It's been a while!

It's been quite some time since I wrote on here and so much has happened I don't even really know if I can remember everything I should have recorded. Life has been crazy to say the least.

August 16th, 2009 Ron suffered what we believe was a seizure in the parking lot during church and suffered a head injury. He cracked his skull and air leaked into his brain cavity, he broke his nose, and shattered his left eye socket. He spent 5 days in the hospital waiting for the air around his brain to start to dissipate and then he went back 3 days later to have his eye socket rebuilt. This is a picture that I took in the ER right after I arrived. His nose was obviously off to one side when he left in the ambulance but by the time he got to the hospital it was back in place.This is the next morning. Some of the priesthood holders in our ward administered to Ron while he was still lying in the parking lot waiting for the ambulance to arrive. I will be forever grateful to those men who found him, called for help, took care of him and gave him a blessing from the Lord. We know that he was blessed and watched over. The doctors who cared for him made mention several times that the injuries he sustained, and the manner in which he sustained them, could have killed him. We felt extremely blessed! The worst part of recovery for Ron was that the doctors wouldn't release him to return to work for over 10 weeks. That was more time off than he had taken the entire time we have been married put together. He still has some terrible headaches on occasion but for the most part he is well and for that we are overjoyed!

As for the rest of the Fall and Winter months they are all kind of a blur. It all seems like it has gone by so fast! All of the kids have been busy, busy, busy!

Brayden turned 18 on the 16th of April and is a Senior this year. He is the SAPO (Photo Club) President, the FCCLA Vice-President, and he's on the yearbook staff. He took his ACT in December and scored a 32. He has been accepted to BYU and USU (USU offered him a 2 year scholarship) as well as several universities that he didn't even apply too. He also recently finished all of the requirements for his Eagle Scout and we are just waiting for the final paperwork to come in the mail. He applied and was accepted to take part in the Freedom Festivals Eagle Court of Honor that they are doing as part of the Stadium of Fire. He even got brave and asked a couple of girls out this year! :) I can't believe all that he has been involved in and all that he has accomplished this year. It has been crazy. He also serves as a Stake Clerk over IT and is at the Stake Offices every Tuesday night from 6:30pm until 9 or 10 in a suit! He is an amazing young man and we are endlessly proud of him! Although, I have to admit that it is breaking my heart that he is about to leave home. I don't know what we will do without him! :(

McKinlee is a Freshman and is looking forward to High School and DRIVING!! ( I know! I promise to give everyone ample warning as to when she will be on the road. lol. ) She turns 15 in June and has been hounding me for months to take her to get a Drivers Handbook so that she can get her learners permit. She has been crazy busy as well with honors classes, dance, track, her never ending social life, and trying out for the varsity cheer squad. She is also planning on trying out for the volleyball team and will be attending several volleyball camps throughout the summer. She is consistently on the honor roll despite her love of talking during class. She is a beautiful girl who frequently calls and wants to know if I will give her and her friends a ride to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. She isn't afraid to try anything and I love her spirit!

Austin turned 9 in November and is as full of life as ever! He always keeps us on our toes. We have enjoyed the fact that he hasn't had to have stitches for quite some time (knock on wood). He love scouts and took 3rd place overall in the Pinewood derby last month. He enjoys school and was one of the first in his class to pass off all of his times tables. He is a wiz with numbers and always has been. He has a very tender heart and and is always wanting to go down and spend time with his Grandma Ruthie . I love how his mind works. The wheels are always turning. He is currently working on a big project for school about deserts. He was having a had time picturing Utah as a Desert because we have grass and mountains all around us so we took the family and went to the Little Sahara Sands Dunes this last Saturday so that he could see that we really do live in a desert! We had a great time and he was surprised that the dunes seemed to go on forever! He is incredible.

