All in one evening

I wanted to get this down for posterity's sake. Actually, this information will be used to embarrass Holden one day in front of his fiancee; we'd like to give her one last chance to backout!

Here's how Holden spent his evening tonight;

1 - threw-up all over the floor
2 - dumped 6 tubs of Crystal Light on our bed
3 - squeezed an entire tube of toothpaste all over the bathroom floor and then threw the tube in the toilet
4 - dumped my liquid shoe polish all over our semi new carpet and then used it to finger paint all over the walls.
5 - scribbled all over our bed spread.

Keep in mind, he didn't do this all at once; we would clean up one mess, get Holden in trouble, only to discover another mess not long after. Additionally, a few days ago Holden emptied about 1/4 of a box of tide all over the downstairs. On the bright side, the basement doesn't smell like teenage boys anymore! Needless to say, Krissy is fit to be tied and so I volunteered to keep Holden away from her for the rest of the night.

I'm sure I'll laugh about this tomorrow (Krissy may take longer!) but he is sure tough to deal with sometimes. Anyway, hope all is well with everyone else.

Scare with Holden

Krissy suggested (my word, not hers;)) I write tonight's blog. We felt bad we weren't able to attend Ty's baptism, particularly after reading Lynn's and Paige's description. We were thankful for the wonderful pictures and commentary however and almost felt as if we had been there. Congratulations again Ty, this will be an occasion you'll always remember. I have very distinct memories of my own baptism so many years ago (almost 20 years now;)).

As the title suggests, we did have quite a scare with Holden Saturday night. Lately we've let Holden go outside by himself for a few minutes at a time. Up until last night we've felt OK about this because we live in a safe (we hope) cul-de-sac and we're very good about checking on him every few minutes. Sometimes he'll end up in our neighbors backyard, occasionally he'll even walk into their house and help himself to a snack in their fridge. But we're used to this and our neighbors get a kick out of him and usually send him home with a few new toys.

So, when I went out to look for him last night and couldn't find him right away, I wasn't immediately worried. After exhausting his usual hiding places however, I began to get really concerned. I called Krissy and Sloanie out to help me search and within a few minutes several of our neighbors joined the search.

After searching our backyard and basement really well, I had the impression I needed to get in my car and start driving around the neighborhood. Logically this would have been my next course of action anyway but I remember thinking the thought had come to me much stronger than normal. So I quickly got in my car and began to drive. Fortunately, I caught site of Holden way down on the other end of our street, probably close to a quarter of a mile away. When he saw me he tried to hide behind a tree as a joke but I could tell he was glad to see me. He insisted on driving (sitting on my lap) back to the house. On the way back, I rolled down my window and thanked all of the people who were helping us look. We felt very blessed and relieved to have found our little boy. Sloanie and Krissy took turns holding Holden for the next half hour. Needless to say, all of our doors leading outside now have childproof locks on them.

Anyway, just another testament that the Lord hears our prayers and watches over us in everything we do. Hope everyone is well.

Thanks

I want to thank everyone for their comments about Landon who I babysit. The other day I let him cry for an hour and I gave in and shouldn't have. But my nerves were shot. At least I had Holden in the other room sound a sleep with the sound machine on so he didn't hear anything. I will try and not give in today.

Last night was back to school night and I was at a table for the PTA trying to get memberships and this great guy came up to join who was so funny and was having a ball embarrassing his kids. I was busting up laughing. I told the kids he had a cool dad and they rolled their eyes at me, but anyway he looked at my name tag and asked if I was related to the Gibson's up north. I asked him if he meant Larry and Shirley and he did. I said yes that they were my aunt and uncle in laws if that was such a word and he said that they were his aunt and uncle too. I was so surprised. His name is Chuck Barton. I couldn't believe what a small world we live in. Sloane goes to school with one of Tony and Amy's nieces on Amy's side of the family.

Anyway, Chuck related a story to me that happened a couple weeks ago at a family reunion they had at Larry's. Keep in mind Chuck is completely balled and he was taking pictures of what was going on and Tony's little girl I believe is Morgan the 4 year old came up to chuck and asked him why he had cracks in his head. He then turned around and showed me the little lines he had on the back of his head. We both laughed and Larry got a kick out of the story.

