"I'm not even scared of the dark."

So Monday morning, cute Rhett comes into my room and snuggles with me on the bed.  When he decides he's ready for breakfast he starts getting out of said bed.  He stumbles as he's a little too wound up in the covers and bangs his lip on the night stand splitting his lip in the process.  We called the nurses to see if we needed stitches for something like that.  Since it had cut not only his lip but across the lip line onto the skin area they wanted us to go to the ER.

I love love love American Fork Hospital.  We didn't need to wait hardly at all and the nurses were doing such a great job at keep Rhett calm and happy.  The doctor came in and had a look at the lip, let us know when the anesthesiologist would be in and said he'd be using the papoose.  (YIKES--that's a board that they strap kids too so that they can't move their arms, legs or head...that sounds so scary)  When the nurse came in with the anesthesiologist she told Rhett he looked pretty brave and maybe they wouldn't have to use that thing.  He replied by saying,

"I'm not even scared of the dark." 

Just so matter-of-factly in a 'you better believe it' sort of way. HA! She said, 'well well, then we'll be just fine'. 

And he was AMAZING!  The worst part was the shot of anesthetic.  They had to go in the cut and fill the whole thing up with a numbing agent.  I was holding Rhett's hand and he didn't cry at all--or even whimper. He teared up and you could tell he was nervous, but honestly I wanted to bawl just from watching his brave little face.  (It was incredible the size of his lip after this. It was just like they had pumped up a balloon.)

The stitching was no problem for Rhett. His lip was (GIANT) all the way numb and he had Curious George to watch (T.V. above the doctors head.)

Right!  Huge right?!  He got 3 stitches in it.

I texted both Grandma's to tell them how brave Rhett was.  Both were adorable and bought him cute get well soon gifts.  My mom brought home soft goodies to snack on, and Jess' mom had this balloon bouquet sent to our door.  

Adorable!

A week later he had the stitches removed and was equally as brave.  Tough kid that one.

April 2014

Hot Pads: The Answer to all General Conference Quandaries

April 2014

A little partying to celebrate Conference and George's birthday!  Huzzah!

There was a quick snowfall on Saturday.  Luke was adorable and jumped outside so quickly. After 5 minutes we looked out back to see him done with the first layer of a snowman already (Best. Snow. Ever--the kind that picks up every bit of snow as your roll.)  He was so awesome to get started on his own. We promptly ushered all the kids out and in a matter of 10 minutes we had this!  (Complete with random antlers that Uncle Riley found in the field and chased the kids with earlier that day.)

I kind of feel like I hit on something AMAZING this year.  The age-old question of

  'What's the right way to do conference with kids?' 

is always a baffling one.  

Do you fill the whole day with games and so they like it but you get nothing out of it? 

Do you make them sit and watch all 4 sessions with nothing to do so that you can maybe get something out of it?  

Nope--the answer is 2 words:

HOT PADS

Honestly this is the best idea ever guys.  The kids (and all the adults--these things are awesome) were able to sit still, keep their hands busy--but STILL have the brain power to pay attention to the speakers and the stillness to feel the spirit!!!

(Not to mention that when they were all done with their hot pads they gave them away as gifts!  

We'll be making many a hot pads over the years! YAY!)  

(okay so Max totally didn't make one, I just wanted him in the picture.  But Rhett was able to do a LARGE portion of his hot pads without help.  A.MAZE.ING.  Just say'n)

Ahhhh.  Cute.

Melodie was in town so we all congregated at Emily's house to hang out.

This is a very very very special picture.  Just really really special.

I wish I could explain how hilarious this moment was...We were all laughing so so so hard. I love this family so so much.  HA!

Luke 2014

April 13, 2014

Luke turns 8!!!!

