A Busy Week.

Well last week was quite the week. With me being in the hospital all week Chad took over all mothering duties. Included in that was having two birthday parties, driving swim team carpool every day and going to the swim meet plus everything else that come up with six kids and summertime. So I had him take lots of pictures so I wouldn't miss out. I don't think the kids skipped a beat.

Sydney had a great birthday with her friends at the Lindon City Pool. Taylor, Olivia, CeeCee, Natalie, Sydney and Abbie

Her cupcakes were a hit! My friend Andrea made them and brought them for the party...one less thing for Chad to think about!

A Success! Way to go Chad!

Next it was Kalli's turn. She did out door games, a movie and of course dinner. Chad made the kids pigs in a blanket, with chips and carrots...What a guy!

Games started on the trampoline.

I love Kalli and Raegan's sister relationship.
They really are greatest of friends!

Does 101 Dalmatians ever get old? The girls had a ball!

Tyler got to pass out the popcorn and licorice.

Saturday morning brought early swim meets. Tyler and Kalli's first meet ever. They did awesome.

STRIKE A POSE BATHING BEAUTY!!!

What the heck...Now??

I find myself sitting in a hospital room about 45 minutes away from those I care about most. This has been a tough time in our little families life. We are so blessed and I am so grateful for opportunities that have come our way. Some for fun and others for tremendous growth. (I think I like the fun ones a little more). As you all know from my previous post we just returned from a magical family trip to disneyland. As we were there I started not feeling great, you know just a small cold some chest congestion...really no big deal. Well I guess mixed with the dirty Anaheim air my asthma didn't like it. I don't have bad asthma, just occasional usually set off by allergies and pollutions. It does seem to affect me quite a bit more when I am pregnant. Maybe a puff or two from my inhaler but really that is it. Well by the time we got home I was pretty sick. I didn't feel great throughout the weekend but by monday morning I knew something was wrong. I woke Chad up at 4:00am and told him I was going to drive myself to the emergency room but was concerned about having to pay the copay. My debate was "Am I ok to just wait a few more hours and see my regular doctor or do I pay the $75.00 emergency copay that I really can't spare right now." Chad immediately made that decision for me and sent me to the ER. While there I received three breathing treatments, well because I am pregnant they were concerned about doing anything else for me and didn't really know how to handle my situation. So they sent me home and told me to call my OB by noon if I wasn't feeling better. Well by 10:00am I knew I wasn't feeling better. So a phone call I made and off I was to my OB who is 45 minutes away but worth the travel!!! Well he took one look at me, listened to my breathing and was ticked that I was ever aloud to leave the hospital. He immediately admitted me and told me later that I had him quite concerned, I was not moving any air in or out of my lungs. The hospital staff hooked me up to monitors and IVs and breathing machines. So now almost five days later I am still here. Doing much better but still here. While I have been here all of my sisters have been in town to be with my dad, which I have not been able to be apart of and the rareity of all 5 sister together is real. It's very hard for all of us to be in one place. But I am forever grateful for my sisters and their ability to help my mom out at this time when I have become unavailable. Since I have been hospitalized Chad has put on two birthday parties one for Sydney with 10 little girls at the swimming pool. (thanks to Andrea and Lisa for their help with cupcakes and supervision) and a party for Kalli with 20 little girls playing games and eating dinner at our house. (Chad is an over acheiver. He over compensates for things that are out of his control so his kids don't feel left out. I told him that the parties could wait until next week but for him the thought of the kids not only having their mom in the hospital but to not get to do their birthday parties was just too much for this kind, loving over acheiving father.) Chad has also been running around town trying to figure out work since the company he has been working for, Beneficial Financial Group is shutting their doors as of August 31. He has some great possibilities out there and some options but needless to say this has been weighing on our minds. Not to mention that he is the bishop of our ward and has many responsibilities waiting for him in that area. We have been so blessed with lovely, wonderful friends and ward members who have just helped out in so many ways, from helping with parties, to cleaning our house, to bringing in dinners and helping with kids. And for me, I am going NUTS just sitting here listening to the craziness of our lives and not being able to do anything about it! Plus the meds they have me on make me incredibly emmotional, I cry every time the phone rings. The doctor says I need to treat myself as if I am an infant with RSV, he told me to not go to church for a while, advoid any smoke (fireworks) and stay inside as much as possible. Sounds like a fun summer huh! I am just so grateful to have a husband who is a doer and does not let anything get in his way, he may have a few panic attacks before this is all over but he does it all with a smile and he does it all for me and our kids. What a blessing he is to me.

