December 27

We had a great Christmas. We left Visalia for Disneyland on Tuesday. We stayed at a hotel in Anaheim that night and got up early Wednesday for Disneyland. It was a little cold, but not too bad with jackets. We all had a great time. It was fun to see everything decorated for Christmas. My favorite was It's a Small world because it's decorated so well. The kids loved it. Seth loved watching everything. He did great and took two naps during the day just fine. We only stayed until about 6:00, though, because it got so crowded after about 4:00. The kids didn't like the lines if they were more than 20 minutes; that was their limit. We left my mom there with my dad who came down with Dustin and they had Christmas with Kristal. We drove home and got home around midnight.

We had our own Christmas with just us. That's only the second time we've ever done that. We frosted cookies and acted out the nativity and the kids opened one present.

Danny came in at 5:50 Christmas morning, but we held them off until 6:20. We opened presents for about a half hour and then we woke up Seth so he could see his presents. And we've spent the last couple of days playing with all the gifts. The kids all got scooters and skateboards so we've been in the front yard in the middle of the day when it's warmest. They got a few new Wii games and board games and toys. We also got snow sleds and snow gear to start going to the snow. Hopefully the kids will last more than 20 minutes. I have lots of memories of going to the snow every year, and I don't want my kids to miss out on that. We plan on going to Utah next weekend to use the sleds. And hopefully we'll get to go up to Mt. Charleston with the Deans or at least by ourselves a few times.

My mom and dad and Kristal will come on Tuesday for my birthday and stay until Thursday so we can go shopping. Then Friday morning we'll leave for Utah. We'll sled and hopefully get together with Amanda and Wendy sometime.

Seth woke up Christmas morning with a huge red rash on his face. He's had pretty dry skin on his face since Thanksgiving. But it was really bad on Christmas. We think he might have eczema. We've been putting Aquafor on it several times a day and it's doing better.

December 20

We're in Visalia right now. It's fun to be on vacation. We went out to lunch yesterday for Dustin's birthday and we went to my mom's ward Christmas party. Tomorrow I'm giving all the kids haircuts and I think mom and I will do a little shopping, maybe Bob and I will go to a movie. Then Tuesday we'll leave for Aneheim. Then Wednesday's the big Disneyland day. The kids are so excited.

I had a great experience last night. I've made it a goal to read and study the scriptures better than I normally do, kind of as a gift for the Savior. (Of course I knew I'd get more blessings for doing it than I would ever give Him). I've been feeling there's something I should be doing or asking for help with as I study, but wasn't sure what. Last night I was tired and hadn't read my scriptures and was ready to get into bed, but I remembered my goal for December and decided to get up and read. I opened to D&C 42:61. And that had a note in the margin to CR with 3 Ne. 18:20. Both about asking and receiving answers.

But I still didn't know what to ask for. My first thought was for help with Aaron, though. So today I studied and looked around in the scriptures. The D&C verse says to "know the mysteries and peaceable things". That kind of lead me to repentance. I read the Bible Dictionary about it.

As I was praying for guidance I realized I need to use repentance more regularly--like every prayer--especially in mothering. That will let me have a "fresh view" of the situation every day and I'll be more available to the promptings I need to help them. I need to repent more for losing patience and my temper and for my selfishness with my time.

December 13

My wife is hot. Super, burning hot! If she was water, I would be scalded when I touch her body.

Hot.

She's the best wife, too. She sacrifices so much for me and our family, especially our kids. I'm so thankful to have her for my wife.

I love her

Bobby is so great!

This weekend Bob and I had two dates. Friday night was a ward couples Christmas party. Then Saturday night we went on our annual Christmas date. This time we did sealings at the temple and then went to eat at Buca di Peppo. We had a great time. I'm so thankful for the Savior and the temple and that I have a wonderful husband who shares those loves with me.

The kids are getting so excited for Christmas. I'm all done with Christmas shopping. Last week we made gingerbread houses and trains with the Deans. This week we'll sleep under the Christmas tree. Then Friday we'll leave after school and go to Visalia. We'll stay there until Wednesday when we go to Disneyland. Then we'll come back and have Christmas by ourselves. I'm excited for our plans.

I've gotten into a pretty good rhythm of swimming and spinning and strength training and stretching. I'm feeling pretty good in general and in my back. It's nice to feel healthy and strong.

December 6

Last week we were in Visalia for Thanksgiving. We all had a great time. We left on Tuesday after school. The girls went shopping on Wednesday. We had a great meal on Thursday. We also celebrated my mom's birthday on Thursday. That night we went to see New Moon at 10:00 because we were going to try Black friday shopping at midnight. We went to one store and went home. It was so crowded. Saturday we went to Cambria for the day. All of my brothers and sisters were there. We came home Sunday night.

This week I spent a lot of time catching up on websites. I got really behind since our computer died and then we were gone last week. I worked about 5 hours a day most days. I don't like that because then I just get behind in other things and my kids don't get enough attention. I still have a few projects that need to be finished, but I shouldn't have to work so much this week.

We made christmas cookies this week and yesterday we went to the Ethel M. Chocolate factory. We've made that a tradition for us. I get a gift certificate from discover card and the kids all help us pick out a box of their fancy chocolates. And we look at the cactus garden that is all lit up with christmas lights.

Seth said his first word today. It was Jesus. All the kids when they're babies have been interested in pictures of Jesus. And Seth really has. I have a picture of Jesus in his room. He's been copying some of our sounds for the last couple of weeks and this morning after I fed him we were looking at the picture and he said "shesus". At first I thought it was a fluke, but he said it again. And then he said it for Danny later. I'm pretty impressed with my amazing baby.

Nov 22

Grandma Donna came this week. We had a great visit with her. She was here Tues-thurs. It was fun to hear her stories and have someone to go grocery shopping with and she was so helpful to watch kids when I had to go to soccer practice and drive carpools. She even went on Aaron's fieldtrip with us.

Aaron's fieldtrip was to the Anderson Dairy. We've been there a few times before and it's a cute little tour. It was fun to see Aaron interact with his class. He's a little more energetic than Danny and Rachel were. And he seems to talk and play with the girls more than the boys. At least he did on that day.

We leave on Tuesday for Visalia. I'm excited. And we're going to set up the Christmas tree today so it'll be all ready to go when we get back.

Yesterday I sat down with the kids and we looked for toys on amazon.com because their deadline for sending their lists to Santa is today. I've been so organized this Christmas, it's making things so easy and fun. I saved all the toys in my amazon wish list and when we get back from Thanksgiving I'll order it all and be done! No going to crowded stores in December! And since we've been doing our mvelopes budgeting this year, we've been saving money toward Christmas all year. Our general plan is to spend about $100 per kid. And since we saved it up before, I don't have to worry about how much we're spending--we already planned on it.

Nov 15

Last weekend we went camping again to Valley of Fire. This time we went with the Deans. We had a great time. The kids all climbed around the rocks all evening. We did hot dogs and smores again. Aaron and Seth didn't sleep very well this time, but I guess we don't go camping for the sleep anyway. The next morning we went to Elephant Rock and Mouse's Tank with our friends. The weather was great.

Then that Saturday night was the adult session of Stake conference. That is always so good. They talked about actively watching over our youth and about the economy and how we need to increase our fast offerings if we can. Last year during the same conference I got the impression we should increase our fast offerings then and we've definitely been blessed because of it. I'm sure this time will be no different. We went with the Deans and then went out to Chinese with them after.