The twins got their football uniform and they look pretty dang cute if I do say so myself. They said I can take a picture today of them to put on our blog. I hate the fact that the twins don't like me to take very many pictures of them anymore.

Update

Harrison is doing a lot better. He walks a lot better, but his toe is still kinda gross from the infection but we both can tell it is clearing up. We will give it another week and if we don't see a lot of difference then we will take him in again to the doctor.

OK...the little boy I am babysitting is VERY SPOILED!!! He is so good but when it comes to nap time he wants to be held when he sleeps and when I lay him down he screams. I can't hold him for 2 hours while he naps. The mother doesn't care if I let him cry to fall asleep but what is the time length to let him cry. My kids were always asleep after maybe 10 minutes. He goes longer than that. I check on him every 10 minutes to calm him down and then I leave again then he screams. Paige what would the super nanny do?? It is harder to know what to do when it is not your child.

Harrison

Just wanted to let everyone know that Harrison came home in tears from school today because of his broken toe. It was hard to take off his shoe and his foot was swollen. We ice packed it and Harrison cried himself to sleep. I was finally able to get him into the doctor tonight and his toe is infected. He is on antibiotics and is putting cream on his foot that cost an arm and a leg even after insurance. He has to keep his foot elevated at all times if possible, even at school using another chair. If it doesn't start to look better in a couple days I have to take him back in and we will get x-rays done. Worse case scenario is that the bones haven't healed correctly and if that is the case he could get a bone infection and we don't want that. So Dr. Twiggs wants us to watch it very carefully.

Anyway, we feel really bad for him and his toe is just throbbing constantly. He takes a lot of hot baths to soak his foot as well.

Michael Phelps

Well if I was a young teenager I would guarantee there would be a poster on my wall of Michael Phelps. He is unbelievable. Chris and I were watching a thing on him and how he has to eat 8-10 thousand calories a day. Just the thought of that makes me sick to think how much food that is. And he still is too skinny. We have surely enjoyed watching him compete.

I was also proud of the US last night in the men's gymnastics. They were awesome. They weren't even suppose to get a medal and walk away with a bronze woohoo.

Well Sloane had a wonderful first day of school yesterday. She was so excited that she couldn't eat and I had to feed her myself to get food down her. She loves her teacher and is happy she has friends in her class. She came home and said I just want to lay on the couch and rest. Poor girl.

Today was the boys first day. It was so fun to have them come home last night. Holden was ecstatic. They were all nerves too especially Harrison. He didn't fall asleep until 3am. He broke his big toe and wanted to wear tennis shoes today but I told him if it gets too painful that I would bring flip flops up too him. Chris gave all the kids a fathers blessing and I am sure that helped.

When the boys get home they will have their supply list and then I guess I have to go school shopping uggg. This is the part I hate is buying all the supplies. I don't mind buying clothes.
I look forward to hearing about their day.

By the way Tevin and his girlfriend broke up...OH BROTHER!! Drama

Olympics

I don't know about anyone else but I thought the opening ceremonies of the Olympics was amazing. China sure does know how to put on a show. Of course the boring part is always when the athletes march in because it takes forever but everything else was beautiful. Other countries are going to have a hard time when it comes to their turn to host.

I have been watching the US women's volleyball play this morning. I love volleyball. I miss playing. Chris is looking forward to the track and field. We always look forward to the games.

Holden went to bed last night at 7:30 then woke up at 3:30am wide awake. So we watched cartoons and I did work on his laptop and then Holden finally went back to sleep around 6am and was up again at 9. I am tired. Sloane we let her stay up to watch the opening ceremonies and she fell asleep after the US marched in. She tried so hard to stay up for it all.

Anyway, have a great weekend and enjoy the Olympics to those who watch. I need to hit Costco and walmart before they get too busy to get school lunch stuff.