Favorite Food: "Pizza. No wait- ice cream"

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Time Spenders: Mindcraft, and Steal the  Flag

Teacher-School/Church: Mrs. Mendez/ Walter Adamson and Bro. Johnson

Food Expertise: Fried Eggs and Mac and Cheese

Closest Friends: Owen, Ian, Jo, Bridger

Jess and I love watching the transformation that happens around 8 years old. When they truly are understanding more of what is happening around them and becoming accountable for their actions.  Luke has been so beautiful to watch.  He plays so much more with his little brothers, is so sad when he makes mistakes, and just has had more heart for life.  WE LOVE HIM SOOO MUCH!

What can I say about that little guy...for starters:

HE LOVE'S:(it's not that he's just loving....he naturally just really loves people):  

Luke is the first in all our family to do a secret service.  He'll help grandma pick the raspberries or weed the garden, He makes me breakfast in bed all the time. The other morning Rhett had been having a hard time being happy in the morning for some reason.  Luke bounded upstairs and I saw him a few minutes later handing me a plate of breakfast and bringing me back to my bed.  (It had two different types of toast with jam on it, and a thermos with Carnation Instant Breakfast.)  He said "I knew you were having a hard time with Garrett. And I just wanted to help." Then Rhett asked for breakfast right after that, and Luke said 'I'll get it'.  In fact he volunteers to cook the family meals a ton.  And he probably wraps up and gives Jess gifts and trinkets at least once a month.  He LOVES his aunts and uncles and cousins and wants to be with them always.  He's such a good friend and has strong loyalties.  

HE'S CREATIVE:Just the other day he made the coolest thing by just exploring ideas.  He used a magnet on the bottom of a paper plate to move a paper clip on the top. Then he drew a road to drive it on, and taped down tin foil in arches to create tunnels or bridges and a garage to send his paper clip through.  He just LOVES digging into our craft supplies and making ANYTHING. I generally find out he's been 'exploring ideas' afterwards as I look at a counter full of puff balls, scrap paper, glue, tape, staples, markers....I guess the cleaning up comes later?

HE'S PASSIONATE: He wears his emotions on his sleeve--good and bad. He's quick to say "Thanks so much mom!" when he's happy about something, and he's also quick to scream out at a brother that's hurt him.  (His voice is very very present in letting us know how he's feeling :)  When he gets in trouble, his heart breaks and there is genuine sorrow.  He makes mistakes, and he explores agency on an 8 year old level, and I love it.  I'm soooo glad he's exploring now, and learning those valuable lessons now, so he won't have to later (that's the idea anyway :).  His heart is pure, genuine, and powerful.

When Luke faces challenges or let downs, his natural reaction is to get right back up.  When gymnastics is hard for him, he keeps going and tries harder.  When I watch him learn something new, or fall down skating, or after a fight with a brother or friend---he naturally gets up to try again with a smile; but I love watching his EFFORT AFTER that.  It's like the getting up is right in his blood--but after that, when it's hard--HE TRIES SO HARD without being told.  I don't know how to say this right--but he just has so much heart. 

He loves getting the chance to bare his testimony every fast Sunday at church.  He's not afraid of crowds or giving talks and usually jumps at the chance.  He likes performing and being in the spot light.  He's funny and kind and just freaken awesome.  Love you little man!

Quextival or Bust

April 2014

 Quextival:

Cotopaxi Quextival is a 24-hour outdoor adventure race where teams of 2-4 people compete by completing challenging and fun activities for points and document them via social media.  

Jess told me about this a week or so before he left for Hong Kong. And even though he had major jet lag AND had just missed a week and a half of school AND had finals to study for....being the awesome husband he is, bought us matching shirts, water bottles and we set off for 24 hours of AWESOMENESS!!! YAY!

The start time was 6:00 p.m. in Provo where we signed in, were given backpacks, and a list of the challenges.  We'd charted the things we thought would be fun the night before and tried to plot them so we could maximize our points.  Scott and his friends were a team, and we buddied up with them for a bunch of it.  (extra points were awarded for camping with another team and a few others to boot).  

We probably did at least 50 different activities but here are some of the favs:

Scott's apartment had a pool which is where we started.