Wednesday there was no school because of Veteran's day so Kata and I went shopping. We left the kids home with our husbands and we had the day off. It was really nice.

Yesterday Bob ran another triathlon. This one was in St. George. Two other men from our ward were going and invited him. He had a great time. I'm proud of him. He's such a great man.

And our computer died this week. It's been having problems on and off since we got it, but this week it finally decided not to start back up. Aside from having to spend the extra money to buy a new computer and the time to reinstall programs, it hasn't been a huge problem. About two months ago I set up our computer with an online backup service. We have an external hard drive, but we're not great about using it every day. And I'd been worried about our pictures; if there was ever a fire or something, we'd lose all our pictures for good. So, it's such a huge blessing that all of our files were saved. Otherwise I'm sure this week would have been a lot more stressful.

Grandma Donna is coming to stay with us this week. I'm excited to have her around for a few days. And then the next week we'll go to Visalia for Thanksgiving. And then the month of December is always so fun with all the Holiday traditions. There's lots of fun things coming up!

Nov 1

I taught the combined young women today. The lesson was on taking care of our physical bodies. I think it went well. The young women don't give the same kind of feedback that the RS sisters do. It was a good lesson to teach for me because it really made me aware of how I need to eat better. I've been working on eating more fruits and vegetables. But then this weekend was Halloween, so I've eaten way to much candy, of course.

We had a fun Halloween last night. Danny and Aaron were Star Wars guys. Rachel was a princess and Seth was a football player. We walked down our usual street, plus an extra. So the kids came home with lots of candy. The weather was great too. We had a really cold week. Our Trunk or treat on thursday was cold, but it warmed back up.

Rachel had Hand, Foot and mouth disease this week. That is such a bad sickness. Danny had it a couple of years ago. It gives you canker sores all over your mouth. Danny didn't talk for two days when he had it because he didn't want to move his mouth. Rachel got the canker sores on her throat and tonsils. This was the sickest and grumpiest I've ever seen her. She's pretty much over it now, though. We're glad for that.

My back is still doing great. And I'm able to work out at the gym and have a great time. And my websites continue to stay busy. As soon as I feel like I'm close to being caught up, someone else calls or sends me an email wanting something new set up. I guess if it was the other way and no one was calling, I'd have that to complain about. So I guess I'd rather have it this way; and so far it's not been an overwhelming amount of work. But it's always there; I work at least an hour a day.

October 25

Last weekend I never got around to writing because we had a big family weekend. Bob, Casey and Dustin did a triathlon in Boulder City on Saturday morning, so my Mom and Dad, Dustin, Kristal, Casey and Kami all came for the weekend. They got here late Friday night. Then I was going to stay home with the kids during the race because it's so early and they kids would be hard to manage there. The guys and my dad went to the race at 5:00 am and then I got a call from Bob at 6:30 that he forgot his bike shoes and I needed to drive them down there for his race that started at 7:30. So Luckily my mom and Kami and Kristal were helpful and watched the kids and I jumped in the car and drove down there. It worked nicely because that way I was able to see the race. Bob did a great job. And he had a great time and is already planning to do another one next month.

Aaron's birthday was on Monday so we celebrated that on Saturday too. He had a monster truck cake that I made, and it actually turned out pretty well. And he had a football pinata. He was pretty proud that all that family came for his birthday party. And at night we all went to a UNLV rebel football game. We had a great weekend.

Aaron and Bob got another cold this week, but other than that our illness has pretty much cleared up. We never got tested for the swine flu, but now they are saying that if you had flu symptoms since the beginning of October, there's a 99% chance it was the swine flu. They're making a big deal of what problems the swine flu can cause, so it's nice to know we're probably done with it.

Friday we went camping again to Valley of Fire. The kids always have such a great time there. The weather was perfect. And we got to try out our new, big tent, that is big enough for all of us to fit in, even with my air mattress. We went on a couple of hikes and the kids climbed a ton of rocks. Rachel and Aaron several times told me "thank you for bringing us on this camping trip".

My back is still doing really well. I don't have pain on a regular basis at all. I've been swimming and doing spin classes and pilates and riding the bike with the bike trailer quite a bit. My back or nerves will hurt maybe 4-5 days a month now, depending on what I do that sets it off. And I'm ok with not running again because I don't have pain and I still have lots of other physical activity options.

Danny and especially Aaron are really into riding bikes lately. Aaron is getting really good. Hopefully he'll feel brave enough soon to try without training wheels. So we've been spending a lot of time out in the front yard lately. And the weather has been great. I love October. And Rachel will sometimes ride bikes or collect rocks and build rock sculptures. Seth likes to play with/eat the rocks.

October 11

We're almost done with sickness. I went in to the doctor on Tuesday night and found out I had bronchitus. So I've been on antibiotics. I feel pretty good now, I just still have a cough. I hope we get a break from sickness for a least a couple weeks.

Yesterday Amanda and Kevin came down for the BYU vs UNLV game. We got a babysitter and Bob and I met them at the stadium. We had a great time. It was so fun to sit and talk with her.

Friday, Bob watched the boys and I went shopping for a couple of hours. That was a really nice break. He's such a good husband.

I started Young Women's today. I think it'll be lots of fun. There are so many young women in our ward! I need to remember to get set apart next week. I love getting set apart. It's nice to get a blessing.

Aaron's been having a hard couple of days. He's been in constant tantrum mode since Thursday. I hope it's just because he'd been sick. His tantrums are horrible. He doesn't ever talk to anyone in a normal way. It's always whining or yelling. And anything can set him off.

October 4

The sickness continues. I can't believe sick season is here so fast and so strong. We took Rachel in on Monday and it turned out she had Pneumonia. So she got antibiotics and was home until Wednesday. Aaron was sick until Wednesday also, but his just stayed a normal cold or flu. Then Seth got sick on Tuesday and on Thursday we found out he had an ear infection. So he's been on antibiotics, bu they seem very slow to work. He's still feeling quite sick. Then I got it on Friday night. I'm tired of sicknesses already and it's only October. We have a good six months left.

Right now we're in Visalia. Grandma Monte and Gpa Gene decided to come visit my mom for Conference weekend since the temple was closed. So we decided to come join the party. We left Thursday night. Seth was miserable and I had to hold him as he slept restlessly the whole way. Then Friday we went the the Fresno Zoo. The kids loved it. It was great weather and not crowded. Saturday we watched conference, went the the park, and did a little shopping. Then today we've watched conference and had lunch with Gma Donna. It's been nice to visit, I just feel bad about bringing all our sickness.

Thursday we had a Halloween kickoff party with the Deans. We made Halloween tye-dye t-shirts and halloween suckers and eyeballs made of pudding. The kids had a great time.

September 27

I missed writing last week because we were in Utah. We left Friday and drove up to Bob's mom's house. Casey came over that night. Then Saturday morning I went up to Sandy and had lunch with Amanda and Wendy. That was great. I love those girls. Then Bob and I went to the BYU game with Casey and Kami. Casey won 4 tickets to the game plus VIP parking and food before the game and at half time. BYU lost big, but it was still fun. Then we came home Sunday morning.

Today Bob, Rachel and Aaron are all sick. It was the primary program, so that was sad for the kids to miss it. Rachel seems to have it the worst. She's had a fever for 3 days, so if she doesn't get better tomorrow I might have to take her in. I really hope Seth doesn't get it. He's just barely getting back to his regular self after being sick the last time.

