Martin's Cove

At 5am yesterday morning I took Levi and Erika to the church to leave for a 3 day trek through Martin's Cove and Independence Rock. They get a full experience of pioneer clothes, the 17 lb limit of stuff to take, pulling/pushing the handcart, very hot days/cold nights, and walking, walking, walking. They might not look to happy about it in the picture, but it was taken at 5am.

We had a fireside Sunday night for final details and I am so excited for them, also a little jealous because I was initially invited to go but when the stake leaders asked me they didn't know I was pregnant with Hyrum. I love the stories of the handcart companies and the faith that the people had. Each person going on the trek walks in memory of a pioneer, either someone who actually was in the handcart companies or a pioneer ancestor and they do research to know a little about the person they are walking for. Since I can't get them out of my head I'm going to leave a little info on who Erika and Levi are walking for. So if you don't want the pioneer stories, stop here.

Levi is walking in memory of his 5th great grandfather (and mine as well) John Solomon Fullmer. John S. was good friends with Hyrum and Joseph Smith. He received his patriarchal blessing from Hyrum and was with both of them at Carthage Jail the night before the martyrdom. Family history shows that John S. sang "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" during that last night with the prophet. Joseph Smith sent John S. on an errand the morning of the martyrdom but John S. left his gun with Joseph and Hyrum. That gun is the one that Hyrum used to defend himself during the mob attack that day. Later during the exodus of the saints to Utah, John S. was called by Brigham Young to stay behind to close the affairs of the church and the selling of the saints properties before joining them in Utah. Brigham Young said of John S. that he was called to this position as "bulldog and growl", a description that could fit many Fullmers in his posterity. After a release of this position by Brigham Young, John S. and his wife Mary Ann and their children left in early spring 1848 to go to Utah and arrived there in October 1848. They eventually settled in Springville, UT and both taught school in Springville and Provo.

Levi has loved hearing the stories of John Solomon since he was quite young and had no trouble deciding who to walk in memory of for this trek. As a special note, he is wearing a dog tag that John (my 21 year old brother) gave to him before leaving for Iraq last month. John is named after John S. and the dog tag reads John Solomon Fullmer. Since most of you reading are family, here is a great site to read more about John S. I also enjoy learning about Mary Ann, his wife, and the story of their courtship and marriage is a fun one. This can all be found at the website.

Erika is walking in memory of 12 year old Elizabeth Cunningham who was in the Willie Company and walked the entire distance from Winter's Quarterts to Utah. Elizabeth and her family joined the LDS Church in Scotland and, in 1856, sailed from Liverpool, England to America on the Thornton. Elizabeth began the climb to Rocky Ridge in a blizzard with 18 inches of snow on the ground. She later related that she collapsed before reaching camp and her family thought she had died. Because of the lateness of the hour my family was so exhausted that they wrapped me up in a blanket and left me by the side ofthe road. My mother decided to come back for my body. As I was brought in to camp some hot water happened to spill on one of my feet. Because the water was so hot against my cold foot, a quiver was seen in that limb. It was assumed that I was still alive so they worked on me until I was revived. The entire family (dad, mom, 2 sisters and 1 brother) were all members of the Willie company and the entire family made it to Utah. . Despite the many tragedies she suffered, she was always young in spirit and optimistic and she had a great sense of humor. She also had a reputation of being very thrifty. Her favorite saying was, “Don’t forget your pocket book is your best friend.” After reaching Utah she married at age 15 and became the mother of thirteen children, including a set of premature twins.

Immunizations

Yesterday, four of my kids were shot. Or in Erika's words, "parents taking their kids to get stabbed".

I was only taking Nathan and Hyrum for their DTap but I had Levi and Erika with me so that we could get all the final stuff for their Handcart Trek while we were in town.

Nathan did great, cried out a little but was fine when offered a cool bandaid and sticker.

Hyrum didn't even flinch. No pucker, no tears . . . just grins when the nurses made a fuss over him.

