Corn Maze Fun!!

Today we went to the Green Canyon Corn Maze. We had so much fun. I took the kids and we hung out with Kristin and her fiance Jerel. We got there just after dark. It was a good thing I decided to buy a flashlight because Kristin left her's in the car. I am so glad that they had a map that we could take to help us on our way. We decided to put our trust in Jerels map reading skills. I was too busy making sure I didn't loose any kids to keep track of where we were and which turns to make. I had glowing bracelet's for the kids but I left them home. So every once in a while we would loose Hunter in the dark. Luckily he would not go too far.

The kids had a blast. Everyone got an opportunity to hold the flashlight and help lead the way. Sometimes Jerel and Autumn would hurry in front of us and sneak around behind us or hide in the corn and jump out to scare us. She had so much fun with Jerel. Brooklyn loved being the one to hold the flashlight. She was a real nut trying to hide in the corn to scare us while she was still holding the flashlight. Hunter was the most entertaining of them all. When it was his turn to hold the flashlight, every once in a while we would have to remind him not to shine it straight in the air. He also ended being carried part of the time. I put him on my shoulders and he would sit and rub my head sending my hair in all directions. He would also over react to anything that we saw. He had so much fun. I was surprised that it only took an hour to get through the maze, thanks to the map and Jerel knowing where we were. It was a lot of fun.

When we got to the maze.

I tried to take a picture of Kristin, Jerel and Hunter in the dark.

I ended up completely chopping off their heads!!

So I tried again. This time it wasn't too bad!

Hunter on my shoulders. See, my hair was everywhere.

The kids walking a head of us. It was Hunter's turn to hold the flashlight.
Hunter was being silly by walking funny down the path.
Too bad you can't tell how funny he was being.
At the end of the maze!!
It was so much fun! I will definitely take the kids again!

More trials!

Brian has always said "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." I know that the Lord gives us trials that we can handle. But sometimes I wish they could at least be spread a little further apart. First Hunter and his ER visit has already maxxed out the rest of our flex spending account. Never would have guessed that 4 little stitches would cost over $600. Now this happens. In less than 2 months!! I am not looking forward to this new expense that we will be incurring now. Let me explain.

Monday, after my 1st grade math group left, I got a phone call from Autumn's school. The secretary informed me that Autumn had fallen from the monkey bars and had landed on her back. She said that Autumn was complaining that her arm was hurting. I knew I could not leave right away so I had to call my mom and have her go check on her. It felt like the longest time waiting to hear back from my mom. When she finally did call, my heart sunk when she said she thought Autumn's elbow was dislocated and wanted to know who her pediatrician was. I still had one more class to teach and I was a little scatter-brained. I had to wait until it ended before I heard from my mom again. This time they were at the hospital getting an x-ray done on her hand. I guess when the doctor put her elbow back into place (yes, it was dislocated) her wrist started to hurt and they wanted to haveit checked. So finally I made it out of work without forgetting my head and got into town to meet up with my mom and sister. Of course I had to wait for the doctor to call back to tell me if her wrist was okay. So we hung out around town waiting for the phone call. Finally, I got the call. Her wrist was broken and she was going to need to have a cast. It's called a buckle fracture. It isn't broken all the way through, just cracked. So after all the waiting for the doctor's office to call me, I had to wait for them to call me back with a new appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to have her cast put on. We scheduled it for 1:30 on Tuesday so I could be there with her. It meant she would be missing another day of school.

Tuesday morning I get a phone call from the orthopedic surgeon's office saying the doctor was being called out of the office that afternoon and I needed to bring her in earlier. I don't get off until 12:30 and they wanted me there by 12:40? With enough time to pick up the kids in Hyrum and drive all the way to North Logan in less than 10 minutes? I am so grateful I have such wonderful coworkers who allowed me to leave early and make it to the doctor's in time.