Disneyland

We just got back from a week at Disneyland. And wow did we receive the ROYAL treatment. This was a Sales Conference for Chad's work that he had earned. And we experienced Disney like we never had. It was awesome! They put us up at the Disney Grand California Hotel. That was so great, you cannot beat the convenience of staying there. To get off of the rides and take a quick walk right up to your room for lunch was so great especially with our all of our young kids. It will be hard to Disney any other way.

Sydney was pretty happy with her Minnie Mouse and matching hat.

The first night we were there Beneficial had a party set up for us on one of the studio lots. It was so amazing. It was beautiful and so fun. They had two separate buffets, one for the adults and one for the children. The adults had steak, chicken, salads, potatoes etc. and a variety of desserts. The kids had peanut butter and jelly, tator tots, fried corn, milk, juice and for dessert a variety of disney treats. It was so cool. There were balloons everywhere. They also had two caricatures in the back of the room for the kids as well as Minnie, Mickey, Donald and Goofy. It was a party that only Disney could put on...Amazing!!

Max LOVED Mickey! He would have nothing to do with any of the other characters.

Kalli and Tyler getting their pictures done.

After the party. The kids made a haul with all of their balloons and pictures.

California adventure has a new Toy Story ride. It was a blast. Gotta love Mr. Potato Head

Max LOVED riding the rides.

Chad and some of the kids taking a rest.

Sydney got to celebrate her 7th birthday while we were there.

Toon Town

One of the guys Chad works with, Tim Blackham has kids our kids ages. So we had a blast hanging out with them most of the time.

We wore the kids out.

One night Beneficial had a party for our group at the ESPN Zone. Each couple recieved 2 game cards worth $100 of games. The kids were in heaven. It was so fun. They played games and ate for three hours straight. What a blast!!!

Horse Racing at the ESPN Zone

Max even had a buddy, He and Colby had a lot of fun!

Everyone has to have a picture right in the front gate.

Chad was not feeling so good on the Tea Cups. Too bad I am pregnant and couldn't go on those kind of rides.

While I took the older 5 kids to see the production of Aladdin, Chad and Max took a little rest up in the room. Max took chillin out very seriously and if you know Max, he doesn't chill out very often.

We were so lucky to get to stay at the Grand California Hotel, it was so nice and SO CONVIENENT! Thanks Beneficial for the greatest family vacation we could ever imagine!

On our way home we had to hit In and Out Burger (we don't have them in UT yet, but they are coming!). Max took over Chad's milkshake, hey he knows what he likes!

A Birthday and Father's day

This weekend we celebrated a few birthdays as well as father's day for my dad, Chad and my brother in law Kirk. We were lucky enough to be able to check my dad out of his rehab facility to come home for a couple of hours to BBQ, blow out candles and just hang out. We also celebrated my dad's birthday, Sydney's birthday, Kalli's birthday and Ammon's birthday (my nieces boyfriend).

Sydney and Kalli got to open their OOBEES sets. If you don't know what an Oobee (www.oobees.com) is it is super cute, very girly slippers, blanket, pillow, bag and cosmetic bag.
They were thrilled and very surprised.

Chad, Dad, Kalli, Sydney, Kirk and Ammon

Kalli got her favorite breakfast in bed this morning for her birthday. She had Bacon, Hashbrowns with fry sauce and Biscuits and Gravy.

