back to first of May

I am so behind on my pictures and what has been going on in our family.   I am going to try and catch up a little on what we have been doing.  We have been so busy that it is hard to think of all that we have been doing.  A lot of it has been just yard/garden work.  It is crazy how much work it takes to keep up a house.  

Max loves to be outside.  He is a big helper and is never clean about it.  He is such a boy and loves to get his hands dirty.  

And his face dirty also,.  

Max is at the stage that he is into everything.  He loves to get into the flour and throw it on the floor and then rub it in his hair and all over the place.  He also loves to get into the spices and shake them out onto the floor.  

Max is such an outside kid.  He can open doors and loves to sneak out as soon as someone unlocks the doors.  

Elizabeth was at Basketball camp and came down on her big toe funny and hurt it really bad.  She had a softball tournament that next weekend and so we didn't want her to hurt it worse.  We borrowed a boot from our friends the Marlows hoping it would help it heal.  

These kids are so sweet.  The really do love each other and it is so great to see the moments when you can see it.  

Max is growing up way to fast and it is making all of us so sad, but at the same time he is just getting so funny, and learning to play new things.  He brings our family so much joy!

Our Crazy week

This little boy loves to be outside.  He has learned to climb up into the playhouse and go down the slide all by himself.  he is a tough little guy and doesn't care if he gets a bump along the way.  He is so happy and makes me so happy.  WE all love him so much!!!

This is him peaking out of a little hole in the the playhouse.  

Elizabeth has a Idaho history scrapbook that she has made for school and she asked if I could help her make it cute on the outside.  She told me that she wanted to do it with fabric and so I knew how to do that because we made these kind of scrapbooks when I was in young women's.  She was so cute and told me thank you a million times and just thought it was the coolest thing she had ever seen.  She was so in love with it.  She went to work with Ryan that night for a few hours and when I went and picked her up I asked her how it was.  She said, "mom, I couldn't stop thinking about my scrapbook the whole time.  I just love it so much.  I think I am going to dream about it all night long.  Thank you so much for helping me!"  It was so sweet and so cute!  She is such a sweet girl.

We had a bad thing happen on Thursday night while Ryan was at a bishopric meeting.  We were all outside and Max was walking toward the playhouse and I was still over by the house.  I heard him scream and looked over and our rooster "little mikey Hamblin" was attacking him.  It jumped up on his face and knocked Max down.  It Jumped back onto his face and was pecking his forehead.  I ran over and was afraid to crab it because I didn't know if its claws were going to scratch him worse.  When I saw it wasn't I kicked the stupid rooster off of him and ran him in the house.  He was so traumatized by the whole thing and I was boiling hot mad.  (I had noticed a few weeks ago that the Rooster kept walking up to Max and acting like it was going to fight him.  I had told Ryan that I was afraid it was going to attack him and peck his eyes out… )  Anyway.  It cut his heat on the top, behind his ear twice.  He has a few scratches on one of his arms.  The one above his ear was the worst one and has made his ear swell up and poke out funny.  As soon as Alexis came in and saw Max upset and all the blood, I told her what had happened and then told her to go and catch the dang rooster because I was going to kill it.  A few minutes later I went outside to find Alexis with the Rooster in a net and she was banging it up against the tree five or six times.  She took it into her own hands and then went and threw it into the dog for him to make sure he was really dead.  It was sad to see her do it and Elizabeth was sad.  She has the softest heart.  But I am proud of her in a way also….. No one messes with her brother.  

Our dog did have fun playing with it and threw it around a few times.  I am not sad one little bit that the rooster is gone.  I have no Idea why we even kept it in the first place.  Ryan just thought it was cool because he named it after our brother in law.  

Max is doing fine and is over his bad experience.   He was still a little upset the night it happened and had woke up screaming and upset five times but I also wondered if he had rolled onto his ear that was cut and it hurt or something.
He is so in love with balls and loves to bring them up the stairs and then throw them down again.  He is such a little boy and is so fun to watch play.  I love the noise he makes when he plays with cars.  It is so funny how boys just know how to play different then girls and are interested in different thing.s
This week we also went to a funeral of one of the very best people I have ever meet.  He was our bishop and friend from our last ward and it was such a sad funeral.  He had a brain tumor that they found in his brain 22 months ago and it has been a long hard road for his and his family.  They are an amazing family with 8 kids.  two are still young and in high school.  (the youngest is only 15)  He had the whole town of preston show up to his funeral and was the biggest turnout I have ever seen for something like this.  It was in the stake center and the entire building was full.  it just shows what an amazing man he was.  He was loved by all and did service for everyone he meet.  He was so christlike and loving.  A amazing example for how we should live our lives.  Ryan and I really did love him and we are going to miss him.
It was cute because his daughter Emily told us that the day before he died he couldn't open his eyes and she kept saying, "wake up, wake up, wake up." and he opened his eyes and said, "that sounds like Ryan Harris."  I guess a few years ago Ryan had called and left him a message on his phone for him saying the same thing to get him up to play basketball in the morning.  They played a lot of basketball together and other things.  When we moved to Preston he was one of the very first people I meet.  He was the first to show up the day we were moving into our house and plowed the snow out of our driveway and was always checking on us to see if we needed any help.
After hearing all the wonderful stories about him and feeling the strong spirit at the funeral it really makes you think about how you want to live your life, and the things that matter in life really are people.

