Grateful Thankful Announcement

I know, another video. Promise this one is worth it. The kids reaction to the announcement I made on my grateful thankful turkey feather is priceless. A little background on the grateful thankful turkey....Every Thanksgiving we mail feathers out to our family members who are spread out all over the country. They write their name on the front and what they're thankful for on the back, then send the feathers back to us. We put the returned feathers on our grateful thankful turkey without reading what was written. During FHE before Thanksgiving, we pull the feathers off and read what everyone is grateful for. The kids absolutely love it. This year I wrote a surprise on my feather and saved it for the very end. We knew the reaction would be worth it so Chris had the tape rolling. Warning: Some ugly Stef trying not to cry faces surface here.

Yes, he started to cry, which is what brought on the crying face and voice of mine that I love so much! The kids have been praying for a baby for two and a half years. I was beginning to wonder if this was going to be a lesson for our family of praying with faith in the power of the Lord, but then being able to accept His will and answer "But if not..." which is part of one of my favorite scriptures (Dan. 3:18) I'm grateful that for now, our prayers have been answered! After we put the kids to bed tonight, I heard them chanting "Baby Baby Baby Baby" in their room. This will be a fun 6 months.

Some of the details...I'm 13 weeks along, have seen the baby a couple of times in ultrasounds (my dr is so WONDERFUL in understanding my anxiety and doing all he can to calm my fears), and am starting to believe this time another baby may join our family. Official due date is May 28th, but due to another c-section we're looking at a week earlier. And its true, we're not going to find out boy or girl.

The end of summer

I started this post a while ago and couldn't not post it, the kids are rockstars. Summer went by waaaay too quickly for me this year! I absolutely love summer time and am so sad when its time for the kids to go back to school. I thought I'd post our last weekend of summer, it was the highlight for me. We took the kids backpacking up to Blow Lake up off Cascade Lakes Highway. This is where we took the kids on their very first backpacking trip 3 years ago. Wow how things have changed! The kids now have their own packs and carried quite a bit on their own without much complaining. It was an absolutely delightful weekend! Chris introduced the kids to Tang-which I think is DISGUSTING-they of course loved it and kept asking for this new delicious drink "O-rang-a-tang." (said in all seriousness)

Wipeout Party

Eli's 7th birthday party was a blast! He's super obsessed with Wipeout and decided that was what he wanted for his party this year. We set up an obstacle course for the kids, you can see it in the video I attached. Sorry its not the greatest I threw it together QUICK otherwise I would have been lucky to post this before Christmas!

Anyways, the obstacle course went like this.

TIME STARTS with an Air horn (seriously, just like on Wipeout)

1. They had to crawl uphill, on a slip-n-slide covered with soap and shaving cream, under pool noodles (thanks Jess for the tent stakes idea!).

2. Slide down the hill on another slip-n-slide.

3. Splash into a ice cold pool and fish out some gummy worms from a big bowl of blue jello.

4. Pop two balloons filled with whip cream by sitting or laying on them on a VERY slippery tarp covered with dish soap and water. Good thing we had a helper on that one, turned out to be harder than I thought!!

5. Hurdle a pool or get wet.

6. Get over 2 big balls, slide down the slide and hop out.

The kids had so much fun getting wet and messy. After the obstacle course (the kids did it over and over and over) we had a water balloon sling shot which I loved. It was totally cool. I felt like I was one of the kids.

Oh and here's a picture of his cake.

Happy Birthday Eli. And big balls.

If I could freeze time...

I've been looking at the blinking curser for too long now, not sure what to type. I was planning tonight to blog about Eli's 7th birthday, which was on Thursday, and his Wipeout party, which was seriously a blast. And I promise I will, later. And I guess this post is a celebration of Eli and his 7th birthday, in a way. In another way, its about one of those heartbreaking moments that come as our babies grow up.

