Sweet Sixteen!

Today is Tyler's birthday--the big 16.  Driving and dating, oh my goodness!  I'm not sure I'm ready for either one.

Being pregnant in January is the worst.  You have so much to keep you busy in December that you have no time to think about being uncomfortable and huge, but then January comes and everything seems to come to a complete halt--especially time--when you are nine months pregnant.  Tyler was due on February 7, but I had had it with being pregnant so when I had my visit with the doctor on January 23, 1995, I told him I wanted him to strip my membranes to see if I'd go into labor.  I had Megan two weeks early, and everything was fine there, so I figured it would be okay.  So he went ahead and did it and I started in full labor in the early afternoon, but the contractions weren't very close together.  Because I had to wait for a while at the hospital for Megan to decide come, I decided to make sure the contractions were very close together and I was really ready to deliver before I went to the hospital with Tyler.  I sent the rest of the family to a gymnastics meet (where they nearly lost Megan who was two at the time) and I stayed home to straighten the house and get my bags packed to go to the hospital.  When they finally got home at around 10:00 p.m., I told Mike we needed to go pretty soon.  We called his sister to come stay with the girls and she got to the house around 10:30 p.m.  We finally arrived at the hospital at 11:00 p.m. and Tyler was born and 12:01 a.m.  The doctor made it just in time and we had a healthy little boy.  I remember sitting in the recliner in my hospital room later that day holding my new little boy and being a little overwhelmed.  I still don't know if it was because I couldn't believe I now had three children or if it was because I had a different version of a child that I wasn't sure how to take care of, but I remember thinking, "How did I get to this point? and Will I be able to take care of all of them?"  It was pretty humbling.  It was a little different to get squirted nearly every time I changed Tyler's diaper, but other than that things were pretty much the same.

A few facts about Tyler:

• I think it's been a little difficult for him to be the only boy at times.  He gets a little tired of his sisters' girly stuff being everywhere and always being outnumbered when voting on an activity but he has been on some pretty great baseball trips, golf outings and basketball games with his dad which has helped make up for it, somewhat.
• He is loved by children of all ages (especially his cousins) because he takes the time to have fun with them.  Last year, a little girl in our ward invited him to her birthday party (she was 6), he went, without any proding from me, and she was thrilled.  He is just so cute with them and so kind.
• He is very bull-headed and competitive.  These qualities have been a benefit in some instances, but a detriment in others.  When EVERYTHING has to be a competition, it gets pretty old!  But it's also made him better at some things because he strives to be the best at everything.
• He inherited more of my OCD qualities than any of my girls.  He likes things to stay the way they have always been.  This includes my cooking, rules and especially traditions.  If there is any deviation from the norm, he is not happy and we hear about it.
• Because of his size, I would not allow him to play football, but he has played basketball for what seems like forever and loves it.  He doesn't play on the high school team but this allows him to play church ball and on a city league team, which he loves.  He has also decided he loves to golf.  He has been on the high school golf team for the past two years and has really improved.  And in keeping with his competitive nature--he has been very pleased about the fact that he beats his dad pretty consistently on the golf course.
• He has an engineering mind and loves to build things.  He's made everything from model cars to treehouses and even engineered himself a putting green out of cardboard.
• He is constantly teasing and/or bugging me or the girls (he thinks it's funny) and he is so sarcastic.  I'm not a big fan of sarcasm, but I try to be patient.
• He knows right from wrong and chooses the right and invites those around him to do the same.  He is mission bound and remembers this each day as he is faced with decisions.  He has had, quite frequently, a picture of Jesus Christ as the background picture on his phone and a couple of months ago he learned how to make an origami white shirt in seminary with a regular piece of paper and then came home and made this larger version to put on his wall.

If you can't read the tag, it says, "Future Missionary".  He made an identical tag, put it on a binder ring and attached it to a zipper on his backpack, but the plastic he put it in wasn't strong enough and it ripped off after a couple of days.

On one of the trips to see the "Astros" play baseball.

An example of his "OCD"ness and his love for balls and sports of all kind!

He loved being a ball boy for USU Basketball for many years.  This was the game when he was awarded one of the "Ball boys of the game" award.

He's had at least two really good "shiners" and has gotten a couple of concusions as well.  I guess that all comes with being a boy.

 Baptism day.

Ty and his cousin Nick (who are just two months apart in age) spending time rocking out on one of Grandma's electric pianos. ( I think both moms wish they still had this much interest in the piano.)

A very normal sight when the cousins are around.

They LOVE him!

Tyler, you're a great kid, we love you and hope you

have a fantastic birthday!

Warm Winter Weather?

I haven't been able to think of anything to blog about.  January is such a blah month.  But today I wanted to express my thanks for some "warmer" winter weather.  It has been sooooo cold in Logan for so many days in a row.  It snowed a couple of weeks ago, and it has been so cold that all of the driveways in our neighborhood were snowpacked and our street as well.  If I didn't have to go to work last week, I don't think I would have ventured out of my house at all.

Today we have 35 degrees and rain, the driveways and street are clear (actually now we have a lake in the gutter outside our house) and I didn't have to sport my winter parka to church today.  I know the bitter cold will return, but for today I'm grateful it's semi-warm (yes, it is crazy to be grateful for 35 degrees).  Oh how I long for spring!!!

Megan is 18!!

