Todd turns 27

Karla talked about gold fish in her preschool class. She came home and told me "I want to give daddy a gold fish." Since this is the first time she has expressed a desire to give a gift she picked out to someone else, and since daddy likes fish, I said sure. She picked out the fish, the rocks, and the bowl. When I tried to talk her into something else--she knew her mind and was persistant. But I think it turned out well. Daddy even likes it--especially because it's from his little girl.

Can you tell where Kaylyn got her blue eyes?


Cyntha--our master cook! Although, mom made the brownies--broken shoulder and all.

My beautiful mommy. She is off the oxycodine and weaning herself from pain pills--although this means she is still in pain. She hopes to be back to work next wendesday. She is incredible.

Daddy also took an oppertunity to catch up on some missed sleep. It is well deserved.

Are they going to burn down the house? Well the kids started singing as they were lighting the candles so that when they finished, he blew out the candles. And no, this is not a poorly taken picture: it's smoke from all the candles. But Todd got it all in one shot--including the trick candle.

Eating cake with cousins.

Cyntha ended up making 3 yummy choices.

Giving Kisses
We enjoyed just playing with Daddy. He enjoyed a break from studying.
We also played a game or two while the kids let us.

Now his Birthday isn't technically until the 19th, but Todd had Veterans Day completely off: no school, no work (because it was scouts night), and no scouts (because they had a temple trip on Thursday instead). So we took advantage of Cyntha also being here and Todd having a few minutes and celebrated.

Telephone Tag and other updates

Well Kaylyn is finally sleeping through most nights!! Yeah. I love having no more midnight feedings. And I'm sure Todd appreciates not interupting the little sleep he gets to give her a bottle while I run papers. Along with this, Kaylyn has started eating solid foods! She has had rice cereal, applesauce, and smashed carrots, pumpkin smush coming soon. She doesn't like the apple juice in a bottle. She is not nursing quite as well as she was, but we are starting to get back in the groove. I find she does better if I will cuddle up with her in bed and nurse that way--hense less posting time. (Yes we are trying to nurse at the computer this morning.)

As for this video, Garth and Karla were walking around Grandma's house doing this the other day. I thought it was so cute, I had them sit where I could video it. We also play telephone tag (usually in the car). Garth will call me "Ring, Ring, your it," on his play cell phone.
"Oh Pickles." I will then use my phone as a play phone "Ring, ring. Hello Cyntha. Your it." We sit for about 30 seconds "Ring, ring. Your phonr is ringing Garth. It's Dot!" And we continue to include our siblings. One of these days maybe we can get them to actually play with us. The girls and Garth get a riot out of it. I love to listen to them laugh.

Other new: Todd's Grandparents are going on another mission. They leave the first of the year for Salt Lake City where they will help in the family history center. They will be out for a year and if their health holds they will extend. We will miss them, but we are also excited for them.

Trunk or Treat

So I'm a little late getting this post up--and this happened before Halloween. But here it is: we went to my mom's trunk or treat. It was fun because our friends BobbieJo and her family came too. We played games and then trick or treated around the church--what a way to Trick or Treat!! They also had a Chilie feed. It was good!

Momma's Fall

Mom went to the urgent care Halloween night and then later had it reconfirmed by the specialist: there is nothing they can do for her shoulder but let it heal itself and medicate the pain. So Mom went on Oxycodine. For those who don't know, it's a heavy narcotic pain killer. She was taking it every four hours. And she got kind of loopy at times. She isn't suppose to move her shoulder, or she could make it worst and then need surgery. So we just haven't left her alone for long.

Here is mom's usual position on the couch. The pain killers have knocked her out a lot. She is now on a lesser pain killer and seems to be doing better, but she hurts.

Here is Kylee and Karla watching a movie while we took care of Grandma. They were really good to be quiet and play in just a few areas. Towards the end they got cabin fever and wanted to be rambunctious.

Cyntha and her boys, Jamie and Ben, flew in to help. So I am back at home now (and getting a little more sleep). It's been fun to have them out even though we wish Mom wouldn't break anymore bones to have Cyntha out.

This is Ben playing with Kaylyn. And here is his brother Jaimie. I have enjoyed spending time with them. I try to get them out of the house every so often so they don't get cabin fever. It was really windy on Friday, so we took kites out. They had a blast trying to catch the kite flying right over their head--until Jaimie caught it and belly flopped on the blow up kite. All three kids took (slightly defective) kites and "flew" them up and down the park. We all had a blast!

Then Saturday morning, I took all the kids and Garth (with the exception of baby Kaylyn) and went to the Veterans Day Parade. It was cute. Jaimie really likes red mustangs. Kylee really liked the princesses. Karla liked the Cowgirls. And they all enjoyed the Candy.

Explaining to them why we were clapping for these heros brought home to me just how thankful I am that they kept this country safe for these little kids I love so much. Thank you to all our Veterans and future Veterans!!

As for mom, we wait and help how ever we can. It's been a blessing for me to finally be able to really help her. She has done so much for me.

Halloween 2009

So for Halloween, we went to Burger King and got a treat (to get the last peice to Kylee's costume). We then went over to Grandma's house and got in our costumes. Kylee was going to stay home with Grandma while I took the girls and Garth out.

Well...Grandma fell. She ended up breaking the ball part of the bone in her shoulder--all the way down. So Grandpa Tingey took Grandma Mann to the urgent care. I took the already dressed up kids along with the baby out for an early halloween. I figured we couldn't do much good while we waited anyway, might as well take them out while I can. I thought they might riot if we cancelled completely.

We started out at Ranch and Home's trunk or treat. We then stopped by Garth's friends houses (some of them). He usually goes to his Special Friends--so we went. To compromise with what the girls are use to, I made him trick or treat the whole cul-de-sac instead of just the one house per stop. It worked out well. We then rented movies and came home to watch movies and take care of Grandma.

This is our little strawberry. She was playing with her hat until I pulled out the camera.