The Evans Family

Ward Split

2009-02-23T12:14:00.000-08:00

I wish I could spend more time and get caught up on my blog, I am now into december and I haven't taken too many pictures in January so maybe I will get there, I just wanted to say that our ward had a ward split on Feb 14th and Feb 22 was the first time we met without part of our ward. We gained 3 families and lost 75 families. It will be sad not to meet with many of my friends each week. I will still see them though because they are still in our builiding and they meet the block before us.

I am currently the cub master and we are having our blue and Gold on Feb 24th. I am not ready for it, and need to spend some time today getting ready for it. Jesse is sick and I am taking him to the Dr.s this afternoon.

Baby Gracie is sick and had a heart transplant Sunday that was not completely sucessful. The left side of the heart did not beat very strong and now she is hooked up to life support I feel so bad for my brother and his family. They aare really being tested right now.

Building a snow cave

2009-02-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

We had the most amount of snow we have had since I moved to Boise 13 years ago this year. So the boys got to spend time out building snow men and snow caves, but the snow was not really the right wetness to make snow ment much.

So they spent this afternoon with shovels and made a huge mound of snow, it almost was enough to make it a cave but I give them full credit for trying.

Jesse has as much fun playing teatherball as he did digging. Being out side it great fun for the boys, I don't like it very much.

Roller Skating in December

2009-02-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

Here is Hunter his very first time at a skating rink. He had on fisher price skates and he did pretty well for his first time. He had fun and wants to go back soon.

Here is Jesse hanging out in the corner of the rink. He needs help to get up there because it is so far off of the ground but once up there he can hang for a while.

Hunter is getting the hang of this. He got good enough that he could go around in the loop and he even did the limbo in the middle.

Jesse being cool. It is funny to watch him flirt with the girls when he can't stay on his feet long enough to impress them, but he still has fun trying.

Thanksgiving Feast

2009-01-23T08:59:00.000-08:00

Hunter and his class made costumes to be girls are pilgrams and Boys are indians. They sure were cute pilgrams and indians. They spent weeks in preparation to finally have this event come together. Here is hunter with some of the kids in his class.

Hunter is sitting at his place. He made the placemat, the apple turkey the Turkey in an icecream cone with candy and they even had stations set up to help cook the food.

Just before they sat down to eat they all lined up so that they could show off their costumes and parents could snap a group picture.

Here is Hunter's place setting. He made everything that you see here. It was so much fun to see him tell me about how he made all of these things. He enojoyed being so involved in the getting ready part.

Hunter is next to Ernie and 2 girls standing in line, just before they ate and all the parents were setting up the place settings and serving food the class went around all of the other classes and paraded around the room showing off their costumes. It was fun to watch their faces light up as kids would say you made those costumes and look how cute they look.

Jesse's 7th Birthday

2009-01-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

With Jesse's birthday being so close to Halloween sometimes he likes to wear his costume for his birthday so we started off with costumes but as the evening progressed the costume came off and we just had a nice evening.

Here are the Grandmas and and Aunt Sue sitting together watching Jesse open presents. He got a lot of Starwars things. He is really big into starwars right now. The cape he is wearing in the above picture was suppose to make him look like the emperor, he wasn't that impressed but tried it on for size.

Jesse opening presents. HIs favorite part.

Since Grandma and Jesse share a birthday and Jeremy has a late October birthday we got a cake for them and included Aunt Sue since she has a late October birthday as well. Fun party.

Chuck E Cheese

2009-01-23T08:29:00.000-08:00

So Patrick had a birthday party at chuck e cheese. It was a costume party so hunter dressed up ast batman, he couldn't see out of his mask very well, but he had so much fun being in a costume. I bought them a lot of tokens and they played games for about an hour, we had cake and drinks and had a nice outing.

Here is Jesse out of costume. He really didn't want to wear one so I didn't make him but he really got the hang of some of the games and it was deffinately a fun time had by all. Patrick had a lot of friends show up and he got some really cool presents. Some times I wonder why I don't do this for the kids,

Jesse just shot a basket on the basketball game for tickets. He was doing it one handed because he didn't want to put his tokens down. It was cute.

Oct 31 and Nov 1st with Aunt Sue

2009-01-23T08:16:00.000-08:00

It was so nice to have Aunt Sue with us. We are at Grandma Wiser's home in this picture, we were able to do fun activities while she was here, marshmellow roasts, she taught the kids a skit that they performed to Mom and I, we sang her favorite songs, oh meres eat oats, I love you a bushel and a peck, do your ears hang low and more.

We also went to Grandma Evans for Football, birthday for Jesse and a nice family outing. We had a lot of fun and it was so great to see my family all gathered together, so I snapped a picture of the gathering.

