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| Samuel and Gideon playing on the trampoline |
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| Gideon has hair!! Oh, wait, that's just Austin's hair covering his bald head. |
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| The boys found my stash of Halloween stickers |
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| Caleb and Malachi made bread in a bag today, they were very proud of their bread! |
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| Austin and Gideon |
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| Travis blowing out his birthday cake with a little help from Malachi |
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| Travis's cake (photobombed by Sam) |
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| Wink Wink |
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| Austin sure loves Gideon |
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| Travis' birthday lunch, Navajo tacos |
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| Getting pretzels at the mall with Gideon for Travis' birthday |
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| Travis helping Gideon hold onto the monkey bars at the park |
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| Caleb and Malachi on the dinosaur |
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| Malachi and Gideon on the dinosaur |
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| Austin helping Malachi on the monkey bars |
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| Caleb on the dinosaur |
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| Looking at the statue of Jesus in the Visitors Center on Temple Square |
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| Looking at the inside of the temple, at the visitors center |
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| Austin and Malachi at the Joseph and Hyrum Smith statues |
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| We forgot Gideon's hat, and it was cold out, so we used a blanket |
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| Squishy cheeks! |
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| Caleb and I in front of the Salt Lake Temple |
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| Austin and Caleb by the temple |
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| Caleb and Author Josi Kilpack |
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| Austin and author Josi Kilpack |
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| Malachi carrying his own suitcase into the hotel |
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| Gideon loves the slide |
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| Gideon loved being in the bubble at McDonalds |
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| Gideon and Betsy at a fountain in temple square |
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| Austin, Caleb and I at Temple square |
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| Gideon looking at the baby birds on the statue |
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| Gideon looking up at the mother bird on the statue |
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| Austin, Caleb, Malachi, and Gideon at sculpture park |
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| Betsy playing with Gideon |
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| Gideon playing on the grass |
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| At the fountain outside of P. F. Changs |
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| Malachi loves his dinner |
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| Yummy egg drop soup |
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| Gideon loves the soup too, he won't let go of the spoon |
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| Yummy noodles |
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| Malachi loves the noodles |
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| Betsy loved this huge bowl of egg drop soup |
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| Sleeping in the car |
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| My friend Amy Stock and I right before she moved away |
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| Austin and Betsy and their friend Emily with Jessie Stock right before she moved |
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| Malachi loves being up high |
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| Gideon entertaining himself in the van by eating his toes |
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| Samuel with his football team |
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| Austin taking care of twins at a BBQ |
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| Gideon was still sleeping when I left to take Joseph to seminary this morning, so I left the baby monitor with Betsy. When I got back home, Betsy handed me the monitor and said Gideon was still sleeping. I walked upstairs and found this (see picture) on the couch. Samuel looked so happy and peaceful with Gideon snoring away all cuddled into him. Samuel said "Mom, I heard him cry a little, so I went in his room and got him. He just cuddled into me and fell back asleep. I am so happy!" They stayed like this for a good 20 minutes, before I had to take Gideon so Samuel could finish getting ready for school. As Samuel was leaving he said "mom! This was he best morning!" |
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| Gideon loves his duck in the bath |
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| Malachi fell out of the back of the van while loading up groceries and hit his head on the road, there was a ton of blood, but the bump and cut wasn't too bad. I managed to stop the bleeding pretty quickly and put a frozen bag of broccoli on it to help with the bump, and drove him home. |
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| Samuel loves his blankets and pillows. We cleaned out his room and found 15 blankets and 6 pillows on his bed. |
