We are thankful for birds...

I have been thinking about posting this story that was shared with me for awhile, but I just haven't had time. It is something that tells you about my kids and our family and it's something that I want to remember. Hopefully Tammi will add anything to the story that I missed.

In primary one Sunday, near the beginning of April, they were talking about birds during sharing time. The teacher asked the kids to name some of the birds that they have seen. The kids started shouting out expected answers like robin, blue bird, dove, ect. Then my two children shouted out "GROSBEAK!" My understanding is that the teacher was stunned and not too sure what to say. I think she said something like, "I have never heard of a grosbeak before". My cousin Tammi, who is a teacher in the primary said, "If Kaydra and Kanyon say it's a bird then it probably is."

Here is the infamous grosbeak which we were able to see many times in Coeur d'Alene the week before this experience happened. The nature loving attitude of my children comes from their dad and his parents who are always teaching them to enjoy nature and look out for interesting animals in the outdoors. For this I am grateful!

Four months old!

Miranda is now four months old. She is growing so fast! I took her to the doctor for her check-up and vaccinations. There was a newborn sitting next to us and I am just shocked at how little he looked. I still think she is pretty small but compared to this baby, she looked huge!

She is now: Weight: 14lbs 41/2 oz (between 50-70% for her age)

Height: 26 1/2 inches long (over 95% for her age)

She, like my other children, is very tall for her age.

She is a happy baby for the most part. She loves to be talked to and played with. She still doesn't like to be alone and she loves it when her brother and sister play with her. We were at the playground the other day and Miranda was showing her obvious distaste for her car seat. This is pretty normal for her as she does NOT like her car seat. I thought it was funny so I videoed her on my cell phone. The quality isn't great but it is funny to see her struggle to get out! She is a good girl and we are loving having her in our home. I am so blessed to have three great kids!

We got a package in the mail from Jodi and Mike yesterday full of Korea surprises. THANK YOU! The kids were SO excited to wear their pajamas and Kanyon is sure that he is a karate-choppin' kung fu man in his! I had to take pictures and even managed to get one of all of them smiling! They look so cute!

We have been staying busy with work and t-ball games. We are finally enjoying nice weather here and my garden is starting to grow really well. I think we lost one watermelon plant and a squirrel dug up some of my cucumber seeds but other than that it is doing well. And we are officially going to have peaches on our tree! I am really excited about that! Well, that's about all for now.

They're all fixed!

Disclaimer: This entry is kind of long but for journaling purposes I have decided to tell the whole story. Skip whatever parts you don't want to read -- or skip the whole thing if you want!

For those of you wondering, Kanyon has had his teeth fixed! We took him back to the dentist in May with the same ending. He cooperated quite well until they started "pinching his cheek". The dentist said he gave him all the anesthetic that he could have and he still wasn't absolutely sure that Kanyon was totally numb. He said that the nerve that he was trying to block can be in a different place with kids but that he usually doesn't have this problem. He also, very politely, said that even if he was sure that Kanyon was numb, he wasn't sure that Kanyon would really let him work on his teeth. He said that he was willing to let us try again and bring him back another time. Len and I talked about it and we decided that it would be very difficult to talk Kanyon back into the dentist's office again to "fix his teeth" and that we would like to just take care of every thing at once and try to "forget" about the dentist for the next four months. So we called the insurance company and then we set up an appointment to take Kanyon to day surgery at the hospital for general anesthesia.