Aunt Sue came all dressed up for Halloween and the kids got in their costumes ready for Trunk or Treating. She had a skull shirt on that was so festive. It was great to have her during all of the fun activities. She couldn't have picked a better day to come. Halloween, birthdays, football. We really did have a great time.

Marshmellow Roast

2009-01-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

Aunt Sue Nicholson came to Idaho and spent 5 days with us and we had a ball. On one of the nights we had a marshmellow roast at Grandma wisers. Janet the neighbor came and joined us as well.

Daddy was having a great time and was very involved in the whole night. He built the fire, then tended to it that the coals were just right for marshmellows then he built it big again. So much fun.

I thought this was a cute picture and a close up to show how great Aunt Sue is looking.

We really did have fun. The boys really got into roasting the marshmellows but got so full on S'mores that they just wanted to give all the marshmellows away so they could keep roasting.

Zebra at Linder Farms

2009-01-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

Remember how I told you there was a Zebra at the farm, well Shannon and Jeremy wanted to see it so the five of us bundled up and went to the farm and saw the animals. We also went through the bigger corn maze. We got scared because we didnt' know how to get out. Finally I had a bright idea, follow the light cause we can always come out the same way we came in. I later learned that there is no end you do have to come back out the way you came in.

Football at G and G Evans

2009-01-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

This is one of the many nights that we did football over at the Grandparents. Graamps likes to sit either in the chair his is in or his wheel chair. Phil and Hunter and Jesse were playing Chess this night. They had a lot of fun.

Shannon and Jeremy don't really like Football, but they joined us most games because of the party we made it into. We would have food and each of us had a food assignment. After dinner Jeremy and shannon would either take my kids to the park or go home, but we were glad they joined us.

Here I am just hanging out, looking a little plump and christmas eating hadn't even started yet.

Hunter and Daddy playing chess. It didn't last long but long enough for me to capture it on the camera.

But the kids most favorite football activity was watching cartoons with Grandma in the bedroom. More times than not hunter would be sitting like this with Grandma or they would sit on the exercise bike while watching. Grandma didn't mind having the boys all to herself while the rest of us watched the football game.

Kids getting dressed Backwards

2009-01-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

I asked the kids to get dressed and this is how they came in to tell me they were ready for the day. It was so funny that I got my camera and they wanted to dance for the camera so I captured it. Funny kids. Bet you can't guess who's bright idea it was to dress like this. Hunter of course. Hmm, I may need to hold onto these pictures for high school, looks like good material to show their girlfriends.

Field Trip to Linder Farms Oct 2008

2009-01-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

Hunter's Kindergarten class went to Linder Farms for a field trip. They had a lot of fun.
Here is a picture of Hunter with some of the kids in his class. For one of the art days they made tied eyed tee-shirts for field trips. This was the only field trip Jesse took last year so it will probably be the same for Hunter.

Here is Hunter holding the pumkin he picked out all by himself. He even pulled it from the vine and carried it over to us and of course we had to take pictures of it.

We also went through a corn maze, we took the shortest route so the kids would have less of a chance of getting lost. I let Hunter tell us when to turn or go straight. It was a lot of fun. It wasn't too cold but cold enough.

The kids were doing fun activities with the Farmer's wife as she was touring them around the farm. Here they were moving around doing fun things.

We are on a tractor ride here we went around the loop. I didn't get to take a picture this time but this farm has a Zebra. Hunter thought it was so cool to have a Zebra on a farm. He also fell in love with the Dog that lived there too.

Kids first Parade

2008-12-27T09:22:00.000-08:00

On the 24th of July we participated in the annual Parade in Kuna. The ward puts on a huge breakfast, then we all go in the parking lot and decorate our bikes and strollers and follow behind a work tractor with a trailer and lots of bailes of hay.

Kids who don't have bikes can ride on the trailer. This year we all decorated our bikes, even grandma Wiser came along for the fun. But by the end of the loop Hunter and Jesse were on the trailer and I had 2 bikes that I walked to the finish line.

Even decorating the bikes was more fun than the kids wanted to have. Jesse rode his scooter and didn't want any streamers on it. We try so hard to provide fun activities for our kids and the attitudes we get for our efforts. Man

My hardest quilt yet

2008-12-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

So this is the quilt I started back in 1996 and was too afraid to pull it out and work on it, but after having made so many quilt block quilts this year decided to try it. It is very time consuming and I haven't worked on it for about 2 wees, so it won't be done in time for Christmas, but at least it is coming together. It is called the "Ohio Star"

It takes alot of patience to get the triangles lined up just right because if the triangles are off then when you sew them to the squares they don't fit right. I am excited to get this quilt finished. I just am not sure how to sew the green inbetween the squares.

