weddings....

We had the privilege of attending a wedding this last Monday evening. It was the wedding of my nephew Jeff and his beautiful bride Jessica.

Bare with me as I am posting alot of pictures. Jessica did such a great job of planning everything and it turned out absolutely perfect.

Jeff has been through alot over the last 6 years and Jessica has been so patient with him. We truly love her and are soo SOO happy to have her become part of our family!

Quade and Taylor

We left early in the morning so we had a full day to do somethings that we needed to do in the valley...as you can see, we had some very sleepy kids on the way down

My Neice Natalie (I will mention and make it very clear that she was the BRIDESMAID not the Flower girl) she is carrying her nephew Davin who is the ring barer but who refused to walk down the isle..so he got a lift



My nephew Bryan and his lovely wife Liz (parents to Davin)


My Nephew Michael and a friend of Jessica's


Jeff, getting alittle choked up....
because he was witnessing
this......


What a beautiful girl....making eye contact with HIM


Take a look at those who are here to love and support you


Introducing to you......Mr and Mrs Jeff Stowell



and now for the important part....You may kiss your bride!


Let's get the heck outta here!

The reception was Awesome! great food and great fun

We were so happy that Brittnee was able to make the trip home and then travel with us to the wedding...

Hayden holding the newest member of the family (next to Jessica)

Baby Keeley is only a week and a half old. Hayden got ahold of her early in the reception and refused to give her up. Even forgoing the buffet! how bazaar is that??!!

Nothing better looking then a guy holding a baby!

Sawyer puttin' on the moves... its too late Sawyer boy, shes already taken!

The cutting of the cake

Making the demands....

Him understanding the demands.....

and then there was dancing....

My sister Tammy and her hubby Randy

Father and Mother of the Groom

Jason and Kristi (my Niece) Parents to the new baby Hayden was holding

My Nephew Micheal dancing with my Mom

Jeff and Jessica are off on a whirlwind honeymoon to Italy and France...Jeff is on Spring break from UofA Medical school...so they are squeezing it all in!

Our best wishes and love goes out to you Jeff and Jess...WE LOVE YOU!

Cake and Presents...

Here are my birthday boys....this year they each got their very own cake

Because........

one likes white cake and the other likes chocolate

Twins, who sometimes make me wonder if they are really twins at all or just brothers who happen to have been born on the very same day! the similarities between these two are few and far between.

Blowing out the candles (almost more candles then cake!)

Nurf swards where the requested present this year

and then came.....

the GREAT granny presents!

RC glider planes....they LOVED them and have been out to fly them several times already!

and then pepper came in and laid down in the middle of the whole thing...trying to be inconspicuous!! lol
Monkey boy received two of his favorite things in one present...

a monkey and a beanie...and if you notice, it even has red hair!

he loves it and it has hardly left his head since arriving....he even slept in it two nights ago.

I have....

Lots to post but have been so incredibly busy.....hang in there, new updates are coming soon! I promise!!

A busy week...

For birthdays.....

we would also like to send out birthday wishes to our exchange students Felix (20th) and Joe (23rd) as well as our Aunt Gerri (25th) and Cousin Rhendon (25th)

We hope you all had a fantastic day on your special day!!

For Tiff....

It's 11:40 on March 22, 2009.....so im not too late to wish my dear friend Tiffany

A VERY VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

YOU chick, are an inspiration to us all!

love you and wish you were not so far away!

Birthday boys!.......

My Babies...My little tiny babies.....

are 9 years old today!

it is really, REALLY just not possible!

Just a few, very short days ago Noah looked like this...
and Sawyer looked like this.....
can you guess which one is older???

Just a few days before that.....they looked like this!


and just a very few days before that they looked like this....

and just a few, impossibly short days before that.....they looked like this!



where has the time gone?



