Our Extended

Here is a snap shot of Greg's side of the family doing the lights at Temple Sq. last weekend. There are 8 Lorenzon grandchildren and one on the way. Big group, and very loud. Us in-laws usually just sit and watch since we can't get a word in edgewise.
Here is a recent fall photo of the Williamsen's, my family. We also have 8 grandchildren. Of both sides of our families everyone currently lives in state and around, so we are able to all get together fairly often.

We love family!

Jax is 5

I know everyone says this, but I can't believe I have a 5 year old! My little baby is a big kid now. How does this happen? Time flies, that's how. It seems like I was just pregnant with him, er, maybe that's because I was just with Bodie? Gosh, 3 kids already? How did we become a family of 5? Ahhh!

Below is Greg in the nursery with our first born. He was healthy and strong. Jax was really a great baby. I was spoiled.

Here he is in the summer when he was like 8 months? So cute, I see Bodie in this picture of Jax, I'm usually saying that about pics of Creed and Bodie.

Jax was always so good where ever we were. He slept good, napped great, ate good, weened from the Binky and bottle very smoothly. No complaints. Then came the toddler years. Below is him at 2 yrs. old. He is a lot of fun. He is a miniature Greg. He loves to wrestle his dad and is always asking someone to play with him. He could draw pictures all day. He can always be found at his table with a stack of drawings he's created.

And what do you get when you have 12 other children join your own at your house?

A BIG PARTY!!

We had our first friends birthday party this year. Unfortunately I was really sick leading up to it, but I had a lot of good help. Thank heaven for Annie. She came and really helped with all the games and prep, my parents for picking up the pizza and cake and cleaning. My mom and sister Amy for their help, and Greg made it home too, but I had to keep asking for his help. He wanted to play. I couldn't have done it otherwise. Life savers.

Here's how it all came together. We played games, like fishing for prizes, and a version of a cake walk for prizes, had some pizza with a picnic on the floor, and then cake. I was planning a dinosaur cake, then that morning the bakery called to check on the instructions. This was NOT what I had wanted or planned on. The guy that did it was worried when my mom picked it up. But the kids all thought is was awesome, heck it had a volcano. I have no clue how the baker decided to keep my simple Dino cake into a lava island. But they all talked about the volcano. So it was a hit! It was chocolate on one side and vanilla on the other. I wanted to get a big one so we'd have some left over. Quite a few kids wanted seconds. But we had some to last the next day.

Below is Jax just after blowing out the candles, the cake, playing pin the head on the Dino skeleton in a circle and the masses gathering in for presents!

My family laughed at me whenever I "lost" control of the group. We only had to go gathering children from playing in the family room a half dozen times. Not bad. It was exhausting. Especially for me, still recovering from all the infections.

I would give anything to have gone to a park and play there, but stinking winter birthdays! Jax loved it all. It was hard to decide who to invite, who to not, where to draw the line. So that's why so many came. Next time I'll make him pick his 5 best friends and be done. WooEee!

Kids kept asking if we are playing more games, more prizes, more pizza. I was running all over. You definitely need help with stuff like this. Major reinforcement. Maybe it would be worth it to pay the money and go to a place to play with a B-day party room and they do it all for you?? At least they are 5 year olds and not a mass of 3 year olds. They all seemed to have fun.

We love you Jax and look forward to your 5th year. Such a good looking kid if I say so myself. He is so strong, his preschool teacher says he's the only one swinging all over the monkey bars, flipping off upside down from the bars, etc. He's always finding a spot at our house to do a pommel horse position, he's a little gymnast.

Shout Out

This will be a brief update on the horrible happenings with myself/Laurie and a Shout Out to Jax. He turns 5 years old today! Wow.
So the Les Miserables saga has not ended. If you don't want to read about my complaining and health issues, feel free to wait a few days to hear all about Jax's special day. :) I just can't believe how this keeps going.
I left off on Friday and me trying to get better.
By Saturday:
-back at the Dr. to check everything and I felt a few other problems might have been starting, like pneumonia, but luckily my lungs sounded great. The Dr. said my ears looked great, and just give it some more time on the sinus infection.
-we also took all 3 boys to the Dr. , I suspected Creed might have a sinus infection, sure enough, both Jax and Creed have infections as well, meds for them. So far Bodie's is just a little cold.
-by Sunday we were back at the Dr. again. My ears were still hurting and I couldn't hear, sure enough, it's all still infected, ears full of fluid and I was worse now more than ever.
later Sunday: Vomiting from the pain meds
- back to using Ibuprofen, which doesn't help.
-Worried about holding all my medications down
-Switching to a heavier Antibiotic
-Dizzy spells
-midnight, a massive dizzy spell causing, shaking,
tingling in my arms, couldn't move, hard to breath
-5-6 days of not much sleep

