Surprise!

Kyah came home from school a few weeks ago and told me she had a surprise for me. She kept talking about it all the way home, like it was something really big and special. She wouldn't tell me or show me until we were back at the house. When we got home, she pulled up her sleeve of her shirt and said "LOOK AT THIS!"



Her arm was covered in neat handwriting from her wrist to her elbow. It had a two names written on it, and then some numbers. (Not phone numbers, but jersey numbers). I was surprised! She said they were names of football players. Her cousin Cierra had her arm autographed by a few of the RHS football players that visited the elementary school that day. Of course Kyah didn't want to be left out, so Cierra translated the autographs and wrote them neatly on Kyah's arm as well. She thought it was so cool!



A few days ago I was on the school district website and a picture flashes up on the screen. I see Kyah and her friend Sadie standing in front of a line of football players. Apparently she had a number of pictures taken with them and she never told us. I asked Kyah about it yesterday and she just smiled, blushed and ran away from me down the hallway. Should I be worried already?

I guess its ok for her to be excited to see the high school football players. This whole experience takes me back to 3rd grade when Sara Gonzalez and I had pictures of dogs all over our shared desk and we named them after the RHS football stars. Ahhh... Keven Welsch (kicker), Nate Holdren (QB)... and a few others that I wouldn't be able to recognize if I saw their faces or their names. They seemed like giants back then. Oh the memories!

#4 is Ben Jacobs boy, Brett. Doug just told me that he has a picture of himself standing in front of Brett when Brett was about Zane's age. He was their bat boy for baseball.

Deer Jerky

Yum yum! Its deer jerky season! That's how I have to think about it. I don't have the stomach to think about the transition from a beautiful living deer to a bag of jerky in our kitchen. Its not to say that I am an anti hunter, but I am just more sensitive than I used to be about it!

Doug went bow hunting this year for the first time. He had a great time practice shooting in Conrad's backyard and at a local target range. He did lots of push ups to get his arms/shoulders/back in shape so he could pull and hold the bow back. Hottie!

He went up into the Blue Mountains for two seperate weekends and camped with his buddies. The second weekend he was there he had a great shot on a nice sized buck. He was 32 yards away when he took the shot. It was dead on his target. They took the deer back to camp, skinned it, wrapped it in a tarp, stuffed it in the back of the van and brought it home. That afternoon Doug hung the deer in the garage while he used his awesome butchering skills. We sent a lot of meat home with Darrell Dabling and he made us a few bags of delicous deer jerky. It was fantastic!

Kyah and Zane were a little fascinated with the deer. They wanted their picture taken with the deer head. Isn't this so sweet? :)

Bomber pants

Cannon and Zane have some cute green & gold bomber pants to wear to the football games. They didn't have Kyah's size, so I improvized and made some for her.

I added green/yellow ribbon stripes on the side of the pants and embroidered BOMBERS across the rear end. The picture doesn't do them justice, but they look awfully cute on Kyah! My next project is to learn how to get the R and the cloud to embroider on the sewing machine!

GO BOMBERS!

Snuggle time

Nothing to say. . . I just love this picture!

Volleyball fun

This year I coached the middle school volleyball team. It was a challenge for me at first deciding if I was good enough to be a coach, wondering what I would do at practice, praying for patience to deal with the girls and hoping that I could successfully hide my fear of these pre-teen girls!

I have 17 girls on my team. They are a good group of girls and at the risk of sounding sentimental, I look at these kids and see all the possibilities for their futures. Even from the first few days I could pick out the kids that have unstable and even sometimes unsafe homes. My heart goes out to them. I feel so blessed to have had the childhood I had. I barely know these girls and I find myself wanting to give these girls some positive influence that they'll remember!

They've worked hard and we've had a lot of fun. They won their first 3 matches, then we tragically lost our 4th match to a really good team. There were many tears even before the game was over. It was good to lose because I could tell they were getting cocky. I was a little too happy that we lost. I was so excited I was up all night thinking about all the drills we could run to practice the skills we were lacking the day before. It was great! We lost a few more matches after that one, but it was wasn't so devastating for them. Less tears, but at least they didn't give up. They also starting working harder at practice. When we won our last two matches, I could tell the win was much sweeter to them! We have two matches left next week, then we will be done for the year.

I feel like I am constantly after the girls about something or another, but I haven't scared any away yet. They keep asking if I am going to coach their basketball team, or if I can coach their volleyball team next year. So I guess I haven't been too hard on them.

Its been a great learning experience for me. I've had to deal with various issues including:

• one bloody nose (1st game)


• 2 girls with pulled groin muscles


• 1 girl with back/shoulder issues


• 1 girl that seems to have an ailment worth crying about during every practice


• 1 girl that thinks people are always talking bad about them (same girl as #4 above)


• girls skipping practice and writing fake notes from their parents


• girls lying to me and to their parents


• girls with menstral cramps


• name calling/backstabbing


• giving equal playing time even if they aren't as good, aren't as committed... etc.


