Pictures!

I had to change the background since I'm posting pictures of our cruise. Needless to say I didn't take very many pictures. I'm terrible at that.





These are some pictures Nathan took when we went ice fishing with my dad, Lance, Vernon, Josh, and Brent Lewis. This is at Otter Creek. We went to Piute Resivior the next day. It was so much fun. The weather was awesome!

Released, Cruise, & Sick, sick, sick!!!

It has been quite awhile since I posted. I tried to change the background on my blog and lost some of widgets and whatnot. Instead of fixing it, I left it and am now just getting to it. Before we left on our cruise, I got released as the Primary President in our ward. It was a little bit shocking because usually people are left in their callings for 5 years or so. I guess there are a lot more active women in our ward to extend callings to. The funny thing is that the Bishop called my 2nd counselor that had been in the presidency with me the entire time as the new president. She will do great. She is in trouble though because she called me as a teacher and I was looking forward to going to Relief Society. Oh well, such is life.

On Friday the 23rd of January we dropped our kids off at my mom's. She, Melissa & Trisha so kindly watched them while we went on our cruise. We set sail out of the San Diego port on the 24th. It was us, Jared & Jenn, and Justin & Kerrie. We had a day at sea Sunday, ported in Cabo San Lucas Monday, a day at sea Tuesday, and ported in Ensenada on Wednesday. It was our 3rd time in Ensenada so we knew exactly where we wanted to go to shop; so we did that and then tried a new restaurant. We didn't do much in Cabo except go to the Cabo Wabo and eat. It was good entertainment and food. We cruised Carnival for our first time. I think I was so used to Royal Caribbean that it was hard to get a feel for the Carnival ship. I didn't like the color scheme as well and it wasn't as open feeling as RC. Also, the food wasn't as good to me. The one thing I did like better was the rooms were much bigger, namely the bathrooms, and the beds were more comfortable. All in all, it was a very fun cruise. Good food, good company, good times. I just have to put a thank you shout out to the Wickersham's for letting us take their brand new Expedition so we could all travel together.

Now the worst part of the past few weeks is that when we got to Alamo to pick up the kids, I wasn't feeling so well. I just had a blah feeling. I slept all the way home in the truck and by the time we got in the house I just had to lay down and sleep. The next day, Saturday, only got worse. My head was pounding and I had the chills. By nighttime my head was throbbing...worse than a migraine and I was freezing. I made Nathan take me to the ER because there is nowhere else to go on the weekend. I had a fever of 105 when I got there. They did a bunch of labs on me and finally told me I had Influenza A. I guess it's the worst strain of the flu you can get. They were just going to give me 2 extra strength Tylenol for my head and send me home with some prescriptions. I told them I wasn't leaving without something strong to take away my headache. So they gave me a shot of pain medicine that knocks you out. It didn't knock me out because I could still feel the pain. So they gave me another one. Finally it knocked me out. I was really sick for about 5 days and Nathan caught it midway into me having it. So we took turns taking care of the kids. It was really pathetic and my house really suffered. But now we're all healthy and life is back to as normal as it was before.

Not much else is going on. My kids have been out of school for two weeks so I look forward to sending them back on Monday. Nathan turns 39 on the 17th. Ava just turned 5 on the last day of January. We still haven't celebrated because of all of the sickness so maybe I'll make a cake for her tomorrow and have a little party. Until next time....

Do they make locks for lazy susan's???

I have a lot to post about but I thought I would start with this "little" incident that happened a couple of weeks ago. I was out doing laundry in the garage and when I came in I found my kids like this!



My first reaction was to yell but then I thought it would be good to get the camera and take pictures to remember it...although I don't think I would have forgotten:) Anyhow, I threw them in the tub but didn't get the flour out of their hair good enough before washing it. I had to wash Melissa's hair several times before it all came out. So now I need to know how to lock a lazy susan.

I know it's Christmas time but I had to post this picture of Ava at halloween. Her physical therapist happened to be at school on the day of the party and he got her to stand on her own for this picture.


Since I'm not likely to post again until after christmas...I hope you all have the best christmas yet and a very happy new year. My goal for next year is to post at least once a month:) Hopefully I'll be able to do it.

Slacker!

