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Saturday, January 17, 2015

Happy 7th Birthday Zach!

We have a 7 year old now!  Today is Zach's birthday!!
We had Grandma and Grandpa Gray in town to help us celebrate this year.  Zach was able to pick a move for everyone to go to and then enjoy his day with his very own Linda's Fudge Cake from the Cheesecake Factory!


People were surprised that my 7 year old knew about Cheesecake Factory....let alone about this chocolate cake!!  What can I say, we have great taste in desserts.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Happy 5th Birthday Logan!

Logan has been so excited for his Birthday this year....every day he asks, "how many more days until my birthday?".  Today is the day!


Happy Birthday Logan!  You are still our fun loving, action packed bundle of joy!

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year for picking pumpkins!  We headed back to Maybey's farm.  The kids love getting the big wagon and filling it up with different kinds of pumpkins.


This year the pumpkins were grown at the far west end of the land....of the last four years we have been coming here we have never been out that far!


Going out with an empty wagon...


Plenty of pumpkins to choose from...





We succeed in filling up that wagon!

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Gallbladder

Who knew that your gallbladder is an organ you can live without?!  We didn't until about two weeks ago!  Jen had two separate gallbladder attacks...one landed us in the ER in which we learned about gallbladders.  Ultrasound and CT scan came back fine - no gallstones.  The doctors suspected overall functionality problems and additional tests confirmed that.  So.....


Today Jen's gallbladder was removed!  Laparoscopic surgery lasted less than one hour.  We were only in recovery about two hours and then headed home.  Should be good as new in no time!!

Monday, August 25, 2014

2014-15 School Year Has Started

School is back in session!  This year Zach is in first grade and Logan is in pre-K.  Both boys are attending Challenger School at Traverse Mountain.


I kept asking Zach if he was 'nervous' and he really wouldn't answer. I asked if he wanted me to walk him to his classroom and he said yes.  Right as we started walking down the hall to his class he ran into two of his friends from last year that were in his class - they all put their arms around each others shoulders and walked into class together.  I got the 'bye mom' nod and put on my best smile and hid back my tears.  He is growing up.


Logan was SUPER excited.  He has two teachers and one of them was a teacher from last year so he was super comfortable and ready to bust out the toys in the classroom.  He did give me a hug and a kiss goodbye.


Dustin wanted a vadering picture in honor of the first day of the 2014-2015 school year - he captioned it, "All I asked them was - are You ready to go back to school?  Then they vadered me!".


Yes - we have too much fun in this house!

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Summer Storms

One thing we missed about living in Texas were the storms.  We used to get really cool and loud thunder storms.  Every once in a while we get one of those here in Utah as well - and today was the day!  Jen was able to sneak out and take some pictures of the clouds before the downpour of rain started.





Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Surprise Find

I love when I am going through pictures on my camera and I find ones that I did not take...I stumbled upon these gems today and they just put a smile on my face :)



Friday, July 11, 2014

Full Moon

The moon was so bright and whole tonight...we had to try and sneak in a picture!  This was taken with Jen's DSLR camera....check out the detail!


Friday, July 4, 2014

4th of July - Desert Forest Lane style!

Everyone in our neighborhood knows that 4th of July is HUGE on Desert Forest Lane.  We barricade our street, pull out the grills, eat potluck style and put on an awesome fireworks show....followed by the city of Lehi's fireworks show at Thanksgiving Point (you can see all of it from the front of our house).

Set up on the street began mid afternoon...



The grill was a popular spot...you have to grill on the 4th of July!




The kids LOVED the parachuters...we've got to get more of these for next year!


Sparklers are always a hit as well!

The 'big boys' handle lighting off all the big fireworks.  Safety glasses were mandatory this year!






We love the 4th of July, especially when a good chunk of our neighborhood come and help celebrate with us.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Logan lost his 1st tooth (again)!

Today Logan lost his 1st tooth again!  You can read all about how he lost his 1st tooth the first time here.  As much drama as having the tooth fall out the first time....there was just as much drama with it fallout out the second time!

About 3 months ago we were at our routine dental cleanings and the dentist discovered that Logan had an infection in the gums where this tooth was at.  What we thought was a canker sore on his gums was actually a pocket full of puss from all the infection.  The dentist gave us a prescription for an antibiotic to fight the infection, but in the end he wanted the tooth pulled to prevent the infection from reoccurring.  We were a bit skeptical....we worked hard to save that first tooth...this was a new dentist at our regular office, could we trust him?


