Seven!

I'm still not sure how it is possible, but this handsome boy turned seven last month. It just so happened that Mason's class field trip to the zoo fell on the same day, which made it a pretty awesome day to have a birthday. It was good that he got to do something special during school because he had to share the spotlight for the rest of the day since it was also Scott's graduation.  Don't feel too bad for him, though, because that meant he got to have his birthday party a week early. Mason wanted a Star Wars party this year and I decided nothing says Star Wars like some good old Laser Tag. So we loaded the kids up and spent the afternoon playing laser tag, rock climbing, and playing in the arcade at Trafalga. None of the kids had ever played laser tag before and didn't quite understand what they would be doing. It was funny watching how excited yet nervous they all were beforehand. I think a few of them thought they were going to be shooting real lasers at each other. Scott went in and played with them and said they all had a complete blast, but I already knew that by the way they came running out of the exit exclaiming, "That was awesome!! Let's play again!" and so we did. I have to be honest, this was a total cop out party. I didn't have the time or energy to plan, host, and clean up a party for a bunch of high energy 7-year-olds. I even bought Mason's cake from the grocery store instead of making one...gasp. But I really don't think Mason and his friends could have had any more fun. It turned out to be perfect.

Korbin Bascom, Daniel Glahn, Mason, Cache McCann, Claire Kidd, and Coleman Pearson.

Coleman and Mason living it up in the arcade

Now for a little bit about 7-year-old Mason:

• Mason is currently obsessed with Lego Star Wars and he carries his Lego Star Wars visual dictionary, which shows every Lego Star Wars set ever made and tells all about them, everywhere with him and practically has the whole thing memorized.
• He enjoyed doing a couple sessions of basketball camp this winter and has LOVED playing his first year of little league this spring. He kind of fizzled out during spring soccer and has decided he doesn't really like playing soccer anymore.
• When asked what his favorite subject is in school he says Math. 
• He is still a veracious reader and reads well above grade level.
• His teacher tells me that he has all the girls swooning over him. I believe it. He is a fun and handsome guy.
• Mason loves to be silly and can get his siblings and friends rolling with laughter, but frankly I find it more annoying than funny.
• He has lost 5 teeth (including his prematurely knocked out tooth) up to date and has several wiggly teeth that are threatening to come out soon.
• He is pretty tall and very skinny.
• Mason is still very creative and imaginative. I love hearing him make all his little noises and voices as he plays with his Legos all around the house. 
• He enjoys riding his bike around and trying out new "tricks" like riding with one arm behind his back.
• He is proud to be a big kid and has started trading in his kids meals for things like Big Macs. 
• He is a home body. He despises having to run errands with me and doesn't particularly like going places unless it is something he is interested in. 

I love his great smile!

Tulip Festival

Mason's Minecraft Creeper valentine box.

"Mom, take a picture. I want to see how creepy I look."

Happy Birthday Mason!

Adult ICU

Headed out the door for my last shift on Adult ICU.

Eleven years ago I made one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make when I gave up my spot on BYU's volleyball team so I could pursue a career in nursing. It had been my dream for as long as I could remember to be a collegiate athlete. I had dedicated all of my high school years to attaining that goal and had reached it. But it felt so wrong. I couldn't shake the feeling that it was time to hang up my volleyball gear and move on. I knew it was because there was one thing in life I wanted more than anything, and that was to become a nurse. So once I found out that I could not be on the volleyball team and be in the nursing program at the same time, I knew what I had to do. I met with the coach and told her my decision to quit the team. I immediately knew I had made the right decision and have never had a moment's regret since. For the next two years I poured everything I had into my school and being accepted into the highly competitive nursing program while working at a cardiology office. Once in the program, I was lucky enough to land a job at the hospital as a secretary/nurses aide on the Intermediate Care Unit (IMC), a step-down unit from the ICU. While working weekend nights for the next 2 1/2 years it became clear to me that critical care is where I wanted to work. I graduated and was thrilled to be hired onto IMC which a few years later turned into the Adult ICU.

