Happy Father's Day!

 

I wanted to honor the Fathers that touch my life, so I thought I would start out with the great guy I married who is the father of my children.
 

He is a GREAT DAD who takes the time to share some of his favorite hobbies, like hunting and fishing, with our boys. He loves the outdoors and would rather be outside doing something than stuck in the house.
 
He is not afraid to show his domestic side! He helps Tucker with his Easy Bake oven or even helps out making dinner when I am in a bind. His forte is the anything cooked on the grill and breakfast. He makes the best blue/colored pancakes, which the kids request when he is in charge. He also takes turns giving the kids piggy back rides up to their beds after family prayers. There is always a lively discussion of who's turn it is. Over all he is a great Dad & Hubby!
 

The other Dad's in my life I don't really have any pictures of them by themselves, as I am a little challenged in the scanning area. However, they are just as important in our lives. First my Dad. He is the ultimate optimist in what ever is happening in life. He is a dreamer, but helps us see the good in life. He is a great gardener & grandpa! I will have to post pictures of the fabulous things he has been able to do in my front flower beds! He is a great example & has a strong testimony of the Savior.

Jeff's Dad, Rey is also another Dad who has had a great influence in our lives. He is such a hard worker and is still cutting lawns for a little extra money even though he will be 80 next year! He always has tried to instill hard work into his kids and grand kids, and is just like a great big teddy bear.

Rounding out my life, I can not forgetting about mentioning my Father in Heaven for all that he has given me, and the daily blessing that I receive in my life. I feel that I have been blessed in so many ways, I can not even count them.

Happy Fathers Day!

Tucker is Seven!

 
I can hardly believe it has been seven years since little Tucker has come into our family! He was such a cute baby when he was born. Little did we know that a few days later he would be fighting for his life down at Primary Children's with four heart defects that previously went undetected.
 
We have been so blessed that his surgeries went well and that we are celebrating his 7th birthday with out any real medical problems at the moment, knock on wood. He is such a cute kid with a unique personality that adds lots of joy to our family. Our family wouldn't be the same with out him.
 
Tucker always is staying busy with art projects, making cards, coming up with new games, loves to tease, and is a great student. He is my best little guy to keep is room picked up, get his chores done first, and then is willing to do more, if he gets a reward of course.

 

Tucker we are so grateful Heavenly Father sent you to our family! Happy 7th Birthday!

Tucker's Tonsil's

 

Tucker has had a rough school year with staying well. He has had repeated strep throat. Every time we thought he was getting over it, strep showed its ugly face again. We have had to make sure we are on top of it with his heart condition, or it may cause bigger complications. So because he had strep four times since Christmas, the Ear Nose and Throat Specialist thought it was time for his tonsils and adenoids to come out. We scheduled it for the day after school got out, so that he would not have to miss any more school and recover before the summer activities got into full swing. He needed to have his surgery down at Primary Children's so that a cardiologist could be there in case any problems arose. They have a fun little prep class that they encourage kids to take before they have surgery to help them better understand what will be happening to them. Here is Tucker at his class with his hospital baby buddy.
 
About a week before his surgery, I kept hearing about different cases that had gone wrong with patients getting their tonsils out. I had to travel up to Idaho for a conference for Avon and I rode with a cute lady in our area. I didn't know her very well, but as we had a long drive, she opened up to me part of her life story of loosing her son a few years ago. He was 27 and went in to get his tonsils out and went into cardiac arrest, a coma, and died two weeks later. Here I was bawling my eyes out hearing all the details of what this poor family had to endure, when my own son with heart issues was having the same surgery a few days later. It weighed heavy on my heart that maybe I was being prepared for some complications with Tucker. I am sure being pregnant didn't not help my emotional dooms day thought process. All I could do was try to have hope that everything would turn out for the best. Tucker had a Priesthood blessing the night before, and I knew I would have to leave the rest up to Heavenly Father.

 

When we got to Primary's it was a whirl wind, as they had the surgery before us cancel. So they were ready for us the minute we checked in. It was such a blessing not to have to wait around and let the emotions take over. They whisked him off that I almost didn't get a picture of him riding in the wagon away to the operating room. He did great! He is holding a jar of the loose teeth they had to pull so that he wouldn't swallow them during surgery. So the tooth fairy left him bigger bucks than normal for loosing booth tonsils and teeth the same day.
 
They had told us to plan on having one parents spending the night with Tucker at the hospital, for observation to make sure his heart was ok from the anaesthesia, but he was able to go home that afternoon! We were excited as the chair/beds for parents are not to comfy. Jeff was going to take one for the team, as I knew there was no way I could stay there. We feel so lucky and blessed that the surgery went well. Grandma & Grandpas Gus had helped keep down the fort with our other kids. They had made a yummy dinner and recycled a Welcome Home sign for Tucker. It was a really neat for him. He had a scare over the weekend where his fever climbed to 103.5, but he is now on a full recovery of starting his summer with good health! We are very grateful with his outcome!

The Big One- My Birthday that is...

