A new addition to the family

Wow I can't believe my baby is already almost 4 weeks old. Oh how time flies! For those of you who don't know the story and for journaling purposes I will tell how it all began. Saturday morning November 29th I was going about doing my normal things and I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom literally like every 30 minutes. It was the most frustrating thing, I felt like I lived in the bathroom. This went on all day and I thought it was kind of strange. By the end of the day I was beginning to wonder if my water had broke, though I was not having any contractions. Well I chatted with my mom about it and came to the conclusion that indeed it had broken. Well I am stubborn and decided to wait it out for contractions to start rather than just going in to the hospital. I didn't know if it would be that night or a day or two. That night around 11:30 I felt a couple of contractions but nothing was consistant so I just went to bed. The contractions stopped and then I woke up with a few more around 2:30am but again nothing consistant but I had a feeling it was all beginning. I went back to sleep for about an hour and then I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. My contractions became very consistant around 4am so I decided to just start getting things ready to go to the hospital so that whenever the time came we could just go. About 5:45am I called my mom to come be with my kids and by 6:20 we were out the door to the hospital. We got to the hospital and I knew I was in labor but of course the nurses have to check it all out just to make sure, because they couldn't tell by the way I would grit my teeth every time I had a contraction (note the sarcasm). They knew right away that my water had broke and the nurse said she was going to go get a room ready, call the doctor and then they would check me in. Well in the mean time I am really wanting to get my epidural so I tell Steve to go let them know I am ready for it at any time. They told him that I had to wait until they had checked me in. In my mind I am thinking "ok that shouldn't take too long, maybe 10 minutes." Well apparently it takes a LOT longer, it was about 40 minutes later before they could move me to the delivery room and then another 20-30 minutes before I was checked in and then another 10 minutes before I could get my epidural. Mean while I feel like I am going to die! By the time I had my epidural it was 10-15 minutes later that they told me I could start pushing. All I can say is that it is a good thing they got me medicated when they did because I definitely didn't want to have that baby without. Oh the torture the women of the past had to go through! Anyway, we welcomed Jack Bryant Gardner into the world on November 30th at 9:01am. (almost 2 weeks early) He weighed in at 7lbs 12 oz and was 19 in long. He has had my heart since that day. He might only eat, sleep and poop but he is the cutest eater, sleeper and pooper I have seen in a long time. I love every second I get to spend with him. Even though I know when he smiles that it is just gas I like to pretend that he is really smiling because he knows me and loves me. Steve, Raleigh and Jett love Jack so much. Raleigh is constantly wanting to hold him and help take care of him and Jett just wants to give him kisses all the time. I wondered what it would be like having a 3rd kid and how the boys would react but so far so good. Hopefully things will continue to be this easy.

I thought this was a cute picture of our sweet little Jack.

Raleigh loves to lay by Jack and snuggle up close to him.

New Background

I finally changed my background. Steve has been bugging me for months now to do it, even though the only time he ever looks at my blog is when I am on it. Anyway, this is a post to make him happy. Merry Christmas Babe!

What a Crazy Day!

What a day. I got up this morning thinking it was just going to be a typical Sunday, get ready, go to church, spend the day with family. Boy did things go differently. Well, it all started out normal but here is what happened. We were just about to leave for church and I was brushing my teeth when I noticed something felt weird with my mouth. I looked in the mirror and saw that one side of my mouth would not move. I thought about it for a few minutes and realized that when I was doing my makeup that I also had trouble closing one of my eyes. I called to Steve to tell him that I thought something was wrong. As we talked about it for a couple of minutes we started noticing other things from the past few days that were not normal for me such as an ongoing headache on the same side of my head as the other symptoms and also my tongue felt kind of numb. We called my doctor and he told us we should probably head to the ER. Well at church I am the primary secretary and I had all the papers to hand out for primary and I had also told the Primary pianist that I would play for her today but that was all out the window now. Church had already started so Steve drove over to the church and gave all the papers and the news to the Primary president that I would not be at church. We called my parents who met us at the ER to take care of the kids. It was the weirdest feeling in my face on the way to the ER to have one eye squinting from the brightness of the sun and the other eye as wide open as can be. It was also really weird and kind of scary to laugh or smile and only have one side of your face move. Anyway, we get to the ER and the doctor comes in and after a minute tells us that he thinks it is Bells Palsy. I had never heard of it. Essentially what it is, is a temporary poralysis of a nerve in my face. They don't know what causes it and there really is no cure you just have to wait for it to go away. He said that it could last anywhere from a few days to a few months and at night I need to put drops in my eye and tape it shut so it doesn't dry out. Yikes! I hope this lasts only a few days at most. Anyway, to make a long story short, he gave me a couple of prescriptions that might help and they sent me home. Needless to say it was quite the eventful morning. Besides that life at our house is normal and we are just waiting for baby #3 to arrive. Only a week and a half to go. My next post will probably be about his arrival and we still haven't officially chosen a name so anyone with last minute suggestions should get them in quick.

