No one else get sick! Please!

It seems like the holidays have brought sickness over the past several years.

This year our dear friend Peggy Wilkinson passed away on Dec. 23. She was 80 years old and is now in a much better place, but it is a hard time of year to lose a loved one. We wish her family much peace and comfort.

Jacob got a cold and on Christmas Eve his breathing was so raspy and labored that we took him to the doctor. It sounded just like when he had pneumonia last year and was in the hospital. He then ended up on oxygen at home for two or three weeks. The doctor said that it was just croop, but he told us to watch carefully because it could easily end up as pneumonia again. Luckily he didn't get too bad. He now just has a runny nose still, but we are grateful that it didn't get any worse.

My brother Scott, has not been feeling well for the past several months. He has been to the doctor several times trying to figure out what was wrong, especially because he got a kidney transplant about eight years ago. We were concerned that there might be a problem with his kidney. He went to the hospital Christmas evening. It took two days to figure it out, but they diagnosed him with Colitis. This is an inflamation of the colon. He is being treated with medication and should be able to fully recover. His kidney is functioning well and is fine. Yea! He has been in the hospital for a few days, but should be coming home soon!

Our close friends, 7 years old daughter has been having stomach pains for a couple of months. She has been to the doctor several times. They never came up with any reason why she was in so much pain and kind of blew it off. Finally on Christmas day, as well, they took her to the emergency room. After a seven hour wait, they finally looked at her and her heart rate was so high they put a pick line into her heart to try to stabilize her heart rate. They also drained 2 quarts of puss from her stomach. They decided to fly her to Primary Children's Hospital, but the weather was too bad, so they took her by ambulance. Dr. Rebecca Meyer's (the doctor that performed Jacob's surgery) performed an exploratory surgery to try to determine what is wrong. They weren't able to detect the cause, but all of her digestive organs and stomach were filled with infections and inflammation. There was so much inflammation that they couldn't close her up the same day. She was in a sedated colma for two days so that they could let the inflammation and swelling go down enough to close her up. She is going to be up at PCMC for at least two weeks while they try to fight the infection. They still didn't detect what the cause of the infection was.


After talking to my Mom, we decided that we should just skip the holidays next year, because someone close to us always seems to have some pretty serious health problems. In the past we have also had similar experiences. So if you see us skipping Christmas next year you will know why. We don't want to try to jinx anyone else.

So, everyone stay healthy! Be grateful for your health. I will be glad that I only have a little cold. I can deal with that.

We are thinking and praying for you Scott and Brylee. Get well soon!

We had a "Wicked" Christmas!

We didn't put up many Christmas decorations this year because we have an active two year old boy. But he did surprisingly well leaving the tree and other decorations alone. I was afraid that he would destroy them, but he didn't!



We had a nice Christmas. Sammi and Joe were with us on Christmas Eve. We had dinner at Grandma Linda's and enjoyed a Christmas concert by all of the talented kids. We sang songs and played with the rhythm instruments as the big kids played the piano for us. The big kids went back to their Mom's for Christmas. On Christmas morning Jacob had fun opening his trucks, cars and trains. He is all boy! We then had the Baumgarten Brunch at our house. We had a ton of great food! We went over to my Mom's house and exchanged presents with my siblings and spend the evening playing with my little brother's new Guitar Hero World Tour. Mark had previously told me, "I will never sing on that thing." While I was upstairs I heard him singing. I was surprised, since he was never going to sing and all. But the next day he had nearly lost his voice from all of the singing he did. He found that he actually loved singing!

The next day we picked up the kids from their Mom's and they got to open their presents from us. Sammi loved her High School Musical MP3 player and Joe got the huge Vulcon Nerf Gun and some walkie talkies. But the big kids most exciting present was one that was wrapped about 8 times, thanks to Shelly. It was tickets to Wicked the Musical when it comes to Salt Lake in April. They are so excited! Sammi has been dying for us to take her to see Wicked for about three years or more. We are so excited to have gotten tickets, thanks once again to Shelly!



Sorry about the poor video taping. Jacob was trying to grab the camera, so he could see it. That is why he kept yelling, "me."

