1 year follow up post surgery, Morgan

Morgan, Malia and I spent most the beautiful day going from hospital to hospital for check ups and lab work at the U.  I still think primary children's is one of the kindest, most caring environments outside the temple.  Every nurse, doctor is so friendly and helpful.  When Morgan started crying because he found out he had to do some blood work(shots) nurses came and just surrounded him, some with baskets of toys and goodies to pick from.  Malia thought she'd help out by picking some toys out for him.  Even the lady who made our sandwiches when we took a break before getting shots came and sat by Morgan to tell him about her sister, who also had one kidney.  Morgan said she really made him feel better, and not just because she gave him a free ice cream cone.  Her name was MichaelAnn.    Then, as we were eating, in came a choir singing christmas carols.  It was all so nice to get our minds off the problems that bring us in there in the first place.  But we are always glad to leave.  It's one place where I have no guilt eating cookies to make me feel better.  I ate four.  And missed my workout on top of that.
On a darker note, I went to back up my phone tonight to update it and it completely crashed.  I lost all my contacts and photos. So frustrating.  I had planned to blog all about malia tomorrow since it's her first dance recital.  I lost it all.

Some days just really suck.

Temple square

One of our favorite things to do is visit temple square, see the lights, eat yummy food in the the lion house cafe, and visit gramma Ruth at her art show in the joseph smith memorial building.
We met Sara and her kids there, and walked through the art show. The kids got to meet some awesome artists, eric dowdle, christopher creek, etc. Then we ordered turkey pot pies, hot chocolate and cookies at the cafe in the jsb. After a good sugar high, we walked it off through temple square. The highlight for the kids is too go seethe christus statue up 'in space.'
It was a beautiful night, I almost want to go do it again, or at least go to the cafe again for pot pies and cookies!

Reflections 2012

The boys' hard work paid off. They both placed first in their categories and move on to regionals. Yes, Art can be lots of fun.

Leonardo exhibit

Wes and I took the boys to see this exhibit while malia was busy attending the nutcracker. It really fascinated Morgan and Carson more than I though it would... There were recreations of many of Leonardo's inventions as well as a lot of his artwork. The critic in me was a little disappointed to not see a single original piece of work, but the reproductions were convincing and sufficient to the curious eye. Carson was most impressed with the helicopter while Morgan's favorite piece was the military tank. (neither of which I took pictures of, oops).
I liked the sketches and I think it would be fun to decorate a room around some. We got a listening device for the kids which helped keep their interest. They love Leonardo da Vinci now, which is great, he's definitely one of my favorite people of all time.
Afterwards we wandered through the rest of the museum, I was so pleased to see one of my favorite paintings of my childhood still hanging on the wall from when the building was the old salt lake library. It's a gigantic abstract, and I'm not a big fan of abstracts but this one is beautiful- its by Doug snow I think, and there's a swan at the top-- love it.
There was a lot of fun things do do at the museum, animate short movies, be in a green screen, and build contraptions in the tinker garage. Carson built a tractor that got lots of compliments. We must have spent 5-6 hours there, worth the money.

Pictures: they think Leonardo invented the first same wheel size bicycle, but aren't so sure. I don't think this drawing is done by Leonardo, it's just not good enough. Although, someone else could have drawn his idea for him.

Thanksgiving

We spent some time with family and created some treats with cousins.
I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life, it is such a priceless gift. I'm also grateful for a loving family, and a beautiful earth.

Sunday.

I Love these boys.
And this little girl.

Karate

I never would have thought to put Morgan in karate, but fate led the way on this one. I can already see an increase in his confidence, both physical and emotional, and he loves it. The teacher is fantastic, which is always a bonus. I just need to get him a headband so he looks like Johnny Lawrence from karate kid.

Sunday quote:

"Never let a problem to be solved, become more important than a person to be loved."

I saw this quote from president Thomas s. monson on a friends' wall and thought it was a good reminder. It makes me realize that our relationships, especially with our children-- no matter the age---are most important.

Snow!

Favorite thing to do as a kid-play in two feet of snow- favorite thing to do now-- play in two feet of snow, with three little snow monsters and a pup turned snow yeti.
Hooray for big dumps:)!!

A drawing for thought

With Morgan in mind, a future robot builder- also has a keen ability to mend frowns.