I got a new calling today. I'm a beehive advisor now. And they'll release me from both my other callings. I'm happy, but sad. I'm sure I'll really like Young Women's too. I loved it in GA. But I was really loving being RS teacher and VT coordinator. There are so many amazing women in our ward and I got to know so many of them because of my callings. And I loved going to Relief Society every Sunday.

My websites continue to stay busy. I keep thinking I'm almost done, but as soon as I get something done I get another request from another site. The money is really nice, and I guess it's good to get it in now since the kids are back in school and it's before the holiday season.

September 13

Seth got sick this week. He's also getting his top front teeth, so he's had a rough week. He's starting to do better now, he's not sick, just a little snotty still. But both his teeth aren't through yet, so he's not completely back to his normal self yet.

Yesterday we went boating with the Deans on Lake Mead. They have their own boat and go all the time and this time invited us. We all had a great time. We left at 6:30 and got back around 4:00. The lake was so warm. I always associate waterskiing with getting cold in the water. But the water was perfect. The kids loved it and loved being with their friends. They all really liked swimming with life jackets on. Rachel and Aaron weren't sure about it at first, but once they realized they really wouldn't go under, they had a great time.

I finished all my big website projects and the requests for updates have slowed down, so it's more back to normal. That's nice.

September 6

Aaron went to preschool this week and loved it. His teacher said he did great too. He's so excited to go to his school and make crafts and do fun things. Those times while he's at school are going to be so great for me too. Seth takes a regular nap at exactly the same time that Aaron is at school. So I can get so much done on those days!

I taught Relief Society today. The lesson went really well. I love that calling. I love that everytime I read the lesson the first time, I don't know how to teach it and then as I work at it and pray, it just comes together. And I'm able to see the things I should emphasize and questions I should ask. I also love doing the visiting teaching.

I worked on websites a lot this week. It seemed like everyone had changes they needed done right away. It was doable, but I'm glad most weeks aren't that busy.

I read the book "Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale this week. I read about it somewhere and it sounded good so I requested it from the library. It took a couple of months to come in because so many other people had requested it. At first I didn't know if I wanted to take the time to read it, most of the time reading books for fun doesn't make it to the top of my list of things to do; not because I don't like to read, but because there are so many other things that need to be done. But I really enjoyed that book. It was entertaining and easy and it was a nice break from the normal.

August 30

This week was great! The kids loved their classes and teachers. Rachel had no problems going to her class. I waited with them until they walked into class on the first day, but she didn't care. She played on the playground until the bell rang and then almost forgot to even wave at me as her class walked in. Danny did great also. He seems very confident at school and liked sharing his knowledge about how things work at school with Rachel.

Aaron also had a wonderful week. I think Danny and Rachel going back to school will be great for Aaron. He had so few tantrums. And he got very interested in riding his bike with training wheels. We went outside to ride several times every day. He starts preschool this Tuesday. I hope he has fun there.

We left Seth with a babysitter for the first time to go on a date. He did pretty well, but didn't go to bed for her. All the kids were still awake when we got home. I'm sad Seth is getting older so fast, but some things like being able to go on dates without a baby will be nice to do again.

My back is doing really well right now. It doesn't hurt. I did pilates and swimming this weekend and they both were great for not hurting my back. My blessing said I'd find patterns of what would work for me. I went to yoga this week. I thought that would be one thing that would be good for me to stick with because being more flexible seems to really help me. But it usually makes me sore. I'm thinking its all the bending. Bending sets it off lots of times. So this week I'm got to do some more swimming and maybe I'll try spinning and see if that can be in my "pattern" of things that work for my back. I'm really starting to like swimming, though, so that's good because I always hated it before.

August 23

This week was long. I think there was one week too many on this summer vacation. There was much fighting and whining going on here. I'm excited for school to start tomorrow. And the kids are too. They all went to their orientations last week and met their teachers and saw their classrooms. Rachel seems the most apprehensive so far, but she did awesome last year when she started kindergarten and her best friend, Jaclyn, is in her class, so hopefully she'll get there and feel fine tomorrow. The kids all got blessings tonight. I think that helped ease their worries and mine. I'll miss them, but it'll be nice for them to be happily engaged in school again.

This weekend we went camping to celebrate the end of summer. We went to Cathedral Gorge in the middle of Nevada. It was still a little too hot for camping there, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, but it wasn't too bad because there was a natural spring there with a pool and playground, so we hung out there in the heat of the day. We grilled hot dogs for dinner and made smores at night. They all slept pretty well, despite being sweaty for the first hour or so until it cooled off. Then the next day we did lots of exploring and climbing. And we ended the trip with a slurpee.

My back is doing quite well this week. The blessing really helped. And I've been stretching a lot. And I was able to go swimming and to yoga without any problems.

August 16 blessing

• I will be able to learn routines and patterns that will work for my body
• Don't push my body too hard
• Be consistent
• These will lead to continued healing
• I will be blessed with inspiration that will help me where I would otherwise struggle if I rely on my own mind
• I will be protected and in turn will protect my kids
• Blessed me in my church callings and as a mother
• I will be able to say the things I need to to the kids to help develop their spirits
• I'll be able to get the rest I need
  

Blessings 6/21/08

This was right after I got pregnant and my back started getting bad again and I was worried that my whole pregnancy would be really painful.

Blessing of healing

• I will be healed in the Lord's time
• I will be able to take care of my motherly duties
• I will have/make time to get closer to him

Blessing of comfort

• The Lord is proud of me and my desire to add to my family
• I will have a balanced life and be able to get the rest I need to have time to get closer to Him
• I will be healed and receive the full faculties/abilities I previously enjoyed
• I will have the support of those around me--including my children who will help when they see the need and healthcare professionals
• He is only a prayer away
• I will get closer to him through prayer and scriptures and that will help me during the times when things feel too hard.

Blessing 2/24/08

• comfort
• I will be able to live a more pain-free life
• The Lord is beside me
• His heart goes out to me and likes to hear from me
• I will be able to learn the things I need to from these trials
• I will be able to take care of my daily duties and make/find time to exercise and train my body in the way I'd like to
• I will be able to find the medical care I need

Over the next couple of months my back really started to heal. In April I had the block in my back to try to numb the nerve. And by the end of April I was feeling enough improvement that we decided to start trying for a baby.

Blessing 1/22/08

• Begin to heal
• see the light at end of the tunnel
• Look past the pain
• Directed to healthcare professionals
• They will offer inspired suggestions
• The Savior will carry my burdens when I need him to
• I will be able to fulfil my motherly duties and find joy in it
  

August 16

This week went so fast. It seems like two days ago I was writing about my week.

Physical therapy was enlightening, but not helpful this week. I have been having a little more nerve pain. It started about 3 or 4 weeks ago, when we were in Visalia. I had 2 days where I had pretty bad sciatic pain in both legs. I haven't really had much of that--it was new for me. I can't think of what I did that would have set it off, but one time Bob was trying to make Seth stand up and dropped him, so I kind of twisted funny trying to grab him. But now I've been having a little pain and tightness down into my hamstring and calf and that alternates with hip pain. Throughout the day it'll cycle through hip pain, hamstring/calf pain, or no pain at all.