I put the blocks on my bed because I plan on putting a green about this color between them, I really hope I can pull this off, if not it has been a great learning experience.

Kids drinking from a lion

2008-12-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

This is a sight I have always wanted to witness. My kids drinking from the lion at Hogle Zoo. Every time I want to take them, there is a reason that comes up that I don't get them there, but this trip I was able to take them there and best of all Phil was with us.

Hunter drinking from the lion.

Jesse Jumping on a trampoline with a bungie attached. They had him jumping so high up in the air that it even scared me after a bit Jesse was too scared to keep going but it was fun to see him jumping so high.

Fun Fun Fun

2008-12-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I have tried anything so adventursome. It was a zip ride and it was quite exerlerating. It was hard to breath it was going so fast. I did great till it was time to stop and I didn't know how it was going to stop. I look up and the platform is there but I am still going full speed. Suddenly it just ended and I was thrown forward in my seat and then it shot me backwards when I ran out of forward momentum. That was the scarriest part.

Here is Jesse climbing the wall. It was hard and the handles were far apart so the kids couldn't climb very well. I was hoping the person at the bottom could pull on the rope to help them climb but they didn't so they were just trying to get up.

Hunter climbed very high. He is more agile and was able to find a few footholds that allows him to climb up quite high. It was fun to see them climb.

We decided to take a family photo because the fall leaves were so beautiful and we were all together. This one captured the niceness of teh day, and some of the fall colors.

Conference Center and Temple Square

2008-11-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

This summer we were able to take a trip to SLC/Park City, Utah. It was such a fun vacation and a chance for me to show my boys the city that I grew up in, at least some of the main attractions. One of the days we went to Temple Square and the Conference center. I enjoyed sharing this with them.

It was fun to see the Temple from the roof of the Conf Center. We were there before General Conf. and we took pictures inside as well so when we watched Conf Phil printed off the pictures and said "there you are in this same room that we are watching these general authorities speaking to us.

This fountain was just magnificant. We spent a lot of time on the roof, there was so much to see and the view of SLC was fantastic as well.

Swimming at Grandma Evans

2008-11-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

We went swimming at Grandma Evans at least every other week this past summer. Sometime Grandma Wiser would come, and sometimes Shannon would join us. Jesse can now swim in the deep water without a life jacket or needing any help. Hunter is getting closer to swimming without a life jacket. G. Wiser worked with him alot to teach him how to roll onto his back if he got into trouble.

It sure has been nice to have a great place to swim. Its also been nice to have the boys have quailty time with their grandma's and Shannon.

Shannon likes to hang out with us and I am glad that she does. It has been fun to get to know Jeremy.

Auntie Vivian came to town

2008-11-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

Auntie Vivian and Uncle Keith came to Boise this summer. It was sure fun to have them here. Uncle Keith gave them each a fishing pole and they were so excited. Hunter still refers to Uncle Keith as that Man, I sure wish I could be with that man again. I really like him.

Jesse had so much fun bowling with Auntie vivian on the Wii. They really did enjoy each other. I am so glad that we had this time with them.

Quilts I have made

2008-11-13T09:27:00.001-08:00

So I decide to post some of the quilts I have been working on this year. This first one is a crib quilt. One of 4 I made. That is how I got confident to move on to twin size quilts.

So next I made 2 quilts about the same time. I got more confidant laying out the blocks they provide as this one seemed to blend and work well together.

This next one was fun. It had a lot of the same quilt block so I put it every other color and worked the rest of the blocks into the quilt.

This one had a 4th of July feel to it. I had a hard time giving it away since I too want to have a 4th of July quilt to hang in my front room, It gave me lots of ideas how to do my own some time.

This last one here is one I did just a few months ago. It went by quick and I am getting better at lining up my corners. I have started sewing these blankets without having to pin every corner. That makes them sew much faster. I just take care to line up the seams before I start to sew them. Micro adjusting every few moments. I goofed on this one can you see the bottom where I put two whites and two darks side by side. Woops. It will still be warm.

Shannon's wedding quilt

2008-11-13T09:13:00.000-08:00

This quilt was a huge undertaking. I learned about this pattern from the humanitarian group. They told me it was easy to do but looked quite sophisticated. So I got brave and tried it. I decided to make it for Shannon for her wedding which gave me a deadline to finish it. Lots and lots of hours went into sewing it and as you can see it was quite large. Shannon has a California King bed so it had to be big.

Luckily I had Grandma Evans and Grandma Wiser around to help me finish it. We went to the club house after it was all pieced together and tied it and binded it. What a huge project.

I am glad that I did it because I now have the confidence to go one step further and work on a more detailed pattern for my own bed. It is called an Ohio Star. I will post pictures of it later as it begins to take shape.

