Hyrum's Temple Visit

On Friday LeRoy and I were getting ready to go to the temple and Hyrum was so upset that we were going without him. He kept demanding, "Ina doe to". LeRoy tried explaining that he could go when he was a big boy. We walked out the door with him crying into Justin's chest.

On Saturday night I gave the little boys a bath and Hyrum was insistent that he pull the plug all by himself. He was struggling to pull that little button knob up but with encouragement from Nathan and I and all the tugging he could do with his tiny raisin fingers he did it. I pulled him out onto the rug to dry him off and he stood there in all his naked glory pumping his fists in the air and shouting "Ina bid boy, now I tan doe to temple too".

We just couldn't back down on what we had told him. He is a big boy. So, on Sunday we bundled up in our winter duds and headed up the hill to "our" temple. We have all missed our weekly trips to walk around the temple within the gates and roll down the big hill outside the gates. This visit reminded us why we don't go in the winter. It was SO COLD! A measly 18 degrees and that does not include the wind and it was bitter windy! Still, we were glad we went. It was well worth it to hear Nathan and Hyrum yell hello up to Moroni and to see Hyrum's face stuck in a frozen smile.

LeRoy thought it would be warmer walking in the temple walkway but it just created a big wind tunnel. When they first walked into it from the front sidewalk the wind sucked the breath out of Hyrum and nearly knocked him over.


Why is it that when your face freezes your snot does not? I love seeing Hyrum's toddler reflex as he tries to take care of his runny nose with his tongue while still attempting to smile.


That blue sky is so deceiving! The piles of snow paint a more accurate picture.

Nathan's parting words were, "don't worry, Moroni, we'll be back".

We got home just before our home teacher drove up. The boys enthusiastically told him where they had been and he listened with all his seasoned grandfather attention and responded with awe equivalent to their excitement. He then explained to the boys that he works at the temple and invited us to take the boys into the waiting room of the temple (evidently we can do that even if we aren't there for a wedding/sealing and it doesn't need to be scheduled). Even Derek and Justin showed interest in this new information. A visit inside the temple is now on the family calendar for June when we can reverently see inside Heavenly Father's house and when the reverence begins to run out we can go outside, trade out our white shirts for t-shirts and roll down the big hill in "Heavenly Father's yard".

I look out the window longing to see



Freezing, windy reality shows me



I want to do meals like this


The cold, icy facts dish out this



That groundhog got my hopes up and now I daydream about

This is NOT the beginning of an early spring.

Hibernation continues.

XOXOXO

Valentine's Day actually started out as Valentine's Week last Monday. For family home evening we learned how XOXO came to mean kisses and hugs and we learned about St. Valentine. By the end the kids were teasing us that we were having a Jewish/Catholic FHE night. Then we made homemade valentines to send to some of our friends.

I learned several years ago to let go of any visual expectations I had in my mind when I realized that I had 6 boys in on the crafting and since then I have come to love the time we spend together during the creating process. They are clever and caring even if it doesn't come across in craft store beauty.

We also decorated our own envelopes to leave in the basket on the table for the week. The basket was full of paper hearts to write our own love notes to leave in each other's envelopes. This experiment turned out much better than I had hoped and I had to copy and cut more hearts for the basket.

After a weeks worth of love notes Valentine's morning finally came. Erika's comment at breakfast was "I've given up on ever looking good in Christmas and Valentine's day pictures". She loves it! LeRoy came to the table with his Tigger sweatshirt on so Hyrum and Nathan ran to the dress up clothes to get their Tigger costumes so that they could match dad. It may not have been red, pink and heartshaped but this was a sure Valentine for LeRoy. Those boys love their daddy!

While the older kids were in school and the little boys were down for naps I did my Valentine workout. Stringing 5 full skeins of yarn over and under and between and through is very tiring! My favorite part is the staircase!

About 10 minutes after I finished three sets of missionaries showed up for P-day. LeRoy had informed me the night before that they were coming to play pool, ping-pong and board games. I'm happy to entertain the missionaries but I wasn't going to skip out on our 8 year tradition so they would just have to Catherine Zeta-Jones/Agent 99 their way through my yarn lasers. The four sister missionaries thought is was a fun tradition (seriously, high pitched oohs and aahs) so they didn't seem to mind holding their skirts as modestly as they could while weaving their way in crouching tiger stealth to get to the basement.

