Wolf Cub

Logan had his first Blue and Gold banquet a couple of weeks ago.  All of the boys presented what they've accomplished this year.  Logan did a great job! 

He was super excited for this night because he was awarded his Wolf badge that he's been working towards since September.

March Miscellaneous

I've started feeling a bit better during this second trimester, so I've had more motivation lately.  One of my recent projects was organizing paper work and cleaning up the office.

Before

Before

After, and it felt SO good!

Logan built an awesome Lego temple recently.

Abby's cuteness requires lots of pictures.

 
She LOVES calling Daddy while he's at work.

She also loves posing for pictures anytime she sees the camera.

Annie lost a top tooth.

Everyone else decided to pose after Annie did.

Abby is so sweet.  She likes to help us sweep.

Kids Say

Alex, "Mom, I lost both of my slippers except for one!"

Me, "Alex, you should change your socks every day."  Alex, "Why?"  Me, "Because they're dirty."  Alex, "But not until you can see the dirtiness!"  The bottoms of those socks were dark blue...

Alex, "Someday I'm going to work at Wendy's when I'm a farmer...to help them pick up garbage."

Alex, matter of fact, "Grandma and Grandpa lost their pet crocodile."  No doubt Grandpa told him this...ha ha!

We were planning a family party and Annie suggested a game, "We should play 'spin the bottle'!"

The worst name our angry 8 year old bookworm (Logan) could think of to call his little brother, "Villain!!"

Annie, "You know what I want to talk my husband into?  I want to talk him into not giving our children treats because if they never have sweet things they won't know what they taste like and won't be sad when they don't get them."

Annie, "I want to work at a gas station before I have children and be a nurse."

Logan, "Mom, you're looking more pregnant than fat now.  In fact, you don't look fat at all."

Back to Life

The best thing about January was getting back to normal routines, especially school (see my other blog for those posts...we've had a lot of great activities).  Between holidays, car craziness, pregnancy issues, and my ridiculous virus I had been functioning at a minimum for over a month.  Yuck!  Once I was finally healthy again, I felt like I could tackle life again!  Yeah!

Abby loves letting her siblings pull her around the house like this.  It is hilarious!

She's my sweetie.

Flash on!  She is such a girl.

Much to my surprise, Abby joined her siblings for this picture (which was taken for a totally different purpose).  I think this is the BEST picture I have of my four kids together; it's too bad Annie's hair is so wild...ha!

Abby likes sitting in her doll accessories and making phone calls on the calculator.

My mom gave the girls 'Dolly and Me' outfits for Christmas, so I attempted to take pictures of Abby the first time she wore hers.  This was my best shot.

My attempt with her matching doll didn't go well.

I have no idea why I took this picture.  She washes the breakfast dishes every day; maybe I was just feeling pleased with her on this particular morning?  She is a great little helper around here, though.  I don't know how I'd keep up without my kids' help.

Showing off her 'Dolly and Me' outfit.

Annie has been practicing her tap and ballet dances at home during the last couple of weeks.  One day I looked over to see that she'd tied toilet paper around her ankles.  When asked what for, she said it was so she could practice with tap ribbons!  Funny girl.

We wore Abby out one day last week.

My children were born with the innate talent to evenly distribute their messes all throughout the house.

It's amazing the mess they can make in one morning!  

I love these calm moments.

On days when we don't go anywhere, Annie is responsible for fixing her own hair.  It's one of her require morning activities so she can learn how.  She's made a lot of improvement when it comes to ponytails, so I guess her confidence was high yesterday when she decided to give herself pigtails.  The best part is that she was constantly preening in front of the mirror; she felt BEAUTIFUL!

It looked better BEFORE she fixed it.  Jim and I were amazed when she reappeared.  Ha ha!

Kids Say

Alex, "If we have to go to Zion I have a idea!  Lock all the doors!!  Then we won't have to leave all the stuff behind!"

