O Mamma Mia!

Today is my mom's birthday. I'd love to call her and tell her happy birthday, but I can't. Because she and my dad went to Saudi Arabia and Egypt all last week through next week! So I'm happy for her that she gets to do this AMAZING trip! So happy for her. I actually got to spend her birthday with her last year (which was a lot of fun-remember the manicures?) and I hadn't gotten to do that in years.

But, to celebrate with her this year, the kids came up with some good ideas to send birthday wishes to Grandma.

Love you Mom! Happy Birthday!

swimming lessons and much bragging to do

Tyler:

At his parent teacher conference, his teacher said that he was her, and I quote, "top student". That she puts him by kids that don't stay on task because he will help them focus and get done. And she also said that whenever she has a long paragraph she needs someone to read aloud that she calls on him because he's such a good reader. He is getting top scores in all of his subjects. Yea for Tyler!

Emalyn:

At her parent teacher conference, her teacher said that she is a good friend to those in her class. She also said that when she was quizzing Emalyn on her sight words that she knew more than they'd learned in class, she's good at sounding out words and is a great reader. When her teacher asked her to count to 20, Emalyn counted to 100. Emalyn has been working on her reading at home a lot, so we're really proud of her!

Krysta:

Well, I have to mention first that at Emalyn's parent teacher conference, she kept interrupting to show the teacher that she knew all the colors of her legos... It was funny because she's normally pretty shy around strangers but we finally had to listen to all her colors before we could get back to the conference. I guess she didn't want to be left out and wanted to show off her smarts too. Also, she's potty trained! She always tells me when she needs to go now. And loves to go potty at other people's houses...which can make giving the lesson at visiting teaching appointments take twice as long...ha ha. But I never believed all those stories before about kids who were potty trained in less than a month. I've never seen a kid of mine get it so quickly. But she did and I'm very relieved and very proud of her too!

I just re-read the title of this post and realized I still need to talk about their swimming lessons. Tyler and Emalyn love the water and they are really progressing in their swimming. Emalyn is getting better at kicking, putting her face in the water, and just becoming more comfortable in the water. Tyler is working on his backstroke and freestyle strokes. He went from one end of the pool to the other on his own for the first time last Tuesday! Krysta will be old enough for lessons next year...and is having a hard time waiting.

It is Well With My Soul

In the last few months I've heard the hymn, "It Is Well With My Soul" several times, performed several different ways. My favorite is by Dustin Christensen from the Album, Nearer: A New Collection of Favorite Hymns. However, I also recently learned the story behind the man who wrote the words, Horatio Spafford. It is an incredible story. I wanted to share it here because it is a story of someone who lost almost everything, through which his faith and his trust in the love the Savior has for all of us, was strengthened. He was a Christian. His story helps me remember that no matter what happens in life, our Heavenly Father is always there and that "the Lord loveth whom He chasteneth" D&C 95:1

Someone put his story with the hymn and some of the words in a youtube video. If you want to see it go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8_EfDqF7YI

Our Movers-In-Training

Yesterday, Scott and I decided that it was time to let Krysta sleep in the toddler bed instead of her crib. So we started rearranging her room, to make room for the bed. Tyler and Emalyn asked us what we were doing, and so we told them. Next time I came out of her room, I looked down the stairs, and this is what I saw. They were bringing it upstairs for us! They were totally working together and helping eachother. Aaaahhh, what a good moment to witness. And I especially love the self-motivation behind it.

Planes and Birthday pies

Last Saturday, we went to the Legacy Flight Museum, in Rexburg Idaho. They have around 20 planes there, all older models. They even have a small model of the airplance that the Wright brothers flew. Here we are in front of the Grumman TBM-3 Avenger. This airplane was flown in 1941, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

We let each of the kids choose their favorite plane to have their picture with. Here's Krysta with the "Section Eight", a P51-D Mustang, also flown in WWII.

Here's Emalyn with "Ole Yeller", also a P51-D Mustang. You can probably guess why it's called "Ole Yeller".

Here's Tyler with the Douglas E-1 Skyraider. This was his favorite because of the number of guns/missiles you could see.

Yesterday was Scott's birthday. We had a lot of fun. He requested a dinner of Montreal-seasoned pan-seared steak, green salad, rolls and for dessert, pumpkin pie. Around here, we don't really love cake, so we often have substitutes for our "birthday cake". Scott chose pie.

Here is Scott and our very excited children, with his presents. The kids and I made up a treasure hunt for him to find his presents. Needless to say, since they helped make the hunt's clues, they also had no problem helping him when he couldn't figure out where to go next. But he finally found his treasure of presents. Emalyn gave him a drawstring bag she made, Tyler gave him a coupon to clear his dinner dishes away, and we also gave him Reese's candies and a belt sander.

We hope we did a good job of showing how much we love our husband/father. He works hard for us, and we love him very much!

A Valentine's/Happy Birthday Scott Date!

