Semiannual blog post!

It has been forever (again) since updating the blog! Here is just an overview of some of the things that we’ve been up to since November. We had a great Christmas and spent it out in Roosevelt, this was the first year that Cayman has really looked forward to Christmas so it was so fun watch her open her presents and be soooo excited about them. January was a long and slow month at least for me, we are expecting baby #2 and I was sick from the middle of November until the about the middle of February, it was definitely a very long winter for me! Larry and I decided that to give me something sunny to look forward to we did the Disney’s give a day get a day program and made blankets for kids in need and for doing that Disney gives you a 1 day ticket to Disneyland. We did one for larry’s little brother Patrick as well and so the last weekend in February Larry, Cayman, Patrick and I all jumped in the car and went to California. It was so great to spend a day in Disneyland in the sunshine! It was just what I needed! Luckily I was feeling better by then and was really able to enjoy it. It was also really fun to have Patrick there with us, he had his mission call to Chihuahua Mexico so to be able to get to spend a long period of time with him was so fun, Cayman still talks about going to Disneyland with Uncle Pat! Also this trip to Disneyland would be our new babies 1st trip, and at this point we had just found out that we were having another little girl! Hooray! We were trying to think of names for her and didn’t know if we were going to do what we did with Cayman by naming her after a place that we loved, well we got all sorts of input on what we should name her…Minnie…Daisy…Disney…Cinderella…and so on…even Cayman wanted to name her Alice in Wonderland! Larry and I kept talking about what to name her and actually came up with Cali. It keeps up the destination name thing but yet not so different. In fact only people who really know us make the connection . In march we spent a couple weekends in Roosevelt before Patrick left on his mission and then on the Wednesday that he went to the MTC we had a little family farewell party here at our house. It was hard to say goodbye to him but we are so proud of him for choosing the go and serve the lord for the next 2 years. He will do great!









A big event that happened in February is that Larry got a new job, he is now working at Novell as a sales support analyst. He loves it there, it is a great job and he enjoys the fact that the people there are actually positive and are happy to be at work and not complaining all the time like where he used to work. It is great to see him happy at work! I am very proud of him for finishing his degree and earning his bachelors! HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!!!!

Another event that has happened in our life is that Larry got in a car accident which thankfully he was fine but it was enough to total out our car. It was our white Honda civic so we were down to one car. At the time it was frustrating because we didn’t want a car payment again but as we were trying to decide what kind of car to get we went to a dealership that is owned by a guy who was in our old ward and was our home teacher, he had 2 cars on his lot that would have worked for us a Toyota camry and a Honda Accord. The Camry was loaded way beyond what I wanted, it was leather with a touch screen radio and GPS screen and all sorts of toys in it, it was cool but way more than what we needed. We drove the Accord and we really liked it. He was really good to us and sold it to us for a terrific price. I didn’t get to pick the cars color, features or anything but it is everything that if I could have picked I would have! It’s a beautiful car! Looking back now I see that we were totally blessed through the whole thing, Larry didn’t get hurt in the wreck and now we have a car that will allow for 2 car seats and for an adult to sit in the back seat. We were truly blessed!

In April for spring break my sister Christy wanted to take her kids to St. George for a couple days but didn’t want to go alone as her hubby had to go to India for work so she invited us to go with them. Larry and I talked about it and we knew that Caymans new room had to be painted and the new cupboard in the kitchen had to be painted and I couldn’t be in the house while the painting was being done so we decided that just Cayman and I would go and Larry would stay home for the weekend and do the painting that had to be done. It was a fun trip but we missed Larry. Here are some pics from the trip.





The 1st weekend in May we went to St. George again this time to cheer on my other sister Summer’s husband Joel. He was competing in the St George Ironman. It was a great weekend down there, Joel did awesome, for the ironman he swam 2.1 miles, biked 112 miles and then ran 26.2 miles. He finished in 15 hours and 48 minutes. He started the race at 7am and came across the finish at 10:48pm. I don’t know how he did it because just cheering him on along the race course was enough for me! We even lucked out entirely because the course went down a street called diagonal where the runners would pass by 4 times which conveniently the condo we stayed in (thanks so to the friends who let us stay there!) was located so that when the kids were done watching one of us adults could go with them into the condo and they could go in and watch a movie and everyone else could stay out and watch for Joel.






Cayman got a new bedroom in prep for baby Cali’s arrival. I wanted to get it finished early so that Cayman would have a good month in her new room before Cali came so that she didn’t feel like she was just getting the boot for the baby. She wanted a princess room, so that is what she got. I remember when I was little my sister and I loved unicorns and my mom painted a unicorn on the wall with a big rainbow behind it, we LOVED it! (Sad that if you had that on your wall now people would wonder about you) but anyway I wanted Cayman to have something memorable like that so I asked my mom if she would paint a castle on Caymans wall. She came over and we got to work, I even learned a few things and helped her paint it, also Summer came over and helped on the castle too, it took 4 nights of working on it but it looks so AWESOME!!!! Thanks mom and summer for working so long and hard for my little girl! Cayman loves it so much, anytime someone comes over she hurry’s and takes them upstairs to show them her room!