Puppy Love

I was downloading my pictures and saw this one that my four year old took of his sister and her favorite friend. Now that is Love!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Today Andrew and I went to visit my dad. We brought him balloons, oreos and a root beer freeze (his favorite). Today my dad is 68 years old and way to young to be in a care center!!! But besides that we had a great day with him. We were even able to attend the care center's variety show where they sang Happy Birthday to him. That was a treat! We saw a man playing a harmonica, a hula dancer, a golf trickster, an accordion player and a magician, that is only to name a few. It was quite eventful. After it was done my dad said "I am way to young to be here!" I couldn't agree more dad!!!
Happy Birthday to the Best Dad Ever!!!

My Dad

I haven't updated on my dad's situation in quite some time. I have had lots of people ask about him so I decided to do some updating. My dad is weak. After all of his surgeries. His body is weak. He is down to 148 pounds. He has been in a rehabilitation facility for 2 months now. We did not think he would be in it for more than a couple of weeks. He is trying to get strong but we go day by day. He cannot go home until he is strong enough to move himself from the wheel chair to the bathroom or the bed on his own. We keep hoping and praying that he can go home soon. He has also been without his Chemotherapy for about 4 months. This isn't good. But the doctor does not want to start him on the chemo until he is strong enough to come home. The doctor is afraid that if he starts the chemo while he is in the rehab center he may never come home. So I guess I am pleading with any of you out there who know me, my family or my parents to please pray for my dad to get strong. He needs to be home with my mom and we need to get his cancer under control.

Today we took the kids down to see grandpa. Max is so attached to him. He still tries to get grandpa to use his walker and feels as though he is grandpa's personal care giver. In fact tonight one of my dad's nurses was helping him and when Max saw this he went up to the nurse and gave him a huge hug as if to say "Thanks for taking care of my grandpa when I can't be here"

This is Max pushing grandpa, right before he ran grandpa into the nurses station.

My six monkeys and their Grandpa

I love you dad!

My mom is stronger than I have ever thought she could be. She is down with my dad every day for hours. Just to make sure he is being taken care of. She truly loves him and he appreciates and loves her more than I can express. He gets so confused and upset when she is not there, when she comes all is well for him. What an example of true and unconditional love.

Especially For Youth 2009

EFY Game Night

Chad and I always try to direct at least one EFY (especially for youth) every summer. We usually opt for one at BYU so we can stay at home. I love EFY and I love BYU. The energy of the two is awesome. The BYU campus is beautiful and I love the mountains that surround it. I love the youth. They are incredible. And I love listening to my husband speak. He is so awesome. (maybe I am biased but seriously he is good) During the week of EFY Chad speaks about 11 times to the youth. My very favorite is Thursday night. Thursday the kids dress up in their church clothes all day. They attend classes (taught by other teachers), then they end the day with a musical program given by them, an awesome fireside (given by Chad) and testimony meetings oh and of course my very favorite part, the EFY medly. This year we had 900 youth in our group.
Seriously it was a blast and such great kids.

Chad was the Session Director of BYU 3B and
Scott Robley was the Director for BYU 3A.
The shirts were not the manliest of colors.
The green was called Algae and the Pink was Hibiscus.

On one of the nights we brought Raegan and Kalli.
They had a blast dancing with the counselors.

My cousin Melanie's daughter Ashley was at our session.

Our good friends the Heslops had their daughter there too.

I am so red faced! It was hot in the ballroom. They combined sessions for the dance so we had over 1600 kids dancing...Talk about stinky, sweaty kids!

Seriously the counselors are so great!

WE LOVE EFY!

Soccer Days

We just finished our soccer season. We had 5 out of our 6 kids playing soccer this year. Some days we had as many as 7 games on one Saturday. It was pretty crazy but the kids loved it. They all played their hearts out and did really good. But I am happy it's over with, for now.
It will be nice to have our Saturdays back for a while.

Here We Go Again!!!

Well if any of you missed it the first time, our Rachael Ray segment will be airing again this Friday, June 5th on the Rachael Ray show.
(Man, that is a big group, look all of those kids! I wonder what Valerie and Rachael would have to say about Chad and Cassie expecting Kerby Kid #7 in December)