Merry Christmas to Mark & I.

We have wanted to replace the flooring in the kitchen for a long time now. We decided that for Christmas we would finally replace the floor. We were hoping that we could get it done in a day. We're crazy I know! We did run into a few problems that we had to deal with. We ended up needing to replace the sub floor. That was a bit frustrating because we scraped three layers of old linoleum off of the floor. If we had know we were going to tear up the sub floor we wouldn't have had to scrap off all the old stuff and we would have saved a lot of time. The end result though is beautiful and the floor was laid in two days. We layed a wood laminate on the entire kitchen floor. We use to have linoleum in the kitchen area and in the dining area we had carpet. Carpet under the table with a two year old is kind of a disaster, but it is there no more!

We couldn't have done this huge project alone. My family helped out! Shelly and Nathan were there the most, but David and Mark also helped out too. My Mom kept Jacob at her house the first day and then the second day she came and brought taco soup and played with Jacob here at our house. My Mom and Gerry helped fold laundry and feed us while we worked. We sure have a great family who always get roped into helping us with our crazy projects! We love you guys!



(I think this video is cute. Sorry, I haven't yet learned how to edit the video. I wanted to crop it at the beginning and end, and of course turn it the right way, but I don't know how to do that yet. So pretend that it is perfect.)

Jacob wanted to follow us around with "his" drill. He had a blast when we let him help put a screw in the sub floor.

Busy December!

We have had a busy month. A few of our highlights. Jacob got to meet Santa at our ward party. Mark, Sammi, Joe and I got to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert and see the lights at Temple square. We went to the Baumgarten's kids Christmas party and had fun making gingerbread houses and of course eating yummy food and treats. Mark and I had a fun Christmas party with some of our neighbors. What a great time of year!

Thanksgiving weekend brought much to be thankful for!

What a great Thanksgiving weekend we had! It started off with fabulous food at Doug and Jeanne's house. The next day we went up to Salt Lake City for the night. We first went to Primary Children's Medical center to carry on the family tradition of donating blankets and to show our appreciation to the NICU staff who took such great care of Jacob and us for his first two weeks of life. We then dropped Jake, Dad and Grandma Gerry off at the hotel for naps while we went off on adventures. We went to the Galavan Center, the State Capital Building and then we ended up finding the trail head for the Ensign Peak overlook and decided that we should go for a hike. We left Grandma Linda in the car to read her book. We then ate delicious mole at The Red Iguana before we headed out to The Gateway for a little shopping and Christmas lights. The next morning Mark, Gerry and I went to TeriAnn's wedding. My Mom and Shelly had the kids at the hotel and enjoyed breakfast and the pool all morning. After the nice luncheon, we met back up with the kids and headed down to Cabela's. Then we went straight to the reception from there. It was a full weekend of fun! It reminded us of many things we are thankful for family, temples, marriages, nature and fun family times together.

LOVE

On our Christmas card we had the kids spell out the word LOVE with their bodies. We tried each letter and with much effort got a pretty good shot of each letter. My sister who was taking the photos, thought that we could do better and she tried to arrange the kids as I took the pictures the second time. She learned that it isn't easy to get the kids to cooperate for photos. By the time she had wrestled them and moved them for the shots she was exhausted. It took a long time and the second shots turned out very badly. Both Joe and Jake cried at some point and we were ready to kill them. We had to remind ourselves that this was about LOVE that we were taking the photos. Our Christmas card really did turn out cute. Thanks to our awesome photographer, and designer, Shelly. She even ordered them and picked them up for me. So, if you thought that I was on the ball in getting Christmas cards out early it was really because of Shelly. Thanks Shelly, we love you!

Happy Thankgsiving!

(The above picture is of "Tilly the Turkey" that use to live at Clear Creek. She would come and visit the students who went to summer camp there. I always looked forward to the seeing Tilly when I worked there.)

This time of year always provides opportunities for us to think of some of the things that we are thankful for. I am thankful for many things, but below are a few of them.

