TIME FLIES!!!!

So I'm not exactly sure how the time flew so fast, and I turned into such a slacker! I did this in the summer, and so bare with me as I do the monster catch up... again!!!

Let me just start by saying that I am so very grateful for my little family, and my wonderful husband! Heavenly Father has an amazing way of every so often reminding me that life is too short, and certain things should NEVER be taken for granted. Even though at the time I don't like being taught those very important lessons I am grateful for what I have learned as a result of them!

We had a nice quiet holiday season, Todd is still recovering nicely, but he did have some hardware removed 2 days before Christmas so that sort of forced us to take it easy, I was glad, it was nice, we were still able to do most of our holiday traditions, but on a little lower key.

Daisy and I were able to go to the Nutcracker. Todd got us FANTASTIC seats! I have been anxiously waiting for Miss Daisy to be old enough to go, as I have memories of my sisters being in the Nutcracker, I couldn't wait for her to experience the magic, well let tell you she so experienced the "MAGIC" all right! She did awesome, fallowed the story, loved watching the kids parts, and loved hearing about her aunts dancing in it. Well after the intermission lets face it, it starts getting a bit, shall we say lengthy, and it was past her bedtime, so as a result she started to get a bit punchy! I thought I was going to have to pick her up off of the floor, when she suddenly noticed that the Sugar Plum Fairy's Cavalier had tights on that left very little to the imagination! She could not stop laughing! Good thing it was a school night, and was not a sold out house, and the little old couple sitting next to us got a pretty good laugh at her!

I love you Daisy! I hope you always keep your WONDERFUL sense of humor, and remain such an, individual! You are so cool!

We did keep with most of our same Christmas traditions, going to see the lights at Temple Square,

and our Christmas Eve at Bennihana(the kids love it!). Some things we hope we will never visit again, like the drama with poor Todd's foot (he had some hardware removed 2 days before Christmas) New Years Eve was very uneventful!!! Culley and Daisy loved that we let them stay up, but they loved even more that we let them make huge noise late at night with pots and pans. Todd and I were just glad to kiss 2008 goodbye, and start fresh with 2009. We finally ended the holiday season with a trip to Lava Hot Springs (something we have never done) with my mom and dad, Brittany and Dallas. Even though it is not necessarily the most glamorous place on earth, good luck finding a 5 star hotel, but hey it was an adventure, and yes we would go back.

So there is the Readers Digest version, and done, up to date..... until this week, or I look at the pictures in my camera and remember something else.

Oi!!! THE LEAVES!!!

Happy Fall everyone!!!!!!







I must say I have a huge conflict when it comes to the big trees at our house.



Pros: They are absolutely beautiful

They are so amazingly majestic (weird adjectives I know, but truly our trees so incredibly
large. I seem to really notice it more when I am at the neighbors or the church next door.)


The fact that during the summer, unless it is crazy hot, the air conditioning rarely kicks
on on the main floor. Thus saving us a ton of money!


The wildlife! When we 1st moved in 3 years ago we had a pair of Falcons that for 2 springs

raised babies. We also have 2 different kinds of owls, and a ton of birds.

The big swing in the huge willow in the backyard. My kids love it, and so do the adults!


The leaves, I love the way the leaves look in the yard. It just makes it feel so cozy, time
for sweaters and yummy carmel apple ciders, plus they make cute and easy fall
decorations, (give me a leaf and a color photocopier). Not to mention the kids jumping in
the leaves.



Cons: The bugs, we are constantly getting our yard and house sprayed because of all of the
bugs and spiders that live in our trees.

The birds, you pretty much sit on the back porch on a dare.

The leaves, all of the clean up,


Obviously the pros far outweigh the cons, as they should, our trees are so very beautiful! But I must say I am over how lovely they are, especially since this is the 3rd weekend in a row I have spent many hours raking, mowing, and bagging leaves!!! Especially because this year it is up to me!

Last weekend in the middle of the clean up, our fabulous neighbors came over and helped me for about 4 hours. I wanted to cry! I was way tired of the leaves at this point, so it was a huge relief to have them, plus it made it alot more fun!! (for me at least)


This weekend wasn't as bad and I see an end in sight, at least in the front yard......