My job as an ICU nurse wasn't always glamorous. I spent my shifts dealing with every kind of nasty body fluid you can imagine (and many you can't imagine), bathing overweight people, fighting confused and combative patients, dealing with crazy families, and many more unpleasant things. But I was also able to use my knowledge and skills to save people who should have died, help ease someone's pain, hold the hand of a dying patient and tenderly take care for their body after passing, or simply give family members the chance to go home and get some sleep while I promised to care for their loved one like they were my own mother or father. I loved it all...the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Not only did I love the work I did, but I loved the people I worked with. When you work beside someone in the ICU it is like going into the trenches with them. You have to have each others' back. I made some pretty incredible friends over the years. So many great memories of Sunday night dinners, laughing until I cried (everything is extremely hilarious at 3am), doing stairs to try and burn off all the junk food we ate, problem solving through some tough clean ups, the list could go on and on. I will forever cherish these friendships.

My job has been such a blessing for our family over the last 9 years. I have worked anywhere from prn hours (2 shifts a month) to full time (3 shifts a week) as our situation has permitted. I strongly believe that having an opportunity to get out of the house and do something I love has made me a better mom when I am home. Because I was always working nights (6pm-6am) my kids hardly knew I was gone and it came at no expense to them. It actually allowed them to build strong and wonderful relationships with Scott and my mom that I don't think would have been the same had I not worked. For 4 year I had the same schedule where I worked every other Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. The kids looked forward to their weekends when Dad was in charge and then on Monday morning they got to go to Grandma's house to play in the morning while I got a few hours of sleep. It worked out perfectly. I can hardly think of a time (besides when Brynn was a baby) that any of the kids were upset when I left to work. I can, however, remember several times I was put on call or cancelled that my kids would cry and whine in protest that I was going to ruin their party with Dad and they wouldn't get to go to Grandma's to play in the morning. I chose to be a nurse because I knew it would allow me to be the kind of mother I wanted to be. What I didn't know was choosing to be a nurse allowed me to be the kind of mother I needed to be for Ellie. I cannot even begin to explain what a blessing my experience and knowledge has been while we have been caring for Ellie. While the majority of the time I was working we were not relying on my income, there came a time when circumstances changed and Scott went back to graduate school that I was able to step up and provide for our family so we could avoid debt. When I look back on all the sacrifices it required for me to become a nurse (quitting volleyball, working a lot more than playing the first 3 years of marriage, taking my physiology final the night before our wedding, starting back in class and clinicals 5 days after having my first baby, etc.) it was all worth it.

I still cannot believe that after nearly 9 years of working on the Adult ICU (formerly IMC) I am done. I will never get dressed in my blue scrubs and kiss my family goodnight. I will never walk down the hall straining my eyes to see the assignment board to see what fun I am getting into for the next 12 hours. I will never sit in the core eating chicken strips and fries and laughing with my friends. I will never stumble out to my car in the morning exhausted and then pull into my driveway wondering how I made it home. I am going to miss it, that is for sure.

Graduation

 Two years ago our family embarked on an adventure when we decided it was time for Scott to take his career to the next level by getting his MBA. When he enrolled in BYU's full-time MBA program we knew it wouldn't be easy with three young children, but we just crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. Nothing could have prepared us for what life would throw at us during these two years. But here we stand at the end of this journey feeling a little tattered and torn, but we made it. I am so proud of Scott and all of his hard work to get to this point. I have no idea how he managed to balance everything that he was juggling, but he made it look easy. On his graduation day he turned down several invitations to play golf so he could accompany Mason's class on a field trip to the zoo because Mason had asked him to. That pretty much sums it up. Scott has always put his family first, school second, and himself last. Thank you Scott! I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world to have married you!

Scott's first semester group that made the first semester managable.

Our wonderful friends the Christensens and Smiths.

Brian, Carl, and Scott

Brooke, Abby, and me. I love these girls!

