Tied Up Elmo

So a couple of weeks ago...Amanda came out of her room looking very sad. So here went our conversation.
Me: What is wrong?
Amanda: I tripped over tied up Elmo.
Me: Why did you tie up Elmo?
Amanda: I didn't tie up Elmo. Elmo tied himself up.
Me: Elmo can't tie himself up. Why did you tie him up?
Amanda: Why would I tie up precious Elmo? (as she is laughing)

Goodbye Grandpa

This is a hard post for me to write. Last week was a hard week for us. A little over a week ago we got the call that we knew would be coming but were hoping it wouldn't be so soon. Craig's dad had passed away. Darald's health had been going down steadily the last couple of years. He was to the point that he was on oxygen all of the time and couldn't walk from one room to another without sitting and resting in between for a few minutes. The decline was hard to watch. We had moved him to Craig's sister's house about a month ago because he had been passing out. We hoped that once his doctor got his medications stable he would be able to be back home but that didn't ever happen. Craig's sister-in-law went to pick him up to take in to a dr.s appointment and found him. It looks like he went quickly and we knew he was ready to go. He has been saying that for the last few months. I looked through my pictures to find some that I really liked. This Craig with his family at on our wedding day.Most of the pictures I have of Darald after Amanda was born.....Amanda is either on his lap or really close by. She loved her grandpa.

This one is at Zach's Baptism.

This is one of my favorite pictures and only about 1 and 1/2 years ago. It is at Craig's nieces wedding.This is another picture of Amanda on Grandpa's lap.

This one was at Craig's graduation from USU just last December. This is that last picture I have have of him. Craig was so happy that his dad was able to make it. It meant the world to have his dad see him graduate.

We were lucky that Darald came and stayed with us for a week after Christmas. We had been trying to get him to come stay with us because we were worried about him home alone all the time. It is a time that my kids will always remember. We did puzzles and he was able to sit and talk to the kids. We also watched the Sugar Bowl with the U of U playing Alabama. This is the first and only time that Darald and I and Zach were all cheering on the same team. (Zach and I are a BYU fans and he is a U of U fan.) It was really fun. I remember how excited he was that the U won. He was funny because he said he couldn't sleep the night before the game because he was so nervous.

Craig and his brothers at the viewing.

Zach and his cousins were the pallbearers. As you can see Zach is the smallest one but he was honored to be a pallbearer for his Grandpa. Darald was a veteran of the Navy so he was given a military farewell with taps and the folding of the flag.

I love this picture because it is Zach paying his last tribute to his Grandpa. We will miss Darald but we know that he is so happy to be reunited with his wife Sherron who died 11 years ago. He has missed her so much. I look forward to the day when we will see them both again.

Questioned by Police

We had an interesting night last week. On Thursday night we were sound asleep when the phone rang about 11:30. Well there is nothing worse than being woken up by a ringing phone....when someone calls that late it is not usually good news. Craig answered and I being half asleep asked who it was. He answered that it was a reverse 911 call and that there was a little boy missing. Soon after that call we could hear the helicopters flying around most of the night. About 4 in the morning the door bell rang and someone was pounding on the door. Turned out that it was two detectives and they wanted to asked Kayla some questions. It turned out that they little boy that was missing was in her class at school and they wanted to know when she saw him last and who he played with and stuff like that. Well waking up an eight year old to be questioned by police is a little unnerving. She was half a wake and confused. She answered the questions and I could tell a little shaking by the whole event. The detectives were very nice and explained to her that they did think anything bad has happened to him but they can't find him. So after they left we went back to bed. I could not go back to sleep. I just kept thinking what this family must be going through and if something bad did happen how would I help Kayla cope with this. Luckily he was found the next morning at a friends house. Kayla was extremely relieved. Come to find out that most of the home in our neighborhood were actually searched. I am not sure why our wasn't. We are just glad that everything turned out okay.

4 Seems a Little Young

About 2 weeks before Amanda's 5th birthday she came into my room and told me that she had a loose tooth. Of course I didn't take her seriously....she is only 4 and my other kids were all almost six before they lost any teeth. So I said that is great and continued to watch TV. Well later that night I noticed that her front tooth did look funny so I called her over to have a look.....and sure enough it was loose. I was a little bit panicked because she was so young. So I called my brother-in-law (who is a dentist) just to be sure that this was normal. He assured me that it was fine. She actually didn't loose her tooth while she was 4 but a couple days after her 5th birthday. Of course she was very excited to be visited by the tooth fairy...for the past few years she has had to watch Anna, Zach and Kayla collect money. She has been pretty excited to brag about loosing her tooth because she has been the first one in all of her friends to loose a tooth...including the ones that are already in Kindergarten.

Because this is my journal I have to do a quick post about Christmas. As we do every year we were up at my parents house for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. This year mom asked Anna and Hunter to be incharge of the Christmas program. They spent week planning, casting the parts, and figuring out what songs go with what. They did a great job and all of the kid participated. My job was to play the piano. This picture is one of my favorites. Zach and Spencer were good sports and sang their song alone about the shepards.

Here is a picture of all the kids singing the final song. This is the best part of Christmas for me. I know that this is what the kids will remember when they get older and look back on the Christmases of their childhood. They won't remember what they got but will remember sleeping over with cousins....the christmas program and staying up late playing games with family.

Zach's Birthday

It seems that time just flies by. I can't believe another year has gone by and Zach is now eleven. This year for his birthday he wanted to celebrate his birthday with Andrew. Their birthdays are only 3 days a part. Evidently the perfect birthday includes bowling and ice cream. The kids had a great time bowling....but wow it has gotten expensive. Afterwards we went to Leatherbys for ice cream. Zach and Andrew ordered the biggest thing they had....and they manage to finish it all.

Amanda's Birthday

Do you remember when birthdays were exciting? And you couldn't wait to be one year older? Of course for me those days are long gone. Not only for myself but I realize how quickly time is passing and how fast my children are growing up. Somedays I would just like to freeze the moment in time. My baby is now five and everyday asking when she gets to go to Kindergarten because she is now five and that is when you go to Kindergarten. I explain that she doesn't go until July but she wants to know when that is. I then try and change the subject because the discussion is going no where.

On her birthday I always think back to her scary beginning. Being born 3 weeks early she had a hard time. I remember when she was 4 days old driving her up to PCMC in a blizzard by myself at about 10 pm because we couldn't wake her up. Craig stayed home trying to find someone to watch the kids so he could come. I watched as they did test after test trying to figure out why she wouldn't wake up. The only diagnosis they had was failure to thrive. After a week she was well enough to come home only to be back in the hospital a week later with RSV. Of course at the time we had now idea if she would have problems as she grew. She was slow to sit up, crawl and walk. But with a little therapy she was on her way and never looked back. Looking at her today you would never know that she had such a rough beginning.
How thankful I am that she made it. I family wouldn't be the same without her. Amanda is our family clown and loves to make people laugh. Happy Birthday!