Christmas Letter 2009

I’m way behind on cards and such so I figured I would post my Christmas letter here on my blog where all can see it.

We’ve had a crazy busy year! We bought our house in May and finally painted the first room over Thanksgiving when we had all my family down here in Vegas (truthfully my mom and Sean did all the work!) It was amazing to have us all together. I got to see family that I had not seen in ages! It was such a great week.

It’s a gorgeous home and we love, love, love it! It even has an office where I can work and a room that is just dedicated to toys!

Sean- Is an accounting rock star! He passed his CPA exam this year! We are so very proud of him. It was a huge accomplishment and he worked really hard for it. He is still working at Piercy, Bowler, Taylor & Kern. He likes it there. He has lots of side projects and he is a fantastic father and husband. He takes the kids out on hikes in the desert, wrestles with them at night and helps out around the house so I can have a break. He’s really great about babysitting so I can work on school or go out on girl’s nights. He’s just amazing.



Apryl- I am still working for RC Transcription and I love it! It’s a great company with great people and it accommodates my ever changing schedule. I love that I can work from home. It’s a huge blessing! I’m also still working on my Bachelor’s degree from BYU. I promise I will finish! I have 3 classes left and am working on 2 of them now. I still run in the mornings and chase after my babies who are growing up too fast! Sean and I will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary on New Year’s Eve.



Vaughn- V is 4-1/2!!! He is such a great kid. He started Preschool this fall and loves his teacher, Miss Jenn. He played soccer this fall and loved practice but games were weird for him, he mostly sat and picked the grass at the beginning but by the end we had him running the whole time. It was really fun to watch him learn though Sean called me “Richard” a few times and threatened to ban me from games! He loves swords and can make a sword out of most anything and he loves to tie knots. He loves to play with his brother and sister. My kids are totally adapted to the Vegas heat. It took me 2 weeks to convince Vaughn he needed to wear pants, in DECEMBER!



Pax- Pax Bennett is 2 going on 20! She’ll be 3 soon and is such a fire cracker. She spent most of the year potty training and almost has it down. She loves Princesses and makes a wand out of just about anything. She is so adorable, such a girl, but a fearless girl. She can make me so frustrated and then look at me, say something sweet and my heart just melts. She is a great snuggler and can keep up with Vaughn which is a huge blessing. They are great friends.



Gage- Gage is my baby! He started out the year by ending up in the hospital with RSV in February. It was really scary but he was a trooper and recovered quickly. He is the most cuddly, adorable, sweet baby boy on the face of the Earth! He just makes me smile. I have watched him grow this year with a mixture of joy and sadness since he’s my baby! He is now almost 20 months. He started walking this year and he is starting to talk. He has his little blankey that he LOVES and cannot sleep without. He loves to try to play with Vaughn and Pax. He’s a big bruiser, never without some facial scar or bruise despite my best efforts. :)



We have had a great year filled with many bounteous blessings. We are so grateful for all we have, for wonderful friends and family. I love this time of year and the reminder of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


Love always,

Sean, Apryl, Vaughn, Pax & Gage

Disneyland 2009

We went to Disneyland over Nevada Day/Halloween and it was so fun! Thanks Brent and Michelle!!! We stayed at the Grand California and it was, as always, magical. I want to go in the summer when we can really enjoy all the pools. We went on Wed late afternoon and it was pretty windy but Vaughn put on a life vest and just jumped right in the middle of the big pool and swam and pretended sharks and octopi and fish were after him. So cute! Pax wore her Snow White dress and was in awe of the life-sized Princesses all around her. Vaughn was so excited about being big enough to go on the rides. He especially loved Tower of Terror (3x) Splash Mountain (2x) and Big Thunder Mountain RR (2x). Gage happily sat in his stroller but loved running around in ToonTown and the Winnie the Pooh ride. We went to the Playhouse Disney show which Pax and Vaughn loved. We saw parades and fireworks and of course we all LOVED Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion!!! But by Saturday we were fried and it was so nice to come home and as an added bonus we got home too late to go trick-or-treating which I have to admit was a bit of a relief. Here are some of our pics.

Bumper Cars in Bug Land



Apryl & Pax in Tarzan & Jane's Treehouse



Pax and Gage in Frontierland.



