They had her in stitches!!

We have had our first major injury of the summer last Wednesday (6/9/10). Hopefully our last, but realistically - I have four kids!!

The kids were at my mom's house playing with the pool table. Quinten rolled a ball a bit too hard and it flew off the other side hitting poor miss Maveri right above the eye (conviently in the exact same spot she split it open on the counter last year!).



Mom called me at work "I think Maveri needs stitches." Lovely. So, she met me at WeeCare. They got us right in, cleaned it out and put on some topical numbing ointment. The brave baby girl didn't flinch the entire time!!



Then came time to stitch it up. Big brothers didn't want to watch so they went out to the lobby to watch T.V. Maveri did GREAT, FANTASTIC, WONDERFUL! She was SO BRAVE and literally laughed and talked the entire time they were putting in the three stitches.





The nurse told her she could have "one sucker for every stitch" but when they got done she doubled it because she was SO GOOD!! This is her after we got back to my work - after three suckers, kinda sugar high! They gave her six, but she was nice enough to share with her big brothers!!



Of all the kids, Maveri is probably the most laid back and calmest...thus the "best" one for this to happen to. Not that I want it to happen at all, but she is the easiest to deal with when it does!!

Aunt Sally removed the stitches for her on Sunday night. That was a bit more traumatizing than putting them in, but Maves was a trooper! Now we just gotta get some Vitamin E oil to help reduce scarring!

What a start to summer vacation, huh?

Student of the month!!

Blaine came home from Karate last night with a plaque presented to him in class for being STUDENT OF THE MONTH in April! We didn't know about it at all until last night, but Way To Go Blaine! He got a plaque to hang in his room, and gets his name on the big SOTM thing at the Dojo! WooHoo! He's rockin' the Karate thing (as is Quinten!). So proud of him!

Emma Riley!!

Well, we did it - we got ourselves another dog. It's probably been a while since I've updated our "pet status", but we were down to just one pet, Oreo (the teacup shih-tzu). We gave away Sushi when she attacked and killed our beloved bird Scooter. We got another bird, Tinkerbell, who lived for about five months and then we found her inexplainably dead in her cage. We sold the guinea pigs (that were a HUGE mistake to begin with), and none of our fish lasted more than a couple weeks! So, we had been down to just Oreo for a few months. Oreo is not a great "kid pet". In fact, she hates and is terrified of the kids! Not so much fun for them! I've always said I would never have a big dog in my house, but after a while I started singing a different song. I decided I loved Labs and that's what I wanted. We waited until after our trip, and the hunt was on. I did not want a puppy - didn't want to train it and deal with all the "puppy" things that drove me nuts with Sushi. So, I scoured KSL classifieds for an older, house trained, kid friendly lab of some kind. That is where we found Emma. She is an almost 5 year old chocolate lab. The thing that made me fall in love with her was the picture they posted on KSL of their 3 y/o daughter just lovingly climbing/playing all over Emma, and Emma just sitting there enjoying it!



The family she came from had her since she was a puppy, but they were going Active Duty in the military and couldn't take her with them. We met at a park in SLC to "check her out" and home she came with us. She has been a near dream dog ever since. She LOVES the kids and they absolutely LOVE her back. They play and play until they're all tuckered out, then she'll sit on the couch and watch TV with them for an hour! She's 100% house trianed. She is EXTREMELY patient and good natured. She is a great running partner for me when I get around to going at night (and is good motivation to actually GET me going). She has dug out of our yard once or twice, which means she now has to be chained or put in the garage during the days I'm at work - which makes me sad, but it's life. She is so snuggley, loving and just overall a GREAT addition to our family. I am so glad we found her, and that she is such a good natured, fun dog to have around!

Howdy Y'all!!

We had an AMAZING family vacation (ROAD TRIP) to Texas this year! Our kids are such GREAT travelers! On Thursday April 1st we loaded up my parents suburban and off we went. We left about 5:30pm with the hopes of making it at least to Denver. We got stuck in a horrific snow/wind storm going from about Evanston to Cheyenne....it was insanely scary, but we made it thru and got to Denver safely.