Monday Ugg

Well Friday night at Barnes and Noble was very interesting. I have never been to a premiere for a book and couldn't believe how many people were there. Sadly to say there are too many my age obsessed with Edward. I heard one lady say she had an erotic dream about Edward and went and talked to her bishop about it. I rolled my eyes and my friend Tonya and I couldn't believe how older women were acting. There were people dressed up as vampires but I thought it was stupid since the Cullen clan in the book are not your Gothic vampires. We ended up leaving at 11pm and got our book the next morning at Costco at a cheaper price.

Saturday Chris watched the kids so I could go out to Sloane's school and put in some volunteer hours. It was a nice break. Sunday morning were couldn't wait to go to church and hear Chris being called to High Council. A gentlemen behind us told Chris congrats and said we would miss him in the ward. The boys came to last hour of our block and we then went and had Chris set apart. Holden was horrible, climbing in the stake presidents chair, laying under his desk, repeating what was being said in the prayer. I was embarrassed. Chris is over the pine view ward, over relief society, trains the elder quorum presidencies, stake calender, institute and other stuff I can't remember. He is very excited. He starts his training Tuesday night. I forgot to mention that during our sacrament meeting I asked Chris if he was going to bare his testimony. He told me no because he would have plenty of opportunities to do it, but I looked at him and said but not with me in the congregation. He did bare his testimony and it was wonderful.

Being stupid as I am I haven't worn my wedding ring for sometime due to the weight gain. But I had lost some weight and I made my wedding ring go on and now I can't get it off and my finger in tingling and is swollen. I have tried soap and oil. I am not sure what else to do. I should have waiting before putting it on again. Sloane is having a blast with Landon who I babysit. Holden is a little selfish with his toys right now. Hopefully he will get over it.

The boys are gone one more week and then I will have them back and be back on the normal schedule. Can't wait.

Home Safe

It is Friday afternoon and we just got home from Vegas. Chris was very busy but the kids and I enjoyed buffets and the pool. Did a little shopping too. The kids were very well behaved. YES EVEN HOLDEN!!! I know a shocker. Glad to be home. Vegas wears on ya after awhile. I need to get a nap in before I go with some friends to Barnes and Noble tonight at midnight to get the 4Th book of the "Twilight" series by Stephanie Myers.

Chris is relaxing on the couch watching a cubs game, Holden is in my bed watching cartoons, Sloane is pacing around the house waiting for a friend to call her back and I am checking my blog and doing orders for Chris. I just want to lay back and relax.

Some of you have asked me about my babysitting job. It is for a lady in our ward. I will be doing it 4 days a week for a 14 month old little boy 5 hours each day. I am hoping it will be good for Holden to have a friend especially when Sloane starts school in a week. I might try and find another child to babysit, but we will see.

Well my sister just called so I better run. Have a great weekend.

Out of town

Well I decided I would go down with Chris to Vegas this week. We are leaving early in the morning and will be back late Thursday night. This is our last week of fun cause next week I start a babysitting job and wont be able to go down with Chris again until next summer. Sloane is excited to go. She loves just hanging out at the pool and going to the Disney Discount store. I loved every ones comments. I need to do better at checking and posting on your blogs, but be patient I am taking baby steps.

Chandler and Tevin have started their football training this week for the season. Tuesday and Thursdays 6am practice. Tevin called me today to tell me how sore and tired he was. But can't wait until their first game. Holden loves getting into Chris' car and pretend he is driving. A couple of weeks ago he locked himself in it and was so hot. So Chris has been locking his car. Well yesterday morning he forgot and Holden got in and turned on the lights and drained his battery. So I had to take Chris to the office and then later in the evening we finally got his car jumped. Holden also has a new movie favorite. It is called "An American Hero" it came out a few years ago, but it is about a boy that has a talking bat and ball and it is in the time of babe Ruth. Well so far today I have watched this movie 5 times. Holden calls it his baseball game movie. Needless to say Chris is very proud.

Anyway, that's all for now and I will let you know how our couple of days were in Vegas.

PS. Loved Natalia's forehead. Sloane thought it was cool. Holden said gross.

