Skiing 2010

Well, I guess Kelly is tired of updating our blog. At least that's my excuse for being "forced" to put these pics up here. I like to leave this up to her, but she says I should be more involved with the cardon8 blog-site. Just to punish her, I'm going to see how long and boring I can make this.

Corben and Trevor love to ski. Lucky for me, I love to ski too. It is expensive, but the exercise is good, and the time with the boys is invaluable. They are "forced" to sit for several minutes at the end of each run with me on the chairlift. Luckily, Trevor only fell off the lift once, right at the very end. Corben has the green coat on, Trevor has the blue one. I think that Corben was getting tired by the time I took this one.

This is Corben's third year skiing, and he is getting the hang of it pretty well. He is fairly cautious and a conservative skier. This is Trevor's first year. I don't take any kids until they have had their 4th grade ski day. He had his this year, so we could go with him now. Trevor is far more daring than Corben. He doesn't snowplow anymore, he is trying to parallel down the hill. He had a few nasty falls this year, but overall, has done very well. I've been impressed with both of them, and look forward to many more ski trips in the future.

We were lucky to be able to go to Deer Valley this year, thanks to Denny for scoring us some deeply discounted passes. Normally $86 per day each, we were able to go for $25 each.

Here are some pics of our last trip, Conference weekend, April 3rd, 2010.

Happy birthday to my babies who will be 4 years old tomorrow! We celebrated tonight with my family and Brody and Jace each got a new bike (which they didn't ask for) and a box of fruit snacks (which was all they asked for).

WARNING: This post is long and probably very boring. I wanted, for myself, to record what I can remember of their birth.

The last couple of months of my pregnancy everybody kept saying that I'd go into labor at any time. I was able to tell them "I told you so" when I made it to 39 weeks. I had never gone into labor on my own, and fully expected to have my doctor start me. This is one detail I've already forgotten. I think I might have been scheduled to be started in the next couple of days (Kira??). But I actually went into labor! Of course since I had never done it before, I didn't know that's what was going on. I think because my labor contractions had always been Pitocin-induced, I was used to labor being a lot more painful. So since I wasn't doubled over in agony I just thought I had some kind of stomachache. It did have me kind of worried that something was wrong, so I called my neighbor and she watched my kids while I drove to the doctor. They took me right back and checked me and I was dilated to a 7 and ready to go! My doctor was already planning a c-section, so he told me to go check in at the hospital. I called Jeremy from the office to tell him. I was so upset because he had ridden the bus into Salt Lake that day and I knew he would never make it in time. When he answered I could barely tell him because I was trying so hard not to cry in front of everybody.

Well, although the hospital is about two feet away from my doctor's office, I could NOT make that walk, so I went to my van to drive the two feet, and what do you know... flat tire! Too bad. I got in and drove over on the flat tire (a huge thank you to my bro Giff. If memory from that drug-induced state serves correctly, I believe he was the one who took the van and had the tire all fixed and delivered back to the hospital in no time [Kira??]).

They rushed me through check-in and got me into a bed. I had barely been there 30 minutes when, looking just like an angel, Jeremy came rushing through the door. I could not believe he was already there! My relief was indescribable. After he got my call, his awesome friend Doug had wasted no time in driving him to the hospital in Layton.

These details are quite foggy by now. At some point they realized I had just developed toxemia, which I guess wasn't a huge deal since I was about to deliver anyway, but they did have to give me some medicine for it. I can't remember what medicines they gave me and what they were for, but I remember quickly becoming very drugged-up and out of it. I also remember TERRIBLE itching on my face, which was from one of the medicines. I was practically unconscious but I could NOT stop scratching my face. Kira and Dave had gone out of town for a day or so and on their way home she found out I had gone into labor. The poor thing was devastated and felt all guilty that she had been gone. Her and Dave rushed straight to the hospital to check on things and her main concern was finding out where I had taken the kids. I hadn't told Jeremy, and I was so out of it I literally couldn't speak. I could hear them discussing where the kids could be, but I just couldn't tell them. After I don't know how long and every ounce of strength I had, I whispered, "Emily." They figured it out and Kira went and took over with my kids.