My physical therapists said SI joint pain never goes into the calf and my hip isn't rotating right now anyway. What I have is probably where my torn disc is pinching my nerve. Bummer. I was so close to healing. I had about two months of no pain and was able to do most of what I want to (I never tried running). It was so great. But that was short-lived. So now there isn't much to do for it. I'm hoping it was kind of a fluke and will go away, but my doctor thought it's probably something I have to live with. He said I can have a block done again where they numb the nerve with big needles and that may help. We'll see. Bob's going to give me a blessing today. I was still able to go to yoga and spinning this week and those didn't seem to effect it, it hurt the same after as it did before. And so far, it's not nearly as bad of pain as it was before.

We went bowling and swimming this week. We had fun at both. We went swimming at the Hoeffgens again. And while we were there Seth pooped in the pool. Out of four kids, he's the first one to have done that. His diaper leaked a little so I was frantically scooping it out and then I had to go clean him up. I guess I was spoiled that it never happened before.

Seth had his 6 month appt. this week. He's 20 lbs already. He's quite a chunk to carry around, but so adorable! He's pretty much exactly the same size as Danny was, but 4 lbs heavier than Aaron at the same age.

Rachel had her birthday on Friday. She had 5 girlfriends over and they made necklaces and did their nails, had cake and presents and a pinata, and played musical chairs. It was a fun little party. We went to circle K and got icees and had norwegian pancakes for dinner, as she requested and had a family movie night and watched Mary Poppins. She seemed happy with the day.

Aaron is doing great with keeping his thumb out. He doesn't even try anymore. But his tantrums have definitely increased. They're getting better, but still not fun. I hope it'll all even out soon and he'll be able to cope with stress in new ways in stead of sucking his thumb or throwing a tantrum.

August 9

My hip was hurting more this week so I made an appointment for physical therapy. It didn't really help at all. My hamstring is still really tight. I think I'll have to go again this week. That's a bummer because it costs $75 each time because our insurance doesn't cover it.

Seth got sick this week. It's a pretty bad cold. So we've been up most of the night the last two nights because he can't breathe very well. And he's so sad in the day with his runny nose and puffy eyes. I hope it gets better soon.

The cold started with Aaron, then I got it, then Seth. I realized that Aaron got sick right after he started sucking his thumb again. And before vacation, he got sick when he was sucking his thumb. I was going to just let him suck it and wait a few months until I could figure out my next move because we've failed twice now at keeping it out. But once I realized that Seth and I were sick because Aaron sucks his thumb, that was the last straw! I want to be done with the thumb. So I went to the internet again and found some bitter nail polish stuff that tastes horrible and they can't just lick off easily. We started it on Friday and so far it's been great. On it's website it said to use if for a month straight because a couple of weeks isn't long enough to fully break the habit. So we'll see how it goes. I'm hopeful it'll work.

We had the Deans over for a barbeque last night. We had a great time. The kids played together really well and it was fun for Bob and I to hang out with them.

August 2

This weekend was girls weekend. Mom and Kristal flew in for the weekend. Mom got here Thurs night and then Saturday Kristal got in at 8 am. We picked her up and looked around some Hotels until shopping opened. Then we shopped from about 10:30 to 3. We went to lunch at Maggianos. Then Bob brought the kids down and we all went swimming. Seth did great taking a bottle while I was gone. After the kids left we went to see Blue Man Group. Then in the morning we slept in a little and then came home for the 11:00 sacrament meeting. They fly out tonight. It's been a nice weekend. I'm so glad they were able to come visit.

Bob did great with the kids. He was so nice not to complain about the kids tantrums and being up in the night with Seth. He's such a great dad. He even got them all ready and took them to church this morning. And they all looked very presentable.

Also this week we found a pool in the ward that the kids love and the owner, the Hoeffgens, said we can come over whenever we want. So we swam there a couple of times. We also went to a YMCA pool with the Deans. I really like Kata. She reminds me a lot of Amanda.

July 26

My kids are driving me crazy today. Things have really been pretty good with fighting and tantrums, but today we're all tired and it's making it really hard. Rachel's whiny, Danny is teasing and Aaron is tantruming. I was up a lot with Seth because he was sick last night. And it seems like there are more fights on Sundays anyway.

This weekend was our first regular three day weekend since Bob changed to his new 4 -10 hour schedule. It was nice, but by the end it was a little boring. We didn't plan anything to do. The first day I had lots of jobs for Bob to do around the house since we've been gone so much lately. Then that night we had a family movie night and watched Peter Pan. Then Saturday, we should have gone somewhere or started a project, but we didn't. I did get to go to exercise classes at the gym both days, so that was really nice.

Then at night after the kids went to bed, Bob and I watched part of a Harry Potter movie since we're going to try to go to see the new one at the theater next weekend. But then Seth started throwing up all over the floor. And then he dry-heaved for a while after that. Poor little boy. Then he's been fine today and he never had a fever. And I'd just nursed him and he ate some peas earlier in the day, but he's been eating peas all week. I don't know what was wrong.

This weekend will be "girls weekend" for me. My mom and sister are coming and we're staying at a hotel and shopping and eating and going to a show. I'm excited! I hope the kids are good for Bob.

Today

It's summer vacation, so I don't really have a typical day right now, but I thought I might like to remember what the days were like when I read over this years from now.

• Got up 3 times with kids last night and my hip has been hurting a little, so I decided to sleep in and skip the gym this morning.
• The kids started coming in around 7, but I didn't get out of bed until 7:40. At that time I got dressed, said my prayer (asking for patience with the kids), and went out to the kitchen. There I found the kids watching tv. The fridge door was wide open with a chair in it and a spilled strawberry smoothie all over inside and on the floor. Aaron had tried to get it and slipped and then didn't know how to clean it up so he just left it. It looked like it had been there at least 15 minutes.
• Served cold cereal to the kids
• Told everyone to get dressed and we went to go check out the Target that just opened.
• We bought the kids all new backpacks and lunchboxes because we need them, and because it's easier to get out of the store with happy kids if they get something.
• Figured out how to use the food processor I got for christmas and grated zucchini from my mom to make zucchini brownies.
• Made peanut butter sandwiches for lunch
  
• Danny had a friend over and all 4 kids played rain trampoline while I hung out with Seth inside.
• Worked on websites for a little while
• Made pizza for dinner
• Put Seth to bed around 7:30
• Put other kids to bed around 8:30
• Watched "So you think you can dance"
• Read "Jesus the Christ" for about 20 minutes
• Went to bed at 10:30
  

8 Years

Bob and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this year by having my mom stay with the kids while Bob and I went downtown and stayed at the Venetian hotel. We had a great time. We had a super nice room. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant in the hotel and walked around and looked at things. We stayed on a Tuesday night and Bob had to be back at work the next morning at 9. But the nice lady at the desk let us have a late checkout so I went home and got the kids and my mom and we went back and spent the day in the pools. It was a great time.

I love Bob so much. He's my best friend. And he is SO good-looking. I am so in love with him. He's such a good, fun, loving man. I'm very blessed.

Summer Vacation/Family Reunion

We had a great summer vacation this year! We went to Midway, UT for a Woolley/Barnhart family reunion and for Grandpa Gene's 80th birthday. Bob and I especially like Midway because we spent some of our honeymoon there. Here's the quick run down of what we did.

• Stayed in a great cabin and the weather was perfect.
• We had a great party to celebrate Grandpa.
• Went fishing with Uncle Ryan. Rachel loved the worms most and liked to rip them in half for the fishermen.
  