Scott and I had a wonderful Valentine's date yesterday. We got to go out to eat (TGIF's), where Scott got to have what he's been craving-steak and loaded mashed potatoes. Then, we went over to our church building where they were having a Sweetheart's dance for the adults in our ward and another ward. It was so fun! Scott and I met country dancing in Pleasant Grove, UT. So dancing with him is sooo romantic and brings back lots of fun memories. (And the broken nose is actually one of those!). I couldn't believe how well lots of those dance steps came back-to both of us. He led the dances really well (as always) and I kept accidentally trying to lead myself anyway (as always!). Afterward, another couple who were going around the floor looking almost professional came up to us and said that they'd noticed we liked to dance too (we were the only other ones besides them who knew dances other than the slow sway back and forth dance.) and then they told us about a place here in town that hosts dances and even does dance instruction beforehand, for pretty cheap, and it's NOT A BAR. The last part is the amazing part. I hope we get to try out that place before too long.
I am so lucky to go through life with a wonderful man. I love you Scott!

A "New" Dishwasher!

Some of you know that we were going out last weekend to buy a new dishwasher. Our old one broke down last September, and so we've been washing dishes by hand since then. It never seemed bad or hard until we went to Scott's parents' house after Christmas. When I never did dishes except ONCE, and even then I only put them in the dishwasher. That's when I realized how magical dishwashers are. You put your dirty dishes in them...wait a bit...and then beautiful clean dishes come out. Did you know it takes less than half the time to do that than to wash them yourself? It's just like magic. So we came home, and that's when it really hit me how hard it is to have NO MAGICAL DISHWASHER here! I'm it! Well, that's not technically true. Scott helps a lot too-and don't get me wrong, that's pretty magical too. But I got new dishes for Christmas-and I never wanted to use them because it was easier to use paper plates-they don't need a dishwasher. They just go in the magical garbage.

So when we realized we had enough money to buy a dishwasher, I almost wept for joy. We went shopping. And realized that to get a halfway decent one, it was going to cost more than we'd thought. We could still afford it, but didn't really want to anymore. However, while shopping, we noticed some websites advertised, where dishwasher parts were sold. (We had tried to buy the parts needed back in September, but discovered they cost so much that it was just going to be better to get a new dishwasher.) After we got home, Scott went online to these places and found he could buy the parts for a fraction of the cost that we'd previously thought.

The parts came this last week, and after spending 4 1/2 hours on the dishwasher yesterday (more than three of those hours were spent cleaning out a clogged pipe-yuck!), we have a working, MAGICAL dishwasher of our own! I just loaded it and turned it on just before starting this post. Aaaahhh, life is good! And I'm so grateful to have a husband who knows how to fix stuff and is willing to spend the time to do it. All for me.

The escape artist and the art of dancing

This morning while Tyler and Emalyn were at school, I was doing the dishes in the kitchen, and I suddenly heard the front door open and close. I went to go check it out and found Krysta outside on the front porch, dressed like this. She said she was going to wait out there until Daddy came home-which was only 7 hours away! We came inside and I took the following video. The front door is now deadbolted!

A few days ago, while I was on the phone with my mom, Emalyn got all dressed up and danced for me. I wish I'd taken a video! It was so cute-and even without music!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday. He is such an amazing man and I am lucky to be able to call him "Dad." One thing that's been on my mind for a while now is how grateful I am for his testimony of the Gospel.
My Dad is a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I won't share his conversion story here, but it's a pretty amazing story. I just wanted to share how his conversion and his testimony have blessed me as one of his children. My parents are wonderful examples of faithful members of the church. My dad has made the study of the gospel and its principles a lifelong pursuit. It's easy to see his love for his Savior just by listening to him. He's made a lot of sacrifices for the gospel, but he sees them all as great learning opportunities. Right now, he donates a lot of time in tending to members of the church in the area where he lives and speaking in meetings, and I'm pretty sure it's exhausting at times, but he gives it freely. He also has an amazing grasp of the principles of life and of the gospel. I wish I had listened better when I was younger, but we've had some pretty good talks lately.

Thanks Dad. I love you!

Krysta update

We went to the Dr today (the urologist). We got some good news: no kidney damage and no surgery (yet). We're going to put her on low-dose antibiotics for a couple of months, during which we're hoping that she either grows out of this or it just goes away with the absent infections. Either one is a good possibility, the doctor said. We have our next appt in April, when they'll do another kidney scan to see if everything is alright. If it is, then no more antibiotics. If not, then we'll decide then what to do. She could be on antibiotics for up to a year. Hopefully not. We're also supposed to bring in a urine sample every month for the next three months. So that means we either have to take her in for a catheter once a month, or we potty-train her. I'm a little worried about potty training her (with everything she's already gone through), but that seems least-painful option (for her, anyway :)) So wish us luck with the potty training!
Other than that, she's doing fine now. She doesn't complain of pain anymore. Her cold is even gone this week. If she gets any kind of a fever, we're supposed to take her in immediately. He said there's still a possibility of a kidney infection (but a very small possibility) even with the antibiotics.

We're all doing great. Scott got an "Outstanding" in his performance appraisal at work last week. Nobody at his work got an "outstanding" last year, so this is pretty amazing. We went out to dinner to celebrate his success. This was the first time in YEARS we've gone out to eat as a family-and the kids loved it AND they ate their food!