Tuesday I went to a ENT specialist and they did a CT and hearing test
- ears full of fluid
-showed a massive head infection
-sinuses aren't draining (although it's a constant faucet?- go figure)
- Dr. added a few other meds to the list
-Greg is back at work
-my sister Amy and neighbor Annie were able to come take care of my boys
-dad driving me around, moms providing meals, Abby too!
-I never feel rested
- I have a constant "head ache" Sometimes it's so bad in my sinuses I can't even touch it.
-my teeth ache
-always blood in my nose
And a huge thanks to Greg, he's been so great and has taken care of all of us.
My chart for all to keep track of is ridiculous.
Here's a list of what's been used or am using...
ear drops, eye drops, 2 different antibiotics, pain relievers (3-4 kinds), sinus relief (3 kinds), anti nausea pills, motion sickness pill, migraine pills, Steroid, nasal spray, 2-3 other supplements to help with side effects from antibiotics. It is crazy.
We've been to the pharmacy so much our new best friend is the Pharmacist at Dans.
Ugh, I think I'm on the mend. I have to be, I'm have a b-day party with 12 other kids here today! I don't have the heart to cancel, so I've asked for some help and hopefully we'll pull it off. Time to get Bodie and go sit on the couch and rest for the day :)
I wrote most of this for my "journal" so I hope it wasn't too weird to read.

Les Miserables

No, not the classic Broadway. For the last week and a half our family has been pretty yucky and sick. The boys got it first, then me and Greg, and last was poor Bodie. Although my little baby is an angel. Even with his little cough, stuffy, runny nose he smiles through it all.
As they all got better I got worse. So 2 days ago I went to the Dr. to find that as I suspected I have a bad sinus infection and a double ear infection. Yay for me.
I was able to go to Thanksgiving, which was way yummy, and spend it with my family. Even though my ears were so bad that I felt like I was underwater for 24hrs. Certainly couldn't hear much. But thankfully I was able to be at the holiday meal. I did get teased, walrus? (inside joke)

Then last night I was in bed, lights out by 8pm. I was extremely tired. And at 11pm I woke up with a really dull throbbing pain in my right ear. 30 min. later I sat up and was in tears of the extreme ear pain. And I started hearing popping and fluid was coming out. So we have my sister Amy come over (thank you) to stay with our sleeping boys and Greg and I head off to the ER. We were the only ones there, but sure enough we have to wait and were gone for 2 hours getting home at almost 2 am. Anyways, so I had ruptured my ear drum. No fun at all. Pain level was a 10. If I was crying it must have been bad.
The story doesn't end. When I sat up in bed I couldn't open my left eye, it was all crusted over. Low and behold I also have an eye infection. And I feel very dizzy and nauseous because of the whole inner ear thing. Um, what else? I'm sure I can come up with something...
But aside from wanting a new eye, new ear (which still hurts), new nose/sinus I am thankful for stuff, but I'll have to wait a few days before I try coming up with a list. I'm just a little, well a lot, MISERABLE!

REBMEVON

It says November. Aren't I clever? I sometimes just don't know what to put as the subject of a posting on the blog. So in November, we've played in and raked the leaves. Greg took the boys on the roof while he put up x-mas lights. But don't worry, they sat the whole time. They even blew bubbles to keep them busy. They enjoyed the views. Creed turned 3!! I can't believe he is already this age. He is handling being the middle child quite well. He is a real character. We've had several people tell us that Creed has the funniest personality. I can say he is our clown. Jax likes to be silly, but Creed has this sense of humor and is a smart clever little boy. He is such a delight. Although he whines a lot, he is speaking more and more and saying a lot of words so much more clearly now. His favorite things to eat are corndogs and Oreo cookies. He loves doing everything Jax is doing or playing. He doesn't sit still for long, always wandering and playing.
Creed enjoyed the day. He got a scooter, and of course it snowed, so we rode it in the house all weekend. Leading up to his B-day I asked him what kind of cake he wanted. He said black. So I asked to make sure he meant chocolate. Then I tried to see what he wants on the cake. With some coaching from Jax, Creed said he wanted a blue one with Batman. So for a week all I heard was Batman. His cake is Batman. I couldn't find a decent looking cake anywhere, so good old Dan's head baker came through for me. I told her what I wanted, just the symbol and voila. It was a yummy cake. By the time I was serving it though, there were about a half dozen finger holes in it. And I was sad, I forgot to buy candles. So the orange one on it was the smallest we had. But he didn't seem to mind.
After bath time I gave Bodie a Mohawk. His hair keeps the shape until we wash it again. He is starting to lose his hair. I find shedding hair in his crib, I just get the lint brush and roll it up. He is babbling a lot. He's grabbing his toys and loves to look around. I love his smile and he has a little squeal laugh now too.

