mini steve

at school, sailor had to do a presentation on a famous utahn.
it makes it easy having connections, she gets the real stuff!

goodbye cast!

this long, debilitating, protective, green, stinky cast is off!


sky was giddy with excitement. she couldn't stop giggling!


ahhhhhh! okay, you can't really see but the long dark leg hair,
the stink, the rash, the pen marks under her knee from sticking
a pen down her cast to scratch an itch, and the dead skin.........
were all a sight to behold! the worst part? after scrubbing
her leg for about 1/2 hour while waiting for x-rays, there was
sooooooooooooo much dead skin on the paper stuff. it was
totally disgusting. we actually wrapped it all up and pulled out
some new fresh paper cuz' we couldn't stand looking at it!

after leaving the office with her new walking boot but still on
crutches, the emotions went from giddy excitement to frustration,
tears & madness. skylar was not happy. getting a cast off doesn't
mean everything is healed and better. we've still got another
month before doing any kind of activity. sky's knee was/is really
sore and she does not enjoy bending it. at all. a lot of tears were
shed that afternoon and night. what a rollercoaster....................

we final got her to soak her leg in the tub, only to have dead skin
caked, and i mean caked all around the bathtub! it was so gross!


one week later, no crutches! yea! (but she still has some nasty
skin still on there! you'd think all that dead skin would be off by
now!) skylar made a goal of not taking crutches to school today
and she did it! she made it all day walking, well kinda walking
in a real funny way!....................................bring on the rehab!

missionary monday!

morgan's letter will come tomorrow...

not the easiest way to steer...

he would have kept doing this if i wouldn't have stopped him!
i've got to save my walls...............they're banged up enough!

hoops

i discovered i had my camera in my bag at hayden's basketball
game............it's been a long time since i've taken pictures of him
playing sports, so i started to snap away. that didn't last long!
...............................can you imagine the horror in 8th grade?!

i love these 2

knowledge bowl!

for 3 months, sailor has been going to school an hour early,
3x a week to study for knowledge bowl. she finally had her
big competition on saturday and they did awesome! we'll
find out their official results shortly. we are so proud of
sailor and so glad that is is over!!!!..............................yea!
-
sailor's team

-
the entire knowledge bowl team with their principal, dr. t!

i have to admit...

when we got home from palm springs last week, carly surprised
us with the news that she took the twins bottles away. done. gone.
-
now, don't judge me, let me first explain...............yes, they are 3.
we've been meaning to take their bottles away for quite sometime
but we've always had a surgery looming so we've kept them to
help boston get through his surgery. well, one surgery turned
into 5 and here we are over 3 years old with still..........a bottle.
-
i was definitely excited, maybe i should say relieved, that i didn't
have to deal with it(carly said they never even asked for them!).
i'm sure it wouldn't have been so easy if i were the one taking it
away. but at the same time, i was sad...........these are my babies!
and in a way, i kinda wanted to do it myself. kinda is the big word.
-
thank goodness carly did it! boy is life easier! less pee-ing! dry
diapers in the morning (no wet sheets=laundry to do!) no waking
up in the night wanting a bottle..............................the list goes on.
-
as a result.........we told the twins, when they get big boy and big
girl beds, they can't have a bottle. so that first night home, not
having a big kid bed for them and not wanting to put them back
in their crib for fear of them reverting, we pulled their mattresses
out of their beds and put them on the floor. wallah: big kid beds!
-
they are in heaven (although they did whine for a bottle for just a
minute and about once a day they still ask for them but it lasts
about 30 seconds!). they sleep soooooooooooooo good! we sleep
soooooooo good! so now we're in the market for beds. any ideas?
-
their first night in big kid beds! very excited! lots of jumping!


i told them to pretend like they were sleeping. apparently,
brighton sleeps with a smile on her face! sweet dreams!

strength & conditioning

for the past couple of weeks, skylar has been going into the gym
to do strength & conditioning for an hour 4 times a week.........
100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 v-ups........you get the picture!
i've tried snapping some pics of her in her leo with her cast and
finally had her backed in a corner.........this is the best one i got!


i finally decided to sneak the camera to the gym to get some
pictures. yesterday was her state meet. it was a KILLER to
not be there watching her kick butt. okay, i'm very biased
but it was a rough day getting texts from her teammates'
moms with updates on scores & awards. she would have won.
i just know it.


maneuvering her way through the equipment...........................

happy birthday hayden!

