Toothless

Poor Coop had the joys of being put to sleep this morning while his dentist pulled out a tooth.  Really it was a blessing that our amazing dentist was willing to fit Cooper into his schedule as his day, as it was already packed but with Birch and myself going out-of-town tomorrow we needed it taken care of.  So 5:40 am Coop was sedated by a kind anesthesiologist and then a minute later his tooth was popped out.

"Surgery" went great but turns out Coop has the barfy gene from me and could not stop barfing until I gave him a dose of Zofran.  He didn't want to miss school so I took him in just a bit late and he made it through the day.  Proud of you Coop!

Recovering!

Dad's the Man

Another wonderful Stake Conference down in the books!!  It's always such a busy time for Birch but also pretty special too.

Big Hunk in his new tie (I like to get him a special new tie for each Stake Conference talk he gives)

My Lover gave a very memorable talk at the Saturday night adult session.  Memorable for two reasons...for some reason the camera was LOVING Birch and was zooming in at lightening speeds to various parts of his face (think EYE BALL the size of a semi truck!) AND because his message was so thoughtfully given.  He started with having two sweet sisters sing a song called "Build and Ark."

https://youtu.be/QrBugnWjRCY

The idea behind the message of the song and Birch's talk was that it took years to build the ark (like 50-100 years) and during that time followers probably went in and out of believing that it was actually going to rain at some point.  Noah began building his ark BEFORE it rained and during that time waiting on the Lord's timing of things was not all a piece of cake.  Birch shared the story of his Grandma Rose's desire to serve a mission and how he desires and prepared her life for years before she was actually able to begin serving missions.  Grandma's story is really remarkable!  

I've been thinking ever since...what am I doing to build my ark...to keep my family safe?  It is raining a whole lot out there!!!

17 Years of AWESOMENESS!!

Seventeen years!!!!  Tyler's delivery was long awaited as I had been on bed rest in Spokane for three weeks and his birth followed Sara Elizabeth's passing and another miscarriage.  Birch had started working in Yakima and came to Spokane for the weekends to be with Alex and I.  I took up residence on his parent's couch and spent the days agonizing over the what if's -- what if I went into labor and Birch didn't make it to Spokane in time?  What if I can't handle two kids?  What if Tyler is born with a congenital birth defect  What is the labor is as horrible as Alex's?  Wow...I must have been a mess.

Tyler's delivery ended up being amazing.  Birch as in town; the midwives were super sweet; I got to watch the Miss America Pageant WHILE in labor and enjoyed an epidural.  Tyler has brought such a joy to our family.  After wanting to have another child and going through the heartache of losing a baby, Tyler was our rainbow baby.

Tyler is the stylish man at our house!!  He LOVES cool ties and socks.  You'll find him wearing pink and purple and never caring what others might think about him.  Tyler LOVES eggs...like I mean loves them.   He's always been a ladIES man -- and I mean plural!!  The girls all love him!  He's a great leader and has enjoyed several opportunities to be a leader at school and church.

This weekend we hosted six boys from all over the state for a leadership conference.  Tyler was one of the hosts and had lots of responsibilities for the weekend.  It was fun to see Tyler in his leadership role.

Just looking at this picture is making me realize how much Tyler has grown in the past couple of years.  

Tyler hoping he was getting a new camera lens...

and adjusting to the fact that sometimes mom and dad (like Santa) know even better what you really want. ☺ Tyler got a sweet bluetooth, waterproof speaker.

Since today was Stake Conference, Tyler's birthday was a little unique.  We had a great big breakfast with all of guests (pancakes, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, juice) and then for lunch we had pizza.  For dinner we were supposed to have hamburgers but none of us were hungry...so the party will continue tomorrow!

Sure do love this kid!!!!

Be the Light - YW in Excellence

This past Wednesday I had the privledge of putting on YW in Excellence for our ward girls.  I wanted it to be a really special night for the girls and for them to feel the magnitude of their individual worth and that their time they put into personal progress is important.

There are so many awesome ideas online and I was drawn to the theme of "Be the Light."  A talented woman has shared tons of freebies with this theme.  I used her stuff and added a bit of my own to customize it to our ward.  The night turned out beautiful!

I mailed all the girl's and their families all invites.  Doesn't everyone feel more special with a personal invitation!

The program was fabulous!!  It was kept to an hour so the talks were short and sweet.  The first musical number was lovely with the girls being accompanied by one of them playing the ukulele.  The last musical number I just love and the girls sounded great!

The talks the girls gave were focused on these three quotes:

Kind of tricky making a primary room - seminary room - pathways room - toddler music room...also a YW in Excellence room.

Each of the girls filled a plastic lightbulb with something that brought them the Light of Christ this past year.  I encouraged them to tie it into their Personal Progress projects but they didn't have to.  Their ideas were awesome!!  

