Picker

Braden LOVES to help me in the garden.  He has a green thumb.  He helped me plant the seeds, water the garden, pick weeds, and care for the little plants.  Every morning from the day we planted our garden in the spring he would go out and just sit in the middle of the dirt and talk to the plants and watch the bugs for extended periods of time.  When it came time to start harvesting he would go out every morning and bring in armfuls of zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, green beans, and cucumbers. He would then bring them to me to show me what we got that day.  His favorite thing was the pumpkins.  He got so excited when they finally started turning orange and rushed in to come and tell me all about it and then make me come and look.  He referred to himself as the "picker".  So thanks my little picker for all the help you gave me in the garden, even if it meant we got a few green tomatoes because you were too excited to wait.

Kindergarten!!

Braden has wanted to go to school for 2 years now and he finally gets a chance.  I can't believe he's in Kindergarten!  What a big kid he is.  I was nervous the end of last school year because there weren't going to be any kids on our little street going into Kindergarten this year and he would have to ride the bus all by himself, but over the summer several new families moved in with kids his age. 

He started school a week later than Dalin and let me tell you it was the longest week of his life.  He could not wait to start.  We went to his meet-the-teacher day since on back-to-school night they didn't know who his teacher would be yet.  We found his teacher's name on the list - Mrs. Tangren.  We walked to his room and discovered that his buddies who live a few doors down from us are in the same class. They are also in the same primary class at church. Boy were they excited.  They were wrestling on the floor and jumping off the walls.  We couldn't get them to settle down.  The other moms and I just looked at each other and then told the teacher we were sorry, she might have her hands full. 

The first day of school and he's so excited.  He has afternoon Kindergarten so we got Dalin off to school and then had to wait.  Every five minutes he would ask me if it was time to go yet.  I finally told him we wouldn't leave for the bus until after lunch, and then he started asking if it was time for lunch yet.

I could not get Landon out of the pictures.  He just kept sneaking in there, little stink.  Braden really likes his new "basketball backpack"  as he calls hit.

Here he is with his little friends waiting for the bus. 

Braden, Alex, and Cole.  These are the ones that are in his class.

And here's the whole bunch who wait at the bus stop with him.

Alex, Braden, Katie, Cole, and Destiny.

He made me promise I would come to the school so he would know where to go.  Here he is getting off the bus to line up and head inside.

We found his classroom and found his desk.  I noticed that he and his friends were all sitting at different tables.  Teachers are as smart as they look.  

He loves school and everyday comes home with a big smile of his face and says "I had a great day".  He really likes his teacher and is doing great.  I'm so happy that he's enjoying school and I love to see him progress.  Here's to a great school year.

Back to School - 2nd Grade!

Dalin did not want to go back to school this year.  He was having so much fun playing all summer and he didn't want it to end.  But, all good things come to end and whether he wanted to or not school was starting.  Then we went to back-to-school night and met his teacher Mrs. Luck.  Can I just say she is a completely wonderful teacher!  I'm so excited that Dalin was put in her class.  Last year he struggled with his teacher (and let's be honest, so did I).  I was worried we would have another rocky start like last year, but it was great.  Mrs. Luck was happy and excited and made Dalin feel really good about coming back to school.  She really is a sweetheart and it's made all the difference in the world. 

Here he is with his new teacher. 

The first day of school and he's excited to go.  Look at that face!  I love that he enjoys school, even if he sometimes complains that it's a long day and he just wants to play rather than work.  I always tell him "that's life", which he doesn't like to hear :)

He got a new Broncos backpack that he was really excited about. Dalin loves horses (he wants to own one some day) so the Broncos are his team - no other reason just horses.  One the first day of school he came home and said "mom, my teacher wouldn't let me bring my backpack in the classroom because she's allergic to the Broncos"  I laughed and laughed.  He likes to joke with her about it now.

Happy first day of school Dalin!

One Last Hoorah!

Summer is over and school is starting.  I wanted to do one last fun summer thing before it all ended and asked the boys what they wanted to do most.  Swimming was their answer.  Well, that's not what I expected and having no access to a swimming pool and Braden's arm still on the mend (although out of the cast and back into a splint) I decided we could go to the river and let them get wet. We woke up that morning to rain...sigh.  It's been an unusually wet end of summer and we've had thunder storms almost every night for two weeks.  The days are still hot and dry though, until now.  I can't complain, we desperately need the rain since all the reservoirs and rivers are mostly just mud puddles after a summer of record-breaking heat.  It's also been nice to get cooled off.  So I decided to break out the paint and let them make boats of wood blocks.  Dalin had mentioned doing this some time ago we never did do it so I thought at least it would distract them from the river.  We got out the hammers and screw drivers and other tools they thought were necessary and chipped a hole in the middle of the "boats" for the rocks to sit in, sanded them down, and then painted them very nicely.

