crafty make-over...

Okay...since moving from Maricopa and my most awesomely beautiful enormous house, we are back to Mesa into a teeny tiny cozy house so that the boys can be in the schools they want. In that process I lost my americana family room, and didn't want to lose my way cute picture frames made from half a french door and an old window frame. I taped them off, painted them black and sanded and stained the edges.

I matted the newest family pictures on some scrapbook paper that I cut to fit the glass openings. Looks pretty darn cute in black {I think} and it matches my outdoorsy living room to boot.

I still need to take individual pictures to put in the old window frame. It got too dark on the evening we we're taking family photos. Couldn't possibly be because my family was screwing around too much...nah! I'll be sure to share when I get that one done.

under construction...

Okay...so YES I am going to start blogging again, but in the process of trying to make my blog look cuter, I had to change templates because my dashboard is from the dark ages and had no "design" tab, so I had no choice. Now I have a background that is cute{ish}, but a template that I hate. Plusalso it deleted my banner, my slide shows, my site meter, and my huge list of blogging buddies. So sad about all of that. SOOO I will continue to work on the appearance and functionality of my blog while getting back into the swing of things again. Lots going on in my life, as always! Fun stuff!

test blog post...Cody's gets his braces off

Cody just got his braces off after 30 long months. His orthodontist is simply amazing! He said he was one of his toughest cases. Cody said it was the best Christmas present ever. It made such a difference. His self esteem is now soaring. Him being this happy...not to mention, so handsome makes every single payment worth it!

blog alert

I have tried and tried and TRIED to update my blog. Every. single. time. I upload a picture it shuts down the whole blog dashboard window. Frustrating! I need to have my computer dude friend come fix what's wrong. Surely these sweet angel teenage boys couldn't have given me a virus, right?! As soon as it's working, I will write my 19 and growing blog post topics to catch me up and have a regularly updated blog again. For now, the girl is willing...the computer is not!

family night AKA-family home evening...

We've been trying really hard to have family night every week. We gather as many members of the family as we can, because it's near impossible to get all of them at the same time. This week we took the two youngest, Cody and Cole to Tia Rosa's for dinner {my most favorite Mexican food restaurant on the planet} Then we went to the Temple and watched the Joseph Smith movie and walked around the grounds. We decided to take a bunch of pictures while we were there because it's so darn pretty, plus Cody and Cole wanted updated pictures for their facebook profiles. The good mom that I am will gladly take pictures of my boys. :o) Suprisingly the boys really look forward to our time we spend together, no matter what we've got planned. That makes me feel really good because most, {not all} older kids don't like spending time with their parents.

grand-kids...a whole new life...

My life is not the same with grand-kids living in the house. So many things I've forgotten {or deliberately shut out of my mind} from when my boys were little. My boys shower and and dress themselves, brush their teeth, can feed themselves, get in the car all by themselves. put their shoes on the right feet, Heck even matching ones. etc. Mark and John obviously cannot. I've been reintroduced to baths, cutting up food in bite size pieces, naps, diapers, car seats, sippy cups, Buzz Light-year and Woody, toys and puzzles, Sesame Street and other fun stuff like that. There are plenty of trials with adding a whole family into the house, like not being the one to make decisions because they are not my children can be frustrating. Getting use to each others quirks and stuff. Learning to bite my tongue when necessary to keep the peace. Overall it's a blessing to be a bigger part of these little guys lives.

Mark showing me he put his shoes on himself. They do not match. Ones a crock and ones a batman sandal. But he did it himself. LOL!I was walking through the family room and noticed that not one, but TWO Elmo's are keeping watch over everyone. They add a little something to the decor, don't you think?

How could you not love these sweet faces?

They are always there for a hug and an I "wuv" you! Can't beat that!

what NOT to do...

This is what happens when you dive head first into a shallow pool.

On Saturday, July 11th, Kyle was swimming with friends at one of the neighborhood community pools here in Maricopa. We were at a birthday party in Mesa when we got the call that he smacked his head on the bottom of a pool. As you know, heads bleed A LOT! He got out of the pool on his own and his friends and a lady that was a nurse tried to stop the bleeding as it was pouring down his face. They took him to urgent care. They called an ambulance and took him to Chandler regional hospital. We met him there. Mark asked him how deep the water was. He said 5 feet. And how tall are you Kyle? ummm...5'9". Do you see the problem? :o) After spending several hours there, the CAT scan showed that he broke is neck in 2 places. #1 was a clean break and #7 was crushed. Kyle was devastated!
Poor boy was crying because he was on the back board so long. His head felt like mush! Kyle nver takes pain pills for even a headache so when he begged for medication I knew he was hurting bad.




