Reality

Julia has been on a book frenzy lately. She loves to read...and read....and read. Usually the first book she brings me is "There's a Wocket in my Pocket". Today I wanted to just sit in the rocking chair and rock her and sing to her (because I knew she was getting tired) but she had other plans and grabbed a book instead. The book she grabbed is "Love You Forever". I've always loved reading it but today I couldn't help shed a few tears as we read and sang together. Luckily, Julia didn't notice her mom sobbing at the end of the book because she was asleep by then.

If you haven't read it you are missing out. When I got to the end where the son is rocking the mother who was very old and tired and sang to her I got to thinking about my own mom. I'm not sure she'd appreciate me posting this so soon after the news but I figured I could save this as a post I can publish later if I need to. My mom recently found out she has breast cancer. The doctors found the lump was rather small so we were all hoping for the best, knowing that the possibility of it being malignant was very real, yet hoping it would be easy to get rid of. After more tests they found that it was Carcinoma Cancer and that it was invasive, meaning it wasn't in just one spot and had spread. How far it has spread is unknown until they are able to do surgery and find out. That should take place sometime next week. My mom is very optimistic about it all, which makes me feel very optimistic but there's a 15% chance that my mother will not be around in the next five years. Wow. Just typing that hurts. I'm too selfish. I need, NEED my mom around longer than that. I need her longer than five years even. I hear about people my age losing their grandparents. I can't help but feel that it's not fair. I'm not supposed to lose my mom, yet.

The reality is that I haven't lost her. And based on her attitude she's not going anywhere. Her new outlook on life is that she's making every day special and enjoying it all. I'm looking forward to tomorrow where our family will be taking part in a special fast for my mom. I truly believe there's a power in prayer and fasting. I've seen it work for my family upon many occasions. I know that my mom will be ok with whatever happens. She's just that kind of woman. I know that I will be able to accept and deal with whatever happens too because of her example. I'm grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that I am sealed to my parents so when the day does come that we have to say goodbye on this earth it's not the end for us. I'm not saying it will be easy to say goodbye but I'm saying it will be possible. It's so much easier being a member of the church when it comes to peace and comfort in times like these.

So in conclusion, the reality is this:

Mom:

I'll love you forever

I'll like you for always

As long as I'm living

My mommy you'll be.

Buckaroo's

 

Because of the glorious holiday we had Monday (Human Rights Day) and the fact that Payton was out of school, we tried to think of something fun to do that we don't usually get to do. We had two fun activities planned while our dad was in the freezing cold fishing through the ice. Payton of course woke up disappointed that his dad didn't wake him up and take him along, but Todd assured me he had talked to Payton about it the night before and had decided it would be too cold to take him.

After we got over the tears, had some breakfast, did a little laundry {very little} we made our plans...

We were going to borrow g-pa Turek's 4-wheeler and go for a ride and then we were going to meet up with Kandice around 4pm to ride her new horse, Mokey. The hard part about our plan was waiting until g-pa and g-ma Turek were out of the temple so we could ask to borrow the 4-wheeler.

We headed over to Washington and waited at g-pa and g-ma's house...and waited....and waited. They got home later than I expected but we enjoyed watching TV {since we don't have any TV other than the movies in our closet at our house}, jumping on the tramp, feeding the horses across the street, and just reading books and playing games.

By the time g-pa and g-ma got home we were able to spend about 20 minutes with them before Kandice called to let us know we could come down and ride the horse.

The kids were so excited to see the horse and actually ride it! Payton was the first to get on. I had forgotten my camera in the car so I ran really fast to get it while Kandice was leading Payton around on Mokey. When I got back, Payton was off the horse with one shoe on and one shoe off and he was crying. My first thought was that Payton had lost his shoe while riding and for some reason it made him feel bad so he was crying. I was soooo wrong. Apparently Mokey didn't like Payton on his back so he gave him a few bucks to remove him. Kandice said Payton held on really well because he didn't fall off until the fourth buck! When I talked to Payton about he said that he knew the reason he fell off was because he let go. When he let go he landed on his back and it knocked the air out of him. 

Dave was with us and had Payton get back on the horse {which is the pictures that I got of him--tears and all} and ride for a little bit. Payton was definitely ready to get off. All the other kids took their turn and then Payton was ready to get back on the horse...which I was glad. I didn't want him being scared of riding horses the rest of his life.

The rest of the riding went without any incident and the kids are ready to go ride again. Of course, I'm ready to let Dave train Mokey a little better before we get in a real riding session.