Nathan and Hyrum woke up about an hour before the older kids were to get home from school but I was ready for that. They thought I was the coolest mom ever (okay, they didn't say so but I'm going to pretend it anyway) when I had the travel dvd player set up with Leapfrog Alphabet and we all sat on Nathan's bed like we were at the movies. It lasted just long enough and when we opened the bedroom door to go out and they saw all the strings they didn't care what they were for, they only saw a jungle to tame. Getting from their bedroom to the kitchen took about 10 minutes since they both insisted on doing it all alone. We made it just in time for the others to walk in.

I took more video than pictures this year so this doesn't quite capture the thrill of the game. There were more "Holy cow, mom! This is impossible! How am I supposed to get over that!" comments than ever before. I did try to make it more challenging and they loved it. The only rule is that they can't use scissors so some of the tight spots at the end are pretty darn tricky with a ball of yarn.

While I was putting the finishing touches on the very pink, red, carby dinner and Nathan, Derek, Justin and LeRoy were playing was with their cupid shooters Hyrum climbed up to help himself to the heart shaped pancakes.



The others finally joined us and we ate to our hearts content. The boys' lip smacking love for the strawberry-yogurt-cobbler was all the thanks I needed. Washing it down with pink milk gave the final gulping touches to our Valentine meal. The night was complete as we read a weeks worth of Valentine love notes that had been left in our envelopes.


A couple of final notes:

Erika received a dozen red roses at school today.
I think he likes her!

Nathan received a Spiderman projector flashlight in his gift box at the end of his string. Though he thought that the Spidey pictures that were projected onto the wall were cool he was even more impressed that he could hide in his dark bedroom and read his books with his flashlight. Yes, he also tried it after he was tucked into bed for the night.

Happy Heart Day to all and to all a good night!

Nathan's Primary Talk

It was a good thing I cleaned off the kitchen counter last Sunday when I got home from Utah or I would have never known that Nathan had been assigned a talk in primary for the following Sunday. With all my best intentions it was still Friday afternoon before the two of us sat down to come up with a talk. The assigned theme was "the scriptures teach us about Heavenly Father's plan". For family home evening a couple of weeks ago we had a picture lesson on Heavenly Father's plan so I asked what parts of the plan he remembered and this is what we came up with: (Notice the deep breath in the beginning and the A-men at the end - I'll explain in just a bit)



It was his idea to do it ten times (said emphatically with 10 jazzy hand fingers) and by the time we got to the 6th time I thought to record it. The previous video was his 8th time. I was so impressed with his ability to remember it so quickly but I think it was because he already knew the information he just needed to practice it in talk form. He loved seeing himself do it and even perfected a couple of things (which can be seen in the following video) like not smacking the Book of Mormon down when he was done with it, not burping (which you can't hear well in the video but is the cause of all the laughter) and by the end he was also saying "Jesus" instead of "geez".



After practicing I kept the camera rolling as he came over and sat on my legs and the following conversation came about. It's fun to see his understanding of what has been taught in family home evening, nightly scriptures and primary lessons.



After going over his talk the full 10 times that he had planned I said something to the effect that now it was stuck in his head and he would never forget it. He responded by covering his ears and with wide eyes, raised eyebrows and a deep voice of oh-my-goodness questioning asked if we could put tape on his ears so the words wouldn't escape from his brain.

When Sunday came he was up bright and early and exclaimed that he couldn't wait to do his talk. I was crossing my fingers that his enthusiasm could hold long enough to get through sacrament meeting and to the primary room without turning into complete fear. Knowing how socially shy my Nathan can be, I have taught him that when he starts to feel scared to take a deep breath, two if he needs to, and then to let the Holy Ghost help him. When we got to church early so that he could practice at the pulpit in the primary room there were some men there setting up the chairs. He immediately kicked into shy mode and did not want to do it. After sitting by me for a minute while I reminded him that when it is time to do his talk that the room would be full of people, he walked up to the microphone, took a deep breath and did it. YAY!! Even if he had not done his talk in primary that day I would have been completely satisfied with his bravery at that moment.

