My Political Activists!

Today Obama came to town. We didn't go... instead we went to the McCain rally. My kids were so excited, they made posters last night and couldn't wait for this morning and were so excited to go support the cause. Miner's for McCain! They love politics and loved being involved. They got to stand out by the road and hold a sign "Honk for McCain" and then cheared when car after car honked for them. It's grea to be able to show them that this is the way it is in America. We can live our lives, express our feelings and stand up for who and what we believe in! The teachers even excused the kids as they came back to school because it was an 'educational' experience as far as they were concerned. Kassi reported some pretty lively debates in one of her classes over abortion. Willie reported a discussion on mud slinging. One boy from his class said they were disappointed when they listened to Obama because of how negative and trash talking he was. So they discussed how politics should work (in a perfect world I guess!). They are all excited to see McCain if/when he comes. It's likely that he will since our county tends to swing the state. We've got to meet all of the big names over the past several years!

Truth, justice and the American way! That's how it should be. They will be involved and want to know and make a difference for when they are old enough to vote and that is what it is all about. They are learning, and understand that they can make a difference! And it was fun too!!!

Even Nate got in on the action.....

Fun Weekend!

What a great weekend... Saturday bright and early I took Kinzee and her friend to the church so they could go to the temple. While there I was talking to a friend, Melissa about what they were going to be doing all day. They just moved here recently from California. I came home and told Thayne that they were as bored as we were. He said that we should take them on a tour at the mine and then he would take us to dinner at our favorite Basque Restaurant. I called them and they were all for the adventure! Thayne was especially excited because he had been teasing Mike about getting him underground! We had a nice drive out to the mine and then spent the next 3 hours or so touring underground. It was great! Thayne showed us a big portion of the mine, explained things in great detail and we were even underground for a blast... though apparently Melissa and I missed the explosion completely so it must not have been as big as Thayne thought it should be! :) We put our earplugs in and NOTHING....we were so let down! We raced home, cleaned up and made it back to town for dinner. It was fabulous!

Sunday was wonderful also. The kids had their primary program and all of the kids from Willie to Kami participated. They did a fantastic job and it brought tears to our eyes as we listened to them all sing "I Am A Child Of God." After church Mike and Melissa and their cute kids came over for dinner and to hang out. That's when we got to have the balloon rides. It was just a great day all the way around! I think they will be great friends. The kids all get along really well and Mike and Thayne seem to have the same personality that had Melissa and me laughing hysterically the whole time we were together! I love weekends like this one. They always go too fast though!

My camera battery died about 5 minutes underground so I didn't get many pictures. One of Thayne fixing Melissa's belt and a couple just underground... but it's mostly dark under there anyway!!! :)

Let's go for a balloon ride!

Every year at this time we have a big balloon festival. They were training people to help out for the festival yesterday and today. We had some friends over for dinner and after we ate the kids were outside when we heard them come running to tell us that there was a balloon following them down our rode. We looked out the window and sure enough, a balloon had landed close to our neighbor's driveway. Then they moved it into the drive and the kids came running telling us that they were getting rides on the balloon. So we all walked over to join in the fun. Everyone got to go for a ride in the balloon. It was terrific! Thayne thought he wouldn't like it... he did! Garrett bribed Kami with a dollar to go, and she did and ended up loving it. The crew was great and everyone in the neighborhood showed up for rides. Of course they had ulterior motives and everyone got to help put it away when they were done but it was worth it! Kailee and Kimi are going to help them next Saturday... all for the thrill of another ride. We are excited to get up early next week and check out the balloons and then go in to town for the airshow that will be going on! It was a great way to spend the evening!

Filling My Cup

I ran away from home last Friday. I wasn't even mad. I just packed up way too much stuff in a suitcase and gave everyone a kiss and last minute instructions, and I left! For the next 3 hours I drove, sometimes in silence, and sometimes with really good 80's music blasting out of the speakers.... but I drove! All alone. This was a much anticipated girls' weekend that my friend and I had been planning for many, many weeks! Between the two of us, we have 22 children! Her first child was being dropped off at college and she didn't want to go home and feel bad about it, so instead, we decided that we would leave said children in the capable care of our husbands, and do nothing except what WE wanted to do all weekend long! Granted, had I known how sad she would be that nobody was pounding on the bathroom door while she showered screaming for popcycles, I would have stood there like one of the kids pounding and demanding a popcycle! :) But we can't have everything now, can we???