Gettin REAL

Here are a few pictures of us at the Real soccer game. Todd was so Johnny on the Spot and got us tickets for the new stadium. We had great seats, especially for how late we purchased. I guess there are some perks for the gimpy leg. Not only did we have decent seats, the parking was awesome! We parked in the season ticket holder parking lot, which led us right into the stadium entrance.

We did a bit of tailgating with our friends. YUM! YUM! Sloppy Joe's.

And even though it was a bit freezy, it was a lot of fun to get out! The kids had a great time. We had a great time.

OF COURSE!!!!!

So here is an update on Todd and the broken foot. Friday we got up on time, got the kids ready not only for a regular day at school, but picture day! Clothes ironed, hair fixed just right, breakfast, and out the door by 8;40, then away to the doctor we went. The day was going so smoothly we even had time to stop at Starbucks for a yummy green tea latte. Traffic, not a problem. Arrived just perfect for our 9:45 appointment. We didn't even have to wait long to see the doctor. WOW! Not normal for us at all!

Doctor Nickish came in looked at Todd's foot, ordered the routine x-rays. Told him 4 more weeks of non-weight baring, and he would like to see us then and we would discuss physical therapy. So it looks like Todd will be walking by Christmas!!! Yeah!

Well that is about where our smooth day ended!

The doctor had told Todd from the beginning to plan on his foot swelling for about a year or so. But as we were wrapping up our appointment Todd asked him if it was normal for his foot to be swelling so big and so fast. (if Todd doesn't have his foot up it will swell pretty big in about 5 minutes, plus he keeps getting Charley Horses in the back of his calf .) Well that was all he had to say!
Before we knew it we were on our way to the hospital for a Doppler ultra sound.

Of Course!!! Not only does Todd have one blood clot, he has two!!!! Just when we were thinking we have handled the past 2 1/2 months OK, and the nightmare was almost over, well now there is just an entirely new layer. He gets to let me give him shots in the stomach twice a day for the next 5 days of a pretty hefty blood thinner, plus he takes 2 pills a day of another blood thinner for at least the next 3 months. He also gets his blood drawn 2 times a week so they can keep track of the medication levels in his blood to make sure he isn't getting too much or too little. And then he will have multiple visits to the thrombosis clinic. At least this wont add time on to his recovery!! But hey you never know!

These past 2 1/2 months have been a real challenge for Todd!! He doesn't do well just sitting. I honestly think there are days when he is going to loose his mind.
Not being able to go to work has been very hard for him. ( But secretly I am pretty sure he has loved not being able to mow the lawn or do any yard work, and I know he is pretty happy about missing out on our 30 bags of leaves when they start to fall) He has at least been able to continue with school, doing on line classes. That at least gives him something to do part of the time. And even though this isn't lengthening his recovery time, I think he feels like this is just one more thing.

Not a great week for him!!

Goin Fishin

So with our dad being broken we have had to be somewhat creative with our activities. I mean lets be honest there are only so many kids movies, and it gets pretty boring renting, plus we are suffering from cabin fever oh so bad!

So the other day on the way to the dump with the neighbors( everything requires help these days) we took the new Legacy Highway, there are a lot of things west of us that we didn't really know were there, we saw a little fishing lake. I guess it has been there a while ,but like I said didn't know it existed until the Legacy went in. Anyway we noticed that it had paved paths, handicapped parking and ramps to get up onto the docks.

We thought that would be a new and fun activity to take the kids to do, and Todd could go with us. So off to Dick's sporting goods we went got the kids a couple of fishing poles, Todd and I a fishing license and we were set.

We loaded up the fishing gear, Todds grandpas old tackle box, and a few snacks. ready to catch a fish or two. Well, the little lake has potential, and I'm not sure if we just caught it on a bad day but, lets just say it needs a bit of a clean up crew. But, I had my hand sanitizer I was just going to look the other way, so I did, and the other way was worse, nothing like a dead raccoon floating in the water. Dock much cleaner!!!!!!!!

