Brayden's Goose Egg

The other morning the kids and I were having one of those hectic mornings before school. You know the ones where homework is missing, matching shoes can't be found, the type of sandwich your child wants can't be decided on, etc... It didn't help that my big one year old was holloring and banging at the door wanting to go outside to play. Being he was dressed and ready to start his day Emily volunteered to go out with him. Trying to keep everyone happy I let my little ones out the door knowing that they would keep close by and SHOULD be alright out there by themselves. While I was almost done putting out the fires going on inside I heard my mom at our door. Before she entered she said, "O.K mom, we're coming in but don't freak out!" My stomack always flips when I hear something like this. It can be so difficult taking pictures of a goose egg. Pictures just don't do it justice.
Apparently he tripped over his own two feet and whacked his head against the bottom cement step to the front porch. Ouch!

Knowing he must have a real humdinger of a head ache I kept him pumped with Tylenol all day.

I really really really hate it when my kids get hurt.

These two remind me of when Hunter and Madelyn were much younger. Emily being the oldest tries to help her younger brother too much. Brayden being the youngest thinks he can do everything his big sister can. They do have there moments quite often right now that Emily is trying to help too much but they do play so nicely together most of the time. She really does try to make her little brother happy.
I love you two.

Hanna's 16th Birthday Party

Last night we helped Hanna celebrate her 16th birthday with some of her friends.

Mom and I gave Hanna several different themes for her party. In the end she chose "Minute to Win It". Have you ever seen this? If you haven't you must. If you don't have t.v like us you can see some of the episodes on you tube. This show is HILARIOUS. Contestants have 60 seconds to complete a challenge using everyday household items. A lot of these challenges are harder than you think and the 60 seconds to do it in doesn't help!We had a table set up with plenty of snacks and a tub full of cold soda.
Our 1st challenge for our contestants was called,
"Breakfast Scramble"
Two contestants are given 16, upside down, evenly cut pieces to the front of a cereal box. In 60 seconds they have to turn the pieces over and put the cereal box together correctly. We had a winner. One of these girls was able to complete this challenge at the sound of the buzzer. Good Job!

Our 2nd challenge of the night was called,

"Noodling Around"

The two contestants must hold a spaghetti noodle with the mouth while picking up and holding six pieces of penne with it.

With 15 seconds remaining we had a winner for this challenge too.

Good Job Girls!

Our next challenge was called,

"Spoon Frog"

This challenge you must use a spoon to flip another spoon into a can.

In 60 seconds you must have 3 spoons in your can.

This was a HARD challenge.

Our contestants didn't get a single spoon in their cans.

Next time we'll have to use bowls.

Good Job for trying girls.

Another challenge of the night is called,

"How's It Hangin' "

Each contestant ties a bananna around thier waste.

Swinging their hips they use the bananna to knock 2 oranges into a hula hoop.

This challenge was pretty difficult too. Skyler was able to get his orange right up next to the hoop but couldn't get it to go over the hump of the hoop.

Good try guys. You did great!

"Bottoms UP"

Each contestant using a yo-yo tied to the back of their waste must knock 4 cans off the bucketts.

Awsome job swinging those hips girls.

"Nose Dive"

I think this was the most funniest challenge!

The contestants are to dip their nose in a bowl of vaseline. They then stick their head into a bowl of cotton balls, get a cotton ball to stick and then run to a different bowl to place that cotton ball into all without using their hands.

By end of the game these players are shaking their head so much trying to get the cotton balls to fall off that the vaseline starts to "string" off thier nose making it look like snot.

Nasty! I know but hilarious to watch!

Mickel, you are such a great sport!

Due to the wind, afterall we do live in Hurricane.

We had to move some of our games inside.

This game is called,

"Blind Ball"

You have four balls, two of which are sitting on top of a empty toilet paper roll and the other two on top of an empty paper towel roll. The "lucky" contestant is blindfolded, spund in a circle 2x and left in the middle of the balls. They are to find and pick up at least 2 of the balls without knocking them to the ground in 60 seconds!
Good Try girls. You did great!