He made it through sacrament meeting. It was finally time. He sat up in the front without coercion. He stood when it was his turn. He took a quick breath which was probably only visible to me because I was watching so closely and could tell from his shoulders rising and falling. He spoke each sentence clearly, ending with a satisfied "A-men". When he was instructed to sit with his class he marched over to the piano where I was sitting and said with head held high, "The Holy Ghost helped me and I wasn't even scared!"

Doing Dishes

a.k.a
Playing in the Bubbles

I wasn't even home when Derek took this picture. All four boys were cleaning up the kitchen to surprise me when I got home. It was a wonderful, thoughtful surprise.

Even with a healthy dose of brotherly bantering they are so great to take care of each other and work and play together. Someone should have guided Nathan a little more in his clothing choice for the day but, hey, I know my boys so the fact that he is in something besides pajamas and actually has a shirt on is enough for me.

Everyone should feel this comfortable at church.



I love the 9am church schedule. The Sunday Nap is back!

Tall and Taller

Nathan complains at least twice a day that his legs are hurting. The only thing that I can guess is that he is having growing pains since there are no bruises or cuts and his pants are suddenly appearing too short. The only relief seems to be liquid calcium and cuddles with mom.

Check out his growth!


Derek is still growing! He has climbed another inch since August, stretching him to a full 6'2". He has thick stretch marks all across his low back and the back of his knees from growing so fast. It actually looks like someone has been whipping him. Some of the older marks are faded pink and the newer ones are a deep red.

My visiting teachers came today and when I opened the door they exclaimed, "Big Foot has been to your house". Nah, that's just Derek's size 14 shoe print headed to the bus stop.

What???

After a morning play dough craft session Nathan informed me that his preschool teacher showed him the right way to clean up all the little pieces. He formed a ball with the biggest portion of play dough and then exclaimed, while punching down the big ball on all the stray flecks of color, "see, this is so much easier. How come you didn't know how to do this mommy?"

Seriously? Do they learn anything I try to teach? Why does the teacher get full credit for that tidbit of cleanup cleverness? Eh, no matter. I'm just grateful the mess gets cleaned up and now he has fun doing it.

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A couple of weeks ago Levi came over to hang out with the boys for a while. It has become more and more obvious that he is in need of new pants. The holes in his knees are worse than they ever were when he was a toddler, but then again I never bought pants with holes already in them when he was a toddler.

Later that day, I was undressing Hyrum for his bath and noticed that he had 4 little snips in the knee of his pants and I knew they were not there when I dressed him that morning. He was so proud of his accomplishment as he explained to me that he "tut hose" in his pants, "yike Yevi". Yep, he used a pair of scissors and had nice little triangle clips that have since spread to actual holes and they are sure to look just like Levi's pants in the next few weeks.


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Mom to Nathan: "It's time for naps".

Nathan to Mom: "Let me think about that for a second."

Nathan, after a brief pause: "Nope, I don't think that will be acceptable today."

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Last week Justin missed 4 out of 5 days school due to an attack of the flu and sinus bugs going around. Being the great educator that I am and in complete concern about the school work that he was getting behind on, I sat with Justin and Nathan to watch an episode of Psych for a mid-day literature lesson. After it was over Justin walked over to the Wii (our Netflix instant play connection) and Nathan groggily said in disgust, "Justin, what the he!! are you doing" with perfect inflection imitating Henry Spencer's over used expression to his son, Shawn.

I probably should have used something more kindergarten appropriate. I could have avoided the "but, what is a swear word?" lesson that followed. I tried to explained that a swear word is like the other words that we don't use because they aren't nice. "Like, stupid and shut-up and dummy . . . " he questioned,using every word that we have tried to delete from our family conversations. Yep, little man, all of those too.


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One morning Hyrum was rather solemn and wanted us to all be quiet. This is rather unusual for our energetic little master of all things noisy. LeRoy was making phone calls, which is always done in full volume (tree, apple). Hyrum sat there next to me and asked, "what da het is daddy doing?" And then he kept repeating it over and over again as if he was practicing it and making sure he had it right.

I probably should have stopped him with some sort of gentle lesson about words we don't need to use but it was just too cute to not have for future family home video viewing. After the phrase Nathan had used, Hyrum's didn't seem so bad.

