Catchin' up

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. We've just been going, going, going all month long. There are so many things to do everyday and never enough time to do them in. I want to catch up on some of the things we have done this month. I have been trying to work out and prepare for my upcoming triathlon. Not doing so hot. It is in less than a month, and I am not ready. I have been swimming and running but not biking at all. I need to get a bike first! The swimming is going pretty well. Right now, I can swim a 300, which is the distance I need to complete for the tri, in about 5 minutes 15 seconds. This is a good time and all, but I know I can do better, but more importantly, I want to do it without to much effort. I want to feel good at the end. The Salem tri was an 800 meter swim and I did that in 13 minutes. I felt pretty good coming out of the water then, but I had been swimming at least 4 times a week and right now I am only swimming twice a week. I may have to increase my swim to 3 times and just run the same day. Hopefully I can get a hold of a bike soon and start that training as well. I have been planning out my garden and also my planters. I am super excited but also very nervous to see how it turns out. I am no professional, but I sure love planting. I have taken a bunch of classes to assist me in this process, so we'll see if they've paid off.

Spring break came and went so quickly! We were going to go to California but decided there was too much going on there and it would be too much for my mom to have her house full of visitors. So we canceled those plans and planned on going to Zion, but one look at the weather forecast changed those plans as well. Instead, we spent our spring break mostly at home. The kids had a blast playing with friends most of the week. Kaleb has become real good friends with a newer family in our ward. There is the Pierce family that has all boys and their 5 year old, Calvin, loves Kaleb and they are always playing together. I think Kaleb likes the younger boys because they are so much nicer and easier to get a long with. I keep trying to convince him to play with kids his age but he still won't. There are a couple of boys his age that he will play with, but they are always so busy and gone so much. There is another family, the Rohners and the Balzoti's, that have boys his age, but we're still developing those friendships. The Washburn's have a boy named Daniel, more often referred to as D-boy, who loves Kaleb. He is also 5, and they play really well together. Over spring break, he had a late night with Dawson and Karly had a late night with Savannah. Then we took the kids to the Legacy center on Saturday to swim. I tried to make it fun, but mostly I just let them all play with friends. It's fun, easy and free! We did go to Trafalga that Saturday, so that was fun as well. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for those passes!

So I thought I would bring you up to date on the current happenings and a funny story. Not so funny, Gary has another kidney stone, #13! Last Sunday he woke up with pain and thought it was just a deep muscle strain. He went home from church early and took the three youngest boys with him. I stayed since I was teaching and kept Kaleb and Karly with me. After my lesson, I was walking to sharing time and decided to check in the nursery to see if Evan was there. I was checking to see if Gary had decided to come back to church for Priesthood. The nursery teacher saw me look in and became worried so she came out to talk to me. She asked if I was looking for Evan because they didn't have him. I explained why I had looked in and she was no longer alarmed. I quickly walked into Sharing time and maybe 5 minutes later, one of the Primary people pulled me out and told me Evan was found in the parking lot by another member of the ward. Wonderful! So I quickly walked back to the nursery and saw him in there. I asked him to come talk to me and as he ran over, I noticed he was wearing Tanner's shoes. This made me suspicious so I asked him where Dad was. He said, "He at home." So I quickly borrowed a phone and called Gary. Tanner answered the phone and told me his mom wasn't home. Then I told him I wanted to talk to daddy. When Gary answered I could tell I had woken him up. So I asked calmly, "Do you know where Evan is?" Which he responded, "No, he may be upstairs." Then I explained that I was calling to let him know that Evan had walked down to our church by himself and that I had him so he wouldn't freak out when he realized he was missing. It was pretty funny. Scary, but funny. This kid is quick and definitely quiet when he escapes. Gary felt horrible, but I told him not to worry about it. It happens to most parents.

He is turning 3 in less than a week! I can't believe he is getting so big. I am excited though cause I think he will get over his huge fits over the next year. I am so done with him yelling at me and calling me names or hurting me on purpose cause he's mad. Gary asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday yesterday and he said very excitedly,"I want to have all my friends come over and have presents and have candy, even yilly-lilly, tarlet-scarlet, and poter-porter, preton-preston, and carline-caroline." It was so cute. I am throwing a small party for him this week and then Gary is taking the three older boys to a motocross competition this next weekend.