"Stack Attack"

The contestant is given 36 plastic cups. They are to stack them into a pyramid and then may begin to get the cups into a single stack.
NO ONE was able to do this in 60 seconds. It took the girls the whole 60 seconds just to get the whole pyramid.

So...... we seperated the stack. Each contestant was given 15 cups to complete this task.

Maddie had been practicing earlier this week so she went up against Aunt Hanna.

Aunt Hanna was great keeping the speed of Miss Maddie. When it came time to single stack the cups Aunt Hanna's stack knocked over, Maddies didn't and she was named winner.

Way to go Maddie! You won!

"Bite Me"

When the clock starts, player may attempt to pick up the bags one at a time. They can only use their mouth and must stay on their feet. The tallest bag is 10" and the smallest 2".

This is the 2" bag. It looks like Hanna is sitting but she isn't. She is doing the lowest squat possible! Technically she is still on her feet just the sides of them.

Way to go Hanna you moved all 5 bags in just 30 seconds!

The grand finale was,

"Face The Cookie"

Each contestant using only the face, move the cookie from their forehead to their mouth. In 60 seconds you must complete this task 3 times. We had everyone play this at the same time.

So funny to see.

Amazing how many of these teenagers were able to do this.

This was Brayden's FAVORITE game for sure.

He was great at picking up the left over pieces.

After games it was time for cake.

This was such a fun and creative cake to make.
"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday Aunt Hanna, Happy Birthday to you."
We love you!

We went inside to open gifts. I'm jealous of your swim wrap, Hanna. I've been wanting to make myself one of these all summer. Now I can "borrow" yours.

Overall it was great night.

Playing "Minute It To Win It" would be so much fun to do for a Primary Activity

or a YW/YM Joint Activity.

We hope you had a wonderful night Hanna

Happy 16th Birthday!


I never posted the cakes I made last month so here they are...
We celebrated my Grandma and Grandpa's b.day soon after we moved here.

Unfortunatly all my cake supplies were sitting in a box in Prescott Valley. I went to Michaels to buy a new deco. tip and wouldn't you know it they didn't have a single, regular size, common tip. So I ended up buying this huge tip that I really didn't want or need. I didn't like the way this cake turned out at all for my Grandma. Next years will be much better!

My grandpa's cake was another story. He loves to fish! The night before our little get together all the men in the house when night fishing. I thought it was appropriate for a fish cake.
I loved the way my "fish" turned out.

Emily, your next! What kind of a cake are we going to do for you? My soon to be 4 year old.

A new sport...

Hunter has found a new sport. This kid loves to fish! I know what your thinking. Fishing? How BORING! Who likes to sit on the side of the shore, sit in the sun, get hot, have to be quiet (so as not to scare the fish away) and then it takes how many HOURS to catch a fish let alone your limit???

Fishing with his Grandpa Christensen and his Grandpa's friend Emo is quite different. They go night fishing and in a boat and to top that off these 2 men have found the perfect spot that the fish like to bite. Saturday night Grandpa Christensen took Hunter, Uncle Jonathan, his 2 cousins Carlaya and Noah and his great Grandpa whom he calls GG'pa fishing. They left the house at 8:30pm and were on the lake at 9. Unfortunatley nothing happened this night until 10 (usually doesn't take this long). Starting about 10 o' clock the 1st fish was caught, soon after the 2nd and soon after that the 3rd too was caught. At one time 3 fish were being reeled in at the same time. By 11:30pm 17 fish had been caught! Can you believe that? In 1 1/2 hours (starting from the 1st fish that was caught till the last) 17 fish were caught. It is amazing! For the most part every fishing expedition is similar to this one (only it usually doens't take an hour to catch that 1st fish). Fishing with Grandpa Christensen is NOT boring. It's fun! Hunter would go every night if I'd let him. The Grandpa's would too if the Grandma's would let them. However you can only eat so much fish. There must be a limit set. Fishing is only allowed once a week! The photo is not the best. GGpa took it and then printed it out for me. I couldn't get my printer to scan it so I took a picture of the picture and up loaded it. Hence the grainy, yellowy, old look.