My new skill of cookie decorating that I learned at AGW this past year came in hand with making these cute light bulb cookies.

This was trickier than I thought to make -- wire twisted heart.

My adviser and I made these super sweet necklaces for all the girls.  They were very easy to make (again someone had done all the hard work already) and I think will be a neat memento from the evening for the girls.

I loved thinking about LIGHT and the ways that I am letting my light shine!  It is a wonderful concept to think about  

Two Tickets To Paradise

Tyler had a busy Saturday with a cross country race in Leavenworth and then he scooted back to wash off that sweat and dress up in his fancy duds.  He took the lovely Kathryn to Homecoming.  They are friends from school and Tyler asked her out by taping balloons all over her car one evening at her soccer game.

They enjoyed dinner with a large group at the 2nd Street Grill and then came on over to the dance.  Lucky Tyler -- his mom and dad signed up to be coat checker people and so we got to spy on them throughout the night.  Fun night for all -- but boy, was it an eye opener for Birch and I.  Lots of dirty dancing going on!  I was dying to go show all those teenagers some real moves but Tyler was pretty sure that adults were not allowed on the dance floor. 

Glad Tyler had a fun night!

Tyler and Kathryn

Loves Everything Soccer From Head-to-Toe

Cooper reminds me a lot his big brother Alex in many ways.  One thing that particularly stands out is the way both LOVE the "uniform" of any sport.  Cooper loves to look his best on the field. This year I've seen a dramatic improvement in his competitiveness.  Don't get me wrong...Coop has always loved to win but this year he seems more aggressive. 

100% in!!!

It was windy at the game but Chloe still enjoyed a little time on the playground.

I've felt that the last few years the kids haven't been doing a very good job at supporting each other in their extracurricular activities (ie.  coming to band and choir concerts and sporting events).  When everyone was little we always loaded them all up and they had no choice but to come and cheer on their sibling.  I guess after they got old enough to stay home alone that started to wane a bit.  This year we are trying a bit harder to encourage the kids to come be a cheerleader for their sibling (sometimes seems like a punishment to their parents though).  

Love this action shot when Coop was goalie.

Karate?

Coop has been blessed this past year to play on a team full of friends from school and church.  His coach, Anthony Mugleston has been really kind and instructive with the boys.  I'm imagining this will be their last year as next year the boys will be old enough to play on the Junior High teams.

Star Spangled Banner - Proud to be an American

Alysee made us all proud Friday night when the chamber choir was asked to kick off the homecoming game with an amazing rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.  I wish I had a recording to share how amazing they sounded but Birch did capture several pictures.  I was proud to see the audience and football players all respectfully standing and putting their hand over their hearts. 

Junior Boys' Drill Team

Still trying to decide if I should be proud or squeeze my eyes shut...  Tyler joined the Junior Boys' Drill Team for the Homecoming Pep Assembly.  They practiced early morning for one week and they showed off their stuff on Friday.

Tyler is a bit hard to see in the video (and sadly it is taken from the wrong side of the gym) but he starts out in a coat and pants...then strips down a bit...then is wearing a white headband with a red vest and white cheer skirt and black spandex.  He is on the middle left hand of the screen and is the second to be thrown in the air.

https://youtu.be/4kVUgLa2TVU

Nate turns pro...at least in my books

Nate always puts 100% in whatever he does in life -- soccer is no exception.  He has had an awesome season this year on the 8th grade team.  This past game he scored two of the three goals the team made.  My only worry is that he has had several headers -- poor noggin'.

General Conference...good for the soul

What a WONDERFUL weekend we have had listening to uplifting words and being reminded of things to improve in our lives!  Yesterday we had to multi-task while listening to conference with a soccer game and cross country meet.  Today was wonderful to just sit back and soak in the goodness.

We had our traditional monkey bread, breakfast casserole, fruit, and juice for breakfast.

I'm so thankful we can sit in our jammies and listen to conference.

The last session of conference we worked Vision Boards.  The purpose of a Vision Board is to give each person a visual of goals they want to attain in their life.  What you want to become, places you want to go, attributes you want to work toward, a bucket list of desires, etc...  There is no wrong or right way to make a vision board.  We each labored away quietly (well, pretty quiet) on our creations for the last two hours of conference.

Birch designing away.

Coop sketching out his ideas.

Chloe painting her vision board.

Birch adding the details to his vision board.

 THE FINAL PRODUCTS!!!!

Alysee's vision board

Chloe's vision board

Tyler's vision board

Birch's vision board 

Momma's vision board

Coop's vision board

Nate's vision board

We couldn't leave Elder Ditto out so I made him a vision board of his current life.

I'm looking forward to re-reading and listening to the conference talks again the next six months.  It was different to not hear the prophet speak to us today as he was at home due to age.  We are going to hang our Vision Boards in the mud room so we'll see them each day!  Here's to attaining our dreams!!!!