Trains

It's a new year again and I haven't posted. Lately John and I have been talking about family history and the desire to get that started. This also has me thinking about my own history. I love memories but yet I have neglected in keeping them. Facebook helps and is quick so I guess that has prevented writing in a journal. I just got the Blogger app so I am temping to start using it to keep my family memories alive. I know life is short I want to remember all I can. The title of this post is trains. Pamela loves trains. I am so happy I kept Lance's old wooden train set. She loves it. For Christmas we got her a princess train to go with the wooden set. Her response was priceless when she opened it up.  She squeeled and excitedly said," a train,a train." It was so fun. It was definitely the best gift in her eyes. Yesterday we went shopping and found a train set for her that we used the money from grandpa Gary and aunt Theresa. She loves it. It teaches letters, colors,etc. She is girly and loves babies and dressing up with sisters but she loves her trains. 

A New Start

Much has happened since I last posted on this blog. I got a crazy idea to look at it today and I am sad I have not posted anything on it for 2 years. How could I have done that. I love memories! How could I neglect this precious gift that I will cherish forever.

The kids had so much fun seeing the old pictures. They laughed and made silly comments. I am now going to try and do better and post at least once a week. I know how precious life is and I know that before I know it my children will be grown. They can be stinky and difficult to deal with but I love them so much and love looking back at all the fun things we have done.

So here is my start.....We now live in Spokane Washington, have a new member in our family, Pamela, and all are a little bit older.

 Garrett is 16 years old and a junior in high school. He was so mad that we moved but has adjusted well. He still misses AZ so much but is keeping busy. He is still playing the trumpet in band. He does robotics and tech stuff for the theater group. He is always gone and being busy. He is trying to find a job and is planning to go on a trip to California for a band trip. Crazy to think he will be on a missing in a year and a half.
 Lance is 14 years old and a Freshman. He also was so mad that we were moving. He has adjusted better than we thought. He has a cell phone now and is always texting. He has a bunch of friends that he hangs out with. He is a big goof ball and loves to play around. He is a fun kid.
Caleb is 12 years old and in 7th grade. He really likes going to a middle school. He has made a lot of friends but doesn't typically do much outside of school with them. He loves the XBOX and plays whenever I will let him.
Jenna is 9 years old and in 3rd grade. She has also made a bunch of friends. She is doing great in school and is at the top of her class. She started playing guitar this years and recently started making rubberband loom bracelets. She is growing up really fast.
Briauna is 6 years old and in 1st grade. She is great. She is such a rule follower. She always wants to make good choices. She started wearing glasses for reading. She loves school and her teacher. She misses her old friends but has a bunch here.
Pamela is 4 months old. She is so fun. I wasn't sure what it was going to be like having a baby around again but I love it! She is so loved by everyone. She is starting to roll over and talks all the time. She started blowing bubbles and sticks her tongue out and spits. She love light up, singing toys. She loves to be held and is ticklish. We just love her so much.
John is working from home and it is great. He loves working with high school students and is so good at his job. He has a true talent working with people. He just finished his last class for his masters degree. His degree is industrial and organizational psychology. He basically will deal with companies and helping them work better in regard to people.
I am busy going to school online and being a mom. I am having a bit of a hard time with loneliness. I miss all my comforts with AZ. There is a lot I don't miss but it was my home for 37 years. I love the new friends I have met. They definitely made it easier being here. Washington is where we need to be and I look forward to the future and what it holds.

Surgery

Yesterday my sweet baby girls got her tonsils and adenoids out and got tubes put in her ears. She has had trouble breathing while sleeping for several years. This has not been scary since the other kids all had the same issue. She snores and wakes up several times a night because she can't breathe well. This last year she has started having trouble with her ears. She has had 7 ear infections. The last time I took her in the doctors really encouraged me to take her in to an ENT. I took her to Dr. Chapel and he did surgery on all the other kids. He tested her hearing and it was decreased. It is probably since she had fluid behind her ears. He said that the tonsils and adenoid definitely needed to come out. The plan was to take a look at her ears the day of surgery.


We got to the surgery center at 7am ready for the big day. While they were checking her in her oxygen level was a little low. It was registering 92%. She had been sick this last weekend so this could of been the cause. She also had a cough. The Dr. listened to her lungs and they sounded good so they proceeded with the surgery. The surgery only lasted for about 45minutes. When Dr. Chapel came out he said that her ears were very infected. They also suctioned out her lungs. They were also infected. He said it looked like she had been sick for a while and her lungs were very junky. When I went back she was eating a Popsicle and being such a good girl. Her oxygen levels were still low so they gave her 3 breathing treatments. They were as low as 85%. The Dr. wanted it steady at 91% before we could go. We ended up staying a couple of hours. Briauna was such a trooper. It was funny to see when she really started waking up. She started noticing things and asked the nurse a lot of questions.

This have been good so far. She hasn't complained about much pain. She is on antibiotics, steroids, breathing treatments, ear drops, and pain meds. Hopefully all this will help her feel better. I can only imagine how much better she will be now that she can breathe and not have constant ear pain.

Here she is ready to go in.

This is right after I went back to see her.
Getting a breathing treatment.

Hanging out with her stuffed pig.

This is were me and Briauna has been since Wednesday.

Hanging with dad. She is getting a little spoiled.

Lots of snuggling time.

Cheer Competition 2011

Today was a big day for Jenna. She participated in her first Cheer competition. She was kind of tired of cheer but she loved the performance and dancing part of it. She was a bit nervous and doesn't like the attention she was getting. All the girls had their hair done the same and I think it was adorable.

Here is the 8 and under cheer team. The girls were all 6 and 7.

There are now getting ready to start practicing.

Jenna loved all the stunts. She also liked being a flier.

Jenna, Puja, Celeste, and Kayli.

All the girls lined for the national anthem.

The did some basic cheers just for fun.

I didn't take pictures during the routine but they did great and got first place in their division.

The winning team!!!

Jenna holding the team plaque.

Jenna just loved Puja.

Her is my beautiful girl. She is very shy and so I am very proud of her. She went out and did her routine and did great.

Championship Game

Lance's team did well this year and they went to the Division II Championship game. It was a realt tough game and we lost. The boys were disappointed but they played hard. There were several bad calls and that was hard. I only took a few pictures because it was in the evening.

Jenna normally doesn't cheer with Lance's team but the coach said she could. Jenna had a lot of fun.

Last Games

The season is coming to and end so I wanted to post more pictures of the kids. We love football and the people we associate with are great.

Jenna made some great friends this year. Puja is quiet like Jenna and they had a lot of fun together.

I remember the day of doing hand clapping games with my friends.
Briauna had fun and loved all the girls.

Grandpa can to watch and the kids always love when he comes around.

Caleb has grown so much in football. He is a really great player and everyone is so impressed with how good he does. He got quite a few quarterback sacks and was always in the tackle pile. He is a great kid.

Jenna has had a lot of fun but she is ready for the season to be over.

Lance finally got his cast off and was able to start playing again. It took him a while to get back in but he did great. The coaches we so happy when could start playing. He is a great defence player.

Fairfax Marching Band

Tonight we went to the high school football game to watch Garrett perform with the marching band. He has really enjoyed band so far this year. It is a lot harder than he expected to march and play. It was a lot of fun and I remembered the fun I had as a teenager going to the football games.


It is so hard to believe that he is in high school Where did my little boy go?