Wednesday, June 23, 2010

I'm a back...

One of Jaxon's Easter presents this year was Super Mario Brothers for the Wii.  It has taken him a while to like it, he would get frustrated and stop playing, but now that he has improved, he is obsessed with playing it. He would play it all day if we would let him.  His cousin, Caden, also loves Mario so they have been getting together to play.  I love how their whole body moves with the controller.


It cracks me up to hear the things they say while they are playing.  Here's some of the things I heard while I was cleaning:

"Pop me"

"Cool-We both have different powers"

"Dang it"

"You got fire power--Perfecto"

"I wouldn't do that if I was you"

"See, it's his eyeball"

"Ow, ow, ow"

"Watch and learn, my friend"

"They can't kill me"

"See you later star friend"

All of these are intermingled with lots of laughter.  I made them go outside for a while to burn off some energy, but Mario didn't end.  Instead, they became the game with one of them acting as Mario and one as Luigi.  Their imaginations amaze me and make me wish just a little that I could be a kid again!  

Youth Conference

Last week was our ward youth conference at Bear Lake.  We have spent the last month planning for it and it was nice to get up there and see it all come together.  The theme was survivor so we split them into two tribes and gave them bandanas and shirts (courtesy of Jeff).

I rode up on Thursday with one of the other leaders.  Everyone else had gone up on Wednesday. When we got to Bear Lake, it was freezing.  I had been watching the weather and knew it was going to be a cold week so I had plenty of warm clothes.  I have to admit that it worked out nice missing the first night considering they got rained on and were freezing cold.  The YW were in charge of Thursday so we had the youth play Survivor games on the beach.  They turned out really well.  I forgot how competitive the youth can be.  We had a sand castle building contest, a couple of relays, a human pyramid contest, and my favorite--the eating competition.


 The kids had to race the person on the other team to eat whatever was on the plate in front of them first.  Some of the items were a glob of mayo, boiled eggs, tuna fish, jalapeno peppers, pickles, and cans of pop.  I was surprised they ate everything--I was gagging just watching them.

We gave them some free time at the beach and then headed back to camp. We made taco salad for dinner.  That night, we were in charge of a fireside.  We did a hold to the rod theme and had them walk blindfolded while holding on to a rope.  The bishop gave a devotional after. I thought it turned out well minus the two kids who fell in the fire pit--there was no fire, but there were sharp rocks.

Friday and Saturday the YM were in charge.  We went to Minnetonka Caves on Friday and then spent the rest of the day at the lake.  We had temperatures around 75.  It was a perfect day for boating and warming up.  The girls talked me and Natalie (YW pres) into going on the 5 person water weenie.  Bad idea--we kept trying to tell the drivers to cut it and that we were done, but apparently they thought that meant we wanted to die(that's what they claimed).  We all ended up in the freezing water.  I don't remember ever being that cold--I couldn't breath for what felt like forever.  It was SO stinking cold.
Here is Nad-Brad at the beach (the girls gave us nicknames-mine was A-train):

We got shakes and had yummy dutch oven cooking on Friday night.  Everyone got fried that day and one of our girls got really dehydrated.  We thought we were going to have to take her to the ER, but after drinking a ton and getting a priesthood blessing, she improved enough.  It was a crazy night, but the youth wanted to do a testimony meeting anyway.  It was awesome and so spiritual.  Our ward is lucky to have such amazing youth--they are so strong and I have learned so much from them.   It was fun being on a sort of mini vacation.  I had so much fun getting to know the girls better.  We played games, talked, and did hair trains.  One of the girls told me I looked like death when we were up till 1 am.  Guess that's what happens when you're a mom and not used to staying up so late every night.

Remember the days in high school when you had to go the restroom in a group-well we did that too. We smelled like campfire by the end and it was so nice to shower once we were home.  I thought it was a perfect mix of fun and spiritualness and I hope it is something the youth will always remember.

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Disappearing Bean....

On Friday night, I was on the phone talking to a friend.  When I got off the phone, I went to check on Claire--she had moved a chair over to the counter and was playing with some red beans that I keep in a jar for decoration.  The first thing she says to me is "bean up my nose".  Sure enough, I look up her nose and I can see the bean.  I tried to have her blow her nose, but it wouldn't come out.  I checked again and it was a lot higher.  It was about 8:45 p.m. so we hurried into KidsCare since they close at 10.    I thought it would be a fairly quick procedure and had no idea at this point how long of a night it was going to be. We had to wait for half an hour with some really sick kids.  I was wishing there was a separate place we could be since that's all I wanted was to get sick kids.  We eventually got in to the office and waited at least another half hour--the kids were both so tired and ornery.  The doctor came in, looked up her nose and couldn't see it.  We tried a couple of other things, but still couldn't find it.  There was only so much they could do so he recommended we go to Primary Children's to make sure they got it out--it was especially bad since it was something organic.

