surprise, the kids put together a family reunion for them.  We rented the Haigler Creek Lodge, which is a house big enough for all of us to stay in together.  We drove to Haigler Creek on Thursday.  It was a four hour drive that turned into over a five hour drive because we couldn't find the place.  We weren't given directions and the address doesn't exist to google maps.  I don't think the town is a "real" town and it's located on a mountain.  It's close to Payson, AZ mile-wise, but it takes about an hour to drive there from Payson because a lot of it is on a windy, narrow, mountainous dirt road. 

But, we all eventually arrived.  Mom and Dad Webb and all of their children were there, except Tyler and his wife Aurelie.  (They live in Switzerland, so they had a pretty good excuse.)

At the back of the property is a creek.  The kids had fun playing in it for a while on Friday.  This is Natalie and Stevie.

Arie had fun walking along the creek.  She didn't really like how cold the water was.  I am in my running clothes because I went for a run that morning.  It was nice to run in the cooler weather, but I didn't think about how not nice it would be to run on the road there.  I was always either running up or down hills.  I don't ever run hills.  My legs were mad at me for the rest of the day.

There was also this fun little train for the kids.  Uncle Steve was nice enough to take the kids around on it several times.  From front to back is Kelton, Paisley, Damon, Stevie, and Qinsey.

One afternoon some of us shot some basketballs around and then played a little volleyball.  Delsy (Nate's niece) took this picture of her daughter Emma with Arie.  (Arie is on the right.)  They are about six months apart in age.  They don't look a lot alike, but their size and curly hair made us do a few double takes over the weekend. 

Here's what we really did all weekend.  We ate.  Then we talked for a while.  Then ate again!  I think it's safe to say that we are all a little sick of food.  But it was all very yummy.  We just had tons of food!  Here is Nate loading up his plate along with Steve and Lynnette.

Kids eating outside.  Starting with Kelton and going around clockwise:  Kelton, Kirstie, Natalie, Qinsey, Stevie, Owen, and Paisley.

Here is some of the family all ready for the talent show.

Natalie and I represented our family by playing a half learned piano duet.  We didn't know there was going to be a piano there so we didn't practice enough to learn the whole song.

At the end, Mom and Dad Webb accompanied a sing-a-long.  I thought this picture was really cute.

We left to come home around 11:00 this morning.  It was a fun weekend, but we are all very tired from the late nights.  And kind of a sad end note, Laura got sick with a stomach bug on Friday.  By this morning, at least 5 other people had caught it, including Nate and Natalie.  Poor Natalie threw up a lot of the way home in the car.  I very much hope we have it contained!

33

Nate turned 33 on August 30th.  It was a Saturday, which meant that no one had to go to school or work.  In the morning we sang Happy Birthday and Nate opened his presents.  Each of the kids used their own money to buy a present:  Natalie bought Milk Duds, Kelton bought a bag of caramels, and Damon bought Junior Mints.  I got him new sunglasses, Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U, and a magnetic iPad pen (to replace the one he already had that was misplaced somewhere in our house by Arie).

My visiting teacher was nice enough to offer to come watch our kids for us so that I could take Nate golfing after lunch.  We went to a course here in town and had a lot of fun.  I hadn't been golfing in at least five years and had only been a couple of times in the five years before that.  I was worried I wouldn't really be able to do it anymore, but I surprised myself by being able to pick up about where I left off.  Not that that's saying much... but I was at least able to hit the ball and did well enough to get a bogey on a couple of holes.

That evening we went into Tucson to have dinner at Chili's.  I had a genius plan.  Instead of paying $15-$20 on kids meals that the kids never even eat, I bribed them with ice cream.  They agreed to let me make macaroni and cheese at home (which is one of the things on the menu at Chili's that at least one kids always wants to order) and then we would take them to McDonalds after we ate to get ice cream.  They were very excited about the deal.  But by the time we got to Chili's, they were all begging for food and chocolate milk.  We ended up buying two kids meals for them to share.  Then, they still wanted the ice cream we told them they could have!  No amount of explaining could get them to understand that the deal was either food from Chili's OR ice cream.  But the kids lucked out.  Because it was Nate's birthday, he got a free scoop of ice cream which he let the kids share.

I honor of turning 33, I will list three (because I can't think of 33!) random birthday facts about Nate:

1) He has always insisted on the birthday tradition where we wake the birthday person by singing "Happy Birthday" and then the birthday presents are opened in bed.  Since we've been married, this has been done for every single birthday whether it's ours or the kids.  And yes, sometimes the birthday person is actually awake, but they have to wait for the family to "wake" them.

2)  Nate never has a birthday cake.  His birthday treat of choice is a banana cream pie.

3)  Every year we celebrate by going out to eat dinner at a restaurant with the whole family.  This is per Nate's request; he wants the kids with us.

Out with the old, in with the new

Here is a picture of Kelton's cast with his matching shoes on.  Kelton was reading to me as I was cooking dinner.

I took Kelton back to the doctor on Wednesday for a follow up.  They started by taking off his cast.