Levi and Erika were laughing at Hyrum because he didn't even cry and the nurse said, "We have shots for teenagers, have you guys had them, let's see if you can do that well?". She started joking around with them, they tried to (teasingly) run away and I had their records looked up. They were both do for a TDap (same as DTap but for adults), and the HepA. This nurse was so funny with them and the kids were hillarious in their comments back. The one nurse even saying how tricky of me it was to get the kids in without any argument as if it was all premediated and the kids thought that I really had.

The nurse whispered to me, "the one who is scared the most gets to go first". I replied that it was Levi, he pretended to whimper and sat up on the table. When they pulled his shirt sleeves up he flexed and they informed him that he couldn't flex while they gave the shots. He quickly replied that he wasn't - with laughs from the nurses. Right as they were putting the needles in his arm 2 boys from our area came to the door for their shots. Levi pretended to tear up just to be funny and the nurse quickly whispered in his ear "you can't do that, their watching you". So he suddenly acted all brave, and almost flexed again. When they put the bandaids on they told him that his "guns" make those bandaids look really small. He told them he was going to cry if he didn't get a sticker too so they gave him a monster truck sticker.

Then it was Erika's turn. The boys in the hallway observed the whole thing and she just said, after they were already done, "Ok, I'm ready you can do them now." They told her they were already done and she said "No way, I thought you just pinched my arm to get it ready, you're done? You guys are the best". The nurses laughed, gave her a flower power sticker and as we walked out the door Levi and Erika told the 2 boys that it was nothing, barely hurts at all and that the bandaids and stickers are cool.

Nathan showed us over and over again that he had a bandaid on his leg and this morning is still re-enacting the whole thing. When he describes the shot he holds his leg up and stabs it with his finger saying "Poke, reawee, reawee hard. I cried." I had to take the bandaid and sticker off to give him a bath last night and afterward he insisted that I put them back on. When I asked him this morning if he wanted to go get more shots he said, "Yeah, sticker?".

On a positive note about the clinic: I am doing an alternative schedule for Nathan and Hyrum. Not all of the shots at once like the pediatric chart shows and for Nathan I have waited until he is 2 to start them. It has been a little uncomfortable for me to try to explain why I felt so strongly to wait for Nathan and now I feel fine about having his done and why I haven't felt that way with Hyrum. I don't like trying to explain my reasons for the alternate schedule so I just don't talk about it much. Taking them in I am now forced to discuss it and I was unsure the response or support I would get. The nurses were so nice and supportive about the whole thing and asked me what shots we were doing, what my alternate schedule would be and yesterday I noticed that the chart is called the "Recommended Petiatric Schedule". They basically said that a mom knows best if she is consciously making the decision, studying and doing what she feels is best for that child, not just being paranoid or lax about the whole thing.

For me it was a good experience, after all, I didn't have shots or screaming kids.

Movie Review

I don't know what I liked most about this movie. It's a toss up between:

*the music (I love ABBA!)
*Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan
*the beautiful villa and scenery
*having a day out with Mom
*the crowd at the theater

To be honest, the morals in the story were . . . non-existent. But, if they had good moral standards, there wouldn't be the story. So I'm a little torn on how much to promote it, especially to Erika who also loves ABBA music.

With that said, I had a great time. Mom and I went to a 2:00 showing and with the exception of maybe 4 others, I was one of the youngest in the crowd, and I'm heading to 40 pretty fast. There was a handful of men and Lots of age 50+ giggling women. Mom and I even guessed that some of the women were in their 70's. Let me tell you, it was the slowest moving, funnest, most entertaining movie crowd I have ever been in. It made me wonder, were they all there for the music or for the men?

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One that I would promote to anyone is Get Smart. Oh, wow, did I laugh and enjoy that one and I still have movie lines stuck in my head. Once again, I think the movie was even better because of the company (thanks for going with me Kells!) but seriously this is a fun one. LeRoy and I went to it (my 2nd time) and he laughed so hard it was embarrassing to be sitting by him.

Then we found this:
If you like Get Smart this would be fun also. It's not in theaters, just available on DVD. Bruce and Lloyd are the smart nerds who create all the gadgets for the agents in Get Smart and this is their adventure that runs at the same time as the Get Smart movie. Once again, LeRoy laughed so hard he was crying. *There is one scene where Lloyd is daydreaming of the female star of the show and she is in her bikini but it pales in comparison to the Victoria Secret commercials on TV.