Gage on the Carousel



Pax on Carousel



I'll add more pics as I get them uploaded :) There are some really cute ones with Tigger and Pooh!!

I'm so cold!

So Mindy and I went running this morning for the first time in FOREVER and I felt it! First off I guess I still thought it was summer because I wore my flimsy soccer shorts and as soon as I stepped outside my legs went numb! Note to self: Time to bust out the Under Armor! We did really good but I was so cold! Time for gloves... so I got home and launched myself into bed where Sean was snuggled so warmly. Hehehe. Not for long :) I could not get warm so I got in the shower with super hot water until it ran out and now I'm in my cozy sweats and long t-shirt. It was totally worth it though. It felt good to pound the pavement with my best friend/running buddy Mindy :)

Book Club

So we had book club last night. There were 9 of us and it was so great. We talked and laughed, talked and talked and laughed until we realized what time it was, 11:30 p.m.! I had so much fun but then I woke up this morning with girl-talk hangover and all my insecurities flared up...Did I talk too much? Did I cut anybody off? Do they like me? And as I was making myself crazy outloud driving Sean to work this morning he says, "If they weren't having fun they would have gone home." and I thought okay that's probably true.

So girls I just want to say I love ya. You are awesome, intelligent women. I just love what book club has evolved into, and thanks for your friendship.

Apryl

P.S. Next month SYTYCD will be on! Maybe we should start at 7 :)

Running Tomato Face

I went on a run tonight at 7:30 and I asked Sean to follow me in the car to make sure no one abducted me or anything weird. (I hate running at night, too many people) It was still 98 degrees out and I hadn't gone in a week so I was nervous but I got in 3.5 and even pulled out a sprint at the end (wanting to impress my waiting husband and kids) and when I got into the car panting and with tomato-red-running-in-the-heat-face Vaughn says, "Mommy you ran so fast!" and Pax says, "Mommy are you okay?" It was cute and I thought it was funny. I guess you had to see the concern on Pax's face. I think she thought I was dying. :)

The Cake Part Deux

I am a big believer in reading directions. So I'm lucky I read a little bit ahead to know the cake had to freeze for 2 hours. But I also have a tendency to read parts rather than the whole thing which is what happened when I realized I needed pastry bags (pastry bags!). But the kind people who wrote the instructions foresaw my lack of pastry bags and round tips so they included directions on making a sandwich baggy a pastry bag which my amazing and kind husband was so kind as to make for me (I needed 6).

So then I set to work frosting the cake. I cut out the template, which was itself an adventure, and laid it on the cake and the directions called for outlining the template with the dull end of a paintbrush but that seemed, well I didn't have one of those either, so I used a flat head screwdriver (yes I washed it first!). So by now I'm sweating bullets. Vaughn is so beyond excited about this cake and if I screw up Mickey's ears I'm going to feel awful. So the chocolate is first and I'm thinking I can do this....then the white hand, a little scary and not as pretty, but okay. So I keep going...red clubhouse, yellow foot, blue slide, and it's looking good and then the very last thing, the windows. This involves icing blue on top of the red and then outlining it with the chocolate. I don't know about this part and I will be soooooo ticked if this last thing ruins my perfect cake....and....

GET THIS, IT TURNED OUT!!!!!!!!!

I did a happy dance, a couple actually, and was very pleased to be able to show V his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Cake. Whoo-hoo!! And here's the pic to prove it:

The Cake Part 1

So Vaughn asked me for a Mickey Mouse clubhouse cake for his 4th birthday which is supposed to look like this:



I'm like, (oh so naively) this will be so fun and easy and look how cute it is and then I go to buy the stuff to make it:

1 box of cake mix.
Food coloring.
4 16-ounce containers of vanilla frosting - thinking wow that's a lot of frosting what exactly am i getting myself into. Then,...
1 16-ounce container of dark chocolate frosting - looking deeply at the picture now thinking how exactly am I supposed to do this? but I'm sure I can handle it...


So today I start making the cake and I'm going along fine and the directions state "Print out the 2-page template (template!) and tape together. (Oh boy this is going to be interesting)
So I printed out the template (template!) and have to cut it out, trace it, and insert one of the 5 frosting colors I ended up having to make with the year supply of frosting on hand.