Spring Break

Spring break was good to us this year. It came at the perfect time when all of us needed a break from our day to day routine. The weather was absolutely beautiful the entire week which just added to the fun. For the first half of the week the kids and I balanced relaxation at home with some fun local outings while Scott was busy with his last full week of class and homework. Our outings included Provo Beach resort with cousins, the new Provo Rec Center pool, Aquarium with Grandma, and a sleepover with Hale cousins. Once Scott finished up class on Thursday we packed up and headed down to the Zion house for the weekend.

My mom volunteered to watch Ellie while we went since we still have not figured out a plausible way to travel with Ellie and all of her equipment. I have very mixed emotions when we leave Ellie to go do something as a family. It sounds awful of me to say, but it is always a nice break for me to get away from the constant care Ellie requires and be able to relax and enjoy some time with my other kiddos. I am able to recharge my battery (aka get a good night's sleep) and return ready to continue taking care of Ellie. At the same time it causes a lot of sadness in me. I absolutely hate that anytime we want to go do something fun we have to leave Ellie behind. Anyway, we were very grateful to my mom for watching Ellie so we could visit the Zion house and spend time with Scott's family. Although, if you know my mom then you know that she thought we were doing her a favor by letting her spend time with Ellie.

Our days at the Zion house were filled with riding bikes, swimming, four wheeler rides, the Orderville sand hill, a birthday party for Lyndee, and a lot of playing with cousins (and aunts and uncles). Mason, Brynn, and Miles had the time of their life and were sad when it was time to leave. Scott was able to spend a day mountain biking with Steve and then golfing with his Dad and Steve. We have been so fortunate to live just a few hours away from this amazing retreat. We are definitely going to miss our quick trips down here after we move to Omaha. Thanks Mike and Linda for inviting us to come.

Flat Stanley joined us at the Zion house for a school assignment for Mason.

Flat Stanley and Mason both loved going out on 4-wheeler rides

Mason and Karissa adopted two horned toads as their pets for the week

Flat Stanley liked playing with Sara and Cutie.

Miles was obsessed with the "Big Huge Tractor". Anytime I couldn't find him I was sure to find him sitting on the 4-wheeler in the garage.

Miles on one of his many rides.

Miles has gotten the hang of his strider bike and loved taking off down the hills as fast as he could go. It nearly gave me a heart attack every time.

Karissa, Brynn, and Keyana put a lot of miles on their bikes that weekend.

Brynn LOVES playing with her aunts.

 When I was taking the above picture of the girls Karissa asked if we could take some "style pictures". I told her I wasn't sure what style pictures were so she preceded to show us how to strike different poses for pictures. I have never laughed so hard! I have dozens of these "style pictures" on my camera, but chose just a couple of my favorites to share.

Karissa is such a character.

 It was our family's first time to the sand hill in Orderville. It is just this big hill of the softest, warmest sand. The kids had a blast!

Miles would sprint down the hill full speed until he face planted.

Mason liked climbing up on the big rocks with the big kids.

Leave it to Keyana to organize a train to slide down the face of the mountain.

 Jennifer planned an Easter themed Birthday party for Lyndee where we colored Easter eggs.

Isla and Miles decided to work together on coloring the eggs.

 On the last day Scott and I were able to sneak away for a 4-wheeler ride with Steve and Jenna.

I'm am definitely going to miss all the beautiful recreation we have all around us in Utah.

Legos: A Mom's Guide

It's no secret we are major consumers of the Lego brand at our house, but the truth is I have a serious love/hate relationship with these little blocks. They promote so many wonderful skills such as creativity, fine-motor development, patterning practice, sorting skills (a key part of kindergarten math curriculum), thinking in three dimensions (a precursor to physics), problem solving, and following written instructions. But some days I wish Godtfred Christiansen would have kept his little idea to himself and they had never been created. Then I wouldn't end up with pointy bricks embedded in my bare feet while walking across the carpet, or having to perform acrobatics to reach the mini figure that was dropped between seats in the back of the car, or calming a hysterical child who can't find their favorite accessory, or spending precious nap time looking for said lost accessory. Not to mention that a house built out of Legos merits its own mortgage because the darn things can be so expensive. But, at the end of the day there are few things left in this world that captivate my children that don't plug in and light up and this is one of them, so for that reason alone I am willing to tolerate all the nuisances that come along with them and support my children's love for them. Over the years I have learned a few tricks that have made cohabitation with Legos more bearable. Since chances are if you have a child you already have or inevitably will be bringing Legos into your home I have decided to share some of my Lego lifesavers.