We got to go to the temple, eat yummy food, see the sites, watch movies, eat good food, sleep in.... oh, let me say that again... sleep in!!! I can't tell you when the last time was that I got to sleep stretched out in a bed without kids at my feet, or smashed against my side, or flopped over my face. A big, comfortable queen sized bed all to myself. It was just what I needed to refill the often empty cup.... mentally I needed that time. Emotionally it was just too fun to laugh! Who know hanging out in a photo booth would be so funny???With no responsibilities at all for just a short time.

And of course, by Sunday, I was ready to come home and jump right back into the madness that is my life! But from now on.... I am planning a girls' weekend every year! I waited 21 years for that one.... I'm not waiting that long again!!! :)

View from our room

Wyatt Thayne

Wyatt Thayne turns 10 years old today! TEN!!! WOW!!! 9/8/98 This beautiful little man joined our family. We had a scheduled c-section that morning and I couldn't wait to meet him. I had been excited to meet him long before I had him. Shortly before I conceived him I had a miscarriage. It was an early miscarriage but any loss is always sad. I felt like there were still a few more babies that needed to come to our home but for some reason Thayne had thought maybe we were done. I talked to him about my feelings... actually I had been dreaming about Kalli Shai for a while so I figured she would be the next baby coming to our house. Thayne thought 9 was a good number. Really...NINE? Why 9??? But I wasn't going to fight about it because after all, it really is one of those decisions that needs to be made by both the husband and the wife. So I told him I felt like we weren't even close to being done. He ignored me! Until he started hearing a baby cry. If you know Thayne, you understand that he has this strange ability to sleep through world wars. Bombs can be going off next to him and he sleeps blissfully through the night. So why was he waking up telling me the baby was crying when I happen to never sleep though my baby crying??? And why was he waking ME up??? I would listen and tell him that Willie was fine. Again and again over the next week he would wake me to ask if the baby was okay. If he was so concerned, why didn't he just go check on Willie himself??? Finally after another night of restless slumber I sat up and told him that WILLIE was fine and HE better take it to the Lord and figure out what he was willing to live with but he BETTER NOT wake me up again because the baby was crying!!! I told him he could tell that baby that HE wasn't going to let it come to our house because he figured out that 9 kids was a good number to stop at but DO NOT wake me up again!!! The next morning he told me that there was another baby needing to come to our house, but it wasn't a girl, it was a boy. Nine months later Wyatt was born.

Our sweet boy aspirated and developed pneumonia and was very sick. I remember Dr Smith coming into my room and telling me that Wyatt was struggling as if he were running a marathon and he would eventually just lose the battle if something wasn't done. So they called life flight and we settled in to wait for the crew to get there and pick him up. They told us they would have to intubate and let his lungs relax and breathe for him for a while. Thayne was going with him in the ambulance to a hospital an hour away. I had to stay for another day because of my c-section. I was so depressed. I wanted nothing more than to hold my sweet little man and have him be better. I was finally released and went up to see him. It felt so good to hold him in my arms. He stayed in the hospital for 6 days and finally we got to bust him out! After leaving the hospital we were driving through Salt Lake when a guy hit into our van. After a 2 hour wait on the side of a busy freeway we finally got to be on our way as the kids watched the guy being arrested as we drove away... that will teach him for driving his girlfriend's husband's car while high on drugs and with no insurance!!!!! :) We were just glad to be on our way home!

This little man is a true gift to our family. His eyes just sparkle and he has a light that radiates out. He has been the most loving child with a silly sense of humor a lot like his dad's! And he loves that he is named after his dad. He used to always tell us that he was Thayne! He is such an amazing part of our family and I am so very grateful that he made himself known to his dad and insisted on being part of our family! He is all boy. I used to joke that I must have been crazy naming my boys Willie and Wyatt... if you name them after bandits, you can't be surprised when they find the most incredible ways to get themselves in trouble. It is a pleasure watching him grow and I am excited to see all that he will accomplish in his life!!!

Love you Wyatt Thayne, you are a gift to me!!! Thank you for being my son!!!