• We did some fireworks for the 4th of July and watched the Midway fireworks from the hot tub.
• We went to BYU and the kids bowled. Aaron won.
• Rode the Alpine slides
• Went on a great kid-hike organized by Ryan
  
• Rented a boat and water-skiied/rode the tube. The kids loved that!
• We went to church and Elder Holland was there and bore a powerful testimony.

Summer Vacation '09

June 27

Seth got his first tooth this week. I hadn't even noticed it was coming in. That is about a month earlier than the other kids got theirs. But now his other tooth has bee trying to come in since then and that one has made not sleep so well. He's also sitting up pretty well. That is going to be nice to be able to set him up with toys and let the kids play around him.

I finished a redesign of the pools website I did a couple of years ago. The owners of the company are in our ward. I also am supposed to start soon on two other websites one for a phone installation company in Utah and one for a nonprofit in GA. Both of them heard about me from other people I did sites for. The design part of websites is fun, it just takes a little more time. But I should make some good money.

I signed Aaron up for preschool in the fall. So he'll go to 2 years of preschool; the other kids only did one. I'm hoping it'll help him with the tantrums and keep him more occupied. And I realized he's only 2 months younger than Rachel was when she started preschool, his birthday is just after the cutoff. So it'll also be nice to have 2 mornings a week when it's just me and Seth. That'll be nice for grocery shopping and errands.

The kids have been playing with the Dean kids a lot this summer. Their oldest, CJ, has been in Danny's playgroup all year, but we just realized that their girl, Savannah, who is six months younger than Rachel and will go into kindergarten in the fall, plays great with Rachel. And they have a boy who is one year younger than Aaron, so they don't play together much, but enough. And then we both have babies a month apart, so it's been great to trade the three oldest kids back and forth. And I really like Kata, their mom. She reminds me of Amanda.

My back has been feeling great! And I love going to the new gym I just signed up at. They built a Gold's gym about 5 minutes away. I've been doing yoga and swimming laps so far. Then I'm still walking and doing physical therapy exercises. I've just been in heaven getting to do so much. I feel really blessed. Amanda and her husband just did a triathlon, and now I want to do one too. There's a triathlon sprint in Las vegas in October. I think I might be able to do it. And if I have to walk instead of run or just go slow, that's fine with me, I just think it would be lots of fun. I never was interested in triathlons before, mostly because I don't like swimming. But I don't love biking either. But now I realize I can't just do one thing, I need to get everything strong and not overuse anything. I'm going to see how my exercising goes over the next month and pray about it some more. But it's at least fun to think about.

We leave this thursday for our vacation in Midway. We'll have a great time. I just need to get all the packing and laundry and house cleaning done before we go. My mom will come back and stay with us for a few days after, so I don't want to come home to a messy house.

June 21

We have totally failed at the thumbsucking. He says he doesn't want to suck his thumb, but he makes no effort. He sucks as much as he ever did before. Bummer. And his tantrums are still going strong. Some days are better than others, but it's still really hard.

Last weekend Seth and I went to Houston to go to Casey's wedding. We had a great time. Seth was a dream. He was so adaptable and happy. He slept and ate when he needed to and was easy to entertain. Casey's wedding was wonderful. He and Kami looked so happy. We went to Galvaston on Sunday before we left. The water was warm there, but so gross looking. It was so brown and the beaches weren't beautiful gulf beaches. And there was still lots of evidence of Hurricane Ike that came through a year ago. Bob did great with the kids while I was gone.

Thursday this week we went to the Excalibur for the night. They have good rates right now because of the economy so we went for one night. And Bob just came over after work and left in the morning. We played in the hotel and pool and watched High School Musical 3 because Danny wanted it. The pool had a waterslide and Danny loved it. He's getting so big he'd get in line and go down it all by himself and he and Rachel are getting to be pretty good swimmers so I didn't need to worry about them. And Aaron had a floaty that he was happy with. The kids and I went to the pool Friday morning also without Bob because he'd gone back to work. I was a little worried going by myself, but I really felt like the Spirit was with me as I was in the pool with them. I was calm and was able to keep my eye on all four kids who were all doing their own things in different directions. We had a great time and everyone was safe.

Rachel came home from church today and said, "Trevor said he's going to marry me in front of the whole class". I could tell she was flattered. She talks about marrying boys and boyfriends quite a bit. I hope she doesn't just get more boy crazy as she gets older. She's already got some skills with the boys. One day I walked the kids to school and she was a little upset with me when we got there because I wouldn't let her bring a rolly polly bug to school. So we got there and she went to sit by herself on the playground. Within a couple of minutes she had four boys all around her talking to her.

Today was Father's day. We got Bob a new shaver and a gym bag. And he needed new sandals, but I didn't want to pick them out without him, so the kids drew pictures of sandals on their cards they made and we'll go shopping for sandals soon. Bob was fasting because he had to go to a disciplinary council, so we didn't make him breakfast. But we made him peanut butter cookies yesterday.

June 7

We had a hard week this week. Aaron's tantrums were constant. He was sick so that added to it. Also, he's been doing really well with keeping his thumb out, which is great, but when he's been sick and tired, he hasn't had his thumb to comfort him, so I think that added to the tantrums. And now he's started sneaking to suck his thumb. He still says he wants to quit, so I'm glad about that. Maybe after his sickness is gone, he'll be able to finish off the thumbsucking.

I really hope next week is better than last week for Aaron. I felt like such a failure with him. There was nothing I could think of that would help him. He was constantly upset about something and having a tantrum or hurting Danny or Rachel.

On Thursday I noticed Aaron had one swollen lymph node in his neck. It was literally golf ball sized. So I took him in to the doctor to check it out. Last November both of them swelled up really big so they did x-rays and blood tests, but didn't find anything wrong. So this time, since it was just one lymph node, the doctor thought it was an infection in it. So he gave us amoxacillin. The only thing Aaron ever said was bothering him was that he had a scratchy throat, but he said it wasn't that bad. So we started the medicine on Thursday and then on Saturday he had a huge allergic reaction. He has red splotches all over his body and last night his lips and face were swollen. Bob took him to urgent care in the middle of the night because we were worried his tongue would swell too. They said it was probably a reaction to the Amoxacillin. We'll go see his regular doctor tomorrow and see what they want us to do now.

The kids finished school this week. On the last day of school Danny had an award ceremony. He got lots of awards, including one for having the most AR points in the whole first grade. AR stands for Accellerated Reader and it's where they read books and then take tests on the computer about the book. Danny's so competitive and driven. If there's some goal and someone to beat, he'll really work hard. We're really proud of him.

My hip is doing pretty well this week. I'm walking in the morning now. I really like it. I'm not actually getting to run, but everything else I love about running is there--getting out early when it's cool and quiet, being by myself, time to think about anything. I'm hopeful that someday I'll run, but I'm really making progress I guess. I can exercise regularly and I don't have much pain in the day. It's been a long time since that was the case.

May 31

Last weekend we went to San Diego for Memorial Day. We stayed at Kristal's and my mom and Dustin came and met us there. We had a great time! We went to the beach on Saturday and Monday, which the kids all just loved! Then Kristal had plenty of plans for us to go do when we weren't at the beach. They had the Cow Parade in La Jolla right now. They decorated 40 life-sized fiberglass cows and put them all around the downtown area. We had a great time walking around finding the cows. I think we found 23 of them. We had a picnic at the park and saw the seals and went in a cave. And we rode the ferry to Coronado Island to get ice cream. It was a great little vacation.

