End of Year Letter

Be Strong and of good courage...

This is my dear friend Denisse (and my Primary Secretary).
She has had a very hard year!!!!!!!!
She has been an inspiration to me. She has shown me what you can do through your adversity. I value our friendship dearly.

Last Saturday, I helped her make a few gifts, and some signs for her home.
We had fun. She kept saying I don't know how you handle three kids,
I've got two...and somedays...
Denisse makes me laugh all the time. When she calls me, it probably takes 4 times the amount of time to get through a conversation, because all we do is Laugh!!!

Hoedown Throwdown

Ash begged me to learn this dance. Her aunties and honorary auntie (AIL-auntie in Law) learned it too. Meomories!!!!!

Pumpkin Patch

We have a really cool place we like to go to, to get pumpkins. We usually go to a Harvest Party each year with a group of friends to this place, but mom wanted to wait until Easton was here to go this year. The only time we figured we could go was on Friday at 10 am. I knew Ash would freak if she didn't get to go, so we went and checked her out of school for two hours (I swear that this is the first time we've ever done that. Paul and I are both pretty stringent on attendance!!!-It's not an issue with Ash, she loves going to school.) Little did we know that they don't run the hayride until after 4 in the afternoon. It was a bummer, but we had fun anyway. The Vegas-ites were freezing!!

Like kids in a Candy Store

Paul planned a "Fun" Family Home Evening. He really likes to try "things" when they're brand new. He went to the airport to look around after they had refinished it, and has to go look at every new store or fast food restaurant that comes along. This time it was the new Parkcenter bridge, that has just been completed. Its a nice bridge...:)Boy, how that area has changed in the last few years.
One of Paul's co-workers had been talking about a new candy store, so Paul wanted to try and find it (but he's not so good with directions to places he doesn't know- just ask Steve or Aimee about our Vegas fiasco). Since he couldn't see it right off the road, he kept on driving. He was heading home, and the kids couldn't quite understand why we drove clear to Boise to go over a bridge (we hadn't told them about the candy store). I made him turn around, and go look for it. Since Paul has trial Internet on his phone, we looked it up, and I had seen the road right after we had come off the bridge. The shop (Powell's Sweet Shoppe) was in a new section of town they are trying to make into a little village community, with loft apartments and shops, restaurants, and offices underneath. The area has a quaint feeling to it, and the candy store is so cute (a new favorite adventure for us).




Brennen picked Orange, Black and Green M&M's that he made into a "carrot".


Ash picked old fashioned candy sticks, and pop rocks


Daddy gets in on the fun.

When we were walking in, two girls came up to us and asked how old our kids were, because they were doing a scavenger hunt and needed to give a 5 year old "5". So Brennen gave the girl "5"!


On the way home, Ash wanted Brennen to try her Pop Rocks...very nice of her right.
He put them into his mouth and immediately started whining. He held his mouth open, from the connector all the way home.

Follow the Prophet

Wasn't Conference AWESOME!!!!
I can't wait to read the talks again.
We all have a lot to ponder and work on.
My favorite talks were the first 4 during the Saturday morning session, President Monson's daughter, and President Erying's Talk. I also liked one of the 70's (can't remember his name) when he talked about praying for opportunities to teach teach the gospel while on his mission, and realizing 20+ years later, the prayer was being answered by his son.
I also really liked the history about the Manti Temple, and how we can use learned knowledge in many different ways, when we are inspired to do so.

Die Hard Fans stay even in the RAIN

Ha Steve, Dad, Ryan and Paul... We lasted through two DOWN POURS, and to the bitter cold end of the game. And it was cold. The first, I can see my breath moment of the season!!!

My Little Man gets his Thumb

BRENNEN is 5!!!
Can you believe it. I can remember the day he was born vividly. Mt. Saint Helens started blowing steam a few minutes before he was born.




It has become our tradition to go out to lunch for our birthdays. Brennen wanted to go somewhere they would give him a ballon, like daddy's birthday. So we took him to Red Robin. He ordered pizza and didn't like it. They brought him a sundae and sang to him, and didn't like it. Paul and Papa ordered this combo meal thing that came with dessert, a huge piece of Mud Pie, that he liked.



