Cool Kid Class

Chris is okay! The doctor went over the results of the CT scan with him and he didn’t seem overly concerned with any of the results. His spleen was slightly enlarged but the doctor said that was probably because he had been sick. He wants him to get another scan in six months just to make sure. There were a few fat deposits on his liver which is usually an indicator of high cholesterol but his cholesterol was fine. So he is in good health for now and we are very thankful. I didn’t realize how worried I had been until he told me the doctor said he was okay. I felt like I hadn’t taken a full breath until that moment.

Ashton has taken it upon herself to initiate a “cool kid class” to teach Kaylee and Aiden how to be cool. I’m not sure what the lessons consist of but apparently ten lesson have to be completed in order to graduate, (I’m sure I will be corrected on any of the details I may have confused). One day Ashton was taking Kaylee outside to have class and I could see Aiden following at a distance and then stop at the door to watch. I asked him why he wasn’t having class too, “I got expelled.” I don’t know what exactly happened, but the rumor is there was an incident during spy school.

The other day Kaylee and I were gone and Chris was going to take a shower. Dalin was just waking up so Chris asked Ashton if she would take care of Dalin for a few minutes until he was done. When Chris was done he went into the other room to put on his shoes and Ashton shouted out, “That is so immature, you guys are playing video games and you leave me alone to take care of the baby!”

I’ll leave you with another Ashton and Aiden backseat conversation. I came in halfway through but this is what I heard.

Aiden: “Grandpa Hal has a robot leg. Some people ride in wheelchairs and if they don’t have a wheelchair they break there leg so they can use one.”

Ashton: “I’m glad he has a robot leg, because now he has a wheelchair to give us rides.”

I Hate the Flu!!!!

My entry from last week turned out to be overly optimistic. Ashton and Aiden were still sick through Monday, and Chris didn't go back to work until Thursday. The girls got a paper from school telling the symptoms and differences of the cold and the flu, and after I read it I realized that Chris pretty much gets the flu every year. I guess a flu shot wouldn't be such a bad idea for him. Dalin and I even succomed for a day or two,although our symptoms were fairly mild. This is the first time that it spread through our whole household, and I don't think I need that experience more than once in my life.

Chris thought he felt ready to go back to work on Tuesday, but he has a terrible cough so I made him go to QuickCare. He was planning on going in for the second half of the day but the doctor almost laughed at him and said he would be out at least until Thursday. He had to go to a family physician and they did several tests and sent him to get a CT scan, so now we're just waiting on results. From the questions that the doctors kept asking him it sounds like it may be something to do with his liver, I'll keep you all posted when we find out.

On a little lighter note I rhink Dalin is in training for the X games or something. He loves to get around in his walker, and I have seen him run and then lift up his feet so he can glide across the floor. He doesn't like to show off though, because every time I try to get it on video he stops.

Ashton and Aiden have the best conversations in the back of the car on the way home from school. I'll leave you with one I heard the other day. I don't know what Ashton had, but Aiden really wanted it and this is where I came in on the dialogue:

Ashton, "Aiden you can only have some if you say Ashton's cool and she rules and Aiden is a muckus."

Aiden: "I'm not going to say that. I"M NOT A MUCKUS!"

Ashton: "Then you can't have any."

Aiden: "FINE," (through clenched teeth), "Ashton's cool and she rules, and I am a muckus."

Ashton handed over whatever they were fighting about and a few minutes later, (I assume after Aiden had finished with it) I hear Aiden say, " I was just tricking, I'm not really a muckus and I'm the one that rules!"

Circus Folk and Carnies

Chris and the kids went to the circus with my brother Brandon and Emily and Jayden last week. They all had a really fun time, but this was the report I got the next day. Aiden was eating popcorn off the ground and my brother told him that wasn't the best idea to which Aiden replied, "Brandon you worry about you, and I'll worry about me."

Kaylee got an A on her Italy report, and they had a program this past Friday. It was really cute, and she got to dance to three of the songs that they sang. In honor of her uncle Brandon's mission to Australia she was excited to dance to "Waltzing Matilda." As soon as I can get Chris to teach me how to post pictures I'll put some up.

Every one in our home has taken a turn being sick this week except for Dalin and me. I'm hoping our luck holds out, because things kind of fall apart around here when I get sick. I think Chris got the worst of it. Kaylee and Ashton and Aiden were achey with fevers but they were pretty much done after about one day. Chris has had a terrible cough with fever and he has barely been able to get out of bed for a day and a half. I think he's on the tail end of the sickness, but he's still really tired and sleeping alot.

The Throne

Aiden and I came to an agreement about the pillow from the last entry. He wanted to sleep with it for the whole night and in exchange he agreed that he wouldn't take it off my bed any more. So far he's stayed true to the deal, but that was just one of the battles, the war is still on.

