A week of fun and celebration!

Elie rolled over for the first time May 17th.

Austin turned 6 on May 21st.

Austin graduated from Kindergarten May 23rd.

Tom and Austin's birthday party May 23rd.

Tom turned 32 May 25th.

Keaton (& everyone else) had a long and fun week. This is at the end of Memorial Day May 26th.

Oops!!!

A sad thing happened a few days ago. Tom had created another blog which he only posted on once and decided to delete it. He was in a hurry and was clicking quickly and he accidentally clicked on our blog to delete it. So poof it was all gone. He was able to recover the latest page and that's it. So that's why it looks different and the comments are all gone. Both of us were just sick over it and I wished I had printed everything. Oh well, it shouldn't happen again.

Kid's Pictures

Why is it that when you get everyone ready to try to get pictures taken that everyone turns grouchy and tired? Last night Tom tried to take a picture of all the kids for me. Keaton wouldn't co-operate and Elie was not in the mood. Then when we tried to get them all together....major meltdown. If they weren't crying they were fighting with each other or grimacing like someone was hurting them. Here are a couple of our attempts:

May

After school a couple of weeks ago Austin decided he wanted to read his book to Elie. He read it to her and then he was telling her all about it. Who the author was, that it wasn't our book we were just borrowing it from Mrs. Taylor, and that "it was a good book wasn't it." I was very sweet and so cute.

We went to baby animal day at the Blackfoot fairgrounds last Saturday with Holly and Shon and their family. Here's Shaustia with a baby chick. Her knee is doing much better we think she may even be able to play at least one soccer game and participate in her dance recital.

Keaton holding one of the baby ducks at baby animal day.

Elie is reaching milestones so quickly it seems. This is her first time trying rice cereal. She didn't hate it but she just kept spitting it out. Her little tongue just gets in the way when I try to give it to her and then she just pushes it back out. We'll keep trying once in awhile and she'll get the hang of it.

This is Elie in the saucer for the first time. She wants to grab everything so I thought I'd try this out and see if it couldn't keep her busy. She enjoys it for a little while and then gets tired. It's amazing this saucer has made it to the fourth child and it still looks nice.

On this day I always find myself wondering what I would talk about if I were asked to give a talk on Mother's Day about mothers. I figure my story of mothers is not exactly the norm and I don't know what I would say.

This Mother's Day though I realized what I would say and decided to share it with you. Don't ask me why I just thought I would. I mean who is deranged enough to write a talk he will never give? Well since deranged is my middle name I guess I'll go ahead with the rest of this blog.

Today I would like to talk a little about a certain mother. See, there aren't many mothers that get to choose who their children are going to be. Most of them come after nine months of pregnancy and start off as a little baby and they usually come one at a time, with some exceptions.

With my situation my biological mother had some serious mental health problems and decided (not consciously like you and I decide) that she no longer wanted to be mine and my brother's and sisters mother on this earth anymore. Just so you know I have three older sisters and at the time three younger brothers. That’s right seven kids ages 3 thru 11 years old found themselves without a mother. Worse than that is that we had been without a mother in the home for almost four years and the oldest ones, at least, had become very independent. Kristin my oldest sister basically became our mom through that time and had a massive amount of responsibility put upon her at a very young age. Probably explains why she is so anal and loves tons of stress in her life all the time.

Anyway, so the year after my biological mother died my father decided that his seven children needed a mother and started dating. He found a woman who was teaching school down in Utah that had never been married before and had no kids of her own. They started seeing each other and things moved pretty quickly. He then brought her home to meet us. If you can imagine what was going through the minds of seven children who really hadn't had a mother for quite awhile and who were used to doing everything themselves when presented with the idea that this woman was to become their mother.For some absolutely insane reason this woman chose to be the stepmother of seven children the youngest of four. Can you imagine trying to take on that task? Not only are these children not your biological offspring but also they have been motherless for a very long time. So father married her and she moved into our home. What a bizarre time this was for all of us. All of a sudden there was structure. There were rules and someone was there to force us to follow them. There was punishment for offenses to these rules. We had a new mom and she took over.

We each reacted differently to her and at the ripe old age of nine I had mixed reviews. We were not easy on her. I remember vividly to this day not finishing my chores before school one day so she made me finish them and be late for school and I turned to her as I was walking out the door and yelled "I hate you, you aren't my mother!" and slammed the door and walked out.

I remember many times hearing the sobbing coming from my parents room after one or more of us had ganged up on her and made her feel as horrible as possible. Why she didn't give up on us I will never know. A lesser person would have flown the coop many many times. Yet she stuck to it. She kept on us like a fly on a fresh cow patty. Some days were of course better than others. When I was in High School I clashed with her more times than not. I was an angry kid and we got into many arguments. I'll never forget the night she caught me sneaking out. She lectured me for hours on end the next day. My dad was on a business trip at the time and I tell you what she laid into me something fierce.

I know my other brothers and sisters were much the same with the exception of maybe Lisa. There were some nasty moments and yet this woman continued in this thankless never ending task of raising some obstinate kids.I never appreciated her until I left the house. Which for me it was the day I went into the MTC. I never knew just how much she had taught me and just how much I owed her for helping me grow up until then.

I knew how to clean my clothes and keep my underwear white. I knew how to cook and clean and take care of myself. My parents had forced me to get a job the day I turned 16. I actually started four days before my 16th birthday and have held a job ever since. But because of that I knew what work was all about and didn't shirk from my duties. I knew how to manage my money and not squander it. I knew how to act in certain situations with proper manners and etiquette. I knew everything I needed to in order to survive on my own. All because of a woman who I had called mother in words but never gave her the title in my heart until then.