We had a good time though, especially after we moved to the dock . Daisy caught a fish, almost had it all the way reeled in and it got away with her power bait. Cullen loved it and by the time we were leaving he was doing a pretty good job casting without almost hooking us in the forehead.

We will definitely do this again, hey we will probably even try Bountiful Pond again,(mainly because it is close) but it was a great way to kill an evening, and get us out of the house for a while!!!

End of Summer- Start of School

Well it's official, maybe not on the calender, but summer is over!!! The kids are back in school. One whole week to be exact. WOW!!! I must say it is very strange to have both kids in the classroom all day.

Daisy loves it! She is so glad that she is finally one of the big shots. She loves her teacher, I think she feels like she already knows her. Daisy has Mrs. Beeson, Cullen's teacher from last year, she is wonderful! I love it she is so excited to come home and give me a full report of the things that happened in her day, everything from who she played with , what the teacher said, to what she ate for lunch. Much different from Cullen. He never wants to bother with the details of school. He comes home and is ready to move on with the next project. He also has a great teacher, Mrs. Cella. This is her last year, so she has been teaching for quite a while, she is like a cute little grandma, so Cullen relates to her very well. Even though some days he wants to go back to Mrs. Beeson's class. (He hates change.)

It certainly makes for a very long day for me so far, I know that will change when the year really gets started. I get to be the room mother for Daisy's class again, and I get to help quite a few days in Cullen's class. Plus I am doing 3 bulletin boards so far this year.

I have a lot of friends say, "Why don't you enjoy your quiet time at home, why spend so much time at school?" I guess that my answer to that would be 1st of all, I have 2 kids, I have never wanted to be anything else but a mom, so where else should I be. And 2nd Cullen requires a bit of extra time from his teachers, and I feel if they see me there putting time in then they are going to be more willing to give him the extra help he needs. Usually that works!!

Even though I am sad to see the summer go, we are looking forward to a great school year.

Summer Whirlwind!!!!

WOW!!! How did this happen??? June is gone!!! July gone!!!And now we are into August with less than 3 weeks until school starts, and we have to go back to someone elses schedule!!! I am just not one of those moms who does the summer count down and can't wait for the kids to be back in school!!! I love to have them home with me! I know, I know they need the socialization and all of the other stuff that goes along with it! and lets face it I am no where close enough to being organized to teach them at home !!! Not that I could after the 3rd or 4th grade grade anyway. I do really miss them when they are gone though! SAD!!! Well enough whining.


So as I said the summer is quickly winding down, I haven't posted a blog since the first part of June, I have a lot to catch up on. I am not sure of the best way to go about this, not only are we busy as a family, but we have so much going on individually too. So I guess I will start with the family stuff, and then sum up with what everyone has been up to. It will be sort of be like one of those Christmas letters that people mass produce. But hey I am not exactly sure of the best way to get it all in so bare with me, sorry.
It was such a treat to not have to go to school even one day in June, it sort of felt like we got a longer summer. But it was a little bit of hell for my kids to have to wait until June 20th, we were able to go to Disneyland again with them!! The last time we went they were 3 and 4 and it was a very tiring trip both for parents and for the kids, but this year I must say we had so much fun!! I can actually say that I love Disneyland and I cant wait until we can take them back again!!! Everything was so magical! they couldn't decide what to look at, what ride to go on and which character to try and find, and even though we were there during a major heat wave (105 the first couple of days) I think it may have deterred a few people because it wasn't nearly as crowded as it was 3 years ago. I don't know maybe the gas prices. The damn gas prices! So actually it was quite fun, I may even be able to see why some people would say it is the Happiest Place on Earth!

Cullen is having a great summer!!! He loves being able to be outside, doing things in his own time, not having to put gel in his hair everyday, and wearing "soft" clothes. I think if Culleyman could play with Drake and ride bike everyday he would be a very content kid. Plus in April Culley finally got his boy puppy, that he says he has always wanted, but actually he is quite a funny little dog, his name is Fletcher, he is a Jack Russell, Chihuahua mix so we call him either a jackauaua or a chihawack, he has no idea that he is a little dog and he loves to play with the kids!

