MAJOR UPDATES!

Obviously, a LOT has happened since my last post. With me not able to update my blog via my droid, I have to wait until we can catch a signal on my desktop or Benji's laptop- which isn't too often. Here is the biggest event that happened in our family:

New Baby Niece!

Baby Sophia Andrea Davidson was born at 29 weeks gestation on June 17, 2011. Ashlee's water broke 2 weeks earlier because of hydrops/ excess fluid in the womb due to a massive teratoma (non-cancerous tumor) that formed in Sophie's chest cavity within 2-3 months. Ashlee was life-flighted from St. George to University Hospital in SLC, where she laid in a hospital for almost 2 weeks, trying to keep baby inside to mature as long as possible. When baby's heart rate dipped into the critical stages, the doctors did an emergency C-section to deliver baby Sophie. The neonatal surgeons immediately performed surgery on Sophie to remove the tumor. The C-Section was a total success. The surgery was a total success. Everything about the circumstances surrounding Sophie has been one miracle after another.The Lord truly poured out an endless bucketful of blessings and is continuing to do so. Sophie bug gets stronger every day! Here are some comparisons:

Sophie right after birth on 6-17-11. Major edema all throughout her body.

 Sophie at 1 week old, 6-24-11:

Sophie at 2 weeks old:

The doctors have turned down (off?) her oscilator/oxygen machine because she is breathing on her own. They have started giving her some of Ashlee's milk via a PIC line. The edema has pretty much cleared up 100% (as you can see from the photos). There is a lot more to be said, but as Ashlee's up in SLC and I'm here in Panguitch, this will have to suffice. :)

I had the opportunity to be with Ashlee the day Sophie was born. I stayed for a few days, then went home, and came back up a few days later for a couple of days. I got to see Sophie from the beginning, and I am dying to get back up there! Maybe by the time I get to go, I'll be able to hold her! :)

*~*~*

Other fun things, not necessarily in order.... :)

APRIL

Spring Break: We had a snowstorm, so we went outside and made snowmen. :)

Jordyn gets braces!!

Jordyn attends Jr. Prom! (along with everyone else in town, lol!)

Koby had an "extra" permanent tooth that was smaller than the one behind it trying to grow in (in front), so we went to the Dentist! He pulled one of his big front teeth and a smaller baby tooth at the same time!

Family Outing at Birch Creek

After 9 years of almost nightly headaches and enough Tylenol to fill a swimming pool, we finally took Koby in to the Optomatrist! Turns out he REALLY needed glasses afterall! Since wearing them, his headaches have all but diminished.

EASTER!

Jordyn's favorite part of Easter was when she made this candy gram for a certain crush boy (we will call "Max") who turned 16 that day!

Then later, she went to personally deliver it to him. He loved it!

5-1-11: Osama Bin Laden was killed in a raid by our own awesome soldiers. When Jordyn heard the news, she ran out and decorated the car.

During the last part of May, Jordyn participated in the high jump during her first school track meet. Afterward, she started having pain "in her heart" area, trouble breathing, etc. The doctor referred us to a pediatric cardiologist at Primary Children's to get an echocardiogram. After a cool show (they gave her a CD copy, lol), we met with the doctor. She said that her heart looks excellent and that it is not what is causing the pain. She suggested we talk to our doctor about possible exercise-induced asthma, which we did and requested an inhaler. It works for the most part, and the pain has seemed to have subsided over the past 2 months. Whew!

May 13th- Ryan turns 7!!

He wanted a "Pirate" theme

Almost his whole 1st grade class came, and we had a lot of fun!

Later that week, Ryan made a robot for his 1st Grade's "Robot Parade".

Okay, so maybe dad helped....a little. lol.

May 19th- Brittany turns 11!!

She has been on a huge "Thundercats" kick, hence her T-shirt and Cake. lol.

She ADORES watching "Cake Boss", so we decided to have a "Cake Boss" party!

We invited 10 altogether, but only 3 showed up. :/ But the 3 that came were awesome, and made the party so much fun! I will post more about our recent parties on my birthday parties idea blog later on.

CUB SCOUT DAY CAMP

This year, as I'm 2nd counselor in the Primary and over the Cub Scouts, I got to attend Day Camp with Koby! Learning to tie knots, playing pioneer games, doing the zipline, shooting a BB gun & bow & arrow, obstacle course, and first aid. It was a lot of fun!

May 25th: 8th Grade Graduation!!!

Needless to say, Jordyn is SUPER excited about heading to High School next year!!

At the last minute, I made some candy leis for her and her friends. Gotta keep some Hawaii in my life!

Our chickens are getting big! They are in their own cage outside and they're actually pretty tame. Ryan just loves to let them out and play with them!

MEMORIAL WEEKEND

My parents came up to hang out with us, so we took them to the grand opening of the new GEM theatre and ice cream parlor that just opened up here in town! The owners remodeled a crumbly, old building that's been vacant for years, so we're excited to finally have a new business in town!

Upstairs there is a room that they've made into a museum of sorts, which includes this old fashioned movie reel. On that reel, there's a bunch of signatures of the kids who used to work there, clear back when it was a movie theatre before! And guess who's signature we found .... more than once? Benji's dad, Clem!

Benji's sister Sandi and her kids came to Panguitch with her parents and stayed at Grandma Veater's house during Memorial weekend, and was sweet enough to stop by for a few minutes to say "hi" before heading back to St. George!

Last day of May: Benji finishes up his tile job at the City Pool located inside the High School. Since he was working there, we decided to tag along and SWIM! It was about 10pm at night, and we were the only ones there. It was great!