Alex came in from playing outside, "I'm scared that pirates will come out of the woods!"  After reassuring him he asked, "Are monsters real?"  Again, I reassured him.  Then, "Is any bad stuff real?  Tigers?  Giraffes?"  After assuring him there were no tigers or giraffes in our yard, he decided it was safe to go back outside.

Alex was passing some awful gas, so I asked him if he needed to go potty.  Alex, "Those aren't poop farts...or pee."

I asked Alex how he is going to find a wife.  Alex, "By calling.  And if she says no, I'll find someone else to call."

Alex as we pulled into a parking spot, "I got dizzy from the way you were driving the car."

Logan with a cheerful face, "I'm mad enough I could eat tacks!"

Abby is starting to talk.  Some of her latest words are 'Sunbeam', 'cookie', 'Jesus', 'Daddy', 'baby', 'kitty', 'bottle', 'water', and 'poo poo'.

Alex, "My Holy Ghost has helped me figure out to go potty!"

Logan, "If Great Britain gets back our country, they will probably be surprised to see that it has more land than it used to!"

Alex was upset because Jim made him get dressed for church, "Dad broke my day!"  Then he didn't want to eat breakfast because he was mad, "My tummy is tired and my tummy is mad at Daddy too!"

Logan's Gift to Jesus

Logan made a goal to read the Book of Mormon almost two years ago.  He made good progress during the first few months and then pretty much set it aside for a long time.  At some point in the past year he renewed his goal, and by December was nearing the end.  So he decided that he would finish it as a Christmas gift to Jesus.  He even timed it so that he would read the final chapter on Christmas Day.  We've seen huge changes in him as he's diligently studied the scriptures this year.  We're so pleased with our boy! 

A Series of Unfortunate Events or Disguised Blessings

Our 10th anniversary was on the Sunday before Christmas.  I was sick, so the day didn't start real well, but I was hoping to make a decent dinner that night and have a little time with Jim after the kids went to bed.  After a bit of a rough morning, we went to church. 

During the middle hour while I was teaching in Primary, Jim decided he'd run home to start dinner as a surprise for me, and then be back for the last hour when he needed to be in Nursery.  I had no idea he'd left, so I was puzzled that he wasn't in the nursery when I went in a while later to sing with that group.  A little after that, I was really confused when someone came and told me that Jim had called to say that his car was dead on the side of the road.  (I don't usually bring my cell phone to church.)  We'd driven together!  Huh??

I called him and found out that the van was dead on the side of the road.  It had started making noises while he was out and completely died.  Lovely.  Happy anniversary to us?  A friend randomly drove by and stopped just when the van died, so he gave Jim a ride home to get his car.  Meanwhile, I finished teaching the music in Primary and arranged for help getting our family home (we don't fit in Jim's car). 

Annie, Alex, and I rode home with a friend, and the other two went with Jim.  About the time I arrived home, I received a call from Jim to tell me that our van was GONE!  He'd only left it about an hour before, and was planning to arrange for a tow once he'd picked us up from church.  I made some calls and discovered that the sheriff's office had towed it because it was overlapping the roadway.  Ah!  This was the last straw for my pregnant, sick, emotional self.  In tears, I had a conversation with a very nice lady at the sheriff's office and discovered the details.  We spent the evening taking care of everything that had happened and arranged for another tow to a shop...our nice dinner and alone time didn't happen.

The next day, the shop let us know that our engine was toast.  This van had been a lemon from the start, so it really wasn't worth fixing.  The reason the engine was destroyed was due to a mistake made by that same shop, but we had some part in it as well (unknowingly) so there was nothing to be done...very unfortunate.  We decided that we'd better clean out the van, junk it, and shop for a new one.  We dropped the healthy kids off with a babysitter and headed into town.

Our first stop was to clean out the van which is when we discovered that it had been robbed!  We had been keeping some emergency cash in a locked drawer inside the van; the drawer lock was broken and the cash was gone.  It wasn't a whole lot, but that was the kind of moment we needed it.  Oy!