On June 12 I woke up at 5:00 am and showered and got things gathered together for the day. Len woke Kanyon up at 5:45 and gave him a blessing. We put him in the car with his blanket and still in his pjs and I took him to the hospital for our 6:00 am appointment. We hadn't told him that it was going to be that day -- we didn't want him to worry about it. It was a little sad when Kanyon asked his dad, "Are we going to Lagoon?" I explained everything to him in the car on the way to the hospital and he was okay with it. He wanted to get his teeth fixed and he liked the idea of going to sleep and then waking up and having it all done. He was a happy and good kid while we did all the checking in. He loved getting weighed and measured for height. He loved the bed with wheels and the fact that they gave him the remote for the television while we were in the pre-op room. He also loved the "hospital clothes" that they gave him to wear. After we were ready we watched television for a little bit and then they took us to the "holding" room. Here they gave us a book to read (Walter the Farting Dog) which Kanyon liked and we looked at the light above us which had a cover over it so it looked like a fish aquarium. We were there about a half an hour and then the anesthesiologist and the nurse were ready to take him. I had explained what they would do and Kanyon was good about going with them. I told him I loved him and that I would see him when he woke up and he said "Bye" and they wheeled him away. I told Len later that it was a good thing that he wasn't having a "real" surgery or I would have been a nervous wreck. I think he thought I was a nervous wreck anyway! It is REALLY hard sending your child away with strangers who are going to put him to sleep!

Kanyon had about 1 1/2 hours worth of dental work so about 2 hours later they called the waiting room and said I could meet him in the day surgery room. I went to the room and about 2 minutes later they brought Kanyon in. The recovery nurse was a guy from our ward so that was nice. Kanyon was awake but visibly upset and "whimpering" until he saw me and then he started crying. The nurse said he had been great and that he must think that it's okay to cry now that he sees me. The first thing he said to me was, "They gave me an owie!", as he lifted up his hand where his IV was. I hadn't told him that they would be doing that because I didn't want to worry him. They didn't start the IV until he had been put to sleep with gas but he was not happy about it! It seemed to bother him more than his mouth. We stayed there for about 30-45 minutes. Kanyon was able to drink some apple juice and suck on some ice and tolerated everything very well so they took out his IV. Every time he looked at the band aid though, he would start to cry again. It was pretty sad! They let him ride out of the hospital in a wagon and they sent us on our way. He did end up with two silver caps on the back two bottom teeth. They worked on a total of six teeth. In the end, this was definitely the better way to go.

He had a rough day the rest of the day. We picked up a couple of movies and made a bed for him on the couch and he hung out there most the day. After the hospital, I took him to the store to pick out some juice and to chose a movie. He did well walking around but as soon as we got into the house he said, "I need to throw up" and he lost all of the fluid that he'd had at the hospital. He sipped on some more juice while he watched a movie and then fell asleep. He breathed with his mouth open though, so when he woke up, his throat was hurting quite a lot. I finally got him to settle down with some motrin and a Popsicle. By the evening though, he was back to his normal playful self. He ate a full dinner and played outside with Kaydra. He is now very proud of his "different" teeth and will show anyone who asks and even some who don't! Hopefully we can take better care of the rest of his teeth though so we won't have to go through anything like that again!

She likes it!

Today I was trying a new recipe for dinner and Miranda was feeling neglected. She was fussing so I put her in her car seat on the counter to watch me while I cooked. That only lasted a few minutes so I handed her a piece of licorice. For the record, it was very tough and even I had trouble chewing it, so I wasn't worried that she would break off a piece and choke. She loved it! I know that it is probably not the best thing to give a growing baby, but the 30 minutes it gave me to finish dinner was totally worth it. Of course, she got a bath after these pics were taken so it actually added to my work -- but still worth it! Besides, she was SO happy and who am I to deny her that?!

Plant a Garden .... Check!

Planting a garden this year has been on my to do list. We finally got it all done last week. The garden looks better this year than it has since they year we built the beds. We borrowed our neighbors rotatiller and the beds were SO easy to plant! It was actually fun! We planted peas, corn, pumpkin, watermellon (we like to dream big!), cucumbers, radish, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes. We also have raspberries and strawberries flowering and our apricot tree has apricots on it for the first time while we have lived here! We are pretty sure that we are going to get some peaches again as well as long as it doesn't freeze at night in the next week or so. I love fresh peaches so I hope that they grow! We also have a pie cherry tree, three plum trees, and an apple tree that should produce as well. I love this yard when it is taken care of -- it is just so much work. I am really going to try to stay on top of it this year. So here are some before pictures with the seeds newly planted. Not too exciting I know, but it will be a good comparison picture for later in the year.The tomato plants are in the background with fresh grass clippings on them. Again I wish the weather would warm up so that the seeds would brave the air. I think they are going to stay underground for quite awhile this year. I am sure that I will soon be complaining that it is too hot -- but at least that would be normal!

