Camping, Anyone??

This past weekend was our Ward Campout! Let me tell you, I have not been camping with our kids, EVER!! Tyler has taken them to Father/daughter, father/son, etc, but we have never been camping all together, so when they told us about this campout, I was VERY excited! We got all packed (Tyler did it all) and the kids had a 1/2 day, so we set out at 1pm. We got to the campsite around 2:30. It was right up near Christopher Creek, and it was beautiful! The kids began exploring, and Tyler began setting up camp.

It was a good thing the Linfords were there, so Tyler would have some help! I felt pretty useless! Lots of families began arriving and the kids began playing!

It was so fun! Then......Payton began complaining that he didn't feel good. I figured it was from the drive....until he threw up!! YUCK!!! No big deal, he threw up in the trees, no clean up. We were ok! He kind of went back to playing....then 1 hour later he threw up again!! YUCK!! Again, in the trees, no big deal, no clean up. We had dinner (Tyler cooked steaks! Way to go, they were delicious!) and Payton didn't eat much, but I didn't expect him to. Throughout the evening he threw up every 45min! He missed the fireside because he was so tired, so we had him in bed while everyone else made Smores!

Yummy!

(All the girls!)

We were by the fire when I heard him call out my name. I ran into the tent to find that he had thrown up ALL over the sleeping back and his pj's. Poor guy! Great. Lots of clean up! We cleaned him up and he went back to sleep. We got Maddie and Lexi in bed and 20 minutes later Maddie is crying. I went running and SHE threw up! All over her sleeping bag and pj's! We didn't have any extra sleeping bags, but luckily some great friends did, and they let us borrow them. That was how the night went. Both Maddie and Payton throwing up, and me trying to get it into a bowl or bag or sonic cup. YUCK!! They finally stopped throwing up around 3am. I was so glad to have the sun up and be able to get out of bed! The kids were feeling a bit better, but were SO sad to not have the energy to play with all of their friends! :(

There were lots of kids there and they got really creative and began creating Indian villages and tribes, complete with Teepees,

gardens, caves, etc. It was really cute! My poor kids didn't play much, but watched the kids.

Luckily, Lexi felt good the whole time. Now we are waiting for her to get it! Sorry to anyone who got sick from us!

I will have to think before I get too excited about camping again!

Congrats Heather and Brandon!

My cute little sister, Heather, was married on July 31st to a GREAT guy named Brandon. She looked AMAZING, he looked handsome and the wedding reception looked incredible (thanks to my very talented sis-in-law, Jenn). I cannot even begin to describe how great everything was! Heather wanted Cake, yummy slush, softserve icecream and a candy bar. We also added popcorn (for something not sweet). Everything was Green, black, white and gold, and polk-a-dots! SO CUTE!! Even the toppings and candy bar were either black, green or gold! Check out the backgrounds to some of these photos and you can see how fun it was!

Look at the BEAUTIFUL hair! Way to go, Katie! (my sis, Katie curled most of this! Wow!)



Mr and Mrs. Brandon Grissom-Just Married!



Their first meal as a married couple-Wendy's?? Hmm....

All the neices and the beautiful bride



All the nephews and the new groom-good luck, Brandon! :)
My mom made all of the dresses for the little girls. Aren't they adorable? Heather made all of the flowers for the hair and Mel made the necklaces! So cute!


Brandon and Heather and all of the neices and nephews. I love the Green!


Here are all of us sisters showing off our legs? Heather looked cute, anyways! :)


Remember, this was July 31st, IN ARIZONA, so it was HOT, but so much fun! Congrats, Heather and Brandon! We are so happy for you! Welcome to the fam, Brandon!

Angel Baby Ethan

Please say a special prayer for Ethan's family. He passed away this morning. We love this family so much. Ethan and Jake were due within weeks of each other. Heidi and I would call each other after each appointment. It breaks my heart that he is gone, but I'm sure Jake and Ethan are in heaven enjoying their "whole hearts." We love you, Ethan!

Back To School

I haven't posted in a while so I am going to go backwards in what has/had happened and see if I can get caught up!

It is amazing how quickly 2 1/2 months can go by when you are having fun! We had a great summer, and I was sad to see it go and that the kids would start school. They started last Monday (Aug 10th). They were so excited to go back and see all of their friends and wear all of their new clothes (Especially Payton, to wear his Mario shirt. He thinks that is the BEST!) I was sad because they are so grown up. They are in 2nd GRADE! Time is going by too quickly! I remember crying when Maddie grew out of her Premie diapers! NOw they are in 2nd grade and turning 8 in 1 month!! Yikes!! Slow down!!

Anyways, here are some cute photos of their first day:

Maddie looked so cute in her Orange and Pink. She really wanted more dresses and skirts that she could wear to school!

Payton found this Mario shirt. He is so into Mario Brothers right now. I think he is planning a Mario party! (Any ideas?)

Lexi doesn't start preschool until September, but she really wanted her photo taken like the big kids. She even packed her own lunch! But, I had to explain to her that she couldn't wear her new PJ's to school! haha!

!

Here is Maddie walking to her class on the first day of school. She looks so excited!

Here is Payton walking to class too. He wanted these tennis shoes because "It would help him run faster and get away from the girls!"

Maddie and Payton decided they wanted to be in the same class this year! We will see how it goes! Right before school started Payton all of a sudden said he didn't want Maddie in his class and I asked him why and he said, "Cause when we go out for recess she always gives me a hug and says she is glad to see me!" I explained that if they were in the same class she wouldn't do that because she would have already seen him! Then, he was really glad they were in the same class! Haha!

