GREAT NEWS!!!!

We just got word that they are now ordering the basketball wheelchair for Tucker. It will be here in three to four weeks if everything goes well!!!!!! YAAAAA!!! We are all so excited!! I just told him about it the other day. We waited awhile because I wasn't sure when he would get it and how it was all going to work out. He has been so very excited ever since and has talked about it a lot. Now we have an end in sight and he is so excited! Mike and I are now trying to get a basketball hoop up so he can play!! We have even been looking for old bigger wheelchairs so that Mike can play and practice with him here at home!!! Seriously that is hard to imagine but because of great people like you, we are now seeing it possible!! :))) It is a great day and I am feeling so blessed!! We didn't think we would be able to get him this for quite some time we have had other medical bills to pay and thought as soon as we get those caught up we will, but there is always something and so it never seems to happen!! Now we are seeing it before our very eyes and are so excited!!

The foundation has been great and has told us they were going to get us a ramp for the van even!! I am so excited about this one because Tucker is getting bigger and heavier and it is hard for me to lift him up in the van!!! I thought I was getting arthritis there for awhile but realized the other day that it is actually from lifting him into the van. So this will be awesome!! Another great reason is because I will be able to go more places without Mike. We can use them getting him into friends and families homes!! OH the JOY!!!! I really wish I could tell you how grateful I am right now!! This really is an awesome bonus that we didn't now about!! So miracles do happen and wishes do come true!!!! Thanks to you!!! We know this wouldn't have been possible without all the great people who donated to this great foundation and cause!! We thank you deeply for your generosity and support!!

We will be posting pictures as soon as the chair comes and hopefully I will learn how to put video on here so you can see that also!!! I just want to say thank you to all of you who have been so kind and generous to our family and Tucker!! We feel so greatly blessed and wanted to share our joy today!!!

Oh and did I say THANK YOU!!??

My Handsome Trio!!

As I told you before one of my favorite things for Easter was getting a new dress. It made it a special day for all of us. My mom would spend hours making our outfits for church. Well I didn't follow in her footsteps. I am definitely not a seamstress. So I decided this Easter since the boys were all in need of new church clothes we would get them suits. I could hardly wait! As a mother not having any girls to dress up I must say this was just as fun. I am so grateful that the boys seemed to humor me!! :)

They looked so stickin handsome, I wanted to kiss them all day long!! Austin was the one who really didn't want to wear it. When we were buying them I tried talking him into the vest and tie. But he wanted a suit like his other brothers. So it came time to wear them and he didn't want to. He was so stubborn. Well I talked to him about what a special day Easter is and that we can make it special by dressing our best. I also talked to him about how when we do this that we can really feel good inside because we are doing the right thing. I told him how the spirit teaches us things if we pay attention to our feelings, we can know between right and wrong.

Later when we had all gotten in the car and was ready to leave, he said "mom I feel wiwwy good inside because I am doing the right sings." :) Moments like this make being a mom worth it!!

Seeing them all dressed up like this made me feel like I was the luckiest mom in the world to have these three adorable boys!! I know there are moments that I wish I had a girl but in all reality my life is these three boys and my wonderful husband and I can't even imagine my life without them!!

We have always gone to Idaho for Easter to spend it with family but this year we decided to stay home and I am glad we did. Don't get me wrong we still missed our family and all but it was sure nice not to have to pack things and be places. We relaxed and enjoyed each other. It was a wonderful Easter Sabbath!! How was your Easter?

Spring Vacation

Ok you all have to humor me, we want to share our FUN week with dad at home!! We wanted to go to Arizona and see the pageant and catch some rays but we decided to stay home. So often when you go some where it turns out that you need a vacation from your vacation. We thought this way the kids would still have fun doing things all week and it would not be too crazy.

We started out at the Zoo Monday afternoon. The kids always like to go there to visit the animals.

Then later that evening we went to a benefit concert for Paul Cardall. It was so fun and the kids really liked it!! Towards the end they were a little bit tired but I was surprised about how much they liked it! We told the kids how he needed a heart transplant and they were able to see his wife and little girl, it touched their hearts and so now every prayer Austin makes sure we always pray for Paul. For those who don't know him he is an amazing song writer and pianist!! I love all his music. He needs a new heart and is waiting for a transplant. So please remember him in your prayers!! Anyway Kurt Bestor and Ryan Shupe and The Rubberband and Colors and Peter Breinholt and others got together to put on this concert to help with his medical expenses. It was so good and fun for the kids to watch since they have started their instruments. (to see what they can be like was really fun for them!)