Tonight as I was saying good night to Eli, he started "chit-chatting" (one of his favorite things to do lately, he asked the other day why "sitting and chatting was so much fun") about the summer and how it was quickly coming to an end. He started talking about first grade and the excitement of school. We talked about new friends, recesses, lunch, PE, and me picking him up from school at 3:30. All of sudden his cheerful chatter stopped, tears poured down his cheeks and he cried, "But I will miss you SO much!!" His little body shook as he sobbed and sobbed into his pillow. His sudden display of emotion stunned me. Eli has become so independent and so sure of himself. So grown up and previously so excited to start first grade. This is my boy who barely wanted to talk to me on the phone when I was gone for 3 days a few weeks ago! I sat there holding my crying (big) boy, not able to talk because tears were pouring down my face. So much for my resolve to not cry in front of him about 1st grade! But hearing him say how much he'd miss me was more than my mother heart could take. He calculated how long he'd be at school and then how long he'd be at home before bedtime ("can't we push it to 9:00 so we'll have more time together?"). When he realized he'd be at school for longer the crying intensified. Then he said, through tear-filled eyes, "But I do always have you here with me," his hand on his heart. Oh my sweet boy. We talked about all the things he had to look forward too. And we talked about how much we would both look forward to snack time when he got home from school when we could sit and chit-chat about everything that happened while he was away. After some reassurance and a hug from his Dad, I sang one of his favorite lullabies (Cuddle Down for you Wrights out there) 4 times in a row and he said he was calm enough to fall asleep.

So, tonight I decided if I could freeze time, I would do it now. I recently read a parenting article that said these were the "lovable sevens" and after the first few days of a seven year old I would whole-heartedly agree. What a pleasant boy. I wish the lovable sevens lasted until he graduated from high school. But I will definitely cherish these moments with my sweet little seven year old. How grateful I am for the last 7 years I've been able to spend at home with him. And that because of those 7 years, my independent Eli will miss his mom. Ok, he'll miss me for like two seconds once he actually gets to school, but its the thought, right?

Now let's not get me started on Paige in kindergarten....

A Magical Vacation

At the end of April, we took the kids to Disneyland for the first time. It was the first time for Chris too actually. What an amazing vacation it was! The vacation was a TOTAL surprise to the kids. They had no clue it was coming. We woke them up the day we were leaving and had recorded a scavenger hunt with Chris and I giving clues for them to watch on TV. Our DVD selves sent them all over the house finding different clues that would give them hints about the "big surprise" we woke them up for. The clues were our portable DVD player (meaning a long, in this case REALLY long drive), packed suitcases, sunscreen, the camera, and finally Cinderella magic wands. After finding the magic wands, they came back to the TV where DVD mom and dad told them to wave their wands and say bibbidee-bobbity-boo! (which they did in all seriousness!) And we yelled, "We're going to Disneyland!" Silence from Eli and Paige. They kept asking, Really? For real? Are you sure? After we finally convinced them that we were in fact going, they both pretended to pass out from shock on the couch. Then Paige sat up and screamed, "This is the most awesomest day ever!" And more screaming followed.

The drive down flew by. Stopping in Sutter Creek and celebrating Jenna's 3rd birthday definitely helped! We pulled into the Grand Californian on Sunday afternoon. So I must give the Grand Californian 2 thumbs way up...in fact with the whole family joining in, it gets 8 thumbs way up. It was incredible and we are now totally spoiled because what an amazing way to do Disneyland. We had our own entrance to California Adventure. Downtown Disney is right outside the hotel, which means the Monorail is like 100 yards from the hotel. And walking to the Disneyland gates took less than 5 minutes. On a few days we walked back to the hotel, swam in the pool and then headed back into Disneyland relaxed and refreshed. When planning your next trip to Disneyland, definitely consider the Grand Californian. It was worth every extra penny, even if our trip was postponed a little so we could save for it!

Okay, I really can't fit in all the magic we saw and felt in our 5 days there. I'll hit a few highlights.

1. Seeing Princess Tiana sing in New Orleans square, Paige and I were mesmerized. We still listen to that soundtrack everyday, singing and dancing like we are Tiana.

2. The Jedi Training Academy. Oh my word! How lucky we were Eli got picked our first time, you should have seen Chris and Eli BOTH going absolutely berserk to try and get their attention. It worked. And Eli got to battle Darth Maul who is his favorite. I was almost in tears seeing how excited and thrilled he was by it all.

3. California Screamin. Eli was tall enough!! And did it once with dad and the second time with me in the very front.

4. All things princess. The Princess Faire. And Ariel's Grotto, which had great food and Paige got to be upclose and personal with her favorite princess Sleeping Beauty (who has been replaced however after Highlight #1)

5. The Pixar Parade! The kids loved seeing all their characters come to life. Paige was singing and dancing all night to the songs from that parade.

6. The Sorcerer's Workshop. Okay this one is my highlight. It was SO cool. In Beast's library, we got to answer questions to determine which disney character we were. Paige-Tinkerbell. Mom-Mulan. Chris-Hades. Eli- Jafar. You can tell who was taking it seriously. But the best part was in the sea caves where Ursula stole Paige's voice singing Hi-Ho. Pretty amazing and it was tucked away in the same building as Talk with Crush, like it was no big deal.

