Freshman Awesomeness

Tonight Birch and I had the privilege of escorting Alex to the Freshman Academic Awards Recognition Night.  It's hard to not beam a bit (with righteous pride) when your son is awarded three outstanding achievement awards by the Language Arts, Mathematics, and Art departments. 

What a kid!

Momma's Day 2013

Being a mom is certainly the hardest role I have ever had.  I'll be honest and share that there have been times I have wanted to take out an early retirement.  I have had close friends recently lose their spouse to death or divorce (or have married a slacker husband) and have been reminded of the blessing of having a spouse that gives 100% to our family and is teaching the kids to respect their mom.

I feel blessed to be surrounded by so much love! 

 Alex made us these delicious Almond Mounds Brownie Bites.  They were scrumdiliumteous!

 Chloe showered me with several cute gifts she had made at preschool.  On the backs of these chocolates her teacher wrote down ten reasons that Chloe loves me.

The perks of having six kids...check out all my loot!!  Alex made the awesome vase for the flowers that my Lover gave to me.  I'm going to be spoiled for the next few days with all of Nate's coupons.  The only trick is remembering to use them as they all expire on different dates in the next week or so.  Alysee made me several cute cards and the little can of treats. Tyler even saved me a Hershey's candy bar from the Father/Son's camp out and attached it to a cute note. Coop wrote a really neat book about his love for me.

My beautiful mother, who has taught me to serve, listen, and recognize each person's individual beauty!  Love you mom!

"A Mother must maintain proper perspective in order to see the view."

Groundhogs Day - surgery #15

Alex headed into surgery around 10:15 am yesterday morning.  Just a maintenance surgery of being put to sleep and cleaning his ear out really good and drilling his ear canal again (it always stenosis up over time).  I think the technical term for all this is "canalplasty."

Alex wasn't too nervous as this at it was his fifteen time being put to sleep but it is definitely NOT his favorite thing to do.  He hates waking up from surgery.  I was thinking yesterday morning how crazy it is that this is old hat for our family now and Birch still goes to work, crazy afternoon/evening of church, family, PTA, etc...  Guess I'm grateful that things have always gone so smoothly for Alex during surgeries and that we have been blessed with a good job that makes our health care not an overly big burden.

Ready to take on this surgery!!!

The surgery went great.  He was under for about an hour and half and Dr. Black, the ENT, was able to double his ear canal size by drilling and taking bone from the anterior and inferior canal.  He put in a new brand of packing into the newly widened ear canal and is hoping that the packing will hold the canal open while it heals and makes some new skin where the old skin doesn't quite touch anymore.

Alex wanted to sleep for a long time after surgery and didn't request his mommy until the nurses said that I might possibly be a little worried why they were not calling me back after post recovering AND THEN he didn't even want me to stay in the room when he got dressed from his hospital clothing.  I'm his mom...you'd think I've never seen him in his undies :)  Guess he is growing up.

After we were discharged he enjoyed a milk shake, subway sandwich, and worked on his math homework that he missed at school.

We've sure been through a lot together over the years.  This was taken after his first surgery in July 2005.   Looks like we've both aged a bit over the years!

Yesterday the nurses were so complementary of Alex on his kind behavior (even when they went through his vein and had to re-do his IV).  Alex is thinking he might like to be an ENT in life after high school.  I think he would be a great surgeon!!!

A Million Dollar Smile

A late bloomer...that is what you could call a Ditto.  Poor Nate has been waiting for NINE YEARS to lose his first tooth.  All my kids come home from kindergarten, first grade, and sometimes second grade feeling crushed that they never get their name on the "I just lost my first tooth" board.

 With twenty-five days left of school, Nate was determined that he was not going to finish third grade without having lost his first tooth.  He bravely pulled that sucker out by himself and triumphantly paraded around the house showing his tooth off.

Alysee, on the other hand, was not so thrilled when we left the dentist office a couple of weeks ago with appointments scheduled to pull out two teeth and a consultation with the orthodontist.  From the panel above you can see that her bottom two canines are flopped over and are not coming straight up under her baby canines.  With fear that the adult canines would dissolve the front adult teeth we were sent into a high speed ortho journey.

First stop was a visit to Uncle Ryan who was able to pull out "R" and "M" to set the stage for the upcoming orthodontist work.  She was very brave, though she would attest it was a bit scarey.

Next stop was the orthodontist office where molds were made and plans were set forth to give Alysee that beautiful MILLION DOLLAR SMILE.  She got her top braces on this week to correct a cross bite; then in about a month the bottom braces will be put on after her cross bite is corrected.  Then toward the end of the summer we will get to visit the oral surgeon's office to slice her bottom gums while she is put to sleep and expose the adult canines where then the oral surgeon will somehow attach a chain to her flopped over canines and attached the chain to the bottom braces.  Over the next fifteen months or so the hope is that the chain will slowly pull up her flopped over teeth and have them align in the right position.  OUCH!!!  She will then need braces again in her late teens after all her adult teeth come in. It's been a painful week of mouth sores but Alysee is brave and is going to come through like a beauty queen.  "Beauty hurts" may be our new motto for a couple of years.  I've always felt that a beautiful smile is a gift I would love to give my kids.  Alysee may have to get a job to pull this one off :)

Super Hero Awesomeness!

This past weekend I was lucky enough to go on a Mother/Son Super Hero date with Nate and Coop that the high school was putting on as a fundraiser.

