The results of my time alone yesterday.....

OK....so yesterday was heaven! I did miss my boys, but they came home for about an hour....I got my fill of them and then they left again! I got 10 pages done (12x12)and caught up to July 2003! I am now only 6 years behind, not 7! So my goal of having new pages for each child at Christmas to add to their books is now 1/6 done! Not very good considering tomorrow is June 1st! :-) So I better get hustling! Comptyn & Bryce are next. They have all the same pictures so I get 2 done at the same time! Same with the twins. So we'll make it!

It started to rain at 7:50 pm. I called to let the guys know it was headed their way and they were already on their way home! So I met the kids outside and we all played in the rain! The front porch doesn't have rain gutters so it was POURING off the porch. We called it the wall of rain and would run the length of it! We went puddle jumping and just had a blast.....until the lightening started! We don't get a whole lot of rain here in Nevada. So we take advantage of it! Usually it just sprinkles, but when it POURS!.....we had fun!



They boys had a good day, too. The temple president came out to talk to the kids at the temple and then they had a scavenger/I spy game around temple. (flowers, Angel Moroni statue, different symbols on the temple, etc.) It was a cute idea! The father/son outing was a HUGE success.....as far as fun was concerened. We took out water dunker and bottle rockets. Anything involving water is always a hit! I am glad the boys had fun! They surely did go to sleep good! I told Kevin he needs more father/son bonding time with his boys more often! :-) He agrees, but his dissertation will determine how often that happens!

Thanks Kevin! (and boyz!)

PS Some exciting news, too.......Daniel weighs MORE than Sammy! 32.6 to 32.8! NEVER has that happened before in their lives! YEAH! Daniel can now claim the title of BIG brother! He was born 1st, but never the biggest!

My incredible....and not yet over....weekend!

I just have to share with you how wonderful this weekend is so far! Last night the Jr. High School National Honor Society gave Kevin 2 tickets to the movies, a gift certificate to a restaurant and 5 girls volunteered to come watch the boyz for us! So, thank you JHNHS! Briana, Dayna, Jami, Jordyn and Chelsea all came and SPOILED the boyz! Someone would wake up and talk about how much fun they had for about 45 minutes straight. Then someone else woke up and I got to hear their side of how much fun they had! Thank you ladies! Kevin and I then went to dinner where he got his beloved prime rib! I was able to eat some delicious Alaskan salmon! YUM! We then had about an hour before the movie started so we went to the dollar store and Wal-Mart so I could pick up a few things for girl's camp next month. We went to see Night at the Museum 2.

VERY cute show! I definately would recommend it! The girl who plays Amelia Earhart is Amy Adams. She also played Giselle in Enchanted. (Another movie I loved!) Anyhow, it was a cute show! Many funny parts! And there are 2 monkeys in this one!
So now I am sitting in a quiet house because this morning is a Primary activity in Reno! Kevin drove the boys (and adding 6-7 more kids) and going over to the Reno temple. They kids are going to clean aroudn the temple and talk about what goes on in there. They will then go to a park and have a picnic and play.

Upon returning home they will rest briefly and then leave for the father/son outtng at the Jr High School! They will be BBQing and playing games with all the other boys in the ward. So that runs form 4-8! They will sleep good tonight! So I will have a productive day....SCRAPBOOKING! I am quite excited! So I am off to do dishes and then scrapbook!

Lessons from a little one....

I have changed Sammy's poopie underwear 4 TIMES before noon today! Needless to say to go from being potty trained for 5 months and then to have all these accidents gets a little frustrating. On the last one the poop fell on the bathroom rug! UGH! So I was gathering up laundry to throw in a load and as I walk by the bathroom Sammy is sitting on the toilet, leaning back and singing is his CUTEST 3 year old voice, "Teach me to walk in da wight of his wuv. Teach me to pway to my faver above....." How could I be upset with that little angel? Poop on the floor really doesn't matter! Thanks for the lesson, Sammy!

Our Memorial Day and Catch Up on the Blog!

Here are some pictures of some going ons around our home:

One day the 3 younger boyz were outside and I heard the biggests squeal and "GET MOM! GET MOM!"



We found a lizard! Poor little guy! They chased him all the way to the back 40 (that is what we call the back part of our property.) Anyhow, he lives under the bay window in our bedroom.

Nathan got hurt. This is the conversation I heard between Daniel and Nathan:

N- "I need a bandaid"
D - "I get it!" (he then ran thru the house and made a mess in teh bathroom getting a single bandaid out!) Once outside again with Nathan:
D - "I be Dr. Daniel. Gimme your leg."