We found out we were pregnant in August 1999...(which we were in shock about)
When you have trouble getting pregnant at all and have gone through alot to get the 5 kids you have and you are pretty sure that you are done having babies, it is pretty surprising to find out you are mysteriously (lol) pregnant again. Especially when your hubby is working a few states away and you only saw him 2 maybe 3 time in the last several months....
So surprised was an understatement!
We were preparing to move to Boise so we decided to wait until after the move in October to see the doctor. I packed and prepared for the move all by myself. It was hard work doing all that while taking care of 5 kiddos and being pregnant. After our move I made an appointment with our new AWESOME doctor and went to the appt by myself as Rich was new at his job and could not get away. When the doctor was examining me he told me that I was measuring a few weeks bigger then what I thought I was....I told him that I was positive about our conception date for obvious reasons....He said, well its probably just because you had twins before...lets just do an ultrasound to be sure...so he pulls out the machine and proceeds to check things out. And then...
Our world changed forever.
I went to the appt in full denial that I was even really pregnant at all. I fully expected him to tell me it was a false positive and that I really was not pregnant after all, only to have him tell me that we were indeed going to be parents again and that it was going to be twins again!!
This is point in this story where I lost my mind and I smacked him on the sleeve and said
SHUT UP!
luckily he had a good sense of humor!
He printed pictures for me and I left the office in shock. I drove to Rich's office and went in and asked him to come outside. He could see I was visible shaken. I handed him the pictures and he looked at them closely ( I did not say a word) and then he got a great big smile on his face and started to laugh. I did not think it was so funny but his reaction made EVERYTHING all right!
From that point on we had a pretty uneventful pregnancy. We found out in December that we were having BOYS!!!! oh my.....I was secretly hoping for two girls.
I was put on bed rest in February and was given drugs to keep us from contracting. We did much better with this pregnancy and were able to stay out of the hospital. Our goal was to make it to 36 weeks. And we did!! We went in for our 36 week visit and the doctor took us off the meds and told us we were allowed to have these babies any time now...so we left and went and walked and walked and walked some more...and BAM! We went into labor around 10pm
Our Labor and delivery was so much different then any of our other kids....these boys were not following the rules.
They set up the OR for us to deliver in "just in case"
Baby "A" ( who we will now call

Noah Richard)
was born on
March 21, 2000
at 10:09
5 lbs 4 oz
18 inches long

so now it was baby "b"s turn
only he had other plans....
He decided to go into hiding....and he was breech
this is where things get alittle graphic so if you are squeamish skip ahead...

The doctor had to "go in" after him....I was completely numb with epidural in preparation that I just might need a c-section if things got crazy...
So the doctor is up to his elbow (Rich resisted the urge to udder a MOOOO) trying to locate baby Bs feet or arms or head or anything that he can get a hold of in order to pull this baby out.
after about 20 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to get this tightly wound baby to turn or give up a limb, he finally called for everyone in the room to prep for a c-section. Which they started to prepare for....the doctor let me know that this would be his last attempt and then he would proceed with the c-section.
All of a sudden the doctors eyes, above his mask got extremely large and he said " your not going to believe this, but this baby just kicked his foot right into my hand" and he was then able to pull this baby from my womb feet first!
so after 3o minutes, and several bruises baby B emerged!

If you were the squeamish, who is skipping ahead, you can pick up the story here!
I must add at this point that although this story sounds horrific. This doctor was the absolute best and I felt he did everything right. I would not have changed a thing.

Sawyer Nicholas

was born
at 10:39
5 lbs 3 oz
18 1/2 inches

The first time I looked into their little faces....

I KNEW our FAMILY was COMPLETE!!

Really Stupid Comment!

a VERY UN-presidential comment?

you will need to scroll down and pause my music before you play the video

I guess i just expect more from someone that holds the position that this man does....I understand that alot of people dont find this comment out of line...I have a pretty good sense of humor and can joke around about things like this just like the next guy. Althought Im sure that there are many in the disabled community that would be far more offended by this then i was....bottom line, I hold his man to a higher standard...is that wrong?
would love to hear your comments....

hummmm maybe I should have started off by saying how wrong I feel it was that he even appeared on Jay Leno to begin with???