Another exciting thing is that we found some robins building a nest right off our deck in a tree in our back yard. I thought that the nest was looking pretty good and then the next day we went out and they had gone to town with the nest building it REALLY tall. Almost like they are trying to show off for their robin friends! I had to take a picture. We will keep you updated on the activity of the nest as it goes. Well, that's about all for now. The weather is actually almost warm today so I am going to work on the flowerbeds in the front yard. I only have two more to edge and weed and then we can plant some flowers. I have told myself that all the beds must be edged before I buy flowers or I would give up and not finish. It's a lot of edging but someone has to do it!

T-ball season

Today was Kaydra's second t-ball game. They played one and then the second one got rained out so today was the second one instead. We woke up to a sunny morning with a cold breeze and unfortunately an 8:30 am game. I am sure the afternoon games will be very pleasant but we were wrapped in blankets while we watched. The girls didn't seem to mind. They are sponsored by Jake's store Scoot n'Powersports. It is fun to see how much they have improved since playing for the first time last year. They are starting to understand how the game works. This league is really low key. Everyone gets to bat every inning no matter how many outs. They seem to have a great time. I sure wish the weather would warm up. A couple of days ago the weatherman on the news said, "Look for pleasant temperatures tomorrow, we will be warming up to the mid to high 50's." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Who's idea of pleasant is that for June? I think a day in the mid 70's would be great! Oh well, maybe next week!

Lagoon!

Yesterday was the annual family reunion for all my mom's side of the familiy at Lagoon so we took the kids there again for some fun. I think that it was colder than it was in April when we were there. This summer has sure not been very warm yet. It was overcast most of the day. The evening was near perfect though with no wind and the sun shining through the clouds for a few moments at a time. This was when we decided to challenge the water rides for the day. We went on the log ride, followed by Rattlesnake Rapids. The water was much higher than when we were there in April and we all got drenched. We came prepared with extra clothes for everyone though so we thought we would take the opportunity of already being wet and let the kids run through the fountain near the entrance of the park. It was great fun watching the kids run and try to anticipate where the water would come up next. Unlike the ice cold water on the rapids ride, the fountain water was luke warm and so the kids enjoyed it for about three minutes. It was not really warm enough outside for soaking wet clothes however, and there were a few tears shed before we were warm again in pants and sweatshirts to finish out the day. All in all it was a great day. It was good to see family there and we missed all that couldn't be there. It was a rather small group this year compared to past years, but we still had a great time. Kaydra and Kalli are now tall enough to ride on a few of the big rides so they enjoyed that. Their favorite ride was Wild Mouse and they went on that twice. We had to talk Terek on to a lot of rides - he was especially unhappy about getting wet on Rattlesnake Rapids - but he liked the little kids Tiki Boat which is like a small version of the Tidal Wave. I even got a cute pic of him holding his hands high in the air. We had fun but are still recovering today as we didn't get into bed at home until about 2:00am. Miranda tolerated the day very well and was held by many relatives. All in all, it was a well spent day!

What did I do today?

I found this poem on a message board and thought that it was worth sharing. Sometimes we need reminded about the important things!

What Did I Do Today?

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Today I left some dishes dirty,

The bed got made around 3:30.

The diapers soaked a little longer,

The odor grew a little stronger.

The crumbs I spilled the day before

Are staring at me from the floor.

The fingerprints there on the wall

Will likely be there still next fall.

The dirty streaks on those windowpanes

Will still be there next time it rains.

Shame on you, you sit and say,

Just what did you do today?

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I held my baby till she slept,

I held my baby while she wept.

I played a game of hide and seek,

I squeezed a toy so it would squeak.

I pulled a wagon, sang a song,

Taught a child right from wrong.

What did I do this whole day through?

Not much that shows, I guess that's true.

Unless you think that what I've done,

Might be important to someone

With deep blue eyes and soft blonde hair,

If that is true...I've done my share.