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| Betsy, Jessie and Caleb playing twister! |
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| My little chef Caleb |
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| Gideon tired himself out, jumping |
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| Caleb on our trip to SLC |
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| Gideon learning to clap! |
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| Austin and Jessie |
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| Malachi loved going in the bungee jump |
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| Samuel jumping |
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| Caleb loved to jump too |
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| Gideon loved hanging out in the stroller |
A lot has happened the past month and a half. I took the younger kids to Apple days on post, and Travis took the older kids to do baptisms for the dead at the temple in Kansas City. Betsy got to go for the first time, she really enjoyed it! The boys had fun playing in all the bouncy houses, and then we waited in line for an hour and a half for the bungee jump. We went on a trip to Salt Lake City, UT for Chaplain conference. Joseph and Samuel stayed behind with a friend, so we went on our trip with just the girls, and the little boys. It was so peaceful, and everyone got along for the most part. It was much easy to travel. We stayed the night each way at the air force base in Cheyenne Wyoming. On the trip there, we ate dinner at P.F. Changs. The kids loved it!! They thought the egg drop soup was amazing and couldn't get enough of it. And the boys loved their noodles. There was also a really cool sculpture park right next to it and tons of bunnies all around for the boys to chase! It was a great stop along the way. We had a great time in Salt Lake. Travis and I got to go to our Banquet, and we all took turns attending General Conference with Travis. Saturday night while he was in the priesthood session, I took turns with the girls going to ladies' night at Deseret Book. The girls and Caleb each got to meet their favorite author Josi Kilpack and get a picture with her, and a signed book. We also got to explore temple square a little bit. Saturday morning Malachi threw up, but the rest of the day he did pretty well except for some diarrhea and being a little grouchy. Sunday we went to more sessions of General Conference. We loved feeling the spirit and hearing the wonderful talks in person! After conference we drove to some friends in Orem, UT and had dinner at their house as well as several other chaplains we are friends with from Colorado Springs. It is always fun to hang out and talk with other chaplain families, and their kids. Monday we started all the chaplain conference sessions. We were within a few minutes walking distance to our hotel, so I would walk back and forth in between all the sessions checking on the kids who were also watching two other kids from another chaplain family. We were on the fourth floor and I ended up walking up and down a lot of stairs since I don't like elevators, I was also working on doing some laundry (stuff had been thrown up and peed on). The chaplain conference session were amazing and filled with good information, and filled the spirit a lot, by the end of the day I was feeling weak and sore, but we went on a family home evening trip to temple square, and enjoyed going through the visitor centers. When we saw the big statue of Jesus, Malachi said "I love Him", so sweet! The next morning, I threw up and felt terrible so I stayed in bed, while Travis went to the sessions, until about 2pm, then I dragged myself out of bed and walked to the session with the apostle D Todd Christopherson was speaking, I was really weak, but I made it and was able to feel the spirit while he spoke, and was only about 10 feet from where he was speaking, making it a very special experience. Travis took the kids and met with his sister at Red Robin for dinner, while I rested some more. I also got a really bad cold while I was sick, but was doing okay. We left and drove home the next two days, once again really enjoying our traveling, we stopped at Little America and they played at the playground, and we had ice cream cones. They also enjoyed playing at the playground near our hotel at the air force base in Cheyenne WY. We made it back safely, and got Joseph and Samuel. They did fine while we were gone, and were happy to see us. When we were unloading the van, I was backing out of the van with a load of blankets and tripped and fell backwards out of the van, and hit my head on Travis' truck, and my hip on the concrete. That did not feel well, and I started feeling really dizzy and weak and could barely walk, I wasn't able to talk very well or remember things, so I went to bed. I had a concussion, but I felt a little better the next day, but my cold was still bothering me a lot. We spent the weekend making apple pies, apple crisp, and apple muffins and selling them to neighbors to earn money for Travis' Dad, who was homeless again and needed shelter for the winter. We made about $80, but I sent him a check for a $100 donating some of my piano lesson money as well.
Travis had his 40th birthday! He had the day off work, so that was really nice! I made him his six layer cake, and we went to the mall together and we had fun. He did a marriage strong bonds event that I helped him with and we enjoyed doing that together.
Samuel really enjoyed playing football this season, and I think he wants to continue playing next year as well.
Malachi continues to eat weird things, this month it has been raw meat, where he has gotten both raw sausage and raw bacon after being put to bed and eaten it in his bed. He has had really disgusting diarrhea, but otherwise been fine. he really enjoys being home with me during the school days and loves going to PWOC with me. We went for a walk one time, and I let him choose with way we went at each intersection. He chose left every single time, so it ended up being a very short walk.