They wheeled me into the operating room and got me set up. Okay, I don't get the logic of making a 9 months pregnant woman lie flat on her back for that long. I've never felt closer to death. I thought my heart would explode. Has any other woman frantically tried to tell the anesthesiologist that they are dying, and been so offended when he just kindly pats her head instead of panicking and trying to save her life?

They finally got started and in no time Brody was pulled out. Four minutes later they pulled out Jace. Poor Dr. Healy was so desperate for me to look at them. He shoved them in my face for like an hour and demanded that I look, so just to get him to shut up, I glanced over. I wasn't too thrilled at the time, but they were both healthy and beautiful. They were about an inch apart in height, but they both weighed exactly the same, 6 lbs. 12 oz.!

My main memory of the next day or so was the excruciating pain up by my shoulder blades. It was awful! A nurse told me that it was because of air getting into my body during the c-section. I was also VERY depressed. I had always struggled with PPD as it was, so I was a wreck as to what it would be like with two babies. I had the doctor prescribe an anti-depressant before I even left the hospital.

So they were perfectly healthy and we got to go home after about 3 days. I was on more medicine because I had been anemic in the hospital. This medicine made me feel SO weird. My head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, and every noise was like a jack-hammer in my skull, maybe similar to what a hangover feels like (Kira??). So between that and the depression, I was quite a wreck in anticipation of the first long night home with the babies. Well, my wonderful friend Gayla was over helping us get situated and get dinner, and as she was preparing to leave, I asked if she would take the babies with her for the night. I know she was shocked at how psychotic I was being, but she got their things together and very willingly took them. I knew she had to work the next afternoon, but I was still disappointed when she brought them back. But that one sleepover turned into many over the next few months. Between that, and Kira taking the older four all the time (oh my gosh, was Allie really only 7 months old all those times my four boys slept over?), and Jeremy's dad taking the twins two afternoons a week, I somehow survived that first year. It was not pretty, but it paid off a million times over. These two boys are the light of my life. I don't know what I would do without them. The best thing is that they're the youngest, so I will never have to struggle with having that last straggler, always so bored but you're so busy with all your other kids and obligations. They are best friends and don't give me the time of day when we are the only three at home and all the other kids are at school. In fact, sometimes I'll peek into their room when they're playing and if they see me they'll just stop and stare at me and say, "Mom. Get out." And won't resume playing until I'm gone.

I love you two little angels! Even though you're "big kids," you'll always be my babies!

My hero, Gayla, and the donor of half the twins' baby wardrobe, her daughter Heidi:

Most. Awkward. Experience. Ever.

Today after the gym Kira and I were walking our kids, ages 5, 4, and 3, out to our cars. As we passed the door to a physical therapy office this couple walks out. The wife was about the height of the children, and was using crutches. Do other moms get that sinking feeling in their tummy when they're with their kids and pass someone who's disabled or really big, because they know what's coming? So anyway Kira and I frantically started trying to sidetrack the kids and hurry them into the cars. Apparently our shushing of them was more noticeable than their gawking and pointing. The husband came over to us and said, "I see you're curious about my wife," and went onto explain her condition. He had the children go over and talk to her. They were so captivated. After about two seconds they were chatting like old friends. I was so flustered. I said something to the guy apologizing about my kids being bratty. He scolded me, "They're not being bratty. They're just curious." That put me in my place.

We just got back from our fabulous trip to Disneyland. I love family vacations and the temporary escape from every day tasks. To get it out of the way, I would first like to make a list of the unpleasant occurrences on the trip:

* Brody telling me I have a big butt.

* A Disneyland employee ruining my first night there by being a jerk. I took it as a bad omen, but the workers were wonderful the rest of the time.

* For the SECOND time, while on a family vacation, Jeremy forgetting his belt and us having to go to Walmart to buy him a new one.

* Seeing some girls in a fist fight in the Walmart parking lot.

* Having twins and only ONE of them is too short to ride several rides.

* Six boys who couldn't go 24 hours without fighting if you paid them.

