Happy Birthday Carson!

Carson had a good birthday! He had to go to school and piano lessons, but then the rest of the day he got to dictate what he wanted to do. His favorite birthday gift was a football. Carson loves to be throwing a ball around. I keep having to remind him not to throw this football in the house! Carson requested Skor Cake for his birthday dessert. It is one of my favorite desserts too, so I was happy to oblige. When we got home from his Birthday outing, he was too full for cake, so we waited to cut the cake and sing to him until the day after his birthday.

I took Carson to Carrabba's for his Birthday dinner. We shared Pollo Rosa Maria, and then we got a free mini Creme Brulee (my favorite dessert). It was Carson's first time trying Creme Brulee, and he loved it. That's my boy!

My four great kids!

Cheyanna drew Carson several cute cards for his birthday. She is crazy about him, and they are such good friends. It is so cute how much she adores him. He has earned her love with lots of time spent playing with her, and making her lots of bagels, pb&J sandwiches, and strawberry milk.

Carson also wanted a pinata for his birthday, so I converted a regular pinata into the kind where you pull a string to make the candy fall out (too hot outside to do a pinata, and too dangerous to be swinging a bat around the inside of the house). I was afraid that the first sting anyone pulled would be the magic one, but they actually ended up leaving that one for last. So the last string let the candy fly. Since it was just our four kids there, there was a lot of candy for everyone (but funny enough, there were still plenty of complaints that others were hogging it all, or they weren't getting enough). I was too engrossed in all the action to take any pictures, but you can just imagine the scene in your head. :) I think Carson had a great day, and since his favorite things are mine too, I enjoyed the day as well. Happy 10th Carson!!!

Carson is Ten

Here are Carson's ten-year-old pictures! I remember the day he was born so clearly. I went to the hospital at about 6am to get induced, and Carson was born at 10:29am. It was a very quick and easy delivery! And at 9lbs 6oz (a whole pound less than Charlie), he was a big baby, but he seemed perfect-sized to us. After Charlie was born, I had an ectopic pregnancy, and then it took several months for me to get pregnant with Carson, so I was sooooo happy to be pregnant, and when he was born, I was sooooo happy to have him. He was such a good baby (thank goodness--Charlie was so fussy). I just remember holding him, and looking at his little newborn face, and feeling so much love for him. When he was a baby, he had such soft skin and velvety hair. I would sit and hold him and just look at him and feel so happy to have him. I held him every chance I could, and loved every minute of it. Now he is ten years old--where have the years gone? He is much bigger now, and he's changed quite a bit, but my love for him, and the thankfulness I feel for him in my life hasn't changed one bit. At times, Carson has been my most challenging child, but I guess we all need a challenge sometimes!

I know I always brag about his smarts, but he really is a super bright kid. His favorite thing to do is head math--where I give him a bunch of numbers and different operations and he figures out the answer in his head. You gotta try it with him sometime to believe it. He's good!

Cheyanna is quick to say that Carson is her favorite brother. He is so cute with her, and patient with her. He plays with her, gives her piggy back rides, and is quick to do whatever she asks him to do. Carson's personality is a lot like mine. He has a clumsy streak that I have to take credit for, and he's got my shy, sensitive personality traits too. So I feel like I can connect with Carson and understand him so well. I GET him. And I can't find a way to articulate my feelings, but I kinda feel that he is an extension of myself--like a part of my heart living outside of my body. I don't know if that makes sense to any of you mothers out there, but that's the best way I can describe it.

I love Carson so much, and I am so thankful to be able to be his Mom. Happy Birthday Carson!!

Earrings, the Bus, and Adjusting

Cheyanna has some big news: she got her ears pierced! Her friend, Savannah, got hers pierced this summer, and when Savannah called from UT to tell Cheyanna the news, the idea stuck. Cheyanna asked to get her ears pierced, and I said OK. We waited a couple of weeks to see if she would forget about it or if she was serious about wanting it, and she was serious about wanting her ears pierced. So I took her to the mall, and she picked out these cute star earrings. There was only one lady working at Claire's at the time, so we had to have the ears done one at a time. I think it hurt a lot more than she thought it would. Cheyanna cried after getting the first one done, but didn't object to getting the other ear done. So now she has cute earrings, and can be even more of a girly girl than she already was.

Cade and Cheyanna ride the bus to school in the mornings, and they'll ride the bus home a couple of days a week. This was Cheyanna's first day riding the bus. I'm glad she has an older brother to help her and sit by her on the bus.