'Jump into a body of water with clothes on"

Row across a body of water + Float on an air mattress on water 

(see how we combined those two--woo woo)

Eat a hot dog with hot sauce wearing hot pants in a hot tub- 6 pts.

Later we 'Played a pick-up sport with strangers (played a water polo game with some guys at Scott's pool)

6 second handstand in a public place- 3 pts

(Jess planked for 30 seconds outside the BYU art museum and we videoed it as people walked in and out.  It was hilarious....) 

We ate at a Peruvian restaurant-, watched the sunset then bought ourselves some fancy spandex from the window of a costume store for our hike!

Hike the "Y" mountain-  10 pts.  (extra 5 points for hiking in spandex-woo woo!)

The hike was amazing.  The weather was nice and cool and we had our awesome headlamps.  Jess has horrible HORRIBLE feet, but luckily they weren't that bad that night.
He was making his blueberry spandex work!  Ha ha--he's so so funny.

That night on the way to the campsite Jess "yodelled in a public place" --inside the gas station.  We picked up donuts and hot chocolate to share with Scotts team for our 'random act of kindness, where we warmed up chatting and talking with Scott, Nate and Alyssa--sooo nice and fun--huddled by the car for extra warmth since we didn't start a fire--ha ha.  Then set up our camp.  (which we promptly moved about 5 seconds before we all fell asleep because apparently we were on someone else's reserved campsite. They got there about 1:00 and just asked us to scoot over a bit so they could use the trees (extra points for sleeping in a hammock). The campground was soooo crowded that night!

Shared a campsite with another team,

Slept under the stars,

woke up and 'observed nature for 30 minutes' before getting out of our snug warm bags.

Then started a fire without matches (so this worked AMAZINGLY well for Scott who used flint and stone, and my battery method sorta worked....but not to fruition--just to get some good sparks.  Way way cool though that either of those started a flame! Watched the sunrise (sorta again--it was overcast--who really knew when it came above the mountain for sure...)

Roasted pop tarts over said fire...

Drew a picture of a llama with charcoal- 2pts.

How amazing is that drawing?! For reals.  That boys got mad llama skills.

Went sledding 

(we were going really fast...and I wasn't sure about how our ending was gonna go on that hard icy snow.  That's legit fear on my face right there.)

That morning we saw the sunrise, saw a waterfall

 Hit Sundance Ski Resort and then we all stopped for Breakfast at McDonald's--then back to the race.

 We stopped home for a quick shower (we're not animals :),
Put on Cotopaxi Llama tattoo's! BAM!-- 2pts.

planted a flower, swung on a rope swing

Saw the kiddos that mom was soooooooooooooo nice to watch during the race.
For reals though. She's so so nice.

Went to a local sporting event (Go Viking Baseball!), went down a slide at a park, picked up 10 pieces of trash on a trail, 

Hiked the "G"--which I think is a lot harder then hiking the "Y"

Ate from a street vender 
(BEST 'street vender' EVER-- We had the most delicious Monte Cristo
and for dessert had a Strawberry Smore Sandwich.  mmmmmm)

Went to the capital 

Then hiked the 'U'
HA HA--hiked is a very loose term there.  It's like right off the road....so...it wasn't super 'strenuous'....

Visited This is the Place Monument, Went to the zoo and had our picture taken by the llama's, Went to the natural history museum to have our picture taken by the Allasaurus , then Trolly Square, then to The Leonardo Museum to donate a dollar

"U" "G" "L" "Y"
Got 20 points for finishing all 3 hikes and making this fancy "L" shape in Lehi.

And to finish off the day:

Milk a farm animal-5pts.
I was soooooo happy about this one.  I have always wanted to milk a cow for some reason. I didn't know anyone with cows so I didn't think we could do it. We pulled into the parking lot at Thanksgiving point and tried to find the finish line.  Jess pulled over so I could ask some fellow Cotopaxians (there really was such a fun bond with anyone you saw around town doing the race!) where it was.  They told us and also said that we could milk a cow right where we were- WOO WOO!  Apparently it was a little petting zoo and they let people milk a cow for like an hour each day.  Special special day for me. :)

We had something like 250 points by the end (Which was pretty average.  The winning co-ed team had 629 and the lowest teams had 1).  We had soooooo much fun!  Running all over town being so random, and just hanging out.  I love this guy.  If they ever do this again we're totally bringing the boys with us.  We Loved It!

