Check this out!

So, my brother Nate got married this am to Abby (CONGRATS! We are SO happy for you guys!). Last night we had the wedding dinner and all 6 of the nephews performed for the happy couple. You might have to pause my music on the right side. ENJOY!!

78' or 112'......hmmmm.....

So, I said in my last post that we were going out of town. Well, I am still up at our Cabin in Pinetop and DON"T want to go home! I am outside and it is 4:00 in the afternoon and it is 78', cloudy, and has been sprinkling on and off all day. OR I could be home in Gilbert where it is 112' today, stuck in my house or swimming in our pool.....Hmmm....You really have to ask? OBVIOUSLY I am staying here. I have to go home for Nate's wedding, but I will hopefully be back right after that for another week. I'm here with my sisters and their kids and it is SO FUN!!

I don't have my cord to attach my camera to my laptop, so here are some pictures from 2 years ago at the cabin. We ALWAYS catch lizards....

And the girls get new skirts that we sew. Actually, this year we let THEM sew their own purses. CUTE!

Anyways, just to let you know where I am, in case you were wondering!

I will post more later. For now, I am going to enjoy the cool weather!

Beginning of June!

There are also some important things that happened at the beginning of June...mostly with Maddie and Lexi.

Maddie had her dance recital with Jeanne's. She did a ballet to the Sleeping Beauty song. I LOVE her costume! So pretty!

Daddy bought her some beautiful flowers for her beautiful dance!

Maddie and Lexi also had their dance recital from Ms. Tracy's dance group called Dance Addiction. They do jazz, tap and ballet. So cute! These are their parade costumes.

Here is Lexi doing her ballet dance. She is front and center.

Here is Maddie dancing to Hannah Montana "put your hands up, their playing our song, butterflies fly away..."

Here is Lexi doing Tap.

Here is Maddie doing her Tap dance.

What a performer!

Lexi and her BFF, Kira

Here is Lexi, Ms Tracy and Maddie!

Great Job, my little dancers! You did GREAT!

That about sums up June, other than Payton's head situation. And, just a little bit of more information about that...Payton is doing great, his staples are out and you can hardly see a scar! After talking to a few people, I wanted to clear a few things up. People thought we used a regular household stapler...NO, DO NOT USE THOSE!! We had a real stapler from the ER, it was all very sterile, with iodine, Tyler had gloves, and everything was clean. Just as clean as it would have been in the ER. Heehee!

I am headed out of town for a couple of weeks. I will write when I write! :) Hope you are all enjoying your summer!

The end of May

Yes, I am going back to May. Haha! A couple things I need to make sure I document!

So, first off, Payton's baseball season is OVER!! It actually ended the end of May. He had 2 games and 1 practice every week. It seemed like there was lots of baseball. :) I think I have a pretty good looking baseball player! What do you think? 

Here he is pitching

Here he is playing Catcher-the position he played the most

His best buddy, Nicolas

Payton and Coach Tim

Payton and Daddy-He loved to help coach when he could

Here is what the girls looked like after almost every baseball game! DIRTY!!

At the end of the season party, coach gave them all a game ball and talked about the special boys.  Payton was nick-named "the Cup Holder" after his "incident" at the beginning of the season! haha!! Here is the team and the coaches with each of their "game ball"

Thanks for the great season, D-backs! Great Job!

Maddie and Payton also had their last day of school. I let them take disposable cameras and some of the shots were pretty funny!

Here is Ms. Skinner, their 2nd grade Teacher. They have already told me that they don't want to be in the same class next year! haha!

Watch out, 3rd Grade!

Scary and GRAPHIC!!

Ok, so before I tell this story, I have to warn you, the pictures are GRAPHIC and not easy to look at, so if you don't like blood and gore, DON'T continue on past the story....I won't be offended. My sister, De, told me to write this in my journal, to make myself feel better. I was going to write this in my personal journal, but I can't find it, and since I am using this as my journal, here is where it is getting written, and I happened to take pictures, so that is why it is soooo graphic! I will tell the story first, then, if you want to see the pics, you can look, but don't say I didn't warn you! The pics will be at the END!

So, Maddie and Payton are in a diving class (similar to swimming lessons, but all on the diving board) and they LOVE it! Today they were practicing jumping backwards off of the board and the teacher was getting them to jump away from the board. After class, Payton said he had wanted to do a back flip off of the board, but the coach wouldn't let him. I told him, "yeah, you probably aren't ready, yet."