 
It is a funny thing when you hit a big birthday, you remember others hitting it, thinking... Wow, they are old! Then when you reach the same age, you think I am really not that old. It makes you reflect on your life and what you are grateful for! So as I count my blessings I am reminded of many things. I am grateful for my pregnant, fat, short body and that I am here on my earthly journey for another year. I am able to get around, as hard as it may be and grateful for the experience. If someone asked me, last year, what I wanted for my birthday, it would be one last baby. I have always felt like we were suppose to have five kids. So now that I am in the process of fulfilling that wish, I sometimes think....What was I thinking! It is a lot harder being this much older. My body is stuck in 2nd gear and not willing to go full force. However I hate to complain as it has taken so much to get to this stage. We are over the half way mark and on the down ward slide, so he will be here in a few more months!

 

I am also grateful for a great hubby! I think we make a pretty good team in life with all that we have got going on. I like the saying that Jon & Kate plus 8, say.... It may be a crazy life, but it is our life. That sums up our family also.
 

Of course next would be my cute boys! My life would be a little dull with out the blessings and challenges that they bring. I catch glimpses of greatness, in between all the arguing and fighting that boys dish out. I know this time will go fast, so I am trying to enjoy each moment. Sure do love ya boys!
 

This birthday stuff all started because of two great people. Nephi says... I have been born of goodly parents, and I feel the same way! I am lucky enough that in my adult age I get to share my everyday life with them, and appreciate them for who they are. I am sure they chuckle as they see me deal with my kids back talking and challenges on a daily basis. So I can now say sorry Mom & Dad, I can't remember if I ever did that much sassing to you! Maybe it is payback for how I acted. You are great parents & grandparents and we love having you in our lives! So that is it...another birthday come and gone, but it helps me keep things in the big picture.

School Awards

 
I wanted to document the kids little awards that they got at the end of the year from school, because who knows when they will get scrapbooked. In our area they have a special "Breakfast of Champions" for the older students who were on the Citizenship & Honor roll. Tanner qualified again this year, so it was Jeff's turn to experience the event, as I got to go last year. They have an early morning breakfast, two speakers to encourage the kids to keep achieving their goals and then they hand out all the awards. Tanner was also lucky to receive the Presidential Academic Award for excellence. I was glad he was able to make it this year, as the school/district has a new grading system that is wacko! The whole community is outraged as it does not encourage students, but is very subjective depending on the teacher. However that is a soapbox post for another time. We are just happy that he was able to do well.
 

Tate received special awards for science and astronomy. I think Santa brought him a astronomy book a few years ago, so he has taken a little interest in that topic & shared it at school, hence the award.
 
Tucker did well and also brought home several awards. A little side note. Did you notice the change of decor on the fireplace? Yes, the Christmas/Winter stuff finally came down at the first of May, and all the patriotic decor came out. Jeff jokes that we can now leave that stuff up until November and put Christmas back up, then we would only have two changes per year instead of all the different holiday deco we have stored away.
 
Preschool is more about the experience so Tommy wanted to show the treasures that he had made through the year, that his teacher turned into a book. It was darling.

We are glad to get through another year, and hope for the best in the fall.

An Employement Milestone

 
I have mentioned before how lucky we feel in today's economy that we have employment for our family. Jeff has worked all different shifts over the years, and the last few, finally is able to work straight day shift. Recently Jeff was honored at a work luncheon for putting in 20 years at his work place! They gave him a little award and $200.00 bonus, $10.00 per year he has been there. He always jokes that he takes sh--/crap from everyone, as he works at a waste water plant, but was excited that the plant showed some recognition for all his years of service. We are very proud of him, and how hard he works for our family! Good Job hon!

 

End of Year School Programs

 
The end of the school year, the schools like to display all that the kids have learned the past year, so May was packed with programs! Tanner had a choir concert, where he got to play the a part on the Xylophone.
 
Tate made great strides on playing the recorder and we were all impressed that the kids played all in unison!
 
Tucker had his own musical production of fun songs, but the pictures turned out a little fuzzy.
 
Tanner is on the back row, right side of this choir picture, you can just tell he loves this class. (NOT) I am glad he had a little brush with the arts since his life is so full of sports. So all the programs came to an end, and we are now relaxing enjoying a start to a lazy summer.

Tommy's Birthday Activities

 
I have a ton of pictures to post on the blog on what we have been up to. So I thought I would try and go in some type of chronological order. Tommy's birthday activities happened the weekend after his birthday, so I thought I would start there. The celebration continued through the week.
 
We had the traditional cake and ice cream, however I forgot to buy candles, hence the #1 candle , representing he was #1 that day, along with being 5 years old.
 
We let the kids choose if they want to have a friend party or a family party each year. We use to trade off every other year in our old neighborhood, however now that we live in the boonies it is a little harder to have friends come out. So we let them choose, to have a friend party/activity or a family activity and dinner. Tommy chose to see the new Night at the Museum movie, and dinner as a family. It was a cute movie, but I liked the first one better.
 

After the movie we hit the new McDonald's in the area where the kids got to play on the new equipment(Not impressed with that either, as it is now more a NY cafe look & feel). Then headed off to Wal-Mart for him to spend his wad of birthday money on what ever his little heart desired. I have to compliment him for sharing as he used all of his money to buy four Star Wars light sabers. He wanted to play Star Wars with all of his brothers, and didn't want to leave anyone out. I was shocked, and reminded the other kids, when they got their birthday money they needed to remember him!