The Concert

Halloween time again. That means Greg and "the band" do a performance. This was the only one this year. They had a big party down at Greg's Uncle Grant & Aunt Cleadonna's great home. They played their set and had a good time. It was fun. And thank you Becky for helping us out and watching our boys last minute!

Greg and I were Vampires. And no I didn't get the idea from Twilight. That was just a bonus after thought. ha ha.

Greg and his bro Rick, and Greg playing base for one song.

"The girls" helping the band out with a song. * Than Band *
Dr. Fogg Zoner, if that is how they are currently spelling it and calling themselves? Greg in the back, then left to right is Rick, Steven, Spencer, and Rob. They all rock and put on a good show.


******** Halloween night *********
We took the boys Trick-or-treating, well Greg did. Below, Jax and Creed showing their gobs of candy that we'll be eating until Valentines. Greg said the neighborhood was swarming with kids, but at our house I only answered the door like 6-7 times? Slow night on our street I guess.


Jax had to wear a superman cape because he was not only a skeleton, but a dead super hero skeleton, of course. Then Bodie and I hung out at home and when the kids were all in bed Greg and I watched one of my favorite movies "Tremors".

My Skeleboys

Isn't this the cutest idea? All three of my boys are skeletons for Halloween. The only time in our lives to have them have matching costumes. I got Bodie's first and came home and showed the older two boys. And Jax was so excited, he is so into dinosaur bones right now so he said we should all be skeletons. I loved the idea. So voila. I took them outside this last week while it was still warm and took some photos. Here are a few of my favorites. It was actually the easiest photo shoot I've ever done. No need to worry about looking at the camera or smiling good. The masks are great!

Not much

Not much has been going on. In the picture below the boys are playing with "My Little Pony". Literally my little ponies from when I was growing up. My mom found a box of old things and when I was going through it Jax saw them and had to have them. The boys played with them for 2 days and even had them kissing. It was awesome. And both boys have Bodie's Binky's in their mouth playing baby. They are really good at it too. Too bad the real baby of the family won't take a Binky.

Bodie is our little man. He is getting so big.

Octoball

Greg went Elk hunting with his posse. Below, bro Rick, Greg, Justin, bro Chris, bro-in-law Abe. The next photo down is Greg with his best friend Spencer, bright and early during sunrise. He had a great time. Cold but fun. Although they went up to the high Uintas where they used to hunt as youth, but now it was spotted with orange hunters everywhere. They saw elk but never saw a bull to get. Next time they better go somewhere else.

~

Jax is playing T-ball this fall. He is loving it. He pays attention more in this than in soccer. And my favorite part is it's only once a week and is indoors at the Utes field house. So rain or shine, wind or cold, we don't care we are sitting on the "grass" ground and enjoying it. Can't get better than that.

Below, probably the only time Creed has been sitting and watching. He's normally wandering all over or trying to get in on the action. Greg and I have to tag team. And Bodie usually sleeps during the whole thing.
Jax striking a pose. And he finally hit his first pitched balls this last time! Getting better.

Hooked

We did our annual drive up to the top of East Canyon to see the beautiful fall colors. Perfect timing. The storms came 2 days later. What loving brothers. Too bad they can't always be so nice to each other. They fight with the best of them. Just the usual sibling stuff. One wants what the other has. If I could, I would get 2 of everything. I suppose one day I'll need 3 of everything. I am glad they have each other to play with. They are their best entertainment. Best friends.

While we did our drive we grabbed some Cd's to make it that much better. Maybe you've heard it before. "Hooked on Classics". If not, then I'll enlighten you. The best music ever!! It is so much fun to listen to. I don't know anyone that hasn't enjoyed it. I think the first of 4 albums came out in 1981. My parents had the records and cassette tapes to it. I grew up with it. Love, love, love it! It especially reminds me of driving the hours across I-80 in Wyoming when we lived in Colorado and would make the trips back and forth from Co. to Utah growing up. So look it up on the Internet and listen to a sample. It is conducted by Louis Clark. A neat twist to famous classical music.

And this cutie is growing so fast. I don't know his stats yet. But 2 months old, man it has gone by so fast. Bodie is sleeping through the night, eating well, burping well. He is smiling a lot now and is cooing a little. So much fun. Although, he won't take a Binky and I don't know what to do with a baby who doesn't have a binky? Ahh!