I dropped Jaxon off at my brother's house at 11:00 and drove to Primary's.  At least we pick good nights--my sister is an ER nurse at Primary's and happened to be working.  We've been to Primary's twice--once for this and once for Jaxon's concussion-both times my sister has been working.  I called her and let her know we were on our way.  Luckily there was no wait since the Friday before it was a 2-3 hour wait.  It was pretty much the same story-they couldn't find the bean.  Poor Claire--we had to keep waking her up to stick something else up her nose.  They decided to do a procedure to try and get it out.   They stuck a catheter up her nose, blew up a little balloon, and pulled it out. They had to hold her down the whole time and Claire was saying, "Amy, Amy, no, no, hold me." ( I assured the nurses and doctors the she was my child even though she doesn't call me mom).   It's so hard to watch your child being held down and crying for you.  Unfortunately nothing came out.  It was about 1 a.m. and Claire and I were both exhausted.  The doctors told us to watch carefully for a fever, a strong smell, or swelling in case it's still up there.  It also could've fallen out or she could have swallowed it.  We left the hospital at about 1:30.  She keeps telling everyone how she put a bean up her nose and how the doctor got it out.  She loved having "Mashelle" as her nurse which I'm glad she didn't seem too upset over everything she went through. She told me the next morning, "I put 1, 2, 3, 5 beans up my nose."  Needless to say, there are no longer red beans on my counter.  We have no clue what happened to it, but I'm hoping she will not try it again.

To top off the weekend, Jaxon bumped his mouth and has a chipped tooth.  He keeps telling me that he can't touch his top and bottom teeth together anymore. I'll be taking him to the dentist this week.  I came down with something on Saturday, probably from the Kids Care.  We still managed to have some fun.  We had a luncheon at my Grandma's and Grandpa's house, Jaxon played in his last soccer game and got a trophy that he LOVES and I took the day off on Sunday and got some much needed rest and am feeling much better.  At least we had one healthy person in our family-thanks hon for taking good care of us.  I think we have all recovered from the weekend.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Memorial Day!

I have always loved having a summer birthday and having it near Memorial Day.  It seems like there are always lots of fun things going on and lots of people to celebrate with.  This year my birthday was on Memorial Day and we headed to St. George for the weekend.  We were glad Jeff's mom was able to come with us.

Jeff and I went to more movies during that weekend than I have probably been to this whole year.  Here is my list starting with my favorite and on down:

-----Date Night
-----Shrek 3
-----Iron Man 2
-----Robin Hood
-----Prince of Persia

We swam everyday and got some much needed color.  We also spent time relaxing at the house, reading, and enjoying the outdoors.


We added some new traditions.....Pirate Island Pizza and Grandma Tobler's Bakery (they both get three yum's from me).



The one thing I wanted to do for my birthday was to shop at H &M.  In my opinion, it's THE best store and I had birthday money to spend.  We made the trek to Vegas, ate at a buffet, and I shopped as long as I could.  It was a long day, especially for the kids, but they were troopers and it was worth the trip down there.  I found some great deals and am loving my new buys.


On my birthday, we swam and went to lunch and Target (my second favorite store, but my b-day money was gone by that point).  Jeff and I went on a date---we ate at a Mexican restaurant and went to the movie Date Night which kept me laughing.


When we got back from our date, the kids had decorated the house and were so excited to surprise me. Kids sure make birthdays fun!  We had birthday cake to finish off the night.



I feel so grateful for the life that I have.  I have the best husband and kids, we both have amazing families, and I have great friends. I'm looking forward to another exciting year--I want to enjoy my last year of twenties!!  

Saturday, June 5, 2010

End of Preschool...

Jaxon finished up his first year of preschool a few weeks ago.  I have been so impressed with the preschool and his teachers.  He learned a lot and made some great friends.  The first thing they would do every day when they went into their classroom was a drawing of whatever they wanted.  His teachers would write down what each picture was.  On his last day, we got the book with all his drawings, and I had so much fun looking back at his artwork throughout the year.  Some of my favorite things he said to describe his pictures were:  "It's a lobby, it's what you put buildings on", "It's our neighbors body" ( I couldn't tell from the drawing who it was, but it cracked me up) and "This is a not to do naughty stuff sign".

Jaxon looking so grown up in his school picture-I love how dark his eyes are!

He told me his favorite things from the year were when the fire engine came to visit his preschool and when they got to go on miniature horse rides.


For their graduation, they had a party at Classic Skating.  I don't think I've been there since high school--they still do the snowball and play the same music.  Not that I'm complaining, I love 80's music.  Jeff was at work so it was just me and the kids.  We attempted roller skating but it was harder than I thought trying to keep the kids and myself upright.  We had fun trying anyway. The kids spent most of their time jumping in the bounce houses and playing in the Jungle playland.


Jaxon with one of his teachers Ms. Cameon.  He is sure going to miss his teachers and all his friends, but he gets to go back for another year and is already asking me how long until preschool starts again.