Julie & The Kids Come to Visit

 Julie and her kids came to Utah for their Spring Break. We went to my parents' to celebrate the March birthdays. Damon loved playing with Jonah!

I love to see all the cousins hanging out!

Rockwell has been dying to be taller than me. We took this picture at the end of January.

And we were talking about it again that night. We asked Paige to do a picture of us, and he's done it! He's taller than me now. He had a good little growth spurt between January and March!

We had tickets to Titanic at Hale Center Theatre Monday night. Rockwell was so excited to go hang out at Al's while the adults went to the show.

Pretty sure my nephews love it when their aunt jumps in their pictures with them. :)

Titanic was very well done, but it's such a sad story. At least I knew that going into it. :)

Tuesday night we had tickets to A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder at the Orem Hale Center Theatre. Rockwell was thrilled to get to hang out with his cousins again that night!

This time the nephews had a different aunt jump in their picture. Haha! I guess Mel and I think alike sometimes.

Tessa was at gymnastics both nights, so Paul and Damon had some fun hanging out together. They made ice cream sundaes one night and watched a movie. 

Grandpa was very sneaky taking treats into the play. We all laughed pretty hard when he offered us M&Ms from his medicine bottle. :)

We didn't think to do an auntie picture before Mel left to take my parents home that night. I was glad to get to see Julie and her kids again. We always love when they come to visit!

Easter With the Clarks

 We celebrated Easter early with the Clark's since Grandma and Gramps were going out of town again.

Dinner was great, and the kids were so excited for the egg hunt. The adults hid the eggs and toys all over the house because it was snowy outside.

Matt made sure to still make the teenagers' eggs real hard to find. :)

This & That

 Tessa's been excited to dog sit Sadie a few times lately. She's going to have puppies soon and Tessa is SO excited for that!

I love all the pictures we get of Zariyah! She's such a cutie!!

Tessa was in heaven getting to play with both Hallee and Sadie at the same time!

Anytime we have a remotely warm day outside we try to take advantage of it. Tessa loved finding a flower in our yard.

And then she was shoveling Roxanne's house the next day! The snow will seriously not stop this year!!!

Damon wanted to grill salmon for his dinner and it was delicious!

One of Rockwell's track meets was canceled because of the snow, so I was able to make it to the Author Meet with Chanel Miller. Her book Know My Name was my favorite of the three books we read in our book club this semester. I was glad I could make it to the meeting because she was really fun to talk with.

Rockwell started flag football through i9 Sports. He signed up with Aiden and Ashton and they've all loved it. It's been a lot of fun to watch.

Rockwell got the Sportsmanship Award at the first game for learning the plays quickly and not being obnoxious when he makes touchdowns. Ha! :)

Everyday Adventures

Damon was so excited to earn the Respectful Rhino and get to keep him on his desk all day.

My friends and I had been talking about our kids' rooms and how they drive us crazy with all the stuff they have in them. We were saying that it's hard to convince them to get rid of stuff when they love the clutter and feel like it's cozy when it's full of all their favorite things. That night Paul and I found Tessa sleeping like this. I would feel totally claustrophobic, but she thinks this is cozy. :)

I've been enjoying working with the Young Women. We piled the whole class in our van one night to Heart Attack some neighbors. I was happy I was in the driver's seat. :)

We went to collect food for a food drive and found out only one person on our route had known about the food drive. We had some good laughs about how exhausted we were after watching Liv pick up one bag of food off a porch. Haha! They all worked together to carry that one bag to the truck. :)

A few of the young women were in the elementary school's play The Little Mermaid so Damon, Tessa and I went to see it.

Audrey was such a good Ariel!

Rockwell joined the track team at school. It's been such a good thing for him! He was peer pressured into trying distance, and found out he loves it. :) At his first meet he ran the mile, the 800m, and the 4x400 relay.

He's loved making new friends on the team.

I've enjoyed watching his meets, and seeing him learn to enjoy distance running.

Rockwell was excited to go hang out at Al's house while Cody was here.

