Spring Happenings

Also this spring Garrett continued in soccer and he loves to play.  He was put on a team with a really good friend and was super happy about that. He has gotten better and wants to play in the fall.  I think this might be his sport of choice over the next few years.  He is pretty naturally athletic, we feel like he will improve with time.

 It was a sunny day so there was lots of squinting going on.  But they are totally cute!

He is trying to score, getting shots where the move is a bit trickier and I will have to practice my skills more this next year. 

Brady has enjoyed Cub Scouts and has been super excited to do the pine wood derby this spring. His father however was not.  Brad isn't the most excited about  working with tools to shape it but after some prodding he and Brady went to a friends house and worked on it together. His car was not the fastest but he has a good time at the race and learned how to make the car even faster for next time.  

Happy Easter

Easter came and we had a great day, the kids loved doing an Easter Egg hunt two different times this year.  Once was with friends and the other was at a church that had a hunt open to then community.  Jillian started to quickly pick up on what you had to do to get the treats.  Find the eggs.  She was a fan of this whole process.  The boys are old pro's at this and just love to run and get candy.

Garrett filling his basket up with loot!

 At the community hunt they had a sign you could take a group picture by so we tried it out....

Easter morning came and the kids got little things in their baskets and were super excited. We tried to get a cute group shot all dressed up for church.  That didn't go over so well.  Jillian was in a mood. She was not wanting to smile she wanted to be silly or make angry faces.  

While everyone was posting on Facebook Happy Easter with their cute family photos this is what I had to work with.....

This last one just made me laugh...

Once I removed our little comedian I did how ever get a cute one of the boys.  Happy Easter everyone!

New Beginnings

              With turning eight Brady also got to start the Cub Scout program.  He was super excited because he already knew some of the boys in the Wolf Den, it was a huge den with 14 boys!  They didn't stay that big for very long because it was just to much so with in a few months they split into 2 Dens but they still have pack meetings together.  He really likes it, and is staying busy with it.

                                                            His first cub scout meeting!

Another new start was his decision to be baptized into the Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  In the church you are 8 years old before you can be baptized, I feel like this is a good age to be able to understand the commitment and convents that one makes during a baptism. After many talks he decided to go forward and so we made the preparations with the Church leaders and family that wanted to help out with this day.  The date was set for April 12th and we let family far away know so that they could come if they wanted to.  My parents both felt like Dad had recovered enough to be able to make the trip and his doctors agreed so they came.  Brad's mom Natalie and two of his Sisters Jenny and Erin, who brought Abbie her daughter also come from out of town. 

We had such a good weekend, most of them came for just a few days.  My parents stayed the longest since they drove. Brad's mother had written a song when they were younger and she and Jenny and Erin sang it for everyone that came to the church and baptism.  Then we watched Brad Baptize Brady, and it was really sweet.  While Brady was getting dried off and dressed we watched a slideshow of pictures and music that him and all of his friends and family were in,  Then there were a couple of talks, one given my our good friend Ryan Bell and the other by Natalie- Brady's grandmother.  We had refreshments and then after we left the Church we took our family out to eat to celebrate.  

Erin and Abbie had never been to Bentonville so later on we took them to the cute downtown square where the first Walmart was and now there is a museum and cute soda shop.We got milk shakes and talked for a while.  The kids had a really good time.  

  Garrett, Brady, Addison, Jonas, Abbie and Jillian all at the fountain before milkshakes!

 Garrett, Abbie and Erin together.  We have few pictures of Erin and Abbie since they live in Colorado we don't get to see them very often.  Erin had surprised Abbie when they came, she packed all her stuff and picked her up at school and told they were going on a trip together.  Erin is such a cool mom!  

                                                        My parents with the kids.
 

Jenny and all the kids. 

Natalie (Nana Holbrook)

Lots of things going on in April and we were so glad we got to see some many family members. Love them all!

Turning Eight is Great!