The best weekend

I have the best husband in the whole world. Apparently I must have been looking a little overwhelmed with everything I have to do before this baby comes and he knew I have been really uncomfortable so what did he do....last weekend he surprised me with a mini vacation. It was so sweet! Without me knowing anything he asked my sister to watch the kids for the weekend and he took me out to dinner and then we drove up to Midway and stayed at the Zermatt resort. It was so nice and relaxing. Then the next day we set up a couples massage and had another relaxing day. It was seriously the best surprise. I am so blessed to have a husband who cares so much and wants to make me happy. I love you honey!

Baby Names

We are 6 weeks away from baby BOY #3 arriving and we are having trouble coming up with a name we can agree on. So I thought I would open it up to the blogging world for suggestions. Please list any ideas you have because we really don't want to be one of those families that brings their baby home without a name and we don't just want to choose something spur of the moment. So really any names you would like to suggest would be very appreciated.

A couple of weeks ago Steve and I were able to take a trip without the kids and visit Steve's sister Sarah in Baltimore. This was our first trip by ourselves and it was so much fun. We decided since Baltimore is so close to so many fun places that we would rent a car and go a few other places too. So the first day there we traveled to Washington DC. It was crazy to see all the secruity surrounding the Capitol. It is not every day that you see security guards with machine guns. Steve went to ask one of them a question and as Steve approached the secturity guy totally backed away like Steve was going to attack him or something. We decided to take a tour of the Capitol building. It was fun and interesting but nothing like it used to be. They must have really changed things after 9/11. Although one funny story is that while we were waiting for our tour they told us absolutely no food or drink on the tour. If we had any we were suppose to throw it away before we got inside or they would do it for us. Well I don't go anywhere without snacks and especially with being pregnant I had a bit of food with me. I was not about to throw it all away but I didn't know what to do with it. So we decided to take it out of our back pack and stash it in the bushes until we got back. It was hilarious to watch Steve try to discretely hide our food. I wanted to take a picture but thought it might draw attention to him. More later. . .

HELP!

Ok I need some advice. First off I need some advice on discpline. Raleigh is driving me crazy with his disobedient, defiant attitude. He talks back to me constantly, thinks he never has to do anything I ask him to and when I try to discipline him he kicks, hits, and screams bloody murder. I came to my wits end today when I was trying to get him in the car today to take him to preschool and we were running late. He wouldn't get in the car so I told him he had 3 seconds to get in or he was going to sit in his room ALL day. At this point he gets mad and screams at the top of his lungs which causes the neighbors to come running to see what happened. Talk about embarrassing. So I take him in the house and was going to put him in his room but being pregnant I don't want to carry a 40 pound child who is kicking and scratching up the stairs. Plus I really didn't want him to miss preschool because I don't want to pay for something that he doesn't go to. So I ended up throwing him into the car and taking him to preschool. Probably the wrong decision but I needed some peace and quiet. Raleigh is not always this way, some days his is a sweet little boy who is really helpful but the other days I about loose my mind. Any advice on what I can do to change his behavior would be much appreciated.

Also I need some advice on Jett. He is 16 months old and refuses to eat any table food other than cheese, bread and fruit. I have quit buying the baby foods that he loves and won't give him anything but what we are eating but then he just refuses to eat. Yesterday all he had to eat was oatmeal in the morning and water the rest of the day because he was to stubborn to eat anything else. I mean if you are lucky enough to get other foods in his mouth then he will just spit and spit and spit until ever last drop of that food is out of his mouth and then he will not open his mouth for anything else. When Jett got up this morning he was so lethargic he could hardly pull himself to stand in his crib and he was dry heaving because he was so hungry. But now that I have given him some food he is his normal self again. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get Jett to eat normal foods?

I'm Back

I know, I know I have not updated my blog in forever now but it's better late than never. It has taken me a while to post because about the time I posted last I started feeling really sick with pregnancy and after I had done all the things I had to do I didn't feel like blogging, I just wanted to take a nap. I am feeling a lot better now and have a for a couple of weeks but I was just out of the habit of blogging but hope to get back on track now. Since my last post I took my 2 boys (Steve was sick and stayed home) and went with my family to Arches national Park. I love that place. I didn't do a lot of hiking with being pregnant and feeling kind of sick but the boys loved it. Even Jett loved climbing on the rocks. He couldn't get enough of it. It was so cute. Raleigh loved being around his cousins and just having the freedom to run and play all day. We missed Steve while we were gone but over all we had a good time.

I got a new calling at church a couple of weeks ago. They must think I don't have enough to do or something. I already have the calling of activity days with the 8 & 9 year old girls and I am a permanant sub in the nursey until they find someone to help Steve (this has been since the end of March). I am not complaining or anything because I enjoy my callings but I never expected the next one. So I got called in to talk with a member of the bishopric. They ask me to be an assistant ward organist. Well that would be great if I knew how to play the organ. It is so different from the piano. So I tell them I don't know how to play the organ and he tells me, that's ok the current organist can teach you. Well I accepted the calling even though I was scared to death. This isn't exactly one of those callings that you can hide in. You can either play the organ or everyone in the ward is going to know just how bad you suck at it. Well today was my first official day to play the organ for sacrament meeting. I was nervous but I felt like the Lord definitely helped me out and made up for my short comings. I guess this is just a testimony that when you are called to do something the Lord will give you the strength and capability to do so. I also have to give a huge thanks to my awesome husband who gave so much support to me and so willingly sat with the kids by himself during sacrament meeting. He is the best and I love him so much. Anyway, I just wanted to voice my thoughts on this day a first of many Sunday's to come of playing the organ.