Then he said that he was going to try it in our pool, in which I replied, "No! We don't have a diving board and you don't know how!" then he said he wanted to do it in the deep part of our pool (only 5 1/2 feet deep) and I replied, "probably not, but we will see."

Well, after swim lessons, we (Donelle (one of my best friends) and her kids) went back to my house to swim for a bit. We had been in the pool area for about 3 minutes, and Donelle and I were just sitting down under the shade. I got up to get my feet wet (mind you, it was 111' today, yes, 111') and as I was putting my feet in the pool I looked up to see Payton standing on the side of the pool, about 2 feet from the edge of the pool, with his back to the pool. Right then he jumped up trying to do a back flip, but instead of getting anywhere near a back flip, or the pool, he landed with the base of the back of his head on the corner of the pool decking, and the rest of his back kind of rolled down on the deck. Ugghhhh....this memory of me watching it makes me want to throw up. My stomach is SICK just thinking about it! I quickly ran over to him as he was trying to stand up, and told him not to move and started holding his head closed. I yelled to Donelle to run inside and get Tyler (I was VERY blessed that Donelle was there, because she is an ER nurse and even more blessed because Tyler is a PA and was home for lunch!). Within seconds, Donelle came back out with a towel and Tyler close behind her. By then blood was pouring out of the back of his head and I couldn't keep it closed. Donelle took over holding the towel and Tyler came over to him. I wasn't as worried about his head, as I was about his neck and back. He landed on the back of his head, but it really kinked his neck. They took Payton in the house and we got all the other kids out of the pool and made them play outside. Inside, Tyler and Donelle cleaned him up and it was easy to tell Payton needed staples or stitches or SOMETHING to keep it closed. His gash was about 2 1/2'' long and about 1/2'' deep. SCARY!!! Again, I am very blessed that Donelle and Tyler were there. Donelle happened to have a stapler at her house and she ran home to get it. They cleaned the area, sterilized everything and put 5 staples in his head. Luckily it was a very clean straight gash, and luckily, Tyler had cut Payton's hair VERY short just last night! HUGE BLESSINGS!!  I spent the day watching for signs of concussion and will continue to do that all night, but it looks like he will be ok and just have a big old scar and be sore for the next few days. We kept trying to keep him positive by reminding him how he can tell his 3rd grade teacher and class about it in Aug. when school starts up. :)

Anyways, I know this was graphic, but I had to get it out.

I wanted to say a few things that went through my mind. When it all happened, while I was in the moment, I was ok. I wasn't thinking about anything other than my son and how to help him not be in pain. About an hour after it happened, and when I sat back to think about it all, I burst into tears and wanted to throw up. Just remembering my son, falling on his head, and me not being able to do anything, makes me so SICK! I know there was nothing I could have done to prevent it, but I'm his Mom. I'm supposed to protect him, take care of him, and make sure nothing bad happens to him. I don't want to see my son in pain or hurt. As I am sitting and writing about this tonight, I realized I never said my morning prayers. Summer has made my schedule and routine a little off. I used to pray every morning for my family, mostly that they would make good choices, be respectful to their teachers and others, and that I could help them be good kids and be a good Mom to them. I also always prayed they would return to me safely. I don' think I have ever prayed that they wouldn't get hurt. I guess I have always taken that for granted. You better believe that will be at the top of my list on my prayers from now on. Again, that might not have prevented it, but you never know if you don't ask.

I think I am a little more protective of Payton, since we lost Jake. I can't imagine losing another child, especially my only other son. I can't even fathom that....

Anyways, my prayers tonight will be to sincerely thank Heavenly Father for helping me take care of my children. To thank Him that I had more help than I needed this afternoon, and that Payton is doing fine and will recover without any lasting effects. I truly am so so blessed to be a Mom to my amazing kiddos. I love them and will do whatever it takes for our family to be together forever.

One last comment from Payton. After things had settled down and he was watching a movie he sat up and asked if his back would hurt tomorrow, and I told him it would, and he said, "so, if I am in the car with other kids and they see a slug bug, they can't slug me in the back or head, right??" Haha! I couldn't help but laugh. First off, that is one of the first things he was worried about after having gotten staples in his head??? Second, who slugs someone on their back, or their HEAD!!?? haha! I told him we would make sure to tell all the kids in our car (which is usually Maddie and Lexi) that if they see a slug bug, they can't slug Payton on his back or head!