Cullen did swimming lessons again this year. The 5th summer in a row. He is getting to be quite the little swimmer! The look of complete contentment on that little mans face is amazing. I keep talking to his pediatrician and asking her if there is anyway to get the insurance to pay for a therapy pool! Ha Ha! I need that kind of therapy. I think one more year and we will try and put him on the swim team. He is doing amazing!

I am not sure how much anyone is aware that Cullens ultimate goal in life is to be a cowboy, have a horse and a red barn. Every penny he earns or finds he saves in hopes that one day he can buy a horse. That is truly his biggest dream. Well Todd and I decided that right now is not the time for us to have a horse, but since we do live sort of in the country, and there are many people around us that have horses we should be able to find someone to give this future cowboy a riding lesson, at least let him sit on one every once in a while and feed it some hay. Well we found that wonderful person. Her name is Karen, she lives up the rode from us about 2 miles, and she is Cowboy Cullens new best friend. (Well after her horse Charm that is.) So even though Cullen hasn't completely fulfilled his wish of owning a horse yet. He at least gets to be a Cowboy 2 to 3 times a week. (And the Horse barn is even Red!)

Little Miss Daisy is my kind of girl when it comes to summer, stay up late and sleep in!! She would sleep half of the day away if I would let her. She also would live in her swimsuit!! Before she even makes it down the stairs in the morning she has already put on her suit for the day. And believe me it is not just any suit, it has to be a different one everyday!!! In the summer swimming suits are much more important to her than underwear!!

Daisy also did swimming lessons again this summer, and even though she has taken as many years as Cullen has, she has always been a little less daring. Well that has changed this summer she is amazing!! She looks like a natural in the water! I'm not sure if it is because of all of the dance and tumbling that she has taken, but to watch her she seems to find a rhythm and hangs on all the way across the pool! It is fun to watch.

Daisy is my play baby, if there ever is down time where we aren't going a million miles a minute, and it is just our family at home, her question is "Mom who can I play with?" She is always so very busy, and doesn't like to sit still for very long!

She starts 1st grade this year and every time I think about it I get a big lump in my throat. I am not looking forward to having my little shadow gone.

Oh Todd where do I begin??? He is a very busy man!!! He is getting quite busy with work! He has even started going to Idaho once or twice a week to do cases for a Dr. in Twin Falls. He started back to school full time last November, to get his bachelors degree in hospital administration and is doing quite well! With everything he has going on he has managed to be and stay on the honor roll. We are looking forward to him being finished sometime next spring!

Well things were going quite well for Todd, he finally got rid of his duramax that was giving him a lot of grief, and got what I hope to be his dream truck, work is going in the proper direction, he has a great business partner, grades are good at school everything. Well on the 24th of July weekend we decided to finally get our trailer out and go camping with some really good friends. we had planned the trip weeks earlier. so 2 days earlier Todd got the trailer brought it to our house did a bunch of maintenance, we got a new Zip in room to add to the tailgate, packed up all of our stuff, it took hours, remember this was our 1st trip of the season, because of everything going on, finally we were on the rode. Found one of our favorite campsites, it was good and then... something happened when Todd and our friend were unhooking the trailer, it came off of the hitch wrong, Todd twisted wrong, and he ended up breaking his left foot in 6 places, and not just some sissy break either, it is call a Liz Frank fracture and that means the tendons had separate away from the bone and he needed surgery to put him back together. So as far as camping and motorcycling are concerned it is done for the year. So all of that time he spent getting us ready was for a 12 hour camping trip.

I must say summer is my favorite time of year, those that know me well should not be surprised by this. I love having the time to do what I want to do, and not have to live by anyone elses schedule. I love having my kids home and spending the time together as a family!!! I have seen an add recently, I think it is an add for a boat, not sure which one, but it says something like "We have 18 summers with our kids, how many do you have left?" Now I would like to think that I have many more than that, but I also would hope that my kids have good memories of their childhood summers!!!