Smart Storage

We learned early on that Mason's favorite things to play with on a day-to-day basis are the mini figures and accessories. Well, riffling through and dumping out a huge storage bin of Legos every time he wanted to find a certain guy got old fast. So we started using a separate storage container for all the mini figures and accessories. Now when he only wants to play with the guys he gets out the smaller bin and it's easy to find the itty bitty things he is looking for. Makes for less frustration looking for pieces and less mess to clean up. We have recently taken it one step further and added a small tupperware container that Mason can put the pieces he is currently playing. That way he can take a break from playing and he doesn't have to leave them out where little siblings can get into them and break and loose his favorite things.

 Lego Mat

Our life was changed when Santa brought Mason a Lego mat for Christmas. Instead of 10 minutes of whining, arguing, and complaining while the kids scoop up handfuls of Legos and pick little pieces out of the carpet, now with one simple pull of a cord the job is done and we can move on with our day. We don't store our Legos in the mat, but just use it to gather them up and then dump them into the storage bin. It works great!!

Now let me be clear that Santa and his elves were the ones who made our Lego mat so I can only speculate as to how it was done...but if I were to make a Lego mat I would:
1. Get 1.25 yards of a solid colored fabric for the play side of the mat (having a solid color vs a pattern will make it easier to spot and pick out pieces you are looking for) and the same amount of any pattern or print you want for the outside of the bag.
2. Cut the biggest circle possible out of fabric.
I could not for the life of me figure out how to cut out a large circle without something to trace so thanks to my friend, Jessie, who showed up and taught me a simple way to do it. Fold fabric into quarters like you are making a paper snowflake. Tie a long string to a pencil so you can use it like a giant compass. Hold the string down to the folded corner (make sure it is the corner where all the pieces are connected) and stretch the string out until the pencil is at the edge of the fabric.

 Then while holding the string steady in the corner and keeping the string tight, draw an arc until you run off the fabric. Cut along line, unfold, and you have yourself a circle.
3. Pin two circles right side together and sew around leaving a small opening to flip it.
4. Flip so right sides are facing out. Iron down seam and then sew 1/4 inch around the edge and then again 1 inch in from edge.
5. Place grommets 9-10 inches apart. You could also do button holes and it would work just fine.
6.Put cord/rope through grommets and place a drawstring lock on the end.

 Instruction Book

I have realized there are two ways to build with Legos: following instructions to build sets or creative play making up your own designs. Thank goodness Scott loves to free play and build his own creations and has taught the kids how to do this because the only thing I am good for when it comes to building Legos is following instructions. That is why nothing bothers me more than finding an instruction manual for the set that we paid a ridiculous amount of money for get torn to pieces and missing pages so the next time we are building the set we have to guess what happened between steps 4 and 10. We have tried several different ways of storing the instructions, but they always seem to end up scattered and torn. So one day I finally figured out to organize them in a binder so they stay intact and organized until we need them.

Obviously I am in need of a larger binder.

You'll want to make sure to use high quality sheet protectors because the cheaper ones tear with the weight of the instructions. I put a piece of cardstock in each sheet protector to give it stability and then used my trusty label maker to label where different instructions go. I also keep their Lego Club Magazines in the back of the binder

 Lego Table

You know that train table you bought your train loving toddler that is now collecting dust as it takes up your whole toy room and your 6 year old has moved onto Legos? Well turn it into a Lego table. For a year or two we cleared off the trains and the kids loved playing Legos while kneeling around the "Lego Table" way more than playing on the floor. Ours has since been reclaimed by Miles as a train table, but it was a great use for it when no one was playing trains.

