7 is Rafe

And now my baby is 7! Every year it gets a little sadder for me to have Rafe grow up. On his special day he was so excited of course. We opened presents really early before Jax had to leave for school. We got him his own cool Xbox controller, which he rarely uses but at least he has his own cool color one now. His older brothers hog the Xbox all the time playing FortNite - the bain of my existence!

And Rafe must be the youngest because we also got him all 5 Transformer movies. He loves them and wants to watch them all over and over. And at one time I would never let my 6-7 yr. old child watch them. Let alone the older boys. But when the older ones have seen them or at least the fun action parts, Rafe would watch too and loved it. So we started "editing" them when we'd watch with him. But man he wants to watch them all the time. So we kinda gave up and he's seen them all, a lot So he was very happy to see those movies.

Then we had grandparents over for cake and ice cream. Rafe said he wanted a flag cake for his b-day. I kept asking if he was sure. And he was and wanted to help make the red stripes. Which he did. Fun stuff.

Rafe blowing out the candles. And then blowing again and again because they were trick candles. We didn't know when we got them and lit them. Kinda funny. Oops. But then Creed helped re-blow them out, and Jax, and Grandma. Everyone had a good laugh at all the re-lighting and blowing. And I can't believe I only took a few pictures of his b-day.

We all adore our Rafe. Pafes, Pafers, hoppy skippy, and Dessert are just some of the nick names we call him. He loves being the youngest and hates being the youngest. With so much going on he is always happy and content to watch his shows/movies and pause them and hop and skip around playing, then resume his show, or rewind and watch a scene over and over a few times. Ugh. He is a good eater and will eat most everything we offer. He has a good memory and loves to remind us of stuff. He hates how his brothers always just want to play Fortnite and hates it as much as I do. He is my little sweetie pie. But, and a big but here, he is also my little grump. He gets mad and man he pouts and is like a little storm cloud. So I ask him to show me happy Rafe. And eventually a switch will go off and he'll be all happy again just as quickly as he got mad. He can get angry and yells where ever we are.

He gets picked on by his brothers and that doesn't make him happy so that's a lot of his temper I'm sure.

His favorite food is Pizza. But he'll eat a PB & J everyday and loves hamburgers too. His favorite dessert is Oreo's and is not much of a candy eater. If he gets any he gives it to his brothers. He has to sit by me everywhere, at church, a movie, dinner out, he always wants to be with me. His brothers are always trying to kiss him or snuggle with him and that's part of this getting picked on and he yells at them. But sometimes he'll let them love on him and it's cute. Sometimes he'll say the funniest things. I can't think of any right now to type, but he's funny. Happy 7th year to Rafe!

Spring Break & Easter

 Well we didn't want to sit home over spring break, so we headed south to St. George. We hurry and booked a condo a few weeks before and drove down on a Thursday night. Bodie and Rafe got car sick on the way down and Rafe through up twice. Luckily in a cup and a garbage can. Then he was fine.

Once we got there for the weekend we did some food shopping, hiked around, swam in the pool and hot tub, drove a little off-road in the red rock/sand, and we hit up a fun zone place and rode speed cars and played arcades, ate out at different restaurants, ate way too much ice cream and played at a fun new park. We really enjoyed the sun, and warmth and being away. The boys loved the condo we stayed at.

And a tiring saga we had to deal with was Bodie. He was getting over a cold so he had a little cough but that was the least of the problems. He was up many many times (10 or something) a night complaining of tummy aches or that he is going to throw up. I think he was confused with what he was feeling. He said the only thing that made him feel better was a hot shower. So 2-3 times a night I would be sitting with him hovered over the toilet or while he stood in the shower. I was so tired the whole time. We got him some Pepto Bismol to help his tummy. It kinda worked. ** after we came home we took him to the Dr. a little while later and discovered he has some kind of acid reflux type stuff that is effecting the lining of his stomach and causes pain and nausea. He had been suffering for several months and it was just getting worse. He's on medicine now, hopefully it helps take care of it. Rafe might have the same issue? We'll see. 

Anyways... back to Easter break.

On Saturday we dyed Easter eggs. That was enjoyed by some and some were being silly and one was in a bad mood. Can you tell in the pictures who was not a happy camper? Ha!

