What we've been up to...

I believe that I neglected to post several items of interest for our family last month. And so this is more for my records than anything else. The weekend after our trip to Disneyland we had an opportunity to drive back down to Utah to partake in several family activities. Barrett actually had his 10th missionary reunion, but I think it was only the second one he's been able to attend as they generally take place on General Conference weekend which is always drill weekend. We missed most of the festivities of the evening, but got there for some good grub and lots of visiting. We were able to spend both Friday and Saturday night with my Gram and Bill, which is always fun and not to mention, delicious! Saturday morning we got up and drove out to Tooele for Max Wolfe's baptism and confirmation and spent most of the day at the Wolfe's home having a wonderful time! Sunday morning were able to attend Brad and Callie's ward in Salt Lake and witness Ainsley's blessing. We attended all 3 hours then went to Brad's place for some yummy dinner!! It was a fantastic, busy weekend and were only surprised with some crazy, snowy weather. We are so lucky to be a part of such a fabulous family! Later that week I made an appointment to take Anson and Eden to the doctor to have their tonsils/adenoids checked-sure enough they both needed them removed. Eden I was not surprised about, but Anson's came as a bit of a shock. We scheduled their surgery for the earliest time possible, 6 weeks out. The rest of October was real fun. Fast forward to last week. Got a phone call from the Drs office saying they could be moved up a week due to cancellation so I jumped on it. Tuesday November 4 we woke up early, too early because they couldn't eat anything before. Just kept trying to console them with the fact that they could live off of ice cream, popsicles, pudding, yogurt, etc..for the next couple weeks. Luckily this seemed to tide them over. We met my mom at surgery center and settled in for our wait. Bo got to hang out at home with Gpa Botkin-thanks Dad! By the time we were taken back Anson was pretty agitated, surely having some flashbacks from his dental surgery in August. Just on a fun side note, both kids had to be weighed and they came in weighing the exact same thing; 40.6 lbs. crazy, eh? The nurses were great, stocked with lots of activities and toys for the kids to play with and then they came and wisked Eden away. They gave her a crown to wear first and she was thrilled. 15-20 minutes later the Dr popped her head in and said things went great and it would soon be Anson's turn. They came for Anson, who was not so happy, and I was gathering up some things to go back out into the waiting room when a fire alarm went off. Yikes...Where were my kids? do they have a secret safe bunker for patients? A bit of a scare for me. Mom and I waited outside in her car for about 10-15 minutes and then got to go back in. I was taken back immediately to find that both kids were just fine, Eden was beginning to wake up and wasn't terribly happy and Anson was on his way back to recovery. The Dr. had learned that the alarm had been pulled by a child (luckily not one of mine)and since Anson had just been put under she decided to continue with the surgery. Gma Wood consoled Eden and I went in to be with Anson who was clearly unhappy. He finally settled down long enoung for us to get dismissed and we were outta there. It has now been about 10 days and things have been,thankfully, uneventful compared to what I expected. Never having been through this before I didn't know quite what to expect, maybe lots of throw-up and blood, but so far none of either. Just a whole lot of wanting to cuddle and be comforted, lots of medicine, buckets of juice and hours and hours of disney movies. I think we are headed for the clearing now and I am so glad. Hopefully nothing unexpected in the next few days. Unfortunately Barrett had parent/teacher conferences all day Wed and Thurs and Fri & Sat he had a German immersion weekend in Donnelly so he missed out on lots of the excitement, I guess I'll let him get the next post op patient...I did get to go and vote on the 4th, (for all the good it did)though I am thankful to have the opportunity to vote as I feel, and I did manage to produce (with lots of help) my first primary program-very stressful for me, it turned out well but I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about that again for a few months. Unfortunately my mom's surgery/recovery was going on during all this so I have not been able to help or comfort her at all. In fact, the very opposite, she has been a huge help, all the family has, but she especially. I know she is exhausted, but is still willing to come and take a kid or two for a couple hours to give me a little reprive. I don't know how to possibly repay her, I just want her to know how incredibly grateful I am to have her in my life. I love you, Mom! She starts her iodine treatment today and will be radioactive for a few days so she took me, Stacie and Michelle to the dollar theatre last night and we saw Momma Mia-her 5th time, my 2nd and the other's first time. We had lots of fun! Plus, it was so fantastic to get out of the house and away from the "cling-ons" for a few hours-thanks Gpa Wood for watching them all as Barrett had scouts. Anyway, I guess that's all for now. Sorry for the long post, but this is my life in a nutshell right now!!!