            Brad and Brady both have birthdays in March, and this year Brady was turning 8 years old.  Which for us even numbered birthdays means they get to have big parties with friends.  Odd is a small family party.  So he had been excited to plan this party, his birthday is in the first half of the month and I had just gotten home from my parents and dealing with the heart attack situation.  Celebrating seemed life and the 8 years he has been with our family seemed like a reminder of the good things in our lives.  He invited over a bunch of boys his age to celebrate 7 boys showed up and were ready to party!  We started out making paper airplanes and then lining up to see who could fly them the farthest.  Then we played a team game that we kind of made up but it was based on capture the flag.  We had 9 boys total so we split them up into three teams of three.  We had them go to the three corners of the yard and we put a toy in the middle of the yard.  Brad and I were "guarding" this toy each armed with a can of silly string!  We told them they had to try and get the toy but if we sprayed them with the string they were sent to the patio for a 2 min. time out before they could join in the game.  We wanted them to work together and come up with a plan.  Oh my goodness it was the best game ever!!!  I wish I could have taken pictures or video of it but I was to busy playing.  The amount of shirking and laughing that went one for those few mins were awesome!  We did two rounds of it before we ran out of string to spray them with.

 Samuel won the air plan contest,

   All the kids lined up for a group picture.  Brady is of course crossing his eyes

Then we went inside to eat cake and ice cream and open presents.It was a crazy, loud,and exciting night for these boys and Brady felt so loved by all his friends.  He has really sweet friends that I am grateful for.  Some of these kids have known him for years now, and as a parent you always want your kids to get in with a good crowd and have good influences.  I think these boys are just the right crowd for him.    

Eight things we all love about Brady

1. He is full of life, always ready to do anything.  You should see him go down crazy watersides!

2. Heart of gold, he has good intentions-always.  At school his teacher kept saying how he'd get into trouble for getting out of his seat, because he was helping someone else!  LOL

3. Great big brother.  He is good to his little sister even when she messes up his Lego creations and his little brother is his best buddy!

4. He has these crazy ambitions, he is pretty sure that he WILL one day see the Titanic in person in a submarine.

5.  He doesn't see the bad in people, we are trying to teach him to be a bit more cautious in life with out scaring him. He just doesn't see the bad and can't imagine why someone would choose to be that way.

6. He is learning about making choices and had decided to be baptized into our church.  We have had lots of talks about this, he wants to do it and are happy with the choice he has made.

7. He is learning to overcome his aversion to foods he doesn't like.  He now eats SO much more than he use to,and we are PROUD of him for trying new things!

8.Watching him learn and grow, he has an amazing spirit and teaches us many things as we raise him. 

Love this boy!  Happy Birthday Brady 

A smooth ride till its not....