We enjoyed doing the crack while in St. George. Rafe was brave and did it with us this time. Greg doesn't fit so he took pictures.

Easter morning! We had to wake up some of the boys so we could find the baskets and get a move on our morning. There's the boys wandering around looking for eggs and baskets upstairs and downstairs and all over.

Bodie found his in the dryer in the hall. Rafe looked multiple times in the pantry and didn't see his until we gave him some major hints to look again, Jax finally found his in the master bedroom behind a chair, and Creed's was in the upstairs bathroom closet. And then lots of eggs filled with candy were hidden all over. What a great Easter bunny!

All the loot and munching during conference while we packed to head home. I am super sad our camera has every picture blurry. I don't know the setting or it needs to be repaired? 

On our way out of town driving home we stopped at Kolob Canyon, part of Zion's Natl Park. It was so pretty. We did a quick over-look view hike/walk and took some pics on our way back out. We had to keep on the road to make it to Alpine for Easter dinner with Greg's family.

Thumbs up for a great little vacation and the pretty canyon. And I tell ya, talk about an incredible view out our car mirrors!

Jax's health scare!

 So here is Jaxon getting a cat-scan on March 19th. Cool to see his skull, eye sockets, brain, you know, the parts of your son's head you never want to see. And then that cool picture of him without hair. Nice and bald. And then his feet with all the broken capillaries going all the way up his legs too.(Petechiae) - due to his HSP.

Then there's more! Here he is getting an MRI on April 2nd. They found something so they had to give him an IV and go do another one or more of one. The 2nd picture is what they found. DVA (Developmental Venous Anomaly) that dark spot on the upper left of the picture - which is really his right side. 

And then our middle of the night visit to the ER at Primary Children's Hosp. Where he couldn't move his hips and did not want me taking a picture of him in a wheel chair. 

And the last one is a random picture from my phone when we were shopping and he wanted to remember this jacket in case he wanted to come back and buy it.

So I sent an email update to Greg's mom so I just copied and pasted it here to tell the story...

So here's the long/short story...

on 3/18/18 Jax had a sudden sharp headache on the front right part of his head/brain. He was doing his pull-ups before bed and was pushing to do his highest number, 20! and then fell to the floor in pain and came upstairs to tell me. So we called our after hours Dr. to ask what we should do. Over the phone we ruled out stroke and other bad signs of bleeding and they said to bring him in come morning. So we did and they ordered a Cat-scan, so we did that with in 12 hours to look for signs of anything. And it came back normal.

During that week he kept having little flare ups of the head ache. Like when running at gym, or getting upset at his brothers it would start hurting.

And then his hands started to get tingly on and off during the days.

In the meantime we scheduled an MRI, we had that done on 4/2/18  during that they found a Developmental Venous Anomaly. (DVA) The radiologist said he's probably had it since birth and to monitor it throughout his life. He said it didn't look like it was bleeding at all. It's a weird formation of veins clustered in the brain. But, that was in the same spot as the headache - the front right. So we were worried that had caused the pain.

So we get on the long wait schedule to see an neurologist. I made one appointment, then made another for a week earlier at Primary's.

The day after the MRI Jax's arm from the elbow down had broke capillaries all down the arm. I assumed it was from where they put the needle in him and tied it off to stop the bleeding. After we got home from the MRI he took it off and it was still kinda bleeding a bit, so we had to put pressure on it. 

4/3 we went to the first neurologist appt. at Primary's but that was very disappointing. The Dr. didn't know anything or tell us anything, other than he seems healthy, it was probably a migraine and go back to life like normal - oh and said to schedule with the neuro surgeons and follow up in 6mo. w/ another MRI to check his DVA.

But later that week on Fri. 4/6 he noticed he had broken capillaries all down both entire legs! So we were really kinda worried what was going on now! We talked w/ our pediatrician's office again and had a another appt. w/ a different Neurologist on Tuesday. So we were waiting for that.

Sat. morning his feet had double the broken capillaries. So we start searching the internet for what it might be. And found all kinds of things, like leukemia. And it had mentioned sore/painful joints. His lower back was hurting him, his ankle, so we sent him to bed that night. We all took some Melatonin to help us sleep.