Bowling

2008-11-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

The kids now have a Wii and they love to bowl on Wii Sports. Jesse has gotten quite good at it and has learned how to thow the ball fast and straight. So they wanted to go real bowing because they knew they would do so good now that they are good at the Wii.

So Shannon Jeremy, Phil, Katie, Jesse and Hunter went bowling. It was much harder than the kids anticipated. Even with the bumpers just making the ball go down the lane was a challenge.

Jesse couldn't get his wicked throw down because the ball was just too heavy and hunter couldn't figure out how to get any speed either. Luckily Shannon bought French fries and that seemed to make the whole experierence go better. Fun day of Bowling.

1st day of School

2008-11-13T08:41:00.001-08:00

Here is Jesse in his class. He seems to really enjoy being in desks this year. He still had all of his supplies on his desk. He writes his name Jesse 6 so that his teacher can find him on the roll easier.

Here is hunter sitting on the floor on his first day of school. He is doing well in school. He is shy and doen't participate very much but he is learing to write and read.

Just before they went into their classes I took a picture of them on their first day. They are growning up on me.

Josh's Birthday turned 7

2008-07-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

Jesse and Hunter went to a Scate board in a Skate park Birthday party. They had such a great time. I forgot to take pictures but it is worth mentioning that they were going up and down most of the hills and when the party was over we stayed an extra hour and they showed me all the things they did while the party was going on. Mom and I left and went shopping while they were at the party.

Wiser Family picture

2008-07-27T14:54:00.001-07:00

It's hard to get a great family picture, but here is the group and a little personality showing through. Fun times had by all. My children refer to this reunion as the "8 days with Benji (the dog)". They based their time around Benji.

Here is Tim, Lucinda, Theron and Mark Wiser. It has been 8 years
since this many of us got together.

Here is Katherine Wiser, Leslie Wiser, Kate Wiser, Katie Evans and Lucinda Wiser. It was fun to get pictures like these.

What's going on around here

2008-07-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

My niece Melissa asked me for an update so here goes. Our house is till on the market but n0t much is happening with it. So I will settle in and get the kids ready for school. Phil is loving his job, it is going much slower than we thought it would but hopefully soon things will pick up so they can grow the company. Jesse is ready to start school. He has lost 2 teeth this week and one more will be out by the reunion time. I am doing a lot of quilting right now. I will bring my projects with me to the reunion so you can see them. I am now going from quite a novice beginner to a more advanced beginner sewer. I am doing a more complicated quilt right now and am quite excited about how it is coming together.
Looking foward to seeing you all. I love your blogs and I will do better at keeping up on my blog.

Rain Dance

2008-07-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

It was so fun to watch. We were eating dinner outside, the wind came up, the clouds began to form. The lightening and thunder started in the distance and quickly got close, we moved everyhing under the porch and it began to rain very hard. They boys thought this was great and they went out in the rain and began to dance. I took a quick clipse of it because it was so funny. Hunter called it the happy dance as he was galloping from one side of the deck to the other. Before long they were both just dancing and laughing and having a great time.

The Wiser reunion in Elk WA

2008-07-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

Walking every morning at 9:30 AM is a daily routine that I have participated in and I have even made it around the lake and even a tour around Mark and Kate's Property.

Every day the group gets bigger. I imagine this morning we will be one great big group. Everyone who is coming is here now. It will be fun to see them. They got here late, stayed up late and are sleeping in late.

Swimming at Grandma Evans

2008-07-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

Finally summer has come, all those days in the bath tub with life jackets payed off because now they can use their new skills in real life. They had a great day and Jesse is learning to swim without his life jacket this year because he can touch the bottom. Hunter can stand on the round edge along the front of the pool, but if he slips off of his tippy toes then he goes under. Next year Hunter you can do it without your life jacket. We remembered our sunscreen this time, 2 weeks ago we didn't put any on and we were all burned to a crisp.

Day three at Thanksgiving Point

2008-07-04T17:17:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving Point

Jesse, Hunter, Grandma Wiser and Max posed in front of a big
cow as we were coming into the animal farm. The kids had a
lot of fun in the barn before we even went out to see the
animals.

The kids played in and around the jail and the 3 other building
for over an hour. I have a lot of cute pictures of that time, but
this one just sooo cute. Callie definately had front and center stage
with these boys.

We went on a wagon ride. The kids had a lot of fun and enjoyed
the ride. Here are some of us

and here are the rest of us. We had a great time and a great day.
I am glad that we all made the effort to be together for one day.

Second half of day two. Tom's house

2008-07-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Gledhill is holding baby Gracie. Just as I got my camera
out and took this picture, Gracie decided to start crying. I tried
but it is a good picture of Grandpa.