They are so cute together. Cheyanna had a hard time getting used to the full day of school. The first four days, she cried in the middle of the day, wanting to come home. Each day, she got over it, and was happy by the time I picked her up, but I felt bad that she was sad during the day. Tuesday when I picked her up, she said she didn't cry at all. Wednesday when I picked her up, her teacher said she had a great day, and seems to finally be getting used to school.

Here they are getting on the bus. Their bus driver, Ms. Deb, is super nice, and has been driving my kids' bus since I was pregnant with Cheyanna. She looks like such a big kid riding the bus. She has watched her brothers get on and off the bus her whole life, and now it is her turn.

I'm so glad Cheyanna is getting used to school and liking it. My school starts this Monday, so if my blog posts become a little fewer and farther between, you'll understand why. One of my professors e-mailed me his syllabus today, and after reading it, I am super excited to learn all about counseling, but I am also really scared at the workload and I really hope I can get all the cobwebs out of my brain so that I can understand and remember everything I need to know. The orientation for my program is tomorrow afternoon, so I'm going to go to campus early and try to figure out where all my classes are, and buy all my books. I'll have 15 credit hours (5 classes), so it'll be a full workload, but hopefully I can do it! Cheyanna was able to adjust to kindergarten, so I'll try to follow her example and try to adjust quickly to ASU (hopefully without crying every day--but we'll see).

Splish Splash

I finally got our disposable water camera developed this week. We bought the camera to take on our cruise last November, and we took a few pictures then, but the water at the beach was so sandy that the underwater shots didn't really work. I remembered to take the camera with me a couple of times that we went swimming this summer, so here are all the pix from the water camera, starting with our cruise--swimming in Magen's Bay on St.Thomas. My mom and Cade

Cheyanna is pretty fearless. She loves riding roller coasters, jumping off of high places, and doing anything dare-devilish. Here she is loving being thrown up into the air.

Here's Cade, enjoying the tropical paradise.

Here are some pictures from a local pool we went to with some friends this summer. It is so nice to have so many great pools nearby that are really inexpensive, and have lots of fun features. This one was 50 cents per kid to get in, and it had two big slides, a lazy river, two diving boards, a whirly swirl, and a kid's jungle gym/slide. All the kids were happy, and because they had friends there, they didn't get into any fights either. Always a plus. Here's Carson with his goggles on.
Grace, Cara, and Cheyanna had fun playing together.

Grace and Cheyanna in front of the jungle gym. Cade bonked his head right above his eye on the play area, and had blood streaming down his face. About 10 lifeguards converged on him, and they had to take him into the first aid area to clean him up and examine the cut. Luckily it wasn't very deep, so he just had to ice it and stay out of the pool for a little while. Of course if there is ever drama, it involves Cade! Thank goodness my friends Sara and Shanie were there to keep Cheyanna happy and busy while I was dealing with Cade's drama.

Cheyanna loves slides. She must've gone down this slide 100 times. And she loved it every time.

It is hard to get a good picture underwater, because you can't see through the water to see what you are taking a picture of. So for all of these underwater shots, I was just guessing how close to get, and where to point and click. Some turned out OK. Here's Charlie underwater.

Here are some pictures from the Wagner's pool the day before school started. Our friends, the Wagners, are so nice to let us swim in their pool anytime. And my kids LOVE their pool. The basketball hoop, slide, and rock ledge make it tons of fun. Both Cade and Cheyanna got to be really good swimmers by the end of the summer. They both were finally able to go down the slide by themselves, and jump off the rock ledge without any help. It is much more fun and relaxing for me to go swimming with the kids now that they can all swim well. It looks like she's just sitting on the slide, but she came wooshing down, and I just happened to snap this one at the right time.

Cheyanna waving from under the waterfall.

Charlie loves to ham it up. He also loves to stir up trouble. I think almost every time we went swimming this summer, it ended with the older kids getting into a big fight. Reminds me of growing up. My sister and I went swimming all the time in our backyard pool, and I think we got into a fight every time. Ah, the good old days. I guess my kids fighting is payback. My mom is probably enjoying my struggle now trying to keep the peace. :)

Cade is always worried about getting water up his nose, so in just about every picture, he's holding his nose. This last time we went swimming, I worked with him practicing swimming underwater without holding his nose, and he was finally starting to get the hang of it. Now he won't have to swim one handed anymore.