Now we are just getting some other little things done around the house in preparation for Cali’s arrival which will be here in less than 6 weeks! I got almost all the flowers planted out front yesterday, I will have to finish on Monday. We got a lot done yesterday so at night we decided to have a little fun and invite some friends over to break in the new fire pit that Larry got for Christmas. It was fun to have people over and have Smores all while staying in the back yard!
Wow that was a really long post, but I guess a lot happens in a 6 month time frame! We are counting down the time until Cali comes and can’t wait for her arrival!

Holy Cow

Where has time gone. I know it has been about 4 months since our last post so here are some of the highlights. Cayman is now 3 and keeps us busy!!! Andy just finished a season (8 games) of co-ed indoor soccer which was fun because she got to play with her cousin Bryant. I finished school... but not really because I tried to CLEP out of a class and the way the test results is so stupid and confusing, so I missed it by 1 stinking point! Man were we a bit miffed about that. So I am taking my last class now and trying to get it done before Christmas. That is a real quick update with what is going on with us. Hopefully it won't be another 4 months for us to update our blog.

A Sad Day

Well its offically over, the annual passes to Disneyland are expired! :( We got one last trip in two weeks ago, it was so much fun! Cayman loves it there, I am not sure how I am going to explain to her that we are not going to be going back for a while. We will just have to keep watching the home videos to get our disneyland fill.
The week that we went they were starting their new fireworks show and there is something that is so awesome, I wont say because if you are going I dont want to ruin it for you but a little hint is that someone flies and it is not Tinkerbell. It is so magical!! It made me cry, not that it takes alot in disneyland, I cried the whole way out on the last night because I knew that it would be a while until we would be back. Well here are some pictures from the trip, I guess all good things come to an end......until next time!!!

Long Time No Post

Well its been a long time since I have posted anything here so I thought I would do a over veiw of the last month or so. After the week we spent in st george/disneyland for spring break we spent the next week going up to the hospital in murray to spend time with larrys dad while he was in the hospital. We are very greatful that everything turned out so amazingly well. He had his surgery to remove his tumor and though it was a tough recovery for him he is getting better. They ended up sending the tumor to harvard to have them test it and the results came back that the tumor was not malignant! HOORAY!! He did have a bit of a rough week last week, he was having kidney issues and the flu. We cant wait for him to really get back on his feet so that he can do the things that he wants to do! We love you Papa! Here is a picture of his tumor, the ruler is a 6" ruler

The next 12 days we spent living in springville babysitting for my brother and sister in law while they went on a vacation to hawaii. It was alot of fun to get to spend an extended amount time with my neice and nephews (tyler, witney, spencer, and ethan) and to be able to get to know them even better. One funny thing that happened while there is that my brother just bought a house that has a pool in the backyard and the people who owned it before didnt close down the pool for the winter and so there was a process to get it up and going for spring, well just before Kelly(my bro) left for his trip found out that springville would double their water prices for the summer while they were on their trip so he scheduled appts for people to come fix things, well they weren't showing up and then when they finally did the city was supposed to fill the pool from the fire hydrant and when I called to tell them what time to come they told me that they actually dont do that. Funny how they can tell two different stories..anyways, so I put the hose into the pool on wednesday at about 2pm to fill it hoping it would be filled before friday when the price doubled. Well on thursday morning it was about 1/4 of the way filled, there was no way! I did some thinking and here is what I came up with



Yep call it redneck but it worked, I put two hoses in the tub out the back, down to the pool and siphoned them, now we were getting somewhere!!! Well as the night went on it still wasnt looking like it was going to make it so in an all out effort we all spent about an hour working together and filling soup pots and bowls in the tub and then out the back window and larry and I would carry them to the pool and pour them in...




