Maggie's Award

Maggie got an award back in February for her hard work and always being willing to help those around her. Her teacher can not say enough good things about her and just adores her. She even told me that she sat Maggie next to a little chatty girl, because she knew that Maggie would not talk back to her, if she knew it was not the time for talking. She is such a great student and is doing so well in all her subjects. She has come so far with her reading and hand writing too in the past year and we couldn't be more proud.
The assembly was quite different though. We went and all the kids got chick-fila for breakfast and the adults and families go donuts.  Then they did the awards and then they had some lady read quite the lengthy books to us all about how basketball was started. Then she started to go on after that, but I had to slip out. PJ was getting fussy and it had been an hour already!! It was great to see her get an award, but not so great to try keeping 4 kids quiet and sitting through that long of a "short" program. The things we do for our kids!! :)

Family Home Evening Challenge

In 2015 our Bishop of our old ward challenged all the families in the ward to improve their Family Home Evening and make personal goals with our family on being consistent with them. Our family made it a goal to have it each week no matter what and if we did our family would get a prize. Dad (David) suggested they could each get money if we did it and I suggested we could go to Red Robin and they could get anything they wanted including Root beer floats! They unanimously voted for Red Robin...what can I say we are blessed with food loving and easy to please kids!! So even after a year with a move, a new baby and mom on bed rest, we did it!!! We didn't miss a single week and it really was amazing. They kids were awesome at making it a priority for all of us.  We stuck to it and had a chart where they each got to take turns putting a sticker on each week that we did it. They loved when their turn rolled around for sure. It was such an inspired challenge from our Bishop and we are so grateful for how it helped our little family.

Maggie's Baptism

Maggie turned 8 on December 26, 2015 and originally we had planned on baptising her on that first Saturday in January. Until David and I both came home from Church one day and said we thought we should wait until the end of January.  It just made so much more since and I was so overwhelmed from Christmas, Decemeber birthdays and a newborn, who had been sick. It worked out so nicely. Both my parents and the Torgersons were able to come out for it and we felt so blessed because of that. My mom and Dad drove and had quite the experience and then they were here for only about 36 hours total before heading out Sunday morning. The Torgersons flew out, but we barely saw them and it was just so busy the whole time.  But luckily everyone made it and we had a snowy morning that Saturday morning.  We went to the church and got her ready about 9:00 the morning. The whole family headed over too and then we started at 9:30. Maggie was sharing her baptism day with one other little girl in our ward. It was such a sweet spirit that day. We had a couple of youth speakers talk about the Holy Ghost and baptism and we sang I like to Look for Rainbows. The Bishop said a few words and they were baptized and confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She had a sweet blessing and in it she was told to write down how she felt in her journal and to write all the special things about that day. We are so lucky to have such a sweet little girl. She couldn't wait to be baptized and the day was even better than she had hoped for.  She has such a sweet spirit and already has such a strong testimony of the gospel. We are so proud of the decision she made to become a member of this church.

January 2016

 We had so much snow in December and January that as soon as it was about 35 degrees our kids were out taking advantage of the "warm" The snow had just finally melted enough that day to see the ground after about a month of so much snow and then by that afternoon, it was covered again.

David had a school program that we got to go and watch. They played their recorders for us and told us all about the history of Utah. It was...interesting for sure! ;) 

 Look at the pretty girl. She really is a sweety!

 Pierce was loving having attention from Aunt Trish and Dee-dah

                                                              Borther time!

