Track Break is over...back to school

The kids are back to school - it's odd to start back to school during the middle of the week. I think we all were equally excited to get back in to a normal routine again. Trent made a funny comment this morning, he said, "Mom, we are free today." I said, "Oh yeah, what does that mean?" He said, "We get to go back to school, we are free!" So as much as we all love each other, my kids are just like me, they need a break too. In Trent's words, "We are all free!!!".

This track break began March 21 and ended April 22 (32 days). I am going to capture the break in weekly nutshell accounts, I know ya'll are thanking me cause I can be a little winded with the details. I am tired and don't really have it in me to give you all the details. So enjoy the pictures and captions and some windiness.

Week 1: Spring Break w/Grandma and Grandpa: 10 day Spring Break

Week 2:
Mom and dad return from Europe, everyone is adjusting to family life. Emmett has therapy and doctor appointments.

We made a trip to Utah for a follow-up sleep study on Emmett.

Week 3:
The kids love to go to the library. So we checked out quite a few books, videos, Wii and DS games. Garhett is starting to get excited about reading again. We introduced him to the series of Witch Mountain (Escape to, Return to, etc.).

We have the best cheap movie theater here in Boise. It is the Overland Park Cinemas. The movies have been out for awhile, but who cares at these prices: Adults $3.00; Child/Student/ Senior Child $2.00; Food Ticket* $4.00; Tuesdays - All Shows $1.00(Food Ticket $3) *Covers your admission and gets you 2 Small Food Items or 1 Large Item

We took the kids to see Pink Panther 2. They loved it! I really enjoy watching movies with my kids, cause it makes me laugh to see them laugh at the funny parts of the movie. I love it when they get it!

Week 4:

YMCA Kids Day - We enjoyed swimming

Took a drive to Stanley and Red Fish Lake. We decided to pack a picnic lunch to eat up at the lake. Red Fish Lake has a special place in Pappy's heart (Scott's father). We thought it would be fun to take a drive to a place we haven't ever been and take pictures to send to Pappy, who hasn't been there in 40+ years. Pappy would spend some summers fishing at Red Fish Lake with his Grandpa Emmett (who our little Emmett is named after). As we drove into Stanley, I noticed that all the campsites, lake entrances, etc. were closed due to snow. The entrance to Red Fish Lake was closed because of the amount of snow they still had. Mid April and the place looks like they just got fresh snow, well probably because they did!!! Darn ground hog for seeing his shadow and causing us to have 6 or 8 or 10 more weeks of snow. Scott took some beautiful pictures on our drive. We had our picnic lunch on the porch of the Stanley City Center. It was a beautiful day, a little chilly.

Scott's pictures:

To bring the break to a close, we enjoyed a free cone at the new Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop that opened up in downtown Boise. Looks like Emmett enjoyed his first ice cream cone!

Leaps and Bounds

Over the past 4 months, Emmett has changed in development by leaps and bounds. In a matter of 4 months, Emmett has learned to roll over, crawl, go up and down stairs, pull himself up, stand alone, and now push a cart while walking behind it!!! AMAZING!!! Our little peanut is a big boy! Along with progressing in his development, he is also progressing in his language. He can call mom and dad (at the right time), and he tries to repeat Paige and Garhett (not perfectly, but the sound is there). We are so blessed with Emmett and so pleased when he hits these milestones in his life.

Easter 2009

Happy Easter!

I can't believe how this year has flown by, it's the middle of April already. Yesterday we took the kids to the mall to see the Easter Bunny. LOL!











Today the kids woke up and found their Easter baskets! The boys were so excited to get Bakugan, Paige was excited with her special bath Cinderella Barbie, and Emmett is happy just to get into the basket and pull out the grass!!









We spent Easter at my parents house. Our kids love to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house; they get to play outside all day, hit golf balls in the back yard, and ride electric toys all around 1 acre. Grandpa and Dad hid 72 Easter eggs filled with candy and money for the kids to find. Unfortunately, this year was just my family at my parents house. Brian had his in-laws over, and Shawn, well, he spent it with his girl friend and her family. Shawn's son Tyler (19) did stop by to eat and play a little Wii with Garhett before going to work.

Here are the kids hunting for eggs! Garhett collected 29, Trent collected 21, and Paige collected 22 eggs. It was a fun day!!

Pinewood Derby

Well it's that time again, the good old pinewood derby. With all the traveling that has been going on in our family, Scott and Garhett got to the car Monday night before the Thursday night derby. Every year Scott has Garhett draw out the design of the car on paper, then he cuts the car out. After the cutting of the car, then they work together in painting and putting it together.

