hayden's golden birthday! and he was pretty much on his own.
we flew back from palm springs about 6 but by the time we got
bags, our car and the babies from kim's house, it was about 9 pm
by the time we got home. hayden was a total trooper and very
understanding. we had a quick happy birthday that night and
then a huge robert bash the next night! we are lucky parents
to have such a great kid! the only thing he asked for was money
to put towards an airplane ticket to pick up any/all of the miss-
ionaries. i love that--no electronics, sports, toys....just an air-
plane ticket. he does love his new tennis racket. happy day hay!

palm springs

not only did we watch a lot of tennis, we played a lot of tennis!
(well, joe played a lot). i think in this picture he's doing a roger
federer behind the back-reverse shot. chris probably missed it! j/k!

-

grandpa jeff's still got it.......................................

-

we bought sailor a new raquet and joe loves it! he wants it for

himself. sailor had a hard time getting it out of his hands.........

.................................he even slept with it! now that's true love!

indian wells tennis garden

we spent every day at the tennis garden, watching the

bnp paribas open. walking around to all the courts and

watching the best in the world practice and play. such a

unique opportunity to be courtside and sooooo much fun.

-

i'm not sure of this players name, all i know is that she is from

belgium so we had to stop and watch her in honor of jordan!

mom, dad and christian with front row seats........................

mmmmmm rafael nadal....................................................

-

joe left this tournament a huge fan of rafa's. nadal is known as the

spanish bull. so joe is now, more than ever, the kansas tornado....

-

maren cilic, ranked 14th in the world, reminded us of morgan.

so, of course we had to cheer him on. i couldn't get over his

form on his serve...............................................................

-

friday night, joe, christian & lisel headed to the hit for haiti charity

event. palm springs: 78 in the day.....................cooooold at night!

-

we had great seats, thanks to chris & lisel, for this tennis match.

roger federer & pete sampras vs. rafael nadal & andre agassi. rod

laver is center court getting the match off to a start. the players

wore microphones and razzed each other the whole time. until

agassi went off on sampras and made a fool of himself................

very uncomfortable.

-

the main reason i came: to see this guy: federer. 'nuf said.

-

the girls played too. justine henin & martina navratilova vs.

stefi graf & lindsay davenport. i think lisel could beat them.

-

1 million dollars was raised and at the check presentation tony

bennet came out a sang. what a voice! the place was packed

with a bunch of wealthy old people. i think they really enjoyed it.

missionary letters are posted! sorry it's 3 days late......

sailor in palm springs

sailor spent 5 days in palm springs with christian & lisel,
whitney & jared, and grandma & grandpa! she spent time
watching tennis, playing tennis, (she & paige versing grandpa
and jared......intense!), going to disneyland & just playing
and being responsible. thanks to all the adults that helped
take care of her.........................................

on her own

we sent this little adventurer off on her own!...............on saturday
she headed to california to meet up with whitney, christian, gr. &
grandpa and co. for a week of tennis, swimming and disneyland.
oh, and climbing trees! that's the main thing she wanted to do
there: climb trees............................................how cute is that?!

champs

you're looking at the orem east stake deacon's basketball champs!

the casts

on monday skylar got her cast taken off and a new one put back
on. since my computer keeps filing my pictures into the unknown,
i can't find the pictures of her when she first got her cast on.........
so, just before going into the doctor's office, we snapped a few
photos to remember this much-loved, fully-enjoyed cast!


this cast was covered from top to bottom with signatures..........

deciding to go green this time, she wanted a "cute"cast with

no signatures so she came home and started to decorate it

with polka dots..........being the girl that she is, she decided she

didn't like it and begged me to take her back to get a new one

put on. about an hour later, the orange & pink polka-dots were

covered up by two different shades of green so it would blend

in with the green cast and once again be "cute"! 2 days later, she

had people signing it..........................i soooooo understand her!

here she is in a rare moment: modeling her broken leg/cast!

this kind of thing never happens to us

the other day while in the checkout at harmon's, the manager
came up to me with this bag of groceries and said: we want
to give this to you! how fun! it was full of lots of yummy food
i don't normally buy, like pinapple salsa (i'll be honest, my first
thought was "it must be expiring soon and they had to get rid
of it"). it was all very fresh and yummy. they must know i go
there at least once a day........................................................

!

at grandma pam's birthday party the big boys got a little bored
and decided to do "make-overs". hayden came home looking like
this! those robert boys have always had a knack for good hair!