The kids were so excited to start school. It's pretty obvious by the look on Olivia's face. This year Hannah is in fifth grade; Sidney is in third grade; Hayden is in first grade; and this is Olivia's last year of preschool. The great part is that they all love school. Thank goodness!

Summer Fun!

We went swimming more days than not this summer. It's the only way to survive in our sunny St. George. There's no way not to have fun in the water with goggles, and toys, and your brother and sisters!

A few weeks before school started, we took a quick trip up north with our friends, the Ashby's, for some playing and for Olivia's doctor appointment. On the last day of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple openhouse, we got a private, early-morning tour from my Uncle Bob. He is the engineer for the temple. It was beautiful, and so interesting to hear all of the details about the building process. We even got to see the mechanical rooms down in the basement...it's all white down there, too! I loved that our kids got to see the temple, and I know that they felt the Spirit there. It will be years before all of our kids will be old enough and able to be in the celestial room together again, but I can't wait for that day.

Our Tough, Sweet Livvie-Lou!

The 24th of July wasn't a real fun holiday for our Livvie this year. She was in pain and not even able to walk. Starting in February, she had been getting a swollen ankle. At first she would start feeling better and walking by the afternoon, and then with later episodes, she wouldn't be able to walk for the whole day. Sometimes it would be one ankle, sometimes both ankles...sometimes they would swell a lot, and sometimes not too much swelling. We saw Instacare doctors, our pediatrician, and an orthopedic surgeon, and we just couldn't figure out what was going on. Then her knees started hurting and sometimes swelling. Everything the orthopedic was telling us just didn't feel right, and we really felt like we needed to talk to our pediatrician again. We called him the next time she had an episode, and told him what had been happening since we had seen him last. He immediately sent us for blood work. Olivia didn't even blink as they drew her blood, and the nurses were amazed. Based on the blood work and his suspicions, our doctor sent us to a rheumatologist at Primary Children's. Olivia was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. We were relieved to have answers, a relatively quick diagnosis, a plan to help her deal with her pain, and we were so grateful that it wasn't something worse. We've been blessed with good doctors, modern medecine, and one tough little girl. She was so sick this summer, yet she was patient and strong through it all. She has responded remarkably well to the medicine without any of the worrisome side effects so far. Even when she's sore, or on days that she couldn't walk, not much slows her down. Now it makes sense why Olivia needed her tough, sassy, spunky attitude. This trial has reaffirmed to us again how well Heavenly Father knows each of us. This is something that she may grow out of, or she may not, but either way, I know that she will be strong, and a better person because of it.

4th of July...2009

We spent the Fourth of July in Cedar this year, because the weather is so nice, and we were there for Charlie's 20th High School Reunion. (I can't believe that I am married to that old of a man! :) We had such a good time. We saw a little bit of the parade, played games and visited with old friends in a nice shady park, that night Charlie and I went to the reunion, and then Grandma, Grandpa, and the kids came and met us at the airport to watch fire works. The reunion was held at a private hangar at the airport, and Nancy's ward was actually having a Fourth of July party there right after. It was so fun to to sit out on the runway, watch the fireworks, and have treats. Such a fun day!

Finally a post!

I've been meaning to update my blog forever, but my to-do-list always has things ahead of my blog. My lack of blogging has been killing my oldest daughter. Hannah loves looking at all my friends' blogs...and gets around to checking them much more frequently than I do! She's been begging me to post something--anything--for months, and tonight I'm finally getting to it. She helped me organize preschool books, and cupboards, and papers all afternoon so that tonight I would have time to blog. She was worried that she'd do the work, and then I still wouldn't blog. And I had to tease her a little and let her think it was a possibility, but I couldn't let her down.

I love you, Hannah! I love how you're growing up. Here's a few posts just for you babe!

Olivia and Charlie's Birthday!

What a day! Poor Liv and Charlie had to put up with throwing-up family members, and the cancellation of preschool and a birthday party. They were so nice about it, and then the next day they both got sick. And they both had such great attitudes about it all.

Our family would not be the same without these two.

Charlie--We have an old dad now. 38! But he is better than ever. He has worked so hard this year to be more healthy. He is losing weight like crazy, and I'm so proud of him. It's fun, because he just feels so much better. We have the best dad (and husband) in the world! He can build amazing Lego creations, fix things, make us dinner, hook-up electronics, beat us all at Wii, make us laugh, and so many more things!

Olivia--We have a 4 year old at our house, even though she was considering being 5 or 6 instead. When she doesn't want to do something now, she tells me she's "still a wittle bit three" so of course she couldn't do whatever it is. She is such a character! She keeps us on our toes for sure.

Here are 4 things we love about Liv:

#1- She has an amazing smile! So stinking cute, and that smile makes it hard to get mad sometimes when you know you really should be.

#2- She LOVES to be the helper and be in charge. Sometimes she is more helpful than you need, but I love that she wants to help.

#3- Livvie is an independent, determined girl. There are not many things that will stop her from what she sets her mind to. It doesn't matter if what she wants is on the very top shelf of the pantry and her mom said no, or if she wants her brother or sisters to do something they don't want to, she keeps at it until she succeeds. I know that will help her in life, especially if her parents can be patient through it all.

#4- Liv is full of sass and fun! She's got attitude, and she's always ready to play. She loves playing with her friends, and doesn't think a day can go by without having a friend to play with for, hopefully, most of the day. She doesn't like having a summer break from preschool, because then her friends aren't at her house.

We are so grateful to have this little girlie in our family! What a blessing she is!

We love you, Livvie!

The Original Four

Jessie and I went up to have a girl's weekend with our mom for our Mother's Day gift. We went to lunchwith the parents and invited the our brothers and their wives to come. But, their wives were out of town and at work. While we were sitting in Applebees, we realized it was just our original family. We love our in-laws and kids, but it was fun to just be the four of us again for a bit.