Shocker

Wow 3 and a half months since I last posted on this thing. I am so out of it. Well as you all know we have had a busy summer. The boys are with their dad right now until school starts and needless to say they are not having fun. I get calls often because they are down and I am there for them to cheer them back up. I was able to have them on pioneer day and we went to the breakfast I was in charge of at our church, then went school shopping, lunch and then to a movie. The boys, sloane and I had a blast. Too bad Chris had to miss all the fun. He was still in Vegas. Tevin and I cried when I had to take them back that night. Needless to say Tevin has changed his mind on living with his dad for now. Tevin also has a girlfriend. They talk all the time. She is in our ward and she is afraid of Chris and I. I think it is funny. I told him he was too young because they couldn't do anything except to talk on the phone. They knew that and don't care if all they do is talk on the phone.

Holden is under the weather. When I went to pick him up from nursery yesterday his eyes were watery and was having a runny nose and he is worse today and is running a fever. Most of you are aware of Chris' new calling. I can't go into detail until next Sunday though. I am still loving my calling as head honcho over the ward activities. My next one is our pool party next month. Need to loose a few more pounds before the ward can see this body in a swimsuit. UGGG

I think that is all that is new. Don't pass out from shock of seeing a post. Hope you all have a good day.

wonderful weather

Our weather is so nice. Today we hit 77 and by Wednesday it will be up to 88. Since it was so nice we had a nice BBQ with Kim and Steve and they loved it. I also introduced Kim to Tia Pan Trading. I was impressed neither one of us bought anything. The boys went to the river and Chandler has a bad sunburn now. Kim liked the downstairs. I am still waiting on Chris to put pictures. Well better run. We are going out for frozen yogurt.

Family Room is finally done

I have been such a procrastinator when it has come to finishing the downstairs. What got me in the mood to finally do it was Chris telling me that he was going to finish it on Saturday if I didn't. Needless to say I got my butt in gear and finished it yesterday. I have to say I am very pleased. When I get done putting pictures up on the walls I will take pictures and post them. I don't know how to put pictures on this thing so I will have to leave it in the hands of my hubby.

The kids are all finally well. I am so burned out on illness. When kids are sick it sure puts dampers in your plans to do other things.

Chris has been really busy with work. I hardly see him during the week. I look forward to the weekends.

Sloane (Sloane had to show me how she could type her name and how she has learned finger placement).

We are looking forward to having Kim and Steve here for a little bit this weekend and next. We always love it when company comes to visit.

I have been fighting insomnia lately and sleeping pills do not help. Lately I have been getting up at 3:30am and start cleaning house or other little tasks. From 5-6:30 am I go to the gym come home and shower and then gets kids ready for school and out the door. I try not to take a nap during the day. But when 10pm comes I am dead tired but as soon as I lay down I am wide awake until 11 or so and then I fall asleep again until about 3 or 4 am. Now that Holden pretty much sleeps during the night I have to deal with this now. Any suggestions?

Tevin is doing really well with his guitar lessons. He is embarrassed to play infront of people. He tells me when he gets better he will.

Harrisons birthday is coming up and I can't believe he is going to be 12. ALL he wants for his birthday is a laptop and a base guitar. He doesn't give us much options.

Chandler is doing really well. He has been enjoying hanging out with his friends lately. Every night he likes to go out and play night games and he is so proud to announce that he has now shaved for the first time. He wouldn't let me take pictures. Oh well.

Sloane is pretty much perfect. We don't ever have any problems with her. I wonder if that means she is going to be a very hard teenager. She loves school. She doesn't want summer to come. Unlike her mother who is ready to relax.

OH now for our Holden. He is our demon seed. He is into everything and is very mischievious.
He loves to throw things off our balcony. He actually threw a statue that meant a lot to me off it and broke it into a million pieces. But then there are those moments when he hugs us and tells us he loves me so I guess that makes up for all the bad things and stress he brings to our lives.