Private Blogs?

So normally I post about what has been happening in our family but today I decided to write about my thoughts instead. I have notice lately that a lot of people have turned their blogs "private". I really don't understand why. People say it is for safety reasons and maybe it is true and I am the naive one but I just don't understand it. There are so many other ways to keep "blog predators" away. For example don't use your last name on your blog or personal dates, such as birthdays, anniveraries etc. Also you don't need to put any specifics about where you live. Keeping that information off your blog should keep you from having the "need" to go private. So you all don't think that I am just going on about nothing I will try to express why I feel the way I do about having a private blog. When I first entered the blogging world I didn't have a blog but a few of my friends did. I would occassionally check their blogs and from there I would find other old friends and aquaintances. I thought it was the coolest thing to be able to see what was happening in their lives. This is when I decided to start my own blog. I thought that if I liked being able to know about other peoples fun lives they might want to know about mine. Finding many of you would not and could not have happened if everyone's blogs were private. The other thing that I hate about private blogs is once someone decides to go private you have no way of contacting them to ask them to view their blog unless you miraculously have their email. So I guess my question to all my fellow bloggers is I am really just that naive to think that by keeping personal information out of my blog that my family will be kept "safe" or am I right in thinking that having a private blog is a status symbol or paranoia by a lot of people? I will get off my soap box now but I really just wanted to get this off my chest. I am sorry if I have offended anyone who has a private blog that was not my intention.

I am a blog slacker

I am a huge slacker sometimes when it comes to updating my blog. Things have been busy, we were suppose to go to California to visit my brother this week but instead I had the lucky opportunity to be sick. Yay for me. (note the heavy sarcasm) I am finally feeling a bit better I think so I am crossing my fingers. Anyway I will try to post about the latest happenings very soon. Sorry I am not better at posting but I find it so much more fun to see what is happening in everyone elses exciting lives. Check back soon for a real update.

A Letter To Myself

If I could send myself a letter from the person I am now to myself when I was younger this is what I would say. (Elena, thanks for another great idea for my blog).

1. Don’t cut bangs in Jr high, you will look like a complete dork.

2. Warren W. had a crush on you but it is better to just stay friends.

3. Slapping people on the butt for wearing guess jeans and saying “Guess Butt” was a really stupid game. Plus you just looked dumb doing it.

4. Be nicer to Becca J. because she is a really cool girl.

5. Learn how to study and do better in school so you don’t have to feel so dumb all the time.

6. Write about more than just boys in your journal. Your posterity will want to know more about you then just your latest crush.

7. Don’t take your flat stomach for granted because after kids you won’t have it any more.

8. Your last semester at Ricks go out more instead of being depressed over a dumb boy.

9. The “Mexican Drug Dealer” or so he was labeled, is a player. (He is not mexican or a drug dealer, as far as I know, but the look of his car made him appear that way to some) Have fun while you date him because you learn a lot and become a stronger person because of him but beware that he is not what he appears to be.

10. Don’t worry about Steve’s indecision about your dating/non dating relationship, just hang in there. It all works out in the end and it is TOTALLY worth it.

11. The night before your wedding don’t let Dad climb a ladder in the cultural hall but if he decides to anyway know that even though it is a hard time he will survive and eventually be back to normal with the help of many doctors.

12. Don’t make such a big deal out of dating. Just go have a good time. On that note your life doesn’t need to revolve around boys.

13. Be nicer to the guys you go out with that you don’t think are your type.

14. Spend more time with Muffy. She is awesome and you will both miss getting to spend time with each other after you are married.

15. Finish college and don’t skip class just because you don’t feel like going.

16. Not making the basketball team in 7th grade is not the end of the world. You make it in 8th and 9th grade.

17. In 6th grade when Mrs. Gerry tells you that you sparkle when you sing, yes, it is embarrassing but if you make it into a joke before she gets the chance to make it worse by turing it into a role play for the class, the end result might be better. Good Luck!

18. Don’t play the bounce game on the trampoline with Tyson and Jaron. When it breaks Muffy will never let you live it down and will give you a hard time for the rest of your life.

19. Work harder and do more to accomplish your goals.

I am sure there is a lot more I could write but I can’t think of anything at the moment. Remember you have a great family and awesome friends. Never forget how much they have influenced your life and do a better job at keeping in touch with them.

