Hyrum's First Recital

Alright! I've been looking forward to this post for a while! The hard part is going to be deciding which pictures to post since I have way too many.

Hyrum started taking piano lessons through ISU from a friend of mine in February. I felt a little bad that we didn't get him started right at the beginning of the semester, but we had other things on our minds. Since he hadn't been playing as long as the other students, I was surprised when his teacher asked me if he could play in the recital at the end of April. We asked Hyrum if he would like to perform, and he excitedly said yes. As it turns out, he loves performing.

He prepared one of the earliest and easiest songs he learned since we were afraid that he would stop and start over if he messed up. He tends to be a perfectionist, and won't just pick up where he made the mistake and carry on.

Because he was the most beginning of all the beginner students in the recital, he went first. I couldn't keep myself from smiling as Dr. Bond announced Hyrum and he took the stage. He played well and didn't make any mistakes. He even turned to look the audience to make sure they were listening as he played. He wasn't even the slightest bit nervous! He smiled at the applause as he took his bow. I don't know where he gets his courage from . I hate performing!

I wanted to get pictures of Hyrum at the piano after the recital, so I took him back on stage and asked him to play something. Instead of playing one quick song, he played through all the songs he had learned so far. He had every song memorized. I don't know why it surprised me--this is Hyrum, after all! He played for almost a half hour. I halfheartedly asked him to hurry up or told him that he should play just one more, but the truth was, I was enjoying how much he loved playing on the stage. Plus, I was getting tons of great pictures! And speaking of pictures...

Hyrum and his teacher, Stephanie.

Our family.

A more accurate representation of our family.

Since Hyrum went first, Stephanie was able to give him some last minute instruction on the stage.

This one is a little dark, but I love Hyrum's half smile.

This is how most of the photo session went. I'd get a serious picture of him playing...

Then he'd notice I was taking pictures, and give me a goofy grin.

Serious

Smiley

Such a big instrument for such a little boy.

There are plenty more pictures on my Facebook profile that I didn't include in this post. They're all good, so I suggest you go take a look!

Hyrum enjoyed his recital so much that he signed up for talent show try outs at school a couple of weeks later. He came home after his try out upset that he had messed up and wouldn't get to play in the show. I guess he's as hard on himself as I am on myself because I got a call from his teacher a few days later telling me that he was going to play. I hope he continues to enjoy the piano throughout his life.

Car Accident

We woke up to a big snow storm on February 25th. I left for school early, knowing that traffic would be slow due to the slick roads. The roads were even worse than I had first thought, so I was only going about 5-10 mph. As I came up to the stop sign at the end of the road, I knew that I would have to stop early. I tried to slow down several yards ahead, but not only was the car not stopping, it wasn't even slowing. The street that ran perpendicular to ours was a major road and the intersection was right next to a grade school, so I wasn't surprised to see a minivan coming straight at me.

The van was only going about 20 mph, but I could see from the look on the driver's face that she had no control over her vehicle. I turned my car toward the shoulder of the road to lessen the impact, but the front of the van still hit the front of my car,

then fish tailed and hit the back of my car.

It then slid across the oncoming lane, through a fence,

through another fence and a hedge,

then hit a railroad tie, broke its back axle, and came to a rest in a flower garden after having driven through two yards.

The police determined that nobody was "at fault" due to severe weather conditions and didn't give any inattentive or reckless driving tickets. I think the fact that both officers slipped on the road and fell on their behinds helped my cause. However, according to the insurance agencies, someone had to be at fault. And of course, since I was the one who didn't stop at the stop sign, my insurance shouldered the cost. Thank goodness I had full coverage on the Hyundai! Costs of repair to just our car was almost $6900. The car was in the shop for over a month! The van was totaled due to the broken axle. I didn't get an exact figure on the cost to replace the van or on the property damage for the yards, but they told me the total figure came to over $10,000. Although the deductible was $500 we didn't have, we happily paid it, knowing that it could have been a lot worse.

Emily's Surgery

Back in the post for Emily's birthday, I mentioned that Emily had been referred to a urological surgeon about her bladder infections and reflux. When we met with the urologist, he told us that the injection would not work in Emily's case because the reflux was too severe. After several reschedules, Emily finally had her surgery on February 2nd. Maybe this should have gone in my last post on January randomness, but we bought Emily a new dress the weekend before her surgery. That Sunday, we went to my mom's house so that Sherwin could assist Mike in giving Emily a pre-operation priesthood blessing. Emily begged us to bring her dress so she could show it off to Grandma and Grandpa. My mom has a lot of very cute pictures of Emily dancing in her dress. The only picture I have is of Emily dancing with her Grandpa Crooks, but it's dang cute! She adores her grandpa!