Christmas and New Years

Christmas Eve Jammies!

Can't have cookies without the milk

Payton kept adding more to the plate. Must have thought Santa really needed them...ALL!

Christmas Morning-Yup! It's the best picture I got!

It's not that Christmas and New Years wasn't worth blogging about. It's just that I haven't felt much like blogging about it...yet. I didn't take a ton of pictures on Christmas Day but we covered Christmas Eve pretty well. After our dinner of steak and eggs {which the kids hated and mom and dad loved!} we cleaned things up and got ready to have a special "night before Christmas" moment together. We talked about the real meaning of Christmas, which Payton seems to get {yeah!} and then we watched a DVD about the Nativity. After that we decided to make some cookies for Santa. While we were making them we had a knock at the door and a secret present was delivered. Inside were PJ's for the kids and a movie to watch, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". We finished the cookies, the movie and getting things ready for Santa {and his reindeer} and then it was off to bed. I had a few presents I still needed to wrap and Payton could hear me in the other room. He kept saying, "You have to go to bed, mom! Santa won't come if you're awake."

Christmas was pretty simple this year. Nothing too hard for Santa to bring. In fact, Santa kinda fell asleep and Mrs. Clause had to pinch hit this year. Luckily there wasn't anything that needed assembly. The kids did pretty well, only coming in to wake us up around 7am. 30 minutes later, Christmas was over, breakfast was started and the day had begun. The rest is history.

New Year's Eve was spent at G-pa & G-ma Turek's house. Todd stayed home with Julia and I took two of Tiff's boys with us. Tiffani had her baby so she was going to spend the night at home {for very good reason}. We didn't really do much but play the wii. I am totally regretting the fact that not picture was taken while the boys hula hooped, threw snowballs, flew like birds...and everything else Aunt Kandice made them do. Then at midnight we did the pots and pans thing, came back inside {because it was FREEZING!} and the younger kids went back to the Wii while the bigger kids played the "What if" game. Then we called it a night and the start of a new year.

Ready to bang pots and pans

 Tiff had her baby {#5-yup! She's nuts!} on December 30th. Her name is Alaina and she's the cutest little thing! I love snuggling with her, when I get the chance. Even Julia enjoyed holding her. Too bad little Laini didn't agree.

Payton is SEVEN! and other news

opening gifts!

His DC Shoes. Don't look at JuJu's hair.

as we sang Happy Birthday to Payton

Making a wish over his pancake

I'm not sure what's more weird. The fact that Payton turned seven today or that he'll be eight next year. Either way, my kids are growing up. I was so excited for Payton to open his presents today because he really wanted a new pair of shoes. Of course, he didn't want just any shoes. He wanted "DC Shoes". Aren't they a little younger to be asking for designer things? I told him we could either have a b-day party for him or buy him a present. He chose to have a present, and well, he got his wish. He couldn't stop smiling when he saw the shoe box under that wrapping paper.
I hope he's had a great day at school today because I'm ditching him tonight for what will be my last work party with the Heideman group. After working there for 12 years I'm saying goodbye (until someone has a baby or needs a sub and calls me) to Dr. Heideman's office. I'm going to be working once a week for a pediatric dentist named Cody Johnson. I'm excited for a change and love that I'm going to get to work with kids. So if anyone is looking for a dentist for their kids, I know he does a great job (because I've gotten to fill in the office a couple times and he's good!).

In other news, I chopped my hair. Well, I didn't chop it, I let Kandice do that for me. I miss my long hair but this is a good change. I just wish Kandice would come to my house every day and fix my hair so I like it better. I'll keep practicing and might eventually get it to look as cute as it did the day I came home with it cut. I do have to write what Payton said about my hair cut when I come home from work Monday night (that's the night I had it cut). Payton met me in the garage and said, "You cut your hair?" I said, "Yup! Do you like it?" He said, "Well, you're not as cute as you used to be". Ahhhh, honestly. Where's the duct tape? Better yet, don't ask questions you might not want to hear the answer to.

Christmas Tree Hunting

she reminded me of Randy from "The Christmas Story"

Porter's snow tree

making snowmen

Eating a tailgate lunch

Todd dragging the tree to the truck. Can you see JuJu?

family picture with the tree

Porter was the first to get cold...and wet.

Payton's giant snowball he made himself

This was how the kids helped...stay in the back and out of the way.