Circus time

The Circus came to Preston and the kids were so excited to go.  The school gave them tickets that said they could go for free so they thought they were so lucky.  When we got there we noticed in tiny print on the bottom it said free with a paying adult.  So that means only one ticket would work.  We almost didn't go because it was $15 bucks a person and it didn't really look like they had much going on.  As we were walking away a guy grabbed us and told us he would give us a great deal.  He let the kids use the tickets and just had me pay for myself.  (it should have been that price for everyone because it was only a hour when they said it was going to be 2 and then the trailer that had all the animals like the elephants and tigers broke down so they couldn't bring them and a bunch of the acts were also broken)  

Alexis was kinda a grump at first and was being weird.  I am not sure but I am thinking her age, and the whole… "I am way to cool for this" was kicking in.  But after the first few acts she said she was sorry and that she was glad we went.  They did have some cool things and talented people.  They shoot a man out of a cannon, ate fire, played with snakes, danced and did the limbo.  (the guy that did the limbo was amazing. He went under the bar at only 10 inches off the ground) they had a girl that was a contortionist, and a bunch of other cool things.  

Adison was so happy that she was able to ride a pony!  

They guy let Elizabeth ride for free and her legs almost touched the ground.  They were little pony's.  But she has always loved horses and didn't mind.  We really need to find someone who would let the kids ride a horse for real.  They would love it.  

Visit

We had a fun weekend a little while ago.  Sara's cousin Alesha came and stayed with us for the night with her five kids. The kids all played great and were instant friends.  She came to look at houses and is trying to figure out if she is going to move here this summer or not.
The next morning Brytlee had a soccer game in Logan at 10 so we were in a big hurry to get to that.  We left Alexis and Elizabeth home with Max so he could take a nap before Alexis's game.  

Greg had called us and told us that Tanner was playing a game in Logan so it was so fun to go and watch him play.  It two games back to back so it took longer than we had thought.  We ended up having someone go and pick up Alexis for her game because it was in Richmond.  That gave us time to go to lunch with Greg and Jackie and celebrate Hayden's birthday.  We went to Pizza pie cafe, and I knew that Lizzy and Lex were not going to be happy about that.  

 

Elizabeth loves Greg and is his bud.  She was really sad that she missed out on the whole day of hanging out with him. He was so sweet and gave her 20 bucks and told her that she needed to go get dinner because she missed out on eating with us.  He is way to nice.

right after Greg and Jackie left Brytlee was riding her bike and ran into the house and split her ear open.  Good thing we have a dad that knows how to super glue things like this.  She was pretty tough and after I took a picture she asked if I would send it to her teacher at school and a bunch of other people.  She is so funny. 

Good and bad.

My parents came home for a week and I was able to see them!  It was so amazing to be with them again and I realized how much I have been missing them.  I Love my parents so much and I feel like I really do have the best parents in the whole world.  The reason they came home was for my Uncle Brent who has been in ICU for the past 21 days.  He had a heart surgery that went wrong and has been through so much.  We have seen so many miracles with everything he has been through and after I saw hims and heard everything he had been through and how much was wrong I never thought he was going to make it.  But after a lot of praying and fasting and blessings he has come a long way.  He still has a long way to go, but he is alive and it really is a miracle and we are all so very thankful for that.
Anette, Chris, Brad, and I went to SLC and stayed for the weekend with everyone.  It was so nice to be with everyone but it was such a crazy roller coaster of emotions.  

My poor grandparents have been through so much this past year.  I can not imagine what it would be like to watch your only son go through so much. 

My parents were able to go home for a day and then come and stay with us for a night.  The girls were so happy to see them and Max still remembers Grandpa.  They were able to go and watch Alexis play a game of soccer and then have dinner with us.  They were really tired and very stressed and worried about Brent and had to leave early the next mooring to get back to the hospital to be with the family.  The stayed two more days and then went back to their mission in New York.  When they got back they had a meeting with the President and he asked them to extend their mission to 18 months and told them they were going to move to a house that was the original Brigham Young farm.  It sounds like a nice house and will have room for us for when we go and visit.  They love their mission and are doing so well.  My dad is so happy and has the spirit so strong and so does my mom.  It is so neat to see them in such a happy, wonderful place with each other.  I really do have the best parents in the world!