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!

Graduation

Well Craig's gradutation finally arrived. It is a day I thought was never going to come. A little over eight years ago Craig decided that maybe he didn't want to be an airplane mechanic, so he started back to school. He began by taking a couple classes a semester. When he finally got his associates degree about a year and a half ago, he start up at Utah State. He met with a counselor and came up with a plan. By taking 4 classes a semester and going summer he could graduate in December 2008. Finally seeing an end we decided to follow the plan. We knew that we wouldn't be able to go on any vacations and that Craig would be gone alot, but we felt that the end would be worth it. I have to say that the last year has not been easy but we for sure have been blessed. Some how Craig has manage to stay healthy this whole time and he has been able to be at events and stuff for the kids when he needed to be. He was relieved when they announced that the oldest graduate was 62. He was sure that they were going to announce his name. Here are some picture from the graduation. There was a hugh snow storm that day, but my parents and Craig's brother and sister and their families and Craig's dad made the scary trip up to Logan.

Alot of the graduates would carry their babies up to get their diploma. We thought Craig should have brought up all the kids with him. Craig was so glad that his dad was able to make the trip to see him graduate. His dad has not been in good health lately.

Here is all of us together.

Last but not least we have to thank all of our family and friends that really made this possible for us to do. We appreciate all of the help we have recieved from our friends...those that helped take kids to their activities and helped watch them when Craig was gone. We also so appreciate our families for all of the encouragement they have given...It really helped keep us going. As my motto for the last eight years goes "It is better to be 40 with a degree than without." I have to say Craig is feeling really good about 40 with a degree.

Arrow of Light

One of Zach's favorite things to do is going to Cub Scouts. What is better than being with all your friends, doing fun things. I am sure one of he reasons he likes scouts so much is because it gives him a chance to get away from the girls and just be a boy. Zach wanted to get his Arrow of Light since he started scouts and he has worked hard to accomplish this goal.

He recieved his Arrow of Light with his friend Andrue. Now he is excited to move up to boy scouts and start working on his eagle. He has already asked me what he has to do to get it and how old does he have to be? Of course...since he is my first and only boy I do not know the answers to these questions. I am sure that I will find out quickly....the sad thing is that he is my only boy so by the time I have this scout thing down he will be out.

CONGRATULATIONS ZACH!