Hunter, Grandma Wiser and Baby Gracie. Hunter wanted to learn
how to hold a baby with Baby Gracie, but I told him that when we
get back to Boise he can hold the Edvalson baby or the Bird baby.
He kinda understood but still wanted to hold Gracie.

We went out and played tennis on their sports court until it got too
dark to play. We only lost one ball out of six. It was a fun game.

We met Grandpa Gledhill over at Tom's house. He hadn't seen my kids for a year. He had a dentist appointment later in the week and he came a few day's early and I made the trip to SLC with Grandma Wiser so that he could be around us for 2 days. It was a great trip. We got to see Baby Gracie, spend time with the cousins and Grandpa Gledhill got to spend 2 days around all 6 of his grandchildren. Here are just a few pictures of that first day together. We just stayed at Tom's house and let the cousins be together and we got to hold and be around Gracie. She is doing well and slowly gaining weight. She is now on room air and that gives Michele some freedom around the house.

Day two

2008-07-04T16:50:00.000-07:00

Solveig Coles and Steve Thomas were married today in the Salt Lake Temple by President Hinkley's son in law. It was a very special day for them and my mom got to participate in the event. While they were doing that the boys and I were driving around the avenues. Hunter believes that I was born in the mountains in Utah and he wanted to see my mountain so I drove him to the hospital I was born in the Mountain and he was disappointed because He thought it would be more mountain rather than a hospital. Later we went to the church office building to go to the bathroom we walked around and I told them that this is where President Monson and the leaders of the church work every day, again not too impressed. But when we went out and they found the fountains then they were having a good day and spent a lot of time splashing water from it. After downtown salt lake we went to Tom's house. See next post.

June 23-26 2008 trip to SLC

2008-07-04T16:24:00.001-07:00

Day one June 23 Liberty Park
Hunter after a long day in the park found ths swing in the small children's section and enjoyed a nice swing for a while. They had a great day at the park after a long drive in from Boise

Jesse is coming down the slide and having a fun day in the park.
When Hunter went to the car to get his swimsuit so he could go in the water features, Jesse was a huge help finding Hunter with us.

Here is Grandma Wiser enjoying a nice day in the park. We had a nice relaxing first day.

Taking Grandma Evans to the airport

2008-07-04T16:10:00.000-07:00

We took Grandma Evans to the airport so that she could fly to Phoenix, Arizona to pick up a motorized scooter and a Dodge Van that is wheelchair assessable for Grandpa. So while we were in downtown boise we went to Julia Davis park, Discovery Center (kinda, we didn't pay to stay all day, we just looked in as far as they would let us) then on over to Kathryn Albertson's park and walked around the waterfall for a while. It was a great day. Then we had to get back home for the kids to have an afternoon play date with Josh and Jankin. We have kept in touch with these boys even though they moved to Nampa, just a mile away from Grandma Wiser. So the boys had a fun day.

1st day of summer break

2008-07-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

Grandma wiser got the boys set up and let them paint the shed, she figured 10 minutes maybe 30 minutes top they would paint. Instead they painted for 3 hours and painted 3 of the 4 sides of the shed. The next day we got out the scaffoling and they contintued to paint up to as high as they could reach. It was amazing. When we get back from all of our trips we will let them take turns on the ladder to get the very top.

They love to paint and they loved having so much to paint. Once
started using a roller the painting went much faster and they really enjoyed themselves.

Jesse's Graduation from Kindergarten

2008-07-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here is Jesse in the back row getting ready to start the program.
He was quite nervous and wasn't sure if he was going to say his
Nursery rhyme or not, but he calmed himself and did it great.

Phil, Hunter, Katie and Grandma Wiser were there to watch him.

It was so cute, his class met in an auditorium for 1/2 hour and let each child recite a nursery rhyme, then presented them each with a certificate of completion from Kindergarten. Jesse was quite nervous but he stood up there, held his teachers hand and recited eensy wincy spider. Then he got his certificate and came down and sat with us. It was very cute.

Baby Gracie is home

2008-06-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

Today June 4th, 2008 Baby Gracie made it home at 2pm. As you can imagine the whole family is soooo excited. She got to see her cute pink nursery today for the first time. She will be 11 weeks old tomorrow. We have been waiting a long time for her to make it home.

I have been negligent on my blog. A lot has happened the last two months, and I will spend some time this week and make a few posts. I do like to blog but with the selling of our house, baby Gracie, Grandpa Evans, Phil and his work and most time spent is on my children. So enough said as to why I am not blogging and I will get caught up this week.
Katie

Reece's in town

2008-04-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a fun day. Jesse, Hunter and I went to Grandma Evans and picked up Tyler and Deb and went to Carl's Jr. The kids played for about 2 hours and Deb and I had a chance to visit. It's hard to keep up on events when you live out of town, so it was fun to have time to visit. Later Melissa, her boys and Kristin, Deb and Cindy came to my house for dinner. Fun time.
Gramps got home from the hospital today and slept the afternoon away. Grams was pretty tired herself.