Deb

How We Named Our Kids

My friend did this on her blog and I thought it was cool so I decided to copy it. Thanks for the idea Elena

I am the kind of person that thinks of names for our kids way in advance and then I run them by Steve and see what he thinks. If I hear a name that I like sometimes I will write it down so I won’t forget it. Most of the time Steve doesn’t like the names I come up with but somehow we eventually find one we agree on.
Raleigh Nathaniel Gardner. For the most part deciding on this name was easy. These were both family names on Steve’s side and we like the names. The difficult part came when Steve wanted to spell the name like his grandpa and I didn’t. His grandpa spelled it Rollie and I was afraid that if he was a chunky kid that people would tease him and call him Rollie Pollie. My solution was to still use the name but spell it different. Steve didn’t like the idea but I told him that unless we spelled it different we would have to find another name. He finally after much persuasion agreed to spell it my way although to this day he will often spell it his grandpa’s way.
Jett Jamison Gardner. This name was much harder for us. We must have spent hours trying to come up with just the right name. I had heard the name Jett from an old neighbor of our and liked it but didn’t think that Steve would go for it. When I suggested the name Steve said he kind of liked it but he wasn’t sold on it. So we continued to think of other names. Nothing seemed to fit. When we decided that his name would be Jett it only got harder from there because we could not come up with a middle name that we liked and thought sounded good. We tried to find a family name that we like with it but failed. We had talked about the name Jamison for a middle name because we thought it sounded good but we were not sold on the name. So we are at the hospital filling out the birth certificate and still did not have a middle name. So having found nothing else that we liked his name ended up being Jett Jamison Gardner.

Jett's Starting To Walk

Jett just started taking his first steps! YEA! I think he could totally start walking if he wanted to but he is nervous about it. Oh well I guess it will all come in time. It sure is fun though to watch his attempts. I think my favorite is when he just stands there, doesn’t move his feet and then falls forward hoping you will catch him. It’s a good thing I do because if not he would face plant it hard. It is really funny to watch.

EASTER

I should start by saying I am so dumb because I didn’t get any picture of anything for the following post. So I am hoping to steal some pictures from my sister to post later.

My family and I are in love with Easter Egg Hunts so there are a lot to talk about. On Saturday morning before Easter I got up early with the boys and drove to Orem to go to our traditional hunt at Mountain View. Since Raleigh is still 3 we was put in the with 0-3 age kids and he totally towered over them. He was all geared up and ready to go by the time it was ready to start. There was candy on the lawn and there were some plastic eggs also. I had told Raleigh before hand to just go for the eggs because I knew he wouldn’t like the candy on the ground. When they blew the whistle to go like a very obedient child he ran out there as fast as he could and only picked up the eggs. When all the eggs were gone he kept looking for them. I told him he could pick up the candy on the ground but he didn’t want it. When he realized all the “Eggs” were gone he was a little disappointed that it was over so fast. All in all though I think he had a good time.
Later that day my family was having their Easter Egg Hunt. It has kind of been chaotic this year with trying to work around everyone’s schedules so we ended up deciding to have 3 different hunts. The first one was going to have to start late in the day due to my sister having to drive down from Idaho so instead of having it in the yard we decided to try it at the church so it wouldn’t be dark before we could find the eggs. My family is different than most in that we have a kids hunt and an adult hunt. I think the adults enjoy it as much as the children. We filled about 335 eggs just for the adults to find. (We count them before hand so we can know if we missed finding any) We got to the church and split up into 2 groups. There were so many places to hide the eggs and we didn’t want to be disrespectful in the church so we didn’t hide them too hard and said there was no running except in the cultural hall. When we were all done we counted our eggs and found out we were missing like 30-40 eggs. We searched the church up and down probably 5 times before we recounted and decided we had miss counted in the beginning. We had found a few more eggs but there was no way we missed that many. Anyway, we were all tired since it was about 10:30pm when we left and we all decided we would never be holding it at the church again. What a disaster!

On Easter Sunday after church we went to Steve’s sister Nicole’s new house in Spanish Fork. Their house is gorgeous! They had invited the whole family over for dinner. It was a really good dinner and it was so fun to get together with the family and socialize.

On Monday, it was a slow work day so I drove over to my old neighborhood to take care of a few things that I have needed to do for a long time and I told the kids I would take them to the park. It was the most beautiful day. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Raleigh and Jett loved going to the park too. We haven’t been to a park since last fall and it was nice to just enjoy the nice weather outside. I got to see so many of my friends and neighbors. I loved getting to see all of them and realized just how much I miss seeing them on a regular basis. For anyone that I didn’t get to see I hope to get to see more of you soon. We plan to come back and visit the parks fairly often. If you would like to make a play date out of it sometime let me know.

On Tuesday, after Easter, my sister Kim was back in town and we decided to hold the kids hunt that night. We filled another 130 eggs for the 6 kids to find. They were so excited we could barley keep them from running outside before it was time to start. I was really surprised at how good the kids did at finding the Easter Eggs. We thought with that many eggs it would take them a while but it was over in no more than 15 –20 minutes. It was so much fun to watch and see their faces light up every time they saw an egg.

The next day, it was another slow work day so we went with my 2 sisters to the bounce house and classic skating. It was a lot of fun. The kids loved running and playing and being as wild as they wanted. It was a crazy busy week but so fun! Thanks to everyone for making it a fun week.

I'm a Big Boy Now!