Well I better go and watch the cubs with Chris. Hopefully when get pictures on sometime this weekend since Chris will have time. Love to all

Sloane is really sick

I just wanted to let everyone know that Sloane is very sick. She missed Thursday and Friday of last week at school and will miss today and tomorrow. She has been running a fever, throwing up, dizziness, chills, runny nose that has made her nose and lips really chapped, infection in her eyes, ear infections and strep throat. I finally took her to the doctor on Sunday and found out all that she has had and then some. She looks horrible. My dad came up this weekend and brought me an old fashion sewing machine that was made in 1912 that was my great aunts. I love it. Sloane just would lay on my dads lap since she didn't have energy to do anything. I hope now that is she is on antibiotics that she will start getting better. I am a little under the weather today so I am hoping I am not catching anything she has.

Well the 1st game of baseball season for the cubs has just started so I am going to go enjoy that. Hope everyone has a good day. Love ya tons

Spring Training 2008

Can you believe it's taken us this long to post our spring training trip?



I hate to use the excuse that we've been busy, because we all are but it seems like both Krissy and I are over-extended right now.

Anyway, as you can see, we had a great trip. Mark mentioned the location of the hotel wasn't ideal but at least the boys didn't ask any questions!

The trip down to Phoenix seems to get easier and easier each year. I have a hunch this corresponds directly to the kids getting older. In one sense it makes me long for the days when I'd pull the van over so Krissy could drag the boys out for spankings.

It was fun to meet up with Mark and see his reaction to his first (of many) spring trainings. The kids came to know and love uncle Mark. Chandler and Sloanie in particular had fun riding in his rental car. I just hope Chandler didn't cause any permanent damage to the car speakers.

The weather was perfect and if you can believe it, the Cubs won both games. This fact alone is reason enough for Mark to make this an annual trip. Apparently Mark will need to take Kellie on a cruise each year for this to become a reality.

We had a blast at Amazing Jakes where the kids were able to go on any of the rides as many times as they wanted while all of us enjoyed the all you can eat buffet.

The trip is always a bit expensive so we did our best to make sure Mark enjoyed himself. If anyone else would like to join us next year, you're more than welcome.

Well, hopefully we'll be posting our Easter pics by the time we have our reunion at the cabin. Hope all is well.

Update

Well, I guess I have a moment to update on the Gibsons down south. The end of February I had a sisters weekend with Heidi and Alison. We stayed at the Ramada and were addicted to Watching lifetime movie network when we were not out shopping, eating or pampering ourselves. We each had an hour long massage done and if you have never got one, I highly recommend it. Then we had facials done and addicted to that too. I can see myself easily becoming high maintance. We ate and ate and ate. Shopped until we couldn't anymore. Needless to say Alison spent the most money in the shopping department. We stayed up late laughing, playing games, teasing our mom etc. We are going to do this once a year and next year it is Alisons turn to plan what to do. But it was a wonderful weekend and it prepared me for the next few days of seeing the cubs. I have a meeting to go to, but I will talk about our weekend with the cubs and pictures when I get back.

Holdens Health

Just wanted to let you know that on Thursday holden's left eardrum burst and we went to the doctor and got medication that was needed and then the next day on Friday his other eardrum burst. Needless to say Holden is in a lot of pain right now. I am staying home from church this week since Chris stayed home with him last week. I think Holden has missed more church than he has gone. But one good thing in the 26 months of Holden's life last night was the first night that he slept all the way through the night and was in his OWN bed. I actually had to get up in the night to make sure he was still breathing. It was so nice to have a good nights sleep.

About photos

Chris wanted me to let you know if you want to see the pictures bigger just click on the slide show. We don't get many snow days in sunny STG but we managed to take some of Sloane out in it. I wish Holden would have been awake he would of loved it and the older boys couldn't wait to go play football with friends. So Sloane was my guinea pig on pictures with the snow(dang I wanted pics of all the kids for scrapbook pages). I am Sloane's room mom at school and we had a fun valentines party. They didn't have to wear their uniforms but had to wear red or pink shirts. Their favorite game was heads up 7-up. Last set of pics are once again of Sloane falling asleep on our coffee table waiting for her dad to give her a ride on his back to her bed. I felt bad that she waited so long.

I know you are all surprised to hear so much from us in just 3 days. Try not to fall over. I wanted to thank you all for your comments about chandler. Hope you all have a great day.