It was actually really fun and everyone worked together! You can see how close we were, we didnt completely finish before friday but we didnt have to do too much that day.
On Friday the kids came home from school ready to get into the pool however when the pool guy came to set it up they told me that the heater needed some repairs so it wouldnt be heated, everything else was ready just no heat...thus creating the 1st annual penquin plunge!!! Yep the water was a chilly 58 degrees! I will add a picture later it is on the other computer. That was a blast all the kids (even the biggest one larry) went down the slide and jumped off the diving board, it didnt last more that 15 minutes but it was hilarious watching their faces come up out of the water!
That saturday ty had a soccer game and witney had gymnastics and wit's was up in SLC so we picked up ty, then went to wit's meet and they had finished early so we didnt even get to see her perform. While we were in downtown we went over to capitol theater where Wicked was playing and since we had the kids we got an additional 3 entrys into the lottery for tickets. (we had tried to win the whole week larrys dad was in the hospital so that larry could take his mom to it and we had no luck) Well they only draw 10 names and if you get drawn to can buy 2 tickets for $25 each, 8 had already been drawn when number 9 was drawn they yelled out "witney" and of course stumbled over the last name, but I looked at her jumped up and down and scream and we ran up to the front to get the tickets. I couldnt believe it!! I called my mom and she came up switched us cars and took all five kids home for us and babysat so that larry and I could see wicked(larry had not seen it yet) It was the best, our seats were on the 4th row! It was amazing to be so close to the actors. I could see that play over and over again and never get tired of it. I cant wait until october for the arko girls trip to denver, we are going to go see wicked there!
When we finished babysitting we came home and it was like going to a place that you love that you havent been to forever! I felt like we had been gone for years not weeks. It was so nice to be home! Thanks to our great neighbors who mowed our lawn, got our mail, took care of primary stuff for us etc, etc, etc. We missed our great neighborhood so much!!!
We got home on thursday and on friday it was on the road again, this time out to roosevelt for a going away party for larry sister and her family who were moving to St. Louis for school. We are sad that they had to leave and we will miss them so much but its only for a couple years. Thank goodness for Skype!
The next 2 weeks were just filled with the catch up process of being gone so long, working and doing hair appts and then two more quick trips to roosevelt, one for larry's little brothers seminary graduation and being ordained an elder, and the other for his high school graduation

Congratulations Pat!!! We are so proud of you!!!
Well that brings us up to this week, again filled with just working and doing hair appts and getting some projects done around the house. Cayman has had a big change in her life today

Cayman has moved up to the big girl bed! She loves it! I just hope that she doesnt fall out or get out in the middle of the night. She is such a sweet little girl, in all the craziness of the past month she has been so flexible just to do whatever we need her to. A couple of funny things that she has done this month.
She got two butter knives out of the silverware drawer, brought one to me and said "I'm captain hook, lets fight!" I said "ok well then I am peter pan" and we would hit the knives together and after a minute or two cayman says to me "you old codfish!" All I could do was stop and hug her, it was sooo cute!
I found two crayon tips up her nose, she obviously didnt learn her lesson with the rocks, poured her own sippy cup of milk then says "mom I'm a big girl!", loves to sing and knows every word to the loathing song from wicked, apparently we have been listening to that alot around here, and requesting ketchup on her waffles, cayman has been Kenzified! I love it!! Well sorry that was a very long update, hopefully I can do a better job at keeping this up!

Sweet!

I love when people put cute or funny sayings that come from their kids, so here is Caymans latest! We were in disneyland and we had just bought her a princess crown. When she saw herself in the mirror with it she was so proud and thought she looked so cute. Right after that we went to get in line for the carousel. While waiting I was holding her and she was watching the horses trying to decide which one she wanted to ride when she stopped looked me right in the eyes and said "Mom, I am so happy!!" It was the sweetest thing. It made me want to cry that this little 2 year old girl realized and verbally acknowledged how she was feeling. She is truly growing up so fast.

Where would we be without laughter from kids!

This week has been an interesting one, to say the least. Cayman has been a little clown this week making us happy when we needed it and she doesnt even realize it (or maybe she does? hmmmmm) Larry's dad had Cancer in 2006 and he did chemo and he beat it, which we are all so greatful for but the bad part is that the cancer is back. He has been getting tested every six months since he first had it and at this last checkup it showed a tumor that has grown to the size of a tennis ball. It has been hard to know how to feel because we didnt know how/if they could treat it, he couldnt do chemo again and they said they might not be able to do radiation because it is so close to his heart, we didnt know what they could do for him. We found out tonight that he is going to have surgery to try to remove it. We are optimistic (we have to be!!!!) We are praying that everything goes ok, We know that what ever is supposed to happen will, but we really want him to stay with us for a lot longer!!! We love you Dad!

4 little rocks

So this is where the part about Cayman making us laugh comes in. We were at work having dinner and cayman sneezed and a little rock landed on my leg. I thought, that little girl should not have rocks in her mouth!!! We got home and were getting ready for bed and I looked at her and it looked like she had a big booger so I wiped and it was stuck (sorry more detail than some may want to know) so I dug it out and it was a rock. I was so surprised, wondering how this rock got there, I looked at her nose again and right behind it, there was another rock! I got that one out and again there was another rock! She was a rock spewing pez machine! Larry and I just sat trying not to laugh to show her that we did not approved of her shoving rocks or anything else for that matter, up her nose. I felt her nose to see if there were possibly anymore in this secret hiding spot that she had found, and it seemed ok. We put her to bed and Larry and I both laid in bed laughing for a good long while about it. Just what we needed, so thanks Caym! Oh yes and in the morning I got her out of bed and guess what was in her nose, yep another rock!