Just for the fun of it, this was the cost of gas a couple of weeks before Wyatt was born!!!

Who is this boy....

And why is he calling my 12 year old daughter!!! And his voice is REALLY deep. He called her tonight so she could him with math. He called her last night to say hi. He called her the night before to... well, you get the picture. Who is he and WHY is he calling??? I'm so not ready for a 12 year old to have to deal with boys! There is a no dating till 16 rule and then it is double dating. She gets really bugged that he calls all of the time and will ask to please not answer the phone because he bugs her all of the time. She's not the fickle girl that says it but secretly loves it. She considers him a friend and she knows the rules. But it is very weird to answer the phone and have what sounds like a grown man (don't worry, he's not.... he's a real middle school age kid that lives not far from us) ask for my 12 year old daughter! Talk about making me feel older by the minute!

Oh to be young and crazy again!

Garrett and Jace went to California on a road trip with their two best friends Adam and Stetson. Oh to have no worries in the world but which beach you can sleep a couple of hours! They figure this may be the last time they all get to run away before having to be grown ups! They got in a car and drove. Left Thursday night and got home Monday morning. If you have to send your boys on a road trip (as if I had a choice in letting them, haha) Adam and Stetson are good choices. These boys seem like my boys too! I always get a hug from Stetson. He and Jace look more like brothers than Garrett and Jace do! They are crazy. But they are sure good boys and find lots of ways to have fun! They did get the car impounded one morning because they didn't know that they couldn't leave the car after they left the store. They had gone to take a few pictures... were gone 40 minutes and came back to no car! Cost them $200 to learn THAT lesson!!! :) But it's just another memory in a very long list of memories that they will be able to tell their kids about!

I have watched all of these boys grow up in front of my eyes. I can't believe that before we can even blink they will be starting families of their own and moving beyond the crazy pranks of their youth!!! (And NO, I refuse to encourage them with stories of, oh, say ivory soap in the fountain in town!!! At least it wasn't Kool-Aid!)

Stetson, Jace, Garrett and Adam

Stetson.... I don't even want to know... all I heard was something about Hollywood, moons.... um... something I totally stopped listening!

Just Jace being Jace

Jace and Stetson! I'm not sure they have ever taken a 'normal' picture together!

Garrett, Adam, Stetson and Jace.... let loose on the city.... watch out!

Stetson and the seals!

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil... oh NO Jace, he read the sign too late that no pictures were allowed!!!

And we should be grateful that those silly boys didn't end up HERE.....

Nate is sick AGAIN!!!

Was this child sent to me to try me at every turn? He is absolutely adorable so that helps, but my heart can't seem to handle the stress he brings and I had a full blown panic attack in the middle of the night worried about him.

Yesterday he started acting miserable and later developed a fever. Low grade for a while but the closer to bedtime the higher the fever got. I started doing the motrin/tylenol thing trying to keep it under control but his heart rate was up high all night and he was burning up. I got up at 1:30am to give him his medicine and I guess, when it's dark and you are alone your mind starts playing tricks and the more I thought, the more stressed I became. The panic attack was so bad I thought I was going to be sick, was shaking, couldn't breathe. It was insane! I knew that I wasn't thinking rationally. I KNEW it didn't make sense and that I should go to the doctor before I figured the worst was going to happen! I told Thayne at about 4am that I was having a panic attack. He didn't seem to recognize how bad it was. He kissed me and told me to get some sleep and have faith. Yes, men can be so dense sometimes. Sure... faith and fear can't co-exist but fear was winning out and I was losing it!

I finally got through to the clinic and didn't ask IF I could come in... I asked them when Dr H was going to be there and I would be in. They told me to be there at 9:30am and were quick to get us in. They were worried sick.... and we were all GRATEFUL to find out that he has a double ear infection! Can you imagine being grateful for that??? At least there was a 'real' reason for him being so sick. His lungs are moving air great though she could hear the 'gurgle' the reflux always causes. But she thought it would be best to give him a shot and then follow up with some heavy duty antibiotics for 10 days. The bad thing is that he just finished up antibiotics a couple of days ago!!! If we have one more ear infection he is going to get tubes!!!

He is also still anemic so we have to work on building up his iron too!!! UGH. This is insane!