Things with Aaron have been going really well! Last week, before San Diego, was a really hard week. Aaron was constantly tantruming and it was wearing me out. So on Wednesday Bob gave me a blessing and I know that really helped. Also that book I got from the library had a lot of good ideas. He did so well in San Diego, even my mom noticed the difference. He still has tantrums, but not nearly as bad as it was. I think we're making a lot of progress.

This is what the blessing said:

• I'll be blessed with patience and strength in working with Aaron
• I should make the home comforting and conducive to opportunities to teach
• I should listen to the Spirit to teach Aaron spiritual and temporal things
• Find time to be with Aaron
• He will learn the importance of love and the gospel
• Progress will be made
• We have four wonderful children with different strengths and personalities. We should celebrate this.
• My health will continue to improve

This is the last week of school. We are all excited for the break. I've been working on making plans to entertain the kids over the summer so they don't get bored and fight or watch tv too much. Some of the ideas I have so far are a movie night once a week, a cooking day where the kids pick something to make and we make it together, a craft day, a pool day where we visit friends with pools. And I'm getting them signed up in a couple of summer reading programs and they'll have three weeks of swimming lessons.

May 17

This week was a sick week. It started last Saturday when Danny threw up and was sick all day. Then Aaron got it Monday and Rachel got it Tuesday. Then I got it Thursday and Bob got it Friday. It was a stomach thing that lasted about a day and a half and it was miserable. Rachel also had a cold with a sore throat on top of hers and now Danny is starting in with the sore throat. I hope we don't start into another week like last week. I realized that we have been very blessed to not be sick since before Seth was born. It always makes me so nervous when we have germs going around with a brand new baby. And usually the spring is a bad time of year for sickness at our house, but we haven't had anything big for months. I'm thankful that at least Seth is a little older while we're dealing with this sickness.

Seth is awesome. He's such a happy easy baby. Last night he went to bed at 8:30. He got up and ate at 5 am and then slept until 8:30. And he naps so easily and he's happy and content when he's awake. He just started rolling over this weekend.

Aaron has been getting better with his tantrums. I've been really trying to be more positive with him while he's happy and patient in the tantrums and I've been talking to him about how he can control the tantrums. And it seems to be helping. I've been reading a book from the Library called How to raise your Spirited Child. It has some good ideas. I wasn't even looking for the book. I was searching for books about bugs and gardens because that's what we were going to do for his school and for some reason that book popped up in the search so I requested it too. I think it must have been divine intervention. Aaron is such a great kid. He's just a little more persistent and intense. I'm trying to learn to work with that.

The boys all were recovered barely enough to go on the Father's and Son's campout this weekend. They had a pretty good time for just coming off being sick. Rachel and I had a girls night. We went to KFC to get drumsticks--Rachel's favorite. Then we played go fish and watched Sleeping Beauty. Then she slept with me and we watched a little AFV in bed before going to sleep. She's such a fun, sweet girl.

And Danny is so driven when he is interested in something. He's the smartest in his class and has become a great reader. He loves catch-it at recess and he asks someone at home to play with him every night. He loves soccer and pretty much any sport. And he's building quite a testimony. He suprises me with how much he knows when we talk about the gospel. I am so blessed with such wonderful kids.

And Bob is my best friend. I love him so much. He totally gets me. He knows when to help me and when to let me do things myself. He's so supportive of me and my needs. And he works so hard for our family. Plus he's fun to hang out with when the kids go to bed or we get to go on a date. And he's so hot!

May 10 - Mother's day

I've had such a great mothers day. It started yesterday when Bob watched the kids while I went and got a pedicure and a new shirt for church. It was especially nice of him since Danny was sick and throwing up yesterday. Then today I got up and Bob had made breakfast and he and all the kids had made cards for me. And I'd asked for a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger for Mother's day (I read they make a really good clothes washer if there's no power) and he'd filled the bucket with several of my favorite candies. I taught Relief Society and it went really well. And Aaron had no tantrums yesterday. It was so wonderful. And he's had a few today, but he was great at church. He didn't complain once and he did the scripture in primary. Then Bob made lunch and after that I took a nap. It's been a pretty perfect day.

Friday night we had a graduation party for Bob. We got some decorations at the party store. Rachel made many additional ones too. We had cake and ice cream. And Rachel made a diploma. We're very proud of Bob.

My hip is doing much better. The doctor said I was just rotated a little this time and I was 50% better than the last time I went in. He said he thinks I should be able to run a mile in 4 weeks. I don't think I'll try that soon. I need to get much stronger first. But it was such a hopeful doctor appointment. I haven't had one of those in such a long time. I'm excited for the possibility of getting all better.

May 3

I think my hip rotated again and that's why I've been having different aches. I spent last week doing pretty much nothing for exercise so I didn't hurt it. I have an appointment with my physical therapist on tuesday. Hopefully that will help. I have been walking the kids to school though.

Also this week I got dry socket in the tooth they pulled. It's amazingly painful. And there's not too much they can do except prescribe pain medicine, which isn't really safe for Seth, so I've just been using tylenol and advil. The pain now comes and goes. But they say it takes a few weeks for it to go away all the way.

Also this week I've spent a lot of time at the store stocking up on emergency and food supplies. There is a new kind of flu called the swine flu and they say it will turn into a pandemic. Even if it doesn't, it's a good reminder to keep my shelves stocked. It is true that if you are prepared ye shall not fear. I feel a lot of comfort in the fact that Bob and I would be able to take care of our family and neighbors in a lot of different situations. I still hope nothing ever happens to us, but if it does, it won't be as bad as it could be.

Last night we took our whole family to an Area 51s baseball game. We had a great time! Sandy and May from next door gave us the tickets because they didn't want them. The weather was perfect and there is a great grassy area inside the stadium. We brought blankets and the kids ran and played while we watched the game. And Seth was great. He loved looking at the trees and the kids running around. And then he fell asleep and slept for half the time.

Seth is getting so big. He put on three pounds last month. He's turning out to be more Danny-sized than I thought he'd be. He's getting pretty regular in his daytime naps and he goes to be easily at night, but he still gets up twice at night. Hopefully he'll just grow out of that soon.

Rachel and I went on a date yesterday. She's been really into dressing up lately. And I had to go to DI anyway, so for our date we got her a couple of dress-up dresses. She's so cute with them. She's changes from one to the other several times a day. It's nice that she's so easy to entertain and such a happy, sweet girl.

April 26

Amanda and her family stayed with us last night. They are on their way through to Disneyland. We got a babysitter and went out to dinner with Kevin and Amanda. It was so fun to spend some time with them. It's nice to be in a place where so many people pass through.

I had a tooth pulled this week. It wasn't fun. I had a root canal in the tooth in college. Then I finally got a crown on it about 3 years ago, but the dentist didn't do a very good job and they had to redo the crown. But in the process of taking it off and putting another one on, the tooth cracked all the way through the root. So this week I went in to see what was going on and they explained it all and pulled it right then. I didn't have any milk saved up in the freezer for Seth, so I couldn't take the pain medicine they prescribed for me. That first night was really painful. It's getting better now, though. And I go back in a couple of weeks to get a permanent bridge put in.