Raleigh this week has decided that he is so big now. He has been getting himself dressed, without being asked and he even did his own hair. He surprised me and walked down the stairs one morning with it done. So I had to take a picture because I thought he did a pretty good job.

St. Patrick's Day

For St. Patrick’s Day I decided to have a little fun with the kids and make our dinner green. So I made green eggs and green French toast. As I was making it Raleigh looked at it and almost started to cry because it looked “Yucky.” For like 15 minutes and I got things ready and cooked it he just kept repeating over and over that it was “not going to be good”, it looked gross and he didn’t want to eat it. I kept telling him it was going to taste any different but he wouldn’t believe me. When it was finally time to eat I cut his french toast and he took a bite and said “Mmmmmmm, this is so good, I love it!” I thought it was so funny. Then for FHE that night we read Green Eggs and Ham and frosted sugar cookies. It was a really fun day.

Our Green Eggs and French Toast, they don't look very green in the picture

Jett couldn't get enough of the cookies.

A Few Good Laughs

So I have decided that the only way I am going to remember the funny things my kids say and do is if I write it down so here are a few of the funny things that had me laughing this week.


Raleigh: Where am I am going to go on a mission?
Deb: Where ever Heavenly Father wants you to go?
Raleigh: Where are you going to go Mom?
Deb: Where ever Heavenly Father wants me to go?
Raleigh: Where is Daddy going to go?
Deb: Maybe he will go with Mommy.
Raleigh: No, he’ll go somewhere else, but I’ll go with you Mommy!


Raleigh: Where does Jesus live?
Steve: With Heavenly Father in Heaven?
Raleigh: Where’s that, space or something?
Steve: He lives on another planet.
Raleigh: Another planet? Then how I am suppose to get there when I get old?



Raleigh: “Jesus’ last name is Savior, cuz’ he saves people.”

Update

JETT'S BIRTHDAY

Jett turned 1 on February 23rd. I can’t believe my baby is already a year old. It is crazy how time flies. Raleigh was so excited for Jett’s birthday that I pretty much let him plan the whole party. Especially since Jett won’t remember it anyway, why not let Raleigh have some fun. So we made a chocolate cake, hung balloons and streamers, or as Raleigh called them “lines”, invited family over, played games and had prizes for the winners. So here is how it all went down. Raleigh decided we were going to play Twister, Duck Duck Goose, and hide and seek. It was funny to watch personalities in adults come out in the games since there were only 3 kids there old enough to play. When it came time to open presents Jett could have cared less so Raleigh decided he was going to open the presents for him. He pretty much took over the toys as his too. After the presents it was time to have cake and ice cream. I was really excited to see what Jett would do but to my disappointment he didn’t like the ice cream, because it was too cold and he decided he didn’t like the feel of the cake on his hands so he just wanted someone to feed it to him. All in all I think we all had a good time though.

A present from Grandma Jolley.

"Happy Birthday to you"

Oh that looks cool, I want to touch it!

Tasting the cake to see if Mom's cooking skills are any good.

Mmmmm that was good.

Raleigh Counting

Grandma hiding

Grandpa scaring Raleigh

Our 2 favorite boys! (Raleigh with his favorite fake smile)

ZOO, BOUNCE HOUSE AND POOL

This last week has been a fun but busy one for us. On Wednesday we went to the Zoo’s free day with my sisters and Dad. I think sometimes we go to the zoo as much for the kids and we do for me. I love the zoo. I love to see the animals up close and watch the things they do. Even though it’s not like seeing them in the wild, it is still pretty cool. Then on Friday we went to the bounce house at classic skating. You might think that it is just for kids but me, Steve, Muffy, Raleigh and Jett all had a great time. As adults we made competitions out of a lot of it. And even though we came away with a few burns on our hands and arms I would do it again any day. Then Monday night for FHE we decided to go swimming. I had thought it was a great idea until we got there and there so many cars and we knew it was going to be crowded. We tried to talk Raleigh into doing something else instead but he didn’t want to do anything but swim. So we headed in to the pool. Raleigh amazed me with how brave he was. This may not sound like much to many of you but Raleigh has been terrified of water and especially getting water in his face but last night he was putting his face in the water, going down the slides and he wasn’t really afraid of anything. It was so fun to watch. Jett on the other hand was very nervous at first. He just clung to Steve and I and wouldn’t let go. He has always been better in the water than Raleigh so we just gave him some time to warm up to it all. It was so cute to watch him by the end as he was splashing and playing. He would even let us put his head in the water without screaming. He would just laugh as we swam around in the water chasing Raleigh. So it looks like there might be a lot of trips to the pool this summer with as much fun as it was last night.

Raleigh and I climbing the BIG slide.

This is a picture of the Nerdy goof I turn into whenever I am with my sister Marianne.

Jetty and Mommy

The fam exhausted and about ready to go home.

FUNNY QUOTES BY RALEIGH

“Mom, one day I want to be old like you and President Hinckley.”

Raleigh wrote a story one day and it said “And the Lord said that the good guys should kill the bad guys”

So Raleigh woke up one morning and told Muffy “Last night I was scared because the Lamanites were coming but I said a prayer to Heavenly Father to send Jesus to come be in my heart. So Jesus came and was in my heart and kept me safe.”