But at 1:30am Jax calls us on the monitor (Alexa) and we flew down to his room to see what was wrong. I tell ya my heart was pounding with worry. He was hunched over and teary and scared to death. He was whimpering that his hips hurt so bad and he couldn't move. And what was wrong, is he going to die?! It was sad. So that was the last straw, I packed him up and he and I headed to the ER at 2am. All 3 of us with a pit in our stomach in worry.

And at the ER he did a urine sample to rule out other stuff. But they said he had Henoch-Schonlein Purpura (HSP) that was the joint pain and it can cause the broken capillaries. It will go away on it's own. And just take IB profin. Since we had the next neuro appt. on Tuesday they said to keep that and sent us on our way at 5am.

Jax slept that morning and did his afternoon classes at school and said his hips felt better after medication.

So Tuesday we meet with a much better neurologist. She said the DVA is not related at all. Just a coincidence it's on the same side for the brain. The headache is either a cough headache or exertion headache. Both similar and can be caused by what he was doing when it happened. He probably wasn't breathing properly and it made the blood/oxygen supply to his brain low and caused the sharp pain. The brain itself has no pain receptors, so he was just feeling the outer part where this can happen. She said usually the front left or right. He passed all neuro tests with flying colors.

So Jax just needs to take note if it happens again and carry on like normal. But breathe properly while excising.

No need to worry about the DVA, but if we want piece of mind we can always go and do another MRI to make sure it hasn't grown or anything.

The HSP already appears to be better - it could flare up again? We'll see.

Nobody ever had an answer for the tingly hands/fingers. But that has stopped for now anyways. If it happens again he needs to take note of what he was doing when it happens.

That is our saga of events with him. We are super relieved! For a while thinking the worst wondering what is happening to him, but in the end just a series of things all un-related making it look like something big and scary. PHEW  - all is well now.

Hawaiian Paradise

We absolutely loved this vacation. It stands out to us as none other so far. Our favorite. Not only for being in paradise. Which the boys now know what paradise is. They loved it all. But being there with our family. Seeing such beauty together, playing together in such a warm happy place, eating new foods, a new laid back way of life, hiking a new adventure as a family, seeing famous places like Pearl Harbor, the PCC, surfers, local music, flip flops, swim suit rashes, (like rubbing raw and limping around - poor boys) lush green, big rain that we don't see in Utah, Palm trees, green mountains, souvenir shopping, rinsing sand off at the water faucets everywhere, gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, tons of pictures, all the smiles and joy on all of our faces, laughing in delight, a little fighting, watching the boys be friends together, Greg showing them a good time, me relaxing and watching all my babies have the time of their lives. That's what our Hawaiian paradise was.

-Wednesday the 14th -

Happy Valentine's day to us! We woke up at like 4am to roll out of bed and get to the airport for our 6am flight to LAX, then on to Honolulu. I feel bad having the boys miss V-day at school, but I think they were ok doing this vacation instead. Ha!

We were a little worried about the weather our whole trip. It kept saying it was going to rain and rain. But, it was't like that. It was kinda drizzly the day we arrived and then Saturday night it poured and a little rain on Sunday. So it didn't ruin plans or rain us out, and we had plenty of sunny beach days. So we were so grateful. 

We stayed right in Waikiki at the Aston Sunset Hotel. 2 blocks from the beach. After we arrived at 12 noonish we did the stadium flea market and grabbed some groceries and lunch then headed to the hotel. The boys immediately wanted to hit the pool, so we tried but it was cold. So they bagged that.  Then walked to see the sunset on the beach and get some dinner that night. It was so nice to be in the warm humid Hawaiian air. The boys were so excited getting off the plane and seeing the tropical trees at the outdoor airport walkways. The boys sure loved the flights, no complaining and lots of movies on their own screen, plenty of drinks, they thought it was great.

-Thursday in the morning we headed out. We stopped at the Dole Plantation see it and try a Dole Whip ice cream. Delish! Those silly boys holding each others bums as they walk and laugh. (eyeroll)

We stopped at a few of the many food trucks in Haleiwa to get some lunch before spending the afternoon at Waimea Bay Beach. Creed loved all the shrimp on this trip. 