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Movies I want to see:

LeRoy and the kids loved Kun Fu Panda and informed me I "have to see it".

Mom has recommended the Emma Smith movie saying that it is like the Joseph Smith movie being shown on Temple Square and I learned that scenes that were cut from the Joseph movie were used in the Emma movie.

2 days, 2 boys, 2 much fun!

While I was on the phone with LeRoy Saturday afternoon, I wandered out to the garage to manually turn on the sprinklers. Nathan was following me around, Hyrum was chattering in the kitchen and everyone else was gone. When I got off the phone with LeRoy I couldn't find Nathan. Worried that he had left the garage instead of following me back into the house, I started calling for him outside . . . nothing. He was no where to be found or heard.

I checked the ditch, the road, the neighbors yard, his room, the basement . .. I'm starting to panic. I headed back to the garage, through the mudroom, and in my peripheral vision noticed the dryer door was open. On an impulse, or impression, I went to the dryer and opened it. I was met with a "Peet aboo" and a big grin.

I took a deep breath and said "you scared me". He grinned even bigger. I went to get the camera.

When LeRoy and the other kids got home about 3-5 minutes later he was still there, but they didn't know that. Derek and Justin sat on the bench across from the dryer to take off their shoes and out pops a head from the dryer, "Peet aboo". They both jumped.


I really have tried to go to Relief Society but it seems that I haven't been there for longer than 5-10 minutes for the entire month of July. Because I feel like the family just assumes I am skipping church, I took a picture of today's reason to leave.


Having Hyrum sit on my lap creates only one direction for the mess to go. The trip home was a little intense because I didn't dare set Hyrum in his carseat, or lay him on his back, or hold him up against me because it was seeping through the shirt so bad. So, because we live in such a country area with so little traffic (everyone was at church but us) he rode on the passenger seat on his belly. When I got home I grabbed one of the old towels to change him on and quickly took a picture. As soon as the picture was taken he spewed from the top and because he was on his belly, he plopped his face in it. I just chuckled, wondering what to clean up first and how to even begin. Let's just say we were both a bit messy before we were both clean. Wow, what a mess!

Home Dedication

As our home was being built we knew that it would be in the Parade of Homes. We explained this to the kids and realized that we all had kind of a strange feeling about it knowing that so many people would walk through our home, without us there, looking at all of our belongings. Around that same time we went to the Rexburg Temple open house and dedication and we decided that we would have our own dedication after our open house.

Though the home show was almost a month ago we waited until we found a picture of the Rexburg Temple that we liked so that we could hang it as part of our dedication. We talked about the things that we would like our home to provide. We had 3 main thoughts as part of our dedication:

1 - A scripture from the Kirtland Temple dedication found in D&C 109:22-23 "and we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them; and from this place they may bear exceedingly great and glorious tiding"

We hope the same blessings will come to us in our own home.

2 - A quote from President Hinckley: "Parents, safeguard your families. Bring up your children in light and truth as the Lord has commanded. Shower them with love, but do not spoil them. Share your testimony with them. Read the scriptures together. Guide and protect them. Pray together. There is no substitute for family prayer when all kneel together before the Lord" (Ensign,May 1999)

Good counsel for our whole family to understand what our focus should be.

3 - From the Melchizedek Priesthood Handbook: A member may dedicate his home as a sanctuary where his family can worship, find safety from the world, grow spiritually, and prepare for eternal family relationships.

We hung our temple picture in the main entryway which is the heart of the house. To get to and from the living room, downstairs, office, front door and upstairs bedroom you have to cross this area. We hope that with our picture hung there it will hopefully be a reminder of our home dedication and the things that we discussed.

Note To Self:

Background info: Erika and I were waiting for Levi to get home from Montana last night and decided to do pilates (at 9:30pm). I have several dvd's with 10 minute target workouts so we started with those. It's like eating Pringles: I can't stop at just one. By the time the first 10 minutes is done, I'm ready for more. The short of it . . . 45 minutes later . . . my abs and thighs were shaking, we were both sweaty and Erika even admitted that it was a good workout. We attempted ending with Winsor Pilates, which has all the teasers that I've never quite mastered, and we just ended up on the floor laughing. Maybe the laughing at the end burned a few extra calories.

