Triplets Blessing Day...

We got to travel all the way over to Peoria for the Rafferty Triplets baby blessing.  Rusty was asked to be in the circle for the blessings.  I got to hold little Brooks for part of the meeting and his big brother Jace kept telling me, "That's MY baby" it was pretty cute.  After the meeting we went back to their house for a luncheon.  My parents and my cousin Hayden and his cute family were also there.  Plus Genny and JJ's families of course.  It was such a special day!

Here I am with Brooks. Atleast I'm 90% sure it's Brooks. 

Hayden and Genny love about 8 minutes apart. So fun that of my 7 cousins we three are the youngest and we live in the same state. I'm trying to convince Hayden and Cheyenne they've lived on the west side long enough and he needs to finish med school over near me. It's only fair. 

Braden's First Band Concert...

Well, in 5th grade the kids get to pick an instrument to learn to play at school.  Braden picked trumpet because Rusty, Ryan, Russ and Maryn all played.  He's picked it up quickly because of his piano.  His first concert was at Highland High School. They did great.  I am sure it will sound more and more like actual music the lounger they play ;)

 Boss enjoyed listening to a lot of Braden's friends in the orchestra.

 It was hard to get pictures because he was right in the middle, but there he isa right behind his teacher's elbow.

 Taking their bows.

 Brenner wanted his picture taken too.

 There were so many family and friends there to watch Braden that I had to save an entire row on one of the amphitheater sides, I got a LOT of mean looks and discussions, but I threw down and saved every last one of the seats I need.  That's why you gotta come early folks!

SYTYCD in Concert...

In November Rusty and I got to finally use the tickets he had gotten me for my birthday.  We went to Melting Pot for my official birthday dinner and then drove out to Phoenix for the concert.  It was such a cool experience.  First of all, it was my first time to Melting Pot and it was yummy. 

Then the concert was a blast.  It was in a smaller theatre and the dancers started out the night in the audience so we saw them up close! They did a lot of numbers from the season, but with different partners. And some of the dances they made longer. And one of them the Sand dance, they even added the girls too! It was so so so cool.  There weren't breaks between the numbers, they blended one dance into the next- so awesome.  Of course it is hard to take pictures of stuff like this, so you'll have to take my word that it was amazing.  Definitely want to go again!

A Very Berry EARLY Christmas Dinner...

I am still on the Relief Society committee and we got to plan our big Christmas dinner early this year.  Because of building scheduling we had to have it the second week of November.  Although everyone thought we were crazy, it was nice not to have to have one more thing to go to in December.  I work with a great committee.  I made the invites and posters again.  They were fun.  We were going with a berry theme and we used lots of burlap.

It took 4 suburbans and a few other cars to get everything over to the church that day to set up. We worked from 10 am until 2pm and then we came back at 5 to finish.  After it was over we were there until almost midnight cleaning up, but it was totally worth it.  Plus we got to take home lots of left over pies...

I made the JOY sign and it doubled as a Bunco gift a week later. 

The Commitee (l-r) Rachelle, Erin, Krystal, Jackie, Heidi, Tara, me, Barbara 

We served soup in bread bowls and a berry salad. We had dozens of pies for dessert and ice cream. We played a game (the Left Right game) which I Emceed and talked and laughed. It was a great night. All in all we had about 115 women there and there are only 130 in our ward RS so we had an unbelievable turn out. Can't wait to plan next year!! 

Turning 34...

It wasn't so bad.  Rusty got me tickets to see So You Think You Can Dance when they come in November.

Roses from Rusty. 

Rusty had Kneaders French toast for me when I woke up. 

Gifts from friends. 

The best part was it was Bunco and my sweet friend Kim planned the whole night around me.  The food was my fav, Costa Vida style salads, Red Velvet cupcakes. There were balloons and streamers and all the prizes were "my favorite things".  I even got to pick first, cause heck, it was my birthday!

Kim Carrol and I 

Some of the prizes were a sleep kit (which I picked), chevron bracelets (which Kim picked and gave to me), gift card to Thrive, a Silhouette tool, and gift cards to my fav spots, a frame, Princess Bride DVD and a couple others. Plus the group got me a gift certificate to get a pedi! 

Back to Preschool!!!

9.2.13

Brenner had his first day of his second year of preschool with Miss Christine and Miss Larissa today. He wasn't very excited last night when I told him tomorrow was school. He was carrying on and pleading not to go. Rusty gave him his back to school blessing and he settled down for bed. 

This morning when I asked him to get his shoes on he quickly put it together where we were going. And he freaked. Luckily, Rusty was still home, waiting to see if he had to report for jury duty (he did not) so he came with us. 

He walked right in the door, said hello to miss Christine and went straight to pick a work and found a place to sit. I was so happy it was so easy! He told us goodbye and we were on our way!

When I went back to pick him up he was super excited to show me something. He led me to the snack table. He was very excited that they had had NutriGrain bars as part of their snack. It was so funny because I can remember Berk going through a phase where he loved those too. Brenner will be going three days a week this year and come spring we will have to decide if he will go to kindergarten in fall or do another year of preschool. I'm excited for my time with just Boston each week! 

Annual Cardiology Tests...

This year Braden's cardiologist wanted to add in another test.  A stress test.  So, we had to spread his testing into three visits.  Otherwise he would have been there all day.

