Vancouver, Canada

So as many of you know, Scott and I went to Canada in August. Unfortunately, our computer crashed, and we don't have the pictures any more of our trip. Trust me when I say it is so worth the trip.

We flew into Seattle, WA, and did some things there, and we also hooked up with our old roomies, Brian and Amy Clark. They are so awesome! They have 5 wonderful kids and are just as fun to hang with now as they were then.

We then drove into Vancouver which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive, (especially when you have a 2 month old that you need to stop and feed). Scott had a stat geek convention, or I guess it was really the SAS convention, but all the people look very similar. While we were there, we stayed in a fabulous hotel, which was only a few blocks away from the convention center. Every morning Scott would get up and go to his classes. Ainsley and I would get up and walk the city. (We avoided the streets that had the gay pride parade going on). We walked down to Gastown which had a very cool steaming clock. Another day, Ainsley and I walked to Chinatown, which is kinda in a scary part of town. There we were able to see the worlds thinnest building. I went again the next day with Scott and his co-worker, Russel, and they were shocked that I had dared to go by myself with Ainsley. ( I did this only because I didn't know how scary it would be until I was in the area. There are a lot of dirty bums in this area).

Scott and I also went to Stansbury park, this park is a definite must see. There is the aquarium, totem poles, swimming pools, beaches, restaurants, and much more. I recommend eating at the tea house. It was a little pricey, but eating outside on the patio in the evening is a definite must see. We had the most beautiful sun set to watch. The food was very pretty and was actually pretty tasty. We took a picture of our desert,(to make Kristin jealous, but when our computer crashed, bye, bye pictures). Of course since I was traveling with Scott, we also geo-cached. We were able to see a lot of neat things looking for these hidden treasures.

In case you are wondering, Ainsley was a fabulous traveling partner. She slept a lot, didn't complain for the most part when we were walking about. The worst part about traveling with her, is that so many people would stop and admire her when ever we took her out of her stroller/ car seat.

Hailey's Dance Recital

After watching her cousins and best friends dance recital at Christmas, Hailey decided that she also wanted to take dance lessons. We asked our neighbor, who just so happens to teach were the cousins all take lessons to find out if there was any openings. The class Hailey ended up in was one that another girl had dropped out of after a costume had already been purchased for her. So Hailey started dance the last week in February. She loved it! She would try to practice at home all the time, especially after she got her music.

The night of the recital, Hailey did just fantastic! She knew both of her dances very well. It was so fun watching her. She seemed to know her dances very well. Hard to believe she had only been doing it for a few months.

The night of the recital we were all hoping we didn't get rained out. It was a little touch and go for a little while, but other than a few drops, it turned out OK.

All the little cousins did a great job and had a good time, watching and supporting each other. We were so glad Kristin thought to bring flowers for all the little cousins. Hailey loved her flowers! We all loved to watch them all perform.
Jeffrey is just glad all the singing and dancing sister is over (for now) - 12 year old brothers, what are you going to do?

Welcome Ainsley!!

So for all those who haven't heard, we recently welcomed little (and I do mean little) Ainsley to our family. She only weighed in at 5 lbs. and was 18 inches long. Thank goodness she was so little as we had her without any drugs (not by choice). On the morning she was born, I had contractions between 7-10 minutes apart for about 4 hours. Then they slowed down and were only coming about every 30 minutes apart. So I sent Scott on to work and told him that I would call him if I needed him. About 1:30, I tried to call my doctor's office, since they were getting strong again and I wanted to know whether I should go into the hospital or to stop by his office and see how far along I was. No one answered the nurses line, so I called back an hour later. I was told to keep track for an hour and if they remained strong, and I could get there before 4 then they would check me. Well, an hour later, I was in a lot of pain, but it was now time to get the kids home from school. Scott called his sister and asked her to pick up Jeff and Hailey and bring them home for me. By that time it was now 3:45 and I figured that I wouldn't be able to get there in time to see the doctor. Scott showed up about 4:45 and we decided to feed the kids dinner and then go in. So Scott made dinner and I went and laid down. After a while, I started feeling guilty, I could tell Scott was stressed out trying to get the kids to help with dinner, set the table, and get sleeping bags and clothes for the next day for all the kids, so I got up to help him. We ate dinner and then took the kids to Ryan and Penny's house, just in case we were spending the night. I stayed in the car while Scott took everything in, including car seats. When we arrived to the hospital it was now 7:30, Scott was talking to Jason on the phone asking him to water our garden. I was stopping every couple of minutes to try and get through the contractions. While we were checking in, I was bending over in pain and crying, so they sent me into the trauma room to change and then they would check me. While the CNA was checking my blood pressure, I had a contraction and my water broke. The RN came in to check me and I told her that I wanted to go to the bathroom. She told me no and then asked Scott to go out and ask for a kit and to call the doctor. She was afraid that we wouldn't be able to make it into the labor and delivery room. Dr. England called back and asked if he should be running red lights, the nurse said YES! Then she made the decision to try and get me into the labor and delivery room since it was a lot bigger room. They (4 nurses) pushed me on the bed down the hall and into the room. When we got there, the RN was too afraid that I wouldn't be able to transfer beds, so they pushed the bed aside and then she told me that although she would prefer me to wait until the doctor arrived, she had delivered baby's before so if I felt the need to push, then to go ahead. A couple minutes later, Ainsley was born. Time, 7:57. Dr. England walked in about 5 minutes later.