Aiden has now taken over Chris's recliner. He gets all of the throw pillows from the couch and spreads them on the chair. He then puts the foot rest up and leans the back of the chair as far back as it will go, climbs up with his blanket and kicks back. He told Chris, "it's not your chair it belongs to everybody." He is paranoid that someone will take his spot if he leaves so he has started asking me to bring everything to him (i.e. lunch, drinks, toys etc.) When he does get out of the chair he will slowly back away from the chair then sprint to wherever he needs to go. One day he needed to do something that would take him out of the chair and I could see him eyeing Ashton who was sitting on the floor eating her lunch. I told him that she was still eating her food so she wasn't going to take the chair. He looked over at Ashton's plate then looked back at me and asked if I could get her some more food. I guess he wanted to make sure he had enough time to get back to his "throne".

In other news, Chris and I were able to go to the Celine Dion show at Ceasars Palace. Chris did some computer work for some people who are friends with some people that usher at the show who gave them tickets to the show so they invited us to come. (I hope you could follow that last sentence) Now I'm not the biggest fan of Celine Dion, (I know I can hear the gasps of disbelief), but I actually enjoyed the show quite a bit. The sets were amazing. But the real excitement for me was looking for a particular dancer. If any of you watched the summer reality show "So You Think You Can Dance?" you may remember that one of the prizes for the winner was a one year contract for the Celine Dion show. The winner of the show was a guy named Benji, a mormon from Redlands CA. Chris and I really liked him so we spent the whole show trying to figure out which one of the dancers he was. We had pretty good seats but we still couldn't really tell which one he was. When we got home Chris did a little internet reasearch and found out that Benji declined the Vegas show offer so I felt a little cheated.

Pillow Fights

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHRIS!!!! Today Chris becomes "a 34 year old man!" One of Kaylee's favorite things to do is to point out how old her dad is. When ever he isn't quite acting his age she will exclaim, "dad you are a 34 year old man!!" The Nintendo (from the last blog) was his birthday present as well as Christmas, and he has been making good use of it.

I got a new pillow a few months ago and I don't know if Aiden didn't notice it before or if he just finally decided that he really liked it, but a couple of weeks ago he started sneaking in my room right before bed and taking my pillow to his room to sleep with. I would in turn go take it from under his head and replace it with his own pillow before I go to bed. He's getting bolder every day and one day he announced to me that he was going to sleep with my pillow and I better not take it from him while he was sleeping or he would be really mad at me for alot of days. I took it back anyway. At seven the next morning I wake up to someone tugging on my pillow. I open my eyes and there is Aiden, ready to fight telling me I shouldn't have taken the pillow. I let him have it back but only because I had just gotten Dalin back to sleep and I didn't want the tantrum I could feel coming on to wake him up. I told him he could only have it if he went back to bed. He left still upset and I heard his over dramatic crying, "I wanted to sleep on the pillow the whole ni-i-i-i-i-ght!" He got some money from great grandpa Romney for Christmas so I told him he could get his own pillow, but we can only find a king size one, and that kid is spoiled enough he doesn't need a king size pillow for his four year old head! We'll keep looking and hopefully the battles will subside.

Kaylee's was assigned a report on Italy for school. They have a book to fill out and a poster to make, and then they are going to have a little program and feast. She is pretty excited, and started looking things up on the internet right away. She told me that her teacher said they should bring a sample of food from their country that they liked and Kaylee said, "but I think I'll just bring spagetti anyway." There are few things Kaylee actually likes to eat and I don't think any of them originate in Italy.

Ashton's reading is coming along really well. We got some first reader books from the library and she was able to sound out most of the words. She answered the phone the other day and this is what I heard on my end. "No he's still at work but you can call back when you think he might be home."

My sister-in-law is letting us borrow a baby walker for Dalin and he is quite a little natural. Because we have wood floors he can speed across the room pretty well, but he hasn't quite figured out how exactly to go the direction he wants to yet. He is happy to be mobile, so now I can actually set him down and get a few things done when he's not asleep.

The Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!! I've decided not to apologize for the infrequency of my blogs, because I really am doing my best (Chris!). I will say I didn't realize it's been almost a month since I last wrote so let me sum up our holiday season for you all.

