Talent

Tanner had a lot of fun this basketball season.  He progressively got a lot better and by the end of the season was one of the lead defenders.  I love watching his games and cheering him on.  I'm always so sad when the season is over.  Unfortunately we didn't really get any action shots.  However, I did manage a picture of him picking up his treat.  Not quite sure how that happened :)

Tanner was able to have quite the cheering section at a few of his games.  Grandpa and Grandma Whipple came to a game and Grandma and Grandpa Sillito came to his last game (which is why I happened to have my camera there).

 Mickell and Hailey were able to participate in our ward talent show.  They did a tumbling routine and did amazing!  Kell is able to do her round offs and round off back hand springs by herself now and Hailey does awesome at round offs, mountain man round offs and back walk overs.

CRAZY!!!!

Yup.... mom and dad have a lot of fun with crazy hair day!

A Tribute

Yesterday I got a letter in the mail saying that my OB passed away unexpectedly a few weeks ago.  I was sad but didn't realize how much that news would affect me.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about him since then.  I've read his obituary 4 times and read all 140 comments in the online guest book.  At one point last night I thought, "This is so silly that I can't stop thinking about this, he was my OB for crying out loud."  Then I realized that there is a reason that I feel such a connection to this man.  He was there on one of the best days of my life, he was there on one of the worst days of my life, and he was there for one of the longest, hardest trials I've been through.  

One of the best days- I'll never forget the day that Ashlyn was born.  Doctor Healy helped me feel calm when I was definitely nervous.  I remember a lot of his conversation during the surgery and I remember him holding Ashlyn up over the curtain so that I could see her.  He is the only doctor I've had that has ever done that.

One of the worst days-  It was just Doctor Healy and me when I found out that my pregnancy with my 5th baby- that we had been hoping for for so so long- was going to have to be terminated because it was tubal.  He was very compassionate but also very straight forward that I was not allowed to leave his office because my situation was very serious.   He basically saved my life and spent 2 1/2 hours with me in emergency surgery making sure that I was going to be okay.  Afterward he told me that I was pretty messed up :) 

My trial- Doctor Healy was there during my three year struggle with trying to have another baby.  Even though the outcome wasn't what we hoped or prayed for, I know that everything happened for a reason.  Doctor Healy was always respectful of me, even when we didn't agree on the steps that should be taken.  

Here are a few of the zillions of things I'll remember... 

I remember going in to him when I was pregnant with Ashlyn.  I informed him upfront that I'd never had a normal pregnancy.  He jokingly said that I'd also never had him for a doctor.

I remember when he came in one day to check on me in the hospital after Ashlyn was born.  He did his exam and then just sat down on the couch like he was going to stay.  He stayed and visited for a good 20 minutes or more.  He told me about how he was about to deliver a baby that was being born at 20 weeks.  There was no way the baby would survive.  I could just tell, as he was talking about it, how emotionally draining this was.  It showed me something that I already knew, his job was more than just a job to him.  He really really cared about his patients.

He was a total perfectionist (which is a good thing to be in his field!)  I remember several times that he would walk into the room and have to straighten the chairs, or re-wipe the counter.  Well, because of this perfectionism, he was always commenting on how he would love to remove a small mole that I had on my chin.  He just couldn't understand why I would leave it there when he could totally chop it off (He had the kind of personality that it was impossible to be offended by these kind of comments.)  Finally, after Ashlyn was born, I let him do it.  Well, he wasn't about to stop with that one mole.  He kept asking if he could take off another and another.  He was having so much fun I had to laugh.  After 6 or 7, I finally said I was good.  He said, "Let me just do this one more.  I'll do it for free."  I'm not sure why he didn't go into dermetology, but I still laugh when I think about that day.

So, there you have it.  Is a blog post about my OB super strange?  Yup, it definitely is.  But, he's someone that I will forever be grateful to.  We've sure been through a lot together!  

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of Doctor Healy... his hands. :)

Valentines Day

We had a fun valentines day this year.  I was able to help out with Tanner and Mickell's school party.  I did a valentine version of minute to win it.   I always get nervous before things like that but it ended up being a lot of fun.  That night we had our traditional valentines day candlelight dinner.  The only problem is that Baylen had the day off and wanted to take me out to lunch.  We were both still so full when it came time for dinner.  Baylen didn't eat at all and I tried to swallow a few bites.  But it definitely wasn't as yummy as it would have been if I hadn't already consumed a million calories that day.  We decided that next year we will for sure choose a different day to go out. 
                                

Hailey's Show

Hailey did a great job at her 2nd grade program.  Grandma Whipple and Bailey were able to come up and watch... which made it even more of a special day!