Nice big waves the boys loved it! Greg built a sand castle at every beach we did, but the tide there was different in the afternoon and we always built it too high up on the beach for them to defend from the waves like we always do in California. But they still had fun building.

We bought some boogie boards and someone gave us their boards and chairs and umbrella so we had those to use the rest of the trip. 

The bottom left pic Greg is being a piece of drift wood. Rolling around being moved and crashed by the waves, the boys loved it.

So many fun pictures. I couldn't just select a few to share. So this post will be lengthy. It was such a wonderful vacation. We all still talk about it and all loved it so much. Everything about it. Just look at the fun and joy everyone was having. The water was so warm too.

In the late afternoon we dragged the boys away from that beach,  then we stopped by Shark Cove and the older boys did some quick snorkeling. The little boys and I tried wading in the water but too many rocks so we watched from above.

Then we drove to Bonzai Pipeline (Sunset Beach) Beach and watched the sunset and all the surfers in the giant waves. Lots of entertainment and ooohs, ohhhhs, and woes. After the sun was gone we grabbed some Loco Moco dinner and headed back to the hotel.

 A nice lady from Idaho sneaked a picture of us from behind because she thought it was cute with us all lined up with the boys. She introduced herself, sent us a copy of the pic and then we had her take a few with our camera. There we are. This is us! (I love that TV show, that's why I said it.) And Creed may or may not be going commando with nothing on underneath. :)

-Friday morning. The window from our bed. We kept the curtains open all night so we could see the morning sunrises and enjoy the view from our bed. We brought some air mattresses for Bo and Jax while Creed and Rafe shared the hide-a-bed. Greg and I had the bedroom of course. We were on the 31st floor with incredible views of the ocean and Diamond Head.

We tried going to Hanauma Bay at 9am. But it was a full and closed parking lot. So we headed north and stopped by Valley of the Temples. And then drove to a few beaches on the west side. Like Kailua, but that was too calm and not much in the waves happening so we kept driving. And stopped at our new favorite beach Waimanalo Beach.

 Gosh, the white sand, bright blue water, the mountain back drop. And the waves were a little smaller than the north shore so the all the boys could play. Creed never left the ocean this day. Bodie and Rafe could safely try boogie boarding and they all just loved it. We all went out and played jumping through the waves. Bodie and Rafe wanted to so badly but were too small. So Greg and I had to hold them and jump with them. I couldn't really jump high enough holding Rafe, so I had to hand him off to Greg so we wouldn't drown. Ha! But it was so fun for them to be out there. Greg showed them all how to play "Jumpa" or jumper (saying that as they did it) as they jump through the waves. So that's what Creed was doing for hours. Jax would come and go, but he liked the sand castle building the best.

 I love the middle picture of Greg and Rafe getting slammed by a wave. They survived. LOL.

Saturday - We pulled the kids out of bed. By now they were getting used to the time difference and were worn out so they liked to sleep in. But we had a busy day ahead. We drove to Pearl City and parked to do a hike. The Waimano Falls and pools hike. It was steep in parts, and we had to hold ropes, climb boulders and over rocks and trees. It was fun to hike along the actual Hawaiian jungle. There was plenty of shade, and we luckily kept to the correct path and finally made it the lower waterfall. 

There was a rope to climb and the water was sure cold. Everyone but Bodie and I went in. Bodie was in a bad mood from the hiking and climbing. There were mosquitoes. And boy they liked Creed. He got eaten alive. Seriously like 20 bites. All over his back and legs. I sprayed bug spray on everyone but Creed still got it.We quickly peeked on our way out to see the bigger upper fall too.

In the pics, Creed helping Rafe into the pool, and Jax carrying Bodie towards the end of the trail to the car. They were so good and helpful and love each other. - Between all the fights and arguments of course. :)

We got some lunch and ran back to the hotel to shower and get the mud off to hurry and drive up to Laie to see the temple and go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was just starting to rain as we pulled into the temple and someone was waiting for us to get us our tickets to the PCC so we had to literally run from the car to touch the temple and snap a picture then back.

