French Fry

Well it happened. We knew it would. They just don't live that long. Zane's hamster, French

Fry, died. Zane found him right before bed. Not good timing. Ammon took it the hardest. We had a long talk about life and the plan of happiness. We talked about the possibility of animals going to heaven. Then Ammon, in his sweet little boy innocence, asked, "When we go to Heaven and see French Fry, will we have to buy him all over again?"

9 months!

I can't believe our sweet little Jackson is 9 months old today. I've tried so hard to enjoy this last little one. I try to cuddle more, but he just wiggles away. I swore I'd nurse til he was at least a year, but he decided he was done a few weeks ago. I hoped for a 13 month old walker, but at the rate he's going he'll be toddling along by Thanksgiving. He's just not cooperating, and his babyhood is flying by.

He had a rough start with an early, and difficult delivery and heart promlems to boot, but I'm happy to report that he went from a tiny five pounder to a whopping 26 pounds all in 9 months and most of his heart problems have been resolved.

All the kids adore him and his daddy just melts at his welcome home grin. I am so grateful for this final addition to our family. He truly is an angel sent from Heaven.

We did it!

We haven't always been good about family scripture study, but the last several years we've done it pretty faithfully. Each morning we wake up and gather 8 sleepy kids around our living room and read a couple verses each from the Book of Mormon. It's not always spiritual, it's actually fairly chaotic at times. I'm not sure how many times we've started over, but it's been a few. Well yesterday we finished! I'm sure most families have finished several times, but this first time was so exciting for me. I'm so grateful to have my sweet husband who honors his priesthood and leads his family in scripture study each day.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Jack-in-the-Box

Princess Bekkah

Princess EmilyAmmon the Dragon Slayer

Chuck Norris (AKA Zane)

Bed Head (wish I looked this cute first thing in the morning)

Zombie Zach

Dr. Gregory House (star of USA channel show called HOUSE)

Graceful Mckenzie

If you haven't heard the whole story yet...here it is. Mckenzie was at a Halloween party Saturday night. She was playing a drama game and she was supposed to pretend to die. If you know Mckenzie at all you know she is very dramatic. She dropped to the ground, missing the carpet and landing on the tile floor. She hit her head pretty hard, but felt ok (except for a headache). The next day her fingers felt numb, and by the evening her whole arm was tingling. Dan took her to urgent care figuring it was probably nothing but wanting to be cautious. Next thing we know they are headed for Banner Children's Hospital to meet up with the neurosurgeon. After several tests it was confirmed that she had a spinal chord injury. Now her other arm had gone numb and it was spreading to her legs. The swelling of her spinal chord was compressing the nerves in her limbs. Over the next four days she was put on steroids, given numerous tests and kept for observation to rule out a brain bleed or any other condition that may have been caused by her 'not so graceful' fall.

Though the next few months will be slow and tedious she is expected to make a full recovery. Thank you to all who visited in the hospital, bearing gifts (loved the helmet Emie!) and cheering her up. I also want to thank everyone who helped with babysitting and brought in meals. You made it so much easier to be at the hospital taking care of my 13 year old baby, knowing my other babies were taken care of at home. We are very blessed to have a wonderful extended family and a wonderful ward family. We feel truly grateful that Mckenzie was able to walk away from this, knowing that some people with this same injury never walk again. It could have been so much worse. And I thank a loving Father in Heaven for watching over and protecting my family once again from life's' little bumps (or hills, or mountains as the case may be)!

Now for the embarrassing pictures: (a mother's prerogative after her kid puts her through this kind of worry)

First day in the hospital and thrilled to be here!

Don't you love the teddy bear hospital gown! Joys of being in the pediatric unit.

Resting comfortably at home with her new Snuggie (thanks Grandpa)!

Emily's First Haircut

Emily had her first haircut this weekend! We went to see Aunt Mindi at her salon (thanks Mindi!) She got the shampoo and everything. She wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love like Mckenzie did a few years ago, so we cut it all off. She was so excited to be able to give her hair to another little girl who needed a wig. And she is especially excited to not have to deal with tangles anymore!

What A Great Weekend!

Our Family had the amazing opportunity to spend conference weekend at a good friend's beautiful cabin.We enjoyed the fabulous weather.

We played games and watched conference as a family.

We played golf...or attempted to anyway!

This is right before Ammon hit his first ball...into my shin!

There was a playground and family center with video games and computers. Our big kids loved that!

And we threw in our fishing lines at the lake while the little ones collected cat tails and crawdads.

We had a fantastic time just hanging out as a family!