On we went to look at vehicles.  Thankfully, we'd been saving for a while, and although we'd hoped to save more before replacing our lemon van, we were able to find something we could afford.  We decided that this was our anniversary present.  The whole process took a while, and it coincided with some fever spikes.  Here's how Abby felt about the process.  Poor baby.

The dealership wanted to fix something on our van before sending it home with us, so they gave us a free rental until it was ready.  I don't even know why I took a picture of it, but since our story continues I'll include it.  I felt like I was driving a tank in this thing!  We'd wondered if we might be a large SUV kind of family eventually, but after driving this I'm hopeful it won't ever be a necessity.  It was a really fancy vehicle too, so I was paranoid driving it.  $50,000 brand new...wowzers.

A day later, we picked up our new van.  It was a Nissan Quest and in excellent condition.  It was easily the nicest vehicle I'd ever owned, and I felt very comfortable driving it.  However, I was constantly worried that we'd crash it.  I even had dreams that it was wrecked.  I attributed my worry to the fact that it was the most expensive vehicle we'd ever paid for, and that we'd opted for liability coverage only on it just like we've always done. During the next six days I said so many prayers that we would be safe and that we wouldn't get in an accident with our new van.  I also constantly had an unspoken prayer that if we did crash, it would be the other guy's fault, so that it could be replaced.  I never actually spoke that prayer, though.

One week after getting our new van, Jim and I finally went out to celebrate our anniversary.  After celebrating a late Christmas with his family, we left the kids with Audrey, and went to the Nauvoo temple to participate in a sealing session.  This is how we traditionally celebrate our anniversary because it helps us remember our marriage covenant.  I was feeling really sick on our way there, so I laid my seat back to rest.  Minutes later I realized we hadn't prayed for safety and I felt a great need to do so.  So I sat up and we prayed for safe travel.  We made it to the temple and had a good session.  Afterwards we went out to eat at Applebee's and my stomach FINALLY settled down.  I'd been miserable pretty much the whole day. 

Since I was feeling so much better, I was enjoying visiting while we drove back to Audrey's.  The next thing we knew, we were hit by another vehicle!  We were going down a highway around 55mph, coming from the other direction a semi passed us, and just as it went past a full size van tried to cross the highway and hit us squarely on the driver's side.  We had absolutely no time to react; we didn't even see it coming until he was about to hit us.   Here's my un-artistic illustration:

I suspect the van driver was watching for the semi to go by and didn't wait long enough to see if he was clear on the other side.  We were probably directly beside the semi when he started to cross.  The impact sent us into a ditch, and the big van spun 180* and ended up on the other side of the intersection. 

I saw the airbags deploy, covered my head, and then we stopped moving.  Initially I asked Jim if he was okay and he said he was.  Then I noticed that I was having trouble breathing and my back hurt.  I panicked for a minute worried that I could be seriously hurt.  Thankfully, I regained my breath and my pain quickly subsided.  I realized that the impact had knocked the wind out of me and I was simply feeling the slap of my seat against my back.  I was thrown squarely back into my seat.

Jim called 911 and at the same time a man came running to see if we were okay.  The first thing he saw was Abby's car seat at the point where the impact had been the worst.  He was relieved when we said there were no kids in the car and that we thought we were okay.  Several other people came by, and eventually the emergency vehicles showed up.  Even though I'm pregnant, I really felt okay, so I declined medical attention; my worst complaint was that I was shivering (it was a bitterly cold day), though I was feeling grateful I'd changed my skirt for pants after the temple.  I almost hadn't.  Jim also declined medical care.  The other driver was okay as well, but his van was totalled on the front end.  The rest of our time on the scene is a blur.  I mostly remember wanting to sob, but not being able to.

Here are the first and last pictures we took of our new van.

Abby and Logan are the two that sit on that side of the vehicle.  Abby sits right behind the driver.

A look through Abby's window.

