What do these three things have in common?

Our dear little Claire decided that there was many ways to have fun with her Halloween candy this year. About two weeks ago, she had a bad cough and a head cold. But all of a sudden she started spiking these really high fevers at night. The odd thing was they would happen every other night. Since it wasn't a consistant fever I didn't worry too much about it. The odd thing was the next day she would be perfectly normal. So after about five fevers over 103, I thought it was strange enough to take her in just to make sure. The Dr. looked everywhere for something weird and finally checked her nose. She said, "Oh, there is something blue up there." After much digging and tweezing and cotton swabbing, the blue M&M made it's way out. Poor Claire was terrified of the whole thing. I felt so bad that I had let it go so long. I can't imagine having something stuck in my nose.

Everything had gotten infected in her sinuses so that was the reason for the fevers. After one day on the antibiotic, she was totally better. I'm still wondering if the boys put her up to it or if she did it all on her own?

Disney World

Here are the three pictures from Disney. It truly is the happiest place on earth. It is for 2 year olds, 5 year olds, and 8 year olds. It is even more so for their parents who get to watch over and over again their kids in total amazement and true happiness. It was so great. I highly recommend it. After the cost of the tickets, we were able to really go pretty cheap by bringing our own food and water.


Here is Claire and Jack with Buzz and Woody. Claire fell in love with Buzz.

Max got to go to Jedi school Here they learned some cool lightsaber moves and then got to fight Darth Vader. Max was lucky enough to be able to use the force on the two Storm Troopers. He was really proud of himself after they went flying when he used the "force push".

I will try and post other pictures as I collect them from the other cameras on the trip.

I'm so sad

So this past week has been so sad. I lost my camera. Yes, my big Canon camera with my favorite lens on it. I have scoured my home and garage and car and it is no where. I have been up at nights trying to remember what happened. I had it Tuesday night as I was taking pictures of the kids in the leaves and then on Wednesday night when I went to take a picture of Max in his cub scout uniform, it was gone. I didn't take it anywhere to leave it. The only thing I can get to now is that it was stolen out of our house. Our power went out Wednesday morning and I disabled the garage door so I could manually operate it. I had the strongest feeling that I should lock the door from the house to the garage and I didn't do it.

Seriously I think the worst part is that I hadn't downloaded my pictures for awhile. I have no pictures from Max's baptism now or his birthday. I'm tearing up now as I'm sharing. We had a service man at the house that morning that worked outside our house and I've talked to his manager to see if it were at all possible that he took it. So for the time being I can only post the three pictures from our trip to Disney world that I bought off of Disney's website.

I love taking pictures and scrapbooking them. It's really my only hobby. So now I have a huge void and it really feels like a death. I know that is so crazy but I'm in mourning. I will get over it and probably buy a new one at some point, but I'm too sad to get there yet.

Coolest Sunset Ever

The Heat Finally Broke

July was brutal this year. August was down right pleasant. While Eldon was travelling we had a night at the park where it wasn't over 100 degrees. Mr. Cool Max trying to pretend that he is too old for parks like this.

Miss Claire wearing whatever her babysitter could find this day which was a pajama top and stretch pants. But she still looks pretty.

My handsome Mr. Jack. He is always the one that runs until the very last minute. He is great at getting out all his energy in the time allotted.

First Day of School

First Day of School for our Kindergartner and Second Grader.. You can see how Max is acting like he is annoyed at the pagentry. Cute Jack is SO excited to ride the bus. Not necessarily that excited for actual school.

The momentous walk onto the long awaited bus ride for Jack. He has been turning every vehicle he can find into a bus. He is loving school now and still loves the bus. Max is doing great. His table in his class is with his best buddies. Let's just hope he can be quiet enough to learn.