Track meet in Round Valley

Hayden had a track meet this morning in Round Valley. He ran the 4x800 relay first...he did his personal best of 2:08 taking another second off Wednesdays time. unfortunately the other members of the relay did not do so good and they ended up taking next to last place. After that he was pretty wiped out but went ahead and ran the individual 800 and had a time of 2:19 taking 4th place. The 1st place winner of that race did it in 2:17. So i guess if they would have ran the individual before the relay he would have done very well! still more work to be done.

Budget cuts...

I recently received a survey from our school asking for my opinion regarding the budget cuts that are affecting all he schools. I filled out the survey and at the bottom it asked me if i had any comments or other ideas for saving the district money. I very nicely let them know, that although this was probably small and insignificant, they might start by only mailing me ONE copy of the survey and letter vs the FIVE I received!!!!

A new baby....

My neice Kristi had her baby last night.

Its a GIRL!!!

Her name is Kee-Lee (spelling it phonetically because they don't know how they will spell it yet) maybe like this keighlei
No middle name yet..still thinking about it.
She was born at 10:21pm (went in at 4:30pm)
She weighs 7lbs 5oz
And she is 20 inches long

Everyone is doing great!!

Congrats to Kristi, Jason and big brother Corbin

It was pointed out to me....

that the 800 super star can do the 800 in 2:00 and that he was just taking it easy today(no im not talking about hayden, but rather his competition)

Track Progress...

He's making progress and its starting to show....too bad he did not stick with this sport after 8th grade! his coach said he has natural talent in the 800 and he really wished he would have been running this event since he was a freshman...

Today he attended his 3rd track meet of the season....in Winslow.

He did the disc (not sure of his distance yet)

He did the 300 hurdles and came in next to the last

and he did the 800 relay...their team came in 2nd.

but he shaved 5 seconds off his time, coming in at 2:09!

he did not run the 800 today but the person who won the 800 (who is the favorite in this event and has been for several years) came in at 2:15

It will take alot more work and motivation but things are looking good!

Chicago....

Last weekend Rich and I attended an EF meeting in Chicago...it was beautiful! sunny and mostly warm and NOT windy!!

We had a fun time, got to hang out with old friends and got alot of great instruction regarding our role in EF and how to do it better! Rich and I at Navy Pier...
Our Arizona group took a limo to dinner one night...surprisingly cheap!
Johnny, Rich, a gal from another state, lynn, a gal from the italian office, Dayton, Debbie, me, Tom, my mom, Natalie and Nelda...and Hanne up there payin the bill!
and Sara was taking the picture! thanks Sara

Lake Michigan.....Wrigley Field...

Very interesting bleacher seats about the buildings outside the park (click on it and check it out!)

and we even got to take in a performance of the BLUE MAN GROUP!

super entertaining and interesting....alittle weird even! lol

Wrestlers....

Noah and Sawyer participated in a little kids wrestling "workshop" this past week...second year that they have done it and they love it...i think they have alittle advantage because they are always wrestling each other at home. This year was not as easy for them as last year was and they can see that they have alot of work to do if they want to become better at this sport. They were able to add a few new moves to their small repertor...then at the end of the week they did a little tournament for the boys to see how they could do and to receive alittle hardware for their efforts.

Sawyer making his move......

more Sawyer moves....

Noah taking his first win...

Noah took 1st in his weight class...

Noah with his Medal

A very somber Sawyer took 3rd place this year....he took 1st last year so was kind of expecting to do alittle better this year...would have, if those darn wrestling crazy Mogollon kids would not have come over for the tournament! LOL



Here is alittle video footage of Noah's match

Best friends?

As much as they deny it, and as much as they don't want us to believe that it is true....its moments like this that restore my faith that they really are......

BEST FRIENDS

(SIDE NOTE: immediately following the taking of this picture I was chased down and begged to delete it! LOL)