N - "Thanks Dr. Daniel!"
Daniel then giggles!
It was pretty cute!

Yesterday for Memorial Day we decided to go up to Lake Tahoe and hike some of the trails around there. We drove to one and discovered it was closed still due to snow. That still didnt' stop us! The kids had a blast playing in the snow, for about 3 or 4 fall downs! Then the twins had had it! They were cold. So they held hands the whole time so as not to fall!




Sammy had his "noculars" so he could see things!

Comptyn found a dead tree to climb into.


We then drove to the Mt. Rose Summit trail to have a picnic and try hiking that trail. It was a lot harder, but the kids did really well! Daniel got tired, but everyone else did incredible! We were able to hike a lot farther before we hit snow!

And the view was BEAUTIFUL! Lake Tahoe:

We then drove down and stopped at Scheel's that just opened in Reno. (big sporting goods store) We all rode the ferris wheel in the middle of the store. That was the kid's highlight of the whole day. My least favorite....as I DON'T like ferris wheels!

Anyhow, it was a fun day! The kids were exhausted and crashed into bed! I think we found a new family fun!

Sad News in little Fallon

A draw back to living in a small town is when something really sad happens and it somehow touches everyone's lives. Everyone seems to know someone involved. Last night a plane crash happened here. A father and his 3 daughters were on board. No survivors. His wife is a teacher at one of the elementary schools here and her mother is the librarian at Kevin's school. Our prayers go out to their families. It's times like these I am ever more grateful for the Gospel and the doctrine taught that families have the potential of being forever and not 'til death do us part'.

Bryce-ism

Last night Ryan and Bryce and I went to Reno to do our grocery shopping. As we were driving home there were MAJOR thunderstorms. The lightening was absolutely amazing and the boys had a great time watching it! I remember thunderstorms growing up and have missed them, as we dont' get too many of them here in Nevada. Anyhow, at one point we were driving beside it and I made the comment of seeing the lighting out of the corner of my eye. A few seconds later, Ryan said the same thing about another bolt of lightening. Then there was another one and Bryce said, "I saw that one out of the pimple of my eye." I was confused. I said, "Bryce, do you know what a pimple is?" He said, "Yes! It's the middle of your eye." I still didn't understand, but my smart 3rd grader, Ryan, said, "THAT'S YOUR PUPIL!" So there you have it! If you can't see something for some reason, it might be the pimple in your eye isn't working!

Maybe something fun to do.......

I have always wanted to take my kids to some orchards or farms and have them pick their own fruits and veggies. Not only is it cheaper, but I think it would be fun! As we drive back and forth and back and forth to Palo Alto, we see all kind of farms and wondered where we could do it! We are going to southern California next month (thanks to a wonderful friend of ours!) and thought it would be fun on the drive back to do that. I then received a magazine in the mail about a week later with the following website:
www.pickyourown.org
You pick the state you want to research and it lists a bunch of places! It's a fun website! You'll have to try it out! Might be something fun to do this summer when kids are out of school! Plus I might be able to get some canning done! Prices or pre-picked just aren't economical!

A Sammy-ism

The other day Kevin came home from work and changed his clothes. It is in the upper 80's low 90's already and so he decided to not wear socks. Apparently it doesn't happen too often because when Sammy noticed he said, "Daddy! You're wearing your feet!"

Never Say Never!

I use to think it would funny and pretty cute to have my daughter (obviously I thought this BEFORE I had 6 boys!) get into my makeup and smear lipstick on her face, eye shadow and mascara. Well, it's not so cute on you SON! Especially when the lipstick gets destroyed! I am, however, impressed he TOTALLY missed his white shirt....this happened about 5 minutes before we were walking out the door. During "final inspection".


It was kind of funny, though!

Nathan is done with school! YEAH! And for those of you that knew this year, we are VERY happy! Nathan's teacher and I didn't see eye to eye on things. She thought I should expose Daniel to all kinds of germs by volunteering in the class room, and I didn't! About half way thru the year, a compromise was made and we are fine. However, I don't think she likes me still! OH WELL! We are on to kindergarden and we LOVE our teacher....Mrs. Malnack! The other 3 kids had her.


So back to Nathan. They had a party at the park and receive 'official' promotion to kindergarden certificates. (I laugh at the whole promotion from grade to grade. To quote Mr. Incredible, "They keep creating ways to celebrate mediocrity." That is what I feel with pre-school, kindergarden, 6th grade and 8th grade promotions. Kevin actually eliminated 8th grade! ) OK, so off my soap box....

Here are a few pictures of him during the park fun!




Sack Races

Singing songs

Breaking pinatas

Picture with teacher and 'diploma'.

