Grand Canyon

If only we could tie our children up to an old hitchen post.....

Here are some pictures of the Grand Canyon from last weeks trip. The Cowboy hats were the best part of the Trip. Mark did not want the kids to get burned so he put a historical story about how the hat was the Cowboys best friend in the west, even more important then their gun.... you could not get the hats off the boys after that.

This is a walkway 4000 ft above the canyon floor. Logan and Mark were fearless.... The rest of us had to walk very slowly.

The Boys were getting way to close to the edge for me..

We've been tagged!

I think we've been tagged before but we didn't know how to play the blog tag game. Now that we think we know how to play, here it goes...

How did you meet your spouse? I met Mark at a intro class called Survival at Utah State University. We weren't in the same class at the time but some of his friends were in my class. I was introduced to him through them even thought he basically says that he stole me from them. It sounds like I'm an object or something. Well...... ya know, I am a trophy wife.

Where did you go on your first date? Marks memory is better at these types of details. All I remember about our first date is the chinese take out container with his phone number written on top. I guess that was impressive enough for me because I went on many more dates with him, and yada, yada, yada, we're married with 3 boys.

How long have you been together? Technically we've known each other for 15 years but have been married for 11 years from this past March.

Who eats more? uh? Mark.

Who said I love you first? He did. When he first started saying "I love you", I used to say "I know" or "Thank You." but I've learned to share the love more easily.

Who is taller? We're neck and neck. Mark is only 10 inches taller than I am. It's too close to call.

Who sings better? Mark sings louder and I sing more often but neither of us can carry a tune. Which hasn't stopped us from thinking that we have what it takes to be on American Idol.

Who is smarter? Mark. Even the kids think Mark is smarter than me. I won't even argue this one.

Who does the laundry? Only I do. Mark and I only fight over 2 things in our marriage and laundry is one of them. No, people, get your mind out of the gutter, sex is not the other one. I dare say he has done a couple of loads of laundry since we've been married.

Who does the dishes? I do, but sometimes I can bribe my boys to do them.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Mark does, that side of the canoe is deeper.

Who pays the bills? Funny enough I do even though his profession is a financial advisor.

Who mows the lawn? Mario, and what a fine job he does.

Who cooks dinner? I do, but when we go out to dinner I let Mark take the credit.

Who drives when you are together? Usually Mark does unless he has just purchased a new gadget and is trying to figure it out and then he hands over the reins.

Who is more stubborn? Neither of us are are very stubborn, but Mark gets his way more often.

Who is the first to admit when they’re wrong? Definitely Mark because he is usually wrong.

Who kissed who first? Mark kissed me.  It all went down at the Utah Theater.  Really, who can turn down a man who shows up at my doorstep with the pimped ride of the Seitec truck (The Seitec truck was a u-Haul truck but white, that Marks parents used for their business.), then he pays for my movie at the dollar show....AND he had Diet Coke breath?  Simply irresistable. 

Who proposed? Mark did.  He wined and dined me at El Sol. Then he took me to the Logan temple and dropped the question. It was simple and so sweet.

Who is more sensitive? I am, unless were watching a movie, then Mark becomes the baul baby.

Who has more friends? Mark is friends with pretty much anybody who smiles at him but our friends are the same.

Who has more siblings? Marks family of 12 siblings out does my family of 11. (I am including ourselves and our parents in that number.)

Who wears the pants? This is a no brainer....Mark. He's pretty much wrapped around my finger though so this doesn't threaten me.

We tag Linda, Kolette, and Lizzie. 

'Ey Mattie

How does a 16 month little boy scratch his eye?  I couldn't answer that, but somehow Logan did.  We started noticing that he was favoring that eye and always trying to keep it closed.  He was a grumpy one.  I took him to see the doc, who by the way is wonderful.  I had to pin Logan down so the doc could put an orange dye in is eye.  Oh, he was sooo mad.  Mad enough that he held his breath so long that he turned blue and passed out.  It was scary but I was kinda of glad that the doc saw it because lately when Logan gets mad he has been doing that.  Anyway the doc said it was normal and not to worry but to keep watch were he gets into one of his fits so he doesn't pass out and fall off something or on something and injure himself.  

Once we got the dye in his eye, you could plainly see what the doc called a large cornea abrasion.  It is extrememly painful and won't heal without medication and a patch.  So for the past couple of days Logan has been our little Pirate.  He kinda of liked the pirate patch on his eye but hated the band-aid eye patch.  
I didn't realize how having two good eyes effected your balance.   We had a few sorry laughs when he ran into random objects around the house  because his depth perception was so off.  I'm glad that it is healing fast and he is doing so much better.

On a side note Logan has such a cute yet dominate personality. Yesterday, Mark was hooking up our water purifier when Logan decided he wanted to be held. He retrieved his favorite toy, the X-Box game controller, squeezed behind a small smace behind the fridge and plunked himself right smack in the middle of Marks project and sat on his lap. He thought he was so clever and he was. We all had a good laugh though Marks project was delayed till bedtime.

2008 Easter Celebrations

Saturday we went to the Billmans for an egg hunt. It was such a fun time. We got to see the Homecs which is always a treat. But I can say that this easter is best summed up by the pictures. So enjoy!

Logan was happy with an easter egg in each hand.