For dinner I took him to McDonalds to play on the equipment (Ash decided she wanted to play with her friend that was visiting her grandparents, so she didn't go with us.)




Brennen rarely gets a day thats all about him!!! So it felt good to give him the special attention.

Judging a Book by its Cover.

They say you should never judge a "book" by its cover, but I always do, and I generally never wrong when it comes to a book. They also say that everyone has an obsession. Well, I would have to say mine is definitely BOOKS. I have a stack of books on my nightstand,and in it's drawers just waiting to be read. I even have a bag full of Library books (who ever invented the concept of the Library is a genius, the guy that invented the Library fine, not so much). (A little shout out to my favorite all time Librarians-Anne Hankins, Judy Gillat, Stella Ivy, and Linda Short.)

I've been thinking about what my favorite book would be (besides the Book of Mormon of course), and I can't pick one... I have to categorize them...
So here goes:

Favorite Infant books:
Hand, Hand fingers Thumb
Good Night Moon

Favorite Toddler books:
Theres a Wocket in my Pocket
I wish I had duck feet
Inside Outside Upside Down
Anything by: Eric Carle & Sandra Boynton

Favorite Picture Books/Young Children:
And Rain Makes Applesauce
Click Clack Moo series
Parts!
Polar Bear Express
Bearstein Books
Verede!

Favorite Young Readers:
Flat Stanley
Soup

Favorite Tween Readers:
Hatchet Series
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Bridge to Terabethea

Favorite Teen Books:
Princess Diary series
Twilight (First Book only)
Harry Potter (All of Them)
To Kill A Mockingbird (LOVE this book)
The Chosen
The Great Gatsby

Favorite Adult Books:
Emeralds and Espionage series by Lyn Gardner
Hearts in Hiding Series by Betsy Brannon Green
O'Mally Family series by Dee Henderson
Gables of Legacy series by Anita Stansfield
My Sister's Keeper
Fireproof
Two Trees
The Miracle
Letters for Emily
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Counting Stars
Totto-chan
The Thread That Runs so True


My Favorite Authors:
As a Tween:
Judy Blume
Beverly Cleary

As a Teenager:
Chiam Pottock
Mary Higgins Clark
Caroline B. Conney

As Adult:
Jennie Hanson
Lyn Gardner
Dee Henderson
Betsy Brennan Green
Keri Blair


Books that I think would make great movies:
Jennie Hanson Books
Lyn Gardner Books
Dee Henderson Books
Betsy Brannon Green Books
Ender's Game

Books that are better then their counterpart Movie
All of them!!!

I aspire to be an Authoress some day, and hope that one of my books makes it on to someone else's favorites list.

Hit comments and Post your Favorites!!! Please!!! I want to know what other good books I should read. Feed my addiction!!! Not that I'm getting much reading done these days.

Preparing for Baptism

In preparation for Ash's Baptism, we've been talking to her about why we are baptized and what the different components of being baptized means. This week we talked about why we are baptized by immersion. And this treat was our illustration of what immersion means-to be completely covered. And that by being completely immersed in water, signifies Christ's Burial.

Bye Bye Thursday

So I have some issues....
and abandoning an animal you commit ed to, is one of them (this goes back to the LOBO days).

Well 8 years ago, on the day that I called to get Thursday neutered, he started spraying. We were told that he would get better, but he didn't he got progressively worse. He was only allowed in the house to get from the garage to the backyard.

A teacher brought him to school, after he almost was run over by another car near the duck park. So I brought him home to keep Friday company. He was so cute and loving. He was also a good kitten. When we first got him, he used to lay on Paul's chest and suck on his ear. It was so funny.
And then he turned into a stinky Tomcat. :(

So after fighting about it for 8 years, I relented and allowed Paul to take him to the pound. I'm trying not to think about it.
The kids aren't terribly torn up about it. Had it been Friday... We would still have tears. Friday is allowed in the house, and the kids love to smother him with love.
He is getting so old... and we know he is having some issues.