I feel like such a loser. I haven't posted in a long, long time. I feel like I might be getting as bad as Trisha...well, that's not possible since she hasn't posted in over 2 months! Anyhow, I'm posting now. I wanted to post some halloween pictures but I didn't take any. My sisters took some but I'm still waiting to get them. So maybe by Christmas, I will post halloween pics. We went to Alamo for halloween. My entire family was there. It was so much fun. Ava was a ragdoll, William was Thomas the train, and Melissa was a pumpkin. They were all so cute. It rained but it didn't keep us from trick-or-treating. The kids got so much candy. I still have a huge bowl in my cupboard. I have to hide it or William will eat it until it's gone. He has such a sweet tooth. Our primary program was this past Sunday, the 9th. We had a practice on Friday and by the way it went I was so nervous about Sunday. We had about 24 kids. Only one didn't show up for the program. I don't know what I did to deserve them doing so well on Sunday, but it went perfect. It truly was a miracle. So we rewarded the kids by taking the church's microwave from the kitchen and popping popcorn during sharing time. I also made a cooler of homemade rootbeer. We watched The Legend of Johnny Lingo (well half of it). It was a lot of fun and such a relief to be over. Nathan was called to be the young mens president. He was the first counselor but they released the whole presidency. So now he is the president, the scout master, and the sunday school secretary. He's pretty busy. They also called a new young womens presidency. They took two of my teachers and my activity day leader. So I had to come up with a few names to replace them. Our ward is not your typical ward. There aren't very many active people to choose from and if you don't choose wisely whoever you choose probably won't come. If you do come and do your calling, you never get released. I'm not complaining. I really like my calling.


My friend here gave me a box of apples so I have been bottling apple pie filling. Here's what it looks like. It is so yummy! I was up until 3:30 am finishing it!


Melissa is into making happy faces then sad faces. I took this video on my phone and thought it was pretty funny.

Picture Tag!

I saw that Tami & Courtney did this picture tag. I had to look and see what my 4th picture in the 4th folder was and since it's so cute I decided to post it. The deal is to go to your pictures and post the 4th picture from your 4th folder. I'm supposed to tag 4 people but I tag whoever wants to do it:) This is Ava and her Grandma Marshall napping. She (Ava) was almost 2. I didn't realize she was so chubby....not anymore!!

Quite the week...

This week has been quite the week. It started off last Friday when Ava came down with a fever. She was lethargic and since it was Friday I decided she had better see the doctor before the weekend. I took Melissa too because she had what looked like the chicken pox. The doc said that it was viral for both of them. He said Ava was starting what Melissa had. He said to rotate motrin and tylenol every 3 hours to keep the fever away. So that's what I did for 5 days until I was so sick of her fever never breaking. I called back on Wednesday and the doc wasn't in so I spoke to his nurse. She said to continue with the meds and call the next day. Well that night I accidentally missed a dose of tylenol and her fever spiked to 104.3. I called yesterday and he called in a prescription for amoxicillin. We started her on it last night and while she still has a slight fever, she's a lot more perky than before. We went through almost an entire bottle of motrin and of tylenol on her. She hasn't eaten much either so I'm sure she's down from her normal 28 lbs. I'm just relieved she's feeling better.


Earlier this week Melissa was out playing in the front yard with William. I heard her screaming so I ran out and her mouth was bleeding. I felt to see if her teeth were loose but they weren't. Then I realized she put her teeth through her top lip. This picture looks like her face is dirty but it's where the teeth hit her lip. She's a busy little girl. She's been walking for over 4 months now but still has a hard time with her balance so she falls on a regular basis.


William went to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class. Ava would have gone too but was too sick. This picture is of what he brought home. He only wanted the mini pumpkin and the gourd. Thank goodness his teacher picked out a regular pumpkin for Ava. I guess they'll look cute together on the porch.


Lastly, this is a picture of our new fleet. The business bought some atv's/utv's for renting next season. We got them through my brother-in-law Tony's dealership called Moab Powersports. He hooked us up pretty well. Thanks Tony & Audra! I can't tell you how much fun they are to drive. Nathan & I got the polaris ranger crew that seats six for our family. I complained a little bit because I wanted a mini-van instead but I am so glad we got the ranger. It has been so much fun. Too bad it's cold now and we won't be able to ride it much until the spring. I figure when my car breaks down I'll still get that mini-van:)

Happy 3rd Birthday William!!!

William celebrated his 3rd birthday yesterday. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner and we let him open his two small presents there. He got Toby and James which are trains on the Thomas and Friends show. When we got home he got a big train track and a Thomas train with it. He absolutely loves Thomas the train. Nathan went overboard with the track. He couldn't help himself. So we were up until about midnight playing with the trains. Needless to say we're all tired now. Someday I might throw a friend birthday party for him but for now it's just family.