I hurt my back last weekend. I'm not really sure what I did. But it kind of threw me off with my rhythm for how my back was getting better. I've had weird different aches and pains this week. But overall not too bad. I'm still just walking for exercise.

April 19

The kids were back to school this week. They have less than 2 months left. The year has gone so fast. Danny and Rachel had their first soccer games yesterday. They were both a little humbled after the games. Danny has moved up to the 7-9 year old league and Rachel's real soccer game was a little harder than family soccer in the living room. Last year we rewarded Danny with ice cream at Golden Spoon when he scored goals. They were both expecting that after the game, but it didn't happen yet. But they had fun. Rachel has a hard time focusing after the first half of the game or practice. She starts dancing around of digging holes with her cleats. But she comes home saying she had a great time. And we have fun watching her.

I've been doing more walking and I haven't had pain this week. Bob and I are having a competition to see who can lose some weight first. My goal is 9 lbs to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. And Bob's goal is 13 lbs. Whoever does it first gets $100 to spend on whatever they want. Bob's super serious about winning. He goes to the gym twice a day and eats the same or less than I do. I think he's going to win. But, I'm still trying to eat better and exercise when I can because I'm tired of not fitting into all my clothes.

I've been working on websites quite a bit. My New Mexico site wants their site redesigned. I like that kind of work. And it's nice to make the extra money.

April 12 - Easter

We had a great visit at my parent's house. We went to the park a lot and shopping and just relaxed at her house. We had planned to go to the beach to celebrate Danny's birthday, but it was forecast to rain most of the week there. So we went to Adventure Park (an arcade and miniature golf place). Danny seemed just fine with how it turned out. It was nice to have a change of scenery.

Then we drove home on Friday. And everyone came here that night. Our house was full. We put our kids in the closet and used all the bedrooms for other family members. We went to a movie and had pizza and just hung out around the house. We also had a combined birthday party for Danny, Casey, Ryan and my dad.

This morning for Easter we hid Easter baskets for the kids and Aaron apparently ate too much candy because he threw up during sacrament meeting. Luckily we were in the overflow on the hardwood floor so it was easy to clean up. I had to teach Relief Society today. Then we came home and had lunch and walked to the park.

Seth was blessed today too. It was nice to have my brothers and dad here to participate. Seth slept the whole time. He's such a wonderful, easy-going baby. He still sleeps well day and night. He sleeps with me and gets up a couple of times a night, but I think that's partly because he sleeps with me still. We're going to work on moving him to his bed over the next month. He takes naps easily and sleeps in his carseat in my room for most naps.

April 5

My hip is much better than last time. It turns out that when it rotates forward it's something I can control more. And if I get my muscles strong with exercise and stretching I can keep it in place. Last time it seemed like it was more the tendons that couldn't hold my hip in place because even though I did all the exercises it still didn't stay in place. So my doctor says I shouldn't need to come back unless it gets really bad again. And I haven't had much pain at all since I saw him on Tuesday. I'm really excited and hopeful. This week I'm going to start adding in some aerobic exercise like walking along with my strengthening and see how it goes.

Danny's birthday was fun on Thursday. He requested dinner at Carl's Jr. and fudge instead of birthday cake. Then we went to the church and played catch-it.

March 29

I went to the physical therapist this week. My hip is rotating again, but it's rotating forward instead of backward, which is what it did before I was pregnant. So it'll probably mean several expensive dr. appointments, but I'm hopeful that it will heal faster and not be as painful as last time because I'm being much more careful.

We went camping at Valley of fire this weekend. The kids loved it and Seth was great. We cooked hot dogs and s'mores and then had donuts and hot chocolate for breakfast. It was a little cold at night, but the kids still slept fine. And they loved exploring and going for walks. We sat in the tent at night and told stories until we were tired.

We leave this weekend for Visalia. We'll all be there for conference weekend and then Bob will leave and come back home on Monday and I'll stay with the kids until Thursday or Friday because it's spring break. Then we'll come back with my mom and Dustin and everyone will come to our house for Easter weekend and Seth's blessing.

Danny turns seven on Thursday. I can't believe it. He's such a smart, kind, competitive boy. He's always at the top of his class with all his grades. He loves all sports and just started soccer again. He plays catch-it at recess and loves to come home and tell me how well he did against the kids in his class and against the big 5th-graders. His school participates in a national online learning game called "Ticket to Read" where they get tickets for how well they read stories online and take tests on them. He was recently listed on the homepage of the website because he had such a large amount of tickets. He's also excited to be baptized in one more year. He regularly pulls out his Book of Mormon at night and reads it to himself in bed. I'm so thankful that Danny is part of our family. He's such a blessing to have around.

March 22

The kids got their pictures taken this week. I keep recent pictures of the kids on the wall and we were missing Seth, so I got them in for pictures.



Seth laughed for the first time this week. That's a lot earlier than the other kid did it. He's smiling more and is very interested in watching his mobile.

My back is still hurting so I got an appointment with my old physical therapist this week. Hopefully he'll have some good ideas for how to help it.

Bob is just about done with his Masters. He's been working so hard on his final project. He'll present it at a conference this week and then he just has to write it up and he'll be done. He's so excited to be done with school. I'm so proud of him. I know I wouldn't want to do homework right now. I already did that. It would be so hard to get myself focused to do it again.

blessing

Bob gave me a blessing last night. Here are the main points I can remember.

• I will feel the spirit palpably when I need it and spirit will work stronger in my life and the kids' lives. And it will be stronger in our home
• I will see the hand of the Lord more powerfully in my life
• I will feel content and peaceful and know that things are taken care of and provided for in my life
• I will know when to push my body and when to lay off when exercising in regard to my back and hip
• My body will fully heal from childbirth

I was hoping for a little more direct guidance for what to do for my back, but I guess I'll just have to keep praying as I go along. Another neat thing is that I was looking through my old journals to read about when I hurt my knee in college and how that healed. As I was reading, I found what I wrote from a blessing my dad gave me. It said I would receive all the blessings in my patriarchal blessing even if I didn't recognize it at the time. I'd forgotten about that. I've always wondered a little because I didn't recognize Bob when I saw him. It was just a nice confirmation that I didn't just miss out on that blessing.

March 15

I started exercising this week. It's been so nice to start feeling a little stronger. But my hip has started hurting a little too. I'm not sure what to do for it. I think I'm going to ask Bob to give me a blessing to help me with it. I really hope it doesn't get as bad as it was. It just consumes so much of my energy when it hurts.

Seth is so easy still. I don't remember any of the other kids sleeping as much as he does. He takes great naps during the day that let me still get a lot done. And he gets up a couple of times in the night, but most of the time he'll just eat and go back to sleep. He started smiling last week and he is getting a little more interested in interacting with us. The kids just love him. Especially Aaron.

School has been going well for Aaron. And he seems like he's doing better than he was with his tantrums. He's still so impatient when he can't do something. He wants to be as good or better than Danny and Rachel at everything.

I have been so blessed in the last few months. There are always some hard times after a new baby with all the lack of sleep. And I'm usually pretty slow to heal after birth. This time I was especially slow and uncomfortable. But after prayers and blessings I was healed quickly. It was so nice to feel the love of my Father in Heaven. Some of my prayers and problems at the time seemed so unimportant, but Heavenly Father's quick response to my prayers reminded me that what I'm doing is important. And that he is happy that we chose to bring another spirit to our family and he is more than willing to help us when it gets hard.