The next day (Friday) we drove to just outside of Dennison, TX. Pretty boring stuff - the kids watched a lot of movies!!

Saturday morning we got up and went to breakfast with Matt's Grandmother & Paw Paw Dean. It was this tiny little place that Paw Paw eats breakfast at every morning! Good ole southern cooking!! Then we drove out to their house to see where they live and spend a little more time with them. That afternoon we drove to Six Flags over Texas in Dallas where we spent the rest of the day! We didn't go on any of the big roller coasters because the line was too long and none of our kids were big enough! But, we had a lot of fun there anyway!

Sunday was Easter. That morning when the kids woke up they discovered that the pesky Easter Bunny decided that since we had forgotten our baskets he would hide all of their Easter Treats. Some were in drawers, the fridge, the microwave and some in the bathtub. Silly Easter Bunny!

We drove from Dallas to Austin-area that morning. We spent Easter at Matt's Aunt Kathy's house, and with his dad's side of the family. That is something he hasn't done in a VERY long time. It was really great to see everyone again. They had tons of treats for the kids and let them participate in their annual easter egg hunt! They were climbing trees, playing with the hose, and generally having a great time! We then spent that night at Donna's house. She was so amazingly kind to let us take over her house like that! Especially since when walked in we had four very muddy kids who stripped down and went straight to the tub, and then proceeded to pull down her shower curtain rod! She was probably ready for us to leave right then!!

Monday was spent at the park with Donna, her daughter Heather and Heather's two awesome boys Dayne & Major. They are just around Blaine's age, and they all had so much fun playing for hours and eating pizza.

That evening we went out with Donna's son Bennie & his wife Anne. We went to Congress Bridge in Austin (where Matt's cousin Heather met us there too) and watched the bats. I guess that all the bats live in the bridge, and every night around dusk they come swarming out! Hundreds of thousands of them!! Funniest moment of the trip was when Maveri wanted Matt to take her down by the river and he said "no, you're two, you're too little" and she argued "no, I'm three" so he said "if you can tell me when you're birthday is, I'll take you" she then proceeded to look at him like he was dumb and say "july...july twelf daddy...let's go!" And off they went! We all got (and still get) a good laugh out of that one! Little smarty pants!!

Tuesday morning we got up and drove down to San Antonio. We spent the day at the Alamo, Ripleys Believe it or Not museum and the Riverwalk. We took a boat tour of the Riverwalk and ate Tex-Mex. Fun fun day. Only problem was that the Women's NCAA basketball championships were going on there, so hotel rooms were few and far between so we thought "let's just drive a half-hour down the road and see what we find". Turns out - NOTHING. So we ended up driving all the way to Corpus Christi that night.

The first day in Corpus was a bit windy, cold and rainy so we went to go see the U.S.S. Lexington. It is a retired Naval aircraft carrier ship that you can go on. It's all self guided tours and it's GINORMOUS! It took us about 4 hours to see the whole thing. We then got lunch on the boat and thought it would be so cool to go eat it out on the deck...that is until we were swarmed by seagulls and one of them took off with my sandwhich!! So, we ate inside, and it was still cool!

After the Lexington we went to the Texas State Aquarium, which is always fun because I love aquatic animals!! We ended that day with a yummy meal at Landrys! Gotta love fresh Seafood.

Thursday was BEACH DAY! We hit a beach store before hand where Matt got a really cool new swimsuit, the kids got some beach toys, I got a swim shirt...and we were set. It was REALLY windy, which made for cold when you got out of the water, but as long as you stayed in it was great! The kids loved finding seashells too! After that we grabbed lunch and drove back to San Antonio. That night we took the kids to see "How To Train Your Dragon" in 3D. GREAT MOVIE... the kids all loved it, and so did the parents.