We tried to prepare Emily for what was coming, but she didn't really get it. I explained to her that the doctor was going to make a small cut in her tummy and fix her insides, and that it would hurt for a while, but she would feel better and not get sick as often when it was over. Emily started giggling, and when I asked her why, she answered incredulously, "The doctor is going to fix my insides? That's pretty funny."

We arrived at the hospital at about 5:00 am to fill out all the paperwork. The surgery wasn't scheduled to start until 7:00. Emily was still mostly unaware of what was going to happen. She was cute and chatty with all the doctors and nurses, thinking it was all a fun game. They all treated her and us wonderfully. I was so impressed with the staff at Portneuf Medical Center.

Although we knew what day Emily's surgery would be, we hadn't been given a time. We got a call from the hospital at about 7:00 pm the night before asking us to come in at 5:30 am, so we didn't have time to make arrangements for Hyrum to stay with a friend or neighbor before school. I worried a little bit about bringing him with us to the hospital, but the staff didn't mind at all. The nurses let him listen to Emily's heart and explained the numbers to him as they checked her vitals.

They made a big deal of how "pretty" she looked in her hair net. Emily believed them. After all, she didn't have a mirror. Mike was given a sharpie and asked to put an X over her left kidney and initial it. I assume that this must be to avoid mistakes and lawsuits.

Emily's surgery was scheduled to start around 7:00, but they actually started a bit later. Emily became scared for the first time and asked Mike to stay with her. Such a daddy's girl! They let him stay with her up to the operating room and let her take her Jessie doll in with her. Emily was already knocked out by the time they got there, and didn't even notice that Mike was gone.

At around 7:30, the surgeon came in and recommended that we allow him to perform the surgery on both sides, not just the left. There was only minor reflux on the right side, and if left alone, she would probably outgrow it. However, because of the severity of the reflux on the left side, the surgeon said that the right was likely to become worse after the left was fixed. We told him to go ahead and fix both sides. Hyrum was playing with his Bakugan (Hyrum's new favorite toys, thanks to Dave) when the surgeon came out, and was thrilled when the doctor said, "Hey, Bakugan! Cool!"

After the surgery began, Mike took Hyrum to school and brought back breakfast. Around 10:00, the doctor came out and told us that all had gone well, and Emily was resting. She had lost about 70% of her kidney function on the left side, but he said that 30% healthy is healthy enough. Additionally, her right kidney was still in perfect condition.

The next hour and a half seemed impossibly long while Mike and I waited for the doctors to tell us it was okay to go see Emily. When we finally got to see her in the wake up room, she was in a lot of pain. She kept telling me, "He broke me! The doctor broke me!" Relief finally came when they gave her an epidural. It was still several more hours before they moved her to a regular hospital room.

Emily spent the next couple of days in the hospital, and I slept on a fold away bed/chair in her room. It was quite clear every time the pain killer wore off. She became more angry and bitter towards the nurses and doctors the longer she was in the hospital despite their bribes of books, dolls, and ice cream. Comfort came from the lady bug pillow pet and Hello Kitty balloon Mike and I gave her and the blanket from her Great-Grandma Sears. As she started to feel better, she wanted to get out of the bed. However, every time she tried to stand, she was in too much pain to walk and would collapse into my lap crying. However, when she had enough pain killer, she was her usually happy self!

Although Emily hated being in the hospital, she was scared to leave when the time came. She told us that she was afraid that if we left, she would get hurt more. Thankfully, the Hello Kitty sweater from her Grandma and Grandpa Crooks provided her with the courage she needed. Anything is possible with Hello Kitty! We gave her one dose of Tylenol the morning after we brought her home, but aside from not wanting to be picked up for fear of it hurting, and tiring out quickly, she seemed to be her usual self. That weekend we took her to my mom's house for the rest of her recovery so Mike and I could return to school. Hyrum was upset. He misunderstood, thinking that Emily wasn't going to live with us anymore, and cried, "But now we don't have a girl anymore." Emily recovered quickly. In fact, if it wasn't for the 4" scar, you'd never know she had surgery!

January Randomness

January brought a new semester of school. We also got rid of our black cat Buyo because of behavior issues. We were sad to get rid of Buyo, and Diaho mourned the loss of his best friend for weeks. Eventually, we got a new tortoise shell cat, Kagome. Kagome was a rescue who had been hanging around a house where several large, aggressive dogs lived. She was still a kitten, but was getting older and was scheduled to be put down later that week if nobody adopted her. She looked so much like my mom's sweet cat Goldie that she instantly stole my heart. She turned out to be a wonderful cat! She was petite, dainty, well behaved, and affectionate but also playful and feisty! She had a few eccentricities such as chasing bottle caps and licking Mike's hair, but they only made her more endearing. Even Diaho was happy to have her in our home. She was the perfect fit in our family. Sadly, I don't have many pictures of videos of Kagome. She was only with our family for a short time before she passed away in May from unknown causes.