T - Time with family
H - my Husband and my Home
A - America
N - Nature
K - my Kids & Kindergarten students
S - my Sister Shelly
G - the Gospel
I - musical Instruments
V - our Vehicles
I - the Internet
N - our nice Neighborhood
G - a giving God

I hope that you have a happy Thanksgiving and remember all of the blessings that you have in your life to be thankful for.

Jr. Rangers

Boy, is it hard to get kids to pose and get a cute picture sometimes!


















Looking back at it, I think these are pretty funny.



















I was pretty annoyed at the time though.


















We love to do the Jr. Rangers Programs at State and National parks. The kids have earned so many badges and pins that I decided to make a banner. We have had a great time learning about this amazing world we live in. We are already thinking about what state or national parks we want to go next summer. Any great ideas anyone?

Nap time

Mark works in the middle of the night. When he gets home, he sleeps for a while and usually takes a nap with Jacob in the afternoon. This is often the way we find them. Notice the remote in Mark's hand and his glasses still on.

Jacob loves the song The Wheels on the Bus. We have a Scholastic movie of the song. He loves to watch "swish, swish" before he goes to bed. He likes to hold his toy bus as he watches it.

I thought it was so cute to find my sleeping boys. Mark is such a trooper with a crazy sleep schedule. He does it to support our family. We sure love him!

Tagged - 8

8 TV shows I love to watch
1. The Amazing Race
2. The Ellen DeGeneres Show
3. Dancing with the Stars
4. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
5. Jon & Kate Plus 8
6. The Price is Right
7. What Not to Wear
8. American Idol

8 Places I love to eat
1. At home
2. My mom's house
3. Creamery on 9th
4. Brick Oven Pizza
5. Bajio
6. Betos
7. El Azteca
8. Apollo Burger

8 things that happened yesterday
1. Jacob got the pitcher of apple juice out of the fridge and threw it on the carpet.
2. I shampooed the carpet.
3. We made blankets for Primary Children's hospital.
4. We had yummy fajitas.
5. Had library day at school.
6. Went to recess and enjoyed the warm afternoon.
7. Went grocery shopping and saved 66% on my Savvy Shopping trip.
8. Filled up the van with gas for under $30.00. Yeah. Road trip anyone?

8 things I am looking forward to
1. Weekends
2. Going to the temple this weekend.
3. Thanksgiving break
4. Putting up Christmas decorations
5. Teriann's Wedding
6. Going to Primary Children's Hospital to take some donations, not for a stay.
7. Cleaning up my house - should I say having a clean house.
8. Christmas break.

8 things I love about fall
1. Seeing the beautiful mountain.
2. The smell of autumn. (I wish that you could really get that scent in a candle.)
3. The nice mild weather.
4. Driving in the mountains to see the leaves.
5. Finding cool leaves.
6. Starting a new school year. Did I just say that?
7. Harvesting the gardens.
8. Playing in/raking the leaves with the kids.

8 things on my wish list
1. Another baby
2. More relaxed, "fun" time with my husband and family.
3. A desire and the drive to get fit and healthy.
4. A clean, organized house.
5. A clean, organized classroom.
6. More time to get things done.
7. A "good" group of students.
8. A new kitchen floor.

8 people I'm tagging
1. Shelly
2. Mardi
3. Michelle
4. Amber
5. Marissa
6. Gray
7. TeriAnn
8. Sheridan

Sunday in the park

After Church we went over to the botany pond at BYU and then a nearby park. It was a beautiful fall evening. Jacob loved feeding the ducks.















He started following this big white duck. He was trying to catch it, but he never did.















Jake had a fun time running around the pond several times, each time he would scare away all of the ducks that other groups were feeding. He laughed as the ducks would hurry away.














The ducks started honking so loudly that Jacob started covering his ears.




















At the park it was designed for toddlers, so Jacob could play without much help although he loved interaction from both Mom and Dad, so we did race him down the slides.


















He kept wanting us to slide with him again and again. We did finally have to tell him that he could have one more turn before it was getting dark. We had a nice relaxing evening enjoying life through and with our our two year old.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was so busy and fun. Jacob had fun trick-or-treating. He especially likes to pick a candy out of his bag to eat. We have to keep all of the bags out of his reach or the candy would be gone. I was a clown. Sammi was a vampire. Joe was a skeleton. Jacob was a monkey.