Update

Hi Everyone. So I am still alive but I have just been busy and I haven’t gotten around to updating my blog. So here are a few things we have done lately. About a month ago we went to my sister Camie’s house in Idaho for the weekend. Since both she and I went to Rick College she thought it might be fun for us to go to the Rexburg Temple open house and then walk around the campus. Everyone was suppose to have tickets to get into the open house so that things would run smoothly but we found out the day before that they were letting anybody in whether or not they had a ticket. So we got to the temple and they had us waiting at the church near by and there were just a ton of people. We thought we were going to wait for a long time because of the amount of people but they actually got us in pretty quick which is a good thing considering we had 6 kids with us. We found out a little later that the reason we had to wait at all is because a little while before we got there 2 big bus loads us people without tickets showed up. Anyway, as we walked through the temple you couldn’t help but feel the peace and beauty of it. I especially love the endowment room and the way they had painted it. It was absolutely beautiful. I don’t think all the kids understood the significance of the temple but they did really good at trying to be reverent. We didn’t get a picture of all of us at the temple because it was so cold and our cars were parked a ways away and we couldn’t bring cameras into the temple. We did drive around though and Steve sat in the car and took a couple of pictures of me and Raleigh in front of the temple. I had totally forgotten how cold Rexburg gets and the wind just kills you. After we drove to Ricks campus and took a trip down memory lane. It was fun to take Steve and show him the places significant to me but the kids just wanted to run and play so Steve and my brother-in-law Doug were nice enough to take the kids and let them run around while Camie and I walked campus reminiscing about our college days. Wow I sound old but it was really fun to go back and remember such a fun time in our lives. After we walked around campus we drove to Idaho Falls for some much needed food and shopping and then it was back to my sisters house in Pocatello. We put the kids to bed and played a few games. I even talked my sister into playing a game that I really like called California speed. I can’t seem to find anyone else who really likes to play it with me. I personally think it is because no one can beat me. I know, I know you are all thinking that I am incredibly cocky and maybe I am, it’s your call, but I have yet to find anyone that can beat me, although Camie did come close. The next day we went to church in “Pokie”, played a few more games and drove home. It was a fun weekend to be with my sister and her family.

NO CHURCH

A few weeks ago we got so much snow that they cancelled church. So we decided we would go outside and play in the snow as we tried to shovel the driveway. There was so much snow it was ridiculous. I haven’t seen this much snow in a really long time. We had mounds taller than Steve. It was totally crazy but fun. Raleigh said he wanted to build a snowman so I said I would help him but really he just wanted to throw snow and watch me build the snow man. It was fun to go outside and just have time to play in the snow and enjoy it.

This is the entrance to our cool snow cave.

Raleigh trying to shovel the snow.

Our huge mound of snow. Note Steve is 6'3"

SNOW STORM
As many of you know last week we had another big storm, only this one wasn’t as much snow as it was wind. It started about mid afternoon and went through the night with many roads being closed and a lot of cars being stranded on the roads. So here is our story. Steve works from home and he needed to take some stuff to the Fedex Kinkos. The weather looked bad but Steve has driven in bad weather before so about 5:30pm he set out into the storm. I called him about 25 minutes later to see where he was at and to find out if the roads were really as bad as they looked. He told me that he had never driven in anything so bad and that when he had finally gotten onto the main road he had a hard time knowing what direction he was going because it was a complete white out. He finally made it to the Fedex about 6pm and he needed to take some stuff to a friends house in Pleasant Grove. Because the weather was so bad he told me he was going to stay there for a while and wait for the storm to calm. So about 7:30 he decided it was time to head home. He drove around for hours trying to get home. He tried side roads, which they had closed, he tried the main roads that were at a completely standstill. He was so frustrated and just wanted to get home. I was a little nervous too because the news was saying the winds by our house were blowing 70 mph. About 9:15pm he called me and said he was going to try to make it to his brothers house to spend the night. I thought that was a good idea and was grateful when he finally made it there. The next morning the weather was better but the roads were a mess. When he got to the entrance to our neighborhood there was a highway patrolman saying that only people with 4-wheel drive and residents of the neighborhood could enter. Well we don’t own anything 4-wheel drive so Steve was off to find another way to get home. He drove to his cousins house to see if they would be able to give him a ride home. They said sure and when they got to the entrance the cop wanted proof of residency. We have only lived here a couple of months and Steve hadn’t changed his license yet so Steve was about to just get out and walk home when the cop decided to get off his power trip and just let them through. So finally after hours of driving around and lots of drama, Steve made it home about 9:30am for Valentine’s Day. Thanks Ben and Mindy for your help getting Steve home.

SLEDDING

Presidents Day weekend we decided to go sledding with my family. We went to Hobble Creek canyon and had a great time. It was such a nice day. Raleigh had never really been sledding before and he was quite nervous about it. He didn’t want to sit in the sled unless it was on flat ground and you were pulling it. Although my sister was able to bribe him with candy to go down the hill once. It’s amazing what a little candy can get him to do. I went down the hill with him and after I asked him if had fun and he said yes but that he didn’t want to do it again. Oh well the rest of us had fun.