Can I say I hate insurance right now. Why isn't it until after, that I find out that this specialist is not in my network??? Can we say that this broken arm is going to be expensive$$$! Such is life I suppose. Just another trial that we have to work through and hopefully come out the other side a better person. Here are some pictures of Autumn showing off her beautiful purple cast.

Silly girl! I had to get her giggling to get a good smile. Not one of those fake cheesy smiles!

Love you Autumn. Thanks for letting me be one of the first people to sign your cast :)

First Days of School

I'm a little late posting this, but I wanted to make sure that I posted it. I now have 2 kids in school.
Autumn is in 2nd grade in Mrs. Parent's class. She was excited to have some of her friends in her class with her. She has lots of fun and likes to read books about horses and unicorns.

Brooklyn is now in kindergarten with Mrs. Dugue'. She gets to come to school with me and spend the last 10 minutes of my 3rd grade class in her own desk by my desk. She has a lot of fun coming in and waiting for my class to end.

Brooklyn with her new backpack.

Autumn ready for her first day of school!!

Bennett's Blessing

Over Labor Day weekend, we traveled up to Boise to see Ryan's baby blessed. We had a good time. It was a long drive, but I am glad that we went. We sent the girl's with my parents and grandparents because we were unsure when we were going to be able to leave. We ended up leaving a little late so it was a good thing. We did not arrive at their house until 12:30. We stayed at Heather and Ryan's house. The blessing was very nice.

Ryan, Heather, and Bennett all matched. When we got ready, we found out that so did Natalie, Kristin, and I.

Ryan and Bennett with coordinating ties.

Brooklyn had so much fun holding him.

Hunter and Brayden in the tubgetting ready for church.

Hunter, you are a nut!!

Life. . . Always an Adventure

I can definitely say that my life right now has be absolutely crazy. School has started and I get to be the guinea pig for a new math class. I am working as a half time teacher, teaching math to first, second, and third grade students. It has been a wonderful learning experience.

I've decided that sometimes kids do or say the funniest things that just need to be shared. So periodically I will be posting some of those fun moments in life. I will start by sharing one of those true "Hunter moments." My brother and his wife were blessing their new baby over the Labor Day weekend. They live in Boise and it was going to be a long drive for 3 young kids. Luckily, my parents and grandparents both took one of my girls because we did not know if we were going to be able to leave Saturday night or early Sunday morning. This left us with only Hunter. Let me explain something about Hunter... he loves to sing. He has the wonderful ability to learn songs quickly too. Anyways, while driving, Hunter starts singing this song he learned on "The Bee movie" (I think that is what it is called). He starts singing "Sugar, sugar...my candy girl. Honey, honey... my candy girl. Sucker, sucker...my candy sucker." Then he proceeds to laugh at himself for the new words he had created. I sure love this kid!!

