August Days

Painting

So, the day I did the lawn chairs the boys also wanted to paint. We had some big boxes laying around so I got out their washable paint and let them go to town. Nate did a really nice job on his box, he turned it into a race car. I didn't get a picture of the finished project but I was impressed by his car. Josh and Colton shared a box and I guess their's was an airport. We had just been to an airshow that morning so that's what Josh had on his mind. Of course it was his Daddy's airport. They had a lot of fun but they were a mess, especially Colton. It occupied them for quite some time so I really didn't care about the clean up. Although, Colton did require some good scrubbing because they found an almost empty bottle of spray paint and painted a big mushroom but not without getting splatter on Colton. That was a pain getting that to come off but nothing a little elbow grease couldn't handle.

This cast didn't slow this boy down much!

Can you just see how much Colton is loving this!







Airshow

We made it to the air show this year and spent a short time there. Colton is pointing up to the sky, showing us the planes. He's such a cutie!


Lots of different airplanes to see and explore. There was everything from commercial airplanes to military to small 2 seater airplanes, you name it, they had it. The boys loved getting on them and exploring them.






Nate and Josh needed a small break and sat down right under the wings of one plane.

Projects

These are some tiles that I decorated for the salon. I just haven't figured out how I want to hang them up. I'm not sure how I want to do it. I could do black ribbon or a picture hook. Any suggestions on a cute way to hang them? I'm up for some idea's.



BEFORE

You can't tell but there was a lot of rust on these chairs and the paint was chipping off everywhere. They needed some major work.

AFTER

These are the finished product. I think they look much better! I'm thinking that the white chairs behind them are going to get a spray of paint but in a nice red color to contrast with the black. That's what I've been doing lately, now I need to work on the inside of my house and clean it!

1st Day of School

This is only about a week late in coming. I've just been so tired lately that I've not gotten around to putting this picture up. I only got one picture of him on his first day of school because it was raining like crazy! We had to start the first half of the week with lots and lots of rain so Nathan got good use out of his new umbrella! This is the shirt that he chose to wear. I really don't care for these type of shirts but I finally gave in and let him pick a couple of them for school. I figured I need to start choosing my battles and since this wasn't a major one, I relented to his pleading. And he loves it! I still can't believe how fast the years went by and he's now in kindergarten! And it's all day kindergarten, I love it but it's a long day for a 5-6 year old kid. I really didn't shed any tears on this momentous occasion because I already got all the emotion out when he did his summer kindergarten. That was a huge transition time and it really prepared us both for this day. I was hesitant about the summer program but I'm totally doing it again with Josh when he's old enough! I just ask myself when did he get so big and old enough for kindergarten? Where did the years go? And how fast will the next 5 years go?

The last Oklahoma Pictures

Arbunckle Wilderness
Our last weekend in Oklahoma we went to this wild wilderness park. It was really a blast. It's an open park that you drive around in and see the animals in the wild. We were able to buy some feed cups and throw food to the animals. A few times we had animals reaching their heads into the van for food. They were not shy. Nate threw them food then Josh had to have his turn. Eventually towards the end Colton began throwing food out too. The boys had a lot of fun feeding the animals even Danny and I enjoyed ourselves alot. At one point we had some donkeys next to us that we were feeding. We began driving off and they started trotting alongside us so we stopped, gave them more food, then started off again and they followed along, we would stop. We did this a few times and got some good laughs out of it and finally had to drive off kind of fast to get our distance from them. Here are a few pics of our adventure.



These animals are right at our window.









My sleeping Angels

I loved how Colton and Josh were all over each other. It was just too precious for me, I had to capture it on film.



Turner Falls
This place was awesome! We had a lot of fun! We didn't come prepared at all for it however. We didn't bring near enough water or food or even water shoes. It took an hour on the rode to get into the park entrance. This place was packed! It's a natural spring and caves. The water was really nice and warm. We first went to this little pool of water, Danny went first with Colton and I was helping the other 2 boys down in the water. I was standing on a rocky ledge and went to step in myself when I felt something suck onto my heel. I thought it was weird, freaked me out a little but I didn't say anything to Danny because I knew he'd say I was crazy. Well, we went to get out and he starts freaking out and kicking his leg. I guess something was getting his foot. We figured out that it was a fish that was hiding out in the ledge and sucks onto the feet. It really freaked him out and so I was able to tell him it did the same thing to me and this time he couldn't mock me. Luckily it didn't get any of the boys because I think that would have been too traumatizing for them. But after that the whole time we were in the water we were very cautious. In the end we got a big laugh out of it. We wish we had got it on film.

Zoo and Museum

Oklahoma Zoo



2 of my little monkeys






Army Museum


I love how they are trying to show off their muscles!