It really started coming down as we parked the car at the PCC around 2:30pm. And we got our ponchos and umbrella's and had to use them on and off the rest of the day/evening. Even though it was raining, it wasn't too bad with our poncho's. And it's a warm rain. Better than baking in the hot sun I guess. We were able to hit all the village shows, but no time for any activities. We had dinner at one of the Luau's. The boys were asked to go up and dance. Rafe wasn't happy about that. Ha! It was a complete down pour so they didn't use the stage too much. Some of the dancers were in the rain, poor collage students. And then we saw the nightly show and walked to our car in a river of a parking lot to hurry and beat the traffic back to Waikiki. We heard they closed the road that night after we left sometime. Phew. The boys all enjoyed the PCC. They all wanted and wished we could have done some of the activities. But they can save those for next time, right? And they liked drinking the juice from the fresh coconut and then eating the meat from it. That was cool to try.

-Sunday - in the morning we got some vacation church clothes on and went to a church ward up by the Punch Bowl Cemetery. We met up with Aunt Julie and Uncle Ramon Beck for church and then stopped at the cemetery with them. Ramon told some war stories of his dad  and walked around and visited then we said goodbye to them and grabbed some lunch and went to Pearl Harbor. We were super bummed we couldn't take the boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial - there was a storm and lighting or something so they don't run the boats. But the boys enjoyed the video and we wandered and saw some ships and submarines. The wanted to go into the submarine museum but the line was long and tickets were gone. 

So back to our hotel to relax and then the power went out. Wha!? The dark picture below. We were getting hungry. So we walked down 31 flights of stairs. Yeah, 31, that was fun. Not! Ha! What an experience. We drove to the shopping center/mall for dinner and by the time we got back the power was back on. Thank goodness! We did not want to climb 31 stories of stairs.

And get this, Julie and Ramon happened to be staying at the hotel kitty corner from ours and they too were on the 31st floor. Crazy small world!

While we were in Hawaii the winter Olympics were happening. So we'd only watch a few minutes every night. But man, we normally love watching them and feel sad we missed so much of it this year.

- Our Monday was up in the air on what we were going to do. It was depending on the rain. And we woke up early and saw it was sunny and not cloudy. Aunt Julie invited us to the Army Base on the west side because they have some nice beaches to try. So they came with us for the morning. We went to Pyramid Beach there. It was nice. The waves were big and lots of them. Surfers, were out and the waves were piling in one after another. In the lower right picture you can see 4 stacked wave breaks at once. Like I said, they just kept coming. The water was too wild for the little boys to play in, so they just did the shore with their boards. It was nice and empty there at the base.

We all had lunch together at the golf course club house. It was nice running into family while we were there. Fun to visit with the Becks. They are so great! For the afternoon we thought we'd try either Haunama Bay or hike Diamond Head. Greg wanted snorkeling I wanted the hike. But Haunama came first on the road back, so that's what we did. It was pretty, but it was afternoon, I'm sure the fish were sparse and it was crowded still. The boys said they liked shark cove better, they saw more fish there. And then Creed lost his googles so Jax went out just a little by himself. So that ended and we drove back to Waikiki. But not before making friends with a surfer dude on a motorcycle that the boys kept waving to at every stop light on the way back.

 Grabbed dinner and dessert at the grocery store and showered and packed up for the next morning to catch our flight back home to cold snowy Salt Lake. We sure enjoyed our sunset back drop while eating that night.

Hawaii is unlike any place on earth. That's what Greg and I say. It is truly our favorite. We've been several times and want to go back. We've been all over, to the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Mexico, Australia, Philippines, lots of nice tropical places, Cali, Florida. But, nothing ever quite compares to Hawaii. In our opinion.

The last few months.

So we had January, then February and now it's March! I have issues with my iphone linking to my computer and picture image files not loading, blah blah, I'm sad it's been so long since I've documented our life. So here goes...

Christmas break I took the boys swimming. They had a blast, it was fun to sit and watch them play together. All happy and having fun. All 4 enjoying each other as friends in the pool that day. Cute of the little boys to be holding the older boys up in the water. What silliness. 

In Janurary...Every-once-in-a-while they still play on the Foosball table. Fun quick tournament between Greg/Bo vs. Jax/Creed - I'm sure Greg won that day.