Friday was SEA WORLD, which turned out to probably be the kids favorite part of the whole trip. We fed the dolphins, saw Shamu and a few other shows - of which I think the Sea Lions one was the favorite! Can't go wrong with Sea World. LOVE IT.

From there we drove to Round Top, TX to go to Royers and eat gourment food while hangin out with J.B. That, my friends, was the highlight of the trip for me (and I think Matt too). I cannot say it enough BEST.FOOD.EVER!!!!!! Love it there. Love the food, love the atmosphere, love the people...LOOOOOOOOVE IT.

After Royers it was back to Austin to spend one more night at Donna's before heading home the next two days.

The drive home was long and uneventful, which I'm glad for.

Such a great trip - memories were made, fun was had! Pictures will come when I get a chance to upload and organize them!!

Way to go BLAINE!!

Just a little brag on my first born. Blaine had his Blue Belt Exam in Karate this past Saturday. Test day is a big (and usually LONG) deal! He started with a 1.5 mile run, which daddy told me he was "the fastest of all the kids out there". He must've gotten his dad's running ability because it sure didn't come from me!! Then onto 35 push-ups and sit-ups. After that is nothing but Karate for the next four hours. They do all the strikes, blocks & kicks we've learned up to this point. Then Blaine had to break three boards with open hand strikes. He choose ridge hand, palm heel, and chop strike. He did awesome, he loves breaking and is very good at it. Next comes defenses. A defense is a series of 4-5 steps that are used against a pre-determined attack (left, right punch, for example). I can't remember exactly how many defenses there are, but off the top of my head I would say 12-15. After defenses is Forms. Forms are a bit more advanced and usually have 20 or so steps. It's a lot like a Martial Arts dance, so to speak. For Blue Belt there are 9 Forms that need to be performed. One-Steps, which is one person attacking (usually with just a right punch) and the other defending in a few steps, is next. And last comes Kumite, or sparring. The person testing is put up against first one, then two, then three (and sometimes more) people at a time. This is to test not only skill, but also control - especially when worn down. It is exhausting, to say the least.

When Sensei Burke was handing out the belts he called Blaine up and told him "one word, AWESOME. You were the best person out here testing, and you even beat your grandma." Blaine was beaming, as were Matt, me, Nana and Mamaw!

It was a great moment, and Blainer boy, we are very very proud of you! Great job, buddy!

Okay, so it's been a while...

October? Really? That was the last time I updated this thing? Oops. Well, here we are, mid-MARCH and I'm back.

A lot of fun has happened since my last blog-venture. Corlin turned FOUR in November. Love that little red headed dude. Blaine turned eight in December, and made the choice to be baptized on Feb. 6 into the LDS church. He was baptized by his uncle Bryce and confirmed by his uncle Christopher. Maveri is still "almost" potty trained - I would give her about a 90% right now. She's doing good. Quinten's loving Kinder. and loving learning how to read. Matt has gotten a big promotion at work and is climbing that corporate ladder like a mad man. I'm really proud of him. I had a little surgery on my toe in November, bunion removed. It sucks, but it was worth it!

Karate is going well for the family. Matt and I have both earned our Blue Belts. Blaine is testing for his Blue Belt on March 27th and Quinten is not too far behind, maybe next month. We competed in a tournament in February. Matt, Blaine & Quinten all took 1st place in Kumite (sparring) for thier age/rank divisions. Matt also got 2nd in Forms. Me - well, I tried, and that's all I'm going to say about that!! LOL.

Christmas was fun, everyone got spoiled. Matt and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on Jan. 4th. We left the kids with Nana & Bompa and went down to St. George for a few days. It was a great get-away. We went exploring, spent a day in Vegas, SLEPT IN, and overall just had fun. Can't wait to do it again!

We have a vacation coming up soon! We are taking a road trip to Texas April 1-11th. Everyone is so excited...14 days and counting!

And that is our life in a nut-shell!
Thanks for stopping by!