There was a limit of 10 eggs per kid. As you can tell Luke multiplied his limit by 3.



McKee tried to push Mark into the pool.  Luckily Mark is a heavy weight.




The Easter Spirit put some air in Luke's step. Note... he is literally walking on air not the water.

McK and Luke got sunburned. Unfortunately that is inevitable when your kids skin is opaque.

What is Easter anyways without a good swordfight?

Our Little Helpers. Gotta Love em!

I went to bed at 6:00pm last night. I felt crummy and left the kids and the house up to Mark. Not to my surprise, I woke this morning to WWIII in the kitchen and family room. Now, for those of you know us, you know this is not an uncommon occurance and when I say it looked like WWIII, I am not exaggerating. I wish I had a before picture to prove it. Well, I had no energy to deal with it.  I complained a little and said "Mck and Luke, you guys have to clean the kitchen today". There was some weeping, wailing, and nashing of teeth.  I left to put Logan to bed, and Mark went to clean the car when I came back down the stairs I found the kitchen taped off. McK would not let me look in. One thing I love about McK is that he can be very creative in how he accomplishes some of his chores. I left again for about 20 min. It got a little to quiet so I went down to check and this is what I found.

 "Don't go in the kitchen and I'm at Donnys house, don't go in the kitchen"

McKee and Luke had cleaned the kitchen and family surprisingly well. They had vacuumed and mopped the floor, wiped of the counters taken dirty clothes to the laundry room, and put away all the toys.  Just look at how good it looks.
Thank you McKee and Luke for helping your mother stay sain today!

The results are back.

Over the years I started noticing that what he ate and how often he ate really affected his behavior. I've been really careful about not giving him treats and feeding him more often but it seems that lately nothing I was trying was working. Mark and I decided to have him tested to see if we could figure out what was up. He had to fast for 12 hours which all by itself was a trial because he is so emotional and defyant when he needs food. They had to test him 5 different times and each time I had to pin Luke down as the nurse took a vile of blood. This was one of the harder things I had to do in my life. It is extremely difficult to see your child in emotional stress and pain and know that you are helping out what he considers "the bad guys". We got the results the next day. He has hypoglycemia. This didn't come as a shock. Mark and I had suspected it for a while but it was good to know exactly what it was so we can learn how to treat it correctly. Hypoglycemia is basically low blood sugar. He pancreas overproduces insulin which creates the low blood sugar. This is the root of all (or most) of his rollercoaster emotions. He is on a special diet where he can't have any processed foods, or sugars, no white flours or simple carbs. It is the diabetic diet with 6 meals a day. Somedays I feel I do a pretty good job at keeping my head in the game, but there is the occasional day that I don't do a good job and then I'm quickly reminded that I can't slack. When I don't pay attention to what he is eating it seems those are the days he crashes. He gets hyper, then gets emotional, then he falls asleep....what we call the crash.

He is pretty good about what he can eat and what he can't.  At first when we took sugars out, he had a hard time understanding why other people could eat sugar and he couldn't.  You would often hear him say "dont' eat that, that's got sugar and it'll make you sick."  Now, he doesn't seem to mind so much anymore infact, today at Costco, he picked out some cookies and said "Mom, let's get cookies OK?  I won't eat any.  Lets get some for our friends. OK?"  (the friends he is refering to is Aunt Angie, and her friends Natalie and Tara).  At this point, I melted.  Even though I didn't want a box of cookies in my home (mostly because I thought I could eat them all) I couldn't help but say yes.  His is such a sweet and tender little one.  We sure do love our little Lukie.

Our dear "Lukie"

Luke is a very special little guy! 

He has one of the more tender and kind hearts I've ever seen in a boy, He can be so charming and loveable when we have his blood sugar in check, he basically gets away with everything because he is so darn cute. For example, on Monday, I was begging him to play a game with me. He refused.

"Do you want to play soccer with Mom?".

His reply...

"NO."

"Can we read a couple of books together?"

"NO."

"Do you want to watch a movie together?"

"NO."

"Write a letter to Grandma & Grandpa?"

"Play Cars?"

"NO."

At this point I was about ready to give up but I told him that he had to do something with me today and that he could pick anything he wanted to do. In desperation I asked "How about we make cookies together?" He suddenly perks up and asks "Can we make cookies at Lizzies house?"  I told him that was a good idea, but he needs to play with me and not Lizzie, so he needed to pick something that he and I could do together.  He then asked "How about I write a letter to Lizzie?"  "That sounds like a great idea."  He wrote Lizzie a letter that went something like this...

Lizzie,

I like to swim.

I love cookies.

I was so proud of him.  He wrote 90% of the letters himself. He put some of his "sugar-free" candy in an envelope.  He then ran upstairs and came down with a $10 bill from his savings jar.  I tried to convince him that he didn't need to do all of this for Lizzie but he said "Mom, I want to, it's OK, it only buys just toys."

It was all he could think about for the next day.  He asked every 20 minutes if Lizzie was home so he could give it to her.  He was so excited he could barely stand it.  Every time we would talk about it, he would wear his smirk which is something like pursing your lips so you can hold down a smile.  We keep telling him that its OK to smile, but he smirks anyway.

 

We were able to deliver the letter the next day.  He was squirming with joy.  His little spirit could barely contain himself.  I was pretty proud of him as well.