Mom was a SAINT and watched the boys so we could do the race.  

She even made tye dye shirts with them. How adorable is that!?  Adorable.  She's great. 

Thanks mom!

Jess visits ASIA

Jess is loving law school. Sure he's got tons more kids then the average none that his classmates have.  And sure he's got ADD and his mind is ridiculously busy all the time and has an extremely hard time focusing it to read bajillions of books every night.  BUT--he's amazing and still somehow finds time to spend time with us.  He's awesome.

He was picked as part of a small exclusive team he called VIS 

(Willem Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot to be precise)

From the sound of it, their competitions were similar to debate teams.  They'd get an issue, and as a team of 2 debate another schools team and both would be judged for their performance and material presented and law cited and what not....(I'm kind of guessing here...I've never seen it but it seems? like it was like this???)

He had competitions at school, one in California, and one it, WHAT? HONG KONG! 

Now, for anyone who knows Jess, he's not exactly a jabber-mouth, but here are some fun things that I was able to get out of him.  (chatting with him and then furiously typing to get the gist of it :)

The team, plus a couple of parents who came along (10 people) stayed in one tiny apartment.  Their days consisted of competing until about 2:00 each day.  Jess felt pretty good about his rounds.  He said the competition was fun.  And that he learned a bunch about the types of things he might really see in that field (which is his favorite at the moment--International commercial arbitration---How to really help companies with arbitration disputes and what not.

After the competition each day they were able to go site-seeing!  

He saw some really interesting rural communities but his favorite place was visiting the giant Buddha. 

 "It was at the top of a giant hill and we got to see lots of rain forest-y type jungle."  

The surrounding area was a group of monasteries.  It had such a reverent and holy feel in the monasteries.   It was fun to walk around and see the care they had taken for the gardens and see the mist rolling through the valley.  The atmosphere couldn't have been better.

While there, Jess paid an old lady the equivalent of .50 and got to pick a stick out of a big bundle of sticks-it matches with  a fortune in this giant book.

This was his:

They rode a gondola that had a glass bottom that was 'pretty neat'.  

(Julie and Emily--do you hate the idea of this sooo much?)

Jess said that the most shocking thing to him was: "The density of the people!  I was really anxious the entire time. Everywhere I went someone was touching me.  So many people." And seriously! Look at this picture! Even if there was no one on that entire street, with all those signs and advertisements everywhere I might have gone crazy!  Wowza!

He LOVED the horse races. "It was a drizzly night.  They have a big huge ornate track right in the middle of Hong Kong. The horse races are a big important business event for Hong Kong. People go there to talk shop and make deals.  We stood right up against the fence and watched. It was fun to see them go past so close."  

"I lost $2 betting on a horse"

Monkey Mountain: "Poop everywhere and the monkeys were super mean."

Jess and the other guys were fitted for suits at a little custom shop out there. He got to pick out EVERYTHING.  The lining, stitching, outer materials.  His was a subdued blue and green plaid suit--I love it !  It was super cheap comparatively.  This is what he had to say about it: "My friends at Andover Tailors (Paul and Mohammed) did a great job of making me feel like I was the most important customer in the world. :)  It was lots of fun."

 They tried lots of interesting foods.  This is something he had for breakfast one morning (gag) that he said was actually pretty good:

His favorite food though was a chicken dish that he at in a little fishing village.  They got there by taking, "the worst bus ride in the world" (through the mountains in the fog in such a turn-y road that they were nauseated quite a bit by the sounds of it) and walked into a restaurant in the middle of the lunch rush and were surrounded by locals.

 

Jess picked something that he saw someone else eating, and said it was delicious! 

Best choice ever: Upgrading to a larger seat for the 14 hour flight home!

The end.