Last of the sunny days

What a beautiful day- I took malia for a bike ride today to get some sunshine and fresh air. Trying to kick a cold and get my voice back. (i know, not necessarily a bad thing to lose your voice- haha)
Anyway It gave me a chance to clear my head and remember how much there is to be grateful for. Malia got a good nap but I had to cut it short when I noticed my tires covered in thorns! Luckily, I had tire liners and slime in the tubes--and they never went flat. (first thing I do when I get a stroller)!
I rode by the school and it looked like the recess lady was trying to get Carson to come down from the tree. Ahh life goes on:)

2012 election

Wow. So Obama gets four more years. It seems like this election was more about how many people you can get to like you, and less about who is the better man for the job at hand! I mean, is not the slow disintegration of our country so obvious? I felt like I just witnessed a high school election.
It's sad the majority simply can't relate to Romney... because he has standards, values and a passion to uphold the constitution.
The real disappointment to me isn't just who won or lost, but the reflection of the nature of Americans today.
So much easier to be handed a fish, then to learn to catch one I suppose.
Ugh so sad.
I think mitt romney did a fantastic job representing the church, and now more people are aware of it.(I mean a Mormon came pretty close to being president-- not bad in today's world)
At least it's not the end of the world yet, life is good. There is a bigger man in charge and He must have a grand agenda in mind. Things could be worse. I am thankful to be a part of a church that will never crumble, that will always maintain true leadership and dignity. The principals of the gospel are what gives me real hope, peace and lasting happiness. Life doesn't end with mortality, and that makes me happy.

Still, it be nice to high tail it to costa rica, yah!

Ps. politics can sure bring out the claws, my sweet old neighbor Marie has nothing but bad to say about Romney and goes on and on about how wonderful Obama is. Am I not seeing something here?? I seriously don't get it.

Flat Stanley

Morgan has something they do in school called "Character Convention" where they dress up as their favorite character.

For Morgan's birthday, Abbie bought him an entire set of Flat Stanley books.   He read the first one in one night and just got hooked on reading.  THANK YOU ABS!  So, naturally, he wanted to be this character.  I thought how on earth do we do flat stanley?  Just dressing up in the same clothes just isn't going to cut it.  So I had and idea to cut out a shirt and shorts shape and a mask out of cardboard.  It seemed to work out, I guess, kind of questionable,  but was a hit at his class.  He just couldn't sit down and I laughed when he walked down the street like he couldn't bend anything.  Haha, kids can be such great entertainment sometimes.

Climbing in Hurricane

Our family was invited by some good friends (Layne and Jamie, Ben and Jenna Lyn) to go climbing down near St. George this weekend.  The kids did pretty well on the road trip and have mastered going potty in the bushes.  Sometimes I prefer that over a gross gas station bathroom---- Anyways--- we put on a movie for them the last hour or so--Crap! I just remembered I have two red box dvds that are like two weeks overdo.  Ugh that can't be good.
ANyways, we stayed in a nice condo that belonged to Layne's brother and was very comfortable, the kids loved getting a giant sleepover and time to play with friends.
We had so much fun climbing, all the kids got to explore while we climbed, or they climbed as well. Morgan loved it and now I want to get him some little climbing shoes, fun!  Carson took one look at the wall and said it was too hard and that he preferred to climb round things like lamp posts and trees.  But they have no problem scrambling up steep rocks without harnesses on.... I forget sometimes how nimble kids are, they were great little hikers!
Layne and Jamie had a cute little baby and they would lay him down in the climbing bag to sleep--- see babies don't need to slow you down!    We also hooked up a swing for the kids, they had to climb up then jump off a rock while in their harness connected to the rope, Malia was so excited!
Wes and I had a chance to do some Mountain biking and headed up Hurricane Hill, we watched the racers take off for the 25 hour race, Michael was participating and ended up doing well.  Glad I was only doing a short little ride that day...
On the ride home we listened to the history of George Washington and found out a lot of fascinating things about our first President, and it put Malia right to sleep:)  We stopped by Gramma Ruth's to say hi and have some yummy homeade soup.
The trip made me want to get into better climbing shape, we started doing Crossfit (Wes seriously had to drag me out of bed to do this- I can't stand gyms--) but I've really liked it and feel stronger already. I do so much better when I exercise but get bored easily of the same routine, so this has been great. I just wish they wouldn't take pictures and post them on their site.  So rude at that hour in the morning.:)

 Layne and Ben

 Malia

 Morgan

 jenna lynn, Layne in background

parting shot