The grandkids had a blast. Madelyn and Emily were invited too but they decided to stay home and watch a movie with Grandma and Aunt Hanna. The girls don't enjoy the fishing trips as much as Hunter does. Maybe it's a girl thing??

1st Day of School

We had our 1st day of school this past week. It seems that each year school starts earlier and earlier. We live close enough to the school that the kids can easily ride their bikes. So they did.

Hunter's 1st day of 2nd grade.

Madelyn's 1st day of 1st grade.

Their new school is a little different than what we are use to.

For instance Franklin (AZ school) had 2 1st grade classes. Our new school has 5.

Franklin had 2 2nd grade classes. Our new school has 5.

Franklin has no grass. Our new shool is surrounded by grass. I can't believe how much grass this school has. It's in the front, on the side and in the back. Hunter plays soccer everyday. He loves it. He says he likes his new school because at Franklin you'd have to sit on the wall if you got caught kicking the ball (very, very small playground and not a blade of grass).

I wish you could see the playground equipment. It's something like I've never seen before.

It's AWSOME !

We are going to love our new school.

Hunter amazes me. I was walking home with him today and every group we passed Hunter would wave and say good bye to someone in that group. I commented on how great that was. How I was so glad he was making new friends and getting to know others. So we had now passed 4 people that he has called out their names to say goodbye to plus another boy that had walked around the school with us from his class. So he's called out 5 names now. I comment on this and he says, "Yeah I know. But I didn't remember one of those girls names. So I didn't say her name." He made me laugh out loud. It's the 4th day of school (and lets not forget you haven't had school for the past 2 days) I wasn't expecting him to know every childs name in his class by today.

I've been a little worried about my kiddo's starting a new school. We moved around a bit while living in AZ but for those 7 years we were always in the same area. We shopped at the same grocery store, the same Target, visited the same library, we were in the same ward the entire 7 years. My kids were all born there and started to grow up there. They were never the "new ones". Everyone knew them. We just belonged there. Now that we are in Utah it's a little different. We are the "new ones". We are having to find a new grocery store to call our own, figure out the layout to our new Target, our new library, our ward building. But we are doing it. We are learning. We are adjusting. We are doing well.

A trip to the ER

Last night was one of those nights that we all have but dread. Thank goodness we don't have these types of nights often. It was one of those nights that by sun light I had to ask myself just how much sleep did I get??

I went to bed last night at 10:00 which is probably the earliest my head's hit the pillow since our move. At 11:00 Brayden woke me up crying. I sat at the edge of his bed for 15minutes rubbing his back while he fell back to sleep. At 12:30 Maddie came in complaining she was thirsty and couldn't find the light. I got up turned the light on for her and was walking back to my bed to hear her say, "where's the cups mom?" Seriously! How long have we lived here now? After getting her a drink I escorted her back to bed. I don't remember crawling into bed for the 3rd time!! It was around 1:30 when Emily came in waking me up AGAIN asking when she could eat breakfast. I had her climb into my bed and snuggled her back to sleep. It was around 2 when I heard Brayden crying again. Feeling so so so tired I picked him up and brought him into my bed with Emily and I. Wanting him go back to sleep NOW I nursed him back to sleep. I kid you not at 3:30 I heard the worst noise ever. It is the noise I dread hearing every fall and spring that comes from my oldest. The croup sound. Oh how I hate that sound. Thinking Brayden was on the edge of the bed and not wanting to wake him up or disturb him too much crawling out of bed. I carefully scooped up my baby and rolled to my other side to lay him down in what I thought was the middle of the bed. WRONG! It wasn't even close to the middle of the bed. I dropped my baby right on to the floor! What a rude awakening. So much for not waking baby.

Hunter and I with baby on my hip did what we usually do when the croup wakes us both up so rudely. I turned the shower on hot and shut the door to get the bathroom steaming. I pulled out the mentholatum and slathered Hunter's chest. I sat Hunter on the toilet seat so that I could go search for our humidifier. Not being able to find it I woke my mom up asking to borrow hers. By the time I set the humidifer up Hunter was quickly loosing control. Waking up with the croup is so scary. They can't breathe, they can't talk without squeaking, they start coughing which makes it harder to breathe and the sound it makes is just plain scary for both mother and son. I don't know if he's ever had the croup as bad as he did last night. We soon woke up Grandpa for a blessing. When my mom came down to check on us and she heard the way Hunter sounded and the way he was laboring so hard to breathe she thought I should take him to the ER. Her voicing this just confirmed what I had been thinking.