Swimming is about the only thing you can do outdoors in AZ in this heat, so thank goodness for water fun!

First Day of School

First day of school! All the kids were really excited. Here is Cade, who is starting 2nd grade this year. Most of his class is the same as last year, and his teacher seems really great. The biggest change for him this year is that he'll be the older brother at school now. With Carson at the Academy, Cade is the big cheese at Noah Webster, and he gets to watch out for his little sister this year. Cheyanna is starting Kindergarten!! It is a full-day program, so it's going to be a huge change from last year's preschool (two mornings a week). But she has been watching her brothers go off to school all her life, and has been looking forward to this day for a long time. It is so fun to finally have a girl to send off to school--to be able to do her hair, and to have her actually care and get excited about her new clothes and shoes. She was so excited to pick out which outfit to wear her first day, and she loves her froggy backpack and her iCarly shoes. I love it!

Here they are, all ready to go. I've been waking everyone up early for a week now, so they both were up bright and early, all excited! I drove them to school this morning, and I walked Cheyanna to the Kindergarten playground, and asked her if she wanted me to stay until the bell rang and she got settled in her classroom, and she said, "No, I'm fine. You can go." I was surprised, but happy she was confident and ready to be on her own.

Here is Cade by his classroom.

Here is Cheyanna by her classroom.

Here's Carson looking spiffy in his new (hand-me-down, but new to him) Academy Uniform. I think Carson was a little stressed about starting a new school, having so many different teachers, and staying organized. Carson is a smart little brainiac, but his organizational skills are a little lacking, and keeping track of 7 different teachers/assignments is not an easy thing to learn (especially for a 5th grader). Carson actually forgot to bring his schedule the first day (totally my fault!), and he went to a wrong class, and then got lost before getting a replacement schedule at the front office. Poor guy! He survived OK though, and I think having such a rough first day will make today much easier to handle.
Charlie is in Junior High this year!! Crazy that he's a 7th grader! But he's still at the Academy (it goes 5-9), so it isn't a huge adjustment for him. He's with the same friends and classmates, and he's already used to changing classrooms for different subjects. The main difference is that his school is now an hour longer, so he doesn't get off the bus until a little after 4pm, which makes for a long day. I think he'll do great though!

Charlie is 12, and is starting 7th grade. Carson is almost 10, and is starting 5th grade.

When I picked them up from school, both Cade and Cheyanna had so much to tell me. Cade tried to be patient and wait his turn to talk, but every time he started to tell me something, Cheyanna would think of something else to say and interrupt. Finally, Cade yelled, "It's my turn to talk!!" He had a great first day.

Cheyanna was happy when I dropped her off, and happy when I picked her up, but she said she got sad and cried at lunch time because she was so hot, and really wanted to come home. I guess she made it through OK, because she was smiling when I picked her up, and couldn't wait to tell me all about her first day.

I have been kind of dreading this day for a long time--when all my kids go off to school. I have been a stay-at-home mom for 12 1/2 years now, and that has been my whole life. I thought I'd be a basket case when I sent my baby off to school, but I wasn't at all. It just felt right, and I know that even though it is the end of an era, it is the beginning of a new stage of my life. I'm glad that I am heading back to school myself in a few days, because I think that is making this transition easier for me. I have something new and challenging to focus on while my kids are at school. It is still sad to say goodbye to those precious years of having my little ones home with me every day, but life is about change, and kids grow. I feel so blessed that I have been able to be at home with them all these years, to take care of them and watch them grow. They are still my top priority, and they will continue to be my top priority even though my life is changing, and I will be busy focusing on my education for a while. Chuck and the kids will always be what matters most to me, and where my heart is.

Random Summer Pix

Catching up with some pics from this summer.... Here's a picture of Chuck and the boys by Grandmommy's grave. On our way home from Megan's house, we stopped at BYU to get some chocolate covered cinnamon bears (and to reminisce--that's where Chuck and I met), and then we stopped in Richfield to visit Grandmommy's grave. We think the gravestone is really pretty. Afterwards, we stopped by Ideal Dairy to get some licorice ice cream and lemon custard ice cream. So good. Anyone know of anyplace else that offers licorice ice cream? We can't find it anywhere else. I think this was a Sunday afternoon when everyone was bored, and Chuck was playing with the kids. They all jumped on him, and made a huge family sandwich.