Bob's birthday was Friday. He's 33 now. We got him a new game for the Wii. Danny was way more excited for Bob's birthday than Bob was because it meant Bob would open the new game that day. So when Bob came home from work he opened presents, we had Carl's Jr. for dinner and the kids played his new game. Then Bob and I watched a movie when the kids went to bed.

Feb 22

This last week was my first full week on my own with 4 kids. It went pretty well. I even had a successful trip to Sams Club with Aaron and Seth. Seth slept the whole time, so that made it easy.

Seth is still a pretty sleepy baby. I think the longest time he's stayed awake is about 2 1/2 hours. His umbilical cord finally fell off this week. And his circumcision is doing well. So this week he should finally be able to have a real bath. He's such a sweet, cute little baby.

I did school with Aaron twice this week. It went really well and he had a great time. It was fun to spend time with him too.

Feb 15, 2009

Seth continues to be a content little guy. He is still sleeping a lot and he is eating better. He had his circumcision this week. With the other boys they did it while we were still at the hospital. But in Las Vegas they wait until the boy is 2 weeks old. It was sad to see him hurt, but by the next day he seemed to be fine. He is healing nicely.

My mom and dad came to help last weekend. My dad was here for the weekend and then my mom stayed until Wednesday. It was so nice to have them visit. And I like that they come a week or two after the baby. Then I'm feeling better and can enjoy the company more. My mom was so helpful cleaning the house and laundry and entertaining kids. She is such a good example of how to be a good mom. I'm so thankful for her.

Aaron is going through a bit of the "terrible threes". It seems like our kids all have had a harder time being 3 than 2 years old. So my new goal is to be better at having school at home with him two days a week. I did that with the other kids and I started doing it a little at the beginning of the school year, but I was so tired the last few months while I was pregnant that I didn't do it much. But I think he would really benefit from the attention and the structure. I'm going to try to do two lessons a week; one from my preschool book and one from the new nursery manual.

Seth's Birth and Being Mr. Mom

Seth was born on a Tuesday evening (1/27/09 - another date that I get to remember) a little before 18:00. Jean has mentioned a couple of times that it was one of her easiest births, if not the easiest. This doesn't mean that Seth came without any work or difficulties (ex. the epidural, when initially administered, completely deadened one side of her body while 'allowing' Jean to more fully experience the joys of a somewhat-natural childbirth on the other side), but he came out perfectly, with the exception of trying to hook one arm to the inside of Jean on his way out. I guess he wasn't completely ready to give up his quiet studio apartment for a house full of siblings and noise, but he came and we have been happy and blessed to have him since. It's been fun to watch Danny, Rachel and Aaron take their turns holding Seth and talking about how much they love him. No jealousy or envy, just love for their new little baby brother. Aaron often comments while holding him that "I love my brother" and follows it with several kisses for Seth's head.

I got to strengthen my appreciation for what Jean does by playing Mr. Mom for a week and a half. It's amazing how much work is done around this house to make it function, especially with three (now four) little monkeys running and jumping all over the place. Hard to see how Jean manages and still finds time to do website work. Upon my return to the Water District I told people that I may have been absent from work and on paternity leave, but I was still working and just as hard. Jean does an amazing job and I'm such a lucky boy to have her at home to help nurture and raise our kids. Seth - you're very lucky and blessed (as we are)!

Cliff and Zonda came out to help this past Thursday evening. It's been nice to have their help to assist with the transition to having a fourth child. They are good to us and always so willing to help. I enjoy spending time with Jean's family and have never felt at any time that they are 'in-laws', but feel as though they are just as close (if not closer) to me than blood relatives. I'm very grateful for that. I picked wisely.

Seth has been a calm and content little boy - he still has his moments, but he's pretty observant and well-behaved. We've been working to get him interested in eating, as he seems to prefer sleep over most any thing else. That'll change as he realizes his duty as a Cox boy and starts to eat everything put in front of him like his Dad (and his brother Danny is starting to do). Seth is pretty mellow (opposite of how lively and energized Aaron is) and often stares and watches his surroundings when he is awake. He looks just like his brothers and is a good mixture of Aaron and Danny. He's a handsome (cool) guy.

I took Rachel to a Daddy/Daughter dance at Antonello this past week. We had a great time - she especially enjoyed getting to showcase her 'moves' at home after the dance. YMCA was her favorite song. Danny ran the mile on Wednesday and Thursday and finished first on both days. He's a fast (and good) kid, but when I asked him if he likes running, he said 'not so much'. Aaron has been fun to watch with his new brother. He's proud to take on that role.


I'm hoping to finish up most of my capstone project (creating a Flash module to help teach sustainable military land management concepts to students by using GIS and geovisualization techniques) for my MGIS degree over the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to being done with my Masters. If I manage to earn an 'A' for this semester I'll graduate with a 4.0 - then I'll almost be as smart as Jean and the rest of our kids. I've found it pretty amazing that I've been able to work through this program - all while holding down a full-time job, a part-time job, filling my callings in church (currently the Ward Clerk), being a father and husband, doing my part around the house, etc. I've been blessed the way things have worked out and wonder what I'll be doing with my time when I finish the program with a presentation at the Association of American Geographers Conference in March. Probably more work!

Seth is here

Seth was born January 27th at 5:57 pm. He was 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 inches. He was 13 days early. I started having some regular contractions four days earlier at night and they went all night, but by the morning when I got up and got ready to go to the hospital, they stopped. So after that I was really ready for Seth to come. This pregnancy was harder than the other ones either because I'm over 30 now or because it's my 4th. I was a lot sicker at the beginning. And then at the end he was so much lower than the other ones. By the last few weeks he was hitting nerves all over my legs pretty much constantly. I remember I got that a little in the last week or so with Danny, but this one was every hour and much stronger and for the last month.

Anyway, two days before Seth came, on Sunday, we went on a family power walk to try to bring on contractions. We even tried jumping on the trampoline a little. Then Monday I pushed Aaron in the stroller over to pick up Rachel at Jaclyn's house. The next morning, Tuesday, I woke up to contractions about every 5 minutes at 7:00. I got the kids ready for school and called Bob to come back from work. We got to the hospital around 10:00 and they started monitoring my contractions. They were regular but not very strong. They called them "irritabilities" not contractions. I explained that this is how my labor always started and that they never hurt or got really hard until my water was broken. The nurse wanted to send me home until I told her the baby would come in two hours if they broke my water and if they sent me home, I'd just come back in a couple of hours.

So then they admitted me, but my doctor had surgeries all day, so they started me on pitocin, but didn't break my water until 3:00. I was dilated to 4 cm when I got to the hospital, but then was to 10 cm by about 5:00. The doctor had to hurry in at the end. I pushed 4 times and Seth was here. His arm was up by his chest when he came out so I tore just a little bit, but she stitched it up and I haven't had any problems from it.

Bob went home and picked up the kids from their friends' houses and brought them to meet Seth. They were all very excited. Then our great neighbor, May, came over and stayed with the kids so Bob could come stay with me. That was so nice. Bob was never able to stay with me in GA when we had Rachel and Aaron. We stayed at the hospital all that day and then we were able to go home that night. Sandy and May brought pizza over and stayed with the kids so Bob could come check me out. Overall, things went really smoothly and Seth came to us perfect and healthy.

Bob stayed home from work for almost 2 weeks to help me. That was so wonderful to be all together for so long. Then my parents came for almost a week.

book

preview book I made