Right now my cake is cooling and soon I will have to go draw a light blue sky and green grass. Wish me luck with the rest. I'll update with the rest of my tale and a pic of how it turns out. Stay tuned!

Update

Just an update....

It's so hot! I just don't even want to leave the house ever! I have such a hard time when the temperature climbs above 100 degrees. Yuck! I feel bad for Amric cuz I don't want to go do anything. I feel bad for the kids cuz if we go to the park it has to be at 8 and I just haven't been that together this week to get there.

Took Gage to the doctor today and he got some shots. He weighed in at 24.2 pounds and 30.5 inches. He is such a trooper.

I got my Runner's World today and its a Half-Marathon Special and I'm so excited cuz I am planning on running Hoover Dam in October and I was looking for a good training plan. Yay!!

Vaughn is going to be 4 next week!! I cannot believe it! Time is for sure flying. Pax turned into a terrible 2 this week when she screamed at me crazily and started shoving Vaughn. They make me so tired and yet so happy.

Update again soon. Love ya all

Who's In?

Okay so I found this 180-mile Red Rock Relay that I really want to do. I think it would be so fun. But.....and it's a big but... I need 11 other people and some volunteers to drive and I'm guestimating it'll be about $150 a person after registration, gas, food, first aid, etc. There are 36 legs and each person runs 3. It's a Friday and Saturday. Mindy, I know you want to help me put a team together right?!!! Check out the site: http://www.redrockrelay.com/index.html

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I am so thankful for what a great mom I have. I also got lucky with my mother-in-law. You guys are beautiful and wonderful!!

Wisdom Teeth Miracle

I just have to say how blessed I feel right now. I had my wisdom teeth extracted on Friday and Sean was so sweet that he took the day off work to be with me so I wouldn't have to go in alone. He knew how freaked out I was. I just thought it was so thoughtful. He has been such an amazing nurse. He has my drug schedule all written out and we are following it to the letter and he made sure I had ice on my face 30 min on and 30 min off all day yesterday. It helped, my cheeks are hardly swollen. He's a keeper that's for sure. :)

I had it done at my dentist's office, Dr. Scott Neil, who was amazing. He did it with drugs instead of gen anesthesia and I have to say it worked out very well. I took a Valium the night before and then triazolam 8 hours before and then 1hour before and then Dr. Neil crushed one and put it under my tongue while Sean held my hand and they gave me nitrous oxide that smelled like vanilla. It really smelt very good :) They turned on Hitch but I just remember seeing 2 Will Smith's and 2 Kevin James' and decided it was too hard figuring out which pair was real so I closed my eyes and woke up when it was all over. I thought that was fantastic!
They took out 3 (the 2 on my right side and my upper left) and I think they filled a cavity but I'm not sure, they were supposed to anyways. I guess a root was twisted on my bottom right which caused it to take longer.

Anyways I feel so blessed because I'm doing great! I'm still pretty sore and eating applesauce and pudding, smoothies and all that but I'm recovering so quickly and I am just grateful for that.

Thanks too family and friends for being so caring and generous. I'm so lucky.

Komen Race For the Cure

Mindy and I raced a 5K on the 2nd and it was so fun! I love racing. It was for a good cause and there were so many people there! We ended up with a box full of goodies too which was nice.

Cupcake Gage!!

We always do cupcakes on the 1st birthday and Mommy was tired and bought cupcakes (I LOVE CUPCAKES) at the Cupcake Lane Bakery. They were so good!!! Gage had a red velvet w/cream cheese frosting. He loved it.

Joy School Party

Vaughn had his End of Joy School School party on Friday. It was so fun! We went to Jen Mann's sister's house and it was amazing!! The kids had so much fun swimming. Vaughn had so much fun in Joy School. He looked forward to it every week and loved being with his friends.

Happy Birthday Gage!! I can't believe how fast this year has gone. It's crazy. I am so lucky to have been blessed with such a beautiful, amazing, sweet, funny baby boy.

Racing a Bus

So Mindy and I went running this morning and I was on my way home running down Maule and on the corner were like 20 kids waiting for the bus. Just Great. So I'm on the road trying to think if I can get around them but I can't and I'm trying to not think about or hear these kids when I hear the bus coming up behind me. I can't get on the sidewalk, there's lots of kids, and so I'm stuck on the road trying to sprint to avoid the bus which is coming up fast on my rear, slowing down but wanting to go where I am. Crap!! So I sprinted probably 200 meters past the bus-waiting kids and feeling like a total retard. I hate running during school bus time.

