THANKFUL

Two years ago this week we brought Gavin home from the hospital. It was the day before Thanksgiving and he had been in the NICU for 14 days. We wanted to do something for the nurses who were so sweet and watched over our little monkey when we couldn't be there. I had the idea to get them the Josh Groban CD "Noel" because of one song. Being that it was Thanksgiving I had the words to this new song in my head and I had listened to it many times over those few weeks. In their thank you note, I wrote that this song would always remind me of the sacrifices they make to be at the hospital taking care of our sweet little ones when they would rather be home with their own families.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays but I have a tough time because I do not get to celebrate with any extended family. It's hard to cook dinner for my own little family while knowing that everyone in Utah will be getting together and spending a funfilled day visiting, laughing, and eating :)
So, here is my Thanksgiving note to my family:
I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving day filled with wonderful Hawaii family, Wyoming family, and Utah family. I love you all and wish that we could be there with you. Please know that we think of you all constantly and we are THANKFUL that we get the privilage of spending forever with you!!

THANKFUL
Somedays, we forget to look around us,
Somedays, we can't see the joy that surrounds us.
So caught up inside ourselves,
We take when we should give.
So for tonight we pray for, what we know can be,
And on this day we hope for, what we still can't see.
It's up to us, to be the change,
And even though we all can still do more,
There's so much to be thankful for.
Look beyond ourselves, there's so much sorrow,
It's way to late to say, I'll cry tomorrow.
Each of us must find our truth, it's so long overdue.
So for tonight we pray for, what we know can be,
And everyday, we hope for, what we still can't see.
It's up to us, to be the change,
And even though we all can still do more,
There's so much to be thankful for.
Even with our differences,
There is a place were all connected,
Each of us can find each others light.
So for tonight, we pray for what we know can be,
And on this day, we hope for, what we still can't see.
It's up to us, to be the change,
And even though this world can still do so much more
There's so much to be thankful for.

LOL!

My sister says I need a new post.

Here it is :)

Love you Marci! (And Jennilyn and Heather and Megan!!)

8 Months Old

It is hard to believe that little man is already 8 months old. He is such a joy. He had his checkup a few weeks ago and lets just say he is definitely healthy :) Zach weighs 20 lbs and he is 27 inches long. He is in the 55% for his weight and 75% for his height.

He is such a sweet boy!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Monkey!!

Monkey,

We love you so much! You are so sweet and loving and your big smiles make us all so happy! Mommy cannot believe that you are already 2 years old! It feels like yesterday that you were this small..

and had lots of nice nurses in the NICU falling in love with all your blond hair. We were so excited when we got to bring you home from the hospital the day before Thanksgiving.

You have learned so much and we love listening to you talk about Blue's Clues. There isn't much more that you will talk about right now :) We love that you always want to sing Popcorn Popping and you always want to be around your nursery friends. You are such a joy!

We hope that you have a great birthday and enjoy all your new toys! We love you Monkey!!

Love,

Daddy, Mommy, Tanner & Zach

Family Pictures 2009

So last week we went to an apple farm and had our family pictures taken. I was so sick at the time and my eyes are so swollen in all the pictures that I am in..I think I will be asking for a retake of all the photos with myself in them. Here are all the others for your viewing pleasure :)


This is my favorite! You can see Zach better in the real picture. (Michael is holding him)

Love this one of the boys in a wheel barrel:


Our sweet Gavin man!


So sweet!


Gavin doing Popcorn Popping

Smiley Zach

I am going to ask our wonderful photographer to cut Tanner out of this photo because it is the perfect picture of Zach :)

Daddy and the boys

Slobber boy!

Another picture of Gavin being adorable!

This little man is growing up so fast!

I really like this picture also! That sweet laughing smile melts my heart!

There is nothing better than sitting on your brother :)

"A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet" (This is him smelling)

OK, sadly these are the only two pictures of myself that I am somewhat comfortable with. I wish I had not been sick at the time :(

I Spoke A Little Too Soon!!!

I hate when I say something like,"I am so glad that all this sickness is finally leaving our house!" Stupid me!! I should have known that when your kepboard is not made of wood you should just keep your mouth shut! So what am I getting at with all this ranting? MY CHILDREN ARE SICK AGAIN!!! Gavin was up all night with a croupy cough and Zach was back to coughing this morning, so I took them both back to the doctors office and found out that they both have double ear infections and Zach also has a sinus infection. I feel like Job! Ok, so that is exaggerating it a bit. But not much! I am not sure how much more of this I can take in one month. Oh well, I guess I will just become nocternal.

The House of Sickness

I have never been one to complain about my kids being sick. I know it happens and we have actually been very blessed with our kids not getting to horribly sick. UNTIL NOW! I am so so tired of having a sick family! All the lovely-ness started about a month ago when Tanner brought the cold bug home from school with him. He was then very kind and shared that bug with Gavin. When Gavin gets sick, he is soooooo sick! He has had croup about 7 times in his 2 short years.
I was beginning to think that Gavin did not yet get the consept of sharing until Zachary started coughing one day. UGH!! Zach has now had this horrible ickyness for 3 weeks. Because of the severity of his cough and a fever, he was put on Tamaflu. Thank goodness for Tamaflu! He is finally starting to feel better and sleep again.
I usually love when my sweet children share things with me....but not this! After Zach decided that I needed to join in on the sicky fun I got sooo sick! It has now been a little over a week and I think I am starting to feel better. For a while there nothing was working for me.
I am happy that it looks like we are on the tail end of this bug sharing, we just hope that nobody else has to deal with it!!