Spinal Fluid Leak

There's been a slight complication from LeRoy's surgery. According to the materials they have given us, this is what is going on:

"Cerebrospinal fluid leak syndrome (CSFLS) is a medical condition in which the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) held in and around a human brain and spinal cord leaks out of the surrounding protective sac, the dura, for no apparent reason. The dura, a tough, inflexible tissue, is the outermost of the three layers of the meninges, the system of meninges surrounding the brain and spinal cord. CSF leaks occur due to the presence of one or more holes in the dura."

Our options tonight were to have surgery again to find the leak and stop it or to try a less invasive procedure first, which we chose to do instead of surgery.

Tonight the doctor put another set of stitches in to hopefully stop the leaking and now LeRoy cannot leave the bed or even sit up in bed for the next 32 hours; not to eat, not to take a drink, not to pee, not to change positions. The hope is that without any pressure on the dura that it will heal on its own and he can avoid surgery. They also started him on a strong antibiotic tonight. The doctor was sure to inform him that with this particular antibiotic there is a high risk of "tendon tears" for the next couple of months. Luckily, he can't do any lifting or jumping for the next few months anyway so we hope to avoid that complication as well.

They already have him scheduled for surgery on Monday just in case which means he cannot eat or drink anything after midnight Sunday night. The restriction just keep adding up but so far LeRoy has been very obedient.

Now we wait. We pray. We watch tv. We wait some more.

Surgical Comedy

Here we are again. This is now the third back surgery in 18 months. I could look at this situation and panic but instead I'm choosing to laugh. Not that it's really funny but if I don't find the humor in it, I'd probably bust out in what-now hysteria . . . and I'm not even the one dealing with constant pain and medical procedures. So, here's to the funny parts of LeRoy and surgery.

Originally, we were supposed to be at the hospital at 8:30am and we were. At 9:00 they sent us home (after admitting) because the doctor had been called in to an emergency in Idaho Falls. We were told everything was on hold until noon, come back at 11:30. Then we got a call to come in at 10:00, it wasn't quite the emergency they thought, surgery would be at 10:30. We rushed back up there, sliding half the way because the roads were so slick, and they quickly got LeRoy changed, the IV going and the drugs were in at exactly 10:45. Another nurse comes walking in and I recognized the look on the woman's face. She was trying so hard not to roll her eyes as she told us that the doctor had not left Idaho Falls yet but he should be here any time . . . after a 35 minute drive . . . probably 45 with the road conditions. The doctor finally showed up at 11:50 and surgery started at 12:15. So, LeRoy spent an extra hour and a half doped up on all those happy drugs at the Madison Surgical Circus while I sat there listening to the on-goings of Madison Day Surgery in boredom. I ate a small box of Milk Duds before surgery even began.

Now let's back up a little to the really fun part. As the nurse started putting the happy drugs in the IV she asked him questions. She told us that he should drift off pretty quick but we know from past experience that LeRoy talks and talks and talks through the drugs clear up to the minute the anesthesiologist conks him out with the big stuff. And it's funny!

The nurse asked him, "what does the G before LeRoy stand for".

He responded "Graford" only the way that LeRoy says it with his southern twang is "Gray (staccato pause) Ferd" and he was slurring like a drunk.

"Grapefruit?" the nurse asked in disbelief for clarification.

"Yeah, Grape Fruit!" he emphasized, not only once but three times.

After the first time he said it I smiled and shook my head "no" to the nurse and after she grinned back she just kept asking him. Gradually, he bumbled off to a dreamless, painless state of drug-hood with outbursts of nonsense and mumblings about electrical stuff.

Now, in his defense, he did say his name right the first time and it was only after she put "grapefruit" in his medicated mind that he kept demanding that his name was grapefruit each time she questioned him but still, this would have made a great YouTube video.

He doesn't remember any of it. Erika now calls him Grapefruit instead of Dad.

LeRoy on drugs.
He doesn't remember this either.

Recovery is slow. Because of his medical history and current degenerating discs he has been told to find another profession and at the very least not work for six months. There's got to be humor in there somewhere.

If all else fails, we can always depend on Derek for smiles and laughs. These are a few of the pictures he took of himself.


Derek not on drugs