First Halloween

Bewitched

During the month of October, Gardner Village is decked out with "a hilarious display of plump, green-faced witches dressed to the nines in their most wacky and witchy attire: with mismatched colors, floppy hats and frumpy bloomers." It was a fun and benign way to celebrate this spooky holiday.

I don't know Jack . . .

. . . but my kids do.

Trick-or-Treat at the Zoo

The Zoo is right. I'm not sure who was more wild, the animals or the THOUSANDS of children running around. I think half of Salt Lake was there. But as you can see from the center picture, we did get to see Charles. I don't know why he didn't wear a costume.

An Eyefull

A huge thanks to everyone for all the cards, e-mails, phone calls and visits. As you can see in the picture above, Aaron's little face is healing quite well. Sadly, he still has a tear in his retina and his eyesight isn't very good; but we are optimistic everything will eventually be well. THANK YOU!!

Fall

Who says that in Utah you can't . . .

go apple picking, (even if they're crab apples)




walk across old charming bridges, (even if they're new and made of steel)




or see fall colors (can you see the burst of orange in the back, middle).




We definitely miss Boston in the fall; but all kidding aside, we had a fantastic 5 days in Park City for Fall Break. We stayed at my all time favorite condos and took it EASY. We traded our hectic, rigid schedules for no schedule at all. Board games, movies, swimming, daily strolls, and a family birthday party was about as exciting as it got. I didn't want to come home.

Happy Birthday Caleb!

My top ten favorite things about Caleb.

1. His sensitivity to others feelings
2. His genuine desire to be good
3. His ability to laugh at himself
4. His love of reading
5. His willingness to talk through problems
6. His love of the scriptures
7. His loyalty to friends and family
8. His natural goofiness
9. His bright mind
10. His desire to be like his Dad

and . . . . his nightly request for a hug goodnight. Happy Birthday to another fantastic kid.

Black Eyed Pea

On Wednesday afternoon Aaron was playing with a bungee cord and hooked it onto a tree. He pulled it back and the hook came off the tree and hit him in the eye. It was HORRIBLE. Long story short, he fractured the bone around his eye, has 7 stitches in the fleshy part of his skin underneath his eyeball, ripped his globe and has a hemorrhaged retina. There are not words to explain the trauma. I will spare you the gory details, but it was the worst thing I have gone through with one of my kids. Usually things don't get to me like that but it was really difficult to watch him in so much pain. When my dad was a resident, he would occasionally take me with him on his rounds. I remember on one occasion, I watched an eye surgery. I found it interesting but I could hardly be in the room as they examined Aaron's eye over and over. Thank goodness Adam was there. Both Aaron and Adam were amazing. (I wanted to scream my head off).

The doctors are optimistic that his vision will not be permanently affected. Which is miraculous. Fortunately, the part of the eye that was damaged is not connected to his sight. They also think the globe and retina will be able to heal without surgery, which is also a huge blessing. The swelling in his eye has gone down tremendously, and as you can see in the picture, he can now open it.

We have had an outpouring of support from friends, family and neighbors. Meals have been brought, children tended, cards and gifts sent. When it happened, the older boys were at scouts and Adam was at work. Aaron was screaming, Benjamin was screaming and I was overwhelmed. As I hurried to put an ice pack together I noticed Benjamin stopped screaming. I looked to see my neighbor in the doorway holding Benjamin in one hand and Ruby's hand in the other.

As usual, this trial has brought a renewed remembrance of our dearest blessings and what matters most.

The Screamer

Who would guess this beautiful baby spent most of his waking hours proving that his lungs have healed.

A New Tradition

Until recently, my china had been sitting in a box for for over 12 years. I honestly couldn't remember exactly what it looked like. When we moved into our current house, I finally had a place for it. I joyfully unwrapped each dish in anticipation of actually being able to use it. But after 6 months, we still hadn't touched them. The traditional events one would think of for their use, simply are not possible with the large number of family we have here. A 12 place setting just doesn't cut it.

Determined to use it, we had a special brunch for conference . . .with the china. It helped reinforce the special nature of conference and was simply delightful. I had to mentally walk through the fact that it was possible something would be broken and that it would be fine (even though the china is from Germany and no longer made or replaceable). Luckily I wasn't tested. The kids made great effort to be careful and enjoyed the affair immensely. This is definitely a new conference tradition.

Soccer Mom

I just turned 33. My birthday has caused me to reflect on my stage of life. The phrase "soccer mom" seems to apply but feels a little lacking. What do they call a soccer/football/ballet/piano/scout/Spanish lessons/art for the ages/nursing mom? Oh ya . . . nuts.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Today is Aaron's birthday. I could not go to bed without writing about this exceptional kid. Aaron is one of those kids I could write an essay about - but I will keep it brief.

For school, his teacher sent home a short form for us to fill out. She spotlights kids for their birthdays. One of the questions was "If I could be anyone in the world, I would be . . . . Because . . . . " I asked him the question and this was our conversation?

Me: If you could be anyone in the world, who would it be?
Aaron: ummm. Jesus!
Me: That's really nice. But I really can't write that. Besides Jesus, who would you be?
Aaron: Besides Jesus and Satan?
Me: Um. Ya. Besides Jesus and Satan.
Aaron: Myself.
Me: Why?
Aaron: Because, I love myself.

And that pretty much sums it up. He has been loved by everyone around him since the moment he was born. Including complete strangers. We rarely go anywhere without some lady stopping and commenting on how beautiful his hair is. As a toddler he rarely sat with our family at church. He took turns sitting with other adult friends (usually ep). He is quick to make friends of all ages and loves his "old" friends as much as his "young" ones. And they love him. It's no wonder he has such a healthy self-esteem.

He is also smart as a whip. He taught himself to count to 100 and on and on by studying the page numbers in the hymn book during sacrament meeting. He is extremely self motivated and will work and work on school work until he feels it is good enough. He is the only kid I've had that comes to me to work on his reading. Earlier this week, I found him running on the treadmill. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was "training."

"For what?"
"We are running laps at school and I want to be the fastest."

To top it off, he is super fun and keeps us all laughing. I know I am not alone when I say he is one of my favorite kids ever.

Happy Birthday to an AWESOME kid!