• boys hanging out in the gym during our practice after telling them to leave at least 5 times in one afternoon


• girls skipping games


• girls being physically abused by family members


• teaching that they win and lose as a team


• teaching personal responsibility instead of blaming someone else


• teaching them to support team members even when they don't feel like it


• teaching mental toughness


• teaching work ethic


• teaching respect for authority/coaches


• parents that force their kids to play


• parents that think I am too easy on the girls


• parents that feel sorry for me having to coach these girls!

This season has been a short 10 weeeks, but I feel as though the only coaching issue I haven't dealt with is "how come my daughter isn't getting more playing time?" I have to give each one equal playing time unless they have missed practice before the game. Then its pretty much up to my discretion of how much they play. The parents either don't care or they understand the equal playing time rule, so they don't bug me about it. My theory for the B team is that if they are excused by their parents from practice then I'll let them play in the game. I was talking with the amazing Coach Phil Neill and he said "but you need to add one thing to that rule... if they are your best player, you let them play, if they aren't, then you bench them!" I love it!

A few weeks ago I made volleyballs for the girls. It didn't take as long as I expected and they turned out really cute. Thank goodness for my mother's embroidery sewing machine!

Pregnancy

I haven't blogged in months. My only excuses are that I've been busy and haven't really felt like pouring out my thoughts into a permanent form. They haven't been real friendly! :)

Because I don't keep another type of journal, I thought I'd post the letter I sent out to friends/family after my miscarriage last month.

"I hadn't had any symptoms of a miscarriage, so it was a bit of a shock when I went in for my checkup and we couldn't find a heartbeat. A few ultrasounds over the past week and some blood work confirmed our fears. I would have been 14 weeks today. It was a tough week emotionally, but we've been keeping busy and that helps!

Because the baby was so far along, the doctor recommended to have surgery. Not being a regular in a hospital, I was rather nervous about having the procedure done. We went in just before 11:00 this morning, had the surgery done by 12:30 and I was home by 3:00 this afternoon. Everything went like clockwork. The only excitement we had was Doug playing with all the medical gadgets in the hospital room. The nurse said that was the first time she's had anyone shine the big overhead light in her face from across the hall.

The other "exciting moment" was when my first nurse tried to get the IV in my hand. I have a few bruises and bubbles on the back on my hands because she kept popping my veins. They had to bring in a second nurse to get it done right. But the hospital nurses, doctor and anesthesiologists were great, the drugs were fantastic, the procedure went quickly and I was impressed with how quickly I got out of there. I am feeling great, with a very small amount of discomfort. Nothing that a couch, some chocolate and some nice painkillers haven't cured!

The kids are doing well. Zane has no clue... and Kyah has been a real trooper. She was devastated when we finally talked to her two days ago about losing the baby. I wasn't quite ready because I hadn't figured out how to explain everything to her. She put on her brave face while Doug and I talked to her, but she couldn't hold it for long. All three of us had a good sniffle session on the couch that night. That was probably the hardest time for me in the last week. Seeing Kyah so sad broke our hearts all over again. She was very happy and relieved to see me home today after school. She was a little stressed by the entire thing."

"Love Them Back!"

It looks like the Incredible Hulk became a new sponsor for Cesar's dog food.

I often have weird dreams, but when I am pregnant my dreams are 100% more crazy. I've been toying with the idea of blogging about them when I remember them. Anyway, this picture is a tribute to one of Amanda's funny dreams! (And she isn't even prego). Isn't he a cutie! Apparently Amanda unconsciously believes I give out weird, but very cute and sometimes neon green gifts. Sweet dreams Amanda!

Quick Campout

We went to our ward camp out last weekend. I was really looking forward to it because it was a chance to get away from the heat for a day. The other great thing was that the leaders decided to provide dinner, games and breakfast for everyone, so I didn't have to worry about bringing or preparing food while we were there.

We went to Teancum Timbers, a church 0wned campground just a few miles outside of Bluewood ski resort in the Blue Mountains. It was really beautiful up there and we saw about 15 head of deer and 10 wild turkeys on our way to the campsite. We thought it would have been much cooler up there, but even as we pulled into camp at 6 pm on Friday, it was still 100 degrees outside.

We ate a great dinner that I didn't have to prepare (always makes it taste better!), the kids ran around with the other kids from the ward and enjoyed a few small hikes up the hill across the river through camp. In the evening, the bishopric set up a movie with their laptop, projector and a sheet hung up in the pavilion. The movie lasted until about 10:00 pm, but the kids were totally pooped by 9 and asked to go to bed. Cannon was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as Doug put him on our bed and was getting ready to change his diaper and get pjs on him. Cannon woke up while Doug was changing him, then he walked to his crib and tried to climb in by myself. That's a first!

