Christmas and Beyond

For Christmas, the boys got lots of fun toys and they got new bikes. They got to play with their toys for a couple of hours and ride their bikes around the block once before we had to leave for Washington DC. Jeremy got some work out equiptment so that he can continue his physical therapy for his knee at home.I got a plane ticket to go to Arizona in March. YAY! I can't wait to see my family again! I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving in 2007 and that was a very short visit! I miss you and I'll see you soon.







Here are the boys at the Washington DC Temple for Rich and Caitlin's wedding the day after Christmas. We had a ton of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's after we got to Pennsylania. They had some snow on the ground before Christmas and then it rained so it ended up a solid sheet of ice. It was perfect for sledding! Sorry, I was having too much fun to take any pictures. It quickly melted but it was fun while it lasted.

We took family pictures while we were there and I thought the whole "family picture thing" was hilarious. If you have ever tried to take pictures with kids you know how it goes. They cooperate only so long and then you end up with pictures that include pushing, crying, poking, nose picking, no smiling, parents running in and out, bottles, binkies, etc. Very funny!
It was so nice to see everyone again and watch the kids have fun with each other. We'll miss all of you, until we see you again.

New Family Pictures

When we went to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving we asked Grandma Fowler if she would take some family pictures for us. She did awesome! What would we do with out you! We had so much fun over Thanksgiving seeing Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Rich and Miss Caitlin. Thanks for the fun! We look forward to Christmas!

"Fun" at the Dentist

OK, so the week before Halloween the boys had their semi-annual cleanings done. I know, before Halloween seems like a waste of a cleaning but it had to be done. Micheal and Tanners cleanings went without a hitch. But....during Clayton's cleaning, the dentist said that Clayton's permanent molar was stuck on a baby molar. Not good! Usually, the teeth come in without any problem at all, so they were watching it to see if it would take care of itself, but it didn't. He said that the little molar had to be taken out so the big molar could come in. (Check the xray above.)

Then he told me that Clayton isn't growing some of his permanent teeth on the top of his mouth. Not good! So, we have to try to protect and save his baby teeth on that side so that he has teeth. I didn't know that could even happen! All the problems happen to be on the top of his mouth. Poor Clayton! He'll be in and out of dentist offices the rest of his life. The dentist said that the baby teeth we are trying to save will only last until he is about 30 and then he'll have to have implants put in if he wants teeth to chew with. The good news: the dentist doesn't see any wisdom teeth pockets growing so Clayton may not get any wisdom teeth.

Well on Tuesday we had Clayton's little molar extracted and a couple of cavities fixed. I had to warn the dentist to not say the words "shot" or "needle" around Clayton unless he felt like getting into a knock-down-drag-out-fight, so he said "no problem, we can give him a little laughing gas and he won't even know." Sure enough, he doesn't remember anything except the dentist humming a tune. YAY! After a couple of hours and some children's motrin, you would never even know he had any work done at all. He can't have any hard foods like popcorn, peanuts, potato chips or hard candy for 2 weeks, which is a bummer for a kid but... he can eat as much mashed potatoes, applesauce, jello, pudding, homemade milkshakes/smoothies, and ice cream he wants for 2 weeks to compensate. He has been such a trooper! Way to go Clayton!

Live Without Regret!

For those of you who are wondering what the "I read nienie" and "c jane" buttons are on the left side of my blog, they are a direct link to the blogs of Stephanie Nielson and her sister Courtney. I went to high school with Stephanie's husband Christian. In August, Christian and Stephanie where in a private airplane crash in northeast Arizona and both sustained serious burns over much of their bodies. Christian has burns on 30% of his body and Stephanie has burns on 83% of her body, including her face. I have been drawn to the blogs as they have kept an update on their recovery and also on their 4 children. Reading their blogs has been an eye opening experience to me and it has given me a chance to think about my own life and evaluate what I can change. I do not consider myself to be a "fence sitter," I just tend to be quiet and keep my inner-most thoughts and feelings from everyone, including my family. In this day and age, I cannot afford to "cautiously share" my testimony or love I have for those around me anymore. The time to share is now!

I don't ever want Jeremy to wonder if or why I love him,

I don't want my boys to grow up not knowing how special they are to me,

nor do I want anyone to doubt, in any way, that I have a testimony of Jesus Christ.

After listening to our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson's talk at the end of the Sunday morning session of General Conference, about "living for the here and now" and using a popular quote from the movie "The Music Man" that he has said before, "if you use up enough tomorrows, you'll find all you have are empty yesterday's,"

and his comment about "the endless fingerprints that cover everything in the house will soon be gone and you'll miss them when they are."



My plan of action:

• I'm going to embrace being an eternal companion and make sure that I don't miss an opportunity to let Jeremy know how much I love him, and cultivate an everlasting friendship!


• I'm going to embrace my season of being a young mom with little fingerprints on everything and the endless laundry, dishes, etc because my family is a priceless treasure.


• I'm not going to be afraid to be a living testimony and stand as a witness of Christ. I want everyone who comes in contact with me to see the love of Christ in my eyes.

This is my chance to become the person that my Heavenly Father knows that I can be, but only I can make this happen! I know that I am not perfect and that I will have moments of relapse, but thru repentance and prayer my life can be a testiment of what I believe.

Pains of Growing

The last month or so all 3 of our boys have been showing signs that they are growing. They are eating anything and everything they can get their hands on, and have been very tired. But there has been a few things I had forgotten were part of growing too. Clayton has spent many days on the couch groaning because of growing pains in his legs. Then of course the constant clumsiness. They have all been bumping into walls, more than normal, and tripping over their own 2 feet. In fact, in only 3 days Tanner gave himself a black eye, scraped the side of his face, skinned his elbow, skinned his knee, and then skinned his forehead. It was so pathetic, all I could do was give him loves as he hurt himself and laugh inside. It seems as if every few minutes I hear one of the boys complain of another bump, bruise or scrape. It has been entertaining, in a way, because we all end up laughing at the dinner table. As we talk about who did what today, instead of just the normal conversation of "Micheal, Clayton or Tanner learned this today," we have added, "check out this bruise," or "did you see what Tanners did to his face again," or "look what I did when I fell off of my bike." This is all terribly cute as I watch my 3 little boys grow up! I didn't realize how dangerous it would be. I hope they don't grow too much or we'll be in BIG trouble!

Boy will be boys!

This is video that I found from the summer and forgot about. This is what boys do when they are bored and find something to play with. Maybe I'm a bad mom, but I couldn't help getting video of it. It was funny! One week later, we bought a trampoline!

(Tanner was not hurt in the filming of this video.)

Tanners Birthday

Sept. 16th was Tanner's 3rd Birthday! What joy he brings to our family! We love you Tanner!