Well, I have to tell about our first experience taking a child to the emergency room. Of course it would be my little boy. Brian had planned a huge paintball game with some of his family and friends. So my sister, Natalie came up to spend some time with us and go to the fair. It was the last day and it was SO hot. Of course, trying to find a parking spot at the fair on Saturday was not going to be easy. We ended up parking down by the baseball diamonds at Willow Park. We didn't mind the walk. It was so nice to be out and about and having some fun. Hunter fell asleep before we could even get into the fairgrounds. I was a little worried about him. He had decided not even a week before that he wanted to be a big boy and wear underwear. Of course, we had only mastered the peeing part of potty-training and had not had a lot of experience with being in town using other toilets OR falling asleep before we had the opportunity to take him to the bathroom. I figured if he had an accident we would just deal with it and not wake him up to go. He gets too cranky. We walked around the fair for about 2 hours before he woke up. He hadn't had an accident and I was really surprised. I tried to take him, but he was not awake enough to be very cooperative. So we waited. We decided to head to see the animals. Along the way we all decided to stop and let all the kids use the bathroom by the rodeo arena. Right outside the bathrooms were all the tractors, so we let the kids look at them while we took shifts helping kids. I was happy to say Hunter was finally successful and I wasn't so worried about going to see the animals. (I'm telling you all this fun stuff because if he would have gone the first time, we wouldn't have ended up in the ER). Brian called to let me know they were out of the canyon and were going to get some things in town. While I am talking to him, Natalie tells me that Hunter has just fallen down but did not seem alarmed. I look at him and he is laying on the ground, but i don't think anything more than that. I tell Brian that he has fallen and proceed to walk the 30 feet towards him. He isn't getting up, but still, I'm not thinking anything else besides him tripping and falling. I am still on the phone with Brian at this point. I get to Hunter and hear a faint moaning sound. He is still laying flat on his face. I roll him over and it wasn't until then that I started to get worried. I notice the "indent" on his forehead and blood start streaming from it. At this point all Brian hears me say is "uh ohh and HELP" then click went the phone. It wasn't until then that Hunter finally started to cry. He was walking around a tractor that had 2 long forks sticking from it. Hunter must have tripped while he was walking and he hit his head on one of them. He didn't get up because it had knocked him out. I was very grateful for the nice people who were around to help. I've helped in emergencies with children before and remained completely calm. But when it is my own child, I had no idea what to do. There was a very kind man who ran over and placed a diaper over his head and applied pressure to stop the bleeding. Once we were able to get it under control, I hitched a ride over to the first aid station. The EMTs were so kind and helpful. They gave Hunter a little multi-colored hippo which he called his horsie. They covered his head with a band aid to help keep it clean and offered to take me to my car. Natalie and the kids finally caught up with us. She had told Brian what had happened and gave me my phone that at some point I vaguely remembered throwing to her and saying, "call Brian". I took the girls with me in the police truck because Natalie would not have room in their SUV for all 6 kids with car seats. Just as we get to the car and get Hunter buckled in, I get a phone call from Brian telling me he will drive the car. I was completely confused. I looked up and there was Brian. When Natalie had called him, they hurried to the fair, parked on the north side of the fair grounds at a friends place. then Brian, Scott and Kurtis, one of Brian's co-workers, ran all they way to the first aid station just barely missing us leaving. Then they all took off towards the ball diamonds. I was so happy to see him there. Scott took the girls and their car seats and hung out at the fair while we went to the ER. We spent 2 hours there watching Finding Nemo while waiting to get him stitched up. He was so good. He only cried when they gave him the shot to numb it. He ended up with 4 stitches. It wasn't very big but it was still a scary experience.

Hunter was all smiles the day after he got his stitches :)

Caprielle Mini Camp

I signed Autumn and Brooklyn up for the Mountain Crest Caprielle Mini Camp. The girls spent the morning learning a dance, having lunch and then preforming for parents. I was sad that I was not able to be there. I had my new teacher orientation all day. Brian ended up getting there late so he missed it also. I was glad that they also got to preform as the halftime show for Mountain Crest's first football game. As the girls came out, it was almost like the "Where's Waldo" books where everyone looks like Waldo but you have to find the real one. It took me a little while to find Autumn. She is sitting on the 50 yard line looking off to the left.

Autumn getting ready for the dance to begin.

Brooklyn was a little easier to find because she was pretty much on the front row behind the 3 year olds. She is the second one in on the right.

The girls had a lot of fun. I think they did very well also. it was a lot of fun watching them dance.

Hunter Wakeboarding at Bear Lake!

Hunter loves to stand in Brian's wakeboard bindings, so Brian decided to let him try while in the water. He hooked a rope to one of the bindings and was ready to go.

Hunter is such a nut! He was ready to go. I was curious to see if he would like it.

Off they go!!

He looks like he is having fun.

Ready for some more!

I took the picture a little late, but you can still see his facial expression. He loves it!!

All done!! I think he wanted to do it some more.

Watching Hunter wakeboarding up and down the beach was so cute. All the people around though he was the cutest thing. He had so much fun and it was so cute watching him trying to cut back and forth that I had to record him doing it. So here is Hunter wakeboarding down the beach at Bear Lake.