Jax wanted a few selfies with his mom. And sometimes Bodie likes to run on the treadmill. I love his little boy self running in his undies so he didn't get his clothes all sweaty, because he sweats. And it was cute.

** I turned the big 4 - 0! **

I've been dreading getting to that big number. This last year I've really noticed the wrinkles, like they've increased all-of-as-sudden I tell ya. So I felt panicked and paranoid about aging. I don't want to be old, I don't want to be middle age. My boys are still young, I wanna be young too. Ha! But they say the 40's are better, yadda yadda, so here we go. A new decade for me. 

I also did not want a big party celebration like we did for Greg. That is his out going personality style. I'd prefer not to be the center of attention. So it was low key for me. Which was perfect. I woke up to the older boys decorating with black balloons (Greg was up early and busy blowing them up) and streamers to a nice breakfast Greg made. Then I worked all day. Ugh.(more on that later) And we went to dinner at a Thai place with my mom and sis Amy. Came home to have cake and ice cream. Black icing, made us all have black mouths. It kinda grossed me out. So I avoided the icing after that.

And I added a picture from that Sunday in Alpine at dinner celebrating my b-day. LeeAnn always makes the best Lasagna that we all love. She makes a ton too. Enough for everyone to eat lots that night and take home for leftovers for the whole family. 

*** Jr. Jazz ***

We had 3 of the 4 boys playing basket ball this winter. We either had marathon days, of games going from 9am- 4-5pm. Spread out all Saturday long. Or quite a few over lapping so we had to split up to make all their games. I love basketball and watching them all play. Bodie had a great time, it was his first year playing. And he was pretty good. He gets aggressive and he's so tall. It's great. The bottom right picture he is actually doing the moonwalk, getting his Michael Jackson on out on the court. Why, I dunno?! He's silly that way. 

Sorry these next pics are so blurry. I screen shot off of a video from my phone. But it's always fun to see the older boys play Even if they lose most the games.

Creed is the top row in this collage. Shooting and making a basket, and then a shocked/happy look on his face right after. And him fighting for the ball on the floor, which he got.

Jax's aggressive face after a steal and breaking away down the court for a nice lay-up, but missed. His team was funny this year, always shooting and missing. It's like the ball repelled the basket. They are all pretty good normally. Go figure. They all had fun playing again this year.

** February**

Greg totally surprised me! One Saturday he tells me we have dinner plans for our anniversary. So as it turns out we had dinner plans and an over-nighter plans. But I didn't know until we got closer to the hotel. And Greg then mentioned my mom came to babysit. We had dinner at Cafe Molise. We went there 15 years prior the night he gave me the ring on our engagement. Then we also stayed at the Grand America, same room we had our wedding night. And we watched Cheers (the old TV show) on Netflix and had yummy room service. And I had fun going through our wedding pics. The middle one is from our wedding invitation.

I sold our free Jr. Jazz - JAZZ tickets and traded them for a different night out to the arena to see the NBA team play. We also happened to be there the same night as sis Andrea and Abe were there, so they joined us at half time. And the Jazz won, the boys enjoyed it, it was fun to get out and do something.

Jax and Creed doing their hunters safety course on-line to get certified. Hours of fun for them. Ha!

Bodie so excited to buy a minecraft pig at Target. He even had to buckle him safely. He's totally into pigs right now. Who knows why?

And cute Bodie copying Greg while he fell asleep on the couch.

 The older grades finally did their ceramics at school in January. Creed made the red striped nose face mug in the picture. And he finally got to go shoot his bow that he got for x-mas.

Greg pulled a lose tooth on Rafe while we were out to dinner. He feels bad because he didn't realize it wasn't quite ready and broke it off and it hurt Rafe. But he was tough and acted ok. Check out both their faces though! 

And the younger boys still play with toys, and it was fun to see the older boys join in and all play cars on the roadmap together for a while. Until I'm sure a fight broke out and it all ended.

I forgot to add this picture to a collage and didn't want to miss it. We went skiing at Brighton and were heading home in a long backed up canyon but the sunset was amazing. Fresh fallen snow on the trees, the clouds, shadows, all so incredible. What a beautiful world we live in.