We visited the famous Thanksgiving Point. The kids liked trying to milk a cow, the goat was a bit harder for them.

Austin and Bryson liked being in the Jail.

Bryson loves to be on Mike's shoulders (most of the time).

Tucker has started this peace thing in all our pictures and it has taught his little brother that it is the cool thing to do because BIG brother is doing it. Needless to say Mike was irritated about every picture with Tuck doing this. Can you just say 9?

For those of you who don't know our second child (Austin) found a stuffed animal (lamby) on his first birthday in a store and they have been inseparable ever since!! He has carried that thing around and has loved it to pieces (literally). So whenever we see a lamb we take pictures. Austin decided that when he turned 5 that he needed to put him in his memory box. He has been ok to do this and it has been almost 3 months now without lamby. He has only asked me twice to get it out. (Just to look at him) :) He is so sweet and sensitive at times I love how he is trying hard to be a big boy!

Bryson loved the horse wagon ride.

And of course they had to ride the ponies.

Then we ended that night at the Mayan. One of the kids' favorite places to eat.

Throughout the week we also stayed at home two of the days that it was warm and beautiful and worked on my garden boxes. Took care of the weeds and got things around the house done. It felt good to get a few projects done also.

Then Saturday we did our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt at our park. The little ones liked it.
On your mark get set Go. I sometimes feel like it is "go push everyone out of your way and grab that egg don't stop until you have them all." When Tuck was little we took him to two I think and it was so sad. I had the hardest time taking him. He would spy one and by the time he got to it someone would snatch it up so we gave up on those and did them at home for the last 5 or so years. This is the first year that we took the little ones to one. Tuck felt like he was now too old so enjoyed watching and eating the donuts. :)

Bryson counting his eggs making sure he got only 12.

"Look mom I got 25 fast" is what he told me. :) Someone needs to teach that boy how to count.

Austin was such a good helper making sure Bryson got some eggs.

Tucker on the other hand enjoyed the powdered donuts.



We came home and colored our own eggs and the kids loved it!! Especially Austin, he has asked me everyday now if he can color eggs again.

Later at home we had our own Easter Egg Hunt in our yard. It was fun for the kids and Bryson liked finding them so much that even when it was done he still was walking around trying to find them.

We had so much fun having dad at home this last week!! We don't like it when he has to go to work. I wasn't to sure if we would like staying at home but honestly we did!! It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. We stayed up watching movies and making milkshakes and slept in and just plain had fun!! Sometimes those are the best vacations!!

None were with Him

I just wanted to share with you all how blessed we really are to have such an amazing gift as the atonement!! I love Easter, having a son who will truly get the opportunity to experience the Resurrection first hand brings me great joy!! Tucker loves to be reminded of this also!! How grateful I am for this gift He has given to all!! I love the Savior and I feel so blessed to have felt His love so many times in my life!! I want always to be worthy of His love and sacrifice for me!! I cry every time I think of His suffering and His great sacrifice when our Father had to withdraw from Him in order for it to be complete!! I can not imagine how that felt! I have often felt alone on my journey here but I know ultimately He is there and has suffered so that we don't have to! I love Him with all my heart and pray that this Easter we can truly remember Him, give praise to Him and draw nearer to Him!!!
I have added a link for you to hear Pres. Hollands message of the Savior! It was my favorite talk! I thought you might want to hear it on this Easter Sunday!! How blessed we are to have a brother so loving and pure to give His life for us!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc

Everyone needs a little sister

As you all know I am the oldest of 5 children. Right after me I had three brothers and loved each of them. Although they were pesky at times and loved to treat me like one of them!! I didn't know what dressing up was really except when my mom made me dresses which was every year at Easter time.

I loved getting new dresses!! It was a time I felt pretty!

All the other times I was pretty much like the rest of the boys. Outside playing in the dirt, riding my bike or feeding our lambs dad had bought us, to teach us responsibility.




















Dad one time even had me stand in front of a herd of bulls and cows to herd them in the pen because they were out. I of course being around the age 5 or 6 was scared out of my mind and ran when they all came toward me. I don't think my parents knew what to do with a girl either.


I had a friend I grew up with from first grade on and we were best friends from then until junior high but remained great friends through all of our school years, even cheered together in High School. After graduating we went to Beauty School at the same place and that was fun! I liked going to her house when I was younger because it was just the opposite. She had three sisters and there was all kinds of girl things to do!! It was always so much fun!