Kaleb and Karly just tried out for the Lehi Arts production of Joseph and the Amazing technicolor dream coat. They would only be in the chorus, but I think it will be a good opportunity for them to see if they like theater. Karly went first with her audition. She sang "fifty-nifty" somewhat quietly and shyly while twisting back and forth the whole time. She did a good job but I don't know if she will get in or not. Kaleb's audition was great. He got up right after her and stood straight and tall and belted it out. He is suffering from a cough right now so his voice was a bit hoarse and scratchy but you could still see he had good pitch and sang on tune. They gave him great compliments so I think he made it. We will see!!

For Easter, I made Karly a cute twirl skirt with a matching hair flower and made the boys neck ties and bow ties. The two oldest got the neck ties and the two youngest got bow ties. They look pretty stinkin cute if I say so myself! I just got some more material to make Karly another skirt and a dress. Hopefully those will get made in the next few weeks. Most of my concentration will be on our yard. We spent Friday getting top soil hauled to our yard. We had a lot of help from both Reid and Dan Washburn as well as Eduardo Gomez and Matt Poll. It was nice, since earlier that day I had to take Gary into the urgent care to get a shot of morphine. He suffered through out the week with the pain but didn't realize it was a kidney stone until Friday morning. This morning I took pictures of him drinking a concoction I found online for homemade remedies to aid in kidney stone expulsion. It was 4 oz of olive oil and 4 oz of fresh lemon juice. He did drink it! I have the hilarious photos to prove it. They claim he should pass it within 24 hours after drinking, so we will see! He said he almost threw it up.

The Easter bunny visited our house last night and left one big basket full of goodies for the whole family. There were organic cheddar bunnies, bunny grahams, baby goldfish, trail mix, dark chocolate covered pomegranate, juice boxes, Reese's peanut butter cups, mini plastic dinosaurs, and two bags of pepperidge farm cookies, the Brussels and mint milanos! There was also a large, single green egg in the center. When the kids woke up, they found the basket downstairs. At first, we could hear them walking around and talking about how the Easter bunny had not come. Then we could hear them after they found the basket. About 2 minutes after discovery, they began running around the house. In the green egg they found a clue that said:

Happy Easter kids! It wouldn't be right to leave out the "hunt". Follow these clues to your Easter Surprise. Your first clue is right in front of your eyes!

As they looked around, they saw a blue egg hidden inside a baseball mitt sitting on the hutch behind them. When they opened this egg, they found their next clue, which read:

Great job, you're on your way to finding your gift today. Look in a place you use to store, trucks and barbies and toys galore!

Well, the kids ran up to the toy room and began to frantically look together. They were having no success, so at this point they came in and asked us for help and told us what they had found and how they were looking for a big surprise. So I asked where we have toys? They replied, "the playroom but we looked and there isn't anything there." Then they got the idea of the garage cause they remembered that we have a few boxes from storage and bags for DI filled with toys in there. I quickly rerouted them, cause that was the place of the surprise and I didn't want them to miss all the fun of the hunt. So I told them to go check the toy box in the front room. They quickly did so and found the next clue in an orange egg. This one read:

You're halfway through your Easter egg hunt, your next clue can be found around a bunk.

They knew exactly where to look, so they ran upstairs and checked around the boys bunk beds where they found the purple egg with this following clue:

You kids are smart and awfully quick! Your next egg will be found without any tricks. Go to a place your baby likes to be, when he wants a quick snack or when he's really hungry.

Tanner was the one to find this clue in Ryan's high chair. At this point, I had gotten out of be and threw on some pj's so I could take pictures of them running around and trying to find their clues. I also wanted to get a picture of the basket before it was demolished and ransacked.

This was a yellow egg that read:

The next place to seek is not very hard, look in the place you stack all your jars.

When they found the last pink egg in the cupboard, they opened it and read out loud:

This is it, your very last clue! In just a moment you'll be shouting WOO HOO! Your surprise is hidden but right in your view, in a place where you park a bike and a car too!

The kids ran to the garage and it took a few seconds before they realized there were Razor Scooters on top of the Suburban. There were three red ones and one pink one. They were pretty excited. Ryan didn't get left out. He got a sing-a-majig and two Dr. Seuss board books. He loves his toy and so do the kids. Karly tried to convince me to let her have it instead of Ryan. I told her she would have to give him her scooter. She didn't like that idea too much. Easter has been great! We are heading over to some friends house for dinner in a few hours and I just have to make a salad and some rolls. That should be easy enough! Super long post! I will end this here before it gets too much out of hand. I will say that I am grateful for the Atonement and the opportunity it gives me to repent every day and try harder. I am so grateful for Christ's sacrifice for me that makes it possible for me to return to him some day and be together with my family forever. The gospel is true, and I am so thankful to have it in my life and the peace it brings me everyday, even when storms are raging all around. Till next time!