 Greg went to some attorney summit in Monterey Cali, where he had to present and speak in front of everyone. He also got to go to the aquarium there. I really wanted to go there this summer when we went with the boys but didn't make it. So there is Greg with one of his bosses Ben and then at the beach with his co-worker and buddy Corey. And some cool pics of the jelly fish.

Then last Sunday the boys used up a bunch of tattoos and put them all over. Bodie even had one on his bum. Notice he has 2 on his nipples. What a character.

 And that's a wrap. For now.

Holiday Month

Back in November we went out to dinner at Rodizio, the boys love it. We had lots of meat, but the problem was it was the night before Thanksgiving. So 2 big meals in 2 days. And then I took one picture on Thanksgiving at my moms. A selfie after pie. 

Then December stuff...

We did our annual tradition of frosting sugar cookies at my moms. You know, she whips up 200 cookies and we sit and frost them all and take them home to our families. And one day I did lunch with Greg's sisters downtown. 

The 3 younger boys all had their Tanner Dance performance at the school. Rafe's was neat at the end they all got a candle and turned out the lights and danced a Van Gogh's Starry Night (which I love) my favorite one ever! And Bodie did the life cycle of frogs (see him jumping) in the yellow shirts. And Creed did his last dance of Elementary school. He had fun doing it with his friends but always says he thinks it's silly and dumb. His was too space and river and water.

I got a new iphone 8 and tried out my camera the week of a weird fog that left cool frost everywhere. Before x-mas break Rafe had his 1st grade singing performance. I thought I'd cry a little, since it's music with children and he's my last. But I was strong and didn't. The bottom picture he is rocking the baby Jesus. They sang all sorts of songs for different religions holidays. And we had to miss our ward party breakfast and Creed's Jr. Jazz basketball game to go to Alpine for the Bangerter Fam x-mas party breakfast. There's Greg with his cousins that were there.

Temple Square Lights with the Lorenzon Fam. A tradition to see lights and then go get dinner. We went early enough to beat the big crowds and then we ended up at Chili's for dinner. Always fun to be at Temple Sq. during x-mas time!

School got out on Thursday afternoon. Then we took the older boys to see the new Star Wars - which we were not fans of. The movie was entertaining, heck, it's Star Wars, but we were so disappointed in a lot of things, the character directions they went, the story they could have made so great we feel was a lame continuation of the saga. Thumbs down. Bummer man!

 Friday we went skiing at Brighton and had a furnace repair man come while I took the boys to get pictures with Santa. Nothing like waiting last minute. But we found the Santa Shack in Sugarhouse and the line wasn't long yet. Phew! He gave high-fives, low-fives, and bones for the boys. Jax had his arm around Santa and the younger 2 were kinda nervous but excited. They all rehearsed what they were going to ask for. Ha! Good visit with the Jolly ol' St. Nick!

               Christmas 2017! (ages 13, 11, 8, 6)

Jax the thirteenager!

Happy Happy Birthday to Jax! Homie J is 13!! And he is very proud of the fact that he is now a teenager. Like very proud. He thinks he's the bomb. He's known for a few years that he would be getting his rifle (270). He's been wanting it to go hunting with for years and has been waiting impatiently. Hooray the year finally came. He also just saved up this summer and bought his 9mm pistol so now he has 2 guns and couldn't be happier. He also got all the accessories for it, ammo, a strap, case, etc. I also got him new pj bottoms since he's grown 3 inches. And a button shirt.

That evening we went to get dinner at Costa Vida - since he likes the burritos. Me too. He also wanted a big chocolate cake from Costco. He also invited his BFF's Gradon and Gavin over to celebrate. While eating cake everyone smelled all the new x-mas candles we had out picking their favorites. Whatever entertains the boys. Ha! My mom and Amy came out to celebrate as well. He was a happy birthday boy. I can't believe I have a teenager.

I also can't believe this cute baby and fun kiddo is so excited to be older. He is always asking if we think his voice is changing. He is our built-in babysitter and claims he doesn't like it anymore and the younger boys all complain when he is babysitting. So now I bribe them all to be nice and not bossy while we are gone. We've started to use Creed more often to babysit which Jax is glad about. But we do pay him so I don't want to make it seem like we use him and don't reward him. 