Ok, here are the photos. I know they are very graphic, that is why I am warning you!! If you don't want to see them, DON'T LOOK past this POINT!!!

Danger!

Danger!

Danger!

Before the stitches! Look at that GASH!!

Great Staple JOB!! All 5!

This picture is so that you can see his profile of the back of his head. If you look closer to the base of his head you can see how it pokes out, and the black line where the gash is at.

Anyways, I am glad it is over. I'm grateful he is ok, and that he is such a sweetheart. He did great getting the staples and great afterwards. I love my Payton!

Beginning of May

Here are some of the fun happenings from May!

Payton's Rookie team got to walk out on the field before a Diamondback's game, and boy did they have fun!

Their team is the one in Red

I love this picture because some of our team is jumping up and giving high fives to some of the people in the stand!

Trevor, Nicolas, Payton and Maddie....we all got these cool hats for being one of the first 5000 people to the game!

Kira, Carson (he is being a goofball and crossing his eyes) and Lexi...buddies!

My Sister, Heather, graduated from EA's nursing program! Congrats, Heather! Here is me and all my sisters..Me, Denise, Julie, Heather and Katie.

We took all of the little girlies to see the ballet "Cinderella" We had a dinner beforehand and it was delish! All of the little girls had to dress up, of course! So cute!

Me and my girlies!

The Gila Valley Temple had an open house and I really wanted to take my kids through the temple, so we made a trip up to Safford and saw it. It is beautiful inside. I'm so glad my kiddos got to see it.

Outside the temple

All of our friends that we caravaned with.

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Lexi wanted to see what it looked like when she spun and had me take a picture...Well, here it is!

I must say, I LOVE LOVE LOVE her hair!!

More April Update

Note to self...it is WAY easier to blog as it happens, then go back and play catch-up!!! Here is the rest of April!!

We had a "Pinkalicious" birthday party for Alene! Complete with pink EVERYTHING...

Wii Just Dance...

Pink Crown Cupcakes for our pinkalicious princess...

And Fabulous pinkalicious friends!! Happy Birthday, Alene!!

Payton had to "wolf" the whip cream to find his "Wolf!" Great JOB, Payton!

Lexi got her first pedicure...she is hooked!!

Her tootsies are TOO cute!

On April 17th, My best friend, Donelle, her niece, Kelly, me and 28,000 of our closest friends ran the Pat Tillman race!!

it was 4.2 miles...Pat's number was 42...

And the race ended on the 42 yard line at ASU stadium, cause Pat Tillman played for ASU...

It was Donelle's FIRST RACE EVER and she did GREAT!! She would have been faster, but I was holding her back!! Thanks for coming with me, Donelle and Kelly!! Just rest, Donelle! :)

My little niece, Elsie, was born on my birthday! I don't mind sharing my birthday!

Tyler and Chad took the kids up to my Dad's fishing tournament....

Lexi and Jace each got 1st place in their age bracket!

All of the kids did GREAT!! (Please, don't mind the girls hair, I OBVIOUSLY was NOT there!)

And, It snowed!! brrrrrr!!!!

While the boy went to the fishing tournament, me and 4 of my bestest friends went up to Women's Conference at BYU....we drove ALL the way up!! Great job, Chrissy..it was SO windy, they closed the road shortly after we made it through!

It was FREEZING and snowed while we were up there!

But the flowers were beautiful, the friends were amazing and the speakers were uplifting!!

And, the peanut butter cup hot chocolate was TO DIE FOR!! Thanks, Tanisha!!

We also celebrated my birthday in UT by going to a REAL afternoon tea! It was SO fun!!

The raspberry hot chocolate was delish, and the finger sandwiches were VERY good, and the pastries were yummy!! Thanks for the great birthday, gals!!

We also attended a session at the Salt Lake Temple. It was really fun. Here is Chrissy and me in an alcove outside of the temple!

And, the flowers on Temple square were beautiful!

Thanks for the GREAT girls trip Alene, Shelley, Chrissy and Donelle.

And thank you to our husbands for staying home with the kiddos while we were gone! I had a very memorable trip. Hopefully I can take what I heard and be a better wife, mother, friend, and daughter of God!