A new do

A Few Days BEFORE:


After:

I just couldn't stand his hair over his ears any longer. It was just so stinking long and the poor boy just gets so hot and sweaty. So, I thought it was time to give him a big boy hair cut. He looks so much older to me. Ignore all the bruises on his forehead. The day we brought Joshy back home, I think he was just exhausted and hungry because he hit his head on a wall and on the hard wood floor. He got the biggest goose egg on his forehead so now he has the lingering bruises. Oh, the joys of boys! But hey at least this is a good one of him because he's actually smiling and it's so hard to get him to smile in pictures!

Little boy blue: blue cast that is!

So, I still have some pictures to post from our Oklahoma vacation but I was going to give it a rest and post something different the next time. So, here I am posting something different. Not under good circumstances however, we really wish we weren't posting anything like this. Unfortunately here are some sad pictures of what happened to Josh. It was Wednesday evening on Aug 5th and he was riding on his fisher price 4 wheeler. We were having fun with him and video taping him unfortunately he fell off the 4 wheeler and of course instinctly put his arm out to save himself. Well, the angle of the fall and his arm was a BAD mix. Immediately upon hitting the ground Danny say he was hurt and rushed to him. His elbow was just dangling. Honestly I thought it was just dislocated, but no matter, we loaded everyone up quickly and headed straight to the ER. The DR. just came in and asked what happened and immediately he knew it wasn't just a simple break. They took x-rays to confirm his suspicion and they came back true. He had a very nasty break that was going to require surgery down at Children's Mercy Hospital. At first we thought it was at the growth plate however when they did the surgery they found it was broke just above the plate and elbow. Luckily there was no damage to any ligaments or nerves. It did require 3 pins that will be removed on the 18th. They said he should be healed and recovered in 3-4 weeks. Here are a few pictures of him after the surgery.


This was right after being brought back into his room, he's still super groggy and could only do the typical Joshy thing, one eye open, one eye shut. Seeing him wheeled in for the first time made me want to cry. He's just so little!


Here he is feeling a little bit better, he was glued to the cartoons on the tv. This a bear they gave him at the North Kansas City Hospital. In fact they gave each one of the boys one.


My poor little boy looks like he's in pain. He didn't get much sleep the night before. They wouldn't let him eat anything until after surgery. He threw up all night long and was in a lot of pain and all he wanted was a drink because he kept asking his Daddy for one.


Lunch time!! Still watching his cartoons but he finally got something in his belly to eat. They had a GIGANTIC list of foods to choose from. But he had a waffle with peanut butter, a blueberry muffin and chocolate milk. He did really good and ate almost everything, he was a hungry boy! He felt much better after he had some food in him.


Josh is at home relaxing. This was his new present from his brothers. I could not get him to look at the camera because he was watching a new scooby doo movie that he just received.

Well, he's doing well now. He's asleep in his Daddy's arms as I write this. Neither one of them got any sleep last night. Danny had me take the boys home when they transported him and Josh by ambulance from NKC hospital to the Children's hospital. Danny kept me updated by text during the night. The next morning I woke early, got the boys ready, stopped and got a present with Nate and Colton then took them to Melissa's house while she watched them. I'm sooooooooo thankful for good friends for taking my boys for a few hours. And thank you for Nathan's help in giving him a blessing. I don't know what I'd do without the priesthood power in our lives it is such a blessing. And I'm so glad that I was able to be there with him as we us wheeled in and woke up. I left about 2 to get the boys and we stopped and picked up some more gifts for Josh then headed to the hospital to they could see him. They were so excited to give him his gifts and wouldn't you believe it, he was asleep. Once he was awake, he loved his presents and just held on to them. I'm so glad that everything is over with and that surgery went well. He's doing rather good, he's been up and moving. He went outside for a while and when I went in to check dinner he told me he WASN'T coming in. Kids are so resilient. It's been a crazy 24 hours! One I do not want to ever repeat again. We feel so guilty and awful for what happened to him. It's incredible how as a parent you truly wish you could take their pain away and deal with it for them! We are just so relieved it's over and he will be ok eventually and hopefully it's a quick recovery. We love that little guy so much!

Memorial and Temple

This is where we headed on our Sunday afternoon.

Location can be different, architecture can change but the feeling you experience being near the temple is always the same peaceful feeling.

This is as good as we can get them to cooperate

Try as we might, we just couldn't get Josh to look at the camera

The memorial really was a somber experience. Especially seeing all the different memorabilia left on the fence. Seeing little binkies and booties or little toys just hit home. It is sad to think that because some one was mad at the government they killed innocent men and women and children. I just don't get how someone could take someone's life. It made us discuss the afterlife and how Timothy McVeigh is going to outer darkness. If he thought life was miserable down here, he's seen nothing yet. I just don't get it. For me, it was also a good reminder that life is fragile and it can be taken in a blink of an eye.