About 4 weeks later we saw a 2nd dentist (the one we regularly see) and asked for new X-rays to make sure the infection was gone and get a second opinion.  The infection was gone (for now), but the bone where the re-implanted tooth was had recessed from the event of the 1st tooth coming out and the infection.  He also recommended the tooth come out to allow the bone to fill back in before Logan's adult tooth started pushing down.  I asked how long we could prolong pulling his tooth...was it something that needed to come out today or was it something that could wait 6 months.  The dentist hummed and hawed and basically just said the sooner the better but if we waited 6 months probably no big deal.  Later that night we talked about it and decided that we would have the tooth pulled after our trip to Hawaii that was in 6 weeks.

About two weekends ago Logan was complaining his "tooth" hurt and was playing with his gums.  We take a look and sure enough he has that bubble of puss on his gums indicating an infection.  Plus he's been playing with his tooth so much he's twisted it and it is a bit lower than before....we call the dentist and are able to get an appointment in two days to have the tooth pulled.


Day of the planned tooth pull appointment we totally talk up how awesome it is going to be for the tooth fairy to come see Logan that night!  We go to the appointment and Logan was excited and he's even telling the dentist all about it.   Then comes time for the Novocaine shot.  Logan flinches every time the needle touches his gum.....not when the needle pierces his gum...just when it touches his gum.  The dentist tries for an hour (in between patients) to just give him the injection - no dice.  Logan's gums were so infected nothing was working to help numb the surface enough for the dentist to give him the injection so we could pull out the tooth.  We got a prescription to treat the infection (again) and a referral to a pediatric dentist.

Three days later we have a consultation with the new pediatric dentist.  He assesses the situation, talks everything up to Logan so he is comfortable when he comes back to a future appointment for the tooth pull, and he recommends we gas Logan up to relax him for the injection and tooth pull.  We schedule the future appointment ten days in the future so we are sure Logan's gums are healed from the infection (he finishes the antibiotics).

Today we get home from home/daycare and Jen looks at Logan's tooth.  It is twisted even more and REALLY loose.  Dustin talks to Logan about it and is finally able to yank it out!  Wahoo!  Logan (and us) were so excited to have this tooth out knowing how much pain it had caused him the last couple of weeks and knowing we didn't have to put him through the procedure to have the tooth pulled by the dentist again.  The reason we had such a hard time getting this tooth out by ourselves in the first place?  Check out the root:


Happy Logan!


The tooth fairy DID make an appearance at our house as well.  Logan was so excited to get his first dollar bill from the tooth fairy...just like his big brother Zach.


Saturday, June 28, 2014

Cherry Picking

What is a great family activity to do on a summer weekend?  How about picking some fruit!  We looked up "fruit farms" in the area that let you go pick your own off the tree/bush/vine hoping to find somewhere to go get fresh strawberries.  Apparently strawberries are more of a late summer pick in this part of Utah.  Cherries were what was ripe for picking today....so....we went cherry picking in Payson!







Everyone had their own container to fill with cherries.  The kids would NOT stoop until their containers were full to the top....especially once they tasted the cherries they were picking!  When we finally called it quits our total came to 8 pounds of fresh, picked right off the tree, cherries!  We had so much fun.  I am sure we will be back later this summer for some raspberries and strawberries!

Friday, June 27, 2014

Bird Bombs

We got home tonight after work and decided we were going to let the kids play outside while the lawn was mowed.  While the adults were inside changing our shoes the kids were out front.  All of a sudden Zach comes running in the house crying and says, "The bird pecked my head....the bird PECKED MY HEAD!!!!"


Yup.  The bird DID peck his head.  He was chirping up a storm swooping down at ANYBODY that started walking on our lawn.  Yes, OUR FRONT LAWN!  Here is the little terrorist.


So we did what ever parent would do...protect OUR OWN....no BIRD is swooping down at our kids.


We sat out front watching the birds...oh yes...the BIRDS...another one showed up shortly to join the fun.  There were TWO of them and FOUR of us.


We watched them for a good 20 minutes (broom in hand), trying to figure out what was going on.  We knew there was a birds nest in the tree in our front yard....but the family of birds that built that nest was from four years ago and we had not seen it inhabited since....and we NEEDED to get our lawn mowed.

So....we mowed the lawn.  Jen got half way done with the front lawn and noticed something in the grass.  That baby bird wasn't in our grass through the entire ordeal up until now.  He must have fallen out while his parents (terrorist birds) were causing all the frenzy.


Dustin grabbed some gloves and moved the bird out of our yard to a secluded bush area so the parent birds would feel a bit safer.  But they kept chirping for a few more days....and my kids decided to wear their bike helmets outside!

Logan was proud to be helping (he was on broom duty while mom mowed the lawn) and Zach was still REALLY sad the birds pecked his head.