Avery turned 2 in January and is stuck in fast forward! She is full of never-ending energy and learns faster than we can keep up. She loves to be outside! She was in heaven at the dunes on Saturday. She carried a shovel and bucket everywhere and she never had enough sand. She stopped constantly to dig some more. She loves to dance to the kids music, especially to Beyonce's Single Ladies. It cracks me up to watch her try and do the same moves as Beyonce as she watches the video. She knows exactly what she wants and is relentless until she gets it. She brings untold amounts of joy to our home. We all enjoy her so much and are so happy she decided to join us even though she came a little late to the party. ;) We can't imagine our life without her!

We have been very blessed and most of those blessings have come from our family, immediate and extended. We love you all and would never have been able to make it without all of you!

I have lots of photos to post but they are currently on Ron's laptop, so I will post them soon.

Lazy Days of Summer?

I thought summer was all about kickin' back and taking it easy for a while. I always have visions of relaxing in the sun, but ever since school let out it seems like we've just run from one thing to the next! In June, McKinlee had a week of volleyball camp, Austin had swimming lessons, Brayden was gone one week to scout camp and the next week to yearbook camp, and the week after he got home McKinlee and I went to girls camp! Throw in McKinlee's birthday, Strawberrry Days, the scouts 4th of July breakfast, hiking, boating, geo-caching, and too many trips running kids to Seven Peaks and to their friends to even count, and it's been crazy to say the least! It doesn't show any signs of slowing down much either. We still have more swimming lessons, scout camp-outs, youth conference, the family reunion, and a ward camp out that I'm in charge of, before we are done. Summer is entirely to short!

The following photos are not in the order I really wanted them but I haven't been able to figure out how to move them around once I've added them.

This is one of the many deer we saw up Heber's Center

Canyon on Saturday while we were geo-cacheing.

Brayden & Austin checking out a cache they found.

McKinlee & Avery at Heber City Park.

The first micro-cache we found in Heber. We found
12 geo-caches in or around Heber on Saturday.

Brayden showing the paper you sign in the cache to say

you found it and when.

( Doesn't McKinlee look like she's having fun!)

Playing in the river up at Camelot. We rode up to

check things out and make sure things were set

for the reunion.

Avery in the river.

Avery hanging on the back of the boat.

Utah Lake on the 4th of July.

Avery hanging on Austin's back while they

swim in Utah Lake. 4th of July.

Brayden & Austin at the top of the Y checking out

the treasures in the geo-cache they found on our

way up.

Part of the crew at the top of the Y. Brayden, Phil,

Brinlee,Jamie, Kandice, Kloe & Chris.

On our way up to the Y. Brayden,

Austin, Laralee & Ron.

Brayden ready to go on the wake board.

Utah Lake.

Avery loves to go on the boat.

Austin being Austin!

Tanner, Brinlee, Ron & Austin on the tube.

Brinlee, Ron & Avery riding on the tube.

Jamie trying to help Austin learn how to ski.

Our Birthday Girl!

McKinlee.

Too Cute!

I just had to post this picture! The other morning I left Avery in bed with Ron while I took Austin to school. When I got home they had both fallen back to sleep and this is how I found them sleeping!

Yes, she is laying right on his face, and they are both sound asleep!

Photography Show

Brayden has been taking a photography class in school this year and has found that he really loves it. The class requires that they use film instead of digital because they want them to learn how to take the right shot, not take a photo and then alter it to make it right. He seems to really have a natural talent for it and has done very well. His teacher had him enter a couple of his nature shots in a show at BYU and she put quite a few of his photos in the school photography show. In the school show, he won several awards including 2nd place Overall, 1st place in Black & White, 2nd for Strip Composition (Contemporary), Honorable Mention for High Contrast, and the Principals award for one of his Black & Whites. He also won a Promaster Reflector from Allen's for his 2nd place Overall. We are really excited for him! Way to go!

2nd Place Overall and 1st Place Black & White.

(This is also one of the photos that was in the Nature Show at BYU.)

Principals Award.2nd Place Strip Composition.Honorable Mention High Contrast.