Daniel update

We don't have any more blood in the urine! By last night there wasn't any in the urine. He still likes peeing in the cup, however! YEAH!

Our trip to California for Daniel's biopsy

Well, this was a pretty interesting trip! We left Monday about 4:30 when Kevin got home from work. Arrived in Palo Alto at 10 pm. So good traffic, obviously. We got up to the hospital about 7:30 and started the day! The biopsy was successful as far as getting thru the tough exterior. One stick! We were grateful for that. We did get some news that we have maxed out Daniel'd $500,000 transplant policy. They made an exception of this biopsy. Which is good. It costs $25,000. We will be looking into the insurance thing. I think we still have a little left. $100,000 or so. Anyhow, the recovery went pretty good. Daniel did ahve a little blood in his urine afterwards, which is common. He was having a struggle keeping his blood pressure up. It was in the 80's and needed to be in upper 90's and 100's. They tried all different kinds of things. About 10 pm when we were suppose to be getting discharged, they ran some labs and did an ultrasound on him (that was actually at 11:30 pm). They thought he might have been bleeding internally and that is why his BP was low. He wasn't responding to everything. I was not too concerned about being there so late. I, too, was concerned about his low BP. I think it had to do with him sitting on my lap in a hospital bed for the last 10 hours, but just to make sure.....
So Dr. Grimm finally gave us the green light to go back to the hotel. We got to sleep about 2 am!
We got up and on the road about 10 am to come home. I had put my cell phone on vibrate the night before so we could sleep and missed the 6 calls that were coming from Stanford! Apparently the results of the biopsy came back. There was some tissue from the small intestines in the biopsy. Which means they perferated the small intestines! They do the biopsy guided by ultrasound, but you can't see the small intestines very well on the ultrasound. So we were almost to Sacramento when we finally heard all this. We were to go straight to our hospital and get some more labs done and an x-ray. Plus we were to start 2 anti-biotics to kill anything that might be in the small instestines. We stopped about an hour later and noticed Daniel's urine had blood in it again. He was fine up to this point. So we called and they told us to go directly to the ER when we got to Fallon. SOOOOOO, we spent 5 hours in ER last night and THEN came home! X-rays, ultrasound looked good. They were looking for built up air in the abdomen. He was fine! The lab results came back good. His hemaglobin levels was up. So that is good, too! We were discharged to watch his urine and LOTS and LOTS of fluids! This morning when he peed, there was hardly any tinge of pink. If I hadn't been looking for it, I don't think I would have noticed. So that is good. I knwo our prayers will be answered! They already have been and he is on the mend! Hopefully no more set backs!
Thanks, again, to grandpa and grandma for watching the kids for us! You are lifesavers! We never have to worry about hte kids! We worry about YOU guys! But not the kids! But you seem to survive and keep coming back for more! :-)

Happy Mother's Day Weekend (added portion in red!)

Here is what has transpired the last few days here. Starting earlier this week we had some friends (the Youles....it's about the only family I ever talk about!) over for Family Home Evening. Hoping they wouldn't think we were stranger than we are, we still carried on with all the singing, and playing strange games (along with lesson and scripture reading). Here are some pictures when we played a game with gummy worms. It was a lot of fun! My kids told me they think the Youles should come over EVERY day! I agree! They might get sick of us, though!

Daniel with gummy worms on his head. Kailee in the background trying not to let her worms fall off!
Joshua with the worms on his head. He was just too cute the whole night!
Ashley and Comptyn. They have known each other since kindergarden (so going on 3 years this fall) and I am glad they have each other....they are good buddies!



Yesterday we planted our garden. The kids were, surpisingly, very helpful! We did corn, carrots, tomatoes, green onions, yellow onions, red potatoes, spaghetti squash, giant pumpkins (200-300 pounds...they claim!) summer squash medley (crook neck, yellow and zucchini), beets, butternut squash, sweet peppers, watermelon and cantalope. We are all very excited and hope we can thwart off bugs and disease and help our little garden grow! Thanks grandpa Lords for preparing the soil so well last fall for us! We were too busy with Daniel....we appreciate it!


Later in the day we (the kids and I.....daddy was gone most of the day with church things) were out in the front yard working. OK, Bryce and I were working and he wouldn't have been helping me pull weeds if he wasn't 'paying back' 2 sets of glasses he broke! But we still had a good time. Especially when the grasshoppers were discovered! Sammy hated them! Daniel LOVED them, until one jumped up onto his tape on his face! A little too close, I think!


Later on Daniel was doing some bench pressing with his 'dum-bells'. He even does the grunting noise like they are heavy!