Erika: ballroom dance, track and in very good shape.

Kimber: post-pregnant, lazy and in flabby shape.

It was more motivating to do it with someone that thinks I'm amazing at it (2003 maybe, 2008 not a chance). There was no way that I was going to give up after a few reps or just simply stop, claiming that I was going to just end with great stretching. Naaa . . . that kid kept me going. Thanks Erika!

And wow, are my abs sore this morning. Feels Great!

Bored Boys

This is what comes about when I ban everyone from the computer and TV:

Monkeys jumping on the bed

Silliness

Imagination

Lawn Mower

The kids and I agreed that after 7 years of mowing a half acre lot with a push mower we were not going to do the same with a full acre. So after 3 months of watching the Thrifty Nickle, checking Craigslist and watching/comparing sales at 4 stores . . . we finally found a great deal on a riding lawn mower. The sod is growing in so well that it came at a perfect time and wow! did it look beautiful when it was mowed!

In 17 years I've known LeRoy to mow the lawn maybe 3 times, which is fine since I love to mow lawn. However, he had the front mowed before I even knew that the mower was here. It just had to be the right toy.

Nathan thinks that the 'new tractor' is just for him.

Mustang Show

LeRoy took Derek, Erika and Justin to the Ford Mustang Show on Saturday. Levi was off to Montana for a concert so the others had to have pictures to brag to Levi that they went and he missed it. Justin was off enjoying the free lunch and games so missed out on the pictures.

2 week review

1 sister here for a visit

2 sisters out to a movie

2 movie lines stuck in my head

1 craft done together

2 fun days making memories

4 days laying sod
8 teenagers helping
1/2 an acre of grass
16 bare feet happy as can be

1 night
4 month old sleeping for 12 hours
8 hours of peaceful mommy sleep
4 hours productive office work
1 satisfied, energentic mommy

1 night
2 year old throwing up
2 hours of sleep
0 hours office or house work done
1 exhausted mommy

6 contractors paying their bills on time
1 contractor requests invoice by fax
1 invoice sent by fax on Tuesday
1 check received on Wednesday for fax sent on Tuesday
1 relieved, appreciative wife/secretary

1 building contractor going bankrupt
$13,000 still owed to us
0 checks in the mail
1 frustrated, stressed out wife/secretary

1 night of bunco

13 silly women

5 prizes

1 rejuvenated mommy

6 loads of laundry done (for now)

1 kitchen sparkling clean

6 lbs. lost

4 quarterly tax forms to send off

2 boys on bike ride

1 girl swimming at neighbors

1 young man at work

2 boys down for naps

1 daddy working hard

1 content mommy doing her best

1 day at a time

Nathan and Andie

These two are so adorable together! It is funny to hear all of Nathan's chatter in a female voice and to see that they are so close in age. I love the videos that we got of the two of them drawing on the chalkboard together at grandma's and jumping on the bed together. They followed each other around, chattered nonstop and seemed to completely understand each other.

Eating together at the Arimo park.

Watching TV together

It is sad that they probably won't see each other for 2 1/2 years. They will be almost 5 by then!

Uncle John

It was great having John visit us for a couple of days. Though he may feel that he was a little ignored by the kids while he was here he sure leaves an impression on them. Here are some of my favorite pictures of John.

Entertaining the crowd on the 4th of July

Teasing with Landon

Chillin' with Hyrum

Erika looked out her window to see this and commented: "Holy crap he's buff! Mom, where's the camera? I have to show this to Ali!"

This should be some kind of ad or something. Even the 'stubborn marine' can appreciate a little quiet fishing time and a Dr. Pepper.

The 2 memories of our time with John that don't have pictures are with Derek and Nathan.

John was wearing a "Hooters" t-shirt and we kept teasing about it, John defending that they just have great wings. Derek was clueless, which is good, but really wanted in on the secret.

Nathan greeted John with a 'hang loose' sign of the fingers saying 'sup' to be real cool. John worked on teaching him the 'rock on' sign instead so it didn't look silly. Way to protect the kids' cool reputation!

We all love you John!