When Friday dies, the kids want to get a puppy and a kitten at the same time, so that they grow up loving each other. The kitten maybe, the dog-I'm not to sure about.
We'll see.
Good Bye Thursday.

She's Two Months

Addie turned Two Months on Sunday!!! And boy what a change has happened in that two months. In the last week she has gained a personality, and is always smiling and cooing now. She doesn't look like a newborn anymore (face feature wise), but she is still smaller then most of the babies in our ward (who were born after her). We had one sister give birth to a 10+ pound baby-at the birthing center no less, and without drugs!!! Man I could never do it.
Here are some pics...




Addie in her Bronco Blue and Orange. She has blummers to go with it now.



Cooing and smiling @ granilani

Her two month Pic.

25th Annual Harvest Classic

Saturday September 19th-
This is the third time Ash has run this 1 mile race. She says it's here goal to win it some day!!!
She ran the race in a little over 8 minutes. They don't keep official time on the kids race, so this is a guesstimate according to the time stamps on my pics.




The boys belong to my friend Christine.


That afternoon, Ash had a birthday party to attend (Jacob-boy on the end in the above picture). It was at Wahooz-formally Boondocks. Ash had a blast. Happy 8th Jacob (Ash and Jacob will be baptized at the same time, well one right after the other).
While Ash was at her party, Brennen and I went on some adventures. We went and got Ash's baptism gift at the book store. We then went to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Brennen loved watching the machine make the doughnuts. After the machine had made all the doughnuts we went to Grandma's on the Hill (Tampas').
When it was time to pick up Ash, Brennen wanted to play every game. I only had enough for one game. He was not happy. So we talked about how he could earn tokens by doing good things for a fun evening at a similar place.

Check out Old Post

I'm trying to update old posts with the pictures they're missing!!! So check the old posts from time to time to see if they got their long awaited pictures.

When it rains it pours.....

Have you ever felt like that????
Thursday Sept. 17th-
Brennen has been regressing in his bathroom habits the last couple of weeks (middle child syndrome?), so we make him clean up his own messes. So last Thursday night, he was doing such a thing, when all of a sudden I hear a flush and an anguished cry and then sobbing. I knew immediately what had happened, the underwear went done the toilet. Not just any underwear, "my favorite Scooby Doo". Addie was also crying because I was in the middle of changing her bum. I had to hurry into the kid's bathroom to shut the tank water off so it wouldn't overflow. While doing this, I told Ash to call papa and tell him we need help with the toilet. She called him and said we have a toilet emergency, but he only heard emergency. I think the parents were here in about 4 minutes!!! They had thought that Brennen had been seriously hurt.
We called Handyman Hank (a.k.a. Jeff Hankins) to come to our rescue...

Jeff was laughing so hard on the phone when I called him... it was so funny.

The underwear (which ended up being Lighting McQueen underwear) were stuck between the tank and the pipe, so the toilet had to be upended.



Also the flush mechanism was breaking and wouldn't work!! Here's to another adventure Brennen Style.

On Friday, our computer fried. Luckily we were able to save the hard drive, and got $80 for the recycled parts.

On Saturday, while Brennen was taking a shower, the water gage broke, and wouldn't turn off all the way. At the same time Addie threw up all over us and my bed (9:45pm) and I stubbed 3 toes on my right foot really bad (bruised them pretty bad, and it was very painful to walk) while trying to take care of everything.