Lagoon - UEA break

For our UEA - fall break we went to Lagoon on Friday. Shelly and Mark's friends, Jeff, Julie , and Anna Wrigley went with us. Jake's favorite was the Merry-go-round. At the end of the night the big kids were going on the roller coasters and Jacob and I kept going on the Merry-go-round, the attendant didn't make us get off. We got to stay on and keep riding since there wasn't much of a line. He kept on saying up and down and motioning around. He is still talking about the rides. All of the kids rides were the same, up and down, and round and round, but Jacob loved them.














Anna Wrigley is in the pink shirt. She looks like she could be one of our kids.


















We took sandwiches and plenty of snacks for both of our meals in the park.



















































Shelly, Mark, Sammi and Joe on the Jet Star II.















The big kids loved the new Wicked rollercoaster. We stayed the night at the campground, so we got to stay at the park until closing. We were almost there from opening until closing, Dad would be proud! We had such a great time and will plan that trip again. Next time, we might stay at Cherry Hill, since we are trying to relive all of our childhood memories.

Happy 10th Birthday Samantha - Oct. 12

What a lucky girl, Samantha got a new bike at our house and her Mom's house! She is growing so much that she was way to big for her old bike. She has loved riding around the neighborhood and is learning how to use her gears on our hills. The kids love to go to the church parking lot to ride bikes.














For part of Sammi's celebration we went to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving point.














Sammi loved the rock climbing wall and she made it all the way to the top.


















We got to go over to Farm country. We loved seeing the animals and riding on the ponies.













Jacob even rode the pony. In the summer, we went to This is the Place Monument and he cried and wanted off of the pony, so we weren't sure if he would do it, but he did great.


















There were fun pedal carts that they loved to ride.














There were so many activities to do. We were there about four hours and we only did about 2/3 of the activities. We had such a fun day.

A few more butterfly photos

I had a few more cute pictures
of the butterflies.





































Have you ever heard of butterfly kisses?



































"Is he still up there? I can't see him."


















"Oh, there he is!"

HeeHaw farms

I took my kindergarten class on a field trip to Heehaw Farms in Pleasant Grove. Jacob and Shelly (or Nan as Jacob calls her) came with. Jacob loved watching the pigs and feeding the horses . There is a great big slide that is built on the giant hay bails. It is about 15 - 20 feet tall. It is so fun. Jacob didn't want to go on it this year, but he did enjoy the other bumpy slide. They got to pick their own pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. He had a fun time and it was fun to have them there even though I didn't really get to hang out with them a lot, because I was trying to be a responsible teacher.

Beautiful Butterflies

Two weeks ago we went caterpillar hunting. We found 14 Monarch caterpillars on some big milkweed patches in Moroni. I took three to school, gave nine to other teachers and kept two at home. Jake wanted to hold the caterpillars, but got nervous as they started to tickle his hands, so we put them on the high chair tray and he watched and touched them carefully. All but two of them have spun into chrysalis'. Now they are starting to come out of their chrysalis and it is so awesome. I saw two of them change from a hanging J shape into their chrysalis, it was the most incredible thing to see that happen and it goes from a J shaped caterpillar to a chrysalis in about two or three minutes. It is really cool. One of our butterflies came out today and Jacob is so fascinated by it. He loves to hold the butterfly.

We Love Autumn!

We went to up to Southfork Canyon to enjoy the beautiful fall colors and take some fun pictures. Shelly was our photographer. She did a great job. We did catch a few pictures of her too.

Another fun camping trip!

We went to the ward campout up Hobblecreek canyon on Sept. 5 - 7. The ward only stayed one night, but we stayed another. It was such a great fun and relaxing weekend. Mardi and the kids came and visited on Saturday afternoon and Gray stayed over with us on Saturday night. The kids had so much fun. It is amazing that sticks and rocks can keep kids entertained for over ten hours of play time. The kids were so great. They didn't even fight. Wow! We have had some great camp outs this summer.