JUNE

On a whim (which is usually how we end up doing things), we decided to finally take our 2nd-hand camper trailer out on it's maiden voyage! We hopped in the Tahoe and drove to Jacob Lake, about 2 hours south of here. We stayed 2 nights and 3 days, which was a wonderful break from our crazy lives!

On the way back home we stopped in Kanab, bought some cowboy boots for Benji, ate at Pizza Hut, then took the kids to the "Rubber Park", where the entire playground floor is covered in recycled rubber bits! It's awesome because it's super soft and spongey. LOVE that park! I love Kanab, anyway! We also saw that they built a new water park right next door to the park, so we really want to take the kids back down sometime soon. :)

June 5: Frozen Sprinklers!

We woke up that morning and saw that our sprinklers, that were running all night long, made a bunch of icicles on the grass!

And it was also very windy, so the water ended up being blown onto one of our trees all night long. The cold temps froze the water, bogging down our tree in ice! Funny.

We missed Daisy's "birthday" on the 9th, so when I got back from SLC on the 11th, Jordyn made a cute birthday cake and we celebrated Daisy's 7th birthday! (A little older in dog years, lol)

Her older brother, Jingles, complete with his recent haircut

And the "birthday girl" with hers!

Later that day we headed over in town to the Quilt Walk Pioneer Activities. It's a yearly tradition, and it's all free! Here's Benji getting a ride in a handcart (incidentally, this is the exact same type of handcarts we'll be pulling on our trek!).

To our shock and amazement, Koby and Ryan was all over the sewing table!! They LOVED sewing those quilt blocks!

Brittany and I making corn husk dolls

Brittany spent the majority of the time in the petting zoo!

Ryan is also a huge animal lover, and made sure he picked up every animal there!

Jordyn & her friend Lauren manning the "homemade candle" table

And my sweetheart, making an awesome corn husk pioneer man!

After the activity booths closed at 2, they had a tractor parade! Benji was asked to drive "the big, green tractor". And yes, I think his tractor's sexy!

THEN, later that night, we got dressed and ran over to the Social Hall to participate in our 2nd year of the Quilt Walk Play. (It's been going on for years, but it's only our 2nd year). Here are some pics of us and the crew "backstage" while we were waiting for our turn to go onstage!

June 12th: Brooksby Ranch

My grandma's brother, Pres, owns a huge ranch about 30 minutes from Panguitch. Benji offered to fix the leak on their water tank, so we decided to go with him! Right when we pulled up, Benji found this cute baby horny toad!

Jordyn went with Benji to fix the water tank. On the way back, Benji let Jordyn practice driving. She did GREAT....until they came up the hill. He told her to slowly put on the brake, and she accidentally hit the gas, and ended up barrelling over their wire fence. LOL.

So we spent a few extra hours FIXING/re-stretching the fence. Lol.

DUTCH BOY

My Grandma Biggs (who was born in Holland) owned these beautiful wooden shoes. When she died, my uncle Don kept them, until a few years ago, when he decided to pass them on to me! I wish I would've thought about it before and had the other kids try it on back then, but the other day I was dusting my shelves and thought I'd see if my kids could fit them. Ryan was the only one, so I hurried and snapped a pic. It actually really "goes" with him pretty well. Blonde hair, big eyes and all that. Lol.

Another "Major" event that happend: Jordyn worked, earned, and saved up to get her hair done!

June 21st at Short Cuts

Before:

Putting highlights in

Hee hee!

Then some dark brown color underneath

After about 1/2 hour or so, you can definately see a difference

I know this is always *my* favorite part!

Layers!

Blow-Drying

She got her bangs!

Curling/Styling

TA-DA!!!!

I think it makes her look older!

Thanks to our sweet friend, Jolann!

June 21-26: Benji had a job in St. George, so we decided to meet up with him there for a few days. We stayed at my parents' house. While we were there, we basically chillaxed, and swam the whole week. Woohoo!

The first day we were there, Grandma told Jordyn that if she'd mow the lawns, she'd give her some money!

Since we were in St. George, we just HAD to make sure Brittany hung out with her BESTIE, Amy!! She stayed 2 whole days and overnight with her, and didn't want to leave. :)

Before we headed back home Sunday afternoon, we stopped off at Jordyn's BFF's house to pick her up! Chauney is staying with us this week!

BROOKSBY RANCH

June 27th

Uncle Pres and Aunt Bobbie invited us to their ranch to have a BBQ! It was so good to see them again. We had a wonderful visit. The kids loved Uncle Pres because he kept taking them on rides in his Rhino. lol.

4-H Bunnies!

We decided to participate in 4-H this year. We now have 4 chocolate Mini Rexes. The girls have girl bunnies, the boys have boy bunnies. They came from the same litter, so we have to keep them separated so they don't mate. Lol.

And for good measure, I thought I'd sneak in a picture of Benji's new favorite past time with the kids: his old GoCart! He had this when he was a little boy, and has refurbished it with a good motor and wheels. The kids love it!

And last but not least, pics of my stinking headache-of-a-project: Pioneer skirts!

These 3 are Jordyn's skirts. I only finished one so far- the others just need to have their stinking elastic waist bands put in.

And these 3 are mine. :) Yes, they look more like mu'u mu'us. That was kind of the idea. I wanted to mix my years in Hawaii with a Pioneer twist. Yeah, I know. I'm a total dork!

Well, that's all I'm gonna post for now. There were SO MANY pictures, but I was so far behind, I would never have gotten caught up! I have many more pics to post of "Sophie's Journey" (my stay with Ashlee, Coden, and baby Sophie at University Hospital), but I will put that in it's own post in a few days. :)

If you lasted this long, thank you for reading! Love you all!