We made it!!!

Picture overload! Canada is beautiful and we have only been here for 2 days. More pix to come I am sure. I can't help myself taking lots of pix when it looks so awesome out! We drove to SLC on Thursday and to Cardston on Friday. Thursday night we stayed with my brother Travis' fam minus Travis who was working. The kids were so excited to play with Ethan and Brie. Friday we drove thru Rexburg to reminisce - still love that place and miss it so much! So that is the temple pic towards the bottom. Friday night we got into Cardston and the weather is perfect. Poor Maelie hurt her ankle on the tramp that night and has been hobbling around ever since. We are contemplating getting her an Xray on Monday morning. Saturday we went to Waterton! First we went by the lake and it was sooo windy so we didn't stay there long. We found a cute creek area to play and roast some hot dogs. We saw deer, a black bear, and buffalo - the kids loved it. The pix are all pretty randomly placed because we are headed out on a walk to the temple. But the pic at the top is pretty funny, Jaxon insists on sleeping with the huge blowup car.

conference

I love conference weekend. I always take notes because I think I have ADD or something. I have the hardest time paying attention, I do better if I write things down. And then when I am asked about what I liked I can't remember anything. So... after going thru my notes I am going to write a little about my favorite talks and hopefully this will help the messages sink in more, haha! I liked Elder Scott's talk. He is one of my favorites. When we were at BYUI, he apologized for not being able to shake everyone's hand so he gave us all a virtual handshake at the beginning of his talk. I like how he said to "be what you want to be by being what you want to become." There are a lot of qualities I wish I had and the only way I can do that is by being that person I want to be. It's kind of like back when I had a list of what I wanted in an eternal companion. Well, if I wanted those qualities in my companion, I also needed to be those qualities. And now that I have an eternal compaion I hope to continue to strive to be the best me I can be. He also said that we should be thankful when Heavenly Father lets us struggle for a long time because it is then we can grow and become better people. For some reason, I am having the hardest time in my life confidence wise. I am trying to be grateful and become a better me. I liked Pres Eyring's talk. He said to trust in the Lord, do whatever he asks, and to search for his will in everything. I also liked how Sis. Cook said to never do anything we don't want our children to do. That was a good reminder. :) Elder Lawrence gave a talk to parents of teenagers and eventho I don't have teenagers, I still found it useful. He said that parents who love their children cannot afford to be intimidated by them and parenting is not a popularity contest. Our children may not understand why we won't let them do something but they will be grateful someday, hopefully. :) And he said that if your spouse doesn't feel comfortable about doing something then show respect. That is huge, I think. I hope I remember that. I'm sure there will be times when Jonas doesn't want the kids to go somewhere or do something and I do and that can cause friction. But I hope that I can remember to respect Jonas and to talk it out. He also said that we should encourage our children to not be a couple until they are ready for marriage. This means after high school for girls and after the mission for boys. I have always agreed with this and luckily Jonas agrees too. And to keep up with family prayers, scriptures, dinner, FHE, and interviews. It is a crazy place we are raising our kids in today! And of course Pres. Monson. He is a prophet of God and I am so grateful! He reminded us to be thankful for our many many blessings. Money can't even buy the things that really matter in life like family and the gospel and that is what we usually take for granted. He told us to frequently express love and gratitude for our family and thank Heavenly Father daily for all we have. It was a great conference! I look forward to reading it from the Ensign. I am soooooooooo far from being anywhere near perfect. And I hope I can atleast be humble and kind to those around me. I hope I can be a good wife and mother and never lose my testimony.

The kids did ok during conference. I printed tons of pages that kept them pretty busy. My sweet mom made them cupcakes. They got to eat one for each of the first presidency. And then the 12 had different snacks and treats. They stayed in front of the tv for all 4 sessions, excited to see what treat they got next. Maelie couldn't wait for Elder Bednar to speak and he ended up being in the last session. He is her favorite because she met him when she was a baby right after he got called to the 12 from being Pres of BYUI.

Maelie's GI called this morning and her biopsies all came back normal. This is a good thing for sure but I'm really not sure what to do now.

We are headed to Canada early Thursday morning! We haven't been on a trip longer than a couple days since last time we went to Canada about 15 months ago. I am so ready for a trip!!!

Maelie's fun hospital experience

On Thursday morning I took Maelie to Banner Desert hospital to get an upper endoscopy and a colonoscopy. She has had constant tummy pain, frequent UTI's, and some other unfun things. I was hoping to find some answers and I was hoping the answers wouldn't be scary and they would be easy to fix. Instead of finding answers, a small problem was created. There are a few risks in getting this procedure and lucky Maelie got one. The dr's little suction hose got her colon and gave her what the dr calls a hickey. Wanna see a picture? I have one. :) Anyway, I should find out about her biopsies next week. But.... because of this the dr wanted to keep her overnight to make sure she was ok. We were there from Thursday early morning to Friday about noon. I hadn't even thought of this possibilty at all but we made it. We juggled the kids and my mom helped a ton and it worked out fine. Maelie and I slept in her hospital bed from about midnight to 4 am. At 4 am they woke us up to get Maelie's bloodwork, her least fave thing in the whole entire world and it took me and 4 nurses to get some blood out of her. Poor poor girl. But luckily we were at the new Cardon Children's hospital and it was great! After the bloodsucking, Maelie got to go in this toy closet and pick any toy she wanted. They were good toys, too. She got a Kailan lego set. We got to be there as a family for a few hours Thursday night and eat dinner together. Kyla and Jaxon loved the train garden, waterfall, and giant chess/checkers set. Maelie enjoyed doing crafts, watching movies, and visits from family. That girl is such a champ! It's too bad she came home with that pesty tummy ache plus bleeding. I am keeping an eye on her and I have the dr's cell number and a straight in to a room at the hopsital if Maelie needs it.