Snow days and Valentines and sleepy Sloanie

Mini Miracle

I guess I ought to start by apologizing on behalf of our family for not being more timely at posting blogs. The easy excuse is we're incredibly busy but then who isn't? Unfortunately, unlike some of my sisters, the busier I get, the less I feel like posting a blog.

I did however want to record something that happened to me that I consider a miracle.

Approximately 6 months ago our family attended the Sunday general session of our stake conference. Because we knew how obnoxious Holden can get, we chose to sit in the cultural hall. During the rest hymn, we all stood to sing and Holden naturally wanted to run up to the stand and conduct so I grabbed him and held him to my chest during the song. Needless to say, he wasn't too fond of being held at that particular moment and began to kick his legs wildly. Unfortunately he connected with my phone that was attached to my belt and knocked it to the ground. I quickly picked it up but didn't notice until we were seated again that the SD memory card had been knocked out.

I had a hard time paying attention during the remainder of conference because I was frantically looking around on the ground to see if I could locate the card. The reason I was so concerned was because not only did the card contain hundreds of pictures but more importantly it contained my scriptures.

Shortly after I bought my Palm Treo I purchased some software that allowed me to mark and annotate my scriptures. So, the card represented 100's of hours of studying, marking and creating notes. Even after the session ended I was unable to find the card even though the whole family as well as a few friends were scouring the gym floor for the SD card. I even checked the lost and found a few days later but by that time, I had given up hope. What was especially frustrating was the circumstances under which I had lost the card. I thought to myself, I'm where I'm supposed to be on Sunday. I'm with my family and I'm holding my son but even so, I lose my scriptures that I had worked so hard on despite my prayers that I might find the card.

For those of you who are asking why I didn't have a recent backup of the card...don't ask. I've already beat myself up over that one. I had backups of virtually everything, except the SD card.

Well, a tiny miracle happened the next day. Krissy was picking up Sloane from her school, when she noticed a brand new SD card still in the box in the middle of the parking lot. She turned it in to the school's lost and found but after no one claimed it, it was given back to Krissy. This at least saved me $25 or so by not having to purchase a new card. And while I was grateful for this, I still didn't envy the task of starting from scratch and replacing my scriptures.

But as time went on, I figured this was the Lord's way of getting me to intensify my study of the scriptures. Progress was slow initially but over the ensuing months I replaced roughly 1/3 of what I had previously but I was clearly missing most of what I had. Of special concern were the many scriptures I had marked and made notes on while researching a particular subject. I knew it would be virtually impossible to replicate what I typed on the lost card.

Well, fast forward 6 months; Yesterday evening I got up from the couch to answer a knock at the door. In the door frame stood a large man who asked me if I had 3 bigger boys, a girl and a little boy. I thought to myself, "uh-oh, what did they do now?" But against my better judgment I told him I did, so he reached into his pocket (for a split second I thought he might be going for a weapon) and he handed me my lost SD card. I was dumbfounded (more than usual). He said that he found the card underneath his washing machine. Apparently his young son must have picked up the card at Stake Conference, put it in his pocket and when his clothes were washed, it somehow ended up under their washing machine until it was found 6 months later.

What was just as amazing though was how the guy was able to track me down. It's not like I had my name and phone number on the card. Apparently the guy put the card in his computer and began to look at some of my pictures to see if he could find a way to return the card. He came across a picture I took of the front of our house and since he happened to work for the city of Saint George, he was somehow able to get an exact address and was able to deliver the card.

I offered the guy a reward but he wouldn't accept, he was very humble and said he just felt driven to find out who this SD card belonged to. I know I'm probably being overly dramatic with this sentiment but the first thought that came to me was that it was kind of like Joseph Smith having the lost 116 pages returned to him.

Anyway, this is definitely a miracle in my life. The Lord answered my prayers, maybe not as quickly as I would have liked but I'm now able to combine the work I had done previously with what I've done over the last 6 months.

Well, it's getting late but I wanted to record this experience for posterity. Hope everyone is well.

Chris