Idaho, Round 2

 

 It's time to catch up!  Lots has happened since Lila started preschool last August.  It's out of order...Blogger was not cooperating with me and it has taken me this long to blog about it, so it will just have to do! 

On August 12, my dad passed away.  We made another quick trip to Utah/Idaho for the funeral.  We got there Thursday night.  The "State Fire" was burning up the mountains around Samaria and everything smelled horribly of smoke.  Clint and I went on a short ride through the mountains.  It was sobering to see just how much had burned.  Luckily, no houses or lives were lost.

Friday morning, Clint and I took the kids to the park and the Blue Goose for candy to kill time before my dad's viewing.  Haden climbed up on the teeter totter.  Somehow, he managed to fall off when he was up high, and let out a blood curdling scream when he landed.  My kids are tough.  They don't usually cry over minor injuries.  Haden had landed on a tree stump that barely protruded from the ground and snapped both bones in his arm.  We loaded all the kids into the gator, thankfully we didn't walk there!! We got to Clint's parents house, left Regan with her cousins, and I held my little boy and his horribly broken arm while Clint drove like a madman to the hospital.  He was just whimpering and complaining that his arm hurt.  Completely heartbreaking.  Grandpa picked up Lila and I got kicked out of the room while they set Haden's bone.  Gratefully, we had him drugged and he doesn't remember anything after we got to the hospital.  Because we were in a small, rural hospital, we were told to return to Denver to see an orthopedic surgeon.  He might have needed surgery.  The surgeon said no surgery, but the bones almost broke through the skin.  Next time we go back to Idaho, Haden and I are going to destroy that teeter totter.  (Another kid was seriously injured on it before Haden.  It needs to go.)

We skipped the viewing and spent the afternoon distracting little Haden from his broken arm.  His silly cat actually came in handy.  Haden could just sit still and pet the thing.

Saturday, Clint, Haden, and I left for Logan.  I knew it was going to be a long, emotional day and didn't want my kids to be bored and complaining.  They didn't really know my dad anyway.  I wasn't about to let Haden and his arm out of my sight, so he got to (had to) come with us.  The service was nice and my dad was laid to rest in the Smithfield cemetery.  He had spent hours walking in that cemetery.  He had been very sick and in a lot of pain for years.  I'm glad that he is no longer in pain.

 

Afterwards, we raced back to Idaho so Clint could supervise our house being knocked over.  The guy only had time to half way finish the job, so after he left, the kids had fun throwing rocks and shooting BBs through any windows still left intact.  Haden had been looking forward to this part for months.  He had broken his right arm and it hurt to throw much of anything with his left.  Clint helped him with the gun, but he was still disappointed.  I guess the refrigerator in the house was still full of food.  Food that had been left for months and smelled like something had died.  The backhoe knocked the refrigerator open and it took days for the smell to go away.  I felt so bad for the neighbors!!  Even though we had originally planned on staying for a few more days, we left Sunday so we could make Haden's appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on Monday.

I know the house was unsalvageable, but it was still sad to see someone's home knocked over.  You could smell the mold in the air.  Gross.

 Savannah brought my nieces, Anna and Leah, up to watch the destruction and to throw rocks through the windows. 

 I don't like trips like that one and hope I never have another one.  I had to drive

back to Utah the Friday after we got home to take Dale to Utah State for school.  There and back in 72 hours.  I don't want to do that again either!

Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas!  Despite the best of intentions, Christmas cards did not go out.  Neither did Valentine's day cards.  There's always next year!  The kids were so excited for all their presents!  Only for Regan to wake up feeling miserable.  We've really had rotten luck being sick on so many typically very fun days! She retreated to the couch and her siblings wreaked havoc on everything else.  They were very sweet and brought presents for Regan to open.

 Tyler doesn't really like having his siblings hold him, despite their enthusiasm!