In the middle of the night Cannon woke up and had a hard time going back to sleep. If he knows we are in the same room as him while he is sleeping he really fights going to sleep. Doug and I had been up for an hour or so with Cannon crying and the moon was so bright outside Doug decided to go for a walk. Cannon started crying when he left him behind, so Doug decided to take him too. As soon as they got outside and walked by Kyah and Cierra's tent, Cannon started calling to Kyah. He is not a quiet child! He has quite a set of lungs on him. So here at 3 am they are walking past all the other tents of the people in our ward and Cannon is yelling "Kyah Kyah Kyah!" Doug decided to forgo the walk and they ended up sitting in the van for an hour. He did finally bring him back to the tent and Cannon slept until 8:30 in the morning while everyone else was already up and moving.

That morning we ate breakfast and drove up the road to where the Weikums used to have an old cabin. It is no longer there. When the lease on the land was up the government took the land back. They said they were going to clear cut that area and use the cabin land for a hub where they could put logging trucks, but they never did. Instead, they ripped out the old cabin and left a bare spot of dirt. Except for it being in the complete sunshine, it was a good place for target practice with the 22s. So we stayed there for a while and Doug helped each of the kids fire off a few rounds at some pop cans and red tape on branches.

A huge fire came through that area a few years ago and burned out a lot of the trees. They have cut down many of the larger damaged trees, but there is a lot of new growth. The hills were so beautifully colored while we were there. There were wild yellow, purple and white flowers growing alongside the road, and all of the undergrowth around the trees were bright green and lush. I wish I had taken more pictures while we drove. It was spectacular. Here is a picture of the place where the cabin was and also the hillside behind it.

After our drive up the mountain we went back to camp. Most of the other families were packed up and leaving by the time we got back. We had a great site right along the river, so we let the kids play in the water while Doug and I packed up the tents. The water was cold, but the kids didn't mind. Cierra brought her tube and they had a fun time riding down the "rapids" on it. By the time we had cleaned up and the kids were done playing in the water, we were the last people to pull out of camp at noon.

This is about as far in as Zane would get...

The water was only about knee deep for him, but it was too cold for his skinny little body! He was perfectly happy playing in the mud on the side of the river.

Cierra going down the "rapids"

It was a great camping trip. Not much packing, only had to sleep in the tent one night, plenty of playing time and we were all ready for naps when we got back that afternoon! Yay!

Hot Days

The last few weeks have been hot. Its been in the 100s most of the time. If we are not inside enjying the cool air of the AC, then we've been in the water. We took the kids to the sprinkler park the other day. It was hot, but with the breeze, the refreshing cool sprinkles from the water, and slushies from Sonic, we ended up staying for hours. The kids had a great time and I had plenty of time to sit around. It was great! Here is Kyah doing pushups on one of the sprinklers.

We've been to this park before and Cannon wouldn't even go near the sprinklers. This time he decided it wasn't so bad and was running through the water with all the other kids. Check out that belly!

And of course Zane loves any place he can run free and be his crazy self.

The weather has cooled down this week so we haven't been out in the sun and water as much. We've enjoyed a nice thunderstorm and 70 degree weather that we haven't seen for months. Hooray!

It must be in the water!

After announcing our pregnancy to our family we found out that Allie is pregnant too. I couldn't be more excited. Me and my two sisters are pregnant at one time. It should prove to get interesting as time goes along! Becky is due Christmas, Allie is due early February and I am due early March. When I told my parents, my dad started to cry. What a big ol' softie! It was real sweet.

Becky and Allie have both had ultrasounds around 12 weeks and so far it looks like theirs are boys. I would love to have a little baby girl, but she may feel left out! Kyah is rooting for a girl,

Zane said he wants twin brothers, and that they can all sit together and play.

Kyah is very excited. She is often rubbing my tummy. Zane has asked if the baby is still in my tummy. Every few days I have to explain to him that the baby is going to be in there for a long time until he is much larger. His favorite word is "why?" Does he really want to know, or is it just a habit to ask?

School starts again in 3 weeks. I can hardly believe the summer is nearly over. Time seems to go by much faster the older I get! Kyah is excited to start 1st Grade. Zane will be happy to be in preschool again.

Here is a picture of Doug's birthday cake. We were celebrating his and my nephew's on the same day and my nephew was getting a Mickey Mouse Pirate cake. So I figured I better make a special one for Doug! We decided to model a cake after something he loves... pop! I chose a Pepsi can rather than Dr. Pepper because there were fewer letters to cut out. I got tired of adding food coloring, so it ended up looking like a light blue diet pepsi can rather than regular pepsi. In any case, it turned out pretty fun.

Here is a view from the top of the can after we cut the cake.