My step-dad Sherwin has a wood shop out in his shed. Every now and then, he tinkers with things such as the sunflower lawn decoration he made for my mom one year. His latest project has been making what he has called "tone boxes" for his and Mom's grandkids. He makes them out of different types of hard wood, so no two look the same. The one he gave to Hyrum and Emily is made of cedar and walnut and looks as beautiful as it sounds. He wrote a short message on the underside and signed it for them. Both kids love playing it, and Emily enjoys making up songs to sing as she plays. I'm sure the kids will always treasure it, and there just might be a fight about who gets to have it when they're grown.

Weddings

The end of December and beginning of January brought my 31st birthday and weddings. Two of Mike's nieces got married within a week of each other. Their mother must have been going crazy trying to plan and organize! We weren't able to attend Caryssa's wedding due to weather conditions, but we made it to Ashley's on January 7th.

Brock and Ashley were married in the Salt Lake temple. Mike and I were excited to attend the ceremony since we haven't been back to the SLC temple since our own wedding. Unfortunately, Mike's recommend was expired, and mine was left at home. We tried to make some quick phone calls to my bishop and stake president to verify my recommend so that at least I could attend, but the process took too long. Instead, we waited with the kids in the designated waiting room until the family came out for pictures.

We had a nice visit with Mike's family, including two of his brothers who live far enough away that we only see them every couple of years. Both newlywed couples looked happy and completely oblivious to the world outside their own--just the way newlyweds should look!

There was a beautiful reception that night in Wyoming. Everyone danced. I got video of nearly everyone, although a few people managed to dodge the camera. My kids had a blast dancing, particularly Hyrum. I have no idea where he learned to "dance" like that, but he had me laughing so hard that I didn't have time to worry about whether or not he was putting holes in his suit. Although I love the scenes of Hyrum dancing, I have to say that my favorite parts of this video are Mike and my brothers-in-law dancing with their daughters. Too sweet! <3

Christmas in Las Vegas!

This post is dedicated to Sandi who threatened to remove me from her blog list if I didn't post an update soon.

Since yesterday (when I started working on this blog) was July 25th, I figured this would be a good time to write about Christmas! I have been trying to be more positive on my blog, so I won't go into the details of why last Christmas was so difficult for our family. Honestly, it isn't even necessary because last Christmas, we were reminded that people are amazing. They are kind and generous and mindful of others. All throughout the month of December, friends and neighbors anonymously left food and gifts for the kids at our doorstep. We were so grateful.

Mike and I weren't able to afford any presents for Christmas, so we relied on family activities to make the holidays memorable for the kids. We spent one weekend decorating our house. Thanks to our mischievous kittens, Buyo (the black one) and Diaho (the orange one), the tree was never decorated. The tree was a hand-me-down from my aunt Judy and has been getting progressively more ragged every year. Thanks to our wonderfully thoughtful kittens, we will probably be getting a new one next year. Someone should invent a kitten proof tree. They'd make millions.

Another weekend was spent making gingerbread houses from two kits which were left on our doorstep. One kit was a traditional ginger bread house while the other was made of Rice Krispies. Both kits were so stale that we couldn't eat them, but we had fun decorating and making a mess!

The Rice Krispy Treat house turned into a large amorphous blob, so we ripped it up and turned it into snow men... kind of. The weird looking one on the far left was Emily's.

On December 20th, we were driving around Pocatello looking for something Christmas-y to do. I think we were contemplating heading to Idaho Falls when I got a phone call.

"This is Alex Guerrero calling on behalf of the Ryan Clady Foundation."

Now, in the back of my mind, I knew who Alex Guerrero and Ryan Clady were, but I couldn't think of any possible reason why they'd be calling. As a result, all that came out of my mouth was a skeptical, "Uh-huh...?"

"Would your family be interested in going to the Las Vegas Bowl?"

"Very much..." I remembered hearing that Ryan Clady had asked for names of Boise State fans who might be having a rough year and would appreciate a trip to the bowl game, but a family had already been chosen.

"Well, we'd like to invite you at our expense."

"...Seriously? Um... yeah... I mean... yeah! That's amazing!!"

Our conversation continued while Mike remained oblivious in the seat next to me. Apparently, after seeing how well things had worked out with the first family they selected, Chris Carr decided to fund a second family's trip and asked for the list of names. Our family was on the list. Alex told me that Mike was selected because they were impressed by a congratulatory note Mike had sent to the winning family. Alex asked how many were in our family, what our kids' ages were, and what size shirts they wore. Then he told me that, if we were going to go, we needed to be in Boise by 5:00 am the next morning.

