Valentines Review

Should have knocked on wood!

When: February 16th around 7:40

Where: Layton Surf and swim

How: Tripped on the steps

Trauma: Bloody nose, fat lip, and very bruised face

(yet still very handsome!)

Facial Damage epedemic!

We begin with my sweet Moo! It was Christmas eve. I call John from Target and hear Micah crying in the background. He tells me I need to prepare my self. I say, "what?" He then proceeds to tell me that Micah was playing on the computer and a stone picture frame that was on our hutch fell off and hit her in the face. I say, "so...what, stitches?" He tells me, it won't help, the edge of the frame scalloped out a huge piece of skin on her nose. I am to bring home clear bandaids and be extremely positive when I see her because she is very self conscience about it.

I should state I do have a tendency to freak out when my kids get hurt. I did just that in one of the accidents yet to be told about. I am SO glad John was home for this one. When I got home and John took off the bandage, I just wanted to bawl. It was bad! Immediately as a family we started praying that a miracle would happen and that a huge scar would not be left. It has been about a month and a half now since. Micah has faithfully worn a bandaid 24-7 since then. We are trying to keep it as moist as possible. She is still very self conscience about it, so this is the best picture I was able to get. The Bandaid used to be a lot bigger. Now the wound is just a small pea sized red circle. She is hoping to not have to wear the bandaid very soon! We continue to pray for miracles. I can't believe it wasn't one of my boys...cool war wound or something, but I have faith that she can be made whole.

Whole? HOLE! That's what this is. OH the DRAMA that came with this tooth! I found I can not push my son to do anything, especially anything that has to do with removing a part of himself.(Right now, I can't think of anything else you should have to remove from your body, but I am still thinking Noah will find a way to make it dramatic if there is!) I thought that this tooth would come out a long time ago. All I wanted was to get fall pics with it intact in his mouth! It finally came out in the 20's of January ( I can't remember what day.) John tied floss to his tooth and then tied the floss to a door. When Noah started to freak out, and not want to do it, John kicked the door shut and out popped the tooth!

Next up is Jo. Just last Sunday she was sitting on our bar stools, playing with my mom, and fell to the ground. She had a bloody nose and this big fat lip for days. When it first happened, of course John was home teaching. I called him immediately. Too much blood for mom. He thought about stitches, but there was no damage done on the outside, and the inside heals so fast. Not fast enough for me, made my heart hurt. It probably would have been a good night to take her binky away, so that it didn't irritate the cut. However, she is still a binky baby.

Then there is my loosey, goosey, toothy girl Micah. With hardly any drama, pulled out her first tooth at school. Personally I like to think the motivation was the cute tooth box they give to you to bring it home in. But whatever motivated her, it is out!!! She is growing up. Makes my heart hurt too!

And in case you were wondering about DeeKen, the only facial damage he has had lately is from licking the brownie bowl.

He is such a great kid and is saying the funniest stuff right now. I have got to start writing it down! They are all growing up way to fast!

Crazy baby yoga

I am a huge yoga fan. I simply enjoy it, mostly the end where the relaxation part comes in. Somewhere between that and the beginning I do feel like i get a workout in. I hope that one day Micah and Jo will come with me. Micah has been once and seemed to enjoy it, although I think it got a little long for her. That said, I came across this video, and it is a little crazy, but you have got to watch it to believe it! It is a little scary, and not for the feint of heart!

Crazy baby yoga

Our special trip to Oregon

We could not be there last time, due to Josie being born early, so this time it was a must!

Bryce and Brenley Wilberger sealed the fourth member of their family to them on January 8, 2011. It was a trip(short trip) we took soley to see this special moment, and it was so worth it. There little McCoy(3) was an angel even though his mommy was so worried he would be a little tare! Bren looked beautiful. and Oaklee may, the star of the day, was calm and beautiful and just looked at her mom and dad the whole time. It was truly amazing to be there! These are two very special people, and it has been an amazing thing to see them become parents. How blessed they all are to have each other...FOREVER!

So we went mainly for the awesome, amazing BIG event, but along the way some other real fun stuff got to happen too. First off, John and I were ALONE! We flew on an airplane all by ourselves. It was Fun....cool...relaxing! Here is a BIG shout out to my wonderful parents to stayed with my kids, and to the Yates we helped my parents stay sane by providing a play-date! We got there and some old friends from med school, Scott and Amy Richins picked us up. We went out to dinner with them at a whole in the wall Greek restaurant. It was so Portland, and so perfect. I am sad I didn't get any pictures, but we really had a great time. Telling old stories and telling each other our BIG plans for the future. It was wonderful.

We had a wonderful night out on the town, and yet we still had our parents waiting up for us, our Oregon parents anyway. The Minettos. They so wonderfully hosted us for the night. We even had mints on our pillows when we arrived. It was the best accommodations ever, with the best people. We stayed up late and chatted. He let us know that he was being released from his calling as Bishop on Sunday. We were so sad to hear that their church time had been moved to 2 o'clock and we weren't going to be able to visit our old ward because of our 4:30 flight. We were there when he got put in, in fact John was his executive secretary, and we so wanted to see him give his farewell testimony. Just another "missed" ultimately because of residency.

We enjoyed a nice breakfast together, and they headed off with us to the sealing. We got to see some other wonderful people while we were at the sealing, which was so awesome...the Jones, Jill, and Sister Ditty. Love them all so much. They were so kind to us, it made us miss them all so much. After the sealing we snapped a FEW pics and were off to Sweet Tomatoes to share some yummy food while reminiscing about the great happening of the day. It was fun to see Bren's parents again. They are always so kind to us.