 We double-dated with our besties, Brooke, Chase, and Colin Cox.  In full costume we dined at Burger King on Kids' Meals and ice cream cones.  We got a few stares but nothing that we Super Heroes couldn't handle.

I've got some pretty fabulous boys.  We spent the night playing Laser Tag, jumping in bounce houses, painting masks, eating ice cream and pop, and dancing with no shame.

It's hard to all be cool at the same time!

By the way, in case you are Super Hero dumb like me...I am the Black Widow from "The Avengers" I've never seen the movie but my friend was kind enough to loan the outfit to me.

I think my boys have some pretty amazing Super Hero qualities:

Smarts - each of my kids are great students; Cooper has an amazing memory and gleans all sorts of good information and asks really hard questions.

Respectable - recently Alex had the opportunity to shine out in baseball when the other teammates wanted to watch a movie.  Alex said that he was not okay with an "R" rated movie being shown on the bus.  Later one of the teammates apologized to Alex for his choice of movie.  I think that shows that Alex is respected by his friends.

Humility -  Nate and Coop are the top runners in the elementary school but I have never once heard them rub it in to others.

Athletic - each of my boys have AMAZING athletic qualities and they push themselves to excel in each sport they participate in.

Special Powers - Tyler and Alex are wonderful priesthood holders and they use their "special powers" to bless others and do their respective duties.

Uses Gadgets - earlier in the year when we were talking to the kids about strangers and child abduction Coop decided that he should keep a bottle of silly string in his backpack to protect Nate and him while they walk to school.  Talk about a pretty awesome gadget!

Determined - lately Tyler has really been wanting to earn money so he can buy an I-touch (I'm still not sure how I feel about it); he heard an announcement at church that their was a man willing to hire anyone to do some yard work.  Tyler called him that night and ended up working every day after school and on Saturday last week.  Determination for sure!

Has a "side kick" - my kids (generally) love being around each other; they always have a "side kick" to play with and love being outside together.

Wears a costume - each of my kids have pretty clear ideas of what their clothing style is; I'm grateful that they care that they are dressed modestly.

Willing to fight - they stick up for what is right even when it is hard to stand alone.

Strong - have you seen my boys' calves?  They are runners, bikers, hikers, basketball players...they are strong.

Courageous - recently a teacher at school was going to show a PG-13 movie in class.  Alex was courageous enough to tell us and then we ended up having a really great dialogue with the teacher that turned out to be a win-win for both of us.

I'm grateful for my Super Heroes!!!

15-3

High school baseball just wrapped up with a strong finish of 15-3.  Alex had a great season and loved every minute playing on the C-team. 

He was so grateful to have had many opportunities to pitch throughout the season.

He was able to use his slider a few times to get the strikeout.

Poor shoulder and elbow!!

The last few games were played under the lights, which I've learned is quite exciting.

Though the whole family coming out to support the last few of Alex's games started to diminish, our own home games still continued to happen on a regular basis.  The boys coordinate their outfits (note Coop and Alex are in matching attire and Tyler and Nate are red shirt twins) and play an intense game of baseball while the girls lounge and cheer on the boys.  Sometimes the games end in tears but most of the time these Ditto Brother Games are anticipated by all.

Alex had many opportunities throughout the season to be a leader to his teammates in the way he conducted himself.  Birch and I continue to be impressed and grateful to Alex's coach for the way he interacted with the team and demanded classy behavior.

Way to go Alex!!!!!!!

The Birthday Girl

A special surprise celebration for Birch's mom was celebrated recently.   It was extra fun to have an ADULT-ONLY night to celebrate our favorite Grannie.  We left our kids for the night with a couple and headed to Spokane. Each sibling had an assignment to make the night extra special and run smoothly.

Birch designed and had an invitation mailed to his momma inviting her for a special evening in her honor.  This was the only information she knew prior to our arrival Saturday night.

 She was happily shocked as we pulled into her neighborhood to pick her up...

 A fifteen passenger limo was at her doorstep filled with some of her favorite people (Tav/Vaughn and Blayre/Ryan would have LOVED to have been there).  Andrew and Jenna even came for the weekend from Rexburg, Idaho!

 We were all giddy with excitement as this was the first time most all of us had been in a limo.  Annie brought bon bons for us to eat while we cruised in style through Spokane.

 We all toasted with sparkling cider to the birthday girl.

 Oh, so romantic!

 Birch had two physical therapy appointments while driving around.  PT on wheels...might be a fun idea!!

 Our first stop was to a fabulous quaint Italian Restaurant that Logan and Julia picked out.  Brent and Deena were in charge of the entertainment for the night at had a great idea of bringing these fun conversation coasters.  We spent a couple of hours at the restaurant laughing and learning about each other.

 Then the limo picked us up and took us to Gonzaga University where we had all bought tickets to the spring student dance concert.  It was the perfect activity to celebrate a love that Debbie has had for years.  After the dance concert our limo driver took us around Spokane to see the night lights before dropping us off at Annie and Kelly's.

Annie is a terrific party planner and made this scrumdilumtous chocolate cake with salted caramel glaze and chocolate ganache frosting. We enjoyed visiting late into the night and celebrating a remarkable woman!!!  We got to bed around 12:30 am and then we were up at 4:30 am so we could head back home in time for church at 9 am.  Though we walked around like zombies for the rest of day it was SO worth it!!!

Happy Birthday to one amazing lady!!!  I'm so blessed to have you in my life and lifted through your wisdom and love!