 Once again, each kid's presents seemed to have a theme.  Haden got lots and lots of legos.  Regan got clothes and American Girl stuff.  Lila got princess stuff.  I'm pretty sure her favorite present was her princess lip gloss. 

 

 Clint gave the kids a bunch of darts and nerf guns.  He set up boxes to hide behind and then war commenced.  Savannah and Dale were visiting for Christmas and Tyler's baby blessing.  Dale and Haden had the best time shooting each other.  There were darts everywhere! 

We had a good Christmas and everyone was spoiled!  I love spending Christmas with my family!  We blessed Tyler on December 29 since Dale and Savannah were already in town.  And sadly, I don't think I got any pictures of the day.  He was well behaved for his blessing, though.  Clint gave him a wonderful blessing; he always does. 

 

This was the first Christmas since Haden was born that we didn't go to Idaho.  We did do a lot of fun things around Denver, though. Lots of shopping, looking at Christmas lights, ice skating, and more nerf wars than I can count filled our break.  I love my little family and I love knowing that we can be together forever!

Haden turns 6!!

Haden turned 6!!  And woke up that morning with a stomach bug.  He declared it the "worst day ever!!!"  Poor guy.  He was too sick to do much of anything, but lay on the couch and watch tv.  By the evening, he mustered up enough energy to open presents.  He's going through an Avenger phase so it was easy to find presents for him.

 A few days later he was ready for his cake.  He wanted a cake that he was able to put his avengers on top of.  Super easy!!  I think his favorite part was lighting the candles BY HIMSELF!  He's turned into quite the pyro as of late. 

 

I didn't have my act together enough to throw a party for him on or near his actual birthday, but he finally got one last week.  We went to Dart Warz where he and his friends had the best time shooting nerf guns at each other. 

 

I love my sweet Haden.  He is a huge help around the house.  He does laundry, cleans bathrooms, and makes pancakes all without help.  He adores his little brother and takes very good care of him.  Haden is excelling in school, reading and doing math problems several grade levels ahead of kindergarten.  He enjoys taking both piano and swimming lessons and loves shooting guns.  I always have such a good time when we hang out together!  I love my little guy! 

Tyler Beckett Waldron

 

 After a long and rather miserable pregnancy, Tyler Beckett Waldron was born on November 30, 2013.  I made it just long enough that he will never have a Thanksgiving or Black Friday birthday!  Yeah, that mattered to me.  He was my biggest, 8 lbs 7 oz and was 21 inches long.  Delivery was a breeze, and his siblings couldn't wait to meet him!  When Lila was born, we refused to tell anyone if she was a boy or a girl or her name until after we had talked to Regan.  This was Haden's turn.  He was over the moon about having a little brother!

 I hope he wasn't choking her!

 Savannah comes for every baby.  She is always so good to take a break from her life to come help us.  And the kids loved having her here!

I don't take nearly as many pictures with my camera as I  used to.  Most of my pictures of Tyler are on several different phones and Ipads and I am too lazy right now to track down the devices and download pictures.  We all adore little Tyler and I am so grateful he was healthy.  Other than a rather sensitive stomach, he is a very good baby.  He tolerates being put in his car seat at least three and sometimes 5 or 6 times a day as we shuttle his siblings to different activities.  As long as he is being held or bounced on the exercise ball, he is content to sit and watch.  I suspect it is only a matter of time before he is in on all the action.  The kids are so good to him. Even three months later, the kids still fight over who gets to hold him or take care of him in the car.  I hope that they always love each other that much! 

Halloween 2013

My kids rarely agree to dress up in costumes we already have, so we always have to buy more.  So, I like to get as much mileage out of them as I can.  Haden wanted to be Jengo Fett who, I learned, is completely different from Boba Fett.  He dressed up as Boba Fett last year and insisted on a completely new costume so he could be Jengo this year.  As far as I could tell, the only difference was one is green and one is blue, but I am hardly a Star Wars expert.  Whatever.  Haden was happy.  Lila wanted to be a princess.  I had a variety of dresses for her to pick from, but instead borrowed a beautiful Cinderella dress.  She was the most adorable Cinderella I have ever seen!  Regan went back and forth over costumes and finally settled on an Indian princess, I mean, Native American princess.  There are so many kids who go to school with my kids who are actually from India that it makes the term "Indian" a little confusing.  Either way, she was super cute!