They had a lot of fun and later that day, after Landon's nap, the sun came out and we headed off to the river.  They had fun floating their boats.  We tied some rope around them, put the little rock people in, and off they sailed.

Dalin made a mud volcano.

They played and played, dug and dug, got all covered in mud, and just had a lot of fun.  I'm so glad we had one last hoorah before school starts again.

Broken Arm

On July 12th we had our first broken arm and what an ordeal that was.  I was watching my sister's two kids off and on with Steven and Alyssa while they were in Hawaii and decided it would be fun to take all the kids to the park and let them feed the ducks and get some energy out.  So I texted Alyssa and she agreed.  We met at the park and the kids had a blast.  After feeding the ducks we went to the playground and let the kids run around.  We hadn't been there very long when I see Braden fall on the other side of the playground and then he starts screaming and running towards me.  So I get up and go to him to find his arm twisted and bent in a very awkward position.  It was clearly broken.  He was crying and just kept saying "I can't lift up my arm".  He was trying to pull it from his shoulder but it wouldn't lift.  Thank heavens I was at the park with my brother and his wife or I don't know what I would've done.  Little blessings...Anyways I picked him up and ran over to the car to take him to the ER.  Luckily the hospital was right across the street from the park so it took all of 2 minutes to get there...again little blessings. They got us right into a temporary waiting room and put Braden in a wheelchair.  Then we waited about 45 minutes.  Apparently they had to call in an orthopedic surgeon who was out and about because the regular ER docs didn't feel up to the task of resetting his break.  Finally they took us back to get some X-rays and let me tell you that was not fun.  The lady who did the x-rays didn't know that his arm was broken in more than one place and thought it was just the lower arm so as she grabbed his arm to get it positioned right, she twisted it.  Braden started hitting and kicking and going wild.  This stupid lady had to nerve to say to him "if you're going to act like that then we'll wait until you can behave."  I rushed into the room at that point whether they wanted me in there or not and told the lady that his arm had several breaks and she just twisted the broken upper arm which is why he was freaking out.  Needless to say I was not a very happy camper and insisted someone else be sent in to get the x-rays, but the damage had already been done and Braden was freaking out if anyone touched him and screamed over and over "no don't twist it!"  Finally after much pain and agony we got the x-rays while I held him on my lap and we both sat on the x-ray table.  Not a fun experience.  Finally we got settled in a room and they gave him a strong dose of morphine which helped immensely, then the orthopedic doc came in, although he didn't seem too thrilled to be there.  Apparently we had interrupted his golf game.  They sedated Braden and set to the task of resetting his arm.  I was in the room but not taking it so well.  It's hard to watch someone do that to your kid's arm and be o.k.  As he was coming out of it, the doctor came over to talk to me about the break.  He said there were actually 3 breaks, two of which he had just set, the ulna and radius just above the wrist and the third he would not touch because it was the humorous just above the elbow, but it was along the growth plate.  Because it was along the growth plate we would need to go to Primary Children's Hospital and have pins put in.  He said he would put the arm in a temporary splint and we could go there in the morning.  But, as Braden started to come to the nurses got concerned about the color of his fingers and the swelling.  They called doctor back in and he took a look.  When Braden said it felt like ants were in his fingers (in other words they were tingly) they moved right away and ordered an ambulance.  The doc said with this new development they were concerned with him having nerve damage and it needed to be seen to right away.  So off we went in the ambulance.  Let me tell you that was a trip - 90 mph all the way to Primary Children's with the sirens blazing and shooting through any red lights we came across.  Too bad Braden was tripped out on drugs because otherwise he would've thought it was coolest thing in the world.  I'm not sure he remembers much of it.  Once we got to Primary Children's it was more waiting.....and waiting...and occasionally someone would come in and make him scream because he still didn't want anyone to twist it,  then I would settle him and get him to sleep and they would come in and make him scream again.  Finally they said they were waiting for doctor's orders. Since it was past hours of operation, they wanted to wait until the next morning when they could schedule the surgery to place the pins.  I got ready to spend the night in the hospital with Braden writhing in agony, and then they sent word that the doctor, oh wonderful man that he was, decided it wasn't a good idea to leave a 5-year-old with a broken arm until the next morning. So he told them he would be there in about 20 minutes and to go ahead and prep Braden for surgery.  