It's Autumn Time

This is one of my most favorite times of the year. I just couldn't help but take lots of pictures of all the beautiful leaves. I did this for those of you who don't live in Utah anymore (Erica and Kim) and don't get the chance to see the beautiful mountains and leaves. Enjoy!!!

Family Photo

We ventured out today to get a family photo. It has been four years since we had our last family picture taken (that wasnt at a wedding). We have a good friend in the ward that is a photographer and she took them for us. We went up to Vivian Park up Provo Canyon. Here is how Mike felt about doing family picutres.

Mike was a good sport. He delt with a couple of girls (Addie and Brianna) who dont like bugs and cant stand to get dirty.
In this picture, you can see all of us looking down. We just found ourselves in the middle of an aunt pile. OUCH!!! Thanks Mike for being such a good sport.

Rachael turns 6

I cant believe that my baby is now 6 years old. Rachael wanted to know the exact time that she would be 6 so I told her that it was at 10:29 in the morning. So she kept watching the clock and ever few minutes she would say OK is it time yet, I would tell her that she had 5 more minutes and this went on until it was time. Well once the clock turned to 10:29 she started to scream "Yea I am finally 6" she then came into the bathroom and said "look now I am taller" if only it worked out that way. She had her special day at school and that was fun for her.

We had a little family party, Dave and Jessica came over for a minute. Rachael had her special day at school I was able to go with her and share some "FAVORITES of Rachael's".

Then on Friday we had a small little friends party for her.

They had a fun time making door hangers, we wrote their names on them and then they glued buttons and bows on them. What a fun time she had. Happy Birthday Rach we love you.

CARNIVAL

Many of you know that I have been up to my eyes in Carnival stuff. I have been in charge of our Elementary carnival this year. Well it is finally over, kind of a bitter sweet. I am glad to have this project behind me but I also enjoyed every minute of it. This year we hired a company Fun Services. They brought all of the games and the rides all I had to do was the food and volunteers (pretty easy). Well it was a huge success. Everyone had a great time. As I was walking around checking on everyone I would hear the kids say "this is the best carnival we have every had". What a compliment to me and the group of women who put it on. This wasn't all my doing, I did have help from several wonderful women. I do have a very funny picture of myself and my friend Dani, we were making cotton candy but I have yet to bribe her enough to send it to me. I will post it later when I get it.

To my wonderful husband

I just want to put in a little plug for my sweet husband. Today is our 14 year Anniversary. Wow 14 years already. It seems like it was just yesterday that Mike had forgotten our marriage certificate :) We were talking to night at dinner how time has just flown by. We don't feel like we have been married for 14 years. We have been through a lot in 14 years both good and bad. I must say that of course I am thankful for the good, but also for the bad. They have made our marriage much stronger and our love for one another stronger. I am so glad that he chose me to be his eternal companion. This way definitely a match made in heaven. I am thankful to Mike everyday for the sacrifices that he makes for me and our beautiful girls. He is not only an amazing husband but and amazing father as well. Thank you for 14 wonderful years, and here's to 14 + more. I love you always

Update on Rachael

Thank you to all of you for showing your concern for our little Rach. She is doing much better right now. The Doctors seem to think that it was just some swollen nodes on her intestines. We did have another scare and the next step was to give her an IV and do a CT Scan. No thanks. We just kept a eye on her and she has seemed to recover just fine. I tell ya there is nothing worse then having a child in pain and knowing that there is nothing that you can do for them. No amount of rubbing, or medicine would take that pain away. We are doing much better.

"Sweet Rachael"

On Sunday right as church was getting over, Rachael came down the stairs from primary crying and saying that her side hurt really bad. We took her home got her something to eat and put her down for a nap. When she got up she said Oh Mom now I feel better. So Mike and I didn't think anything about it. She had played with a friend earlier in the week and the little brother had the stomach flu, so we thought oh just a twenty four hour flew. After about 1 hour she started just screaming that her stomach was hurting, she said it felt like hammers in her tummy. Once again we gave her some tums and she took another nap.
Monday she was feeling fine, she got ready for her first day of school, no problems. Tuesday the same thing, until I received a call from the school that she didn't feel good and she didn't want to ride the bus home. I went to pick her up and Brianna told me that she found her doubled over in pain and just screaming that her tummy hurt. I got her into the doctors that evening. He was a little concerned, that he sent us over to the hospital for some tests. At this point I cant do anything to make her comfortable, she has 103 temperature, and just not doing good. Once at the hospital they did some blood work, what a trooper Rach was, she didn't even cry when they poked her with a needle to take her blood. Then off to the ultrasound room we went. By this time we have been at the hospital for over 1 hour. All Rachael wants to do is go home. We have to wait for the tech, so I was holding her and she fell asleep in my arms. We woke her up to do the ultrasound and we tried to explain to her that they were going to take pictures of her tummy to see if they can find out where the pain is coming from. Well Mike kept teasing her that he could see what she had for lunch, he starts saying "I can see your hot dog and the pickle" Rachael's response after she say the screen was "Dad I think that is lake water in my tummy" bless her little heart. As crappy as she felt she still had her sense of humor. The tech finally finished the ultrasound and went to call the doctor to let him know what he found. I leaned over to ask Rach how she was feeling and she said "I felt better while he was doing the massage". How Sweet. Well the doctors says it can be one of two things. First she does have some inflammation of the lymph nodes around her intestines. But they think it could also be her appendix, the only problem with that is that they couldn't get a good look at it because she couldn't relax her tummy enough. She was having such a hard time breathing that it hurt to relax. So they sent us home at about 9:30 p.m. Rach was asleep before I even left the room. She slept pretty good, we did have another episode around 5:00 a.m. where her temperate went back up to 103. But as of now she seems to be doing better. She is a little rundown and doesn't want to do much. At this point it is a waiting game. They say that the inflammation could last up to 10 days, and there is nothing that they can do for her except for Motrin. I think she kind of likes everyone wanting to take care of her.