We then headed down to Veneta(2hours) to spend some time with B & B and their cute little family. It was fun, and I can now see why Brenley thinks her little McCoy is a Ball of ENERGY! We don't get to see these guys very often, and non of us are huge phone talkers, but when we get together it is like no time has passed at all. I love it. As we were leaving to go out to dinner, Bren commented something about how crazy they must look running around getting ready with their kids. John just laughed and said, "I was just thinking how we are in reverse roles. Before it was always us running around crazy with our little ones, and now we are the on-lookers." It was so true. 6 years ago it would have been exactly the opposite. So grateful for all the "little" blessings in both of our lives since then.

We talked and talked and then woke up in time to head to church. B & B would be blessing Oaklee. It was awesome to be a part of that also. Oh, and Bryce's birthday of course! Then we had to make our quick good-byes and head back to Portland.

On the way back, John and I decided we were not going to miss Bishop Minetto's testimony, so we stopped at Arby's grabbed a sandwich, changed back into church clothes and head over to the church. It was so da- ja- vu. We walked in, and my friend Julie was out in the hall soothing her little newborn. She did a double take when we came in, and gave us big hugs. It was the best. We then slipped in just in time to see our old awesome stake president released and call the new bishopric. We didn't however make it in un-noticed. The Balough's were behind us, and they were happy to see us, with Matt even commenting, "Did you come back for a calling?" The Ditty's waved, so did the NewMeyers, President Wilder raised his eyebrows and smiled from the stand, and his wife sitting next to us smiled surprisingly at me. It was so fun. I wished we could have spoken to so many people. That is just an awesome ward. But alas, we heard our cute former Bishop and wife give their testimonies, and we had to leave. He didn't let us down, he was stalwart, with a hint of fun in his testimony and I loved it. I knew the Lord had chosen a good servant who could project His love to us. He smiled and waved as we walked out the door. I forgot to mention before, the Minetto's also let us use their car. Changed the oil and filled it up just like any good parent would if their child had a ways to travel. Love them so much. We made it to the airport just in time to find out our flight had been delayed for an hour. (Thank you Richins) We were bummed that we could have stayed longer at our old ward, but thus is life.

The whole trip seemed like visiting an alternate reality. Especially since we didn't have our kids with us. I cryed when we were leaving. We left a lot when we moved. Oregon and the many amazing people we know there will always be so tender to our hearts. We wished we could have had more time to see so many people, like the Hoyt's and Hone's...and many many others. It would have been the icing on the cake if we could have attended a baptism while we were there, maybe next time Grant! We have to go back! Maybe not to live...we will see, but we have to go back for a good long visit!

THE DERBY!

IT IS ON, LIKE DONKEY KONG!

Noah got his car, the second they said, "it is time for the derby." He didn't leave his dad alone about working on it, until we was literally going down the track.

John's dad was great at building cars. John said, "they never won for speed, but they always got best looking!"

DeeKen and a surprise visit by my nephew Porter.

Another Farr boy to compete with. Mark hand painted that horse, and even colored in the rims. It was sweet looking, and pretty fast, but neither boy won for speed.

Papa came to support his boy. My dad loves scouts!

Until next year...VROOOM!

END OF YEAR REVIEW

JANUARY

I can't believe a year ago she was still drinking from a bottle. Yes, she was 18 months, but still.

*I tried to become a runner.

*Deeken spilled a whole gallon of honey in our van.

*Josie goes to nursery at church!!!

FEBRUARY

Yes, they do look like polygamists, but as far as I know, John only has one wife.

*I set some REALLY challenging goals for my 30th year of life.

*I learned I might be allergic to running.

*Micah had her first Pop-star crush(to date she has not gotten Beiber fever)

MARCH

Oh, he was fine. This marks a VEEK visit.

*I became obsessed with John Bytheway.

*I asked for the amazing gift of Forgiveness from everyone.

*I turned 30! ARGH, still recovering.

*Got to surprise Brenley on her birthday!

APRIL

I know he is handsome, but he can only marry one girl...he already has semi-arranged marriages with many girls. He is the ladies man, at least that is what his preschool teacher tells me.

*Micah gets her ears pierced.

*We head to Vegas for a little get away, and to see the amazing Syndergaards.

*Micah turns 6.

MAY

*DeeKen gets stitches.

JUNE

*Went to Lava Hot Springs and Rockland.

*Noah played his first year of baseball.

*Micah had her first ballet recital.

*NOAH TURNS 8!

JULY

*Noah was Baptized by his dad.

*Josie Turns 2. MY BABY!

AUGUST * The amazing Minettos come for a visit.

*Lots of cabin time.

*Went to Rani's cabin up by Yellowstone.

*Back to School!!!

SEPTEMBER

*We lost the Patriarch of our family.

*His name sake turns 4.

*Debbie also came for a visit...all by herself.

OCTOBER

*I went on a trip to Texas just me...and my mom.

*I take lots and lots of pics of my kids.

NOVEMBER

* I take even more pics of my kids.

*I did my first ever black Friday.

DECEMBER

*Took a little trip to temple square with our friends the Markhams.

*We went to John's special work party.

Micah gets a major owie on her nose.

*We celebrated the birth of the Savior.

*John turned 31!

This year has been different for me for lots of obvious ones, and some maybe not so obvious. John and I are moving into a new stage of our life. Our kids are growing up and we aren't adding more babies to replace the others as they grow. I know it is a little weird, but one of the big things that hit me about this year is that we didn't have a baby. 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008...we all had babies, but 2010....

This is not a WO is me, this is just a realization. Life is changing. I am getting older. My family is getting older....we are moving away from the baby stage of life. That is so weird to me. But I love my family...Just the way we are.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!