Last week on the 10th Chris was helping me make breakfast. I was putting some potatoes in the pan on the stove when I turned around and he was reaching for his glass of water and slipped on the chair. He hit the counter top and then face planted on the floor. He bit right through his lip. WOW, there was a lot of blood. Needless to say we ended up in the Emergency Room. They let the inside wound heal it’s self, but he got 4 stitches on the outside of his lip. They were in for 5 days, and then we went in and got them out. He had the same nurse. She had brought another nurse in with her to help her, when she walked in and saw that is was Chris she said, “oh you can go help someone else. I had him when he got them in and he is a great boy. I won’t need help”. That was really nice to hear, he really was a great patient. When they were putting in the stitches they had numbed it and then waited over an hour. When the Dr started putting in the stitches he wasn’t numb anymore. He put the stitches in anyways. I about lost it, but Chris was so brave. He just said “no more please Dr”, but didn’t move. I know that we wouldn’t have been as brave.

Chris is ALL BOY!! and is going to give us a run for our money (as they say). He DOES, and then MAYBE thinks about it. LOL!! He is quite proud of his adventures and will tell you all about them.

Back on November 6 (yes almost a month late) it was my week to be helper “mom” at Joy School. We were talking about our 5 senses. We made Chocolate Pudding and here is how they were using their 5 senses.

They were able to see the ingredients, hear the ingredients being stirred together, to smell the pudding (chocolate yummy).
They were able to TOUCH it, and make pictures or whatever their little hearts desired, and to TASTE it off of their precious little fingers :)

It was fun to watch them; some weren’t too sure about getting in there and exploring what they would be able to do. It didn’t take too long before they were all in it and having fun.
It has been so much fun to watch these little ones all learn and grow. I’m so glad that Chris and I are having this experience. We are BOTH learning and gaining friends, what more can one ask for. :)

Ok finally I have a copy of Twilight to read,

thanks to my best friend STEPH.

Now I can go with the girls on girl’s night out to see the movie!! Chad was supposed to work a double tomorrow (later today now), and Steve is off work. I thought it would be perfect to get it read then. I've been trying to listen to it but it's hard to always focus on it with a 4yr old talking above the audio reader. Chad just got home..oh well 2 hrs ago now.. and he does the double on Monday. So I’ll see how much I can squeeze into this weekend and get it finished as soon as I can. I have to be ready for our night. :). That will be my first night out with friends in a long while, except for this AWESOME class that Cyrene and I just took together for the past 3 Wednesday nights, but that was a little different than a movie night.

I’m behind several weeks in reading all my blogs.

Well I can read them on my phone i.e.:

waiting for Jimmy after school, waiting at the Dr office etc.

But I can’t post comments so I have to find time (lol) to go back and post them. Well tonight is the first time that I could, and I got to everyone’s!!.. Thank you for all your beautiful posts and you comments on mine.

I love to get them and know that someone actually reads my blog. I’m reaching the magical 100th post, I’m already thinking about what I want to do for it :), is that silly? lol

Even though we had snow in early October, November 5th was Griz’s first snow… She wasn’t too sure about it at first but then started playing and really enjoying it. Cub just watched her, you could just imagine Cub looking at her and saying “kids” while shaking her head… lol … Griz kept taunting her to play, it was cute and the boys and I were laughing and enjoying watching them (from inside). The boys wanted to go out in it so bad they emerged upstairs with their snow boots on over their “footed” P.J.’s. Never a dull moment around here…lol

So the day after Halloween we hosted a Daddy Daughter Dinner for our Activities Day Girls. We were originally going to have a Halloween theme, but the girls all decided that they wanted to have it be an 80’s theme. They thought that their Dad’s would like that better and that their mom’s would enjoy helping them get dressed up. I think that they were right on both occasions. Everyone seemed to have a really good time and enjoyed themselves.

(When did the 80”s become the oldie’s? Wasn’t that our parents time, the oldie's? What happened??)

It was good to see the girls interact and COMPETE (wow there was some real competition there lol) with their Dad’s.
We had them write for each other: My Dad/Daughter is Dad/Daughter of the year because:… (they filled in the rest)
At the end we had them read them to each other, it was a great ending to a great night.

Chris had quit the Birthday shebang!! It was a fun filled weekend that started on Thursday at Joy School. He got to wear a crown that he decorated with Spiderman stickers. He took cupcakes that he picked out. Some had orange and some with black icing. The kids that ate the black ones had green all around there faces; it was hilarious except for that night, wow that did some tricky things in the bowels…lol YUCK! He had so much fun with the whole day!

Then on Saturday we had the FRIEND’S Birthday Party!!
We ate pizza rolls, played toss in the pumpkin that Frankenstein was holding, made goodie bags, sucker spiders and ghosts (thanks to the ward carnival), and musical dots. Everyone had a great time and Chris was so happy. I still smile when I think about the day.
Thank you Jennifer and Lisa for all your help that day!

And all his friends for the great gifts!