Thank You

I'm very late getting this message out, but it's been on my mind all day, of course. I just wanted to thank each and every vetran for their service and therefore, my freedom! We had the opportunity as a family to go and visit an old neighbor named "Brownie" tonight. He is a Vietnam Vet and as proud as they come, not to mention a huge helper with all things mechanical and a "squirrel whisperer". We took a plate of cookies and a little note and had such a nice visit with him. He was home watching old war movies by himself and seemed so excited to have us there. It made me wonder how many vetrans were at home by themselves this night? There are so very many men and women out there who have given so much and all I can say is Thank You! Most certainly I want to give a special shout out to good friends and family who have served in many capacities, especially my Father-in-Law, 2 brothers-in-law and my favorite, MY HUSBAND!
I really am proud and grateful for all of your service. I ocasionally (monthly) complain that Barrett deserts us for the weekend once a month, but I truly appreciate his desire to give of his time for training in order to be prepared when called upon to leave again, whenever that will be...Anyways, thank you all, you know who you are!!!

carving, decorating, raking, and trick-or-treating

We really had some good times leading up to the Halloween holiday. For family night two Mondays before halloween we carved our pumpkins. The kids did great and I actually think Bo enjoyed it the most. Eden just wanted to use the knife-scary. She did not like the feel of the "guts" in her hands. Bo loved it! He ended up finishing Eden's. Anson drew a great face on his pumpkin and Barrett carved it. I just enjoyed watching it all and ended up carving the same face I did last year. Oh well. Unfortunately the warm weather has been less than kind to the pumpkins. You can see in the pictures from Halloween that they got pretty shriveled and nasty. Scary!





Next, we enjoyed some good old fashioned cookie decorating. Mom & Mike, Travis & Stacie, Tuck, Michelle and Beck and Amanda all came over for dinner and cookies. Things were a little bit different this year as my Mom had to spend some time in the hospital and have her thyroid removed. Scary, but OK. She is doing well and I will write more about this adventure another post. Anyway, we had a fun time and ate lots of cookies and decorations. The kids enjoyed eating the cookies more than decorating, but that's all right. What they really enjoyed the most was having Amanda in our home again. It has been two months since Anson's therapies with her ended and we all miss her so much! It was so good to see her again. And it's always fun to see the creativity flowing (not to dog myself and my brothers), but we all married such fun, creative people! Lucky us!! I only have a couple pictures of this adventure, but it sure was fun.




I got some sort of wild hair and decided to start raking our leaves up. Don't ask me why, it was just so nice outside one afternoon while we were waiting for Anson to get off the bus. Bo was a huge helper as you can imagine. He just liked to drag his rake through my pile and act real productive. Once Anson got off the bus and started running through my pile, Bo ditched the rake and did the same. Eden was taking a nap, so she missed out. But don't worry, only half the leaves from the front tree had even fallen at that point. This is the case no longer. Since the weather has changed and the winds have begun many, many more leaves are awaiting the rake. Anyone who feels the need and wants a free meal, we will happily have a leaf-raking party before too long. Let me know if you're interested-ha,ha!






And finally the big day. For the first time Anson and Eden were both excited to go trick-or-treating! Anson dressed up as Superman (yep, his same costume from last year), Eden was Minnie Mouse, her BFF, and Bo was Mickey Mouse. I can't remember where this costume came from, but there it was in our dress up chest and it said 18 months so I thought, what the heck? Too bad I didn't try it on him more than 5 minutes before we were to go and meet our friends from our ward to trick-or-treat. Way too small. Well luckily the weather was very cooperative this year, warmer than I ever remember it being, and it was ok that he had some leg showing. He did not seem to mind, thank goodness, and after Gma and Gpa Wood came over for some pictures, we were off. The kids were great and had lots of fun with our friends, the Andersons. Bo was a natural and even though he didn't say anything he would hold out his little bag, bat his long eyelashes and smile and walk away with several pieces every time. Anson and Eden did awesome and nobody had naps that day so they went down real easy after we got home. We stayed up to watch Poltergeist with Jerek and Holly. I'd never seen it. Not scary, just a little disturbing. A cheesy 80's movie-the kind you love to watch and roll your eyes and laugh and we enjoyed every minute! Yeah for Halloween!

Our trip to the Happiest Place on Earth!