And then they took new x-rays.  Everything looks really good.  You can see in both pictures where the break in both bones is.  But everything is lined up like it should be.

Dr. Nielson (not in any of these pictures) debated back and forth on whether to put the long arm cast back on, or do a short arm one.  He couldn't decide, so he let me choose.  He said the shorter cast would probably be fine, but you are taking a slight chance that the bones could move.  With the long arm cast, Kelton wouldn't need to be careful; he could run and play and go out to recess without any worries.  So I chose the long cast.  And the techs talked me out of the waterproof cast, telling me that the padding they put on underneath is itchier, and causes a lot of kids to break out into a rash and the cast still needs to be dried with a blow dryer after it gets wet. 

Here they are, putting on the new cast.  It is so much smaller than before because the first cast was put on over the top of the plaster splint the ER put on.  It's nice that it's smaller now because Kelton only had certain uniform shirts with sleeves wide enough to go over the cast. 

And now Kelton has a green cast.  I must admit, I liked the yellow cast better.  But green it is for the next three weeks, until we go back and hopefully the cast comes off for good!

A Really Broken Arm

On the 15th, the kids and I drove to Snowflake to surprise my mom for her birthday.  We had only been there for about an hour when we heard some serious crying coming from the basement.  I was sure it must be Christian because none of my kids sounded like that.  Well, it was Kelton, and I didn't recognize the cry because he had never been hurt this badly.  We don't know exactly what happened because the only witnesses are four and five years old and it's unclear whether or not they were even in the room.  But, Kelton fell, or flipped, or something, off of the top bunk bed.  At first we thought he jumped off, but he says he didn't.  There is no guardrail, and I'm sure he was playing around and went off somehow.  And, unlike Jade, who broke her arm on Grandma's trampoline just a few weeks prior during the 24th celebration (compliments of Natalie who was trying to help her jump higher), we knew right away that Kelton's arm was broken because it looked like this:

Nate wasn't with us, so Rob, who is a nurse, came with us to hold Kelton's arm while we drove to Show Low to the Emergency Room.  We got in fairly quickly, but all kinds of crazy traumas came into the ER that night; head lacerations, car accidents, two helicopters came in... I was glad we were only there with a broken arm.  We were there from just after 7:00 p.m. until about 12:30 a.m.  Part of the holdup was that we were waiting for the anesthesiologist, who was supposed to be in shortly to do a nerve block (around 8:30 or 9:00?) so the arm could be set, but he got caught up with one of the other traumas in surgery and wouldn't be available until after midnight.  So, they ended up doing conscious sedation to set his arm and had to give him four doses of the medication to get it done.  I asked if that was a lot and they said that it was, especially for someone his size.  The ER doctor who did the reduction (putting the arm back in place) had a background in orthopedics and it appears that he did a good job.

X-ray showing the break.  Kelton told us his arm looked like a duck.

While we were waiting, a nurse or tech brought in this little game for Kelton to play.  It kept him occupied for a long time.  The game had a button you push that sends up air bubbles that shoot up little rings that you try to stack on a post.  Sometimes the rings would get stuck.  Kelton, only having one functional hand, would hit the game on his forehead to try to get the rings unstuck. He would be playing, just like in the picture below, and then out of nowhere... Smack!  Right to the head.  It was so funny.

Between it and the morphine, we were actually getting some smiles while we were waiting for the reduction to take place.  Oh, random side note--Kelton is left handed and was lucky enough to break his right arm.

Back at Grandma and Grandpa's the next day with a splint and sling.

The following Tuesday, I took Kelton to a pediatric orthopedic doctor in Tucson.  They said the x-rays from the hospital that were taken after the reduction looked good, and then put a cast over the existing splint.  Kelton told me he was thinking about choosing blue or green for his cast.  But, when they asked him what color he wanted, he replied with, "yellow!"  And yellow it is.  It's more like hello-electric-you-couldn't-lose-me-at-Disneyland-yellow.  I need to get a picture of it when he has his shoes on because it matches the laces and soles of his gray shoes.

Kelton cracks me up.  He thinks that if we are taking a picture of his arm, he must look sad and pathetic.  On day one or two, sure.  But he wasn't even on any pain meds when I took this picture a week after he broke his arm. 

So Dad came over and pulled out the "DON'T smile" trick.  I love this face:

Seriously, DON'T smile...

Haha, Dad wins!

Really, Kelton is doing great, just like the smiling picture.  My biggest problem is that he is still the little monkey who fell off a bunk bed.  I can't convince him to be careful and not try to balance on spinning chairs or walk along the side bars of the trampoline (because he isn't allowed to actually jump), or run up the slides at the park, etc,. etc,. etc....  We need for this reduction to stay in place!  I keep trying to convince him that he really doesn't want to have to have the doctor re-do it.  We go back on Wednesday to take another x-ray and hopefully get a shorter, waterproof, cast that will only be on for about 3-4 more weeks.  So that this poor little boy can finally play soccer with his team.  Because, of course, soccer season started just days after he broke his arm.