This is fun for the person on top, a little less fun for the next one down, and not very fun for the one on the bottom. I don't think Chuck will be up for the family sandwich in about 5 more years--the kids are growing too big, too fast.

This is my small success with gardening this year. We got a TON of carrots. All of them were kind of small (some grew a few inches more than this, and some are still growing), but the kids loved munching on the mini-carrots, and I was happy that SOMETHING grew and we had something to show for our gardening efforts.

Even our pickiest eater, Cheyanna, was really excited to eat the home-grown veggies.

I also canned chicken a couple of weeks ago. Chuck helped me one Saturday, and it went really well for our first effort! I feel like such a successful domestic engineer when I can accomplish canning and gardening (no matter how small our crop!)

Update on Cade's Reflux

It has been a while since I've given you an update on Cade's health, so I thought I would fill you in on how he has been doing. After undergoing lots of tests, and finding out that Cade does have reflux (and it is not due to allergies or lactose intolerance), his pediatrician decided to try treating the reflux again with Prevacid. Prevacid is supposed to help control the reflux, and help heal the esophagus lining that has been damaged by all the reflux, so it seemed like a good thing to try. We started Cade on the Prevacid, and didn't notice any difference in frequency of reflux (he was having reflux so severe, he'd have spit up come up into his mouth up to eight times a day). So we doubled the dose of Prevacid, and still didn't see much difference. After about 3 weeks on the Prevacid with not much change, we took a break, and right away, the reflux stopped. He's been off the Prevacid since the beginning of July, and he has only had reflux maybe two or three times in the past two months (which is huge, considering he used to have reflux 4-8 times a day before). What is weird is that last year, when we first went to the doctor about his reflux, she put him on Prevacid right away, and since it didn't help while he was on the meds, I assumed it wasn't doing any good. So I did research, and that's when I thought he must be lactose intolerant, and when we stopped the Prevacid last year, we started treating lactose intolerance, and he stopped having reflux, so I thought it was because he was lactose intolerant. But now I realize that he stopped having reflux because of the Prevacid. I don't know why it doesn't seem to help him while he's on it, but I'm really glad that it does seem to help once he stops taking it. I'm assuming that the problem will return over time, but hopefully now that we know what the problem is, and how to treat it, it will be a lot more manageable. Cade is very glad that for now the reflux is under control. He is a trooper, and he accepts his health problems with grace. Now we need to get his teeth figured out. We took him to an orthodontist, who said that he needs phase 1 braces right away, and needs to have his extra tooth and another tooth pulled. YIKES! I'm thinking I should get a second opinion. Anyone know a good orthodontist?

Wicked Awesome!

We went to see Wicked a few weeks ago at Gammage, and it was wicked awesome!!! I loved it so much when I saw it with my sister in New York last summer, that I couldn't wait to take Chuck with me to see it again when it came here to AZ. My good friend, Sara, got us a smokin' group deal on tickets, so we took Carson with us, and we got to watch it with lots of friends! We opted for the really cheap balcony seats (still a good view--except for when Elphaba is flying, or people are walking on the bridge). We offered to take Charlie with us, but he wasn't interested (even though he really likes the song "Popular" from the soundtrack that I listen to over and over). So it was a fun chance for us to take Carson on a date and spend some time with him. Here we are before the show. Shanie, Colleen, and I posed for a picture with the official poster.

I know it is a totally blurry shot, but here's the stage scene before the play begins.

The Griners and the Halls sat next to us in the balcony.

Carson enjoyed the play, but got a little bit restless in the second half. My favorite songs are all in the first half of the play, so those are the songs he's heard the most and was most familiar with. I think he liked it a lot overall, but maybe not as much as he enjoyed "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" that we saw the day after we saw WICKED. :)

I had to cut myself out of this shot, because it was an up-the-nose, double chin shot, but it's such a cute picture of Chuck, I had to throw it in. Chuck is a good sport to take me to musicals, and he tries to enjoy the things that I enjoy. He liked Wicked a lot, and thought it was a really good story.

A few people have asked me how the traveling performance compared with the New York version. Both were really good. In New York, Galinda was not quite as funny or vivacious as she was at Gammage. At this performance, Galinda really stole the show. It made the show funnier, but I think it took away from Elphaba's character a little bit to have Galinda overshadow her so much. Overall, both performances were great, and I would definitely love to see Wicked again (and again)!