Raleigh with Aunt Muffy

Steve and Jett

The Fam over flowing in one small sled.

Hair Cuts

Raleigh & Jett both got their hair cut on Monday night by Aunt Michie –this was Jett’s first haircut. Here is the before shot with Jett and I, and here are a few of during the process. He was pretty good during the whole thing. He looks so different, but still just as cute!

Raleigh's new haircut. I didn't really want it buzzed but he moved as it was getting cut and then there weren't many other options.

Jett Before

Jett during his haircut
Jett After

The Man Purse

So Raleigh has been doing and saying some of the funniest things lately. He is totally into boy things such as cars, guns, swords and such but I think he kind of confuses different gender traits. For example lately he has been obsessed with money. He had a bunch of coins in his piggy bank and he dumped them out and put them in a bucket and proceeded to carry it around the house for days. Then one day he got into my closet and found my old camera case and dumped the money in it. He came down the stairs all proud of himself and says "Look mom, now I have a purse just like you." He would carry "his purse" everywhere if I let him. If he sets if down somewhere and can't remember where he has put it he'll say "Mommy, where's my purse?" Then last Sunday at church his sunbeam teacher comes up to me and says she has a really funny story to tell me. She proceeds to tell me that the week before they were going to role play the story of Moses and they were assigning the kids different parts when Raleigh quickly raises his hand and says "I want to be the mom." and then also in class they were talking about colors and he says his favorite color is pink. Just to dispell any questions, no Raleigh does not have any girl toys and no I don't think he is going to have gay issues. He already is taking after his Dad and liking girls at WAY TOO YOUNG of an age but that is a story for another day. I think he just spends so much time with me that he wants to be just like me. Oh how I hope and pray that he will grow out of this before other kids start to make fun of him.

Raleigh with his "man purse" and cars

Boris and Billy

I have had a lot of people ask me where the names Boris and Billy came from so I thought I would share the stories. Let’s start with Boris. My brother Mike loves to give people nicknames. Sometimes those nicknames would be similar to a persons name and other times it didn’t. However in my case he says it is an evolution of my name. So you start with the name Deborah and it evolved to Dee Bore Ah and slowly changed to Deboris and eventually ended with Boris. You would think that the name would not stick and to be honest it completely annoyed me every time he said it in the beginning. Somehow over time the name stuck and more and more people started calling me this until I finally became so used to the name that I would answer to it without even thinking about it. Now that it has been probably at least a decade since my brother gave me this name I have many family members and friends who call me by Boris more than they do by Deb or Deborah.
Now on to the history of the name Billy. Unlike the name Boris, Billy is one that Steve created on his own. Back in the beginning of our dating but not dating days Steve called my parents house one night to see if I was home. My sister Marianne answered the phone and told him I wasn’t home and asked who was calling. Steve not wanting my family to know that he kind of liked me (he is 9 ½ years older than me and didn’t know how my family would react) quickly told her his name was Billy. When I got home later she told me that “Billy” had called. I asked her who “Billy” was and she said she didn’t know. I had a feeling it was Steve so I checked the caller ID for his phone number. It wasn’t there. (He had called from a friends cell phone) Anyway to make a long story short I got it out of him later that it was him that had called and said his name was Billy and we had a good laugh about it. So there you have it. Nothing super exciting or anything but something most of you probably didn’t know.

Totally Annoyed

So earlier today I went to post about our trip to Florida and I was posting in sections according to how much time I had at the moment. When I went to post them I did so in chronilogical order and it posted them with the first thing that happened at the bottom. So I deleted them and redid the posts putting them in the opposite order and it still posted them backwards. I am so annoyed by it and I am not going to take the time to redo these posts again. So I am sorry but if you want the events in order you will just have to start at the bottom. If anyone knows a quick way to fix this I would love to know how. Also if you are reading this leave me a quick note so I can see who is looking at my blog.

Days 4, 5 & 6

Day 4 we went to the Animal Kingdom. Raleigh loves animals and he was so excited to go on the safari and get to see the elephants, giraffe’s, lions, zebra’s etc. Steve and I were excited to finally get to ride the new Everest Expedition coaster. It was pretty cool, not what I had expected but it was still fun.

Deb, Raleigh and Steve with Everest in the background

At the end of the day we headed off to Jacksonville to stay at Dave and Lori’s house so we could go to church with them the next day. It was actually really nice to have a day of rest away from the park after 4 days of feeling like we were running from one place to the next. The kids loved teasing Steve and Dave. Steve was a good sport and even let them put earrings on him to make him look like a girl.

Emily, Steve, Megan, Dave & Raleigh

We really enjoyed being able to spend so much time with Dave, Lori, Megan and Emily and when Monday came we were sad to say goodbye. They were so great to be with and we owe Lori a lot for helping us to know the best time to go to Disney and knowing the ins and outs of all the parks. She is really a great Disney Guide. Thanks Lori! Monday we went back down to Disney World for one last day to try and do the things we either didn’t do or wanted to do again. That day was cut a little short since Steve’s flight was changed to leaving Monday instead of Tuesday and we didn’t get to do everything but we still had a good time and Raleigh and I went back to the Magic Kingdom to do all of Raleigh’s stuff one more time that night. The last highlight of Raleigh's trip was getting to meet Lightning McQueen & Mater.