My mom volunteered to drive us to the ER which is about 30minutes away. I asked my dad to keep Brayden and he replied," Do you need to take him in too?" I said, "No he's FINE he'll probably snuggle up next to you on your bed and fall right back to sleep." But I was thinking... Gee dad I didn't hurt him that bad when I dropped him off the bed. No he doesn't need a trip to the ER!

Lucky for us we were the only ones visiting the ER at that time early this morning. Two breathing treatments and 2 1/2 hours later we were back in the car driving home. To Hunter's delight it was light outside. Morning had come. The ER doctor told us that most of the time croup only effects children ages 2-4. I wish Hunter's little body knew that. His 1st bout with the croup was at a year old and he's now 7. Every fall and spring he gets the croup at least once if not 3-4 times. I feel like we are almost pro's at handling the croup and haven't had to seek medical help since he was about 18months old. Last night was bad and I'm so glad I took him in.

Being he's now had the croup in the middle of summer maybe we can skip getting it this fall??

A first...

While Hunter was in kindergarten there were many, many days he came home so excited because someone he knew lost a tooth at school. He was just as excited for his friends that would have lost a tooth the night before at home. He was anxiously awaiting for when it would be his turn. He went through all of kindergarten not only not loosing a tooth but not even having a loose tooth. 1st grade came and again we didn't loose a tooth and didn't have a single one loose.

Just a few weeks ago Hunter was so excited to discover that FINALLY one of his bottom front teeth were loose. It seemed that within days of discovering this loose tooth we also discovered his grown up tooth growing behind it already.

His tooth has been very very loose and has just been hanging in there. He is so careful while eating so as not to loose this tooth now that the time has come for this great event to take place.

Trying to prolong bedtime just a little longer he decided to let us tie a string around his tooth. I tried, I tried and I tried. Those of you who have gone through this know just how slippery, tiny and wet these little teeth can be. Grandma came to the rescue. Are you ready?
Here I go..

I did it. I did it.

He freaked for a minute but he did it. Yeah for Hunter.

You did it.

My 1st project on my to do list after our big move was to make a tooth pillow for the tooth fairy to leave her money in. We've been here for a few weeks now but Kory has yet to join us....

I do not have my fabric drawers or my sewing machine. I know I could use my mom's machine but I don't want to have to buy fabric when I know I already have some. So compliments from Grandma we used a little red bag.

Hunter was quite pleased when he woke up to discover the tooth fairy had taken his tooth and had not left 1 quarter but 2!

He does not have any more loose teeth at the moment. It will be interesting to see how long before we do this again. Maddie is starting 1st grade this year and she doesn't have any loose teeth either. I wonder if she will follow in her brothers foot steps?

Swimming with the Stewart's

Thursday morning my kiddo's and I went to St. George to visit the Stewarts. We became friends with the Stewarts in Prescott Valley when our girls were just babies almost 6 years ago. The Stewarts moved to St. George about 5 days before the kids and I moved. It was great seeing old friends in a new place.

Renting a town house they have a huge pool that they shared with us.

Water fights
Brayden has no fear of the water. He just keeps walking in until it covers his mouth. Then he just stands there breathing through his nose and holding his breath. It was great having Missy there to help me watch my all to brave little boy so I could capture our time together with the camera.

Emily quickly claimed Brayden's float when he was tired of it and was able to follow the big kids around the pool.

Maddie loved swimming in the deep end with floaties on. We had a membership at the Y and so we went swimming in PV almost 2x a week. However no floaties are allowed at the Y making the kids stay in the kiddie pool where they could alway touch. It was great knowing my kids could touch everywhere but it did make it hard for them to try to swim on there own. Maddie was really enjoying herself being able to swim where she couldn't touch bottom.

Hunter, Connor, Jacqie, Tyler

Thank you Stewarts for the great time at the pool.

Till next time...