When I was 12 I found out my mom was having another and her final baby. I prayed so hard and wished so hard that it would be a girl!! I remember at nights looking out my window at the stars and wishing upon a star that it would be a girl. I wanted a sister I could do things with, shop with and exchange clothes with. Well she came and boy was I happy!!

I couldn't wait to be her big sister and teach her all kinds of things! I wanted to teach her how too dress up and wear make up and do her hair and go shopping! Well it was fun for about three years and then I started dating and she became the tag along. You know the one you always have to watch out for. There was many years of her being too young to do much with other than watch her and really she was so good she didn't need much watching!!

As she grew up I soon learned she wasn't much for girly things like shopping and make up she didn't really like to wear and still doesn't but on a rare occasion. She didn't really like her hair to be done and was more the t shirt and jeans kind of a gal. She was too young to trade clothes with and she liked all the bright yellows, pinks, oranges, and greens. I was more of a girl who liked warm fall colors, with some blue and pink. So we were so different to say the least.

I remember when I had my mission call and came home for a month before I left she slept in my room on a trundle. We would read scriptures at night and I was always amazed at her testimony and knowledge of the gospel. I wished I could spend more time with her then. She was 8 or 9 at the time. I would get these cute little letters from her while I was gone or pictures she had drawn. She was so much fun!! She smiled a lot and was a sweet little girl! I came home and she had grown a ton but was still very young. Heading into young women's. I got married 8 months later and didn't see her very much then either. Time seemed to fly, we would try to make it to her gymnastics or her cheer leading things as much as we could.

I remember her graduation day, I had Tucker then and we lived in another state and didn't see much of her except for when we would get together as a family. We have always been going different directions.



Two years ago she was in a car accident with my mom and they were traveling to visit her boyfriend to meet his family in Washington over Christmas. She broke her neck and couldn't move anything from her neck down for awhile. She came here to Utah and had rehab here at the University Hospital.





She learned how to use her arms again, how to wheel herself around in her wheelchair, how to roll over, sit up, and eventually how to walk again! She is now walking with a cane.





That was fun for us to have her so close that we could visit her nearly every day. After rehab at the U they moved in with us for 7 months and she did some more rehab here at neuroworx. It was fun to have them here and the kids really missed them for the first little while after they went back to Idaho!!




She was amazing she worked so hard and exceeded all expectations for her! It has been fun to watch her progression! All through this trial she smiled and cried but never complained about her situation!! I never once heard her say this is not fair or this stinks. NOT once did I hear those or any other sort of complaining! Now, I on the other hand, you would have heard those and many others!! She has been an example of faith and strength to me and my children and I am so grateful for that!!



It has now been two years and she is walking with a cane and is doing almost everything she did. She will not ever be the same again, but is very lucky and blessed for being able to do what she can!! She had friends going through rehab that never did regain things and are in wheelchairs or have to be fed.



If you ever feel sorry for yourself or are having a bad day. Take yourself up to the U and go visit some of those who once had everything and are now struggling to feed themselves or move at all!! That was life changing for me!! I learned to appreciate the small things in life even more than we do with Tucker!! Some of those people are so amazing!! It is unreal to see them carry such a burden and climb their mountain!! It is so inspiring and helped me to see the Savior more fully in our lives!! He really is there to strengthen us and to even carry us at times!!



Even though Colleen and I have been growing up from different times and our lives are not meshing like I had hoped for. She still is a great sister and I love her very much and want her to be happy! I have been blessed by her example and her strength through the death of our father at 14. She was stalwart through that also. We all worried about her and wondered if she was going to close up, she has been very quiet and does keep to herself, like my mom. They are much a like. She has been through a lot at her age and I am proud of her strength through it all! I know that the Lord has some amazing things in store for her and that she will and has helped so many through her example!



Well the main reason for writing this is because she is getting married on May 20th. She has asked me to be her maid of honor. I am not sure what my responsibilities are and was wondering if any of you had some instructions on what I should be doing. She is so on the ball and has everything pretty much done. She is ready to go. I want this to be a special day for her and want her to remember it forever. She has asked me to take pictures also. I really want to do my best for her and give her what she deserves and needs!! I am so happy for her and Ben to start this new adventure!!


I think I am suppose to be doing the bridal shower and so I really need some fun ideas if any of you have some I could sure use them!!! It has been a really long time since I have done anything like this!! So please people lay it on me!!