January came and went so darn fast. We had a really rough winter out in Utah and it was a rare occasion to see the sun. I think we all felt the effect of it.  P.J. had been dealing with a cold for a few days back in January and then he starting wheezing and having a hard time with his breathing. So on Saturday, January 23rd I took him to the emergency room and they admitted him for RSV.  I had been through this with Maggie and David both when they were each about 2 months old, but I did not want another RSV baby. I gave in and I got there at about 10 that night and we were in our room by about 3:00 in the morning. I think I slept about an hour total that first night. It was horrible. They had him hooked up to oxygen, a feeding tube and an I.V. plus the monitors. Poor little guy looked horrible and pitiful. I felt so bad for him. It was so up and down those first couple of days and I was an emotional wreck. I was going on no sleep and watching my baby boy in so much pain and discomfort. It was so hard. I knew he would be okay, but it was still horrifying. He was a little fighter though. They finally started noticing that anytime that they had the oxygen thing in his nose his heart rate and all the levels would rise, because he was so stressed out by them. So one of the doctors finally said, "Well he can't get much worse, I say we try taking all that off of him and see how he reacts to it and if he doesn't get better then we can put them back on." I was so relieved. So we took the IV and the oxygen off of him and his stats immediately improved! It was a miracle. She said she had never seen that happen before and was truly amazed by it and that he knew exactly what he wanted and wasn't going to stand for anything else! So true!!! That Saturday we would be baptizing Maggie and she and I were both concerned that I would still be in the hospital with Pierce. She called me one day and said, "I hope you can make it to my baptism on Saturday or will you have to stay with Pierce at the hospital?" I told her no matter what I would make it to her baptism and she seemed satisfied with that answer.  Poor girl! After 3 nights and 4 long days in the hospital we were finally able to come home.  I had only left his side for an hour or so to get clothes and things from home and while David was at home with the other kids, he was dealing with a throw up bug that was going around. Truth be told, I think I got the better part of the deal. I had those three days to totally dote on PJ and catch up on a few things, since he was doing so much sleeping and I had nothing but time. Also, those fold out beds at the hospital really are horrible!! Between a bad bed, the monitors that would go off and the nurses coming in out to check on him, it was a restless sleep to say the least and I was so glad to get home to my own bed with PJ on Tuesday night, when they released us and said he would still be sick for another couple of weeks, but he had gotten past the worst of it. It was just so sad to be so helpless seeing your baby in so much pain. I really do hate it. Luckily he is recovered now and doing great. He is a real trooper. I am pretty sure he had actually been sick since a little bit past his blessing back in December. We had all caught this bug that was going around including him and looking back I don't think he ever was 100 percent from that time until he got RSV. It made January an interesting month especially considering we had both of our parents coming out for Maggie's baptism that week and I was stuck at the hospital. I got home on Tuesday night around 8:00 and then David's parents got into town the next day. My parents drove out and got here on Friday evening. Poor things had gone through Wyoming, which is a big no-no from November to March. They got stuck in a storm and I-80 was closed! They stopped at a hotel somewhere in Wyoming and were only about 4 hours away. They had quite the adventure. They were all so sweet and wouldn't let me cook or lift a finger after the week I had with PJ. Thank goodness for amazing family. Oh and we have the greatest friends. They brought David and the kids dinner Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We are truly blessed. We were so ready to welcome February though!!

P.J. 3 months

Pierce is 3 months old (January 11) He is such a sweet baby and smiles. No laughs yet, but he has the most content face and then the sweetest frown you have ever seen.  He is sleeping a lot still and loves napping with Mommy. He still loves his brothers and sisters holding him. He is such a sweet baby . He has found his hands and loves looking at them and chewing on his fingers. He loves to talk and has the sweetest voice. He loves to snuggle. He loves the car now and his carrier. He loves to have a little tummy time and loves to look at himself in the mirror. He's so sweet and we love having him in our family.

Maggie's 8th Birthday

Maggie had her 8th birthday. It was a great day! She had lunch with Dad and then she picked out her birthday cake too. She got the walking Panda that she has been wanting for forever. She also got a new camera. She is such a sweet girl and the biggest helper. She loves holding P.J. and helping with him in any way she can. She still loves crafts and dolls. She is a funny girl and can talk your ear off. She is such a great part of our family and we love having her as the big sister in our family. Happy Birthday Maggie!

Christmas 2015

Christmas time was here again. How did it come again so fast? We had such a great day. It was so much fun decorating our new house and having all the space for all my decorations. I don't know how we were able to fit it all in our last house.  We of course were lucky to have Tom our Elf on the Shelf back this year.  He seemed excited to have more space to hide and pull pranks as well.  It was hard getting ready for Christmas with a 2 month old, but we did it. We had a delicious Christmas Eve dinner. Trish made beef tenderloin and scallions  and we had all the yummy sides to go with it. Giselle, Kevin and Lincoln came over as well.  We each opened a present and read Luke 2 while the kids acted it out.  We also each opened one present and the kids were anxious to go to bed so that Christmas would come sooner. Trish and Gabby spent the night with us and luckily Santa made it to our house  that night and left us some great presents. The kids got an Ipad Mini (which they have been begging for about 6 months for) a trampoline and a ton of fun toys. David and Maggie got new bikes. They were both long over due for new ones and we are all excited to have them actually  David got me a new laptop, which I was in desperate need of and also a new lens for my camera. I got David some house shoes and a candy dispenser for his new Media Room down in the basement. The media room was his big present to himself.  We also got the kids a mini trampoline mostly as a joke, but it has been amazing, since we can't put up the big trampoline outside with all the snow. It is always so much fun to watch the kids open their presents Christmas morning and the pure joy and excitement they have. And the hours they spend completely entertained by all their new stuff those first few days!