And now to Mother's Day! I got to sleep in until 8 am! That in and of itself was great! The kids (especially Comptyn) were very excited to get to presents. Between school and church (which I got after church) scouts and daddy taking them to the dollar store, I made out pretty good! I got 3 plastic statues of dogs and a lion which were immediately confiscated back by the children who picked them out! A little ring holder and picture frame. A beautiful story written by Comptyn. A vase of tissue paper flowers by Ryan. Also a pet rock dog by Comptyn. (I told them if they brought out a really dog, I was leaving!) Kevin 'bought' me (I went to my friend's house and picked them out....she was selling them) a beautiful necklace, bracelet and earring set. You can kindof see the necklace in the picture. I didn't have too cook anything today. I didnt' have to clean up anything today. I didn't have to get kids ready for church today (OK....I did do the final inspection!) I FORGOT THE BEST PART! I got an 8 pack of Reese's Peanut Butter cups! MY FAVORITE! Luckily there are 6 kids, so they went fast. I didn't eat them all! I can't pace myself!



Thanks boyz (including Kevin) for making my day wonderful! Thanks to Ryan, Comptyn & Bryce's birthmoms for allowing them to be in our family! You started me on the road being a mom! Ryan, Comptyn, Bryce, Nathan, Daniel and Sammy.....you are the 6 BEST sons a mom could ask for! You bring laughter and love into our family.

Proud of my Boyz

Yesterday Ryan and I were talking about studying the scriptures and the difference between just reading them (which we do every night as a family) and actually studying them. Since I usually wait until my kids are at school, I thought that probably isn't good because I can't involve them and they can't see that I do that. So Ryan and I decided to get up a little earlier every morning and study our scriptures together. I had bought this book below a while back because I feel it is a very good resource to draw from for family study. They break down teh scriptures and have different things to do to study them. For example, there are activities, quotes, insights, games, etc to make studying a little more interesting. So we got up this morning, and of course Comptyn was awake and decided he would join us, too. Bryce sat on the ground a played. (which is actually good for him because he has to be doing something to pay attention better) I am proud of my boys! They really do want to learn about Heavenly Father and the things found in the scriptures. It was a great 30 minutes and a wonderful way to start our day! I love you boys! I love being your mom!



Bryce took this picture.....good job Bryce!

(PS They also make these books for New Testament and Doctrine and Covenants!)

Last time you'll hear about this.....& boyz day out!

3 NIGHTS IN A ROW! Daniel is moving OUT of our room! OK, maybe not. But I promise this is the last time I will comment on Daniel's sleeping thru the night.

Yesterday some friends of our called up with some extra tickets to the Reno Aces Triple A baseball team. (Arizona Diamondbacks draw from them.) They had 5 extra tickets, so Kevin took the 4 older boys and went. They had SUCH a good time! I heard about it for about an hour afterwards. The highlight was 2 different things. The big baseball that sang songs and the kids go to run the bases and got a little baggy of toothbrush & paste and dental floss. I think Kevin was a little jealous!

Here is the giant baseball that would sing "Take me out to the ball game". It moved it's mouth and head. Bryce was afraid of it, he said.
Nathan and Bryce, pregame. Bryce ready to catch some foul balls.
Comptyn and Ryan all geared up for the game.

Da Boyz all ready! Orin and Hamilton are in the bottom of the screen.
Ryan walking to go over and run the bases.
Comptyn and Nathan are a little more excited about it!

The actual running!

All the boyz after they got their goodie bags! Thanks Sommer family!

Dare to Hope!

Well, another uninterrupted night! We are pretty excited! Daniel is back to his old self....eating whatever, drinking from his cup (no more bolus feeds!) and we can got 7-8 hours with out pain meds! YEAH!

Daniel's biopsy will be next Tuesday the 12th. So we will be heading back to California Monday. Hopefully they'll be able to 'stick' him then.

Off to pull weeds in the yard and apply manure tea to the bushes and trees. BOY does that stuff stink! But it's suppose to pay back dividends in the plant's growth! We'll see!

OH! And go check out Ryan's blog, we finally are putting his pinewood derby pictures on there.

1223 Days.....

Daniel (and Sammy) have been alive for 1223 days. Therefore, they've slept that many, too. In those 1223 nights I can count on one hand how many times Daniel has slept thru the night. LAST NIGHT WAS ONE OF THEM! YEAH! 3 nights ago we were up 8-9 times.....we have come full circle. I actully got right out of bed when my alarm went off this morning! Kevin and I will be quite rested today! Watch out world! We might have a productive (AND not feel exhausted at the end) day! :-)