Free Lego Club Magazine

Did you know you can go online and sign up for a Free Lego club magazine subscription?

I signed Brynn and Mason up last fall and now a Lego Magazine is delivered for each one of them every other month or so. It's something free and easy that the kids are always excited about.

That's it for my advice. Do you have any pearls of wisdom to share? Please tell me if you do.

Stranger Danger

Ellie has decided there is a very small group of people she trusts. Myself, Scott, Mason, Brynn, Miles, Grandma Nancy, Grandpa Val, and after a few minutes to warm up Pooky and Papa. Other than that, if someone walks in the room they can expect a greeting like this.

If they continue talking to her or heaven forbid touch her then it might progress into this.

I can hardly blame her since 9/10 times when she meets someone other than our immediate family it is at the doctor and they end up poking and probing her. But she is such a happy and smiley baby for us it makes me sad that all the world ever sees is a sad and hysterical baby.
It kind of reminds me of another baby girl in our family.

9 month Ellie  / 6 month Brynn

Brynn had horrible stranger anxiety clear until she was 2 or 3, so who knows, maybe there is hope for Ellie to become a social butterfly.

On a side note, I have always been kind of sensitive when it comes to comparing Ellie's features to my other kids. When people ask who she looks like I simply reply with, "she has her own look" and I have never done the typical photo comparisons with my other babies for look alike contests. It wasn't until I pulled out their baby books and realized that Ellie was the exact same size at 9 months as Brynn was at 6 months (15 lbs 4 oz, 25.5 in) that I looked at these two pictures side by side and for the first time I could see it. When I compare the eyes, or nose, or mouth alone they don't seem to share many similarities, but when I step back and look at them side by side I see two sisters and it makes me happy.

A.P. Art

Last fall after soccer season ended I asked Mason to think about what activity he would like to participate in through the winter months. I promise I'm not one of those crazy moms who has their kids signed up for 20 different things at once, but I do like my kids to be involved in something to get them out of the house and give them something to look forward to. Mason came up with a great idea of taking an art class. After looking around, I was disappointed there weren't a whole lot of options that catered to a 6-year-old and would fit our budget. When my friend, Marie, starting looking into it for her son, Daniel, as well, we got to talking and decided that if people can do co-op preschools then we could easily do our own co-op art class. Pretty soon we recruited our friend Jessie to join the group with her boys. So our group of Cy (7), Mason (6), Daniel (6),  Brynn (4), Beckham (4), and Maggie (3) began to meet each week for art class. We would alternate who planned and hosted each class. Soon we started to do more than just art projects but taught about different artists and different art techniques and we jokingly began to refer to the class as A.P. Art and ourselves as the professors. I think the kids genuinely enjoyed the art we did, but at the end of the day it was a great excuse for us to get together with our friends from my mom's neighborhood. Marie and Jessie are such wonderful friends and I appreciate them going along with this silly idea because not only did it give my kids something to look forward to, it gave me a chance to be with my friends. During and after class we would talk a lot, cry a little, and laugh a ton. It really was a bright spot in my sometimes dreary weeks. Now that basketball, soccer, and baseball are starting up we decided it was time to end art class, but it was sure fun while it lasted.

Mason turned out to be our art class success story when he entered a picture into his school's reflections contest and won an honorable mention.  I appreciate the Reflections program because it is one of the few things left where not everyone is a winner. I think it is important for children to learn they aren't always the best and learn how to lose. Mason was a nervous wreck the night before the reflections assembly and it gave us a chance to talk to him about disappointment and how to deal with it. All he cared about was getting a ribbon. He was visibly nervous standing on the stage with the 107 students who entered the visual arts category and was so excited when they called out his name in the honorable mention group. Obviously we are proud of him.

"The Rainforest" by Mason