Friday will be a big day for Baby Gracie. That is the day they plan on closing her chest cavity. Right now with it being open, they can remove the patch and change things, tighten, clean, remove swelling basically do what ever it takes to keep her stable, but on Friday they close that cavity and then it won't be easy to manage her heart.

When it rains it pours

2008-04-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

Baby Gracie is getting stronger every hour, it seems that she is now breathing on her own without much help. Michele said "Gracie is down to 30% oxygen and her chest x-ray today looks better than yesterday." We are not out of the woods, but she is improving.

On a sadder note, Phil's dad, Larry, suffered a heart attack last night. He is in the hospital and is in stable condition for the time being. I will post again as new information becomes available.

I am still sick and Larry's condition doesn't help my stress level go down; and it is raining in Boise right now. Conference is good, God is good and we are grateful for life.

Gracie made it through the night.

2008-04-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

I just heard the great news. Baby Gracie made it through the night. Of course there are still concerns about her lungs, but she made it through the night. We are so happy at our house.

What a day April 4th has been

2008-04-05T07:04:00.001-07:00

Here's the quilt I have been working on as I wait to hear the

outcome of baby Gracie. I spent a few hours peacing the quilt together. I don't have a definate pattern, other than one quilt block will be plad, the next one will be plain. I have ended up getting sick. I have a bad sore throat and very conjested probably because of the stress of baby Gracie. I was going to run errands Friday but the not knowing what was going to happen kept me home quilting and being physically sick. I still don't know how Gracie did during the night, but I will post again when I know something.

Quilting and Baby Gracie

2008-03-31T08:29:00.000-07:00

March 31, 2008
Needless to say my quilting is coming along. It helps pass the time away as Baby Gracie is still in critical condition. Saturday they were going to take her off life support and let her heart do the work, but the moment they did that the heart beat was too weak and the blood pressure went way down, so they immediately put her back on life support. They are looking at all the possible complications as to why her heart beat isn't stronger. They went back in her chest, adjusted the valve, coterized a small bleed, and discovered her thyroid was low, so they fixed all these issues and will try on Tues or Wed to take her off life support again.

So my house is clean and my quilt is coming along. I just about have all the fabric cut out. I am winging it since I don't know how big to make it or even what it will be used for, I just needed to get my mind off of Baby Gracie. Off to house work I go, an ever constant vigil we do.

Getting ready to go Swimming.

2008-03-31T08:22:00.000-07:00

Today the kids announced to me that it was time to go swimming, so we came up with a way for them to get ready for swimming. We put on their swim suits and life jackets, filled up the big tub and let them practice floating and making bubble faces. they had a great time, and for the last 3 days they have done this.

In Fact today at 7am Hunter comes in and woke me up and said Mom I need to get in the big tub right now so I can practice swimming. It's almost summer.

March 31, 2008

My roller coaster

2008-03-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

March 26, 2008. I am on an emotional roller coaster. Baby Gracie did well during surgery, but that night her heart stopped at 1:30 am. They were able to do CPR and then get her on a machine that is keeping her alive. At this time anything could happen. She has a 50/50 chance of pulling through this. Yesterday they gave her a name and a blessing in the hospital. Mom says the blessing was very sweet and very full of love for this little one. We don't know her future but we do know that she is loved very much on both sides of the veil. Tom and Michele are at witts end. They finally got some sleep last night. Today Michele is having a very hard day. She put a poem on her blog (tom, my brothers blog). If you want to see the play by play check out their blog. They have a lot of pictures of this little angel.

Hunter seems to be oblivious to how I am feeling because the angrier I get the more distructive he gets, so I dropped them off at Grandma Evans and told her good luck and I will come back when I can be sure I won't kill Hunter. I went shopping and bought material to do a quilt like the one Melissa showed me how to do. This will be my second quilt. I just needed to distract me and sewing will be that distraction.

I just want to cry. I dont' know how the Baby Gracie story will turn out and it is so hard to watch my Mom, Dad, Tom and Michele go through this. If she wasn't so darn cute and didn't have such a precious disposition about her, but when you look at her and she looks deep into your soul you just cry and wonder what her future will hold.

Gracie's Surgery

2008-03-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

Today Mar 24, 2008 Gracie underwent open heart surgery. It took 5 hours of surgery. She was in the operating room for 8 hours doing prep and bandaging her chest afterwards. The Dr. won't close the chest for 8 days until the swelling goes back down and they are sure she doesn't have any complications. The surgery was a success. The stint is in place and it will remain in for the rest of her life. If all goes well she won't have another surgery for 2 to 4 months from now. She will be in intensive care for the next 9 weeks then she will go home until her next surgery. Then her last surgery will be between the ages of 2 to 4. It is a 3 surgery procedure to fix her heart. I am so glad that modern medicine could save this little girl.