Life Lately

While I was away for the weekend, Carrie, Levi, Hayden, and Tanner slept over at our house. The boys had a few hockey games in Provo. The kids love love loved having their cousins over!

Grandma came up to watch a game, and brought Brylie with her.

She also took Rockwell (and Hayden) out for Rockwell's birthday Grandma Date. He had a great time! She stayed and played games with Paul and the kids and brought them some souvenirs from their most recent trip to Europe.

Soon after I woke up in Logan Friday morning, my dad texted the family and let us know that my mom had fallen while she was out on her run that morning. She broke both her jaws and cut her chin open to the bone. An ambulance had taken her to the emergency room since my dad isn't able to drive while his neck is healing from his surgery. Al had gone up there and taken my dad to the hospital and they were waiting to be checked into the hospital so she could have surgery on her jaw. I wanted to be there with my mom, so Audrey, Katie and I quickly checked out of our Airbnb and headed back. It was hard to see my mom so beat up, but I was so glad to get there and be with her. After the plastic surgeon that had been planning on doing the surgery looked at my mom's x-rays they decided to have an oral surgeon do it instead. She fractured her top jaw and bottom jaw, and her bottom jaw was shattered on one side. I can't even imagine how painful that must have been! The oral surgeon wasn't available to do the surgery until the next morning. I was so glad I had my overnight bag in the car from our girls night so I could stay the night with my mom. Neither of us got much sleep, and were very glad when it was finally time for the surgery Saturday morning. Al picked my dad up early that morning to make sure they were there before she went to the operating room. The surgery went well, and they got her chin stitched up and her jaws wired completely shut so they could heal. We were all relieved when she came back to her room.

We were all pretty exhausted and tried to sneak in some naps when we could throughout the day.

Since her jaws were wired completely shut, she wasn't able to drink out of a straw. She needed to be fed through a syringe with a tube extension on the end. The nurse showed us how to do it so we would be able to feed her when we went home. It's a slow process and I'm sure my mom was so hungry for the 5 weeks she had to eat this way. She was a very good sport about it and was always so grateful to each of us when we helped her eat. Mel was great about coming up with some good ideas of things to combine and blend up for a tasty meal. My dad brought an overnight bag and stayed the night Saturday with her. I'm sure that wasn't comfortable with his neck brace, but he wanted to be there with her. She was able to go home Sunday afternoon and was happy to get out of the hospital.

Matt and Cody flew in to help out and see Mom. There was a lot to get taken care of since neither Mom or Dad were able to drive, and their whole diet needed to be completely changed, and Mom needed all sorts of new medicines, and neither of them were able to do any lifting or housework. What an overwhelming feeling!! There was plenty for each of us to do over the next few days, and it was nice to have Matt there to stay at their house and help with what they needed during the nights. 

My parents hung the giant head pictures that Lori had printed for their 50th anniversary party in their garage. They're of each of them when they were first married. They had a good laugh saying they should write Year 1 under those pictures, and then hang this picture below it and write Year 50. Haha! Things sure can change in 50 years. :)

There sure is a lot of love that can be grown in 50 years too!!

Paul took care of all the things at home and with the kids for quite a few days so I could be with my parents. One night when I got home, I was overcome by the sweetness of the crock pot out on the counter with the liner in it. Paul had cleaned the house, taken care of getting all the kids where they needed to be, and had even got the crock pot prepared for me because he knew I was making soup the next day that I could take to my mom. Sometimes the people who aren't right there in the "action" of events can be overlooked. But Paul made it possible for me to be where I needed to be that week. I'm so grateful to have a partner like that. Thank you Paul!

The pain in my mom's face was so severe that she didn't even notice that she had also fractured her kneecap until days later. We were afraid she would need another surgery, but luckily the doctor said that should heal on its own. I've been able to take my parents to some of their doctor appointments, shop for them, and help clean their house. I hate hate hate that this happened to my mom. I have enjoyed seeing more of them the past month though. I'm glad I live close enough that I can help out and see my mom progress in her healing.