Happy Birthday to Denise!!

Happy 30th birthday to my little sister, Denise! De and I have been best friends our whole lives! We are only 14 months apart! We can hang out all day! And, our kids are best friends too! De has always been my rock and someone I can lean on. She will listen to everything I say and has GREAT advice. She has an amazing testimony and a love for the gospel. Her house is "THE HOUSE" to hang out at. She always has friends and kids over and is always doing something for other people. Her daughter, Grace, was born 1 month before we found out about Jake's heart condition. As soon as we found out about his heart condition, she started pumping extra and freezing her breastmilk, knowing that I was not going to be able to provide enough for him! She was amazing during everything with Jake. She was always willing to take care of my kiddos, or drop everything and come to the hospital. Everyone that meets Denise LOVES her. How can they not? She is AMAZING!

Thanks for being my BEST FRIEND, De! I love you, and Happy birthday!!

My Handsome Baby!

We were just downloading videos from the video camera and came across some priceless videos of Jake in the hospital. This video was when he was 4 days old. He hadn't had surgery yet-NO SCARS!! He was on some oxygen and the tube going in his mouth is suctioning anything out of his tummy. He was only being fed thru his umbilical line. He has his eyes open! I wish I could upload more videos, but most of them are too large of files! I'm so glad we got this on video! Enjoy my handsome boy!

Today marks 6 months since he became an angel and went back to Heavenly Father. It still seems unreal and like it never happened, yet it is real. Sometimes I hate reality. Thank goodness for good videos, photos and memories!

Bear Update.....

So, I have had LOTS of questions about this bear that was caught, so I thought I better answer them. I am home right now until Sunday, then I am going back up to the cabin! It is WAY too hot down here-I mean, how have I lived 31 years down here in the summer! It was 111' at 12pm! YUCK!! No more heat for us, we are going back up!! Haha!!

So, some bear questions...We have been seeing a bear up at the cabin for the past 2 weeks. We called game and fish and they said they wouldn't trap it until it became aggressive. Usually it would take down the humminbird feeders, bird feeders and break down the garbage lid and get in and eat from the garbage, usually making a pretty big mess! Well, last Saturday, about 10:30pm, My cousin, Kaylani went out on the front porch to use the internet and was about 4 feet from the bear. He was coming on the porch. Luckily, she got inside safely, but we have no idea how close the bear would have gotten. We have been sleeping with all of the windows open because it is so nice! Monday night the bear was back, and made a HUGE mess with the garbage so we called Game and FIsh, and still nothing. Tuesday night he was back, laying between 2 of my cousins cabins, eating peanuts, then went for the garbage. I called my brother and he started up (about 30 minutes away). He was going to come shoot it. I then called game and FIsh and told them he was coming to shoot it and we discussed it and argued for about 15 minutes, me basically telling him I was a mother bear, and I would not wait for something to attack my babies, I would attack it, so they would be safe, even if it meant Jail time! HAHA! He finally realized I wasn't going to back down, and came up and set the trap, but he didn't put it by the garbage, he put it up the hill...even though we told him to put it by the garbage. Well, the next morning, their was no bear trapped and TONS of garbage! Game and fish came back and

decided the garbage was the best bet (ya think??). Here is the trap and the garbage. You can see

left lid caved in-due to the bear jumping on the lid to get to the garbage.

Wednesday night, about 10:15pm we heard a LOUD bang so we all drove to the garbage and trap (it's about 200 yards from my cabin) and all of my cousins from the closer cabins were close to the trap too, but we were all nervous to look inside. We finally figured we had safety in numbers so we looked, and there was the little bear in the cage. He was VERY tame. All of the people who had seen the bear before swore that this bear looked lots smaller than the one they had seen. Game and Fish showed up and he also commented on how tame he was. That was why I got so many great pictures. I put my camera right into the holes on the back of the cage and we had 3 flashlights shining in as well and the bear did NOTHING!! My cousin even fed him a stick and he just took it like a puppy dog and chewed on it! Not the best example to my kids about how a real bear acts!! haha! THey thought he looked just like a BIG puppy dog! Game and fish figured he was about 3 1/2 years old.

Here we are after they caught the bear. You can see that he got into the garbage before he got into the cage! They took him away shortly after this!

The next morning, my cousin called and said their was another bear that came back and grabbed MORE garbage out of the garbage sometime between 2-4!! He drug it up the hill and made a BIG mess!

Game and Fish brought the caught bear back so we could all say goodbye! Here is a shot of him in the daylight. He was going to relocate him and then bring back the trap for the other bear.

Here is where the story continues!!!......................................................................

So this morning, around 3:15am I get a text from my cousin saying they are watching the BIG bear. He was in the garbage and then went into their sandbox to eat peanuts. While the big bear was in the sandbox with the peanuts ANOTHER small bear got into the garbage!! YIKES!! AND, Game and Fish hadn't come back with the trap, so they couldn't do ANYTHING!! She said the big bear would stand up and scare the little bear away, but as soon as the big bear was lying down the little bear would come back to the garbage!! They finally went to bed about 4am, and 2 bears were still outside!! 3 bears total!! Can you believe it!! 3!!! The bear also visited our cabin and got into some of the sand stuff by our garage, so the people at our cabin never saw him, but when I got the text I called them to close the windows. So, I guess Game and FIsh are coming to set another trap and they will keep setting them until they catch them all!! WOW!! This story will have to be continued!! You may ask why I would want to go back?? Well, the heat is killing me, and I don't want to miss all the action! Haha!

Until tomorrow.......