Easter Slideshow

Gage Hospital Pictures

He is so adorable even when he doesn't feel good.

Gage Update

Here's an update on Gage. I recently posted about his RSV. Well we went back for a follow up on Friday and his oxygen was at 80 after 2 breathing treatments so our pediatrician gave a him a shot of steroids and called the amebulance to take us to the ER. We went out on a gurney and arrived at Summerlin Medical Center. Sean soon followed and Michelle (mother-in-law) was amazing and stayed with Vaughn and Pax.

Gage was admitted and Sean stayed until we were all set up. He had a nasal cannula in his nose and a SaO2 monitor attached to his toe that constantly beeped if his O2 went below 84 which it did a lot because he is 9 months old and wants to move around! He was confined to his crib which looked like a jail cell. I felt so bad for him!! His O2 steadily improved over Saturday but I missed being with Pax on her birthday, so sad for me. Pax and Vavughn were both home sick with fevers and Sean and Michelle took such great care of them.

Mindy came to visit Saturday night on Valentine's Day! She is such a great friend. She just sat with me and talked to me and it was so great. And she brought us dinner last night. Thank you! Kim & Levi brought me dinner on Saturday night which was delicious and saved me from hospital food! It was hard to leave the room cuz I only could if Gage was sleeping. They had a play room where I could go get toys and bring them to his crib. USA played happy cheesy romantic comedies all day on Valentine's so that at least kept me entertained.

Everyone was so great. Thank you. We had an awesome day nurse named Melissa who came to check on us and would suction out Gage's nose with electronic nasal suctioner which helped him breathe easier. Gage was discharged on Monday afternoon and we went to Dr. Glasser's for a follow up yesterday and his O2 was at 94. We decided to give him some prednisolone (a steroid) for 3 days to help him get better faster and to continue with the nebulizer/albuterol, gradually weaning him off by Sunday night.

Overall this has been a most stressful week. But I am grateful for friends and family who called and took care of us and prayed for Gage. I know it helped tremendously.

apryl

RSV & CPA

My poor baby Gage has RSV!!! I took him to the doctor today cuz he's had a fever all week but his poor cough/congestion got so bad and he started wheezing yesterday. Turns out he's got RSV and we had to give him 2 breathing treatments with a nebulizer and albuterol in the office and they gave me a nebulizer to bring home so I can give him the treatments every 4 hours on the dot and we have to go back tomorrow to make sure it's not worse. Whew!

And then Vaughn woke me up at 3 a.m. asking for water and he was really hot and has been on the couch today watching WordWorld and Cailou with a fever.

And Sean takes his CPA test section Taxes tomorrow and so I am freaking out for him. Keep us in all your prayers. This is probably the most stressful week ever for me.

A positive.. I hit my 3000 lines and was offered a position as an independent contractor with RC Transcription!! Yeah!! I'm really excited to finally make some money with this thing :)

Love you all-
Best Wishes for a Happy Valentine's Day (and 2nd Bday for my girl Pax)!!!

This is why I don't post more

So I have been meaning and meaning to update my blog for months. And I haven't done it. So it's still Christmas in Forks on my blog for crying out loud! So today I am going to do it and I'm on my way home from Joy School with Vaughn and they're all alseep and I'm so excited for some free time when POP! My tire is losing air. I'm frekaing out and so I call Sean. Then my dad. Then Sean. Then Dad. Sean says go to Subaru. Dad says find a tire place close you'll never make it more than a few miles. So I call Subaru and they tell me to find a tire place cuz they don't even do tires (Can you believe how ticked off I'd have been if I'd driven down there?) Anyways so I find a Tire Works and I'm lucky I made it cuz my tire is FLAT as a freaking pancake. and says the tire guy totally unfixable must be replaced. So I have to wake up my 3 SLEEPING babies take them inside the tire store (btw the worst possible place to set V & P loose) and get a new tire. SERIOUSLY. So 2 hours later and 200 dollars more in debt I'm home with the crankiest kids on the planet and an ice cold diet coke. Peace out. Apryl