A Temple Near My Home...

Yesterday our Primary held one of their quarterly activities which was -- I thought -- quite ambitious. We met at our church at 9am and then caravaned to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to attend the open house. Since Lee and I are now teaching the Valient 12 class, we were also able to attend (AND, since we have all 4 of our children in Primary right now, it turned out to be a really nice family activity as well). Jordan really got a kick out of the ushers and began holding his arm out to the side as if to guide people along periodically. Once he even questioned a Brother who was on security detail as to why he didn't have his arm out. The gentleman got quite a kick out of him.

Our children all LOVED the Celestial and the Sealing Rooms the most because of the mirrors. But, who doesn't find that visual perspective of eternity inspiring??

With the temple open house and upcoming dedication such a part of our lives out here right now, our Stake primary decided to do a little re-arranging of their monthly "focus" and made May our "Temple" month. So, all month long we have been talking, learning and singing about the temple -- which was also a GREAT build-up to out ward's activity yesterday. Our Stake Primary Presidency has even written another verse to the song "I Love to See the Temple" which the kids have been learning... it goes like this:

There is a sacred temple
That I can call my own.
A beacon on a hillside...
And it's nearby my home.

The greatest blessings can be mine
As I learn to live the gospel.

We'll sing and shout in gratitude --
The Oquirrh Mountain Temple. *

Words by Galene Gish and Stephanie Ransom

A New Look... Short and Sassy!

For a long time now, Leandra has been pleading with me to cut her hair short. I have been unwilling to go short because I've been afraid of what her hair might do without the length of it pulling it down (I don't think girls are supposed to have afro's are they??)! Anyway, I finally realized that in the grand scheme of things, this really wasn't an important fight to have. Although I did NOT agree to cut her hair to her shoulders (as she had thought really wanted), I did end up cutting off about 4 1/2 inches.

It was so cool to see her face light up when she looked at herself in the mirror. She really loved it!! And I have to say, I think it does make her look more grown up -- not that that's what I want either!! Ugh! What's a parent to do??

But, we DO really like her new look -- and I LOVE to see her happy with what she sees too!!

2 Month Vacation!!

Saturday was the last day of soccer for our kids for the Spring season. The only BUMMER was that Kendra was unable to play (or even come to) her game due to the Flu. Her team really missed her too! Cooper (one of my day-care kids who plays on Jordan's team) told me that on the way home from school last week, Konnor (Cooper's brother who plays on Kendra's soccer team) and his friend Garret (also on Kendra's soccer team) were having a conversation about their soccer team. Apparently, the 2 boys had agreed that Kendra was the best player on their team! I thought it was awesome they would talk like that when Kendra wasn't even there!

Qiyana had a BLAST actually playing on a team this year after all the years of watching her siblings and not yet being old enough herself to play! She did great and we know she'll just get better with time!

No suprise that Jordan was AWESOME as always this year! He has more energy than he knows what to do with, which makes him great on the field! I can't think of one game last Fall or this Spring, when Jordan score at LEAST one goal!

Leandra has been INCREDIBLE this year!! She finally moved up to the "BIG" field this year. Since I'm not a soccer professional, I don't know if the fields get any bigger than what they're playing on now,... but I believe they're on the full-size field now. It's really A LOT of field!! Leandra absolutely LOVES this game and was amazing this year! She was a bit bummed that she wasn't able to score a goal this year, but she was overall very pleased with this year's play. She spent a lot of time playing forward, whereas last year her coach kept her playing defense a majority of the time. But, Leandra really showed some aggressive play this year... and it was very cool to see!

Not Kendra's best week...

OK,... so after spending the night in the emergency room on Memorial Day, we figured we were probably good. Until, when on Thursday evening Kendra was still feeling dizzy and nauseas. Add to that a 101.2 fever and you get another trip to the emergency room. I was worried that they had missed something on the CT scan they had done on our previous visit, but because of the fever, the Dr. said it was not head related. They gave her an IV to give her meds and fluids, drew blood and got a urine sample. After another 5 hours of waiting, they said she had tested positive for the Flu. Lovely. So, they gave us a prescription for Tamaflu, a medical release note saying she couldn't return to school until June 4th, and sent us home (at 2am) with instructions to basically just keep our hands clean.