7. Paige's face on the Splash Mountain camera shot. Sheer terror. Seriously. She was the face everyone in the room was talking about. Poor Paige got dragged on every ride whether she wanted to our not. At Space Mountain, she had my face between her hands, sobbing "Mommy, I will do ANYTHING for you, please don't make me go on this ride!!" And the kind supportive mom that I am, sat her down and strapped her in. What happened after it was over? "That wasn't scary at all! I didn't even get the willies!" Story of Paige and the rides.

The list could go on and on and on and on. We loved every single minute of our Disneyland vacation. And we were going EVERY single minute. We were thoroughly exhausted each night! Yet the kids never complained.

Sorry I've rambled on and on. I've tried, but I don't think I can adequately put into words how magical Disneyland was for our family. Wow! Almost everyday we ask each other, Remember Disneyland, don't you wish we were still there?? Thank goodness for pictures and video to keep it fresh in our memories...

Wrong season, I know...

So this post has been in the making for a while. And while it does deal with winter, in my defense, summer just barely arrived on Monday. I wasn't sure if it was ever going to come!

Well this year I would say was the year of the ski for our family. Chris signed the kids up for a 10 week All Mountain Ski School at Mt. Bachelor and us up for an incredible program they ran this year called Ski or Ride in 5. For $200 ea. Chris and I got 5 2-hour skiing lessons and upon completion of those lessons we got a 12 multi day pass and then we get 50% off a season pass next year. It was a ridiculous screamin deal. But what that meant is EVERY Saturday morning from mid-January until what ended up the middle of April (beautiful bluebird days kept showing up!) we packed our lunches, packed our gear and headed up to the mountain. It was an incredible time for our family. We all slept really well on Saturday nights.

Eli of course took to the slopes like a pro. He skiied 90,000 vertical feet this season, with multiple summit runs. He skiis circles around me, its kind of embarrassing! Luckily his dad is just as much of a daredevil. Paige injured her knee the second week of camp...she couldn't walk for a few weeks, they were concerned her miniscus had folded over, but in the end it was just a strain of the MCL. She didn't get going again until March and quickly made up for lost time, she can't quite keep up with her mom, but pretty close! She by far got the most attention on the mountain as the cute little peanut flying down the runs. All in all it was the best winter I've been through yet. As most of you know, I HATE THE COLD! But skiing helped me embrace what the winter is all about and I'm really looking forward to next season. Not that I want to go back to the cold anytime soon!

The sandwich production line EVERY Sat. morning

All our gear

What a cute girl with her FAVORITE instructor.

Eli with his instructor Donald on Pirate Day

Surgery explained...

Some of you have seen my lovely pictures from jaw surgery on Facebook and have asked what in the world is going on! So I thought I'd do a little post here to explain. I also posted my pre-op X-rays taken at the beginning of may and my post-op X-rays taken a week after surgery. The difference is startling. I love looking at them, reminds me why in the world I did this. And why eating my food in a completely liquid form will be worth it in the end.

Quick history: Back in 2007, I had my first consultation for braces. My front teeth were getting pretty crooked. We'd always known that I had a Class II bite (an overbite) but we weren't aware quite how much. Because of the severity of the overbite, my lips were pushing my front teeth backwards and would continue doing so until my front teeth were slanting backwards in my mouth rubbing against my bottom teeth (I think I saw Chris wince at the prospects) We saw computer models of how to fix my bite and what would happen based on a couple of scenarios...1) pulling a bunch of teeth on my upper jaw which would just mask my skeletal deformity OR 2)having surgery to actually fix it. Seeing the impact of both and also hearing the benefits of doing it the right way (surgery) from Chris and the orthodontists, I decided to head down the surgery path. So ever since then I've been waiting for my teeth to be aligned and ready for surgery. It took longer than originally anticipated as my overbite continued to surprise us all with its severity. The stars and teeth aligned this spring and we decided to go ahead with the surgery. I'm super pleased with how things look in the x-rays. My lower jaw was advanced almost 8mm which as advancements go I'm told is pretty big. All of my bruising is gone now, and my swelling has gone down considerably. I probably won't post any before and after pictures until I'm unwired which will be the last week in June. Plus I still have a little bit of a Jay Leno chin, the swelling is not completely gone.

Here's what to look at in the X-Rays.
A: This is the space at the front of my overbite. I could stick a finger up in between my top and bottom front teeth when biting together. Well you can see from the x-ray the amount of space.
B: Also pay attention to where my back molars hit together.
C: No more space to stick my finger up in.
D: My top and bottom molars have almost switched position.