Baby Gracie is here

2008-03-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

Baby Gracie is here March 20, 2008 at 4PM 8 lbs 1 oz 20 inches long. This is her at one our old.
This is Gracie with her dad Tom. She is so beautiful. She looks like her little sister Callie. All is well.

She is yawning in this picture. She is a good sport and is letting all of the cords and wires be put on her and is just looking around taking in all of the sights.

My Brother Tom

2008-03-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share my feelings for a minute, since they are bubbling to the surface right now. My brother Tom and his wife are expecting a baby girl this next week. I am so happy to have Baby Gracie join our family. I am praying every day that she gets to stay with us. It is a very emotional time for everyone right now. I sure don't know what the future holds for this precious little girl, but I do know that she will be part of the family forever. Tom has asked me to be the blogger for this special event so if you want to see updates on this baby you can get to it from my list of blogs that I watch. I will try to post a picture and a blog as well on my blog. I will be there for you Tom. I love you. Thank you for commenting on my blog.

Jesse lost another tooth

2008-03-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

On Mar 9, 2008 Jesse lost tooth #3. He was so excited. He had just gone to bed when he was playing with it and all of the sudden Phil heard him say Yes, very excitedly. Phil ran up there and Jesse was sitting up and said look Daddy I pulled my tooth out. I was in the bathroom brushing Hunter's teeth when it happened so they came in and showed me the tooth, hole in his mouth and the blood of course. He's growing up on me.

Cindy's 50th Birthday dinner

2008-03-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

We all went to Louis Itaian food for Cindy's Birthday. It was good food, good company and a fun way to celebrate her day. Shannon brought her new boyfriend. He's a nice guy, his name is Jeremy. Nic and Rachel were the only ones not there. My kids were on good behavior, so the evening went well.

Jesse's first time roller skating

2008-02-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

At school they had a night of roller skating. I decided this was as good as a time as any to let Jesse learn to skate. He spent more time on the floor than he did on his feet, but he was a good sport and by the end of the night he was doing well. He even learned to jump and turn as long as he was next to the wall or holding onto me.

John and Marti Wiser

2008-02-28T11:13:00.001-08:00

Here is a picture of Theron, Katherine Marti and John Wiser. My boys Jesse and Hunter are with Marti and John. That was a crazy night. My boys were just starting to get sick. Jesse caught it first but that day while my boys were at Grandma Wiser's Hunter got a temperature and got sick. Two days later I took both boys to the Dr.s to discover they both had Strep Throat. Neither one of them were complaining of sore throats or pain of any kind, but I decided that I better just make sure it wasn't Strep. Glad I did because it was and not just Tonsilitis.

Keeping House

2008-02-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

I was looking at someone else's blog and she threw out the question how do you keep a clean house and raise children at the same time?

I have spent a few days thinking about that, because for me I have been able to do both. Not perfectly by any means but for the most part, my house is picked up and clean. I have a gathering spot on my kitchen counter that I gather all of the papers and loose things that needs to be dealt with frequently but that is part of not keeping a perfect house. So today I want to blog and share a few of my tricks to keeping house and children all in the same day.

Elder Dallen H. Oaks in his conference address Good, Better, Best. said it the best. "Remember, don't magnify the work to be done--Simplify it." That has been my philosophy as well. I keep big rolling bins under my kids’ beds for all of their toys. I keep a laundry basket in their closet and a simple bedspread on their bed. This allows for a quick clean up of their room every day. I also use a laundry basket for cleaning the whole house. Anything that doesn't belong in the room I am cleaning goes into it and when I leave that room I proceed to put the stuff in the basket away.

Another thing I do is Laundry and de-cluttering from the weekend on Monday's, Bathrooms and straightening on Tuesday's. I vacuum the whole house Wed's. Laundry on Thursday and anything that needs to be cleaned on Friday's to get ready for friends coming over that night. I have a daily routine. Straighten my bathroom, bedroom, the kids bathroom, kids bedroom and toy room before I even come down stairs in the morning. Then at least I know upstairs is clean. My kitchen is the hardest place to keep clean I guess because I use it all day long. If I don't clean up every single time I use it then it is a mess. Kids take a lot of time, but when they don't need my immediate attention then I can take time to clean. I have friends that read, but I wouldn't have time to clean and read. So I choose to clean. Now I have said it so maybe now I can let it go that yes it is possible to keep house and take care of kids in the same day. P.S. I have a 5 and 6 year old and now that they are older it is much easier to do this than when they were 2 and 3, so keep trying and soon they will be older like my boys.