 

We hit the school's trunk or treat.  Regan didn't want to go and went shopping with Clint instead.  I was not surprised that she wanted to go shopping, but they went to REI.  Hardly Regan's kind of store, but she was the one who asked to go there.  Clint was thrilled he got to skip the event and go to his favorite store.

 They have an awesome principal.  Last year he dressed up as a Jedi.  Haden has liked him ever since!

 

 We had friends over and carved pumpkins.  I took pictures and everyone else carved.  I don't like touching all those gooey insides!

 

 

 

 After we took the picture, Haden used up every single toothpick in the house decorating his pumpkin.  He loved it!  And we got all sorts of comments from everyone who came over and saw it!

 I was in charge of the Trunk or Treat at church.  That day started off rainy and later turned to snow forcing us to move our outside event indoors.  It was still fun!  Haden got his donut.

 Lila did, too.  But she didn't mess around following the rules.

 Lila and Olivia have become such good friends!  It was only coincidence that they both dressed up as Cinderella!  It was a fun night!  Between all three events, the kids got a ridiculous amount of candy.  Luckily, you can donate candy to our dentist and she sends it overseas to the soldiers.  Better they get the cavities than my kids!! 

 

 

Pumpkin Festival

We got to hang out with some good friends at the Pumpkin Festival last October.  The kids had so much fun!  They made popcorn filled monster hands,

 colored masks,

and frosted cookies.

 They loved climbing all over this giant spider web,

 and had fun jumping on this big trampoline thing.

 

 

 

 They scoured the field looking for the perfect pumpkin before they all settled on getting a collection of gourds.

 

 

 And we rode the wagon back to the car.  It was fun!  I hope we go again next year!

 

Lila's 1st day!!

 Sweet little Lila started her first year of preschool this past Thursday.  She has been very excited!  She has the same teacher, Mr. JP, that Haden had for 2 years.  We really like him, and he really likes my kiddos, which means a lot to me!  Especially when he has to deal with my feistiest for 5 hours a week!  She just seems so little to me; I can't believe it's already time for her to start!

 Lila insisted on getting new shoes for school.  She found these and refused to put them down.  Apparently they make her run "super fast!" 

She washed her hands, just like she has helped Haden do for the last two years.

 

 And then she got to color.  I left her happily chatting about Haden's cat and her horse in Idaho.

 

When I picked her up, she was all smiles.  She said she cannot wait to go back!  Lila is my first kiddo whose speech I can understand almost perfectly on their first day of preschool.  I had no idea what Regan or Haden were saying following their first day of school.  I loved listening to all Lila had to say!  She loved playing on the play ground with her friends and she got to eat a bagel for snack.  She was impressed that she could spread the cream cheese on all by herself!  I hope my sweet girl continues to love school!

Idaho

We spent last week in Idaho. We had originally planned to leave Saturday morning, but due to circumstance beyond our control, we had to wait until after church on Sunday.  We got to Malad shortly after midnight.  The kids are pretty fabulous travelers!  Lila likes to shove things in between her little body and the straps of her car seat.  Sometimes it is her blanket, a doll, a water bottle, a book, whatever she has. 

Clint bought another piece of land in Samaria this spring.  It is across the street from the piece he bought last year.  Except, this piece has an old house on it.  This past winter the pipes burst on the main level and it was discovered because water was pouring out of the basement windows.  The owner had no insurance and just let it sit.  It is pretty nasty and stinky inside.  Clint and Dale could not wait to destroy it.  What is it about boys??  We had planned on bringing it down when we first got there, but it wasn't meant to be.  The guy with the excavator was unavailable and it was too dry to burn it, so instead, Clint and Luke cleaned the rest of the property. In 100 degree heat.  I have to admit, being pregnant definitely has its occasional advantage.  I felt sick every time I left the shade, so I spent my days watching the kids and running to town to bring the boys milkshakes, lemonade, and anything else that would make working in the miserable heat more tolerable. 