So to kick off our October we generally go on a family hiatus to the Oregon Coast for a few days-usually the days the kid's and Barrett have off school for inservice. Well, this year we decided to change things up a bit. As Anson is totally and completely obsessed with roller coasters (hello, fast trains that spin and go upside down!)we thought we might let him try some out for real, rather than just watching them on DVD's and youtube. Gma and Gpa Wod very, very graciously agreed to take Bo for the week while they went down to Escalante, Utah to visit great Gma and Gpa Munson who had just returned from their mission in Maratin's Cove. Bo's a great unpacker and all and he had a blast with all the grandparents to himself! And I almost hate to say it, but we had a blast without him. Sure he might have enjoyed some of it, but I'm real glad he wasn't there. Next time for sure though, bud! We had received some great tips from family friends and got some great deals, thanks to discounts with UPS and/or Military. As a last minute surprise we had a couple of friends from our ward come along. Carol and Sam. Carol is a disney fanatic-been there a hundred times, used to work there, etc..she was our VIP tour guide and she was awesome! Sam is Ansons primary teacher, an aide in his classroom at school and a family friend. She had never been before and jumped at the chance to come along. She was incredibly awesome, too. Both ladies were huge helps with the kids, watched them so Barrett and I could go on some rides together, etc..then they did their own thing some of the time so we got some good family time in as well. We all stayed at the same hotel (which was nothing fancy, but had a pool, a nice continental breakfast and a comfy place to lay our heads at night). So we all drove down to Salt Lake together and flew from there to long beach. Got a shuttle to the hotel and began our real adventure on Wednesday AM. Did I mention it was over 95 degrees on Tues night when we flew in-totally not expected. It was real warm our first couple days and real nice on Friday. Then we flew out Sat at noon back to SLC and drove home that night. Wow, what a trip! We did 3-day park hopper's and put them to serious use. The crowds were minimal and it was fantastic! A few of the highlights included lunch at Ariel's Grotto for all the "girls", which was a little pricey, but so yummy and so much fun to get one on one time with almost all of the princesses! Eden was in Heaven, so was Sam. And Carol. I loved watching it all!!! We loved, loved the parades in both parks, except for Anson, who thought they were too loud and did not care for the characters getting too close. We all loved all the rides we could go on, though the kids were not tall enough to go on the big roller coaster in Ca. adventure park-boo! But they loved the matterhorn or the "mountain train", thunder mountain railway (or whatever it's called) our kids called it the "fast train"and space mountain "dark train". They put their arms up on every ride, whether it was a coaster or not! They loved the food and the rides, and Eden loved all of the characters and the shows (we got lots of autopraphs and pictures) and they loved going back to the hotel to swim at night! It was an incredible time and I'm so glad it worked out this year. I can't wait to go back when we can all go on everything!

somewhere in September...

here we have a random racoon, who had the nerve to walk right up to our back window and tempt us outside to try to get a decent picture. There were actually 3 of them from who knows where. Never seen em before, haven't seen em since. They all ended up hiding out in one of the trees in the back yard and were gone the next morning. and for any of you who care, Lulu (the bunny) was unharmed during the whole incident...
Eden and Anson getting a few good bike rides in before it get's too bitterly cold...
For any of you who have seen the movie "Monster House" you may or may not remember a little girl in the beginning scenes who rides her tricycle along the sidewalk singing and talking to herself, riding as fast as she can. Eden loves to imitate this girl, riding back and forth between the neighbors houses. Why the headband and sunglasses, I don't know? Just because she's Eden, I guess.
This is a cute picture, I think, of Eden and my cousin Greta at a family get together at Winstead park. Unfortunately it's about the only decent one I got. Eden had so much fun with Greta. And we had a great time visiting with family, especially Gma and Gpa Munson who surprised everyone by coming to Nathan Munson's missionary homecoming-So fun!

Run for Autism Awareness

In late September our family took the challenge to participate in a little fun run
(5K)down at Veteran's Memorial Park to raise money and awareness for autism. I want to personally thank each one of you who ran: (Becky Ann Kent, Grandpa Mike Wood, Tucker and Michelle Botkin and Trey Botkin-better late than never, right? And Gma Wood was a HUGE help by watching all the kiddos while we ran (or jogged, in my case). Everyone did awesome, and I will take this opportunity to shine the spotlight on Trey for winning first place in his age group, and Barrett for getting third in his! Way to Go! It was really a great experience to see so many people from the valley come out to support this cause. There were way more people than I thought there would be. Of course, it's always nice to see the other kids, older and younger, who have the same tendencies, actions and reactions as Anson. Sometimes he seems so different, in a good way mostly, but there he was the same. And it was good to see. I love Anson so incredibly much and there are not many things in life that make me more proud than to be his mother. What a huge blessing he is in all our lives! Thank you again to ALL of our family and friends for continued support and love-I know you'll be blessed!

Anson's first day of school

The first two pictures are obviously of Anson and the last is of all the kids eagerly anticipating the arrival of the school bus...



Here we are two months into the school year and I am just now posting a picture of Anson on the first day...Nice. Oh well, I'll just take a minute and tell you that he is doing really well in both classes. He spends a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the afternoon in the first grade classroom. He has several of the same students from kindergarten with him so they know how to work with him, which is so nice. It's a really small class-only 15 or so kids-yeah! When he's not in first grade he does his therapies and one-on-one with the SLC teacher and/or aides. Everyone is fantastic and says he does a great job. They especially love his musical talents. He sings so much, but not so much in music class. I think it's because he has perfect pitch and not everyone else does and it drives him crazy! He is especially good at reading, though we're a little unsure about his comprehension, he's great at spelling (I'll go ahead and take credit for that one) and real good at math-addition that is. He's having a bit harder time wrapping his brain around subtraction. He'll learn...Anyway, that's the first couple months for you. Hope the rest of you are enjoying the school year thus far...