Megan is 18 today.  I can't believe it.  I remember going to the hospital around 6 a.m. to have her and enjoying the big Christmas tree made of lights on the outside hospital wall and each year after that, when I saw that same lit tree at the hospital, I would remember having Megan.  Even though I was dilated to a 6 when I got there, she wasn't ready to come out and made us wait for a bit (which really isn't normal for my kids).  We walked the hospital floors and even tried the PIT, but all they needed to do was break my water and as soon as they realized that, out she game at 10:25 a.m.  She was beautiful of course and healthy--which is always most important.

A few facts about Megan:

• She was nicknamed "screecher" by her aunt at about 6 months because as soon as she could enjoy table food, if she didn't have something to eat in front of her she would screech this blood curtling scream until she was given some.
• Although I tried harder with her than any of my other children to give her healthy snacks as a small child, she is a candy fein (I'm not sure that's spelled right, but I can't think of a better word to describe it).  She LOVES candy.  We actually offered to pay her $200 if she would not eat candy for a year and she did it unbelieveably enough.  Most people who do something like that end up losing their taste for it, but not Megan.  When we're at a store together she still begs me to get her some purple Skittles, giant Smarties or Sweethearts.
• If there is anything she likes better than candy it's clothes and shoes.  Her tastes have changed over the years, but she has always been a clothes horse.  She knows how to find bargains and doesn't insist on spending a fortune for what she wears, luckily, but she has been known to be extravigant once in a while ($100 skirt that she paid for herself because she had to have it).
• We have always called her a Drama Queen.  She doesn't perform on stage (which has always baffled us because she would be great), just everything about her is dramatic.  She enters a room with a dramatic flare, the conversations you have with her are filled with drama, and she dresses in a dramatic fashion.  Life would be so boring without her around.
• She has the biggest blue eyes (see picture below).
• Megan loves children--nieces, nephews, ward members, friends--and she is so good with them.  She was a nanny to triplets for a while and they became like her own kids and they still love her.
• She'll be your best friend and do anything for you if you treat her right.  But if you cross her, watch out!  She is one tough cookie and can be ruthless!!

She loves to take pictures of herself and have her picture taken (I would too if I was as photogenic as she is).  The weird thing is, I think she has just as many pictures of herself making horrible faces as she does the beautiful posing ones.  Once again--she is just crazy!  Here are few examples:

 

Happy Birthday Meg!!!!  We love you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cruisin' the Caribbean

The kids have been begging us to take them on a cruise so we decided to take everyone to the Western Caribbean as an early Christmas family vacation.  We visited Key West, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.  We cruised on the Carnival Freedom ship.

In Key West we walked to the beach and spent some time there and then went back to town for some shopping.

We spent the next day at sea getting some sun, reading and relaxing.

Then we arrived in Georgetown, Grand Cayman where we swam with stingrays and did some snorkeling.  It was awesome!

Candice giving a stingray a kiss

A stingray backrub!



Our next stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  Mike and the kids walked up Dunn's River Falls and we all rode the Sky Explorer up to Mystic Mountain where we rode a Jamaican Bobsled mon.

Then we spent another day at sea to get back to Florida.  We played a lot of cards on the boat and ate a lot of ice cream (Tyler probably ate about 8-10 cones a day but didn't gain an ounce of weight, of course).

It was a great trip!!!

Volleyball senior night

Well we've come to the end of Megan's volleyball career.  She's been playing since she was about 11 yrs old, so it's hard to imagine not watching her compete anymore.  They had senior night at Logan High on Tuesday, October 26 (not really the last home game, but they were doing a breast cancer awareness benefit game for the last home game).  There were six seniors this year.

She got flowers from her dad and from her younger teammates and she also got a blanket that her teammates made (a tradition since Lacie Johns has been the head coach). 

I'll be sad not to see her play, but not sad to leave the Logan High Volleyball drama behind.  There have been few things in my life rile me more than the LHS volleyball program.  This year wasn't too bad, but the coaching is a far cry from great, unfortunately, and it has been frustrating to see them struggle.  It is a miracle Megan got through all four years with the number of injuries she's had.  We're just glad she's had something to keep her active and involved and it is something she can play with her sister, Candice, until they decide their bodies just can't take it anymore.

This is an expression we've seen several times when she plays, warms up, etc.  It's her "whoops" look.

Aggie Auction craziness

Many of you have heard me say, "The auction is coming up, so I'm a little crazy."  I'm sure you are thinking, "What's the big deal?"  Well, the organization of the event is up to one person, me, and with close to 300 people in attendance, 125 silent auction items, and 10 live auction items, it takes quite a bit of time to pull it all together.  I won't bore you with all the details.  The major problem is I can't do most of the stuff I need to do until the last week because I have to have all of the reservations in and items cataloged before I can prepare all the materials for the evening and of course everyone waits until the last minute to register and finalize their donations, so I work about 12 hours a day during the week before getting all of that done.  I'm not posting this so you think I'm neat--I just want everyone to know there is a reason for ignoring everything else but my family (and they still had to fend for themselves quite a bit during the week) and work.  So, I'm sorry for being out of touch and introverted for a while.  Here are a few pictures so you can see what the event looks like.

Live Auction items and stage set up

My boss, Tom Hale, and Amanda Butterfield (former USU student-athlete, soccer), our master of ceremonies for the event.  She is great!!

Dinner

Our great student-athletes helping with raffle prize distribution

By the way, it was a success as we raised over $90,000 for USU student-athlete scholarships.  I've decided I hate the auction--all the work and worry--and don't want to ever do it again, but like childbirth, when it comes time to do it again I will probably have forgoten how bad it really was.