The Tamaflu (along with Motrin, Tylenol, and Delsym) really seemed to help. After church on Sunday, however, Qiyana started complaining of a headache and stomach ache and then slept on the couch for a couple hours. When she woke up, she also had a fever. So, Monday morning I called their Pediatrician and they called in a prescription for Tamaflu for Qiyana.

So far, no one else has been sick... and we're keeping our fingers crossed!

WARNING... pictures in this post are rated PG!

Yesterday was one of the most beautiful Memorial Days I can remember. Unfortunately, I was unable to get all our bikes into the van (let alone the fact that Leandra's required a new inner tube which I hadn't replaced yet) so we decided to skip the family bike/picnic day in Syracuse hosted by the awesome Kevin, Kathy, Zach (professional biker), and Eliza. Instead, I took the kids to the dollar show to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and then to Subway to split a $5 Sub. Afterwards, we back home for me to do much needed yard work and for the kids to play with some friends.

Later in the day, Kendra ended up down the street riding bikes with a friend - Bailee. Around 6pm I received a call from Andrea (Bailee's Mom) telling me that Kendra had had an accident on her bike and had cut her chin and was bleeding - she was walking her home and Bailee was walking her bike home. I dropped what I was doing (of course) and started down the street to meet them. Kendra was holding a dishtowel on her chin and was obviously upset and crying. I tilted the towel down to examine her cut and then immediately put it back - exchanging that "look" with Andrea.

Needless to say, I took her right to Jordan Valley Hospital's emergency room and Lee took care of the kids at home, bringing them to the emergency room a little bit later. Leandra was quite upset, and really worried about her sister; but Lee did a great job in helping her calm down and understand what was happening.

I was with Kendra at the emergency room until 11pm - Lee took the rest of the kids around 9pm to Wendy's (because they still hadn't had any dinner and were starving), and then home to bed since they still had school in the morning. The doctor did a wonderful job stitching her back up and they also did a CT Scan to make sure her head was OK... or at least as OK as Kendra's has ever been!! :)

Kendra was awesome through the whole ordeal, but was very worried about getting stitches. She just kept saying she wanted to go home and go to sleep. I have to say that I did pretty good as well, until they were giving her the numbing shots. I really felt the blood drain from my head as I watched... Ugh!

I thought it was kinda funny, while we were in the back room waiting for the doctor, Kendra asked me why she had to be the one who always got hurt in our family. She said to me, "I'm just like Aunt Alli!" (Love you Alli!)

This is Kendra before the stitches...

She actually did get a little sleep while we were waiting for the area to get completely numb...

After 2 stitches were finished, the doctor had to go and help another patient for a minute (she was the only doctor there). Here's Kendra with the 2 stitches...

All 5 stitches finished...

This morning Kendra woke up feeling really good. I did give her some Ibuprophen because her jaw was quite stiff, but her headache is gone, her nausea is gone, and her chin isn't hurting her much. We feel extremely blessed that Heavenly Father was watching over her so her injuries were limited, and very fixable.

Thanks for listening to my lengthy story... We love you all!

90 Degrees!

OK OK... so I realize that I've TOTALLY slacked on our blog lately... hopefully, this will be a fun way to get going again!

We have a pretty firm rule (guidline, of sorts), at our house in which we do not play outside in the water until it is at least 90 degrees. So, it was no suprise to me today when I was bringing the kids home from school that they noticed the temperature gage in the van reading exactly 90 degrees! I knew it was going to be hotter today than it has been all year, so I was already expecting to be washing a bunch of wet clothes and towels this evening.... Totally worth it for all the FUN the kids had. Here's just a taste of my CRAZY children!!

I guess this marks our "official" start of summer fun!!

No soccer today!!

Today was SUPPOSED to be the opening day for West Jordan Youth Soccer Spring Season..... however, Mother Nature decided she wasn't ready for that just yet! Instead, we spent the morning building our family out of SNOW!


It was a really fun morning, although by 2:30, half of our "family" had fallen due to Mother Nature's warmer weather. Ugh! Oh, well... I've heard horrible rumors that we might have more next week! How does the saying go??? "If you don't like the Utah weather,... wait a minute" ? Yea, seems pretty believable lately!