He's left with a scar that looks like an X or a wiggly K on top of his head. The hair still isn't growing back there.

After they saw how serious it was, they transferred us in an ambulance to Scottsdale Osborn hospital. Before we left, Mark and my dad gave him a priesthood blessing.

Kyle's new room at Scottsdale Osborn. We had to wait a few hours before they let us up in his room in the ICU. The first thing he said when we saw him, was "This place is messed up! They put something in my tool and it's still there!" LOL! It was funny the way he said it. Apparently they put in a catheter, because he obviously couldn't go to the restroom on his own.

On Monday afternoon his neurosurgeon scheduled his surgery. Our best friend, Hal came down to the hospital and him and Mark gave him another prieshood blessing before they took him in. I do believe in the power of the priesthood.

The surgery went perfectly. They did nothing for the number 1, but the crushed number 7, they pulled out all the broken bits and fused them together in a thingy then put it back in and put a metal plate over it to hold it in place. We were in the hospital for a total of 5 days. He has to wear his collar for 3 months-24 hours a day. We were grateful that he didn't have to wear a halo brace that screws into your skull. My sister, Coleen had to years ago and it was horrible! My normally happy, joking boy didn't smile the whole time he was there. It's a hard thing to face that a stupid mistake can cause such huge damage.

He finally smiled when we got home.

Here is the scar from surgery. We took the front part of his collar off so Brek could shave his face. I have to log roll him over to change him in and out of his shower collar then back into his everyday collar. It's kind of scary.

A few weeks later Kyle's girlfriend discovered a bald spot on the back of his head. It wasn't there the day before. He was mad...I was mad! We couldn't figure out how it happened. So he asked Brek to shave his head bald...to the skin.

This picture is after it was shaved and his hair started growing back....everywhere but in the spot. So weird! We discovered it was from being on the backboard for all those hours. It damaged his hair follicles and they just fell out. He's finally starting to get a teeny bit hair growth in there, but not nearly as much as the rest.

Kyle was Mark's employee and he obviously can't work so Mark's been putting in crazy long hours to keep up with the business. So, my house is very full. Kyle is with me everyday, so is Cole because he's still doing online school. I have Brek, Brittany and the boys. Plus Kyle's girlfriend is here everyday as well as his other friends that stop by to visit all the time. Mark goes to work and Cody goes to school. I've forgotten what a quiet house is like.

We went to have a one month check up with the neurosurgeon. They went on and on about how lucky he was and were shocked that he wasn't paralysed. They showed his X-rays to all the other doctors and nurses in the office. These people deal with this kind of serious injury all the time and really couldn't believe it. I told them it has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with God. My boy obviously has important work still to do. We count our blessings everyday.

4th of July...

Mini Mark with Buzz and Woody. He loves them!

We went to Pacana Park for our 3rd annual 4th of July celebration here in Maricopa. We LOVE it!! It was really HOT! We were all sweating buckets just walking from our cars to out perfectly picked out spot on the grass. We were there with the Koozer's, Neals, Williams, Eagan's, and us, of course PLUS Brittany and the boys. {Brek had to work}They just moved back in with us, so our house grew from 5 to 9 people. The only one NOT living here is Chad. He does still live in Maricopa and we probably see him the same amount as before. Mark calls the grandsons the twin tornadoes because their path of destruction is swift. :o) I do love having those boys here. They are very sweet.
Little John

Tony and Jenny

Brittany, Mark and John

Mariela and Angel

Kaden

Chad and John Ray

Brittany and the boys

Mariah and Silvia-Michelle

Cody and Mark

Angel begged Chad to keep tossing himwoah! {note the huge smile}

Nice catch, Chad

Cole handing out cookies

John attached at the ankle

eating cookies...more like sucking the frosting off first

Coleen and Kaden dancing to the music

Cisco with blue teeth...still a cutie

Sydney performing head stands

Hal and Missie...Hal was there on duty to keep the peace. Mostly he just socialized with everyone.

Me and Cole {my baby...sniff sniff}

Me and Mark...hot, sweaty, sticky and totally worn out.

Let the fireworks begin. I took probably 100 pictures of them. Only shared a few.

ooohhh

aahhhh

ooohhh

aahhhhh

ooohhhh

Fireworks are over. It's time to go home.