Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

According to the calendar today is officially the first day of fall. Before we moved here I didn't enjoy fall so much. I think it was because I knew what was to follow. Cold, snowy wet weather. Since the winters here are so mild I have come to really enjoy fall. Although the calendar says its fall, our weather is still summer weather. I do have to say the evenings are getting much cooler though.

We didn't do anything grand this summer. Just spent time having fun together. I have posted some pictures of our summer. Warning: there are a lot of pictures.

I took Hazel and Savannah to go through the Brigham Young home. The grounds there are perfect for taking pictures.
I took Ashton and Keanna to see the Orson Pratt home. (I took them last year to the Brigham Young home and the Jacob Hamblin home.) Little did we know the home is part of a Bed and Breakfast. It is set among a bunch of old homes with old cars and things like that. We couldn't go in the house but they said we could walk around and take pictures. We didn't last long though because it was over 100 and just too hot to be outside.

Played in the rain. It doesn't rain to often here so when it does the kids love to go play in it.
Played in Camden's cute little frog pool.

Had surgery! Is that considered fun? (Sorry about the blurry picture. Didn't realize it was blurry till after the fact.)

Played at the park

Flew kites.
Played at the park more.

Played at the water park.

Graduated from High School. :)

Happy Birthday Ashton!!

Today was Ashton's 11th b-day. Given the fact that when I was pregnant with him the dr.'s told us he wouldn't be born alive, then I kept carrying him and they told us he would only live a few hours, his birthday's are real milestones. He had a very busy weekend, beginning on Friday. So here's how the story goes (I always have a story to tell).

On Friday his friend Tyler was celebrating his b-day with a swimming party at the rec center after school. Well, Tyler lives just around the corner from us, and he has a little brother who is three who also has heart defects. He has hypo-plastic left heart, and Ashton is hypo-plastic right heart. Anyway, they had been swimming for a while and Tyler saw Ashton alone and asked him if he was ok. Ashton was very blue because he was very cold and Tyler could tell something was wrong, so Tyler told Ashton to go talk to his mom. Darci, Tyler's mom, had a portable oximeter with her so she took his sats, cause like I said he was very blue. He was sating at 66. That is pretty low!! So she told him to go take as warm a shower as he could stand. Then they all loaded up and headed home. Ashton wanted to stay for pizza and cake so she checked his sats again and he was up to 73. It's nice to have him with someone who really knows what to look for and how to treat him. After the party he came home, with his friend Andy who was going to sleep over, and told Ray that he needed his oxygen on. So he got it on and relaxed for about an hour and then off they went to Iceburg. Ashton and Andy did the same thing last year on Ashton's b-day. They eat their dinner and then go up on the sidewalk by the road (it is on the Blvd.) and try to get cars to honk at them. Those silly boys. Then we got them home and in bed about 11:30 to prepare for the next big day.

On Saturday was Ashton's friend party. We took them to the water park. We just never seem to get tired of that place. Hey, it's a good place to get cooled down and heck, it's free. We had pizza and cupcakes.

Ashton and his friends playing in the water. The cupcakes we made. They are supposed to be little hamburgers and hot dogs on top. I got this idead from my sister-in-law Michelle years ago and the kids just always love them.


Keanna and her friend Brooke decided to have a cupcake fight with theirs. Those silly girls.

On Sunday closest to their b-day we have a family dinner and the birthday person gets to decide what we have for dinner and desert. Ashton wanted hawiian haystacks for dinner and I decided to surprise him and make him a Scooby Doo cake. (We have the cake pans at work and when I saw the Scooby pan I knew I had to try to do it for Ashton.) It turned out ok. I learned a lot and know what to do different next time. Keanna is already thinking about what kind of cake she wants. She keeps reminding us, her birthday is only 11 days away.

Ashton got movies and books for his birthday. That is what he wanted.

Congrats!

Congratulations to Ambrea. She earned her Young Women's medallion (a few weeks ago. I am just slow getting it blogged.:) ) We are proud of her and this accomplishment. She put in a lot of hours doing her many 10 hour projects and everything else that goes along with achieving this goal. Way to go Ambrea.

Labor Day

What a great weekend it was. On Friday I met Nate and picked up Hazel and Savannah so they could come and spend the weekend. Nate had to work, so he couldn't come. At least I got to see him. I miss them so dang much!

We didn't do anything spectacular. Just spent time together. And I did spend Labor Day weekend laboring (working). I had to work a long shift on Saturday and a regular shift on Monday. So I tried to spend my time with the girls when I wasn't working. Like I said, nothing spectacular, just quality time together.

I taught Hazel to crochet around baby blankets (And dang she picked up on it quick. She was doing a great job.), we set her up a blog, and she colored my hair. I was so excited about having my hair done. I was so worried how I was going to get it done since they moved, but Hazel assured me we will be seeing each other enough that we will be able to keep up on it. Whew!

Ray took them to meet Nate late afternoon on Monday. I was on my way to work so I gave them a quick good-bye. I couldn't do anymore than that because the tears were about to turn on and I knew if they started I wouldn't be able to get them shut off. And that wouldn't be very good at work.

Savannah had a lot of fun playing with the kids. Keanna and her were playing hid-and-seek here. That baby is growing. Hazel was 17 weeks when they visited. Her due date is February 14th.

Savannah is trying to understand that there is actually a baby growing in there. Of course, she wants it out, and now.

It was such a treat to have them visit. And how thankful I am that Hazel is comfortable enough to come and stay without Nate. We feel like she is a daughter to us, not a daughter-in-law. We are very blessed to have her a part of our family and to have such a great relationship with her.