About 8:15, Scott called Jason back to tell him the news. He didn't believe that we had already had her, even when Scott sent him pictures. He also asked Jason to go to our house and get the phone charger so that he could call the rest of his family. When Scott called his Mom (on vacation in New Orleans), she didn't believe him either. Then he called his Dad, I don't know why everyone didn't believe him. When he called Kristin, he asked her how she did at weight watchers and then told her that I had lost 5 lbs.

The next day, Hailey chewed out the pharmacist (who she thought was my Dr. for not being there). When I saw Dr. England, I told him about it, he told me that he was at the hospital within 7 minutes.

All in all a very memorable and eventful experience! We are just happy to have her here with us to complete our eternal family! Everyone happy, healthy and well!

What's going on in Jeffrey's life

So much has been going on lately that we have neglected to do a blog lately. Jeffrey is now 12 years old and recently received the priesthood. This event for me was both kind of a happy and sad moment. Happy because I was excited for him to receive it finally and sad because this means that he is no longer my little boy.

He is also going to be getting his star in scouts in a couple of weeks. Scott told me that he worries that people might think that Jeffrey only is this far along because Scott was his scoutmaster, but if anything it made it harder to have Scott as scoutmaster. When Scott did Jeffrey's scoutmaster conference, he made Jeffrey write down and type his own goals. He didn't make anyone else do this. Jeffrey just always goes to scouts and we as his parents follow up on any homework that he needs to complete.

Jeffrey is also going to be testing for his high red belt on May 1st. Hopefully he is ready. His teacher says that he is, so we will see. Now Jeffrey just wishes that he would start growing. He hates being the smallest person in his class. Most people that don't know him think that he is only about 8 years old.

Jeffrey's school class also recently did A Midsummer's night's dream. Jeffrey got to play the part of Puck. He did fantastic! He was one of the few kids that you could actually hear. When I find the camera, I will add some pictures.

I know that this doesn't have anything to do with Jeffrey, but FYI the baby is due in less than 5 weeks. We still don't have a name picked out for her, in fact, the paper that we had been writing down names has gotten lost. Any suggestions?

Has anyone seen the gingerbread man?

Be on the look out for a run away gingerbread man. Hailey's kindergarten class has scared the gingerbread man away. They have looked all over the school for him, he is not any where. When Hailey got home from school the other day, she wanted to go wander the neighborhood looking for him. She even had me help her write a letter of apology to the gingerbread man, hoping that would make him return. Nothing seems to have worked.

Her teacher is using the escaped gingerbread man to lead into her world section. She has asked us parents to ask people out of the state or around the world to send post cards to her class saying that they have seen the gingerbread man in their area. When she gets the cards, she will go to the world map and point out the place. We asked Kristin to ask Bonnie, and also Scott asked to his co-worker to ask his son who is currently serving.

Hailey talks about the gingerbread man so much that Jeffrey is sick of it and tells her all the time that there is no such thing, and to quite looking for him. Oh well, I guess we will see how it goes.

Good luck gingerbread man, where ever you are.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope that many of you did not have to stay up too late wrapping presents. Our kids are so excited to unwrap presents, we will have to post their fav's later.

Our kids have now watched "Curious George, A very monkey Christmas" about 15 times. I guess this is now their favorite Christmas movie is.