Aug 2, 2013 First he had his echo appointment.

It was a tech we didn't know and it went quickly. It's hard to sit for an hour and not have her be able to tell you anything. He watched the movie and we watched the echo screen. 

8/21/13 A few weeks later we went in for a stress test. It's the first time he's ever done one. He wasn't nervous, I was for some reason. They started with some breathing tests. They were amusing to watch. 

Blood pressure

Getting a resting EKG 

He had to blow like he was blowing out candles, huff and puff and a few others.

Then they got him all fitted in his mask. The blue cuff was his blood pressure, he also had a continuous EKG. The mask sent readout straight to the computer. It was so cool to watch. 

First he started out walking at a slow speed and as the test went on it got faster and faster and the incline went higher and higher. 

He got going pretty fast! The MA had to stand at the back to make sure he didn't go flying off. 

All in all he ran for about 15 minutes. He wasn't tired but his legs were burning. Whose wouldn't be?? The doctor performing the test said he did amazing on it. He said there's a standard for CHD kids and Braden was above "normal" kid standards.

8/29/13 Finally it was time to have his actual appointment with his doctor. He was weighed and had his blood pressure done. He had been doing math homework in the waiting room and when his BP was a little high we blamed it on that. Dr Nowlen was pleased with his test results. He let us read the report from the stress test. Braden tested at 119%. Well, well above normal CHD and "regular" kids. There is still some turbulence in the areas where the repair was done and because of that he will see us again in a year. Every year we hope to go to 2 years in between appointments. Maybe next time. 

I love that we usually end up chatting for a while after the appointment is over. He's been so great with us. Can't believe we hit the 10 year post op anniversary this month! We are so blessed that Braden is doing as well as he is. 

VTU...

8.27.13
I have served on our ward's Relief Society Committee since we became a ward last year.  It is so fun to plan the activities for the "Additional Relief Society Meetings" aka Homemaking aka Enrichment. I work with a great group of women who are very talented.  When we first started planning this activity back in April we were super excited for it.  We wanted to have an activity centered around Visiting Teaching, but not make it boring.  One sister, Rochelle, had had something similar to this in a previous ward and had saved all the papers from it! Win! We worked through the summer getting things prepped and once we got back from all our trips we began putting the final arrangements together.  I didn't get a picture of all of us in our VTU shirts, but they turned out cute.  I made about a dozen for the night.  {And I have to make a note for me, I gave a talk in church two days before this so I had a busy couple of weeks. }

Finally, the day came and we met to set up early.  I left after an hour to deal with my crazy boys. But the transformation was awesome. Here are some pictures of the set up...

 As they came in the foyer there was Registration.  We broke the table up by last name.  The tables were manned by our VT supervisors.  When you checked in they gave you a packet with some essentials for the night; class schedule, pen, ruler handout, VT roster (I will take a picture of it). As well as a current VTing route.

 In the cultural hall we had long tables set up like desks.  We covered them with white butcher paper.

 We used the bell to "change classes"rather than move every few minutes we stayed in the same place the entire time.

 The jars were filled with school supplies, erasers, crayons, glue, pencils, pens etc.  Other than the jars I brought from home, (which Boss broke a lid to, geez that kid!) all the contents were donated.

 This was the refreshments table and  the area where we collected donations.  I really should have taken a picture after because it was filled to the brim with paper, backpacks, crayons and other essentials.  The Young Women in our ward will now put the items into the backpacks and then we will take them to a local charity we work with.

 These might have been my favorite part of the night.  The "refreshments." Heidi ran the bags through the printer to put our logo on.  Inside we had fruit leather, chips, a homemade granola bar and a lunch sack note.

 I mean come on, how cute???

 Here was our PE area, and below was our Teacher's desk.

We had the following class schedule:
Orientation, the Pledge, a cheer by our very own VTU cheerleaders, History, P.E., Statistics, Film, Communications, Study Hall and Choir.  Each class was just a few minutes long and was taught by a member of either the RS committee, RS VT supervisor or someone in the RS presidency.

 Some of our lovely supervisors, Jamie, Margaret, Scarlett (below) Julia, RaeChelle

 Barbara gave the welcome.  She is one of the co-heads of the committee (and you can see the t-shirts I made in this picture)

 Nothing will sadden me more for a while than the fact that I didn't video this cheer.  Brittany wrote it and it was about our ward and how visiting teaching is never done.  Best cheer squad ever (Angela, Brittany, Amanda, Alli, Sarah) Thanks for keeping those cheer skills sharp ladies!

 During Scarlett's PE class we had to stretch and get warmed up for the game we played.

 Scar leading the stretching.  She got roped into teaching this class because she's my friend, hopefully she still is :) She did amazing.

 At the end of the game here were our three winners- their prize? Doing everyone else's VTing.  Ha ha.

 Donna and Marge taught statistics and we even had a pop quiz.  Luckily the answers were in the packet.

 After watching a funny film on how NOT to visit teach, Jamie taught us about the importance of good communications with an old fashion game of telephone.

Great job Jamie. I got to be the Choir Director (I led the songs) and the Ecclesiastic Professor (I said the closing prayer).  It was a fun night, we had an amazing turnout, and now we are ready to plan our Christmas program!