Yikes! I handed Mike the phone so he could work out the details. I don't think he believed me when I told him who was on the phone. It was fun to watch him go through the same disbelief I had just minutes before. He turned the car around, and we headed home to pack. We debated whether we should leave then and ask our friends and family in Boise if any of them could put us up for the night, but we decided it was too short of a notice, and opted to sleep early and leave at 1:00 am. Wrong decision. We couldn't sleep.

We arrived in Boise early and had to wait for about an hour and a half in the cold car for the charter bus to show up. When it finally came, the bus was as cold as our car! We tried to sleep in the bus, but it just didn't happen. The drive was long and terrifying as we drove through some horrible snow storms with white-out conditions. Luckily, Alex had all sort of fun activities to help pass the time. We had raffles and trivia contests. Mike and I had brought DVDs for the kids which the bus driver let us play on the bus's system. Thankfully, the other passengers didn't mind watching Cars and Toy Story. We had brought snacks, coloring books, and video games as a preemptive measure to keep the kids entertained on the long drive, but they surprised us by being incredibly well behaved. The other passengers kept commenting on how they were worried when they saw such young kids board the bus, but were impressed by how well behaved they were. Emily would always answer them by saying, "Nobody wants to hear me cry, so let's all have fun!" Despite the long drive and lack of sleep, nothing seemed to upset the kids except when Emily misunderstood and thought that we were going to Lost Vegas. She insisted that she didn't want to be lost, she wanted to watch Boise State.

We arrived in Vegas that evening. The rest of the passengers took a shuttle from the hotel to the strip, but we didn't have any money for the taxi ride back. Instead, we stayed in the hotel, ordered a pizza, and took hot baths to warm up from the cold bus ride. We were all too exhausted to do anything else anyhow!

The next morning, we hit the strip. We figured there must still be plenty to do without spending money. What we didn't take into account was the amount of walking and the amount of rain. Our hotel was "just off the strip," but we didn't realize how far off the strip it really was! The kids and Mike had their fun at my expense as they watched my hair get curlier and curlier from the rain. I don't look good with curly hair. It only got worse as the rain stopped and my hair dried into a nice gravity-defying frizz. However, we were much more concerned about our shoes and pants. It wasn't until after we got back to the hotel that we found out that Vegas was under a flash flood warning. All we knew was that the water was often ankle deep and we were soaked through from all the walking. Still, we were enjoying ourselves too much to care.

When we got back from the strip, we all changed into dry clothes. Mike and I used my hair dryer and the hotel's hair dryer to try to dry out our shoes. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort. By game time, it was raining again, and it only took seconds of being outside before we were soaked. We headed to the stadium early and went to all the free tailgate activities we could find. We didn't have ponchos, and vendors were selling them for as much as $20 a piece. That's a bit too much for a garbage bag with arm holes, if you ask me! We finally found someone who offered to sell us a two pack for $5, and give them to the kids. Later, we saw a kid pull off his poncho and throw it on the ground because it had a hole in it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I snatched it up and put it on right then and there.

The game was the coldest I've ever attended, but it was totally worth it! Hyrum kept telling the Ute fans behind us, "Boise State wins by far." He wasn't trying to taunt them, but I don't think they appreciated it much, and they changed seats before the fourth quarter. An older couple in front of us kept fawning over Hyrum and Emily, and the kids ate it up. Best of all, Hyrum was right, and Boise "won by far."

After the game, we went down to the field and managed to get pictures with Joe Southwick the backup quarterback. Hyrum begged for the chance to meet a real football player, but he was stunned into silence when he saw just how tall he really was. Also, although we didn't get any pictures with the real Doug Martin, we did get a picture with the Muscle Hamster. Back at the hotel, we dried off and piled our beds high with warm blankets.

The next morning, we boarded the bus to Boise, then drove to Pocatello. We arrived home at 1:30 am Christmas Eve, and promptly fell asleep. When we woke up, it was to another surprise. Someone had given our family money to buy Christmas presents! Mike and I dumped our kids off with my parents and went shopping. We all met up at my Grandma Sears's house that evening for presents with the extended family. That night, we gave both kids new pajamas. Hyrum's had Mario, Luigi, and Bowser on them, and Emily's had zebra pants and a zebra applique on the shirt and came with a stuffed zebra. Hyrum ran around pretending to be Mario, collecting coins and jumping on blocks. Emily was in heaven pretending to be a zebra. I think that in her mind, zebras are as close to perfection as anything on this earth. The next morning we opened presents and enjoyed a nice Christmas at my mom's house. I promise you we had a good time even though I don't have pictures or videos. I didn't have time to recharge my camera after Vegas. Oops!