Clogging Nationals

On Saturday McKinlee clogged at the Clogging Nationals at Lagoon. She did very well and we are incredibly proud of her. She performed 4 solos and 2 team dances. She took 1st place on her Traditional solo and 2nd on her Show, Line and Freestyle. Her team took 1st and 2nd on their two dances and won the Overall award for one they took 1st on. Her studio also won the Overall Studio award. She tried out for the All-American team as well. In order to make the All-American team you have to be the top scoring clogger out of everyone that competes. It was a very large group. She was really disappointed that she didn't make it this year but she did a beautiful job and we know that she will!

The weather was crazy! One minute it was sunny and the next it would be raining harder than I ever remember seeing it rain before. It started to pour while they were doing the acappela competition. The rain on the roof made so much noise that the judges had to move their chairs right up against the stage and the girls were dancing about 6 inches behind them so that they could hear them. ( In the acapella competition the judges turn their backs to the stage, there is no music, and they are judged completely on the sound of their steps.) We usually take the whole family to Nationals and let them ride all day but we left them home this year because of the weather and I was so glad we did. It made it nice to be able to focus just on McKinlee and to get to spend some one on one time with her. She even conned her dad into taking her out to dinner (steak of course!) afterwards. She is an awesome person and Ron and I really enjoyed getting to spend the day with her!

Competing in Freestyle

Team DanceWaiting for All-American Team CompetitionCompeting for All-American TeamMcKinlee and Ashlynn holding their Team Overall Trophy

Week One!

Week one went pretty well. It certainly wasn't perfect but I feel like I did pretty well. I exercised everyday but Sunday, I took a multi-vitamin and a fish oil everyday, I watched what I ate and made healthy choices and I kept my calorie intake below what is recommended for me everyday but Friday. I was even able to up my exercise today and it felt good to be able to do more and not wonder if I would be able to make it!

Brayden has been working really hard at eating right and exercising as well. It has been fun to do it together and to help him learn more about what some good replacements are for the things he loves. He even has been eating vegetables! Anyone who knows him knows that he seems to be convinced that vegetables will kill him! So he's been trying them more and he is still alive! (imagine that.) To be honest, whether they like it or not, the whole family is pretty much under going a lifestyle change because I decided that I wasn't going to fix different meals for them than I was for Brayden and I. I figure they might as well learn how to eat healthy now, maybe they won't have the same problems I do if they learn now.

On the down side, Friday I went way over my recommended calories when we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill. My favorite dish there is Carmella's Chicken Rigatoni. I didn't have any idea how many calories were in it but when I got home I looked it up and it has over 1300! Add that to the bread I ate and sharing an apple crisp dessert (which, by the way, also has 1300 calories!)with Ron and I had eaten more than my allotment for the day just at dinner! Sunday also was not the best day. I stayed below my recommended calories but my diet consisted of chocolate, movie theatre popcorn, almonds and more chocolate! I did at least get a serving of spaghetti in that night after my stake camp meeting. I know, it's pathetic, but I am trying!

Today is The Day!

I started this blog for me, as a place to make my thoughts and feelings more concrete. A place that I can use to help make me more accountable to myself . Hoping that if I put my thoughts into words that I will be more likely to act upon them and stick to my goals. I am also hoping that it will help me be better at recording the things in my life that I don't ever want to forget.

Someone, I love very much, has inspired me to get up and get going to a better, healthier, happier me. This person, I love, wrote an incredibly brave and baring blog about their trails with being healthy. They expressed their self beautifully and so much better than I ever could. I saw myself in every word they wrote. I have felt the same pain, discouragement and despair. I have paralyzed myself with self-loathing and disgust. Today is the day it ends! I'm going to get back up and head down the long road to the person I want to be. I want to be healthy for me and the people I love. I want to be able to do the things I love without being embarrassed or hindered physically by my weight. I want to take control of my life instead of letting things (like food) control me. So, as my friend said, with a lot of faith and prayer I am going to join her in the quest to overcome the awful condition I have let myself get into. I will exercise, I will eat healthy and I will conquer the negative feelings I have about myself and my worth. Today is the day it begins!