If the Odds of Winning the Lottery were the same, I would buy a ticket!!:)

Here we go again!
Since Ash was two months old, we have known that each of our children would have a 33% chance of having the genetic defect she did that caused her bilateral urine reflux. Well, we hit the genetic gene pool just right, and Addie also has it. We were truly blessed when Ashlynn was diagnosed from an early age, because a lot of times children are misdiagnosed for years with just bladder infections and by the time they are finally diagnosed, they are in Kidney failure. (And most everyone knows what a nightmare Ash's first few months were.) Because of our family history, the kids are tested at six weeks of age. Well, yesterday it was Addie's turn...and she has it. She's only a 3 (not as bad as Ash with a 5, which is the highest the scale goes). Today, she'll start her maintenance meds, to help discourage infections, and in the next few days have a Kidney scan to make sure they are working properly. So in the last two weeks she has had an ultrasound and a barium swallow to see if she had Pilloricstanouses or Gastro reflux (she doesn't), A VCUG-the test that checks for the urine reflux, and a hip ultrasound to make sure there wasn't any damage from being breech (and initial peek looked good). I need to hit the lottery just to pay for all these medical bills (If only I ever played).

On Saturday, we had Ash's birthday party. Because it was her golden birthday (becoming the age of the day you were born), we allowed her to have a "friend" birthday party. All the others have just been family. Originally the party was going to be at the Rec. Center and then go to the park and have pizza, but we found out that it was closed for maintenance that weekend... so we were going to postpone it. But LeAnne found out, and insisted that we use her pool. So, at the last minute we changed plans again (its a good thing, I don't think I could have listened to Ash go on about her party for another two weeks!!!!!!!) The kids had a blast. They went through the pizza faster than I thought we would. :( And a good time was had by all.
The only casualty, is that I didn't catch that Brennen wasn't wearing his T-shirt until it was to late, and he is burnt pretty badly across his shoulders and back.







We also went to Art in the Park. Man what a lot of walking. I payed for it... My incision still hurts.
Happy Birthday MOM!!! Love You!

Pictures!!!!!@##$%^#$$@#%#^&#$ I Give Up!!!

The only way I've been able to post pictures is by adding them to slider... Well I can't even get that to work right now!!!!
So the tons of Pictures( a months worth of baby pics, and kid happenings) I have, I can't post.

4 weeks- Time Flies

The last month of pregnancy dragged on and on, but the last 4 weeks since Addie was born have flown by. Like the other two, Addie was "labeled" failure to thrive, since she wasn't gaining weight. She actually had dropped down below what she left the hospital at. She now weighs a whopping 6 lbs 5 oz. She's a keeper!!


Thursday and Friday I over did it a bit, so yesterday and today I've been paying for it. I'm still pretty sore!!!

Ash is so excited for school to start on Tuesday. Since her school closed, we enrolled her at our neighborhood school, which happens to be Greenhurst (where mom taught for 13 years.). It happens to be their 20 anniversary this year. I can't believe how time flies!!! I started 7th grade the year Greenhurst opened. I was ticked that mom, Steve and Aimee didn't have to go to school for a whole week after I did, because the school wasn't ready to start due to construction delays. Ashlynn's teacher ends up being a friend of our families, and she also was one of Kirsten's 4th grade teachers!!!
Ash is really excited because 2 of her friends from church are in the same class. I hope they don't talk to much!!!
Hope everyone has a good week.

Brenn has been telling everyone that he is starting Kindergarten, which isn't true... He misses the cut off for this year. And with ILC closing, I don't have any place else to put him!!!

*still no pictures

Rogers' Girls Hair Day

Friday, August 14
Every girl needs a new hair cut once in a while. Especially if it is always in the way when your trying to feed a baby. A friend of ours that does hair, came to the parents to cut and color everyones hair. It was fun catching up with Alexis and hearing about her new guy. I'm the one missing 12+ inches!!!









That night when we were leaving the parents, Brenn was standing by our van (which was parked by one of dad's cars), when all of a sudden he starts screaming bloody murder and a wasp is buzzing around his head. It had stung him twice. Thus the picture of Brennen with meat tenderizer on his shoulder and neck (the Peds Dr told us to use it when the kids get stung, because the stinger has a protein in it, and the meat tenderizer breaks down protein quickly.)



***I tried for an hour to get pictures to upload!!! Aimee was even walking me throught it to see if she could get it to work!!!****
9/22/09 I got the pictures to work!!!!!!!! That's what a new computer and new card reader will do for ya.