Seriously, it was a magical week. We all had such a great time. I rode Winnie the Pooh with Brody and Jace no less than 25 times. They got super scared on Space Mountain, but other than that they loved everything. Zack was a little more brave than they were, but he still got a little freaked out on some of the rides, which surprised me. He always acts so invincible. Corben, Trevor, and Lance just wanted to get on as many rides as they could. We were able to go for five days, so we got to do everything we wanted, and then some.

I'm so glad we were finally able to take another big family vacation. There is nothing like the closeness you get to experience when there are no other distractions. And a big love and thanks to Jeremy for being such a hard worker to make it possible. It kind of sucked that he had to take a week off from his job when he had only been there a month, but they were really cool about it. I'm glad to be married to such an organized person. He made the trip run so smoothly, I literally didn't have to worry about a single detail (besides breaking up all the above-mentioned fights).

Some of my favorite pics from the trip:

A few months ago my dad moved out of his house and was getting rid of most of his furniture. Since I've never had a nice bedroom, and being the oldest sister living in the country, I felt justified in speaking his bedroom set. My sisters were very gracious about it. I've wanted a nice bedroom for a long time. My bed didn't even have any sort of a headboard or anything, just the mattress and box springs, and two mismatched broken down dressers. So I was THRILLED to get this set, and I also got the matching bedding. I was so happy. I love being in my room now. It feels so different, it even feels cleaner, and I'm much more motivated to make the bed.

The problem is at the head of the bed there's this big mirror. After we got the set I noticed fingerprints on the mirror every time I went in there. I'd go get the Windex and clean them off. This would happen several times a week. I finally got sick of it and lectured the kids to stop mucking up my mirror. Surprisingly, they minded.

A few weeks ago I was reading my friend Heidi's blog. She had a link to this woman's blog who had just had a traumatic experience. She had briefly left her baby alone in the tub and when she came back he had drowned. By some miracle they revived him at the hospital and after a couple of weeks he made a full recovery and returned home. I became obsessed with following her story. It was every mother's worst nightmare, and I'm so glad it was a happy ending for them. Her story changed me. Ever since reading it I have been so much more grateful for my children and have tried to practice lots of patience and not sweat the small things. I've done well. I would like to say it's a permanent change, but we'll see. I'm not too hopeful. It's too bad that it's human nature to need to nearly lose someone to show them just how grateful we are for them. I will keep it up as long as I can, though. I walked into my bedroom a few days ago and glaring out at me were several little handprints, all over the mirror. Now they make me smile every time I see them. I'm going to leave them there.

My sweet Trevor had his birthday party today. We had the usual crowd over and enjoyed Trevor's requested dinner of Chinese food. He definitely has the most developed taste of all my children. He turns 10 years old this week! I love this kid so much. He is the sweetest thing. He has the shortest fuse of all my kids, but definitely the shortest turnaround time. It takes him minutes to get over something. He is the best big brother. He cares so much about his younger brothers and really helps to look out for them. I love his tender heart. Great-grandma wasn't able to come to his party because she's pretty sick. Trevor was a little glum all day, and when I talked to him about it tonight he finally admitted that he was scared his grandma was going to die.

For his birthday he got money and some puzzle toys from Great-grandma (she sent them with Grandpa Greg) and a basketball and scooter from his parents. Grandpa Greg will take him for his birthday outing when they can arrange a time.

So glad this boy is in our family!

What is up with my nearly-four-year-old getting an ear infection?! (Thanks, Det and Kenny) Lame. Jace was up half the night last night because his ear hurt so bad. It's frustrating being up half the night and knowing you have no choice as to when you get up in the morning. I am SO grateful that Jeremy found a job so quickly, but I won't lie. It was so convenient having him, for lack of a better phrase, at my disposal. Three weeks ago I wouldn't have worried about being up half the night, I would've just planned on sleeping in and having Jeremy take the kids to school. But with his new job he has to be to work before they go to school. So it's back to the grindstone for me!

In all seriousness, we feel so blessed that Jeremy was able to find a job so quickly. He got the offer three weeks ago and started last week. I'm so proud of him. I think that getting a new job has a lot to do with luck, but Jeremy really worked hard. He was in his office several hours a day, sent out lots of resumes and went on lots of interviews, and did a great job of networking himself.

So I'll just deal with the next couple of sleepless nights while the ear infection heals, because that kind of stress is a lot more manageable!