4th of July

The 4th of July is my least favorite holiday ever. Ok - so the holiday itself is not terrible. It is the dangerous (illegal) fireworks display that my husband puts on every year that scares me. I'm not even against fireworks. I love watching the big show in Idaho Falls and even enjoy the sound, smell and sight of the fireworks. What goes on at my house is anything but safe, (with a 7 year old carrying around a blow torch to light his bottle rockets) and did I mention illegal? Three different years we have had the police show up to confiscate LeRoy's stash. Not my idea of fun.

This year however, was a great 4th! Probably because I spent the day the way I wanted to and by the time I got home the fireworks were all done. I had a great time in Arimo with Mom, Dad, John, Jared, Joe's family, Jim, Kellie and Shawn. It was fun to eat at the park for lunch and see so many Arimo people that I loved, admired and knew as I grew up. Everyone just looked . . . older.

Half of us. Mom noticed: 2 oldest, 2 middle and 2 youngest

The parade was short and sweet. I think it only lasted about 10 minutes and of course there was candy, plenty of candy. This is the only shot I got of the parade, which makes sense since Jim and John were the only people in the parade that I really knew.

After lunch the boys got together to play baseball and the rest of us sat at the park and chatted. It was so relaxing. No phone, no entertaining to do, just fun visiting. It was great to watch all the cousins play together.

Grandpa and Grandma with all the visiting grandkids.

Then there was fishing with Grandpa. It was kinda supposed to be Shawn and Dad's thing but they took some of the kids with them. (This was right around the same time that LeRoy, Erika, Derek and Justin went home for their own fireworks.) What a fun Grandpa to take them all fishing. Levi didn't really care about the fishing as much as paddling the canoe.

Dad looks funny in this shot because he was leaning forward using his knees to push the canoe on shore. He isn't really a hunchback ogre.

Levi and I drove home that night and we were caught in traffic for about an hour from Idaho Falls to Rexburg because of construction and the traffic from the major firework show in Idaho Falls. When we got home we discovered that we moved into the perfect neighborhood for LeRoy. He was outdone. Had a small firework show compared to 2 of our neighbors. Not good for me, they are all combining and planning next years 4th of July. Hmmm. . . . maybe Arimo should be my 4th of July hangout every year.

Left Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot, Right

I have been having trouble with my right foot since about January. During the last few weeks my left foot has been hurting also and the pain has gotten to the point that I am limping. I finally set a Dr. appointment with a Podiatrist to get it checked out.

What I was told is that some time (probably around 6 months ago when the pain started) I somehow fractured my sesamoid bone (knotty looking bone at the ball of the big toe) on my right foot. Since I never took measures to let it heal, the bone has since separated into 2 bones and that is fine, livable. However, because of the pain of that and me just ignoring it and blaming the pain on pregnancy, I now have a fractured metatarsal which is causing the majority of my pain (and the limp) now.

My options were to cast it or to buy new stiff gym shoes and wear an insert with them. I opted for the shoes. I need new shoes anyway and I don't like the idea of not being able to take the cast off at night. Wearing shoes all day long is a struggle for me. I spend 90% of my day barefoot!

The Dr. didn't want to give me an anti-inflammatory because I am nursing so he gave me some cream to apply directly to the foot which should help a little. He did say that the anti-inflammatory would help the healing process so I called Rilda and got some herbal stuff that should do just as well without affecting Hyrum.

So after wearing shoes all day my foot does feel better but I had to keep taking them off. It's too hot. I feel like my feet are suffocating! At least it's not a cast and hopefully it will all feel better soon (hopefully sooner than the 6 weeks he is telling me). I go in again in 2 weeks to see if it is improving with the shoes. If not, he still wants to cast it. Ok, Ok - I'll wear the shoes!

Oh, and BTW, after thinking back to what may have caused this in the first place . . . it was probably from trying to kick a block of ice off of the porch in January. The ice didn't budge but my toe and foot hurt for weeks. Then every time I kicked the slush and ice off of the tires on the Yukon I probably injured it more because I would have throbbing pain every time I did it. It was just habit!

Family Picture

The last time we had a family picture was when Nathan was about Hyrum's age, almost 2 years ago! So on Sunday I had mom take a quick picture.