This year's Christmas Tree Hunt was an adventure. We took a detour to pick up some jerky in Glendale from Todd's buck this year. {yeah, I still haven't posted about his hunt this year, yet....it's in the process} Although it was quite the detour to get the the Kaibab it was worth it. It's DANG GOOD JERKY!! When we finally made it to our Christmas Tree hunting grounds there was too much snow! Our new truck is a little lower to the ground so we had to put the chains on the tires and we still weren't able to go as far in as we wanted. The kids loved riding in the back of the truck while we moved forward and backward and turned around a few times. We decided to stop and let the kids play in the snow while Todd walked around trying to find a tree. After a quick lunch we drove further down a different road and let the kids get out and play again while Todd hiked into the forest of pinions trying to find a Christmas tree. I was getting really nervous that we were going to be taking one of those pinions home with us {which is what our very first Christmas tree was...we will avoid those at all costs in the future}. The kids loved making snow balls and rolling down hills while their dad was on the hunt. I was so excited to see Todd coming through the trees dragging a tree behind him. I was even more excited to see that it was a Blue Spruce instead of a pinion! We loaded up the kids, the gear and the tree and headed for home. This is our first tree like this so we're not used to the soft needles and the branches that can't hold as many decorations but that didn't stop the kids from trying. There were as many as six balls on one branch until mom and dad got involved. It's going to be a long season with the decorations. It seems like we break at least one ball a day {and a record 8 balls while we were decorating}. We will be investing in some non-breakable balls for our future decorating purposes. Now all we have to do is be good so Santa will come!{That's easier said than done}

Bentley's back in the"Hood"

We really have an awesome neighborhood. There are TONS of kids constantly running around together and we've made some good friends being over here. This story is just one example of what kind of neighborhood we live in:
The first three pictures were taken when Jul's about a year old...thus the reason for the bottle and lack of hair.

Julia, Porter, Bently (the dog) and Carson

kisses

Julia LOVES Bently!

 The family across the street (The McLemore's) have a cute little chihuahua named Bentley. He comes to my house often and does the vacuuming in my kitchen. Of course he's a little more picky than some dogs so he won't eat EVERYTHING I would like him to. Julia will spend plenty of time over at Bentley's house and loves that little dog.

Well, Saturday, Todd and Tyler (that's the neighbor--or Bentley's "dad") went quail hunting. Todd took Payton and Tyler took Bentley. (yeah, not exactly a hunting dog but whatever?) While the boys were hunting, Bentley got lost/or scared of the gun shots. The boys looked for him for a few hours, yelling, whistling, anything to try and find him. There were eagles flying over head and they kidded about one of them picking him off (have you seen The Proposal?) and they found a "scratch mark from a coyote" (ask the boys what that means 'cause I'm not all that sure--just that there was a coyote around?) and they thought maybe Bently had been eaten by the coyote. I tried to keep telling them that he wandered to the street and someone stopped and picked him up. Of course that meant that Bently was still gone because who would return that cute pup? Oh! I forgot to mention that he wasn't wearing any collar or tags so someone might have thought he was a stray...or something and would have been more liable to keep him.

That night the boys came home empty handed and with heavy hearts thinking that Bentley could be out there in the desert landscape freezing or avoiding predators. Sunday we went to our meetings and saw the McLemore's at church. No news of Bently. Just red eyes from the crying the night before. Poor little Carson (he's 6) had cried himself to sleep that night because of the missing dog. After church we told them we were going to go back out and look for him on our way to Todd's moms for dinner. We were there for about 30 minutes and the McLemore's and the Wilson's (another family up the street from us) showed up to look one more time for Bentley. After scrutinizing every track we could find, Todd thought he could see Bentley's paw prints heading toward the paved road. It's all we could do to just hope someone had found him.

Well, today Bentley's family went to the Washington City dog pound in hopes of finding their dog. Lo and Behold HE WAS THERE! It was a great reunion. Jen called us up and let us know he had been found. Monique (Wilson) came over soon after and had painted a welcome home sign to put up at their house and with the help of another neighbor we staked it in the ground, tied some balloons and anxiously awaited the families return.

Bentley got lost around the Coral Canyon area (the opposite side of the golf course) and was found in Washington on Telegraph and 300. He made quite a journey before someone had found him and took him in. Just one happy story for the "hood" to share together...and one for my books to read and laugh about later!

Ju Ju Turns TWO!

My 8lb 8oz girl born on 11-11-08

1st B-day

in her B-day suit after playing in the mud

 We love this little stinker!

Thank Emmie for letting Jul's borrow your bike! She LOVES it!!!