gaps

I got Maelie's 1st grade pix back yesterday. I was excited that she would get the whole missing teeth pic and asked her to make sure she smiled big and showed off those missing teeth. I was not dissapointed with her pic. She is getting her EGD done tomorrow morning at the hospital. I hope we can get some answers without the answers being too scary if that makes sense.

Kyla also has a gap in her teeth but hers is not from losing teeth. I wonder if that gap will disapear when her big teeth come in. For now I think it's adorable. She had a great idea to put a carrot in her gap at dinner. Silly girl!

primary program

Jaxon has always been an AWESOME sleeper. Goes right to bed at night and right to bed at naptime. Well... recently he wants nothing to do with naptime. We put his road mat in his bedroom so he can have his own space to play with his cars. He plays in there for hours at a time. So this past week I haven't put him in bed but just let him play with his cars and he usually ends up on the floor like this. He looks so sweet when he sleeps. He really needs to quit growing!

Today was the primary program! Kyla's 1st and Maelie's... 3rd! Kyla was worried at first about saying it without help but she did it. I was up on the stand and Jonas said her part was pretty loud, but cute. :) Maelie did awesome. Kyla was pretty wiggly and ended up on my lap towards the end. I always love the primary program, it would be nice to watch from the audience but atleast I could see both girls from where I was sitting. I love all the songs! So awesome and the kids are so cute singing them. I love my primary class! They are seriously some of the best kids. I love each one of them so much and I think I will be really sad to see them move on in January. Here is a little video after church of the girls saying their part and singing part of a song. Funny that Maelie forgot her part in the video because she never forgets it.

nothing to blog about

Yes, we are still alive but I haven't taken any pictures. That's how I blog. I upload pix, see what's there and blog about it. We are heading to Canada in 2 1/2 weeks and I am REALLY excited! I wish I were atleast 30 pounds lighter because everything is more fun skinny but what do ya do? I am excited for cooler weather, it's been in the 40's there, yay!! And I am really excited to go to Waterton, I need to see beautiful scenery I think once a day, but I guess once a year will have to suffice. :) And it will be great to be with Jonas' fam too of course. His little bro is coming home from his mission while we are there and we will get to celebrate Canadian thanksgiving IN Canada. I got a new double jogging stroller on Thursday. I plan on taking Jaxon and Kyla to the park on the other side of our mile block each morning. I hope the weather will cool down really soon because from 9-10 when we can go, it's still getting into the 90s - ugh!! Jaxon had his check up this week after his surgery and his hearing is perfect. So maybe he can learn English now instead of jibberish. :) I will miss his jibberish tho, I need to get it on video. Jonas is on a campout with the deacons, they are finishing their fishing merit badge. Shannon came over last night to hang with us and after she left I fell asleep watching netlix on the laptop in our room. I can't go to bed by myself anymore. This morning we had bountiful basket pickup and Jonas always does it. So I had to load the kids up at 7 am and go get the basket. It was super heavy and I barely made it to the car. I got bread and tortillas on top of the fruit and veggies. When we got back home Kyla and Jaxon rode in our new stroller (I love that stroller and so far the kids do too) while Maelie rode her scooter around. And then Maelie and Kyla rode their bikes. I told Maelie it would be a good goal to take her training wheels off before she was 7, I thought that was a reasonable goal, but she did NOT! Tomorrow is the week before the primary program and since we have overlapping wards in our building, the whole primary will be crammed into the primary room to practice, should be interesting. Maelie has her part down, Kyla does with help and she is a little worried about doing it without my help, so we shall see how she does. This is her first primary program! It will be fun having 2 kids in the program this year and I am hoping I will get to sit in the audience. Last year I sat up front because I had a girl in my class that wouldn't sit up there without me. Anyway, I have sure been babbling for having nothing to blog about. I am going to go mop this dirty floor!

Jaxon's tubes

Today Jaxon got tubes put in his ears. We had to be at the hospital at 5:30 am. I was so worried about how he would act without his morning milk but he was totally fine. In the waiting room I was prepared with new toys - construction trucks, a motorcycle, and a new Thomas train. He was fine. :) When we went back, the nurse asked me to put some scrubs on him. He wanted nothing to do with them so he stayed in his diaper the entire time. While we waited for surgery time, I gave him wagon rides around the hospital, he watched a little tv, and played with his toys. When it came time for surgery the nurse took him back in the wagon and I had to go to the waiting room. That part was a little sad to see them take my baby away! His surgery was so quick tho and Jonas got there in time for him to be done. He was already awake when we got back there but pretty grumpy. He almost threw up in the hospital but other than that he has been fine today. I don't know why I was worried!!!

JEEPERS

On Labor Day we used one of our coupons from the entertainment book and went to Jeepers. I have never been there before, it's a cute place with lots of fun little rides for the kids. We spent about 3 hours there, but the kids probably could have stayed all day.