She had chosen to be my mother and never gave up on me. I give her much credit in making me the man that I am. I was nothing close to grateful at the time but now I cannot share how grateful I am in my heart. I know some of my brothers and sisters still do not feel as I do, but they should. Usually a child knows the mother from birth and there is a direct bond. This mother, my mother, looked at us and chose to be our mother. For this I cannot thank her enough.

So on this Mother's Day I would like to recognize my step mother, whom I call Mom, for her endeavors and never giving up on seven extremely difficult children.

Thank you Mom! I love you!

Healing

On Tuesday they took the drain out of Shaustia's wound. They said it looked good, at least as good as it could, and gave her an antibiotic to help ward off infection. She will probably not be able to play in any of the rest of her soccer games but Tom will still be coaching. Hopefully she will be able to move it enough to participate in her dance recital at the end of the month. She stayed home from school on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today after school she's tired and keeps crying so she may have over done it. When Keaton saw her knee he spit while saying blah, and said disgusting. Austin is doing awesome with his soccer. We were a little worried where he's never played before and he's the smallest on the team. But he has been very impressive and he works hard. As soon as soccer is over we start into t-ball and softball. It makes it very busy but they enjoy it and it's good for them to exercise and learn how to be a team member.

Trip to the ER

Sunday May 4th was a beautiful sunny warm day, so we decided to pull out all the bikes including the bike trailer and go for a ride. Keaton and Elie were in the trailer behind Tom and the rest of us were each on our own bike. We rode around the neighborhood through the cul-de-sac's, up the sidewalks, and along the edges of the road. When we came back around to the last stretch towards home Austin announced that Shaustia was beating us. This sent Tom off to try and catch her. He passed her as Austin and I were coming up far behind. The next thing we knew Shaustia was screaming. Her bike was on it's side in the road, and she was clutching her knee in pain. We had no idea what had happened. We rushed to her as fast as we could and found that she had pretty much taken off half her knee when she crashed and you could see her knee cap. She was not wearing a helmet and she was wearing shorts. But somehow she managed to only bang up her left side: her knee very badly and a small scrape and bruise on her hand. We immediately knew we had to take her to the hospital. I took off on my bike and got the car to take her to the emergency room. Some very helpful guys who live in the house that Shaustia crashed at got us some gauze to at least cover the gaping wound so that we didn't have to look at it. I got through traffic as fast as a I could which was quite slow. With Shaustia crying and saying that she was scared and wishing that we could go faster. I carried her into the emergency room which normally would have been a feat since she is almost as tall as me, but with my adrenaline pumping it wasn't hard. We had to wait a few minutes and during that time Tom was able to get there. They eventually came in and numbed her knee, which was the worst part, then they scrubbed it and cleaned it and washed it over and over to try and get all the rocks and dirt out. Can I just say it was all really really gross! When they were done cleaning they put a drain in so that if it gets infected it has somewhere to come out at, and put in just 3 stitches so that her body would have as little amount of foreign objects in it as possible. She was so very brave the whole time. Yes she cried, but who can blame her. She did not get hysterical or scream while we were at the emergency room and she took the pain well. I was so proud of our girl! It took only 2 hours at the e.r. which is actually a record since it took 4 when I had to go last year. Tom rushed Keaton, Austin and Elie to our friend Holly's house before coming to the hospital. She is such a life saver, sweetheart, and great friend. While she was watching our children her husband had to take one of their sons into the urgent care and found he had an ear infection. I will forever be grateful to her and be in her debt, Thank you so much Holly. Now Shaustia's knee is wrapped in two 4 inch ace bandages to help keep it as straight as possible and tomorrow morning we go back in to have the drain taken out and we'll see what they do with it then. She has been such a trooper, this morning I tried to talk her out of going to school but she wanted to go. I ended up going to get her with only about and hour left of school, but I can't believe she lasted that long. She is very concerned about soccer and dance though. We will just have to wait and see how she is doing when the games and recital come. We found out during the course of the visit to the e.r. that she had been trying to get onto the road and there was a mailbox which scared her and then a patch of gravel her wheel slipped on and the edge of the driveway that her wheel must have caught on. Below is a picture of Shaustia's knee that we took after it had been cleaned out:

Eliana's Conversation

This is our Eliana cute and talkative. We don't remember the others doing this but she loves it. The glow worm is her best friend. She has conversations with it. Whenever she is fussing all we have to do is turn on the glow worm and she perks right up.
Whoever invented this device obviously was brilliant and obviously a parent. You can always tell when a device for children is invented by someone with kids and someone without. Frankly I don't think you should be allowed to create and sell anything for a child if you do no have at least one yourself.

Silly Little Delights

This is one of the pictures we took of Elie for her 4 month picture. She's such a silly little delight. We were at our friends, Holly and Shon, and put Elie in the swing. She loved it so I went out and bought one for us. She really enjoys it and I can get so much done. Elie's hair is just starting to grow so she has a fuzzy little head. I just can't belive that I can love each one of my children so very much and think that they are each the best in the world. I have the two most beautiful and sweet girls that there are and two of the most fun, handsome and smart boys ever.

Here is Keaton having a conversation with Czar (ZAR). He had to keep his cookies with him and I really don't think the dog cares what he says but I do believe he enjoys any attention he gets. I have so many pictures of Elie and Keaton to post but not so many of Shaustia and Austin. I guess that's probably because they are at school part of the day and the other two are always stuck here with me and my camera.