Chris's parents came to visit for two weeks during December, and they were able to be here for Christmas. The kids were excited for weeks prior to their visit and they would tell any one who would listen that their "grandma and grandpa were coming to visit and they had made a fun list to do with them when they came." What is a fun list you may ask? It was whatever came into their little heads for the past two months when they first found out their grandparents were coming to visit. Chris's brother Nick also came to visit so almost everyone in his family was able to be together for Christmas. We all had a great time and it made this Christmas really special. We told Kaylee she couldn't wake us up until after 5 am on Christmas morning. I was telling Chris that I woke up to feed Dalin at about four, and Kaylee said, "No mom it was 4:07." Kaylee had already been awake for a couple of hours before she was allowed to wake us up. I remember being the same way when I was little, so it's all coming around now. I think Chris was probably the most excited because he bought a Nintendo Wii when they came out, and planned on selling it for a profit on ebay. I finally gave in and let him keep it (it wasn't making a whole lot more than it was worth on ebay) but he couldn't play it until all the wrappings were picked up. It was the fastest Christmas clean up we've ever had in our home. We then went to my parents house where there were more presents to open and I was able to talk to my brother who is in Portugal on a mission. Then it was back to our house for dinner and alot of video games. All in all I think it was a great success.

For New Year's we had a nice prime rib dinner at my brother Brian and his wife Natalie's house. It's become kind of a tradition for us to have prime rib that night because my other brother Aaron and his wife Danette do an excellent job in making it. After dinner they adults played games and our kids just played until midnight. Out of ten kids only one fell asleep before midnight, even Dalin wanted to be awake to ring in the New Year with us.

The girls went back to school on the second (they've been on track break for five weeks) and it it's been nice to get back to our regular schedule. Ater we dropped them off at school Aiden said, "good now I get to pick all the shows to watch." What a funny kid!

Cereal Cocktails

Every morning when Aiden wakes up he will come find me and say, "Good morning Mom, can you get me some breakfast?" He has started to ask for more than one cereal in his bowl at a time. "I want Trix on the bottom, next Froot Loops then Rice Krispies on top." That kid loves breakfast.
Kaylee woke me up at two yesterday morning and told me she threw up. Poor girl was up and down throwing up for the next four hours. I came out to help her and Ashton, the sweetie that she is, was in the bathroom trying to help Kaylee feel better. I am really glad they are such good friends. We get comments from people at church about how impressed they are that our kids take care of each other so well.
Dalin had his six month check up on Monday and he is 18 lbs 14 oz. It's kind of funny because he has a cousin who just turned one and he weighs 20lbs. I think because all of our kids are so much bigger than Dalin, I don't realize how big he is compared to other babies. I just can't believe how fast he is growing up.
Chris has to drive to Tonapah tomorrow to pick up a computer server then turn around to come home. It's about a four hour drive each way, and the guy he is getting it from is coming from Reno, which is also about a four hour drive away from Tonapah. They could have sent it same day Fed-Ex, but hey this is our Nevada tax dollars at work. Luckily, Chris likes to have adventures and go to new places so it will be okay.
That's all for now, thanks for coming by!

Track Break

Few and far between, I know our postings have been a little irregular, but all I can say is that I’m working on it. Chris even left his laptop home as a not-so-subtle hint to write, so here I am taking the hint. The girls have been on track break from school since Thanksgiving. They have the whole month of December off. This track seemed like a good idea when I signed them up, but it has put a kink in my Christmas shopping schedule. Okay I don’t really have a schedule, but taking four kids with me everywhere doesn’t really motivate me to do any sort of shopping. Oh well I guess it’s okay to give a little now so they will have six weeks off for the summer instead of just two like all of the other tracks. Since we’re on break, I decided to sign the kids up for swimming lessons so we had something we had to go to. I am ashamed to say that they have only taken lessons once before, and that didn’t go so well for Aiden. On the first day of summer lessons, Aiden stepped off the step of the pool and he was under for what seemed like a long time but was probably only six or seven seconds. After that he had a bit of an aversion to the pool, and he made sure he had a good grip on his teacher every time he had to go to deeper water. When I told him we were going to take lessons again he was a little apprehensive, but he didn’t want to be left out so he was willing to give it a go. He did really well, but he was the only kid with dry hair at the end of the class. All three of the kids are really enjoying going to the pool, and even Dalin is having fun watching. Ashton likes to see how long she can hold her breath and it makes me really nervous to watch her. She always comes up, but it seems like she takes a second longer than I would like her to. We went to the library last week, and we probably brought home ten or fifteen chapter books and Kaylee has already finished them all. Granted they aren’t super long, but she loves it. She has probably read all of the books at least twice. I am pretty impressed. She’s also taken up instant messaging Chris’s Aunt Joan, and really any one else who will write back to her. Well I will leave you tonight with a few of our kids “isms”;Kaylee: “Dad I always win the arguments with you because I use logic, and you can’t fight logic.”Ashton: Isn’t our Christmas tree pretty, the lights reflect in the drool on Dalin’s chin.”Aiden: ‘This song makes my bum dance!”