              So the year 2014 started out like any other, we make promises to change for the better in a number of ways and always made with the best intentions.  We will finally loose that last 10 pounds, exercise every day, organize our homes/lives so that we will be on time and clutter free.  This year was no different, the month of January came and went, it was cold there was snow here in North West Arkansas.  The kids loved it, the parents did to, till they started miss many days of school, then we prayed for sunshine and above freezing temperatures.  Things started out cold in February and then gradually became warmer and warmer towards the end of the month. The end of the month.  that is when life changed for our little family.  The last week of the month Brad came home early that afternoon.  I can't really remember why, but he was home and I was tired I think I had stayed up with the baby girl the night before.  She didn't sleep through the night, maybe she was unsettled because she knew the next day would bring chaos.  The kids had just gotten home from school and I told Brad I really needed to lay down for 20 mins. it was all I needed to gear up for the rest of the evening.  I had just laid down and was trying to relax when my phone rang. I almost didn't answer it, I rolled over and saw my brothers name flashing on the display.  He lives in Tennessee so we don't see each other much.  I accepted the call and in a tired voice said hello, his response was shaky and he explained to me that he had very little details, but that our dad had had a heart attack.  Boom there it was, the trajectory of that day derailed with one sentence. I sat up fast in my bed and asked, what he meant?  Was Dad alive? At the Er? Where was Mom?  About a million question ran through my head and half came out of my mouth, he could only say "I don't know." He was packing the car and heading to the hospital to see them both, he lived an hour and 20 mins. away, he said I could try to call Mom but he would call me when he got to the hospital.  I jumped out of the bed and ran to a startled looking husband sitting on the couch.  I told him what happened and he grabbed my hand to steady me while listening to my brother.  We hung up and I didn't want the kids to know anything till I knew something concrete so I ran to back to my bedroom.  Brad came in and put his arm around me and I wept.
                 I cried for a bit then got a hold of myself and called my mom, she said that she knew very little as well.  That she had been inside the house and he had gone outside to do yard work and all of the sudden a stranger knocked on the door and he told her to come quickly that her husband had, had a heart attack.  In socks she ran across the yard to see two fire fighters giving him CPR, one calling an ambulance and them both attending to my dad on the ground.  They got him to the hospital, and immediately doctors and surgeons worked on him; my mom was waiting there for information with my Aunt Ann and Uncle Bob.  More family would be there before to long, its what happens when you come from a large family like my mother.  My Sister far away in Nevada was driving to Las Vegas for a weekend trip with friends.  I called my Uncle Pete and let him have the news, it was so gut wrenching to tell him, he is my Dad's only sibling.   Things move at quick pace in a crisis but also super slow at the same time.  Its weird how it happens, all of the sudden I needed to pack and figure out how to get there, but they weren't sure if he was going to make it through the night so they wanted me to wait till the morning to start the long drive to Tennessee.  We didn't know if we were taking the whole family to a funeral or just me and the baby to help with recovery.  Our own family was about to renovate our kitchen with new counter-tops 2 day later.  So many decisions were to be made but lucky for us, we have lots of people in our corner to make things happen quickly.  My Dad did make it through the night, I was able to send the boys to school and take Jillian with me.  It was a miracle the kind of drive we had, Jillian never cried once for me and we stopped only once to get gas, we pulled into Cookeville hospital that evening. My mother and brother were both in the ICU waiting room, they looked terrible.  Puffy red eyes, tired circles, pale and slow moving.  The hours at the ICU are very strict in the heart wing.  Only a few hours at a time, a few people at a time, and no children.  They let me go back and see him soon after I arrived Mom stayed with Jillian while Andrew and I walked back to look at him.  He was laying there with lots of  tubes and IV's everywhere.  His eyes would flutter open every once and a while but he was mainly still.  It was hard to see, so to distract I would ask lots of questions.  What do all of these machines mean?  What does this one or that one do?  Which ones will he be taken off of first?  What does he have to be able to do to get this or that one off?  The nurses there were excellent, they could answer each one confidently.  They were honest about how sick he was and how his heart had stopped for a time, so after shocking him back there could be side affects.  They also said that making it through the night was a positive thing to, they honestly didn't know if that was going to happen.  Every hour was milestone at this point, they could drop down the doses of meds by just only little tick at a time. It was indeed a waiting game at this point.
                 That night I made my mom go home and sleep in her bed, she had stayed at the waiting room the night before on a small uncomfortable couch.  My brother and her both needed sleep, and rest to make it through the next coming days.  My Uncle would come in from Maryland that next day with his girl friend Wendy.  The next day he was more responsive, we asked him to blink if he could hear us and he did, which made us so happy.  We asked him to squeeze our hands if he could understand us, he did that as well.  We kept explaining what happened because we knew each time he "woke up" he didn't know where he was, or why he couldn't move.  I can't imagine what his perspective was, but I could only think that it would be terrifying not knowing where you were or what was going on.  After two days of being there Sunday night he seemed really more awake, the nurses said he isn't going to remember any of it but we kept talking to him and holding his hand.  It was the only thing we could touch, was his hand.  My Uncle had to leave and go back to work, and so did my brother so I stayed with my mom all week long.  My sister was preparing to fly in to help once I headed back home to my family.  We knew he'd be in ICU for at least a week and then the regular hospital room for 5 days as well.
            Five days after the heart attack he was much more wide awake and wanting that tube out of his mouth, we could tell he was grabbing at it, so the nurses had to tighten the restraints that they had placed on his arms.  It didn't work.  Right after he had seen my mom, and it was time for her to leave she told the nurse  "He is trying to get at that tube."  She said she would go and check on his arms again.  But before she could he pulled it out!  Every alarm went off and they rushed into help him out.  We knew then my Dad was definitely back.  I don't blame him, I would have probably done the same thing.  We just wanted to make sure his lungs were ready for him to breathe all on his own.
                   We were so excited to call my brother and sister and tell them that he would be able to talk and that he was making so much progress.  Andrew came back to see him and my sister was excited to know that he would be in a better place when she arrived.  We quickly learned that he had memory loss.  My brother came to see him and the next day he couldn't remember it, He couldn't remember the yard work or the fire that occurred and how he had help putting it out for the kindness of a stranger who just happen to be driving by and stopped to help.  We decided not to dwell on it and ask him what he could remember because he was getting frustrated every time he had to say no I don't remember this or that. We worked on resting, getting enough energy to stand up and walk to the doorway.  We could not believe that he was progressing so much in the coming days.  My sister came into town and she brought new energy and joy all three of us kids were able to see him which it had been a long time since we were all together.  They moved him to a different room that was in a less strict part of the hospital, he could have visitors all day but still no children but he could wheel out to the waiting room to see Jillian.  That made him smile, and Jillian learned that he had gotten sick but that the Doctors were making him better.  I left on that Monday to head back home to Brad and my boys.  Brad had gotten very sick himself (the flu and strep throat at the same time!) and was just counting down the minutes for me to get back.  He was to be in bed and let the meds that the Doctor had given him take affect.
               My Sister stayed that week and he was released from the hospital to a therapy clinic that helped him relearn to use all his facilities on his own.  After a few days my mom could come pick him up and take him home.  The road was still going to be long but we now know that he was mending and going to make it.  We learned how quickly things can change and how it changes our perspective.  We learned how family can work together when things get rough and that we are a team each pitching in and helping.  We learned about love and how much we have for our Dad and each other.  Love ya Dad!

