Catching a Leprechaun

Tonight in the car this was the conversation between Bay and Cole.

Cole: I caught a leprechaun at school, but he bit me and got away

Bay: He bit you?! Did you bleed?

Cole: nope

Bay: How big was he?

Cole: As big as my thumb. And he made a huge mess, he dumped out puzzles and everything.

Bay: Wow, I can't believe he was that little and could make such a huge mess.

Cole: Well, that's just how Jesus made him.

I love my kids! There is NEVER a dull moment with them around =>

On the way home from Costco Cole asked me, "how long ago were you a teenager mom? Cuz you look like a teenager." It made my day :)

NASCAR!! (Overload)

What would a race be without a flyover, but in Vegas we get the Thunderbirds!!

Old School.  

Robby has a pretty cool car, he was really cool to Kade, hopefully he can start to run better!

Somehow Carl and Tori hit it off, all the kids and Lacy were able to get their jackets signed by him and he remembered them when they did the parade lap and drove by our trailer!

This was Carl blowing a kiss to Tori!

Kade sat their forever waiting to catch a glimpse of Jr.  He actually got a picture of his arm while he was sitting in the car!

One of Robby Gordon's crew members took the camera from Kade and took our picture, Kade was taking pictures of everything, Robby goofed around with Kade, he took his jacket from him and threw it up on his tool box.

We tried to sell our spot this year and had no takers so we went anyway. I'm glad we did, it was probably the best time that we have had out there yet!  We were able to talk to some drivers and get some autographs, Lacy and Tori are in love with Carl Edwards. And Kade thinks that he should drink Monster energy drinks to support Robby!

Faith and Power

Tuesday morning Tori woke up feeling kind of sick. I emphasize kind of, I would not make her go to school totally sick! But a little cold is so not worth missing school for. Especially when we can save those sick days and use them to do something fun! So I gave her some tylenol and sent her on her way. She was fine and had a good day. After she got home she was sitting at the counter doing her homework and all of the sudden she was lying her head on the counter and said she felt yucky. So I sent her to bed, mind you the girl NEVER has naps! Not since she was 16 months old. That was about 3:30. I had a stake meeting at 5:30 and she was still asleep when I left so I told Trav she was in bed and left. When I got back home after 8:00 she had just woke up and was really, really hot. Like a fever of 105.1 hot. We gave her motrin and did all the parent things to get her temp. down and it did drop to about 100. So we sent her to bed and checked her thru the night, giving her motrin in the middle of the night.

The next morning she woke up with a high fever still and said her left side hurt. I asked her if it hurt bad enough to go to the dr. and she said yes. So we went to the dr. and he said she had pneumonia! I was shocked! She went from perfectly healthy to pneumonia in like 24 hours. We did bloodwork and chest x-rays and back to the dr.'s office for injected antibiotics (in the bum, which she was NOT happy about) and breathing treatments. The dr. said on a scale of 1-10, 10 being hospitalized, she was a 7. He sent us home, but highly cautioned me to plan on a long night, she needed to be checked every 3 hours.

Once we finally made it home that evening Tori asked Travis to give her a blessing. Our friend Bob came over and helped Travis give her a blessing. In the blessing Travis said that she would be healed according to her faith.

Tori was hardly moving and wasn't even talking much. She slept by us and her fever broke about 1:30 in the morning. This morning when we went back to the dr. he was shocked at how much better she looked. He said he was planning on hospitalizing her this morning, and antibiotics usually don't work that quickly. At that moment I realized the antibiotics weren't what had helped her start to get better but the power of that priesthood blessing and Tori's faith in it. I am so grateful to have a husband who worthily holds the priesthood, and the opportunity to feel that power in our home. And I am grateful for a 9 year old little girl who taught me a little about faith. There is nothing in this world that compares to a child's faith!

Tori isn't all better, but well on her way!

Kade's pick up game of baseball with the Major League players!

Kade went to a Baseball camp at Bat R Up on Saturday and they had  Major League players there for the camp.  Shane Victorino - Phillies, Chris Carter - A's, Tommy Pham - Cardinals, Jeff Malm - Rays, Gil Velasquez - Red Sox, Justin Leone - Formerly with the Yankees.

At the end of the camp Kade's group broke out into a wiffle ball game with Shane Victorina and Gil Velazquez.  It was a ton of fun to watch the kids playing ball with a former Golden Glove winner and a world series Champion!

When it was over they each received an autographed ball and picture of each of the guys, and were able to ask questions!

I was really impressed how well they worked with the kids.  It was a lot of fun! 

Wow, life has been a blur since we got home from our cruise! Christmas was tons of fun. Christmas Eve we went to my mom's house for her annual Christmas Eve Party. My entire family was there but Cindy, and you could definitely feel a difference without her there! It was the first Christmas Eve in my entire life I haven't had my sister there, and we all missed her a ton. The kids reenacted the Nativity. Tori was Mary this year, Baylee was the "head" angel as she called it, and Kade and Cole were shepherds.. We were just glad Cole decided to NOT be a rock this year :) The kids also did a little talent show which Kade was so excited to get to play his violin in. And of course Santa came to visit that evening.

Christmas Day we spent at Janet and Robin's house. It was lots of fun hanging out with them and playing.

Then the day after Christmas we took off for Dumont. It was SO much fun. We stayed a week with no crashes or major injuries.

Thanksgiving in the Caribbean!!!

This is definitely the way to spend thanksgiving. If I had my way we would do this every year! It is really relaxing to just sit out by the pool everyday and have someone wait on you, then when your hungry head on in to the buffet! We had a great time!

We spent the first two days running around Disney World. You really need a full week to be able to see this place, it was huge! The castle looked really cool at night decorated for Christmas.

Baylee and Charlee on the ferry from St. John back to St. Thomas. We were the last ones on the boat!! We tried to get in as much time as we could at our second home! And we were so excited to take the kids and Lacy's family to St. John so they could get a taste of the place we love so much.

Playing in the water on St. Martin.

Our little boat on the pier at St. Martin.

Where else can you ice skate,

play nine holes of golf,

and do a little boogie boarding!!

Kade in the pirate parade through main street on the ship.

Cole on our first formal night. This about sums up his whole attitude in the dining room!

Can't be a good cruise without hitting the ice cream machine! We had a contest on the last day to see who could build the biggest and prettiest cone, Bay won! She even beat both her aunts :)

Sunset!

The bus ride back to the airport, doesn't everyone look way excited!