Our Family Party was on Sunday on his actual Birthday. We had Dinner all together at the table (I can only get that to happen on holidays and special occasions), CHOCOLATE cake he asked for, and then everyone’s favorite OPENING GIFTS! He got to open his gifts from all his family. He got p.j.’s and clothes from Grandma Nielson, he didn’t’ take them off for ever!!, Mickey Mouse shirt and movie (his favorite) from Grandma and Papa Johnson, Thomas the Train books from Uncle Chris, aunt Roxy and cousin Ty. From us here, we all got him BATMAN stuff…he was in 7th heaven!!.. He hasn’t stopped playing with ANY of it!!... I don’t think that he’s touched another toy since his birthday!!
THANK YOU to everyone it was DEFINITELY his best birthday ever!!

He called Grandma Nielson at bedtime to let her know that he was wearing his new P.J.’s to bed that night. He told her all about the night, “showed” her that he was wearing his P.J.’s lol. He was very talkative that night. Mom and I had a good laugh. How could you not be grinning from ear to ear, he cracks me up!! (most of the time…lol)

This was the day after his Birthday… the two of them played forever!! And then crashed together!! :) we are so lucky that they are such good friends, just like brothers should be. I hope that they remember that for the rest of their lives and never let anything break them apart. I hope that they have learned that most important lesson. As our mom use to say… “you always have your family, when everyone else is gone they will always be there for you”.

I hope that my family knows that I am still here for them and love them dearly.

Do you remember our Plumbing Issues Well they got worse. It got to the point that I wasn’t able to use the washer at all. Then I wasn’t able to use the Dishwasher without flooding the basement. I was able to use the Kitchen sink as long as I didn’t let much water down at a time, then guess what… yup you guessed it, NO more Kitchen sink either. So I was doing dishes in buckets and having to make sure that no one used the water in the sink. We broke down and called a Plumber out. I thought that all we needed to do is “snake” the pipe….NOPE!! He let me know that the pipe was broken, a $1600 -$2600 quote to fix it and a charge of $135.00 for finding it and I still had no use of my utilities. Let me tell you, we (all of us) have come quit accustomed to these “Modern Miracles”. I just told myself the PIONEERS had it worse than this, so we can do this!!

Chad’s brother Chris (we have BIG Chris and LITTLE Chris when he’s here) is a plumber and he came to our rescue!!!!....
THANK YOU CHRIS!!
I called him and asked him what we should do and if this was for real. He assured me that it was and that his company would have charged us $3600. Well Chris came out at the end of the week, from Colorado, and FIXED it for us!!!... Our Neighbors and Steve all pitched in and helped with what they could and we have our utilities working!!.. WHAT A RELEIFE!! We seriously could not have done it without him and a special thanks to Abe our neighbor (you’ll see why in the pictures).

So we had everyone come over that night after the school carnival for homemade chili (a small thank you from us) and then headed over to the church carnival. We were so excited because Ty (Chris and Roxy’s 2 yr old son) got to go with us. We all had a blast and then went and checked out the haunted house where Frankenstein SCARED me to DEATH!! (I even hit my head on the steering wheel) while ALL the boys laughed at me A LOT!!... it was a great end to a very long ordeal.

The dust and mud was EVERYWHERE!!

Wow can I remember back that far???... I know that it was a busy day from 7am till 11pm… just like everyone else. What I didn’t’ get a chance to post about I guess, was that Chris and I surprised Jimmy for lunch that afternoon (he thought that we were coming over after lunch) we stayed for the Halloween Parade and then the Class Party. Can I say I was dreading and “totally” nervous as could be in anticipation of what Chris’s behavior would be at the party, but he was AWESOME!!... Thanks to Mrs. Nuttell letting him play with the class toys, he went over to the corner and played all by himself quietly and never disturbed anyone!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!..ANY of his Joy School Teachers wouldn’t… LOL!! But he did, and when the class was cleaning up he cleaned up the toys that he was playing with and put them away no mess, no fuss. He is always good at cleaning up, but I didn’t even have to ask him. I was so proud of him!! :) Mrs. Nuttell even sent him home a special treat on Monday because he did so good.

Ok so now I just have to get him to do that and behave that way at Joy School… not sure how I’m going to work that magic yet, but I’m trying!! To all my Joy School Mom’s: THANK YOU for your patience!! I can say that he is learning and can tell me what the teachers taught each day. He LOVES each of you very much!!

Jimmy's School Parade and class Party
Joy School Halloween Party
Church Halloween Carnival

WOW WHAT A HALLOWEEN SEASON FOR US!! And we SURVIVED!!

ok so I'm not 5 weeks behind...lol I'll be posting this weekend and my goal is to be all caught up again :)... I"ll try and not bore you too much. :)

Just wanted to let those of you know that watch our blog, and aren't a blogger, that I have reset my comment settings. I didn’t realize or forgot that when I first set up the blog, I had it set that you had to have a Google account to leave a message. So now any of you can leave a comment on the posts. If someone that we don’t know leaves a comment it might not be approved.

We love our family and friends and love hearing from you. We are so glad and lucky to have so many good people in our lives.