Her program was about America.  They asked for pictures of the kids and servicemen to make a slideshow.  So, we got a picture with Hailey and her soon to be Uncle Seth who is in the Marines.
                                                   
                                                

I Got a Job!

Okay, not really.  But I think I found something I can do that is just about as good as a part time job.  My cute cousins have really gotten into couponing.  They've inspired me to try too!  Two of my resolutions this year are to build up my food storage and to put more money into savings.  By doing this, I can accomplish both.  It hasn't been easy, but it is definitely addicting!  I LOVE checking out at the stores now and watching my total go down to virtually nothing.  I've always wanted to be able to post a picture of all my insane deals like so many people do.  So, just to cross it off my bucket list, here is a picture of a few of my deals from this past month.  Of course, it's not everything.  But, I think I included most of the really impressive finds :)

All of my purchases below cost me a total of $3.40. 
                            

Smartie Pants

So Ashlyn continues to amaze me everyday.  Sometimes I think that I'm totally holding her back by being her mom.  She is so darn smart and I don't do enough to encourage her in her learning.  The way that she thinks, being only 4, is crazy.  Here are a few examples...

The other day she was playing her Nickelodeon fit game on the wii.  The game is an exercise game where you have to do different things in a race.  Ashlyn was using her remote to paddle a canoe.  Part way through the race she said, "Mom, since Dora is facing the opposite way from me, should I use my opposite hand to follow her." 

One day during family home evening we were talking about happy homes.   I was trying to explain that all homes are different and had the kids tell me what kind of animals live in the water, trees, etc.  When I asked about trees, each of the kids said an animal.  Of course there were the expected answers, like bird.  But, when it got to Ashlyn, she casually said Spider Monkey.  What on earth is a spider monkey?!  I had never heard of that animal before.  But, don't fear, I found out it does exist. 

One night Ashlyn was looking at the pictures in the kids scripture reader.  She came up to me, pointed at a word, and said, "Mom does that say Ammaron?  She then proceeded to read the rest of the sentence.  That was our first experience with the fact that she can actually read.  Another day she came up to me and asked if I would help her with her reading.  She grabbed a book and started reading away.  There were only a few words that I really had to help her with.  She was reading words like farmer and corn without even sounding them out.  I have to explain that we haven't really been working on reading at all, so going from not reading to reading like that totally blew my mind.

Two nights ago I was helping Hailey with her homework.  There was a story problem that she was really struggling with.  It said, "Kyle ate 2 slices of oranges after each swim race.  He participated in 3 races.  How many orange slices did he eat."  Poor Hailey was not understanding this.  So I read it to her a few different times.  Ashlyn sat listening and after a few minutes couldn't take it any more.  She called out, "It's 6."  We all got a good laugh out of the fact that Ashlyn is answering 2nd grade math problems.  

Just this week, she has started insisting on doing "her" homework each night.  She grabs Tanner and Mickell's old 1st grade math workbook and will do several pages.  She is answering problems like 2+5=, 9+1= without any help at all.  The one thing that does frustrate her is when she writes the answer and doesn't like how her number looks.  The other night she was so so frustrated.  She kept saying, "My 2 looks like a Z."  Nothing I said helped her feel better.  Finally, in desperation to get her to stop whining, I said, "Ashlyn, you have to remember that you are only four."  She said, "I don't care, I want it to look like a 2."  I'm glad she is driven to do her best.  I'm just hoping that we can figure out a way to challenge her enough in school since she can already process 2nd grade work :)!  

Winter Get Away

This year our Pass of all Passes included free skiing and free snowboard or ski rentals.  We decided to take advantage of that and plan a ski trip with our neighbors the Hintze's.  We love the Hintze's.  Their kids match up perfect with ours and they all get along great.  The Stott's also met us up there on Wednesday.  I didn't have my camera out when they were there, but it was so fun meeting up with them.  

We had an amazing time.  I was so nervous beforehand because I've never been skiing before.  However, Amber was super sweet to teach Ashlyn and me and it ended up being so much fun.

This is the magic carpet that the beginners started at.  Ashlyn spent most of her time here.  She got so good that she could go up and down all by herself.   Funny story about the magic carpet.  My first time on it, I fell backwards while trying to get on.  I could not pull myself back up.  So I rode it up flat on my back.  I felt kind of dumb learning with the little four and five year olds.  But oh well, better late than never!!!

 Mickell and Aubrielle

 Kell is a natural.  By the end of the first day, she was going on all the big hills.  She loved being with her friends!!!

 Tanner and Braden

 Our cute friends, Amber and Chris

 Ashlyn did awesome.  For the most part she was super patient and had a great time.  There was only one meltdown on one of the days when her boot was hurting her.  But, nothing a quick break in the lodge didn't solve.

 Tanner did amazing on the snowboard.  He is definitely a fan.  Most of his conversations include the word "snowboarding" now.