Building snow men

2008-02-19T09:56:00.001-08:00

We had some great snow storms this winter. One weekend morning in February we woke up and there was this much snow on the ground. The boys got so excited that they took Daddy Phil outside to make snow men. They built the first one as you see them standing by it before they added the face and arms, then the snow was still in abundance that they built an even larger one, but it fell over so they built a snow fort instead, but it started to snow so they didnt get to have a snow ball fight. But they had fun out side and I had hot chocolate and cinimmon rolls ready for them when they came in.

Around the fire

2008-02-19T09:50:00.001-08:00

On Feb 16th 2008 I decided we should have a fire in the fire pit, even though it was very cold and still winter, this would be a great day to do it so Hunter and I went to the store bought hotdogs and smores. Daddy Phil stoked up a fire and we had a fun time roasting hotdogs and marshmellows.

So here we are all bundled up having fun by the fire.

My Birthday Lunch

2008-02-14T17:01:00.001-08:00

Phil Katie and Hunter after eating at Applebee's for lunch. Phil got off work long enough to join us.

We went to lunch for my birthday. It was a fun time. We went to Applebee's. The kids were well behaved. Hunter is sitting with Grandma Wiser. Jesse took this picture.

This is Grandpa Wiser. He was caught off gaurd for the picture. It was fun to have a lunch together.

Visit with Santa's

2008-02-14T16:36:00.000-08:00

Woops I forgot to flip this photo before I uploaded it, but Jesse and Hunter were able to see Santa or his helper 2 times this year. They had simple lists but they wanted to have a puppy, ben ten action figures and video games.

Dec in SLC

2008-02-14T16:25:00.001-08:00

Grandpa Gledhill and I went to a convention in SLC in Dec, it was fun to have 3 days together just he and I. We stayed with A.J. and Brandi for those days. Here is a picture of Elsa and Olivia. They were dancing for us and were glad that we were at their house.

This is Katie and Rhett (my Dad). We were just getting ready to part ways. He to my Brother's house and I was waiting for Erin Robbins to pick me up to take me back to Boise. It was fun to be without kids and with my dad for a few days.

Christmas time 2007

2008-02-14T16:13:00.001-08:00

This is Jesse and Hunter decorating the tree. They had a fun time doing it. It reminded me of the home movie watching Phil try for the entire time to put on one ornament. Hunter was doing the same thing, it almost stayed on and then it would fall off and he would put it back on again and again.

Thanksgiving feast at Jesse's school

2008-02-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is Jesse and his class. He is on the back row on the right. If you look close you will see Hunter sitting with him as well.
They were dressed up as pilgram girls and indian boys. They looked so cute.

20 year reunion for Hillcrest High School

2008-02-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun at this reunion, but we look older and heavier than we did in high school. We also have kids and baggage from life. Andrea (in blue shirt) has 2 children and Marneen, in the Red jacket, has 3 children. They both still live in SLC. It was fun to get caught up with them. I e-mail Andrea from time to time since that evening.

2008-02-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

Grandpa Gledhill and I took Callie, Hunter, Jesse, Taylor and Max (not in this picture) to Temple Square in SLC, UT. It was a lot of fun. Every time we got near an escalator Grandpa would have to go to one side and I on the other because they would do loops until we could catch them and keep them from going back into another loop. The experience was fantastic. The kids really liked pushing all of the buttons and hearing the stories in the visitors center.

Richfield, Utah Sept 2007

2008-02-11T11:13:00.001-08:00

We were on our way home from the Taylor reunion. We stopped in Richfield for a bite to eat and as my Mom and I were cleaning up lunch, Hunter took his sucker and just relaxed as if this was the only moment in time. I wish I could be this relaxed and at one with myself. Even if only occasionally.

Torrey, Utah

2008-02-11T11:04:00.001-08:00

We are in Torry, Utah for a Taylor Family Reunion. I am with Auntie Vivian and Uncle Keith Leslie, they live in Phoenix, Arizona

It was fun to see them for the weekend.

Jesse and Hunter are standing in front of Olie. Aunt Sue's big horse. They were able to ride her the last time we were there, but time was short this time.

Jesse's first day at school!

2008-01-27T22:42:00.000-08:00

This is Jesse on his first day of school. He wanted me to spike his hair because his cousin Taylor wears his hair like this. He wore it spiked

JESSE AND ANDREW

for a week but he was teased enough times by his friend Andrew who is sitting next to him in the classroom picture. That he asked me just to cut his hair.

JESSE

Jesse is loving school. He is very smart. He wants to be a good kid and keep his name off of the board. So far so good. He participates in class discussions but he will not sing with the class. He is in the Ladybug group.