Garhett did very well this year. He was able to place 3rd in his den. Grandpa and Emmett are enjoying the races. Here is a little video of one of the races Garhett's car was in.

Trip to Utah

It's been 6 months since Emmett was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and started wearing oxygen while he sleeps. We still don't know what is causing the obstruction. So back to Utah we go for a follow up sleep study. We needed to be in Utah by noon on Friday to meet with the pulmonologist first.

Thursday after work we drove to my parents house to sleep, it broke up the drive to Utah a little better. We didn't have to leave quite as early.

On Friday, we met with Dr. Daftary. He went through what he thought should happen on this visit, versus what the "Boise" doctors thought should happen, and then he asked Scott and I "as the parents" what we thought should happen. I wanted Emmett to have the same type of sleep study that he did 6 months ago, so that we could compare the results. I felt like if we varied from the test at all, we wouldn't have accurate results telling us in fact that he still does have apnea, it is worse, it is better, or better yet it is gone! Dr. Daftary agreed and Emmett had the study done exactly the same way.

Emmett and I reported back to Primary Children's Hospital at 8pm Friday night. Scott stayed with the rest of the kids at the hotel. I kept Emmett from taking naps through out the day so he would be tired and go right to sleep for the test. As the nurses were "hooking" him up, he just sat there. Which surprised me, I thought he would be grabbing everything they stuck to him, but because he was so tired, he didn't. Emmett slept pretty well and was ready to get up at 6am. The nurses came in, took the wires off, cleaned him up, and sent us on our way. We won't know the results for 2 weeks.

Here is Emmett ready for the sleep study.










Saturday: After getting back at the hotel around 7 this morning, I crawled into bed and Emmett went to sleep in the pack-n-play. The rest of the family slept in until around 8:30am. Then we were up and off to meet with our accountant and visit friends.

Today we had lunch with one of my mission companions and her husband. They were visiting from Texas. Karen's husband had a mission reunion last night. Karen and I were companions 17 years ago in Montgomery Alabama. We had the best time together. Our birthdays are both in March, so we were able to celebrate them together. Here is a picture of us together on our mission and 17 years later, married and each with 4 children. Love you Karen!





It was a quick trip to Utah and back. Now we wait for the results of Emmett's test.

10 day spring break for the kids...

Our kids had an assignment while we were gone to Europe, they needed to take pictures and document all the fun things they were doing with grandma and grandpa.

How do you tell your parents (your kids' grandparents) THANK YOU? We have been so blessed with my parents living close by. Fortunately they are retired and are able to support the kids' every sporting event, dance recital, Emmett hospital stay and babysit while we vacation. Mom and dad, Thank you and we love you!

Journal by Garhett:

Day 1: Opening day of soccer. Trent scored 3 goals!










Paige at our house













Having fun at Grandma and Grandpa's!!!











Day 8: Playing at indoor play land in Twin Falls













Day 9: We went fishing and we caught 6 fish! Paige was so funny. She was the first to catch a fish. When she reeled it in and saw it, she screamed and ran.













Everything between pretty much stunk! The weather was cold, snowy and rainy the whole time mom and dad were gone.

Day 10: Saying good-bye to Europe

So today we say good-bye to Paris, all of Europe, and our new found friends. Today we head home to Boise. Our flight out of Paris is at 10:50am, but because everyone is so paranoid with International Travel, our wake up call was at 6am, our transporter picked us up at the hotel at 7am, and we were to the airport at 7:30am. By the time we got checked in and through 2 sets of security, we were to our gate at 8:30am. Only to find out that our flight was delayed until 11:30am, so we still had 3 hours to wait. Oh the joy!!!














We boarded our flight out of Paris bound for Cincinnati, Ohio. A 9 hour flight. So after a snack and a drink, I pulled the eye covers over my eyes and slept. Knowing this was going to be my last peaceful sleep before arriving home and becoming a mom again. Because of our delay in leaving Paris, we arrived late in Cincinnati, which cut our layover time in half. Now we had to hurry through customs, baggage, security and to our gate. We weren't sure where our gate was located in Cincinnati, all we knew was that we were late. So we came up the escalator, the heavens opened again, and gave us a miracle; our gate was at the top of the escalator and the attendants were holding the plane for us (once again). So we boarded. Onto Salt Lake for an hour layover, but we stay with the same plane, then onto Boise. We arrived in Boise at 9pm, or 3am Paris time.

The kids were awake and in the car to greet us. I am not sure they greeted us cause all I heard was, "What did you bring us?". So when we got to the house, we unpacked all the souvenirs and went through them with the kids. They loved it! That was it, we hugged, we put our PJ's on and climbed into bed.