                                                  

               
                                     
I'm proud to say I conquered my life long fear of getting off ski lifts.  The first time I was so sick to my stomach as I rode the lift up.  I had the person at the top stop the lift for me.  But after that, I was totally fine and didn't even fall once!!!

 Hailey was such a trooper.  We have a snowboard her size so she spent one and a half days trying to learn that.  She was so patient.  Baylen would take her up the lift and then try to teach her.  He said that she never got frustrated that it wasn't coming to her.  She would just sit down, eat a little snow, and then get back up again.  Part way through the second day, we decided to rent her some skis.  She went down the magic carpet hill once and then never looked back.  Within 10 minutes she was going up the lift and down the hills all by herself.

 We found an amazing deal on an awesome condo.  We got it for $75 a night with NO TAXES OR CLEANING FEES!!!  It ended up being perfect for our two families.   It had three bedrooms and a couch bed.  We ended up putting all the girls in the master suite.  They had a TV and king sized bed.  So, at night when we wanted to watch a grown up movie, they were set in the basement with their own movie.  We played lots of games, ate tons of yummy food, and spent time in the huge hot tub each night.  

Hopefully this trip will become a yearly tradition.  January and February tend to get a little dark and depressing, so it was a fun way to get a break and enjoy the outdoors and being with friends!

More Holiday Fun

Here we are with the Bird family at our annual ice skating day.  The kids did SO MUCH BETTER this year.  It's amazing how much their roller blades have helped them with ice skating!

 We also had our Whipple family sleep around the tree night.  We had yummy food and played lots of fun games... including the couch game and signs.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got that night.  I was trying to get a picture of Bailey giving Ari a kiss.  However, it didn't really turn out.  The picture does show Ari in her cute pj's, though.

 Tanner and Jackson are best buds.  They are so cute how they wrestle together.  This picture was taken before Jackson started climbing on Tanner's head.  Tanner loves every minute he's with Jackson!

Aubrey

I love this girl.  December 27th was definitely one of the highlights of my Christmas break! 

Aubrey was in my laurel class the two years that I was in that calling.  When I was being set apart for my calling I was told that the girls I taught would remain my friends throughout the eternities.  I love that promise because I LOVE my girls!  

Aubrey and I were pretty close during those two years in laurels, but she has become a good friend since then.  The day that Colin was going to meet Aubrey's parents for the first time, she was over at my house visiting.  She had plenty of time before he was suppose to be there, but we lost track of time.  Colin got to her house and ended up having to sit and visit (without Aubrey!) for over 45 minutes.  Her dad (our bishop) kept trying to call my house, but I assumed Baylen would answer it if it was someone we should talk to.  So, after 45 minutes he finally had to drive over to my house to get her home.  OOPS!

I feel like I know pretty much every detail leading up to this wedding day.  She came to me several times for advice (which was kind of a scary feeling).  So, it was the most amazing feeling sitting there watching her kneel across the altar from Colin.

I am so happy that she is so happy... and doesn't she just look beautiful!

Merry Christmas

This was suppose to be Baylen's year to work on Christmas.  We were pretty bummed because not only was he scheduled for Christmas day, but they scheduled him for Christmas Eve, too.   Well, Christmas eve rolled around and as we were doing last minute things to get ready, Tanner was outside playing hockey.  He accidentally rolled his hockey ball into the sewer.  Baylen went out to try to retrieve the ball.  He pulled the grate off without realizing how heavy it was and ended up dropping it on one of his hands.  It hurt bad enough that we took him in to get it x-rayed.  Long story short, he ended up with a doctors note that he shouldn't work that night.  Yay!!!  We had a really fun night.  We had a delicious dinner, played games, and then the kids did a little program.  Here they are in their nativity costumes...

 I love Christmas eve for many reasons.  One reason is that my kids go to bed better than any other night of the year.  Jared looked up on his computer that Santa was in New York all ready.  That's all it took to get them off to bed.  As I was putting the kids down, Ashlyn turned to me and said, "When I said my prayers tonight I prayed that Santa would be safe as he travels."


With the kids asleep super early, the adults actually had time to watch a movie without any interruptions.  (I forgot to mention that we stayed over at Grandma and Grandpa Whipple's house!)


Here are the piles of presents (not including what Santa left)

 Here are the excited kids in the morning.  It was super fun spending Christmas morning with cute Bailey!  We were lucky, they all either slept in or laid quietly until 8:00!

 Our big gift this year was a wii.  The kids each asked Santa for a different wii game.

 A popular gift this year was these wiggle cars.

 It was actually really nice that Christmas was on Sunday this year.  We were able to break up the present unwrapping with celebrating the real meaning of the day.  Here are the kids and grandma after church.