Here's a look at the driver's seat.  The most unusual aspects of this van were how roomy it was on the inside and how low it was to the ground.  We were both able to sit further away from the steering wheel than in any other car we've ever had, and we had more space between seats and doors.  It's height from the ground was barely above that of a regular car.  We wonder if we might have rolled in a higher vehicle since we did end up in a ditch.  Jim's door was smashed into his seat and we wonder if the extra inches he had on the side prevented injury.

We predict that Abby's door was smashed in about two feet based on the fact that it shoved her seat to the point it was touching Alex's seat and she'd originally had a lot of space between her seat and the door.  I was really emotional once I'd recovered enough to look back at where my baby might have been sitting.  Her body is so little, and the other kids are really little too.  They seemed so fragile in that moment.  I felt like my kids had a brush with death; that was the hardest part of the whole thing for me.

Abby's door.

This is Logan's seat.  I realized just why booster seats are a good idea when I saw this (which we use).  It would have been an advantage to be sitting higher.  

Here's a look at how Abby's and Alex's seats were smashed together.

Jim took another picture of Abby's seat after we removed the carseat.  It's hard to see, but the seat itself is really bent.

After the fact, we decided to take a picture of the undamaged side of our new van. 

About the time Audrey arrived to rescue us, Jim was starting to hurt, so we did visit an urgent care on the way back.  He seemed to be okay, so on we went.  The next 24 hours were really emotional for me, and increasingly painful for Jim.  The other driver admitted fault (I feel bad for him), so we also started the claim process with his insurance company.  They set us up with a rental van (a nice Town and Country) so we were able to drive home the next day.  Our chiropractor fit us in at the close of the day (offices all over were closing down for the New Year holiday) just shortly after we arrived back.  He determined that I had slight whiplash, but was otherwise amazingly unscathed.  Jim, on the other hand, had quite a bit of damage, though nothing was broken.  

Stepping away from it, I realize that my prayers were definitely answered.  We honestly wonder if our new van protected us better in the crash than the old one would have; so perhaps that part was a blessing.  I'd prayed so hard for our safety, and we were amazingly preserved.  I, and our unborn child, were almost unscathed.  Jim is recovering from his injuries and should have no lasting effects.  I'd prayed that our van would be preserved, but in truth I was praying that our investment wouldn't be lost and Heavenly Father knew that; it was going to be a long time before we could afford to buy another vehicle (vans are expensive!!).  That was also answered.  Our claim was processed amazingly quick; we had our settlement check for the full value of our recent purchase within 10 days.  I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who hears and answers my prayers.  I know we were protected and blessed.

Last Saturday, we went van shopping again.  After looking at several less than thrilling vehicles, we realized we'd had an amazing deal on the other van.  There aren't many on the market, in that condition, that are also in the price range we were working with.  I was feeling discouraged, and not very hopeful when Jim decided to pull into the Honda dealership.  I'd pretty much determined that we shouldn't even look at Odysseys because they are so much more expensive than any other van out there.  The dealer had exactly one vehicle in our price range and it hadn't hit the lot yet.  Amazingly, it was exactly what we wanted, and in incredible condition.  We stepped out to pray about it (after our experience, we weren't leaving that step out) and decided to buy it.  I wondered if I'd feel just as worried about getting in an accident as with the previous van, but I haven't felt worried about it.  It makes me wonder if I was having a premonition with the other one.  So...here's our newest van, that will hopefully serve our family for many years to come!

Post Christmas Break

Jim had another week of holiday vacation after Christmas so we spent a lot of time relaxing at home.  We played our new games, watched a few new movies, and really enjoyed our family time.  Everyone, except me, completely recovered from our virus as well.  We also took our belated trip to celebrate Christmas with Jim's family.  I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures, but we had a nice day with them.  Jim's mom was really excited to have Christmas with her grandkids this year, so she had lots of fun surprises for them. 

Here's my only picture during the break.  We had multiple days where everyone took a nap (unusual!).