 The girls found a bunch of old fingernail polish in the garage.  They had the best time painting the house!  I let them do it before I realized that it wasn't coming down this trip.  I kinda wonder what  passersby think when they see all the beautiful artwork!

 It really was a cute little house!  It was devastating to walk through and look at all the damage.  There's a piano covered with mildew in the basement.  We salvaged a couple of vacuum cleaners, some tools, an antique sewing machine, and I want to go back to get the china, but everything else has been ruined.

 There were lots of fences dividing the land.  Clint pulled them all  out.  He made several trips to the dump, made a large pile of wood to burn, and has several loads of metal that needs to be recycled.  It looks a lot better now, though!

 A kitten had actually been living in the basement.  It was a little skittish when we first found it, but Clint's nephew, Andrew, promptly calmed it down and Haden claimed it as his own.  "Tiger" was too dumb to run when Lila would come near so he was nearly suffocated with her loving.  We moved the cat to Clint's parents house and they assured Haden they would take very good care of him.  Haden spent every extra minute with the cat and cried when we left him.

 I explained that cats like the freedom of Idaho much better than living in Colorado. (Plus, I did not want that smelly cat in my car for 10 hours!)  It didn't seem to help.  We may have to go back in September just to visit the blasted cat.

 That night we spent with friends and cousins at a hot springs.  It's on private property, so we had it all to ourselves.  The kids loved it!

 It smelled like sulfur, so I kept my distance.

 The girls loved swimming.

 Haden loved swinging.

 Lila could have jumped on the tramp all night.

The next day was more of the same.  Clint worked at the house and I chased kids.  Haden didn't want to wait to take the house down and took matters into his own hands.  Why must boys destroy things?  Despite his best efforts, he didn't really do any damage.

 The kids loved hanging out with their cousins. They helped them do chores and feed the baby animals.  But I didn't get any pictures.

 The next day we went to Downata Hot Springs.  It was a nice break for everyone!

 The last day poor Tiger got loved some more,

 Haden drove the tractor with Grandpa.  He's a pretty good little driver!

Lila helped Clint raise Grandpa up in the bucket of the tractor to trim the trees. 

 And Dale got to go shooting.  This was the only day he would be in Samaria with us and had asked Clint to take him shooting.  They raided Doyle's gun safe and then headed to our yucky house.  They collected several bottles of pop, cans of beans, and anything else that would be fun to shoot and then headed up to the gravel pit.

 Then we headed to our hotel in Park City.  We met up with some friends who had moved to Utah earlier this year.  I think this was the part of the trip Haden was most looking forward to.  He and Corbin are best friends!  Lila and Avery love being together, too!  I love that even though they haven't seen each other for 5 months, it was like nothing had changed.  The boys wrestled and the girls played like they always did.  And I loved catching up with Staci!



I hope we can get together frequently enough that they can all stay best friends!

We met up with my family that evening.  Dale was drawing faces on the kids.  Haden only agreed if he could draw on Dale when he was done.  Dale gave in and my kids had the best time decorating his face!  I still laugh when I think of the look the lady in hotel gave him when we got back.  I guess you don't see a 6'2" 175 lb guy with his face completely covered in marker every day!  Lila had even given him eyeshadow!  It was awesome! 

Lila did her best to clean it off of Dale, but it just smeared.  She kept telling him to "hold still!"

The next day we stopped at Utah's Olympic Park before heading home.  We watched the ski jumpers.  Lila would yell, "that was awesome!" every time.

The trip home seemed longer than the trip there, even though it was 2 hours shorter.  I love coming home and sleeping in my own bed!