Anyway, that is our trip in a little more than a nut shell but all in all we had a great time.

Day 3 - MGM Studios

Day 3 we went to MGM Studios. The highlights of this park were the Tower of Terror, Rockin’ Roller Coaster, which I highly recommend, it was probably my favorite ride, the car stunt show and the Osbourne Spectacle of Lights!

The lights were absolutely amazing. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it. I love the Christmas lights at temple square but this may just have out done that. There were so many lights it was beautiful. They even had the lights flashing at times to different Christmas songs. I loved this part of MGM.

When we left MGM the kids went back to the hotel with their dads and Lori and I went to Downtown Disney for a little shopping. It was nice to have some time to ourselves to shop and not have husbands or kids to distract us.

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

Day 2 we headed back to the Magic Kingdom now that my brother Dave was here to go on some of the “big kid rides.” I have to say that my two nieces Megan, 7, and Emily, 4, are almost completely fearless. They went on every ride they were tall enough for. I was totally amazed at these brave little girls. The theme for this day was Deb loosing things and Raleigh being scared out of his mind.

We had brought a stroller for Raleigh and we had parked it in the stroller parking to go on a ride and when I came back out is was gone. Their was one that looked just like ours still there but ours was missing. To make a long story short I found a tag on the stroller that looked just like ours with a name and phone number on it. So I called the number not knowing if it was a cell number or not. I left a message and hoped they might call back. We went about doing our own thing and about 40 minutes later I got a phone call from a guy apologizing for taking the wrong stroller. That was item #1 lost and later found.

We decided to go to Splash Mountain. I knew this ride would scare Raleigh at the end with the big drop but I thought that he would enjoy it until then. Boy was I wrong. While we were standing in line Raleigh noticed the “Big Down” as he called it and started freaking out. We tried to reassure him that he was going to be fine but it didn’t really help. The entire time we were on the ride he was covering his head and whimpering. It was a huge mistake to take him on that ride because the rest of the time we were there any ride we would go on he would say “it doesn’t go fast and there’s no downs?” He was completely freaked out the whole time and I felt so bad.

Although there were a few rides he liked and we went on them a few times. Such as Small World, Buzz Light Year, Tea Cups, Carousel, the cars, and the peter pan ride.

So now on to item #2 lost that day. We decided to go on Space Mountian (one of my favs) and when we got off the ride you have to step onto a moving walk way to get out of the building. As we were exiting the building one of us mentioned that we should call Dave and see how he is doing with the kids not tall enough to ride. I reached into my pocket to get my phone and it was gone. I thought to myself “Oh crap!”

For anyone who doesn’t know Space Mountain it is a roller coaster in the dark and I knew my phone had fallen out of my pocket while on the ride. So Steve, Lori, Megan and I turned around and started running back down the moving walk way against many glaring faces to try and find my phone. Lucky for us my phone had stayed on the seat of the roller coaster and someone had noticed it before it had gone on the track again. Wow I felt extremely lucky to have my phone back because I really didn’t know if I would find it. That night the kids decided to go swimming. It wasn’t all that warm but I was told the pools were heated to I got in with kids. It was so cold that I wanted to get right back out. But I am glad that I didn’t. Raleigh has had a fear of swimming, so much that he would wear a life jacket and lay on top of a baby tube. I didn’t bring either one of those with us and Lori told me she had an extra pair of arm floaties. So I put those on Raleigh but he didn’t want to leave the stairs unless I was holding me and the most of the time it was like a death grip. I finally got him to relax and try to swim around with his cousins as long as I had a hold of him. However by the end of the night much to his protest I had him swimming by himself and loving every minute of it. It was a great accomplishment for Raleigh. That was about the end of day 2.

Day 1 - Epcot

Day 1 we went to Epcot and from the moment Raleigh saw the characters he was dying to go meet them. So Raleigh and I stood in line for about an hour to see like 5 characters while Steve went to ride a few rides that Raleigh wasn’t tall enough for. Raleigh loved meeting Mickey Mouse even though he was a little shy when he finally got up there. We decided to take Raleigh on the Test Track even though we knew it would probably scare him. Yeah it totally scared the crap out him because it went “too fast” and that was just beginning of Raleigh being scared of rides.

Steve & Raleigh at the innovention building

Steve & Raleigh being eaten by a shark

After Epcot we went to meet my sister-in-law Lori and her 2 girls at the hotel and then we set off to the Magic Kingdom for the night. We decided to go to the kiddie rides because the lines might be shorter at night. That was totally the right decision because we hardly had to wait at all. We even got to see Mickey Mouse in his house with virtually no wait and we got to spend as much time with him as we wanted to. The kids loved it.

Playing outside at the hotel

Steve, Deb, Mickey, Lori, Megan, Raleigh & Emily at Mickey's house