It's Been 10 Years

Today is our ten year wedding anniversay. I can't believe it has been that long. I can't believe I am sitting in my kitchen today with our three children. Ten years ago I was so hopeful this would be my life. Of course there have been some surprises along the way, but I truly have everything I have always wanted. Eldon is the most wonderful husband. I am so lucky to have someone who knows how to spoil a lady. He is so romantic, thoughtful, creative, and kind. He works very hard to provide for us. I thought I would share an example of how he spoils me. For my birthday I was given this card:

He took me to NYC for just two short days. These days were filled with amazing things. We saw two Broadway shows on the first day. Our view from our hotel room is below. We also went to the Metropolitan Opera which was an experience of a lifetime all in itself. We ate wonderful food, and just enjoyed all the time together.

The second trip was to Palos Verdes California. (Shown below) We stayed at Terrenea which is an unbelieveable resort. We were still on east coast time the first day so we were up early. We went to the coffee shop in the hotel and got some breakfast to take to the beach. We sat and ate breakfast with the sun coming up and hiked all over the rocky cliffs and caves. We went ocean kayaking in the afternoon and had a blast. We laughed at how much harder it would have been if we had to coordinate our paddling in our first year of marraige! That night we went to dinner at a beautiful gourmet restaurant where he had to explain the menu to me. It was delicious. They brought out a beautiful cake. It had cooled down considerably in the evening so we sat around the firepit and looked at the sunset. Back at our room was a rose petal turn down service with Chocolate covered strawberries and our wedding song playing. The next day was a couples spa treatment and relaxation. We ate dinner right on the cliffs and watched the sun go down again. It was a magical weekend. Too bad I got sun burned while ocean kayaking!

Eldon added to my wedding ring earlier this spring with two bands filled with diamonds. Over the years I have tried very hard to compete with him in giving gifts or being thoughtful. I have decided that he will always win. I am so grateful to be in that predicament! I try to show my love through attempting to keep up on the laundry or bathing the kids. I'm so grateful that we are both so committed to each other and our family.

Here is to another ten years!

Happy Easter Mud Party

This Easter we had our family over for dinner and also the missionaries. The kids were tired of being locked up inside while the adults ate a delicious meal, so we let them go out on the deck. Pretty soon we realized that the kids had found the mud and were having such a lovely time. I am so glad I had the kids change out of their Easter best. But I did leave Claire's little pink sweater on and it was covered in mud. Her shoes were once shockingly pink.

This was Parker's second outfit after removing his Easter shirt and vest. If you look at Jack, his pants are completely wet and since they are dark you can't see the extent of the mud. He jumped in the mud and sprayed everyone else. But we had a family dinner, mud fight and bath on Easter. It was followed up with a fantastic and surprising talent show by the boys. I remember times like this as a kid and found them to be quite magical. Oxi clean saved the clothes and I had to run a bleach cycle in my washer but everyone and everything survived.

Spring Break.....WHAT?

So Max's spring break was a week ago. We had big plans to go to Washington D.C. and see our great cousins there. Everyone was so excited. We were leaving on Wednesday afternoon and coming home Sunday. Tuesday night, the first fever hit along with a headache that put little Jack into a sleep coma. We rushed off to urgent care for drugs and Strep diagnosis and thought we could get down the road and he would be treated for 24 hours by the time we got there. But then, Wednesday the second fever hit and then the snot. Oh the snot. Everyone was down for a a couple days. It was a sad spring break. I had the car packed as well as the suit cases. But finally we were able to get out of the house to go to the zoo on Friday for an hour. It was cold, but no one was there so we didn't infect anyone, and the kids could see everything. We have rescheduled our trip to D.C. over Memorial Day. Hopefully all the fevers, sore throat's, sniffles and coughs will be gone by then. This week is Jack's spring break from Preschool. We will do our best to live it up while we are all feeling better.

We had a Birthday!