By this time it was approaching 11:00 pm so you can imagine how appreciative I was to this good doctor who had to get himself out of bed to come over and do this small favor for us and then get up at 6:00 the next morning to complete the rest of his scheduled surgeries.  By the time Braden got out of surgery and was waking up from the anesthetic it was 2:00 in the morning.  The nurses were great, bless them.  They had a bet on whether he did it on the monkey bars or a trampoline.  They said those are the most common reasons for broken arms.  When I told them it was the monkey bars they put tally marks on their board.  It helped lighten the mood anyways.  We had to spend the night in the hospital because he had to have a round of antibiotics through his IV before they would let us leave.  We didn't end up leaving the hospital until about 11:00 the next day.  Since I didn't have a car, my dear, wonderful grandma Doris came and picked us up. Then she went and picked up my other kids from my brother's house and brought them to me.  That night she also brought us KFC so I wouldn't have to cook.  Isn't she the coolest grandma ever?  The next few days we had to be very careful and at one point I guess I was fussing over him a little too much and he politely asked me if I would leave him alone. He's just like me.  When I'm sick I just want to be left alone. Because of the swelling he only had a splint on.  For 3 days he was doped up on Lortab, which knocked him out cold, then I took him back to Primary Children's to get his permanent cast on.  On the way there he barfed 3 times.  I had to keep pulling over to clean it up and let me tell you that was fun.  Needless to say I showed up over 30 minutes late for the appointment and then had to tell them he was sick.  They went ahead and took him and got him all taken care of.  He choose a green cast and had it on for 5 weeks.  The next couple of days were awful.  I got sick too and so did Landon and I had my sister's two kids.  At least neither of them got sick.  After the 5-week wait we went and had the pins removed along with the cast here in Vernal.  Thank heavens I didn't have to go all the way back to Salt Lake for that.  His arm was quite stiff and sore for a couple weeks, but we had his last appointment yesterday and he's got all movement back and it all looks healed up.  It kind of put a damper on the rest of our summer since we were under strict instruction not to get it wet at all.  He couldn't have a bath or shower or anything, not even with a plastic bag on it, all because of the pins.  The doctor said the biggest concern was infection of the open wounds where the pins were, and a wet cast would certainly breed nasty little bugs.  Once the cast was on he acted like his normal self running, jumping, climbing.  I had to constantly remind him that he couldn't do those things.  I think the biggest problem with the cast was it constantly itched him.  He wasn't allowed to put anything down the cast to scratch it because of the pins so he would just scream like he was going to go crazy.  I had to tap on the cast with a spoon to help him fall asleep each night because the vibration helped it not to itch so bad.  I also gave him Benadryl which helped with the itch and knocked him out pretty good.  Poor kid went through quite the ordeal for a broken arm.  A huge thanks to all those who helped me with my other kids while all this took place.  You were a huge blessing and saved my life. Did I mention I did all this solo because Dan was on a scouting campout in the high Uintas and he couldn't be reached?  Yeah, loads of fun.  But all those who stepped up deserve a medal.  I really needed some help, and believe me I got it.   Glad it's all over now.

He wouldn't let anyone sign his cast because he didn't want them ruin it.  After they took off the cast he just couldn't stop scratching it.  His skin was all flaky and he just kept scratching.

Monte Cristo

Let's start this one off by saying that my camera is the biggest piece of crap.  Have I mentioned that before?  Stupid thing.  Needless to say I didn't get all the pictures I wanted but here's a few.  The much anticipated camping trip finally came.  We love camping around here and my kids couldn't wait to get there.  We had to drive the 3 1/2 hour trip up to Monte Cristo but it was a beautiful drive.

In living color.

My dad and Dan sitting back and relaxing.

We did a lot of sitting around, and it felt really good.

Someone had cut this tree stump and made it into a little "tree house" that kept our kids entertained the whole time.  Such a clever idea.

Not even camping could keep Landon away from his trucks.  He played with them and slept with them and wouldn't be parted from them.

What a cute boy.

Braden and cousin Bailey get along great.  They understand one another.  Neither likes to be bossed or be told what to do so they get along fine not bossing.  They spent quite a bit of time together.  Braden would get a fire going every morning by putting some sticks in the fire pit and blowing until he had a blaze going.  Quite the boyscout.

More trucks.  He fought everyone for them.

These two cuties also get along great.  They have fun making up some pretty creative games.