Jeffrey took his tae kwon do test on Monday. He now has his red belt. Hopefully with a lot of hard work, he can be a black belt in the next year or so. It still boggles my mind that he is almost 12 years old now and will be passing the sacrament in just 3 short months.

Hailey is super excited for Christmas. She has sung the song she learned at school, Christmas is a time to..., to just about everyone she has seen, whether they were willing to listen to her or not. She has also told everyone that Santa will be bringing her a butterfly sled. Hopefully the Big Guy doesn't let her down.

You'll have to ask the kids what they all got for Christmas. They are very excited about everything.

Also, you'll have to see the mothers ring Tammy got from Santa Claus. I have it on good authority that Santa uses a little elf named LaMont to do all his jewelry work. The ring has a stone for each of the kids in their birthmonth; Jeffrey (March) Aquamarine, Hailey (June) Alexandrite, Caleb (August) Peridot, and a 4th stone, hopefully Emerald, should be placed in the ring around the month of May. You'll have to call for the details and ask the kids if they are getting a brother or sister.

Well, we hope everyone is having a good Christmas - now its time for me to go to bed before the Big Guy catches me still awake.

What have we been up to lately?

So before all this snow came down, there were actually some nice days to be had in the last few weeks. I thought I might share what we have been up to during that time. We spent the Thanksgiving holiday with several of Tammy's siblings out in the Uintah Basin. This picture was taken at Sherry and Dex's house just after Thanksgiving dinner. The kids loved to run around outside and it was very difficult to get them all together for this picture. It was obviously very bright and sunny outside. What I wouldn't give for another one of those days!

Jeffrey has gotten to be a real photography enthusiast. He went up exploring in the hills behind Sherry and Dex's house on Thanksgiving and took some pictures. There were really some pretty good pictures and scenery to be seen. This is a reservior and hill near Altamont where they live. Dex takes care of the reservior and surrounding area there.

After Thanksgiving, we had the opportunity to go on a Christmas tree hunt excursion up Nine-mile canyon. And in case you are ever in the area and want to explore Nine mile, don't be fooled by the name --- its actually more like 60 miles and on a dirt road. But great scenery to see when you have a day to waste.

We only went up about 5 miles into the canyon to search for our tree. Then we probably hiked another 5 miles or so (maybe I'm exaggerating a little) thru the hills and around the brush to find the perfect tree. The perfect tree was right by the road, and we could have been in and out in probably 5 minutes, but you can't do a tree hunt unless you actually hunt, Can you?
Jeffrey had to find (his) tree. I got to carry a sleeping Caleb up and down the hills, trying to keep up with Jeffrey. Once he found the tree he wanted, we had to get back to the group and back to the truck to get the chainsaw. And since he wanted to get the far away tree, I had him carry the chainsaw most of the way back to the spot. Would have been nice to have my GPS and marked the spot so we could have found it again easier. But it was an experience.

Back to the truck with the tree. Everyone still happy and awake! Dex cut down a couple more for himself, and a small one for grandmas house. Not bad all in all for $10/tree permit!
Good thing we have a fake tree we use most years, because cutting down and setting up a real tree is a lot of work! But I guess everyone has got to do the real tree the right way (cutting it down yourself) some time in their life!

Back to work, additional Christmas preparations continue. Santa Claus makes it a point to stop by my work each year, and the kids get to take advantage of seeing him every year and getting some good pictures! And no lines! As you can see, Caleb still isn't to happy to see him yet.

Hailey on the other hand just loves Santa! Not sure what all she asked for .... something about a butterfly sled or something. I think by next year she'll be asking for her 2 front teeth. As you can see, she lost her first tooth recently.

She was really excited to loose her first tooth. Happened just after Thanksgiving while we were still out visiting family in Myton. I had forgotten how small those teeth can be. The tooth fairy came and left her $1.00! Seems the tough economy doesn't affect the tooth fairy at all!

Caleb had a ball at grandmas. I think all the kids spent the entire weekend watching and rewatching Up! Caleb also loved to play with cousins and be just generally happy! A good age (sometimes)

Except at night lately. Jeffrey has been the good older brother and try to deal with Caleb when he doesn't want to go to bed yet. This is a scene that has been a little more common in our house at night. Jeffrey reading a book to Caleb in his crib before bedtime. He even lays down with him sometimes in the crib to get him to go to sleep. Some things only big brothers can do!