I have been a terrible blogger. But I couldn't not put up pictures of Jack's big day! He turned Five on St. Patrick's Day. He is very nice to share his birthday with everyone who celebrates St. Patrick's day. This year we took a few friends to the zoo. It was the first weekend where the train was open and the Polar Bear play area. We were a little out manned, but the kids did a good job keeping up and for the most part stayed with us. Here is the little clan. It was freezing too, which helped keep the party short and sweet. We had cupcakes and apples and pretzels. Everyone played, rode the train, ate and then we looked at a few animals and we were done. Jack was sad that there wasn't an all day playdate included in the deal, but mom and dad were done.

Sad Day

In Memory of a Very Funny and Great Friend
Bill Howe
March 17, 1976- January 30, 2011

So how do you write something for a friend that was such a bright spot in your life when you needed that bright light? How do you write about someone close to your age who has died way too young? How does it make any sense? Bill Howe was my brother's best friend. This picture shows my brother Bill, my dad Bill, and our friend Bill. The three Bill's. In college where my dad wasn't, my brother and him were known as "the Bill's." All of my friends loved them. I am putting this post together for the girls of 235 who would have known Bill and would appreciate knowing that he passed away last night. The memories have been flooding back. Both he and my brother were so kind to include me in so many things. I thought I would list them here and hopefully some of you remember some of them and hopefully it will bring a smile to your face as he did so many times.

- Buy a friend night - The dollar movie would have .50 cent night and the Bill's would go buy 50 tickets and invite anyone and everyone they knew. The funny part was they called it buy a friend night.

-The paper- Any tabloid paper was known to Bill Howe as "the paper." He always had a copy on hand.

-Chili Mac - For their ward pot lucks, the Bill's would bring Chili Mac and always hide a prize inside. A real prize like a toy. No one knew that their was a prize in it.

- Midgets - He had the strangest obsession with midgets.

- The plunger he gave Lisa and Keith as a wedding gift. Very kind, but alas, odd.

-The pee pants. In respect for him, I will let those who have heard the story remember it.

- Mothership - He was a great alien dancer.

- Buttghetti - The room mate who made spaghetti every Monday and ate it all week. The rest I will leave to those who knew about it.

- Macaroni Grill - When Bill worked there, he got a ton of cash in gift cards. I was lucky enough to be invited to splurge all the gift cards at once. We would order what ever we wanted and eat one or two bites and then order something else. It was very fun and very gracious of him as he always was.

- Thanksgiving at Grandma Barbs - Our family always had a ton of gravy. They made a bunch and instead of serving it in a gravy boat, they put it in a crystal water pitcher so you could pour as much on as you wanted. Bill looked at it and said, "What's wrong with the milk?" Later he found out that Grandma had decided to do ice cream Sunday's for dessert and then he disappeared. He went down to Marie Calendars and bought 5 pies.

- Cross Country road trip - The drive was full of "the paper" but my favorite was at Niagra Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist and had rain ponchos. We were looking around for Bill and he was standing in front of the rotating sprinkler getting sprayed on his poncho.

- Generosity - This is the main thing I remember about him. He was always paying for what anyone wanted and always bought way more than needed or expected. Once my whole family went to a movie. No one had any treats and he came in for large drinks for everyone. That was just how he was.

- Waterskiing - we took him waterskiing at Yuba lake and it was early in the morning. We all took turns and then it was his. He jumped in and proceeded to scream as loud as he possibly could because the water was colder than he thought. You would think that he would stop after a few seconds, but no, Bill continued for minutes. After trying to ski and falling, he suggested in a scream again that there was a tuna up his nose.

- U2 - I got to see U2 in Salt Lake City with the Bills (tickets purchased by my brother) and Kelsie, their other room mate who was addicted to U2 even more than me. Of course the Bill's bought Kelsie a shirt and sat their so excited watching him enjoy his first concert with the band from Dublin.

-Taco Bell, CBE concerts, movie nights, fish outlines on the carpet, puns, and really just supporting everyone else. He was the best friend to have. I am so sad that his life has ended. It makes me reflect on my own and how short life really is. I love you Bill. And to my brother, thanks for sharing this great friend with me who as you can see, made college SO MUCH FUN!