We also always call Jax "baby Jax" because he eats like a baby. He makes a mess like a baby does. Food everywhere. On him, his face, shirt, the floor. He is a sloppy mess and it drives me crazy! He just laughs it off. Here in these pictures are a few pics of a messy baby Jax when it was fitting since he was a baby (1yr. and 18 months) . But as a 13 year old? Hmm.

And the naked one on the riding toy, too good not to show. I remember that day well. Sprinklers, wet pull-up diaper so we removed it and he loved being in the backyard naked and free. And a cute 4 year old face. 

I love how Jax loves to be with Greg and wants so badly to be apart of the grown-ups stuff. He loves movies and likes to watch them with anyone. He'll sit and watch the Hallmark Christmas movies with me, or a good romance, or the fun adventures - he's game. He isn't the best at getting his homework done but enjoys school. He texts me everyday to say Hi or ask if I'm home after school. If I'm not, then he goes with his friends over to hang out at the elementary school until they get out (since his friends have to wait for a ride with siblings). He has a fun loud cackle laugh, he bugs his brothers to death (sigh), he likes his room to be just perfect, he can be a good helper to have around, he loves church and loves being a deacon. In fact he just got put in as the Deacons quorum President. And this month he got his patriarchal blessing. Which he loved and we loved hearing it too! It was a neat experience.

For the most part he is a good big brother and good example for his brothers, now if we can keep the teenage attitude away. :)

Creedo is 11!

 Creed's big special day came and went. He got the items he wanted, a drone, a new knife I got him a tie and something else? But he was very happy to see his Ferrari poster I surprised him with. He's been wanting pics of sweet sports cars in his room. And then we kinda forgot while his b-day rolled around and he started asking for things (other things) so it was perfect. He also hung his calendar car pictures all around in his room. He was genuinely happy. In fact that night after he went to bed he came back up with tears and wanted to thank mom and dad for such a nice b-day and he felt so blessed and happy to get all he wanted. What a sweet heart! He got his favorite Subway sandwiches for dinner and Greg's ice cream shake "Heaven" for his treat. My mom and Amy came out to celebrate with us. And that day at school I brought him some sushi for lunch. He loved his whole day and it showed.

His friend b-day party was a few days later on Friday. We'd planned on doing 12 year old parties for our boys, like with Jax, but with this being his last year in elementary school (the schools changed the grade reconfiguration) I felt like it's better to have a fun one while they are still young enough and have the class and close friends enough to invite lots of friends. He had just a handful of girls come and he was so polite and nice to everyone and was sweet when opening all his presents. His friends hooked him up I tell ya! 

Creed wanted the same joust blow up that we got for Jax's party last year, and the whole party to be the same. So we brought over the Xbox for Just Dance had pizza and cake and basketball. But they spent most of their time playing Infection - tag running around the church. Geesh, who knew. I didn't have to pay the money or spend all the time doing the Xbox and blow up joust since all they wanted to do was a tag game. It did get used a little and I don't think anyone really did Just Dance or eat much pizza, but their faces were red, smiles were big, and lots of fun was had.

We had to find and gather them to do cake and ice cream. Creed was so tired (from all the tag running) he couldn't blow out his candles. Ha! Several tries and a few candles at a time, taking a breather, and finally Bodie had to help him finish it off. 

Here's the whole fun group. (2 friends weren't able to make it)  Wahoo for parties! Almost a deja vu from Jax's party last year. :)

This boy I tell ya, he's a charmer. He's smart, he's funny, he loves to cuddle, he is kind to friends, and his little brothers sure love him. He can have a temper, and can be mean to his brothers, but they still love him of course. He was a good kid to put up with Jax when they were little. In the picture's it's his blessing day (look at his hair?!) then he's 1, and 3 - with a black eye. He was so cute, gosh I miss little Creed. Now I get to have big Creed and he is great too. He's good at piano, will do anything to play video games, loves seafood and sushi and anything chocolate. He'll eat cereal 3 times a day if we let him, I feel I've repeated the same likes as last year, but he likes what he likes. He takes time for the pet birds, Jax never does. He loves his room. Loves his own space and the way he's arranged his things. His room is one of the cleanest in the house. Now how do we get him to clean the bathroom?

What a fun kid to have around!