Christmast 2013

Christmas is always fun we have kids who are like most, totally excited for Santa to come and visit them.  My parents came this year to stay with us for the holiday and that is always exciting for everyone.  There's way to many presents as always and we spend the whole day opening gifts talking with dozens of family members and having a really good time.  Its so nice just to hang out and have a really great day with our family.
        The boys were really able to show Jillian the ropes on how to open presents.  They were excited for her to get a gift from Santa.  Even though she was scared of him when we went to see him.  She got a little tricycle for Christmas that she can learn to use and grow into for sometime.  Garrett got a scooter that he was wanting to replace his very well used old one.  Brady got lots of Titanic books, that is his latest obsession.  He wants to go see it one day.   I love watching them open gifts and seeing how excited they are in giving each other gifts.
The night before in new Jammie's!

 Garrett LOVES soda, I don't let him have it that often.  So when Santa brought him Root Beer in his Stocking he was so excited!

                           Jillian new bike, she is getting to be so big!

 They both love to ride this scooter!

 Brad and the kids getting ready to go to Church....

Jillian's Birthday

Jillian turned 2 on December 16th, 2013.  She is such a cute, sweet, and feisty girl.  She has been our little princess.  We just love her to death, the boys have adored her since birth and we are so happy to have a girl in the family.   In her second year of life she was super busy, learning to walk, talk, make animal sounds and getting all her teeth.  She tries her best to keep up with the boys and always wants to be apart of what ever it is that they are doing even if she doesn't really "know" what that particular thing is.  We couldn't imagine what our family would be like with out her funny how that happens.  

 She also got her first broken bone, falling off the bunk bed ladder.  Did I mention she likes to climb?  A. LOT. Yeah it was her collar bone and it grew back together quickly but still scared me.

 She worked on growing hair this year too, we started pig tails and I think she is adorable in them.

 This girl loves water!  Isn't afraid of it at all, wants to jump in and play right away.  So happy about that.

 Being a princess must come in her DNA, cause she does the dressing up all on her own.  No need to push her into any directions.  She asks for pink things, which we don't have to ton of and dresses.  But she makes a cute ballerina!

Turning two is a big step for me/her and I can't believe these past two years have gone by so fast!  We love our Two year old, Jillian!  Happy Birthday beautiful.

Thanksgiving 2013

We stayed home for Thanksgiving, but we still celebrated with very good friends.  Our friends become family during times like these.  We are all far from our "homes" so we eat and laugh and hang with each other to fill in the gaps.  And I am grateful for that, grateful that our kids get along and have almost sibling like relationships.  Garrett had a Kindergarten performance this year, I almost get nervous for him because he is a bit more reserved when it comes to be in front of larger groups of people.  But he did great!  They sang some songs, wore their headdress, he was a pilgrim, some kids were Indians everyone looked so cute.
Here is Garrett when it was over with friends....

Up on stage, he's on the very end.  They are so sweet!

We had a really great Thanksgiving, we stayed here and there wasn't any family coming to town so we spent it with other friends in the same situation.  It was at our good friend the Molines, they had us and two other families that we knew, plus our good friend Jennie.  Chelise my dear friend loves to cook and entertain, so she goes out all with pretty much everything.  I like the way she decorates, here is the kids table...

Isn't it cute?

 Then we have the adult tables....

The food oh boy it was SO good, we each brought our favorite side dishes that we loved to cook at Thanksgiving and they were so good!  We had turkey of course and stuffing, rolls, sweet potato casserole,  cooked corn and mashed potatoes and gravy.  Then there were the pies! I think I just gained weight just thinking about it.  It was such a great day.  That night we went out and did a bit of shopping for Christmas and the next day I worked at the Children's Place at the mall.  Everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, there was a lot to be thankful for as there is every year.